Category: Blog

  There’s me and TiffanyStar after escaping a corn maze. I think our photographic awkwardness rivals that of me and Shrinkle. Is it me? I will come AwkwardBomb YOUR photos!   Last weekend, a bunch of us ate mac n cheese at Homeroom and then caravanned to Pleasanton to go to Pirates of Emerson and check out some haunted houses. I think we managed to go through all 4 haunted houses, plus the “Mental Maze,” and also THE CORN MAZE! It was pretty much really dark over there, so I tried to get audio snippets of us stuck in the corn maze. I didn’t get video or pics in the haunted houses because I figured the ghouls and escaped prisoners wouldn’t appreciate it. I don’t normally do the haunted house thing, but it was good times, except for all the fog machine air making my nose feel stuffy!     More Halloween fun after the weekend! Don’t get too excited. I don’t really have time to put much thought into a fancy costume! oh p.s. one of my customers is eBaying her whipped cream scarf. Get it!

I added a few pairs of Mummy Fingerless Mitts to my Etsy shop. Last year I wrote a tutorial for these mitts for Elsie’s blog. This year, you can purchase your own! Grab ’em quick, cuz there aren’t that many! Don’t forget, you have until Sunday, Oct 16, to pre-order an I Scream Ghost T-Shirt, and to also pre-order a Jack O Lantern Slouchy Hat, Jack O Lantern fingerless mitts, and Jack O Lantern hair clip .

I have been sporting what my friend Kera calls “crack ho nails” for a long time. It’s when you never remove your old polish and you’re left with ugly, unkempt chips of faded color. Some of my fingers were worn clean off! Earlier today I told myself I would set aside some ME TIME to re-do my nails. Since I work with my hands, I rarely feel like taking a moment to take care of my nails, so this was a very nice little treat to myself! I was inspired by TinyTangerine’s Floral Nail Tutorial for the roses. The only tools I used were the nail polish brush and some tooth picks…so…my roses went a little wonky. We’ll call it Impressionist art! I used a Starbuck’s coffee cup lid as a paint palette. The disco ball glitter is my new OPI Rainbow Connection polish from the Muppets collection. It’s AMAZING. I put it all over my toes and I feel like I walked through stars. It was getting kind of clumpy on the brush while I was putting all 3 coats on, and someone on Instagram mentioned that I probably shouldn’t have been sitting in front of a space heater blowing hot air all over it…! The pink glitter is OPI I Pink I Love You that I ordered online from the UK, because I Pink I Love You in the U.S. is an entirely different color! The mint green is MAC Mischievous Mint, and I used a combo of drug store polishes for the floral nails. For the first time, I tried using Seche Vite top coat. I’ve heard that it helps semi-wet polish dry up super quickly! IT DOES! It also makes all your polish super shiny!! I have also read that if you apply it too thick, that it will shrink and peel your nail polish off. I am not very good at painting my nails, so I won’t be surprised if this happens…but so far, I really love it as a drying agent!

Worked on a custom cupcake coffee cup cozy and also a wholesale order of cozies for ShanaLogic.com. I also made this random little video of the custom cozy! I’ll be working on getting more cupcake hats into the shop, since a bunch of you msgd me and were sad they had sold out already! Don’t forget, you have until Sunday, Oct 16, to pre-order an I Scream Ghost T-Shirt, and to also pre-order a Jack O Lantern Slouchy Hat, Jack O Lantern fingerless mitts, and Jack O Lantern hair clip . I’ll be adding another fun Halloween-themed item in the next few days ;).

PRE-ORDERING IS CLOSED NOW! Thank you all who ordered a shirt 🙂 xoxoxoxoxox ************************* Hey gang, I wasn’t sure how many I Scream Ghost tshirts to print or in what sizes, so I thought I’d try opening up a pre-order for them for a week, from today (Sunday) until next Sunday, October 17. Then I’d need another week to print the shirts and ship them out, but I’ll send them Priority within the U.S. so you should definitely get them before Halloween, but I plan to wear mine beyond Halloween, too! They are $20 each, $5 shipping worldwide. I know it’s last minute, so if there is no interest, I am totally cool with that. I just thought I’d try it out! I prefer the 50/50 cotton-poly blend shirts, available to you in Black, Br0wn, Heathered Black (like a dark, heathered gray), and Orchid (medium lavender). In sizes Small, Medium, Large, and X-Large. There is a a slight scoop in the neck, and the fabric is super stretchy and soft. I wear a size Medium in it. But I also love the colors of the regular fine jersey cotton shirt. Available to you are Fucshia, Mint, Sunshine, and Aqua. In sizes Small, Medium, Large, X-Large, and 2XL. The fit is smaller, so I wear a size Large in it.    

  I just updated the shop with some Halloween goodies! I’m doing pre-orders (sorry it’s kinda late in the game!) so the earlier you order, the sooner you’ll get your items! Remember to give me some time to make them, but I promise to ship everything by Oct. 21. There are also some other new items in there, including cupcake slouchy hats and cupcake iphone/gadget cozies. Check em all out!

  Manda and I had a lot of fun on Saturday, vending at the Noriega Street Block Party. I rarely do craft events, but now that I have enlisted a bit more crochet help, I hope to do more. I was not really prepared for vending outdoors, since I am used to large indoor venues for Renegade or Bazaar Bizarre, so having a tent/canopy never even occurred to me! At first I was afraid it was going to rain, and then for the rest of the day, it was super sunny! My shoulders got burnt a little, but luckily, my table neighbor (and the woman who invited me to participate in the event) Jenny of SF Knitting Supply happened to be selling skincare products and let us sample her SPF lotion!   Since I haven’t really made an event video lately, I decided it was my mission to capture the day on video, so I didn’t really take many photos, except for the one above with my buddy Logan! We met and chatted with lots of interesting people, and we also delighted many CHILDRENS! I love that children gravitate toward my goodies, but my big hope is to capture this kind of child-like glee inside grownups, too!   Hope you enjoy the video! I will be posting leftovers on Etsy in the next few days :). I sold out of jack-o-lantern mitts, but I think we’ll have a few more to post up, too. I am thinking if the jack-o-lantern items are popular, I’ll do some pre-orders to ship by Oct 20. We’ll see how it goes!  

I made a zillion crocheted ice-cream hair clips last night, woke up and ate a breakfast sandwich, was about to put on my makeup, and promptly fell asleep against the couch like this. I spared you all of the gross, squishy, alien-face Hairy captured in this photo.

This weekend, some family came to town to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the passing of someone very important to all of us. My family and Manda’s family are very close. All the connections get really convoluted and are not relevant, but Manda and I have been friends almost all of our lives, and the woman who raised her was my mother’s best friend. She was an artist and a teacher and the strong-willed lynch pin that brought so many people together. She and my mom were always telling us to “go home and make it” when we saw something at a store that we wanted. When I went to stay with her as a young kiddo, we would oil pint, and sculpt, and make things out of wood. We’d hike, and camp, and skip rocks on the creek near her house. We’d eat sandwiches on a mountain and lick the dirt of off our fingers. She had a magic red blanket at her house that was magic because if you slept under it, you would never have bad dreams. I’d use her cat, Nel, as a pillow. She let me paint my fingernails, which was kind of forbidden at my house, and I fell asleep with the tv on. She used to give me a bath in the kitchen sink because I complained that the shower spray blinded and suffocated me. She made you drink fresh juice from her juicer in the morning. It was her mother who taught me to crochet. There is so much to say. I realized, at our gathering on Saturday night, that my memory of her is from my childhood, and I don’t think I had as close a relationship with her as an adult, mainly, I think, because I transferred some of that energy to my relationship with Manda. I may not have had that opportunity to glean adult wisdom from her, but I think she and that wisdom live on in Manda and the rest of the family as well. On Saturday night, some of us gathered around a fire pit to say a few words, and to burn some letters and things. We believe that you can send things to the spiritual world, or what have you, by burning them. I wrote a letter, the contents of which will only be known to me and her and the fire, and I also sent her photos of two things: the one meal I can remember cooking with her probably around age 5, and the plant we chose together that I still have and is still alive in my kitchen. She liked it because she said it looked like an ant eater. They are very silly and crappy photo collages, but I think she would appreciate the humor!     Auntie Nita, I love you. That’s it. That’s all. And that’s everything.

On Saturday, we met up in the Mission to surprise TiffanyStar for her bday! We had some delicious foods but couldn’t stay long because my intern/Manda was in town, and we had a ton of work to do for Yummy You. I wish I could show you sneaks of the cute stuff we worked on, but I don’t want to spoil any surprises, plus it’s all just teaser material for deals that don’t even exist yet, so I don’t want to jinx it! I thought I would take a few snaps of the gift I wrapped for Tiff. I am really bad at tying ribbons into bows, but I still like to decorate gift packages, so I decided to hot glue some colorful pom poms all over the wrapped box. It’s really simple and fast, but is kind of cute and different!

Holy Flashback! Yes, when Manda and I were little, we went to SPACE CAMP together!!! I have a lot of funny memories from this trip, but I don’t want to bore everyone with details and no pictures, like, why we didn’t shower for a week, and the first time Manda curled her bangs by herself, how we got in trouble on the airplane, how our parents told us we had to stick together for safety, even in public bathrooms, in the same stall, EVEN IF IT WAS NUMBER TWO. So what I did instead was dissect the video that Space Camp sent to our parents. It’s chopped up a bit to make it short and edit out the other kids, but I think you get a good idea of what we did and what Manda and I were like back then!

Hi guys! I added some more ice cream scoop hair clips to THE SHOP! I also recently got my awesome new DINO SHIRT from my buddy Chubby Bunny, and now you can get yours TOO! Go to her website!! It also comes in purple :). While I am not in the habit of wearing crop tops and belly-baring attire (middle-aged no-exercise snack-eating belly), this shirt was too cute to pass up and inspired a totally 80s side pony!    

On Saturday, Manda and I had to run some girlie errands: MAKEUP SHOPPING!!!! We spent an afternoon in Union Square, mostly at Macy’s, where I saw a cardboard cut-out of Justin Bieber and begged Manda to commemorate the moment. Apparently some rando also wanted to commemorate the moment! Then of course we had to go shopping for my wedding dress! Just kidding!! We saw these dresses on sale and wanted to be matching forest fairy princess maidens for Halloween, but then discovered that these were the most hideous and ill-fitting bridesmaids dresses ever. I think that the dark socks really made the outfit. At first, Manda refused to remove her pants and boots because her boots were too annoying to take off. So she just pulled down her pants in the fitting room and I thought this was classy and hilarious move. I’m on the right, trying on a denim skirt by Material Girl. I ended up buying it cuz I’m funny like that. I had to buy a huge size so my giant womanly hips would fit in it, and now we have to take in the waist by like 3 or 4 inches. I’m not a girl, not yet a woman. Manda also bought a faux leather coat by Material Girl and it is SOOOOO CUTE!!! Of course I failed to take a photo of the clothing that actually looked GOOD from this outing!

So, remember this weird gif I posted a little while back? That was my sketch for a crochet piece my friend and crochet elf Marissa was going to commission for her new nursery, since she wanted to decorate the baby’s room with a lot of art made by friends. We went to her baby shower on Sunday, and I decided that I would finish this piece and gift it, along with a matching baby hat. The whole concept came about after Marissa and I chatted about the baby’s name. One of her possible nicknames is “Sweat Pea,” so I kind of ran with that! Plus, Marissa has a love for bunnies, so I smashed the two together!! Here’s the finished piece! It’s 11 X 14. I decided to leave out the white polka dots in the background that were going to be white puff stitch. I started making a swatch, and the white puffs sort of distracted from the centerpiece, so I made a pink shell border instead, which has inspired me to make more crochet paintings with crocheted “frames”! Fun! I was telling Manda that I didn’t intend to make a lot of crochet paintings right now, because I don’t know that they sell as well as my regular work. I do like making them, though, so hopefully when I feel like I have more time, I can make more just for fun!! Clearly I enjoy putting small food-animals into tasty food-boats. Here’s a shot of me painting the canvas to match the lavender yarn I used as the background color. That night, I thought I was like a color-matching paint-mixing savant, because I had matched the paint so perfectly to the yarn!!! But after the paint dried, I realized the paint was slightly cooler and bluer than the yarn. Oh well! Here’s a shot of me with the painting at like 6:30 in the morning when I finished it. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in the nursery itself. Also I can’t wait to meet the real Sweet Pea! Marissa has one more month to bake a baby.

I spent a lot of time in estrogen today. Manda and I went to Esther’s farewell-and-take-all-of-my-clothes champagne brunch. We brought cupcakes from Let’s Cupcake. It was a gathering of ladies eating and trying on Esther’s clothing she was giving away before moving to the UK. Afterward, Manda and I hit up the Pika Pika in Japantown. Manda had prepared for this and brought her Care Bear kigurumi, so I grabbed my hamster kigu, and off we went! We did one set with normal clothes, and one set with our giant pajamas. DAMN, IT WAS HOT!!! I was sweaty and apologizing for stinking in my humongous fleece onesie with no proper ventilation. Sorry these are kinda washed out. I think we should avoid the super bright setting on the photobooths, and also, we got them enlarged via scanner, and I am sure that did not help with the lack of Manda’s eyebrows either. I think my favorite is the one on the camel. We ran out of time and couldn’t decorate it, but it truly needed no decoration!

Amidst all my sample making for YY, I am still trying to get new items into my Etsy shop for you guys! Update coming soon with more ice cream hair clips, strawberry cake hair clips, cupcake coffee cup cozies, and cupcake slouchy berets! There is a lot of sprinkle magic in my near future! Oh! Plus! I got the banana split denim jacket back from the art gallery, so I think I might put that up on eBay before my mom steals it. She tried it on yesterday and loved it. She’s rad!

Cute drawing by the wonderful KittyPinkStars! Today was my 35th bday! It was super mellow. I had a nice dinner with my family, went to a chef-related after-party event thingie at the Westin for two seconds, peeped Richard Blaise and Fabio from Top Chef, took a pic in a photobooth, and went home to work. Tomorrow my bff is taking me to an amusement park to eat junk food and go on some rides. I started to think about how weird it would have been as a 13 year old kid, for my 35 year old mom to go to Great America with her best friend on her birthday!!!

Here’s me with a giant puffy delicious fried what bread called a bhatura. We had dinner at Dosa the other night. I could eat a million of these things. SO GOOD.

Cat food. Runes. I tried to google what shapes these are supposed to be, with not much success. Hairy said it was a cross, a church bell, and a Jesus fish, but I think what he thinks is a church bell just looks like a a mutated tree. What ARE the oat cereal shapes in Lucky Charms?

After seeing a picture posted by Sue in Instagram of her yellow sandals, I HAD to get a pair of my own! I chose white!

I was on the phone with my biz partner today in my craft room, and the image of myself having a serious phone call with my pink blinged out iPhone and over all cutesywutesy outfit struck me as….funny. Your offer is unacceptable.

This is what my vanity table has looked like since we moved in. The bedroom was the first room I put together, but the last room I’ve actually decorated. I started throwing stuff onto the vanity in the corner, and the pile kept growing. It became this horrible task in my head to clean up this mess, but last night, I finally dove in, and am so happy!! Much better!

I can’t remember if I told you guys I finally joined Tumblr. If you are on it, I am twinkiechan. I was really resistant to join for a long time. There is only so much social media one person can manage! But I decided to join since it seems like a cool way to share photos and inspiration, so it’s purely visual for me. I only blog here :). But this also means that sometimes I forget to post pictures here! So follow me on tumblr if you like. I’ll also reblog other people’s photos that I enjoy over there, but will only post my own photos over here! Also most of my tumblr photos are coming in from my Instagram. It’s all so convoluted and silly, right? Last weekend my cousin from Hong Kong came to visit, since he was in town, training for his new job. We ate a lot of food and did a lot of shopping! Ugh, so much shopping. Can’t wait to show you my new favorite ugly shorts…. I have also rekindled my love for Froot Loops and jelly bracelets. Manda already stole two bracelets from me 😛 . I think I am going to get her her own set!

Congrats to the winners! I drew them randomly using Random.org. I will email you guys and put you in touch with the author. Thanks, everyone, for entering and showing your support for Joyce’s new book!