Tis the season...

to post a seasonal LOLCat pic

Merry Christmas everyone, hope you have a great festive season and all the best for 2013.

Purple is good

Jess loved the purple tiger leo... but given that I'd made it in a size 3 for Ana and really, at 15, she's a tad old to be a tiger.  But, sucker loving mom that I am, I conceded that a leo involving some purple tiger lycra in it somewhere could be possible.  So after a rummage in the stash, she wore this at Nationals:
purple velvet tiger

Purple tiger meet purple velvet... purrrrr!

What I did in the holidays...

Well, I went to the WOW show in Wellington.  You guys so have to get to this - it was awesome.  I went with my big sis and we had a great time sight seeing in our nation's capital (which turned on some sunshine just for us, lol) and seeing the WOW awards show.

Wellington Harbour from the Botanic Gardens at the top of the cable car.

This jigsaw puzzle view normally has the cable car front and centre - but then you wouldn't be able to see the city, would you?
So that was the middle Sunday of the holidays.  It was a great day, well worth the wait.

Then it was time to hop on a plane to Dunedin, where Cadbury World and the 2012 NZ Gymsports National Championships waited for the onslaught of hundreds of gymnasts from Aerobics, Rhythmics and Trampoline.

Cadbury World was great - Tink is still talking about it.  And they do give you lots of chocolate along the way!  Heaven, just heaven.  Did you know, during cruise ship season, 7,000 people a day take a Cadbury World tour? Seems I am not the only chocoholic out there...

The Edgar Centre was a great venue, and Nationals was great.  We got to see the opening and closing ceremonies and attended every single day (that's what you get for doing two gymsports codes!).

Bit fuzzy, I'm sorry, but the little blue figure 3rd in from the orange clad people is Tink at the opening ceremony on the Wednesday.
While Jess was competing RG Level 6 on the Wednesday and Thursday, this was Tink:

The infamous orange shirt of a Nationals volunteer!  She and I spent the first two mornings on the merchandise counter, where we got to talk to pretty much everyone there.

Jess in start pose for Rope (her second apparatus on the Wed) - Ball was her first, but I missed getting a photo.

Clubs routine on the Thursday.
Jess was extremely happy with her RG Nationals - 3 good routines, no drops and finishing with the music.  Her scores were ok, but there were many higher scores awarded.
However, on Thursday I got to take these photos:

One absolutely over the moon gymnast, with her bronze medal for Ball - and way to go Shani for the silver!
Jess ended up 10th overall (3rd year in the top ten!!) and squeaked in for a proficiency pin.  Jess wanted desperately to have no drops, win a medal and gain her proficiency pin - and she did it!  She is still happy.  Plus she got to hang out with her RG friends from all over the country.

Then on to the Aerobics, starting on the Friday.  For this we had heats and finals, with top 8 in each category going through to finals.  The girls were automatically through as there were less than 8 in their categories.

A very fuzzy photo of Tink, waiting with the Auckland coach Amy and the Aerobics marshall, for her routine in the Step 4 heats.  Tink rocked her heats routine, she was amazing and ended up sitting 3rd going in to the final that night.

An even fuzzier photo of Tink waiting to go on for her finals routine.  She looked stunning.  Unfortunately she glitched her opening sequence, while the other girls upped their game, and Tink ended the competition 5th overall. WAY TO GO TINKERBELLE!!!

Meanwhile, in Step 6, Jess did her trademark neat and tidy routine in the heats to head into the final the next day in first place.

On Saturday, Jess went out and did another neat and tidy routine, but with way more intensity and she rocked her way to...

...yup, a gold medal, one of two won by the AKL Aerobics team.  Woohoo Jess.
This was followed by a fun closing ceremony, and Nationals was done.  Kudos to Gymsports NZ for a great event, and the girls are looking forward to 2013 in the Hawkes Bay.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny - a welcome change from the cold greyness of the previous 5 days.  We had the day to ourselves so we packed ourselves into our trusty Rent-a-Dent (whom I can recommend), said goodbye to the great people, service and motel that was the Adrian Motel and headed out for some Otago scenery.

We headed for the Otago Peninsula, where Tink wanted to visit:

The landmark Larnach Castle, with its lovely gardens and great vistas.  Tink really enjoyed it and we're glad she insisted we go.
Then it was Grandma's turn, so we carried on around the coast to:

The Penguin Place, where we got to see, up close, the Yellow Eyed Penguins on their nests.  This breeding ground, on a private farm, is well worth the visit.  Scientists have been monitoring here for nearly 30 years, and the family who run the Penguin Place have been conserving and restoring the habitat for the last 15 or so years.  These nutty birds nest well away from the beach, and trek back and forth daily during the breeding season.

Then we headed back to the city, then out along the other coast starting at St Clair and we went for a "Sunday drive" out as far as the Taieri River mouth.  It was very pretty, with the surf and beach settlements along the way.
At St Clair we walked along the esplanade, and the girls took this video to show how rough the surf was (it was spraying up over the railings):

Then it was time to head for the airport and our flight back to Auckland and reality.

That was what I did in my holidays.

Firework

Tink's AER routine is to Katy Perry's Firework - which is a welcome change at comps from all the Captain Planet and Til We Meet Again routines (Step 4 & 6 routines are preset ones).  With that in mind, when I happened across an extremely glittered blue velvet at Spotlight awhile ago, I had to buy some, especially as we knew Tink was going to Nationals at that point.
So of course, Evil Gym Mom just had to make her a special "I'm representing AKL at Nats" leo:

She really is Tinkerbelle in that leotard: it sprinkles fairy dust everywhere it goes...

Purple Zebras

Well, I call it purple zebra.... it is purple, but it's not really a zebra stripe:

Couldn't resist the fabric so much that this got made ahead of another, more important, leo that's cut out already.  And I'm wishing I'd bought more of this fabric... maybe in the pink colourway, too.

Tiger Tiger take 3

When I first spotted the tiger lycra, I happened to end up buying over a metre of it.  Haven't ever seen it again - the joys of shopping at Spotlight... anyhoo, so I'm making the most of it (pun intended) with tiger leotard #3 finished:

I'm still experimenting, this time with binding the neck and armholes, rather than elastic and topstitching.  This technique will require some more practice - just as well I have plenty of lycra stash!

Brag warning!

This weekend is the Xtreme Rhythmix Champs - the last comp before Nationals, one last chance to get routines on the floor and get the kinks out, so to speak.
Jess went out there today, all determination, to do a good comp for the last time that she was representing TriStar.
You see, her beloved coach - Teegan - is moving on to further her medical studies, so the club is stopping their competitive RG programme above Level 2 (meaning we're off to a new club next term).  At Nationals, the girls are representing Auckland.
She and Teegan have been working on Jess' routines to nail her difficulties and up her artistry as Jess' scores have been sitting on the mid-14s all season, trailing well down the field.
Well, I saw lots of improvement over two weeks ago at Shore (even with two routines finishing late for a big deduction) - and the judges agreed:

Rope - 14.6
Ball - 16.6 (3rd)
Clubs - 15.2
Third overall, with her total 3 whole marks up on all her season's scores.
Apologies for the fuzzy focus - my phone rang just as they were calling up the podium and this was the only photo I got, one handed!  But that is one very happy gymnast.

Go Jess, you rocked!!

Meanwhile, the stash beckons...

How bright can a leotard be, yet not have any crystals, glitter or sequins?
This bright:

It's too big for Jess, and not to her taste... so it's available for sale.  But the point of the exercise was achieved:  I learned some more things about laying out and constructing leos - that's got to be good.

To bling or not to bling...

That is the question.

The blue velvet leo has a lovely sheen in person and in photos.  But on the floor, it looks a bit dead:

So I'm thinking a spray of sequins down the front, plus on the back, and along all the silver trim, and maybe some rhinestones on the flesh sleeve, or maybe blue sequins there...  your thoughts?

Singing the blues

Jess is on her third ball leo for this season.  THIRD?! you say?  Yup, third.
Her original ball for the season was a very pretty glitter hot pink that she loved.  Loved too much it seems, as it developed patches with no glitter.
So we bought another ball - which was waay more used than we (or the person selling it) realised, meaning it had no grippy surface left on it at all.
Then we borrowed a ball (thank you, Clemmie), a sparkly gold one that I made the wet look black leo for.  Unfortunately, the ball was only able to be on loan for the one comp so back to the drawing board we went.  Fortunately, at that one comp we were able to purchase a beautiful swirly blue ball (thank you Bev & Olivia), for which I made this silver with blue leo:

Jess loves this leo, but it only lasted 5 minutes on the practice floor at Sth Is Champs as the direction I'd cut the fabric to have the silver hologrpahic run vertically didn't work on the butt (which needed the stretch to be horizontal).  Still, it was worth making it for the opportunity to play with shaping the hemline - something I'd been wanting to have a go at for ages but was too scared to do.
So, after a long consultation with one of my fellow gym moms who is very fashionable re the best colours for Jess and another rummage in the stash, we got:

Jess loves this one too - and the butt copes with competitions just fine (I learned my lesson and the butt is in plain matching lycra with even stretch on both grains).  I'm thinking of adding more silver sequins - what do you think?
Gotta love velvet for its sheen... and Picasa for the photo effects, lol!

Trying it on for size

More from the stash... these are sizing leotards: the blue is child size 10 while the purple is child size 12.

Into a courier bag they go, heading south.

and all that jazz

As you wonderful faithful followers will have noticed, Tink did her Grade 3 jazz exam last week.
I like NZAMD jazz exams, as I've mentioned before, due to the way the results are given out.  No 6-8 weeks wait, plus the examiner always puts a positive and a something to work on comment on the results card.
So Tink came dashing out of class tonight and proudly handed over her results cards from her exam and medal test.
The medal test she passed, and the card had a very positive and detailed comment on it - mentioning (again) how well Tink used those long legs of hers in "the most amazing leg kicks".
Her exam result card also had a glowing comment on it, and this time she got Very Very Good in all the sections except for Attitude where she got Excellent - I'm so pleased!  Such a consistent performance is awesome, and a good improvement in her work.  Net result, you ask?

Honours

For the third year in a row - go Tinkerbelle!!

Clarence, the Cross Eyed Lion

Meet CC, our new kitteh.  About 6 months old, we got her from Forgotten Felines on Monday.  She is extremely curious, loves ping pong balls and has picked up the "circling shark" ethic of our other cats already - the fastest of all the cats we've ever had.  Very affectionate, with a very loud rumbly purr, she is still quite skittish.

She's also just slightly cross eyed - very endearing!