Author: TwinkieChan

Check out the neat stop-motion promo video my buddy Justin made, starring: a corn dog pen cozy!!! It’s a cautionary tale about why you shouldn’t leave your corn dog pen cozy unattended….  Music by my always-favorite Twink, the Toy Piano Band. Can’t wait to debut these little guys at Renegade Craft Fair this weekend!

  Bay Area friends: Don’t forget to come visit me in my booth this weekend at Renegade Craft Fair, SF! 11am – 7pm at Fort Mason. The first 10 people to spend over $50 will get a special, crocheted, goldfish prize (to go with the carnival theme!).

There’s all this stuff I want to photograph and also blog about (like when Manda and I went to see NKOTB!), but I am full-on freaking out about prepping for Renegade, so for now, here’s a sneak peek at one of the patches I drew and am having made for my slushee drawstring bags! I made extras to sell separately, cuz I think I would just want this on my jacket!   This is just a digital proof that was emailed to me. I haven’t seen any of the 4 designs in person yet, and I hope they really are in fact COOL!  

Oh my jeez! I’m so happy to finally be able to show you guys the fun photos we took at Cafe 50’s in LA! I’m usually in the habit of being lazy and just using myself to model my items, so it was fun and different to watch other people do it! Thanks so much to Irene Yuen, our photographer,  Jessi Jae Joplin and Zilla 308, our adorable & cheerful models, and also the wonderful staff at Cafe 50’s who let us run around the place for a few hours! I was worried we would bug the people eating there, but I think generally people were curious and thought the girls were in a band! I am actually on the look-out for Yummy You! models in the SF Bay Area for local shoots of upcoming products. If you are interested and able to get yourself to places from San Francisco to San Jose, depending on shoot locations, please drop me a line with a link to your portfolio!

  Here’s a few shots of my current mani!! I was trying to have more control over my polka dots, and I think I am sorta getting better at them   Sorry about my really dry hands and horrible cuticles! I keep hand lotion everywhere and in my purse, too, but nothing really seems to help that much. I should try cuticle oil or rubbing Vitamin E on them or something, but…yeah, I’m probably not prioritizing that right now! Countdown to Renegade Craft Fair! EEEP!

Here’s another sneak peek at something new I’ll have at my booth at Renegade Craft Fair, San Francisco, July 27-28, in Fort Mason! These are going to be pins/brooches, and I’m gonna try suspending them in real pet-fish plastic baggies. I’ll be giving away 10 fishies to the first 10 customers who spend over $50.00. Or something like that. We’ll see!  

I actually posted to I Eat Yucky Stuff today! Get a load of this Korean mugwort sandwich pastry! He reminded me a lot of the moldy bread plush by My Paper Crane, which was admittedly a huge factor in my purchase. Here’s me eating it and also talking a lot about mugwort, which is something that probably neither me nor you expected today.   I think this was a really good activity to pair with the fact that I had my teeth cleaned at the dentist today. Prepping a squeaky clean canvas for my mugwort adventures! Chomp chomp!

Our 4th of July was pretty mellow and food-oriented. We had a couple friends over, and Hairy got to try out his new meat thermometer. (WordPress seems to not want to load up any more photos right now…doh!) Of note: our friend Bella made this amazing cornbreadpuddingcasserole that of course I didn’t get a picture of, but it was soooooo delightful. I ate it for breakfast today, too! At night, we stayed in and watched television. I didn’t think our dogs were afraid of fireworks, but Bibi was really antsy and cried a lot, so I’m glad we were home. At least our dogs aren’t as crazy as my parents’ dogs. One of those guys poops or barfs in the dining room every year! Hopefully I will have some fun photos after this weekend. Tomorrow, we are all going canoeing (I am not an outdoors or watersports or be-outside person, so we’ll see how that goes), and then on Sunday, Manda and I have a girldate to the Package Tour, which includes Boyz II Men, 98 Degrees, and NKOTB. I was never actually into any of those groups, but I think it’s too funny to pass up! Gosh, what should I wear?!  

  Happy Fourth of July!!! We’re celebrating with food, friends, and a 15% off sale at YummyYou.com from July 4 – July 7! Just use discount code: PICNIC. Do you have a favorite 4th of July treat? This sounds really boring, but, I REALLY LOVE CORN!

So, right now, I’m trying to be in full Renegade-Craft-Fair mode. There are of course other things I have to do, like deliver a new Michaels.com pattern in 2 weeks, and also make samples for Yummy You! and work on Yummy You! promo stuff and new products, but I’m really really TRYING to be in Renegade-Craft-Fair mode, cuz it’s less than a month away!! PANIC TIME!!! I just finished the patterns for these Corn Dog Pen Cozies. It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to portray the one with the bite taken out of it. I’m not fully convinced that people will know exactly what is going on there, but Hairy assures me it looks like what it’s supposed to look like! And they are getting a pretty good reception on Instagram. If you don’t follow me on there, just know that I post a bunch of stuff there that I never really re-post anywhere else, except, of course, for right here and right now, with these corn dogs…. anyway. I’m trying to debut a bunch of new designs at Renegade, so, I better get back to doing just that!  

If you know me, you know I have a deep relationship with triple scoop ice creams! 😉 In this free crochet pattern for Michaels.com, I was asked to create a summery project using Red Heart Gumdrop! And then the Rainbow Sherbet Throw Pillow was born! Edit, June 4, 2014: Please find the pattern here on my blog. Michaels.com is currently re-vamping their pattern/project section, and the above Michaels.com link is disabled for now. I already had the mint green Gumdrop (Smoothie) and was thrilled to find a project for it! The really fun part of this pattern is the mix and match aspect. You can make one scoop, two scoops, or three scoops, (or even 50 scoops if you are really adventurous) and you can use all your favorite colors and flavors… even on the cone! I’m starting to make a vanilla scoop with a hot pink cone :). I’ll also be writing the pattern for a soft-serve top and a sugar cone bottom for the ultimate mix n match ice cream throw pillow party! P.S. Here is the fix for Row 31 of the Sherbet Scoop! Row 31: (RS) Ch 1, turn. 1 sc, [1 hdc, 1 dc, 1 htr, 2 tr each in next 5 sts, 1 htr, 1 dc, 1 hdc, 5 sc] 5 times. 1 hdc, 1 dc, 1 htr, 2 tr in next 5 sts, 1 htr, 1 dc, 1 hdc, 1 sc each in last 2 sts. Break off Cherry. (124)

Happy Monday! New free crochet pattern! Michaels.com asked me to use one of their new yarns, Loops & Threads Impeccable Brights, with a “Poolside” theme, so I designed this slushee-themed draw string bag to pop your essentials in while you cool off in the water! Yeah, that’s a real straw! Edit, June 4, 2014: Please find the pattern here on my blog. Michaels.com is currently re-vamping their pattern/project section, and the above Michaels.com link is disabled for now. To re-inforce the shape of this bag, I re-used a 32 oz. takeout soup container, like this one. I have also seen 32 oz. containers at Target. The bag will still hold its shape pretty well without a container inside as long as you don’t go putting 50 pounds of stuff in there! Have so much fun with this pattern! I plan to make them in 3 different flavors for Renegade Craft Fair SF next month!

Sara from SoulCandyCrochet (the jar cozies pictured are hers) asked if I had any advice about finding a signature style for her crafting and her shop. In various q&a’s, I talk a lot about how I think it’s super important to have your own voice, so your work can stand out, but how do you find and cultivate that voice? Sara has a pretty clear idea about her work’s manifesto/philosophy, but she is uncertain about how to develop that into something tangible and physical in her crochet pieces. I think there are probably blogs and books about this very topic, and there are probably like “10 Steps to Blahblahblah” exercises that may or may not be helpful. I don’t fancy myself a small business guru, and I don’t pretend to have all the secrets to success, but I’m certainly open to sharing my story and some stuff I’ve learned along the way! For some people, finding your signature art/craft style is organic, and you just kinda do what you do, and it’s kinda different and out there, and people notice it, and you get featured on Etsy or Huff Post or Make:Craft blog or what have you. For others, there may be a creative urge and an artistic talent, but figuring out where you stand in the world needs more strategy or intention. For me, I think there was sort of a mix between organic and intentional. The women in my family always encouraged us to be creative and “go home and make it” (you may have heard me quote this before!). What I found myself doing was not necessarily making things I wanted to buy, but making things I wanted to HAVE and was not able to find in stores, whether they were presents for other people or just presents for myself. When I worked in an office, my boss always encouraged me to open up my own shop for handmade goods, but I always knew in the back of my mind, that my crafting was all over the place – real cereal picture frames, personalized pillow cases, funky Dr. Seussian hats, handpainted rocks – and that I wanted to have  a more refined concept before thinking I could sell anything to a complete stranger. So crafting had been in my blood for years, on a casual level, usually as a way to give unusual and memorable gifts to people. But the intentional part came from working in publishing and learning about branding (authors). I had learned that it was important to represent something specific and something unique, in order to appear like a sellable commodity, and since I hadn’t figured that out yet, I didn’t feel ready to put anything out into the world. In my “about” page and various bios, I talk about how moving to San Francisco inspired me to make myself some scarves. This is 100% true. I started making scarves for myself because the evenings here are chilly, but I wanted to wear something […]

When the flowers start blooming in my back yard (the weeds, that is), I start feeling like I ought to make more of an intentional effort to beautify my garden. The thing is, I know myself, and I know that I don’t put in the time to take care of anything out there. I’m like the goldfish-mama who will birth the babies and then completely ignore them and maybe even EAT them. So I planted some stuff in the backyard, but the big experiment right now is my front porch. My mom bought me this tall, black planter to put plant-stuff in, and I have tried all sort of plants in it, and they ALWAYS die! Potted flowers: dead. Topiary bushes: dead. I call this phenomenon, The Curse. All green things are cursed on the porch! In my backyard, I have this generic ready-made pot of succulents that I bought at Home Depot last year. I don’t water it or anything, and it looks just as perfect as the day I bought it. I almost wonder if it’s fake. Succulents/cacti seem super trendy right now, and I’m one of those angry people who try to steer away from what’s trendy, but if succulents are what survive in my yard, I’m gonna go with that. So I selected a bunch of them and potted them and put them in the Tall Black Planter of Doom, and I’m crossing my fingers. The thing is, I don’t know that they really make the visual statement I would prefer! But I’m going to hold off on adding anything else right now. I want to see if these new guys survive The Curse…

Do ya like to bake? Do ya like professional wrestling!? Bake and Destroy has got the contest for YOU! Sugar Slam IV: Ready to Crumble is here! check out this page for deadlines and contest rules! You have until August 31st! Yummy You! is excited to be a prize sponsor!  

Just in time for 4th of July! Check out my crochet pattern for Rocket Pop Brooches/Hairclips here in my Etsy shop!

Head on over to one of my most favoritest bloggers, AgentLover, and enter her giveaway! One lucky winner gets to go home with a Yummy You! x Sanrio Character-Cupcake scarf! Woohoo! Sorry for the radio silence! I was in Las Vegas this week for the big Licensing Expo. I don’t think we were really supposed to take photos inside there (although everyone was taking photos with the mascots running around, like the Power Rangers, The ICEE Slush Puppy, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and some random guys I didn’t recognize!), but it’s really cool to see the booth designs for big companies like Nickelodeon, My Little Pony, Sesame Street, stuff like that!

It’s gonna be Betty Turbo week at The Drawing Board in Corvallis, OR, from June 17 to June 22, and I made two tiny (4 in x 4 in) crochet paintings for the Awesome Tiny Art Show with a reception on Friday, June 21, from 6:00pm – 8:30pm. It’s summertime, and that means, ice cream time!   I kind of have a crush on those little cherries!!! You might recognize them as game pieces from Hi Ho Cherry-o :P.

Last weekend, we headed down to LA to celebrate JapanLA’s 7th Bday, the launch of JapanLA Clothing’s Kitty Party line, and also to take Manda to Disneyland for her graduation! On our drive back home, we stopped by the Skirball Cultural Center to check out Gary Baseman‘s show “The Door is Always Open.” I’d seen a bunch of my LA friends post pics of the opening night on Instagram, plus when we had dinner with Onch and lunch with Amy on our trip, they both gave it a ringing endorsement! On the walk to the exhibition, there were big cut-outs of some of his characters.

You. Guys. You guys you guys you guys. You have to check out the Fab.com sale happening right now from Japanese brand Gladee. The sale ends in 6 days!!! Here are some of my favs from the Gladee site. Not all of these are available on Fab, but Fab definitely still has a great selection! So, note to friends and family: you can’t go wrong if you wanna buy me a Gladee present….! 😛

My Round Ups aren’t usually themed, but I started noticing there were kind of a lot of creatures and animals on my list! Chibi Owling gadget case by TomoIsland on Etsy. I am in heart with this little owl baby! TomoIsland also has tons of other cute stuff, like shoulder bags! Crochet Llama phone cozy by CuteMoonBunny on Etsy. I have almost bought this several times because he is so cute and pink and delicious! Of course, since it’s crocheted, I always tell myself I can make my own just for me, but…. who has time, right? Pastel Kittens printable garland by Mel Stringer. Don’t you have artist-crushes sometimes? I am definitely crushin’ on Mel Stringer! This men’s Workaholics Bear Coat from 80sTees is totally blowing my mind. I have never watched the show, but this coat is so pimp! Eager Achiever beaver bag on ModCloth. Amigurumi Seedlings by hellohappy on Etsy. I just love the idea that these are the little guys that are growing under your plant! And here’s a video Hairy sent me today with a bunch of local mascots in Japan dancing.

Hello, Italian friends and Italian-reading friends! I am in the latest issue of Cucito e Ricamo Magazine, a cute crafty mag available for you in the app store for iPhone/iPad. Just search for “Cucito e Ricamo” and you’ll find the “Casa Creativa” app. The app is free, and then you can decide which magazines you want to purchase. I also found this link to make a purchase, but I don’t know if they send you a PDF, or if it’s still app-related. I can’t read the instructions :P. The magazine looks really cute, though, and there’s 4 pages of Q&A in there with me!    

Wow, today’s post is like a triple whammy!!!! 1) Free crochet pattern 2) Experimenting with a new fabric glue 3) Pimping out 2 cool Etsy shops. Let’s go! So if you couldn’t tell from the blog title, today’s post is all inspired by LAVERNE & SHIRLEY. The younguns may not remember this, but us olduns do! It’s the funniest, goofiest, BFF  TV show! Joy from Lucky Cupcake Hair Clips sent me this amazing Laverne & Shirley hair bow, and I scrambled to think of what outfit I could put together to do it any amount of justice. I don’t have a lot of Laverne-y pieces in my closet (YET), so I sort of improvised … by making my own Laverne-inspired cardigan! To create the “L” for my Laverne cardigan, I used Norma Lynn’s “Love in Cursive” crochet pattern for inspiration. You should grab her pattern to spell out the whole word! Here’s what I busted out for the Laverne “L” : ch 71, sk 1st ch, 2 sc, (2 sc), 10 sc, (2 sc), 2 sc, (2 sc), 2 sc, (2 sc), 18 sc, sc3tog, 2 sc, sc3tog, 2 sc, sc3tog, 2 sc, sc3tog, 10 sc, (2 sc), 3 sc. Then, I experimented with Surebonder Fabric Stix: hot glue for fabric! That’s flexible! And washable! I can’t vouch yet for how it washes. Only time will tell. I was just excited to try this out. It kinda stinks that it’s white and not clear, but for this project, it was fine. It also, kind of literally stinks. It’s a bit smellier than regular hot glue, so you might want to pop open a window if you’re afraid of chemical smells. It’s no way near as bad as E6000, though. Ultimately, I think that hot fabric glue is an easy solution for some quick embellishments, but since it’s GLUE, it is kinda bulky and not as delicate as hand-sewing. Here’s an action-packed video I made while using the Fabric Stix for the first time! I would say that it is certainly a quick n convenient way to glue stuff to other stuff, but I felt like I was being too messy with it, and it was kinda stringy, and……..it’s WHITE. So, there are some definite down sounds to working with it. I’m interested in how it would hold up to gluing bows to jeans and stuff like that. More experimentation later!

I hope you guys get to have fun adventures this weekend! Last weekend, Hairy and I drove down to Big Sur. Big Sur is neat cuz it’s like a bunch of different environments all smashed together…. grassland, forest, and beach. I am not really a nature/camping kinda gal, because I hate sweating, bugs, and getting dirty, but I’m game to hang out in nature for an hour or two. I made a video of our journey, so you can come with us on our hike! So this is basically the outfit I consider my sporty/hiking outfit. I tried on a bunch of my shorts, and it’s like … my thighs are SO JUICY that they don’t really fit in any shorts!? WTH? Where do juicy gals buy their shorts?! These red ones are from Victoria’s Secret. My very sporty muscle shirt is from Urban Outfitters. I told Hairy that in this outfit, nobody would invite me deer-hunting, which, is a good thing anyway.  Pfeiffer Beach is really beautiful, but if you watch the video, you will see why the sign says, “VERY WINDY. NO REFUNDS.” Ok, bye! Go somewhere outside this weekend and smell some fresh air and inhale some tiny bugs and stuff. Love you guys!