BBArtisans Challenge: 2016 Hopes and Plans

It's the last Friday of January so we're just squeaking in our post for this month's Blogging Business Artisans challenge which happens to be the one our mommy came up with. She challenged the BBA team to tell us their hopes, goals, travels or plans for 2016. Mommy's hope is to go to Alaska and finally see a moose...

When she and Daddy went on an Alaskan cruise in 2014 they saw lots of eagles and whales but not one moose. Even on a three day land tour from Seward to Fairbanks including an 8 hour bus tour into Denali National Park they saw caribou, Dall sheep and even a snow shoe hare but not one moose. All the other buses in their group saw a moose and even a bear but not their bus! In hopes of seeing a moose they're spending 10 days in the Kenai Peninsula area of Alaska this June...

You know what that means for us? Our Grandpa from Kansas will be here spoiling us giving us awesome scritches! I'm thinking we got the better end of that deal! Anyway, see this other book that I'm pointing at here...

It's a cruise book. Mommy's going on a cruise with our Grandma from Vegas this year too. They're both looking forward to that and of course we're looking forward to a a week with Daddy spoiling us catering to our every whim! It seems that we're all going to have a pawesome year! 

Do you have anything exciting happening this year?

Hope you have a fabulous Friday and wonderful weekend!

Isabella and Angel

A Vacation to Remember

It's the last day of July (how'd that happen so fast?) and we're participating in this month's BBArtisans team challenge in the nick of time! The challenge, from Linda at Pruitt Supply, is to create something with a vacation theme or write about a favorite vacation. Well, we don't go on vacations but I can create something to help Mommy remember one of her favorite vacations so that's what I did! 

Last summer Mommy and Daddy went on a 10 day Alaskan cruise/tour which is something Mommy never thought she'd do since she gets motion sickness very easily. Anyway, thanks to meclizine, she was able to go and it ended up being one of the most memorable trips she and Daddy have ever been on with views and eagles everywhere...

One of the many things they did was pan for gold in Fairbanks and their huge gold find was put in a pendant. A really boring pendant.  Ho hum...

So I had an idea to help her bling up her pendant so she'd actually wear it instead of keeping it in a drawer. I picked out a blue bead to symbolize the blue skies, ocean and glaciers they saw and it turned out like this...

It's certainly not boring anymore! Now she can wear it and remember the fun time they had on their cruise. I know, I'm so smart. What would she do without me?

Thanks for the challenge Linda! The pendant would still be in a drawer if it hadn't been for your challenge and my fabulous idea! 

Do your beans have a favorite vacation?

Happy last day of July! Enjoy your weekend!

Angel

Inspiration

Last week I remembered that we hadn't done this month's BBArtisans challenge from Duni at Duni's Studio.  The challenge is to "surprise yourself by creating something with a color you rarely use".   I picked out colors that we very rarely use in beady goodies...

Of course I soopervised everything...

My due diligence was rewarded...

Hey, did I say you could stop the scritches Mommy?

We'll see about that...

Scritch away!

Anyway, we eventually came up with these earrings and got them listed in our BeadedTail shop...

My favorite show was on the Birdie Network by that time but they did go through the Tortie inspection process...

Good thing I remembered the challenge huh?  What would Mommy do without us?

Do you have any suggestions for color(s) for our beady goodies?

Hope you have an inspiring day!

Angel

Weekend Inspiration

This month's BBArtisans challenge was thought up by our Mommy and it is:

"Love is celebrated this month so show us what you love!"

Well, when she thought that up back in December she figured it'd be easy to create something to show what she loves but now in the midst of tax season she loves everything except work!  She got overwhelmed with ideas which means her creative side came to a standstill so we had to help (again).  We narrowed it down to three things she loves - cats, hearts and purple...

We had to keep her on task with plenty of snoopervision...

But she ended up doing okay...

She made herself a kitty necklace with amethyst hearts and various shades of purple Swarovski crystals...

We do have another kitty so could make one for our BeadedTail shop if we can make her find enough time, motivation, focus to make it!  Anyway, once again we provided the inspiration for another challenge.  What would she do without us?

What is it that you love?

Happy Monday!

Angel and Isabella 

Fall is Just Around the Corner

We're not ready for fall but we're starting to think about it especially since this month's BBArtisans challenge is to create an item for Autumn or blog about what you like about Fall/Autumn.   We thought long and hard about this challenge...

Since we don't remember what we like about Autumn, we decided to help Mommy pick some Fall colored beads and chain since we LOVE chain...

Then we helped her put them together to make a necklace.  While we were doing this we remembered something we liked about the change in seasons, how much easier it is to see birdies in naked trees!

Anyway, back to the necklace.  We wanted it to be 36 inches long so it squiggles a lot at the bottom...

It turned out pretty good if we say so ourselves!  What would Mommy do without us?

Even though we like seeing the birdies better in naked trees we're not ready for Fall.  Are you?  

One thing we are ready for is spending time with our Grandma from Las Vegas and she's here visiting us so we're going to take a break until Tuesday.  We hope you have a great weekend!

Off to get spoilt by Grandma!

Angel and Isabella

Tortie Inspiration

I found out that this month's BBArtisans challenge from Antiquity Travelers is Something Old, Something New meaning to take an old item and make it new again.  Since Mommy walks through a thrift shop and sees dirty, old things instead of hidden treasures, I knew I had to help her out.  To make it a real challenge I sent her out to one of those thrift shops with a $15 budget...

She came home with a chair missing its seat.  Boy, $15 doesn't buy much these days!

Angel didn't think I could come up with anything to make this chair new again but I had an idea...

I sent Mommy outside with it to prime it...

And then paint it sunny yellow.  Looks better already if I say so myself but it's still missing something...

I know what it's missing!  A flower pot to fit in the hole!  Packing peanuts are in the bottom for drainage and to make it not so heavy...

After flowers were planted in the pot, she put it out on the deck where I think it looks pretty good...

The total cost of this chair makeover was about $32 including the chair, yellow spray paint, flower pot and flowers since she had the primer already.  Of course my helping with the idea was priceless!  What would she do without me?

Have you ever helped make something old new again?

Hope you have a cheery Tortie Tuesday!

Isabella

Inspiration in Bloom

Mommy came up with this month's BBArtisans team challenge to create something with flowers and let your imagination bloom.  Well, since she has a hard time with that imagination part we thought we'd help her out.  She at least bought the supplies although at this point, we have no idea what to do with them...

She got a sunflower type flower since she's from Kansas.  See what we mean about the imagination thing...

And there's also some sticks curved into a circle.  I suggested she put the flower on the stick circle...

How about putting the other flower on there too for an extra pop of color (that's a technical term)...

That does look better but let me get this wayward stick out of the way...

Oh my Cod Mommy, what the heck did you put on it now?

This not only looks funny but it smells funny too...

Okay, so she can't tie a bow with burlap but the flowers look alright which is what the challenge was all about.  If she gets the bow right, we'll let her hang it outside near the front door so it can blow away in the wind welcomes people to our house.  What would she ever do without us?

Hope the flowers are blooming at your house today!

Angel and Isabella

Inspiration

Since the month is a few hours from being over, we had to give our Mommy a nudge to complete the Blogging Business Artisans monthly team challenge but it worked because she got it done!  This month's challenge is from Storybeader and it's to work on a new technique and blog about the project.  Well, Mommy has always wanted to learn how to paint and/or do mixed media stuff but is clueless how to do either.  Since the materials used to do these techniques involve paint and glue, we weren't allowed to directly help but we provided the inspiration (as always).  Here's some of the things she used including OUR crinkly paper...

She painted a canvas in the same purple paint as she painted one wall in the bedroom and she tried to add dimension by mixing white paint and also some black paint in the purple.  It didn't turn out as she thought it would.  She then wrapped a big heart in OUR crinkly paper and painted it the Red Pepper paint that's on a wall in our living room.  Then she made a small heart with a thick coat of blue paint for somekitties eyes...

She had wanted to paint words on it but we knew that would be a mess so she wrote words on it with a Sharpie instead.  It turned out pretty plain but alright.  It doesn't look as good as we do...

She asked Daddy his opinion on what to write on it.  She wanted something related to love and every quote she came up with Daddy added his input.  He was surprised that she actually wrote his input at the bottom of the quote...

Humans can be weird.  Anyway, thanks Deb (Storybeader) for the challenge!  We had fun watching Mommy from afar even if we had to sacrifice some of OUR crinkly paper!  She enjoyed it too even if she needs to stick to painting walls instead of canvas!

Hope you enjoy something new today!

Angel & Isabella

Thankful for Santa and So Much More...

Santa Claws was very good to us this year!  We got toys, treats, crinkly paper, bags and new stinky goodness dishes for me and my sisfur...

Wonder why Santa didn't bring me a birdie though...

Mommy got nice presents from her Secret Santa too!  Her BBArtisans teammate LeAnn was her Secret Santa this year and sent her Chai tea (which Mommy loves!) and a very cute kitty oven mitt which was already put to use when Mommy made cookies...

Since we're not allowed on the counters when baking or cooking is going on, I'll just have to wait to get a closer look at the oven mitt...

Okay, I waited long enough, let me just pull it a little closer...

We're very thankful for everything we received this year!  Of course we're most thankful for having a warm house filled with love and foods and also all our friends from around the world!  We appreciate all of you!

We hope you're filled with gratitude too!

Angel

PeeS:  The recipe for the cookies above is here.  Mommy's don't quite look the same but Daddy says they're yummy! 

Inspiration

This month's Blogging Business Artisans team challenge by Erika from ArtfulRising is all about Back to School.  Well, since it's been so long since Mommy has been in school she had no idea what to do for this challenge idea.  I knew she was struggling so I offered to help...

Do you want to know my idea Mommy?

I asked her to remember way, way back when she used to go to school and what did she remember most about back to school time.  She remembered that her birthday was always after the start of the school year.  Well then, knowing that, here's the inspiration I came up for her...

And she made a chocolate cake with sprinkles No-No bracelet...

Hey Bella, this doesn't smell like cake!

It's more like a chocolate snake...

Of course we didn't have chocolate cake for Mommy's birthday since we can only have vanilla but I think I had a pretty darn good idea.  Here's a look at the final bracelet...

We've made the chocolate cake with sprinkles bracelet available in Mommy's shop here.  I'm sure glad I could help her find the inspiration for it!

What do you think of most at Back to School time?

Enjoy your day!

Isabella