Shedding Leopard Gecko

While I was searching my photos on Facebook I came across these two pictures of "Happy" one of our Leopard Geckos. When we first got "him" he had a lavendar spot on his back and spots that formed a perfect smiley face. The lavendar has since faded and the spots arent as distinct anymore. Anyway here he is shedding. He rubbed against a rock to loosen the skin:

 

 Then he kept biting at the skin and rubbing until he shed it all. It's gross, but they eat the skin. Apparently lots of nutrients and vitamins in it.

Here kitty kitty....

Oh and I forgot about the kittens! We got 3 kittens in June. So our house is full of love!
First is Cheyenne's kitty "Nala":

 And then Cameron's "Meatball"

 And lastly my "Princess.

 We all claimed a kitty, but really they are the family's kittens. :-) Meatball is the snuggly kitty. He is my favorite. :-)

Suppertime!

 Naptime!

Mini Spiral Notebooks for Boys

Below are some of the spiral notebooks I made for boys. Boys are alwasy harder to make for, and I always have requests for more boy items.

Mini Composition books for Girls

Below are some of the Mini Composition Books I have made for girls.

Mini Spiral notebooks for girls

I have also been working on some new Mini Spiral Notebooks. These are always popular at my shows and sold out completely last year so I wanted to be sure to have enough for this year.

 Cheyenne's favorite - she LOVES giraffes!

Stay tuned for some boy designs!

I HAVE been busy! Honest!

So once December came and went I guess I got a little burned out as far as crafting. So I took a little break. Then I was busy helping out a friend, and before I knew it...it was JUNE! AAAACK!!!  So I started crafting in JULY for my upcoming shows. It's been a slow start, and my room desperately needs a good organizing, but I did get some items done! New this year are two different kinds of covered notebooks. The first opens from the top:

 And the second opens like a book and also features a matching pen:

  

and a flap inside (two books shown here):

 And another style:

And inside:

I have a few other colors made, and am working on some other designs for the fronts.

A cage for Frumpy

And while I was making cages...I made this one for our Tokay! I bought the cage bare, just the glass which includes the front panel. Here I started with Expanding foam and sprayed it all over the back of the tank. While it was still wet I took two pieces of cork which I pressed into the foam. We let it dry about two days. Then I took silicone (I should have used black, but at the time could only find clear) and spread it all over the foam. While it was still wet I took cocoa fiber and spread it into the silicone. Again waiting 24 hours and then I did some spot coverage. Once completely dry I shook the rest of the cocoa fiber out.Then I added a bunch of river rocks on the bottom of the tank. On top of the rocks I added a piece of weed block fabric and then a layer of organic soil. The weed block is to help prevent the dirt from washing down under the rocks. Then I added some live plants to the soil and covered that with more cocoa fiber (and later some frog moss).

These cages are a lot of work, but it sure is fun designing them!!  And I have to say, I think we have a "slight" lizard addiction. Next we'd like to get crested geckos! :-)

A cage for Spyro

So I wanted to make a cool cage for Spyro. Some place he could climb and explore. So I looked at faux rock walls and just about had a heart attack when I saw they could be upwards of $300!! So I took a tour of YouTube and found I could make one using styrofoam, silicone, cement, and some good old fashion elbow grease!  This is actually the second wall I created. The first wall ended up being too big, and when my assistant tried to "fix" it, he ended up cutting crooked and it got messed up. I was NOT happy! Sadly I didn't get any work in progress photos (unless they are buried on the computer someplace). But I started with plain sheets of styrofoam, Cameron drew out some rock shapes on them. I then cut them out and shaped them. Then I used silicone to adhere them to a larger piece of styrofoam. Then some I made them two layers deep. After waiting 24 hours I "painted" one layer of cement on and waited another 24 hours. Then the second layer I used a gloved hand to add some texture to the cement. Another 24 hours later and we added the third layer along with some cement coloring. Then another 24 hours to dry. After that I used some grey  mixed with a little white and terra cotta acrylic paint to add some depth between the rocks. Then I used a grey to tap along some of the texture to give it a more natural look. Then I covered it with at least 6 layers of watered down modge podge sprinkled with some fine aquarium sand. Below is a picture of half the rocks with the detailing:

 And below, the finished wall. If you look closely you can see Spyro climbing up the wall on the upper left of the picture. This is right after we put him in his new cage. The pictures don't do the colors justice. The wall is really I nice terra cotta color.

I still want to make him some ledges and caves to explore, but it just got too hot outside to work on it. Since this picture we also added a tile floor and a branch for him to climb (as well as food and water bowls). All in all it really took about a month or so to complete with working and such. But I am pretty happy with the result!

Lizards oh my!

So after our addition of the anoles, toads and frogs, we wanted a lizard that was more "hands on". We did some research and found that Bearded Dragons and Leopard Geckos are good lizard pets. So we started with one Beardie, and three Leos. And then it just grew to be more...
This is "Flame" Cheyenne's Beardie. He was just about 7 weeks old here:

 Next is my Beardie "Cynder" also about 7 weeks here:

 And this little guy was our first Beardie. He has such a great personality! And made us want more! This is "Spyro" Cameron's beardie. He is about 13 weeks here.

None of our Beardies have been sexed yet so we are just calling them all "him" for now. :-)

Strangely enough, we don't have any photos of our Leopard Geckos. At least not ones I took with my phone. They must be buried on my hard drive someplace. Oh and we do have a Tokay Geck. He is not friendly, I felt sorry for him at a Reptile Expo because he had him in such a small container and he was only $10. So we brought him home and then I did some research and found that Tokays like to bite. a lot. And hard. So I never have held him, and I dont put my hand close enough for him to get me. But he is pretty cool to look at. We named him "Frumpy". :-)

Gerbils!

A friend of mine Bonnie text me one day and wanted to know if we'd like Gerbils. Well of COURSE!  I never had gerbils but I had cared for them during my years at the pet store. The kids were so excited! This first photo is Cameron's gerbil Buddy. (I voted to name it Skippy but I got out voted.)

 And next is Cheyenne's gerbil Shadow.

 And below is the tunnel/box system we set up for them when we take them out of their cage to get some exercise.

Fire Belly Toads and Green Tree Frogs

This is a picture of one of our Fire bell toads. "She" had some dirt on her nose. This is either Ruby or Scarlet. They have a beautiful orange-red belly.

 And if you look on the back of the wall you'll see one of the Green Tree frogs. I believe that one is Maxx. I don't think my frog "Sticky" was in the cage when this photo was taken.

These little guys (or girls) have given us hours of delight! It is fun to just sit and watch them! And feeding time is always a little exciting!

Our Anoles

This first picture is of Rocco, Cheyenne's Brown Anole. Both brown and green anoles can change colors from green to dark brown. He shed the first night we brough him home.

 And this is what he looked like the next morning! Notice the ridge along his back? And he had spots on his sides and his tail curled too! I think he had an idenity crisis and thought he was a chameleon!

 And this little guy is Cameron's. He named him Zack "the Hulk" Thornton.  :-) Zack is a Green Anole.

A New Vivarium

It's no big secret that I LOVE animals! Over the years we've had many pets, cats, a dog, hamsters, bunnies, hermit crabs, lots of fish and a tadpole or two here and there. Right now we have 2 bunnies, and a cat and we recently added two gerbils. We also decided that we have grown kind of tired of fish. We will still have the goldfish in the pond, but we don't have the best of luck with fish in our house. When I was a kid I worked many years in a pet store, and I always thought the Anoles were really cool. Well a few months ago I decided to get a few new pets. First we got 2 anoles, and then we went back and got 2 firebelly toads, and a green tree frog. A few days later, while at the store to get crickets, I decided to buy the last tree frog the store had. (He looked lonely) Originally we started out with a 10 gallon tank, and now they are all happily living in a 29 gallon tank complete with a water side and filter and the land side has real plants and soil and a few worms in the soil for aeration. Above are pictures of the vivarium. Although I since removed the spaghum moss and replaced it with coco fiber. And I added some Pothos to hopefully add some vines in the background. In the bottom picture you can see one of the firebelly toads on top of the filter, and some rosey red minnows in the water.  Pictures to follow of some of the other animals in the tank.

>>>Now before someone says that these species SHOULD not be mixed, please note that I have done extensive research on all three species and if there is care taken they CAN be housed together. Thank you for your concerns.