A Wellness Tree Turtle

This sweet little turtle is my addition to the Wellness Tree. It will arrive a little late but it was made with love and determination. I struggled to make an ornament for Kelly. I wanted it to be right for her, make her smile, make her feel good and well...I wanted it to be 'visually pleasing'. I tossed around ideas using fabric, yarn and felt in my head for weeks. None of them seemed right. I had halfway settled on decoupaging a cardboard ornament with fabric. Today I decided I had been silly and a bit uptight. I had missed the point about making something for Kelly. It did not matter that I am not a craft diva or skilled craft person. I was going to make something for her with love. I grabbed some fabric and set out to make a flower (yes a flower). I just started cutting and sewing. When it came time to add the leaf to the flower I realized my lovely flower was a really a cute turtle. I added eyes with seed beads, found a long bead for the tail and gave a couple quick stitches to add the feet. Kelly's story is personal for me. My mother, Mary, departed this world in December of 2000 from cancer. She had breast cancer. Before treatment began a full body scan revealed that there was also cancer in her lungs. She had a radical mastectomy and began treatment for the cancer in her lungs. It spread to her brain. My family likes to say that she lost the battle but won the war. My mother lived a great life. I was blessed to have her for the years that I did. She was a loving, giving, strong woman who laughed loudly every day. I used an amethyst bead from a necklace of hers at the top of Kelly's ornament. But she managed to sneak in other ways also. My mother loved turtles. Our backyard was a turtle yard complete with pond. The local vet would even send sick turtles to my mother to be nursed back to health. After making the feet I realized she had found another way to be apart of Kelly's gift. Can you find it? Life is not perfect. It does not always come out the way we want it to. But life is a beautiful gift that we all share. Enjoy Kelly!