Author: Clare at CatsEatDogs

5/52 Weekly Photos, Yellow and Living Arrows

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This week I tried to find cool yellow things which is hard.  All I could see was road markings and traffic signs.  Then, at the weekend, we went to the Upcycle Exchange where they sell all sorts of crafty bits and bobs as well as vintage fabric-ness.  I found the lovely spotted yellow scarf there and continued to find all sorts of yellow through the day! So my yellow train barriers and fire hydrant had some yellow company.  Thanks to Hula Seventy and Xanthe Berkeley for hosting this  colourful photo gathering opportunity. Onto the weekly photos.  This week has been cold and sunny and cold and cloudy and rainy then icy!  We had a very slippery walk to karate on Friday evening. At one point Mr.Y and I both went down on a sloping drive, every time we tried to get up, down we went.   The giggling may not have helped, but crawling and sliding to the grass verge did help us get up!    Sorry, no photos of that.  I do have photos …

Photo a day 2014 January

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1. Lunch 2. Begins with G.  Gloves. 3. My town 4. Word to live by 5. Found.  A snow covered path. 6. Happens everyday.  Something gets made. 7. Upside down 8. Lucky number. Warmer temps. 9. Natural 10. Man made.  New CatsEatDogs necklaces. 11. Looking down 12. Colourful 13. Makes me smile. Rescuing a discarded Poinsettia. 14. 3 Things 15. Black and White 16. Sun 17. Tiny 18. Happy place 19. Breakfast 20. To do list 21. Blue 22. Nice!  Nest by CatsEatDogs with rose quartz. 23. Bedtime 24. Your space 25. A taste of summer/winter 26. Fun stuff 27. I bought this 28. Dinner 29. Window 30. Best invention ever. The iPhone and hair dye! 31. Polka dot January saw the Polar Vortex and we still have some snow melting very slowly in our front garden.  I started reading ‘The Flamethrowers’ and stopped and I started reading ‘Life after Life’ and stopped.  I need a book I like!  Maybe I will find one in February. I ate Dim Sum which is my absolute favourite …

Through the Lens Thursday. Reflection.

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As part of Through the Lens Thursday hosted by Greta at GFunkified and Alison at Writing Wishing, here is this weeks offering.  Today is cloudy and dry, so not many natural reflection opportunities. I have this lovely vintage mirror, so I thought the reflection of the tree in the mirror might be cool, then look who popped in to check himself out. Click, done! Thanks Pablo for being my doggie model!

The insides of books

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I borrowed some books from the library today and all of them had some loveliness inside.  I haven’t read them yet, but I am sure the picture books will be devoured and I will browse the non-fiction and hopefully I will love the novel. From ‘The Bear’s Song’ by Benjamin Chaud.  Look at all the detail here, all of the illustrations in the book are like this.  Makes me want to find things!  In this picture I like the lady exercising in the window. ‘My Father’s Arms are a Boat’ by Stein Erik Lunde and Oyvind Torseter.  Wonderful 3D created illustrations throughout this book using cut out paper. At last I am at the front of the line for Kate Atkinson’s ‘Life After Life’.  I can’t wait to get stuck into it. From ‘Josephine’ by Patricia Hruby Powell.  I spotted this book during Multicultural Children’s Book Day, I was immediately drawn to the illustration style and I wasn’t disappointed when I saw the book.  It is thicker than I thought and I can’t wait to …

4/52 Weekly Photos

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February is only a week away.  Phew hold onto 2014, it is flying by!  Are you managing to keep up? I am keeping up with a few new things which I am pleased about. A new thing I found over at Hula Seventy was the weekly colour photo join-in-along with Xanthe.   Last week was Red, so here are my red photos.  I like red as a highlight colour, red boots, red bracelet or red hair, not so much an all over colour. I don’t like red pens at all, not even as a method of highlighting.  I will only use a red pen if I need to draw a red something, a poppy or a heart.  Never never never for writing or communicating, too aggressive on the page for my liking. Maybe too much of a flashback from school homework marking, red pen all over the place.  Positive or negative, all red pen.  Green pens would have been be a way more pleasant way to communicate especially on kids homework.  I wonder if I …

Six Word Saturday

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  I picked up the photos today which I took on my ‘Diana F’ camera in December at the Missouri Botanical Gardens last year.  I was pretty happy with them, nice big square prints and even the ones I messed about with multiple exposures turned out.  Yay! I enjoyed revisiting the feeling of taking in a film and collecting the photos not knowing exactly what they will look like.  Just like the old days of taking pictures and not seeing them until a few days or weeks later. Can’t wait to take more!  If you have a Six Word Saturday, share in the comments or put it on a photo in Instagram and hashtag #sixwordsaturday. Happy Weekend!    

Multicultural Children’s Book Day-Celebrating Diversity in Children’s Literature

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I talked a bit about Multicultural Children’s Book Day-Celebrating Diversity in Children’s Literature this week and about the book I am reviewing for this event – The Girl with a Brave Heart.   January 27th is the big day, so pop to the library and grab a book about a different culture to read to the kids.  If you need any ideas for books, check out any of the links at the bottom of this post or visit Pragmatic Mom or Jump Into a Book. When ‘The Girl with a Brave Heart’ by Rita Jahanforuz and Vali Mintzi arrived from Barefoot Books, the first thing that struck me was that it is a gorgeous vibrant book with fabulous colorful illustrations.   Is it me, or does every book published by Barefoot Books consist of wonderful read aloud stories alongside stunning illustrations?  I can’t thank them enough for letting me read and review this book. We read the book as soon as we received it and we tried to guess what was going to happen in …

Through the Lens Thursday. White.

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I am enjoying participating in Through the Lens Thursday.  It makes sure I use my camera at least once a week and on manual only.  I do only use manual now, sometimes I seem to take terrible picture after terrible picture, but I don’t flick back to auto.  I either persevere or grab my phone!!!  Ha, what a cheat! I think this picture worked though, I like the white (cream I suppose) vintage thread on it’s lovely wooden reel with the white snow as background. I also spotted this white (once) stool at school yesterday when I was taking some photos of jewelry in the art room.  The room has great light, so I thought I would try taking some product photos in there and of course I can never focus on just one thing so I snapped a quick pic of this stool.  I love that it is clearly an art room stool and well used. Next week’s theme is ‘Reflection’, so I need to keep my eyes open and my imagination alert for …

Multicultural Children’s Book Day is coming

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Next Monday, January 27th 2014 is the very first ever in the whole wide world –  Multicultural Children’s Book Day. It is the wonderful brainchild of Mia at Pragmatic Mom and Valarie  of Jump into a Book, both blogs are chock full of book recommendations, go and have a look.  It will be a day to begin many days of reading about different cultures and the stories within.  Or even well known stories set within a new culture.  I think we have read every connotation of the Cinderella story over the years and enjoyed them all. I received an e mail a few weeks ago to see if I  wanted to be part of this extravaganza of reading, and  review a book connected to  Multicultural Children’s Book Day here on my little blog.   My pleasure. I love books and I love love childrens books and I love love love picture books. In fact I am hanging onto any situation where I can pull out a pile of picture books to read to my kids, ok, …