Clare Davis Etheridge

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I want a friend with a cafe and other pressing needs.

As I was reading Meet Me at Mikes by Pip Lincolne, and how Pip was helping her friend out who owns a cafe, I had a huge joyful feeling that I want to be involved with a cafe. I don’t have aspirations to own one, but I would love to be able to help someone with one, not even work for them, just help out as and when. I can help with recipe ideas and I am a very excellent taste tester. I can carry, waitress, wash, dry. Also decorate, paint and choose the music.
This came as a very strong feeling and a positive one. Isn’t it strange how a feeling can overtake you for a moment. I like it.
Now, who do I know who owns or wants to own a cafe?!

Maybe we serve these hot chocolates?

I also want to make a random bead necklace for my friend. Sounds easy? Of course, grab a handful of beads from my various jars and bowls. No. I don’t do random very well, after a few seconds my little designing brain starts to yell in despair that I am not matching or even trying to be symmetrical. Not even a little bit. My fabulous friend has helped me start by picking some randoms from my bead jars. I just have to join the dots and beads then hang them on something wearable and gorgeous. Hope I manage to stay random. I will most likely give into symmetry just for comfort and who wants to look lopsided because one half of your neckware is heavier than the other!

So these are the randoms, I know I have made the colours all like each other. I draw the line at fighting colours. GI Joe’s head is just there because we like him.

The selection without the handsome head.

I have started another project. Yay. This is #52lists and instigated by Pip at Meet me at Mikes. I am a month late, so I will either do a few extra or just be 48 lists! Here is a shopping list for your pleasure. Even written in the order of the store! Do you do that? Makes is easier to get everything, less stuff forgotten if the list follows the shelves. When I say this, I don’t have a map of the store to follow, but I do get cross when they move stuff around and my list is all awry.

Do you plan your meals? While we are on the subject of shopping lists. I plan meals and write the list surrounded by my current favourite recipe books and magazines. Ones I am eating from at the minute are The Family Dinner by Laurie Davis, What Katie Ate by Katie Quinn Davies and The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook by Tom Douglas and Shelley Lance. These and of course Pinterest. I love my Pinterest boards. Do you Pin? Show me your boards and I will show you mine!!

January 2013 photo a day.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Day 1. Today. Connect Four on New Year’s Day.

Day 2. Something New. New Feast magazine.

Day 3. Heart. In the snow.

Day 4. The View from here

Day 5. Movement

Day 6. Mine. Some of my favourite beads.

Day 7. Street. Always a handy place for a toilet!

Day 8. Something beginning with T.

Day 9. Paper. Vintage Fox River Onion Skin paper.

Day 10. 1 o clock.

Day 11. Water. Reflection and Swim.

Day 12. Suprise. Lots of lovely books from the library, full of suprises.

Day 13. Circle.

Day 14. Something yellow.

Day 15. An ordinary moment. Frost on a pile of leaves.

Day 16. Two things. Garlic cloves.

Day 17. Ready. For my January jewelry sale.

Day 18. Shadow.

Day 19. Delicious. I love finding bonkers stuff in the antiques mall.

Day 20. Something you saw

Day 21. What you do. Sometimes I make zombies.

Day 22. Corner. Snow on a roof.

Day 23. Electric.

Day 24. Stripes.

Day 25. Landscape. At Laumeier Sculpture Park.

Day 26. Together. Bodhi and Max’s Pinewood Derby Cars. Bodhi 2013 design winner, Max 2008 design winner.

Day 27. Sun.

Day 28. Through. The fog in the park.

Day 29. Grow.

Day 30. Down. Looking down on a bag I am making.

Day 31. Yourself.

So that was January, a good start to the year. A month of all seasons weatherwise! Photo prompts courtesy of Fat Mum Slim as always.

Hearts abound at Handmade Happy Hour Sweetheart Edition.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Hearts hearts everywhere and lots indeed to wear!

I have been a busy bee making lots of new jewelry which will be debuting at the fabulous Handmade Happy Hour Sweetheart Edition. I will be with a wonderful assortment of handmade vendors at Home Wine Kitchen in Maplewood on Friday Feb 1st from 5pm-9pm. Come along, get dinner and peruse some lovely local artist’s hard work.

Bring along boyfriends, husbands, wives, girlfriends and be sure to get beautiful gifts for your beautiful people this Valentine’s Day.

Art Dharling

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

A trip out with friends is always a joy, just us, no kids. We went to Laumeier Sculpture Park not far from us in St Louis.
There are lots of great places to visit here and most are free, Laumeier is one of them.

The sculptures are all striking and the place was empty, so I got lots of snaps with no extra people in them!

The day started cloudy and of course I have to take a ton of photos and I prefer a blue sky. Never fear, as we got there, the sun came out and I couldn’t have asked for a prettier sky. A chilly day with a magnificent blue sky, just what I like! I prefer the cold to the heat, a scarf in the winter sunshine is ideal. St Louis summers are a hot humid sweaty affair which I would like to avoid. At least the houseplants like the summer on the porch I suppose.

Do you like day trips? Where do you go? Any recommendations? Do you prefer Summer or Winter?

Dye dye dye!

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I am dying my hair today, but it has only been a couple of months since the last attack of chemicals on my ever strengthening army of grey. But dye it I must as I have an expanding band of glowing oldness across my head.

Did you ever say that you would go grey gracefully, let nature take it’s course with your hair?

Ha. I did.

Never never never. I would look about one hundred and ten if my hair grew out naturally. Not to mention the twangy hideous wiry hair.

So to the box of dye I go. I get to play hair stylist and smack on some bleach based paste with a little mascara brush. Ta dah! I have different colours in there! It usually works ok, I haven’t had green hair yet.

I would get slapped around my grey rooted head by every hair stylist I know if I dared call my attempts at hair colour ‘highlights’. So I won’t. ‘Variations in colour’ is a better description I think.

What can go wrong! It’s only hair. It will grow back…..or fall out in protest.

Let’s make a Zzzzzzooooommmbie!

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

As the kids were off school today and it has been freezing cold outside, we decided to concentrate on indoor activities!
‘Ice Age, Continental Drift’ seemed an appropriate movie and we have just borrowed it from the library.
Fake fur stuffies were the plan, so I dragged all the furry fabric out.
Bodhi started to draw the stuffie he wanted to make and it turned out to be a zombie. A zombie with a saggy head no less. So the Zombie was sketched, and a ‘pattern’ was cut. Very Project Runway, but we don’t need L’Oreal hair and make up for a zombie!

Paper zombie

Flat zombie

He has a heart of course.

Bodhi stuffing Zombo the zombie.

Zombo is made from fabric from the Upcycle Exchange and recycled clothes from our charity pile!

We never did use the fake fur! Next time.

Oh, I say!

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Well well well, looks like I got me an award! Whoop!

I have been nominated by the lovely www.blueribbonfair.wordpress.com for The Very Inspiring Blogger Award

and shock, gasp The Versatile Blogger Award

I must (no really, I must, it is in the rules) nominate others for the same awards and it has been an easy and joyous task picking these blogs out!

I have to confess when I saw that I had to find 15 deserving blogs, I thought I might have to start digging about. Absolutely not, all of the blogs I have listed I have read and I enjoy reading them and the photos, stories, photographs, crafts, recipes and general fabulousness contained within each.

Some of these bloggers I have met and started to read through participating in the JustB blog school headed up by Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes. Without the blog school I am almost certain that I would be posting once a month at the most and my blog would be a wandering mess. As it is, I am very proud of my spiffy blog and am equally proud to nominate these 15 spiffy blogs.

I have lots to work on and every day I find some other new idea to add to my blog either as content or a little something I need to add to my presentation. I have discovered blog hops, link – ups, buttons, swaps and now awards! So much to learn and improve and work on. It all makes my brain hurt and I love it all! So here are the wonderful blogs I am nominating along with a single word of description for each!

Home To Roost crafts

London Bakes delicious

Make Do Sew ideas

Poppy Fox at Home lovely

Tea and Garlands photos

House of Nic Nax pretty

Pikelet Workshop savvy

HellKat Designs meow

Modflowers fabric

Nelles Little Big Things inspiring

Random Acts of Zen crystal

Cassie Jene of Rainbow Lollies bright

Crafty Hope makes

Instead of an Onion life

Doodles and Jots illustrations

There’s a catch for all of you lovely award winners (not really, just stuff to do!). The rules of the awards are:

1. Display the logos of the awards on your blog.

2. Link back to the person who nominated you.

3. State seven things about yourself.

4. Nominate fifteen other bloggers for this award and link to them.

5. Notify these bloggers of the nomination and the award’s requirement.

Here are my seven things

1. I am a Brit abroad, living in the Mid West of America, originally from Lincoln, England.

Lincoln Cathedral

2. I have a degree in Fashion Design

3. I am a jewelry designer and my little business is called catseatdogs

4. In the 80’s I was a goth, but I couldn’t get my hair to stand up on end, even when I had attacked it with crimpers (ha, remember them!?)

Oh my, would you look at that. 1984 in all of it’s glory! Note the floppy, not spikey hair..

5. I wish I could draw well.

6. Baking is my guaranteed pick me up!

Cupcakes

7. I love to treasure hunt yard sales, estate sales, jumble sales, charity shops, junk shops, flea markets and antique shops.

Antique scales in Horncastle, England

New

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

New. These beads are new and I am so happy with the colours.

I usually have a pretty good idea of the colours I am ordering so I don’t get a nasty suprise. Sometimes when there is an unusual finish on the glass it can be spectacular or spectacularly awful!
I have to say that I was hopping with joy when I saw these gorgeous colours. Love love love them and I can’t wait to use them to make new jewels!

More new. Books, DVDs and a CD from the library, new to me, but borrowed for a couple of weeks. I have to say I am almost always impressed with a trip to the library, so many resources and bang up to date. What to do first, make something, bake something, read, listen or watch?

Ten on the 10th. January 2013

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I didn’t think I had a snowball’s chance of getting 10 photos today, unless you fancied a wonderland view of rain, damp, then fog and back to rain, then dark.
Fear not! I started off with stuff I am reading and stuff I am making, I snapped the melting giant snowball in the back garden and off I went on a photo extravaganza! Here are January’s ten on the 10th.

The last of the snow, in a convenient ball.

Itsy Bitsy wire hearts all going to grow into earrings. In a vintage Ponds cream jar we found in the woods last year. Check out my Etsy store for the finished product.

Bodhi and I are reading ‘Mr Stink’ and I love it as much as he does! I am listening to ‘State of Wonder’ by Ann Pratchett at the minute, ‘The End of your Life Bookclub’ is jostling for next in line with ‘Grace’ by Grace Coddington. I’m reading ‘Mr Penumbra’s 24 hour bookstore’ and enjoying it no end. Good stuff.

My Instagram prints stored in a pretty vintage cup which cost me 50p from an antique shop in Horncastle, England. I got the photos printed at Printstagram and was very happy with the prints and service, they make lovely little note cards. I am having trouble parting with them though!

New beads to play with! I got these beauties in the mail this week and I am going to paint some and keep some natural wood. Then I can wear them and so can you!

Fitness goals are something I usually mock, but if this does what it says on the can, I am in! I should be a tyre less in the mid section in about a month… Nothing like blog pressure to make you do something. I need to buy some weights, so hang on and I will be reporting back. I know there are weights at the Y, but if you think I am performing these ridiculous moves in public, then you are mistaken, but perform them I shall.

Today’s ‘photo a day’ was ‘1 o clock’, so I snapped lunch – left over baked potato soup and a defrosted bagel made into garlic rosemary chips. Yes that is a bowl of beetroot, I love it and I will eat it with any-damn-thing!

Short hair? I might. My hair is technically short, but while I have enjoyed the longer fringe it is now getting on my bloody nerves. Time to get chopped! Maybe

Just goes to show that even though it has been a crappy rainy damp day, ending with a serving of fog, there is always something lovely. This leaf was just lounging on the bare branch and after a few attempts I got the leaf in focus instead of the surroundings!

Brollies and rosemary, both been used today. Umbrella to keep me safe from water falling from the grey skies and the rosemary seemed to go in everything I cooked today! It was in the bagel chips I made at lunch and I tucked some in with the sausages we had for dinner.

Not a bad ten on the 10th after all!

2012 in review.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

This was so hard, choosing one, single photo per month to cover 2012. I love the ones I have found and remembered all the great stuff we did through the year. Thank goodness for the daily diary I keep, otherwise I would never had remembered half the dates and events. It has also made me realise how time zips by! I am taking part in my first link-up ever and it is with Farewell Stranger which I came across as I was reading Writing Wishing blog.

January starts top left and the months follow downwards. I made a collage of the photos and I like to see them together like this.

January we found these wicker huts in Clayton. They are still there and I still don’t know why. Are they art? Does someone live there? Or are they just because? Jan 4th-update-the huts are called Double or Nothing and are by an artist called Patrick Dougherty who makes these wicker installations all over the world. Thanks to Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes for the info!

February brings Valentines day and I made some beaded hearts for my catseatdogs Etsy shop.

March‘s photo was a suprise to be honest. As I was looking through, I thought these sunny blue skies with beautiful new flowers on the trees were in the wrong month. It gets nice and warm here in March though, 70 degree days, lovely spring weather. I remember taking these photos as I was so struck by the flowers on the trees on our street against the blue sky with a fluffy cloud or two.

April brought a massive hail storm. We hid in the basement and when we ventured out, the hail was big and fascinating. It wasn’t baseball size, more like ping pong ball, but it was the radiating patterns of them which was amazing.

May I went to downtown St Louis to see the Andy Warhol postcards exhibition and snapped this car park sign. I love it’s colours, straight out of the kitsch department of the 1950’s!

June The Lantern Festival at the Missouri Botanical Gardens was beautiful. We saw it on a sunny blue sky day and the colours were amazing.

July We spent the summer in England with family, it was cool and rainy and we had a great time. This picture is Lincoln Cathedral in all of it’s glory.

August We were only in the UK for the beginning of August, but a Brighton visit is always a highlight. The old pier in it’s skeletal state makes my heart a little sad. Against the blue sea and sky it is still a wonder. I like the cheeky little seagull on the beach too!

September The Forest Park Balloon Race. I just pointed my phone at the sky as the geese flew over and I caught some balloons in the picture with the birds. I added a little Camera + magic to this one.

October School trip to the local pumpkin patch. Blue sky and orange Halloween – ness. Perfect!

November We went in the wrong direction on the way to a National Park, and came across a tiny airport with a museum. This little fella was for sale, but we resisted!

December A very cool antique store in downtown St Louis is one of our favourite places to go and explore. It really is an adventure as half of the treasure is outside and they have a racoon who regularly visits called Lucy! I managed to leave this lady behind, but she is a lovely decorative bell. The ideal Mrs Claus I think!