Ancylen..... hooping and Hawaii= a match made in paradise. I have friends living in the Puna District. I love those 2nd floor houses with decks and green lush gardens. Surely you are blessed. Makes me want to grab my hoop and catch the next plane over.
I can almost feel the sweet blade of grass under my flip flops!

Yay, more videos! This is interesting. We're all doing this in such different locations, in the midst of our own unique lives.

Sue, I totally applaud you for making use of your cozy sitting space, despite sofas and kitties. It really helps hone your creativity having to hoop with constraints. And fireside hooping must be so nice on a rainy day.

Ancylen, I think we're all suddenly scratching our chins and thinking, "Hmm, how can I move to Hawaii?" That's an amazing amount of space -- all of it beautiful. And could your baby be any more cute? I love how he runs around giggling while you hoop.

This is one of my favorite threads so far. I LOVE seeing where everyone works their magic and faces their demons, and I LOVE hearing your voices. It's feels like a real, first meeting and gives another dimension to my awareness of each of you as actual people.

Revolva, I really did think that perhaps you had hooped so much that the paint had worn off the floor. Hilarious.

Poppy, you are adorable. I love listening to you talk and experiencing your personality. I'd love to hoop with you sometime.

Sue, since exchanging emails some time back about architecture and building, I have often wondered what your home was like. I found myself looking at the plaster walls and beamed ceilings and wondering if you built the shelves yourself. I love the fireplace and the authentic feeling of your home. I can imagine having a cup of tea there with a cat in my lap and a fire going and chatting with you about renovations and design.

And the last video from Hawaii, my goodness, what an Eden! I loved the wildly painted trim in the living area and the open, tropical feeling of the house and compound. A gorgeous, towheaded babe squealing and running around the lush vegetation completes the picture.

Thank you all for sharing yourselves. My video camera is down, but I will try and get a video up sometime soon.

And Sue, I LOVE chickens as well. We have six and I feel so appreciative of the fact that we feed them kitchen scraps and they give us beautiful eggs. I could watch them all day.

Ancelyn, I just want to say that you are not alone in your struggle with depression. I think this is an issue that deserves it's own thread, but I'll go ahead and say that for me, hooping has provided some mighty powerful medicine. I know that many, many of the folks I've had the pleasure to hoop with have said the same thing. The meditative aspect of hooping along with the endorphin release from dance combine to be as much, if not more than, any pharmaceutical available. And no side effects other than the occasional bruise.

I don't know if the responsibility (and hormones) that go along with being a mother are part of your experience with depression. It seems to be a common theme and I know that for me, taking care of myself (by hooping, being with people who love me and accept me, eating and sleeping well, etc....) is one of the best ways to insure that I can be the best mother possible for my daughter. It's especially hard to deal with dark feelings when surrounded by a beautiful environment. "What's wrong with me? How can I not be happy when the sun is shining and the sky is blue?" It's almost harder and more disillusioning to be unhappy on a gorgeous island.

I wish you the best in finding the joy that you deserve and that is inherently a part of your being. Hooping nourishes the soul in a way that gives us the ability to fully feel our happiness and our optimism for life. Best to you.

Thanks! I am really glad I stumbled across the hooping community, it's great!

Haha, yeah, I set the camera up with out checking, so when I got to the editing part, I thought oops...
...yeah, that was a very faked jump though. Luckily, we all keep the place very clean : ) Neat freaks!

You're welcome.

Aw...that was so cute! Hey, I want a white Russian. =(
I'll settle for a Newcastle Brown Ale in Austin, I guess.

I love this thread. You have seen my living room where Marlo
has punked out but now I have a new space. I will post up
very soon. Hopefully with my head. =)

It does look cosy. A nice warm light space. I think as we get to be better hoopers we can cope with much less room. Do you have enough height to do any off-body moves in there?

I love you little sewing corner too. I notice that a lot of women who hoop on the other side of the Atlantic also sew. I've seen many hooping videos with sewing machines in evidence. That's really strange here. I bet almost none of us sew. I have a machine, but I've not made anything other than curtains on it for years and I'm pretty special to have made those.

It's a shame.

I only have a "save" option.