Blog Birthday Giveaway - Lady Vintage London

Hello!

I’m so excited about this giveaway.

Anyone who is a regular reader of this blog knows how much I love Lady Vintage London. I wear their dresses all the time and they are probably the most prominent brand in my wardrobe – I have around 20 of their dresses, no really! So you can only guess how utterly thrilled I was when they offered a dress to celebrate my blog birthday.

Oh, and this isn’t just any dress. The dress in question is one from the recently launched ‘Estella’ collection! I’ll give you a minute to stop screaming……..OK, so this dress was designed in collaboration with none other than Georgina from Fuller Figure Fuller Bust fame; because of this, the dress has been designed for the plus size range (size 14-32) with small capped sleeves, a gorgeous cross-over bust, and a 50s style flared skirt. There are eight prints in total and one of you lucky lot get to pick which one you want!

Here are a couple of my favourite prints (Images courtesy of Lady Vintage London):

Turquoise Floral Estella Dress, £50

Cream Floral Estella Dress, £50

All you have to do to win is enter via the Rafflecopter. I’m only doing this giveaway for a week as the dresses are selling like hot cakes and I’d really love the winner to get the print they want. The closing date is on July 6^th at midnight and the winner will be announced back on this page on July 7^th.

Please note: Liking both 'An Autumns Grace' and 'Lady V London' Facebook pages is mandatory in order to be selected. Good luck lovelies! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I’d like to thank Lady Vintage London for this wonderful gift. I know whomever wins will be overjoyed!

NOTE: The print chosen will be subject to stock availability.

‘til next time.

Love and hugs,

Isha

xxx 

Nerdsville Book Club #Two: Ghana Must Go, by Taiye Selasi

Available on Amazon

Ghana Must Go is about a family torn apart by a string of events and as a result, are living in different parts of the world. There is the mother (Flora), father (Kweku), eldest son (Olu), twins (a boy, Kehinde and a girl, Taiwo) and the youngest daughter (Sade). They all have their demons that they choose to suppress before their worlds are turned upside down yet again and are forced to not only face each other but also their past.

This book conjured up lot of different emotions for me. There are a few parallels in the story that ring true.

I don't want to give too much away but parental abandonment in more ways than one is quite prominent in this story. I can relate to that and at times reading this book was a bit too close to the bone for comfort. The "children's" feelings towards their parents and the feeling of loss and confusion is definitely something that I have felt/ feel with a lot of what happened during my own childhood/ early adulthood, and it was so strange to read some of my own thoughts and feelings through these fictitious characters.

Another subject touched upon was the relationship between the two sisters, Taiwo and Sade. They have a very damaged relationship with a lot of resentment and jealousy - from both sides. Now, although I certainly do not have that kind of relationship with my own older sister, the lack of closeness and the lack of knowing one another, describe us to a tee. We are completely different people, literally opposites ends of the scale, but I still wonder if things could or should be different....

For me, the continuous theme I got from the book was yearning. Yearning for a sense of belonging, yearning for a sense of wanting to be accepted, yearning for a resolution, yearning for happiness. I felt the theme and the subjects throughout the book were dealt with really well by the author; she was sensitive, thoughtful, honest, and hopeful in her writing and I'm in no doubt this book would have been completely different if written by a man. The subject matters talked about were not easy ones and I haven't read many books that deal with them in such a way as to make me think about my own story and how it has shaped me into the person I am today.

However, I'm not going to say that I liked the book in full, in fact, I didn't really get into the book (as in it wasn't an instant page turner for me) until around page 120. I found the beginning incredibly difficult to enjoy. There was a lot of time jumping that at times became quite confusing and hard to keep up with.

All in all I'm glad I stuck with it as I enjoyed it more as I read on.

Don't forget to check out the reviews from my fellow Nerdsville crew:

Charlotte
Cynthia
Marie
Ragini

‘til next time.

Love and hugs,

Isha

xxx

Blog Birthday Giveaway – Simply Be

Hello you lovely lot.

So hopefully you’ll remember me telling you about my second blog birthday in this recent post. I’m so happy to have reached (and now past) two years and I felt it was time to celebrate.

The wonderful people over at Simply Be have been kind enough to gift one lucky winner a dress of up to £75! I’m so excited because I love Simply Be and their generosity never ceases to amaze me, so I’m thrilled to be able to do this giveaway for my readers. All you have to do to win is enter via the Rafflecopter and the lucky winner will be announced back on this post the day after.

The closing date will be midnight (UK time) on July 8^th 2014. Get entering and GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I’d like to thank Simply Be for this giveaway, as it wouldn’t be a blog birthday without you! <3

‘til next time.

Love and hugs,

Isha

xxx

NOTE: Dress chosen will of course be subject to stock availability.