Sitting on the Front Porch

Hi there everyone....how are you all doing??? Hope you are keeping Cool. Cool. Cool!!!! I am not, we still have not replaced the air conditioner....I had it on for about a half hour last night and then it started spitting and had to shut it down. But, it was on long enough to cool things down a bit in the kitchen. I felt a little cooler, but the coolness did not last long.

About 10pm Kylie and I went and sat on the porch for about an hour...it sure was cooler outside with a slight breeze AND there were no mosquitos.....goodness, could they not find me???? I almost fell a sleep a couple of times. The trickle of the water in my fountain and the crickets chirping had a very hypnotic affect on me.

So, in the pictures below.....you will find me sitting on the front porch, again. Yeah, it's a place to go when I want to take a time out......"my mini vacation" to dream about places I would like to go if I had the money. The last couple of days my wishing has taken me to places where I would be close to water and could sink my toes in some sand.....gosh that sounds heavenly to me about now. But for now, I shall have to dream on my porch and listen to the water fountain trickle on the porch or in the back yard.

So here I am, camera facing east. In the foreground is a big butterfly....it's sitting in my fountain. In the very last picture you will see the water fountain with flowers, flamingo's, light, fall leaves and the butterfly. In this picture you see my brown eyed Susan's and my privacy wall of star climentus. And yes, we have eaten on the porch....not a lot, but some.

That's my glider chair....it's a nice place to fall asleep on. When our air conditioner worked in the kitchen, I would bring that chair in the kitchen and slept in it all night long....very comfortable. Next to the chair on the railing is my 3 pots of basil. I have been drying the leaves for later use and putting the leaves in grilled cheese sandwiches and salads......yum!!!

Oh look.....my tosey's!!!! Just relaxing. So in the front view are my petunia's and that green plant you see is my Christmas Ponsetta.....yep, it's still growing. One of these days (not sure when) I shall have to stick it in the closet or some dark place so the leaves get red. Maybe I better google "ponsetta plant care" and see what the prescription is.

In this view, are my roses, among the roses is lemon mint (that I need to dry and make mint jelly with), petunia's and brown eyed susan's. If you look through the screen and porch railings you can see Hissop growing. That's another plant that I need to bring in the leaves and flowers and dry them for tea.

Finally, my camera is facing south-west and you see my white wicker chair (which I have painted every couple of years), we have had that chair for 25 years now and who knows how long the neighbors had it before us. Anyways, in this picture are my geraniums....they are two years old. JP brought them in for the winter and managed to keep them going. I think they like this spot, cause they get lots of sun.

Here is a closer picture of the geraniums, they are sitting in a pot that straddles the porch railing. I want to find another pot like that.....I think I got it at Shopko...but have not seen another one as yet.

Last, but not least is my little trickling water fountain....water looks a little green, I better change the water. Yeah, this is a nice place to sit....I wish my computer could go out here too, but alas, I do not have a lap-top.....that would be nice though (I think).

Well, time to close, it's 5pm and I need to get some pictures up in my Etsy store. Finally!!!! I have been working on cards, but just too lazy to take pictures and get them in the computer then into Etsy....but today I shall do a couple of cards and maybe a couple cards tomorrow. My next post will be the cards that I put up in my Etsy store.....stay tuned.

Have a great day and keep looking up, better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

Flamingo's in Color

Hi there everyone.....lol, all four of you!!! Hope you are having a good day. Looks like the next couple of days will be getting warmer again. Ish....I wish I was a flamingo and could have my feet in the water all the time....how cooling would that be??? So what color Flamingo would you like to be???

I am trying to figure out what in the world these flamingo's eat that make them the different colors that they are. Pink flamingo's are pink because they eat a lot of shrimp. But then what is it the others eat. One of the pictures captions said it depends on the algea in the water which causes the color change. But whatever it is, it sure makes for spectacular birds.

So here is the Pink Flamingo that we are used to seeing. Maybe a little lighter and more peachy.

A BLUE Flamingo!!

A GREEN Flamingo!!!

A YELLOW Flamingo......WOW did you notice???? Green Bay Packer Colors.....Go Packers!!!!

A MULTI-Colored Flamingo!!

A TOUQUOIS Flamingo!!!

VIOLET Flamingo's!!!

A WHITE & PEACH Flamingo's

RED Flamingo's

Last, but not least, BLACK and WHITE Flamingo's. All these pictures were copied from Pinterest and saved in my computer. I have pinned all these birds in "Flamingo's - My favorite Bird" on Pinterest.

The only reason I can think of, that why I love Flamingo's is because my Dad did. As a child we would go down to Florida a lot. My dad would take pictures of flamingo's, framed them and hang them on the wall....so every day, (as a child) I would pass those pictures and admire those birds. The pictures, many years later were lost in a flood and had to be thrown away. But, they are forever stuck in my memory. Hope you enjoyed my Flamingo post....I did.

Not too much going on this week. Maybe just work in the yard, tending to the tomato and cucumber plants....I still have so much I wanted to do. Then there are my cards, Hospice meeting in a month....one day at a time I guess.

You all have a great day (lol...all four of you) and keep looking up, better days are coming!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Random Pictures and Thoughts

Hi there everyone, hope you are having a great Summer. I can't believe how fast this summer is going. It's been a bit too warm for me....but I have not melted yet. Should not complain as winter is just 4 months away and it will come soon enough.

So today's post is just going to be some random pictures I picked up here and there and thought they were really cool to look at. I love this "flower bed" if I ever run across an old bed, I will make one of these in my back yard......and of course it will be called "Louise's Flower Bed".

I was looking at Pinterest and pinned a bunch of Flamingos.....I sure do like flamingos....did you know they come in different colors? This, I did not know. It depends on what they have eaten....usually we see pink flamingos. But they come in blue, green, yellow and red....so interesting. (Maybe that should be my next post...."Flamingos in Color".  Below is a cute little baby flamingo and it comes in grey.

Another group of pictures I pinned were roses. So many pretty roses in so many different colors. Purple roses are my favorite. I certainly would find a place in my garden if I found a purple rose to plant.

I thought this was a neat picture. I do have a door in my backyard.....I really like this idea....think I will ask JP to haul out the door so I can paint it blue like this one. Just another project for me to do....maybe I better finish what I have started.

On hot days.....I think I would like to jump in this stock tank and cool off a little bit....I wish I had the space and privacy in my back yard to have a little pool.....some day maybe.

A bouquet of Black Eyed Susan's from my garden for the dinning room table.

And this is a card I found on the internet....I love that little girl. Found out it is a digital print and not a stamp. So I bought it and have it saved in my computer. Made a bunch of copies and will be making some cards like this in a couple of weeks. Isn't she pretty? I think the copic coloring is what makes it though. It looks like water coloring.

So there you have it, a few pictures that have caught my eye and thought I would share with you. I guess my life is not very exciting, just kind of regular....but that is okay.

I think in the next few days I will be making some Apple-mint jelly. It seems like an easy recipe. I brought in some mint leaves, I have some apple juice in refrigerator so, we shall see how it goes.

Today, August 2nd was the birthday of my mother, she would have been 90 years old. She has been dead 15 years now....time sure does fly. Sometimes I miss being able to talk to her....but we were so far apart for many years. She lived in Des Plaines, Ill. JP and I moved to Ladysmith, WI in 1976. Then she moved out to Las Vegas in 1986....so yeah, we have been a part for many years, we would talk to each other on the phone maybe every 4 to 6 weeks...I did go out to visit my mother and step father about 4 times and stayed a few weeks each time. It was hard to be out there and leave JP by himself, cause he did not want to go out to Las Vagas.  So yeah, we were not very close like some mothers and daughters are supposed to be.

Well, time to close, I have to get some dishes done before JP gets home and get something ready for him to eat. Not sure what that will be yet. Keep looking up, better days are coming.
Cheers ~ Louise

Some Cards and Some Blue Apron Food

Hi there everyone.....yeah, I am a bit behind in posting these cards again. Made these cards at Betty's a week ago Wednesday. Oh gosh, it has been sooooo hot, I just have not felt like doing ANYTHING!!!!!

Today has been nice...tolerable. The weather will be in the high 70's and low 80's for the next week or so.....I can handle that. Until at least I can get a new air conditioner in the kitchen window.

So here are some cards I made at Betty's last week. Doesn't this card look yummy and cool. Pop-cycles!!! Remember when the Good Humor Man came around in his little white truck, oh and then there was the ice cream man on his bike pushing a refrigerated box full of pop-cycles.....ah yes, the good old days!!!!

I love this old lady.....she was fun to color too. While working on her all I could think about was the stamp that says......"dance, as if know one is watching".

This was a fun card....lots of pre-made embossed and die cuts....easy, peasy to put together.

Now this card was really nice...Christmas in July....Betty borrowed my snow flake stamp and turned it into this lovely card. Betty usually has the background embossed and the die cuts made, all we do is put it together and add the gems on the snow flake. Pretty, pretty card, the light does not do it justice.

So these were my two Blue Apron meals. I think these will be my last ones for a few months....at least till the summer is over and the weather gets a bit cooler. It was much too hot to cook in my kitchen and I did not feel like putting on the oven. So no, only want to make easy-peasy things that don't take up a lot of energy and make things too warm in the kitchen.

The above meal, "Za'atar Chicken Burgers & Oven Fries with Feta-Labneh Spread & Garlic Chips" I think, what I like with each of these meals, is that I learn something new every time. I loved make the oven fries this way....just cutting them, oil, salt and pepper and back till they crisp. Garlic chips....slice the garlic and fry in oil till crisp and top the burger with the chips. I think the next time I make this I will use beef.....the only seasoning was lemon zest, parsley and the za'atar seasoning, salt and pepper. Then fry in oil. I guess the burger was supposed to have a Greek flavor to it. To tell you the truth, I was not impressed....guess that is why I will try beef next time.

This meal was "just okay". "Roasted Pork and Summer Salsa with Zucchini-Scallion Rice" I enjoyed the salsa, rice and zucchini more then the meat. It was a little tough. Plus......so hot in the kitchen, I did not roast in the oven. I sliced the pork and fried in a pan.

The salsa was a peach, cut up real fine added lime zest and a shallot-lime juice mixture, drizzled oil and tossed thoroughly and combined with salt and pepper. This was layered on the pork. (last night I mixed the rest of the salsa with some sour cream and mayo and put on some toasted naan bread with a sliced cucumber on it. very refreshing.)

We really liked the Zucchini...diced and cooked in oil till tender, add the minced garlic and scallions (bottom part) then the cooked rice added and cooked till heated.....oh, don't forget the salt and pepper. We really enjoyed that, then of course the peach salsa and onion  added a sweet touch. Yeah, I would do this again. BUT on a cooler evening.

So I shall monitor the next few months of meals on Blue Apron, to see if there is something I would like to make. I can always get their recipes off the site. So if there are some meals I want, I can get the recipe and buy the food myself. We shall see what transpires....in the mean time I have lots of great recipes and a few favorites I will try over and over again.

Well, time to go walk Kylie....oh my, it is after 6pm....I sure can get lost doing this post. Time to close. I got some new stamps today and I want to go downstairs and play with them.

You all have a great evening and keep looking up.....better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

A Walk In Kathy's Garden

Hi there everyone. Hope you are keeping cool in this HOT, HOT, HOT weather!!!  My air conditioner does not work. We put it in the window and after about an hour of working, it started spitting water all over the place. Oh well....shut 'er down. and turn on the fans!!! When I get a little bit of extra $$$ I am off to buy a new air conditioner, for sure!!! This chick needs to be refrigerated and will spoil in hot weather!!!!!

I have been sleeping in the basement the last couple of days....it is just a wee-bit cooler down there....so needless to say, when I do come upstairs it's like 5am or 6am in the morning and much cooler outside. Wish there is a way to draw the cool air outside into the house. Ummmm....when winter comes, I will wish it was warm again....when will I be happy???? I know, when the weather stays an even sunny 70's - 80's with a wee bit of breeze...perfect weather.

 

So today I took some pictures of Kathy's garden......now I forget what she called the flower above....but it sure was a pretty one. She also has a pink one that was going to bloom in a few days....

Here are some cone flowers....I like these. I need to get a cluster of these growing in my back yard. Kathy gave me some of these to plant in my yard....I have the place, just need to plant them.

These are flux flowers....they really fill in a lot of places....sure looks nice here.

More Cone flowers and flux in these two pictures.

Kathy called this lilly flower a "spider" lilly....interesting looking flower. She said she has 100 lilly bulbs planted and they have multiplied......lots of lilies and different colors too.

I have to remember this for next year....planting these two plants together. Petunia's and, and, and....gosh, I forget the name of these leafy plants.

More Cone Flowers.....I like these.

And look what she has growing in her back yard......grapes!!! How neat is this?!?!?!?!?  I used to have a wild grape vine growing....but it never produced, I think the birds got the grapes when they were real young. Would have been fun to make some grape juice.

I took some lemon mint tea leaves to Kathy's....so she can make some mint tea. I have a whole slew of mint growing in the front yard....yeah, they are invasive....but I sure have had some beautiful roses this year and lots of mint tea. I want to make some mint jelly this year, nice thing is that the mint keeps growing all summer long....so no worries of it dying on me.

I hope you enjoyed a walk through Kathy's garden, I always enjoy it...fun to see how a garden grows. When I get done with my gardens.....I will walk you through mine also.

Well, I am cooled down now, it's going on 7pm...time to take Kylie for her walk, at least it is not so hot for her. Don't want her little paws to get hot from the hot cement.

You all have a great night and keep looking up, better days are coming....Cheers ~ Louise

Simple Rhubarb Crisp and a Quiche from Blue Apron

Hi there everyone. Hope you are having a good day....Friday and Sunday is coming!!!! And in between those two days is SATURDAY!!! Have to love those Saturdays. It's suppose to be in the 80's, a little bit warmer then today, but I enjoyed this day too, didn't have to put the fans on. JP finally brought up the window air conditioner....it just has to go into the window now. Maybe tomorrow.

So today I made this "Simple Rhubarb Crisp". It's kind of my recipe, mixed with another. I had a lot of frozen rhubarb in the freezer and pulled it all out....I guess I had about 9-10 cups of rhubarb. So I thought, why not make a crisp following the pie recipe I had. Here's the recipe:

Spray a 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 pan or glass dish. Mix together:
5-6 cups rhubarb, 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (one cup if you like real sweetness), 2 eggs, 1/2 cup flour, stir and pour into the sprayed pan or glass dish.

Mix together: 1/2 stick butter (softened), 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 to 3/4 cup flour, mix till crumbly and sprinkle over the rhubarb mix.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and bake 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake for 40 - 50 minutes, depends on your oven. Cool down a bit and slice, top with ice cream or whip cream...very yummy!!

My Blue Apron recipe. "Zucchini & Cherry Tomato Quiche with Tomato-Arugula Salad" Yep, this is a keeper too. The zucchini was diced, cherry tomatoes quartered. Make a paste out of the garlic by zesting it. Zest the lemon and quarter the lemon. Make a dressing with the lemon zest, 1/4 of the garlic paste and juice of all 4 lemon wedges. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook the zucchini and season with salt and pepper, cook down till lightly browned and slightly softened. Add half the tomatoes and the remaining garlic paste and season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.

Make the filling, crack 2 eggs in a medium bowl, beat till smooth, add 1/2 cup ricotta cheese and whisk till combined. Add the cooked vegetables, whisk well and pour into small pie shells and top with Fontina cheese and Parmesan cheese.

Bake at 425 degrees for 18 - 20 minutes till the crusts are browned and the filling is set and cooked through. Serve with lettuce and the rest of the cherry tomatoes, pour over the garlic-lemon mixture with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. Yep...I would make this dish again also.

Tonight is pizza night from Schwan's and left-overs.....so JP will be eating pretty well tonight after work. I hope he appreciates me and my cooking and making sure he eats well. My only problem is I enjoy my cooking also....so hard to lose weight in this house....so maintaining is all I can muster.

Well, you all have a great evening and keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise.

PS Just a note....I was so sorry to hear of the attack on innocent people in Nice, France by a truck driver. It is so sad to think these terrorist think nothing of human life. Too bad, they have been deceived by the evil one and they think killing people (and themselves) will get them "73 virgins in Heaven"........I think they shall be shocked. As per Rush Limbaugh here is his link.

Their "Koran" was wrongly translated and the "73 virgins" they think they are getting is actually "73 raisins"....what a shock!!!

I pray their eyes will be opened and Jesus will give them visions of the REAL HOLY God of the Universe and many Muslims will be saved.

90th Birthday Card and Roses

Hi there everyone. Hope you are having a good evening. I thought I would do a short post tonight....I do believe this is my 700th post....goodness how time flies. Doing nothing special, nope, no give-a-ways. Maybe on my 750th or 800th post I will do a give-a-way or something...who knows.

So in these two pictures, are the card I made and sent to my step-father in Las Vegas. He said he wanted to make it to 90 and then he could die. I said, nay, you will probably go to 100!!! He says he prays every night that God will take him, but he doesn't. So I said, maybe he has got something more for you to do....no response. I thought this saying was very approapoe (well bummers, the spell check is not working) for him. "Life isn't a matter of Milestones...but of Moments"

In these next three pictures are some of the roses growing around my house. I think I would like to get a red rose growing. Hopefully this fall I can get one going someplace. I give my roses a shot of coffee....they really seem to like that. Someone said to try Epson salts....not sure what that does, but that is next on the agenda.

This rose was planted probably 20 years ago...it has its good years and bad years....must depend on the weather. But every year I cover white plastic around the base fill it with leaves. This seems to be all the protection it needs in this Wisconsin weather.

This is a pretty yellow rose, it sits next to the rose above and seems to like it's place. I guess my flowers are loving to bloom where they are planted.

This pretty "long stemmed" white rose gets the same treatment as the others, coffee, water, and leaves in the fall.

Yep....I think I will look for a new place to plant a red rose....something to work on this summer....geez...what is left of it.

Well,  you all have a great evening and keep looking up.....better days are coming. I am going to make Kylie some hamburger and rice...she has not been feeling well and she likes rice and hamberger to eat....so does mama with a little bit of taco sauce on it. Yum!

Cheers ~ Louise

Summertime Projects #2

Hi there everyone. Hope you are having a good Saturday......sometimes, I wish every day was Saturday. But then, I guess we would get tired of that.....and maybe less would get done, or, maybe more????

So, today I thought I would show you my "drawer project". My neighbor was throwing these drawers out and I asked if I could have them. This is what I did to them. I know, if you have been reading my blog regularly you would have seen this picture already. (Perhaps I should have up-dated this one, as the plants are bigger now.)

I repainted the blue drawer (all 4 drawers were painted blue on the front and I just painted this drawer with the blue I had and continued all around the drawer) This drawer has radishes, onions, and swiss chard growing in it. English cucumbers are growing in the wheel barrel.

This drawer started with a bright green, I ran out, then sprayed the front with yellow, leaving the bright green on the sides and back. This one has onions and sunflowers. The sunflowers are much bigger now and I transplanted them into larger pots. Maybe by the end of July I will transplant them again in their final home.

These two drawers are pink and red. I have run out of red and need to get some more....probably Walmart will have the cheapest at this point.

So here is the pink drawer with it's legs.....this was a sudden "light bulb idea" I had these blocks laying around from some skids I picked up.....wah-la....they became legs. I glued them with "liquid nails". Can you see, they are already sliding off the drawer.

So I stopped them with a stick and braced the drawer up with a couple of small boards that were laying around, Then layed bricks on the legs for weight. The drawer sat like this for a day or so. Giving the liquid nails a chance to dry. Then, I sprayed the front part of the drawer legs and the back part of the legs the next day.

So here you see the finished project (almost), The knobs are on, the silver plates are from my kitchen cabinets and the pink knobs from Micheals for $.50 a knob. I should add here, I have not spent a penny on spray paint as yet, as I had all these colors from last year and kept them downstairs for the winter. Oh, I did buy the liquid nails and dirt, so there is not a whole lot of $$$$ involved in repurposing these drawers.

Next thing is to drill holes in the drawer for water seepage, spray the inside with acrylic spray, line and staple with black garden material, pile in the dirt and plant some flower seeds and set the drawer someplace in a sunny spot.

 In this picture you see the yellow (filled with onions, and sunflowers, the pie tins are to deter the squirrels and chipmunks) the red drawer (unfinished) and pink drawer.

 Here you see the red drawer and my plans for it. I found this old crate with wood in it and thought it would be a good idea to add it to the red drawer and place it in my "red garden" this drawer will have fall plantings of lettuce in it. I shall paint the crate red also and secure it.....haven't figured out how to do that yet.

 I think we will go to Lowe's tomorrow after church. I heard they have red mulch, 5 bags for $10.00, I want to get some, if they are still there. That would be a cheaper price then what I have seen....3 bags for $7. Have not checked Menards.

This week, I will pick up some white spray paint to paint my two tires, the ladder, wicker stool, maybe an old wood chair and stool out back. I have an old bike downstairs....maybe pull that up and give it a shot of white spray also.  Maybe I will call this my "Spray paint week", if it is not too windy, hot or rainy.

You all have a good week and see you next time. Have a great day, keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise