LIKE A TIGER!

Wow - what a start to the year. First I was in Japan for Xmas and and New Years. That was amazing being immersed in snow for those 4 weeks. I also managed a hoop class with Deanne in Tokyo at Fab studio's. I learnt alot, especially how to start dancing in the hoop and enjoying instead of always focusing on tricks! Plus I learnt a few extra tips on tricks. I also discovered I like snowboarding. Snowy, hoopy fun.



We came back to Australia and basically had to turn around and get ready for the Rainbow Serpent festival where I was going to help put on a hoop jam and connect with all my lovely friends after not seeing them for 5 weeks.
The online hooping community also got together and it turned out Bunny Hoopstar and Jojomo were going to be at Rainbow also.
Another lovely hoop jam had by all.







And then we came back from Rainbow to find out my husband got offered a job in Darwin. Now we are going!
I AM MOVING TO DARWIN!!!!!!!!!!
Holy Territorian! I'm off to the land of beautiful sunsets!



Well the plan is to do the teacher journey with bunny in Sydney. I will hopefully start up a hoop stall in Mindill markets and start making and getting in contact with the hooping community there. If anyone knows hoopers up there - please let me know. In the meantime I am still here in Melbourne for the next 2 months.
I'm off to pack for this amazing journey in my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOOPS!

I want to thank everyone who has given me such lovely compliments on my hoops at CERES markets and the J studio fundraiser markets. It was great to meet a wider community of hoop lovers, teach new people and also provide hoops to lots of happy little people and also a few adults. Much joy to you all with your hoops!



I love making the hoops, playing with colour and form. It's been great to have some repeat customers, whose children have been having so much fun with the hoops they've come back for more and passed onto others.



No one has yet bought a collapsible hoop though! I will included a video demo of my twisty, fold up travel hoops soon.





I've met people who have told me other places where you can learn hooping in Melbourne. Puzzle Dust circus is one. There's also a new mothers one based in Thornbury as well. I look forward to checking them out further.

I am off to Japan for the next 4 weeks and will be back in time to go to Rainbow Serpent festival where not only will there be a super hooper from Boston, I also will be running the hoop jam once again.

Until then - have a great silly season. xxx

CERES Markets

I am selling hoops at CERES markets every Saturday until 13th Dec this year! Lot's of hoops for all people plus travel hoops that fold up!
Get down to CERES market every Saturday for the handmade goods market from 8.30am - 2pm.

Circus Oz and other October news

Hey web universe. Well I went to the Circus Oz hoop spring session. The instructor Leigh was really good and I'd recommend learning from her for sure. Not like she hasn't performed for Cirque de Soliel and stuff!LOL. She definitely comes from a gymnastics background with the way she moves her body and some of the neat little tricks she taught us. Pleasant and with a huge repertoire of tricks I certainly tightened up a few things for me in regards to my basic hooping and just more thought into the look of it. Also I'm now heaps better at tosses and getting better wrist movements and control.
My camera is on the fritz so was a battle to get a few shots. Here is Leigh though.



It was great to be in the Circus Oz wharehouse in Port Melbourne. So much space (something I lack in 1 bed apt) with people practicing aerial and sky ballet around you. A walk on the beach on the way there from the tram. Leigh also asked me to put my ipod on for the music so I got to hoop to my favourite jams. sweet.
Circus oz have a full term of hooping happening at the moment but it clashes with my Japanese lessons. *sigh*
Oh well maybe next year!
Here 's a picture of Leigh's super whippy sparkly hoops. On our last lesson she came in straight from a photo shoot job. I love making hoops and know where to get the special tubing for them. I hope to make some soon though will have to figure a way to join.



I am actually going to be starting up a Market stall at CERES in Brunswick every saturday from next weekend (31st Oct). I have a bunch of beautiful tape and have created an assortment of glittery, grippy and vinyl delights. They all have names like the "Funky Pineapple" "Cloud Dancer" "The Grand Pharoah" and "Candy raver". I love making hoops, their colour personality speaks to my creative side. AND JOY OF JOYS!!!! I bought some 20mm tubing (3/4inch for those imperialists) and it had a smaller bore and thicker walls to the tubing allowing me to finally make COLLAPSIBLE HOOPS.
I'll post more on this next week with photo's from the husbands camera as mine hasn't been the same since it fell in the sink a few months ago.

in hooping news ... and the Northcote festival!

Well I have been regularly doing hooping twice a week. Spending a good 2 hours or so and really cutting loose, experimenting, playing. It's been great. Combined with yoga 3 times a week I am finding myself exhausted at the end of each day yet happy to be finally committing to the 2 things that I love. I hope to get strong, svelt and calm from both practices, with the goal of being a hula hoop teacher next year and a yoga instructor the year after. This journey I find myself on is full of so many suprises about myself. It is liberating.
Well not stopping - Circus Oz have a short hula hoop class on for the next 2 wednesdays so I'm off to check it out. I'm hoping to start making some splits with hoops from this short intensive. Circus Oz are also offering a longer hula hoop course for a whole term, but unfortunately it clashes with my Japanese language class.
I've also been reading a book - "The true History of The Hula Hoop - a novel" By Judith Lanigan. It's a good read - 2 stories told concurrently about circus performance, peppered with facts about the hula hoop.


In party news - had a great time as always at the High Vibes Festival that happens annually in Northcote. I always have such a great day there. Northcote is about 20 mins out of the city of Melbourne and has a funky community vibe going on as well as being a hub of the indy music scene in melbs. HIgh Vibes is full of great music, beautiful, funky people, heaps of gorgeous dogs and cool kids. Of course we mainly spent our time at the dance stage to watch some of our friends play - but as it was attached to the Northcote Social Club I caught a couple of bands. First was an electronic dub band with a big double bass and live singer called Miso. The 2nd was so fun - they're called the Woo Hoo Review - gypsy, balkan, twenties jazz type music. Infectious and so tight. Loved them.

Here's some pics from the day - if you're ever around when it's on - it's so worthwhile to check out.

Spring cleanse!

The jasmine is blooming and perfumes the air. The mornings are bright and sunny and that indefinable quality of the sky and air are present and MY favourite - the days are getting longer!!!! SPRING!!!!!

Here it is Spring again and this spring is my hooping and yoga cleanse season. I am dedicating myself to a better way of life that calls me. This time I am stepping up.I know I can do this. I allow myself to suceed! I am sloughing off the old, reaching out for a better way of living for myself. I am spring bud, clean and new ready to flourish in the sun!
Inspired by myself hooping it up at the beach last weekend at Wye River and the goodness at the recent bootcamp month at www.sushizume.com


here from the Queen of hoops is some advice on setting up a practice Cristabel Zamor

YAY!
off to yoga now.

melbourne bar fun

I know it's been a while. Shocking. Where are all my high principles of being suching a diligent blogger? Between work & home emails and then facebook, the time gets away. In Hooping news - has been happening for me mainly in the living room and I am excited about working on a project to get some collapsible hoops happening. More on that later.

Melbourne in winter seems to say - let's go snuggle up in all the amazing bars and pubs on offer. Here is an adventure on the 79 tram I had one night with Reuben. The 79 tram is one of the old style, wooden floor trams that clatters it's way from Carlisle st in East St Kilda to Victoria st in North Richmond. It started when we went to visit Reuben's cousin who just had brand new baby Bi'lal! He is a gorgeous little baby who was super snuggly and sweet. Those guys live in East St Kilda , so when we left we decided to have a beverage at the Local Taphouse



We then caught the said 79 tram up Chapel st to Richmond where we decided to treat ourselves to a drink at one of Melbourne's top, award winning bars - Der Raum!
It was expensive, yes, but - Oh. My. God. BEST margarita ever!
I love margarita's. They are MY signature drink. They are also my achilles heel because I can't stop once I've begun my lime fiesta fun. I always tend to judge a place on how well they can do their margarita. At Der Raum, mine came served with a glass of sea foam for salt, (yes actual salty foam) an eye dropper of fresh lime juice to adjust personal sour preference and the main drink came in like a soda siphon that gently froze the drink as I squeezed it out of the siphon. Amazing. And top grade tequila of course. Der Raum is famous for it's amazing mixology, rare and top shelf alcohol and all the bottles hanging from the ceiling on occy straps! Excuse the blurry photo but I had no stand for the candle mode it was in.



After that we went to the new tiki bar up the road. Lovely space and though their Margarita was good - it just couldn't beat the one I had at Der Raum. I'd love to have a go DJing at the Tiki bar though. Break out the cocktail tunes and the hoop! It'd be a hoot!



Back on the 79 tram we went to head to Victoria st in Nth Richmond, which is a big Vietnamese area full of yummy restaurants. We went to meet our friend Sandy first for some drinks at the Vic Bar before heading off to eat at Minh Minh



As you can see it all got a bit messy - the rest of the night is a blur with many more bars visited and my camera ended up in the sink at one stage. Thank goodness it works still! Melbourne has so many great bars and restaurants. This is just a little adventure in that big playground.