French Toast and Image Card Exchanges

Hi there everyone. Well.......I am still in a French Toast mode....sorry I have not changed my previous post.....but it still looks so good to me. Today I made French Toast with French bread, slivers of strawberries, and some Philadelphia "ready to eat" Cheesecake filling and syrup. Sorry.....no pictures. All I can say is, it sure was delicious and it was very hard to share with JP, but I did.

Have you ever tried Philadelphia "ready to eat" Cheesecake Filling? All you have to do is pour it into a graham cracker crust and chill. So far, the cheesecake filling has not made it into a pie crust and is just making it into my mouth via strawberries and French toast and such. SShhhhhhhh......I've not shared this with JP as yet, he would eat it all in one sitting....yes he would!!!!

Last November I joined a Stamping Group. We send 12 stamped images or die cuts to the person whose name we have and someone sends us 12 stamped images or die cuts. We then make a card for our selves and one for the person whose name we have. So altogether we have stamped 14 images or die cuts. Then, at the revealing party, we find out who had our name and visa versa. We bring the cards we made for the person who had our name.  Following are the cards I made, using the images I sent to my secret stamper and the images she sent to me.

In the picture above, I sent my secret stamper the gold snowflake on black card stock....this is what I came up with.

My secret stamper sent me the Santa tag, I colored it in and let the tags sit for awhile, because I could not think of how to incorporate the tag into a card. Suddenly one day I got this idea to just make a present, add the ribbon and stick the tag on it...oh and I learned how to make a double bow with my two fingers. WALA...a present!

I sent my secret stamper 12 images of this vintage Santa Claus....This is what I came up with. This would not be a card that could be sent through the mail too easily.

My secret stamper lady sent me these silver hearts. The only thing I could think of is to add them to a vintage valentine.....good enough.

I sent my secret stamper lady 12 of these die cut trees....this was an easy peasy card.

I sent my secret stamper 12 of these love mice....I distressed these  two mice then brushed them with pearlex. I sent her 12 love mice stamped in black and white. I finally made these love mice into cards last night....in a later post I will show you how they ended up.

I sent my secret stamper these snow men....I still have to make a card out of them yet. I still have two weeks to think about and finish this card.

My secret stamper sent me these bunnies. All I did was color in the back ground, they have hung around for a couple of months..finally turned them into cards last night....they turned out cute. I probably will make a couple of these cards for Hospice too. She also sent me 12 images of a golf ball on a Tee. I surely did not know what to do with the golf ball, till I remembered I have a vintage golfer taking a swing. I am working on that card tonight and when finished will show it in the next post.

My secret stamper is behind in her sending, she did not send March's image and April is yet to come. I contacted the lady that runs this group to let her know the lady that has my name is late in sending images. This isn't the first time this has happened, November and December did not come till January. Sure is frustrating..why join a group if you cannot follow through...makes no sense to me and takes the fun out of even doing this.

The reveling party is on the 23rd of this month....so I shall meet whoever had my name....if she even shows up. I may or may not sign up for a second time. It's fun doing this IF the other person holds up their end. Oh well, enough of my complaining.

I will take pictures of the images sent my secret stamper lady and what they looked like after I turned them into cards. Oh and pictures of the cards of the Easter Bunny, Snow Man and love mice.

I need to close this post now and go have a piece of coconut cream pie. That was my project for tonight. Also made dinner for JP. When he comes home at 1:30am he will have chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and vegies and some pie and fruit. Good enough. Now I shall go downstairs and ride my bike for 2 miles and finish up my Hospice cards for Friday.

Have a great night and keep looking up~~better days are coming!!

Cheers ~ Louise

A Few Snowmen Decorations

Hi there everyone. How are you doing with your Christmas decorations. I am almost done, just have my village to put up and I might get that done tonight....probably after the hockey game. Hawks and Rangers are still tied 0-0.... with 9 minutes to go.

Shoot.....Hawks lost....1-0 in overtime.

Thought I would give you a few shots of my snowmen through out the house. Here they are.

 This Votive Snowman sits on the TV table....can you see, I am watching the NHL Network???

 This ceramic Snowman is pretty old. My mother gave it to me when JP and I were first married. So he is at least 43 years old.

 I bought this Snowman candy dish last summer at a garage sale...cute isn't he? Candy is good too...Lindor Chocolate mint. One a day keeps the Doctor away????

 This is a Snowman ornament that hangs on my lamp, watching me as I play on my computer. He has been around for a long time too, not sure when I got him....I think he was a gift.

 I bought this Snowman door hanger this year at Shopko....I think I need another door hanger for the back door.

 This Snowman ornament hangs in the center piece on the dinning room table.

This Snowman is sitting on the front porch. Now there is a story behind this Snowman. This was the first Christmas gift JP gave me back in 1971, so it's 45 years old. I was very disappointed though....because I honestly thought he would give me an engagement ring....but alas, this Snowman and Santa Claus were in the box (Mr Santa got sold at a garage sale many years ago.) JP never did give me an engagement ring....he is not that kind of guy. When we did get married, I had to buy my own ring.....nice, huh???

This Snowman is sitting on the front porch in the planter.....he wiggles around when the sun is shinning.....I might put him in the car on the dashboard....we need a little smile each day when we take off in the car. I heard it might be easy to find the car, course I always park in the same spots at the different stores I shop at. So maybe that would not be a problem for me.

Well, I hope you liked my little tour of Snowmen....I think there are more....in my village, which I need to set up before JP comes home in two hours....better get cracking here.

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

A Few More Cards and a Diet

Hi everyone, hope you had a great day. I did, nothing too exciting, got a few things done around the house. Put up a few decorations and changed the dinning room table cloth to red and changed the Fall centerpiece to Christmas with red candles. Tomorrow the ornaments will go on the little tree, had to find the plastic container that holds all the ornaments.

Today, I started a 7 day diet....hopefully to lose 4-5 lbs. It's more like a cleansing type diet. Today was fruits and water. Tomorrow, vegies. Wednesday, fruits and vegies. Thursday will be wierd, bananas and skim milk and diet soup. Friday, add some rice and tomatoes, vegies and protein. Saturday, vegies, rice, soup. Oh and lots of water, 10-12 glasses a day. My choice of excercise will be walking Kylie around the block and riding my staionary bike 3-5 miles a day. I will see how it goes this week, and how my blood sugars do. The Doctor had put me on some medication to lower the blood sugars and then my weight shot up and sky-rocketed to a number I have never been before. Really have been feeling very uncomfortable in my own skin. So I thought I would give it a try. February I have to go see the Doctor and I would like to be a little bit lighter when I see him again.

My biggest battle is keeping JP fed and keeping food in the house he likes. Oh, and not eating and tasting the food I prepare for him....cause I am always taste-testing everything I make for him. I'll see how this week goes......(sigh).

I don't think I added these cards to my collection. Although, come to think about it, I did post this card earlier, but the flower was a stamped flower. This flower is made out of tissue paper. I punched about 6 layers of tissue with a round punch. Then made a hole in the middle and put a bracket through to hold the circles together then scrunched the tissue up to make it puff up. Fun to make cards.

This is my Santa card. Stamped about 10 Santa faces, coloring him in last year. Turning him into some cute cards for the Hospice group.

Well, time to close this blog for today. You all have a great couple of days, and I will be back to tell you how my diet is going. Keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh. Cheers ~ Louise

My Monthly Card Making Day

Hi there everyone. Hope your day went well and you are enjoying the evening, that seems to go much too fast. It's already 7:20pm. Made a couple of pumpkin pies tonight had such a taste for it, just like I thought, mmmm tastes good. They won't last long, once the husband gets wind of them walking into the kitchen tonight. Not one piece will he have, but probably 2 pieces, well, at least they won't go to waste and end up in the garbage.

Yesterday was my monthly card making day. In the above picture are two of the cards. The card on the left was colored in with copic markers and the cardinal colored in and cut out and layered on the cardinal to pop up. The card on the right, little sweet magnolia girl sitting on a frame. The frame and two trees were first sanded down, the trees were embellished with speckles and the frame was left plain. Then the trees were layered on top of each other, one being popped up and the frame popped up also. The sweet magnolia girl is layered on top of the frame.

This card was stamped in blue ink, the trees smeared with glue and sprinkled with glitter. It looks like in this picture the glitter is hard to see. The picture then placed on a lovely border, blue ribbon glued on the card and the saying stamped in blue at the bottom. A blue bow added to embellish the card.

In this Santa Claus card, he is stamped on glossy card that was die cut as an ornament. We dabbed pink ink on the rosy his face up, colored in his glasses and blue eyes. He was then layered on a fancy frame and little tree branches, gems and ornament holder added. Then everything is layered on the card with ribbons and bows.

In this picture is a lovely voltive that we will be making next month. Betty designed this herself. So I will be looking forward to making this next month.

In this picture are two of the voltives one in white and one in beige. I think I will make the one in beige. Soooo in my next card making blog next month you will see the beige voltive I made along with the cards we'll be making too.

So next week on the 21st is my birthday.....wow, never thought I would get this old. I am looking forward to getting my Birthday cake at Festival. Cake Boss's "chocolate gonache cake" can hardly wait to take my first bite of that delicious cake....mmmm!!!! I think along with that cake I will make a steak and fries also. Yeah....looking forward to another year of blessings!!!!

Well, time to close here and get downstairs and work on some cards for Hospice. So you all take care and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh. Cheers ~ Louise

Saturday's....Don't blink your eyes....you will miss it!!

Hi everyone........how is your day going? Saw this cartoon on another site and had to borrow it. Christmas is already in the stores and halloween candy being discounted. My gosh...we go from one season to the next in minutes. Was there not a "breather" inbetween???

Had a nice meeting at the Hospice Care Group. Got my coffee and bagle with cream cheese. Very delicious!!! There were only 4 of us, missing a couple of people. Next meeting we will meet at Denny's for breakfast. That will be fun, my taste buds are singing already...mmmmm, eggs and bacon, some fruit and coffee?

Today I had a little bit of fun. WG&R Furniture store was offering a free coffee cup if you came in and took a look around...I just love the freebies....plus they had a huge Continental Breakfast offered. It looked like "a Senior Citizen" gathering with over 100 people. That was not including through out the store. Sweet Rolls, fruit, cookies, cheese cake squares, juice and coffee were on the menu. I guess here is where I would put a picture of that coffee mug...well, I have to take a picture of it, maybe tonight.

I have a stuffed pork roast and cabbage in the Crock Pot right now......smelling good!!! Well, I should close this blog for today. Have to take Kylie for a walk around the block. She missed her walks the last two days because of the rain. She has been nudging me for a walk to day...better go before it starts to get dark out.

"SPRING AHEAD AND FALL BEHIND" Don't forget to "FALL BEHIND" and turn your clocks back.....you get an extra hour of sleep tonight. If you forget...you will either be too early for church service or too late for the second one, or is that visa versa?

OH!!! I just reached a mile stone with this blog....drum roll please....this is my 400th blog since I started in 2008...WOW!!!

You all have a great weekend and keep looking up for your redemption draws night. Cheers ~ Louise