Feature Friday- Oui Vintage

Hello everyone,

I have not done a Feature Friday blog post for aaaaaaaaaaages so I thought it would be nice to do one again as they are lots of fun and I like to give other shops exposure. So today I am going to feature a very lovely shop run by Maggie, a childrens librarian California. She has been collecting vintage since the 80's and has just set up her shop but already it looks fantastic!!! Her shop is called....

Here is a selection of my favourite things from her shop......

This skirt is fab!! It is simple and understated but also has so much elegance about it Check it out here

How fabulous is this 1970s blouse?! Such a fun print...I love it! Click here to view in Maggies shop

I also love this cute 1980s sundress. Would look fantastic with a big pair of sunglasses!

Hope you have enjoyed this feature and please be sure to take a look in the rest of Maggies shop, she has some beautiful vintage clothes.

The Dorothy Days Xxx

Lovely things that happened last week....

• The sun put his hat on :) and we had beautiful blue skies over Brighton.
• Beautiful little lambs were born on my friends farm and more are on their way. They are so perfect.
• Lovely cups of tea, lunches and catch ups with friends.
• I got views on my blog from all around the world including Mecca.....how cool is that?! Big hello to all my followers from around the globe :) thanks for viewing my blog
• Spring flowers started to bloom
• Homemade banoffee pie.....need I say more!!

What lovely things happened to you this week?

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The Dorothy Days quote of the week

Hello everyone,

This made me smile especially because of the photograph! Haha. Hope it makes you smile too and have a great week.

via

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Painting of the week- Portrait of Andrea Odoni by Lorenzo Lotto

Hi everyone,

Hope you have had a great week so far and had a wonderful Valentine's day. The painting of the week for this week is this beautiful painting by Lorenzo Lotto, a Venetian artist from the 16th century. 

Portrait of Andrea Odoni by Lorenzo Lotto 1527 Oil on Canvas. Royal Collection Hampton Court

Lorenzo Lotto

Lorenzo Lotto was an Italian painter and draughtsman born in Venice. He was from the same generation as other great artists who were working in Venice such as Titian and Giorgione.

Lotto was quite a traditional artist especially when compared to artists such as Titian and Giorgione. His main output was devotional pieces, altarpieces and portraits such this portrait of Andrea Odoni.

He never received the fame and fortune of artists such as Titian and the Bellini brothers and his style was unique from them. It is only in modern times that his innovations and unique style has been recognised as examples of how Venetian artists were often in dialogue with artists from northern Europe such as Durer who was known for his realism.

Lorenzo's Portraits

Painted a large amount of portraits that were unique in style to that of his contemporaries but also followed on from the refashioning of portraiture during this period with artists such as Titian and Giorgione who worked in Venice as well as Leonardo and Raphael who were working in Florence. His work was different because it focused more on the subject matter and the figure rather than the colours in the painting. Venetian painters were particularly known for their use of colour so Lotto was going against the norm. As with this portrait, his sitters usually look straight out at the viewer as if to confront them and their gaze.Through his portraits, Lorenzo tried to tell the viewer as much about the sitter as possible. He did this through clothing and jewellery, the setting and also a person's physiognomy which is when the a person's character and personality is judged by the way they look and their outward appearance. There was a believe that the outwards appearance of someone reflected their inner personality. 

Andrea Odoni

This portrait is of Andrea Odoni who was a Milanese merchant who came to Venice and spent most of his life living in the city. He was a collector of artistic treasures including sculptures from antiquity and modern bronzes. Some of the sculptures from antiquity which were collected by Odoni can be seen in this portrait showing how Lorenzo used material objects to inform the viewer about Odoni as a person. He has a large beard and soft features which were meant to show his sensitivity which is one way in which an outwards appearance of a person was meant to reflect their inner personality.

Odoni holds a statuette of Diana of Ephesus. This shows the influence of the East on Venetian artists such as Lotto because she was an Eastern deity. Diana has a multitude of breasts so is a figure that has often been associated with fertility and the earth. 

Odoni wears furs and a large coat with puffed satin arms which illustrate his wealth. The sculpture collection is meant to show that Odoni is wealthy, educated and knowledgeable on antiquity (something that was prized in the Renaissance when this painting was painted) 

Hope that you enjoyed the painting of the week for this week.

The Dorothy Days 

Sources:

Grove Art Online and this article by Johnathan Jones

Abandoned buildings photos

Collection of photographs of abandoned buildings

Photograph by astanita

Photograph by Kim Hill

Photography by Craig Finlay

Photograph by vintagequeen

Photograph by boklm

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The Dorothy Days' quote of the week: Charlie Chaplin

Hello everyone :),

To start the week this week I thought we would have a nice and cheery quote from Charlie Chaplin as my quote of the week. I hope this makes your Monday a little brighter and that you all have a wonderful week.

Via

Do you have a favourite quote? Please let me know in the comment section below

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Happy Valentines

Hello everyone :)

Hope you had a fantastic weekend. Can't believe that it is Valentines day this week. It has come around so fast. Is anyone doing anything nice for it ?

Today I was lucky enough to be featured in a beautiful Valentine's treasury by another Etsy seller. It is so pretty and has loads of amazing items in it that I thought I would share it with you all. I hope that you love it as much I do :). My earrings are the ones on the far right on the top row :) 

'Valentines' by nchiundiza

Paper Mache Handmade De... etco $15.00	FABITORIA digital print... FABITORIA $380.00	Antique Valentines Day ... RetroVintageBa... $1.50	rose earring rose jewel... TheDorothyDays $4.00
Brass Unicorn Bookends ... genrestoration $62.00	The 'Foxglove' ... IsabelKnowles $130.00	Charlie ohGoodHEAVENS $37.00	Antique 1935 Garden Flo... SimonEtCie $24.00
Mens Pink Grey and Blac... MaikoVintage $24.50	vintage 1940s valentine... sonnetandbough $6.00	Carved Coral Roses, Aqu... CoralandRose $55.00	Florence (short) RobinMacKillop $110.00
vintage 1940s bullet br... sonnetandbough $48.00	RESERVED. black chantil... persephonevint... $565.00	Valentines Day Sale / 1... HopscotchandSo... $63.00	1920s Pop Up Die cuts ... LaMeowVintage $21.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

Hope that you all have a wonderful week and happy valentines day to you all. Even if you do not have a partner please send your love to your loved ones :). 

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The Dorothy Days' painting of the week

Hi everyone,

My painting of the week for this week is

Girls Running, Walberswick Pier by Philip Wilson Steer 1888- 94

Philip Wilson Steer was a member of the New English Art Club (discussed in my previous blog post) and this painting was in the 1892 NEAC exhibition. Steer was born in Merseyside, England. He studied Art at the Gloucester school of art and also the South Kensington Drawing School but was rejected by the Royal Academy and went to Paris. The painting was revolutionary at the time and Avant Garde. This work has similarities with the work of the French Impressionist but places equal importance on the figures as it does the landscape.

The painting has similarities with the work of Seurat, a French Post-Impressionist painter who developed a style known as Pointillism. Pointillism is a technique which involves placing lots of small dots of pure, unmixed colour on the canvas. The idea is that from a distance the small dots mix together to form lots of different tones and form a complete picture.

This painting is A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat where you can see the pointillist style. The painting is made up of tiny little dots of pure colour wbich blend together when looking at it from a distance. Up close you can see all the small dots of pure colour, below is an up close detail from another of Seurat's paintings when you can see the different dots of colour.

Detail from one of Seurat's paintings where you can see the pure dots of colour.

When viewed from a distance this painting would look similar to the La Grande Jatte as the different colours would blend together. 

The painting is of Walberswick Pier in Suffolk, England. Walberwick is a village and is known as a place with attracts residents from the arts, film and media. It was a place visited frequently by the English Impressionists from the NEAC. The painting shows two girls running towards to viewer on the pier. They were originally holding hands but this has been altered. However, if you look in their shadows Steer has left them holding hands with one another. Unlike many of the French Impressionist works this painting was not painted en plein air (outside on the spot) but instead was painted from memory in the studio. Steer captures the pier on a sunny afternoon.

I think the painting is beautiful, it was a wonderful sense of movement and I love the afternoon light as well.

The Dorothy Days 

Spring is here- Lambs!

Hey everyone :)

Hope that you have all had a wonderful week. Can't believe that it is the weekend already!! This week has been an exciting one because spring finally feels like it is here. I have spotted my first snowdrops, the sun has had his hat on for the last few days and the sheep on my friend's farm have had lambs! I am hopefully going to go and see them next week. There are 5 so far and more to come soon.....how exciting is that?!
Here is a photograph of them when they are about 1 hour old, they are so cute. Hopefully get loads of photographs for you all when I go and stay next week :)

Hope that you like the photograph and thank you all for continuing to follow my blog :).

What have you all been up to this week?

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The Dorothy Days- Quote of the week- Einstein

via

Have a wonderful week everyone :)! Anyone have anything nice planned?

The Dorothy Days Xx

Vintage style hair tutorial video

Hello everyone :),

I thought it would be fun to share with you all today this fantastic vintage style hair tutorial that I found on Youtube. It is not too complicated but is perfect for those of you who love the vintage/ retro look and want to know have to achieve it easily.




If anyone does try it out I would love to see the results so please feel free to post a photo or let me know how you got on :).

Hope you all are having a wonderful day :)

Best wishes to you all and thanks for stopping in and checking out my blog

The Dorothy Days

A funny old place called Brighton!

Hello lovely blog readers!

I have noticed with my blog that I have been getting lots of views from outside of the U.K which is amazing and makes me smile so much that people are actually reading my blog from different places around the world. The majority of my readers used to be from the United States but recently I have had a huge increase in the amount of Russian blog readers, so much so that the Russia makes up my biggest percentage of blog readers! Some of the other places in which people have been reading from include Lativa, India, Germany, Australia, Canada, Sudan, Pakistan and Finland :) ! So exciting to have readers from all over the world.

I thought it might be nice for my blog readers who aren't familiar with the U.K to find out a little bit about where I am from. I know that I always love being nosy and finding out about where other people live so I thought it would be fun to give you a mini tour of Brighton which is where I live. Brighton is a sea side city on the south coast of England. I absolutely adore Brighton, it is a beautiful place to live and has such character and charm as it is a bit quirky and unique (and yes I know I am ever so slightly bias but it is beautiful!)

I originally was going to do the tour of Brighton in one big blog post but I think that might be a bit of an image over load because I will get far too excited and carried away!! So instead I will show you Brighton bit by bit over several different blog posts :) . I hope you shall enjoy this. Would love to hear about where you are from as well and what it is like where you live so please get in contact by leaving me a comment in the section below.

First up for my Brighton tour is one of the most iconic places in Brighton, the pier.

Photograph- Dan Taylor

You couldn't get much more British seaside than this. Think fish and chips, old school lights (there are 67,000 light bulbs illuminating the pier) , fairground rides and lots of lovely benches to sit on and look out to the sea. Building started on the pier in 1891 and it was opened in 1899. It is rather famous and has been in many films and TV series. I love to wander down there and have fish and chips down by the sea as a treat in the summer time. It is also lovely to go on at night as you can look back towards Brighton.

Photograph- Mac Ivan

Another photograph of Brighton Pier in all its glory :) ! It normally has lots of seagulls swooping over head and trying to find spare fish and chips to nibble on!

This and next 2 photographs credit to: pahudson

One of the rides which you can go on. I used to love going on these when I was younger. So much fun!

Yummy lolly pops which shows the Helta Skelta on Brighton Pier and also Brighton sticks of rock. YUM!

Photo credit: adactio

and of course it wouldn't be a proper British seaside without fish and chips!!! You can buy fish and chips all over Brighton and it is particularly popular down by the pier. In the summer lots of people go down to the beach and sit and eat fish and chips while looking out to the sea.

Hope this has given you a little insight to the place that I call home!!! 

The Dorothy Days Xx