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

The Last Week of February

 Hi there everyone....hope you are having a great February. I am still living in 2020 I guess. No new changes and we are just plodding along going from day to day.

Here is a "little funny" I found today on another blog. Made me laugh a little bit....yeah, that's me alright. Might be good enough to put on Facebook too.

Things have not progressed a fast as I would like, JP is still a very needy person and just about all my waking hours are about him. As I sit here looking at my desk calendar, we have been very busy with nurse visits, Doctor visits, Hospital procedures, and Catherization's. I cringe at the thought of what the Dr. and Hospital bills will look like when they start filing into my home. 

I think the nurse visits will end this Thursday and two Doctor appointments so far in March, after that I am not sure what will happen. I know we are going from short term care to long term care. We will have nurses coming again, BUT they will be helping me with taking care of JP. and giving me, the caregiver, time off to take care of things that need to be done for Louise. Not sure yet what that is but I will take it.

JP will now go on Medicade, not sure what that all entails, but I will pay $29 a month home care and if there is reason to put him in assisted living that will be taken care of (I think) I might have to also pay room and board, but at this point, not sure how much. I Do have a few people walking me through this, thank God for the ADRC. Time will tell how this all pans out. Will keep you updated.

In the mean time.....who are these people????? They all live in France. Stephanie (2nd from right) owns a beautiful Chateau de LaLande. She started a YouTube Channel just before this pandemic started. Stephanie has been a blessing to many, many people around the world. All these other people in this picture are people that help Stephanie and live with her at the Chateau. From Right to left, Selmar (jack of all trades), Stephanie, Phillip (another jack of all trades), Marie (in the back, married to a 2nd co-owner of the Chateau, in the forefront her son, Antone) Behind Antone, Mari (Florest and cook), Nati (assistant for Stephanie). Behind Nati is Michael (#1 co-owner of the Chateau) and then David who visits and helps with designing of the garden and lake.

They all have a place and do what needs to be done to renovate this beautiful Chateau. Just type in: "Stephanie at The Chateau Diaries" and this will take you to all her Vlog videos. Once you go to her channel, you may be hooked and go to all of her other videos. A very lovely, gracious woman who knows how to bring the best out of everyone she meets.

Here are some cute little squirrls.....they need a caption: this one...."Shoot da puck!!!" What is your caption????

This one is: Yeahhhhhhh the Hawks Winnnnnnnnnnn!!!!! What's your caption????

Yep....Hockey game tonight. Hawks are playing the Columbus Blue Jackets. (note: you know how the Columbus Blue Jackets got their name??? That's where the Civil war uniforms were made for the North...Columbus, Ohio.....interesting fact....eh???)

So anyways the Hawks play tonight, I shall have to watch hockey on the internet at Volokit.com, the game is streamed with lots of buffering at times, once the buffering stops then I can watch the game in enjoyment.

If you haven't noticed, my You Tube visits and Hockey are my "get-a-way" places where I can forget the problems of the day. Well you all have a great rest of the day and also a great rest of the month of February. Take care and keep looking up, better days are just around the corner!!!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas

Hi there everyone. Merry Christmas to you all. I have not been in the mood to blog much lately. Nor have I been taking many pictures. So what you see here are OLD PICTURES from 2016 and 2017. I guess sometimes OLD is GOOD. Least in 2016 and 2017 there was NO COVID, right???

I am still not ready, the small fake tree is up with it's lights, but I still have not decorated it, maybe today. Got my cards out, I should take a picture of them and put it on this blog....maybe tomorrow. My village is still downstairs.....I am not sure it will come up from the basement this year. I might change my mind....looking at this picture now.

I missed seeing the "Bethlehem Star" last night. Cloudy skies, did look to the south/west but to no avail. Last time the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter was 800 years ago. Then before that, it was back when Jesus was born. Such a historical thing and I could not see it. Guess I will have to depend on the news and "You Tube."

JP had a couple of Doctor appointments this month. One for his arm pains, X-rays were taken and the Doctor did not see any problems. Next on the agenda is a MRI, that's if the Insurance pays for that. After that, not sure what will happen. 

He had a sleep test taken. I had to pick up the instrument at the hospital, hook him up to it, leave it on for 8 hours, take it off and take it back to the hospital. We have not heard the results as yet and that was on the 10th. His next appointments are in February and March. He is really not doing that great. It is hard to watch someone deteriorate to barely being able to get around and needing a wheel chair cause it's hard for him to walk. So scary getting old.  

I was going to make this a short blog....but looks like it has gotten a little wordy. So I will close here for now. Hope you all are enjoying Christmas, it sure has changed quite a bit for many people....one good thing, maybe in the next few weeks that $600 each will show up in the account and I will be able to pay a few bills. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Hospital Visit, Prayers and Cards

Hi there everyone. How did your Friday go today??? I was pretty busy. JP had an appointment with the Urologist today. He had an ultra sound and biopsy of the prostrate. I guess they are looking for cancer. His brother had the same procedure and there was no cancer, so hopefully it will be the same for JP. Prayers for JP would be appreciated.

A special treat for us...I bought some pop-corn and a cup of coffee at the Hospital. Our next visit, next Wednesday to find out the results....maybe we will hit the Hospital's "Market Place" for a hamburger and salad....shall see how things go AND if I have $$$ for that day.

We got home about 11am, I took a nap till 1pm then got ready to take off for shopping and pay some bills. Hit Sam's Club, Hobby Lobby and Pic N Save then home. For some reason, I was feeling a little bit queasy with hot flashes in Hobby Lobby....whatever that was I do not know. By the time I got home....very tired. Uge old age is not for whissy's.

Following are 4 cards I made at Betty's last Friday....yeah, I am a bit behind. But I really have been busy making cards for Hospice lately, mostly Christmas cards. I should have enough to send out personally, put in my Etsy store and give to Hospice with some left over for next month.

So with these two cards, the top card is embossed with a cuttlebug folder and little die cut birds glued on, a bow tied and the flowers have speckles dabbed on them. Very simple yet beautiful.

In this Christmas card.....the background embossed with a Christmas folder then die cuts for the fiddle player, holly and Noel were glued on the card and a bow added.

This was really a nice technique. The picture was colored in with copic markers....any colors we desired. then after that we inked the picture with versa mark, then covered with embossing powder and heated to get that glass affect. Die cut birds and a stamped "Happy Thanksgiving" were added. Which reminds me, I need to get some Thanksgiving cards made too.

The last card was a snowman, colored in with copic markers and speckles to enhance the snow. Sequins were added to embellish the card and make the card look like a "snow-globe" Cute huh?!?!?

As I am typing this post....watching the Cubs game which is still playing, I did turn on the Hockey channel and watched the Hawks beat the Devils in overtime 3-2. So now I think the Cubbies should win too.....couple of more endings....Go Cubs!!!

Tomorrow is SATURDAY...my favorite day. We really need to rake leaves and cover the rose bushes. Maybe I need to take some tomatoes of the vine if they did not get frost bit. I was covering the plant for a couple of  days....time to do that. Where did this month go???? November is right around the corner, along with my birthday on the 21st and I shall be 70 years old......OH MY!!!

Time to close this post for today....I will come back on the 31st with 3 Blue Apron meals that I cooked this month, oh and maybe a video from YouTube.

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

Blue Heron and 10 Ways to Use the MISTI

Hi there everyone. How you all doing??? Surviving all the Politics and the World Series? I have not been much of a Baseball fan....but I'm rooting for the Cubs. (Being from Chicago, I do root for most of the teams there, except for Da'Bears. Green Bay Packers are my first pick.) It does not look too good right now, Cubs are losing 2-0, 3rd ending. Indians pitcher just got 8 strikes against the Cubs....nope, not looking great.

So now that I know I can share stuff on my blog via You Tube, thought I would give you a tutorial on how to use the Misti. I had been wanting a Misti for a long time and finally the chance came last May when I actually won a Misti. I use it quite a lot for most every thing I do. There are a few tricks to using the Misti that I have forgotten. So saving this tutorial on my blog will be of benefit to me.


I have been working on making cards the last couple of days...using my Misti to stamp these Great Blue Heron cards. (I made about 14 of these birds) Here is what the finished card looks like. I already sent a card like this out to a friend for her birthday. Gave one to JP, just because. The Misti really helped because quite a few times the image needed to be re-stamped because the ink did not cover the stamp completely. 

In making these cards, I used my distress inks, a paint brush and water and Copic markers. Made for a nice affect. My next few cards, I think I will use gold embossing powder to emboss the Heron in gold.

The rubber stamp came with no rubber backing (EZ Foam). Betty Helped me with that, as she had some extra EZ Foam and gave it to me. Note: I need to get a sheet or two of EZ Foam, because I have a few stamps without backing. Although, I can use the Misti and get a good image without the EZ Foam.

I finally took some pictures of the cards I made at Betty's this past Friday. So they will be in my next post....stay tuned. Oh, and I got a Blue Apron box last week, so I will be posting about those lovely meals I made.

Well, it does not look good for the Cubbies, score is 3-0 and in the 9th.....oh well, can't win them all. I think the Cubs celebrated too much Saturday and have not re-grouped as yet.

Time to close, need to get down stairs and ride my bike for a couple of miles and work on some cards. Next week, Friday is Hospice meeting, so I better get my cards ready. Keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise