Bike ride around the lake

My bike on the path.

I went for a bike ride around one of the lakes here in Madison back in September. I drove to a park near the Capital city bike path, parked my car in the lot and started from there. It was a bit chilly but it was a very nice ride. The portion of my ride that was on the bike path was really cool. I got to see parts of the city in a new way. It was after the bike path ended and I had to maneuver through areas I was unfamiliar with ,that my ride became less "enjoy the views" and more of "look at map on phone to figure out which way to get back to car"  

On the part of the ride where I had to be in the road I was really really impressed by how much space the cars gave me. I know Madison is considered a bike friendly city but, man I was really surprised about how well behaved cars are around people on bikes. I guess it really pays to have bike paths everywhere and enough people cycling on roads to have drivers used to others on the road. 

View of the lake along the path

As  the bike path ended and I started my way maneuvering through the streets, I came across this road under construction. I didn't want to chance riding on this so I walked  with my bike until I saw a sign that pointed me in the right direction. I think I probably could have ridden on this dirt but, I was too nervous to try it.

Ducks!

Overall I had a really fun time and I hope to eventually ride around the bigger lakes. Here is the route I took.

Pokemon Magnets

I decided to make some magnets for my sisters kids. Her son wanted Charizard and her daughter wanted Squirtle so off I went to buy yarn to match the colors based off of the sprite pattern. The Charizard  turned out to be very large and is the biggest sprite I have made to date. It took time and once I finished the Charizard I got burned out so It took me a while to start on the Squirtle. I decided to whip up some pokeballs since they were super easy to make!

Outline

Finished with Charizard first.

After finishing both Pokemon I had to go to the craft store to buy glue and magnets. I ended up buying E6000 glue. This stuff is really strong but, oh my god does it smell super bad. The label on it says "May cause dizziness,headaches, or nausea. Exposure may cause damage to the kidneys and liver" Had to use this outside on the balcony to keep from inhaling this crap then left it in the garage to dry. Great glue otherwise though!

Super glue

I had to cut out both Pokemon and that was a pain to do haha. Also, I messed up by using white plastic canvas instead of clear which makes the pokemon look strange to me with that white border. Not to happy about how it made it look. I bought the white canvas on accident and didn't realize until I was halfway done with the dragon. I added black felt to the back of each pokemon to cover the yarn in the back so that the kids don't pull at it. If I make magnets for myself I will skip that part.

Overall I think they turned out okay. I will be mailing them on Monday to my sister in Alaska. I hope the kids like em'.

On fridge together.

Charizard.

Squirtle.

*I had pictures of Squirtle as a work in progress on my phone but, when I updated my iPhone, it deleted all my pictures.

UPDATE!
My niece and nephew loved their magnets. My sister sent me pictures of them with their new pokemon.

Kirby coasters!

Continuing  with my needlepoint adventures I decided to make some Kirby coasters. I decided to make yarn Kirby's from inspiration of the "Kirby Epic Yarn" game. It's disgustingly cute and adorable and a really  fun casual game to play! I could go on, but I won't discuss my videogame "hobby" on this blog. Here is a video to show you what I'm talking about




At first I was just making a bunch of Kirby's  following a pattern already made and available on a sprite website. Sprite patterns that are already pre-made/designed really cuts down on the process of creating these pixel designs by a lot. As I was finishing each Kirby, I decided that a nice way to display them would be through coasters. I went to Michael's first to see if they had coasters I could use, but they did not so I ordered some 3x3 inch acrylic clear coasters online.


Here is one of the Kirby's as I was working on it. I used clear plastic canvas and once again used half stitches. I always do the outline first so that its easier to fill in.

                               

Here they are all finished and next to a Wii remote for size reference.

Coasters in use.

The mushed face Kirby was a design I asked my husband to whip up for me since I was in need of a 4th Kirby that could fit inside the coaster. We are getting a lot of use out of the finished coasters! We really did need some and this was a fun way to create some.

Hobby #6 Needlepoint!

Once again, due to reading the craft forums, I decided to try a new craft. Needlepoint/Cross-stitch. Of course, as with any new craft, the priority thing is for me to be able to make nerdy/geeky /video game related things. For my first attempt at needlepoint I decided to make a piranha plant from Mario. It is a carnivorous plant in the game which is similar to a Venus fly trap that eats anything. (mostly Mario)

Plant - 1  Mario- 0

I already happened to have a 14 count piece of plastic canvas that I had planned to use for a crochet project. I used that plus the yarn colors I had on hand (red, white, and a lime green) and got started. As usual I looked online for instructions on basic stitches. I decided to use a half stitch so that I could save on yarn and time since it goes by faster then doing full out cross stitches. I downloaded a demo pattern of PC Stitch 9 to help make up the pattern. I also used paint to set up the plant sprite before I input it into PC Stitch. I have to admit I messed up a lot at first. I had to keep undoing the yarn and restarting. For some reason the way the needlepoint sites explained things didn't work. I had to end up asking my husband to take a look at the stitch tutorial and some pictures of other peoples completed needlepoint sprites.  Well that did it once he read/saw how it worked he explained to me that I was seeing the pixel/stitch incorrectly. I was doing it half right but once I could see where the pixel was it was easy from then on.

The following are pictures of the plant as a WIP and as a completed plant!

Start of outline

 

Outline complete.

Starting to fill in.

Top part complete

Potted for everyone's safety!

                                         

Back in action!

I haven't been doing much in terms of hobbies until now due to first finals for school, then my wedding, then moving from North Hollywood, CA to Madison, WI immediately after, but now I'm all settled in and ready to do some projects! I stopped by Michaels today to pick up some supplies for the various things I have planned. With the holidays coming closer this is the best time for me to actually start on things since it takes me a while to get started/finished. Speaking of taking forever, I made another crocheted cat! This one was a special request! I finally managed to ship it out today via UPS.

View at a slight angle

It came out smaller then the first two I made. I also decided to use black 9mm safety eyes instead of the cat eyes. I had clear cat eyes available, but it just looked too creepy and this is for a little girl.

Front view

 I don't know how I manage to make one eye puffier than the other. My sewing has much improved on this one except for where I sewed the "handmade by me" tag since I forgot to sew it before it would become too difficult to do so.

Side view

I just hope the cat survives the trip. I tried to sew everything together extra well but we shall see.


UPDATE!
I received some pictures from my awesome mom-in- law to whom I sent the pink cat. One is of all the crochet cats together and the other is the recipient of the pink cat! She is one of their neighbors kids and she ended up really loving the pink cat which is awesome. I'm glad I was able to make it for her! (Pink is her favorite color.)

Pink cat survived the mail trip!

Group Ride April 17, 2011 Toluca Lake/North Hollywood

 I was looking up rides on the Midnight Ridazz site and found one. It was in my neighborhood and wasn't to long of a route, was in the day and seemed like a good first group ride so, I decided to try it. It started in Toluca Lake and went through North Hollywood.

The page with the ride details.

I rode down to the starting location from my apartment around 9:45 to get there at the starting time of 10am. When I arrived I saw other people on bikes  already there. I signed a waiver form, got a name tag and was ready to go. I moved to the starting area in the street and waited with the others. I got into a conversation with a women named Nancy. She asked me how long I had been riding and told me about her club called Los Angeles Wheelman and the rides they do. I told her I had just started to ride again and that it was tough to get rides in with school and work keeping me busy. I would have looked into her club but since I am moving to a different state soon there wouldn't be any time to join. She was very nice and it looked like she was riding a cool touring bike.

Me signing the waiver form. I was looking up Erlands #.

The group waiting to go. I'm on the left talking to Nancy.

Joining the ride were Los Angeles City Councilman, Tom Labonge of the 4th district and weatherman for NBC 4 News, Fritz Coleman. It was really hot for being 10am on a Sunday and the councilman was running late! Some of the riders were not happy. Tom Labonge finally arrived and we headed out on the ride. We had 2 bicycle cops escort us, which was awesome since they stopped the car traffic and made it easier overall to get around.

Councilman finally arrives.He is the one in green.

We stopped at a fire station to say hello and got a photo taken with the fireman. The fireman handed out water and Gatorade to the group which was really nice of them. I already had a water bottle so I didn't take one. at one point during teh ride I saw someone riding with live birds on them. I'm amazed they didn't fly away!The ride ended back at the start by the farmers market. Then from there I rode back home. Overall it was a fun ride.

The leader of the ride (in white) at the end of the ride.

Note: I didn't bring my camera to this ride because I forgot. These pictures come from the online city news website. I think its awesome that I found some pics with me in them! Photos by Tiffany Kelly

Bike route: The route plus riding to and from my apartment made it a total of 10 miles according to my cyclocomputer. Not a lot but it was an easy ride and I'm still new.

Picture of route. I couldn't figure out how to get a direct link to it sorry!

Ciclavia! April 10, 2011

 "Ciclovías started in Bogotá, Colombia, over thirty years ago as a response to the congestion and pollution of city streets. Now they happen throughout Latin America and the United States, connecting communities and giving people a break from the stress of car traffic. The health benefits are immense. Ciclovías bring families outside of their homes to enjoy the streets, our largest public space."  -http://ciclavia.wordpress.com/

Ciclavia Route 

   Even before getting my bike I looked  for events/group rides etc that I could join. During my search I had discovered  an event called Ciclavia. 7.5 miles of closed off Los Angeles streets, open only to bicycles, pedestrians, and  roller skates/rollerblades. I could not miss this! I took the metro rail subway from the North Hollywood station to the Santa Monica/Vermont station and rode south to the Heliotrope and Melrose. There I met up with my good friend Erica. In my rush to leave my apartment I forgot to bring my water bottle so I went to the first convenient store/mart so that I could buy some water. As I paid for my water I chatted with  the owner of the small corner store. (We spoke in Spanish) She spoke about what a great day it was to ride bikes and to get out there and sweat. I agreed with her and told her it was nice not to have to deal with all the traffic cars make for a few hours. The place was packed with people but somehow Erica did manage to see another friend with his son at the event just as we were starting to ride the route.

Our rides (L) My bike (R) Erica's bike

It was so fun to ride on open streets without any cars. This was my first big group/crowd ride and it was an interesting learning experience as well. I managed to hurt my left foot when a dude in a recumbent decided that talking on his cell phone and just stopping in the middle of the road was okay. To try and avoid him I had to move to my left but there was another women there already so, to avoid ramming into her, I had to quickly put my foot down to stabilize myself. Problem with that is I use straps and the process of trying to get my foot out of the straps fast enough did some damage to my foot and it hurt like a bitch. This was the only sour note on an otherwise fantastic ride.

Recumbent jerk from earlier in the ride

Neither Erica or I had bike locks so we "valet parked" our bikes at a bike rack parking station run by the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. They were set up in Little Tokyo so we were able to walk around and check out the stores and have some lunch.After we were done checking out Little Tokyo we started our ride back the way we came so that we could find a metro station and head home.

Little Tokyo bike valet.

More pictures from the ride can be found HERE

Some video footage of the route. (it's not possible for me to get footage as I ride)

Antelope Valley - California Poppy Reserve

Springtime is a time for flowers bloom and warm sunny weather! We got just that on April 20th when  Erland, Erica and I decided to take a drive down to the poppy reserve to take in the view of the blooming state flower! We Filled the car with gas, got some sandwiches and drinks, picked Erica up and off we went! The drive down was nice took us about an1-2 hours to  reach the reserve. It was a tiny bit overcast but it all went away by the time we reached the poppy reserve.

Peak season 2008  : )

Driving this far out of the city, one can see some really interesting things. We passed a home along the road with a lot of metal work sculptures. I wish I had taken a picture of it. It was a hanging metal angel/skeleton thing with huge wings and it was holding a skull. I turned around so we could see it better. It took me by surprise the first time we passed it. There was another house with a beat up/ripped teddy bear tied up to a pole in front of a house. It looked like we were driving through a place ripe for a horror movie. The boonies can be really scary haha.

We reach the reserve and we are all hungry, so we walk up to the picnic area with tables and dig in to our sandwiches. We had some chocolate bars for dessert! We then cleaned up and headed out onto the trail. It was super super windy out! We didn't have any specific trail that we wanted to do so we just picked  one randomly and started walking. Unfortunately, this year the poppies didn't bloom as much as they have in prior seasons. We came at a time where they usually are at their peak (March, April is peak month, May) and everything is covered in orange but this year they just didn't bloom very well. The state park website says it was probably due to the heavy rains that we had been having recently.

  

"Peak season" 2011 : ( 

 We saw a lot of lizards on the trail and luckily no rattlesnakes. At the top of the trail we came across a park ranger who was with a bunch of little kids and their parents. They pretended to be birds since it was so windy. After enjoying the view we started back down to the car. I had an awesome time. I had really been wanting to come out here and I'm glad I did.

More pictures can be found here as usual!
Short Video



I so was planning to take a video of me doing this but there weren't enough poppies to pull it off.

Hobby #5 Cycling

Past experiences with bicycles
My earliest memory of a bicycle was when I was younger and asking Santa for a bicycle. Getting it that Christmas morning will be something I will never forget. I ran down the stairs  really early in the morning and there it was. It was a pink bike with streamers on the handles. It was awesome! My second memory concerning bikes is  middle school through high school. I had a hand me down mountain bike that had belonged to my older sister. I rode it everywhere. It got me to school and as I got older it got me to my job (6 mi round trip). The longest ride at that age was when I rode it from Altadena, CA  to El Monte, CA which was 14 miles. Great memories with my old bicycles.

Present
I decided to get a bike again. This time around I did a lot of research into what type of bike I wanted and I ended up with this.

2010 Scattante R-570

I felt, for the price I payed, that I got a good quality first road bike. I bought a helmet and some power grip pedals using my REI dividend and started to ride. I have been riding on the nearest bike path, Chandler bike path, in North Hollywood/Burbank. Starting slow and steady to get used to the drop bars and the pedals/straps combo. From my apartment to the end of the bike path one way and then back home again the distance is 6.8 miles.

 I have been having lots of fun riding again. I don't ever plan to race with it or anything but in the future I want to try and commute more with my bike. Will probably start with riding to work this summer and see how that goes since L.A drivers are not very bike friendly when it comes to sharing roads. I also have the goal to try and ride on as many bike paths as I can in this area by the end of the summer. I will be using the map from http://www.labikepaths.com/ to  find them. One down a whole lot more to go!

Joshua Tree camping trip 1/13/11-1/15/11

 When I told a coworker that I was going camping in the desert they responded with "Well it should be hot right?" Oh hell no, desert camping in California during the winter is still cold. Yeah, we don't have much snow here but the wind makes it really chilly. It is very beautiful though. I had been camping here before when I was much younger. Wide open landscapes with very large boulder formations, which makes it a hot spot for rock climbers, and the signature Joshua trees make this a great camping destination year round in my opinion.

We loaded up my car with gear and food and headed out towards Joshua Tree National Park. We arrived at the campsite at dark so we had to set up camp using our lamp and flashlights. Erland made a fire and cooked us a dinner of beef stew. It was delicious but we had to eat quickly because the strong winds made our food get cold. We made sure to store most of the food in the car so that coyotes would't try to get to it. We saw one earlier as we drove through the park.



The next morning we had some breakfast and decided to relax a bit at our campsite. Later that day we went on a short hike that was right at our campsite of White Tank. It was still very windy and I was very cold but the hike was a lot of fun. We climbed all over a bunch of boulders and even climbed up to arch rock. An older couple followed us to it and explored it as well.



I would have taken video of our camp at night but I was too busy trying to stay warm. Erland is a great camp cook! We also had the traditional camping food of marshmallows! I like to have mine catch on fire then blow it out for that crispy shell and gooey inside. Yum!!(we brought graham crackers and chocolate but too cold to make them so we just roasted marshmallows)

We also went on two other hikes. Skull rock and one at Hidden Valley. Pictures of the hikes as well as our campsite are located HERE! This was a really fun trip. I may want to come back here when it's a tad bit warmer.

Crochet Cats!

 For my first crochet project I decided to make 2 cats. With school and so much going on in December it took me a bit of time to get them finished. This pattern was rated easy and not too difficult overall. I used white and brown worsted yarn with a G hook.

The tools

I started by doing all the small pieces first like the arms, legs, ears, tails and faces. I noticed that with the brown yarn it was sometimes tough to see where to insert the hook into the stitch but after a few pieces I got the hang of it. Once all the small pieces were done I started on the bodies. I had previously worked on a practice body to see how it would turn out before I did the actual bodies that I planned to use. The actual bodies turned out really nice and tightly crocheted. 

The Kitty cats!

 I haven't sewed in years so this part took some time and so did doing the embroidery on the faces. These two aspects were quite a learning experience. With practice I think I can improve. I ordered the cat safety eyes from a store on Etsy.com and got them quickly! I was dealing with a bit of a time limit and had to get these cats done as quickly as possible!(I was making them as a gift) I really like the eyes and will most likely order from that store again.

My sewing needs some improvement.

I see you!

I kinda wish I had used a lighter brown only because its a little tough to see the mouth and nose on the faces. Embroidery really is not my specialty haha. The pattern wanted me to sew the bottom of the body together, but I was having none of that. I didn't like the way it made the cats bottom all scrunched up. I decided to make a separate piece for the bottoms so that I could close it up nicely and so that the cats would sit without having to be supported.

Cat bottom all closed up.

This flat bottom makes it easier for the cats to sit.

I really like how he tails turned out. They were nice and stiff so that i could practically pose them a bit. I made them turn up so that they looked more like cat tails then just random tails hanging out from the back.

            The following are some other pictures of the cats.

Top view

Side & back view

Size comparison next to some lifesavers.

Overall I am pleased with how they came out and look forward to working on some more crocheted creatures!

See you next time!