I Am Thankful Giveaways: Merry & Bright Dress

I love the month of November. Partly because in Timor it means we receive all the local holidays {5} plus all the American holidays {3} which equals a lot of time off. But mainly it is because of Thanksgiving. It is my Hubby's favorite holiday, he always comments that it has all the good things that Christmas has (food, family, joy) without the stress of buying presents (spending hoards of mola, wondering if they will even like it etc.). I tend to agree with him, but not enough to switch my favorite from the Fourth of July ;) Anyhoo, I feel like our family has been overwhelmingly blessed this year. One of those big blessings for me has been this blog (oh no, I am gagging on a big ball of cheesiness). I honestly believe it is what has saved me from feeling completely isolated creatively here on the island. I wanted to say thank you for being such fabulous friends and so I am going to be doing a series of give aways tied to tutorials. Each item that I give away will have a tutorial and pattern (if needed) posted after the giveaway is started. That way if you don't win the item you can still make it for yourself! Most of them are knockoff of items I would LOVE to have this season. So far I have 3 Mommy sized dresses (1, 2, 3), a gorgeous blouse, 2 Anthropologie knockoff ornaments, a toddler girl's christmas dress, and a set of boys christmas ties to give away. Phew! When I type it all out like that it seems like a lot ha! All you have to do to win the items is leave a comment on the give away post. You can mention what you are thankful for this season, where you will use the item etc. You can be entered another time if you post on your Facebook about the giveaway, another time if you mention it in a post on your blog ;) AND the big shabang you can enter yourself TWICE if you go HERE and vote for my Shabby Apple Dare to Design entry #12. (Put two comments saying voted on Shabby Apple, if you already voted for mine do the same thing) Just make sure to leave separate comments each time telling me what you did! And be honest, Santa is watching! With out further ado I give you the

Merry and Bright Dress

This is a knock off of Shabby Apple's Nantucket dress. I LOVE how it turned out.

I love the details in this dress. The cuff sleeve, the gathering and pockets....

The fantastic big sash and bow...

And of course always my favorite, the over the top collar

Now it does cut low (my mannequin is a hoochie ha!)

And I am not going to lie this vibrant purple was hard to pick a color for a cami under it and shoes to go with it. I went with a black Cami and light yellow heels. There are probably much better combinations but um, this was at 7am and at that time my brian is mush.

(I look like I just sucked on a lemon in that picture ha!)
I would say this is a size 6 but I am pretty bad at guessing sizing. But just think, if it is the wrong size for you it will make a great gift! I also serged the hem and then did a simple stitch to keep it up so that who ever wins it can easily hem it to the perfect length for them. The entire dress is serged so it will last a long time, although I must tell you I only have white serger thread so don't wear the dress inside out ha!! The tutorial and pattern for the dress will be posted this weekend. Oh and I just have to mention that this dress cost me 3 dollars to make!!! 3 DOLLARS!!! (Every time I thought of this I had to say out loud "I want my two dollars" which I think wierded out our housekeeper) I had mentioned before that I was going to do 3 dresses for 3 dollars each and this is the first one! The giveaway will be open for 5 days ) closing on the 17th. I hope your Veterans day was lovely. I am lucky enough to be surrounded by veterans in my family, my hubby, father, father in law, 2 brother in laws and a sister in law, so yesterday was full of offering thank you's for me!







PS. I am looking to have "No Mans Land" clothing tags made, if you know anyone who does a nice job and is affordable please email me. I feel a bit overwhelmed when I look on Etsy etc. There are just so many talented mommas out there I want to support them all!