laeroport

20 days

That's how long it has been since my last blog post.  Rather pathetic.  And yet, that is how I am feeling at the moment.  Nothing I'm doing is particularly blog-worthy, but I guess I'll go ahead and fill you in:

• I went to the pumpkin patch with Eliot's class

 

• I went on a field trip with Aidin's class
• I took a friend to and from her colonoscopy
• I belly danced at a school fund raiser
• I spent five of the last six weekend days as a single parent, thanks to Tim working football games - that's not a complaint, it is just a fact.  I'll taking the padding to the holiday fund. :) 
• I attended a funeral visitation and sent a sympathy card for another I couldn't attend
• I made a birthday bag and pencil roll

 

• I had a night out with my girlfriends
• I worked in the school garden
• I organized Halloween costumes for my family, went to a potluck Halloween party/bonfire and took the kids to Trunk or Treat

 

• I enjoyed a fusion concert of jazz and middle eastern music with my belly dance friends
• I planned and organized Aidin's class Halloween party for tomorrow. I'm baking cupcakes tonight.
• I held a Brownie Girl Scout meeting and took the troop roller skating

 

• I experimented with the same granola bar recipe three times. It still needs a little work, but it's coming along
• I started Christmas shopping and making lists
• We FINALLY finished watching all of Battlestar Gallactica
• We are halfway through watching Roots

I've also been blog reading, which has made me wanty.  Wanty for more time in my day, more organization in my life.  What I really would like to do is quit my day job and just volunteer at school and stay home and be domestic.  Too bad that doesn't pay the bills.  Despite the fact that we lead a rather frugal existence, we still like having my paycheck to pay down the mortgage and car loan and keep us otherwise debt free.  Maybe once the little man is in public school...

And at the moment I have a couple of pentagon baby ballsin production, a boy's toothfairy pillow to complete, some birthday and baby shower gifts.  So if I drop off the blogosphere again, you'll know where I am.  Just busy....

Mwwwah! - L

Renaissance Festival 2009

The costumes came together, the change in venue was actually great, and a wonderful (but exhausting) time was had by all.  I'm only just now getting back in the swing of things.

Thanks to the MANY friends to came out to see us.  It was so great to hang out and wander around with our friends as well as to have that great energy in the audience.

Here's a few images.  I never get many pictures, I'm always too busy dancing.

Behind the scenes Saturday, waiting for the parade.  (It was at this point that I was texting Miss Chris about that fabulous coat!)

I wish I had a better picture of Eliot's Saturday costume.  His pants and vest were new this year (his shirt was his Luke Skywalker tunic from last Halloween) - and his vest was reversible.  He is wearing the "inside" in this picture, but the other side was made from two printed napkins that I got on clearance at Walmart about a year ago for fifty cents for both. 

Aidin is wearing her vest and belt from two years ago, but has new pants (she only grows up, not out) and a panel skirt to match all the grown ups who were also wearing panel skirts on Saturday.

Aidin and Taylor - and a better view of Aidin's costume.

 

Ragsidad on Saturday doing the sword dance.  That's as good as I have of our Saturday costumes at present - photo from Christina Farmer.  (Amy, Barb, Me, Stephanie, Jana & Melody)

Of course, there was time to wander too:

   

 Sunday we wore assuit, which are traditional Egyptian mesh dresses with small pieces of hammered silver added to make a decorative pattern.  I don't have any pictures of us all standing around or dancing in the assuit (yet), but it looked good with all the different colors of pants and hip scarves.

Me and my friend, Stephanie (Taylor's mom). 

 

I wanted the kids to sort of match us on Sunday, so Sunday morning I turned two garage sale scarves (picked up for a quarter each) into a dress and a long tunic-vest.  Aidin's hip scarf is from her first Ren Fest costume, when she was about 18 months old.  I'm serious when I say she just grows up, not out.

 

Aidin also got up and danced at our last show each day.  We did our number from the July show with Taylor and Stephanie on Saturday and Sunday we did a little number with the canes.

Eliot took all the watching in stride.

(The previous two photos are thanks to Lakshmi Duvvur.)

 

And that's about it for another year.  Thanks for hanging in there with all the belly dance stuff.  Back to regular crafting next week.

Huzzah!

Winner Winner

Okay, the winner of the tickets is (drumroll, please) our friend, Kim Fraenza!  You may remember Kim from our past Mead Day celebrations.  Woo hoo!  We love their family and don't see them often enough.

And for a bit more frivolity, tomorrow is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Argh!

My pirate name is:

Black Mary Bonney

Like anyone confronted with the harshness of robbery on the high seas, you can be pessimistic at times. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Have a rip-roarin' weekend, ye scurvy dogs!

The Ren Fest Ramp Up and a Giveaway

We're out at Ren Fest this weekend.  My belly dance troupe, my kids and me.  I hope some of my KC/Lawrence/Topeka peeps can come out for a spell.  Maybe you can get a decent group photo of us all. :)

Last year:

 

The year before:

 

2006:

We'll be in a completely new and different venue this year, in/around the old chapel in the Wildwood.  Here's a map of the festival grounds.  The Wildwood is up there in the top left corner.

 

We will have shows and lessons and contests off and on all day, except for from 2:00 to 3:00 when the Queen has Tea.

I usually get two adult comp tickets that go to my parents, but as they are currently bound for New Mexico, I thought I would offer them up here - on the unconfirmed assumption that I will again have two comp tickets.

So if you'd like to come out, leave me a comment by noon CST on Friday.  I'll pick a winner and leave your tickets at the will call window.

And if you don't win, this weekend is 2-for-1 adult admission with 5 cans of food.

(Aidin with our dear friend, Ken, from St. Louis)

Hope to see you there!  Now, back to the costume sewing!  Huzzah!

another year under the {hip} belt

Our shows this week went really well.

Here are a few highlights, with photo thanks to my father-in-law who wielded my camera on Saturday night.

Tim playing with the band.

Me and the girl.

 

The mother/daughter quartet with our friend Stephanie and her daughter Taylor - and three out of four of our family on stage all at once.  It won't be long until Eliot's beating out a dhum tek on a doumbek with the band.

Our tango trio (me, Paulina & Steph)

 

 

The group finale

 

 

I dance with the best group of women.  I'm lucky to have them as friends.

And the kids were pretty great too.

And behind the scenes: this is how Eliot spent  his time back stage - watching Looney Tunes on the laptop. 

 

And just in case you wanted to come out but couldn't, we'll be a t Dance in the Park in KC on September 12th and at the Ren Fest September 19th & 20th.  Mark  you calendars and come on out. 

when busy weeks collide

In the space of nine days (last Friday through next Sunday) we have:

• Two comedy stage shows which included two video projects.  My husband had two VERY late nights.  Michelle and I went to the show on Friday.  It started at 10 p.m.  We left at 10 minutes to 1 a.m. and there was still another 20 minutes to come.  Oy.  Funny stuff. (The photo is from last year's Victor Continental Show.)  Really funny (to me) was being asked by a fellow parent Saturday morning, as I walked out of Eliot's school where I was picking him up from a slumber party, "Can I ask you a strange question?  Was that possibly your kids I saw in a video at the Victor Continental Show last night?"  Yes, yes it was. :)

• Four birthdays.  There was a double party for my nephews on Saturday.  I swore I wouldn't make anything - I'd just give them gift certificates, but Saturday morning I decided I couldn't NOT make something, so I whipped up little wallets for the boys.  The dividers are recycled inner bits of a computer keyboard.  Aidin  has two more birthday parties on Tuesday and Saturday.  Bag production begins tonight.  Sorry girls, no pencil rolls this week.

 

• A going away party for Eliot's teacher, who we have known for six years.  She was Aidin's afternoon teacher in the toddler class before Eliot was even born.  We will miss her when she leaves for San Franscisco and further education, but wish her all the best.  I'm in the middle of making something for her, but I think I'll mail it to her instead of expecting her to pack it.
• Two tech rehearsals. Sunday in KC for the Fringe Festival and next Saturday for our Lawrence shows.   Sunday before our rehearsal I spent about an hour gathering up all the little costume bits that I needed for the shows.  Since finishing that tech, I'm adding a hand-held fan and towel to the bag of stuff.
• Five belly dance shows, beginning at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at XS Lighting, 16th & Broadway.  There's parking in the back (hint, hint, KC friends).  If you want more information, the original post is here.
• And I don't know how many pages of Harry Potter.  I finished re-reading the Half Blood Prince and had to immediatly start The Deathly Hallows.  I had forgotten a LOT of the finer plot details.  Maybe next week we can go see the movie, to celebrate getting through this week.

On top of all that, we had both cars broken into in our driveway sometime between 4:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. on Saturday.  They nicked Tim's ipod, but that was all. 

So if you don't hear from me this week, you know why.  And you also will understand why my One Local Summer week 7 meal just didn't happen.  We've been eating a lot of cereal for dinner and cherry tomatoes, straight from the garden.

Happy {bench} Monday!

In less than an hour

on a rainy Sunday morning, which INCLUDED a 20 minute phone call with my mother, I turned this thrift store t-shirt

 

into this pair of long shorts (can you tell the sun came out in the meantime?)

 

by following the directions in this tutorial. 

They were the perfect thing to wear to my belly dance rehearsal later in the day.

 

Woo Hoo!  Now Aidin wants a pair, and I think I have the perfect old pink t-shirt for the job.

Why, do you ask, did I feel the need to make something out of a t-shirt?  Because Kelli & Finny told me to.  And for once, I'm not sailing in with my sew along entry on the last day of the month.

Another rehearsal tonight and our first show is a week from today.  Back to the costume sewing.

Cue Sonny & Cher....

It is getting to be that time.  Time for our annual Middle Eastern dance concert.  The rehearsals are scheduled, the theaters are booked, the costumes are being cut. 

This year, we'll be performing in two locations with our usual Lawrence show and as part of the Kansas City Fringe Festival.  The Fringe shows are just an hour.  The shows in Lawrence will be a bit longer and will feature live music (with the husband playing bass) and Aidin dancing with another 8 year old, Taylor.  I do hope to see your smiling face in the audience.

          Gaziyeh Enterprises, Inc. presents…

Cairo on the Kaw XV ...   

                The Beat Goes On…

An exploration of rhythm and moves from the

Middle East

Featuring  Raghsidad

Tuesday, July 21 -  7pm

                  Friday, July 24 -  7 & 11:30pm

XS Lighting-  1632 Broadway -  KCMO 

   

For  more info visit  www.kcfringe.org

Or contact [email protected]

 

Saturday, July 25 - 8 pm

Sunday, July 26 - 2pm

Lawrence Community Theater - 1501 New Hampshire

 

 

Photos of Raghsidad from Siham & Co.

so little crafting

so much other stuff.

Friday night I danced at a fundraiser for the Lawrence Homeless Shelter.  There were about 150-200 people there, including KU men's head basketball coach Bill Self and assistant coach and past KU basketball hero Danny Manning.  I was was a nervous basket case for two days.  Thanks to all of you who left me encouraging comments on facebook.  You helped get me thought it.

 

(That's my friend, Barb, dancing for Bill Self in the green.  Barb's husband, Jim took these shots from the balcony up above.)

What I didn't expect was to see one of my bosses there with his wife.  So much for keeping those two parts of my life separate.   :)

 

The rest of the weekend was a blur as well.

Tumbling.

Searching downtown Lawrence for a cinnamon roll. 

Shopping at the Toy Store - Eliot NEEDED a Webkin after seeing his cousin Kate's.  Meet Eliot's new friend bought with his own money.  His name has changed about 12 times in the past two days, but he is already well loved.  Obviously, this was taken post cinnamon roll. :)  Okay, maybe not so obvious in this size, but if you click the photo and look at it large, you'll see the crumbs.

 

A visit to the Library book sale on Give Away Day.  We did practice restraint.  Honest.

Afternoon movie interrupted by not one but two tornado sirens.  Dinner out.  And that was just Saturday.

Sunday was the annual winter for spring/summer clothing swap in all the drawers and the evaluation of what is too small.  We also rearranged the book case in the kids room and put away most of the picture books.  We have a stack to sell and a stack to pass down to the cousins (did you hear that, Paige?) and a huge box of those that we no longer want to read but cannot bear to part with.

Grandma and Grandpa came up on Sunday for Aidin to try on her Easter dress half-way though production.  The bodice was 4 inches too big.  My seam ripper got a work out.  Yes, I know it is past Easter. 

It felt good to accomplish all that, but at the same time it feels good to get back to work. 

Today holds a trip to the grocery store and Hobby Lobby.  Simplicity patterns are $.99 this week.  Restraint may go out the window.  Happy rainy Monday!

what's your name?

If you've been reading here for long you know that my husband is a musician.  He plays upright bass in a bluegrass band called the WiseAcres.  They are as their name implies.

Last Wednesday they had a gig as the "house band" during a talent show of sorts.  And on the previous Saturday afternoon, Tim got the idea that they should have matching shirts with their names embroidered on them.  So Sunday he bought genuine western pearl snap shirts and the guys tried them on.  Sunday night I washed and dried them.  Monday I started to embroider.  My fingers were sore - and flying.

 

There are actually only 3 guys in their band, but they had two friends sit in with them.

  

I embroidered each one in a navy blue satin stitch and back stitched around them with a tan color.

They all liked them but afterward I realized that I put them right under where a guitar strap goes.  Ah well.  I have a feeling more embroidery of this sort is in my future.

Here's (Cliff's back side and) Tim and his shirt in action. 

 

And on an unrelated note, while tripping around the internet I found this picture of me, in action, belly dancing in a show last fall wearing the costume my mom and I made.  

  

I don't know if I should rejoice or panic when I find random pictures of me in unexpected places online.  But at least I didn't hate finding this one.

Ciao for now, friends!