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Ah! They're Finally Here!

An entry from October 2, 2007

Moo Cards

A long awaited package finally finally finally arrived from London today -- my MOO Minicards are finally here and I'm extremely pleased with the results! The color and quality are pretty damn remarkable, especially considering that the photos I used were merely 72 dpi -- the photos were just imported directly from my Flickr account.

Moo Cards

What's especially cool is that these cards are also practical. My contact info is printed on the back, so these 70 x 28 mm minicards will serve well as my cool new business cards. Awesome!

Moo Cards

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Single Stitch

An entry from October 5, 2007

Crochet - Chain Stitch

I felt INSPIRED to crochet about a couple of weeks ago. Learning to crochet from illustrations was harder than I thought it would be. The Happy Hooker book didn't work for me -- there was a lot to read and some of the illustrations were hard to follow. My experience was similar with the other book, Teach Yourself Visually Crocheting, except that all the pictures documenting the steps were indistinguishable from each other. I returned both books to Borders and I nearly gave up on crocheting altogether until Doug (the sweetest sweetheart of all) bought me a book called Hooked on Crochet by Sandi Jensen, which salvaged my budding crochet career. Great illustrations with helpful arrows make the world of a difference. After lots of practice, I was finally able to crochet more than just a single row of the single stitch. I've completed dozens of failed single stitches -- below are some pictures of my progress throughout:

Crochet - Single Stitch

A very long Chain Stitch

Crochet - Single Stitch

Single row, Single Stitch

Crochet - Single Stitch

Another of many attempts at the Single Stitch

Crochet - Single Stitch

Sweet success -- multiple Single Stitches

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Bazaar Bizarre

An entry from October 6, 2007

Craftacular

I never had any desire to visit New York city until today. As a new Bust reader, I very recently learned that Bust holds an annual event, a massive craft fair in New York city called Holiday Craftacular and I really really want to go. The funny thing is that I don't travel. It's not that I dislike travelling, it's just that I don't do it and I never thought of seriously doing it (until now) -- just like I never thought I'd dig crafting so much as recently as two months ago.

SF Craft Mafia

But hey! San Francisco should have something like it, right? So I google'd "San Francisco Craft Fair" and a bunch of listings came up, but most importantly, I learned of a SF Craft Mafia, which also has an upcoming event on October 21! I was ecstatic until I remembered that I had already made plans for the 21st. So my search continued and thank god, my prayers were answered.

Bazaar Bizarre

Thank you, Bazaar Bizarre. I wouldn't miss it for almost anything.

Bazaar Bizarre
San Francisco County Fair Building
Golden Gate Park
Saturday December 15, 2007
11:00am - 6:00pm
$1.00 at the door

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Wearing the Sinners

An entry from October 11, 2007

Lipstick Queen

I don't remember when or how I first heard of LIPSTICK QUEEN, but I do know that I've known about the brand name for at least a few years now. About a month ago, I once again stumbled across Lipstick Queen's website. Inspired by the story behind Lipstick Queen's creation, I subscribed to the mailing list. The website itself is simple and attractive. However, the color sample displays are lacking. Though the verbiage for the color descriptions are compelling and induce curiosity (ie. here's the verbiage for Berry Sinner: "If a raspberry and a chocolate had a child it would be this shade. Deep brown with a delicious pinkish hue."), the illustrations aren't tempting enough to compel me to purchase lipstick that I've never tried on nor is easily accessible (at local stores).

But, joining the mailing list was fruitful. Shortly after I subscribed to the mailing list, I learned that Lipstick Queen was sold at Elizabeth Charles on Fillmore. I visited Elizabeth Charles the following week and though my trip was Red Sinner specific, they were out of stock. Instead, I tried on the Saint Red and Berry Sinner and was very pleased with both.

Are you a Saint or aSinner?

Now, for those unfamiliar with Lipstick Queen, it generally comes in two flavors -- Saints and Sinners (see above picture). There are ten flavors in each. Colors in each general category (Saint or Sinner) have a counterpart in the other category. So, a Saint Red will have a Red Sinner counterpart, a Saint Berry will have a Berry Sinner counterpart and so on. The difference lies in the strength of their pigments -- the Saints are translucent while the Sinners are opaque.

I'm ordinarily a MAC girl and I still love Santiago (the color was discontinued and I bought the last 6 tubes from the MAC Store in Berkeley). But, the Lipstick Queen colors are just as fantastic, so much so that I ordered Saint Berry and Red Sinner online. Lipstick Queen feels great on my lips -- the colors are solid for hours without drying.

Depending on my mood, the Saints can be great and dandy, but the majority of the time, I much prefer and enjoy wearing the Sinners.

Lipstick Queen → http://www.lipstickqueen.com
$18.00 per tube

{ Check out the corresponding PuglyFeet photo blog entry here.
Read my other Lipstick Queen review, The Honest Politician. }

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Cool cool cool

An entry from October 13, 2007

Right after I wrote my Lipstick Queen editorial, "Wearing the Sinners", I visited lipstickqueen.com and dropped a link to my editorial via their contact form:

Hello, My name is Katrina Tan and I'm a Lipstick Queen fan.
FYI: I wrote an entry about the Saints and the Sinners here:
http://www.puglyfeet.com/blog/2007/10/wearing_the_sinners.html

To my surprise and delight, I got a response:

Thank you for contacting LQ - and your wonderful editorial on your blog; it will be added to our press page.
I must say, I am most impressed with what you wrote because it is in depth and helpful to those who don't know about the line. I am a big supporter of bloggers as I think you guys are very PASSIONATE and honest and therefore it resonates more with the consumer.
Kindly send me your mailing address, I would like to send you a oxymoron (tell me which shade you would like).

I was intrigued... Oxymoron -- a matte gloss available in four colors with clever, witty names:

Minor Crisis:: "Rose-budding and Budding with Rose is this sensual pink."
Honest Politician:: "Pink meets brown and just like some politicians... a love child is born."
Deafening Silence:: "Barely there nude beige."
Free Ride:: "Peachy keen, a subtle peachy glow. "

Heck, I wanted to try them all. Since I had to choose only one, I went with Honest Politician (though I'm secretly wishing that she will send me all four =) ).

Do you believe it? Can you believe it? Is there really such a thing as a matte gloss or is it all hype? A clever marketing scheme perhaps? I've seen and experienced Deafening Silences, Minor Crises, and Free Rides in my life, but an Honest Politician? Matt Gloss?? We shall soon see...

{Update: For the review, click here.}

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