Russian Tortoises: My Guide

I've had quite a few requests and questions for more information on my tortoise and I thought today would be perfect seeing as it's a holiday and there is no mail! I plan on working on a few letters afterwards!

So, if you haven't already noticed, I won, Scooter, a Russian Tortoise. He is six years old and I haven't a clue on his birthday as I adopted him about 7 months ago or so. I don't think I need to post a photo since he's more or less all over my blog! He's about 6-7 inches long and that is the largest he will be getting. males can get to 5-8 inches and females are larger, between 6 and 10 inches. Russians are one of the few species of tortoises that will stay small even when full grown. Unlike Sulcata tortoises (see below.), Russians can be housed indoors for their entire life if need be! And that's a long life, too...I'm going to have to will my tortoise to someone because Russians can live to 75 years old!

Here's another size comparison...that is a kiddy pool...

The tortoises shown above can live to 100 years old and get up to 100+ pounds! Funny how something so small and cute can get so enormous! They can be housed indoors until they get too big, and then one must make a tortoise house! People usually make them out of large dog houses or sheds. I actually plan on eventually getting a Sulcata!

Here is a similar photo of Russians. The largest one would be the size of Scooter, so you can image how small the baby is!

Another photo, not mine (above isn't mine either.) for size:

Also, these guys aren't just from Russia, they come from nearby deserts as well!

The best bit about tortoises are their personalities! People assume that reptiles don't have personalities, but I can assure you, tortoises do! You can probably see that from my photos of my little shelled man, but they can be truly hilarious! Someday, when I get a chance, I'm going to have my own herd of them in my yard! Oh, speaking of yard! Scoot lives in an outdoor pen (that he frequently escapes...we plan on making some changes this summer...) when it's warm, and then in a bin in my closet during winter (which he also frequently escapes as you all know...). Next winter, I will be purchasing him a larger bin that he won't be able to escape from or building a 'tortoise table' or basically a wooden table with high sides and hides and whatnot.

As far as food goes, Russian (ie. Scooter.) eat pretty much anything and a LOT of it! My mother is always surprised by how much this little guy can cram in to him! Dark greens, veggies, various fruits...Also, they make special tortoise diet, but I have yet to purchase it. I have some that I wet and mix in with his veggies, plus calcium powder for his shell, and that's about it. He recently tried strawberry for the first time as well as pears and LOVED it! Calcium is super important as well as getting the right type of lighting (light equal to the rays he would get from the sun: UV and UVB. (it's confusing sometimes!) in order to ensure that his shell doesn't grow with deformities.

Just for fun, here are some photos of other species of tortoises!

Leopard Tortoise:

Pancake Tortoise (they are flat!):

Aldabra Tortoise (yes, you CAN own these! And yes, that tortoise IS as big as it looks...):

Red Foot Tortoise:

Cherry Head Tortoise:

Yellow Foot Tortoise:

Indian Star Tortoise (quite expensive!):

Didn't know there were so many, huh? There are quite a few more as well! Surprisingly, all of the torts except the ones noted are all normally under $200 a piece, which is a great price.

Anywho, there is my short guide! If any of you are curious about anything or have questions (or want to buy one!! hehe.) feel free to ask some questions! Hopefully that wasn't totally boring!

ON TO LETTER-WRITING!

Photos 1 and 10 credit to premiumtortoises.com

Sunday. :/

Well, if Sundays weren't irritating enough, I'm sick! I've got a cold the size of Mount Everest! Or it could possibly be the plague, who knows. I'm waiting to get paid on Saturday so I can go and buy some new stamps, and Monday is a holiday, which means there won't be mail! BOO! Anywho, here's what I've got to send out so far!

I worked on this one last night. :) Unfortunately, it's the only one I remembered to photograph!

And here is some received mail that I got on Friday! One from Plano, Texas, and one from Lithuania! I'm hoping I'll be able to get the address right on the last one, though...I hate when I have a hard time deciphering 'r's!

The raised stickers made it through completely intact! I was so surprised!

And this lovely letter from Almante in Lithuania! Check out the cool stamp, too!

What blog post of mine wouldn't be complete without photos of Scooter? Well, the night before last, he decided that my Teavana tote bag would be a nice place the stay the night...

This is how the scene looked before I began digging about for him:

And this is where I found him!

My question is, how in the world did he even get in there? Apparently, Scooter is a purse man.

I've also got some good news and some bad news to report. Lets go with the good news first, shall we? I'm not sure if I have mentioned this, but I am on a fairly hardcore diets...and I weighed in yesterday and it came out that I've lost FOURTEEN POUNDS! YAY! I still have a lot to lose, though.

Now for the bad news. We've known this while, but now we know for sure that we are going to have to put one of my dogs down fairly soon. Her name is Angel (or Angel Louise as we used to call her.) and she just turned 17 years old on February 12th. I've/We've had her since she was just about 4 years old and she was my moving in present when I moved into the house before the one I live in now. I was 7 years old at the time. That was back when we were a two dog family! haha. Anyways, she's been a great dog and it's going to be so rough when she's gone. Max and Bella are going to be heartbroken, I think. Angel is pretty much constantly on painkillers right now because she somehow injured herself a few days ago while going out the doggy door. Also she is blind and deaf, and can't feel her back end due to having a stroke this year (or last year? I can't remember.). She more or less walks around like an and Alzheimer's patient. At least I know that we've given her a great life and that she was and still is spoilt rotten! We'll see how long it will be until my mom makes the decision on a date. :(

Here she is. I'm not sure if I've shown photos before! She's always had a puppy/young face, so she's never shown her age! I've always liked asking people how old they think she is and blowing them away when i tell them her real age! haha. Normally, her ears are up, but she wasn't cooperating! And sorry for the quality! my BlackBerry takes horrid photos! Must.Get.iPhone!

hjadbaJNAad!

Yes, that is exactly how I feel at this point in time.

It is five in the morning. And I'm awake. And also hacking up my left lung (or right. Or both, possibly....). The worst part about it is that I've got a job interview today! Who in their right mind is going to want to hire Typhoid Mary for a position?! I will be going either way, though! The only issue is that it's only five in the morning and my interview is at THREE IN THE AFTERNOON! Also, you would think that drinking excessive amounts of water would help a sore throat...NOT. And all I want to do is go snack, but my damn diet prohibits that! ARG!

Anyways, I'd better get on to showing you the mail I got yesterday! :)

First off is a lovely letter that I got from the even lovelier Konstantina in Athens! I also, aaaalways enjoy her letters! :) and once again, I was teased with the PaperChase stationary! If only the shipping rates weren't so high! I might consider buying some letter-sets if I get a job of some sort soon! I just love the labels and vellum envelopes, but I wish the sheets were double sided!

And here's the stamp! My mom is always fascinated by the different stamps that come on my letters and she was tickled pink to see a Greek stamp!

I also got my very first Valentines Day themed letter! It came from Miss. Sarah in Norman, Oklahoma. It was fantastic! She even used adorable little rubber stamps on her letter! And the envelope was also handmade, too!

Check out the delightfully vintage-esque "Mad Hatter's Tea Part" stamps she used! Please ignore the shadows. Like I said its, five in the morning (well, now 5:45 in the morning.) and it's still dark out, which means my room is dark too!

Super cute, right? The letter was written on a sort-of linen paper as well!

Next up! A wonderful letter from Barbara in Czech Republic! I really enjoyed reading hers and will be responding very soon! (Very soon meaning once I get paid and get stamps! haha.)

And last, but certainly not least, I found a wonderfully decorated envelope package (lets call it an 'envi-package' because it really was in between.) from my new friend Robyn in Cincinnati, Ohio! She included such great gifts and also, her envelope was amazing! Now i get to figure out what to send her in return!

Here is the envelope...notice the sewing details? Fab, right?

Want a close up? Hand-sewn buttons!

And here are the wonderful extras she sent me! The big Hello Kitty is actually attached to a clothespin, so I can stick it anywhere I like! And the pin-wheelish flowers are so cute!

Well, that's it for now! I'm going to try and get some more shut-eye and hope I don't wake up a half our from now. :/

Boo. :/

No mail for me today! :(

But I did send these guys out!

Obviously, before I addressed it! haha.

SYRUP THREADS!

So, I'm super excited to review the goodies I'll be showing off today! Syrup Threads! Absolutely fabulous company! Before I start with the photos and actual review, I want to tell you a bit about the company itself! Below is what the lovely Jessica sent me. :)

My name is Jessica Beck and I live in Indianapolis, Indiana with my partner and three rabbits named Mr. Higgins, Dorian Grey, and Deloris. I have two degrees in fashion design and merchandising from Ball State University and have been a resident of Indiana since birth.

I have many crafts that I enjoy and in 2009, I started hand dying yarns. My partner's kitchen was always a disaster of dyes and yarns as it was a product I truly enjoyed making and slowly after, there were too many boxes of hand dyed yarn laying around our house, as we could not knit as fast as I dyed. I began researching what having a small business on Etsy would entail. I was working on my graduate degree in college and was already doing research on owning a business for my thesis and so I decided to open my store. By the way, 'Crafty Superstar' is an amazing book if you are ever looking into small business ownership or operation.

At first, my store only sold hand dyed yarns, but slowly, I realized that this was a saturated market and I enjoyed so many other crafts that I began adding other items to my store. My partner introduced me to Swap-Bot.com, Good Mail Day, and SendSomething, which are all wonderful websites to send and swap crafts or mail art. In helping her find good stationary, I realized that there wasn't much to be had in the way of fun, interesting stationary unless you wanted to order overseas, which is all well and good, but takes forever!

In 2010, my grandmother passed away (**I'm so sorry!) from an extended illness and I inherited a little box of all of her letter writing stationary as my grandma was also an avid letter writer and so much of it was plain white. I started with a pack of letter stamps and just started designing great stationary that I would like to receive myself!

I went out and bought a box of paper and some envelopes, not thinking it would go very far, and started designing stationary, correspondence cards, some notebooks, and other useful paper items such as recipe cards. With this came requests for bags for supplies or mail pouches, so I utilized some of my sewing skills to make some neat project bags for any kind of craft, mail art kit, or just for regular use!

Syrup Threads the name, was created out of my love for crafts and writing. A thread can be a string, clothing, a thought, blog, or trendy useful object. This gave my business the versatility to expand. I also had some access to computer graphics software and decided I would begin designing some new stationary sets that were easily printed, as hand stamped sets aren't very consistent from one set to the other because of the handmade nature of the item.I also started handcarving some stamps and these do not last as long as computer graphics do. The graphic stationary is the latest edition to my shop. Still to come are my handmade pin-back buttons!

I myself, find having personal relationships with my pen pals important, so I want to send them new and exciting items. I currently have two permanent pen pals that I write often and have new pen pals on the horizon!


She's lovely, isn't she?! Anywho, I'd better get on to the goodies, right? They were sent to me in a cute decorated package and the cute packaging also extended to the goodies themselves!

This cute bag contained some goodies she sent for me! Yay! I loved them!

Isn't her handmade craft bag adorable? You can also see two handmade pin-back buttons and all the stationary wrapped up pretty. Keep in mind, one lucky winner will be winning this whole thing!

The thing I love about this bag is the snap closure. Super easy to use! You can also see the matching button she used. Everything on this bag has been tightly secured/sewn and it's even lined in a cute striped print!

Now, I won't be showing everything in this package because I want it to be a super-surprise for the giveaway winner! But nonetheless, you'll get to see some awesome goodies!

I love her notecards! They measure out to 5" by almost 4" and come in a variety of design. These guys can take just about every type of pen! The only exception are fountain pens, due to the surface of the card itself being a bit on the shiny/glossy side. Not glossy like you would expect, though! These puppies are handstamped on sturdy cardstock (not too sturdy, mind you!) and come in sets of five along with more handstamped matching envelopes. Looks like sets of each design sell for $4.00USD with very reasonable shipping!

You can see a bit of the shine on the notecards in this photo.

Along with the notecards were these fab letter-sets! These guys are made via the graphics program that Jessica mentioned. Once again, I won't be showing all of the designs! Each set sells for $6.00USD (again with reasonable shipping!) and contains 8 sheets of paper and one envelope, all printed on acid-free paper. The size is pretty consistent at 8" by 4.5" with matching envelopes that measure out at almost 5" by 6". One of my favorite aspects of her letter-sets is that the envelopes are also designed via graphics software, so they really do match up perfectly! And the page count is pretty much perfect for a single pen pal letter! I also had no problem with bleed-through on the paper, however if one were to use a heavy writing pen like a fountain pen (wet.) or a Sharpie based pen, you may have some issues.

Check these babies out!

"Airing your Dirty Laundry"

Matryoshka Rabbits

And a couple of other designs:

Also, this letter-set is really cute. It's printed on a thicker paper with a slight tooth to it and handstamped! super cute, right?

Also, along with notecards and letter-sets, she also makes handstamped invitations as well as wallets, postcards, and handmade notebooks! And her postcards are particularly cute! Rather Andy Warhol-esque, don't you think?

Well, that's all for this fabulous shop! I really recommend that you head over to Syrup Threads and check out what Jessica has to offer. Her products are great quality, well priced, and fun! And that's the best part! Everyone needs cute stationary!