Month: January 2013

I am working on pulling the third out of 3 of this week’s work miracles within the next 18 hours, but let’s take a quick break and check out the super cute cupcake pins that ClaireyLou sent me! I know you might be all like, “Not another cupcake pin!” but her work is so cute and delicate and ladylike and well-made. You will not be disappointed! I was afraid that I took so long to blog about them, that Claire might think I hated them, but really, I love them and have just been so super crazy lately. Can you tell that I still haven’t cleaned up my craft room? EEP? Uh, maybe NEXT week!! 😛 In the mean time, check out Claire’s shop and say hello! She has a coupon code right now, too, that ends tomorrow!    

My friend is starting up a new crafty blog and asked if I would answer some questions. One of the questions involved a sketch of a certain hat from many many years ago. I didn’t think I would be able to find this random sketch, BUT I DID. In an old Photobucket account. You’ll be able to see this infamous sketch on February 19th when my interview goes live. I think my sketches are funny because they are really bad, but they are actually really helpful to me while writing crochet patterns and planning ideas. When people commission me to make things for them, I say, “Draw me a sketch!” so I can see what they are talking about, but they say, “I can’t draw!” I can’t either!!! I don’t think we all have to be genius artists to get an idea across. Even cave men were able to tell stories through their primitive drawings, so sketch away! No fear!

I have learned a few things about myself and baking: 1) I might over-mix batter because I am afraid of lumps and under-mixing 2) I might over-bake things because I am afraid of under-baking 3) I break a spoon every time Let’s see if I can avoid doing these things while making…. POUND CAKE!!! I had leftover buttermilk from making blue velvet cookies and googled recipes using buttermilk. There were 3 possibilities: pancakes, fried chicken, pound cake. I don’t ever cook meat and I wasn’t feeling the pancakes, so … pound cake! I have a lot of fond memories of pound cake. My mom would buy the frozen Sara Lee ones. I always thought they were called pound cakes because they were heavy like bricks that weighed a million pounds, but it turns out they are called that because in the old days you used a pound every ingredient: a pound of butter, a pound of flour, a pound of eggs, a pound of sugar. These days, we don’t make such humongous pound cakes, but that’s a pretty cool recipe if you ask me. The Sarah Lee pound cakes were dense but soft and delicious and just kind of perfect-looking. This was my goal. I used Ina Garten’s recipe. Here we go! Here are most of my ingredients. I didn’t have a loaf pan, so I greased and floured up my bundt pan. I hunted around on the internets, and it seemed to tell me that my bundt would have the same cooking time and temp. as the loaf, so I was set! And, bearing in mind #3 on my list of Bad Baking Habits, I decided to use a giant metal spoon for all my spoon-related needs. No spoon-breaking this time! The magic begins when you cream together the butter and the sugar. I want to smell like butter and sugar all day. I have tried to purchase various cake/vanilla/buttercream fragrances, but I have yet to find one that I think actually smells good. After mixing up all the ingredients, I found another great use for my giant spoon: EATING BATTER. I had to stop eating the batter so I’d have enough to put in the bundt. And then, I crossed my fingers. I set the timer for an hour and started eating Cheez-Its cuz I hadn’t eaten dinner yet. Yes, it was about 9:20 pm, but I was waiting for Hairy to get home from the art gallery, since I didn’t know if were going to eat dinner or not before seeing “Mama” that night. As it turned out, we didn’t have time to eat dinner, and we ate hot dogs at the movie theater…. Anyway, I checked in on my pound cake when it was close to one hour, and I was a little scared to see LIQUID batter bubbling at the surface, cracking through the cake, seeping out like hot delicious buttery lava. There were still about 5 minutes left on the timer, so I figured that […]

Sorry I totally forgot to tell you guys about this! I got the PDF emailed to me while I was in L.A.! There’s a little bit about me and what I do in the current issue of Girl Talk magazine in the U.K. Their website is 100% adorable, and I can’t wait to get my hard copy in the mail! Back in the day, I was quoted in INKED Magazine saying I didn’t consider myself an artist. That sounds kinda self-deprecating, but I guess I was creating a hard line between my idea of “crafting” and my idea of “art.” I still don’t really know where I believe I stand in those areas, but the top corner of the magazine page where it says “Real Artist” kinda puts a smile on my face, and I’m happy to inspire girls – young and old – to get creative and pursue their wacky dreams. After working almost 10 years in book publishing, I was really surprised when  Angel introduced me to someone a few years ago and called me an artist. That was a first! I think the funny thing, too, is that her day job at the time was something tech or computer related, but I’ve always thought of her as an amazing photographer first. And now she takes fancy snaps of musicians and is rep’d and everything. It’s fun to see us all grow.

Wow, thank you guys so much for all your comments on my last entry! I was really just worried I was letting the crocheters down by not blogging enough about crocheting, but it seems that those of you who responded were okay with a mish-mash of my weird brain. I really appreciate the thoughtful replies. I promise I’m reading every single one. I had intended to also respond to every single one, but this month has been intensely crazy for me!!! I still haven’t cleaned up my craft room or my house or really caught up on all my projects, because new and immediate deadlines keep popping up! I have two new patterns to write and my California sales tax to calculate and file before Jan. 31. Plus, I wanted to update my Etsy shop Feb. 1 with Valentine’s Day stuff, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to meet that deadline. I’ll do my best.  I’m hoping that things will settle in a bit more in February. Fingers crossed!!! In the meantime, I’ll leave you with  a picture of me and my Alf telephone from Instagram. It randomly started ringing the other day (I don’t use my landline or give out the number), and I had no idea what the sound was or where it was coming from! Alf-ringer is now off! In my dream world, I’ll be able to fit an actual desk in the craft room for my computer and my Alf phone, so I can take photos of me looking super professional in my office.

I just took this photo five minutes ago. My craft room has been a hot mess since the beginning of December. I mean, it could be worse, but for me, this is pretty bad. I also left out the part where there are now a bunch of boxes in the dining room, too… I really do not like the site of cardboard boxes. The plastic bags don’t help either. The big problem is that I have all this stuff, but there’s nowhere to put it. This frustration sends my anxiety through the roof, and then I just have to walk away and re-focus my energy on the projects and deadlines I have in the meantime. I basically closed my Etsy shop this month to help me catch up, and while it has definitely helped, I still feel behind and in a frenzy. This constant, mentally-manic feeling has made me re-think a lot of things about my business and how to make everything run as smoothly and smartly as possible. But while I’m thinking about that, I’ve always been curious: what drew you to my blog? What keeps you reading here? Are you only here to see crochet-related posts? Are you un-interested in crochet and just more interested in random life-style stuff? Are you only here for Bibi? Lemme know! While I’ve always stressed the importance to me of blogging for me, I’m definitely interested in how I can blog for you! Let’s clean this place up! (metaphorically… I have to deliver a project by Tuesday, write a new pattern by the end of the month,  draw some new graphics for another top secret collab, and crochet a scarf sample for a different top secret collab…)

We had a lot of Yummy You! fun on Monday night in L.A. with models Jessi Jae Joplin and Stephanie, and photographer Irene Yuen at the super cute Cafe50s. I felt super duper lucky to be around such a gracious and cheerful group of ladies, and the staff at the restaurant were also amazing and upbeat and didn’t yell at us or get mad or anything! I was in town for the Craft & Hobby Association show for a meeting and asked Irene as soon as my meeting was confirmed if she thought it would be possible to also throw together a last-minute photo shoot while I was there.  I am a big ignoramus when it comes to organizing a shoot, because I’m usually just shooting myself with a remote in my house! It was a little crazy on Monday afternoon, trying to coordinate the shoot while also at the CHA show, but everything turned out really well….EVEN after I failed to give Jessi and Irene the address to the cafe so they ended up at a different Cafe50s. DOH. MY BAD!!! Here are just a few behind the scenes Instagram snaps from that evening. Here we all are after the shoot! I took this one right after asking them if they had decided what to order. All good photoshoots involve french fries and milkshakes! Earlier on, Irene had txtd that she didn’t know whether to eat before the shoot or not, because she wasn’t hungry but knew that shooting in a diner would make her hungry. I told her I would feed her french fries while she shot. Also, I felt it would be proper for me to wipe her brow. Here’s a pic I stole from Stephanie wearing her cupcake scarf! The really surprising part of the evening for me was that when diners had to pass us on their way out, they all were curious about who we were and what we were doing, and they all commented that everyone looked really cute and wanted to know where they could buy the goodies. I was paranoid that they would all hate us for ruining their meals or something, but as it turns out, the whole thing was just a big happyfest. Yay! Stay tuned for the legit photos! They are gonna be ridiculously cute!

So Hairy’s bday is today. I have a few, fun presents for him, but I also wanted to try baking something he would like. He is a big fan of red-velvet-anything. Red velvet is not my fave, so I wouldn’t know a good one from a bad one ….. but I do know this: my cookies ended up looking like alien cow patties. Sorry about taking photos with the flash, but this was at 7 in the morning so there’s not a lot of natural night! Yesterday, I was rushing to shoot photos and send samples to Michaels, and then I had a 2 hour time window to sneaky-bake before we headed down to Manda’s birthday dinner. I used this recipe for red velvet cookies from Joy the Baker (which is actually a Rachel Ray recipe) and this recipe for cream cheese frosting also from Joy the Baker. I was surprised that the amount of food coloring called for in the cookie recipe equaled a whole little squeezie-tube of food coloring. So. Much. Food. Coloring. But what I really liked about the recipe is that it’s supposed to be for 10 cookies, which is not a humongous amount of cookies to have to get rid of at the end of the day. I am pretty sure I made my cookies too big by trying to use a 1/4-cup measuring cup as a scoop. Then I started using my hands, and, well, I wish I had three hands at the time, cuz I would have loved to have taken a picture of my hands covered in dark blue sludge. So I figured if I made my cookies too gigantic, that they should stay in the oven longer, but this was a bad move, as my cookies ended up with an odd crispy crust on the bottom, with the tops of the cookies remaining fluffy and cake-like. Oops. I have never made frosting before, so that was pretty fun. It actually tasted pretty good, even though I didn’t have time to sift the powdered sugar. After hiding the frosting in the fridge overnight with a sign on it that said, “Top Secret. Eat and Die,” I feel like I can taste the grainy-ness of the sugar. Boo. I hid the cookies in the craft room under a poncho. While wrapping Manda’s presents, I opened every window in the house to try to get rid of any cookie-baking smells or suspicious heat from the oven. It was actually pretty lucky that we had dinner with Manda, because Hairy had not much reason to poke around in the fridge, where there was a carton of BUTTERMILK <– very suspicious. At 7am, I frosted them and set them out by the coffee maker, only to realize, how truly hideous my cookies ended up. Here is my friend Angel’s take on the matter: AHAHA! I love her. Well, now you can see why I don’t cook. *salute*

I watch a lot of TV. I like having it in the background while I work. Not all of it is good, but not all of it is bad. Have you guys ever seen Catfish the TV show on MTV? Did you see Catfish the movie? If all of this sounds like a mumbojumbo, here’s a quick recap. Catfish the movie came out a few years ago, and was allegedly a documentary about a guy who fell in love with a girl online and decided to go meet her, and his brother went along and filmed the whole thing. But she turned out to not be who she claimed to be… They kind of promoted it as a thriller, which was weird, but maybe genius, I dunno. The team who shot/produced the movie is the same team who does the Paranormal Activity movies, so that sort of makes sense. Anyway, there is a guy who explains at the end of the movie what the whole “catfish” reference is about: “They used to tank cod from Alaska all the way to China. They’d keep them in vats in the ship. By the time the codfish reached China, the flesh was mush and tasteless. So this guy came up with the idea that if you put these cods in these big vats, put some catfish in with them and the catfish will keep the cod agile. And there are those people who are catfish in life. And they keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh. And I thank god for the catfish because we would be droll, boring and dull if we didn’t have somebody nipping at our fin. ” Catfish the TV show is about the guy from the movie, Nev Schulman, and his buddy Max, traveling around the country and helping other people meet their internet bf/gf’s in person for the first time. The big concern is that people are not who they claim to be, and on this show, they usually are not…. What I like about the show is that it doesn’t demonize the people who lied. Nev tries to find the silver lining, to explore why a specific person did what they did, and to even still foster a friendship between the two people. As a super introvert, I have met a lot of people from the internet, starting from good old Teen Chat rooms on AOL. I can’t say that I’ve ever had an exciting catfish experience, but it makes me laugh inside to think about meeting my buddy Alek in 1994 and finding out he was a 40 year old woman named Cheryl. Here is my favorite episode so far, Episode 6, Kya and Alyx. Catfish: The TV Show – Full Episodes    

Oh gosh. Sorry I haven’t blogged for a bit. I have been busy doing a bunch of stuff that doesn’t make for very interesting blogging or photos since it all kinda has to stay under wraps for now. Some secret stuff: – I just submitted fresh new art for Yummy You! 2013-2014 school planners. Stay tuned for that! I’m hoping we can stock them in our online shop! – I just agreed to contribute a new pattern a super top secret book project with a deadline before the end of January. I gotta get crackin’ on that after I… – Finish and submit my TWO new patterns for February for Michaels.com – There are also some super top secret exciting Yummy You! collaborations I have in the works with other fun brands. – I’m taking a quick trip to L.A. next week for a dream meeting. I hope one day I’ll be able to announce something from that. So the only visual I can share right this second is this: Manda and Hairy’s birthdays are a day apart and this week! Manda chose an afternoon of archery for her bday activity, and Hairy chose bowling. Are we so old and nerdy or what!!! Anyway, it was clearly important for me to carefully and thoughtfully create some professional-looking graphics to accompany their Facebook events. I know you didn’t want to miss out on this work of photoshop genius.  

Start off 2013 on the right foot! You can win the entire range of super-soft, super-toasty, and super-cute socks from Yummy You! All you have to do to enter is go to our Facebook page, “like” the newest post with the same image as below, comment with your favorite Yummy You product off our web site, and “share” this post on Facebook! The winner will be chosen on Wednesday Jan. 9th. Good luck and stay yummy!  

I have a fun tidbit of news for you guys! For all of 2013, I will be writing one (and sometimes two) free crochet pattern for the Yarn and Needle Crafts project section of Michaels.com. The first two are already up! A Birthday Candle scarf for all new beginnings and celebrations, and a super cute Strawberry Cake binder cozy for any of you back-to-school-ers or binder-lovers (I know you’re out there, binder-lovers, cuz Manda is one of you). Here are some photos I took of the projects here at home: I’m actually right now in the middle of working on the next two patterns for February!

From now until this Friday, January 4, use discount code LUCKY2013 in the Yummy You! shop and get 15% off your order! xo