Hospice Care Group and Cards

Hi everyone. Hope your day is going well. It's been kind of rainy all day and the roof is leaking "AGAIN". Leaky roofs do not make, for a good day, no matter how you look at it. Anyone know where I can get $30,000 to fix a roof, a ceiling fixed because of the leaky roof, 2 big trees cut down in our back yard, get a new snow blower???? Oh...that's just what I am looking at right now it's not including a few other things that need to be fixed. We are not among the rich of America (for those of you who live in other countries and are reading this blog) no, we are among the poor and getting poorer everyday. We are in serious trouble because of this Obama Administration.......very serious trouble.

Well on to better things. Tomorrow the Hospice group meets at Atlanta Bread Co. at 9am. Whew, pretty early for me, hope it is a more cheery, sunny day. I look forward to getting a cup of coffee there...it is always a good cup. I might have enough for a muffin too!!!

I have all my cards done...77 of them. I made some cards and some of the other cards people sent to me. I seem to hold on to them for a while. Hooray for Hospice, it is a good place to donate those cards that seem to accumulate that I don't want to throw out. So I re-design and rearrange them or put them on new card stock, making them all fresh and new looking. The inside of the card has a verse of blessing and saying it is from the Hospice Care Group. In the picture below are the cards all filed and ready to go, from Birthday, Thinking of You, Thank You, Christmas, Thanksgiving.

In the next picture are some birthday cards I made months ago. Found a tutorial on how to make tissue paper flowers using a round punch. Gather all the circles, punch a hole in the middle and fasten with a brad or something that holds the circles together. Krinkle up the layers of tissue and "WAH LAH" a pretty flower. The cards were stamped with Happy Birthday and Washi tape was placed on the card at different angles and the edges dabbed with ink.

Thinking of You cards are in the next picture. The picture on the right is a photo framed with card stock. I had that card laying around for a couple of years...good time to give it a new home. I am thinking of using some of my flower pictures to make cards for Hospice...that may be in my next collection of cards. The other two cards in this photo, the top one, was a picture from another store bought card and I framed it with some fuzzy stuff. The card on the left, a simple stamped card.

Thank You cards below. The card on the right was in my Etsy store which never sold. The top card was made with the cricut machine except for the turtle. The left card is just a simple stamped and layered card...I like that pretty lady, very elegant.

Christmas cards below...the top card and left card were in my Etsy store and never sold, but I am sure they will be appreciated now. They were colored with pens and layered and stamped. The card on the right....a mystery...made it years ago at a class, I forgot the technique...will have to ask the lady who made the card originally how it was made, as she will be there tomorrow.

Thanksgiving cards below...I made none of these cards...just refurbished them. I have not started on my Thanksgiving cards....can you believe it??? I have 3 thanksgiving stamps.....soooo I better get creative as to what I will do plus I have thanksgiving cards to send out to different people.

So, it will be a busy month again...getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas card giving. Plus keeping my Etsy store stocked....hopefully with a few sales.

Well, you all have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh. Cheers ~ Louise

Something New in My Etsy Store

Hi everyone...whew, where did this weekend go??? Well, tomorrow is MONDAY and the beginning of a new week. I tell ya, life flies by so fast, what does that mean anyways?? Am I too busy or not busy enough??? I don't know, it's either one or the other. Sometimes I have so much planned (24 hours is not enough) I can't get everything done, then there are days I just back off from everything. I can't imagine when I was working....I must have found the time, but then maybe everything went half done....I don't know....it's one of those mysteries!!!

So this weekend, JP and I went to Archivers....can you believe it? He went into one of my favorite stores. JP wanted some sheet music enlarged as some of the notes are hard to read. I wanted to print off some pictures from my camera disk and turn them into beautifully framed pictures, something I have been thinking of doing for awhile. Archivers has a section of the store available to work on their computers. You can pick pictures from your flash drive or disk that you want for scrap booking or framing, and make them any size you desire. I usually use a coupon from Achiever's for "10 free 4x6 pictures". I have decided to matte the pictures and sell them on my Etsy store.

So in the following pictures you will see some of the pictures I have chosen to matte and sell. Enjoy.

I really love the way this flower turned out...it almost looks like a hand painted Zenia. There are a few more colored Zenia's to print off and matte. Will have to see how this print fares on Etsy. I will be selling the matted print for $5.50 + postage ($7.00). (a trip to the Post Office with a sample mailing to see exactly how much postage will cost is in store).

This is one of my Black Eyed Susans. I just love when they pop up in my flower garden. I always try to plant lots of seeds....one or two of them will usually take. This picture shows that the black eyed susan is matted, but not in the frame. The picture will be sent like this with the clear plastic sleeve protecting it. A frame does not come with the pictures. The frames serve as a sample of what the picture will look like.

I just love my roses...in the above picture is my beautiful yellow rose framed....so pretty! Oh, about the frame...this was one of those little gems I picked up at a rummage sale. Fill a bag for $1.00.....there were about 7-8 frames in the bag...I think I got a good deal!!!

Here are my pretty white roses. This year the white rose bush had as many as 15-20 blooms at one time....gosh it was gorgeous!!! I have a pink-salmon colored rose...but for some reason, did not take pictures of them this year. I will have to go back into my files and find one of those roses.

Now this was an interesting picture of the pink Zenia and a little butterfly....I was told by a professional butterfly keeper, this was not a Monarch, which I thought it was, it is actually called a "Painted Lady" (Vanessa Cardui). This little butterfly visited while I was having my garage sale...it would stay the whole afternoon fluttering around on the Zenia's. It must have been having a ball, cause it visited 3 days in a row....so naturally I just had to get some pictures of it fluttering around on different colored flowers.

Last, but not least is my "Volunteer Sunflowers" I am not even sure when we had sunflowers in the garden, must have been a couple of years ago. The seeds ended up in the Compost at some point. When we planted some daisies, JP got a couple of shovel fulls of "gold dirt" planted the flowers and up came these volunteers. Wow...they sure were fun to watch, as they grew and the bees would suck up the nectar. Fun flowers to have in the garden...plus seeds for the birds next summer.

Well, there you have it, my new project for Etsy. As soon as the Packer game is over I shall add one of the pictures to my Etsy store.

Green Bay Packers are winning 31-17 in the 3rd with 23 seconds to go. On to the 4th...Ummmm...I think they have this one, Packers are looking pretty good...Oh, I am an Aaron Rogers fan!!! OKAY....FINAL SCORE PACKERS 44 - VIKINGS 31....GO PACKERS!! Next game is with Chicago in Green Bay....should be a good one.

You all have a great rest of the evening and hope your Monday is a good one. Keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh. Cheers ~ Louise

This and That........

Hi everyone, well it is a beautiful, sunny day and temps are 46 degrees (at this moment). Nice outside, today I need to get some leaf raking done. But that will be after this blog is finished and after I pay some bills and balance the check book. Then most likely it will be time to get JP ready for work and make his lunch and something to eat before he leaves.

Thought I would show you how my hibiscus is growing. This picture is from this summer, had her sitting on the stairs for a couple of weeks to catch the rain, sometimes a shot of rain water is better then tap water anytime....plus I wanted to get the dust off her....she needed a bath!!! Those cute little yellow flowers at the bottom are marigolds....they sure did their thing this year and showed all their glory!!!

This picture is a close up of the hibiscus. Just love this plant. I guess this is the 3rd or 4th year I have had it. Paid $1.50 for it at Walmart....end of the season clearance.........I think I got my money's worth on this plant. Course that does not take into consideration all the plants I have bought from Walmart and they did not make it....guess I tend to forget that.

In the above picture is the hibiscus in the front room now...brought her in this week cause it was getting kind of cold outside and she had so many new buds that I didn't want to stand the chance of losing any of them. So needless to say she is enjoying her winterizing in her favorite window. She seems to bloom and have at least 5-6 blooms everyday......my, my, she is a happy camper. So am I, love watching her grow.

I did something unique.....Went to Archivers and had some pictures made of the flowers I took around the house and had them enlarged, and framed them with some frames I picked up at a rummage sale. I want to enlarge some more pictures and sell them in my Etsy store. Have them matted......see how much that would cost to do. Maybe a hibiscus picture would be fun to do also.

In the above picture is a breakfast I made for myself a couple of days ago. Oiled the pan with olive oil, dropped some spinach in then 2 eggs, breaking the yokes and smeared the egg around, sprinkled with cheese and a slice of ham or whatever meat is handy...(today I used Italian sausage). Toasted a tortilla wrap, flipped the egg mixture over like an omelet then layered on the wrap...sometimes I sprinkle some hot sauce on...but not today, Italian sausage worked just fine!! Not sure what the calorie intake is, but I am guessing around 450 or so. Weight has been a very hard thing for me to lose lately. Since I have been on this new Blood Sugar medication, my numbers have been down but my weight went up. Not sure what is worse, the blood sugars up and weight down or visa versa. Oh well...just one of the side effects of the medication, so what else is new.

Well, time to get going and get this show on the road, it's almost 12noon and I am still sitting here with my robe on. Lazy Louise!!!

You all have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh!!!
Cheers ~ Louise

"Turkey Treat" verses "Altered Turkey Treat"

Hi everyone, how are you all doing today. My, it is getting a little chilly outside, 33 degrees at this point (it's almost 11pm). I suspect by morning it will be in the very low 30's or even 20's?. Burrr....I put my plants in the garage so they don't freeze and can live a little longer, wellllll, at least for another week or so.

I might be having another garage sale on Thursday or Friday (depending on the weather) then pack everything away till next year. So here's hope for nice weather for the rest of the week. Also, added to the agenda for this week is gardening. There's still lots of things to do before the first snowflakes fall. Tulips to plant, leaves to rake, cut down the peonies, lavender, iris's and Star Jasmine vine also the roses need to be cut down, fed and covered. It'll all get done....just in time for winter.

Years ago I picked up a post card, on it were some turkeys and an eagle....the caption said "It's hard to fly like an eagle when you work with a bunch of turkey's" Hahahaha, I guess I have never forgot that postcard and I am sure I still have it tucked away in some folder. Really don't know what that has to do with what I am going to write about. But one always needs a good laugh here and there....guess that was my laugh for the moment.

Now about "the turkeys". I received an email a few days ago from a lady in Texas. She is a demonstrator for Stampin'Up. It seems the turkey in the above picture was pinned on Pinterest. I thought that was neat when I read her email. But as the email continued, I found out the originator of the turkey treat, Kirsteen wanted me to know she designed the turkey and wanted credit for it some place in my blog. Because I did not realize she designed the turkey, it was kind of hard to give credit where credit was due. In her words, "I happened to log on to Pinterest this morning and saw a pin of a Turkey Treat made with the bow die, the link takes me to your website and pictures of your Turkey Treat which is obviously a slightly altered CASE from the Turkey Treat I made in August."

I responded, "I did not realize the idea came from you." I explained how I came about the idea through a card making class I go to once a month. And, I probably would not be making anymore turkeys and this would be my one and only, who will sit happily on my dinning room table. One turkey in the house is enough.

So the above picture is the original Turkey Treat made by and copyrighted by Kirsteen Gill, a Stampin'Up demonstrator in Texas. This is her original post of the turkey and how you can buy the tutorial to make the turkey http://www.creatinwithkirsteen.com/index.php/3d-projects/1225-turkey-table-treat   Also, if you are a Stampin' Up fan and would like to follow Kirsteen on Facebook and Pinterest: here are the addresses: https://www.facebook.com/creatinwithkirsteen and http://pinterest.com/create_kirsteen/ Her website is: www.creatinwithkirsteen.com   So let me just say again....sorry Kirsteen...I do hope this has been resolved.

So there you have it.....I guess we all case each other's creations, maybe to the tee and maybe altered a little. Kind of like recipes, we might get a good recipe and change it in some way. Very seldom do I do something exactly...tonight I did though. Made a big pot of Harvest Soup and some meatballs....I honestly followed the recipes....now that is a miracle. I shall change the meatball recipe a little....tooooo salty. You just may see that recipe on my blog as it was a really healthy kind of meatball using Mann's Broccoli Cole Slaw and hamburger.

You all have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh.
Cheers ~ Louise

My Birthday Cake & An "Almost Sale" on Etsy

Hi everyone, hope you had a great day today....tomorrow is a new day with new experiences...enjoy!!!

I have decided that for my birthday next month, November 21st, I am going to buy this lucious looking cake from the "Cake Boss" and maybe some cupcakes. Of course I will be buying them from Festival Foods....the cake will cost $19.99 and the cupcakes $14.99. Oh, fear not, I won't buy them at the same time, being it's my birthday month, maybe the cupcakes the first part of the month and the cake for my birthday.....oh yummy!!!

So if you click on the link for the Cake Boss cupcakes it will take you to the Cake Boss site. My choice of cupcakes??? The peanut butter cupcakes....another yummy!!! This cake is a chocolate Gnoche...mmmm!!! Who doesn't like chocolate I may have to freeze some of the cake.....oh my, I can hardly wait.

Cake Boss Cakes - Cupcakes

I almost had a sale on Etsy after a VERY dry spell of 10 months of no sales on Etsy!!! BUT it didn't pan out. The sale of this book, the buyer was from Israel.....I did not charge the right amount of postage for international....I never thought anyone from another country would buy something from me. Needless to say, the cost of sending this book was way over what I was estimating, like $22.00 more then what I estimated. So I convoed the lady to tell her the delema. She was very understanding, as she did not want to pay the extra postage either. So, there you go...I refunded her money, and now am waiting for Etsy to cancel the sale as it is still pending. We'll see how long that takes.


Well, it was a busy day, I took down and put away all my ceramic animals and decorations, everything spring and summer. The backyard looks pretty bare. Somehow, I already miss the summer. Another busy thing I did was re-write my profile and policies on Etsy. I have also decided not to sell my cards and other treasures to foriegn countries as the postage is just way too much. After being on Etsy for almost 5 years, this was my first experience dealing with someone from another country....time to make a change and just sell on this side of the pond.

Another problem I face is, I only have $13 left in paypal to pay for fees as I add more cards to the store....I may have to let my Etsy store bite the dust at the end of this year....not unless some miricle occurs and I get a couple of amazing sales within the next couple of months, will I continue on??? That is the question!!!!

It is almost time for JP to come home, so I have to go make something for him to eat. Maybe some pasta, fruit, soup and toast. So you all have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh. Cheers ~ Louise

New Fall Cards and Lasagna Soup

Hi everyone.....hope your Monday is going well so far. I just got done making batch #9 of the infamous Lasagna Soup. I got the recipe from Biz @ http://www.mybizzykitchen.com/  and Biz got the recipe from Suzie @ http://twodogsinthekitchen.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/lasagna-soup/ (where you will find the recipe) and Suzie got the recipe from Brenda @ www.afarmgirlsdabbles.com and she got it from www.kowalskismarkets.com  (where you will find LOTS of recipes) The original recipe came from a Cookbook called "300 Sensational Soups". This soup is REALLY GOOD. My husband requested it again, I guess as long as the ingredients are in the house, it is something I can readily make for him. Ummm...if there are anymore links, I will add them as I find them......hopefully I got the chain correct in who got who from who.....lol!!! What ever the chain, try this Lasagna Soup....you will be glad you did.

So now, on to my card making. Here is a picture of Kylie...showing off a card her mommy made....she is very proud of being able to be a part of this picture....she's a good friend.

This picture shows a set of 12 note cards, the inside will be blank so you will be able to write your own message (by hand) and send it "snail mail" with a stamp on it...can you imagine using the post office still, who knows, hand written letters may be obsolete in the years to come?!?!?!!?

In this picture is 25 leaves from the card stock I picked up at a thrift store. There was about 200 20x26 sheets. I found out that it is like contact paper...huh...maybe I should line the inside of my drawers in the kitchen...that just might work. Anyways, you can use the leaves to stick on cards or do a little scrapbooking with the leaves. I have both the leaves and cards on my Etsy store....so far, no sales.

Well time to close this blog, have to get JP ready for work, packing his lunch and get myself dressed to work outside for a while....rake some leaves and bring in some of my managery of ceramic animals, frogs, turtles, rabbits and squirrels. So you all have a great day and keep looking up for you  redemption draws more closer then we know........Cheers ~ Louise

Card Making and a Turkey

Hi everyone, hope you are having a great day. I love these Fall days, so beautiful with the temps a comfortable 70 degrees in Appleton, at the moment, so it says on "Weatherblink" I will take these days anytime, but I guess there will be scattered showers on Saturday. Guess we can use the rain.

I am planning to have a "one day garage sale" tomorrow. Friday's usually are a good day, still have some stuff to sell....hopefully more will go so I have less to pack away till the next sale, next year.

Well, as you can see by the pictures, I had my monthly card making session at a friends house. It's just the four of us, we meet the second Wednesday at high noon, there is lots of good talking and making of cards. In this picture you can see all three cards made and a surprise Turkey!!!

In the above picture is a "Birthday Wishes" card, a very simple card but very elegant. My problem always lies in that, I like the look, but cannot duplicate it cause I don't have the papers or punches or stamps.......oh well.

This was a fun card to make, just tabs of paper in different colors, a butterfly punch was used then fitted inside a different colored butterfly. (does that make sense??) Then strips of paper glued at the top and a greeting layered on top with gems to embellish the card.

Now here is that cute turkey made with a "Stampin Up bow making punch". I thought it was a cute idea, although I may not make anymore. The other ladies were making patterns so they could make more turkeys. I was busy making my turkey. By the time they started, I had finished my turkey....hummmmm, wonder if using tootsie rolls would be good for the legs. Maybe someday.........but I guess that one particular punch is about $32....to much for my blood.

In this picture is the football player....think I will give this one to Josh, as he is an avid football and wrestler....maybe next month I will see if Betty has this stamp and maybe stamp a few little boys for my inventory. I could make some for the little nephews in Illinois....but using "Bear colors" instead, green and gold would not work well in "Bear Country"...lol!!

Well, time to close and go take a walk with Kylie. She will be letting me know pretty soon that it is time. Then it is off to the basement to make some cards. I have hospice coming up, so I need to put 50-75 cards together and put a set of 12 note cards together for my Etsy store. Gonna be a busy night. Need to make a garage sale sign too, because at my last sale, a sign was stolen....geez, some peoples children!!!

Have a great night and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh!!!
Cheers ~ Louise

Get Service

I saw this video the other day on Facebook and thought it worthy of sharing. I hope you like it. I sure did. How quickly we judge another person without realizing what they may be going through.

Well, you have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh.
Cheers ~ Louise

Monday, Monday

Hi everyone....how is your Monday going so far??? Mine?? Okay, I am taking it easy today (hahaha) as I do every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc, etc through to the next Monday. Not really though, it's a beautiful day here in Wisconsin, at least this part of Wisconsin. Sunny and blue skies and the temprature is 62 degrees, perfect!!!

Well, we had a wonderful visit with family on Saturday. They were here for 6 short hours then headed back to Chicago. Original plans were that they would stay the night in a hotel...but it was Green Bay Packer weekend and there were no hotel rooms to be had in Appleton. So they left early in the morning to get here. Leaving at 6pm to get home.

JP and I have made trips like that also, leaving here early and going down to Chicago to visit then coming back the same day, it's about a 3 1/2 hour drive if you don't stop much....JP likes to drive, so it never bothered him. But, that was when we were in our younger years. Maybe now, not so much.

So we went to BJ Clancy's, it's a nice place that JP and I like to go to on our Birthdays...where one or the other gets a free steak meal. So we thought it would be fun to go there with the family. They seemed to like it, food and service was good. Sorry, no pictures.....gosh I didn't even get a family shot for some reason, what was I thinking????? I am a "picture kind of person" and what, I only took two pictures??????

It was raining all day....that was the crumby part, it was coming down in bucket fulls when we got to the restaurant.....and we all got wet!!! But we laughed it off. Now if they would have come yesterday, it was a beautiful day.......what a difference a day makes, but a perfect day for the Packers (oh Packers won, beating the Detroit Lyons 22-3).

So this week, I may have a 1 or 2 day garage sale, as long as things are still set up and maybe next week also. All depends on the weather though. According to my books I did the same thing last year, it was a little chilly, but I did sell a few things. The less I have to put away, the happier I will be.

Well, I think I shall close here, I am sort of wandering around, so you all have a great day and a great week and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh.
Cheers ~ Louise

Some New Fall Cards

Hi everyone....whether that be one or two of you or 10-20...hope you are all having a good day. I made some cards last night, whew, I have missed my creative outlet. So many other things have taken priority lately. Must not let that happen again. I think it started when we had the roto-rooter guy here and I had to move all my stamping stuff so he could get to the pipes. So my stamping stuff got rearranged and it took me a month to get things back in order. Wilst doing all that, all my garden landscaping took priorty also....Soooo needless to say, it has been a busy spring and summer. And now, here it is Fall already........where in the world did all that time go????

So last night I sat down and played with some card stock that I bought at a thrift/estate store. I paid $5.00 for 200 estimated sheets of gold card stock which measures 20x26....pretty big sheets. Cut them in half, then was able to fit them in my paper cutter and cut them down to size to make a card. The left over gold card stock was used to punch out the leaves and hexagons.

I had some leaves already made that were punched out with paper, crinkled up and dabbed with fall color inks. I then layered that leaf on top of the gold one, popping it up....it sure made for a nice effect.

Made 7 of these cards last night and on the agenda to make more. More colored leaves are needed, so I will be working on those first. I will be putting these cards in my Etsy store for $2.50 a card or $7.50 + shipping for 3 cards. I am really happy with the way they turned out and I thank God for He is the creator of all things, which includes the things that I think I have created....He leads and guides us every step we take and gives us the ideas and thoughts to pursue the things we are doing. So, all I can say is.....God can make some really nice cards, don't you think???

Well you all have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh. Hope this government shutdown does not affect you too much. It's a good thing that God does not shut the world down to get what he wants.....Cheers ~ Louise

A Doggie Smile Works Wonders

Hi everyone....how did your 1st day of October go?? Hope all went well. It was such a beautiful day...almost heavenly, wish all days were like this.

Well, we are having JP's family for company this week-end. So much to do, so little time. "Keep Calm ~ God's Got It" I must remember that as that is what my T-shirt says and my checks, to remind me everyday!!!

Planning for roast beef sandwiches, cole slaw, potatoe salad and chips, relish tray and apple pie. I might make salsa too, with corn chips for an appetizer. The original menu was hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill....but, it looks like rain this week-end. Festival Foods has Burgandy spoon roasts on sale.....they are the best! So I will be putting that lovely roast in the crock pot and let it cook for 12 hours.......oh I can taste it already...Yum!!

Well, time to close this blog for today, need to get downstairs and start riding my stationary bike and get into that habit again. Maybe make a few cards too. You all have a great evening and may October 2nd be bright, sunny and breezy and no big problems looming in the future!! Look up for your redemption draws nigh....Cheers ~ Louise