Last Day Of September???????

Hi there everyone.....OH NO it's the last day of September!!!!! Where did the summer go????? Now I definitely know what my mother meant when I would say as a child, "I can hardly wait for Christmas, my birthday, summer, vacation, watermelon, etc." My mother would say, "Don't wish your life away....it will come fast enough!"

So yeah....don't blink, or hold your breath, time flies by so-so fast!

I have been diligently working on my cards.....the last couple of days has been Christmas cards.....yeah, it is that time again to get some cards made for Christmas. They are turning out pretty nice, but I still have not switched gears yet. Maybe when the snow flies, will I get in the mood. I will get some pictures taken in the next few days so you can see what I have been up to.

Sunday I am going to a Stampin'up camp to make 4 cards and see the new Christmas catalog. I might order some die cuts....not sure yet, we shall see. So my next post I will show you the cards I made AND if by chance I won a door prize, a picture of what I won.

So today I went to Sam's club to pay my bill and I got stopped by an At&t sales person. They asked if I was happy with my service and would I like to pay less then what I am paying.....why YES I WOULD!!!! She asked me what programs I liked to watch...I mentioned the Chicago Black Hawks and the other guy said......Go Hawks, turns out he is from Chicago and has been in this area for 4 months....naturally he asked how long we have been in WI....."since 1976" I said. Yep.....40 years we have been in WI. We have been here longer then in Illinois...there is nothing I miss about Illinois, but I do miss watching my Blackhawks.

So anyways....I think I got a good deal. My bill will be lowered $60.00, I get a $300.00 gift card from Sam's Club, At&t will come out to my house to set me up with a NEW recording box and remote. They give you refurbished equipment which means they break down and need to be replaced. All because I am a Sam's Club member. Yay....I did something right. At first I was not going to give them the time of day....but when they said my bill could be lowered, who does not want that to happen...it sure would help in these days....that is for sure.

So now my gas and electric bill has been lowered $27.00 and my At&t bill has been lowered $66.00. That's $93.00 more in my pocket....not bad huh?? I need a good deal now and then....this will be a money saving deal.

October 12th the Blackhawks start their season.....can hardly wait to watch them. I might have a few more channels in this deal....so maybe I will be able to catch a few more games. After watching the Hockey World Cup games....I do think I might be able to watch the other teams too....this will be a fun winter of hockey!!!! BUT you must fear the Feathers.....cause the Blackhawks shall win the season and get the Stanley Cup.....yep you heard it 1st from me.....lol!!!!!

Well, time to close here till OCTOBER. Hopefully I will be a bit more diligent in posting on my blog....guess I am leading a boring life. Have a great day and keep looking up ~ better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Gosh....I am really slacking!?!

Hi there everyone....how you all doing?? Guess it's been awhile since my last post.....I have been slacking a bit. Either there is not much going on or it is just the same humdrum life going on. Guess I don't lead a very exciting life, I don't blame you for not visiting my blog. Oh well, such is life.

Wednesday I was at my friends house making cards....here is a sampling of what we made. I like this stamp of the man picking tomatoes...was fun coloring him in with copic markers.

Ah yes....there must be a Halloween card in the mix. I probably will send this card to my daughter, as she is a great Halloween fanatic who likes lots of parties and haunted house stuff. Me, I am not much into Halloween, as a matter of fact I dislike it very much.....just don't like being scared to death by creepy things.

The tree was embossed and ran through the cuttlebug. Then we colored the tree in with a brown pencil then dabbed with a liquid that covers the pencil lines and blends everything in. The moon, ghost and pumpkins were punches and we sponged color on the pumpkin and moon.

This next card, we stamped the verse then ran it through a cuttlebug to get the little circles, then sponged color on the verse. The pumpkins were stamped on orange card stock, then colored in with copic markers and then we "fussy cut" the pumpkins. The twigs were from a die cut that Betty has...she then sprayed the back of the twigs with a spray glue and we placed the twigs where ever we wanted them to be placed. The leaves are punches with glue dots on the back and we placed them where ever we wanted.

This pretty little card was a simple one to put together. The flowers are die cuts, but before we placed the flowers on the panel, the flowers on the panel were colored in with copic markers. We also added colored gems on the panel. The flowers were glued on with pop ups and glue dots. Pretty little birthday card.

So what are your plans this last week of September???? Amazing....I have NOTHING planned on the calendar. Gosh, no Doctors, Dentists, there is one birthday coming up though. Other than that....probably pay bills and do some shopping....what else is new????

Tomorrow is the "great debate" between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton....should be a very interesting debate to say the least. I personally will be glad when all this is over, getting very tired of politics and all the lying and slandering that goes on. I already know who I am voting for and it is not the "dear lady"......ha, have you guessed???

Well, I guess it is about time to bring the tomatoes in and cut the bushes down, rake leaves and put my ceramic animals to sleep for the winter. Winter is peeking it's head around the corner.

You want to hear something really strange???? In 8 weeks I will be 70 years old!!!! EEKKKKK, I cannot believe that number, I think it may be like what turning 40 was like!!!! My body has slowed down, but my mind still feels young.....but my body is having a hard time keeping up.....oh well, someday it will all even itself out again.

Well, time to close, don't want to drag this on for too long. So you all have a great day and keep looking up~~~better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

My Etsy Order and Christmas???

Hi there everyone....how you all doing? Well, it's SATURDAY!!!! Yay!!! JP will be home in 35 minutes....so I have a little bit of time to blog yet.

As you see below, the Flamingo cards are done. The lady did buy the cards from my Etsy store. So these cards are already packaged and ready to go into the mail on Monday. They turned out pretty good, I even made a book mark with a flamingo....see it laying on the cards??? I think I will make some more of these cards, as I gave one away today to a friend who is moving to Indiana....(sigh)....I shall miss her for sure.

Another picture of the cards from a different angle. Three Thank You cards and 3 Birthday cards.

As Christmas is only 100 days away......maybe, just maybe I should start thinking about making Christmas cards. I saw this one on Pinterest, it caught my eye and I thought this was a very pretty card. I can't believe....I do have the stamps to make this card from Stampin Up.

It is done on white card stock...the background trees are in blue and the tree in the foreground is embossed in gold....very easy peasy. I shall try it in the next few days.

So tomorrow I might go to a paper sale....not sure yet, depends on what time I get up and if JP is going to the church to clean....we shall see.

I had my mammogram on Wednesday....it went well. The last time I had one was 11 years ago....gosh I hated being squeezed. In those 11 years the machines have become digital and the compression is not so bad...yeah, I guess when it comes up again next year I will be more willing to go. As it is a screening....Medicare pays for it.

Well, this is a short post....guess I will close for now. Enjoy your weekend as it goes way to fast!!! Keep looking up cause better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

This Week........

Hi there everyone. Hope you are enjoying this wonder fall like weather....I am. I see a lot of yard work in my future these next few weeks. I think I shall have to cut back on some gardening for next year....not so much or so I say now.....lets see if I stick to my guns!!!

So this past week I received a couple of convo's via my Etsy Store. The lady wanted 6 of these flamingo cards, 3 thank you and 3 birthday. I have been diligently working on these cards the last few days....once they are finished I shall put them in my store for her to pick up...hopefully she will follow through. Sometimes I never quite trust someone that has no history of buying from Etsy stores and I seem to be the first one. Oh well, the cards are still mine if she does not pick them up. Oh and plus she wanted a price cut....can you believe that??? I am not sure what people expect, I told her it would take me a week or so, because each card has a lot of work in each card and hand colored too!! So, needless to say, I will not be making that much on these cards.

Today I attended the funeral of this young man....Joshua, the son of our Pastor and his wife Mary. Gosh this was a sad time. He died in a car accident last Sunday. I made this card for Joshua last year when he graduated from High School. Needless to say, there was a very long line of people and most of them friends of Joshua's from school and work. There were pictures surrounding us of Joshua....he lived a full life.....that he did. He will be missed very much.

Here is another big daisy blooming in front of our house. I started this guy from seed. I wonder if heaven is full of Sonflowers?!?!?!

A drawer full of "rose moss"....they are finally starting to bloom. The squirrel likes to dig around here and pull up the little plants......gosh I get so mad at those squirrels.

My swan.....usually she gets geraniums planted in her.....this year....inpatients and just left her in the shade. She is starting to look really pretty.

Last but not least.....a lonely little Black Eyed Susan in amongst star Clementius. Many, many stars and one lonely one daisy.

Here is what the side of my porch looks like right now....is not this gorgeous or what???? When the flowers die and the leaves turn brown, we will cut it all down to it's bare stems, I might cover it with some leaves, but not a lot. She grows like crazy...I even cut her back some  this summer and she took off!!!! Don't do a whole lot of fertilization either, gosh if I did, who knows where she might go...up on the roof?

So this week, I have a mammogram...not looking forward to that. I just don't like my boobs squished....nope, not a whole lot.  The nurse told me it would not hurt as much...my last mammogram was 11 years ago and things have changed a lot. I sure do hope she is not lying to me....don't like liars very much!!!!

Well, time to close, I have some ribs in the oven, slow cooking, it is time to put some BBQ sauce on them, so we can eat about 7:30, kind of late....but the funeral took some time to get through. Then when I got out of the funeral....JP had been waiting in the car, he left the lights on and wore the battery down.....so no juice to get home. Joshua's brother-in-law gave us a jump and we were able to get home....whew, answer to prayer.

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

Yep...I have been missing again!

Hi there everyone.....yep...as my title says, I have been missing again. Mostly because, for the past week my computer and TV has been acting up. OH I have tried EVERYTHING, pulling plugs, cleaning files and cookies, optimized, checking this plug and that plug. FINALLY I analyzed that it had to be AT&T and something in their system. MY COMPUTER WAS CLEAN!!!!! The TV is old but it kept freezing up and then would give me a message of what I had to do. So finally I called AT&T....a call I dread. BUT they fixed the problem and everything is working again. FOR NOW. I tell ya...the trouble one must go through to get things to work again!!!!

Well, on to nicer things. tomatoes growing....oh yum I can hardly wait for those BLT's!!!!!

This is a meal I made for JP last week.....I was getting silly and this looked so much like the jolly green giant....had to embellish him with some eyes and mouth.

For our 43rd wedding anniversary.......I bought a dozen red roses for $2.98......yep that is right, not a bad price huh????

This is the wonderful chocolate cream pie I bought from Schwans....swoonnnnnnnn. I shall order this again. We ate it while frozen, so it was like eating ice cream.

Saturday's special lunch for JP was Lox, bagels, cream cheese, onions and tomatoes oh and vegies and dip. Lox and bagels is one of his favorite meals.

Here is the card I made for JP.....a light house.......Jesus is the light of the world!!

Today we had our teeth cleaned....I had a clean bill of health and JP needs 3 teeth filled. We are still waiting to hear when JP's appointment for a biopsy of the prostrate is. I will be having a mammogram this month also....yeah I thought we could be done with Doctors for awhile...but no, not this month.

Well, time to close here....have to go ride my bike for a couple of miles. Have a great day and keep looking up....better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Where Has Summer Gone???

Hi there everyone......can you tell me where summer has gone???? I closed my eyes and BOOM summer disappeared. In some ways I am glad, in some ways not. I will not miss the hot, high humidity that is for sure. There was no escape from the heat, and it seemed the stores I went into, their air-conditioning was turned down, like as if they were saving energy or something.

I like cool weather....the 70's are my favorite temperatures. Yeah, that is livable. Well...September is standing before us, so now I guess there will be less hot days and more cooler weather. I don't mean to rush things, but then winter is not far behind.

I heard someone ask the question, "Why does winter go slow and the summer go so fast?" Do you know the answer????? I wonder if we have so much planned for the summer, which makes time fly. Winters are slow times and not so much is planned which makes time go slow.....I don't know, only guessing.

So in these next few pictures is the growth of my two sunflowers in the front of the house. The first picture are the early days of the growing season.

Here we are, almost about to show our glory.

 Another view from afar.

Blooming....blooming.....blooming in all her glory! I am sure, there are many sunflowers in heaven!!!

Another view up close. The other day the second sunflower bloomed. I have two other sunflower plants growing at the neighbors house...they are much smaller then these...not sure why, the seeds came from the same package.....I shall have to take pictures of the other two sunflowers.

Well time to close, have to go downstairs and finish my cards for the Hospice meeting on Friday. Talk to you later, keep looking up, cause better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

43 Years!!!!

Hi there everyone.....how you all doing??? Well, today is JP's and my anniversary....yep, we have been married 43 years!!! So hard to believe how fast that time went. We had a lot of good times and a lot of sad times, but we made it through, always following that light that shined at the end of the tunnel.

When JP and I got married, Monday, August 27, 1973....during his racing season. He did not want to take time out to get married the conventional way, in a church, white dress, reception afterward. I even had to buy my own ring. Yeah, so we quickly got married at City Hall in Chicago at 11:00am. Then at 3:00pm we were signing the closing papers for our house in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Moving into our new house that night....geez what a day!!!

His family and mine were not very happy about the plans we made.....but at that time, they were OUR Plans. Six months later, my mother threw a wedding party for JP and I. If I had it to do over again, I would have waited till he had time to get married the real way, a Church wedding, a white dress and reception and a Honeymoon to some far away place! We never did get that honeymoon....still waiting.

So the picture above is JP and I on "Awards Night" (September 22, 1973) JP won the track championship and "Most Popular Driver". This was the track championship trophy. Most popular driver trophy was a bit smaller. Yep the girls were always chasing after JP....and the men? not so much except on the track.

I just recently signed up with a group from Waukegan Speedway via Facebook and was surprised to find there were quite a few people that remembered the blue Camaro and JP Gatti. There were a few comments that said "JP used to be my hero when I was a kid". What's really funny is the kid that was JP's President of his fan club is now 47 years old. Gosh time does NOT stop for no one!!!

The evolution of a race car. The above picture was in 1972, see, no lettering or numbers....they must have just finished building this car.

Here we are....same car but the number is plastered on it.

After the 1972 season....JP and 2-3 other guys worked on and rebuilt the car to look like this....pretty snazzy huh???? The day we had this picture taken was the last time the car ever looked like this. Because that night at the races, it seemed like every single driver was out after JP and his new car trying to stop him from winning the race. She was pretty beat up that night....so glad we had pictures taken.

Yeah, those were the days with a lot of good memories. It is very interesting too, that some of the drivers JP raced against, commented or "liked" the pictures I posted.

This car went through quite a few car owners and drivers too. JP sold his share of the car to Bob W. (JP stopped racing after he won the championship, he saw a driver get killed and did not want to end up like him.) So, Bob got a new driver in 74-77. Then sold the car to Chuck B., he raced it for a couple of years (77-78) then he sold the car to Micheal M. (79-80) which ran the car at Wilmont. Then in 1980 Micheal sold the car to Don L. he had it (80-82). From there we are not sure what happened to that blue Camaro, but we know it made a lot more laps around a few tracks. Would be interesting to know how many races it won with all the owners and drivers and where it ended up.

Well, there you go, the genealogy of a '69 Camaro. Forever engrained in our minds....our wild and crazy years. Some things I wish could be done over, some things not so much....all in all, it was good.

I guess it is time to close for now, have to get an anniversary card made for JP. He bought me (actually I picked them up) a dozen red roses. I bought a pizza for tonight, JP will have lox and bagles tomorrow and maybe I will buy a piece of prime rib at Festival's tomorrow....my choice of meal if we ate out someplace. I also bought a Chocolate Cream pie from Schwan's (now that will be a real treat.) No we will not be going out to eat. Cooking at home as usual.

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

Some Adult Coloring

Hi there everyone. Hope you are having a good day. We have been dealing with Doctor appointments these last couple of days. Today, JP had an appointment with Urology....we were at the hospital from 9:30am, finally leaving @ 2:30pm.....long, long day. He has to have a prostate biopsy. It does not sound easy or comfortable. He'll have to take 2 days off from work, because there's no heavy lifting for two days after the procedure. I am hoping for a good report, but the Doctor said this could be cancer. Please keep JP in your prayers.

My appointment was on Tuesday. Diabetes is a very distressing desease. Along with weight (I have gained back 24 lbs of the 40 I lost last year, dealing with the hernia). Needless to say my blood pressure and blood sugars have gone up and my A1C is still a tad too high. I have to have a mammogram in September, my last one was in '05....gosh time flies. Oh and I have been dealing with itchy skin, so the Doctor wants me to stop taking each medication (one at a time) for a couple of days to see if I am allergic to any one of them. If the itching stops, then that med needs to be changed, because I am apparently allergic to it. If itching does not stop then it might be a food I am eating or the laundry detergent. Right now, I am itching...metformin has been excluded for a couple of days. Will have to wait to see what happens.....the itching could be  nerves.

Well...on to some fun stuff.....this is what keeps my head together....is my art work, card making, gardening and cooking.

I bought a couple of Adult coloring books and have been doing some coloring.

What is nice about spending time on coloring these flowers and stuff is that they can be turned into a nice card......we'll see what I come up with. 

Right now I am thinking that I might want to frame a few of these pages. I really liked the above color page...I was almost finished with it and used a pen to outline and there was tooooo much ink in it and it leaked on my colored page. I tried to cover it but to no avail. I just showed you the pretty part. Down in the right corner you can see a dark sploge. Oh, and maybe over on the left in the middle.

This color page was done with colored pencils....oh and ink and stamps (those little dots). It was okay....but I prefer to use Copic markers. Colors are more vibrant.

Well, I think I will close here as I have to do some dishes and think about what I want to make for JP's late supper. You have a great night and keep looking up....better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

Some Cards I Made At........

Hi there everyone....hope you are keeping cool. My cool times come when I am someplace that is air conditioned...otherwise I am a pretty hot bundle of nerves.....and hard to get along with....lol!!! Poor JP!!!

So today I will show you some of the cards we made at Betty's on Wednesday.

I like this old fisherman....he is colored in with copic markers....I shall save him for a friend whose birthday is next August.....he is a fisherman.

This was a neat card to make. We colored the butterfly, flowers and frame with copic markers on vellum, but on the back side of the vellum. Then placed colored vellum on the same image that we just colored the butterfly. That was a nice technique....see how the butterfly seems to pop out???

This was a die cut and we just added the background to the flowers and a few gems.....made for a nice card.

This was a crayon resist technique. Where you see the white is the crayon....then we smudged brown and blue and colored in the tongue and brown spots. Cute card....oh and the little doggies along the card is washi tape.

Well, it is getting late and I am getting tired. So keep looking up.....better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Made Some Gherkan Pickles the Other Day

Hi there everyone hope you are having a good evening. Thought I would do a short post tonight. Made some Gherkin pickles the other day.....I love these pickles. They are made from over-ripe pickles. Years ago, probably back in the 60's you could buy these pickles in the store, but I don't see them anymore. So I have made my own and they seem to have come pretty close to what I remember them being.  I used to love making a good sandwich with these pickles, I remember them being a sweet-sour taste, so with a ham and mayo on toast was sooooo delicious!!

As you can see in picture, I peel the over-ripe cucumbers, clean out the seeds and discard the seeds. Then I slice the cucumbers.

Place them in a plastic container, in salted water for 24 - 48 hours overnight on the counter, then I place them in the fridge if I see I will not be making them within those 48 hours.

After their long soak, I drain them and place them back in the plastic container.

In a pan, I add about 1/2 to 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar and about 2 cups of water....enough liquid to cover the pickles.

I then add turmeric, sugar and salt....oh and celery seed or celery salt.....then I taste, taste, taste till I get the taste I want.
The most important part of this is, to heat the liquid and seasonings to boil for a few minutes. Then pour over the pickles and let sit till the liquid cools down and can be refrigerated.

They keep in the fridge for however long they last.

TA-DA......here is what they look like when finished....yep this was a good batch of pickles!!!!

NOTE: They sure do make a good sandwich!!!

Maybe I will show you how I make my dill pickles....just made a batch tonight but did not take a picture of them.

Well time to close....JP will be home from work in about 10 minutes, so I have to get his dinner going. I made Cheese Burger Slider Casserole......now this was a delicious meal, I think he will like this one with cole slaw and beans and a few pickles from above.

Have a good night and keep looking up, better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

Been Busy Making Cards

Hi there everyone. Well, just as I said in my last post, that I would show you some of the cards I have been making....when the creative juices are flowing, you must go with the flow......or it dries up!!! Lol!!!

Hope you had a nice Saturday. But for some, it was not so good, there were many people in the Baton Rouge area whose homes flooded. Jimmy Swaggart Ministries was flooded and services are cancelled for tomorrow. So we will be seeing last week's service.....I hope there was not a lot of damage.

So here are some of the cards I have been working on these past few days and weeks. This lovely maiden is my most recent card. She is a digital and I paid $4 for her. There are two more digital maiden's that I want to get.....but I don't have enough in my paypal account to buy them yet.

I copied this one to my computer and ran her off on card stock. I can do just about anything I want with her and even color her dress different colors.....I think my two nieces will be getting this card for their birthday this year and next.

I put her in my Etsy store tonight for $3.50 + postage $2.50... I know, it's the postage that kills the sales but I can't very well give my cards away.....can I???? I do add a bonus card to my sales though, hope that compensates for the high postage.

"Happy Birthday Bluebirds of Happiness in Orange" I stamped and embossed the birds and flowers a couple of years ago and just recently turned it into a card. Smudged some gold paste on the card, it added a little depth $3.50 + postage.

"A Pink Flamingo Thank You" I love this Flamingo....so elegant. Colored with Copic markers and Wink of Stella and of course some gold paste to add depth. $3.50 + postage.

A Purple Violet Hello Greeting" Sometimes I don't know what to do with a card and then something pops as I put the card together....that is what happened here. Colored the flower with copic markers and outlined with a gel pen. I had a bunch of these Hello tags made and just added it to the pansy with a bunch of purple sequins for pazazzzzzz!!! (oh I know, spell checker says...no such word!!! But in my world, there is pazazzzzzzz)

"Live Laugh Love Thinking of You" This is another one of those "adult color" stamps that I picked up. Have you tried your hand at adult coloring, it is amazing how relaxing this is. I am so glad I have the creative juices to turn these works of art into a card.

Happy Birthday Bluebird of Happiness in Turquoise" Same as the orange card up above.

"The Frogs Have It Birthday Card" This is a print of a frog. I liked the idea of the background and frame and made lots of these cards....I need to put a few more cards like this up.

"Adult Coloring Birds and Flowers Thinking of You" These two cards actually go with the two cards in my banner. This is a set of 4 cards for $10 + postage.

So there you have it....a taste of some of the cards I have been working on. A lot of these cards will be going to Hospice and then there are some that I made a couple years ago that will end up in the Hospice box.....yeah, I have a LOT of cards. Probably more then I will ever use. I can't remember the last time I bought a card.

Well, time to close.....I need to go to my favorite place.....the basement to make some more cards. Have a great rest of the weekend and keep looking up, better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise