Category: Blog

A few weeks ago, Hairy and I went to see Moonrise Kingdom (which is awesome, bee tee dubs, see it!), and afterwards, we went to get a snack, and he freaked and said… “YOUR EYE IS BLOODY!!!!! Like not red like an allergy but like BLOOD ON YOUR EYE. LOOK AT IT!!! LOOK ATTTTT ITTTT!!!” This was interesting to me, because I felt no pain and had no change in my vision. But I was also SCARED to look at it because he made it sound SO SCARRRRRY. I wanted to share this with you so you don’t FREAK THE EFF OUT if this happens to you! The only reason I didn’t freak the eff out was because I knew this had happened to my mom before, so now that you know it has happened to ME before, you can calm down a little. So it’s not really call Explodey Eye, but subconjunctival hemorrhage. It’s when a tiny blood vessel on your eye bursts and leaks out underneath the surface and spreads all around. It takes a few weeks for the blood to get re-absorbed, so you look like you have a zombie disease for a while. At the time, I didn’t really know if I had to go to the emergency room or make a doctor’s appointment or what, but the 24-hr nurse hotline said that there wasn’t much anybody could do about it,  and to just let nature take its course, as long as there was no pain and no change in vision. If this happens to you, I would suggest you call your doctor of course, but I just wanted you to not be scared that your eyeball was going to fall out of your face. The nurse also mentioned that anything tiny thing could make a blood vessel burst – accidentally poking yourself, sneezing, coughing, “BOWEL MOVEMENTS.” So if you don’t do any of those things, you’re set! I am putting my photo behind a LINK in case you guys don’t like to get gross-out surprised.  I tried to chart the changes in my eyeball every day, and then I got sort of bored of near the end, so you don’t get the full range to recover, but it’s pretty weird to watch the blood move around. Enjoy! Don’t run with the scissors.

I wanted to blog today about the price of buying handmade. It’s an issue that comes up a lot in our community, and there are a lot of articles about it already online, but I read a Twitter comment about my pricing today, so I felt prompted to talk about that a little on my blog, not really in a defensive way, but more an informative way. As shoppers, we can make votes with our money. Nobody is forcing us to buy anything (as far as shopping for clothing goes). I’m leaving her Twitter name out, because I don’t want you guys to go and spam her 😛 plus this entry isn’t really about her, but the issue of pricing. I recently read this article whose point I think was to explain handmade/indie pricing and why we should buy indie. But what was more interesting to me than the article was the RESPONSE. You may not want to spend the time reading the comments, but I did. The article (I think to be funny?) mentioned that handmade designers need to pay their rent just like you do and need to buy their food just like you do, except, she used expensive cities like LA and NYC as examples and said that we needed to buy our Trader Joe’s yogurt and $9 dollar wine. To this, people would respond, “They should move to a cheaper city to live in, and I don’t want to pay for their Trader Joe’s yogurt and $9 wine.” I get it, but it’s like, we do need to eat, and we do need to live. The article made me think about whether my handmade was even a worthy cause to give money to. Are we all just dreamers, expecting people to pay us to dream? (On a side note, I have often wondered whether living in LA or NYC would be beneficial to me, simply because there may be more opportunities there as far as sourcing materials & labor, marketing & PR events, etc. I mean, there’s the internet and everything, but BEING there is much different! Anyway, I digress…) I just googled this article today, about how indie designers might price their wares. In her example, the person paid themselves $18/hr. If I paid myself $18/hr, my shop prices would be EXORBITANT, like even MORE exorbitant than they may seem now. Sometimes I end up paying myself more like $5/hr. Sometimes, on a brooch, my profit might be like 50 cents. Lexi also wrote a great article about it, where you can see that more than just making an item goes into the pricing. There’s also time for photographs, editing photographs, shipping, etc. And in her example, she is not even accounting for the fact that her final price is actually really a wholesale price, and retail is usually DOUBLE the wholesale. This keeps a lot of us indie handmade business out of other boutiques and shops. We simply couldn’t make any money at all. […]

I don’t know if I ever mentioned it to you guys, but Hairy co-owns an art gallery/studio space here in SF called Big Umbrella Studios. They throw art shows monthly, and you can also become a member in order to use the shared space as your studio. The next show, opening on July 13th, is inspired by Japanese pop culture, and I will be contributing a piece! I already have it planned out. Fingers crossed it actually looks like what it’s supposed to look like ;). If you’re in SF, you should stop by and check it out. Their openings are pretty happenin’.

Tonight, Hairy, James, and I went to eat sushi and watch Jurassic Park Live performed by the Old Murder House Theatre. If you visit their site, you can see snippets from their other shows like RoboCop Live and Aliens…On Ice! I was a little hesitant about the whole thing because my tolerance for theatre/musical theatre is quite low, but it was really quite funny, with great attention to detail on a low budget. In Oakland, they performed at Children’s Fairyland, which looked really cute in and of itself! It was pretty spooky getting lost in the dark there at night, though, when I had to sneak off to find the bathroom! I didn’t take a lot of photos, but here’s a sneak. Jurassic Park Live only has three more shows left of their tour, in L.A., Dallas, and Austin. If you go, I suggest trying to watch Jurassic Park really quick first, to refresh your memory and pick up on the funny references during the show! big p.s.: this show is not intended for kids, even though we saw it at Fairyland! I think what I liked about it was that it reminded me of little kids playing dress up, and of the cardboard sets and home movies I used to make with my little brother, but it was just grown ups having fun. I support that!

I’ve always been sort of AFRAID to collect things. When I was little, I hoarded A LOT of stuffed animals. At a certain point, I vowed to stop collecting them, because they ended up in big black Hefty bags in the attic, and it made me feel really sad! In college, I experienced a grand nostalgia for Care Bears and started collecting them on eBay like craycray. I had a book shelf dedicated to them, and at night, they would CareBearSTARE at you creepily and silently in the dark. During a room-rearrange, they ended up on my bedroom floor in a big pile for a while, and when I went to clean up this pile, it appeared that many SPIDERS had made a nice home out of this dark and cozy mountain of rainbow fluff. This only further proved that collecting things led to DUST AND SPIDERS AND YUCKY THINGS. So, I never had a doll collecting habit, and I’m really careful about collecting too many tchotchkes, but when I saw this collection of Momiji Dolls, Dippy-D, Bakey-C, and Cuppa-T,  I KNEW I HAD TO COLLECT THEM ALL. It’s kind of like …. I WANT TO BE THEM ALL. It looks like they are available from this site in Canada, but I can’t seem to find them available from a U.S. website. If anyone knows how I can get my grubby paws on these adorable morsels, please let me know!

You guys!! I’m so excited to finally show you the new site re-design!! Please note that the blog page has a new URL now: blog.twinkiechan.com (it used to be www.twinkiechan.com/blog). The old url automatically forwards to the new url, but as far as your RSS feeds or blogreaders go, you may want to update the link. Sorry for any confusion! I needed and wanted to change the site design because: 1) The previous design was super cute and fun, but not easy to edit. So, for example, when my book came out, it was not easy to add a new book icon to the animated refrigerator to link to book info. I needed a layout that would be more flexible for me to change around when new exciting things happen that I want to share. 2) For years, Hairy has been hassling me about how having Flash on your site is no good, because people on iPhones/iPads can’t view that Flash. I was always kinda like … “Too bad for those losers!!!” I kid, but you know what I mean. I wanted an animated fridge, and Flashdarnit, I was gonna have one! As luck would have it, this new design does not have any more Flash, but I will always love opening that refrigerator door, animated by my beloved Kei of SuperGood. 3) Some of you may have noticed in the past month that my blog and other parts of my site were giving you an “attack” warning, because my site got hacked. We kept finding the bad code and fixing it, but then new bad code would pop up again! It was an endless cycle of ARRRGGGhhGHGHGH and really made it obvious that it was time to sweep out the old and build the new. (p.s. clicking on the BOOKS link will still give you an attack warning, but my webguy/brobro assures me the bad code has been fixed, so we’re just waiting for it to register or whatever.) 4) Change is good! When I first started my site, I wanted everything pink and girlie and filled with hearts and rainbows. Then, I thought, that everybody’s site was pink and girlie and filled with hearts and rainbows, so mine had to be different. I also tried really hard to sort of make my site unisex, so that dudes wouldn’t be afraid of it. But I finally gave into my girliepink tendencies. Dudes, don’t be afraid. It’s the dawn of a new age.

Doesn’t the 2nd fella from the right look a bit…menacing? Once upon a time, I sold “My Pet Marshmallows” on eBay. They have now come back in a super fun and delicious collaboration with Onch Movement for his BANG pop-up shop at Royal/T, open until July 14th! There is an EXTREMELY limited amount of these marshmallow necklaces, so if you are interested, you need to grab them quick! There are all-white sets and also pastel marshmallow sets! Check them out in this photo I stole from Onch’s Facebook album from the opening party! Also notice the pink chicken leg necklaces we made, based on the pink chicken wing and leg pieces that Onch makes. You might also want to know that this will be Royal/T’s last pop-up, FOREVS! GO NOW! Or you’ll REGRET IT!

So I’m trying something a little different for Anime Expo … my stuff will be there, but I won’t! The Brands Boutique asked if I’d like to participate in their Pop Up Shop for Anime Expo, and I figured I’d give it a try! It’s at the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 29- July 2. If you happen to go, please take pics and show me! I’d love to see how it all looks!  I sent a nice variety of items, even the new rocket pop brooches! I also printed out a new little table-top sign, so I hope everything turns out cute :).

If you’ve found this URL, you have found the secret new URL for my blog! Hello! I am not announcing it quite yet, so anyone who is reading this is in like a super elite members-only club, but we won’t wear funny hats or perform scary rituals. Yet. Here is also where I will “claim” this blog for Bloglovin. I’m new to Bloglovin and don’t know how many of you use it to read blogs, so here goes nothin’. Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Hey Guys, Just checking in. Sorry for the blog-silence. There has been a lot of Yummy You! activity this week, plus I’m planning items for 2 events, one in June, one in July. Also, it seems that people are still running into a lot of problems with weird re-directs and stuff on my website, so, I’m spending the next few days designing a basic new site to put up so we can clean out the bad one. The fridge is going bye-bye. I love it so much, but now is the time to simplify. Maybe at some point down the line, I can have someone help me create a fun little Flash game or something using the fridge art. I have lots of fun giveaways (Twinkie Chan notebooks!) and photos to post, but I want to focus on cleaning up the website first. Thanks for your patience!!!! xo p.s. Space Bibi says hi from her astronaut helmet. She got in an argument with my parents’ dog again. No stitches this time. Just some tiny staples. We’re thinking of getting a dog-trainer to help us deal with their issues with each other!

After seeing Kaylah/The Dainty Squid’s post on how to make your own scratch-off tickets, I knew I had to try it! I’ve always struggled with whether or not to include little gifts/trinkets/freebies in the packages I send out. I like giving y’all a fun shopping experience, but I also don’t want stuff to go to waste that you would never eat/use. These scratcher tickets are a super cool idea, because you get to play a game, and maybe win a coupon code for your next purchase! I tried to follow Kaylah’s instructions exactly. I used that acrylic craft paint that comes in a bottle and is kind of runny. I’d be curious to try it with acrylic artist/painter’s paint, since it seems thicker out of the tube. I put on 4 coats. It was hard to be patient!! I’d start-repainting too early and break the pudding-skin of my previous coat! Also, I just printed janky cards on regular old card stock, and the painter’s tape really ripped some of the paper up. I wouldn’t really recommend that route! I was really excited when they actually worked though! They actually finally got dry, and the skin stopped breaking, and it all actually scratched off with a coin. Super fun!! I made 16 of them, lost a couple due to the painter’s tape, and sent out the survivors in my last batch of Etsy packages. They ranged from “Oops, Try Again!” up to 30% off. I still like the idea of including a game to win things, but I’m not sure I will go this super DIY route next time. I found it a bit too time-consuming for me personally, but I’ll be sure to stick with the idea and come up with something for you guys soon! (p.s. beanieweenie is not a valid coupon code … hehe)

I had dinner with my family tonight so that I could take a picture with my little brother. He just dyed his hair for a Sharks’ game, and when he texted a photo, I told him we HAD to take a picture together before his hair faded out. I don’t think he’s bleached or dyed his hair since he was in high school, and I was the one bleaching and dyeing his hair (poorly, I might add!). He and I are really different, and he’s much more of a grown-up than I am, even though I’m 6 years older. I always thought he was funny and cool, though, and when I wrote up a “Perfect Boyfriend” quiz when I was 18, one of the questions on the list was, “Do you think my brother is cool?!” because I didn’t want to date anyone who thought they were too cool to hang with my lil bro! When we were little, he was the hellion who ripped out handfuls of my hair, hid the heads of my Barbie dolls, and screamed his head off in public places. He deserved any and all torture I may have exacted upon him! I was always afraid that when he grew to be bigger than me, he would exact some crazy revenge. Luckily, he turned out to be a nice guy! p.s. I’m still editing photos for the Etsy update, which will hopefully be late tonight or some time tomorrow. I took them in the middle of the night in my craft room, so all the lighting is really funky, but I wanted to get the photos done ASAP! Stay tuned!

“Please join us for evening of companionship and good conversation, with the finest crisp poultry catered by the famous Chef sanders… I believe he is a also Colonel. A night to be savored!” When Manda was interning at my house on Wednesday, we were discussing eating dinner with some friends, but since I am house-sitting/dog-sitting, it seemed easier to just convene at the house for dinner. Suddenly, we found ourselves googling pictures of Colonel Sanders and fancy dinner settings. Suddenly, we were throwing a KFC party, and I wanted to make everyone a Colonel Sanders tie. Here’s Manda chugging the MegaJug which also had its own handle. The Gravy Hand-Off. Portraits with The Colonel. While we were eating, I remarked that this blog entry was going to be My Most Shameful. So while I don’t condone stuffing your face with horrible junk food, I do condone having fun, themed dinners, and DIY’ing little matching accessories.I think I’ve known everyone in these photos for over 10 years (Hairy being the exception). I’m so happy we all still get together to be silly.p.s. I recorded us ordering our food, but it didn’t turn out that funny. Here it is anyway in case you’re really bored right now: Manda and Twinkie at the Drive Thru by twinkiechan

I added a few more BFF Bracelet Bunches to the shop tonight 🙂 . P.S. Sorry for any weird glitches on my blog last weekend! My site was hacked, but I think we fixed it!

I updated THE SHOP with single lucky clover hair clips/brooches as well as the full pastel rainbow marshmallow head bands! There are only 4 right now because I’m a dumdum and forgot to order more of the bands themselves. DOH! Just put in the order now 😛 So snag these 4 while you can! xo

Last night, I switched to the iPhone4s. I had the phone for a while, but I wanted to get a case for it before activating it. I am still looking for the perfect case, but in the meantime, I’m using this thing that I made on Zazzle.com. Do you guys use songs for ringtones? Mine has been the Wayne’s World theme song for a long time, and I’m feeling like a new one is in order!

I’m getting ready for a Yummy You! meeting in North Carolina. I’m leaving Monday morning and coming back Thursday evening! I’ve been prepping a bunch of different things to help facilitate the brainstorming seshes, and I thought I’d share these collages I created to start putting together color stories and to just set an overall FOOD MOOD.

I’m sponsoring an awesome giveaway right now on Michael Shirley’s blog for all you Tumblr lovers! All you need to do is follow both of us on Tumblr and then reblog the giveaway post to enter! I’ll copy/paste the info below. Remember, leaving a comment here on my blog will not enter you in the giveaway. All of this giveaway is done via Tumblr! 🙂 *** This month’s IHATEMICHAELSHIRLEY.COM Giveaway is sponsored by Twinkie Chan! This is an INTERNATIONAL CONTEST, so anyone-anywhere can win. There are also 3 prizes, so that means 3 winners! Here is what we are giving away: PEPPERONI PIZZA SCARF ($140 value) TWINKIE CHAN’S CROCHET GOODIES FOR FASHION FOODIES PATTERN BOOK ($15 value) FOODIE FRIDGE 1” PINBACK BUTTON SET ($10 value) ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝  ♡  ✝ TO ENTER TO WIN, reblog this post & follow: ihatemichaelshirley.tumblr.com & http://twinkiechan.tumblr.com You MUST BE FOLLOWING BOTH TUMBLR BLOGS. If you don’t follow both, you will be automatically disqualified!!! Reblog as many times as you like. Each reblog counts as one entry. NO LIKES. All names will be put in a random name generator to pick the winners. CONTEST ENDS ON FEBRUARY 28th, 2011 AT 11:59 PM (PST) The 3 winners will be messaged simultaneously on the 29th via the winners’ Tumblr “ask” box messaging system (your ask box MUST be enabled so we can contact you), and each winner will receive a prize, distributed on a first-claimed-first-served basis. GOOD LUCK! x x x x

So for the past few days, I have been battling a cold! This is a bummer because not only do I feel like crap, but I am also really unproductive, which makes me feel crappier!! It started off with a sore throat, which I got rid of in about 24 hours. Then I had one healthy-ish day, and then all heck broke loose and now I have the cough from Hades, the one kind of cough I always dread, this kind of cough I get where coughs are triggered by a sensation at the back of my throat kind of like a coarse hair poking me, or like, the rough side of the Velcro, or a pin prick. If it’s persistent, I get caught in a very embarrassing cycle of coughing, choking, gagging, heaving, crying, and snotting. Needless to say, I have not been leaving the house, except, tonight, I had to go out and buy cough meds, since my all day course of hot water, lemon, apple cider vinegar, honey, and cayenne pepper, weren’t really helping, even though I’ve gone pee like a million times. Anyway, I know you are like, “Just go to the doctor!” Well, the last time I went to the doctor, he told me that the hairy sensation was the little hairs on the back of my throat growing back from being coughed away. It sounded like a big bunch of hooey to me, and he sent me home with codeine cough syrup that didn’t do anything at all. So that’s why I gave the hot water, lemon, etc stuff a try today. Usually, over the counter stuff doesn’t do anything for me either, at least as far as getting some sleep. I’ve also resorted to window-shipping therapy, and maybe some actual purchases : /. Let’s look at some fun shoes! The first three pair are from ModCloth and the rest are from YesStyle.

Remember when I posted the sketch for my mom’s crochet painting? Here’s the finished piece! It came out a bit differently than I thought, but still cute, if I do say so myself! They are supposed to be little steamed buns or dumplings: bao bao! BaoBao is also my mom’s dog’s name. I hadn’t really planned on stuffing the dumplings/buns, but it just sort of happened. I had no idea how I wanted to execute the bamboo steamer when I first sketched it, and that proved to be kind of the most challenging part. In related news, I was super duper happy that my Galactic Donuts sold last week! It’s the first crochet painting I’ve ever gotten money for! I actually have a new one coming up very very very soon. It was supposed to be for Valentine’s Day, but I didn’t have time to finish it. I am still knee-deep in all my bookkeeping and tax prep for 2011. Let’s not talk about that! 😛

Last weekend, Hairy and I drove to L.A. to celebrate with our friends Cuppy and Moofs. We were very honored to be invited to their magical wedding day (even though we were late because we went to the wrong building first… typical!). What’s even more magical is that I got to meet Lindsay of KidPirate and Sick for Cute! for the first time in real life after internets-knowing her for years! What’s even MORE magical is that a big ol’ bunch of us went to Disneyland together after the wedding! Plus we got to have brunchies with the happy honey-mooning couple before we drove home. Yummy foods + wonderful people = pretty much all one needs! Technology is pretty amazing. We get to find and correspond with people we’d probably never bump into in our normal lives. Getting to take a photo with Cuppy and Linds, together, AT THE SAME TIME, was definitely one for my personal history books! They are both sweet as pie, beautimous, and delightful!

I just added a few super sweet bracelet sets to my Etsy shop. I collaborated on them with my buddy Maddy! I asked her to make me a friendship bracelet some time last year, and then I fell in love with the idea of making bracelet sets with her that people could share with their friends, too! We didn’t plan out any color schemes or anything. She just sent me a box of adorable friendship bracelets, and all the sets just came together. Magic!

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

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