Cards Made @ Stampin'Up Camp

Hi there everyone. How has your week been going so far. I have been a little lackadaisical lately. Was not feeling well yesterday, so I took the day off. Today? I woke up with the side of my chin and side of mouth swollen. A complete mystery to me. Not sure if something bite me during the night or I if had been chewing on the side of my mouth during the night...never had that before. The inside of my mouth is a bit sore, so maybe I was "chomping at the bit" during the night. Must have been having some stressful dreams or something. Well, today I am feeling okay, except for the swolleness. Got up kind of late today, like 12noon. Yikes, half the day was over.

Well yesterday JP finally went to a foot Doctor, after suffering with planter warts and corns for over 3 years. The last couple of weeks he could hardly walk around. I said, "Go to a Doctor"!!! I have so, come to the point that I am tired of his moaning and complaining of his arm pains, feet pain, gout and arthritis pains and a few of his other ailments. He does not listen to me when I say, go to a Doctor....finally he did. Whew, the doctor shaved his corns and wart off and put acid on them. He can actually walk without pain. He can go for follow-up if need be. Hopefully this will work out for him.

Well on to some better news. Sunday I went to a Stampin'up Camp and in the following pictures are some of the things I was able to make. In the top picture is an envelope. Stampin'up has a neat gadget that can make any size envelope you want.....I think I may buy this...it was only $19.95....just think of all the pretty envelopes I could make.

In this picture is a little box. Stampin'up has another neat gadget that makes all sorts of different size boxes....cute...but I don't think I would get a lot of use out of this box maker. So, it's not on the list of things to get.

This was a fun craft. Making bags, I guess you could buy the bags from Stamping up....also buy the stamp set and the die cuts. The bag turned out cute...just need something to put in it now.

Now this was a pretty card...the stars were stamped then die cut. The little stars are a punch. The back ground (light blue) went through the Big Shot to give it a textured look.

I liked doing this card, just a simple tag that was stamped "thanks". I actually bought the punch for the top of the tag, which you cannot see too well. I think this will make a nice card for Hospice, where I could stamp most anything seasonal on the tag, happy birthday, thinking of you etc. and make it work for any season I decide.

Here is a cute Christmas card....for some reason I had a problem following directions on this one and needed to re-do the card. The green back ground just barely fit the white card. I probably needed to cute it down a bit. The green back ground with the candy cane and saying was originally on a square, but I had it turned around and could not fit it right. So we just die cut another piece of green to fit the white piece. Oh well, that's how cards are made....from "sometimes" mistakes. 

Last picture, this is what I won as a door prize....yay...I don't usually win things at doings like this, so I was happy to come away with something. It is something I will actually be able to use for my Christmas cards. Of which I probably will be working on in the next few weeks. Better hurry....December is right around the corner. Oh my so much to do and so little time.

Well, I guess that should be all for today. Thursday, weather permitting, I will be going to another card making session and 4 more cards. Watch for them on Friday and maybe even a recipe for "Toad in the Hole". In the mean time, have a great day and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

Star Clementis or Jasmine??? Which is it???

 Hi everyone....hope you had a great Saturday. It was another beautiful day, a little chilly but still wonderful. Oh and did you see by the calendar.....it was the last day of summer.....(sigh).....now to really enjoy the Fall. As winter is peeking around the corner again!!!

Well, as you can see by the title of this blog...Star Clementis or Jasmine...which is it??? Last year at this time, I had a garage sale, and a lady told me this vine was a "Star Clementis" well, I believed her, figured she knew her flowers and never questioned it. So at this years garage sale....a man came by and saw my vine and he asked if I knew what it was.....I told him last year a lady told me it was a "star clementis" he said he had a vine like this also....and it is called a Jasmine. I said, really....I always thought it was a "star". No he said, it's a Jasmine....well, all this time, I thought......so I looked up on the computer..."Jasmine Vine" and sure enough it is a Jasmine.........an exotic flowering vine from China who likes warm weather.

OKAY.....I looked it up and GUESS WHAT!!!! This vine is called a.....STAR JASMINE VINE.....now how about that......both the man and the woman were right, I am at peace now......lol!!!

 Here is a shot of the "star jasmine vine" from the inside of the porch, gives us lots of privacy, don't you think?? Here's the link for more information about this vine. http://treesandshrubs.about.com/od/commonshrubs/p/star-jasmine-trachelospermum-jasmineoides.htm/ Hopefully this takes you to the link...if not just type in "star jasmine vine" and you will find all sorts of info.

Well, this week I had a garage sale, Thur, Fri and today....made $68 not too shabby for 3 days. Weather was nice and people friendly. I think I will hold another sale next week-end. As long as the stuff is still out and the weather is supposed to be in the 70's next week...perfect for a garage sale. It is Octoberfest also, so maybe there will be lots of traffic too. Well, time to close this blog. I am so glad my problem is solved and now I know for sure what this vine is called....YAY!!!

You all have a great weekend and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh. Cheers ~ Louise

Some "End of the Summer" Flower Pictures

 Hi everybody, how are you all doing this wonderfully bright and sunny day, September 17th??? Well, right now I am sitting at this computer doing this blog....as you can guess. But afterwards, I plan on getting dressed and going outside for a bit. Need to get the garage ready for a "garage sale" this week and next. Hopefully I can make enough $$$ to buy a new computer. (Dream on)

Now for a small tour of my flowers. In the above picture is my "Star Clementius" they cover the whole side of the porch....they are amazing!!! We have to cut them down every fall, down to the ground. But as you can see, by this time of the year they have grown to the roof. The flowers usually last for about 4-6 weeks there about. Then they start to fall off and leave a BIG MESS!! But they still are pretty for the time they are with us.

 This is what you see on the stairs going down from the porch...I put my hibiscus plant on the stairs to catch the rain water...she was getting kind of dusty, so the rain washed her off. Those are giant marigolds down there with a sprinkling of little purple flowers, (forget their names right off hand)

 Now this is my volunteer sunflower with a bee attached to it. In the back ground are 3 roses and the star Clementius. Anyways, the sunflower came from the compost pile, apparently I had some sunflower seeds in the compost that decided to grow. We must have planted some flowers and JP used the compost for extra dirt and "wa la" DAISIES. There are a couple more flowers that are about to bud....just as soon as they do I will take more pictures. This is a first.....probably won't happen again, not unless I plant some daisies from a package of seeds. Ha...and then they may not grow.

 In this picture, is our little cottage type house. It is over 125 years old, one of the first houses to be built on this block. Although you would not know it by looking at it....it's been updated quite a bit. It's a very sturdy house with a 8x8 solid, center beam running down the middle of the house. The joists are 2x8 actual beams and floors (not 2x4). In previous years there used to be a big tree growing in front of the house...a wind knocked it down and it landed on the roof....you can still see where the front part of the roof is a little tipsy.

We had the house resided with new doors and windows added. The roof was redone also. Sad to say, it had never leaked till we had the roof redone...now it leaks. There was like 3 layers of shingles, so no leaks were allowed. Then, the roofer took all the shingles off, and put on new ones.....ever since then, we have had roof problems. Guess we need to get the roof re-done....but alas, no money.....maybe I need to do a garage sale for the roof.....lol!!!

 These lovely flowers are my zinnias......I loves my zinnias. I have planted these flowers along the side of the house for the last 5 or so years....maybe more, guess now it is a tradition for me....the bees like the flowers too.

 Ahhhh yes, my apples.......I really enjoyed my apples this year. The tree is about 15 years old (or more) and this is the first year that it produced so many lovely apples. The lady at Sprangers Apple Orchard told me, now that my tree knows that it can produce apples, we will most certainly have apples next year too.....oh yippie, I can hardly wait. So to date, I got over 115 apples and the birds and varmints got the rest. I made lots of apple pie filling and have about 18 containers in the freezer....lots of pies and smoothies coming up!!!

In this last picture are my roses....I have 4 rose bushes and these are the red ones. Sweet huh?!? I shall have to remember to get a picture of each rose before the season ends and post it here....I love roses. I have this red, a coral, yellow and white rose bushes....I used to have a bright pink one but it died after 20 years. I am sure I still have pictures of it though.

So there you have it, a few pictures of my "end of the summer" flowers.....each year I say I will do less, but more seems to show up....I probably will eventually go with perennials, rather then annuals....less up-keep. But for the mean time this is fine with me.

Well, you all have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh. Cheers ~ Louise

Winter's Greeting Snowman

Winter is here, whether we want it or not. We got 11 inches over the weekend.....whew, guess that is better then rain, as our roof leaks into the ketchen, so snow is better at this point. Well, here I have a snowman card, he is a "Winter Greeting Snowman" as I have finished the Christmas cards. Now it is on to Valentine and Winter Cards. I am going to put him in my etsy store, probably tonight, you can go to http://www.cards4ubylouise.etsy.com/ to see all my other cards. This particular card will be $3.00 + postage. You will receive one free card of my choosing plus a bookmark.

Well, you have a great day and see you in a few days as I am trying to get ready for Christmas and get all my cards out to friends and family. Take care and take Jesus!!!! ~Louise~