Juanita

My husband, Roger, and I have always been car people.  When I met him he had a Firebird like the one from Smokey and the Bandit.  He even has a Firebird tattoo.  A few years ago we bought a 1962 Ford Fairlane 500 with the intentions to restore it and cruise.  We named him Charlie.  Unfortunately, Charlie never quite fit in and we never got around to doing anything with him. Finally we decided that we needed to get rid of Charlie and look for a new project.

Roger peruses Craigslist like it's his bible.  Finally, he found a car he loved.  He went over to the dealer on a Friday and the car came home 3 hours later.  Here it is being delivered on August 7th, 2012.  It's a 1963 Chrysler Imperial Crown.

 

 Her name is Juanita.  At the time, we didn't realize how much time and money she would take to get going but for us, she is worth it.  Luckily, my parents built a shop when they bought their house and it's a great place to work on cars so Juanita took a trip an hour north to the shop.  Roger worked on her for a long time until he finally found out that the motor was junk.  It was a real heartache but we decided to just buy a new motor and have the transmission rebuilt.  Our goal was to have the car done for Car Shows in late May but that wasn't able to happen.

When she was finally ready for a show, I was unable to go but Roger went and had a great time.  To top it all off, he won a Sponsor pick.  It was a really great confidence booster and made him really proud of all the work he had put it.

I will say, I was a bit jealous of all the attention Juanita was getting.  She was like the Mistress in our marriage.

See what I mean?

Another great part about Car Shows for us is that we get to spend time with Roger's parents.  Above is a photos of their Ford Falcon Futura along with Juanita at a show in Roger's hometown or Rainier.

It also give us the chance to meet new people from different Car Clubs around the area.  The photos above are from the Rus-T Rodz Car Club and Unique Tin shows.

This show was the Support Local Veterans Show at Home Depot.  We parked between the President of our Car Club and Roger's parents.  (I am the Secretary of our club.)

We won another Sponsor Pick at that show.

Finally, we took a long trip to Yachats, Oregon.  This show was my favorite.  It was right on the ocean.

We also won a Sponsor Pick at this show.

All in all, the hard work, money and time apart was worth it.  It has been a great summer.  I even have a tan!

Changing my Blogiverse

I really have been a horrible blogger lately.  I'm not really apologizing, just stating a fact.  I don't have many regular readers anyway.  Mostly just my family and some friends.  Anyway, I am going to be changing up my blog a bit.  Instead of being only crafts and cooking, I am just going to use this as a place to talk about my life.  Things I have done, things I enjoy, places I go, people I love and all the other crap.  Crafts and cooking will be a part of it because frankly, it is a large part of who I am but I will be adding Car Show stuff and other activities.

Mama June's Mashed Potato Multi-Meal

I have a confession to make.  

I love Alana Thompson and her family.  

You may know them better as the lovable bunch from McIntyre, Georgia who started out on Toddlers and Tiaras, but now star in their own reality show, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.  Their show's second season is set to premiere on July 17th on TLC.

I even dressed as Honey Boo Boo for Halloween.  (No judgments!)

On the TLC Website, there is a couple videos of "Cooking with Mama June".  I decided to try her Mashed Potato Multi-Meal.  It was actually really good.  I changed it up a bit, but not much.  It's good old comfort food, which I am all about.

Mama June's Mashed Potato Multi-Meal

(No actual measurements, just throw this together.)

Mashed Potatoes

Ground Beef, cooked

1 can of Green Beans

1 can of Corn

Shredded Cheese

Spread the prepared potatoes in the bottom of a casserole dish.

Layer on the ground beef, then one can of vegetables.

Next, sprinkle cheese over the top and then repeat the process with the other half of the ingredients.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Enjoy!

Don't forget to tune in July 17th for the Season Premier of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo on TLC.  

Oh, I almost forgot, the first night are "Watch & Sniff" episodes so make sure to pick up People Magazine's July 15th issue (out July 5th) to get your card.  When the number comes up on the screen, "Watch & Sniff".

What happened to May?

I haven't blogged in over a month.  Sorry about that.  It doesn't mean I haven't been busy, because I have.  It just means I haven't been great about keeping track of things and documenting them.  Here is a quick photo tour of my time spent since my last blog.

So, I started this project.  It's my kitchen table.  It's still in this state.

 I went on a Girl's Weekend trip and we made these yummy fish bowl drinks.  That is all I can say about the weekend because, "What Happens at the Beach, Stays at the Beach".

 I also set up a fun night out for the people at work so we could bond.  I mostly just drank.

 I have no idea why, but I really wanted to make these wristlet key chains so I bought the hardware on Etsy and I have made about 10 of them.  I will make a few more when I have time.  They were a really fun project.

 This is how I spent my birthday, sitting on the side of the road after our 63 Chrysler Imperial broke down on her maiden voyage home.  Her name is Juanita.

 And here she is being put on the flatbed tow truck that had to take her back to my Mom's house where she is still sitting.

 The weekend after that, we put on the All High School Car Show.  Which along with a dedicated group of volunteers, was a great success.

 I cooked during this time too.  These are Crispy Chicken Flautas.

These are just awesome Chocolate Chip Walnut cookies.

 This is the current state of the shop.  Miss Juanita is up in the air without a motor or transmission.  She is expensive!

 And finally, last weekend, I went to a 50th Anniversary party for one of the most special couples I know.  Here I am with my cousin Felicia.  I just think this is a cute picture.

Coming up this weekend, I am throwing my sister a gender reveal party.  Will we be having a boy or a girl?  I am so excited to find out.  I would love to promise that I will be better about blogging but if you have read any of my blogs, you know that probably won't happen.  I will try though.

DIY Faux Photo Frames

I had so much fun making these faux photo frames.  They were simple and I had all the supplies on hand.

Supplies:  

Wooden plaques (I got mine at JoAnn's for $1)

Acrylic Paint - whatever colors you want

Foam Brushes

Photos of your choosing

Modge Podge

Scissors

 

Start with your plaques and paint them your desired colors.

 Cut your photos to fit on your plaques.  Brush some Modge Podge either on the back of the photo or straight onto the plaque where you want the photo to go.

Brush a thin layer over the photo and let it dry.  On this one of my sister, I added some cute jewels as well.

This other is of my nephew from a road trip we took.

I made some patterns on the one of my husband and I at Halloween and a cute cloud pattern on the one of my Aunt & I.

 

 

Ravioli Lasagna

While making my menu this week, I was tempted by this Cheesy Sausage Tortellini recipe I found on Pinterest.  I put the ingredients I needed on my shopping list and off I went.  But, while at Cash & Carry, the Tortellini were $8 a bag, while the ravioli was on clearance for $4 a bag so I bought that instead.  As Wednesday came around, I got thinking about the recipe and decided to change it up a bit, so Ravioli Lasagna was born.  I have seen the technique a few times while browsing online but I didn't follow any recipe.

Ravioli Lasagna
1 bag of frozen ravioli
1 bag of mozzarella cheese
1 jar of pasta sauce
1 cup of Parmesan cheese
1 package of smoked sausage
Start with a layer of ravioli, then pasta sauce, Parmesan, sausage and mozzarella.  Repeat.  Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes until bubbly, cheesy and delicious.

This recipe took me less than 5 minutes to throw together and I was off doing other chores.  My husband even said, "Wow Honey, this is really good".  Which is so rare in our house.  I forgot to take a photo of it after it had cooked so if you make it, send me a picture of it. 

Beef Noodles

My freezer is getting bare so I gathered what was in there and made my weekly menu.  On Monday, I decided to use 2 packages of beef that looked pretty close to freezer burn destruction and make Beef Noodles.

I put the 2 packages of beef into the crock pot covered them with water, added a few tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce and some seasoning salt.  I cooked it on low for about 9 hours and then shredded the beef.

Using the cooking liquid, I added a bit more water and then put in some wide noodles I had.

After another hour on high, it was all done.  The noodles had a great texture and it was delicious for dinner and as leftovers the next day.