Author: Clare at CatsEatDogs

March Photo a Day 2013

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A month of bonkers weather and photos to show it!  Day 5 was snowy trees, followed by a chair in the sunshine!  I photo’ed favourite things and books I am reading (nearly finished Astrid and Veronika and I highly recommend it).  We have had Spring break, eleven inches of snow and saw the month out with Easter which was dry and sunny!  Here are the photos. Day 1. L is for… Day 2. I made this.  Rainbow necklace. Day 3. Key. Day 4. Lucky.  I found these Latin language cards in a junk shop.  A lucky find! Day 5. Under.  The snowy trees at the park. Day 6. Chair. Day 7. Fear.  Ever fear that you don’t know the answer to this? Day 8. Favourite Day 9. Faceless Self Portrait Day 10. I want… to read this book in peace and quiet. Day 11. Important.  Spices for curry. Day 12. In the distance. Day 13. Sound. Day 14. Tasty. Day 15. Explore. Day 16. 9 o clock.  Reading bedtime story, ‘The Brixton Brothers’ book 1. …

Springtime Nests and a toddler Gooseberry bush

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Schlafly farmers market in Maplewood was our first stop this morning, the last of the Winter markets. Queen’s Cuisine Bakewell tarts are a true joy and we snaffled two, to enjoy with a cuppa later on.  Those Eccles cakes are pretty darn good too.  The founder of Queen’s Cuisine is a Brit in the Mid-West like me, so I always love to stock up!  Her baking is so good. I got me a Gooseberry bush (this one is a toddler, but it will grow!) from Yellow Tree Farms.  Gooseberries always remind me of my Grandma who had a massive and very spikey Gooseberry bush in her garden! Herbs from Yellow Tree Farm Potatoes from Silent Oak Farms Mushrooms from Ozark Forest Mushroom.  These guys had a mushroom rub which I wish I had bought, sounds delicious.  Next time! Black bear bakery pasties.  I bought the Saturday Morning Bun from Black Bear and it was perfect!  I love their price labels too. When we came home we made some Springtime nests which are always an Easter …

Snow, snow and snow

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I went a little Hipstamatic crazy on Monday when we got a ton of snow. I just ‘shook to random’ for a bunch of snow day photos and ended up with these.   The next day there was even more snow!  The woods were a whole new place with heavy branches across paths and even fallen trees blocking our snowy way.   Then we made Snow Henge!  Once we had rolled one giant snowball, we couldn’t stop.  Rolled and rolled until we could no longer push them.  

Speeding Hippos and Sunshine

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Whenever I go to the zoo I come over all Johnny Morris in ‘Animal Magic’ (a show I watched when I was a kid in England where the narrator gave voices to the animals in the zoo…..you had to be there..). It is all I can do not to put on a silly voice and start to pretend to converse like I am the voice of the animal we are visiting. Actually I really do that, out loud, quite regularly.  I mean, if the hippos don’t positively cry out for a funny voice over, I don’t know what does! The seals were having a good old show off, demonstrating their swimming on their backs at high speed skills! Followed by twirling around,  nose down in the water. Impressive stuff. We really really wanted to see the hippos,  who can be very illusive.  Sometimes they are out and about and sometimes they are nowhere to be seen, just leaving their fishy friends to entertain us.  Yesterday there were fish and hippos a-plenty! The hippo I photo’ed …

Ombre Ocean Waiting for Snow.

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I have fallen in love with these long long three strand necklaces.  Ever since I made my first one, making notes and measuring thread all the way, I have adored them. That first one took me days to finish.  I am happy I did all the measuring and guideline notes as I usually need to refer to them. I decided to make this one with an ombre look – light going to dark, in a selection of blues on a blue thread.  I always use a gorgeous vintage mother of pearl button to fasten, they are a lovely highlight to the piece and those buttons go with any colour combination I can throw at them. I am working and working on filling up my Etsy shop and I love the summer look of the linen thread which is my favourite stringing material in the whole wide world.  Check out my shop here or click the link on the left side of this page.  Let me know what you think. What do you like to accessorise …

First Birthday Today!

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I have had this blog for a whole one year.  A whole entire year, keeping at it through the struggles (mainly technical) and the joys (everytime I get a like or a comment, I give a little joyful squeak!).   It has been a very fulfilling year and I have loved working on this blog and improving and building on it. When I started I was flapping around like a fish out of it’s bowl.  Looking back at the castle and weed inside with the water and me outside wondering how to get in.  Gradually I began to swim about again and get to know my castle and the weeds surrounding it.  My fish water has become clearer and clearer in my bloggy fishbowl. I have to thank Pip Lincolne’s JustB blog school and  my fellow students for really boosting me along with the blog.   Sarah at Home to Roost and Lou at Make Do Sew have been constant companions and we all encourage each other with every step. When I first saw Home to Roost, …

Irish Soda Bread on St Patrick’s Day

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Merry St Patrick’s Day!  I am not even slightly Irish, but I have been to Dublin once, and I like to bake so I thought I would make some Irish soda bread for breakfast. Even the weather today is authentic Irish, cold, wet and grey.  I am rather hoping Spring will bounce around the corner soon. I found a recipe on Pinterest which I adapted to suit what was in my cupboard and here it is. Irish soda bread Mix 2 cups all purpose/plain flour, 2 cups bread flour with 1/4 cup raw sugar, 1tsp baking soda, 2tsp baking powder and 1tsp cinnamon. In a separate bowl, mix 2 eggs, 1 1/4 cup plain yoghurt and 1/4 cup olive oil. Quickly mix the wet into the dry  and add 1 cup raisins. It will seem quite dry but keep kneading and it will come together. Knead on the worksurface until the bottom is smooth and you have a flat ball shape. Place on a baking sheet and cut the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 …

We’re all going on a Summer holiday

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This week’s list for #52lists is ‘Favourite things for Breakfast’. I thought this would be a hard one as I don’t usually want anything to eat as soon as I get up. Normally I go to the gym after dropping the boys at school, so I wait until after that for brekkie. I do love to make banana, choc chip, cinnamon and peanut butter bread, it is so easy and it uses frozen bananas very well, it keeps well, so it is a great breakfast treat rather than a staple. I have only just found a recipe I like for Granola so I am going to stick to it for now. I made another this weekend, but it wasn’t as good as this one. Granola is more of a regular breakfast food than cake – honest! Favourite things for breakfast list. If you want to check out my other lists and photography craziness on Instagram, check it out here or click the little blue camera over there to the left and have a wander through …

March ten on the tenth.

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Raining again for ten on the tenth,  I can’t believe that it has rained on the 10th of each month this year.  I wonder if it will rain on the 10th of every month?  We shall see I am taking all of the photos today on my iPhone 4S and cropping and adding clarity to each in the Camera+ app. I will be consistent in each photo and see which works best by number ten. Today  is Mothering Sunday in the UK, so happy Mother’s Day to all you Mamas! Oh look, it’s raining.  The Rosemary is having a lovely time in the rain. My new read ‘Astrid and Veronika’ by Linda Olsson. As recommended by Pip at Meet me at Mikes.  It is called ‘Let me Sing you Gentle Songs’ in Australia.  I love the cover, which is exactly how I choose books to read!  That and recommendations of course.  What are you reading?  Got a recommendation or a book with a great cover to share? One of the trees in our back garden …

Favourite Words on a Windy Day

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Today started with wet snow, in the middle was snow and at the end was wind and lots of it!  This is me working on my windswept look! This week’s 52 lists project today was ‘Favourite Words’, so I asked around the household and these are ours.  As you can tell, I don’t have spell check when I am writing the ole fashioned way.  At least I can add ‘learnt to spell onomatopoeia’ to my list of daily achievements. I could walk around all day saying ‘Polyp’, it is such a great word and just the sound of it makes me want to giggle! Do you have any favourite words?  Do you like them because of the meaning of them or the sound or the spelling? Most of mine are great sounding words, but I think ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ covers all bases.  It even popped up in predictive text while I was typing it on my phone.  Impressive.