Happy Valentine's Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers ~ Louise

Where Did September Go????

Yikes! Time is flying by!!! As someone said to me, "I shut my eyes Monday night and wake up, it is Friday morning already" Yep, it's true. Why did time go so slowly when I was younger and speed up so fast as I grow older???? Never will understand this concept of old age!!!!!

Well, can't believe 5 weeks have passed since my last blog, either I am lazy or just running out of mojo to blog, either or, just not much happening in my life (for now), which is fine with me at this time in my life. My Chicago Blackhawks have started their pre-season games and October 10th is the first of the regular season. So, this is good! I like hockey, then NASCAR, then Football. Hopefully the Packers do well without Arron Rogers. Oh, and the Blackhawks do well without Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Time will tell, I guess.

Hospice meeting was yesterday, always fun to meet together and see what the others have brought to the table as donations to the "card ministry" to Hospice.

So, these were some of my offerings. The cards above were fun to make, an idea I saw on Facebook. I really should make a template next time, so the pieces will be uniform and fit. I sort of pieced together the segments, so no, they were not uniform, each one was a bit different, but maybe that was part of the fun. I shall have to make some more like this, maybe some Christmas cards and Valentine cards too.

The bottom card, another pieced together card in a different design. Liked the new "blessed" word for this card, just bought it recently, filled up the space that did not have a blocked design.

These two cards were made at the Thompsom Center. There is a room set aside for Scrapbook and card makers. All the supplies have been donated, so the classes given are free. They usually have two teachers that give of their time showing us how to make cards. Then on the days they are not there, it is free time, and we can do what we want using the supplies that are there. So, this is what I came up with, the medallion was there to use, and the leaves die I brought from home to use there.

In this picture is another leaf card I made at the Thompson Center. The card on the left was made at home with my laminator and foil and ran a strip of green cardstock down the center and then placed the "blessed" word on it.

The cards below were an idea I found on the internet, not sure where. But I found the marbled cards from Hobby Lobby and thought they would make a nice card, I added the flowers and "just a little note" and left the inside blank.

So, this month of October will be "yard clean-up month"? The big tree in the back yard will dump millions of leaves, last year I never finished the whole yard, maybe this year will be different. The front yard, I have to cut down the peonies bush, daisies, my large porch vine and whatever else I can get too. Yeah, a lot of work for this old lady at this time. We'll see how it goes.

I have been going through some more of JP's old files from the 80's and 90's, gosh he had a lot of stuff. There were a few tracts intermingled, so I will be able to send them to Bob, who has been passing out all of JP's tracts that he had in his office. I moved all of JP's prayer journals to where the files were kept and put JP's ashes with his prayer journals, kinda keep it all together. Then there will be room in the file/safe to put a few other of JP's keepsakes. Along with a folder I am putting together that is titled "In Case of Emergency and/or Death for Louise E. Gatti" Everything that I can think of that has to do with JP, Louise, this house, Insurance, Wills, etc. so whoever the Executor is will know all there is to know and where to find it. Is that all possible???? I don't know, but I have been told to do this by a couple of people, it is a gift to those left behind that will have to take care of everything after I am gone. A morbid thought!!!!!

Can't think of much more, the time is 4:30 and I have yet to accomplish anything around this house. I am going to make a chicken dish tonight that I saw on Facebook that looked really good. My tomatoes are starting to ripen so one tomato will be used in the dish. I will take a picture of it, if I remember and don't eat it first.

Talk to you later, keep looking up better days are coming!!! 

Cheers ~ Louise

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
 

A Few New Birthday Cards and Shopping

Just added this card to my Etsy store the other day. The black and white tape is called "Washi Tape" which is fast becoming my favorite thing to play with. The card is priced at $3.00 + postage. As will all the cards be in this post tonight.

Again I was playing with my "Washi Tape."  Made one like this in Pink.

Here is my "bumble bee" card. I bought a honey comb embossing folder at the Milwaukee Expo. The bees are colored with copic markers, but the bee stamp was borrowed. I did stamp enough bees to make more though.

Another "Washi Tape" Birthday card. I finally picked up a balloon punch so I am now able to  coordinate my balloons with the tape I use........such fun!!

Today I went to Archievers, using my coupon to copy a free page from JP's racing scrapbook. A friend wants a page from the scrapbook.......soooo instead of sending the page, I was able to get a duplication of the page for FREE!!! My favorite kind of shopping. I also bought some more Washi Tape..........Yay for Washi!!

Silver, blue and red plus red and green chevron. I have an idea for July 4th cards, using the red and blue. When I figure it out, I certainly will post it here.

Here is that amazing copy of the page from JP's racing scrapbook. I was very impressed. I hope Mark likes it, he wanted the news clipping of "Gatti does it all." It is from August 1972, so I was not too thrilled to let it go, even though he was willing to pay $100 for it. Hopefully we can get it sent, without it getting crushed or bent!

Well, time to close here, it is getting late and I need to get dinner ready for JP, he'll be home in a couple of hours. So you all take care and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh.........someday I will do a post on that phrase I so often use.  Cheers ~ Louise

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day



Christmas Eve dinner was steak, shrimp and red pepper grilled on the George Foreman grill. The steak was to perfection and was still pink on the inside. No special seasoning except for my "no salt Greek seasoning" also on the plate was fried mushrooms. I tried to plate it to look tantalizing, not sure 'Gordon Ramsey' would be impressed. Also, on the menu was "Crispy Mashed Potato's" (you will find the recipe in the previous blog) salad and celery with dip and onion rye toast. JP had a bowl of fruit and yogurt for dessert. We enjoyed our dinner very much.



Christmas Morning ~ this is JP looking at his new scrape book I put together for him. The original scrape books were falling apart after 40 years!! I thought I would just get a couple of pages done, but managed to get 23 pages done from 1972 and into the start of 1973. Over the years, pictures and newspaper clippings were taken out and misplaced. So I had to really work hard at piecing it all back together again. (just like humpty~dumpty)

I really enjoyed doing this scrape book, so now maybe I won't be so fearful to try another one. I do have plenty of pictures that can be scrape booked using many themes.....my next book, (which I started about 4 years ago) are all my dogs. Now that Hyko has left us, I guess it is time to get that started again.



Here is a page from the scrapbook, I took a picture cause I wanted to see how it would turn out. So maybe during the course of the next couple of months I will take pictures of the scrape book, so you can see the lay-outs and what the book looks like. I know, I know, "you say.....I have seen plenty of scrapbooks" Ah....BUT, you've not seen this one!! Anyways, this is a picture of JP winning a feature race in his old car "169" in 1972.

 As I said, I really enjoyed putting this together as it brought back lots of memories. I was really looking forward to giving it to him......now I can finish it without being rushed. Christmas eve I received some racing paper and stickers that I had ordered last week. So I was able to organize the book a little bit more before giving it to JP for Christmas.



Christmas Day we spent a few hours at Jim and Arlene's house. Ham, dressing, peas and carrots, baked potato, pear salad, berry pie and tea. Then we opened some gifts....Arlene likes to go "thrift shopping" so I got a cook book full of cookies, JP got a doggie calendar and a picture frame with a picture of a cut-out doggie that looked like Hyko. The didn't know Hyko had died, and so the dog looked like Hyko. (sniff-sniff and sigh)

It was a nice visit, as we sat around talking about the Lord and reading and speaking scripture. JP and Jim can really banter back and forth pretty good and JP usually knows what address that scripture comes from. They both know the Word really good.

We left about 3:30pm and came home.......I guess I was tired, cause about 5:00pm I closed my eyes and did not wake up till 7:30pm...........whew, where did that time go?? So about 8:00pm I made a lasagna in my new little casserole dish from Kylie....can you imagine she paid $3.99 for it. Guess that is another picture for another time. (smile)

You are going to like this........so I made the lasagna and put it in the oven about 8:20, set the temperature for 400 degrees and FORGOT to turn the "ON" knob, soooooo needless to say the lasagna sat in the oven for 1 hour without being baked...........GOOD GRIEF where were my brains!!! So when I realized the lasagna was not baking, it was about 9:20pm. So about 10 minutes after 10pm we were eating lasagna............it sure was good, and well worth the wait or should I say weight....I think it was the new casserole dish that made it taste good.

Well, I guess this blog is getting a bit to long and no doubt you are getting bored with all my rambling. So I shall close for now. Hopefully I will get another blog in before the New Year. So you all take care and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh.
Cheers ~ Louise

Bizzy Daze Ahead...............

Needing ALOT of coffee in the daze ahead, hahahaha!!!! Hope my little 1970's Melitta Coffee Maker can make it. Can you believe I still have this little coffee maker? It's a one cupper chugging along since the early 70's!!! Probably got it right around '71 or '72 before JP and I got married. I have seen a few Melitta Coffee makers on the Internet...and they were still in their original box. But they were asking $50 and $60 because they are considered an ANTIQUE...........CAN YOU IMAGINE!?!?! Thinking when this little machine conks out, gonna buy one of those Kering coffee makers, just a one cupper, cause I only drink about 2-3 cups of coffee a day......if I made a pot, then I would think I have to drink the whole pot. And that's where I would get into trouble..........don't want to have another bleeding ulcer drinking so much caffeinated coffee. Although decaffeinated shouldn't do as much harm and at just 2 cups per day.

I have been drinking Organic Roasted Dandelion Root tea lately. It promotes a healthy liver function. Since being pre-diabetic, my liver functions poorly. Since drinking this tea 3 times a day, have actually been feeling a little better and my side has not been aching as much and blood sugars are down a bit......so maybe this is a good thing. Jillian from the Biggest Loser said drinking Dandelion Root tea works as a diuretic also, my body seems to retain water which adds weight to the body............oh it is a losing battle at times and especially since I am turning 66 years old tomorrow.....Happy Birthday to MEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Well, let's see, gonna make my birthday cake today.....carrot cake with cream cheese frosting....oh yes please!!!! Tomorrow (my birthday) doing nothing special, (just baking 3 pumpkin pies, coleslaw and cranberries for Thanksgiving at Sandi's). We won't be going out till Saturday, as JP has to work. So Saturday is my "birthday celebration and time out". Guess we will hit a few thrift stores, JP needs some pants and maybe I will find something for Louise. JP has his accordion on lay away at the Pawn Store, so maybe we will put some money down on that, so he can have it in time for Christmas......oh joy!!!!

I have a gift to make for someone today, and really need to get my Christmas cards made this week. Have a few more etched glass candle holders and vases to make. Plus work on JP's Christmas present...revamping his Stock Car Scrapbooks....now for some reason that could be a chore to me, so if I even get 3-4 pages done and wrap it up to give, then finish it after Christmas just might be the way to go, so I am not so rushed. Finally found some pictures that were missing, JP's first and second race cars that I wanted to add to the scrap book....so we shall see what I get done.

Well time to close this blog till after Thanksgiving....maybe I will blog again on Friday, so you all have a great day and enjoy Thanksgiving and don't forget to Give Thanks to God for all he has given you......that is what it is all about.............after all God has given us much to be thankful for. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and watch how God works there!!! Keep looking up for you never know when you redemption draws nigh!!!!
Cheers ~ Louise