Pokey Peas Challenge for July 2019

Happy Tuesday evening,

I don't think it's the bug as I have no cold symptoms whatsoever. I'm upping my airborne consumption anyway and keeping my fingers crossed. I was a bit better yesterday and then not so much today. But I didn't sleep well last night so maybe that was today's explanation...? Maybe it's just old age and out of shape.

kellyr21, I'm excited for you starting some art soon. You are so talented, and I love to see your work. Our other wildlife includes a box turtle that lives in the woods next door and the neighbors upteen million cats and one opossum that hangs out with them to get their food on occasion. The next door house (separated by a small copse of trees) always has several cats sitting outside when you drive by. One day we were all floored to see an opossum on the porch too.

joyfulnana, they need to get more help! Of course, it's sometimes better to be busy than bored. Yay for getting pages done!! I hope you get to your finishing touches this week.

grammadee, did you have to pull weeds today or did it rain again? I hope you didn't overdo it in the garden.

nylene, it's so good to see you creating up a storm!


DH leaves for Chicago tomorrow and will be gone until Friday. This gives me time to get everything ready for going to the farm.

I spent too much time pulling off in-network doctors today and then searching for their information on the web. I want a woman and someone who has been practicing for at least 15 years. Too new and they just spout whatever the AMA/education has told them. With at least 15 years, they realize that it's not all by the books and are easier to talk to most of the time, imho. But, UGH, I get so frustrated with it. DH likes where he is going, but the ladies and staff there didn't get very good reviews. DH tends to not be as critical as I am. But I'm also looking for my kids, not just me. I want the best I can find. Yes, I have high expectations, but not unreasonable expectations. When they were babies, I actually made appointments to interview doctors. They used to give you 15 minutes free to interview them. If that's still the case, I think I might do that again. I'm glad we're keeping our dentist up there though.

Off to cause trouble elsewhere. Have a great Wednesday!

So far, we have been nothing BUT cool, kellyr21. Coolest summer in years. First it was cool and dry and then cool and wet. Glad to hear you are enjoying the concerts in the park. Dh said earlier this week he might want to go Friday evening to a country jamboree about an hour's drive from here. But we were hoping at least one of my brothers would be there (they attend a lot of these) but so far one has said that he and his wife won't be able to come b/c they are volunteering for a community event where they live (they are about an hour in the opposite direction from the venue). Have not heard from my youngest brother yet, but he always makes decisions at the last moment.

I did get out into the garden the last couple of days, LisaDV, and have managed to clear several rows of their weedy companions. Have at least one more day of work out there. Hoping to get out there again tomorrow.

Good to see so many people scrapping! Have enjoyed seeing the first Cousin Camp pages, nylene. That dino theme is going to be so much fun to scrap! Can't wait to see your pages, joyfulnana. And LisaDV you have been really crazy creative this month already and have not even had your home alone crop yet! Will slip over to Flickr now and take a look at yours in depth, kellyr21.

Happy Friday! Hope you are all having a good day. I did some art last night and excited to continue today. A few weeks ago, I saw a beautiful piece of art at the store and wanted to try to duplicate this painting. It is a big, bold floral. So, the challenge begins.

I just published my blog post featuring our, dear nylene! So excited to share her Cousin's Camp story. Here is the link Inspired She Blog Post

grammadee- I hope you got to go to the jamboree. That sound like fun!

LisaDV & grammadee- Thanks for the comments about my layouts. I can't believe I did four or five in the last month or so. See how you ladies got me going! Lol!

Great job, Kelly! I'm enjoying your blog and learning more about our pokeys!

Hey Nylene. Here is the LINK to the crafty weekend

Hope this next week settles down for you at work, joyfulnana, but please don't talk about WINTER!!! We got our first really hot day yesterday. Crazy, I know! Looking forward to seeing your pages when you get a chance to share them.

Haven't heard from LisaDV, so hoping she and the family are busy getting settled back into the farm for their country vacation. And that the internet works out there!

Good to hear from you @elaynef. Saw your post (on another thread I think) about the vacation with the grandkids. Looking forward to seeing some pages about it.

Enjoyed your blog post about Nylene, kellyr21, and left a comment. (I think I am permanently logged into Google when I am on my desktop, so when I go to comment on a blog, I get a box asking me if I want to comment "as Gramma Dee"? and I just click that and then can post.

We finished the weeding on Friday and then headed over to the Jamboree. The performers were a bunch of local musicians, singing and playing mostly old time country music with a few new numbers thrown in. The sound system was awesome, and there were some performers that were really talented. My favorites were a young fellow who got a "curtain call" after he had played his two fiddle tunes, and a fellow in his 80's with a wonderful deep voice whose guitar playing was beautiful too.

Yesterday I spent the day making cards, but ended up with only six of them finished. Good thing I started with the ones I need first! It was good to visit and share ideas and a few laughs. Didn't claim points for inspiration for these cards, but I definitely was inspired by a card I saw awhile ago with a worm or caterpillar made out of circles on it. Did any of you post one like that in the past?

Wormy bd card by Gramma Dee, on Flickr

My claim to creativity was punching a couple of holes in the diecut cupcake inside and having the little worm crawling through it.
wormy card closeup of inside by Gramma Dee, on Flickr

Not sure what today will bring. On Friday I printed pic's so I could use my bonus Sketchy Saturday sketch twice. Have to choose the papers for each. Sometimes when I think too long about a page or project, it gets really big and complicated in my head. Think I just need to make a few basic decisions and start actually handling the page elements to get me grounded. Also have some backgrounds I made yesterday, so I could use those to put together a few sympathy cards.

Meanwhile I am receiving sporadic texts from my dd as her family starts their cross country road trip. All is going well so far. They are on a ferry heading toward the Trans Canada Highway.

However you are spending your Sunday, I hope you are enjoying it.

kellyr21 , I hope to read through your blog post soon. I’m enjoying your series. How exciting to start a new piece of art! I can’t wait to see it.

nylene , I hit scrapbooking hard while I was battling exhaustion, but I’ve got too much to do so once I started having more energy, scrapbooking had to sit by the sidelines again… Luckily my weekend is coming up quick. lol. I hope you can join in too.

grammadee , thanks for linking the #LCC. I love both of your sketches from yesterday’s sketchy Saturday. I hope to play with them this weekend. I’m glad you finished your weeding and went to the jamboree. I love your worm in the cupcake. It made me laugh as it surprised me. Your recipient will love it. Wishing your dd & family safe travels.

joyfulnana , I decided not to waste my time interviewing, but I’ve narrowed it down to 2 within the same practice and I’m just going to call for an appointment once I get back. Woo Hoo for using your punch. Yay for next weekend double points. Yay for next weekend period.

justjac , sounds like your trip was a huge success. Yay!

We are at the farm. DS helped carry in my big ol’ honking desktop and said, ‘mom, you need to get a laptop.’ Hahaha. I like my big monitor and my ergonomic keyboard. The keyboard keeps everyone off my computer because they can’t use it.

Back in February-ish I hurt my foot. I thought maybe I twisted it or something. Figured it would heal. No biggie. When we came back to the farm in April, I realized my foot still hurt and it had originally started long before we left. I probably would have just dealt with it and not even realized if not for the marking of time by going back and forth. It was really the heel that was hurting and so I did an internet search – because I’m all about dr. internet. One possibility is plantar fasciitis which led to the purchase of a compression sock and some inserts for extra padding. Well the heel started to feel a bit better. But now I have horrible pain on the side of my foot. If I stand on it too long, going upstairs is extremely painful, down is uncomfortable but doable, and I’m sick of it. Off to the dr. I’ll have to go. I’m still going to buy some good shoes this week though and hope that gives me some relief.

Don will go back to the new house today as he has some meetings he has to be at on Monday and Tuesday. Tomorrow I have a lengthy errand in the morning and hoping to also go look for shoes. Tuesday is DD’s dr. appointment. Wednesday DH will be back and working from here that day and Thursday. Thursday morning DS gets his braces off. He’s very excited. I must stop pick him up some gum tomorrow while I’m out. DH is ready to take some time off work and spend some time at the farm. He’s not been with us the last few times we’ve been here. He keeps thinking he’ll have next weekend which I kindly reminded him, “no, you don’t” Why not? “because you’re taking the kids home, so I have me time.” Oh yeah, I forgot. Gotta love him, but sometimes need to smack him really hard. We do need to spend some time up here sorting stuff out though.

Happy MOnday!!

Well, my morning errands have been derailed. The storm that I was hoping and they were expecting later this afternoon got here early. I'm sitting next to my scared dog. She gets shivery when it storms. Poor thing. The good thing is I am off to start working up some layouts.

oh, and grammadee you are right about the slow internet. I'm about to pull my hair out. I was busy the last couple of days so it wasn't bothering me. But yesterday evening and this morning, pulling up stuff on the computer...... waiting for it to load. ugh.

Happy Thursday! Hope you are all doing well. Yesterday was a totally exhausting day so today is a CHILL day! We did make it out to the last park concert last night. That was so refreshing! I can't believe that the concerts are all over. Boo Booo Booo I wish they went until the end of the Summer.

I did start my new art LisaDV and will continue work on it today. I saw a floral painting at Ross and trying to do something similar. Crocheting group is tonight. I am still working on that too. Boy, my hands are full.

nylene - You totally deserve our kind words and celebration. Will you be volunteering at the school this Fall?

LisaDV - Hooray for you to get a special time to yourself. I wish all us Peas could come and play with you at the farm! A "Pea Party!" I know you will have a relaxing time. Also, thanks for the comment on my blog.

Waving hi to you all and have a nice evening!

I have a crop Friday and Saturday. 40 cards prepped to assemble, 10 layouts for a baby book kitted and 10 12x12 page kits ready to go. We'll see how much actually gets done ;-)