Comfort Food....Yummmmm!!

Hello everyone....how you all doing today??? Well, this is the last day of January, now where did this month go??? Onward and forward to February and possibly a bit of a warmer month???

In the midst of all this cold and snow and stuff, I made some "Comfort Food" today. Don't ask me why this is comfort, but it is something that was made alot when I was growing up. Mostly in my teen years, when my mother married into a Ukranian family. Not even sure what this is called....but I sure did like it, and now it tastes even better.

Umm....I will just call it "Fried Bacon and Hot Cabbage Slaw" So today, this is the way I made it: (I say today, because the recipe changes from time to time, but this is the basic recipe.
1 Tablespoon bacon grease (or fry some bacon and use that for this dish)
2/3 cup broken up pieces of bacon
1/2 head of shredded cabbage
1 small onion sliced (this can be optional)
1/2 cup marinara sauce (I used the rest of my left over vegie marinara sauce)
1/4 cup of water

So I fried the bacon and grease in a Dutch Oven. When hot added the cabbage and onions and mixed with the bacon and grease. After the cabbage is cooked down a bit add the marinara sauce and water (you can also omit the marinara sauce and just do the bacon and cabbage alone and it is goooooood). Turn down the heat to simmer and cover. The heat from the dutch oven will keep the cabbage cooking. Ready to serve right away. It didn't take long to make cause I was dishing it up for JP's lunch in no time, along with fish and potatoes and a smoothie.

Boy this was a good recipe. Yummy and very comforting. I am not sure what the calorie content is, but it is good and filling. Well, I am going to close now and go finish my dishes. Tonight I am going to make some cards for my Etsy store....maybe a set of 6 birthday cards. Talk to you later and keep warm and cozy with some of your favorite comfort food. Cheers ~ Louise

Made Some New Earrings....

Hello everyone. How ya' all doing??? Keeping warm??? It snowed today and was much warmer then usual, I think about 25 degrees. Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day. Went shopping and did a few errands and it actually felt like spring...I must be a hardened "Northerner" cause even though it was about 18 or 19 degrees it felt good.

I thought I would show you some earrings I made. Usually make all my earrings, so needless to say, among all my card making supplies, there are many colorful beads. I tried selling some of my earrings on Etsy....but no bites, so I just make earring for myself and as gifts to different people I know that wear earrings.

These earrings were fun to make. I saw the idea on an Etsy jewelery store. Easy peasy to make. I think this picture shows that the beads are blue...but actually they are purple and white pearl. Their not heavy. The ones on Etsy had 6 strands for each earring....I think that might have been too heavy for my ears.

I wanted some Valentine earrings. So I looked for some hearts at Hobby Lobby and found these at 50% off....also made a pair for the Pastor's wife. So, we are all set for that big day. JP and I need to do something special that day, like go out to eat some place.

These earrings are just a copy of the purple and white earrings. They catch the light with many colors, so they can be worn with just about anything I wear.

Well, you all have a great day. Take care and keep warm. Cheers ~ Louise

My Cards4ubylouise Studio

Hi everyone. Hope you are keeping WARM in this freezing cold Polar Vortex?????!!!! Thought I would type a few words while JP eats his dinner....yea, it's about 1:14am and he is slurping up the last of his fruit and yogurt. I made some rustic bread, vegie marinara sauce over spaghetti and beans. Today's marinara sauce includes a 28oz of crushed tomatoes, roasted zucchini, green peppers, onions, carrots, celery, sliced cabbage and garlic. After roasting the vegies, I let them cool, then added the vegies to the crushed tomatoes and brought to a soft boil. Used my immersable blender to blend altogether, you can't even tell there are all those extra wonderful vegies in there. How healthy is this recipe????

I am most definitely spoiled now.....probably will never buy another jar of tomato sauce again.

So here we are in my "Woman Cave". I guess that is what you would call it, my place to get away and play a little. I know, I know that's a lot of stuff. But it is an accumulation of about 15 years or so. Ya just never know when a technique will come up and I just might have the stuff to make it!!! This is the view of where I sit and create. In front and to the side of me are my many pens. The drawers hold fancy papers, stamps, embossing powders, watercolor pencils, H2o colors, paints, washi tape and many misc. things.

From this angle are my inks, papers, cuttlebug and die cuts, folders, punches, glues, tape, scissors, boxes and containers of punched out designs oh, and a drawer full of "Valentine embellishments".

From this angle, are cards already made, cards waiting to be made, envelopes, stamps and many embellishments, Quilling, Iris folding, flowers, glitter, ribbon, scrap paper, plastic sleeves and Etsy tags and cards.

On the same wall and on the other side of the basement, is scrap booking stuff, books, idea books, folders, beads for jewelery making, Hospice inserts, wooden block and acrylic stamps. I do have another section of stamping stuff, in the other room are my Christmas, Easter, Valentine, St.Patrick stamps, more ribbons and magazines.

And here is my special friend, Kylie who sits in her chair keeping me company. So there you have it, a tour of my "cards4ubylouise studio". It's not like some of the other gorgeous stamping studios you may have seen....but it is my little studio. Maybe someday I will have an actual room, totally organized, with windows and sunlight beaming through, bright and airy!!!

Well, the President is giving his State of the Union Address.......ho hum....sounds like we are living in some kind of Utopian place, according to him. I sure don't see that, like what planet is he talking about? I will be interested to hear what Rush, Sean and Mark Levine have to say about Obama's speech. Oh yesssss. he just said "Give America a Raise" that would be nice....oh cool "MyRA" a savings for us poor people, so they can take more from us...hahahahah, sounds good????? I better go, before I get in trouble.

Have a great day tomorrow and keep looking up and keep warm in this cold, cold unpredictable weather. Cheers ~ Louise

JUST A NOTE: Incase you were wondering. We got our car back today, to the tune of $396.00, hopefully nothing eles happens and we can pay off what we owe by the end of this year.(like about $1000????)

Tooo Much Snow and a Etsy Sale!

Hi everyone, how is it going??? As someone said to me the other day, "Life is full of changes, and they come without notice". Sometimes it would be nice to have a memo once in a while, but then again, if there was a memo, maybe I wouldn't want to see a change come!!!!

Today we had another change.....or challange.....or maybe it's an inconvenience???? JP and I had to go to the UPS store in Neenah (which is 10 miles away) and return the at&t DVR that stopped working. At&t sent a new DVR on Tuesday, the old one had to be back in their hands in 10 days...or else we would get charged $150!!!! Yikes!!! So needless to say we wanted to get the DVR back asap. We got back to Appleton, went to the Post Office to mail the Etsy order. Dropped JP off at home and I took off again to go pay the Electric/gas bill and to the grocery store. Here is where life changes.....I get back in the car and...gosh the brakes are feeling kind of strange??? So each stop I came to, I found the brake peddle becoming more squishy. Suddenly the brake light comes on........oh, oh, I better go home, will I make it home??? Dozens of questions filled my mind!!!

Thank God I got home with no mishaps. I told JP what had happened and he called the service station, they said to bring the car in....when JP drove the car to the garage, there were NO BRAKES!!! When you think...how a gazillion things could have happened. Apparently the brake lines are rusted out and fluid had leaked out. We will be with out a car for the weekend. JP is at work right now....someone from the company came to pick him up and take him to work. The service station will let us charge the $400.00, which is okay....but we still have a bill with them for $600...so there you have it $1000 bill for car repairs, and a loan on a car for $4000. I am wondering, how in the world does a person ever get ahead in this world....I probably will always wonder that, till Jesus' return or the day I die!!!

So here you can see how much snow we have had already....so much snow, but there are lovely flowers growing under all that snow. Tulips, roses, crocuses, peonies, lavendar, daisies, mums and misc. perrenials......it will be lovely when things start to grow again.

The snow is almost up to the porch....gosh that is deep, I don't remember seeing the snow that deep in all the 22 years we have lived here.

Here's a picture of our backyard.....snow is up to the back of the chair....so much snow and there's still 6-7 weeks of winter to go.

Well as I said in the title of this blog, I had another Etsy sale....so happy am I. She is a return customer and hopefully she just might return again and again. I am planning on getting more cards into my store. St. Patrick's Day is coming up soon, so I need to get some "green cards" in my store also!!

Time to close this blog and get some cards made and ride my bike for some exercise. Talk to you all later and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

Delicious Bread and 2 More Cards

Hi everyone...keeping warm and toasty??? I was out and about today. Mailed a package, and went to the local meat market for some hot dogs and hamberger, pizza crust and some mild Italian Chicken sausage for my Lasagna Soup. Got some bacon in the oven right now, JP is having eggs, bacon, baked potato, toast and fruit for dinner at 1:00am (he'll be impressed with his "WoW" as I put each plate on the table)

So in the above picture is the wonderful "fresh out of the oven bread" I made yesterday. (See previous post) The bread is all sliced up, looks pretty doesn't it? And, it was very tasty too!!! This bread is so easy to make and in a pinch, when there is no bread to be had, this is on the menu. Oh and I might add....this bread makes a wonderful turkey and pepperoni sandwich!!

This is another Get Well card I made last night. It was lots of fun to make. I colored the tulip with dye ink then sprayed it with water. The effect, when stamped looks like a water-colored tulip. I wrote "Get Well Soon" on cardstock that has a black board finish, that was rather a new technique for me. I think I am needing to go to Archivers to get more of that cardstock and special pen for writing as everything at the store is 40% off right now.

In this card, I must have made the stamped and embossed image a couple of years ago. Actually I made quite a few....so now I have enough to make more "get well" cards or whatever else comes up.

So there you have it.....my set of "6 Get Well Cards". Next on the agenda is a set of 6 Birthday, 6 Thank You's, and 6 Thinking of You. I really need to get more cards and things up in my store....so that will be my focus for the next couple of months. I'll probably sell the cards 6 for $15.00 + postage.

Well, time to close for the night. Need to go ride my bike for 4-5 miles. Straighten up my stamp area for the next session of card making. So take care and keep looking up. Spring is right around the corner....(wink)!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Fresh Out of the Oven Bread and Get Well Cards

Hi there everyone. How is your day going so far? I slept in today.....till almost noon...yikes! Course I did not go to bed till almost 3:15am. I guess I am a night owl @ ♥. Was up making cards for someone that special ordered some "Get Well" cards from my Etsy store. I love when an order comes in, so I can create something new. The order is for 6 get well cards. So as I make this order up I am also making a similar order to put in my Etsy store. I will be selling the cards for $2.50 a piece so 6 cards X 2.50 = $15.00 + postage (might be around $2.50.) Tonight I will finish up the order and put the cards up in my Etsy store for the lady to buy. Then off to the Post Office tomorrow to mail them out. Those are the plans for now...(smile)!!

Here is a picture of my "Fresh out of the oven bread" Oh my is it delicious, as I sit here blogging and bite into my turkey and pepperoni sandwich!!!! I did not take a picture of the sliced bread as it was too warm at the time of this picture. As you can see I baked the bread in my dutch oven with parchment paper. Directions said to heat the oven up to 450 to 500 degrees then place the bread dough in the dutch oven. Turn down the heat to 425 degrees and bake 30 minutes with a cover. Then 15 to 20 minutes without the cover. Being very careful not to touch the dutch oven as it is VERY HOT!!

After cooling, I took the bread out of the dutch oven, lifting up with the parchment paper and let cool some more. Then I sliced a little piece for tasting purposes...(wink)!! Let me just add.....this sandwich is out of this world delicious!!!! The recipe is really easy.

Now I cut this recipe in half for one loaf of bread, but here is the recipe in full:
6 1/2 cups regular flour
3 cups warm water
1.5 tablespoons yeast
1.5 tablespoons salt

Thats it. Mix the flour, yeast and salt well in a large bowl. Add water and mix, making sure the flour at the bottom gets incorporated. It will be sticky, no worries.

The original recipe (which I got from "Biz" at www.mybizzykitchen.com ) says to let rise for two hours, (My dough was not rising, so I let it go overnight, covering with a bowl and sitting it in the oven with no drafts, by morning it had doubled in size). Preheat your dutch oven in the stove at 450 degrees (another recipe said 500) Place the parchment paper in the pot with the dough and bake, turning down the heat to 425 degrees.

So between the two recipes, I came up with this beatiful loaf of bread....I need to add, there is no kneading required for this recipe, so that makes it very easy too. In a few days I will add a picture of the sliced bread (already took a picture of it and it is already in JP's lunch bucket).

So here are the pictures of my get well cards. I found this idea in one of my many magazines, trying to get ideas for get well cards. I thought this was a pretty card and can be for Birthdays, Thank you, Thinking of you, maybe even Mother's day too! I really liked the way it turned out. Ready to make some more.

This is my House Mouse get well card....used water-color pencils for this one, the ice cube and cotton is covered with speckles. Poor little mousey must have a touch of flu.

This card is a picture of my roses. I took this picture back in 2006, I am thinking. I have used these roses for many different things, mostly as a banner for my Etsy store. Just love this picture and thought, now wouldn't they make a nice card too...need to do some more of these. I added the butterfly for a little embellishment. Turned out very pretty.

Here is another view of the roses from a different angle and focused on different flowers in the full bouquet.

This get well card is a stamped picture of a sea-scape. I colored it in with pencils then must have run it off on the copy machine to make more copies.

So there you have it, just a few cards. Tonight I will finish off the order and get them ready for mailing. So you have a great evening and keep warm, make some tea and cuddle up for a long and cold winters night. Keep looking up. cheers ~ Louise

Okay....This is a REALLY Good Recipe!!!

Hi Everyone...hope you had a great evening and a better day today!! Well, I made this wonderful spaghetti sauce last night...this is my second batch of goodness!! I got this recipe from Biz, Here is where you can find the recipe. Sure hope this link worked for you. Apparently the link did not work so here is her address: http://mybizzykitchen/2014/01/10/pissed Just type it in and you'll find her recipe.

This is how I changed up Biz's recipe. I had two tomatoes, but half went on JP's salad. So I used 1 1/2 tomatoes, 1 pepper and squirted some crushed garlic on the inside of the peppers, 1 small onion, maybe a cup of small carrots and sliced them in half, maybe half of a shredded zucchini, and 4-5 halved stalks of celery. I then sprinkled olive oil on the vegies then sprinkled some seasoning called "Mad Dog and Merrill's Gramma Hazel's seasoning" or you can use salt and pepper, omit if you like and add your own favorite seasoning. Chopped spinach.

Roasted the vegetables for an hour at 325. I let the vegies cool down then put them in a pot with a 16 oz can of diced tomatoes. I tried to find canned tomatoes with the lowest grams of sugar. Added 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning and some crushed red pepper (optional)

Cooked till hot, and with an immersion blender, blended until the vegetables are pureed. Here is where I added the chopped spinach and cooked a bit longer till the spinach wilted.

I plated out the spaghetti, poured the sauce over it then added some mozzarella on top and melted in the micro.

First bite waiting to be taken....mmmmmmm.....was it ever gooooood. JP came home at 1:00 am. Gave him his bowl of fruit and toast and a big plate of spaghetti and sauce, he finished that up and then asked for another plateful....I guess he likes it too.

So there you have it, recipe of the month and it is a keeper. I may not ever buy another can or jar of spaghetti sauce again, now that I have this recipe, I like it so much. You all have a great day and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

Ceiling Problems

Hi everyone, how is your day going? Hope you're keeping warm if you live in a cold place. Hope you get the rain you need, if you are in a dry place. Hope you are keeping cool if you are in a hot place. Hope you're weather is good where ever you are. If you need a little snow we can send ya some, got lots today....(smile)

Thought you would like to see what I am dealing with and have been dealing with for the last 10+ years.....yep, it's a mess alright. I do not look forward to rain, especially heavy rains. The leaking ceiling is right in the middle of the kitchen, so needless to say, I have to dodge buckets, pots and towels when the drips start. At one point, during a real bad storm, we had to empty the bucket 4-5 times in one down-pour. It was like someone opened the faucet and the water poured down.

Right after that rain....we got the roof patched...at the cost of $1200......but it was to no avail, because after about a year, the leaks began again. Our roof never leaked for 10 years, not till after it was redone by the city. We were told to sue the guy that did the work (didn't have the $$$) and he is no longer in business. (I wonder why???) The city contracted him, after a couple of complaints he was let go, but that was after he messed up on our roof. Damage done.

In 2002 we got a loan from the city to get siding, windows, doors and the roof done plus new gutters. Repaying the loan would happen only if and when we decided to put the house up for sale. As we are not planning on moving any time soon...there is no reason to payback. Only problem is there would be a lien against the house....which I am not comfortable with. Makes it very hard to refinance, if we did that.

In this picture you can see how the ceiling is buckeling, as there are leaks in every corner of the tiles....no sense getting the ceiling fixed till we know for sure the roof is fixed and not leaking again. So there you have it, my tale of woe. You can see why I prefer snow at this time. Snow doesn't leak....for now.

Today I filled out papers for another loan from the city...won't hurt to try. See if they will help us a 2nd time....this time I want a roofer that knows what he is doing....do you blame me??? Also, we will ask for NEW gutters as we never got them the first time around. The roofer just had our old gutters re-galvinized and then they were put up backwards, which has cost alot of seepage in the basement.

Well, time to close, need to go ride my bike and make a card or two....have a good evening and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

Saturday's........

Aaahhhh Saturday's......we had plans of going out on a date. But, it is just too icy out there, plus JP thinks the alternator or air pump bearing is going out on the car....so no driving today or tomorrow. Taking the car in Monday for it's diagnosis......geez more $$$$! Guess the winter has been harsh on cars too!!

So, I guess I will just rest today and drink some coffee. Maybe work on some cards and possibly list a few things on Etsy.

Maybe do a little bit of cooking. Going to roast some tomatoes, peppers, garlic and carrots and make some sauce for spaghetti. Got this recipe from Biz @ http://www.mybizzykitchen/2014/01/10/pissed/ (Sorry, my link button is not working) I have all the ingredients, might even try "julianning" some zucchini.

Also on the agenda for today is a little bit of exercise, mostly riding my bike for a spell and maybe lift a few weights, just like these mice are doing....hahahahaha!

Well, time to hit the road and get a few things done. Enjoy your weekend and keep looking up and stay warm.
Cheers ~ Louise

PS the House Mouse pictures are from: http://www.house-mouse.com (Sorry, my link button is not working) I have quite a few stamps from House-Mouse, really need to start using them. Maybe that should be my challenge for 2014.

A Card Makin' Kind of Day

Hi everyone of you!!! Hope your day went well. Watching "The Taste" right now. Instead of just sitting here and watching...perhaps I should do a short blog too. "I loves" these cooking shows, some of these people must have 50 recipe books in their heads. To just know what works with what and some dishes are just so elegant. Right now they are choosing the best and worst tastes....think Jay will go home. Nigella will be down to 2 cooks on her team. (Yep...he went home)

Today was a good day....I ventured out in the cold....the temperature in the car said 8 degrees. It actually felt comfortable. I must be a hardened Wisconsinite!!! The weather this weekend is suppose to warm up to 30 degrees....a heat wave!!!

So today I went to Betty's house for a card making session. It's always fun to get a few new ideas.

In the above picture are the 4 cards we made, 3 bird cards and 1 doggie card. The doggie card was my favorite...I need to buy a doggie paw stamp, must keep my eye opened for one. The bottom card on the right was an interesting card to make. We used "onion paper" folded it like a fan and laid it on the card...rather a pretty effect. Now where do I find "onion paper"?????

This was my favorite card....the little puppy. He was colored in with copic markers. Finally getting the idea of working and shading with the copics, but I really have more to learn. The card was then layered with pretty papers and stamped with the doggie paw. The heart was popped up with pop-ups to give it a 3-D effect.

I liked the colors on this card...blue and orange (are those Chicago Bear colors????) Oh my.....Packer colors are better. Hahahhahaaha!!! Well, it was a fun card to make. While at Betty's, I stamped a little boy playing football and will be coloring him with Bear Colors for someone I know....I am sure he will like it. Maybe that would be a cute card to put on my Etsy store. The little boy playing football in the colors of all the teams in the NFL....something to think about for the new season.

Well, tis time to close this blog and get something done before JP comes home from work. So talk to you later and have a good evening, whats left of it. Keep looking up and keep warm. Cheers ~ Louise

OOOhhhhh...Doing the Etsy Tap Dance in the Cold!!!

Hi everyone.......hope you all are keeping warm these last couple of days. I didn't leave the house "a-tall" Nope, too cold for me. The weather is going to warm up by this weekend, maybe 20-30 degrees warmer then it has been, (shorts weather here in WI). I was listening to a weatherman the other day on the radio and he said that after the warm-up, in 10-15 days there will be another "polar vortex" coming through and we'll have -0 degree + weather again....oh uge. I hope he is wrong. The up-side of this cold? February and March tend to be a bit warmer by 10 - 20 degrees.

Well, today I am doing the Etsy Tap Dance!!!! Yayyyyyyy!! Sold these leaves today PLUS 275 more leaves. The lady ordered 12 packs of 25 leaves!!!!!

So, as soon as I get done reporting my sale, I shall go downstairs and punch out some more leaves. I might already have 150 leaves punched out. While doing the leaves, I am also punching hearts out....that may be something someone could use for Valentine's. Have to think ahead all the time. Maybe I will do some stars too.

Tomorrow I will take the package to the Post Office and have it weighed to find the exact postage. Then contact the lady, letting her know the leaves are finished and she can buy them on my Etsy store. Then off they will go to her home residence in sunny CA. (maybe I should pack myself up in that envelope too...hahahaha!!!!

Well, time to close and get cracking on this sale. So keep looking up and keep warm, sunshine and warmer weather is right around the corner.
Cheers ~ Louise

Flowers and Antique Roadshow.

Hi everyone....hope you are keeping warm. Going to make this a short blog. Thought I would put a few pictures of last summers garden flowers up today (I am missing my flowers)....need a little warmth to look at instead of ice and snow and cold wind.

In the above picture is my Habiscus. Apparently I cut the bloom off the bush and brought it in the house, putting it in a container of water. I don't think it lasted long though and wilted. I brought the plant in the house for the winter...seems to be doing well with little tiny blooms beginning to appear. More flowers coming in the near future.

This is my lovely white rose......a lovely plant that takes it's time to start new growth in the spring. Last spring I almost dug this bush up because it was taking so long to grow....I thought the hard winter had killed it off. So right now this lovely rose bush is sitting under 3-4 feet of snow right now.......hope it is keeping warm and will bloom again.

These flowers are my zennias....I always love to have zennias growing on the side of the house....flowers to look at as I walk into the house.

It's 2:50am. JP is eating shelled nuts, I recorded Antique Roadshow for him to watch. He does for a little while then dozes off. For some unknown reason this program makes me sleepy too, so while I am typing and listening to the program.....my eyes are getting very heavy.....so maybe I need to close this blog for tonight. So you all take care and keep looking up!!!
Cheers ~ Louise

Baby It's Cold Out There.....

Hi everyone....hope you are keeping warm. Not looking forward to this COLD weather. So much for the talk of global warming. No man really knows the weather conditions...only God. Here's a good scripture to meditate on...let me know what you think. Genesis 8:22 "While the Earth remained, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" In my commentary, it says (The promise is given here that the seasons of the year will continue forever, because the Earth will remain forever)

So maybe man can predict what is going to happen all he wants....But God, is still in control. "Keep Calm....God's Got It"

So I am watching the Packer game as I am writing this blog....oh bummers, the 49er's just scored. it's 20 to 17 and the temperture is -2 degrees with a windchill of -13. I just don't know how they do it. Watching them play, it looks like their faces are frozen. So the QB on the other team was just asked how it was to play out there in the cold and he said..."oh it wasn't bad" (yeah, right!!)

49er's won the game with a time-out and 3 seconds left. The kicker kicked the ball and they won.....somehow I did not think that was a fair game play......but who am I??? Guess I will hear more about it on the news and tomorrow. Well, I guess the football season is over for the Packers, sure was hoping for a win!!!

This is going to be a short blog with NO pictures, can you believe it? guess I am slacking off. Well you take care and keep warm these next few day and keep looking up, cause Jesus is coming soon!!!
Cheers ~ Louise

2014 Resolutions from 2013, 2012, 2011 etc.

Did you all make any resolutions for the New Year??? I thought about it, but sometimes they are just too hard to keep. I might just try continuing what I started in 2011, 2012, 2013 and now 2014. As you can see these are "on-going" resolutions!!

1. Continue on my journey to lose some weight and reverse diabetes.

Still working on that and probably continue on into 2014. (2013 the Doctor put me on diabetes medication which lowered my blood sugars but the side effects were "gaining weight" So now I need to take those pounds off that was gained in 2013)

2. Paint a room or two this year....been awhile since I painted and redecorated.

Nope, no room painting in 2012. (2013, I did paint the little entry into the bedroom, and the brick wall going down-stairs)

3. This spring, paint the porch floor.

2012 - Nope, no porch painting...thought about it though. (2013, painted the porch railings and steps, but no, didn't do the porch floor as yet)

4. Get some cards into a few beauty shops.

2012 - Nope. (2013 - nope not as yet....but I am donating alot of my cards to Hospice, 397 cards to be exact)

5. Get the kitchen ceiling fixed.

2012 - Nope. (2013 - No, not yet as the roof is still leaking. I am going to try for a City grant, I have till the 17th to get the papers put together....maybe just maybe we can get the roof, ceiling and new gutters fixed this year)

6. These are long shots.........get a new or used stove and couch.

Got the couch and did look at a used stove, but nope, did not get one. (2013 - got the couch and 2 chairs, no stove yet)

7. More mini-vacations on Lake Winnebago and a vacation this year.
Nope, no vacation but many mini-vacations on Lake Winnebago. (2014, no more mini vacations on Lake Winnebago, we are planning a trip to Ladysmith though)

8. More blogs then last year.

Yes, I did manage that by 22 more blogs........2013? 25 more. (2013 - 122 posts, I shall try for 25 more this year)

9. Learn something new.

Guess I didn't, cause I can't think of anything. (2014 - learn to play my guitar)

10. Lose an old habit, what that is I don't know as yet.

Ha...probably gained some old habits, but lose, Nope! (2014 - lose 20 lbs.)

11. Continue on in my personal relationship with Jesus.

Yes! (2014 - this is on-going)

12. Make a new friend and cultivate and old friend.

Not sure I did. Oh wait, I did make a blog friend, does that count??? (2014 - new blog friends, lost another old-time friend who died of lung cancer in 2013...sigh)

13. Weed through the house, get rid of stuff not used for a couple of years.

Yes! (2013 - yes and have another garage sale)

14. Garage sale this summer?

Yes! (2013 - yes, had a couple of sales, didn't make much but unloaded a lot of stuff)

15. One accomplishment in 2013 - I added a pond with lots of flagstone that was given to me by a person no longer in my life. I guess, people come into ones life for some purpose and leave as quickly as they came. But they left this lovely pond which consumed my summer because then we bought 2 yards of red mulch and extended all our other gardens. This summer, I had the pond garden, tomato garden, patio garden, angel garden, front yard garden and a fire pit garden. This summer, we shall buy 2 more yards of mulch and finish my gardens off and add more perennial plants.

Well that is 14 things to work on, there probably are more, but this is a good start. Will have to remember these resolutions are here so I can keep reading them every now and then.

Guess I did not read them enough, cause many were not accomplished. So there you have it, shall I continue my quest for perfection in 2014......kinda' hard to attain perfection, very unattainable to me.

What to expect for 2014???

I have no idea what to expect. Peace would be a good thing to expect, but with the way this world is going, it's hard to foresee. I find it very hard to understand how people can continue living without a relationship with Jesus Christ and still survive living in this barbaric way of life. Killing and being killed, and sometimes for no reason at all, then to just kill!!!

A very sad commentary for "modern" man!!! Everyone blames the other guy and sadly does not look into the "mirror of truth" to see one's self-deception. We deceive ourselves daily, thinking we are good, when in reality we all are sinners and fall short of the glory of God. There is a scripture in the Bible that says to this affect. "Whoa to them that say good is evil and evil good..." This is fast becoming very familiar in our society. Very sad, very sad indeed.

Hello 2014 Hope this year is a bit better then 2013 was. Spiritually, emotionally, financially and creativity wise and morally speaking. God Bless America and may God's Word come into focus in everyone's heart in this year 2014!!!