Month: July 2016

I have some yummy treats to check out with you! Japanese Candy Box – Japan Funbox is a monthly subscription service based in Osaka that will send you an assortment of fun candies, snacks, and DIY kits from Japan. Japan Funbox sent me their “Mini Box,” which contains 5-7 items for $14.99/month, free worldwide shipping. They have two other levels – the “Original Box,” which contains 15-20 items (1 DIY kit guaranteed, 1 special item guaranteed, such as a soda, toy, or special DIY), for $32.99/month, and the “Family Box,” which contains 25-30 items (2 DIY kits guaranteed, 2 special items guaranteed) for $49.99/month. Upon quick glance, the difference between Japan Funbox and some other boxes I’ve reviewed, like Japan Candy Box, and Japan Crate, seems to only be how many items you want sent per month. They all vary and have different sizing. I haven’t calculated each subscription box across the board, but the Japan Funbox “Mini Box” is a nice, small, introductory size to get you going, and the “Family Box” is one of the biggest you can get. Let’s see what’s inside! (P.S. If you happen to sign up for Japan Funbox through this link or the button on my sidebar, I get a small affiliate percentage.)

Last weekend, I vended at Renegade Craft Fair with my new “Bento Bar” set-up, where people could assemble their own cute, crocheted bento boxes! This was a grand experiment, since I’d never done this before ever, either online or in person, and I think people really loved it, once they figured it out :P. The actual “salad bar” part of the display was pretty easy to put together. The base was foam core with some plastic bins hot-glued on top. The sneeze guard was kind of a whole journey. I thought I would make it out of PVC, because PVC seemed easy, but Manda felt that wood was the way to go, even though neither of us know anything about building anything. I think it turned pretty well! An important element for us was that the sneeze guard be easy to transport, so the top/guard part separates from the legs. It is sliiiiiiightly crooked, but, hey, it never fell over, and it survived! My super favorite part of the weekend was watching people put together their bento boxes, guys, gals, grown-ups, kids, everyone! Here are a few of the boxes that people assembled: As luck would have it, our booth was right by an electrical outlet, so I was able to turn people’s food plushies into pins, magnets, or hair clips, right as they waited! Here’s me with a hot dog octopus pin! My number one favorite request from someone was a french fry pin. I really need to make one for myself. We also had a table filled with non-bento stuff and my books, plus the giant donut…! I definitely plan to put the leftovers on Etsy. I just need some time to take pictures of everything and get them listed. I’m hoping maybe by Friday or the weekend? Eep, we’ll see! Here’s a lil vid I put up on Instagram:   A video posted by Twinkie Chan (@twinkiechan) on Jul 20, 2016 at 9:33pm PDT  

Hi gang! Sorry the giveaway is a day late! As per usual, I was scrambling to get ready for the craft show last night. I still have some stuff I want to crochet tonight to re-fill some spots on my table that sold today, but I definitely also wanted to get this giveaway up for my blog sponsors, who are always so generous to contribute to these giveaways. ONE lucky winner will receive:

Renegade Craft Fair is this weekend in San Francisco! I’ll be vending and bringing a lil Bento Bar with me, where you can build your own little bento box filled with crocheted goodies. It’s the first time I’ve tried this, and I have no idea if people will be into it or not. As always, I’m running out of time, and I won’t have all the elements that I originally wanted, but I think it will still be a pretty good experiment.  Like, I don’t know that I’ll have time to make a bunch of the above rice balls or even the lettuce underneath them, but I’ll try! So if you’re in town, come check it out. Saturday and Sunday, 11am – 6pm, at Fort Mason Center. Would love to see you!

On the 4th of July, I showed up to the family bbq with this giant crocheted hot dog. In all honesty, the hot dog was an extremely belated birthday present for my nephew who turned three. I was in L.A. for Vogue Knitting Live during his bday party, and then I kept making the wiener part of the hot dog too big, and now I have 2 extra wieners lying around  the house. Anyway, I was FINALLY able to deliver my present! Giant hot dog: here’s why. I made a big ol’ strawberry pillow for my mom a while ago, and for some reason, my nephew kept saying “thank you” to me for making it for him, so I thought I’d make him a giant food pillow, too. Also, this kid loves a barbecue, BUT, he actually only wants to eat the bun, not the dog. WE LOVE BREAD. I didn’t have time to take a quality photos of the hot dog before I wrapped it up, so these phone pics will have to do for now (you know what a hot dog looks like anyway) until I happen to make another one again.  Maybe for YouTube? Also, I didn’t have time to take down all the yardage info. I used Red Heart Super Saver for this project, so that should give you some idea. And just, like, a lot of stuffing…    I spend a lot more time than I should trying to determine what the perfect hot dog color is, so I hope you enjoy Red Heart Super Saver in Coral. I enjoyed it a lot. Hotdoglicious. (Please note that this pattern has not been tech-edited or proofread by anyone, so if you find any typos or errors, just let me know!)

I have a fun summer-time pattern for you guys! I saw a cute photo of somebody’s actual frozen treat, which was a chocolate-covered frozen banana, decorated to look like a bear. The snout was a little cookie, and I can’t remember the other decorations. I tried Googling it, but couldn’t find the same image again, but I did run into THIS tutorial to make “polar bears.” You know I love me some color, so I imagined that instead of just using white chocolate to coat your frozen banana, you could use colorful chocolate/candy melts and have all different colors of bears! Also, I shot photos in my new popsicle dress and felt like a lil popsicle bear would be the perfect accessory. Unfortunately, most of the photos I took with the popsicle turned out focused improperly…….doh. Here is my initial sketch. And here are the finished blue and pink versions! I wanted to make a brown one, too, but I’m also still working really hard on prepping for Renegade. I hope you guys enjoy these cute goodies! My favorite part is crocheting the mini-marshmallows! I think they’re really funny and cute. I apologize in advance if there are any errors in this pattern. Nobody else has edited or looked at it, and I just dashed it off really quick! Let me know if there any issues! 🙂