Author: TwinkieChan

Did you know that Hairy is a shopping-pusher? If you see something and say it’s cute, he’ll be like, “BUY EEEEET!!!! You never like anything BUYEEEEETTTT!!!” Doesn’t he see all the boxes and packages coming to the house all the time with clothes inside of them? I’m Twinkie Chan and I’m a shopaholic! I bought this dress in the basement of TopShop in London. I had no idea the basement housed a myriad of “concessions” or racks and racks of various different brands. I loved it down there! We were in kind of a rush, plus I don’t like to spend lots of time shopping around Hairy, so I made a quick dash around the place and picked up three dresses. I’m sure the other two will appear very soon! The boots I bought before the trip. I thought it was going to be cold, so I wanted to pack for cold weather! I had been on the lookout all winter for a pair of boots I could wear with dresses and also under jeans. I didn’t want a pointy toe or a pointy heel… I wanted it to be cute and girlie but not lolita. Needless to say, I have yet to find the perfect boot! So I went with some good ol’ Doc Martens in black patent. As it turned out, it was quite warm in Dublin and London! Warmer than SF! We were very lucky. I just sweat a lot more than I’d planned 😛 Now that we are home, it is actually super duper hot in SF, even here in the dreary Sunset by the ocean! I actually feel a bit too naked in this outfit. I am not in the habit of showing my knees. I have a complex about my knees and thighs being gigantic and hideous, so we’ll see if I actually make it out of the house without sticking my trusty jeans underneath! Dress: Dahlia Boots: Doc Martens Socks: UO

Hairy and I first flew into London/Heathrow, then immediately took the train to Victoria Station, and we spent one night in London before taking the train into Gatwick to fly to Dublin in the morning. That night we had a Sunday roast and then went to bed. At Gatwick, our plane was majorly delayed! We finally got into Dublin, checked into our hotel, and started to walk around the city. This is when we bumped into Roisin, pictured above!! A cute little fairy of a girl, she approached us and called out, “Twinkie Chan?! What are you doing in my city!?” As it turned out, she had written a paper about me in college! She was super duper nice, suggested cool places/neighborhoods to check out, and also gave us a mini tour while getting us copies of the local magazine/paper she wrote for. I’m so happy we randomly bumped into her, as it gave us more of an idea of where to go! That night, Hairy and I had dinner at a random but cute place that Hairy had scoped out. Very yummy things were eaten, like goat cheese beignets! Here’s a random, sad looking ceramic PINK fetus dog in a Tommy Hilfiger window: When I styled and dried my hair, my fingers had become super pink, and I was like, “Hairy!! Take a pic!!” I don’t know if you can really tell in the photo, though. Reminds me of this dude:   For some reason I thought it was funny to take a picture of our garbage can. I was like, “So Asian!! Red pocket money, a banana peel, and fingernails!” Here’s a photo of a restaurant named after Hairy: We unfortunately did not eat there…..   Finally, a short and terrible video clip of our hotel bathroom. My cousin booked the Westin for us, and the bathroom was the nicest part of the room. He wanted to sleep in there!   Next entry: The Leprechaun Museum!! Where I tried to jump onto a giant chair and gave myself a big bruise that I still have!

Leondra from Alternative Revolt magazine interviewed me for this special feature in their anniversary issue. I was kinda surprised they contacted me, since it’s mostly a tough-looking music mag, but I was happy cuz Leondra gets it. My line looks really cutesy-poo and young, but my pieces are really for older girls with an appreciation for all things girlie! My interview is on pages 22-23, and the issue is free to check out online!

Hairy and I are back from visiting London and Ireland. I have quite a few photos but thought I would start with my book signing/crochet cupcake party at All The Fun of the Fair off Carnaby Street. (Click the link to see the shop’s blog entry about the event with LOTS of photos!) Pretty much all the photos I’m posting are stolen from All The Fun of the Fair, and lovely ladies Boopetta, Little Miss Delicious, Tet’s post in my Ravelry group, Cakemix, and Cat from Cut Out & Keep! A few days before the event, we were in the ‘hood and decided to scope out the adorable venue, but the shop was closed! On the day of, we bought 2 dozen cupcakes at Candy Cakes. It took a little while because I didn’t realize that buying 2 dozen cupcakes was a to-do there, and it was a bit of a mess but worked out ok! Then we ran upstairs to the shop, only to realize that Zoe from the shop had also baked a bunch of cuppies at home!!! Cupcake overload! Here’s a snap that Hairy took before he went to find some manly stuff to do. And here are the rest of the photos that I done stole: It was really cool meeting new friends and some of my girls from my my Ravelry group, and also my cousin, and two reps from my book publisher came out to support! I also got to meet some of my cute Twitter buds like Teese and Little Miss Delicious. All in all it was a joy to hang out with everybody and maybe a once in a lifetime opportunity to have us all in the same room. Too bad we can’t do that every week! Frankly, I was a bit nervous and anxious about it beforehand because I’m pretty much an introvert who spends all day alone working with the dogs, but the event was super duper fun, and I appreciate everybody who came :). Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that there was a giant 500,000 people protest against the government that day, too. Hairy and I experienced a bit of it on the way back to our hotel from the book event. Loads of people in the streets. Tube stations closed. Traffic everywhere. TopShop got hit with giant paint splatters. I hope everyone made it home without too much ado!!

Sorry for major lack of blogging! We are leaving for the UK tomorrow, and you always have to do MORE work to go on vacation! I’m trying to get organized for Renegade Austin in May, get some things settled with Yummy You, finish up a wholesale order, pick up the house a bit cuz I hate to leave a dirty house. I wasn’t able to accomplish everything I would’ve liked, but I tried! I gotta go do laundry now!! I closed up my Etsy and BigCartel shops, but will re-open on April 1. I’ve been sketching all kinds of fun new scarves. So I’m excited to get home and make them 😛 We are headed to Dublin and London. London, I love. Dublin, I’ve never been to before. So all in all, should be a good trip 🙂 Remember if you are in London, to please come stop by my booksigning and say hi! It’s at All The Fun of the Fair, in Soho, Unit 2 – 8 Kingly Court, Carnaby Street, Saturday March 26, starting at 1pm.  I am hoping we can have a little time to just say hi and eat some cupcakes and sign some books before beginning the crochet class, so people who don’t really want to crochet but want to say hello should still swing by. I’d love to see you!! Also if you’d like to actually take the class (I’m a terrible teacher so it’s more just like hanging out and crocheting together as I try to sort out crochet problems clumsily!), please click on the shop link and RSVP so they can prep enough yarn for everyone :). OMG that reminds me, I need to print out pattern handouts!! Thanks for reminding me, blog!   Oh, and p.s. if you shop at Forever21 right now they are donating 100% to relief efforts in Japan. Also, a bunch of pals have donated time and love and their art to the #PrayForJapan art show that opens tomorrow/Saturday at JapanLa with 100% proceeds going to the Red Cross. Also you can just donate directly to the Red Cross. I am donating a crocheted item to a friend who is organizing an auction, so I’ll let you know the details when I know as well. Ok, bye!

Shop Shop Shop! (Sorry in advance for the crap photos…..My light-kit and regular set up are sort of held hostage in Hairy’s man-cave right now while we half-attempt to paint it.)

  When I heard about Toffee Mag at KitschyDigitals(whose house I want to raid) a few months ago, I totally fell in <3 with it! It’s beautifully laid out and also comes with a “chewy center,” i.e. downloadable printable papers and fun craft projects. When Toffee put out the call for contributors, I raised my hand! So please go check out Toffee. There is a fun surprise in there from me to you! Let’s just say it has to do with the forest, as well as your favorite hot beverage :). EDIT: ok I broke. How could I not post any pics here? I’m too excited! We’re here to fox you up!   Time to sniff each other’s butts! We had that funny forest/sky background already since it was one of Hairy’s art pieces, and one of my craft tables is covered in astro turf, so it all kinda worked out perfectly. Another cool thing about the pattern in Toffee is that I’m pretty sure you could modify my fingerless mitt pattern (in my book) and make some cute fox gloves! 🙂 I was actually planning to do this, but never made the time. I think they would be adorable (I’d probably leave out the tail, though!). Oh yeah, wanna see some “sketches” of forest friends before I decided on the fox? Hello, humans! Ugh, p.s. what is the DEAL, wordpress? When I host photos on WordPress rather than Flickr or Photobucket, and I try to center align everything, the photos NEVER center align! *FIST SHAKE*

Thanks everyone for voting for my book on About.com’s 2011 Readers Choice award thingie. It really means a lot to me to be getting so much positive feedback about the book, and I love how much fun everyone is having making the projects :). I believe there may be a small feature/interview in the future, so I’ll keep you updated on that! p.s. Don’t forget, if you live near London, I am having a book signing/crochet-along at 1pm on Saturday, March 26th, at the yarn shop All The Fun of the Fair in Kingly Court off Carnaby Street. I would love to meet as many of you as possible while I am out there! I am going for vacation and to visit family but decided to try to have one book event to hopefully meet you guys and say hello eat cupcakes and crochet them! (You don’t have to crochet … you can just nosh and chat, too!)

So I’ve been working on these mini cake hair clips, right? I always have a difficult time choosing between the alligator clip and the french clip. I think the alligator clips are easier on the hair and easier to put on and take off, but I also think the french clip provides more stability for a 3D piece, and that’s why I use the french clips on the ice cream hair clips. I’m still trying to decide what to use on the mini cakes. I am thinking I might let people choose and just attach-to-order, although I’m still leaning strongly toward the french clip to avoid any wobbling. At first I had the alligator clip on it, and I wasn’t a fan of the resulting wobbliness. Then I tried to rip off the alligator clip. That didn’t work very well. I kind of had to cut it off, and then use the glue and the new french clip to “mend” the slices I’d made through the crochet! Here’s me testing out the french clip. Check out the rigorous dedication I have for bringing you quality product. 🙂    

Soooo, I wasn’t really on board with wearing oversized shirts and leggings until I very recently realized that this was my uniform in junior high. Holy flashbacks! I was actually made fun of for not wearing jeans like everybody else, but I thought jeans were really uncomfortable and weird, and I would much rather show up to school in what would pass for pajamas. These days, I live in my jeans, so it has been comfy but strange to run around in leggings today without a dress or a pair of shorts over them! Also, I have ALWAYS been anti-Uggs, espesh when girls wear them with a mini skirt or Daisy Dukes. That just makes no sense to me. However, when I saw this polka dot pair, I had couldn’t resist. I don’t wear them out of the house, though. They’re my House Fuggs, and they keep my feet warmz when socks don’t cut it. Shirt: Coco de Coeur Leopard Leggings: Betsey Johnson, bought at FredFlare Shoes: Refuse to be Usual Socks: Sock Dreams Cardi: Target At first I tried to take pics in Photobooth, but it’s always so grainy. So then I strung them together to make this animated gif. Sorry the cardigan got all weird and pixely and funky. GIFS! SHEESH! Just think of it as *:.:**.:.*sparkle*:.:**.:.*.

For the past few days, I have been having fun working in 3D a little bit to create a new small batch of fun hair clips or mini hats. There’s a lot of pastry coming your way… Also right now I’m shooting more pics to put more stuff in my closet sale. Thanks so much to peeps who already bought stuff. You’re helping me clear out my craft room!

YAY! Everyting is fixed now! Should work fine 🙂   I opened a BigCartel shop to finally unload all my unworn clothing! There’s a button in my blog sidebar, too, which is super ugly, but a placeholder for now! CLICK HERE TO SHOP! I uploaded 25 items, which is my maximum, so the more people buy, the more new stuff I can put up 🙂 Check out the ugliest shop banner ever created.

Click on over to Rock N Roll Bride for my latest tutorial AND giveaway!!! Late in 2010, Kat asked if I might contribute a how-to to her blog. I kind of scratched my head, because I couldn’t immediately think of something cool, foodie, AND wedding-y! Lucky for us, Kat is a genius, and suggested making garlands/bunting for wedding decor! Love it!! Go see!! And enter to win one of the garlands I made 🙂 You also get a few tiny peeks of our house!

Soooo I think putting together actual, organized, chronological blog entries about my book events in Seattle and Portland last November/December is just too overwhelming of a task right now, so I will share short, unorganized, bursty nuggets of traveling fun with you instead! This first bursty nugget is a compilation of sped-up video clips of me eating cupcakes baked by the lovely Miss Cuppy. She ever so graciously baked us 9 chocolate cuppies, and we had to eat them all before getting on the plane in 2-3 days. Tough job, right!??! I am actually a huge cupcake snob. The cake needs to be tasty and moist, and the frosting needs to be light and fluffy and not to sweet. I often find myself wiping off most of the frosting on a cupcake so I can just get at the less offensive cake part. But trust me, Cuppy’s cupcakes are 100% thoroughly DELISH!!! And I’m not just saying that cuz she’s my pal, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered to blog about it. Them thingz are GOOOOOOD!!! Oh I’m dreaming about them now….. I’m sad I didn’t capture all 9 cupcakes getting eaten, but sometimes Hairy refused to be filmed whilst eating, and I think there were times we shoved them in our mouths real fast and ran out of the hotel room! Just to round out the Cuppy and Moofs Seattle adventure: we all walked into Elliott Bay books to get Cuppy a copy of my book, and as we were walking around with the book, one of the store employees asked if it was Cuppy on the cover of the book. TOO FUNNY! It’s true, that day, Cuppy’s hair probably matched the cover more than mine did. I don’t know why I look so worried in that photo! HAHA. This is the only photo we took on that trip. We suck. Next time: MORE! Anyhoo, my other favorite memory with Cuppy on that trip is when we were walking around Urban Craft Uprising after my book signing, and we were shopping, and it was SO FREAKING HOT inside the venue, we were sweating bullets! We shared girl talk about our sweaty, stinky armpits. Then, while I was browsing around some cute jewelry booth, I FREAKED OUT!!! I was like, “CUPPY!! THE WORST THING THAT COULD EVER HAPPEN JUST HAPPENED!!!!!!!!” While shopping, I’d shoved a brown paper bag under my arm so I could have extra grabby hands, and when I removed the paper bag…it had a nasty SWEAT MARK ON IT!! AHHHHH!! Also I had fried pickles for the first time.

I was asked to show a pic of what I’ve been working on lately, so here’s a peek! I’ve been trying to catch up on custom orders for a little bit, since I always lag on them. I just had a big meeting for Yummy You, so I’m trying to do as much with my Etsy shop as possible before diving deep into Yummy You stuff again! A reader from New Zealand recently emailed me and asked: Anyway just wondering if you could let us readers know what you do in your day? (Monday to Friday) Are you at home crocheting all the time or do you hang out with your mates like Manda? I actually don’t get to hang out with my pals very much. Both Manda and I are really busy. I’m “busy but flexible” (stole that phrase from KerinRose ) and Manda is busy on a schedule, as she’s getting her MFA in Fashion Design, designing costumes for a children’s theater, AND interning! She’s crazy busy! For new readers of my blog, you may have missed my Q&A with Gala Darling for her “I want to be…” series, and it is chockful of info about my life and what I have been up to. It’s hard to say what a typical day is, since my focus changes a lot…from Yummy You… to new designs for Etsy … to working on a collaboration … and just keeping up with all the social networking, which I think is important, since I don’t really hit up events regularly around here that would be productive to me business-wise. I found myself quite busy lately writing fun tutorials for various magazines and blogs, which you’ll seen soon! 🙂 I am the classic workaholic, and I don’t leave the house a lot except to shop for yarn, take packages to the post office, walk the dogs, and eat food! 🙂 Also tonight, I uploaded a few more cupcake coffee cup cozies to the Etsy shop, so check it on out! p.s. A big project on my list is to redesign my website. I LOVE THE FRIDGE, but it’s hard to add or subtract sections to it … like links to my book … or Yummy You … or whatever new fun stuff comes up. I keep trying to figure out how to keep the fun fridge idea but also make my site more easy to navigate and to manipulate with new information. Not sure. I might just keep the fridge as my portfolio hub or something. Sigh. I dunno yet!

When I shop on Etsy, there are a couple of keywords I always fall back on: puff sleeve peter pan collar babydoll dress space mod (also for fun house stuff!) So I received my latest Etsy dress from meetmeinmontauk. I love it! Groovy citrus colors , puff sleeve, cotton and not polyester. I’m in babydoll bliss! Except the back zipper doesn’t have one of those claspy things on top so the zipper keeps falling down! I gotta fix that somehow. Also I am boring and always wear my jeans under my dresses these days. No colorful tights or fancy shoes. I still am not convinced that tights are just as warm as jeans. I would like to be convinced, as I think tights are cuter, but I don’t wanna freeze my beans off. Also today I did the The Bar Method exercise dvd, which is supposed to “integrate the fat burning format of interval training, the muscle shaping technique of isometrics, the elongating principles of dance conditioning, and the science of physical therapy to create a revolutionary new workout that quickly and safely reshapes your entire body.” My thoughts: For people whose excuse is that they don’t have time to work out…this is kind of a long DVD. Almost an hour if you do the whole thing, including the warm up. If you are looking for some cardio and some sweat, this is not for you. If you are looking to squeeze your butt a lot, this is definitely for you! My triceps and my thighs feel pretty worked out, but I didn’t get that over all feeling of satisfaction from this, whereas after I do a Carmen Electra DVD, I feel like I got run over by a bus. So I guess the Bar Method might be good for “body sculpting,” but to get some of this jiggle off my wiggle, I would definitely want to do more regular cardio, too, at the gym. But since this is only the first day I’ve tried the Bar Method, who knows yet!

Hey gang. You can now get some ice cream scoop hair clips and cupcake coffee cozies at ShanaLogic :).    

So the other day I popped into Imagiknit to buy some yarnage, and they got in more yarn from Knit Collage. Ugh, how can any self-respecting yarn lover not lust over their yarn!? I picked up two skeins! Bubble Gum Twist and Emerald Rainforest. I love all the little flowers and sparkly bits and sequins and just all the little neat surprises that are sewn into these yarns. (above images pulled from Knit Collage site) This yarn is SO lumpy and bumpy and CHUNKY. With crochet being so dense, I knew I couldn’t complete a whole project with just one skein of Knit Collage, so I pulled some other chunky yarns to go with it: merino wools from Cascade and Knit Picks. When it comes to wool, I’ve found I can only wear merino close to the skin! I decided to make a moebius cowl since I think that cowls with a twist tend to look less weird on me. And I snapped some pics in my bubblegum bathroom! I still kinda don’t “get” cowls. I like that they work up really quick. I like that they just kinda stay put. But they just don’t seem that warm to me. If it has to be big enough to get over my big ol’ head, then it doesn’t really make contact with my neck, and it seems like all the cold air can rush in and attack!! So outside, I didn’t think this was very warm. However, just for noodling around in the house, it did make me feel cozy, like being hugged by a sheep. Am I approaching this whole cowl thing wrong? Are they not supposed to be superwarm? Are they more like a snazzy woolen necklace? Is my head just too big?!? I might have to be one of those cowl girls who has button-up cowls, so that they fit a bit more snug around my heck, and I don’t have to get it past my noggin!

Thanks for participating in my giveaway everybody! Using Random.org, I drew 10 winners. You can click on these pics to view them bigger if you like! Congrats, everyone! I’ll be emailing you for your mailing addresses 🙂

I don’t buy underwear very often. For nearly 10 years, I have been super faithful to these Only Hearts hipsters. A bit pricey, but clearly they have lasted FOREVER! I like that they don’t leave a giant VPL (visible panty line), and they are super duper comfy. I am no thong gal. And I’ve never had matching fancy underwear. Undies have just never held much importance to me on a grown up/sexy level, much less to impress a boy or some such. If a boy doesn’t like a lady in undies with pretzels and french fries on them, that boy is no good! And as far as brars, I’m a 34AA, and it can be difficult to find a bra that fits, let alone, one that is remotely CUTE. Sure sometimes you can squeeze ribs into a 32A, but seriously, that cup is still too big. So, I was pretty pumped to finally spend some dough at Victoria’s Secret PINK. I always kind of want to run away from it at the mall, but their undies are pretty cute, and 5 for $25. I even bought some undies for Manda since it was cheaper to buy 5 than buy 3! I ended up with 12 new undies. And bonus: new bras! I was shocked they fit. This is the first time I’ve ever had a hot pink bra, people. I’m excited!! I usually only can get black, nude, and white. I’m so happy I finally gave VS/Pink a try. My buddy Elysse used to work at VS and she did tell me years ago that they carried 34AAs, but I never really saw them when I went into the store. Anyhoo, it was a nice splurge, and a nice contrast to most of my weekend, which as been: doing all my accounting for 2010 to deliver to the accountant. I REALLY need to learn how to cut my business costs, but looking at all the numbers, I don’t even really know what I would pinch. I’ll try not to worry about it this second. I also need to write a crochet tutorial and make a sample and take photos…….by tomorrow! 😛

I’ve been working on a tutorial for a wonderful blog, and I busted out some of the fancy sprinkles for that project! I keep waiting for a nice day to shoot photos of the finished product, but it has been pretty rainy and yucky here in San Francisco, so I think that whatever weather we have on Saturday, I’ll just have to go with it and shoot photos regardless! I also finished up a fun wholesale order for ShanaLogic so stay tuned for that! While I was working on these projects, I decided to see what it would look like to put sprinkles all over a swirly whip cream blob. Looks pretty yummy on its own! But maybe a little weird as a brooch or hair clip. I’d stick a cherry on top, too, but I think it would look too much like a boob :/.

You guys. I’m SO excited for my pal Elsie and the gals at Red Velvet. I remember chatting with her about her wish to design a dress line, and now it’s here! (A) I want to buy everything. (B) How truly inspirational to see someone turn wishes into reality??? Check out the adorable lookbook video. I melted. It’s all so exciting!    

***This giveaway is closed now, so I disabled the comments. Thanks so much for participating! I will post the winners shortly!*** I’m excited to show you guys the super cute new magnet sets I put out with the awesome folks at Badge Bomb. I am selling a few in my shop, and soon you should be seeing them pop up in stores near you, like the Screaming Sky Gallery in Portland, and hopefully soon directly from the Badge Bomb website. To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to do a blog giveaway! Badge Bomb was kind enough to give me 10 sets, so we can have 10 winners!! 5 sushi sets, and 5 cupcake sets. Each magnet is 1.25 inches, and each set of 4 magnets comes in this rad little plastic carrying case! I had some laying out in my house, and my family stole them all! I’ll draw the winners through random.org next Tuesday, March 1 at midnight (since that’s almost exactly a week from now). All you have to do is leave a comment on my blog. **EDIT Don’t worry about leaving your email address in your comment, as well. I just figured out how to find your email address easily so I don’t have to hunt in my inbox 🙂 ** All the other extra twitter/blog stuff kind of becomes a mess, so I’m keeping it simple this time! 🙂

Maddy received her box o’ Xmas/Valentine’s Day goodies, so I can share with you the surprise prezzie I popped in for her! It’s a super cutesy wutesy Valetine brooch and hair clip. It has a ton of heart-shaped and regular shaped beads and cabs all over it. I will definitely offer these before next Valentine’s Day, and maybe even just soon/whenever, cuz I think they are a sweet little way to say I HEART YOU!!! A few days ago, I got my hurrr cut by Jules. We were trying to figure out how long it had been since I’d gotten it cut, but it was definitely time, and my head feels so much less bulky and shaggy! We didn’t change anything major, but I think I will probably want my bob back in the summer! She also said she would pretend not to notice the giant chunk of bangs I had cut out of my head on my own. DOH. Today we drove to Sacramento with the doggies to visit Hairy’s family and his new baby niece. I didn’t take pictures, though, cuz I’m sensitive about posting pics of other families on my blog. I did snap a pic of the cardi I wore, though. I clearly can’t let go of the Valentine’s Day spirit! It’s from Forever 21. Hearts hearts hearts!!! Oh! For those who don’t follow me on Twitter or Facebook, I also uploaded the popcorn garland pattern to Etsy, as well as the electronic/PDF version of my Sugar On Top Mini book. I will be making more of the actual mini book as well (gotta pick up my copies from the copy place!) and putting them on Etsy, but you can save a few bucks by assembling your own if you buy the PDF 🙂 Check it out! Just a note: this doesn’t mean I will start posting patterns for everything under the sun!!! I think for now, I only intend to post the occasional pattern for projects I know I probably don’t want to sell finished products of myself. For stuff like the cupcake coffee cup cozies: I’m still making them and selling them, so I probably wouldn’t post the pattern just yet. I’ve already been fielding a few questions like these, so I thought I would just bring it up! 🙂 But I WILL be sharing a VERY cute coffee cup cozy pattern with you guys via a SUPER rad magazine that I adore. I will let you know when that is out! OKAY! Stay tuned for Monday! I will be announcing a pretty cool giveaway with a fun new item, and there will be 10 winners! 🙂