Winter still holds on.

Today, I got in 10 miles of this.......

Because this weekend, we are getting THAT.........

There, there.  Settle down now, Winter. That'll be enough.

Wishing for summer

Thankful for any time I can get outside to ride my bike. But it's with honesty that I say that I'm looking forward to once again being able to do so without 27 layers of clothes and my nose running!

  
27 layers? Check. Pocket full of Kleenexes? Check. Husband? Check. Cute new RockiNoggins helmet cover? Check. Headed out. The goal is 10 miles.

He finished the ride at 5 miles, she at 8 miles. Got too cold. That south and east wind was just very cold.

Hurry up summer!!!!!  :)

 

I'm a winner! Thank you, RockiNoggins!!!

I submitted my Valentine's picture that I designed of my sweetie and I to the RockiNoggins "Be Our Valentine Winner" contest and they chose my design as a winner from the Facebook submissions!!!  


Go give RockiNoggins a Facebook "like". They are an awesome little company that make fashionable hats that fit over most bicycle helmets, in business since 2011, based out of Seattle.  Made in the USA is ALWAYS worth supporting! 

I won a free helmet cover of my choice.  I'm going to go with the "Annie" 

You'll be seeing it on my head in future blog posts, I'm sure. :) You can also read a post I wrote about a RockiNoggins hat that I already own here.

Because I love him

..............More than words could ever express.

Rockin' my noggin with a RockiNoggins helmet cover

So remember the sparkly gold Nutcase helmet from this post?

Confession #1: I had an ulterior motive in asking for that for Christmas. It really always was intended to serve as a base for these super cute RockiNoggins helmet covers..... and I wanted something smaller and less round than my Marvin the Martian sized Bern Berkeley.

So, here I am sporting the RockiNoggin "Thunder" style helmet cover.

It has earflaps, which I thought I might utilize, but after trying it out, I discovered that they don't ride snug enough against my ears to really do much good, so I choose to just continue to wear the homemade fleece flaps that I have always worn under the straps (you can see it in this picture, too), so that the straps serve to hold them pressed to my ears to keep the wind out.

The RockiNoggins covers come with adhesive Velcro circles that you are supposed to stick to the outside of your helmet and then secure the hat to those with the strip of Velcro that is sewn around the inside of the edge of the cover.

Confession #2: I didn't do that. I really didn't want to put Velcro circles on my helmet in case I want/need to wear the helmet without a cover. And I found that the S/M size Thunder cover fits snug enough on my S/M size Nutcase that the Velcro doesn't really seem to be necessary.  It certainly has never given any indication that it is going to go flying off my helmet as I have ridden. Your mileage may vary, but at least for this particular Thunder style in combination with my particular helmet, the Velcro is not necessary.

In fact, I think it might ride a little "weird" on the helmet if I attempted to use the Velcro, because the cover actually would not be able to be pulled down as far on the helmet. You can actually see in the picture below the strip of Velcro that is being unused.

Not sure why the whole things looks excessively crooked. Probably because I'm not using the Velcro, hmmmmm??? :) Probably.

I also need to take a pair of scissors to the tag that keeps flopping out, visible on the right side of this picture.

Now, also to go with this picture...... let's talk about the bill of the Thunder cover. The fact that you could land a small plane on it means that it is likely a wee bit bigger than perhaps it needs to be. But it definitely keeps the sun out of your eyes. I have not even worn my sunglasses while riding since I have gotten this cover.

And since the smallest details usually give the biggest impact, lets talk about the bling-bling that gives my cover that extra oomph of cuteness.  RockiNoggins offers several different accessories that you can purchase from them, for instance:

THIS 

 

or THIS 

  

 or THAT 

 or even THIS (ribbit!)

Alas, though......none of those match my winter riding attire, my Hi-Viz fluorescent yellow reflective coat.  But this girl can sew! So she made her own.

Using this tutorial, and the yellow fluorescent material left over from the sleeves I cut off of a T-shirt that is my summer riding attire, I made this. It's adorable. Yes it is.  And easy, too!

Here's the back.  A circle of craft foam and a hair snap clip (Package of 12 for $1 at Dollar General.)

And since the Thunder helmet cover actually came with the detail of a opening on the front of the hat, I had a perfect place all ready to snap my bling onto.

Here's another one I made using this tutorial (scroll to the very bottom of this tut to the plum-colored shabby chic one.)  But I made it even easier. I simply used the already hemmed edges of those same cut off T-shirt sleeves, cut slits in them like the tutorial describes, and rolled it into a flower starting from one end. Easy peesy.  Added a third little rosebud flower from the same material, some antique buttons, and I have another super cute accessory made from scraps!  How green can one be?

 

I will be making many, many more of these from all those cut-off T-shirt sleeves I have. I am going to have matching bling for every single shirt I ride in! 

I will definitely be adding more RockiNoggins covers to my collection. Because I think they make a really cool product.  And I'm going to need some summer styles, as well, right? :) 

I'm a model! (But I think I'll keep my day job.......)

I was honored to be a guest model on a fellow Kansas cyclist's bike blog.  LOL. Here's a sneak peek of my modeling debut.

You'll have to go to Randy and Nova's Bicycle Scrapbook page to see the full picture, though. :)

Without a doubt, Randy writes one of the most entertaining blogs we've read and his videos are hilarious. Randy and Nova's fun blog and Facebook page were actually the inspiration for us creating a bike blog of our own. We were searching for information on the Flint Hills Nature Trail around our town and Google provided us with this video. And we were hooked.

We haven't yet had the opportunity to meet Randy and Nova in person, but I know one day we will.  And what a fun day that will be! :)

1945 picture of my dad and his bicycle

Today we celebrated my Dad's 80th birthday with a dinner with family, and cake and punch reception with friends. I was in charge of making the photo slide show.  In doing so, I found this neat picture dated 1945 of my dad with his bicycle.  I thought it an appropriate item to add to our blog.

 I enjoyed spending the day celebrating with you and the family, Dad!

~~H