Oh, hello there!

It's October and I'm back as promised!!

Not only am I back but I'm back with a few photos from the faire!

The faire was last weekend, September 26 & 27and in case you're new to this shindig - I'm the owner/director lady and most recently - Daniella Noir the Gypsy Queen!

This year the faire went smoothly enough that I was able to finally contribute to the entertainment. But because of the heat and many many layers of clothing I only danced about four times - but that's still four times more than I ever have in the past!

After getting myself a concussion last month I was unable to continue practicing Russian style gypsy dance. When I recovered from that I pulled something in my back that landed me in the ER (they did nothing to help). So after healing up from that - I had about a week to loosen up enough to wing it (yoga helped!).

At the faire I just tapped into memories of past dance experience, all my belly dance knowledge and all the YouTube videos of authentic gypsy dance I've ever seen.

 Below is my "Gypsy Court" well some of them - featuring beautiful dancers from Little Goddess Trybal belly dance troupe from Dallas and a few local volunteers who also dance, drum or act.

Under my pavilion my "throne" was made of a dining chair, pvc pipe, two folding TV trays, bed sheets, old saris and table cloths. The wind blew everything out of place during this shot but I think it still looks ok yeah?

This year, I wore no hoops, no crinoline, no corset, no girdle... I was all natural under there and I felt great!  I could move! The edges of the velvet ghawazee coat kept rolling in on itself (right under the ties) - I predicted it would happen and intended on sewing the front closed but darn it, the night before the faire, I was just too plumb exhausted to care about preventing wardrobe malfunctions. 

It wasn't until I saw the photos that I realized I was a perfect rainbow from top to bottom! 

Outfit details:

Headdress - handmade by me last year with added 99 cent scarf and $2 necklace from eBay,

Purple Tunic - my own

Blue velvet ghawazee coat - Tribal Bazaar

Green over skirt - Etsy $5

25 yard skirt - eBay bought with Swagbucks

White hip scarf, yarn belt, beaded belt - old

Most jewelry - dirt cheap eBay finds.

Trying my hand at sword balancing! It's tricky! I'd like to get my own sword and practice a bit.

And back where I belong! I love drumming soooo much. The man who taught me how to drum boasts that I am one of the best drummers in Texarkana (high praise indeed but there's only like four drummers in town.) I haven't got to drum in ages but when I picked up the drum everything all came back to me. It  was like riding a bicycle... a bicycle that will make your fingers swell so bad you won't be able to remove your rings that night but... a bicycle indeed! 

Stay tuned for more photos!!

I've still got tons to do to wrap up all this faire stuff so I probably wont have time to visit your blogs until next week. 

Until then, see you all laters!!!

a dreary cheery fiesta

Yesterday, the dark menacing weather was fit for nothing more than a spooky Halloween celebration- not a colorful fiesta.

The clouds were black, the sun was no where to be found and the humidity was a thick 90%.

BUT this is Texas in July. Just as long as the temperature is under 100F, ominous skies at an outdoor baby shower are more than welcome. The only problem the weather created was dreary photos that needed some serious editing. Thank you Picmonkey. I was only able to do so much to brighten the photos, but oh well. You get the point of what's going on here, right?

For those of you just now tuning in, I hosted my own baby shower. Why? Because no one offered. Sad face? Nah. That's not really a big deal to me -  I love throwing parties and I've always wanted to host a fiesta style shindig, so I figured, why not do one for myself?

I set up a "build a burrito" station for our eleven guests. The burrito filling choices were: fajita style grilled chicken, seasoned ground beef, Mexican style rice, shredded cheese, refried pinto beans, refried black beans, sauteed mushrooms, pico de gallo, chopped olives (which every mistook for caviar), sour cream and guacamole. There were also tamales and chips with salsa and queso.....

 AND CUPCAKES!!!

Since everything was store bought, food setup was pretty easy. All I had to do was open jars or cans, put it into a dish and microwave it if necessary. Easy peasy. Eh, I made the ground beef and sauteed the mushrooms but that's all. During food prep, some nearby construction accidentally cut a water line and the running water went out. That proved to be pretty darn inconvenient for me and the guests had to deal with the whole "If it's brown flush it down. If it's yellow it's all mellow" thing. Totally not cool but we managed to survive the entire party that way.

 So that I wouldn't exhaust myself before the party started at 5pm, I slowly started to decorate the house at around noon. All decor was purchased at the Dollar Tree, the tables were borrowed from our church and the 1950s folding chairs belong to us. I made the Mexican style paper flowers myself. There were more inside but I didn't get any photos of them.

 As bloggers, many of us have to take our own photos at outings which usually results in the complete absence of self in the pics with the exception of that one selfie you managed to sneak off and snap in the bathroom. Does it bother you that you're always the only one taking photos at events and gatherings?  Wouldn't it be nice if you could just sit back and enjoy what's going on and have someone else take the photos for a change?

  I get a little tired of chasing people down, handing them my camera, "Hey! Would you mind taking a photo of me please? I just need one. Yeah, just press that button. OH! while you're at it, can you get me and my husband and my baby too?? Hey! Don't walk away from me! I need photos!! I'm a blogger! Help me!!!"

  

Yeah, I know- selfies don't always happen in the bathroom...

 And and that's my mom in the middle and my big sister on the right there. I hear tale that we all look very much alike but I don't see it. 

So that was my Saturday. How was yours? Read any good books or killed any endangered animals lately?

sounds like a plan

Now that my back is all healed up from a tweak from a bad turn, I'm still left with the "crunchy-spine" lower back pain of pregnancy. Instead of my pelvis growing slowly during throughout this pregnancy, it has decided to do all of its expanding over the past couple weeks. Now I'm waddling, I'm creaking and popping, I'm moaning and groaning and really just all around miserable...

But I've got too much to do around the house to stop moving and park on the couch for the next seven weeks. I was unable to start the ironing business Monday because I totally forgot that I'm hosting my own baby shower this Saturday and my house could reeeeeeally use some deep cleaning- so I've been doing that since Monday. I got started cleaning early so I can take my sweet time move at a low comfortable pace and do just one room a day. 

But wait - why am I hosting my own baby shower? Well, when I was pregnant with River my Aunt hosted Thanksgiving that year and it was also supposed to double as a baby shower for me. Well.... SHE KINDA FORGOT TO TELL THE REST OF THE FAMILY. So we returned home with a baby blanket and about $10 in cash.

Later, one person offered to throw me a shower. She was a lady from my church... not family or even a close friend. Just a nice lady trying to help but I think she forgot she offered so I didn't get a shower until River was 3 months old. It was hosted by another nice church lady, it was pretty small and we didn't get much but I really truly appreciated the effort. And this year? No one has even mentioned throwing me a baby shower so I decided to just do my own. No biggie. I LOVE hosting parties so this works out just fine.

We're going to have a super colorful fiesta. It's not going to be all pink and frills with a bunch of giggling ladies sipping punch and gushing over tiny little socks. It's just going to be a party. Just a fun party with beer and burritos.

I think River's already pretty bored with all the party planning, cleaning and talks of the new wee one. He is, after all, about to be dethroned in a seven short weeks. Nothing really to be excited about.

If Etsy had a baby registry...

Why, oh why doesn't Etsy have a baby registry? C'mon, they waited two years too late to introduce the wedding registry are they going to do that to me again? Please, please, please Etsy! Hear my cry! Etsy baby registry for all!! Who's with me?? Anyways, we'll work on that petition soon. But if  Etsy did have a baby registry, here's some of the things I'd register for. We don't know the gender of our baby and I'm not sure if we will  find out (well, we will eventually) so everything is pretty gender neutral. Click photos for info.