Giveaway for a Good Cause

First outfit, then giveaway! My outfit is the one I wore for an upcoming feature on national television and I'm super duper excited about it. I'll let you know when it will be broadcasted and hopefully provide you with a link! The actual outfit looked a lot better before the lights were turned off by the autumnal early evening, but you'll just have to take my word on it. The graininess is pretty annoying.
Also, I did a glitter ombre nail (just google it, hella easy to do) and I love it to bits.

dress: Chicstar.com

cardi: F21

tights: Pimkie

shoes: swapped with friend

NOW GIVEAWAY TIME!

When Dusana contacted me to do a giveaway offering one lucky reader an item from her no profit e-store, of course I said yes. I love handing out presents to people, and I love good causes. This time of year is the perfect moment to stop and think about all of the people who have less than you instead of just mindlessly buying stuff because it's the holidays. Not to go all granola-bar-hippie style on yo asses (you know I am though) but I am in awe of people who work for a good cause, who take their time to be selfless and make the world a slightly better place. It's not easy to make that choice, everything around us screams "work hard to get yourself places!" but hardly any of it tells us we should work hard to help others. 

My take on volunteering and working for a cause is the way I want to use the knowledge and expertise I'm acquiring at university to be the best person I can be, to spread knowledge and insight and be an example for other people. It's a start, right? 

Dusana told me about the mission statement behind her shop.

I want to enable local artisans in Mexico to maintain and thrive on their sustainable lifestyles and handicraft traditions by sharing their work with a greater (online) public. Ensure that these beautiful traditions are given the appreciation they deserve and are not lost in future generations.

100% of all profits will be reinvested into the rural, indigenous communities, and, depending on expenses, you can be guaranteed that at least 50% of your purchase goes directly to the makers’ communities.

This project/shop is something I’m extremely passionate about. It combines my many interests of sustainable living, fair trade, maintaining tradition and community (as well as building community through common interests and knowledge-sharing), travel, indigenous culture and their artwork and handicrafts (duh : ), and style, particularly creating your personal style with unique pieces you truly love, that didn’t go through slave labor and polluting factories to get to you.

Growing up in a home decorated with handmade textiles from Ecuador (my dad was a Peace Corp volunteer at my age), I’ve always felt an appreciation for these traditions, and became especially interested in the culture after working with Native American communities for my college thesis.

Inspiring, right? And the pieces are supercute to boot!

Seriously, how gorgeous is the embroidery on these pieces? Just imagine the experience, time and expertise that went into making the patterns. Not your average a dime a dozen H&M stuff now, is it? I imagine these looking stellar with denim shorts, bell bottoms, A line skirts and the like. Very authentic, very colorful, very Frida Kahlo <3

TO ENTER: 

• follow Dusana's blog (bloglovin or GFC)
• follow me (bloglovin or gfc)
• check out her store and leave me a comment with the item you'd like to win and a way to contact you
• et voila!

This giveaway will run until the 11th of December  2011. Good luck!