Category: Blog

One of the weird things that Manda (Renee) and I decided to do one year was to delay our Christmas gift exchange in order to diffuse some of that Holiday pressure. At first we said we’d exchange gifts the following holiday: Valentine’s Day, but when V Day rolled around, none of us were ready with gifts yet! So we then celebrated our first St. Pattymas back on Stanford Avenue. I believe we decorated and had cookies and everything. From then on, Manda and I (not Renee since she moved away) continued to celebrate St. PattyMas. This year, we were a bit tardy, so Manda had a Spring bbq at her place (way after Easter!) and she and I exchanged gifties. Here is some video of the bbq. Sorry about not capturing everybody! I am still shy about using the camera and sticking it in people’s faces!

Bibi does this thing where she nibbles on people, Bunny, and furniture. I don’t know what it means in dog language. Sometimes it seems very loving and maternal, but I don’t think she perceives the couch as her baby, so, I don’t know? Also, Bunny doesn’t seem to like it so much, and then they start tussling if Bibi eats Bunny’s nits. What do you think?

Hairy was buying deoderant at Target yesterday, and I couldn’t believe the amazing packaging and NAMES for the ladies’ deoderant. SEXY INTRIGUE really took the cake for me. When I think about my armpits, I totally think about how sexy and intriguing their odor could be. I also felt compelled to take a pic of this Corn & Callus remover. It’s just amazing and I can’t really explain why. It’s like I imagine it being in some dude’s sexy-time kit, so that he can whip it out and ask his date if she’d like a private pedicure and corn-removal sesh. On a more REAL note, I did buy the Biore Dual Fusion moisturizer with SPF. I fell for the ploy wherein they say this is for “transition” skin, skin that is neither teenaged nor old-aged. That’s me, right? I needed a new moisturizer with SPF anyway, so I picked this up. I gotta tell you, the DUAL part of dual fusion is unattainable as only the green stripe is coming out of the pump. NO matter how many times I tap the bottle against a hard surface, I can’t get the white stripe to come out. BOOOOOOUURRRNNSSS!!! I did slather my face in green “greaseless moisturizing” goo, and I have to say, it did feel quite nice, and I like the smell. If only I can get the SPF to come out.

I had a biz meeting up in San Anselmo yesterday, and as I was crossing back over the Golden Gate Bridge toward home, I tried to take a quick video snapshot, since it was gorgeous out. Then, while I was at JoAnn Fabrics, I wanted to see exactly how crappy the video quality of my phone is. I’ve decided it’s pretty crappy, which is unfortunate, because it’s so handy!! Ah well. It looks like I’ve been caught in a pixel storm.

I got an emergency phone call yesterday to work up an apple keychain for somebody’s birthday, so, I test-drove this apple. This one is too big for the keychain, but I think it came out pretty ok. Now I have to go to Imagiknit to find the right color: “reddish orange.” With me luck! Also, for breakfast, I had Corn Pops. Hairy is very into buying milk in the bottle, which always comes with a layer of cream. Even after shaking it up, I seem to get these CHUNKS on my cereal. I just kinda closed my eyes and went for it.

This is so visually cool, and also a neat primer for beginners! I saw it posted in a crochet community on LiveJournal. I absolutely love the display. Check out the whole article at SuperNaturale.

click to make it bigger! This makes me want to eat guacamole!

Soooo, when we are dog sitting at Woodside, doggie-meal-time is a crazy, fevered, battle of survival to finish their food. Breakfast and dinner are over in mere minutes. However, here at home, Bunny likes to take her time, and she doesn’t even finish. However, after she eats her fill, she just guards the rest of her food, which drives Bibi insane. So Bibi lets me know that Bunny is up to no good, by whining for 10 minutes straight until I get up to take Bunny’s food away. Here’s a small sampling of Bibi’s musical morning stylings!

1. Spun Cotton Rabbit Figure by VintageByCrystal on Etsy. This one in particular is sold out, but it’s the one that caught my eyes. Check her out. She makes other really amazing figures. 2. Mini Teeth Soap Sets by LoveLeeSoaps on Etsy. 3. Toast tunic/dress by MILK. 4. HAND SOAP by foliage on Etsy. 5. Weird nipple tee! at CosmicSoda.com 6. Intarsia Bow Intarsia Puff Sleeve Cardi by Betsey Johnson. WANT WANT WANT. 7. Girl in Gumballs polaroid transfer by SheHitPauseStudio on Etsy. 8. Gorgeous Lampwork glass cupcake bead by flamekeeper on Etsy.

Hey, who wants my big face on their wallet? This etsy shop recycles pages from magazines to create new items. I believe this is probably from an ad I was in for ShanaLogic.com in Shojo Beat. This is too funny. Thanks to Nina for sending me the link!

I was looking at photo albums with Hairy, and had to try to scan this one (a chore unto itself here as we figured out how to use the wireless scanner/fax/printer). Check out my sweet outfit and the rollerskates!! What would my derby name be? (Also, that’s my uncle.)

Hairy and myself at a champagne bar, waiting to meet up with peeps for dinner. What do you do on vacation? Eat? Shop? That’s generally what I do on my vacations. Oddly, there’s not much R&R when I go away, lots of running around. That’s the only way I can justify how much freaking food we consume! The photos ahead are not comprehensive, just a quick tour of some of the nibbles we enjoyed in Hong Kong, from street food, to fancy fare. Our camera ran out of batteries at our extremely lavish omakase extravaganza where Vic and my brother got totally crunk on house-made plum wine and other weird concoctions, but I think for sushi, you know what it looks like. You’d kinda just have to be there to really appreciate how out of control that meal was.

So my cousin Vic recommended a place for me to shop the last time I was in HK to find a souvenir for Hairy. He told me to shop at G.O.D. – Goods of Desire. G.O.D. is also close to the phonetic sound for the Cantonese words “to live better.” oven mitt On this trip, we discovered that Vic has also become friends with the designing founder (I think?) of G.O.D. and we had lunch with him in the little restaurant that shares space with one of the G.O.D. stores. match your computer mouse with your china! You can read what the store is all about on the site, but essentially, their mission is to bring a young, modern twist to fashion and home decor by updating more traditional Asian themes and cultural references, in order to help define the current Hong Kong/Asian culture. tissue cozy based on a popular brand of sliced bread I came home with an awesome new purse, which is probably only awesome to a small part of the population. The hang tag on my purse included a line about how Hong Kong culture is so recognizable, yet rarely recognized, and I think my purse is the perfect embodiment of this. sorry for the crappy photobooth pic. i don’t have my camera here! If you’ve ever spent much time in the airport with the Chinese people waiting for their baggage, you may have spotted the iconic and giant red/white/blue bags stuffed with people’s belongings. My understanding is that they are super cheap and made of a strong but lightweight nylon and are very handy to travel with because they fold up extremely easily but can be filled with so much stuff. The red/white/blue pattern is extremely recognizable, and the material is also used all over Hong Kong for things like awnings and tents in the street markets. I believe it has somewhat of a lowbrow connotation: a material for the (lower income) masses. I can’t find a picture of one online. How weird! The closest I’ve come to is some references from the Hong Kong Heritage museum. So this is why I think that using this pattern for vinyl(?) purses and tote bags is so genius. It’s taking something lowbrow, and re-packaging and re-selling it as a hip, modern accessory. My purse even comes with scuff/dirt marks! Also, while searching Flickr, I came up on this outfit that this girl made. It’s brilliant! uploaded to Flickr by namida21

Check out this awesome portrait by Soule by clicking on the image to go to her Etsy shop! She also has a website, http://soule5675.mosaicglobe.com/. She msgd me a little bit before my trip on MySpace to ask me if I was ok with her selling the portrait, and of course I said ok!! She originally saw some photos I snapped for OhLadySolo in one of the dresses I got from her, and then asked OhLadySolo for my contact info! Now you can have me stalking you in your very own home. 😛

First installment of Hong Kong Highlights! p.s. my shoot-em-up fingers in the intro + the music starting was not planned ahead! awesome.

Boing boing. Crunchety crunch!

It’s kinda small. You can click on the pic to go to the Flickr page and see “All Sizes.” So this was the piece I made for the show that Idle Hand, the tattoo shop I get my work done at by Holly Ellis, is putting on for their 5th anniversary. As far as I know, it’s still there? I have no idea when it’s over, but the opening party happened while we were out of the country. If you live in SF, you should go check it out! It was super fun to make, and now I want to make a spaghettios cowl! Or maybe Froot Loops! Also cheese puffs and/or cheese balls! Etc etc ETC!!!!! Here is also a silly video to see it in motion, if you haven’t already seen this on Flickr. I made it just to show you how there are varying amounts of macaroni on the cowl, for your every mood!

I kind of didn’t realize that Easter was so soon after my trip. I was a bit sad to not be able to post any Easter items before (or even ON) Easter, but I am still finishing them up and will hopefully post them either tonight or tomorrow as Spring-inspired items :). It’s all very colorful and cute and NEW and I can’t wait to show you! Eat a lot of chocolate for me!!!!! xoxo

I had a very late start today and could not bring myself to fix my hair. The thought of dealing with hair product and curling irons was deffo not appealing with all the unpacking and crafting I really need to do!! So, Post-Trip Style Tip: make it easy on yourself!!! Easy for me is messy pigtails accented with a big bow. Takes two seconds. Easy. Peasy. Poof! Also, there’s a sneak peak of the new scarf project I’m working on: Easter Egg Radish! I suppose it will be more like a necklace than a scarf. I might sell all the radishes separately so you can pick/choose your own colors and how thick you want the scarf to be. I’m not sure yet. I also want to do carrot bunches and turnip bunches. I’m really into having tiny little plushies dangling on scarves right now!

We are back home! It was quite a trip. I think I’ll break up Hong Kong and China entries over the next week just to pick up some highlights and not write one long draggy boring entry! The point of my trip was to go with my dad, my brother, his wife, and other members of my father’s family to visit the cemetery where my grandfather and grandmother are buried. There is an annual holiday in China to honor your ancestors, so we paired a trip to China with a few days in Hong Kong as well. In China, we visited Ning Bo, where my grandfather is from, and Shanghai. There are no pictures from this part of the trip (during which I wore my wig) because I didn’t feel that picture-taking was appropriate. While I found a lot of stuff that happened there to be intriguing, I will save those details. I am fairly open about my life, but I know that my dad is quite private. Actually, there are a few pictures from when we were in Shanghai at my grandmother’s house (no wig), but my cousin has them and I’m not sure if I’ll see them or not. We visited my grandma and were surprised to see her bed-ridden. I held her hand, but I don’t know if she knew who I was. It’s not that we were close. We’ve always had a language barrier and an ocean between us, but I always remember her as spunky and spry. And when she visited the states, she liked to make Boboli pizza at home and slice hot dogs on top! She also liked Rice Krispy treats, so I made them for her when she’d fly home. The following day after we visited, she passed away. My dad is back in China and my mom flew in to meet him, but my brother and I flew home according to schedule. I am really not a sappy, sentimental person, but, cherish your elders and visit them and talk to them, and if you speak the same language, you are lucky! Or, in a more broad sense, as Manda mentioned while we ate breakfast after she picked up Hairy and me from the airport: just remember to appreciate and cherish the people who are here and who love you. On a lighter note, here is Bunny inside of the tree-trunk dog bed/house that Hairy bought at the Ladies Market in Mongkok/Kowloon. She has always been a burrowing dog, so we figured she might like a little house..and she does!!!!

This ghetto fobulousness is heading back to the homeland(s) on Tuesday: Hong Kong and Shanghai. I’m going with Hairy, my pops, my bro, and his lady, and we’ll be gone until the 9th. I’m excited to go away, but also I will miss my puppies, and also I will be stressing about not working/making money!! I’m gonna pack a bunch of projects and hope that there is some time to work, sad but true! Anyhoodles, this is one of the shirts I made and had printed at zazzle.com. My brother works there. I’ve never liked the quality of print for CafePress or Spreadshirt shirts. I printed the exact same design at Spreadshirt as I did with Zazzle, and the one from Zazzle is way better. Don’t expect miracles, but, honestly, I was surprised how pleased I was with the Zazzle shirts….especially on dark clothing. Today I need to drop off a mac-n-cheese cowl at my tattoo shop for their art show. The party is on Friday, April 3rd from 8pm to 11pm at Idle Hand Tattoo in the Lower Haight. I’ll still be out of the country, but please go and tell me what it’s like!! 😛 So everyone be well, save all your exciting stories for when I’m back, and….oh yeah….. DON’T EAT MANDARINQUATS!! THEY ARE YUCKY NO MATTER WHAT HAIRY SAYS!!!

Some of you may be familiar with the awesome DiY messageboard PunkRockDomestics.com and co-founder Ms. Heidi Minx. I also had the pleasure of working together with her on her upcoming craft book with St. Martin’s Press in my past life as a literary agent. (photo is property of Franky & Minx) She is now working very hard to develop Built on Respect, a non-profit started in true DIY style that helps support young people who are working towards positive social change! Built on Respect is one of three finalists in the MySpace Impact Awards; this is a great opportunity! If Built on Respect wins, the charity receives a $10,000 grant, and AMAZING recognition on MySpace’s Impact channel! Vote for Built on Respect on MySpace Impact! Built On Respect

I’m still waiting for my lips to get feeling back to eat something!!!! (Dental appointment) As an aside, the other night, I told Hairy that I hoped my “spirit animal” was Chmurka, so I could sleep all day, and eat all night. What’s your spirit animal?!!!!

For the sake of argument: I don’t at all mind myself in natural, long hair. It’s just that it always gets in my face so I put it up anyway, so what’s the point? Also, natural, unbleached/undamaged hair, is really hard to style since mine is SO straight and so coarse!