This Week's Featured Blog Posts from Blogging Business Artisans Members

This past week, Blogging Business Artisans members blogged about such topics as craft shopping in the city known as the Pearl of the East, using up your fabric stash by making fabric bead jewelry, and a cat declaring a three-day holiday. You’ll want to check out the following featured posts if you missed them.

In Look Up New York, Cynthia of Antiquity Travelers shares photos from her everyday walks to work in New York City. She considers that the sights she takes for granted may not be all that mundane.

Duni of Peridot provides sage advice for a weekend getaway to Paris in What to pack for a weekend in Paris. 

Need some gift ideas for Father’s Day? Edi of Memories for Life has the perfect suggestions in Father’s Day Preview.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to go craft shopping in Samarkand, the Pearl of the East, in Uzbekistan, look no further than Eugenie of Mulberry Whisper’s post, Inside a Treasure Cave: Visiting a Handicraft Shop in Samarkand.

Jenny of The Painted Menagerie describes what happens when science meets paint in Science Nerd Art.

Meet 13 Iowa artisans at Market Day Iowa in Judy of MisterPenQuin’s post, Meet a “baker’s dozen plus one” Iowa artisans.

Every week LeAnn of Pasque Flower Creations introduces us to amazing artisans who have featured her products in Etsy treasuries. Check out her post, Treasury Thanks: The Mike Kraus Gallery Edition.

Linda of Linor Store Jewelry has her eye on a Lavender Summer with a curated treasury of team members and others’ products.

Linda of Pruitt Supply shares a T-shirt makeover tutorial and offers a giveaway in T-Shirt Makeover and Give-Away! You still have time to enter the giveaway, as she doesn’t announce a winner until June 1^st.

Not sure what to do with your leftover bits from your fabric stash? Natasha of Stalking the Wild Snark shares both a text and video tutorial about making a bracelet with fabric beads in Boho Cloth Bead Bracelet Tutorial (Fabric Stash Busting Project).

With summer around the corner, Paige of The Room Kit introduces a basketful of decorating ideas for hosting a summer outdoor party in I’d Like to Have an Outdoor Party.

Rose of randomcreative’s post, Doctor’s Park in the spring, makes you think about packing a picnic basket and taking a long spring walk around a lake.

In Finally Friday, Sharla of Beaded Tail’s cat, Angel, declares a three-day holiday.

If you enjoyed these posts, be sure to return to Blogging Business Artisans next week for another round of posts!

© 2015 Blogging Business Artisans (text only). All rights reserved. The images in these posts belong to the writers of the referenced posts, or were used with permission by these writers. They may not be reproduced without permission under any circumstances.

2015 Challenges

Monthly challenges for 2015.

Challenges help us grow and stretch our imaginations.  They are also a requirement for being in the Etsy Blogging Business Artisans team.

Things you should know:

1) There will be 12 monthly challenges with a given theme. As part of the BBA, you are to participate in at least 4 challenges in the duration of the year and blog about your entry. Just create something that follows the theme and then write a post about it.
2) Each month there will be a new thread on the team Etsy page. Leave a link to your blog post there before the end of the month.
3) Feel free to put any project you create in your shop, and talk about the Challenge in your description!

Find the challenges here: http://bloggingbusinessartisans.blogspot.com/p/challenges.html

January - BeadedTail - Goals or hopes for the New Year
What do you hope to accomplish this year? What are you looking forward to doing in 2015? Do you have plans to travel some place exciting, move to a new home/city or how about get a kitten? Will you be taking your shop in new directions? Let us know or give us a hint of your year to come!

February - Memories for Life - We typically think of red as the color of love. What nontraditional colors can you use to celebrate love?

March - Antiquity Travelers - the first signs of spring .... what does spring mean to you? What inspires you as the weather starts to warm up?

April - Pasque Flower Creations - April Showers:
April showers bring May flowers. The challenge this month is to create something that incorporates an image or a color scheme reminiscent of April showers -- umbrellas, raindrops, puddles, clouds -- the (cloudy) sky is the limit!

May - MisterPenQuin - Honor a Memory:
The month of May is often a time to celebrate or commemorate something special, whether it's a school graduation, a birthday, Memorial Day, or an anniversary (we're celebrating our 36th this year!). Create an item that involves honoring the memory of a person, place or thing.

June - Stalking the Wild Snark - Midsummer Night's Eve
June 21 is the longest day of the year! It has been celebrated in various ways for thousands of years, and many countries still have legal holidays around the time of the summer solstice. The challenge is to create something that celebrates the start of summer or to show what you like to do with those extra hours of daylight on long June evenings.  

July -

August -

September -

October -

November -

December -

January Plans for the New Year Link Party

We started 2013 with a "plans / goals for the new year" challenge and enjoyed it so much that we collectively decided to bring it back for January 2014!

This is what the team had to say about the goal: "Blog about your plans for 2014 and share them with the team. Tell us what you have in store for your Etsy shop as well as your personal life. Feel free to share photos of upcoming projects or just make a list of resolutions/goals."