Author: Clare at CatsEatDogs

Some joy is needed today, here’s what I am doing.

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Maybe not all of this will be achieved, but I will give it a go! Making butternut squash risotto for family dinner. Drinking tea. Making a colour palette. Drawing manatees and reading myths about them. Art Journaling. Putting photos in their album. Laughing as I listen to Just a Minute on the Radio 4 iPlayer. Cleaning the kitchen floor… Knitting my scarf which I keep neglecting. Read some of the pile of library books I have just borrowed. FaceTime my mum and dad in the UK. Hanging clothes to dry in the sunshine. Looking forward to my kids coming home from school. Going metal detecting after school. Watch ‘The Big Bang Theory’ tonight with a glass of wine. I hope you are doing lots of good things today. Happy Wednesday  x      

Weekly Photos 44/52

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1. Seed pods gathered while out on a walk in the neighborhood. 2. I have spotted some beautiful mushrooms this week! 3. Some beads I have pulled out of my collection to make into bracelets. 4.  This mushroom has been nibbled but look at the gorgeous colours inside. 5. The lights for  ‘Winter Wonderland’ are being set up amid the autumn leaves at a local park. 6. These crunchy seeds are crowding in the setting sun. At last Autumn is here, chilly mornings and nights with sunny days.  Changing the clocks might take a week to get used to, but I have to say that I rather like the darker evenings, especially with soup and fresh bread for dinner. Happy Monday x

‘I Like’ Friday.

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This week I have been liking all kinds of things including autumn seed pod gathering and photographing! Here are some of the other things I am liking- I finished The Wonder by Emma Donoghue in a week which is a record time for me (remember I am the slowest reader in the whole wide world), it was so good.  The book is full of memorable characters with lots of twists and turns. I am feeding a sourdough starter as we speak using a recipe from ‘Bread’ by Dean Brettschneider . This is my second attempt as the first time I got a measurement wrong and a timing wrong on my first go.  Hopefully I will have a sourdough loaf or two in the next couple of weeks. Do you make sourdough?  I really hope it all works well after all of the feeding and measuring. I am participating in NaNoDrawMo this month and I have managed  to complete every day so far, which makes three days going strong! The Durrells in Corfu is one of my favorites to watch …

Weekly Photos 43/52

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Halloween is today, so I hope you have your costume ready and the littles are all set to go trick or treating.   My boys are a bit big for trick or treating, but they will accompany the younger kids on our street, that way they all get their Halloween night trick or treating! Here are some pictures from the last week.   1. My Mum sent me a recipe for Anzac biscuits and I have already made two batches!  This is the first lot, they are so delicious, they remind me of Hob Nobs or digestive biscuits and are perfect with a mug of tea! 2. We have spotted some interesting messages on dog walks this week, little notes, stamped into metal tags and displayed for all to appreciate. 3. The Don Colley road trip came to our local art store on Friday and it was very interesting to hear him speak and show some of his sketchbooks.  My favorite thing was that Don sketches in vintage ledger and record books, I love to …

Art Journal pages. Season of Dreams week 4.

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Do you remember your dreams?  Any recurring dreams? I don’t remember them very well, but I do often dream about being late to catch a train/bus/plane or to an appointment.  In these dreams, I can never run fast or get my phone to work to let anyone know I am running late.  Panic ensues and I wake up feeling stressed. So I made a page with lots of clocks. Whenever I think of catching or recording dreams I immediately think of The BFG by Roald Dahl with his dream catching skills and wonderful language.  I will take a ‘phizzwizard’ please, maybe I will catch it in my net! Get Messy is an online art journaling community full of ideas, techniques and support. Happy Thursday x    

Grey hair, naturally.

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My hair has been all grey for over a year now and I could’t be happier with it.  The tones and shades in the colour seem to shift regularly according to the style and light.  I have darker hair in my original brown but even that seems to have altered it’s colour and tone to blend with the greys which also move from silver white to pewter grey. Is there anything different about having all out grey hair when most people my age are regularly dyeing, tinting, highlighting, low lighting, bleaching and streaking (please tell me no-one asks for streaks anymore)? So, what has changed? I am fanatical about conditioning my hair when I wash it, which is only twice or three times a week now. I also add a hair oil when my hair is damp,  which highlights the very light areas of my hair as well as keeping any frizz at bay. My wardrobe consists of less grey, or I at least make sure I add some colour if I end up wearing …

Weekly Photos 42/52

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  1. Teeny tiny mushrooms. 2. The trees are starting to turn into their autumnal colours, this one glows yellow in the sunshine. 3. A gingko tree on our street which I processed with the Diptic app to change the colours. 4. I snapped these buildings in Alton IL, with a view to sketching them. 5. Welcome to Alton.  Thank you very much! 6. Night deposit. 7. A hill climb view. The temperatures this week have reached 90 degrees and cooled to the 40’s, so all the clothes have been worn! I think we have settled now on warm days in the 70’s and cooler nights, but who knows, next week we could have hot weather or snow! Happy Monday x  

Art Journal Pages. Season of Dreams week 3.

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We are in the Season of Dreams in the Get Messy Art Journaling community and inspired by the wonderful Tanyalee of The Drawing Board, I created these two pages in my journals. I painted a watercolor wash over some vintage ‘onion skin paper’ which is very thin paper which is slightly wrinkly but I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t completely crinkle when I added the wet paint. Using this paper I cut out circles and butterfly shapes which I layered over the base pages I had created. The top page has a loosely painted self portrait with watercolor splashes which I glued the shapes over. The bottom page is  butterflies glued and layered  along the bottom ‘escaping’ from the darkness of the black gesso. I used a fine black pen to make some outlines and doodles. I have some sheets of watercolor wash left to play with, so I wonder what I will do with them! Happy Friday x        

Cabins and Trees Colouring Sheet.

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  I like to draw colouring pages and sometimes I like to colour them in and usually when I ‘colour’ them I grab my acrylic paints and use my fingers to add some colour to the page, then I might rip some of the page up and add it to my art journal. I am not your conventional colourer! I like to be loose with colour over a printed sheet, this one is partly finished and I painted with my brush and with my hands. If you would like to print and colour the sheet, please click on the image for a printable page. Don’t forget to share your colouring!  I am going to add my sheet to my art journal and see where that takes me. Happy colouring and Happy Wednesday x