About Me

I was born in Montreal and have just hit the 50-year milestone. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had a curious mind. As a child, my summer days were spent in the big field behind my house with my brother. We would observe insects, build wooden forts, and wage "war" on the neighbors using wooden swords and trash can lids as shields. It was also the perfect testing ground to see how much resistance our Lego trucks could handle in the dirt clods.

When I wasn't assembling Meccano structures, I loved watching my parents. My father was a garbage truck driver, and whenever he saw people throwing away BMX bikes, Big Wheels, toys, or broken electronics, he would pick them up to fix them. That’s actually how the little organ from when I was 8 ended up at our house! He would tinker with salvaged parts to build functional objects and brought home old radios for me to gut. I spent hours taking them apart, carefully collecting tiny motors, wires, and bolts. On her end, my mother was a seamstress and made us wonderful Halloween costumes. It's from the two of them that I get this deep passion for resourcefulness and DIY.

I also developed an artistic side early on. By the age of three, I was already drawing beautiful characters. Even though adulthood, work, and family eventually caused me to step away from drawing, that creativity never left me. It simply expressed itself differently: taking up my mother's mantle, I hand-sewed and crafted every single Halloween costume for my two sons throughout their entire childhood.

Turning 50: A New Lease on Life

Life went on, rich with happiness but also filled with storms. I have shared my daily life with my partner for nearly 30 years now. Together, we built our nest. I had two sons, but life also confronted us with the ultimate hardship: grieving the loss of our oldest, who left us at the age of 14.

Over the years, I also gained a lot of weight, which brought its share of complications and health mishaps. I seriously injured both knees after falling on the ice, developed severe sleep apnea, a phlebitis... In short, my body took a beating.

And then, the 50-year milestone arrived right this year. That number triggered a deep introspection inside me. I thought about my mother, who passed away at just 51, and my son, who left at 14. I realized just how short life can be. I told myself there was absolutely no reason to keep letting myself waste away because of my weight. It is well past time to stop waiting for things to get better: it's time to live, right now.

It was this positive midlife crisis that pushed me to go for it and fulfill my oldest dreams, come what may. Among them was learning the piano, a memory that had stuck with me since I was 8. In July 2026, I finally took the leap. I bought myself a quality digital piano and dove headfirst into learning.

My Current World and the Fur Brigade

Since we finished renovating the basement, I am in the process of setting up a space entirely my own: a game room that doubles as a sewing studio. When I work on a project, my mother's movements and explanations come flooding back to me. How to thread the machine, sew straight, iron... Everything she passed down to me is incredibly useful today, especially for altering and sewing my own shirts.

In this studio, I am never truly alone. I have always adored animals—from the neighbor's big German Shepherd who used to walk me more than I walked her in the fields of my childhood, to the rodents and birds I’ve kept over the years. Today, our three female cats rule the house. They are our babies and, without a doubt, the chief inspectors of all my projects!

When it comes to projects, my love and I form a unique duo. We are not alike at all: a very down-to-earth nature perfectly balances out my artistic and imaginative side. There is often a sense of mystification when I rave about a mini wacky waving tube man, a Mario Bros figure, Garfield plushies, or colorful LED lights. With any new project, 90% of the time, the initial reaction brings plenty of questions: what is it going to be used for? Do you really need it? Is it even going to work? But despite this early skepticism, help is always there the moment I need it, whether it's cutting wood or screwing cat course shelves to the walls. And the best part is that it almost always ends with: "Ah yeah, I like it, that's cool! Now I get what you wanted to do." Behind the serious exterior, my young-at-heart side is truly loved. We complement each other perfectly: I bring our daily life out of its shell, and I get brought safely back down to earth.

All my adventures and misadventures trying to track down heavy-duty clothing and gear adapted to my size gave me an idea. Why keep all of this to myself? That's what pushed me to launch this blog: to share my daily life, my DIY successes, and above all, to offer an honest helping hand to those facing the same heavy-duty challenges.