Clare Davis Etheridge

Latest Posts

Through the Lens Thursday. Door.

Well this prompt threw me a little bit, I thought ‘door’ would be easy peasy, but I clearly over-estimated the local door population. Dull dull doors as far as the eye can see.

If I was in the village I grew up in, there would have been the church doors, many of interest, stable doors on the local farm, heck some of the residential doors are old and interesting. Alas, no cool doors around here, so I plumped for my shed door adorned with toys which I used for my little toy post yesterday. I think it needs a lick of paint….

Of course, now I will be spotting interesting doors left and right!

Got any interesting doors near you? What about a trap door? How cool would that be!

Thanks again for the prompt Alison and Greta who invented Through the Lens Thursday to challenge everyone’s manual camera techniques.

Things I Collect…

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I have ended up with a little collection of little toys. I never intended to collect toys, I haven’t consciously collected anything since I was a kid when I collected stamps and rocks and postcards among other things.

Nowadays I tend towards gathering rather than conscious ‘collecting’, I gather buttons to use in jewelry and some special ones are kept for just gazing at. I gather stamps off letters and parcels which are pretty or interesting. Unfortunately stamps are few and far between, but I do like to cut off a special edition stamp with a date franked on it, especially from a parcel which has a ton of stamps on it!

I have a few vintage postcards and am always on the lookout for more, but I wouldn’t call my little pile of cards a collection.

The toys I have do follow a theme in that they are all small, the biggest among them is a vintage wooden soldier I found at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History’s flea market last summer while we were on holiday over there. In fact I didn’t buy him, my eldest son did and presented him to me later, because he thought I should have bought it. He was of course correct, and I am happy to be the little soldier’s owner.

Most of the toys in my collection are from yard sales, flea markets as well as a few new toys like the Lego figures and the cars.

I am not at all sure where the little yellow space guy came from, I suspect he was a yard sale score.

I am partial to a Lego mini-figure when I manage to get the one I want. Yes, I do feel through the packet to get the one I am looking for!

The multicoloured powerball is from a 50c machine, most likely the one in our local ‘Old Navy’ store.

The teeth wind up and walk about all by themselves and crack me up! They were won at a school picnic game last year.

Olive Oil was given to be by my brother about 20 years ago when I used to wear big boots and girly dresses and apparently I was quite the Olive Oil look a like. Ahem. Thanks.

This Powerpuff Girl was from a yard sale and I love her. I love that determined face and her green dress and that she looks like she is flying away in triumph from any situation!

Do you collect anything? Deliberately or are you an accidental gatherer of stuff like me?

I am linking this post up with Karen at Leaf and Petal who came up with the idea to post about a collection. So pop over and see what everyone else collects, starting with Karen’s gorgeous vintage magazine collection.

Weekly photos 11/52

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

This past week saw a couple of very nice sunny warm days which was a very nice peek at Spring. The garlic is growing healthy green shoots and the bulbs are starting to come through. The rest of the week was pretty chilly though.

Here are last week’s photos, starting with a funny doggy face! He was barking to get me to throw his ball when I snapped this.

I took a few photos for a post I wrote earlier last week, but here is a photo I didn’t use which shows the vintage tray off.

It poured with rain one night and in the morning everything was damp, but not soaked. I spotted this solitary leaf with it’s load of raindrops so I got a picture. When I went back later in the afternoon, it was still there, with just a few less drops, so I got an update!

I took this photo of the sun behind clouds behind the magnolia tree. Then I mixed it in with a photo I had taken of some oranges. Pretty cool! I used the Diana photo app to blend the two photos.

This last photo is of a bead mix I made for my partner in the 2014 Bead Soup Blog Party hosted by Lori at ‘Pretty Things’ blog. I received my Bead Soup in the mail over the weekend, so I will be writing a dedicated post about what I am making and the beads I have been sent. It will be a fun one!

Here’s looking at a new week. How is yours going? Very well I hope.

Six Word Saturday

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Six Word Saturday. On a lovely sunny day, we sprayed rocks gold! What are you up to this weekend?

Through the Lens Thursday. Dark

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

This was the hardest theme yet, I don’t have a very high ISO option on my camera – 1600, so couldn’t take much at all in the dark!
I considered using some artistic license and finding a ‘dark’ object and photographing that, but I wanted to try and figure out how to get a photo in the actual dark.
I ended up taking a photo of me taking a photo (!?) reflected in the back door with the dark outside. It was a bit (ok, a lot) wobbly, but I don’t hate it. I quite like that the wall outside and the bare trees are in there as well as the door and the dark outside.

The second photo was taken this morning when it wasn’t pitch dark, but shadowy enough to need a high ISO so I could practice and get the photo in focus at least!
I like this photo best even though I didn’t take it in full ‘dark’.
Thanks to Alison at Writing Wishing and Greta at GFunkified for pushing me to use my camera manually and to practice even though it doesn’t always work out.

Are you learning something new? How is it going? I am easy to give up if I can’t do something straight away, but Through the Lens Thursday is keeping me going and learning.

A Cup of Tea with Me

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

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 lived here in the States. I do still need a mug of PG tips first thing in the morning though, then a nice frothy coffee mid morning, usually when I get back from the gym and I am starving!

I tend to spend my days making and writing.

The making part of my day includes creating jewellery for my CatsEatDogs shop which I love to do, I enjoy gathering the beads together and creating a piece of jewellery or two from the pile of colour and textures I have selected. I also use vintage components like buttons, beads and charms which I find at yard sales, thrift shops and antique shops. I love to ‘treasure hunt’ and my kids like to come and find stuff too!

When I am not making jewellery, I like to sew and this summer I have promised myself to stock up on fab fabrics and make more clothes for myself, and maybe add scarves and bags to my CatsEatDogs emporium.

The other thing I love to make is pom poms and then make other things from the pom poms! Like vegetables or caterpillars or a heart and even a fox. I have made all of these things and I am planning more pom pom makes, they are such fun to make and then work with! I highly recommend pom poms!

Baking and cooking also fall under my ‘making’ umbrella, muffins for weekend breakfast with lots of blueberries in them, fresh bread to eat with soup for dinner, or to put a homemade bean burger in, all made by me. I love to cook and try new things, some are yum, some are politely asked not to return to our mealtimes!

Some great cookery blogs I follow are London Bakes, The Veggie Mama, Smitten Kitchen and Shutterbean. Lots of great recipes here as well as fantastic blogging.

The writing part of my day is my blog and cards I send to friends and family. I like to write letters and postcards and I should do it more. Do you send letters? Aren’t they the best thing to receive? A letter or a postcard in the mail is one of my favourite things. I also write lists and lots of them, lists of ideas, lists of food to buy, lists of jobs to be done, lists, lists, lists.

Most of the day I am listening to BBC Radio 2 or BBC comedy shows via the iPlayer or to music or an audio book. I am really liking the band ‘Milky Chance‘ at the minute, I heard them on the radio and I can’t stop listening to their album ‘Sadnecessary’, it really is great.

I like to listen to books while I am making jewelry or a craft idea. My favourite books recently to read or listen to have been ‘Tell the Wolves I’m Home’, ‘The Shining Girls’ and I have ‘The Goldfinch’ next in line when I finish ‘The Shining Girls’. I am a super slow reader and I borrow most of my novels from the library, I just have to renew a couple of times! I gave in and bought ‘The Goldfinch’ as I am not going to be able to read that giant of a book in the time I am allowed it from the library.

I am now going to make a cup of tea! What? These posts take me a while, I might even grab a biscuit.

Thanks for reading, what do you like to do? Share in the comments if you like. Tea or coffee?

Weekly photos 10/52 and Living Arrows

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I am a day late with the weekly round up this week because yesterday was ‘Ten on the 10th’ day. Never fear though, here is the weekly collective from last week. It snowed on Monday and we had a snow day off school which is so strange to think about now we are looking at near 80 degrees today. All seasons in one week!

Blue was the colour of the week and it was the last in the #colorcolour series. Here is my Blue selection.

I made pretzel rolls to have with hot dogs for dinner which were a hit and fun to make. I used the A Beautiful Mess recipe which I have used a few times and it has not failed me yet.

The school art show was this week too and I got a little photo of Mr Y’s ‘Inside my Head’ piece.

I went into St Louis for a class headed up by the lovely Lindsay of Heartland Underdog, met some lovely local bloggers and got some snaps of some city details.

These pigeons were happily pecking around behind the shed and didn’t mind me or the dog following them round.

Finally an ‘in action’ shot of Mr Y as he played army games outside with his brother. I am including this as part of the Living Arrows project hosted by I Heart Snapping.

Ten on the 10th March 2014

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

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 planted it last year?

Just look at the fluffy clouds and the budding trees.

Finally, today’s photo-a-day prompt was ‘Far away’. This guy is far away!

What a lovely day, I made new jewelry and took some fun photos! I hope you had a great day too and tomorrow follows suit!

Six Word Saturday

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I had to go into St Louis city this morning and snapped a few pics while I was there, is was so cloudy the tops of the buildings were almost hazy. The rain held off but the cold certainly didn’t!
Do you have a Six Word Saturday? Share on Instagram #sixwordsaturday or in the comments!
Happy weekend.

International Women’s Day

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Sunday is International Women’s Day and one of the ‘day’s I like to remember. I first encountered International Women’s Day while I was in Italy for a while, and all of the women were given a sprig of Mimosa flowers (as opposed to a swig of Mimosa cocktail) in celebration and to honor the ladies.

I couldn’t find Mimosa flowers in Trader Joes today, so I bought some yellow Forsythia and a couple of bunches of daffs.

I read a lovely post by City Hippy Farm Girl about International Women’s Day and giving lavender to celebrate the ladies who have inspired her. I thought I would have a quick run down of the women I know who are fab.

Ms C was one of the first people I met when we moved here, she called to us as we passed her house and our boys played cars and we chatted and drank coffee.

Mrs K is my mum and amazing. That’s all.

Ms L inspired me on an almost daily basis to make jewelry, mix colours and make beads. One of my best all time teachers.

Ms K kicks my workout butt many times a week and I still love to exercise and push myself to be better.

Ms J for being the best artist, printmaker and illustrator and supporting me in all my crazy ideas.

Miss E for being so darn cute on my Instagram feed and in life too. This young lady will grow into a wonderful woman and continue to make her Aunty proud.

Ms C and Ms E for being my best pals in the whole wide world and universe.

Ms K who is a creative wonder and dim sum aficionado.

Mrs S lives on our street and always has a smile and a wave and always always tells me how much the boys have grown even though she sees them every day and has done for the 10 years we have lived here. She is in her eighties and such a lovely lady.

All the Ms’s in my neighbourhood who are always there for each other and me and you if you need them. The best women I know on International Women’s day.

So, go out and buy some flowers for yourself and your favourite women this weekend!