Wait...Um...Carra, you may be saying, what is that horse thing doing there?

Well, among the other 3 squillion things I am doing at any given time, I am in charge of a national event, for which these are the awards.  Now the awards ones are just your basic gold and silver, but the volunteers for the event get one in a different color.  The chair of the event chooses the color.

Now, it's no great secret among the ARM faithful that I love paintwork.  I relish the process of picking a color for a car, deciding if it needs stripes or airbrush artistry.  Love. It.  I mean, I could live in the House of Kolor booth at SEMA.  No, really.

When it came time to pick my color for this, I decided it needed to be deep purple.  Metallic deep purple.  I contacted the person casting these for me and told her that and she said she could try to come up with something.  Hmmmm.  I told her if she could spray it, I would just go get car paint.  She can and away I went.

Now, the place i have been going for YEARS for car paint closed, so a bit of scrambling around later and I landed in automotive paint heaven.  I'm not going to lie, guys and gals, I could have stayed there all day making a mental note of all the dizzying array of colors this shop had.

In the end I walked out  with the perfect purple shade with red and blue microflake in it.  It is on the way to the caster now and I am so excited to see it on these medallions.

Ahhhhhh SEMA!  What a wonderful, wonderful thing it is.  I love going every year, trying to keep up with Jeff (What?  He's a foot taller than me and walks fast), seeing all the sights, meeting people, dining with Kevin Tetz at an improvised lunch table, learning much.  It's a grand time!

My problem is though, I go each year promising not to spend any money as a result.  Last year that worked out "well".  I only bought a brand new car after SEMA.  I needed it anyway.

This year, I made the same promise to myself.  So what do I do?  after looking at the various Fiestas on display, including a Rally Cross and a B-Spec, I wander over to Ford racing and ask the fatal question:

"So...what do you have for MY Fiesta SES?"

Parts, they have them.  Oy!  So now I am, of course, spending money as a result of SEMA.  I just have to decide how far into rallydom my road car needs to go.  Suspension will start the process, then we will go from there.

2012.  I won't spend any money as a result of SEMA 2012...

Up here in the wilds of Nebraska, I am pretty far removed from Jeff, Vinnie and Gina.  Luckily I have a coworker, Doug, who is my "car buddy".  Doug, his wife and I go to car shows, we sometimes spend a day polishing a car here and there, we talk about Top Gear, you know, all the fun stuff.

But Doug has a bad habit.  He looks on Craigslist for Mustangs and Mustang parts and when he finds something cool, he sends me the ads.  that pretty 1965 in the pic above was today's offering.  Another was a 2007 Mustang Shelby GT 500.

Now, I am not noted for an overabundance of impulse control when it comes to things like this.  This car is only about 45 minutes away.  I could probably work it into my budget.  It is killing me not to!  But I have firmly told myself I only need one car payment at a time, and Cricket is not near paid for yet.

Still, as much as I seem to have myself talked out of this car on the surface, it will be a couple of days before I am totally over it.  I adore Doug, but some days I just want to throw things at him over our adjoining cube wall - LOL!

I am coming to you live from the Vegas airport waiting for the other 3/4 of AutoRestoMod to arrive.

I am so excited about this year.  If possible, even more than last year.  I feel our star is rising and that good things will come from this trip!

Be on the lookout for trip photos and videos.  And for those of you here, I hope we run into you!

VIVA LAS VEGAS!

YAY!  We got a nod in Street Machine magazine.  This is big.  Really, really big!  The Aussies have been great and we are super excited to have the petrolheads from down under checking out our videos!  I can not articulate how very cool this is!

That said, we evidently have acquired a new employee.  His name is Jeff Fox.  We think he might be like Dr. Johnathan Tuttle from M*A*S*H.  He looks strikingly like Jeff Ford from what we can tell.  Also, we are not sure what he does around here.  Doesn't clean the shop, doesn't polish my car, is useless and getting coffee.

Heh.

What really happened is that Street Machine billed our Jeff as Jeff Fox, not Jeff Ford.  As someone who has one of those names no one can spell, ever, I find this hysterical.  The good folks at Street Machine are going to correct that for us next issue, but until then much teasing will ensue.

FOX!  LATTE!  NOW!

The year was 1992.  Red Hot Chili Peppers was playing on my car radio (well, Chevy Pickup radio), the beginning of my senior year of high school.  Life was good.  And the car bra was king in this part of the country.  Everyone who had anything mildly sporty had one.  I personally helped install one on a Monte Carlo.

Fast forward to now.  Car bras, in my rarely humble opinion, are passe.  Like parachute pants from the 80's.  It's not stopping people though.  Last week alone I saw 3 2010 or 2011 Corvettes, one a Grand Sport, with car bras on.  I was on the phone with Gina when I saw the first one and had to ask if we had been sent back to the early 90's.  They mess your paint up, for one, and look outdated for two.

I understand they were a "thing" in auto accessories back in the 90's, but some tings are just meant to be appreciated on their own (take the Fezza above for example).

So do me a favor, folks.  Leave the car bras back in the early 90's and show off the beauty that your cars have to offer.

Photo generously provided by Natalie Kilpatrick.  Thanks Nat!

Now, custom plates are a subject of some controversy.  Some people love them, some people really dislike them, I have always been sort of ambivalent about them until The Cricket came into my life.

For those that don't know, I am the very proud owner of a 2011 Ford Fiesta SES.  Not a muscle car, I won't be winning any drag races with it, but I love my little rocket.  Plus Tanner Foust and Ken Block both drive them (albeit highly modified versions).  I adore it, probably more than any other car or truck I have ever owned.

The car was dubbed The Cricket, because it is little and green.  A car with as much presence as this one demanded custom plates.  I did not want to use "Cricket" because then people might think I was advertising for the wireless company of the same name, so what to do?

As I sat listening to the myriad insects that call Nebraska home and make a lot of noise in the evenings in the spring and summer, I heard the crickets.  Chirp-chirp.  Chirp-chirp.  PERFECT!  Too long, but PERFECT!  After playing with some variations, I arrived at CHR CHRP. 

Some money and some waiting later (them more waiting for a day when I had TIME to go to the DMV) The Cricket has awesome plates!  And oddly enough, this is almost exactly the sound the tires make when I try to go toe-to-to with my friend's Mustang.  So good choice all around.

So... Who else has custom plates?

Back from England with much to share from the National Motoring Museum in Beaulieu.

I thought I would start with a little James Bond.  Who doesn't like the super suave spy?  I am a Sean Connery girl myself.

The museum has a number of fascinating vehicle collection, including the James Bond Experience which houses several of 007's vehicles.

1969 Cougar XR7 from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".  This car is super cool and one of the highlights of this display.

1974 AMC Hornet from "The Man with The Golden Gun".   I always liked the look of the AMC cars from this era.

Amphibious Lotus Submarine car from "The Spy Who Loved Me".  My personal favorite and I am not alone.  This vehicle was voted Britain's favorite on-screen vehicle twice.

Jaguar XKR from "Die Another Day".  Bond has the fun task of evading this car with its rear mounded Gatling gun and front/side mounted missile launchers.

Ford Mondeo from "Casino Royale".  This was the first car we got to see Daniel Craig drive as James Bond and this one is special.  It was purpose-built for the film in Germany, has a one-off body kit and a special Tonic Blue paint.  I have to wonder what Mr. Craig thought when he went to set the first day and was presented with this instead of a Jag - heh-heh.

With the other props this display had, it was a very enjoyable experience!

I have much more to share with your from Beaulieu, including rally cars, race cars and some incredible antique cars, including the first petrol engines cars to go on a public road in Britain (resulting in fines, of course).

I saw one of these my second day here.  That is a Vauxhall VX220, based on the Lotus Elise.  As you know, we don't have Vauxhall cars in the US (they are a GM concern), so this was relatively interesting to see driving around.  But I am a lover of the car it was based on, so by the time it sped away, I was ready to go on the hunt for an Elise or Exige.

Really, Renault?  Really?  Welcome, everyone to the Renault Megane, big butt edition.  I have seen a lot of these things rolling down the road and they make no sense to me.  Negligible cargo space was gained by doing this and well...  I just don't even know.

The Land Rover has been fun to ride around in though.  Everything a car like that is meant to be, from the interior design to the suspension to the cargo space.

Other highlights have been the plucky Smart Roadster.  If they had just released this in the US, I might not have such a dim view of the little roller skates.  The number of Porsches of various extraction I have seen is mind-boggling.

I also got the Gearheads Dream Tour of the National Motoring Museum at Beaulieu - .  I have connections there and was able to see the massive archives that most folks don't get to see.  I could spend weeks or months going through them.  And that was BEFORE we even got to the cars themselves.  I will be doing more than one entry on the museum when I return to the US, but I saw everything from the first steam powered vehicle to be on public roads to Lewis Hamilton's championship winning F1 car.  You all are in for a photo-filled series of real treats!

I can't wait to get back to my computer and share them with you all!