In a few weeks, the Ottawa Dancers’ Bazaar will be taking place – and we’re expanding our market to include more than just Belly dance stuff – but there will still be loads of costumes, music, videos and more for the Belly dance students and professionals!
We vendors need to know what you are looking for so that we bring the best selection to serve you! So take the poll and add your own comments to let us know! [polldaddy poll=5915686]
I should really consider being more organized through the year when it comes to my business accounting etc. but I just get so busy actually working!!
So I will spend some time over the next week or so getting myself as organized as I can, then I wait until the end of February for the paperwork from other folk!
Today’s progress:
This is just the beginning of my uber thanks!
Thanks so much folks!
There are too many of you – you all rock – you make Ottawa so amazing as a Belly dance/ growing Bollywood dance/ fusion dance etc. Community
I know there will always be a few bugs in the system, but last night seemed to flow like magic and pass by so quickly! I appreciate the efforts all of you dancers go to to make sure your outfits are fun/ phenomenal/ flashy and that you put in hours of class time and rehearsals to try to get those steps just right. Kudos!
DOOR PRIZE WINNERS:
Hopefully you did not throw out your ticket from last night, as the door prizes were not all collected. if your number is here, message me, and we’ll connect you with your prize!
DOOR PRIZES- thank you sponsors!!- go check their links!!:
Eco-TAV NUMBER 72
Eco-TAV pouches and a hip scarf bag
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Liege Belgian Waffles number 182 picked up
Waffle fun
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Eurika NUMBER 203 PICKED up
a free private lesson with me with some hand wrapped hangers (by yours truly) that are great for hanging veils.
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Kare-in-Designs 35 picked up
Reversable bag
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Zamira NUMBER 278 picked up
a set of Weighted Veils and a gift certificate for a 1 hour private lesson at the recipient’s facility/location
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Siddiqah NUMBER 91 picked up
Offer a ‘fat cat’ gift certificate for a group basic beginner lesson at recipients’ home or office.
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Brenda’s Room number 117 picked up
gift certificate for a Manicure with Shellac semi permanent polish
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Deepali NUMBER: 173
a free session bollywood dance with D… that’ll be worth $69.
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Belly Dance with Anna and Safiya NUMBER: 255
5-class card (can be used any time)
And my thanks to the Teachers:
Belly Dance with Anna and Safiya
Louise Houle
Antonina
Marina
Niki
THANKS to all of the students – it would not be a class party without you 😀
And my thanks to the volunteers– in order of appearance yesterday!:
Michele Roy – DECORATIONS!!! She always makes the place so pretty for us!
Erika/Eurika – thanks dahling – you were a fabulous tag team stage manager/ MC/helpful person of the evening!
Brenda – thanks for jumping in and pulling out your glasses 🙂
Linda B: ALWAYS THE BEST! And you put up with “mah crazy” – so extra kudos to you!
Michele F – Always keeping things rolling as the late comers and check ins kept happening all evening – much appreciated since you didn’t even get to see the show.
Katheryne: DUDE! thanks for helping with drinkies and figuring out how to cut all of that protein with fragile cutlery!
Gailene/Zamira: always a helping hand and much appreciated!
Laura/ Siddiqah: thanks for the extra stage managing help – and the ever present camera catching the lovely dancers backstage.
Melissa: Queen of chocolate chips in a gooey sugar collective! thanks!
Our official photographer :Mike Geiger – see his work here! Photos to come – but thanks for being up to the challenge!
Tom/ Darner Media: Videos to come – once again we appreciate the record of the evening you create for us! If you performed last night and forgot to order a copy of the video, send an email to info@darnermedia.ca
Okay – I gotta go and start my day. AS more comes to me, I’ll add updates to this!
Happy Yule all!
Tracey/Halyma
@wtl { aka Tom} and i have been going to Sunday morning brunch at Patty Boland’s for around 7 or 8 years – it’s been so long we’ve kinda lost track. It started as just the two of us, then gradually we let folks in on our little Sunday morning ritual. And this weekend, in trickles of rumour and haphazard information we’ve been informed that the restaurant will no longer be open weekend mornings to serve breakfast. We knew things had been slow this fall, and with many factors to consider, I am sure it’s the right choice business wise for them.
2 questionable choices:
1 – Why not go ahead and serve breakfast for one final weekend on December 17th and 18th? We knew the place would be closed on the 25th and Jan 1st anyway, so one more weekend would not have been the end of the world, would it?
2 – Why did you not tell your regulars personally in an email/ Facebook announcement/ Tweet? We totally would have rocked the place this morning if we had known.
But hey, life goes on, and we’ll still frequent the place on Fridays and Thursdays when possible.
A look back:
Admittedly the best years were when Mike Libbos was our server. He had it covered. Our table became the testing ground for servers after he moved on, but we loved ya Mike!
Birthdays, homecomings, and socializing that might not have happened without the weekly knowledge that you could always join us for Sunday brunch have been part of our lives for so many years, change will take a bit of time.
So, 2012 will bring some new approaches. We could just show up for lunch at noon. But that doesn’t have the same feel to it for me. I guess it’s time to try something new and check out many of the other amazing brunch options Ottawa has.
T/H
Last night I slept with Squishy, my new best friend- and it was different!
Squishy arrived yesterday afternoon and cuddled with me on the futon, creating this bubble of comfort that actually made me speechless! ( I really couldn’t be bothered to talk and texted @wtl who was there right beside me)
After a short while, I realized I had better move Squishy to its new home in the bedroom, otherwise I would just lie there, getting nothing done!
I found a sheet I had stitched years ago to accommodate camping mats and it slipped right onto Squishy’s long and cushy body. There was concern the Squishy might come between us, but I reassured WTL that would not happen- the bed is big enough for all three of us!
After a couple of movies and relaxing time with WTL, we came to the end of the day, where the anticipation of what awaited me in bed was growing!
Climbing in, and wrapping my arms and legs comfortably around Squishy, I soon felt the shift in my reality to new levels of ecstasy!
Zzzzzzzz
I awoke this morning to note that Squishy had indeed worked itself between WTL and I, a sign that I still might have been somewhat active overnight.
I do believe this is the start of a beautiful friendship!!
You can get your own Swuishy here:
http://www.sears.ca/product/obus-forme-l-shaped-body-pillow/696-000018333-6475?campaign=rr_item_ClickCP_0_1
The holiday season approaches and along with it comes end of year recitals! A few of my Belly wood ladies were able to come out last Friday to help celebrate the end of the session for my good friend, Siddiqah, of FatCatBellydance
And we had a blast! Next up with be my own semi private OCCP – the Ottawa Centre Class Party where almost 300 of my closest Ottawa Belly dance and Bollywood friends, teachers, students and colleagues will converge on a local theatre to join me in sharing our love of dance! We are in a limited space so I cannot really open it up to the public – but if you ever want to join a class, you’ll get the chance to come play with us for sure!
Classes resume in January, so if you have a love of colourful costumes, fun music and wanna have some fun moving – even if you don’t think you would ever dance in public – check out the 2012 Class Info here!
Registration has already begun!
Halyma
Every once in a while, I need to look beyond the “hobbies I’ve made into businesses”. This past weekend gave me mulitple opportunities to do this. We’ll call it a long weekend, as things really began on Thursday.
Thursday was kind of a transition into exploring beyond my boundaries – sort of. I don’t often go out on a weeknight. I don’t often go see live bands anymore. Heading out to see Delhi 2 Dublin was really an exploration – honest.
The fact that we are using a D2B song for my Bellywood with Halyma class routine this session, and will tweak it for Bollywood For Fun 2012 usage, is besides the point.
We went out for sushi first to make it more of an adventure and had a blast! Seeing Bellywood students of mine there and attending with some of my BFF troupe mates is again, besides the point.
Friday is date night, for the most part, so it was a quiet evening at home with the hubby – resting up for the next two days of fun. no photos – 🙂
Saturday took me back to exploring my celtic roots. 
Attending the Ottawa Storytellers encore of the Kymera’s Voice production: The Warrior Queen: Chasing Boudicca was an intimate evening of seeing old friends { who just happen to be previous belly dance students}, hanging with present friends { who just happen to be my BFF troupe mates}, and meeting some new folks who have great stories of their own! I loved the idea of just sitting and listening to these creative folk tell this wonderful story, and I hope to make time in my busy life to do this sort of thing again!
And then came Sunday. Final day of one friend’s 3 day birthday weekend, so it started with brunch as usual but with added folk at all ends of the table! SO Happy Birthday Erika!
And then the next adventure began.
Once again, with familiar and new faces surrounding me, practically hand-holding me through this afternoon of ethereal adventuring, I embarked on my first AD&D, 2nd ed gaming session in the guise of Theurvial MillTall, the halfling Cleric, created for me by my good buddy, Andrea, who along with her hubby Rob, our DM, were hosting this afternoon of chocolate eating fun!
OMG I have never seen that much Halloween candy consumed over an afternoon! We fortunately also had an amazing selection of healthy veggies, and a fabulous supper, so yay for yummy food, laughter and good energy galore and making my brain hurt from thinking so hard! With one side of the table being totally noobs and the other folks being totally patient, it was a blast. Thanks for your patience folks!
One major victim was our friend’s table – that was uber unfortunate and hopefully won’t be too hard for them to get repaired. Rule # 1: Never have two people lean on the table at the same time. But it was taken in stride, dealt with quickly and the game resumed with careful gusto!
All in all, having great company along the way, I really enjoyed developing some new interests and hope that I can make the time to enjoy them more in the future. I just have to make sure these new hobbies don’t find a way to become new businesses!
I guess I should touch on why I find it important to have other interests, but you folks are all pretty smart right? So you get it already! And this is really just a reminder to me to make sure I stop working all the time, and being such a strong creature of habit! You can choose to pay attention to that advice too, or not, as to whatever works best for you!
T/H
I had a lovely time yesterday teaching a small group at Algonquin College for their Wellness week. First, thanks to Shakira from Kemptville for recommending me to teach the class – a supportive community is a great one to be a part of!
2nd thanks to Valerie, for welcoming me to teach Bellywood there and I think she got some fun photos – but I may not see them, small private group 🙂 But she gave me a lovely thank you gift as I was packing up…
And all of this to say, that yes, you too can have me come and teach your group for a private lesson – birthday parties, work incentive days, showers, anytime you want to get a gang moving and laughing in a multicultural setting!
Check out my pricing and packages here, and feel free to message me for more details!
Click photo to see more…
Okay, another fabuolus Halloween bash extraordinaire!
Tom and I were part of the costume judge crew and had a great time with Auz and Marianne as we sought out the best of the best to bring them forth on stage and doll out awards for the efforts made.
It’s not easy.
There are a lot of great costumes!
For more pics form other folk, be sure to check the Witches Gathering Flickr group!
Just a few shots from yesterday’s Ottawa Zombie Walk – more to come later plus video! CLICK ON THE PIC TO SEE MORE!
