Fabric shopping

The Fabricland store in nearby Cambridge is closing and all of their fabrics are 60% or 75% off the regular price. I went there today and brought back quite a fabric haul :) I bought three different plaid/menswear-type fabrics and some other great fabrics. Between everything I have, I should have enough for fall/winter clothes. Mostly, anyways :)

I still want this beautiful red poly/rayon/spandex crepe fabric - it looks fantastic and the colour is awesome, but it's $19/m and even at 20% off (which it is this weekend) I can't quite justify buying it. Interestingly, there's also a wool crepe at twice the price, but I don't like the feel, drape, or colour of the wool compared to the other.

I'm also very interested in some fabrics by Robert Kaufman. I love love love the babycord fabrics in the Cool Cords line. There's an apple print that I can find in turquoise and pink; I think I might like the turquoise one a little bit better. There are a number of new patterns in this line due in September and I might see if I can get some then. If I could afford Liberty babycord I'd get that instead :)

I also love the Robert Kaufman GreenStyle Panda prints made of 60% cotton/40% bamboo. I love the white print on black but the green or yellow on white are also beautiful! I'm thinking that I'd love to get some of that and make it up into something. They're hard to resist, aren't they?

Pamidronate day

I got to have my Pamidronate today. Normally what happens is that I get my Pamidronate hooked up and the chemo nurses faxes the home care nurse the time that my port needs to be de-accessed. Wellll, this time, that didn't really happen. I guess the nurse didn't fax the information over until 50 minutes after the port should have been de-accessed. One of the home care nurses had left a message asking me to call her but when I tried, I got an answering machine. But it turned out that I'd called the wrong number (I thought she said "9" and she said "1"), which didn't matter because she'd stopped working by the time I'd called.

So now I have to call the home care nurses the night before I get Pamidronate along with the estimated time that the Pamidronate will be started so that I'm on their schedule and things won't be so hectic. And they want me to call as I'm leaving the hospital so that they know exactly what time they need to de-access my port. Sigh. I don't mind calling one time so that things don't get all rushed and messed up like they did today, but two times? Well, hopefully I won't have to do that forever.

I'm feeling ever so much better - I almost feel like I'm a new person and all better. This comes just in time to get knocked over by Pamidronate, of course :)

I did a little fabric shopping today and managed to get a lovely grey/black herringbone fabric that has a bit of a vertical stripe to it. I also got it on sale so I'm happy with that. This evening, for the first time in a long time, I made some earrings. It's been a while since I've actually sat down and played with my beads. I actually want to make some necklaces and bracelets, too... we'll see how that plays out.

My new glasses are in!

Yep, my glasses came in a whole day early :) I'm really happy with them; they are comfortable and I find it easy to look through them. I still think they look good on me although it's a different style than I've been wearing; they have a darker top than bottom and they're a bit more rectangular. The colours are similar to my old glasses. I also found out that fixing my old glasses won't cost very much so I'm going ahead and doing that, too. Since it won't cost much I'll be able to have a more recent backup pair of glasses. My eyes are -9.25 now and the latest backup I had is around -8 or so.

I rode my bike to and from the glasses place - I should have known that the wind was against me coming back uphill when I could hardly pedal fast enough getting there. It's the first time I've been out on the bike this season and I hope to be able to go out riding some more.

We're heading up to Ottawa this weekend to visit with some friends there. We leave tomorrow afternoon and expect to be back on Monday sometime. I don't expect to be posting while we're gone, so I hope that everyone has a good long weekend.

Getting better

My head is finally starting to feel better. The two lower stitches seem to have closed up that part quite effectively, and the upper stitch is... there. We're not sure that it's closing anything :) The rest of the wound seems to be healing up pretty well with me leaving it open to the air. I hope that it doesn't scar very badly. I have some pretty ugly scars and I wouldn't something that ugly on my face.

I was doing some research and I think that I probably did have a concussion. Some of the articles I read said that a person didn't have to lose consciousness to have a concussion. Seeing stars is enough. Not that there's anything they can do about that, really.Up until yesterday I had some dizziness and trouble reading (the words on the page were moving around when I tried to pin them down). I've also had some headaches. I've been fine today but I'll still talk to my doctor about it.

Today we went and found a new pair of glasses for me. I'd been waiting until I could just put a bandage over the wound (so that I didn't get stuff on their glasses or hurt myself) before shopping for frames. I'm hoping that the glasses will be in by Friday; the lenses come from Montreal and how soon I get them depends on whether they have my prescription in stock. I think I'll be quite happy with the new pair as we both liked the look of them quite a lot.

Wall-E!

We saw Wall-E today. What an awesome movie!!!! I loved it very much (and may have laughed harder in some parts than anyone in the audience) and I highly recommend it for everyone. Even kids. There were a number of small children there, and even the 2-year-old that stood up grabbing the seat in front of him stayed (mostly) quiet throughout. It's a really good movie that can keep a child that young quiet, even though for the first bunch there's next to no dialogue! So go and see this one :)

I was highly entertained by this movie and at the same time, I felt that the movie really made a strong comment on the conspicuous consumption and disposability in our society. I don't want to give too much away but, as you probably know, in the movie the entire planet is covered in garbage and humans go into space so that the planet can be cleaned up. Think about that for a second: the entire planet is covered in garbage?!?!

Ok, so we're not quite covered in garbage but we do have a lot of it! Toronto is currently trucking garbage to a Michigan landfill - 74 truckloads a day, on average, in the first half of 2007. So, umm, how is this good? It gets the garbage out of Toronto but it increases pollution and it doesn't reduce the total amount of garbage on the planet. Unfortunately, as long as there is garbage, it has to be dealt with. And more unfortunately, it seems that we live in a consumerist age where we can just go out and buy things. Does consumerism lead to more garbage? I wish it didn't, but I think it does. After all, we have to get rid of the packaging of the items we purchase.... and if we're buying just to have new stuff, what happens to the old stuff? At least some of it will be thrown away.

I know that many people are working hard to recycle and compost and to reduce the garbage they produce. I wish that manufacturers were taking as much responsibility for reducing waste in the products they make. As an example, they could use less packaging. Why enclose a plastic bottle in a boxboard box? Why are DVDs that are already in plastic cases additionally completely enclosed in plastic wrap? Why do headphones come in that awful ginormous plastic packaging? All this extra packaging isn't needed, really, and is just garbage. I also wish retailers would help and re-use some of their display packaging. Just the other day, I bought some undergarments and they shoved the items including their plastic hangars into the plastic bags. Why would they do this instead of keeping and re-using the hangars?

I think I could go on like this for quite a long time, so I'll stop here. It's getting close to bedtime and if I keep on ranting like this I won't be able to get to sleep.

More things to fit me

I don't think I've mentioned that I bought a bathing suit recently. Yep, I bought this one at Winners. It doesn't look quite like that on me because I'm shorter and wider than the model but I'm very happy with the way that it fits and every time I put it on, I want to keep wearing it. The skirted bottom doesn't look frumpy but gives a bit of coverage, which I like. I think I will bring the top front in just a bit so that I'm not quite as exposed up top.

I'm pretty well finished the major parts of sewing the first vintage pattern I altered and it fits really well. I even put the zipper in (and matched the waist seams!) The only thing I have left to do is the bias binding trim around the neck and sleeves, sew the buttonholes, and hem it - all of this I consider to be "the trim". And I didn't feel like doing this today, so I've started altering another pattern.

I'm working on this pattern, which is another (hopefully better) version of the Butterick Walk-away dress. Apparently the Walk-away dress was so popular that Butterick had to suspend production on all other patterns to meet demand - I don't know whether that's true, but that's what I've heard. I have to grade up the pattern and then alter it for me

I'm not good at buying on eBay

I love to shop; shopping is one of my favourite hobbies. And when I can shop for another hobby (like sewing or making jewelry), well, the fun just doesn't end. Lately I've been bidding on various patterns on eBay and I'm finding myself frustrated when I don't win the auctions.

The optimal strategy to getting what one wants on eBay is to wait until almost the last second and to scoop it up. I've lost a couple of bids because someone else has used this strategy. I know, I should remember when each auction is supposed to end and I should monitor my bids then. I'm not good at keeping track of that kind of thing and even if I were, the auction end time is not always convenient for me.

Personally, I don't find much of a thrill in the bidding and watching the price get higher, or copeting with another bidder. I get my shopping thrills by finding what I want - the search can be the best part, but I love it even more when I stumble across some perfect item in my price range - and then buying it. So instead of bidding on things, I really just want to "Buy it now". Unfortunately, most vintage pattern sellers don't offer this option and so I wind up annoyed by yet another lost purchase.

Patterns need fabric

I guess it's too soon to say that I'm ready to get up early every day. After the last few days of flurried activity on the bag, I crashed today and slept until almost 4pm. I was able to go to the gym this evening, at least, and I know that I'll be up early again tomorrow. I just couldn't do it today.

I've been looking at the vintage patterns I have and I'm looking forward to tracing them out and making them. I've already planned my first dress :) I've got a bunch of patterns coming in the mail, too - I've been compulsively checking the mailbox and walking away disappointed when the patterns aren't there.

I've also been looking at fabric on etsy.... I haven't bought any yet, but I suspect that I will eventually. As some of you know, I loooooove fabrics :) I've found that I have a bit of a weakness for Japanese textiles. I love these cute little robots, for example:



And this alphabet fabric (it's not Japanese, I don't think, but it's cool):



And this origami fabric (it is Japanese):



It's hard to resist the pull of these fabrics......

One way to spend a cold, rainy, long weekend

Since almost everything is closed tomorrow we did some errands today. I have my Pamidronate infusion on Tuesday and they recommended that I use EMLA cream so it doesn't hurt so much. Anyways, I picked that up today; it's available over the counter and it costs $50 (gulp!).

After that we wandered around Home Depot for a while. We're looking at restructuring my sewing room so that we can find things more easily and so that it's more organized. We got a couple of shelves and a 16"x60" frameless mirror that I've been looking for. I have a smaller one but it's not long enough or wide enough.

And of course I'm still sewing. I did finish the front panel of the messenger bag, which is good news. Now onto the rest of the bag so that I can sew, sew, sew for myself!

Core needle biopsy aftermath

The core biopsy didn't hurt yesterday, but oh my goodness it has been very sore today! It's swollen and tender to the touch and is definitely bruised. It also turns out that it had been bleeding last night and so I had to do extra laundry today.

I went out to the yarn store and bought a book on knitting with wire. I thought that was pretty cool :) I also bought some yarn that I'll stick in my stash of yarn-to-be-knit. That pile isn't nearly as big as the pile of fabric-to-be-sewn. That's good because I don't have the kind of space to store that much stuff.

Ian and I are both really tired and so it'll probably be a very early night. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow - I do want to get some more sewing done :)

An appointment day

The core biopsy I had this afternoon was quite uneventful. I told my surgeon, who did the biopsy, that I needed extra local freezing. He gave me an extra shot without even blinking, which I liked - some doctors argue about that, but he didn't. I asked him how many samples he was going to take and he told me that he'd take as many as he wanted :) He ended up taking eight samples.

After that I saw my family doctor and we're going to change my pain medications once again. I'm to up my fentanyl to 125 from 100 and see if I can drop my oxycontin. I hope I can :) I see my doctor for follow-up in about a month.

And what's a day of appointments without a little shopping? :) I'm currently obsessed with the idea of making myself a shirtwaist dress (shirt dress), with buttons down part or all of the front. I love the 50s styles like that but the retro styles in the pattern books usually have a big full skirt which is not so attractive on me (it makes me look shorter than I am). I found a couple of patterns that I can use to make the dress I see in my head, and I also found some other dress patterns.

I did buy fabric but only one length; it's cotton with stylized flowers on it. And I helped two different people find what they were looking for - one was a mom with her daughter and the other a grandma with her granddaughter. It was fun helping them figure stuff out :)

On my way to Mississauga

Shhhh.... can you hear it? The caCAW, caCAW, caCAW at the edge of your hearing? No? Well, I can hear it, but just barely - it's the call of the Winners store and it's loudest when you're near one.

As I was tonight. I'm dog-sitting in Mississauga tomorrow morning so headed there this evening. I had told Ian that I wouldn't be stopping at the Winners on the way to my destination, even though it is my favourite Winners. I meant it when I said it, too. Really.

But then as I got nearer and nearer I heard its caCAW call and thought, "well, I guess I could go in for only 15 or 20 minutes to look only at shoes." I have been looking for two specific pairs of shoes: one black ballet slipper with rounded toe and one that I can wear with pants to walk around in. I've told Ian about my hunt for these shoes before, so he knows that I've been looking for them.

I found both of those pairs of shoes tonight at Winners and both were on sale!!!!! I also found a couple of other pairs of shoes that were on sale that I could have bought but decided to pass up. In the end, I got exactly what I was looking for at a very inexpensive price - clearly, heeding the Winners' caCAW call pays off. I've learned my lesson: if I hear the caCAW call of the Winners store, I'm heading in. Don't try and stop me! :)

A fun shopping day

I got up early this morning to go to the Fabricland in Stratford. Vogue patterns are on sale for $5.99 and I wanted to go through some other discounted patterns and buttons. While I was there, I ran into the friend I went shopping with on Saturday and she helped me look through everything. I ended up getting a bunch of buttons, patterns, and trim on sale. We had a great time.

I took the drum bag to bellydancing today and construction-wise, it's fine. I need to shorten it by an inch, though, as it is a little long. And although the original specs were with no pocket, now I need to add a pocket that will hold a folded sheet of paper or two :) Also, there are some clay drums that are very fragile and break easily. They want bags that have 1/2" padding in them for those. The bellydance term is over for a couple of weeks and I'll have something ready when I go back.

Shopping, bellydancing, and Rock Band

I went to the new Fabricland in Stratford with a friend of mine - I haven't seen her in ages and was very glad to have seen her today. The Fabricland is bigger than the one I go to in Mississauga - in fact, it's about the same size as the Fabricland I used to go to that closed down in one of the malls. I did buy some fabric at 50% off and I'll be able to head there this next week if I want any Vogue patterns for $5.99 (which I probably will).

Even with all that shopping and chatting, I made it to bellydance to practice the choreography for the recitals April 6 and May 11. After that we did two hours of rather intense bellydance heart/chest movements.

I don't know if you knew, but people here were asked to turn their lights off/down for Earth hour between 8 and 9pm. Our sacrifice was to lay Rock Band in the dark with no lights or unnecessary machinery running. Lots of people around us turned their lights down, which was cool. And an even of Rock Band is always fun after a long shopping and bellydancing day.

Mid-Easter weekend

I bought more fabric at Fabricland today. I also got myself a membership there because I shop at that one so often. Ian saw the total price and asked me if that was my spring/summer clothing budget. Ummm, yes. :) We also got some fabric and notions to make drum bags; it looks like the raw materials are about $13 per bag. I'd hoped the bag would be about $20-25, so that'll probably work out perfectly.

I had a huge cry the other night, when my test results came back good. I couldn't stop thinking about how he would have been so happy for me and how relieved he would have been. The thought that my dad isn't going to be feeling anything - that I can't go to him with questions or when I'm worried - made me so sad. :(

A little shopping

So I chickened out of going to my spirituality and healing group today. What with everything, I just didn't want to go.

I ended up going to Fabricland and buying some patterns that were on sale. I looked at some fabrics but decided not to buy any - I have tons and don't need to buy any more. I didn't do any sewing or anything when I got home, though; I just watched tv.

Tomorrow morning I get my port inserted. I hope it goes well.

Saw my surgeon today

I see my surgeon every three months or so right now; in fact, I was supposed to see him on February 14 but what with my dad, I didn't make it to that appointment. He's going away next week and I was lucky to get in to see him before he left.

During the examination, he found a thickening in latest scar (the one from the last lumpectomy in May, 2006, where he removed the recurrence tumour). This thickening wasn't there the last time he saw me in November so he took a fine-needle aspiration sample of it and sent it off to the lab. He'll get the results in about 10 days, except of course he won't be there, so hopefully I'll get the results from my family doctor. The thickening could be nothing or it could be the cancer coming back in my breast.

This turned out to be the straw that broke the camel's (my) back. I'm still dealing with my dad's death, and my friend isn't doing well, and now there's a possibility that the cancer has come back in the same breast. Aaaaarghhhh! I started freaking out a bit. I know it's not the same as worrying that the cancer has showed up in some new organ, but it's worrisome enough as it is and I don't feel equipped to deal with this on top of everything everything.

So I did a little retail therapy. I went to Fabricland and bought lots of patterned stretch jersey and some 70% cotton/30% silk voile in both black and white and some other polka-dotted stretch satin fabric. I also bought some patterns that were on sale for $2/each. I did what I could to save money but I still spent a lot. Yes, I felt a bit better afterwards. I'd walked in a zombie and came out excited about the fabrics. After curling this evening, I washed the fabrics and I picked out a pattern and prepared it. I'm going to sew this weekend.

On Monday, I'm going to call my social worker. As well, my Spirituality and Healing group starts meeting again on Thursday and my Young Women's support group meets on Wednesday this week so I'll go to those. I feel like I need some help coping and as much as I love love love retail therapy, I don't have unlimited funds.

I'd like to pause the world, now, please

When something devastating happens to me, I feel like the world should just stop turning - that everything should freeze in place - until I've dealt with that thing that happened.

When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2000, the day I first met with the doctors was a perfect fall day. The sky was deep blue and the leaves were red, orange, and golden; the air was crisp and the sun was warm. I had a hard time believing that I could receive so much bad news on that one glorious day.

I feel kind of like that now. I'm amazed that people are just carrying on with their lives and that things are still happening. I know this is selfish, but I don't know how almost everyone else can keep going and live their lives when my dad has died and I feel so empty. I just want to withdraw and lick my wounds. I know I can't stay hidden away forever, though - not just because the world does go on and I'm a part of it, but because I have to get used to the fact that things are different now with my dad gone.

I know that I'm starting to heal a tiny bit when I can go out and be amongst people. Today my sister and her daughter and I went out to a fabric store. The store played easy-listening music and every time a song about loss came on I was reminded of the fact that my dad is gone.

I don't know how anyone else reacts in this sort of situation, but right now when I say that I'm reminded of my loss, what's happening is that I am flooded with sensory memories: I can see what happened and the smells and sounds come back and whatever I felt then pours over me, intensifying the ache I'm already feeling. It's an overwhelming experience at.

Today, instead of trying to shut off the radio (or screaming to block it out or running from the store), I'd stop what I was doing and just stand there aching for my dad while trying not to cry. I guess this is some kind of progress.... but it'll be a while before I'm healed enough so that I don't experience this sensory overload. Or have to fight the urge to cry.

A little shopping and sewing

I did a tiny bit of shopping today after getting my hair cut. I tried things on that were $7-10 plus 30% off, but I didn't like the things well enough to buy them. That's kind of a shame because it's rare that I get things so cheaply :)

I can hardly resist going into stores and looking at stuff but I am getting better at not buying things. I was on a bit of a spending spree for a while there and now I'm choosing to buy very little. Realistically, I have most of what I need for the winter and the summer, and I have a ton of fabric with which to make things.

Speaking of which, I still haven't finished the dress I'm working on. I finished sewing the collar and front piece on today - it took three or four tries. I ended up hand-basting it in place which is not something I like doing, but there was no way to get it to stay still under the sewing foot. I just have to trim it and apply the facing, then insert the zipper and finish the center back seam, and hem the dress. After that, I have some hand-work to do. I hope to finish it by Friday - if I get up early enough tomorrow, that should be possible.

Something like productive

I had to get up early today so I set two alarms. It worked! I was up on time. Yay!

I filled my day with aimless wandering from store to store. Remember the dress I'd been trying to fix up for the wedding? It didn't work out, although I never posted that. I made a critical error and had to abandon it :( Well, an identical one was marked down to $19 so I bought it and will try again :) I also bought more sew-in rhinestones on a shirt. And I bought some stretch satin fabric on sale in some new colours.

That was really all I bought, which is pretty amazing considering the number of stores I wandered into. At one point I was looking at this gorgeous lace sling-back peep-toe platform stiletto JLo shoe in my size but I couldn't find its mate no matter how hard I looked. It's a store that has all of its inventory out so the shoe should have been there somewhere. I guess it's ok that I didn't find it because it wasn't cheap. But it was gorgeous.

I also didn't buy the other pair of JLo shoes I tried on that were marked down to $31. I loved them but they hurt my baby toes so I passed them up. See? I didn't buy a lot of things today. :)

Since I shopped pretty much all day, I didn't sew. I am hoping to sew tomorrow.

Etsy shop things

Members of the Jewelry on Etsy Team are setting up a couple of buys for the team at different suppliers. Going together on a purchase means that we're able to get the deepest discount on the products which is quite nice :) I'm in need of sterling silver chain in certain sizes and I've been trying to figure out where I can get it the cheapest. I think that I've found a supplier from which I can get relatively inexpensive chain. It's not cheap, really, what with sterling silver trading at $15/oz.

I'm also looking at possibly changing my photos for my etsy shop. Not all of the current ones are good; I'm not happy with the pink or purple backgrounds, for example. I'd like the pictures to feel warm, with warm-coloured backgrounds. I need at least three different colours: a light one for non-light earrings, a dark one for non-dark earrings, and a medium one for everything in-between. I'm not sure what the best colour would be - any ideas?

I'm thinking of going with fabric backgrounds, but my first tries didn't work - the fabric weave created a moire effect in the thumbnails and I wasn't happy with that. I do have some microfiber fabrics and some velvets that might work better. What do you all think?

A last little bit of shopping

I realized today that the only other purse I'd brought here, aside from my everyday one, was a cute little red plaid number. While it is an adorable purse, it doesn't really go with anything... so I bought two silver purses today. One is very simple with just rings and magnetic closures, and the other is a hobo-style (sort of) with that silver mesh stuff. It is big and it is shiny :)

The smaller purse is nicer for more formal wear, I'm sure... but part of me is completely in love with the other purse, and not just because it's shiny. It's big and will hold a ton of stuff - the other one will hold only a small wallet, keys, and maybe some lipstick. The big one would hold shoes, even :)

Other than that tiny bit of shopping, I didn't do much of anything today. I'm trying to take it easy because tomorrow my family celebrates Christmas. I'm a little bit nervous about it, even though we're not doing the activity about which I ended up crying. I'm also sure it won't be as bad as last year's bad parts or the year before's bad parts (I wasn't blogging then).

I'm trying not to think about how things could go tomorrow as I'm trying to let go of the outcome - things will go as they go. When I'm thinking about tomorrow, I'm actually spending quite a bit of time on thinking about what I'm going to wear. That's my happy place :)

Shoes, glorious shoes

Since I bought that great dress yesterday, I had to go out and see if I could find some shoes to go with it. I went shopping today for shoes and have bought two pairs.

You see, I found pair #1 - cream satin stiletto heel, cream mesh sides with some silver sparkle, and an open toe - which were comfortable and I thought that they might be nice, but I wasn't sure. They were on sale and so I figured that the price was right but I didn't want to buy anything that wouldn't be useful. I'm sure Ian is very proud of me for having learned to show some restraint in shoe-buying :)

Anyways, I put those on hold and continued my search. I found pair #2 - strappy leather silver stiletto heels - which looked good and felt fabulous and I thought they might be nice, too, but again I wasn't sure.

So I bought pair #2 and went back and bought pair #1. Both pairs can be returned as long as they're not worn outside and I thought I would look at both and return the ones that didn't work as well. Pair #1 is the kind of shoe I usually buy: it has nothing on top of the foot and so my legs look longer. This helps me to look a little bit taller than I am. :) Pair #2 has straps on top of the foot and fastens behind the ankle, which is not what I usually buy, but since the dress is ankle length I thought the straps would "fill-in" my foot below the dress.

I brought them home to my parent's place and tried them on with the dress. Pair #2 is the winner!!!!!

But now I don't want to return pair #1. I have had occasion to want shoes like this, and they were quite inexpensive. I have another beigh-y high-heeled shoe but they're a little on the small side and so my toes go numb after about 20 minutes. Today's pair #1 would work with just about any knee-length skirt or dress, which is what I usually wear. I'm going to sleep on it and make the final decision tomorrow about whether to keep pair #1.

If you're interested, this is pair #2. Pretty, aren't they? They look even prettier on my feet :) I can't find a picture of pair #1 as they're made by the house brand of the store where I purchased them.

Boxing Day shopping

Today being Boxing Day with lots of good sales, one of my sisters and I went shopping. We weren't really shopping for anything in particular; we just like looking at stuff and trying things on for fun. My sister made me try things on that I would never try myself.

One of those things was a gorgeous red satin/crepe bias cut dress (gown?). It has a very slight cowl neckline, a spaghetti strap on one side, and a thicker twisted fabric strap on the other. The dress is divided into panels so that it has a mermaid effect and the bottom has quite a lot of swing. The crepe side of the fabric is used over the mid-section so that it does not shine and highlight the lumps and bumps I have there. At the same time, its satin shininess at the top and bottom help to draw the eye away from the midsection. It is gorgeous on me :) Honestly, I think it looks better on me than on the mannequin in the picture, partly because it is a little longer on me. I did think about this dress for a long, long time (and walked around in it - people I didn't know gave me compliments!) before buying it. I paid less than half-price (including tax) :)

I will need shoes for this dress - certainly better shoes than the one on that link above - and my sister and I will be on the hunt tomorrow.

I also bought a cute black dress with white swirls on it. It had an elasticized belt with fake patent ends - the belt really makes the dress look fantastic. Of course I remember the last time wide elastic belts were in and I wasn't sure that I wanted to give in to this same trend again but the dress was way too cute to pass up. It was 50% off and it can be worn in the winter with tights and in the summer with bare legs. Accessories will also dress it up or down.

Finally, I also bought a red top with chiffon and velvet paneling and some beading just under the bust. It is here (in red, not cream or black). It fits really well and looks awesome and was also 50% off.

So.... I bought more than I'd planned but I love love love love love love love everything I got :) Next up: shoes!!!!

Even more shopping

I did a bit of shopping today. I know, I know, I don't really need to buy anything, but I had to exchange something (I got the wrong thing by accident). Naturally, since I was down there and the buses were running at random times, I thought I'd do some shopping.

I didn't actually buy anything until I got to Winners. It's winter now and I need some warmer tops. I don't always want to wear sweaters because I get too hot sometimes, and blouses need ironing. So I bought some long-sleeved tops that are quite nice and inexpensive.

You may also remember that yesterday I was wishing I had sew-on rhinestones? Well, I found a black cardigan that has sew-on rhinestones on the collar and placket at Winners!!! I think that there are enough rhinestones for the dress.... and even if there aren't, I'll be able to make it work somehow. Plus the cardigan was pretty cheap and I might be able to use it once I take the rhinestones off. Yay!

More shopping that I can shake a stick at

Today I shopped from 11:30am until 5:30pm and I'll tell you, that much shopping is exhausting. Most of the shopping was for Christmas gifts but I also spent time getting some fabric - I wanted some white chiffon to line the dress I'm making, and I got light and dark heavy flannel for bags - and looking at Winners. I was there, and it's a hard place to resist :)

So I'm almost done my Christmas shopping. Yay!!!! I picked up one wrong thing by accident so I'll return it tomorrow if the weather is ok and Monday if tomorrow is bad. I'm hoping to spend the bulk of tomorrow sewing and sewing and sewing. Well, except for the part where I'm eating a yummy prime rib roast that we got on sale today. Lucky me!

Pain, pain, go away

I saw my family doctor today because the pain in my sternum has been steadily increasing. It used to be that if I was awake for about 12 hours in a day I'd take the oxycontin three times in the day and if I was awake more than 12 hours I'd take oxycontin four times in the day. Lately I've been taking oxycontin four times every day and that's still not enough to keep the pain under wraps. Sigh.

My doctor gave me a prescription for the Fentanyl patches again. We're starting with the lowest amount in hopes that it will take the extra pain away. If it works, I'll be upping the fentanyl and decreasing the oxycontin until I'm off the oxycontin completely. The only stumbling block is that I get welts under adhesives.

I talked to the pharmacist and apparently the fentanyl patches come in two generic versions, each with their own adhesive. Some people end up tolerating one brand over another (I'm not the only one with the adhesive problem). I'm trying one now, and if it doesn't work I'll try the other one. If that still doesn't completely work, I'll pick the one that works best. Reactine (an allergy medication) comes in prescription-strength and the pharmacist thinks that taking this should counter the allergic reaction to the adhesive (if I have one).

So even though I'd had those problems with this pharmacy before, I'm glad to actually know my pharmacist because she knows my situation and she tries to help me.

When I put the patch on, my pain did lessen. And I got kind of dopey :) No driving for me for a little while.

Oh - and remember that I wanted tall shoes? With a platform and stiletto heel? Well, I'd seen this pair of shoes a few months ago, tried them on, and loved them. They were $70, though, and I didn't really want to pay that much. Since then, I've been thinking about those shoes and looking for them everywhere. Tonight, I finally found them in my size and I bought them! They have a platform and a tall heel - it's not a stiletto, but it has a very strong heel. There's a tiny peep-toe in front. They're a pump and the front has rows of black sequins. The back and heel are patent leather. Yummy! This page shows them in brown, but those pics don't do the shoes justice at all. Imagine them with black patent leather, please :)

A whole lotta shopping

We decorated our Christmas tree tonight. Yes, for the first time, we bought an artificial tree. It's a 4 1/2 foot tree with a pot (so it could sit outside) and has mini-lights on it. Our decorating scheme is blue and silver, so we have silver bead garland and silver and blue balls. It looks nice - I'll try and take a picture of it for you.

I've done a lot of shopping lately. I bought a backup New Year's Eve dress as even though I plan to make a dress, if it doesn't work out for any reason I want to be able to wear something. I got this dress, and I got it at a great price because it didn't have the sash. I don't need the sash anyways because the dress it looks nice on me as-is. The best thing about this dress is that it is a little black dress (LBD), which is something I didn't have before. LBDs are the right things to wear on many, many occasions; they are a wardrobe staple.

I also bought stuff for bellydancing. I got two beaded crochet scarves, a variety of headbands, some big sparkly earrings, some more sparkly hair stuff, and some shoes that I can wear. Some people are wearing slip-on slippers from Isotoner but I don't really like those. So I'll wear shoes that are at least as comfortable as those slippers.

I also bought a beautiful polka-dot shirt and two blouses that fit me really well.

Whew! I'm done with shopping for me. Well, except that there is this longing inside me for new shoes. Tall ones. With a platform and stiletto heel. Sigh.....

Anyways, tomorrow I'll finish my bellydance skirt. From now on when we go to class we're supposed to wear whatever it is we'll be wearing to the recital. The recital is at 7pm on December 14 in Cambridge. Tickets are $7 in advance and so if you're interested in attending, please let me know soon so that I can buy tickets for you.

More stuff for my crafts

Everything is on sale at the Fabricland in Mississauga at Dundas and Winston Churchill. Everything. Fashion fabrics are 30-50% off - even silks and woolens and everything. I spent a couple of hours there and bought a number of fabrics.

I'm also in the mood to do some sewing - not just to finish this bag or for New Year's Eve but for fun - and I got a ton of patterns today. They were on sale, too.

With Ian's help, I was finally able to take photos of the new earrings I've made. I'll be listing them in my etsy store over the next few days. I plan to have a sale on the weekend, too - just in time for the holidays.

A slow but ok day

I felt more refreshed today after all that sleep yesterday, although I wasn't at all excited to be getting up today. However, I'd missed the last two swimming classes and I really wanted to catch up. My instructor says that I'm doing just fine and that it looks like I've been practicing :) I talked to her about when I should be going to practice. I wouldn't call what I do "lane swimming", but it isn't really "public swimming" because I'm swimming back and forth in the shallow end (with breaks). So I should be going to shallow-end lane swimming :) There appears to be shallow-end lane swimming most days of the week.

After swimming I did some shopping; I picked up all sorts of Halloween things at 75% off. I got pumpkin scraper and saw sets for $0.24 - an awesome price, really :) I also got some stuff that we could use next year, if we wanted. We'll see. It's good to have options.

Shopping recovery

I guess all that shopping in Toronto takes a toll on me - I slept until 1:30pm (after the clocks were turned back) this afternoon and then had another two-hour nap a couple of hours later. I'm still really tired and will be heading off to bed soon.

This probably means that when I plan big trips, I have to make sure that I have time to recover the next day. The most exhausting part was walking around and shopping at stores on Queen Street. It involved a lot of walking and contortions to look at fabric in some of those stores; my feet were starting to hurt by the end of the day.

I'm still glad I went yesterday because I got some great stuff, but I didn't go shopping today as planned. I'll go tomorrow or Tuesday instead.

Fabric shopping!

The best part about learning to bellydance is doing a recital at the end of term. I'm learning two choreographies; one with the veil and a second, more complicated one, without a veil. We've decided in the second class that we'll all wear red tops and black bottoms and that none of us will match that way. We figure that if we all have the same belt thing around our waists that our looks will be pulled together.

Since I'm not working, I volunteered to do the belt thing. My classmates want fringe and metallic mesh in either gold or silver. I checked the local fabric stores but they don't have any fringe so I went fringe shopping today in Toronto.

I started with my favourite fabric store, Designer Fabrics. They have a lot of fringe :) I wasn't sure what length of fringe to get but I figured that since the belt thing will have only one tier of fringe, I could go with a longer length. I settled on 10" long fringe in gold. It's not metallic but it looks gold-coloured enough.

I went to a few other fabric stores after that and got some gold mesh fabric (it won't be enough, but it's a start)... and then I started shopping for me :) I bought some teal knit fabric, some green rayon jersey, and some red knit fabric. I am a sucker for a four-way stretch, I'll tell you :)

I'm not exactly sure how I'll do the belt thing. I think I'm going to have to bring the fringe at least around to the front so that it doesn't just stop and look weird. I could also trim the fringe so that it angles up at the front so that it doesn't look so weird. I'll have to think about this.

Magazines and shopping

The second magazine I subscribed to - Fashion - arrived today. It had three perfume inserts, and I've emailed them and asked for perfume-free issues. Elle Canada did respond and I will receive non-stinky issues of that magazine beginning in January. Whew! I am prepared to cancel any subscription that can't provide scent-free issues, but I do like reading those magazines :)

I went shopping today, and would you believe that I didn't buy any clothes? Yep, it's true. I did go to Fabricland and buy some fabric, though :) They have a lot of fabric on sale - their silk charmeuse is 50% off, and Vogue patterns are only $5.99. I didn't buy any of that. I bought some black stretch crinkled velvet and black knit for bellydance skirts, and I bought some swimsuit lining and flesh-coloured stretch mesh for bellydance costumes.

There were some beautiful fabrics there... a stretch berry red crepe that I loved, brushed yarn-dyed cotton plaids, embellished velveteens, corduroys, houndstooth fabrics... I love them all. Unfortunately, I have no real use for any of those fabrics :( If I bought them, they'd end up sitting there and wouldn't be made into anything.

I need more pants

Remember I bought new pants because I'd gained weight and my old pants didn't fit anymore? Well, that must be a surefire way to LOSE weight, because most of those pants are now a little bit to a lot bit too big :) The jeans are definitely too big and I don't like the colour of my other jeans. In the hopes of finding nice jeans that fit, I spent the afternoon trying on pants.

You know, I love shopping, but a whole afternoon of trying on pants and having them not fit is less fun than my usual shopping experience. I tried on 10 pairs of pants at Mark's Work Wearhouse and bought one pair that was on sale and that fit. They have some amazing jeans there - some of them have something called "CurveTech" that is supposed to make your butt look full, firm, and high. What it is is a layer of strong mesh inside the jean but it wasn't strong enough for my butt, I'm afraid. I'm not sure that there's anything short of surgery that could make my butt look any of full or firm or high - and certainly not all three at the same time!

I tried on another 18 pairs of jeans at Winners, which was basically everything they had in my size in that store. I had no luck at all there :( The only thing I came away with was a scrapey mark on my left leg from their theft-marking device. Sigh.

I hope to look at some other stores over the next little while. For now, I'm back in Mississauga and so I'll do some more relaxing here.

How much sleep do I need?

After my swimming lesson, I went shopping at H&M. This time, I got four non-black jersey shirts, although it took me two hours to do it :)

Once I got home, I had a nap, intending to get up in time for Well-fit. Unfortunately, I didn't get up until four hours after Well-fit started... oops. It's not like I didn't go to bed last night; I got 10 hours of sleep which should have been enough. But no, apparently I needed another six hours tonight. I hope I'm tired enough to go to bed at a reasonable hour :)

Looking for some colour

Ian let me sleep in all the way until noon today! I felt quite rested when I got up. I could barely type my blog by the time I was finished it last night - I started going to sleep right there, and I fell asleep really quickly when we went to bed.

After dropping Ian off in Mississauga this afternoon, I went to H&M. I'd planned to get some tops that weren't black as most of the tops that fit and look nice are black. Don't get me wrong; black is a fine colour. Worn every day, though, it's a little much. I tried on a ton of things there and ended up buying five tops: a fuchsia and white t-shirt, a black cropped cardigan with big silver polka-dots, a beautiful black blouse with white polka-dots, a grey jersey shirt with a black pattern, and a black, white, and grey jersey shirt. Hmm. That's four black tops by my count :)

I'm going to return the two jersey shirts - they're like t-shirts but not in the same kind of basic t-shirt pattern. They're nice, but maybe I can find something that's less... black. :)

Shopping and swimming

I got to go shopping again today! My friend needed shoes and we were able to find the perfect pair for her :) I also bought myself the cutest little red plaid purse. I thought about getting the similar clutch but I wouldn't have been able to fit anything in it and it didn't have silver threads in the fabric. I can't wait to get everything moved into my new purse :)

I also had both swimming and Well-fit today. Wow, that's a lot of work. Swimming is hard because I don't know what I'm doing and I do things inefficiently. There are supposed to be two other people in the class but neither of them showed up, so I got a private lesson. That worked out ok. She was able to really give me detailed instruction which was quite useful. I won't have lessons next week and so she wants me to be sure to practice swimming at least once a week outside of class. Hopefully I'll find some time to do that.

A good shopping day

I went to the Oasis bead show today. I didn't buy very much: an 8" strand of aquamarine faceted hearts in graduating sizes (only $35 - that sort of thing usually runs about $100), two 16" strands of freshwater pearls in silver or grey, an 8" strand of tiny blue sandstone dice, and an 8" strand of snow quartz cubes. I really don't need that much because I have quite a lot of beads, and I didn't want to spend that much. I'm very pleased with my purchases. I especially love the aquamarine; it's my birthstone and I'll have to make something for me out of those beautiful stones :) I'd be happy to make something for someone else, too, of course - let me know :)

After that I went shopping for a dress. We're going to a wedding in a couple of weeks and I always like to have something new to wear to those sorts of things :) I ended up buying this dress in red. Even though that link says this dress is casual, it's really pretty and I think it'll be fine for the wedding (especially with a cute black jacket over it, which I already have, and a red hat, which I have).

The colour is gorgeous! The dress has a swingy skirt and a cute top. It isn't all that well made - the cute swingy skirt has parts that need to be re-sewn with elastic. I also need to shorten the top bit and I'll do that by taking it up at the shoulders. However, overall I'm very pleased with this dress and think it looks really nice on me.

I already have shoes that I can wear with it. I have my tall red patent sling-backs that match it and some red suede flats that match it. I also have some black shoes that would work, and some nude-coloured flats that would work. So sadly, I don't need to buy new shoes for the wedding.