Author: TwinkieChan

I decided to get my teeth whitened. I have been thinking about it for about a year, and then my dentist brought it up, so that seemed like a GO. My teeth aren’t TERRIBLE, but if I try to wear a lipstick instead of a lipgloss, I can super tell my teeth are not the right color… Also since I end up taking a lot of photos for work, I don’t want to offend the innocent public with my weirdnesses. I asked my dental hygienist, whom I LOVE AND ADORE (her sister also cleans my teeth and they are so nice and funny), to run down some options with me, with as much honesty as possible (as I know they would probably want to push the dentist’s offering which was bleach trays). Surprisingly, she told me that the home whitening strips’ “chemistry” was getting better and actually not a terrible option. However, they are probably only best for touch ups, and not for an initial whitening, as it’s difficult to obtain good coverage and you might get zebra stripes! She said the un-fitted trays you buy over the counter are fine, but you’ll get the goo all over your gums, and that’s not really where it’s supposed to go. My gums are already sensitive and testy, so that didn’t sound like an option for me. My bestie got the laser whitening a few years back, which sounds cool cuz it’s a one-time thing, but my hygienist said she’d seen a case where the lady got laser whitening and some of her tooth sheared off and she also needed like a kabillion root canals. Granted, that was probably a one in a million case, and maybe affected by other things, but…. I don’t need to go there. So bleach trays it is! Today I got my impressions done. WHICH SUCKS. I have a really sensitive gag reflex. I gag when I brush my teeth or try to pick popcorn out of my molars. If you have to get your impressions done for trays or a mouth guard or braces, here are a few tips I’ve been given. – Ask if they can mix the goo with warm or hot water. This apparently makes the goo set more quickly so it spends less time up in your mouth parts. – When they do the upper impression, which is the suckiest one, ask if you can lean forward instead of leaning back. This is so you don’t feel like all this crap is going to creep down your throat, plus any errant saliva can run forward and not back. I always feel like if I swallow, my gag reflex will go cray cray, so I’d rather drool all over myself onto some paper towels than wretch up some bile on the nice technician. – They always tell you to breathe through your nose. I also like to go into a meditative stare to try to go to my Happy Place. I have sensitive […]

My mama is Type 2 Diabetic and has to really watch her sugar/carb intake. So for presents, I often try to bake her low carb/sugar-free goodies. Recently, Hairy and I went to a farmer’s market and bought some cookies that were gluten/flour-free with no butter and made with almond flour. I LOVED THEM. THEY WERE SO GOOD. I decided I wanted to try to make a sugar-free version of this using a sugar substitute for my mom. Becky once blogged about using Xylitol as a sugar substitute, so I decided to try to bake with that for the first time. The cookies turned out a bit wetter than I thought, which is good because they are moist, but I was hoping for a crispy outside and chewy inside. I’ve never made the recipe with regular sugar, so I’m sure the consistency would be different with that, too. Xylitol is supposedly a 1:1 ratio with regular sugar in recipes, but I felt that my cookies turned out too sweet for my taste, so I would probably cut back on the sugar. I’ve baked with Splenda in the past and there was a yucky aftertaste, but Xylitol has no yucky aftertaste at all! I got the recipe from this site, but if you are too lazy to click, here it is: Ingredients: * ½ C + 2T blanched* almond flour (meal) * ¼ C +2t granulated sugar* 1 large egg white * ¼ t vanilla extract * tiny pinch of salt I also got a small handful of pistachios to crush and sprinkle on the tops of the cookies after baking. Preheat the oven to 300º, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Or grease the baking sheet well. Since these don’t have any added fat, they tend to stick. I love using the parchment paper: they come off easily and cleanup is really easy.   In a separate bowl, beat the egg white, vanilla, and salt with an electric mixer until it forms soft peaks. This is pretty quick. Fold the egg white mixture into the almond/sugar mixture. Drop by spoonfuls onto the lined or greased baking sheet. They will spread some so be sure to leave about 2 inches between them. (Mine actually didn’t spread very much.) Bake for 30 minutes. If you don’t have an oven thermometer, and aren’t sure if the oven temperature is accurate, set your timer for 20 minutes. If they are getting brown the oven is too hot, and they’ll need less time. (Mine needed a little more than 30 minutes.) Remove the Italian almond cookies from baking sheets to a wire rack to cool. ** This recipe is super easy, super fast, and super yummy if you are an almond freak like me!

You may know today as Cinco de Mayo, but today is also a very special lady’s birthday. I tried to call her at work, but nobody picked up!

Sooooo, amongst a bunch of crazy biz-related Yummy You schtuff, I’m prepping, planning, and crafting for Renegade Austin (May 21-22). I’m really spazzed out cuz I’ve never traveled for a craft show before. Am I gonna ship boxes of stuff somewhere? Am I gonna fit it all in a few suitcases? Will my display be super ugly because I had to fit in in aforementioned two suitcases? I just don’t know! I figure a good strategy for planning is….. AVOIDING by crafting. I have been thinking of summer bbq’s and grilled meats. Texas likes its meat? Right? RIGHT!!! Hence, I resurrected the T-Bone Steak Scarf project. Back in 2009, I threw an eBay auction (I like to think of throwing auctions, like throwing parties!) for t-bone-steak themed stuff like a scarf, mittens, and cute-tility pack. I wanted to take the “gross” factor out of raw meat and tried to make the steaks look cute and cartoony, not necessarily realistic. For my newer version, I really wanted diagonal grill marks!! And I wanted to put more detail in the shape of the actual t-bone, notably at the top. I really like how it turned out! I’m not sure yet which style I prefer…raw or grilled! Also I kinda miss my short crazy hair!

Click to find out more info at the ModCloth Facebook page! ModCloth and BadgeBomb have teamed up to host a button design contest! You can all enter to win a $200 gift cert from ModCloth and 500 of your winning button design!! Click on the pic to find out all the deets! Contest ends May 10. The sooner you enter the better, cuz after you post your design, you have all your friends vote on it! Then me and Susie Ghahremani of boygirlparty and BadgeBomb will vote on the winner. Start doodling NOW!!!! There’s no theme, but the winning design should reflect the spirit of ModCloth. You have until May 10!

My amazing pal Chubby Bunny is throwing an art exhibition and fashion show and bday party at JapanLA this Saturday, May 7. I am so so so so sad to be missing it! So you should go and tell me all about it!! Check out the Chubby Bunny Blog for more info!! Contests, prizes, bunnies, bows. Really. You gotta go! Stay tuned tomorrow! I am gonna announce a super fun contest that you can enter!

  Go check out the latest issue of Harlow Magazine! Issue No. 4! I have been having a little trouble getting on their site, so you can purchase an issue (print and/or digital) from MagCloud. There’s a brand new pattern in there, too, which is really easy for beginners!!!

I was putting sprinkles on a kabillion cupcake scarves the other day, and I dreamily gazed upon my cake stand full of rainbow mini pom poms. At that moment, I wondered what it would be like to have a big ring covered in these pom poms! Tada! This was the first try. I can’t really tell if it would have any appeal to people who are not obsessed with pom poms to begin with…! If I made more, I would probably coat the base of the ring with glitter or something first, because it’s kind of lame to be able to see the silver through the spaces in the pom poms. I tried to pack them in there as best I could, but there are still gaps. Work in progress!

We are going to Manda’s house to celebrate Easter since it’s her most favorite holiday of the year. I made rice krispy treats, decorated with bunnymallows! Also, at 4am, I decided I needed an Easter-themed hair clip, so I made myself a bunnycupcake barrette! I panicked on the face and would probably do it a lot differently given more time, but I think it turned out pretty cute on the first try! Happy Sunday!

My friend Dena lives in my old neighborhood and is very involved in her kids’ elementary school there. They are putting on a charity event soon in the ‘hood with food and performers and auctions to benefit the school. She asked if I could donate some goodies, and I said sure! Part of our goodie packet is coupons! I’ve never made a coupon for my shop before, so I whipped some up super quick-like. Bei joked on Twitter that I should “make them look like fake money with your excited face in the middle!” so I DID. Note my always-awesome photoshop skillz. I was also super proud of myself for making them double-sided and aligning everything correctly in the printer! I would like to offer gift certificates in my Etsy shop in the future, but I’m doubting they will look like this :P. If you are local and want to attend the benefit event and get your hands on my silly currency, check out Taste of Potrero! Okay this is part where I just get really dumb, cuz, I just got my most awesome sunglasses EVER IN THE HISTORY OF EVER from my buddy Kerin Rose, and when’s the next time I’ll be taking photos of myself with “money” that’s got my face on it? Probably never. I’ll understand if you stop reading my blog from now on. No shame. That’s me. I don’t need to take these off in the shower, right?

Okay, I have not watched very much Yo Gabba Gabba at ALL, but I think I belong on the show, RIGHT?! I picked up this comfy baggy monster sweater from Lazy Oaf when I was in London. It was kind of this rigmarole because apparently the U.S. and Spain are some of the few countries who still use swipe credit cards. Everyone else uses credit cards with little microchip thingies in them. So it was like none of the girls at the shop knew how to conduct the transaction with my stupid American swipe card!!! Thankfully, they worked it out! The leggings were a gift from my buddy Marissa. I heart that they actually have room for a butt in them, and they don’t fall down! The polka dots are shiny metallic silver! I still don’t know how I feel about me in baggy tops and leggings. It’s comfy, but I feel really sloppy and not really “me.” But jeans everyday are so boring, so I think I will still try out mixing it up a bit! I also added a few new items to my Etsy shop. Pancake scarves, a strawberry scarf, and some super cute cupcake coffee cup cozies with new strawberry toppers! Sorry the update is so tiny, but we are hard at work building stock for Renegade Austin (May 21-22) and also Yummy You factory samples. I know I don’t talk about it much, cuz I don’t really know how to approach it, but there has obviously been a little break in Yummy You news. We are re-grouping, learning from last year, and building an awesome and stronger team. Bigger things on the horizon!! Wait till you see what happens!! This is all a new experience for me, and it will take some time to iron out all the kinks, but I so appreciate everyone following along and supporting me on this adventure!

Last night, Hairy, my mom and I went to the DeYoung Museum to support and vote for Manda’s outfit she designed and made with a fellow student for Discarded to Divine. There was a huge long line, and by the time we got close, they ran out of ballots and we couldn’t vote on the People’s Choice Awards! Bummer! Afterwards, we all and ate a giant Korean feast and ended the night with a coconut milk tea and an eggpuff. Perfecto! I had planned to wear my new tights that night, but while walking the dogs, I realized that the tights not only started to fall down, but were also taking my undies down with them!!! Lots of awkward underwear picking and tights-hiking occurred. So those tights are now in the donate pile! I then opted to try some mint green tights I’d never worn, and my entire outfit felt inspired by my pastel fingernails! Later I threw on a cardigan from H&M that matched the tights perfectly, but I hadn’t picked that out yet before snapping the photos! Dress: Reko from TopShop London, Tights: We Love Colors (I buy the plus size!!!), Custom necklace: athinalabella, Hair doodads: petit fours by me! bow by 6%dokidoki, candy bonbon from CutieDynamite, Shoes, super old Aldos! I actually felt on that day that I really need to look into some fun shoes that are not black!!

I need to put sprinkles on a bajillion ice cream scoops.

If you follow me on Twitter, these will be repeats, but I know a lot of you guys said you only follow the blog, so, I’ll just keep you caught up on a few happenings over here! I’ve been working really hard to finish up some wholesale orders before focusing on building stock for Renegade Austin….which is in about a month! EEP!! In the meantime, I spent last night hanging out with the BFF. We went to Target, wandered around the shopping mall, and ate dinner. I feel like having girl time is really important, so I’m so happy to have seen her! At Target, I picked up some pastel bunny marshmallows. Not really sure what I’m doing with them yet, but the obvious go-to is Rice Krispy treats! We also painted our nails. She went all magickal-goblin-lady with black polish with a brilliant purple glitter on top, and I went with Easter colors with some clear iridescent glitter on top. I never really LOVE-loved Easter-themed things, but I sure love the colors!

Ok, I tend to dabble with new technologies very very late (e.g. my one night with Polyvore), and they don’t often stick. Everyone has been posting their Instagram photos, so I thought I would download the free app and check it out. I’m not really friends with my iPhone so I don’t know how much I will tinker with this thing. I don’t even really know how to find or add people yet, but I’m twinkiechan on there if that means anything to anyone out there! 😛 I just decided to randomly take a picture of whatever was right in front of my face. This pile of stuff is sitting on a cake stand right behind my laptop!

I have been browsing the athinalabella shop on Etsy for a little while now, and I finally asked if she could make me a custom Twinkie Chan necklace. She also then surprised me with a custom TWINKIE knuckle duster! SO sweet! Literally!!! You should check out her shop. What I like is that she takes resin jewelry and then goes a bit crazy with it. I love her really over the top pieces! Candyland Custom Candy Tiaras. I WANT ONE!!! Gummy Love Bracelet

So yeah, I’m really late to the Polyvore game. I don’t have a lot of patience when it comes to hunting around for stuff and making collages. Oftentimes, I can’t even find what I want to put in the collage on there! I can’t even remember why I decided to fiddle around on the site just now. And these days, I’ve been hearing everyone talk about Pinterest.com. Too many sites!! Bunny Party! by Twinkie Chan Wildfox Couture vintage style tee, 60 GBP Forever21 knit socks, $0.95 LeSportsac printed tote, $98 White jewelry, 32 AUD Disney Couture rabbit jewelry, 21 GBP Jill Stuart – Jelly Lip Gloss 19 sweet gelato, $28 Pink bunny ears slipper, 11 GBP

In London, Hairy decided to rent a car again. I’d requested that we get an automatic transmission this time so I wouldn’t have to worry about him stalling the car or forgetting to put the car back into first gear before the light turned green…..BUT….of course… we got another stick shift. However, Hairy was in love with this car because it was a brand new Citroen that only had like 6 miles on it. It was like a fancy version of our Yaris, except…… NO CUP HOLDERS!!!!! Our target was STONEHENGE, which is about an hour’s drive out of London. You can’t go up and touch it anymore, but you can get close enough for decent photos. I had always imagined it was on the top of a hill, but it’s kind of just in the middle of this giant untouched grassy pasture. We attempted to take some jumping photos at Stonehenge, but… unfortunately, they did not turn out very well. I do have a tiny, unflattering video clip, but it was a nice excuse to use a Spinal Tap song! After Stonehenge, we hopped in the car for an hour more to check out Brighton on the coast. Since we had gotten a late start to the day, everything was pretty much closed down in Brighton by the time we got there, so we didn’t really eat or shop. We kinda just wandered around a little bit on the pebble beach, took some photos, bought some coffee, and then headed back to London to catch dinner with my cousin Victor. The night before, my girlcousin Terri had cooked us an amazing dinner at her apartment, and due to the protests, the tube station by her place was shut down, so we had to walk across the bridge to the next tube station. We decided to take some rando photos. I think I was really cold and grumpy. Oh, I forgot to mention, that we changed hotels for the last 3 days, and we ended up in the Bayswater/Notting Hill area, and the whole time we were just wandering the streets of Bayswater, not knowing how close Notting Hill was, and how ten times more posh our eating adventures could have been! Oh well! So when my cousin came to Bayswater to eat dinner with us, we ended up at the most terrible steak house ever, but it was the only place open at 10pm for my cousin to get his protein on. Special Sauce!!! :X

I recently fell in love with Katastrophic Design on Etsy. I bought 3 pieces from her, cuz I’m crazy like that. She will also be vending at Renegade Austin, where I will probably drop even more money on her. She uses organic cotton and then dyes it all herself!!!I love this open neck! Since I’m still house-sitting, I don’t have my good camera here, so I tried taking a few snaps with Photobooth, which turned out lame and pixelled and stupid. What’s NOT stupid is how Star Trek I feel in this dress! Beam me up! My dad would be so proud that I graduated Star Fleet Academy and am now the only orange officer on the Enterprise!

“We travel through time, to help history along, give it a push where it’s needed.” “When the omni’s red, it means history’s wrong, its’ our job to get everything back on track.” The Voyagers was this tv show from the 80s that only ran for one season. I had never heard of it before, but Hairy loved it and recently got a bunch of DVDs from Netflix. Manda was over the first night he watched it. We kind of rolled our eyes cuz a lot of the nostalgic stuff that Hairy watches ends up being really dumb. However, we kinda got hooked!! The show is about this dude named Phineas Bogg who is a “traveler.” He travels through time, fixing moments in history that go wrong for some reason. He has this book that tells him how history is supposed to be. He uses this thing called the Omni which is a handheld gadget to time travel. When the omni is red, it means history is messed up. When it’s green, it means history is fixed and they can either go on a vacation (which they do a lot) or find the next bit of history to fix. In a botched time-related incident, he ends up in 1982 and ends up with a young sidekick named Jeffrey. They lose the book, but Jeffrey knows so much about history, that now he can travel with Phineas and help him fix history. So the show is kind of learn-y but also kind of funny. Phineas is not so learned in the history department, but apparently is a hit with the ladies in this super cheezy way. This prompts Jeffrey to say, “You know the code. No romance while the omni is red!” In a fit of randomness, I decided to make commemorative tshirts! I have been hesitant to wear it now, because Danielle thought the shirt was a reference to …. not having sex on your period!! AHAHHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAH. In her defense, we had been Twittering about periods a few days before! I just never even really thought about how the quote on the shirt could read to people who hadn’t watched the show at all. HILARIOUS. This is now known as The Period Shirt. Good thing I made one for Hairy, too.

Hairy obviously is a big foodie and loves to check out farmers markets and food stands. He took us to Burrough Market on a Friday afternoon. I got a fresh green juice filled with all manner of green things, and then we walked about, taking it all in. Sorry this entry is so dirty. Okay, let me tell you about this cheese. Hairy went ape for it. It’s called raclette. They have half-wheels of it baking under a heating element, and the top layer starts to melt all over the place. Then they scrape the melty cheese over potatoes and stuff. The smell is STRONG. I love me all kinds of cheese, but the air around this cheese cart really smelled like a barn. We didn’t have the scrapey potato cheese, but a grilled cheese sammich instead. It was good, albeit stinky. I needed something for my sweet tooth, so I picked up an almond croissant at this baked goods table that had the most amazing English muffins. We’re so used to seeing the stupid English muffins from the store, that these humongous fresh ones seemed so magical! The market itself was sort of nestled underneath the train overhead. After the market, we checked out the Brick Lane area as suggested by my kind Twitter pals, and I bought a cute dress. Then we had to hoof it to meet with my cousin YanYan and her hubby Alex to have dinner at their favorite Italian place. They are like the nicest hosts ever! Upon arriving at our hotel a few days earlier, reception told me I had a package waiting at the concierge, and it turned out to be a giant bag of chips and cookies and a bottle of water and a sweet card and a subway pass and London maps. Too much right? SO NICE! Aside from visiting one of my favorite cities, I really got to spend a lot of time with family on this trip, which is a treat, and I felt very lucky, especially since we are so spread out all over the world. I hadn’t seen YanYan since I can’t even remember. Over 10 years. Maybe over 15. I am hoping we get to see her again sooner than that!

Back in London, we walked out of our hotel by Hyde Park and had breakfy with Victor, and then we met up with my cousin YanYan to hang out it in British  Museum. I no longer need to look at another Greek water pitcher/vase for the rest of my life. THEY HAVE A LOT OF THOSE THERE. In this photo, I told Hairy to look like one of the busts. This was a rare moment that I told him he was smiling TOO MUCH. After the museum, we had soft serve ice cream from the ice cream truck sitting outside. Hairy took lots of pics of the cute truck with his Holga, but he hasn’t developed those yet. Then we had to change clothes for fancy din dins at Pied a Terre, a 2 Michelin star restaurant whose site is not loading right now … The whole reason this London trip came to be was due to the fact that my other girl cousin Terri had been in London for a year getting her culinary degree, and she just graduated. So we thought we’d meet up with my cousin Vic to celebrate graduation with Terri. Hence, marathon eating! Here are some poorly shot, dark photos of our meal. I don’t like using the flash in a restaurant, nor do I know how to take photos in low light, sooooo….yup. We all got the tasting menu. Hairy got the wine flight to go with it and got trashed. I’m shocked I didn’t gain more weight on this vacay, but we actually walked around all day everyday, so I guess it came out even!

I’ll be honest. When Hairy said he wanted to take a side trip to Dublin during our London trip, I was like, “…..WHY!?” He said, “Because it’s beautiful!” Then, when we got to Dublin, and it looked like a lot of other European cities (like Copenhagen), I was bummed. I’d been brought to Ireland under false pretenses! Where was all the greenery? Where was the nature? Where were the sweeping Emerald hills? I complained about this a lot the first day, and then on the second day, Hairy rented a car so we could drive an hour of town to check out Wicklow, which was supposed to be really beautiful. Unfortch, we got the car around 3-4pm, so by the time we got to the outskirts of Wicklow, it was already getting dark, but at least we got out of the city a little bit, saw the ocean and some sheep, drove into some dirt piles, and drove on the wrong side of the road for the first time. We had also seen these giant prehistoric bugs emerge out of a hole in the soil, and I thought I’d gotten video of me freaking out about it, but I guess in my terror, I hadn’t really been recording. Oh wellz! Here’s some video of Dublin via car, as well as documentation of Hairy’s driving escapades.

So when we bumped into Roisin on the street, she suggested we go to the Leprechaun Museum. Hairy and I had seen signs for this all over town, but I kinda rolled my eyes. On our Boston trip last year, he dragged me to the Salem Witch Museum, and, no offense Salem, it kinda blew. So there was no way I was gonna go to the Leprechaun Museum!! However, upon Roisin’s recommendation, I agreed to give it a go, plus we dragged my cousin Victor along, too! (He insisted we all get a drink first, though…which we did.) Let the journey begin! So we actually didn’t see very many representations of leprechauns in the museum. The first room has books and pictures in it, and a dude gives you a little intro. The rest of the place is like an interactive journey through storytelling. Each room is supposed to represent something, which I forget now, like an abstract forest, a cavern, a fairy hill, a rainbow, stuff like that. Except the cavern is like this wooden structure, and the rainbow is made out of stringy tassels. The best part, tho, was the Giant’s Room. All the furniture is really big, as if you were the leprechaun. So you get to climb all over giant chairs and stuff. I tried to get up on the chair, but I was wearing a dress. I didn’t make it. I ended up giving myself a giant bruise! Photos first. Video at the bottom.