Duckies in my Backyard

Hi there everyone....how you all doing?? It's still Quarantine time here in Wisconsin. Kind of getting tired of this staying home business....I needs to get out of here and just go shopping with out worries of getting sick. But my mind takes over and says...."oh, just be lazy and do nothing!!" So I listen, and only do what I feel like doing when ever I feel the need to do something. So everything sits for a couple of days till I finally get to it. Same thing with this blog...guess that is why you don't see too many posts from me...just lazy I guess.

So on April 9th we had some visitors to our back yard....Mr. & Mrs. Duckie. Wonder what drew them to our backyard...not really sure. Maybe they thought there was water near by. Maybe it looked like a good place to hide and take a rest. Whatever it was...glad they landed in our backyard.

Isn't this a handsome male duck? I love the way the sun hits his head....so pretty!!

See the female, she almost blends in with the dirt, leaves and moss. I was taking the pictures from the kitchen window....almost seemed like they were watching me, making sure I stayed my distance. They made their way around the tree and into the section behind my bedroom window. Then came around again to the patio.

They were keeping an eye on me....no sudden moves please!!! Then suddenly from above....comes a black squirrel down the tree....what are those big birds doing down there....WHAT!?! HEY!!! This is MY tree and MY yard...scram you's guys!!! Suddenly they were gone. Squirrel and ducks gone as quickly as they came!!!

Certainly am feeling like I live at a Wild Animal Preserve…they must know I am still missing my doggie. So when an animal shows up....it's picture taking time....love when the animals come to my backyard.

This rabbit showed up last September in front of my bedroom window....I zoomed in quite a few times to get this close up. I think he/she was watching me. No sudden moves please!!!

Pretty soon it will be time for me to go outside and start working in the yard....I have quite a lot of work to do. Well, a little bit at a time and I might be done by fall.

We finally got the stimulus check in the mail today....that helps for sure, We will have to use it to pay the property taxes and probably the Federal taxes too, but that won't be due till July 15th, thank God the due date was pushed up. We would not have had the $$$ at the time it was due and probably would have had to call IRS to get an extension.

I ordered 1/2 yard of some Chicago Blackhawk material on Etsy....I want to make some masks. Made two masks yesterday, using red check material, just to see if I could. They turned out okay and will be good to wear while my Blackhawk masks are getting made. I have to see if I can make a "single" layered mask....two layer is hard to breathe through....some of these masks being made on "you tube" have 3 layers. Now that would be very hard to breathe through. I tried making a bandana mask...with all the folds there were 8 layers.....whew, that was really hard to breathe through. I could only leave it on for a few minutes. My gosh....a person needs to breathe!!!!

One of these days I will start working on some cards...that is one of those things I keep putting off for another day. You would have thought I would have been doing cards all this time. Quarantine = card making. Guess not, not in my books.

Still making bread, buns, cookies, pizza dough, waffles etc. with my sourdough starter. Want to make some sourdough donuts one of these days....soon. Well, I think it is time to close here, this post is getting insanely long and probably boring. So you all take care and I hope in the next few weeks we can all escape "house arrest" and get on with our lives!!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Secret Stamper Images Pt. 2

Hi there everyone....how's life by you? Well, here we are the first day of Summer!!! Hip-hip-hoo-ray!!! The weather is lovely today, I like it when the weather is in the 70's....so comfortable.

So in my last post I said, I would continue my secret stamper images in 3-4 days....today is day 4 so I thought I better get my rear in gear and do what I said I would do.....(gosh there sure are a lot of "I's" in that last sentence.....6 I's!!! 

November....Tis Thanksgiving of course. I sent the turkey, my card is on the right, secret stamper card is on the left. My background is a napkin....one of my favorite ways of making a card. Glue card stock with a glue stick then layer the card stock with a single layer of the napkin and smooth it out like you would with wallpaper. Makes for a nice effect. I have quite a collection of napkins for every season just about.

December......I sent the green wreath...my card is on the right and secret stamper is on the left. I am always amazed at how the secret stamper comes up with a completely different idea....always fun to see.

In January, I sent the spider holding a heart, thinking in advance for Valentine's Day of course. I liked her little verse. "Your friendship lifts my heart!"

February, I was thinking ahead to Easter with my card on the right and secret stamper on the left. I sent the background. She came up with a great idea for sure.

For March, I sent the green frog. I love this card..."I am hiding, can you find me?" The frog was a digital off the Internet. I cut him out then layered him, cutting his leg and eyes out, then layered him on some succulent patterned paper. My card is on the right, her card is on the left. 

April was the Dragonflies. I had a bunch of these dragonflies colored in, so I thought it would be fun to see what the secret stamper would come up with. My card is on the right, hers on the left.

So there you have it....we have started a new session already....May and June with July coming up. I better start thinking about what I will send to my secret stamper for July. Something summery, I am sure!!!

If you have noticed on my blog....I have not added any more cards to my Etsy store. The items that are still in the store all expire in September. After that, I will be closing my store. I will have been on Etsy 10 1/2 years and only had 67 items sold. I have decided, it's not worth it for me anymore. Everything is for a season, and I guess my season on Etsy has passed. Etsy is also making a few changes and I guess I just don't feel like jumping through the hoops with more learning curves....nope, not no more. That's okay, I was never much of a good entrepreneur. I have tried many times to sell things. I have made cards, crafts, etc. grown vegies and sold eggs, or sold for someone else (ie. Mason Shoes, Herbalife). Guess I am just not a good salesperson. So, I guess for now on...I will just donate or give away.....that's what people like much better, everything for free. Maybe I have been dealing with a bunch of liberals and didn't realize it. Now a days….you just don't know.

On that note, I will close this post for today. Stay tuned, next post will be either about my little garden or the cards we made at Betty's. Talk later, have a great evening and keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Still Taking Some R&R

Hi there everyone. Yes....I am still fighting the flu....but getting better. Actually made some dinner tonight. Haven't really felt like eating, so JP has had to fend for himself. One good thing about this flu, lost some weight. Hooray for that!!! Now if I can just keep it off and keep going at this pace!!

I did go out to the store Saturday, JP drove me there. I had two sales this past week, one on Etsy and one through JP's work. That was a totally good surprise. The sale on Etsy was a surprise too, but having to pack the figurine and waiting to see if the transaction was deposited in my account took most of the week. Then take the item to the post office. I didn't want to wait too long on getting the item out, it was going down to Texas and was a gift for the buyers friend. 

My little excursion on Saturday, did take it's toll....sure was pooped by the time I got home. Bought something at the buffet so I did not have to cook. Kylie needed some food, JP needed his fruit, plus a few other things were needed. I think I slept a couple of hours after shopping.

Well, all went well and the package is off and will meet it's destination on Wednesday. Hopefully the buyer is happy with her purchase.

The above card is another look at the stamp I bought from Altenew. I am not quite sure how this card was done....maybe watercolors. I really like this peony and can't wait to play with it.

I probably will get a chance this week, as our Hospice meeting is this Friday and I need to get at least 50 cards put together before then. Nothing like waiting to the last minute. But then, I work better with deadlines....don't know why. Sometime my best work comes out of a deadline.

I am still going to take it easy this week though....R&R....is the word for this week. "Rest and Recuperation." Hopefully by Friday this flu thing will be over with. But now I think JP is coming down with it......hope we don't share it back and forth. 

Guess I will close this post.....just rambling on and on. You all take care of yourselves and keep looking up, better days are coming!!!

Cheers ~ Louise

Friday and Falling Leaves

 Hi there everyone....hope you had a great week!! Despite all the terrible news, fires, hurricanes, mass killings....my gosh! Makes a person want to hide in a closet and never come out!!!! But thank goodness, it is Friday....I love this little white dog...reminds me of my dog Hyko. We still miss him and he has been gone 5 years now.

Well, I am excited......FINALLY got an Etsy sale....what a great surprise. I just have to finish the order tonight. The lady will pick up the order tonight, I will get it in the mail by Monday. The lady is going to use these leaves for her wedding in 35 days. Printing  names on them plus use the leaves for decorations. I have 100 made already and just need to make another 100 and maybe 20 extra as a bonus.

What's really neat about these leaves is you can peel the leaf off the backing and stick it on an envelope, mirror, vase, etc. the ideas are endless.

I finally learned how to scan stuff into my computer. Is that not amazing???? I guess this old dog can learn new tricks. Never give up!!!! My next blog, I will put a bunch of pictures up of JP when he was racing cars....that's the man I fell in love with!!! A man that JP works with wanted to see some pictures of JP when he raced....so I figured out how to scan....now I want to scan everything!!!

Well time to close here. Nothing much is planned for tomorrow. Collected all my tomatoes from outdoors....need to make some canned tomatoes before they go bad. Maybe make some salsa tomorrow too. It's almost time to rake those falling leaves....our backyard is covered right now.

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

Happy New Year 2017

Hi there everyone...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! YAY.....another new beginning. Well, so far, things are pretty much the same.....no changes. But anyways, I had a good evening. Spent it with my cards. Ending the year with making cards and beginning the year with making cards.....hope there is a profit this year...that would be nice. I might make this my last year with Etsy....didn't get very many sales in 2016, course I was not promoting it that much. Everything is for a season.....I think I have been on Etsy 9 years....maybe it is time to close down the store....I don't know...just thinking.

Friday night I made this Blue Apron meal.....this was really good!!! "Cod en Papillot with Freekeh and Spinach" "En Papillote" means "In Parchment" So yeah, the fish was baked in parchment paper. I do believe I will do this more often. This is what I like about Blue Apron.....learning something new and using it in my regular cooking.

The freekeh was cooked like rice. The spinach cooked down with garlic and the water drained from it. Parchment is laid out, freekeh laid to the side of the paper, then topped with spinach, then the cod that has been salted and peppered. The paper is folded to close into an envelope. Baked 10-12 minutes or until the packets are lightly browned and puffed up. A herb sauce of cream, parsley and lemon zest and 1/4 of the minced garlic and juice of 2 lemon wedges is poured over the fish, spinach and freekeh. I also made some oven fries which JP loves, served with sour cream and chives. Definitely a 5 star meal.

Following are the cards that I was working on last night. I got this new die cut "Stained Glass" from Spellbinders. I really like this die. The "Thanks" die cut not sure where I got it. But here I used all my purple colors, then ran the die cut through the cuttlebug with purple sparkle paper. And Wa-la, a pretty card. Then I thought....why not carry this through to.....

The red colors on a pink card. Then how about........

Green colors on a white card. I also have a card in blues....maybe the next one will be in oranges and today my thought was greys.....Yep, the ideas are endless!!

Today, New Years Day.....I made another Blue Apron meal....a really good one. "Steaks and Green Peppercorn Sauce with Kale and Roasted Potato" Yep....another 5 star. I will tell you about it in my next post along with a picture. For dessert we had cheese cake with cherries on top.....I am full.

Thought I would start my diet today.....nope, not today. Well, I did lose 5 pounds in December. Hopefully I can lose another 5 pounds this month.

Time to close here.....Packers are playing the Detroit Lions....oh, oh Detroit just scored...it's tied at 7-7 now.

You all have a great night and I wish for you to have a great NEW YEAR with good health and prosperity and only good things happen for you. Keep looking up ~ better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

Daylight Savings, Elections and Some Cards

Hi there everyone.....how you doing on this mighty fine day......2nd day of daylight savings....what for, I do not know. I had a hilarious day yesterday. FORGOT to set the clocks back Saturday before going to bed. (too many clocks for one thing-at least 12 in the house alone). JP's fascination is clocks.

So, anyways, JP woke me up Sunday morning at 8am to see if I was going to church.....yeah I guess so. Finally got up, did the ritual of getting up, bathroom, hair, teeth, wash hands, then I decided to do my blood, (usually don't do it on Sundays, take a day off). Sat down at the computer and turned it on, started to do my blood and noticed the clock on the computer said 7:30am (what, am I dreaming????) Then I looked at the Atomic clock and it said 7:30......oh my, my watch said 8:30.....OH-OH I forgot to set the clocks!!!! I went outside to tell JP, "It's only 7:30 not 8:30, I forgot to set the clocks back!

Oh how funny, it sure is crazy getting older and forgetful. How do you like my funny pictures....I love ducks and could not resist the funny duck above. I used to have 4 ducks when we lived up in Ladysmith....I sure did love those birds, they were so much fun to take care of till they started getting killed off by some wild animal. We later found out it was one of my dogs.....gosh I was upset!!!!

JP brought home 4 little pumpkins for me to cook up and make pumpkin pies, have one cooked up and ready to make something with it.......when I saw this picture, I just had to copy and paste......funny picture. Wish making pies was this easy (I think)

So tomorrow is Election day......I sure do hope the right person gets in. The right person is on the right......get it????? I don't think I can stand another 4 years like these past 8 years have been....all our liberties will definitely be taken away.

In these next few pictures of cards are ones I have found on the Internet, and would like to make these cards. I have made this card already, but not using the trees in the background....shall have to try this one for sure.

I like this snowflake card and actually have the stamp.....such a simple card and very clean looking.

I thought this was a lovely card using the butterflies....looks like patterned paper and folding it over and adding a butterfly and some verse.

I just bought this die cut....and have cut out a few leaves....just have to find the embossing folder, patterned paper  and ribbon to make this card. Pretty, pretty for fall.

Think I will cut this post short, need to get a few cards up in my Etsy store....more Christmas cards to sell....hopefully they will....

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

Cheers ~ Louise

My Etsy Order and Christmas???

Hi there everyone....how you all doing? Well, it's SATURDAY!!!! Yay!!! JP will be home in 35 minutes....so I have a little bit of time to blog yet.

As you see below, the Flamingo cards are done. The lady did buy the cards from my Etsy store. So these cards are already packaged and ready to go into the mail on Monday. They turned out pretty good, I even made a book mark with a flamingo....see it laying on the cards??? I think I will make some more of these cards, as I gave one away today to a friend who is moving to Indiana....(sigh)....I shall miss her for sure.

Another picture of the cards from a different angle. Three Thank You cards and 3 Birthday cards.

As Christmas is only 100 days away......maybe, just maybe I should start thinking about making Christmas cards. I saw this one on Pinterest, it caught my eye and I thought this was a very pretty card. I can't believe....I do have the stamps to make this card from Stampin Up.

It is done on white card stock...the background trees are in blue and the tree in the foreground is embossed in gold....very easy peasy. I shall try it in the next few days.

So tomorrow I might go to a paper sale....not sure yet, depends on what time I get up and if JP is going to the church to clean....we shall see.

I had my mammogram on Wednesday....it went well. The last time I had one was 11 years ago....gosh I hated being squeezed. In those 11 years the machines have become digital and the compression is not so bad...yeah, I guess when it comes up again next year I will be more willing to go. As it is a screening....Medicare pays for it.

Well, this is a short post....guess I will close for now. Enjoy your weekend as it goes way to fast!!! Keep looking up cause better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

This Week........

Hi there everyone. Hope you are enjoying this wonder fall like weather....I am. I see a lot of yard work in my future these next few weeks. I think I shall have to cut back on some gardening for next year....not so much or so I say now.....lets see if I stick to my guns!!!

So this past week I received a couple of convo's via my Etsy Store. The lady wanted 6 of these flamingo cards, 3 thank you and 3 birthday. I have been diligently working on these cards the last few days....once they are finished I shall put them in my store for her to pick up...hopefully she will follow through. Sometimes I never quite trust someone that has no history of buying from Etsy stores and I seem to be the first one. Oh well, the cards are still mine if she does not pick them up. Oh and plus she wanted a price cut....can you believe that??? I am not sure what people expect, I told her it would take me a week or so, because each card has a lot of work in each card and hand colored too!! So, needless to say, I will not be making that much on these cards.

Today I attended the funeral of this young man....Joshua, the son of our Pastor and his wife Mary. Gosh this was a sad time. He died in a car accident last Sunday. I made this card for Joshua last year when he graduated from High School. Needless to say, there was a very long line of people and most of them friends of Joshua's from school and work. There were pictures surrounding us of Joshua....he lived a full life.....that he did. He will be missed very much.

Here is another big daisy blooming in front of our house. I started this guy from seed. I wonder if heaven is full of Sonflowers?!?!?!

A drawer full of "rose moss"....they are finally starting to bloom. The squirrel likes to dig around here and pull up the little plants......gosh I get so mad at those squirrels.

My swan.....usually she gets geraniums planted in her.....this year....inpatients and just left her in the shade. She is starting to look really pretty.

Last but not least.....a lonely little Black Eyed Susan in amongst star Clementius. Many, many stars and one lonely one daisy.

Here is what the side of my porch looks like right now....is not this gorgeous or what???? When the flowers die and the leaves turn brown, we will cut it all down to it's bare stems, I might cover it with some leaves, but not a lot. She grows like crazy...I even cut her back some  this summer and she took off!!!! Don't do a whole lot of fertilization either, gosh if I did, who knows where she might go...up on the roof?

So this week, I have a mammogram...not looking forward to that. I just don't like my boobs squished....nope, not a whole lot.  The nurse told me it would not hurt as much...my last mammogram was 11 years ago and things have changed a lot. I sure do hope she is not lying to me....don't like liars very much!!!!

Well, time to close, I have some ribs in the oven, slow cooking, it is time to put some BBQ sauce on them, so we can eat about 7:30, kind of late....but the funeral took some time to get through. Then when I got out of the funeral....JP had been waiting in the car, he left the lights on and wore the battery down.....so no juice to get home. Joshua's brother-in-law gave us a jump and we were able to get home....whew, answer to prayer.

You have a great week 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

Exercise, I Won a Misti and a Garden Walk

Hi there everyone, how have you all been doing. I guess I have been MIA again for a week, again.

Had Internet and U-Verse problems these last 5 days. Finally broke down and called At&t and talked to some foreign person that is so very hard to understand. (Gosh.....I hate having to do that). But the problem is fixed and you know "what I have to do??" Each day I have to pull the plug on the modem....can you believe that??? I struggled for 5 days. I would be on the Internet and the TV would freeze up then give me a message that U-Verse signal has been lost and I had to jump through 5 hoops to get things working again.....nope, not gonna do that. But then to top that off, every time I would try to do something on the Internet I would get the message "oops we can't find that page". Boy I was getting VERY frustrated.

First I thought it was my computer and I had to take it in to get cleaned and that there was some kind of virus. But then, when the TV would freeze up, I decided it was an At&t problem. So I finally called tonight and explained the situation to the first guy....we got cut off. Then I called back and got a second guy and had to explain everything a 2nd time (geez, getting a little upset by now) and I was not sure he could really figure it out.

Suddenly he said...."I know what  the problem is and he said I had to unplug the modem for 2 seconds every day" "yeah, sure, I said, we'll see" Okay....everything is working so far..................

So I really didn't start a new exercise routine....I have been thinking about it though....hahhahaha!!

I am soooooo excited!!! I won a mini misti from here. A misti was being given away everyday for the Month of May. All I had to do was leave a comment on the blog that was giving away the misti for that day here's that blog. Today I found out I won one......don't usually win things...but today was my "lucky day"!!! When my misti comes in the mail I will show you how it works....it's a great tool for a stamper/scrapbooker.

I took a picture of my Purple balls (their names fail me).....the first year I had one ball. The second year 3 balls. This year....6 balls! They are multiplying. (there was another one, but it fell on the ground....so it happily made it's way into the house as a bouquet. (maybe I should take a picture of it)

This is the Garden Walk....my neighbor Kathy...which I just met a few weeks ago has a wonderful back yard that I was just biting at the bit to see. Finally one day I gathered the nerve to ask her about a plant I had in my front yard....I did not know if it was a weed or a flower. She did not know what it was.....today she said it was "Phlox" I guess I will let it keep growing.

This is her Lupine.....pretty purple....love, love.

A beautiful Clementius.

Some pretty pink Lupine.

Ummmmm....I forgot what she called these pretty flowers. Kathy said she would let me know when more flowers were blooming in June...that will be fun. June is also the Master Gardeners Garden walk....I might go to that too. Never know what kind of ideas one can come up with. Course I have so many ideas going....I may not be able to keep up with myself.

Well, time to close here, I have to get another Father's day card up on Etsy tonight. Now, as long as things are working right....PTL!!

Have a great night and a good Saturday and keep looking up, things do get better....just ask me!!!

Cheers ~ Louise