The Craft of Cycling!

Did you stop to smell the artificial flowers on your bikes today? We did. We would love to have real ones growing from our bike (J-bot is determined to make this happen...) but we are making do people, making do. Because my head hurts from crafty ideas and I am ready to do a complete bike overhaul I feel the need to document our creative explosions so far...


J-bot's bike came beautifully painted. It is the dream bike of choice for little girls so what could be more appropriate than a small scary doll looking on in amazement?

Now with added leaves from Tokyo bike and the flowers and feathers streaming from her basket and back rack as shown above... Florence is definitely in her element!

Hildegarde on the other hand is about to get an overhaul, so I thought a documentation of things added up to now was necessary before I rip things off and try out new things!

A bell and butt-bears are always essential elements to bike craziness so they will be staying. And Hildegarde is a rather wicked bike so the Witch will remain in her pride of place, leading the way!

I am feeling torn over this... but its time for the crocheted skirtguard to retire. I am happy with it, but as with all craft explosions another idea needs to take its place. Mysterious as this sounds of course I will be posting the results up as soon as its done!

In the meantime I am going to leave you with a few other of our favourite things... all weird, whimsical and wonderful!

Never tire of bike shadows, and picnics. Our friend Milky Joe is soaking up the sun with our other favourite basket addition.. beautiful parasols.

Spokey dokes and freshly painted nails...

Ice cream vans and weird men taking arty photos...

Dinosaur birds and puppies riding in bikes. I repeat puppies riding in bikes!!

Pish tosh people xx

Dress-Up and Ride Like You Mean It!

We at the Feather Brigade headquarters spent the previous week feverishly praying to the rain gods and worshiping Milky Joe, the crocheted monkey of weather (see above), to ensure a nice day for Sunday, which just happened to be Halloween, which just happened to be HalloWheel. We stopped short of sacrificing babies and kittens, but thankfully the gods were appeased anyway and although the day started a little hazy and grey, we had a marvelously sunny day down at the park.

We pulled out our fancy dress finery, K-star dressed as a cult leader, I was channeling Picnic at Hanging Rock, and we headed into Darling Harbour.

Our cycling superstars of the day were Kerry and Garry. Their efforts put our fancy dress to shame. Not only did they bring along brilliant costumes, but both of their bikes were dressed for the occasion too.

We hung out at Pyrmont Bridge for a bit, talked to a few other cyclists and basically became a tourist attraction for the hoards doing the Seven Bridges Walk (all of the random strangers out there with a picture of us from the day, I urge you to use the photographs only for the forces of good- not that I know how you'd use them for evil, but still...)

We had a slow cruise along the wharves and parks in Pyrmont and Glebe and made it to the park as the sun came out for us. We met up with all the non-wheeled HalloWheel peeps, threw down the picnic blankets and while most of us snacked on strawberries and cheese, K-star got a little more into character.

It was a lovely day with lovely people. Hanging out at the park in the sun with friends, I can't think of a better way to spend the day. We'll definitely be inviting everyone to another HalloWheel next year (and hopefully hold another fancy-dress ride before that too- we love any excuse to dress-up)

We had a quick photo with Kerry and Garry before they headed off, and I want to say thanks to both of them!

We kept the HalloWheel spirit alive even when the picnic was eventually packed up. At home we decided to share the Halloween love with our neighbors and "haunted" them with a little crocheted ghost and handmade sign lowered past their windows.

Oh, Halloween, giving us an excuse to dress-up, eat lollies, and annoy our neighbors. I think it may be one of my favourite holiday.

j.xoxo

All Cycles Eve

There's only one week left to sort out your costumes for HalloWheel, our bike riding, fancy dress, picnic extravaganza! After being heartbroken that Sydney Cycle Chic's picnic was rained out today we're praying extra hard to the rain gods to provide us with a sunny day... or, at the very least a dry day (surely we can't have two miserable Sundays in a row, right?)

If you would like to roll with us, we're meeting on Pyrmont Bridge- opposite the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel- at 12:00 (31st Oct, duh... do i need to tell you all that?). The plan is to take a nice slow tour of Pyrmont waterfront, duck around to the Glebe waterfront paths and set up our camp/picnic/love-in at Jubilee Park in Glebe. If you don't have wheels feel free to join us at the park, from about 1:30.

Bring food, drinks, friends, lovers... anything else you can think of. Picnic games will earn you brownie points (and probably brownies too...)

K-star has been crocheting like a woman possessed and has made little stuffed monsters to hand out as prizes for costumes. If you're having trouble with costume ideas I thought I'd offer some inspiration. This one is fairly easy, and a bit of a classic, here's two versions of a 'spooky' ghost:



You'll only need a white bed sheet with some holes cut out of it and some 'adorable' patches sewn on. Alternatively just come shirtless with clay-caked hands, easy! If you come as a shirtless Patrick Swayze I guarantee you will get a little crocheted monster. Shirtless or not, whatever costume you come in, we'll be your best friends forever!

RSVP on our facebook event page here... all the cool kids are doing it.

j.xoxo

Gesticulative Cycling!

(the title just sounds wrong...)

There seems to be something incredibly exciting happening over there!

Or maybe just a ramp instead of stairs... (that sort of thing is obviously exciting for those on a bike)

j.xoxo

Projector Bike

"What is this bizarre contraption?" I hear you all crying out.

"Calm down, Why are you yelling at me? You're so melodramtic!" I reply, "Oh, and it's a bike! (Duh...)"

A few weeks ago, during Sydney Fringe Festival, there was a super cool little project called Projector Bike. The event was a short film festival on wheels that rolled around the inner-west led by this cool 'pimped-out' (i can't believe i just used that term...) cargo bike. The plywood box on the bike hid a projector, sound system, and a little lappy to run the whole show.

Kathi, explaining the finer points of ________ to Brendan and Lucy. (fill in the blank)

We met up with Brendan and Lucy and about 30 other bike and film enthusiasts in Newtown where the ride started. The stops along the route including Camperdown Memorial Rest Park, Carriage Works, and quite a few back alleys, and at each stop we watched a few funny/freaky/cute/gross short films.

While the film tour portion of the ride was great and made use of all of the back streets of Newtown and Erskineville, the ride back to our starting point was coincidentally one of the most interesting parts of the night, as 30+ cyclists took over King St. I've never been on a Critical Mass ride, but I think I can understand now how much fun it can be. King St on a Saturday night is a busy street, full of night life and revelry, It felt like every person stopped what they were doing to watch us cruise on by (hopefully thinking we were all damn cool, and that they should get a bike too. Or maybe that's just my own wishful thinking...) It was almost a little weird, when bikes are usually so overlooked as a part of Sydney traffic, to be the centre of attention for all the kids in Newtown as we rolled down King St for those few minutes, but fun nonetheless.

Anyway... Gummi Bears on film on the side of a building! (I think that sums it up nicely)

j.xoxo

A lovely sunny Sunday!

Meet one of the newest members of the Feather Brigade....

No its not your neighbourly creepy dude, but Brendan our new friend! After discovering a mutual love of bikes at a recent party we have new people in our bike gang. The lovely Lucy (who's bike is arriving soon), Brendan (with his trusty sidekick with wheels) and Georgia (who we are working on to grow wheels). Todays bike ride was an educational experience for our young friend Brendan who attends Whitehouse. To show him the way to his educational facility we headed to Reverse Garbage for a shopping trip!

We found treasures, stuff and things. Truly! Jai also practised her best 5yr old impersonation!

There is only one thing on our mind once we left Reverse Garbage and that was ICE CREAM.. !! This might be because I yelled out that I wanted some several times while shopping, but I prefer to think it was a befitting suggestion made by a respectable individual on a hot day after a bike ride.

Anyway I got my way! And then Jai got hers and we went a-Funkis-Clog-a-shopping! With a detour to Hyde Park fountain of course. Take a close look at the following photos because according to Brendan "Everybody is getting married today"!

Hmm.. Jai bought shoes..! We then wanted hot chips as they were all we could smell on the way home.
We headed over Prymont Bridge, riding our treasures home to horde. More adventures soon.. sigh.

Go 1920's boy Go! Pish Tosh!