Nocturnal Blooms + Giveaway

This last week has been a busy one - full of craptastic morning sickness, teething babies and the exhaustion that comes from a continuous massive lack of sleep. I'm barely surviving to be honest. Sometimes motherhood is the best thing in the world and other times I want to lock myself in the nearest jail cell and scream my lungs out while banging my head up against a concrete wall, asylum style. Or run away to Barbados. I've considered that.

Because of my lack of enthusiasm and energy for anything even slightly productive, I have let blogging fall by the wayside a bit which means I've got quite the little pile of Islamic designer clothing waiting to be reviewed, three different giveaways to start (you'll enjoy the prizes) and lots of personal pictorial posts to catch up on. Even writing back to emails is taking me a couple of days to get through instead of the usual same day response I aim for. Just so tired and unmotivated of late, I guess.

I've got this Sunday's Langston Hues & Alif Arts Hub event in Perth to attend and speak at (who else is going to this exciting day?!) and once that is done I plan on getting through the stack of work I need to break down. 

To add on to this already fun mix of sickness and stress, for some reason the heavy fatigue that usually hits me in my last trimester has decided to hurry itself up and haunt my 3.5 month pregnant body early. Speaking of pregnancy, I've reached that dreaded point in fetus growing where my normal clothes no longer fit. I've got one pair of pants that just do up but everything else has been cast aside for the meantime in favour of maxi dresses, abayas and anything else that doesn't suffocate my uterus. 

Mexican based company Alhelí SG helped me out in this department by custom making me one of their pretty abayas. I ended up going for the Nocturnal Blooms design because A) florals and B) You should know me by now. I was also given a scarf but will show you that at a later date when I've found the right outfit for it. 

The dress is made up of two layers - the top being the lace and the black stretchy opaque lining being the second. Thanks to the stretchiness, this dress will allow my stomach to grow comfortably as the baby grows (or if I eat a lot of pies in one go which wouldn't exactly be a stretch for me). It isn't meant to be a maternity dress but lucky for me the fabric suits this purpose tremendously. 

The dress is comfy and is one of those pieces that will work well in both summer and winter depending on how you wear it. Although still in summer here, I did have to layer up with a belt and a crochet vest because I felt like I needed to break up the pattern a bit to make it more wearable. 

I love the print, the lace and the colours but most of all I adore it because it is trés girly and you know how I love the feminine.

On a side note, I really ought to get out in the sun more. I know being Irish blooded means I'm not exactly going to naturally ride the tan train any time soon, but I didn't realise I looked so deathly white. Michael Jackson post-sugery white. Albino white. Glow in the dark white. Bring on the Casper jokes...

Alhelí SG are giving one MissHijabi.com reader a designer dress or abaya of their choice! All you have to do to enter is:

1. Go to their website and choose the dress or abaya you want to win
2. Follow @AlhelíSG and @MissHijabi_blog on Instagram
3. Like Alhelí SG and MissHijabi.com on Facebook
4. Leave a comment below letting me know either your instagram or Facebook name and your choice of dress.