My First Bellydance Recital!!!

I'm late for posting this, but after 2 months of practice in class and even a private lesson, I had my first Bellydance recital this past May! Yaay!

Now, let me tell you, I was terrified. Borderline panicking. Why you ask? I just realized I'm a perfectionist and if something doesn't go as planned, I lose all my shit! So, while I was preparing for this performance, I wanted everything to be perfect. No flaws, no stumbles, no...ANYTHING! Which meant I woke up the next morning with my mental check-list on full-blast!!!! UUUUGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!! I did my best to try and relax by listening to my favorite music, taking Tess for a walk or even some yoga. Yeaaa, did not work. The closer and closer it got to the performance, I just kept taking deep breaths and talking to myself. Giving myself a little pep talk. One of my good friends, who is a makeup addict, did my makeup. I'm soo glad she was there that day! She was my makeup artist and my own personal chauffeur, so that took a lot of stress off my shoulders that day. Anyway, I made sure when I'm leaving out the door that afternoon, that I was going to have everything ready. I made sure everything was downstairs by the door, so when I was heading out, I had everything with me. Well, of course I forgot something. A couple of things. I panicked. *sigh* I forgot my friends tickets to get into the recital and my cover-up to go over my outfit, allll at the house! UUUGGGGGH!!! Luckily, my friend was very calm, cool and collected. She reminded me that my mom was at the house and to call her. *sigh* crisis avoided. Fifteen minutes later, we arrive at the auditorium and I must say, it was pretty neat to see all the other dancers walking in with their outfits and all their boxes full of goodies. Majority of the ladies there have already danced in many recitals in the past and they gave me soo much encouragement. It was nice to hear that they too have made mistakes in the past, but it didn't stop them from continuing the dance. They told me that the only person that knows your dance, is you. If you mess up, just smile through it and keep dancing. This helped me out a lot....until we were about to go on. *dry heaves* I was in the beginners group and we were the first to perform. *dry heaves* As soon as the lights dimmed, we were on!! Annddd..... IT WAS SOO AWESOME!!

Now, I did mess up a couple of times, but you know what? I had so fun, I just kept on going with it! It felt amazing at the end when everyone was applauding, doing zaghareets and all kinds of other bellydance noises. Even though, I know that I most likely will go through the same process of freaking out, I know that in the end I'll just dance through it and have a great time in the end! :D

My New Obsession: Pumpkin Ale!

It's Fall Time!!! My favorite time of the year! For one thing: MY BIRTHDAY!!! I turned 28 on October the 28th! *insert twilight music here* Whatever it symbolizes, I'm channeling that energy to get my ball rolling....again. Anyway, Besides the glorious day of my birth, Fall also brings semi-warm weather, Halloween and the Renaissance Festival!!! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah! Let me tell you, my little nerdy heart, no matter how many times I go, always gets excited about Ren Fest. It's nothing but great times, every time I go. I love the volunteer actors that perform throughout the park, making it almost seem like you're in the medieval era. Not really. But it's still fun. Also, the audience participation shows are just freaking awesome. There are some acts I have to literally see every single year or my visit wasn't deemed a success. Besides, the handmade products you see while browsing the shops, while chomping on a delicious turkey leg, I have a new obsession: Pumpkin Ale.

Let me tell you; I'm not a big fan of pumpkin anything. I don't hate the stuff, but it's not high on my list of favorite "spices". So, when one of my friends told me all about this "pumpkin ale" last year, I wasn't down with that cause. I'm not a big beer drinker, so the thought of a pumpkin plus beer, equaled gross to me. But while browsing through World Market one day, I was like, "Why not?" I grabbed a case of Dogfish Head pumpkin ale and took it home. My first reaction: Gross. Being a non-beer drinker, all it did was remind me of other beers and I wasn't impressed. But I couldn't throw it away. I bought it with my hard-earned money, so I wasn't going to at least finish that one beer and give the case to my pumpkin ale-obsessed friend. Finished the bottle. I said I was done with pumpkin ale. Four days later I drunk the entire case and was determined to buy more. I was determine to taste more! I don't know what happened! It's like I couldn't stop drinking the stuff! And I feel like everywhere I go, I gotta get some! Which brings this right back around to the Ren Fest. They had pumpkin ale! Cottonwood Pumpkin Ale made my freakin' day. While, watching men in tights joust to the death, I was sipping on cup of delicious ale. All was right within the world.

Look at those Branches!

I mean this picture speaks for itself. Look at how those branches just curve and criss cross around each other. I love it!

Belly Dancing part Trois: Safe Haven

This October, will be one year anniversary of taking my belly dancing class! Huzzah!! No, I haven't been in any dance recitals yet (I'm a huge chicken), but the more I take the classes and practice the moves at home, my confidence in actually wanting to perform increases. Anyway, my class is at the same time every week and for a whole year, my manager always set my scheduled to have that night off. Great. However, the week before last, my other manager decided to take over the schedule making and yes, he scheduled me to work the night of my class. I told him that I don't work Tuesday nights and he of course he came up with an excuse on why I needed to work that night and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. Whatever. Tuesday comes around aaaannnnnd, there was really no need for me to be there. At. All. All the areas in the store were covered and yet he made me come in. I was pissed. Now, it sounds irrational, but I've come to really look forward to my classes. It's the one day out of the week that has absolutely nothing to do with work or home. I get to dance and laugh it up with a bunch of ladies, who also, sees this as little break within their work weeks. Yes. There are times where she has canceled class due to life, but that is something that can't be helped. F***king with my schedule is a whole different story. I've been at my job for 10 years! I always came in when they needed me, stayed late and rarely took any sick days. But the one time I ask to not close for night out of the 6 day work week, you deny me that request?? *sigh* Lucky for me, my instructor had a free class on Sunday and I was able to go to that! YES! And then it dawned on me. Besides, the comradery we ladies have when we are clumsily learning a new dance move, I come to this class as a safe place. I don't have to worry about rude customers or rude managers. No one with bad attitudes or negative vibes. Also, with it just being women in the class, we let it alll hangout! Our boobs jiggle while doing shoulder shimmys, having our stomachs hang out for body rolls and undulations! It is the life!! LOL! Seriously though, my teacher always makes a point to tell new students that even though we are all made and shaped differently, the beauty of belly dance allows you to appreciate and love the skin your in. To embrace YOU!! After every class, that feeling of peace just surrounds me and I love it!

Trees and My Fascination with them!

I don't know why, but I absolutely love trees. I think my love for nature's oxygen tanks started at a very young age. No matter where I am or what I'm wearing, when I saw a tree that looks climbable, I latched onto the shortest branch and pull myself up.

Now that I'm older, I'm more likely to take a picture of a tree than to climb it.

Big trees, with a ton of branches, with vines crawling up the side are my favorites! For some reason when I see them, I believe that every tree has a story to tell and the branches are the different chapters in that story. If only I can speak tree.

Isolation, constipation and concentration!!

hehehe...I'm just messing. My belly dance teacher told us the 3 main terms for belly dance...and I can only remember one: Isolation!! One of the major aspects of belly dance is definitely Isolation. To be able to control and move the different parts of your body, at the same time, is the most amazing thing I ever seen. And the most hardest. You see, I have a really hard time doing one or more things at one time. I swear in the middle of class, my mind wanders and when I'm suppose to be learning a dance move, I'm thinking about dinner or cake. (mmmm, cake) *clears head* Anyhoo, one of the best ways to really see the beauty of body isolation, is during a drum solo. While someone is going to town on a drum, the belly dancer is showing how she (or he) can keep up with the beating of the drum. While watching a lot of drum solos on Youtube and my jaw drops with the way the ladies are able to keep a rhythm and show off their body skills, while dancing to the beat of the drum. My favorite dancer so far when it comes to drum solo, is Sadie Marquadt. She is absolutely amazing!! Look at the way she is able to control her body movements!! I am utterly green with jealousy!! I have also became more determined to get her LEVEL!!! Just imagine my body be able to move my hips, chest and stomach like that!! *le sigh* So, I'm happy to say that my teacher has told me, that we will be learning a drum solo this month! *screams excitedly* Wish me Luck!

Belly Dancing Part II: So Uncoordinated

It has been a couple of months since I started taking my belly dancing classes and I must say that I am in love!!! I must admit, that it did take me awhile to get used to doing chest lifts and drops, snake arms, shimmies, undulations, traveling twists and everything else in between. Now, my teacher taught us this awesome choreography that we will probably perform in a recital later on the future. I'm not looking forward to that. Anyway, it is a pretty simple dance with all moves we have learned so far. Welllll, I always knew how uncoordinated I am, but I never realized how bad I am until I'm dancing with others. Why they're going right, butt is going left. While we're doing traveling twists, which I LOVE, I tend to lose my balance, lose my place in the song and then eventually lose my mind. And she wants ME to perform on stage with people actually watching me dance?!?!?!? *runs away while screaming* *takes deep breath* But a couple of positive things I can say about the mistakes I make in class is that I don't give up. I am also able to laugh at myself when I do make the mistakes. I stumble, I fumble, I laugh and then try again. Like they say, whoever they are, practice makes perfect. :D

Winter Days

*skips over rant about me not being on here enough and blah, blah, blah, blah*

Sooo, who else is ready for the Spring?? I really hate the winter. I never realized how much I hated being cold until this year. I live in the southeast and this year we had some of the coldest temperatures that I have ever witnessed. Nothing makes you hate waking up in the mornings more than single digit degrees. *sheesh* Then, it had the audacity to snow and ice this week!!!! When will it end?!?!?! Weather like this makes me think about the days when we lived in Honolulu, Hawaii. Nothing but sunshine, warm days, sandy beaches and that sweet Hawaiian breeze. Hmmm.....I think it's time for me to start planning my next vacation.

Belly Dancing Part 1: My Back Hurts

Tonight I took my first ever belly dancing class. I was nervous and out totally out of my element, but I've been wanting to do this for years! I finally found a dance studio close to my house and I signed up for it right away. So how did it go? I never knew how stiff I was until I had to shimmy and do the snake with my arms. And yes, my back hurts. We had to raise our chests and then drop them. Over and over and over again. I usually don't do that on a regular basis, so my back is not use do that kind of a work out. I'm really uncoordinated as well. We had to walk forward, while pointing our feet and moving our arms at the same time....Yeaaaaaa. I sucked pretty badly. Anyway, besides noticing how long and awkward my arms looked in the mirror, I really enjoyed myself. The teacher is awesome and she has really great personality. I can't wait until next weeks class, but until then....*shimmy, shimmy and shimmy*

More Than Just Earrings...

For all you jewelry wearers, when you ever put on your favorite pieces of jewelry, do you feel as though you have become another person? As though that piece of jewelry has a soul of it's own and when you put on that certain piece, that soul attaches to yours? No? Well, I do. This feeling is probably just confidence, but my imagination gets a little carried away and I lost touch with reality. These earrings are far from being real opals, but I just LOVE the look of them! They have that vintage look to them that I adore and the opal replica makes my heart race. When I wear them, I feel like that I could of easily worn these in another lifetime. A gift. Given to me by my lover, who believes that I am the reason that the sun rises in the morning and why the moon glows at night. Secret messages and heated glances across crowded rooms. Whispered promises of being together forever and a love that transcends across time. *sigh* Yep. These earrings rock.

A Picture and a Story

First time doing this in the morning..weird. Anyway, Good morning all!! I had an epiphany the other day while I was thinking about this guy I used to date. I remember how inconsistent he was with our dates and it got so bad, I finally broke it off with him. As continued with my thoughts, I realized how inconsistent I am. With everything. I would say I was going to do something and then stop. Perfect example, this blog. I actually enjoy writing on here, but then months go by and I haven't posted anything!! I wonder if that is why my friend tried to hook me up with him in the first place. She said he and I are just alike. He's a mess. I'm a mess. We would be perfect together!!! Nope. Which made me wonder if I'm doomed to always attract a guy who is as inconsistent as myself....*insert horror scream here*. Scary thought. Soooo, for the billionth time in my life and on this blog, I'm going to try to break this unhealthy streak by giving myself another challenge. I know most people do a monthly challenge. I'm giving myself at least a week. I decided to take pictures of something/anything that grabs my attention, post it on here and then write about it. Maybe a story, a silly comment, heck, anything!! The goal is to stay focus and consistent. *takes a deep breath* Here we go!!

My mom ordered some Chinese food the other the night and I always have a small love for their fortune cookies. For they're slightly sweet cookie and for the little piece of paper comes inside of them. I know they aren't real fortunes, but they make me smile all the same. When I pulled this one from the crispy shell of my cookie, I was super delighted by this message. Why? Because I just got off from work and I was tired. Very tired. My whole body was sore from all the walking and lifting that I did throughout the day and all I wanted to do was sit. And you know what I did for my "good time"? I took a hot shower, played with my dog, read a book and then went to sleep. How is that considered a good time, you say? I am an introvert. After talking and mingling with people all day, the one thing I enjoy after a day like that, is my peace and quiet. That's it.

Spain!!!!

I forgot to mention (or maybe I did) that the same time I went to Paris, we also we to Madrid, Spain!! Spain was much warmer than Paris, much sunnier and in my opinion, getting around was a lot easier to navigate through this city too. One disappointing thing about our trip to Spain was that our first day spent running around the airport. It's a long, crazy story and some day I'll share the story on here. But for the whole day that we had to roam throughout the city, we enjoyed the sites. Since it was a nice, sunny day, we took the metro to Retiro Park and strolled through the park until we saw the Palacio de Cristal! Unfortunately, it was closed for renovations and we didn't get to go inside. *womp womp* We also got to see the actual Royal Place of Madrid which was pretty neat as well. After all that walking (and getting lost) we headed over to the Puerto de Sol for Tapas and sangrias! There's another back story having to deal with getting tapas, but that too, is for another time. The next time I travel to Madrid and other cities of Spain, I totally plan on enjoying more of the sites, eat more of the food (leaving unwanted guest in the US) and just enjoy life.

All Work and no Play...sucks.

...I really need to become more consistent with this thing. Smh. Anyway, good evening all! I finally worked up the energy to come on here and actually type something for change. Basically, working full-time all the time...kinda sucks. I enjoy the nice paycheck, benefits and over-time. However, I wish I had more energy to do something besides work. My daily routine is usually: morning routine, work, and then home. Once in awhile, I'll do something different, like having dinner with friends, but other than that, blah. On the bright side, one day while I was out visiting my favorite spiritual store, I bought two books: "The Creative Photographer" by Catherine Anderson and "I Could do Anything, If I only knew what it was" by Barbara Sher. I picked up the photographer book to get some inspiration for taking better pictures. Or a better way to share my photos besides Facebook. And it did!!! Throughout the book, Anderson shares how anything you see, can become a work of art. Also in the book, she shares crafts and other examples that you can create with your photos. One example that stuck out me, was personal gift cards. I love cards!!! The more quirky and unique they are, the more I love them! I decided to combine my two loves together and create works of art that I can share with everyone! Here's the first one that I made! I stuck one of my fake flowers (obviously it's fake) inside of my DIY light box and TA-DA!!!! I think it came out pretty good. With the second book, I bought it because I was starting to feel like there is something else that I should be doing my life, but I don't know what. The book helps you figure out what is stopping you and what you think might be holding you back from doing what you really want to do in life. I got half-way through the book before I put it down and didn't pick it back up for weeks. Not because it sucked, but mostly because I have the tendency to start a project and not finish it. I mean, I would just dive straight into it and then I suddenly I just drop it. *sigh* I know I have the potential do more, but unfortunately, I have that bad habit of putting my plans aside and not picking them up again. But the book is sitting right next to me....*opens it and starts to read*

Come Fly with Me, Lets Fly, Lets Fly Away!

*sigh* I love that song. Especially, Michael Buble's version of it. Anyways, good evening everyone! Guess where I got to go a couple of weeks ago?? *drum roll please* Paris!!!! *And the crowd goes wild* It was my first European trip since I was a toddler and I had an amazing time. I will admit it was cold , but I couldn't help but enjoy being in this beautiful city. When we got lost trying to find our apartment where we were staying, my best friend turned to me and was said, "We're walking around in Paris." Then it dawned on me....yea, we were really walking around in Paris. I have seen photos in magazines, scenes from movies and pictures from other travelers, and wishing that someday, I too, will visit Paris. I did. And it was awesome. Our first tourist stop was Notre Dame Catherdal. They were having prayer, so we had to be completely quiet. We were traveling on a budget, so we took the Metro everywhere and I'm actually kind of glad for it. When we were walking past the Arc de Triomphe and saw the circle of chaos (that's my nickname for it), I couldn't imagine riding in a taxi and riding through that mass of cars. And here I thought the people in my town couldn't drive. Sheesh. My only regret I can say, is that we didn't get to eat a lot of authentic Parisian food. Trying to accommodate a picky vegetarian....*sigh* never again. I did grab a delicious crepe from a street vendor, but other than that....nothing. I think one thing I did enjoy was the architectural work on all the buildings, especially the Lourvre museum. I just couldn't help but stare at the buildings and amount of work that it took to design and construct the buildings. Amazing. And the one thing we really wanted to see out of anything else.....The Eiffel Tower. What a sight. I knew it was huge, but it looked like a iron giant in the distant. And like a big kid that I am, I literally squealed when it started to sparkle. The next night, we walked down the stairs to get a closer view of it and my camera battery died, but thank goodness for my cellphone. I will admit, we did not take the elevator to the top, but with it being foggy we probably wouldn't see anything anyways. Actually, we didn't get to see as much of the city as we really wanted to, but I guess that means we'll have to plan another trip to visit again. ;D

Another Pink Tree

Good Evening ya'll! The holidays are now over and if you work retail like myself, that is a cause for celebration. Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays, but that time of year just brings the worst out of people! Anyway, now that the holidays are over, it's time for me to take down my pink Christmas tree. *tear*. I would and can leave it up all year long, but then it would be as special during Christmas time. Lucky for me, I am able to replace it with my new tabletop tree!

Now, it does look like a duck tape tree and even I wasn't 100% sure I wanted to buy it, but it was on clearance and if I didn't like it, I would just take it back. I brought it home, put some batteries in it and voila!!

It's cute!! Cuter than I thought actually.

Welp, it's a keeper and a perfect replacement. Now I just need to figure out where I'm going to place it. Hmmm.....

I Love Pink and Gold!! (And a blog update)

Good Evening everyone!! First, I must give a super, huge thanks to my talented friend Sara (go to her gallery to see her amazing artwork: xKanamix.deviantart.com) for re-designing background and header!!! *round of applause* For a long time I always wanted to change my blog and I just couldn't get it right. AT. ALL! But thanks Sara and her artistic talents, she has brought my blog to life! Do ya'll remember the pink tree I bought last year on clearance??? Well, look at it now!!

Since, the tree is already uniquely made, I decided to just do gold glittered ornaments and nothing else. And I think it turned out fantastic.

Hehe, my glitter shoes look great next to this tree as well.

Oh and one special touch I wanted my friend to add to the header was the latin phrase "Alis volat propriis." I saw it on Pinterest last night and when I saw that it translated to "She flies with her own wings" I knew that I had to have it!! It expresses the way I want to be, meaning, I want to be in a place mentally where I am confident in myself to do what ever makes me happy. So, every time I come to my blog and see that phrase, it will help remind me that I know that I can accomplish anything that I put my mind to.

Night Light for Boys

Good Evening ya'll! So, this past weekend was a really good friends little boys' birthday party and I had no idea what to make him! Majority of my friends have little girls and there is like a million and one ideas for little girls, but barely anything for little boys. Your probably wondering why don't I just buy him a toy, well, my friends don't mind toys, but they would appreciate something that didn't create chaos and that they didn't have to clean and pick up every.single.day. So, I decided that I would think outside the box and create something that the whole family can enjoy. Anyways, I remember that earlier this year I made the flower nightlight for another friends little girls and I knew that I wanted to make an nightlight for him as well. But him being a boy, I knew a flower nightlight would not fly! It took only a couple of minutes and a little browsing on the web and then I had it!!!

Soooo, I saw during my google image search of this glass nightlight with the little kids name on the front of it with sports things or other random boy stuff. I saw that a lot of people were selling them for $34 online and I was like HA, I can do that myself! I bought all my supplies from Hobby Lobby ( because I live in that store), brought it home, dumped it on my floor and got busy. The first thing I did was arrange his name and the other stickers on the front of glass block. If you try this at home, make sure have a good idea on how big you want the sticker letters, the length of the persons name and the size of the glass block you are going to use. For a quick second when I was putting Montays name on the block, I almost panicked because I didn't think his name was going to fit. *whew* Lucky for me it did!

Next, I opened the small box of 20 stringed-lights and put it inside the glass block by removing the rubber stopper from the bottom. I think its best to put the lights in first, so when you add the rocks in afterwards, it won't be so hard to get them in there. I have a feeling you already know that, but just in case you didn't.....

Now we add the rocks!! Well, they're not real rocks. Just plastic dyed "gems" that the lights will shine through. I bought 2 boxes just to be safe and I'm glad I did because one box definitely was not going to be enough.

And Finally the finish product!!

This project literally only took me 15 minutes to do and I really enjoyed doing it. My friend text me later that night to tell me when she plugged her sons nightlight in that, her niece came into the room, she instantly loved it and now she wants one as well!! I can't wait to go out tomorrow and get some more supplies and to get busy!