Kawaii Subscription Box

I signed up for a 3 month subscription to this Kawaii Box and every month I have absolutely loved my surprise package from them. Sadly this box is the last of my subscription, but I feel like it has been the best one yet!

It contained:

• Kabaya Fish Gummies
• Food Stickers
• Moonin Mini Pouch
• Fragrance Beans 
• Animal Greetings Card 
• Toast Squishy Charm
• DIY Bracelet Kit 
• Alpaca Pouch 
• Egg Mini Plush 
• Caplico Mini Ice Candy

I loved everything in this box but I think my favourite thing has to be these foam food stickers. They are such good quality, I can't wait to use them! I'm also a big fan of the addition of more sweets in this month's box compared to my other two boxes. I love all novelty sweets and can't wait to try the fish gummies. I hope they're not actually fish flavoured! The same company also does just a sweet subscription box too, which I have been tempted to try.

The boxes work out about £12 each, which I think is excellent value for the amount of stuff they include and the postage is completely free. Even though this is the last box I will receive for a while I plan on renewing my subscription in the new year. I just can't resist all the Kawaii cuteness!

E

X 

Death By Knitting

The other weekend we went to London to visit our friends and, while we were there, we did loads of fun things. The best thing by a mile was going to see the new exhibition at Prick Your Finger, by the super incredible and talented Kandy Diamond.

The exhibition is called 'Death by Knitting' and is made up of knitted horror film movie posters, from films that have knitting needles used as weapons in them. Super exciting, right? But there is more! Not just are the pieces knitted but they are also 3D!!! You get given 3D glasses to view the pieces while you are there and it really works!

To accompany the exhibition there is also a zine (with a 3D cover!) about how knitting is used in each of the films featured in the exhibition.

The exhibition is on until June 12^th and I highly recommend that, if you are around London before then, you take the time to go and see the exhibition. You won’t be disappointed!

Sailing Through the Trees

Apparently we have mentioned Caroline Dowsett in passing twice on this blog, but this post is going to be completely about her and Alex T Frazer's joint illustration exhibition at Common in Manchester. It's called 'Sailing Through the Trees' and we have been meaning to pop by and see it since it opened at the start of April. The poster gives you a little of taste of how good the exhibition was!

The illustrations in the exhibition tell the story of a wife launching a rescue mission for her fisherman husband who has somehow ended up in the belly of a whale. The series of illustrations are available to buy as prints or as part of a comic (There are prices and things up on the wall!) from behind the bar. We're very tempted. We'll probably pop back and pick up a couple of prints before the exhibition finishes at the end of September. It'd be good if we could grab a copy of the comic for Salford Zine Library, too.

The exhibition is proper ace, with the two artists' work complimenting each other perfectly to tell the story. We'd definitely recommend making a trip to Common, sitting in the 'Club Room' (I think that's what they call the room at the side, anyway. EDIT- it is actually called the 'Kestrel Suite'!), ordering some chips and spending a bit of time enjoying the lovely exhibition. Here's a couple of photos we took while we were at the exhibition (Complete with that annoying reflection you get when you take photos of things behind glass):

The point to take home from this blog post is that you should definitely go and see 'Sailing Through the Trees' at your earliest possible convenience. Okay!

Sheffield Mini Zine Fair

Yesterday we got the chance to take some of the Salford Zine Library collection on the road and exhibit it at a little zine fair in Sheffield. We also took some Young Explorer stuff to flog on the side, too.

Salford Zine Library out of a suitcase

Some of our stuff

We sold a few of our new mini zines - we have one about whales called 'Whale of a time!' and one called 'Feathered Migrants', which was inspired by a song by ace Liverpool pop band The Swapsies (More about both of these new things another time!).

There was loads of interest in the zine library and we had some lovely donations from other stallholders, too, which was ace. Keep your eye on the Salford Zine Library blog or pop in some time during the week to have a look at them.

All in all, it was a pretty fun day. The event was very well organised and everyone who came along was very friendly and nice and stuff. There was a zine making workshop on after the fair and, though we didn't go, it was guaranteed to be flipping great. Hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as we did!

See yer,

S

Going on a Field Trip

Skyliner has been one of our favourite blogs for ages and ages. It appeals to our curious nature, is dead nice to look at, is wonderfully written and the articles usually include some pretty nice photos too. What more could you want? Hayley has recently written about the abandoned theme park in Berlin that we mentioned a few months ago, only her's is in more detail and has much better photos!

Hayley also does amazing guided tours of architecture in Manchester, and now you can buy your building obsessed loved one a gift voucher so they can choose which one to go on themselves. We want to go on the 'alternative countryside' one quite a lot. Anyway, our Liz was asked to provide an illustration for the gift voucher and there it is, poking out from behind the badges above. Nice innit?

It's a drawing of a building on Portland Street that Hayley has kindly written about for the next issue of Young Explorer, which is going to be about 'the past' and will be ready very soon we hope. Now stop reading this blog and go and spend the next few hours reading Skyliner instead.

See yer!

S

Sea life month #2: Whale of a Time!

Remember way back in August when we were going on about it being 'sea life month'? Well, here's the second in the series. The 'month' part of the title is redundant, really, as it's been over a month, so just ignore that bit.

Anyway, I have always been a big fan of sea mammals. Dolphins? Amazing (Although Liz thinks they have an attitude problem). Seals? Brilliant. Manatees? So good I even recorded a naff song about them. My favourite TV show as a child was Sharky and George! Aside from Liz's aversion to dolphins, which she attributes to them being "attention seekers", we're both agreed on how cool they all are.

We both think whales are great, too. So we've done a mini zine about them that you'll be able to buy soon! It's called 'Whale of a time!' and contains some nice illustrations of whales that Liz did and a bit of vaguely amusing/informative writing that I did. Here's some sneaky preview images for you to have a look at:

Always keen to develop any merchandising opportunities, we've done some temporary tattoos too! Whales tend to be quite large, so we thought it'd be appropriate if the tattoos were too. They'll be available soon and they look like this:

 

And we're doing some shrink plastic whale brooches that followers of our Instagram will have caught a glimpse of recently. Keep an eye on our Twitter and our Etsy page to find out when all these neat things are available! Speaking of Etsy, we've curated a list of really nice whale related things that have nothing to do with us. You can have a look at it by clicking here. 

Tell us about your favourite sea based mammals, please! Do you agree with Liz? Are dolphins "attention seekers?". Answers on a postcard, (Or in the comments section or on Twitter) please.

See yer

S

Coo & Co's Landbaby Exhibition

We never actually got to see Stef Bradley's Today Zine exhibition at Landbaby, partly because we seem to be stupidly busy all the time at the moment and also because we tried to go and look on a Sunday when Landbaby is closed. Duh!

When we heard that Coo & Co were doing an exhibition there we pulled ourselves together and managed to get down to the shop when it was actually open. Jenny McCabe is super talented! We met her at a craft fair in Lancaster ages ago and her lovely stall, as part of the Make District collective, was definitely the best thing there. She makes loads of lovely textile things, including some 'make your own bird/moth' kits that I really want to have a go at.

You can see for yourself anyway - the exhibition is on until July 20th. And while you're there, Landbaby have a couple of our brooches left for sale too! Here's some photos: try and see if you can guess which ones we took and which ones have been lifted from Landbaby's Facebook page!

Bye!

S