You Know You're a Fairy Tale Blogger When

Kristin from Tales of Faerie and Gypsy from Once Upon a Blog have instigated a bloggy carnival of fairy tale goodness and invited me to join!  Some of my admissions aren't a result of being a blogger so much as a general lover (and a passionate lover I am at that!), but blogging certainly aggravates the pre-existing condition.  So, without further ado:

You know you're a fairy tale blogger when . . .

• you always check the backs of wardrobes, just in case
• you tell your child not to pick flowers or kick rocks in the woods because "the fairies wouldn't like that"
• you ruin Disney viewings with friends with this helpful introduction: "in the original/oldest version of the tale. . ."
• you're on alert for even the slightest fairy tale tropes and underlying themes in modern movies and television shows
• ditto books
• you judge which television series to watch next on Netflix according to two criteria: (1) is this a fairy tale show? and (2) can I blog about it?  (see post on Ever After High here)
• you tell Grimm and Anderson versions of Disney movies whenever an opportunity arises (I told Anderson's The Little Mermaid to a seven-year-old while washing dishes)
• you swear you keep seeing Ents on your evening walks
• you dedicate an entire Pinterest account to collecting fairy tale art and images
• collecting and organizing those images take up an unwholesome amount of your time
• you pen letters (or want to) with a quill and ink
• you resolve to read the Harry Potter series because it's such a major player in the mythic/fairy tale genre
• you never tire of the observation that there are next to no fairies in fairy tales but plenty of fairies in folktales
• you write your college senior project on fairy tales
• you have more than one blog, and wrestle with simplifying by combining them, but just can't drop your fairy tale blog, even if it means less time and more work for you
• you know the difference between dwarfs, elves, goblins, pixies, gnomes, and fairies
• you know the difference between "dwarfs" and "dwarves"
• you sometimes "lose" fairy tale library books which are no longer in print (but they were so lonely and hadn't been checked out since 1968!)
• you leave cake out on All Hallows' Eve, to welcome lonely spirits, but would only ever admit this on a blog!
• the names Gerda and Kai and Hansel and Gretel are on your list of potential future baby names--bonus points for twins
• you're a bit of a snob about prissy boutiques and their cutesy "happily ever after" pillows and frogs-in-crowns cartoons on hand towels; like, what, are fairy tales a joke to you?
• and think, "they have no idea what a real fairy tale is" and "if only they knew they're creating the opposite of their desired effect!"
• you tire of the phrase "real life Cinderella," because you doubt there were any fairy godmothers or magical birds involved
• it's been said already but bears saying again: your Amazon wishlist is hurting for it!
• you learn to spin on a drop spindle on the sole merit of spinning's popularity in fairy tales
• you want to purchase a spinning wheel some day
• and fully intend to use it, not just for decoration
• your dream home is just short of a gingerbread house in the woods
• and you decorate your current home like one!
• you have a love-hate relationship with fairy tale interpretations because they are so interesting but because just the fairy tales themselves are more powerful than our attempts to understand them
• you make G.K. Chesterton the patron saint of your blog
• you write a fairy tale novel approximately ten years in the making
• you consider the admonition "you're living in a fairy tale!" a supreme compliment

I better stop before I use up everyone else's.  But I promise all of the above is true!  Other posts in the series so far by

Kristin from Tales of Faerie
Gypsy from Once Upon a Blog
Heidi of SurLaLune
Adam of Fairy Tale Fandom
Tahlia from Diamonds and Toads and Timeless Tales
Kate at Enchanted Conversation
Kristina at Twice Upon a Time
Reilly, co-founder of the Australian Fairy Tales Society

Reilly tagged me, and now I tag Megan of The Dark Forest!