Remember my "too good to be true dress" from eShakti?

I loved that dress so very much.

But then I lost 100 pounds.  And would you believe that my custom fit dress no longer fit perfectly??

I had promised myself a new custom fit dress as a reward for losing the weight.

eShakti must have known my plans because they sent me an email asking if I would like to try out another custom fit dress.  For free!

I clicked that yes button so fast!  Didn't want them changing their minds or anything.

The hardest part of being offered a free custom fit dress is choosing the dress.  eShakti has so many beautiful options.  I just couldn't decide.

So, I narrowed them down.  And narrowed them down some more.  Then I asked my family and took it to Facebook.

The overwhelming advice I got was to get the black sheath dress.

When I look at clothing online, I find myself thinking.

I wish that skirt was a little longer.  That would be great if it wasn't so low cut.  Too bad that's sleeveless.  Or worst of all.  That is PERFECT but they don't make it/sold out of it in my size.

When I do try things on they fit correctly here but not there, too loose and too tight all at the same time.

I could have all my clothes altered to fit better.  But who can afford that?

I could do some alterations myself but it took me three years just to hem my jeans...

Several months ago I was introduced to eShakti.

I had never heard of them before so I checked out the website.  I was intrigued by what I saw.

Get this.

eShakti features retro inspired clothing.  Dresses, tops, skirts, cardigans, jackets.  All customizable.

Customizable?  According to my computer, that's not even a word.  It's a word at eShakti!

Customizable how?

At eShakti you have so many options to create the perfect piece for you.

Love that dress but wish it was longer or shorter?  Change the hem length.

Wish the sleeves were different?  Change them!

Not sure about the neckline?  Fix it.

Oh, and...  The dresses and skirts come with POCKETS!!!

Have a personal vendetta against pockets?  Why don't you like pockets?  What did they ever do to you?

Remove them!

Think that embellishment is too busy?

Take it off.

It gets better.

You might be reading this thinking that none of the clothes would work for you because you don't wear plus sizes and I obviously do.

All of their clothing is available in size 0-36!

But wait.  It gets even better!

Do I sound like an infomercial yet?  Because it's all way too good to be true.

All the clothing can be personally customized to your exact measurements!

They don't even cut the pieces until you place your order.  That way they can tailor each piece to your exact specifications.

Told you it was too good to be true.

And you are waiting for the catch now.

How much does all this personalization/customization cost?  It's really adding up now isn't it?

$7.50.

Not $7.50 per customization.

$7.50.

Total.

So, their clothes must be pretty expensive to begin with?

Nope.

I found the prices extremely reasonable.  They even run sales and have an overstock section.

Does all that sound too complicated to you?  Don't want to deal with all the measuring?

No problem.  Customization is entirely optional.  You can just order your size.  The only measurement you have to give is your height.

They even have a  bridesmaid dress collection !

All this sounds great in theory.  But how well does it really work?

I decided to find out for myself.

After much agonizing over which dress to pick, (I loved them ALL!) I settled on the Cotton Poplin Colorblock Dress in Navy blue/Spring green.

I followed the directions on the site and measured myself.  Can I tell you how nervous that made me?  What if I measured wrong and the dress didn't fit because of my mistake?

I left the cap sleeves and below knee length but changed the deep V-neck to a V-neck.

Then I waited.  I figured I would wait a long time.  All that customization should take a pretty long time shouldn't it?

7 days later I received a package.  Took me a minute to figure out what it was because I was not expecting it so quickly.

There are certain household tasks that I consider utterly unnecessary.

For example, ironing.  Really.  Clothing gets wrinkled so we iron the wrinkles out.  Then we wear the clothing and it gets wrinkled.  Then we wash the clothing and it gets more wrinkled.  So we spend extra time and effort to iron the wrinkles out and repeat the cycle.

I really want to know who decided at some point in time that wrinkles were undesirable.

What did the wrinkle ever do to you?

Is it really hurting anyone?

No.  I thought not.

You know what has hurt someone?  An iron.  That's right.

People have this aversion to wrinkles drilled into them.

If everyone stopped ironing their clothes then no one would even notice the wrinkles anymore.  No one.

Also, that's what the dryer is for.  And did you know they now make wrinkle free clothing?  That's right.  Problem solved.

Dusting.

Dust settles on stuff so you swish it off.  It all flies up in the air, swirls around a bit, and settles right back down on the thing you just dusted off.  Big fat waste of time.

Vacuuming.  I mean how bad would it be if I just stopped vacuuming?

Yesterday I attended a blogger party at T-Hee Greetings & Gifts.  Right when I walked in the door I knew it was my kind of store.

I don't know if you have noticed this at all (because my blog design is so subtle) but I love color.  Bright c o l o r s !   Yup, my kind of store!

So, now I will try to whittle down my list of favorite things in the store, and try to tell you about just a few of them.  Because I could probably go on and on and on.  Instead, I will try to keep it to my 5 favorites.  As in 5 of the things that have been dancing around in my head since last night, pretty much taunting me with their awesomeness.

1. Every year I host Thanksgiving at my house.  Every year I inevitably hear the following question.  "Where do you keep your dish towels?   DISH Towels?  Does that sound like something I would own??

Then I saw these!

How perfect are these?  Thanksgiving Dish Towels!!!  Adorable!!!

2. As noted above, I like color.  Just a little.  I also love little notepads.  They are such handy little things to have.  As a blogger I have found it quite convenient to keep a little note pad in my purse just in case inspiration strikes.  If I am going to have a notepad it might as well be pretty.  Right?

As I may have mentioned previously, I love to shop online.  I'll admit going out shopping seems like such a hassle to me.  I would rather avoid the crowds.  It's exhausting.  Shopping from home is so much more convenient.

Plus it has several advantages over shopping in a store.

This weekend was spent installing a new floor in the kids room.

You may recall our incident with the pipe gremlins that resulted in one ruined carpet and two kids without a room of their own.


After all the plumbing was repaired and enough time had elapsed to be relatively sure (holding our breath) that there would not be a re-occurrence (again) the time had finally come to install a new floor.   I still really wanted to put cork in but we were and are still wary about possible future leaks.  Excess funds haven't exactly been flooding in (pardon the pun) either so we had to come up with a more economical solution.

I recently bought a bookshelf from Walmart for my kid's room and I love it!!

It was $25 for a tall Mainstays 5 shelf bookshelf.  Usually the little 2 or 3 shelf bookshelves cost more than that!  When I bought it I assumed it would be very narrow but I was happily surprised.  It is perfect for the kid's bedroom!  I am putting all their decorative items that I don't want them playing with up on top.  They have a couple of books I want to keep in good condition like a few signed by the author so I will put those on the top shelf.  Then I have baskets and plastic bins to organize their toys in for the rest of the shelves.  I am tempted to buy another one for their room.   I have also gone around the house finding all the places a bookshelf would fit perfectly.  I just need 7 or 8 more so far!  At that price how can I resist?