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 ]

Halloween Costumes Central... how may i help you?

Halloween is almost upon us again and i cannot be any happier. While i love the summer months, my natural pasty pallor, my October birthday and my morbid sense of humor has led me for most of my life to consider Autumn and Halloween the best time of the year. The smell of crisp leaves with a touch of frost in the Canadian air sets me all a'thrill.

I am the grown daughter of a Halloween obsessed costume maker and took up the gauntlet myself as soon as i lived on my own. I have been making costumes as a hobby for some 20 years now. I make all my patterns myself and just dive right into that pile of fabric.

Here is my charming little housefly son from last year.


Buzz buzz... don't want to shoo that fly away, he's too cute -- and he has a cookie!

My daughter has a penchant for sushi much like her mama. Here she is be-decked last year complete with wasabi cap and chop sticks. Much to her chagrin, most of the people in our rural neighborhood believed that she was a hockey puck... i guess you see what you know.



This is a terrible picture of a cute costume. This was made for my daughter when she was only 4. She was a real Reptar fan.


The next year, she was a metallic blue dragon. The body was scales with rippled blue lame scales down the belly and iridescent blue wings. The head piece fit like a hat.


Sometimes, waiting for Halloween is just too long. Here is the costume i made for my son when he was 1... just in time for Easter.


As many people who know me can attest to, i have a real love for sock monkeys. One year, i decided to be one for Halloween. Here's the costume. This sold on Ebay - used - for $200.oo.

When my son was one and a half, Fall was a cold time of year for a fair child with very little hair. This made an interesting idea boil forth in my mind. If he had no hair, could i make him a costume with hair? What kind of hair would i make? Well naturally, a POMPADOUR... Elvis has left the potty!


Another family obsession is pirates. Here is my dear daughter when she was 6 as a cute an cheeky pirate. Oh those buttons were so much fun... without a button holer on my sewing machine.



Below is a custom request for an Ewok costume i made just today for a friend's daughter... my son is a willing model.


Here's another custom order i made for this year's Halloween. It's Max in his wolf suit from Where the Wild Things Are. The person who ordered this will have fun rumpussing for sure!


I just revel in costume making. I take custom orders and make up as many costumes as possible each year for Halloween. If you would like to have me make you something, check me out via my Etsy store or leave me a msg. here. Cheers!