H & M will answer my prayers

So, I've been complaining about finding hijabi appropriate clothing where I still like the style, right? Well, I think I've made a breakthrough: Over the weekend at camp, I had the following conversation not once, but two times:

• Me: I love your (insert item of clothing here: shirt/jacket/skirt/etc). Where did you get it? Please oh please don't say another country.
• Fellow camp attendee: H & M.
• Me: woohoooooooooooooooooooo!

In the past, this answer would irritate me to no end, because H & M has no stores in Ottawa. Now that I live in Montreal, this answer delights me. There will be an H & M opening in August 6 blocks from my house. Can I wait that long, or do I trek across the city next week to check out what I can find?

Random Other-Post Follow-ups

Some unrelated-to-each other ideas that may each be related to older posts:

• They say the proof is in the pudding... well, I say the proof is in the brownies. As promised, I bought cocoa, and on a whim, made some wheat-free, cane sugar brownies a half hour ago. The difference between these and the carob ones is astounding. I am truly a chocoholic, and it's not to be cured.
• Because I complained about the lack of hijabi-friendly clothing this season: 1)For any hijabi-Montrealers, there is a booth inside the Eaton's centre near the Metro McGill entrance that sells scarves, long tunics, and other hijabi stuff for reasonable prices. I went last Monday and have a new tunic to show for my efforts. 2) My mum-in-law is way too sweet: after listening to me complain during our last outing about the lack of long sleeved items available, she apparently found one of the very very few things on the market the other day and picked it up for me.... 3) There's a new hijabi clothing store in Montreal called "Inty" (cool play on words because this is how to say the feminine "you" in Arabic). I haven't been there, but I hear from a friend that the stuff is good quality and affordable. If you know the city, it's located where the old Multi-vision store was.
• I finished Bel Canto, the first book from Jen's suggested list, and in an effort not to spoil it, all I can say is GO READ THIS BOOK. Sooooooooooooooooooooo good. Meets all my super-picky criteria: good characters, good writing, good plot. As for Jen's request that I tell her what I thought of the controversial ending, I'll just say that it's crushing, but marvelous, and totally plausible. This book leaves your heart-aching. You love the characters that much. Next, I'm starting The Namesake, which is supposed to also be great. I hope it's as great. Keep your suggestions coming. I'm planning on reading a lot, as I'm hoping to write a lot and for me, the best way to do that is through reading.

Calling all Clothing Designers

My mom in law and I were out shopping on Saturday (shout out to my parents in law for an awesome weekend visit) and we had the most frustrating kind of "bad" shopping trip in that we didn't "not find anything we liked", no, that would have been easy enough to deal with. No, we had one of those trips where a lot of what we saw was nice, but it was all two-third sleeves, thus making it not wearable for hijabis without those little "sleeve" thingies we can wear under our shirts when the sleeves aren't the right lengths. (My sister's friend (who is a convert), her mother refers to them hilariously enough as 'socks for your arms'). I don't mind wearing them once in a while, but they're really not that comfortable and I'm not enamoured with the way they look, so I'm not about to buy a whole load of shirts that require sleeves for me to wear them.
So here's my call out to clothing designers: if it's short sleeved, do it short sleeved. But if it's long sleeved, just make it the whole length and I predict you will find more hijabis buying your shirts. We like your stuff, it's just not convenient to wear in its current format, and all you need is a teeny-tiny bit of material for us to start buying it in droves.
There are plenty of Muslim women in this country who don't all feel like wearing jilbabs every day and really like your styles. A savvy fashion designer with great business sense would start making stuff for us and be the one to reap the benefits, so if any of you are reading this, that's my great idea for you...