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.