Oh My Gosh.....Blogspot Changed It's Format

 Hi there everyone. Been awhile since I have been here.....and would you know it....Blogspot changed!!! A whole new learning curve. Come on now....why change something that was not even broken????? I would like to know that answer.

Not much has been going on around here. The street is still being worked on. The original letter from the city said August 24th, the streets, sidewalks, driveway and curbs would be done. (lies). The streets started getting torn up July 6th. At one point we could not get out of our driveway for 20 days!!! Not kidding! Was a good thing I had enough food and such. Towards the end though, toilet paper, paper towels, butter, and a few other things were gone!! And again, the original letter said we would get a notice when to move our cars to the side street. I NEVER saw such notice. I am about to scream at Appleton!!! In this time with the pandemic and everything else going on....don't need this aggravation also!!!

So today.....the street was being leveled out and I thought....maybe I better move the car. So now the car is parked on the side street....and guess what, the workers are gone, maybe I could have left the car in my driveway????? I don't know, just do not want to take that chance again. I have a Doctor's appointment Friday and if I cannot get out of the driveway because of road work, I will miss my appointment.

My Doctor of 33 years retired in July (sigh). So Friday I will be going to a NEW Doctor. JP's prostrate Doctor is retiring in December. His next appointment is not till next June. But JP will have one of the other Doctors in that office to take care of him. 

Another dilemma we face is, I have to find a new accountant, the one we had for 33 years...he was very good, but for the last 10 years or so, we were having to pay $200 to have our taxes done. But then it was affordable, we had the income. But now that is out of our budget, as finances have changed quite a bit.

JP retired from work June 3rd. He is now 73 yrs old. So no income from Jack's. Plus no extra cleaning on the side anymore. Taxes were not taken out and we ended up having to pay the Government $383+$200 for the accountant. Nope, not in the budget anymore. I have been told we can get our taxes done for FREE. Have to find out where that is pretty soon.

In the midst of all this stuff, JP deals with a lot of health issues, one being his prostrate, but now the appointments are 1 year apart....which is good. 

JP went to the foot Doctor last month and this month. He has a big, ugly, painful callous on his right foot. The Doctor scraped it and put some acid on it. But JP still takes baby steps and shuffles around like and old man. Doctor said we need to get some new inserts for his shoes. OR go to a Pedorthist and get fitted with molded inserts which is not covered by our insurance and would have to come out of our pocket $350. One half for the first visit and the rest on the second visit. Guess that is out of the question for now. 

Doctor felt sorry for us because we went to "Good Feet" for their inserts, for both JP and I the cost was $1800.00, He also got a new pair of shoes for $200+. I am still paying on that money making scam....the inserts never worked for JP. and the shoes are worn out and the heel worn down.

JP has a few other ailments, a hernia, needs some dental work and gets arm pains (10 to 20 a day). People think he is having a heart attack and are ready to call 911. But he just walks it off, praying and chanting words over and over.

And yes, we pray constantly, God sees the need....maybe one day these trials, tribulations and frustrations will all end, in His time.

Well I better close here, cause I am probably wearing you out with my tales of woe. One person asked me recently, "How are you doing today" I said, "oh fine. Actually I am not fine. But we have been taught to say, "oh everything is fine, whether it is or not". 

No one wants to hear problems, cause they have their own problems to deal with. I have heard it said, if we throw all our problems in a circle and are told to pick out a new problem, we would again go and pick up our old problems, because we know how to deal with them. Maybe new problems of someone else's would throw us for a loop and we would not know how to deal with them. Do you suppose???

So you all take care and keep looking up, better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

My Favorite Sport 2 Watch

Hi there everyone. Hope you are having a good August. Well, it's been 2 weeks since I last posted. Thought it was about time to do something. No new pictures of cards or the gardens...been a little laxed in taking pictures. Guess I will have to get on the wagon again pretty soon.

I know this may not be an interesting post for you....but it is for me. I love hockey....maybe if more people would watch hockey there would be less problems in this world, it's an exciting game to watch and easy to follow. Just follow that puck and you get the idea of what the game is about. Baseball is so slow moving, football is pretty slow too....but hockey, man, down the ice and back, score a goal and hit a player so much action going on!!! Yeah, I like hockey best of all. 

I have been a fan 57 years. My first taste of Hockey was through my stepfather, he had season tickets to the Chicago Blackhawks in 1962.....back then there was Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Chico Maki, Moose Vasko, Reggie Fleming to name a few favorites. We went to every game for almost 6 years. Loved, loved loved the game.

My life changed a bit after I started Beauty School and then left home, getting my first job and an apartment. No more hockey games. Not even sure the games were on TV at that time....I kept track of the Hawks via the newspapers and such. I met JP in '71 and he was into stock car racing. I guess my interests changed and was into stock car racing till 1973 when JP and I got married and he retired from racing. Did I do that???

1976 we moved up to Ladysmith on our 20 acres and raised cows, chickens, ducks, rabbits, cats and dogs. I lost track of the Hawks. We had NO TV for 10 years.....how in the world I did that, I do not know. 1987 we moved to Appleton, but still no TV for awhile. Finally in '92 I got a TV with rabbit ears......nope, no Hockey yet. I missed being able to watch the Stanley Cup Finals 2010, 2013, 2015. FINALLY 2016 brought Hockey into my house!!!! FINALLY I could watch the Blackhawks again!!!!

      The above picture was taken off the TV, March 25, 2019. 

Yep....Fear the Feathers....I think this year will be the year that brings another Stanley Cup....I am hoping, that would be great. 4 Stanley Cups in 10 years. Would that make history for the Chicago Blackhawks!!!!???

This is a shot from the TV. It's an old picture. 2 of the players in this shot are on different teams. Panarin, a winger is with the NY Rangers now. and Hjalarson is with the Coyote's...he was a good Defense player. Hopefully with all the trades this season we will have a good defense again.

This is the Blackhawks hat I want to buy before the season starts....hopefully. Or if another hat catches my eye, I will buy that one.

So now I have had Directv and now Spectrum and I can now get Hockey on TV and if I can't get it on TV, I can get the games on the computer. There is a site that shows all the home and away games of the Blackhawks and those of the other teams. I have no excuses now. Of course I can spend $40+ to get hockey on TV and that would include home and away....not affordable at this time.

So there you have it....if you do not see many posts from me starting in September you will know I am somewhere out there in Hockey land. You all take care and keep looking up.....better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

MAN!!!! These Beans Were GOOD!!!

Hi there everyone. Hope you are having a good day. We had a storm go through a couple of hours ago....tornado warnings...time to go hide in the basement. Guess it was pretty bad all around us. A roof few off one of the buildings on College Ave. with lots of debris on the street. 60-70 mph winds. Lots of trees were up-rooted and blown down. Will have to watch the news tonight to see which building, it was a warehouse. College Ave is the business area of Appleton....with lots of tall buildings many bars and restaurants. I very seldom go shopping there. Not even sure there are stores to shop anymore.

Last night I made "No Soak Pressure Cooker Baked Beans" Guys......these were the best beans I have ever made!!! And boy did they do a good job with the creation of gaseous emissions. I am sure I added to the "Climate Change!!"

If you have a "Pressure Cooker XL" or any other one of those cookers that cooks with pressure....this is the recipe for you. I wanted to make beans....but every recipe I found, the beans had to soak over night. I just knew there had to be a recipe that I could use without having to soak the beans. So up popped this recipe.

2 cup pinto beans (I used 3 cups Navy beans)
4 cups water (6 cups water)
1 cup diced onion
4 strips bacon, chopped
1 can 16oz diced tomatoes
1/2 cup brown sugar (not packed)
1/4 cup HONEY - SORRY forgot to add this ingred.
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. prepared mustard
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
salt to taste
2 cups chicken stock

I left out: 1-6oz can tomato paste, 1 Tbsp molasses, 1 Tbsp distilled white vinegar and 1tsp salt. Only because I had no molasses or white vinegar.

I shall be adding baking soda to this mixture, maybe that will stop the gaseous emissions...lol!

Rinse beans and place in pressure cooker with 6 cups water and 1 Tbsp. salt. Cover and lock in place, closing steam vent. Press the bean selection and set timer for 30 minutes. While the beans are cooking mix the sauce together except the bacon and onions. Set the sauce aside.

When the beans are done, release the steam and remove the beans, strain and discard the liquid. Set the beans aside, they should be soft. If not, the next 30 minutes will soften them.

In the cooking pot, over the stove, I sauteed the bacon until slightly browned then added the chopped onions and sauteed for 2-3 minutes. Added the combined ingredients and the beans to the pot and stirred well. At this point, I added two cubes of frozen tomato paste.

Replace the lid and lock, close the steam vent and press the beans option and adjust the timer for 30 minutes. When the timer goes off, carefully release the steam, remove the lid, stir and serve. You can leave the beans in the pressure cooker on the keep warm mode to allow the sauce to thicken for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Enjoy.....I did freeze a container for later use. Best beans I ever made, just wish they agreed with me a bit more.

Thought I would add a picture of today's storm. It was really raining hard here. There were high winds and the sirens were blowing. According to the news reports, there were trees going down all over Appleton.

We had the car in yesterday to get fixed. Exhaust was getting a bit loud and the air conditioner was not working. This year I decided it was going to get fixed....not going through another warm summer without the air. So it was $514.00 to get fixed. I should get that paid off by Sept. then we need to get a new battery and 2 new tires before winter.

I might be going to a "Garden Walk" on Saturday, it will cost $10 and one canned food item. Not sure yet, as it depends on the weather mostly. We will see when the time comes. I am still working on our yard....still want to get some cucumber plants and of course there are still lots of weeds to pull....never ending is it???

Well time to close here....have a good night and keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Pizza & Hockey Tonight

Hi there everyone....whomever you may be?!?!?!? How was your Sunday? I missed church today, woke up with a slight sore throat and stuffiness. Decided not to go at the last minute. There is remodeling going on in the church and lots of dust flying around. Didn't care to have itchy eyes on top of not feeling that great.

Jimmy Swaggart Ministries is our Church affiliate, so I can watch the service at home and not miss anything. I sure do wish I could go to a service sometime, but they are down in Baton Rouge, LA and we are up here in Appleton, WI. That's kind of a long way to go to church.

So, today was the beginning of the racing season, Daytona 500 kicks off the season. JP likes racing, as he used to be a stock car racer back in his younger days. He probably could have made  NASCAR but you need lots of $$$ to back you and that was something we had very little of.  Racing ended about 5:30. I walked Kylie, we came home and I put this pizza together. Homemade crust with bacon, peppers, onions, mushrooms, spinach and cheese. Oh yum this was a perfect pizza and the crust was perfectly thin and crusty.

So here is the pizza before it was baked.....it came out of the oven just in time for the Hockey game that started at 6:30pm. In this picture you see we are in the 3rd period and the score is 2-2. (this was when I decided to take a picture or two of the game, had to turn off the flash, otherwise there would have been the glare of the flash)

Pizza time....almost forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Gosh, this was a really good pizza....wonder if I will ever be able to duplicate this one?????

Another picture....the Hawks won the game....4-2 in the last couple of minutes of play, PLUS they scored in an open net cause the Blues took their goalie out of the net....sad for them....good for us!!!! The Hawks, so far have won 39 games and lost 23. We still have all of March, plus 4 games in April. Then the Play-offs for the Stanley Cup begin. This season sure is going by fast....before you know it, Baseball will be starting!!!!

Good thing we have sports......takes the mind off politics!!!!! I am not much of a Baseball fan, but I sure did enjoy watching the Cubs win the World Series ~ finally!!!!

For this next week....JP has a Doctor's appointment tomorrow, guess we will be talking about his Prostrate with the Doctor and whether or not he will have surgery.

I still need to finish our income tax and take them into the accountant next Monday. Be glad when that is finished. It's like a black cloud hangs over me till I get that stuff done.

Hospice meeting is next Friday, I have the cards done and now just need to put the inserts in. All doable things that can get done in a few days if I stick to it and get it done.

I have some bills that need to be paid this week, so hopefully the weather will be agreeable too. Well, you all have a great week and keep looking up~~~~better days are here to enjoy, now!!!

Cheers ~ Louise

The First Day of June......

Hi there everyone....wow!!! First day of June! Where did January - May go to???? What does it mean when time flies by so fast? Is it because we live at such a fast pace??? When we lived in the Chicago area, we left to live in Ladysmith, WI for a slower paced life. Yeah, we left the "rat race" to slow down a bit. We were so impressed by the way the farmers just took time to talk, work, eat, it sure was a slower pace.

Then we moved to Appleton and worked at the Salvation Army....and life seemed to speed up a bit and now......here we are back in the "rat race" again. Even in retirement, the days go by fast....so much to do and accomplish......so little time!!!

Last night I made a Blue Apron meal.....man, this was delicious. "Beef Tartines with Zucchini au Pistou"  Yep, I would make this again and again and you know what?? It tasted better the next day too!!

2 ozs of spinach was cooked down till wilted, Cooled down then chopped up (I think it would be better to chop the spinach before it is cooked down though), 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese and the juice of 2 lemon wedges were added and enough olive oil to create rough paste; season with salt and pepper to taste.

In the same pan, heat olive oil and add the cut up zucchini till lightly browned and slightly softened. Transfer to a medium bowl. Add half the pistou and toss to coat and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add oil to pan and add the bread slices, cook 2-3 minutes per side till brown and crispy. When the bread is cooled, carefully rub the sides of the bread with the clove of garlic. Transfer the garlic toasts to a sheet pan.

Cook the sliced beef in olive oil adding salt and pepper to taste. When browned and cooked through, remove from heat. Divide the cooked beef between the garlic toasts, evenly top with Fontina cheese and chopped capers. Bake 3-4 minutes until the cheese has melted. Remove from the oven and divide the baked tartines and dressed zucchini between 2 plates. Top the tartines with the remaining pistou. Serve with the remaining lemon wedges on the side....Enjoy!!!

I hope you could follow my instructions for the yummy meal....but if not, here is where to go for this recipe.

Well, the hockey game is over and the Pittsburgh Penguin's beat the San Jose Sharks 2-1. Now they go back to San Jose....maybe the Sharks will win in their own backyard. Then it will be tied 2-2!!!
The Sharks have never won a Stanley Cup in the 25 years they have been playing. So I am rooting for them. Of Course I was hoping the Chicago Black Hawks would have won....but maybe next year!!

Time to close, I need to get downstairs and make some cards for Hospice. Have a great day and keep looking up....better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Happy Valentine's Day - Steak and Cards

Hi everyone. Hope you had a wonderful, fun, filled day and your special someone made it even more special in some unusual way. In the above picture are two cards I received in the mail. The one on the right is from Brenda in Indiana, so simple, but yet so elegant. The card on the left is from Shirley, a card maker here in Appleton. We have been sending each other cards for over 7 years. It's always fun to see what she makes....I think she is truly an artist. She recycled this card as it was a store bought card and she turned it into a new handmade card.

 I just got home from Jacobs Meat Market in Appleton. JP gave me some money to buy whatever I wanted...so I chose this heart shaped Rib-eye steak.....my, my was it good!! As you can see, Kylie took a liking to it and if it had been a bit closer, she might have taken a bite out of it.

I salted and peppered it and put a little steak sauce on it and let it sit in the frig for a couple of hours. When it came time to cook it, I sauteed some mushrooms and onions in coconut oil. (no, I could not taste the coconut). Took the mushrooms and onions out of the pan and dropped the steak in. Cooking till the center was 100 degrees. Dished the steak and poured the mushrooms and onions on top. OH MY WAS THAT STEAK DE-LISH-OUS!!!! I took a picture of our Valentine's dinner all cooked up, mashed potatoes, salad, garlic bread and left over fish....that will be the next post. We still have enough steak left for dinner tomorrow.

Here is another picture of Kylie, enjoying the smells of Valentine's Day.....if she could have, she would have. Yes, she did have some steak too for her dinner....cooked of course, not raw.

I just had to take a couple of these pictures of Kylie.....she is so darned cute with her antics. I think it sure would be a very quiet and boring home if Kylie did not live here.

Hi-lites of July 4th weekend - part 1

Hi everyone how was your July 4th weekend?? Mine was quiet, busy and productive. There is just JP and I and Kylie our doggie...so that is where the "quiet" comes in. No family or friends here in Appleton. So, quiet it is and busy and productive. We got a lot accomplished this weekend. Gas grill turned into a charcoal grill and the front porch washed down and stained. Along with a few other projects.


If you would like to find out more of what we were up to, go to my wordpress blog at: cards4ubylouise.wordpress.com


Hope this new week is fun-filled and prosperous for you. Take care and keep looking up.
Cheers ~ Louise


NOTE: Still due to unresolved issues beyond my control with BlogSpot. I cannot download pictures. So I have taken my blogging to Wordpress where picture downloading is more assessable. Please continue visiting me here and at Wordpress. Please leave comments, I like hearing from your all.

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

Garden Walk on Saturday 15th

Hi Everyone. Well today I am taking you on a Garden Walk JP and I went on Saturday the 15th. The weather was threatening to rain but it didn't rain till the evening.

House #1 ~ In the above picture we are at a garden in Appleton that had 703 different types of hostas. My goodness it was a gorgeous back yard. Oh and with different backyard decks, which I did not take pictures of, but I could see one being the morning deck for coffee and the second deck being the dinner deck. (sigh-dream, dream, dream)

In the picture above of the same garden walk is this cute idea of an old wooden ladder with a cute little clememtis climbing up.......I thought was very cute, we shall be on the look out for an old ladder now. Not sure where I will put it though.

In this picture is one of the many hostas, with a lovely rose growing by it. Not sure of it's name, but I thought it was so very lovely what with the wind chimes chiming and the roses growing.

House #2 ~ This metal watering can caught my eye the moment we walked up to this garden.....I said Jay, I need to get a metal watering can and bird bath.........sooooo cute! The can is hanging from a shepherds hook and there are rocks inside the watering can to keep it hanging at the angel it is. Little crystals hang from the spout to look like water. Sweet.

House #2 ~ Had this cute garden bench along side the garden shed, another thing to make for my back yard. I do have a door already, just need to find a wooden table........cute, cute, cute!!! Some people are so creative!!!!

 House #3 ~ This back yard was just totally beautiful.......so big and lucious. I love the way they designed a garden next to their garden shed. There was another garden on the other side, but alas I did not take a picture of it.

 House #3 ~ had many trees in their back yard with lots of different hostas growing under the trees. Very pretty.

 House #4 ~ They had this beautiful water fountain, oh golly it was just beautiful sounding, there were goldfish in this pond. The water was going down two sides of the fountain.

 House #4 ~ Here is a lovely fire-pit. Really a nice back yard. The people had pictures of what their yard looked like over the years and there was once a round swimming pool where the fire-pit is sitting. There was a big deck and a bath house with another little fountain......then you walked down some steps and up some more slab steps all the while walking along a little creek. Very rustic and most beautiful.

House # 4 ~ this was the walk up to the front yard.....they found some blue mulch to distingquish the walk and where the plants are.......in the background is a ceramic deer.......was a very nice walk.

We missed one house and started our Garden Walk at the Extension Office, I didn't take any pictures there. Although if you go down about 4-5 blogs you will find the 15th annual plant sale at the Extension Office. I took a few pictures that day of their garden.

Well I think I shall close this blog for today.........there has been alot of storms going through, I've shut down the computer twice already. Sooo, now I think I will go downstairs and work on some cards and try to get a few cards into my Etsy store and on here.....talk later.

Take care and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh.

Cheers ~ Louise

In Answer To My Prayers...and The Tree Finally Came Down!

Yep..........hip-hip-hooray!!! I have hated this tree for 22 years and FINALLY it came down yesterday with the help of the City of Appleton. I am soooooo thankful that this tree met it's demise. It was a messy tree that caused many problems.

It's name is "Siberian Ash"......it should have stayed in Siberia. I never cared for it's spreading of little seeds, on a windy day it would look like snow....but those little seeds would start to grow into little trees with roots going so deep, it was sometimes hard to pull out those roots and they had to be snipped off. I was always pulling those little trees, like weeds, before they got started, all summer long. Fall would come and this Siberian Ash was always the last to drop it's leaves and there were little spots on the leaves.....diseased???? There I was, after raking leaves from my "Soft Maple".......finally this dreaded tree would drop it's leaves. They weren't big leaves, no, little leaves that were hard to rake!!! 

Another thing it did was drop limbs and twiggy branches all over our yard after a storm and there I was, picking up after it. My biggest fear was that we would have a bad storm and it would fall and land on our house while knocking out the electric. The above picture was taken from my back yard.....I think now we will get more sun in our backyard. This tree was done growing and was matured, so the workers said. When I pass by walking Kylie, I shall count the circles to see just how old this tree is.

In this picture, the storm of April 10th caused a lot of problems for the neighbors. You can see all the limbs this tree dropped plus one of the branches sheared the neighbors electric meter and shut down electric for us and the rest of the neighbors on this block.

Many times I would pray....God, get rid of that tree. I often thought I would drive some copper nails into the base of that tree....trees don't like copper and it kills them, so I have been told. So, God took care of it........I was not looking forward to the stuff this tree drops, the seeds, leaves, branches, twigs. This kind of tree needs to be in a forest, not in the "city limits" Amen and Good-bye you miserable tree.......Good-bye!!!! I was not a fan and will not miss you!!!

We are celebrating today, so you all have a great day and enjoy the season of Spring and
 keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh.
Cheers and more Cheers ~ Louise

A Saturday Haul of Money and Stamping Supplies

Today is Saturday and it became our "Date Day", which can always be a fun day. So, once I got myself going, after waking up with a headache, worked out the kinks in my neck and took a Tylenol, I was fine after we got going.

We first went to Neenah for a "Stamping Rummage Sale". There must have been about 25 vendors there, tables were set up the length of the room so there were A LOT of stamping supplies. I spent $21.50 for a stamp, little red bows, 3 reinkers and a Copic reinker, 10 acrylic blocks for clear stamps, tape, embossing folder and 6 sheets of silver cardstock...........a great haul. Following are some pictures.

Sorry for this first photo, could not figure out how to turn it right-side up once it got on my blog. It was right when it downloaded into the computer, but somewheres between the download and upload into blogspot, it turned around. I am sure you got the idea of what I bought.

This picture turned out okay, you can see the embossing folder and silver cardstock a little bit better in this picture. After the rummage sale, we went back to Appleton and ate at "The Windy City" restaurant, where everything is Chicago style. After eating it was off to Kriegers Jewelery where I sold some old jewelry to them, making $175!!! (So with the garage sale and this $$$$ the total is $400....just $400 away from a new computer and boy do I need one SOON!!!!

Next on the agenda to sell is more jewelry and then the foreign and US coins and money!!! I have a business card of a coin dealer that will come to the house to check out my stuff. He showed up at my garage sale last Friday........so I just may call him.

After the jewelry store, we headed to the Antique Store where I bought these old fashioned cards. Thought I could re-print them and up-date them into the 21st century. Their price, 50 cents a card. Also found a cookbook marked down 50% to $2.50....there were a few recipes that looked pretty good.

Well, I think I shall close for now as this computer is driving me NUT-SO because it is taking so long to type even a few words....it has been  auto-saving every couple of seconds....So you all have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh. Cheers ~ Louise

The City Plants a Tree and I planted basil and onions

Well, we got a gift today. The City of Appleton Parks and Recreation Department planted a little Linden Tree in our front yard. So sweet...only thing we have to do is water it every couple of days. They mulch, prune, stake, fertilize and replace if it doesn't take. OUR cost........water the baby, 2-3 gallons of water every other day.....pray for rain. See that blue line on the sidewalk, far left......that is our water line....oh my, wonder how big the roots will get? I looked up to see what a Linden tree is......from the basswood family, will get to be 50'-60' tall and 40' wide. Will have little flowers in the spring and heart shaped leaves.............good for lots of raking. Oh, and it is fast growing too. Cheers, have a great day.

Well, I did some planting of my own today, basil and onions........that is a start. Will take a picture when the seedlings begin to grow. I have them in the old barbeque and covered with chicken wire to keep the squrrel out of it. He is a pest sometimes. JP bought me 4 tomato plants Mother's Day. Two Romas and 2 cherry tomato plants. So begins the planting, hopefully the weather will cooperate, been kind of cold lately and we have taken in the plants. Here you see my Geranium plant that JP got me for Secretary's Day....that was a pleasent surprise. I have decided to do Geranium plants for the front and back of the house.........they are hardy and bloom all summer long. I saw some Martha Washington geraniums, dark maroon. I shall have to pick one of those up Wednesday on my way home from Kaukuana. Never saw such a pretty plant before. Well, little by little I shall get things done..............so much to do, so little time. I shall close for now, it is almost 3:00am.........really time for bed.

Louise