Category: Blog

Sooooo, amongst a bunch of crazy biz-related Yummy You schtuff, I’m prepping, planning, and crafting for Renegade Austin (May 21-22). I’m really spazzed out cuz I’ve never traveled for a craft show before. Am I gonna ship boxes of stuff somewhere? Am I gonna fit it all in a few suitcases? Will my display be super ugly because I had to fit in in aforementioned two suitcases? I just don’t know! I figure a good strategy for planning is….. AVOIDING by crafting. I have been thinking of summer bbq’s and grilled meats. Texas likes its meat? Right? RIGHT!!! Hence, I resurrected the T-Bone Steak Scarf project. Back in 2009, I threw an eBay auction (I like to think of throwing auctions, like throwing parties!) for t-bone-steak themed stuff like a scarf, mittens, and cute-tility pack. I wanted to take the “gross” factor out of raw meat and tried to make the steaks look cute and cartoony, not necessarily realistic. For my newer version, I really wanted diagonal grill marks!! And I wanted to put more detail in the shape of the actual t-bone, notably at the top. I really like how it turned out! I’m not sure yet which style I prefer…raw or grilled! Also I kinda miss my short crazy hair!

My amazing pal Chubby Bunny is throwing an art exhibition and fashion show and bday party at JapanLA this Saturday, May 7. I am so so so so sad to be missing it! So you should go and tell me all about it!! Check out the Chubby Bunny Blog for more info!! Contests, prizes, bunnies, bows. Really. You gotta go! Stay tuned tomorrow! I am gonna announce a super fun contest that you can enter!

I was putting sprinkles on a kabillion cupcake scarves the other day, and I dreamily gazed upon my cake stand full of rainbow mini pom poms. At that moment, I wondered what it would be like to have a big ring covered in these pom poms! Tada! This was the first try. I can’t really tell if it would have any appeal to people who are not obsessed with pom poms to begin with…! If I made more, I would probably coat the base of the ring with glitter or something first, because it’s kind of lame to be able to see the silver through the spaces in the pom poms. I tried to pack them in there as best I could, but there are still gaps. Work in progress!

We are going to Manda’s house to celebrate Easter since it’s her most favorite holiday of the year. I made rice krispy treats, decorated with bunnymallows! Also, at 4am, I decided I needed an Easter-themed hair clip, so I made myself a bunnycupcake barrette! I panicked on the face and would probably do it a lot differently given more time, but I think it turned out pretty cute on the first try! Happy Sunday!

My friend Dena lives in my old neighborhood and is very involved in her kids’ elementary school there. They are putting on a charity event soon in the ‘hood with food and performers and auctions to benefit the school. She asked if I could donate some goodies, and I said sure! Part of our goodie packet is coupons! I’ve never made a coupon for my shop before, so I whipped some up super quick-like. Bei joked on Twitter that I should “make them look like fake money with your excited face in the middle!” so I DID. Note my always-awesome photoshop skillz. I was also super proud of myself for making them double-sided and aligning everything correctly in the printer! I would like to offer gift certificates in my Etsy shop in the future, but I’m doubting they will look like this :P. If you are local and want to attend the benefit event and get your hands on my silly currency, check out Taste of Potrero! Okay this is part where I just get really dumb, cuz, I just got my most awesome sunglasses EVER IN THE HISTORY OF EVER from my buddy Kerin Rose, and when’s the next time I’ll be taking photos of myself with “money” that’s got my face on it? Probably never. I’ll understand if you stop reading my blog from now on. No shame. That’s me. I don’t need to take these off in the shower, right?

I need to put sprinkles on a bajillion ice cream scoops.

If you follow me on Twitter, these will be repeats, but I know a lot of you guys said you only follow the blog, so, I’ll just keep you caught up on a few happenings over here! I’ve been working really hard to finish up some wholesale orders before focusing on building stock for Renegade Austin….which is in about a month! EEP!! In the meantime, I spent last night hanging out with the BFF. We went to Target, wandered around the shopping mall, and ate dinner. I feel like having girl time is really important, so I’m so happy to have seen her! At Target, I picked up some pastel bunny marshmallows. Not really sure what I’m doing with them yet, but the obvious go-to is Rice Krispy treats! We also painted our nails. She went all magickal-goblin-lady with black polish with a brilliant purple glitter on top, and I went with Easter colors with some clear iridescent glitter on top. I never really LOVE-loved Easter-themed things, but I sure love the colors!

Ok, I tend to dabble with new technologies very very late (e.g. my one night with Polyvore), and they don’t often stick. Everyone has been posting their Instagram photos, so I thought I would download the free app and check it out. I’m not really friends with my iPhone so I don’t know how much I will tinker with this thing. I don’t even really know how to find or add people yet, but I’m twinkiechan on there if that means anything to anyone out there! 😛 I just decided to randomly take a picture of whatever was right in front of my face. This pile of stuff is sitting on a cake stand right behind my laptop!

I have been browsing the athinalabella shop on Etsy for a little while now, and I finally asked if she could make me a custom Twinkie Chan necklace. She also then surprised me with a custom TWINKIE knuckle duster! SO sweet! Literally!!! You should check out her shop. What I like is that she takes resin jewelry and then goes a bit crazy with it. I love her really over the top pieces! Candyland Custom Candy Tiaras. I WANT ONE!!! Gummy Love Bracelet

So yeah, I’m really late to the Polyvore game. I don’t have a lot of patience when it comes to hunting around for stuff and making collages. Oftentimes, I can’t even find what I want to put in the collage on there! I can’t even remember why I decided to fiddle around on the site just now. And these days, I’ve been hearing everyone talk about Pinterest.com. Too many sites!! Bunny Party! by Twinkie Chan Wildfox Couture vintage style tee, 60 GBP Forever21 knit socks, $0.95 LeSportsac printed tote, $98 White jewelry, 32 AUD Disney Couture rabbit jewelry, 21 GBP Jill Stuart – Jelly Lip Gloss 19 sweet gelato, $28 Pink bunny ears slipper, 11 GBP

In London, Hairy decided to rent a car again. I’d requested that we get an automatic transmission this time so I wouldn’t have to worry about him stalling the car or forgetting to put the car back into first gear before the light turned green…..BUT….of course… we got another stick shift. However, Hairy was in love with this car because it was a brand new Citroen that only had like 6 miles on it. It was like a fancy version of our Yaris, except…… NO CUP HOLDERS!!!!! Our target was STONEHENGE, which is about an hour’s drive out of London. You can’t go up and touch it anymore, but you can get close enough for decent photos. I had always imagined it was on the top of a hill, but it’s kind of just in the middle of this giant untouched grassy pasture. We attempted to take some jumping photos at Stonehenge, but… unfortunately, they did not turn out very well. I do have a tiny, unflattering video clip, but it was a nice excuse to use a Spinal Tap song! After Stonehenge, we hopped in the car for an hour more to check out Brighton on the coast. Since we had gotten a late start to the day, everything was pretty much closed down in Brighton by the time we got there, so we didn’t really eat or shop. We kinda just wandered around a little bit on the pebble beach, took some photos, bought some coffee, and then headed back to London to catch dinner with my cousin Victor. The night before, my girlcousin Terri had cooked us an amazing dinner at her apartment, and due to the protests, the tube station by her place was shut down, so we had to walk across the bridge to the next tube station. We decided to take some rando photos. I think I was really cold and grumpy. Oh, I forgot to mention, that we changed hotels for the last 3 days, and we ended up in the Bayswater/Notting Hill area, and the whole time we were just wandering the streets of Bayswater, not knowing how close Notting Hill was, and how ten times more posh our eating adventures could have been! Oh well! So when my cousin came to Bayswater to eat dinner with us, we ended up at the most terrible steak house ever, but it was the only place open at 10pm for my cousin to get his protein on. Special Sauce!!! :X

“We travel through time, to help history along, give it a push where it’s needed.” “When the omni’s red, it means history’s wrong, its’ our job to get everything back on track.” The Voyagers was this tv show from the 80s that only ran for one season. I had never heard of it before, but Hairy loved it and recently got a bunch of DVDs from Netflix. Manda was over the first night he watched it. We kind of rolled our eyes cuz a lot of the nostalgic stuff that Hairy watches ends up being really dumb. However, we kinda got hooked!! The show is about this dude named Phineas Bogg who is a “traveler.” He travels through time, fixing moments in history that go wrong for some reason. He has this book that tells him how history is supposed to be. He uses this thing called the Omni which is a handheld gadget to time travel. When the omni is red, it means history is messed up. When it’s green, it means history is fixed and they can either go on a vacation (which they do a lot) or find the next bit of history to fix. In a botched time-related incident, he ends up in 1982 and ends up with a young sidekick named Jeffrey. They lose the book, but Jeffrey knows so much about history, that now he can travel with Phineas and help him fix history. So the show is kind of learn-y but also kind of funny. Phineas is not so learned in the history department, but apparently is a hit with the ladies in this super cheezy way. This prompts Jeffrey to say, “You know the code. No romance while the omni is red!” In a fit of randomness, I decided to make commemorative tshirts! I have been hesitant to wear it now, because Danielle thought the shirt was a reference to …. not having sex on your period!! AHAHHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAH. In her defense, we had been Twittering about periods a few days before! I just never even really thought about how the quote on the shirt could read to people who hadn’t watched the show at all. HILARIOUS. This is now known as The Period Shirt. Good thing I made one for Hairy, too.

Hairy obviously is a big foodie and loves to check out farmers markets and food stands. He took us to Burrough Market on a Friday afternoon. I got a fresh green juice filled with all manner of green things, and then we walked about, taking it all in. Sorry this entry is so dirty. Okay, let me tell you about this cheese. Hairy went ape for it. It’s called raclette. They have half-wheels of it baking under a heating element, and the top layer starts to melt all over the place. Then they scrape the melty cheese over potatoes and stuff. The smell is STRONG. I love me all kinds of cheese, but the air around this cheese cart really smelled like a barn. We didn’t have the scrapey potato cheese, but a grilled cheese sammich instead. It was good, albeit stinky. I needed something for my sweet tooth, so I picked up an almond croissant at this baked goods table that had the most amazing English muffins. We’re so used to seeing the stupid English muffins from the store, that these humongous fresh ones seemed so magical! The market itself was sort of nestled underneath the train overhead. After the market, we checked out the Brick Lane area as suggested by my kind Twitter pals, and I bought a cute dress. Then we had to hoof it to meet with my cousin YanYan and her hubby Alex to have dinner at their favorite Italian place. They are like the nicest hosts ever! Upon arriving at our hotel a few days earlier, reception told me I had a package waiting at the concierge, and it turned out to be a giant bag of chips and cookies and a bottle of water and a sweet card and a subway pass and London maps. Too much right? SO NICE! Aside from visiting one of my favorite cities, I really got to spend a lot of time with family on this trip, which is a treat, and I felt very lucky, especially since we are so spread out all over the world. I hadn’t seen YanYan since I can’t even remember. Over 10 years. Maybe over 15. I am hoping we get to see her again sooner than that!

Back in London, we walked out of our hotel by Hyde Park and had breakfy with Victor, and then we met up with my cousin YanYan to hang out it in British  Museum. I no longer need to look at another Greek water pitcher/vase for the rest of my life. THEY HAVE A LOT OF THOSE THERE. In this photo, I told Hairy to look like one of the busts. This was a rare moment that I told him he was smiling TOO MUCH. After the museum, we had soft serve ice cream from the ice cream truck sitting outside. Hairy took lots of pics of the cute truck with his Holga, but he hasn’t developed those yet. Then we had to change clothes for fancy din dins at Pied a Terre, a 2 Michelin star restaurant whose site is not loading right now … The whole reason this London trip came to be was due to the fact that my other girl cousin Terri had been in London for a year getting her culinary degree, and she just graduated. So we thought we’d meet up with my cousin Vic to celebrate graduation with Terri. Hence, marathon eating! Here are some poorly shot, dark photos of our meal. I don’t like using the flash in a restaurant, nor do I know how to take photos in low light, sooooo….yup. We all got the tasting menu. Hairy got the wine flight to go with it and got trashed. I’m shocked I didn’t gain more weight on this vacay, but we actually walked around all day everyday, so I guess it came out even!

I’ll be honest. When Hairy said he wanted to take a side trip to Dublin during our London trip, I was like, “…..WHY!?” He said, “Because it’s beautiful!” Then, when we got to Dublin, and it looked like a lot of other European cities (like Copenhagen), I was bummed. I’d been brought to Ireland under false pretenses! Where was all the greenery? Where was the nature? Where were the sweeping Emerald hills? I complained about this a lot the first day, and then on the second day, Hairy rented a car so we could drive an hour of town to check out Wicklow, which was supposed to be really beautiful. Unfortch, we got the car around 3-4pm, so by the time we got to the outskirts of Wicklow, it was already getting dark, but at least we got out of the city a little bit, saw the ocean and some sheep, drove into some dirt piles, and drove on the wrong side of the road for the first time. We had also seen these giant prehistoric bugs emerge out of a hole in the soil, and I thought I’d gotten video of me freaking out about it, but I guess in my terror, I hadn’t really been recording. Oh wellz! Here’s some video of Dublin via car, as well as documentation of Hairy’s driving escapades.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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