Two weeks ago, Brian and I had a fantastic weekend visiting a few of the many wineries in Northern Virginia.  There are so many delicious wines to taste!  We even picked up a few of our favorite bottles to bring home and enjoy on special occasions – or on a regular Wednesday night!

I miss making hoops this week!  But I have some really cute new hoops to add to my repertoire and upcoming Christmas bazaars.  I’ll be vending hoops at the Key Elementary Christmas Bazaar on December 3rd, which should be a ton of fun.  I’m most excited about there being a stage and having a hoop performance for the market-goers.

I’ve toyed with the idea of making some holiday-themed hoops.  These could be such fun for holiday performances and outdoor hooping events.  Candy-cane hoops would look pretty fantastic…

And as promised, here’s the music playlist from that night:

One Evening (VV Mix) – Feist

Under Pressure – David Bowie/Queen

Love Foolosophy – Jamiroquai

Love Today – Mika

Canned Heat – Jamiroquai

Just Can’t Get Enough – The Saturdays

Bulletproof – La Roux

Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) – DJ Spiller

(Don’t) Give Hate a Chance – Jamiroquai

I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas

Animal – Miike Snow

Lollipop – Mika

P.H.H hoopers - each one has a story...

Back in May, pre-website, post-getting my first spot selling hoops at the Ballston Arts & Crafts Market, I decided that it was time to get some good pictures of my hoops.  Not just pictures taken with my FinePix Z5 digital camera with optical zoom (I’ve taken plenty of those), but professional pictures taken by a professional photographer.  I realized this would be an investment, but absolutely one that I was willing to make – especially since my photography skills are sub-par, to say the least.

I have a co-worker that happens to be a professional photographer with his own photography business, so I decided to speak with him about helping me out before looking elsewhere.  Explaining that I needed some sharp, colourful still shots of my hoops, as well as some fun-timey action shots, A.J happily agreed to do the shoot for me.  Hooray!  Arthur Jay Photography enlisted!! 

Recruitment for the shoot turned out to be much easier than I’d expected.  In addition to 20 hula hoops, all awaiting their shot in the limelight, I wanted a nice mix of guys and girls, all of whom were avid hoopers and comfortable in front of a camera.  Within a week I had two guys and two girls (including my boyfriend and his sister, what fun!) ready to participate in a PHH photo frenzy.

A.J showed up for the shoot with his game face on.  He pulled out all the stops: lights, umbrellas, reflectors, backdrop – I appreciated him taking the time to set everything up, ensuring this would be a successful shoot.  And it was!  Not to mention a blast!  We listened to music, took behind the scene shots with our camera-phones, played around with poses and shots, and ended up with stellar pictures that would eventually be displayed in my PHH tent at the craft market, as well as on my website.  We had a highly productive day and I give huge cudos to A.J for being one of the best photographers I know, as well as the Hoop Shoot cast and crew for being lovely, exuberant, experimental, and SO much fun!

Some cool cats hoopin' it up.

That said, it’s hard to believe I found something that I love even more than hooping – and that’s hoop-making.  A hobby I stumbled into when I took a job teaching hoopdance at my local fitness center, only to find they had provided the students with cheap plastic bead-filled hoops you buy at the dollar store.  Unacceptable, to say the least.  I had to ameliorate this situation fast!  And I only had one week until my next class!  The solution?  Make the hoops myself.  Proper hoops, hoops that are created for the adult figure, hoops that these women would fall in love with and would want to take home with them.  So that’s what I did, and before I knew it, pretty.hot.hoops. was born.  I’ve been making and selling hoops for women, men (yes, guys love hooping, too!), and children for the past year around the D.C area.  But how to share pretty.hot.hoops. with the world…?

Back to the website…This is something I’ve been saying was going to happen for the past year- it got to the point where my sassier friends would scoffingly smile and nod – such cynics!  But really, I don’t know anyone with worse web-designer-finding luck than myself.  Honestly, I’d been searching for someone to create my website consistently and to no avail.  Then this past July I got to know one of my neighbouring vendors (Holly McConnell of goatmountainarts.com – cutest plush toys ever!)  at a craft show, who gave me the name of one of her friends who happened to be a web-designer.  This in and of itself proves that my patience with finding the right person was definitely a virtue.  Kaelin Cordis, (kaelinwebdesign.com) has succeeded in creating the most invigorating and stimulating website experience that defines pretty.hot.hoops. to the tee.  Thank you, Kaelin!  I couldn’t be more pleased!  ^.^

Now I can share pretty.hot.hoops. with EVERYONE, which is incredibly exciting.  I’ll be sharing all the latest from pretty.hot.hoops., including tips and tricks, upcoming hooping events, and most importantly, SELLING HOOPS!!  Yay for the internet!

This coming week I’ll be working on some more hoop videos, which are definitely getting posted onto the site.  I’m planning on featuring some of my favourite D.C hooping spots and getting some friends in on the action.  Plus, learning and perfecting new tricks is one of the most satisfying parts of hoopdance – get ready for tutorials!  Cuz they’re coming!