Showing posts with label tortoise cozies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tortoise cozies. Show all posts

Monday, October 7, 2013

Two new yard finder designs

It is hard to imagine, but I have crocheted more than 500 tortoise cozies and yard finders since the beginning of this year. The orders keep on coming, and I love the creative challenge when clients ask me for a new design. Here are two of my new designs:

The Shamrock yard finder. After all, you don't want someone to pinch your tortoise for not wearing green on St. Patty's day, right?!
The Shamrock yard finder
The Valentine. Because as long as you feed her, your tortoise will always be your Valentine, no matter what.
The Valentine yard finder

My Etsy shop MossyTortoise looks terribly empty right now, because for the last few months, my orders have almost exclusively been custom orders. If you would like me to make you a tortoise cozy, just swing by my Etsy shop, and click on the 'Request Custom Order' button on the left side. Once you've contacted me via MossyTortoise, I will send you measuring instructions.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Snail Cozies?!!!

I promise you that I have NOT gone off the deep end. ;) I just like to crochet, and I like to giggle. One of my clients asked me to crochet a tiny lacy stegosaurus cozy for her baby tortoise, which happens to be the same size as our baby marginated tortoise, Buttercup. I had a little bit of the yarn left over... and so, not wanting to waste it, I made a snail cozy! I couldn't stop laughing, and so I took some pictures for you:

Buttercup and snail. Snail is being shy.

A snail in a cozy. What is this world coming to?!

Neither tortoises nor snails need cozies... but both are very funny!

Who wouldn't giggle about a snail in a cozy?!
I hope this made you smile just a little... or maybe laugh out loud?

Monday, July 8, 2013

....so many tortoise cozies!

The tortoise cozy business is BOOMING, folks! Seriously, I am receiving several new orders every day, and I am working as quickly as I can.

Oh so many cozies...
This last week we were out of town, so I took the opportunity to close my Etsy shop for a few days, so as to get somewhat caught up on my custom orders. Can you believe that these cozies are only about half of the ones I've made in the last 2 weeks?!

Just for fun, I also created a few new designs:
The question is... who wins? The tortoise or the hare?

The flying pig - wings optional
And I played around with a few new color combinations:

Jill loves to eat Johnny Jump Ups, so this seemed like good colors for her.
If you are interested in having me make your tortoise a custom cozy, please swing by my Etsy shop, MossyTortoise and send me a private Etsy message. :) I look forward to hearing from you!

Friday, June 7, 2013

...a new tortoise cozy design: The Ladybug!

Happy Friday! I thought you might enjoy seeing the fun little Ladybug tortoise cozy I just finished for a customer... 

The Ladybug cozy

Monday, May 27, 2013

New tortoise cozy design: The Cheeseburger Tortoise!!!

I'm excited to show you all my newest tortoise cozy design: 
...my foods... it  keeps walking off of my plate!
I am not quite sure what to call it... is it a Tortburger? A Cheesetortoise? A Burgertortoise? A Cheeseburger Tortoise? Any suggestions?

Whatever it is called, I think it is pretty darn funny...

As always, the tortoise cozies are intended as a 'for fun' item, and do not replace a heat source. Tortoise cozies should never be used near a heat source, and should only be on a tortoise that is well-supervised. This Tortoise Cheeseburger is NOT intended for being eaten. 

Saturday, May 11, 2013

More tortoise cozies...

I have been working really hard the last few days (ok, weeks) to finish all the custom orders for tortoise cozies. The thing is, the orders are coming in as fast as I can make them! (I'm not complaining! This is an awesome problem to have!)
To make sure the cozies are properly proportioned, I try some of them on my tortoises... it's so handy to have tortoises of all different sizes! I took the pictures for my Etsy shop. 

Timmy, sporting a stegosaurus cozy

Lady and Roz posing in cozies.

Lady, posing

Jill, in one of the tortoise flowers I made this week. 

Roz, in one of the tortoise flowers

These bright purple tortoise flowers really POP, don't they?!

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend - my tortoises had lots of fun outside, roaming in the sun (without cozies, btw)... gotta love this lovely sunshine!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Skull Yard Finder

One of my customers asked me if I could make a skull yard finder for her tortoise. Why yes, I can! :)
Mila, being one tough tortoise

Also, is it odd that I am almost more excited about the cozies making it onto "I Can Has Cheezburger" than all the other media coverage?!

Friday, May 3, 2013

...more tortoise cozy articles... offical ones, now!

As of yesterday, Caters News (UK) is marketing my pictures of the tortoise cozies to different news outlets. They have the exclusive rights, so anyone wanting to use the images now has to go through them...


Here are a few links that have surfaced so far:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2318387/Now-thats-shell-suit-Tortoise-owner-knits-dozens-adorable-outfits-pets.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4912646/mum-makes-woollen-outfits-for-tortoises.html
http://m.now.msn.com/turtle-cozies-by-katie-bradley-are-popular
http://metro.co.uk/2013/05/02/shell-suit-fashion-pet-owner-knits-colourful-cosies-for-tortoise-friends-3711299/
http://www.today.com/pets/oh-my-check-out-these-tortoises-wearing-sweaters-6C9745762
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/picturesoftheday/10032858/Pictures-of-the-day.html?frame=2552451

I love that several of the sites have included the video our friend Lloyd made.
A few of the articles got my age wrong, and most of the world still thinks that 'our' Vancouver is in Canada...  oh well!

Oh... and remember about a month ago, when the tortoise cozies first went viral... well guess what? That week Yahoo ranked them as "The week's best of the internet" ...#1!

It will be fun to see what else comes of this!

Friday, April 26, 2013

Customer appreciation pics - I love them!

One of my MossyTortoise customers just sent me some adorable pictures of her tiny 3-inch hatchling wearing the custom cozy I made for her wee Greek tortoise. Thank you, Amanda!

Amanda's cute hatchling Greek

Cute li'l baby...

So much cuteness!

Haha, her expression is priceless.

Can you believe how tiny this is?

I used thinner yarn and a smaller crochet hook to make this one -
so it would still have the level of detail of the larger ones.

I LOVE getting pictures from  my customers, so I'll sequentially post a few on here, with permission, of course.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Tortoises sunbathing 'in the nude'...

While I am having fun creating tortoise flowers and tortoise cozies for my Etsy shop, and modeling them on my own tortoises for cute pics, the fact remains that in the end, good old nude tortoises in good old real sunshine are still the best.

Timmy, my large female, basking

We had some beautiful weather here last weekend, so I let the torts roam around the grass in the sunshine. Even with good artificial UVB lights, tortoises are still happiest and healthiest in the 'real' sunlight. 

Roz, my male, right after being hosed down with some nice warm water
I am working hard on finishing the Russian tortoises' outdoor enclosure, so soon they will be able to spend most of the day outside.

Little Jill, photogenic as always
Until then, I have to enlist my kids to help me keep track of the tortoises while they walk around... or I let them spend time outside one at a time...

Roz, enjoying the sun rays
 Look at Roz' shell (above). It is finally starting to grow normally, with growth all around the scutes.

Jill, resting in the grass after walking all about
 I am very curious to see what little Jill looks like when she is fully grown. She is so gorgeous now, but I suspect that as the darker colors fill in, she will probably look fairly 'normal' - which I am totally fine with.

Jill, exploring
 Jill was described to me as 'very timid' but really, she is quite the little go-getter.

Jill, again, hiding in the grass
I somehow missed taking pictures of Mila in this set. So here is a picture of her from the day before:

Mila, eating a dandelion. Gotta love that pink tongue!
I hope we have many more of these beautiful, sunny days!

Saturday, April 6, 2013

...Tortoise Cozy video?!

Look what I just found. A video has been compiled, showing off my tortoise cozies!


Ha. Who would have thought?!