Cards, Hospice and Plantings

Hi there everyone. Sorry....I have been missing again, living life can sometimes get in the way!! We have had a few doctor and dentist appointments along the way, since my last post on May 3rd.

JP had another tooth pulled again. Pretty soon he won't have many teeth left in his mouth...my cooking skills will have to change to accommodate his toothless mouth. Plus, the Doctor said today his cholesterol was getting a little high, which means we have to lower that with a different meal plan. (Doctor wanted to put him on medication, but JP did not want to be put on more meds.....more meds means more side affects.)

More fish and chicken, less red meat and maybe cut down on the carbs. That would help me a bit, then I won't have to cook two different kinds of meals. What he eats, I can eat and what I eat, he can eat. We have 3 months to work on his diet and I think, 6 months before I see the doctor again for my A1C and lose a few more pounds. My A1C was down a few points. 6 months ago it was 6.7 the 1st of May it was 6.2. I attribute it to the keto diet. Less carbs that turns to sugar. Maybe JP will find more energy in his step, he always seems tired.

So these following cards are what I made last month at Betty's. I really love the card above, plumbers tape placed on card stock and run through the cuttlebug. Then we took alcohol inks and dabbed on the tape. Added the butterfly and embossed the birthday wishes verse. Pretty easy peasy.

This is a really cute card. On the front of the card you see the frog taking a dip into the water. As you can see, acetate was used, stamped on ovals, the inside of the card is the frog coming up for air....funny card...we all laughed when we saw this card.

This was an easy card to put together. The little bird was colored in with copic markers and cut out. The green was white and we colored it, stamping the dots and star flowers, adding the thank you and speckles for embellishments.

The card below was another easy card. Colored the flowers and stamped the verse and added the ribbon. Love the colors.

Wednesday we have another session of card making at Betty's, I always look forward to making cards and getting new ideas. 

I have 3 weeks to get more cards made for Hospice, then that will be our last meeting till September. We get the summer off...that is always nice, then I can leisurely make cards and get geared up for the next session and Fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas! Gosh....time do fly when we make cards according to the seasons.

I have done a little planting....onions, radishes and spinach.....not too sure the spinach seeds will grow, as they are vintage '92, just thought I would try. I did buy some new spinach seeds today....tomorrow I will plant them along side the old seed and see which grows 1st......any guesses??? I will show you in the next post my planter, I am pretty excited about it and maybe getting some vegies this year.

Well, time to close here....it's getting late and I am getting tired. Talk later. Keep looking up cause better days are coming around the corner. Cheers ~ Louise

Some More Cards from the Revealing Party - Part 2

Hi there everyone. Well, it's almost the end of the week and guess what......Saturday is a coming!!! Yep, we like the weekends....a break from the busy week. Nothing much has gone on this week although I did have a run-in with the Telephone/Internet Co. today.

(Note: I wrote this on 11/9, so this is OLD news) They sent me this months new bill and apparently they did not receive my payment for October. I paid it at the Citgo Service Station. Where did that money go to???? Well, I talked to some lady in India and got no where. Plus she put me on hold so many times and I heard Indian music, at least I thought it was Indian music.....then my phone battery started to beep and I hung up.

Then I tried the "Chat" with the Telephone Co. over the Internet and seemed to have gotten no where. Then he had me talk to another man from India....gosh those people are hard to understand.

FINALLY I got a nice lady (that I could understand) apparently I was talking to someone in Payment claims. So I had to send the receipt from the gas station showing I paid the bill in October....I scanned it, made a cover page, then emailed the receipt to the Telephone Co. My Telephone bill went from $165.57 down to $87.40. Thank God.....I was so stressed out. I told the lady this is not how I expected to spend my Thursday afternoon. But at least the problem is remedied. I will NOT go back to that station again to pay ANY bills....no not in a million years!!!

A continuation of the card exchange from Oct. 29th. I am just a little bit behind.....life gets so busy that blogging gets put on the back burner sometimes. So anyways the above picture of the cards, I sent the "watermelon slices" and made the card on the right and Janine made the card on the left. I rather like her card.....so funny!

God Bless America.....she sent the "stars and strips. My card on the right, Janine's on the left.

Janine sent the "scarecrow and corn stalk" My card is on the right, hers on the left.

Janine sent the "Fall Background" her card is on the left, mine is on the right.

I sent the leaves and it looks like we both used the Fall background. Janine's card is on the left and mine is on the right.

Last but not least, Janine sent the "Lip stick, mirror and perfume images" My card is on the right and her creative card is on the left.

Well that is it for the Revealing Party Cards. We just started the 4th session and I got my new name. I have to send my images out for November. I stamped 14 turkeys, will mail her 12 and keep 2 and make cards out of them. I have done that already....maybe I will take a picture of it and use it for my Thanksgiving header in a few days.

So tomorrow is my day to visit Betty's and make some more cards. Can hardly wait to see what she has come up with.

I had a dentist appointment today to have my teeth cleaned. I still have a couple of cavities....the dentist is watching them, that they don't get bigger. We have to take care of JP's mouth, he has 6 cavities that need tending too. The dentist said he would give us  50% on the cost of the cavity filling....which would be $735....or the other option would be to go to the Tech and have them taken care of for FREE with the Dentist overseeing the procedure. JP is still thinking about what he wants to do. I sure do hope he goes the "Free" way!!!!

Well, time to close and get this posted. You all have a good evening and a great Wednesday. Keep looking up....better days are coming. 

Cheers ~ Louise

Snowmen and Apple Cards......

Hi there everyone....wow, can't believe it's almost a week since I last posted here. But I have an excuse.....been busy making cards as you can see below. I had two orders to fill. 25 "Apple Note Cards" and 20 "Snowmen Christmas Cards" Also on order, (see 5th picture down) a poster for "Stocking Stuffers" I tell ya one thing....I could not have done the poster if I did not have my "Office program" installed, so happy I did. Have been able to make some labels and tonight, I am typing a letter to a friend....yay!!!

The first picture you see are the snowmen cards. This was a really fun and unique technique. The snowmen are actually napkins, peeled down to one layer then stuck on layered card stock with a glue stick. I had fun doing these....I must find some more Christmas napkins!!!  The silver was run through my snowflake cuttlebug folder. Hard to see, but the snowmen were embossed with 'speckles'. I have another set of 4 snowmen like these on green card stock with silver snowflakes. Then I will be on to another snowman design.  

Again, here are some Apple Cards. I need to make some more of these cards and add them to my Hospice card collection, also needed are a few snowmen. The meeting is December 4th.....I better get cutting.

Did I tell you these apple cards were actually made with a real apple?? Yep, cut it in half, stamped the apple in ink then on to the card stock. Can only use the apple for the evening, cause the next day the apple was browned and drying. Oh well, it served a GOOD purpose.

In these two pictures, the apples are pretty much the same, except for the background. The gold strips were embossed with gold embossing, I like the effect and may do this again with Christmas colors....maybe the snowmen may get some on their cards somehow.

So here is the poster I made for the Dentist office.....just added some washi tape, blue snowflakes and holly in the corners....I rather like this poster. Monday I will take it in for them to decide on which one of the three posters I made will be the final one on card stock. This one was done on paper.

Another Apple card for you....

I want to apologise to you who are reading my post right now. I am sorry that I have not been able to comment on some of your blogs. It is not because I don't want to, I do and have tried, but for some reason BlogSpot is not allowing me to do that.

Since I switched to Windows 10, I have found it much harder to do certain things that I could do easily with Windows 8. One of the things I am finding hard to do is leave comments on blogs. For some posts my only way around it, is to email you, and then I don't know if you see my email, because it probably went into the spam file for all I know.

I used to have problems with only being able to leave comments on certain blogs being anonymous...now for some reason I can't even be anonymous and that comment completely vanishes.

So sorry. I do read your blogs, if you will notice all the blogs on my sidebar.....everyday I check to see if you posted anything...I then go to your blog and read. If you see not comment from me, just know I tried but could not get in.

Well, you all have a good day and keep looking up. Please pray for those families who lost loved ones in this terrorist attack in Paris. I just don't understand why these terrorist get such a thrill in killing people and then themselves. We must pray for America....because we are next on their hit list...God Help US!!!!!!
Cheers (anyways) ~ Louise

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Hi there everyone....hope you are having a super day. Well, I guess the weather is going to be hot and steamy over the weekend. 90 degrees....uge, I shall either stay in the kitchen where the air conditioner is or go down stairs where the temp is cooler.....yeah, we still have a few places to run to, to keep cool. The back yard is pretty shady too, not going to exert myself too much this weekend, that is for sure.

I have been putting my pressure canner to use quite a bit lately....today I am going to make the corned beef that has been marinating in the frig for 7 days. I bought a small cabbage and some potatoes yesterday....so I am ready to make this dish. Oh and I got the rye bread ready for some sandwiches. Easy, peasy cooking weekend.

I am really loving this appliance and would recommend it to you or anyone else. I say, where have you been all my life????? I called the company yesterday, as there is a rack for canning that I did not get with the canner....geez, you would think that would be something that would be included with the canner, wouldn't you? So now I am looking forward to doing some canning, maybe tomatoes and pickles to start.....we shall see.

So in the top and bottom pictures are the piece of brisket, I have marinating....it's looking pretty good here. Will take a picture of this lovely piece of meat after it is cooked. I did buy a manager's special spoon roast for a meal next week....hopefully it will get tender enough for JP to chew on one side.

Here is the finished product....all cooked up. I put his plate of food on the table...and by the time I got his fruit on the table his plate  was almost gone except for some potatoes. "Was it good JP?" "It's almost gone!" he said.

 

I shall do this again, as I have another hunk of brisket in the freezer. My next experiment will be roast beef sandwiches with onions and peppers and Italian seasonings. I am having fun with this canner, that is for sure.

JP has his appointment on Monday to have 4 teeth pulled....please keep him in your prayers. He will have Monday and Tuesday off from work, so hopefully he will be a fast healer.

I have my first eye surgery on Wednesday, pray for me also. A nurse called today to ask some medical and medicine questions. Would you believe she was actually singing to me on the phone. I said I was a little nervous about the procedure and she said, Oh no need to worry, it's quick and fast and she went through the whole thing, explaining step by step what will happen. Why, she even sang to me about the "Black Bird" "pack up all your cares and woes, here I go singing low...by-by black bird" Not to worry, maybe I could get something from my Doctor to kind of calm me down. Guess that is why I need some prayer....I was nervous about the deep cleaning at the Dentist and that went well....now this, hope it goes as fast as the teeth cleaning went.

Well, time to close, need to take a little nap before the Schwan's man comes. Ribs, fries and guacamole sauce....yummie!! Then next Thursday comes my first box from "Blue Apron." Will be fun to see what they send. Since I signed up with Blue Apron, I have seen other Companies that do this same thing....some do not tell how much it costs....or it's hard to find. Then another company is $10 more....so we shall see....I may do this just for the summer, I need to see if this is cost effective for us. The thought of having your meals come to the house is intriguing....a savings on gas and time shopping.

Well, I was going to close here...guess I will do just that. Have a great day and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

What I See ~ Looking Out My Kitchen Window

Hi there everyone, how is your day going??? I was reading Diana's blog this morning. She mentioned what she sees looking out her kitchen door. Here's her blog. I commented on her blog that this is what I see out my kitchen window......lovely isn't it??? I wish I saw what she did. 

I try to keep my back yard nice, but when you have neighbors that don't seem to care what their yard looks like.....it sure does make for bad feelings. They have condensed and reorganized a few things.....BUT it still is a mess.

They did put up this new fence a couple of weeks ago, but have not finished the process as yet. The flowers hanging from the shepherds hook is on our side of the fence. I have had a few comments from people visiting me in my backyard...."Can't you call the city to complain?" I guess I could, but I don't want to start problems....I just live with it. Guess that is why I suffer from an ulcer.

In this picture, you can see part of my back yard from the kitchen window. This is what I look at when doing dishes..........I dream daily of a 10 foot fence that hides all their stuff!!!!

Another few from inside.......would you like to do dishes here? It used to be nice scenery when the other people lived there....least they kept things looking nice with flowers and mowed grass.

This is a view of my backyard from the other kitchen window. If there was a way of moving the kitchen sink to this window......I would do it. BUT that probably would cost 5k if not more, who has that kind of money....no, not me. See the fan blades and post sitting on the table.....that is the start of my dragon fly that I want to make.

Here is a closer view of my back yard......yeah, daily I look out the window, just brings peace and quiet to my busy and noisy life. Can you see the 3 tires back in the far right??? That is where "Frieda the Frog" will sit and the Bird Feeders have a tire around them....I want to spray paint that too. Just a few projects going on here.

I have not been feeling all that well the last couple of days....but today, I finally am...guess getting older you have your good days and not so good days. I have another appointment on the 7th with the Dentist for a 2nd Deep Cleaning on the left side of my mouth. Hopefully this one will go smoothly as did the first deep cleaning the end of May. Then they will start on my 6 cavities. I am thinking I will wait till September for that...too much going on these next few months.

Also going on this month....I will be having cataract eye surgery on the 22nd on the right eye, then on August 5th, the left eye. Then there is the Pre-op appointments and Post-op appointments...yes I will be busy this month with all that. Not to mention, JP will be needing to go to the Dentist also....he has a bad tooth and the left side of his face is swelled up. I said, "you need to go to the Dentist." Do you think he will go???? Nope, he says the swelling is going down. Okay....have it your way.

Well....I guess that is enough of my complaints for one day. You all have a wonderful rest of the day and have fun on the 4th of July!!!!
Keep looking up!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Just a Few Cards......

Hi there everyone. May 31st....the last day of the month, here comes JUNE!!! Thought I would post some cards I made yesterday. It was one of those days where all it did was rain off and on. I thought about going outside to plant some plants.....but I guess....just too lazy and didn't want to get rained on.

This next Friday is Hospice meeting....and I do not have any cards made....yikes I better get cuttin'. Since I had been sick (April 12th) have not made a single card...gosh talk about taking time off....this was ridiculous. So, I went down stairs to make a few.

I basically wanted to make some "Thank You" cards to send off to "Rebuilding Together" people for all the wonderful work they did on my house and yard. There just aren't enough thank yous in this whole world to go around to thank them all for the work and all the wonderful improvements. I think, every time I use something, I ask God to Bless those that did this and that improvement. It is just amazing to me that all these strangers would take time from their busy schedules to help me and JP with our problems. I guess all these years of helping others.....the tables have turned and now we need the help. It's strange, being on the receiving end.

So here we go....a tour of my card making. In this picture (sorry for the darkness....guess there are a few light bulbs missing in the light fixture....shall have to fix that this week.) The top 3 cards are Thank you cards.....the set is from Stamping Up. The bottom 3 cards are Happy Father's Day cards.

In the above cards, the idea is from a card I saw on the Internet using the goose and washi tape. This stamp set came with the little birds....so I thought, why not make a card using them too. Makes a nice card for a man.

Now in this card I was using a technique that Frenchie used. Using wax paper and making a reflection in the water.....I always wondered how to do this. Here is the link.

These last two pictures are the Father's Day cards. Again using the "reflection technique" and wax paper. The silver side is a metal tape I got at the hardware store and ran it through my cuttle bug then smeared some Copic markers on top to POP out the flowers with color....kind of neat huh?

I have about 4 more cards to make using this technique....most likely will send one of these cards to my step-father and maybe one for JP from Kylie our dog.

So probably this next week I will be busy making cards for Hospice....funny how we go through phases in life.....after not touching or making a card in almost 7 weeks, now I am ready to make some cards. Course my house was turned upside down, so it has taken this long to get things back to a "sort of normal". Still have the basement to re-organize, as I had to move everything away from all the basement windows so "Rebuilding Together" people could install the basement windows. Needless to say that is what I have been doing this past month....moving, re-moving, packing, unpacking and uncluttering my little house. I may be doing a garage sale in July.....my neighbor will be doing a monthly sale....so I think I will join her. Geez that means the garage needs to be cleaned.....yep, I have lots of things going this summer.

Well you all have a great day and keep looking up.
Cheers ~ Louise

PS....The Hawks won Game 7!! Yay!! Now they go to the finals!
PSS..I had my Deep Cleaning at the Dentist....the appointment went well....second half will be July 7th.

Do You Need A Kiss......

Hi there everyone.....Hope you are having a wonderful evening....this last day of March?!?! Looks like March went out like a Lamb......whew! Now on to APRIL!!!!!

Well my TV conked out....it was 17 years old. I had another TV in the bedroom, a smaller one...so the old one will go to a recycle place. This little TV will do till I can get another used one with a bigger screen. I like big!!!!

So tomorrow being Wednesday, Kylie has an appointment at the groomer's for 8am.....uge, I am not very good at getting up early in the morning. So after I drop Kylie off at the groomer, I will probably go to Festival Foods for a few things and then over to St. Vincent's to see about their used TV's. Since Thursday is Senior Citizens Discount Day....I will wait till Thursday to buy a TV, if there is one I like. If not.....I can wait for another Thursday.

Thursday, Kylie has an appointment at the Vet's....she has to get a shot, tested for Heart warm and a little checkup. Busy couple of days for Miss Kylie.

April also brings my two Dentist appointments for a deep cleaning of my teeth. Not sure I am looking forward to that. Sometime this month Rebuilding Together will start work on our ceiling. Whew....I am pooped before April even begins.

Well time to close this post for today. Tomorrow is APRIL 1st!!! Hope you don't have too many pranks pulled on you. Oh and some time in April I hope you get a "great big smooch kiss" from some monkey!! April Fools!!!! Have a good day and keep looking up!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Potato Waffles and Winners

Hi there everyone.........oh such beautiful weather!!!! I love it being lighter later too...wish daylight savings would always stay this way. Was reading today that changing the clocks forward and back is not good for ones health. It was quite interesting because it all has something to do with the hormones that wake you in the morning and what helps you to sleep at night....so when the times changes, the hormones get messed up...quite understandable. If I can find that article, I will place it here.

Lately I have been making potato waffles....oh yum. I bake up about 6 potatoes, naturally the first night I slice them in half and put melted butter, sour cream with chives on....mmmmm, so good. The left over potatoes are turned into waffles the next night.

I like extra crispy waffle potatoes....so a little extra butter on the waffle iron, some seasoning and press down. and "wah lah" yummy waffle potatoes. Then a little bit of sour cream and chives to top it off. Not sure how many calories these carry...one potato is 130 calories according to the bag...so maybe we are looking at 200 calories per potato??? 

I have also been doing grilled cheese sandwiches on my waffle iron. Gosh, if I had known my waffle iron was this versitale, it would not have been sitting in the cabinet all this time and just being used for waffles only. Doing eggs is another tasty dish too.

And the winners are.....tomorrow I will be sending this St. Patrick's Day card to 4 winners. Diana, Patty, Angela and Biz. Congratulations everyone and thank you so much for visiting my blog and leaving comments. Your "blog friendship" is always appreciated. I love visiting your blogs everyday too!!

Well, I could have had an appointment with the dentist tomorrow morning to start the deep cleaning of my teeth....but I passed on it. I said I am a big chicken and wanted to wait on that and just get the tooth pulled first...she understood completely. Gosh, I hope they give me some laughing gas for that cleaning...for some reason it sounds painful.

Hope you are having a restful evening. After I get done here, I need to go do some dishes, they are piling up again. Have a good night and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

Tea ~~Dentist~~Blueberry Pie

Hi there everyone....what a lovely day it has turned out to be. Hope you are having a good one today. I saw a cute picture on Facebook and thought to save it....but didn't. It said, "Only in Wisconsin do people get excited about 40 degree weather." Ha! that sure is the truth though...cause this weather feels so much like SPRING has sprung!!!! YAYYYYYY!!!!

Well, it is time for tea, got your cup? Think I could use one as I type this little post. As you can see in the following picture I visited the dentist today.... it's not my favorite place to go. So yeah...I need a cup of tea to quiet my soul.

It was actually a necessity to go today. Wednesday as I was flossing, a tooth broke. The top, back molar. Not knowing where to go, I decided to call the place we used to go to and could not get in till today. Have not been to a dentist since 2001....yeah, I am a big scardy cat. We have had no dental insurance all this time. I did pick some up last year for JP, but he did not want to go....neither did I for that matter. So being the "sometimes unwise people" we are, we cancelled. Wouldn't you know it....now we need it and could use it.

So today I went in....as I said, it was the old dental office we went to years ago....but with a different Dentist. The dentist we had, retired....this dentist.....I really liked him, very pleasant man and seemed to really want to help. His assistant was really nice too. They made me feel really comfortable. Never once scolded me for not coming in all these years. It was a nice visit....I will let you know after a couple more visits, what my opinion is then.

They did a complete x-ray exam, and it was all digital......I could actually see all my teeth, fillings and cavities on the screen. Then they went tooth by tooth and what each one needed....I did not understand a word they were saying. END RESULT.....the tooth will be pulled, verses saving it. Saving it, will cost $1600 verses $338 to pull. Yeah...that's the route I took. I also have 6 cavities that need to be filled and also need a DEEP CLEANING going under the gums....gosh all this time I thought my flossing was helping....he said, "partially, but because of diabetes my gums are in desperate help and will need to be cleaned every 3 months".....darn these sugars.

So the plan is, next week on St. Patrick's Day I get my tooth pulled and they will give me some "LAUGHING GAS" so I won't be feeling much pain....that is fine with me. (Darn....so much for corned beef and cabbage.) Then in about a month starts the teeth and gum cleaning....then the cavities. Sounds like quite the agenda....hopefully I can keep up with the payments. In June or July I might be getting cataract surgery.....so we shall see how this all fits together, time wise and finacially.

Does this dessert not look delicious???? (I am thinking it is diabetes worthy, don't you???) "Blueberry Icebox Pie" 313 calories per servings....oh-oh 52.3 grams of carbs, oh, but it has 11.4 g of protein. That's okay.....one slice can't hurt, can it???

Here is the ingredients:
Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 1/2 cups finely ground reduced fat graham cracker crumbs
4 teasp. light butter, melted (or buy a store bought graham cracker crust)
2 cups fresh blueberries (or frozen and thawed)
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 teasp powdered unflavored gelatin
8 oz reduced fat cream cheese
8 oz fat-free cream cheese
14 oz fat free sweetened condensed milk
Several fresh mint leaves

Preparation:
Preheat oven 350 F. Lightly coat a 9' spring form pan or glass pie pan with cooking spray. Combine crumbs and butter in a bowl and press into a pan. Bake 10 minutes. (or just use an already made graham cracker crust)

Puree 1 1/2 cups blueberries; mix with lemon juice in a micro wavable bowl.

Sprinkle gelatin on top and let stand 10 minutes. Microwave on medium 10 seconds to dissolve gelatin, then beat with an electric mixer or food processor at a medium speed.

Beat in cream cheeses and sweetened condensed milk. Pour mixture over baked crust and chill until set. Garnish with mint and remaining blueberries. I think I shall make this pie sometime this week.

Well time to close.....just one more reminder, leave a comment and for every comment is a chance to win a St. Patrick's Day card from me. Tomorrow is the last day to qualify for a card from me, because I shall be picking names on Wednesday and sending the cards out by Thursday.

Have a great day and enjoy the weather and keep looking up!!
Cheers ~ Louise