Lobster Shorts books, card making, crafting, happy mail

New Hobbies, Books, and Hair Care

The end of the week found me at the mall, shopping for a birthday present. I went to Indigo (I still want to call it Chapters) and saw this book that sounds hilarious. I’m looking forward to reading it. I can’t go to a bookstore and leave without a book.

As for what’s in the Sephora bag, I got some hair care products.

I tried using cornstarch for dry shampoo, but it just doesn’t work very well. It does help, but left white powder in my hair, even through the next day. So, I’m giving real dry shampoo a try.

I tried the hair scrubby thing this morning and I loved it! I have a problem with shampoos building up on my hair and collecting on my scalp (I also found out your not supposed to use a handful of shampoo, you’re only supposed to use two dime sized amounts. I tried it, it’s true, that small amount of shampoo will clean your hair. I was basically doing everything you’re not supposed to, insert video here). This scrubby felt amazing, my scalp felt better, and it did feel like it helped with residue. I think with time, I will love it even more. It had great reviews on Sephora. I must have seen it advertised somewhere, like a lot of other people, because the salesperson at Sephora said it was super popular lately. I don’t even know how I was brainwashed into buying it, I don’t remember where I saw it advertised, but I like it.

Also at the mall, I got shampoo and conditioner from LUSH, to try. I haven’t tried many of their products. These are tiny bottles and they were really expensive for the size. Maybe I’ll love them and since I don’t use a handful of shampoo anymore, it will last a long time (I still use a handful of conditioner).

The box with Paper Pumpkin on it, is a card making subscription box. I haven’t opened it yet. I’m always really excited these kits and happy when it’s delivered.

I’m about to take on a new hobby, or really pick up an old one I haven’t done in a long time.

Making soap! I used to really like it. This kit is the melt and pour glycerin based soap, that I got at Michaels. With this style youbasically melt ready made soap in the microwave and add fragrance and colourants to it. I used to make the oil and lye style soap, and I will be again. I’m waiting for a loaf mold and soap cutter to come (it’s going to take a long time to arrive). I’ll also need a stick blender, which I am positive will be easily found at the thrift shop. I got this kit to play with until my loaf mold comes in. It also takes over a month for lye soap to cure, before you are able to use it. I’ll be using natural colourants, like turmeric and beet root powder, when I make my own, and scenting them with essential oils. I’m so excited!

I also want to learn to sew, all because of this video. what a beautiful dress! But I don’t have that much time to add another hobby at the moment, and that would be taking on too much on top of all my other much loved hobbies. One day though. How amazing would it be to make your own clothes!

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting

October 9/2020 Rude Cards! (warning swear words)

I made a rude card, and I love it. It was simple to make and I love love love the stamp. I bought this card with my best bud in mind. She loves cats and has the type of sense of humor this stamp was made for (this is the same recipient of the cat butthole card). The above video is me putting it together. I’ll post the finished result below.

I might colour in the woman and the cat if I make the card again. Right now I’m loving it the way it is.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail

Mail Haul For The Week Of September 28/2020

This week my Halloween craft supplies came in, just in time for the month of October. It was a mix of cutting dies and stamps. I’m very excited to start playing with them. There was a lot of packages to open so instead of pictures, I did a video of me opening them. I hope to post some Halloween cards soon.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail, The Great Outdoors

Mail, Fish, and the Blues

This week has been filled with beautiful cool weather and sunshine. And I… have not felt like going outside. It must be the times we’re living in, as I seem to have the blues, and lack of drive. I always love this time of year, and an energy boost always came with the cooler weather, but not this year. I have not felt like going outside at all, lately. I just want to sit in my chair and watch YouTube. I’m really not sure how to pull myself out of this funk. I know being outside and some exercise will lift my mood, but I can’t seem to make myself do it.

These cutting dies and stamps came in the mail this week, along with a letter from a lovely friend. It will be time for Halloween things soon, this came at a perfect time.

I made it out to visit family this weekend and they took me to see the salmon run (I’ll post a quick video at the end). I’ve never seen the salmon run before. It was really enthralling to see tons of huge fish, swimming up the stream, but also sad because they were there to spawn and die. Some of them looked so healthy and vibrant, that I hoped they made it through to live for years; a lot of the others looked like zombie fish.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail

Paper Pumpkin September 2020

This month’s Paper Pumpkin was both Fall and Halloween themed. The box costs around $35.00 Canadian, including shipping.

This months ink was a really pretty orange/brown colour. The ink covered the stamp really well, and stamped great. The only Fall/Thanksgiving sentiment was Give Thanks, the rest were Halloweeny.

I was disappointed this month’s box was for candy boxes. Not that I don’t think they aren’t cute, it’s that I don’t have enough people to give these to. I think my friends and family would find it strange if I handed them a candy box and I only have two grandchildren. If Halloween happens this year, these would likely just get trashed in the kids’ candy sacks. As cute as these are, I don’t have enough recipients for them.

They give you a lot of options to decorate the boxes with.

The boxes were double sided so you had a choice of these colours. I went with the decorations pictured on the box. I’ll fill these two boxes with candy and give them to my grand kids. I posted a video below of me opening the kit and putting these two boxes together.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail

A week Of Mail – Sept 14/2020

I managed to save all my mail and Amazon packages for an entire week, to open in one big opening adventure. I get so excited getting mail, that I usually have it open before I get to my front door. There was a lot of craft supplies and pens.

I love watching YouTube videos of people opening their mail. This time I put myself on YouTube opening my own mail. It was a little awkward, but I enjoyed doing it. I’ll post the video below.

This pen set came.

It looked really cool, but I managed to break the tip within the first hour of using it.

I can’t fault the pen for this, I was tapping it on the bottom of the water jar, and I knew I could break it.

The bottles were super messy.

I got ink all over both hands. I STILL have ink stained hands, several hours later. I managed to try every ink before I broke the pen. I also sampled the ink with a dip quill to compare it with the glass pen.

I liked the quill better. In defense of the glass pen, I was probably using it wrong and didn’t have a chance to get the learning curve down. I think I had too much ink on it and most of the smearing in the photo below, is due to me being a left handed side writer. I found the ink bled a lot with the glass pen and not so much with the extra fine nib on the quill. I do believe these inks aren’t the greatest quality, but they did have their charm.

The shimmer in the blue ink was incredible. The others have some shimmer to them as well, but it’s not showing up in the photo. The bottle design could should be different. The ink pooled inside the lids. If you’re going to get a glass pen be very careful with it. Apparently, glass is breakable 😀

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail, weight loss

Mail and Crafting Sept 9/2020

Two packages came in the mail today.

The smaller package contained these cutting dies. They were much smaller than I had expected.

The bigger package had these HUGE cutting dies.

They were bigger than my hand! I wasn’t expecting them to be this big. I’ll be able to do a lot of different things with them.

I didn’t use the new dies today, instead I used these sweater dies, to make a card.

The card is a little plain. I should have staggered the words more unevenly and used a less bright ink colour.

For the second card, I used a baking themed stamp and die set. I really love this set, but I don’t love the card I made. I’m not sure how to use this set in a better way. The set is perfect for gifting baked good.

Lobster Shorts books, crafting

I Made Ink!

I was passing time and went into Wordsworth Books, in Waterloo and saw this fascinating book, by Jason Logan.

I’ve tried a couple recipes in the book awhile back and decided to try some more. I made the recipe for yellow ink in the book using turmeric. It turned out really bright and pretty, but as I wanted it for writing letters, yellow was not the ideal colour. It didn’t stand out enough for people to read.

Using inspiration from the book, I decided to go rogue and try my own recipe with wine, cherries, and berries (all things I had at home). I added some salt and vinegar and boiled it down to make the colour darker. I also made sure to run it through a coffee filter a couple time.

It turned out really well! And even better I used it in a fountain pen without the pen clogging! I’m so happy with it. The ink didn’t pool everywhere, bleed through the paper, and it came out really consistently. It was really easy to work with.

The next day the colour had turned a dark blue-grey. I am hopeful it doesn’t fade over time. I’ve had so much fun. Yesterday I went out foraging, looking for things to make more ink with. I brought home sumac and lichen that I found (it was mentioned in the book as good sources of ink). I hope they turn out as great at the wine ink. I am curious if grass ran through a juicer will also get me great results (after all it does stain your clothes. Remember those grass stains a lot of us came home with as kids?).

I’m so happy I found this book. It’s gotten me outside and exploring nature, in different ways. I am so excited to keep experimenting. Go visit your local bookstore, you never know what fun and exciting adventure it will take you on.