Author: TwinkieChan

Hi! I’m still in LA but trying to get an Etsy update going, too! 😀 I managed to upload some stuff while on my trip. Check out the shop now! I will be uploading a few more surprise treats hopefully on Monday :).

I’m excited to tell you about the collab I just launched with Michael Shirley of Doctor Couture in L.A.! We are offering a super cute crocheted chain-link neckwarmer that comes with a bonus 1.5 inch pin with our chain-link heart graphic on it, and we are also offering this super comfy sweatshirt in dark dark navy with our chain-link heart graphic on it. Everything is at a special introductory price right now, so act fast! And get comfy!!!!!!! SHOP SHOP! Perfect for Valentine’s Day if you are not so much into the cutesy pink explosion!!!! But if you ARE, I will be updating my Etsy with a cutesy pink explosion. I just need to hop down to L.A. for my friend Cuppy’s wedding (yay!) and I will try to update the shop as soon as possible! xoxo

I’m trying really hard to get you guys an Etsy upate for Feb 1/Wednesday. There’s so much I want to make and so little time! I think I will get some items up by Feb 1, and keep rolling out new fun things as they are finished!

I am sooooooo excited to tell you guys that I have many items for sale now at Kat Von D’s Wonderland Gallery in L.A., right next to her tattoo shop High Voltage. You can grab yourself some scarves, mitts, hats, brooches, hair clips, tons of stuff! Shop online or visit in person if you are in SoCal! You’ll even find the elusive Sushi Scarf there! There’s more in the shop than there is on the site. The story behind this is that I know Marya, the gallery director at Wonderland, from when she was the Photo Director at Inked Magazine and put me in the “Inked People” section a few years ago. She has always been super sweet and super supportive of my work, and she also came to my book reading in L.A. where we met for the first time! I asked if she could take some fun snaps of my goodies in the shop.   AAAAAAAAND in other fun news, RELATED news, oddly, you can now view my pin-up makeover with DeliciousDames!. So Annie, part of my former sales team for Yummy You! Clothing, asked me last year if I was interested in participating in some pin-up makeovers that her friend Revecka was doing for her website. I am always game for trying new things (even though being on video terrifies me as I hate watching myself and think I look like an alien!), so I said yes! As it turned out, Revecka’s husband Khoi was doing the filming that day, and he is also a tattoo artist at High Voltage. So Revecka and Marya actually know each other. Small world! I showed up to the makeover without doing my makeup or hair. Note: I am One of Those Girls who does not leave the house without eyeliner and eyebrows. No way no how. But usually when you show up to a photoshoot, you should do so with a clean face. I then learned we would be filming interviews “before” the makeover. Cue my panic!! I viewed this panic as part of the experience. A huge part of the Delicious Dames philosophy is embracing your own beauty and accepting all forms of beauty. This is a hard journey for many of us! But it was a really fun day after all. The Delicious Dames team is awesome, Revecka, stylist/art director/hostess, Jennifer Corona, MUAH, Shannon Brooke, photographer. They are all good friends, and you can really tell that they love each other and love what they do. p.s. For those wondering, yes, we had to stuff tissue paper into the 2nd outfit 😛

Remember when I blogged about going to Sweet Streets and meeting Tavuchi, the owner/designer of Spank? Justin emailed me the other day to let me know that Tavuchi had mentioned me on her blog. The little fangirl in me just about exploded. When I first met her in person, I told her I loved Spank and then ran away with shyness. I’m cool like that. (pic from Tavuchi’s blog)

Still gearin’ up for a Valentine’s Day store update! This year we’re not only make heart-shaped cookies, but also sets of x’s and o’s! At first I was going to sprinkle on pink, white, and red mini pom poms on everything, but then I wondered if I preferred the usual rainbow, and then I wondered if I preferred sugary bugle bead sprinkles!

I bumped into the most awesome website ever just now: THE CEREAL PROJECT. I LOVE CEREAL. I love it with milk. I love it without milk. I love it during the day. I love it at night. Cereal is the perfect food. Right now my favorites are Cap’n Crunch, Honeycomb, Honey Bunches of Oats with Peaches, Cocoa Puffs, Froot Loops, Corn Pops, Kix, ok I like a lot of them. Here is what The Cereal Project is all about: “The Cereal Project is an ongoing effort to document every breakfast cereal ever produced in the U.S. which has received a near-nationwide distribution. From Granula (not Granola), the first ready-to-eat breakfast cereal ever produced in 1863, to the cereals being introduced to grocery stores as we speak, the Cereal Project aims to present pictures and descriptions of EVERY breakfast cereal including old favorites and failures that have long since been discontinued. So far, we have tracked down over 1,375 different cereals.” Even the site has an awesome design: it looks like a cereal box! They offer cereal coupons and also fun stuff like old cereal commercials and make your own cereal box print-outs! Some cereals I always wish I could have eaten: Do you have some nostalgic cereal favs? I was thinking, if I had a cereal, it would be Choco Pup, where the cereal looks like Bibi’s face and tastes like cookies n cream. OR. Yummy YarnBall Crunch, with oversized cereal balls with a yarn ball texture. OR. Very Berry Basket, where the little cereals look like strawberries with green tops. OR…

That looks photoshopped, right?! Best jumping photo ever! Except for worst outfit ever! I finally made some time to go thru hundreds of photos and to also cobble together a video. Some introductory information: my family had two goals for this trip, 1) to see the Taj Mahal, 2) to stay at the Lake Palace Hotel. The latter is my dad’s request, as the hotel is featured in a James Bond movie, Octopussy! The cities we visited were Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, a stop in the village Shahpura, and then Udaipur. We didn’t really spend any time in modern cities. We visited a LOT of forts. I ate a LOT of curry. Pink hair and tattoos were quite the spectacle there, and locals often asked to take a picture with this weirdo, much to our tour guide’s chagrin, since he was keeping a tight schedule. We were in India for 10 days and drove from city to city in a van. While driving through what we’d think of as a freeway, you often had to be careful of people, cows, and other animals crossing. You use the horn a lot in India, as a way of alerting someone you are passing, as a way of alerting people who are trying to pass you, pretty much just for anything and everything. The people were generally very nice, especially the children, and old men would laugh at the sight of me. In Delhi and Agra, there were lots of wild dogs everywhere, having sun tans, making babies. They were cute. I wanted to adopt all of them. It was good times! I’m putting the photos behind a cut, because there are a lot. Enjoy!

I am often in the habit of looking at stuff and thinking about how to make it look cuter and happier. Enter: candy stripe crochet hooks! They are now available in my Etsy shop, but if nobody else wants them, I am happy to keep them, as they just look really cute in a jar on my craft table! They are indeed still totally usable for chunky yarns or double/triple stranding lighter yarns for quick and easy projects. The big blue hook looks and feels like a magical candy wand! p.s. I am hoping to upload special Valentine’s Day themed crochet goodies by Feb 1. I’ll keep you posted 😉

Thanks everyone for participating in my giveaway! It’s always fun to see who is reading along here :). I will try to do more giveaways this year, and to also have multiple prizes, since I get really bummed when only one person can win!   I used Random.org to generate our winner.     Alice, I sent you an email. Please send me your mailing address so I can send you your goodies! Thanks again, everyone!

Tonight, in celebration of Manda’s bday, we made mini donuts! We used a mini-donut maker, kinda like a waffle iron, so our donuts were baked not fried. They were pretty cakey, but very small and super delicious! I had prepped a bunch of different toppings, but since there were basically only us 3 girls decorating the donuts, we only made pink vanilla frosting (hence the lack of different colors). My favorite concoction to eat was peanut butter with chocolate chips and chopped Snickers. My favorite concoction to look at was pink frosting with pastel mini marshmallows. We had so much fun making and decorating mini donuts, that we want to make and sell them at the next art show opening at Hairy’s gallery. I doubt that it’ll happen, but it would be funny! We’d decorate a bunch randomly, and people could just have at it and be surprised. This would also be a super fun activity for small kids. The grown-ups could pre-make all the mini donuts and then let the kids slather and sprinkle all over the place! p.s. My giveaway is still going on!

We’re preppin’ for a Valentine’s Day update over here! Love pastels! Love pink! Love hearts!!!!! p.s. Don’t forget to check out my giveaway if you haven’t yet!

  THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED!!!!! xox   Happy Friday the 13th! Long time no giveaway! I’m starting this year off with a little goodie bag of accessories for you to share or hoard! You get an ice cream scoop hair clip, happy sammich cookie hair clip/brooch, pastel rainbow hair bow (alligator clip) with pink heart cabochon, big cherry zipper dangly, and some other fun random non-crocheted stuff I’ll stick in the bag! This giveaway is open to people all over the world. I’ll cover the shipping! Rules (I’ll try to keep it simple!): 1) Leave a comment! That’s easy! 🙂 2) For extra chances to win: mention, blog about, or link to my giveaway on Twitter, tumblr, or your own blog. You must show me the link to that specific entry, not just your general Twitter, tumblr, or blog URL. For each extra chance to win, you have to leave each extra comment in my blog, so that each separate entry counts for the random number generator. Don’t compile all your links into one comment. I used to separate comments for people, but I will no longer do that. 3) Comments will close on Friday, January 20th, and I will choose a winner with a random number generator (random.org). I think that’s it! Good luck!

  I got a really fun shipment in the other day: new biz cards, hang tags, and Thank You labels!!!!! I know this is probably exciting to only a few people, but I just get a kick out of always refreshing and fidgeting with my branding stuff. I made a little video to show you guys the goods! p.s. the music in the video is from Twink’s new album, Itsy Bits & Bubbles. Check it out!!!!

I’m so excited that Red Velvet Shop now carries a limited number of red velvet cupcake slouchy hats and red velvet coffee cup cozies! Get ’em while you can! 😀 Thanks, Elsie and Emma! xo

I bought these shoes in Hong Kong. I think they were in this mall on the Kowloon side called “Trendy Place,” but I can’t remember for sure. They were a bit small, but the lady tried to stretch them for me while we shopped. They were on sale for like $30 USD. I can’t say that I love the outfit I wore them with…but I am still figuring out how to make them work in my wardrobe hehehehe. I feel really comfortable in platform shoes that have an angle, but I feel like platforms that are just one big sponge of equal height make me feel like I’m waddling when I walk. I can’t really explain it, but it’s one of the reasons I avoided flats for a very long time. I spent most of the early 2000’s about 3-4 inches taller than my normal self every day. Sorry for the lack of blogging! I have been living in a bit of a boring black hole lately, just trying to wrap up projects on my to-do list, plan for Valentine’s Day items, and avoid taxes and accounting (can’t do that for much longer, though). I also spent a few days working on a super cute but super TOP SECRET project for a friend. I can’t wait to show you pics of that. Oh you are gonna love it. But it can’t be revealed yet for a few weeks!

When I first begin to design a new pattern, I start with a simple sketch. The simpler, the better. The sketch helps me break my ideas down into simple shapes, and it also helps me organize and plan colors. The sketch is not really meant to be seen by anyone or show off my fancy drawing skills. It is simply the tool I use in the designing process. After the sketch, I go and buy yarn, and then start to crochet. Sometimes, there’s a lot of trial and error. Always, there’s a lot of taking apart of things and starting over. While this particular design wasn’t overly complicated, for some reason it just took me a lot longer than I’d planned! I was happy to re-visit the tea cup pattern again, though. Now that I have it written down, you will probably see some tea cup scarves available in my shop very soon! Until then, check out the finished Tea Party scarf! I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of me wearing the scarf, because I was literally still sewing it together minutes before the Express Mail deadline, and I had to get it out to a special somebody before Christmas! Plus, I hadn’t really slept in days. Nobody wants to see that! 😛

If you’ve been following my blog since last year or before, you’ll already know that I bought a pink Christmas tree. I didn’t have much opportunity this year to hunt for or make more decorations, so it pretty much looked the same! 😛 This year I added two cute stockings to my mantle, and on Christmas day, I crocheted a third! p.s. I used this pattern to make my stocking, and I just added some stripes and bobble stitches! RedHeart.com actually has a couple crochet stocking patterns!

(click for larger) I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We had way too much food! We also had a turducken for the first time, and I’ll make a separate post for all the food! I didn’t get the chance to decorate the house as much as I wanted :(, but hopefully next year I’ll have more time to make the house a Christmas wonderland. I did accomplish two small Christmas goals though: bake cookies using the cookie press, and crochet my own stocking (I’ll put a photo of that in my Christmas tree post). Here’s a quick snap of my outfit! Dress by I’m Your Present, Necklace by Onch Movement, Cardigan from Target, teddy bear slippers from Hong Kong, giant ribbon bow in hair from Target! I wore my slippers all day. It was pretty awesome. Here’s a close up of the necklace. It’s super soft! You can just pet them all day.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Tonight I had dinner with my Dad, brother, and SIL (my mom is still in Hong Kong), and then we opened family presents! Then I came home and baked cookies til 4am! I used a cookie press for the first time, and I’m ADDICTED! How excited am I to make my own CHEESE CRACKERS?!!! AHHHH!!! I linked you to the exact brand and model I used. Apparently it’s like the cheapest of the cheap, and I just picked it up at Michael’s while I was buying yarn, but I thought it was super easy to use, and the recipe that comes on the box is pretty good! I just added a little extra sugar and a little extra extract, since I’d read that some people found the recipe too bland. I made pink vanilla heart cookies and green pepermint tree cookies. I wanted to make ginger cookies and chocolate cookies, but I started baking at like 2am and didn’t feel like mixing up another batch! 😛 Later today, my fam and Hairy’s parents are coming over to our house for Christmas dinner. I just put up the tree last night hehehe. More pics after tomorrow!!!

Here are a few photos and a little video from when Hairy and I were at Disneyland in November. I think the highlight was finding out why we should never go on the Tea Cups again. Just kidding. I guess the highlight was getting to go on Star Tours for the first time since it was re-vamped. We even rode it twice! We went to the Wookie planet and also the planet that Jar Jar Binks lived on. There were hardly any lines for any of the rides that day! Luckies!!

We’re back from our trip to Hong Kong & India. I started working again right away to finish and send out everyone’s holiday goodies, plus I have a big wholesale order I’m trying to get out ASAP and am excited to tell you about!!! I’ll probably still need to work-hibernate over the weekend, but hopefully next week I can start showing you some photos from my trip! And I still haven’t put up my Xmas tree!! AHHHH!!!! xo

Hi Hi!!!! I will be out of the country on a family vacation until Dec. 13! I am bringing my laptop and may blog from overseas, but I’m not sure. We’ll see how it goes. Lots of fun stories when I get back from INDIA!!! xoxo p.s. the shop is still open while I am gone, and I will ship everything ASAP when I’m home!

    I wish I could have gotten more items in the shop for y’all before the holidays, but I tried!! I may add a few more here and there, and maybe some more when I get back from my trip on Dec. 13, but this will be the bulk of it, and this is what I can guarantee will arrive to you before the 25th within the U.S. Saturday will be my last shipping day! I will keep the shop open, so people can snag items while I am gone, and then I will ship everything on Dec. 14. Hope everyone had a yummy Thanksgiving!