Clare Davis Etheridge

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2013 photo review

I did a photo review of 2012 and it was fun to look back at it. So, I thought I would do it again for 2013, I spot a theme forming.

As usual it is so hard to pick only one photo per month, but I managed. Here is 2013 in pics.

January. Even though it is usually freezing cold in the winter, at least the blue skies stay with us. This was a trip to Junque in St Louis, a truck full of bikes. I don’t always find treasure here, but I usually get a great photo.

February. We snapped this rainbow on the way to school one February morning.

March. This photo of the hippo at the St Louis Zoo is still one of my favourites. I was also quite surprised at how many times we visited the zoo last year. Visiting with the animals never gets old!

April. Toy Teeth from the school picnic. Mr.Y won these and gave them to me, they wind up at the side and hop about!

May. School has a annual plant sale and we always need to take the wagon to bring home our buys.

June. Chatham Beach, Cape Cod where we spent a two week holiday. I like that these view finders look like they are having a friendly chat among themselves. I wonder what they are discussing?

July. These flowers were arranged for a photo prompt ‘Red, White or Blue’. I decided on all three.

August. Our neighbour grew the best sunflower this summer and I managed to get some great close ups on my phone.

Skateboarding to karate. September 2013.

September. Skateboarding to karate is the only way to get there!

October. This was a teeny tiny squash which we managed to carve.

November. Leaf pile time! We only rake leaves to make piles to throw about.

December. The finished pom pom elf advent calendar with a Santa elf as the last one!

I have a good feeling about 2014, so let’s go and grab it – nicely, no pinching or squeezing please.

Through the lens Thursday. One.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Today I spotted a great idea and year long project conceived by Alison at Writing Wishing and Greta at GFunkified.

They provide the prompts and we all take a photo or photos every Thursday for 2014.

I am going to use my ‘grown up’ camera for my Through the Lens Thursday posts, and by the end of the year I will be a photo taking genius! Ok, maybe not a total genius, hopefully I will be taking better photos with an improved knowledge of my camera in all of it’s manual glory.

I am proud to say that I now use my camera on manual only and I have been for a few months, but some of those little numbers and letters still confuse my little brain. I see more clarity in the brain department as well as the picture department by the end of the year!

This week’s prompt is ‘soft’ and I loved the soft light falling on the fresh snow this morning. All I did to this photo was crop it a little bit. Such a little spindly apple treeling casting such a majestic shadow in the soft snow.

Are you starting any new projects this year? I have to say, this one looks like it will be a winner! Thanks Alison and Greta. Next week’s prompt is ‘corner’, I wonder what I will find for that one?

Resolutions or revolutions

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

The end of the year, a time to reflect on 2013 and look forward to 2014.

What to do, what to make, how to do, how to create?

Do you make resolutions? I do and I write them all down, I think that is so that I can look back the following year and roll my eyes at them. Last year I wrote ‘100 things I want to do in 2013’ in my notebook. I can see you rolling your eyes, and that’s ok, because I am doing the same thing!

I always include the regulars, the mainstays of resolutions and the New Year. Loose weight, exercise more, eat better. Then I have my own mainstays which I really really do want to do, but often don’t, like writing more, sketching more, drinking more water (why oh why can I not get my brain to drink more water, how hard can this be? Too hard for me apparently.) If you need evidence, look at my post from last year!

Here are five of my resolutions for 2014. Ta da!

1. No more drinking. That is the drinking of alcohol, not no more drinking anything, because that would be silly and possibly death inducing which would be a really bad resolution.

2. Write every day. Oh boy, I think I say this one every year and I do it for maybe a week, then, well, I don’t. I have lots of spanky new notebooks (yes, I meant actual writing, with a pen, on pages), so I simply need to pick one and go go go. Write away and you never know, the nonsense may evolve into something.

3. Draw. Sketch. Design. I need to think up new things to make this year for CatsEatDogs. I am thinking completely new, not even jewelry. I know, exciting stuff!

4. Print and arrange my photos. I am thinking of using the ‘Project Life’ system, but that is officially scrapbooking and I am not ready to be a ‘scrapbooker’ I don’t think. If I could just get into the habit of printing once a week, that wouldn’t be so hard. Would it? Let’s see.

5. De-clutter and stay that way. I might need to order a dumpster for this one!

Blimey, that is a lofty list of goals and ideas. Wonder if I can do them, any of them?

Check back in a year and see. I mean not only in a year, please come and visit here whenever you want, bring a friend, have a look around, have a cup of tea and a biscuit. Share your resolutions, we can work on them together!

Happy happy happy 2014 to all of you!

Last six word Saturday of 2013

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

What are you 2014 Year of the Horse goals?
Did you reach last years?
Let’s have a think and then meet back here on Monday to share!

A month of A-Z

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Last December I used the alphabet as the daily prompts and it was a fun project, so this year I did it again!

A is for acorns

B is for Boys.

C is for Cocoa tin.

D is for decoration

E is for elf pom pom calendar

F is for footprints

G is for gold

H is for horse

I is for icicles

J is for jars of mincemeat

K is for knot

L is for love

M is for mince pies

N is for nine years old

O is for orange

P is for paw print

Q is for quiet reading time

R is for red

S is for syrup

T is for two plants.

U is for underneath

V is for vintage

W is for Wintery morning

X if for xtremely icy

Y is for yellow

Z is for zodiac

Weekly photos and Merry Christmas!

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

This is what happened last week in photos!

I made lots of fairy bags for my jewelry go go to new homes in.
Pom pom advent calendar almost done!
Snowy heart pendant
My gift from Goody Goody Gift Swap.
More pom poms.
My fabulous presents from Florence Oliver as part of the Goody Goody gift swap. Thanks Danelle!

Wishing you all a very very Merry Christmas!

Six word Saturday

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Pom pom advent calendar almost done.

Rosemary and orange syrup

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I like flavoured syrup for coffee or ice cream, even better home made syrup. That way I can put my own flavour in like rosemary and orange. I have been making rosemary syrup for a while, but for this one I thought orange would be a welcome addition.

Recipe
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
Zest of 2 oranges
Rosemary sprigs (I use about 6)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Heat to melt the sugar and continue to heat gently for 15 minutes, turn off the heat, add the vanilla and leave for a further 15 minutes. Strain into a sterilized jar with a fresh sprig of rosemary or two.
Makes about 1 cup. Add to coffee and impress your friends with a fancy frothy coffee!

Nests as pendants

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I haven’t made a birdy nest for a while and I was happy to get making the little cute pies again.
These new nests hang on ball chain which gives a nice casual look with a pretty little nest and eggs inside it.

People often associate the nests with how many children they have (or how many they wish for). The eggs in the nests are pearls, glass or semi precious stones. One of my favourites here is the nest with the rose quartz eggs.

This happened this week.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I am going back to compiling a selection of weekly photos rather than taking a photo a day. I found myself taking any old nonsense just to get a snap taken. Usually I do end up with a photo a day, but not always a share worthy one!
So here is this week’s round up.

I found an icy heart, clear reflections, made mince pies, it snowed, Mr.Y chatted to Santa and we built a snow fort.
What will this week bring I wonder?