A Series of Stressful Events (+ Giveaway!)

Wow, it's been over a month since I was gone. My apologies for my absence - four weeks of crazy deadlines and difficult personal issues tend to eat up blogging time. But today's post isn't a series of complaints - it's a story of perseverance against the odds (read: my doing things that I really had no time for, and suffering the consequences) in which your help was indispensable.

To make it short, I'm going to present it as a timeline:

August: While I was on vacation with my family, the Doll Wardrobe released the theme for the Winter Fashion Design Challenge, and it looked like a lot of fun. I'm a fan of Fluttershy from My Little Pony, so I thought that her Equestria Girls outfit would be the perfect thing to make. Until I saw it, that is.

By litingphires on DeviantArt

Sorry, but that's just too boring. As I'm also a huge fan of the Lizze Bennet Diaries, I realized that Jane Bennet and Fluttershy have very similar personalities, so I decided to make the sort of outfit that Jane would wear, but in Fluttershy's signature color scheme and motifs.

September - November: I started sewing the outfit as fast as I could. In contrast to the summer, when I had plenty of free time to sew, all my time was eaten by my courseload. I put everything together as fast as possible, and took photos during my trip home (it rained, so technically I took them an hour before I had to leave). When I got back from my trip, I realized that I'd left the charging cable for my laptop, so I had to run around for twenty minutes at midnight trying to find someone to lend me a cable. Since it was dark, I missed a curb and fell, which meant that I needed to be in an air cast boot for two weeks. The things I do for love sewing contests (yes, that was a Song of Ice and Fire reference, and kudos to any of you who caught it). 

February - March: Voting opened, and I checked it daily. It was very close for most of the time, but at the end my entry came in third out of four in the votes. It was a disappointment, but I resigned myself to it, was very grateful to all of you who voted for me, and put it out of my mind.

April: I got an email from The Doll Wardrobe with the subject line Winter FDC Entry. At first, I thought it was a joke or a mistake, but then I saw this post. There was dancing, a little bit of shrieking and crying, and plenty of celebratory chocolate was consumed. I haven't been so happy in months, and it would never have happened without your support. 

So, per the traditional agreement, I'm going to pay it forward with a giveaway! Details are still uncertain, so comment with what you think would make a nice prize (within reason - as much as I would like to give you extravagant prizes, that's just not in my budget) and hopefully before long I'll have the giveaway up and running. 

Once again, thank you for reading and for your support!