Search results (title) for: "bikes"

Etsy Finds: Bike Spinning Wheel

2008-09-13T10:39:00Z

I just saw this wonderful spinning wheel — using a bike wheel! — by ford4him. My family has a sheep farm, and I once sheared a sheep, spun the wool (it was smelly), and knit a hat. Within a few days, I had lost it. Even though I miss that hat to this day, I think back on that time I spent sitting at a spinning wheel with fondness, as it's a mix of being very focused and very relaxed.

To spin wool, you have to set up the wheel and feed the wool while stepping on the pedal. You must also make sure you're holding the wool with just the right amount of tension. It takes a while, but it's something you definitely get better at with practice. Using a bicycle wheel seems like a brilliant idea: it's got bearings for smooth and efficient spinning. It also looks very modern!

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Etsy Finds: Ride your Bike

2008-05-16T08:00:00Z

Reading about National Bike to Work Day (it's today!) got me wondering what bicycle-themed items Etsy had to offer these days. Father's Day is fast approaching and I need to find some bike nerd gear for my baby daddy.

I'm posting this extra early this morning so you all have to time to pull your bike out of the garage, fix that flat you've been ignoring since October, dig your helmet out of the back of the closet and RIDE THAT BIKE TO WORK TODAY.

Thank you, that is all.

Love,
Anda

Sunny Day

So many bike caps are made from brown and grey and black wool and that's that. I love the summer colors in this one. By rayzorsharp, $25.

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la bicicletta shoulder bag

I missed this sweet tote when I wrote about pleated bags a few days ago. By katedurkin, $62.

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LIGHTNING BRIGHT hoodie vest

Stay safe in traffic with the brightest hoodie vest in the world. Look at how it's reflecting off her arms in that picture!! No one will not see you in this. By builtinpittsburgh, $47.

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Softcover Bookplate - Tandem

Bike-themed bookplates by Etsy design fave unlesssomeonelikeyou, $10.

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womens rainbow bicycle T - medium

This shirt has been in my favorites for so long. Simple and cute and great for long springtime bike rides. By vital, $30.

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Recycled Inner Tube Belt

Back home in Richmond, kids I knew were always making themselves belts from spent bike tires. Apparently the tubes work well in a pinch, too. Belt by CyclonaDesigns, $19.

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Girl's Ride Bicycle Seat Bag

Need a chic way to carry your small things on your ride? Pouch by dogwoodlane, $18.

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Breeze Wheel - 4 note card set

I love the whole concept of this shop. The name says it all: bicyclepaintings, $6.

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Recycle Swarovski Bike Bell

It's a crystal-encrusted bicycle bell. Amazing. sparkledawne, $49.99.

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National Bike to Work Day: May 16, 2008

2008-05-14T18:49:00Z

Here in New York we've been having an unfortunate spring, as the past few weeks have brought us some yucky rain and surprisingly chilly temperatures. Note the discarded, busted umbrellas in the wind tunnel near the Etsy Labs:
However, we're closing in on the outdoor season and the bikes are getting pulled out of their winter hibernation.

May has been declared National Bike Month, and thanks to the League of American Bicyclists, the third Friday in May (this Friday, May 16!) has been National Bike to Work Day since 1956. Lots of major cities have events planned for Friday and the rest of the month, so if you're here in NYC with us, check out the Bike Month NYC site, or search online to see what's going on near you. So rain or shine, be ready to get on your bike and ride!

P.S. Plus, we can use the break from the gas prices...
P.P.S. Someone should invent a biodegradable umbrella...

Get ready for bike season by bringing out your bike this Friday. Here's to National Bike to Work Day!

Portland Custom Bike Culture

2008-04-25T15:21:00Z

Bike culture in Portland is maybe the awesomest in the country! (Care to debate? Let it be known in the comments below!)

We found this video on Youtube about a custom bike exhibit at the Portland airport and we were really excited to learn about Sweetpea Bikes, one of the only two female-run custom bike shops for women in the US.

Do you have a custom bike? Let us know in the comments below!

Etsy Finds: Where Birds and Bikes Collide

2008-04-25T11:26:00Z

In my secret side life, I fancy myself something of an ornithologist. I spend many a nerdy hour sweatily poring over beautiful old Audubon books and peeping at the pigeons in my square of Brooklyn backyard. Another secret pastime of mine is biking. Most mornings, I pedal off on long rides to Prospect Park to, not surprisingly, sit by the pond and watch the birdies. You can only imagine my great joy in discovering this creative little number from baconsquarefarm. Only on Etsy can my love of birds and bikes collide so beautifully.

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Spring Biking

2008-04-24T16:43:00Z

There's nothing quite like getting the ol' bike out after a long winter's rest. I know that mine is currently sitting with a flat tire in the deserted hallway of my building, despondent at being so useless for many months. (Yes, my bike has a personality.) However, I'm going to fix her up, and get out there to enjoy the fine weather with all the other bike people.

Before I go hit the road, I might want to get some thematic gear. There's so much bike related artwork, clothing and jewelry (as well as accessories!) that you can find just about anything.

(Also, how can we find people who make custom bikes and parts? We want them to sell on Etsy!)

Get out there and enjoy the weather! And tell your bike building friends to get on Etsy!

Etsy Finds: Transportation Alternatives

2008-04-18T10:38:00Z

Yes! It's another bike-related Etsy Find! But this Earth Day, if you will permit me I would like to be serious for a moment.

Every Tuesday morning in my neighborhood (Alphabet City, in Manhattan), a few dozen of my neighbors ritually wake up early, get in their cars, relocate them ten feet to the right, and sit there double parked, waiting for the street cleaner to pass by. There's something about this choreographed, screetching, honking, weekly dance that highlights the fundamental absurdity of the omnipresent automobile.

Two thirds of the space between the buildings in my neighborhood is devoted to large, mostly stationary and unoccupied vehicles. They leak mysterious fluids that pool by the curb. They are often parked so close together that crossing from one side of the street to the other is awkward, if it were even a good idea to cross the street without a light. Cabs routinely thunder down 11th street at what looks to me like about 50 miles per hour.

Walk down Prince Street any day of the week and you will notice that for the benefit of the small minority that drive or own a car in Manhattan, the rest of us are relegated to sidewalks only a few feet wide. Pedestrians spill out into the parts of the bike lane not blocked by double parkers.

So ubiquitous is the notion that free parking and cheap fuel are inalienable rights that few bother to question this arrangement. Even if oil prices weren't rising, even if biofuel subsidies were not dubious and the source of food shortages in the third world — even then, America's relationship to the automobile would not be the best way to construct a society.

Call me idealistic, but I dream of a different city: one where the public space has been given back to the public. Where mass transit is not a punch line. Where biking is not considered a fringe activity, where it is not too dangerous for the elderly and the very young, but is rather just transportation. A city where the walk signal on Houston Street is long enough for my dachshund's short legs to get across it comfortably or, better yet, where walk signals are not necessary.

That dream is really what this Etsy Find is about — all of the wonderful bicycle-related artwork and photography on Etsy that fuels my hopes (pun intended) that people will sooner or later come to the realization that the last sixty years have been an aberration, rather than a necessary evolution. That more and more people will realize that it's at once faster, greener, and more satisfying to bike from place to place in Manhattan than it is to get in a cab.

Specifically, check out Aptrick Photo's cruiser shots. Visions from an alternate reality where bikes are the ubiquitous way of life and cars are the hobby.

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EGCG | Trashion | EcoEtsy | Environmentally Friendly Gift Guides | Earth Tones Series

Handmade Weddings: A Last-Minute Article about My Last-Minute Wedding

2008-04-11T14:20:00Z

One last real wedding to sneak into the Handmade Wedding Series!

We were married last September in Virginia but procrastinated almost everything until maybe a month beforehand. Together we were working about 10,000 hours a week at Etsy and I was wearily navigating my way through the first trimester of pregnancy.

Inwardly, I was positive that if I ignored planning my wedding hard enough, a wedding fairy godmother would swoop down in a magical monsoon of glitter shimmer tulle and take care of everything for us somehow.

That actually did not happen. But, I am here to tell you that it is okay to have a wedding by the total seat of your pants. A really great wedding, even.

This is my husband, Peter. He also works for Etsy.

Like any little girl, I had always vaguely daydreamed of what my my wedding dress would someday look like. I did not daydream myself five and 1/2 months pregnant, however. We had gotten engaged in January and then just became a little too impatient. So, I designed and made my own super beautiful knocked-up wedding dress with a ton of help from Beni of Burdastyle. When I say "help" I actually mean that she sewed the entire dress for me while I whined about how difficult it all was. I have a phobia of sewing patterns and hadn't even attempted to make anything from one since Girl Scouts in 1986. It was a totally harrowing and last-minute experience and I actually used a stapler to hem it and handsewed the snaps in our hotel room the morning before the ceremony, but it cost me $80 and I still sort of resembled the ballerina princess fairy I knew I was inside.

Burdastyle is this clever website where you can download and print patterns and get sewing help and all kinds of other essential things for making your own fashion. Had Alchemy been around on Etsy last year I probably would have gone down that road and saved poor Beni from having to deal with me, though. A dress that hides, yet accentuates, a baby bump is definitely a custom request.

We got married in the Japanese Garden of Maymont Park in Richmond, Virginia. Next to a waterfall. How ridiculous is that? The best part was I had never seen the place in my life and chose it on blind faith when the date was nearing and we had no location in mind. The week before the wedding I kept saying, Don't we need to get some flowers or something to, you know, decorate it?

And then when I finally saw it, it was like, Oh, duh, it's an insanely beautiful unicorniverse paradise already! Because it was outside next to a waterfall. Lesson learned: you can avoid the hassle of choosing flowers and stuff if you just hold the whole thing outdoors where it's lovely.

If you are trying to plan a wedding from five states away and not do anything except occasionally glance at the calendar and panic, then you'll definitely need a friend to coordinate it all for you. We had Almitra, who coordinates things for a living and was able to swiftly handle all of our crises. She found us a cake (made by a really sweet lady in central Virginia) and a caterer (an old friend of hers who owns a restaurant in Richmond) and a couple cases of champagne, all amidst me crying on the telephone about how tiredly pregnant I was and sending her IMs like PLS HELP EVERYTHING IS A SHAMBLES I AM CRYING.

Neither Pete nor I have a family minister or church and we were at a loss for an officiant who could legally marry us. Eventually we gave up on the legal part and convinced our friend Brooks to do the honors as he was "our most stately friend" and we thought he could convincingly lead the ceremony.

We actually got legally married a month and a half later at the City Clerk Office here in Brooklyn. Friends, if you're crunched for time, take my advice and just fake it.

Pete wrote our vows the night before the rehearsal and I bobby-pinned them into a vintage copy of Treasure Island. We googled wedding vows and then added a really long Rilke quote to pad it. The ceremony still only was about two minutes long because we were all very nervous and spoke too fast.

But the best part of our wedding was the reception.

We held a reception at our friend's, well, cement lot in Southside Richmond. It's called The Bike Lot, and a bunch of folks we know rent garage space to work on bikes or mopeds or whatever else out there, they have a bunch of homemade ramps and the whole space is covered in beautiful graffiti. So we basically invited everyone we knew to come and have a big sweaty drunken dance party barbeque with us.

Everyone had a really great time. Pictured above on the left are Pete's sister and brother, in the latter stage of drunkeness.

My best friend Luke had pulled a wedding band together for me and managed a few superb covers of songs by Jawbreaker and the Misfits, among others. We had two other friends play records and our first dance was to We Built This City by Starship.

Etsy customer support expert Lori Weaver joined in with vocals at one point. I think this was a Gorilla Biscuits song.

And for days afterwards, Pete's motto was "If you can't skate at your own wedding, when can you skate?"

Here is the top of our melted cake. The cake toppers were a gift from Pete's mom and dad. They had accidentally dropped and broken the foot off the bride figurine at an antique shop, and had been forced by the shop owner to buy them. Pete's mom glued the foot back on and mailed them to us as a gag, but I sort of loved their weird Precious Momentsesque charm.

Our friends had decorated the Bike Lot with a zillion paper airplanes and not much else, which was totally sweet and beautiful. Someone had found a tandem bicycle and tied cans and such to the back, and at the end of the day we rode off together while everyone flung glitter and the contents of their cups at us. And we lived happily ever after. The end!

Wedding Gift Guide | Wedding Category | Wedding Showcase | Handmade Wedding Series

Bikes for All!

2008-02-28T15:43:00Z

I once read a quote (I don't remember where, sadly) that summed up my feelings on the nature of bikes. It went something along the lines of, "The most precious gift you can give a friend is the freedom that comes with riding a bicycle. It's one of life's small pleasures that everyone should be afforded."

Pretty apropos, wouldn't you say? Biking is eco-friendly (park that car, sir!), a healthy move for the ol' ticker and allows you to get where you're going with your body as the motor, which is always something to feel good about. This collection of bike accessories and bike inspired items is a start toward your future bike travels.

So, dear friends, I'd give you all a bike if I could! Until then, be it cruiser, track or mountain bike, get out there and start riding today!

Gift Ideas: Bike Buys!

2007-11-30T19:43:00Z

My dad gets car accessories for the holidays, but I'm on the other end of the vehicular spectrum. Cyclists are way too easy to shop for. If you're not getting us six packs of seasonal brews, perhaps go for a handmade bicycle themed gift. Who doesn't like the wind in their hair?! Get stoked.

Check out our bike inspired Treasury and give it some love!

Etsy Find: Custom Bicycle Headbadge

2007-11-28T01:27:00Z

One of my favorite parts of buying on Etsy is the conversations with the sellers and sometimes the ability to customize your purchase. One seller who offers customized items, headbadge, has combined her love of creating jewelry and her love of bikes to create these fun head badges for bicycles — made custom from a range of material choices.

I have a few bike-loving people on my holiday shopping list in mind for this one.

Etsy Finds: Headgear

2007-10-13T09:38:00Z

Aaaah fall, that great time of year when the sun sets at 5 pm and my ride to work is a battle against the wind....and of course it's also when my wardrobe changes from mostly black to more black. This dome piece by Builtinpittsburgh really puts me in the mood for pumpkin pie and dried leaves and all that other nature stuff, plus it would add some flair to my gear! Not to mention functional like whoa, note the design of the bill....not gonna blow off in these brutal NY winds. These two Pennsylvanian crafters have their heads in the right place.