I made one of the countdown calendars for myself. I used the new Christmas paper by Stampin' Up. I distressed mine just a little bit. I like that new soft suede, it has just a teeny-tiny bit of green undertones. Lynnor had a great idea, create a countdown until the last day of school! We are so bad!!!!!

I haven't posted in a week. School is back in session for the 09-10 school year. There is so much that needs to be done and so many meetings to attend. I also have a new assistant to train. She is doing a great job. I just have to get administration to realize that she needs to be in the classroom, not running errands for them. I am fortunate to have an Intern from the University of West Florida this fall. That means I also am busy training her. I have so much I want to share with her that my brain seems to be churning all the time. I am totally worn out when I get home at night.

Here is the project that I will be teaching at Priceless Scrapbooks in September. I saw this on someones blog about two years ago. I printed it out, but I can't remember who's it was. Sorry! I used the Christmas papers by S.E.I, I believe they are called Winter Song. Start your countdown to Christmas with this sweet little calendar. You can start counting as far away as 99 days before Christmas. Don't let Christmas sneak up on you! Stay organized and be prepared for the big day by always knowing how many days you have left to get ready. Contact Trish at Priceless to sign up for this class.

We picked one of the watermelons from the garden yesterday. I'm going to cut it tomorrow. I can't believe that we actually got a watermelon. Sonny only planted about a dozen plants. Most of the vines yellowed and died. There is still two more melons out there. Yummy!!!

I made this stack of notes for Thursday's Stamper's Ten club door prize.

I love the new ribbon by Stampin' Up. Here is a stack of note paper created using the Real Razzleberry color. The paper is Cottage Wall and the stamp set used is Cheep Talk, all in the current Stampin' Up catalog/idea book.

Linda Ruquet, you have won! I will bring your prize to club Monday. Congratulations!!! Thanks for following my blog.

I created this card using one of the new Sizzix embossing folders. The new In-color, "Rich Razzleberry", and designer paper, "Cottage Wall", match each other very well.

I wanted to share this wonderful three compartment box that Lynnor Goodwin made for me.

What a awesome surprise! Thanks Lynnor, you do such beautiful work.

Is this what the future holds? Not so funny when you realize that it could really happen: http://aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf

Fifth Avenue Floral is a beautiful stamp set. I cased a sweet little card from someones blog. I chose one of the new In-colors for this year. Isn't the new Melon Mambo just beautiful with it's matching ribbon? I added glitter to help make it pop!

Hello,

I have updated my blog. http://themadcatstamper.blogspot.com/ Go there, look around and send me an email naming all the new additions and you may win a prize. I will let the winner know on Thursday evening.

I hope you are ready for the new 09-10 Stamper's Ten Club. They will start next week. Both meetings will be held at Priceless Scrapbooks after closing.

This is what I spent my weekend doing. I started on Saturday:

This is/was my Utility room. It was just a junk room. The table made it very easy to just put things down and forget about them. I had already started removing items from the room before I took this picture. Here it is empty..... around 3:00. (I was tired already, but everything from that room is now in my living room, dinning room and kitchen). I painted the ceiling and then stopped to take two Aleve and fix dinner. (Fried pork chops, fresh black-eyed peas, and mashed potatoes and gravy). Once I cleaned up the dinner dishes, I painted all the trim. Around 10:00, I took my shower and collapsed on the sofa. The new walls are now Apple Cider. I got up Sunday and got right to work painting the walls. I painted the two two-drawer file cabinets off white and stacked them on top of each other. I think the red storage boxes will have to have a face lift. They are just "in your face" bright! I have so much room in there now.

Oh my, I actually had to take breaks from this project. If I hadn't I would have tossed it in the trash. But, now that I have done one.... I think I can do another one. It was a good feeling to finish it last night and it really worked!

Here is my photo box:

Rough week! My step-mother had to go into the hospital Monday to find out why she was having breathing problems and a tingle in her arms. I spent seven hours sitting up there with my dad waiting for the test results which never happened. My dad would not go home without her. She had to check herself out of the hospital just to keep him happy. He has really become dependent on her. I stayed the night with them and picked up her medicine and some groceries Wednesday morning. Debbie came over around 1:30 and took dad for some blood-work. I came on back home for some well needed rest. I didn't sleep very well Tuesday night.

I've been having some telephone problems since Thursday. We had a bad storm come through and now my phone has issues. It works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. The storm knocked down about 3/4 of the big pine tree by our driveway. Sonny had to pull the tree out of the road when he got home from work.

I did finish a project that I have been working on for a few days. I bought several of Becky Roberts tutorials, http://inkingidaho.blogspot.com/ . She does an awesome job on them. They are worth the money. Here is my Tote-ally Awesome Tote:

The tote has three pockets on one side and one long pocket on the other side. The inside has two clear pockets to keep the cards and envelopes in place. There are four cards, two bookmarks, a note pad, and an ink pen. I used Stampin' Up's retired designer paper called Summer Picnic. The images I used were the ones I did last month to practice my Copic skills with. They matched the paper perfect.

Check out Tricia's blog at Priceless. I sent all the pictures I took at CHA to her.

I still haven't been able to get the rest of my pictures off my camera. But, this morning I was able to view them on the camera for just a moment before it started flashing "ERROR". I still have hope that I will be able to retrieve them.

I created a little fish shaped album for my brother Robby. It's just a little thank you for all the scallops we brought home.