Hello we are Bis from Glasgow Scotland...

I have a confession, I have a secret love. A love of singing, in a Glaswegian accent.
I can't help it, I can't sing but give me a good Scottish indie pop song to sing along to and I think I'm the best singer EVER!
It all started in the mid 90s when my (second) favourite band was Bis (my first Placebo, I liked black bobs A LOT back then). and then a whole host of other Glaswegian bands fell onto my radar and I was hooked.
But then all those bands, well disbanded and it wasn't until I heard ONE TWO THREE FOUR and ARE THESE ATOMS? THESE ARE ATOMS! out of the mouths of Danananaykroyd that I remembered my secret passion. And it came flooding back, it's not just singing either, I've been reading Grant Morrison's Supergods book in a Glaswegian accent too!
And now they are no more.
And so in honour of those Scottish bands, past and (not for much longer) present, here are some of my favourites, sing along as Glaswegian as you can (even Urusei Yatsura who sound more 'American' and I met hottie Fergus in the late noughties and he is totally from Salisbury/shrewsbury/somewhere more south than Manchester!).

Lemon & Raspberry Madeira Cake

So we all know from our Paris adventures that it was Kandy's birthday last month, but because of us being away and then just timing, I didn't get to make her a cake until a week or so later.
I decided to go more for the taste then the novelty this year.

So here is how I made a lemon and raspberry Platform 9 3/4 cake!!

You will need:

-50z/150g butter or margarine

-50z/150g caster sugar

-3 medium eggs, lightly whisked

-8oz/225g self raising flour

-few drops of lemon essence

-lemon peel

-punnet of raspberries

For the topping;

-half a tub of mascapone

-few spoons of icing sugar

-juice of half a lemon

-food colouring (black and brown)

Heat the oven to gas mark 4/180c and grease a loaf tin.

1-Cream the butter/marg and the sugar, beat in the eggs with a little flour.

2- Add the essence and raspberries, then fold in the remaining flour.

3- bake for about 1 1/4 hours, place peel on top after half an hour in the oven

leave to cool. For the topping.

4-Mix some icing sugar with lemon juice until you have a thick consistency. Add the mascapone and mix well.

5- Split into a third and two thirds. Add black food colouring to the third and brown to the other.

6- I placed the cake on a board covered in brown paper, with drawn on train tracks! I put the cake on its side and iced the front (the top) and the sides.

7- Add brickwork detail with a cocktail stick.

8-For the finishing touches I placed a Lego luggage trolley on one side and a Hogwarts Express on the other!

Dodgebrawl....

So last weekend saw me heading to Sheffield for Kandy's roller derby debut! her first public bout as Cyndi Slaughter #83 for Sheffield Steel Roller Girls against some rad lasses from Nottingham Roller Girls!

I was super excited to see her do her stuff, I took my seat and watched with her sister and dad and she and the other girls, skated, jammed, fell, knocked and all round wore me out!!!

It was a good bout and Sheffield took the win, WELL DONE LADIES!!!

Next up was the UK's first co-ed bout (that's boys and girls vs boys and girls folks!!!!). Members of Manchester's, Lincolnshire's, Birmingham's and Nottingham's derby teams, teamed up to form Average Joe's vs Purple Cobras (yes just like the film Dodgeball!). I opted for supporting Average Joe's because everyone likes an underdog (plus this team had members of Manchester Roller Derby in, so I had to!).

The bout was a nail biting one, a real close call but Average Joe's won in the end!
The day finished off with a roller disco, where I attempted to skate round without getting tired. Roller discos are hard, I can only just skate on wheels never mind dance, but I love to dance.
Disco smoke included, fun was had!

*photos taken by Jason Ruffell

Inspiring Sugar Paper #8....

Once more with feeling....

So remember back in April when I made my bff Nick a t shirt inspired by Kobra Kid's? Well I just thought I'd share the moment when Mikey F#@!$N Way (aka Kobra Kid) admired this tshirt as it was on Nick's back. Apparently he was a sweetheart and said he liked the top, if that isn't a seal of approval I don't know what is!

State Of Craft

So we can finally tell you all WE'RE GOING TO BE IN A CRAFT BOOK!

yes that's right Kandy and myself will have a make and do in a hot new craft book State Of Craft, out in October.

Check us out on the cover, Kandy's paintbrush scarf and my orange needle book (on the table!).

Put it on every crafters Christmas list!

Tinnitus

So I have just finished reading issue one of Tinnitus. From the pen of Benjamin Cooney.

Ben is a regular at Sugar Paper towers, being the other half of S.P's other half, Kandy and Sugar Paper contributor, illustrating the cover for issue 6.
The first official outing (there was the teaser in the form of issue zero) of Tinnitus is super rad and I urge anyone to grab themselves a copy, do that here!