Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, Food, sewing

Sunday Breakfast, Cloak Update, and Cards

This week’s Sunday breakfast, I made scrambled eggs, homemade scones (recipe here), and homemade clotted cream, in the Instant Pot (recipe here). I’ve made clotted cream in the oven before, but I’ll always be making in the Instant Pot now. It was super easy and turned out exactly the same.

I love clotted cream, but I haven’t seen it around since the pandemic started. In a province full of dairy farmer’s you wouldn’t think it would be hard to get, but we import it from England. It’s super easy to make, I’ll make my own from now on.

I found fabric for the cloak at FabricLand. Just my luck they were having a huge sale! It was still over $70.00 with the thread, cloak fabric, and lining. I am going to cut the tissue paper pattern out, possibly the fabric today. I’ll start sewing it during the week.

It’s been so sunny and beautiful lately. It’s still cold, but being outside is wonderful with all this extra sunshine. I’ve been loving Winter walks.

I made more cards this weekend. These two were my favourite. I’ll post a video of the rest and the supplies I used to make them, below.

Lobster Shorts finances, stock market

Stock Update March 2021

Disclaimer: I am not a financial professional. This my own personal, uneducated journey through the stock market. Do not use this blog for financial advice.

How are my stocks performing? See for yourself.

GFL bought January 14/2021 for one share at $38.17, currently worth $40.81.

WISH bought Feb 01/2021 it was $31.85 + conversion fees, costing a total of $41.44 for one share, currently worth $18.68 (ouch).

BBD.A bought Feb 19/2021 for one share at $0.84 for one share, currently worth $0.84.

BBD.B bought Feb 19/2021 for one share at $0.58, currently worth $0.57.

PSYK bought Feb 24/2021 for one share at $10.71, currently worth $9.98

Today I bought PTVE (Pactive Evergreen Inc. They are a food packaging company for restaurants) for $14.51 +1.28 exchange rate fee, for a total of $18.54. I bought it because people are eating out more often and with the pandemic they are using a lot of take out containers. I also bought it because I only had $20.00 left of my $30.00 a month stock spending limit.

Well, at least one of my stocks is doing okay lol. I can’t say the same for the rest, but again it’s early. I hope they do much better in the future. Maybe a couple of months is too soon to tell?

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, Food

A Sunday February Morning

I was down three pounds today, probably not after the breakfast I made this morning. We like to have big breakfasts on Sunday and this, or oatmeal is a common one for us. The home fries were done in the air fryer and the croissants were from the grocery store. I’ve never made croissants at home before. My original plan was to make wild sour dough bread, but my wild starter didn’t make it. The recipe I got it from said to use filtered water, but I used tap water (we have extremely hard water where I live) and it never got bubbly. I will try again with distilled water.

Daylight is lasting longer and I’m feeling it. The birds are chirpier, there is more sunshine, and I’m feeling happier. It’s still cold, but there’s something in the air. It was supposed to rain all weekend, but instead there was more sunshine yesterday, and although it’s cloudy today, it’s not raining. We’re going to go for a walk again today, not through the woods, but around the town.

I made cards this weekend.

I love the Autumn one, I made that with water colour paint, stamps, and water colour paper. The shark/whale is hilarious I want to use it often. I do like the peacock one, but it wasn’t quite right. I wish I had a flamingo stamp, or die to go with the palm frond embossing folder I used. My favourite card wasn’t pictured here, I sealed it in an envelope before I took a photo of it. If you want to see it, or what I used to make the cards and where to get the supplies for them, I’ll have it posted in the video below.

Lobster Shorts finances, stock market

PSYK – The Psychedelic Stock

Disclaimer: I am not a financial professional. This my own personal, uneducated journey through the stock market. Do not use this blog for financial advice.

I bought a single share of PSYK – Horizons Psychedelic Stock on February 24/2021 for $10.71. It is currently worth $9.79 – not off to a great start. I was supposed to wait until March, this happens when I browse. I buy stuff. I’m going to make a rule for myself of no browsing stocks until the next month. If you haven’t seen my previous posts about buying stocks, I am limiting myself to $30.00 a month in stocks, since I am new and know nothing about the stock market.

PSYK attracted my attention because it was new and, well it’s about psychedelics. I believe the stock is an ETF (exchange traded fund), which I think means that it’s a group of stocks. I didn’t realize that when I bought it. There’s SO much I don’t know. The stock involves psychedelics in the healthcare sector, you can find more information about it here.

Lobster Shorts Food, weight loss

What’s Happening With OMAD

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

Not a thing. I was doing one meal a day before the Christmas holidays, but things fell apart. I had a rough holiday (I had to put my dog down) and I ate my feelings. I gained back the seven pounds I had lost and I haven’t been attempting to eat healthy at all. After the holidays were over I didn’t restart OMAD. I was back to eating breakfast, but usually skipped lunch (mostly because I was too lazy to make anything) and then would eat dinner (and a lot of junk food. Cadbury Creme Egg season is here and that sweet sweet sugary goo egg is irresistible to me. It’s one of my favourite candies).

My spouse is back into intermittent fasting (skipping breakfast) and as I like to sleep in for the mornings, that means I am too. I’ve been getting really hungry during the afternoons and have been getting chips for a snack. It’s not the healthiest of lunches. Lately, I am way too hungry to stick with OMAD. Switching to intermittent fasting (skipping breakfast) and having lunch and dinner, seems like the right decision for me, right now.

I’m going to have to find the time to cook a healthy lunch, or I’m going to keep buying unhealthy snacks instead. I’m going to focus on eating healthier, unprocessed food. I get a lot of takeout, but there are still some fairly healthy options out there.

This was my dinner tonight. I love love love the Pita Pit Halloumi pita. I don’t feel guilty when I get this, It’s full of veggies. When I got home I split a Founder’s Tequila cocktail with my spouse. We went to the liquor store and I bought a bottle of Bailey’s Espresso (it’s a flavourgasm, my favourite). I’m probably going to have some tonight, it is almost guaranteed.

Lobster Shorts The Great Outdoors

Hamsters With Wings

I like birds, but I love chickadees. They are my favourite bird and there are tons of them here in Ontario. They are cute, tiny, and they will likely land on your hand for seeds, especially if you go somewhere they are used to being fed (This photo was taken at Wild Wood in Stratford. Laurel Creek in Waterloo and Macgregor Park in Port Elgin, are also great places to feed chickadees).

This cute little one and its buddy landed on my hand in under two minutes. Every time we were about to walk away it would come back for more. They followed us until we got to a thicker section of the woods and we would stop and hold out more seeds (they always picked the peanuts).

I will remember to bring seeds with me on all my nature walks (I stuffed them into a pocket I never use). I might meet some cute forest creatures along the way.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, sewing

Let’s Talk About Cloaks

Let’s talk about cloaks and why we don’t wear them anymore. I’ve never worn a cloak, but I really want to. I love the way they look, they remind me of fairy tales. I don’t know why we don’t currently wear them. Since I’ve never worn one, I can’t attest to their practicality. There are no arm holes and maybe they aren’t very warm. It might be a pain in the arse having to hold it closed, and how would you carry your handbag while wearing one (if you carry a handbag). Cloaks were the furthest thing on my mind until I went on YouTube.

Rachel Maksy’s most recent video popped up in my subscription list, she was making cloaks and wearing them. She showed the pattern she used and I bought it on Amazon. I’m going to wait until the pattern comes before I buy the fabric. I’ve got to try this cloak thing out!

I also made cards this week. The two pictured above were my favourites. I made the other three below as well. Jay liked the Thanks card the most.

I cut the Yes!? part off the cat stamp (it was part of the big cat stamp). I didn’t think it went together so I chopped it off. I tried Ann Melvin Positivelypapercraft‘s laminator hack, to make the cat window card. Mine was a little bubbly, I’ll need practice. I’ll post a video of the cutting dies, stamps, and embossing folder I used to make them, below.

Lobster Shorts lifestyle

February 2021 Mid Month Stock

I broke my rule. I was only going to buy $30 in stock, once a month. Thursday, I was playing around on WealthSimple and saw two stocks for under $1.00. The stock was for Bombardier class A and Class B (I had no idea what the difference was at the time). Class A BBD.A was $0.85 and Class B was $0.58. Because they were so cheap, I bought one of each. I figured “Why not?” when the total price was under $2.00. I put a limit buy for each of them for $0.99. I got Class A for $0.84 and Class B for $0.58.

I know now that the difference between the two was voting rights, according to this website. From what I read, I should have purchased the Class B stock, as I am not interested in voting rights and it was much cheaper.

Bombardier is not doing well and will be laying off 1600 employees. I only bought it because I liked the price (and the name. Bombardier, I like the mouthfeel of the word). These are some of the reasons you should never take financial advice from me. Mouthfeel, is not likely a solid method for choosing stocks.

I am reading the book pictured below (I purchased it from Indigo), to learn a better method for choosing stocks.

Lobster Shorts lifestyle

Valentine’s, Long Weekend, and a Butt Load of Cards

This long weekend was a fairly quiet one. My sweet spouse picked us up a bottle of vintage wine and brought me beautiful white roses (one of my favourites). We made a charceuterie board and watched TV.

The charceuterie board was made with cheese from the Cheese Of The Month Club and they were all delicious. My favourite was the heart shaped cheese. We added fruit, veggies, crackers, pickles, dips, and chocolate almonds. It was delicious and low key.

My spouse had a sore back all this weekend, so we spent most of the time relaxing. We went for a walk through the woods for Family Day. It was cold and beautiful. I love the woods in Winter. There are a lot of hills. I want to hike through the woods and take a GT Snow Racer and sled down the hills through the trees (I feel that is breaking an age appropriate line, but sometimes you just have to try things).

I made a lot of cards this weekend. My favourite was the headphones girl and the slim line jar card.

This mason jar shaker was my least favourite. I love the lid, but I’m not very good at making shaker cards yet and I just didn’t like the look of it. I would have liked this better as a flat jar. I’ll post a video of the cutting dies I used below.

Lobster Shorts lifestyle

When Shopping Local Is Awesome

FEBRUARY 2021 CHEESE OF THE MONTH

St Marys is small, but it has some shopping gems. One of these gems is the local cheese shop The Towne and Country Cheese Shop of St. Marys. They are a lunch deli and cheese shop that offers gluten free and vegetarian options (I’m unsure if they have vegan options). They now offer something magical and wonderful… Cheese of the month!

The cheese is only available for pick up and you wont be able to find anything out about it online (There is no information on their website, I only found out about it because it was listed in the local paper). The flavours in this month’s box were Wensleydale Creamery Yorkshire Wensleydale Pineapple, Smoked Chipotle, Ford Farm Cheesemakers Wensleydale With Raspberry and White Chocolate Curls, and Coombe Castle Chocolot cheese.

Every month you will get 3-4 different kinds of cheese totaling about 1.5lbs of cheese. They packaged it up beautifully for a boutique experience that was a delight to unbox. The cheese comes with pairing and serving suggestions and information about the cheese. I love love love that there was a heart shaped cheese for the month of Valentine’s Day (there were more flavours of the heart shaped cheese, at the shop).

I’m excited to try new and interesting cheeses each month and plan on staying signed up for awhile.