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meriam trousers

oh yeah and

(special post still incoming, I am just so tired and really trying to keep the ducks corralled into the same pond today)

I found the pink trousers! Woohoo! I had already made the buttonhole and attached a button, double woohoo! I tried them on again to assess fit and... much less woohoo. Now I remember why they were put into time out.

A: They are now too big. I could fit both fists at the back waist and there was room for kittens in the booty.
B: The front is like, pouchy, and not in an attractive way.
C: The pockets feel SO far back. They are where they are supposed to be but um. Not a fan.

Definitely am not going to be trying to parse those issues today. Some of it could be solved by a different size, I think; comparing my recently-taken measurements with their chart, I'm at least a full size smaller now. Why does this have to be so difficult!

Entry tags:

scout dress

Stick a fork in me I'm done

Last week was ROUGH. I woke up Wednesday at like 3 am again and this time I said oh-ho! I have learned my lesson, i will not attempt to get some snoozes at 5:30, that way lies madness! But then when I dragged myself out of bed, I was achey all over and just feeling really bad. I was cold when I left so I dressed for that, but by the time I arrived to work I was ROASTING. I went home once people had arrived at work, figuring that if nothing else, I could have a nap. Was this achiness and hot-cold an illness? Because I had slept all of 16 hours in three days? The weather? FUN NEW perimenopause symptoms??

IDK, and I spent the whole day, and the next, and half of the next, laying in bed either freezing to death (it felt; even breathing set up whole-body chills) or roasting so much my eyelids were sweating. The hot cycles were awful because I couldn't really do anything and I didn't want any part of my body touching anything else so I ended up in some weird positions trying to get into the least touchy position. And I got the hot cycles every time I started to doze off. I wondered if it might be period-related because the sweats had that onion smell (Wtf is up with that, anyway), and even though I had already been bleeding for a week, it now began in earnest. On Thursday I desperately needed more back up pads but the thought of walking further than the front door was exhausting so I started researching deliveries. I still paid entirely too much, but thank you Skip the Dishes for having the lowest delivery fee and fastest delivery time.

Friday morning I WAS feeling better, but I was standing in the kitchen eating toast and feeling like I was going to pass out, so I called out again. And that continued in improving bounds through the weekend, with me doing my shopping early on Saturday but at a very slow pace, and trying to lift things on Sunday and being reminded that I was ill VERY RECENTLY. I'm still feeling a little weak today.

And if this IS a fun new perimenopause symptom, I'm already over it. I cannot keep losing almost a week of my life every month to this. Regular doc visit soon at least, I can ask about it.

On Saturday I was feeling well enough to sit up and putter around the house, so I worked on my Scout dress. Interfacing ironed on, buttonholes made, buttons sewn on, then hemmed and it was done! Woohoo! Still need to get photos obviously. ALso, I did my buttonhole tests on straight grain fabric, which looked mostly fine on top (whhhyyyy) and the actual buttonholes on the cross-grain, which looked HORRIBLE and it took me until I was trying to open them to figure out why. D'oh! Well, whatever, I ended up poking a seam ripper at one end to open a big enough spot to get a tiny pair of scissors in and cut them. I really gotta get a buttonhole chisel. Anyone close enough to inspect and clock me for the wonky buttonholes is gonna get kneed.

Yesterday I visited my partner in crime so I could rant at her about stuff*, and helped and her and her friend with counting inventory for her market set up. I thought I'd be OK period-wise but after lunch, even though I'd emptied the disc before leaving the house, I was already flooding through it 20 mins later. By the time I got to a bathroom, that back up pad was FULL and I was minutes away from a full blow out. FUCKING HELL WHEN THE FUCK DOES IT END. Did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day, except post about my kittens on BlueSky because they are now TWO WHOLE YEARS OLD!! Oh, and I attempted to plan the mods for another top, so future!me can just cut a mock up and see how that goes.

(* separate post TBD. It's a lot.)

Brain was doing an anxiety last night, so I WAS NOT tired at all until I could stop hearing a political satire song running through my head (replaced with My Chemical Romance. I guess!). Iiiinteresting. I am very tired today.

(no subject)

As predicted, I did laundry and nothing else. While I was waiting for the load to finish, I was playing my sorting game and one of the items i tapped on was an avocado roll. Immediately I desperately wanted sushi. So I spent some time choosing a place to order from and treated myself! Then I even folded and put my laundry away while waiting for the delivery. I ended up eating so late, but it was SO GOOD and exactly what I wanted. Happy tummy.

Woke up a couple times in the night but only enough to check the time and then go right back to sleep. So I'm back to the "normal" level of tired instead of the severe "why am I even alive" tired.

Tonight's plan, such as it is, is to carry on carrying on. Hopefully sew a few things. I have two of the three bottoms wot need closures pulled out, and the Edwardian blouse that I pinned myself into when I needed it. I have marked the lace where it needs to be reattached (it missed getting stitched in the first place; things I would do differently if I had more time!) and at least half of the snaps are already attached.

Cataloging project: one bin (purple) is technically done, but I hadn't cut swatches and the list is digital only. There is one more small blue bin and 2 or 3 boxes. Nearly there.

Yesterday, I spent some time with the snipping tool and Publisher to create a moodboard of the patterns I've already picked for my spring "collection". It seems a little disjointed right now. And I also worry about "what if I hate ALL of this?!" and then remind myself that I've never been able (or focused enough) to DO this for myself before. I've always been choosing close-enough from RTW. So, you hear that self? It's ok for things to "not match" while we figure this out.

(no subject)

Friday night I finished the row of knitted lace on a shawl (that is SO CLOSE TO BEING DONE), and the last bit of pile of fabric from the box that had been left on the table. Saturday I looked at the bins that were still in the kitchen and decided that I would move the storage shelf (which I did) and put one of them back into the room (which I did) and then I would take a break from cataloging to actually sew. I did not ACTUALLY sew anything, alas, but I did cut some interfacing for Scout, checked the hem (it stretched MAYBE 1/4" inch) and then traced and cut out the Pep Rally skirt yoke pattern. I cut the size 10 first and just pinned it on to try it, and it was a little small so I added a bit on the straight part of the pattern and remarked it to the size 12. I have a piece of white and red plain that I was going to use for a skirt, but I can't decide which side to use. One side has a lace overlay printed on it. I thought about the grey and brown plaid, or maybe one of the red-grounded plaids I have, and it all seemed too overwhelming. Pulled out the wool for the trousers and put the mustard shirting with it's intended pattern. Did not iron on any interfacing.

I was making bread at the time so once it was in the oven, I went to my room to rest, primarily because there was more room for the cats to be with me. After it was out of the oven and cooling, I took a nap. Later, I did another row of lace, which I messed up (AGAIN), fixed it, and went to bed.

Yesterday we had the TINA Broadway show, which was fabulous except for the Ladies Who Lunch (tm) behind us who talked through the whole thing and sang along LOUDLY. One of them left her phone on and it started ringing halfway through the first act. After we went to the pub for dinner, where a hockey game was on. We ended up staying longer than intended and by the time we got the bill there was only 5 and a half minutes left in the third (final) period, so we watched the rest of it (we won!).

Body has been EXTREMELY RUDE TO ME these past couple days, having light-ish bleeding through the day but MAJOR EVACUATION at night, waking me up at 3 am and unable to get back to sleep until nearly 6 am. Fine on Saturday into Sunday when I could sleep later, but NOT SO last night, when I dragged my ass out of bed at 7am and had to rush out the door 12 minutes later. And it's still being rude. I'm fucking over this.

Honestly tonight I am not going to commit to anything. I desperately need to do laundry and that's it. That's all I plan to do. I will definitely not be knitting lace.

Entry tags:

wardrobe

(no subject)

Another night of lumping around, but I did make myself dinner and washed a pan of dishes at least. Didn't play too many games actually, even leaving my phone running the one bc it needs to be active to complete three of the quests that I was "working" on (it's an idle game, but the quests were to collect coins from my food court, and those only get collected while the game is active). What time I spent with my phone on was largely reading sewing patterns.

Did not bother to attempt to see the eclipse. It started snowing around 8 am yesterday and it was only partially clear at 7am this morning. Of COURSE we had a weather event on the night of a fun sky-related event. Today it is brilliantly sunny, but cold. Not as cold as it could be, but cold compared to last week/earlier this week. Alas.

Yesterday during my afternoon whine of booooooored and why snooooooow, my love K suggested I plan a spring wardrobe. Brilliant idea! So I pulled out the craft notebook and started making a list. It actually helped bc then I could also visualize what the "collection" would look like, like if I made that mustard yellow shirt that's been on my list for ages, would I necessarily want to make something in like, hot pink, that wouldn't go with it?

The List (tm):
-Grey wool trousers
-Brown houndstooth skirt (I have 6m of this, this would allow me to have a matching jacket)
-Mustard yellow striped button-front shirt

Things I can mod to wear with this:
-Teal Sagebrush top (needs new cuffs)
-Black Poplina (also needs new cuffs)

Things I can finish to wear with this:
-Brown Mitchell trousers (just needs closures)
-Brown Scout dress (buttons and buttonholes, hem)

The PINK Meriam trousers also need closures, but as I said, they don't necessarily go with the other things, so that's less of a priority lol. Maybe just to GET 'ER DONE and feel satisfied to have that off the to-do list. And then I can try them on to see how they fit bc I made them almost two years ago and things have changed since then.

OK BACK TO THE LIST. I question my choices to add dresses and skirts to my wardrobe since I so rarely wear them. But that might just be bc all my dresses stopped fitting in the post-covid years (post here defined as "I went back to work" but shit was still VERY REAL) and I donated them all. For spring, it might be nice to have a lil extra air around my legs. Because I really liked the bodice I mocked up last weekend and it'd be really cute with a skirt bottom.

I've never really thought about curating a collection like this, and I'm not sure if my stash can support it. It's largely "ooh shiny!" lol. But this is a good exercise! It makes me happy to be working towards something so tangible.

Future considerations:
-A slip dress for under the silk Nicks dress
-A petticoat (not too floofy, just a lil somethin' somethin' for that extra oomph)
-Under shorts bc no way am I walking around in skirts without some protection against chub rub.

(no subject)

Yesterday ended up being a write-off. I was sooo tired from not sleeping the night before (being anxious about missing my alarm) that I took a nap. I also felt just generally *off*, so after laying around, I moved to lay around in bed. Where I spent about 1 hour and 200k+ coins in my game to blast through some crafting and got a bunch of items, plus mostly finished the event lol.

Decided it was nightguard time, so I prepped and put it in. Man it feels weird! So I didn't sleep SUPER great bc of this thing in my mouth (what if it pops free and I choke on it? Or the kittens find it? Checked the cost yesterday and it was EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS pre-insurance, I do NOT want them to wreck it!) but it was overall fine. I can definitely see myself getting used to it PDQ.

If I get another crown this year, that will pretty much finish out my dental benefits. I have GOT to take better care of my teeth.

Plans for tonight is laundry and summat for dinner. The avocados are ready for eating. Maybe finish cataloging this box, if the kittens deign not to interrupt. Probably another early bed time.

Been eyeing a printer so I can print things at home and not worry about the cost of doing it at work since everything is tracked and I don't want to get flagged for printing personal things. (I don't know what the limit is but I'd rather not find out.) I'm not going to bother with inkjet, just gonna head straight to laser. I wish my company (photocopiers) still did personal models but alas! They do not.

looong we

Tummy issues had themselves more or less sorted by the start of the weekend, and did not turn into respiratory ones so I'm confident it was the food I had eaten. I decided that every bit of "fresh" veg would go into the trash so I didn't do this again.

(Spoiler, I totally did this again.)

Friday night I did all my erranding, counting 4 stops in total. Library to return the book, Walmart for the basics (literally chips, dairy, and GF pasta, mostly; chose here instead of somewhere else bc I wanted to pick up a pack of tape), the pharmacy for cup wash, and finally 7-11 for a slurpee. On Saturday afternoon, I took myself out for lunch and then to the fresh-fruit-and-veggie store to replace all of my veg. It was a GLORIOUS 10C, I wore a hoodie and a puffy vest against a potential chill, and it was too much! I was so hot walking around. But it was soooooo nice to feel the warmth again!

Sunday, of course, it was snow-raining, huge clumps as big as my hand. I neglected to consider this on Monday when I needed to scrape the ice off my windshield so I could go pick up my nightguard. Later on Monday, M and I went to IKEA for a nice long wander, where I managed to spend ONLY $130. I picked up curtains (fully half of that cost) and a couple other things, including a frame for my signed Ben Barnes tour poster, which looks FABULOUS in it. After, we went out for dinner bc it was her birthday!

Yesterday I left the house to pick up my library hold (the last day to do so) and then I popped over to the pharmacy to pick up coffee cream. They were totally out of the type I usually get so I got the fancier kind for the same price. Tried to catalogue some more fabrics until the kittens tried to "help" and settled in for naps on both piles (already-done and waiting). Of course as soon as I left the kitchen they came with me lol. Oh well. For dinner I made a really yummy pasta and veggie dish with a creamy sauce (basically an alfredo) but used (wait for it) a zucchini that was part of the "old" batch. I peeled it and removed any suspicious spots, but my tummy has Things to Say (though not as bad as last week) so that's gonna end right now. No more suspicious vegetables!

Other than that, my looong weekend was spent largely lumping around the house, knitting, and a lil sewing! I brought home a couple print-outs of ~*~ new ~*~ Charm patterns and mocked up one of them. I left the front waist darts unsewn to place them where they would best serve me, but the first one was over all too big. So I took it in to approximately one size smaller, and it was MUCH better. I was able to mark things like my bust apex and like... it's a full inch IN from where it's marked on the pattern. Correspondingly, the darts ended up being about that far in too. Iiiinteresting.

Back at work today and wishing I was still at home. Alas!

Entry tags:

100 day project

Day 11

Felt ambitious despite bein heckin tired and still with a mad tummy, so I pulled all of the fabric out of the second bin and catalogued that. There was one chunk of knit fabric that was about 9 yards, and I absolutely could *not* be bothered to fold it back up. That took up a decent amount of room so some pieces got put in the other bin, which was only half full.

Next step: switch! There are two more large bins (one has been "catalogued" digitally but no photos or swatches) in the closet, one smaller bin and one box, and then in the bedroom there is at least two boxes, and one box in the living room, possibly two. It feels real good to be getting this done, I've been wanting to do it FOR LITERALLY YEARS.

Dinner was a cup of chicken broth and a cup of tea. Tummy is still mad. Period started so that woke me up at 2 am, where I proceeded to be awake for two more hours. I am tired yo. Also someone I follow on fb had "food poisoning" that has now become flu A, which my local friend (a respiratory therapist) warned me of on bluesky the other day. Am I feeling truly ok?? Is it "just allergies" or something more?! Love this game.

Day 10

Shortly before leaving work, my tummy was BIG MAD. It's a good 14 hours later and it's still mad, I think I ate something that didn't agree with me. I suspect the cucumbers, but could also be the lettuce-wrapped hamburger I had on Monday. I also got home and was utterly FREEZING. Like wearing a shirt, a thermal shirt and an oodie, plus tucked into bed with kittens, and I could not get warm. Next step was wool socks, and that helped balance my blood and I finally warmed up.

As one does, I googled my symptoms. I am probably dying, but could also be food poisoning and getting chilled bc the weather was a little cooler yesterday and I walked outside without a tightly wrapped scarf. Who knows?

Anyway, I did not get any sewing done because I spent the entire evening in bed with Farscape on the TV and playing my silly games. And I really need to stop with the phone bc holy hannah my hands are sore from it (highlighted when I dropped my phone and in picking up, my fingies were kind of frozen in position.

I counted the half-row of knitting as my day 10. We'll see how I feel tonight, my tummy is still cramped up but much less than it was yesterday. I can eat and drink just fine, it's just uncomfortable to be moving around.

Day 9

Swatchbook is well underway <3 It's so satisfying seeing all the little squares. I wasn't sure what kind of info I wanted to see or know in the book so I've just been making notes as I go. The first bin had 2 crinkle cottons and 3 broadcloths, which I immediately decided that I wanted to consolidate into the same page/area. I know I have at least 3, probably 4, more crinkles, and broadcloths -- who even knows. I can think of three colours with the pile set aside for bag-making right now. That left the bin only half full, but it wasn't overly full to start with.

Officially found my oldest fabric: Some light teal cotton twill that was purchased for making Star Trek uniforms. I think I used it for my DS9 jumpsuit in 1994, and I definitely used some of it for my first attempt at gothic lolita 2002-3. There's a piece or two that's even older, salvaged from an old costume of my mum's from about 1984. I did start keeping notes in the bottom corner of when approximately the fabric was acquired. Some of it is just marked "pre-2014" as thats when I got it from my mum. Who knows how old it was before then.

Fabric I set aside for possible destashing: some yardage of white gauze. I have not a clue what to use it for.

I of course had lots of help from the kittens. Calcifer helped me measure and Sophie was very diligent about holding the bit of cotton velveteen down. Thanks girls :D

Speaking of measurements, being Canadian is affecting it lol. Just now I was thinking that it would be really easy to measure it in centimeters actually; I should go convert those. See, we have a fun mix of metric and imperial. Long distances are in KM (I do not have a concept of how long a mile is without first converting it to metric, very specific speeds, or just in a general sense by how long it takes to drive somewhere) but short measurements are in feet and inches, except fabric is sold in meters. I have measured all of my fabrics to imperial measurements (I know 115cm = 45", but there's a quick lil calculation that happens), and most of them to imperial lengths. Why? From my hand to the tip of my nose with my head turned away is 37". Whoever folded them (might have been me, might have been my mum who is 2-3" shorter than me) did so at 32-33", so yardage was easier to calculate and be reasonably accurate. But a few pieces were easier to measure in cm for Reasons, so there's a few that are listed in metric lengths.

I do plan to go through the book after and convert whatever needs to be converted, because I want to keep a spreadsheet of the items to track yardage used for various sewing challenges and my own curiosity.

Entry tags:

100 day project

Days 6-8

Day 6 (Friday): Finished the blouse except for cuff closure. I will likely remove the cuff though because even though I added 1" to the sleeve, it's still WAY too short. I want to revisit the pattern, I had traced it off with the projector so it may not be accurate.

Day 7 (Saturday): Worked on a mock-up of Gertie's ultimate dress book bodice. I started with only shortening it 1" and stitched a long zipper into the back to help really assess the fit. The back was good but the front was a lil funky. I need to put the inch back at CF only, and there was some bust-area funkiness. I started by lengthening all the darts by 3/4" (bust got extended a bit more) and there's still fit issues. I also noted that I'd like to bring the armscye in a titch on top of the shoulder but did not fit a sleeve yet.

Day 8 (Sunday): Decided IT WAS TIME to put the shelf up in the storage closet, so I did! The shelf is 6' tall, and just barely clears the ceiling lol. I accounted for the width and length of the storage bins, but not the height, so the only fabric storage I can put on it rn is boxed. Two of the bins came out and this is a great opportunity to catalogue them, and I decided I'd also like to build a physical book of what I have, so I declined to start it just yet until I could get to a printer and print out some templates to put in a binder.

After, I sewed the backs onto the stays to try it on with some temporary boning in the channels. I could generally lace it shut (a little tight through the waist) but was otherwise happy with the fit, so I removed the lacing strips, narrowed the back/side-back seam by 3/8", and stitched the back. This fabric is thick enough that I think I'd like to punch holes rather than simply opening them, particularly on the busk channel.

Spent the rest of the weekend lumping. I've started watching Farscape again and it's just so good, I don't want to miss too much by doing other stuff. I did do a couple pans full of dishes which was very necessary, and washed my hair. I will shave the side in the next day or two and can then hop in the shower to get all the lil hairs off of my body!

Entry tags:

100 day project

Day 5

Back is done. Stitched to fronts with a french seam (so preeeetty) and the neckline bound. Tonight's plan is sleeves.

I am very grumpy/tired/sad/mad today. My prescription was indeed ready yesterday and I have taken it this am. Work had a moment of "can't you people READ?!". A guy is flirting with me and I really need to tell him thanks but no thanks. My chest physically aches with the weight of the world rn. I just want to be at home with my cats.

Entry tags:

100 day project

Day 3/4

Day 3: did nuffin. Meh.

Day 4: Realized that if I wanted to make the other challenge of a garment from a designer on BlueSky in February, I needed to actually sew the garment that was already cut out. So I spent 45 mins or so stitching the front of the blouse together.

All downtime the past couple days has been "sitting on the couch playing matching games" which is hell on my hands. I also started watching Farscape again (so so so good) (don't know if I even posted about it the first time, which was literally 10 years ago) so at least I've got my "brain entertainment" for the next few weeks sorted.

This morning I walked into the kitchen and looked at the absolute mountain of dirty dishes all over my counters and said "THIS is depression". Not unrelated, I've been out of my anti-depressant for a week already and it's the brain drug that doesn't cause zappies so I haven't been worried about it but also have forgotten to check in with the pharmacy about it except for a 10 second window at random times throughout the day. Well I logged in to my account this morning and it says ready for pick up, so I'm gonna swing by after work today to check on it. And if its not ready, then to please get it anyway bc gd y'all. Thinking about past years and how absolutely awful I've felt, this is still a vast improvement. But. That is not the point. The point is that I need to get my ass to the pharmacy and get this monkey show on the road. Thankfully this ALSO the drug that worked within 4 hours of first taking it so I should get back to baseline soon.

My budget got weird this week due to unexpected concert, but in some also-good news because February is a short month all of my bills that are usually auto-paid in the early part of a month are delayed by a few days. The one that normally comes out on the 2nd is coming out on the 5th, and the one on the 5th is coming out on the 8th. So budget is still weird but it works in my advantage. I told the counsellor that I have a weird relationship to budgeting and hooo boy this is still true!

This week I was stuck at the front desk for a couple day so I didn't have much chance to think about other stuff, including said budget. I also missed the cut-off for that job I was gonna apply to :( Alas!

Entry tags:

100 day project

(no subject)

100 Day Project day 2: stitched the boning seams of the front/Side front down (had to rip one out and redo it) added the busk pocket facing with a very generous amount of the top edge left free for fitting adjustment, and used twill tape for the singleton boning channels.

Tonight I am debating adding the stitching to the back panels, or reattaching them to the body bc the lacing panels are still attached and I can see how the length is. Yeah, I just sold myself on reattaching and trying it on again before I commit to all the grommets. I can't do anything about boning for some days yet (the pattern calls for a few spirals, and I want to order it but budget is not there rn)

I was telling K about this last night, and we were joking about how a single pair of stays CAN take 100 days if you try hard enough lol. I said that I had started working on stays, and that I hadn't ever said I would only do *one* set. Maybe I spend all 100 days working on various stays lol. I have two sets of Augusta stays in progress, I could line the Cassandra stays, remake the 1780s stays, do the Costume Close Up set I cut out shortly before the flood, finish the Rilla corset, make up the Black Snail straight-front corset, finish the Victorian corset... It could work!

Entry tags:

100 day project

zzzzzz

Birthday part on Friday was so good, she was very surprised and there were lots of laughs. And the doggos!

Saturday I left the house to get coffee cream and otherwise stayed in bed. I had two naps. I put the sleeves for my sweater onto the needles, but they aren't arranged the way I would like for them to be arranged for knitting two-at-a-time, so I put them away for now. I played an hour or so of video games. I played *a lot* of mobile games.

Sunday was much the same, only I moved to the couch. In the morning, I saw that The 100 Day Project was starting NOW!! I've seen a local friend do it before (twice, or maybe it's 3 times now) with cross stitch projects so I was already aware of it and interested. I have put zero thought into it even 24 hours later, but have started with sewing.

While I got coffee cream, i bought another spool of thread. I went with Coats & Clark bc Gutterman only had the large spool. It's not *quite* as rich in colour but it will do. Later I discovered a partially wound bobbin for the Janome so that will help. But did I sew that on Sunday? No, no I did not. I was sorting a few things at the sewing desk and found the Regency stays pieces with the gussets pinned on. Great! I started stitching with the Janome until the bobbin ran out and switched back to the Singer. Jenny did not like the combo of thick fabric + pins, but Beatrice was just fine.

I went to insert the bust gussets and they were just comically tall, and I remembered that I wanted to shorten the stays from the top so I might need to lower the slits anyway. So, I'll wait until I can try it on again before doing it. I only got the hip gussets in and sides sewn to the front. Next up is adding the busk pocket and the non-seamed boning channels, which I will do tonight.

Stays are obviously not going to take me a full 100 days, so I think my project will be to build a habit of sewing every day. I have these days, the dress, a shirt cut out, another shirt planned, trousers planned, culottes, so many things. It's easy to get bogged down and do nothing because where does one even start?? I'll keep it easy for now. A little bit every day.

Our Lady Peace 30th Anniversary Tour

On Wednesday afternoon, a friend reached out and asked if I'd be interested in seeing Our Lady Peace on Thursday evening. I knew she'd had an extra ticket she was trying to account for, so I guessed she had no luck. I listened to this band when they came onto the airwaves in the mid-90s, and here they are doing their 30th anniversary tour. I said possibly, send me the details! Meaning, mainly, cost; I know they were not inexpensive tickets, so depending on how much it was would determine my answer. She said which section and row they were in, and then "my treat". Well, as it happens, I AM free and would love to go!

We met for dinner just after 5 at a Vietnamese restaurant a couple blocks away. Team Canada/Team USA was playing at 6 and so pretty much everywhere with a screen was booked solid. It was yummy and the restaurant was basically deserted (I think they do more lunch business). Then we walked over to the area, where we propped ourselves against a railing and watched the game until the end of the first period.

The first band are newer, and they played about 20-25 minutes and they were pretty good! At 7:45 just about on the dot, Collective Soul took the stage and played for about an hour. This was another band that I listened to a lot in the 90s, and I quite enjoyed them. The frontman made a bet with a "kid" in the first row about the outcome of the game lol.

Ee had seen an Instagram reel that they were going to play the game on the jumbotron in between the bands but this turned out, alas, to be a lie. A guy next to us put the game on his phone and propped it against the glass railing, where everyone around us was watching intently.

OLP took the stage just after their scheduled time of 9:15, and also just after OT had started. They opened with Superman's Dead and partway through it, Raine introduced themselves and asked if we should say a prayer for the game outcome (they are based out of Toronto, so this was the most Canadian thing EVER). "I don't know any prayers," he continued. "Let's just sing--" and we sang along to finish the song.

Like 8 bars into the intro for the next song, a guy ran out with a Canada jersey and threw it over Raine's chest. AND THE CROWD WENT WILD!! "I think we have to do this," he said, and we sang the anthem. That made the concert about 10x better!

I knew more songs than I thought I did. I definitely listened to them as a teenager, but I wouldn't have called myself a fan by any means. But oh, it was a great, great, GREAT show. His voice has changed since they first debuted, but still so good and they rocked out for almost 2 full hours. I got home at like 11:30 and I am FEELING IT today lol. I'm too old to stay out that late on a school night.

Tonight is the birthday party, and then tomorrow I am going to spend at least half the day just rotting. I am absolutely bushed.

Long weekends are never long enough

And I did absolutely *nothing* and it was great.

I finished watching my Ambulance show on Friday night, so on Saturday I started watching some of the shows that had piled up while I was binging. STarting with the Witcher movie Sirens of the Deep (loved it), Frozen and Frozen II (necessary after the Broadway show) and then I took a very long nap. I noodled around the internet for a bit after I woke up and surprisingly got back to sleep not too late.

Sunday I watched ALL of Warrior Nun, which had been on my radar as a prematurely cancelled Netflix show that got a renewal or a movie? Not sure at this point, after fans made a ruckus. I was told there were queer characters. I'm not sure what I expected story-wise, but it wasn't what I got. I did like it, and there were queer characters but it was not a focus of the story.

Monday I spent the afternoon at the indie movie theatre. First they were showing The Emperor's New Groove, which got many laughs from the audience, had a yummy poutine for lunch, and then Bridget Jones' Diary for the second crafternoon! Through both movies, I managed to get my sweater's hem finished and cast it off at home with minimal help.

I love this Regalia blouse from Sew House 7 but (mumble)don'twanttobuyit(mumble)stillbudgeting(mumble) so I thought... it looks a lot like the Sagebrush top from Friday Pattern Company, which I have and have made. It has VERY puffy sleeves but is basic enough to make adjustments. I started cutting it out, but got stuck on the sleeves. How... do I make long sleeves. Yeah I could modify the one included but what if I make it the wrong length! (I am aware of how silly this problem seems.) I decided not to worry about it and it's in a pile on the table.

On Friday I also took a tour through the dollar store bc I wanted to try out reading glasses and... yeah, I need that little bit of magnification inside the 14" or so that my regular glasses cover. +1.00 brought text mostly into focus, and +1.50 had a magnification effect. Currently I'd need ones that fit over my current glasses and the store had not much choice. So I thought great, I'll just get new regular glasses with bifocal options! That's... kinda pricey too. So part of my lack of crafting all weekend is bc I have to have everything so close just to see it. Maybe $4 on an awkward pair of readers until I can get a more permanent solution is the way to go!

ETA: the reading glasses were $1.25. They feel ridiculous and I'm sure look more so, but it'll get me through for now.

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Yesterday I had to book it across the city to get to my dentist, and I was still 15 minutes late. Thankfully my appointment didn't take long, amazing how taking care of a problem in a more timely fashion (months vs years) means it doesn't need such deep care. They also scanned my teeth for a custom nightguard, which should be in late next week.

(I was thinking about my budget this morning and how tight it was this month, what happened?? Literally *just* realized that having $200 set aside for the dentist is... yeah, that happened. Lol.)

Afterwards I popped up to Canadian Tire* bc on a lark I had checked their website and they had a large shelving unit that I've been eyeing for awhile on sale. It's 36x18x72" and it's destined for the back of the storage closet. Currently I can only stack the items in there about 5 feet tall bc they are not supported, but with the shelf I can get the not-often-used stuff (Xmas decorations, primarily) ABOVE MY HEAD at 6 feet. Each shelf holds 150lbs so I can probably get some fabric storage on there too. Much excite!

This does of course entail basically emptying the room before I can put it up and y'all, idk if I have the spoons for that right now. But at least I have it.

*IDK if Americans have a store like this, it's got tires, yes, and a large automotive section, but they are also a hardware store (power tools and home repair supplies like plumbing taps and tubing, door handles, furnace filters), garden centre, big box store like Walmart or Target with small appliances and kitchenware and cleaning supplies. Also their generic item brand is called Frank, and everything is an action or summat with him lol. Frank is a little cultered (yogurt covered pretzels), Frank lends a hand (vinyl gloves), stuff like that. It's hilarious.

I will be picking up another library book today (Gertie's Ultimate Dress book) and am looking forward to planning out some fun pieces. I need to do some cooking this weekend (yesterday was a bag of chips for dinner kinda night) and I kinda want to just nest. This is historically the worst time of year for me, and I have caught myself a couple times attempting to beat myself up for not doing XYZ or feeling down, and quickly nipped that in the bud. This is a year of resting. Winter is not made for summer levels of energy, it is for curling up with a book or a thing I like to do (like sewing) and "should" should not be in our vocabularies.

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Yesterday I talked to my site boss about the future of things at the company we work for, and then had a lot of FEELINGS. There are changes afoot, as things often are particularly in large companies like this, and they impact me directly. I will be moving back to the main office for my team (farewell large windows!) but we don't know when. One of the tasks I was doing will be shared with the other city, and that person is lovely but it's still a change. My site boss is asking me to take on some of her little tasks (great, give it to me!) but of course there will be future changes to that too, though probably not until late spring/summer.

I had my therapy appointment on Tuesday and completely forgot about all of these changes, bc I was so focused on the other things that had happened -- my trip, the proposal acceptance, voluntarily going to an event that I knew my mother was at (we had been discussing that a few sessions ago). I said "we can talk about that next time" bc it was literally at the end of the session.

I do feel stagnant, and the only thing I can think of at this time to help would be to keep access to a laptop so that, if I needed to concentrate on something, I could take it to another location (even to the lunchroom!) to help keep distractions at a minimum. One of my coworkers is prone to yelling my name just to get my attention and I fricken hate it. Site boss said she would ask. She has also said many times that she sees potential in me and wants to help develop my skills. I need to ask her what she means by this, bc then I can take steps towards that too lol.

Of course I keep thinking about how this might precipitate a huge change in my life with a move. I think moving to Toronto proper is not feasible, it is SO expensive. Currently I was seeing single bedroom apartments at 512 sq ft rent for $1400 a month. Pickin's were very slim and often had no pets allowed. So I would need to look into the greater area and possibly nearby cities. I have not looked into the employment situation yet. Potentially I could switch within my company, but I want to keep my options open. And of course none of this is even remotely possible yet.

Long weekend this weekend. I have plans for Monday with another movie-with-the-lights-left-low-to-craft, and I just saw last night that right before that they are showing one of my favourite movies EVER. It would leave me with about an hour between show times if I wanted to do both and honestly I would very likely be watching that movie anyway. The theatre is next to a deeeeeelicious restaurant that I could hit up for lunch. I'm very seriously considering it.

For the rest of the weekend, perhaps I will see if my friend wants to get together like we'd planned earlier, or else I will just work on sewing things. I need to get that thread so I can finish the Scout dress, and then I can work on... hmm. I pulled out the blouse pattern for the striped mustard fabric, so that's a distinct possibility, and perhaps I could get grey wool trousers started too. There are many closures to sew on many things.

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I kept this under wraps bc there was a lot of uncertainty, but late last year I had contacted a debt insolvency company about my options, and they put together a consumer proposal for me. I got the notice last week that it had been accepted. Basically, I agreed to pay my creditors X amount over 5 years, where X is equal to about 40% of what I owed with 0% interest. No service fees, no annual fees, no gathering interest, no collections calls. I can absolutely afford the payments and all of my responsibilities and still have a handful leftover for "fun" things like eating out and movie tickets without worrying about how I should be putting that money towards the debt (but when the debt is so high and only getting higher bc so little goes to the principle, what's the point? Life is hardly worth living without the fun things)

So my adulting task last night was grocery shopping, and y'all, it is real fun doing it without a strict budget. Before the proposal, I was budgeting $150-200 per month for my own groceries, which often included the things I needed for the cats. As you may imagine, this was not enough and I had been living like this since I bought the car in 2014, so I have been real good at keeping myself not-hungry for a long time. My first "real" post-proposal budget was in January, where I forced myself to just grab what I wanted and not consider "do I *need* this, no regard for cost (i did price compare in some cases, bc that's just smart shopping. Generic tin foil is just as good for my purposes as brand name, as is dairy products, but I bought brand name sodas just because I could). My bill was $180 and I topped it up with $45 cash after I got back from Toronto.

My budget spreadsheet had $150 filled in for this months paycheques, which I told myself ALSO included fast food eating bc I'm paying M back for the hotel still. Well I overspent that a little bit, after also having fast food this weekend, BUT I have already accounted for all of my recurring bills up until the first pay of March, and have one more cheque this month which will mostly be rent and the "little things". I got a lot of things that will last me for 2-3 weeks and the top up towards the end of the month won't be horrible.

Now I just need to spend one of these upcoming weekend days doing things like baking granola and bread and I will be SET. As I get more comfortable with the budget (it's still weird to remind myself that no, I don't need to concern myself with how to maximize the payment to the credit card) and get further into the year, I should have a better stock of on-hand pantry-stable items.

It's wild y'all. As a young adult I was struggling with low pay and all the expenses that come with having my own household. My parents/grandparents have never supported me financially. I got my first credit card at 24 and immediately developed bad habits with it that ended up with me literally 20 years later trying to undo that. In the summer, I didn't have enough for the minimum payment so I just sent what I had, and they called me multiple times a day until I answered. Fees and interest were so high that the principle wasn't being touched. I was at a point where I was considering just not paying at all bc what was the point? Then I saw a note somewhere in the news that the living wage in my city is the wage I am making, and what am I even doing right now?? I'd been thinking about this for over a year already, so I finally did it, and it's SUCH A RELIEF to have that off my plate.

I have to take two financial counselling sessions, which I have recently seen is first about creating a budget and the second was about long-term planning. I grew up in the "we don't talk about money" era and never had good money management modeled to me (should have learned about this instead of taking care of an egg in school!) so it's something I've always struggled with. I'm very happy to take these sessions to move forward. I have PLANS that could never be even considered bc of the debt load, but the LIGHT IS THERE. IT'S HAPPENING.

In other news, I have an eggplant in my fridge that I am going to experiment with (I SWEAR I had a recipe I ate in the summer which was supposed to have eggplant in it, but I cannot remember what it was except that it was *delicious*), chicken strips, and a fun block of cheese. Tonight's adulting is laundry and kitchen stuff, plus FAJITAS!!!

I took a square of the questionable interfacing and fused it to a bit of cotton shirting. Wool setting on the iron did nothing, but cotton setting got it on there nice and tight. One corner didn't get fully set, which was good bc I could try to pull it up, and that glue is on there good. The real test will be different materials, but I am optimistic.

No sewing, and very little cross stitching last night. It's fine, I have yummies in my fridge again!