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!