Clare Davis Etheridge

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March Photo a Day 2013

A month of bonkers weather and photos to show it! Day 5 was snowy trees, followed by a chair in the sunshine! I photo’ed favourite things and books I am reading (nearly finished Astrid and Veronika and I highly recommend it). We have had Spring break, eleven inches of snow and saw the month out with Easter which was dry and sunny! Here are the photos.

Day 1. L is for…

Day 2. I made this. Rainbow necklace.

Day 3. Key.

Day 4. Lucky. I found these Latin language cards in a junk shop. A lucky find!

Day 5. Under. The snowy trees at the park.

Day 6. Chair.

Day 7. Fear. Ever fear that you don’t know the answer to this?

Day 8. Favourite

Day 9. Faceless Self Portrait

Day 10. I want… to read this book in peace and quiet.

Day 11. Important. Spices for curry.

Day 12. In the distance.

Day 13. Sound.

Day 14. Tasty.

Day 15. Explore.

Day 16. 9 o clock. Reading bedtime story, ‘The Brixton Brothers’ book 1.

Day 17. Green. Illustration from ‘What is a Frog’ published in 1957.

Day 18. Shoes. ‘Sindy’ shoes from the 1970’s.

Day 19. A sign.

Day 20. Clean.

Day 21. Working.

Day 22. About you.

Day 23. What you do for fun. Go to the zoo with Bodhi and check out the seals!

Day 24. Up

Day 25. In your drawer.

Day 26. Something you did. Eat Chinese food for dinner!

Day 27. Pair.

Day 28. In the mirror.

Day 29. Good night.

Day 30. Relax. All ready for Easter.

Day 31. Stuff. Stuff is growing!

Now onto April’s photo challenge! Find the list here at Fat Mum Slim and join in, it’s fun. Do you already do a photo a day? Let’s see them! I think I like my budding pink tree photo best this month, do you have a favourite? You know I love to hear from you, so please comment away!

Springtime Nests and a toddler Gooseberry bush

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Schlafly farmers market in Maplewood was our first stop this morning, the last of the Winter markets.

Queen’s Cuisine Bakewell tarts are a true joy and we snaffled two, to enjoy with a cuppa later on. Those Eccles cakes are pretty darn good too. The founder of Queen’s Cuisine is a Brit in the Mid-West like me, so I always love to stock up! Her baking is so good.

I got me a Gooseberry bush (this one is a toddler, but it will grow!) from Yellow Tree Farms. Gooseberries always remind me of my Grandma who had a massive and very spikey Gooseberry bush in her garden!

Herbs from Yellow Tree Farm

Potatoes from Silent Oak Farms

Mushrooms from Ozark Forest Mushroom. These guys had a mushroom rub which I wish I had bought, sounds delicious. Next time!

Black bear bakery pasties. I bought the Saturday Morning Bun from Black Bear and it was perfect! I love their price labels too.

When we came home we made some Springtime nests which are always an Easter (or anytime really!) highlight.

Springtime nests

If you want to make them, and I can assure you, you do, here are the ingredients.

Nests
8oz chocolate
2 tablespoons honey
2oz/half a stick butter
3oz/about 2 cups cornflakes or crushed up shredded wheat (whichever you think makes the best nests, I used Sheedded wheat)
Mini chocolate eggs

Snow, snow and snow

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I went a little Hipstamatic crazy on Monday when we got a ton of snow. I just ‘shook to random’ for a bunch of snow day photos and ended up with these.

The next day there was even more snow! The woods were a whole new place with heavy branches across paths and even fallen trees blocking our snowy way.

Then we made Snow Henge! Once we had rolled one giant snowball, we couldn’t stop. Rolled and rolled until we could no longer push them.

Speeding Hippos and Sunshine

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Whenever I go to the zoo I come over all Johnny Morris in ‘Animal Magic’ (a show I watched when I was a kid in England where the narrator gave voices to the animals in the zoo…..you had to be there..).

It is all I can do not to put on a silly voice and start to pretend to converse like I am the voice of the animal we are visiting. Actually I really do that, out loud, quite regularly. I mean, if the hippos don’t positively cry out for a funny voice over, I don’t know what does!

The seals were having a good old show off, demonstrating their swimming on their backs at high speed skills! Followed by twirling around, nose down in the water. Impressive stuff.

We really really wanted to see the hippos, who can be very illusive. Sometimes they are out and about and sometimes they are nowhere to be seen, just leaving their fishy friends to entertain us. Yesterday there were fish and hippos a-plenty! The hippo I photo’ed had just leapt into the water and swan right across the front of the tank, pretty nippy for a giant animal.

It is pretty hard to get photos of the animals in the water without getting weird and wonderful reflections. I got some reflections and some animals!

I made myself use my ‘proper’ camera instead of my iPhone to take these photos, and I am pleased I made the effort. It was a lovely sunny day with a fabulous blue sky and the animals came out to greet us!

Ombre Ocean Waiting for Snow.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I have fallen in love with these long long three strand necklaces. Ever since I made my first one, making notes and measuring thread all the way, I have adored them. That first one took me days to finish. I am happy I did all the measuring and guideline notes as I usually need to refer to them.

I decided to make this one with an ombre look – light going to dark, in a selection of blues on a blue thread. I always use a gorgeous vintage mother of pearl button to fasten, they are a lovely highlight to the piece and those buttons go with any colour combination I can throw at them.

I am working and working on filling up my Etsy shop and I love the summer look of the linen thread which is my favourite stringing material in the whole wide world. Check out my shop here or click the link on the left side of this page. Let me know what you think.

What do you like to accessorise with when the weather is warmer? I love the basic tee or tank and a stunning necklace or an armful of wrap bracelets.

It is due to snow up to 8 inches here tomorrow, so no Spring yet, but it doesn’t mean we can’t plan for it! I plan to make more of these, I already have a line of colour ideas waiting to be used!

Have a great weekend and I hope you have some sunshine! We are going to the zoo today, so I hope to get some great animal photos and sketches. Bodhi wants to see the hippos and I love to visit the giant anteaters. I hope they are all out to play!

Let me know what you are doing in the comments, you know I am a nosey parker and love to know what you are up to!

First Birthday Today!

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I have had this blog for a whole one year. A whole entire year, keeping at it through the struggles (mainly technical) and the joys (everytime I get a like or a comment, I give a little joyful squeak!). It has been a very fulfilling year and I have loved working on this blog and improving and building on it.

When I started I was flapping around like a fish out of it’s bowl. Looking back at the castle and weed inside with the water and me outside wondering how to get in. Gradually I began to swim about again and get to know my castle and the weeds surrounding it. My fish water has become clearer and clearer in my bloggy fishbowl.

I have to thank Pip Lincolne’s JustB blog school and my fellow students for really boosting me along with the blog. Sarah at Home to Roost and Lou at Make Do Sew have been constant companions and we all encourage each other with every step. When I first saw Home to Roost, I just thought, I need that and that and that on my blog, then I set about finding out how to get the buttons and layouts I wanted. I also recently wrote a guest post for Make Do Sew which was an amazing learning experience. Thanks ladies!

I am still terrible at the technical side of it all, but I now know at least what I want to do, I pop over to enter my question into the Google all knowing guru and usually between WordPress and Google, I find what I need. Then I just have to implement the usually confusing instructions onto the blog and cross fingers and toes in the hope that all of the gobbledegook I have just entered in the name of code has worked. If it does I do a little happy dance and if it doesn’t I have a little swear, then try again!

So, what has changed in the past year, what were we up to a whole 12 months ago? Did we expect to be here? Are you where you expected? Are you where you want to be? I hope so! Do tell – leave a comment and I will do another little happy dance!

A year ago in my world, I was starting to write this blog called ‘catseatdogsmakesandbakes’ and wondering why I had picked such a long name! I wanted to keep ‘catseatdogs‘ as that is my jewelry business name, so I added the makes and bakes, so that I could babble on about making stuff and baking stuff too!

March 19th 2012, it was Spring break and we had just seen ‘The Lorax’ at the cinema and the weather was sunny and 80 degrees. A hot Spring in contrast to this week which is struggling into the 40’s! We had a family of House Finches building a nest in one of the lanterns on the porch and the daffodils were blooming.

Over the year I have been enjoying writing the blog and taking endless photos for the ‘photo a day’ challenge and just because I can’t stop taking photos! I have been making and designing lots of new jewels and showing them off on here and in my Etsy shop.

What is to come in the next year of this blog escapade I wonder?

I hope to continue and improve my writing and picture taking. Lots more posts, some regulars like ‘Ten on the Tenth’ and the Photo a Day’ monthly round up, and some new topics like ‘vintage postcard hunting and investigating’, ‘Sindy dolls and toys from my childhood’ (I still have my Sindy and her limited wardrobe of 1970’s fabulousness). I can only imagine how much fun taking photos of Sindy in her outfits will be!

Here’s to another year of blogging fun – cheers!

Irish Soda Bread on St Patrick’s Day

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Merry St Patrick’s Day! I am not even slightly Irish, but I have been to Dublin once, and I like to bake so I thought I would make some Irish soda bread for breakfast.

Even the weather today is authentic Irish, cold, wet and grey. I am rather hoping Spring will bounce around the corner soon.

I found a recipe on Pinterest which I adapted to suit what was in my cupboard and here it is.

Irish soda bread

Mix 2 cups all purpose/plain flour, 2 cups bread flour with 1/4 cup raw sugar, 1tsp baking soda, 2tsp baking powder and 1tsp cinnamon.
In a separate bowl, mix 2 eggs, 1 1/4 cup plain yoghurt and 1/4 cup olive oil.
Quickly mix the wet into the dry and add 1 cup raisins. It will seem quite dry but keep kneading and it will come together. Knead on the worksurface until the bottom is smooth and you have a flat ball shape.
Place on a baking sheet and cut the top.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Cool for a few minutes, then eat it all up with jam or your favourite breakfast spread.

We’re all going on a Summer holiday

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

This week’s list for #52lists is ‘Favourite things for Breakfast’. I thought this would be a hard one as I don’t usually want anything to eat as soon as I get up. Normally I go to the gym after dropping the boys at school, so I wait until after that for brekkie.

I do love to make banana, choc chip, cinnamon and peanut butter bread, it is so easy and it uses frozen bananas very well, it keeps well, so it is a great breakfast treat rather than a staple.

I have only just found a recipe I like for Granola so I am going to stick to it for now. I made another this weekend, but it wasn’t as good as this one. Granola is more of a regular breakfast food than cake – honest!

Favourite things for breakfast list.

If you want to check out my other lists and photography craziness on Instagram, check it out here or click the little blue camera over there to the left and have a wander through my photos!

We have booked a summer vacation and it is super exciting! We are heading for two weeks in Cape Cod over the summer and Bodhi packed his clothes last night. He was hunting high and low for a spare backpack which is now stuffed with cars, planes and mini army guys! I am not sure how we are going to take the nets…

We are heading back to Chatham in the middle of the Cape, to stay in the same cottage we visited two years ago when we made our first trip over.

I am really looking forward to going back especially as it is for a longer time (we went for a week in 2011). It will be nice to know the area a little better and know where we want to go and of course where we don’t need to go again!

I want to check out some cranberry bogs! Yes, I want a tour, I love the bogs, they are fascinating. Farming, but in a bog and cranberries cranberries and more cranberries. Weird? Moi? Never!

I want to go for long walks on the beach in the early morning – ha, we all know that will never happen, but you never know and I might even go for a little run for good measure! My running shoes will be packed…

One of the many things I love about the Cape is that it is my kind of summer weather – not too hot but still sunny and with interesting beaches and plenty to do. I am not a sit on the beach reading my book and frying my skin kind of girl. I lack attention, so I need to have something to do. Searching for shells and rocks fits the bill perfectly, so I am the one who brings half the beach back – shells, rocks (preferably with a hole right through) and sand in all nooks and crannies. Sand which jiggles out of your shoes for the next few weeks whenever you wear them!

Are you planning a vacation this year, do you visit the same place more than once? Or do you like to go to different places each time?

March ten on the tenth.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Raining again for ten on the tenth, I can’t believe that it has rained on the 10th of each month this year. I wonder if it will rain on the 10th of every month? We shall see

I am taking all of the photos today on my iPhone 4S and cropping and adding clarity to each in the Camera+ app. I will be consistent in each photo and see which works best by number ten.

Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK, so happy Mother’s Day to all you Mamas!

Oh look, it’s raining. The Rosemary is having a lovely time in the rain.

My new read ‘Astrid and Veronika’ by Linda Olsson. As recommended by Pip at Meet me at Mikes. It is called ‘Let me Sing you Gentle Songs’ in Australia. I love the cover, which is exactly how I choose books to read! That and recommendations of course. What are you reading? Got a recommendation or a book with a great cover to share?

One of the trees in our back garden looking very green in the rain.

Lots of reading today as Bodhi is sick and it is still raining.

Heart made for me by Bodhi for Mother’s Day!

Carrot, kale and garlic ready to be chopped and roasted for soup.

In the roasting pan, ready to be soup!

Choc chip sour cream coffee cake about to be baked (yes at the same time as the veggies!)

All cooked and yum scrum! Here is the recipe from Smitten Kitchen and I highly recommend it. Smitten Kitchen is a wonderful blog and I love the book too. My neighbour brought us some cake over last week and I asked for the recipe and here it is. Magnificent!

And lastly, the rain stopped and the sun popped out to say Hello around 6.30pm.

I think all of the photos worked with the addition of ‘clarity’. I think my favourite is the tree in the rain, the added ‘clarity’ really makes the green stand out. The photo I would have left ‘clarity’ off would have been the heart. This little beauty needed nothing!

Have a great week and happy Monday for tomorrow! Don’t forget to recommend some books for me.

Favourite Words on a Windy Day

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Today started with wet snow, in the middle was snow and at the end was wind and lots of it! This is me working on my windswept look!

This week’s 52 lists project today was ‘Favourite Words’, so I asked around the household and these are ours. As you can tell, I don’t have spell check when I am writing the ole fashioned way. At least I can add ‘learnt to spell onomatopoeia’ to my list of daily achievements.

I could walk around all day saying ‘Polyp’, it is such a great word and just the sound of it makes me want to giggle!

Do you have any favourite words? Do you like them because of the meaning of them or the sound or the spelling?

Most of mine are great sounding words, but I think ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ covers all bases. It even popped up in predictive text while I was typing it on my phone. Impressive.