POKEY PEAS REFUGEES CHALLENGE for MAY 2017

Good Monday evening, Ladies! And Happy May Day! I am glad you are feeling better, nylene. And I hope you can actually experience May!

No personal or family experience with these drugs, scrapincin, but have seen lots in the news about their use here. Fentinel is another one mentioned often on the news. Many of my young adult students had issues with these drugs and that was often the reason they gave for dropping out of school originally.

Nothing crafty for me today, other than taking a few batches of pages about dgs to the printer. He is going to have a LOT of pages! They won't be very thick b/c they will be printed on thin photo paper. But I will need quite a bunch of page protectors. Because there will be nothing thick or heavy on the copied pages, I think I will be able to get less expensive ones, but I will need a lot!

Got the details of the ceremony the first weekend in June. He also sent me information about the grad colours and a few proofs of pregrad photo shoot, so I am ready to create a few pages for his book to go with the copied pages.

Tomorrow I have a few finishing touches to make on the retirement album I need for Thursday. Then nothing crafty until Friday, when I start my 4 day Home Alone adventure in my scrap room for NSD.

I'm trying this again. I started a post yesterday, but ended up exiting out of google chrome altogether. This actually happens to me more times than I care to admit. Probably because I usually have several tabs going and 2pr is usually always up. It's a go to check it when I get a moment type thing.

nylene, thanks for the thread. Hope you are healthy for May!

scrapincin, Congrats to Bobby and I'm very glad Maggie is ok. Hope you are doing better as well. I don't hear a lot about opiates, other than tv, but meth is one that does get talk about. Our area is a vacation home hot spot. When we first bought this property the vacation neighbors were cleaning off a house that had burned down. Later the local chatter was the grandson was brewing/making meth which caused the fire.

grammadee, enjoy your 4 day craft bonanza! I can't wait to see all of your wonderful pages.

maribeth, I think you are seriously cool with uploading photos to information websites!

Yesterday was a busy cleaning day, but Don got us all out of the house when he happened upon a large patch of morels. We then started to hunt the property. We found 30 in all which was last nights desert.

Today I also hope to finish a page that has been on my desk since Saturday. I was musing yesterday that I feel like I've reverted back to when the kids were little. I would leave a page out and work in 5 - 10 minute spurts when they became available. Sometimes a page would take a week, sometimes 3.

Waving hello to everyone.

Hey Pokeys. Thanks for your kind thoughts last month. My mom says she is doing okay, but that it is a challenge planning and then eating all her meals alone.

I scrapped up a storm with grammadee at our crop in April, but I never got around to sharing pictures. I will add a few to this thread as the month goes on. Thanks to those of you who found them on Flickr or Instagram and commented. I am doing LOAD again this month, but I started a separate thread for it and will probably share my layouts there. I hope to take part in iNSD on Saturday.

I have been reading your posts, but not always commenting. You are such a kind and welcoming group.

Chinese New Year

nylene , I think it takes a very special person to do that type of outreach. Bless you. 

justjac , I just popped into the gallery before coming here so I'm all caught up on your lovely layouts. I think you shared some of your crop layouts on instagram though. I always enjoy seeing your pages pop up. 

kellyr21 , that must be nice to have everything so close for shopping's sake. That high tea line is gorgeous. You will be making stunning cards with it. I'm sure that everyone at Ron's work loves the chance to buy your beautiful cards.  I know I would, I really dislike card making most of the time. Don thinks since I have a room full of supplies, he should never have to pay $$ for one again. Other than the one's he buys me. lol. 

Our favorite way to fix morels is lightly floured and pan fried. We've also had them sauted with steak, but those we bought after buying and planning to have steak. If we could find mass quantities, I'd try different things. They are quite expensive to buy. 

My finished layout, which planned starting Monday to go with the May Stash challenge. 
Selfie Memories by Lisa Davolt, on Flickr

Gotta go, my ds14 is wanting me to read to him. He really enjoyed this book and so I started reading it after him. Last night he crawled in bed with me and asked me to read out loud to him. No matter that I'm 1/2 way through. He just asked again. Gotta love him.

Good night to all.

Good Wednesday morning! Hope you are all doing well.

Loving your pages, LisaDV and justjac. Hoping to see some of your cards, kellyr21. You know you can use the iNSD challenges for cards as well as for pages. You might even want to smack down a challenge--say to use flowers? (hint, hint), that others can take on for cards or pages or other projects.

scrapincin, I hope you get to play in your scraproom again soon. maribeth, your camping adventure sounds delightful. I hope you get time to get out into the fresh air. If you manage to do anything crafty in some down time, that's a bonus, but I know I never managed to do that when camping!

I hope your health continues to improve, nylene. You have said you are amazed by how much I manage to get done, but I do very little outside the house any more, and I am amazed at all your volunteer activities and how your caring spirit drives everything you do. I know your actions and words will have a positive impact on the lives of the people in the groups you are working with.

I am getting the last supplies I will need for tomorrow's retirement party put together. The album has been filled with PL cards and pp, so people can slip in their photos and write their comments tomorrow. I have also put some other scrappy supplies into the bin, including glue and pens and additional papers and supplies people may want to use. Still need to make sure my Canon Selphy works, and then get that packed up as well, along with my camera.

Meanwhile I am cooking up some frozen tomatoes so I can put together a big pan of lasagna to take tomorrow as well. There will also be a smaller pan dh & I can have for supper tonight.

Anyway. Gotta go. Those tomatoes need tending!

Usually I cook the tomatoes in tomato juice with a little sugar and salt using a recipe for home canned tomatoes my mil used, and freeze them in containers. But while I was gone in the fall, dh washed and trimmed some tomatoes and froze them whole in ziplock bags. This morning I poured boiling water over them,  a few at a time, and slipped off their skins, then put them in a pot with hot tomato juice and cooked them like I would have cooked fresh ones. 

On my way home from 3 week road trip with lots of full sd cards. Hope I have lots of pretty mountain, ocean and grandchildren pics.

Hey ladies! I hope you all had a nice week so far. Made enough cards for Mother's Day for now and have another card project to start maybe next week. I hope to start some scrappin too. For iNSD we have lot of challenges so maybe I will try one of those. grammadee, you ladies have put quite a list of fun challenges for us. Great job!


Here are some of the cards I made and I will be sharing more soon. The pp was from MME. There were glitter parts on the pp and I wish the camera captured that so you can see how pretty the paper is.

Cards 4 Mother's Day by Kelly Roberts, on Flickr

nylene- Hope you are feeling better and get to enjoy some of the scrappin fun around here this weekend. Yes, that "High Tea" collection is so pretty. They have such feminine and elegant pp.

LisaDV- What a sweet lo of you and your dd. I just love the arrangement of it all. I know you enjoy reading to your ds. What precious time you are sharing together. How are the chickens?

maribeth- Have a great time camping. That does sound so fun and relaxing. Are you taking all your pets too?

Waving hi to you all and see ya this weekend.

They are all pretty. But my favorites are the ones with the pink bows.

nylene, Morels are the easiest mushrooms to tell if they are poisonous or the real deal. We are too scared to try foraging for other mushrooms, however we have met a mushroom expert that for a fee will come out and show us which ones we can and can't eat. We've not had him out yet. Fiddleheads are out now, I need to find someone that can tell us which ones of those to eat and which ones are poisonous. Maybe next year.

I hope you get some time to play tomorrow, but more importantly I hope you are feeling better.

scrapincin, sorry you're having computer issues. They stink. I can't live without it. Hope you made it to your scrap room.

@elaynef, Are you happy to be going home? or could you have stayed another week or two? Can't wait to see your pages from your trip.

maribeth, enjoy your trip!

kellyr21, I really like the ones with the bright pink bows. Although the use of the tulle is very cool as well, and all of the cards are just so pretty.

The chickens are growing way too fast. We were outside putting chicken wire over the top of the pen today. We got about 1/3 of the way through. Don first ran a chain down the middle on the top of the posts to keep the wire from sagging. The kids brought out a couple of birds and 4 hawks kept circling. Good thing we're putting the wire up. We were going to let them free range during the day, but now I just want to let them out when we're out.

grammadee, I left you love on your wonderful layouts earlier. How's your back? Is it any better now?

Waving hello to justjac and msliz!

I ran errands this morning, left my house about 6:30am to get a jump on it all. After working on the chicken pen, I deep cleaned my dining room and cooked dinner. Today was definitely a day I would have turned to frozen pizzas if I could have. oh, well.

I'll have a quick wipe down, sweep up of the house again tomorrow morning, make some strawberry coconut milk ice cream for after dinner as MIL is coming for dinner and for DS14's graduation from catechism on Sunday. He will be an adult in the church's eyes.

Speaking of being an adult, his peach fuzz which he's had since age 12 has been getting darker and thicker to the point that he will also shave for the first time tomorrow. He won't let me take a during photo, but I said I get a before and after and that's non-negotiable. I'm a bit sad and a bit excited all at the same time. He's feeling the same way, as he's been a bit clingy this week.

It's 10:30pm which means, I'm ready for bed. Good night all.

Glad you got into your craftroom, nylene . Would love to see your grad cards. I need to make one for the end of this month. Thanks for the love in the Gallery, LisaDV, and thanks for the progress report on the chicks. I wonder what farmers with large flocks of free range chickens do about hawks? I don't remember them being a problem when we had chickens when I was a kid.

Well I am at the end of my first Home Alone adventure. My back was being miserable today. I don't know why, except that yesterday I was at work all day and on my feet in shoes I don't wear very often? It just feels like it is going to get a cramp in it, and I had to move carefully, and take lots of breaks.

I managed to finish a bunch of pages I had made up kits for our retreat and hadn't completed. It went fairly quickly, and I completed almost all I had planned for the day. At the retreat, I finished 33 pages, so I was hoping to get at least 31 this weekend. I guess 8 so far is not too bad...

I have posted most of the pages in the Gallery. Here are my favorites from the day:

hockey grin by Gramma Dee, on Flickrkings of the deck by Gramma Dee, on Flickranimal lover by Gramma Dee, on Flickr

Thanks for asking about my trip lisaadv and nylene.
I am happy to be home but we had a wonderful time. We were celebrating our 50th anniversary by visiting our children and grandchildren in NC.

Some of them live near the blue Ridge parkway so we spent every day exploring it then we all went to Folly beach near Charleston.

We rented a beautiful house on the beach. I wish I could have brought that front porch with a view of the ocean home with me!
Everyone seemed to have a great time.  The pic is one of my dgd and her fiancé who  said, "I wish we all could just stay here and live together for ever".

Good Morning Pokey's! Hope you are all enjoying your weekend and NSD! Believe it or not I am working on a couple of layouts! I have several I could be doing and pulled them off my camera yesterday. I have the papers pulled for the one of them last night.

@elaynef Happy 50th Anniversary! Wow that is one achievement you do not see all that often these days. We are coming up behind you as we have been married 45-46 in the fall. I hope you weren't in NC for the storms. They get hit with a lot of storms. My nephew and his family live around Raleigh. It is beautiful there though.

grammadee-Hope your back recovers quickly because you are too busy to be down for very long. I know you kept busy even when your arm was fractured. Loved your pages and look forward to seeing the ones you did yesterday! I think your question about hawks ad free range chickens is a good one! I know my husband says they used to be able to shoot the hawks but now they are protected species that the general public can not to but then sometimes farmers are allowed to do things to protect their crops, animals and the like.

msliz Fortunately I have not lost anything with these crashes! They tell me that I have no operating system when it comes back up but so far it has been there. I have a recent back-up that I did in Dropbox hoping that if that would happen I could recover most of it. It is a scary though as time consuming. I would just like to figure out what is causing it so it would stop doing it.

nylene Congrats to your DGS! He must have worked hard to get to this point in his life! I give people with autism a lot of credit as they have to work a little harder then everyday Joe . I just wish they could figure out what causes Autism so they could help the ones with it. I remember seeing something on tv about it and they said its like being a prisoner in your own body. I know your cards will be beautiful!

LisaDV Oh boy first shave is big news!!!! I bet he is excited not realizing once you start you have to continue for a long long time! Your family is so lucky to have you. You are always going out of your way to do special things for them. I look forward to hearing about the chicks too as they grow up so fast. How old are they before they start laying? You can tell I am no farmer!

kellyr21 how is your other half doing? You haven't said much about Ron for a while. Are you guys watching the NBA playoffs? I normally do not watch basket ball as it moves so quickly I have trouble keeping up but I have been watching the Cavs. They are doing very well so far. They play again today and if they win it will give them another rest before moving on to their next opponent. You know I love seeing you working on your cards again. You make such pretty ones. American Ninja Warrior is being filmed in downtown Cleveland this week. I am not sure if that is what will be on the show tomorrow night or not.

maribeth hope you and your hubby are having a wonderful and relaxing time on your camping trip. Is this a weekend one or are you on a vacation? I think Bob and I will be a little more flexible this summer as I think the DGC will be staying home for a while. Especially if their older sister comes again this summer.

well I am going to get off of here as I have gone on and on long enough. It is just 6AM so not much to do but can not believe how chatty I am. I will be back later-hopefully with at least one layout to post!