Author: TwinkieChan

I forgot to blog that you can now order a Pug Coffee Cup Cozy in my shop! I ordered a few more taupe/beige shades of yarn, but I was told it would take a few weeks, so, this little light fawn color is all that there is available right now! More colors later! I know some of you will ask, “Can I buy the pattern?” Right now, no. But maybe later! I am thinking a couple months down the road, I will put together a bunch of animal coffee cup cozy patterns, like this owl, or this fox, or all of these fine creatures:

Heidi from Snappy Tots asked me if I could chat about the place I crochet, and I said sure! You can check out the Q&A here on her blog. Here’s a tiny peek:

A favorite outfit is always a COMFY outfit. I woke up after 2.5 hours of sleep this morning and just wanted to keep wearing pajamas. The cool thing about a jersey dress and leggings is that they totally DO feel like wearing pajamas! The dress is from the Target girls section and is XL. It didn’t come with a belt, and I just slapped a white one on from another dress. I figured I’d go CRAZY and pair a striped dress with striped leggings. SO CRAZY, YES!?!? The hero-accessory of this outfit, though, is really the watch. You know how I blogged about Swatch’s amazing sweets-themed watches, and I absolutely had to order the one that looked like a candy bracelet! I am completely 100% in love with it. It does have a tiny bit of a candy-raver feel to me, which was never really my personal jam, but overall I just think it’s totally amazing, and I am so happy this watch exists in the world! What do you guys have going on for the weekend? I still need to finish up my piece for the “Sugar High Club” art show and overnight it on Monday. I also have a Mom n Manda ladies lunch on Saturday, and on Sunday I hope to check out the Treasure Island Flea Market! Don’t forget that my February giveaway also ends on Sunday! *** Dress: Target/Circo in the girls section, Leggings: Uniqlo, Shoes: Forever 21, Hair clips: an Etsy seller who no longer exists, Watch: Swatch

I just posted this on Instagram as a sample of the mess that is my craft room. The floor is covered in boxes filled with yarn, WIPs, and various craft supplies. I actually have a mind to re-arrange the whole room, but I have a few crochet deadlines to meet before setting aside time for Craft Room Overhaul. I am also afraid I will never make time for the overhaul, so hopefully I can zip thought my project for the Sugar High Club art show as well as a secret Yummy You sample (and also assorted Etsy orders) in a fairly timely manner! I tend to always feel overwhelmed and always behind. I make lots of lists. I live by lists. It feels good to cross things off lists. But I still feel behind! I know that part of the solution is to learn to say “no” more when it comes to work-related projects, and I think I’m getting better at that, but it’s hard to say no to participating in fun things! Even when I was working in publishing, I always felt behind, always took work home. There were always stacks and stacks of manuscripts to get through, and then more stacks after that. I have never lived my adult life any other way. I suppose this has its pros and its cons! Speaking of fun projects, I will have a really super awesome great new pattern in a “bookazine” that’s dropping on the 20somethingth of February. I’ll keep you guys posted! I’m so excited for this one!!!!

YOU GUYS. OMG YOU GUYS. I am totally dying over the “Pastry Chefs” watch collection from Swatch. Why haven’t I seen these popping up more on my social media? Why am I not wearing more than one on the same wrist RIGHT NOW, like any self-respecting Swatch-wearer is supposed to? The ten watch designs are inspired by candies, sprinkles, licorice, macarons, marshmallows, cakes, ice cream, you know, all the good stuff. I’m super serious about stacking them, cuz that’s what we did in the 80s! I remember my most favorite Swatch back then had purple jelly wrist bands and a black face, and the arms were lightning bolts that glowed in the dark. TOO AWESOME, RIGHT? These are my favorite three from the Pastry Chefs:   Yes, I placed an order. Yes, I’ll be showing you soon…..! 😛

Here is the other free crochet pattern I worked up for Sugar ‘n Cream’s “Sweets and Delights” promo at Michaels for their new range of sugary sweet yarn colors: A Rainbow Cake Throw Pillow that uses five of the new colors! The patterns is available at Michaels.com, and I will also post it here on my blog. In case you were curious, here is the sample I worked up at home while figuring out the pattern. I didn’t have the purple color (Sherbet) on hand, so I repeated the pink (Strawberry Shortcake). The purple looks really pretty, though, so I can’t wait to find some in the store!

It’s the 15th of the month, so it’s time to launch a new blog sponsor giveaway! Thanks so much to my generous sponsors for offering us these wonderful goodies! One lucky winner will receive: 1. Twinkie Chan EXCLUSIVE 4 pack of RockerByeBaby‘s “Dirty Girl” Un-paper Towels in imported Japanese fabrics and a button. “Feeling Dirty? No problem – I have the perfect thing for you, girl… I use a waffle weave unbleached muslin for the backs of the Dirty Girl UnPaper Towels. I double-serge all the edges for long life & durability. They’re safe for all surfaces, nice and absorbent for drying spills  and textured for scrubbing counters when wet.” (BTW, how fun and perfect is the print!?) 2. Here is your chance to win one of The Geek Garden‘s best selling custom made Marvel Heroes Retro Skirts! All of her skirts have a comfy black knit foldover band with hand ruffled Marvel skirting with serged hem. 3. This Mermaid locket from Messy Pink will make any outfit a little more magical! 4. Cute Cloud Keyring by ClaireyLouCreations. 5.  Pretty matching zipper pouch set from Quiet Tiger. The bigger one is about 4″ x 6″ and the smaller one is about 4″ x 4″. 6. Bonjour Breakfast Card and BFF Print from Prints & Things by Nellie Le. 7. Free download of Twink the Toy Piano Band‘s new album Happy Houses. 8. A 20 euros ($27) gift certificate to Petits Pixels Etsy shop. 9. I’m also going to throw my hat in this month! 1 custom Cupcake Coffee Cup Cozy crocheted by me, in the flavors of your choice! Just follow the Rafflecopter widget below for all of your chances to win! (p.s If you are new to Rafflecopter and think it’s weird, I just ran into this hand dandy guide.) Giveaway is open worldwide and will run for a week until next Sunday night, February 23rd, at midnight PST. Good luck! P.S. Please make sure my email address can get through your spam filters! twinkie@twinkiechan.com a Rafflecopter giveaway

  Oh hey! You can pick up my face and a free pattern at your local Michaels store! Lily Sugar ‘n Cream is coming out with some new, yummy, candy colors and asked me to whip up some fun crochet treats for their Sweets & Delights promo! I created two crochet projects for them, and the first one is this Cupcake Dish Cloth! I’ll post the second project here tomorrow! ;). The pattern is also available on Michaels.com (thank you, Elleen!). (Colors shown in my photos are Strawberry Shortcake (new!), Blue Cupcake (new!), Mint (new!), Soft Ecru, and Red.) Edit: I just put up a video on YouTube to go with the pattern!

Who’s getting dressed for their Valentine’s evening? I don’t really make a big to-do of Valentine’s Day at home, but I do love to celebrate pink, hearts, and candy! Sourpuss Clothing sent me another super adorable dress to show you guys! It’s their Shaken and Stirred Dress, and it’s the most cutest and comfy thing ever! I usually wear a size M in juniors dresses, but they sent me a Small and fits like a glove and is not too tight. The fabric is pretty stretchy for maximum comfortz! Also check out the tulle/fishnet ruffle peeking out the bottom! I put the dress together with some bright teal wedge booties and sugary sweet tights. I love these shoes a lot, but for some reason, I can’t walk in them at all, so I don’t wear them out! They are just one of those things that I hoard and covet because I couldn’t bring myself to return them. Maybe one day, someone will teach me how to walk in these things without keeling over… The dress has some embroidered retro details, like tiny martini glasses on the shoulders and a big shaker on the skirt. I also unearthed my Giant Dwarf rosette hair fascinator, because the colors went so perfectly! I really love the teal button and the cut-out on the chest because it’s interesting enough that I don’t feel the need to put on a necklace.Sourpuss is currently running a Valentine’s sale until the 17th! Use code ARROW (all caps) for 15% off the whole shop! Thank you, Sourpuss! *** Dress: c/o  Sourpuss Clothing, Shoes: Iron Fist, Tights: Celeste Stein, Fascinator: Giant Dwarf

Are any of you guys in Florida? If so, please check out the Sugar High Club group art show at Ink and Pistons‘ Slushbox Art Gallery in West Palm Beach! The show opens March 8th, 7pm-11pm and features “all things sweet, sugary, sparkly, extra fluffy and of course super Kawaii!!” Here’s a link to the Facebook event. I’ll have something super cute there (no sneak peeks yet, but I’m working on it!) and am so excited to share a space with awesome ladies like Miss Kika, Mel Stringer, and Mary Winkler, among many others!  

I designed these cuties for my Renegade Craft Fair booth last Christmas, and now I finally have some in my shop for you guys! I think they are super adorable and have fun details like the little gills underneath the mushroom cap and lots and lots of mini pompom mushroom-spots. They would make super snazzy gifts for your favorite forest-lovin’ friends! Get two and stick em in a flower pot filled with beans or little pebbles!  

My mom is really into a dessert called the Mont Blanc, which is a chestnut-flavored pastry resembling and named after the highest mountain in the Alps. I decided to crochet her a little painting for her Christmas/Birthday present with three mont blancs on a cake stand. As per usual, I thought it would be funny to show you the sketch I used to map everything out. Sorry about the terrible flash photography! I finished this right before we went to her birthday dinner, and there was no more sunlight for a good photo. It’s kind of hard to see in the photo, but I used a fun gold thread with sequins to decorate the cake stand as well as at some fun sparkle stars to the background. Hopefully I’ll remember to bring my camera to my parents’ house one day to get a nicer picture!    

I has a wee little update for you in my Etsy shop! I’ve got conversation heart fingerless mitts, Valentine cake hair clips, lollipop necklaces, aaaaaaand cupcake and petit four ring boxes. Everything is in limited quantities, and I will upgrade all domestic shipping to Priority Mail until February 14th, with the exception of any “made to order” items, because those still take time to make. Check it out!

Here’s a quick list of my Valentine’s Day crochet patterns that you can find for free! Sparkly Heart Lollipop Necklace Sweetheart Sugar Cookie Brooch Chocolate Truffle Scarf Conversation Heart Garland And the XOXO Sugar Cookies pattern is now in my shop. I will be updating the shop with finished Valentine’s Day items hopefully tomorrow! I thought it might be today, but I had a few phone meeting, and I lost my good light for photos, so let’s try tomorrow!

On Sunday, I thought it would be funny if Manda came over to watch the Superbowl. I am not a sports fan, and I have no idea what is going on in football, but it seemed like a fun excuse for us to get together and eat a bunch of junk food. A few days ago, I had been craving chocolate chip oatmeal cookies from Trader Joe’s. They are bite-sized, and they are crunchy and delightful. I figured I could just try making them at home, so that’s what happened on Superbowl Sunday. I used this recipe from Brown Eyed Baker. Okay, here’s a classic Me Move. The recipe instructs you to make dough balls out of 2 heaping tablespoons, so for my first batch, I plopped on 2 TBS of dough, but didn’t roll it into a ball or anything. For my second batch, I wanted smaller cookies, so  I just scooped out what I’ll call a small “bloop” of dough (as pictured above), and then rolled it around in my hands. I was kind of surprised when the baking time seemed to be kind of longer for the small balls than the big plops. About 8 minutes in, I realized, THAT MY OVEN WAS OFF. Because for my first batch, I had apparently turned off the oven when I meant to turn off the timer. GOOD ONE. So don’t even ask me about baking times, cuz I just winged it at that point. Overall, I think this particular recipe was a bit on the sweet side for me. I don’t know anything about baking, and I’m not sure what would happen to the whole recipe if I took out like 1/4 cup of sugar in there somewhere, but that would be my amateur inclination. Also, they were not light and crunchy like the Trader Joe’s ones, but I knew that going in, since the recipe called these thick and chewy. Otherwise, I had a fun time with these cookies, because I felt like there weren’t a lot of steps or ingredients to wrangle. I still need to remember to always make a half recipe, though, because I’m the only one in the house who really eats what I bake, and now I have like 80 million cookies to deal with!

  EDIT: This crochet pattern is now available in my Etsy shop. Thank you! I’m posting the crochet pattern for my Valentine’s Day X’s, O’s, and Hearts Sugar Cookies (that you may have seen in Crochet Today magazine) for FREE all weekend! Then on Monday, I will remove the pattern from my blog and load it up to my Etsy shop. The heart cookie may look familiar since it’s one of the free patterns I put together for Michaels.com, but I felt like it would be weird to leave out of this set! You can turn these cookies into brooches and hair clips, and even patches and appliques. Big ol’ fridge magnets would be fun, too!

Are you in Chicago? Do you want to take a super fun crafty class? Steff Bomb, winner of TLC’s Craft Wars, is here to help! Chicago Makes presents: A Plush Toy Sewing Workshop by Steff Bomb. Wednesday, February 5th, 2014 7pm – 9pm. @ Sew Crafty Studios, 2320 N Damen Ave, STE 1E, Chicago, IL 60647. Learn how to sew a plush piece of cake! $35 per person, materials included. Free booze, snacks, and cake! Beer provided by Revolution Brewery. Must be 21+ to attend. For more information visit sewcraftystudio.com or email: info@sewcraftystudio.com I have taken the liberty of showing y’all some of my favorites from Steff’s plush portfolio!

Ahhhh I feel so lucky!!! The adorable Em Somerville of Lick My Cupcakes doodled me and just sent me a print as well as two cute stickers! My biz partner liked them a lot and stuck them on some of our Yummy You packages, so if you’ve ordered recently, you may have seen this, too! If you are looking for a cute commission, you should definitely hit Em up if she has time!

Sometimes I’m like, “Ugh, I have nothing interesting to blog about! I’m just making orders and shipping them and doing a bunch of boring stuff!” But sometimes I forget that stuff could be mildly interesting as a peek into my day-to-day. I’ve been having fun including pins in orders that kinda match up with the item I’m sending, like this sweet radish-on-radish action. The other reason I wanted to blog about the radishes is that I have ALWAYS had a bit of a problem with figuring out how to stick my branding on these guys. Normally with my crochet work, I can sew a clothing tag somewhere, but there is not a lot of surface for sewing labels when it comes to the radish lariat scarf.  In the past, I have tried sewing a label to one of the leaves. I never really wanted to sew one to the radish itself because it seemed ugly. One alternative solution I’ve been using is these jewelry tags (sorry it was hard to photograph them!) But I’m not sure if people really like that up in their radishes, either. The cool part about the jewelry tag is that people can easily remove the if they don’t like them. I know there is probably some difference in preference from person to person regarding branding on their items. Some people request it specifically because they like knowing they have a Twinkie Chan item. But I’ve also received complaints in the past, regarding t-shirts, they they wish I didn’t include branding in my graphics. So I get that there are two sides to the story. When it comes to branding on items that I buy, I don’t mind supporting indie businesses and wearing something with their brand on it, especially if the brand name and logo are cute. I’m less likely to care about having a giant ADIDAS or JUICY across my butt. If you have any specific thoughts regarding my little radish buddies, I’m interested!      

I’m finding it a little hard to get into 2014. Part of me wanted to take a week or two to just relax and not work for once after the holiday rush, but that didn’t really happen. I had some stressful personal stuff happening (not health-related, don’t worry, just first world problems) that stretched out for a few weeks, but I hope that I’m seeing the end of that right about now. We’re butting up against Valentine’s Day, and part of me wanted to give up and not have any kind of Valentine’s Day-related shop update, because I didn’t think it was worth the stress, but we will have a few items in the next week or so. Some of them will be assorted cupcake ring boxes. We’re also sending my book proposal for Crochet Book #2 to potential publishers, which is always kind of a weird experience. For my first book, I didn’t even know that my licensing agent was pitching the book. He just sort of rang up one day and was like, “Hey, we have a book deal.” I didn’t even write a proposal. I actually wrote a proposal this time, and I have a new literary agent, my buddy Pickle, and there’s actually a submission list and pitch calls and the whole kit and caboodle. Having done all this from the agent’s side, I know there are a lot of “no”s when it comes to pitching books, and we have already had a few. It’s hard on the writer’s side to stay positive about the whole thing, as I’d rather not self-publish, but keep your fingers crossed, and we’ll see how it all goes. I’ve already replied to a few of Pickle’s emails saying, “I’m a lemon! I’m a lemon!” although I did include the words “rue the day!!!” in one of my more recent email responses. I was also asked to contribute to a bookazine that is coming out some time in February (yes… as in, a few weeks from now… REALLY fast turnaround!), and I’m excited to show you guys that. It includes a really fun new crochet pattern by yours truly, and whenever the book comes out, I will also release the mystery item from that pattern in my shop as well. Can’t wait to show you guys!!!

Last week, I noticed that Bibi was going up the stairs in an odd way and really hesitating sometimes go up them. Unfortunately, the only way she can get outside to go to the bathroom is to use a set of stairs (which is one of the reasons why I know I can’t stay in this house forever….when she gets old, I won’t be able to carry her up and down stairs to use the loo!). I took her to the vet, and she got some x-rays, and luckily she didn’t have any tendon or arthritis issues, just a little bit of swelling in a back knee. I was told to keep her activity limited and to give her Metacam for the pain and inflammation. Unfortunately, the Metacam seemed to give her CRAZY DIARRHEA. I wasn’t sure if it was just a coincidence or not, so I kept her on the Metacam and put on her on a bland diet of rice and cottage cheese. After 2 more days,  I took her off the Metacam to see if it would help things. But she only got worse. She lost interest in eating, plus, the stuff coming out of her butt started to look alarmingly like strawberry syrup (sorry if that’s TMI!). I called the vet to ask if I needed to bring Bibi back in, and she said that since Bibi had been on Metacam before without incident, that she might have caught some giardia or something, but to definitely stop giving her the Metacam and pick up some anti-diarrhea and anti-nausea meds for her. Bibi had also started to barf quite a bit. POOR BIBI. I got all her meds and tried to keep her hydrated while she had no interest in food. Meanwhile, I caught some kind of icky cold or flu myself and had to take care of the both of us! Hairy was out of town for the weekend, so Manda stayed over, and we ate lots of delicious dinners and lazed around a lot being slug-people and watching television. We did have to run to the 24-hour Walgreens for toilet paper at some point, which resulted in a random and joyous TEDDYBEARPILEUP!!!! And then it was back to feeling grody and doting on Bibi. Bibi is now feeling much better. She is navigating the stairs fine, and she is excited about food again. I’m still getting over my bug. I have The Barf Cough and body aches, so I apologize for not blogging as much! I also planned to have some fun shop updates for Valentine’s Day, but my productivity has been severely hindered the past week by all of the above! Such is real life! Stay tuned!

I was googling images of Circus Animal Cookies for research (pattern for brooches coming soon in a fun new book I contributed to!), and I ran into a photo of Circus Animal Cookie Rice Krispy Treats! Two great things that go great together!!! Manda’s bday was last weekend, and we went on a short road trip with my cousin and his bestie to L.A. and San Diego, so I made these the night before as bday road snacks! I think I pressed mine into the pan too vigorously, so I squished everything down super compactly.  I have no idea why I did this. Anyway, don’t do that. I think the trick with these is that you need to add the cookies in before the cereal mixture gets too cold and stiff, but if you add them too quickly, then all the frosting will melt off the cookies and you’ll just have a big sticky pink mess (which is not the end of the world, I suppose!). I looked around for recipes and used this one from the Domestic Rebel. I wanted to try out her secret ingredient: 1/4 cup of dry sugar cookie mix in the melted marshmallows! I’ll admit I may not have the most sophisticated palette, so I didn’t feel like the sugar cookie mix added a lot, so if I made these again, I’d probably leave that part out. This is a super quick and dirty project with a highly festive pay off!  It’s not one for the health nuts, but I was never one of those, so here’s to adding more sugar and carbs into our sugar and carbs!            

When you guys left me recipes during my November blog giveaway, one caught my eye in particular because it contained TWO INGREDIENTS. Dear Renee: Thank you!!!! All you need is one box of yellow cake mix and one can of pumpkin. I did tempt fate by adding a few things, like, cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, and ground cloves, but you can do whatever the heck you want! Just dump all two of your ingredients into a big bowl and stir it up. Follow the directions on your cake mix for baking. “YOU’RE DONE, SON,” (as Manda would say). The texture is light, fluffy, and smooth, very cake-like. I kind of craved frosting with it, like chocolate, or cream cheese. I have no idea if anybody else liked them. Odds are: low. But whatever. I HAD FUN. p.s. I brought these to Thanksgiving, and I have to admit, I still have problems with proper bake time in my oven. The quoted bake time is NEVER enough, and then I just have to wing it from there! This first batch turned out a bit under-baked and sticky, so, yeah, just avoid that when you make them…..

Hi Gang!!! It’s the 15th of the month, so it’s time to launch a new blog sponsor giveaway! Thanks so much to my generous sponsors for offering us these wonderful goodies! One lucky winner will receive: 1. Twinkie Chan EXCLUSIVE 4 pack of RockerByeBaby‘s “Dirty Girl” Un-paper Towels in imported Japanese fabrics and a button. “Feeling Dirty? No problem – I have the perfect thing for you, girl… I use a waffle weave unbleached muslin for the backs of the Dirty Girl UnPaper Towels. I double-serge all the edges for long life & durability. They’re safe for all surfaces, nice and absorbent for drying spills  and textured for scrubbing counters when wet.”  2. A PINK scented cotton candy necklace from Fatally Feminine. A whimsical and unique necklace handmade from polymer clay. This tiny carnival treat is so realistic and cute. It even smells like the popular fragrance “Pink Sugar”! Comes on an 18″ silver plated chain. 3. Cute and unique cupcake headband by Messy Pink. It’s made of sequins and has little heart gems. This is hand-made and each of the sequins is sewn on by hand. 4. Shhhh, don’t wake her she’s sleeping. This plush kitty with her beautiful long white fur does not require feeding and has no need of a litter box…the ideal apartment pet :). From Scrumptious Delight. 5. The strawberry short cake cameo was made by Glamasaurus using some beautiful fabric. Each  is securely attached to a beautiful brass locket.  The locket is accented with a bow and hung from and 18 inch 45.5mm chain. 6. A 20€ ($27) gift certificate to PetitsPixels Etsy shop, containing cute amigurumi, patterns, pins, magnets, and more! 7. Two months free ad space on Mermaidens – a nostalgic, candy-colored personal style and DIY blog by Kailey. 8. Adorable banana plush by ClaireyLouCreations. 9. A “You’re Awesome” Card and a set of 5 buttons by Quiet Tiger. 10. Three all-satin bows from Doll.jpg! Each bow is about 6 x 4 inches and all are backed with french barrettes. Each one is handmade and can be worn in many different ways! Just follow the Rafflecopter widget below for all of your chances to win! (p.s If you are new to Rafflecopter and think it’s weird, I just ran into this hand dandy guide.) Giveaway is open worldwide and will run for a week until next Wednesday night, January 23rd, at midnight PST. Good luck! P.S. Please make sure my email address can get through your spam filters! twinkie@twinkiechan.com a Rafflecopter giveaway