Monday 31 August 2009

Berry Picking!

So I went Urban Blackberry picking (that's a new phrase I just invented, it just means I went to pick black berries from the park at the end of my street, I live quite close to t city centre yeah!) the other day. It was fun, I got carried away, I then made an apple and blackberry crumble.
The Clough:
The berries:

The crumble making:

The crumble eating!:


Friday 28 August 2009

Rice Biscuits

So today after my morning film and stitch session (which wasn't for the first time this week Twilight, but instead another film starring be-quiffed slightly tortured hottie, Cry Baby), I went to make myself my early afternoon cup of tea. I wanted some biscuits to go along with this, but we only have bourbons and ginger biscuits, I fancied something else, so looked in the cupboards to see what I could come up with, spotted the packet of ground rice and 25 minutes later I was tucking into these bad boys:Rice biscuits! here's how I made them....
8oz/200g self raising flour
4oz/100g ground rice
6oz/150g caster sugar
6oz/150g margarine
few drops of vanilla essence
milk to mix

First mix all the dry ingredients together.
Next rub in the margarine.
Add the vanilla essence and mix into a stiff dough with the milk.
Roll out onto a floured surface, quite thin and cut out the biscuits.
Bake on a greased tray at gas mark 4/180c for around 15 minutes.
then eat with a nice cup of tea!

Tuesday 25 August 2009

Breaking Down....

So here it is, my first novella, all finished!
For anyone ho is interested it is my own fourth instalment to the Twilight saga, feeling that the original fourth book well was a little rubbish, disappointing an anti climatic and frankly a waste of a few days of my life it took to read. Mine is much better, buy it here:
http://sugarpaper.bigcartel.com/product/breaking-down

Thursday 20 August 2009

Toast and Twilight

Last might I made Sesame prawn toast for the first time, they were well tasty.On Tuesday I made these hot goff black Twilight cakes for Kandy's pre birthday Twilight Sleepover oh yeah:
I'm off now to pick up my amazing novella from the printers and then to have mini adventures before heading to the big smoke for Bust craftacular fun, woo!

Tuesday 18 August 2009

And to think I was going to call you Betty...


Here I am with my newly purchased glue gun, from the store that sells all WILKOS!!! I obviously took this picture before I had actually used the glue gun as I am disappointed. My old gun got so hot it would burn off like three layers of my asbestos finger skin, this however I can barely feel when it sticks to me, pfft. I have had salads warmer than this gun, ah well. I blame it on health and safety, back in the 90s it was OK to have actual HOT hot melt glue guns, not these days, I'm surprised it didn't come with protective gloves!

Birthday Craftings

Apparently it's birthday season! Due to the fact I have little money and well I like to make stuff, I have gotten a little birthday gift crafty.
The first lucky recipient of my fine craftiness was Katie,
whom I made this:
and this for:
The first one being a tea cosy (sadly I have not become some hott ceramicist and knocked out a tea pot) the second a giant party ring lemon cake.
In other news I have finished my Twilight saga novella which will be be exclusively on sale at the Bust Craftacular!

Monday 17 August 2009

We heart craft...do you?!

Oh yes, here at Sugar Paper we LOVE craft, and we have done this lovely load of badges for the goodie bags at the BUST craftacular this weekend, hooray!
I say we, when actually it wasn't either Me or Seleena who did these, it was Knit and Destroy's resident pompom maker/'ideas man'...thank you Ben, they look great! And if you're not one of the lucky first 100 poeple through the door to get a goodie bag then never fear cos we will be selling them at the Sugar Paper stall along with zines, craft kits and lots of other handmade goodies!See you there. x


Saturday 15 August 2009

(almost) DEATH BY CRAFT

I have just experienced a serious craftastrophe! A few days (actually probably weeks) ago I got out my glue gun, it was working fine then the next day I got it out again, nothing, it was cold and not working. I put it away and thought it's probably just the fuse. So today I decided to change the fuse, I need to use that bad boy, so I changed the fuse. It already had a 3amp so I just changed it to that, and when I plugged it in it made a huge POP noise and sparked, holy shit I thought, then I noticed on the plug it said 13amp so I tried one of those, this time when I plugged it in it made one mo-fo of a giant POP and spark and tripped all the electric in the house, I think I may have even jumped back a couple of feet. I got closer to my glue gun and yeah it had kinda exploded inside, it has definitely died.
This is a sad day, that glue gun has been part of family longer than my little brother (who is almost 17) and now the little Bostik is gone.

RIP lil blue Bostik glue gun.

Thursday 13 August 2009

Knitting Nancys, playsacks and more...

When I go to London, I like to go to museums. They are free to get in, full of exciting stuff i.e.dinosaurs, olden days clothes/stuff, gift shops... And in my books beat Oxford St any day!
I had heard rumor of a museum full of toys in London and finally went to the Museum of Childhood last weekend. Here are some snaps of my favourite bits.



I think I will have to go back next time I'm down there. It's official, museums rule!

http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/index.html

K x

Craft idol - Donna Wilson

Donna Wilson is a lady with an amazing imagination who has knitted her own world full of creatures, cakes, cushions and lots of other lovely things!

I first met Donna when I interviewed her for my final year project at University, and seeing her running her own successful knit-based business encouraged me to do the same thing when I finished my course.

Donna is originally from Scotland and is now based in London where she runs her now internationally successful business. Donna started out by making knitted dolls based on and for her friends, she called them 'Donna Dolls'.





Donna started selling her dolls in a few shops in London, there was a lot of interest in these lovely knitted dolls and the collection soon grew to include all sorts of creatures based on friends of Donna's. The creatures are made using machine knitted lambswool fabric so they're lovely to snuggle up with as well as to look at!





One of Donna's most recent creations is her book 'Theknitted odd bod bunch' in which she has very kindly shared with the world patterns for 35 of her knitted creatures. This book is perfect if you are just learning to knit and want your first project to be something you will actually finish. These are my hand knitted creatures from the book...

As well as the book Donna has recently brought out a make your own monster kit, hooray, we love craft kits, and designed her own line of furniture, this lady is unstoppable! Check out her website for a dose of knitted wonderland.

www.donnawilson.com

See you at BUST craftacular. K x

Friday 7 August 2009

Crafts, Drafts and '80steenfilms...

This week I have been mostly making this: and this:and this:
I also managed to finish Breaking YAWN at the weekend and am now 3/4 way through my own version of a fourth installment, woo! I am currently thinking of a front cover (summat a bit goff and pointless yeah!).
I'm off to the seaside now but later I might watch some Sheedy or Ringwald, a bit of Culkin or Candy, RIP John Hughes :(



Saturday 1 August 2009

Bury, not all tripe/// My hot friend

Those of you who are readers of our 'zine may have stumbled across our colouring in pages, drawn by my good friend Alison. Well I'm here to tell you she's totally hot right now:There she is in the paper,along with other artists featuring in the 'Not At This Address' exhibition in Bury, being tipped for greatness. you too can witness this greatness from now until November 7th at Bury art Gallery, Moss street (right opposite the bus station).
It's free entry and everything so you have no excuse!
http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art70759