Author: Clare at CatsEatDogs

Pop

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I nearly popped with excitement when I managed to secure my ticket this morning at 11.06am, for the Altitude Summit to be held in New York City in June.  The Alt Summit is a bloggers conference which concentrates on design and lifestyle blogs and bloggers. Tickets went on sale at 11am and yes, I set my alarm, but goodness knows why as I spent all morning watching the clock in butterfly anticipation. I was on the website before 11 and as soon as the ‘registration’ blue button popped up, I clicked. All I got was the spinning wheel of doom. Error message. Error message.  The system crashed twice in the short time I was on there.  Error message. I assume the system was bombarded by equally enthusiastic bloggers ready to stick out our elbows, barge onto the registration system and may the best person win. After a killer 6 minutes, I got the form up. Fill it in quick but accurately I was thinking. I didn’t want to get o the bottom and have been …

February Photo a Day 2013

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Another month of daily photos complete!  I must say, I do like to look back over the month and see what I took.  Some of this month’s have been a struggle and resulted in a quick snap and done, like ‘fork’ and ‘where you ate your lunch’.  On the other hand I am really happy with some of the photos like the ‘hope’ mittens and the last one ‘upside down’.  Nothing like a mess about with a few apps to make a boring prompt a bit more interesting, which I suppose is the whole point of the challenge. If you fancy joining in, here are the March prompts – Fat Mum Slim photo a day. Day 1. Fork Fork in a cake at Handmade Happy Hour in Home Wine Kitchen which is a fabulous local restaurant and venue. Day 2. Pattern. Close up of the pattern in some vintage fabric I bought from Miss Ohio Vintage, I plan to make a summer infinity scarf with it. Day 3. Something beginning with e.   A school …

Trees in puddles, reads and granola.

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  I snapped some tree reflections this morning on the way to school.  I flipped them and popped on a filter in Camera +.  One of the  many advantages of walking to school every day, we get to spot the cool stuff and I get to photo it.   Bodhi assures me that walking to school gets his brain working every morning!  Who am I to argue?! #52lists ‘Great Things I have read lately’. I liked this weeks list, I will read anything which stands still long enough! ‘The Vanishing of Katherina Linden’ is an audio book I picked up from the library because I liked the cover!  Yes, I do choose books by the cover quite often!  I always choose wine by picking the label I like best, because I am a wine expert……  Anyway, I have just started to listen to this book and I like it so far.  In the first few sentences someone explodes, so that’s a promising start.  Dark humour is one of my favourites. http://www.abeautifulmess.com, written by sisters Emma …

Snow days

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Second snow day making it a four day weekend! I hope that turns out to be a good thing and not a cabin fever crazy thing. Just in case you ever need a refreshing cup of snow!  It took from about 10am until 3pm to fill the mugs.  They make good snow castles. The snow came yesterday and is hanging around even though we have had none today. The sun has not graced us with it’s presence, so there is not much ice melting going on, more ice forming. We have ended up with a snow pie effect, crusty on the top and soft underneath which rather confused Pablo this morning. The seconds between him taking a step and his paw breaking through the snow pie crust blew his little brain. He even seemed to spread his little paws out as much as possible to make little doggy webbed feet to enable him to walk on the snow. Didn’t work. It was still a case of step – pause – sink – step – pause …

Bead soup, a list and a necklace

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I am participating in my first Bead Soup Blog Party this year and so far, it is going rather well. I have a wonderful swapping partner all the way down in sunny Florida and I have received a fabulous mix from her, so thanks to Charis Designs Jewelry for my treasures! I have to use a focal and the clasp, which should not be a problem at all, now I need to get my thinking head on and make some jewels!  Our ‘reveal’  where we have to show (here) what we made is in April, so watch this space. #52lists ‘Messy things I like’.  I am enjoying writing these crazy lists!  This one is the first in my new notebook which I intend filling with writings and lists and cut outs from magazines and lots of interesting stuff until it won’t close properly! I made the random necklace!   Remember I had a pile of random lovely beads picked out by my friend to make a necklace for her?  Well, here is it is!  I …

Crochet list…

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Things I have learnt about crochet and the learning process of this noble art. 1. I want to be good at it so badly. 2. I’m not. Yet. 3. I need to practice and not give up because I can’t do it well. 4. Crocheting friends help a lot, even over the interweb. 5. I stick out my pinky when I am manipulating the yarn. 6. I want pretty yarn. 7. I pull my best concentrating face while making my crochet attempts. 8. Swearing is involved but doesn’t help much. 9. I crochet way too tightly. Need to loosen up man… 10. Even though my first ever crocheted item I have made in my life is a bracelet which is barely 6inches round, I am a proud beginner! 11. I want to buy sweaters at goodwill to unravel for the wool.

#52lists

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List number 5 My workout/run/gym playlist. What is on your playlist? What do you use playlists for? Any absolute must songs? Which song always features? I must say that Marina and the Diamonds is my song of the moment. It makes me want to pirouette, smile and run all at the same time!

Hearts, Owls and Clouds.

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I thought today was going to be a non starter. I didn’t go to the gym this morning as I usually do. I had big plans to use the extra time wisely and get a feeling of work well done by 11am. When I got home from school, I wasn’t feeling it, I almost wished I had just gone to the YMCA and done a class to get me started. I thought it would be a treat not to go, but at 8am, I was feeling a little lost. You know, the rabbit in headlights feeling, what to do, where, how? A bit like when I get to the Y and my locker is being used by someone else, a momentary and mild panic, something is wrong, all is not as it should be. It techically isn’t ‘my’ locker of course, just the one I usually use. If I use another, heck, I might not find my non gym clothes, and I have a strict rule about wearing gym clothes outside said gym.  I don’t. …

Ten on Sunday the 10th. February 2013

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It is raining today, but getting 10 photos shouldn’t be a problem. This morning started off with a big thunderstorm and lots of rain. I found about 10 pairs of 3D glasses in the drawer, so Bodhi decided to put as many on as would stay! ‘Snack packs’ of Custard Cremes with a cup of tea. My first cookery book ‘My learn to Cook Book’ circa nineteen seventy something. I love the illustrations and 1970’s ingredients like cochineal! Yum, beetles… I remembers making lots of recipes from this book with the cooking cat and dog. A Knicker-bocker Glory was a birthday must. New gym togs is always motivation. I can’t wait for step class tomorrow! A montage for a guest post I wrote today. Link to the post coming this week! Very exciting and quite an honor being allowed to write for someone else’s blog. The boys of the house watched the rugby this morning. When it had stopped raining they went out to play. They came back a bit muddy. Batman looks a bit …

Rainbows and unicorns

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Ok, I lied about the unicorns, but the rainbow was real!  A double rainbow at that. We walked into a fabulous rainbow one morning which almost made us late for school such was it’s wonder. The first thing most people I met that morning asked me was, did you see the rainbow?  What a wonderful thing to start the day with! So, I had to take a few photos.  I know, shocker! I have taken full advantage of the rainbow and my iPhone 4 photo apps and I have made some cool rainbow pictures.   This photo is cropped using the square cropper in Camera +. I cropped it to highlight the rainbow and frame it with the  winter trees. I added the Vibrant filter.  On top of that, the Clarity ‘scene’.   I used Camera+ to crop out the rooftops.  Then I added Clarity in ‘scenes’.  There, the second rainbow becomes clearer.  Into Filters and add Vibrant at 80%.  Don’t forget to save!   I know this is a cheesy filter effect, but I …