All posts tagged: catseatdogs

Art Marks 30 Day Summer Challenge, my journal so far.

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I am joining Rae Missigman again this summer for her Art Marks 30 Day Summer Challenge which started on July 15th. Encouraged to work small for this adventure, I made a little sketchbook using kraft paper and textured paper with a Ray Bradbury paperback for the cover.  I put lots of pages in it so that I could do more pages as I feel inspired and hopefully fill it up. Well, I am nearly halfway through my book and only on day/prompt 12 out of 30, so I am excited that I will fill my little book up!  Yay. Day 1. Dense. Day 2 and 3. Scrawled and Curved. 4. Geometric. 5. Ruled. I had to use part of this vintage ledger page, it is ruled and someone has written Fish and Chips on it! 6. Wide. This wide washi tape was on an envelope my lovely friend send me, I peeled it off before I even opened the letter! 7. Interrupted. I interrupted this girl with a tree. 8. Blurred. Illustrations from a discarded …

Get Messy Season of Colour/Color Week 5

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This season is flying by and has been one of my favorites which I think may be because I made my own sketchbook from paper bags and an old giant atlas and I have tried to not put any pressure on myself with any of the pages. This has sometimes worked and not always worked if I am honest. I don’t want a half full book, so I am working to fill it and I don’t want to turn over a page I don’t like without finishing it (I would totally do this in a bought sketchbook).  This has meant that on more than one occasion I have had to slog through a page which didn’t start at all well and keep working on it until it transforms. I am happy to say that I have ended up with successful pages in my eyes. I have been enjoying the prompts and the tutorials provided by the Get Messy team this season, to the extent that I haven’t done nearly as much as I have been …

Onwards and Upwards. I am shutting down my small business and I am happy about it.

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Last month I made the decision to shut down my small business, CatsEatDogs jewelry. It wasn’t with a heavy heart or a sense of failing that I came to this decision, more the opposite. Once I started to close everything down I felt more and more that I was doing the right thing. There was no ceremonials, no ‘closing down’ sale, just me edging everything over the side of the ‘I’m have made a decision to move on’ waterfall.  I love that waterfall, it is dramatic and gorgeous and exhilarating, especially when you are at the top looking out over it taking big breaths. I closed down my jewelry business because it wasn’t.  It wasn’t a business, I have no clue how to conduct a business, small or otherwise.  I bought beads, arranged them into something I thought was lovely and tried (quite badly) to sell the finished product. I wondered if once I made the decision that I would start to regret it.  I would have to close my Etsy store, tell everyone I …

‘I Like’ Fridays featuring heart pendants and movie going.

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This past week has seen some great weather, the raised beds are almost defrosted in the garden and I am almost in a digging and planting frame of mind.  I must be patient, with the planting at least, it is still January and we could get all manner of cold and snow up until March! I do want to get some chili pepper plants started inside, because mine only began producing peppers last year at the beginning of the Autumn and they never got to ripen properly.  So this year I plan to do a better job! So, what have you been up to this week?  Here are a few things I have been liking – Trying out more drawing and painting and I am looking into trying some hand lettering, there are classes at Creative Bug and I borrowed this book from the library. Seeing ‘Mr Turner’ at one of St Louis’s oldest movie theatres this week and I liked it.  Mike Leigh did an amazing job with the costumes and settings, the whole film …

Weekly Photos 48/52. 2014

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            Last week was snowy and sunny and cold and warm.  Just as you would expect here in St Louis! It was my birthday and we went for a hike at Rockwoods Reservation which was lovely in the snow.  We liked it so much that we went again to walk a different trail at the weekend when it was nice and warm. 1.  A new bracelet added to my Etsy shop.  I am have a promotion all this week – 25% off with the code ‘ICY25’, pop over and see if there is anything you fancy! 2.  Steps in the snow. 3.  Swamp in the snow. 4.  Grasses at Rockwoods Reservation. 5.  Some impressive lichen. 6.  Reflections spotted while we were fossil hunting in the creek. I hope you had a good week and are looking forward to the week ahead.  We have a 10th birthday in our house this week, so I need to think of cake ideas!

‘I like’ Fridays.

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Happy Friday!  I hope your day is going wonderfully.  Here is what I am liking today – Stocking/Advent calendar fillers. I was very happy to find these cool arrowheads today which I can pop into the Advent calendar for the boys or use a stocking filler. Making jewelry. This is a lovely long, wood necklace I have just made, all ready to go into my Etsy store. These really long necklaces are one of my favourites at the minute, they go with everything and can be worn long or wrapped two or even three times around your neck.  I picked the flowers as I walked home this week from doing some Christmas shopping.  Pretty weeds! DIY lip balm. I am looking forward to making some lip balm soon, I want to use herby flavours like Basil and Parsley and Lemongrass.  Sound good?  I think so!  There is a recipe to follow in this fab post by Tiny Rotten Peanuts.  I always see the DIY ‘beauty’ products, but never actually make them, I fancy whipping up some …

I have new business cards.

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Since I changed my blog over to Girl Fifteen, I have not updated my biz cards with all of my new info, I have now! I also use the cards to tag my jewels when they go off to customers.  They are a matt finish, so I can write little extra notes on if I need to. This is the first time I have used the Instagram square style in a card and I really like them. I got them printed at Moo which is usually where I get my cards made.   I punch holes in them to hang lovely earrings (these are for the school principal, I hope she likes them!).  To be honest, I planned to make them all different photos, but I messed that up!  Having said that, I quite like that they all have the photo of the statue of Saint Louis with some amazing clouds taken at the St Louis Art Museum a couple of months ago. Do you use business cards?  Isn’t it difficult to decide what exactly …

Weekly Photos 39/52

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            1.  The trees are just starting to change into their Autumn colours. 2.  Newly listed wrap bracelet in my Etsy shop, this week I am working on some necklaces. Yay! 3.  We spotted these bright orange beauties on the way to school. 4.  At the weekend we cruised the ‘Tri City’ yard sale event which is held locally.  Lots of yard sales to check out and I saw this lovely Spinning Wheel but left it behind.  I don’t see spinning in my future!  Love the graphics on the box though. 5.  We have seen this Box Turtle in the woods a few times this week and on Saturday he was walking up the middle of the road, so we intervened and took him back to the woods.  I hope he wasn’t on his way somewhere important… 6.  Apparently this soda was discontinued in the early 1990’s, so this was a cool find in the woods this weekend.  I like the graphics on this label too.  Amazing to think it …

Weekly Photos 37/52.

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Last week we saw sun and rain and a flooded park as well as mushrooms and a day out!  Did you have a good week?  I hope so!   1.  I made some new earrings for my CatsEatDogs shop over on Etsy.  I like this style because they are dramatic without being over the top and lightweight to wear. 2.  Lovely Hydrangeas with a dewy glaze. 3.  Mushrooms! 4.  On Wednesday it rained and rained and on the way to gymnastics we had to detour around the park because the creek had flooded up and over onto the park and path.  It was cool to see, but the water was flowing pretty fast, so we made no attempt to wade through it. 5.  The next day the creek had receded back to normal levels, so we popped on the wellies and went exploring.  The creek bed was very different following the storm, new deeper parts, more rocks revealed and new things to find.  We rescued the American flag from the side of the creek and …

Simple Wrap Bracelets by CatsEatDogs

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I have been a busy bee since I had an idea to make some new wrap bracelets,  keeping them really simple and retaining the lovely organic look I love to create.   A kind of stylish friendship bracelet, casual and pretty, featuring vintage buttons to fasten. They like to be worn together, but also play nicely alone.  It is all I can do to stop myself throwing all three on and keeping them for myself! I see many combinations of beads and colours for these in my near future! They are going in my Etsy shop today or tomorrow, I wanted to share with you first.  What do you think?  Like them?  What colours are you loving at the moment?  I do like the blue one best I think, I just love the denim blue of the thread.