Riot and Frolic

a mostly ballroom dance, but also a bunch of other stuff, blog

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about

I own and rock people’s faces off teaching ballroom dancing at Dancers Studio in St. Paul, MN. My husband and I compete professionally in American style and wrangle eight children in our spare time. I’ve been teaching and competing in ballroom dancing for over 25 years and have lots of opinions on it. I am an expert by any means, but there are quite a few dancers who are better than me and I have a solid knowledge of basic technique, so suck it.

Month: December 2011

  • How To Make A Wreath

    Happy Night Before The Night Before Christmas!   Somebody gets awful excited for Christmas, even when somebody knows what is in all the presents underneath the Christmas tree.   There are no presents under there for me yet, but I'm only slightly worried.  The G knows I'm easily wooed with gifts.  And as we've seen…

  • Stitch ‘n’ Make Pleasant Conversation

    I hosted a "stitch 'n' bitch" over the weekend. As I said yesterday, I want to come up with a less crass name for crafting and hanging out.  Here's my terrible ideas so far… Yarn 'n' Yarn.  Get it?  Like material and telling stories.  I told you they were terrible. Hook, Wine, and Tinker.  As…

  • Welcome To The Jumble

    Hahaha. I'm so clever.  Today's post title is a play on my first post ever.  Those were the days. It's been about five days since our last hook-up and since my interwebs have been working.   Good golly.  I thought having a TV was a timesuck.  Turns out, if I didn't have WIFI and a…

  • The Pinterest Project- More Glitter= More Awesome

    It's a rule of life, really.  "More glitter" is always better than "glitter".  Unless you're talking about the movie, Glitter, which I hear is awful and should never have a sequel. But now I want to watch it, just to make sure.  Because if there was a movie called Rhinestone, I would sure go see…

  • Because I Can…

    It's my birthday.   I was going to be grown-up about it this year and be all "oh, it's my birthday?  that's neat" but no.   IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! It all started Monday night where I couldn't contain my excitement any longer and the maturity wore off.   "Hehehe, it's almost my birthday." "I wonder…

  • Happy Birthday to ME

    I don't have words.   Just crazy little squeally noises.   Excited!   I will bake my own birthday cake! 

  • List of Last Week’s Labors of Love

    Warning!  If you don't like my kids, read no further!   Wait.  Of course, you like my kids.  They are awesome.   – snow angels!   – photographs by V.  I'm not sure about her subject matter. – more proof that V has an artist's grant with her name on it.  Here is she is…

  • Dance What You Know

    A prayer for ballroom dance professionals: Good Lord, in this holy season, please give us the strength to dance what we know.   May we remember the basic principles of movement while working in any style of ballroom dancing.   May we apply the proper techniques to each style of ballroom and not make dancing…

  • The Pinterest Project- Decisions, Decisions

    Ever since I finished last week's doodad, I'm having a hard time deciding which Pinterest Project to choose next.  I'm not putting it to a vote, but any input you have would be much appreciated.   Plus, with the G out of town, my energy is waning fast in my usual crafty/bloggy hours and I…

  • Throw It All Away

    My bestie asked me how I stay organized.   Simple.   I throw away a lot of crap. There's a lot of crap to throw away.  There's some ridiculous stat out there about the amount of junk mail we get in a year, probably like a trillion pounds or something (okay, 41 pounds, according to…