Giveaway Time! Featuring Dara Dot Designs

As promised I've been working on a new giveaway!  This giveaway is to celebrate reaching 100 followers on this blog :)  When I started this little blog I remember when my friends in the petite community all started following  and I was soooo excited!!!  I have only one friend IRL that I discuss this blog with on a regular basis so she thought I was pretty funny when I started.   I never ever thought I would have 100 readers!   It seriously excites me to no end!

For this giveaway I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do.   I really wanted to give away something unique and preferably Canadian made.

I had first heard about Dara Dot Designs while looking at my sister in law's friend's photography as she did a shoot for Dara.  I loved her stuff but back then I was very hesitant about online shopping.  I hadn't heard about Etsy yet and I didn't have a pay pal account!  Then I stumbled upon Dara's site again while searching for make up artists in the Toronto area for my friend that was getting married.   If it weren't already meant to be I actually met Dara by fluke at the One of Kind Show in December.   Fast forward to a few weeks back and I signed up for Dara's mailing list and befriended her on Twitter.  I had wanted to buy stuff for myself and a friend of mine so I also picked up a little something as my giveaway.  Phew, what a long story LOL!

This is taken off of the Dara Dot Designs website:

Designer, owner and Fashion Design grad, Dara Frydman, fell in love with the idea of applying her design background and use of textiles into her accessories. Incorporating a variety of fibres and skins such as felt, bamboo, leather, stones, and metals; each unique design strikes an eclectic "arts and crafts" feel.

I love her designs because they are simple but very different.  And they are so versatile!  She is not only a Canadian designer but she is based in Toronto AND she is a fellow petite standing proud at 4'11"!!!!  It was totally meant to be ;)

Here are the two items I picked up for myself (and me trying to mimic the different ways wearing the scarves :P ):

Dara Dot Designs Ruffle Scarf in Blue/Cranberry Leather

Dara Dot Designs Loop scarf in Cerise

The model does a MUCH better job of showing how to wear the scarves in different ways.  Check it out if you have the time:

dara dot designs promo from Justin Borja on Vimeo.

And to one lucky winner I will be giving away one Ruffle Scarf in Blue/Grey Leather:

***Please note:  All items were purchased by me from Dara Dot Designs.   I am now an affiliate of Dara Dot Designs so if you click on the sidebar icon and make a purchase I will receive a small commission!***

Rules:

Open to all readers.

Mandatory:

1. Follow my blog using Google Friend Connect (click the "follow" button on my side bar)

2. Check out Dara Dot Designs and let me know what your favorite item is

3. Leave me an email where you can be contacted

Bonus Entries:
(+1) Follow me on Twitter

(+1) Tweet about this giveaway

(+3) Add my giveaway button to your blog side bar

<a href="http://curls-and-pearls.blogspot.com/2011/01/giveaway-time-featuring-dara-dot.html" TARGET="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3aPzD2PBzHNqFXtw6DC4gjgNmqdQT5a-wN76IuaXg1LgnQXYEpeh-Bh0EteaLGZpcAPbVZPFcveTnlWMzFYauiTU2OcPVUyROeT7GoHold7RGPzjunePYqsdfxt7ON2UvbawcxAU0kbA/s288/Dara%20Dot%20Designs.jpg"></a>

Please fill out the form below and Good Luck! (Don't forget to scroll down and click "submit" at the end)

***Giveaway ends Sunday January 30th, 2011 at midnight EST***

Belated Giveaway winnings and New Years Resolutions

How terrible am I?!?  I won TWO generous giveaways and have not blogged about them :(  

WAAAAAY back in October I won an amazing prize from The Girlie Blog - in fact it was her very FIRST giveaway!   I was super excited to be lucky enough to win this fabulous prize: 

I just love the details of the box!

Look how cute - tulips are my favorite flower :)

I thought the backing of the earring was really unique.

And here they are on!  They're so cute and simple and at the same time I feel glamorous knowing I'm wearing something to luxurious!  

Thank you again to Designer Apparel and to The Girlie Blog :)

I was ALSO incredibly lucky enough to win Kelly's Tim Gunn book giveaway.   I still have NOT had a chance to read it, but I have some time off work so I hope to cuddle up with it soon!

Lastly I was tagged to do my New Year's Resolutions by the always on top of things (so opposite of me! :P ) Jessy of The Little Dust Princess.  I thought that I'd better get to this one NOW before New Year's comes and goes!

1.   Find a tailor.  Ummmm - yeah I STILL don't have one!   I also have a pile of jeans, pants and some dresses just WAITING to be worn!

2.  Take outfit pictures everyday.   I think this will help me stay on top of my blogging AND help me edit my wardrobe more efficiently.   I'm sure not all the outfits will make it to the blog but at least this way I will have outfit pictures to choose from!

3.  Cook more!!   We used to have a meal plan and as silly as it sounds it worked for us beautifully!  Since we moved closer to the city our lives have seemed to become more hectic.  I think a meal plan will help us cook more often and save us $ too!

4.  Take better care of myself.   As I mentioned in #3 because life is more hectic I haven't been seeing all my health practioners regularly.   I am lucky enough to have pretty good benefits at work too and didn't make use of them at all this year!

5.  Get more sleep.  I have to admit - I've been staying up way too late catching up on blogs and watching youtube videos as of late!   I feel like if I don't read everything I will miss out on something!  Does anyone have any advice on how to "filter"?  I would LOVE to be able to read and comment on everyone's posts as I completely understand how much time it takes but it just seems like an impossible task.  So as much as I don't want to I may have to pair it down a bit :(

I will tag a few people to talk about their top 5 resolutions (please don't feel obligated though!).

Marilou of Twenty York Street

Melissa of A Working Mom's Closet

Sydney of Petite Little Girl

Kara of ...of moments in moonlight

Louise of Cosmetic Bee

Current Petite Blogger Giveaways

Since I won't have a camera until after tomorrow I thought I would do a quick post about all the FABULOUS giveaways happening right now in the Petite Community.

If you haven't entered yet, please support these lovely fellow petite bloggers!




Erin's Amrita Singh Bracelet giveaway - Ends November 30th

Elle of Fast Food and Fast Fashion - Reader Appreciation





Petite Gorgeous Holiday Giveaway - ends December 13th.


herwaisechoice Lanvin for H&M giveaway!  - ends December 17th

And....while this isn't a giveaway please don't forget to sign up for Petite Fashion Challenge #4!

The Petit Plume Giveaway Winner is......

PetiteXXS!!!!!!  

 I used www.random.org but had no clue how to copy and paste the results here, so I hope you will all trust in me!


Congratulations PetiteXXS - I will email you for your contact information :)

Because I don't have any post worthy outfits....

Still in that rut!  Hopefully I will feel more enthusiastic for the weekend.  The sun is starting to shine and this weekend is a long weekend for me - Canadian Thanksgiving!!!

I LOVE Thanksgiving - gathering with family, great food and pumpkin pie???  Seriously, what could make a weekend better?

Since I've been lacking the motivation to put any post worthy outfits together lately I thought I would take the time to blog about a few notable giveaways.

First up, one of my favorites -
Marilou of Twenty York Street

She has TWO giveaways going on:

Banana Republic "What a Statement Necklace"

AND

A pair of tickets to Ottawa Fashion Week!

Next, a well known petite blogger
Jean of Extra Petite

Win a $100 gift card to Rent the Runway - I can't enter this one since is US entries only, but the concept is intriguing!







Next - I truly admire this girl's style - 
her waise choice:

Celebratory Giveaway - Amrita Singh Cuff

She's celebrating 100 followers yay!


And if you have the time, check out my Petit Plume Giveaway ending October 18th!!!

The blogging community has been so welcoming and supportive, hopefully I can give a little of that back by blogging about others :)

OOTD: Subtle Accents

Does anyone else feel in a rut or is it just me?  I'm going to blame it on the weather.  The past few days in Toronto have been gloomy and cloudy and cold!  All I want to do is stay in my pj's all comfy and cozy in my bed.  But unfortunately I have to pay the bills and as casual as my work is I'm not sure pj's would cut it!

This is an example of an outfit I didn't really put much thought into.  Basic jeans, simple top.  To make it more professional I threw on my new favorite LOFT blazer.

Blazer:  LOFT size 0P (as seen here all dressed up)

Top:  Mexx XS

Jeans:  Aeropostale size 0 short

Bag:  Coach

Shoes:  Liz Claiborne size 7

oops!  Wasn't ready for the shot!

Without the blazer (boring!)

So because the entire outfit was VERY neutral I wanted to add a splash of colour with the bag (this is one of my favorites even though it's so big!)  and the shoes:

These shoes are my only other item in leopard print as I mentioned in this post.

So that was my attempt at some subtle accents when I wasn't feeling all that hot.  My hair was even doing some weird thing so up in a pony tail it went.  Speaking of hair for anyone that has bangs how do you get them to not split like mine do???  I assume I need to "train" them to stay in place?  The problem is my hair is curly so I don't always wear them down and have to blow dry them straight to look like that.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Oh and if you haven't done so already, please enter my first giveaway featuring Petit Plume.   And please (without sounding too desperate :P)  Tell your friends about it too! :)

 **** you have until Monday October 18th - midnight EST to enter!****

Petit Plume Giveaway!!!!

I was so excited when Eugenia of Petit Plume agreed to sponsor my first giveaway!!!  I was thinking I should do a giveaway in honour of my 50th post, or getting 50 followers or something significant.  But I'm really bad with getting my posts up on time so really this is just a giveaway because I feel like it LOL!

If you remember, a while back I ordered a few items from Petit Plume and did a review in this this post and I wore one of the items to accessorize my belt seen here.

I fell in love with almost every piece - I had to hold myself back from ordering everything!  I love that her pieces are completely handmade and so unique.

Here are the items up for grabs - note there will be ONE winner and they will receive BOTH items:

Hair pin / Brooch

Hand drawn screen printed T-shirt - pictured on Me!

The t-shirt is a size large, so may be big on many of the petite ladies, but as you can see it's not huge on me, and it's really comfortable!

Here are more pictures of the giveaway items:

You can check out all of Eugenia's creations at her etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/petitplume or on her website: http://www.petitplume.com/home.html

How do you enter?

Mandatory Entry:  Be a public follower of my blog and follow Petit Plume through her blog, facebook or twitter.  Visit Petit Plume's website and let me know which is your favorite piece.  Leave a comment below letting me know which way you are following Petit Plume and also a way for me to contact you.  If you don't want to leave a comment but would still like to be entered email me:  curls(dot)pearls(at)gmail(dot)com.

The winner will be chosen at random using random.org

For extra entries:
(+1) Blog about this giveaway.  Leave a comment below with a link to your post
(+1) Follow me on Twitter!

**** you have until Monday October 18th - midnight EST to enter!****

Psst...another giveaway!

This just in Petite Little Girl is holding and Allison Izu Denim Giveaway!!!

 I am SUPER excited about this giveaway after reading her review on the Panio Bootcut style.  I hurriedly checked the Allison Izu website but the shipping and return policy for Canada was daunting.  I'm thrilled that I may have the chance to win a pair!

Click here for details.