Author: TwinkieChan

Hey kids! I am doing my very first giveaway over at LovelyLittleDeer’sblog, and there is also a fun interview with moi! The giveaway item is a custom sugar cookie pin :). The contest ends on July 13! Please visit Becky’s blog to see how to enter! Also, I was alerted to the fact that my first cake tissue cozy was featured in a blog about the 12 most Creative Tissue Boxes! Also, we took my laptop into the Apple store today and discovered I have a janky video card, and since there are a bunch of class action law suits involving my video card, I’m getting it replaced for free!!! It’s going to take a while, so I still won’t be online as much as usual. I feel like not having my laptop allows me to do more work, while also keeping me from doing work. Haha. Double-edged sword! Also, using someone else’s computer is weird….the keys are all different, I keep making typos, I feel like it’s a little bit slower. It frustrates me a little bit, so I probably won’t use it very much. I’ll still do my best to keep on top of everything I have to keep on top of. Don’t worry! But I mention it just so you know I may not comment on stuff as much! I gotta go and work on t-shirt and postcard designs now! Can’t wait to post pics of the soft-serve icecream cone scarf I have in the works. It’s dericious!

Hey guys. Last night, the screen on my laptop decided to take a break….  Hairy says they’ll probably have to send it away to be fixed. It’s kind of the worst time ever to not have access to my computer while I’m still designing stuff and preparing for Renegade, so we might just buy a cable and see if I can hook it up to our flatscreen tv, and then send the computer in after the show! AHHHH! We’ll see. In the meantime, I can gank Hairy’s laptop when he’s not using it, but I just wanted to let y’all know if I don’t respond to your comments right away or post here as much! Happy Fourth!!! Hairy is roasting a chicken and we bought lots of foods to nosh. I gotta go baste that bird!

We are the proud owners of a vintage fridge! We drove to Pleasanton last week to pick this up and use it for a display unit for the craft fair. Hairy thought of paying for a storage unit for a month to put the fridge in, and then selling the fridge after the fair. But I suggested we just put it in the downstairs bathroom for now instead of paying for storage. Now we have the weirdest bathroom ever. It was already ugly (pea green walls and purple tile!) but now there’s an old fridge AND a Dora the Explorer pinata in it!!! (The pinata is a gift from my manager dude. He swung by last weekend with his supercute daughter Hayley McMuffin and he said he got the Dora pinata for me to customize into a Twinkie pinata!) Hairy says the Dora pinata has front-butt. It’s in pretty good condition. Apparently it was repainted at some point, but there is till kind of a dent in the door and some rusting. It needs some stickers removed and some TLC, but it will be a cute way to hold the foodie scarves for events. I kind of want to keep it and use it to store clothes upstairs, but I’m afraid it will start to smell in there. Plus, it’s really heavy and nobody is going to want to haul it upstairs into the bedroom! There was kind of a huge rigmarole involving this fridge for the first 48 hrs. Let’s just say, 10,000 spiders & beetles, egg sacs, a blackwidow, a whole can of RAID, asbestos, hissing tubes, and compressed frothy white oil all over the garage floor. It was really scary for a hot minute! Even though it is shorter than I am and has had some heavy stuff removed from its guts, it’s still really heavy, and it will be interesting to move this thing around in the next 2 weeks!!!

Yesterday, I had lunch with my ex-office ladies. Our salads were not too delightful, but the company was. I was also next to my favorite cupcake shop: Kara’s Cupcakes, so I picked up a little box of yummyness. I just ate the last one (yes, before dinner!), and for some reason, I felt like I was supposed to record it and speed it up! Here’s what happened!! (I keep looking up and over because I was watching “Undeclared” on DVD!) Oh, P.S. it’s the “Lemony Lemon” cupcake, and it’s SO good cuz the frosting is neither too sugary nor too shortening-y, plus the lemon FILLING is delish!!! The special cupcake of the month this month is SMORES: chocolate cupcake, graham cracker crumble, toasted marshmallow topping. I might buy some tomorrow if I’m feeling like a fatty, which I probably will….hahaha. I will be in the neighborhood again to have lunch with the BFF and her friend.

I can’t remember if I ever posted info for the fair! It’s July 18-19, in Fort Mason here in San Francisco. Here is a link to the Renegade site. I went to this fair last year as a shopper/visitor, and I was AMAZED at how many vendors there were! So Much stuff!!! Bring lots of cash!!! We ran out! Manda and I will be at booth 92, which will be nearish to the frontish. I’m starting to feel like there are 12 stages of planning for a craft fair. At first I felt anxious, then I felt relaxed (about having plenty of time to make stuff for my table), then I was in denial (about having no time to make stuff for my table), then I was FREAKED THE EFF OUT, and now I’m excited. I wonder what tomorrow will bring! Probably more freak-the-eff-out before this event is done. Please come say hi. If all plans turn out well, I will have a really cool booth display, and LOTS of new, fun items!

I’ve a feeling the happy, white teeth will sell first. Ahahahaha :P. I’m thinking of putting treats in them. Like dental floss in the happy tooth and candy in the sad tooth, so that the sad tooth will get some love!

Just jeans on the bottom! Dainty June top (I LOVE this line! Sold at All Mighty and other boutiques), Applenoggin necklace, holding a berry made by me! The shirt is making me a liiiiittle self-conscious about my little belly and muffins, but, whatever, it’s comfy and cute! So Hairy has been cooking at home a bit more lately, which is delightful. 1) It’s helpful to not have to go out to eat as that sort of wastes time and I’m really pressed for time before the craft fair, 2) It’s nummy! One of his concoctions is made of frozen peas, and it’s REALLY good. He calls it “smashy peas,” but I feel like I’ve seen something like that at restaurants, and it’s served hot and tastes more like a chunky pea soup. What he makes is cold, refreshing, very “green” tasting, and is more like a lemony hummus, but with green peas, and does not have that sort of mealy, grainy mouthfeel that bean dips can have. It’s 100% delightful and not at all pea-soup like. I think he pretty much transformed peas. We couldn’t think of a good name for it. I’ve been calling it Peamus. Here’s the recipe!!! HAIRY’S TASTY PEAMUS Whole bag of frozen peas, defrosted 1/2 cup olive oil salt/pepper to taste juice of one lemon 3-4 cloves of garlic big handful of fresh mint big handful of fresh parsley half of a shallot Put all this stuff into your food processor/blender, until you have the desired consistency, you know, hummus-like. Hairy served it with a baguette. I think it could be a yummy alternative to mayo or mustard on a sandwich. I also just ate it with wheat thins. I almost feel like I could live on peamus and brownies and be happy. EDIT!!: We’ve just been informed by CurvyQ that Peamus is in fact known as MOCK-A-MOLE!!!! Doh!!! I’d never heard of mockamole before, since I am not really knowledgeable at all of the world of food substitution!

It’s funny what sounds Bibi is aware of: 1) Hair Spray = keep a distance or you’ll start sneezing. 2) Hairy’s cell phone = someone’s ringing the door bell & coming for a visit. 3) Egg shell cracking = yummy boiled egg snack. 4) Reverse beeping sound on the car = parking = soon time to get out of car and go play! 5) Banana getting peeled = snacks for Bibi!!! We don’t feed our dogs at the table. Hairy was very insistent upon this when we first got Bibi as a baby. So now when we eat, they might get curious, but they’ll usually go and sleep on the couch instead of bugging us. We do feed them human food, fresh, unseasoned human food like fruit and veggies and yogurt and cottage cheese, but these usually go in their doggie bowls so they know that our food is our food, and their food is their food. However, boiled eggs and bananas seem to be the exception. I cannot shell an egg or peel a banana without Bibi getting all up in my face. So that’s where this video came from! Hairy had put out some tea, a pecan roll, and a banana for me for breakfast on Sunday, and once I hit the banana….I couldn’t shake the Bibi and ended up giving her the rest of it! Today is all about sewing zippers and buttons = 2 of my least favorite things ever!!! It’s really hard for me to sew zippers onto the cute-tility packs. It’s a small amount of space to work with, and I have pins sticking all over the place, and I’m not a great seamstress to begin with. so I end up sticking myself a million times. Fun fun fun! Today’s victim = Sweet Tooth cute-tility packs!! I’ve never sold teethpacks before. I only ever made one for my friend Elysse for her birthday. But I will be selling happy white teeth and sad yellow teeth at the craft fair! Time to return to my personal zipper-hell! Later I’ll try to post a really yummy “Hairy Cooks” recipe!

I was delighted to see this fruity rainbow tart at Whole Foods just now. Also, a neat surprise: a ginormous arch of rainbow balloons at the Home Depot in COlma!!! Sorry I didn’t get a pic of it. You’ll just have to make a rainbow balloon arch of your own!

I will debuting all new t-shirt designs at Renegade (if I get all my shizz together). Here is the first one! Three scoops of ice cream and a cute banner that reads: Triple Scoop Troop. Yes, it’s based on my tattoo! The whole idea was inspired by all the other ladies with triple scoop ice cream tattoos. I don’t know most of the girls, but I figured we were now all part of some loosely organized posse! I wanted a shirt for us and all the other people who just love ice cream! I am still adjusting the colors, so this one is just a tester that I will be keeping. I’ve decided how I will print this design for the fair, but I need to figure out how to keep this in stock in the future without costing me a fortune! Anyway, I have some more cute designs cooking up. More sneak peeks of those as they come in! I think that Hairy and I will be screenprinting the rest ourselves, at his “shop,” the Fondu Pot.

What the “craft bench” looks like right now. Someone asked me what my craft area looks like, and, you’re kinda looking at it. I live in a loft, so there are no separate rooms for organization. I basically take over the living room. I have yarn stash in one corner, photo lights in another corner, and some crafty supplies in another corner. I like to sit on the floor and work, so I’m usually on the living room rug, leaning against the couch. If I have to lay out my work, I use the skinny table/bench behind the couch. My official craft table is a bit of a wreck right now. I usually don’t work at it unless I’m doing something with beads. Otherwise, it’s storage and a place to put crap down! In more administrative news, you may notice a change in the way comments/replies work on my blog. I really wanted you guys to be notified if I or someone else reply to your comments here. If I leave a comment on someone’s blog, I usually won’t check back on that entry to see if I got a response. I just won’t remember. So I like when I get notified if someone replies to me. That is why I made that change here. Hairy told me that without notifications, commenters are encouraged to return to the page to see if they got a response, which would increase your site traffic numbers(?). I understand that from a numbers standpoint, but from a user’s standpoint, I’m personally just not going to check back! So if you hate this change, I can also give you the option of deciding whether or not you get a reply message. But I like it this way because I feel it creates more of a dialogue between you and me (and others), and that’s what I feel that blogging is about, at least for myself, at this moment in time. With blogger, I can check a box to get a notification or not, but sometimes I forget to check the box! So I like the default. Let me know your thoughts. Anyhoo, today I decided to curl my bangs under! It looked better before I brushed them out. I prefered it a bit piece-y, since I curled them in three sections. Oh well! Now I know for next time! Finger-brush, not brush-brush! Last night, Hairy made pho! I think it’s exciting we also get the dish of greens n things just like at a restaurant! Now I’m going back to sewing pepperonis onto pizzas!!!

The beautiful and creative Elsie Cake who also runs the online shop and brick-n-mortar Red Velvet Art listed my blog on her list of Top 10 Colorful & Crafty Blogs to Inspire for blogs.com. I’m so surprised because Elsie’s blog on typepad is one that I look forward to reading every day for inspiration. Her drawings, photos, crafts, and words of wisdom are a treat! Check her out!

Sooooo I ordered ONE shirt (not pictured today…but soon!) from All Mighty. When they first announced their Dainty June sister line and I saw pics, I was like, I NEED TO HAVE ALL OF THIS. So I was a little proud of myself for only getting one shirt from Dainty June. When my package arrived, it was BIG, and I was confused! Turns out, they threw in a bunch more shirts from their damaged/sample bin. WOWEE!! I might do a give away including a shirt or two, or just give some to friends. I’m not sure! I tried on the green one, and then, I just left it on because it was so soft and comfy. Generally, I must wash all new clothing before putting it on my body, but, seriously, SOFT. On for the rest of the day. Originally I was wearing my “I hate children” puff sleeve shirt from Locher. I don’t really hate all kids. Just ones that are crying and screaming…. Anyway, I must also share the other half of my big dirty 40% off Betsey Johnson sale secret. THIS HOODIE!! O.M.G. Okay, it was really spendy, but 40% off!! Stiiilll spendy….but….I had to have it and I have no regrets. Puff sleeve, ruffle bottom, gold zippers even at the wrist, beautiful pattern and colors. Also, it’s really warm for a hoodie. Maybe too warm for the current weather! We’ll see. Finally, here’s a tiny peek at what we’re working on for Renegade. I still have a crap ton to do. It sort of overwhelms me. So yesterday I scrubbed down the bathrooms to avoid my to-do list. Today I have to get back on the horse! I’ve been working on t-shirt designs a lot the past few days. I’m kind of stuck on which to print and bring to the fair! We’ll see. More updates on that soon!

A lot of gals, espesh on MySpace, have asked me about my makeup and how I do it. I do not know how to put on makeup at all, and I just do what I do because it’s fast and simple for me and hides what I want to hide! 😛 I have always wanted to be a low maintenance gal. I didn’t wear any kind of makeup in highschool. I dabbled in eyeliner in college, and then when my mom and I went to get fun makeovers at the Prescriptives counter sometime shortly after, she said I looked better with my eyebrows done! I was never a lipstick girl. I think it brings more attention to my crooked teeth! I have hardly any eyebrows or eyelashes, so I feel like a big old alien when I have no makeup on. I do not leave the house without eyeliner! When I was 14, I was diagnosed with a thyroid disorder which also gave me the bug eyes that I have today (I used eyeshadow in order to hide the appearance of my upper lids puffing a little bit over my eyeline). I think the hyperthyroidism, plus years and years of lack of proper sleep, have given me wicked under-eyebags, which are embarrassingly obvious in this video (yes, I photoshop them in photos…who needs to see that?! yuck!). If anyone out there has any pointers about eyebags, please let me know!!! I’ve tried many creams, etc, and nothing really helps at all, so I’m thinking that nothing really works anyway! Okay okay, enough dancing around the topic of my gross, un-made-up face! On to the video. Super Janky Makeup Video from Twinkie Chan on Vimeo.

1. Polka dot Bib Dress by BonjourPierre on Etsy. 2. Amazing Tree Bed by Shawn Lovelle Metalworks. 3. iKaraoke! 4. Goblin Hood Dress by Malam on Etsy. 5. Reconstructed Striped Dress by heidiandseek on Etsy. 6. Cat Messenger Bag by decora on Etsy. 7. green Mazeppa top by Dainty June at All Mighty. 8. Birdhouse Trio bry Frippelous on Lollishops.

MMMM okay this is just me being grumpy or annoyed. HAHA. While I was going thru the video clips a few days ago, I noticed I was more grouchy than I thought. Sleep deprived. Sweaty. Had the doodoos. I do my best. Hahah. Here’s a short collection. Actual video montage to follow later! Oh and PHOTOS! Sheesh. Sometimes I’m Grumpy from Twinkie Chan on Vimeo.

Hairy has said I am officially “bad.” I am not “bad,” I am human!!! A mere human girl!!! When I got the email telling me that Betsey Johnson’s bags were 40% off, I had to take a look…. and I fell deeply and hopelessly in love with this amazing ice cream tote bag. The handles are pink sequins, the giant ice cream on the front is a zipper pocket, there’s a magnetic snap closure, tons of room for my crap. WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE?!??! I MEAN REALLY!?!!?? (please excuse my terrible hair. sometimes it just does whatever it wants to do…)

When we were in Paris, we ran into a Pierre Herme shop which is supposed to be famous for its macaroons. They had all kinds of crazy flavors like wasabi or rose! I got 4, but I decided after all that I don’t really like the taste/texture of macaroons. They are really cute, though, so I started thinking of ideas for macaroon-inspired cowls. And tonight, I thought of a strawberry creme puff cowl I want to make. So I sketched them out to remember. (Yes, I know, I can’t draw. I’m ok with that and I don’t even try.) I probably won’t be able to make any for quite some time as I have so many big projects lined up, but hopefully I can sneak one in! I know exactly how I want to do them so that they seem to have a nice rounded edge. Anyway, that’s all from me! Back to work! Today I am writing notes on my book contract!! I kind of wish I could also have one of my old colleagues go over it with me, but I don’t want to burden someone who is not my actual agent. My agent already wrote notes, so if she and I go over it, we’ll probably have most of our bases covered. Blah blah blah. Okay, off I go!

I shrug at this entire post. I don’t like to abandon my blog for too long, but I have too much Photoshop homework to do on a time crunch, so I haven’t been crocheting much or taking any pictures or going through vacation stuff. I kind of don’t remember why on earth I bought this Maneater shirt. I probably thought it was funny at the time, but now I’m like, Hunh? So here’s a really horrible video for you to enjoy today! I guess the other moral of the story is: don’t ever take me dancing. I *will* snap my fingers. A lot.

On Saturday, Hairy drove down to the Peninsula with me to pick up some yarn from Los Altos. I had called all around the city and nobody had Plymouth Encore worsted weight in bright yellow!!!! So we went down there and also visited Manda to drop off her prezzies from Europe. I got her three French fashion/lifestyle magazines, a fancy jar of peas (joke, but she really does eat canned peans with mayo!), and fancy dark chocolates. Afterward, we drove back up to the city to walk the pups and buy foods for dinner. Hairy made a yummy salad and a little bit of pasta. Then we stopped by the Comet Club in the Marina to say hi to Michelle who was promoting Sailor Jerry rum. I have decided I definitely am not a rum and coke girl! I was already feeling tired around midnight, but the Comet Club was still an amusing place. I really want to take Manda. I think she would like it. I am always fascinated by the way people act at clubs, when dudes grind on girls, when everyone acts silly. Good people watching! Hairy drank three rum & cokes and then Michelle and I visited the photobooth. I never know what to do with myself in one. I think it’s clear that “grumpy face” is a go-to.

Doing a lot of work in Photoshop today, so I decided to break in my new shoes that Hairy bought me in Milan (god that sounds pretentious!!!). We had a free day in Florence, so we decided to hop on a train for two hours to see if we might check out The Last Supper in Milan. However, the church/tour was booked 3 weeks ahead!! So we just decided to wander around a little bit. We ran into this little shoe store called Les Lolitas that I really loved. I should have gotten more than one pair! Oh well! They are kind of like little old lady shoes because the heel kinda looks funky, but they are really comfy and breaking in really quickly, which is awesome. I can never find shoes because I have duck feet: fat and wide in the front, and narrow in the heel. This is why I wear a lot of chunky maryjane-ish shoes: to accommodate my chubby fronts! I don’t know from shoes or whether or not these are well made. I guess we’ll see!! It is kinda gloomy in the loft today, so I went on the patio to take some pictures. I really love our green mossy stuff, but Hairy and I are really itching to get rid of the rock “garden” that came with the place when we moved in, because Bunny keeps pooing in it and I think it’s kind of an eyesore. Anyway, if you are ever shopping in Milan, you also have to go to the store Love Therapy! I did not buy anything in there but I was lusting over everything, espesh a pair of golden, open-toed platform wedgies!!! They did not have my size, tho. Soon after looking around, I had a super stomach explosion and we ducked a small camera crew who asked us to say “HELLO, DOCTOR!” for TV so I could find a bathroom!!! HAHA. It was super duper hot in Milan, and I wasn’t feeling well, so we got on the train back to Florence, and then had a very yummy dinner at a rando cafe that gave us free prosecco when we sat down, and also left a free bottle of Limoncello for us after dinner. Hairy drank all my alcohol since I had yuck-tum and then he fell off a curb while we walked back to the hotel and I made fun of him. Anyhoos, maybe I’ll start sorting all the pics and vids from the trip tonight. Or not. I am super busy with Twinkie Chan work, so we’ll see how fast I can move. Right now I have to try and pick up our mail from the post office and mail off a baby turnip scarf! I hope they have our mail! I think they kinda screwed up on our last trip!

taken in a metro station in Milan Hairy, the fam, and I are back from our Florence/Paris trip! There are lots of pics and lots of video clips, which = MONTAGE!!! But 1st things 1st. Picking up out babydoggies tomorrow. Nosediving back into Twinkie Chan work. And UNPACKING!!!! Fave moment from Florence, in our hotel bathroom: Me, “These face-towels are REALLY weird!” Hairy, “That’s cuz they’re BUTT-towels!” AHHHHH BIDETS!!!!!

1. Gold Ruffle Skirt by Skycreations on Etsy 2. Sprinkle Bangle by Starsprinklez on Etsy. 3. Jelly Bean earrings by Roscata on Etsy. (I WILL get a pair of these!! If they sell out before I get to, I am going to harass Roscata!!) 4. Panda Top by radclothing on Etsy. 5. Hot Pink Rose Hairclip by emandsprout on Etsy. 6. Big Rainbow Taffy hair bow by Sassafrasgifts on Etsy. 7. Barbie T ennis Bubble Dress by 123LaLaLovely on Etsy. 8. Cute Foodie Cabochons like this lot sold by SweetStrawberryLand on Etsy. I want to glue these all over everything in my bedroom! AAAAaaaand cuz you won’t be getting any Bibi for two weeks (and neither will I!!!!), here’s Bibi from this afternoon, hoggin’ up my space. Convo with Bibi from Twinkie Chan on Vimeo. Okay, everybody take care!!! When Hairy, my family, and I get back from Europe I am sure I will have fun pics and food adventures, and hopefully, my favorite, an awful vacation montage! YAY!!!

Sometimes it happens. When you have dogs, they chew up stuff. I think they were after the radish’s eyeballs. This radish already had its green stems and leaves and everything, but all the dogs wanted WERE THE EYES!!! This radish was supposed to be for a commission. Oy! Luckily, Marissa sent me an extra radish head, so I performed a stem and leaf transplant. The patient seemed ok with his new prosthetic! If I were Howie, I would have bought scrubs, and some operating tools, and would have had a really exciting ER-style movie about emergency veggie surgery!! But sadly, I am me, and I’m lazy. All you got were these sad snaps. At least the patient is upright and alert. Obvs, the donor from the first pic is looking a bit busted, but, you can’t save them all. You just can’t save them all!!!!! *facepalm*