2013 Advent calendar

[Daimona]

Welcome to the 2013 Advent calendar, a fine tradition on bellydanceforums.net.

There are still available dates waiting for your contribution.
Sign up for a date in this thread, and when your date is due, make your post below with the current date in the title of the post.

 

[Daimona]

Dec 1

I'm going to start this bd calendar with a non-dance-related post and promise I will be back with more dance related things later in this thread.

Many people find December stressful, things getting due before Christmas and the new year, shopping, house cleaning, a lots of other activities etc. Besides it is Sunday and a day to rest.

Give yourself an eight minute break from whatever you are doing, find a nice and comfy place to sit without any disturbances, press play on this video and close your eyes.
[video=youtube;roUuuNHUxE0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roUuuNHUxE0[/video]

When you've done so, I probably don't need to tell why I love this music.
The lyrics are made from two poems, the first is a poem from the 16th century, Illuminare Jerusalem. The second poem, Dormi Jesu, was published in 1817. The music is composed by a young Norwegian composer (Kim Andre Arnesen) and is about to be published these days, if I remember correctly. The singers are among some of my newest friends and I'm really looking forward to the next concert, two weeks from now, as these two songs will also be performed at that concert.

 

[Amulya]

I just noticed tomorrow is my turn, I better start searching for something

 

[Mosaic]

December 3rd ( Southern hemisphere )

To One & All!

A couple of videos one on how to make some sparklies for the tree, I think they are perfect for bellydancers & a gift idea a wire wrapped feather headband

[video=youtube;qNVwyneeWBU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNVwyneeWBU[/video]

​

I'm not very exciting this year, I am ultra busy with packing up & moving house, I think Christmas is going to be a non-event .... A happy Christmas for me will be to sleep all day:lol:


Wishing everyone a wonderful day with family & friends
~Mosaic

PS: how odd I included 2 videos but keep getting an error message saying: You have included a total of 2 videos in your message. The maximum number that you may include is 1. Please correct the problem and then continue again.

The use of videos is subject to them being enabled by the administrator.

I'll put the 2nd one in a following post I don't know what is going on sorry folks!

​

 

[Mosaic]

​

The missing video for December 3rd
[video=youtube;8mRTDc3SXco]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mRTDc3SXco[/video]

Enjoy!
~Mosaic

​

 

[walladah]

for some reason

i have no "like" option. Then, i would like to tell that i like very much the gifts so far and thank you very much for making early December beautiful!

 

[Shanazel]

I get a tad confused with Oz being so far ahead of us. I believe I have the fourth but it is still only the second here so I might not get posted until it is the fifth there.



I feel dizzy. Someone hand me my eggnog.

 

[Amulya]

A bit late! I had a hard time finding what I was looking for! But it might still be yesterday in some parts of the world

I found this belly dance Christmas video:

[video=youtube_share;VAX7eO62kFE]http://youtu.be/VAX7eO62kFE[/video]

[video]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VAX7eO62kFE[/video]

I posted this one last year but I love it so want to share it again


[video=youtube_share;YRON-YiL6Vc]http://youtu.be/YRON-YiL6Vc[/video]

Somehow the YouTube tags don't work anymore, how do I fix them?

 

[Amulya]

[video=youtube;qNVwyneeWBU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNVwyneeWBU[/video]

I made one like this years ago and also a 3D one, so much fun to make

 

[Shanazel]

Alas, Amulya, both are blocked in my area due to copyright issues.

I don't have YouTube tags anymore, either.

 

[Amulya]

How weird, they show for me, I don't know what the copyright issues can be, they are just videos of performances

 

[Mosaic]

Amulya, you have to click share at youtube & copy the tag line in the share box, that is the one to use with the video tag. Using the URL doesn't seem to work very well. I notice that being able to post more than 1 video is working again. Yesterday I had to make a 2nd post.

Shan - so sorry to confuse you, just have 2 eggnogs & you'll catch up - lordy me! it is so easy to get confused as you become entrenched in the 'mature teenage' years Don't you have the little film strip icon above the message box when you are posting? You should have seems there are a few glitches in the forum at the moment.
~Mosaic

 

[Shanazel]

Oh, is that what that is- a film strip? I thought it was some sort of symbol for Windows. :lol: I was looking for the old YouTube symbol.

My contribution for December 4 is a couple of favorite pictures and one of the world's simplest most elegant recipes.



Recipe:

Divide an eight ounce can of refrigerated crescent roll dough into 16 triangles.

Mix 1/4 cup sugar, 2 T flour, 1 t cinnamon.

Melt a quarter cup of butter.

Dip each of sixteen large marshmallows into the butter and roll in the sugar mixture. Place each marshmallow at the wide side of the triangle and roll up toward the opposite point. Pinch edges to seal. Dip one end of the roll in butter and place the roll in a large muffin cup or custard cup. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from muffin cups immediately, cool on a wire rack. While the rolls cool,

Mix 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 t vanilla, 2-3 t milk.

Drizzle mixture over warm rolls. Sprinkle with chopped nits if desired.

Yummy.

 

[Shanazel]

How weird, they show for me, I don't know what the copyright issues can be, they are just videos of performances

The disclaimer states that the videos contain material owned by (a bunch of company names) one or more of which have blocked the video in the USA.

Makes me wonder if these companies hire someone to sit and watch YouTube all day in search of copyright violations.

 

[Mosaic]

Shan recipe sounds quite yummy but I don't know about the chopped "nits" maybe we can substitute nuts?
~M

 

[Amulya]

The first is a video from a belly dancer in Brazil, so maybe she has her settings people in some countries can't see it? The other is from Cassandra, I think she is in America isn't she?

The nits hahaha!

Btw it took me a while to find the YouTube tags too, they are indeed replaced by that pictures.

 

[Aniseteph]

Well I dunno what day it is anywhere else, but here it's the 5th so its MINE, all mine...

I've posted over the top Christmas lights before... so that's not chronic lack of imagination, not at this time of year, oh no, it's a tradition. This goes on a bit to start with, but I LOL'd when it all kicked off at 2.10 ish. After a few drinks it would probably have me giggling happily for ages (and annoy everyone else, yay).
[video=youtube_share;xQL2rT9ZsVo]http://youtu.be/xQL2rT9ZsVo[/video]

So I've been pottering about YouTube looking for festive inspiration. I will spare you the German Christmas songs arranged for noseflute and zither. You find some interesting stuff. Lots of the same old same old, but occasionally a subtle and understated version of a corny old standard hits the spot.

[video=youtube_share;TZDGYJPdByE]http://youtu.be/TZDGYJPdByE[/video]
(Nothing says festive like a pair of red foil hotpants)

Oh, and if no one posts the link to the webcam of the Estonian forest with the wild boar this year, I will do it on another day.

 

[Shanazel]

Shan recipe sounds quite yummy but I don't know about the chopped "nits" maybe we can substitute nuts?View attachment 9971
~M

Hmmm. Guess that makes me a not wit- um, nit wit. I don't seem to be able to type the proper vowel between n and t no matter what I want to spell!

 

[walladah]

December 6th 2013

Hello everyone! many apologies for messing up the Calender, but at last, i made it!

The treat for December 6th, Santa Claus' day, Saint Nickolas for Eastern Europe and Greece, is a recipe for a homemade liqueur which, if prepared the following days, will be ripe for Christmas day!

The liqueur recipe is my own actually, now shared with my bellydance friends.

Coffee liqueur

300 gr of coffee beans, not toasted.
1 litre of alcohol of 90 grades
1 litre of simple sirup, i.e. water boiled with sugar.

You put the beans in a glass vase or bottle that can be well closed and add the alcohol. You put the vase or bottle in a place that can be directly under sunlight for 15 days (ok, in case there are rainy days, you add the sunny days afterwards).

After those 15 days of sunlight riping, you prepare the sirup, which is actually a bit based on your taste. I mean, You may put 300 gr of sugar into 1 litre of water if you do not like the liqueur to be too sweet. However, the coffee beans are giving a lot of bitter taste, then maybe you would prefer to add more sugar. You boil the sirup for little time, so that it becomes transparent while you stir all the time.


You take out the beans from the coloured as coffee alchohol. In case you want to distill the liqueur you do this before you add the alcohol. however, it will probably be ok as the beans are not grounded.
You put the alcohol into the kettle where the sirup is boiling. you boil it for 4-5 minutes and not more and then you turn off the fire. You liqueur is ready once it is cold and you put it into vases or bottles which are well closed and kept into dark cupboards.
BUT

your liqueur according to this recipe will be very strong, about 40 degrees of alchohol, which might get very strong with the sugar of the sirup. If you want to make it milder, you better add more sirup, but it has to be prepared (boiled) just like the first part of it.

In some places of the world, there are white distillments which are strong or mild, depending on the type of traditional drink. You would better avoid distillments which have already a flavour, f.ex. white alcohol with anis. This year i tried my liqueur with cretan raki, which is about 20 degrees then the liqueur got to be very mild, perhaps too mild for my taste.

I have not tried the same with vodka, this might be interesting, in case you have some quality vodka at home.


I wish you the best for this Christmas, Solstice and New Year!

 

[Shanazel]

December 7, 2013

I'm leaping in here because no one else is signed up. Excuse me if I am stepping on unknown toes.

Ladies and gentlemen, Torvill and Dean, 1984.


Torvill & Dean - 1984 Olympics - Bolero - HQ - YouTube