DIY Halloween Decorating

Paranormal Portraits:

(from Country Living)

Cheesecloth Ghosts:

(from Country Living)

Halloween Apothecary Jar:

(from eab designs on flickr)

Creepy Hand:

(from Better Homes and Gardens)

Boo!

(from Better Homes and Gardens)

Papercut Pumpkin:

(from Apartment Therapy/Elista Mora)

Great Halloween Costumes

We're back to "normal" here in Vancouver. It's been just over a week since our vacation to Hawaii and it's taken a while to get back into the swing of things.

Halloween is a big topic in our house these days....if my kids were (much) smaller, I'd totally do this:

(photo from "ladylucente" on flickr)


I also LOVE these sugar skull costumes:

(photo from Brianna Perezcassar Makeup and Hair Blogg)

(photo's from Lauren Gherardi on flickr)

Since I've been back, I've been working hard on making stock for the upcoming Winter shows! These necklaces need just a little bit more work.

Lots of late nights around here!

Aloha!

Aloha! I've been away from blogging for a while! I finished the summer markets in Vancouver, and our family is on a 2 week holiday away in sunny Hawaii (Kona)!

We've been visiting a ton of beaches. This beach was so, so beautiful.....soft white sand, clear, warm water...but deceivingly dangerous. We didn't notice the warning of death and drowning signs until we left the beach, but we figured that out pretty quickly once we got there! The waves were very, very strong - too strong for my 5 and 7 year old non-swimmers! (although they didn't think that at all!)

In extreme contrast, we visited a black sand beach yesterday. It was neat....but kind of creepy. The black sand made the water dark, dark, dark. Up until now we've been used to seeing crystal clear water. I almost couldn't dip my toes in this water.....I just couldn't shake the idea of creepy things living in that black water just waiting to grab my feet! Of course I didn't project this fear to my kids!

This is my 7 year old sitting at "Snorkel Beach". This was by far my favourite beach so far. I brought my snorkel gear and spent a good long time watching the colourful fish and large turtles. It was seriously like swimming in an aquarium. I'm going to buy a disposable underwater camera and spend one more day at this beach before we leave!

Black sand beach again:

Snorkel Beach again:

Jumping the waves at "Surfer Beach":

"Surfing":

"Surfing" with Oma (hahahahah - we were seriously the whitest people on the Island - especially my 7 year old! We don't stand out as much now though...)

The Etsy Shop is Now Open

Guess what?!?! I finally opened up my etsy shop again! People have been asking me all summer whether or not I had an online shop, when I was going to open it again etc., etc.

Tonight was the night I opened it up again. Since I opened up my new shop "RavensRestStudio" (on etsy), I just haven't found the time to post anything on there. Back when I had "JenniferConway" on etsy, I guess I had more time.

Here's some items that I put up tonight. As I make new stuff, I'll update the shop (this time much more frequently!). I'm planning on re-visiting the beeswax collage crows again too!

Last Days of Summer

It seems like ages ago that I last checked in! The end of Summer is winding down here in our neck of the woods. Our weather is still GREAT though - way better than it was in the beginning of the Summer!

School has started for my two little ones. My oldest started grade 2! (2/3 split class), and my daughter has started Kindergarten. You know that ad on t.v.: (Christmas song playing) "It's the most wonderful time of the year......", with the parents running around in glee, shopping for school supplies, thrilled to bits that the kids are going back to school? That's how I feel! A quiet house for a few hours a day - aaaahhhhhhh......

The Summer markets have been winding down too, and I only have one more market left to do (West End Farmers market, September 24th)....then Hawaii here we come!

Here's a glimpse of my table at the Kerrisdale farmers market last Saturday:

A custom necklace made for a customer from the Ladner Village Market:

Fresh veggies from our neighbours. We had BLT's with these fresh, delicious, wonderful smelling tomatoes:

Here's my Visa/MC woman in action (doing her job well!):

Vespa......Vespa....

This weekend is the 25th annual Vancouver Scooter Rally. If you happen to own a vintage, or European scooter, and live in (or near) Vancouver, you should try to catch some of the rally events. Now that we have kids, our rally experience is a bit different! Today I'm off to meet up with the scooter riders in our mini-van and kids, but luckily we have Grandma Norma to babysit for the night events!



Tomorrow from 10am to 2pm, I'll be at the Kitsilano Farmers Market. The summer markets are winding down......Christmas is just around the corner! *gasp*

These are last minute resin projects drying in the sun today:

Charge Card Sign

My super-duper talented friend Dalyn made this sign for my craft fair table:

Thrifted Treasures on Display

Here's some snapshots of my booth from the Ladner Village market yesterday:

My newest thrifted flower frogs, perfectly aged, holding some necklaces:

The newest cigar box thrifted from Saturday:

An old wooden box....on top of another old wooden box:

A small suitcase, from Saturday's thrifting adventure now holds my greeting cards:

The girls are peeking out of an old tin box. You can't tell from this photo, but the tin is this gorgeous blue colour:

Some recycled scrabble tile cuff links:

The last Ladner market is in two weeks - September 11th. Then.....it's time to start thinking about Christmas!!!

The Underwood

Check out this score I found at a garage sale this morning! Pretty great eh?!

This beast is HEAVY!

My photo's got all jumbled up.....here's some glass necklaces that I was working on today. They'll be at my booth at the Ladner Village market tomorrow.

There's nothing like a batch of homemade cupcakes to brighten your day. A friend of mine brought these over as a late birthday treat. yum!