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 Made for Secret Stamper

Hi there everyone, hope you are doing well....guess the virus is still going strong in some other places in our country....be glad when life can go back to normal, when ever that will be. Our Governor has allowed some places to be opened and still others are still closed. Such a shame. Some people have lost everything or are about to lose everything. The world has turned up-side down for many.

April 18th, I started my sourdough starter. 6 days later, I started making bread, pizza crust, doughnuts, waffles, cookies (yes, sourdough cookies) fried bread, muffins, corn bread, scones, cinnamon raisin bread, short bread, biscuits and more bread. (Not all in one day...lol over the course of 5 weeks) I finally put my starter to rest yesterday, just for awhile. 

Actually I have 4 cups of sourdough starter in the freezer. So when I want to start another month of baking, I will pull out one cup of frozen starter, defrost and add 1 cup of warm water and 1 cup of flour. Starting all over. Some of my favorites were the pizza crust, cookies, scones and short bread and of course bread.

I have gone shopping 3 times this month and possibly tomorrow. That will be 4 times this month. Saving some money and YES, I will wear my mask, but I will need to lift it up to get some oxygen in my lungs. We are running low on TOILET PAPER!!!! Least now there will be some on the shelves this time around.

So I made some cards, finally got myself downstairs to finish up the cards I needed to make for the secret stamper group. This butterfly card was easy, I die cut the butterfly. My secret stamper lady gave me the "On your Special day" background.

I sent the flower to my secret stamper....this is my rendition of the flower, done in yellow. Her rendition was in pretty pinks. If I receive the cards from Staci, I'll show you both cards together.

In this card, I sent the die cut of a Heart, being it was for February, it made a good Valentine Card.

Here's my vintage man by a bike....always a good one for Father's Day. Traci's card turned out cute too.

I will show you more cards next month, maybe by then I will have received the cards from Traci and Carrie (my secret stampers). You can compare the cards I made, to the cards Traci and Carri made. Always fun to see how each person comes up with one idea and the other, another idea using the same images.

I planted some seeds in my planter on Saturday. (last years planter). This year so far, Roma Beans, Cucumber seeds, Morning glory seeds, scallions and oregano seeds. Covered the bean seeds with wire fencing so the squirrels and chipmunks would stay OUT!!!

So I went outside today to see how things were growing...…..holes all over the place. The planter with scallions and oregano seeds  planted, the divider was knocked down and there were holes all over.....that upset me very much. How do you grow things when the critters destroy everything????? I would like to know!!!! 

Well, I asked "Cortina" what keeps chipmunks and squirrels away from the garden....."add SPICE to the garden"!!! Cayenne pepper!!! I found some in the cabinet and marched out to the planter and peppered it down. So much so, I started sneezing....that should keep those critters away!!!! We will see how that works. I still have a larger jar...just have to find it. Do you think my Roma Beans will be spicy???

Gonna close here now you all take care and keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

2019 A Recap

Hi there everyone and a Happy New Year 2020. I am making this post the last one of 2019. Can't believe this year has passed by so quickly. Now I know why my mother always said to me, "don't wish your life away, Louise, it will go fast enough!" Now I know what she meant.

Following are some pictures from 2019. You will have to forgive me, for in 2019 I didn't take a whole lot of pictures. Once you see one snow picture, you've pretty much seen them all, unless you are in a different place. For Louise, that was not the case. We stayed pretty much put in one place, home. 

So go grab a cup of coffee, tea, or pepsi, cause this will be a long post.

 So I guess there was snow in January and February (didn't mark on my calendar or take pictures.) Along with the snow came a lot of changes, as you can see with the butterfly above. Butterflies change from the cocoon to beautiful butterflies....maybe we do too.

January brought financial assistance in the way of food from the Salvation Army and Energy Assistance. Along with disconnections of AT&T Phone/internet and TV. It was costing way too much. House taxes were due too. Signed up with Spectrum, what a hassle between the two companies, honestly.

February started out with a bang....our car would not start. Battery died and there was lots of snow. The one glimmer of fun I had was watching my Chicago Blackhawks on TV and the internet. And, making my cards.

March seemed to be going well, things were calm and quiet (as my mother would always say). Then Kylie got sick and I took her to the Vet. Xrays and blood work. She had a mass and they didn't give her good news. Just love her and keep her happy with lots of walks, hugs and kisses. Then the car broke down.....again!!!

 April brought Dr's appointments for JP and I. Tax refund and Co-pays and bills due. Does it ever end? Nope, not till we die or get raptured. The water was shut off a couple of times during April so the City could rip up our street for sewers and laterals. The street will be a mess like this in 2020 also. In the mean time, we have a bill of $1500 to pay up in the next 5 years that will be added to our house taxes for this mess.

 May brought more Dr's appointments again....never ending when we get older. Netflex got cancelled...which now I find is actually a blessing. Saving $$ for one thing, and also not so much time watching movies...oh because there is hockey till June at least. Got a couple of Aflac refunds for our Dr's bills. That helped a lot.

 June brought vegetable and flower seed plantings. Vitamin B-12 shots for Louise and a mammogram and the last grooming for Kylie. My favorite store closed....Shopko.

July, my eyes started itching, took some allergy pills, least the mosquito's did now bite me to death. That very sad day arrived on the 12th, we had to put Kylie down. I lost my best little friend. A very hard day, it got so bad, I had to carry her outside to go tinkle and potty, and carry her back in. Kylie was blind and partially hard of hearing. The treats stopped a couple of days before she died, she wasn't interested in them any more and she had a couple of seizures. The last seizure was that day....it lasted much too long and she did not know where she was. Broke my heart. The hardest thing was calling the Vet and taking her in.  We buried her in the back yard.....it's been 5 1/2 months now, and I still miss her.

August, tending to flowers and vegetables. Sort of just going through the motions of living. Kylie's death knocked the stuffing out of me...still miss her terribly. JP and I celebrated 46 years of marriage. We did nothing special.

September. This beautiful Fall Clematis starts blooming, it looks like a blanket of snow. There were a couple of Dr. appointments for both of us. I ordered a Blackhawk hat and JP's brother and SIL came for a visit and brought me a Chicago Blackhawk flag. 

October, The Hawks started their season October 4th. Let the games begin!!! Mary and I started working on getting a cookbook put together. The two below were books I put together in '84 for the church I was going to. In '95 another cookbook for the Salvation Army. So I said to Mary, why don't we put a Fundcraft Cookbook together to raise funds for Josh's Scholarship Fund and off we went. When it is all said and done, we should have raised $2500 profit for the fund. She collected recipes from friends and family and friends of Josh's. I started typing, typing and more typing into the programs that Fundcraft had set up. Oh and also along the way, I was making cards for Hospice. So between typing, card making, watching the Blackhawks....was very busy.

November, Birthday month....yep, turned 73 and had to get my license renewed for another 7 years. I will be 80, will I make it to that age....I don't know. Dr. appointment for my A1C...too low, 6.2, Dr. wants me to go back up to 7.0, so he cut down one pill. Colored my hair and cut it too. Yeah, I do that every now and then. The grey was getting TOO GREY!!! We never did get all the leaves raked up because we had a snow storm, going to be a mess in the spring. Hockey games through out November and I still miss my Kylie.

December, here we are, the last month of the year. Put up the Christmas tree, ornaments and village. $60 came in the mail from Aflac...bonus from all our Dr. appointments. Hospice at Denny's and they bought us card makers breakfast. Lots of Hockey games...Hawks aren't doing so good, but I have high hopes for the last half of the season....they just could make it to the playoffs, b/c we have two great goalies. We will see, time will tell. I signed up for Energy Assistance again, 2 months will be paid, hopefully January and February, 2020. That will help. Still typing recipes and getting the book organized. We will probably send the book in the end of January, I should be done with recipes and organizing and such. We will have about 275 recipes, give or take.

So, today is the 31st. Nothing is planned. I will put some herring, cheese and crackers out, maybe some pickles and salami too. There is a hockey game at 8pm Blackhawks and Calgary tonight…..so you know what I will be doing. After the game I will watch the New Year come in New York and watch the ball come down.

Time to close this post....if you are still with me, I applaud you, such a good friend. You have a great new year. May 2020 be your best year yet. May you live with Jesus on your mind and in your heart. Keep looking up, better days are coming. 
Cheers and blessings ~ Louise  

PS...this post will take 17 minutes to read, give or take a few. That's how long it took me read and do a few corrections. See ya!!!

Hello????? A Few Hospice Cards

Hi there everyone. Hope you are having a good April so far. Guess I have been missing for awhile as this is my 1st post for April. As I look at my calendar....there has been something going on just about every day. Doctor appointments, the Stanley Cup playoff Hockey games on TV (now that is VERY important), Doggie appointment, shopping, card making, etc. Little things that take up a lot of time. I had to miss my Hospice meeting this month as it conflicted with JP's Doctor appointment. Hard to be at two places at one time. So I took my Hospice cards to Betty's and she took the cards to Hospice for me. I will make the next meeting though.....Lord willing.

Oh...I made something different last week...a carrot pie. Yes, it was very good too. The pie actually tasted like a pumpkin pie. So if you ever want to make a carrot pie, just use your favorite pumpkin pie recipe and it will work out fine. The only thing I did different is I made it an "impossible pie" using a 1/2 cup of flour mixed in with the liquid, it will settle down to the bottom to form a crust. Don't forget the whipped cream!!!!

Following are a few cards I made for Hospice this month. Below is my Llama....love this guy. I think he can adorn any card I make. In this card I used glue and laid foil on top to make the strips. Laid the die cut Llama on top....and that was that.

The card in this picture was made by using a butterfly die and black embossed "Happy Birthday." The beautiful colored bookmark was covered with silver plumber's tape, embossed with an embossing folder. Then drops of different colored Distress inks and smooshed with a sponge to get the effect I wanted. Pretty, pretty. I need to make more of these cards. Probably for my Secret Stamper.

Here is my Llama again, this time he is on a "Thank You" card. I used a rainbow foil to give it a different effect.

This is a die cut....palm leaves I think. I make different backgrounds then just lay this die cut over it....makes for a very lovely card. The sayings are "Thinking of You" and "Happy Birthday" stamped on vellum. If I remember correctly, I used "brusho's" a powder like substance and spray the paper either before or after and sprinkle the brusho colors on and the little beads spread and mix with the other colors and make for a lovely back ground.

In this picture are the favors for Mother's Day. We make 20 favors, different assorted colors and ribbons. Then we put chocolates inside each favor. We will do this for Father's Day and Veteran's Day also.

Well, time to close here, getting late and this hockey game is about over, Calgary 2 and Colorado 6, it's been a ruff and tumble game, of playoff caliber!!! I wish the Chicago Blackhawks could have made the playoffs.....but that will be for the 19-20 season...for sure.

I am rooting for the Washington Capitals, my favorite player is  Captain Ovechkin. The other team I like is the Las Vegas Golden Knights....favorite player, Mark Stone. There you have it....it will be interesting to see who gets the Stanley Cup this year.

You all have a great rest of the month.....keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Wowser.....October 1st Already!!

Hi there everyone. How are you all doing?!?! October 1st....my, how time flies. Sure glad August and September are gone, gone, gone!! Those were tuff months for me. JP was getting less hours at work, now we are reaping what has been sewn. 

Kylie was sick and we (or I) thought we would lose her. But she bounced back, she always bounces back. Vet did blood tests, and x-rays. ($400) They say, she may have cancer because they found a mass. She is not in pain the Vet says, so, we will just try and make her happy, with all her favorite things. She had a couple of seizures, but no more since the last one. I have been giving her hamburger and rice and she gobbles that up. Snubs her nose at Freshpet and Beniful….oh but hamburger and eggs..."two please" she says!! We will just go day to day with her. She gets around pretty good, is going blind and hard of hearing, but her sniffer still works good. So hard to watch a doggie go down-hill, but this little dog is a fighter and just happens to want to hang around a little bit longer. I have a picture of her at the end of this blog.

So following are some cards I made at Betty's. This seems to be my only outlet for now. The month of September I did not even touch making cards except for at Betty's.....not sure what is wrong. I need to get into the swing of things again. Hopefully, October will be a bit better for me. Card wise. Plus, I have a month to make cards for Hospice with the next meeting being November 2nd.

The end of this month I will be going to a Stamp Reveal party that I am involved with....someone sends me 6 images in 6 months and I do the same and we make cards from that image sent and cards from the image received...it's fun, but I am behind on that also. One more image to send, which I will do tonight.

I love the saying of the first card, "Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a Butterfly" Betty had the saying and butterflies stamped and embossed already. We colored them in, sponged and stamped the dots. Cut out the butterflies so you could see the black background and added sequins and speckles.

Let's see....if I can remember  how this card was made above. We used copic markers to color in the can, flowers and pots. The background was those stamped dots and sponged ink, the beige was copic marker, then we layered the papers and added the bow.

This next card was pretty and very simple. A circle cut out then sponged in the blue, from dark to light. Stamped the flowers and saying and embossed. The dragon fly is a die-cut. Guess you could use a butterfly if there are no dragonflies in your stash.

This last card is a tree with the leaves and 'Thinking of you" around the border of the tree and truck. The truck colored with copic markers and cut out. Easy-Peasy if you have the car and tree. So many times we make cards and I would like to make more.....but alas, I don't have the stamps to make the card at home. Bummers!

So here is a picture of Kylie going to the vet for her x-rays...we were just leaving the driveway and I thought I better take a few pictures, before I forgot. She looks pretty perky here. I had to take her in at 8:30am and leave her there till we came to pick her up at 2:00pm for the consultation. So yeah, I was kind of nervous to hear what they would say. It was soooo quiet in the house, I do believe it's the dogs and cats that make a house a home. Don't you think?!?!?!?

Well time to close here, I hope I am more diligent in blogging this month....guess I experienced a few days of depression where I did nothing cause things around me seemed to be caving in. I got tired of seeing Kylie sick and JP dealing with his arm pains and sore feet. God knows I need a vacation, but there was no place to run to.

Hockey is starting, so if you don't see me around, I will be watching Hockey or football....Go Blackhawks and Go Packers!!! Hockey my number one passion then football. I understand Hockey better then I do football....and hockey is so much faster and when there is a check....it can be crushing. One guy got hit so bad last night they are not sure the guy hitting the other will even be playing or will be suspended. Have not heard on the guy that got hurt yet.

Well time to close here, JP will be leaving for work at 3:45pm and work 4 hours, if he takes his full 4 hours....time will tell!

I have to keep looking up, as I always tell my readers, better days are coming and I am still waiting for that too!!! Cheers ~ Louise

A New Year ~ What Will Transpire??

Hi there everyone. How is your New Year going so far?? Already it is January 6th.....where oh where did that time go??? I took down 1/2 my Christmas stuff. I still have my village up and my little table top Christmas tree is now decorated for Valentine's Day. I found some red Christmas decorations at Walmart at 50% off. I could not resist. Red snowflakes, a red butterfly and two red hummingbirds. Sweet. I still have to finish decorating the tree with a few more things, beads, bows and bulbs. I will take a picture when finished.

I have an apple pie in the oven right now. I can hardly wait to try it. It's called "Apple Crumb Cheesecake Pie" I am going to see if I can get the video up on this post. Nope...no video. But here is a picture of the cake/pie.

 Well, I just had a piece of pie with a small scoop of vanilla Geleto ~ YES this is worthy of making again and again. It was simple to make. I used a Pillsbury pie crust. Made the cheese spread with 1-8 oz package of cream cheese, softened. 1/4 cup sugar and 1 large egg and beat together. This mixture is then spread on the unbaked pie crust.

The apple pie filling. 6 cups of apples, peeled and diced and 2 T. lemon juice poured over the apples so they don't brown (I used frozen apples, no need for lemon juice). 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cornstarch, 1 t ground cinnamon, 1/4 t nutmeg, 1/4 t. salt 1 cup water.

Stir together the sugars, cornstarch, spices and salt in a sauce pan, whisk in the water until everything is dissolved. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer till thickened.  Add the apples then increase the heat to medium, cook and stir together for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture cool. 

The directions say to refrigerate the filling in an airtight container for 4-6 hours to thicken. But I poured the mixture over the cheese right away. Did not seem to affect the pie any.

The crumb topping is 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup quick cooking oats, 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 t. cinnamon, 1/4 t. nutmeg, 2 T melted butter. Mix altogether till crumbled and spread on top of the apples.
Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. DELICIOUS !!

 How do you like these Valentine cards, I found them on Pinterest. I think I will make a few of these to send to the nephews and nieces. LOL....I think they are cute!! I do have PLENTY of eyes.

Funny cards above....kids will love them.

This heart with one eye is cute, I am trying to figure out how to put this one together. I do have that stamp..."I've got my eye on You" I have a few weeks to play with it though.

I guess I am going to start working on our income tax. We got our work sheets from the accountant today. So, the sooner I get them done the sooner we might have a refund. I just have to get my rear in gear and motivate myself to do it.

We have quite a few Doctor appointments coming up in the next couple of months for both JP and I. Why does it seem the older we get the more the Doctors want to see our bodies. I don't remember seeing the Doctor that much in my 30's and 40's, maybe for only the annual exam...oh well, I guess they have to eat too. JP always says that. And I say, yeah, but not on my nickle!!! Boo, bad sport!!

We ended 2017 with car problems, the car was leaking antifreeze. Took it in, JP thought the clamps needed to be tightened, they did that, but it still leaked. So we started 2018 with car problems. On  Friday, JP took the car back in and it was decided we needed a new water pump. The water pump was on warranty, which saved some money. So we just have to pay for labor. Whew, glad it was not more then $100.

Since I do not have a crystal ball, I cannot say what will transpire this New Year....maybe I do not want to know, I might not want to take that leap into the unknown. I just hope I can draw closer to Jesus and seek Him more for all my needs. It is so easy to walk this life without inquiring  of the Lord as to what to do next. I used to do that...ok Lord, what do I do next. But I forgot, and stopped doing it. I think 2018 should be my year to depend on God more for my every need. Oh, oh.....you know God is inspiring me to write this, He will take me at my word.....this should be an interesting year!!

Well, time to close here....this post is getting a bit tooooooo long.

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

Cheers ~ Louise

Some Cards I Made At........

Hi there everyone....hope you are keeping cool. My cool times come when I am someplace that is air conditioned...otherwise I am a pretty hot bundle of nerves.....and hard to get along with....lol!!! Poor JP!!!

So today I will show you some of the cards we made at Betty's on Wednesday.

I like this old fisherman....he is colored in with copic markers....I shall save him for a friend whose birthday is next August.....he is a fisherman.

This was a neat card to make. We colored the butterfly, flowers and frame with copic markers on vellum, but on the back side of the vellum. Then placed colored vellum on the same image that we just colored the butterfly. That was a nice technique....see how the butterfly seems to pop out???

This was a die cut and we just added the background to the flowers and a few gems.....made for a nice card.

This was a crayon resist technique. Where you see the white is the crayon....then we smudged brown and blue and colored in the tongue and brown spots. Cute card....oh and the little doggies along the card is washi tape.

Well, it is getting late and I am getting tired. So 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

Christmas, Pizza and Cards......

Hi there everyone. Goodness, it has been a week since my last post...time is a'flying! Hope your Christmas plans are shaping up and you are getting everything done that needs to get done. When you are finished you can "R-E-L-A-X" and enjoy the season and the real reason we celebrate this time of year. Yeah, all the fan-fare and busy-ness of the season sure can take our eyes off of what is important.

Have you not heard????? "JESUS....is the reason for the season". I am glad I don't have to worry about getting presents for everyone.....just a few gifts for JP, Kylie, sent off Pop's gift in Las Vegas, got my cards made and sent off, baked cookies and decorate the house.....whew....almost done with 9 days left till Christmas. Why do I put myself through all this busy-ness???? I don't know why, guess I just get caught up in it all, trying to make Christmas special even though it is not that much any more. It's for the kids anyways.

So in the picture below is my little Christmas tree....this year, I decided the tree will be in all blues....hard to tell that the blue and white lights are on...but they are. I have the same blue and white lights on the front porch....so pretty. After Christmas I will put up red and white lights for the Valentines.....love my little Christmas tree, it is so very hard to take downstairs after the season. If I could find green and white lights, I would leave my tree up till St. Patrick's.....hahahahaha!

In the picture below is my Blue Apron pizza...gosh was this ever delicious....I shall make it again. "Roasted Sweet Potato & Caramelized Onion Pizza" and oh....it was so yummy the next day too. Sweet potatoes were peeled and sliced and layered on a cookie sheet, a little salt and pepper and olive oil for 12 minutes or so at a 475 oven. Then cooled and transferred to a bowl. The pan was then used for the pizza dough, spread out to the size I wanted then topped with the béchamel sauce, 2 T oil, 2 T flour and cook, stirring 1-2 minutes till golden brown, milk, lemon zest and 1/4 cup of water was added then the juice of 2 lemon wedges and seasoned with salt and pepper. The sauce got thick and then spread on the dough.

Then topped with the sliced sweet potatoes, caramelized onions, garlic, oregano and fontina cheese. After the pizza baked, the arugula and remaining cheese was added to the pizza. Oh yum...I will do this again. If you would like the recipe just google the recipe name and google will take you directly to Blue Apron and the recipe and you can make this pizza yourself. Again...it was absolutely delicious.

In the picture below is a card a made for a blog friend. Her husband just died recently. I think this has to be one of the prettiest cards I have ever made....was really happy how this card turned out.

This card is for the groomer who does my Kylie's hair every 8 weeks. I picked up a new cuttlebug folder....if you can see it...little paw prints. The snowman is a Christmas napkin and the doggies are stamped, colored and cut out.

This is another new Cuttlebug folder and all I did was use speckles and smooch pens.

In this card, I used some plumbers tape, ran it though my Cuttlebug then added a die-cut tree and stars for decorations. If you can see it, there is a ribbon running down the middle of the card.

The picture below is another Christmas napkin. I use the first layer of the napkin and lay that on a piece of card stock that was covered completely with a glue stick. Smooth it out as best you can without tearing the napkin. Let it dry then cut it the shape you want. I then added speckles to pop out the candy cane, snowman and holly leaves.

I this picture, is the same technique....but I used a Christmas tree. A friend gave me some of her napkins....this is one of them and guess what....she will receive her napkin back in the form of a Christmas Card. I guess that is called "re-purposing".

So tomorrow is my card making outing at Betty's. We are all suppose to bring something to eat that will go along with her pulled pork....oh yum. So I will bring a "Grains and Quinoa Salad" and "Cucumber sandwiches" (of course...pictures to follow soon).

Well, time to close here....the debate is starting and I need to watch that. Finish my Quinoa Salad and type a few letters tonight to friends.

Have a great evening and keep looking up....things will get better.
Cheers ~ Louise