Flamenco

Brooke and I went out on the town this past Saturday night to watch Maria Bermudez and Sonidos Gitanos perform. It was so amazing, passionate. You can't help but sweat when you watch Flamenco at this level of expertise. Here is a link to the review from the Oregonian.

I started studying Flamenco about four years ago - from afar. It's history, jargon, music was so intriguing. I was introduced to it by a friend, Holly Stewart, who lives in 100 Mile House, BC (of all places). She led me to the water so-to-speak. I am fortunate enough to live in a city where Flamenco is taken seriously.

In February of 2006, I began studying "seriously". I say that in quotes, because with two children, I could only spare two sessions of lessons per week. I was completely taken off guard by this form of dance. I've studied ballet, jazz, tap, ballroom and modern dance, but Flamenco is like no other. My most favorite dance, the Buleria is done in 6/8 time. This rhythm is not heard in our culture. It took me about three months before I could actually understand the rhythm - and this is with 27+ years of dance experience. Buleria is the most difficult dance and highly improvisational. But I persevered, and was given a chance to perform in October of 2006.

Since that life changing performance, life has happened and I've not been to classes but a handful of times. This performance that Brooke and I went to on Saturday was inspiring. I might get back into it in the fall. I'll have to see what life throws my way then, and make a decision then. Brooke is going to post my October performance soon. You won't be able to see the whole performance - Brooke didn't want to "miss" it while capturing it on film.

Here's a picture of us before our Flamenco date.

Cyclocross World Champion 2028

Here’s the boy with the messenger vibe. We got the Skuut in the spring but it was slightly too big. He grew into it last month and now he flies around the driveway and yard. He loves his Skuut so much, he insists on riding it in the house.

Knitting Shops

Yea! Brooke has made me an official contributor to the blog now. I'm going to talk about knitting today.

Well, two more, of the 31 + yarn shops within a 20 miles radius of our home are closing. One I'm particularly sad about because it carried the full line of Blue Sky Alpacas yarns, which I absolutely love. The Portland market is saturated with yarn shops and I've been anxiously awaiting the fallout of that saturation. Wanting to own my own yarn shop for a while now, I've completed due diligence on two shops for sale in the area. Neither are the right purchase for me, which makes me frustrated.

On the bright side, I'm learning a lot about starting up a needlework shop of my own. I can see myself owning my own business in about 10 years, after the kids are more grown, and the homeschooling has taken off. I really couldn't imagine putting them in school so I could pursue my business goals.

I'm going to continue teaching and selling my designs at the Yarn Garden. I'm adding other needlework to my repertoire. I just began cross-stitching and I'm loving it. There are so many more fibers to choose from across the needlework spectrum. Silk on linen is my favorite for cross stitch.

I'm in the process of updating my website. Those pictures of me are about 3 years old, I have many more patterns to add, and more class listings. This fall at Yarn Garden I'll be teaching two classes. One is sweaters from the neck down and the other is for these sweet little Russian Satchel's. The pattern for these will be on my website soon.

Our family as the Simpsons

I'm not being original. I got the idea from Erik Voldengen. So here we are!

You can make your own here.

First Harvest

Here we are reaping the benefits of growing our own vegetables. We've had lots of fun learning about vegetable gardening this year. This lot was started back in the cold days of March. Nicholette designed the garden, Lily planted, I built the Douglass Fir boxes and Frost helps to harvest. It's a family affair. To date we've planted:

Strawberries
Broccoli
Peas
Lettuce
Walla Walla Onions
Pumpkins
Zucchini
Tomatoes (cherry, heirloom, and canning)
Peppers (yellow sweet, habanero, jalapeno)
Gourds