This title has nothing to do with the content of the following post

Dress - Fleet Collection (also available at Modcloth) // Belt - Nine & Co. // Shoes - Thrifted // Socks - Thrifted // Jacket - Gift // Sunglasses - Walmart

These are actually all the way back from Mother's Day. Dang, I'm a little behind on posting pictures, haha. But hey, at least I have plenty to post! Every year for Mother's Day we go down to Geneva-on-the-Lake, eat at Eddie's Grill, and play mini golf. It's a fun tradition and I'm glad my mom enjoys it!

I wanted to leave y'all with a picture of my mom and all of her kids (all eight...) but we're not especially photogenic (well, of course I am . . . har. har.) and there's lots of us. That makes taking good pictures, shall we say, difficult. So how did the pictures turn out? I'll leave that to your imagination. They're not pretty though. Well, of course my mom's pretty in the pictures. Duh.

Instead you get to see a picture of her with my dad. Not a bad picture either, which is amazing 'cause if my dad so much as sees a camera his eyes automatically close. I'm not sure if it's harder to get a picture with all the kids or with just my dad. Taking a picture with the kids and dad? Ha. That's where Photoshop really comes in handy.

Well, I meant to spend most of this post talking about how awesome my mom is. Really, in retrospect, that's what I should have thought to talk about with the pictures being from Mother's Day and all. But instead I decided to let you in on our definitely-not best guarded secret ever--we're hardly a photogenic family. (Except for mom...of course).

And mom, when you read this, I love you. (But the rest of your family is not fun to take pictures of. And yes, I did just end a sentence with a preposition.)

Cake Decorating: Australia

Since my brother's birthday party was postponed and other siblings wanted cheesecake or pie, I don't have to make a cake for awhile. But, here are pictures from Laura's birthday! She had an Australian theme so I had a wide variety of things to choose from for her cake. So many that it was actually hard to narrow it down. The most obvious option was the Sydney Opera House, but that seemed both a little ambitious and overdone. So instead I decided to go with a natural landmark.

Over the years my family's done a variety of odd things for cakes, but I don't think anyone's done a geological formation before. I wish I'd had a different frosting tip to do the vegetation on the top, but I think it turned out alright. This time I tried painting the fondant and it worked really well! The rocks/cliffs aren't quite what I wanted, but I ran out of brown :/ Oh well, other than that I'm pretty happy with how it looks!

The Birthday Month

Dress - Forever21 // Cardigan - H & M // Belt - Wet Seal // Shoes - Madden Girl // Socks - Marc's // Shirt - Thrifted

Why does everyone in my family have their birthday in late May or early June? Don't get me wrong, I love birthdays. Especially family birthdays. Especially when those birthdays are really close together and sometimes are even consecutive! Ok, that last part was definitely sarcasm. But come on, there are a lot of people in my family! Well, happy birthday to ... well almost everyone in my family.

The Long Weekend

Dress - JCPenney // Shoes - Madden Girl // Socks - Target // Jacket - Gift

I just got back from a scouting campout and I am SO tired. I think I may have slept 2 hrs at the campout. If even that. So I am a little out of it right now. The pictures are being copied to my computer now so I may eventually upload a few. Just not now. Right now all I can think of is sleep. Wonderful, wonderful sleep . . .

Cake Decorating: The Hobbit

I thought that since I had these pictures I should post them to my blog--after all I am quite happy with how this cake turned out! I've been doing cakes for my siblings' birthdays for years but I hadn't done any with fondant before. For my sister Catherine's 14th birthday we went with a Hobbit theme. Mostly because I wanted to do a hobbit hole cake, but she also happens to love the Hobbit book (as do I)! The cake is vanilla and frosted with buttercream frosting and fondant.

Outfit Inspiration: Captain America

I am a little frustrated right now. I'm really tired and didn't want to write much anyway. But I still did. And even after I clearly hit save . . . everything is gone. Everything. Here's an abbreviated version of what I wrote: Blah blah blah, I love Captain America. Can I be done now? 

Dress // Coat // Ring // Unable to locate boots and belt

Dress // Cardigan // Belt // Shoes // Bracelet

I guess I'll write a little of what I had. It can't be too hard considering I just wrote it--should be fresh in my mind. Who am I kidding. My memory's terrible. So we'll see how this turns out.

I was definitely basing these outfit more on the first Captain America movie (2011), but I have seen Winter Soldier and it was amazing. Back to the first movie though. Two things: I love Marvel and I enjoy watching movies that are well done. This was Marvel and it was really well done. So I really enjoyed watching it. Also, it takes place in the 40s so that just made it even more fun!

There's not really anything to complain about in regards to the movie. Great script, music, costuming, effects, etc. The cast was fantastic too. Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving--everyone did a wonderful job. And Dominic Cooper was great as Tony Stark's father, Howard Stark. The similarities between the father and son are hilarious at times. 

Oh! For some reason I didn't even notice this until the last time I watched the movie (which was two days ago). So, Jenna-Louise Coleman (Clara - Doctor Who) has a small part in the movie. And so does Richard Armitage (Thorin - The Hobbit // Guy of Gisborne - BBC Robin Hood) who also made an appearance in last week's Robin Hood post! Well, I thought that was cool.

Well, if you haven't seen Captain America yet I would encourage you to do so! And if you have seen it already, tell me what you thought!

There. I wrote everything(ish) a second time. I hope you're happy, Blogspot.

Blue Gingham - eShakti Review

Dress - c/o eShakti // Shoes - Hotcakes // Hat - Target // Necklace - Walmart

Pictures taken by Laura

Near the end of last month eShakti contacted me asking if I'd be interested in reviewing a product for them and I was more than happy to oblige! If you haven't heard of eShakti before, they offer beautiful custom clothing in sizes 0-36W.

I've spent a lot of time looking at their dresses, but, due to limited funding, I hadn't purchased one. Needless to say, I was very excited to finally have an eShakti dress! I chose this blue gingham one because it really reminded me of Dorothy from Wizard of Oz (which is why I had to pair it with red shoes). Now the color is slightly brighter on the dress than what it appeared on my screen, but I think that's the fault of my computer 'cause I've had this issue before with my darn screen. And it's still a nice color, just brighter than what I was expecting. The dress comes with cap sleeves and hits below the knee, but I customized it to have short sleeves and to hit above the knee. The sleeves were a wee bit too long, but I folded them over once and ironed them to stay and now they're perfect!

The dress is comfortable and very well made. I haven't had the dress for very long, but at this point it looks like it's going to last a long time. Which is good, 'cause I like the dress and I already have plans to wear it a lot this summer. Right out of the box the dress was a little wrinkly, to be expected with any clothing in the mail, and it took awhile to iron the wrinkles out. But, the fabric itself does not wrinkle easily so once it was ironed it was all good!

Oh, and did I mention the dress comes with pockets? I love a dress with pockets! Like I said earlier, I customized the dress a bit and if you didn't want the pockets, you could actually order the dress without them. (Although I can't imagine why someone would want a dress without pockets) You can also adjust the sleeves and length of the dress like I did. Or you can purchase a completely custom size. I just ordered a standard size and it fits perfectly! Really though, the dress does fit perfectly--it's very flattering too! The side zipper makes getting the dress on and off easy. Also, there's some elastic in the back to ensure a good fit.

So yes, I'd definitely recommend both eShakti and this dress to everyone! Don't forget to visit eShakti's website and here's a link directly to this dress. Also be sure to check out eShakti on Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook.

Also, if you order from eShakti before June 17 (of this year) you can use the code ‘findes‘ and you can get 10% off!

Code has to be entered in the ‘promotional code’ box.   It is not case-sensitive.  

Code can be used any number of times until the validity period. 

It can be clubbed with any other promotional offer, gift coupon or gift card in the same order unless explicitly specified otherwise in the offer conditions.

This discount code is not applicable on clearance / sale, gift cards & overstock categories.

Not applicable on previous purchases. 

Well, I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend and I hope you'll also check out eShakti!