All posts filed under: CatsEatDogs

‘I like’ Fridays.

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Happy Friday!  I hope your day is going wonderfully.  Here is what I am liking today – Stocking/Advent calendar fillers. I was very happy to find these cool arrowheads today which I can pop into the Advent calendar for the boys or use a stocking filler. Making jewelry. This is a lovely long, wood necklace I have just made, all ready to go into my Etsy store. These really long necklaces are one of my favourites at the minute, they go with everything and can be worn long or wrapped two or even three times around your neck.  I picked the flowers as I walked home this week from doing some Christmas shopping.  Pretty weeds! DIY lip balm. I am looking forward to making some lip balm soon, I want to use herby flavours like Basil and Parsley and Lemongrass.  Sound good?  I think so!  There is a recipe to follow in this fab post by Tiny Rotten Peanuts.  I always see the DIY ‘beauty’ products, but never actually make them, I fancy whipping up some …

I have new business cards.

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Since I changed my blog over to Girl Fifteen, I have not updated my biz cards with all of my new info, I have now! I also use the cards to tag my jewels when they go off to customers.  They are a matt finish, so I can write little extra notes on if I need to. This is the first time I have used the Instagram square style in a card and I really like them. I got them printed at Moo which is usually where I get my cards made.   I punch holes in them to hang lovely earrings (these are for the school principal, I hope she likes them!).  To be honest, I planned to make them all different photos, but I messed that up!  Having said that, I quite like that they all have the photo of the statue of Saint Louis with some amazing clouds taken at the St Louis Art Museum a couple of months ago. Do you use business cards?  Isn’t it difficult to decide what exactly …

Simple Wrap Bracelets by CatsEatDogs

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I have been a busy bee since I had an idea to make some new wrap bracelets,  keeping them really simple and retaining the lovely organic look I love to create.   A kind of stylish friendship bracelet, casual and pretty, featuring vintage buttons to fasten. They like to be worn together, but also play nicely alone.  It is all I can do to stop myself throwing all three on and keeping them for myself! I see many combinations of beads and colours for these in my near future! They are going in my Etsy shop today or tomorrow, I wanted to share with you first.  What do you think?  Like them?  What colours are you loving at the moment?  I do like the blue one best I think, I just love the denim blue of the thread.  

Taking Photos of Jewelry

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I have just added some new jewels to my little CatsEatDogs store on Etsy and as I was messing about in my garden taking photos while the boys ran around with Nerf guns, I thought I would share a bit of the process on here, with you all. I like having my photography studio outside, which of course means I don’t have a studio (maybe one day, when I grow up) so I take photos in the natural light provided in the outside department of my house. We have had the giant cable reel for ages and it is always being used as part of a base or some other adventure.  I scrubbed the top and gave it a brush and I like to use it for photos. By the afternoon the garden has some soft shade so I can get photos without the glaring sun and it’s harsh light, shadows and reflections. Amongst the Swingball game, the sweet peas on their circle of found bricks, the tomato plants and the raised beds, there I …

Genesis Moment for CatsEatDogs Jewellery (that’s me!)

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The Genesis Moment idea is the brainchild of the wonderful Rachael at The Bowerbird Girl blog. What was my ‘Genesis Moment’, the moment of ‘aha, that is what I want to do when I grow up’ for me? How has that developed into what I do now, what I am known for? That is the question and a tricky one I think, I am still not really sure what I want to do when I grow up. Do I have an answer, well yes, thanks for asking, I do. I have been making jewellery for a good many years, mainly for myself and now I sell it too. Only recently have I found my ‘what I do’, the ‘What are you known for’ part of the Genesis Moment. To be honest, I used to make jewels which I knew would be popular but they really weren’t my style, but someone had asked, so I obliged. These pieces are never your best work are they, kind of someone else’s idea really. A few years ago, I …

CatsEatDogs New Wrap Bracelet

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I love to make jewelry and I love to wear it, so that works out!  This bracelet is for my Etsy shop, so I haven’t worn it, but I might well make another for me. This little number can be wrapped around your wrist or your ankle and even worn as a necklace. Yay, what choice! I used lots of wooden beads as they are my latest love. Among them, I added shell heishi and trade beads in pink and aqua. I piled all of my current bracelets onto a painted branch and I think they look super cool!  I enjoy colour and mixing colours and then making jewelry with the ensuing mix.  Here they are sitting in my mint patch, so maybe they smell nice now too!

New necklaces at CatsEatDogs

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I have been busy making new jewelry this week, once I started making these necklaces which can be worn short or long, I couldn’t stop!  I still have lots of ideas for more.  They are so easy to wear and go with almost everything. I have listed the necklaces in the pictures in my Etsy shop and each photo is a link to the item if you fancy popping over and visiting my shop. These necklaces like to be worn alone or together at different lengths, the knots slide to adjust the length. I have used acrylic faceted beads which are lightweight with just the right amount of sparkle and lots of wooden beads including some lovely vintage wood (the last photo).  I think the vintage is my favourite! What are you wearing this summer?  I love to pile on the bracelets and necklaces but not together, usually a pile of necklaces or an arm of bracelets! Happy weekend.

A Cup of Tea with Me

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For the past month I have been a student in the classroom of Blog with Pip and I have a folder full and a notebook bursting with ideas. Now we have graduated, we have been invited to write this post by our fearless leader,  Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes, so here I am to chat about me over a cup of tea.  If you pop over to Pip’s blog, you can read posts by the other lovely students.  I got to spend time with some creative, inspiring folk I can tell you. Today’s cup of tea features a gorgeous vintage pink willow pattern teacup and saucer.  My youngest picked it out from a flea market while we were on holiday in Cape Cod last year.  I must admit, I don’t drink out of it, I need a big mug of tea, but big mugs are not so pretty. Being from the UK originally, I should be a tea drinking monster, but I tend to gravitate towards coffee more and more since I have …

Ten on the 10th March 2014

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A gorgeous Spring day, hurrah! It is amazing how mood boosting a spot of sunshine and warm air is. For ten on the 10th this month, I have all sorts of things to show you!  It has been a lovely sunny and warm day and even though the dastardly clocks went back an hour over the weekend, everyone is in a good mood. Today I have been admiring the flowers I bought last week. Wondering what I should do with the treasures I found at the antiques mall?  I bought a perfume bottle stopper and some chiffon ribbon which by coincidence is the same colour almost exactly as the stopper, so pretty. Pablo has been enjoying the sunshine too.  Chasing his tennis ball up and down the garden! I made and listed a couple of new bracelets, I think they are both beauties!  If you want, click on the image to magically fly over to my Etsy shop. My new notebook and my favourite scarf. The garlic is starting to peek through.  Remember when I …

Weekly photos 9/52

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Last week was a little warmer and then little colder, and then it snowed…again.  I had a root canal on Wednesday which instead of being the nightmare I was expecting,  dispelled all of the tooth pain I have been having.  Now I just need to drink lots of water to cleanse my pain killer abused liver. I made two bracelets of similar beads and the pictures above are of one of them.  I ordered some new beads and I am super excited to get them, I nearly bounce out the door to greet the mail lady when I am expecting beads in the post!  Will they come today?  I wonder. The colour of the week was orange which was another hard one to find, check out Andrea and Xanthe‘s blogs for some fab colour inspirations. Suddenly every traffic cone everywhere I go pops into my vision!  No, I did not take a photo of a cone… I did find a cool old truck which is parked locally, so I stalked it and got a couple …