POKEY PEAS REFUGEES CHALLENGE for April 2016

Happy Friday! I am so behind here and got to catch up. So glad to see all your sweet faces chatting away over the last week. So I will go back and see what y'all were talking about. My week was uneventful but that is ok. Next week is the Scrapbook Expo and I hope to go. I went once before and this year I hope to try one of the little make-takes or a class. So we will see.

Waving hello and will ne back later to comment. Have a nice afternoon!

Happy April Fool's Day!

Nylene, love both of those cards. I'm totally going to lift them.

Thanks to everyone for the dd well wishes. I've been waking her earlier and trying to make her sleep earlier. She's now falling asleep around midnight. I'll continue to work on it.

We have had a gorgeous day so far, hard to believe that snow and highs in the low 30's are suppose to be here tomorrow. My son chopped down a black walnut tree with an axe earlier this week. Black walnut trees poison the ground for other plants and we have 2 in are orchard that need to come down. Of course, Don had an accident; he was using the saw to cut a small tree branch and it slipped cutting him. I always tease him that he could cut off his arm outside working and he'd just sew it back on and keep going. But get a sniffle and I need to rush him to the ER and get the funeral director aligned. Men! After he let me put gauze and tape around it, we continued to burn around the stump for most of the day having hot dogs and marshmallows for lunch. I was suppose to work on some inside chores, but with his being hurt I needed to be out there more. Then measured where we want our fencing to go for the chickens, garden plots and animals. Hoping to get a quote this week. Of course with his ouchie, we most likely will not be doing flooring tomorrow. Hopefully we can get my daughters room finished later this week. Because Don leaves next Saturday and will be gone for 2 weeks except for a short 2 day stay back at home between trips.

knutschen Jana, I couldn't see the effect of the 3-d. It was the within the first year after surgery that I tried and my brain hadn't fully integrated the two sides being different. So maybe it might work now. Not sure.

Waving hi to everyone. Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

nylene, I love your cards! I might have to lift your bicycle cards also! Too cute!

LisaDV, I hope your DH is doing alright from his accident. It sounds like your guys are busy with projects!

I was tired when I got off work this morning but I had a couple of appointments so I got home later than I had hoped. I was exhausted and was really hoping to go to the art walk downtown. I ended up waking up to late to go. Next art walk, I am on a little vacation and should be awake and able to go!! Saturday is a cherry blossom festival at the Japanese garden and I hope to go. I should get to bed since it is getting late here.

I hope everyone has a great day!

Happy Saturday! It is a beautiful and sunny day today and we are relaxing. Oh, I got excited yesterday. I ordered some pp from Blitsy for the first time and my order came. I ordered Kaisercraft's Cottage Rose 12x12 kit. The pp is so pretty and just right for my Mother's Day cards I want to make. I was pleased with the Blitsy service too.

Thanks for all the praise you all gave me on window valences. I wish I could have curtains but since we live in this apartment we are somewhat limited. So valances were a nice idea. Nylene, I broke my sewing machine needle so I used that "no sew" glue and it turned out nice.

Cindy- Sending you some sunny weather and prayers. I hope you feel much better soon. Hang in there!

Nylene- Thanks for our new thread. I can't believe it is April already. The cards you made are so fantastic! I would of loved to help you with those. How many designs did you make? So great girl!

Jana- Art walk sounds so fun and that is a bummer you missed it. We have one and I have wanted to go but haven't made it yet. Maybe I can go to the one in May. They have once a month. How was the Japanese festival?

Lisa- You were busy too with lots of beautiful layouts. I just left the gallery and saw lots of your pages there. You and Maribeth haven't been very pokey and that is awesome! I think that Calvinball was great for some of you all. You house sounds like it is coming along too. Will it be done by Summer or still lots to do?

Maribeth- You were busy too in March. I am glad that you all were able to get away a few weekends too. Sounds so relaxing.

Winding down the weekend here on the farm. The snow is receding after warm temps the last couple of days, but it was pretty chilly--close to freezing--today again.

Worked on getting my tax info organized. It would be so much easier this time of year if I just filed everything as it came in, but I have learned by now that is not how I roll. I think after a couple of days of sorting receipts and records, I am now ready to put it all into an Excel table for the accountant. We have an appointment on the 12th.

Dd & her little guy are here today and will be spending the night. Tomorrow, dh & I are driving again for his second cataract surgery--on the other eye. It will be a whole day this time because the dr wants to see him about 2 hours after surgery.

Glad your camping trip was fun, maribeth and that you got some of the photos you were seeking.

Hope everyone had a good weekend and that you all have a great week! scrapincin I hope you are feeling better.

Happy Monday evening!

DHs cut was worse than I originally thought, but is doing much better. It still looks really nasty. But he can move his finger more, but it still hurts a lot. He says even opening his dresser drawers hurts it. And he was lamenting on what a dumba$* he was, since he has a plethera of work gloves. If he had just been wearing a pair, he could have avoided being hurt. Yep, couldn't agree more! We definitely won't get to that flooring this week. When he comes back in a couple of weeks, we should be able to knock it out. But that will give me time to paint the upstairs hall, and put away the 4 large overflowing baskets of clean laundry that I didn't touch this week.

I went to Joann's today and bought a couple of Easter things at 75% off, including next years egg coloring kit. I also bought a Teresa Collins label set and a silicon tipped mixed media tool set. I've been eyeing them for awhile. Now that I'm home I wish I would have bought another set of different sized tips.

kellyr21, Michael's sent out a coupon for 50% classes today and I thought of you. I haven't heard of Blitzy so I'll go check them out. I can't wait to see your Mother's day cards. Also, the farm refurb will be an ongoing project, because we have to save for each project as we don't want to take a loan to redo the rooms. We started with the bedrooms, but the great room is awful. But I've decided to go ahead and paint and not worry about holes and gauges in the drywall (hopefully while DH is on this next stint of trips). I take photos and then don't want to scrapbook them because of the horrible red wine colored walls. You can see the grape vines from the windows and I've taken to calling it the "Grape" room instead of great room.

grammadee, prayers that the procedure went well.

maribeth, funny how all men seem to have one thing that turns them to big babies. lol. Glad you had fun on your camping trip. I found my camera. I'll let the cold pass and some greenery come back before taking some courthouse photos for you.

knutschen, did you take any photos of the festival?

nylene, I'm now very curious if you are allergic to it. In the allergy panel DD just had, only the most common local allergens were used and Black Walnut was not one - ash, pine, oak, plus more. I totally understand if you don't want to post your layout of your fall, but I'm glad you did it. Hope your DH feels better soon.

Waving hi to wishing well to scrapincin and maryannscraps.

I'm off to make bedtime snacks.

scrapincin - glad to hear you are on the mend! Hopefully we will see you around here more frequently now.

grammadee - your story brought tears of happiness to my eyes. Congratulations to you and your family.

nylene - darling page, I miss Angie around here. going to leave some love.

Since I was so productive in March for Calvinball, I think I have decided on craft room organization for April. I have been working on this since the beginning of the year, little by little, but think I will put the effort into getting it completed by the end of April. I have my week-long vacation coming up in May, and then we don't do much in June, July and August so I can really dedicate those three months to scrapping. I will share some photos and organizing ideas I have with you through the remainder of April.

Waving Hi to everyone, have a happy day!

nylene - yes, we are going to Hovenweep National Monument. It is in the middle of nowhere, in your beautiful state of Utah. It has been on my bucket list for years, and always something has come up, but this time it is a go, since they allow dogs on the trails (most National Monuments and Parks do not), it is a perfect excuse to go there this year since we have to take the dog everywhere now.

Happy Wednesday ladies! Last night I went to M's to get some more supplies for my cards. I did find some things and that was good. It is just amazing how they can have tons of ribbon but didn't have the color I was looking for in the satin ribbon. LOL! So I ended up getting some tulle. I just love this "Cottage Rose" pp collection and it will make pretty cards for Mother's Day and Spring. I will be starting these today. Also, I am working on another painting. I am trying a landscape for the first time on canvas and excited to see how it turns out.

Cindy- We have missed you and so happy you are healilng and feeling better. Take your time getting back in the swing of things. We were holding the fort down for ya will you were away.

Grandmadee- Congrats to you and your family. How exciting!!!

Nylene- Oh yes, the expo starts tomorrow and I hope to go on Saturday afternoon. I am looking forward to it and hope to have fun. Also, I first saw that Kaisercraft collection on A Cherry On Top over a month ago and loved it. It was still on backorder so I waited and waited. Then when they finally got it the one paper I really wanted was sold out that fast!!! So I found Blitsy had it but I had to get the whole kit so I did and now the other store has more of the paper I originally wanted. LOL! But it was nice trying a new online store that had good prices and lower shipping.

Maribeth- You are really going girl! So glad you got your scrapping done and now your April plans sound good. I know after I reorganize stuff I feel better.

Lisa- "Grape" room made me smile! LOL! I can imagine when you get all that work done you will be happy. Also, I was looking to see if I got a 50% off coupon for classes and I didn't see one. I hope it comes soon cause that would help. I went shopping there last night and they had a free cupcake decorating class but they were already finished. I just wanted to check it out but maybe next time I can go. It's just you have to buy all those supplies which add up too.

Waving hi to all the rest of you ladies! Have a nice evening.

Good Morning Pokey's

Well I actually felt like a real person last night. I actually stayed up until 10:00 PM (I am sure most of you know my normal bedtime is 7:30, and that is if I am lucky and don't fall asleep while eating or bathing - LOL). It felt great, wish I could do that all the time. However, I do have to say I did not walk on the tread last night so I did not fulfill my health goal yesterday. But still, I had a great time. I continued on with my organizing. I am utilizing two what they sell as shoe cubbies, but I could not even fit one shoe in one slot so they became craft cubbies. The slots are about 4" wide by 5" high by 10" or 11" long. I purchased some boxes that were 4x4x10or11 from Uline and they slide in perfectly. You can fit each group of Stampin Up stamp pad colors in one tray (ie Regals, Brights, Subtles,) fits 2 years of In-colors in one box, and since I have a dauber for each one I use the Avon face cream boxes and one of those fits inside the box and holds my daubers. I am also using these boxes for my Distress Ink Pads, Mists, Liquid pearls, Enamel Dots etc.... - I will show you photos as I finish the project. I also worked on cataloging my embossing folders. Something I don't use often enough and it is because I don't have a visual of what I have. So I am making a sample of each folder and putting it in a binder, labeling the sample as well as the Avery Elle envelopes use to store the folders. Got up at 3:43 this morning, and finished up the few embossing folders I had left, but ran out of envelopes so will move on to another area for a while until I can get a cart full over at Amazon. Yesterday at lunch I finished my punches cataloging for all punch locations I had already begun (last year). I think I will try to focus on the remaining punches and get those finished I will get an hour at lunch today to work on them as hubby will be running errands all day, but I will have to walk tonight for sure!. I have the oversized punches which I don't know where to give them a home yet, they don't fit in my other drawers that I am using for punches. I have to come up with something. I also have my Martha Stewart (regular and border), my Fiskars border punches, My Creative Memories punches and border system cartridges (and Our Memories for Life cartridges as well), and my Stampin Up punches left to go. All of those are currently renting space in one of my jet-max cubes, but there is not room for any additions which does not really work, because I know i will purchase more, so I need to figure out a good home for them that will have room for added family members. I am loosely following the Totally Tiffany way of organizing. However, I scrap so much differently than the "normal" scrapper (why can't i just be like everyone else?), so I have to deviate quite a bit how I organize, but her ideas are a good jumping off point for me. Her cataloging is what really caught my eye, but even that I have put my own spin on it.

Well I rambled a bit this morning ladies, sorry to have wasted your time with such a long post. Everyone have a wonderful day!

nylene - great layout, left love. It will be well worth the organizational effort for the both of us.