Isn't this interesting???

me spinning at my jensen wheel
Originally uploaded by elizknitsspinz

As I mentioned previously I have been watching the Sit & Spin DVD and it's pretty cute w/ music and everything. So the other day while I was watching and spinning my son walked by on his way to the kitchen...then he stopped by on his way back past, looked at me and said "So you're making your own yarn?"
hmmm
I've been a spinner for how many years? There have been how many spinning wheels and looms in my home for how long??? It's very interesting to me that a mom can be doing things for sooo long unnoticed until there is a little bit of rock music added as sound track.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while!

But here are some pictures of what I've been doing instead of posting blogs....

Spinning my little fingers to the bone! This is some wool I bought while at SOAR I'm going to make a little bolero with it.

This is some delicious camel/merino blend I also bought at SOAR...I think it came out rather well! But I have no idea what to make it into...any suggestions?


And more wool I bought at SOAR that I Navajo plied (3 strands of singles).



And I ordered Jacey Bogg's dvd on spinning art yarns and am now busily learning new techniques. This is my first attempt at making corespun yarn.





And here is my first attempt at making coils...

In order to show off the yarn-I didn't want to knit it or weave it (even if I wanted to it wouldn't fit through the heddles & dents on my loom)-I laid out the yarn on stabilizer and then sewed it on my sewing machine then put it into super hot water to dissolve the stabilizer and voila! A scarf! This scarf is so soft and I just love it so much that I keep wearing it everywhere and believe me I'm running out of clothes that match the orange!

Tribal Fest 10- A Decade of DecaDance

The first things I did when I got started becoming interested in tribal bellydance were to read the Tribal Bible and buy a video (yes it was VHS then) of Fat Chance Bellydance. It must have been around 2002. I had been into cabaret dancing for years although I was not very devoted. My kids had their own lives and my husband was always so busy working and playing music that I just thought I would do something to get some exercise and make new friends and I wouldn't feel so lonely. Tribal answered all of my dreams of wanting to be connected to a community of women who did creative work and had a fun time while doing it. I had no idea how much tribal bellydance would take over my life and I feel incredibly blessed to be involved in it.

I'm the blurry one in the distance doing my very first performance at Tribal Fest in 2005 (I think!).

You probably already know that Kajira Djoumanha wrote the Tribal Bible and produces the Grandmother of all Tribal Bellydance Festivals Tribal Fest with her husband Chuck every year. I LOVE this festival! I've gone several times and it's always been so much fun. Seeing how much tribal has grown is just wonderful. I have met dancers from all over the world at Tribal Fest. In fact, last year my wonderful friends from Scotland came and stayed at my house en route to Tribal Fest. The shopping is incredible! Where else are you going to see all this stuff in person? And the whole event is like a wonderful dream.

Tribal Fest 2006 in the Sisterhood Dance Collective w/ Ayse, Heidi & Stephanie.

Tim Rayborn is in the back there, Solace was playing for us and we were dancing totally improv!

With Stephanie & Karen at TF 06

There are so many great teachers giving workshops at this event, and the energy is such a high you must go if you can!! I know that a lot of the workshops for the marvelous and famous teachers have already sold out, but you can watch on Tribe and Facebook to see if there are any cancellations for those classes. AND one thing I always do when I go to any festival, in addition to taking a class from one of my dream teachers, is to take a class from a lesser known teacher or someone who does a totally different style. And I've really enjoyed some of those classes because they are usually smaller and I learn something different than what I usually see everywhere. And that is part of why I'm posting this blog! CAUSE I'M TEACHING at TRIBAL FEST this year!! Yes! Little old me! I hope you will consider signing up for my class, it will be fun! And maybe I can show you something different that you will enjoy.

Tribal Fest 2006 w/Tribal Union

Here is the link for more information on going to Tribal Fest, you can sign up for workshops and everything NOW! And definitely come and see me dancing! I'm going to be performing with She'enedra of course : )

http://blacksheepbellydance.com/tf10/index.html

U-turns

Dancing at Donavon's w/ my best buddy HeidiOur queen Riley & her mascot Olivia
My very buttery quiche-would you like the recipe?
Dancing w/ my students-Amy, Jillian,& Melissa at TFF
Jasmin & Jillian in the kitchen

I used to feel guilty if I made artist U-turns but not any more. Right now I think it's just a way of coping with life, looking at my limitations realistically. When I take on too many things I just can't do any of them justice. After my mother passed away, my whole family was just still swept up in the throes of Mythical Creatures, it was such a high that weeks passed before I had any feelings again. And I kept signing myself up for more and more projects to keep away any pain, I would alternate between being stressed about all the stuff I had to do and feeling unhappy. It's not like I forgot that I was in mourning, it's not like I was doing it on purpose, I just thought I was keeping busy. Anyway, I signed up for classes and certificate programs and every thing in sight! Now that I know what I was doing I'm slowing down a bit. Just trying to keep things simple, do my work-which is dancing and teaching classes- I've moved to a studio close to home Epica and put the bulk of my work on Tuesday night, I'm teaching one other class at the AHCCC on Thursday night, I'm taking a few workshops to support friends but not going crazy by taking classes all over creation, I'm organizing my house, playing with Riley, reading, working in the garden, knitting and spinning-quiet things mostly. It's good.

An Evening of Middle Eastern Dance at El Camino College Center for the Arts

Back on October 24th we (She'enedra) did a performance at El Camino College. I'm still waiting for the video and professional pictures, that I hope to post; but in the meantime here are some casual shots of us in the dressing room.

We wore sparkly costumes for Le Criminal a French rap song with choreography by Ayse. And we wore lots of purple fluff & ruffles for Start Wearing Purple (by Gogol Bordello) with choreography by me. We were invited to participate by our friend DeVilla and Karin Jensen who is the director of Mandala Dance Works and an excellent choreographer. Also in the show were Sashi and Raine, Celeste, Rahana, Bella Oasis, of course Mandala Danceworks, and Devilla.
She'enedra is mostly Heidi, Tonantzin & myself now, but Tonantzin wasn't able to do this show which was sad. But the good news was! Ayse decided to rejoin us and of course she is always welcome and cherished! After this we did TFF and we included Khani & Gigi too! I'll post some pictures if I find some, in a later blog!
We really enjoyed seeing old friends, and meeting some new ones. The weirdest thing happened though. There were two dressing rooms, we were sent to the back one and while the girls from Mandala (who were in the front dressing room) were off doing a photo shoot someone snuck in their dressing room and took cash out of several of the dancer's purses. One had just been paid and had $200 stolen! It was horrible and the police came and we all got very protective about our stuff and took turns watching the show from the green room window and playing security for each other.
The show was wonderful though and we all had a good time regardless of the one incident.

Oh yeah, here is a picture I got of us from Facebook in our Purple costumes...uh and yeah I'm the shorty!

Me, Ayse, Sashi, Raine, Heidi
Heidi, Me, Ayse (who is unfairly wearing hi heeled boots and she's 5'8" to start with!)

Around the World in 80 days!

I'm going to pimp the new show for a minute cause well it's going to be amazing! Last year we did Mythical Creatures, this year it's Around the World in 80 days and though you may know the basic story line this show will be full of fun surprises and wonderful belly dancing. Look at our cast list and tell me can we go wrong?
Frederique
Unmata
Lee Ali
Marjhani
Tabu
Se7en
Sooz
She'enedra
Politti Ashcraft
Tsingani
Karma
Edenia
Lumina
Yasemin
Devilla
Mandala Tribal
Tonantzin
Medea Noche
Tandava
Wild Routes
TWNN
and Jeremy Hahn
You can follow the 80 days blog at http://mythicalcreaturesla.blogspot.com/

I dropped a cast iron frying pan on my foot!!!

I think it's affecting my brain! It was first thing this morning and I have been forced to sit on the couch all day. I can't even spin very easily. I can knit but I'm to antsy because I need to be getting ready for my HUGE winter solstice party on Saturday and this place is a mess!
This is not worthy a blog really...
here are some pictures of cute stuff instead
a dog-Cosmo, a bunny-Sir Puffsalot aka puffy, - and a child-Riley...




Puffy is our newest pet, he was at the animal shelter so we saved him! He is part Angora, part Jersey wooley