Saturday

My lilac bushes and peony are in the ground and the tall lilac is right under mom's window.....right where I wanted it. Thanks to my friend who helped me put them in. I'm so grateful! I went to the flea market and bought a ring. My other friend that I went with bought some jewelry for tribal looks (she will be joining the troupe that I'm in) and she had a great time with her first visit to the flea market. I went to the garage sale across the street and bought several things including an ergonomic desk chair, a beautiful photograph for my dining room, a magazine rack that I'm going to use for something else, but I'm not sure what yet, some shiny brites (replacement for some of my Christmas decorations that burned in the fire), some jeweled elastic headbands that I can use in a 20s look with some modifications, and a winter scarf. Less than $10! One of my friends came to the same garage sale and bought $72 worth of stuff! I did binge again last night but I'm feeling pretty miserable so that won't be happening again! I'm not all full of sadness and mourning.....I had a great day. Hooray for great days.

And the shed came tumbling down.......

At around 2pm, the former shed in our backyard came tumbling down. The kids came down (stepdaughter and her bf) and did the work and now it's gone...... just a bitter memory of things that have happened while living in this house which I think is inflicted with stagnant chi or bad karma. At least I don't have a constant physical reminder of negativity staring me in the face everyday now.

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, we are going to make something decent in it's place......a small place to have a grill and some patio furniture.....and something that will keep the night people away (stepson and his ner do well friends).

I am hopeful......it takes so little sometimes to make me feel hopeful.

Well, I did it.....and it didn't go as well as I had hoped.

This is a whiny post and I make no appologies for it! My makeup class was only attended by members of student troupe. That was disappointment #1. Disappointment #2--one of them brought her teenage daughter with her who kept saying "mom, you look like a hooker." #3 the other attendee complained about everything and how her illness prevents her from processing information (I digress, but I think that maybe she needs to quit using her illness as an excuse for everything). None of the main troupe members showed up to help out and then my friend the makeup guru flaked out on me and couldn't show up.

The makeup application itself wasn't too bad and they enjoyed seeing the DVDs of FCBD's and Ansuya's makeup application and tips. Of course, they tried to imitate the look with the wrong tools and products but they realized that and that was a good thing. I realized that I have the totally wrong color of blush and that the eye shadow I chose was maybe a little too intense....LOL.....waaaay too intense! So generally, I need to tweak things a little bit to get the information across to everyone and then everyone needs to show up and maybe the main troupe members need to show up and tell us what kind of "look" they really want us to have.
I feel like I failed miserably.
Then I forgot the 'before' pics. Took an after pic of one of the participants and someone took one of me. I will post them eventually.
They want me to try this again next Friday or sometime next week when everyone can come (hopefully) and then makeup wise, we might be ready for our first performance as a troupe.
I'm so disappointed :(

I can't believe I'm doing a stage makeup class tonight!

My dance teacher asked me to show some of the members of the student troupe how to do performance makeup. So instead of thinking that someone might be singled out for not doing something "right", I decided to turn it into a class. I'm going to show part of the FCBD makeup and costuming video, Ansuya's part of her Magic of Bellydance on doing makeup and then we are going to try to do makeup together. Perhaps I can parlay this into a regular part of the the troupe's activities and maybe teach it at the college also. It would be fun, something a little out of the box for me though, although I do love to play with makeup and I'm not afraid to try new things. I'll be taking pics tonight too....so be prepared!
Wish me luck!

I finished my choli!

Well, as of 10:30 last night, my choli is finished and I did it all myself! (proud!) I'm not sure how exactly it's supposed to fit, but it fits fine, but I'm a little worried about when I raise my arms that I might have a spill <G> I'm sure once I get the right bra ready and all that, I'll be able to tweak things enough to have it fit just right! I will take pictures over the weekend during our makeup workshop that I'm conducting over at my house Friday night. I really feel like I accomplished something! YAY!

I did it! I'm actually sewing!

I can't believe this.....I've actually been sewing today! I think the saga of the sewing sessions over at my house and instead of practice last Sunday is beginning to pay off. I have almost finished a pair of harem pants and then that damn stretch velvet choli! <G> And this is from someone who until yesterday didn't even know how to fix a bobbin and thread the machine! I'm thrilled! Just had to brag on myself a little bit.....pictures to come when I'm finished! Woooo hoooo!

I know my mom is smiling down on me right now :)

My favorite words

Synchronicity and Serendipity

Serendipity: the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for

Synchronicity: the coincidental occurance of events and esp.psychic events (as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality

Which leads to synchronous: happening, existing, or arising at precisely the same time. Which leads to happenstance: a circumstance esp. that is due to chance.

Sometimes, I just don't make things happen.....things just happen and they are good. I think it means that I'm living my life in sych with the universe and the universe opens up and gives me the things that it thinks I need or sometimes even that I want (most of the time a wish or desire that is a fleeting thought in the back of my mind). That's how I ended up at my first bellydance show and how I traveled that path to my first class and the rest is history.

Something happened to me the other day......serendipity. The Fourth grade teacher came to me the other day and wants to hire me to be a dance instructor (not bellydance) for the Back to the Fifties dance at our school and will pay me $100 for two hours work! I will be teaching Electric Slide, Macarena, YMCA, Bunny Hop, and other dances that would be fun for our upper elementary kids at their first dance at the end of the school year. I actually will get paid to dance! Wowowowowowowowowowow!
Now if I could just get paid for doing makeup for people (a friend of mine and I played around with our MAC addictions yesterday), wardrobe consulting, and personal shopping, I would conga out the door of my school and never look back!
To me, life is about serendipity, synchronicity, and happenstance. Three very important words in my life.