meli-melo designs

high five fridays

 

These are piped buttercream sunflower cupcakes that my sister and i did for a friend's shower last weekend. Yes, they are from yours truly, Martha Stewart's Cupcake book. We could not find any chocolate covered sunflowers seeds, ya go figure, therefore we opted for black sugar.

 

 

From my sketch book. It is long over due that the spine of my sketch book gets cracked open once again.

 

 

My favourite part of my commute in autumn is to ride through the fallen leaves. Even better when a gentleman rakes them all onto the road in a nice pile. My bike gravitates towards that pile and takes on all control. We, i mean the bike, rides through it, with the biggest grin, yes my bike smiles too. I then notice that i got the stink eye from that gentleman!

 

 

A poster created by johnny&stacie. Another of life simple pleasures.

 

 

I'll be there, bruises and all! Go here for more info.

 

Enjoy the weekend little tikes!

wax art

A while back, i went with my niece to do some Back to School shopping. I love Back to School shopping! The smell of fresh crayons, crisp exercise books, bright highlighters and my obsession with Staedtler... ahhhhh how i love stationery supplies. Yes, one of those stationery weirdo.

I bought an "extra" box of crayons for a project that i wanted to attempt with my niece.

We arrived home and got started on our project. I asked her what was her favourite colour and she said "rainbow". So the colour rainbow is what we did. We hot glued the crayons to a mat board and then let them dry for a while to set properly to the board.

 

Fast forward two weeks later... the next time my niece and i had time for our project...

 

Each armed with a hair dryer, and cowboy hats and boots, (insert cowboy theme song here), we warmed up the crayons. Soon the wax started to melt and drip onto the mat board. She was so excited and did not want to miss a single second, so much so that she wanted to skip supper and bath time. No can do, so we paused a few times in between but it had a neat layering effect.

Cadence enjoyed this project enormously! Maybe we will try it another time but i will have to think of some sort of twist to add to it. Success!

I suddenly feel like having a bowl of Fruit Loops.

skirt or no skirt

Well i am somewhat expected to wear a skirt at the office but how do you explain THIS. Never mind, they don't even seem to understand why i would want to commute to work by bike!  

Did i mention that this did not even occur at La Barrière Cyclocross! It was on my way back from it! It has already been a long day... i was at La Barrière since 10 am. On my way back home i took the bike trails and took one of the corners waaaay too fast and baboomza!! I tried to save it by going into the ditch but little did i know that there was 2 culverts and rocks! Merde...this is not going to tickle! It looked safe at the time, honest. And right then and there, my bike and i made love, and i like it rough! I noticed that there was some blood on the ground and the first thing i checked was if i still had all my teeth. All my teeth where accounted for. Phew, close call! But i did have a bloody nose but no broken nose. Ahhh, my bike, HOW IS my bike! Luckily, no scrapes, just a flat tire with a big gash in it and a dented wheel. Wowzers, that could have been WAY worse. Bruises and scrapes can heal but broken teeth and bones AND bikes do not heal. Now to get a new tire and try to fix my wheel for the MennoCross this weekend.

Well at least i was not this poor guy!

 

Be careful out there little tikes! 

high five fridays

Andrew B Myers is a photographer and image maker that lives and works in Toronto. I love his application of subject matter such as pop culture, nostalgia and situational humour. 

 

I came across these photo prints by Aled Lewis (his other illustration and design work is amazing, too!) a few days ago, and I can’t stop thinking about them. I love tiny objects, especially tiny animal figurines. I especially adore how he is making them have conversations with each other, really.

 

My love affair with succulents continue... For the tutorial for succulent pallet wall from Steph at the local spoon, check this diy.

 

I bought Sin City  and The Annotated Alice over at McNally Robinsons, and they have both made there way to the night table.

 

photo from Cyclocross Manitoba

 

bike furniture

 

I stumble upon the Bike Furniture Design site and it made me smile. Bike Furniture Design is a design and manufacturing studio specializing in contemporary, modern furniture made primarily from recycled steel and aluminum bicycle rims, handlebars, and frames.

Working within the vernacular of classic modern furniture design, BFD founder Andy Gregg has continued to refine this comfortable and durable furniture since 1990.

Since the original Bike Chair, Bike Furniture Designs have grown to include a wide-ranging collection of high-quality tables, bar stools, loveseats, and more chairs. Some designs, in addition to utilizing the bicycle, also utilize components from other transportation industries.

Bike Furniture upholstery options are unlimited. Some options include leather, rubber, cork, clear and colored acrylic, and vinyl.

BFD founder/primary designer Andy Gregg has been influenced by his years spent in bike shops and on bikes. 

I especially like the Milano Lounge chair with the horn. Pretty creative fun furniture!

Jabberwocky first long ride

 

 

Part II of my weekend blogging.

Sunday was such a beautiful day. So much so that i heard my bike calling out my name "Mel, lets go out and play, lets go out and do some magic!"  And so i suited myself with my Belgium attire and off we went. To note that i do not wear my Belgium attire on any given ride, they must have a certain "Olympic'ish" feel to them, like i am on a mission or something.

It has been a while now, but finally, Ryan was able to show me this cyclocross ride. It brings us from our door steps all the way to Bird's Hill Park, ALL ON TRAILS of some sort. They can be paved, grass, gravel, sand or dirt.

Here is a map of our adventure.

And yes, there  is even some elevation

It was dark on our way home. I tend to forget that now it gets dark by 730 pm and not 10 pm. Oh how much i hate when it gets dark so early. And here is something we saw on our way home.

 

Someone could just not wait any longer...

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious weekend

Soooo much happened this past weekend that i will split up the events in a few blog postings.

First and foremost Dark Cross. Wow and wow! That certainly surpassed my expectations! I knew it was going to be a fantastic event but something else happened and made that day an entire universe better.

The night before the Dark Cross, my everyday workhorse commuter went through its annual fall change. It goes from workhorse commuter to cyclocross bike wannabe. I stripe its fenders and change its slick tires to cyclocross tires. So basically it goes from workhorse to Puff the magic dragon overnight.

Ryan was leaving early to go to the Dark Cross because Olli and himself where going to dj at the event, and so he brought my cyclocross bike. I arrive later at the Red River Co-Op Speedway with a Pumpkin Spice Latte in one hand and Jy in the other hand. We went to the "dj" booth and i asked Ryan where he left my commuter. He gestures "Over there". All i could see was his cyclocross bike and Olli's and another bike but no commuter. I asked him again in case he did not hear me correctly over the music. And yet again gestures "over there". So i looked again. That other bike had my number 112 zipped tied to it! That other bike is my "NEW" cyclocross bike! That other bike is total awesomness! Oh and she is mean, burly and dark! This is not the Puff the magic dragon but rather a Jaberwocky! 

And this girls and boys is how Ryan says " I love you.... and to infinity and beyond!" And right back at you! Now of course this is the Cole's Notebbok version and comes in 2 parts if anyone is interested.

It was fun, fast and fierce out there, a total of 70 in the B race, and about 20 in the A race. I could not stop smiling it was such a blast, and it helps when you have a great bike to ride with. It was all that i dreamed of, and then some. I especially liked the run up of the grand stand and the near the beer gardens.. It was so loud of people cheering and the ringing of the cowbells! Till next year Dark Cross!

photos by Dave Benson

Chris Huebner and his crew but on a fantastic event. It was spectator and racer friendly. Not to mention Jy approved it as well. She would like to thank all of those that dropped fries and burgers on the ground and especially she would like to thank the owner of the venue, Blair, who gave her some milkbones... you are now her new BFF! Also a GINORMOUS thank you to all the volunteers and sponsors... without you, there would be no race.

To view more pictures of the event go here. There are quit a few to look at but lots of fun. Also visit Winnipeg Cycle Chick blog for the behind the scene story as well as Olli's blog.

high five fridays

I gasped when i saw moss graffiti! So whimsical, so magical! It is just missing a bit of fairy dust.

This amazing work is created by Anna Garforth up in Stokey near Clissold Park. More images of the project here. Spotted on Pinterest.

 

Here are the directions to make your own moss graffiti.

In your blender, combine:

• One can of cheap beer or 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• A few handfuls of moss
• One teaspoon of sugar.

Blend until the mixture is smooth, and you’re ready to get painting!

You can use a brush to paint your moss onto concrete walls, rocks, or brick. Mist the moss once a day to help it thrive, and soon your green graffiti will take hold! If you’re looking to take this project to the streets, use caution- we don’t want to be responsible for any vandalism charges!

Marc Johns creates whimsical drawings filled with dry wit and humour. I have one of his prints but i would love to get my hands on an original. They tend to get snatched up pretty quick.

 

In Holland, we have two words for design. One is vormgeving; in German formgeben. And the other word is ontwerpen; in German entwurf. In the Anglo-Saxon language there’s only one word for design, which is design. That is something you should work out. Vormgeving is more to make things look nice. So for instance, packaging for a perfume or for chocolate in order to make things fashionable, obsolete and therefore bad for society because we don’t really need it. While ontwerpe means, and the Anglo-saxon word, but its stronger, means engineering. That means you as a person try to invent a new thing—which is intelligent, which is clever, and which will have a long-life. And that’s called stylistic durability. It means you can use it for a long time.   ~ Gert Dumbar

Yes this is a rather long quote but as a graphic designer, how could i not love it. 

 

DANNY HESS, SURFBOARD SHAPER - full length by dockerswearthepants 

Danny Hess turned his passions for surfing and carpentry into a profession. Hess Surfboards are beautiful, high-performance boards made from sustainable materials. Danny crafts every board by hand from his workshop in San Francisco. Oh man how much i would love to have one, and then live in Tofino where i could go surfing in the morning before i go to work... how magical would that be... to breath... to ride those waves...

    


.... i'll see you there! Bring those cow bells!

 

 

Rui Alves – Tour

Perfect chair for a bike fanatic in the family. Check them out here.

Wow, can you imagine attending meetings where you are able to sit on these beautiful chairs. Or even an entire classroom full of these chairs. FABULOUS! All i would be missing is a bright and loud bell. Dring dring! Dring dring!

Confession.....

This is Jurgen Feldschmid, striking a pose for the camera

... i went to the Banjo Bowl Game this past Sunday INSTEAD of going to Cyclocross Mud Fest at St. Adolphe. Eeeckgack! It is not often that i have two events on the same day to go to at the same time. What is this Mud Fairy suppose to do?

So yes i went to the Banjo Bowl, watched the game in disappointment. Don't get me wrong, it was fun, but i could not stop thinking  "Wow, what silly mud flop would i be doing right about now?"

After the game, friends from Cyclocross came over for a visit and for some well deserved post race nourishment, Belgium Beers, and described the Mud festivities from over at St. Adolphe.

Over the next few days, more and more of my go to blogs here and here documented the event and i was jealous that i did not part take in them. Merde, i missed out on some good old clean fun!

Stefan, the "cyclocross in-house" photographer documented the mud festivities here. Karlee G. took  some great pictures too. Mike P. took some pics as well. And you really have to check out the video by Scott.

Well ladies, i will be there at the Dark Cross bringing up that percentage of women racing, and i am trying to convince my sister to come as well.

I am not afraid of a little bit of dirt up my skirt!

Booyah! See you all at Dark Cross!