I jumped at the chance and immediately was drawn to this fun bunny dress. I loved the pattern, and I also loved that it was in black and white, that meant more options to pair with tights or cardigans and wear it all year round! I opted to customize the sizing instead of picking a standard 4 or 6. You just pick your measurements in inches from the drop down (below are screenshots from the website.)

You also choose your height (above) so that on the next step, when you choose length, it will hit where you want it to! I choose above the kneewhich, as you can see, that’s exactly where it hits.

Another option they have, which isn’t available on every dress and wasn’t on mine, is the custom sleeve type or neck line I took the screen captures from this dress. So you can see what the “original” looked like.

Interesting eh? And although it says $7.50, that’s for any and all customizations, not each. so you could change all 3 and only pay the $7.50.

Anther option (which is free) is to remove the pockets. Which I didn’t do! I love dresses with pockets! I thought it was all such a fun buil-your-dress concept.

The dress arrived in pretty speedy time considering it was a.) custom sized and b.) coming from India. They say on the site that transit is between 7 & 9 days.

I was nervous when I felt the dress and saw that it didn’t have any stretch, but I shouldn’t have worried, it fit like a glove! As you can see, around the ribbing it really is a pretty fitted top and a flowy bottom (perfect for twirling!)

The dress feels really great, has a smooth high quality fit and feel. It also has a layer underneath, which is key for white dresses! My only complaint is that if you hunch or bend over, the folds covering the bust separate, revealing more than you want.I opted to wear a cami under. But I suppose I could also work on my posture… eh.

I wore it to our Easter Sunday church service and got so many compliments. (Below is me and my little sister) I love how we look more and more alike each year.

Aren’t the bunnies cute? A few people thought they were corgis, which is hilarious. I guess if anyone had/made a corgi dress it would be me!

Thanks so much to eShakti for sending me such a beautiful, fun dress. If you want to check out their spring dresses, click here.

*Note, the dress was provided by eShatki for review, all opinions are my own

PS: Sorry for my absence, things have been crazy at the Randall house. I’ll post a update soon! I hope you all had a very happy Easter!

I got a baggie full of stamps at a estate sale several months ago and have had them sitting in a jar ever since. Time to make some art!

I was inspired by…pinterest. blah blah. I know. Originally form Sweet Paul.

I liked it, but I wanted to change a few things, first off. I had all colors of stamps, not just one, I also wanted some kind of border, and I’m not a huge fan of the overlapping. I really liked some of them and wanted each one to be seen, rather then blended together.

So I took my stamps. and the first thing I had to do was separate the stamp from the paper ( I really wanted the stamp-y edges) I used a blow dryer on hot as needed, since the stamps were old, most didn’t need much coaxing.

As I separated them I arranged by color (I love how order by color gives such a calming organizational look)

Then I laid them out in a way I wanted on a frame that I had around, The paper is drawing paper I cut to size)

It took a lot of trial and error to get them to fit together, while still having (most of) the edges in straight lines

Then I ran them through a xyron sticker maker, one by one to stick onto the paper cleanly. You can use any adhesive method but make sure all the little bits of stamp edges are covered. I didn’t want any raised edges that can happen from sticky dots or double sided tape.

I grouped it with a few other art pieces on the mantle

I’m really excited by how it turned out. Some of the stamps, I especially like. Like this olympics one (Although I wish it wasn’t cut off )

and this agate from Kenya

and this Awesome USA one

Yay, new mantle- De-Christmas-fied. I know stamp collecting is a bit of a lost art, but if you have stamps lying around, when they are grouped together they can make for huge impact, I wish I had more!

I liked the mantle, but it still needed something, So I whipped these up too!

I’ll post more info on those soon! I have a feeling some antler love is gonna go all year long :)

Once she saw it didn’t tfit (and trying a few more times, even checking the the doggie door was clear) she eventully turned it around and got one end in

We thought she could do it, but…just like the little monkey and the bottle, she wouldn’t let go and even with the bone longways her head wouldn’t fit too!

We laughed at her expense, let her chew on it for a litle then put it away and went off to grandma’s (my parent’s house)

After opening presents, the boys wanted to go to a park to fly their new roto-copters, so we piled in my brother’s truck to drive to a nearby park

Lilu was ecstatic about being in the back

Look at that smile!

Ein was cold.

It was a cold cloudy Christmas for us Arizonans, the high was 66, but I think it was around 50 when we were out and about.

Ein had fun running, but got cold, so my siter obliged him and let him snuggle with her

The copter in action

After hanging out for awhile it was time to come home. Lilu went to town on her bone again, But every time I gave Ein his, she would try to take it too. Greedy corgi!! Poor Ein

(side note: as I write this, they have resolved differences and Ein got his bone back)

When I pulled out the envelope we got from K-9 Kreations from under the tree, I noticed some little corgi had tried to open it already…hmm

Tsk tsk Ein. But what could be inside!!

It’s a Harness! Easy walker style too! We participated in the 2012 Corgi gift exchange for the 3rd yrear in a row and we got this cute harness from

Lauren, her corgi Laci,  and Dachshund Buddy, How fun!

Unfortunately I was a total slacker and didn’t see her message asking what Lilu’s Measurements were! Ugh!! So Lilu is…eh hem, so full of love that the harness doesn’t fit?

:( Good news though! I contacted the owner and she will let us exchange for a bigger size! hooray! so all is well in the Randall household we are super blessed and excited for 2013!

So my theme was deers, It’s a fun christmas collection and being in Phoenix we really don’t see these graceful animals that much.

I like how many different shapes and sizes I found, all yard sales of course

The outside is classic and white but I love it,

All I had to do for the wreath on the door was a quick touch of black spray paint to the previously gold hanger.

I sprainted this little guy, Atrocious before! $5 at a yard sale

Now he welcomes our guests at the front door {and covered the light socket}

I jazzed up the hallway with the embroidery hoops from last year, and a cute sleeping corgi.

Broke out the deer bowl and filled with some ornaments again

I found this pom-pom trim at Tempe sales for cheap, I feel like it really makes it, despite our poor tree dying before our eyes.

We went with white lights for the tree too, I dig it

Then the mantle of course, I really like this, I’m kind of torn what to do once Christmas is over!! Ah, the downfall of holiday art.

p.s. I entered the mantle in a contest here. Go vote for me!

For the stocking tags I painted some chalkboard paint on some wooden tags I found at a yard sale {originally it said believe}

I just couldn’t really find a use for them as is, But I knew I wanted to mark the stockings, BING. I know, kinda duh, but I was excited.

I really love them , Nick thinks it’s hilarious, how interchangeable this makes the tags, but with some of our bachelor friends coming and going, It makes sense.

So I got a chocolate covered fortune cookie this week in my Birchbox, and the fortune said “Mistletoe is irrelevant, kiss those you love often” I had to tape it up there above my little felted mistletoe from west elm

This is my handmade advent nativity, I didn’t get the flaps done to make it more advent-y. But the characters are done! I’ve been putting one up each day. It took forever to make my little people. Me and 3 friends each made a set, starting last november! I just stole the frame from my frame wall

Some more details, my little elves holding their candles

Subtle but cute little icicle lights

Our heirloom nativity set, Originally Nick’s grandmas’s

simple rustic candle holders with my berry tree

Well thats our home, Can’t believe it’s almost Christmas! see you in the New Year!! Or until I let my corgi’s open their present from the exchange...

It needed a few modifications, it was about 1.5 inches too tall to sit on the mantle and it was double sided so I had nick trim it down and I pulled one of the boards off. To plan out the stitches. I numbered out the squares that would be needed.

It was 47 squares so I made a 47×47 cm document in Illustrator, set a grid and made the objects snap to it. I made my little 1cm squares in green and brown and finagled it for a little until I came up with the right graphic and was set to jet. (yes the real thing is in inches, I just figured for a pattern, it didn’t matter)

I counted off the columns and since 23 & 24 were the middle and needed to be the top of the tree, I counted 4 rows down and just sharpied an x onto those. Everything else just builds by 2′s so that was all I needed to get started!

I bought the green yarn at JoAnn’s and had a big needle on hand (the eye was plenty big enough, which was good, because I used almost a whole skein and i had to re-thread multiple times!

Then it was pretty simple, I found it was easier to do all of one side across the row and then double back for the other half of the x. I wanted a really pixelated chunky look so I made the steps 2×2 stitches instead of 1×1, I didn’t want perfect diagonals

It took about an evening and a half, maybe 3-4 hours of actual stitch time. I drug it in front of my tv and watched a lot of episodes. I was great how forgiving the bulletin board is, if you go through the wrong hole you can just pull it back out.

The hardest part was when I was in the middle, my arms weren’t long enough to reach both the front and back at the same time, it also ended up being easier to turn it upside down and work my way up.

I really liked the green, and I used a natural twine for the trunk, the twine didn’t fit through the needle so I wrapped tape around the end and pushed it through that way.

It long last it was done!

I really love the impact it makes, having large christmas art. And it only cost me $5 for the yarn and twine (since I got the board for free) It was decently heavy and too thick to lean, so we screwed a hook into the wall and attach twine to the back and hooked it on.

I have a few more things I want to do, and then I’ll post on the rest of my Christmas decor! I got the iron santa and reindeer from a friend right after last christmas so I was super excited to use them this year!

check out last year’s decorations, and 2010 decorations.