"A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work."

It's been a restless few weeks for Opeie recently sleep wise. We're not really sure why but he's been waking up on and off and occasionally has been a little upset. It may just be a growth spurt but he's never been the best sleeper and would keep us up sporadically through the night for the first 4 years, which at times was exhausting. A few nights back we heard him wake up and I went upstairs to make sure he was ok. He was still semi-asleep and explained that he had had a bad dream.

When asked what the dream was about (because it's always important to ask in case it is something serious) he explained that the dream was about a small fish who was being chased by an angry whale and couldn't get away. Although he was clearly quite upset about the poor little fish he said it was ok because a swordfish had come along and saved the little fish from the big bad whale. Despite the tears and restless sleep I've got to say, the whole thing was pretty adorable.

I'm not really sure where it all started but swordfish keep popping up a lot recently when Opeie is talking. As far as I can remember we've not been anywhere where he may have seen a swordfish, read any books including a swordfish or even spotted one in any documentary we may have been watching recently, but it is clear that this new love of the hero swordfish is here to stay. So when Opeie decided he wanted a craft session a few days ago we came up with a plan to recreate his dream.

The idea was to make something cute that could be a decoration for the house. Opeie and I had a long discussion about the dream and he explained what the fish looked like before drawing them for me. We cut the front and sides out of a box and covered in duck tape that we had left over from our Custom scooter. Opeie did a great job of mixing some lovely colours and painted the inside of his fish tank and the three fish. We had a big bucket of shells and rocks in the back garden from various visits to the beach which were waiting to be used for something fun, so we made the most of them.

After Opeie had painted his dream fish and given them button and googly eyes, we suspended his creations with the only string we could find (yo-yo strings) and our fish tank was complete. Our craft session gave us a great chance to talk about dreams and why we think we have them. We talked colour mixing and textures, but most importantly to him, he got to use a glue gun. A pretty perfect little craft session and a splash more colour added to the house.

Why fit in when you were born to stand out (part 2)

I'm not in the habit of reusing quotes for post titles but as I'm writing about the same product I was before and it seems far more fitting to this post I thought what the hell!

It's no secret that I am an ENORMOUS Micro-scooter enthusiast and if you have been reading the blog for a while then you'll have been following our Micro adventure and be fully aware of the amazing impact the scooters have had on us as a family. The Pedal flow has been taking up most of my scooting time since Christmas and although it is a really fun and interesting scooter it was missing something really important, a splash of colour. The Pedalflow may be aimed at us adults but I find the colour schemes and prints of the children's scooters far more appealing (it must be my playful side).

The pedal flow as it is, is a real head turner and I've been stopped many times out and about because it seems people want to know 'what it is!'. It definitely needed a bit of extra pizazz though so I started looking in to what parts I could change easily on the scooter and after talking it over with the style council about colour schemes, a decision for pink and green was unanimous.

If you are looking to spruce up your pedal flow it's handy to know that the handlebar grips can be replaced with any standard size bike/scooter grips. Micro-scooters have an amazing selection of coloured grips to choose from. Unfortunately the two colours I need we're at that point out of stock. When changing the pedals, any 9/16" thread pedals will fit so I went hunting for some to fit our colour scheme. 

Our plan was to put a snazzy pink chain on the Pedalflow but when I noticed a seller online selling both pink and green chains I couldn't resist buying both, along with a rivet extractor to make the chain stripey (I think it made all the difference to the overall look). I couldn't not have coloured dice for the valve caps to finish it off, all my bmx's had them as a kid.

The scooter looked a lot more fancy but I really wanted to do something about all of that white. I did a bit of research online and a friend of mine told me about Hydro dipping. If you've not heard about it, I'd definitely recommend watching a video on YouTube, it's fascinating. I really wanted leopard print covering the frame but after requesting a quote from a local company, that came back at £200, I ruled out hydro dipping straight away.

We drove past hobby craft a few days back, which got me thinking about découpage and whether there was any way that I could somehow apply it to the scooter. Then I had a eureka! Moment and remembered working with Duck tape on the blog some time ago and thought yeah that could work. So after parting with probably the best £6 I have spent in a long time, yesterday while Opeie played with his friends, I sat in the sun and began wrapping the frame.

The curves were a bit of a pain to get around but after a couple of hours wrapping, some skillful cuts with my trusty x-acto knife and a little help from my awesome neighbour, the Pedalflow diva deluxe was ready to be put back together. Today was the perfect day for its first public appearance and as I pedalled away from the car after arriving at Ironbridge, Mrs M said 'that man just stared at you open mouthed as you rode by!'. I'm still not sure if he was solely taking in the awesomeness of the scooter or whether it was more the fact that attached to that sexy set of wheels was a built, bearded man. Either way it was exactly the first response I was expecting for my new glamorous wheels.

As Dr. Seuss so rightfully put it, "why fit in, when you were born to stand out"

"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

It has been brought to my attention recently that a genius piece of Micro-scooter design that I have been frequently making the most of since our scooter adventures began, was not designed for the reason Ive been using it. The curved V shape plastic above the front wheel of Opeie's Mini Micro it seems is for cosmetic purposes only, but this ingenious shape has made is possible for me and Opeie to ride on my scooter while carrying his on longer scooting adventures (their legs inevitably get tired eventually).

The V shaped design fits comfortably against the front post of my Micro suspension scooter and can be held securely while we scoot, which came in really handy during our 5 day recent visit to London, where we travelled everywhere by scooter.

The smallest things can make the biggest difference and this stylish bit of design has had a huge impact on the way me and Opeie scoot together, another great win for Micro-scooters. I'm now off to drool over the new aubergine Flex Deluxe, Its Lush!!! Ive got a pair of leopard print vans that would look lovely against that frame. Happy scooting ya'll.