Inspiration Alley

At the Crop

This weekend I'm at a scrapbooking crop hosted by HilltopMemories.  Now when I go to these things, I usually spend the whole time catching up with all the happenings since most of my scrapbooking friends live on the West Coast of Florida.  This crop however, I've actually been scrapping - I mean "real", "authentic", scrapbooking pages.  It's funny, because I set out by bringing kits expecting only to work on those, but ended up doing a couple of layouts.  Here's two, and I'll post the rest as soon as I can.

   

This first one is for one of my employees - she recently got a new motorcycle and I had taken some pictures for her "me" wall.  This is using one of the Spring BoBunny lines called Block party.  It's sort of a patrioticish theme  but I liked the color combination for these pics.  The blue is close to the color of denim.  Ont he red sqare there are stars in the paper printing that the photo didn't pick up - I'm thinking I'll go back in tomorrow and add some crystal effects to make it pop.

This one is using another spring release for BoBunny called Peacock Lane.  I picked this one because the purples and teals "went" with the teal of the car and the purplish hues of the sky.  This was from February when Frankie's Pizza was celebrating 55 years.  Their celebration took place on Valentine's Day and we took our 1955 Buick Century to the show because it was also 55 years old.  The car needs some work, but we really wanted to take it because it was new when Frankie's first opened.  (If you weren't aware, you can order half baked pizzas and have them shipped direct to you - just in case you live out of town but love those square pizzas.)

I've also done some card kits, another layout, and some other cards, but I can barely keep my eyes open much longer.  If I don't get some sleep I wont be able to make the drive home.

Car Weekend

This weekend we did lots of car things.

Friday was Tower Shops, and we took "my" '76 Astre to the show.  Sunday we went to the Cutler Bay Sports Bar for their Hogs and Rods show.  We took the'67 Buick GS.  Lots of cars came out and at one point there were over 100 bikes there.

 

 

I did some regular stuff too ... got my haircut and had breakfast with the inlaws and the baby.  All in all a great weekend.

Back to Turkey Rod Run

Here's some pictures from the Turkey Rod Run over Thanksgiving weekend.

First, this is the view from the balcony where we stayed (It's a friends condo).  The sun was just coming up - this was what I saw each morning, and I just love the sound of the waves crashing on the shore.  Beautiful.

The second pic is of the car.  The special thing about the car we brought was the dual quad engine.  Here's a picture.  It has two 4 barrel carbs.

And then there is the "money shot".  Every year we take a picture of the car at one of the turns at the speedway.  Here is this years. 

We had a wonderful time, but had a potential problem with the car, so we left it up there and will head back to Daytona next week to trailer it home.  It actually all worked out for the best because the trip home was quite stressful.  We must have passed (or sat in traffic) nor less than a dozen cars that had spun out off the road, including a tractor trailor that hit the guardrail almost right beside us.  We left about 3:30PM and didn't get home until close to 10PM.  It should have been a 4 hour trip, but there were all sorts of traffic delays.  I'm hoping next weekend the weather will be good, and I get another trip to Daytona out of the deal.

Turkey Run - Daytona

I'm at the Turkey Run this weekend.  We left yesterday and arrived here at about 6:30.  From there we immediately went to dinner.  The restaurant had several Thanksgiving type offers (Turkey, Ham, Roast Duck and Lamb) but I opted for Seafood since that was what the restaurant is known for.  I had crab cakes, then seafood gumbo, and then a broiled Mahi w/crab stuffing (real crab stuffing, not the breadcrumb type).  It was sooo good.  Mmmm.

Today we're at the car show, and it is a gorgeous day.  It is in the mid-70s (maybe a little warm) and that is so much better than weather in the 30s/40s like most of the time we come.  We've brought a 1966 Buick Riviera.  The thing that is "special" about it is that it has a dual quad engine which is 2 4-barrel carbs.  Good thing the price of gas has dropped considerably since this is not gentle on the fuel consumption.  We're parked with our friends in the Pontiac Club so we're very close to everything.  Tonight we do a old car parade in the next town up.

I tried to upload some pictures but the connection speed is not too great at the track, so I'll try later from where we are staying, or when I return home.

Weekend Update

Saturday we went to the Auto Show, and I got to see the new Chevrolet Camaro that is coming out for 2010 - I also got to sit in some of my other favorite cars like the Pontiac Solstice, the Chevy HHR, and the Cadillac XLR Conv.  From there we were going to go to the diner, but the traffic was so bad (South Beach is a hopping place on Saturday night), we just ended up heading closer to home and went to Flanigans.

Sunday was uneventful, until hubby started screaming my name - apparently when he removed some bolt the car shifted and was pinching his finger in between something.  I flew out of the house and had to release the jack - his finger was flat, but very little blood.  I sat him down, gave him some orange juice, made sure he had sensation in the finger, blood flow, and range of motion (all of which he had), then promptly chastised him for not having his cell phone within reach (one of my safety rules).  If I had been at the back of the house I would not have heard him, (although half the neighborhood would have).  Anyway ... he is fine, his finger is black and blue and he'll lose the nail but I have stopped shaking.  As I was heading out to the carport, I didn't know what I'd find, so I was relieved that it was a pinched finger and not a severed limb.

All is well, and I'm looking forward to a great week.  I love this time of year, with the cooler weather (we're having a cold snap and woke up to temps in the upper 50s), and holidays right around the corner.

BOP Car Show

We went to a BOP (Buick, Olds, Pontiac) car show earlier in the month, and hubby took 1st place in his class.  This is from October 19th.

The car is a 1968 Pontiac GTO conv.  The show was up in Broward at Pines Pontiac, and was hosted by the Hurricane Chapter of POCI.

It was a beautiful day - only threatened to rain, but not a drop came down.  I think there were about 85 cars in attendance, and it was a fantastic day. 

After looking at the cars, I retired to my sunshade and sat reading my book, talking to friends, and enjoying the day and the music.

We go to cruise-ins just about every week but the biggest one coming up is in Daytona over Thanksgiving weekend.

Friday Nite Cruise

Reporting in from the Friday Nite Cruise.  Normally I don't post from the shows, but since it is Big Brother Time, I have the laptop with me so I can keep up with the Live Feed.  I've got the aircard and a battery charger so I'm good to go.  We are in a '66 Riviera today.  We just got it from the body shop last weekend.  We had some of the car painted to fix some deep scratches and damage.  This is the car that we will be taking to Turkey Rod Run in November.  Now that we've got the car back, my husband will be doing some engine work on it before the show. 

I took a picture at the show, but for some reason it won't load, so I guess you don't get to see it.  Maybe over the weekend it will work.

Nothing big going on right now so I'll sign off and get back to BB10

Frankie's Cruise

Our usual 2nd Saturday of the month cruise was at the Roadhouse Grill ... well since all the Roadhouses closed, the orgainzers had to find a new location.  This month they had it at Frankie's Pizza on Bird Road.  If you've ever lived in the area, it has been around since 1955.  It's a family owned restaurant still owned by the Pasquarella Family.  Now Roxanne runs it.  Roxanne went to Southwest High School with my sisters, (a few years before me), but it was the local place to go after the football games back then.  It still has a very loyal customer base (us included).

So it was fun, seeing cars of the 50s and 60s line up outside of Frankies.  We had pizza, and sat around and talked like we usually do.  This month, I drove the '66 Buick Riviera, and hubby took the '68 Triumph motorcycle.  The Riviera we are starting to get ready for the Turkey Rod Run in November, and the motorcycle ... well it has been stashed away in the garage for over 10 years so hubby cleaned it up, put in some gas, and cleaned the spark plugs and it fired up like a champ. 

I wish I could say that I had taken pictures, but I had left my camera at the house and didn't want to give up my prime parking spot to go back and get it.

We're not sure if it will continue to be held at Frankie's, but I would love it if that happened.

This past weekend

we went to two car events.  It felt weird because it had been 3 weekends without attending anything.  The first weekend they were rained out, the second and third we were both sick, so this weekend we had some fun and got out amoungst our car friends.

Saturday we did the Downtown Miami car show.  The close a portion of Flagler Street and the cars park in the middle of the road.  It's right in front of the Guzman Hall and the Seybold building if you know the area.  Our car is the first one (teal) in the picture it's a 1963 Corvair.

After that show, we headed west on Tamiami Trail to the Pit BBQ.  This used to be in the boonies, along way from any civilization.  Now houses has been built and it doesn't seem as far away.  It's just a little east of the Casino.  Now ... the pit used to be fantastic BBQ, but it is under new ownership and still good food but it's just not the same.  As for the rustic nature of the restaurant itself, that's still the same.  The wagon in the picture belongs to a friend of ours.  We were still in the Corvair from this morning.  This was the first cruise in at the Pit and about 40 cars came out.  It's going to continue on the 3rd Saturday of each month, so we'll probably be back again next month.

Old Town Saturday Night Cruise

This is from the car cruise in up at Old Town this past weekend.  I hope I did it right.  I recorded the Old Town cruise on my Flip recorder.  Hubby got it for me for Christmas.  This is the first time I've used it, and it was so easy to use.

old_town_feb08.AVI

It's a 27 second video feed where my husband goes by in his car.  I have to say the flip video is so cool - not many bells and whistles, but it records well, and is very easy to use even in the editing mode.  The whole cruise was about 22 minutes and I easily edited it down to the 27 seconds.  For those of you that can't open the file the flip also lets you take a snapshot from the video so here's that.

This video was shot at night with only the lights from the stores to illuminate.  I had a great spot for the show (I plopped myself down a full 45 minutes early to get it).  Hubby is driving, our friend Fred is in the passenger seat, and another friend Ralph is in the back seat.  This is our '66 GTO coupe.

Now I can't wait for another reason to use the Flip.

Please let me know if you are / are not able to access the video file, and what you think about the quality (not my recording ability, but the clarity of the Flip video itself).