Tortoise Times

Two blog posts in one day? Whaaaa?!

Yep! I realized I hadn't written on here about my new scaly addition, as well as I haven't updated on how doing the reptile parties is going!

To start off, ever since I was really little I've been fascinated and in love with animals of all shapes and sizes and types; from lizards to birds to cats and dogs. Nothing is off limits. So it was an obvious thing that one of my favourite places to visit in the world was the Vancouver Aquarium a few hours from where I grew up. They are an amazing facility and I love visiting there often even now.

Well the Vancouver Aquarium not only has lots and lots of fish and marine life but they also have an Amazonian/Tropical exhibit where they have all types of insects and animals from the tropical rainforests of Brazil and surrounding countries. It's fantastic! The HUUUUUGE fish right as you walk in the door scare the crap out of me, but the rest is awesome, lol.

As you enter this exhibit you walk through a door into a mini rainforest and it's humid and smells like earth and animals and sounds like you're surrounded by life! It's the best.

Here, in this exhibit, is the first time I'd ever seen a Tortoise of any type in person; ever since then I have loved these animals and been just amazed at them and everything about them. I didn't know back then, or most of my life, that you could actually keep tortoises as pets; I thought that they were animals that only zoos or rescues or private sanctuaries could keep.

Then 3 years ago when we moved to Alberta and I got my first reptile, I started researching not only geckos, but all types of reptiles and scaly beasties. This is when I found out that tortoises were actually quite popular as pets, although not as popular as other reptiles (and definitely not as popular as a cat or dog ;) ).

For the next couple of years I spent a lot of time researching and discovering the different tortoise species that were common in the pet trade as well as the specific care that each species needs. This would give me the knowledge I needed to make an informed decision on which species would be best for me, and that I would enjoy the most while being able to care for 100% properly.

Now that's where Morla came in!

Morla is a Red Foot, Cherry Head Tortoise and she is about 1-2 years old according to her previous owner. She is amazing and beautiful and is basically like a dream come true, since I've wanted one of these guys my whole life!

This specific species of tortoise only gets to be about 14" long, and so they stay quite small compared to a lot of tortoise. Morla could live up to 80 years old, and so I'll be an old lady by the time she is too! We will grow old together :)

Now, Morla may be absolutely adorable and you might think you want a tortoise now, because why wouldn't you? Look at her face!

But these guys are a huge commitment and are a lot of responsibility to take on.

An adult Red Foot needs at least an 8'x4' enclosure once they're full grown; most people house their tortoises in home made vivariums or tortoise tables. They take up a lot of room!

Also, they have very specific diets (they need greens, vegetables, fruit, protein, and most of this is hard to find and not common in most grocery stores).

Their humidity needs are high. They come from rainforests in Columbia and so imagine where they come from in the wild and you need to re-create that environment at home for them to be healthy and thrive.

They are fantastic creatures though and I wouldn't give this girl up for the world!

Morla recently came along with me to her very first reptile party presentation! She got to make a little girl's birthday. :D Speaking of Edmonton Reptile Parties, it's been great. :) It's amazing to bring our animals to show children who normally wouldn't be able to see all of these reptiles up close, and have a chance to touch them! I love to teach kids that these guys aren't something to be scared of, they are something to love (just like a cat or a dog). 

So that's, that. Just thought I'd quickly introduce my new member of our family since she is the cutest thing evar.

~Kayla

Long Time no Haul

So it's been a while again since I've written a blog post, sorry about that!

I have come with gifts! (well, at least for me, ha)

My lovely Mother-in-law was out visiting for 5 days, left yesterday, and we made a trip out to West Edmonton Mall on Monday! While we were there we stopped in at Sephora and MAC (of course, can't go to a mall and not go to those stores now!) I had some things I wanted to pick up so I made it quick and didn't have to torture Cathy while I just browsed. :P

Here are some items I picked up and what I think of them so far!

This is the Clear Improvement: Active Charcoal Mask to Clear Pores by Origins (as you can see, ha).

I tried this the night that I bought it and after first use I'm impressed! My best friend raved about charcoal skin care products that she is loving right now and I found this one, it had awesome reviews online, so I decided to try it out.

It's super easy to apply and use; you just smooth it over your face (you can put more than one layer on), let it dry out (it feels a bit burn-y as you do this, but that's how you know it's working! Feels like mint on your face), and then you wash it off!

After rinsing this stuff off I moisturized my face (as it is a bit drying), and then just went about my night. A couple of hours later I re-assessed and my breakouts that I have right now had all been dried up by the mask!

Some of the reviews that I read about this product were that it's amazing to get rid of and deal with hormonal acne breakouts, which is why I wanted to try it. So far I'm impressed and I can see it working like a charm if I use this mask a couple times a week. ^_^

The next product that I picked up (which was at one of those body jewelry booths in the mall), is Holey Butt'r!! This stuff is like the holy grail in the ear stretching world and I've known about this stuff since before I got my first piercings or tattoos, back when I was probably 15.

I have my ears stretched up to 1 gauge right now, and I've never really taken care of them like I should (oops). Whenever I order jewelry off of bodyartforms.com I always forget to order the stuff and so when I saw the tins at the booth in the mall yesterday, I had to get some!

I have used the balm twice so far, and am incorporating it in to my bed time routine now when I wash my face and such (so that I don't forget), and I'm really loving it so far!

You just take a tiny bit and massage it in to your ear lobes (take your plugs out and massage it in to the inner part of the piercing), and that's that! After two times of using this stuff I absolutely love it, and I can't see myself not having it in the future. It makes your ears super soft and even after two times, I can feel it loosening up my ears already. I wanted to get it to help loosen up my ears as they are really tight, no matter how long I wait between stretching up a size.

Happy customer with that!

 My next two products that I picked up at the mall were from MAC.

I went to MAC because I wanted to see if they had a nice mint coloured eyeshadow, which I was disappointed to find out that they didn't have.

While there I decided to pick up an eyeshadow similar to what I was looking for, as well as their black gel eyeliner to try out.

I haven't tried the eyeliner yet but I'm super excited to, and I'm sure it's going to be amazing. It looks creamy and super black so I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

As for the eyeshadow, even though it's not the mint colour I was wanting, it is still super gorgeous!

The eyeshadow is a really pretty greenish blue that is super shimmery and I can't wait to try it out too!

I love MAC eyeshadow as it's a great quality eyeshadow but it's not my go-to. I do love the colours that I have though and it's great quality so I do love it.

I'm not a huge fan of the colour blue, so I'm hoping this colour looks good on me!

It's definitely not the mint I was looking for though, boo. :(

But that's all for now, folks. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my next post or video! I'm hoping to film a video soon but I'm not sure on what, although maybe I'll give you all a little tour of my makeup collection! ^_^

~Kayla (in mall adventure makeup)