POKEY PEAS REFUGEES CHALLENGE for December 2017

Hoping everyone is feeling better and making good progress on your Christmas plans.  Nylene, I was blown away by your beautiful card. I knew it would be nice, but, WOW!

Thanks for all your good wishes and encouragement on our trip.
We got home Monday, but my computer crashed and I did not have enough energy to post here on my phone.  DH took it to the shop today and it is all well....didn't lose any pics . I was a little worried because I had not backed up in about a month and I could have had problems finding those.
 I did really well keeping up on the trip, but after I came home, I sort of lost some momentum!

On the way home, I found my first painted rock. Have you all found any? I'm going to take it to the river Sunday and leave it there. There was a facebook page painted on the back so, I let the painter know I found it.
All I have on my plate next week is Christmas decorating which consists of putting away all my little junky lovelies and putting out my nativity collection and my Charlie Brown tree. And then, of course, the dreaded photo editing of the 100s of pics we took on the trip. Happy December to all!

Ha ha, nylene, I hope YOU got some sleep last night and are not glued to your scrap table! What a sweet project you are doing!

scrapincin, I hope you continue to feel better and that the antibiotics have kicked in.

I hand wrote my greetings in my cards, LisaDV, and I was feeling guilty b/c I had not included a stamped or printed message. Funny how we always second guess ourselves!

Thanks for checking in, @elaynef. Glad you are home. I am like msliz, I love to see all the photos on the computer as soon as I get home. But I don't do much editing at home: just take my camera card in to WalMart and edit and pick & choose at the kiosk. That is a really interesting rock. Not sure of the story behind them?

I didn't bake my cookies yet, msliz, but the DOUGH tasted devine Don't worry: there is more than enough to turn into cookies! Glad you are finally able to play in your scraproom. I have a feeling nothing much will happen in mine for awhile. Need to get my Christmas baking and decorating done. I have been thinking of maribeth for awhile, missing her descriptions of her Christmas house. Mine will be VERY scaled down from hers of past years.

I also want to have the gifts for our one ds's family mailed out by Monday (His is the one family we won't be seeing until later Januaray). Before I wrap the gifts, I want to put together the 4 family calendars. I always want a complete inventory of gifts for a family before I start the wrapping process, b/c with my memory something important might be left out completely.

Good Monday morning, Ladies!

I hope you got your bookmarks done, nylene, and I hope you snapped a photo of them. I tried my hand at a twist and pop card this past week, and while I like the results, I would have to make quite a few to get into the rhythm of the process. Then I discovered Karen Burniston dies, and I see she has dies for a whole bunch of different types of interactive and pop up cards. I had to hide my wallet to keep from ordering them all...

Hope you feel better today, @elaynef! And hope your redecorating goes well. This morning I vaccuumed, dusted and moved the living room furniture around to accommodate Christmas. When he got home from town, Dh hauled the tree and a bunch of bins of decorations up from the basement. He will be gone most of the day tomorrow, so I plan to crank up the Christmas tunes and transform this place into holiday gear!

Too funny that I was rearranging furniture while talking to dd on the phone and told her I needed to get off the line so I could get the stuff moved away from the front doorway. Dh always comes into the house through the side door from the garage, but I thought that this morning might be different, since he was planning to stop at the Post Office and we were each expecting a few parcels to arrive. It is a shorter route from truck to house if he comes through the front. What do you know? I had barely cleared the path than the front door opened and in came a load of parcels. It would not have been a very merry morning if he had tried to open that door and run it into a love seat!

Another thing he picked up from the post office was packing tape, so I hope to get a couple of parcels ready to mail this afternoon. Those gifts are ready to go, but I needed the tape to get the boxes ready to ship. And I want to wrap up the next set of gifts. If I do a few every day I can hang onto the Christmas spirit. If I leave them all until the last minute I just get achy and cranky.

Anyway, off to eat a quick lunch before digging into the wrapping challenges in front of me...

Good morning everyone! I have to say the cards are beginning to roll in! I am glad to see some of you are starting to receive mine. We should do this every year! So I am trying to get ready for the big day.Trying to remember every day whats the reason for the season. I am still decorating my tree and need to get cards out. I am trying to shop in the mean time. I also have a project I am doing as a gift so need to be doing that. I can't believe I am moving so slow this year. And if you could see my scrap room you would croak. It is a total mess!

It was nice to see you kellyr21 . You are missed when we don't see you for such long periods of time. I guess you have been working on your card business. Hope it going well for you.

nylene I know you are busy! I had to laugh so hard when grammadee said she hoped you weren't glued to your scrap table! Did you get all 80 bookmarks made? You are always so busy!

grammadee we know you are busy-you always are. Glad you got that door cleared just in time. I don't know how you find enough time to do everything you do but you always do. I am going to the gallery to leave you some love cuz somehow I missed that adorable card you made.

@elaynef so glad you made it back home! Trips are nice but "there is no place like HOME!" Hope you start feeling better cuz who wants to be sick especially this time of the year.

LisaDV are you getting the bad weather? We are getting the rain and high winds this morning and know that snow is coming too.

msliz how is it going for you? Do you do a lot for Hanukkah? Your card was so cute I love it!

Waving a big HI to Jana, Maribeth, and anyone else I missed!

Hi everyone,

Sorry I’ve not been around much. I have been reading, but just not had a chance to really update. I’ve made myself a giant to do deep cleaning list which I broke tasks down into minute detail. This will be my December.

You all have been busy. I’m a slow poke this year on decorating. Putting up our tree is on our to do this weekend. We’ve picked out a live tree, but I’m still debating whether to have Don chop it down or just pull up the fake one. I take the tree down on the 26th or 27th, so at this point I’m not sure if it’s worth the real tree trouble. I, too, have been thinking of maribeth and her fabulously decorated house during this holiday season.

@elaynef, that rock is gorgeous. I have "known" a couple of online people that are really into doing that. I think it's a wonderful idea. Sorry you're sick. I hope yours passes as quickly as mine did. I was finished in less than 3 days. Lots of airborne.

msliz, I hope you are still on your scrapbooking roll.

grammadee, you seem to be quite on top of the whole holiday season. I'd expect nothing less from you though. Since you were preparing your package for mailing the other day, I assume your calendar is all printed and ready as well. I think it's a wonderful tradition that you do to make this every year. Are you finished decorating now?

kellyr21, I'm glad to see you back. Enjoy your tea. We did that at our church in Indiana. It was a lot of fun.

scrapincin, I'm sure I could give you a run for your money on messiest scrap room. My room also gets all things that the family doesn't know what to do with put in here, plus it's the bathroom supply storage area. And right now, the Christmas parcel storage area. Your glasses sound like a fantastic gift.

nylene, whew, that’s a lot of monster bookmarks, but I’m sure that the kids will love them. Good luck on decorating. DD is the same – up and down. More down after a family outing in early November and then the latest trip to Grand Rapids. She’s also cutting molars, which I’ve noticed increases her sickness. I hope she grows out of all that ails her. Thanks for asking. We are not planning any travels for the month with all the recent trips. I do hope to make one family trip to church at least once in December, and we will plan something fun for that day. Otherwise, we are business as usual this month.

As for the weather here, it did turn colder. The snow started two days ago. I cleaned off a good 5-6” yesterday from my van and this morning there is only another 1-2”. However, it is still calling for snow today – and every day from now until next Friday. We shall see what really happens.

I hope that everyone has a very productive weekend and week ahead with plenty of time for relaxation and family/friends.

Hi Pokeys!

I'm so glad this week is done. I feel like I was busy the whole time but still got nothing accomplished. Some days are like that, and I just had a bunch in a row. We even had a tree fall down in the yard during a windstorm, but thankfully most of it is in the woods, and only the uppermost branches fell onto the lawn. I worked on clearing some of it out today, but there's more work to do. There's always more work to do, isn't there?

And I was looking forward to going to a crop all day tomorrow, but it's been snowed out and rescheduled for Sunday. That's good though because it gives me an extra day to prepare, and that includes decorating some cookies to share. My scrapping stuff is all put away for the moment because the craft table is now being used as gift wrap central, so I'll have to go looking for projects to work on. I have a few new photos to work on too, so that will be fun.

kellyr21 , I love a tea party. I especially love all the baked goodies. Glad you had a good time. I'm keeping my cards in a little basket on a table.

LisaDV , with all that snow in the forecast, maybe you're on the right track with the fake tree this year. You could get all the decorating done this weekend.

scrapincin , he's going to love your glasses. Just be ready when he starts listing all the other items he's going to want you to customize!

grammadee , do you take photos of all your Christmas decorations for your scrapbooks? They'd make some beautiful pages, and I'm sure the stories behind your most treasured ornaments would be so meaningful to your family.

nylene , I only finished 5 out of the 6 pages before I had to put everything away, but that's still a big deal for me. You asked about the teacup on my card? Yes, that was a diecut. I don't do any kind of crafting that's too involved, but I know how to make good use of my Big Shot. I can't wait to see the photo of your little monsters!

Have a lovely and relaxing weekend Pokey Peas! 

And it is Tuesday...

Hope all are well and that whatever you are doing is bringing you joy &/or getting you closer to being prepared for the holidays.

Happy Hanakka, msliz. Will you be gathering with your family to celebrate?

I plan to spend today wrapping up the gift wrapping! (Well, there are still a few packages to be picked up, but after today I will have all the gifts in my house giftwrapped.) Tomorrow I have a hair appointment in the afternoon, and plan to spend the morning picking up things at the Purolator office and the print shop. And one more small pkg should be arriving by mail, so after that six small gifts to wrap.

One of those gifts will be this canvas I finished yesterday for dd's mil. I always want family photos done when we are all together, and except for the baby (who arrived in October) and her one dd who sent me a selfie, her whole family was in attendance in June, so I think she will like this reminder of that time.

Family canvas by Gramma Dee, on Flickr

grammadee that canvas is gorgeous. I'm sure she'll love it. LisaDV usually we get snow by the end of October and it stays until March or April, with a bit of a thaw in February where it gets above freezing, but the last couple of years we've had major thaws where a lot of snow has melted. Half our front lawn is showing through the snow and it's been above freeing all week. Global warming? Happy Hanukkah msliz . I received your card yesterday and it is lovely. nylene you have been so crafty! I'm glad nobody gets to see my craft room (or really my house) most of the time. kellyr21 tea sounds lovely. My mom's church has one, but I haven't been for years. I hope your logo turned out scrapincin . I hope your are recovered @elaynef .

It is finally feeling like Christmas for me. We put up our tree last night. I have been so focused on finishing all my cards for the pea exchange that everything else fell by the wayside. We had a fun visit with Dee and her DH. Here is a pic of the two of us with our cards.

Gramma Dee and Me by Jacqueline Bruce, on Flickr

I also made a wreath for work.
Wreath by Jacqueline Bruce, on Flickr

I'm getting a hair cut tonight. More of a trim and a colour really. I can't believe it's only two weeks until Christmas. I will try to touch base more often.

Happy Friday!!

justjac, when does your winter vacation start? How long will you have off?

nylene, oh my goodness, that's terrible! I am hoping for a storm to come your way to clear away the pollution. You have such wonderful grandchildren to come decorate your house! I'm sorry Sammy won't be attending winter cousin camp. It's so awesome that they love to spend time together.

Me, UGH! I'm so sick of snow, I cannot even begin to tell you how much. Yesterday it just snowed a little bit and after it stopped, I cleaned off my van and it remained clear until after dark. I was so happy, since I was going out today. This morning... I'll post the photo from my phone. ugh! And another winter weather advisory until 12 noon tomorrow. ugh. I can't say UGH enough! And 2 mornings ago, my hands stuck to the metal clips on the dogs leads as I was letting them out in the morning. brr. Sorry, I don't mean to whine. The good news is that Sunday and Monday we aren't suppose to get any snow and Monday is suppose to be 36F for the high.

Last week, I cleared the downstairs hall (it goes to an unused bath & the basement). Don moved out the old tub and toilet from the bathroom. We put in our old 2nd refrigerator (we lent it to a neighbor a while ago). Don also bought a gun safe for the room. I also now have a storage spot for the vacuum cleaner, brooms, and mops. While the hall was cleared, I finished spackling and painting it. It is now all the same color as the living room and the last of the purple wall is finally gone!!! Don will be putting up a shelf with cubbies and coat hooks for me. I also ordered a bench with spots for shoes for under the shelf and a long runner for the hallway. We will finally have an actual spot for coats and shoes. Hurray. The joys of a house with no storage and not being refurbished yet. Each little thing is a huge victory!

I hope everyone has a relaxing week and not a week of cleaning and baking ahead of them like me.

And a Good Friday to you!

Hope the pollution clears for you, nylene . What sweethearts your dgk's are! Last year I really loved it when my niece's girls came to help with Christmas prep. And a Christmas cousin camp sounds like a blast!

LisaDV , I don't know how you get everything done that you do! Never would I attempt to paint and spackle, and especially not at this time of year! I would gladly take some of that snow. Ours is still melting and the moisture is blowing away. Supposed to get cooler again this evening, but no snow in the forecast that I know about. You should crop that photo so it just shows the yard with the trees in the foreground and background--it would make a gorgeous pic for a Christmas card!

I am in cleaning mode today. I need to get the basement play area cleared out of all the stuff that has magically landed there since the summer. Put away all my mixed media and such.  (I typically "do" mixed media on top of the chest freezers in the basement.)  And I am in the middle of making space in my freezers. I usually do this while defrosting each spring, but haven't done the large one for a couple of years, so am trying to do it one section at a time. Last night I took out some frozen raspberry jam from 2011. And when I went to dump it this morning and wash the jars, I realized it was still perfectly good. But it has already been defrosted and I have more than enough from the last two years still in the freezer, so I kept out one jar and dumped the rest.

Have all my gifts wrapped, and will put some under the tree today so I have room to vacuum and clean the bedroom where all the wrapping has taken place. Still have some baking to do, but will do that next week when the kids are here. I typically keep the ones we will be delivering to other houses separate so they don't get lost in the scramble or opened by mistake.

Have a wonderful weekend, Pokeys!

I've been waiting to get all my cards to show you my display and that day has arrived!

 I thought you might enjoy my collage of snow pics, too. I searched for every nice snow pic I had and hang it above my table for the winter. Not all of them are taken in my town, but a couple of them are.

Thanks to all who wished me to get well. I am good. Still coughing and sputtering some but that is normal for me after a cold. Only felt really bad about 3 days. And of course, dh claims he has caught it now!

Loved hearing about your Hanukkah, msliz...have a blessed shabbot tonight and a safe and productive trip.

I will join in and say, grammadee, and lisadv: You have been very busy! wishing you the best for completing your list of preparations...it's massive!

Happy cousins camp, Nylene....I know y'all will have a blast. I really wish my gk lived close enough to do that. It would be wild though, with the 9 boys. I would have to have reinforcements for sure.

Loved the pic of grammadee and jusjac and the wreath. you know we are all jealous of you 2 being able to get together so often.