Anklet Season is Here!

I know some parts of the country are still dealing with late snow storms, but here in Arizona it's warm and beautiful, which means that I have broken out the sundresses and the sandals and turned my thoughts to anklets. Today I listed three anklets, representing three of the four styles I currently make (I didn't have time to list the fourth, so it will go up tomorrow!). Above, Blue Bells is a beadwoven anklet featuring a chevron chain pattern and jingling bell accents.

 Bohemian Gothic is a chain and dangle model, featuring silver chain and vintage beads. Because I bought the chain years ago, the price does not reflect silver's current cost, which is about $45/oz. As such, it's quite the steal!

Spring Leaf features strung beads in a delightful vernal color combination. I love how top-drilled leaves look in anklets, they form the perfect little drops all around the ankle.

Keep an eye on Handmade Jewelry by Erthe Fae Designs for more ankle bracelet designs, or hop right over to the Handmade Anklets section to see what is currently available!

Check out the blog hop!

My friend and fellow FAETeam member Aquariann is hosting a blog hop! Click the image to view her blog and read all about it. I've also added a little button for it to my side bar, in case you want to check it out later.

If you're coming over from the blog hop... Hi! You'll quickly find that this blog is mainly about beading and jewelry making and my Etsy shop, Handmade Jewelry by Erthe Fae Designs. However, I also have a blog about my passion for belly dance, and a link to that can be found on the left side of this blog.

In other news, hooray, it's Spring! We had a very unseasonal (for Arizona) rainstorm over the weekend, and when I went outside today I saw little green leaves on my huge mesquite trees. I'm so happy! We had a false Spring in January, so my trees sprouted new growth, then lost it all suddenly in the hard freeze that followed. I was worried that my beloved trees (one of the big selling points of this house) were dead, but they are just covered in life today.

Safe Drive, Awesome Show

Ok, let's get the important part out of the way! Obviously, since I'm posting this, I did not die in a horrible car crash due to the awful weather. Actually, the weather wasn't bad at all. But lest you think that I was freaking out about nothing, both of the friends that I was attending the show with contacted me yesterday afternoon to make sure that I knew how terrible the weather was in Phoenix, and to make sure I still felt OK driving up. But humorously enough, the only rain I hit was in my own neighborhood! Our weather in Arizona is fickle and prone to short bouts of violence, and by the time I hit the Phoenix area, the storm had died down. It rained a bit during the show, but no rain on the way there or back. So yay for that!

Now the fun part... the show! I'm so glad I decided to go! My friends Meghan and Jen (two awesome Anaya classmates) had pretty good seats, I guess maybe 8 rows or so back from the stage (I didn't count), so we had a good view of the show. Not close enough to count the sparkling crystals on the costumes, but close enough to not miss any subtle moves, which is really important. Belly dance is best when viewed from close-up, but not so close that the dancer is on top of you, because then you get a crick in your neck (been there, done that).

The show itself was great. There were a couple of numbers I didn't really like, and some truly misguided costumes (bell-bottom one piece pant suits gave us flashbacks to the 70s, even though we were all three born in the 80s), but the rest of it was fantastic. There was a mix of Indian-inspired pieces (to fit the Bombay Bellywood theme), Egyptian belly dance, tribal fusion, other fusion, and proptastic numbers. Many numbers featured multiple elements -- Egyptian and tribal dancers with props, all on the stage at once. I really like how the show choreographers manage to come up with ways for Egyptian and tribal-style dancers to perform at the same time, to the same music, and each showcase the best elements of their dance.

And oh my goodness, the costumes! Almost every number involved a costume change, and almost all of the costumes were incredible. The tribal gals of course went for lots of layers, as we are wont to do. The Egyptian dancers mostly had sleek, modern costumes with bead and crystal embellishments. The Indian-inspired numbers featured appropriately Indian-inspired costumes in eye-popping colors.

I totally recommend this show for all of my belly dance friends, as long as they have a tolerance for fusion. And I'd also recommend it for my beading friends, if you want a night of entertainment and eye candy! You can visit the Bellydance Superstars website to see if the tour will be in a city near you.

Strangely Cold

It's cold and rainy and windy today, which is very odd for late April in Tucson. I don't know if it's remnants of El Nino, or freaky weather patterns caused by the Iceland volcano, or something else entirely. All I know is that it is NOT going to stop me from going to class tonight, because I need to be there to practice for this weekend's recital.

My Egg Moon pendant is almost done, now I just need to decide what to hang it from, and hope that the weather is nice enough for some photography.