Lobster Shorts crafting

I Made A Thing And I Love It!

I’m not sure how I stumbled on Make Your Own Bird Bath, videos on YouTube, but I did. I watched people make bird baths with cement, plastic totes, and some with large leaves. I didn’t want to chop up my beloved plants, I was going to go with plastic totes, but I wanted a bowl shape, not a rectangle.

I started thinking about some of the things I have around the home I could use. I wanted a large bowl for the bird bath and my Bosu Ball came to mind. It was perfect.

With my spouses help, I covered the Bosu Ball in garbage bags and laid out a couple garbage bags to protect the garage floor. I used a ready made bag of cement that just needed water. I dumped the cement into a bucket adding the water a little at a time until it was the consistency I wanted (I didn’t measure anything). I wish I had taken more photos of the process but I couldn’t find my camera and wanted to get started. The mound in the photo didn’t look like this right away. After piling all the cement onto the garbage bag covered Bosu Ball it was very cracked and I was really nervous because it didn’t seem like enough cement. I had to gently pat the cement pile and slowly the cracks blended together. My spouse also ran a paint brush with a bit of water on it to help smooth it all out until it looked like it does on the photo.

I’m not sure where I got the idea that you can remove it from the mold (mould?) after 48 hours, but I ended up waiting an extra day. I’m glad I did. After 48 hours the cement pile still wasn’t the light colour it is now. It still had dark looking wet patches, even though it felt dry. I was really scared of it cracking when we pried it off the Bosu Ball. The cement layer seemed very thin. If I had more cement I have used it. We had to use a crow bar to pry the cement off the ball and I was worried it would get damaged. I wouldn’t use the Bosu Ball again, even though it turned out so good because they are really expensive. I’m sure there are much better items that I could use that would be less upsetting if they were ruined.

Everything did turn out pretty good and nothing was damaged. I love how it turned out.

There are some issues. Because I used a garbage bag, the creases in the bag went into the cement and made it look like cracks, but that makes it look antique and gives it character. If you aren’t into that look and want to try this, possibly a large bowl piled over with sand would be a better option. Also, if you look closely, you can see pieces of the bag stuck in the cracks that will be super hard to get out.

I’m also not sure if the bowl is water tight. I’ve put a couple buckets of water in it and I’ll check on it tomorrow. I’ll forgive it if it’s not. I love how it turned out even if it ends up being a lawn bowl and not a bird bath.

Here’s a photo of the bowl with my spouses feet for size comparison.

Lobster Shorts Food, vegetarian, weight loss

What I Ate Today – June 2 – Day 3

This morning I had my usual weekday breakfast, an egg on a whole wheat English muffin, with black coffee. This is a recycled photo because I always dig in before I remember I’m supposed to take a photo of my breakfast. I’m not all there in the morning.

Mid morning I had my usual cup of tea. This is also a recycled photo, but it’s so sunny it makes me happy. I love this tea.

Mid morning I had a Larabar. I usually have a second one in the afternoon, but I didn’t need it today. I was really busy this afternoon and didn’t have time to think about food. Maybe that’s the secret… keep busy!

For lunch, again I had homemade lentil soup. I still have at least another two bowls of it left, so you’re going to see it a couple more times. I’m starting to get sick of it, but I’ll finish it.

For dinner I had a pita. I had my favourite pita. Halloumi! I got a small halloumi on whole wheat. It was delicious and I ate the whole thing. I always think to myself “I’ll just have half now, and half later”. That never happens. I chow down and it’s gone.

After dinner I had a glass of oat milk. I’m writing oat milk, like it’s supposed to be called, but I always call it oaty milk. WIth the y. Oateeeee. Oaty milk.

I just finished drinking this can of peach Bubly. I may be up all night peeing. That happened last night too! I starting drinking it too late.

Lobster Shorts Food, vegetarian, weight loss

What I Ate Today – June 01/2021 Day Two

You’re going to see repeating photos from yesterday. I had a lot of the same foods. Breakfast was an egg on a whole wheat English muffin and black coffee, made by my spouse. We love the Hamilton Beach sandwich maker. It makes breakfast a breeze.

Later that morning I had a cup of tea. I’ll buy another box when this one is done. I really like it.

I had two of these Lara bars, one mid morning and the other late afternoon. I had two macadamia nuts with the second bar, but I forgot to take a photo of it. It’s hard to get used to taking photos of everything you eat.

For lunch I had a bowl of homemade lentil soup. I have a lot of this soup left, it’s going to show up for many days to come.

Check out this monster strawberry! This is the biggest one I’ve ever seen! I split it with my spouse and then had a second strawberry (about a third of the size of this one), but again, I forgot to take a photo of it.

This was my dinner. It was a monster salad with balsamic vinaigrette. I was craving it all day. It’s pretty awesome for me when I crave salad. I made it with spinach, cherry tomatoes, a shredded carrot, red pepper, cucumber, shredded cheese and cashews. I topped it with a packet of pita strips and slivered almonds. This came out of another salad packet that someone gave me. She doesn’t like the salad toppers that come in the kits. What the what!?!? That’s the best part of the salad! I had this salad with a big glass of oat milk.

I had a couple sips of my spouses gin and juice cocktail, I made it for him after he finished mowing the lawn. I was going to do that today, but he beat me to it. This cocktail is delicious! I don’t like gin, but I like this drink and I’ll tell you how I make it. Take a small bottle of cheap gin and throw in about 6 sticks of Juicy Fruit gum. Let it soak in there over night and then strain it (be careful because the Juicy Fruit will be soft and will get all over everything. To make the cocktail, use the juice of half a squeezed lemon, a shot of the infused gin, and then 1/2 a cup to 1 cup of sprite. It’s fantastic.

I’m currently drinking a pineapple Bubly and have finished eating for the day. I did great today! I know I should drink more water, but I’m not there yet.

Lobster Shorts Food, vegetarian, weight loss

What I Ate Today – May 31/2021

My day started with my spouse making me breakfast while I slept (the man is a saint), an egg on a whole wheat muffin , and black coffee. I asked him to skip the cheese from now on to make it lighter on the calories. He added some curry powder and it was good. I didn’t miss the cheese at all. I got on the scale this morning and I’ve gained weight. I knew I did because I’ve been indulging every craving I’ve had and binging a lot. From now on, I’m blogging what I eat. I’ve read that writing down everything you eat helps keep you in check. I wonder if taking photos works the same.

During the week, I like to have a mug of tea mid morning. I haven’t had Earl Grey in awhile. I forgot how much I like it. Usually I have green tea, this was a nice change. I refill the mug and toss the tea bag back in and make a second cup which I sip on until evening.

I’ve been having Larabars for snacks. I had two of these today. One mid morning and the second late afternoon. They are really good and have ingredients you can pronounce.

This is a terrible photo of my lunch. It’s homemade lentil soup. This is one of my fridge clean out specials. I make this a lot when I don’t have anything particular planned. I chuck soup stock, lentils, and whatever else I can find in my fridge in a pot and make it into soup. This one had onion, lentils, vegetarian soup stock, spinach, corn, carrots, and chickpeas. It was okay. This is a 500mL mason jar full of the soup.

My dinner is where I took a wrong turn.

I had to pick up something at Home Depot and my spouse suggested we stop at Harveys. I was more than happy to go along with that idea. I love love love Harvey’s veggie burgers. I got one and we shared the fries.

After that I went to Healthy Planet… and bought a cookie. Yep, I bought junk food at the health food store. I messed up a little here. Maybe there is something to keeping track of your food because going over this again, I realized I wasn’t anywhere near as well behaved as I thought I had been today. The cookies and fries should have stayed at the stores.

When I got home I had a glass of Earth’s Own Unsweetened Oat Milk. I love this milk, it’s the first milk I’ve tried that I want to drink a plain glass of. This was a 250mL size glass of milk. After that I mowed half the lawn (the battery died and the second battery wasn’t charged. I can’t say I was super sad about it. I’ll finish that job tomorrow… maybe) and then had a can of Peach Bubly. I’m starting to get hungry again, but I’ll be going to bed very shortly and have finished eating for the day. I’m putting an end to late night snacking.

I have no idea how many calories this is. I don’t want to get into calorie counting. I’ve tried it before and find it too time consuming and I don’t stick with it. I’m still searching for what works for me.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, Food, The Great Outdoors, vegetarian, weight loss

Cards, Kayaking, and Indulgences

It was a long weekend here in Ontario. I spent the first day making cards and catching up on some chores. I’ll post a video of the cards I made and the supplies I used to make them with, below. Some of them were really cute and I loved the new dies.

I saw the snake again this weekend. It’s much slimmer now, it’s either digested a giant meal, or has laid some eggs. It’s much more mellow away from it’s beloved garden hose (I mentioned in a previous post it was lunging at my spouse when he was trying to turn the garden hose on. We think it might have had a crush on the garden hose!). I was pretty close to it when I was doing some weeding, and it didn’t seem to mind too much. It was also between me and the door this morning and I had to step over it to get into the house. It didn’t seem to mind that too much either. I’m happy to see it’s in much better spirits these days. We had always got along in previous years.

We had wanted to go on a kayaking adventure out of town, but with potential thunderstorms looming, we decided to play it safe and stay on the local river. I brought my camera with the underwater case and took a looong video of the underwater view. It’s pretty murky as the day was gloomy for most of it, but I think it looks pretty cool. I’ll post that video below. I was looking for the really pretty rainbow darter fish, but they were mostly gone (I didn’t get them on the video). The Canada geese were also a lot more relaxed, including the ones with babies. They are terrifying and will come for you if you come too close. The local creatures seem much more friendly lately.

I indulged a lot this weekend. A LOT!

I had my regular big Sunday breakfast of a croissant and eggs with coffee and fruit. Monday, I had an omelet (pictured above). I had CRAVINGS this weekend. I wanted strawberry ice cream and cookies. And I had them, a lot of them. I have completely come off track lately. I haven’t worked out, or gotten that much exercise and my diet has been horrible the past week. I keep falling off the wagon and feeling discouraged with myself.

Time to pick myself up by the boot straps (what does that even mean??) and start again.

Lobster Shorts lifestyle

Am I Too Superstitious?

Recently, I decluttered my medicine cabinet. It was messy enough that when I pulled something out, a bunch of other things would fall out. I decluttered it and the tidal wave of bottles. Recently, I’ve had a glass bottle of flower essence (the fact that I own flower essences, should already tell you that yes, I am superstitious) fall out every morning. And every morning it lands on a hard rock counter top and doesn’t shatter. Every morning I keep putting the bottle back in the cabinet. It doesn’t fall out at night, when I get my toothpaste or moisturizer out, like I do in the morning,

This morning the same thing happened. The glass bottle landed on the hard counter and didn’t shatter, I picked up the bottle to put it back, like I have every morning and then I thought to myself “Is this a sign? Should I start using this again? Is this the universe talking to me?”. I know they give me a headache, for the first few days (apparently this is a common side effect and goes away in a couple days).

I went with the universe. One drop under the tongue and I’ve got a pretty decent headache that I had about an hour after I took it. I’ve had that headache all day. Funny thing is, I can’t remember what that flower essence is for! But when the universe speaks… I’m going to try to listen.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, Food, The Great Outdoors

This Week’s Cards, Sunday Breakfast, and Lawn Snake Update

This is such an easy breakfast to make, if you buy the croissants already made, which I did. I must admit I over baked them a tad this time. I am one of those people that if I drink too much coffee I get a headache, jittery, and my face feels weird. Too much coffee for me is two cups (unless it’s a latte. I can drink a plain coffee and a latte in the same day and not react). I rarely finish a cup of coffee. Most people I know get a reaction if they don’t drink any coffee. I have no reaction to skipping coffee in a day. We are all unique little snowflakes.

One of the snakes on the lawn is either about to expand the family, or had a giant meal. It still looks like this a day later. I don’t know much about snakes to be able to tell. It also has a favourite spot. If I want to check in on it, it’s usually in the same spot. Maybe it’s too full to move?

I made cards this weekend. I really love the paw print background with black cards stock on the kraft card base. It’s cute enough for a plain note card itself and I love these little dog cut outs too. They had more pieces like eye pupils, a tongue, and a couple more ear pieces and toe pads, but they were so small and finicky, I didn’t use them. They are cute without them.

I used a living room cutting die set that was fun to use with patterned paper. I still need to put a sentiment on it, but I’m not sure what sentiment I would want to use with this card. There’s always “Hello” which typically works on anything, which I used on the plant trellis card. The trellis card is on the plain side so I it’s not yet finished. The Father’s Day card is minimal, and I like it that way. It’s another set that would work with patterened paper.

I made these cards and more with a new coordinating envelope and die set. I made a couple more envelopes to use with letters to friends and family. They aren’t quite long enough to fit a standard letter into. I hope one day they make one that size. I have been looking for one. The rose paper on the top card gave me a cottage core vibe, which I have been into lately. I will get a lot of use out of this die. I love matching the envelopes and cards together. I’ll post a link of a video of mine where you can get the supplies I used to make the cards.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, Food, vegetarian

Breakfast and Cards

This morning I laid in bed for about an hour after I woke up. Normally I get up right away, it was nice to be dozy and stay there for awhile. Breakfast was quick and easy. I heated store bought croissants in the oven while I scrambled eggs and made coffee. I sliced some bananas and served it with blueberries and a slice of cheese. It was delightful.

I’ve had a sweet tooth this weekend (of course I did). Saturday my spouse and I like to go for a walk around town and get a latte and egg and cheese sandwich from the Stonetown Cafe. We did that, but instead of a sandwich I got oatmeal cookies and a latte. She makes a delicious oatmeal cookie there.

I made more cards this weekend. I loved the size of the dies for these beverage cards. I’ve noticed they’ve started to make larger sized dies and I love them. I do prefer they fit on the note card sized cards, as that’s my preferred size to make. These did fit, it took up the majority of the cards surface, but they fit. They fit even better on a slimline card, which I rarely make, but they look best on that size. I loved how these cards turned out. My umbrella is placed too high, but I still like this card and love the die set.

The card on the left was a clothing die set. It had other accessories like a tie and suspenders and i made it into a Fathers Day card. I loved the dinosaur die set too. It came with a top hat, which is what convinced me to get it. Too cute! The little spines near the tail were a pain the butt to glue down, they were so little, but the rest came together easily.

I made these cards as well. The castle card had congrats on it because I’m giving to someone who just got a new home. The die set of that one is really big and needed 12″ x 12″ paper to cute the folding base out. I store dies in a binder, this one is going to pop out the top, but it’s worth it. I loved the die set. It cut out really well. Even the small holes popped out super well. Normally with small finicky dies you have to run it through the machine a million times and tear the pieces off a little bit. Not this set. It came right out. I was really impressed with it. I’ll post a video of the supplies I used, below.

Lobster Shorts Food, vegetarian

Cheese Of The Month May 2021 Edition

This month’s Cheese Of The Month from The Towne and Cheese Shoppe, has been my favourite so far.

There were four cheeses to try this month, and I liked all of them. I’ve signed up for a year and the cost is $30.00 a month. Once your package is ready, they’ll send you an email to come pick it up.

The first cheese I tried was the Havarti. It was a very creamy, semi soft cheese, with a slight bitterness to it. It was okay, but will enjoy it more added to something than by itself.

This next one was a little bigger than this when it arrived, my spouse got into it before I could snap a photo of it. This one had a hint sweetness to it. I’ve never had celery flavoured cheese before. I liked it.

The Apricot Wensleydale was sweet with pieces of apricot in it, I also liked this one. It tied with the celery cheese for my second favourite.

The Gloucester was my favourite. It was creamy, mild, and delicious. It was the kind of cheese you can pop in your mouth and enjoy as is. This one was my favourite, I loved it. It’s my favourite cheese of all time! That’s one of the reasons I love Of The Month packages. You discover new favourites.

Lobster Shorts lifestyle

Soap Nut Shampoo, Yea Or Nay

I started using soap nuts in place of shampoo, on April 27th. Since then I’ve washed my hair four times with them.

The first two times I used just soap nuts. My hair was easy to comb out afterwards, but after the second time I noticed my hair was getting dry on the ends. The next two times I washed my hair, I followed the soap nuts with conditioner.

The soap nuts did seem to be cleaning my hair fairly well and washing out the oils, but each time I noticed there seemed to be a light film on my hair that would get better with brushing. Each wash, there seemed to be a little more.

Today, after the fourth wash, I noticed a waxy build up against my scalp and sadly, my experiment with soap nuts has come to an end. I’ve had this happen using certain brand of shampoo and conditioner as well. It might have something to do with the extremely hard water we have. I would say my hair looks the same, no shinier, or more dull. Although, with the build up my hair has been smoother and less fly aways. I haven’t had shiny hair since I lived in an area with soft water. The scalp build up make soap nuts a nay for me. I was really hoping for a different outcome, but tomorrow I’ll be going back to regular shampoo and conditioner.

I am glad I tried them. Just because they didn’t work for me doesn’t mean they won’t be great for someone else. I bought mine at Bulk Barn. The nice thing about buying them from there, is you can buy a small amount and try them out.

P.S. Does anyone else see a face in my hair? Are soap nuts haunted?