All posts tagged: Fat Mum Slim

Create like No-one is Watching.

Published by

Do you create and make for no apparent reason?  Is that ok?  Ok to draw or paint or sew for no reason other than to do it, to practice? Maybe this is a good life lesson, get the equipment and a little guidance and get going.  Try and create as if no-one is watching and no-one cares how it turns out.  Don’t you always feel the pressure to do everything well or wonder why you are bothering?  If I get asked to do or make a specific thing, I get all nervous and jittery and worried that it won’t be good enough.  Will it break, be the right colour, will it be in focus?  If I just grab a handful of beads and tell myself that I will keep it if it does not turn out, or if I pick up my phone and snap a few practice shots, guess what, it often turns out and I feel great about my project. If it doesn’t turn out so well, at least I know I need …

August 2014 Photo a Day

Published by

August was a month of hot days, school holidays, day trips and returning to school.  I used the prompts from Fat Mum Slim’s Photo a Day challenge and here are my photos from last month. 1.  Landscape 2.  Lunch   3.  S is for…. Soccer ball, abandonded in the park. 4.  In the Middle. 5.  Three. 6. Grateful for… My little spot on the interwebs! 7.  Spot. 8.  Pet Peeve.  Crazy crisp/chip flavours.  These were yukky, in case you are interested! 9.  Mix.  Silver fabric and sewing machine mixed to make a bag. 10.  Art.  The art of finding treasure in the creek.  The watch is one of our favourite finds so far. 11. Mirror.  In the grass reflecting the clouds. 12. Gather. 13.  Inside.  Wanting to look inside this lot! 14.  Give.  Thanks Grandma for giving us some Dandelion and Burdock sweets. 15.  Clouds. 16.  Clean.  This old dinosaur needs a clean. 17.  Dinner. 18.  Arrow. 19.  To-Do.  Get a film in this vintage camera and get snapping the ole fashioned way. 20.  Before …

June Photo a Day 2014

Published by

Here are the photos from June, a little late, but here we are huffing and puffing and sitting at the back.  What did you get up to in June?  Is it summer or winter with you?  It is heating up here and I am already looking forward to cooler weather, I know, I am a cool weather girl. 1. Joy.  I find great joy in Flow magazine, it is one of my favourites. 2. Doing.  Playing Top Trumps – Horrible Histories (and they really are!) with my youngest. 3. Family.  Off to mow our neighbour’s lawm. 4. Ordinary.  An ever growing patch of mint. 5. 11 o’clock.  The edamame is growing well. 6. Adventure.  To the top of the Gateway Arch! 7. Pattern.  Gorgeous funghi. 8. T is for.  Trainers, back from a run.  Even though I live in America, I still call them trainers rather than sneakers or tennis shoes (I don’t even play tennis, come to think of it, I don’t do much sneaking either). 9. We Live Here.  St Louis on an …

Photo a Day May 2014

Published by

May saw my eldest turn into a teenager,  a trip to the zoo with school, the weather got hotter and hotter and school finished for the summer. Here are the photos I took as part of the Fat Mum Slim Photo a Day project. June has started, but it is not to late to join in.  You know you are tempted!  Come on, it’s a fun project and I love to see the whole month of photos all together, like this… 1.  Begins with J… A custom necklace for my good friend. 2. Snack. 3. Collection.  Shelves of vintage cameras at a local antique shop. 4. Us. 5. 4pm.  I was at school and spotted Mr Y’s art project on display.  Clay doughnut anyone? 6. From Down Low. 7. Taken from Above. 8. Blue.  Trellis detail. 9. Favourite.  Flowers from the school plant sale are always a favourite. 10. In the Garden.  The garlic is doing well. 11. Mother.  Best Mother’s Day card! 12. Ready.  This guy was ready for his close up! 13. I …

September 2013 photo a day

Published by

It’s nearly nearly nearly October which surely means we are all gathering pumpkins and making apple pies with freshly picked apples.  You know, with the apples you picked at the apple orchard and ended up with a quadrillion pounds even though you told everyone to only pick a few! I haven’t been apple picking yet, but I am sure we will and I am also sure we will bring home the required quadrillion pounds of apples! In the meantime, September whizzed by and brought us a few cool mornings and plenty of afternoon sunshine and here are the photos I took this month.  I have been playing with Flipagram too, so the photos are also all on Instagram zipping past your eyes in the new video format.  I am @catseatdogsmakes on Instagram, go and see what you think. Day 1. Together Day 2. My name begins with. Day 3. Lines Day 4. Alone.  Had I eaten the rest?  Or was this one the only rice krispie treat which wouldn’t fit in the box? Day 5. …

Challenges and an actual challenge.

Published by

Monthly, daily, weekly challenges. Do you love then or do you hate them. Or do you love the idea of them and hate that you never stick with them? I have been doing the photo a day challenge with prompts provided by Chantelle at Fat Mum Slim for almost a year now and it is now totally part of my day no matter how busy I am. Some photos are snaps which barely meet the prompt and some are worked on with filters and all sorts of nonsense from a variety of apps. I started the daily photo thing with Hipstamatic who also do a prompt based challenge on Instagram. I love the Hipstamatic app, but I don’t want to have to use it for every photo. I saw a challenge on A Beautiful Mess today – The 30 day self portrait challenge. My initial reaction was holy squashed avocados, even I don’t want to see a month of photos of me! Why would any modest person want to do this, blah blah, blah.  Then …

June 2013 Photo a day

Published by

I cannot believe how fast June has zipped by (I am sure I say that every month!).  At the same time, when I look back at the photos from the beginning of the month, they seem so long ago. We have been on holiday to Cape Cod for two whole weeks, then I was back in St Louis for about 10 minutes and I was off to New York for the Alt Summit and a lovely weekend in Brooklyn. It has been hot and cool and wet and stormy. I followed the A Month of… prompts from Just B Australia for most of the month, but by the last week I was back to Fat Mum Slim.  Apparently it is harder to break a habit than I thought!  I do enjoy the FMS prompts though even though they do circle round on a regular basis, but that just makes for a new photo challenge, n’est pas?! Well, here are  my June daily snaps. 1. Tea 2. Story. 3. Fabric 4. Party.  Pie from Marion’s Pie …

April photo a day 2013

Published by

I cannot believe it is May already!  The weather is behaving in the usual Mid West spring way – bonkers!  We have had torrential rain, tornado warnings, snow flurries, sunshine, hot and cold.  A typical April then! Of course I have been taking a photo (or a few) every day following the prompts supplied by the lovely Fat Mum Slim.  Here is April photo a day.  I hope you like them. All photos have been taken on my iPhone 4 and some have filters and messing about and some are filter free. Day 1. Play.  Seals at the St Louis Zoo. Day 2. Blue.  A Blue Jay feather. Day 3. Something beginning with A.  Thanks to Superman for lending his arm. Day 4. This happened today.  I moved all of my sewing box into a new home, a vintage biscuit tin. Day 5. Something good.  Blooming trees. Day 6. Air.   Day 7. Dreamy.  Marshmallows. Day 8. On your plate. Day 9. Tiny.  Day 10.  A place.  A place for the Box Turtle to hide. …

January 2013 photo a day.

Published by

Day 1. Today. Connect Four on New Year’s Day. Day 2. Something New. New Feast magazine. Day 3. Heart. In the snow. Day 4. The View from here Day 5. Movement Day 6. Mine. Some of my favourite beads. Day 7. Street. Always a handy place for a toilet! Day 8. Something beginning with T. Day 9. Paper. Vintage Fox River Onion Skin paper. Day 10. 1 o clock. Day 11. Water. Reflection and Swim. Day 12. Suprise. Lots of lovely books from the library, full of suprises. Day 13. Circle. Day 14. Something yellow. Day 15. An ordinary moment.  Frost on a pile of leaves. Day 16. Two things.  Garlic cloves. Day 17. Ready.  For my January jewelry sale. Day 18. Shadow. Day 19. Delicious.  I love finding bonkers stuff in the antiques mall. Day 20. Something you saw Day 21. What you do.  Sometimes I make zombies. Day 22. Corner.  Snow on a roof. Day 23. Electric. Day 24. Stripes. Day 25. Landscape.  At Laumeier Sculpture Park. Day 26. Together.  Bodhi and Max’s …

December 2012 photo a day

Published by

Every day I take a photo using the prompts from Fat Mum Slim‘s creative brain.  I am looking forward to having a whole year of them in 2013.  I started doing it late this year, but it is a great daily creative challenge. Day 1. 8 o clock. Opening the advent calendar. Day 2. Peace Day 3. Something you held. Found these gorgeous antique postcards at the weekend. I love to look through them, they are all Italian, British and other European sights. Mainly cathedrals. Day 4. Black and white Day 5. Looking up Day 6. From where you live. I walk through these woods nearly every day from where I live. Day 7. Stars. Trader Joes cookies! Day 8. Someone you love. My boys in a plane, at the Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum at Creve Coeur Airport, St Louis. Day 9. Out and about. I spotted this rain drenched thistle on the way home from the dreaded Walmart! Day 10. Under.  I walked under this decorated but bare tree. Day 11. Sweet. Candy cane …