Beg Bicycles (And Win A Bike!)

Beg Bicycles are a local company to Cambridgeshire selling stunning hand built, classic bicycles and vintage inspired cycling accessories. They also run free ‘Joy rides’, gentle, easy paced bike rides around Cambridgeshire. Lycra and stop watches are banned and pubs or tea room stops are scheduled in the ride. Win.

Beg Bicycles

Source

The upcoming bicycle ride dates are: Sunday 30 June, Sunday 21 July, Sunday 18 August, Sunday 15 September, Sunday 20 October and Sunday 24 November. Email hello@begbicycles.com to reserve a spot.

All bike types are included (so not just sit up and begs) and people can dip in and out of the rides as they wish. As soon as my poorly bike is all fixed up, I am going to be joining them for a Joy Ride. Look how cheery they all are despite the wind!

Beg Bicycles Joy Ride

Image courtesy of Beg Bicycles

As you know from my previous posts this week, it’s Bike Week! So I thought I’d also share with you some competitions I found around the web to win a lovely bicycle of your own!

This Dawes Cycle is available to win here in conjunction with The Simple Things magazine (Facebook account required). Closes 27/06/2013.Dawes Bicycle

Readers of Crafty Magazine can enter to win a State Bicycle Co fixie here by answering a question about a bike related craft project. Clue, it goes on the saddle! Closes 27/06/2013.

You can read the rest of my Bicycle themed blog posts here.

Happy Cycling!

Claire

This post is not sponsored by Beg Bicycles, I just wanted to share local cycling events for Bike Week.
Posted in Bicycles, Cambridge | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Cam Bike Fest 2013: Yarn Bombing a Bike Wheel

This week I have been working on a yarn bombed bicycle wheel for Cam Bike Fest. The inaugural festival will celebrate cycling with wacky bikes, local crafts, bike decoration and a a yarn bombed treasure trail which my wheel is going to be part of. More on this later.

Pom Pom Bike Wheel

A while back I discovered local organisation You Can Bike Too in Cambridge, who are the folks behind the festival. They offer cycling sessions for those new to riding a bike and help people with disabilities or those recovering from illness or injury. 

YouCanBikeToo

They are some really special bikes to try too and their disabled members have spoken on local radio about how learning to ride a bike has changed their lives. They even have special bicycles for those in wheelchairs to give it a go. Pretty inspiring really.

YouCanBikeTooTandem

You Can Bike Too Handcycle Bike

Source

So if you live locally to Cambridge, I would encourage you to visit the Cam Bike Fest which takes place at Milton Country park on Saturday 22 June. And if you do, see if you can spot my wheel in the treasure trail!

Yarn Bombed Bike Wheel

It’s thanks to Willow Wanderer that I became involved. Look at this wonderful knitted bike she made to promote the festival around the city.

Willow Wanderer Knitted Bike

Source

Do you know of any cycling festivals or events in your area? Have a look on the Bike Week website and you may discover some!

You can read the rest of my Bicycle themed blog posts here.

Claire

P.S. Thanks to Miss Chaela-Boo for her contribution to the bike wheel project. Cable ties are so much quicker than stitching crochet :-) Do check out her posts on Bike Week too!

This is not a sponsored post, I just wanted to share local cycling events for Bike Week.
Posted in Bicycles, Cambridge, Craft, Handmade | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Bike Week 2013 15-23 June

I love my bike. So this week to celebrate Bike Week 2013, I shall be sharing bicycle related posts including round ups, handmade projects, events, competitions and even new products for my store. Cycling fans you are in for a treat!

Bicycles on claireabellemakes

Bicycles in Cambridge / Claireabellemakes DIY Bike Basket Bunting

So what is Bike Week? It’s the biggest nationwide cycling event in the UK, encouraging over half a million people to join in events, rethink their everyday journeys and switch to cycling as the most convenient way to get around.

I LOVE cycling to work. Cambridge is flat as a pancake so my 3-speed dutch bike is perfect. I feel privileged to live in such a beautiful city ready made for cyclists with stunning views and routes. Cycling here makes me feel free and happy.

This weekend I want you to enjoy some amazing Bike themed finds on the internet that made me smile.

sound-architecture-IV-Ronald-van-der-Meijs-537x356

Source

This sound architecture piece in Amsterdam is made from 5,000 repurposed bicycle bells that ring gently in the wind. Stunning.

Velodrome Cafe

Source

Architects from Holland have designed this velodrome cafe and bike rental building in China. You could work off a slice of cake on the roof?!!

Ride A Bike Print EtsySource

This Bicycle art print by Brittany Slopey on Etsy will hopefully make a few people stop and think about the eco benefits of cycling. Is your city full of traffic?

Bicycle Flowerman

Source: Pinterest (original unknown)

Sometimes I like to fill my bike basket with flowers from the market. Not quite like this though! I can’t find the original source to this Pin, so do help me out if you know!

Do you cycle? You can check out more bicycle themed finds on my Pinterest board here.

Miss Chaela-boo is also blogging about Bike Week, so pop on over here to check out her post!

Claire

Posted in Bicycles, Cambridge, Craft, Handmade | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Meet.Make.Laugh Mail Swap

About a month ago I wrote a review for the Girls’ Night In book and one of my lovely Canadian bloggy pals Stephanie from Meet.Make.Laugh left a comment.

Stephanie writes the blog with two friends Hayley and Cindy writing about their girls’ nights in together and crafty goings on in their lives. I knew the book would be perfect for them, so contacted Stephanie to see if she wanted to do a mail swap with me. 

This week, my package arrived all the way from Victoria, BC and to say I was excited to open it was an understatement. Each item was wrapped in brown paper with a yarn tie and had a clue for what was inside…..

Meet Make Laugh Postswap

Tammy seemed to like the handmade parcel (she is a craft cat of course!).

Meet Make Laugh Mailswap

The card was utterly perfect. Scrabble tiles! SO me.

Scrabble Tile Hello Card

I am a huge fan of maple syrup so I spent a good few minutes staring at this maple bacon flavoured sea salt saying “on my word” over and over again. It sounds delicious and I can’t wait to put it on some ice cream!

And come on guys…that notebook could not be any more perfect for me. Mint AND bicycles…..love.

Maple Bacon Sea Salt and Bicycle Notebook

We agreed on one handmade item per package and I was super excited to see what the girls had enclosed. Stephanie had knitted me this beautiful beanie hat (or toque as the Canadians call it) in a gorgeous teal blue colour. The loose knit is great for Spring. Plus I was totally having a bad hair day Sunday and it was really windy so the hat had an outing.

Claireabellemakes

When I visited Vancouver at Christmas I crammed my suitcase full of Davids Tea as they don’t ship to the UK. They girls had sent me a selection box which I cannot wait to get started on.

G laughs as our coffee cupboard is no more. Since I gave up caffeine it is filled with tea and now makes me look like an utter tea freak. Which I am.

Davids Tea Selection

I’m totally overwhelmed with my package from the Meet.Make.Laugh girls. Thank you SO SO much! I love making blogging friends across the water and am so grateful for all the support they give my blog. Thanks girls :-)

Please make sure you stop by the Meet.Make.Laugh blog to see what I sent Stephanie, Cindy and Hayley!

Claire

Posted in Craft, Handmade | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Cambridge Satchel Company – Cambridge Store Opens!

I’ve had a fairly quiet weekend following a mental couple of weeks at work, so G and I headed to town yesterday to have our usual coffee date and a mooch around. Decaf for me of course.

Whilst in town I could feel myself being drawn to the colourful goodness of the Cambridge Satchel Company Store which opened on Rose Crescent on Saturday! To say I was a wee bit excited was an understatement. It was glorious.

Starbucks and Cambridge Satchel Company Neon Satchel

For the opening they had neon bicycle cupcakes to match the satchels of course, and champagne and chocolates aplenty. We avoided these for the sake of weight watchers points and had a lovely chat with the embossing guy as he personalised two newly purchased satchels.

Cambridge Satchel Company Cambridge Store

I swooned over the Chelsea Collection for a good while, especially the beautiful mint one. G made a mental note and mentioned birthdays etc……it’s the big 3-0 this year so maybe a minty satchel could be mine *dreams*.

Cambridge Satchel Company Mint Satchel

The shop is light and fresh and stocks a whole range of colours including my classic red batchel. Staff were friendly and welcoming.

The Cambridge Satchel Company New Store Cambridge

G and I talked about the Cambridge Satchel Company journey and how it went from small business to huge business. If you’re not aware of the story, check out this video – inspiring stuff. It’s great to see how bloggers have played a part in the success of the company.

We did some more shopping in Molton Brown and then headed home for email catch ups and tidying. I’m loving having a desk now in my new craft room which displays these beautiful Protea I got from my work colleagues.

Protea Flower

What did you guys get up to this weekend?

Claire

*This is not a sponsored post.

Posted in Cambridge | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Instalife – Yay May

May has been good to me. I had a better time with my migraines (fingers crossed the new meds are working) and the sun made an appearance in Cambridge, brightening a few days. Here are my instagram snaps for the month.

Spring In Cambridge

Taking my pom pom clad bike out / Passing tulip covered greens on the way to work

Indulging in a round of golf with G / Amazing Wisteria on a thatched cottage in town

Claireabellemakes Craft Room

Hard work on the craft room makeover / Getting over excited about pastel sharpies

Finally finishing the Granny Square Blanket / Tammy enjoying the craft space

Claireabellemakes Instalife May

The Rainbow Cake I made for my sister / Trying my first bubble tea

Throwing G an Ice Cream Party for his birthday / Cat In a Bag

Claireabellemakes Shop

Wearing my hand stamped star ring / Launching my new cufflink line

Starting a mailing list for Claireabellemakes / My name necklace from Finest Imaginary

What did you guys get up to in May? You can follow me on Instagram here.

Claire

Posted in Cambridge, Craft, Handmade | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

My Craft Room – Up Close

Yesterday I shared my Craft Room Makeover as part of the Room For Improvement challenge. Today I want to show you some details in my craft room that you creative types might enjoy!

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Yarn

Cotton yarn spools from Texere and yarn in basket from Yves Town and Debbie Bliss.

Homemade candles from old wax using this tutorial.

Fabric flower pots (storage for scissors) made here and pin cushion kilner jar made here.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Trinkets

Georgina Giles Mini Monster and upcycled yarn wrapped jar made here.

My Great Grandmother’s button tin, filled with vintage buttons, some almost 100 years old.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Pin Cushion

My Nan’s pin cushion – brings back a lot of memories standing for fittings.

Bookcase with hand illustrated hanging heart decoration by Harriet Gray and ‘Giant Mug’ by Hook Line and Sink Her.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Makeover Curtains

Custom Hand painted bicycle button by Miss Beatrix and a heart garland made here.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Doorstop and Hanger

Love this door hanger I received from a friend and the doorstop was made here.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Chalkboard

An old photo of G and I on holidays and that plant I will keep alive.

Claire

Posted in Cambridge, Handmade | Tagged , , , , | 19 Comments

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Makeover

A few weeks back, the lovely people at Money Supermarket contacted me to see if I would be willing to take part in their Room For Improvement challenge to makeover a room in my house for just £50. I like to think I’m pretty thrifty and creative, so I decided to do it.

I’ve wanted to spruce up my Craft Room for a while now as it looked drab and uninspiring. Be warned, this is a picture heavy post, but I hope you will enjoy it.

The Craft Room housed our (horrid yellow) futon mattress, a stool acting as a little table and loads of craft stuff in various bags and boxes.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Before

I had managed to get this tray storage unit for free a while back, as my work were throwing it out. Useful but ugly and very much like school classroom trays. I had one magazine rack and the rest were crammed in the corner amongst other things.

The small brown boxes on the floor would soon solve the magazine problem…

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Storage

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Before Bookshelf

Now coming the ‘during’ shots. I wanted a table to sew and make accessories on so I scoured Gumtree and eBay and found this solid wooden one for £10. I searched for local sellers as I don’t have a car and a kind man delivered.

He was not so kind for bringing about a billion spiders with the table!! After G had saved me from the creepy crawly invasion, I washed, sanded and painted it with some leftovers our decorator left from the recent paint job on our house.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Table

Then the brown boxes saw a little craft knife action (after Tammy had done helping) and became magazine holders to be spray painted later.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Magazine Rack

A chalkboard from Poundland got the washi tape treatment to tie in with the pale blue theme I had in mind for the room.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Chalkboard

I spent hours spray painting wicker baskets in the garden, but failed to take before or during shots of these oops! The baskets were free as I’d been saving them each Christmas from the hamper G gets from work.

I also spray painted this sewing spool holder so it stood out more.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Sewing Spool Holder

The horrid red drawers needed a pretty curtain to hide behind, so my Mum’s hubby fitted a rail for me from supplies he already had. I stitched a quick slide along curtain.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Drawer Unit

I decided to also make curtains for the window, but Tammy was not happy about me taking the old ones down and promptly sat on them. Next, I whipped up a crochet doily to sit underneath a plant pot.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Crochet Doily

Are you ready for the after shots?!!!! TA DA!!

The stool acting as a table also got painted and the Fabric Notice Board I made with my sister was finally hung.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Sewing Table

I spray painted a letter rack I had already to hold all my Post Circle mail, important letters, new pastel sharpies and my hand embroidered WI badge.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Fabric Noticeboard

Rachel and Harriet convinced me that I could keep a succulent alive (I always kill house plants) so I got this baby from Aldi!

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Desk

My spray painting marathon turned brown wicker baskets cream and blue to hold all my yarn, washi tapes and notebooks.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Baskets

The bookshelf area hasn’t changed much, except the spray painted boxes-now-magazine racks are housed on top and I have hung the “Dream” sign my Nan gave me.

Claireabellemakes Craft Room After Bookshelf

I covered the nasty yellow futon with a cream throw I already had (you can see it in the first shot) and Tammy seemed to love that and curled up immediately. I hung some bunting I received in a craft swap and added my Granny Squares Blanket.

The majority of my budget went on fabric for curtains because I wanted Clarke and Clarke Dotty. I think it was worth it as it really changes the room and I was chuffed to find it for £7.99 a metre on eBay, Bargain!

I painted the tray storage so it matched the table and stool and switched around the layout of the room.

BEFORE AND AFTER!

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Before

Claireabellemakes Craft Room Makeover

I managed to stretch the budget and tried to make the most of what I already had. I do enjoy finding ways to make something old look totally new and I think I achieved that.

It’s definitely more organised so I hope I can be a tidy crafter now!

Here’s my spend for the challenge:

  • Wooden Table from eBay – £10
  • Clarke and Clarke Curtain Fabric – £27.45 with postage from eBay
  • Plastikote Spray Paint (Cream) – £7.99 from Hobbycraft, already had the blue
  • Cream Paint - already had
  • Storage unit curtain fabric – already had
  • Wicker Baskets – already had
  • Small brown boxes – already had
  • Succulent Plant & Pot – £2.99 from Aldi
  • Chalkboard – £1 from Poundland

Total Spend: £49.43

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing some more details of my craft space up close, so don’t forget to come back! Sorry for going on about it, but it was a lot of hard work!

Claire

Posted in Craft, Handmade | Tagged , , , , , | 54 Comments

Claireabellemakes Does Cufflinks!

I’m very excited today to announce a new line of Claireabellemakes cufflinks, exclusively for The Little Cufflink Shop.

The Little Cufflink Shop

The online store has a wide selection of cufflinks and more recently have begun to support small business with cufflink ranges.

So if you are looking for the perfect Father’s Day gift, why not take a look at my range here. All cufflinks are shipped in a gift box with postage included in the price.

Grey Fabric Button Cufflinks

Grey Fabric Button Cufflinks
Scrabble Tile Initial Cufflinks
Wooden Scrabble Tile Initial Cufflinks
Black and White Checked Fabric Button Cufflinks
Black and White Checked Fabric Button Cufflinks

There will be more jewellery lines coming soon in my Etsy store, so be sure to sign up for the newsletter for sneak peeks and exclusive discount codes!

Claire

Posted in Craft, Handmade | Tagged , , , , | 16 Comments

Granny Square Blanket Ta Da

Almost a year ago I decided to learn how to crochet. Skip forward to May 2013 and I have finished my first Granny Square Blanket. I’ll admit there was a huge gap where this project just sat in my WIP basket, but a newly purchased Clover Amour crochet hook helped with the motivation to finish!

In my first Granny Squares class with NotSoGranny last year, I chose some pretty blue pastel colours in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino yarn and decided that my first ever granny square would be included in the blanket.

Here are some in WIP photos….

Blue Yarn Granny SquareThe Sheep Shop Yarn

Granny Squares by claireabellemakes

Not only does this blanket include my first ever granny square, it has also travelled to Canada and back and kept me busy on a long-haul flight where the entertainment system failed. FYI – Air Canada allow hooks and small scissors on board, yay!

Granny Square Blanket planning by claireabellemakes

In the end I went for a different layout to this image and set the coloured squares out in strips. I joined them with double crochet (seemed to take forever!) and then edged with 1 round of dc and 3 rounds of htr (UK stitches).

There are definitely messy bits in the blanket, but revisiting it and finishing it off was great, as it highlighted just how much I have learnt in the last year.

It’s a lap blanket size so will keep me cosy in my craft room from now on.

Here it is complete!

Crochet Granny Square Blanket by Claireabellemakes

Crochet Granny Square Blanket - Claireabellemakes

If you fancy trying your own Crocheted Granny Square, you can find a free tutorial on Ravelry here.

Claire

Posted in Craft, Handmade | Tagged , , , , | 37 Comments