I want to ride my bicycle

I took a day off work today to take my new bike out and ride for a bit without the angry rush hour drivers running me down for my lack of skills, which it turns out was very sensible as half way through my practice journey to work my handle bars came loose which sent me swerving around in the middle of a road until I realised I was out of control and finally hit the brakes... It's actually scary how long that took. But besides that I've had a really great day so I thought I'd share it.

After popping into the Bead Shop to see the ever lovely Hannah, me and Nathan made out way back to Canon Hill Park for some fun and photos.

Nathan takes some amazing photos (when he is not riding a bike) and we found some great background for our photos. There was an old London bus in the park so we had a bit of fun taking photos and a bit of banter with the driver.

From there we went onto the MAC (Midland Arts Centre) to see the Made in the Middle exhibition which is well worth a look if your in the area. Two of my favourite artists were Clare Willard and Charlotte Clarke (both below) which is really hard to narrow down. There really was some beautiful work.

You can find out more information about Made in the Middle which is a touring exhibition at http://www.madeinthemiddle.org/

After a quick coffee we rode back over the park up to Nathans allotment patch. This is the first time I'd been there this year... ok ever, but I hear it's mostly digging work to be done at the moment so I'm avoiding getting my hands dirty for the moment.

The only living things on the allotment at the moment are Nathan and several garlic bulbs, so there's a long way to go, but hopefully by the summer we will be eating vegetables that have been grown here.. hopefully.

I had to post some orders so once Id left the allotment I took a stroll through Moseley Park. This is one of my favourite places, especially around festival time and I try to take a walk in the park whenever I'm feeling stressed or demotivated.

One of the major reasons I got the bike was to boost my energy levels. After months of cold and dark my motivation barely gets me out of bed in the morning. Whether it was the sunshine, the fresh air or the painful thighs it worked.

I've used dip jars to organise my makeup and hair accessories which are the perfect size and made these little crochet covers to go on them.

These covers can go over jars/cans or work as bowls standing alone. I'll be putting a tutorial up on the teahab site later this week with instructions how to make these. but if you can't wait for that it's competition time!!

@birdie_blue_ (a lovely tweeter and maker) tweeted me earlier to ask if my new bike had a name. Now she definitely needs one, but I'd like your help. I'm sending two of these crochet bowls to whoever thinks up the best name, so what do you think?

(You can see more of BirdieBlue's lovely handmade items at www.birdieblue.co.uk)

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I imagine (hope) you've been wondering where I've been lately. I have been off the radar for over a week, silence on twitter, a facebook ghost town, not a blog in sight... terrible behaviour. I've given myself a little slap on the wrist and a good one across the cheek. In part I can say I've been pretty busy, but the rest of the time I've been a bit lax. Oh well, this is not time to dwell on that.

Lets get back to it!

Surprisingly I have managed to complete two of the three resolutions I set myself last week... I say two out of three ain't bad... (one for you Liam)...

Yesterday I received my shiny new bicyclette! I will be taking her out for her maiden voyage tomorrow. I'm pretty nervous as the last time I was cycling I was in jelly shoes, but if that saying actually has any truth to it I'll be riding like a pro in no time.


I've also been getting some hands on work done. I've made a few useless objects (crochet key cover... impossible to get back onto the key ring) and some more useful things. I've also been playing with photo apps... hours of fun (lost quite a bit of time making abstract art)

To create these effects I've been using a range of photo apps. Instagram is my favourite but there are also some really nice effects in Vintage Cam, Power Cam, Frametastic, Pixromatic and PS Express. All these apps are free to download on the Iphone which makes them even better!