Level 3 Cycle Coaching and other stuff....

Sometimes I cannot believe how lucky I am. I have a wonderful family, great friends and a dream job.

For quite some time I've wanted to become a level 3 coach. this would enable me to do prescriptive training on a 1-1 basis. It's a pretty tough course, very expensive and time consuming.

About 3 months ago I received an email from British Cycling offering the level 3 course over a 5 day period (it's normally run over 3 weekends over a 6 month period). The hubster was off work the same week it was being held, the only problem was it was being held in London. We talked about it and decided it was too good an opportunity to miss so I booked it.
The course was to run from the 8th to the 12th April. From where I live its about a 5hr drive so we decided that I would go down ob the 6th and stay with an auntie and then on the Sunday make the 1 1/2 hr journey to my accommodation.

The most beautiful Auntie in the world.

And my beautiful cousin burning bagels...

On the Sunday we visited Henley On Thames which is where the GB Olympic Rowers train. It is the most gorgeous little village and people who live there are very wealthy.

A very famous singer is buried there.

On the Sunday night I moved to Croyden which is where the first section of the course was held. I had decided to take my bike and cycle into the venue, it seemed easier than going via car. I got there no problem but managed to get myself lost on the way home. After a hard day in the classroom, little food, lots of men with ego's and an extra 25 miles on my route I cried on the phone to my husband.
But I gave myself a good talking to and the week improved from there.
I met 2 pro cyclists. Julian Dean who is now Directeur Sportif with Orica Greenedge but is renowned for the DQ of Mark Renshaw in the 2010 Tour de France. Lovely lovely guy. I also met Matteo Cararra who has recently retired from  Vacansoliel.

And little me with them :)

More to follow xx

Pouffee Cover.... Ta Dah !!!!!

You may remember a few posts ago I had an idea to cover my old and battered pouffee with a crocheted cover. I did a quick search via Ravelry and noticed they were all circular. Then I had an oooOOOOOOO moment and came up with a plan.

So here is my old and battered Pouffee, with just a fraction of my wool stash in it.

It is a tired tired old thing. So here it is now.... TA DAH !!!!!!

Doesn't it look fab?! Really really simple to do.. heres how.

Basic square, then extended each end. Sew each side together, then once sewn together crocheted in the round, decreasing on each round, first every 15 stitches, then every 10 stitches, every 5 stitches and then on the last round every 4 stitches. This means that the cover fits snuggly round the top.

Love it love it love it !! :D

Football Tournament.

Blooming heck it was cold today. The boy was participating in a football tournament in Fleetwood. The weather wasn't great. A balmy 4 degrees !!!

We put the tent up and settled in for 4 hours of football. BBBBbbrrrrrrrrrr.............

The boys played well and us mum's had a great chat and gossip.

So after 4 football matches the boys received their medals. Don't they look chuffed :)

ooo ooo OOOOOoooo

I have seen quite a few stool covers that have been crocheted over the last few months. i have a pouffe that is square. It is so old that the lift up lid on it is thread bare and disintegrating in places. i have been wanting to cover it but couldn't figure out how to. Anyway, tonight I have... so watch this space :)

Easter Bunnies

After reading Lucy's post over on Attic24 about an adapted version of the owl on Bunny mummy's blog that was a bunny, I couldn't help myself and had to make one, which then turned into 2 !!

The pattern is available here. 

I'll be honest they were fiddly and doing 2 did take me all day ! The kids were super excited about having an easter bunny each.
The only thing I would change would be the pom pom tail. The second one fell apart as it was so small, so looking for something else to use as a tail.

Anyway here they are :)

Well....

The diet soon went out of the window!! Haha, yep the old restriction reared it's ugly head. I think I'll just go back to trying to calorie count !! It's a shame as the health benefits of this diet are amazing !!!

I've had a busy few weeks and I've even found time to make some things :) Yay !!

First a friend of mine asked me to make her a heart, it was to hang on a wall of hearts her and her daughter are putting together. So here it is...

Another Bunny Mummy creation.very clever and talented lady !!

I was also asked by a friend to make a simple crocheted rosette flower. Finished article?... here :)

And I have been slowly working on a Attic24 ripple blanket...

I think I may be finished by Christmas!!

 

And if you look closely at Lucy's blog you will see she made on of Bunny Mummy's owls !! How cool is that :) I love blogland.

Dieting.

Isn't it a bore.

I've tried many diets over the years and whilst not vastly overweight I'm always longing to lose them few extra pounds and keep them off.
The problem I seem to have is I hate restriction. I am always wanting to eat what I can't have.
Don't get me wrong the diets work for a short whilee but inevitably I seem to put the pounds back on.

Anyway, I recently read a book called 5:2 The fast diet. Basically it means you have 2 fast days of 500 kcal and the rest of the time you can eat what you want. The health benefits of this diet seem to be amazing too.

Today is my first day and I thought I would share my experience with you. Today is a fast day. I've decided to save my 500 kcal till tea time. I figured if I do it this way I won't get hungry again during the day and I have my tea to look forward to.

It's 11.41 GMT and I am hungry. It's ok though, I am keeping myself occupied and I am about to go out to work. Bikeability will keep me focused on children and not on how hungry I am. I believe the trick is that I need to keep my fluids up to stave off the hunger. I am reliably assured that over time, with practice, I will feel less hungry on the fast days.

Wish me luck !!

Go Ride Racing.

So, being a coach for the local cycling club we quite often put on racing events for young riders, primarily aimed at those that have never raced at regional level.

It was a cold start to the morning and the boy decided that he wanted to join in.

Before we got his bike out of the shed I had a feeling that he may have grown. Maybe that was down to how much he has been eating us out of house and home lately. I put his saddle up a good inch and a half.

His riding wasn't very good and he tired easily, which was just down to lack of bike riding time.

Believe it or not, even though I'm a cycling coach, when I get weekend time I quite often just want to snuggle up with my babies and have quality time. Maybe as the weather improves we will brave the coastal weather and have plenty of bike rides along the promenade.

Here he is... verdict? New bike, the frame is too small !!! A year ago, it was too big!

It's been a week..

since my last post. Half term for the kidlets so busy busy.

On Monday and Tuesday I coached a Road and Time Trial holiday camp for aspiring racers. It was brilliant, we had so much fun. Kids were aged between 5 and 16. So a lot of variation on skills and abilities but by the end of the 2 days the improvement was quite noticeable!

Hmm what did we do on Wednesday? I'm having a memory block... shopping, cuddles, yeh all of them :)

Thursday we took the small people to the penny arcades on Blackpool promenade. Lots of fun for very little money then on to Pizza Express for a treat lunch. 

Friday out with the in laws for lunch. Saturday it was football and more football on Sunday. I have so enjoyed spending time with my family. I am truly blessed.

I love my job!

I really love my job. It's so rewarding, I work with some amazing people and I get to ride my bike!! It's a win win situation.

On Saturday we took the local high school kids on a 21 mile bike ride as they prepare to ride coast to coast along Hadrian's wall for charity.

They were great and SO funny. Kirsti, the lady who owns Go Velo is an amazing lady and very very funny.

Here we are in all our luminous loveliness... I'm in orange ?!

Do you remember this?

It made it's whay to be a dolls blanket yesterday. I was very unprepared. My youngest daughter was going to her best friends birthday party. I knew she loved her dolly so thought this would  be perfect, although now I need to make another one lol. I hope P's dolly is happy with her new blanket.

Bikes and Qualifications

Oh my word I am soooo excited. I still cannot get over yesterdays post! 

I arrived home from a very VERY cold day of delivering bikeability to an A4 brown envelope with the British Cycling stamp on the front!!!!  Only 6 weeks ago I posted off my paperwork for my level 2 track award. It's taken a year for me to complete this qualification to enable me to send off the paperwork. Due to the nature of me being able to only coach on the velodrome once every 6 weeks or so.

Anyway I digress... I PASSED... Woooohooooo !! I am soo so so excited. :) look !!

Also some good news. The people at Go Velo who I deliver bikeability for have launched a new bike... look at this baby...isn't it just droolsome!!

Proud.

My eldest daughter is currently in her 2nd year at Uni studying Ancient History. But, on the side she is a very talented artist. She spends hours and hours drawing and now even sells them as commisions.

Busy busy

I've been sooo busy over the last week delivering bikeability to school kids, that I haven't really had time to do anything creative.

I always feel sorry for the kids when I'm in full on work mode as they have to go to after school club; then if they have clubs after school, we spend so much time running around I never get any quality time with them.

This week we booked our family holiday to Scotland. It's not too far from where A and I got married at Gretna Green. We've been here twice before camping at the local campsite. It's an amazing place, with plenty to do for the kids. Crabbing, beaches, parks, pony rides etc. We've had the best of times at Brighouse Bay a place close to our hearts. We've upgraded this year and have booked a cabin and this year my in-laws and sister in law are coming. This will be an amazing experience for the small people.

So twice before we stayed at this campsite. I think this is the best campsite we have ever been to.

Really really looking forward to going away this year.

Ooo yes and a purchase. I love love love this artist.. so bought this... don't you just love it?

Poorly people.

The small people and I have had flu this week. Not good, especially as I had to work on Friday. Although the kids I get to work with make it bearable, I cried when I got home as I felt so rubbish.
However today (Sunday) I'm starting to feel human again, the kids even look brighter. It's a good job though as the kids are in after school club tomorrow evening.

Yesterday it was the revolution series in Glasgow. Our very own bikeability instructor Sam took part as part of Sportscover. If your interested in cycling you can check out his new blog here... as he makes his journey from elite racer to professional.

Bikeability.

Oh I love working with kids. They are amazing. Each one is so different and respond to different ways of learning.
My picture of today, bike stacking... <3

Little Girls Bag Pattern.

The bag pattern for the picture below is available for free download on Ravelry

On my list of jobs to do  is to write up the other bag pattern and make them both adult sized as well.

More past makes.

Just wanted to share some more of my makes...

This is my second very own pattern item. Not written up yet, but I made this last year as another girls bag.

The next is my first ever pair of socks. Don't you just love the rainbowyness?

Crochet booties. Super cute.

And finally Ollie... he is still going strong!!

Owl love

I came across this owl tutorial this morning on Bunny Mummy's blog and immediately had to down tools to make it !! Do you like? Isn't it the cutest thing you've ever seen ? :)

Another blanket...

I said to myself after I finished the 1st Granny Square blanket that I would never do another one. Although I enjoyed making the squares I did not enjoy crocheting them together. However I did love the finished blanket.
So last week I embarked on another granny square project but to be done in a way to make it a little easier on the crocheting together front.
Here is the first of 9 squares. Its based on a blanket made by Lucy over at Attic24.

 

The small people and I baked cookies last night. This was a request from the little man as he was most upset that the smallest was going to be off school poorly and he had to go!!

More edible glitter than you can shake a stick at and it was everywhere!!!

Canvas love

Oh I do love my bell tent, it was purchased on a whim! We love camping here in our house, but I do love old canvas tents, they take me right back to my childhood and guiding. The beautiful cream canvas material, majestic shape and such a romantic looking tent.
We (the small people and I) took her on holiday to Skipton to try her out then we had the most amazing idea of using her for the smallests princess birthday party!! Decked out in paper chains and tissue paper flowers she looked amazing.

This is a blog I love, the lady is extremely talented and puts my tent to shame. Bells and labs. Enjoy x

Been a busy bee.....

I've been so busy, some days I don't know where the time goes at all. I seem to get lost in a round of children, washing, crochet and kids clubs.

About a week ago my mother in law gave me her sewing machine! I'm generally inept in the sewing department but this particular craft keeps calling to me to try it. The world of cushion covers and quilts and beeeaauuutiful fabrics is calling me. But I can't sew, for toffee. I last had a bash at it about 3 years ago but I really couldn't do it, I kept breaking the machine needles and i had to rethread EVERY 2 seconds!! It drove me bananas. So I decided it wasn't for me. But I kept desperately wanting to learn.

Soooo with much trepidation I told my MIL of my crazy plan to buy a second hand machine and sit and be patient and learn. he wonderful woman then gave me hers!! Can you imagine? No going back now...eeek.

So it sat in my house for a week looking at me, waiting to be used. I went to a lovely local fabric shop and bought a fat quarter bundle.
I sat at the machine and taught myself how to thread it and do straight stitch (I still can't figure out how to do zigzag). Anyway, the long and the short of it is.... I made a cushion cover !!! It's not great I'll be honest, but I was soo chuffed with myself. After I took this picture I ended up making it smaller so that it fitted the pad better. What do you think?

To say I learnt a lot from this little project is an understatement!!!

The boy's finished scrappy lapghan. To say he loves it is an understatement and that really thrills me. I have made him many hats and gloves over the last few years, but after the initial thrill he never refuses to wear them.

And I am such a lucky girl, I bought a new cracker tin off ebay this week, I have to admit it's been on my watch list for months so I bit the bullet and bought it. I LOVE it... but now I need all the other tins in this set !!! What do you think?

Isn't it gorgeous!! I just love the beach huts and the sea and sand. A little bit of sunshine for crackers! Anyway you can purchase it here.

Another item on my want list are these gorgeous owlie bookends!! Are they not amazing !!?!! Have a look here

Past Makes

I thought I'd show you some of my past creations if you don't mind? Some (most) is crochet, but there are a few knitted things in there too.

Like I said before I used to make lots of longies, shorties and skirties... but then I lost my mojo.

The wool was dyed by me and the pattern of the shorties is Wigglebunz Creations. A beautiful crochet pattern.

The top was made by the very talented Liz at Dark Star Designs, I then dyed the wool to match the top and crocheted up longies. I was really really pleased with the finished look :).

I made this skirtie from undyed wool then dip dyed it in kool aid when I was finished. Very pleased with the finish.

And finally bags that I made for my smallest girl for her 4th birthday. She was a lucky girl, I put my beautiful bell tent up in the back garden, decorated it with paper chains and paper flowers and instead of a plastic toy in their party bags her friends each got a beautiful (if I dare say so myself?) made with love, little girl, over the shoulder bag!!
My first ever pattern made from my own mind!!
I hope you like them, my smallest adores hers.

Would you like the pattern?
Right ok, motherly duty calls and today that comes in the form of washing... xx