Author: Clare at CatsEatDogs

D.I.Y. Whipped Hydrating Cream for your Face.

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  I have been wanting to make a whipped creamy cream for a while but I figured that I might not be popular if I used the regular hand mixer to whizz up said cream.  Cake anyone?! Today I was in Goodwill and I found a little hand mixer and a perfectly sized glass bowl, so I grabbed them and looked forward to whipping up my first lotion. I have a couple of recipes written down so I chose one for which I had all of the ingredients and I got melting and cooling and adding and whipping. As I have mentioned before, I don’t like to use store bought face moisturiser, so this cream is another home made option.  I am thinking of making some with zinc oxide in it to make it a daily facial sunscreen. I found this recipe in a book called Handmade Beauty by Annie Strole which I borrowed from the library. I added a touch of lavender essential oil for a lovely calming scent. Shea and Cocoa Butter Hydrating …

A Bloggers Year in Books (so far).

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I have just finished my latest read which was ‘Half Broke Horses’ by Jeanette Walls, it took me a monumental time to read as I started it while we were on vacation and every time a another book came into the library I wanted to read, I put done ‘Half Broke Horses’ to read the new book. The crazy reasoning behind this is that I own ‘Half Broke Horses’ and the books from the library are usually on a two week loan which is quite the deadline for this slow reader.   The thing was, I kept starting new books and putting this one down, but a week later I would ditch the new read and carry on with ‘Horses.  In this time, I started ‘The Library at Mount Char’ by Scott Hawkins which I gave up on because it was just too darn odd and violent for me.  Odd I can easily deal with, I even like odd, but with violence, not so much.  So back to ‘HBH’ I went.  Then I started ‘Our …

Through The Lens Thursday #33. 9 O’Clock.

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At 9 o’clock this morning I was just getting breakfast which consisted of toast with homemade marmalade which never really set enough and a cup of tea. Around this time I had just walked my youngest to school and when I got home, the usual activities of a morning – checking e mail which was all trash, putting the washer on, writing my ‘what I need to do today’ list and getting ready to go to pilates and yoga classes all took me up to 9am. I know, I am an over achiever on Thursday mornings at the Y, I take an hour of yoga followed by an hour of pilates. All of this stuff and a whole lot more, is why I am posting my 9 o’clock photo at 2 o’clock! Where do the days go? They whizz by our ears laughing at our lists as we only cross half of the items off. And now it is almost time to go and meet my little fella from school. I wonder how today went? …

Weekly Photos 32/52

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      1.  We went to the zoo this week and had a chat with the stingrays. 2. And we chatted to the seals.  My two are almost too old for the zoo, but we passed a lovely couple of hours visiting some animals and snacking on over priced candy floss! 3. This weekend in humidity which resembled the rainforest, we went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  These mosaic plants really fascinated me, so beautiful on the water, they look like they were swimming without moving.  It was a happy accident that the reflection of the sun popped into the shot. 4. I missed the flowers of the Sacred Lotus, but the leaves are so amazing and the pods from the flowers are beautiful too. 5. Talking of missing things, I was sad that the Chihuly glass had gone from the white arches at the gardens the past couple of times I have visited.  Now they are back!  Hurrah!  I must have photos of these beauties in all seasons as I never fail to …

Grey Hair, Don’t Care.

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  Here I am to report on the hair situation. It is all grey, not even a teeny bit of dye left, it has been that way for a couple of months now and I like it! I also like that I don’t have to dye it at all ever ever ever again, although I have been thinking about going purple which may colour the grey bits or it may not.  Either way purple would be a temporary move. At the beginning of the summer, I wondered if the sun and heat would alter the colour at all, make it yellow or dry it to a frizz, but I seem to have got away with it because neither has happened.  Phew! It is in great condition and I am super happy about that even when it is at it’s most floppy and unco-operative, bearing in mind that in my world of hair styling, unruly hair means it won’t tuck beind my ear and stay out of my eyes. Did you see that Kate Middleton has …

Weekly Photos 31/52.

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1. It doesn’t seem like a week ago that I was sweating out my body weight at Vans Warped Tour here in St Louis. 2. The bridge is being painted, but the leaves are ignoring the signs. 3. In garden news, I harvested my first aubergine this week and it is sitting in the fridge waiting for me to figure out how to make it tasty. It is only a small one, so maybe I see ratatouille in our future. Do you like aubergines? What would you do with a small one? 4. In other garden news, the tomatoes are ripening nicely. This branch has a pretty ombre thing going on don’t you think?! I can’t believe the kids go back to school next week! Yikes, better get the supplies all sorted. Erasers, tissues, notebooks which will get three pages written in all year, hand sanitizer and of course endless pencils to sharpen. This year we also need ear buds for more ‘electronic device’ based learning, how long until we don’t need pencils and paper …

The August break, joining in with film photos.

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I am joining in with Susannah Conway this year again and taking a photo a day for The August Break. There are daily prompts which can be taken on whichever camera you may choose. I am lucky enough to have a Minolta 35mm camera from 1980 something, so I am planning to take each photo with that. So unless I also take a digital picture too, I won’t be posting everyday until I get the film developed. Hopefully I will snap other photos with my camera along the way, and use up the film so that I can get them printed a couple of times during August and see what I came up with. Will I get a serious case of ‘fear of missing out’ if I don’t post an Instagram August Break picture daily? Maybe, but I think I will just stick to the film camera and see how they come out. Hopefully not all out of focus or wrongly exposed. Just think, this is how we took all photos only a few years …

‘Taking Stock’ July 2015

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We only half way through the week and it has been a good one so far.  On Monday I went to Vans Warped Tour with my teen and it was one of the hottest days of the year so far.  It was a good hearted day as Warped usually is, the bands perform with gusto and will often host a signing which is a marvelous thing for the fans. My complete life saver that day was my Bohemian Traders scarf which is big and light and keeps the sun off my neck like a dream.  Wearing a scarf didn’t make me any hotter, I don’t think I could have been any hotter no matter what I wore, or didn’t wear! At the end of the sweltering day in true St Louis style, there was a massive thunder storm and we got soaked to the skin!  Always an experience, what would a day out be without some crazy weather to remember it by. I am about to write some letters with the new stationery I received …