End of Another Year on to 2024

Hi there everyone! Hard to believe another year has passed us by....where did it go???? Seems like just yesterday it was JUNE!!!

I have not done a lot of blogging this year. Guess if you look at the side panel, this would be my 10th blog for this year 2023. Been a little bit lazy, oh, been making lots of cards, but just plain lazy putting them on this blog. I shall try better in 2024.

Not sure what the new year will bring, none of us do, but it sure is good to know we have Jesus to lean on as we travel through this life's journey following in His footsteps. I feel bad for those that don't have that faith, maybe some, through the storms of life will ask Jesus into their lives. I guess for some it takes longer to hear the message of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified and let it settle in their hearts.

I have been watching the "Chosen" Sunday nights and the "Bible" on the History Channel during the Christmas season. I've also been reading through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John these last couple of months and the miracles and healings that Jesus preformed all go hand in hand. I wonder where I would be, if I lived back then, would I be a believer or an unbeliever??? Jesus said, "Blessed are those who believe and have not seen" They saw and yet they believed not!!! I get so mad at those Pharisees and Sadducees, they were so blinded by the devel. They saw, and still hated Jesus and what he did....they were Sad.u.see!!!!

So today I took a little trip to "Kwik Trip" for some gas and "Pic n Sav" for some UNO pizza from Chicago. I got the cheeseburger flat bread (meh, not so great). Think I will freeze the leftovers and try the cheese pizza tomorrow, hopefully that is better. If not, I shall not waste $$$ (2/$12) on UNO again and just get a local pizza from here in Appleton. Maybe it is better to get UNO straight from UNO in Chicago.

Nothing much is going on in January. I do have a few Dr. appointments. A bone density test on the 4th and another blood pressure check on the 10th. Hopefully the pills are working, and my bones are at the right density. Hopefully no more appointments till April and then the A1C is due. 

Well, time to close here, I don't lead a very exciting life, maybe that is why I don't blog as much. I often wonder how people that Vlog on You Tube can possibly do vlogs every day and not run out of things to vlog about. But there are quite a few people I follow that have lots of content that makes their vlogs interesting. If you ever get a chance, go to "Chateau Diaries" or "Escape to Rural France" or "The Pethericks" or "Sadie from France" or "A Wonderful Life" or "Life of Ryan" to name a few. They are all enjoyable to watch.

Hope you have a great 2024 with lots of blessings!! Cheers to you all ~ Louise

My Birthday Today November 21st!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to me today!!! I made it to 77 years old!!! God's perfect number, I hope it will be a perfect year!!!! I added a few birthday cards to this post, a new one and a few old ones. 

Today I will be going to the Thompson Center to make some cards, maybe work on Christmas cards, that is coming round the corner pretty fast. 

Yesterday I went shopping for my Birthday and Thanksgiving dinner. Buying a small turkey breast and a steak for the BIG birthday!!! Hope there is a $5.00 bouquet of flowers to buy also!!!!! 

Looks like there will be rain and snow on my birthday....no surprise....it ALWAYS snows on or before my birthday, good tracking weather for the deer hunters.

OH!! just got a call from a friend, she is taking me out for Chinese food Wednesday for my Birthday oh yummy!!! What a surprise!!

So, this is going to be my Birthday dinner, gosh this looks delish. The date says Dec. 25th, 2017, it was our Christmas Dinner 6 years ago!!! Not too sure my dinner will look like this. I will have to take a picture of what my dinner will really look like.

Will have to find a bouquet of flowers or at least something to cheer up things around here. I bought a new little white Christmas tree for $18 and will put red decorations on it for a simple change. My old green one will go outside, it's over 20 yrs old. This may be my last Christmas here as I may sell the house in 2024. Not sure when though.

Well, going to close this blog for today. If you are celebrating a Birthday, I would like to wish you a Happy Birthday and a Happy Thanksgiving!!! Keep looking up better days are coming!!! 

Cheers ~ Louise
 

Where Did September Go????

Yikes! Time is flying by!!! As someone said to me, "I shut my eyes Monday night and wake up, it is Friday morning already" Yep, it's true. Why did time go so slowly when I was younger and speed up so fast as I grow older???? Never will understand this concept of old age!!!!!

Well, can't believe 5 weeks have passed since my last blog, either I am lazy or just running out of mojo to blog, either or, just not much happening in my life (for now), which is fine with me at this time in my life. My Chicago Blackhawks have started their pre-season games and October 10th is the first of the regular season. So, this is good! I like hockey, then NASCAR, then Football. Hopefully the Packers do well without Arron Rogers. Oh, and the Blackhawks do well without Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Time will tell, I guess.

Hospice meeting was yesterday, always fun to meet together and see what the others have brought to the table as donations to the "card ministry" to Hospice.

So, these were some of my offerings. The cards above were fun to make, an idea I saw on Facebook. I really should make a template next time, so the pieces will be uniform and fit. I sort of pieced together the segments, so no, they were not uniform, each one was a bit different, but maybe that was part of the fun. I shall have to make some more like this, maybe some Christmas cards and Valentine cards too.

The bottom card, another pieced together card in a different design. Liked the new "blessed" word for this card, just bought it recently, filled up the space that did not have a blocked design.

These two cards were made at the Thompsom Center. There is a room set aside for Scrapbook and card makers. All the supplies have been donated, so the classes given are free. They usually have two teachers that give of their time showing us how to make cards. Then on the days they are not there, it is free time, and we can do what we want using the supplies that are there. So, this is what I came up with, the medallion was there to use, and the leaves die I brought from home to use there.

In this picture is another leaf card I made at the Thompson Center. The card on the left was made at home with my laminator and foil and ran a strip of green cardstock down the center and then placed the "blessed" word on it.

The cards below were an idea I found on the internet, not sure where. But I found the marbled cards from Hobby Lobby and thought they would make a nice card, I added the flowers and "just a little note" and left the inside blank.

So, this month of October will be "yard clean-up month"? The big tree in the back yard will dump millions of leaves, last year I never finished the whole yard, maybe this year will be different. The front yard, I have to cut down the peonies bush, daisies, my large porch vine and whatever else I can get too. Yeah, a lot of work for this old lady at this time. We'll see how it goes.

I have been going through some more of JP's old files from the 80's and 90's, gosh he had a lot of stuff. There were a few tracts intermingled, so I will be able to send them to Bob, who has been passing out all of JP's tracts that he had in his office. I moved all of JP's prayer journals to where the files were kept and put JP's ashes with his prayer journals, kinda keep it all together. Then there will be room in the file/safe to put a few other of JP's keepsakes. Along with a folder I am putting together that is titled "In Case of Emergency and/or Death for Louise E. Gatti" Everything that I can think of that has to do with JP, Louise, this house, Insurance, Wills, etc. so whoever the Executor is will know all there is to know and where to find it. Is that all possible???? I don't know, but I have been told to do this by a couple of people, it is a gift to those left behind that will have to take care of everything after I am gone. A morbid thought!!!!!

Can't think of much more, the time is 4:30 and I have yet to accomplish anything around this house. I am going to make a chicken dish tonight that I saw on Facebook that looked really good. My tomatoes are starting to ripen so one tomato will be used in the dish. I will take a picture of it, if I remember and don't eat it first.

Talk to you later, keep looking up better days are coming!!! 

Cheers ~ Louise

More Cards in My Stash!!!

Hi there everyone, how's it going with you??? September is right around the corner...where did this summer go to???? 

My husband and I would have been married 50 years yesterday, August 27th. I still remember what we were doing that day, of course, every woman remembers her wedding day!!! Mine was kind of weird, as JP was racing cars and just could not take time off for a wedding. So, we got married by the "Justice of the Peace" in Chicago at 11:00am. When we came out of the courthouse, JP went to get the car and there was a ticket on it, good grief!!!! The day was hot and sunny, I think we might have gone out to eat. No, our family was not there, as they did not appreciate the way we got married, they had already said, "It would not last!!!"

At 3:00pm we were signing the papers on our new little house in Arlington Heights. I had told JP I would not move into that house unless we were married, otherwise he would have been very happy had we never got married. He was very unconventional to say the least!!! The paper saying we were married, and the ring meant nothing to him. Oh, I had to buy my own ring, because he had no time for that!!! Oh well, water under the bridge. Here it is 50 years later, I guess we did okay, his racing ended after we got married in 1973. He got the Track Championship with fastest car which still stands for that year, because the track was torn down in 1980 or so.

Now on to some cards I made for Hospice. I am definitely into these lovely butterflies; they make such a nice card that can be used for anything actually. I used yellow vellum for the background and the butterflies in black with pearls colored yellow.

This next card was done the same way but with blue vellum and gems embossing them.

Both these cards were done with a corner embossing folder and cut out with a die. The top card was covered with silver past and rubbed on gold paste to enhance the rose, flowers and center of daisy. The bottom card, I rubbed on the gold paste and enhanced with the silver paste.

These two cards are a sampling of the Veterans cards I made, the top card was strips of paper layered on a pattern and embossed with button as the center of interest. It's kind of like and "Iris" fold card without the folding of the papers. 

The second card is a napkin glued on to cardstock and smoothed out like wallpaper and then embellished with the "Freedom is not free" and blue stars. We will be making Veterans cards every month now because these cards will be going to the Vets that take that plane ride to Washington DC to see the Wall and out to Hawaii to see Pearl Harbor.

This last card is another Christmas card I will be making for this Christmas. It's a stamp which I colored in with copic markers.

So, there you have it a few more cards for Hospice, our next meeting is September 1st, so I have quite a few cards in my stash for the next few meetings. I just need to add a verse of Happy Birthday or Thinking of you or Thank you in the rest of the cards.

I have been getting a few vegies from my gardens. Beans, cherry tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and dill. Actually, the chipmunks have gotten quite a few of my tomatoes, here's hoping they get a stomachache after eating too many tomatoes!!!!! I kind of gave up getting tomatoes from my garden.....not like the old days when I was not so hard to garden around my house.

Well time to close here, need to get some things done around this house and water the plants outside. All those putsy everyday things to do. You have a great day and keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Some New Cards

Hi there everyone, hope you are enjoying this HOT summer!!! I have no air conditioning, so it really gets miserable warm in this house. Oh, I have the fans going, ceiling fan, floor fan, little fan by the chair, yep, fans a blowing everywhere and no place to cool down. I also have one of those little artic air conditioners, but it in no means cools down a room, it does cool me down while I sit by my computer. Today, the artic conditioner is not on, as it is still kind of warm or at least not HOT in this house, but comfortable.

So, today's cards, some were made at the Senior Center and some at home. The butterfly card (above) was made at the Center. People donate a lot of stuff, and this butterfly die was a donation, I sure do like it, it made a lovely card. Think I will make some more diagonal cards at home and when I go to the Center, hunt up this die and cut more like it, hopefully it will still be there and did not walk away.

The above cards, the diagonal grey with leaves was made at the Center. The other card I made at the Center a couple of months ago. Now the bottom card, "yellow daisies on a black background" is a new die I bought from "Scrapbook.com". It came with a 3D embossing folder and the die to cut out the corner flower. My technique was to use the Tim Holtz Distress inks and with a steeple brush (hard bristles) color the flowers and leaves. I have also tried gold and silver paste and smeared it on the flowers. Those cards will be in my next blog.

Now these two cards were a lot of fun to make. They reminded me of the "Iris folding" technique. They were made at the Center and finished at home. The top card has a pattern to follow, and the strips cut out to fit within the pattern. I made quite a few of these cards last night in different colors. The butterfly card was made at home. One of the ladies that comes to the Center brought the pattern and directions to make more of these cards. Now if I can just figure it out, I will make more of these in the coming days.

Here is my new Christmas card using the iris fold techniques. The "falala" die was free with my order to Scrapbook.com. Will have to make a lot more of these in the next coming days. I have to make Veteran cards for the Hospice meeting September 1st. So, I think I will make Veteran cards using this method. Fun, fun, fun in the next few days.

Well, there you have it another round of card making. I extended my stamping room to the dining room table as it is a bit cooler in the dining room. My stamping room is a bit stuffy and too warm to make cards, so I just go in there to get supplies. I also extended the dining room table to make it a bit larger. The table can sit 12 people, well that would be about the length of the dining room, so that would be WAY too big for this room. I shall have to settle for this size in this room. Lots of fans blowing on me so it makes it bearable, making cards.

My little garden is starting to produce, YAY!!! Onions and greens, dill, 1 cucumber, got some green tomatoes that the chipmunks found and green beans!!! Hot dog and green beans for lunch today....Yum!!! I noticed I have lots of cherry tomatoes growing, if they make it, just need to remember to water them, they let me know when they are thirsty, they wilt!!!

Another funny oneliner from Brenda's blog; "Big shout out to my fingers ~ I can always count on them!!!"

Well time to close before this gets toooooo long of a blog. Talk later and keep looking up, better days are coming!!! Cheers~Louise
 

Some Cards I Made at the Senior Community Center

Hi there everyone, Hope you are having a good summer. It's going way too fast though, before you know it August will be here, and the kids are going back to school again. When I was young, time went sooooooo slow and I always wished time would go faster. Saying to my mother, "I can hardly wait for my birthday, I can hardly wait for Christmas, I can hardly wait" for whatever exciting experience was coming up!!!! My mother would say to me, "Don't wish your life away Louise, it will all come soon enough!!!" Never knew what she meant, but now I do, time does fly by fast!!!!!

So, I thought I would give you a small taste of some of the cards I have been making at the Senior Center every Tuesday. It's like my field trip once a week and meeting up with lots of other people my age and have a little fellowship with like-minded card making people. Most of the cards here will be going to Hospice, a few I might keep, and send to people. 

BUT....that might be less, as the price of 1 stamp is now $.66 cents. Price just went up yesterday, how crazy is that. Pretty soon we won't be seeing the mail man visit us with bills or cards anymore. Will be just TOO expensive to send in the mail. 

I took a bunch of pictures with my cell phone the other day of how my garden is growing. But don't know how to transfer those pictures to this computer, I suppose there is a way, have not figured it out yet. That might be my next blog...."How is my garden growing" Looking forward to my Italian green beans and tomatoes. BUT that means the summer is rolling along FAST!!!!! Fall is right around the corner!!!! Aren't you having fun reading my blog..........TIME IS FLYING!!!!!!

This is kind of a rough month for me, I suppose if I let it be that. JP will have passed 2 years ago this month on the 25th. Not too sure how I will handle this memory. Most people go to the grave site and put flowers on the grave. JP's ashes are still here in the house, so he is in so many ways, still here. I told the in-laws that when I pass, to cremate me, mix our ashes together in a bag and drop us in Lake Michigan. I always liked the water.

Well, here we are at the last picture. As you can see, I used Copic markers to color most of these cards. The fisher boy included at the very beginning.

Our next meeting for Hospice is September 1st, so there is still 7 weeks to go...how fast will that go????? I need to get some Veteran cards made and then everyday cards along with Fall cards and then start thinking about CHRISTMAS AGAIN!!!

There you go one blog that covers the whole year...lol!!! Oh, I must tell you, I had another miracle in my life. God surely does take care of the widows.

I had a tree growing next to my foundation and the neighbor cut it for me and then I mentioned the limbs hanging over my roof. I wondered how I was going to get that taken care of without calling a tree trimmer and spending 1-2k that I did not have. The neighbor said, "let me take a look" and he said, "I can do that"....well, he cleared off the roof of branches!!! Oh my gosh, that was a load off my shoulders. God is so good!!! I asked him what I could give him $ wise and he said, "nothing" that again was a miracle to me. 

Now mind you, I have not talked to this neighbor or his wife for 7-8 years because they crossed the line and complained about the fence, we were having put up was taller than their fence. The people were not even done with the fence building, they got 3 warnings from the neighbors, and it caused a lot of trouble for the project manager. I thought it was very rude of the neighbors....they should of kept their nose in their own backyard till the job was done.

Well, that's about all for now, I have a funny one liner for you that I read on another blog today, thanks Brenda!!!

"Never use a GPS when going to a cemetery. It's too scary to hear, "You've reached your destination."

That cracked me up, talk to you all later and have a good one.

Cheers ~ Louise
 

Hospice Cards for February 3rd.

Hi there everyone, been awhile since I last blogged. No sorry's, just not much to talk about, I guess. Since Jay's death 16 months ago (now where has that time gone?) life has been quiet but there has been a lot of hoop jumping for me. And I do so hate the hoop jumping at times. Going around and around and getting no place.

Making cards has been at a minimal because the inspiration has been probably at about 45-50%. I look at a lot of ideas, but none click. I had a lot of Christmas cards made for Hospice, but then, I came down with the flu, or was it Covid, or was it a virus....I just don't know, but I was out of commission for 6 weeks, after which I finally started feeling better. It took a lot out of me, wonder where I would have been if I had not gotten that one shot, no, no boosters, just one shot and I got it when Jay was about to enter the assisted living. I thought, better get the Covid shot or assisted living people won't let me in to see Jay. I did run into a couple of times that the nurses almost did not let me in to see Jay, but only after they realized who I was and who I was visiting.

So, I missed the December meeting and now the next meeting is on the 3rd so for the last couple of weeks I was into making Valetine cards and using different techniques as you can see by some of these cards.

The 1st card is embossed, and I just added a cardinal at the bottom....pretty simple. The 2nd card is an old valentine card that I ran off on my copy machine, then fussy cut and glued onto some fancy background cardstock.

Now the above cards were kind of interesting to make as it was an idea from Simon Hurley. I found my stencils and placed the stencil on cardstock and taped it down so the cardstock would not move. Then smudged with ink where I wanted color, lifted the stencil and "wah lah" this was the result. Check out Simon Hurley on YouTube, he has lots of great ideas.

"Sending BIG hugs" card is from a card kit from the UK. I have had this in my stash of stuff to make for a couple of years and finally put them together. Sent 2 cards off to someone in VT and one to WI. They were so cute; I could not resist.

Valentine cards are so much fun to make. These are a few I put together with odds and ends I had sitting around. Of course, the bottom two are copies from the original Valentine cards which I copied, fussy cut and glued to the background.

Now these were fun, the backgrounds are from a pad of cardstock, probably in my stash for a couple of years and finally used the cardstock. The flower is from Stampin Up. Embossed with gold, pretty flowers with many ideas for using it.

Now this was a fun technique and another Simon Hurley idea. Using a 3-D embossing folder, the inside of the folder was inked (ink the indented side) then spray with water, place cardstock in folder and run through the cuttlebug or whatever machine you have. Take out of the folder and let dry and run the process over again. I am going to try this technique today with another 3-D folder I have using multi colors. Want to see how it works.

Last but not least, I had these 4 prints from wherever I received them, cut them out and placed them in a frame, simple but pretty. Well, now I suspect, if you are still with me, you probably got bored and clicked on to the next blog....that is okay, this is getting pretty long and anyways I am ready for it to come to an end. I need to get started on doing some work around the house.

So, I had 61 cards made for the January meeting and now that I have an extra 4 days to make cards, I shall try for 75 cards total. That would make a record for me as I usually make 50 or so cards.

Well, I shall close this blog before it turns into a BOOK!!! Here's hoping the weather by you is not so cold and with little snow. It's supposed to be sunny and cold here for the next 5 days, that will be nice. You all have a great February and keep warm and looking up, Jesus is coming soon!!!! Cheers ~ Louise
 

Merry Christmas - 2022

 Hi there everyone, hope you are all enjoying the activities of Christmas and all that come with it. I am thinking this may be my last blog of this year. 2023 may be a complete mystery as to whether I continue or not. I have no idea what the days in 2023 have in store for me or this United States (or should I say this "Divided States.)

So today, I shall just add some old cards from past Christmas's, and a few new cards from this Christmas, hope you enjoy.

An old card from 2017 but probably one of my favorite cards of all times.

A new card for 2022.

Another new card for 2022.

And another snowflake card for 2022.

Just a few cards from the past. And today I added some cards I made for this year. Gosh I almost forgot how to add these cards to this blog. I guess it is true, "if you don't use it, you may lose it. 

So have a nice Christmas, and a Happy New Year. 

Cheers ~ Louise

PS, sorry for so few words, not very wordy in this blog.

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