Pokey Peas Challenge for April 2019

Happy April everyone!

We had a busy end to March - Girl Scout lock-in on Friday night helping DD12 and others earn their Woodworking Badge. Then Saturday we went to an airshow and DD12 got to go up in a Cessna - her first flight ever! She loved it! Sunday was a bit quieter - just Mass and lunch out and then I went to presentation at the library about Florida Pioneer Women - really interesting.

Today I'm cleaning house, cleaning up my scrap area, and getting some scrapbooking done,

nylene - I miss snow but not in April (or even March), mostly around Christmas. I hope Spring heads your way soon.

grammadee - good luck with the accountant - taxes are done here already thank goodness, I dread doing them every year.

nylene, thanks for the thread.

joyfulnana, too bad you don’t live in South Bend now, it would be good to have a close scrap buddy. I’m glad your sons are doing okay. I’m sure it helped having you there.

grammadee, dh said today that he will have to buckle down and work on taxes on Sunday. He’s started but it’s always slow. I’m just thankful I don’t have to do it.

Linda, oh, how fun for dd! I love the small planes so much more than the large. I dated a pilot so I got to go up a lot. He taught me to take off (although he always had his hands on the other yoke to correct me) and fly but i was always too afraid to land. You don’t want to mess that up.

My April has started off really lazy. I did my meal plan but only half way. With that I do my comparative grocery shopping online so I can make my list by store of what I need. So it takes time but feels like I’ve done nothing because I now have to go do the shopping. Luckily Sam’s club had the order and just pick up feature. So that will be my day tomorrow. Starting with my farm egg pick up which I am excited about.

Wednesday and Thursday I hope to do some work on the house. Friday I’ll be in clean up mode getting ready for date day on Saturday. You know those big anniversary plans of furniture shopping. Contain yourself ladies, I know you’re all jealous of my anniversary plans. 🤣🤣🤣 seriously, we frequently shop together as part of our dates. Then a nice dinner. Oh, and I hope to get him into a paint store to look at swatches (insert evil laugh). It’ll be nice to spend some quality time together. Sunday, we’ll pick up the kids from mil’s. Of course i have to make time each day for my 100 days too, she said crossing her fingers. Wish me luck.

Happy April everyone!!  March was a crazy whirl of activity, still learning the area and meeting new people.  They do something here that I thought was awesome...most folk carry what they call friendship cards.   It has their name, address, which village they live in, cell #'s and email.  Genius!!  Of course, I had to get some for us.  I think I am going to put all the ones we collect in a pocket page protector and scrap about them. Certainly helps with the remembering name stuff!!  LOL!

joyfulnana the house is coming along beautifully...the only glitch so far is the microwave we selected the company can't provide in time for closing so the Villages is giving us the upgraded version that includes all kinds of voice control and wi/fi options, a convection oven, steaming capabilities which we didn't think justified the higher price tag at design stage  as we don't use our microwave that much.  But heck for free -  we'll learn!!  LOL!   But May 8th can't come soon enough for me!!

Hugs to all!!

Good morning Pokeys!

I hope that you all have a happy humpday! I have a few meetings and need to get my board agenda put together for next week's board meeting. I'm also going to the gym tonight. I do Orange Theory, it's a high intensity interval training program. I've been going since August and I actually like it. I had gotten to be in such terrible shape over the past 10 years, so I decided to torture myself and deal with it. I actually like going to Orange Theory, although I always say they are trying to kill me. It's a really challenging workout, but I keep going back. I've dropped 15 pound or so and have learned to row, run a couple of miles an do some weight lifting. I still need to get my sweet tooth under control (my favorite food is sugar), but otherwise, I'm trying to deal with the extra pudge.

Kelly - that painting is beautiful! I love it!

Lisa - I don't envy you with the home improvement projects. We just moved to a newly renovated house last May, so we don't have too much of that to do yet. I am looking forward to planting some flowers this spring. It looks like the April showers are about to hit Indy for the next week and a half. Do you have that going on up north also? I'm hoping that it's reasonable. I love rain, but live near a waterway, so I'm hoping we don't have flooding, the water levels are already really high.

Well, I guess I should get moving. I've been up since 5:15 and have pretty much spent my time buying scrappy supplies online and chatting. Guess I should get ready for work. Have a great day ladies!

Tina

This made me laugh!! I often have bigger expectations than what I can really do. DH has gotten me better after years and years of reining me in.  It is awesome! Both my plans and order/pick up service.

woodysbetty , I can't believe how fast they can make a house. Just over one month left!! That's wonderful on the upgraded microwave. I would be just like you. I don't need a fancy one, but I'd definitely take the upgrade and learn. I think the friendship cards are a wonderful idea.** ACK! I just saw your page! No, just no to the alligator/crocodile, which is it in Florida, I forget? But just NO regardless. The page is beautiful though.

grammadee , when did you get into scrapbooking? Because the way you go, go, go, I cannot imagine if you had wanted to scrapbook when your kids were at home, that you wouldn't have. You wear me out with all you do. As to me, I barely did any pages for years. When my kids were young, it was a good year to get 25-50 pages done. Then I took digital classes, I got 136 in one year, mainly due to the classes. But it gave me another avenue to create, not that I ever want to give up paper, but it is easier to incorporate into life and "catch up" on stories. 2017 was my most productive year with the year leading up to it and then last year following, unfortunately, it was my way of dealing with anxiety and depression, which took me until mid-2017 to realize and start dealing with. Although me kids are in their teens now, so I still hope to have higher numbers than before. (2016-2018 were also Calvinball years, so that probably helped a great deal too. ) I can't wait to see your canvases.

kellyr21 , what a beautiful way to start April, with that gorgeous painting. I left you love in the gallery, but plan to go see the in progress shots on your blog after this. You are very talented, my friend! My dh is too stubborn to really get "happy wife, happy life", but according to him (as I questioned something he did that he would have never done in the past that made me happy the other day), he's mellowing in his old age. I like Linda have found that Walmart clothes don't always hold up well. Of course, when the $ is that low, it's worth it. I've definitely bought the kids some clothes for a season when they were growing like weeds. I've also bought T-shirts for myself there and anywhere I can get them cheap, as I have a bad habit of bleaching things without changing into work clothes. If I don't change, you can bet I'm going to splash. I don't feel as guilty in a cheap t-shirt.

heehee. I think we are soul sisters. My sister gets out toothpicks to clean. I'd much rather organize a space than clean it. Also if it's organized, and you can teach your family (my downfall) to keep it up, then it's easier to keep clean, but I'm still not getting out the toothpicks. 

shinyhappytina , I have an old college roommate that did the Orange Theory. Wow! They are intense but get great results. We're suppose to have rain tomorrow and by next Friday a frozen mix, although that's so far out it may not happen. My dd, the pluviophile, is really hoping for that rain. We live near the St. Joseph River which last year broke it's flood plane. I don't think they've had they same snow this winter though. And we are far enough that even if it does, we shouldn't be affected.

Did I tell you we ordered more things from DH's Whirlpool package? His toaster, the mega-mondo pro, toaster came yesterday. DH loves toast. So we've all been singing, youtu.be/SHptn_3RyYE this song, which was a favorite when the kids were younger. It automatically senses the item, and lowers. Then it pops up at the right level you set it at, but if you don't get back to it within 45 seconds, it automatically lowers and just keeps the toast warm.   I got the pro Kitchen aid mixer. I was going to go with the artisan, which I've had and broke when I was grinding my own wheat and making bread. But DH talked me into the larger unit. It just came today 2 seconds ago, so maybe I need to make cookies today.  

OK, off to get something done today, before cookie making. 

Good Wednesday morning, Pokeys.

Love your page, woodysbetty : it really gives the feel of early morning walks.

shinyhappytina , you could not PAY me to take a class like that. I moan and complain when I have to do my Physio excercises, and they are very slow and methodical.

I guess in Florida not having an oven would not be a crisis, Linda , but I definitely use mine a lot and if I didn't have a working one I would need to pick up a new stove STAT! Have to admit I use it much more in the fall/winter/spring than in the summer. We have no AC so I try to cook outside or if indoors, then really quick meals.

LisaDV , Before scrapbooking, I did a few small crafts, but not a lot. I tended to throw myself into being a mom and into my job. There were times I thought I was throwing 100% at each and might need to just split in half LOL. I started scrapbooking the year that my youngest went away to university. About that time, justjac came to work with me, and she introduced me to Creative Memories and a whole new hobby.

I hit it hard, creating an album for each of my 4 kids during the first year. Then I didn't really think I would do much more (had been thinking that scrapbooking was about the past rather than the present). But I had those supplies... And grandbabies started arriving... And the amount of photos exploded... And I retired from my full time job...

When I retired, I was asked by my employer to choose a retirement gift. It could be anything I wanted for up to $500. I didn't know what I might want until one of the retirees ordered golf clubs. Then I GOT it: ooooh… something to PLAY with. I ordered a Wishblade (the grand daddy of the Silhouette). Met some scrappy friends IRL and on line. Attended a couple of crops. And then I just fell into it.

When I am scrapbooking I feel good. It provides an outlet for creative energy and gives me a feeling of accomplishment when I see the completed pages and albums. I scrap the happy stuff because it lets me relive the good times over and over.

When did the rest of you start scrapping?

So, because it is hard for me to stay motivated throughout the year to create and be "scrafty" I started a project based on a couple of events that go on in the scrappy world. One is a monthly (March) event called Calvinball, and the other is an event that began on 4/2/19 call 100days. I love Calvinball, but due to the County Craft Creations Hometown USA retreat and other obligations I has in March I was not able to participate as much as I wanted to so I am creating my own event where I will use the Calvinball rules for points, and extending the 100 day project to 331 days (which I think should be 04/03/19 - 02/28/20).

To keep me on track ladies, I am going to post here daily what "scrafty" thing I did each day and how many points I gave myself based on the Calvinball point system.

Wish me luck.

nylene - I'm so sorry. Prayers for you and your DH

maribeth - how fun!

Good Morning ladies

Day 1 of my 331 day challenge of doing at least 1 scrafty thing each day using Calvinball 2019 points - 4/03/19 - 17 points - I cut 4 die cuts for giveaway to scrafty friends, I prepared 13 envelops for my Passbook Pals group for Stamp trades, made 4 greeting cards and enveloped those for mail.

A great start to my first day if I do say so myself. Lets see what today brings me.

nylene - a retreat in Utah would be great, if that happens I would have to plan to stay over a night in Orem so I could spend the day with your in your craft room, that would be so fun.

joyfulnana - no pics today sorry, but there will be soon. Just in a hurry to get the items I created at the retreat and some of the cards I made are going to people on this board so I didn't want to show them before they get them.

I hope all you ladies have a scrafty day! See you in the morning.

LisaDV - not really, the main accomplishment for me is just to do at least one scrafty thing every day. Even if that is mailing out a card, cutting a die cut, punching a border. Just something. I get so wrapped up in my awful work environment that when I get home I tend to just sit to decompress, and the next thing you know I have done nothing and it is time for bed. So my thinking was even if I do one of those little things I will get one point and the hope is if I can push that envelope that much, well maybe it will motivate me to do two things that evening. Anything to get me out of just sitting and sulking and not taking advantage of the time I do have. Does that make sense?

Day 2 of my 391 day project I earned 16 points. Die cuts and getting cards mailed. I promise soon photos of new creations to share. But I am just thankful I am doing something each day thus far.

Have a wonderful scrafty day ladies.