not gonna do it

I'm not very good at taking self-portraits

I was debating about whether I should do one of those long rambly "catch-up" posts that seem to be my m.o. lately, but decided against it. Instead, I'll just post a bunch of photos and give you this short & sweet "readers digest" condensed edition of the past month. One unplanned thing that happened is that our family got hit pretty hard by a flu bug. My daughter missed the whole last week of school and had to be picked up early from her Knott's Berry Farm field trip. How sad was that? Missing all the fun stuff that you wait for all school year!

Being sick also meant that we missed two days of our annual district convention. This was especially disappointing because it was an international convention with delegates coming in from other countries. But, thankfully we were able to make it for Friday & Saturday of the program.

So on to the month in photos (I got a new camera right after our day at Knott's so I've been having fun trying to learn to use it)...

My nephew's promotion ceremony - he's a middle schooler now!

Knotts Berry Farm

My sweetie was so sick - had to leave Knott's early

Me and my sis

Our boys

The Long Beach Arena - get a look at that beautiful blue sky!

Love having the big screen for a better view

My little sweetie feeling much better

A great crowd

Banners in the lobby for each language group

A pair of lovelies

During the lunch break

Me still sick w/bronchitis, but it doesn't show in the pics

A couple of little Korean cuties

The stage in the Japanese convention hall

Loved seeing all the beautiful kimonos

Love the contrast of the beautiful Korean dresses in the middle of this shot

Breakfast at Millie's

Me & Tiffany at the Table

Our squaky new lorakeet neighbors

A bubbies fish

They tried to hide, but there is no escaping my camera!

Surprise!

Grillmeister Steve

Uncle T

Max

Cath

Cari

John

He's not driving yet, but it's looming on the horizon for sure

Group pic

Max & Tim

Totem pole at the San Dimas Nature Center

Woodpecker hanging around San Dimas Canyon Park

Finished this embarrassingly late, but here's my Friendship Soup sample

Lunch with Kris (she's moving to CO - sniff)

Some of my fave pics from the VVDC dress rehearsal on 7/9 (more pics here)
this is Celina warming up for "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friends"

Another shot from Diamonds

Love this pic of the boys - album cover style

Another fun pic from the boys' performance

... and one more - they make me think of ska bands of the 80s here

Well, that's all for now. Just a bunch of pics to remind me what I did over my summer vacation -lol.

tango

Any Dancing With the Stars fans out there? This week Len complained that Jason & Edyta's tango was too "Argentine". I'm not sure how that is actually possible when the tango originates in Argentina. Ah well, I guess he means because it wasn't the traditional stiff ballroom sort of tango.

But there is nothing I love more than a moving, tortured, beautiful Argentine tango. The 1998 movie "Tango" is tango eye candy if you are a fan of this dance. Cecilia Narova, who stars as the ex-wife of the lead character is incredible.

Here's a clip (Cecilia is the one dressed all in gray with the short hair). Gosh I just love to watch this woman move.


And another clip from the movie. This one is not a traditional tango, but still love watching her dance:


And lastly, a genuine authentic style tango with a seasoned old gentleman "at the helm":

and a 5-6-7-8!

Those were my group's numbers as we waited in the line for Dancing With the Stars. We felt pretty good about being the second group in line and the "5-6-7-8" seemed to bode well for our chances of nabbing seats for a show about dancing. Arriving early also meant a wait in the shade, which was something to smile about during our late-breaking California heatwave.

Here we all are as the papparazzi snapped our pics (lol!) Notice the book my friends are reading - Elsie's 52 Challenges!


My mom and me

Of course, cameras and cell phones aren't allowed in the studio. Too bad, because it sure would have been fun to snap away in there. It was a very exciting show, as you might know if you've seen it or heard about it in the news. Marie Osmond was the first to perform and she fainted while judge Len Goodman was critiquing her performance. It was just wild! They cut to commercial and we all watched anxiously while medical personnel and staff tried to revive her. One of her brothers ran out on to the floor (Jimmy, I think). Very dramatic start to the show. It seemed like it threw the whole night into a weird sort of vibe. Thankfully she was okay.

The judges gave mixed scores several times last night. It was a really unpredictable evening. I'm really curious to see how the results come in tonight. I really think Mark Cuban needs to go home. His dance with Kim was really cute -- she looked adorable (really resembled Barbara Eden) and her dancing was great, of course. But of all the contestants Mark's performance was by far the weakest. My favorite performance of the night was by Mel and Max. I really love the Samba and I just loved theirs - it was so full of energy. Can't wait to see the results!

After the performance, the producers interview a lot of audience members. My mom and I were the last two to be interviewed. The odds of appearing on the results show are pretty slim considering how many folks they talk to, but there is the teeny, tiny chance we might make a "cameo" tonight.

You better watch just in case!


The line went on and on...

stars in my eyes

Da da da da, DA da da, da da da DA DA!

I'm so thrilled because I just scored some tickets to go see Dancing with the Stars taped later this month. How cool is that?!

I'll admit I haven't always been an absolute die-hard fan of the show. There was one season where I only caught an episode or two and last season I missed most of the early shows. But this year I'm hooked! All the teams are just SO good and it's such a fun show to watch. Can't wait to see the glitz and glamour in person!

lindy hip hop

Dancing With the Stars returns tomorrow. Can't wait -love that show! For now, here's a little Lindy Hop to bide the time.

An unusual pairing. An amazing performance.

i love to dance

Especially since I don't get to do it very often. So whenever I do get the chance, I run myself (and my poor feet) right into the ground. They will not be happy with me tomorrow, I can tell you that for sure!

So tonight I was at a graduation party and it was a great crowd of friends I just don't get to see often enough. The dj was playing some really good music. But there was one little problem. It is SOoooooo hot in SoCal right now... (this is where you shout out "how hot is it?") It's so hot, that even tho we were dancing at night and outside we needed a big ole whole house size fan on the dance floor so that we wouldn't wilt away. All I can say is thank goodness there *was* a big old fan to be found. Between that fan and a nice cool slushy drink I was good to go for awhile.

I will leave you with a wonderful dance video to enjoy. I've been thinking of this video a lot since seeing Hairspray last month. Christopher Walken is an unexpected delight as a dancer. Enjoy!

the charleston is such a happy dance

Come on... dance right along with these guys. You *know* you want to!

dancin' machine

Have you got a need to scrap dance photos? If so, be sure to check out my other blog. I have kits leftover from last week's "Gotta Dance" layout class at SGT. There are four different kits to choose from (two ballet/lyrical and two tap/jazz). The pages were designed to be as generic as possible so that they could be used for anything from professional recital portraits to personal photos to candid pictures from home.

dippity-do

Nothing like a good strong hair lacquer to keep those dancers' chignons in place while performing. Okay, so I don't really know if it was dippity-do (probably not and yes, I realize I'm dating myself - AGAIN), but whatever the stuff in Celina's hair it is totally made to HOLD! Hours after applying it the stuff was still in like glue.

So, what's this all about? Well, last night I attended the annual recital of my friend Coleen's dance studio. For several years I was there to watch my own little performers but they stopped dancing some time ago. However, I still have friends who study there (like Celina here) and I love dance so there I was. The show was wonderful and I was thoroughly entertained! It's amazing to see how much all the students improve over the year. I notice it so much more now that I'm not at the studio any more.

Great performance, C! And your hair held up too - woo hoo! Congratulations to ALL on a job well done!

(ETA: I just uploaded some layouts I've done of past recital and dance class photos here --OR-- click on the PaperCraft Princess blog link in Scrapbook Stuff links at the right----->)

rhythm is gonna get you

As promised, here is one of the layouts for my "Gotta Dance" class next month. This is one half of the tap/jazz session. I have another 2 pager in similar colors for tap/jazz. And then yet another two double pagers for the ballet/lyrical session.

It scanned pretty true to life except that the large flowers on both pages are soft pink. The patterned paper is from Imagination Project.

More on this (and all other) classes at SGT here.