GOODBYE 2020

 Hi there everyone, hope you had a nice Christmas and was able to spend it with your family and friends. JP's family lives in Illinois...where we both are from. We've been in Wisconsin since 1976. Guess we are more Wisconsinites now after 44 yrs. How time flies in a twinkling of an eye. My family is non-existent, everyone is dead. No brother's, sister's, aunt's or uncle's. I had one baby but was told to put her up for adoption. I will leave it at that, she wants nothing to do with me.

So here are a few views of my little table top Christmas tree. I have had this tree for over 20 years. I used to do real trees but stopped, they got too expensive for the pocket book. The above tree is the "USA" tree. Red, white and blue lights and red and blue ornaments.

The above tree is my "Valentine" tree. Can you tell, everything is RED and white. The elf seems to always find a place to sit in the tree. Sometimes he stays on the tree all year longs.

"St. Patrick's Day" tree. There's the elf....otherwise every is green. I contemplated an "Easter" tree for April.....but I guess by March I was getting Christmas treed out.

This tree is from 2017. My tree this year looks pretty much the same. I shall take a picture of this years tree in a couple of days, before I start taking it down. Don't think I am leaving it up as long as I usually do. I didn't start decorating this year's tree till Christmas Eve. My heart has not been it Christmas this year. 

I guess mainly because I have been dealing with JP's health issues on a daily basis and he seems to be getting worse as the days go by. A nursing home is in JP's future, it's getting very hard to take care of him the last couple of months. Still waiting to hear from Doctors. Maybe the first of the year things will start to progress. So much is up in the air because of this Covid 19....be glad when it is over, if it gets over.

Well, time to close here. I may do one last blog on the 31st. That should make 25 blogs for 2020. Yeah, I have been very laxed in doing these blogs, just not a whole lot happening. Well, a lot has happened but I just have not wanted to tell the world about my tales of woe's because someone else's tales are probably worse then mine.

So you all have a great New Year and I DO hope 2021 is much better then this last year was. Take care and keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise  

Snow, Snow, Snow - April 13-16 - Yep, it's SPRING!!

Hi there everyone....how was YOUR weekend??? This was ours. Snow, snow, snow! I have never seen so much snow fall in one weekend. This was the 3rd worse snow storm in 130 years, 29inches is the record an we had about 22 inches not including the snowdrifts. I have never seen our car completely covered....unbelievable!!! This shot is from the back door.

The picture below is our car, picture was taken from out the kitchen window....where are the tires??

Our backyard from the kitchen window.....that's a lot of snow, guess I won't be working in the backyard this week!!

A shot of the street to the right of us. The city has been working to put in new water pipes....so there is quite the mess on Durkee St.

A shot of the street to the left of us. Towards Drew St.

A shot of our neighbor's truck from the front porch, covered with snow. He is in Florida enjoying the warm weather. I think he left at a good time!!! Except he usually does the drive way with his snow blower. Not this time. Yeah, we have a snow blower too....but it doesn't work. Why are we holding on to it????

Here is the neighbor's truck from the back door. The truck may be sitting there till the snow melts.

Another view of the snow from the back door......look at those drifts!!! JP had to dig out a spot for Kylie to do her business.

NO SITTING ON THIS!!! You will get a cold seat!!

Last but not least.......THIS is what things are supposed to look like.....might be awhile for this lovely view!!!

So there you have it.....Winter in Appleton, Wisconsin. April 13-16th....with more coming on Wednesday. BUT, it will be in the 50's this weekend!!! I really should be out there helping with the snow, but JP says no, it is heavy and could make my back worse. So I stay in the house and worry that the snow won't get shoveled for him to get out of the driveway. Maybe tomorrow. He is not going to make it to work today. I hope his supervisor understands.

You all have a great week, I have been working on some really neat cards, using the colorful foils...when I am done, I will put them up in my blog in a couple of days. Talk to you later and keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Cards I Would Like To Make

Hi there everyone....Hope April is treating you well. Well, as I said in my previous post, the first week would be busy. It was.
1) Monday, JP had an appointment with Doctor. His prostrate cancer is stable, no growth, Praise the Lord for that.
2) Tuesday was a free day. Snow was predicted, 3-12 inches. Glad I didn't have to venture out. We might have gotten about 5 inches.
3) Wednesday, we had our dryer delivered.....they even came with all the snow predicted....I was surprised. We are loving the new dryer. Now I have to show JP how to run it.
4) Thursday, I took the car to Muntz to have a new CD/Radio installed....finally music to drive with.
5) Friday, Hospice meeting and all my cards are made, not unless I add a few more tonight.....we'll see. (60 cards made)

Whew...that was a busy week for me, glad it is coming to an end. Next week should be more quieter, hope, hope, hope.

The following pictures of cards are what I am planning to make. I have made a few cards using this Rose Wonder image....I like this technique, looks like water color pencil and the rose stamped on it.

Here we have the Rose Wonder die cut on 5 different colors....pretty neat. I get most of my ideas from Pinterest, love going there for card and recipe ideas, etc.

Isn't this a pretty card, it caught my attention only because it is in purple and gold....like, like, like. Pretty classy!

Below is the peony stamp that I ordered from Altnew, I still have to use it yet....just a little slow. But I think this would be a nice technique. Looks like water color paints, maybe the peony has been embossed to resist the paint. Something to try.

Tonight I want to try a new technique, it is called "Black Ice" If you look it up on YouTube, you will find some tutorials. I had never heard of this technique till I read about it on Brenda's Blog hope this leads you to her address. You should see her sample of a black ice card at this post.

I am going to make one tonight....maybe I will get it on my blog in the next couple of days. (if it turns out) Well, I think I will close here for now. Need to go make dinner. We are having a Blue Apron meal "Chicken Paillard & Olive-Raisin Sauce with Warm Fennel & Potato Salad" Should be fun, I have never worked with Fennel before, then mixed with potatoes should be delicious.

Note: the meal from Blue Apron above...was VERY GOOD!!

Have a great evening and keep looking up....better days ARE coming!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Secret Stamper Images

Hi there everyone. Well....I should be outside in this beautiful weather spreading mulch in my gardens. But chose to do a quick post while watching the Chicago Cubs.....win.....it's only the 5th inning and the cubs are winning 7-5. Hopefully the Cubs will do better then the Chicago Blackhawks. Sorry the season is over for them....as my Step-father always said, "maybe next year."

So tomorrow, I will be going to the "Image Stamper Revealing Party." I will find out who had my name and sent 12 images a month (she missed April altogether). And who I was sending 12 images to for the last 6 months. In the pictures below, are the images I sent and how I turned them into cards and the images my secret stamper sent and how I turned her images into cards. I will let you know which is what and who as we go.

NOTE: If you go to April 5th post you will see the other cards I made, turning my images and secret stampers images into cards.

In these two pictures are the 12 images I sent to my secret stamper. I kept two images and turned them into cards as you can see below. So the images (above) were in black and white. With the two I kept, I distressed inked the House Mouse image then used pearl-ex to make them shine.

Here is the finished product. One card for the secret stamper and one for me to keep or send. I just layered the House Mouse mice on black card stock then the orange back ground is crinkled up tissue paper and layered on glued up card stock. The scalloped edges were run through the cuttlebug with a boarder die cut. A gold heart embellishes the corner.

In these two pictures are the images I sent to my secret stamper.....I love this snowman....so cute. In the picture below is what I did with the snowman. I have a die cut that cuts him out. I used speckles for his nose and buttons.

Sorry about the lighting, I was using a lamp, I thought it gave a fare amount of light but didn't. I should have taken these picture  downstairs where the lighting is better. Anyways, I turned the snowmen into jugglers of snowballs....I think he turned out cute. The snowballs are just punched out circles and then I outlined the circle, they are on pop-ups. Embellishments are a die-cut Hi, gems and string. The snow is a Stampin'up embossing folder. The white layers are just ripped up card stock to look like layers of snow.

Now whoever has my name.....sent me these Bunny heads. All I did was color in the background, his ears and nose and tie. I was at a loss for what to do with them till one day I just decided to put a picture frame around them and layer them on crinkled up tissue paper that was glued on card stock. Turned them into Thinking of you cards. So I will keep one and give the other to the secret stamper.

In this card.....for the life of me....could not think of what to do with this image. My secret stamper sent me 12 images of the "golf ball on a tee with a bird and the word "Birdie." Finally I remembered I had a vintage golfer and just turned the cards into this. I will give my secret stamper the card on the right. I did end up making 5 more cards like this and will probably send my BIL a card for his birthday. He's a golfer.

Now in this card, I sent my secret stamper 12 pink Flamingo's....I saw a sample of a Flamingo card and liked it....so here it is, cased and turned into a card with my Flamingo. Cute card, it can be most any kind of card I want and simple to make too.

Now, I was completely at a loss with this image and almost did not want to make a card with these 12 images of a dress. Finally I just colored the dress in with red, making a red polka dot dress, adding red feathers, gems and a "Happy Mother's Day" greeting. I actually made a few more cards using this image. For Mother's Day of coarse.

Well, as I said before, the secret stamper lady who had my name, did not send me April's images, so she will only be getting 5 cards from me. That's the breaks I guess. I hope my next secret stamper holds up her end of the game and follows through. Why ruin it for someone else. It does take the fun out for others.

It was a fun game and a challenge to turn these cards into something, I never would have thought to do. I do hope the next session of 6 months is more fun.

You all have a great weekend and enjoy the weather. I shall go work outside and spread some mulch in about 30 minutes or when this Cub game is over.

Keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Last Day of April......

Hi there everyone....hope you had a nice Saturday and the last day of April. I had plans of working outside today....just a little bit chilly and cloudy with threats of rain. Guess it will rain tomorrow though.

JP mowed the lawn finally. But the weeds are over powering me, I don't know where to start first. I have more ideas then time this year and I need to catch up with myself from last year when I was so sick and did not get much done.

So today I went shopping, yes my favorite thing to do. Went to the hardware store, their flowers are set up and I bought a sweet tomato plant and a cucumber plant. That may be it for me this year, for some reason our yard is not conducive to gardening....too much shade. I may plant these plants in the front yard where we get LOTS of sun.

I also bought a little hanging light for the back yard, I like twinkling lights at night. They make me happy for some reason. I noticed the neighbors behind us bought a birdbath and bird feeder....that's neat, maybe the birds will come to our house and theirs for visits this summer.

Don't you just love my picture, I forget where I found it....might have been a fellow blogger....thank you Patty. I think the older I get....this is starting to sound so much like me.

I was at the Pharmacy the other day and two older people behind me were talking about forgetting things when they were at the store and how they need to make lists. I showed them my list and said, "I still forget things" hahahahaha....we all laughed. I said, "My mother never told me old age would be like this." The man said, "If my mother told me....I forgot." The lady said, "If my mother told me, I probably did not listen to her." We all laughed again......and then we forgot we were talking to each other...(kidding).

Well, I guess I shall close this post for tonight. I need to get downstairs and make some cards for Hospice. Next meeting is Friday the 6th....so I need to get (die) cutting (no pun intended) and get some cards made for Father's Day.

Tomorrow I will be making a Blue Apron recipe after church. "Grains of Paradise-Crusted Steak with Mashed Plantain, Collard Greens & Ginger Peanuts" Sound good? I will let you know with a picture and food critique. The picture looks good and I am most certain it will taste delicious too, I have not been disappointed yet.

See you in May with many new cards, food and most likely some gardening and flower pictures. Keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Do You Need A Kiss......

Hi there everyone.....Hope you are having a wonderful evening....this last day of March?!?! Looks like March went out like a Lamb......whew! Now on to APRIL!!!!!

Well my TV conked out....it was 17 years old. I had another TV in the bedroom, a smaller one...so the old one will go to a recycle place. This little TV will do till I can get another used one with a bigger screen. I like big!!!!

So tomorrow being Wednesday, Kylie has an appointment at the groomer's for 8am.....uge, I am not very good at getting up early in the morning. So after I drop Kylie off at the groomer, I will probably go to Festival Foods for a few things and then over to St. Vincent's to see about their used TV's. Since Thursday is Senior Citizens Discount Day....I will wait till Thursday to buy a TV, if there is one I like. If not.....I can wait for another Thursday.

Thursday, Kylie has an appointment at the Vet's....she has to get a shot, tested for Heart warm and a little checkup. Busy couple of days for Miss Kylie.

April also brings my two Dentist appointments for a deep cleaning of my teeth. Not sure I am looking forward to that. Sometime this month Rebuilding Together will start work on our ceiling. Whew....I am pooped before April even begins.

Well time to close this post for today. Tomorrow is APRIL 1st!!! Hope you don't have too many pranks pulled on you. Oh and some time in April I hope you get a "great big smooch kiss" from some monkey!! April Fools!!!! Have a good day and keep looking up!!! Cheers ~ Louise