So Much Fun!

Yesterday was the local Vancouver ATC Trade group's 9th birthday! We celebrated by making little cardboard cake slices (boxes) to trade, with a little hand made present inside.

Look at some of these "cakes" that people made!



Here's a picture of a cake with all the different (traded) slices.

Look at all of the goodies that were hidden inside!


Waiting for the fun to begin....

12 Days Presents are Wrapped!

WWhhhheeeewwww! The 12 presents are wrapped, and ready to go! Wrapping isn't my forte, and these were very, very simple....but it still took me hours to do! Recognize the wrapping? I used some of the paper from the 1902 - 1906 ledger I bought in the summer. 12 days of Xmas

Catch-Up

It's been a while since I posted! Our computer was playing games with us again, and we couldn't click on links, or post photo's......somehow we fixed it - but don't ask us how! Since Halloween, we got the h1n1 flu! My 5 year old brought it home from school....last Monday there were only 5 kids in his class - the rest were wiped out with the flu! Everyone's healthy, and full of beans now!

Here's my domino art doll for the "Altered Dominoes and Other Altered Game Pieces" group on flickr.




This is the doll I received from Heather at HA! Designs......I LOVE it! Heather is so talented, it's crazy. You should see her little altered houses that she makes!


I spent all week working on my presents for the 12 days of Christmas swap that I'm in.....but I can't show what I made yet! It involved some Lacy trim.......

On Saturday I had a table at the local Winter's Farmer's Market. Somehow I managed to fit all my stuff on a 3 foot square table!!

Then on Sunday I was at the first Christmas Fair of the season (very weird to listen to Christmas Carols all day!), and what a difference it was having an 8 foot table!

Now it's time to wrap the 12 presents and mail them off - should take a few hours!!!

We Survived Halloween Night!

What a perfect Halloween night it was last night!

The boys had a great time....

...and the girls had a great time too!

My three year old was scared at times......especially the time that my "darling" hubby made the severed hand that was lying on a set of stairs wiggle and jiggle. Her whole body was shaking like a leaf as she flew down the stairs! Never mind the haunted house maze (that some Film Industry people put together every year), with the walking, moaning mummies, and dead zombies grabbing at you! Yikes! I was scared out my wits!

There were some BIG stairs to climb!

I loved this skeleton - it was made from recycled plastic 4 litre milk jugs. I'd like to find some time to make one for next year - cool eh?!

Halloween Fun

I was just browsing Instructables, and came across these fun Halloween food ideas.

Love these Sugar Skull Cookies!

I also love this idea!

Back when I had more time, I used to make Witch's fingers every year.

My little pumpkins carving their pumpkins! Last night my daughter's preschool had a pumpkin carving party. Of course there I am, at the last possible second sewing my son's bat costume. Although I got the idea of using a black umbrella from MS, it sure didn't look as polished as her photo's!! He loves it though!

The 3 year old's pumpkin:

The 5 year old's pumpkin:

October Swap Doll

Here's the atc artdoll I finished for this month's colour challenge: "Black and Orange".

Now.....on to finish the altered domino artdoll, and the 12 presents for the 12 days of Christmas swap......fun, fun, fun!

Some Unexpected Finds

The Summer Farmer's markets are officially over!

After I was all packed up yesterday, I popped into a couple of stores on the way home, and found some unexpected treasures.

Look at this beautiful old typewriter that I found at Rubydog's Art House! Did I mention that I'm selling a few things out of her store? I love to spend $ in that store - man alive, it's sure to get your creative juices flowing!

I also dropped by Stepback. How did I ever manage to miss this store?!?! My only excuse is children! The store is almost 5 years old......the same age as my oldest. My "treasure hunting" has definitely taken a backseat since kids came along! I wouldn't exactly call the look I get from the clerks welcoming when I have young children in tow!

I found this wonderful, clear cabinet card....

....as well as this primary reader. I think I bought it more for the name!


Tonight I'm on to finishing off some swap projects, and then it's time to move into Christmas mode! (after I sew some Halloween costumes first!). Cheers!

Gorgeous Tents

This weekend is the last weekend of the Summer Farmer's Markets! Today I was downtown at the WestEnd Market, and tomorrow I'll be at the Kitsilano Market......in the rain! We were very lucky today, and actually had some sun! It's been raining HARD here recently....and the forecast for tomorrow doesn't look good.

Today I was standing there, with chilly fingers and toes, looking around at my tent - still unsatisfied......then I remembered a link that my mom e-mailed me. Check out these tents for inspiration!!! They're from Anne Girault, at Boutique Tents. It's a little ambitious (and maybe a little over the top), but I'm really, really into making something fancy-shmancy for my tent! The biggest problem would be choosing the colours and fabric....where would I ever begin?!

Here is the "Chinios" - a tent within a tent!

Gorgeous inside and out!




Here's the "Warner".....


...and the "Giovanna".

Here's the "Madeline". This would make a great change room tent for an outdoor market.

Finally, the "Stella".....a pretty tent for your pooch!

ATC Trading Day

Yesterday I was finally able to make it to the local Vancouver ATC trading group! It's been a while since I've been able to go, and I missed out on all the Summer trades! It's so much fun, and I love to sit and chat with other creative people. The group meets on the 3rd Sunday of each month at a coffee shop on Main St. There's a theme (that you don't have to follow) each month, and October's theme was "Party Hats".

Here's some of the atc's that I made for the trade:

Artist's Block?

Do you suffer from Artist's Block? My blog friend Dawn, just posted a 12 step program to get you out of your block - it's excellent, and I'll be referencing it often! Go check it out - Art of Humongous Proportions

I needed to make some more owl cards, so I finally dragged out the STACKS of paper that I have stashed here and there. You have no idea how big of a mess I have to make in order to make these little, dainty, pretty cards! The spread of paper around me is crazy while making these! My family just steps, hops, creeps around me like it's a normal thing to do!

New Fabric Flowers

I had fun making some more fabric flowers!

I wore one in my hair at a recent Farmer's market, and had many compliments - it's a little bit unnerving though......they're so lightweight, that you forget you're wearing one, and people glance up at you, and then quickly look up again and do a longer "stare". In reality, it's probably just a couple of seconds, but unless someone mentioned the flower, I started to get self conscience about people "staring" at me. It's a great way to jazz up your hair, and believe me, my hair needs "jazzing up" lately!

Great Mail Day!

Wow - what a great mail day today! I received both of my dolls for last month's swaps!

This one was for the "Bat Wings" theme doll, and it's from the very talented Bambi! Pink, sparkly bat wings - love it!

This atc artdoll is from my mom, and the theme was "Black Pointy Hat". My mom is so creative it's just crazy!

Only 2 more days to sign up for this month's swaps. The atc artdoll theme is a colour challenge: "Orange and Black", and the artdoll theme is: "Masquerade Ball". Fitting for the month of October eh?!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble.....

It was our Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. This turkey is a little late for his midnight run!


Why - look how perfect my turkey turned out! lol

This is our fancy dinner attire around here!

Luckily my hubby rarely visits my blog, otherwise he would NOT be impressed that I posted this! lol

We had a delicious dinner, with fresh veggies from the farmer's market. Bought some beautiful cranberry bread for turkey sandwiches too! Now I'm off to eat some more pie.......

Ta-Da! The Fake Cake

I finally got to use this icing set the other day!

My daughter goes to a Parent Participation preschool, and each family has a "job" to do for the year. My job is the "Creative Assistant", which means I'm in charge of making the play-dough every month (I just make orange and black), and the teacher asks me to do seasonal projects throughout the year. The other day she asked me to make a fake birthday cake, so that the kids get a chance to blow out the candles on their birthday during circle time. Usually she makes it out of play-dough, and lets it harden up, and it gets all dried out and wrinkled looking. So I did a little research online, and found this recipe for making fake cakes.

This is what I ended up making. It's actually kind of mean of me to make such a realistic cake for 3 - 5 year olds. They blow out the candles and expect to cut up the cake.......they don't understand that it's a "fake" cake. I'm thinking about adding some sparkles or something a little more "crafty" to it so that it tones down the "realness" of it!

This is what it looked like before I iced it. It's a dirty, greasy styrofoam chunk from my husband's garage!

I've also been busy making more bottle cap magnets! I almost sold out over my last two shows! Tomorrow I'll be fully stocked up again for the West End Farmer's market! Just checked the weather network - - no rain!

One Of A Kind Show

Tonight I went to the One of a Kind show, and had an overload of eye-candy!

Check out Emily Cooper Photography! LOVED her work!

Then there was Naomi Joy Yamamoto of "Flight Path's" work. A woman who was shopping at my table at the I Heart Crafts Bazaar was wearing this same necklace, and it is just so beautiful in person.

These cards from Cabin + Cub were soooooooooo cool! I Would have loved to have bought them all to make a whole wall display of them!

Then I discovered Black Drop Designs. Another artist into crows and trees (as much as I am)! Here I was drooling, and oooohhhing and aaaahhhhing. I guess I just have a thing for resin!

A woman who was shopping at the Farmer's market this past weekend was wearing the same necklace that I bought below. It looked so pretty on her, and I was thrilled tonight to have found one for myself! Yay!

Browsing Through Etsy and Look What I Found...

So now I have to control myself and not get too addicted to etsy again! This seller (Vintage Aimee's Haunted Glass Works) had one of her pieces on the front page tonight. They're just so magical aren't they?!

Etsy Shopping

I opened up my etsy shop again tonight! I took the summer off because I was just too busy to keep the shop going. Of course it means that I'm on etsy browsing around, and look what I bought! I LOVE it, and can't wait to get it in the mail! (It's from Just Be Designs on etsy)

The weekend was beautiful, and the two farmer's markets were busy and fun! I was hoping to make these apples to decorate the tent, but just didn't have the time (well, mostly energy!) to make them.

I did buy the most amazing, juicy, crisp, sweet apples EVER though! If you can make it to the last few markets of the season, I highly recommend buying some apples!!



I just had a "mini stall" at the Trout Lake market, and downsized my wares to one table instead of two.

Weekend Events

There's lots going on this weekend! Tomorrow I have a small stall at the Trout Lake Farmer's market, which means I'll be up nice and early to start my day! I've made some Halloween-themed necklaces for the October show dates!


The Drift Weekend Art Tour is also this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. Tomorrow evening I may go shopping at Two of Hearts! Sale time!

On Sunday, I'll be at the Kitsilano Farmer's market. It's Apple Festival time, and there will be an Apple Pie making contest, and a prize for the best Apple-themed booth. I thought about entering the pie contest, but my pastry skills are t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e!!


mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm - don't these look amazing?!

Paper Artdolls

Finished the September Swap Dolls for fantasticflat_paperdolls!

The Paper Artdoll theme was: "Bat Wings, or Black Wings".



The ATC Paper ARtdoll was: "Black Pointy Hat".


Tomorrow the new swap themes will be announced!!

Fabric and Chocolate!

Look at this wonderful swap package that arrived in the mail!

I recently joined a group on flickr called "A Little Fabric, a Little Chocolate {Swap}". The group is all about swapping our two favorites: fabric and chocolate! Each month a new swap sign-up starts, and you're assigned a swap partner. Each of the swap packages should contain a minimum of:

"~Three fat quarters (18" x 22" / 45.7cm x 55.9cm)
~An extra little "treat"~ something hand made would be awesome, or thread, buttons, notions, anything!
~Chocolate! { Note: for those friends that may live in countries where receiving chocolate is not allowed or getting it is questionable, you may elect to receive an extra fat quarter or extra little "treat" instead. When you flickrmail me to sign up, just specify "No Chocolate Please!"
~A hand-written note (In any language you desire!) Please indicate your flickr id and the name of the swap somewhere in your package.
~A photograph (of anything~ yourself, a building, a dog)
or a blank postcard."

This month my swap partner was "MyNextThirtyYear's", and she totally outdid herself with this swap package! (this photo is missing a large white chocolate bar....I ate it too fast!)



Here's the package I sent off to my partner:


There's just a little bit of time left to sign up for the October swap....I'm on the fence about joining in....I'm just sooooooo busy these days. I'm pretty sure I'll join in at the 11th hour - any excuse to go to this fabric store! (totally dangerous to step through the front doors!)

I Heart Crafts Bazaar

Yesterday was a great day for an Autumn Craft Fair! I was at the "I Heart Crafts Bazaar", and we all had a successful, happy day!

The organizer, Charlotte Hewson makes amazing posters for the shows - I bought this little treasure from her yesterday:

Here's my little spot:

View up ahead:

I did more shopping for myself at this show! This typewriter key necklace was made by "The Lucky Troll".

I bought this photograph from my vendor neighbour, Maureen Cameron.

Can't wait to crack open this (very spicy) jalapeno pepper jelly! Isn't it pretty?!

My Newest Fashion Accessory....

Check out my newst accessory! Today I bought this fancy, high-tech mask to use while working with all the high-fume, dangerous chemicals that I use. People always ask me if I wear a mask, and I lamely reply that I open a window...

On Saturday this woman really got me freaked out about not using a mask. There was something about the way she insisted that I protect myself, and that she's seen the results from not using protection. I'm pretty sure she worked at the hospital 1/2 a block away from us.....anyways, because of her I bought this mask. I freaked out my daughter though......

Luckily Saturday's weather cleared up, and we ended up having a nice sunny day! Now's the time to buy interesting squashes at the markets!

After the market, I raced over to the Heritage Hall to visit my friend Kristin aka: mette at the "Mommies on Main" show. Whew! Made it just in time!

Look at her wonderful dresses!

This little mod number is one of my favourites!

TinyWarbler was there with her beautiful hand made animal creatures.

I'd like to make a banner like this for my inside shows......I just can't find the time!

On Sunday I set up shop in Gastown, right outside "Blood Alley".

Got to use my newest large-size jewellery box!

These flowers were gorgeous!

Attn: Vancouverites...

Guess What!! RubyDog's Arthouse is back in business!! Hooray! We've been badly missing the treasures found in this store, and are just so thrilled that it's up and running again!

I went on opening day, and bought lots of little treasures, including these 1950's Vogue's....


And this old Pharmacy bag advertising "Black-Draught" family laxative.

Mark your calendars! "I Heart Crafts Bazaar" is coming up fast! It's at a new location, with tons of great vendors ....... and it's next weekend! Saturday Sept 26th, 2009, 11 am to 4 pm. At the WISE Hall 1882 Adanac St (at Victoria Dr) This space is Accessible through the back door!

I've had a bit of a break from the market shows, but this weekend I'll be in the full swing of things with 2 farmers markets. On Saturday I'll be at the WestEnd market: 9am - 2pm, 1100 Block of Comox Street across from Nelson Park at Mole Hill

On Sunday I'll be at the new Gastown Farmers market: 200 block of Carrall St between Water and Cordova, 11am - 3pm.

Another First Day of School

We've had another first day of school at our house. Now it's my daughter's turn for her first day at pre-school. She's been waiting, and waiting for her turn to go to school!

Look at this group of kids - looks like they're not super happy to be at school!

Here she is all ready to go!

Having a little drum time...

Playing "Ice Cream Parlour" in the school playground...(she was busy serving "cucumber" ice cream)

Here's some brighter photo's of the fabric flowers.

For some reason I really like the blue centre on this one!

Fabric Flowers

I finally finished making some of these fabric flowers! They're so much fun to make (and wear!).

I turned these ones into hair barrettes:

Have You Had Your 6 Slices of Bread Today?

I bought a new scanner! I have tons of old magazines and books and ephemera with great images, but my old scanner just didn't cut it. The images were never sharp enough, and I was always disappointed. The fist magazine I picked up today was a "Canadian Home Journal" from May 1937, and I came across this ad that just wouldn't fly during this day and age!!


It claims that you can climb 1200 steps on 2 slices of bread!

It's promoting white bread for dieting (or "safe reducing")! lol hmmmmmm - I never knew that bread helps you burn up surplus fat!


There's also some great art doll's just waiting to be made throughout this magazine! Soon.....

Oh, My Guilt as a Mother.....

My son started Kindergarten this week......and I'm taking it harder than him! I drop him off, and he just sort of waves me away without looking back. I stand around and pause and say things like "OK, well, see you later honey, I love you.....sure you're ok?......you know where I am.....I'll be back....."

So the guilt I'm feeling is over the "Schultuete" tradition on the first day of school. I wanted to make one for my son, but just couldn't get my act together to make one.....I know I'll always be guilty over this. I just have to "let it go....."!

A "Schultüte" (or School Cone, even though the word "Tüte" translates more as "bag" from German), often also called Zuckertüte ("sugar bag", especially in Eastern Germany) is a paper (and later plastic) bag in particular.

When children in Germany set off for their first day in school upon entering first grade, their parents and/or grandparents present them with a big cardboard cone, prettily decorated and filled with toys, chocolate, candies, school supplies, and various other goodies. It is given to children to make this anxiously awaited first day of school a little bit sweeter.


Can you imagine having this monster handed to you? What a thrill!

Sweetie...

These boys look like trouble!

Look at her sweet face...

Ha! This little boy does NOT look happy!

The Scooter MOD Series...

There's a new Scooter shop in town called the "Scooter Hive". They asked for some necklaces, so here's the fist batch that I dropped off to them yesterday:




some key chains:

Here's the view of the shop from the outside:

Their sign:

Outside window:

A peek through the door:

Scoot on display:

Shelving:

Cute display:

Ha! great book!

The annual Vancouver Scooter Rally is this weekend, and the ride stopped off at the shop. Here's a few people about to ride off...

Oh the Happy Fruit!

The end of the month means: swaps finished!....and the beginning of a new month means: New Paper Artdoll themes announced! This month's Paper Artdoll theme is "Bat Wings, or Black Wings", and "Black Pointy Hat" is the theme for the atc Artdoll.

Here's the Altered Matchbox with Altered Scrabble Tile I made for my swap partner. ("Altered Dominos and Other Altered Game Pieces" group on flickr)

I have a thing for shadowboxes.


My swap partner likes owls, so that's what she got! It's also on a letter "A" tile (her name starts with "A").

The fruit trees are bursting with healthy, juicy fruit right now. One neighbour gave us a huge bag of plums, and the other neighbour gave us a bag of asian pears....soon the figs will start to arrive over the fence!

Whenever I have something that I need to use up, I head on over to my favourite recipe site: allrecipes. I love that you can search recipes by ingredients - both what you're looking for, and what you'd like to omit, and also that all the recipes are rated......although sometimes I take the reviews with a grain of salt. How can you give a recipe a low rating after altering the original recipe? Anyways, that's where I found the recipe for "Plum Blueberry Upside Down Cake". It was a BIG hit around here!!

There's A Scrabble Tile Thief Here In Vancouver.....

This summer I've been to several Value Village's throughout the lower mainland, and every once in a while I find a Scrabble Tile game.....and I squeal with joy....and I open the box.....and all the tiles are missing!! This just happened to me again on Saturday out at the Richmond store.....with 2 boxes left behind - empty....aaaarrrrrggggghhhhh. Just buy the game already!!

I do have my friends out and about, looking for games, and the boxes have been trickling in. I love it when I get a vintage game with the pieces kept together in a bag (usually a purple Seagrams or Crown Royal bag) - like this homemade fabric bag:

I have hundreds of scrabble tile pieces, so it's not like I'm really needing them!! I'm a bit of an expert now, and can tell by glancing how old (or new) the tile pieces are!


I joined a group recently on flickr called: "A Little Fabric, A Little Chocolate {Swap}". Every month a swap is held, where you swap 3 fat quarters, some chocolate, a handmade goody, a photo, and a hand written note to your swap partner. August was my first month to join in, and unfortunately I haven't had luck contacting my swap partner :(

I went to my favourite fabric store anyways, and bought a nice selection of fabrics (and other things that I didn't go out to buy!), so if it doesn't work out with my August swap partner, my package is all ready to go for my September partner......that is, if they like aqua and red....

Look at the eye candy: