Pokey Peas Challenge for May 2019

Happy MOTHERS' DAY!     Hope all the mom's are being spoiled. Dh is taking me to brunch this morning. None of the kids will be home but they usually give me a call. One ds called yesterday "in case I forget", and that's okay. I love that they can spend time with their families and celebrate the day with them.

Great news, nylene . Glad you have decided to play hookey and stay home with dh this morning. Hope you have a lovely restful day. You have been so busy: time to recharge. And even if the Big Guy upstairs had a hand in your dh's healing, I think He would understand that there are more ways than one to worship and give thanks.

kellyr21 , I am amazed by all the different artistic endeavors you take on. Can't wait to see your fabric piece. Thanks for asking about the farm. We are finally out from under the snow, the leaves are starting to come out, and dh did his first lawn cutting yesterday. Yesterday was the first really warm one, so I cleaned off the deck and vacuumed the chairs. Hoping to barbecue hot dogs for supper tonight. We also started our veggie garden by planting potatoes yesterday. Onion sets go in tomorrow.

LisaDV , your home improvement activities make me tired! Glad the wallpaper stripping went more quickly than you had anticipated. Will you have before {during} and after photos? You were so busy with the on line crop last week it is no surprise that you are not scrapping this weekend. I really envy your planned mini retreats to the farm this summer just to scrap.

Linda , you seem to be putting your home bound weekend to great use! I know your college dd sends you photos all the time to scrap, but has she caught the bug yet? What does she plan to do this weekend?

msliz , I saw somewhere else that you were working away on Disney pages this weekend. I thought I was done with Disney pages, but now I will be going back to Orlando in June with one of our sons and his family, so I will have some more pic's I think. Good thing I have this huge tub of Disney scrapping supplies LOL. I also picked up a Recollections "Summer Dream" paper pad on sale from M's last week, and it will be perfect for general Florida and Hangin' out at the resort photos.

kellyr21, What a beautiful painting! I love your art work.

grammadee, I don’t have photos during the stripping process, but will have after before painting photos since we're waiting for me to remove as much wallpaper as I can reach and then having painters come it. Did you end up planting your onions in addition to your potatoes yesterday? It’s very sweet that your DH is taking you to brunch.

I’m regretting putting up the “shop til you drop” challenge. I may be dropping very soon due to actually seeing how much I’ve spent this month. I had saved some of my personal monthly spending budget over the last few months to splurge on digital kits that I assumed would be on sale. They were, and I did spend it. But the reason I put it up was I was going to purchase quilt materials for 2 baby quilts and 1 extra (which may be another baby quilt as another niece just announced she’s due in November). An unplanned purchase yesterday of more copic sketch markers which were on crazy special. These are really for DD, but they will go in my stash – gotta love having a dd that crafts. Also loving that we now share stash!

And earlier this week, DH decided he wanted a tshirt for him & DS. DH along with 2 friends throw a gamers convention every year. This will be the 10th year. Then it turned into adding in the other 2 convention founders later this week. I have the design ready on my silhouette today and received his approval with a how difficult would it be to do one for all 30ish people. The good news is I have a heat press coming that does mugs, hats, plates and tshirts. Nothing like last minute, which DH is kind of always last minute. The press and vinyl should all be here by the 20th so Memorial Day weekend will be me getting this all together for the following weekend.


All the wallpaper in DS’s room is off. However, my gluts are feeling all the up and down of the step ladder.

Oh, and the appliances are rescheduled for tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.

Mother's Day Card 2 by Kelly Roberts, on Flickr


Mother's Day Card 1 by Kelly Roberts, on Flickr



Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day. Above are some of the cards I made. I will post more on my blog and show you how I colored those sweet little coral flowers.

Waving hello to you all and be back later.

nylene, glad you had a wonderful Mother's Day. How nice that you will have blooming flowers soon! It's so nice to work together. DH & I made my Mother's Day dinner together. Usually its he and the kids, but we went to a botanical gardens for a walk and they were pooped. DD, especially so, as she's not used to so much activity and it made her a bit sick. DH was thinking I should sit down, but I told him I was having fun working in the kitchen with him. The farm kitchen is so tiny we can't work together very well.

kellyr21, beautiful cards and flowers.

grammadee, I made dd a tshirt for her birthday last year. It's fun and I could see it becoming addictive, like many other hobbies. I liked justjac's shirts she made you all and her layout that showcases them. It's awesome that you're getting your garden out!

My appliances were delivered yesterday. The KA dishwasher is awesome. However, they found a short in the old one I was using and the little plastic tip they put on wires not in use was all melted. Lucky we didn't have a fire. The new microwave DH picked out (I was fine with the old one) is really small and cute, but now the cabinet on one side needs to be shortened, it also left holes in my back-splash area. ugh. The garage freezer is awesome with a "kickplate" (don't know what to call it) at the bottom so if you are putting things in, hands full, you just use your foot on the kickplate. Open sesame.

Today, it's already 1pm and I've been putzing all morning. After this I get to go start DD's room. Her bath is wallpapered but her room just has a small top border. I'm hoping to be finished by tomorrow evening with hers as well. I've decided that I will just be doing 1/2 days on wallpaper removal so that I can focus on other things like meals, normal cleaning, laundry, etc.

Thanks for the reminder, LisaDV

Happy HAPPY Birthday, nylene!

Happy Birthday nylene

waving hi to everyone else - I've been a bit under the weather this week

nylene , I hope you got to relax on your birthday! As for the t-shirt, you can use a very hot, no steam iron. Use a wood table, not an ironing board. You want a hard surface. And use teflon mats. One under the garment/material and one on top of the vinyl. Press hard for the required time. I've not had any issues with it peeling or anything. I think I used this video for my how to.
 


Linda, I hope you are feeling better. It stinks to be not feeling good.

grammadee, Your layout is super adorable. Did you make the lego pieces? Enjoy that the plants aren't yet growing as soon it will be weeding season. 

We're having a very nice warm up right now. High 60s to high 70s the last 2 days and will continue until next Monday. The hankering for getting in the pool is strong with DD. She's watching the weather very closely.  Today, it 72 and looks like rain is moving in this afternoon. She loves the rain. So that's all good. 

I started DD's room. She only has the small border. UGH. It's way harder to remove than the full room of wallpaper. I usually peel off the top layer. Steam the glue-paper layer and scrape or pull off. Then I steam the wall again and use clean rags to wipe it down. It takes all of the residue glue off. Nope, not in her room. I removed a section, steamed & wiped. No go. Steamed and wiped. No go. I have a wallpaper remover spray I'll try next, but after I get all the other areas completed. I've postponed the work until this weekend, because I know how to procrastinate. 

The only crafty things I've been able to get my head around doing lately is downloading photos from icloud and tagging my templates (started that this morning while waiting for sections of my mopped flooring to dry). I think I'll clone myself - 1 for just cleaning, 1 for spending quality time with the kids/dh, 1 for crafting, 1 for just organizing crafty things, 1 for cooking yummy foods, 1 for working out so we're all healthy. Since I'm at it, I'll make another 2 to get jobs so I can afford more crafty supplies and fun outings for quality time (not that you need lots of money for quality time). 

DD had a set back last night and today, so I've promised her that after my cleaning, quick break and shower, we'd watch a movie & snuggle, so I guess it's time to go make that happen. 

Those Lego blocks were an all over pattern on the Photo Play paper.  I fussy cut out a few sets of blocks to sit on the circles. (I have a few cut out for the facing page as well).

Picked up the veggies today, but also picked up a 14 foot high weeping birch tree.  So the order of business for the whole afternoon and most of the evening was getting it put in place and bracing set up so it doesn't blow over.  Dh actually did most of the work, but he needed me to hold things, hand him things, remember where he put things,...

grammadee - wow, glad that you and DH were able to get the tree back upright and braced - hope it does okay.

LisaDV - thanks - much better today - late night due to DD12 not getting home until midnight from her field trip but we kept her home from school today which enabled me to sleep in (and her as well).

good luck with the vinyl. I need to figure out how to do a tee-shirt design with my cricut - I have the tee-shirts and the vinyl...

Weekend plans - taking DD19 to the oral surgeon today for the pre-surgery consult and then I have a lock-in with DD12 tonight - we're baking cookies for the local 1st responders and having an end of the year ice cream social. I think this is my last lock-in until August (we had one planned in June but I don't think we got any signups). Then yard work and groceries and I think Sunday is the multi-cultural festival at Church.

Good Morning Pokeys! It's been a crazy month so far I hope things are settling down. I had so much fun cropping hotel cropping with my niece and my mom over iNSD and then got a speeding ticket on the way home A you better get a lawyer ticket So now I wait to see if I may have to take driving school. OMG I'm old enough to know better but busy chatting with mom and didn't notice the slower speed limit. Immediately got sick after getting home which lasted a week. And last week at work we had certificate and server issues all week which just took it all out of me. I'm ready for life to get back to a slower, less stressful rhythm. Is that even a thing really, or something we just dream is real? LOL

@elaynef I LOL's at your DH with the camera remote! What a beautiful family! When my mom still had the Christmas gathering I was in charge of getting the group shot. It took many many takes to get a good one lol.

Belated Happy Birthday nylene!!! I hope it was the most wonderful day! I just love your cousin camp and wish my kids had grown up nearer their cousins. We moved away from everyone when they were quite young and in hindsight, I feel like they missed out on so much because of that. It's also a big reason I moved back to KC when Rudy was born. I wanted to be hands on since we moved my kids away from their grandma's.

grammadee your weeping willow made me think about the last time I've seen one. It's been a long time. They are beautiful trees but you don't see them much anymore. At least not around here. I'm not sure what your DH would do without you A little envious of your garden, there's nothing like growing your own veggies. I have tried container gardens in the past but never had much success. My balcony was pretty well swarmed with wasps last year so I didn't even put out flowers. Which reminds me I need to say something to the landlord this year so he can get rid of them.

linda I hope you are feeling better. Sometimes our bodies just insist on rest and it's never at an opportune time. I hope the oral surgery and lock in go well!

LisaDV yay for new appliances! I can't imagine all the work that's going into the new house and how you still have energy to do crafting!

I haven't quite caught up yet but I have a 4 yo vying for my attention, and I don't want to lose what I've written lol. I will be back later to finish catching up with everyone!

Happy Saturday night y'all. Just a quick check in.

nylene HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY MY DEAR FRIEND!!! I knew it it was this month but didn't remember the day. I hope you had a terrific day. Blessings of joy and happiness to you.

@elaynef What a fantastic family trip! I am glad you had a fun trip. Looking forward to seeing some of your pictures.

Waving hello and will be back soon.

Linda, glad the consult went well. That was a short night and I saw you created layouts afterwards!! Glad you took some you time to relax a bit!

nylene, dh definitely appreciates it. The t-shirt idea was one of his friends that he puts the con on with, but he didn’t have time to get it ordered. When Don told him about the press I bought and that I was doing the tshirts for them, he was really excited. They already have plans for hats for next year.

@elaynef, I’m so glad you had a wonderful time. You have a lovely family.

grammadee, I understand the love hate garden relationship. I love the produce from the garden and thus will do what I must to get said benefit.

joyfulnana, oh, no! I’m so sorry. Get the lawyer. If you have good standing, one might be able to reduce the violation. I hope you are feeling better now. Unfortunately, I thinking the slower, less stressful rhythm is just a dream we all have and not really obtainable. At least, in my life it hasn’t been obtainable.

kellyr21, your birthday is coming up at the end of the month. Do you have plans for it?

Before the tshirt talk, Don mentioned how I used to make him cakes & cookies to go. Repeatedly mentioning the castle cake. Of course, I told him if he brought that mold and the dragon one from the farm, I’d make one of them or both. He did show up yesterday from the farm trip with both in tow. And my cake decorating supplies. I haven’t really been decorating cakes since 2015 when DD got sick and we stopped artificial colors & gluten for her. I hope I don’t screw it up too badly.

The kids & Don had a very quick romp in the pool yesterday. It was over 80F and humid, but that water is still way to cold for me. The pool guy said to have a heater we’d need a gas line run to that side of the house. I want one for my kitchen anyway. Hopefully in a few years we can do that, and it will extend the pool season a bit for us.

I started and finished the first double page layout to my Mother’s Day series. I’ll have one more double at least of the gardens and then one single of dinner.

dMothersDay2019_1 by Lisa Davolt, on Flickr

slept in this morning and then had to rush to get to Mass on time. Afterwards our parish had their 1st annual multi-cultural festival - there was a tent outside with displays from the different countries represented by our parish and then inside was FOOD from those countries. There was music and dance displays as well and several people dressed up in their national dress. Really fun! I didn't get any pictures but the parish posted a bunch and I think I might borrow a few for a layout. Our priest wants me to do England (or the UK) next year.

kellyr21 - waving hi!

joyfulnana - hello to you as well

LisaDV - beautiful layout! Glad your family got some pool time - I would love a pool but then I think of the expense and upkeep...There's a long pool season here though. You'll have to share cake pics!

grammadee - good luck finishing up your crop layout! I have a layout on my desk that just need journalling to be finished up but I need to do some other stuff before I settle down at scrapping.