Clare Davis Etheridge

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Through The Lens Thursday #12. Frown.

I did wonder what on earth I was going to use for ‘Frown’, then I looked at the super hero and action figures around the house and they are all frowning! I picked Superman for his very impressive frown though.

I have a new camera which is very exciting so these photos are now taken using a Canon 6D and a fixed 50mm lens. I am really loving the depth of field I can now capture, yay!

Here’s hoping Superman is going to cheer up….

For more information about Through The Lens Thursday, go here. Next week’s prompt is ‘In my Cup’.

Let the Sparkle out – Grey hair update

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I have done it, after a year of two, three and more tone hair, I have settled on a natural brown with some sparkly chunks.

To be honest I didn’t see the very solid grey streak coming at all, even though the grey has always been more prominent at the front, usually from before a week after dyeing it, the glow would begin shining through. I saw this as a bad thing and ended up dyeing my hair almost monthly, sorry hair.

I think the year it has taken has been a good thing in hindsight, getting used to the colour coming (or lack of it), then being more and more keen to see the natural end result. If the decision was taken to stop dyeing and within a week or a month, everything was in it’s grey glory, I think the shock of the intense colour change might not be for the faint-hearted. Even the peek within a couple of months can be quite alarming, but I think that is mainly because of the contrast between the dyed and fading portion of hair and the natural grey and brown emerging.

Once there was about 2 inches of grey, I was certain that I was going natural, from then I got more and more impatient to see the end result without having too much cut off everytime I went to the salon.

For someone with my patience level, this has been an interesting exercise in patience, grooming and hair decisions.

So what has changed?

I now use ‘Silver’ labelled shampoo which is a fabulous bright blue.

The style of my hair is more considered, I like the long fringe but don’t want to go full long hair, although I thought about it for a while.

Despite good intentions, I am still not a full time lipstick wearer. I really thought this might happen, but lip balm is pretty much all that goes on my lips. I still think lipstick makes me look odd!

I have to keep an eye out for wild grey moments when the shorter hairs decide to go all frizzy on me. Usually a gentle redirect will tame them.

And nothing else really, I still look like I did and I still dress as I always have, no elastic waisted slacks or hair curlers in my near future.

I must say that I had to check that this ‘before’ photo was from last year, seems so long ago!

Do you have natural grey hair? Any tips to share? Or are you a die hard dyer? Do you change your hair colour or keep it as natural as possible? Not something I did when I dyed!

Happy Wednesday x

Weekly Photos 11/52 2015

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

1. The first flowers of Spring, I love the dew captured on the crocus petals.

2. Easter cards I made for family.

3. Cool lights at Crushed Red in Clayton, MO. We went for a late lunch on Sunday to celebrate Mothering Sunday, lucky me!

4. Me, sitting on my ‘mental age’ bench at Powder Valley, MO in the sunshine! Ha!

5. I found a rock with a funny face.

6. Taking the direct route.

7. Powder Valley frog. Very friendly and very large!

It looks like Spring has sprung here in Missouri, the trees are budding and the bulbs are starting to flower. Time to pull out the t shirts and put away the gloves and woolly scarves.

Have a fab week!

‘I like’ Fridays

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Here are some things I have been reading on the interweb this week, I hope you like them.

There is a great post here at She Who Rambles about faraway family which I could relate to as all of my wonderful family are in the UK. We need a portal to whizz us all around the world for a cup of tea and a biscuit whenever we need! If you are working on such a device, please let me have a go first.

Got boys in your house? Or do you just fancy making some cool crafty things? All your needs are catered in this piece by Tiny Rotten Peanuts. I want to make the vellum igloo, the Fart Noise Maker and a handful of dollar jet fighters if you want to help me.

That Summer Feeling carries on the adventures of Quinoa and her ‘life journey’, I don’t miss a week and nor should you.

I found Humblebee and Me which is full of DIY beauty ideas and she is so generous with her ideas and tips I can’t get enough of it.

After many months of back and forthing I decided to take the plunge and I signed up for the DSLR basics course at A Beautiful Mess. I just got a new lens for my camera and to be honest I am struggling to get decent photos, so I enlisted help from Elsie, Emma and Janae.

Fabric design, how can I resist this class at Creative Bug. Oh boy, I need to find a time management guru to fit all of this in! I have no clue about fabric design and pattern design, so I can’t wait to get started on this one.

Have you seen these beautiful necklaces designed by the ever amazing Kal Barteski? They just seem so personal to me and a statement piece all at the same time. Lovely.

What have you been up to this week? Found any webby treasures?

Through The Lens Thursday #11. Red.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

For this week’s prompt – red – I gathered a few things together for my photograph. I find red a very difficult colour to capture, but I enjoyed seeing all the funny red things we have!

For more Through The Lens Thursday information, go here. Next week’s prompt is ‘Frown’, should be an interesting one!

DIY Lavender and Clary Sage Face/Body Balm

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I love balms and perfumes. This is a recent revelation in my world, I have always been sadly addicted to lip balms and the prettier the packaging and more exotic the flavour, the better, but I have never been quite this into them. What happened? I started to make them.

This year I have let myself try new makes and DIY’s and among them came lip balm. My good friend has lots of the base oils which I didn’t have and we decided to have a go one day. Well, now I can’t stop……

I have been making lip balms, body and hand balms and now I have entered the heady and wonderful world of solid perfumes. I love that we can make this stuff ourselves and we know what is in there, especially when it comes to slapping balm on lips and face, it is good to know what is soaking into our skin.

This week I ran out of face moisturiser and was reluctant to pay another $20 or more for a teeny tiny pot of lotion which sometimes made my eyes literally water. The last moisuriser I used felt tingly (in a bad way) when I applied it and it almost radiated into my eyes making them sting. Well, I thought, this can’t be good. I realise that my skin is getting on a bit and most likely getting more sensitive as the years race by. But this was the fancy cream which promised eternal youth within a few minutes of application (I exaggerate, but you know the claims) so why did it make my face feel bad instead of soft and gorgeous?

So I grabbed some oils and some recycled baby food jars (thanks neighbours) and got melting. I used a recipe from Wellness Mama and added my own choice of essential oils – lavender and clary sage.

Face and body balm

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup beeswax

10 drops lavender essential oil

10 drops clary sage essential oil

Melt the first three oils together in a double boiler (I use small pyrex bowls in a pan of water) and add the essential oils at the end. Stir well and tip into your jars or containers. This recipe makes two baby food jars full.

Let it cool and apply whenever and wherever you need it. I use mine on my lips, legs, face and hands. Both lavender and clary sage are known for their calming properties which can only be a good thing, they smell lovely too.

This is a solid balm which is very softening and soaks into your skin quickly, so no slimy hands or faces which we don’t want!

Do you like to make your own beauty products? What do you make and do you love it?

Weekly Photos 10/52 2015

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

1. A tree bud in the new snow.

2. My shadow in the snow mixed with a photo of trees using the Diana app.

3. ‘The Slot’ at Pickle Springs Natural Area, Missouri – a walk between rocks and in a temporary stream!

4. Cave detail with ice at Pickle Springs.

5. Hearts on a tree.

6. ‘The Double Arch’ rock formations at Pickle Springs.

7. This was my favourite rock formation of the day, he looks so serene, a sleepy rock.

This weekend we went to explore a new hiking area called Pickle Springs and it has some great caves and rock formations. It was pretty wet and sludgy, but that didn’t deter us!

The snow has now melted here, and the temperatures are Springlike! Hurrah! I even spotted the crocuses popping out of the grass this afternoon.

I hope you have a lovely week!

‘I like’ Fridays.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

This week there are lots of things to like, especially that the sun is out and the snow is melting, we are looking at Springlike temperatures over the weekend and into next week! Here are some of the things I have been liking –

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. This is a book I want to keep picking up even just to snatch a page here and there. A page turner for sure!

Watercolour painting. I haven’t painted in years, so I treated myself to some brushes and paints and I am about to embark on the watercolour class over at Creative Bug. I have lots of ideas, now I just need to get the brush on the paper! I think watercolour painting is so pretty, colours all seem to look beautiful, I can’t wait to get started.

Lettering. My ongoing love for hand lettering seems to get more fired up every day. The March ‘Girl Fifteen Letters‘ challenge is going well, we are up to the letter F already. Lots of fun, no pressure, just rattle off the same letter in different styles, see what we come up with! The new issue of Flow magazine has an article on hand lettering which is fab timing as my copy arrived today, so I will be reading and practising and learning.

Family of the Year. I can’t stop listening to their album ‘Loma Vista’ on Spotify. I just put it on shuffle and then again! I found them when I heard ‘Hero’ in the movie ‘Boyhood’ and I adore their music.

Scribble Monsters. I found these terrifying creatures over at Tiny Rotten Peanuts, get the kids drawing and have a go yourself. Who can make the best creations?!

I hope your weekend is going to be fab! We move the clocks on Sunday, so that will take a week to get used to……

Through The Lens Thursday #10. Cute.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

For this week’s Through The Lens Thursday, Pablo and I headed into the slightly snowy garden for a quick photo shoot. Standing still and striking a pose is not his strong point so I had to chase him around a bit.

He is cute though!

I hope you are having a lovely week.

Hand Lettering in the Month of March

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Have you started to practise anything new this year or recently? I have always had a little desire lurking about in my mind that I want to draw and illustrate and hand letter. For literally months and maybe years, this voice has had an adversary who kept assuring us that this would not be possible because of all the ‘can’t’s which were in the same evil gang.

Well, I decided to ignore the evil ‘can’t’ gang this year and I decided to set myself a challenge for the month of March and draw/write a letter for each day followed by some quotes and phrases. At the same time I signed up for the lettering class at Made Vibrant and discovered that Caroline finishes her class with a monthly challenge to letter a phrase a day through March. How perfectly did that work out!?

So I am up to the letter D today which I am looking forward to playing with in my sketchbook. I had never lettered anything in my whole life until March 1st when I hand lettered ‘Three words to describe yourself’.

This was my first go, ever, and I was pretty proud and gently critical. I have gained enough confidence to actually write something and I have learnt enough to look at it and spot lots of places to improve tomorrow and the next day and the next…

I have been looking for interesting lettering and text everywhere I go. Over the weekend I snapped a few photos of some great lettering at local antique stores. Click on the pictures for the full image.

I am going to the library today to check out the children’s picture books which often have the most lovely lettering as well as illustrations.

Where are you getting your inspiration today?

If you fancy joining in with ‘Girl Fifteen Letters‘ it is not too late to grab your pen and paper and get playing with letters. I post on Instagram using the hashtag #girlfifteenletters and I am loving seeing what we are all coming up with.