Hello Kitty x VANS x Chubby Bunny!

Iconic skater brand VANS teamed up with Hello Kitty again this year for a full line of adorable shoes, bags, and apparel! For the launch events that they are hosting this Summer, I was asked to create a special Hello Kitty outfit for the occasion!

VANS provided the AMAZING shoes, backpack, and bow for Hello Kitty, while I collaborated with them to make fun denim shorts, a long sleeved striped undershirt, striped tube socks, and a VANS T-shirt for Ms Kitty.

You can check out the photos from the Hello Kitty x VANS launch event in Mission Viejo.

All photos are by Sanrio staff since I was unable to attend the debut of the event. Thanks so much Sanrio!

You can see more photos from the event on my Flickr!

I’m revving up for some more Hello Kitty wardrobe magic this summer, so stay tuned in July when the next outfit debuts!

Keep in touch with Chubby Bunny!
[ Shop Chubby Bunny ] [ Twitter ] [ Facebook ] [ Tumblr ]

 

Hello Kitty’s “Big Pink Bow” promo video w/ Sephora & Chubby Bunny!

A few weeks ago, I updated about a fun promotional video that I shot with Sephora and Hello Kitty! Well, the video is finally live and online!

Myself and my friends posed as Hello Kitty “fans” in the video, greeting her on the “pink” carpet, and pawing through her hotel boudoir as Hello Kitty “superfans!” The shoot was really fun and the video is so cute! I make a verry brief appearance in the video.. see if you can find me! haha.

The dress worn by Hello Kitty was hand made by myself, as well as all of the pink Hello Kitty x Chubby Bunny Bows worn by all of the girls in the video! As always, they can be purchased at www.iamchubbybunny.com !

Enough chatter! Check out the cute video below!

 

I also did some screen caps of all the cute moments from the video! You can see all of them in the Flickr set here

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Sephora and Sanrio for letting us be part o the fun Hello Kitty action!

Keep in touch with Chubby Bunny!
[ Shop Chubby Bunny ] [ Twitter ] [ Facebook ] [ Tumblr ]

Hanky Panky x Hello Kitty Launch Party!

A ton of readers have been asking me about the lingerie line for Hanky Panky x Hello Kitty ever since I posted photos of their lookbook that featured the Chubby Bunny bow on their models! Just last weekend, Hanky Panky celebrated the launch of the line with a fun and fancy Hello Kitty party in SoHo!

Unfortunately I was unable to attend, but Hanky Panky posted up the photos on their Facebook, so I’m sharing them here Also, if you want to purchase anything from Hanky Panky’s new line, you can check out their website store, which JUST added the Hello Kitty items!

The launch celebrated not only Hanky Panky’s new lingerie, but also the Humane Society, which will receive a portion of the sales of these products. Sephora also chipped in at this event, providing giveaways and promotion.

The event was also featured in the Wall Street Journal today! How awesome!

From the May 18, 2012 issue of Wall Street Journal.

Tiffany Amber-Thiessen (Kelly from Saved By The Bell!!!!!) and Hello Kitty.

More pics after the jump!

My Glamorous Pony: Opening night of “My Little Pony Project: Los Angeles”

On Saturday, May 5th, the long awaited opening for the “My Little Pony Night Out” finally arrived! Sweet Streets curated the show for Hasbro and Mighty Fine which drew in hundreds of fans from all over! The event was tailored to My Little Pony crowds of old and new! Giant blank Ponies were sent out to artists all over the world to customize and sell for this show. Tons of my artist friends had pieces in the show, so I was super amped to see what they had come up with!

I went to the gallery on the Thursday before the opening to help with setup and go to clean pony butts and comb pony hair all afternoon. The ponies had been shipped in from all over the world, so they needed proper styling help and readjusting once they were situated on their pony pedestals. (Every word I am typing is getting more and more surreal to me as I go along, haha.) It was totally amazing.

Combing manes. No big deal.

Some photos of the AMAZING ponies that artists had customized. These pictures don’t even do them justice.

That afternoon we also stuffed some giftbags for the press night they were holding on Friday. These bags are normally available via Mightyfine.com’s site when you purchase a t-shirt. They’re enormous and so cute! Love that engineer-looking Rainbow Dash!

I’ve been waiting for a chance to do a fancy Princess Celestia cosplay ever since I started watching the Friendship is Magic version of My Little Pony, and this event was totally the perfect opportunity for it! So, I had been working my little hands off on my Gatsby dress, as well as the Hello Kitty Sephora dress, so making time for this dress was pretty stressful towards the end there..! It was my first time working with such gauzy chiffon material (and actually hemming it.. usually I’m lazy and just double it up or burn it haha), so it was a bit tricky at first but I got it!

A Great GatsB-Day!

On May 4th, I celebrated the end of my “roaring 20s” with a fun and elegant Great Gatsby-themed birthday at the fittingly beautiful Millenium Biltmore hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The Biltmore was home to the early years of the Academy Awards in true old Hollywood style.

Since I wanted to dress appropriately for my birthday bash, I summoned up all of my 20s inspiration, and made a bias cut gown with a champagne colored silk and lace overlay embellished with beading and sequins. I also did some DIY shoes and remade some old jewelry into fancy 20′s-style accessories!

I made these out of 1 pair of earrings, 2 necklaces, and an old bracelet. Hooray for being thrifty!

From plain blue Jessica Simpson pumps from the thrift stores, to overly deco-ed out bedazzled Gatsby shoes!

Finally did finger waves! I used a setting lotion and LOTS of combing to achieve the waves! Eye makeup is a combo of Sugarpill’s Goldilux, Magpie, and Junebug <3

Back of my dress! I added in a panel to the back of the dress for a small train.

I didn’t get a photo of the full front, so this will have to do, haha. My friend Shannon came from Portland and surprised me at the party! I cried buckets I was so excited and happy, haha.

There were lots of glamorous places to take photos in the hotel, so we poked around and were touristy… <3

My lovely lovely awesome friends! Jenny, Aimee, myself, Yume, and Shannon making an awesome face hehe.

Lovely staircase is lovely and fun to pose on!

With my former boss Jenna! We used to work together on the US version of the Gothic Lolita Bible maaany years ago!

Glenn, Eron, Callie, myself, and Shannon. Directly after this there was a lot of yelling, photobombing, and eating of donuts. We are, at heart, not a fancy group of people haha.

I brought two Oekaki boards for people to sign so I could keep some tangible memories of the night

I only wish I would have taken more photos! I had a wonderfully fancy time with my amazing friends! 30 has been a pretty fun so far, so here’s to a rip-roaring year!

Tons more photos can be found on my Flickr set!

Stay tuned for my post about the following day.. the My Little Pony project! <3

Keep in touch with Chubby Bunny!
[ Shop Chubby Bunny ] [ Twitter ] [ Facebook ] [ Tumblr ]

Hello Kitty’s “Big Pink Bow” Collection at Sephora w/Chubby Bunny!

It’s been an exciting Hello Kitty-filled weekend! In addition to it being my birthday (more on that later!) the debut of my latest Hello Kitty creation occurred in New York on May 4th, for Hello Kitty’s Big Pink Bow collection launch event with Sephora!

For the event, I collaborated with Sanrio to make an adorable polka dot dress with hot pink accents, and a pop of gold jewelry for Ms. Kitty as well as provide a few hundred pink Hello Kitty x Chubby Bunny headband bows for Sephora models to wear while promoting the launch! Megan Hilty (of NBC’s SMASH) even joined in the fun at the event.

The pink puffy bows are available for purchase on my site at www.iamchubbybunny.com!

Girls wearing the Hello Kitty x Chubby Bunny bow and riding Hello Kitty bicycles cruised around New York City, promoting the Big Pink Bow event at Sephora! How cute are they?

Megan Hilty (TV show “SMASH”, and Glinda from “Wicked” on Broadway), joins the girls in promoting the Big Pink Bow launch!

Kisses from Hello Kitty and friends!

Hello Kitty on her matching bicycle poses with a fan!

Megan Hilty poses with Hello Kitty, while wearing her pink Chubby Bunny bow! Kitty’s polka dot costume and bow were all crafted by myself in collaboration with Sanrio <3

On Tuesday, May 8th, Hello Kitty traveled back to Los Angeles to do a promotional video for Sephora’s Big Pink Bow collection, and I was invited, along with my awesome adorable friends, to join in the shoot on Melrose Place <3

Here are some behind the scenes photos from the video shoot! The finished video will make it’s debut at the end of May and be featured on Sephora.com and Sanrio.com! I’ll post up links to it as soon as it’s available!

Hello Kitty is a styling cat in the video…! She looked so cute with her face peeking out from the limo!

Hello Kitty and I!

Hello Kitty getting prepped to walk the “pink” carpet!

The middle Hello Kitty ring was newly released by Sephora for the Big Pink Bow collection, and opens up to reveal cream perfume scent! It smells really fruity and cute, with hints of pineapple, flowers, & coconut!

You can buy the Hello Kitty perfume ring here!

Onch (of onchmovement.com) and I sharing a fruity snack haha.

All of my awesome cute friends! They’re all sporting the Hello Kitty x Chubby Bunny bow to boot! <3

Yay! Can’t wait for the video to come out!

For tons more photos from the New York Big Pink Bow opening and the behind-the-scenes pics from the video shoot, check out my Flickr set!

Stay tuned for more posts about my epic birthday weekend <3

Keep in touch with Chubby Bunny!
[ Shop Chubby Bunny ] [ Twitter ] [ Facebook ] [ Tumblr ]

 

 

Craft Box: May Costume Madness: Hello Kitty, My Little Pony, Great Gatsby!

I’ve been working super hard these past couple of weeks on 3 projects at once!

After this week I’ll be able to do a full reveal on everything, but for now… some sneak peeks <3

I’m doing another Hello Kitty mascot costume for an upcoming launch somewhere special this month….. It’s the first time I’ve made jewelry for Ms. Kitty, too!

Purr-ly and pretty for Ms. Kitty, hehe.

I am also very excited about the My Little Pony Project, which I will be helping out with a little bit, and am working on an epic Princess Celestia outfit to wear to the opening event! I hope to see all of you guys there <3

Princess Celestia character that I'm taking inspiration from for my outfit!

Pretty and soft materials I'm prepping for my outfit!

 

And of course, at the end of this week, my BIRTHDAY will be arriving! I will be turning the big 30, so I’m doing a “Great Gatsby”-themed birthday party, to celebrate the end of my “roaring 20s”, so to speak! I even made a stupid little image for it, haha.

I was able to finish up this EPIC dress to wear for my birthday last week! Just have to work on the accessories now!

Can’t wait to share final photos of all of my projects with everyone! I just had to post a few progress photos because I am SUPER excited for this week and these projects!!!

Keep in touch with Chubby Bunny!
[ Shop Chubby Bunny ] [ Twitter ] [ Facebook ] [ Tumblr ]

 

 

Bunny Bites: Shin Okinawa Izakaya

Having lived in Japan for several years, it’s rare for me to encounter Japanese food that surprises me, but having never traveled to the tropical islands of Okinawa before, my firs trip to Shin Okinawa Izakaya in Torrance definitely held a lot of fun firsts for food!

Again, I’m not expert in Okinawan food, but by God, it was a delicious and fun meal!

Okinawan cuisine is heavily influenced by Chinese cuisine and Southeast Asian foods, with two of the most predominant ingredients being goya (a bitter melon) and PORK! LOTS of pork! Some funny pro-pork Okinawan sayings I found were “Okinawan food begins with pig and ends with pig” and “every part of a pig can be eaten except its hooves and its oink.” <3

First up, was a bottle of local Okinawan beer, "Orion," and a heaping portion of simmered pork belly.

Not exactly just from Okinawa, but this crab cream croquette was LOVELY. This is the before photo...

And this is the post-croquette division photo... haha... nomnom.

Tempura sweet potato sticks! These were pretty yummy and filling. Gotta love fried starch!

A very cheesy dish! This dish is hiding corn, mayo, and sweet potato. My mind was totally blown. Super yummy!

The inside of that lovely dish...!

Tebichi, aka Grilled Pork Leg! This was very soft, fatty, and delish! If you like unusual parts of the piggy, this one's for you!

Fried Mimi ga/pig ears: This one had so much potential, but unfortunately, the tempura batter they used here made the taste bland. The batter could use a kick up of spice, salt, pepper, but if you add all those things yourself with the condiments on the table, it's alright.

Overall, this restaurant offered unique and delicious food in a very relaxed atmosphere, and was all very reasonably priced to boot! This is a great restaurant for groups of friends to gather, drink, and talk for a few hours on the cheap. Even if your pals aren’t super adventurous with food, there are a ton of normal izakaya options at this restaurant too. I’ll definitely be back soon!
Info:
Shin Okinawa Izakaya
1880 W Carson St
Ste A
Torrance, CA 90501

Keep in touch with Chubby Bunny!
[ Shop Chubby Bunny ] [ Twitter ] [ Facebook ] [ Tumblr ]

Gettin’ Buff: Prepping for the Zombie Apocalypse!

My workout routine is something I don’t really blog about since it’s a little off topic for this blog, but I’ve been seeing great results recently and thought, meh, what the hell.

I used to work out like a fiend, but in the past year, got so incredibly busy with work that I had given up on being a workout beast, and sort of middled out to a lazy, always-tired and weak version of myself.

Motivated by the fact that I might have to outrun a zombie mob during the apocalypse, I finally got a new membership at a gym near me and got back into my old habits.

I’m mainly interested in keeping up my health, especially since I’ll be the big 30 this year! Plus, having physical endurance when executing events for work is always a must, since we tend to pull all nighters for a week then work on site for days at a time! I knew I was getting stronger since I was lifting more over the past few weeks, but I wasn’t sure if there were any actual visual changes to my body until one of my friends pointed out to me that I was starting to develop some scary guns..! I decided to check it out via actual photographic proof after one of my workouts:

No photoshop, just a shadowy hallway, haha.

I’m actually really pleased! Just watch me outrun those zombies now!

I’ve been getting some questions on my workout routine so I’ll post it here in case anyone’s interested. Please note that I basically do not diet at all anymore, since I get much more satisfaction out of working out regularly than depraving myself of crappy food. Also, this is sort of a lot of stuff… If you worked out more often and did less stuff, it would probably be just as, if not more, effective. I’m just lazy and can only get to the gym so often.

I work out about 3 times a week, sometimes 2 if I’m traveling a lot for about 2.5 to 3 hours at a time.

This is my usual order of my routine:

• Treadmill: 20 minutes, at .5 incline at 7 speed. 8 speed for last minute.
• Bench work w/Hand weights: 20lbs, 12 reps each 2x: Flys, presses, Tricep kickbacks, Bent over row on one leg, bicep curls, tricep extensions, reverse flys
• Weight machines: Varying weights, 12 reps each 2x: Inner & Outer thighs, hamstring curls, quad lifts, Leg press (I also do my calf raises on this machine by extending my leg fully then pushing just on my tiptoes), Torso Twists
• Machine Ab work:
  Roman chair with 35lb flat weight doing side rises and back rises, 12reps each 3x
  Sit up bench at maximum incline, 10 reps forward and 10 reps to each side 2x
  Crunch assist machine, 20reps each of forward crunch, raised leg crunch, side crunches
• Arm Weight Machines:
  Assisted pullups with 6t0lb counter weight and dips, 12 reps each 2x
  Varying weights, 12 reps each 2x: Shoulder Press,  Forward Press, Lat pull down bars, front row
• Yoga Ball work: 10x each, then repeat the cycle 3x total
  Plank Pike up, V-Ups (except i grab the ball with my feet on the way down and switch with my hands and feet), Hamstring Curl, Reverse Leg Raise (I grab onto the edge of the mat since there are no chairs around at the gym)
• Abs & Arms: Entire set 3x: Front, left and right side planks, 50sec each, then descent only pull ups (jump up to the bard and do a slow release) 10x
• Russian Twist 1 set of 50
• Bicycle Crunch 1 set of 40
• Cat Vomit exercise: 1 set of 10, hold each position 8sec

At this point, I usually stretch and go home, or add in a few other workout things that I’ve recently heard about and I want to try. I definitely could stand to do more cardio but.. I HATE CARDIO so much that the 20 minutes at the beginning are all I can bear, haha!

I hope my workout schedule post was useful for some you wanting to get a bit stronger for the zombie apocalypse! <3

Keep in touch with Chubby Bunny!
[ Shop Chubby Bunny ] [ Twitter ] [ Facebook ] [ Tumblr ]

Shopping Secrets: Daiso: Japan Cute in LA!

When I lived in Japan, I always LOVED going to the 100yen shops and scoring awesome cute things to decorate my home and cheap treats to pickup when I was strapped for cash.

My secret for bargain cuteness, the major chain store of 100yen stores has finally come to Los Angeles! (There are already other locations in the US, so if you live near one, you should go!) It opened quite recently, so I made some time to nip down and stock up on cute and cheap items! There are home goods, beauty items, stationary, snacks, clothing, toys, and more at this enormous Daiso. The price for ALMOST everything in the store is $1.50, with a few items being above that, but don’t worry, they’re clearly marked!

Get ready for a photo explosion of cuteness from Japan!

Lashes galore! All for $1.50 a pack!

Cute false eyelash cases! JUST what I've been looking for!

Cute headband ears in different colors and animals! Bunnies, bears, dogs, bees, sheep, pigs, lions, and lots more!

More photos after the jump!