All posts by Tracey Vibert

About Tracey Vibert

Creativity abounds and balance is sought in both hermitting and peopling.

Throwing back and throwing down- lip-syncing for a good cause!

Personal time, , ,

The costume pieces:

corset:

made by my friend, Letitia, for me and I had used it as my wonder woman base  for Ottawa ComicCon 2017. I changed out the Wonder Woman embellishments and added the black ruffled pieces to change it out for my upcoming “role”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

skirt: circular overskirt made by TAV Creations over a crinoline inherited from Luxe bridal when they closed almost 2 years ago, embellished with one matching rose and one pink rose inherited from Norde bridal as they did their pre-closing purge this past March.

 

 

 

 

 

 

head-piece: vintage feathers, I think from family stash- but if a friend gave them to me, comment below! – mounted onto a headband from a former dance buddy Vashti, and embellished with another matching TAV Creations‘ rose.

Now what’s this all about?

Cassandra, dance buddy and fab friend, posted online one day asking if anyone was up to joining her lip-sync team for the upcoming Pete’s Sparkle Fund Lip-Sync event coming up on May 5th.

And 3 of us stepped up!

Music has been chosen and mixed!

I found 2 silk dresses in Norde’s purge and so 3 of  us will grace the stage in gorgeously modified pretties and 1 of us… well… you should come out to support the event!

 

Pete’s Sparkle Fund Third Annual Lip-Sync Competition

The third annual Pete’s Sparkle Fund Lip-Sync Competition will be an evening of fun and entertainment for all with refreshments, door prizes and a 50/50 draw…all to support a great local cause.

Performing teams will compete for the top spot and will make it an evening for all to remember! All funds raised go to StreetSmarts Outreach, which directly helps the homeless in Ottawa.

BUY YOUR TICKETS ONLINE AND SAVE!

General admission: $10 online or $15 at the door.

For more information, visit the website at WWW.PETESSPARKLEFUND.COM or find us on FB

…and keep an eye out for our ” Meowvellous” performance!

Oh, and why I say “throwing back” in the title is because I haven’t been involved with a lip sync adventure since I helped provide costuming for a high school friend who borrowed my army surplus overcoat for his performance in 1986.

UPDATE:

Go Magawa Go! #herorat

Personal time, ,

Welcome to the latest Impact Update on Magawa, your adopted HeroRAT. In February Magawa broke his personal best for landmine detection, sniffing out three deadly anti-personnel mines; devices capable of killing and maiming people in an instant. Thanks to your support and Magawa’s intervention, local families in the SraePou village near Siem Reap will be able to live free of fear for the first time in decades, knowing that they can farm their land and explore the local area freely like they used to.

Magawa not only sniffed out three anti-personnel mines, he also discovered another two unexploded remnants of war. The APOPO team have now fully cleared the area and returned the formerly lost land to the local communities living and working in the area.

Did you know? – The National Level One Survey in Cambodia conducted in 2002 found that 20% (2776 out of 13908) of all villages in Cambodia are still contaminated by minefields and/or cluster bomb areas with reported adverse socio-economic impacts on the community. These adverse impacts included restrictions on access to agricultural land, pasture land, forests, and water resources, with 102,778, 105,707, 172,878 and 84,588 families being affected respectively.

ADOPT YOUR OWN APOPO Hero Rat through Apopo.org !

 

She’s the Change – coming at the exact moment of changes in my world!

Personal time

Saturday was an amazing day.
I want to go on and on about all of the speakers, and there were amazing moments throughout the day and into the evening.

But I also just found out that I’ll be taking on a wonderful number of bridal clients from the store that I have been working with and am overwhelmed with the details I need to work through for that. Add ing them to my own client list will take some focus and integration magic – in a good way, of course!

So I am going to add images and tell you for now – next year – attend the event!

Stepping aside a little bit more…

Personal time

I started teaching belly dance in January 1998.
There was an ice storm. Some folks might remember that.
The roads were slippery, but my classes began a few days after things were starting to recover, so while it was a small private class, it was fun and it happened.
Many classes, class parties, Bazaars and Dancers’ Newsletters later, and I’m ready to step aside.
As with everything, there is a season. There also should be a passion.  And it has been fun.
Bellydance For Fun has been a part of my world for 20 years.


And the passion has burnt down to a gentle ember that, while generating a gentle glow, no longer flames a strong energy that drives me to take self- improvement dance workshops, to push my students, to give huge amounts of time to a community that is deserving of new life and fresh energy to keep it alive.
fire-inspiration-2016
So, as with all things, my teaching life is beginning to a transition to whatever I feel like doing next.
Bottom line: I’ll be phasing out of teaching community classes after this spring session < perhaps during the spring session, that is being determined and you’ll know as soon as I do.>
 

Random kitchen time on a Sunday afternoon

Recipes Blog

Well, it began in the morning with the sautéing of an onion in butter ( can you smell that?) and splitting it into two as my starters for first my lentils, tomatoes and corn in the slow cooker. Added some Garand masala, coriander, and chilli powder for fun-it’s pretty tasty!
Once it was cooked and transferred into jars, I used the remaining sautéed onions with the navy beans that had soaked all day and some brown sugar, mustard,soya sauce and water to get the baked beans going- oh, with some pre cooked bacon. No pics yet as it’s still cooking.

On to random ginger cookies -when you have been baking cookies since childhood-thanks Mom-you realize that once you get a basic foundation going for your dough – you can play.
And if you have seen any of my previous baking experiments, you know I do this all the time.
This wasn’t complicated playing but I did use coconut oil for the fat, and grated fresh ginger for the flavouring along with some cinnamon. They are whole wheat and have egg and brown sugar, so a pretty standard journey in the baking realm.
And they be crunchy-so hubby likes em!
Ok-back to your regular day!

Improv dancing with some lovely ladies!

Halyma

So first – here’s the video – in case you don’t feel like reading my rambling thoughts!
[wpvideo k9W1PGHG]
Thanks to Sarah Leigh Anne and Yvonne for being willing to suddenly, unexpectedly, and totally spontaneously joining me on the stage!
Now the rambling…
As I get older – and maybe wiser, but I don’t want that kind of pressure, I am embracing those moments when my life is a full on spiral. Finding myself coming back to revisit experiences from my youth, but with new perspective and some joyful abandon, it’s very freeing, and enlightening.
People who have had actual children, please do not be offended by the following – it’s an analogy, a metaphor, a perspective…
I realized today that I have been having the wonderful experiences of my kids growing up, moving out, finding new relationships and moving on.  Without the loss, without the empty-nest feelings, without rancorous feelings about whoever they are choosing to hang out with/ get involved with/ move in with… it’s fine.  It’s great in fact!
Years back, I retired from hosting the Dancers’ Bazaar, and it went off into a polyamorous relationship with two lovely organizers, tried being monogamous with one of them and has moved on to another poly situation. It’s awesome.
Last December, I hosted my last Big End of Season Student party. I had already kicked that kid out in the spring  of 2016 and it also immediately sought out a couple of lovely young ladies with which to spend it’s time.  It had to come home for the holidays, though, and I announced that night that I was done – fly, be free, leave the nest!  And it has gone one to party with a new tribe  < see what I did there?>, but with many or it’s usual friends still coming out to play.
And it’s also awesome.
So, back to the point of the video and my spiralling back upon things I did in my “youth”. While I still get to engage audience members when we perform with Bollywood For Fun and have an interactive finale, I had stopped doing that spontaneous, “I want to get others up with me”, stuff years ago as I was trying to be a better technical dancers, challenge myself with new costumes, props, artistic approaches.
So, this past week, I went back. Did I know my music – yeah…sort of… I had listened to it a couple of times when I took it from my students’ potential songs, Thanks Veronique!. And I listened to it maybe 2-3 times on Wednesday before performing. Yeah, I’m busy, I’ve done a lot with pushing myself over the years, but I always had the most fun when I could just dance.
No pressure, no choreography, no stress – yeah – I don’t get nervous if I am improvising. I get nervous if I am doing a routine with other dancers where it will show when my brain leaves the stage.
Anyway.
That’s the rambling.
Super awesome time with SLA and Y – you ladies were so gracious to get up and join me! 

 

Naughty Baking day… yeah, that's weird…

Recipes Blog

So, I care a lot about what foods I offer to my friends and family.  And I care what I offer to my husband too.
And so, I send a lot of time researching and trying out/ creating/ experimenting with a variety of recipes that are:

  • Nut free
  • Dairy free
  • Sugar free
  • Gluten free
  • Egg free
  • general vegan

 
And then sometimes I just need to pull out my old cookbook from before I met all of these amazing people who have food restrictions and bake.
I won’t bother with posting recipes because you can just do a search on standard recipes from Betty Crocker, Joy of Cooking, or one of those women’s Community group cook books that are full of crazy classic recipes!
Today I used BUTTER! EGGS!  WHITE FLOUR! PEANUT BUTTER! BROWN SUGAR! ICING SUGAR! GROUND ALMONDS!!
And as soon as I’m done putting everything away, I’ll be doing a full cleaning of all surfaces and tools and utensils to make sure they are all cleaned up before I start my batches of Conscientious Baking for our annual gathering this coming weekend.
I’ll still label things as I cannot limit everything, but I can make things clear and safe!

Peanut butter cookies
Peanut butter cookies

 
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Shortbread crescents

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Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies