Heather’s Handmade … Car?!

Just in case you ever wondered if I have ALWAYS been attacking everything in sight with paint, fabric, and glue … yes. Yes, I have.

Today I’m going to take you on a tour of my very first car, Trixie. A turquoise 1992 Dodge Shadow with a little racing stripe along the side. We bought her the summer before I started university so I could make the drive into Halifax every weekday to attend the University of King’s College.

She came with a rusted patch on her hood, so NATURALLY I bought a can of pink spray painted and my Handy Husband (back then, he was Handy Boyfriend) helped me spray paint the entire trunk to hide the rust.

Then, because the pink trunk felt UNBALANCED, we also painted a thick racing stripe down the hood. As one does.

Oh, and added a NYC plate, of course.

Then I decided to … try something. I bought two cheap bottles of acrylic paint and jazzed up the top of the center console a little …

And thennnnnnnnnn … I kept painting …

(It’s like “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” except “If You Give a Creative Free Reign Over Any Space.”

 

… I painted more … and more …

… and more … 

I started collecting a happy little cast of characters, which included Ham from Toy Story (Happy Meal Toy), bobble heads from the Dollar Store (they ALL had names at the time, but thankfully I can’t remember them), and a tiny teddy given to me by Handy Boyfriend. (I named him “Cuppy” like Lindsay Lohan’s bear in The Parent Trap, which really says all you need to know about me back then.)

I also painted the ceiling and both visors. Naturally, the dome light is the sun.

I was cautious around the radio because I thought paint might mess it up. God forbid something got in the way of my cassette-tape-to-Discman solution pumpin’ the jams!

Oh, and of course I painted each door with its own “theme” and made matching seatbelt covers from felt. The driver’s door was Goddess (American Dreamer was my first email address!), Princess was the coveted passenger seat, Angel was the back seat behind the driver, and Diva was behind the passenger seat.

Then I went all out and bought pink and purple fleece to cover the front seats, and made little throw pillows (THROW PILLOWS IN A CAR, HOW CUTE/WEIRD WAS I???). I also covered the CD case in the middle. Ah, Trixie Tunes.

I covered the backseat with a pink fleece blanket. I didn’t have a staple gun or anything back then, so I just tucked it in around the edges. Helloooooo, Bobble Head Army! (I literally bought every variety from every Dollar Store. It was awesome to back up and see them all bobbin’ away.)

At some point, I scored a free letter board (back then they were NOT cool and were just used for menus in ice rink cafeterias). I also made Trixie a little website with pictures (sadly, it is no longer online) because it used to take ages to get my food at drive-thrus. All the employees would be hanging out the window trying to look in. The website saved a lot of time, and my fries no longer got cold.

I got a free mannequin and her top half rode in the backseat during Trixie’s later years, but I can’t seem to find a picture of her. Her name was Rachel and I painted her makeup on with nail polish. She wore different wigs and it was nice having her back there. (A family friend once drove past me and thought I was being a jerk and making my friend sit in the backseat!)

The roof got a pink stripe at some point, too — possibly to hide more rust? — and I bought a cool black vinyl window thingy. Of course, “American Dreamer” was what I picked. *facepalm*

I decided to cover the turquoise with black at some point, too. And jazz up the mirrors, door handles, ANTENNAE (!!!) etc. with more pink spray paint.

Gotta love the Barbie stickers on/around the gas door. 😉

I had to give Trixie up towards the end of my university days, or shortly after. (I’m old now and can’t remember anything.) I wish I’d been able to keep her driveable, because I would totally cruise around town in her. How much would the kids have loved that???

She was a good car, and I loved her.

She’s gone, but not forgotten. I keep this shadowbox in my office and it makes me smile every day.

An article about us, a car key, Cuppy, the pink fabric from the driver’s seat, and the little guy (nicknamed Cowboy Bob) who used to bobble on my antennae. 

Thanks for taking a tour of Trixie! Who knows, maybe someday I’ll get bored with our plain black truck and decide to — ah, no, I don’t think Handy Husband would like me to even finish that sentence. 😉