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Six word Saturday

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It’s Saturday again! On the way to a sunny bootcamp class this morning, I popped into the local church ‘basement’ sale. I picked up a ton of toy soldiers, cowboys, Indians and a gaggle of various animals. I love the guys who fit on the galloping horses!
While I was wandering around the many many Christmas items, I spotted a box of sewing bits and bobs. It is full of needles, lots of needles, a few pins, some buttons and a good stock of vintage spools of thread. One is a gorgeous silver grey, thick thread on a big ole wooden spool. I will empty the box and share the contents with you next week.
Have a happy sunny Autumn weekend and enjoy whatever you are doing. Tomorrow we have a Halloween block party so that will be a great time I am sure!
Be sure to stop by on Monday for the weekly photo round up.
Share your Six Word Saturday here or on Instagram #sixwordsaturday.

CatsEatDogs

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I decided to use the name CatsEatDogs in 2001 after rejecting Mango Grace (which I quite like).  Alas, I don’t know where the name came from apart from the initials C.E.D. were my initials at the time.

Here is what I wrote in my notebook on September 7th 2001

 “Jewelry range called Cats Eat Dogs.  Labels – a cartoon cat eating a dog.  The cat being big with a huge mouth and the dog running in”

Blimey, I am not sure of the lovely image that conjours up…. but wait, there are sketches…I quite like where the last one is going actually.  Maybe I should have another go at that one.

Look what else I found in my old sketchbook/scrapbook.  Looks like a pom pom blanket.  Be still my pom pom loving heart!

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Do you keep a notebook for ideas/sketches/cuttings?  I still do and although I like magazines on the iPad, I really like a magazine made from paper I can cut up and stick in my book.  I love that I have lots of filled up fat sketchbooks bursting with ideas for food, clothes, house stuff and just pictures I like.  There are always pressed leaves and flowers in them too!

Now I keep a big book for cutting and sticking and a smaller notebook for sketches and writing down ideas.  See how organised I am.  I especially like that I can mess about with new ideas like making stamps, and the kids always have somewhere to draw!

I made a stamp.
Necklace idea
Fastener notes
A drawing from the kids is essential
More ideas.

I am still CatsEatDogs and I like the name (although sadly the original logo never made it).  I have been thinking of a re-name. Should I stick to the original crazy CatsEatDogs or go for a change?

There will be alot to change if I do and I will loose some folks along the way I would imagine, some will not follow a change and some may explode from utter confusion.   I may well be among the exploders…

In the meantime, look what is new at CatsEatDogs.

I am putting these new designs into my Etsy shop very soon!  If you can’t wait to own one, just give me a shout and I can give you all of the details.

Let’s make Flavoured Salt

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Last weekend I was listening to ‘The Splendid Table’ on NPR and they mentioned Lemongrass salt, like it was something we should all whip up along with a myriad of other salts as soon as you can imagine them and their uses.

This got me thinking.   I have lemongrass in the garden.   I love to grow it, but never really know what to do with it except smell it every time I walk by.  It would be great to have lemongrass to use all year round too.

So, I had a go!  I cut a handful of lemongrass stalks and took off the outer layer, chopped them super small, as tiny as my knife could chop.  Then I mixed 2 tablespoons of rock salt with 1 tablespoon of chopped lemongrass and bashed it about in the pestle and mortar until the salt had broken down into teeny bits and the smell of the herb was all about.

I gave it a good mix and tipped the salt into an airtight jar.

I did pretty much the same thing with a bunch of rosemary and it worked well too.

As for uses, I have used the lemongrass salt in salads and on salmon as a rub before cooking (that worked very well).

The rosemary salt is more versatile for me and I have used it in soups and stews and as a condiment.  I bet the rosemary salt would be great on roasted veggies too.

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Now I am thinking of other salts to make and multi herb and spice combinations!  These would make lovely gifts too, in a pretty jar with a nice label.

If I have any more salty ideas, you will be the first to know and if you have any, let me know in the comments!

Have a great week!

Would you like to sign up for my monthly CatsEatDogs newsletter?  Go here  and thanks!

Weekly photos Oct 21

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Last week was  a lovely Autumn week, blue skies, sun out and a chill in the air.  Gloves needed in the mornings to walk to school and catching falling leaves on the way.

Halloween is around the next corner and November through the next door.

Photos are:

1.  A popped seed pod on the trail, spotted on the way home from school and snapped with the iPhone using Camera+.

2.  Shirts on the line.

3.  Bodhi took this of me at the park.  Taken on the phone and messed about with in Camera+.

4.  Making flavoured salts.

5.  Crazy spinner at the park.  The kids hold on and it spins around until they let go and wobble off across the field!

6.  Brothers.

7.  Changing trees.

I link up with The Beetle Shack for the Weekly Stills posts.  Pop over and see the others, there are some great photos.

This week I am planning the third grade Halloween party, making chilli, jewels and planning a scarf design.  What are you up to?  Whatever it is, enjoy!

Too many scarves

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I brought all of my Autumn/Winter clobber up from the basement yesterday as it seems that shorts and t shirts are no longer welcome.  Thank goodness, I am not a hot weather creature at all.  I like clothes on and scarves and hats too!

Up came the giant zip loc bags and out came the sweaters and scarves and scarves and scarves and a couple of pairs of gloves.  It seems I have a scarf problem.  I just keep them.  All of them.  Some are years old, I mean you don’t grow out of a scarf do you?

I do have rather a lot of them and I do wear them (mostly).  Some I have been given, one I knitted and the rest I have picked up everywhere from Thrift shops to Target.

My favourites are the fur one (no of course it isn’t real, it’s from the Gap!),  the giraffe infinity scarf (Primark), the cream one with all the fringe is a shawl from a thrift shop and I love my Muji striped scarf which can be buttoned to make it all sorts of wonderful.  The only one I have bought this year is the Muji one, but I am sure it won’t be the last!

Funny thing is that on my ‘things I want to do’ list I have ‘make scarves’!  I know, the irony is not lost…

Are you a scarf collector or shoes or bangles?  What do you have an excess of?  Don’t worry, you can tell, you are among friends!

Have a lovely sunny weekend.  See you for Six Word Saturday tomorrow.

The Liebster Award

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I love an award!  Even one which makes me work, like this one.  Answer questions, make up questions, nominate other blogs. The blogs I nominate are supposed to be fabulous of course, but not have a trillion billion readers – yet.

Great idea I hear you cry and I agree, but I can’t tell how many readers a blog has, apart from the mega blogs.

‘Liebster’ means ‘darling’ (or dearest) in German and who doesn’t want to officially be a darling blog!  In the many evolutions of the rules, the ‘amount of readers’ rule has gone from ‘3000 or less’ to ‘200 or less’, stopping off at ‘1000 or less’  for a tea break on the way.

Same with the amount of blogs to nominate – 11? 10? 7? 5?

I was nominated by the lovely Kimmy at Making Mondays (great blog, go see….in a minute, I’m not done!).   She blogs about all kinds of wonderfulness,  and good grief I need to make these right now!

I have copied the rules as they were presented to me even though I am sure I have bent them a little bit.  I read that these awards a like chain letters which frankly puts me off.  Oh boy, remember chain letters?  Awful things.  But no, these are not awful chain letters, nothing terrible will happen if you ‘break the chain’.  Awards like this are great for finding new blogs and showing them off to your own readers.  So here I go.  Rules first.

In order to accept this award, the nominee must:

• Link back and recognize the blogger who nominated them
• Answer ten questions given to you by the nominator
• Nominate ten other bloggers for the award
• Create ten questions for nominees to answer
• Notify your nominees
• Get an award button and display proudly.   I made myself a little image which you are welcome to use.

Here are Kimmy’s questions and my answers.

Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging because I wanted a website and I was guided in the direction of a blog format, so I could include my jewels and my ramblings and my photos all in one place.

Any advice for someone just starting?

Go.  Do it.  I know that sounds smart ass, but it really is true.  Most of the stuff I have learnt is from having a go and without that first post published, how do you know what you want to add.

Read other blogs, but don’t go bonkers and don’t try and be them.  Get ideas and inspiration and be your fabulous self.

Tips on blog photography?

Eeep, I am no photographer and most of my blog photos are from my phone.  I can’t even use my proper camera in ‘manual’ (I am learning though).  I would say, keep a phone or camera with you all of the time (where possible;  don’t take it swimming) and grab photos of anything which looks like a good photo.  Again, just do it, take the photos.  You can delete them or enhance photos with apps galore, but if you didn’t take it in the first place, ain’t going to happen.

Best post you’ve written so far?

I like this one, as I am a proper old lady about the future of listening and looking, I like a book made from paper I can hold and a CD I can see and maybe sing along to the words in the little booklet!!

http://catseatdogs.com/2013/09/18/vintage-of-the-future/

What keeps you motivated?

Knowing that you guys are reading all of this (are you still there? I have a couple more to answer) and I love to look back on posts, like a little diary.   The community of bloggers around the world is like a coffee morning online all of the time!  The more I blog, the more I love it.

How do you relax when you feel overwhelmed?

I bake something, or I make something.  The creative process is a great calming agent.  Following a recipe and ending up with yum cookies or making a simple pair of earrings from a piece of wire.  Nothing better than making stuff.

Something new you want to learn?

I am so terrible, if I can’t do something immediately I am quick to give up.  I am however determined to learn crochet (I want one of those chain crochet infinity scarves and I want to make it myself) and I am also going to learn to use all of the numbers and dials on my camera if it kills me.

A goal?

I would love to write a book or for a magazine.

 Something that has inspired you today?

The amazing blue sky over my head.

Best thing you’ve actually made your self?

My crazy bonkers children!  And cakes.

My lovely nominations are –
If you choose to do so, here are my questions, see if you can answer in one word.  You’re welcome!
Favourite Colour?
Best book in the whole wide world? (ok, more than one word here)
Sandals or boots?
Reason to blog?
Listening to?
Phone or camera?
Vintage or modern?
Holiday destination of choice?
Where do you write?
Paper or screen?
Thanks again Kimmy, this was fun, now I am off to make Rice Krispie treats!!

Weekly Photos October 14

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1. The table of cacti got decorated this year!

2. A glow in the dark skelly head.

3.  Bodhi and I finishing up the web.

We spent part of the weekend adding to the Halloween decos!  Bought the obligatory ‘spider web’ which we will be finding until next year as usual.  It does look rather good though, which is why we buy the stuff every year and drape the porch and surrounding foliage with it.

I remember when we first moved to the States 10 years ago and thinking that people went way over the top for Halloween…ahem….

 

Six Word Saturday

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I am going out tonight.  It is a big birthday for one of my best friends in the whole world and I don’t know what to wear.  I don’t really have going out dresses and fancy pants clothes, or even any fancy pants.  Going out and  wearing posh dresses isn’t really something I do very often so I would prefer a new pair of jeans to a new dress.

Shoes, oh my, don’t even ask about shoes, I have one pair, yes one single pair of ‘going out’ shoes to my name,  which I bought for another birthday a couple of years ago, tonight will the the second wearing of them!  They are very high and I can barely walk in them.

So, my dress options are one which I bought about 12 years ago for a party I went to when my husband just graduated from University, it is red, and I like it but I wore it to the last party, the one with the new shoes, so I can’t wear that one.  The other one (I know, not much choice here) is one I bought 11 years ago for a wedding in Ireland, it is mainly pinks and it will match the shoes which are a nude colour and it fits. Decision made, pinks it is.

Heck the dress I wore to my own 40th birthday was one I bought in the 1980s!  In my defence, it is a vintage beauty and I still love it.

I have decided to have new hair.  I am going to dye it red, bright red, now, this minute.  So if it goes horribly wrong,  I will be going nowhere and problem solved.

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Got a Six Word Saturday?  Share in comments or on Instagram #sixwordsaturday.

Ten on the tenth October 2013

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I have decided to take all of the photos this month using the Hipstamatic Oggl app.  I like that you can add Hipstamatic filters after the photo has been taken.  I have limited lenses and films though as I haven’t handed any cash over to become a member.  It was a warm Autumnal day yesterday, so I got lots of leaf shots!

Frothy coffee and an apple and caramel muffin
Massive amount of cake batter.
Autumn leaves
Pablo
A jar of vintage thread
Cake hiding

Pablo and I went for a little walk in the sunshine and we got some leafy photos and stopped at the water fountains for drinks.

I made a birthday cake which sat in the cupboard hiding!  I used Smitten Kitchen’s chocolate cake recipe which was excellent as are all of her recipes.  In fact I also used a SK recipe for the apple muffins which are also in a photo here.  I just added some caramel pieces to the recipe.

I made some lovely chunky rings this week and photoed them with a golden cow!

Another 10th passes by and we are almost half way through October.  Halloween is nearly here.  Do you have a costume planned?  Have a wonderful weekend.