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

Some New Children's Cards 4U

Presenting...♫ ta da dat ta daaa ♪ my "new children's cards" that I have added to my Etsy store for $3.00 + shipping. Here you see number 1 with a little turtle which I drew "free hand" colored and cut out. Each card will be "one of a kind" and probably the only consistency in them will be the numbers and the balloons. I bought the balloons from a fellow artist on Etsy and will use them till gone. In the mean time, I will be looking for that balloon punch at the stores.

Card number 2 with little fishes.

Card number 3 with a lion.

Card number 4 with another turtle, no, this one was not drawn "free hand". I have just finished 5 & 6 last night. I make the numbers with my Cricut machine, so numbers 7, 8, 9, and 0 need to be made.

My inspiration for these cards came a couple of years ago and I am just now doing something with that inspiration. I have 2 grand-nephews and 1 grand-niece who will be turning 4 and 1,  so this will be their cards for the next couple of years and for whoever else comes up needing a card. Fun and easy to do. I now will be on the look-out for kid type stamps that can be used with my numbers. I may just use these cards for adults if I know their age...hahahaha....I can go all the way up to 100 and past that if I like, that would be fun. Do you know anyone that is going on 100....I don't.

Well, I guess this next week I will be working on my income tax.......sure do hope we get something back, could really use a refund for all we pay in!!! I don't know if it is my imagination, but food sure is getting expensive, almost feels like I am spending 50% more, like everything has doubled in price. Gas is going up too.......just don't know where it all will end.

I do have one fun thing I am doing this week, tomorrow is my "card making" day at Betty's. My morning out with the girls. Maybe I should take a picture of the cards this time around and post them on my blog, guess I have never done that as yet. I will see how they turn out. Not promising anything, cause I just may forget by tomorrow....hahaha!!!

Well, I guess it is time to close, cause I am just rambling, which doesn't make for "very interesting reading" so you all have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draws near!!!
Cheers ~ Louise

Happy New Year ~ Happy New Year!!!

Well........hope your not feeling like this cute little turtle above. I found him on one of the websites I was on tonight. Will be using him for a card in the near future. The site I was on had alot of "free digital stamps and svg. die cuts" soooo, got lots of great ideas to play with.

Today we had a nice day. Went to Sandi and Doug's place on the river, had ham dinner (yum) and basically relaxed while watching the water and ducks float by. There were even some ice chunks that passed by too.  Sandi gave me a few sites to check out and download some die cuts, which is how I spent the evening. JP spent the evening having arm pains........I don't know, something has got to give with those pains, I sure could not handle them as much as he does. He struggles alot with them especially Sunday evenings for some reason. Wonder if part of it is stress and his neck is all tensed up which causes the nerves to constrict. The tension comes from his worry about work.......he moans and groans an awful lot!!!!

I found out over the holidays that I am allergic to shrimp.....boohoo......my mouth itches, and now also crab. I only had just a real little bit, coating on salmon and my mouth started itching.......oh well, I guess that also means lobster too, not that I have had much lobster lately, nope, it's been years! So I guess, don't give me shell fish, a shot of penicillin, sting me with bees or mosquitoes or spiders, I will break out.

Well, guess it is time to close this blog.......just figured out that I must be that turtle at the top of this page....hope my new year won't be up-side down and will finally turn the right way. Or maybe this world is just up-side down and I am really right-side up.......who knows, shall have to figure this out.

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