(Crochet) Craft Idols....

So we haven't talked abut other craftsters that inspire us for a while, we've been busy crafting (and mostly working!) so we thought we'd do a double whammy.
It's no breaking news flash that we love a bit of novelty here, something that looks like something else and throw a pun in and we're away. Add a touch of crochet and we're in heaven!
On the note take a look at...
Kate jenkins....
Kate is founder of Knitwear company Cardigan, but it's her crocheted art that we heart. Crocheting favourite foods form Golden Syrup to penny mix ups. Sequined fish and chips to a pack of smokes, all with clever craft related name changes!

And if food related items are one of your favourite things like ours, then look at the all kinds of rad from....
Twinkie Chan....
Twinkie makes the most awesome of crocheted scarves, all your favourite fast food and sweet treats good enough to eat, have to make do with wearing them I suppose! She has also published a book so you too can make your own tasty crocheted treats!

The Day The Eiffel Tower Went Bezerk....

So last week Sugar Paper and friends went on a trip to Paris. The trip combined two of my besties birthdays and some awesome tattoos! It went a little like this....

I picked up birthday girl number one, my oldest pal Katie outside Maccy D's to get the bus to town,to the train station where we picked up birthday girl number two Kandy and then picked up the last Parisian pal Alison on the train. Scoffed down some of Katie's leftover birthday cake and got excited.
A pretty routine check in (thankfully nobody(Katie!)got their million toiletries confiscated) followed by birthday pizza served to us by Manchester airports answer to an EMO Pee Wee Herman and off we flew.

I last travelled with air France in 1998 (my first and last visit to Paris on a french exchange trip) on the flight there we got a free croissant and orange juice. Air France are not affected by the recent economic crisis as we got offered free snacks and beverage on this flight, yes mate!

The first night was supposed to be spent having a toast for Katie but by the time we make it to the hotel we are too tired, Katie enjoys the wine we got at the corner shop, the cheap rum is exactly that cheap, we go to bed excited for tattooing!

Wednesday, an early rise so we can make it to Sunny Buick's studio for 11am, some gals are gonna get inked, eeek!

A walk to Sunny's end of town with a quick stop for a baked goods breakfast and we're there, a little nervous, but as soon as we step into Sunny's studio and she greets us with a smile and offers us tea (she had it ready knowing English girls love their tea) we knew we were in great company.
A little thought about the placement of my tattoo meant I was to have mine the next day, first up, Alison with her Little Red Riding Hood snow globe tattoo. The rest of us chat and look at all the cool things Sunny has (from her artwork to her dice collection!)We head off for a bit of fresh air, to return to marvel at Alison's tattoo. Then a spot of lunch.

Up next, Kandy and her knitting Nancy. Another trip out for fresh air, which was spoiled by hoards of Parisian men being completely leery and gross. Walking down the street untouched is apparently not an option. Sunny had some great advice about this, she said don't worry you don't speak the same language, just shout GET AWAY FROM ME COCKSUCKER!!!!

Kandy finishes off, we marvel at the tattoo and bid Sunny goodbye until Thursday afternoon.
Head back to the hotel, tattooing is tiring, a freshen up and off out for tea, get shunned at a pizza place for entertaining the idea of sharing two pizzas, pfft, but manage to find some tasty rice, tofu, spring rolls combo where we don't get told off and the bin almost sets on fire from a cigarette!

A hop on the metro and we arrive at the Palais de Tokyo for fun in the Amelie photo booth, but it's shut, but it's OK we soon get distracted by the SPARKLY EIFFEL TOWER! We make our way down through the Trocadero, stopping to watch some folk swing dancing, we sigh and realise it is quite a beautiful city. We finally get up close and personal to the Eiffel Tower, but not before having a go on the Carousel!
We sit for a while but leave as we get sick of the street sellers trying to sell us champagne and cigarettes!

Thursday, the day of my tattoo, but not until the afternoon, so we spent the morning (after having a proper french breakfast!) sight seeing, first stop The Louvre, then onto the bridge that is full of padlocks of love, we spent a good bit of time on there! Then we managed to find Laduree, the maccaron place Sunny recommend to us, we were going to sit in but time was ticking and tattoo appointments were calling and we didn't want to rush, we stared at a cake that looked like an ACTUAL SPONGE modelled like a strawberry, then left and made our way to Sunny's.

I got my tattoo done, a sewing related one with 'Make Do And Mend' written. I really enjoyed getting tattooed by Sunny, she has some super story's and is a crafty gal herself! She gave us all some free stuff (as she's ace) we then bought other bits of hers and reluctantly left.

Headed back to the hotel for a freshen up, not before a stop for some wine and bottled cocktails. We had a sit down and drunk our drinks, that seemed to go to our head! We realised time was ticking and we didn't want to miss Palais De Tokyo again so rushed out.
We only had 15 minutes before closing so squashed ourselves in the photo booth and pulled out our best poses, a stripmof us all each, a strip of solo ones each, before you know it they had locked the doors not knowing we were there, a few minutes of photo developing and we left!!
All that drinking and posing gave us a hunger so we headed towards Notre Dame and stopped off nearby for some falafels, yum. A mini tat stop shop and some sight seeing of Notre Dame.

We then set off for a bar Katie wanted to go to that we found in a guide book, yeah guide books sometimes suck, we eventually found it and despite being listed as a bar not eatery everyone was just sat down eating, pfft. So we headed back and got a cocktail from our local!

Friday was a non tattoo day, so we leisurely got up, ate breakfast was we wandered to Montmatre.
Another day of sightseeing and typical tourist fan stuff and yes TAT SHOPPING!!!!!!
we made it to Sacre Couer, but noticed an outsider art gallery nearby, went in but sadly you had to pay and we were getting low on funds (we needed to buy tat!) so just browsed the gift shop, bought some postcards (we bought A LOT of postcards this holiday!).
We don't head up to Sacre Couer straight away, we get distracted by tat shops and carousels!! we have a go round and the sun come sout, full beam. We have a scvuffle with some rude street sellers who think it's ok to harras and touch you IT IS NOT!

We walk up the steps towards Sacre Couer and I see a group of girls who I can tell look English, I recognise one and think it's someone I know from home, I thought don't be stupid, then Alison says It's Nikki from As If (early noughties CH4 teen drama!) CELEBRITY SPOT OF THE DECADE!!!!!!

After we get over that amazing celebrity spot we walk down to the old town and spend far too long picking postcards of doe eyed children (in the cool 70s way not some weirdo I love kiddie pictures way!) Pass by the fruit & veg stall featured in Amelie, Kandy gets an apple that is pretty gross, my nectarine is OK! Then we stop off for lunch in the Amelie cafe, yeah tourist time!
It's such a lovely place, the right mix of old and new, not too cool and quite laid back, the foods pretty tasty too, we get all french cuisine and have a vegetarian croque monsiuer, followed by our first macarons, YUM!
After a good few hours at the cafe, we get on our feet and look at the Moulin Rouge, it's too busy for us to recreate the Lady Marmalade video, even though we assigned each other roles, pfft. We decide we want an ice cream and some grass, so head to a cemetery! It's not got anyone we know in, but we have a quiet walk round and a sit in the sun, goffs. Before heading back to the madness, picking up an ice cream and heading back to the hotel.

We finally manage to catch a happy hour and head to the local for a cocktail. Then back up to Notre Dame for falafel take tow and some serious tat shopping, like SERIOUS!!!! We all manage to get what we need and then some, it's super busy, so we grab a couple of crepes and head home, for the last time.

It's packing and sadness in the hotel and dread of thinking about getting up at stupid o'clock.

It's Kandy's birthday and it's 5am!!

We make it to the airport stress free and get in, super hungry and can't manage to find any food, but do notice a Laudredee in the airport so we spend a while picking some macarons. We eventually find somewhere for breakfast and we spend the last of our Euro's......

We board the plane and get sleepy and sad, Paris it was a blast!

Our Deal....

So we've been our holidays, which I'm sure you'll hear about soon. But for now, this is pretty much wahy I wanna be in a grrrl gang (Girl gangs+Drew Barrymore+Best Coast=YES!)

Best Coast

Sheffield......

So it's all going off in Sheffield in the next month or so and we are totally invited, now you are too!

First off is this rad event at Site Gallery in Sheffield...

We will have some zines for sale at the event, thanks to the lovely folk of Rotherham Zine Library.

Then we see the derby debut of half of Sugar Paper, Kandy is gonna kick some (wheeled) ass at Dodgebrawl.

Followed by the first Sheffield Zine fair, where we will be having a stall, get on that!

GETBUSY!!!!

I'm sure you've seen me talk about the rate good'un that is Em Ledger on these pages, well have I told you she is an awesome business cat?

She runs rad webstore getbusy, a site catering towards women and girls involved in street and urban lifestyles, girls who like to get busy!

Stocking everything from Volcom to Deathwish and non for profit items from Skateistan, Afghanistan's first skateboarding school! Y'all should definitely check it out!

And if that isn't enough to convince you, then I'm a resident getbusy blogger!

....

We saw the Vivian Girls the other week and this was one of my favourites of new songs live, even more so after this! Kandy gets the pink bedspread and me the blue!

IT ALL ENDS!!!!

Now for a post from the other (much less frequent blogging) half of Sugar Paper zine, it's KD bringin you the HP...no, not the sauce....the Harry Potter!!!

I am a MASSIVE Harry Potter fan, this fact was recently proven by my ability to KILL a magazine based Harry Potter quiz and in turn have all my sister's friends gawp at me as I recite 'Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore' ! As you must all know, the FINAL installment in the film series was recently released along with a rather final poster campaign..IT ALL ENDS.

I know a lot of people who are big fans of the books don't like or watch the films, and over the years I have had more than a few bones to pick with them..but I have come to see them as separate entities to the books, I think that is the only way to fully enjoy the films! Also, I never re-read the book that I'm about to see the film of, last time I did this was for Prisoner of Azkaban...Never Again!!!

So, I am into the books AND the films, they are my go-to films...nothing on, just want to lie on the sofa and drink hot chocolate, I'll put a Harry Potter on!

In early June it hits me...this is it, the last EVER film, the last bit of Harry Potter to be released, the curtain of doom starts to fall...right, I'd better stop being sad and start making plans and make the most of it. A trip to the premiere and of course midnight showing are in order.

The Premiere planning starts, messages are sent to Holly Horcrux to arrange logistics (where to get the portkey to etc) and the countdown begins! The Premiere is on a Thursday night so being ever so very prepared I decide to travel down on the Wednesday night...only to find out on the Tuesday there's already hundreds of people there, aaaaaahhhh! Arrive at St Pancras late Wednesday night, meet my fellow witch and travel past Trafalgar Square to her flat. There are LOADS of people there already, we get really excited and decide we need to come back as early as possible. The only thing that stopped us staying then and there was that Holly didn't have her Hogwarts uniform on!

Two hours sleep and a good strong cup of tea later we're back, it's 4am and we find the queue we need to join for wristbands to gain access to the main area. Thinking about breakfast and if we will get a wristband, we wait....generally surprised at the lack of dressing up and anxious! Then we hear 'anyone a 2?' there are some girls making their way down the line with 2 spare wristbands that they got yesterday, looking for 2 people to take them off their hands. There are 2 girls directly in front of us after the wristbands, but they are pushy, we have full uniforms on and we are nice...we win the wristbands, hooray!

Photographic evidence of wristband, taken back at home with my Kitten Sirius Black.

Now for breakfast where I get VERY confused in McDonalds, I think someone has put the confundus charm on me. Post breakfast, it's about 5.30am, we head back to Trafalgar square and get exciiited. This is the spot where we stood for a large part of the day, great view of the Neville and Snape banners, stage and steps, sweeet!

But we don't have to stay put, we have wristbands so can come and go as we please, and it's stil very early. A cup of tea is soon in order. We go for hot chocolate followed by a (pretty rubbish) cup of tea, but manage to make it last at least an hour and make the most of the comfy sofas...reggae music brings us down, 90s hip hop brings us up...we've not had much sleep and are feeling it!

We find these phone boxes on the way back and massive over-excitement ensues. Aaaah, look I'm infiltrating the ministry, where's Arthur Weasley?! Note, in this photo the floor is dry, this didn't last. The rest of the day went like this: rain, trafalgar square, chatting to Bellatrix Lestrange, deckchairs for a 30 second sleep, more rain, ping pong, rain, food, rain, cafe, rain, friends, dry inside, good tea, funally sunshine! We headed back to Trafalgar Square about 3pm, across the road you could hear the crowds screaming...I was worried we were missing it, half ran to the bit we had been in earlier to find a line of hi-vis jackets. "No more in this side, go round." So we obeyed, and got in round the other side, phew. made it! We're near where the cars are going to pull in, not bad, now to wait (and gently push as far forward as possible). There was no concept of time, but before we knew it there was Ruper Grint, appearing on the red carpet, then Matthew Lewis (Neville), The Weasley Twins at the top, making their way round the WHOLE crowd, no lie, these two love it!

Seeing them do this almost set me off crying, you know why..and if you don't then go find out! Then the stars were coming thick and fast, Evanna Lynch looked amazing I like how her and Luna are almost one and the same, like Rupert and Ron! Then the most exciting bit, Lupin!!! As I mentioned we were stood by where the cars pull in, but this did not guarentee us getting all the stars up close and personal. A lot of them started making their way up and got dragged off by their assistants to the main Red Carpet bit. Not David Thewlis though, as soon as he arrived the whole crowd on our side went wild and starded chanting 'David' and banging the barriers, I think he was scared of a 'mass breakout' if he didn't come and see us. Here he is being amazing....

That was definitly the highlight, that and seeing JK Rowling in the flesh, and the twins, and getting to see some sneak peeks of film on the big screen, and screaming a-lot!

Daniel Radcliffe and JK were 2 of the last people to arrive, they had short interviews on stage (as did everyone) then the screen stopped showing camera footage and went back to the 'screensaver', we think it's over and leave. Bump into Nick on the way back, get take away, watch some of part 1 then sleep. The following day we find out we left too soon, there were some massive emo speeches from Harry, Ron, Hermione, JK and the film dudes, gutted. Back home I watch them on You Tube and cry.... I challenge you to watch Rupert Grint thank JK Rowling for what she has done for ginger people and not shed a tear!!!

Now there's a week to wait for the film, I spend a large part of this week looking at my wristband, thinking about the premiere and by the 14th I'm pretty much just watching trailers and clips and counting down the minutes til I can meet Nickie in town so we can get excited together and make time go a bit quicker. Finally, meet her near the AMC to go and pick up the tickets, she doesn't see me coming cos she has just seen a Lucius Malfoy double walk down the street and is staring at the photo she took of him on her phone. I almost wet myself...it's a total Lucius Malfoy double. Get tickets, get OVER excited, buy attitude cos Rupert Grint is in it, meet Seleena (yes, we are slowly converting her, she wore a cat hat for the occasion, professor McGonnagal disguise yeah), get food, I put Nickie's lion head hat on for the full Gryffindor effect, she puts her party cape for full magical effect, and finally head to the cinema to see Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows...Part 1....followed by Part 2.

Again, surprised by the lack of dressing up, maybe not everyone loves dressing up like we do, but they should, it's FUN. I'm not going to do a full film review, it would take me another hour. Neville was pretty much my favourite thing in this one, his speech was amazing! Think they did a good job of the fiend fire bit. Luna was great. I am not going to go into any negatives, but leave you now with a quote from JK Rowling...

" The stories we love best do live in us forever, so whether you come back by page or by the big screen, hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home"