Sewing lessons

 I started to teach my step daughter Zoey how to sew. Her very first project was to make PJ pants, for her grandma for Christmas! She just turned 11 and I remember at that age finding frustration with the fact I didn't have money to buy gifts for my favourite people, like my grandma.  

We started by buying the fabric sometime in mid November. I wanted to give myself enough time because I'm not always patient. I also kept this activity for week-ends when her dad worked overnight, since he tends to sleep half of the day. So it was an activity we could do together while he was sleeping. 

I also wanted her not to feel rushed or feel it's too difficult or feel it was too much. She did all the sewing. I ended up doing the measuring and pinning of the hem and the casing, mostly because it's time consuming, and I can tell by eye 2" but it's a real pain to have to measure it every cm around a waist and I did not want her to get discouraged. 

I only fixed seams that were outrageously bad, unstitched those, but left most of her own seams. So it's not her who did it and me who fixed it. Mostly it was her effort. If grandma looks inside she will see a lot of the mistakes, however on the outside the garment is wearable, especially since one usually wears PJ pants at home. 

I had her put them on herself so she could show her dad her finished project, and then I wrapped them up so she can surprise her grandma at Christmas. 

I cried. I often have the greatest intentions and think ahead of cool things I can do with friends or in the past with my daughters and then often either because of situation or my mood, I can't bring a project to completion and it makes me feel like a failure and a loser.  I was so grateful that I managed to bring a full project to completion and she seemed so happy that I think I've created a new seamstress.   Yesterday she was eying a lot of my patterns. I will have to find a second project, this one making a garment for herself that she can succeed and want to keep sewing.

Cutting the fabric to make PJ pants

Starting to assemble  the PJ pants

Toby helping out with the PJ pants

I  want to sew too!

I like the pink PJ's, I do! I do!

It's that time of the year

I left work at noon on Friday, and only go back to work on the 5th of January.

My daughter arrived by 4pm boyfriend in tow, I was just about to doze off,  was another day where I was feeling on and off.  

Did some cooking that night and on the Saturday.  I would have liked to go to Ikea with my daughter but was not feeling healthy enough. I felt totally drained and the thought of being at IKEA at this time of the year with all the people made me shriek inside.

I stayed home and cooked, my friends came in from the townships on Saturday night and I had a nice time chatting with them and my daughter. 

Sunday most people dispersed and I had the house to myself for a few hours to get ready and finish most of the cooking. People starting arriving around 5:30 and a nice time was had by all

I was disappointed that my new friend did not even stop in briefly at least to meet a few of my friends.  But I could dedicate a whole entry to that topic but it's probably not worth the effort.

The Chile Shrimp was a success as always. I made 4lbs of shrimp and it went like that. Poof.  There was no left overs, in fact some folks didn't even get the chance to get a 2nd serving.

My daughter made mussels, oh they were divine.  YUM.

Tired this morning

I was awake till 2:30 trying to get zen with my sleep.  Before that I was cooking. I managed to make ratatouille and rosemary chicken last night, along with some rice, since I'm having ratatouille for lunch today and tomorrow.

I managed to get kitchen reasonably back clean once I was done since today is cleaning lady day, and I don't want to hunt for my stuff.

I was chatting with my buddy in Ireland when I got home, then chatted with a friend on and off, took a Skype video call from a friend in Ottawa and also talked to my not quite ex husband. It's rare that I spend the entire evening chatting. Was more sociable then usual but it helped me get through cooking.

What I would do without my little Galaxy S4 mini...

Also ran out around 8pm to stop at the bank drive through and pick up a few items I could not cook without. On the way back I came on my street from Pierrefonds blvd, and it's parallel to it for a while. My street rarely gets snow removal so it still had about an inch of snow. I drove the whole length around 35km/hour slaloming while listening to Riders on the Storm. Epic :) 

I'm so duh this morning, but I'm psyched. 2 more days and then vacation till January 5th.

Weird. I just threw up. I have a feeling it's the B complex, sometimes it sits funny on an empty stomach.  It can't be anything else, cause as soon as I was done, the heavy nausea from being starving hit me and I just downed my bowl of cereal and I feel fine, now.

For some reason it reminds me of something that I talked about last night with one friend about the chinese proverb "May you live in interesting times"

Well then it's being interesting!!! 

Yay Facebook.....

So in excess of 80 people wished me a  happy birthday on Facebook, some on my wall, some in private messages, some with cute little videos, some with cute cards, and even an ex with his brothers computer. I should mention even my youngest first cousin took the time to wish me a happy birthday and tell me that we may not communicate much but he loves to follow what I do on facebook. I know how that feels, I love to just know what people are up to and that they seem happy.

Also got a few emails, phone calls and even someone stopped at my door to give me a birthday hug.

Close to 100 people wished me happy birthday. Which was a shitty day, made less shitty by the fact that many people took the time to think about me.

After the big hug from my friend I took a nap from 5pm to 10 pm. When I woke up around 10ish I felt a lot better. Finally felt human. I had a long chat with a friend and went off to bed feeling good, I hope she felt the same way.

Sadly I have yet to cook for my Yule dinner on Sunday the 21st, but you know what? I will come home early most days except for today I have therapist appointment at 6.

I'm going to cook some of the food some nights this week and it will all work out. No point in panicking. ANd I can also cut the menu if I think I can't pull it off. This would stress me out a lot other years not this year.