What's up?

So much going on.

Our dancing group:
*we preparing a new performance and a stand with merchandising (key rings, stickers and magnets) and souvenirs (we are sewing bags, little shamrocks with lavender filling, some embroidery bags) for a intercultural event.
*we are planning a little show influenced by peter pan. (from script, costumes, stage, sound/music and of course dances).
*we are having a workshop of 3 hours with a well known dancer in argentina.
*planning of bringing a teacher to do a workshop of welsh dances
*we are starting newbie classes
*we finally chose our practise day

My life:
*My son started kindergarden.
*I started university (need to study a lottttt)
*I am in many sewing projects
*I have to take care of my family (baby+little kid+ husband)
*we are building our house (well we actually have a constructor, but still)


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Although sometimes is hard to have so many things on my mind, what I find the hardest to combine is practising dance at home and my baby. As soon as she sees my dance shoes she needs me to carry her. I end up angry at her and she doesn't have any fault, then I get sad and frustrated. Sighhhhhhh

Inspirational pictures

So I've been kind of addicted to pinterest and found tons of good inspirational pictures. Time to share :)

Update Solo Dress!!

Guess who got the shiny fabric??

I still have to shape it and sew it with the underskirt; But I love how it looks!! Still deciding if putting some of the shiny fabric over the bodice... 

Happy St. Patricks!

Happy St. Patrick's! 

Of course tomorrow I won't be online since we are performing the same day (and rehearsing, and having our own party).

Send your St. Patrick's Greetings with one of these lovely Vintage Postcards

Update solo dress!

So I disassembled the skirt's dress. I came up with some Ideas for re-using the pleats and adding a shiny fabric below them.
So here are the sketchs:

I am seriously inclined to do V2. I think it's a way of fusing the shiny fabric to the bodice.

Need to buy the fabric yet!

St. Patrick's

How are you celebrating? Our group is dancing and then we wanted to go get some beers and just have a good time. I was thinking... can I do something special? Like a special treat? or maybe a gift?

So I came across all this tons of nice ideas I found surfing around the web; here there are some:

How about adding a little food coloring to the kid's milk to get this funny looking leprechaun's breakfast?

Or maybe gifting a rainbow in a jar? (Love it)

Tutorial here!

If you got kids you can make this lovely 4H Clover!

Let's forget about kids!! Check out this Homemade Irish Cream Liqueur

And last...

Found this blog that does a week of St Patrick's Ideas 

Check it out!

Finishing old proyects!

Well. Something epic happened today.

I went to try on the bodice of my solo dress... and. it fitted! My old pants don't fit yet but hey xD I can continue with my old lovely solo dress proyect I had to dump because I got pregnant and fat haha.

So I am pretty excited because doing ID related things just pumps me up and I end up very happy. On the other hand until July I still will be at home taking care of my baby; so besides doing an online writing course  I needed other proyects... yay! (we are also going to sew a new dress for our dancing group but that is another one!)

Oh and guess what I got the other day?? Isn't this adorable!??!

So long!

This summer's been crazy. It started with our first workshop in January and it didn't stop! 

We went to the medieval event: 

It was really fun !! It made us plan our medieval outfit which we designed and will be sewing soon!

We went to a really big celtic event, in a lovely wonderful place :); It was great and ended with a big bonfire where everybody put their wishes for the year; Great!

We also did a small performance with a celtic music band and we really enjoyed it.

Plus: we had 2 mini workshops of a two hand reel (performance) and a scottish dance.

Now we are planning: 

*This years classes for beginners. My teacher wants to make 2 hour a week classes and If I get the chance I might open another beginner class in another town.

*St. Patrick's day: we are going to dance in one of our biggest events ever, our town's festival which is 3 days of bands, dancers, foods and crafts.

*We are going to participate in the "inmigrants" festival which includes us making a stand, dancing and promoting our classes.

Don't forget we need to learn new dances and steps, specially hard shoe.

Our First Workshop - We made it :-)

I am very happy to tell all of you that we finally got our workshop and it was great!!!

Practising hardshoe!!

In the middle Lisandro the teacher that came to give us the workshop.

To finish the workshop we gave a ceili. 

The basics irish dance videos

So someone on DDN mentioned this youtube list wich contains more than 30 videos of Irish dance basics. I loved it!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLALQuK1NDrgE_EyUJoS-QujzBbFb2hGZ

Enjoy :)

Organizing Irish Dance Workshop update no.3

Besides sewing and crafting xmas gifts, I'm still on the road of organizing the Irish Dance workshop we are having in january.

I am almost done!

1) Transportation. The teacher will be buying the connection bus ticket so if the bus is late he doesn't lose the ticket.

2) Accommodation. Ready!  from 4 to 6 he is staying in my house then from 7 to 11 in a cottage (oops. don't know if that is the exact word)

3) Ceili Night. Looking for sponsors to print the flyers, we are going to make a radio advertisement too!

This is the almost finished flyer the sponsors go on the bottom.

4) Last Day. Either gathering together to have dinner, drink some beers and dance, or have one more class or having a nice day together, when we get together we will decide how the last day of the work will be

5)Place to hold the workshop. Still need to buy the big mirror.

Organizing a workshop! Update2

This is what we got so far.

1) Transportation. Almost ready. We need one more bus ticket that isn't for sale yet.

2) Accommodation. Need to talk with a lady who was in charge of this.

3) Ceili Night. All set. We defined the place, we made some fancy flyers. The day of the ceili we need to decorate, buy some food and get some drinks (it's with a late tea before dancing). We need to print the Flyers. And fot printing the flyers we need to find 6 sponsors. (The idea is having a little advertising place in the bottom part of the flyer)

4) Beer Night. That happens when all dancers are adults haha. Didn't find a place where to do that yet. Our idea was hanging out in a pub and then dance. Session way. Once set the place we can make a big flyer with the Ceili one and print them together. 

5)Place to hold the workshop. We got it! It's an Old house from my mother in law that happens to have a nice wooden floor. Need a big mirror! Asked for prices in only one place. Kind of expensive.

I think that sums up much everything we needed and we need. There are some things I have pending


See Organizing a Workshop Part 1

X mas gifts for the Irish Dancer!

I was thinking of making some little gifts for my irish dancing friends.
First thing I thought was sewing a little bag for carrying shoes. I was thinking of doing a machine embroidery like this one to it:

Since we Irish and scottish dance I loved this design!

A little bit more simple though.

I came up with some other ideas that I might use this or other time:

*Nail polish and treatment for feet.
*Cleaning kit for shoes.
*Printed cups,stickers or maybe a calendar
*Make cord knots and use them as key rings, embelishments or wristbands. ( TONS of tutorials for making these http://www.youtube.com/user/TyingItAllTogether )
*Thought this for a smaller irish dancer, how about printing designs and make a little colouring book?

Organizing a workshop!

I'm in charge of organizing a workshop for january 2013; it's mainly for our group but other intermediate dancers are welcome.
So it's a big challenge but I got it on track so far:
We are having this schedule:
Every activity is in the afternoon.

Monday
Hardshoe

Tuesday
Softshoe

Wednesday
Hardshoe

Thursday
Ceili (open to all public)

Friday
Dance night in a pub

So far I've arranged:
transport and contactos with teacher.

What I need to arrange:
Accomodation: Will see it on monday, there is a chance the teacher stays at home
Studio: Will see it on monday afternoon
Pub: on monday morning will aswell at least one of the pubs, I've got 3 options so far.

Our school's new website

So after lots and lots of working I finished our school's website I love it :)
http://www.erindanzacelta.com.ar

Oh it's in spanish

Mom vs Dancer

Mom vs Dancer

This is my everyday struggle. And though motherhood is challenging I've found myself in a very deep hole of frustration trying to combine the things I love most, being a mother AND a dancer.

My baby is 8 months now, she is the most adorable baby ever :-) She is in a very demanding phase though, and last weeks I felt like all my energy was being drained by her.  Seriously I couldn't even go to the bathroom relaxed because if she didn't come with me (on my lap) she would scream and cry as if I was the worst mother in the whole word (and I felt like it lol). So imagine getting time to dance, imposible, the chores I had to do at home yes or yes I did them with her in the mei tai. If not I had her on my lap while watching tv, or playing with her outside, or doing anyhting I could do with her sitted (my back hurts so bad that carrying her is like a torture).

So I got really depressed, when I felt I had no energy for nothing I just took a brake and danced and I got really boosted. But now there is no room for that. I can't find more than 10 minutes to do something... the time is always short.

Last week I've been working with her so she stays playing a little while alone (well not so alone, she can still see me but at least not ON me). I know it's part of her development because every baby has a stage when he discovers he is not part of his mother and just goes crazy. And it's very hard, specially when you have something you love so much and you can't do it. Last week's dancing class I took her with my mom and she spent crying the whole hour. My mother was " I don't want to take care of her anymore", and I was "Can someone kill me please?".

Now things got better, this week class she stayed with her father OK, and I've been using some of the spare time with her playing to do some abs and excersices with my theraband to get in shape. And guess what? I don't want more Mom Vs Dancer, I want to proudly say I'm a dancing mom!!

Some lovely vintage irish themed postcards!

Found one, then came addicted to them; The images are not mine, found them browsing.

A two hand reel!! :P

It's been a while!!

It's been a while since my last post, everything in life has been weird and when I put myself for practising more dancing I find my son struggling to get my attention. The time that my baby doesn't need me m son does. And my baby is always with me, on me, it's so hard to find some time to practise. I can't rely on my husband on this so last weeks have been very quiet. I stopped almost all sort of excersice and practised the minimun. Althoutgh I see my kid happier I am  tired and frustrated. I know It shouldn't be this way but I can't help it... Dancing gives me that extra burst of energy and I miss it.

A photo of our first performance, the only celtic thing we had where those skirts!!
Sofia, my teacher Camila and me!

On the other side I am trying to not give up on dancing; Our group is pretty dead, my teacher had her baby last week, the other girls that came with me to classes couldn't make it anymore and I felt pretty lonely. But then I received an email from another teacher who offered doing some workshops through the summer and I decided I won't give up on what I love most, that was a little reminder that we still can make a nice performing group and delight people with our dance. So I am trying to figure pout how to bring this teacher here and also making a nice website for our little school. I hope all my effort gets paid someday. The only thing I can do now is trying to do my best, with what I have and what I can.

A cute irish gift for the baby.

My best friend/teacher/dancer is having a baby in a week!!! I wanted an irish themed gift so decided to sew this little things. I think they look adorable!

Update on my assistan teaching class!

Since one of my students is studying we decided to have only one class. per week. That left me with one hour  free on thursdays in the studio. So this idea came to my mind. I wanted to include my son in my classes so he could have some time with me doing what I love. I decided then to open a class for little kids. From 3 to 6 years old.  Thats an age group neither my teacher or I have experience with. Since classes will be until December It would be a "test" group and we will see how it goes.

So This are some of the activities

I have thought for them: 

Mimics

Simon says (let's see if a celtic name can occur to me haha)

Doing rounds

Jumping

The statue game

I want to do little skirts and vests, so they play to dress up and dance.

Storytelling (wanting to find some celtic stories nice for kids) and roleplaying with dance characters  we choose from the story.

Dance freestyle

Dance in the mood of the music (listen to a song and dance depending how it makes you feel)

The train (one kid leads the train and the other follow, trying to go in skip 123), or the teacher leads and all kids grab their hands.

Make little cloth clovers so they put in a pot , but to get there they need to move in a special way (like sidestep or jumping with one leg, with two, skip 2,3) 

Listen to music and clap. 

Put marks on the floor and make each kid go to an assigned mark.

Things I'll try to encourage:

Good posture

Streching after class

Learning to have conscience of legs and arms and to move in a "Stage"(aka marked place)

Start to develop core strength

Teach them to wait for turns

My objectives are:

Teach them sidestep and skip 2 3.

They have fun!!! It's a recreational class, if they want their kids to be in the ultimate dance lessons they should sign them for ballet, this is playing and dancing to one of the most beautiful music and introduce them to one of the richest cultures.

Oh well that is what I have now, I think that the more I am with the kids the more activities will go through my mind.

Also I thought a nice Idea to atract young kids is whenever we do a performance include a slip jig or a jig and dress as a fairy, 

PD: I love doing lists, it just keeps me organized!