Turkey Love

Friends... I've been feeling a little down in the dumps lately.  Not sad as much as melancholy, anxious, and sometimes desperate.  The count down has begun... in just under two months we move away from Turkey, with no plans to return in the near future. I hear a continuous ticking clock in my ear. Every experience I have, I feel the need to imprint permanently in a brain that will surely muddle it.  I've been reduced to tears over silly things like having to tell our gourd lady that we're moving home, or having a creepy shop keeper named "Crazy Ali" recite his own poetry while looking me too deeply in the eye. No respectable American would recite inappropriate poetry to me in their store... and we don't even have a gourd lady back home.  I'm going to miss this crazy/lovely country SO much.

So while I was reading crafty blogs (and maybe moping), I came across some inspiration for craft therapy:

Via: Delia Creates

 Isn't that the cutest?  I adored it, and I knew it would be a fun way to express my love for my current home. 

I just needed to come up with a colour pallet. I considered red, like the Turkish flag, but my red paint is kind of orange, and I wasn't sure red would match my future home.  

I decided to go with turquoise, a very Turkish colour, and a reminder of the lovely waters of our beaches. 

Via: Interrailnet

 I've also been obsessed with the "ombre" trend lately. Look at this cake!  I LOOOVE it.

Via: Glorious Treats

 And the only stylish radiator I've ever seen...

Via: Pattern People

 All I needed was the out line of Turkey.  I Googled it, and found this one...

 

I taped some paper to my computer screen, and traced...

 cut...

and retraced.

I penciled in some wavy lines...

 mixed up some paints...

and got to work. 

That's my heart in Alanya, where a piece of it will always be. 

I'm loving how it looks on my wall. 

I left some room under it for if I ever get around to painting my castle scene. 

Even Alan's feeling the love.