Manchester Print Fair and New Etsy Things!

I am writing this post very quickly as we need to leave to go to the Manchester Print Fair in about ten minutes. I just thought I'd quickly update all of you on the new stuff we have in our shop! We're debuting the second issue of the zine today, which includes all kinds of exciting things like: Phil Elverum, Haiku Salut and the Manchester Transport Museum. 

We've also got some sexy owl greetings cards available, and, some owl badges too. The owl badges will be available to buy irl today, but you'll have to wait until next week to buy them online. Here's a picture of all the owl related things we have:

So either come down to 2022NQ today, or head over to our Etsy to get spending your hard earned.

See yer!

S

How are you feeling?

Yesterday we went to see David Shrigley's new exhibition 'How Are You Feeling?' at the Cornerhouse. We went to see his exhibition 'Brain Activity' at the Hayward Gallery in London, which the Daily Mail called 'the sickest art show ever', in February, and it was well worth the entrance money. While the exhibition at the Cornerhouse wasn't quite as big, it was FREE. The best price.

There was no taxidermy this time, with the exhibition mainly consisting of loads and loads of the drawings that he's most famous for. All the favourites were there, plus tonnes of stuff that I'd never seen before. We particularly enjoyed this one:

And here's a photo of me looking dead serious and that.

There's other stuff too. There's a couple of nap stations in case you get tired while you're making your way around the gallery. There's a short and funny animation. There's a giant naked man who, rather creepily, blinks and urinates into a bucket every now and again. Visitors are encouraged to take a seat and sketch him, like you would a life model, but we didn't have time and I can't draw so we skipped that part.

There was also a gong that you could have a go on, which was too good an opportunity to pass up.

There's all kinds of things going on around the exhibition too. Check the Cornerhouse's website for different events, although the Harry Hill guided tours of the exhibition have sold out now. Rubbish. If you're lucky enough to be able to get into town at 2pm on a Wednesday, Bakerie are selling David Shrigley Anti-Psychotic Brain Bread for the duration of the exhibition. They're baking 13 loaves a week and they're £5 each. I'm hoping to figure out a way of getting one!

The exhibition is on until January 6th, and, as mentioned previously, it's free!

See yer!

S

Threaderal Government pt. 1: William Taft

For my birthday, Liz's ace sister and incredible husband bought me THIS. It has loads of amazing posters from US presidential elections from the last 200 years in it. It is pretty amazing. As there's an election coming up very shortly, I've decided to embroider portraits of some of my favourite presidents and presidential candidates* from the 20th century.

This chap here is supposed to be William Taft, who served as president between 1909 and 1913. From what I've read about him before, he seems to have been a reasonably un-evil type bloke, but he wasn't a particularly memorable president. That said, he is the fattest ever president, which is pretty good going. Wikipedia reckons that he once got stuck in his bath tub and his staff had to come and use butter to dislodge him. Unpleasant mental image whether it's true or not.

Another fact I like about William Taft is that a town called Moron, which had been burnt down and rebuilt after a fire, was renamed Taft in his honour. Apparently the word 'moron' wasn't a derogatory term when they named it. But we can ignore that bit, can't we?

Anyway, feel free to suggest other presidents/presidential candidates for me to have a go at. I'm thinking of doing Eugene Debs next, because then I don't have to faff around with embroidering loads of hair and stuff.

*Note: this does not necessarily mean that I agree with their views, it might just be that I think they were funny looking or something daft like that.

See yer!

S

Morecambe

A couple of weeks back we decided we'd go and spend our weekend in Morecambe. We've both always wanted to stay at the newly renovated Midland Hotel, and they had a deal on dinner, bed and breakfast. And the food was supposed to be amazing. And I'd never been to Morecambe before, but Steve had and he's very much a fan.

We seem to spend a lot of time at the seaside, don't we? I'm not really sure how Morecambe compares with Cleethorpes and Southport, two other seaside towns we've visited recently. Morecambe is a bit more depressing I think. But there's nothing wrong with spending a weekend in an eerily deserted seaside town at the end of the summer season. If anything, it's better when there's less people around!

The giant polo thing in the photo on the right is one of the last remaining rides in the now abandoned theme park on Morecambe sea front. Wikipedia says that it was a Noel's House Party/Mr Blobby themed amusement park, which is probably why it was abandoned.

The meal at the hotel was incredible. I'll talk you through what I had. Starter! Scallops with bacon, peas, pea puree and a sauce that I don't remember. It doesn't look very appetising but it was really quite nice.

Scallops!

Lamb!

The lamb we both had for our main course was even more amazing. The tasty bit of meat in the middle is lamb rump, the wheel things around it are lamb confit belly (!) and then there's some borlotti beans, broad beans and peas in a rosemary sauce. Probably one of the best things I've ever eaten.

Trio of berry desserts!

Dessert was pretty excellent, too. Steve had a cheese board and I had the collection of berry desserts, which consisted of (going clockwise!) an elderflower and blackberry jelly, a raspberry mousse and a summer fruits pudding. Complete with fancy fruity swirl on the plate. Swish-o!

The next day we went to a little vintage shop/tea room called Dotty's Vintage. They had some lovely clothes for sale, but we were there for the tea room really. We had a lovely pot of tea and some cherry and almond scones. Yum!

Sadly it was absolutely chucking it down on the Sunday, so, after sitting in a shelter and watching the waves crashing against the sea wall for a bit, we made a hasty retreat and went back to Manchester. Morecambe's really nice! I think I'd like to go back again, possibly in the summer when it's not so grim looking.

Bye!

L x

Pony Chops Giveaway

In case you haven't seen us advertising this on Twitter, the super blog Pony Chops is giving away one of the large embroidered badges from our shop! Click on the picture below to have a look at how you go about entering. I think entries close on Monday, so you'd better get a wriggle on.

S