Cards, Hospice Meeting, Mother's Day and Pops

Hi there everyone. Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday. Mine started out fine, I was blessed with a friend that gave me a personal Cricut for $30 with case and 4 cartridges and maybe even the cartridge that came with the cricut. With this cricut I will be able to use it without my computer, which will be nice. No pictures yet....I need to set it up and figure out how to use it as well.

In these next few pictures are some of the cards I made for Hospice. The cards above are the funny Tim Holtz Crazy Bird set. I got the die cuts for these birds....maybe I will use them more. No more fussy cutting for me. This yellow bird is probably my favorite of the six birds...easy to color too.

My vintage golfer about to hit a golf ball. I made these cards into Father's Day cards as were the yellow chick cards above.

These cards were what I made up for my secret stamper lady....I sent the stamped pineapple, rose and leaves. Colored them in and added a gem. Added a feather and circled die cut and embossed folder for the background. I inherited 2 rimes of yellow card stock and 1 rime of yellow paper....so yeah, you probably will see lots of yellow cards coming out of my creating mind.

In the above picture are the Father's Day favors I made. At the meeting we slipped Hersey candies in the favor. Usually we put little stickers on them saying they are from Hospice....but I guess the stickers were not made up as yet. I thought I had taken a picture of ALL the favors together, that were made up, but for some reason there was no picture.....gosh, maybe I did not press the button to take the picture??????

In this picture we are looking through the cards each one of us brought.....maybe getting new ideas from each other and oo-ing and ah-ing the cards as we looked. Next meeting will be June 2nd, so we have 3 weeks to get some cards together.....I better get my rear in gear....then we will have the summer off till September and we need to have Halloween cards made......yikes!!! I think that is why my days fly bye.....I am always on to the next holiday before this one even comes.

I did not finish my Mother's Day blessings. After the Hospice meeting, I drove Betty home, but before we went to her house, we stopped off at a second hand shop and I bought myself a purse and a couple of tops.....oh and a cute little teapot which I mishandled and dropped on the ground and it broke. I will glue it back together and just use it for decoration....maybe it won't be usable again. (that part was NOT a blessing)

We went to Woodman's, a really big store that I very seldom go to. BUT...I probably will go there again, I found my favorite bread there. A big loaf of Turano Bread that makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches...oh yum!! Oh and I just saw a recipe using this bread to make (French) Italian toast......trying this tomorrow morning.

I bought a few other things, that I don't see at the other stores I visit...I always have fun shopping!!! I was really enjoying my Mother's Day weekend and thinking, gosh....what did I do to enjoy all these blessings?????

Then Saturday came.....the phone rang. A call from a lady that has been in contact with my step-father in Las Vegas. He died in his sleep, in his own apartment on his easy chair. That's the way he wanted it and he got it. I won't be going out there....no reason to. He had made plans with this lady that she would take care of everything....she sort of adopted him and my mother and became their daughter. Taking my place.....oh well, I never did have good feelings about this whole situation. But who am I......nobody!!!!

Can you sense some anger there??? Yes, there probably is, when I think back on all the things that Pops did to me, the things he said to me, the way he controlled me and made me angry, to the point that I would only stuff the pain and say "he will never hurt me again" only to be hurt again and again. Nope, I am not sad for him, nor do I really care.

He wanted me to call him "Dad" one thing he wanted to hear me say....I said you are NOT MY DAD and I will never call you DAD!!! I had one Dad....You are Pops and that is what I will call you. He said, I figured you would say that and chuckled. ERG....he made me so mad!!!! And when he said he loved me, I was always forced to say....I love you too....but did I mean it??? I am not sure.

So here we are today....I hope he is happy where ever he ended up. The lady is going to take his ashes and spread them in the mountains of Las Vegas along with the ashes of my mother.....hope they meet again, where ever that might be.

Sunday came and we went to church...good service and lovely worship....our gift on Mother's day, two little red petunia plants....I shall plant them tonight in between the rain drops. I think I will get some white and blue petunia's and organize the petunia's in red, white and blue in the planters.

Well, time to close here and go walk Kylie....the sun is out now after a little rain. Talk to you later and keep looking up better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

3 Blue Apron Meals

Hi there everyone. How are you all enjoying the first couple of days of May......already it is the 3rd day of the "Merry Month of May"!!!

Monday I took Kylie to the Vet for her shots and a check up. They intended to do a full panel of her blood, but their machine was acting up. So all that blood they took from Kylie, needs to be taken again. We went in today for more lab work. Poor, poor Kylie, they have to poke her again.

But hopefully things will be well with her. They are going to check to see why her hair is so yukky...she might need vitamins. Plus she has gained 4 pounds, not good. Kylie is also blind in one eye and the other one is not so good. She needs to have her teeth cleaned this next fall.....I better save some money for that. Otherwise, for the age she is...she's doing well I guess. We will know more after the blood work.

The blood work came back, everything is normal except the numbers were a little high for her liver and kidneys. We need to go back the first of June for another blood test and if the numbers are still high, there is a medication they can give her....but otherwise everything is OKAY!!! Doctor said she should be getting enough vitamins in the food she is eating, so no extra vitamins.

Blue Apron sent me a box of food....these meals really looked so good to me and they actually were very tasty. This first one "Spiced Beef Pitas & Garlic Labneh with Arugula & Date Salad" I wanted to do this meal because it sounded like a Greek Gyro and it sure tasted like it too. Very good, I will definitely make this again, using beef.

"Seared Cod & Crème Fraiche Sauce with Potato, Cabbage and Olive Hash" Now this was a really delicious meal, I think what I liked the most about this one was the combination potatoes and cabbage mixed together. The potatoes were diced then browned  with olive oil, salt and pepper for about 5 minutes till the potatoes were slightly softened. Then the sliced cabbage was added, a little more oil, salt and pepper. Stirring 5-7 minutes or until the cabbage has wilted and the potato has softened. Chopped up green olive was added then topped with chopped up almonds. This was so good, I made it again the next day. (but without the olives and almonds.) 

The fish was coated with rice flour and fried...the whole meal was delicious!!! The sauce was marinated shallots and lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. The crème fraiche was added to the shallots and served as garnish for the fish.

"Taiwanese-Style Chicken with Jasmine Rice, Crispy Shallot, & Cilantro" This dish was really yummy. The rice was cooked. Shallots were fried in rice flour then set aside. I then fried the red sliced cabbage in the same pan the shallots were fried in and set that aside. The chicken was cooked and shredded.

 The sauce was magic.....2 Tbsp. Soy sauce, 1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar 1/2 cup water and as much Chile as you like....I just used 1/2 of the Chile without seeds....there still was a slight hot taste but not overwhelming. I loved the fried shallots....had a nice crunch to the whole dish.

If you are interested in any one of these recipes, you can just type in the name of the recipe in your browser, click and up will come the recipe, look for the one that will take you to Blue Apron.....I just tried it...works.

Well time to close here for now. I already started a new post about the Stampin'up Paper Pumpkin Kit I received a week ago, but have as yet to make the cards....that is coming. Friday I am getting my new Tim Holtz Crazy Bird die cuts AND something new....Brusho's, I can hardly wait to play with them, I can't wait to show you the backgrounds that will be created by brusho's....oh boy!!!

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

A Card Making Kinda Weekend

Hi there everyone. Hope you are having a good and productive weekend. Saturday I went to Betty's for a card making session....the next 4 cards are from Betty's. The last 2 cards are from today's Stampin'up Camp at Kathy's. Lots of great ideas for future use.

As I look at my calendar....I am wondering why I have not posted anything since the 6th....nothing much has been going on....just living life I guess. Keeping house, cooking, making cards, shopping here and there, sleeping.....is this retirement? I have no idea. JP started a new job this past week...same company...different building, instead of 3 buildings, he does one building....hopefully it won't be so much wear and tare on him or our car. We shall see.

Wednesday I have a appointment with the eye doctor. He is going to do a procedure called Blepharoplasty (surgery to lift the eyelids) I have been told it will only take 20 minutes for both eyes and is a very easy surgery. I have confidence in Dr. Neilitz, so I shouldn't worry. He will also be able to remove the yellow patches over my eyes....so maybe I will look like a new spring chicken. NOW if I can just drop some weight in the next few months....I'd be a happy camper.

So following are the cards we made at Betty's. She is going to have knee surgery on the 25th and then the other knee March 8th. So she will be out of commission for a couple of months. I told her I would bake her a pumpkin pie.....can't forget the Kool Whip!!!!

The "Happy Bird-Day" card was fun to make....we colored in the flowers and birdie with copic markers. The birdie is from the Tim Holtz Crazy Bird Set. Betty stamped the bird on cork then it was cut with the Crazy Bird die. I still want to get that die set for this set of birds....otherwise "fussy cutting" will have to do for now.

"Peek-a-boo bear"....he is colored in with copic markers. The background is punched out and run through the cuttlebug. Flowers are placed where flowers are embossed on the card. Wonder if I should have moved the background over a bit more...

This "Heart" card was easy and fun. Betty drew a heart and we stamped around the heart with little stamps, added embellishments of gems and butterflies. I already made one card like it....need to make some more for Hospice.

I like this card very much....the black cat looking out the window at a cardinal. Do you like my pink background??? I brought some material with me so I could take pictures of each card after we made them....Betty has better lighting at her tables, so the pictures turned out better then usual.

These next two cards were made at Kathy's Stampin'Up camp. (I took these pictures at my dinning room table....light was okay, but not as good as at Betty's) So the above card was the Dancing Girl....sure did like this set and was seriously thinking of buying it. The girl is colored in with watercolor pencils. Who knows maybe in a couple of months I buy her.

This was a lovely card, just simple pairings of paper and the dragon flies are a die.....I bought this set...just thought it would make a great card for Hospice. The picture does not do the card justice.

So there you have it.....it's always fun to make cards, very relaxing and good therapy for the soul. Hope you have a great week and watch Trumps Inauguration, it should be exciting to watch. Keep looking up cause better days are coming!!!!

Cheers ~ Louise

Some Hospice Cards

Hi there everyone. This will be a quickie post. (I am thinking) As you can see, I have been busily working on some cards for Hospice. The meeting is next Friday, sooooo, I need to get a stock pile of cards made and get some Father's day cards made also.

The stamps above are from Stampin'up, I really liked the way the cards turned out, I may not give them all to Hospice, as I can think of a few people that need a card on my end.

When I was rummaging through some old card stock, I ran across this froggy and thought he would make a cute card. "Never, never throw things out, you never know when you can use them again." That should be my motto, as I think this guy has been hanging around for a long time and he finally got made into a card.

In the above picture is my new die cut from Stampin'up called "Rose Wonder" I have the stamp that goes along with this die cut, but I rather like the effect that this gives. Makes for a nice Birthday card.

Here are my "crazy birds" from Tim Holtz.....I had them laying around also and thought they would go good on these cards....again, never throw anything away.

These are some quick Thank you cards, using washi tape and graph paper for the background and my die cuts and butterflies to embellish the cards with a few sequins.

Well that about covers it....next post, maybe some Father's day cards. So tomorrow I am getting a box from Blue Apron....I look forward to that once a month. It's like going to culinary school for 3 days and learning and tasting something new.

You all have a great couple of days, I'll post something about Blue Apron. Oh and by the way.....I am still in mourning about my Chicago Blackhawks losing and not going on to win the Stanley Cup (sob).

Keep looking up....better days are coming (I keep telling myself that, but I am still waiting.)
Cheers ~ Louise

Saturday....Spent a Day Making Some Cards....Finally!!!!

Hi there everyone.....whomever that may be. Well, I finally spent some time in my basement studio, making some cards and also found some time to reorganize some stamps. Sometimes I can be so messy, and not put things back they way they were. So yeah....time to pick up after myself and straighten up a few things..

I bought this Tim Holtz stamp set from "Simon Says Stamp!" Here is their site. This week I need to get some Tim Holtz here is his blog site. distress inks, especially one certain color for my Christmas cards. If I can't find what I am looking for here in town. I will be off to "Simon Says Stamp!" again.

I have been seeing these "Crazy Birds" around a lot and thought they were so cute. There are quite a few tutorials on YouTube that show how to color them with Copic Markers and water color pencils. So far, I am liking the copic markers. So many ideas and so many ways to color these guys.

I like that they are so colorful....and whatever the color you use....they will look funny and appealing to the eye and bring a smile each time. Now I have to find some sayings to go along with their funny faces.

Thank You, Missing you, Hello Friend. I have seen some birds with hats on for Birthday and Halloween. I need to get some cards together for Hospice.....think I will use these crazy birds to bring a smile to a face or two.

Here is the third meal from Blue Apron I made on Thursday....this was really good. The eggs actually came in the box of food and were packed very carefully in an egg container and wrapped up in brown paper and then in a box....nope, they were not broken. I wondered about the transportation of these eggs....but they made the trip in one piece.....lol!!!

This meal was so yummy. "Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower Salad with Homemade Garlic Croutons and Sunny Side-up Eggs" I think I shall make this again....not sure I will be able to find the cauliflower they used.....but white will be fine. The cooked kale and onions with garlic was just the right touch. The cauliflower was roasted with spices and olive oil. Mixed together with the croutons and a fried egg placed on top....yes, a very good dish with lemons squeezed on top.

I found 3 people to receive the free invitations to receive 3 free meals from Blue Apron. Here is their site.  Two Blog Friends and my neighbor next store. I know they will enjoy these lovely gifts and love the meals as much as I do. Happy cooking friends  :)

Well, time to close here, need to take a short nape. I am feeling my eyelids getting heavy. The Packers are playing today at 3:25....that is usually my nape time. So you all have a great day and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise