Well that was unexpected!

So Saturday morning, I went to Fabricville so I could use my $15 coupon.  I bought some Royal blue galaxy twill to make a set of scrubs for Terry.  On my way I got extra thirsty, so I decided to stop at the Super C at Galerie des sources to pick up a 1 litre bottle of Perrier.

I parked on the side of the bureau en gros and walked in. I was wearing the sundress featured below, along with my hot pink sweater and my floral print Vans.  I was also wearing my sunglasses.

Just as I was walking towards the super C, this tall thin black woman, grabs my arm ever so slightly and says " I don't usually give out compliments but I felt I had to.  Dressed like that with those shoes, and the way you're walking, you look like a 16 year old girl going to the mall". and just like that she disappeared quickly before I could say anything.

I guess she saw me as she walked out of bureau en gros and thought seeing me that I was a teen, and when she realized I was a 50 + year old woman,  she felt she had to compliment me for looking so young and being that limber.

New purchase

Cat and dragonfly socks!

Sasha New York Stiletto

I fell in love when I saw those shoes at Sears. I just had to have them. It's rare I buy stillettos

Trip to Fabricville and Textile store on Sunnybrooke

On Saturday I met my old work colleage and we went fabric shopping.  We went to the textile place in DDO on Sunnybrooke near Spring Garden. They have beautiful silks for $4 a meter.  I didn't like the texture of the black silk, but loved the purple one.  The store is a cash only place so I knew I would have to go back. They also have cotton voile in about 50 colours for $3 a meter.  So if I need thin cotton for lining or some thin silk I know where to go. 

We also stopped at Fabricville, I got  3 meters of brown fabric to use as a border to a red dragonfly dress. We thought 3 meters seemed a lot, after cutting the border and tie for dress, I had no left overs. Not even to make the lining of the bodice, I had to use the main fabric.  I got some more of the plaid skull flannel since it was still dirt cheap and my bf seems to like it.

I have to go Monday to pick up buttons for my green flamingo nightshirt. Despite the quantity of buttons I have at home, none matched this colour.

It had to happen sooner or later....

Went to value village for lunch today. Apparently they have senior discounts for people 55 and up and somehow the woman at the cash decided I was a senior today. Not only did I get 10% which is the usual but they must have been a seniors discount day on senior day because I got 30% off everything I bought today. My friend in her mid 20's got zero discounts.

American Eagle shorts I found

Not going to complain, but usually it's 20 year old cashiers that think I'm over 55 or 65, not a woman my age. I suppose she was just being nice and I guess I can't complain....

But today I got the seniors discount for the first time in my life....

OH NO!

I'm a SENIOR now!

Boot Shopping

My step daughter's feet apparently grew a lot in 2015, her boots from last winter were women's 6, though how she still could get them on her feet remains a mystery to me

I had promised her dad that I'd take her winter boot shopping, which is no small feet for an 11 year old who wears women's size 11!

Before going anywhere I'd done some research, checked out all places to get woman's winter boots inexpensively. Women's boots are always $50 more then children's boots. The other difficulty is that in some brands, the biggest size is 10. Normally he goes to Walmart, but I checked, women's boots at Walmart don't seem to go beyond size 10!

I ended up taking her to Globo shoes first because they claimed they had boots that went to size 11 & 12 in some women's models, and secondly they were having a big boxing day sale, so I figured I'd get away with getting her boots between $50-$100.

I was lucky, the 2nd pair of boots she tried on, a women's 11, fit her, and bonus, they were purple which she claims is currently her favourite colour.   Took about 10 minutes for the whole process. Once I'd established she wanted the boots, we went to the cash and she tells me "Wow, this turned out to be a lot simpler then I'd imagined"  Or maybe it was "This turned out to be far less painful then I had anticipated" Either way it had me giggle.

Sure I'd done research and had decided that for the first time I took her shopping to get her something that it would be short and quick, but the fact it turned out that way, bonus!

MicMac Mall.

So today we went to MicMac  mall in Dartmouth. I had been to another mall on the 27th in Halifax and had found jeans at Bootleggers that I liked but they didn't have my size. The other Bootlegger store in Nova Scotia was at MicMac mall.

I did find the Silver jeans in the Tuesday fit, low rise boot cut, and they fit superbly. I absolutely love them. This cut is made for women who aren't very curvy.  Fits amazing on me. Thankfully they are low-rise, so I can fit in a size 24.  I haven't had a 24 waist since I was 24 before I had my kids. However I have the butt & thighs of a woman with a size 24 waist it seems.  I'd been mostly buying American Eagle jeans, but at size 0 they fit my hips, but my thighs are a bit loose. 

Also while I was at MicMac mall, a Muslim woman [I only saw a handful in Nova Scotia] complimented me on the dress I was wearing and quickly disappeared into the crowd before I could thank her and say I made the dress myself.

Carrefour Laval

It was Black Friday admittedly when I took him to Carrefour Laval to get him a birthday present.  There was hordes of people. It amused him to no end how I zigzag through the masses to get to the stores I wanted to go to.

I got him these sexy shoes for his birthday!

Sweet Vans in Suede

 We also went in by Rona and checked out plants. I came home with a poinsettia and a kalanchoe, both pink.

I got him to ham up with some Christmas decorations. Besides I thought his daughter might find it really cute and she did!

Creature comforts

Been wanting new towels for my house for some time. Either I didn't like the texture the colour or the price. Found some at Deco Decouverte with lovely colours and I got 30% off with a scratch card. Got one orange, one burgandy, one green and one turquoise.

I also found some sheets that were 60% Bamboo Rayon and 40% cotton.  I bought them. Also got them 40% off with the scratch card.  They are so nice texture wise. They will be great summer sheets. They don't hold the warmth enough  for winter, but man are they nice to roll around in bed in.

Bamboo Rayon and Cotton sheets.

4 towels with 4 facecloths

Usmania Cuisine

Friday I was corralled into going to help a friend figure out what type wedding dress suits her best. She brought along her 3 bridesmaid and her mom.  We all knew her mom was going to be difficult and we were not surprised.

At least my friend found a dress that suits her like a glove and inspiration to make her own. After the ordeal we decided to go to dinner. We figured since we were near the "Petit Alep" we'd go there. The food is out of this world. Unfortunately they take vacation at the same time as construction workers.

In the end we went to a Pakistani restaurant on Decarie near Cote Vertu metro called Usmania Cuisine. At least that was on their receipt. They had pakora's on their menu and I thought, how can I go wrong with Pakora's? When they are cooked in fucking WHEAT FLOUR. It's supposed to be chickpea flour. WTF? This great gluten free treat fucking full of gluten. THe batter looked disgusting and I could tell instantly that it was wheat.  Their lentil soup was ok. Though I was asked if I wanted it mild, medium or spicy, and I asked for Spicy. It was NOT SPICY. I would have barely qualified it as medium.  I think they look at me with my white skin and red hair and think "She doesn't want spicy"

The service was ok, the food was edible. But I would not go back. When I think of my two favourite Indian places, Pushaps and Punjab... this place sucked.  Heck even Qwality Indian food on sources has better food, and edible pakoras.

On the positive side, since we went dress shopping on ST Hubert Street, we fabric shopped at our favourite 2 places. Marina's, and this other place a block over, that sells everything for $2.99.

Yep I'm too embarassed

I'm one of them people who is too embarrassed to go to a sex shop by myself..I figured I would share this article for the likes of me, in hopes one day I can not be so hung up.  The irony is I've brought people who had never been to one and didn't want to go alone to some. But myself still got the hangup.Despite being very adult and rational that sex is part of life.

Many thanks to my Catholic upbringing for a slew of my hangups. I was hoping that after my parents both died, I would feel freer, and less bound by conservative Christian morals. But sadly these things live in my head and I'm the only one who can purge my brain as I crave freedom, at least in my own mind.

I love and HATE shopping at the same time

I do enjoy walking through endless stores filled with fashions to get an idea of what's  fashionable. After which I much prefer making my own clothes. Honestly this past 6 months of sewing has been so rewarding.

If I realize that I sew far more prolifically then I can reasonably benefit, I'm going to look into programs that donate clothes to poor children.  I love making children's clothes, I love shopping for fabric. I can make pretty dresses. Every little girl who likes dresses deserves a pretty little dress. I am well aware not all girls like dresses, and I respect that.  I also like making oshkosh type overalls, with cute animal appliques and turtlenecks for both genders.

I went to Carrefour laval today, was there maybe an hour and a half. I targeted Maison Simon, looked briefly at the sweaters, I would like to replace one of my long sweaters, but these days they are all wrap around sweaters and I find buttonless sweaters useless.

I went straight to the tights section and found that they carried merino wool tights in 4 colours. oatmeal, light grey, dark grey and black.  I picked up a pair of black ones for my friend who was looking for some as well, and one dark grey and one oatmeal coloured for myself.  I was also hoping to find olive green tights, at least in cotton, but no such luck.  I did buy a pair of burgundy type colour in cotton.

I stopped at Hush Puppies, to see if I could find a new pair of dress black winter boots. I gave away almost all my winter footwear a few days ago along with a giant bag of clothes.  Had no luck. This one pair I liked were fine for fall/spring, and waterproof, but I want winter boots.

I stopped at Old Navy to check out the coats, mine is easily 3-4 years old. I had it already at Occupy Montreal in October 2011.  They had olive and black in this years model of my coat. Sadly the XS while fitting properly elsewhere did not give me the shoulder room that my current coat does. Was dissapointed to be honest as it felt very much like my current coat, which is hot, but not too hot and is perfect for fall, spring, warmer winter days and driving.  Also would prefer to get a reddish coloured coat. Will look after Christmas, I might luck out.

Then I went to American Eagle Outfitters and picked up a pair of jeans. I need to go through what I have of jeans and get rid of lots of pairs. Especially pairs smaller then size 2, that haven't fit in a while.

So tally, I got 3 pairs of tights and 1 pair of jeans. Things I'm not likely to make myself.

On an unrelated topic, I was told I am intoxicating by my fwb, that I met back September 15th on POF.  I'm thinking that's a good thing, seeing that I like his company very much.

It's 3am and I'm awake, again.

I fell asleep while taking a break cutting out a dress last night. Woke up around 2:15am realizing I had not finished cutting the dress, but had the feeling I had, meaning I dreamed I finished it.

Yesterday afternoon I wanted to return to Fabricville to pick up a Batik print that would be wearable in winter and would match this grey novelty knit with a lace overlay.  I was in a shop until you drop mood. The Batik was the one expensive piece of fabric I bought at $11.99/m,  I bought 2 meters. All other fabric was $2-$4 a meter, from the cheap wall. Found some blue cotton fabric as well as a paisley rayon print that will be fine for making medieval dresses. Also found a few more novelty knits   and picked up 3 different flannels ranging from $2-$4 a meter. In the end I had a 2 huge bags of fabric for $100 with taxes. If I'd been in this type of mood and had bought clothes, my credit card would have suffered far more. Bonus, enough fabric to keep me busy until Easter 2015 :)

Spent most of the afternoon and early evening washing fabrics and shrinking them in the dryer, mine and my friend who has no washer/dryer in her apartment. She visited with her 2 toy/miniature poodles. Kept the cats puzzled, what are those small creatures, not cats wandering around the house?

In other news I finished a red rayon/polyester knit dress yesterday, and am halfway through a viscose knit dress. Dug out a pattern from the mid 90's that I remember had a nice fit to use with a knit.

Today I felt in a fall cleaning mode

I went to carrefour laval to Maison Simons and got a new set of flannel sheets, with snowflakes. I went to Sears and got box spring covers to replace the ripped box spring covers on both guest beds.

Do you know how much fun it is to change a box spring cover with 4 cats, including a hyper kitten? At some point at had the mattress resting against the wall and Jethro decided to investigate and the mattress fell down. You should have seen how fast the cats scattered.

I'm also changing from summer to winter bedding on all the beds, mine and the guest beds. Washed my blanket and both comforter covers.

Leopard Van Doren Vans

I was at the Vans store in Carrefour Laval on Saturday and picked up these funky sneakers to add to my Vans collection.  Two of the guys at work even noticed them today! 

mId winter bleahs

Been feeling like crap for a few days. Could be worse I could have the flu that is going around.   I just feel crappy. I know it  will pass . But it's been making it hard to interview and find motivation at work.

I'm trying to decide if I want to get Lasik surgery as well. My daughter is very pleased with results, and I can still read without glasses, so at least I could get away with driving and spending most time without glasses until I need reading glasses regularly.


It's funny when I was telling someone I was feeling bleah yesterday they suggested I go shopping for clothes. It's what I did Sunday. Spent 3 hours at Carrefour Laval. Went to La Maison Simons, bought pink tights for $2.99 in liquidation. Went to Old Navy picked up funky teal floral print rockstar Jeans, 2 tank tops and a long sleeved hemley for $25 with taxes. Also picked up "Artist" jeans and a dress at American Eagle Outfitters. Then went to Aerie and got a bathing suit. One of the Brooke ones, in a red shade though almost bought a teal one.  Was in a teal mood yesterday.

A little surreal.

This week has gone by so fast it's almost surreal. 

It's Wednesday night and I don't know where the time flew. I didn't really do much of anything this weekend other then to veg out. Went shopping on monday with my gf.  Went to Carrefour Lava [as my gf's auto correct says]. We went early morning around the time the stores were opening. Thank God. By noon we were both ready to kill a few people. 

I swooned. They opened a Vans store in Carrefour Laval. I'll have an easier time getting my favourite Vans. I know there is one downtown and I went once or twice, but their layout was really not conducive in me finding the right shoes. I wonder if there will be a boxing day sale at the Vans store.. Swoon.   I can't explain why I like skater wear, but the past 10 years or so, I wear Vans running shoes and the past 5 years it's been Billabong dresses.  And last summer one of my favourite combo's was the Vans with the hot pink laces, and a Billabong dress with hot pink detail, seen in the scenic photo below.

In August 2013, at the lookout on Mont Royal.

Old Navy had some of my favourite long sleeved cotton tops for $5 a piece. I took 5 home of different colours. The purple, burgundy and hot pink one were v-necks. the Monet blue, and charcoal grey are extra stretchy and scoop neck.

Work has been so busy for me. Usually the week between my interns I have to set up equipment for them.  Anyway I'm realizing many of the systems don't have windows 8.1 on them.  It's quite the task to set them all up.  But trying to make sure each intern has 2 systems available to them fully configured.  Dunno if I will succeed. Maybe they will just have 1 that is and one that isn't that will get rotated out once I have others done.  I have work for weeks, doing it between other tasks.

Not sure how I feel about my Forever XXI bag.

If you look closely at the bottom of the Forever XX1 there is John 3.16 printed. They would not be the first who do this. Not sure how I feel about the practice.

Also not sure how that would fit with Quebec charter.... Something to think about.

More shopping

Spent another couple of hours shopping at the MegaCenter in Kirkland, where the Colosseum cinema's are yesterday. I could not resist getting another 5 pairs of socks for $10 and this Ardene had a completely different selection. Happy I found some red socks.

I went to Winners, I always like looking at the jewellery, and the shoes. I could not resist getting a pair of Hush puppy marijanes in a rust colour. Also go one pair of "Smartwool' socks. They regularly go for $25 in specialized sports stores, got this pair for $10.  They are incredibly comfy and warm, and this pair also had pizzaz. Wool socks are often boring. Also picked up a pair of tights that were partly marino wool.  As much as I hate wearing all this footwear, winter is coming. The last item I picked up at winners was a gluten-free diet and nutrition guide, for $5. Originally a $30 book.

The surprise purchase was a dress and top at Le Garage. The top is pretty cool. Has a neat lacy back insert, and is a nice shade of teal.

 I went to Pier 1 Imports, figured I'd check it out since it was a different location. They had a few of the same wind-chime at the same price I bought mine. They had another wind-chime with dragonflies, but it was all metal dragonflies and I really didn't like it as much. It was even more expensive. But I did pick up some citronella candles for dirt cheap for next summer. Theirs are white rather then yellow. I picked up both a pack of 6 votive candles for $2.08 and a package of 30 tea lights for $2.48. They do have a strong citronella smell, I'm sure I'm going to enjoy them next summer.

After that I went to Healthree to pick up some mayonnaise and a few other items. 

Good deal on a HDHC card

Went shopping with my friend before her surgery. One place she wanted to go was Best Buy.  I was looking for a new mouse, since the 2 cordless mice I have downstairs on one of my old PC's didn't work anymore.  I also looked around for other deals. I was looking at the camera equipment and I noticed they were selling a Sandisk Class 10 32Gb SDHC for $29.99. This sale ends on December 6th.

 I remembered them being more expensive then that. I checked on my Android and elsewhere it's around $75. So I picked that up. When I bought the new Sony A65, I had only found a 16Gb Class 10 card for a good price, in that case it was $15 at Staples.

As for the mouse, I found a $10 Logitech cordless mouse at a discount store on Begin street in Ville St Laurent.  I could care less that it's a model from 2 or 3 years ago. So long as it works and it worked.  I'd rather buy a brand name mouse from several years ago, then a new no-name. Call me fussy.

Visiting friend arrives with torrential rain

My gf who now lives in New Brunswick will be with us for about 10 days. She's decided to come and hang out in Montreal for a bit while hubby is working and has the company of his grand-pa. My gf and her kids don't seem to appreciate grand-pa all that much and I don't blame them.

She was supposed to drive down on Friday but was sick with a head cold and did not think driving 8-9 hours would be a good idea until her head cleared. So she drove down on Sunday. Not only did she get the psychotic weather, which included rain, thunderstorms, hail, ice pellets, storm winds and could develop tornadoes, but she had the misfortune of driving to Montreal on the last day of the construction holiday. Everyone, their mother, and their dog, was coming back from vacation. 

I can foresee shopping in my near future :)