Author: TwinkieChan

SHOP SHOP SHOP! SALE SALE SALE! I think I got everything into the shop! Anything on sale is marked “sale.” 😉 New items include the Burger Scarf and also Cupcake Brooches. Past favorites include a few more marshmallow charm headbands, ice cream scoop hair clips, cupcake mitts, and strawberry rings….and a bunch of other stuff!

I had dinner with my family tonight so that I could take a picture with my little brother. He just dyed his hair for a Sharks’ game, and when he texted a photo, I told him we HAD to take a picture together before his hair faded out. I don’t think he’s bleached or dyed his hair since he was in high school, and I was the one bleaching and dyeing his hair (poorly, I might add!). He and I are really different, and he’s much more of a grown-up than I am, even though I’m 6 years older. I always thought he was funny and cool, though, and when I wrote up a “Perfect Boyfriend” quiz when I was 18, one of the questions on the list was, “Do you think my brother is cool?!” because I didn’t want to date anyone who thought they were too cool to hang with my lil bro! When we were little, he was the hellion who ripped out handfuls of my hair, hid the heads of my Barbie dolls, and screamed his head off in public places. He deserved any and all torture I may have exacted upon him! I was always afraid that when he grew to be bigger than me, he would exact some crazy revenge. Luckily, he turned out to be a nice guy! p.s. I’m still editing photos for the Etsy update, which will hopefully be late tonight or some time tomorrow. I took them in the middle of the night in my craft room, so all the lighting is really funky, but I wanted to get the photos done ASAP! Stay tuned!

You guys. I have too much yarn. It’s official. I need to do major yarn yard sale!!!   Sorry for the delay in re-opening and updating my Etsy shop. I had to take some time to make my yarn wall look more organized. My licensing team for Yummy You! wanted me to shoot a photo in front of my yarn wall for a poster they are printing for a licensing show, and my skills + my camera = no good for a 3 ft. x 5 ft poster. So I hired a local photog via  referral from my hair stylist, and she is coming over tomorrow to take pics! So I’m cleaning like crazy!!! You can’t imagine what a disaster all my craft stuff was after prepping for Bust Craftacular. I think I’m almost done picking up, though. I’ll do before and after pics later, but here are some quick snaps from my Instagram!  

We’re home! We had so much fun in NYC. The weather was beautiful and perfect. There is never enough time to do everything or eat everything! We went to Times Square, up to the tippy top of the Empire State Building, got lost in the subway for 2 hours, ate hot dogs at Katz’s Deli, got cereal-milk milkshakes from Momofuku Milk Bar, went fabric shopping at Mood, t-shirt shopping in Soho, stayed in an apartment in the East Village, strolled through Central Park, ate pizza at Lombardi’s, hung out with different friends every day, but there were still so many things left on the list to do. Next time, next time! I need to get photos and video from Manda for a full NYC post, but here are some teaser photos of the Bust Craftacular off my iPhone. It’s always hard to predict what might sell at any given craft fair, but overall, it was a really good day. The new Square app for the iPad is super awesome. I want to make a video clip just of that to show you guys. We logged in all our items beforehand, and when people made purchases, all we had to do was touch photos of items, and prices would be totaled automatically. Gotta love technology! Here we are in the cab on the way to the venue. I am perfecting my anti-smise: smile with your mouth and not your eyes. Here are some shots of the booth before the show started. (The apple juice bottle is not part of the display… hehe… they were giving out fuji apple juice and it was really yummy!) Here was a fun surprise! A gal walked up to me and said, “I have something for you to sign.” I thought it was going to be a book. It turned out to be my crochet painting from JapanLa’s “Kittens & Ice Cream” show! That was really cool! A few weeks ago on Twitter, I randomly wondered who, out in the universe, owned the one and only hot dog hand bag I made and sold on eBay, back when I was selling exclusively on eBay. Lo and behold, the hot dog hand bag -owner messaged me back and said she would see me in NY! She drove 4 hours from another state to say hi! So awesome! Another HUGE surprise was a visit from Jenny Harada! Queen of the monsters! It was the first time I’d ever met her in person, and she is so cute and sweet and funny, just the way I’d always imagined. So Manda disappeared for a while, later in the day, saying she was going to buy something from a booth that was selling charms. She bought some prezzies and also came back with a prezzie for moi! She had them engrave “bff” on the round charm. We hadn’t really eaten much the whole day, and I saw someone come by my booth eating what looked like a miniature ice cream scoop […]

Hope you guys had a fun Easter! Sorry I didn’t get a chance to make an Easter update in the shop this year. I have been completely overwhelmed with prepping for Bust Craftacular! We leave for NYC on Wednesday night! If you are in NY, please come out and say hello at our little booth on Saturday. It’s one day only! These are just some quick images from my Instagram account (twinkiechan). I still have so much to do!!! You can see in the lower right corner the whiteboard I use to keep my crochet elves organized. I am so thankful for them everyday and could not do any of this without them. I can’t wait to come back from NY!! I’ll have a big sale with leftovers in the Etsy shop, and I have some fun free-patterns to post for you guys, plus, a giveaway which I might run while I’m gone!

My craft room today is an explosion of yarn and supplies and partially finished projects for Bust Craftacular. I can’t believe it’s coming up so quickly! I’m kinda freaking out because not only do I have to make sure to complete enough stock for the table and get everything tagged and labeled, but I also need to figure out again how to travel with my set-up and fit it into suitcases. The biggest challenge is a portable rack to display scarves. When we traveled for Austin Renegade, I was lucky to have my crochet elf Rita in town, and she picked up a laundry rack for me! We were thinking of maybe just running to a Target while in NYC and buying something to build and then just leave there. We’ll see! Hopefully more of that planning will happen later this week! I’d like my display to all be cohesive and cute and make sense, but the traveling/suitcase bit is something I have yet to figure out.

I thought it might be fun/useful/interesting if I blogged about new yarn brands/lines I buy and try. I don’t branch out that often, and I have my old stand-bys, so we might as well share info and thoughts together! I recently purchased some Brava (worsted and bulky) from Knit Picks. I’ve been on the lookout lately for a good replacement for the LionBrand Homespun in pastel colors that have been discontinued, as it was my favorite for the cupcake scarf. For now, I’m pretty mentally committed to Cascade 128 Superwash as a replacement, which is merino wool and chunky, but I’m bummed the pink isn’t QUITE perfect, and there isn’t really a mint green, just a lime green. I also want to see if I can find something cheaper, as Cascade 128 is about $14/skein. Brava Bulky comes in a nice array of cheery, saturated colors and is 100% acrylic. Brava also comes in worsted and sport weight, for a wide range of projects. Here are the balls I bought: Colors: Tranquil, Rouge, Canary, Sienna. Tranquil and Rouge are beautiful, but I think a couple shades darker than I would prefer for cupcake frosting colors. Canary is rich and beautiful, more yolky than neon, and Sienna is nice and chocolatey. These are beautiful, soft yarns, at $2.99/ball. For projects where you want rich color, I really recommend Brava! p.s. if you have any more suggestions for what to call these yarn posts…let me know! 😉

“Please join us for evening of companionship and good conversation, with the finest crisp poultry catered by the famous Chef sanders… I believe he is a also Colonel. A night to be savored!” When Manda was interning at my house on Wednesday, we were discussing eating dinner with some friends, but since I am house-sitting/dog-sitting, it seemed easier to just convene at the house for dinner. Suddenly, we found ourselves googling pictures of Colonel Sanders and fancy dinner settings. Suddenly, we were throwing a KFC party, and I wanted to make everyone a Colonel Sanders tie. Here’s Manda chugging the MegaJug which also had its own handle. The Gravy Hand-Off. Portraits with The Colonel. While we were eating, I remarked that this blog entry was going to be My Most Shameful. So while I don’t condone stuffing your face with horrible junk food, I do condone having fun, themed dinners, and DIY’ing little matching accessories.I think I’ve known everyone in these photos for over 10 years (Hairy being the exception). I’m so happy we all still get together to be silly.p.s. I recorded us ordering our food, but it didn’t turn out that funny. Here it is anyway in case you’re really bored right now: Manda and Twinkie at the Drive Thru by twinkiechan

I popped out two of these little guys in a little over 24 hours. My parents are visiting family, so my mom asked me to make two cupcake scarves for two of my little girl cousins (my cousins’ kids… 1st cousins? I have no idea) before she left for her trip. I made each scarf 10 cupcakes long (vs. 16-17 cupcakes long which is the usual length for an adult scarf). Kelly-Anne graciously helped me out with finding a good scarf length for a 3 year old, since she has one! They turned out super small and cute!

On Monday, I was the Featured Entrepreneur at Launch.Grow.Joy , a cool website for entrepreneurs who want to read other business-owners’ stories and learn neat tips about how to improve your product-based business. Honestly, at first I thought the site was going to be stuffy and business-y and not for me, but I really like the site and already learned a thing or two! Please do check it out!

Happy Monday! It’s Crochet Month over at U.K. crafty blog The Making Spot who kindly asked me to offer some stories and inspiration. I try to think of new and different anecdotes for you guys in various interviews, so check out The Making Spot to find out what an Onion Head is 😛 P.S. to complete your visual while reading, Boxburg was made out of a bunch of recycled refrigerator boxes that all the kids painted and decorated by themselves. I believe mine was sky blue with painted grass on the bottom and a white fence! I don’t remember what all the boxes/businesses looked like, but I do remember that one of the most popular ones was a video arcade, where one boy brought in some sort of video game system (this was the 80s) and all the boys huddled in this tiny box! I also remember my friend Jeanette’s business, which was a beauty salon. She painted my nails and we gossiped! It was super fun but was also meant to be educational, as we also learned about capital, taxes, gross profit, net profit. Pretty cool, right? Wish I had a picture!

I decided to apply for and vend at Bust Magazine’s Craftacular and Food Fair! It will only be my 2nd time traveling for a craft fair, so I hope everything goes smoothly! I’m bringing Manda as my assistant, since she’s never been to NYC before. Should be a blast. Mark your calendars and please come say hi! 😉

I added a few more BFF Bracelet Bunches to the shop tonight 🙂 . P.S. Sorry for any weird glitches on my blog last weekend! My site was hacked, but I think we fixed it!

I updated THE SHOP with single lucky clover hair clips/brooches as well as the full pastel rainbow marshmallow head bands! There are only 4 right now because I’m a dumdum and forgot to order more of the bands themselves. DOH! Just put in the order now 😛 So snag these 4 while you can! xo

Last Saturday, Manda and I had a shopping day for my office/craft room. It was exploding and needed some TLC. Manda is SUPER into organizing stuff, so I took advantage of her OCD for my own benefit! While flitting from place to place, we also stopped by the BlaBlaBooth in the mall. Not only is it a photobooth, but it also records video of you! I had no idea it also recorded SOUND! But the sound isn’t very good and we aren’t saying much. P.s. On this day, we decided to both wear overalls…and for some reason it made me think that other people thought we worked as clowns for parties or something….!

Sooo one of the secret projects I worked on a little bit ago was for my friends Nara and Liz (Miss Kika). They just got engaged! Nara did a ton of careful planning to make their special day super duper extra specialtacular. He asked me to turn his engagement ring box into a cupcake. Fun, right?? And he also asked all their friends to contribute small video clips to be shown to Liz as part of the whole thing. It’s super sweet. You can’t miss this. Check out the most awesome engagement video ever! Here’s some poorly lit photos of the cupcake I made! There’s stuffing on the top for extra poofiness. Even if you are not about to propose to somebody, I think that making cozies for your ring boxes is a cool way to use them as display pieces and sweeten up your jewelry or makeup tables! I intend to make more in a few varieties and take more inspiration photos for you guys :). Right now, I am at my parents’ house, stealing ring boxes from my mom, since any rings I buy don’t usually come in a fancy box 😛 p.s. OH YEAH! Here is the sketch that Nara sent me as a reference!

Okay, so I crochet food-themed stuff, but upon rare occasion, I’ll do something a little different because I enjoy the challenge. One of my customers (I dunno if you wanna be anonymous or if you want me to link your blog or tumblr!), asked if an R2D2 coffee cup cozy would be possible. She asked me this months and months ago, and I sketched a few ideas, but never had time to execute them. Until now! I think he came out pretty cool! I used acrylic yarn, a small red button, a silver eyelet, and a safety eye with the post snapped off. He’s washable and totally usable! This is a one-off project, and I won’t be making more. If you want to try to crochet your own R2 cozy, find a basic pattern for a coffee cup cozy, make a semi-circle for his head, and the legs… well, okay, I’ll give ya the pattern I threw together behind the cut ;). I apologize in advance if there are any errors. Nobody has tested the pattern yet!

Last night, I switched to the iPhone4s. I had the phone for a while, but I wanted to get a case for it before activating it. I am still looking for the perfect case, but in the meantime, I’m using this thing that I made on Zazzle.com. Do you guys use songs for ringtones? Mine has been the Wayne’s World theme song for a long time, and I’m feeling like a new one is in order!

I’m getting ready for a Yummy You! meeting in North Carolina. I’m leaving Monday morning and coming back Thursday evening! I’ve been prepping a bunch of different things to help facilitate the brainstorming seshes, and I thought I’d share these collages I created to start putting together color stories and to just set an overall FOOD MOOD.

I’m sponsoring an awesome giveaway right now on Michael Shirley’s blog for all you Tumblr lovers! All you need to do is follow both of us on Tumblr and then reblog the giveaway post to enter! I’ll copy/paste the info below. Remember, leaving a comment here on my blog will not enter you in the giveaway. All of this giveaway is done via Tumblr! 🙂 *** This month’s IHATEMICHAELSHIRLEY.COM Giveaway is sponsored by Twinkie Chan! This is an INTERNATIONAL CONTEST, so anyone-anywhere can win. There are also 3 prizes, so that means 3 winners! Here is what we are giving away: PEPPERONI PIZZA SCARF ($140 value) TWINKIE CHAN’S CROCHET GOODIES FOR FASHION FOODIES PATTERN BOOK ($15 value) FOODIE FRIDGE 1” PINBACK BUTTON SET ($10 value) ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝ TO ENTER TO WIN, reblog this post & follow: ihatemichaelshirley.tumblr.com & http://twinkiechan.tumblr.com You MUST BE FOLLOWING BOTH TUMBLR BLOGS. If you don’t follow both, you will be automatically disqualified!!! Reblog as many times as you like. Each reblog counts as one entry. NO LIKES. All names will be put in a random name generator to pick the winners. CONTEST ENDS ON FEBRUARY 28th, 2011 AT 11:59 PM (PST) The 3 winners will be messaged simultaneously on the 29th via the winners’ Tumblr “ask” box messaging system (your ask box MUST be enabled so we can contact you), and each winner will receive a prize, distributed on a first-claimed-first-served basis. GOOD LUCK! x x x x

So for the past few days, I have been battling a cold! This is a bummer because not only do I feel like crap, but I am also really unproductive, which makes me feel crappier!! It started off with a sore throat, which I got rid of in about 24 hours. Then I had one healthy-ish day, and then all heck broke loose and now I have the cough from Hades, the one kind of cough I always dread, this kind of cough I get where coughs are triggered by a sensation at the back of my throat kind of like a coarse hair poking me, or like, the rough side of the Velcro, or a pin prick. If it’s persistent, I get caught in a very embarrassing cycle of coughing, choking, gagging, heaving, crying, and snotting. Needless to say, I have not been leaving the house, except, tonight, I had to go out and buy cough meds, since my all day course of hot water, lemon, apple cider vinegar, honey, and cayenne pepper, weren’t really helping, even though I’ve gone pee like a million times. Anyway, I know you are like, “Just go to the doctor!” Well, the last time I went to the doctor, he told me that the hairy sensation was the little hairs on the back of my throat growing back from being coughed away. It sounded like a big bunch of hooey to me, and he sent me home with codeine cough syrup that didn’t do anything at all. So that’s why I gave the hot water, lemon, etc stuff a try today. Usually, over the counter stuff doesn’t do anything for me either, at least as far as getting some sleep. I’ve also resorted to window-shipping therapy, and maybe some actual purchases : /. Let’s look at some fun shoes! The first three pair are from ModCloth and the rest are from YesStyle.

Remember when I posted the sketch for my mom’s crochet painting? Here’s the finished piece! It came out a bit differently than I thought, but still cute, if I do say so myself! They are supposed to be little steamed buns or dumplings: bao bao! BaoBao is also my mom’s dog’s name. I hadn’t really planned on stuffing the dumplings/buns, but it just sort of happened. I had no idea how I wanted to execute the bamboo steamer when I first sketched it, and that proved to be kind of the most challenging part. In related news, I was super duper happy that my Galactic Donuts sold last week! It’s the first crochet painting I’ve ever gotten money for! I actually have a new one coming up very very very soon. It was supposed to be for Valentine’s Day, but I didn’t have time to finish it. I am still knee-deep in all my bookkeeping and tax prep for 2011. Let’s not talk about that! 😛

Last weekend, Hairy and I drove to L.A. to celebrate with our friends Cuppy and Moofs. We were very honored to be invited to their magical wedding day (even though we were late because we went to the wrong building first… typical!). What’s even more magical is that I got to meet Lindsay of KidPirate and Sick for Cute! for the first time in real life after internets-knowing her for years! What’s even MORE magical is that a big ol’ bunch of us went to Disneyland together after the wedding! Plus we got to have brunchies with the happy honey-mooning couple before we drove home. Yummy foods + wonderful people = pretty much all one needs! Technology is pretty amazing. We get to find and correspond with people we’d probably never bump into in our normal lives. Getting to take a photo with Cuppy and Linds, together, AT THE SAME TIME, was definitely one for my personal history books! They are both sweet as pie, beautimous, and delightful!

I just added a few super sweet bracelet sets to my Etsy shop. I collaborated on them with my buddy Maddy! I asked her to make me a friendship bracelet some time last year, and then I fell in love with the idea of making bracelet sets with her that people could share with their friends, too! We didn’t plan out any color schemes or anything. She just sent me a box of adorable friendship bracelets, and all the sets just came together. Magic!