KILLJOYS MAKE SOME NOISE (and other things!)

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!!!!!

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.....

(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!

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....

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!

Sugar Paper's 48 hour trip to Barcelona!!

Last week we decided to have a mini business cat trip/two day holiday in Barcelona. Mainly to go and see this:
Here's what we squashed into our 48 hours......
Tuesday:
We got the coach form Manchester to Liverpool and as the winter day passed me by I started singing The Mamas & Papas- California dreaming, it then came on the radio. I felt like I was psychic for a whole five minutes.
I made a face that the airport is called The John Lennon airport, just to make sure everyone knows I don't like the Beatles.
They take away my mums Avon coconut shower gel as the bottle is too big, I decide I won't tell my mum, she'll get angry.
We bored the plane and sit next to a really nice lady, who tells us she's from Canada and so cannot visit anywhere for two days.
Arrive at 8.30, think how my pals Alison and Laura are boarding a plane at 8.30, say hello to the airport.
Bus to Barcelona.
Walk to the hotel, which form the outside is just a big, heavy old iron door, then a staircase to the worlds creepiest lift, a wardrobe situated behind an iron gate, that feels like a giant is just pulling it up.
Check in to the world's smallest room, but hey it's en suite.
Decide we want just-falaffs for tea (that's falafel) and set off on a mission for it, we find some whilst taking in the sites of the gothic quarter.
Head down to the harbour, sit and enjoy the warmth.
Treat our sens to ice creams that are the shade of a Fawn Gehweiler palette, head back to the hotel too tired for business meeting so watch Alan Davies on TV dubbed in Spanish talking about the length of a piece of string!

Wednesday:
Wake up and head to Dino pan for breakfast croissants, yes we chose this place for the dinosaur title!! Get some packed lunch (bread, crisps, babybel and hello kitty cakes!) and buy a two day ticket for the tourist bus, oh yeah!
First stop Sagrada Familia, oh it it for a minute, take tourists snaps, buy some film for my camera as Jessops in the UK didn't have any!!
Jump back on the bus and tourist destination number two, Parc Guell.
Stop for ice cream on the way up, this is when I realise it is proper hot and I should have shaved my legs so I could take my tights off.
Have a wonder round, ohh at the mosaics and gingerbread house like buildings, sit for lunch and sunbathe with my back to the sun.
We head to Mountjuic, where we hear there is a ye olde tram that takes you to a theme park called Tibidabo, we decided yesterday that we would splash out 20 euros for the park, we would, it's our holidays.
Sitting at the tram stop I realise I'm a pussy who can't take the sun and think I have mild sunstroke in the form of a massive headache. Turns out the tram doesn't run in the week, we walk up to the park. Turns out it's closed, but we walked here so going to take the funicular up to it (this is like a tram being pulled on a big steel wire or something). get up to the park, take lots of snaps realise we can by tickets for certain rides, get two, one for the amusement museum and one for a ride, spend too long looking at old fandangled machines so when we try to go on a ride we get told the park is shut!! emotional roller coaster without the roller coaster!
Back on the bus, put the headphones in so we can at least pretend we know what we're looking at, turns out it's just the football stadium.
Head to Alison's exhibition, cures my headache somewhat, makes me smile inside and out. The cup of earl grey we have after totally cures my headache, turns out it wasn't sunstroke but not having tea for like 24 hours!!
Have a rest back at the hotel, Kandy naps, I read (because I CAN'T NAP!).
Go on a mission for Pizza, head towards El Raval, give up and head for what looks like Pizza express, but turns out they don't have the exact same menu and the veggie option sucks (where are the mushrooms, in a can on the supermarket shelf).
Get too hungry to keep looking go to what looks like pizza hut in the 80s, get pizza with mushrooms on that taste like they're from a can. finish up, walk round the corner to find a cheaper nicer pizza place, always the way!!
Too full for ice cream and too tired for business meeting, music television and sleep.
Thursday:
We decide to wake early to get as much in as we can, I wake up early and lay in bed for an hour as Kandy's alarm hasn't gone off, turns out she didn't change the time on her phone so we got up late (well I was just laying in bed!!).
A day of no gos and stumbling.
Get on the bus and head for a cacti garden, take in a load of sites and sun on the way. Get to the cacti garden and it's closed for some sort of refurbishment or something! LAME! wander around, get lost for three minutes, got to a cable car place, realise I threw my voucher to get money off cable car, in the bin and also lost my favourite black cardi in our few moments of lostness. LAME!
get in the cable car, cable cars are always fun!
Look at a castle, have a sit down look out to the sea and think I'm on a proper sunny holiday, ohhhh! Take obvious posing with a canon shots.
Get on the bus for the last time, head to el Raval for some dinner. Go to Juicy Jones, a vegan food and juice bar that looks like a 90s youth club LOVE IT!
Have a super tasty oven baked tofo and ginger sate sandwich, yum.
Wander around, say we're too full and it's siesta time so everything is shut, but buy novelty snacks form the supermarket. Wander some more, I notice some Ladies dressed in a totally 90s way, I'm lovin' it, then I see more, Then it hits me that these ladies are prostitutes, we take a turning to get out of the ladies way (don't want to look like we're stealing business) turn onto another working street, we suck!!
Wander into what looks like a famous food market as it's rammed, escape that and spend our money in a stationary shop. Stumble upon a second hand market, luckily we're pressed for time so we're not trying to buy ceramic things that we have to trek home.

No time for the beach, sad face!
Decide we should set off for the airport.
Get the wrong bus, turns out we're at the wrong terminal, think we can walk it until we find out there's a shuttle bus. Yeah we couldn't have walked it!!!
We are super early and duty free is a bit rubbish, we check in and get to our gate BUT THERE'S NO TEA being sold, we moan and finally decide to have a business cat meeting, make the final notes for Sugar Paper zine.
Get the plane home, get on the coach back to Manchester, where a guy says 'hey you guys we're at Tibidabo' yes, yes we were!!!
It's pissing it down and it's freezing and that was an incredibly short 48 hours!!
for more pictures go here.

I only popped out to return some video tapes....

So for Halloween me and my pals went to see Xiu Xiu & Former Ghosts in Leeds, the Xiu Xiu fans of Leeds mustn't have got the memo that it was Halloween, as aside from us and three girls (on dressed as Katy Perry, yawn!) nobody else had dressed up. This fact was highlighted by our we want to be rowdy entrance but this support guy is ridculously quiet so evryone is looking at us, arrival at the gig.
Ah well, we looked awesome:

l-r: Patrick Bateman, Cheetara, Arthur Brown, Margret Thatcher milk snatcher!

Here's what inspired me ( and yes that is a Huey Lewis And The News CD attached to my belt!).

Smotherland / Better Out Than In

I'm sure that regular readers of The Suagr Paper blog will be well aware of my all round awesome pal Alison.

Well the past cpule of months have been busy for her, what with her first ever two solo shows!!
The first one was Smotherland, at International 3 gallery Manchester. And the second going on now, Better Out Than In, at masART gallery, Barcelona. I was lucky enough to attend both, and honoured to be asked by Alison to submit some writing to coincide with Smotherland.

Sadly I am writing this a little too late as The Smotherland Exhibition closed on Halloween (apologies Manchester folk) but all those in and around the Barcelona Area can check out Better Out Than In until December (OK so that probably won't be many of you!!)

For those who didn't make it to the Manchester one here's a peek at what you missed:

I just want to say, well done Alison, us here at Sugar Paper towers are super proud, and love you contributing the colouring in page top our zine, thanks for taking the time out when you should be being a proper artist!

WE CAN QUILT IT!!!

Sunday 14th November 2-8pm.
Fuel Cafe Bar, 448 Wilmslow Road, Withington, Manchester.

Come and spend the afternoon crafting with us, be there for the launch of Sugar Paper #6, peruse our new craft kits and be part of our declaration quilt.

The Declaration quilt is a patchwork quilt, embroidered with statements from you!!! Things you love, hate or anything you're passionate about!
Also come a crochet a quilt granny squares style.
Or just bring your own craft!

Be there or be (a granny) square!

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and how My Chemical Romance Saved my life a week too early!

So this week started with a huge up and has been followed by a series of downs, this due to the fact I work in a fancy dress shop and it's Halloween!!!!
Let's work in reverse order.....
The ugly:
CONSUMERS!!!! Seriously how people consume has made me re think life!
Currently I am reading a book recommended by my great friend Leesey, where it is mostly set within a shopping centre (that of The Trafford Centre variety as opposed to Manchester Arndale) but still it's scarily close to home.
i don't understand what it is about buying a bit of cheap fancy dress that turns 90% of the Brie public into rude, ignorant, messy and downright ugly people, I just don't get it!!

Why can't everyone just dress like this:



The Bad:

The fact that I used to love Halloween and now I kinda hate it!! THIS SUCKS!!!!!! I did I loved it, it was definitely one of my favourite holidays. I love dressing up, last year I tried to make a great effort with my 3D woman but my tiredness meant it wasn't what it should have been, I'm hoping this years effort will be one to rival the year before when I dressed as a Tara McPherson painting!
Treat yer sen to a viewing of my favourite folk who think everyday is Halloween:



The good:
Getting my life saved! Sadly it would have been more welcome the Sunday after Halloween week, but you can't win em all!!
Yes MCR saved my life!
I last saw My Chemical Romance in 2005, so I was stoked to see them again, after a temporary glitch where I couldn't get tickets, but luckily knopw people who know people, we got them!!
I will keep this brief as I don't want to bore you, but I HEART MCR!!!!
They played a rate good set, stuff from all three albums and only four new songs, win win! I love the fact that Gerard Way only just got the 9t6 memo 'Colours are coming back, colours are dangerous....' love the fact he discovered not only black suits him!! Not sure about the 'art is coming back' statement, did it go anywhere?
Love the new look, it's proper 90s and ray guns thrown in! I think perhaps they had a trip to a planetarium before making the new album, and went to a euro 90s gay disco on the way home, because that's what the new songs sound like, they found the synth key and they are not afraid to use it.
My favourite part is the gang mentality, not the CH5 program, Danny dyer on cable type gang, but I got a flick knife and a close fitting leather kind. I wanna be in a badass girl gang.
KILLJOYS MAKE SOME NOISE!!!!

RIP Ari Up

This video features some awkwrad dnacing form my very self!

Knit And Destroy Goes To The Movies.....

One half of Sugar Paper, and one whole of Knit And Destroy, Kandy Diamond is having her first solo exhibition.
Showcasing a brand new collection of knits inspired by classic miovie making in Manchester's Purl Gallery (above Purl City Yarns).
This is giong to be totally radular and you will be a big lo-oh-ser to miss it!!!

Preview is Friday October 22nd 6pm-9pm.
Exhibtion continues until 28th November.
Opening time: Tuesday-Saturday 10am-6pm
Sunday 11am-3pm.

Purl City Yarns, 62 Port Street Manchester.

PS:crack out those 3D glasses to wow at the awesome poster above by Benjamin Cooney .

The stuff inspiring Sugar Paper #6.....

(As much as I am often inspired by 90s dance hits, this last video is more an inspiration of keeping warm!)

Peaches Christ saved my life at Midnight Mass!

So last Saturday saw me in a big grump, a proper grump! A grump so big I wasn't particularly excited about the cinema viewing I was to have, that was until.....

I arrived at the Cornerhouse to be greeted by Melanie and Kandy an d group of angry librarians! YES!!!
Librarians protesting against the filth that was about to be screened, protesting against Peaches Christ!
The folk passing by (families of Rugby fans getting the train, teenagers, clueless students) didn't know what to make of it, neither did the Police apparently, when two appeared by foot and later the dog unit van!!!
I suddenly began to shake of my grump and get excited.

We eventually entered the cinema, to the dismay of the librarians and upon entering were greeted by horned musicians playing the saw and the theremin, outer-this-world!
We took to our seats and I was a bit upset that I hadn't made much of effort as some folk were dressed to the gore nines (see earlier grump to explain this).
The seats filled, the lights went down, then the show really began!

It doesn't take much to please me, People in usher outfits, girls dressed as usherette twins handing out dixie cups, librarians shouting abuse, all this pleased me, but not as much as the entrance of PEACHES CHRIST!!

She took to the stage, followed by a gang of dancing monsters, the biggest hair I have ever seen, welcoming us all to Midnight mass in the form of song, swoon!!

What followed next was an outfit contest (if I had known there were prizes I might have tried a little harder!) a bit of banter and another protest! Peaches told us all how underneath Librarians are the filthiest, sexiest of all, all it takes is the right music, cue the sleaze tunes and cue the stripping, lap dancing book lovers!!!!

Another musical number and the film began....

So I don't want to ruin the film for those who haven't seen it yet, but I loved All About Evil. From the awesome opening credits, to the final scene (one of the best scenes in cinema history FACT!!). It has everything a film should have, you can't go wrong when it stars Natasha Lyone, Mink Stole and ELVIRA!!!

I always loved Natasha Lyone, but now I REALLY love her, she was amazing.
My favourite bits were; Just Natasha Lyone, gore craft (stitching and knitting as you've never seen it!!) Cassandra Peterson referring to Elvira as if it isn't her (lolfest!)and Twins stabbing each other TO DEATH!!

After the film, we had a mini task obtaining money to buy merch (damn you students queuing at EVERY cash machine) then we cursed ourselves for not taking a camera so we cold have photographic evidence next to the fabulous Peaches (we would have just looked dull in comparison anyways!!) and we left. Not after hearing the best part of the evening.... someone puked down the aisle GORExCORE!!!

Three Cheers For....

Corrinne Day

Last night I went to see Placebo (yes you may all laugh) and they covered Nirvana's All Apologies. I wasn't so sure about that, but I forgave them as they dedicated it to Corrine Day, to which I responded by saying (to myself because I was obviously flying solo at this gig!) has she died?!

I first heard about Corrinne Day when doing my usually 'I'm going to read every piece of writing on the back of this record' thing that I love to do. Not long after noting down her name I watched a documentary about her on the BBC.
This documentary was a diary of her work and illness. Hear I found out she was instrumental in the making of Kate Moss, championing the androgynous heroin chic look so popular in the 90s!!

Her battle with her illness ended in August of this year.

I just wanted to say that she produced one of m,y favourite series of artwork for one of my favourite records (and collection of singles).

Ask Carrie Craftster....

Like all good agony aunts, Carrie Craftster can improve your life greatly, so if you've got your knitting all knotty, your stitches in a tizz or your cakes aren't rising to the occasion, ask her how you can make it better.
Send her your craft to:
sugarpaperzine@hotmail.com
(with the title ASK CARRIE!)

fruity!

So, what I thought was not that long ago (but is probably a few months!), I went blackberry picking, but they weren't quite ripe enough yet, so today I went again and was shocked to see they were all shrivelled up until I realised IT'S NEARLY OCTOBER!!! where has 2K10 gone?

I persevered and got this pitiful bunch:

In other news the apple tree my sister planted (with pips from an apple) in a yogurt pot back in the 80s in a flat in Bradford is bringing out some juicy ones this year:And I've just made my first batch of lemon curd (something I usually leave to my mum) the recipe will totes be in Sugar Paper #6.

This looks pretty sweet....

Therefore everyone should go!

cARTft Idol!!

A month ago Kandy and I went on a birthday day trip. We started the trip off by going to the
Intuition (The Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection) at The Whitworth Art Gallery.

The exhibition was really good and I enjoyed seeing so many of the works (particularly seeing some of Henry Dagger's work up close and personal!!).

Some work we really liked and was that of.....

Madge Gill
The work of Madge Gill is very intricate and enticing yet seeming quite dark. This may have something to do with her not so smooth upbringing and later becoming very spiritual to the point that she claimed all her work was guided my a spirit named MYRNINTEREST.

Now the reason we want to call her a cARTft idol (that's me trying to put the word art and craft together!) is because not only was she handy with a pen but with a knitting needle, crochet hook and needle and thread.

In the exhibition is also some embroidery that is a huge piece of work and extremely detailed, after learning she did a lot of her work in bed by lamplight and with the vision of just one eye, I was in awe!

It inspires me to see needlework classed as art as it something I am trying to work on myself and so often thing needlework and other crafts can get passed of as just that without gaining extra merit.

Novelty Cakes

So it seems I have managed to get to the end of National Cupcake week without eating, making or even sniffing a cupcake, this must be some sort of crime!! I had every intention to knock a few out and get them on here, but my week has been full (and not of cupcakes), working, making zineing and watching The Runaways film (finally) have taken up all my time, and therefore made for a pretty shoddy week of cupcake blogging, find a much better one here from the cool Carla.

As it's getting late (ish!) and I get bored of trawling the net for pictures after like 3minutes, I shall post a few of my favourite novelty cakes (because you all know how much we love novelty!):

two things I loved as a child (and still now, Mario and Lego)

check out those bad boys!!! They're taken from the book Hello Cupcake, that should be landing on my doorstep any day now, so when I eventually get some free time, expect me to knock out so real (novelty cake) beauts!!

Inedible cupcakes!!!

Right now you're obviously thinking what an absurd idea, a cup cake you can't eat, well look at these bad boys....

And what goes best with cupcakes? A cup of tea of course...
(Cup cake beenie, cup cake lip gloss from Fred Flare, cupcake cushion from Knit And Destroy, teapot and cup necklace from Helpless Romantic, teapot and cup brooch from Hannah Makes Things)

It's big..but is it the biggest?!

In case you forgot..it's national cupcake week, so I've been looking for the world's largest cupcake...a pilgrimage following a trail of sprinkles, edible glitter and icing...and I think I found the most recent 'world's largest cupcake'.. I found lots of images claiming to be 'the one' but then went to the trusty source of the guinness book of records, and I think this is the one...

Baked on 15th August 2009 in Detroit, they were making an even bigger one than this but it expanded and broke the oven...DAAAMN..I'm not surprised though! They were determined to do it and 'baked through the night' to beat the record that had only been set one month previously, the cake weighed 555.197kg

Here's the official with his tapemeasure..oh aye, it's a big un, we'll give em the record! The one that they beat the record for was pretty special cos it was for Spongebob's 10th anniversary, here it is on top of a tower of cupcakes.

Totally small compared to the above effort but it was a one-woman feat, no 'gourmet team' on this job...and it was for spongebob!

Now I feel like breaking a record...any suggestions of which record attempt Sugar Paper Gang should try to break on a postcard please.

Y'all should come to this.....

You may have heard me banging on about my super talented painter pal Alison here before, but this isn't going to stop me now!

She has her first solo show at International 3 gallery from 24th September-30th October with a preview evening on 23rd September.

I may have written a little something for it, you'd be a fool not to see it!!

HAPPY NATIONAL CUPCAKE WEEK!

So I hear it's National Cupcake week, and so to celebrate here at Sugar Paper towers we're going to spend all week talking about cupcakes!
First off I want to tell you all about my favourite thing to put on a cup cake and that's MASCARPONE!!

My favourite alternative to butter cream is the swwet soft cheese mascarpone. Mixing this with icing sugar makes a great topping for cupcakes.

Add anything you like, from vanilla essence to lavender, lemo to a dash of cocoa. Not as sickly as using butter, but sweeter Mascarpone is THE BEST. try it!

Seleena Daye vs The Film Review

So this is one of those blog posts where I try to talk about films, this time it's this one:

Scott Pilgrim vs The World.

A week and a half ago I went to watch this film, after what seemed like the longest wait (coincidentally the last time I waited so long for a film was when I was waiting for Art school Confidential, which is also adapted from a comic, which for the record was a big disappointment).
So yes I think I covered that this film is adapted from a series of comics, which I love, as with anything adapted from a book, you always know it will not quite live up to the book.

I went in there excited, I had already been quite vocal about my opposition of the casting of Micheal Cera as Scott (no where near arrogant enough), but I didn't let that stop me doing a wee in my pants.

First thing we noticed when we got in the cinema was how hot it was, then I noticed that the audience was largely male (90%-10%) and nerdy, this coupled with the fact it was (Orange) Wednesday resulted in a sweat fest. I have never been so hot in the cinema in all my life, like full on testosterone sweat box, There was a point where we we're struggling to breath.

Anyway, the film. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the comics or seen the film yet, so I'll just tell you what I thought.
I (think) I loved it!
Once I put aside that there was nothing I could do to change the casting of Scott, i began to enjoy it. Mainly because almost everyone else is so perfectly cast. Kieren Culkin as Wallace in particular (and here I agree with my pal Holly that Kieren has become our favourite Culkin , Macualy was mine when I was 6) Stephen Stills, Julie, even Anna Kendrick as Stacey was good and all the exes cast so well, Chris Evans spot on and who doesn't love Jason Scwartzman?!?!
The fight and band scenes were real good, they got the right balance of computer imagery and elements of the actual comic in there.
Young Neil comes alive more and Kim Pine is still my favourite (more Kim Pine!).
I did think that if I hadn't read the comic, would I be a little confused about what was going on, I will have to ask a friend who sees it who hasn't to know that.

I was asked if I thought Ramona and Envy were hotter in the comic or the film, most definitely the comic, which is a shame, I'm not sure what Envy lacked but it was something, think her smacked arse face was the wrong kind of smacked arse face!

The same person (Ben) that asked me who was hotter, also said they enjoyed the film, but it lacked the heart of the books, which I agree with.

I really enjoyed this film and will watch it again and again, but if I hadn't read the comics it would one of my favourite films.

I am going to see it again this week (and probably again next week) so all this will most likely change!!

If your life had a face I would punch it.

Party Rings!

Some of you may be aware that my friend Katie likes a party ring now and then (see party ring cake I made for her birthday last year).

So yes, I primarily made this cake because some time ago Party Rings started containing gelatin, I thought Katie was aware of this, so made her a party ring cake to try and make up for the fact she can't eat the biscuits (also because I wanted to do feathered icing).


Unbeknown to me, she didn't realise party rings were full of animal, and this shocking truth was revealed to her at my birthday shenanigans this year (party rings are of course an ultimate party snack!).


So to make her feel a little better, I went one further this year and made her some Veggie party ring biscuits she could scoff down without any guilt!
To make the biscuits I used a rich tea biscuit recipe, here's how;
for one batch you will need:

-4oz/100g plain flour
-1/2 tbsp baking powder
-1 1/2 oz/30g caster sugar
-pinch of slat
-3oz/75g unsalted butter cubed
-a little milk

Pre heat the oven to Gas mark 5/ 190 c, grease a baking tray.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl then rub in the butter until you have the consistency of breadcrumbs.
Add a touch of milk and mix until you have a firm dough.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, roll out quite thin, around 2mm. Cut out ring shapes and mark faint lines on the top.

Bake for 8-10 mins, leave to cool.

To make the icing put a few tbsp of icing sugar in a bowl and add warm water a little at a time until the consistency of thick glue.
Put into separate bowls to add food colouring.

To feather the icing:
Spread the base colour over the top of the cooled biscuit, then take a teaspoon and dip in the top icing layer, dribble across the biscuit quickly to make thin lines and using a cocktail stick drag these lines vertically.

Start spreading the news...

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.)