All posts filed under: Life

Swings but no roundabouts

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Sun, rain, chilly, windy, driving stair-rod rain, sun and wind. Not all at once, but in the same morning! Cousins home today, but not before we got lots of TV program recommendations! 4 o clock show, Richard Hammond’s Blast Lab and Incredible Edibles among others. I have found Mock the Week, Gok Cooking Chinese and Secrets of the Streets to keep me entertained. Bacon sandwiches with proper bacon, ie. not streaky and fatty, for lunch and we have our eyes on the local chip shop for a meal in our future. I visited the local Church shop called ‘The Mustard Seed’ yesterday on the way to get the weekend papers. Treasure haul was some single and paired clip earrings and a pretty cameo I just couldn’t leave there.

Packed and ready to layer

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Started today with a sunny and sweaty bootcamp class on the High School track. Exercising outside in St Louis is a brutal thing in the summer, but think of the toxins I sweated out. Oh, and the wine from last night! Dropped some jewels off at the fabulous ‘Screaming Mimi’ in Maplewood.  Go and check them out, lots of wonderfuls in there! Favourite sandwich stop for lunch – ‘Fozzies’ on Big Bend. I had the chicken gyros on pita with salad and feta and it was delish! Home to cram a last minute bargain t shirt in my suitcase for our UK trip. Got the shirt and a lovely scarf from ‘Mezzanine’ on Sutton Blvd in Maplewood. They are closing which is a shame as it is a lovely store to go and dream about affording anything in there. We also got a massive and fabulous glass vase for five dollars. I know this scarf is black and not exactly summery, but England is not exactly summery at the minute either. I have booked some …

Strawberry and cheesecake all in home made ice cream

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Lovely lovely lovely lovely home made ice cream lurks in my freezer! Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream (from Kraft Foods) 80z cream cheese – softened 14oz can condensed milk 1/3 cup heavy cream 2 tsp lemon zest 1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries 3 graham crackers (I used Trader Joes) broken up – I put them in a zip loc bag and bashed them quickly with a rolling pin Mix the cream cheese, condensed milk, cream and zest until smooth.  Freeze until almost solid (about 4 hours). Beat the cream cheese mix again until smooth.  Blend the strawberries to a sauce and add to the cream cheese with the graham crackers. Freeze until firm.  Take out of the freezer 15 mins before serving. Now, I want to try this with other berries like blueberries and even different cookies.  I will report back on my experiments!   Here are some more photos I took at the Lantern Exhibit at the Botanical Gardens.  I took these on my iPhone using Hipstamatic, Instagram and Shake it Photo.  

Here be Dragons..

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Up and at ’em this morning, freebie into the Missouri Botanical Gardens and into the Children’s Adventure Garden.  The dragons were a calling so off we went. We were welcomed by this firey friend.  I can imagine that these sculptures would be a glowing wonder at night-time, but with the sun glinting off them, they are spectacular. The day was hotter than hot even in the morning, but we hopped between shade and sun and drained the water bottle three times.  The Botanical Gardens is a joy to visit anyway, but the blooming water lilies, ever hungry Koi carp and the wonderful giant lanterns were a treat. My favourite dragons were the ones made with a massive assortment of white and blue traditional Chinese crockery.  Plates, bowls, big and small were lashed together beautifully to make a fantastic spectacle of a pair of identical dragons.

Jubilee and Jewels

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We are painting tags and flags for the catseatdogs jewelry party tomorrow. As it is also the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, we thought some hand painted flags and tags would be appropriate. There will be home made scones and sausage rolls and of course a cuppa for anyone who wants one! Jewelry, friends and sausage rolls…what better way to spend a day!

iPhoneography fun

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June Hipstamatic fun starts today! Great for iPhone photo addicts like me. Instant gratification from your phone and a funky photo app! Get the theme, take a photo, play with lots of lenses and films and mix them up! Make Beautiful in June Make beautiful….Cilantro and boys in a pot!  June 1st Check out all of my May photos and follow June on my Twitter feed on the right side of this blog and @catseatdogsmake.

Warhol and lunch

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I went on a field trip last week with some friends to visit some of the St Louis Art Museums.  I love museums and art, but if I am not into it, I won’t hang around and read every last word of information.  Off I will go until I find a piece I want to gaze at and even read about. The Saint Louis University Museum of Art has the ‘Warhol’s Polaroids’ exhibition and it fits all of my needs.  It is small (literally, they are polaroids!), the information is interesting and the pictures are fascinating.  Well worth a look. Of course I snapped a few pics with Hipstamatic on the phone while we were downtown.. Park Lovely curtains in ‘Plush’ Painted wallpaper in ‘Plush’

So many heads….and hands….

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I love treasure hunting, in thrift stores, yard sales, jumble sales or estate sales and antique shops.                                                Yesterday on the way to the bank with the boys we spotted an estate sale and, because they are as bad as me, we had to check it out!                                                         The ensuing treasure hunting make me late for pretty much everything I had to do through the whole day, but I got some rewards. Bargains were, a pretty little white bowl which I will use for mixing beads – 50c, some assorted wooden beads (which will most likely always stay in the vintage jar I have stored them in, but I love the colour and shapes of them) – 25c  and a little cartoony doll head – 25c.   …