We went to a local State Park yesterday and this lovely creek was perfect for this week’s Through the Lens Thursday prompt which is ‘Clear’. It snowed the whole time we were hiking and it was a super pretty walk through the trees and across the creeks. I took these photos at the beginning of the walk when the snow was just starting, by the time we were done there was a couple of inches on the ground.
Happy Thanksgiving!
It is my birthday today and it is snowing! Hurrah!
I snagged an idea from the lovely Greta at Gfunkified to write 45 things about me on my 45th birthday. So, here goes.
45 at 45.
1. I am 45 today.
2. I have a degree in Fashion Design.
3. I am reading ‘Everything I Never Told You’ by Celeste Ng.
4. My favourite music at the minute is Twenty One Pilots, George Ezra and Max Jury.
5. I was a teen of the 80’s and my favourite music then was Madness, The Specials, The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
6. I would like to have met Roald Dahl.
7. I like caramel shortbread very much, thankfully I don’t see it much over here.
8. My favourite season is Autumn.
9. I prefer to be cold than hot.
10. I like scarves. A lot.
11. My favourite way to exercise is hiking, pilates, yoga, boxing and running (sometimes…).
12. My favourite films ever are Cinema Paradiso and Pretty in Pink, although I haven’t seen either lately, so I might not like them anymore!
13. I would like to learn better photo taking.
14. I would like to learn how to do lovely hand lettering.
15. I bake lots of cakes and cookies.
16. Bread is one of my favourite things to make.
17. I collect old buttons.
18. I love snail mail.
19. When I was a teen I got black highlights in my hair which was so dark anyway, I am pretty sure you couldn’t even see them!
20. When I was a teen I was a goth.
21. I love washi tape but never quite know what to do with it.
22. I like to eat raw peas, preferably from the garden, straight off the plant.
23. Tomato plant is one of my favourite smells.
24. I like to make soup, but don’t like to eat it so much.
25. My first proper concert was U2 at Wembly stadium. I passed out in the line to get in, lost all my friends and couldn’t remember where the bus was parked to get home. I did manage to find the bus though and enjoyed my first concert by myself!
26. I don’t really like running, but I do like it when I am done.
27. I have done 3 half marathons.
28. I have no desire to do a full marathon.
29. I did a Mud Run once and it was the most terrifying most exhilirating run I have ever done and it took a week to get rid of all the mud!
30. I like it when people wish me a good day.
31. I don’t like it when people don’t hold the door when I am right behind them.
32. If I am not into a book by about page 30, I give up on it! Sometimes it takes me a few duff book choices to find one I get into.
33. I don’t buy cookies very often because eating the whole lot is not a challenge for me!
34. I really wish I knew more about the numbers I use on my ‘proper’ camera.
35. I live my life by lists.
36. I like to paint and play around with brush script.
37. I love to thrift shop, some of my best clothing items are from Goodwill.
38. I love to find treasures at yard sales and estate sales. Tins of buttons are true treasure in my department.
39. I started to dye my hair in my twenties.
40. I stopped dyeing it in April of this year, the last of the dye is still there but nearly all gone.
41. I thought grey hair would scare me, but it doesn’t.
42. My favourite English biscuits are Party Rings.
43. My favourite food is ramen (no, not the packets….!).
44. I can’t walk in high heels for the life of me.
45. I love magazines, especially Frankie, Red, Jamie Oliver’s magazine and Flow.
Happy Wednesday!
My hair is almost all ‘natural’ now, only about half an inch of colour left at the ends of my fringe. Last time I got it cut, I nearly went shorter just to get the dye out, but decided to wait a little longer and keep the style I like. I snapped a few polaroids today to show you where the grey is.
It is fascinating to see the grey allocation, the back is pretty much all brown and the front is all Cruella Deville.
So how am I feeling about it? Reaching for the dye yet? I am absolutely not going to be dyeing it anytime soon, I would predict that I will never dye it all over again. I am tempted to have a little crazy colour in there though, a spot of blue or purple maybe. It is white for goodness sake, the blank page on my head, waiting for a little colour! I am rather happy with the hefty chunks of grey/white, I quite like them. I am also happy that the grey is not all frizzy and springy, it is still quite well behaved.
One of the kids at school asked my why my hair was grey now and when I told her that this was my actual hair colour, she replied ‘No, it’s not.’!
I am not doing so well at the make-up wearing, I am just not used to not wearing that much (BB balm with mascara is a fully made up face in my world), that extra layer of foundation and heaven forbid, lip stick is still a work in progress. I have entered the heady world of blusher though!
Have you had any hair changes? Long to short? Blonde to Dark? How about a perm? Does anyone still get perms?!
1. A snowy walk to school on Monday.
2. New neckace added to my Etsy shop.
3. Ready to try a new workout.
4. I have been busy making jewels this week.
5. Potato chips – instead of a salad – they’re delightful! An advert from an old newspaper.
6. Library activities, making button badges and magnets.
Here’s looking forward to a great week!
I was digging around and found some books from when I was little, I still have a few, some paperbacks, my first cookbook and a ‘Magic Roundabout’ story book!
Sadly, I don’t have any books from the ‘Ant and Bee’ series which was my absolute favourite when I was a kid and learning to read. I remember visiting the library and making a beeline (ha! see what I did there) for the ‘Ant and Bee’ books. They were lined up on the top shelf and I gathered all I could and checked them out at the desk where the librarian took the tickets from inside the books and stamped the return date on the label inside the front cover. Remember when libraries were full of tickets and drawers and it was all kept track of by pieces of paper which were taken in and out of books as they were borrowed and returned?
Of the books I have, I think I have read most of them to my kids and my youngest and I are currently reading the rather politically incorrect ‘Dr Dolittle’ series. We are loving the adventures of Dab Dab, Chee Chee, Polynesia and the fabulous two headed creature, the Pushmi-Pullyu. Not bad for a story which was written in the 1920’s and the book we are now reading cost 20p when it was new!
I wonder if any of the modern books children are reading now will be deemed inappropriate in the future because of the language used and the way people are portrayed.
Will Harry Potter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Bob the Builder be read by generations to come? Will the characters and language become so out of date that they are seen as quaint and from the ‘old days’?
Maybe I will save our ‘Charlie and Lola’ collection for my grandchildren and see what they think?
Do you have favourites from childhood? Do you still have them? Do you still read them?
Do you have a baking list for Christmas? It is forecast to rain tomorrow, so I plan to get a start on the Christmas cake and mincemeat for mince pies.
Happy weekend!
This week I have been brimming with creative inspiration which has been manifesting itself in painted cards, jewelry and letters.
I bought some new inks today which took me right back to college days when I was studying for a degree in fashion design and Windsor and Newton inks were one of my favourite illustration tools. I can’t wait to get playing with them again.
The necklace with the orange tassel is about to be put on the shelves of my Etsy shop.
These books are inspiring me – The Busy Girls Guide to Photography and The Art of Everyday Photography.
These blogs are inspiring me – Milk Please Mum, Susannah Conway and Hula Seventy.
This course is constantly inspiring me – Paint. Plan. Play. from Studio Calico.
These prints and products are calling to me – Orla Kiely for Target.
Happy Friday, I hope you are looking forward to the weekend. Tomorrow I will be doing a Six Word Saturday. Want to join in? Please do!
I can’t believe that we are into the last 10 weeks of the year and this project. I will soon have 52 photos taken from each week of this year, following the prompts thought up by Through The Lens originators Alison of Writing Wishing and Greta of GFunkified.
This week’s prompt is ‘Gloom’ and although the weather this week has been cold, it isn’t gloomy at all, the sun has been out and the skies blue.
Then I thought about the ‘creepy bridge’ the nearby bridge over the creek where we go and adventure all the time. We call this bridge the ‘creepy bridge’ because from certain angles (and I usually focus on these angles) the bridge is just a regular bridge over a creek with some cool reflections and natural features, but look to the other side and there are dropped concrete blocks from some old construction and graffiti all over it which changes regularly. When the boys were little they named it the ‘creepy bridge’ and it still is known as that in our house.
So today I snapped the ‘creepy bridge’ with it’s good and bad side with a twinkle of the sun reflecting off the water.
Next week’s prompt is ‘Clear’.
I miss Malt Loaf. Dark brown squishy cake loaves which are best eaten sliced with a slap of butter alongside a cup of strong tea at your Grandmas.
A British delicacy if you will, malt loaf is the best tea/coffee time treat. I can’t find it here in the Mid West for love nor money!
So I sought out a recipe and found one which involved yeast and kneading and one which was full of dried fruit soaked in hot tea. I tried the second recipe and it was a hit! I am so pleased to find a good malt loaf recipe, I am going to get stocked up on raisins and barley malt extract and get baking!
Here is the recipe, taken from the BBC Good Food Magazine online.
Sticky Malt Loaf
Pre heat the oven to 300 degrees F and line a loaf tin (the original recipe recommends making two loaves, but I made one and it was just right for me). I also read that someone made Malt Loaf muffins which is a great idea.
150ml/2/3 cup hot strong tea
175g/1/2 cup Barley Malt Extract (I found this is in the sugar alternative section in Whole Foods if you are in the States)
85g/1/2 cup dark brown sugar
300g/2 cups raisins
2 eggs
250g/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Soak the fruit with the malt in the hot tea until it is cool. Add the sugar and stir well.
Add the eggs and mix well, then add the flour, baking powder and baking soda and stir quickly until all combined.
Bake for 50mins or until the top is firm and a knife comes out clean. The middle may sink down but this is fine.
Brush the top of the warm loaf with malt extract to glaze (I forgot to do this and it was still yum!).
Improves after a few days, if it lasts that long and it freezes well.
Do you you have any foods which you love but can’t get hold of? I can get most things here, but I do miss ‘Party Rings’ biscuits and I am sure I can’t make them.
Have a lovely day whatever you are doing!
Surfset is a brand new workout in my world and I couldn’t wait to try it. Look, you just sit on a wobbly board and take photos in the mirror. Easy peasy! Not so much with the easy peasy, nor the camera for that matter! This is an all over workout and is so much fun, you forget that your arms/core/legs are starting to ache! I took this photo post class and here I am with legs as wobbly as the board that made them that way.
We are lucky enough to be getting a new studio opening here in snowy Brentwood in the new year which will also include TRX classes and Real Ryder cycle classes. I am already a fan of TRX (straps which hang from the ceiling and provide a major core workout), but I am keen to try the new bikes which have moving handlebars which I may well fall right off!
Talking of falling off, I only fell off the board a couple of times while ‘surfing’, you soon get the hang of it. Once my brain accepted the fact that I really didn’t need to wobble about like an amazing wobbly thing, I got on much better. As with lots of workout routines, you get on way better once you stop thinking about it and get on with it. The workout covers everything from cardio to stretch via strength all with a healthy dose of balance.
Oh look, there is me nearly falling off. While seated! I told you those boards were wobbly.
I highly recommend Surfset, it worked my core, legs, arms and back all of which ache the day after my first class. I can’t wait to get back on that board and ‘Hang 10’ (not even sure what that means to be honest…) again!
Check out Core 3 Fitness and give it a go!
Got a favourite workout? Share in the comments.
Happy Tuesday!
Clare Davis Etheridge 