Sunday, 31 March 2024

**HAPPY EASTER!!!** The BBHQ Annual Easter Egg Hunt on The Sunday Selfies & Caturday Art Blog Hops

 Sunday Selfies Easter Banner ©BionicBasil®

Epic greetings supurr fluffy furiends

Happy Easter Banner ©BionicBasil®

And here's our epic B Team Easter selfie. 

The BBHQ Annual Easter Egg Hunt 


The B Team Easter Egg Hunt Selfie ©BionicBasil® Sunday Selfies

We had great fun in the forest surrounding Mewton-Clawson searching for magical dragon eggs.

And no, don't worry these eggs won't hatch into dragons, well not unless they end up on Level 16 of the bunker with all those magical critters, then anything is possible! MOL

Don't panic. We had planned a stone circle visit for this week but then remembered it was Easter, so we'll be back on the stone circle trail next week!

Sunday Selfies Easter Divider ©BionicBasil®

We're also joining in the lovely Athena's Art Hop so do stop by and show off your pawesome arty-farty skills.

https://www.athenacatgoddess.com/

We love the vintage vibe of the effect we used.

The B Teams Easter Egg Hunt Selfie ©BionicBasil® Caturday Art Hop

The effect was created with Befunky: Oil Painting DLX4 and colour enhancements.

We also turned this fab arty-farty picture into a puzzle, so do stop by the puzzle page and take the Puzzle Challenge; see if mew can beat our time of 10 mins 45 secs. 

Sunday Selfies Easter Divider ©BionicBasil®

Anyhoo, it's time for us to go and start prepping for Easter lunch, and we have a blackberry and apple pie with either custard or ice cream today, yummy as we may get a little taste of some vanilla mice cream! MOL

 We do hope mew have a totally terrific day and hope your Easter weekend is absolutely ameowzing. We'll be back in the morning with a fun Colouring with Cats post, so we do hope mew can join us then.

Sunday Selfies Easter Stay Fluffy Banner ©BionicBasil®

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team







Sunday Selfies Easter Divider ©BionicBasil®

Don't forget to join in the pawesome Sunday Selfies Blog Hop with

 Angel Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Angel Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth, Calista Jo, Cooper Murphy and Sawyer ~ visit them at their pawesome blog:





LINK UP COMING LATER


Sunday Selfies Easter Divider ©BionicBasil®






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Don't furget to subscribe to our blog and never miss another post. 

Sunday Selfies Easter Divider ©BionicBasil®
Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com & www.befunky.com

Saturday, 30 March 2024

**BRAND NEW PROJECT** Crafting With Cats Easter Special ~ How We Made The Jumbo Feather Catnip Kickers ~ Easy Peasy!

Welcome to


Happy Caturday pawesome pals

Thanks for joining us for the fifth Easter Crafting with Cats segment, and a brand new project. 

We have so much fun making all this stuff, and we hope mew enjoy seeing it and/or making it too.  

If mew missed any of our previous CWC posts, stop by the Crafting with Cats Page and see all our previous projects, and mew don't have to be an expert in anything to make any of them. Plus, we offer workarounds and no-sew projects for those who don't like to sew.

To see the previous Easter projects click the links below:





Easter divider

**A quick note before we begin**

All Crafting with Cats ideas and creations are of our own design, and we share them for purrsonal/home use only.

  So purrlease do not copy for commercial/resale purrposes.

Copyright ©BionicBasil®

Easter divider

This time we're making 

Easter Special Crafting with Cats at BBHQ ©BionicBasil® Jumbo Feather Catnip Kickers

What We Used:

Easter-themed fabric squares

Wadding

Homegrown catnip

Feather trim

sewing machine ~ scissors ~ thread ~ pins ~ ruler ~ iron

~

Optional Cat ~ Many apologies that Smooch wasn't in the craft room. The P.A. made these late on Wednesday evening, and Smooch was snoozing on his Shroom! MOL


Easter divider

Let's get started!

Mew can watch the quick video slide of all the steps by clicking here.

Easter Special Crafting with Cats at BBHQ ©BionicBasil® Jumbo Feather Catnip Kickers Steps 1 - 4

1.   Our Easter-themed fabric squares.

2.   We cut three pieces 10" x 4" or 25.4 x 10.16 cm.

3.  Fold in half along the long edge, right sides together.

4.  Start sewing from the fold towards to opposite corner.

Easter Special Crafting with Cats at BBHQ ©BionicBasil® Jumbo Feather Catnip Kickers Steps 5 - 8

5. Continue sewing up the straight edge to the top.

6. Here are our three, all sewn together.

7.   Cut the corners off.

8.  Turn right sides out, and press, and they should look like this.

Easter Special Crafting with Cats at BBHQ ©BionicBasil® Jumbo Feather Catnip Kickers Steps 9 - 12

9.  Fold the top edge inside and press, as this will make it easier when sewing the seam.

10.  Get your catnip and wadding ready.

11. & 12.  Stuff your kicker alternating with the wadding and catnip.

Easter Special Crafting with Cats at BBHQ ©BionicBasil® Jumbo Feather Catnip Kickers Steps 13 - 16

13. We had some feather trim in the craft room, but mew could use other things, like ribbons for this step.

14. & 15. & 16.  Position the trim in the top of the kicker, pin it in place and sew along the seam.

And this is how they should look when finished, aren't they cute?

Easter Special Crafting with Cats at BBHQ ©BionicBasil® Jumbo Feather Catnip Kickers Finishe
They only took about thirty minutes to make all three, so a really quick project.

Let's see what Fudge and Melvyn thought of the kickers ~ scroll to 42 seconds on the video.

or watch on YouTube by clicking here.

Fudge jumped Melvyn, normal, as he claims everything for himself immediately! MOL

Anyhoo, The B Team really liked them, Fudge has taken full ownership, but the P.A. is going to sneak one away for Smooch later! MOL

Easter divider

That pawesome furiends, furry sadly brings us to the end of our Easter Crafting with Cats Bonanza. We hoped mew liked the latest project as much as we did.

We'll be back tomorrow with our usual Sunday Selfies post, so do join us if mew can as mew know how much we love your company.

Epically crafty purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team











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Disclaimer:
We at BionicBasil HQ are not responsible or liable fur any injuries to person/s and/or cat/s, crafting addictions, glue on cats, paper cuts, misplaced pins and needles, cats stealing your supplies, broken scissors, cat fur stuck on your projects, or your project not turning out as planned.  By using this information you hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless BionicBasil and staff from and against any and all claims for personal injuries or damages of any kind arising from use of any Crafting With Cats posts we may share.

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com 

Music Used under licence from www.soundstripe.com Artist: Famous Cats - Track: Catnip

Friday, 29 March 2024

**FELINE FICTION FIX** Book Reviews with Amber at The Mewton-Clawson Library #275 featuring **Meow Means Murder** by Jinty James PLUS Friendly Fill-Ins + Photo Fails Blog Hop

Book Reviews with Amber at The Mewton-Clawson Library Easter Banner ©BionicBasil®

Hello gorgeous library guests 

and 

Welcome to the Mewton-Clawson Library at BBHQ 

Thank mew for joining me in the stacks today, and Happy Good Friday.

I was so lucky yesterday, we had a supurr sunny morning, and the catservatory was positively divine. The temperature was purrfect and I loved every minute!

Amber's Book Reviews #275 ©BionicBasil® Amber Enjoying Some Meautiful Warms in The Catservatory

Just look at my face, it tells mew everything! MOL

I do hope we're going to get a good weekend, as usually Easter is a total washout, but paws crossed I'll get a rerun of yesterday.


Part of The Mewton-Clawson Library ©BionicBasil®
Amber's Book Review Library Mice Divider ©BionicBasil®
Today the P.A. is also joining in Friday Fill-ins Blog Hop with the pawesome 15 & Meowing and Four-Legged Furballs.

1. I hope my Easter basket has __________ in it.
2. March has been ____________________.
3. If there ever was a time to _________, it’s now.
4. I _________ in preparation for _________.

The P.A.'s answers are...

1. I hope my Easter basket has lots of chocolate in it! LOL LOL LOL (The more the better).

2. March has been a good month, because I finally finished Claws of Terror, and you have no idea what that means to me after being in the writing equivalent of the Gobi Desert for the last four and a half years with the next B Team adventure.

3. If there ever was a time to do anything, it’s now.

4. I am in preparation for completing the Middle-Grade novel I was working on before Claws of Terror hijacked my writing time. It's a three-book series, and I was two-thirds of the way through book one when Claws of Terror came along, knocked me sideways, dipped me in cream and rolled me in catnip! LOL But so it goes, the cats' adventures are far more important than anything else for me. 

Amber's Book Review Pink Dot Divider ©BionicBasil®

Today, as it's the last Friday of the month, we're also joining in the furbulous...


Do stop by the marvellous Mudpie's blog at www.mochasmysteriesmeows.com to join in.

Pet Photo Fails  ©BionicBasil® Melvyn's Photo Fail Feb 2024

Who knows what the fluff Melvyn's going on about here??? MOL 

Perhaps he just got rejected by another modelling agency. He's a little sensitive about stuff like that! (Oh dear).

Amber's Book Review Pink Dot Divider ©BionicBasil®

Amber's Book Review Divider ©BionicBasil®

This week's top book pick is...

Amber's Book Reviews #275 ©BionicBasil® Meow Means Murder by Jinty James
Mewton-Clawson Library Copy

Meow Means Murder


A Norwegian Forest Cat CafĆ© Cozy Mystery – Book 2


by
       
Jinty James

Here's a little snippet of the book blurb:      

A gorgeous Norwegian Forest Cat, a cat cafĆ©, a food critic, and … murder!

The small town of Gold Leaf Valley is aflutter with a food critic’s arrival. His online column has made him famous in this part of Northern California, but not everyone is pleased he’s in town.

When cafĆ© owners Lauren Crenshaw and Annie, her silver-gray tabby, stumble across his body, what should they do? Investigate the crime themselves? Or … leave it to the police?

Is Lauren under suspicion for delivering pastries to the dead man’s motel room? Or did his intern bump him off in order to gain a promotion?

Lauren’s cousin Zoe is keen to help investigate the crime. But are there too many red herrings in this case to uncover the truth?


Amber's Book Review Mice Divider ©BionicBasil®

I previously reviewed book one back in the autumn, so if mew missed that, click here for a quick recap.

This week, I read Meow Means Murder: A Norwegian Forest Cat CafĆ© Cozy Mystery 2 by Jinty James as I wanted to continue the series, and it was an absolute delight! 

The story revolves around a small town in Northern California that is in a frenzy because of a food critic's arrival. The owners of the cat cafĆ© in the town, Lauren Crenshaw and her cat Annie, stumble upon the critic's body, which leads to an investigation. 

The plot is full of twists and turns, and just when I thought I had it all figured out, there was another surprise waiting for me. The characters are well-developed, and I loved Annie, the gorgeous Norwegian Forest Cat. The cozy ambience of the cafƩ and the town's setting made me feel like I was right there with the characters and could order a cup of nip tea in the cafe! MOL

The amateur sleuths, Lauren and her cousin Zoe, who are trying to solve the murder mystery themselves, are on the case. Their witty banter and the budding (clean) romance between Lauren and Detective Mitch Denman added to the fun and engaging storyline.

Meow Means Murder is a captivating read that kept me entertained and guessing until the end and it was a surprisingly quick read. If mew're a fan of cozy mysteries and cats, this book is definitely worth checking out and adding to your to-read list!

So far, the series has twenty-three books, so there is plenty to keep a serial series reader entertained.

A Totally Top Paw Read!

Paperback: 246 pages
Audiobook: 3 hours 35 mins
Amber's Book Review Library Mice Divider ©BionicBasil®
My Ratings Scale

Amber's Book Review Paw Ratings Scale Pink ©BionicBasil®

Amber's Book Review Pink Dot Divider ©BionicBasil®

Ratings of:

Meow Means Murder

Overall Enjoyment

Amber's Book Reviews 5 Paw Rating ©BionicBasil®

Amber's Book Review Divider ©BionicBasil®

Other Fun Blog Hops to Join in Today



Amber's Book Review Pink Dot Divider ©BionicBasil®

I'm off to read next week's books, as mew know the drill, so many books, so little time! 

Don't forget, if mew are looking for great books with cats, check out the Book Review page, just click the link here or at the top of the page, as that's the place to visit to get your feline fiction fix. 

Until next time...

Keep calm and read more books

Amber 


Amber's Book Reviews Pink Review ©BionicBasil®





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