Perseverance Challenge: Cycling for the Cause!

Cycling to raise funds for cancer research - That's Mama M too!

On September 21, I will participate in the 4th edition of Perseverance Challenge as a member of my lab team. Part of this challenge is to collect funds for the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC, http://www.iric.ca/) at the University of Montreal . Since 2010, the Perseverance Challenge generated more than $800,000, an amount of which 100 % has gone to cancer research by allowing us to recruit some of the best graduate students in the world and to fund our IRIC Next Generation Internship Awards program.

IRIC's Perseverance Challenge allows me to participate in the Défi Cyclo Vélo Mag Shawinigan, a demanding bike course of 106 km in the fabulous Mauricie National Park. After participating in the Challenge in 2010 on the distance of 53 km, this year I will double the distance! This sporting event is not only a test of perseverance for me but also an opportunity to do something concrete for towards cancer research.

Perseverance Challenge 2010

The race: Starting at PALP going to Esker, where we turn and go back to PALP! (Image from https://www.cyclomauricie.com/fr/parcours_16.html) 

In fact, by participating in the Perseverance Challenge in Team Labo Mader, I agreed to make a personal donation to IRIC and, with the support of my colleagues, we set the goal to raise $ 3,000 to benefit our research institute.

Through this post I'm asking for your help to reach our goal. Making a donation is simple; just click on this link and complete a few fields of information that will lead to online payment:

http://www.iric.ca/en/supporting-iric/perseverance-challenge/sponsor/DP13502bb4f450a1a38fcafef97d38755b80/

On behalf of myself, my colleagues of Labo Mader and of all those who are directly or indirectly touched by cancer, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your encouragement and generosity.

Marieke

Time flies...

...when you're having fun...

Vacation is over, tomorrow is back to work/daycare... :( We had a great week though!!

Good news: being back home means being back with my sewing machine! And I just really enjoyed Labor Day sale. I got some nice patterns for myself! Yeeeaaaa, selfish sewing coming up!

A little preview, a Rose shirt by Blank Slate Patterns that I made a while back:

W pants pattern test

I've been debating with myself what would be a good place to start blogging about my sewing. I've got so many projects I'd like to share... So I decided to go with my first pattern test: the W pants pattern by Blank Slate Patterns.

I love this pattern, another great one by Melissa. It comes in three length options (shorts, capris and pants) and has lots of options such as a functioning zipper fly and a zippered welt pocket. I think I need to make a pair for every day of the week -no one will be able to tell they're all from the same pattern. (Disclaimer: I don't get anything for saying I love this pattern, I just really do. I did get the pattern for free for testing it.)

I tested the size 18m in capri length. The red fabric is a medium bottom weight that I received around 2m of and that had been waiting in my stash for a great project. The denim is a remnant I got at Joann's; not enough for a complete pair of pants, but just perfect for the details on this one!

For these, I only added one zippered welt pocket. Partly because I had never done it before and didn't want to complicate things more, partly because I only had one red zipper of the right length. Even if it didn't turn out perfect, it was ridiculously easy thanks to Melissa's explanation and next time I'll do two!

Talking about things I'd never done before... Zipper fly. Hello... Have you looked at those? No way I can pull that off! *correction* Way I can do it! Yay! So awesome. I do them all the time now. Even used this tutorial to add a functioning zipper to a pattern of another designer. :-)

I also added the faux button tabs to the bottom of the legs so I could have my blue accent fabric come back there. I really like how that turned out.

They ended up being a little long, but that has been fixed in the final version of the pattern. 

And the kiddo? He loves them and wears them all the time!

Thanks Melissa, for another great pattern!

I have a blog

Vacation!!!

While all of blogland out there is talking about back to school, we're enjoying the perks of not having kids of school age yet. I don't want to say it's more fun that way, but let's face it... It sort of is.

So, while the kiddo is taking a well-deserved nap, mommy is using a drizzly afternoon to write an introduction post for her blog. Her 3rd blog. I fully expect it to stick this time. Three's a charm, right? (Right??) At least this time I found a name/title that I like. That should help.

Mama M. That's me. I started this blog because I, like a lot of others out there, want to share my passion to create with others out there like me. (Maybe do a bit of showing off of the things I sew...) And also because I finally wanted a place on the web to broadcast some of the pictures I take. I guess I just wanted a piece of the internet that I could make all mine. :-) This blog will be sew me!
It would be nice if some people would read it, but if not, I'll just have fun writing it.

I hope I'll see you back soon.

Mama M(arieke).