Halloween is soon upon us!

In celebration of my favorite day of the year, i am going to share with the interwebz my favorite spooky shops! I would also like to invite you all to check out the Etsy Owls Street Team's October challenge. You can vote for your favorite haunted hand made craft! There are some lovely items and spooky inspirations to get you in the Halloween spirit.

Speaking of which, i will top off all of this ghoulish goodness with a picture of a possible ghost taken by yours truly on Halloween 4 years ago. I have never shared this online before. MUAHAHAHAHA! The photo is completely unretouched and i am scanning it right from the photograph without any editing except resizing the perimeter.

As some of you may know, Etsy has groups of people who connect due to their shared beloved craft. I wanted to find just the right group but that proved difficult because i have no one dedicated craft. I sew, paint, knit, make art dolls etc. Then i discovered the Owls. It stands for Off the Wall Ladies. Well, those who know me at all know that's where i fit. Each month we encourage each other to new levels of craftiness and hold a challenge. This month, our challenge is in the celebration of Halloween. Please click through here to check out the awesome stuff and place your vote!

I am constantly in awe of the mad art skillz i see on Etsy. It is inspiring and makes me smile each day. Today i share with you some of my favorite Halloweeny items i have found.

First up... be warm and terrify!

Rubella is a hungry hat monster from a fantastic shop called FairlyEnchanted. Cozy, functional, monstrous!

Next up are two horrors for the price of one!

I particularly love these guys because they combine three of my favorite things... Sock monkeys, Circus Sideshow and Halloween! You can find these guys and other great treasures in the Etsy shop Trigo.

Feel like bringing a touch of Halloween into your wardrobe? You can with this rad dress from JamesAnthony.

I love Calavera. I also love this store so much i ordered a custom made skull mask from this store just for me!


PrayingforFall has lots of fun spooky stuff and takes custom orders too!

Now one thing i love almost as much as Halloween is Geeks. Both the Circus Sideshow kind and of the nerdy variety. Therefore it is natural that i should love this shirt.



Nontrendy has lots of other cool stuff too... or is it not cool. Don't ask me, i'm Square.

Now Halloween would not be complete without a touch of Zombified charm. This choker from Tianarutledge can make you appear to have a severed and reattached head... how cool is that?


And now as promised, the "ghost picture". This photo was taken at the Denman Mall in the West End of Vancouver BC Canada. I have no idea on the haunted status of the mall. My daughter and i were there on the afternoon of October 31st 2005 when i snapped this picture on film (not digital). Imagine our surprize when we got our pictures back! Denny the Denman Place Mall mascott was totally still when i took the picture so it's not a tracer from movement from his glove. Ironically enough, the two of them are standing in front of a liquor store with a large sign that reads "Spirits" right behind them. This photo is not retouched in any way other than to scan it into the computer and resize it smaller so that it doesn't take up the whole page. Tell me what you think!

Happy Haunting!

[ j ]