the things we make and do

Inspiring Sugar Paper #9

2012-03-06T01:54:00.006-08:00

Oh and the awesome site that is ROOKIE!

Seleena's zine shop & NEW ZINE!!

2012-03-06T01:01:00.004-08:00

So one half of Sugar Paper, (me, Seleena), has opened an online shop for all the other zines I makes, check it out HERE.

I've also just completed my first ever illustrated zine....

A 60 page full colour zine featuring 30 jackets belonging to Gerard Way!!

Songs to leap around to...

2012-02-29T00:49:00.003-08:00

Happy leap Year!

Chocolate pancakes!

2012-02-21T01:40:00.003-08:00

HAPPY PANCAKE DAY!!
I'm still deciding what to make later on this evening, but here's a recipe form our #7 issue....

You will need:
-4oz/100g plain flour
-1/2 oz/ 20g cocoa
-Pinch of salt
-1 egg
-1/2 pint of milk
1- In a bowl, mix the flour, cocoa and salt.
2- Make a well in the centre of the mix and put in the egg. Mix in.
3- Add the milk gradually stirring well, so as not to have a lumpy mixture.
4- Heat a frying pan with a little oil. When hot turn to moderate heat and spoon in some of the pancake mix.
5- Cook well both sides (top tip keep the pancakes warm in the oven).

We served ours with a coconut sorbet! The recipe can be found in Sugar Paper #7.
ps tried to locate a picture but couldn't, but hey we all know what panckes look like right!?

I'm cocoa-nuts about you!

2012-02-14T09:24:00.000-08:00

So the last part of the valentines baking trilogy is a heart shaped cupcake.

here's how to make these raspberry, chocolate, coconut layer cakes...

You will need:

-6oz/175g margarine

-6oz/175g caster sugar

-Pinch of salt

-6oz/175g self raising flour

-3 eggs

-1 TBSP cocoa

-1 TBSP raspberries (mashed)

-2 TBSP dessicated coconut

-few drops of red food colouring

for the topping:

-4 TBSP icing sugar

-2oz/50g butter/margarine

-Few drops of vanilla essence

-Few drops of red food colouring

-dessicated coconut and raspberries to decorate

1.Pre heat oven to gas mark 4/180c

2.Beat together the sugar, margarine and salt.

3.Beat the eggs and mix in gradually with the flour.

4.Split mixture into two bowls.

5.In one bowl add the cocoa, mix well.

6.In the other add raspberries, coconut and food colouring and mix well.

7.Place cupcake cases in a baking tray (we used a heart shaped one!).

8.Layer in the mixtures alternately, IE desert spoon of choc mix, desert spoon of raspberry mix until 3/4s full.

9.Bake for around 15-20 minutes.

10. Leave to cool and prepare topping!

Topping:

1.Mix the icing sugar and marg/butter together until well blended.

2. Add drops of vanilla essence and food colouring.

3.Spread onto cakes and top with a sprinkle of dessicated coconut and a raspberry!

Your my only scONE

2012-02-14T07:21:00.006-08:00

Put a spin on this classic treat by, you guessed it, making it heart shaped.
For a tasty scone...

You will need:

-8oz/225g self raising flour

-Pinch of salt

-2oz/50g margarine

-1oz/25g caster sugar

-1 medium egg (beaten and mixed with enough milk to make 1/4 pint/150ml)

-Heart shaped cutter

1.Heat oven to gas mark 7/220c and grease a baking tray.

2. Mix flour and salt, rub* in the margarine. Stir in the sugar.

3.Add egg and milk mixture, saving a little to brush the tops.

4.Knead lightly onto a floured surface and roll out to about 1/2"/1cm thick. Cut out with heart shaped cutters (2 1/2"-3" width).

5.When used all of the scone mixture, brush the tops with the egg wash and bake for around ten minutes.

6.Serve with jam and clotted cream!

*Rubbing means just that, rub the mixture between your fingers for a fine crumb like mix!

Jam T'hearts!

2012-02-14T05:35:00.004-08:00

This is a super quick and easy heart shaped bake and different take on jam tarts.

You will need:

-Puff Pastry sheet
-Jam

-A little milk

-Heart shaped cutter

1. Leave the pastry out of the fridge for ten minutes.

2.Lightly grease a baking tray and pre heat the oven at gas mark 6/ 200 C.

3.Take a cutter, approx. 2" width and cut out hearts, lay on the baking tray.

4. Brush edge of pastry with a little milk.

5. Add half a teaspoon of jam on each pastry heart (put in a V/heart shape)

6.Bake for around ten minutes until the pastry is golden brown!

7.Serve alone or with some whipped/fresh cream!

An interview!!!

2012-02-14T01:45:00.004-08:00

This is a picture of us taken by Kate Holmes last week.
Kate is a PhD researcher writing a thesis on what part technology and social media plays within DIY culture.
She got in touch with us a few weeks ago asking if she could interview us (HELL YEAH).
We had a great time, I mean we LOVE to talk, and talk about ourselves! Speaking to Kate made me realise how much of a role the Internet does play in the making of Sugar paper (even though I love calling myself a technophobe!).
After the interview she asked if we had thought about/ been asked these kind of questions before (IE why we do what we do) Kandy said no, I said yes, as I think A LOT and have been interviewing myself about my various projects from a young age!
But then I paused and said not really, as much as I think about it, we never really get asked, not in depth, it's usually a few stock questions. It was nice. To question yourself, take a step back and think why DO we do this.
It made us leave feeling really glad that we do.

I think it helped that Kate was super nice (she bought us tea, was sporting a Tara McPherson watch and likes Harry Potter AND Lego, WIN WIN for us!) and asked us questions referring to craft and community, which we're passionate about!

You can read the post Kate wrote about us here and check the rest of the blog.

If I had the internet when I was 15 would I be as savvy?

2012-02-03T13:49:00.000-08:00

So that is a picture of me when I was 15. I'm pretty sure I thought I was well rad back then.
But last night I was having some kind of mid-late twenties crisis/ love for the next generation.
I was just perusing the web when I suddenly realised , there are A LOT of hella cool teens out there and I'm EXCITED ABOUT IT!
OK I had a oh my god I feel like they make 15 year old me look like I didn't do anything. But i know that's not the case, then I thought imagine what i could have done if 15 year old me had the Internet (it most probably would have been dangerous AND messy, I'm seeing rants and emo poetry for the world to see!)instead of getting it at home at the grand old age of 21.

We'll never know, but what i do know is that teenagers get a LOT of stick from everywhere, and I'm so happy to see so many productive and creative types in the ether. A prime example of this is (yes I know everyone is talking about this) Rookie Mag. It's Like Bust magazine reincarnated as my favourite teen mag Just 17.

plus their posts for 23rd of this month features a picture of one of my all time favourite albums That.Dog-Totally Crushed Out!

Alice In Wonderland....

2012-01-29T01:44:00.000-08:00

So the other day SP pal Alison informed me of an Alice In Wonderland exhibition at Tate Liverpool, only problem was it was coming to an end this weekend. So yesterday Alison, her significant other and myself (Kandy was busy helping at an SSRG roller derby bout) headed off to Liverpool.

The exhibition started on the ground floor with a few contemporary works inspired by the Alice stories. The only one that sticks in my mind is a series of neon light words hanging from the ceiling, from what we could gather these were just slang terms for vagina. It was incredibly 90s!

Then up to the 4th floor. The main room (or what I would call it, was a little bit confusing, no literature, cuts and going green meant lack of!) seemed to be more of a history of Lewis Carroll, with paintings by, of and inspired by him, photographs he took, pictures of the Liddell sisters (Alice and her two siblings).
To the left of that room, was probably my favourite part, original illustrations from the books, a collection of all the different illustrated books over the years and best of all original Alice MERCH!
Now Lewis Carroll was my kinda guy, he knew about merchandise, wooden toys, playing cards,

crockery!

Back in the main room, towards the end, was a collection of works by European surrealists with work loosely inspired by Alice. Which flowed into the next room with a collection of works by British surrealists.

What looked really amazing were a selection of films, that were in a small room off a corridor, which was obviously always busy and our hungry stomachs just couldn't sit it out, shame. So onto the next room which had selection of works from pop artists like Peter Blake and other works from the 60s/70s. One of my favourites were the three pieces from Adrian Piper:

There was also a collection of Alice inspired books, including a sci-fi one (that I want to read!) and this:

We headed on to look at more recent works which featured all sorts, paintings, illustrations, sculptures. A stand out piece for me was this etching (that I am useless and can't remember the artists name!)

We finished off and headed to the gift shop, where we we good and didn't spend a mint (lots of nice, but expensive things and who doesn't make badges?!?!).
Then left, feeling slightly cheated, but unsure as to why. The exhibition both not what we pictured, but then if we hadn't have gone, it would have been the raddest, weirdest, most psychedelic exhibition we never did see.
We stuffed our faces with the world's largest cheese on toast and the happy balance was restored!

.....

2012-01-20T12:07:00.001-08:00

It's Not A Fashion Statement, It's A F*CKIN DEATHWISH

2012-01-17T15:58:00.000-08:00

So the whole purpose of this blog is to document the things, Kandy and I, as a unit, sometimes separately, as Sugar Paper, make and do. It's where we gush about the things we love and talk all things craft (OK probably a lot more popular culture than craft goes on).
So this blog post may seem a little out of place. But I like to post often, and right now what I'm making and doing isn't related to Sugar Paper, so excuse me just this once.

My feminism, it isn't a fashion statement.

This year I will be one step closer to thirty, which could and should probably mean a lot of things, but I'm more likely to be worrying about then lack of wall space I have for postcards, or when is the next MCR record out than what I should be doing for my age.
But recently I have taking time out to stop and look around me and think about being younger and how I have changed. Because as much as your teenage self would loath to admit it, you DO change, and I think i have grown up. Not in the expected terms, I don't have a career, I still live at home, I'm currently wearing hello kitty pyjamas.
But what I've always been afraid of is not growing up, but growing stale, growing complacent, growing out of being angry.

When you're a teenager you ARE angry. Quite often you don't even know why you're just royally pissed off, inwards, outwards, just out and out angry. You get older you realise you're still angry. Just a different kind of angry.

Only being angry isn't very becoming as you get older, or so I'm led to believe.
All those angry people I once knew seemed to have disappeared.Thrown away with their teenage memorabilia. The fight is won. sexism, racism, classicism, homophobia doesn't exist.

As A working class black female, I can tell you it does.

Growing up for me didn't and doesn't mean becoming comfortable, feeling that these issues no longer apply to me therefore are non existent. It means still being angry about these injustices, but just learning to direct that anger and channel it in a more productive and proactive way.

so, yeah, my feminism, it's not a fashion statement, it's a f*cking deathwish.

WHY DON'T YOU MAKE A ZINE...

2012-01-10T10:46:00.000-08:00

Whilst I'm on a stop motion kick, check out this video from Salford Zine Library....

Reading is sexy....

2012-01-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

Stop motion. Colour blocking. organising. books. HEAVEN!

TEN!!!!

2012-01-04T12:04:00.000-08:00

So, 2011 seemed to be the year for the number ten.
My cat Ned turned ten, the Final Harry Potter was released, ten years since the first one, it was ten years since 9/11 (and ten years to that day my sister graduated), My Chemical Romance were ten years old, ten years since Le Tigre's Feminist Sweepstakes was released, ten years since I left school (OK that last one's a lie, it was 11 years!).

But Screw all that 2k12 is the year for important ten related things as...
SUGAR PAPER WILL RELEASE IT'S TENTH ISSUE!!

I'm super stoked as I don't think I've ever produced a zine past it's third issue, I'm sure we will celebrate some way.
Also...
It will be ten years since The Radical Cheerleaders Of The North formed. This might also be cause for celebration, perhaps in the form of a reformation, watch this space......

Kandy: My year in lists

2012-01-01T11:22:00.000-08:00

...what Seleena said about concentrating on the positives, I'm all about the positives! So here are my 2011 highlights!!! Probs not chronological and defnintly some repititions from Seleena's list.

YSP trips
Trip to Roller Derby tournament where I fell in love with New Skids on the block
Met and got tattooed by the lovely and awesomely talented Sunny Buick
Visited portmeirion and had an all round awesome adventure in Wales
Public Roller Derby debut
Harry Potter premiere with Holly Horcrux
Knitted NanciesWrote a knitting pattern for a book
Roller Skated a Marathon
Sugar papers 7 & 8
Filey seaside and rock factory trip
Belgium - waffles, chocolate and my first festival experience

I'm sure there are lots of things I'm missing off, but looking back at this, there were some pretty good parts to 2011, bring on 2012!!!

Seleena: My Year In Lists....

2012-01-01T09:14:00.000-08:00

So, 2011 had it's fair share of ups and downs, for friends, family and myself, it seemed everybody was falling apart at the seams (you may be aware I started the year of with a long, lingering nasty eye infection, not a good start!). But who wants to dwell on the bad, we want to remember the good.
So here it is, my high points of 2011, a paragraph of positives, my year in lists... (in chronological order, obvs!)

Grrrl gang fun at YSP*Diego Luna*Quitting a job I hate telling my boss she's a dick*Finding a new job pretty quickly*Making bold statements calling myself an artist*TEAM KILLJOY*Craft Fairs*Zine Fairs*TEAM CARAVAN*(Best)Welsh birthday*Portmerion*Tap dance debut*Family do*Zine making*Nickie's birthday otters*Impromptu trip to Belgium*JEW & MCR (in daylight)*Grant Morrison*Surprising pals in London at Bad Rep*PARIS* Parisienne fun times with me besties*Getting tattooed by SUNNY BUICK*TBS*Kandy's Derby debut*Pinup Pop up bowling*HALLOWEEN!!*Dananananaykroyd*Eating*Making shit*Charlotte's Christmas tree pizza & Jam*Home Alone at the cinema*Christmas*Christmas cooking*YSP.

Hoping for many more adventures in 2012!
EDIT: I FORGOT ABOUT MY CRAFT BOOK DEBUT!!!

Endangered Species...

2011-12-29T01:40:00.000-08:00

So, if you skip all the way back to the beginning of the year on this blog, you'll note that our first road trip of 2011 was to The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, so it seemed fitting that our last road trip of 2011 was there too, it all comes full circle.
Only this time our gang was just the two of us (Kandy and I), I didn't have a gammy eye and snow wasn't covering the ground, in fact it was gloriously sunny, I wrapped up so much remembering the frostiness of our previous trip, that I was almost sweating!

This time round there were two amazing exhibitions for us to visit, the first being Endangered Species by Donna Wilson.
This one was obviously like porn for knit freak Kandy, but I loved it too.

Not just her knitted pieces, Donna had featured some illustrations and watercolour paintings too.
But the best part was the installation of knitted creatures and tress and things, featuring some of the best colourways I've seen in years!

The second exhibition is by the awesome and lovely Rachel Goodyear.

Having previously only seen her work in illustrated form, it was a joy to see other works including 3D pieces and animation. So good.
We also took in the sculptures on the grounds too, because we just love art!!! We liked this giant coat a lot (giant/miniature things always a winner at camp Sugar Paper!).

We're an interactive kinda pair too, just look at us here getting in on the 90s euro looking sculptures....

We then acted rate posh and had our lunch at The YSP cafe, where Kandy probably gave herself pink wee eating sooo much beetroot, before browsing the gift shop and heading home.

The Rachel Goodyear exhibition sadly ends next week, but Donna Wilson is on until the end of February, catch them both if you can!

You Guys Give Up , Or You Thirsty For More

2011-12-23T14:30:00.000-08:00

So on Tuesday, Kandy, Katie (my oldest friend) and I went to the cinema to see HOME ALONE!!!

I saw this at the cinema when I was a child, all the way back in 1990!! And then I became obsessed with it, got it on VHS and watched it solidly for a good few years, all year round, not just at Christmas.
It's the one film I know every line, every nuance, every shoulder shrug. So I was super excited to see it on the big screen again.
I noticed two things I had never noticed before, a Bruce Springsteen video above the VCR and a full built gingerbread house near the kitchen TV (what a waste, I mean the McCallisters were supposed to be in France!). I also realised Kevin IS a massive brat. Oh Macaulay, how you never fully formed into an adult!
It got us all feeling very festive and nostalgic for family films that once were, before the world became so PC, they'd never let an 8 year old bare a firearm these days!
MERRY CHRISTMAS, KEEP THE CHANGE YA FILTHY ANIMAL!

Every Snowflake Is Different....

2011-12-14T07:43:00.001-08:00

It's Christmas, a time to get well crafty and make a shit ton of well shit!
So all my Christmasses came early the other day when i discovered one of my favourite bands are appearing on one of my favourite (modern IE post 90s!!) shows.
I then had a sudden urge to make paper snowflakes (I make it sound like it was completely unconnected). And after just making a load to go onto friends Christmas cards, I realised I probably haven't made any since PRIMARY SCHOOL, what the hell! (i do have an aversion to paper crafts).
Well I was going to have a mini make and do right here, but due to a number of things (time constraints, lack of equipment to take pictures and just pure laziness) I'm not, but I will say for any oldies who have forgotten how to make them and seem to end up with a big pile of cut out triangles and not much else, here's a paper snowflake tutorial for you!
And because I'm super nice, an early Christmas present.....

(ps MCR, Tori Spelling, Leslie Hall, hello dreams!!!!)

5.8 x 4.1 Exhibition

2011-12-05T01:37:00.000-08:00

Five point eight by four point one is an exhibition of postcards by artists to raise funds for Manchester School Of Art's 3rd year embroidery students.

Kandy, Ben and myself have all got postcards in the exhibitions. Bidding is on NOW and closes on Thursday 8th December!

We'll be making a visit then, you should too!

Breaking Dawn: Part 1

2011-12-01T13:49:00.000-08:00

Regular Sugar Paper Gang blog readers will know that Kandy and I are a fan of the Twilight saga. Reading the books, buying the tat, attending the midnight showing. Yet somehow, this time it took us a week to to finally get round and see it! why is that?

Is it because Kandy and myself are so consumed with Harry Potter and MCR love (respectively)? because we just couldn't find the time to all go? Or because we were too frightened at the prospect of it actually being a film?

ALL OF THE ABOVE.

So I'm just going to say that I read Breaking Dawn and I really didn't like it, I was so disappointed by it I wrote my own version (Breaking Down). In fact I would go as far to say it's the worst book I ever read (and I've read Elizabeth Wurtzel's sequel to Prozac Nation).

So I'll try and keep this brief and coherent, WHAT THE F#'! WAS THAT!!

Admittedly the things I hated in the book were a little watered down for the film, but still.
These things in case you're wondering are....

Racism- only slight in the Brazilian jaunt, most of that will be in part two though.

Sexism- there's the whole pressure into getting married, the whole sex thing, the anti choice, the sex is bad, babies are bad, but keep them they will be loved, the whole Vampire male= super human vs mere female= human and therefore the weaker link when it DOES come to the sex.
Slight paedophilia- imprinting on a child, sorry but NO!

And then of course all those images of babied-up ill Bella circulating pro-anorexia sites!

But I knew all that was going to happen, so I can't really complain.
I can complain about what actual children will gain from it!
I mean there wasn't one thing in the film that they could surely enjoy ( I saw a girl around 10-11 leaving and wanted to say DID YOU ENJOY THAT, HOW?!?!?!?). I mean the only bit that didn't mess with your head was the Bella Edward almost sex in the sea scene, but when your ten, you think that stuff is gross right?

OK, so without my feminist vs mormon author review, what about the film?

It left me confused, really confused. I mean it was part tween horror (Edward ripping demon baby from sickly Bella's womb). Part quirky indie rom com (that Bella getting ready for sex scene) Part child fantasy (the wolves). Part 80s teen sci-fi (all that inner body venom stuff!) and last but not least part 90s teen film (THOSE CLOSING TITLES!!!! What were they? I half expected The Donnas to leap out and start playing!).

I'll tell you one thing though, despite the fact the make up department has forever made the Cullen's look like they just shared one pot of Snazzaroo between them, they made Kristin Stewart look bloody awful (no pun intended).

It was as hilarious and harrowing as a David Lynch rip off, and as anti everything I believe in as much as a white middle class man stopping a young black girl enter an abortion clinic!

Who knows what will happen to me when I watch Part 2!

in short......

WHAT WAS THAT!

Salford zine fair presents PRINTOMANIA!!!!!

2011-11-29T02:20:00.000-08:00

We shall be selling our wares at Printomania, screw the arndale, this is where Christmas shopping should be done!!!

All I Want For Christmas....

2011-11-22T04:45:00.000-08:00

So it's almost Christmas, the time where I get excited and stressed in equal measures, mainly because I decide I'm not going to buy people gifts, I'm going to make them, this usually happens a far too near Christmas.
So if you too, like me realise you haven't left enough time for all these grand crafting plans, then check out this list of awesome gifts....

For your cat loving pal:
Let's be honest, cats faces appear on pretty much anything, but what your feline loving friend really wants is this ace Bandit cushion by Knit And Destroy.

For your bookworm bessie:
If your friend already has a load of books and you don't know what to get, how about a bag to carry all their books?! Try this tote from Manchester based Mr.PS.

John Waters once said a book is the best gift and "If you go home with somebody and they don't have any books, don't F*#! 'em" and he knows what he's talking about so if you do want to buy a book, I recommend this one, Bare Essentials The Best Of Nude Magazine. Now Nude is one of my favourite magazines and I discovered some of my favourite artists through Nude!

For the filthy friend:
Speaking of John Waters, if you too have a load of bad taste buddies, then they will definitely appreciate this badge set from Bunny Bissoux.

For the retro rebel:
What to get for the pin-up pretty who loves a good tattoo or two? Well this sticker pack from glamour puss Sunny Buick should do the trick, inspired by her own tattoo flash, these stickers will look good anywhere!

For the getbusy gyal:
Keep you skater pal warm on the street this winter with these gloves from getbusystore, with the option for the twee mitten style or Frank Iero fingerless!

For the soul sister:
Do you sometimes wish you and your bff could be twins because you're so alike you feel like you are? Well the get this beautiful locket from The Black Apple and feel like soul sisters!

For the crafty friend:
That's right you guessed it, that friend wants The State Of Craft book, featuring Kandy and myself and a host of many more.
They also most definitely want something from the Sugar Paper Shop!!

For the friend who's life needs saving:
Then all they need is to watch My So-Called Life. Angela Chase and friends know what it's like to have a zit, have unrequited love, be unsure, not fit in, hate your parents and have Julian Hatfield follow you round, just like you! Get this and your friend will eternally be grateful. can be watched time and time again, year after year and bonding sessions dying your hair crimson glow and weeping at the Christmas special will always bring you and your pal closer!

All Kandy wants for Christmas is a ticket to the HP studios, all I want is some dapper tap shoes and to listen to this on repeat.....

Sugar Paper #8 OUT NOW

2011-11-17T13:21:00.001-08:00

Yes Sugar Paper #8 is available now.

One of things we show you how to make is a cape like this.....

also includes Taxidermy bird, knitted slippers, cross stitch calender, recipes, puzzle and a free peg to make a peg doll AND MUCH MORE.
BUY HERE!

SP#8 gone to the printers

2011-11-14T03:26:00.001-08:00

Yes Sugar Paper # 8 is off to the printers, it seems like we've been making it FOREVER, we've been very laid back about this one and next thing you know it's mid November, anyway here's a sneak peek....

This is the lino print cover made for us by Bryony Jackson, and inside sees the likes of taxidermy, tasty cookie recipe, knitted slippers, peg doll, puzzle and MUCH MORE!!!

Bust Craftacular

2011-11-13T12:06:00.000-08:00

So we gave it a miss last year, but this year sees the return of Sugar Paper at The Bust Craftacular and this time its Knit And Destroy vs Sugar Paper!
yes come down and see Kandy's knits and our zines, sat next in to each other, mixed with whatever zines of my own I manage to print.
York hall, Bethnal Green London. November 27th 12-6.

HOT TOPIC*

2011-11-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

So we're all aware of the Le Tigre song Hot Topic right? If not I'm talking about this...

So I'm sure we all say we know who everyone who is name checked in that song (admit it, I will, after I went to a Carolee Schneeman And Eleanor Antin when I was in my mid teens, I thought I was the SHIT in reality you'd usually find me on the dance floor shouting ARIEL SCHRAG and THE BUTCHIES MAN and miming the rest.)

So imagine my delight when ,my all round awesome pal Leesey made this zine.

It's a brief run down of all those name checked in the song hot topic!! all set amongst colourful paper with illustrations. It made me want to check out every name on the list (something I told myself I would start ten years ago, I'm halfway there!)

I'd also like to take the time out to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Leesey, she is celebrating a big birthday this Wednesday (you never reveal a ladies age, but let's Say Frank Iero just celebrated this age MCR fans!)
She would most definitely be on my Hot Topic list.....

xxx

*apologies if you hoped this post was aboput every teen american pop punk emo's favourite store Hot Topic!

BABES CRAFT!!

2011-11-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

So Kandy aren't so much babes, we're too lazy for that, we might get our glam on like twice a year. But my friend Jennie is a consistent glamour puss, she also has proper good nails. Where as Kandy and I have crafters nails (short, thin, broken off, flaky) so we probably won't try this out, but when Jennie showed me this I was in awe, one of my favourite things to make and do (we featured it in Sugar Paper #6.
I present Marbling your nails!!!!!

Hood Pattern For Cape.

2011-11-02T02:47:00.000-07:00

So you have yourself a copy of Sugar Paper #8 and made yourself an awesome cape, but the winter nights have drawn in, or you just really like head wear and you want a hood on your cape.
Follow this simple pattern!

There are complex ways of making the perfect hood, but we haven't got time for that, so here is the simple version.

You will need:

-fabric the same as your cape

-lining (optional)

-scissors

-tailors chalk and pins

-needle and thread (sewing machine)

-a hooded garment

-tape measure

1- First off, take your cape and fold it in half (so the opening is the front and back has the fold), now measure the neckline. Make a note of this.

2- Take your hooded garment and fold in half the same way. Now place on top of your fabric. Draw round the hood with the tailors chalk. Remove garment.

3- Measure the distance of the neckline of your drawn on hood pattern, adjust so it is the same length of the neckline of your cape (remember it is just a half measurement).

4- Cut out the pattern leaving a couple of cms form the line for seam allowance. Place face side down on the fabric and cut another piece (repeat with lining if hood is to be lined.

5- Stitch the two hood pieces together (right sides together) with running stitch, turn out and hem the front of the hood.

6- if adding a lining, stitch the lining pieces together, then pin, right sides together the hood and the lining and stitch around the hood the front of the hood.

7- Now to attach to the hood to the cape. Pin the bottom edge of the hood along the neckline of the cape (so the raw edges are facing in. and stitch together with running stitch, then over stitch the edges to keep from fraying.

Now your hooded cape is ready to wear!

State Of Craft... is here!!

2011-11-01T05:13:00.000-07:00

So, I got my copy of State Of Craft this weekend and in between Halloween fun and my brother's birthday I've had a quick read and it RAD!!

So you think I might be biased as both Kandy and I have projects featured in it, but I'm not. It's a good craft book, with well written how to's (all explained with a few cheap jokes and puns, Sugar Paper's favourite way to explain something!) of your basics like knitting, sewing, crochet and more. With over 60 projects to do ranging from knitted ones to woodwork, sewing to decoupage, then there's some interviews with some of indie crafts finest if you feel like picking the book up but not making!
And to top it off, it's a nice handy size!
GO BUY IT!

Happy Halloween!!!

2011-10-31T02:39:00.000-07:00

Black Power Mix Tape

2011-10-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

So, October is the month of Halloween, it's also Black History Month. And to celebrate this I took my mum and went to see Black Power Mix Tape at the weekend.
I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who wanted to know about Black Power and the Black Panther Movement (from the years 1967 - 1975) or just if you want to be in awe of Angela Davis.

SALE!!!!!

2011-10-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

It's the F#*! Christmas It's Almost Halloween Sale!!

Yes we can't all queue up outside Woolworths for bargains now, but you can't get yourself to the Sugar Paper Shoppe and buy some sale things for you, a friend or even someone you hate if your that way inclined.
TREAT YR SEN, tis the season to dress up, blow shit up and fill your belly up!

Christmas Crafty Decorations...

2011-10-14T13:07:00.000-07:00

WHAT!! CHRISTMAS!?! We haven't even had the colder months other amazing holidays that are Halloween and Bonfire night (Sugar Paper favourites!) and I'm talking about Christmas!

Well we have put together these kits to make great decorations for your tree, and we want to make sure you have chance to make them and get them up, anyway some people put their decorations up super early!

get yours here.

This is Keana's Candyland in Portland, Oregon a weird yet wonderful place I got to visit!
Also it's not too early for a Christmas song is it?

Bryony Jackson...

2011-10-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

Here at Sugar paper HQ we are putting the almost finishing touches to Sugar Paper #8. This issue has a whole host of exciting stuff, and that starts with the cover.
This issue we got the great Bryony Jackson to work her magic!

Bryony is a super amazing artist based in Manchester, a multi talanted printer, illustartor, toy maker and more!!

She makes a world of weird and wonderful characters in amazing colours, plus she is a fellow '90s fan! Check her out here.

......

2011-10-10T05:00:00.001-07:00

Hello we are Bis from Glasgow Scotland...

2011-10-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

I have a confession, I have a secret love. A love of singing, in a Glaswegian accent.
I can't help it, I can't sing but give me a good Scottish indie pop song to sing along to and I think I'm the best singer EVER!
It all started in the mid 90s when my (second) favourite band was Bis (my first Placebo, I liked black bobs A LOT back then). and then a whole host of other Glaswegian bands fell onto my radar and I was hooked.
But then all those bands, well disbanded and it wasn't until I heard ONE TWO THREE FOUR and ARE THESE ATOMS? THESE ARE ATOMS! out of the mouths of Danananaykroyd that I remembered my secret passion. And it came flooding back, it's not just singing either, I've been reading Grant Morrison's Supergods book in a Glaswegian accent too!
And now they are no more.
And so in honour of those Scottish bands, past and (not for much longer) present, here are some of my favourites, sing along as Glaswegian as you can (even Urusei Yatsura who sound more 'American' and I met hottie Fergus in the late noughties and he is totally from Salisbury/shrewsbury/somewhere more south than Manchester!).

Lemon & Raspberry Madeira Cake

2011-09-29T01:42:00.000-07:00

So we all know from our Paris adventures that it was Kandy's birthday last month, but because of us being away and then just timing, I didn't get to make her a cake until a week or so later.
I decided to go more for the taste then the novelty this year.

So here is how I made a lemon and raspberry Platform 9 3/4 cake!!

You will need:

-50z/150g butter or margarine

-50z/150g caster sugar

-3 medium eggs, lightly whisked

-8oz/225g self raising flour

-few drops of lemon essence

-lemon peel

-punnet of raspberries

For the topping;

-half a tub of mascapone

-few spoons of icing sugar

-juice of half a lemon

-food colouring (black and brown)

Heat the oven to gas mark 4/180c and grease a loaf tin.

1-Cream the butter/marg and the sugar, beat in the eggs with a little flour.

2- Add the essence and raspberries, then fold in the remaining flour.

3- bake for about 1 1/4 hours, place peel on top after half an hour in the oven

leave to cool. For the topping.

4-Mix some icing sugar with lemon juice until you have a thick consistency. Add the mascapone and mix well.

5- Split into a third and two thirds. Add black food colouring to the third and brown to the other.

6- I placed the cake on a board covered in brown paper, with drawn on train tracks! I put the cake on its side and iced the front (the top) and the sides.

7- Add brickwork detail with a cocktail stick.

8-For the finishing touches I placed a Lego luggage trolley on one side and a Hogwarts Express on the other!

Dodgebrawl....

2011-09-23T03:37:00.000-07:00

So last weekend saw me heading to Sheffield for Kandy's roller derby debut! her first public bout as Cyndi Slaughter #83 for Sheffield Steel Roller Girls against some rad lasses from Nottingham Roller Girls!

I was super excited to see her do her stuff, I took my seat and watched with her sister and dad and she and the other girls, skated, jammed, fell, knocked and all round wore me out!!!

It was a good bout and Sheffield took the win, WELL DONE LADIES!!!

Next up was the UK's first co-ed bout (that's boys and girls vs boys and girls folks!!!!). Members of Manchester's, Lincolnshire's, Birmingham's and Nottingham's derby teams, teamed up to form Average Joe's vs Purple Cobras (yes just like the film Dodgeball!). I opted for supporting Average Joe's because everyone likes an underdog (plus this team had members of Manchester Roller Derby in, so I had to!).

The bout was a nail biting one, a real close call but Average Joe's won in the end!
The day finished off with a roller disco, where I attempted to skate round without getting tired. Roller discos are hard, I can only just skate on wheels never mind dance, but I love to dance.
Disco smoke included, fun was had!

*photos taken by Jason Ruffell

Inspiring Sugar Paper #8....

2011-09-21T06:48:00.000-07:00

Once more with feeling....

2011-09-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

So remember back in April when I made my bff Nick a t shirt inspired by Kobra Kid's? Well I just thought I'd share the moment when Mikey F#@!$N Way (aka Kobra Kid) admired this tshirt as it was on Nick's back. Apparently he was a sweetheart and said he liked the top, if that isn't a seal of approval I don't know what is!

State Of Craft

2011-09-07T02:31:00.000-07:00

So we can finally tell you all WE'RE GOING TO BE IN A CRAFT BOOK!

yes that's right Kandy and myself will have a make and do in a hot new craft book State Of Craft, out in October.

Check us out on the cover, Kandy's paintbrush scarf and my orange needle book (on the table!).

Put it on every crafters Christmas list!

Tinnitus

2011-09-04T13:37:00.000-07:00

So I have just finished reading issue one of Tinnitus. From the pen of Benjamin Cooney.

Ben is a regular at Sugar Paper towers, being the other half of S.P's other half, Kandy and Sugar Paper contributor, illustrating the cover for issue 6.
The first official outing (there was the teaser in the form of issue zero) of Tinnitus is super rad and I urge anyone to grab themselves a copy, do that here!

(Crochet) Craft Idols....

2011-09-04T01:57:00.000-07:00

So we haven't talked abut other craftsters that inspire us for a while, we've been busy crafting (and mostly working!) so we thought we'd do a double whammy.
It's no breaking news flash that we love a bit of novelty here, something that looks like something else and throw a pun in and we're away. Add a touch of crochet and we're in heaven!
On the note take a look at...
Kate jenkins....
Kate is founder of Knitwear company Cardigan, but it's her crocheted art that we heart. Crocheting favourite foods form Golden Syrup to penny mix ups. Sequined fish and chips to a pack of smokes, all with clever craft related name changes!

And if food related items are one of your favourite things like ours, then look at the all kinds of rad from....
Twinkie Chan....
Twinkie makes the most awesome of crocheted scarves, all your favourite fast food and sweet treats good enough to eat, have to make do with wearing them I suppose! She has also published a book so you too can make your own tasty crocheted treats!

The Day The Eiffel Tower Went Bezerk....

2011-08-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

So last week Sugar Paper and friends went on a trip to Paris. The trip combined two of my besties birthdays and some awesome tattoos! It went a little like this....

I picked up birthday girl number one, my oldest pal Katie outside Maccy D's to get the bus to town,to the train station where we picked up birthday girl number two Kandy and then picked up the last Parisian pal Alison on the train. Scoffed down some of Katie's leftover birthday cake and got excited.
A pretty routine check in (thankfully nobody(Katie!)got their million toiletries confiscated) followed by birthday pizza served to us by Manchester airports answer to an EMO Pee Wee Herman and off we flew.

I last travelled with air France in 1998 (my first and last visit to Paris on a french exchange trip) on the flight there we got a free croissant and orange juice. Air France are not affected by the recent economic crisis as we got offered free snacks and beverage on this flight, yes mate!

The first night was supposed to be spent having a toast for Katie but by the time we make it to the hotel we are too tired, Katie enjoys the wine we got at the corner shop, the cheap rum is exactly that cheap, we go to bed excited for tattooing!

Wednesday, an early rise so we can make it to Sunny Buick's studio for 11am, some gals are gonna get inked, eeek!

A walk to Sunny's end of town with a quick stop for a baked goods breakfast and we're there, a little nervous, but as soon as we step into Sunny's studio and she greets us with a smile and offers us tea (she had it ready knowing English girls love their tea) we knew we were in great company.
A little thought about the placement of my tattoo meant I was to have mine the next day, first up, Alison with her Little Red Riding Hood snow globe tattoo. The rest of us chat and look at all the cool things Sunny has (from her artwork to her dice collection!)We head off for a bit of fresh air, to return to marvel at Alison's tattoo. Then a spot of lunch.

Up next, Kandy and her knitting Nancy. Another trip out for fresh air, which was spoiled by hoards of Parisian men being completely leery and gross. Walking down the street untouched is apparently not an option. Sunny had some great advice about this, she said don't worry you don't speak the same language, just shout GET AWAY FROM ME COCKSUCKER!!!!

Kandy finishes off, we marvel at the tattoo and bid Sunny goodbye until Thursday afternoon.
Head back to the hotel, tattooing is tiring, a freshen up and off out for tea, get shunned at a pizza place for entertaining the idea of sharing two pizzas, pfft, but manage to find some tasty rice, tofu, spring rolls combo where we don't get told off and the bin almost sets on fire from a cigarette!

A hop on the metro and we arrive at the Palais de Tokyo for fun in the Amelie photo booth, but it's shut, but it's OK we soon get distracted by the SPARKLY EIFFEL TOWER! We make our way down through the Trocadero, stopping to watch some folk swing dancing, we sigh and realise it is quite a beautiful city. We finally get up close and personal to the Eiffel Tower, but not before having a go on the Carousel!
We sit for a while but leave as we get sick of the street sellers trying to sell us champagne and cigarettes!

Thursday, the day of my tattoo, but not until the afternoon, so we spent the morning (after having a proper french breakfast!) sight seeing, first stop The Louvre, then onto the bridge that is full of padlocks of love, we spent a good bit of time on there! Then we managed to find Laduree, the maccaron place Sunny recommend to us, we were going to sit in but time was ticking and tattoo appointments were calling and we didn't want to rush, we stared at a cake that looked like an ACTUAL SPONGE modelled like a strawberry, then left and made our way to Sunny's.

I got my tattoo done, a sewing related one with 'Make Do And Mend' written. I really enjoyed getting tattooed by Sunny, she has some super story's and is a crafty gal herself! She gave us all some free stuff (as she's ace) we then bought other bits of hers and reluctantly left.

Headed back to the hotel for a freshen up, not before a stop for some wine and bottled cocktails. We had a sit down and drunk our drinks, that seemed to go to our head! We realised time was ticking and we didn't want to miss Palais De Tokyo again so rushed out.
We only had 15 minutes before closing so squashed ourselves in the photo booth and pulled out our best poses, a stripmof us all each, a strip of solo ones each, before you know it they had locked the doors not knowing we were there, a few minutes of photo developing and we left!!
All that drinking and posing gave us a hunger so we headed towards Notre Dame and stopped off nearby for some falafels, yum. A mini tat stop shop and some sight seeing of Notre Dame.

We then set off for a bar Katie wanted to go to that we found in a guide book, yeah guide books sometimes suck, we eventually found it and despite being listed as a bar not eatery everyone was just sat down eating, pfft. So we headed back and got a cocktail from our local!

Friday was a non tattoo day, so we leisurely got up, ate breakfast was we wandered to Montmatre.
Another day of sightseeing and typical tourist fan stuff and yes TAT SHOPPING!!!!!!
we made it to Sacre Couer, but noticed an outsider art gallery nearby, went in but sadly you had to pay and we were getting low on funds (we needed to buy tat!) so just browsed the gift shop, bought some postcards (we bought A LOT of postcards this holiday!).
We don't head up to Sacre Couer straight away, we get distracted by tat shops and carousels!! we have a go round and the sun come sout, full beam. We have a scvuffle with some rude street sellers who think it's ok to harras and touch you IT IS NOT!

We walk up the steps towards Sacre Couer and I see a group of girls who I can tell look English, I recognise one and think it's someone I know from home, I thought don't be stupid, then Alison says It's Nikki from As If (early noughties CH4 teen drama!) CELEBRITY SPOT OF THE DECADE!!!!!!

After we get over that amazing celebrity spot we walk down to the old town and spend far too long picking postcards of doe eyed children (in the cool 70s way not some weirdo I love kiddie pictures way!) Pass by the fruit & veg stall featured in Amelie, Kandy gets an apple that is pretty gross, my nectarine is OK! Then we stop off for lunch in the Amelie cafe, yeah tourist time!
It's such a lovely place, the right mix of old and new, not too cool and quite laid back, the foods pretty tasty too, we get all french cuisine and have a vegetarian croque monsiuer, followed by our first macarons, YUM!
After a good few hours at the cafe, we get on our feet and look at the Moulin Rouge, it's too busy for us to recreate the Lady Marmalade video, even though we assigned each other roles, pfft. We decide we want an ice cream and some grass, so head to a cemetery! It's not got anyone we know in, but we have a quiet walk round and a sit in the sun, goffs. Before heading back to the madness, picking up an ice cream and heading back to the hotel.

We finally manage to catch a happy hour and head to the local for a cocktail. Then back up to Notre Dame for falafel take tow and some serious tat shopping, like SERIOUS!!!! We all manage to get what we need and then some, it's super busy, so we grab a couple of crepes and head home, for the last time.

It's packing and sadness in the hotel and dread of thinking about getting up at stupid o'clock.

It's Kandy's birthday and it's 5am!!

We make it to the airport stress free and get in, super hungry and can't manage to find any food, but do notice a Laudredee in the airport so we spend a while picking some macarons. We eventually find somewhere for breakfast and we spend the last of our Euro's......

We board the plane and get sleepy and sad, Paris it was a blast!

Our Deal....

2011-08-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

So we've been our holidays, which I'm sure you'll hear about soon. But for now, this is pretty much wahy I wanna be in a grrrl gang (Girl gangs+Drew Barrymore+Best Coast=YES!)

Best Coast

Sheffield......

2011-08-16T04:50:00.000-07:00

So it's all going off in Sheffield in the next month or so and we are totally invited, now you are too!

First off is this rad event at Site Gallery in Sheffield...

We will have some zines for sale at the event, thanks to the lovely folk of Rotherham Zine Library.

Then we see the derby debut of half of Sugar Paper, Kandy is gonna kick some (wheeled) ass at Dodgebrawl.

Followed by the first Sheffield Zine fair, where we will be having a stall, get on that!

GETBUSY!!!!

2011-08-12T03:33:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've seen me talk about the rate good'un that is Em Ledger on these pages, well have I told you she is an awesome business cat?

She runs rad webstore getbusy, a site catering towards women and girls involved in street and urban lifestyles, girls who like to get busy!

Stocking everything from Volcom to Deathwish and non for profit items from Skateistan, Afghanistan's first skateboarding school! Y'all should definitely check it out!

And if that isn't enough to convince you, then I'm a resident getbusy blogger!

....

2011-08-04T02:31:00.000-07:00

We saw the Vivian Girls the other week and this was one of my favourites of new songs live, even more so after this! Kandy gets the pink bedspread and me the blue!

IT ALL ENDS!!!!

2011-07-27T07:19:00.000-07:00

Now for a post from the other (much less frequent blogging) half of Sugar Paper zine, it's KD bringin you the HP...no, not the sauce....the Harry Potter!!!

I am a MASSIVE Harry Potter fan, this fact was recently proven by my ability to KILL a magazine based Harry Potter quiz and in turn have all my sister's friends gawp at me as I recite 'Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore' ! As you must all know, the FINAL installment in the film series was recently released along with a rather final poster campaign..IT ALL ENDS.

I know a lot of people who are big fans of the books don't like or watch the films, and over the years I have had more than a few bones to pick with them..but I have come to see them as separate entities to the books, I think that is the only way to fully enjoy the films! Also, I never re-read the book that I'm about to see the film of, last time I did this was for Prisoner of Azkaban...Never Again!!!

So, I am into the books AND the films, they are my go-to films...nothing on, just want to lie on the sofa and drink hot chocolate, I'll put a Harry Potter on!

In early June it hits me...this is it, the last EVER film, the last bit of Harry Potter to be released, the curtain of doom starts to fall...right, I'd better stop being sad and start making plans and make the most of it. A trip to the premiere and of course midnight showing are in order.

The Premiere planning starts, messages are sent to Holly Horcrux to arrange logistics (where to get the portkey to etc) and the countdown begins! The Premiere is on a Thursday night so being ever so very prepared I decide to travel down on the Wednesday night...only to find out on the Tuesday there's already hundreds of people there, aaaaaahhhh! Arrive at St Pancras late Wednesday night, meet my fellow witch and travel past Trafalgar Square to her flat. There are LOADS of people there already, we get really excited and decide we need to come back as early as possible. The only thing that stopped us staying then and there was that Holly didn't have her Hogwarts uniform on!

Two hours sleep and a good strong cup of tea later we're back, it's 4am and we find the queue we need to join for wristbands to gain access to the main area. Thinking about breakfast and if we will get a wristband, we wait....generally surprised at the lack of dressing up and anxious! Then we hear 'anyone a 2?' there are some girls making their way down the line with 2 spare wristbands that they got yesterday, looking for 2 people to take them off their hands. There are 2 girls directly in front of us after the wristbands, but they are pushy, we have full uniforms on and we are nice...we win the wristbands, hooray!

Photographic evidence of wristband, taken back at home with my Kitten Sirius Black.

Now for breakfast where I get VERY confused in McDonalds, I think someone has put the confundus charm on me. Post breakfast, it's about 5.30am, we head back to Trafalgar square and get exciiited. This is the spot where we stood for a large part of the day, great view of the Neville and Snape banners, stage and steps, sweeet!

But we don't have to stay put, we have wristbands so can come and go as we please, and it's stil very early. A cup of tea is soon in order. We go for hot chocolate followed by a (pretty rubbish) cup of tea, but manage to make it last at least an hour and make the most of the comfy sofas...reggae music brings us down, 90s hip hop brings us up...we've not had much sleep and are feeling it!

We find these phone boxes on the way back and massive over-excitement ensues. Aaaah, look I'm infiltrating the ministry, where's Arthur Weasley?! Note, in this photo the floor is dry, this didn't last. The rest of the day went like this: rain, trafalgar square, chatting to Bellatrix Lestrange, deckchairs for a 30 second sleep, more rain, ping pong, rain, food, rain, cafe, rain, friends, dry inside, good tea, funally sunshine! We headed back to Trafalgar Square about 3pm, across the road you could hear the crowds screaming...I was worried we were missing it, half ran to the bit we had been in earlier to find a line of hi-vis jackets. "No more in this side, go round." So we obeyed, and got in round the other side, phew. made it! We're near where the cars are going to pull in, not bad, now to wait (and gently push as far forward as possible). There was no concept of time, but before we knew it there was Ruper Grint, appearing on the red carpet, then Matthew Lewis (Neville), The Weasley Twins at the top, making their way round the WHOLE crowd, no lie, these two love it!

Seeing them do this almost set me off crying, you know why..and if you don't then go find out! Then the stars were coming thick and fast, Evanna Lynch looked amazing I like how her and Luna are almost one and the same, like Rupert and Ron! Then the most exciting bit, Lupin!!! As I mentioned we were stood by where the cars pull in, but this did not guarentee us getting all the stars up close and personal. A lot of them started making their way up and got dragged off by their assistants to the main Red Carpet bit. Not David Thewlis though, as soon as he arrived the whole crowd on our side went wild and starded chanting 'David' and banging the barriers, I think he was scared of a 'mass breakout' if he didn't come and see us. Here he is being amazing....

That was definitly the highlight, that and seeing JK Rowling in the flesh, and the twins, and getting to see some sneak peeks of film on the big screen, and screaming a-lot!

Daniel Radcliffe and JK were 2 of the last people to arrive, they had short interviews on stage (as did everyone) then the screen stopped showing camera footage and went back to the 'screensaver', we think it's over and leave. Bump into Nick on the way back, get take away, watch some of part 1 then sleep. The following day we find out we left too soon, there were some massive emo speeches from Harry, Ron, Hermione, JK and the film dudes, gutted. Back home I watch them on You Tube and cry.... I challenge you to watch Rupert Grint thank JK Rowling for what she has done for ginger people and not shed a tear!!!

Now there's a week to wait for the film, I spend a large part of this week looking at my wristband, thinking about the premiere and by the 14th I'm pretty much just watching trailers and clips and counting down the minutes til I can meet Nickie in town so we can get excited together and make time go a bit quicker. Finally, meet her near the AMC to go and pick up the tickets, she doesn't see me coming cos she has just seen a Lucius Malfoy double walk down the street and is staring at the photo she took of him on her phone. I almost wet myself...it's a total Lucius Malfoy double. Get tickets, get OVER excited, buy attitude cos Rupert Grint is in it, meet Seleena (yes, we are slowly converting her, she wore a cat hat for the occasion, professor McGonnagal disguise yeah), get food, I put Nickie's lion head hat on for the full Gryffindor effect, she puts her party cape for full magical effect, and finally head to the cinema to see Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows...Part 1....followed by Part 2.

Again, surprised by the lack of dressing up, maybe not everyone loves dressing up like we do, but they should, it's FUN. I'm not going to do a full film review, it would take me another hour. Neville was pretty much my favourite thing in this one, his speech was amazing! Think they did a good job of the fiend fire bit. Luna was great. I am not going to go into any negatives, but leave you now with a quote from JK Rowling...

" The stories we love best do live in us forever, so whether you come back by page or by the big screen, hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home"

E.M.O

2011-07-13T12:40:00.000-07:00

This is officially back in print (the zine that sees me talking about how I am a feminist and have a penchant for 'EMO' music), mainly to coincide with the release

of this....

HOT OFF THE PRESS part two of my rants about my love for EMO!!!!!!

I'm just a man, I'm not a hero....

2011-07-11T14:14:00.000-07:00

(last week, in my week off after jet setting to Berlin and hanging out with loads of rad folk I headed to London for a Grant Morrison talk, I asked Holly to write about it as she knows far more about comics then me and it makes a change from my voice!)

Seleena asked me to write a report based on our adventures last week where we got to hear one of my all time favourite comic writers Grant Morrison give a talk promoting his new book Supergods:Our World in the Age of the Superhero. So Grant Morrison is pretty much responsible for getting me into comics. I'm now a fully fledged comics geek but 10 years ago I didn't have a clue what I was doing and was totally dismissive of comics. A few key titles changed all that, including some of Morrison's work. The first title I read by Morrison was St. Swithen's Day, followed by Kill Your Boyfriend, and then later Doom Patrol. At that point, aside from Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, I had never been interested in reading superhero comics before. I kinda liked indie comics, but I thought superheroes were stupid, juvenile, and fluffy pointless crap. Titles like Doom Patrol changed all that while allowing a window of opportunity for me to jump right slap bang into the middle of a complex long running DC title with massive backstory, which is something that had previously put me off reading any kind of Marvel or DC superhero title.

For someone that was once utterly dismissive of superhero comics I'm now obsessed with them .So is Grant Morrison as he is just a geeky fan boy at heart. His new book is concerned with why superheroes exist, why we create them, how they change, and a bunch of examples of the hero myth throughout fiction and religion.

It's not as dry as all that. From the first 100 pages I've read, the book reads exactly how Grant Morrison talks: funny and animated, personal and super smart, geeky and excitable. I could listen to him talk on his own for hours. But he is kept in check tonight by an interviewer before taking on some extremely wanky and pretentious questions from members of the audience.

He talks a lot about the role of superheroes and widens the definition outside of comics, using religion, popular fiction, movies, folklore and myth as examples of our need to create superheroes and our need to hear those stories retold. Morrison discusses the repetition and cycle for all superheroes, it's essentially the same story being told over and over with the status quo restored at the end of each adventure.

While some writers find the structure of mainstream superhero comics extremely limiting, Morrison kinda loves the boundaries it places on his work. He describes it as 12 bar blues. He isn't there to play jazz and fuck things up, he likes the familiarity and the structure, and he can have fun with it. It's an interesting point cuz really in mainstream comics you can't do anything radical. You can never ever really kill a superhero. They always come back, whether it's a magical resurrection spell, an alternative universe, or some kind of other loophole - you can't die. Not for long anyway. Did I mention that Morrison is fucking funny as well? Everything he says tonight, even the deeply philosophical shit, is said with a cheeky grin. I don't know, maybe it's the Glasgow accent but when he's talking about the difference between real life death and superhero deaths in comics shouting “YR MUM'S NOT COMING BACK, YR DAD'S NOT COMING BACK, BUT BATMAN IS!” it's hilarious but so true. Superheroes can't die,so technically there's really no consequences to anything that superheroes do. But Morrison talks about how much he fucking loves that. He argues that Superman is older than all of us in the room tonight and that Superman will still be around when we are all dead, “Superman will outlive us all and maybe that makes him more real and more valid than we as people will ever be.”

It's also amazing how much Grant Morrison contradicts himself. He spends ages talking about how much more real superheroes are than us real life humans, but then rubbishes all that for the second half of his talk by saying that superheroes aren't real. While a lot of contemporary comic writers have spent a lot of time attempting to give superheroes real life problems and making them a bit darker this way, Morrison prefers his superheroes to be just that. Super. They shouldn't have to deal with the same shit us lowly people do. For every stupid question he is asked tonight he deflects it saying 'But it isn't real! None of this is real, it's just a story!'. He goes off on a tangent at one point saying 'people want to pick superheroes apart saying things like “why would superman look like that? Why does he wear such a ridiculous costume?” or “how come you never see Bruce Wayne go to the toilet?” BATMAN ISN'T REAL! HE HASN'T HAS A PISS IN HIS ENTIRE LIFE BECAUSE HE ISN'T REAL!”

Tonight Grant Morrison almost achieves the impossible: he manages to make me wanna read Superman. I hate Superman, I've read some stuff but I've never been able to read much without getting bored or pissed off with it, it just doesn't appeal to me. Until that is Grant Morrison described his new work on Action Comics #1 out this year describing his take on Superman as Springsteen Superman talking about how his Superman will be a working class dirty and gritty superhero. Ok, I totally wanna read that!

The best thing about Grant Morrison is that he seems to hate Q+As as much as I do (people don't ask questions at Q+As they just state a stupidly long opinion and stick a question mark on the end of it) and much prefers the sound of his own voice rather than the stupid questions he's getting asked today. From someone asking 'will you be writing anymore Seaguy?” - (um, well done mate, you know a lesser known Grant Morrison title, 10 geek points to you, thanks for your pointless question) to someone asking a 3 part question that seems to interrogate Grant Morrison's need to write himself in as a character in some of the comics he writes ( I can't actually remember the question because it took the guy about 10 minutes to ask it. I lost interest after about 5 minutes. So did Morrison). Morrison defended the way he sometimes writes himself into comics saying that someone should be talking to these superheroes and asking them what's up. The guy asking the question then said but why do we need to know what those guys think? Whats so special about them, why not some other fictional character, why not Ronald Mcdonald? To which Morrison replied 'it's about fucking time someone did have a word with Ronald Mcdonald, I'll do it, I wanna know what he's about, lets make it happen.' It was a great way to end the night and made me want a double cheeseburger and fries. Grant Morrison you are a legend.

Belguim; Blowing my mind!

2011-07-10T10:29:00.000-07:00

So last week saw a Sugar Paper holiday as Kandy and I headed to Belgium for fun, music, waffles and chocolate. It went a little like this.....

We set off on Thursday afternoon to Liverpool airport, after browsing Claire's in Manchester we managed to waste another half hour browsing it in the airport, plane delayed, tea drunk. Flight boarded. the flight was super short, quicker then what it takes me to get to work, into that!
we managed to get ourselves to the train station (thanks to Kandy's French skills, which came in handy all weekend!) and use our free train pass!
Then after confusing Google directions we found our hotel in Leuven, just 2 minutes walk form the train station, yes!
I would recommend the Etap hotel (it's a chain) the room was clean (possibly unused as it was so new) yeah it was a building site outside but I didn't come for scenic stay. No bin or set of drawers in the room though!

Wandered around Leuven before deciding on eating pizza for tea, holiday food! Heading back and getting shut eye for early rise!

Friday! Early rise, wash and decided we will have breakfast in the hotel, pocket some bread, cheese and brioche for lunch and head for the first bus to Werchter at 9. Again just round the corner form the hotel. A few others are heading early (to set up camp I think) a Hen do, decked in pink, listening to Alexandra Burke on their phone, hmmm...

Bus is a nice scenic route and in no time at all we reach our destination ROCK WERCHTER! Walking to the entrance I get a little excited, trip to the portaloo dulls that somewhat but then we wait with the other 16 people waiting early (I'd say 90% of those are MCR fans.)
An hour and half later the gates are about to open when we get told (a queue of all females) we can't queue at this gate as there isn't a female security guard to check our bags and what not as we enter, we're fuming. Belgium's answer to Tank Girl argues our case in Dutch, who then translate to English for us to which Kandy translates to french to some young MCR fans waiting on the queue, we all get mad, swear in our respective languages and reluctantly move queue. Some nice MCR fans in the queue next to us let us in, knowing we have been there FOREVER!

Then we're in, then we wait again to get into the 'stage arena' I must say (aside form the debacle at the gate) the festival is very well organised, I wondered why everyone was walking round in flip flops and not wellies, it's because the stage area is fully floored and with little sections. We finally get in and Kandy secures us a place front row!
Lot's of waiting. A mini downpour, then the sun comes out, we don't have sunglasses, ah well. Mona come on, they're a bit rubbish, made worse by the 'I am a rock star I am god' attitude form the singer. they come out later to let girls screech at them SIGN MY ARM SIGN MY ARM. they leave i get nervous.
I asked Kandy if she is ready to have her life saved (first time seeing MCR) when security hand her an apple, we are super thirsty, her life already just got saved.
Finally, MCR take to the stage. Kandy seems more excited then me, i think I'm still in disbelief. I'm in a foreign country, in a field in broad daylight and MCR are on stage! I'm not going to go on for aaaages because anyone who knows me in real life gets enough of that.
I obviously thought it was amazing. starting off with Na Na Na and kicking straight into Vampire Money and Planetary (surefire way to get a stitch!), House Of Wolves is the only other non single track. The set closes with I'm not Okay with a few others in between. The set seemed so short, like I actually did blink and it was over! I would say it lacked the atmosphere of a usual MCR gig. So it was early, they were the second band on and aside form the first two rows, this crowd wasn't Killjoys. Also the audience were so reserved, no shouting, throwing stuff and when the kids threw their fists in the air, they were half hearted, I mean I wanna see your arm come out the socket. I think despite enjoying the space we had, I missed the crush, a sense of urgency lacked. Highlights were the 90s jam thing they did after Mama, Gerard's wolf howls, Franks screeching, pretty much all of it!

Then it was over, we tried to find the other stage, urinated and got some food. The food all looked sooooo good. Fancy salads and all. We settled on a juicy smoothie, mini spring rolls and possibly THEE BEST waffle I've ever had, I can taste it now, yum.
After a sit and eat we tried to edge our way in the tent ready for Jimmy Eat World. the tent is packed, apparently Ke$ha is big in Belgium. We watch the last few songs. I'm not a Ke$ha fan, but I'll give it to her, she had routines, ribbon dancers, glitter and confetti guns! PARTAY!!
It ends and we edge forward for JEW, excitement take two. It's the first time we have both seen JEW.

They kick off with Bleed American and A Praise Chorus, with hits in between as well as new songs. I'm really glad to see JEW look and make songs the same as they always have done and they look super happy to be there (I love nice guys in rock!). We have so much space to dance and there seems to be a bit more of humph then for MCR, but this is party tent! We manage to recover form the first two songs just in time to get Pain and then two big hits at the end, Sweetness and The Middle of course. I bloody love that song. Then it's all over, again.
We browse the merch stalls before deciding to leave, we've seen what we came to see, we're sunburnt and people were getting drunk enough to be annoying, time to go.

We treat our sens to an ice cream for the walk back to the bus, ignore some drunk asking if we're Australian, he asks why are we shy, we reply we're not, we just don't want to talk to you. he says we're fucking ugly. My pistachio ice cream is well good though.
Super tired from a day in the sun, we get some snacks and cider (lychee flavour) form the supermarket, head to hotel lie in bed, eat drink and watch music TV, fall asleep midway through Wedding Crashers at around half ten, ROCK AND ROLL!
our early night is greeted with a semi late morning, we worry we might miss breakfast so put some clothes on and try not to look like we have just woken up. Steal ourselves some lunch, get dressed and board a train to Brussels.
Accidentally get local stopping, but the views nice!
We hadn't really planned to do anything other then go to the festival, too busy for that, i found a chocolate museum so that was about it. Lucky for us the magazine on the plane had a feature on world famous Brussels Flea Market, open 7 days a week. Takes us a while to locate the tourist information office, but once we have a map and directions we head for the flea market. Passing all the tourists spots on the way, including the very popular pissing cherub thing, BRUSSELS WHAT IS THAT! it's bloody tiny too, we dodge the tourists and keep going.
get to the flea market a little late, they are packing up but bag myself a rate good novelty bag, Kandy barters in French and 4 euros later it's mine, it's filthy and needs a good clean up but still. We browse the vintage shops, i see the world best shoes made for the worlds smallest feet, I stare at them for a while in hope the go from a size three to a six, it doesn't happen so we leave.
We head back to the centre visiting every tat shop on the way (there are a lot!). We get real fussy as we don't want any tat with the pissing cherub on, but this is hard, 400 tat shops later we settle on a snow globe each.
Wander around a bit more, find the best shop in Brussels, a sweet shop that is a lot like that shop them there Weasely twins have in that Potter business!

Suddenly realise we haven't eaten a waffle yet (today) so treat ourselves to a sit down, tea and waffle, I go for the caramel topping, Kandy the chocolate (obvs).

Head up to the art district to see if galleries open on Sunday, realise Brussels is pretty huge, wander though a park, and watch some people do ballroom dancing on a band stand. My hay fever goes crazy so we head back to the hotel. Freshen up and time for proper tea out. We noticed a cute looking bar with a south American menu, and it's painted pink so we head there. Not before passing people dancing salsa in the square (is it dance Saturday?!).

Our tea was soooooo good. Picked from menus with Frida Kahlo on the front, cocktails and burritos, yes! WE have two cocktails, get a bit giddy and are officially stuffed, time to go back, watch music TV and sleep.

Kandy takes a brioche from breakfast, for old times sake, even though we know we're getting chips for dinner. manage to get the quicker train to Brussels. Today is the day we get cultured.
First stop, Musee Rene Magritte. Kandy blags her student card so it's pretty cheap to get in.

The whole thing was so good, I would recommend anyone going to Brussels to see it, four floors of visual delight. We try to sit and watch the film, but our mouths are too dry. The gift shop is a total winner, one whole wall of postcard, YES! and novelty pens, we get the pen that looks like a pencil, I decide not to get the pen that looks like a tube of paint, instant regret that! We pass on the comic strip museum as funds are low. Get some chips after seeing them EVERYWHERE all weekend. they are super tasty. Then we head to the chocolate museum where Kandy makes herself feel sick.
I eat 70% and realise it's like drinking neat brandy, cannot handle that, shove a loud of milk chocolate in to feel better. Watch a demonstration on chocolate making, which Kandy refers to as porn (she loves the chocolate). We eat a few more samples, free stuff yeah, I rub a blob of cocoa butter on my lips and we leave.Wander around a bit more and go on a mission to find C&A. We locate it, its super busy and rubbish. Clock house is like a naff Peacocks now, all my 90s teen dreams shattered, SCREW YOU C&A!
After the disappointment of C&A we decide to go and get our plane home.
There's a diner in the airport but we can't afford anything, no matter how hard we try just for photo opportunities.
Kandy tries out the ladies urinal.We try to buy something to eat with 2 euros, we struggle and decide to save it for a brew on the plane.
No delays this time, we get back, eat a subway, get the coach and we're back in Manchester.
Had a lovely time in Belgium, only downside was my phone turning Dutch (and then not turning on) when we got back and having to buy a new one.
Big thanks to Kandy for coming when I said I would just go alone, her French, space saving and general rad company was a life saver, just like that apple (and MCR).

picture to sum up the trip.....

Americana Cushion...

2011-06-29T14:05:00.000-07:00

So it was my pal Nickie's birthday the other week, so I made her a cushion inspired by some of the things she loves, mainly MCR and Americana!
I used some stars and stripes fabric I had lying around for a while and hunted down for some patches, but none were to be found, so decided to make my own patches from scarps of other fabric I had.
I would tell you how here, but then we decided to put it in Sugar Paper #8 (yes we're working on it already). So here are some snaps....
Speaking of inspiration and Americana, check out the lovely tribute Nickie wrote for Ryan Dunn on her blog.

Magda Archer: Crazy Mad

2011-06-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

So I just treated me sen to a trip down to the Cornerhouse to see the Magda Archer Crazy Mad exhibition.
I was already quite excited from the sneak peeks I had seen, but you need to see it up close and personal!

I headed to town and got a call off my pal Nickie asking what I was up to, I said going to an exhibition, come on down, so we met up and brave the stuffy Cornerhouse in this stupid heat.

We we greeted by what can only be described as my idea of heaven, a complete comfort zone, a room full of stuff, visual stimuli to blow your mind. A room, made out as a replica of her studio.
There's probably two kinds of people in this world, those who don't bother with possessions that much and have very minimal homes and those that think every space needs to be filled, no matter how big or small. I am the latter. So imagine my delight when I enter a room that has more tat* than mine!

I've been telling people for years that it isn't clutter what I have, it's art, PROOF!

So after we ohhhed and awwwed at all the brightly coloured, mostly plastic amazing things, we opened the secret door to be greeted by a collection of paintings, and what can only be described as the world's best lamp collection (featuring light up bambis, shrooms, cats and more).

Not to dismiss the paintings. The paintings are equally as amazing, with the saccharine colour palette and nostalgic imagery mixed with popular culture (some of my favourite things there) I dare anyone not to smile at the sight of these works.

As I always say, I don't want to ruin it too much for anyone going to see it, plus I'm not the best at 'reviewing' stuff.

But I urge everyone to take it look, it runs until early August.

*all the amazing ornaments a lot of people think is rubbish, from plastic toys to snowglobes to adorable animal ceramics!

Naka Nickie

2011-06-19T11:34:00.001-07:00

Quite often, we take things for granted, I know I do. One thing I defiantly take for granted is the amazing talent of my pal Nickie McGowan.
Oh here she goes banging on about how awesome and talented her friends are, but if they weren't my friends I'd still be banging on about it, but they are so there!
Nickie is an amazing photographer, something I found out not long after I started getting to know her, a few years down the line and I just had to remind myself and everyone how great she is. You see these days I just take it as a given she will take an amazing photo and why would I ever need to take a camera anywhere(despite studying photography for a year and half i am beyond rubbish at taking photos)when Nickie will take a whole load of amazing shots.

But she's not just there to capture all the fun times we have, she's there to capture everything else. A rare talent, she manages to capture people in their natural state, whether they're striking beautiful, quietly awe inspiring, deathly serious or proper cheeky. With her camera and a brick wall Nickie can create the best images ever. Check her out, she's dead good!

We love paper art.....

2011-06-02T13:07:00.000-07:00

Here at Sugar Paper we are a big fan of paper art. I myself am no good at paper crafts (I'm one of those weird folk that doesn't really like touching paper) Kandy is a dab hand at origami and we both have the potential to be serial scrapbookers! If only we could cut out in a straight line.....

We try and feature different paper crafts in the zine, because we do love most crafts. We are also big art fans, anything that is a treat visually, we're going to like, let's be honest. So when we see great art drawn from amazing craftsmanship, then we squee with delight, here are a select few making me want to get over my weird paper fear!

Nikki McClure:

Nikki has been making paper cut art long before Rob Ryan's work was emblazoned on everything and then Urban Outfitter's ripped it off, way before that. She is a dab hand with an X-acto knife, she as done a load of work with two of my favourite labels, K records and Kill Rock Stars and played a part in the Riot Grrrl movement.
If that wasn't enough just a look at her intricate paper cuts will win you over, each work tells a huge story and something you can get lost in for a long time.
and my favourite part, she's self taught, swoon!

Lindsey Way:Lindsey may be best known for her work as bassist in band Mindless Self Indulgence, but prior to that she went to art school. Come full circle and she's back producing art.
Her recent work featured 13 dioramas entitled Hush. All worked in the medium of paper.
The collection, to me, looks like a party, a joyous farewell, a celebration of life pre-death, or life after death into life (reborn they call that, sounds a little religious though!!).
Whatever Hush is about or how you interpret it, one thing you can't deny is that, upon viewing, a smile creeps across your face that you just can't shift.

Emily Winfield:
I have spoken about Emily Winfield on the blog before in the form of Black Apple. Both Kandy and I are HUGE fans of Emily's work, in every medium! And OK, she is predominately a painter (but stitches and illustrates amongst other things, too!) but she gets into this blog for one reason, her recent book The Black Apple's Paperdoll Primer.
Kandy bought me the book for Christmas just gone and I LOVE it! I've always been a paper doll fan, so seeing Emily's amazing paintings transformed into paper dolls, with their own characteristics is a treat, especially as the book also comes with backdrops she has painted! Then there is the make your own paper doll at the back (with a good selection of hair colours and skin tines might I add). It's all inspiring stuff, just look at this video somebody made using the book......

Be nice to me, I gave blood today....

2011-05-31T03:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, I finally manged to give blood (I tried to do this in time for our last issue) , I held off getting a tattoo, got back to my old weight and got a job where I get proper days off!
Inspired by Bunny's regular blood donating blog updates and my own realisation that I hadn't any proper reason for never giving blood before, I booked myself in.
I managed to get a morning appointment, which I always prefer, got myself down there, drank more fluids in ten minutes then I do in a whole day and got myself ready for the blood giving.
The nurse said I had good veins (I do I have MASSIVE veins) and I was lying down giving, as two others were midway through theirs. Then we all finished at the same time!
People who know me know I'm pretty quick at doing most things, turns out I'm even quick at giving blood, I took less then five minutes.
I then sat myself down and went for the orange cordial and the mint Club, wish I had gone for the packet of biscuits, I love those biscuits in little bags!
I'm also pretty sure the lady that took my blood used to be a dinner lady at my school and friends with my mum, I'll ask her next time....
So for the rest of the day, everyone has to be nice to me!

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

2011-05-31T03:48:00.000-07:00

The Yorkshire Sculpture Park is a lovely place for a day out, there's so much to see and beautiful grounds to just have a walk around in if you've looked at art for a bit too long! I went last week and despite the pouring rain and gale force winds had a lovely time as always...

There were some good exhibitions on but the things that caught my eye were in the gift shop, typical I know but it just re-inforces my theory that 'the gift shop is a major highlight of any day-trip' .

The first things that I gravitated towards were these lovely framed heads by Victoria Whincup, a mixture of cute girl and deer... drwaing and textiles...I'm instantly in love!

Click the photo to see more of Victoria's work in her shop!

Wandering aimlessly round the shop, past the mounds of Rob Ryan stuff, some yellow and pink caught my eye...upon closer inspection it's a beautifully detailed image with mushrooms, woodland and a fantastic creature. I instantly thought 'wonderland' and picked it up, the image is by NY based illustrator and artist Aya Kakeda. She not only draws but also does some really sweet work with a needle and thread, click the picture to check out her website.

Hope you like these ladies' work as much as I do, if you get a chance to go to YSP I highly recoomend it...but you might want to wait 'til October as there will be an exhibiton by Manchester based artist Rachel Goodyear whose work is amazing and like nothing else out there!

Flesh And Bone exhibition

2011-05-28T12:24:00.000-07:00

On Thursday evening Kandy and (and other cool folk we know) headed to Manchester's Common for the preview of David Baileys Flesh And Bone exhibition.
David Bailey is super illustrator and all round good egg who has done a shit load of awesome work and runs Manchester's #1 zine emporium Good Grief!
Flesh And Bone is weekly comic strip.
It was super busy on Thursday, and with all Common exhibitions, the art literally adorns the walls, so we didn't get to see it all properly, we returned the next day in hope to see more, but it was the start of Bank Holiday weekend, so still busy! We did bag (HA BAG!) ourselves a Flesh And Bone tote though!
The exhibition runs until the end of September, so go visit, it's laugh out loud, not the kind where people go 'oh that's funny', but the kind where you start reading, then start pissing your pants, then can't even get to the last frame in the strip as your eyes have filled up with those laughter tears. It's also quite pleasing on the eye, just visually like, GO NOW!

The one where it was my birthday....

2011-05-28T04:26:00.000-07:00

So yes, I turned 27 at the start of the month, and as the below blog post states, I had a rad 'ol time in Wales, but because I'm like the queen and think I have two birthdays, I did other stuff too, a few more select pictures form the celebration of my birth 2k11 style!

1- Party Poison jacket my pals clubbed together and got for me, this rules for many reasons, it's blue, it's sooooo 90s and it's MCR merch (best merch ever!).
2-Knitted panda, the first thing my friend Leesey has ever knitted!
3-Flowers, lovingly made by my pal Alison.
4-Bad grrrrl bowling.
5-Cocktails, Charlotte and I enjoying some cheeky booze!

Where am I? In the village.

2011-05-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

The beginning of May saw my birthday and this year I spent it in North wales, near Snowdonia with all my favourite folk!
We stayed in Porthmadog in two caravans, travelling on the Friday and leaving Monday morning.
I had the best time, OK ankles were broken and it went far too quick, but just hanging out with all my friends that live all over the country, for longer than half an hour was rad, especially doing it all in the sun!
We spent my actual birthday in Portmeirion, home of TV show The Prisoner, the prettiest place in the world! So surreal, and like I was in a foreign land! We also boarded a steam train this day, much excitement all round!
I don't want to rabbit on too much as it will just be a lot of rads and awesomes and best evers, so I'll just leave you with some choice snaps.

I Know What You Did Last Summer....

2011-05-17T08:07:00.000-07:00

What did we do?
We screen printed! (yes this is a very belated blog!)

Last summer saw us screen print for the first time ever! It was so much fun! OK so I'll admit we got regular Sugar Paper contributor Benjamin Cooney to tidy up the logo and expose the screen, but we did the messy bit!

We screen printed a fine selection of totes that every member of the Sugar Paper gang now sports......

.....get yours too at the Sugar Paper Shoppe

Sugar Paper #7...

2011-05-15T07:05:00.001-07:00

IS OUT NOW!!!!!!
With such amazing things as macrame, knitting, sewing yr sen some shorts, baking, cooking, dot-to-dot and hanging out with the trees. BUY HERE

Victoria Baths Fanzine Convention & SP#7....

2011-05-10T12:28:00.000-07:00

So we shall be having a stall at Victoria Baths Zine Convention on Saturday......

We will be premiering Sugar Paper #7 at this as well as checking out what's on offer at the other stalls including Sugar Paper faves Nude Magazine and Memo.
Be there or be square!

Reverse Applique Kobra Kid tee!

2011-05-03T13:47:00.000-07:00

So the other week it was my all round good pal Nick's birthday, I hadn't been paid from work yet and wanted to give him something rad, so I knocked out a t-shirt heavily inspired by that worn by My Chemical Romance's Kobra Kid AKA Mikey Way.
I thought you some of you guys might want to make it too, so here's how.....
You will need:
-black t-shirt
-yellow t-shirt
-sewing machine

-yellow thread
-tailors chalk/pencil
-scissors
-pins
-unpicker

1- First, unpick the front of the black t-shirt from the rest of the t-shirt (up the side seams, front of arms, and neck)

2-Once unpicked, pin to the reverse of the yellow t shirt front and stitch together.

3- Keep inside out, and on the black draw animal print style shapes. Pin in several places.

4- Stitch around these shapes with straight stitch, it's best to pull the t-shirt tight as you sew, it will keep from pulling when worn.

5- Once all the shapes have been stitched round, turn the shirt to the right side and get some small scissors.

6- Snip out the yellow middles of the shapes, stitch around 1cm from stitch line. The best way to do this is pull up the centre stitch a hole and work your way to the edge, trying best to separate the black back.

7- Once all cut out your animal print will be revealed, wear with pride and do kung fu on a rock!

(yr the best Nick!)

R.I.P Poly Styrene

2011-04-26T11:53:00.000-07:00

I'm sure the news of Poly Styrene's death has reached every last Punk on earth by now. I was aware she was ill, but heard today, late afternoon, via the radio, that she had passed away.

Poly Styrene has inspired nearly everyone I know, most of the bands I listen too probably wouldn't exist if she hadn't.

There are probably a ton of fitting tributes floating around the net, like this one from Kathleen Hanna. But I want to say what she meant to me.

Yes, like most other females, I saw her as a pioneer, I didn't think there was such a think as women in punk until I heard X-Ray Spex as a teen. Through her and X-Ray Spex i discovered a load of other bands.
But it wasn't her gender that made me admire her so much, it was her race.

I am mixed race, and my music taste (to sum it up briefly) is of the indie-pop-punk-rock persuasion. Music that is predominately made by white musicians, yes, you get the odd non white musician in bands, but not many.

In the scene, I go to clubs, gigs, events and more often than not I am one of three non whites in the room, and most often the only mixed race, to see a woman make music, up on stage making music I understand, was like a shining light. Yeah it sounds cliche (I Am A Cliche), but for a young girl getting into a scene deemed 'white' and being seen by non white friends and family members as not 'acting black' enough, seeing a mixed race girl scream her heart out on stage made me not care what anyone thinks.

If she can so that, then so can I.

If nothing else, Poly was also a style icon. And will continue to be for me.

R.I.P Marianne Elliot Said, you will be sorely missed.
*this is me wearing a Poly dress I made for my 21st birthday party!

Team Desk....

2011-04-21T03:24:00.000-07:00

So for the first time since I was a child I have a desk!!!!!

I acquired this desk like over two years ago, it came from my sweet shop, where it served as my counter. I moved it into my closet-cum-workroom but it seemed to have been buried under stuff for the next year and a half. At the start of this year, with the addition of a new wardrobe to my closet I decided now was the time to make an actual workspace!!

Now this may all seem very boring to you and many others, but it's really important to me, I thing having a space you can actively use and get inspired by is something you need in order to create and feel good about it.

I hope to use my new rad workspace for many exciting things this year, watch this space...

Inspiring Sugar Paper #7.....

2011-04-12T01:28:00.000-07:00

Deep in the heart of the Valley....

2011-04-05T01:38:00.000-07:00

A while ago (January in fact, the day we went to see Abel, back when I had my gammy eye!) Kandy and I went to Bury Art Gallery to see the Moomin exhibition!

The exhibition had a big range of Moomin illustrations by creator Tove Jansson and some of her other work for satirical magazines.

The illustrations themselves were a joy to look at, but the gallery had made the celebration of the 65th anniversary of Moomins more of a family affair with interactive pieces, a colour in and comments section, one of those things where you put your face through the hole, so you could be Moominmama Moominpapa or whoever (I took my camera but not my flash, so the photographic evidence didn't turn out, boo).

Our favourite piece was the Moomin valley! An amazing starlight backdrop, fake trees, a little boat and little wooden huts, magical! we sat in (squashed ourselves in whilst children watched) and read Moomin books.

Moomin Valley is most definitely somewhere I'd like to live! Sadly Moomin Valley doesn't exist (I'm sure there are places just as beautiful).

A place that is pretty amazing looking is Portmeirion.....

Kandy and I and all my other rad friends are escaping the Royal wedding and spending a caravan weekend in the picturesque places of North Wales, near Snowdonia. My birthday falls on this weekend and so will be spending my 27th birthday awwing at the beauty that Portmeirion (setting for TV show The Prisoner!).

I think we'll look just like that Moomin picture at the top!

Crafting a train of bunting!!!

2011-03-31T10:04:00.000-07:00

This is one from my inbox, the awesome Craftivist Collective are hosting this event, I really want to go but am in work. Will definately be crafting a carriage at home though! Craftivists hold protest stitch-ins at railway stations across the UK- please support them! :) At 1pm on 10th April craftivists across the UK will join a nationwide protest to demand a halt to rail fare increases. Currently the coalition Government plans to hike fares by 31% over the next 4 years. This is a huge issue and the Craftivist Collective would love you to support them. The Craftivist Collective are supporting Climate Rush on the Railway Adventures campaign. Hundreds of craftivists (activists who protest using scissors, thread and fabric) will converge on railway stations across the UK for a super cute kitsch protest picnic and stitch-in. They will be creating 4inch deep x 7inches wide fabric train coaches covered with statistics, facts, quotes and consumer views on our Government’s carbon-friendly transport policy, whilst drinking tea, eating jam sandwiches and talking about the issues. The various panels will be collated into a petition-train which will be taken on a Fair Fare Railway Adventure on Saturday 16th April. It will be delivered to Philip Hammond MP (Minister for Transport) by direct action group: Climate Rush. So far we have craftivists coordinating stitch-ins in Brighton, Hastings, Coventry , Birmingham, Dorset,Leeds, Bristol, London, Manchester, Devon andCornwall. If you want to do coordinate a stitch-in near you please email craftivist-collective [at] hotmail dot com They would love your support. Please join one of the pretty stitch-ins, set up your own or craft a carriage and post it to the Craftivist Collective before 15th April. You can find flyers, posters, content for our bunting petition, examples all here. They are also making an instructions video which will be available before end of March. Philip Hammond MP, Secretary of State for Transport, said: "Whether we like it or not, the ability to travel point-to-point on an individually-tailored timetable [i.e. in a car] is one of the great quality-of-life gains of the second half of the 20th century." Sarah Corbett, Founder of the Craftivist Collective, said: “As the Craftivist Collective we are passionate about showing our love for local and global neighbours. These unfair fare increases will stop people using trains when we need help keeping our carbon footprints down. The increases will hit people living in poverty the most and stop them getting to their jobs and alienate them even more from society. “Short-haul flights and cars shouldn’t be the cheapest most convenient option. Philip Hammond MP wants to hike fairs a massive 31% over the term of this Government. We’re here to demand fair fares and a sustainable alternative.” On Saturday 16th April Craftivists with join Climate Rush on a Railway Adventure. For more information please visit: http://www.railwayadventure.wordpress.com/ Check out the Manchester event here.

Charity shop haul...

2011-03-27T14:11:00.001-07:00

So last week I went on a charity shop run in Wigan with Alison and Kandy, the trip wasn't primarily for shopping, but something super exciting that we can't talk about yet!! We picked up a few things, clothes, tat and sat in Oxfam were three Jenny Hart embroidery transfer books. Of course we all snapped them up. Hopefully I'll find the time to knock a few out, some good 'uns in there. Also got a yellow plastic leaf dish that worked well for display purposes at Craft Candy!

In charity shop related news, I have for the past month, been working for charity shop Sue Ryder. The shop opened last week in Didsbury and I am very much enjoying it, not bought any tat yet, but I am sure I will find a ton of stuff to clutter my life up with soon. The only down side was having my purse stolen from the back of the shop on Friday!!I was mostly angry that I have lived in North Manchester, near apparently the country's third most deprived area, for years and never had anything stolen, work in desirable Didsbury for a week and woosh, purse is gone! I bloody loved that Betsy Johnson purse too!

Planetary a-go-go.....

2011-03-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was decked up in primary colours, a Party Poison mask, and a Fun Ghoul bandana, as me and my Killjoys got ready to make some noise. In other words my favourite emo band My Chemical Romance were in the UK and me and my gang were gonna party our faces off unashamedly at every gig we could. The UK leg of the World Contamination Tour was some of the most fun I’ve ever had culminating in my most favourite ever MCR gig of all time in Manchester .

A few days later I got a series of frantic texts from Seleena letting me know about a video shoot for the next MCR single Planetary (Go!). It was being shot as a fake gig in London with a super small amount of tickets available to MCR fans from 9am that morning. It was 9.05 am when I got the text from Seleena and by then the tickets were all gone. I was beyond gutted.

The story of how MCR formed has been told so many times. A few days earlier the formation of the band had been retold during the Radio 1 documentary ‘ The Story of My Chemical Romance’ in which guitarist Ray Toro described receiving a phonecall from Gerard who said ‘I’m special, I think you’re special, lets show the world how special we are.’ Me and my killjoys agreed that this would be the nicest phonecall you could ever get from a friend (or Gerard Way ), and we squeed over the earnest dorky nature of the band, wishing it for ourselves. (All this is relevant I swear).

So the next day when I was in the grumpiest mood known to mankind knowing that I had missed out on obtaining tickets for the MCR video shoot, can you imagine what it was like to receive a phonecall from one of my best friends who as soon as I answered the phone simply said to me “I’m special, I think you’re special, lets show the world how special we are…. I got us on the guestlist for the MCR video shoot!’ I had a bit of a cry not just because I was going to the video shoot after all, but because I have awesome and earnest and dorky friends who will say things like that to me and will make geeky MCR references. Thanks Nick!

I feel like at this point I just perhaps write something justifying why I love My Chemical Romance and why I cared so much about attending the video shoot. But I don’t really care about trying to impress you or validating a band I love to pieces. So lets just accept that I’m a massive dork and move on.

Party poison mask? Check. Fun Ghoul bandana? Check. Primary colours overload? Check. Are you ready Nick? Fucking Ready! Well I think I’m alright… 1,2,3,4!

So the very next day we found ourselves queuing outside the Islington academy with a couple of hundred other killjoys , except they had been lucky enough to buy tickets for the video shoot. Tickets had been £4 for the evening and although we weren’t sure of what the event would actually include, we guessed that there would be a small performance if they had sold tickets. And to go from seeing MCR play a sold out Wembley Stadium to just a few hundred people a few days later felt so exciting.

Well I’m sure everyone else was excited, but I sure as hell wasn’t. Because I had the massive fear that somehow there would be a problem and our names wouldn’t be on the guest list as arranged. We hadn’t got tickets like everyone else, we were just hoping that we had been put on the guestlist via one of Nick’s contacts, and I was utterly convinced it was all gonna go wrong. I’m a glass half empty kind of girl. So while all the other killjoys got excited in the queue, clutching their genuine prepaid tickets, I was mostly silent, miserable, and anxious. At this point I would like to apologise to Nick for ruining his fun and making that evening queuing up the longest evening of his life as I sulked and grumped all night until the doors opened. Soz.

My doom and gloom wasn’t all for nothing though as we got to the front and found out that my worst nightmare had actually come true – we weren’t on the guestlist!! The girl at the door searched and searched for our names but they weren’t there. We looked over her shoulder and Nick pointed out ‘oh look there’s Nickie’s name!’ Nickie is our killjoy friend in Manchester who had managed to get guestlist for herself and Seleena, but couldn’t make it because the shoot is in London and they are based in Manchester , argh! I jabbed Nick in the ribs and shushed him before lying very loudly and very badly saying ‘ oh that’s ok Nick, you can use my plus-one, MY name is Nickie.’ When the girl asked me to prove I was Nickie by asking for ID as she clearly knew I was lying, I did what any other killjoy in my situation would do – I burst into tears. Yup that’s right. And what? It’d been a long emotional rollercoaster of a day and now I was being told I couldn’t get into the video shoot. After a couple of minutes of awkward sobbing the door girl gave me a couple of passes and told me to get in quickly, clearly embarrassed for me and wondering why someone who is old enough to know better was getting upset about a stupid MCR video shoot. It’s a good thing I don’t really have any self pride otherwise her look of disgust and contempt for my life might have hurt.

AND WE WERE IN!

The stage was set up for a proper gig and the room was half full. That’s when I realised that not only were we going to get a mini MCR show, but also that they hadn’t sold full capacity of tickets for a venue that is usually 800 capacity in order to fit in all the lights and cameras and other technical equipment. So a video shoot and a secret show for just a couple of hundred people? HELL YES!

And the best part was – no support bands, no waiting. Just MCR, no muss no fuss. About half an hour later once everyone was in the lights went out and Dr Death Defying’s voice boomed over the PA “Look alive sunshine…” Every single killjoy in the room recited the opening monologue along with the backing track, it felt creepy in a cultish kind of way, but also AWESOME, in an AWESOME kind of way. Unlike the arena shows, there was no curtain that dropped during the opening to Na Na Na, instead we saw Frank standing on his monitors shouting ‘…louder than God’s revolver and twice as shiny…’ along with the rest of us. Then Gerard hit the stage last and the party began!

We were treated to a mini MCR set as Na Na Na went straight into Vampire Money. Oh my god! I partied so hard in those two opening songs alone that I wondered how I was going to last until it was actually time to shoot the video. Gerard then thanked us all for coming and explained that we were being treated to a mini set and afterwards they would film Planetary (Go!) like a fake live gig (like previous videos for Teenagers and Desolation Row). Someone threw a wolf hat on stage which Frank promptly put on and Gerard asked us if we wanted to hear House of Wolves or Our Lady of Sorrows next. Of course we all screamed louder for OLOS because it’s a classic, but part of me kind of wanted to hear as many songs on this tour and I hadn’t heard House of Wolves yet. And also Frank was wearing the wolf hat so it kinda made sense. But still, I don’t think I have ever danced quite so hard to OLOS ever. Then a few more hits followed – Teenagers, I’m not ok, Helena , Bulletproof Heart, then Planetary (Go!). The intro to Planetary was a massive monologue from Gerard telling us how this song really describes the Killjoys ethos and is who they are as a band right now ( I totally heard this as a massive Bob Bryar diss by the way), saying that sometimes when people try and clean you up you have to be really dirty, and that if you don’t get this song then you don’t get MCR. Poor Bob. Planetary felt like a massive party. I felt like my legs were having spasms and I was going to keel over any second, and this wasn’t even the filmed version. They then told us to hang tight as they would be back in a minute.

A few minutes later the director for the video got on stage and explained what was gonna happen next. They were going to play the single over the PA a few times and film the audience dancing. They were also handing out props to the crowd to add to the killjoys feel of the video. Most of us were already in costumes – some kids had put in the most beautiful amount of effort into their costumes, there were homemade killjoys outfits a-go-go: stars and stripes, masks, bandanas, ray guns, goggles, helmets, face paints and all kinds of things that you are likely to find in a fictional post apocalyptic world set in California 2019 as imagined by MCR. In addition to our own stylish efforts the production team handed out extra masks, bandanas, and ray guns, as well as megaphones, motorcycle helmets, and giant animal heads. I was stood next to the guy in the giant penguin head (turns out you can’t see this in the finished video unless you watch it frame by frame). The room was hot as hell by this point, I don’t know how the kids with giant animal heads managed to dance.

The director then tried to psych us up by asking us all to go mental. The crowd responded by chanting ‘Lets go fucking mental! Lets go fucking mental! ‘ over and over and over again until the chant eventually became ‘More free stuff! More free stuff!’ as we cheekily wanted more props that we could steal. The party lights went on and the song boomed through the loud speakers. We danced like crazy, everyone pumped their fists in the air and sang along (although it seems that nobody knows the lyrics for the second verse because I was shouting those lines out by myself and feeling like an absolute dick). Confetti and balloons were dropped on us from the balcony and I suddenly realised we were being filmed in so many different ways. The director had a giant camera on stage with strobe lights attached, on the balcony above us small cameras hung down on ropes to get ariel shots of us, there was a super 8 camera on the front row, hand held camcorders on the stage and balcony, and panoramic shots taken from the stage. They played it through the PA 3 times I think. By this point I thought I was gonna die, I’d now heard Planetary 4 times, once as part of the gig, and 3 times through the PA and I wanted a sit down and a cup of tea. But now we had to do it a few more billion times this time with the band on stage.

They dressed the stage and set up the lights for the band to come out and play. As we were waiting around for quite a bit someone started a mass sing-a-long to Teenagers, then a sing-a-long of I’m Not Ok started up. There’s something heart-warmingly awesome about hearing 300 people attempting to sing along to the guitar solo in I’m Not Ok. It finished just as MCR came back on stage. Gerard told us they had been listening to us sing in the corridor and made a heart shape with his hands looking very proud of himself as he admitted he had only learned how to do that the other day when they played Manchester. Gerard then explained that they always played along live during their shoots to make them feel less embarrassed about miming but that it might sound weird as we would still hear the backing track underneath. This time there were more cameras were on stage to include coverage of the band and they started up Planetary again. The siren at the beginning of the song now initiated some kind of pavlovian response, in that no matter how knackered I felt I had to immediately put my hands in the air as soon as the siren came on. We danced, we sang, and more balloons and confetti was released.

In between each take the stage had to be reset so there was lots of waiting around. To keep momentum going someone in the crowd started a chant for guitar king, Ray Toro ‘TORO! TORO! TORO! TORO!’ Eventually the band started jamming along with our chants and turned it into an impromptu song about Ray, who shook his fro and rocked out to the sound of his own name being yelled by the crowd. So we decided to keep it going as the crowd yelled out each band members name while the band jammed along. The sound of ‘FRANK! FRANK! FRANK!’ encouraged Frank to spit water across the front row to show his appreciation. During the Gerard chant/jam, Gerard flexed his muscles and kissed his guns, as well as pulling some expert disco dancing moves. He could be John Disco in bis. No really, he could. In fact this whole video is feeling pretty teen-c right now. I don’t know about California 2019, I’m thinking more Glasgow 1996.

Planetary was played a total of 4 times with the band on stage, meaning we had danced to that song 9 times in a row now. We were all dying and so tired. Hair dye and face paints had melted across people’s faces, we were all a sticky happy mess. It might not sound like much, dancing to a song 9 times in a row sounds pretty easy, that’s just like a normal gig right? But with the lights set up for filming, it was hotter than a usual gig and with no slow songs in between to balance out the energy it means we were exhausted so quickly. Also they needed audience members to be full of energy throughout the whole song, which means no slacking off towards the end, and that’s a hard thing to do. But also the most fun thing ever.

And then to top it all off and to say thanks, MCR pulled out one last song out for us and played Vampires Will Never Hurt You! I was completely exhausted and broken by this point but Vampires is one of my all time favourites and I headbanged so hard that my brain felt like it was rattling for days afterwards. I’m not gonna lie, I think it might have been my favourite live version of Vampires ever. EVER!

So here’s the finished video. It will have taken you longer to read this ramble than it will for you to watch the entire video. And for all my rambling you can’t even see me or Nick in it (unless you are geeky enough to watch the entire thing frame by frame which I may or may not have done) But it doesn’t matter. Every time I see that video now I’ll just remember being there, it’s a pretty awesome memento of the evening, if only there was raw footage of me outside in the queue looking grumpy as fuck, or me in the lobby crying until they let me in. Now that would be a proper document of the night, but thank god those deleted scenes are not in the edit. I love being a proper geek for this band, I love that I can get so ridiculously over excited about some small secret show and a video shoot. Killjoys for life!

(this is my friend Holly's inside report of the video shoot, and if you freeze the video at 0.49 seconds you can see her. I was very sad we couldn't make it for the shoot, but just glad my friedns got to go.....maybe next time)

EDIT both Nick and holly can be seen in the 0.49 second frame!!

We shall be at this....

2011-03-21T11:28:00.001-07:00

I tawt I taw a puddy tat....TWEET TWEET!

2011-03-12T02:03:00.000-08:00

Check out the awesome new member of Knit And Destroys cat family, the badass Bandit! Check her out here.

IN OTHER NEWS. Finally went and did it, Sugar Paper got all modern and joined twitter, @SugarPaperzine. Oh dear!

Happy International Women's day

2011-03-08T09:56:00.000-08:00

Happy pancake day....

2011-03-08T09:44:00.000-08:00

I sadly, cannot take credit for these!

This week....

2011-03-06T15:06:00.000-08:00

We'll mostly be celebrating this:

Whilst eating these:

KILLJOY CONTAMINATION: 110% COMPLETE

2011-02-23T12:21:00.000-08:00

So last Friday saw me partake in MCR take two, full on Killjoy times.

It started with me collecting Nick and Holly from town, heading back to mine, where Nickie joined us, we freshened up (got on our best killjoy gear) this involved turning an American flag into a cape for Nickie!

We then headed back to town and met Kandy, who was joining in with the pre killjoy festivities.

Hot chocolates all round in Soup Kitchen (home of ace zine shop Good Grief! kids!). Pick our sens up an Em Ledger and head to Wagamama gaining another Holly on the way (after a Killjoy backstreet photo shoot obvs!). we eat stuff, get full, get over excited and then feel sick! WAR PAINT on in the toilets. MAKE SOME NOISE!

We say by to the non Killjoys and try to convince Kandy to come with us, if only to make sure we manage to get home when we are a mess of sweat and joy!

We head to the MEN, spend all our dollars on merch (managed to get some pencils, yes!).

We decide we're far too cool (and have to much love for MCR) to sit through the support, so using the colourful walls of the MEN we have our own Killjoy photo shoot.

We are the best gang here, we turn a few heads (due to our awesomeness/aren't they a little old to be doing that.. delete as appropriate).

We head inside the arena and feel the excitement, half an hour to wait, we grab ourselves an awesome spot. See a little boy with red hair and a PP mask, we all of a sudden like children!!

Here would be a good place for my open letter to the MEN, an apology of sorts....

Dear The MEN Arena,

I am often read as always) slating you saying 'I hate the MEN' still calling you the NYNEX just to be difficult like, but it took a return trip to the sweat box that is Wembley Arena to realise the error of my ways.

I am sorry.

It turns out you are a pretty good arena. You have colourful walls, loads of toilets, a high ceiling so I don't sweat to death and a high stage.

You even have an indoor foyer which means the kind of fans that like to camp out can do so under a roof, with Maccy D's just a few feet away they can also go to the toilet and grab a quick refreshment!

So this is an apology, as it turns out you housed one of my top five gigs ever,

Forgive me

Seleena

I don't know what it was, a culmination of things, knowing what was about to happen, being with a bigger gang of friends, being able to see the stage more clearly than last time already, but I was super stoked. So much so that when they large screens started showing the amazing MCR stills I thought I was gonna wet myself.

The lights dimming and the start of Dr Death Defying and the crowd chanting along nearly made me wee, I could feel something a little special happening (know it wasn't a warm liquid in my jeans). the curtain was about to drop and I screamed before it even had, like a teenager at a concert in the 50's, baby boomer is booming!

Rocking out to Na Na Na I realise I can see every member, I can even see their feet, I AM SUPER EXCITED. Give Em Hell Kid kicks in and Gerard tells everyone to pick each other up during the song. After the song has finished he tells everyone to look after each other, it was during this song something clicked, I realised London was nothing compared to this, the band weren't quite there like I thought they were, Gerard was on top form (Manchester does this to people, It's The Smiths*) the whole band were enjoying it more and I knew I was going to enjoy it ten times more......

I will not bore you with the minute details, just my highlights.... More stage talk. yes Gerard did start singing The Smiths (if I had a pound for every American band that mentions the Smiths at a Manchester gig, i would be rich). Frank and Ray rocking out, Frank proper old school. Mikey taking pictures of the crowd and band in such a humble way. Loving songs, old and new that I previously had not loved that much before, Our Lady Of Sorrows and Summertime. I missed the part where Gerard said we were all magical like Harry Potters as I was telling some kids they cold push past me if they kept going. THE CROWD! the response for the new material was sooo much better in Manchester than London and I don't think I've ever been to a gig where I liked the crowd so much. At first i was stood next to a guy who was loving the new stuff, we proper had a dance to Planetary (GO!) like we were at a disco, fancy footwork and everything but then I felt bad because I stood in front of his friend (he was such a good dancer though) so then I was stood next to a mother and daughter combo. From what I could gather the Mum had been into MCR and got the daughter in to them, Mum was loving OLOS and at one point the daughter hugged her and said thank you so much mum, yes I did cry!

The only people I didn't like was this couple as the girl didn't seem to have a clue who MCR were and stood there bewildered and in front of me and she was taller. It's OK I went mad to Hang Em High and she soon shifted.

I got a little over excited for DESTROYA. I got a little over excited in general. Even Gerard's 90s looking top and dancing!

Gerard asking the crowd if any of us went to see Rob Zombie last night and then starting a Rob Zombie jam (Nickie's personal favourite highlight). Gerard screaming with the mic lodged in his mouth.

The crowd making the hands into heart shapes (eat that Daily Mail) and Gerard doing it back, making him "Misty Eyed". telling us this was the best gig so far and us believing him (mainly because we felt it better than London and later proof a girl who went to every show said Manchester was the best!). Gerard's kicks.My epileptic dance moves. FISTS IN THE AIR! The fact the band looked like they were having as much fun as us.

They Ended on Cancer, I realised Party Poison had been missing and realised this was altering the set a little. It seemed Cancer won us over! They came back on stage and discussed with each other and knocked out BulletProof Heart, live debut folks!!I felt bad because I told Nickie they finished on Vampires Never Hurt you (a fact running through the crowd as it was the end song for every set) but the selfish person in me loved it.

Then it was all over.......

But for once we weren't all doom and gloom like the big emos we are, we were all super excited and happiest we'd ever been! So this is the fabulous life of a killjoy!

Next stop Lemonade and dissecting the gig, which was mostly squeals, ohhh's and ahh's and wondering if MCR were watching Take Me Out, with Paddy Mcguinness face of Greggs,on mute, like we were.

I just want to say I really love this band, i haven't been this excited for a band in a long time. They make me excited about music, life and art, want to dance, sing, cry throw my fists and legs in the air and geek out with my pals and they seem to be a right genuine bunch!

*I am not a fan of The Smiths, but I must thank them for making most bands I like instantly like Manchester, oh and if any of these bands are reading, Morrisey is like my uncle or something you know, shall we be friends?!

**photos taken by Nickie, video stolen from you tube.

West Is West...Nickie on the radio!

2011-02-23T11:35:00.000-08:00

So the other day, my all round dead good, awesome, killjoy of a pal Nickie got me in to the Manchester premiere of West Is West (the follow up to East Is East). It was great, I laughed I cried and we tutted at the naff questions asked after in the Q&A.
Today on WFM (Wythenshawes local radio) Nickie aired, for the first time her radio show!
Talking abut what she knows best, films!!!
Not only about the work of Om Puri and an interview with West is West writer Ayub Khan-Din she gets to play some top tracks too!
Check it out here !

Pistachio & White choc biscuits.

2011-02-17T07:53:00.001-08:00

So yesterday I fancied something a little sweet to eat. I also had some pistachios that needed eating, so I knocked out these biscuits, using a few biscuit recipes that were stored in my head, mixed them all up, mixed this all up, unsure of what they would taste like, but they were damned nice.

You will need:
-4 0z margarine
-3 oz caster sugar
-6 oz self raising flour
-desert spoon of ground almonds
-desert spoon of golden syrup
-handful of pistachios
-50g of white chocolate chunks
-a dash of milk
-(and as always a pinch of salt!)

Light the oven to gas mark 4/180c. Grease a baking tray. Makes around 15.

Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add a pinch of salt.

Stir in the self raising flour. Mix well.

Add the ground almonds, golden syrup, pistachios and chocolate chunks, mix in and add a little milk to give it a dough like consistency.

Grab little chunks, roll into balls, and flatten onto a baking tray.

Bake for around 15-20 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack and enjoy!!

They give the M&S Pistachio biscuits a run for their money!!

Let's have a ROLLER DERBY!!!

2011-02-15T03:47:00.000-08:00

This is a brief history of me, myself and roller skating.

I was an active child, possibly too active, dancing around, riding my bike, pogoing all the usual things kids did before games consoles were a household staple.One thing I never managed to master was roller skating. Yes I had a pair of those 1-2-3 Fisher Price roller skates that everyone had, you know the ones, yellow orange and blue, expandable to fit your child for a number of years, 3 settings, walk, half skate, full skate?!?! I think it's fair to point out now that I have that Taurean trait of 'If I can't be the best, or one of at something, I don't do it'. I wasn't the best at roller skating, I don't think it was through lack of trying, it's because I got the fear instilled in me. Karen Peart lived across the road, she had an Alsatian dog and a downstairs bathroom, I'm pretty sure when I was young she told me if you fall over on roller skates you become down Syndrome (I shit you not( she also once broke this clay jewelry dish I made for my sister, my sister went ape shit!)). This may sound utter ridiculous and I'm not 100% sure that's what she told me, I just know after she said something to me, I was so scared of falling over I never moved on from setting 1. That's the setting where you push your feet across the floor as the wheels don't rotate. I don't even think I let go of the windowsill.
It's safe to say I hung up my skates for a while.

I picked them up again when I became a Teen-C loving teen, being all cool and retro and wacky I bought a second hand pair. This never amounted to more than posing in them and skating up and down the back yard. Early twenties I tried them in the park a few tines and tired myself at at a Ladyfest Roller Disco in Leeds.Some people I know who are in London Roller derby team are there. I know I'll never join as my roller skills are NOT THE BEST!

Skip to 2009 where We go skating in Oaks Park Portland. I'm still pretty shitty at it, but I love it and the more I can round the better I get. then a super cute awesome 8 year old girl tells us we are great at skating (Nickie is by the way, a born natural!). We have a quick chat to Portland's Roller Derby team outside, we tell Nickie she has to join a team when we get home.

It's then 2010, and I can't believe I didn't document this on here before. Kandy and Nickie organise me the most super birthday ever, RENT OUT A ROLLER RINK!!! we all turn up shorts clad and skate around to my favourite tunes, I bloody love skating. the skates at the rink are far too heavy for me and I tire after two laps, but I'm getting there and I feel nuff tuff.
It's a good few months before I skate again, just the other week, after deciding maybe we should try out roller derby, we go to the nearest rink, where roller derby practise is held. We go for the free skate, my brother got me some roller skates that look like Reebok Classic (those ones everyone bought in the 90s to do aerobics in!) I'm totally styling and Nickie says my skating has improved loads.We hang around to chat to Manchester Roller Derby, they all seem super nice, we just missed the first lot of beginners training sessions.
A week later I go to help Kandy set up a stall at a roller bout in Sheffield. the atmosphere is super exciting, I don't get to stay as I have a train to catch.

A week on from that Kandy, her sister Rosie and Nickie and I attend another bout, in Manchester, Wonderbrawl IT WAS SO GOOD!

I got sucked into the whole spectator, the only sports events having witnessed before (aside form school related ones, sports day, volleyball) were baton Twirling competitions (yes it's a sport!!)I loved it. The ohh's the ahhhs, the cheering and shouting.
The first bout of Birmingham Blitz Dames vs Tiger Bay Brawlers was on the edge of your seat viewing.Nuff tuff girls, no one taking the lead by a lot of points, in the end The Tiger Bay Brawlers nailed it, only just!
The second bout of Manchester Roller Derby vs Hot Wheel Roller Derby (Leeds) was also great, but mainly because MRD whipped Leeds' ass!

I haven't been skating since, but hopefully go this week. I will hopefully have a shot at roller derby.

I will definitely form a roller gang. You mark my words!

KILLJOY CONTAMINATION: 50% COMPLETE.

2011-02-14T07:33:00.000-08:00

So I arrived in London, Saturday afternoon, to be greeted by Nick and Holly sporting the Party Poison masks I made them and Fun Ghoul bandanas. The levels of excitement reached new heights!

We hopped on the Bus back to Holly's after grabbing chips and onion rings from Ed's Diner. a quick Killjoy change and off to Zone 4 (Wembley Arena) TO GET CONTAMINATED!

Here's where it turned a little sour. It seemed London didn't want us to get contaminated. We jumped on the bus and it wouldn't take my oyster card as the first journey somehow cost me £7. London ate my money! Then we got stuck as some kind of accident had taken place on the Jubilee line. Eventually we got to our destination, but it took like 2 1/2 hours!

We perused the merch (I got a t-shirt and pondered getting some pencils). We ate a hot dog, we complained about the support bands (we were still in the food area at this point!) I had a cup of tea to try and clam myself. We scoped out the Killjoys. Saw a girl with Ramona Flowers hair and an ace Scott Pilgrim back pack. A mum and her daughters, one of about 8 with her backpack, pleather jacket and body warmer, my favourite Killjoy of the evening. I was excited and nervous. never having seen MCR in an arena (my first time was at Manchester Apollo in 2005, my second and last time was aslo at the Apollo last October, I missed the whole of The Black Parade Tour, for reasons i can only put down to stupidity!). We then decided to go in.

HUMID is not the word, it was so hot and the half hour wait seemed like an eternity. Until the big screen above the stage started showing screen shots and slogans, getting everybodies attention, cheering. making me nearly do a wee.

The curtain came down, the lights went black, the Dr Death Defying's intro blasting out. Wembley Arena shouting back louder. NA NA NA kicks in, curtain drops and I scream like a child! (I earlier stated I was going to scream like Kathleen Hanna at the start of her career!).

I won't go into too much detail, I have friends yet to witness this. But I will say this. Despite the fact the only props were the helmet and a flag and that I was hoping for them being lowered in in the trans Am. IT WAS THE BEST EVER!

No props, no outfits, just them and YES!

The lighting was spot on, from spotlights, colourful back drops, party lights and epileptic inducing flashes sound tracked with bombs. It worked.

I sweated to death almost right up to the closer (Helena) and tried to carry on for the encore of Cancer(not my fave) and Vampires Will Never Hurt You(by this point I was stood near a bunch of fans who were going nuts for this, opposed to earlier on when no ones knew the words to songs from Revenge and I looked like a mad woman!).

The other song from Bullets was Lady Of Sorrows and non single Revenge tracks were Give 'Em Hell Kid and Hang Em High. The choice of new tracks was spot on for me. Vampire Money was too early in the set, I wasn't ready. I think I really like Sing now, especially when the whole crowd shout KEEP RUNNING. Party Poison, Planetary (GO!) and Destroya had me dancing like a mofo. Summertime was a welcome treat. I enjoyed Kids... and The Only Hope... more live.

I was also pleased with the choices from Black Parade, replacing I Don't Love You with Mama and everybodies favourite anthem Famous Last Words.

The highlights for me were Helena, just to see Ray Toro rocking out Frank style. And Teenagers. I cried during Teenagers. Now Teenagers is by no means one of my favourite MCR songs. But just before the song a girl threw an awesome jacket she had made on stage Gerard picked it up and said it looked good and thanks (Frank was looking totally jealous by the way!) and went to put it down until Wembley erupted into a chant of PUT IT ON PUT IT ON. to which he did and kicked into Teenagers. The camera (for the big screen) was on the girl who gave him the jacket (who Holly informs me was one of the girls who got on stage to sing OLOS at the last London gig). It was her face that made me cry, her shock and utter happiness at witnessing Gerard wear her jacket. I'm soppy!

All in all, the boys total delivered. I now love this band more than I ever did (if that's possible) and I can't wait for complete contamination on Friday.

KILLJOYS MAKE SOME NOISE!

......

2011-02-14T04:19:00.000-08:00

Mirror Mime.....

2011-02-11T04:11:00.000-08:00

So my first road trip of 2k11 was to Yorkshire Sculpture Park. This was at the very start of January (at the very start of my gammy eye!) and was an all round awesome grrrl gang day out, despite the cold. We enjoyed walking the grounds, posing with sculptures, looking at art and eating a pub lunch (scampi and chips, YES PLEASE!)
The art we saw was that of Zara Wood (Woody) - Mirror Mime exhibition.

You might recognise her work from a Topshop range a while back. Her work is illustrated sweetness, featuring doe eyed girls, Pierrots, harlequins, bandits and birds. In the exhibition were tiny pieces of jewelry, china cups and saucers, farmed work and a huge illustrated window.

It left me wanting great adventures with my pet owl on ships sailing the rough seas!

Good Grief!

2011-02-08T04:54:00.000-08:00

Sugar paper zine is now available to buy in Good Grief!, all round awesome zine shop in Soup Kitchen Manchester.

Good Grief! is ran by all round good egg David Bailey.
On Sunday we took a trip to The Cornerhouse to take a look at The People You're Not exhibition.
I would recommend a visit, it feature's many works, including David's recreation of George Cruikshank's The Worship Of Bacchus, using known alcoholics as proposed by Harry Hill. All set within a Victorian style theatre!

The world will keep turning...

2011-02-06T14:42:00.001-08:00

...As long as Zombina And The Skeletones keep playing!

Hollaback!!!

2011-02-01T04:32:00.000-08:00

I am a Hollaback Girl!

(should think about starting an northern chapter).

The importance of becoming an artist....

2011-01-31T05:45:00.000-08:00

I recently became unemployed. I handed my notice in at work, without having found another job prior to this. An event that was planned yet crept upon me unknowingly. An event I am glad that happened.

Searching for jobs is one of my least favourite things, I turn into Scott Pilgrim reading an email. Scan read things, decide they are bo-or-ring! I mull over for what seems like forever, whether I should just try and get another dead end retail job as just a means of making money, or try a career change, try and work in a field that interests me more. I have tried to make money from doing the things I loved, I owned my own business, but I have to admit, I missed a steady wage, regular money coming in so I can do all the fun things I want, hang out with friends, go to places and see things, create. But with that come the pitfalls of working a full time job. My last job was a 40+ hour a week affair, which left little time to create. And if it’s one thing that has been a constant in my life, it’s a need to create.

I am one of those people who wants to create something all the time, I am one of those people whose brain never shuts off, I am one of those people that is full of ideas, sometimes so many, I cannot execute one before thinking about the other. I am also, as much as it pains me to admit, one of those people that invent a million excuses as to why such and such idea never actually came into fruition.

But now is the time.

I am unemployed, spent the first week of that creating an inviting and comfortable workspace, live at home so financial pressure is not that much of a burden (my income was the second in the house and sadly we cannot survive on one, so can’t sit around fannying about with felt all day!!!!) and no longer have the excuse of ‘my full time job leaves me no time for creativity’.

I feel like my clock is ticking.

Most people (mostly female too, sadly) reach my age and begin to feel like their clock is ticking. Their biological clock. Their life clock. The belief that at this age there are certain things you should have, certain targets you should have met. Life goals to some are meeting the one they love and starting a family. This has little or no interest to me (as something I want to spend my time actively seeking). My life goal is to make an impact. I have the right amount of arrogance needed to believe I can. But I don’t know if I have enough belief to make it happen. My clock is ticking because I could sit here for ever saying I am going to do this, going to create that, and before you know it my life has passed by and it was all talk. I’m not putting all my energies into finding the perfect man, I’m not putting all my energies into climbing the career ladder. So what am I putting them into?

With an obsessive, passionate personality, I am one prone to hero worship, especially as a teen. Banging on about how such and such inspires me and that was the best thing I ever heard/saw/was part of. What an impact it made upon me. But if [insert name of ‘hero’] ever turned round and said ‘I’m glad I inspired you to form that band’ I would have to reply with, ‘oh I never did’. What a waste! All this time I spent gushing about whomever, what did I do about it? Sit there and gush some more. Their efforts are wasted. I’m not saying I never went out and did anything, there a lots of things I have created am proud of, but I know I could create a lot more, if I didn’t sit around being inspired and talking about it.

Recently, someone who has been a huge inspiration of my adolescent life referred to me as an artist. I thought ‘if Kathleen Hanna can call me an artist, then why can’t I call myself one?!’. I am not one to shy away from making bold statements, I’m bolshie, loud and not ashamed to proclaim any talents I have (prime example is always taking over the dance floor), but never brave enough to call myself an artist, but f@!# it, I am Seleena Daye and I’m an artist!

There I said it, which now means I have to live it. It is something I have to do for myself and something I have to find within myself, yet sometimes, you do need a little push, a little inspiration.

Recent things that have inspired me are…..

Blythe Church. I stumbled across her by researching ‘felt art’. Her work is very similar to mine in that she makes everyday objects out of felt. She makes her felt by hand (which is something In don’t do but really want to now!) The fact that her work is very similar to mine and was regarding herself as an artist, encouraged me to keep making the things I do. Sometimes I think they have no purpose, making for makings sake, but attaching the ‘art’ tag helps me to want to create.

Emily martin, creator of Black Apple, artist, illustrator stitcher and more. I have been a fan of her work for a while and when I received a book of her work in paper doll form for Christmas, it only heightened my inspiration. Creating a craft/art related book is on my huge to do list and is slowly creeping it’s way to the top!
My Chemical Romance. Go on laugh, get it out of the way. I’ll admit it, I LOVE this band, and not in a guilty pleasure way. This band when they started out were kind of my age, Gerard Way in particular already assuming his life role and career choice, but turns round and says ‘you know what I don’t have to do this’. I am a firm believer of not doing something because it’s expected, if your unhappy, don’t do it. OK so I’m not going to become a mega rockstar, but, it is nice to reaffirm that you don’t have to decide what or who you’re going to be as soon as you leave school/college/university. I think too much fear is instilled in the young if they don’t get it tight straight away they never will. Plus the new album is well good, like Bis’ lost efforts!

Let's get cooking! (red pepper hummus)

2011-01-27T03:53:00.000-08:00

For Christmas I received a good cookbook, my mum also got me one of those recipe folders that you fill with your own recipes and clippings of tasty things to make. I put them on the shelf with all the other books I have and thought to myself '2k11 is the year I actually make things from these books'. You know how it is, you get a recipe book, cook/bake something tasty from it and then never try anything else, just do the same recipe. I made a pact with myself to try and make at least two new things I haven't made before, each month.

Also, I have this weird fear of condiments, this sometimes carries over into dips. Anything vinegar based, I'm probably not going to like. I think a reason I don't eat dips is most likely the texture, obviously not eating sauces with meals (ketchup, salad cream etc) means I'm not used to a wetness, I like my food dry! This contributes to me not eating hummus often. ANYWAY O also made a pact with myself to try and get to like hummus by making it myself, to conquer my weird fear (everyone has a stupid food fear right?). Lo and behold, the first recipe in my new cook book is for red pepper hummus. So I made it, here's how......

you will need:

2 red peppers
14oz/400g chickpeas
2 gloves of garlic
2 tbsp tahini (sesame seed paste)
juice 1/2 lemon
3 tbsp olive oil
paprika

(You can use canned chick peas, alternatively use dried chick peas, but remember to soak them the night before)

First, deseed the peppers and cut into 4. Place under a hot grill. grill until the skin blackens, place in a plastic bag and when cool peel the skin off.

Peel the garlic, then place in a food processor with the cooled, skinless peppers, lemon juice, chick peas, olive oil and tahini paste. Blend until smooth.

Place into a bowl and sprinkle with paprika. then eat!!!!

(this recipe will feature in Sugar Paper #7, along with a few others!!)

Abel

2011-01-21T07:52:00.000-08:00

The other week I was lucky enough to grab myself a ticket for the screening of Diego Luna's directorial debut, Abel.
The film was introduced by Diego himself and was followed by a Q&A with Diego and producer/Diego pal/partner (along with Gael Garcia Bernel they run Canana films) Pablo Cruz.

I stumbled my way to the front of the screen with Kandy (andenoviral conjunctivitis was totally hating on my eyes at this point!) where Kandy's sister Rosie had saved us some seats. I was getting nervous, (initially for seeing a proper film star in the flesh!) but mostly because Nickie and Alison were nowhere in (very restricted) sight. I'm just going to point out now that Nickie is a pure film buff, and one of her main obsessions is Mexican cinema, so obviously she was beyond excited.
They eventually arrived and Nickie's face of delight and equal measures 'on the verge of tears' hinted that their delay was for a good and valid reason. turns out it was, Nickie had just bagged a quick photo shoot.

The film itself was really good. I don't want to spoil it for anyone yet to see it, but the basic story is of a young boy who returns home after a stint on a psychiatric ward. The film unfolds to see how members of his immediate family react to his return and to him adopting the role of father figure.
The Film was touching but definitely not without a comedic sense. I didn't cry, but I did look like I'd bawled my way through the whole thing. A whole family coming of age affair.

After the film was the Q&A. I'm not the biggest fan of Q&A's (as you might have guessed form the John Waters post). It's not that I don't want whoever has created what we are discussing, to talk about it. I love that. It's all the people that ask, long drawn out questions, that end up more like statements, just to make themselves sound clever! There was a lot of that, and aside from one person who actually was Mexican, everyone seemed to start the question off with 'I lived in Mexico' (which, to me does not equate to knowing what it is to be Mexican!). I also think they took the fact a child had some sort of mental illness, out of context. Constantly referring to him as having special needs and lots of the questions addressing this. Diego pointed out it was a conscious decision not to make Abel's illness known, because he wasn't making a film about children with mental illness.
He talked about how the film was more of how the family react to Abel's return and to him playing the father figure, and how, in Mexico and most likely many other places, it is passed off as the normal way to live for a father to be absent.
he spoke about growing up with just his father (after his mother passed)and how lots of fathers in Mexico go away to work or shun the responsibility of fatherhood and child rearing falls upon the mother with nobody questioning this, and how he, having recently become a father could not understand not wanting to be part of his children's lives and sharing the responsibility. GO DIEGO!
A lot of the questions were directed at Diego, put when Pablo spoke, I could tell I liked him, with his dry wit. He often responded to the questions about Mexico and it's 'bad press' (there were lots of them) and answered honestly. The truth is, they are not poster child for Mexico and don't need to make propaganda films, something they were both aware of and seemed to get across to the audience.
All in all I really enjoyed it, the film, the Q&A, listening to two very talented and down to earth guys speak of something they are passionate about.
I will definitely be going to see Abel again when it is shown at The Cornerhouse's Viva festival in March, and I recommend you do too!

little- Alison Erika Forde

2011-01-17T02:04:00.000-08:00

My good pal Alison is having her first exhibition of 2011. Her third solo exhibition, 'little' at Manchester's Greenroom.

The exhibition opens on Wednesday 19th January (that's this week folks) and runs until Saturday 12th February, with a preview evening on Wednesday 6pm-9pm.

It's a chance to see some of the work in Alison's 'Smotherland' exhibition and a few you haven't seen, including a couple of new ones!!

At this rate I will be able to give up work and become her PA!

Role Models

2011-01-13T13:57:00.000-08:00

I am currently reading John Waters - Role Models. I picked my copy up at The Southbank centre when I was at A John Waters talk!!!

Yes back in December Kandy and I went for a trip to the big smoke. It seemed everyone we knew was in London that weekend, mostly to attend the John Waters talk. We got there and saw some ace London folk and then ace Manchester folk. Once I got over the fact I was served peppermint tea instead of earl grey (milk in mint tea, WRONG!) and we eventually made our way to the correct building (missing first few minutes of the talk) I was all set.

It was ace to hear Johns voice and just a few metres in front of me. Hearing him talk about his role models and what inspires him. I particularly enjoyed when he spoke about a film he's trying to get made a children's Christmas film about a family that steal meat and sell it on. Everyone did that 'oh imagine that' laugh. My working class self didn't quite give the same laugh, it just sounds like the equivalent of your dad's mate down the pub that sells anything from meat to videos they nabbed from Asda.

A lot of what john said rang true and made me smile, but wound me up when I kept hearing that laugh from the audience. Do they love the king of trash because they like to laugh at poor people? Anyway I got over myself (shame the same couldn't be said for those asking questions, it's always the same at Q&A's, folk just trying to sound clever!) and I left smiling, purchasing the book.

We were going to get them signed but decided to stand around chatting instead, there was always the bookshop signing the next day. spoke to a whole load of awesome folk. My pal Patrick said it was weird how almost everyone he knew was there and what a huge dent in (good) society it would be if someone blew up the auditorium that nigh. Yes he is a bit of a goff!!

We said hellos and goodbyes and went to dance the night away. Had BIG fun dancing to all the best R&B and emo hits, dancing on tables and singing the live version of MCR with Holly, without discussing it first.

We made it back to our hotel safe despite the rain. But we were so tired, we didn't get to finish of the tea we made. I was even still so tired in the morning that i couldn't take advantage of the free breakfast and chomped on cereal never actually swallowing.

We got ourselves dressed and headed to Waterstones to get our books signed by JOHN himself. We got nervous as we reached the front of the queue. I tend to say stupid things when I meet the people I admire.

It turns out i didn't need to worry, I didn't say anything stupid, but John couldn't understand me anyway. I spent what felt like an hour spelling my name to him, he not understanding my northerness, me not wanting to correct him. This is what i got:

Well at least the picture turned out well: Had a great weekend in the company of all those who inspire me, and not just those who are film makers!

CRAFTMAS part one!

2011-01-08T03:42:00.000-08:00

Hello Sugar Paper fans. It's 2011 now. Where have we been I hear you cry?

Busy that's where!

I had every intention of making a big deal about Christmas here, well because we love Christmas and if you don't craft anything all year then Christmas is the time to do it. I had this plan to upload Christmas crafts for you to do. But before you know it it was Christmas dinner and I was making Christmas dinner!!! I'm going to blame working in retail and using any spare time to craft gifts for all my favourite folk.

It seems my friends had the same idea. So part one of craftmas is a look at the amazing homemade and personalised gifts I received:

That's a MCR all the best pictures sticker book, a Party Poison mask (you might see this feature in part 2!), a Lego Patrick Bateman, engraved I AM SEW COOL scissors and a Sex Bob-Omb scarf. THANKS GUYS!!

KILLJOYS MAKE SOME NOISE (and other things!)

2010-12-12T15:19:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if I've expressed my love for My Chemical Romance on here. I bang on about a lot of other things, like Twilight for example, but i like MCR MORE THAN THAT!

And what I also like is things that have been hand crafted that relate to stuff I love, like this:

Yes that IS a cross stitched Party Poison (Gerard Way to the unknown). sadly this isn't mine, but My friend Holly received it from her friend Eva. It is the best thing ever and I wish it was mine.
What is mine though is this picture, made by my pal Nickie, it's us road tripping yeah!:

Expect a lot of MCR talk between now and February!!
Right I'm off to Christmas craft some more!

ALL NEW SUGAR PAPER SHOPPE!!!!!

2010-12-10T01:29:00.000-08:00

Check out the all new Sugar Paper shoppe with all our zines, kits, stickers, tote bags and more!
Go here!

There's been a lot of this lately.....

2010-12-07T14:15:00.000-08:00

(That's snow by the way, a lot of snow!!)
So keep warm by purchasing Sugar Paper #6 and making these rad things:

I Got Haterz Everywhere I Go!

2010-12-05T13:36:00.000-08:00

The other week I went to see Paramore and B.O.B. It was at the MEN arena which i hate and we were sat waaaaaaaay up, but I learnt a few things that night.
The first thing I learnt was whilst watching B.O.B.

I enjoyed B.O.B a lot. I wasn't sure if Paramore fans would (their demographic being (probably) middle class young teen girls) but they did. He saved all his hits for the end, which I thought a little odd, but mid way through the set he played a song that due to it's beat can only be decsribed as a reggae song, I looked down to the sea of white teenage boys and girls dancing away. I realised he had gotten an arena of kids dancing to a reggae song!
Haley came on for airplanes (sadly no surprise appearance from good 'ol Rivers) and this was the start of my next realisation, I'M GETTING OLD!!!
I'm not a big fan of children, but from where we were sitting we could see a couple of ten year old girls who were so into Paramore, at one point I almost cried.

The big black curtain dropped and Paramore belted out Ignorance, Haley leaning back, face upside down to the crowd, swinging bare bulbs above, PARAMORE flashing on the screen behind and throughout Haley and the boys didn't disappoint. With her pink hair and dance moves, she was the embodiment of Gwen Stefani circa '99. But i had to keep looking at these young girls, they knew every word, the screamed when Haley came near, they held hands and thrashed their hair around and I thought how cool would it have been to be that young and seeing a gig like this, I bloody loved it. See I am getting old!

The last thing I learnt was on the way home. After the gig we went to see Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows (I learnt I quite enjoyed it despite only seeing three other of the films and not reading any books). But it was Nickie driving us home at 3am with the windscreen wipers on (when it wasn't raining) and getting pulled over by the police that I learnt not turning your wipers off is apparently a sure fire sign you are drink driving!!! Took a bit of convincing on Nickie's part, but she told the officer Kandy and i fancied Ron Weasley, this classed as proof she wasn't drunk driving!!! What is the world coming to!

And for the record, we don't fancy Ron!

Sugar Paper #6....

2010-11-15T08:16:00.000-08:00

IS NOW AVAILABLE!!!20 things to make and do including: quilting, lemon curd recipe, crochet granny squares, marbling, french knitting, blending tea, start a craft business, origami, knitting, tassoegraphy, macaroons, a kick ass* full colour centre spread and much more, with contributions from ace writer gal Lisa Clark and front cover illustration (and fabric design) from Benjamin Cooney.
Comes with four fabric squares to quilt with, the first 100 issues come with a limited square of Sugar paper fabric.

Buy HERE now!!!!

*not kick ass as in teh film but the saying!