Where Has Summer Gone???

Hi there everyone......can you tell me where summer has gone???? I closed my eyes and BOOM summer disappeared. In some ways I am glad, in some ways not. I will not miss the hot, high humidity that is for sure. There was no escape from the heat, and it seemed the stores I went into, their air-conditioning was turned down, like as if they were saving energy or something.

I like cool weather....the 70's are my favorite temperatures. Yeah, that is livable. Well...September is standing before us, so now I guess there will be less hot days and more cooler weather. I don't mean to rush things, but then winter is not far behind.

I heard someone ask the question, "Why does winter go slow and the summer go so fast?" Do you know the answer????? I wonder if we have so much planned for the summer, which makes time fly. Winters are slow times and not so much is planned which makes time go slow.....I don't know, only guessing.

So in these next few pictures is the growth of my two sunflowers in the front of the house. The first picture are the early days of the growing season.

Here we are, almost about to show our glory.

 Another view from afar.

Blooming....blooming.....blooming in all her glory! I am sure, there are many sunflowers in heaven!!!

Another view up close. The other day the second sunflower bloomed. I have two other sunflower plants growing at the neighbors house...they are much smaller then these...not sure why, the seeds came from the same package.....I shall have to take pictures of the other two sunflowers.

Well time to close, have to go downstairs and finish my cards for the Hospice meeting on Friday. Talk to you later, keep looking up, cause better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

43 Years!!!!

Hi there everyone.....how you all doing??? Well, today is JP's and my anniversary....yep, we have been married 43 years!!! So hard to believe how fast that time went. We had a lot of good times and a lot of sad times, but we made it through, always following that light that shined at the end of the tunnel.

When JP and I got married, Monday, August 27, 1973....during his racing season. He did not want to take time out to get married the conventional way, in a church, white dress, reception afterward. I even had to buy my own ring. Yeah, so we quickly got married at City Hall in Chicago at 11:00am. Then at 3:00pm we were signing the closing papers for our house in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Moving into our new house that night....geez what a day!!!

His family and mine were not very happy about the plans we made.....but at that time, they were OUR Plans. Six months later, my mother threw a wedding party for JP and I. If I had it to do over again, I would have waited till he had time to get married the real way, a Church wedding, a white dress and reception and a Honeymoon to some far away place! We never did get that honeymoon....still waiting.

So the picture above is JP and I on "Awards Night" (September 22, 1973) JP won the track championship and "Most Popular Driver". This was the track championship trophy. Most popular driver trophy was a bit smaller. Yep the girls were always chasing after JP....and the men? not so much except on the track.

I just recently signed up with a group from Waukegan Speedway via Facebook and was surprised to find there were quite a few people that remembered the blue Camaro and JP Gatti. There were a few comments that said "JP used to be my hero when I was a kid". What's really funny is the kid that was JP's President of his fan club is now 47 years old. Gosh time does NOT stop for no one!!!

The evolution of a race car. The above picture was in 1972, see, no lettering or numbers....they must have just finished building this car.

Here we are....same car but the number is plastered on it.

After the 1972 season....JP and 2-3 other guys worked on and rebuilt the car to look like this....pretty snazzy huh???? The day we had this picture taken was the last time the car ever looked like this. Because that night at the races, it seemed like every single driver was out after JP and his new car trying to stop him from winning the race. She was pretty beat up that night....so glad we had pictures taken.

Yeah, those were the days with a lot of good memories. It is very interesting too, that some of the drivers JP raced against, commented or "liked" the pictures I posted.

This car went through quite a few car owners and drivers too. JP sold his share of the car to Bob W. (JP stopped racing after he won the championship, he saw a driver get killed and did not want to end up like him.) So, Bob got a new driver in 74-77. Then sold the car to Chuck B., he raced it for a couple of years (77-78) then he sold the car to Micheal M. (79-80) which ran the car at Wilmont. Then in 1980 Micheal sold the car to Don L. he had it (80-82). From there we are not sure what happened to that blue Camaro, but we know it made a lot more laps around a few tracks. Would be interesting to know how many races it won with all the owners and drivers and where it ended up.

Well, there you go, the genealogy of a '69 Camaro. Forever engrained in our minds....our wild and crazy years. Some things I wish could be done over, some things not so much....all in all, it was good.

I guess it is time to close for now, have to get an anniversary card made for JP. He bought me (actually I picked them up) a dozen red roses. I bought a pizza for tonight, JP will have lox and bagles tomorrow and maybe I will buy a piece of prime rib at Festival's tomorrow....my choice of meal if we ate out someplace. I also bought a Chocolate Cream pie from Schwan's (now that will be a real treat.) No we will not be going out to eat. Cooking at home as usual.

You all have a great day and keep looking up - better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Some Adult Coloring

Hi there everyone. Hope you are having a good day. We have been dealing with Doctor appointments these last couple of days. Today, JP had an appointment with Urology....we were at the hospital from 9:30am, finally leaving @ 2:30pm.....long, long day. He has to have a prostate biopsy. It does not sound easy or comfortable. He'll have to take 2 days off from work, because there's no heavy lifting for two days after the procedure. I am hoping for a good report, but the Doctor said this could be cancer. Please keep JP in your prayers.

My appointment was on Tuesday. Diabetes is a very distressing desease. Along with weight (I have gained back 24 lbs of the 40 I lost last year, dealing with the hernia). Needless to say my blood pressure and blood sugars have gone up and my A1C is still a tad too high. I have to have a mammogram in September, my last one was in '05....gosh time flies. Oh and I have been dealing with itchy skin, so the Doctor wants me to stop taking each medication (one at a time) for a couple of days to see if I am allergic to any one of them. If the itching stops, then that med needs to be changed, because I am apparently allergic to it. If itching does not stop then it might be a food I am eating or the laundry detergent. Right now, I am itching...metformin has been excluded for a couple of days. Will have to wait to see what happens.....the itching could be  nerves.

Well...on to some fun stuff.....this is what keeps my head together....is my art work, card making, gardening and cooking.

I bought a couple of Adult coloring books and have been doing some coloring.

What is nice about spending time on coloring these flowers and stuff is that they can be turned into a nice card......we'll see what I come up with. 

Right now I am thinking that I might want to frame a few of these pages. I really liked the above color page...I was almost finished with it and used a pen to outline and there was tooooo much ink in it and it leaked on my colored page. I tried to cover it but to no avail. I just showed you the pretty part. Down in the right corner you can see a dark sploge. Oh, and maybe over on the left in the middle.

This color page was done with colored pencils....oh and ink and stamps (those little dots). It was okay....but I prefer to use Copic markers. Colors are more vibrant.

Well, I think I will close here as I have to do some dishes and think about what I want to make for JP's late supper. You have a great night and keep looking up....better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

Some Cards I Made At........

Hi there everyone....hope you are keeping cool. My cool times come when I am someplace that is air conditioned...otherwise I am a pretty hot bundle of nerves.....and hard to get along with....lol!!! Poor JP!!!

So today I will show you some of the cards we made at Betty's on Wednesday.

I like this old fisherman....he is colored in with copic markers....I shall save him for a friend whose birthday is next August.....he is a fisherman.

This was a neat card to make. We colored the butterfly, flowers and frame with copic markers on vellum, but on the back side of the vellum. Then placed colored vellum on the same image that we just colored the butterfly. That was a nice technique....see how the butterfly seems to pop out???

This was a die cut and we just added the background to the flowers and a few gems.....made for a nice card.

This was a crayon resist technique. Where you see the white is the crayon....then we smudged brown and blue and colored in the tongue and brown spots. Cute card....oh and the little doggies along the card is washi tape.

Well, it is getting late and I am getting tired. So keep looking up.....better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Made Some Gherkan Pickles the Other Day

Hi there everyone hope you are having a good evening. Thought I would do a short post tonight. Made some Gherkin pickles the other day.....I love these pickles. They are made from over-ripe pickles. Years ago, probably back in the 60's you could buy these pickles in the store, but I don't see them anymore. So I have made my own and they seem to have come pretty close to what I remember them being.  I used to love making a good sandwich with these pickles, I remember them being a sweet-sour taste, so with a ham and mayo on toast was sooooo delicious!!

As you can see in picture, I peel the over-ripe cucumbers, clean out the seeds and discard the seeds. Then I slice the cucumbers.

Place them in a plastic container, in salted water for 24 - 48 hours overnight on the counter, then I place them in the fridge if I see I will not be making them within those 48 hours.

After their long soak, I drain them and place them back in the plastic container.

In a pan, I add about 1/2 to 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar and about 2 cups of water....enough liquid to cover the pickles.

I then add turmeric, sugar and salt....oh and celery seed or celery salt.....then I taste, taste, taste till I get the taste I want.
The most important part of this is, to heat the liquid and seasonings to boil for a few minutes. Then pour over the pickles and let sit till the liquid cools down and can be refrigerated.

They keep in the fridge for however long they last.

TA-DA......here is what they look like when finished....yep this was a good batch of pickles!!!!

NOTE: They sure do make a good sandwich!!!

Maybe I will show you how I make my dill pickles....just made a batch tonight but did not take a picture of them.

Well time to close....JP will be home from work in about 10 minutes, so I have to get his dinner going. I made Cheese Burger Slider Casserole......now this was a delicious meal, I think he will like this one with cole slaw and beans and a few pickles from above.

Have a good night and keep looking up, better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

Been Busy Making Cards

Hi there everyone. Well, just as I said in my last post, that I would show you some of the cards I have been making....when the creative juices are flowing, you must go with the flow......or it dries up!!! Lol!!!

Hope you had a nice Saturday. But for some, it was not so good, there were many people in the Baton Rouge area whose homes flooded. Jimmy Swaggart Ministries was flooded and services are cancelled for tomorrow. So we will be seeing last week's service.....I hope there was not a lot of damage.

So here are some of the cards I have been working on these past few days and weeks. This lovely maiden is my most recent card. She is a digital and I paid $4 for her. There are two more digital maiden's that I want to get.....but I don't have enough in my paypal account to buy them yet.

I copied this one to my computer and ran her off on card stock. I can do just about anything I want with her and even color her dress different colors.....I think my two nieces will be getting this card for their birthday this year and next.

I put her in my Etsy store tonight for $3.50 + postage $2.50... I know, it's the postage that kills the sales but I can't very well give my cards away.....can I???? I do add a bonus card to my sales though, hope that compensates for the high postage.

"Happy Birthday Bluebirds of Happiness in Orange" I stamped and embossed the birds and flowers a couple of years ago and just recently turned it into a card. Smudged some gold paste on the card, it added a little depth $3.50 + postage.

"A Pink Flamingo Thank You" I love this Flamingo....so elegant. Colored with Copic markers and Wink of Stella and of course some gold paste to add depth. $3.50 + postage.

A Purple Violet Hello Greeting" Sometimes I don't know what to do with a card and then something pops as I put the card together....that is what happened here. Colored the flower with copic markers and outlined with a gel pen. I had a bunch of these Hello tags made and just added it to the pansy with a bunch of purple sequins for pazazzzzzz!!! (oh I know, spell checker says...no such word!!! But in my world, there is pazazzzzzzz)

"Live Laugh Love Thinking of You" This is another one of those "adult color" stamps that I picked up. Have you tried your hand at adult coloring, it is amazing how relaxing this is. I am so glad I have the creative juices to turn these works of art into a card.

Happy Birthday Bluebird of Happiness in Turquoise" Same as the orange card up above.

"The Frogs Have It Birthday Card" This is a print of a frog. I liked the idea of the background and frame and made lots of these cards....I need to put a few more cards like this up.

"Adult Coloring Birds and Flowers Thinking of You" These two cards actually go with the two cards in my banner. This is a set of 4 cards for $10 + postage.

So there you have it....a taste of some of the cards I have been working on. A lot of these cards will be going to Hospice and then there are some that I made a couple years ago that will end up in the Hospice box.....yeah, I have a LOT of cards. Probably more then I will ever use. I can't remember the last time I bought a card.

Well, time to close.....I need to go to my favorite place.....the basement to make some more cards. Have a great rest of the weekend and keep looking up, better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

Sitting on the Front Porch

Hi there everyone....how are you all doing??? Hope you are keeping Cool. Cool. Cool!!!! I am not, we still have not replaced the air conditioner....I had it on for about a half hour last night and then it started spitting and had to shut it down. But, it was on long enough to cool things down a bit in the kitchen. I felt a little cooler, but the coolness did not last long.

About 10pm Kylie and I went and sat on the porch for about an hour...it sure was cooler outside with a slight breeze AND there were no mosquitos.....goodness, could they not find me???? I almost fell a sleep a couple of times. The trickle of the water in my fountain and the crickets chirping had a very hypnotic affect on me.

So, in the pictures below.....you will find me sitting on the front porch, again. Yeah, it's a place to go when I want to take a time out......"my mini vacation" to dream about places I would like to go if I had the money. The last couple of days my wishing has taken me to places where I would be close to water and could sink my toes in some sand.....gosh that sounds heavenly to me about now. But for now, I shall have to dream on my porch and listen to the water fountain trickle on the porch or in the back yard.

So here I am, camera facing east. In the foreground is a big butterfly....it's sitting in my fountain. In the very last picture you will see the water fountain with flowers, flamingo's, light, fall leaves and the butterfly. In this picture you see my brown eyed Susan's and my privacy wall of star climentus. And yes, we have eaten on the porch....not a lot, but some.

That's my glider chair....it's a nice place to fall asleep on. When our air conditioner worked in the kitchen, I would bring that chair in the kitchen and slept in it all night long....very comfortable. Next to the chair on the railing is my 3 pots of basil. I have been drying the leaves for later use and putting the leaves in grilled cheese sandwiches and salads......yum!!!

Oh look.....my tosey's!!!! Just relaxing. So in the front view are my petunia's and that green plant you see is my Christmas Ponsetta.....yep, it's still growing. One of these days (not sure when) I shall have to stick it in the closet or some dark place so the leaves get red. Maybe I better google "ponsetta plant care" and see what the prescription is.

In this view, are my roses, among the roses is lemon mint (that I need to dry and make mint jelly with), petunia's and brown eyed susan's. If you look through the screen and porch railings you can see Hissop growing. That's another plant that I need to bring in the leaves and flowers and dry them for tea.

Finally, my camera is facing south-west and you see my white wicker chair (which I have painted every couple of years), we have had that chair for 25 years now and who knows how long the neighbors had it before us. Anyways, in this picture are my geraniums....they are two years old. JP brought them in for the winter and managed to keep them going. I think they like this spot, cause they get lots of sun.

Here is a closer picture of the geraniums, they are sitting in a pot that straddles the porch railing. I want to find another pot like that.....I think I got it at Shopko...but have not seen another one as yet.

Last, but not least is my little trickling water fountain....water looks a little green, I better change the water. Yeah, this is a nice place to sit....I wish my computer could go out here too, but alas, I do not have a lap-top.....that would be nice though (I think).

Well, time to close, it's 5pm and I need to get some pictures up in my Etsy store. Finally!!!! I have been working on cards, but just too lazy to take pictures and get them in the computer then into Etsy....but today I shall do a couple of cards and maybe a couple cards tomorrow. My next post will be the cards that I put up in my Etsy store.....stay tuned.

Have a great day and keep looking up, better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

Flamingo's in Color

Hi there everyone.....lol, all four of you!!! Hope you are having a good day. Looks like the next couple of days will be getting warmer again. Ish....I wish I was a flamingo and could have my feet in the water all the time....how cooling would that be??? So what color Flamingo would you like to be???

I am trying to figure out what in the world these flamingo's eat that make them the different colors that they are. Pink flamingo's are pink because they eat a lot of shrimp. But then what is it the others eat. One of the pictures captions said it depends on the algea in the water which causes the color change. But whatever it is, it sure makes for spectacular birds.

So here is the Pink Flamingo that we are used to seeing. Maybe a little lighter and more peachy.

A BLUE Flamingo!!

A GREEN Flamingo!!!

A YELLOW Flamingo......WOW did you notice???? Green Bay Packer Colors.....Go Packers!!!!

A MULTI-Colored Flamingo!!

A TOUQUOIS Flamingo!!!

VIOLET Flamingo's!!!

A WHITE & PEACH Flamingo's

RED Flamingo's

Last, but not least, BLACK and WHITE Flamingo's. All these pictures were copied from Pinterest and saved in my computer. I have pinned all these birds in "Flamingo's - My favorite Bird" on Pinterest.

The only reason I can think of, that why I love Flamingo's is because my Dad did. As a child we would go down to Florida a lot. My dad would take pictures of flamingo's, framed them and hang them on the wall....so every day, (as a child) I would pass those pictures and admire those birds. The pictures, many years later were lost in a flood and had to be thrown away. But, they are forever stuck in my memory. Hope you enjoyed my Flamingo post....I did.

Not too much going on this week. Maybe just work in the yard, tending to the tomato and cucumber plants....I still have so much I wanted to do. Then there are my cards, Hospice meeting in a month....one day at a time I guess.

You all have a great day (lol...all four of you) and keep looking up, better days are coming!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Random Pictures and Thoughts

Hi there everyone, hope you are having a great Summer. I can't believe how fast this summer is going. It's been a bit too warm for me....but I have not melted yet. Should not complain as winter is just 4 months away and it will come soon enough.

So today's post is just going to be some random pictures I picked up here and there and thought they were really cool to look at. I love this "flower bed" if I ever run across an old bed, I will make one of these in my back yard......and of course it will be called "Louise's Flower Bed".

I was looking at Pinterest and pinned a bunch of Flamingos.....I sure do like flamingos....did you know they come in different colors? This, I did not know. It depends on what they have eaten....usually we see pink flamingos. But they come in blue, green, yellow and red....so interesting. (Maybe that should be my next post...."Flamingos in Color".  Below is a cute little baby flamingo and it comes in grey.

Another group of pictures I pinned were roses. So many pretty roses in so many different colors. Purple roses are my favorite. I certainly would find a place in my garden if I found a purple rose to plant.

I thought this was a neat picture. I do have a door in my backyard.....I really like this idea....think I will ask JP to haul out the door so I can paint it blue like this one. Just another project for me to do....maybe I better finish what I have started.

On hot days.....I think I would like to jump in this stock tank and cool off a little bit....I wish I had the space and privacy in my back yard to have a little pool.....some day maybe.

A bouquet of Black Eyed Susan's from my garden for the dinning room table.

And this is a card I found on the internet....I love that little girl. Found out it is a digital print and not a stamp. So I bought it and have it saved in my computer. Made a bunch of copies and will be making some cards like this in a couple of weeks. Isn't she pretty? I think the copic coloring is what makes it though. It looks like water coloring.

So there you have it, a few pictures that have caught my eye and thought I would share with you. I guess my life is not very exciting, just kind of regular....but that is okay.

I think in the next few days I will be making some Apple-mint jelly. It seems like an easy recipe. I brought in some mint leaves, I have some apple juice in refrigerator so, we shall see how it goes.

Today, August 2nd was the birthday of my mother, she would have been 90 years old. She has been dead 15 years now....time sure does fly. Sometimes I miss being able to talk to her....but we were so far apart for many years. She lived in Des Plaines, Ill. JP and I moved to Ladysmith, WI in 1976. Then she moved out to Las Vegas in 1986....so yeah, we have been a part for many years, we would talk to each other on the phone maybe every 4 to 6 weeks...I did go out to visit my mother and step father about 4 times and stayed a few weeks each time. It was hard to be out there and leave JP by himself, cause he did not want to go out to Las Vagas.  So yeah, we were not very close like some mothers and daughters are supposed to be.

Well, time to close, I have to get some dishes done before JP gets home and get something ready for him to eat. Not sure what that will be yet. Keep looking up, better days are coming.
Cheers ~ Louise