Author: Clare at CatsEatDogs

New York Photos from my June visit

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I had a very interesting, informative and  photo-ful trip to New York and Brooklyn last month. Some highlights were the Punk exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum, Coney Island even with the Mermaid Parade chaos, Tinsel Trading (my new favourite shop) and seeing friends and friends. My trip into the big city on Friday.  The Met for Punk Chaos and Central Park  for a sunny walk with a lovely friend. I came across Tinsel Trading as I was heading from a magazine shop to Muji and I am so happy I did, the place was amazing, I wanted to move in there!  Trims and buttons, vintage and ribbons as far as the eye could see all displayed in old cabinets and drawers.  Gorgeous.  I came out with some beads, silk ribbon and metal thread.  I thought I was rather restrained, I hope you are proud of me! Coney Island colour and fun! My last day in Brooklyn.  I had to visit the Momofuku Milk bar and Union Market.  I picked up some international magazines and caught …

Challenges and an actual challenge.

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Monthly, daily, weekly challenges. Do you love then or do you hate them. Or do you love the idea of them and hate that you never stick with them? I have been doing the photo a day challenge with prompts provided by Chantelle at Fat Mum Slim for almost a year now and it is now totally part of my day no matter how busy I am. Some photos are snaps which barely meet the prompt and some are worked on with filters and all sorts of nonsense from a variety of apps. I started the daily photo thing with Hipstamatic who also do a prompt based challenge on Instagram. I love the Hipstamatic app, but I don’t want to have to use it for every photo. I saw a challenge on A Beautiful Mess today – The 30 day self portrait challenge. My initial reaction was holy squashed avocados, even I don’t want to see a month of photos of me! Why would any modest person want to do this, blah blah, blah.  Then …

Shell pendants and button bracelets

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Remember these beauties?  Found on Chatham beach in Cape Cod, holes and everything. I utilized those handy little natural holes and made some pendants and added a freshwater pearl for a little bit of fancy. I have also made these simple button bracelets which are great all layered up.  I use one fabulous vintage button on leather and let it be. I think I am liking these so much I am going to add them to my Etsy store for sale.  Want one? I found a new funky photo app for the phone, I am still playing around with it, but I do love it.  I used it to make the button bracelet photo.  It is the Rhonna Designs app and it lets you add text and icons and phrases and all sorts of bits and bobs.  There are lots of options and a great colour choice which I think is missing from alot of other apps. Check out the website (that’s the link a few lines up), it is a thing of beauty and …

My Grandma was ace!

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My Grandma was ace!  She was a baker, knitter (you know the professional knitter who can watch TV, hold a conversation and still knit a pair of socks) and a gardener.  Her name was Mary and she lived in Waddington, Lincoln, UK. My Grandad owned a red Mini and whenever me and my brother went to stay for a week over the summer, we loved going on a trip into town (the heady destination of Lincoln) in the back of the  mini with Grandma and Grandad. The first thing that springs to mind when I think about my Grandma is that she was a wonderful cook and especially her baking.  So many delicious pies and cakes and biscuits.  She always welcomed help from me as far as I remember, even when I was little I would help sift flour and put the weights onto the scales. She had a little stool which I could stand on while I was helping and I am happy to be the proud owner of  it now.  Lovely reminders like …

July ten on the 10th

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As usual (it seems!), it is raining on the morning of ten on the 10th. At least it is cooler that way, so no complaints here. Following some thunderous storms in the early hours, it was still raining when we planned to set off to see Despicable Me 2 at the cinema.  So, we grabbed the umberellas, stopped on the way for illegal snacks (how much are cinema sweets?  Too much, I tell you!) and off we went. I got a funny poster picture of a minion from the movie theatre which also fitted today’s photo a day challenge theme which was ‘Smooth’.  He he. Space man toy. My button tin, just some of my vintage buttons which I love to use in jewelry but I am often unwilling to part with them! Button bracelets, made with the aforementioned buttons.  I wear these two, but I am planning to make some to sell, if I can stop myself from claiming them as mine! During the summer, we usually end up at the YMCA pool every …

Sun prints revisited

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We are getting into the sun prints this summer. Might as well put the scorching sun to good use! The prints we made last week have been made into new pictures with the help of me, some markers and my eight year old son! As we finished drawing on the original prints, Bodhi told me he had already put some more items out to ‘print’! What projects have you got up your sleeve for the summer holidays?

Sun prints

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I read about sun prints in a post by Jeanette at Artchoo I think, I honestly can’t remember where I saw the idea, but I am sure it is not my own!  Anyway, go see Artchoo, it is chock full of kids art projects and ideas! We used construction paper and random objects and put them in full sun for the afternoon. After a few hours (about 5), the magic was revealed!  I think there is more we can do with these ‘prints’.  Watch this space (mainly because I haven’t done anything with them yet!). I made a heart with buttons which moved slightly during the process and gave a double exposure effect.  I love the scissors, the blue paper was very successful.   Construction paper fades out so quickly I am sure this would work well in less sun and less time. I see more sun print experiments in our summer break.  What are you up to?  Making lots of art and having a great time I hope!  

June 2013 Photo a day

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I cannot believe how fast June has zipped by (I am sure I say that every month!).  At the same time, when I look back at the photos from the beginning of the month, they seem so long ago. We have been on holiday to Cape Cod for two whole weeks, then I was back in St Louis for about 10 minutes and I was off to New York for the Alt Summit and a lovely weekend in Brooklyn. It has been hot and cool and wet and stormy. I followed the A Month of… prompts from Just B Australia for most of the month, but by the last week I was back to Fat Mum Slim.  Apparently it is harder to break a habit than I thought!  I do enjoy the FMS prompts though even though they do circle round on a regular basis, but that just makes for a new photo challenge, n’est pas?! Well, here are  my June daily snaps. 1. Tea 2. Story. 3. Fabric 4. Party.  Pie from Marion’s Pie …

St Louis Art Museum Grand Re-Opening and ‘Stone Sea’

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This weekend I am joining in with Tasha Chawner’s weekend photo prompt.  The latest prompt is ‘hands’.  I wondered what I would use for the photo for a while, then stopped thinking about it. While we were at the St Louis Art Museum‘s grand re-opener, there was a stand where they were making seed bombs, using mud and clay with grass and flower seeds.  So my youngest got in and started rolling up seed bombs and getting nice and dirty in the process.  Well, here were my ‘hands’.  Busy making good things happen. We have been looking forward to seeing the new wing of the museum open as we have walked by it regularly as it was being built. We were not disappointed.  It is a lovely airy, cool space and smells of new wooden floors.  It is almost a museum in itself with the wide variety of art on show. It was a joy to see some of my favourite pieces all housed together, from Chuck Close’s  ‘Keith’  to the ever beautiful ‘Betty’ by …

Alt Summit NYC June 2013

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I have consulted my notes, chosen a few photos and here is my Alt Summit round-up. Of course it was an amazing experience and my brain was and still is full to the lid with people, information and ideas.  Mission accomplished, but how was the day? When I arrived at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, I shared the elevator with a very peppy young man who jumped in (yes, almost literally) and told me the news that Dolce and Gabbana had been arrested for tax evasion.  Next floor he jumped (yes, again) out.  Morning news flash – complete. I found a seat and a coffee and took it all in for a minute or two. Over breakfast there were lots of crafts on offer to make while you munched on your granola and downed as much coffee as possible (that part may have just been me, following a nervous and sleepless night).  I made salt scrub, started a thread bracelet and got an embroidery kit and immediately began to wonder how I was going to transport …