Category: Blog

Hairy and I went to NYC and then drove to Boston because United screwed up our flight to Hong Kong last year and gave us travel vouchers. We ate lotsa food, and visited some friends. Some photo highlights: Me and Kerin Rose of a-morir. I love watching her brand get huger and huger. It’s exciting! This was our first time meeting in person. She cracks me up; she is so full of energy! We ate at <a href=”http://www.angelicakitchen.com/”>Angelica Kitchen</a>, and it was the healthiest meal I ate on the whole trip! Aside from the pop rocks chocolate she bought us at the Israeli market. ADDICTIVE. Hairy conducting business at our hotel in an ocean of pink accoutrement. Eating a giant Portuguese donut in Cape Cod/Provincetown. Being a huge dork in the North End of Boston. NEED MORE FOOD. EAT YOUR FACE. Ok, now there are a TON of pics under the cut!!!!! I kind of gave on proper chronology…. at least I got the locations right! 😛 I will try to post the vacation video montage soon. It will include Hairy’s run-in with the law.

New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts. Still here in Boston. Having work withdrawals….!!! Need to start prep for RenegadeSF!

Last night, I went with Hairy to his shared studio for an art show opening. His buddy Andy as well as Tiffany had pieces up. We were all starving, and then Tiffany told me about American Cupcake on Union Street. You just have to check out the menu. It’s like a little girl’s dream come true. Hairy ordered the PB&J with sour cherry, I got the mac n cheese, and we shared a giant order of tater tots. He had a red velvet cuppy while we were there, and I (the pastry pig) took home a lemon cuppy, a chocolate cuppy, and a BUBBLEGUM CUPPY!! Here’s a short video so you can see THE RAINBOW LIGHTS!!! I need these in my next house!!! (I accidentally knocked some frosting off this one when opening the lid!) I wanna live at American Cupcake. I want to throw parties in there!!! Cotton candy, popcorn, RED VELVET BREAD PUDDING!! WHAT!!

On Sunday, we went to Japantown during the Cherry Blossom Festival to support our friend Tiffany in the lolita contest, and we also had lunchies with Amy, Zambi, Liz, all of our menz, and two other girls as well! Big table!!! Afterward, everyone split up, and Hairy was a good enough sport to go to Pika Pika with me and take one round of photo booth pics! I’m pretty sure this is amazing: Here’s the rest: We are not pros at using the machine and are very bad at the decorating and drawing part….!!!

(File this blog entry under: TWINKIE CHAN HAS NO SHAME.) It’s no secret, I don’t sleep very much, or very well, or, at healthy hours. Especially since working on Yummy You, my sleep schedule has been wiggidyWACK, which means…..ZIT CITY!!!! I have been fighting re-occurring pimpledaddies on my forehead and between my eyes since, like, January. I’m not usually this zitty, and I need to correct my sleep schedule, but then a deadline creeps up and I’m up all night again. Anyway, Candace turned me on to the Zeno Hot Spot, which uses gentle heat to kill zit bacteria. She has the big one, and I ordered the little one, which I found out, is basically disposable after 80 zaps, so you might really think on it before purchasing! However, it is less expensive to get the little one if you are just curious and want to try it out. While I was waiting for mine to arrive, I noticed on TV that Whitney Port (of The Hills and The City fame) is currently the face of Zeno. This made me more confident in my purchase!! Heheheh. So, I tried it for the first time tonight and made a video for you guys. You have to leave it on your zit for 2.5 minutes (!!!) so I sped it up for your convenience. There is another brand of zit zapper out there with a much shorter usage time, but apparently it’s also A LOT HOTTER, so that sounds scary to me. I have patience. If you listen closely to the parts in my video with no music, you can hear the little beeps that the Zeno makes when you begin and when you end. I’m not sure if this whole Zeno thing works yet or not …. but it’s an interesting adventure. Also, I used this at 3 am, so please excuse the horrible lighting as well as my grossness. Notice from the 1st pic, I have 2 zits very close to each other. In all honesty, I already tried to squeeze The Big One while house-sitting for the past few days, so I only tried the Zeno on The Baby.

When these bags were in stores, I was in debt. I saw an adorable display in Macy’s of Harajuku Lovers bags in different sizes in this super candy pink print, but I knew I should not splurge at that moment eventhough I was dying to have one. I really don’t NEED more purses. Fast forward to now, and this bag is no longer in stores that I can see. I was telling Manda about my dream bag, and she said to look for it on eBay. DUH! I don’t know why I didn’t think of that! So now this cutie is mine! It’s a bit big, but for an everyday bag, I’d rather go too big than too small, so I can shove a cardi or some crocheting in there! I love exterior pockets for my cellphone, and this bag does not have one, so I think I will make myself a tooth-shaped zipper pouch to hang on the outside of the bag. Here’s a video of Bibi from today. I don’t sit in the sun much. It’s kinda nice! (p.s. this is not where I live! Sorry if I mumbled while saying that I am currently house-sitting! We do not have a giant yard nor a pool at our home!) <

Let me tell you about the Easter Mauraders. Easter is my bestie Manda’s favorite holiday. One year, I visited her for Easter while she was in college in San Diego. On that Saturday, her big brother drove us to Mexico to eat some awesome food. Manda and I sat in the back seat of his convertible and got our hairz whipped into a frenzy. That night, Manda REALLY wanted to dye eggs, so at around midnight, we ran to the store and bought eggs and dye and all manner of candy and decorations. We spent hours making all this Easter business, and we had nothing really to do with all of it. We decided to Easter-bomb her big brother’s house. We packed up the car, and drove over to his place. His neighborhood was REALLY QUIET. We wanted to surprise him and his family by decorating his back and front yard with Easter madness. It was like 4 o clock in the morning, and we couldn’t stop laughing. Our shoes crunching on the gravel made us laugh. Tiptoeing on the lawn made us laugh. And as we laughed, Manda farted. We were the WORST marauders EVER!!!! Do NOT hire us for your top secret missions!! We had also blown up balloons and decorated them to look like Easter eggs and we set them afloat in his pool. We went all out. We covered his bushes in streamers.  I was afraid the whole time he would hear weird noises outside and come after us with a shot gun or a baseball bat. None of that happened tho. It was actually really funny, and he didn’t get mad at us for ruining his yards. HAHAH. Anyway, we had such a fun time of this, that we wanted to Easter Maraud someone every year. One year, when we were living together and I carried her spare car key, I marauded the inside of her car. But of course, when you commit yourself to such an annual task, you are probably bound to not live up to it at some point. I feel like this year, we were both really busy. I didn’t even buy one single thing for Easter. Look at my photo above from today. It looks like I was dressed for the wrong holiday! AHAHAH. I ended up having coffee with my friend Margaret who was visiting from Houston, and this was her only full day in town. They just had to put her dog down like a week ago, and it made me want to run home and snuzzle Bibi. Afterwards, I hung out with Manda and she lavished me with about 20 pounds of Easter chocolates!!!!!! She so crazy. Earlier in the day, she had an Easter get-together with her BF and some of his friends. One of them, from Ireland, made this interesting dessert: It’s chocolate chip cookies, soaked in sherry, covered in homemade whipped cream and fresh strawberries. I asked Manda what shape the cake was in […]

I’m trying to eat more fruit, so I got some strawberries at Ranch 99 and started eating a few this afternoon. Since we don’t feed the dogs from the table, and not much human food at all (only raw or unseasoned sometimes-treats like rice or bananas or eggs), they are generally not overly interested in my snacks. But Bibi was SUPER interested in my strawberries, which was really weird! I looked online for a bit to see if strawberries were doggie-safe, and it looked like YES. Just not too much since it is acidic and can upset their tummies. Anyway, Bibi eating weird stuff is always funny to me. And yes, I DO spend too much time finding songs for my little videos!!! But I think this is Bibi’s new theme song.

I can’t recall where this all started, but Hairy set up a date for us to eat curry in Los Altos with my bro and his lady at this curry place called Muracci’s. They just opened a new location on the Peninsula, but they are only open until 6pm! So Hairy and I raced down to Los Altos on Saturday afternoon to eat this stuff. There is a Muracci’s by his work, and he wanted us all to give it a try. I am not a big curry aficionado because it’s usually too SPICY for me, and I am a spice-weenie. But at Muracci’s you can adjust the level of your spice. The mild is a teeeny bit spicy, but nothing catastrophic leading to me crying, gagging, or spitting my food out. Here’s me in front of the sign. Apparently, the cartoon is of the son of Muracci. Or, somebody’s son… We started off with a pickle assortment, or what Hairy tells me white people often call a “relish tray.” Okay, this is the epic HAMBURGER PATTY curry that my brother ordered… WITH CHEESE. This is like 10 heart attacks on one plate. Here is Hairy’s plate, fried pork katsu curry with extra spinach. Extra spicy. I think he was pretty pumped about it. I actually cropped myself out of that picture because I didn’t know I was going to be in it, and it was like the most unflattering “I’m eating stuff and nobody can see me” shot ever. Here is what Jaci ordered, chicken curry with extra spinach. I think I will order this next time, because I ordered the FRIED chicken katsu curry. I was afraid the regular chicken would be dry, but look at that tasty, moist chicken!!! So if you ever down in Los Altos before 6pm, go visit Muracci’s! It’s pretty yum yum!! Plus, if you are a yarn-y peep, it’s right across the street from Uncommon Threads, which was sadly closed by the time we got there, but all the ladies who work there are super nice!

One of the things we did this weekend was cross the Golden Gate Bridge and take the dogs on a walk in Marin at Fort Baker/Rodeo Beach. It was a rare opportunity for the pups to be on their extendo leashes. I’m usually not a fan of walking them with extender leashes at home because there are so many cars and buses. Also we can’t take them off-leash because they are (un-trained) hunting dogs and will go running for the hills to be verminators! Anyway, they enjoyed their walkie very much. Bibi was pooped pretty soon, so we took it easy on our first day on the trail! At first, I relished the opportunity for Bibi to go sniffing in bushes and smelling stuff and walking on natural turf, but then I got really scared that we were surrounded by poison oak. Luckily, nobody got any poison oak, but, Dear Internet: is this poison oak!?!?! By the ocean!?! Here’s me on a bridge. We also think this is the troll bridge that Bunny would live under and then scare children. Also well-noted is my bow-legged self! Pre-historic asparagus: Next entry: CURRY DATE!

I have this project in mind using a vintage suitcase, so I went on Etsy last night and searched “vintage suitcase” just to see what was out there. I bumped into some really cool stuff!! This chair and table set is a dream!! WANT!!! I may have posted these amazing cat bed suitcases before, but I think they merit another mention! This artist has a lot of amazing prints: Cute hot air balloon! Simple train case: This round case looks in great condition! Tempting!

Here are some foodie coffee cup sleeve/cozies I whipped up! Not all will be winners … but, come on, the hamburger. That’s a home run! 😉 I have so much fun designing and making these. They are like my little art projects! I’ve got a ton more ideas for these, but I am focusing on the next Etsy update if possible! Which cozy is your fave?

Soooo, this week I received first pass pages for my book! It’s the first time I’ve seen all of it all designed up and laid out and everything. It’s pretty cool! I’m also starting to conceive of some promo stuff for the book, and I wasn’t really sure what the pub date was…so I decided to see if it was on Amazon.com yet….and it is! You can click on the image to go to the Amazon page! So yeah, November 2. That seems like a loooooong time from now! People have been really nice and saying they will pre-order it now, but….remember it IS 7 months away! When I went to my friend Jandy’s reading/book launch, I wondered if I should have one. I feel like if I had one, nobody would come, and it would be really embarrassing! Plus, I don’t think I would be reading patterns out loud in front of everybody! Has anyone attended a craft-book launch party before?

Banana Split from Twinkie Chan on Vimeo. I got one of these when we went to Daiso this weekend, where most things are $1.50. I want to get one for everybody I know!! Although, both my BFF and my BF don’t really like bananas….so, they are not getting one. Hmph!

I’m trying to flesh out some ideas for re-designing TwinkieChan.com. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE my website!!! I love all the little dancing foods!! But I feel like it’s a bit clunky, and I want to streamline and simplify a little bit somehow. Make room for links to Yummy You and my book(s), etc. I’m not sure if I’ll be successful or not. Maybe nothing will change at all. I will play with it a bit and see!!!! I just thought it would be funny to share this sketch with you guys, because my sketching is SO AWFUL!!! HAHA!!! I’m a girl of many talents…. In other weekend news (of which I have no pictures)….. we went to Elysse’s house for vegan Thanksgiving (YUMMIEST RAW “TACOS” EVER!!!!!!) on Saturday night, and then today we went to see the King Tut exhibit at the DeYoung. Hairy is cooking tortilla soup right now! I’m excited to eat refried beans. It’s the little things.

This weekend we got to hang out with Cuppy and Moofs visiting from Seattle! There’s me and Cuppy at Dolores Park. We did not actually hang out in the park, but just took a picture there to be like the cool kids. This was after we ate brunch at Bar Tartine where I had a savory bread pudding for the first time!!! What sold me on getting it is when Moofs said it would probably be like a giant cube of STUFFING. After brunch, we visited Tartine the bakery, 826 Valencia (the pirate store), and Paxton Gate. At Paxton Gate, we saw some pitcher plants, and I wondered if anybody had experience owning a pitcher plant? We have a very shady patio, and the flies/gnats REALLY LOVE it, so I was wondering it hanging a pitcher plant out there would help at all! Wishful thinking? Later that night, Hairy and went to the launch party/reading for my friend and former cor-worker Jandy Nelson’s new young adult novel, The Sky Is Everywhere. (click the pic to go to Amazon.com) After working with her as literary agents for 10 years, supporting the work of other writers, it’s so amazing to see her so successful with her own novel!! It has been getting great reviews, and I am SO pumped to read it! I stood in line to get my book signed like a fangirl. On Sunday, we met up with Cuppy and Moofs again and had tea and snackies at Secret Garden Tea House. I’ve never had high tea or afternoon tea before, and I loved being surrounded by old ladies and tiny foods!!! I had the coconut cream tea which smelled REALLY YUMMY and coconutty. I also made a quick lil video: Secret Garden with Cuppy, Moofs, and Hairy from Twinkie Chan on Vimeo. For some reason, I was super tired that day and ended up “napping” from like 9pm to 2am!! Then I felt super guilty and went straight to work on Yummy You business (coffee cup cozy samples!!! let me tell you , the hamburger coffee cup cozy is SO CUTE). I didn’t get to bed until after 6am and I was really nervous I was going to miss the go ahead for an 11am conference call. I kept waking up over and over, and as it turned out, I never got the heads-up for a  call, PLUS, I WOKE UP WHEN I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MEETING CUPPY AND MOOFS IN JAPANTOWN!! AHHHHHHH. I felt SooooOOOOooo bad!!!! I was excited to have purikura fun!! Blehhhhhhh. So I had my 3:30pm conference call and then worka worka worka! Today I just threw on the shirt I made at Spreadshirt. It used to be my tagline on and old online profile, and someone on Twitter mentioned that she always thought of me and this quote. HAHAH. I had to make it a shirt! The best part of this photo is the look on Bibi’s face. Bibi does not approve of […]

Lately, I’ve been finding it hard to blog, because, I can’t blog about the stuff I’m making/designing yet, but then I spend nearly 24/7 working, so I don’t have much left to say :P. We recently went to dinner at Salt House for my sister in law Jaci’s bday. She has been talking about wanting an “apple jacket”, “wrapple,” or apple cozy to protect her apples in transit to work. I remembered this at the very last minute and didn’t have time to order a complete apple jacket, so instead, I downloaded a pattern from pukashell on Etsy and made my own. The pattern produced the larger green cozy, and then I modified it to create the smaller red one to fit the tiny organic Pink Ladies I got at Whole Foods! I also made her an owl coffee cup cozy since owls are Jaci’s jam. Speaking of coffee cup cozies, I do believe all my cozies at Red Velvet sold out in like 2 hours. Thanks so much, guys! I super appreciate it!!!! I do plan to sell coffee cup cozies in my Etsy shop when I get a breather!!! In other news, I just snapped some new photos for ShanaLogic. I thought this one was funny. Pumped for cupcakes! You can get your own cupcake dress right here! Aaaaand while I was taking this photo, I asked Hairy if I looked like a bird: Don’t worry. I didn’t send Shana that one…. HAHHA. Also, usually while I snap photos, Bibi likes to be all up in my business. She kept bringing over toys to play fetch with her….. her bouncy ball, her stinky rope, AND her tuggy/ball rope. She is a cutie. When she sits down, her belly hits the floor. You gotta love her. I want to do a line of shirts with her image with positive sayings like, “My wrinkles are rad” or “My bell-bell is bad ass” or something. I dunno. It’s a work in progress! “My farts are the bomb.”

Dudes, hurry over to RedVelvetArt.com and pick up a coffee cup cozy before they are all gone! Gogogo!!!

When I was little, I used to sleep on my Auntie Nita’s cat, Nel. Somewhere along the way, I became terribly allergic to cats!!! Also, now I’m always afraid they will scratch me! Cat owners seem to to often have little scratches all over their hands, and I am not a fan!  I am definitely a dog person fo’ life. They are higher maintenance, but I know where there claws are at… Anyway, today, I am wearing my new kitty necklace from I’m Your Present. My Auntie Vivi in Hong Kong has like 8 cats, and that is where I fell in love with FLAT FACED KITTIES!! I have begged Manda to get one, but she things they are ug. Sad. I <3 the flat face. But if I lived with a cat, both Hairy and I would die of facial snot explosions. (2nd one is Kelly’s photo) Also, here is a page from my notebook from when I was trying to figure out how I would decorate the robot coffee cup cozie! I have to do a TON of drawing this weekend for lots of secret stuff!! (Okay, upon further thought, I feel the need to point out that I don’t trust all dogs. That’s just silly. There are evil/mis-treated ones as well, and they can totally effing maul you. Espesh the off-leash pitbull who was roaming an Oakland neighborhood street and kept barking and pacing along the sidewalk we were walking on. That was scary. I’m just saying, my pets are dogs. That’s all! I know there are nice cats, too. Okay, bye.)

Check out Elsie’s blog entry over at A Beautiful Mess/ I just sent her a little box of coffee cup sleeve/cozies (also good for tea, hot chocolate, and hot apple cider on the go!) for the RVA spring update. I love Elsie and the Red Velvet girls and am so excited to have a few of my things in her store!!! It was also so much fun to let myself make non-food themed items!! (But, still for food/beverage-related usage. Hahaha!)

Okay, first of all, I drew on my eyebrows for the first time in a long time! My forehead needs to breathe. I have to air out my zit (sorry that’s gross… but it’s real.) That’s just a warning for my video below! HAHAH. Can’t photoshop the zits out of my videos…. Anyhoo, I’ve been sewing on a lot of buttons for my current project, and I thought I’d share my little discovery about how to pry buttons of the paper backing. This is probably not new news, but it took me a long time to realize it on my own! So I thought I’d share, just in case!! Crafty Tip! from Twinkie Chan on Vimeo.

Triple Axel. Triple Lutz. Triple Loop. In the spirit of Olympic ice skating, or, not… I threw on, THE TRIPLE WING. The other eye got all effed up, tho. I suppose it is the equivalent of eating it on the ice. There’s always the next Olympics, Russia 2014.