It's JULY and More Rain

Yep, it's true, 7 months into 2024 and it is raining again today. Where is all this rain coming from???? I know the farmers need the rain, but now even they are complaining. They can't get into the fields to plant and do the haying. My, my, the weather sure is weird all over the world. 

Update: we had so much rain today my basement and backyard flooded badly (no pictures). We were warned via the cell phone to please stay home, if at all possible, the streets are flooded, and emergency boats were out to help people evacuate if necessary. One family who lived in their house 52 years had never seen the water this high before in all the years they lived there.

Just a few cards here, I might have used these already, but not sure. Made these a couple of months ago. This top card is a tri-fold, was fun to make, but not sure I would make it again. I think I already put it in the box to give to Hospice.

The giraffes are an old stamp from years ago, they were stamped and colored, but I never made cards out of them. So here they are, made into Father's Day cards. Gave them to Hospice already.

Cute little pandas from Stampin up, finally turned them into a card and gave to Hospice. Will probably make some more of these guys, I found the stamps at Thompson Center, so all I need is a good juicy ink pad and stamp off some more cute pandas.

Well, it finally stopped raining outside. The last couple of bad rains I found water on my kitchen counter....uge hope my roof is not leaking again.

Nothing much has been happening of late, just living life the best I can, pay the bills, shopping, car upkeep and Louise upkeep at the Doctor the last couple of weeks. They are keeping tabs on my blood pressure and now medication monitoring. Signs of old age when the Doctor wants to see you every week, I guess.

This month, July 25th, JP will have been gone 3 years already. Where did that time go, it feels like just yesterday. It's funny, I wake up every morning and have to remind myself, "oh that's right, I am alone in this house", there is always that feeling that JP is still here for some reason, creepy huh???? But when I remember all the pain he was in, I am glad he is not here and does not have to bear all that pain anymore.

I guess I will cut this blog short for now, have to go take my pills for the day, but first I have to put them in the pill boxes, I may have to call in some prescriptions today.

You all take care and keep looking up, better days are coming!!!

Cheers ~ Louise

Well, Hello June!!!

Hi there everyone!! Yes, I know, been awhile since I last communicated on this blog. Just been a lot of this and that going on. Doctor appointments, changing meds and checking blood pressure. Don't know what is worse, changing meds and stopping a few others which changes and discombobulates my whole body....now I am dealing with swollen ankles because the diuretic was discontinued, uncomfortable to say the least!!! Oh well, not a happy camper right now. Next Doctor appointment is the 18th.

Yeah, signs of old age, I guess. Would rather stay at home then go out and mingle with people and drive around with maniacs on the road who speed around me, because I am going the speed limit!!!!

Next Hospice meeting we will meet in September. So, we have the summer off, no rush making cards and I can work outside. I have lots to do and have had a bit of help with the neighbors. Will have to take some before/after pictures of their work and mine.

Here are the cards I created for Hospice. The meeting took place yesterday, and now I'm taking a break from everything, essentially doing NOTHING!!! The cards showcased are foiling cards. I purchased some new red foil and lace toner cards. The flower design was crafted using two different punches at the Thompson Center.

Once again, we see foiled cards, two birthday cakes, and birthday wishes set against various backgrounds.

Creating these cards was enjoyable with the use of 3D embossing folders and vellum, followed by processing them through the Cuttlebug. You apply color to the bottom side (the indented side), for which I used Copic markers. Once fully colored to your liking, you then sweep black ink over the colored bottom side, from top to bottom, achieving the coverage you desire. Afterwards, you can adhere it to the card and affix your chosen verses.

It's fascinating to see the evolution of this blog. The initial two paragraphs remain untouched, penned by my own hand. The subsequent three paragraphs, along with this one, were crafted by "copilot." While the words were altered, the essence remained intact, and arguably enhanced. It's curious to observe the outcome of this paragraph. AI is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. Initially, its presence on this blog eluded me, but upon engaging with it, I found the articulation to be superior to my own... hence, I'm inclined to let AI articulate on my behalf...haha!

What fun, the above paragraph cracks me up, makes me sound very intelligent to say the least!!! This is me speaking....lol!!!

Question: Shall we let AI speak for us now!!!!

Well, I think I shall leave you now with this question to ponder. Talk to you later, maybe I will try for another blog this month just for the fact of having another round with AI and letting it rewrite my paragraphs. Hope you have a great June, don't let the bugs bite you too badly. Cheers ~ Louise

April is Flying By

 That is for sure!!!! Hi there, everyone, how you all doing? Been awhile since I have been here, quite a few things have been happening and blogging never entered the mind of Louise!!!

This cool card was made at the Thompson Center. The technique is called "Sunburst" it is all in how you cut the strips of paper using a 6x6 pad of patterned paper. So fun.

Well, I have to go and get ready for card making at the Thompson Center today, I shall come back later to finish this blog.

Back again, 2 days later and a few more cards to show. This next card, the horse, was a stamp donated to Thompson Center. Sure glad I found it when I did and stamped a bunch of horses, cause now the stamp has disappeared...oh well, guess that happens.

Anyways, my great-niece likes horses and jumps them. So, for her birthdays I like to give her "horse birthday cards". Her brother is into guitars and drums, so that is what I look for, for him. My other great-nephew and niece, he is into hockey and fishing and the niece likes gymnastics and cheerleading. So, the hunt is to find stamps that represent what their likes are. I do love this horse though, so pretty.

This was a fun card to make, it is just strips of paper encircling a square, simple and easy. Made this card a couple of weeks ago.

The next two cards were made at Thompson Center on Tuesday. A "sunburst card" Fun way to make thank you cards, need to make a few more of these for a couple of people that have helped me with  projects around the house.

I love this card, probably it's the paper I like, again it's the sunburst card.

Well, my Chicago Blackhawks did not make the play-offs, nope, not this year or even next year probably. They are in a rebuild with lots of young players coming up the pipe-line and the older players getting treaded off to other teams. Will be sad to see them go, but at least they will have a chance to join a team that is chasing the Stanley Cup. Now we have to wait till August/September before the games start up again.

A neighbor has been helping me get the front yard cleaned up, had weeds growing all over the place, he cut them down, laid plastic down and then mulch. Planted a rose bush at one end and moved a big pot with dirt in the middle of the planter and put flowers in it. What a difference it made. He is going to work up the other side of the yard this weekend maybe. I bought a new peonie stand to keep from letting the peonies lean on the ground. Have to get out there today to set the stand up before the peonies get too big.

Since Jay's passing, exactly 2 years and 9 months today, there is just some stuff, I can't do alone anymore. John on the other side of the house, cuts my grass and shovels the snow. It was a mild winter this winter, but who knows what next winter will be like. Guess I will have to do what I can and hope for the best.

Well, I guess it is time to close this blog for today. You all have a great rest of April and keep looking up, better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

Easter is Just around the Corner

 Hi there everyone, hope you are having a good month. Today was the first day of Spring and we will be getting a snowstorm starting Thursday night. Got my car parked in the garage, so no snow on the car and also my soft maple is dropping those little red thingy's on the ground. So just trying to protect the car from all "that stuff" defacing it.

Well Easter is just around the corner! Guess it is early this year although it just seems time is flying by so fast. Making cards for Hospice keeps me on my toes because I have to always plan for the next holiday a month early so the cards get to Hospice in time. Then we are on to the next holiday, oh well, makes life interesting. 

So, the card above is a die I used at the Thompson Center. A large donation of paper, dies and stamps came in and I used this die above from the donation, makes for a nice card.

The Birthday Blessings cards, the background came in as a donation to Thompson Center, that is one embossing folder I do not have, so when I saw these backgrounds, I found a way to use them. The roses are from a sticker set I bought at the Dollar store. Made for a nice, simple and easy card to put together.

Now this was a fun Easter card to make. One of the ladies at the Thompson Center led the class and gave us instructions on how to make this card. She had all the pieces cut out and we colored them in and placed them on the card, then the card is set up so that it sits up, hard to tell in this picture, but the Happy Spring is holding the card up.

I was at the Thompson Center today and finished off some cards I am making for Hospice for our next meeting. I will take a picture of them for the next blog. I found some more dies and did some cutting with them. Hopefully I can make a few more cards with those dies.

The Hockey season is almost over, my Chicago Blackhawks are in last place (there are 32 teams in the NHL). Hopefully in the next few years they can get in the playoffs, they are in a rebuild right now, so things are not looking good for them. But they are fun to watch. a young team with lots of guts and desire. One of the kids, is only 18 years old is going to get the "Rookie of the Year Award" he is almost as good as Patrick Kane and Patrick is the best!!!!!

Well time to close, the game is over, and the Hawks lost 6-2. Need to finish this blog and get ready for bed....getting late. You have a great rest of the month, keep looking up, better days are coming!!!

Cheers ~ Louise

Happy Valentine's Day

Hi there everyone, Happy Valentine's Day this month to you, better late than never!!! So here are a few cards I made for the Valentine season.

In the top set of cards and second set of cards, these were made last year. The top cards were a print off the internet (I think, sometimes hard to remember because I pick up pictures along the way and from other people.) The second set, bottom two cards were copies from original Valentine cards from the old days. The top two were cards I put together with odds and ends I had in my "Valentine card stash" All these cards ended up going into the collection of Hospice cards last year.

These butterfly cards were made at the Thompson Center. One of the ladies let me use here die, Only made a few of these, so very classy, Maybe one of these days I can borrow this die from her again and make a few more cards like these.

In this picture, this rose die was at the Thompson Center, someone donated it, sure did make a lovely card. I still have about 12 cards left over, the rest went to Hospice.

In this picture, I had ordered on -line from Scrapbook.com a roll of Valentine stickers that look like stamps. I just place them on cardstock and layered glitter glue around each stamp to keep them from falling off. Made quite a few of these and gave them to Hospice.

Now these were fun to make, and I have this die in my personal stash. Except for the butterfly corner punch. The heart was colored in with Distress Ink then covered with the Heart die. Thinking of you added for the verse.

So there you have it, Valentine cards for February. Next month will be St. Patrick cards. I am not usually into to St. Patrick, but guess what, I will have a few cards made up which will be going to Hospice. One of the men in our group gave me a folder with St. Patrick stamps, stamped on paper that I could run off on my printer and color, and make into cards. So that is what I have been doing the last week or so, making St. Patrick cards.

Not a whole lot has happened this past month, I did find out that I won't have to move like I thought I would, whew, such a relief off my shoulders. I just did not know how I was going to manage the move if I had to leave, and I really did not want to leave. So now I have found out I don't have to leave....I just got wrong information. Thank God I got wrong information and got the RIGHT information.

Time to close this blog, you all have a great month, I will, now that I have a load of bricks off my shoulders and now maybe I can enjoy living in my home. Take care and keep looking up, better days are just around the corner.

Cheers ~ 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