Clare Davis Etheridge

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Buddhas, beads and lighthouses

As we are heading along the Cape, the town of Eastham can’t be passed without a visit to Buddha and Beads. A little antique store which has all kinds of treasure including lots of beads which ironically are not my favourite part of the store.

There are wonders in every corner.

There is now an outside bonus area which wasn’t here last time we visited.

Green glass floats.

Many many Buddhas, new and vintage.

We headed out to the lighthouse and the beach next. The steps to Nauset light beach have been eroded away so they are building new ones. Right now. So, no access to the beach.

We also came to see the lighthouse, so off we went. There are four lighthouses here in all. One working and the identical Three Sisters lighthouses residing in the woods just behind.

Nauset lighthouse. Moved from Chatham to replace the Three Sisters lights. The top was painted red and the light signal is a white light followed by a red light.
This lighthouse is featured in the Cape Cod kettle chip bag.

Three sisters lighthouses. These three lighthouses served in the spot of the Nausetbeach lighthouse until they were replaced by the current light which was originally one of the twin lights at Chatham. I can imagine they were quite the sight on the coastline.

Off to Coastguard Beach to see the sea. A chilly but sunny day was had collecting lucky stones and building sand dams in the rivulets left by the sea as it drifted out.

Summer jewels

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Bracelet I made for my holiday at the seaside.

Shell necklace I whipped up from a beach find and some leather cord from a last standing Ben Franklin store.

Would you wear a shell? Nothing extra, just a shell on leather. I quite like it although I haven’t worn it….yet.

Lucky stones and fluffy clouds

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Bodhi was given a lucky stone yesterday which is a stone from the beach with a band of quartz all the way through it making a white line.
I am still trying to find out why they are considered lucky and if they are a Cape Cod thing. This must be one of the few times that Google is coming up empty!
Of course if something is considered lucky, who am I to question.

Today had been another fantastic day on the Cape and we headed out to Monomoy Wildlife reserve. We spotted horseshoe crab, hermit crabs, turkey vultures and lots of seabirds (no, I am not a bird watcher, I don’t know who they were). There were lots of pretty clouds too.

Phone photo apps

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Have you updated your ‘over’ app lately? I just updated mine and I have lots of cool new and free artwork to add to my pictures.

While we are on the subject of apps, do you know of any app which allows you to draw on your own photos? I know Laminar Express lets you do this but the ‘pen’ line is super thick and I would like a thinner option.
What cool photo apps do you use? Any new ones I need to know about?

A lovely day in Cape Cod

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A rainy beach walk and new sea weed.

Cape cod soul photo challenge – yes, I have found a daily photo challenge just for Cape Cod! How cool is this! Follow along on my Instagram (@catseatdogsmakes) or wait for the round up at the end of the trip.

We joined the Eldredge Library in Chatham and borrowed a pile of books and DVDs to keep us entertained! Roald Dahl, Scooby Doo, some animal books and some pirate books.

Today is chock full of glorious sunshine!

Braving the cold sea to check out a local Horseshoe crab friend!

Cool things I have found

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Seaweed flowers on the beach.
There is a ton of seaweed, and I like that some of it looks like flowers. I spot the pretty ones and take a photo. Never arrange what I find, just take a snap and keep looking.

Chips.
These chips are yum! Spotted in Trader Joes.

Buttons in a lovely box.
I must confess I love the box that these buttons are in as much as the buttons. The brass hearts are the reason I had to have them. There are some mother of pearl buttons in here too and a pin!

Cape cod

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

We arrived in the gorgeous Cape Cod today and headed right to Trader Joes in Hyannis for supplies. Chips, dips and cereal bought we are off to the sea!

We have rented a cottage for two weeks of sea sand sun and cooler air with a hint of seawater.
The TV has no cable and we can’t figure out the local channels. Hurrah, no mindless TV brain sucking (of course we have Netflix on the iPad!!!).
Just drawing pads, and books (and the iPads, pods and phones…) for entertainment. I have high hopes, but we will see how it is going in a week!

Shopping done, UK edition of ‘OK’ magazine purchased (a month old, but I don’t know who these celebs are anyway!)
The cottage we have rented backs onto a conservation area which consists of mainly marshland and is full to the brim with birds and bunnies. Beyond that is the ocean.

It is chilly in the evenings and bug free (ish). I might even need a new long sleeve top, maybe a scarf, a bag, a skirt……..

I am looking for treasure while I am here – rocks with holes all the way through, heart shapes rocks and gorgeous shells on the beach.
Of course my yard sale radar is on and ready! You know how I like a yard sale.

I have found lots of these pretty golden shells on the beach. I don’t know what they are, do you? Bodhi has seen lots of horseshoe crab cast off shells which are all a bit gross to be honest! Horseshoe crabs are very cool but not so much the cast off shells or the dead ones.
I hope you don’t mind a couple of weeks of what is essentially holiday snaps, because that is what is going to be mainly what I will be blogging about while I am here.

May photo a day 2013

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

May 2013 photo a day. Here is my round up.

We had birthdays, sun, storms, field day, yard sales galore and lots of growing which may be why there are so many green pictures this month.

It was also the month that the A Beautiful Mess app was available, so I have had a little play with it in some of the daily photos.

Day 1. I bought this! Field trip to the Missouri Botanical Gardens, I wrote a post with photos here.

Day 2. Morning Ritual. My gym bag waiting at the door.

Day 3. This is really good! A reflection on the fact that I made my first star rather than the wonky result!

Day 4. In my cup.

Day 5. Paper

Day 6. Broken

Day 7. Something beginning with f.

Day 8. Shape

Day 9. A snack

Day 10. Stars. Better stars this time!

Day 11. A smile. I smiled when I snagged these vintage spools at a yard sale.

Day 12. Mother. Me, my brother and Mum in the 70’s! I wish I had kept those shoes.

Day 13. Sunset. The sun was setting, just no pretty colours!
Day 14. Need. Slushie!

Day 15. 7 o’clock. Max’s 12th birthday cake – chocolate lasagne.

Day 16. Mailbox.

Day 17. Season.

Day 18. Want.

Day 19. My favourite view.

Day 20. Light. A bubble in the grass.

Day 21. I care about this.

Day 22. Change. Thankfully the sun didn’t turn to rain, but those clouds looked ominous over field day.

Day 23. PJs.

Day 24. Go.

Day 25. Us. Our favoured mugs.

Day 26. Fave thing to do on a Sunday. Watching the rain.

Day 27. Can’t live without. I needed this granola bar after a massive workout!

Day 28. What you’re doing now. Avoiding my ‘to do’ list..

Day 29. Dinner.

Day 30. Tool.

Day 31. Four Things. Jawbreakers!

Another month whizzes by! It is so cool to look over each month when I put all of the photos together.

For June and maybe the rest of the year, I am going to be using the Just B Australia monthly prompts – ‘amonthof’. If you want to join in – and you should!- there is a facebook group full of lovely people to share and chat with.

Children’s Books we like.

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Bodhi and I have just finished reading ‘Wonderstruck‘ which is another amazing Brian Selznik book, if you have not read ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’, go go go and borrow it from the library, you won’t be disappointed. The film is great, but the book is so much more.

‘Wonderstruck’ is a book of words and pictures and the two lives in the book run perfectly together. Ben’s story is in words and Rose’s is all illustrations. A very satisfying ‘read aloud’ book for bedtime for the reader and the listener alike.

We are now reading ‘Hero on a Bicycle’ by Shirley Hughes. We liked her picture books when the boys were young and this novel is not disappointing so far. Set during World War II in Italy, it is very descriptive and captures the events in the story vividly. We are only part way through, but we are looking forward to reading the rest of the book.

On the pile to read next is ‘The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket’ by John Boyne and illustrated by the wonderful writer and illustrator Oliver Jeffers. It is about a boy who floats in the sky, so in my opinion this has to be a good one!

Do you read to your kids? When do you hand them the bedtime story reins and let them read by themselves?

I am going to miss reading stories so much when Bodhi is too old for reading aloud and wants to read on his own at bedtime. I might have to make regular visits to the school to read to any classroom who will listen!

Even though Bodhi is 8, we still bust out some picture books like Scooby Doo or a pile of Mr Men books to read. They never seem to go out of fashion, I hope to be reading them to grandkids!

What do you like to read with your kids? Do they choose or do you? Don’t worry, be honest, you are among friends! I totally choose where I can!

We are going on holiday next week and I am going to borrow some books from the library and pop them on the iPad Kindle thingy app. That way I won’t have a bag of books to lug along. Just a bag of chargers for all of the appliances…

I normally like a good ole fashioned book in my hands, but we read so many, I am opting for strength in the iPad. Are all of your books and magazines digital or do you favour the paper version? I like to cut out interesting articles and pictures from magazines to stick in my notebook, so I can’t see me getting all my magazines digitally. Not yet anyway.

The Weekend and a Honeysuckle filled Breeze.

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Memorial Day holiday weekend has been and gone and we had a nice time. Did you? I hope so.

Today it is humid and steamy and the whole outside smells of Honeysuckle flowers, I just want to stand at my back door and breath in the warm scents as they drift on by.

I spent some time stamping out flowers with my fancy new cutty outy thing which makes lovely flower shapes. I ended up with a nice pile and I am very happy with my colour choice. In fact I would like my living room these colours.

These flowers are heading for my business cards which I need to fancy up for the upcoming Alt Summit in New York City.

I snapped some photos of these gorgeous thistles as we walked by the local Metro Link station. I took a load of photos but the wind foiled my plan and most ended up out of focus. Thankfully I got a few to play about with and here are a couple.

On Sunday we visited some friends who happen to have a lake at the end of their garden, so Bodhi and Max got to do a spot of fishing. They caught a string of weed between them, but a success was declared, and it was a lovely evening following a storm which only served to make the air even more humid!

Monday, we took a trip to Laumier Sculpture Park here in St Louis and had an artful walk through the park and woodlands. It was a warm sunny day which ended with a cooling thunderstorm which watered the garden for me!

It was nice to visit the park and see some sculptures I hadn’t seen in previous visits, this young lady in the tree was very well hidden.

What did you do this weekend, was it a holiday on Monday with you? Any crazy weather? I must admit, I do like the bonkers weather we get here, as long as it leaves the roof on the house….