Author: Clare at CatsEatDogs

One + Four = Life, Weekly photos 48/52.

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1. On Thursday it was Thanksgiving and my birthday, the weather was beautiful, so we went into the outside and hiked around Lone Elk Park.  We saw elk and deer and lots of woodpeckers! 2. As we walked around Lone Elk Park we stopped for coffee and tea from flasks by the side of the lake and watched the turtles sunbathing on a log peeking out of the lake. 3. Roses and birthday cards!  Yay for birthdays. 4. This weekend, we scored this funky monkey record player from an antique mall.  It works and came with the single on it!  All of my records are in the UK, so I will need to get on the look out for records to play, hello Goodwill! I am joining in with Isabel at Nanjing Nian for this week’s One+Four=Life, check out her fab blog for an insight into life as a western student in China. The kids had a very short school week  because of the Thanksgiving break, they had Wednesday through Friday off.  We watched movies …

‘I like’ Friday. The Art Inspiration Edition.

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I was chatting on the interwebs to the fabulous and talented Jeanette from Craftwhack blog this week and we were talking about which sketchbooks we use and which we like best.  I am a bit of a sketchbook junkie, but I usually end up filling the same ones. I would love to have a single sketchbook and fill it full up with artistic-ness and brilliance.  So, off I go to find the perfect sketchbook for this task, the book with the correct paper weight for each idea, the best size of paper and of course the ideal colour pages.  With that all in mind, I would need a sketch book with cardstock, sketching paper, watercolour paper, tracing paper and marker paper.  Of course I would also need pages of all sizes from tiny squares to big double spreads and a selection of paper from black to white via kraft. Not going to happen, unless I make my own (this I have thought about and it may happen!). I really am quite happy hopping from one …

Through The Lens Thursday #48. Muted.

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Happy Thanksgiving to you! For this week’s Through The Lens Thursday, the prompt is ‘Muted’, so I picked a photo I took on our hike at Lone Elk Park today, which has lovely muted colours.  Colours at this time of year are pretty much all muted, but also pretty, suble shades of nature. I like the cobweb and the little spider on this photo too. Next week’s prompt is ‘View’.

Taking Stock November 2015

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Taking stock is a fun exercise in quick answers (or mulled over answers, I don’t judge) to see what is going on right now in my little section of the universe. Tomorrow is my birthday, so this will be a final taking stock of my 45th year. Making : Christmas cards which are also colouring sheets. Cooking : Flapjack (the English kind with oats and golden syrup) and Christmas cake. Drinking : Tea and lots of it. Reading: The new Margaret Atwood book, ‘The Heart Goes Last’. Wanting: New sketchbooks, I may have an addiction… Looking: At the sky and wondering what it is planning. Playing: ‘Sketchbook challenge’ and just managing to catch up with the prompts. Deciding: How to mail my colouring sheet cards, they are quite big. Wishing: The headache I have had all week would go away. Enjoying: Having the kids off school for Thanksgiving. Waiting: For my birthday! Liking: Chocolate chip brioche pretzels from the Smitten Kitchen book which I am going to make for our breakfast tomorrow. Wondering: If it …

One + Four = Life. Weekly Photos 47/52.

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I am joining the lovely Isabel from Nanjing Nian blog for this week’s One + Four = Life, a selection of photos taken through the last week.  It has turned cold here and we have had a few frosty mornings with icy puddles. 1. Before it got super cold, we had some torrential rain which rushed down our street, which is a hill, and into the woods.  As it raced along the woodland path, it gouged a path through the layer of leaves.  It looked like someone had got a leaf blower and walked down with the path blasting a narrow gully though the leaves. 2. Some hardy mushrooms keep peeking out, but I don’t suppose I will see many more until Spring now. 3. I made pizza for dinner one night this week, my whole house thought I was a mad person for putting kale on mine, but it went crispy and was delicious. 4. I managed to resist this chocolate in the International supermarket!  We went to stock up on English treats for …

Six Word Saturday

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We went to the local winter farmer’s market at Schlafly Brewery this morning and had a lovely wander around veggies and bread and various farmed and homemade goods.  We bought this massive bunch of beetroot and I can’t wait to boil it and cool it and slice it into a salad. Do you like beetroot? Raw or cooked? I have never had it raw, I bet that would be nice in a slaw or salad. By the time we left the market, it was snowing, but the rain had left the ground wet, so the snow was just flurrying about, rather than settling. I hope you are having a lovely weekend, happy Saturday!

Through The Lens Thursday #47. Cut.

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Ironically I took this photo nice and early when I was cutting down and pulling out the last of my tomatoes, and now I am posting late! You might have noticed the change in surroundings around here. I have moved (or rather am moving, so excuse the empty boxes and bare walls) blog house back to my original blog, here at CatsEatDogs. All of my old posts and bits and bobs are here too, so feel free to have a look around and if you want some old old posts, I started this blog in 2012 so there is lots to look at! So I am sneaking in late with Through The Lens Thursday, sorry Greta! Hopefully normal posting will resume next week when the prompt is ‘Muted’ and it is my birthday! Whoo hoo! I love birthday’s, don’t you!

Finding Silver Linings in the Pouring Rain when your Umbrella is about to Blow away and your Legs are Wet.

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Do you look for the silver linings, or do they find you, or do you just stumble over them in the rain? I found some lovely silver linings yesterday in the rain and clouds. I walked to catch the train amid a slight drizzle and wondered at the fact that I was supposed to be in a raging thunderstorm as predicted by the ever optimistic weather app on my phone, I was not even in need of my umbrella’s help in this rain. As I sat on the train making sure no eye contact was made, I wondered why I didn’t bring a book or at least headphones to listen to a podcast. I find myself in this situation a lot and I still can’t get my brain to remember to bring ‘entertainment’ for my child sized attention span, I need something to do, I am not a sitter and relaxer, I am a listener or a reader or a note writer.  Unfortunately my head is not in agreement and refuses to remind me to …

One + Four = Life. Weekly Photos 46/52

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1. It is soup and fresh bread season!  Hurrah, I love making soup and of course the bread to dunk in it. 2. All the tomato and aubergine plants have been pulled out of the raised beds and I have started to dig them over and add in a pile of compost.  The weekend was lovely and sunny and today it has rained all day so far with no sign of dry on the near horizon. Oh well at least the compost will get watered into the soil and the leaves will mulch down nicely. 3. More tennis this weekend, we like to play in the handball courts, bouncing the balls off the three walls.  Kind of tennis crossed with squash with a healthy dose of giggling thrown in. 4. I have been keeping up with a 30 day sketchbook challenge with Skillshare and day 13 was ‘leaves’.  I used my lovely sumi brush and gouache paint to quickly sketch the leaves I picked up in the woods that day. Did you have a good …

Through the Lens Thursday #46. Smile.

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This doll is almost the same age as me, she was a birthday present from my Grandma and Grandad when I was two.  Her skin has changed colour a little bit over the years and she has new hair, but apart from that she is intact and as she was in 1971 when I got her. Her smile is still enigmatic even though her face looks like she has just completed a mud run. My doll Jenny is the subject of this week’s Through The Lens Thursday for the ‘smile’ prompt.  Next week is ‘cut’. Happy Thursday.