Welcome to the Grow Your Blog party!

Greetings and Salutations! I'd like to welcome all of my visitors to my little corner of the internet. My name is Tazzy aka Ladynero and I am a cross stitcher, a novice crocheter, and a beginning belly dancer. This little blog, while focusing more on my stitchery and crochetting, also occasionally features my belly dancing experiences. There is going to be a lot of pictures in this (sorry, I enjoy showing off a bit) but I hope you enjoy your little stop in my corner.

As I have irregularly participated in the WIPockalypse in the past two years, let me snag a challenge from the WIPockalypse creator, Measi: "This month’s topic is a proper one for the beginning of any adventure: Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year."

My name is Tazzy as I said. I was born and raised in the Midwest United States. I'm happily married with one daughter and two cats (who enjoy seeing what Momma's stitching as well as playing chase the string!). I'm a beginning belly dancer, and hopefully things will work out between home life and my work where I'll be able to get back to shimmying and shaking. I work at a little mom'n'pop craft store that specializes in a little bit of everything and where I get a majority of my needlework supplies and crochetting things. I'd like to get all of my current projects finished this year and distributed to their recipients before starting anything else new. I am an irregular blogger, but I try to update once a month (emphasis on try). I'm not one to talk about what happens to me personally, mainly because I started this blog for my needlework and belly dancing to share with everyone else, but I enjoy reading the various comments left on my posts.



This picture is a couple of years old (I was actually in my first trimester of pregnancy when this was taken. It was my last performance. For now). It was for Memorial Day when the troupe went to perform at the local Veteran's Center. We had one older gentleman in a wheel chair that kept moving closer and closer for our performance. Claimed he couldn't hear the music. I doubt any of us believed that excuse but we didn't call him on it.

As to why I'm not getting more crafty projects done or doing belly dancing much anymore, well, here's my excuse:



Meet my daughter, Genevieve. She's 13 months old, active as all get out, and only gives me a few hours at night to get anything done, but there are times when I'm just worn out after a day of playing and chasing her around, that I can't summon the energy to pull out a needle and thread.However! I have managed to get some things started and worked on. I won't go through and show you everything that I have started because that will take a lot of pictures. Yeah, I'm a bit of a serial starter, but a few of my projects only have a few stitches in them (Persephone, a few HAEDs, and a few things that are aimed for the UFO piles for now).



First up is a blanket I'm crochetting for Genevieve. Been working on it a while, but it's a nice relaxing project that I don't have to think too much about in the evening. It's a modified ripple blanket to shrink it down from full sized to a lap blanket. When it is done, it will also be the perfect size for her crib.



This is HAED QS CLara by Hannah Lynn. I'm doing all the black first and then going to go back and color it. A friend of mine saw this when I was showing it off at work, and she fell in love with it. So I promised her I'd stitch it for her if she followed her dreams (She had a habit of letting a few things hold her back). I haven't had a chance to work on it lately as it's 1x1 on 28 ct Monaco and that gets a bit hard on the eyes in the evening, but it will be worked on.



The start of Joan Elliott's Fairy Godmother on Silent Night by Under the Sea Fabrics (wonderful lady who does hand dyed fabrics. Highly recommend her!). This is going to be hung up in Genevieve's room when it's done and I get it framed. I'm also debating on changing the hair color of the Godmother from blond to black, just to be different. Ah well, I'll get to that when I get to that.



This is the start of a sailing ship sampler from Cross Stitch and Country Crafts issue Jan/Feb 1989 which tells how old this is. The water's green and I offered to change the colors for my dad, whom is the giftee of this one, but he liked the water as green. So, green water it is.



This is Barbara Baatz's December Fairy on 14 ct Aida, dyed by Color Cascade Fabrics based out of Australia (another great lady who does gorgeous work). The fabric is an odd size, but there is some beautiful marbling on one corner that I'm doing my best to get involved in this. I'm making this into a baby announcement for Genevieve with her name at the top and her birth information at the bottom. The border that is going to be done around the fairy will be repeated at both top and bottom but turned at 90 degrees to be more horizontal than vertical. The fairy herself is almost completely done. There's just some back stitching in the garlands that need to be done and then I can focus seriously on the borders.



This one is actually for me. It's Joan Elliott's Goddess of the Sea from the Design Craft kit. I do wish they had included 28 ct fabric instead of 14 ct, but if wishes were horses then beggars would ride. Ah well. If I decide I don't like this as it is, I may just get the pattern from Joan's website and redo it. But we'll see.



Here is my jar of ORTs for the TUSAL that Daffycat runs for the fun of it. This is a bit over a years worth of thread ends and leftover threads from kits. I never know what to do with the extra threads from kits, and I can't exactly add them to the skeins of DMC I have due to color differences at times, so I throw them in here to be used later or to be tossed out for the birds to use in their nests come springtime. I think I'm going to wait until this is full before dumping it out this time. Last time, there wasn't really that much to make a difference.



I had a lot of fun making this with my dad. It's my stitching chest where I keep almost all of my cross stitching WIPs. I designed it, and together, over the course of a couple of weekends, we put it together. My mom picked out the handles and the pull knobs, surprising me when they brought it over. I use it constantly and am starting to get a few drawers that still stick to loosen up due to the constant use *laughs*. Now I just need to get small boxes made to hold my bead containers and my kreniks.

I'm giving away two prizes this time. You don't have to be a follower of my blog to win, just have to be comfortable giving your address to a complete stranger *laughs*. First, I don't have a picture of (sorry, my phone's battery died), but it is "Jane Pattison 1806" by Shakespeare's Peddler. It's a sampler reproduction, and while it looks nice, I'm not one for this sort of sampler. So, I thought I'd pass it along to whomever is interested in winning it. The second winner, by random drawing, will receive a copy of Mirabilla's Persephone. My boss knows I enjoy Mirabillas so she went to a needle show and bought a copy of Persephone for me. Only I had already ordered it with fabric from another supplier, thus giving me two. So, one will go to a lucky person.



How to enter: Just leave your name and address in the comments and if you want to be in the drawing for either of the patterns or both. I'll draw a random person on February 15th to give everyone plenty of time to enter as I know there are a lot of blogs in this little party, and I don't want to exclude anyone.

And finally, I'll leave everyone with a picture of Genevieve in her CEO position, sitting in her daddy's chair at his computer.



Happy Blog Hopping!

Back to belly dancing

Tonight was my first time back to belly dancing in over a year and a half. Lordy, I forgot how much it was fun it was. I'm stiff and sore but all in a good way. There was only three of us in the class and all of us had belly dancing experience before so Zattana decided to forego the easy lesson she had planned as she had expected total beginners to attend the class. We did shimmies and shakes and had a blast.

I can't wait to go back next week and do it all over again!

August WIPockalypse Take Two & return to Belly Dancing

First up is my WIPockalypse/IHAS report. *hangs head* Yeah, I've been bad about not posting it, but in my defense, my computer decided to self destruct via virus and I had to get a new one.

So first up is Moonlit Kitties:



Didn't get a whole lot done that weekend and things have been up in the air enough that I haven't had a chance to do any more stitching on these since that weekend. Mostly because I've had a hard time concentraiting due to pregnancy and exhaustion.

Now that commission that I'm wondering is jinxed at this point. It seems like for every three stitches I put in, I'm tearing out five.



Here it is as of today. *sighs and shakes head* I haven't even started on the nitty gritty flowers or even charted the names and date.

On a better note (for me at least), my work schedule has let me return to my belly dancing class, and last night I had a blast! I was the only one in the Beginning Technique class, which was fine as my teacher decided to drill with zills. *laughs* My arms were tired by the end, and we only did a little bit of veil work. The veil I have is a bit heavier than a chiffon so that didn't help the arm soreness either.

It will be fun to get back into that again.

WIPockalypse and TUSAL update in one

Can summer slow down a bit please? I'm having a hard enough time trying to hold on to my stitching mojo as it is without the month's vanishing on me! Okay for my WIPockalypse, I just have the commission Wedding piece to show: It's on 28 count antique white evenweave (my first time doing this small of a count) and it's over 2 which makes it even more fun. That's how much of the pattern I have done, marked off with orange highlighter. *grins* as to what the pattern's on, that's an old "magnetic poetry board" which stands up really nicely and I don't have to worry about felines laying on the pattern, thus forcing me to either move them or put the stitching up for a while. And now my traveling TUSAL jar: As you can see, not much, but that's all the wedding pattern there. Hopefully, I'll get the days to slow down, but I am really looking forward to this weekend when my only plan is going to a Circle of rhiannon Hafla down by Cincy to meet up with my dancing friends. *rolls eyes* My boss apparently took my announcement that I'm expecting to mean that I'm not dancing anymore so she's been scheduling me late on Thursdays. Frankly, the only class I was going to drop was the Intermediate Choreography since I wouldn't be able to perform with any of the ladies until after the baby's born, but working as late as I am on Thursdays means I'm missing my Beginner Technique class. Major Bummer.

So very late.....

I am really sorry to everyone who follows my blog for not posting for a month! May just vanished between working, doctor's appointments, and getting ready for the Patriotic Freedom Festival here. But the time was well spent because Troup Roja and the Thursday Night class rocked the festival! This is us doing Yeslam Galbak as choreographed by Ruby Gesire and modified by Zattana Al-Naseem. Me doing some veil work during the improv section of the performance. There was this cute old man in a wheelchair at our second performance. He started out near the back but quickly moved himself forward to the front. He'd clap along and whenever one of us would dance near him, he'd give us this huge grin and an 'okay' sign. Afterwards, he told one of the ladies that he moved close because he was hard of hearing. *laughs* She responded that she thought he just enjoyed our dancing. Now on to the stitching. *laughs* First up is the kalediscope for my youngest neice. It's a quick easy thing and is coming right along. I'm going to be filling in the blank space in the center with white thread to make it look all uniform. The other thing that's been taking up my time. It's a traveling baby blanket 'cause it's the right sixe to fit in a carseat without miles of blanket to contend with. This one is for my SiL's second child who's about ready to show up any day now. And once more, Bacchus is helping me stitch by making sure my stitching basket doesn't fly off..... unfortunately, I can't get to any of the thread now. Oh well.

An update on various things

*shakes head* Get a bit busy with everything and then lose track of time. Wish I could say something differently, but yeah, that's why I haven't updated in over a week.

But the good news is I'm almost finished with "Beware of Zombies"



See? I just need the "B" left to do. *grins* Okay, there's a bit more gray at the top of the "frame" to do as well as the white will fill in everything but around the letters.

But the really amazing thing is the redbuds and dogwood outside my window!



They've exploded into blooms!



The redbuds.


The dogwoods.

As for belly dancing, the begining classes have been wonderful. We just started veil work a week back, and it's been interesting to do. Of course, one thing that doesn't help is that the room gets rather hot when we're dancing and I don't think there's enough fans in the world to cool it down. In the advanced class, it seems like all of April is booked for dancing. There's Mizelli's studen recital this Saturday, Wright State's International Festival on April 21, and then the Miami Music Performance or something like that on April 28. So yeah, it's going to be a busy month.

Yellow Cab Co and IHAS update...

I'm not going to post all the pictures here that my mother took of the evening because there are times when she can put a paparazi to shame with the number of pictures she takes. *laughs* But we had fun, and it was an interesting experience dancing in a garage. Complete with car lift poles still there. Seems it was a taxi company once upon a time, and now it's sort of an art gallery/club.

So! on to the pictures!


The Thursday night class coming on stage for another bow. And the stage was tiny! We were taking microsteps to keep from pushing each other off of it during Zeina.


This was most of us before the evening started. The one in the brown coverup is a friend of the woman who put this evening together and she's the one who got in touch with various people to belly dance. She's not part of the class, but she's still a very nice lady and a lot of fun too.


The Thursday night class in all our finery after the dance.


Yes, I know my bra isn't cabaret style, but it was the only one I have as my order from Dahlal International had to be specially made so I'll hopefully get it around May.

Now for my IHAS update! I did a bit of stitching and on Saturday I went to a friend's house, determined to get my "Beware of Zombies" done (or at least the first color) as we sat around, talked and played board games. Well, I sorta forgot to bring my thread with me, so I didn't get much done as I used up the last of what thread I had on my needle.



However! I had a couple other projects with me, and I dug one out to focus on it! Remember my poor, sad dragonfly?



Well it now looks like this:


Done!

now I just have to cut it out, back it on felt, and put the pinback on it as well before giving it to my mom!

Hafla and pictures!

The Circle of Rhiannon Hafla was wonderful!! It was an hour's drive for myself and my husband, but it was worth it. We were the first ones there and while I was getting ready with the finishing touches on my make-up, my husband was drafted into helping set up a few things.

Then some of the others in my class arrived and we hung out while helping each other get ready with costuming, make up suggestions, and just gossip.

There was a live band that was set up in one corner of the studio and they were a lot of fun to listen to. My parents drove three hours to come watch me, and another two friends showed up as well. *laughs* My girlfriend had her first experience with henna and was worried that it would take hours to dry. The dance went smoothly, and no one noticed that I messed up three times, one of those times I forgot how to do a Mya step!

Now, on to the pictures!


From left to right is Asyia, myself, Mo, and Courtney. It was funny because it was easy to spot the girls in our class as we were the only ones wearing cover-ups. *giggles* Zattana has it drilled into us that scarfs ar enot a cover.


Front row is Zattana, me, and Mo. Back row is Yoriko, Courtney, and Asyia. This was the ending pose of Filii Nedhardi with the only difference being we took our zills off.


My outfit. *grins* It was interesting to put together because I was wandering through stores asking myself "What would Abernathy wear?" as Abernathy is the only Tribal dancer that sticks out in my mind.

Belly dancing from Thursday

The Hafla's in two days and I'm excited and nervous. Excited because I'll be performing and nervouse because I'll be performing. Hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures from it from someone there so I can post what everyone looks like in their costumes.

I'll post more later, but I'm going to bed right now. Two hours of dancing is enough to wear me out right now. Need to work on my stamina.

Belly dancing from Thursday and a hafla fundraiser

First off, allow me to talk about the fundraiser as it's my first performance as a belly dancer. Circle of Rhiannon's 'Circle of Care' hafla is helping a young girl named Cassady Griffith who had just recieved a much needed liver transplant yesterday afternoon if I'm reading the comments right. If you're in the area next week, feel free to show up and watch my class and I as we dance.

Now on for the review of last night. *laughs* We got started a bit late in the Beginning class as the two of us students were pinning together a belt I'm making (Thank God for Stitch Witchery. It's about the only way I can sew something). Then we started learning about a three count hip shimmy before playing with that a lot. Zattana challenged us to use it during this one section of Zeina where we are doing a hip shimmy more for the challenge than anything else. After that, we drilled and learned new parts of Zeina. Now, normally, the class starts at about 6:30 pm and ends an hour later, giving all of us a fifteen minute break before the Advanced class comes in. Not last night. We were having so much fun dancing, it was 8pm before Zattana realized the time and quickly opened the classroom door for the other girls. *laughs*

In the Advanced class, we were doing Filii a lot as well as figuring out the ending pose as until last night we were just striking whatever pose we wanted when the music ended. Now we're getting serious. *laughs* After that, it was some more of the new song, but I admit, I was starting to drag at 8:45, especially since it looked like she wasn't stopping anytime soon. I think it was closer to 9:15 before we were finally done and cooled off.

A very long class, but damn it was fun!

Bouncing Belly on Thursday Nights!

Tonight was fun if tiring *laughs*, but then I'm finding that two hours of dancing with a fifteen minute break between is a workout and a half.

In the begining class, it was body rolls up, body rolls down, chest vertical figure eights, shoulder pushes, shoulder shimmies, shoulder rolls, and hip double pops. It was a very busy class today but it was all fun. Then at the end, we all formed a circle and did some improv dancing, and after a few steps, my brain locked up, leaving me doing hip pops in a circle 'cause I couldn't remember any other step. *laughs* It was fun even if a bit surreal at that point. We also went over more of the Zeina choreography, and there are plans to perform it in the upcoming months!

In the Choreography class, we wre drilling Filii Nedhardi almost nonstop, trying to get the attitude down along with the moves. It's a bit tricky because I really don't have an arrogant or forceful personality, and in this one, I need one like that. Then, we started working on this new choreography that's a lot of fun. Or it will be when I can get my pelvis rocking back and forth while my shoulders are shimmying.

Also, to those in the Dayton, Ohio area, there is some upcoming shows that my class is possibly going to be dancing at. A couple are going to be fundraisers but others are going to be for showing off. I'll keep everyone posted as I get more information on definite dates and times. The first one coming up is Saturday, March 10th in Hamilton, Ohio. It's going to be a hafla with a $5 door charge to help one of the dancer's daughters with the medical bills as she has a rare liver disease. The one after that is Friday, March 16th, at the Yellow Cab Club in Dayton, Ohio. Both are sorta iffy right now because Zattana has to talk to all of the girls before getting an idea if it's possible to put together enough for the dances that we have in our mental list.

Bouncing Belly on Thursday Nights!

Tonight was fun!

First was the race from work to get to the studio on time (and I made it with enough time to change my pants as I'd worn a tank top to work). Then there was two of us again in the Begining class, which is fun because then Zattana can spend a lot of time between her students, giving advice and pointers while also showing me what I'm doing wrong. Again, we were doing zill drills with threes, clumps, and this time, fours added in. I'd say we were doing them at about half speed to what they should be at. To add even more fun, we had an Egyptian hip step we were doing for the threes, and then hip moves for the clumps and fours. That was a lot of fun even if my threes wanted to go Right-Left-Right then Left-Right-Left. I will get my hands trained! I swear!

Then for the Intermediate class, there were six of us, and before the class started, we were asking Zattana about various workshops and conventions that will be held around us that are very good to go to on our level. That was about a ten minute discussion with a few workshops that caught my attention. I'm not sure I'll have the money to go to them, but I will try to see which ones I can go to. I definitely want to go to the Great Lakes Belly Dancing Convention in November.

Once class started, we worked on the embelished hip drops. My problem is that my hip wanted to come up after the turn to do the drop again, but it had to stay low and level, making it less of a drop from the arm down to a drop from the waist down. That was most of the class as well as running through our Filii Nedhardi choreography. After that, for a bit of fun, Zattana showed us a few moves and we had a lot of fun doing them.

She's hoping to perform the Filii Nedhardi in the next few months, so I asked about costuming. Her response was "Not cabaret, but you can mix it up a bit as long as it's not a dress." So I'm going to have some fun trying to figure out what to do for an outfit for it. *Laughs* I don't really want to do just pants and a sports bra, but maybe I might get out my rare sewing to play around a bit. I'm definitely going to be looking up tribal costuming on line to see what I can toss together.

Belly dancing from Thursday

*laughs* Sorry I didn't update this yesterday, but (to go slightly off blog topic here) my mom got free tickets to see the Blue Man Group yesterday and invited me and my hubby. We had a blast!

Now on to the belly dance lessons from Thursday. *giggles* In the Begining Technique class, there were four of us and all of us were from the Intermediate Class. Two showed up because they had plans later in the evening and couldn't make the Intermediate class. So we drilled the one choreography to a song called Zeina by composer Mohamed Abdel Wahab, and that was a lot of fun because when I showed up to start classes, the Intermediate class had already learned about a half to three fourths of it so I was playing catch up. After doing that for about half the class, we drilled in zill patterns, mainly threes and clunks, whild doing hip figure eights. With the threes, they were horizontal eights, and for me, those are tricky because the pattern is right left right, then start again on the right hand when you want to go left right left. Tricky but once I get it down, I should be good. For the clunks, they were vertical eights with the hips, and Zattana said that if you weren't use to them and were doing them with the muscles, you would feel it in the morning. Boy was she right! I had this vertical line from my diaphram to my belly button that ached all day long yesterday, but I took that as a good sign.

Then for the Intermediate class, agan four of us were there, but one was the lady from the Beginner class. So we drilled one of the tricky moves for the Filii Nedhardi composition that we were calling the Kitty Attack. It's a tricky move because it's a sort of lunge forward then twist back around with a chest drop followed by another lunge and twist with a pelvic tuck. Hard to describe but neat to watch.

Zattana mentioned that if I want to perform Zeina with the group in May, then I should see about getting a cabaret-style belly dance outfit, and I'd love to, but they can be rather expensive! However, I do have my eye on this verly lovely gold and silver bra and belt set at Dahlal International and I hope I can get enough money to spare to pick it up.

Another night of pain and fun

Had my first and second lesson with Zattana at the new place. She's now giving lessons at a Pilates studio and they have this small yoga room that's pretty good for dancing in even if it's a bit small, but it has wood floor, a mirror and a ballet bar running down one side of it. In the Begining technique class, we were doing hip slides, the Egyptian Walk Step, and getting a feel for the music becaudse she stated that dancers are the physical representation of the music. If there's a deaf person in the audience, they should be able to 'hear' the music by what the dancer is doing.

Then in the Choreography class, I got the last little bit of our Filii Nedhardi choreography in my dance journal so I can practice that at home. I am proud to say that my Dance Paws worked out quite well for dancing. There wasn't that many in the class tonight, and in the beginning technique, there was only four of us with two being from the various Pilates classes. To give a better idea, in the choreography class, there's normally about 10-12 dancers but tonight there was only 5. The weather and prior commitments had a lot to do with that, and I think a couple of the girls were sick.

Finished Equal Rites and I figured out what I didn't like about it. It was the little girl. Sure she's only 9, but I still wanted to spank her and stand her in a corner more than once. But now, I'm enjoying Men at Arms a great deal.

This weekend is the International Hermit and Stitch weekend, and I plan on doing a great deal on both "Beware" and "Royalty."

No belly dance tonight...

Because we have snow. The sort that I went into a store for 5 minutes and came out to a car covered in snow. So, no lessons tonight.

*grins* So instead I'm going to work on my cross stitch. Probably my Zombie one until I can't stand staring at monochrome and then I might change to a HAED. I'm just not sure which one to start yet. I have "Royalty" by Adele Sessler, "Midnight at the Oasis" by Joanne Schempp, "Ishtar" by Selina Fenech, and "Eternal Promise" by Matt Stewart. And those are the ones that I'm interested in right now *laughs*.

Last nights dance lessons

Last night was my first night of begining belly dance, followed by my usual choreography class. The reason why last night was my first night of begining belly dancing is because when I started dancing back in October, the class I joined was a choreography class, and Zattana let me stay on as well as some others who joined the class later. So last night was Zattana's first begining lesson.

She was very thorough in explaining things even though she only taught four moves, but then we did an impromptu choreography where she called out the moves and we followed along. *grins* that was a lot of fun. My right arm and shoulder was giving me fits because I had spent a couple hours that afternoon scrubbing plastic bags of markers (I work at a craft store and the bags are what the bolts of cross stitch fabric go into so I was 'erasing' the old fabric counts as best as I could). So more than once, especially when we were learning snake arms, I had to stop and get my shoulder to loosen back up.

After that was the choreography class - which she has changed to invitation only. We've been doing this tribal fusion number that's a lot of fun even if the zills trip me up. Most of the time, I'm just wearing the zills instead of playing them 'cause I'm concentrating more on what my feet and body are doing instead of what my hands are. We ran over our time, but it was worth it and I'm thoroughly enjoying this dance.

Now if I can only lose the spare tire around my waist....