Halloween and Other Updates

So I said that I would post some pictures from Halloween.  I have two of my costume and a pic of my Kitty Litter Cake.  It was soooo delicious, but very few were dare devil enough to try it; too bad they didn't!!  The mesh of German Chocolate cake, vanilla cake, and crushed organic vanilla sandwich cookies was awesome.

So like I was stating in my previous post, last weekend snuck up on me so I didn't have adequate time to prepare.  Next year I already have my costume in mind and I will be steadily working on it until then.  This year I hurriedly put together a Wood Sprite costume; who doesn't love faeries?  I pretty much just took a skirt and top that I had and pinned some Ivy leaves to it.  I also stuck some all in my hair and in my boots.  I didn't think it was too bad considering I had one day to plan.  Luckily, I was calling myself a Wood Sprite instead of Mother Earth because there happened to be another chick dressed as Mother Earth.  It was a fun party.  My neighbor is a super good cook, homemaker, and caterer, so all of her ghoulish treats were delicious- think bleached bones (almond biscottis); ogre fingers (cookies with almond "nails"); wizard wands (pretzel sticks with chocolate and sprinkles); and mummy mash (spinach and artichoke dip) with crusty heels (sliced French bread). Yumm!!  It was also fun to see all the kids dressed up.  We played some Halloween themed games (mostly for the kids), but I participated in the mummy wrapping contest by wrapping this little boy.  I think he had fun, which was the point of me doing it.  He was all giggly turning and turning around in circles.

In other news we got some fresh snow fall in the past few days.  Right after my last post, it got light outside and *taadaa* there was snow on the ground.  We got a few more inches last night, but it's too foggy to take a picture this morning.  It is barely daylight right now at 9:00 am so the sun should clear out most of the fog.  My boyfriend was so happy because now we can take our snow machine out again.  During the summer, our neighbor, who is also his boss, sold us his '92 snow machine so that we could have something fun to do this winter: for $300!!  What a steal.  And it only cost us $200 to fix (the pull start was broken), so we got a super decent snow machine for $500.  I really want to go out machining in front of Denali and take a bunch of cool hoop pictures.  I need to make another collapsible to take with me to VA for the holidays anyway. 

Yesterday I was playing with my hoop out in the snow and it was so fun.  I actually really like hooping in the winter here; its cold, but I don't tend to get all sweaty like in the summer.  Plus, it's more beautiful and your hoop makes awesome pictures when ever you drop it.

I've really been delving deeper into my hoopdancing recently.  I kind of had this "aha" moment and have begun experimenting with different styles and types of music.  Most of this idea stemmed from the hoop competition on Hoop City- which, btw, if you're a hoopdancer and you haven't joined, what are you waiting for?  I have really been into hooping to some Indian bollywood and kirtan type music.  It's like Zen, meditative, and exhilerating all at the same time.  I'm going to be doing a series of videos where I hoop to music that may be consider "unhoopable."  Some ideas I have are:  kirtan, classical, country, jazz, chill-out, and oldies.  I'm not exactly sure how it's going to turn out, but I can't wait to see the outcome.  I think it will really help me grow in my hoopdance and open my mind to the possibilities, realizing there are NO boundaries to creativity.

Also, on the topic of hoopdance, in the next few days I am going to record a Metta Hoop Meditation to post.  I have been contemplating on this idea for a while and I was inspired to actually go for it the other day while meditating before a hoop practice.  So check back for that.