DWTS

For the past 2 seasons of Dancing with the Stars, I let my oldest, "Sugar" stay up for the first hour of dancing. She loves it, and every season she picks a favorite couple. The past couple weeks I've been taping it for her (good old-fashioned VHS :-) and we watch it Tuesday night instead.  That way we have time to watch ALL the dancing, and we can forward through all the commercials and any other boring stuff!  Sugar gets all dresses up in a fancy dress and dances around the room while we watch.  She had "routine" that she made up last season, which she wanted to name but couldn't remember the all the types of dances.  So her dance was called the Fast-Slow Mambo-Jambo.  This season it's a little less jumping and arms flailing and a little more graceful movements, lol.  

This year Sugar was rooting for Wendy Williams, and after trying to figure out how she came to that choice I realized it was because of a dress she saw Wendy wearing--Sugar loved the dress and decided Wendy should win, lol.  I printed out a sheet with pictures of all the couples, and every Wednesday morning she crosses off whoever went home on Tuesday night.  

We even judge the dancing and have our own scoring paddles!  

Last season the paddles were fancier, but I couldn't find them, so we kept it simple this time. 

I also made a disco ball to hang from the ceiling, and I may make it into a trophy for the finale.  It was trickier than it looked at first, and up close it's definitely NOT perfect.  But Sugar saw the finished product and loved it.  Perfect in her eyes!

Here's how I did it...

First I got a styrofoam ball & a pile of old DVD/discs that I didn't need anymore.  The discs were all silver on the underside.  I also used a silver bead, some wire, hot glue, and my heavy duty kitchen scissors.  

I started by cutting the CD's into strips, then little squares

I used the kitchen scissors and cut the disc from the outside edge to the middle, making strips that I then cut down into squares.  It was a little tricky getting them the same size, but I used the smaller pieces as I got to the top and bottom of the ball.   

Then I marked out the middle of the ball

I placed a toothpick in the ball to make a top spot, then placed a rubberband around the middle to give me a straight line as a starting point.  I also used a skewer to make a hole for the wire, going through the ball from top to bottom.

 I used hot glue to attach the disc squares in rows, working from the middle outwards.  

I used slightly smaller squares as I worked my way out.

Before I got all the way to the tops and bottom points, I made the wire hanger.

I attached a silver bead to the wire and threaded it through the hole I made earlier. 

Towards the end, it got a little tricky to fit the small pieces in.  

 One end came out better than the other, so I made the nicer end into the bottom of the disco ball, figuring the bottom was more visible when it's hanging :-)

And here it is, all ready for dance nights!

 We dim the lights and she shines a flashlight on it to make the designs on the ceiling and wall.  

Sugar has been thinking about who she'd like to win now that Wendy is gone, so tomorrow I find out who her new favorite is....not sure who wore the fanciest dress tonight :-)