We’re home! We had so much fun in NYC. The weather was beautiful and perfect. There is never enough time to do everything or eat everything! We went to Times Square, up to the tippy top of the Empire State Building, got lost in the subway for 2 hours, ate hot dogs at Katz’s Deli, got cereal-milk milkshakes from Momofuku Milk Bar, went fabric shopping at Mood, t-shirt shopping in Soho, stayed in an apartment in the East Village, strolled through Central Park, ate pizza at Lombardi’s, hung out with different friends every day, but there were still so many things left on the list to do. Next time, next time!

I need to get photos and video from Manda for a full NYC post, but here are some teaser photos of the Bust Craftacular off my iPhone.

It’s always hard to predict what might sell at any given craft fair, but overall, it was a really good day. The new Square app for the iPad is super awesome. I want to make a video clip just of that to show you guys. We logged in all our items beforehand, and when people made purchases, all we had to do was touch photos of items, and prices would be totaled automatically. Gotta love technology!

Here we are in the cab on the way to the venue. I am perfecting my anti-smise: smile with your mouth and not your eyes.

Here are some shots of the booth before the show started. (The apple juice bottle is not part of the display… hehe… they were giving out fuji apple juice and it was really yummy!)

Here was a fun surprise! A gal walked up to me and said, “I have something for you to sign.” I thought it was going to be a book. It turned out to be my crochet painting from JapanLa’s “Kittens & Ice Cream” show! That was really cool!

A few weeks ago on Twitter, I randomly wondered who, out in the universe, owned the one and only hot dog hand bag I made and sold on eBay, back when I was selling exclusively on eBay. Lo and behold, the hot dog hand bag -owner messaged me back and said she would see me in NY! She drove 4 hours from another state to say hi! So awesome!

So Manda disappeared for a while, later in the day, saying she was going to buy something from a booth that was selling charms. She bought some prezzies and also came back with a prezzie for moi! She had them engrave “bff” on the round charm.
We hadn’t really eaten much the whole day, and I saw someone come by my booth eating what looked like a miniature ice cream scoop cupcake on a cone. When Manda left for the 2nd time to visit the charm bracelet booth, I said, “INTERN!! BRING ME AN ICE CREAM CONE BROWNIE THING!!” She did.

And it was so super yummy!

There are a lot more photos…and VIDEO…from the trip. If you are a blog reader, and we took a picture together on your camera, please do feel free to send it to me to post on my blog!

For now, I will concentrate on getting all the leftover items up on Etsy and re-opening the shop. I will do my usual post-craft-fair sale as well. Mostly the more spendy items like scarves are deeply discounted, but there’s still a little break on smaller items like mitts and hats as well. I’ll letcha guys know when that goes up!

Hope you guys had a fun Easter! Sorry I didn’t get a chance to make an Easter update in the shop this year. I have been completely overwhelmed with prepping for Bust Craftacular! We leave for NYC on Wednesday night! If you are in NY, please come out and say hello at our little booth on Saturday. It’s one day only!

These are just some quick images from my Instagram account (twinkiechan). I still have so much to do!!!

You can see in the lower right corner the whiteboard I use to keep my crochet elves organized. I am so thankful for them everyday and could not do any of this without them.

I can’t wait to come back from NY!! I’ll have a big sale with leftovers in the Etsy shop, and I have some fun free-patterns to post for you guys, plus, a giveaway which I might run while I’m gone!

My craft room today is an explosion of yarn and supplies and partially finished projects for Bust Craftacular. I can’t believe it’s coming up so quickly! I’m kinda freaking out because not only do I have to make sure to complete enough stock for the table and get everything tagged and labeled, but I also need to figure out again how to travel with my set-up and fit it into suitcases. The biggest challenge is a portable rack to display scarves. When we traveled for Austin Renegade, I was lucky to have my crochet elf Rita in town, and she picked up a laundry rack for me! We were thinking of maybe just running to a Target while in NYC and buying something to build and then just leave there. We’ll see! Hopefully more of that planning will happen later this week! I’d like my display to all be cohesive and cute and make sense, but the traveling/suitcase bit is something I have yet to figure out.

I thought it might be fun/useful/interesting if I blogged about new yarn brands/lines I buy and try. I don’t branch out that often, and I have my old stand-bys, so we might as well share info and thoughts together!

I recently purchased some Brava (worsted and bulky) from Knit Picks. I’ve been on the lookout lately for a good replacement for the LionBrand Homespun in pastel colors that have been discontinued, as it was my favorite for the cupcake scarf. For now, I’m pretty mentally committed to Cascade 128 Superwash as a replacement, which is merino wool and chunky, but I’m bummed the pink isn’t QUITE perfect, and there isn’t really a mint green, just a lime green. I also want to see if I can find something cheaper, as Cascade 128 is about $14/skein.

Brava Bulky comes in a nice array of cheery, saturated colors and is 100% acrylic. Brava also comes in worsted and sport weight, for a wide range of projects.

Here are the balls I bought:

Colors: Tranquil, Rouge, Canary, Sienna.

Tranquil and Rouge are beautiful, but I think a couple shades darker than I would prefer for cupcake frosting colors. Canary is rich and beautiful, more yolky than neon, and Sienna is nice and chocolatey.

These are beautiful, soft yarns, at $2.99/ball. For projects where you want rich color, I really recommend Brava!

p.s. if you have any more suggestions for what to call these yarn posts…let me know!

“Please join us for evening of companionship and good conversation, with the finest crisp poultry catered by the famous Chef sanders… I believe he is a also Colonel.

A night to be savored!”

When Manda was interning at my house on Wednesday, we were discussing eating dinner with some friends, but since I am house-sitting/dog-sitting, it seemed easier to just convene at the house for dinner. Suddenly, we found ourselves googling pictures of Colonel Sanders and fancy dinner settings. Suddenly, we were throwing a KFC party, and I wanted to make everyone a Colonel Sanders tie.

Here’s Manda chugging the MegaJug which also had its own handle.

The Gravy Hand-Off.

Portraits with The Colonel.

While we were eating, I remarked that this blog entry was going to be My Most Shameful. So while I don’t condone stuffing your face with horrible junk food, I do condone having fun, themed dinners, and DIY’ing little matching accessories.