Revealed Cards from the Party Last Week Part 1

Hi there everyone. Well, here we are, one week into November already. I shall be 71 years old this month....yikes!!! My mind still thinks young but I give myself sooooo much to do, problem is my body is having a hard time keeping up with all the things my mind wants to do. Okay....maybe someday I will figure this out. My mother never told me old age would be tuff.....she always said, "Everything is calm and quiet." I am still waiting for those calm and quiet days!!!!

As promised in my previous post, these are the cards from the revealing party a week ago already. We are starting a new session, but I have yet to receive the name of my new partner in crime.....I already know what images I will be sending for the next 6 months, so it will be fun to see what the new friends images will be.

So in this froggy picture, I did the card on the right and Janine did the card on the left. Ribbit....ribbit...ribbit!!! Janine sent the frog images, so I have 10 more frogs in my image stash....lol!

Janine sent the images of the Master Gardener, garden tools and seeds. Her card in on the left and my card on the right.

I sent Janine 12 bird images. Her card is on the left and my card on the right. I actually like Janine's card....so cute!!!

I sent the Dragonfly images, my card is on the right and Janine's is on the left.

I love this blue heron....so glad he is in my possession. I sent Janine 12 images of this lovely bird.  My card is on the right and Janine's card is on the left.

In the card below, I sent Janine 12 images of the rose and pineapple. My card is on the right and Janine's card on the left. As you can see she cut three roses, very pretty.

I have some more cards from the revealing party to share with you....that will be in my next post. 

Not much happening the rest of the this week. We are still raking leaves and getting the yard ready for winter. So much to do and winter is right around the corner. You all have a great night and keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Cards We Made At Betty's

Hi there everyone. How is your Fall going? Can you believe, in 5 days "Daylight Saving Time" ENDS and we are back to the long nights and things getting dark at 5:00pm uge....uge....uge!

This will be a short post, as I need to get down stairs to make my Hospice cards.....I am REALLY behind this month, guess there was just too much going on in the month of October. 

The card above was made with water color pencils and the tree stamped...I like this one....very pretty. I need that tree and those posts!!!!

Here's a cute turkey for Thanksgiving, he was just colored in with copic markers and a bunch of punched out leaves for embellishments.

A cute little chickadee for Christmas. This is a cute Christmas card....wish I had the pine cones and branches.....I would make a couple of these cards for sure.

All this card entailed was a die-cut and sequins....how easy-peasy!!!

We had our revealing party on Sunday....it sure was fun to see what the other stampers came up with. In my next post I will blog the cards I received and sent and the comparison between the two. It was fun to see what the lady who had my name and what she came up with the images I sent her.

After the meeting a few of us went out to a Chinese Buffet....I stuffed myself....but it sure was good food. 

It was a fun weekend. Saturday, I went to the show with friend Betty. We saw "Let there be Light" it was very good movie. Sean Hannity, who is the Executive Producer said that this weekend alone, the movie came in second to one of the secular movies. Next weekend the movie will open in 300 more movie houses. So I guess it is doing really good.

After the movie, we went to Perkins, we got a cheese burger and fries.....deconstructed. The French fries were the bed with burger, cheese, lettuce and tomato AND deep fried pickles on top of the fries....oh yeah baby....that was good too!! Now I want to get that again....oh and if you order it after 9pm to 6am it's half-price. WHAT a DEAL!!! I like DEALS!!! Maybe sometime after JP gets home from work, we could run over to Perkins and get a take-out,

Well time to close....guess this post was longer then I expected. I have a rhubarb pie in the oven right now....after baking, I shall have to go down stairs and work on my Hospice cards. So you all have a good night and keep looking up, better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

PS....oh yum I smell rhubarb pie!!!!!!

Cards Made for the Revealing Party on Sunday

Hi there everyone....yay! It's Friday and Saturday is coming!!! I have a busy day coming up tomorrow. Starting with a Continental Breakfast at WG&R Furniture store. I also will get a free gift, a coffee mug and spoon....yeah, I like to collect the stuff they give away for free and then it gives me a chance to look a round at the beautiful furniture that I cannot afford....so I just dream and dream and dream.

After dreaming a bit, I will head over to Betty's to buy some card stock. A 96 year old lady is giving up stamping and asked Betty to sell her stuff. So the paper will sell for 25 sheets for $1. I need red and blue....so hopefully there will be some colors I need. I may or may not head over to GFS to get some mushrooms, frozen fruit, butter and bread.

Saturday night Betty and I are going to the show to see "Let There Be Light" a Christian movie. I have had these free tickets for two years and never used them......tomorrow night is the night!!! Sean Hannity and Mark Levine have been talking about the movie....it's playing at the Marcus Theater....so I called Betty and she said she would go. So, another Yay for the day!!! Oh and I have a ticket for FREE pop corn too!

Following are some cards I made for the revealing party on Sunday. Betty and I are involved in this group. There is about 18 ladies in the group. We send 12 images to a mystery lady and maybe the same lady or another lady sends me 12 images for 6 months. We are supposed to make two cards with the images. Sometimes I am a bit stumped as to what to do, but finally I get inspiration.

So in the above picture, the mystery lady sent me the scare crow and corn stalk and a few fall sayings.

In this above picture, the mystery lady sent me the orange background, I inked it with Distress Oxide and embossed with clear embossing then added the die cut leaves and bow. I like this card...think I will make a few more for Hospice next week.

The picture above, she sent me the master gardener, tools and seed packets....this was one of those images I did not know what to do with. I added the saying "Grow where you are planted" seems apropos for this card.

Now this was another card that had me stumped for awhile, actually the stars came in July and it wasn't till October that I finally thought of something.....just a card decoration using the die cuts she sent.

In this card....the mystery lady sent me the lip stick, mirror and perfume bottle. I had the shoes and the pretty lady and just made it a "Ladies Night Out" card.

This card was actually the first one I made from the mystery lady....she sent the frog, so I colored her in and added the hi's and hello's and google eyes.

We had to make two cards each. A set to lay on the table and a set to give to the lady that sent the images AND a set of cards of the images I sent to. I will put those cards up in the next few days. I will let you know what the movie was about, I am sure it will be a good review. I hope Betty does not get tired of my face after this week-end.....lol!

Well time to close, Chicago Blackhawks are playing the Nashville Predators....hard to type and concentrate on the game. The game is 2-1 in Nashville's favor.

So talk to you later and keep looking up, better days are coming....for sure!!! Cheers ~ Louise

As Promised - JP's Racing Days

Hi there everyone.....well finally a post!!! It seems I have only been doing one post a week lately....sorry about that. Not much to talk about, I guess. Well, actually there is, but I have been lazy.....lol!

So as promised....Today's post is about JP and his racing days back in 1972 and 1973. The car above was a 69 Camaro. In the above picture he got to go around the track with the American Flag....while they played the National Anthem......no knee bending here.

In this above picture, he won the Trophy Dash on August 13, 1972. As you can see most of these pictures are part of the scrap book I have put together for JP.....it's still unfinished.....one of these days I will finish it.

In this picture above JP won the Waukegan Short Track 50 lapper. I think that night he collected $400 in winnings.....gosh we thought we were rich!!!!! And it all went back into the car.

The car 169 was recycled into the above car.....#7....pretty snazzy huh??? Yep, it was a good thing we had pictures taken of the car before we went out racing that night. Because it seems everyone was out  after JP Gatti and car #7, cause it got pretty beat up that night. As a matter of fact, one of the Drivers did not like JP and punched him in the eye one night. AND to top that off....his wife wanted to beat me up too......though, she never touched me. Good thing.....I had too much spunk back then.

Another Race Won on July 7.....how apropos.....#7 wins on 7/7/73!!!!!

Here we are....JP Gatti battling with #64 George Dukas the "EYE Puncher" I think this was the night JP got punched and was taken to the hospital. Dukas thought JP had deliberately spun him out....tempers flare on the track and in the pits!!!!

Here we are, JP and Louise. JP just won the Track Championship for 1973......weren't we a cute couple???? Yep, those were the days. JP ended his racing days that year....he saw one friend killed and another friend ended up in the hospital when a tire flew in the air from a racing car on the track, hitting him in the head.

So there you have it....a trip down memory lane. I do have lots more pictures that I could show you.....but these are the only ones for now that I have scanned into my computer.

I shall close here for now....you all have a great week and keep looking up....better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Friday and Falling Leaves

 Hi there everyone....hope you had a great week!! Despite all the terrible news, fires, hurricanes, mass killings....my gosh! Makes a person want to hide in a closet and never come out!!!! But thank goodness, it is Friday....I love this little white dog...reminds me of my dog Hyko. We still miss him and he has been gone 5 years now.

Well, I am excited......FINALLY got an Etsy sale....what a great surprise. I just have to finish the order tonight. The lady will pick up the order tonight, I will get it in the mail by Monday. The lady is going to use these leaves for her wedding in 35 days. Printing  names on them plus use the leaves for decorations. I have 100 made already and just need to make another 100 and maybe 20 extra as a bonus.

What's really neat about these leaves is you can peel the leaf off the backing and stick it on an envelope, mirror, vase, etc. the ideas are endless.

I finally learned how to scan stuff into my computer. Is that not amazing???? I guess this old dog can learn new tricks. Never give up!!!! My next blog, I will put a bunch of pictures up of JP when he was racing cars....that's the man I fell in love with!!! A man that JP works with wanted to see some pictures of JP when he raced....so I figured out how to scan....now I want to scan everything!!!

Well time to close here. Nothing much is planned for tomorrow. Collected all my tomatoes from outdoors....need to make some canned tomatoes before they go bad. Maybe make some salsa tomorrow too. It's almost time to rake those falling leaves....our backyard is covered right now.

Have a great evening and keep looking up ~ better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

A "Making" Kind of Day

Hi there everyone. How is your Saturday going???? Thought I would take a minute or two to say HI....and just report I am in a "Making" kind of day. You say "What?" Yeah, so far I have:

• Made a Rhubarb Pie
• Making "Slow Cooker Ropa Vieja (Cuban Beef) in my Power Pressure XL. I had ALL the ingredients, so why not make it.
• I also will be making my bed, changing sheets and putting a new foam mattress on it...hopefully that will feel better.
• I will be making some dried tomatoes today.....green tomatoes this time. Have lots of green tomatoes that may not get a chance to turn red before the first frost.
• I will be making a few cards tonight. I am hoping to get a card and note out to a "survivor of the mass killing" in Las Vegas today....have the note typed, just need to find a nice card and send it off to the Hospital.
• Making some iced tea right now.

Yeah.....so much to do and so little time.

 Last week I made this lovely dish from Blue Apron "Seared Steaks and Roasted Potatoes with Balsamic Glazed Mushrooms" Gosh, this was good. I made two other meals from Blue Apron, but this is the only one I took pictures of.

I am in the midst of reading this book, "Killing England". If you love History, this is the book for you. I picked it up at Sam's Club after hearing about it on the Sean Hannity show. There are some really interesting facts....did you know George Washington had hemorrhoids and had to sit on a pillow while riding his horse. POOR MAN!!!! I feel for him. Back then, there was no Tucks or Preparation H!!!! Gosh, and I am sure he did not carry around Kleenex or toilet paper, not even the soft kind. What did they use back then....leaves, cotton material....ouch!!!! Poor George!!!

I am only in Chapter 1...so I am just beginning this journey. But so far it has been very interesting. Bill O'Reilly and his co-writer go into a lot of history, they go into the archives of many places, Valley Forge, Monticello, Mount Vernon and the Independence Hall to name a few places where they got information for this book.

The men and women of those times were fighting for their freedoms just as we are STILL fighting for our freedoms now.....nothing new under the sun is there????

Well, I better go, or I will not get all the things done that I want to and will have to carry over to Sunday. Have a great day and keep looking up.....better days really are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

Fall Flowers and a Steak Dinner

Hi there everyone.....WOW can you believe it????? October 1st....where oh where did September go??? I always remember that song that Frank Sinatra sang...at this time of the year.

"September Song"
When I was a young man courting the girls

I played me a waiting game
If a maid refused me with tossing curls
I'd let the old Earth make a couple of whirls
While I plied her with tears in lieu of pearls
And as time came around she came my way
As time came around, she came

When you meet with the young girls early in the Spring
You court them in song and rhyme
They answer with words and a clover ring
But if you could examine the goods they bring
They have little to offer but the songs they sing
And the plentiful waste of time of day
A plentiful waste of time

Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
One hasn't got time for the waiting game

Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days I'll spend with you
These precious days I'll spend with you

Well, now a trip to my yard of Fall Flowers. My yellow rose (of Texas). She doesn't get very big during the summer but she sure does produce some beautiful flowers.

I bought these two mum plants at Walmart @ $1 a piece....and just thought to plant them together....thinking I better go out and give them a little bit of water after I do this post.

This is my gorgeous star Clementius....I am not sure that is her real name but she sure does produce some luscious flowers.

My Black Eyed Susan's just keep producing all Summer and Fall long and surprise me growing in different places.

My $5 mum plant....I bought this one at Festival Foods. I need to plant it pretty soon.

Last but not least.....a Blue Apron meal, we had the other night. Seared Steaks and Roasted Potatoes with Balsamic-Glazed Mushrooms. This was really a delicious dinner and the meat was really tender, potatoes crispy and the mushrooms out of this world. Nothing is mentioned in the title about the fried kale.....that was pretty good too.

I haven't talked much about my Blue Apron meals, only because I have not been ordering them that much. I have been very picky and choosey with what I buy. JP does not like spicey, so my options are usually limited. Blue Apron likes to spice things up a bit. So I either cut it out or add just a little.....but if he can taste the spice, he does not eat it. The older he gets the harder it is to cook for him. So....sometimes it is just best to stick with the basics that have no spice.

Well, I best cut this post short.....have to go walk Kylie while it is still light out and then get dinner cooked. I do have a new recipe to share with you. Maybe in my next post. A Power Pressure Canning XL recipe....Pasta Puttanesca in 6 Minutes. It was soooooo good!!!

Tomorrow we find out the results of JP's test from his Prostrate Biopsy last Monday. The appointment is at 12:15 so please keep us in your prayers.

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

Cheers ~ Louise

Fences - Old and New

Hi there everyone....Hope you are having a good week. It's been a little rough here. JP had to have a tooth pulled last Thursday and was off work both Thursday and Friday. Yesterday, Monday, he had a biopsy on his prostrate and was off work. Today he went to work...guess I will find out how he did when he gets home. The results of his biopsy will be next Monday. We are praying that the results will show no cancer. 

On Monday the 11th we had a new fence put up.....I am really loving it. The above picture is the Old fencing we put about 5-6 years ago.

In this picture we got the green fence all taken down and the ground raked and brush cut down. See that clothes line pole???? It got taken down too....I always thought it was on our property, but it actually was on the neighbors property. Guess I will have to think of another way to hang clothes.

Here are some of the men that worked on putting my fence up. Volunteers from Habitat for Humanity.

Wa la.....here is the finished product.....next year we will either paint it or stain it. I bought some mulch, so I want to lay some down along the fence, hopefully keeping most of the weeds down.

I put my old grill in front of the fence....a couple of benches that were left curb side by the neighbor across the street. He helped us carry them over to our place. We didn't have the fence up....so glad I got them.....they sure did add to the décor.

A little bit of a closer look.

It has been fun decorating my back yard.....already looking forward to Spring....is it here yet???? Oh, that's right it is still fall.

I invested in this pretty mum plant, will have to dig a hole and hopefully save it for next year. That's my ceramic squirrel I made when I still worked at The Salvation Army. We had a kiln in the basement and lots of things to paint. I made this squirrel, a frog, two turtles and a rabbit and they all come out in the spring and back in the shed for the winter. That was almost 30 years ago....time flies!!!

I did some canning of tomatoes tonight....haven't canned in eons. My two tomato plants out front of the house have produced an abundance of tomatoes. I have frozen some, dehydrated some, made spaghetti sauce and tomato soup, a few BLT's, stuffed tomatoes and fried tomatoes and lots of salad's. It's been a good tomato year here.

Well, time to close here. JP will be home in about 10 minutes so I better heat up his tomato soup and dinner I made for him. You all take care and keep looking up....better days are coming. 

Cheers ~ Louise

Weekends.....Hooray!!!

Hi there everyone. Hope you are doing well.....I have been meaning to use this little doggie for a long time....now is the time.

Habitat for Humanity was here on Monday to build our fence. Today....Saturday, a few people are coming to paint our porch. I still have some paint left from the last paint job....so there should be a enough.

We had to clean off the porch of furniture and stuff. Last night I power sprayed the porch to get dust off....sprayed the ceiling and siding and even the flowers got some spray on them too. Looks clean.

We also got 2 large planters and a bunch of dirt to get our plants going for next year. I just have to decide where I want them. My only problem is that there is not enough sun as the two trees make it very shady. Oh well, I have the winter to think about it.

I will take pictures of everything accomplished this week....feels good, like having a new house.

Well, time to close, have to get to bed. As the workers will be here at about 7:45am....uge, hope I can get started.

Have a great weekend and 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

Labor Day Weekend

Hi there everyone....hope you are having a nice and relaxing Labor Day Weekend. Well, as of 1/2 hour ago, our relaxing Labor day weekend ended. I saw a few bees buzzing around in the basement as I watched TV. OH NO!!! We have had a problem with bees the last couple of weeks outside, along side the house. JP sprayed them a couple of times....but I guess the can of spray was kind of old.

So, I bought a new can at Walmart. I told JP tonight....don't forget to spray the bees....he did and guess what, they found a way to get into the house. Now they are buzzing around my stamping stuff. JP sprayed the lights where they were buzzing around and naturally the spray went all over my papers, stamps and ink and stuff....erg!!! He swatted a few bees and the lights above my stamping desk went out. Geez........

So we shut things down and came upstairs. I went to the computer to see if there was some home remedy we could use.....yep, mountain dew and dish detergent, mixed together. The sweetness of the dew draws them and the soap coats their wings and they drown cause they can't fly. So we put 6 bowls of the potion out in different spots to see if that will solve part of the problem. I don't carry much soda in the house and only had a few cans of 7-up....so that is what I used.

We had this problem maybe 10 years ago and we called the exterminator, he set a smoke bomb out in the basement. I just don't want to call the guy over the weekend....could cost and arm and leg to have him do what we might be able to do....oh well, we'll see.

I told JP he is going downstairs tomorrow morning to see what the damage is.....Hopefully they are gone.

So we celebrated 44 years of marriage on the 27th of August. This is the card I made for JP. Was kind of fun to make. I used the left over stuff from my Stampin'up kit for August.  Not sure if I talked much about our anniversary. I did on Facebook and got lots of "likes" and comments. We didn't do much, it was raining that day and kind of dreary. I cooked a steak, fries and salad later on in the day.....nope, not much of a special day.

Today would be my Father's Birthday. He would have been 99 years old. He has been dead for 56 of those years....my how time does fly. He was the love of my life when I was a little girl....the sun rose and set on my father. No one could take his place. My stepfather tried, but to no avail. My stepfather wanted me to call him Dad....but I couldn't. He was pops and that's all he was to me. Pops died in May....he will always be Pops. Least I didn't call him Pete.

This week JP and I have to get the porch cleaned off and furniture moved and get the backyard fence and shrub down. Because Habitat for Humanity is painting the porch floor and putting up a privacy fence in our backyard. I can hardly wait. So, I will have some new pictures for you. Stay tuned. Here is what our fence looks like now. JP is going to mow all the greenery down and we will take down as much of the green plastic fencing that we can. I will be sure to take before and after pictures of everything.

Well time to close....it's almost 11:30pm....maybe time to close shop....I wish I could be downstairs making some cards.....but the bees have invaded our home. So I guess I shall say good-night.

Cheers ~ Louise

My Bumper Crop of Tomatoes

Hi there everyone......well, I've been kinda busy with my tomatoes. That's why I have been missing for awhile. These two bushes of Beef Steak Tomatoes have produced an abundance of tomatoes. Oh and so delicious....nothing like a fresh tomato from the garden.

So many things to make with my tomatoes. I want to can some tomatoes in the next few days. I've put a large bag of tomatoes in the freezer...maybe will do another bag for soups during the winter.

I am planning on dehydrating some tomatoes and maybe put some oil and seasonings on them and let they dry. I will take pictures after the drying process. Maybe I could grind them into powder and use as a seasoning. Just thinking about this process right now.

 I have made a few salads with the tomatoes. Tonight I had the salad, mixed with bacon and ranch dressing....yum that was good. I want to make a crustless tomato and spinach Quiche. I found the recipe in a magazine at the Doctor's office. So....this recipe is on the agenda to make soon.

Oh and then there are the BLT's.....so, so good! Tomato Soup was the first thing I made with my tomatoes.....oh and on the agenda is some tomato sauce too and then maybe can the sauce. The ideas are just endless, aren't they? I have been looking at "Tomato Jam" recipes, that sounds like fun too!!

These tomatoes were just so perfect....hardly any blemishes on these tomatoes. It most definitely was a good year for tomatoes and I most definitely will be planting Beef Steak Tomatoes next year also.

Another recipe I want to try and will give you the recipe here. I've have not tried it yet, but I can tell it will be really good.

Parmesan Oven Roasted Tomatoes:

3 large ripe tomatoes, halved

1 slice of bread or 3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 tablespoons of fresh herbs, (parsley, basil and oregano) or 1/2 teaspoon each dried basil & dill)

salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven 400 degrees. Using a blender or magic bullet, process the bread into fresh breadcrumbs. In a small bowl, combine breadcrumbs, cheese, garlic, olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper. Toss until well mixed.

Place sliced tomatoes in a shallow baking dish, season with salt and pepper, Top with breadcrumb mixture. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until crumbs are lightly browned. Be sure not to over bake so the tomatoes don't become mushy.

Another think I have been doing with my tomatoes is just slicing them and putting mozzarella on them and cooking along with my eggs in the morning.....soooooooo.good.

So there you have it, my tomato post, hope you enjoyed every bite of my tomatoes!!! Have a great evening and enjoy the last day of August tomorrow....where did this summer go??????

Tomato Cheers ~ Louise