Month: October 2009

I’m still buried by my deadline. Panicking actually. I’m way behind with no time to spare. Why is it always like this!? Eep! ***EDIT****** I wrote this entry on the 26th. Today is the 31st and I delivered all my book samples and crochet patterns yesterday! YAY!!********* I stayed up all night working and slept from about 9:30am – 2pm. Kinda weird. Made me really rushed to make the post office after shooting pics when I woke up, but I kinda like sleeping on the couch with the dogs! 😛 Here’s a few snaps from the past few days. Enjoy! xo I put a ruffle on this version of the salad scarf, and I love it. I want to make a cowl/neckwarmer that’s just layers of ruffley lettuce!

Go check out Shrinkle’s photo heavy blog entry about the Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary Opening Party!!! My favorites are from when we went to eat at Swinger’s afteward, and Shrinkle’s man Kevin took out his camera, and Hairy and I just instincutally started making poo faces, and Kevin said we were the worst models ever.

On Saturday, Hairy and I went to Palo Alto to support my BFF Manda as she led the dance in Palo Alto for Thrill the World. Hairy and I refuse to dance (I need to be inebriated to even jump up and down to Cyndi Lauper), so I tried to take video, but then my arms got tired!! Hahaha. Thrill the World, Palo Alto, CA, 2009 from Twinkie Chan on Vimeo. That dude with the ponytail and track pants is going to be Manda’s new husband, so, Dude with Ponytail and Track Pants, if you ever read this, please contact me and I will connect you to your wife. You have the sweet dance moves that all the ladies desire. Aaand a few cute items to share! Click pics to go to the pages! Cute pin! Cute shirt! (and girl, but she doesn’t come with it.) Another cute shirt I totally want! Ok, bye!! Back to work on my book and samples!!!!! This is the last week I have, and it will be a furious next few days. EEEEEEP!!!

Hairy and I drove down to L.A. on Thursday and made it just in time to stand in line to get into the VIP party for Hello Kitty’s 35th Anniversary at Royal-T. Then we woke up the next morning and drove right back home to make it for Hairy’s 5pm tattoo appointment! Here’s a little news clip about the event. Fox 11 gathered up a bunch of us, and I thought it was just to take a picture. Turns out, they wanted girls as background for their TV snippet. I was able to hide behind other people quite a bit. Shrinkle claims to have tried to hide behind me, but I was clearly hiding behind her….!!! Here’s a pic of me and, I believe, Melissa (correct me if I’m wrong!) from this article on BlackBook Mag. I thought it was kinda funny that rando press people would snap pics of you on their little point-and-shoots. I guess you get funky photos like this then! I’d stayed up until like 6 in the morning to make myself a Hello Kitty purse (felted). I had no time to think about what I was going to wear, threw some crap into my bag at the last minute, and decided I needed at least ONE Hello Kitty accessory!! I will probably do a blog giveaway with it later after November 14th (we will be going back to LA for the Hello Kitty Fashion Event…which is open to the public!). This is me in front of the Hello Kitty airstream, decorated inside by Cynthia Rowley! I’m holding up a CuteAndNast.com sticker cuz I didn’t know what to do with my hands. CLICK HERE to read their post about the event!!! Also check out BubblePunch’s photos!!! Um, their dresses were both handmade by themselves and TO DIE FOR!!! I’ve decided I need a pair of blinged-out “formal” glasses for fancy photo-heavy occasions!!! I feel so dowdy compared to everyone else’s fabulousness!!! I will cut the other 21 or so photos click if you want to see more!

Hairy and I are back from Margaret’s wedding in Houston, and also we just picked up the doggies from their kennel in Petaluma today. The weather in Houston was gorgeous and not-hot and perfect!! Then we came home and it POURED today here! First up: I did not wear a wig in the ceremony. I brought the short wig, but after the out-of-towner dinner at Maggiano’s and a chat with the bride, we decided that half the people who’d be at the wedding already saw me with pink hair, and it would be super duper even more weird if I showed up with a little black fro. You are going to kill me, but Hairy and I never remembered to bring our camera anywhere!!! You will have to wait to see the actual wedding photos from the photographer, if Margaret ever sends them to me. I managed to get this blurry snap in the bathroom with my phone: I wore a little hair-thing by thehoneycomb on Etsy. I must have an enormous head, because the fascinator did not look as big on my head as it does on the model’s head!!!! I am now a fan of her stuff!!! The style is a bit more “romantic” than my every day wear, but it was perfect for the occasion and not too expensive. I don’t have a full-outfit shot from the wedding, but I do have a pre-outfit shot. I tell everyone that the most unattractive thing you could ever wear is NUDE-colored SPANX. I don’t like wearing thongs, and when I was telling my mom a year or so ago that I was going to a formal function with a slinky dress, she donated her new pair of unused SPANX to me. They are really disturbing, but they hide the panty line! However, I noticed in the car, after I put my dress on, that I could see THE LEG LINE!!!! I was kind of disgusted with myself at that point, but everyone assured me that they couldn’t really see it….. Anyway, the ceremony was really short and really sweet. I made my speech/toast and all was well. I feel like I have a go-to format for giving wedding toasts now: 1) Say hello and introduce yourself. 2) Congratulate the bride and groom. 3) If nobody knows who the heck you are, briefly explain how you know the bride/broom or both. Pepper with humor if appropriate. 4) This time I included a brief story of how they met, because I thought it was very sweet. 5) Choose something quirky about the bride/broom to share, or choose a favorite memory or anecdote. 6) Relate this quirky thing or anecdote back to marriage/happiness/new life, etc. 7) Cheers! The wedding cake was tres leches and it was YUMMMMMMMY. Also the bride’s mom got a little tipsy and danced her little tushy off on the dance floor. It was awesome. We had dinner at a place called Ragin’ Cajun, ate pie at House of […]

So we will be in Houston for the weekend for Margaret’s wedding. I am packing my curly Shirley Temple wig! Today I went shopping with Manda AAAALL over the planet looking for red shoes to go with my red bridesmaid dress. It was not easy, let me tell you. I either felt like a tacky cougar or a businesswoman….nothing wedding-appropriate AND RED. My mom berated me and told me that if I hadn’t waited these few months to shop, that it wouldn’t be the winter season, and that there would have been more red shoes a few months ago. AH! Whatevs!! What do I know from fashion seasons?!?! I kinda hate that there are colors that are supposed to go with seasons. I dislike fall colors especially! I managed to wrangle a pair of super pointy, Marc Jacobs, strap heeled shoes in a kinda shiny patent at Nordstrom Rack. Trust me, everything looked terrible, and this was the least of all the evils. It’s not my wedding and I don’t have to look awesome, nor will people care much, but I admit, I feel a bit defensive because I’ll be the weird girl with the full sleeve, and I don’t want to look like I don’t have the class to clean up nicely!!! Weird, I know!! Today I drove all the way up to Petaluma to drop the baby doggies off at their new kennel. I hope they have a good time and are not sad!! Then I drove all the way back down to Palo Alto to go shoe shopping. On the drive home, I kept myself awake (only had 4 hrs of sleep last night) by practicing the speech/toast I have to give at the wedding!! Anyway, sorry for all that text!! I will leave you with a few fun items from the interwebz!! *Click on images to go pages* I’ve added Coco Perez to my blog reader on Blogger.com (where I host the YuckyStuff site). I am enjoying it! Check out his post on chocolate and fashion! Hairy showed me this post about Hello Kitty toys with ORGANS!!!! Lastly, I am into this t-shirt dress from FredFlare.com. Although, I would be inclined to embellish the white-tee part, I think with an applique or some bling or a drawing of a lollipop or something! Everyone have a great weekend!!! I hope you all get to see Where the Wild Things Are. I am going to wait to come home to see it with my bestie!!!! xoxo

Part mermaid. Part hooker. 100% dreamy. Untitled from Twinkie Chan on Vimeo. Sorry there aren’t sound effects. I didn’t have that much time to play around. Also, I kept trying to add some fun music like CHER but even at the lowest volume, the music overpowered what I was saying!

We went to Whole Foods the other day so Hairy could make a really yum-tastic salad with pomelos and long beans and lettuce and cabbage and a dressing made with fish sauce. I saw these teeny tiny baby tomatoes and I HAD TO HAVE THEM. I am not usually a fan of raw tomatoes. I only like them cooked or in sauces. But these guys were not only ADORABLE but also DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!! Nice and tart and snappity. Today I sent a 1st batch of sample scarves and patterns to my publisher. I have lots of 80% finished scarves here, so I sent her the stuff that was 100%. I tweaked MOST of my patterns (which kinda took forever) to make them more easily explainable in a pattern, and I also tried to use more yarns that are readily available (i.e. ya don’t necessarily have to order them online like I do!), without skimping on style of course! I don’t have to take the final photos until after their pattern-tester tests everything, but I wanted to stick in some photos as place holders so she could see. I’m putting the photos I took today behind a cut, because, there’s nothing new that you haven’t seen before!

Soooooooo I guess I am naturally not feeling like blogging as much with all my deadlines coming up! EEEEK I’ll be so proud to have survived October when it’s over!!! On Friday I flew down to L.A. for the day for a meeting. I don’t want to say much until something ACTUALLY happens, if anything, but let’s just say the meeting went well, and they even provided cupcakes and kitty cat notebooks!!! 🙂 I also got the most rando little prezzie ever from my manager. Lord knows why he had them in the 1st place! Mexican Jumping Beans! They started jumping around in their little container inside my purse, and I couldn’t figure out what it was for a little bit! Since I can’t post any progress pics of what I’ve been working on, we’ll skip to checking out a few cute things today. You can click on the images to go the pages. Betsey Johnson Mini Tea Party Dress in my size! Vintage 80s Silver Lame Prom Dress!!!! WANT SO BAD!!!!! This really cute mouse-in-teapot clutch by Kate Garey: Off I go to clean up some scarf patterns for my publisher and send a 1st batch of samples!!!! xoxo

I spent 3 hrs at the salon today getting my roots re-touched. Feels like a huge waste of time, BUT it is so much easier to style my hair right now!! PRICELESS!!!!!! I also made a pair of pink wristwarmers while I was there, so it wasn’t all a wash! Last night, I worked on cleaning up my pattern for the Soft Serve Ice Cream Cone Scarf. I ended up changing the way I did the ice cream part a lot, and now it looks extra swirly!!! It’s a sucky picture, but you kinda get the idea. I didn’t really change the color on purpose. I just ran out of green yarn!! I think I am running out of steam on the Fun Stuff Round Ups. I think it’s much easier for me to just share cute stuff that I like from time to time, and not have the pressure to find EIGHT items at a time!! Here’s today’s selection!! You should be able to click on the images to go to websites. Grey Capped Gloves! I really love the pretty felted flower. Silver Space Boots!!! I’m REEEALLLY tempted to get a pair. I love silver shoes! But would I wear them? Would they go with my clothes? Do they have to? And finally, a pretty candy-colored hair comb! OK BYE!! Time to work more on my secret projects. Also I just realized I didn’t eat anything today. But I also need to package a bunch of things before the post office closes. Hmmm.

Ok my new wig came in. And making a video with it was really stress relieving! Bye! Wig Movie 2: Revenge of the WIG! from Twinkie Chan on Vimeo.

Hello Kitty has graced everything from coin purses, erasers, and gum, to toasters, couture, and diamond jewelry. She has long been a muse to artists & designers worldwide and has brought smiles to fans 35 years. Now, in honor of her 35th Anniversary celebration, Sanrio is proud to bring an event to the U.S. like nothing America has seen before! Three Apples is a multi-dimensional exhibition and celebration of all things Hello Kitty running from October 23 to November 15. The celebration will kick-off with a VIP gala opening event, followed by a three-week residence at Royal/T café / shop / art space in Culver City, CA. Three Apples is open to the public and free of charge and will feature an art exhibition, unique product and design displays, a one-of-a-kind shop, and special events for fans of all ages – all celebrating Hello Kitty! There is a fashion show on November 14, so that’s the secret project I have been trying to work on while also working on my book samples! All the art and outfits will be for sale.

SO I FINAALLLLY finished the sushi scarf sample for my pattern book. It took forever because (A) it takes forever anyway, lots of pieces, lots of sewing, lots of weaving-in-ends! but also (B) I tweaked the pattern a bit so that it would read a bit more cleanly and logically. I prefer the final look when I use a more complicated and less logical technique, but the result is still pretty decent with the simplified instructions. I normally am not a fan of shortcuts, but I still want the patterns to be understandable and executable! While re-vamping my pattern for the EBI/shrimp, I ended up with a couple leftovers. It seems sad to just toss them, but I don’t know that anyone would want to wear them in the form of like a brooch or a hair clip!!! It’s kinda weird! So, tonight, I will keep cleaning up the text of the sushi pattern and also fix some of the instructional graphics, and then I need to hustle and make the next project on my list. I have no idea how much or how little we can speak about this project, so here is just a teeeeny tiny peeksy…. ****EDIT**** Okay, I just got an email asking us not to post photos of designs, even though mine was really not a full-on sketch, but on the safe side, I deleted it! I’ll make a post about the event, though, tomorrow!

Hey gang! Just wanted to let you know that there will be 3 giveaways at the Pink de Ville blog this weekend in celebration of Onjoli’s bday! Happy bday! Two have already been posted, and you can still enter to win! Giveaway #1 is a $20 gift certificate to her store, and Giveaway #2 is Robot Kit! Good luck! p.s. so far this weekend I’ve had dinner at Sushi Sam’s in San Mateo with my bro, Jaci, and his coworker and wife, and also Soul-ey Vegan (vegan soul food) in Oakland with Elysse and Kyle. My tum tum is on num num overload!!! DEELISH!!!! Tomorrow I have to have a can of soup for dinner to make up for it!

If you’ve been reading along with me for a bit, you’ll know that I am clueless about hats. I think it’s mostly because I don’t wear them, so I don’t know how they are supposed to fit, how big they are supposed to be, etc. I made a hat that fit me, and then when Manda put it on, it was waaay too big, and I think her head is more the average size than mine. Hairy’s is too big, too, for a ladies’ hat. I need a head mold of Manda’s noggin!!!! Anyway, a friend of one of my former co-workers emailed me looking for a nice gift for a young 11 year old friend of hers getting chemotherapy. I had my work schedule mapped out down to the day until October 13th to get my book and samples done, but I could just NOT say no!!! The hat is pretty simple, but I think it turned out pretty sweet. I just hope it fits!!! I found a different hat pattern that suggested an 18 inch circumference for younger girls, so that is what I went with. Fingers crossed!!!

Hoping to finally finish this sushi scarf tonight!!! EEEP!!! I’m 2 days and one full project behind schedule!!! Here’s a really random video clip for you. It’s not even funny. I need to be stopped.

Yesterday we were notified about being accepted to Bazaar Bizarre, so mark your calendars if you are in the Bay Area!!! More infos HERE! I haven’t fully decided yet (still concentrating on delivering my book + pattern samples!) but I might focus on sweets-related items only for this craft fair. Twinkie Chan’s Sweet Shoppe! We’ll see! I also got this email re: the Bust Craftacular, so if you are on the East Coast and you are a craftacular individual, check it out! CALLING ALL CRAFTERS! – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Vendor applications due November 2nd! – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Happening at: THE METROPOLITAN PAVILLION (125 West 18th street, NYC) BUST Magazine’s Holiday Craftacular is set for Sunday, December 6th in NYC and is set to be our biggest yet! BUST Magazine will be hand-picking over 200 of the most unique and talented crafters from across the country to stuff your holiday stockings with the very best in indie-designed and handmade wares! Take care of your entire shopping list while browsing thousands of ware that will include knitwears, jewelry, beauty products, ornaments, vamped up vintage clothing, silk-screened apparel, gourmet sweets, handbags, chic and original iPod cases, funky home décor, books, sassy soaps (for the naughty and the nice!), cards, the best gear for babies and more. Then take a break from shopping as the BUST DJs jingle your bells on the Craftacular dance floor. Independently owned and operated, BUST Magazine has been a leader in the crafting movement since 1993. Now in its 16th year, BUST continues to support and influence the handmade revolution though constant editorial coverage, sponsorships, and events such as the Holiday Craftacular. Always on the cutting-edge, BUST is a revered and trusted authority in the DIY and crafting community. The Metropolitan is located at 125 West 18th Street Seventh Avenue, between 6th and 7th Avenues. Subway to Manhattan: 1, 2, or 3 to 18th Street, or F, V to 23rd street. BUST Magazine’s Holiday Craftacular will take place 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM on December 6th. Your entry ticket also gives you a shot at winning a BUST-load of booty in the Craftacular Raffle! 1. Fill out our online vendor applications today! Apply here: http://www.bust.com/craftacular/apply.html 2. Pay the required non-refundable $10 application and processing fee that is payable at the time you submit your application. Checks and money orders should be made payable to BUST Magazine (78 Fifth Avenue, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10011, Attention: BUST Craftacular 2009) and must be postmarked by November 5th, 2009 for your application to be considered. We will notify […]