Mourning the demise of Google Reader...

Hello blog friends,

As you have no doubt heard by now, Google has announced that they will be shutting down Google Reader on July 1 ..and I am seriously bummed.  (And quite honestly, pissed)

I use my Reader daily to keep up with all of my favorite blogs, as I am sure many of you do.  The internet is buzzing with public outcry, and I am hoping that the Google team pays attention and changes their mind, but I am not holding my breath. I am seriously considering finding replacements for all of my Google products (what if they decide to nix Blogger next?!)

I have been searching for a replacement feed reader, but I am confused by the options out there, and I want something with similar features as Google's reader (show only new feed posts, mark read items, flag favorites, tags and folders, and ability to see entire post not just the title)

So, I am asking for input from my fellow blog readers...

What feed reader do you use? Likes, dislikes?
If you are also a Google Reader user, what have you found to replace it with? Pros, cons?

I would love to hear your thoughts!

Lorrinda

EDIT: Thank you for the comments and suggestions! I decided to try out Bloglovin' and Feedly, and while they were both very easy to set up and transfer my Reader data, I need to try them out for a while before I decide. 
Bloglovin' is easy but I wish it had the ability to scan through the entire post, not just a snippet (although it does force followers to open/pageview blogs). It is just a PITA to click open each blog when you sometimes have 100 or more new posts to scan. Also, no ap for my iPad, but it does work in the Safari browser just as it does in Windows on my laptop. There is an iPhone Ap, just not iPad...so maybe this is in development. Of course I have a stupid Blackberry so the phone Ap is moot...sometimes I hate technology.

Feedly has an awesome iPad ap, very user friendly, but alas...it doesn't work at all on my laptop running Windows 9. Also, there were a few uncategorized blogs that I should have organized into folders in Reader, and now I have no way to edit them on the ipad.

So far, my feeling is I like Bloglovin' on my laptop, but prefer Feedly on my iPad.  I will try them out for a week to see which gets used more often... initial feeling is Bloglovin' simply because it is useable on both of my devices.

Spring babies

Has it been almost a month since my last post? Wow, time flies.

My coworker has been expecting a new grandbaby this month, so I whipped up a couple of cards to have ready. Used up some retired papers in my stash...

One using retired CTMH Dayream papers for a girl:





And one using retired CTMH Stardust papers for a boy:

The card front sentiments are printed onto cardstock with my computer, then I cut the shapes with the Cricut CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge, using the center point button to center the blade on the sentiment and cut the shape around it.

I love spring babies!  Now if spring would just get here already....


We got another foot of snow yesterday, this is turning into the winter that won't end. 

This photo was taken this evening, standing on the driveway on my tippy toes to be able to see my husband's dirty work truck over the snow. 

 

Now, we live in town, with regular snow removal. The country folk are way worse off, I've seen roads plowed where the snow in the ditches is higher than the school buses this year. For all my long distance followers...No, snow in Canada is nothing new. However, I live on the prairies!  By the end of March most of our snow is usually gone. Plus, snow like this usually only happens in the mountains. Or in Inuvik. Or in Alaska.

 

Stay tuned for "the big melt"

At this rate it will be in July.

Lorrinda

 

 

February = sugar shock!

I've been busy crafting with sugar lately, much messier than paper and glue...and the creations aren't quite so permanent.

My oldest turned 14 this month.

Wait. Wha?? How can that be? She was a baby just yesterday!

Isn't she beautiful? (And yes, those curls are natural, and of course she hates them)

She requested a Reeces Peanut Butter Cup Cake a la Pinterest,

and I was happy to oblige. 

I might add that we all needed an insulin shot after consuming this cake.

 

 

My son forgot to give me the note requesting me to make a decorated cake for the school bazaar. He gave it to me the day before said cake was needed.  After I flipped out at him, I pulled a late night to get this sucker done. It's blue because that is the color of fondant I had on hand, and the cheetah print is to hide all the bubbles in the fondant. Also, I had a custom cake order for cheetah print coming up and I had never done it before, so I used this as a practice run. Turned out to be much easier than it looks.

 

And this was a custom order picked up just last night. 

 The cheetah print is done in sparkly silver but it doesn't show well in the photo.

Oh, and the candle is just a cheepo dollar store purchase that I embellished a bit.

Did you know that stickles work on candles? 

 Such an easy way to add some extra bling!

 

My hubby's birthday is coming up next week, so one more cake to do this month.  But he has requested a cherry cheesecake, so it won't be nearly as time consuming as the others have been, and probably won't rate a photo op either.  I think he feels sorry for me, so he's giving me an easy one! Or maybe he's just tired of eating leftovers while I'm up to my elbows in cake?

 

Thanks for popping by,

I should have some paper crafty projects to share soon!

Lorrinda

 

 

 

 

 

HAS December Card

I am finally able to post my card from the December Humble Artists Swap!

 

The guidelines were:

Create a Winter themed card

May NOT use any Green, Red or Blue

Must use 5 embellishments

Add some sparkle and shine

Must emboss something

Must have 8 layers stacked somewhere on the card

 

The cards I received in the mail from my fellow swappers were FABULOUS!  You can check out their talent over in my sidebar under Humble Artists.

 

 

Recipe:

All products CTMH

Cardstock: White Daisy, Slate and Whisper

Ink: Slate and Whisper

Stamps: D1480 Snowflakes, D1512 Holiday Wishes

Silver embossing powder Z669

Slate polka dot ribbon Z1802

Silver shimmer trim Z1799

Bitty pearls Z1707

Bitty sparkles Z1263

Clear sparkles Z1752

Vellum paper

 

I can't believe I haven't posted since before Christmas!  I did get into my craft room in January, just haven't had time to photograph anything.  Will try to get some new crafty things posted soon.  Thanks for stopping by today!

 

Lorrinda



 

 

3D Interactive Pop-Up Cash Card!

Who doesn't like cash? 
I have 2 teens on my Christmas list this year, and they are saving their money for some big-ticket items, so I was happy to contribute cash as their gift this year (saves me shopping stress!)
But as nice as it is to get cash, it's kind of a downer not to get a gift to open. 
So I made these:



 

 

 

So fun!

And I feel good that I put a little bit of effort into their gifts. 

 

Should at least earn me some "Coolest Auntie Ever!" votes :)

 

 

Here's a close-up of the pop-up part for those of you who want to make one yourself:

 

• Sorry, I don't have a template for the pop-up part, I just "winged it". 
• There are basically 2 pop up tabs cut out of the center of the card, with snowbanks glued to them. 
• Instructions for money origami can be found HERE. 
• I used glue dots to adhere the cash to the card, easy to rub off without damaging the money.

 

Note: the new Canadian bills that are sort of plastic don't work well for origami folds, make sure to use the older paper bills for this.

 

I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas!

Lorrinda

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My 2012 Christmas Cards

In all the holiday chaos, I forgot to post my Christmas cards I sent out this year:

Inspired by Lisa Stenz, check out her blog and you will be inspired too!

Inspired by my friend Vicki (and not the first time either, she has the best ideas!)

Inspired my many starburst cards I found on Pinterest

Direct CASE from a card found on Pinterest by Monica

I kept these all very simple and non-bulky because I hate having to pay extra postage when I'm mailing out a bunch of cards. 

I have a couple more "Gift" cards to work on today, which are definitely more bulky and not simple at all...I will post them for you soon.  I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season and not getting stressed out with a bunch of last-minute things to do!

Lorrinda

December birthdays don't always suck...

Most people born in December seem to get shorted for their birthdays, or forgotten in all the holiday hubbub...not my BFF Rene!  She just celebrated a special birthday this weekend. Here's the keepsake card I made for her:

You can click on the photos to see a larger view

 

 

 

 

 

And of course I made her a cake!

My recipe "White Russian" Cake, there's Kahlua in this cake! Used it in the cake, the filling and the frosting, YUM!
 

She's going to kill me for posting this on the internet, but Happy Birthday girlfriend!

 

If you want the recipe for this cake, you can find it HERE

See, December birthdays are AWESOME!
Lorrinda

 

 

 

 

HAS October card

I'm a little late posting the Humble Artists Swap card from October. Better late than never.

 

I'm not crazy about how this card turned out, but I had limited supplies to work with.

 

Of course, we are to use all CTMH products.  The guidelines we had to follow were tough:

• Use at least 1 new ink color >I used slate
• Use at least 2 new ribbons >Burlap ribbon, Harvest Baker's Twine...took some liberties here, but it's the only new product I had on hand:)
• Use at least 3 new patterned papers >Avonlea papers
• Use at least 4 new cardstock >Avonlea Green, Avonlea Teal, Avonlea Offwhite, Slate
• Use at least 5 embellishments (including the 2 ribbons) >Chocolate flower button, paper flower, brown sparkle, liquid glass and ribbons
• Use at least 6 stamped images >coffee bean border strip, spoon, cup, pot, steam, fleur de les border strip  (stamps from B1404 Cup of Cheer and C1488 Victory WOTG)
• Use at least a 7 word sentiment >from B1404 Cup of Cheer
• Use at least 8 layers >check

I used a Mojo Monday card sketch, and the images are colored with a mix of watercolor pencils, ink and markers.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Lorrinda



Welcome to Our Home! 3D Decor

Ok, I officially suck as a blogger. I have been so bad at posting this fall...my excuse is that I have been held hostage by Pinterest and have pinboards full of crafty goodness to make.  I have been crafting, I even have my Christmas cards done, but have I photographed them?  Not yet.  I really have to get on that, it's almost time to mail them out!

 

Today, I have a 3D Home Decor item to share...I made this Framed chalkboard decor to enter in the CTMH Edmonton Regional 3D Contest back in September!. We had some specific guidelines to follow, and I must say the competition was fierce! When I saw what the other entries were, I knew I had no chance of winning, but I honestly made this to hang in my own home, so I love it anyway! 

 

 

All products CTMH, if you don't recognize them and need to know details, ask away!

Time to share...I have started this post a few times, but them I got sidetracked trying to add a PinIt button to the bottom of the post.  I really want to add a PinIt button to my blog, but all my attempts have been futile. I have searched for, and tried, no less than 5 tutorials to add a PinIt button to this blog so my fellow pinners can easily pin away...but alas, none have worked! I really want to add a button to the bottom of each post, so if any of you have a way to do this, please share! I am looking for a way for it to automatically be inserted at the bottom of each post.  I may have to bite the bullet and hire someone to do it for me.  I really don't consider myself to be computer-handicapped, but for some reason the silly little PinIt button has me stumped.

 

I truly appreciate each and every one of you who continue to follow my blog, even though I have been quite lax in posting!  I also have been blasted with spam comments as of late, and since I detest word verification, I have had to implement comment moderation... so please be patient and your comment will eventually appear, I promise!

Lorrinda

 

 

August HAS card

I finally got a chance to post my Humble Artist Swap card for August! I have had a crazy month, and today is the first day that I am at home since school started.  Hubby went hunting, kids are at school, and I am enjoying a leisurely cup of coffee in my jammies and finally updating my blog.  For all of  my followers, a big apology for my lack of new content! Thank you for not "unfollowing" me! Now that kids are back in school and life is sort of getting back to "normal", I will try to post more regularly.

 

 

The over-the-top guidelines for our August swap cards were:

• CTMH products (no problem, all I ever use! check)
• Minimum 8 layers (see point at dress form shoulder? check)
• Use ONLY neutrals and one color (black, white daisy and grey wool, plus sorbet. check)
• Use one stamp set with the work "background" in it (see houndstooth pattern? check)
• Use one stamp set with the work "borders" on it (see sorbet scalloped cs strip? check)
• Have at least 3 Art Philosophy shapes (sorbet scallop border, large scallop circle, small sentiment circle. check)
• Have at least 2 other stamped images (dress form and sentiment. check)
• Minimum 3 embellishments (buttons, ribbon, hat pin. check)
• Card must be at least 4.25" x 5.5" (check)

And the swap cards I received in the mail from my talented swap buddies? FABULOUS! I love swapping with these gals, check out their blogs in my sidebar and you'll see why!

Thanks for popping in today!
Lorrinda

The Family Forest

Hello!  I see that it has been a while since my last post... but no apologies, I have been busy living this summer!

 My Mother's family gets together every 2 or 3 years for a summer reunion, and this year my aunt asked me to make a cover for the family "archives" album she has been working on.

This is the cover I made, featuring my Grandparents:

The photo was taken on their 40th Wedding Anniversary, in 1978.

 

a couple of close-ups:

 

And this is our family prayer, for the inside of the front cover:

 

A bit of background info:  My Grandparents, Adam and Emelia in the photo above, had 17 children. (That is NOT a typo). Seventeen kids, 2 sets of twins, 11 boys and 6 girls.  The oldest and youngest are 20 years apart.  And they supported them without a reality TV show for income. They grew them on a farm, raised their own food, made their own clothes, and saw that each of them had a full education.  (They did this without pampers, microwave ovens, televisions or computers.) My grandparents are guardian angels now, and they have a lot to look after...at last count I believe there are 129 of us...their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

 

Here are a few pics from the reunion, so I can prove I didn't make this up:

 

Their living children:

These would be my aunts and uncles on my mother's side, my mom is front row, center

With their spouses (also known as the outlaws):

This would be more aunts and uncles for me

 

 These are some of their grandchildren:

That would be me in white in the front row, with my sisters on either side

 And here are just some of the great-grandchildren:

My daughter is back row, 3rd from left. My son is middle row, 2nd from right

So, you can see why it is necessary for someone to be in charge of the family archives (photos and important info).  I can't wait to see what she puts into this binder.  With such a large group, I'm lucky if I can remember all of their names. It sure helps that we make the effort to get together every couple of years. And this is just my mom's clan, my dad has 8 brothers and sisters and 8 step-brothers and sisters, plus all of their offspring.

 

Fit THAT on a family tree!

 

Lorrinda

June Humble Artists Swap

Here is my card from our last swap in June.

The strict guidelines were:

• Must have a min. of 8 layers stacked
• Do not use any patterned paper
• Do not use any neutral cardstock (except for card base)
• Do not use non-paper embellishments such as ribbon, brads etc
• Do not use stamp sets with "border" or "background" in their name
• Use at least 6 different stamped images
• Create a paper embellishment that can count for at least 2 of the layers
• Card must be at least 4.25x5.5"

I must say that I really struggled with this one! I scrapped a couple of designs before I settled on this one (mostly because I was running out of time).  I had difficulty not using neutral colors, and I reeeeally wanted to add some ribbon or at least a button...but managed to create them with paper. That's what I like about these swap challenges, they force me to step out of my box and think. No patterned paper allowed? Emboss and stamp!
The cards I received form the other swap gals are stunning as usual, they make it seem so easy! You can find the links to their blogs in my sidebar, go check them out.

Thanks for stopping in today!
Lorrinda

Can you absorb sugar calories transdermally?

I sure hope not!  This month has had me up to my elbows in sugar (literally), and I'm sure I've gained 10 lbs just by osmosis and inhalation! Tell me, professional bakers...how do you not gain weight working with sugar all the time?


Here's my latest project:

  This awesome Mom is going all out for her daughter's Sweet 16. Since she has a summer birthday she has never really gotten a party with all of her friends, so her Mom decided to fix that this year. She wanted a fabulous cake to go along with the amazing day she has planned. She told me her favorite color was purple and she loved zebra print.

And I learned that you can use Stickles on dollar store candles!

Just scrape off the yucky green border that it came with, and add some glam!

I found out that purple is a really hard color to tint fondant...plus my hands were almost fushia for 2 days. Yes, I know you can wear latex gloves to work in the color, but the fondant kept sticking to the gloves so I ditched em.  All in all, I had a blast making this cake!  The zebra stripes were actually very easy after I watched a couple of youtube videos. 

I want to wish Jenn a very special Sweet 16 Birthday!

What does 4 lbs of sugar look like?

A quick post today to share a Graduation cake I was asked to make for a big party.  Here is what I've been doing for the past 3 days:

Now, this is a gigantic cake...to give some scale, the base of the grad cap is a stacked 8" round cake! It was ordered for 75 people, so should be plenty.  The cake is a chocolate fudge sour cream cake with oreo cream filling, covered in buttercream frosting, with fondant/gumpaste accents.  The grad cap board is covered cardboard, but everything else on this cake is edible. The entire grad cap is covered with modelling chocolate.
It didn't actually take 3 days worth of labour. One of these days I will have to time how many actual hours go into a cake like this, but here's how I break it down:

Design Stage-browse internet for ideas, sketch a plan, confirm with graduate's mother, browse recipes, check supplies, order supplies if needed because I live in the middle of nowhere, make up grocery list, buy ingredients, pick up supplies from the post office. (?several random minutes over a week, I'll estimate 2 hours)
Day1-bake the cakes (There are four 9x13" and two 8" round in this one, 20 min mixer time and 4-5 hours oven time but I was also doing laundry) Plus cleanup. 
Day 2-make filling and fill and stack cakes. Also make icing and crumb coat cakes (maybe 2 hours) Then make fondant and gumpaste accents (while watching TV...probably 3 hours in the evening, and let accents dry/harden overnight) Plus clean up.
Day 3-do top smooth coat icing, add all the accents, pipe the borders (approx. 2 hours), swear 800 times when I smudge the smooth coat with my boob and have to fix it (if you look real hard at the 2nd picture you'll be able to see where), swear another 200 times when I realize that the cake drum board flexes when the cake is moved (causing icing to crackle!) so hunt for another cake board to support weight, swear some more when the second board won't fit in the fridge and have to find another...pause to have an adult beverage and think...find large cutting board that will fit and slide it under the first one without wrecking the cake...get the whole thing into the fridge without wrecking it...have a second adult beverage while staring at the mess that is my kitchen. Then 5 min making a sign for the fridge that says "Open this door and you die" to keep everyone out (I have a second fridge in the garage for extras that I use for my cakes, but the popsicles and beers are in there and it's summer)  So...Day 3 was pretty much all cake related, but if you subtract time spent swearing and drinking...maybe 4 hours actual cake labour) Plus clean up.
Rough total: 3 days of kitchen chaos, 15 hours of work plus clean up time.
It's the clean up that I hate the most. Anything that touches the buttercream icing is very greasy to wash off, and there is usually icing sugar everywhere. I have a rolling cart that I store all my cake decorating supplies in, and it is usually strewn all over the kitchen and needs to be sorted out and put back.

I enjoy doing this for family and friends, but I don't think I could make this a career. Too much to clean up, and way too much swearing and drinking going on :) And, I would need to do this at Cake Boss level to make any money at it. For now, it will be another one of my messy hobbies that my family has to put up with. They don't mind too much, I let them lick the bowls when I'm done.

Happy Canada Day!
Lorrinda

Cruisin to Father's Day

It's been a while since I've had a chance to play along with the challenges at Heart 2 Heart, I've missed these ladies!  This week's challenge is to create something for Father's Day. 

I happened to be working on Father's Day cards, so this gave me the push to finish them early (Yay, I won't be scrambling the night before for a change!). I made 2 similar cards:

Why don't you join the fun at H2H?  Create a card for Dad using CTMH products, and link it up!

Have a great day!

Lorrinda

Supplies used:

CTMH Cruisin WOTG kit G1039

CTMH stamps: Born to Ride C1483

Stars, letters and shapes cut with CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge  Z1686

Jute ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon

Butterfly

My Mom asked me to make a birthday card for her to give to her sister. (Fun fact: they have birthdays on the SAME day!  Isn't that cool?) They have always been close, probably because they had to share birthday cakes growing up :) 

Well, my aunt likes butterflies, so this is what I came up with:

I used some retired papers and stamps on this one.  The verse inside was found online and just printed onto white cs.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

Paper: X7135B Wings Level 2 Paper Pack

Stamps: D1452 Find Your Style, C1257 Happy Birthday

Inks: Vineyard Berry, Juniper, Sweet Leaf, Black

Z1398 Pleated Ribbon

Z1335 Licorice Opaques

Black Embossing Powder

Heat gun

Nestabilities Labels One Die

Cuttlebug