Craft, dance and making friends

I think I just had the most 'social' weekend I've had since I became a mom.  A bit unusual and very busy.
On Friday morning I went to a zumba class for the first time in my life.  My friend Susan invited me, she was the instructor.  It was held at the Sunset Library only a few miles from our house.  And it was free, which is exactly the type of activity I need after my husband lost his job last week.  I must say the class was actually fun, in an odd way, because the only time I feel comfortable dancing with a bunch of other people in the same room is when I go folk dancing. 
Ahhh folk dancing, I got quite a bit of that too this weekend.  There was a Serbian festival at St. Sava Orthodox Church and my friend JoAnna invited me.  I took Maggie with me too.  Aside from dancing 'kolo' which usually at a Serbian festival is hours and hours of variation of a dance step called 'u shest', we also got to see some dance performance by kids as young as 3. 



In between all the dancing I did this weekend, there was time for art too.  On Friday night we went to 'First Fridays' - a monthly art walk the city of Phoenix holds downtown.  It's a big street party, with art galleries staying open late, srteet vendors, local musicians and everything else in between.  It can get crowded, which as I am getting older is starting to bother me in a way I am not sure how to explain at the moment.  But considering we only go a couple of times a year, it's all right.
I also went to a stamp show the city of Mesa had this weekend and got some new stamps to work with.  In order to have my money go a long way I purchased unmounted stamps, and I just finished mounting them myself on a foam I purchased. 




And I made a new friend at the stamp show, a friendly local lady named Karen who aside from being mixed media artst herself, she had wonderful trinkets that were exactly the type of items I would use in my projects.   So I got some old keys, a hand died seam binding, a small porcelan doll head (to go on the headless angel I found in San Francisco a couple of years ago), a brass bracelet that I need to embelish myself and.....I can't remember what else.  I am sure I will see her again.  She actually has a booth at the antique store a few miles from my house.

I also had a visit from a new friend Pavna, who I met at a craft meetup last month.  Pavna is from India and I think next weekend we are going to go to an Indian festival.  So until I can travel the world with my kids, they will be getting a lot of ethnic experiences by going to local cultural festivals with me.