Flower Fairies

I've been working on flower fairies for about 4 years now, it doesn't seem that long! I am just now starting to see a business take shape out of a hobby. Now I sell on Etsy and locally, but I find my dolls do better on Etsy. I'm not at the stage yet to run from craft fair to craft fair but I believe that will be a good avenue once I have enough inventory and energy. 

PMDD Awareness Fairy

Custom for Collab w/ Kats Creations @katscreations777 

She wanted this fairy to blend in with a wreath.

Blue Fairy

Skeleton Fairy (still available) I used a pattern

for her wings and took apart dollar tree skeletons.

I had to remove the coating with acetone and then

I shaded them with chalk pastels. I glued the pieces

to form wings. All of her flowers are polymer clay.

Acorn Fairy. Her bodice is a wool roving.

Purple Fairy

Country Chic Fairy.

Mini Fairies.

Purple Flower Fairy (still available). I now make an effort to

make and offer 4 different skin tones for all of my dolls and 

fairies. Its been wonderful to hear the feedback from customers

that were under-served before. Representation in art matters.

Rainbow Fairy.

Home Fairy. This fairy is holding embroidery floss

wrapped wire. I find the best way to do this is to wrap

the wire first and then make your shape. I just eyeballed

this work but you could use a guide.

Lantern Fairy. For her lantern I used a glass sphere, used for

jewelry making, and added on polymer clay. I really love how

this one turned out.

Blue Fairy.

Snowball Fairy. (still available). I love the idea of fairies

hiding in plain site. So for Christmas I decided that little

snowball fairies would be cute.

Green and Pink Fairy. Sometimes I have to 

make myself add more and more to my fairies.

I can be rather simplistic but I like how it looks

once I'm finished. So for this one I just added

as many rainbow pearls as I could.  

Green and Pink Fairy (still available). For wings I often use

butterflies from Hobby Lobby. The work well for a variety of

dolls and people seem to really like them. It an even better 

option if you find them clearanced for some reason.

Makeup Fairy (still available). For her little makeup compact

I find that Brat accessories work very well for this size of 

doll. I painted the inside of the compact because originally

all the makeup was the same color.

Color Shifting Flower Fairy. I used color shifting pigments for

Solar Color Dust. This is one of their chameleon colors that

shifts from green, blue, and purple. 

Rainbow Fairy (still available). I love curling the embroidery

floss with variegations. I don't think it works well straight.

Bird Fairy/Sprite. (still available). I was able to collect some

driftwood in Arizona while visiting my in-laws. The feathers are

real but the skull is resin. I finally have a real skull to do something

with but I had to wait until I found on intact. My mom found a nest

in their chimney, otherwise they can be around $30 on Etsy and

I wasn't going to give that much. 

Pink & Blue Fairy

Fairy on Desert Wood (still available). I enjoy adding in different

materials and giving them something to sit on. 

Tooth Fairy Jars  (still available)

Etsy Shop: Edmund Designs

Facebook: Edmund Designs

Instagram: Edmund Designs

YouTube:  Edmund Designs

Jus by Julie 5 Day Cleanse Review

I've been a bit...blah lately. My depression has been pretty bad, I didn't stick to my diet, stopped exercising, and had a bad fibro flare up. I wanted something simple to follow, little to no work on my part, while eliminating gluten, and give my colon a bit of a break. So I decided to try a Jus by Julie "cleanse." Why do I put "cleanse" in quotations? Well your liver cleanses your body and I don't think I'll be getting rid of any toxins. But, there is a reason I chose Jus over the other competitors.

1. You Need More Than Juice
     
       A lot of the other brands are just juice, which I find wasteful, as well as lacking in important nutrient. The skin of many fruits and veggies have some of the best benefits, including fiber. Fiber is important for carrying a lot of things through your body, for example cholesterol. I was also looking for higher calories since most juices are extremely low in calories. I also wanted to have the option to have protein and Jus has protein smoothies in their custom cleanses.

2. Caloric Intake

      I wanted something close to 900 calories a day. This is about the same as the 3 day military diet and because I have done that multiple times without issue, I felt that 900 calories was safe for me. Companies like Pressed Juicery have 3 cleanse levels that allow you to have as much as 1330 calories a day, for beginners, and as low as 760 calories a day. They also contain fiber and protein. I, however, refuse to pay for celery juice. That's a bit of a waste for me, but I also found that I wasn't interested in a lot of their ingredients. I'm not a big date, cucumber, celery, aloe, or parsley kind of person. A lot of the ingredients are just very watery vegetables and because I have absolutely no sense of smell I cannot taste herbs. So parsley, mint, and vanilla extract are completely lost on me. So it was just a matter of preference.

3. Price

      Raw                            - 3 Day Protein Cleanse $99 (sale price).
   
      Pressed Juicery          - 5 Days, non-member price, $132.50
                                         - 30 bottles (5 for $20), you can pick what you like, $120

      Juice from the Raw    - 5 Day, only 20 bottles, $199.99 on Amazon
                                         - 3 Day, collagen infused, 18 bottles, $114.99 on Amazon

      Lemonkind                 - 3 Day, 24 pouches, $139.99

   
      Suja                             - 3 Day, 21 bottles, $99 on Amazon

      Organic Better            - 3 Day, 18 bottles, $196

      Project Juice               - 5 Day, 30 bottles, $375

      Jus by Julie                 - 5 Days, 30 bottles, $123 + free shipping (with 40 % off)

My 5 Day "Cleanse"

Preparing

       As recommended by Jus, I took a few days prior to my "cleanse" to eliminate meat and heavier foods. So I spent 2 days just eating fruits and vegetables and drinking tomato juice, I love tomato juice.  I also ate a lot of things like grapefruit, kale, and drank kombucha. I tried to cut back on quantity and not eat as late as I usually would. 

Day 1

            Morning Glow         - Cantaloupe, Honeydew, Banana, Orange Juice, Ginger, 

                                                             Coconut Oil, Collagen

                         Green Radiance        - Spinach, Mango, Apple, Strawberries, Ginger, Coconut Oil 

                         Berry Strong             - Blueberries, Almond Butter, Coconut Milk, Chia Seeds, 

                                                             Cacao Nibs, Organic Vegan Protein, Maca Powder

                               

                         Spicy Pomegranate   - Pomegranate, Lemon, Cayenne Pepper, Agave

                         X-treme Greens        - Spinach, Pineapple, Orange, Hemp Seeds, Lemon

                         Choco-nana              - Cacao Powder, Banana, Strawberry, Pomegranate, 

                                                             Coconut Milk

                        Total:     930 Calories

                        Favs:     Morning Glow & Berry Strong (this one was almost like a smoothie bowl).

                        Weight: I forgot to weigh my first morning so I'm not crediting anymore than a 1 lb                                            loose unless a more significant trend develops. 

Day 2

                          Acai Blend               - Açai, Blueberries, Banana, Coconut milk

                         Green Radiance        - Spinach, Mango, Apple, Strawberries, Ginger, Coconut Oil

                         Sweet Spin                - Spinach, Mango, Pineapple, Banana, Rice Milk
                             
                         Chia Berry                - Strawberry, Chia Seeds, Lemon, Pomegranate, Agave

                         X-treme Greens        - Spinach, Pineapple, Orange, Hemp Seeds, Lemon

                         Choco-nana              - Cacao Powder, Banana, Strawberry, Pomegranate,
                                                             Coconut Milk

                        Total:     860 Calories
                        Favs:     Acai Blend & Sweet Spin. I'm finding the greens more palatable than
                                      I did on the first day.
                        Weight: 157 lbs (happy so far since I've been around 160 lately).

Day 3

              Raw Green Protein   - Spinach, Romaine Lettuce, Apple, Nutmeg, Chia Seeds, 

                                        Organic Vegan Protein, Cinnamon, Ginger, Agave

                    Watermelon Wizard  - Watermelon, Pineapple, Strawberries, Maqui Powder, Lemon

                         Green Radiance        - Spinach, Mango, Apple, Strawberries, Ginger, Coconut Oil                 

                         Sweet Spin                - Spinach, Mango, Pineapple, Banana, Rice Milk  

    

                         Chia Berry                - Strawberry, Chia Seeds, Lemon, Pomegranate, Agave

                         X-treme Greens        - Spinach, Pineapple, Orange, Hemp Seeds, Lemon              

                        Total:     830 Calories

                        Favs:     Raw Green Protein & Sweet Spin. Loving the greens even more now. 

                        Weight: 155.5 lb

Day 4

Acai Blend                            - Açai, Blueberries, Banana, Coconut milk
            

     X-treme Greens        - Spinach, Pineapple, Orange, Hemp Seeds, Lemon    

                    

       Chia Berry                - Strawberry, Chia Seeds, Lemon, Pomegranate, Agave

                        Sweet Spin                - Spinach, Mango, Pineapple, Banana, Rice Milk   

                        Spicy Lemonade       - Lemon, Cayenne Pepper, Agave

                        Raw Green Protein   - Spinach, Romaine Lettuce, Apple, Nutmeg, Chia Seeds, 

                                        Organic Vegan Protein, Cinnamon, Ginger, Agave

    

                        Total:     800 Calories

                        Favs:     Raw Green Protein & Acai Blend. 

                        Weight: 158 lb How am I back to where I started? Well it may be the salt in the
                                                 instant broth I had yesterday, probably not from the herbal tea.
                                                 I'm a bit frustrated but I'm also proud I'm on day 4, I don't want
                                                 to go and binge a bunch of bad food like I did on day 1. All of
                                                 my cravings are for healthy whole foods like roasted veggies
                                                 or quinoa. My stomach feels much better. I'm not bloated,
                                                 experiencing heartburn, or cramping. I have IBS and tend to
                                                 know what bothers me, but plenty of healthy food do bother me
                                                 that I enjoy, like red peppers, onion, and tomatoes. So far nothing
                                                 has upset my digestion but I also prepped for this for several days
                                                 so I don't know how it would go for someone who doesn't really
                                                 prepare themselves. 

                          

Day 5

                         Berry Strong             - Blueberries, Almond Butter, Coconut Milk, Chia Seeds, 

                                                             Cacao Nibs, Organic Vegan Protein, Maca Powder

Sweet Spin                - Spinach, Mango, Pineapple, Banana, Rice Milk 

         Chia Berry                - Strawberry, Chia Seeds, Lemon, Pomegranate, Agave

   X-treme Greens        - Spinach, Pineapple, Orange, Hemp Seeds, Lemon 

                        Spicy Lemonade       - Lemon, Cayenne Pepper, Agave

                        Green Radiance        - Spinach, Mango, Apple, Strawberries, Ginger, Coconut Oil

                        Total:     710 Calories

                        Favs:     Berry Strong & Sweet Spin. 

                        Weight: 155.5 lb. I gave the lemonade to my husband, I hate lemonade, I know I'm
                                                     the only American who does. I love lemon on lots of things just
                                                     not in my drinks usually. I will give another weigh in on Day 6
                                                     for a final result and I plan on using this as a starting point for low
                                                     calorie meal planning. I also need to slowly introduce some foods
                                                     back in so Day 6 won't include any meat, just veggies and a few
                                                     other things. 

Results

Day 6 and I've weighed in at 153.5 lbs, so i've lost about 5 pounds. I do wonder if I could have lost more if I would not have drank Lipton with all the salt. But indulging in something salty like that helped me keep to the 5 days so I don't regret it. Now I'm slowly adding food back in and doing a few smoothies. Don't want to shock my system. I plan to keep under 900 calories a day for a while. This strawberry bruschetta with goat cheese on toast is only 297 calories by my calculations. https://www.judgenutrition.com/recipes/strawberry-bruschetta 

I have a pinterest board where I am pinning recipes under 300 calories Pinterest Board as well as a separate instagram that i occasionally use for health and food Instagram.  

Here is my 40% off link again if you need it. You get 40% off, I get 1000 points and it takes 750 points to get a $10 reward. I have no idea if they are stackable so I'm not sure how beneficial it will be for me in the future, but, in that nature of transparency I thought I'd share.

Pets & Kids: This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things!

He's cute isn't he? He's so adorable it makes you want to scream into a pillow. It get's better. 

He's only 3 lbs at 2 year old's.

His name is Dobby. I got him from a gal who was leaving for college and couldn't take him with.

He's spoiled, can you tell? 

Dobby is in love.

With our resident bunny whisperer. However.....

THEY DESTROY MY HOUSE! Ugh.

At some point in life I gave up on having anything white, furniture with right angles, and laundry pods. 

Or open boxes of cereal....

You see that? That was a off white chair. No longer have it. No joke, my husband was holding a wine glass and it just exploded. The cosmos just freaked out and said: "Shit! There's a mom with semi-white furniture. Quick! It must be stained!"

So you get it. Mom's, be it of pets or human spawn, we can't have Instagram houses, k? Yet that's all you see on Instagram and Facebook. Theses posh living rooms and bedrooms with white faux fur rugs, cream colored rugs, and right angles everywhere! 

Just yesterday my poor bunny had a stomach episode. If you know anything about bunny's it's that they had hard solid little pellets of shit. If you didn't know, they can be litter box trained, and mine is. Not that he doesn't leave little "presents" now and then.

Ok, so these two forces collided yesterday morning as he proceeded to a have a soft "present" next to my computer chair. As always Clyde was close to Bonnie as she was sitting in that computer chair and proceeded to roll around smearing it across my carpet. She tells my husband, but tells him she's got it and it's cleaned up. Who believes an 8 year old when they say that?! 

Anyways, I keep a spot rug cleaner on hand and hand shampooed a good portion of the living room. I mean why clean up one spot when you can just keep going. But as irritating as that is I can't get over all these nice living rooms of these people with pets, that you know are having accidents. Case and point: I recently bought what looked like and amazing cream rug on Instagram from this really really nice neighborhood. It wasn't until I got it home and started shampooing it that all the pet stains came up and it reeked. Luckily I got a refund but these people had this in their home, and it was a nice home. To me it just proved that so many people are taking these photos at just the right angle and lots of editing. I know it's their job I just have to remind myself not to aspire to a certain lifestyle. 

How can you not give into that little ball of adorable....and the kid, lol. 

Flower Dolls: Hair Tips & Tricks

The one thing I love the most about making flower dolls is doing their hair. Doing my own hair has always been a struggle, it won't hold a curl, and I'm to impatient to grow it out again. However, working with flower dolls I've found I can express my hair stylist dreams, ha ha. There are plenty of YouTubers, Emily Lefler comes to mind, that demonstrate how to curl embroidery floss. I've found you can obtain a variation of curls simply by wrapping the floss around different sized dowels and even wire. 

Some curls are too large to stand on their own, like victory curls or rolled curls, and I've found that clear plastic tubes can come in handy. Depending on the size of curls you are looking to obtain, clear straws work well or the clear tubes that protect paint brushes when you first buy them. So I am always saving things like that because I never know when I might use it. 

Most of the people I've seen making flower dolls use hot glue for the hair, which is my main glue. In some cases I've found Crafter's Pick to be a better option for more detailed work, like securing the ends of braids or when I wrap Maleficent's head piece. It gives me more time to work with a piece and it dries clear, so I always have it in stock. You want to make sure you really close your bottle good though, it can dry out easily if you're not careful. I also like to use a paint brush to apply or disposable applicators which come in a variety of sizes but I like the blue 2.5 mm ones.  

To get very kinky hair I wrap embroidery floss around my 22 gauge white cloth floral wire. I get mine at Hobby Lobby in the floral section but you can find it on here. The nice thing about using the wire is that 1. I can bend it in half to fit in my toaster oven and 2. I will eventually use it to make a doll. So I wrap my floss around the wire and then run them under water and place them on a pan in the oven at 175° Fahrenheit  for 60 mins. Once they've cooled I unwrap them from the wire and I have curly kinky hair. 

You can also change the look of your curls by how many strands your wrap at a time. So when I say strand I mean 1 piece of embroidery floss, not the individual strands that make it up. So I cut my skein down to equal lengths that are more manageable and wrap 3 to 4 strands side by side, this is on a small dowel by the way. You can use craft dowels from Walmart, the Dollar Tree, even bamboo skewers. Anyways, if I wrap a single strand at a time it is too tight of a curl in my opinion but may look closer to a natural curl. On the flip side 3 to 4 strand wrapped curls look more like what you would get if you were curling your hair with a curling iron. I use 1/4 inch dowels and 1/8 inch dowels but I like to use my coupons at Hobby Lobby or get them at the Dollar Tree. Again, bamboo skewers are good too just make sure to cut the ends off so you don't scratch yourself when you're wrapping them. 

If you have any concerns about your dowels getting too hot in the oven you can soak them in water first. I always run water over all of mine when i'm finished wrapping them with the embroidery floss. Even if you soak the floss and dowel and hour is more than enough for them to get dry in the oven and set. Everything I've recommended is linked, in the post above, and I don't recommend anything I don't actually use. I highly suggest using coupons when you can and I'm a big fan of the clearance isle. I'll do my best to answer any questions you have. Thanks!

I currently have a fb page called Edmund Designs where you can follow all of my creation: 

Edmund Designs Facebook Page

I've joined Instagram: edmundesigns

I also have an Etsy page where you can purchase my creations or contact me for a personal order:

Edmund Designs Etsy Shop

This post contains affiliate links.

DIY Storage Bed

It's actually been over a year since I built this bed for my 7 year old but it's held up beautifully. I initially built the bed with the intention of my grandmother moving in with us and sharing a room with our daughter. Sadly, we were unable to make that happen. In the mean time, though, my daughter has gotten a lot of use out of this very practical bed and its a great space saver for any room!

I already had a Closet Maid 6 cube organizer  so I only had to purchase 1 more along with (2) 8 cube organizers to accommodate a twin sized mattress.  I was also fortunate to be able to sell her prior bed frame, Ikea cube organizer, and other items. So I highly recommend selling what you can from the room during your revamp to help pay for your project. It allowed me to spend very little out of pocket. 

The 4 cube organizers are not perfectly lined up, as you can see above. This is because a 8 cube organizer on each end is too wide, but the 6 cube organizer is too small. So since mine would be against a wall I off set my 8 cube organizer by 4-6 inches and made sure that the part of the bed that would be showing was flush. 

An advantage to this bed is that you don't just get the cube storage but under the bed storage. This bed allows me to store her baby items, her small 4 ft Christmas tree, artwork, baby blankets, etc. 

Another plus is that long board games can also fit! Closet Maid only gives you 3 cube backings so some of your cubes are open in the back. This allows us to store longer board games. 

Okay, back to the construction. I made sure to connect the cube storage at each corner. You'll want to pre-drill your holes because these split very easily. 

I covered the bed opening with a 1/8" hardboard but depending on your child's age, weight, etc., you may want to use plywood. 

I then fit each cabinet with 1" x 1" brackets from Walmart, using foam mounting tape from the Dollar Tree, which fit perfectly. You can click the links to see exactly what i'm talking about at each store. 

Or you can use the included hard wear and screw them in but I wanted to be able to sell the cubes down the road so I didn't want to make the brackets permanent. 

I used my tape measure to center them and then recessed them about an inch into the cabinet. 

Again the backless cubes are great for games and books that are too long for the typical cube size.

Next I cut 1/8" hardboard (the same board they make pegboards out of) into 11" squares. I actually had Sutherlands cut the sheet into strips so they would fit into my vehicle better, then I cut them to size using a utility knife. I secured a 3/8" screwhole plug in the center of each square with wood glue. Once dry I primed and painted half of the doors purple and the other half blue using spray paint. 

Once the doors were dry I attached round magnets using E6000. I was using very thin magnets that I found at Walmart (shown here), however, I found that they were too thin and I need to replace the magnets with a standard size round craft magnet. 

And that's it! I found it was a much cheaper way to make a storage bed with doors like this rather than doing hinges. 

For storage bins I went to the Dollar Tree and they have these 9x9x8" bins that fit perfectly. You standard Closet Maid bins will not longer fit since we recessed our 1" corner brackets. 

To get into the bed I found this tall foot stool at TJ Maxx but she doesn't even use it anymore and just climbs in. 

I decorated the wall with some cheap items I found in the clearance isles at TJ Maxx and Target. 

Then we invested in and Ikea desk which is much cheaper in store if you can get to one. The stool is an Ikea NILSERIK which I tried in store and absolutely love. 

For her closet I found sheer material at Walmart and made a curtain that matched the wall. 

For her windows I went with these cut to size paper type blinds for only $9 each. 

And that completes the look! Like I said, I did this project over a year ago and this is a current picture, so it has held up really well! It holds her books, board games, toys, etc. It has really left her room mess free and she loves it. 

* This post is not sponsored and I paid for all the materials myself. All Amazon links are affiliate links which means if you use the link to purchase that item I will get a small percentage from Amazon through their affiliate program.