POKEY PEAS CHALLENGE FOR August 2018

Thanks for the thread, nylene! I'm so glad your wrist is well enough for you to play.

Hello Pokeys! Welcome to August! Good to hear your wrist is doing so well, nylene. And delighted you decided to join in to the August Team challenges. Looking forward to seeing all your creations this month.

That happens to me a lot, kellyr21. I accidentally hit something and POOF! off goes my typing into never never land! Glad you checked in. How is your decorationg coming?

I had planned to be out in the garden this morning, but we had a sudden thunder storm about 5AM that dumped about 1/4 inch of rain on us, so I decided to do some stuff in the house instead. I have spent the morning reading through all the fantastic August challenges and getting them numbered, listed and linked so they are easy to find when we need them. I also have a rhubarb spice cake in the oven, and hope to get a bunch more peas (picked and shelled yesterday) blanched and bagged and ready for the freezer.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Adding your challenges in when you did is just fine, nylene. I think it is exciting that so many people have thrown in so many different ways to have fun! Enjoy your family while they are there. And then you will need a couple of days to decompress, but there is lots of scrappy month left!

That is an awesome fire pit, LisaDV! We have not had a weiner roast this year. We went to ds's nephew's for supper a couple of nights, but the meat was cooked on the barbecue. We have not used our firepit for years here, and it has become all grown in so would be dangerous to use now.

Glad you had a restful weekend, kellyr21. Those are great vacations, too. It must be nice to have one of your paintings hanging on your wall. I can smoosh paint around but certainly can't produce anything that looks like an artist created it!

How is your reno coming, @elaynef? Did you end up getting the roof repaired? Have you had any time in all of that to do any scrapbooking?

How is your summer going, woodysbetty? You mentioned that you and your dh are considering a move? What did you decide to do?

I did some prep for our trip today (We leave on the 9th). We drive to Edmonton on Thursday evening, then fly out for Orlando Friday morning. We will be staying at a timeshare condo until the 20th. The kids and their families will start arriving Saturday and will be there, staying at the same complex for most of the week. Our anniversary is on the 17th, and I have a photographer booked, as well as a reservation for a dinner for the 21 of us. The kids start leaving on the Saturday morning, and the last will be gone by Sunday afternoon. We will be the last to leave.

Went to town today. Paid some bills and picked up meds and some other things from the pharmacy that I need for the trip. Also put a notice in the local paper to invite people to a small function the week after we come home, and ordered a cake for the function.

Hoping to get a bit of scrapping done tomorrow. I have a photo I want to scrap for the Donna challenge, and it will meet a few others as well.

grammadee, we don't roast hot dogs on our fire. It's just for the fire. The kids will have a couple of marshmallows. With dd's dietary issues, we stopped having hot dogs because even my all organic all beef or all organic turkey would set her off. DH just likes fires and looking at the stars. I rarely make it to star time.

nylene, I would be exhausted too, so good for you to already start your photo editing.

Today, ds had his 3rd drive with the instructor. 3 more to go before he can get the license to drive with the parents. (Where's the emoji with the terrified mom biting her nails off?)

Yesterday, I started taking apart my craft room. I got almost one wall (the sewing/mixed media) cleaned out (still have a peg board and 2 small shelves to take down). I spent 3 hours organizing sewing notions and getting them put away nicely in a rolling tool cart I bought for going to the crop. I hope to paint that wall tomorrow. It won't be pretty but I'm hoping it'll suffice.

I have ds's orthodontic appt on Monday, so thinking that's a good day for garden preserving too. This will give me all day tomorrow, Tues, & Wed. to see what I can accomplish in the craft room. Wish me luck and lots of energy.

msliz, justjac, @elaynef, woodysbetty - how's your August going?

Hope to be back sometime this week.


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nylene, I love your layouts. Each one is so beautiful. I hope I get to the gallery to leave love soon.

grammadee, what's the easiest and quickest way to preserve tomatoes? I was thinking of make sauce or canning them somewhat whole just to move it along. I hope you have everything ready and can relax a bit tonight before your travels tomorrow.

Don took the kids fishing today, so DD is trying out her new motion sickness band that pilots/airline people use. It delivers a signal that makes the palm and fingers tingle. I hope it works.

I'm trying to catch up here on the forums while they're out. So off I go.

This is what I needed to know. I have so few ready for saucing right now, but if they stay out they're going to go bad. So frustrating. Why can't my saucing tomatoes ripen all at the same time? And eating tomatoes can ripen as a few a day. It's really not too much to ask.

Thanks for answering! Have fun on your trip.

This month is flying by. I've been lucky enough to spend some time in crafting, because it's too hot to do anything else, but it's only been in the mornings. It seems like the rest of my days are spent driving people around and running errands. And my house is a wreck again (that doesn't take long! ) I want to try to get DD15 to spend some time with me this weekend sorting through the rest of her stuff that's still in the craft area. And she has a bunch of photos on her phone that I want from a trip to NYC with DH earlier in the week.

nylene, it makes me so happy to see your layouts in the gallery! I'm so glad your wrist has mostly healed. Is using it getting easier for you since you've been crafting again? 

LisaDV, you and grammadee amaze me - the farming life is not for me. I wish I had your energy and drive! I'm glad you're getting your crafting time too, though. Is your craft room back in order yet, or is that why you went with digital for DS's layout? The mural painting sounds fun. DD participated in a couple at her school and enjoyed it, though she was pretty sore afterwards. I hope your DD is okay later today after holding the same position for so long. Did the motion sickness band work for her when she went fishing? 

grammadee, enjoy your anniversary trip and take lots of pictures to scrap! Our 25th will be on the 14th, but we'll be staying closer to home. I'm hoping to get that photo of DH and me that I didn't get at the wedding last month. We don't dress up very often these days, so I need to take advantage of it when it happens!

kellyr21, I can't wait to see the photos of your updated living room and kitchen. I'm sure they were beautiful before you started too, but change can be good for the soul so we don't feel like we're frozen in a moment in time. I'm glad you're finding some bargains too! 

Waving hello to @elaynef, woodysbetty, and justjac 

Happy Scrapping everyone!

nylene- Thanks for showing us all your layouts. So glad you are scrapping again/
grammadee- We are all hoping you are enjoying your trip.

lisadv- love hearing about your busy, busy life. and you even do digital!

kellyr21 love the paintings
misliz wishing you success with the dd and the clearing out!
justjac, woodysbetty- hoping to hear from you soon.

msliz, This whole year has gone by super fast already. And I'd say it's just the age thing like they always say as you get older time seems to go by more quickly, but my 13yo has been lamenting how shouldn't it still be like March, how did it get to be August. My room is not nearly completed which is why I'm working on digital layouts. I'm loving your disney pages. I still can't get the 7 Dwarf mine page out of my head with the gems you made.

nylene, that leaf border is so adorable. I know I've already said it elsewhere, but it's very clever and different and I'm so going to use it sometime.

@elaynef, Did you get the furniture? or is it this coming Sunday? It's always a happy day when you find something you like in your stash. I just found the old FPD's 12x12 stamp sets and acrylic shapes. I loved those shapes. Can't wait to use them.

justjac, Sorry that you got a cold after coming back, but so glad that you had a good time. It doesn't seem possible for school to be starting already. I hope you can pack a lot of punch into the next couple of weeks.

DS has 2 more drives and then he can go get his license to drive with a parent/guardian. I kind of like having someone else take him out. But he says he has improved a lot from the first drive.

DD's electronic band worked really well for the fishing outing and for the library outing. Then yesterday was the dentist and not quite as well. She's been sick today, but it still doesn't seem as bad as she used to be. So I'm still calling it a win. I really didn't mean to have so many outings all together. Thursday we go to see Jim Gaffigan, the comedian. Then I said we need to give her a good week or week and a half before trying another outing.

The mural at the library is coloring in little squares (like 1/8 of an inch) with colored pencils. It's suppose to make a picture of leaves when it's completed. It's mimicking pixels. The coordinating artist printed out sheets with the squares and gave each a letter or a number. Then each pencil has a letter or number taped to it. Oh! My! My poor eyes got a massive workout trying to read those letters/numbers through the paper. Occasionally I'd have to ask dd to read for me. Especially since they were upside down for my seat at the table. We definitely want to go back, but have to plan better for dd and the travel.

I didn't get any canning done on Sunday, so today I prepped 25# of tomatoes today and the spaghetti sauce cooking on the stove to can. I hope to put up some peppers too, but I'm just freezing them. I still have salsa to make, not can. But it's so good I can eat it as a soup.

Most of our little chicks are definitely laying or maybe all and the older ones have slowed down. But I'm getting anywhere for 14-20 eggs a day at the moment. whew! Don took 13 dozen to church to give away, and he took like 6 dozen the week before. I told Don we need to put his trail cam in the coop to see who is laying and who isn't. Then we could decide which ones get to stay on for winter.

Oh, and when I went out to feed/water them this morning, a bear was crossing our property to go into our woods. Not that far from the house at all. The kids were walking the dogs just over a week ago and got close to the woods and had something growl at them. I said it was probably a bear. Luckily, ds keeps a cool level head and instructed dd how to go about leaving the area. Otherwise she would have ran. Exciting month.

nylene - Yes, I am enjoying decorating. I can't wait till it is all done so I can really enjoy. You have made some beautiful pages. I gotta take a close look in the gallery.

grammadee - I hope you are having a terrific time!!! Congrats!

LisaDV - What an adventurous life you are living! LOL! Bears, teenage driver, chicken eggs, home hade tomato sauce... I wish I lived close so you could send me eggs and sauce. The library art sounds like fun. I wish our library would do a mural or something like that. Neat!

justjac- What a whirlwind Summer you have had. I am glad you are having fun and still have a few more weeks to go. I remember when I was a sub teacher, I enjoyed my time off too.

@elaynef - Yeah, your couch is coming soon. Then the decorating begins. I know you will have fun with that. Do you have a color scheme? Oh, I am happy to find out we can get a new couch soon. This one is 12 yrs old and ready to retire. Where did you order yours from?

msliz - Yes, refreshing our living room had been good medicine and lots of fun too. I especially loved finding such great times at low prices. We live in "big box store" city and it paid off for me. I still have a few things to get and if feels good not to have to leave my city to get them.

Good Wednesday morning, Pokeys!

One thing I want to do today is go through all the new creations in the Gallery and the August share thread. So glad you are crafting again and enjoying it, nylene. Welcome back to the FUN!

Glad your dd is finding travel a bit easier now, LisaDV. Our dd’s little guy has extreme separation anxiety and he had a huge meltdown during their trip home Sunday. A PTSD type thing where in his little brain he was losing our family forever after saying goodbye to us all. This one was relatively short lived, though. He started calming down when he realized they were getting into their own car after landing. And then They got hold of one of the aunts who assured him we were all still family.

Thanks for sharing your newly decorated room, kellyr21. Looks very cozy. When will we get to see your new furniture, @elaynef? After this trip I don’t think we will have the resources to spruce up this place for awhile. Still lots of decluttering to do: is that considered redecorating?

Glad you have had some time to rest and unwind before going back to work,, justjac. No wonder you got a cold after all that excitement. Hope you are feeling better.

We are home but not unpacked. Lots of work to get the house ready for company this next weekend, but I plan to take it pretty easy today, just enjoy being home. Dh was out cutting grass for a couple of hours yesterday evening. I haven’t been out to the garden yet, but will do that today. Also need to put a box together of decorations for the come & go tea we are hosting at the Seniors’ on Sunday—the last of our anniversary celebrations. Our nephew’s dw and a couple of her teen nieces have volunteered to decorate. I found a few things in the basement this spring, plan to use the shadow box of our wedding photo, and picked up a few things at Party City yesterday.

Just need to figure out a guest book. Thinking of using the one from our wedding...