OK....Needing Some Get Away Time!!!!!

Hi there everyone. It seems I have been "missing in action" for awhile. Not sure what the problem is, maybe I have been taking a "Blog Break" of sorts. Guess one needs a break now and then. Don't we?

Today I visited Pinterest and found a few places I would like to go visit (if only in my dreams). When in need, I like to be by the water, where there is much relaxation there...love the sound of water falls, fountains and ponds, and boating down a river or lake. Most likely I would love to live near a beach and hear the crashing sound of the waves....yeah, that would be right up my alley.  (except when the storms come.)

So today I will take you on a little mini vacation to some lovely beaches. Not sure where they are, but you will get the hang of it. Where ever there is water.....there is beauty to behold!!!

There it is a little island all to my own. Put me up a shack, with plenty to eat and I could be happy for "a little while." Just get me out of there when a storm is starting to brew, cause I might blow away!!!!

I think this beach is in Greece....pretty beach, that brown thingy down there almost looks like an old ship wreck, doesn't it?

NOW THIS....I could do all day and all night....that looks soooooo relaxing. I wonder what hotel that is in????

YES....beautiful sunsets and beautiful sunrises.....that is what would be beautiful about this trip!!!

NICE.....looks like another relaxing day along the beach. Yes, I could do this all day long. At the end of the day a Bonfire would be the ticket to the end of this day!!!

Ummmm, YES!!! and a swing on the beach....how relaxing is that!!!

Oh Yes...I think I need a vacation....hopefully this summer we can take a few days and drive to Algoma. Not sure why I like that place...maybe cause it is on a lake side, not sure if it is Green Bay or Lake Michigan....but, it's on water. They have an antique store and a cute restaurant and lots of boats to watch and a rocky beach....but hey, it's a beach!!!!

Well time to go, need to go plant the rest of my tomatoes, zinnias, rose moss and petunias....that will be it for planting this year. Not unless I pick up a few flowers for almost nothing and nurse them back to health because they dried out.

JP just called, he is stuck and can't find his way home....parade going by and all the streets are blocked. So he will take a nape in the car till the parade passes. I am sure there is a way, but he doesn't know how.

Have a great day and keep looking up........ha, I need to take my own advise!!! Cheers ~ Louise

A Few More Cards and a Diet

Hi everyone, hope you had a great day. I did, nothing too exciting, got a few things done around the house. Put up a few decorations and changed the dinning room table cloth to red and changed the Fall centerpiece to Christmas with red candles. Tomorrow the ornaments will go on the little tree, had to find the plastic container that holds all the ornaments.

Today, I started a 7 day diet....hopefully to lose 4-5 lbs. It's more like a cleansing type diet. Today was fruits and water. Tomorrow, vegies. Wednesday, fruits and vegies. Thursday will be wierd, bananas and skim milk and diet soup. Friday, add some rice and tomatoes, vegies and protein. Saturday, vegies, rice, soup. Oh and lots of water, 10-12 glasses a day. My choice of excercise will be walking Kylie around the block and riding my staionary bike 3-5 miles a day. I will see how it goes this week, and how my blood sugars do. The Doctor had put me on some medication to lower the blood sugars and then my weight shot up and sky-rocketed to a number I have never been before. Really have been feeling very uncomfortable in my own skin. So I thought I would give it a try. February I have to go see the Doctor and I would like to be a little bit lighter when I see him again.

My biggest battle is keeping JP fed and keeping food in the house he likes. Oh, and not eating and tasting the food I prepare for him....cause I am always taste-testing everything I make for him. I'll see how this week goes......(sigh).

I don't think I added these cards to my collection. Although, come to think about it, I did post this card earlier, but the flower was a stamped flower. This flower is made out of tissue paper. I punched about 6 layers of tissue with a round punch. Then made a hole in the middle and put a bracket through to hold the circles together then scrunched the tissue up to make it puff up. Fun to make cards.

This is my Santa card. Stamped about 10 Santa faces, coloring him in last year. Turning him into some cute cards for the Hospice group.

Well, time to close this blog for today. You all have a great couple of days, and I will be back to tell you how my diet is going. Keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh. Cheers ~ Louise

Ode to my Little Coffee Maker - Part 2

So here is a little snap-shot of my Melitta Coffee maker. I bought it back in 1972 or so. Used it for quite awhile, then put it away, often thinking I should sell it in one of my garage sales. It actually did make it in a sale but there were no takers...(thank goodness for that...huh??)
So one day I brought it up from the basement and started using it after my regular coffee maker died and have used it ever since. That has been a couple of years now....maybe longer. I have found that I am better off with 1 or 2 cups of coffee a day, rather then a whole pot.

Years ago I over-dosed on too much coffee, aspirin and diet pills, a bleeding ulcer developed and I was rushed to the hospital, bleeding from both ends in 1981. Actually, I did not learn my lesson the first time and again drank too much coffee and aspirin minus the diet pills. This episode was in 1986 and resulted with an operation and cutting the nerves in my stomach and my spleen taken out. Guess I almost died from that one but did recover. To this day, I do watch the caffeine intake. For many years I did not touch coffee and drank only tea. I started drinking coffee again about 2001 when I started working for someone who loved coffee. One of my many jobs was to make coffee and every morning would give him a cup. I had to learn how to make that PERFECT cup of coffee. Well, that boss left and I inherited a "new boss" who was also a coffee drinker, so by then I was close to being a "professional coffee maker." Also, another one of the bosses in the office liked his coffee too....but much stronger. I was making his coffee also!! So you see, I was making LOTS of coffee and I think that is where my down-fall came, cause that coffee would smell so good, I started drinking it again.

So here I sit.....my little coffee maker has bit the dust so to speak. I don't want to go with a 10 or 12 cup coffee maker because the temptation would be there to drink it allllllllllllllll and that would be dangerous for this girl. So, I shall continue my quest to look for a new one-cup coffee maker. Until then, I shall use T-filter sacs and dunk them in hot water.....makes for a good cup and I can keep it down to 2 cups a day. Oh, I still drink tea, lots of water and at the moment coconut milk and vegie and fruit smoothies. Not a soda drinker, too much sugar in that substance. 

The above picture is one of JP's meals that I make him for his late night dinner. Stuffed pork chops and roasted vegies. Cabbage, red potatoes, onions and kale. There's a dab of butter on top with some Mediterranean seasoning. Parsley embellishes the dish. He also likes his fruit with a dollop of yogurt on top. I think he had soup with this lovely meal also.

Tonight's menu is fish, broccoli and potatoes, fruit with yogurt and toast. He eats pretty good, but we do have to watch that his "gout" does not flare up and erupt cause that can last 4-6 weeks at a time. So we keep things simple with chicken, fish, chicken and fish and pork, chicken and fish, chicken and fish, beef and back to chicken and fish. With LOTS of vegies and fruit. Oh and he likes a fruit smoothie every day for lunch along with his big lunches.

Smoothie of the day:
1 apple
2-3 florets of broccoli
1/2 banana
1/2 cup coconut milk
Mix together and enjoy!!!

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