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Wilkinson's will be opening in Manchester Arndale. Finally C&A will now have something worthy taking it's place!

Craft Idol # 7

Shauna Richardson - Crochetdermy

Here at Sugar Paper we do like a good museum...from dinosaurs to textiles to toys, but big taxidermy animals (the kind you get at Manchester Museum) are always a firm favourite. I found out about Shauna Richardson's awesome work in one of my mum's crochet magazines, I know, I should be 'ahead of the game' with the latest yarn craft, anyway, I was super-excited to see how this lady had turned yarn into these awesome animals and thought you might like it too..

Shauna came up with the term Crochetdermy to describe the work that she does, because in her words ' When say that I crochet animals, it often creates a stereotypical image in people’s minds' ... this kind of craft is right up our street, no floral chintz here, just pure flawlessness.

Shauna is currently working on a piece for the olympics involving 3 crocheted lions, which will be touring in 2012, I can't wait to get to see the animals up-close...for more pics you can check out her website.

Indietracks!

So, like ten years (read as three weeks) ago we went to our first indiepop festival, Indietracks.

Here's what we got up to (remember I'm writing this three weeks later so events maybe be exaggerated!)

Friday:

The best part of Friday was spent buying the essentials to go camping with, Super noodles, Iced gems, Roysters, The National Enquirer!

All this fannying about and eating pizza meant we set off later then expected, but it's OK we're only half an hour drive away, WRONG! we were half an hour drive away but our lack of getting actual proper directions meant we got a little lost!

We found one end of the site but it was the wrong end, eventually we asked for directions and made our way to camp.

We then set up camp:

Had a little walk round (spotted FOUR yes FOUR Cath Kidston tents, twee or what!!!) and did the important things you do at a festival, EAT! I tell you, our camping stove is hot! The best shade of blue ever.

We finally stopped faffing about and set off on the tractor train to where the music happens.

We missed Allo Darlin' and Veronica Falls but managed to catch the last of Eddie Argos' new side project, Everybody Was In The French Resistance now, if I wasn't aware of this before I would have been after the band's new song 'Formed a side project' (yes done to the tune of Art Brut's formed a band).

Saw some pals. Think we then did a little dancing and headed back to camp. Didn't go to the disco there as we are old tired people, but it sounded good, bit of Helen Love. Instead we were trying to sleep an figure out what to use a pillows as we forgot ours FAIL!

Also didn't appreciate blasting 2 and a half Smiths songs at 4am, not a fan of The Smiths at the best of times, never mind when trying to sleep!

Fake celebrity spots (IE poor mans versions of):
-Zac Pennington -Jared Leto -James Corden -Aid Edminson -Jherek Bischoff -Oliver Reed

Saturday:
Today was the day of our workshop and this stressed me a little! but not as much as the shower queues, jeez! how long does it take a lady to get ready, TOO LONG! yes I don't wash my hair often so that cuts down my time, but yet again I don't shave and prune myself for four hours whilst at a festival, get in, teeth wash me pits and bits, next thing you know I'm ready. Also girls at indie pop festivals queue up for the shower in floral dresses, FACT!

Pre shower stress we manged to brew a nice cuppa and have some cereal with frozen not frozen milk. And post shower stress managed to have an ice cream, always a winner.

The sun was well and truly shining so we went on a nature trail (mostly saw ducks and trees) before walking down to the site.

We tried to see Jam on Bread on the train, but the carriage with the music was too full, so sat a carriage away admiring the views chilling out and stuff.

Think we may have watched The Smittens then and some other bands before we went back to collect our workshop stuff.

This was when the stressed kicked in, I like to be organised and suddenly had like a few miutes turn over between workshop, so all my organisation went out the window. Then began our 20 things to make and do workshop (although there was only 18 as, inevitably we forgot some things!!).

The workshop went quite well I think, everyone there seemed to enjoy it, as predicted the felt owl was the favourite thing to do, origami was another favourite.

And before I knew it, the workshop was over, I stressed for most of it!

The stress was soon gone, and the fun began. Hanging with our pals Amy, Mel, Helen and Gemma, seeing more bands.

I got very excited about Tender Trap and they were our favourites of the weekend (a lot of that had to do with Amelia Fletcher's daughter singing along, word for word by the side of the stage!).

We must have taken our workshop stuff back to the campsite and had some tea, of Supernoodles with cashews and sweetcorn, oh yeah! I think someone was repeatedly playing Oasis on an acoustic guitar, swift exit back to decent music!

We watched some more bands, but I can't remember who!!

Next thing you know it's nightfall, it's chilly and we're all dancing around to The Primitives BIG HIT. They didn't even play it at the end, pfft!

Had a a few dances in the giant shed then headed down to the campsite disco, we got there nice and early so we could have a proper dance, but it seems the best disco was the night before. We asked for Girls Aloud (it said they play that) but got the response 'not yet, later' IE when everyone is drunk, god forbid playing pop music in a non ironic way. This signalled bedtime for us and away we went.

Kandy had to tell some people off for blasting drum and bass from their car right near our tent, honestly at an indiepop festival!

We figured out a much better set up which gave us some kind of pillow, that coupled with the not as loud disco meant a much better nights sleep!
( Our poor mans celeb spots today included Jemaine Clement and Billy Corgan).

Sunday:

So it was packing up day, boo. Well I left Kandy to pack up the tent as I refused to give in for a shower, purely because I refused to believe people would take THAT long to shower it turns out they do, pfft.

The sun was shining again, so we got our brunch of an ice lolly and sat on the grass of our once placed home (read as tent).

We packed everything in the car and drove to the site.

Today was the day we became tourists!! Starting off with a look at the old buses (where Kandy got excited as one was the number of a bus she used o get to school). Then to the museum, pictures taken which would later be turned into amazing GIFs.

Mini train ride in the sun (I secretly hope my drawn on, with melted pencil, eyebrows, don't accidentally melt off.)

OH YEAH, now would probably be a good time to say, Kandy and I thought it fit and funny to wear Team Edward t shirts on this day, this caused something of a stir, a lot of amused faces, mostly confused!

We wanted to cover all the attractions, so it was then off to the mini railway followed by the shop. The sun, coupled with our almost matching outfits, and the fact that Kandy last visited The Midland Railway when she was little,and let's throw in the 20p tattoo in an egg machine and a packet of iced gems, meant we turned into our 11 year old selves.

We managed to see some bands too, we watched The Millipedes in the Church (where I got a load of spiders pray in my hair, dead flys in my fuzz bonce ugh!!), Internet forever in the big shed thing.

We treated our sens to some on site food for tea (seeing as we packed up the mini hob and nearly eaten all the Roysters!!) We had a well tasty curry, that we sat on a train to eat.

Wandered aimlessly some more, had a little sit down in the car (why were we so tired, to much fresh air!!). I then took my own booze in, I thought screw it it's the last night, the security are passed caring.

HERE IS WHERE I GOT CHUCKED OUT!
Walking over to the big shed business, I'm sipping at my posh cider, when out of nowhere some jobsworth appears and says 'Did you buy that on site ', knowing full well I didn't, I just played dumb and asked could I not drink it, he said no and I best drink it of site or I'll get thrown out, jeez! Later I realised I should have flashed my performers wrist band and said 'its off my rider!'. But alas I went and sat outside the cafe sipping my illegal booze, most twee throwing out ever.

Actually I think before that is when we had a cup of tea in the cafe, (Poor mans Alan Carr spot)which was great time as it just started to rain, first time for the whole weekend. We came out and then watched Slow Club on the grass, who tried to bring the sun back out, but sadly weren't successful.

I think I may have gotten a bit moody then because, even after going on about it all weekend, I only managed to watch like 5 minutes of The Pooh Sticks!

We did enjoy watching headliners The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart from a distance and nosying around the desolate trains.

Before getting a bit eager and waiting for the Atta Girl disco, a little too early (it was running late!). But it was worth it, had a rate good dance, so much so my trainers got proper dusty, best dance of the weekend.

Then it was all over, back in the car and a drive home whilst I shoved Roysters in my slightly drunk mouth.

We really enjoyed the rain free, twee fest, train tastic of a weekend, I would do it again, but with pillows.

(for more pictures go here.)

Schmindietracks!

Good Hair!

Last night I went on a cinema date with my mum to see Good Hair. In brief it's a documentary film made by funny man Chris Rock about Black women and their hair.
I enjoyed it A LOT!
I read about it a while ago and hoped to go with my sister to see it, so we could sit there and say, uh-hmm, that's right i hear you sister.
I did this anyway, mainly when the women were talking about being addicted to relaxer (the dangerous chemical we put on our hair to make it straight) or 'creamy crack' as they called it and when Salt of Salt 'n' Pepa fame said the reason she rocked the asymmetrical do was because her hair fell out (this happened to me the night before a Gravy Train!!!! gig, I knew it would as bleached hair+Relaxer= BAD HAIR!).

The whole film was a look at how black women strive to get Good Hair, good hair meaning white or Asian hair.
A look into why black women spend so much time, money and effort into achieving this, this hair, as Chris rock puts it 'that might blow in the wind'!
I think a lot of it, aside form just wanting slightly more manageable hair, is that is more socially acceptable to have straight hair, or again as Chris Rock said, relaxed hair to have relaxed people.

I wrote an article about this in some awful zine I wrote in my late teens, about how in order to be taken more seriously as a black women I think you have to go Au Naturale.
I think about famous black women, black women who have natural hair and I immediately think of activists and writers.
Maya Angelou said in the film she didn't have a relaxer until the age of 70 (I read in a book of hers when it first became all the rage she got put off as a lot of the girls she knew had it done and their hair fell out!).
Actor

Tracie Thoms put it best when she said it's strange who it's seen a s a revolutionary act just keeping the hair that grows out of your head as is!! Funny but true.

There were some laughs to, like the myth of not being able to touch a black lady's weave, the pain of the hair treatment,not being able to get wet (a lot like Gremlins!!) the jokes about Prince!

I think about my hair a lot and think what I want to do with it next and how I would achieve it. recently being in touch with my two half sisters who have their hair natural made me think I want mine that way too (but I wasn't only blessed with Afro hair form my father but thick hair form my mother, something that is still a novelty at the Afro-Caribbean hairdressers!).

But just yesterday morning, relaxing my hair, then later watching the film, I realised it's true what they say I am addicted to Creamy Crack!!!
Here's a brief (pictorial history) of my hair:

I was born with hair pretty much like most babies, but quickly grew to this: I wore it natural for quite a few years:
Until I got plaits which I had for most of my mid childhood:
Up until just before my brother was born (1992), when I had a perm probably because my sister did: Then I went to high school, hair a bit iffy in year 7, got MY FIRST RELAXER in year 8 (I wanted a bob like my idol Brian Molko and because my sister had her hair relaxed.) Haven't found a picture of this yet, but can remember my school photo from that year, hair quite thick and had to wear top bit up in a scrunchie as long bob was too triangular.
Then for some reason I didn't like that and went for perming second time around in 1998:
Then that mid teen part of your life where you're really awkward and ugly occurred, my hair was AWFUL mid perm mid natural with some plaits or something!OBVS year 9!:
Then I went back to the plaits! Used to have it out in two big bunches, my friend Zara bleached the ends, my first bleach job, (Zara also pierced my nose for me, twice). This is Leeds 2000 and Ladyfest London 2002, so that growing out took a while! Must have re bleached too!: This was shortly before my hair fell out, I got a dye that said no bleach required (obviously bleach in it) gave hair relaxing another try as natural wasn't sleek enough, tried to relax and colour my hair, it all snapped off the night I was going to see Gravy Train!!!!, mid noughties: As the noughties went on, so did my relaxing and the length of my hair got shorter, I quite enjoyed rocking the Kathleen Hanna style high pony, but between that and the bunches I cold only wear my hair down when I'd been to the hairdressers, so started with the long bob, to this what I thought was a short bob, it has doubled in width here due to humidity in a club (hence the face!):I eventually went for the chop, always fearing I would have to much of a mushroom head if I went short, but it worked well and I'll be rocking the crop for a while. This is what my hair looks like fresh form the salon, like an extra on Ricki Lake, weavetastic:I took advantage of having short hair to go for an all over colour, had this until very recently, miss it now: And that's more or less it. Before writing this I thought I hadn't had natural hair since I was like 8, but then remembered that whole period mid high school to late teen where it was natural! This means that in the 26 years of my life I've had two periods when I've been natural, two periods where I've had perms, two periods where I've had braids, two periods where I've had relaxers, so all that's left now is the weave!

Video Killed The Radio Star....

This is my all round awesome pal Nickie: In around ten minutes she will be on the radio! Have a listen here. She will most probably play a load of Kiss and talk about her love for Mike Delfino offa Despo Housewives fame.
She's Dead good!

20 Things To Make And Do; The Workshop.

Yes, this weekend will see a few first fur Sugar Paper. We will be hosting our first workshop at Indietracks Festival.
This will be our first time there. This will also be my first time camping!
The workshop will be held on the Saturday (24th) at 4pm, where you will be able to make and do:
colouring in, knitted headband, origami, wordsearch, crochet coaster, felt owl brooch, friendship bracelet,pom poms, dot-to-dot cross stitch and more!

Wish me luck and we'll let you know how it goes!