Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, Food, Plants, vegetarian, weight loss

Breakfast, Cards, and Saving Nubbin

I paid for one of these plants, the other I traded years ago for an espresso maker, I didn’t use anymore. Guess which is which? The large dieffenbachia is the one I traded for. It was half the size and not very happy. Where the trunk(?) stalk(?) curves is how tall it was when I got it and it only had a couple really droopy leaves. I had to move it around a lot before I found a place for this guy to be happy. Turns out it likes a really dark corner. It’s beside a window, but it still doesn’t get very much light at all. It’s taken over a year, but this plant is finally starting to grow. It’s doubled in size and growing a lot more leaves. The leaves are getting big too.

The second plant, the leafless stem, I got on clearance at a big box store a long time ago too. It had a couple leaves on it when I bought it, but it was doing poorly. I decided to see if I could revive it. I also moved this plant to a lot of different places (including a dark bathroom), but I couldn’t make it happy. Eventually it dropped all it’s leaves and I was going to give up on it. Then I saw a video of Harli G on YouTube (she’s a plant Youtuber) and she picked up a stem that looked just like this one and was going to replant it. I thought once a plant lost all its leaves, it was done for. I decided to repot the plant in different soil (I don’t know why I didn’t try this a long time ago) and put it beside it’s sister plant (I call it sister plant because they are both dieffenbachias, but the leafless stalk has much lighter leaves), and try again.

It seems to be working. Something is starting to happen, and this is also why this plant will forever be known as Nubbin. I’m going to keep it where it is and hope it can be revived.

Sunday breakfast satisfied a craving I’ve had for days. My spouse was craving bagels, which got me craving berry cream cheese. So for breakfast today, I made scrambled eggs and bagels and cream cheese, and I loaded that bagel with cream cheese. The coffee was an instant cappuccino that I got as a sample, and I hated it. We both did. It tasted artificial and chemically. We dumped it out and made a regular coffee that was much better.

My healthy eating took a nose dive this weekend. We ordered a pizza last night and I had it for lunch today too. I went on a short hike with my spouse, but it was really cold and the trail was mucky so we turned around. I had another bagel with cream cheese when I got home, followed by a piece of dark chocolate. and I’m currently craving another bagel (I think shark week is coming). I’m going to wait and have a proper dinner, made with much healthier options. I don’t want to get on the scale Monday.

I made some cards this weekend. I like these vanilla bean cards. I don’t know what sentiment I want on them yet, so they remain unfinished. I was thinking something to do with beans, but nah, I’ll probably just stamp a “Hello” on them, or something similar.

I was meh about these two. I would like the autumn one more with a different colour. The green didn’t go very well, and this castle card needs something more.

I liked these two. My favourite of all of them was the girl reading on the chair. I liked the Hello card a lot too, but my glue seeped out at the edges. I can get rid of that with an eraser and a little patience. I’ll post a video of the supplies I used to make the cards, below.

Lobster Shorts Food, Plants, vegetarian, weight loss

Sprouting Jars and Healthy Bowls

I retried my new sprouting lid and I love it! Alfalfa sprouts worked perfectly in there. The pictured jar is 1L and I used 1 tablespoon of alfalfa sprout seeds. I will only use 1/2 a tablespoon of seeds next, this made a lot. So far the jar has worked great, these seeds are around 5 days old (I can’t remember really). The seeds grow so fast! You can see the difference in size from morning to night. The seeds drained exactly how they were supposed to, they didn’t get gelatinous like the arugula seeds. So far the contents of the jar are fresh with no sign of rot. The arugula seeds sprouted on the paper towel degraded fast and quickly rotted. I had to toss most of the sprouts out. I won’t buy arugula seeds anymore because of that. I’m sure it was more to do with my sprouting methods, but it was a hassle and I like growing sprouts in the jar over the tray. Sprouts are so healthy and this jar makes it easy to have them on hand all the time. All I do is rinse and drain the jar twice a day. Another great kitchen gadget! Or would this be a house plant gadget? It checks both boxes.

I made a healthy dinner last night. On the bottom is a layer of steamed brown rice, then a layer of sprouts. I did the broccoli, , onion, mushrooms, and Gardein Beefless Tips in the air fryer. I flavoured it with a squeezed lemon, toasted sesame oil, and avocado oil. It was good, not delicious, just good. Like healthy food good. I made a lot so I am going to have the leftovers for dinner.

As per my usual, I had gained all the weight I had previously lost back, but this morning I was down three pounds. I’m 5’10 and now weighing 164lbs. It’s my goal to cross that barrier into the 150lbs range, in the past I gained the weight back before I could hit it. This time it’s going to happen for me. I did a 15 minute jog Monday night and hoping to do the same tonight, or hit the weights. I’ve been eating really healthy for the last two weeks (except Monday when I forgot my lunch and ended up having a snack bag of potato chips, and granola bites). Today I had the bean and feta Healthy Choice Power Bowl. I love them and eat them almost every lunch.

My spouse has been the one to motivate me to work out. If he says “Wanna work out with me?”, I go. It’s funny, but sometimes I just don’t think to go and do it. I expect that to change. Tonight, I’ll be the one to ask if he wants to work out with me.

Lobster Shorts Food, lifestyle, Plants, vegetarian

Sauerkraut, Sprouts, and Snake Orgies

I made sauerkraut! I can’t remember if I’ve ever fully finished making it before. Something usually goes wrong for me, like I forget about it for too long, or pieces will float to the surface and go moldy. This time it went perfectly. I got the recipe from here, it was really simple. You just need salt, cabbage, and some jars.

I cut up a head of cabbage and put it into two bowls. There is a lot of cabbage and I didn’t have a big enough bowl to do it in one. I also used pickling salt instead off the salt they used in the recipe, because I didn’t have sea salt. I also ended up using more salt and if I make it again, I would add more. Pickling salt is big chunks. I think it needed more to make up for the difference.

After you add the salt you let it sit for a bit and then you have to squeeze, or mash the cabbage, to get the salt in and for the cabbage to release the liquid. I squeezed it with my hands while my spouse and I watched TV. This method took awhile and I got cabbage EVERYWHERE. It wish I had taken a photo of the couch after. I made a mess. It was fun (not sarcasm, it was fun).

Once you are finished that process you then pack your cabbage into some jars. One head of cabbage filled both of these 1L jars. I didn’t get enough liquid out of the cabbage for everything to get submerged, so I made the brine solution from the Prairie Homestead recipe, and made sure none of the cabbage was floating to the top. In the wide mouth jar some of the cabbage kept coming loose, so I weighed it down with a smaller mason jar. I made sure the lids were only sitting on top, to let the gas escape and then left it for a couple days longer than a week.

It turned out great, it’s healthy, and I plan on keeping some on hand all the time from now on. Speaking of healthy, I also grew some of my own sprouts.

At first I tried using a mason jar with my new sprouting lids. I was so excited to try them out. I soaked the seeds over night and when I went to drain them the next day they wouldn’t drain. The seeds formed this gelatinous goo around them, like chia seeds do and no matter how hard I shook the jar, the water wouldn’t come out.

As I knew it would, everything ended up rotting and going bad. I had to dump everything out and start over. Next I tried again without soaking the seeds. I shook them around with water and drained the jar. That worked fine, but when I went to water them again the next day, they were gelatinous and wouldn’t drain. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I didn’t hear anyone else complain about alfalfa seeds doing that. Well guess what. They weren’t alfalfa seeds.

I had bought arugula seeds. I bought these seeds years ago by the way, and they still sprouted no problem. I’m impressed! I decided to try again with an old sprouting tray I had.

I sprinkled the seeds over a damp paper towel. I messed up in this photo. They are supposed to be sitting on the white tray (pictured in the photo with the growing sprouts), this green tray is just the base. The white tray is a draining grate that helps the seeds drain so they don’t rot.

The seeds grew really fast and I had sprouts in under a week. They had a little nip to them too. Arugula sprouts are spicy! I will grow more of them, but I really want to try my new sprout jar with the right seeds. I will buy some alfalfa seeds and try again.

As for the snake orgy, I’m not sure if that’s what they were actually doing, but there is a group of snakes that live under this rock and comes out every spring after a couple warm days. When I saw them for the first time this year, they were clumped in this ball. I left them to whatever shenanigans they were getting up to and know I’ll be seeing them throughout the Summer.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, Plants

Flowers, Cards, And All The Spring Feels

We had a taste of warm weather this week. It’s cooled back down, but the sun is still going strong. I saw my first robin of the year and one of the local florists had tulips. It’s screaming Spring. Come on double digit weather!

I made a couple more cards. I love love love this rain boot cutting die set. You can make shaker cards and different styles of boots with it. Above are a couple examples. I’m not very into shaker cards, so I rarely make them.

The cloud on this rainbow card is too rough, but other than that I like the card. I fussy cut out a cloud stamp. I would like to add some cloud cutting dies to my card making supplies so I wont have to cut them out myself.

I made a lot of galaxy themed mini envelopes, here are a few examples. As you can see I had a couple sailing themed ones on the mix too. They are perfect for gift cards.

Lastly, any my favourite of the bunch, is this high heel card. The cutting dies layer so perfectly. There were more options for the heel and inside lining, but I think the shoes looked perfect like this. I love the new background I used on this card. It’s perfect for sewing related cards, but it’s versatile enough it works as a general background. I’ll post a link below of a video of the supplies I used to make the cards, and where you can find them online.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail, Plants

August 15/2020

I have been having to cut my glad flowers off. I didn’t plant the bulbs deep enough and they are falling over and growing flat on the ground. So far only one of the grown bulbs has been able to stay upright.

I bought a bag of glad bulbs at my local Costco and they are BEAUTIFUL! I only planted half the bag and the colours have been gorgeous. So far pale lilac, soft pinks, red, and white glads have grown. There are a few more that still haven’t bloomed and I can’t wait to see what colour they are.

I wanted to use the new cutting dies with this spider web embossing folder. I haven’t used either one of them yet.

I loved the spider web background and the doll dies are cute too.

I have no idea why I chose Thinking of You as the sentiment. It really didn’t go with the card. It came off as bad creepy, not good creepy. I’m still struggling with embossing. I powdered the background of the Thinking of You sentiment before I embossed it, but the embossing powder still ended up sticking everywhere.

In the end I chose a craft paper card base, took the wings off the doll, and used the pink arrow background. It suited it much better. I’ll try an eraser to get the powder sprinkles off, but it’s melted on. I’ll keep practicing.

Lobster Shorts Plants, Uncategorized

Plants Plants Plants

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I love plants. I dream of owning a huge greenhouse with a water feature. I would live in a greenhouse if I could. I don’t know how practical that is here in Canada, but I’d like to try. After all, they do have year round butterfly conservatories (yes I would for sure have butterflies in my greenhouse).

I wonder about having butterflies in a typical home. I think you could do it with swallow tails, you can feed them from food you can get all year in the grocery stores. How magical would that be? This year I raised painted ladies and monarchs and released them outdoors once they turned into butterflies (I still have two more monarchs in a chrysalis). I would love to try hummingbird moths too. They are so neat! Maybe one for the greenhouse.

My home is full of plants, indoor tropicals are irresistible to me. I love love love going to the plant nurseries and greenhouses in my area. I’m bringing the outdoors indoors and I think it’s great. Plants clean the air and soothe my soul. I love being surrounded by plants and living in an indoor garden. I wish I had more windowsills…