Category: Blog

I know this is the same outfit I was wearing in my previous post, but I just wanted to highlight the outfit, because, I kinda like it a lot! The dress is from the Target Girls section, and I can barely squeak into it (there’s no zipper or closure, and barely room for boobs, so it’s good I don’t have any), but it’s the PERFECT shade of pink!!! I was experimenting with a pink donut and wondered what I wanted to make with it (piggies weren’t really calling to me), so I turned it into a Gloomy Bear donut. My necklace is by Fatally Feminine, who is also my collab partner on the Yummy You! marshmallow charm bracelet. Confession: I wasn’t wearing any shoes. Great outfit photo, right? But I was mostly focused on shooting some scarves and stuff for a magazine due out this summer. I hope you all have a great weekend! I think we are having a picnic on Sunday! Hmmm, what to wear!? Dress: Target girls, Gloomy Bear Donut: made by me, Hair bow: Miss Alphabet, Necklace: Fatally Feminine Designs 

You can now buy vanilla or chocolate Kitty Donut Hair Clips in my Etsy shop! Each one has a slightly different personality, but they are all super sweet and cute! I was afraid they would look weird as hair pieces, but I really love how they look while worn. Like I have a little napping kitty on my head! I am going to make other colors soon, too! Like a striped maple kitty and maybe a panda! (p.s. I will not be selling the Gloomy Bear donuts, sorry! Not unless someone knows the Gloomy Bear people and they tell me it’s okay 😛 )

YOU GUYS. This is the most magicalest sweater!!!!!! It’s the new Little Twin Stars Lurex Knit Sweater from JapanLA clothing and Sanrio. It’s probably the most perfect sweater on the planet. It also has metallic sparkle running through it! I was afraid the metallic sparkle would make the sweater itchy. I’m really sensitive to itchy clothing, and I don’t find this itchy at all! Also, I washed this and let it air dry, and I was worried that it would wrinkle, but it didn’t! I see this sweater modeled often without any pants or anything underneath, so I wondered what I would wear with it, as a person who needs to wear bottoms. I decided to keep it super casual with some jean shorts that I cut off last fall to go canoe-ing, my trusty black buckle boots, and some matching tights. I was picking through some Yummy You! scarves to pair with this when I go out for ramen later tonight with Tiffany Star & co, but it was a bit busy, so I stuck with this funny purple pompom scarf that was a present from Marissa. Sorry for the outfit posts and lack of crochet posts! I am indeed crocheting! I am working on a secret scarf sample for Yummy You (cross your fingers… it would be a really cool collab, and sometimes these collabs don’t happen). I also just finished a pattern for a fun new hair clip/head piece, so stay tuned for that! Sweater: JapanLA Clothing, Headband: made by me!, Tights: We Love Colors

I have to admit, this outfit is a little bit out-there to me. The main reason: I feel butt-conscious in it. But from the front, I’m totally fine with it. Just, don’t look at my butt… Anyway, this little black velvet jumpsuit is kind of amazing regardless of the butt thing. Pajama-factor is high as far as comfort, and I love how the legs are short so you can show off some weird mis-matched socks. The leg-length also gives the jumpsuit kind of a nerdy awkward dorky feel, which I know won’t be for everyone, but it’s definitely for me! There are cute velvet buttons down the front, too, but those were hard for me to photograph since the velvety blackness sucked in all the light. In highschool, my highschool-BFF gave me a hard time for being so matchy-matchy all the time, so then I purposefully started to not match anything at all, which is the rule I lived by for basically my whole adult life (aside from in the office… then I just wore all black because I didn’t know how to match anything else, in a grown-up and office-appropriate manner). These days, when I throw together an outfit, I’m discovering I’m actually getting a little more matchy-matchy again as far as colors, because I equate that with seeming put-together. On Instagram, I said this look was inspired by mimes and clowns. All I need is some balloons and the big red nose! Jumpsuit: The White Pepper, Flower Collar: Locketship, Wedge Boots: The White Pepper, Knee Highs: We Love Colors, Sanrio Cupcake Scarf: Yummy You!, Little Red Beret: made by me! About the beret: I actually made one for me and Manda for this little casual photoshoot I wanted to do last weekend, but I can’t show you those photos just yet. If you want to make your own mini beret, it’s super easy. Basically, if you can crochet a circle, you can crochet this hat! Here’s the pattern:

  Did you guys get into any fun adventures this weekend? I’ve been trying to catch up on my Etsy orders (burger scarf is taking forever!!), and Manda also spent the night at my house. We had drinks on Saturday night (p.s. “Purple Hooters” are gross) and then brunch today (I LOVE HASH BROWNS). I also kidnapped her to the beach, where we had a little funny video & photo shoot. Here’s a snap shot from Manda’s iPhone! Much more goofiness and silliness on the way!! Stay tuned this week! I’ll be launching a giveaway for a fun crafty book! And I’m gonna try my best to get a free Easter-related pattern up on the blog!

Sometimes people ask how they can participate in my group giveaways. My next one launches on March 15th, and indie businesses who sponsor my blog and purchase either the large ad or a medium ad are invited to participate in the giveaway for that month. At first I didn’t know if people would enjoy the giveaways, but my sponsors tell me they get a lot of new followers on their social media, and my blog readers always mention how fun the giveaways are and how they are introduced to new brands. So let’s keep it going! You can check out all the sponsor info and purchase ads here via PassionFruitAds. It would be fun for all of to see new faces! 🙂 I have even met a new collaboration partner through my blog sponsors, and I will be shooting those photos tomorrow and telling you guys about our suuuuuper cute and delicious collab very very soon!  

This coming Saturday, March 15, is San Francisco’s 8th Annual Chocolate Salon at Fort Mason, featuring 55,000 square feet of chocolate, wine, and confections! From 10am (wow, early for chocolate!) to 6pm. They asked if I might want to display a few chocolate-themed crocheted treats in their chocolate art area, and I said of course! So I’ll be there early on Saturday, setting up my little display. Come check out all the chocolatey goodness! You can buy tickets in advance here. I believe it’s $20 advance, $30 at the door, and $10 for children. I’ve never been to this before, so I’m kinda curious to see what it’s all about!

Check out what I cooked up for the Sugar High Club group art show at Ink and Pistons‘ Slushbox Art Gallery in West Palm Beach! The show opens March 8th, 7pm-11pm and features “all things sweet, sugary, sparkly, extra fluffy and of course super Kawaii!!” Here’s a link to the Facebook event. This tissue cozy definitely wins for Most Hand-Sewing Needed!!! I really love how the circus tent turned out!

Mollie Makes “DIY FASHION” bookazine is out now! It 132 pages of people’s photos of their closets and favorite outfits (including me), and q&a’s about their style influences and how they add their own DIY touches. There are also 12 projects inside to help you accent your own wardrobes, including a brand new crochet pattern by me for Frosted Animal Cookie brooches! I am really not great with technology, but you can either purchase a hardcopy from the link above, or you can get on your iPhone or iPad, download the Mollie Makes app for free, and then purchase the DIY Fashion issue inside the app. Have fun! I’ve been looking at the bookazine in my iPhone (I don’t have an iPad), and everything is kinda tiny, but I can tell there is a lot of neat stuff inside. Some of these girls’ houses are AMAZING! I had a really tight deadline for submission, which pretty  much meant, I didn’t have time to pick up the house much (doh!), so I took photos outside. My garden is not so green right now, so I ended up next to a wall. Not my 100% ideal for a colorful backdrop, but, you work with what you got!

I forgot to blog that you can now order a Pug Coffee Cup Cozy in my shop! I ordered a few more taupe/beige shades of yarn, but I was told it would take a few weeks, so, this little light fawn color is all that there is available right now! More colors later! I know some of you will ask, “Can I buy the pattern?” Right now, no. But maybe later! I am thinking a couple months down the road, I will put together a bunch of animal coffee cup cozy patterns, like this owl, or this fox, or all of these fine creatures:

I just posted this on Instagram as a sample of the mess that is my craft room. The floor is covered in boxes filled with yarn, WIPs, and various craft supplies. I actually have a mind to re-arrange the whole room, but I have a few crochet deadlines to meet before setting aside time for Craft Room Overhaul. I am also afraid I will never make time for the overhaul, so hopefully I can zip thought my project for the Sugar High Club art show as well as a secret Yummy You sample (and also assorted Etsy orders) in a fairly timely manner! I tend to always feel overwhelmed and always behind. I make lots of lists. I live by lists. It feels good to cross things off lists. But I still feel behind! I know that part of the solution is to learn to say “no” more when it comes to work-related projects, and I think I’m getting better at that, but it’s hard to say no to participating in fun things! Even when I was working in publishing, I always felt behind, always took work home. There were always stacks and stacks of manuscripts to get through, and then more stacks after that. I have never lived my adult life any other way. I suppose this has its pros and its cons! Speaking of fun projects, I will have a really super awesome great new pattern in a “bookazine” that’s dropping on the 20somethingth of February. I’ll keep you guys posted! I’m so excited for this one!!!!

YOU GUYS. OMG YOU GUYS. I am totally dying over the “Pastry Chefs” watch collection from Swatch. Why haven’t I seen these popping up more on my social media? Why am I not wearing more than one on the same wrist RIGHT NOW, like any self-respecting Swatch-wearer is supposed to? The ten watch designs are inspired by candies, sprinkles, licorice, macarons, marshmallows, cakes, ice cream, you know, all the good stuff. I’m super serious about stacking them, cuz that’s what we did in the 80s! I remember my most favorite Swatch back then had purple jelly wrist bands and a black face, and the arms were lightning bolts that glowed in the dark. TOO AWESOME, RIGHT? These are my favorite three from the Pastry Chefs:   Yes, I placed an order. Yes, I’ll be showing you soon…..! 😛

It’s the 15th of the month, so it’s time to launch a new blog sponsor giveaway! Thanks so much to my generous sponsors for offering us these wonderful goodies! One lucky winner will receive: 1. Twinkie Chan EXCLUSIVE 4 pack of RockerByeBaby‘s “Dirty Girl” Un-paper Towels in imported Japanese fabrics and a button. “Feeling Dirty? No problem – I have the perfect thing for you, girl… I use a waffle weave unbleached muslin for the backs of the Dirty Girl UnPaper Towels. I double-serge all the edges for long life & durability. They’re safe for all surfaces, nice and absorbent for drying spills  and textured for scrubbing counters when wet.” (BTW, how fun and perfect is the print!?) 2. Here is your chance to win one of The Geek Garden‘s best selling custom made Marvel Heroes Retro Skirts! All of her skirts have a comfy black knit foldover band with hand ruffled Marvel skirting with serged hem. 3. This Mermaid locket from Messy Pink will make any outfit a little more magical! 4. Cute Cloud Keyring by ClaireyLouCreations. 5.  Pretty matching zipper pouch set from Quiet Tiger. The bigger one is about 4″ x 6″ and the smaller one is about 4″ x 4″. 6. Bonjour Breakfast Card and BFF Print from Prints & Things by Nellie Le. 7. Free download of Twink the Toy Piano Band‘s new album Happy Houses. 8. A 20 euros ($27) gift certificate to Petits Pixels Etsy shop. 9. I’m also going to throw my hat in this month! 1 custom Cupcake Coffee Cup Cozy crocheted by me, in the flavors of your choice! Just follow the Rafflecopter widget below for all of your chances to win! (p.s If you are new to Rafflecopter and think it’s weird, I just ran into this hand dandy guide.) Giveaway is open worldwide and will run for a week until next Sunday night, February 23rd, at midnight PST. Good luck! P.S. Please make sure my email address can get through your spam filters! twinkie@twinkiechan.com a Rafflecopter giveaway

  Oh hey! You can pick up my face and a free pattern at your local Michaels store! Lily Sugar ‘n Cream is coming out with some new, yummy, candy colors and asked me to whip up some fun crochet treats for their Sweets & Delights promo! I created two crochet projects for them, and the first one is this Cupcake Dish Cloth! I’ll post the second project here tomorrow! ;). The pattern is also available on Michaels.com (thank you, Elleen!). (Colors shown in my photos are Strawberry Shortcake (new!), Blue Cupcake (new!), Mint (new!), Soft Ecru, and Red.) Edit: I just put up a video on YouTube to go with the pattern!

Are any of you guys in Florida? If so, please check out the Sugar High Club group art show at Ink and Pistons‘ Slushbox Art Gallery in West Palm Beach! The show opens March 8th, 7pm-11pm and features “all things sweet, sugary, sparkly, extra fluffy and of course super Kawaii!!” Here’s a link to the Facebook event. I’ll have something super cute there (no sneak peeks yet, but I’m working on it!) and am so excited to share a space with awesome ladies like Miss Kika, Mel Stringer, and Mary Winkler, among many others!  

My mom is really into a dessert called the Mont Blanc, which is a chestnut-flavored pastry resembling and named after the highest mountain in the Alps. I decided to crochet her a little painting for her Christmas/Birthday present with three mont blancs on a cake stand. As per usual, I thought it would be funny to show you the sketch I used to map everything out. Sorry about the terrible flash photography! I finished this right before we went to her birthday dinner, and there was no more sunlight for a good photo. It’s kind of hard to see in the photo, but I used a fun gold thread with sequins to decorate the cake stand as well as at some fun sparkle stars to the background. Hopefully I’ll remember to bring my camera to my parents’ house one day to get a nicer picture!    

On Sunday, I thought it would be funny if Manda came over to watch the Superbowl. I am not a sports fan, and I have no idea what is going on in football, but it seemed like a fun excuse for us to get together and eat a bunch of junk food. A few days ago, I had been craving chocolate chip oatmeal cookies from Trader Joe’s. They are bite-sized, and they are crunchy and delightful. I figured I could just try making them at home, so that’s what happened on Superbowl Sunday. I used this recipe from Brown Eyed Baker. Okay, here’s a classic Me Move. The recipe instructs you to make dough balls out of 2 heaping tablespoons, so for my first batch, I plopped on 2 TBS of dough, but didn’t roll it into a ball or anything. For my second batch, I wanted smaller cookies, so  I just scooped out what I’ll call a small “bloop” of dough (as pictured above), and then rolled it around in my hands. I was kind of surprised when the baking time seemed to be kind of longer for the small balls than the big plops. About 8 minutes in, I realized, THAT MY OVEN WAS OFF. Because for my first batch, I had apparently turned off the oven when I meant to turn off the timer. GOOD ONE. So don’t even ask me about baking times, cuz I just winged it at that point. Overall, I think this particular recipe was a bit on the sweet side for me. I don’t know anything about baking, and I’m not sure what would happen to the whole recipe if I took out like 1/4 cup of sugar in there somewhere, but that would be my amateur inclination. Also, they were not light and crunchy like the Trader Joe’s ones, but I knew that going in, since the recipe called these thick and chewy. Otherwise, I had a fun time with these cookies, because I felt like there weren’t a lot of steps or ingredients to wrangle. I still need to remember to always make a half recipe, though, because I’m the only one in the house who really eats what I bake, and now I have like 80 million cookies to deal with!

Are you in Chicago? Do you want to take a super fun crafty class? Steff Bomb, winner of TLC’s Craft Wars, is here to help! Chicago Makes presents: A Plush Toy Sewing Workshop by Steff Bomb. Wednesday, February 5th, 2014 7pm – 9pm. @ Sew Crafty Studios, 2320 N Damen Ave, STE 1E, Chicago, IL 60647. Learn how to sew a plush piece of cake! $35 per person, materials included. Free booze, snacks, and cake! Beer provided by Revolution Brewery. Must be 21+ to attend. For more information visit sewcraftystudio.com or email: info@sewcraftystudio.com I have taken the liberty of showing y’all some of my favorites from Steff’s plush portfolio!

Ahhhh I feel so lucky!!! The adorable Em Somerville of Lick My Cupcakes doodled me and just sent me a print as well as two cute stickers! My biz partner liked them a lot and stuck them on some of our Yummy You packages, so if you’ve ordered recently, you may have seen this, too! If you are looking for a cute commission, you should definitely hit Em up if she has time!

I’m finding it a little hard to get into 2014. Part of me wanted to take a week or two to just relax and not work for once after the holiday rush, but that didn’t really happen. I had some stressful personal stuff happening (not health-related, don’t worry, just first world problems) that stretched out for a few weeks, but I hope that I’m seeing the end of that right about now. We’re butting up against Valentine’s Day, and part of me wanted to give up and not have any kind of Valentine’s Day-related shop update, because I didn’t think it was worth the stress, but we will have a few items in the next week or so. Some of them will be assorted cupcake ring boxes. We’re also sending my book proposal for Crochet Book #2 to potential publishers, which is always kind of a weird experience. For my first book, I didn’t even know that my licensing agent was pitching the book. He just sort of rang up one day and was like, “Hey, we have a book deal.” I didn’t even write a proposal. I actually wrote a proposal this time, and I have a new literary agent, my buddy Pickle, and there’s actually a submission list and pitch calls and the whole kit and caboodle. Having done all this from the agent’s side, I know there are a lot of “no”s when it comes to pitching books, and we have already had a few. It’s hard on the writer’s side to stay positive about the whole thing, as I’d rather not self-publish, but keep your fingers crossed, and we’ll see how it all goes. I’ve already replied to a few of Pickle’s emails saying, “I’m a lemon! I’m a lemon!” although I did include the words “rue the day!!!” in one of my more recent email responses. I was also asked to contribute to a bookazine that is coming out some time in February (yes… as in, a few weeks from now… REALLY fast turnaround!), and I’m excited to show you guys that. It includes a really fun new crochet pattern by yours truly, and whenever the book comes out, I will also release the mystery item from that pattern in my shop as well. Can’t wait to show you guys!!!

Last week, I noticed that Bibi was going up the stairs in an odd way and really hesitating sometimes go up them. Unfortunately, the only way she can get outside to go to the bathroom is to use a set of stairs (which is one of the reasons why I know I can’t stay in this house forever….when she gets old, I won’t be able to carry her up and down stairs to use the loo!). I took her to the vet, and she got some x-rays, and luckily she didn’t have any tendon or arthritis issues, just a little bit of swelling in a back knee. I was told to keep her activity limited and to give her Metacam for the pain and inflammation. Unfortunately, the Metacam seemed to give her CRAZY DIARRHEA. I wasn’t sure if it was just a coincidence or not, so I kept her on the Metacam and put on her on a bland diet of rice and cottage cheese. After 2 more days,  I took her off the Metacam to see if it would help things. But she only got worse. She lost interest in eating, plus, the stuff coming out of her butt started to look alarmingly like strawberry syrup (sorry if that’s TMI!). I called the vet to ask if I needed to bring Bibi back in, and she said that since Bibi had been on Metacam before without incident, that she might have caught some giardia or something, but to definitely stop giving her the Metacam and pick up some anti-diarrhea and anti-nausea meds for her. Bibi had also started to barf quite a bit. POOR BIBI. I got all her meds and tried to keep her hydrated while she had no interest in food. Meanwhile, I caught some kind of icky cold or flu myself and had to take care of the both of us! Hairy was out of town for the weekend, so Manda stayed over, and we ate lots of delicious dinners and lazed around a lot being slug-people and watching television. We did have to run to the 24-hour Walgreens for toilet paper at some point, which resulted in a random and joyous TEDDYBEARPILEUP!!!! And then it was back to feeling grody and doting on Bibi. Bibi is now feeling much better. She is navigating the stairs fine, and she is excited about food again. I’m still getting over my bug. I have The Barf Cough and body aches, so I apologize for not blogging as much! I also planned to have some fun shop updates for Valentine’s Day, but my productivity has been severely hindered the past week by all of the above! Such is real life! Stay tuned!

I was googling images of Circus Animal Cookies for research (pattern for brooches coming soon in a fun new book I contributed to!), and I ran into a photo of Circus Animal Cookie Rice Krispy Treats! Two great things that go great together!!! Manda’s bday was last weekend, and we went on a short road trip with my cousin and his bestie to L.A. and San Diego, so I made these the night before as bday road snacks! I think I pressed mine into the pan too vigorously, so I squished everything down super compactly.  I have no idea why I did this. Anyway, don’t do that. I think the trick with these is that you need to add the cookies in before the cereal mixture gets too cold and stiff, but if you add them too quickly, then all the frosting will melt off the cookies and you’ll just have a big sticky pink mess (which is not the end of the world, I suppose!). I looked around for recipes and used this one from the Domestic Rebel. I wanted to try out her secret ingredient: 1/4 cup of dry sugar cookie mix in the melted marshmallows! I’ll admit I may not have the most sophisticated palette, so I didn’t feel like the sugar cookie mix added a lot, so if I made these again, I’d probably leave that part out. This is a super quick and dirty project with a highly festive pay off!  It’s not one for the health nuts, but I was never one of those, so here’s to adding more sugar and carbs into our sugar and carbs!            

When you guys left me recipes during my November blog giveaway, one caught my eye in particular because it contained TWO INGREDIENTS. Dear Renee: Thank you!!!! All you need is one box of yellow cake mix and one can of pumpkin. I did tempt fate by adding a few things, like, cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, and ground cloves, but you can do whatever the heck you want! Just dump all two of your ingredients into a big bowl and stir it up. Follow the directions on your cake mix for baking. “YOU’RE DONE, SON,” (as Manda would say). The texture is light, fluffy, and smooth, very cake-like. I kind of craved frosting with it, like chocolate, or cream cheese. I have no idea if anybody else liked them. Odds are: low. But whatever. I HAD FUN. p.s. I brought these to Thanksgiving, and I have to admit, I still have problems with proper bake time in my oven. The quoted bake time is NEVER enough, and then I just have to wing it from there! This first batch turned out a bit under-baked and sticky, so, yeah, just avoid that when you make them…..

Hi Gang!!! It’s the 15th of the month, so it’s time to launch a new blog sponsor giveaway! Thanks so much to my generous sponsors for offering us these wonderful goodies! One lucky winner will receive: 1. Twinkie Chan EXCLUSIVE 4 pack of RockerByeBaby‘s “Dirty Girl” Un-paper Towels in imported Japanese fabrics and a button. “Feeling Dirty? No problem – I have the perfect thing for you, girl… I use a waffle weave unbleached muslin for the backs of the Dirty Girl UnPaper Towels. I double-serge all the edges for long life & durability. They’re safe for all surfaces, nice and absorbent for drying spills  and textured for scrubbing counters when wet.”  2. A PINK scented cotton candy necklace from Fatally Feminine. A whimsical and unique necklace handmade from polymer clay. This tiny carnival treat is so realistic and cute. It even smells like the popular fragrance “Pink Sugar”! Comes on an 18″ silver plated chain. 3. Cute and unique cupcake headband by Messy Pink. It’s made of sequins and has little heart gems. This is hand-made and each of the sequins is sewn on by hand. 4. Shhhh, don’t wake her she’s sleeping. This plush kitty with her beautiful long white fur does not require feeding and has no need of a litter box…the ideal apartment pet :). From Scrumptious Delight. 5. The strawberry short cake cameo was made by Glamasaurus using some beautiful fabric. Each  is securely attached to a beautiful brass locket.  The locket is accented with a bow and hung from and 18 inch 45.5mm chain. 6. A 20€ ($27) gift certificate to PetitsPixels Etsy shop, containing cute amigurumi, patterns, pins, magnets, and more! 7. Two months free ad space on Mermaidens – a nostalgic, candy-colored personal style and DIY blog by Kailey. 8. Adorable banana plush by ClaireyLouCreations. 9. A “You’re Awesome” Card and a set of 5 buttons by Quiet Tiger. 10. Three all-satin bows from Doll.jpg! Each bow is about 6 x 4 inches and all are backed with french barrettes. Each one is handmade and can be worn in many different ways! Just follow the Rafflecopter widget below for all of your chances to win! (p.s If you are new to Rafflecopter and think it’s weird, I just ran into this hand dandy guide.) Giveaway is open worldwide and will run for a week until next Wednesday night, January 23rd, at midnight PST. Good luck! P.S. Please make sure my email address can get through your spam filters! twinkie@twinkiechan.com a Rafflecopter giveaway