Another five pounds down!

It's a slow process for me because when I stall, I get frustrated.  Then, when I get frustrated, I temporarily don't care and eat things like ice cream and chocolate bars....   You can see where this is going. 
However, despite small setbacks (caused entirely by me. I know), the scale is going in the right direction and I am proudly down another five pounds.

Slow and steady wins the race.

How fitting for a turtle blog!!!!

Thanks for looking. Pin It

Happy World Turtle Day!

Today my oldest and I went to the zoo because today is the start of a "World Turtle Week" event there.  Both of the girls are going back on Saturday to enjoy it together.  My youngest was in school today, that is why she didn't come with us and I can't go Saturday so that is why I didn't wait for her.  My oldest is not upset in the least that she "has" to go twice.  We have a membership so it isn't like we have to pay the admission each visit.

They had turtle stations set up in several of the pavillions and you could buy a beautiful rubber " I heart turtles" bracelet (of course I did, I'm still wearing it now!) and earn stickers doing scavenger hunts (learning turtle facts around the pavillions) and they had posters and pamphlets teaching you how to identify Ontario's turtles (which I picked up!) and I was even given a book about turtles!  Oh, and I got a magnet too.  Very exciting!

We played in the turtle shells in the Kids Zone, because my 18 year old and I are not  too old to play there.

I whacked my head going through that silly shell.  I'll bet real turtles don't do that!

This was actually about tadpoles.  Out of the many, many, many eggs a frog lays, very few live to grow up into frogs.  There is a huge variety of ways a tadpole can meet it's demise.  So they have this thing at the zoo that you can spin and see if you would survive if you were a tadpole.  I spun it one time (on today's visit.  I have spun it many times in that past and never, ever have I been a tadpole that lived long enough to become a frog) and this was what I landed on. 

Ironic. 

Good thing I am not a tadpole!

If you can't read it, I landed on: "A turtle hunting for food eats you"

All in all, my daughter and I had a great time celebrating World Turtle Day. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a book to look at!

:)



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Weightloss Turtle loses a layer!

You may or may not remember way back in March of 2011 I made a cute little stuffed turtle and gave it four extra shells.  Each shell represented five pounds I wanted to lose. 

Then you didn't see it again.

Until I added another shell.

Well, I probably should have added another one, but I didn't.  I have now lost just over ten pounds, and still have almost twenty to go.  I am happy that my motivation has returned.

I probably should have labelled them "Before" and "After".  Before is on the left and after is the pretty blue one on the right.  Hopefully I will be back soon to remove another layer.


On another note, I am ridiculously excited that the Toronto Zoo is having a special turtle event.

Taken from: http://www.torontozoo.com/events/?pg=WorldTurtleWeek

If everything goes according to my master plan (read: if my daughter doesn't get called into work), my oldest and I will be at the zoo on day one.  It is my mission to get all the stamps and find the "giant turtle mascot"!!  I am positive I will have turtley photos to share!

See you soon! Pin It

What to do, what to do......

I won't tell you that I miss my daily turtle making.  That would be a lie.  I did enjoy this project, but I am glad that it has ended.  The last month of it was the biggest challenge for me.  I think I had just run out of ideas and inspiration.  I have seen so many people start 365 projects and then drop out, some with warning, some without, and I was determined to stick with it.  I am proud of myself for finishing.  Some of my turtles were less than spectacular, but that is the way life is.  Some days are less spectacular than others!  If my future crafting ends up being turtle related, or when I peel a layer off that weight loss turtle I'll still post here.

One of the things I learned through this project is that I enjoy blogging.  Maybe not daily, but it is fun!  I like being part of this community so I'm not leaving.  I've noticed that there is a bit of a shortage of craft blogs out there, so I have begun one of my own.  (haha.  Sarcasm is so hard to portray in type!)  I do a variety of crafts and follow a lot of tutorials so this is where I plan to post my craftiness.  Won't you join me there?
Crafty Distractions

Thank you for being a part of my turtle adventure! Pin It

#365 365 Days of Turtles

.........A year's worth of turtle pictures in one turtle.  That is a lot of turtle-y goodness!
My thirteen year old had the amazing idea for me to make a collage of all my turtle pictures.  She's such a smartie!

It has definitely been an interesting ride.
Thank you for coming along!
:) Pin It

#364 Off Into the Sunset

I hope this isn't breaking any rules.  The beautiful sunset photo was found here and I just posed my turtle at the computer screen while the photo was up.  I took the picture of the turtle against the sunset photo but I did not take the picture of the sunset.

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#363 was supposed to be a pincushion Turtle

Leah sent me a link to a really cute turtle pincushion tutorial.

I'm not sure what happened to mine.

I had no intention of embroidering mine, I was just planning on making a little stuffed turtle.  I am not sure why the head is so tiny in comparison to the shell.  I also don't know what I did to make the shell kind of pleated.  I purposely did not stuff it really full.

Now for blogging etiquette.  Since I butchered this turtle so badly, is it actually a bad  thing to link to the original tutorial?  Pin It

#362 Another wooden turtle

Again, my husband makes this look soooooooo easy.  He always does beautiful intricate work with the scroll saw.  Me?  I goof up the 6...
I'm still happy with this little guy though.  Especially the placement of that tiny knot in the wood.  Making it the turtle's eye was my idea.

Three more to go. Pin It

#361 Wood Turtle

I was out in Hubby's shop today working on a different project and he set me up so I could make this little turtle.  He makes it look so easy to cut nice lines!

It's only about 2" long.  :)

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#360 Meatball Turtle

Well today I had planned to make a meatball shaped like a turtle.  My intention  was to see if the recipient of the nifty meatball even noticed!  But being a scatterbrain today, I completely forgot to shape one while I was forming the meatballs so I had to come up with something else.  I tried to drop them in the sauce in a turtle shape.  Not my best idea.  But it is still my turtle for today so here it is in all it's glory.
I have added a helpful outline because I am positive  that I am the only one who will be able to see the turtle in the original photo!!!!!

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#359 Tattoo

Well, a fake one anyway.

Drawn on the ankle of a knee-high with a sharpie.  If I was to get a tattoo, I don't think I would get one on my ankle, but this is fun.  And temporary. Pin It

#358 Turtle melting in the wax

I have one of those burners that you put a tealight in the bottom and a piece of nice smelling wax in the top.

 Today I scratched a little turtle into the wax and then lit the tealight.

After a couple of minutes the white from the scratching disappeared.

Then a hole started to melt through.

Until nothing was left but the smile.    :)

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#357 Ornament Turtle

Why didn't I think of this months ago???????
It needs a little tweaking, but I like this idea!

The turtle is beautifully  drawn (as I am sure you can tell) on a piece of clear plastic, then I rolled it up and popped it into a clear glass Christmas ornament that I still have lying about waiting for me to do a craft with.  I cut the plastic a little too small so it moves around a little too freely inside the ball.  Next time I'll make it a smidge larger and I think I'll try to incorporate a small tab that will stay up in the neck of the ornament so that it doesn't rotate quite as much.  This little turtle is okay upside down, but a different image might not work as well.. Pin It

#356 Mug Turtle

I really like that aluminum tape.  I cut out another turtle today with it and stuck it to my travel mug.  I have no idea if it will hold up to washing, but it looks cute right now.  I'll be using the mug in the morning, so I guess I'll find out then.

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#355 Silver Sticker Turtle

Today I was trying to repair something using aluminum duct tape.  That stuff is neat!  I made a little turtle sticker out of some of it and stuck it inside my binder.

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#354 Beady Turtle

Back about a month ago I posted a 'proud Mommy' post about my youngest selling bracelets and giving the net proceeds to the Canadian Cancer Society.  (I hope my link works.  For some reason, every time I try to look, the page flashes up briefly then goes away, leaving a blank white screen...)
Well,  Monday she starts up again.  After surveying a bunch her fellow grade eight students, she has decided that she is going to offer a choice of five different colours in the hopes that the last bracelet campaign she will ever do in her elementary school will be a huge success.  I took her bead hanks and made my turtle with them.  The legs are a gold colour, the head is a beautiful teal and the shell is a mix of green, yellow and white.  I hope she does really, really well this year.

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#353 Friday the 13th

Today is Friday the 13th!  So in honour of this very superstitious day I have made a number thirteen using (you guessed it!) thirteen turtles.

Then I posed it with my black cat.
But I couldn't decide which photo to use, so I just used both.  :)

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#352 Trapped Under Ice

How did that little turtle get into my centrepiece???

Now I'm going to have that song in my head all night. (Metallica: Trapped Under Ice) Good thing I like it! Pin It

#351 Icing Turtle

Those truffles I attempted yesterday were supposed to be snowmen.  Complete with little carrot noses made out of icing.  I couldn't let the icing go to waste!

Then I ate it.

Ohmygoshcanyousaysweeeeetttttt??????? 

It was little so I didn't think it was going to pack such a sugary punch.  My teeth ache just thinking about it! Pin It

#350 Truffle Turtles

I found a recipe and idea that I just loved.  Sadly, the end result looked absolutely nothing like it was supposed to.  On top of that, I don't care for the flavour of these truffles.  What a huge disappointment.
While I was still excited about them, I made two in the shape of turtles.

Here they are naked (before being dipped in white chocolate)

And here is the first, nicely dipped  turtle:

This one, however, had a little bit of an accident.  Someone crushed it while placing the eyes.  Oops.

And now, just to cheer myself up, a silly one-minute turtle video that a friend sent me.  :)

I love the way that my friends, both in real life and online, think of me when the see something that has to do with turtles!  This "annoying, but catchy" video was sent to me by Leah from Zombies Wearing Helmets.  Thanks Leah!!!!!!

(hmm...  I can only see this when I am signed in. If you can't see it and curiosity is getting to you, here is the youtube link so you can see it.)

As my 365 days of turtles starts winding down, I have decided that I enjoy blogging.  Just not daily.  So I have begun (just barely) a crafting blog since there are not enough of those on the internet.   :)

I'd love to see you there! :)

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#349 Solo turtle

I've been playing with my Han Solo frozen in carbonite  ice/chocolate molds for a while (I wonder if jello jigglers would work??) and decided that I should do a turtle-y version.

I present to you...
Solo Turtle: Frozen in carbonite

:) Pin It

#348 Return of the Motivating Turtle

Or maybe I should say: Return of the giant motivating turtle.
Wayyyyyyy back on post #63 from the end of March I made a little, layered turtle  who was supposed to inspire me to lose twenty pounds.  I was supposed to remove a layer every time I lost five pounds until I was down to the original little turtle.  Well, you may or may not have noticed that I never posted any revealing of layers.  That is because I never lost anything but my motivation.  Well, it is returning.  Right after I make one last treat that I have been putting off.  So in a week or two I should be actually working on losing weight.
Sadly, in the mean time, I had to add a layer.  So here is today's heavily layered turtle.

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#347 What's in the box??

I think the little stuffed turtles are intrigued.  They'd be horrified to find out that we have eaten the contents!

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#346 Triforce Turtle

Lately I have been playing a lot of  The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time .  Hubby gave me a pretty red Nintendo 3DS and the Zelda game for Christmas.  So today's turtle has the Triforce (a symbol from the game) on it's back.

I see that in 346 days my drawing skills have not improved at all!

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#345 Potato stamping turtles

Something I have been meaning to try since starting this project.  :)
I carved this image out of the potato without marking it out first.  I didn't really expect the eyes to work out,  what a nice surprise.

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#344 "Paper Doll" Turtles

Today I tried making turtles the way I used to make paper dolls. 
First I took a strip of a magazine destined for the recycling bin, then I folded the strip like an accordian.  Then I paid absolutely no attention  to how even the top of my folded up paper was and proceeded to cut out a (pretty decent!) turtle.  Then I unfolded it and laughed at myself since most of my poor turtles are headless.  Other than that minor detail, I think they look pretty good.
So I cut a second strip.  This time I evened up the edges after  I folded it up and the resulting turtles turned out very nicely!  Unfortunately for me, as I was cutting, tiny pieces of paper were exploding from my scissor tips.  I think I may be finding little bitty scraps for weeks.

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#343 Magnet Turtles

A turtle made of magnets.

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#342 Marshmallow Turtle

Yuck.
I don't care for marshmallows unless they are toasted to a perfect golden brown or melted in a hot chocolate.
This particular marshmallow was left over from a halloween treat my youngest and I made for her class. That is why it has a black dot and an orange dot on it.  I guess because these four marshmallows have been hanging around for so long, (why couldn't the girls eat FOUR marshmallows????) they are all sticky and gross.  I forged ahead anyway because I had an idea.  I think it would have worked a little better if the marshmallow was more dry than gooey, but I think it still looks like a turtle.  I gave it peppercorn eyes since I knew that nobody would be eating it anyway.

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#341 It's a New Year

Just practicing writing the new year.  I wonder how long I'll be writing the wrong year.....

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