Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has a spooky day and night!

Recently...

Wow - I have been a bad blogger! But a busy one, too. A fair amount of sciatic nerve pain, most likely pregnancy related, and a short but nasty head cold, most likely preschool teacher related put me out of commission for about a week. Then mom and Bethany came into town for the annual Marathon crop at Reminisce and we did tons of scrapping and chatting. I made my first sock monkey that has happily arrived at her new home, and worked with Wendy on a custom order of paper bead jewelry. This weekend, Bill and I took a quick trip to Chicago with our brother and sister-in-law where much shopping and good eating was had. Trying to enjoy the lovely autumn weather before it turns to winter and gearing up for the Halloween excitement. Oh, and I went to see Across the Universe, which I highly recommend for the great soundtrack (of course) and the all around artistry. Hope everyone has a productive week!

Still here!

Just busy being pregnant! It sure wears you out! I am 13 weeks along and finally coming out of the constantly exhausted stage. I was lucky enough to miss out on the morning sickness, so I can't complain. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat on Monday at an appointment with the midwife. That was SO exciting. Really made it feel *real*! Does that mean it's time to start shopping? Hee hee...

Also keeping busy with work and the artsy hobbies. I made my first sock monkey last weekend and I *might* be addicted. Also making lots of jewelry with Wendy for the shop and a couple great custom orders. Also formulating some class ideas for the next go around at Reminisce and organizing an Arbonne party at my house on Thursday. Phew - I guess I better get back to tackling my to-do list! Here are a few of my favorite "non-kid" photos from Preucil lately.

new batch of paper beads

new paper beads, originally uploaded by Kirsten W.

You know what that means... an WeMiKiWi shop update soon!

Hand-decorated paper, step by step

I'm hosting a hand-decorated paper swap over at the Embellished Circus and this weekend I made my paper. I was going for a warm, layered polka dot pattern.

Step 1: I punched out small circles from patterned paper and glued them to the white background. Step 2: Cut out circles from orange tissue paper and attach them with a layer of clear gel medium.
Step 3 & 4: Paint loose circles around the tissue circles with gesso, then paint into the gesso with orange paint.
Step 5: Paint over the entire sheet with a wash of watered down orange paint to fill in the white spaces with color.

Ta dah!