Red carpet dresses!

I got to watch a 2 hour red carpet show for the Screen Actor's Guild awards. My need to see beautiful (and ugly) dresses has been satiated for a while. Whew! I feel a lot better now. Normally no one pays attention to these awards (certainly not their red carpets, at least not live), so it's a bigger event on tv than it usually is since the Golden Globes were cancelled. Apparently the writers gave a waiver for this SAG awards so that the it could go ahead. No word on whether the Oscars will go through.

In other news, I've listed my first bracelet. Someone bought some earrings and wanted a bracelet to go with them. The bracelet photos aren't my best ones, but that's ok. I hope the person likes the bracelet; personally, I love it. It looks really nice and I think I have just the right amount of darker accent beads to make it interesting.

Going to the movies

We saw Cloverfield today. It was awesome!!!!! It was also very scary and Ian had to hold my hand to make sure I didn't dissolve into a puddle of fear.

It starts with these people at a going-away party, and things go quite quickly straight to hell. As something is destroying the city, we follow the guy videoing the party and some others until they can't video any more. I found it very realistic - if things like those landed in Manhattan, people would react the way they do. They'd do stupid things, they'd scream, they'd hide, and they'd run. There's no soundtrack other than what we see onscreen and the sounds are right - the metal on metal, the buildings coming down, everything is real. It's like you're the one doing the filming, which makes it a more visceral experience than it might otherwise be.

It doesn't have a traditional Hollywood ending - the ending is less happy than traditional Hollywook movies, although it is much more fulfilling.

I'd strongly recommend this movie if you love scary movies like I do - there's not really any gore or violence but it manages to be suspenseful and quite frightening all at the same time. This is one of those movies I'll want to see on DVD because I'd like to see it again to figure more stuff out.

A slow day

I didn't do anything today.

Ok, that's not totally true - I worked on the dress I'm making. I stopped when I put a piece on backwards/upside-down. It actually fit that way but it wasn't right, and at first I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Now I know and I hope to fix it up tomorrow.

I also received a request from someone who recently bought earrings for a bracelet to match them. I'm pretty excited about this request and am looking forward to making the bracelet. I think(hope) that it'll look really nice when it's done.

And... that's it, I'm afraid.

Thank you!!!

Thanks very much for your thoughts and comments on the new photos! I really appreciate all of your help. I have to sit down and sift through the comments and stuff, and I expect to work on that this weekend. I meant to do some today but I slept in until 3:30pm so didn't have much time for anything.

Tomorrow if I'm up at a decent hour (and I should be because I need a doctor's appointment for some prescription refills), I hope to finish the dress I'm working on. It would be nice to be done with it! :)

Oh and by the way, the earrings in the second column of the earring photos are high-quality aquamarine stones; they are a very light clear aqua gemstone. They look completely colourless a lot pf the time with a hint of light aqua around the edges. Therefore, ideally, some light aqua colour should show up in the photos. If you look at the original listing for this pair, the ruler photo shows the aqua colour quite well.

Photo comments

It turns out that I can allow comments for the album and for individual photos of the backgrounds :) You need to be viewing the photo (not just the gallery view) to add a comment for that photo.

Feel free to add comments to the individual photos about what you like and don't like. Once again, the photos are here. Thanks very much for your help - I really appreciate it.

Edit: Photos have been rearranged so that the earrings are in columns. Thanks for the suggestions :)

Non-boring jewelry news!

I found an online source for surgical steel wire. I love the round earwires in this pair of earrings but I can't buy them anymore so I have to make them. I figure if I'm going to make them in sterling silver then I could make them in surgical steel, too, so that those of us with sensitive ears could have stylish earwires, too. I may also be able to make instead of modify surgical steel earwires for some. Yay! I'm looking forward to the wire coming in.

In even more exciting news, I have finally finished taking and editing photos showing some jewelry on different backgrounds. I chose four pairs of earrings that are difficult to photograph and photographed them on all of the backgrounds. I ended up getting rid of some because there was a moire effect in the thumbnail.

I'd like to ask for your help now. Can you please go and have a look at the photos over here? I need to choose at least two and preferably three different backgrounds. I'm only looking at replacing the first "arty" pic in my jewelry item listings as I'll keep the black hanging and white ruler pics. I just want an initial thumbnail for my earrings that makes the items pop more in a list of thumbnails.

So, which backgrounds do you like best? Not every earring is going to look good on every background - that's why I need several backgrounds - and so if you like specific background/earring combinations, that's ok and I'd like to hear about those, too. Please leave a comment or email me with your preference. I will consider all of your responses before making my final decision (and before re-taking all of my pics). I'd appreciate any feedback you can give me. Thank you for your help :)

Nothing much, I'm afraid

You know how some people have nothing to say, really, and write blogs anyways? I'm feeling like that today :)

Seriously - I'm still working on the dress and vacillating back and forth between contrast fabric banding for the sleeves and neck. I've cut out several different possibilities and I still can't make up my mind. I've left samples in the sewing room so that the next time I go in there I can be surprised by all of them again. Hopefully one will jump out as the best option.

And I'm still taking photos. I'm about to try and edit about 40 of them: 10 different earring pairs on 4 different backgrounds (well, 3 - one of them developed a moire effect at this close-up range). I'm using a wide range of earring styles and components to really get an idea of how things will look if I use them.

Robin, you might be the winner - the backgrounds I'm looking at are different shades of cream and brown :) The darkest brown is handmade paper and it has sort of a reddish cast so it's quite warm. We'll see - I still have a lot of photos to edit :)

More and more photos

I'm still working on the photos for the items in my etsy shop. The light source over the jewelry brightens it considerably. I'm also photographing the items with the camera almost resting on the table on which backgrounds are sitting. This gives the photos depth and interest.

I'm still figuring out which scrapbook paper will make the best backgrounds. I have a great cream colour with some very faint swirls and stuff on it that works for a LOT of the earrings. I'm also looking at some other brown or tan papers and an aqua paper (all with faint patterns) that might work as well.

All of this photography is pretty tiring, that's for sure. I haven't edited any of the latest photos but I'll do that tomorrow and post them somewhere. After I do whatever sewing I'm going to do tomorrow, of course :)

Thanks! (and more about my etsy photos)

Thanks for your comments, everyone. I like the crispness of the photos and I do like the darker backgrounds. I've managed to add an additional Ott-lite to the front of my lightbox that brightens up the ambient light and item to be photographed. This definitely is making a difference in my test photos.

I don't think that the dark backgrounds are going to work for all of my stuff, though, as much as I'd like it to. It's really hard to get the right aperture and shutter speed for pictures on the really dark backgrounds - I'm finding that the background colours aren't staying true but are being washed out.

Michael's has a sale on most of their scrapbook paper so I bought a bunch today in different colours and patterns. The one we like the best so far looks sort of like sand. It's tan with some different shading in it and that's probably why it works for different colours. Plus the fact that natural colours or backgrounds tend to look good with a lot of things. It seems to work for some colours. The lightest-coloured earrings do need a darker background, though (they're still not popping off of the sand colour) so we'll go back tomorrow and see if I can find some darker browns.

Thanks again for all of your opinions on this: I really appreciate your help. When I have a few more test photos I'll put them up for you to see.

Oh - I've left the Jewelry on Etsy Team. I've been thinking of doing that for a while and since they left my name off the roster recently, this seemed like a good time to actually leave. Honestly, I've felt consistently ignored by the leaders and that the team wasn't doing much for me. Also, the organizer behaves badly in the etsy forums and has been muted at least twice from the forums for poor behaviour. Hopefully I'll find a team that is more suited to me.

Etsy shop photos

I'm still trying to think of ways of re-do the photos on my etsy shop. Not that my sales are suffering; I'm actually getting sales from people I don't know. But I think that my photos could be better. Someone has suggested using quilt batting but I'm worried that they would come out too grey - although it might work.

There was also a thread about this on etsy, and there are some tips there: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5419864

I've been looking at etsy and trunkt sites that I like. Here are a few:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5472288
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5043503
http://www.trunkt.org/client.listing_more.cfm/id/1452
http://www.trunkt.org/client.listing_more.cfm/id/2940
http://www.trunkt.org/client.listing_detail.cfm/id/1482
http://www.trunkt.org/client.listing_detail.cfm/id/718

Looking at these, they all have solid-coloured, muted backgrounds. Some are grey to black as well. The lighting in these is very similar in that they each appear to be using at three or four lights and at least one is a direct light. Right now, I'm using indirect lights only.

So what do you think? Any ideas as to how I could make my jewelry pop in photos?

More sewing

I found a great site today from Burda. They have free patterns and people post their creations and talk about them and stuff. it's called Burdastyle and if you like to sew, I'd recommend this site. I actually posted a couple of the dresses that I made two summers ago. When I finish the dress I'm currently working on, if it works out, I'll post it, too.

So far the dress I'm making - Simplicity 3559 with the long sleeves in a grey stripe - looks really great and I'm hoping it'll work out. The pattern doesn't call for it, but I'm lining the dress because the fabric I'm using is quite lightweight and could use some body. It's also a bit itchy so the lining will stop that.

Ian's home today - I'm so happy to see him again. I like being on my own but I've missed being able to see him.

Growing up too fast

Today the Tyra Banks show (I watch it semi-regularly)talked about the trend to "hooking up". Apparently it's where people get together and do some amount of sexual activity. We used to call these "one-night" stands back in the day, but I guess you can't call it a one-night stand when kids as young as 11 are the ones getting together.

Yeah, they're starting young these days. Apparently "hooking up" can be anything from kissing to oral sex - performed by the girls on the boys. These kids are doing things they can't possibly be emotionally ready to do. Sigh. How can kids be growing up so fast?

I was searching the internet on this and came across the first chapter from Tom Wolfe's book "Hooking Up". It's worth a read - it says everything that I'm not eloquent enough to say, and puts this in curious perspective.

To sleep, perchance to dream

I'm still sleeping quite a bit - today, I got up at 3pm after attempts to get up at 10am, 11am, 12noon, and 2pm. I guess I just need all of that sleep.

I have to say, though, that sleeping that much isn't all bad because when I sleep that long I have really great dreams. They're the kinds of epic dreams that go on and on and on and on - it feels like they go on for hours or days. Some of them have scary situations but most aren't that bad.

A lot of the time it's like I'm living this other life - that I'm someone completely different - and I'm just going along and living. It's like reading a book or watching a movie, in a way, except that it feels more real because dream-me is doing things and the things are happening to dream-me. The storyline of these epic dreams seems to be fairly logical and people react mostly normally. The only thing that is really odd or dreamlike are the buildings and landscapes, and they're only odd because I haven't seen them before :)

The dream-emotions do tend to be very strong, as do some of the visuals. Some of those emotions and places can sort of carry over into the next day and that can be very weird.

I think I have a better understanding now of how Coleridge could have dreamed up Kubla Khan :)

No Golden Globes for me :(

Tonight was the night that the Golden Globes awards ceremony was scheduled to air. Since the writers are still on strike, they did a press conference instead. I totally support the writers here, because I do think that they should be paid for their work that appears in any media, not just TV or movies, and I think they should be paid DVD residuals. Film and TV are so much more than just a TV or movie theatre nowadays, and writers should be compensated for the new media.

But I'm still sad because I love awards shows. I love looking at the dresses, seeing who's wearing what, the shoes, the jewelry, the makeup, and the pageantry of the event. I'm not going to watch the live winners announcement because it's faster and easier to just read it online. I don't watch the shows for the winners. :)

Even sadder is that instead of looking at beautiful people in beautiful outfits, I had to watch Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. It's funny and cute, and the song at the end is hilarious, but it's not the kind of movie I'd necessarily choose to watch. And it's definitely not a replacement for the Golden Globes.

I very much hope that the writer's strike ends with a fair deal before the Oscars.

An interesting meeting

I slept in again today - until 3:20pm! I was meeting a friend for coffee at 4pm and I made it :) I was 5 minutes late but my friend was later so that was ok. While I was waiting, there was a woman at a nearby table. She looked and sounded familiar to me. When she got up to leave, I interrupted my friend (who was there by then) and asked if I knew her. Apparently I didn't :) She said that she had been admiring our clothes and so we talked about that a little bit, and she left.

My friend and I continued chatting when all of a sudden this woman came back. She'd overheard me talking about someone I know who has bipolar disorder, and she apparently has it as well. She wanted to know if she could talk to me sometime. I gave her my card and asked her to email me and that I'd be happy to talk to her.

I know that some people might say that it's dangerous to give some stranger my card, but the card only has my email address and phone number on it, as well as my etsy shop. I guess I figure that if she was brave enough to ask to talk to me, I could make a little time for her like this. Email isn't much of a commitment, really, and I don't need to put a lot of energy into such a relationship. Besides, my intuition said that it was the right thing to do. I don't expect to hear from her, but who knows?

Sewing issues

I ended up not feeling well again this afternoon. I had leftover curry last night, and the other day that I wasn't well I'd had curry the night before, too. I'm beginning to suspect that my body doesn't like my curry :(

Since I wasn't feeling well, all I did was some sewing: I sewed a simple top together. There's something weird about it, though, because the collar doesn't look anything like the collar in the picture, and I just can't get it to sit right. The top has a wide neck and the collar kind of stands up on it. The collar is a big rectangle with one seam at center back sewn to the top neckline. It folds over horizontally so that it's only half as thick as the finished collar but there's no provision in the instructions to tack it down or anything and it won't stay folded down. It also has a very strange gape at the back that I can't seem to fix no matter what I've done so far.

The best way to fix the gape is probably to heighten the back neck and shorten the collar, which is a major alteration. I'd also have to re-sew the top. An alternative may be to re-shape the collar at the seam at the back. I'm wondering if decreasing the width of the collar at the top where it's supposed to fold over might work. I'll have to see tomorrow.

I tell you, it's kind of frustrating to work on something and follow the directions and then have it not turn out right. I think that there might be something wrong with the pattern. This does happen, I hear.

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.

More and more sleeping

I woke up early to see Ian off - he's away for the next week - and then went back to sleep. I'd planned to sleep until 10am or so and ended up getting up at 4pm. The Ritalin only keeps me awake all day if I wake up to take it. :)

I ended up feeling kind of icky this evening so I suspect that I may be trying to fight something off. To that end, I'm going to sleep some more. Until tomorrow...

Sewing, sewing, sewing

I'm still in the mood to sew things for myself. I know I should be sewing bags or something but right now I really, really, really want to sew clothes, not bags. Today I managed to get a couple of small things done and a jersey top pattern cut out and ready to be sewn. I want to sew a particular dress - I've been planning to make it for quite a while and am really looking forward to it being done - but my waist measurement is ridiculously large due to pre-Christmas eating. I know that it will decrease over the next few weeks as my eating returns to normal and once that happens, I'll make this other dress.

Over the next week or so I'll sew a few more things. I have so many patterns and I want to make so many things... and I do have a lot of fabric in my fabric stash, after all :)

Eventually I'll get bored or frustrated with sewing for me and I'll go back to making bags. I have great fabrics for bags that I'd like to use... I just don't want to sew them this week. Of course if someone orders something I'll drop my own sewing in a heartbeat to sew the order up :)

I am getting sleeeeeepy

Some days I get up at a reasonable hour, and some days I sleep almost all day. Today was one of those latter day; I slept in until after 3pm, which means that I got about 16 hours of continuous sleep. That's a lot of sleeping.

I had this idea that I would get up at 10am or so and do things all day. That isn't how things worked out, though. Some people complain about being shaky after a nap and that's a lot like I feel when I sleep really late. Like them, when I sleep as late as I did I'm not able to really do anything for a while after I wake up. I wasn't able to start doing anything other than sit and surf the internet until 5pm. So I didn't do much today.

I do feel well-rested (although I am tired as it nears bedtime) so I think that I will be able to be awake earlier through the rest of the week. I guess I just needed a lot of sleep last night.

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?

Scary movies

I Am Legend is a very, very good movie. Will Smith is alone in most of the movie and he is able to carry it - there are no boring parts in this movie. The premise is that there's an event that wipes out most of the population and leaves the rest violent at night. Except for Will Smith, of course, who is immune. Much of the movie follows him in his daily activities.

I found the movie very, very scary; I was shaking with fear for most of it, which worried Ian because he could see that I was scared and he didn't know what to do. I don't actually remember being that scared at any movie ever before. Intellectually, I know that part of my fear was built up by the sound and music, but there was an instinctive part that was scared. As Ian said, the movie does a good job of balancing suspense-scary with "boo"-scary.

This movie is rated 14A but I wouldn't recommend it for children. There isn't really any gore or violence - it's pretty much all implied - but it could be quite scary. I'd recommend this movie to adults - although I was scared, it is really an excellent movie. Will Smith is alone for most of the movie and he really pulls this off; I hope he's nominated for something during the award season.

Later on, we watched a recording of Jesus Camp, a documentary that showed on tv. That movie was disturbing and scary for other reasons. It's about kids 5-13 years old who are evangelical Christians and go to this evangelical camp. I don't much care about which religion people belong to, but I don't think that kids that age should necessarily be indoctrinated in the way they were.

I do think that they were indoctrinated into this religion because no other points of view were expressed to them. During the camp, they were asked to come forward and share their sins publicly, with all of them crying. That's not really normal, is it? Later on, those kids were going up to people on the street and doing things like telling them that Jesus loves then and they could go to heaven. Personally, I don't think it's right to ask or permit children to do this.

One of the people who spoke to the children at this camp was an anti-abortion activist who taught them some slogans, put tape on their mouths, and led them to an anti-abortion stance. And led them to do a demonstration in Washington, DC. Again, I don't think that children - who barely know anything about sex and abortion anyways (of course they're told that it's murder, but without opposing viewpoints) - should be taught this sort of thing, let alone be allowed to protest.

The documentary did a really good job of showing just how far these extreme right-wing evangelical parents and churches are willing to go to use their children. In a way it was sad to see, because those kids have no idea what other viewpoints are out there. At the same time, it was frustrating because those parents and those people running the camps are using the children. It just seems so wrong - aren't children supposed to be innocent? What will happen to these children when they get out of the home-schooling environment and get into the "real world"?

This documentary is interesting and I'd recommend it. As Ian says, the scariest thing about it is that some of the people in the film will think that they're being portrayed in a positive light. They're not - at the end, what these people do to those children is appalling.

Almost normal

For the first time in a long while, I got up before my alarm like a normal person! I was awake at 9:30am and I didn't even have a nap today :) Not that I did much with my day, of course - mostly, I tidied things up in my jewelry area. I had a couple of sales that came in while I was in Edmonton and I got those shipped out today as well.

It looks like different people are planning some group buys from different places. This might b good for me as I need sterling silver chain. I don't have that much right now and I really need more of it. Before I order, I have to figure out which vendor will have the cheapest rates for what I want (or which ones have what I want at all). I'd like to start doing more necklaces, and those need chain. Hopefully I'll be able to get the chain I need at a reasonable price.

Home again

My flight was almost 2 1/2 hours late leaving Edmonton; I guess the stormy weather in Eastern/Atlantic Canada caused delays. I hung around the airport and read magazines, so the time wasn't a complete waste :)

The plane was only an hour late coming to Toronto but it took almost 45 minutes to get bags. Apparently there was only one baggage person working on that side of the terminal and so it took a while to get my suitcases.

Once I got home, I slept all day. I'm up now but I expect to sleep again soon.

Homeward bound

I've very much enjoyed my stay here in Edmonton but it's time to go home to Waterloo. My flight leaves later tonight - I'm all checked in and packed and everything and I'll be heading out in a couple of hours.

I got to visit my other sister this afternoon :) We wandered around one of the local malls, poking into the stores and chatting. It was a very good visit and I enjoyed spending time with her. I'm so glad that I got to see her before I left.

I stayed at my parent's house this time and I felt really welcome here, which made my visit here much more comfortable - thank you! I've really enjoyed your company this last week and so I will miss you both very much. I'm glad that we got to spend as much time as we did talking and visiting. I'll also miss the rest of my family and my friends. I was able to see everyone and while the visits tended to be a little short, I was happy just to see you all and check in.

Thanks, everyone, for making my visit awesome and memorable. I'm looking forward to seeing you all next time :)

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a great time last night while bringing in the New Year. My friend and I ended up getting all dressed up and going for dinner. The dinner was very yummy and my friend and I had a great time - we both also decided that we each had great company in the other :)

Dancing was supposed to start after dinner but didn't like the music so didn't dance. We did look at all of the outfits and we did see that there were some interesting outfits there. Some of those even showed two sets of cleavage! Others barely contained their wearer, and still others were not at all dressy. Looking at the hair people had, it seems that the rise of clip-in extensions is most likely going to bring a modified mullet back. What else can happen if you have hair shorter than your chin and you slip in 10" or longer extensions on the back and sides?

The music was hip-hop and since I don't listen to it all the time, I wasn't familiar with everything they played. There were a lot of hip-hop listeners there, too.... and I wasn't totally comfortable around them. It seemed to me that the men looked at the women as though the women were pieces of meat; that they didn't appreciate the women's curves because they belonged to women but because they liked the curves. And the women allow them to look at them this way, which I thought was sad.

Of course I haven't been in a club in a few years and some things are different - like almost all women take their drink and purse on the dance floor (it isn't safe to leave them behind). This makes for a very strange dance for some, mostly involving shuffling feet while simultaneously pushing the butt out and nodding the head. I also noticed that many people use their cell phone to take a photo of themselves or their friends (or random strangers) doing, well, anything. Aside from the fact that I don't like camera flashes, I'm not comfortable with the lack of privacy this rampant picture-taking implies.

We left that club at about 11:30pm. We figured that we shouldn't ring in the new year in a place where we weren't totally happy - it's better to leave those places behind and do something else.

That something else wound up being the fireworks in Downtown Edmonton. I guess the fireworks we saw last night will be the last big one for a while. It seems that the fireworks' launch pad is on property that will be developed this upcoming year. The fireworks were amazing!!!! There were swirly ones and big blossom ones in multiple colours! (I only remember those in at most two colours). If we'd had a slightly better view and a real camera instead of a a camera-phone, then we could have taken some amazing photos. The fireworks were reflected by some of the mirrored buildings and I think those shots would have been cool.

Overall, I'm glad I went out with my friend and I'm really happy with the way things ended up going. We had a good time and I'm hoping that this will be a reflection of the upcoming year.

I wish I could wave a magic wand for all of us that would make the illnesses and unhappiness out there disappear. Since I don't know when that wand will appear, I will settle for wishing that 2008 brings me, you, and yours an abundance of joy, good health, and peace.

New Year's Eve plans

My New Year's Eve plans almost fell through :( The first plans were to go to this one event, but the person who was supposed to get tickets didn't and they sold out. The second plans were to go to another place, but the person who was supposed to get tickets apparently thought they were dance-only (instead of dance+dinner) and so didn't get any. Sigh. The lesson we learned was "do it yourself" - if it's important that something be done, sometimes yu have to do that thing yourself.

Fortunately, my friend was able to get tickets for the dance+dinner tomorrow. Whew! It turns out that the suggested attire is all-black or all-white semi-formal wear... but I'm going to wear the red dress anyways. It doesn't say that it's a "black and white party" - only that the suggested attire is black or white - so I figure that I can wear other colours there.

Hopefully it'll be fun tomorrow. My friend and I figure that we shuold try to stick it out until midnight, unless we really don't like the music or it's super-lame... in which case it'll be fondue and movies at her place. In our fancy outfits :)

My family Christmas

My family Christmas went really well - certainly better than the last few years. Yay! The saddest part was that one of my sisters was much to sick (and apparently contagious) to attend and so she and her family drove back to Southern Alberta today. We all missed her and her family a lot.

When we got there, we chatted and nibbled on food a bit, ordered Chinese food, opened gifts while nibbling on food, chatted more, and ate Chinese food. After that, everyone else chatted while I slept on the couch. I think I had nibbled and eaten too much and my tummy felt upset. For some reason my body told me to go to sleep, so I did.

When I woke up about an hour later everyone was chatting and stuff. It was really nice.

I felt really welcomed by my family and it seemed that everyone else there felt the same way. I hope that this is the beginning of better Christmas celebrations for my family.

Oh! In case you were wondering what I decided to wear to the celebration, I wore my new red top and my long stretch-velvet mermaid skirt that I made for bellydancing. I wore some great Cubic Zirconia earrings, a grey headband with rhinestones on it, and a sparkly silver bangle. I looked quite nice, if I do say so myself :)

And just to clean up something else - I am keeping the extra pair of shoes (pair #1) that I bought the other day. They'll be useful.

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!!!!

Merry Christmas!

I am flying out to Edmonton tonight and will be leaving for the airport in a little while. I have had a great time here in Mississauga - I got and gave great presents! Thank you all!!!

I've been doing some thinking and reading some posts with advice about how to protect myself. Of course I'm responsible for how I feel; that's part of me. But if at any time - during any event or gathering of any people - I'm finding my feelings hurt, I can tell the person that my feelings are hurt and I can walk away. I don't have to stay around anyone that I feel is hurting me. I know that this is obvious advice, but it's something that I never really felt like I could do.

I am not singling out any one person and I'm not saying that any one person will try to hurt my feelings. Since I had been feeling so hurt and scared, I wanted to share my thoughts and plan with you.

I love each person in my family so much that I'm very much looking forward to seeing my family at our Christmas celebration. I haven't seen them in some time and it will be nice to see everyone.

Christmas Eve

Santa comes tonight! I hope that all of you that celebrate this holiday give and get fabulous presents and that your celebrations are filled with joy and laughter.

I can't stop crying

I cried uncontrollably all day yesterday. I took three tranquilizers to try to stop crying and they didn't work. I'm feeling somewhat better now but am ready to cry at the drop of a hat. How silly is this? Christmas is supposed to be happy and I'm supposed to be enjoying myself. I'm celebrating Christmas in Mississauga with Ian's family and then I'm going to Edmonton to celebrate with my family.

So what's wrong? Well, it has been a really bad year for me and so I'm very emotionally fragile. I'm looking for a chance to visit, to see the people I love, and to enjoy myself. Without going into details, I suggested some proposed "ground rules" for one of my family's proposed activities that included things like people be respectful and not sarcastic during that activity. People very strongly objected and the rule now is that people can say whatever they want and if someone else is hurt or upset, they are not to say anything.

Every time I think about being a part of this, I cry and cry and cry. I love my family very much and I would love it if the people in my family weren't mean or sarcastic - but they can be (just as I can be). I'm too fragile to walk into a situation where it is possible that someone can be mean with no consequences.

You know what's worse? There are people that would say that this is my problem and that the gathering isn't all about me, so I should get over it. Which is sort of true, I guess - my feelings are my own problem. But if someone says something to hurt my feelings, then I need to be able to tell them that I was hurt by their statement. According to the rules for that activity, I can't do that.

Help!!! What should I do? Is there a way to protect myself in this situation?

The dress is a sack

I've been working on my dress lately, and I've come to a sad realization: it's not working out. I look like I'm wearing a silver potato sack, actually - and no, this is not the look I'm going for. Wah!

Honestly, the dress can be/will be a glorious dress! My problem is two-fold: the front needs more design ease and the back needs less ease and to be shaped a bit. I have a similar dress that almost works and I'll use that as a mode; to re-shape the dress.

Since I won't have much access to sewing machines while I am away, I must finish these major changes tomorrow morning. So I'm getting up around 6am.

Hair poufification

Ian's company holiday party was this evening at a local restaurant. It was a casual affair where everyone wore jeans. The food was ok; our only complaint was that there were too many people for the available seats and so we were squished together while eating. We were allowed to play pinball and pool for free.

They also bought Guitar Hero, which I tried. I didn't think that it would be that fun of a game, but I was quite wrong. It's great fun!!!!! I would have liked to play more if people hadn't been around. Maybe another time.

You're probably wondering what I mean by the title, aren't you? Well, those of you that know me know that I have very flat, fine, straight hair. It doesn't take a curl and even if I put in a curl, it will fall out quickly. That doesn't need to be the case for me anymore :)

I was wandering around the drugstore and I saw some Goody "volume" curlers. These are curlers with a fuzzy outside that sticks to hair, and there are 31 curlers in various sizes in a pack. The directions say to start with damp hair and add curl-enhancing product in it, so I dampened mine and put in some curl-enhancing gel I had.

I put the curlers in and blow-dried my hair. The directions said to let the hair cool for best results, so I left the curlers in for 2 or 3 hours while I was sewing. When I took them out, my hair was the poufiest it's ever been. Ian was quite surprised to see just how ginormous my hair was an hour and a half later :) I ended up smoothing down the back and putting my hair in a hairband. Now, 5 hours later, my hair is finally settling down. Had I used any other product on my hair - normally I would have put some pomade or shine stuff in - it would have stayed poufy.

Don't believe me? See the pictures here. I had to brighten most of them (we were in a hurry to head out to the party) so they're not great but you can sure see all my hair. It's good to know that there is hope to get poufy hair for those of us with fine, straight hair.

Trying my hand at domesticity

I spent the day at home doing domestic-type things. I sewed quite a bit of the dress and have decided to make a few changes. I had raised the armhole and it needed to be lowered a bit, so I've done that - now I just have to re-do some of the understitching. As well, the gathers in front and back go all the way across the front and back and I think they'd look better if they were more central. So I'll change that (I may even pleat it instead of gathering). On the bright side, the dress does look nice and the colour is perfect against my skin.

I also managed to do the dishes and make supper. These are things I don't do every day (well, most days) and so need to be noted :)

Ian and I made some cookies this evening. We made the chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies that everyone (including us) like so much. They turned out really well. It looks like we're finally figured out this oven because the cookie bottoms aren't burned or over-browned at all (not even the first batch!)

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!

Snow day

There was a snow storm in Southern Ontario last night through this afternoon and so I spent the day lazing around. Well, I did some sewing since I'd washed the chiffon lining I'd bought, and I took some photos of new earrings I've made, but that's it.

The dress I'm making has a yoke in the front and back into which the dress front and back are gathered. Normally the dress has sleeves but I wanted something sleeveless so I took them out and raised the armhole. Leaving the yoke plain would be boring so I'm choosing to embellish it. I've looked at glue-on acrylic "rhinestones" (I can't find sew-in ones here) and silver paillettes..... and while I love love love paillettes, in this case the rhinestones really work.

So anyway, all I have to do is glue the rhinestones on and then finish the dress. I hope it looks good when I'm finished!

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!

Dancing Queen

I danced in my bellydance recital tonight. I had a little bit of trouble with the veil choreography when my sleeve got caught in my hairband but I got that sorted out pretty quickly. Ian said that some of my movements with the veil were choppier than they might have been. Still, I thought that I danced well in that choreography.

I danced very well in the second choreography if I do say so myself. It went very, very well. People told me afterward that I smiled a lot and that I looked comfortable, happy, and enthusiastic. Coincidentally enough, I felt that way :)

At the very end, the organizer invited all of us on stage to dance to this one song. Somehow I wound up in center front (which wasn't very far to the front) because no one wanted to be in front of me. Most of the people were dancing at the sides of the dance area so that people wouldn't see them. I just wanted to dance. I used to go out dancing a lot - not bellydancing, of course - and I miss going out and just shaking it to the music.

I tell you, the recital is the best part of bellydancing :) I'm already looking forward to the next one. Oh yeah, and pictures of me in my costume minus the hip scarf - I drafted and sewed the skirt pattern and also lined and re-sparkled the top - are here.

What will I do in January? And how will I get rid of this pain?

Ian and I were talking today about my activities. This fall, I was bellydancing twice a week, curling twice a week, going to Well-fit twice a week, and swimming once a week. That was a lot! I ended up not able to do that much and stopped swimming early on. I missed quite a lot of Well-fit, bellydancing, and curling this fall as well. With the pain up and me feeling overwhelmed, I need to cut my activities even more from January - April.

I am going to quit Well-fit and Monday will be my last. This is partly because of the time it takes, but also because I really like to be pushed at the gym and when I get pushed I end up exhausted or with sternal pain. It's also $150+parking for three months which I could put to better use.

If I take any bellydancing, it'll just be one choreography or one drum class and no more. There's no way that I can do two classes.

I'm going to try and go to curling twice a week since I've paid for the two leagues until April. But if the pain gets to be too much I'll cut one of the nights out. It's tough to figure out which night I'd give up. I love the people and we have a lot of close relationships on Fridays, but the curling is better - and I'll get better - on Thursdays.

I saw my family doctor today as a followup to the new pain meds. They weren't working well so he's started me on the next dose of the fentanyl patch. If that takes care of the pain, then I can start playing with the dosages to try and reduce the amount of oxycontin I'm taking. Hopefully this will work.

I'm sparkly

I was up last night because of the pain (it's not gone after all..... wah!!!!) and thought that I'd look at my bellydance top. Some of the sparklyness had rubbed off in the dryer and while working with it and whatnot and I thought that I could add some sparkly back. Those who know me know I love almost all things sparkly.

So I got out the glue and traced around the flowers on both front panels and just around the neckline. And then I took my fine red glitter and sprinkled it over the glue. I did put stuff underneath the top so that the glitter didn't get all over the table.... but glitter did get on the floor and on me. I guess some people might have expected that this would happen.

In the process of cleaning that mess up, I used one of the soaps downstairs. We're using glittery soap now. I never did get all of the glitter all of the floor, either. I wore the top tonight to practice and managed to get glitter all over my coat, me, and the studio. When I went to my group afterwards, someone commented on how I had lovely red sparkles on me. It's like they're everywhere.

On the bright side, my top is sparkly and will be gorgeous onstage on Friday. :)

Optometrist appointment and even more bellydancing

I got to see my optometrist today. She's monitoring me every six months because it looks like I have a cataract on one or another eye. She hadn't seen that spot before this past July and so it's almost certainly a new development. The Femara that I take for my cancer can cause cataracts :(

Also, I'm at the very beginning stages of needing bifocals :( The very lightest bifocal can help my reading, but for now I can get by with just moving my glasses around. I feel kinda like an old lady. Sigh.

On the bright side, I was able to apply false eyelashes today!!! I went to the Well-fit party this afternoon and I thought I'd give the lashes a try. I put the subtler ones in and everyone just said that I looked really nice (well, some people just said that I cleaned up good, which is practically the same thing).

I'll definitely be wearing false eyelashes with rhinestones as part of my costume for the recital on Friday. I've been practicing and practicing and practicing my choreographies. Every time I have some time I go through the steps. I hope it pays off as tomorrow is the last day of classes for me before the recital.

The recital is this Friday at 7pm sharp at the Hespeler Memorial Arena at 640 Ellis Drive (just north of the 401 off Townline Rd). Doors open at 6:30pm. Tickets are $7 in advance and $10 at the door. Tickets won't be reserved at the door so must be picked up in advance. Not that I expect any of you to come, of course, but you're welcome to see us all dance. Ian is definitely going to attend the recital :)

Getting better

You know, I'm feeling less tired these days and I seem to have more energy. Today I got up at about 10:30am, put away three loads of laundry, did another three loads of laundry, hemmed some stuff, cleaned up some stuff, cut out and altered the dress pattern I'm working with (it's an easy pattern, but still), and started sewing. That's a lot for one day and yes, I'm tired, but I'm not exhausted. Hopefully I didn't do too much today and that I'm not exhausted tomorrow :) Over the last two days I've done a quite a lot as well but I haven't fallen into a puddle of exhaustion yet, so maybe things are turning around for me.

Don't worry, I'm not trying to push myself too hard. I do each task at a slow to medium pace, I'm not rushing things, and I'm not getting flustered. I take a lot of breaks from each task, too. And when I do get a little tired, I sit or lie down for a little while (although I haven't been napping like I usually do).

At the same time that I seem to have more energy, I think my pain is starting to go down. Yay!!!!! There are places that I can wear the fentanyl patches: my back and right arm/shoulder are good spot, for example. As long as I take my allergy medication on time those spots don't give me too much trouble, thank goodness.

I hope that the less tired/less pain trend continues. Wouldn't that be nice? :)

My bellydance costume is ready

I finished lining my bellydance top. I'd used both the sparkly red and nude lining but the sparkly red fabric didn't stretch enough. That's ok as since I put the nude lining to the bottom of the top so it doesn't look like I'm naked underneath. The top had some sparkly stuff glued to it when I bought it and a lot of that has come off. I'll probably just leave it even though I have glue and glitter.... I could make it way glittery :)

Now that this is all done, I can sew for myself. I'll start tomorrow by making something out of the silver fabric. Even though my New Year's Eve plans aren't confirmed I'm going to go ahead and assume that I'm going out. Hopefully the dress will work out :)

Oh, and I've figured out how to put my fake ponytail on so that it looks good and is stable and won't come off. Whew! Now I don't have to pay my hairdresser $20 to do it for me.

Movies and more about bellydancing

We saw The Golden Compass today. It was ok. It is aimed at the teenage set so it didn't have the depth of plot that we usually see in movies. Still, it is pretty good. The story is entertaining, the CG is good, and the story is fun. Nicole Kidman is very good as the evil woman, as expected :)

I made a second bellydance skirt today. I made the first one out of slinky fabric and it was nice but it wasn't quite what I wanted. I made this second one out of stretch velvet and it is much nicer - it's a deeper black and clings a bit better. The slinky knit stretches and looks kind of shapeless when I'm wearing it but the stretch velvet keeps its shape much better.

I still need to alter the top. I want to change the neckline to be less of a V (which, although Vs usually look good on me, looks funny on me) and to be more of a sweetheart. I also need to shorten it as it is too long. While some people wear these tops out to clubs and stuff, I won't wear it for anything but bellydance.

I must line the top because it's sheer and I'm uncomfortable going to a performance wearing the top with only a bra underneath. I have some red sparkly fabric and I'm thinking I could line it with that. I also have nude-coloured fabric with which I could line it. At least my bra wouldn't show then, although I'd still look mostly naked underneath. Still, not showing my bra would be an improvement.

More bags?

Someone new has contacted me about making a laptop bag made out of men's flannel fabrics. I hope that this bag will go through because I like the business although I had to tell her that I wouldn't be able finish the bag until about January 15 due to Christmas. Hopefully this won't be a problem and I'll be able to make this bag. I will need to find the fabrics before I start - she wants heavy nylon on the bottom, which makes sense.

This person also suggested that I make some laptop bags aimed at men because the ones out on the market are not nice. Honestly, I think that these bags are more popular than the jewelry that I make! I prefer making messenger bags but if laptop bags are going to sell, then maybe I should try and make some non-custom ones for sale. I did buy some great houndstooth fabric for bags so the idea of making bags out of menswear fabrics isn't new. Marketing to men is definitely a new idea.... although I'm wondering if maybe I should be marketing to the women who buy for their men :)

Pain update: I'm noticing that I'm quite sleepy and a bit dozy today on the new painkiller. This is not unexpected. I think the pain is starting to lessen a little bit but it's hard to say. On the positive side, the patch isn't bothering me too much yet.

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 :)

Bellydancing, bellydancing, and more bellydancing

I think I've almost got both bellydance choreographies learned. I'll keep practicing them, though - it's important to know the dances well enough that if I make a mistake I don't have to go through the next steps to catch up.

I'm quite pleased with the skirt I made. It's sort of mermaid-ish: it hangs straight to the knee and then flares out. When I turn, the bottom flares. I think this style looks much better on me than a wide skirt. I bought a top before and I'm going to make some alterations to it. It needs a lining as it is a sheer lace and I'm not willing to go on stage with it as-is. I'm also going to change the neckline a bit to make more sweetheart-like and less V-like. I know that the costume shouldn't be that important, but, well, it is to me :)

I'm quite pleased with my fake hairpiece. I've figured out a way to wear it - with a headband that wraps around the head - so that it looks natural. The hairpiece wants to tangle all the time, though. I was reading that it's possible to wash these things and so I think I might do that and then use some kind of light conditioner on it. I also have a shine styling product that detangles as well that I could use. I'd like the hairpiece to look its best on stage, and all tangled up isn't its best.

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.

A great weekend

Thanks to everyone who shopped at my sale - I did pretty well, all things considered. That makes me happy :)

This past weekend was wonderfully relaxing. I started sewing the skirt I'll wear for the bellydance recital; I expect to finish that by Wednesday. I also got some bellydance practicing in with the class. Now all I have to do is practice on my own :)

We saw Beowulf in 3D on Saturday and I highly recommend this film. Apparently it's supposed to be the story that could have inspired the Beowulf story. The story told in the film itself is very good; Beowulf is a hero, but he is also human and isn't perfect. He must live with the consequences of his own choices even though he didn't know what they would be when he made those choices. In this respect, the film is very good.

The film is also animated, and the animation is very well done. There were times when I didn't know whether or not it was animated or filmed; they can be that good. The animation wasn't always that good, which is a shame; in some places it looked more like a video game than reality. Still, it is a step up from other films.

The 3D aspect of the film is believable for the most part. There were some times when something would come towards the audience in a blatant display of 3Dness. We liked it better when the 3D action was happening in a box in front of us, as though it was a live theatre. Still, it was very good.

If you get a chance, go and see this movie.

SALE!!!!!

This weekend only, just in time for Christmas, take 25% off *everything* in my shop (excluding custom orders)! After purchasing your item, just wait for a revised invoice before paying. Sale ends Monday, December 3 at 6am EST.

That means you would pay only $187.50 for this fabulous hand-beaded handbag:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5419304

... and only $18.75 for these delicious fuschia dangles:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5467172

... and only $15 for these elegant labradorite and quartz earrings:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7258434

There are lots more beautiful pieces in my shop. Happy shopping!

http://angelstuff.etsy.com

Ian's birthday

Ian's birthday is today and after curling we went to AM Africa for dinner with 7 other people. The food took quite a while to come out but it was delicious once it arrived. We ordered an all-meat platter and an all-vegetable platter and quite frankly, I prefer the vegetable platter. The meat tasted like gamey meat (with bones) and the different meat types didn't really taste different from each other. The vegetable dishes were definitely different - they had some interesting flavours and textures.

It was nice to spend time with everyone. We had quite a bit of time to talk before the food came out and that wasn't so bad :)

Bye bye, bag

I have finished the bag and shipped it out to its new owner. I am so very glad to be done but shipping it is like sending a pet out to someone. Well, maybe not a pet - but when you spend as much time as I have on this (30 or 40 hours), you do get kind of attached to it. So I have to let go of it and hope that its new owner loves it like I do.

I really am very happy with this bag. I think I did a great job, personally. I showed it to Ian last night before it was finished and he liked it, too. I did change the padding to be less poufy in addition to a few other small changes and it looks and feels a lot better than it did yesterday.

That's not to say that the bag is perfect, of course; the main compartment lining, for example, isn't anchored to anything except for the zipper because I haven't been doing that. I'm thinking that I might like to anchor it somehow next time so that it stays in place all the time. Part of me figures that since it's a messenger bag, it's supposed to be kind of casual and so having a "loose-ish" lining isn't so bad. Still, I'll have to put some thought into it to see how this could be done easily. I did anchor the laptop compartment lining to the padding which made it more stable and less likely to shift around or come out.

Anyways, you can see pictures of my latest creation here.

Practically finished

The bag is so close to being done that part of me just wants to finish it tonight. I know better than to do that, though - if I did, I would just make mistakes and have to do everything twice. I'm already quite tired and I don't think staying up would help. It's not like I could ship it at 3am if I finished then, is it? :) So I may as well get a good night's sleep, get up early, and ship it in the late morning/early afternoon.

The bag isn't quite perfect yet, which is part of the reason it isn't done (the other part is the hand-finishing that's yet to be done). I'm going to take out some extra padding in the laptop section of the bag because it isn't needed. I also need to make the shoulder strap and attach the parachute clip parts to the webbing left out for this purpose.

I'm really, really, really pleased with this bag. It is at least as good a quality as the first one I did - the stitching is good, the colours are pleasing, everything is fitting together, and it looks like something you could buy in a store. Well, I think it does, anyways :) I hope that the recipient is as pleased with it as I am. I will put up pictures somewhere tomorrow.

Almost done

The bag is almost done! I'm so pleased :) All of the component pieces have gone together and now I'm doing the final assembly. I came up with a different order of operations for this stage than the last time so hopefully it won't take as long or be as painful. The idea is to get the padding in as late as possible so as to affect the fewest number of seams.

The only area with which I've had trouble so far is the nylon interlining fabric I bought. It has a rubberized backing that doesn't agree with my machines. When it's on the outsides of a seam to be sewn, it tends to bunch up and skew. The solution is to apply strong tension (by pulling) as it's being sewn and use a longer stitch length. Even so, some of the seams with this stuff have very tiny stitches. I'll assume that this isn't a bad thing :)

My bellydance studio is asking me to make some drum cases. If I weren't planning to sew for myself over the next few weeks, I'd do it soon, but I'm putting it off until the new year. They're really just cylinder-like with a zipper near the top and some backpack straps.

You know, the first bag I ever made was a drawstring purse with a petal-shaped bottom pattern. It was on display and someone stole it because I guess they liked it. I had no idea that making bags would be something I'd ever willingly return to or that people would actually ask and pay me for. :)

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.

Sewing, sewing, sewing

I've been making good progress on the custom laptop bag. I have one component left to finish - the removable sleeve - and then I need to start assembling the final product. I'm quite impressed with me for starting it early, working on it even when I didn't feel like it, and doing a pretty good job to date. I hope the removable sleeve works out well, too. I'm looking forward to this being done.

Mostly I want this project done because I want to do some other sewing and I can't in all conscience do that until I've finished this. I want to: make a skirt for the bellydance recital; line the pre-purchased top I'm going to wear for the recital; and make a dress out of the gorgeous silver fabric.

In case I have not gushed about this fabric yet, let me do that now... it's made of a metallic thread woven together with a white thread in a plain weave. It has a similar hand (that is, drape and feel) as silk charmeuse and it looks just like liquid metal. It holds a crease reasonably well but doesn't wrinkle too easily. Ian says it's sparkly and shiny - which is it, I guess, but I love love love love this fabric anyways. I think it would be perfect for a New Year's Eve dress if I can get it finished in time. Since this fabric is so over the top, I am thinking that I'd like something simple out of it, but I'm not exactly sure what style of dress would be best. Since it's like charmeuse, I should be able to get something nice out of it :)

I also have a similar fabric, except that the white threads are thicker and the metal threads form an irregular fringe on the fabric. Now THAT is shiny! This fabric is quite stiff and doesn't drape well - almost like a canvas. But sparklier :) I'd love to make just a simple sheath dress out of it, or else a fancy coat or capelet.

Saturday night sale at angelstuff!

Get 50% - yes, 50%! - off this exquisite hand-beaded purse. Yes, it's the one I hand-beaded last year - it wants to go to a new home!

Also, get 25% off all jewelry in my shop!

After purchasing your items, just put SNS in the notes to seller and wait for me to send you a revised invoice before you pay.

Sale ends at 6am November 25, 2007.

Happy shopping!
http://angelstuff.etsy.com

Continued from yesterday

This fall I've taken on more things than I'd taken on since I was working. Previously, I've had Well-Fit, curling once or twice a week in the winter, and bellydancing in the summer. This fall, I'm curling AND bellydancing (and I was taking swimming lessons, but I've dropped those). I'm busy every weeknight except for Tuesday, and on Wednesdays and Thursdays I have at least two activities back-to-back. So yeah, I guess this is a little much. I sleep about 12-13 hours a day fairly consistently. If I get up early one day, I'll have to sleep in extra another day to get all those hours of sleep.

I didn't think it would be too much for me because I do love doing all of these things, but I put the "too much" line in the wrong place. Still, it's only a few more weeks that I have all of these things to do and then my activities will settle down.

I do sort of wonder whether increasing my anti-depressants is the right thing to do right now. Since I had my big meltdown, I've been working on trying to see the smaller picture in front of me instead of trying to fit the entire overwhelming big picture. This step has helped me to keep things manageable and I've been feeling better as a result.

And yes, I've been crying when other people might not. I don't really see that there's anything weird about that, as crying is one of the ways that I deal with things. I almost always feel better after a good cry. I can't make my life stress-free so I'm going to need to deal with the stress. To me, antidepressants are only one of the tools in my toolkit. I'm hoping to explore some of the other ways of coping with stress over the next while.

Thank you all for your love and words of support! These help me feel protected and safe and ready to try new coping mechanisms.

Lots of doctors today

I had the colonoscopy today and it wasn't so bad. I mean, it's not a lot of fun, but the worst part during the procedure itself was getting the IV in. I have bad veins and they used a hand vein so it hurt both going in and when they gave me the sedative. The sedative put me to sleep so I didn't really notice what was happening. I think I remember being uncomfortable, but those memories are hazy. The results are normal - yay!

I also saw my family doctor today and he's upping my antidepressants a bit. I had that meltdown the other day, and more recently I've cried over things that most people wouldn't necessarily cry over. Ian also said that I was very agitated and not my relaxed self when he came back. My doctor told me that I have to cut down on the things I do. If this isn't proof that I can't do everything other people can do, I don't know what is.

Intellectually, I know that metastatic breast cancer comes with a "new normal". Emotionally, I'm having a hard time really accepting this - I want my old normal back instead, please. I want to do what other people can do. I want to be one of those people that CAN juggle everything.

Realizing that I'm not that person, and that I can't do everything I want to do, is really hard. I want those things sooooo much. I know that it would be easier if I could just accept this new reality instead of fighting with it, but I'm not that good at accepting. Hopefully the increased antidepressant together with my support groups and Ian will enable me to come to terms with this.

A trip to the dentist

Going to the dentist isn't as bad as it used to be for me. There was a time where I didn't go to the dentist at all and my teeth got really bad. Once I finished chemo for my primary breast cancer back in 2001, I had to go to the dentist every three months because my teeth were in such bad shape. I remember Ian telling me at that time that he didn't like it when I flossed my teeth because they always bled.

These days, my teeth are in much, much better shape. I'm no longer in danger of developing gingivitis on any of my teeth. I floss much more often (if not every day) and use a special toothpaste to combat the dry mouth side effect of many of my pills.

I saw my dentist today and I see her every three months once again because of the cancer and all of the drugs I take. The more my dentist watches over my teeth, the better they'll be. It's paid off, as I have had a couple of tiny cavities but I haven't had anything recently and my teeth are in so much better shape.

How to fill a prescription in four days

On Friday I'd dropped off four prescriptions at the pharmacy. I'd been told that it would take about 20 minutes to fill these; after 35 minutes of waiting and not hearing anything, I left. I got a call from the pharmacy on Friday and on Monday saying that there were issues with the dosages. What the...?

So I went in today to figure out what was going on. It turns out that the dosage on one prescription wasn't clear - although it was the same a I'd received before. On the other prescription (my painkillers), the pharmacist had just assumed that the dosage was incorrect because it wasn't what is usually prescribed for this drug. She didn't bother to check my previous history there.

I was quite annoyed when I went in today but I was quite polite when I talked to the owner/pharmacist. I was trying to be nice but firm. I managed to get my point across - that it shouldn't take four days to fill a prescription that they'd told me would take only 20 minutes. The pharmacist is going to put a few new procedures in place as I should have had some additional contact with the staff there.

Saw more saw

We saw Saw IV today. I didn't really get it; it was pretty complicated, with all those characters and stuff. The story takes place during the same timeframe as Saw III and it fills in some of that story. One thing I do like about the Saw franchise is that no two movies are the same because each has different murders, focus, and traps. This movie was ok, but I still think I prefer Saw II.

I managed to work on the bag today as well. I didn't make huge progress, but I got some done and am looking forward to getting more finished tomorrow. I've got a good feeling about this bag :)

A whole lotta nothing

I actually managed to get the fabric cut out for the laptop bag today. I hope I got all of the lining measurements right because I don't have extra fabric in case I mess something up. I'll just have to assume that I'm right :) I'll be working on the bag tomorrow and hopefully it won't take too long to finish.

I've got nothing else. It's been that kind of day - which is not a bad thing. :) Oh - Ian wanted me to tell you all that he ate a grape-flavoured apple. I had a bite and it sort of tasted like appley-grapes.

A short day

I'd planned to get up really early in order to both cut out the messenger bag pieces and to do some shopping. I ended up sleeping in until 12:30pm, though, so I did no cutting. I did manage to get some foam for the laptop portion of the bag. I went to The Foam Store where I got 1/2" high-density foam and 1/4" Volara foam. The latter is apparently used for protective packaging and I think it'll be perfect for the removable sleeve for the laptop.

Plus, the foam was cheap!!!! It cost only about $17 including tax for everything. This store has a lot of memory foam as well, if you're looking for that.

Later on I had to stop curling. The pain is coming up again. I've started a new exercise program and it might be that one of the new exercises is bothering me. Or it might be that the mets are actually growing/hurting again. It's weird because there are new spots that hurt, and these spots seem to be on the cartilage connecting the ribs and sternum or on the ribs near the sternum.

I talked to the people at Well-fit and we're going to modify the exercise that's bothering me. If I don't see a change by the end of next week, I'll call the pain and symptom management doctor - she said to call if the pain went up again as we'll try another painkiller.

An unexpected start to the day

I'd planned to sleep in a little bit today although I should have gotten up a little bit earlier :) Anyways, I was snoozing with the alarm around 10:30am this morning when the doorbell rang. Of course I didn't bother to go and see who it was because I was still mostly asleep. The person knocked and rang the doorbell again and I continued to ignore it.

I was ready to go back to sleep when the people ringing the doorbell actually came inside! I'm sure you can imagine how surprised I was. You see, the property management company arranged to have bathroom fans installed in the upstairs bathroom - previously, we'd had to open the window which is not so fun in the winter. Anyways, they wanted the work done quickly so they gave the workers a master key for all of the units.

Fortunately, Ian had closed the bedroom door when he left so I had time to dress decently and go down to greet the workers. Whew!

The property manager did email that these people were going to be coming (although we should have received written notice that this was happening, I think). I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea that these workers can just come in without being accompanied by anyone working at the property management company. You know? I'm sure the workers are bonded or something but it still leaves me feeling weird. At least I was home.

Things that made me happy today

I listed the custom laptop bag today. Before listing it, I took some time to really think about its construction. You might remember that I had a really difficult time finishing the last laptop bag - I think it took 3 days to sew 5 seams. This time, I'll be putting the padding in and then need to sew only 2 seams. One of them will be next to the padding and I'll make it quite short and the other one is not next to the padding. Hopefully it will take a lot less time to make this bag.

I got my fake ponytail today. It's awesome! It is very close to my dyed haircolour and looks and swings very nicely. It's got a weird smell from the packaging, though, and so I'm airing it out right now. I'll wear it after this week.

I also bought some creme eyeshadow, and I love it!!!!! It goes on sooo smoothly, blends easily, and lasts. I bought some brown colours and some gold, with a midnight blue eye crayon thing (which is also very nice, easy to use, blends well, and lasts). I think I can get a good smoky eye out of these :)

Finding suppliers

I need to buy some sterling silver clasps for a necklace I'm making. It turns out that the price of silver has jumped about $3USD/troy oz in the last month or so and my usual supplier has raised all of their silver prices by a ridiculous amount more than that. So I'm going back through old etsy forum threads, trying to find a supplier that carries these things.

Finding suppliers for stuff is tricky. For example, I ordered some swivel hooks from one place and rings from another place for the bag that I'll be making, and I haven't heard from either business. It's like my money has dropped into a black hole - the places looked reputable, so I hope they'll deliver, but every time I order from someplace new I worry that things won't go smoothly. Not receiving order confirmations doesn't inspire me with confidence, I'm afraid.

Not that things necessarily go smoothly with etsy sellers, either - about one third of the sellers from whom I've purchased have reminded me to pay after I've already done so. Then again, I guess it's better that they acknowledge me that way than not at all. In my ideal fantasy world sellers would always acknowledge that I've bought something from them and wouldn't mess up invoices or payment... but this world is far from ideal in more than one way.

Feeling like a teenager

I'm feeling a LOT better today. I think that most of the overwhelming fatigue over the weekend was caused by the flu shot I received on Friday. Those shots are very hard on me and I end up sleeping a lot and feeling really awful. Last night Ian sent me up to bed at 9pm (after I started falling asleep on the couch at 7:30pm) and I didn't get up until 11am today. I actually felt sort of good when I got up. Whew!!!

For the upcoming bellydance recital, I want to wear false eyelashes and have a smoky eye look. This afternoon, I played around with makeup and false eyelashes. I sort of felt like a teenager playing with her mom's makeup and trying to replicate the looks in the magazines.

Unfortunately, today's experiments failed. I had trouble with the false eyelashes because I think the adhesive I'm using dries too quickly and because I'm clumsy when it comes to applying them because it's not something I have done before. I must practice this more because I really, really want to be able to use them. My features don't exactly stand out in my face, especially on stage, and false eyelashes will help. Provided I can get them attached correctly - false eyelashes that are falling off are not the right look. :)

I tried doing a smoky look with black and grey eyeshadows and it didn't look right, even though I thought I put everything in the right place. One problem I had was that the shadow went everywhere. I think I need to work with less at a time and with a different brush. I may also prefer to wet the shadow or use a cream shadow. I'm also wondering if the traditional smoky eye colours are right for me - they're black and grey. Since I'm so fair, under stage lights my eyes might look a touch too skeletal. I'll have to look around. And practice, practice, practice.

I was also reading something that said if you're pale (like me) to use bronzer on the face and all exposed skin (like the midriff) for the stage. I hadn't thought of that. It would be nice to be less... ghostly? glowingly white? up on stage. :) I'll have to see what I can find.

Ian's home!

Sorry that there was no blog entry yesterday - I'd been awake a long time meeting people and got to pick up Ian from the airport. He's home now :) Tomorrow he's going into his own office.

I enjoyed meeting the people from the list yesterday, although I'll have to say that having breast cancer mets doesn't necessarily ensure that we have anything else in common. I bonded petty well with two of the women and the list owner, but didn't have much of a chance to talk to the other two people. One of the people that I'd especially wanted to meet wasn't able to make it which was too bad.

Oh!!! It looks like someone is buying a laptop bag from me.... and someone I didn't know bought a pair of earrings. How awesome is that? :)

I'm still really, really tired and I expect to go to bed quite early tonight.

Silly fears

I got up early today to drive to Mississauga. I saw my family doctor and the xray he did last week came back normal. That's good news!

I spent the afternoon resting, surfing the internet, and occasionally watching something on tv. It was a wonderfully relaxing afternoon. I'm finding myself quite tired now and will probably be going to bed early tonight. I've got a pretty big day tomorrow: I'm meeting some of the people from my breast cancer metastases mailing list for lunch.

I'm looking forward to meeting everyone tomorrow. At the same time, I'm a little nervous, because all of these people have mets like me (most have more extensive mets than me). I very much want to know them in person instead of just through email... but a small part of me is scared because meeting them in person will make it harder for me to deal with their deaths when they die. I probably wouldn't give this a second thought except someone in my in-person support group did just die.

I know that that fear is tremendously selfish. It's ridiculous to back away from meeting wonderful people just because it'll be harder on me when they die. It is silly to deprive myself of other people - both my life and their lives will be richer for us having known each other in person. Everybody dies, and so everyone I know will die (some may even die before I do)... and I wouldn't trade the people in my life for anything. I'd rather have known people well when they die than to have backed away from them because I was selfish and afraid.

This has given me insight into some people's reactions to this kind of disease, and that's a good thing.

OH!!!!! It looks like someone is commissioning a laptop bag from me. I'm quite excited :)

Busy and overwhelmed

On the days that I'm not sleeping all day, I feel like I'm crazy busy. I feel like I'm rushing from place to place with barely any time to just stop and breathe and I think that's starting to get to me.

Take today, for example. I got up, sorted some laundry, went for lunch with a friend, bought a mirror for the sewing room, worked on the belt thingy for bellydance, sorted more laundry, went to bellydance, and then curled. I didn't watch any tv or surf the internet or do email or anything that I would normally do for downtime, because there was none.

I can tell that I'm getting stressed, too. I lost my car key at bellydance; thank goodness the building manager brought it to class. I forgot to take my street (non-bellydance) clothes to change into after curling. I lost one of my favourite pairs of non-curling socks at curling - I know I put them in my locker but I couldn't find them. I think that maybe the kids who have their stuff spread out all over the floor in front of my locker covered up my socks. Sigh. I'm just not doing a good job of keeping it together, you know? And that's a sign that I'm overwhelmed and need a break.

When I got home from curling I had (am having?) a big meltdown because I'm just feeling so overwhelmed and rushed and pressured and stressed.

Please don't get me wrong; I love doing every single thing I do, on its own (and I really do need to spend more time with my friends), but I feel like I'm doing WAY too much. I don't know where to cut back right now, but I think that I will be missing one or more physical activities next week.

It turns out, by the way, that the group wanted changes to the belt thing - I was going to make a different style completely based on discussions with the group, but we've decided to order crocheted sequin scarves instead. Sigh.

Bellydance notes

My bellydance veil arrived today!!!! It's beautiful and I am so happy with it. There was a fairly noticeable spot of the wrong colour dye on it, but I had to shorten the veil anyways and that spot isn't there anymore. I took my veil to class today and everyone oohed and aahed over it. It turns out that I'll only have a one minute break between my first dance and the second at the recital.

I did manage to get up and get a bunch of stuff done this morning. I am almost finished my prototype belt-thingy for tomorrow's bellydance class. I'm quite pleased with the way it's coming together and I hope my classmates like it, too.

It's been a long day and I'll be going to bed early for me - at 10pm, which is what Ian calls bedtime. :)

Where did the day go?

What's happening here? I went to bed last night at 10:30pm and read for a little while and then got up at 3:40pm this afternoon. That means that I got 15 or 16 hours of sleep last night!!!!! I had no idea that I needed that much sleep. It's good when Ian's here because he wakes me in the morning and I can do things that day.

I hadn't planned to do much today (I was just going to a fabric store) but I don't like it when I can't do the things I'd planned because I was asleep. At least I must be awake early for the next few days so I won't feel like I'm sleeping my life away starting tomorrow. I just feel that way about today.

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.