Copy Cat Challenge..

Soo, after seeing some of the super great Copy Cat Challenge participants on DebbieDoo's blog, I finally have a submission.  After seeing some people picking from Pottery Barn and coming up with some gorgeous, gorgeous knockoffs, I have chosen..  Longaberger..  My friend sells Longaberger Baskets, but somehow, lol, I'm not in their price range in any way shape or form.  If I have that much money to spend, lol, I'd rather spend it on a few dinners with shrimp and the fixins!  : ).. 

Soo, without further ado..  Here was my Longaberger inspiration..

Found Here..

Their simple black basket retails for $149.

Wow...  I love baskets, but that's a lotta shrimp dinners for me..

Shrimp Scampi, shrimp alfredo, shrimp chimichangas..

Alright, enough channeling Bubba from Forrest Gump..

Here is my knockoff..

 I grabbed my handy dandy black matte spray paint..

 Stumbled upon this little basket at one of our local thrift stores..
I think it said, "Psst!  Jan!  Over here!"
It was behind me, and I just soo happened to turn around at the right time..

 Removed the messed up, metal emblem..

 Spray painted the basket and handle flat black..

All for a whopping $1.48.
A savings of $147.52.  : )..
I love my Longaberger knockoff..
And the fact that I could have a whole lotta, lotta
shrimp items, if I had the money I saved with this one..

Joining in on DebbieDoo's Magazine Copy Cat Challenge today..
Great host, great site, great participants!

Another Moment with Milo..

Soo, living life with three Cairn Terriers is a little hectic, crazy and chaotic at times.

Our solution?  Each pup has been getting their very own outing with one of us.

Fergus got to go with Dutch to order a hot rod part, but got a little sick from the ride.

Emmy got to go and pick the part up the next day.

Yesterday was Milo's day.

I dropped our shaggy little boy off at

"Aunt Chelsea's" shop for an oatmeal shampoo

and a trim.

Here he is before we went in..

 A few hours later, he came out smelling good

and looking handsome as ever.

While passing the Liberty exit, I suggested

that we stop by the Puppy Store,

PetSmart.  Milo was all for that!

He and Emmy love the puppy store!

After putting his comfy harness on,

we cruised through the aisles,

where Milo spotted a Lion waiting to pounce

on him from a bottom bin.  Lol.

We don't let him get too close to them,

that poor lion wouldn't have stood a chance..

Click Here for the proof!

 The lion survived the encounter..

We finally made it back home, where we were

greeted by two other happy puppies who spent several

minutes happily sniffing their missing brother,

before they finally ran back outside and before

Milo found something stinky to roll in.  Lol.

At least he still looks good.  : )..



Illuminations..

Some of my favorite craft items are luminairies, either solar jars, or some type of garland lights.  Soo, after finding this great idea on Pinterest, and after planning yet another party at our house for this Saturday, I finally got all the necessary items and got to work.  Here is the original idea..

Found here..

Loved that idea.

Soo, I grabbed my box of 200 Dixie Cups,

an older book for the pages,

and cut out a template

using a cup that was cut

open and had the bottom cut off..

Wrapped my book page around each cup..

Cut a cross hatch opening on each one

using a serrated knife,

which really was easy peasy..

 Grabbed my string of white lights from

Hobby Lobby's wedding section..

  Poked each light through the bottom of the cups..

Strung them and hung them on the porch..

Turned out pretty well..  : )..

Can't wait for the party..

It's going to be a Shish-ka-bahbq..

We are having shish-ka-bobs with lamb,

pork, beef and chicken, with mixed veggies,

roasted veggies, and several other healthy

food items..

I'm joining DebbieDoo's Newbie Party
again this week.  Great host, great site,
great participants!  : )..

Thank you..

Memorial Day Weekend..

Going to a bbq this afternoon at a co-workers house, looking forward to a nice, relaxing afternoon.

Made some black bean and corn salsa to take along.  It's super EZ and super good.  : )..

 2 cans lightly drained black beans..

 2 cans corn, drained..

 2 cans rotel, lightly drained..

 One onion, chopped well..

 Cilantro to taste, I love the smell of cilantro, I think Milo does too.  : )..  Lol.

 A little Chili Powder to taste..

 Palmful of salt..

The juice of one lime..

Rachel Ray says to microwave the lime

for 10 seconds and it will squeeze easier..

Stir together, and serve with chips..

We chose these two this time..

Alrighty, on to the bbq!

: )..

Fun With Scanners

Been listening to the Jackson County dispatch on a free scanner application
on my iphone.  Lol.  Our city almost always has sirens sounding, day or
night.  Now, I can find out some of the reasons behind it.

Today?  There are two males riding around downtown KC, shooting an
AK-7, there is a female who is intoxicated, sitting outside of a convenience
store who has had arrests in the past for drugs and weapons, somebody from
Edwards, KS has an active warrant for failing to appear in court, and another
male either was or was not stabbed with a screwdriver.  Wow.  Hmm.
Memorial Day fun in Kansas City.  Awesome.  Think I'll stay inside tonight.
Lol.  : )..  Whew!

Sean Hayes-Pollinating Toes

Another Pandora find.  I love Sean Hayes, his music is consistantly great,
catchy and fun!  : )..  This one is no exception!  Love it!

Hmm, sounds delish.. : )..

I'm still eating a healthier diet, but I miss pizza at times.  The solution?  I have a few alternatives, including this delicious sounding cauliflower crust pizza idea.

Found here..

Or this zucchini recipe..

Found here..

Either way, I foresee a pizza

in my immediate future.  : )..

Nom, nom, nom..





It's my friends birthday today..

She's had a rough time lately, but hopefully she can have a good birthday despite all of the things she has been going through. 

Here are some clouds to help brighten her day.

Just remember..

Lonnie..

Tex..

Umm.  That is Moran, isn't it?

: )..

Happy Birthday!

Lighting the way..

Alright, soo, I was cruising Pinterest the other day and found this lovely little item..

 Found here..

And this one..

Found here..

And I thought, aha!

I could do that.

I love lighthouses.

I love all things nautical.

I really want to live somewhere coastal.

Soo, this is what I came up with..

Although I do love darker colors,

I also love nautical ones too.

: )..

Linking up with DebbieDoo's

Newbie Party this week..

Great host, great site,

great Newbies!



When it rains it pours.. Lol..

So, after missing the semi truck for a full week, now our poor old Dodge finally sputtered to a stop.  It's a 1994 Dodge Ram, with well over 260,000 miles on it.  We had to replace the fuel pump a few years ago because it stopped running.  $200 later and after Dutch and his friend Dan replaced that, Dutch wished they had cleaned out the gas tank.  It kept shuddering and choking if it dipped below half a tank of gas.  Finally, today?  The fuel pump went out again.  Another $200 later, and after Dutch cleaned the gas tank this time, it's back up and running like a champ.  Moral of the story?  Lol.  When it rains and pours, keep a mechanic close at hand.  Whew!  Yay for Dutch.  : )..

Some pics from the ball park..

Volunteered to sell some 50/50 raffle tickets at the KC Royals game last Friday night.  The winning raffle ticket would win half of the money raised before the 4th inning.  The previous group sold enough for their winner to walk away with $2,500.  That sold a whole lot of tickets for me, and I used it as my hook, "the last person won $2,500!"  Errrrr!  People would stop and back up.  Lol.

We had at least 10 ADT reps there, and we were joined by some UPS employees and the Royal's Charity for the game, the Arthritis Foundation.  Armed with two books of 100 tickets each, we all set out to sell tickets.  We sold one ticket for $2, three tickets for $5 and seven for $10.  Dutch helped us out, and he and I both sold one whole 100 ticket book, while one ADT rep sold 200.  All in all, combined, three groups raised over $6,000 and our lucky fan walked away with $3,000.  We raised a full $1,000 more than the last group!  : )..  It was a whole lot of walking and my feet, knees and hips were aching (I wore a pair of tennis shoes that weren't as comfortable because my solid black ones that were cushier, didn't exactly look right, lol.), but it was worth all of the hard work!

The Royals organization gave us a free ticket, which was up in the top balcony and $10 in food vouchers.  Luckily, they were having "buck nights" where their hot dogs and soda were a buck each.  We ended up having a lot of the food vouchers left over, and after having traipsed all over the top level trying to buy a hot dog (to which we would stand in line and then hear, "we're out of hot dogs right now!"), we eventually walked down one level and found a vendor who not only had no line, but who had hot dogs.  The guy who waited on us probably thought I was crazy when I asked him, "do you still have hot dogs?" until I told him we just walked down from the fourth level.  Lol.

We watched about ten minutes of the game, and then decided not to walk back up the ramp to the fourth level to find our seats.  After all that walking, I was done!  Whew!  We decided to head out in the sixth inning, stopped and bought some popcorn (yeah, nothing there was healthy, lol) and then looked for someone to donate the rest of our food vouchers.  We had $6 left, and after looking around for a couple minutes, I found one lady who was trying to feed at least 5 kids who were standing patiently behind her.  I snuck up, tapped her on the shoulder and asked her if she had paid yet, when she said she hadn't, I handed our loot over and told her that they were a gimme to us and she was more than welcome to what was left.  : )..  She was definitely grateful.  I loved being able to help out.  I even volunteered to take some pictures for some fans who were trying to take pics on our way out.  One guy wasn't able to get in until I asked him if he wanted a shot with everyone. 

After that, we got back to the car and drove straight home to the pups.  Whew.  Whatta night!  What fun though!  Not sure I would volunteer again, but if I do, and I might, I'll make sure to wear my comfy shoes, no matter what I'm wearing.  Lol. There was a really super nice breeze blowing around the stadium that night and it really made it soooo nice.  Glad it's over for a while though.  I would love to try and beat our haul though.  "Last time I was doing this, the winner won $3,000!"  The home opener winner took home over $7,000.  I'm still happy with our score though.  With the highest dollar amount set at $10, we still managed to raise a heck of a lotta money that night.  Go team!

Here are some pics from the park..

 Before the game..

 Told ya I was heading there!  : )..

 Sooo nice..  : )..

 First inning action..

 This was the view from the fourth level,

yikes!

Sixth inning action,

right before we left.

Lol.  Whew.

It's enough to wear me out again!

Love, love, love this song.. : )..

I think I've mentioned just how much I truly, truly, truly love Pandora Music's
program!  I've found soo many new artists and songs that I love, and they
never fail to find me yet another and another and another great artist.  This one
is no exception.  Love, love, love this song!  : )..  Thanks Pandora!  Thanks
Amelia Curran!  Great sound!

Royals Game..

Volunteered to sell raffle tickets for the Arthritis Foundation at the Royals Game for ADT tonight.  We get free tickets to the game and a voucher for $10 of free food.  Which ought to buy me a hotdog and a soda.  Lol.  : )..  Still, should be fun, get to see the game and work for a good cause.  

I think this..

 is where you'll be able to find me and my raffle tickets!

Keepin cool by the waterfalls!

: )..

Now, that's my idea of catchin a baseball game!

Who knows, I might even get to meet Slugger.

Alrighty, and we are off to the ball game!



Don't judge a book by it's cover..

This is Tyler Gregory who is almost a one man band.  We caught his show
one night while waiting for our friends to play at a bar in downtown KC.
Tyler was the opening act.  He definitely stood out in the moderately
conservative crowd while he waited for his show to begin.  No one really paid
any attention to him, until he and his young fiddle player started playing.  Lemme
tell ya, he grabbed everyone's attention for sure after that.  He plays a stompbox
that has a tambourine attached and it definitely made for an interesting set.  We
bought his cd that night and I had him sign it for me, which he really loved.

Now?  He's getting national news after playing on a street corner in Lawrence, KS.
There was a young boy in the crowd who couldn't resist approaching Tyler while
he was playing, and the boys father taped the exchange.  You can catch it here.

Such a great and touching story and such a great recognition for such a great artist.

Whew.. Long Day..

Early in, early out today.  Went to dinner and then did some scouting, looking for the truck.  Went by the area where Dutch found the trailer, but still didn't have any luck.  He found the trailer Monday afternoon, after getting a tip from our friend, who owns the lot where we had been parking the truck.  Mike had seen another trucking company owner chopping a truck down a gravel road during the winter.  That's the same area that Dutch found his stolen trailer.

We drove past that trucking company's shop in Blue Springs, and they just so happen to have two Western Star trucks (the same kind as ours), so it's awfully coincidental that they deal with those trucks, and one of them needs a motor.  There was a hood sitting by their building and we sat there, staring for about five minutes, trying to get a better look at it.  There was a driver sitting in one of their dump trucks, otherwise, we would have gone closer to check it out.  : (..  I'm hoping those jerks let the owner know that there was a green Subaru lurking, with two people giving the lot a concerted stare.

I'm sure they aren't stupid enough to leave our hood on their lot though.  At least we didn't see any frames that matched our wheelbase either.  The bay doors were open on their shop so we could see every bit of their property.  After staring the location down, we drove past the owner's home in Independence.  There were some people sitting outside in a gazebo, so I'm pretty sure that they saw a green Subaru pulling in next to their location, giving them a very concerted stare as well.  If those are the jerks who stole our truck, I'm hoping they are enjoying their last few days of freedom.

Our next move is to contact the Missouri DOT Law Enforcement Division to see if they can stop by and run an audit on the company.  If any of their trucks come up with stolen parts?  Whoops.  Guess who would be in mega trucking trouble?  Not us.  Hopefully the DOT, MO Hwy Patrol and the Sugar Creek police department will be able to rattle that company enough to find something. 

Dutch put up a couple reward signs at the truck stops by the trucking company's shop.  Hopefully the lure of a reward for the recovery of our truck is enough to catch someone's attention and get us some results.  There is no honor between thieves.  Money talks and ..  well .. something walks..

Alrighty..  Early in, early out tomorrow too..

Hopefully, we made a statement that we will not go down without a fight.

Ha.  Our fight hasn't even started yet.

Ok.  'Nuff truck talk for now.

Here's something cute to end the night.

Do not pass Go, do not collect $200..

Still no word on the truck, but there is a potentially shady individual who might be getting visited by the MO Hwy Patrol and Sugar Creek Police Department. Said potential hooligan might have picked the wrong truck to steal. Serves him right if he did. Thanks for playing, now take your ball and go home to federal prison because they also stole an interstate trailer that came from overseas in China. Whoops! Wrong move! Ha! In other news, I had a sinus headache that kicked my hind end earlier. I came home to let the pups out and went straight to bed without supper. Lol. Do not pass Go, for sure! I landed on the parking spot, while I hope said aforementioned hooligan will land in the Jail square. Ha! We will be more than happy to rid society of his company for a while. He can sit and roll dice all he wants, I highly doubt he will roll himself out of that bad spot. Aww. Too bad. K. Crashing back out. Too bad I don't own Boardwalk. : ).. One of there days, I'll live somewhere coastal....

Whut? Our big truck was stolen.. : (..

It seems that some hoodlum was up to some no-good shenanigans, some time between yesterday afternoon and 4am this morning.  Someone seems to have absconded with Dutch's semi truck and the trailer of irrigation tires that he had hooked up for his run to Lexington, NE.  We are guessing that they thought they were tractor tires instead.  Luckily the truck, and I'm sure the load, were insured, but that really was a great truck.  He just spent $8,000 overhauling the engine last year.  Hopefully they will abandon it somewhere and not strip and scrap it.  : (..  I'm sure he won't be able to find such a great truck again.  Especially one with practically a brand new engine.

We bought it used in 2005 and he's been able to make a really good living with it up until today.  We paid for it in full, so it's never had a loan on it, so it's been nothing but profit ever since then.  We live in the KC, MO area and I posted pics on facebook, and have had friends who are sharing the pics as well.  Dutch filed a police report this morning, so hopefully it will turn up without any damage.  He said there were tire tracks where the person or persons who stole it, drug the trailer because they didn't wait for the air brakes to air up before taking off.

He parks it down a side road off of one of the biggest trucking routes in town, so there aren't a whole lot of people that live down that way, and those that do, are used to hearing his truck leave at all times of the day and night.  : (..  Soo, to the hoodlum hooligans who absconded with the truck and trailer, shame on you.  Get a real job instead of taking someone else's.  Didn't your mother teach you any better than that?  Tsk, tsk, tsk!  You should be ashamed.  Now drop it off and leave it somewhere intact.  Pronto.  Ya hooligan!

I need a weekend to relax from my weekend..

Whew.  My weekend was busy.  Didn't really seem to do much, but by gosh, it was busy.  Spent today catching up on laundry.  Yay.  And working on another craft project that is still in the works.  : )..

Until then..  Here are some cute pics to marvel at..