Category: Blog

JapanLA is celebrating it’s 10th Anniversary with a fun party and art show! Mark your calendars for Saturday, June 11, 6pm-10pm! They are celebrating with a Super Kawaii Food Art Show and party! They will have a bunch of super cute food related items in store for the party too! AND A CHURRO BAR TRUCK!!!!!!!!! I really want to go, but I’m not sure I can make it. We’ll see…! But if you’re in the area, you should definitely check it out. I will have a crocheted bento box series there. Here’s a sneak peek of one of them! I’m so obsessed with hot dog octopus bento right now that I cannot even function. More pics soon!

When someone asks if they can send you a roller skating unicorn pin … YOU SAY YES. These amazing pins are by one of my faves, Ugly Baby. You might know her more for her shower art, which I have in my bathroom, but she has some other fun stuff in her shop like these guys! She sent me two pins – one for me, and one for a friend. But I sorta took them both… and used them as collar pins! If you want to pick up one of your own,  hit up Ugly Baby on Etsy! p.s. this dress if from Kee Boutique, and I don’t know if I got big or it got small, but now I can no longer zip it all the way up without feeling like a tightly stuffed gingham sausage.

I have a super cute new giveaway for you guys! One of the things I really like about this giveaway is the possibility that you will pass the prize onto someone else for a special occasion. Momiji dolls are message dolls. Not only are they colorful and adorable and come in all different designs and personalities, but they also have little slots on the bottom for a small slip of paper that you can write a special message on. Give a cute Momiji doll as a birthday present, anniversary present, thank-you present, wedding present, or just an everyday hey-I-like-you present. Each doll is packaged in a sturdy capsule box with his/her name and likes. Momiji also often works with other designers around the world to bring you special collaborations and limited editions. To be honest, I was really sad to miss out on the 2008 Yota Sampasneethumrong collab. I mean, really, I LOVE THESE SO MUCH. Actually, I blogged about them in 2012! Momiji sent me some cute dolls to show you guys. Here’s what the dolls look like when they arrive. From left to right, I got Snug Bug, BFF Dina, Thank You (I think we kinda look alike, don’t you?), and BFF Liona. #myfaceforscale Here’s a video of me unboxing them for the first time: TWO lucky winners will be able to select one core Momiji doll of their own (does not include limited edition and doll must be in stock at winners’ local hub). Simply use the Rafflecopter widget below for all your ways to enter. I’m also running a separate giveaway for one more doll on Instagram. Giveaway is open worldwide and will run until Wednesday, June 1st at midnight PDT. Winner must be 18 or over and must also respond to my email within 24 hours or I will choose a new winner. Winner will be chosen randomly via Rafflecopter/Random.org. Please make sure that twinkie@twinkiechan.com will get through your spam filters. While Momiji will pay for shipping your prize, you are responsible for any possible customs or duty charges. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. No giveaway accounts please! A giveaway account is a social media account that you use only to post about giveaways. Good luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Okay, so, I don’t know if you remember my post about the loaf kitties, but I mentioned that my buddy Candace showed me a shop called Tokyo Otaku Mode, and we have been linking cute stuff to each other since! I am now a TOM affiliate, so while this post is not sponsored, I do get a small percentage of the sale if you buy anything from the store with one of the links on my blog. ALSO, they gave me a 10% off code for you guys: TwinkieTOM. It only lasts until the end of May! I think if you sign up using this link, we both get a $5 credit to shop, too [[edit: actually it looks like it’s not $5 but $10 worth of TOM points instead. I’m sorry I misunderstood!!]]. Phew. That’s a lot of info! Now let’s take a look at some of my current favorites! For plushies, I am loving all of these dudes: Peropero Sparkles Plush Mascots, Bananya Pencil Case, Tsuchineko Chabushi Plush, Rainbow Pockets Teddy Bears In J-Fashion, I put these on my wishlist: Donut Socks, Swankiss Cherry Motif Top, Flapper Cat Tail Fur Bag, Honey Salon Bunny Ballet Flats There’s also a big Figures and Dolls section, but to be honest, I’m not a big collector of those, nor do I know a lot of the characters, so I can’t really select a favorites list from that particular part of the shop. But I hope you have a look at the TOM website and take advantage of the $5 off coupon from my sign-up link as well as the 10% coupon at checkout with the code TwinkieTOM!

I had kind of a whirlwind weekend while in Pasadena for Vogue Knitting Live. I will blog about it! But first… our monthly giveaway!!! Thanks to my lovely blog sponsors for the wonderful prizes. ONE LUCKY WINNER WILL RECEIVE:

I’m teaching a crochet class this Thursday night, 5pm – 7pm, at ImagiKnit in San Francisco! There’s still time to sign up. We’ll be making mini donuts from my book that you can turn into fridge magnets, pins, hair clips, key chains, bag charms, whatever you like! I’m also bringing a slightly different mini donut pattern if you want more circular donuts (rather than the oval ones that I prefer!). This is a good class for intermediate beginners. Things will go more smoothly if you are already familiar with how to hold a crochet hook, how to chain, and how to single crochet. I can teach you about working in the round, increasing, and decreasing! The class is a promotional price of $25 and you can sign up with ImagiKnit by calling 415-621-6642. See you then!

AHHH I forgot to tell you guys that I was book of the week  at Cut Out + Keep! Click on over to check out a Q&A with me! You can also enter here to win a copy of my book. You have until May 9. Good luck!

One of my readers requested that I post links to stuff that I find inspiring, and I just Tweeted about an Instagram feed I really like, so this felt like a good time for a lil blog post! The Happy Mail – Instagram The Happy Mail is a company out of the UK that delivers cute boxes of candy and baked goods to you. They seem to have a “more is more” philosophy to decorating which is way up my alley, plus their IG feed is just so cute and colorful! SaoZen Plush – Instagram Super cute plush artist! When photos from her feed pop up on my IG, I just feel filled with light! Macy Daisy – Instagram I love her style and her shop! I have bought a few pieces of clothing and jewelry from her, and they feel so thoughtful, beautiful, and so authentically her. Momiji – Instagram Until very recently, I had no idea how cute the Momiji Instagram feed is! I will be working with Momiji soon on a fun giveaway for you guys, and their IG feed is just plain adorable! Momiji dolls have an opening so that you can hide hand-written messages, dreams, and wishes in them! Naoshi Sunae– Instagram Anyone who has been in my house has seen Naoshi’s work. SHE PAINTS WITH SAND. It is so amazing, and I totally want to be one of the girls in her art. I have the print in the upper left corner, but I haven’t bought a frame for it yet. When I was in LA a few years ago for the Sweet Streets show, I bought an original sand painting. I don’t normally splurge a lot on original artwork, but I could not say no to myself! I hope you had fun taking a little peek into what I find inspiring on Instagram. Have a fun and/or relaxing weekend! I’ll be prepping for my trunk show at Imagiknit on Monday and MAYBE seeing Naoshi in person at Renegade Craft Fair! (Renegade added a 3rd show this year in SF, and this weekend is the first one!)

I just received my order of custom bookplates, so for those of you who bought my book already but would like a signature, you can purchase one of these bookplates and let me know what you’d like written on it, and then I ship it to you for you to stick in your book! I’m also still offering signed books in my shop as well :). Don’t forget I have a book signing here in San Francisco on Monday, May 2nd, at Imagiknit, 4pm-7pm. Details are here!

Please mark your calendars if you’re in the Bay Area! I’m going to be at my favorite yarn store Imagiknit, on Monday, May 2nd from 4pm-7pm signing books and throwing a lil trunk show! Come say hi, check out some finished pieces from the book, and maybe even purchase some if you haven’t done your Mother’s Day shopping yet! I’ll have limited numbers of pieces, so be sure to snap them up! I would really love to see you there! Don’t forget to check out the deets at Imagiknit, and here’s the Facebook event if you want to put it in your event calendar over there :).

Wanna call in and chat with me on a podcast? Let’s do it! I’m going to be on the Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird on Tuesday morning, April 19, at 10am mountain time, which would be 9am here on the West Coast. We’re going to chat about my new book and gosh knows what else… so tune in and find out and say hi!

Did you finish your taxes? If you did, treat yourself to my April blog sponsor giveaway! If you didn’t, you still got time… get on it … and then enter the giveaway!! Thanks so much to my awesome and generous sponsors. ONE LUCKY WINNER will receive the following:

I’m excited to tell you about the first giveaway happening right now where you can win a copy of my book! ALSO, you can win either a finished honey bear apron OR the yarn and hook needed to make your own. Head on over to SuperCuteKawaii to enter to win!! You have until April 19th, but do it now before you forget ;).

It’s April and that means it’s National Stress Awareness Month! ARE YOU FEELING IT!? I’m teaming up with the Craft Yarn Council again this year to help spread the word about knitting and crocheting being wonderful stress relievers and mentally akin to yoga and meditation. Last year, I created a pattern and video tutorial for a crocheted lemon stress ball, cuz when life gives you lemons… you can make one… and squeeze one!! This year, the CYC is taking the lemons even further… all the way to NYC! The CYC ran a big crochet/knit lemon drive with guilds across the country, and the CYC will drop thousands of these lemon stress balls into the hands of frazzled New Yorkers on one of the most stressful days of the year, Tax Day (which ironically happens to land during National Stress Awareness Month). On Monday, April 18th, people rushing last-minute to the James A. Farley Post Office Building in Manhattan to wait in line to mail their 2015 Tax Returns by the due date and filing deadline will be met with a sunny surprise and important message… knitting and crochet are good for you! I wish I could see this all go down!! If you are in NYC and someone hands you a lemon, YOU GOTTA TELL ME ABOUT IT! We can still participate in the Lemon Drop Takeover locally by knitting or crocheting a lemon, tagging it with an encouraging message (the CYC created a sample tag, here’s the front, and here’s the back), and giving it to someone we know, or leaving it somewhere public for someone to find. Snap a photo and share it on social media with #stitchawaystress to share your Lemon Drop! You can check out other weekly #stitchawaystress challenges by following the Craft Yarn Council on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. Also, I’ll be taking over the CYC Instagram next week, April 13th, so you can see what adventures I get up to with my own Lemon Drop! (All photos and graphics courtesy of the CYC!)

Surprise! For the next 3 months, I’ll be part of Unique Vintage‘s Style Society. (Image plucked from Unique Vintage’s blog!) This means I’ll be showing you guys some cute outfits I’ll put together from pieces from their shop. If you are not familiar with UV, they specialize in retro and vintage clothing. I think I might’ve bought a dress from them years and years ago to attend my former boss’ charity gala, but I guess I didn’t say where I got that from, so it will remain a mystery! I know I’m not generally a vintage/retro gal when it comes to my outfits (I do dabble on occasion), so I think it will be really fun to try incorporating more into my wardrobe! Anyway, I have been really bad about blogging outfits lately because A) crappy phone-cam Instagram photos have replaced outfit blog posts, and Instagram is just easy and fast, with quality not being an issue for me there, but mostly B) I kinda lost my go-to in-house locations for good outfit photos. I used to shoot a lot in my dining room, but now my dining room is my craft room and there’s less room and more clutter. My yard is really ugly, so that’s not so much an option. I was thinking maybe in front of my books where the light is better, but there’s not a lot of space. If someone can recommend a good camera lens to get for small spaces, that would be really rad! I have a Canon T3i. Regardless, contributing to the Style Society will really kick my butt in gear to get my outfit-photo-set-up sorted out. More soon! Also do hit up the UV blog to check out the other Style Society gals. I’m already really enjoying one of their blogs, and actually accidentally ran into her blog today while image-searching Buxom lip gloss swatches :P.

My new crochet class just went live on Creativebug.com as part of the Critter of the Month series! Click on over to check it out! I was really excited to see all of the sloths you crocheted from my February class, so I’m looking forward to seeing all of your new unicorn friends! P.S. In case you were curious, here is the rough sketch I used to write my pattern!

Today is the official publication date for my new book, and I just posted the little book trailer/commercial that Manda and I shot 2 days ago to my YouTube channel! I’m super lucky she has the skills to sew her own outfit! She also helped a lot with the direction and concept and provided the voiceover. I have batted around some other silly video ideas and will probably want to execute those for fun, too. But here’s the first one! Also stay tuned for some book giveaways!

Thanks for participating in my Vogue Knitting Live giveaway! I’m still trying to pin down a winner who will actually be in LA at the time ;). In the meantime, Vogue Knitting Live is giving you a $10 off code for either one of my clases! Just use code TWINKIE during check out.   Here’s the class list. I’m teaching Saturday from 2:00-4:00pm (soup can) and also Sunday from 2:00-4:00pm (donut). Look out for the DONUT and the SOUP CAN!

I didn’t know if I’d have time to post an Easter-themed pattern this year, but I saw a picture of some super cute Easter cake pops and thought, THOSE ARE BALLS. WE CAN CROCHET BALLS. So this pattern is SUPER easy and basic. Think of it more as project inspiration. There are a kabillion ways to customize your own Easter cake pops, so I’m simply providing a road map! As simple as these are, I think they are pretty darn cute! I also updated my YouTube channel since it’s been a million years…! Let’s crochet!  

My new book is starting to ship and is landing in people’s hands!! YAY!! The official pub date is April 1, and I’m still trying to work on a cute little video trailer, but if you have pre-ordered, your book should arrive any day! If you feel inclined to leave a lil Amazon review, that would be super duper amazing, and if you already have done so, I appreciate your support so so much. I can’t wait to start seeing all your fun projects! Use the hashtag #TCAbodeALaMode if you post any finished pieces on social media, so that I can see them!

Gang! I will be in Pasadena May 14-15 to teach some crochet classes at Vogue Knitting Live! VKL is a 3-day yarn/knitting/crocheting extravaganza which features: • More than 150 classes • shopping in the Marketplace with more than 70 vendors selling hard-to-find fibers, accessories, and patterns • knit-couture fashion shows • a cocktail reception with singer/songwriter Siedah Garrett, who will entertain attendees with a rendition of “Man in the Mirror” • a health area where you can get hand and back massages, make and take stress-relieving hearts and lemons, and share why you love knitting & crocheting • and so much more! I’m teaching two projects from my book, a mini donut fridge magnet and a can-o-soup fridge magnet! They are tiny and adorable, and if you’re a beginner, you’ll learn some neat skills! I wish I could link directly to each class, but I can’t seem to figure that out… : X. Here’s the class list. I’m teaching Saturday from 2:00-4:00pm (soup can) and also Sunday from 2:00-4:00pm (donut). Look out for the DONUT and the SOUP CAN! I’m also hanging out in the health area from 11:30-1:30 on Saturday and Sunday. I’ll be heading the make-and-take for some lemon and heart-shaped stress balls! I would love to see you there! Don’t leave me hangin’! And here’s the amazingly awesome fun part!!! Vogue Knitting Live is letting me give one of my classes in Pasadena away FOR FREE! (I want to be clear that you would be entering to win an in-person, 2-hour class at the convention, so you should plan or already be planning to be in Southern California in May.) Starting from this very second right now until Friday at noon PDT, enter to win a free crochet class with me! Simply leave a comment here on my blog, telling me about your favorite thing to crochet, or something you’re looking forward to learning how to crochet! I’ll choose a winner randomly via Random.org. Good luck!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I’m at the Creativebug studios this week filming a new series of classes for you! I also filmed a short video tutorial for this quick little four leaf clover to put on YouTube, but I didn’t have time to edit it :-o. This pattern is part of my Marshmallow Cereal Charms pattern that is for sale on Etsy, but in the spirit of the day, I though I’d post it here for you guys to work up some cuties! Little Four Leaf Clover Finished size: approx. 2 in. wide x 2.25 in. tall What You’ll Need: Approx. 5 yards of green worsted weight yarn. Approx. 10 yards if you want to make one double-layered and slip stitch them together. H hook scissors tapestry needle Abbreviations ch(s): chain(s) dc: double crochet rnd(s): round(s) sc: single crochet sk: skip sl st: slip stitch st(s): stitch(es) (  ): Work everything inside the parentheses into the next stitch. [  ]: Work everything inside the brackets the number of times indicated   With Green, make magic circle, or ch 3 and sl st to 1st ch to form ring. Rnd 1: Ch 1 (doesn’t count as a st), 6 sc into ring. Don’t join rnd. (6) Rnd 2: (2 sc) into each sc. Sl st to 1st sc to join. (12) Rnd 3: [Ch 2, in next st (4 dc), ch 2, sl st in next st 2 times] 3 times around. Ch 2, in next st (4 dc), ch 2, sl st in next st. To form the stem, ch 4, sk 1st ch, work 3 sc evenly in remaining chs, sl st to next st. (43) Break off and weave in ends.

It’s your favorite time ! It’s giveaway time! Thanks so much to all my wonderful and generous blog sponsors for the prizes! One lucky winner will receive:

I’m running a  giveaway on Instagram for a really cute prize package from one of my favorite brands So So Happy!  Click on over to my post on Instagram to enter to win! The giveaway ends in 4 days on March 15, and then I will draw a random winner. I was super excited when So So Happy contacted me, because I’ve been following them for years. Manda and I even bought matching hoodies at Comic Con when we were there in 2010! I can’t wait to see who wins!