Okay....Cards We Made at Betty's 13 Days Ago

Hi there everyone. Well, as my title says, okay, here are the cards we made at Betty's 13 days ago. Guess I am kinda slow at posting them. It's always a joy to go to Betty's and learn something new.

The top card was stamped with the flowers and the die cut lady bug is from a set Betty got from www.wish.com for just $1...I think she got a few other things along with this little guy. Cute as a bug, isn't it.

I Love Flamingos. This was fun to make. The card was sponged with blue ink for the sky and water. The Flamingos came in five pieces, so you had to match each piece in different colors, oh and get the beek right too.....I must have tried 3 times....this was one of those times, we needed a "Misti". The Flamingo turned out pretty good after a couple of tries.

This was a pretty fishy card....lol! We colored the fish with copic markers. The netting was stamped and a few gems to pop. The waves were from a patterned paper....looks almost real!!

This was an easy card....I really need to find me one of these die cut deer's, hopefully by Christmas so I can make a few of these cards. I have the trees and snowflakes and a die cut something like this one....just need the deer!!! I shall be on the hunt!!!

I've taken a week off from making cards....not sure why, for it is something I really enjoy. My yard keeps calling my name....there still is so much to do. I have been painting tires and planting things in them. Also, I transplanted a tomato plant for the 4th time....I am wondering if it will ever take root. We'll see, it's a Rutger, still has 2 months yet to grow. I still have not gotten all my garden animals out yet......

Can't believe there is only 3 days left in this month....where is this summer going to so fast!!! Well, I think I will close here, as there really is not much to talk about. Do you have times like that? Where there is not much going on to even do a blog??? I used to do a post every other day or so....now it's every week or so or more....

Oh well....keep looking up, better days are coming. 
Cheers ~ Louise

A Few Cards and My Gardens

Hi there everyone....did you miss me?? Yeah, been busy I guess. Working on cards, growing my gardens, enjoying my flowers to the trickling sound of my little pond. Such is retirement, not a whole lot goes on in my life.

So in these two pictures are some cards I put together. My secret stamper sent me the ladybug image, of course in black and white and I colored it in with alcohol inks. I really liked the way it turned out. When I first got the images (12 of them), my first thought was that it was a turtle, so I colored it in greens....but wait a moment....turtles don't have antena's do they???? Nope, it was then I realized this image was a LADYBUG!!! Big difference!!!

The image of the giraffes is what I sent to my secret stamper. I used pearl-x to color in the giraffes, so they have a little bit of shimmer. This is what I came up with, using the giraffes. Now on to August and a new image. Maybe next post I will take pictures of the cards I made using my image and the image sent to me by my secret stamper. Kind of a preview of what I have been doing of late.

In the pictures following, is one of my little gardens. From this end, is my cucumber plant, pepper plant and two bean plants. I already got a pepper off the plant, I cheated, it was already growing when I bought the plant. So I waited till it got bigger then we ate it!!! These plants get the morning sun.

In this picture, onions, lettuce, carrots  and radishes. I think I may cut some lettuce tonight...getting pretty big. We've had a few radishes....very small but good. I do have another planter with beans, a pepper plant and tomato plant growing. These plants get the afternoon sun.

Here is my garden pond....always fun to listen to the trickle of the pond. Hostas and white Impatient's grow in this garden as they like shade. I do have another Hosta to plant....a Popcorn Hosta.....not sure if I will plant it here or by the other planter along side the fence. I still have time before Fall. Don't want to rush things, you know?

It sure has been warm, some days going in the 90's and humid. We have all the fans going 24/7 just to keep a breeze flowing in the house. The basement has been tolerable. There is a fan going down there too, along with my "artic blast" a wee little air-conditioner that you have to sit by, in order to keep cool. I do have a window air conditioner in the kitchen. BUT, it only works for a short time and begins to spit. So I have to turn on the fan till it stops spitting, then I can turn it back up to #1 till it starts to spit again, then I turn it back down to the fan. The intervals are about 1/2 hour, it does get cool for a short time. I guess I really need to look into finding a new air conditioner. To tell you the truth....I prefer this kind of weather, struggling with the heat rather then struggle with the snow....the picture below is from this past snow storm in April....I guess I like my gardens.

Time to close here....you all have a great weekend, don't we all love Saturday and Sunday....yay!! Have a good one, keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

So Many Tomatoes........and Hurricanes.

Hi there everyone.....hope you all are having a good week. Yesterday Habitat for Humanity came to put up our fence.....I sure do love it. I took a lot of "before" and "after" pictures of the fences. That will be my next post in a few days.

So yes....I have been busy this past week....cleaning things up in the back yard to get it ready for the new fence. This Saturday, the Habitat people are going to paint the floor of my front porch. So I have to clean the porch of the lawn chairs, tables and fountain. I will probably spray the porch down to get the dust off. So just a little bit more work to go.

In between the cleaning, my tomato plants have been producing an abundance of tomatoes....I have been amazed.

In this picture I am drying some tomatoes....my first batch, I seasoned the tomatoes with salt and pepper. The second batch was a sandwich seasoning.....the third batch....just salt. Oh my, the tomatoes are delish....like candy. I might dry some more tomatoes tomorrow.

In the picture below is some salsa....chopped up tomatoes, peppers, onions, 1 teaspoon cilantro, 1 teaspoon taco seasoning and mixed together. I added some cheese to the salsa which was good too. Sooooo good. I just may make some more salsa this weekend. I should can some too.

Here's a peek at the tomatoes in different stages of ripeness.

I still want to make some canned spaghetti sauce, along with canning just plain tomatoes. I am having lots of fun with my tomatoes. Tonight I had a plain tomato sandwich with mayo on toast. So good. A tomato Quiche is on the agenda to make yet....maybe tomorrow for breakfast.

I am so sorry for and have prayed for those that suffered in Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. So much devastation. I can't imagine what it was like. Tornado's are scary, but a hurricane sounds even more scarier. To lose everything, no money, water, electric, housing, food.....sad.  Leaving your home to evacuate and not know if you will have a home to come back to. I don't know, so hard. Maybe Wisconsin is not so bad when it comes to weather....snow and cold, I will take it.

Well time to close. The weather is supposed to be really nice this week....summer has come back. 85 degrees on Saturday....I will let the Habitat volunteers paint the porch....maybe I will pull a few weeds around my rose bushes.

Have a great week and talk to you soon. Keep looking up....better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

A Shorty Blog 2 Day!

Hi everyone. Hope your day is going well. It's sort of dreary today, not sure if there is more rain in the forecasts or not....but I think we have had enough. Had to transplant 2 tomato plants cause there were no holes in the bottom of the planter for the rain water to drain. So I bought 3 new colorful planters, 2 orange planters and 1 fuchsia planter. Along with 4 new tomato cages, a red, green, yellow and orange cage, new color added to a garden always makes for happy tomatoes. Don't you think???


I was going to post my strawberry picking from last night. But for some odd and unknown reason Blogger.com is not letting me download my pictures onto this post. I have hunted all over this site to see what the problem is and can't seem to find it. I've even shut down the computer hoping there was a small kink and that it would clear it up once coming on again. What in the world changes from one day to the next.....is hard to explain and beyond my computer savey. Must be some kind of curse!!! I know....an Internet curse and some hacker is playing games with me again!!!! Honestly, I keep to myself and hopefully don't bother anyone, but there still seems to be a problem with this computer. Please Viruses and Hackers leave me alone!!!


Maybe it is just the weather and things will be better tomorrow.....I hope.


Well, nothing much going on. I need to take Kylie for a walk and get back before the Schwans Man shows up.....mmmm...getting some golden nugget ice cream bars tonight.....my guilty pleasure!!! Along with some sweet potato and regular fries. Yep...simple meals this weekend. Hamburgers, fries and salad, eggs and bacon, cheese omelets and pizza and maybe a soup of some kind.


Still need to plant a few things, two more tomato plants and some white sunflowers....and start weeding the front yard.....it's a mess that I have just not wanted to tackle, but it must be tackled sooner or later.


So you all have a great weekend and keep looking up.....here's to sunny blue skies and puffy white clouds are in our near future!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Well.....If I Can't Take a Vacation.....

Hi there everyone. How is your day going??? As my title says....."if I can't take a vacation" real soon, I guess I will just change my "Blog Look." I heard a long time ago that when a woman starts moving the furniture around in the house....she is in need of a vacation. Could that be the same for changing colors and pictures on my blog??? Well, I feel a bit better, this background looks very summery, doesn't it?? The other background was nice, but seemed to depress me for some reason...maybe cause it was so dark. This should help for awhile.

 
 Here's a few more pictures of some beaches.....not sure I used this one in the previous blog...but that is okay....it still looks fun down there and I would like to float around in that blue, blue water, sinking my toes in the sand.

Another shot of a far away beach....wouldn't it be nice to put your toes in that sandy beach??? Or just sit in the water and take a nap....dream, dream, dream!!!!

Well, time to close, I need to finish planting my tomato plants and get going on staining my front porch....see how far I get on that today. Staining the porch may just be an "all summer job" for me, a little bit at a time, geez, don't want to over do it!!!

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

June is Busting Out!!!

Hi there everyone. How is your new month going so far??? I was hoping to get a post going on June 1st, but had some computer problems....seems my computer got attacked....Geez, did not realize it. Tried uploading some pictures, but to no avail. Finally had to give up.

Today I am back, files are cleaned and got my pictures uploaded, always have some kind of hoop to jump through....such is life!!! Today I thought I would show a few pictures of my house, and garden and flowers around the house.

Here is a picture of my house, we've lived here going on 23 years this July 27th. Where has all that time gone?? There definitely has been lots of changes since we moved here.

A picture of the back part of my yard.....things are just starting to grow and I have lots of work yet to do. Not sure I will put in much of a garden this year. I mostly just want to enjoy the work of my labors and just do fun things around the house. What that is, I do not know as yet.

Another view from the bird houses towards the pond. I am slowly getting some of my garden animals out...they always seem to make the back yard homey.

These are my little flowered crocuses that come up along side the house....as soon as they die off I will be planting some Zinnias along side the house. Big tall Zinnias this year.

This is a cute little Begonia plant I got for JP for his birthday. It is planted in this pot and sitting on the porch.

Walking Kylie around the neighborhood, I passed by this house that had these beautiful purple flox growing outside. The lady was sitting on her front porch...I told her the next time I pass by I am bringing my camera for a picture. I passed by today.....they are almost finished blooming, glad I got the picture when I did. 



This is another picture of a garden I pass by while walking Kylie. I thought it was so intriguing  with the ladder over the garden. The plant growing under the ladder is a tomato plant. I shall be keeping an eye on it as Kylie and I pass by and watch it grow.

Well, time to close here...JP will be home soon and I did not get a chance to get downstairs to make some cards. I have some birthday cards in the process of being made. Take card and keep looking up.
Cheers ~ Louise

Heirloom Seeds on Order......

Hi everyone...how did your day go today??? The sun was shining, snow is melting and the days are getting longer. It is still light out at 7pm and the day sure has a spring feeling....love this time of the year.

I bought some seeds on Etsy yesterday......my mind is gearing up to gardening, as you can see. I found this store on Etsy that sells Organic and Heirloom seeds, just could not resist. Her store front on Etsy is at; http://kenyonorganics.etsy.com (Just type in her name and you'll go straight to her shop) Sorry, my link button does not work.

I thought these tomatoes were soooo unique...don't think I have ever seen purple tomatoes before. But they are called Organic Indigo Rose Tomato seeds which are very rare, blue/purple in color. I think she said there were 20 seeds to a pack....so as soon as they come, I shall start them a growing. And the fun begins!!!

These seed are called Rainbow Cherry tomato Custom Sampler Heirloom with 5-6 seeds per envelope of each varity.

Black Cherry
Green Grapes
Peacevine Cherry
Riesentraube Grape
Blondkopfehen Golden Cherry

She said as a bonus...she sends extra seed...so that will be fun to see what she sends. I shall report on it here as soon as they come in the mail.

Two years ago I ordered some seeds from a lady on Etsy....they were called Cherokee Heirloom Tomatoes. The plants got big and bushy but with very little fruit...so hopfully this crop will be better. Maybe it was the weather or something, but I shall try a few seeds again.

Well, time to close, have to go get some cards made. Talk to you later and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

"These Boots Were Made 4 Walking"

 Hi Everyone........how is your day going. Well, Saturday is over and done and tomorrow is the last day of June!!!! My goodness this month went by fast. I should be all done planting things, BUT........could not resist a few sales today. A Big Boy tomato plant for 75 cents, zennia, and petunia plants for 75 cents. We also bought a pretty hanging plant for $5 at Northside.

Then we went to Menards and bought a new lawn mower (our old/used mower bit the dust), bought some bricks for landscaping, buy one brick, the second one is free....deal!! 6 bricks for $5.28 and 6 bricks for FREE!!! We also found a new plant........forgetting the name, it is going to bloom pretty blue flowers, probably will plant it in the front yard. I will be looking for a red rose also........I still have time yet, don't I??

Here is another angle of the boots, see the geraniums in those boots that were made for walking??? In back of the boots is the new plant. Slowly but surely things are starting to gel together. Didn't do much outside as we were doing alot of shopping. I did manage to put some new batteries in some of my decorative lights that were dimming. I like the little twinkling lights at night......soooo pretty!!!

Well, time to close this blog for the night and for the month of June. So, see you in July with new cards, recipes and gardening ideas. Take care and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh.
Cheers ~ Louise