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It's OK guys, 2016 is almost over!! Not long now! YOU CAN DO IT!
2017 may be a bit of a toughy too, but at least we'll see it coming, and so make sure you and your loved ones have these ultimate survival items....
CAST SOME SPELLS!
Witchcraft may be the only thing that saves us, so decorate your spell book with these Tiny Hexes stickers by super awesome illustrator/comic book artist Jack Fallows. They also do commission portraits too so you know!
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!
Help out in your local community, give a hand to those in need, but also take care of your self. A helpful reminder is this risograph Stay Cosy art print from talented megababe Kathleen.
Sometimes you gotta Stay Cosy.
LEARN A SKILL!
Give yourself distraction and learn something new. Learn to knit and then you can definitely stay cosy.
Our kandy got herself a swish new studio and is now doing knitting machine workshops from there. Book in!
PREPARE FOR IDIOTS!
Racism is rife, but it's probably gonna get rifer. This year I made a piece that was a series of patches on a sash and I called it Brownies, The Chufty Badge Pack. The patches featured all of the silly stuff white people say to me. I got it made into an A3 art print. Get one, hang it on your walls, or cut it out and wear it to repel racist idiots and their stupid questions.
SUPPORT WOMEN WRITERS!
Yes, support women writers with The Chapess zine collection book, Gut Flora. 200 pages of written, illustrated and photographs by women. Synchronise Witches Press who made the book also do badges and totes that say 'Support Women Writers' on them.
GET ABDUCTED BY ALIENS!
Just wait for ET to come back for his supply of Reeses Pieces and get him to take you back home with him. Get this 'I Want To Leave' T-shirts by Danny Brito to let the aliens know you wanna leave.
PREPARE FOR IDIOTS PART 2!
Idiots aren't just racist, they're sexist, transphobic and homophobic too. Make sure you repel them extra with this T-shirt by Rudy Lowe.
SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!
The world is full of people who want to stand up for you and tell your story incorrectly, especially if your working class. Let it be known your's proud of your class and can speak for yourself with these badges and patch.
FIND A GANG!
Survival is pretty much guaranteed easier in a pack, so seek out your gang to help you get through it. These Anxious Punks pins from Emma Thacker will not only make you look cool but help you connect with other anxious punks.
PREPARE FOR THE APOCOLYPSE!
Who knows about an apocalypse better than Buffy? No one! So get your slayer in training mode on with this EP by queer Buffy concept band The Potentials! (also artwork by Tiny hexes sticker maker Jack Fallows)
It's fairly well documented on this blog that Colouring outside the Lines is my favourite zine (and editor Melanie one of my favourite people)
So you can imagine my excitement when issue 7 landed on my door mat. But can you imagine my excitement when I got interviewed for it!!!!!!
This issue is slightly different to previous ones, it still features in depth interviews with all different types of female artist, but these artists all happen to be people Melanie knows on a personal level, basically she interviewed her mates, I'm one of them as are two of my besties Kandy Diamond and Alison Erika Forde.
I urge anyone who is interested in art, an artist themselves or is just really nosey and likes to hear about peoples lives, to get yourselves a copy.
GET IT HERE!
I know the sun is out, but SPACE KNITS should always be in season!
Space knits I hear you say? Yes the latest collection from Kandy Diamond's Knit And Destroy is faaaaar out!
Scarves, cushions and non-knit brooches! space colours, sparkles and glow in the dark, what more do you want?
GET THEM HERE!!
Last week I headed to London, I was supposed to go and see The Julie Ruin, but the gig was cancelled, but I still got to hang with friends, go to a Becky Cloonan signing and surprise my sister with a Lush spa visit. I also got to see two awesome exhibitions:
Kandy Diamond- Death By Knitting
Prick Your Finger
Ok so I was obviously going to love this as it's Kandy's exhibition, but what's not to love about knitted film posters that are 3D!!!
Yes that's right she has machine knitted posters from movies that feature murder by knitting in some form or other and once you put on some red/blue 3D glasses the posters come to life! SO GOOD!
She has also made a zine to accompany the exhibition!
And 11 year old me particularly enjoyed seeing a knitted 3D Devon Sawa!
Miss Van- Glamorous by Darkness
Olek- Let's not get caught, let's keep going
Stolen Space gallery
I was super excited to see some Miss Van art up close and personal (thanks for the heads up Kellie!)
From street art to fine art, it was a joy to see those signature pursed pout ladies big on the wall. The collection at SSG was very Marie Antoinette meets magical forest party: Pastel hair, venetian masks, animal heads nude ladies, so good!
This was in the back room and in the front was work from Olek, another rare treat. A close friend of Miss Van (her show title is a quote from Thelma and Louise) Olek's work is an interpretation of some of Miss Vans pieces. She swapped paint and canvas for real life models, photographs and of course what olek is known for CROCHET!!!
The images were amazing and the walls were covered floor to ceiling in grey crochet, ARGH!
It made me want to go home and get way better at crochet. Also whenever I see a form of craft or textile art in a gallery space I get excited because I love to see traditional craft skills getting excepted as art!
I think it's totally fitting to just leave this song here....
The other half (and ever awesome) of Sugar Paper, Kandy, has a new exhibition opening soon in that there London...
DEATH BY KNITTING.
Things that are great, knitted stuff, films, things that are 3D.
All of the above are in the exhibition!
Prick Your Finger are going to be showing a collection of Kandy's knitted 3D posters from April 25th-June 7th.
It's gonna be one of the best things you get to see this year so don't miss it.
AND 3D glasses are provided!!!!
more event information HERE.
So this months mix is dedicated to Kandy's 30th birthday and all the cool things she did, from seeing the B52's to having a circus themed party, hanging with her bffs and going to NYC!!!!
As I previously mentioned, last week was a full on birthday week. Last weekend we had some full on party action, here's what went down!
Friday was Katie's (my only friend remaining from school) birthday. She was hoping the rain would hold off (it never does this time of year) and have a tropical party!
Sadly I had to sell moderately priced soap late that day so didn't get round there til later on, but fear not there was still plenty of cocktail sausages left (my favourite buffet snack!) and pizza in the oven.
I also made a rainbow cake* and made her wait until I got there to cut it. I got some sparkling candles that I mis-read as sparklers and they were a bit of a let down!
Then there was present opening, I bloody love present opening! Although my mum rescued a kitten the other week and gave that to kitten, so the rest of us shouldn't have even bothered, we weren't gonna top that!
Then, as always at Katie's we danced to some hip hop beats 'til late, with glow sticks, who knew glow sticks were so much fun.
We left at a semi reasonable hour as we were driving over to Kandy's the next morning.
Saturday saw us collecting Katie bright and early (despite her having birthday hangover) but we had to because as a birthday surprise we were taking a slight detour en route to Chesterfield to visit Hadfield AKA ROYSTON VASEY!!!!
We had a walk round and tried to go to the café called Café Royston, but it was closed, instead went to another one which took like ten hours for our order to arrive, but £5.30 for 4 teacakes and 3 brews, winners! But this meant we couldn't wander round to much as we had to get to Kandy's to set up the party!
Kandy, carrying on from her trapezing birthday last year, (and Sugar Paper 12) decided to turn her house into a big top for a circus party. Complete with coconut shy, hook-a-duck, snake charming, hula hooping, baton twirling, popcorn, candy floss and cinder toffee oh and snacks galore!
There were some ace costumes, from a mime, to a jester, snake charmer, ring leader, Pierrot and a hook a duck outfit!
I used the big top skirt pattern from last Sugar paper issue 12 and the cape pattern from issue 10 (I think ha!) to turn myself into a big top and Kandy rocked the cape a s a ringleader.
I even mastered vegan baking and made a pretty awesome cake*, if I say so myself and used the rest of those disappointing sparkling candles!
Think we all party too hard/early and got sleepy by past midnight, no time for Heartthrob game and face masks. But who cares, we had a ball.
I love birthdays!!
*I will put up the cake recipes as soon as Kandy is back from holiday and can send me a picture of the cake I made her!
I've been a bit quiet lately as I'm preparing for birthday madness (I've also been procrastinating about procrastinating!). One down, three to go!
those upcoming three (that happen within 8 days of each other) are all birthdays of some of my oldest and closest friends, so you know it's a skint month for me.
I've been making a few bits and need to sort out an outfit for Kandy's big birthday bash (the 'ol 3 0!).
Anyway...
Happy birthday HOLLY, KATIE & KANDY, you are all AWESOME!!! here are some birthday related videos...
