Month: December 2009

Hairy’s mom got me a ball-winder for Xmas, which is really cool! I tried it out tonight for the first time with some Cascade 220 at 4 in the morning and made you a little short video. You’ll notice that in the beginning, the ball-winder’s clamp falls off. Oops!!! I don’t have a swift (yet!) so I still have the yarn wrapped around my knees, which can lead to some snagging still. But anyway, I imagine if you have kids, this would be a fun activity for them. It’s pretty cool! 1st time using a ball winder! from Twinkie Chan on Vimeo.

Seriously. I should stock up on like 10 boxes of these. I am thinking about it. I have been waiting for them all year! Hairy got a Trader Joe’s gift card and we went to town! So much joy. It’s the little things. Candy Cane Joe-Joe’s!!!! In other news, I kept forgetting to tell you guys that I wrote a little article for the first issue of the new Cupcake Magazine. It’s very sweet and pretty, and I hope I didn’t throw a wrench into it by being goofy. I just wanted to do something different than a regular Q&A!

I have not really been crocheting the past few days. I have been drawing and drawing and drawing for my big project. As you may already know, I am not good at drawing, especially on the computer! I have a very limited knowledge of Photoshop, and pretty much NO knowledge of Illustrator. I do not fancy myself a graphic artist by an means, so having to come up with a bunch of visuals is really weird for me, and I have little confidence in it. However, I do want my “stink,” so to speak, all over this project, so I am going to do my best to make it as Twinkie Chan-riffic as possible! Sorry this is all so vague. I can’t really reveal anything yet…! So, instead, I will share some things I have bookmarked lately!! You can click on the images to go to their respective pages! What is everyone doing for NYE? Usually we do nothing. Last year we went to Tahoe, which was kinda weird, but at least fun to play in the snow! I’m curious especially about what people in SF/Bay Area are up to!

Hope everyone had a great Xmas! Hairy and I started off with brunch with his parents, and then we went to my parents’ house for dinner and our annual White Elephant gift exchange. Bibi brings Xmas cheer. It took a few years of convincing my mother this was a good idea, and that we were growing up and didn’t need to be exchanging a kabillion presents every Xmas. She was very unfamiliar with the idea and was skeptical and confused, but now it’s like the greatest fun ever! Yay! I think that one of the strategies for a good white elephant is to bring something you yourself would want. This was Hairy’s strategy. Dutch baby pancake mix from William Sonoma. I had initially also followed this strategy by purchasing something at Renegade which I think I will not reveal just yet and use in a future giveaway package. Anyway, my new strategy was to bring something I knew that someone else would want for sure and in particular. My target was my sister in law. She likes Starbucks. She likes owls. I did the math. He is rendered a bit less practical with his wings and tail sticking out. If I ever make another one, I will leave out the wings and tail (or at least sew down the wings) but definitely keep his cute dangly legs! I love how he turned out, and I really want to make some time to create more in foodie-themes. Animals are really easy to make cute in coffee-sleeve/cozy form, so I have to think hard about this foodie thing! Anyway, my Aunt Mary ended up taking the owl home. Now she wants a different one for every day of the week! In some more Xmas spirit, I received this really touching msg on Etsy from a commission I completed on Wednesday and sent via Express mail. Sorry about the link, but the pic is kinda too wide to post in my blog. Jeanne asked me to create this fairly involved piece for her daughter, and I was a bit intimidated by the project at first, but I think it turned out super cute, and I was definitely inspired to make new projects from things I learned while making this. Since every “swatch” on the scarf is a different design, I created a short and crappy video to show you guys instead of posting 17 different pictures. Anyway, my Etsy shop is looking pretty barren right now, but I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to devote to it while I work on my big deadlines coming up. Don’t want to spoil what it is yet until I sign ink to paper, but it’s huge. Real huge. Exciting, Stressful. Amazing. Strange. Everything life should be! Balls to the wall, 2010! xoxo p.s. you know you are getting old when you are excited to use the new STEAM CLEANING machine you got for xmas to clean everything from the upholstery to the toilets!

This is the only handmade item I managed to squeak out for the holidays this year! Sad! I just didn’t haven enough time to make stuff for everyone, but at least my mom got a cozy! Lemon-flavored desserts are one of her faves! For Hairy’s mom, I was going to try making cheese straws. I had them for the first time in South Carolina many years ago. Hairy always says his mom is big into crackers, and for some reason, homemade cheese straws as a gift came to mind. I looked through a bunch of different recipes and settled on this one by Ina Garten. I figured if she thought it was delicious, it would surely be a winner. And while they ARE delicious, they aren’t really what I think cheese straws are, which actually have cheddar cheese in the dough, and end up more like a really long and giant Cheez-It. Hairy then took over the kitchen to bake some ginger loaves. Whenever Hairy cooks, Bibi likes to wedge herself between his legs. She picks the most inconvenient spot ever to chillax. This happens all the time and is so funny to me. Even when she was a teeny tiny puppy, she liked to watch Hairy cook, and it really had nothing to do with waiting to be fed or finding crumbs. I think she just likes to be where everyone else is. Here’s a quick pic I took of a cup. I want to do a whole scarf full of different cups and mugs filled with tea or coffee or hot cocoa! On Christmas day, Hairy and I will eat brunch with his parents, and then we will have dinner at my folks’ house. Oh crap. I forgot to wrap our presents for the White Elephant gift exchange! Best do it now before I forget! I hope everyone has a relaxing and delicious holiday!!! xoxo

Thanks so much for entering my first blog giveaway!!! It was nice to hear all your memories and favorite treats! I also loved hearing from folks who read my blog but don’t often comment, so thanks again for saying hello! Sorry I couldn’t reply to everyone!!! And the winner is ….. Congrats, Jade!!!!! I will be emailing you shortly!! I hope everyone has a a happy holiday season!

EDIT!!!!!! THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED!!!!!!!! I WILL NO LONGER APPROVE COMMENTS FOR THIS ENTRY. THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING! 🙂 🙂 Hey folks, I’ve always wanted to do a giveaway, but I’ve been so crazy busy that I never have anything left to giveaway! I took the opportunity after BazaarBizarre to put together a lil sumthinsumthin for all of you who have supported me and read my blog! This giveaway package includes red and white striped peppermint wristwarmers/fingerless gloves, a red and white striped peppermint candy-heart necklace, and a red and wdhite swirled lollipop brooch. TO ENTER: Just leave a comment on my blog, telling me what your most favorite holiday treat is! (and make sure to enter your email address in the email address field so I know how to contact you!) DEADLINE: This is super quick! I will choose a winner with a random-number-generator on Monday, December 21st, at noon, PST. This way, I can hopefully have time to contact the winner, and have the winner send me his/her mailing address, and get the package out before the post office closes on the same day. For people in the U.S., the package should arrive before Xmas (according to the USPS….). Sorry to my international readers! I just didn’t get my act together in time! I will obviously still send the package to an international winner, but the package will probably definitely not arrive in time for Xmas. Okay, this is my first giveaway at my own blog, so if I left anything out or messed something up…please let me know! 😛 xoxo

People have already begun to make purchases! Go go go!! Click on the image to go to my shop!

Wow, what a weekend! We basically had to build up stock for BazBiz in 2-3 weeks and I was stressing out about not having enough to actually put on display! It turned out ok though. I think people were delighted and there was a lot of giggling in my vicinity. I always like to make people giggle. Here’s a quick video montage. I never take enough video or photos at these things! Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco 09 from Twinkie Chan on Vimeo. I only got 1 hr of “sleep” on Friday night, and then took 3 hr nap when we got home. Since I was running out of brooches, I decided to make more and then I didn’t go to sleep until 7am again! Oops! So I’m sorry if I sounded completely idiotic to anyone who visited. I was probably running on 4% brain capacity at that point. I would’ve been falling asleep at my booth had it not been COMPLETELY FREEZING!!! AHHH! My fingernails were turning purple! Hairy put an ad on Craigslist last week for me because we wanted an oven-ish display unit to go with my fridge-ish display unit. At first I was afraid that the unit was going to be way too huge and look weird next to my fridge, but after all the was painted and done, IT LOOKED AWESOME!!! We picked up the oven in Petaluma in the rain on Friday night, and it was totally worth it. I am hoping to store it up in the bedroom and use the shelves for tshirts and the “stove top” for other stuff, too. It’s perfectly awesome. She even put hooks on it, so that’s what the zipper clutches are hanging from. Zambi came for visits!!!! And she brought me the cutest little necklace and phone dangly of a cartoon-me wearing a pizza scarf. She is so talented. I heart her! Also I met her mom who was super duper supremely nice! During the craft fair, I made this peppermint candy scarf: I put it up around 3pm on Sunday and it’s still for sale. It will be part of my big leftovers-Etsy-update which I am trying to have up tomorrow, but I have to shoot pics of everything! From my experience this weekend, I have two new rules for being an awesome visitor at a craft fair. 1) Do not roll your eyes at price tags, or ask sellers how much something is and then say “WOW” out loud and put the item back (especially when there was also a SIGN that said how much the thing was!). It’s really rude and disrespectful. I respect that you might not like my stuff or might not have the money to buy it, and I don’t take that personally. But you need to respect the time and love that artists put into their items. I am not a sweatshop worker. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but it’s plain un-classy to insult someone to their face! […]

Cat from Cut Out + Keep asked if I would do a little interview and pattern for the holiday mini version of their online magazine, Snippets, so I said sure!! This is the first pattern I’ve ever posted anywhere, and it’s FREE!! I tried to keep it simple and sweet for the holidays. I hope it’s easy to understand! I haven’t really had a chance to check out Cut Out + Keep yet, but there are like 30,000 members, and I just got an account. I know you might be thinking, “Oh no, not another online community!” But I think they did such a great job with my Snippets stuff, that I’m curious to find out more about the rest of the site!

Saturday December 12th 2009 12:00 PM – 6:00PM Sunday December 13th 2009 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM * Shop Handmade * Support Small Business * Craft, Learn & Support Art Education * 120+ Vendors * FREE Craft Workshops * Raffles * Food * Music and More! San Francisco County Fair Building Golden Gate Park, San Francisco $2.00 Per Adult ~ 12 & Under FREE 50% of Admission Fees Go To Charity More info here! I will be at booth #30! You can click the pic to see it bigger. I am also donating two items to some raffle packages: a gingerbread man brooch, and also some peppermint candy stick wristwarmers! Here are some in-progress pics of some of the stuff I’ll be selling! Brooches! Scarves! Appliqued Cardigans! (I’m just sticking a gingerbread man onto my own cardi. This is not really what the cardis will ultimately look like…) New cupcake scarf colorway: Peppermint Red Velvet! If I have time, I’m going to also try to do a cookie scarf, a lollipop scarf, and a mint cupcake scarf, but, yeah…the fair is on Saturday, so that all probably won’t happen!! I’m also going to have zipper pulls, candy necklaces, wristwarmers, cute-tility packs, and ipod cozies!! Wish I had time to do tissue cozies too but…uh…yeah, I’m having a tough time figuring out what to spend time making!!!

When I was in Paris last summer (I know…I still never blogged about it….oops) we were only in a department store for 20 minutes, but it was long enough for me to fall in love with Manoush, which I think I mentioned before. Some random clicks just now led me to the Japanese website Luke and Stella where I bumped into sweet Manoush again. When I’m a kabillionaire, can I wear this label and this label only?

Okay, I am officially freaking out about having anything at my booth for Bazaar Bizarre. Also the washing machine broke again, which isn’t the most optimum sitch for my felting needs, but hopefully the guy will be able to fix it soon and for cheaps! I made a scarf: I tried blue eyes this time after a discussion with Hairy. I think he looks much more alive and crazy now than with black eyes. I also made a bunch of wristwarmers: They are supposed to remind you of colorful candy cane sticks! So far I’ve only been using yarn from my stash, but I think I will go to Imagiknit to pick a bigger variety of colors/flavors. Tonight I am all about making brooches! In progress! I need to make 10 cupcake brooches for Manda’s children’s theater due the day before Baz Biz, so I’m just gonna do all her brooches and all my brooches right now. I also plan to have cookie, gingerbread men, and lollipop brooches for the fair. So yeah, I decided not to go to Handmade Ho Down :(. I just don’t have a lot of time to spare until the fair on the 12th. I might have to fly down to LA for business next week, too. Eep! Back to work! Muah!

Okay, I had no idea there was a Bay Area street team thingie for Etsy, not that I am super involved in the Etsy community or anything…. but Shrinkle informed me of this night-time craft fair event thingie they put together which is taking place on Thursday, Dec 3rd, from 6pm-midnight, at 1015 Folsom. I’m really curious!! We’re going! At least, I hope we are going. Hairy invited a buddy over for dinner, so we’ll see how late that goes!

Hairy and I left the battery charger to our digital camera in L.A., so Hairy just ordered a new one off eBay, and I was finally able to get the few snaps of the Hello Kitty Fashion event off the thing!! We’re waiting for the show to start! Me and the Ladies of BubblePunch! Me and our cute modelVictoria Rawlins. My head is so much bigger than hers. Me and Marissa/PizzicatoKei, my collab partner, pal, and crochet elf! I’m hoping that one day, Sanrio will post its profesh video of the fashion show. In the meantime, here are a few snippets. I think Hairy wanted to film the WHOLE show and I was like… that’s cray cray!!! So he just got tidbits of ChubbyBunny‘s outfit, ours, and the Shrinkle Hello Kitty mascot outfit at the end!