POKEY PEAS REFUGEES CHALLENGE for November 2017

Thanks, Ladies for all your well wishes. I had a good sleep last night in my own bed, and while I woke up with a headache it was quickly fixed with a Tylenol and a cup & a half of coffee. Also had some cinnamon toast, which seems to be settling nicely. Looking forward to chicken noodle soup with crackers for lunch.

scrapincin , I hope you are feeling better today, too. LisaDV , I completely understand that feeling of being in a time warp. Can't believe it is Thursday already. @elaynef , you must be really excited about your trip. I love that you have a list of photos you want to capture while gone. Sometimes you can get them all, and sometimes you miss a few, but end up getting some cool shots you hadn't planned on.  And I totally agree that there is no way I would have been able to scrapbook when my kids were home.

Glad you enjoyed your crop msliz . I still haven't completely unpacked from ours in October, and I was frustrated this morning looking for a particular set of stickers I had taken there. Started in the drawer where they spend their time when I am home. Nothing. I looked through the still-to-be unpacked stuff. Nada. Stopped for coffee and decided to look again. What do you know? The second time I looked in their proper place, there they were. I hate when my supplies play hide and seek!

Today I finished the pages I started on Sunday. I love that the dgk's endulge me in my photo habit. They select venues and pose for the camera. For these pages--and at least a couple more I plan to do--we went to the play park a block away from their house in Abbotsford.

Fall photo shoot 5 by Gramma Dee, on FlickrFall photo shoot 6 by Gramma Dee, on Flickr

It's turned cold here over the last few days. 16F this morning but should get up to 27F, and I'm already telling Don we should move to TX. I'm praying it gets no colder. I don't know how people do it. If I had to go out and drive everyday, we would definitely be moving!
--Thanks for you vignette tips. I hope I can pull off a couple and then I'll remove them and start Christmas decorating. Have fun with your grandsons.

@elaynef and grammadee , the trick to scrapbooking with older kids at home is....to not clean! If I did everything I was suppose to do, especially now with Don being home most of the time, I'd get no time whatsoever. Don's worse than the kids about making a mess and leaving it. The kids I can say pick up this mess and they jump on it. I tell Don and he says he'll get to it. Yeah, like I haven't heard that for 18yrs with very little "getting to it" ever happening. When the kids were small I'd sneak 5 minutes in while waiting for the dryer or washer to finish as my space was in a sub-basement with the washer/dryer.

grammadee , glad you seem to be on the mend. I'm crushing on your fall photo shoot pages. Especially the TH oxide stamped background. Gorgeous.

nylene , so are you in the groove at work yet? Are you enjoying it? I'm sure it is super rewarding to see progress in your addiction work. And in this season, it is so very important
that they have someone to fall back on. So keep up the excellent work!

Yesterday, my silhouette worked like a dream. Finally! I'm doing paper pieced flowers on an 8x8 foundation for my calendar swap (I have May). I started highlighting and piecing them together yesterday evening.

In other news, I was gifted those grocery/menu boxes. I have 1 box from 4 different companies: Plated, Fresh Box, Blue Apron, Martha & Marley Spoon. We are huge foodies, but with dd's food restrictions I was a bit worried. So yesterday's lunch courtesy of Plated was Roasted Heirloom Cauliflower with Spinach in a Sherry Vinegar Caper sauce over a Mashed Butternut Squash with Gruyere and Fontina. It was delicious! So far, we've loved every meal with Plated. I can see making the squash this way just as a side dish too. They give you the recipes with the ingredient amounts to make it from your own stuff too. Last night's dinner was a chili spiced shrimp stir fry from Fresh Box. The only thing they had in the stir fry was bok choy and green onions. I added some matchstick carrots, one to add color, two to add some other vegetable. I didn't have any other fresh vegetables as I knew I was getting the 2 boxes this week. The sauce was actually a packet of their own making. I like making my own from scratch so I know each ingredient. I used a bit of it as it was supposed to be gluten free. But it would have been too spicy for the kids with the whole pack. So I made my own sauce for theirs. I used the sauce packet for mine. It was ok, but not stellar. I didn't like that they premade the sauce or that their recipes didn't give you the amounts of anything to re-make the dish if you wanted to.
But here's what I'm totally loving about the boxes:
1. not having to meal plan for a couple of meals a week
2. not having food waste, seems I'm always cleaning the refrigerator thinking "that's gotta go, since I never got around to making "X"".
3. having the ingredients prepped for me and ready to go.
I can totally see keeping one, maybe two of these boxes, as you can skip weeks with any of them. I still have 2 boxes left to try. One comes next week and one the week after. So far Plated is the top choice.

Good Saturday evening, Pokeys! Glad you are feeling better, scrapincin . I would need to feel VERY well to be motivated to clean my scraproom. Hope you are not working yourself too hard, nylene , with your volunteering at the school AND your increased load at the addictions centre. We can't have YOU getting sick! Glad your Silhouette is working well again, LisaDV . Maybe it just needed a rest. Bet your are having fun with your dgs's, @elaynef !

We went to my aunt's 90th bd party today. We got to town early, so I was able to print the photos I need to finish the reunion album. Also picked up some meds I needed and a couple of Christmas gifts. Then we had a light lunch and walked around the Mall a bit.

The party was wonderful. This aunt is one of only two left of the original 11 siblings in my mom's family. Of the remaining 27 of my generation, there were almost 20 in attendance along with spouses and widows/widowers of some of the others. Great to visit with cousins, and also got to spend time with my two brothers and a couple of spouses. I took my camera. My brother had brought along his teenage teen dgs. The boy seemed interested in the camera and I gave it to him for the day. He wandered around snapping unposed photos and then took some pic's of me with my brothers and then all of the members of our branch of the family who were there. It's kind of cool scrolling through the photos I didn't take!

We were home by 6PM, and wonder of wonders, I was HUNGRY for the first time since last Sunday! Hopefully this--and that I have been relatively pain free all day--is a sign that I am finally truly on the mend.

Tomorrow I have a spot in a sign painting class in the afternoon. I had wondered if I could handle it, but after today went so well I have decided to go unless I wake up in pain again. I need to make a sign for another of my ddil's for Christmas.

Anyway, hoping you are all having a great weekend. TTYL!

Oh Boy LisaDV I sure hope you don't get sick cuz you don't have time! I am behind on my cards want to get in there and work on them today. Now that I can find what I am looking for. I put all my card making supplies in container which will make life easier. Glad you got the turkeys done! Too bad the scalder didn't work but sounds like you solved the problem..the good old fashioned way. I am sorry you did everything on your calendar the wrong size. Hope you get it done today-but making all those flowers is a lot of work! I know cuz I have sat here and made a lot of them


grammadee I sure glad to hear you say you are hungry! That's a very good sign in my book. Glad you go to your aunt's birthday party! Making the 90's is quite an accomplishment! I too hope you can go to your painting class because I know you will enjoy it and use it on future layouts as we have seen you dabble on a few already!

I hope I get some work accomplished today. Here's hoping!

Of the ones I am in, this photo with my two brothers is my fav from the day.

More west Texas trivia...thought yall might be interested in our cotton farm. Our grandsons were here this weekend and we took them on a tour of the cotton gin and showed them the cotton fields they will inherit some day.  They were pretty excited about their grandfather's stories about growing up on the farm, shooting jackrabbits with his 22  and driving tractors when he was 9. They wanted to know why we didn't still live on the farm and it took me a minute to come up with an answer....not a simple question!

Good Afternoon Peas! Hope all are doing well. LisaDV I had to laugh at your story re: the mouse! I can just picture everything that was going on. We had a cat when I was a kid and she would bring birds in and stash them under my bed. When she had babies she had them on bed once and in my closet the next. But she would bring mice in and sit under our TV and play with them.

Well I got a diploma today from Pulmonary Rehab that says I have bragging rights and a cute tee shirt with Pulmonary rehab info on it. I know the first time I went I only walked 2 laps which equaled 200 feet before they had to me on oxygen. Today I went 4.5 minutes before it dropped. So I would say I am improved over my 36 sessions. I was exercising on 7 different pieces of equipment at level 2 and 9-10 minutes on each. I will do a page about it.

I found a photo that I was looking for so now I can do the page I am wanting to do.maybe later today.

Well done, scrapincin! The theme song from Rocky started playing in my head when I read your good news!

LisaDV, I love reading your posts with the way you bring your stories to life. You really are a talented writer. nylene, I bet your stories are fantastic too. What a great opportunity to record them! I bet a nice cup of coffee will help get those thoughts flowing. And @elaynef, the stories you told the grandsons, have you ever thought about writing them down? What a treasure that would be for them!

grammadee, I love that photo! I know you'll do something really special with it!

Anyone need a giggle? I spent some time this morning using a photo editor to turn DH and DD into Pirates of the Caribbean for the Disney album. They didn't end up looking very frightening though   I have a lot of my papers chosen for my kits (crop is on Saturday) but I still need to cut a bunch of titles over the next few days.

Have a good Tuesday, everyone!

A  farmer who has a large operation rents it as well as some of the other farms in the area.

. "I'd love to watch it go from field to clothing."....one of the questions the boys asked was, "where do you send it?" He said "China"!

the stories you told the grandsons, have you ever thought about writing them down? ...great suggestion! I have an album for stories I want to tell my kids so I'll get on that.

My dh had a little accident yesterday and messed up a tire and the rim so we are waiting this morning for a new tire before we can leave for Arkansas...had to get it fed ex. If it doesn't get here, we'll have to go in the older car...which will be OK, just no On Star, etc!

Happy Graduation, scrapincin! Looking forward to seeing your page about this adventure. Glad you made that much of an improvement!

Glad you are enjoying your new school placement, nylene. I'll bet that it won't be long and that "tough one" will be responding positively to all your positive attention. My digestion is a finicky thing, and I have learned from past experience that if I try to hurry up the eating process after an incident, it just gets cranky and I have to start all over with clear fluids, so I take my time getting back to normal. Seems to be doing its job this morning. Planning a full meal for supper tonight, but still avoiding fatty and spicy foods. Getting there.

Too funny about the mouse, LisaDV. We used to have a mother cat who caught live mice outside and then brought them into our garage for her kittens to learn how to hunt. One evening I came home from work and all six kittens were circled around the fridge--right next to the door to the house--waiting expectantly for their prey to come out. I used to tell people that the mama cat was "farming mice" as a feed supply for her family.

Oh @elaynef! I hope you get the tire repaired and can start on your vacation with no further delays. I love the photos of the kids on the cotton farm. It's great to pass on those stories. Some of my fondest childhood memories are hearing the stories my dad (who was old enough to be my grandfather) telling tales of his adventures growing up and his early pioneering days.

You really have prepping for a crop down to a science, msliz! Bet you will get tons of projects finished there. I need to finish up a couple of scrappy projects hanging over my head here at home. Tomorrow dh has some appointments in town in the morning, so I hope to get some uninterrupted time to work toward that.

Yesterday, our dn's wife came over here for a Christmas card making session. It was wonderful hanging out, listening to Christmas music, and creating. She finished over 20 cards, complete with insides and stamped envelopes. I was moving like molasses in January and managed to finish just five. But I was playing around with some new dies, new designs.

Here is one that I did:
Elizabeth Crafts candle by Gramma Dee, on Flickr

I liked the look of this one, so this morning I did 3 more with the same elements. I want to have all my Pokey Christmas cards finished and ready to put in the mail by the end of next week. Already have the ones for the general Pea exchange ready for the next step (putting in the inside and signing, and then stuffing in envelopes).

I am so glad that you have fallen in with us msliz.....  It is so much fun to catch up with you each month.  I also love that there are now three lizs in the group!

Hello, Pokeys!

I have had a nice quiet creative morning. Managed to finally FINISH the reunion scrapbook! Still need to scan it into a file, put that file on a stick, and then order photo books with it, but the book itself is DONE!!!! I wanted to go on to playing with the photos from my trip last month, but am running out of steam, now.

Created a few new cards and finished some others. Had fun playing with a sheet of acetate diecuts that has been hanging around in my stash for a long time. Last night I extricated all the butterflies, and today I used them on a set of cards.

This one will go to our dn and his dw for their anniversary tomorrow:

butterfly wishes by Gramma Dee, on Flickr

I COULD now clean my scraproom, but I think I will put together a couple more Christmas cards I have the pieces for. TTYL.

grammadee, your card and layout are both beautiful. Glad everything is back to normal for you.

I'm about ready to go to town. I usually go first thing in the morning, but I think introverted me is finally going to meet the other catechism mom's for appetizers tonight. I'm a bit nervous. They've done several outings and I've always said I couldn't attend, whether I could or not (back to the introverted thing).

I'm also hoping to do some of the last bits of Christmas shopping if I can. Other than nieces and nephews, which I already have a really good idea about what I'm getting them and some either ordered or received, I'll be so very close to finished. Hoping to have everything finalized before T-day. Happy dance will then follow! PSA: You may want to avert your eyes! - This girl can't carry a tune and has no rhythm.

My calendars are finished and going in the mail today as well. I almost sent them without taking a photo. I'll pull them out of the bag and take a pic real quick and be back later to show you.

I'll be taking a few days to clean and prepare for Thanksgiving and then I hope to get to my Christmas cards, although I'm thinking store bought is the way I'll be going for most of the pea exchange. Oh well, there's always next year.

You are not going to believe the mess I have! I installed the Windows 10 new Fall update on my laptop and it worked fine for several days. When I was on my desktop it came for them to install it on this one. Well It finally was installed and when I went to open the Silhouette Studio I get an error message saying that my library is corrupt.Well now I am trying to figure out what to do to fix it Silhouette as instructions to reset the library but some of what I read says this could be a farce. I will figure it out hopefully! I might be crazy by then but it will be done.