Category: Blog

EDIT!!!!!! THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED!!!!!!!! I WILL NO LONGER APPROVE COMMENTS FOR THIS ENTRY. THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING! 🙂 🙂 Hey folks, I’ve always wanted to do a giveaway, but I’ve been so crazy busy that I never have anything left to giveaway! I took the opportunity after BazaarBizarre to put together a lil sumthinsumthin for all of you who have supported me and read my blog! This giveaway package includes red and white striped peppermint wristwarmers/fingerless gloves, a red and white striped peppermint candy-heart necklace, and a red and wdhite swirled lollipop brooch. TO ENTER: Just leave a comment on my blog, telling me what your most favorite holiday treat is! (and make sure to enter your email address in the email address field so I know how to contact you!) DEADLINE: This is super quick! I will choose a winner with a random-number-generator on Monday, December 21st, at noon, PST. This way, I can hopefully have time to contact the winner, and have the winner send me his/her mailing address, and get the package out before the post office closes on the same day. For people in the U.S., the package should arrive before Xmas (according to the USPS….). Sorry to my international readers! I just didn’t get my act together in time! I will obviously still send the package to an international winner, but the package will probably definitely not arrive in time for Xmas. Okay, this is my first giveaway at my own blog, so if I left anything out or messed something up…please let me know! 😛 xoxo

People have already begun to make purchases! Go go go!! Click on the image to go to my shop!

Cat from Cut Out + Keep asked if I would do a little interview and pattern for the holiday mini version of their online magazine, Snippets, so I said sure!! This is the first pattern I’ve ever posted anywhere, and it’s FREE!! I tried to keep it simple and sweet for the holidays. I hope it’s easy to understand! I haven’t really had a chance to check out Cut Out + Keep yet, but there are like 30,000 members, and I just got an account. I know you might be thinking, “Oh no, not another online community!” But I think they did such a great job with my Snippets stuff, that I’m curious to find out more about the rest of the site!

Saturday December 12th 2009 12:00 PM – 6:00PM Sunday December 13th 2009 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM * Shop Handmade * Support Small Business * Craft, Learn & Support Art Education * 120+ Vendors * FREE Craft Workshops * Raffles * Food * Music and More! San Francisco County Fair Building Golden Gate Park, San Francisco $2.00 Per Adult ~ 12 & Under FREE 50% of Admission Fees Go To Charity More info here! I will be at booth #30! You can click the pic to see it bigger. I am also donating two items to some raffle packages: a gingerbread man brooch, and also some peppermint candy stick wristwarmers! Here are some in-progress pics of some of the stuff I’ll be selling! Brooches! Scarves! Appliqued Cardigans! (I’m just sticking a gingerbread man onto my own cardi. This is not really what the cardis will ultimately look like…) New cupcake scarf colorway: Peppermint Red Velvet! If I have time, I’m going to also try to do a cookie scarf, a lollipop scarf, and a mint cupcake scarf, but, yeah…the fair is on Saturday, so that all probably won’t happen!! I’m also going to have zipper pulls, candy necklaces, wristwarmers, cute-tility packs, and ipod cozies!! Wish I had time to do tissue cozies too but…uh…yeah, I’m having a tough time figuring out what to spend time making!!!

When I was in Paris last summer (I know…I still never blogged about it….oops) we were only in a department store for 20 minutes, but it was long enough for me to fall in love with Manoush, which I think I mentioned before. Some random clicks just now led me to the Japanese website Luke and Stella where I bumped into sweet Manoush again. When I’m a kabillionaire, can I wear this label and this label only?

Okay, I am officially freaking out about having anything at my booth for Bazaar Bizarre. Also the washing machine broke again, which isn’t the most optimum sitch for my felting needs, but hopefully the guy will be able to fix it soon and for cheaps! I made a scarf: I tried blue eyes this time after a discussion with Hairy. I think he looks much more alive and crazy now than with black eyes. I also made a bunch of wristwarmers: They are supposed to remind you of colorful candy cane sticks! So far I’ve only been using yarn from my stash, but I think I will go to Imagiknit to pick a bigger variety of colors/flavors. Tonight I am all about making brooches! In progress! I need to make 10 cupcake brooches for Manda’s children’s theater due the day before Baz Biz, so I’m just gonna do all her brooches and all my brooches right now. I also plan to have cookie, gingerbread men, and lollipop brooches for the fair. So yeah, I decided not to go to Handmade Ho Down :(. I just don’t have a lot of time to spare until the fair on the 12th. I might have to fly down to LA for business next week, too. Eep! Back to work! Muah!

Okay, I had no idea there was a Bay Area street team thingie for Etsy, not that I am super involved in the Etsy community or anything…. but Shrinkle informed me of this night-time craft fair event thingie they put together which is taking place on Thursday, Dec 3rd, from 6pm-midnight, at 1015 Folsom. I’m really curious!! We’re going! At least, I hope we are going. Hairy invited a buddy over for dinner, so we’ll see how late that goes!

****** I ran all out of codes!!! Thank you so much for your interest and support!!! My brother works at Zazzle.com and is offering you guys some gift codes! You can either buy tshirts, mugs, skate decks, shoes, etc etc, that other people have designed, or you can design your own! The first code is $20 off when you spend at least $20. This code would be good only for this Cyber Monday, 11/30, before midnight PST! Sorry, I already gave out 30 of these codes and am all out! The other code is $10 off when you spend at least $10, and this code will last until 12/31. If you are interested, please leave a comment ASAP with an email address!!! I have 20 of each to give away and will email you your codes :). Remember to respond quickly for the $20 one because again that is ONLY GOOD ON MONDAY!

You guys. We just went to Goodwill to check out plates and candle sticks to make more ghetto cakestands, and I just bought the most awesome thing ever. BEHOLD! A BRAIN!!!!!!!!! This has inspired me to start a new collection of Goodwill/Garage sale school-project glazed ceramic objects. Maybe one day, I could have an art show with all my anonymous, grade-school “art” pieces, lovingly collected throughout the years. I need to find out if my parents still have my piece d’resistance from my childhood: it was a clay goblet that I glazed blue with little yellow fish all over it. It was really hard to keep its shape while I was making it, so then I just squished the cup part together and it was all deformed. It ruled. I believe the brain is signed on the inside, but it’s hard to make out. JTG? JT6? Why did you guys ever give this away??? This brain did not have a price tag on it, so when I went to pay for it, I told the lady. Me: This brain does not have a price tag on it. Lady: What is the cost of a brain? Me: (turning to Hairy) Priceless. Lady: (punches in $0.05) WIN!!!!

Linds let me model her new weenie tee!!! Which happened to perfectly match this felted yellow hair bow I am selling. I also got to show the world my Bobart the Weinerdog purse!! Here’s the quick story on Bobart: My friend Margaret took me to the mall in highschool or college and asked me to pick something out  for my birthday present. I picked this adorable weinerdog purse. We were walking around and trying to give a good name to this purse, and I said BALLPARK, like Ballpark Franks. Margaret thought I had said BOBART, and so it was. To pick up your own awesome weenie tee, check out Sick for Cute which is having a downright insane $12 tee sale! If you want the one and only yellow felted hair bow with rainbow pom poms, hit up My Etsy Shop which still has lowered craft-fair pricing until Monday! p.s. Check out Shrinkle’s latest blog entry for TONS of photos of the Hello Kitty Fashion show. Laughter. Tears. The whole shebang!!!!!

Hey gangalang, I updated my Etsy shop! Every item has lowered craft-fair pricing for those of you who could not make it to the New People Event, and I will keep this pricing until this Monday, 11:59pm, West Coast time! Enjoy! Here are some of my favs: Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!!!!

I’ve been up all night making stuff for New People, and I’m still going!! I wonder how much I have left in me? While crocheting some cherry dangly zipper pulls, I decided to make a crocheted strawberry ring. Marissa introduced me to the idea of making rings, and I’m kind of into it! They really are comfy! And washable! I’m not sure I love the strawberry on a ring. It’s really 3D and sticks out kind of awkwardly, but it was a fun experiment. Back to the grind!! Hoping to pop out a few tissue box cozies in the next 24 hours!!!

Hi Gang! First off, check out this super amazing drawing by ZambiCandy!!! I cannot believe it! And now onto business! The New People Artist Village event is this Friday/Saturday, but I am also gearing up for SF Bazaar Bizaare on December 12-13. I noticed at Renegade that lots of people wanted to pick up and play with the savory scarves like Bacon n Eggs, Popcorn, and Pizza, but that most people wanted to buy the sweets-themed scarves like Cupcakes. This made me think that perhaps my December show should be sweets-only, cupcakes, cookies, cakes, gingerbread men, etc. What do you think? I think that the cutesypie sweets are just one part of what I do, and that the humor of the savory scarves is another big facet of my work. So, I usually like to show both. However, I ran out of cupcake scarves at Renegade, so I wondered if I should have taken more time to make more cutesy stuff, rather than spending time making the savories. In the end, I sold the rest on Etsy anyway, but, I just want to bring stuff to the show that people will want to see and buy! I don’t want people to be disappointed if I run out of the thing that they wanted. Anyway, if you guys have any thoughts (especially from people who might actually go) let me know!!! Tonight I will be felting like crazy (pancake purse!), and probably making gingerbread men like crazy, cuz my yarn just arrived today!! EEP!!!!!

We are back from going down to L.A. for the Hello Kitty Fashion show. It was such an amazing and interesting experience, and I’m so happy and honored to have been a little part of it! There will be professional pics of all the outfits and also video of the actual show (there were two shows that night), so I think I will wait for those to appear before really posting anything!!! But just so my blog is not vacant, here are a few things from Saturday night: Me and Shrinkle being cute and sexy as always: I forced Hairy to sit down and have the special Hello Kitty High Tea with me which included mini desserts and mini Hello Kitty sammiches!! Here’s me after we took a few bites out of the Hello Kitty cookie head: I believe so far I sold my felted Hello Kitty bow purse and this tube top that I made giant crocheted Hello Kitty bow/brooches for. The gal who bought the purse came up to me and told me she bought it. She was also holding another red Hello Kitty bow purse that she already had!!! I’m so tickled that she wanted another! I still have a Hello Kitty scarf and fingerless mitts to sell. I believe that they will be posted online via JapanLA for sale, but I’m not sure exactly. I will let you guys know! I gave my sample cake-purse a test run that night. It held up perfectly well. The dangle cherry zipper pulls were like soft and fuzzy stress balls. I felt like I was holding a stuffed animal the whole night. BONUS. After the fashion show, we went back to our motel so I could change clothes (I was wearing a really cute cake-inspired dress by Nicole Lindner but I wasn’t wearing the right bra for it and was getting a little nippley….yikes….I didn’t know until I went to the ladies room…. also I am not confident in my ability to pull off an asymmetrical-topped dress, it somehow made me feel extra naked?), anyway, after getting back into some jeans, we watched Saw 6 finally and then ate at Canter’s Deli after that! Late night! I tried to work on my crochet projects as much as possible whenever we had down time. I didn’t get a whole lot done, but something is better than nothing! Waffle cowl in progress! The dark brown part is sparkly!!!! I’m calling it CINNAMON. This apparently was in the men’s bathroom at one of our pit stops on the way home. The ladies did not get anything like this!! So for the next few days, I will be furiously making stuff for the New People Artist Village on Friday night and all day Saturday!!! Don’t forget to come to J-Town and say hi! (But you need to RSVP and email New People if you want to receive an invitation to the preview night/Friday night from 6pm-8pm).

This is what my coffee table/work table looks like right now! I love spring-y, candy-like colors. I really want a coat in a cute candy color but all the coats seem to be in fall colors right now, and fall colors/jewel tones are NOT MY FAV!!!! I’m prepping a bunch of zipper pouches and hair bows to be felted. I need to make a few more pouches before these are ready to be popped in the washing machine! In other random news, I’d been wearing my hair in pigtails a lot with the bangs down because I am lazy. A) I don’t have to draw on my eyebrows. B) I don’t have to curl or fluff my hairz. Today is the 1st day in a while that I actually fluffed again! Last night, I was on the hunt for a particular kind of red button, but then I fell in love with LOTS of buttons on Etsy! I really want the heart-shaped ones, but I am holding back since the fundages run low whenever I prep for shows! Finally, please check out this very cute giveaway at My Paper Crane’s blog!!! It’s really awesome. You won’t regret it. I never win giveaways. I don’t know why I keep trying :P.

Today I shot a few photos for a few peeps. If you want to see it bigger click HERE. The above collage was for I Love Cookie Party.com which is a crafty supply site that sells fabrics and buttons and stuff. They were looking to replace one of the monsters on their site with an actual person and asked if I might want to give it a whirl. I kinda had no idea what they were actually looking for, so I just threw together a bunch of stuff and we’ll see if anything sticks! Also I bought this giant pink bow from Puppycatmeow on Etsy, and she asked if I’d take some photos for her shop, so I said OK! The last one on the right is so awesome, am I right? Also today I visited Imagiknit to get more yarn for the upcoming show at New People. I ended up buying like 7 skeins of YELLOW, but all in different brands and materials. Everyone was like GIRL WHY YOU BUYIN SO MUCH YELLOW!?!! Sometimes it just happens!! I sent most of it off to my helpers, but here is what stayed with me: I figure if I have any readers who are into yarn porn, I can start documenting what I buy on my yarn outings if it happens to look at all exciting!! I keep wanting to stop buying so much yarn and use up my stash, but somehow, you just end up having to buy more anyway!! I recently went thru my stash and pulled out stuff I know that I will never use. Is it kosher to sell your stash on Etsy? Anyhoo, I am off to make two watermelon scarves tonight!!!! xo OH p.s., if you knit or crochet afghans and know anything about framing them properly (i.e. so they don’t sag) please let me know!!!

Hey Gang! Sorry for the lack of commenting and updates. I was unable to do either, and I thought it was just a momentary glitch. But then I asked my webmaster/brother tonight, and he said it looked like the blog had actually been hacked!!! I think it’s better now, tho. I seem to have a lot of problems with this blog breaking! Anyway, I hope everyone had a fun Halloween!! I was so involved in my projects that I had NO brainpower to spend on Halloween. We ended up going to a bar with Manda who dressed up as Punky Brewster and we people-watched. Then we ate some foods at Baghdad Cafe after closing down the bar and did more people-watching! This is basically the only entertaining pic from the evening: Manda at Baghdad being the guinea pig for Hairy’s animated-gif app on his iPhone: I was going to post the rest of the scarf pics that I took on the day I had to email my manuscript, but, then I figured, if I showed pics of everything, it wouldn’t be a very fun surprise!! (However, the pics I’ve been showing you will not be the final pics for the book. I have to plan those shoots out and take them a bit later!))  So here’s just one more. I had basically been up all night, worked until noon, shot pics, edited them, and went to sleep from 2pm-6pm before I had to meet my friend Pickle for dinner in San Leandro. It was a long day!!! So now, my next project is making goodies for this event at the New People building . SF Bazaar Bizarre is teaming up with New People to bring you “New People Artist Village Vol.1: New People x Bazaar Bizarre”. This artist’s village will be in celebration of a new art exhibit at the SUPERFROG Gallery entitled “Tokyo Creators Market: An Exhibition by 7 artists from Tokyo.” If you haven’t visited the New People building yet, here’s a great opportunity! WHEN AND WHERE Friday November 20th 2009 6pm-9pm Saturday November 21st 2009 10am-8pm New People 1746 Post St, San Francisco, CA 94115 When there’s a banner, I will post it to my MySpace, etc! In other news, I got a few pics from Margaret from her wedding. I will put them behind a cut! xo!

I’m still buried by my deadline. Panicking actually. I’m way behind with no time to spare. Why is it always like this!? Eep! ***EDIT****** I wrote this entry on the 26th. Today is the 31st and I delivered all my book samples and crochet patterns yesterday! YAY!!********* I stayed up all night working and slept from about 9:30am – 2pm. Kinda weird. Made me really rushed to make the post office after shooting pics when I woke up, but I kinda like sleeping on the couch with the dogs! 😛 Here’s a few snaps from the past few days. Enjoy! xo I put a ruffle on this version of the salad scarf, and I love it. I want to make a cowl/neckwarmer that’s just layers of ruffley lettuce!

Go check out Shrinkle’s photo heavy blog entry about the Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary Opening Party!!! My favorites are from when we went to eat at Swinger’s afteward, and Shrinkle’s man Kevin took out his camera, and Hairy and I just instincutally started making poo faces, and Kevin said we were the worst models ever.

Hairy and I drove down to L.A. on Thursday and made it just in time to stand in line to get into the VIP party for Hello Kitty’s 35th Anniversary at Royal-T. Then we woke up the next morning and drove right back home to make it for Hairy’s 5pm tattoo appointment! Here’s a little news clip about the event. Fox 11 gathered up a bunch of us, and I thought it was just to take a picture. Turns out, they wanted girls as background for their TV snippet. I was able to hide behind other people quite a bit. Shrinkle claims to have tried to hide behind me, but I was clearly hiding behind her….!!! Here’s a pic of me and, I believe, Melissa (correct me if I’m wrong!) from this article on BlackBook Mag. I thought it was kinda funny that rando press people would snap pics of you on their little point-and-shoots. I guess you get funky photos like this then! I’d stayed up until like 6 in the morning to make myself a Hello Kitty purse (felted). I had no time to think about what I was going to wear, threw some crap into my bag at the last minute, and decided I needed at least ONE Hello Kitty accessory!! I will probably do a blog giveaway with it later after November 14th (we will be going back to LA for the Hello Kitty Fashion Event…which is open to the public!). This is me in front of the Hello Kitty airstream, decorated inside by Cynthia Rowley! I’m holding up a CuteAndNast.com sticker cuz I didn’t know what to do with my hands. CLICK HERE to read their post about the event!!! Also check out BubblePunch’s photos!!! Um, their dresses were both handmade by themselves and TO DIE FOR!!! I’ve decided I need a pair of blinged-out “formal” glasses for fancy photo-heavy occasions!!! I feel so dowdy compared to everyone else’s fabulousness!!! I will cut the other 21 or so photos click if you want to see more!

Hairy and I are back from Margaret’s wedding in Houston, and also we just picked up the doggies from their kennel in Petaluma today. The weather in Houston was gorgeous and not-hot and perfect!! Then we came home and it POURED today here! First up: I did not wear a wig in the ceremony. I brought the short wig, but after the out-of-towner dinner at Maggiano’s and a chat with the bride, we decided that half the people who’d be at the wedding already saw me with pink hair, and it would be super duper even more weird if I showed up with a little black fro. You are going to kill me, but Hairy and I never remembered to bring our camera anywhere!!! You will have to wait to see the actual wedding photos from the photographer, if Margaret ever sends them to me. I managed to get this blurry snap in the bathroom with my phone: I wore a little hair-thing by thehoneycomb on Etsy. I must have an enormous head, because the fascinator did not look as big on my head as it does on the model’s head!!!! I am now a fan of her stuff!!! The style is a bit more “romantic” than my every day wear, but it was perfect for the occasion and not too expensive. I don’t have a full-outfit shot from the wedding, but I do have a pre-outfit shot. I tell everyone that the most unattractive thing you could ever wear is NUDE-colored SPANX. I don’t like wearing thongs, and when I was telling my mom a year or so ago that I was going to a formal function with a slinky dress, she donated her new pair of unused SPANX to me. They are really disturbing, but they hide the panty line! However, I noticed in the car, after I put my dress on, that I could see THE LEG LINE!!!! I was kind of disgusted with myself at that point, but everyone assured me that they couldn’t really see it….. Anyway, the ceremony was really short and really sweet. I made my speech/toast and all was well. I feel like I have a go-to format for giving wedding toasts now: 1) Say hello and introduce yourself. 2) Congratulate the bride and groom. 3) If nobody knows who the heck you are, briefly explain how you know the bride/broom or both. Pepper with humor if appropriate. 4) This time I included a brief story of how they met, because I thought it was very sweet. 5) Choose something quirky about the bride/broom to share, or choose a favorite memory or anecdote. 6) Relate this quirky thing or anecdote back to marriage/happiness/new life, etc. 7) Cheers! The wedding cake was tres leches and it was YUMMMMMMMY. Also the bride’s mom got a little tipsy and danced her little tushy off on the dance floor. It was awesome. We had dinner at a place called Ragin’ Cajun, ate pie at House of […]

We went to Whole Foods the other day so Hairy could make a really yum-tastic salad with pomelos and long beans and lettuce and cabbage and a dressing made with fish sauce. I saw these teeny tiny baby tomatoes and I HAD TO HAVE THEM. I am not usually a fan of raw tomatoes. I only like them cooked or in sauces. But these guys were not only ADORABLE but also DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!! Nice and tart and snappity. Today I sent a 1st batch of sample scarves and patterns to my publisher. I have lots of 80% finished scarves here, so I sent her the stuff that was 100%. I tweaked MOST of my patterns (which kinda took forever) to make them more easily explainable in a pattern, and I also tried to use more yarns that are readily available (i.e. ya don’t necessarily have to order them online like I do!), without skimping on style of course! I don’t have to take the final photos until after their pattern-tester tests everything, but I wanted to stick in some photos as place holders so she could see. I’m putting the photos I took today behind a cut, because, there’s nothing new that you haven’t seen before!

SO I FINAALLLLY finished the sushi scarf sample for my pattern book. It took forever because (A) it takes forever anyway, lots of pieces, lots of sewing, lots of weaving-in-ends! but also (B) I tweaked the pattern a bit so that it would read a bit more cleanly and logically. I prefer the final look when I use a more complicated and less logical technique, but the result is still pretty decent with the simplified instructions. I normally am not a fan of shortcuts, but I still want the patterns to be understandable and executable! While re-vamping my pattern for the EBI/shrimp, I ended up with a couple leftovers. It seems sad to just toss them, but I don’t know that anyone would want to wear them in the form of like a brooch or a hair clip!!! It’s kinda weird! So, tonight, I will keep cleaning up the text of the sushi pattern and also fix some of the instructional graphics, and then I need to hustle and make the next project on my list. I have no idea how much or how little we can speak about this project, so here is just a teeeeny tiny peeksy…. ****EDIT**** Okay, I just got an email asking us not to post photos of designs, even though mine was really not a full-on sketch, but on the safe side, I deleted it! I’ll make a post about the event, though, tomorrow!

Hey gang! Just wanted to let you know that there will be 3 giveaways at the Pink de Ville blog this weekend in celebration of Onjoli’s bday! Happy bday! Two have already been posted, and you can still enter to win! Giveaway #1 is a $20 gift certificate to her store, and Giveaway #2 is Robot Kit! Good luck! p.s. so far this weekend I’ve had dinner at Sushi Sam’s in San Mateo with my bro, Jaci, and his coworker and wife, and also Soul-ey Vegan (vegan soul food) in Oakland with Elysse and Kyle. My tum tum is on num num overload!!! DEELISH!!!! Tomorrow I have to have a can of soup for dinner to make up for it!