Volume Two is LIVE on AMAZON!!

I am so excited to announce that after way too long, my new coloring book is finally done and available for purchase on Amazon! I ordered some copies as well for my local people, and I am waiting patiently for them to arrive.

The cover image is from when my brother-in-law took the purple 9900 IH to Britt Iowa to the NoCoast Show a few years ago. I thought the flag on top of the end dump was awesome, and I had to put it on the front cover.

As always, we need some smokes as well to add to the cool factor.

If you would like to hear some behind-the-scenes talk on how I make the semi-truck pictures for the coloring book, I have started posting some reels on Instagram. I figured out how to do reels with voiceovers. Maybe that’s a good thing?

Coloring with my kids

I spent some time coloring with my daughter today while my sons were working on their “carpet farm” setup. Normally we go outside, but it was a windy crappy day, so everyone decided to stay in.

My youngest currently loves to color “multi” and has spent hours coloring her favorite coloring sheets at the moment. I’m sad to say they aren’t mine, but anything to keep screen time to a minimum.

She decided to switch to markers for her coloring sheet. We found some free sheets for her favorite episode of Bluey (Hammerbarn)and she went hog wild with some colors on “Jeremy and Tony”. Poor Jeremy looks like he’s having a bad day. I’m not sure why he has black eyes, she could only tell me that he needed them.

She asked me why I chose the colors I did for my truck. I don’t know, I just felt like the windy overcast day needed some more sunshine. I really like this K100 with an Aerodyne sleeper, and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the visor? I wish Crayola would come out with a silver color pencil. I tried using a pencil to put some bling on the rims, but it sort of failed.

Edited: I stand corrected. Crayola does have a Metallic Pack. I just have to find them. Our Walmart doesn’t have them on the shelf, unfortunately. So now I wish they had more than one Silver in a pack!

Slow progress on my second coloring book

I am nearly ready to publish the second volume of my coloring book, Duck Duck Semi Truck. I must admit the title is not original, but the trucks are excellent. A few of my friends as well as people on the FaceBook have sent in pictures to be added to the book.

I mentioned before that independent publishing is a journey fraught with speedbumps and vulgar language. I am very happy to share that the first Duck Duck Semi Truck is available on Walmart.com and BarnesandNoble.com and various online vendors across the globe. Isn’t that so cool?!

Thank you to everyone for your patience with my snail’s pace. I had no idea that keeping up with all the things would actually take time!

Brent Hall’s pristine Pete. I love the lime green frame rails and details.

Fun with Valentines

It was kind of a crunch to get ready for Valentines, even though I thought I had been proactive and bought some pre-made Valentines boxes from the Aldi’s seasonal section. Two weeks in advance, which is unheard of for me.

My oldest and I put his Aldi’s box together and then he decided that it was not big enough, so he had the great idea to use some of the (many) truck printouts that I have littering the flat surfaces of our house. It turned out really well, and I am very proud of his creativity.

I got a little creative myself, and put some semi-truck themed Valentines together. Both my boys wanted them instead of the Valentines that came with their premade boxes, so I was a pretty proud mom.

My son colored the pictures and I helped tape them on the box. We cut a hole through the bottom of the Aldi’s truck and the top of the cardboard box for more storage area. We did have to destroy it a little to get the Valentines out at the end of the day, but as we all know, good things don’t last forever.

I put the digital file for the semi-truck valentines up on the DDST website and on Etsy. It’s cheaper on DDST because there are less fees. I am writing this in March because I’m still getting the hang of these blog posts. Consider me early for next year!

Thank you for reading!

Big Iron Truck Show 2023

A row of 5 immaculately clean 9900i Eagles at Big Iron. Then some Peterbilts.

In 2023, Big Iron landed on September 7 and 8. I was freaking out because it was my first vendor event for Duck Duck Semi Truck.

I have been helping my mom since the early 2000’s at Shepherd’s Harvest for her business that sells hand-spun yarns and mohair from her herd of Angora goats. So I had a good idea of what I should bring. It was just a (very) different clientele. And a lot more horn honking during the chicken lights show.

I brought a pile of business cards for my kids and my nephews to pass out. I’m not sure how exactly they approached people, and I know my marketing was vague. Mostly because I wasn’t sure what I would have ready to bring to the truck show. I have been known to wait until the last minute before getting my stuff together.

I would say my favorite story of the truck show was a little girl that came up to my booth. She had a little business card in her hand and she slapped it down on the table. “I came for my coloring book!”

Her mom smiled, “It’s all she’s been talking about since a little boy gave her a coloring book ticket.”

I gave her some extra coloring sheets. I hope she enjoyed them, because I’m working on some more things for next year.

My patient and wonderful husband with our three kids. They were proud of their old mom.

The T-shirt pavilion only had a few vendors in it besides the Big Iron t-shirt tables. My neighbors were amazing, and I am so grateful to Chris Senty from Senty Transportation Services LLC for introducing me to many people at the show. He is good people, and if you are an owner/operator that just wants to drive and not deal with paperwork that keeps piling up, he is your guy! Just a fabulous, all around human that helps others first.

After the whirlwind of Big Iron, I realized the only picture I had of me behind my booth was one with Chris!

There were so many wonderful people at Big Iron. I forgot to mention my neighbors, the model semi-truck sellers, and a few other pavillion people. The gentleman at the gate keeping the riffraff out who let me park in the vendor lot even though I didn’t have a vendor permit yet. Thank you to everyone that stopped to buy a coloring book, or just stopped to check it out and chat for a bit. I enjoyed it all, and I’m looking forward to next year!

Welcome to DDST

I am so glad you are here! Duck Duck Semi Truck (or DDST for short) has been 5 years in the making. I had the idea when my first son was 3 years old, and at that time I was convinced I was going to make and sell semi-truck t-shirts for kids, because I was having a very hard time finding what I considered “kid friendly” semi truck t-shirts that I would actually want to see my sweet baby boy wearing. My husband owns his own truck, and the kids wanted an International 9900i Eagle on a t-shirt.

I did have some t-shirts printed with a design I drew and painted based off my husband’s truck, and it was a great learning experience, but that’s as far as it went. I also bought the domain (that I’m finally using)!

I revisited my idea for DDST two years ago, when my boys wanted some semi-truck coloring sheets to color. I forget why they wanted them, but I went searching on the google machine. I found some clip arts, and some watermarked pictures that were turned into “coloring sheets” by just turning the pictures into grayscale. I decided to make my own.

After a year of trial and error, I finally figured out how to make the truck pictures you see in the Duck Duck Semi Truck coloring book!

My kids have been my biggest fans, giving me ideas on what type of truck to do next, or what to make. I am currently finishing up all my designs for the second coloring book. My sons and daughter are “proofreading” the designs right now. My daughter is coloring every truck “multi” because she loves to use all the crayons in the box, and my sons are trying to tell her that’s not how the real world works.

Thank you so much for stopping by at my tiny corner of the World Wide Web. It is definitely a work in progress!