Fabrics Galore

I must say, The Club Tissu in St Hubert, on the South shore of  Montreal is something else It doesn't compare to the one in Laval. I spent $215 on fabrics, and bought 21 metres. So roughly $10 per metre.

However 2 fabrics were expensive, the dragonfly batik @ $15 a metre and the red bamboo rayon print,which was $17 a metre.  That means $85 was spent on 2 pieces of fabric or 5 metres..   Another way to look at it is that I left with 10 pieces of fabric. All those fabrics not for babies will make 1 item of clothes and baby fabrics may make 2 - 3 pieces of clothes. So for $215 I will be able to make probably around 15 different garments. I had picked up 2 fabrics at the Club Tissu in Laval on Friday. A green with flowers quilting cotton, and a flowery rayon knit.

Bamboo knit

Dragonfly batik

Quilting cotton @ $5 a metre

Quilting cotton @ $5 a metre

Rayon knit half price

Merino wool knit - some pinkish red solid print

Orgasm Equality

Interesting read

I feel sorry for women who run into these type of men. Glad I don't have one in my life. 

It was just one of those days.

My sweetie works night shifts at the hospital, and usually when he does he goes to sleep when he gets home and I call him around 2PM to wake him up so he can go get Zoey at school.

Yesterday like usual I started to call at 2:00PM, By 2:13 PM he hadn't answered and instead of the phone ringing now it was going to voice mail. So I tried my house line. Seems my house line is hosed. It's acting like it's off the hook. Looked last night, could not find a phone off the hoook. Can explain why internet has been flakier then baklava the past week. Maybe my house line has been chewed by the fucking squirrels again.

I messaged him a few times, via email, with messages like "Please call if you are awake, as I cannot reach you".  And the last one around 2:25 was "I'm coming to wake you up, please advise if you are awake"

I had Julia drive me home and when I got home, saw my truck in driveway and felt the hood. I knew he was asleep. Ran in, didn't even take my boots off, ran to wake him up. The look of horror on his face when he saw me because he knew  I'm not supposed to be home. It was 2:45 by then, and he flew out to get Zoey.

I knew if I could not reach him by phone that neither could Zoey and I didn't want her to feel like she was forgotten.Yep his phone had died. It had recorded that I called him 16 times. I had also sent 3 emails and even Julia had texted him. Zoey had also tried to call him 11 times. 

Much thanks to Julia who took time out of her busy day to drive me home.. 

Jalie T-shirt pattern

I realized this morning that I own this Jalie pattern for both making hoodies and Tshirts, including for nursing. So I will be making a nursing top for my daughter with this pattern as well.

This excites me. Probably because there are only so many dresses I can make for myself :)

Here fishy fishy fishy

Finally got distilled water for my fishy lava lamp. It's so adorable. It's sitting next to the swirling vortex lava lamp.

It's starting....

Guess what I be making :)

Knitting, FTW

This guy appears so Zen with his knitting. This is a random photo I saw on Facebook

and just LOVED the fact it was a man who is knitting and dressed completely in knits :) .

Bye Bye Hush Puppy!

I found out After new years that the Hush Puppy store in Carrefour Laval closed down. I was devastated. I love to go to the Hush Puppy store. It's not the same looking at the shoes online and the stores that carry Hush Puppy don't carry all the models. 

As far as I can tell there are no longer any Hush Puppy Stores in Quebec.

So excited to have a grandchild coming

Despite the fact I have tons of babies patterns I don't have any to make cute summer onesies or diaper shirts.  Those are so practical.

So I've been hunting down patterns. So far I want to pick up this for sleepwear for the baby. Then I ran into this pattern and was drooling....

Then there is this Jalie pattern just for what I'm looking for...

Would you believe Jalie have a pattern for making socks????

What happened to 99.9 The Buzz????

It used to be a rocking Alternative station, where I could hear the Chili Peppers, Avenged Sevenfold, Sublime, Jane's Addiction, Nirvana, and other awesome bands. It was a station whose market was visibly young men, from teens to their late 20's. Some of the DJ's jokes were tasteless but it went with the territory and type of music being played. I know I'm not the demographic this station is trying to appeal to, but now it appeals even less.

Lately the music is far more mellow and seemed aimed perhaps at getting a female market. Sure the music they play is "alternative" but it seems so mellow now that sometimes I wonder if I'm listening to pop or easy listening. They play Elle King's X's and O's.  Like it was a pop station. Don't get me wrong I like that song from Elle King, but she is not an alternative musician. Her style as per wiki includes COUNTRY, soul, rock and blues... 

Half of the time I'm puzzled and ask myself what station I'm listening to.  Used to find CHOM FM sucked because it only played classic rock and a limited selection. I find CHOM plays a better selection of rock then The Buzz plays Alternative that I like these days.

Cotton knit

On  my way out of Winners I spotted this and it had to come home with me to wear over summer dresses.

Dashing through the snow.....

So we had an adventure this morning on the way to work.   Trying to avoid a snow removal truck, we landed in the front lawn of a nice man living on Arragon on the corner of Namur. We hadn't even had time to try to get out of the snow bank when a passing car stopped to ask if we were ok.  We waved her off.

The man who's front property we landed, kept asking if we were ok. Like a good Canadian I kept apologizing. Lucky I'm not dating George of the Jungle and we didn't hit the tree!!!! However there are bits of fir tree all over the Suzuki still...

Thank you to the CAA that were there within 10 minutes of my call to pull us out of the snowbank.

Some days it's just better if you stay in bed.   Where I'm spending the rest of the day!

Another nice sweater

Found this oatmeal coloured cotton sweater at the boathouse at the Halifax Mall. According to the sales girl, it was on the hanger maybe half a day. I got the only XS  :)  This will be nice to wear this summer.

First dress of 2016

This dress was made with a thick double cotton knit in bottle green.  It fits well and is extremely comfortable.

American Eagle Artist jeans actually fit me properly!

I realized this week-end that there is one style of American Eagle Outfitter jeans that fit me well, even around the thighs. They are the artist jeans. My other pairs were so big it was hard to tell, but a few weeks back I found a pair of Artist size 0 jeans at value village, and those fit almost as well as the Silver Jeans the Tuesday fit.  I wonder if they make shorts in the artist type..

Love my new container

I went to the old Navy in Halifax while I was at the Halifax Mall. When I was waiting at the cash to pay for my coat, I found this container for salads that I really liked.

Most of the time I bring veggies to work, occasionally I bring them elsewhere, and always realize I forgot to bring myself utensils. This has build in utensils for when I'm stuck. I love the fact I can either put just cut vegetables with a dip like Hummus, or I can put elements of a salad and then toss it together at the last minute with salad dressing.

cauliflower was EIGHT dollars....

I like my cruciferous vegetables like the next guy but when I saw $8 for one head of cauliflower before Christmas, I was stunned.  It's crazy shit.  I suspect the price of the Canadian dollar has some impact on the price of vegetables. And if cauliflower was $8 in Montreal, it was obviously $20 in Iqaluit.  It will be some time yet when I make grilled cauliflower in the oven.

I'd like to wash my hair today...

I've been liking Jason products for hair care in the past few months. It started with the tea tree oil shampoo for my dry  scalp then I picked up some for long hair that was epically delicious smelling, and he loved it for his long hair so we're trying out the different Jason hair products.

So last week I stopped at Tau to pick some up since they carry all the other Jason products and could not find Shampoo or conditioner so I asked staff, and got told "Oh Jason products for hair are special order". So I told my SO we were going elsewhere to buy shampoo. So the clerk at Tau runs after me and says "M'mam, Please let me take your special order of Shampoo", to which I responded "I'd like to wash my hair today, not next week". That made my bf giggle big time.

I can find the Jason Shampoo at Bulk Barn and at HealthTree. The only reason we went to Tau is that they didn't have the long hair version we wanted at Healthtree, but we ended up getting a different set at Bulk Barn.

I'm going to be a Grand-ma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's a baby bump!!!!

That's a glowing pregnant Samantha!

Even Odin is excited!

Bought Bra's online....

While I can't get perfectly fitting bra's when I go to the store, I've realized that Aerie actually carries my size, but I must order it online. Turns out as a 50 year old I now wear bra size 32D.  Sadly manufacturers seem to think that if you have a 32 rib cage you must have no boobs. Both my daughters also need a size 32 band, but with even larger cups. For that you have to buy at specialty stores.

It's stupid. Even a tiny girl like me does not properly fit into normal bra sizes found in all stores on this size of the pond. I've been stuck buying instead 34C's and 36B's so the cup fits and I have to work making the strap smaller. It's really stupid. Don't understand why bra manufacturers don't realize there is a world beyond DD cups and there are sizes below 36....

I really feel for Zoey. She's 11 and she has boobs bigger then mine.  It's going to be hell for her to find bra's most of her life....

Lice

Zoey spent the time we were in Nova Scotia in Montreal with her grandmother. We realized today that she might have lice again. Her grandma pointed out she was scratching in her sleep.

I so feel sorry. She had lice treatment 3 times last year that I know of. I've been there when 2 of the treatments were done.  Of course I've also had my S.O. check my  head for lice because he's so paranoid that his daughter will give them to me as well.

So today we spent lunch together and he went to the pharmacy to ask for the prescription lice product, which costs $75 as opposed to the over the counter product which is about $20 but seems to not work very well on some resistant bugs.

We aren't sure if she caught them from school or from her grandma's home. Her cousin had lice as well in the fall and he spends a fair amount of time at Grandma's. She spent 7 days at Grandma's over the Christmas vacation so who knows.

She is now lice free, her room is lice free. We've been delousing the house to make sure they don't come back.Though my head was itchy and just writing this post is making it more itchy, I had no lice. I've never had lice. My S.O. think it's because my hair is too fine, no where for the lice to hide. Could very well be. 

Life's lttle ironies

Despite the fact we made it home for the 30th around 11 am, and he was home on time for his night shift overnight the 30-31st, when he left for his shift around 10:30 on the 30th, he made the big mistake of taking Highway 40, the TransCanada to get to work.  Due to the 30 cm of snow that had fallen the previous day, the highway wasn't very nice and an accident happened. He was stuck  unable to get off the highway for over an hour.

By the time he got to work, they'd found a replacement.  It was one of those rare times he didn't have his phone with him so couldn't call to advise them that he was on his way.

So he was back home at 130 AM in a mood.

Ironic since we left Nova Scotia 12 hours early to make sure we would be back in Montreal on time for his night shift!

Finished them late New Years Eve

These are the last 2 dresses I made in 2015. One is with a rayon print with poppies. I bought it the week before Remembrance day, hoped to make the dress for November 11th, and then failed miserably. The other is made with a Navajo cotton knit

Remembrance day dress

Navajo Cotton print

Goodbye 2015. Please leave the building now!

Thank God 2015 is coming to an end. I always liked the number 15 being born on the 15th, but 2015 was a crappy year overall.

The first day of 2015, I woke up to the death of a favourite co-worker. Two weeks later, I find out an acquaintance has lost her son to suicide, he was only 14. While most wouldn't understand why it affected me, it did because I suffer from deep seated social anxiety and have had suicidal ideation. It really did my head in. I really empathize with this person over her loss. I can't imagine what I would have done would it have been one of my children.

Then came March and my uncle's death. From that point on I had a hard time leaving my home, and was like that for months.  I knew I suffered from some anxiety, I hadn't realized how much social anxiety I suffer, and was diagnosed to have Generalized Anxiety Disorder or GAD.   Until that point, my therapist I'd been seeing over 4 years hadn't realized it.  I mean he knew I had some anxiety but I don't think he ever suspected I had as much anxiety as I do.

Between missing 3 months of work, arguing with the insurance that I was sick and arguing with the Quebec Gov't over my taxes, it's been rough financially too.

I also lost several friends in 2015 for all sorts of reasons, but some years are like that. I tend to have some drastic changes in my life every 10 or so years, where my entire life situation changes and everything is different. 

The only good to have come out of 2015 was meeting my new significant other, that I have been dating now for 8 months.    Otherwise, 2015 was a crappy year.

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!

I have the most awesome daughters!

As I age and mature I feel better inside my head, but I still struggle with my past. It was refreshing to spend time with my 2 daughters during the Christmas break.

For starters I have 2 beautiful, intelligent, independent and articulate daughters that are totally awesome. I love the fact they have a beautiful friendship. I've never had siblings, and sometimes I envy the relationship my daughters have with each other. It's cute to watch them talk back to one another or even bicker like an old married couple. It's sweet how they help each other out and how they treat one another. I watched Samantha teach Isabelle how to make cookies.

Both in their late 20's they are reasonably well-adjusted and pretty autonomous. Samantha's few years full time in the military helped her grow into the young woman she is, and the two years Izzy spend in London definitely had a huge impact on who she is today.

While I know I had a big impact, being at home full time for 6 years with the girls when they were little, I also know that their dad, his wife Sylvie, and even some of my long term friends like Debbie also had an influence  on the people they became today.

I'm very proud of both of my daughters and admire both of them and of course I love them equally because they are equally as awesome! 

Nice Weather driving in Eastern Canada

Highway 102 earlier in the day we left

We left Beaver Bank around 8PM on the 29th.  The weather news had a snowstorm calling for up to 30 cm of snow for Montreal. We also had calls for 15cm of snow in Halifax and in Fredericton. We figured if we gave ourselves 24 hours, my bf could make it back in time for his hospital shift over night between 30 & 31st.

All you could see was snow, more snow and lots of snow

The drive home took 15 hours and it snowed heavily through Nova Scotia and most of New Brunswick. In fact only place it didn't snow hard was in Quebec, but there was a bit of snowfall around Quebec City. However snow or no snow falling, the roads were full of snow and ice because of the storm.

Quebec City at dusk as seen from the 20

We were really lucky. We never saw one moose, not even a small one on the side of the road.

Last day in Beaver Banks, Nova Scotia

Odin wanted to be in the photos

That's a sweet Zeus

I like to Rock!

Izzy puts Zeus on her lap.

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.

Odin and Zeus

Ball

But mom!

Celeste, all grown up

Odin, isn't he cute

Zeus with beautiful brown eyes

Zeus and his puzzled look

Walking in the snow

My eldest has 2 goofy young dogs that are adorable. Odin is a tailless wonder with spectacular blue eyes. Zeus is an anxious sweet dog, with a very sweet temperament and he LOVES to play ball.

So Random

Christmas doggies....

I would like what you're having. 

I'm a pretty boy!

Dancing....

Peggy's Cove Christmas day!

lighthouse at Peggy's cove

At Peggy's Cove, wearing a new top I made a week earlier.

Peggy's cove

Hamming it in front of the lighthouse

In front of the Atlantic Ocean

Peggy's cove rocks

Me and my babies!

Driving to Halifax

Today Izzy, my bf and myself drove down to see Samantha in Beaver Banks, which is part of the Halifax regional area. We chose to drive a day where it was foggy in Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Took us 13 hours to drive in the fog with minimal pit stops. One of the things we saw just before arriving in Lower Sackville was a bird flying across the road, and upon first glance I thought it was an eagle, saw black bird with white.  When we saw the bird closer it was a raven carrying a tissue in it's mouth.

New dresses in December

Two dresses made earlier in December. The red & black one was made using a Jalie shirt pattern, and the other one was a McCalls. Both dresses are in soft rayon and feel awesome.

Gifts oh my....