A Royal Engagement

Raise your hand if you are totally obsessed with the recent engagement of Prince William and one Kate Middleton!

Don't worry, my hand is way up high. Seriously, I cannot get enough! I am reading everything I can find about these two lovebirds. (I'm totally over it that Wills didn't choose me. Whatevs.) And I think it is safe to say (because everyone is already saying it) that the soon-to-be Princess Catherine is going to be a style icon to watch. I mean, her navy blue engagement dress is already flying off the racks.

If you are hoping to catch a prince of your own (I hear there are still some out there up for grabs), check out this list of Kate Middleton's 10 Style Essentials. It should be a pretty good start, and there is something for everyone from fancy hats and tailored coats to riding boots and wrap dresses.

And, of course, I think it is safe to say that we are all dreaming along with Kate about what her wedding dress will look like. I mean, I certainly am. And it looks like some top-notch designers are as well. Check out this gallery of sketches of imagined wedding dresses for Kate. Below are a few of my favorites.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to finish my fan letter to Prince Harry. He's still single, right?

Very Thankful

So guess what we just did. No silly, we did not just stuff ourselves with too much food--that's on Thursday's to-do list.

We just made a loan. To this lady here. Here name is Fatima. She has 8 children and she lives in Palestine. She sells clothing to help supplement the income her husband makes working for the National Palestinian Authority.

And just guess who made her loan possible. You. Thank you.

For every person who "likes" our facebook page during this holiday season we'll donate 5 cents to make loans at Kiva. Please, invite your friends to "like" our page. And if you're feeling thankful, make a loan yourself. Join the Shabby Apple lending team and make a loan. You'll be glad you did.

We Have A Winner

As promised, the winner of our Dare To Design contest is going to be announced today, right here on this very blog. But first, a few words from our sponsors. So, basically, me. A few words from me.

Number one. Thank you everyone for your patience with our originally-broken link. That was my bad. And I just wanted to assure everyone, before we went any further, that all the votes left in the comments section were counted. (And no votes were double-counted, despite some of your best efforts. Nice try, cheaters.)

Number two. Thank you everyone who entered our contest! I think I can speak for all of us (except maybe the cheaters) when I say that each dress was lovely and wonderful and comendable and if we could have had 15 winners instead of 1 we would have. Really. I would wear any one of those dresses. (So, if you are looking for something to give me for Christmas. Just saying...)

Number three, our winner is Dress #9, from Sarah at The Good Life. You loved the delicate pleats, the draping sleeves, and the fact that this dress was fashioned out of a vintage skirt. And I cannot blame you one bit. I mean, let's take another look.











Let's have a round of applause for Sarah. (Our people will be getting in touch with your people.)

And now a round of applause for all our other entries!

And now I think I am ready for a nap. How about the rest of you?

Did you make it to the Show?!?

Did you make it to the show yet? If not, there is still time. Head over there now. I mean now.

And the winner of the Moon River dress? It was so fun to read all of your blogs! Thank you for supporting Shabby Apple and if I could have, I would have picked you all as winners. But a random number generator picked won as our winner. Won...you won! Leave a comment to this blog post with an email where I can reach you and we'll send out your dress. Thank you again to all who entered. We feel so loved.

Trunk Much?

I know that when we made the big announcement about our trunk show last week you were all thrilled and excited to come and try on your favorite Shabby Apple dresses (and your soon-to-be new favorites from the holiday line) but maybe you forgot to put it in your calendar or tell all your friends about it. So here is a reminder

And here is some incentive. Post about this event on your blog and you'll be entered to win the Moon River dress from the new line. All you have to do is leave a link to your post in the comment section of this post and you're entered. We'll chose a winner on Saturday morning and post it here. Good Luck! I hope you win and I hope to see you at the Trunk Show.

Closing Time

The voting for our Dare To Design contest has officially closed, and the votes are being counted as we speak. We will have a winner announced on Monday, November 22nd! And then we can all celebrate by eating turkey and pumpkin pie.

A big gracias to all of our designers and a big thanks as well to all of our voters!

We will keep you posted...

Eating Thanks

I keep getting messed up and thinking Thanksgiving is next week, but it's almost next week and then Thanksgiving will be next week. If you follow my drift.

Anyway.

My roommate and I are making Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year, and it will be my first time ever cooking Thanksgiving dinner myself (except not really by myself because of the aforementioned roommate) and I am pretty stoked. Mostly I am stoked because my house means my rules, so no to football and yes to long naps. But also I am stoked because Thanksgiving is delicious and I am dreaming of all the yummy things we are going to make, almost next week!

And maybe my typical Thanksgiving menu is going to be expanded this year, because I came across these two recipes and basically started salivating on the spot. (Which was really embarassing.) Check it.

Apple Pie Pudding Cake with Cider Sauce
from Kate Jensen, pastry chef at Willow in Arlington, VA

1 cup sugar
¼ cup softened butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups diced apples, such as Gala, Fuji, or McIntosh, skin on
½ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the sugar and butter with a mixer on medium speed. Add the egg and vanilla and continue mixing until fluffy. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low until combined. Stir in the apples and walnuts by hand. Bake in a 9-inch pie pan for 45 minutes.

Cider Sauce
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup apple cider
¾ cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter

Place the cornstarch in a small bowl and add ¼ cup of the cider. Stir to dissolve. In a small saucepan, bring the cider/cornstarch mixture, remaining cider, sugar, salt, and vanilla to a boil over medium heat and cook until thickened. Add the butter and stir until melted. Serve warm, drizzled over cake wedges.


Red's Crab Soup
from Shannon Overmiller, chef at Majestic in Alexandria, VA (when you come to visit I will take you there for three words: coconut cream cake.)

2 cups butter, divided
1 cup small-diced onion
½ cup small-diced celery
½ cup flour
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
½ cup sherry
2 quarts half-and-half1 pound jumbo-lump crabmeat, preferably from Maryland
Old Bay seasoning to taste
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

In a large pot set over medium heat, heat 1 cup butter with the onions and celery. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let the onions sweat until they’re translucent and tender. Stir in the flour and cook until it turns a blond color and reaches a smooth consistency. Add the Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces and season to taste with Old Bay. Add the sherry, then let reduce for about 5 minutes. Add the half-and-half and crabmeat, raise the heat, and let the soup reach just below boiling (don’t let it boil). Stir in the remaining butter and check the seasoning. Serve.

Oh, dear. There I go salivating again.

What are your favorite Thanksgiving recipes?

Feeling Trunky?

This is a big announcement, so I invite you to start paying close attention right now.

Are you ready?

Shabby Apple is having a trunk show!

Can you stand it?

A Shabby Apple trunk show means you get to come and try on our gorgeous dresses live and in-person, and walk away with an armful, bag full or car full of your favorites. Including our brand-spanking new line of holiday dresses, All That Jazz.

And I have it on good authority that there are going to be other perks as well. Maybe a raffle, some free dresses and an appearance by Justin Bieber? (OK, one of those things will definitely not be happening. I'll leave it to you to decide which.)

Here are the basics, with more enticing details to follow soon.

What: A Shabby Apple trunk show
When: Friday, November 19th from 1 to 6 p.m. and Saturday, November 20th from 10 to 3 p.m.
Where: The old Jaylynn Studio, 3689 Highland Drive, Salt Lake City
Who: You and everyone you know!

Let's get some new junk in our trunks, shall we? See you there!

Razzle Dazzle Them

True confessions time. I love the movie "Chicago."

Which leads me to another confession. I think Richard Gere is totally dreamy.

And another one. Sometimes I put on little Broadway-style musical performances when I am home by myself, or in the shower (by myself) and sometimes in my car and sometimes in my office if I am working late and sometimes accidentally in the grocery store.

All of which (sort of) brings me to this piece of news: Shabby Apple has launched a new line of vixen-worthy dresses, All That Jazz.

So unleash your inner Roxie Hart (minus the murder, if you please) and try to pick a favorite from among these gems.

All together now! Come on boys, we're gonna paint the town. (Dahn, dahn.)

And all that jazz!

Show Us Your Attitude of Gratitude

The season of gratitude is upon us, and we here at Shabby Apple have a lot to be grateful for. And we bet that you do, too! So, we are going to put our gratitude to the test and give some of those around us a little more to be thankful about themselves. Here to tell you all about it is our very own Sallee Mathews.


I love taking a day to remember to be thankful for all the good things in my life (of course it doesn’t hurt that the food served up on Thanksgiving is INCREDIBLE. If you’re good I’ll share my recipe for gluten free cornbread and goat cheese stuffing. It’s to-die for).


In the spirit of being thankful the CEO of Shabby Apple sent an email to the staff listing some of the many good things we have to be grateful for. Like...

1. Shabby Apple has been in business for almost four years (time flies!).

2. We’ve almost doubled in size every year.

3. We’ve been featured on the TODAY show, Lucky magazine, Shape, Daily Candy, Glamour, Redbook, Marie Claire and People and will be featured in Town and Country and possibly Oprah. I received a personal email from the fashion editor of In Style just the other day.

4. The original plan was to launch three new lines a year. This year we've launched 10 already and we have one more to go.

5. Most importantly, we’ve given SEVERAL THOUSAND women in Third World countries the opportunity to have a micro-credit loans and start a new and better life. Ninety-five percent of women pay these loans back and use them to start their own businesses, which helps them support themselves and lifts them out of poverty. This was the major reason we started Shabby Apple and I know both Emily and I are really happy that it’s working.

6. We’ve provided women with a REAL selection of modest dresses. These dresses are now bought by many women, not just those who deliberately want to be modest. By selling these dresses, we are contributing to helping all women dress in a way that helps them respect themselves and have more respect in their places of work and in their lives.

As we're fond of saying around here, that is not too shabby.

In fact, this email inspired all of us. We love what we do, we love our customers, we love fashion. We've got a whole lot of love going on. We’ve been brainstorming about gratitude and we have some awesome ideas about how to show it (trust me—you’re going to love the Give One: Get One campaign but you have to wait until the new year for that).

For now, we decided to start out simple. For the next 3 months (from now through December 31st) for every new person who “likes” our Facebook page, we’ll donate 5 cents to charity.

Now, you may be thinking, “What in tar-nation can you get for 5 measly pennies and how are they going to make a difference?” Good question. We happen to think that it can do a great deal. There are all kinds of stories to prove that a small effort can make a big different. Don’t believe me? Check this out.

Our goal is to raise at least $25 (that’s 500 new facebook followers). That’s all we need to make a micro-loan at through a really fantastic micro-credit organization called Kiva. I happen to think that we can raise a lot more than $25 but I’d be happy with that. We need you, and your friends and your neighbors and your kids and all your Facebook acquaitances to help us out.

Because really you won't be helping us out. You'll be helping Yung. She’s married, has one child and makes her living as a farmer and a knitter. She needs a loan so that she doesn’t have to carry the water that they use for their fields by hand. You can learn more about her here.

(If you’re inspired by her story or other stories like hers, join the Shabby Apple Kiva team and make a loan of your own. It’s $25 and when your loan is repaid you get to loan it out again.)


If making a $25 loan isn’t in the cards for you today, that’s fine. There’s a really simple thing you can do to show how grateful you are for all the good things you have. If you don’t already “like” Shabby Apple’s page on Facebook, do it today. Right now! Ask your friends to “like” our page too. If we can inspire 5 of you to “like” the page today and send it out to your friends and just 5 of them (only 5 out of the hundreds of friends you have!) “likes” Shabby Apple’s page and tomorrow they send it out to their friends and on and on, in just 4 days we’ll be able to send a loan to Yung. That's just four days to help Yung build a better life. And once we have helped Yung, we'll pick someone else to help. Because we have plenty to go around.

So please “like” our page and ask your friends to do the same. If we can help someone every 4 days that’s more than 20 loans to women who need the help before it’s over.

To "like" Shabby Apple on Facebook, click here.

Thank you, friends. From the bottom of our hearts. And Yung's, too.