Very excited!

The first fiber art pattern I ever came up with is being featured on the Monthly Bookmarks KAL! (Here's a link if you'd like to get in on this action: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MonthlyBookmarksKAL/). Once all the rows have been given out, I will post the pattern here and on Ravelry in it's entirety. I'm hoping to get a few of the KALers to post a few pics so I can use them here. :) It's so exciting to think that other people, all across the country, are out there right now using my pattern to create something! Wow!

Speaking of Ravelry, my ID there is pretywtch (http://www.ravelry.com/people/pretywtch), so if you'd like to add a new friend, please add me! Also, yesterday's pattern for the Crocheted Kuchi Earrings is on Ravelry, too. Either do a search for that title or check through my profile.

I'm also on tribe.net: http://people.tribe.net/theinfinitelydelightfuljeannie

and myspace: http://www.myspace.com/jeannieleeb

and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=567848618

When you are a bellydancer, networking is vital, so social networking sites are a girl's best friend. It an be such a great way to meet like-minded people, keep in touch with old friends and new, and be active in your extended family. Yeah, it can be weird and a pain in the butt sometimes, but I've always felt the good outweighed the bad, so all in all, I'm happy. :)

On the bellydance front, my troupe, Alchemy (www.alchemydance.com) has two gigs tonight at the local VA hospitals to celebrate Nurse's Week! Donna, one of our members, is a nurse at the VA, as is Mari's (co-director with me) father, so we get to honor them and all their fellow nurses tonight with a little demonstration and a quick lesson. We are going all out Tribal in the costuming and have decided to do group improvisation during our performances.

I'm really proud of our improv: Our cueing system is getting more intuitive every time we dance, as we gain time together as a group, our dancing get tighter and tighter, making it look more like choreography than something we are making up as we go along and the music moves us. Many people can't even tell we are improving anymore, which is a HUGE compliment. We've started adding zills to our repertoire and will soon be ready to add them to our dancing. As always, our choreographies, music choices and unique costuming gets a lot of positive attention, and I'm really looking forward to what is coming up soon. We're working hard and I think folks are starting to notice. :)

Exciting stuff, lots of creating happening. This is the fun stuff, kids. :)