Happy New Winderm-year!

Hello! Happy new year and all that. It's been a while since we posted anything, but one of our new years resolutions for 2014 is to post on here more often. So here we are posting about what a lovely time we had when we went to Windermere at the weekend.

We thought we'd take advantage of the fact that the Lake District would be relatively quiet at this time of the year and hopped on a train to Windermere. We stayed at a hotel called the Wild Boar, which has its own smoke house. We both enjoy eating anything that's been smoked so it seemed like the place for us. Anyway, smoked food aside, we did loads of nice things like: walk, talk, eat, look at Beatrix Potter stuff, walk, get on a chain ferry (The best kind of ferry) and stuff like that.

Here's a video that I recorded with my Digital Harinezumi camera that I got off Liz for Christmas. It records silent video footage with a kind of vaguely super 8 style aesthetic. Or something like that. The song playing while you watch thrilling footage of us doing things in the Lake District is Young Explorer by the Middle Ones. It's the song we named our zine/blog/corporate brand after! The Middle Ones have a split release with Best Friends Forever coming out soon and you should buy it. Okay, play the film!

And in case the moving images weren't enough, here's a collage of still photos from our little trip that I put together on Photoshop with my new found Photoshop skills.

To summarise, Windermere is very nice. It was mainly cold and dry and then cold and wet, but that's okay. What's your favourite place to visit for a weekend? Let us know!

S + L

Young Explorer's Christmas Picks

Hello again! As it's December, we've decided to do another one of our Etsy treasury lists. This time it's chock full of ideas for Christmas presents that you should definitely get for people that you like. You can have a look at all the amazing things by clicking here, or even on the image below if that's your kind of thing (Ps. I have never used Photoshop and this image is the result of about an hour's worth of fiddling).

Etsy is the best place to buy presents. I'm sure all the people you buy for would prefer to get something handmade and nice from Etsy rather than another Amazon voucher. You can even buy stuff from us, if you like!

Tell us about your favourite Etsy shops for buying pressies, please! Tweet us, Facebook us, leave a comment, whatever! And most importantly, have a very Merry Christmas!!!

December Update!

Hi everyone! Apologies for our absence from the "blogosphere" of  late, we have been a little bit busy working on a number of things that have been pleasant but time consuming. We'll be back to normal soon but thought we'd check in and update you on some exciting* news.

The Swapsies

The best pop folk band Liverpool has to offer have just released their new EP which is accompanied by a neat little zine that us two made especially. The EP is called 'Sparrows' and the zine we did is called 'Feathered Migrants. It's based on the lyrics of the Swapsies song of the same name. Andy from the Swapsies has written all about our little collaboration on his blog, so you should read that. The EP is great so you should definitely buy it. You can also buy it from us here. There's going to be a launch party in Liverpool on December 12th and you can find out all about that buy clicking here.

Young Explorer Etsy shop

We've been busy updating our Etsy shop recently and now you can buy even more great stuff for yourself or for people you like (Note! If you are buying Christmas pressies, make sure you place your order in good time so we're able to get the stuff to you before the big day). You might have noticed that the photos on our Etsy page are quite nice now, and that's thanks to the wonderful Elle Brotherhood who did them for us.

In other news, we'll also be selling things at Liverpool Winter Arts Market on Saturday December 7th too! You should come, it'll be great. 

Anyway, that will do for now. We'll be posting more from now on, I promise! 

*depends on how easily excited you are

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

Dogs!

Dogs are amazing, aren't they? This blog post is going to be all about dogs, so sorry if you're one of them people who say daft things like "Actually, I prefer cats" or (even more daft) "I don't like the idea of having a pet at all". This blog post is not for you. If you do like dogs, you should follow my (Steve!) Instagram profile, which is made up primarily of candid photos of strangers' dogs.

At the weekend we had a pretty dog-tastic time, all in all. We went to the television's Battersea Dogs Home. You can pay £2 to get in without having to agree to adopt anything, so it was kind of like visiting a zoo that only has dogs (and cats). We weren't allowed to take pictures, but here's one I took before I realised:

There were so many amazing dogs. Our favourites were Jacob, Frankie and Wilma. If you're in a position to adopt a dog, you should definitely consider rehoming an abandoned one. Here's Wilma's photo from the Battersea Dogs Home website:

Awwww! After we'd spent ages walking around and looking at the dogs and cats, we popped down the road to the the Gallery on the Corner, who currently have an exhibition of dog art (art by dogs) on until October 20th. Here's a Daily Mail article about it, complete with humourless idiots underneath the line saying things like:

"This is not ART. To call it art is to belittle true artists with talent. Animals can't make art as they haev no concept of painting/drawing for any other reason than reward. Of Course, as i mention in my comments on the Bankys article..some fool will pay stupid money and they will become worth thousands... great for Dogs home...depressing for Art"

Get a grip, mate! It involves dogs so is a good thing! Proceeds from the exhibition go to the dogs home, too, so that's even better. Here's a picture of the sausage dog that was trotting around the exhibition space. I think he might have belonged to the staff at the gallery:

Also, in other dog related news, the super amazing Discount Horse are releasing the even more amazing All Dogs' split with Slouch. It is one of the best things I have heard this year and you should definitely buy it.

Please tweet us photos of your dog! And remember, you can still enter the competition to win tickets for Carefully Planned this weekend.

See yer!

S

Carefully Planned (+ an exciting competition!)

Carefully Planned, a festival across six different venues in Manchester, is usually flipping brilliant. But this year the lineup is even better than usual! We're so excited about it that we thought we'd better write something about the five bands/artists we're most looking forward to seeing this weekend. Here they are, in no particular order:

Mat Riviere
Obvs! We've already told you how great his most recent 10" is, so it's almost inevitable that we'd be really jazzed about seeing him at Carefully Planned. That's not all, though: he's playing at Bakerie wine store, the fancy bread (and wine) place next to the fancy pie place. Jackpot! I'm going to be stuffing my face with still-warm focaccia while he does his thing.
(Saturday @ Bakerie)

ONSIND
Either we really like bread (and wine) or Bakerie is just the place to be on Saturday. Actually, it's both. But straight after Mat Riviere's done, you can stick around and see ONSIND. Acoustic pop punk from Durham, featuring people from Martha.
(Saturday @ Bakerie)

Well Weezer
It's Well Wisher doing Weezer covers, obviously. And it's in the swanky new room upstairs at the newly refurbished Gullivers. Can't blumming wait!
(Saturday @ Gullivers)

Good Grief
Excellent noisy pop fun from Liverpool. I have never seen them irl before but am pretty sure it'll be ace.
(Sunday @ Gullivers)

Johnny Foreigner
Unlike Good Grief, I have seen Johnny Foreigner lots of times, although I think the last time was probably about three years ago. Dead frenetic pop-punk that will be a joy to get re-acquainted with.Yeah!!!
(Sunday @ Soup Kitchen)

There's loads of other super duper bands (Honourable mention to It Hugs Back who did one of my favourite songs ever) playing over the weekend, too. You can get all the information from the Carefully Planned website and there are still a few tickets left (You can get them from the website 'n all).

Competition time!
Would you and someone you know/love like to go to the festival this weekend? Well, have we got a prize for you. £12.50's worth of prime festival admission (more on the door) for the whole weekend for you and A.N Other. All you have to do is Tweet something like: "I would like to enter the @_YoungExplorer competition to win tickets for @ACPFestival, please!". Or comment on this post with a way for us to contact you if you win. The winner will be announced on Thursday! Good luck everyone!