On the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th! Day of Christmas...

On the tenth day of Christmas....

Jeanette Jansen made us these skeleton key necklaces! YES! another necklace to add to the collection!

On the eleventh day of Christmas....

Lisa Ryder made these little mini canvases for us! I love teeny, tiny things, and this is a wonderful addition to my teen, tiny treasures!

On the Twevfth day of Christmas....

Ruth O'Connor made these delicate crocheted snowflake ornaments! Soooooo pretty!


Here's the thirteenth present that I opened back on day nine....

Made by Penelope Harris, it's a sewing kit! She personalized each one with our initial on the front.

Inside page one is a place to hold pins and needles...

and here's page two to hold more sewing supplies!

My friend Kristin (mette) had a cookie decorating party for our kids this week!

They all had so much fun...

....and a little too much sugar!

A little corner of Kristin's home.

On the Ninth Day of Christmas.....

Number nine was my day!

I made a little army of lacy women! The top half's are made of paper, and the bottom's are made of tea-stained linen. I filled the bottom part with rice, and topped it off with batting, and then trimmed them all with bits of lace and buttons and flowers.....

I wrapped them all up, and let my kids randomly pick and choose what doll went into each package - I was careful to separate the dolls that had feathers on them so that the people in New Zealand didn't get any organic materials sent to them.

These three are holding boxes of flowers.

These two are strolling along with their long stemmed flowers.

These two are very proud of their large flowers, and are holding them up for all to see!

These two love their large jewels.

These gals sure love their purple flowers!

These two needed a little shawl for their garden stroll.

I also had a bonus number "13" present to open, but I can't show it online.....I don't want to spoil it for the other swap partners. Each of us get to open this bonus present when it's our scheduled present day.

On The Eighth Day of Christmas...

Look at these festive little gnomes!

Today was the eighth day, and Liz Smith Knit these festive NOEL banners for us! My photo doesn't do this justice....the colours of the wool, and the buttons.......a really nice wintry banner. Thanks Liz! I think it will go up on our front door.

If you happen to live in Vancouver, tomorrow night (Sunday) you should check out the Trinity Street Light Festival! We definitely plan on going (with our umbrellas!) Here's the details:

Dear Friends, The time has come once again for the oh-so-fabulous Trinity Street Light Festival. The generous folks of Trinity Street (2400-2900 blocks, just north of McGill) have been putting up their dazzling displays. Now its time for you to come out to enjoy the lights, meet your neighbours and support the community. The Neighbourhood Walk will take place on Sunday, December 20th from 6-9pm. If you can’t make it that evening, don't worry, lights are up now, and will stay up until January 2nd. The Trinity Street Light Festival was started 11 years ago by a group of residents looking to take back their neighbourhood after a fatal home invasion. Fueled by an abundance of community spirit right from day one, it has become a staple on the East Vancouver Christmas calendar.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas...

I couldn't wait to open up this present....mainly because it was so heavy! Curiosity was killing me! Usually people make light and/or flat items due to shipping costs.

Maria Lamb made this reversible tic-tac-toe board out of stone tiles. I actually didn't realize that it was a tic-tac-toe board until I visited the main swap blog. I hadn't flip the tiles over....I was so impressed with the front!

This photo of the back is borrowed from Lisa Ryder again.

I'm loving this little fabric snowman, made by Daria Duprey, of Zaftig Designs. We did a little trade at the last fair we were at....he's living on our dining room table now.

On the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Day of Christmas....

Whoooaaaa - the days are flying by!!

Today was day six of the 12 Days Exchange, and this is what we opened! They're prayer flags made by Misti Ko (Dawn Livera). This photo was taken by Lisa Ryder, another swap partner who obviously lives in a warmer/sunnier place than I do!

She also included her zine which talks about the tradition of prayer flags, how to make your own and online resources to check out.

Here's a portion of the flags I opened up tonight:

Yesterday was day five, which was our swap hostess' turn (Lelainia Lloyd). She made us these cel phone pouches with little snowman charms. Love the festive mint candy fabric.......it reminds me of my daughter's coveted "My Little Pony - Minty". I'll probably use the charm as a zipper pull.

On the Fourth day.......OK - I have to admit something......I've lost my fourth present. It can't be far....I know what room it was in when my children went nuts one day and thought the lovely pile of presents were theirs to play in. I borrowed this photo from the 12 Days blog (photo by Lisa Ryder), and I can't wait to find my own to open! It's a ribbon and paper charm, made by Tara Finlay.....looks like a little treasure!

On another note - have you seen this website where you can cut your own snowflake? It's a fun little site to play around with, but it was surprisingly hard to do - I made lots of huge, unintentional chunks fall away from my snowflake with those scissors!

On The Third Day of Christmas....

...Barbara Atwell gave to me.....

....this amazing little creation! It's a paper doll holding a Santa balloon, standing on a vintage wooden block. It was such a delight to open! Everyone knows how much I love paper artdolls! He looks right at home here in Vancouver!

Here's the back:

Now that I'm not spending every spare moment crafting, I get to spend some time browsing through a few of my favourite blogs. It's been great catching up, seeing what people have been up to, and getting eye candy overload at the same time! Today's eye candy favourite for me was Pam Garrison's blog - look at the advent calendar she made! I've been meaning to do something like this to an old Starbucks advent.....but again, no time!

Another pretty corner of her home:

Look at the snowflake curtain that she made! Makes me want to run out and buy some doilies!

On The Second Day of Christmas.....

Today was day 2 for the 12 days of Christmas swap. I almost didn't want to tear into this lovely sewn wallpaper envelope!...

....but I did! Inside was this textured, hammered copper and silver necklace, made by Kathy Strittmater. I'm really starting to love my new necklace collection!

Today we went out on a Christmas tree adventure!

Seriously - how do you choose the perfect tree among all these perfect trees? We wandered, and wandered......then obsession kicked in, and the kids were bored and running around like crazy...

...time for a photo break!

Glove check!

At last! The perfect tree!

12 Days of Christmas has Begun!

Today was the last fair of the season - hooray! Time to go celebrate! It was a great year of crafting fun, and now it's time to give it a rest......sort of. I have so many new ideas tumbling around in my head, I just can't wait to start playing and creating new things! First though.....get my house in order! You should see it! It looks like a tornado's run through it....with paper bits, thread, glue, pliers, scissors.....everywhere! My poor family!

Today was the first day of the 12 days of Christmas swap!! I got to open present number one from Amy Huff in McKinney Texas!

Look what she made us! A soldered glass necklace with sparkly silver touches! Thanks Amy - I love it!

Here's the back:

My kids were so happy to see me when I got home. I left at 7:30 this morning, and didn't get back until 7:30 p.m. I was lucky to get lots of cuddles and hugs!

A Few Lovely Things...

A few weeks ago, a parcel showed up at my door. I wasn't expecting anything, so it was such a thrill to open up the box and find it filled with beautiful things!

The parcel was from "chmihen" on flickr. What happened was, I joined a group called "A Little Fabric, A Little Chocolate {swap}", and signed up for my first swap with the group in the Summer. Unfortunately, I didn't get a package....it seemed my partner was M.I.A. So "chmihen" angeled this lovely package to me as compensation!

The chocolate is long gone now, and also included were beautiful notepads, and photo books, and recipe books......all being used!

This clutch is perfect. Love it!

Who doesn't like mushroom fabric?!

...and more mushroom fabric.

This morning I managed to whip into a couple of thrift stores, without the kids! I scored this vintage "Made In Japan" tinsel tree, along with a vintage, decorated bottle brush tree for .79 cents! Unheard of around here!

I couldn't resist this little glass ball. The store clerk gave it to me for free. If you just look at it, the glass glitter on it falls off!

This isn't the usual thing that I come home with, but there was something about this plate that I couldn't resist. I've never seem a metal top like this one.

Just had to include a photo of this little lovely too! She absolutely refused to look at me while my camera was in hand!

One More Week of Crafting Craziness!

Well, the weekend at Delbrook was a success! It was really nice to meet some of my fellow Vancouver bloggers - thanks for stopping by to say Hi! I was thrilled to get an e-mail from Tamsin, who runs the website: BC Craft Fairs, and has a companion blog, where she talks about her craft show adventures. She loved my booth, and wanted to blog about it! This just kills me, because I stress out about my table display every show! I never set up the same table twice, and often will completely change it throughout the day. Thanks for the compliment Tamsin, you made my day!

I had all these swap obligations that were well overdue, and I was losing sleep over them! One of them was for the monthly paper artdoll swap. I stayed up late last night finishing them all up! Here's my November ATC ARTdoll with the "Silver" theme:

I also was part of a swap to exchange 3 ATC ornaments. I can't show photo's of these, because we're not supposed to open them until the 24th! Here's a sneak peek from one of them:

One more week of crazy crafting to go.....Saturday is my last Christmas market (at the Croatian Cultural Centre, 3250 Commercial Dr.). I plan on doing a lot of my Christmas shopping at this show. I've been looking forward to this one all season!

Up To My Eyeballs...

Last week it was key chains.....this week it's these little guys:

I don't know what I was thinking, but I should have started making stock for the Christmas markets ages ago! Tomorrow and Sunday I'll be in North Vancouver at the Delbrook Rec. Centre - come stop by! I've been working hard all week making new stock!

My 3 year old keeps arranging and re-arranging a small bookshelf in her room with a Christmas display. It changes every couple of hours!

She's very proud of it!

December's themes for the monthly paper ARTdoll swaps are: "Snow Fairy" for the paper ARTdoll, and "Snow Baby" for the ATC ARTdoll.

Starting to Feel Like Christmas...

Whew! That was one busy weekend!

I realized that my etsy shop has been badly neglected again, and I still have Halloween things in it!! Yikes - time to delete and update some items!

Later tonight I'll give the shop a little love and remove all the Halloween, and bring in some Christmas themed items and some of these glass pendants:


I've been doing a little shopping while at the Christmas fairs!

I bought this ring made out of a spoon handle.....

...and this felted sweater brooch....

...and this wool brooch. After coming home wearing this one, my hubby is now convinced that I've crossed the line into craft lady mode!

These are delicate little lavender pillows, to slip into your own pillow at night.

Oh! If only you could smell these soaps! I'm going to have a hard time giving these away!

No rest for me - two more fairs to go! Thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hi!

I also need to think of the new paper artdoll themes for December.......

The Crazy Crafter

It's been ages since I've been able to go online! Last weekend I double booked myself with Craft fairs, so that was a bit of a whirlwind, and I've been playing catch-up all week getting prepared for this weekend's Craft Fairs!

Tomorrow I'll be at the Dunbar craft fair (basement), and on Sunday I'll be at the St. Thomas More craft fair (table 31)- come stop by and say hello if you're in the neighbourhood!

My friend put together these signs for my table:

Here is my cramped display:

This fair was s-l-o-w....but I got a chance to hang out with Kris from "A Cagey Bee". LOVE her work!

I've been busy making more of these....

....and these.....

....and these!

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.