BlogPaws Conference

WHERE’S THE LOOT?

As we’ve been catching up with our bloggy friends, we have seen oodles of loot from BlogPaws being unpacked. If you recall, when I had my birthday on the 20th, I was promised my choice of any of the BP swag. Lily’s the queen of luggage, so I sent her to inspect Mom’s suitcase. She found absolutely nothing. Check out the expression on her face. That is not a happy kitty.

 

Lily investigates Mom's suitcase for BlogPaws loot.

 

What we didn’t know was that Mom had already removed the few toys she brought home. She’d hidden them in a drawer until I could check them out first. Guess I am appreciative of that.

 

Calista Jo investigates the BP loot.

 

Can you believe this is all she brought me? I can’t imagine she expects me to select one thing. All this should be mine.

 

Calista Jo waps the wand toy.

 

Mom and I played with the wand toy. She was trying to take photos while we were playing so this is blurry. Sorry. The minute she set it down, Fiona picked up the red fuzzy end and took my wand downstairs. I am certain she’s hidden it by now, and I’ll never see it again.

Then Lily Olivia came along and grabbed the kicker.

 

Lily Olivia works out on the ModKicker.

 

The ModKicker was actually made in Phoenix, the site of the BlogPaws Conference. It’s a Hauspanther product (available at shop.hauspanther.com for $6) and has catnip. They must grow some potent nip in Arizona ’cause after a few minutes, Lily crashed hard. When I tried to retrieve it, Lily woke up long enough to kick me in the butt. Totally rude!

 

 The catnip in that kicker must be really potent.

 

I guess that’s all there is…at least until next Tuesday when the real loot arrives. Mom says I will be getting a super cool gift that she swears I will love. She claims it is purrfect for a princess. We’ll see!

Okay, don’t get me wrong: I am totally thankful for these cool things, but there are eight of us and only four toys. So…I’ve just got to say one more time to annoy Mom, “Where’s the loot?” MOL…

Purrs and paw-pats, Calista Jo

BLOGPAWS 2016 CONFERENCE PHOTO COLLAGES

I am sharing some additional photos from the BlogPaws conference prior to returning to our regular programing. I will have at least one additional BlogPaws post when the boxes of swag, sent home via UPS, arrive. I brought a few toys home as birthday gifts for Calista Jo, but have not unpacked those as yet. Both the kitties’ dad and I won items from the Hauspanther Cat Style Lounge, which were sent home by UPS as well. One of those will be C.J.’s extra special birthday gift.

 

BlogPaws Conference 2016

 

The collage above features two rescues, cat Poe and kitten Gypsy from All About Animal Rescue of Arizona. That’s me in the upper right with the stylish and sophisticated Kate Benjamin, our host in her Hasupanther Cat Style Lounge. That’s the spot to see and learn about lots of popular and new cat enrichment products. Lower left is me again with one of the gorgeous kitties in attendance. I apologize that I have forgotten his name. In the bottom right are some of the bloggers and book authors, sporting our cat ears, at the CWA (Cat Writers Association) table. I’m in the back row to the left of the the lady with the yellow hair (The Island Cats‘ mom, Sue).

 

BlogPaws Conference 2016

 

In the upper left of this second collage are the two sphinx kitties, Lexi Liu (back) and Moshe Moshi, from Naked and Hungry. Upper right features Mom Ava, Christy Paws and me at the Evanger’s Pet Food booth. In the left center is the lovely and always best dressed Coco, the Couture Cat. Below that you’ll find me again giving kitten Samson a lap for a nap. Middle right I am getting woofie kisses (don’t rat me out to the Kitties Blue) and finally me with All About Animals Rescue, Ben.

When left to his own devices, Dad Tom went off on his own and took a bunch of woofie photos. Here is the most adorable Sinead (Welcome to the menagerie), our very well-behaved dinner companion for the Nose-to-Nose Awards Banquet.

 

Sinead at BlogPaws Conference 2016

 

In the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing news and reviews about new products and affiliations for Kitties Blue. But tomorrow, Lily Olivia will return for Wordless Wednesday.

Hope you enjoyed way too many photos of me getting chummy with other cats and woofies at this year’s BlogPaws Conference.

The 2017 BlogPaws Conference will be held in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, from May 18 to 20. Tickets are available now with Early Bird pricing in effect until July 1. Tom and I already have our tickets. Don’t forget to get yours!

A BLOGPAWS CONFERENCE SELFIE

Sunday Selfies: Week #98

Our humans are traveling home from BlogPaws today, and we will be glad to see them. Unfortunately, Chris says that the party we’ve been rockin’is over! That totally sucks…no more free-feeding of treats and wallowing in and snorfeling of catnip all day. Pffft!

We know that Mom will be blogging about and sharing more photos from the BlogPaws Conference for at least a few more days, but finally some of us other than Astrid and Sampson and their wedding party will get the opportunity to be featured on OUR blog.

As you have seen from today’s title, today’s selfie also comes from BlogPaws.

 

Mom Janet and Mom Emily share a BlogPaws Conference Sunday Selfie with Cuddle Clone, Sampy.

 

At least our mom and Mom Emily are accompanied by a kitty…that’s Sampson’s Cuddle Clone, which was able to attend the conference and have his photo taken with lots of celebrities (not the moms) and brand promoters. Check out Instagram at kittycatchronicles for lots more photos of him.

Cat4-001As always, we are really looking forward to seeing your selfies this week. We may not be able to visit too many of you this Sunday, so please try to visit each other if you have the opportunity. Blog hops are for making new friends and contacts. We love all the blogs we have discovered and friends we have made by hosting this hop.

The link to add your blog post to the hop is below as is the code for adding the hop to your blog. I have heard from our friend Ann at Zoolatry that this is no longer working for her. If you are having the same problem, we apologize. She says, “Apparently, the recent inability to include your Mr. Linky on our blogs may have something to do with google blogspot switching from HTTP to HTTPS. ”

Even if you cannot add the hop, to your blog, please don’t let that stop you from adding the link to your selfie post. Many thanks, dear friends.

 Purrs and paw-pats, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo



WEDDING CEREMONY ART

We are entering Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty’s Caturday Art Blog Hop with an arty rendition of a photo of the bridal party and guests from Astrid’s and Sampson’s BlogPaws wedding. The original photo was shared on yesterday’s post and can be seen by clicking on the link at the bottom this page.

 

Arty rendition of Astrid's and Sampson's wedding created in Dreamscope using the Petals effect.

 

To create today’s art, I used the petals effect from Dreamscope and a frame from PhotoFaceFun. Even though Astrid looks a bit like a mummy due to her veil, I liked the colors and so decided to stick with this effect.

If you’d like to join us for Athena’s blog hop or see the other submissions, click on her badge.

 Sunday Selfie’s Blog Hop

Cat4-001We’ll be back tomorrow for week #98 of our blog hop. I’ll be posting from BlogPaws and will have a special selfie from the conference. Hope you’ll take the opportunity to not only join in but also to encourage your friends to hop along with Kitties Blue.

I’ll try my best to go live at the usual post time of 12:01 a.m. EDT. With Phoenix being three hours behind with reference to east coast time, I may be posting a bit later. Please don’t panic if the link is not available at the usual time. Just don’t forget to check back later and join us when you have the opportunity. The link always remains open for five days. Many thanks and see you tomorrow.

INTRODUCING THE NEWLYWEDS

Astrid’s & Sampy’s Wedding

Astrid and Sampy's Official Wedding Portrait

 

Astrid and Sampson (Kitty Cat Chronicles) were officially wed in a small ceremony yesterday at the BlogPaws Conference in Phoenix. The Pawparazzi were snapping photo after photo, but their official wedding portrait was created by Lorianne Miller (Four-Legged Furballs). I added the frame using PhotoFaceFun.

 

The wedding party and guests.

The wedding party and guests.

 

Rings and gifts were exchanged and vows made.

Astrid and Sampson will share additional photos sometime next week.

The new bride asked if she could complete the Friendly Fill-Ins for this week. How could I possibly refuse.

FriendlyFillInsThe Friendly Fill-Ins are four fun and easy statements to complete. Ellen of 15andmeowing provides the first two statements and the final two are from Annie at McGuffy’s Reader. This is a blog hop. You can add your link on Annie’s blog.

Here are week #7’s statements. Astrid’s completions are in teal italics.

1. My feelings get hurt when my sisfur, Misty May, chases and bullies me.

2. I am excited about now being married to the love of my life, Sampson (Sampy) Hall.

3. Astrid Blue first, then Astrid Blue Hall.

4. One time, I fell in love; that’s why I got married.

That’s all for now. I’ll be sharing more from BlogPaws tomorrow.

 

LILY OLIVIA TRIES HER PAW AT POETRY

The humans are in Arizona whooping it up at the BlogPaws Conference, and so we are letting Lily take over the blog today. Well…that’s not exactly how it went. Lily demanded as the eldest that she be given first crack at writing a poem for Sammy’s (onespoiledcat) new weekly feature, Thoroughly Poetic Thursday.

As Lily believes she’s “all that” plus a bag of nip, she thinks her composition is amazing. We think it’s barely good enough to keep her from getting a tazing. But we are keeping our traps shut and suggest you do the same. If you think her poem stinks, it’s best not to tell her. She has a well-documented bad attitude and a rather short fuse. If you cross her, she may try to claw your eyes out. MOUSES!

As Sammy started this new feature last week with the letter “A” and plans to work his way through the alphabet, today’s poem has a “B” word theme.

So without further preamble, here is Lily Olivia’s poem followed by her photo.

BlogPaws Abandonment

 

The humans have left us.
To BlogPaws they’ve traveled.
My attempt to stow-away
was spotted and unraveled.
Mom claims I wouldn’t like it…
too much competition for attention.
She says home’s the place to be
where caregiver Chris can spoil me
with yummy noms, catnip and treats.
My porch and settee are off-limits for the duration.
The catio is my only destination.
But I’ll likely just remain in bed
except for potty breaks and to get fed.
Sharing the catio with my fursibs
would be worse than a day without nip.
So, I’ll be ever so happy when
my humans return from this trip.
Then I can once again take over
as Kitties Blue self-appointed queen,
which, of course, is every girl cat’s dream.
And MY right!

Lily Olivia stows-away for BlogPaws & writes poetry for Thoroughly Poetic Thursday.

 

 

FLAT SELF HEADING TO BLOGPAWS CONFERENCE

Several Words from Astrid on Wednesday

 

Astrid says, "good-bye" to her flat self, who is traveling to the BlogPaws Conference.

 

Here I am watching out the door as flat Astrid leaves for the BlogPaws Conference where she and Sampy’s (Kitty Cat Chronicles) flat self will be marrying. I think it is totally bogus that the two of us don’t get to go in the furs and celebrate our own wedding. Pfffft!

I will be waiting anxiously for the humans to send photos home so I can see the festivities.

If you and/or your human(s) will be at the Conference, the wedding is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Thursday. Look for my mom or Mom Emily to get your invitation. They will let you know the locale at that time.

Mom and Dad are supposed to arrive today at 10:45 a.m. Arizona time, but… Their flight connections are through Chicago, which is supposed to have rain, lighting, thunderstorms, hail and possibly even tornados. So, it could end up being a very long day (or more) for them.

We kitties will have our favorite nip- and treat-pusher, Chris, to take care of us. Even though I will be missing my own wedding, life will be good for Kitties Blue.

Mom will be reporting from BlogPaws for the remainder of the week.

Purrs and paw-pats, Astrid

 

BP_Wordless_wed_Hop_Logo_2014

 Wordless Wednesday at Create With Joy

 

ON THE WAY TO BLOGPAWS

I am known far and wide for my ability to procrastinate. In fact, those who know me well would probably say I am the Queen of Procrastination.  But then I have had lots of practice. I was the kid in school who always had to stay up all night to finish a project I’d been assigned six weeks earlier. And then there was the instance 42 years ago when I was hemming my wedding dress on the airplane on my way from Missouri to California to get married.

This penchant for putting things off always drove me to jobs with deadlines. I just cannot seem to accomplish anything without that deadline staring me down.

Getting ready for BlogPaws was no exception. Here I am in the process of putting together 30 kitty goody bags on the way to Nashville. Good thing Tom came along and drove, or I’d be working on these after we arrived.

 

BLOGPAWS

Plush Calista Jo acts as quality control inspector to make certain each bag has the same number of items.

 

BLOGPAWS

The two Sophies.

While waiting to check in, I saw Kitty Cat Chronicles‘ Emily (Astrid’s boyfriend Sampy’s mom). She brought with her Sampy’s sweet fursib, Sophie, the CH kitty. And their roommate is Mom Sophie from Critters in the Cottage.

Both Sophies are sweet and beautiful, but I am thinking no one will mix them up. Only one of them purrs.

I’ve already seen several other friends and will not procrastinate when it comes to sharing more photos tomorrow from the first day of the conference.