Sleep Monsters

I've been crafting for the Girdwood Forest Fair, and my latest creation I am calling a Sleep Monster. They are stuffed animal type creatures, but they are stuffed with chamomile, lavendar and hops. These herbs help promote sleep and restfullness. Isn't it ironic I've been staying up til 2am making these little guys.

I'm sharing a booth at the Fair with a good friend of mine. We'd been trying to figure out what to make for the Fair for a while. First, I was going to make and sell my hula hoops there, but now they are only allowing me to do that on World Hoop Day, so I don't compete with the other hoop maker. Then I was going to screen print patches and sew them on to organic baby clothes, but they didn't think that was "hand-made" enough, so I had to keep coming up with ideas.

Thus, the Sleep Monsters, or maybe I will call them Cuddle Monsters. My son, loves his. And it's the first stuffed animal out of 20 or 30 that we have or have been given that he's really gotten attached to. So, maybe I'm on to something.

Then again, I'm sewing these things in all my spare time late at night when I really should be taking the great evening light to be hooping outside. All winter, I wish I could be outside hooping, and now I have the chance and I'm sewing Sleep Monsters!

I wish I had a little more discipline with my hoop practice. I wish I could actually make time and commit to hooping 1 hour each day. After I put my son to bed, I should just go outside and hoop! What am I doing cutting out little creatures? Well, they are kind of cute.

Please help me to have the discipline to make the time in my life for the things that nourish me. Thank you for the ability to make time for what I need. Thank you for the power to reflect on my life and keep fine tuning, so that every moment is spent in joyful work. Thank you for creativity, in all its forms, that take me down unexpected pathways and show me new things. Thank you for bringing me back to center and showing me what is important to me.

For the Love of Hoops!

I stayed up literally all night making hoops for The Look in Anchorage. They're my first big wholesale order of hoops, and I didn't get the supplies until yesterday, and I needed to get them there my today. So, I did it. Thank goodness for caffiene!

Staying up all night was fun in college, but when you have a child, it just doesn't have the same appeal. But when you have a kid, you don't really have much time in the day, either. So there you go....

I think I'm going to go take a nap now.

Alaska Seems So Far Away

Today, Alaska seems so far away from everywhere else in the world!

I've been watching youtube videos of fire hooping, and am just blown away. I wish there was someone here who I could learn from in person. I'm just craving a community, wishing that I could go to Burning Man this year, wanting to be immersed in crazy performance art, hooping, and anything else that is bubbling to the surface from our collective creativity. When I lived in New Mexico (Taos and Santa Fe) I felt so much closer to the flow. Here in Alaska, it feels so much more isolating most of the time. I joke that in Homer if there's something you want to do or see, you have to create it yourself.

(When I was pregnant, there were no pre-natal yoga classes, so I had to teach one myself. Then after I had my baby, there were not post-natal support groups, so I directed a play, "Yo' Mama!" that takes place in a post-natal yoga class, and convinced my friends who were also new mothers to do the play/yoga class with me. A couple of years ago I really wanted to see The Vagina Monologues but it wasn't playing in Alaska, so I ended up getting the script, staging a reading, and performing the piece.)

So, I guess if I want to see fire hooping in person, if I want an underground, kick-ass crazy performance art group, I'm going to have to create it myself?

I don't know if I can. I know I can't do it alone. I really need some peers. It's hard to be the catalyst all the time. Some times you need a solution!

So, Universe, I'm looking for a solution. I would like to solve the problem of always feeling alone in my creative endeavors. I would like a community that pushes me, supports me, inspires me, and draws out my highest potential. Is that too much to ask?

Thank you for infinite possibilities.

Circus Party

So, I went to a Cirque du Solstice party (http://picasaweb.google.com/garth.highland/CirqueDuSolstice)
tonight, and brought my hoops along. There were a lot of crazy characters there - a full grown gorilla, a bearded lady, a rodeo clown, tattooed ladies (real and made-up), etc. It was a pretty fun scene, but nobody here really hoops yet.

For a while I was just hooping with this little girl who was probably 6 or 7. Kids are such naturals at hula hooping, and totally unselfconscious about trying news things. It took the others a little time, and a few drinks before they picked up the hoops, but a few adventurous souls finally did. I had brought along my 1" hoop with water in it that makes it easier to hoop, and I guided them through the motions with that one first. One woman was so excited about being able to hoop, she told me that she was never able to do it, even as a kid, and this was the very first time she's ever sucessfully hooped! That was pretty cool.

I've been telling everyone that I'm going to teach the HoopGirl Workout in the fall, as I am a licensed teacher now, and I think I could fill up my classes three times over from all the women who have told me they are excited about taking it. I hope I can really lead a great class for them. It's kind of weird being an "expert" hooper here in Alaska, when if I went anywhere else I would really be still considered a beginner. I've seen great hoopers, and I know where you can take this too, and I have barely begun. But, still I am quite excited, and humbled by the opportunity to turn people on to the great joy of hooping here in Alaska. And who knows where it will lead.

So thank you universe, for providing me with this opportunity. Thank you for all the twists and turns in the road that have led to this. Thank you for the great magic dance has played in my life, and the lessons that I have learned from my injuries. Please help me to give others the opportunity to find joy through hooping - a joy that can radiate into all parts of their life. Thank you to Christabel for helping me to see that hooping can be a lifestyle, a business, a passion, and a way to help others. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Summer Solstice

I've been sick for two weeks, and just generally drained on energy. First, I broke my hand, then I got a bad sinus infection... all while directing the play, "Yo' Mama!" at Pier One Theater. Taking care of my son Spencer all day, the only time I have to myself is in the evenings, and I've been staying up too late for my own good. Finally, tonight though I got some good hooping time in!

It was a beautiful sunny Alaskan day, but I'd hardly made it outside. So, when I had finally got Spencer to sleep - 10:30pm! - I headed outside with my hoop and went for it. What a refreshing way to spend almost an hour! My dog Ollie kept getting in the way, as he wanted me to throw the ball for him, and I kept repositioning myself around the house so Kev's parents (who we are sharing a house with right now) couldn't see me. Anyway, despite the distractions, the session was awesome. It was such a great excuse to just play outside on this beautiful day to the sounds of sandhill cranes crooning and spruce hens thumping. It was twilight with a pink glitzy half moon in the sky, and a beautiful dizzying thickness of green all around me. I felt the most alive I've felt in weeks!

I'm posting a pic of my hooping at midnight. It was bright enough to take a picture without a flash! I had to try two or three shots to finally get one where I'm fully in the frame. It was still so beautifully light outside!

I am so greateful for these long Alaskan summer days. Thank you for this beautiful Earth, this amazing planet we live on. Thank you for our bodies, and our health, and our ability to heal. Thank you for friends and people and signs along the way that support us. Thank you for children who delight me every day with laughter. Thank you for the salmon that my husband is fishing for right now, and thank you for the sweet fruits of summer we've been eating. Thank you for the bounty of the summer! Thank you for hooping!!!