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.

Sad day

I met Ed Dwyer at my front door when he came to pick up my ex husband for a business trip to the US back in 1991.  A year later in June 1992, he gave me the final interview that hired me at the company I've been working for 25 years, this July.

He has been working for the company for 38 years and was a pillar. He was VP of sales and marketing when I started in 1992 and continued to play various roles in the company. I last saw his car in the parking lot in December.

This morning the flags were at half mast and I realized that it was Ed who passed away.  He will be sorely missed at work. My sincere sympathies to his spouse and children.  Rest in Peace Ed.

How concidental?

Don't know if I've ever blogged about the fact there's a woman in my HR department who is born the same day as me but 20 years later.  She and I have some weird kind of complicity?  Synchronicity. Not sure the right word to use.  She even has 2 children, though boys, 18 months apart!

The funny thing is we are a lot alike and have many things in common. Including a predisposition to asthma and lung problems.  When I told her I had a broken rib, she empathized, she's broken a rib before.I had seen her briefly earlier in the week and she said she wanted to ask me some 'weird" questions.

Turns out that she had walking pneumonia this fall after having laryngitis. Just like me. More interesting even, I'm the 5th person she knows that had both since this summer.  I had strongly suspected that it was the flu that gave me laryngitis that developed into pneumonia.  Now I'm convinced of it.

HR girl was only prescribed antibiotics for 5 days at the Statcare so she ended up with a 2nd pneumonia 2 weeks later.  And then she got the bronchitis with the sinus infection that I had in December during the Christmas holidays with a gastro in between just to make her life more interesting.

I've always said I have a hard time breathing at work. Some days are worst then others, after she came back from New Years, she found it was so dry she couldn't breathe. Ended back at the clinic, where they said she has no infection, but her bronchi is so inflamed from the 2 pneumonia's followed by the bronchitis that she is now on asthma pumps. The red rescue pump like I'm currently using until I see the dr in 2 weeks.

2017 has Lice!

Apparently my step-daughter has lice again.  I don't know how the hell she keeps getting lice?   I managed to survive 12 years of school without ever getting lice.   And I always had long hair.  Kids had lice in my first grade school but somehow never caught any.Neither did my daughters and considering where we lived when they were little, in low rent housing, I guess it's surprising.

My bf got a call from his mother who complained she had lice.  Zoey stayed with her last Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. But the last time his mother claimed she had lice, it wasn't her who had it but her cousin.   However it seems that Zoey claims to have a friend at school that scratches her head a lot.

It definitely seems like Zoey is prone to lice.  I've never dealt with lice ever myself. I was checked and I don't have lice.

Breathing tests at the Lakeshore

This morning I was at the Lakeshore at 8:40 for a breathing test at 8:50. They had not told me how demanding it would be and I had not eaten anything, since these days I eat my breakfast when I get to work.

The lady was very nice, apparently she's been doing these tests with people for 12 years. She was calm and very patient.  Ultimately we had to repeat some tests until it was within acceptable standards and repeatable. Reminded me of QA.

It took till 10AM and at the end I was given Ventolin which makes me nauseous and affects my stomach. By the time the tests were done I felt like I had run a fricken marathon.  In two weeks I go back to the Lakeshore to see the respirologist and I suspect he will adjust the medication I am currently taking.

He was right, I have lots of allergies all the time.  That has been my normal for years.  I guess there was a benefit going to the Hospital for pneumonia vs going to the Statcare clinic.

Free food for those who can't pay

This eatery downtown Montreal has been getting a lot of publicity lately when someone noticed they claimed to feed people who couldn't pay for free. So someone tried it out, and found that yes, they were well fed and treated kindly. Story went viral and I'm reposting it  for 2 reasons.

One the owner of the eatery is Muslim, two, I know that someone who reads this blog might benefit from knowing there is somewhere he can go and get free food, different from place that serves the homeless.

Here's story:

Natural hair colour products.

I've been using this product for years now, using the Terracotta blond in winter and flaming red in summer. Today I bought this one to see if it's any good. I was worried that if I move to Nova Scotia I wouldn't find the other one, whereas this one was found in a Jean Coutu.

Thank GOD 2016 is OVER!!!!

Hopefully 2017 is going to be a better year than 2016. I'm not going to list the crap from 2016 but hopefully this year will be awesome.  I'm hoping that fact that I have festering cold sores in my nose today isn't a bad sign.

I was reading that sometimes people with lung problems end up with cold sores in their nose. THe cold sores arrived after I stopped taking the asthma meds in preparation for the breathing test on the 11th of the month.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017.

Trip to club Tissu

Turquoise dragonfly print, green flamingos flannel, green batik and a lovely burgundy butterfly print

Rayon knits, my favourite for dresses.

My sweetie asked me what I wanted for Christmas and said I wanted a trip to club Tissu in St Hubert. We went december 31st, and they had a 40% off if you bought the end of a roll.

Well as it happens I bought 3 ends of rolls.  One was a DRAGONFLY print, got 4 meters. One was a green flamingo flannel, that had about 2 meters and the last one was a green batik with about 1.75 meters. 

Bamboo dress

I bought this sweet bamboo fabric at club tissu in st Hubert almost a year ago. I agonized for a while what I was going to make with such nice soft fabric. Took me almost a year but I love my new dress and it feels DIVINE. One of the last dresses of 2016

Isn't she a ham?

My grandaughter is growing up so fast. She's sooooooooooooooooo cute.

Pajama Pants. Lots of them

For step-Grand-daughter, Son-in-law, Married daughter, single daughter

For step-daughter & my bf her dad

For bf's sister and mom, and the small ones are for his 2 yr old niece . There is also a blue pajama top for the niece which I forgot to photograph

PJ for Mado :)

PJ for my friend who left Matrox :(

I had my yule dinner late this year, on the 26th.  I made PJ pants for lots of people this year :)

Last piece I made in 2016

I bought in early December either at club tissu or at fabricville some nice knit fabric to make a sweater. Turned out great.

Speak WHITE or suffer the consequences

That seems to be coming a common practice in the US and UK.  Apparently if you speak another language, and people don't understand you, obviously you are saying bad things about them and are a terrorist.

And companies like Delta buy into this garbage. Several Muslims have been kicked off planes because people on the plane are uncomfortable. Seeing that those "MUSLIMS" were doing nothing wrong other than flying while Arab, perhaps it's the people who are uncomfortable who should be pulled off planes. After all they are the ones who are making noise???

I don't understand this mentality of Americans that if you don't speak English, you are obviously saying bad things about them.  It's not all about YOU.  No one cares about YOU. You aren't the center of the Universe despite what you might think.   When an Arabic person calls their mother who only speaks Arabic, they are trying to talk to their mother. Would you call. your mother and talk to her in a language she doesn't understand???   So Adam Saleh was taken off a Delta flight yesterday because some white bitch felt uncomfortable about him speaking to his mother in Arabic. She should have been tossed off the plane with her husband and complaints and stay home next time.   Don't travel if you don't want to meet people who speak other languages. Stay in your own home.

Of course given that Adam Saleh is a prankster it's also possible he fuelled the fact he got kicked off a plane to make a point or to see how far he can go.   Nevertheless other people have been kicked off planes for travelling while Arab.

I live in a French province where people also speak English.  I wonk in a company where people speak all sorts of language. Just around me I hear other then French and English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Arabic, Russian,  Chinese & Japanese just to name a few.  I have co-workers and interns from all part of the globe and when 2 people meet from the same part of the world they like to communicate in the language of their youth.  I don't feel threatened. I don't feel like they use it to talk behind my back.  I've picked up phrases from all sorts of languages and I find it enriching.

She helps

Ziva "Helping" me sew. She loves to sleep on the ironing board. Of course she loves it more because I just changed the cover.

Birthday's leave a lot to be desired.

Never like birthday's. Always feel crappy no matter what happens or who I spent it with. The highlight of the day was the BabyMetal Tshirts I received as gifts. :)

Someone unplugged the freezer.

It's not me.  Of course it's not anyone else in the house.

Except it's only my food in that freezer. SO I had to toss out a full garbage bag full of food. I had at least 10 meals. I had Ethiopian stew, I had chick pea curry and I had a lentil stew and some pea soup in the freezer. Other than that I had tons of vegetable soup stock {used for making other veggie dishes and to season rice} and I had over $20 of meat I'd bought for Yule.  Oh and don't get me started on the 5 bags of frozen fruit that retail for about $5 per bag. Easily lost $200 for food and 10 hours of my time.

The freezer was unplugged by someone who wanted the extension cord.  That freezer can't plug there without one due to the shape of the plug and the fact that the garage door opener is plugged into the plug and goes in same direction.

I'm pretty upset.   It means I have to go find something to eat for lunch and it really PISSES ME OFF. I had food. I'd made food for myself. But it doesn't matter. Now I have none.  I had to throw it all out this morning Now I have to decide what garbage I'm going to be eating at lunch and frankly I have no appetite.



 

Nightshirt

I made myself a long night shirt in flannel. It's really a shirt with buttons that goes almost to my knees and it is so comfy.

Rockstix 2 - The first try

My sexy significant other has been looking into 'Firesticks" to make his drumming more impressive, and we stumbled upon a YouTube video were someone was trying out these Rockstix. I checked on Amazon and they were in the twenty dollar range, which is about the price of good quality wood drum sticks. So I got him a pair so he could try them out.  I'm not crazy about fire sticks with his long hair to be honest and figured this might be just as impressive when played in the dark during a drum solo!

I took a few photos of him trying out the Rockstix and this was his favourite.

Cote du Beaver Hall on a snowy day, with naration!