Crafts, buys and video tapes!

It's a busy week here at Sugar Paper , we're getting our craft on for the busy month of July.
But I've managed to find a few minutes (between eating toad in the hole and having a bath) to tell you a few exciting things:

CRAFTS & COOL FRIENDS:
Go check out our friend Charlotte's blog, you may recognise her as the centrefold for Sugar Paper #5. She wrote a radular post about us.
When she said this:

"I sometimes have hard time stomaching girl craft as a means of female empowerment, that Cath Kidston-flowery-bunting-let-make-a-pot-of-tea-and-knit-eachother-mittens style tweeness always seems so bloody wet to me. I understand and like modern femme-ism and reclaiming of stereotypes of feminity and carrying on old craft traditions as a way of keeping a huge part of Womens History from being lost, its just the way a lot of it is presented to me fills me with dread."

Part of me said, YES! I totally agree, as much as I love a cup of tea and now and then I love nothing more than flouncing around my bedroom to an Amelia Fletcher sung song, I too sometimes get stuck in that craft rut of florals and owls. It's probably what pops up into most folks head (even mine) when thinking crafty.
Well anyway it got me thinking, why do I like to craft?

So far I came up with this:
-I like to make stuff; yes it's that simple, from a very young age I have loved using my over sized hands to make stuff, anything.

-I like the feeling I get from making stuff; after reading Handmade Nation book (Kandy got me Christmas!) I felt a little swell inside thinking about how I like to make things and how I like being part of this community where people spend time and effort making things, from sewing to cooking your tea (that's northern for dinner!). Just to sit back and think, yeah I made that with my own hands, is one of the proudest feelings ever.

-I'm good at making stuff; yep I can't deny it I'm good at making certain stuff, so I'm not going to hide a talent.

-I like the idea that in some ways I can be self sufficient; growing up I didn't have much money, so baking and making probably occurred more often because it was cheaper than buying (and my mum was brought up with those skills so taught me, more of that later), in short, it's nice to see something in a shop, and think I don't want to pay for it/can't afford to/would like it more if it looked like this, and so making it yourself.

-I want to carry on traditions passed down; my mum has taught me to bake and have basic sewing skills, she's taught me to decorate and put together furniture, her father, my Grandfather taught me a whole load of wonderful things to make, and I like the fact that these crafting skills have been passed from generation to generation.

-I want to reclaim crafts; yes I am a feminist and yes I like the idea of 50s housewives making everything form prawn cocktail to the soft furnishings, I also like to say I am crafting because I want to, not because I have to.

BUYS:
I'm having a mini craft clear out on a major auction site, go see here.

VIDEO TAPES:
Check out this awesome of awesomeness that is our Kandy's debut video, knitatstic!