Style Saturday - Terrariums

#1 - Faceted Terrarium by West Elm

Photo Credit - West Elm

These geometric terrariums look fantastic when displayed separately or in a collection like shown above. They are available in two different colours; black and gold.

The downside? These beauts are not water tight so are suitable to air mist plants only.

Find them here on West Elm 

#2 Green House Terrarium

Photo Credit: Pottery Barn

When you think of terrariums the first thing that springs to your mind probably won't be this greenhouse style terrarium. So, if you want a terrarium which is a little bit different or perhaps you have a more vintage country look to your house rather than modern then this is the terrarium for you! Instead of geometric shapes in metal this terrarium uses vintage style wood.

I am totally in love with this green house terrarium. The shape and style of it reminds me more of a Wardian Case than a terrarium. The Wardian Case was a kind of early terrarium which was invented by Dr. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (hence the name, Wardian Case). The case was invented in c.1829 in London as a way of transporting plants without them becoming polluted by the smoky city air and as a way to get plants from overseas without them dying before they arrived. 

They soon as become popular within Victorian houses as decoration pieces (and we can see why!)

This terrarium comes in two different sizes and can be found at Pottery Barn 

#3 - Icosidodecahedron terrarium

This terrarium has been beautifully handmade and is available in a variety of sizes and finishes. The terrarium was made by Murat who is a twenty- something year old man from Turkey. He says he " studied psychology and neuroscience but still feed a great interest for crafting, inventing and design". 

Find Murat's beautiful terrarium shop here on Etsy: Waen

#4 - Minimalist Style Terrarium

You can't go wrong with this minimalist style terrarium. It has two compartments so you can make two different collections of plants in one place and it is easy to get into with a little hinged door at the top. If you get bored of having plants in there (not sure why you would!!) it would also look lovely filled with other items such as seashells, candles, pebbles etc.

Find it here at dotandbo
#5 - Terrarium Figures

So you have found your perfect terrarium, now it is time to choose your plants and don't forget your terrarium figures either. You can pick up standard small standing figures for pretty cheap but if you are looking for something a bit more unusual then why not let your imagination run wild and go for something a bit more unusual such as this figure doing a handstand!

There are loads of really cool figures in this Etsy shop which you can find here: 

FaerieNest

Hope you enjoyed reading this blog post!

The Dorothy Days Xx

Christmas Gift Guide - Shopping for Children

Hello everyone!

As you have probably seen on my other social media accounts, I am super super excited about the Dorset Team Christmas Fair. I have been involved with the planning of the fair so have got to know quite a lot about the different stallholders and the products they will be selling so, for this week's Style Saturday post I wanted to share with you a gift guide I put together with some of my favourite products that are coming to the fair. 

Not local to Dorset? Each of these sellers also sell online on Etsy.com so you can also shop online! Hooray!

Buying gifts for children can be rather tricky especially if you are not completely au fait with what the latest trends and 'must have' product is but why not get them something unique this Christmas that you won't find on the high street.

Anna from The Tired Bears makes the most amazing animal tails to help enable children's imagination and promote creative play. She says " A child's imagination is so vivid and need to be nurtured and encourage, and it is so easy to strap the dragon tail around their waist and all of a sudden they are a fire breathing monster!'

Find Anna's shop on The Tired Bears on Etsy 

or, if you are local, please come along to the Dorset Team Christmas Fair on the 5th December and Anna will be bringing along her full range of different tails including unicorns, killer whales and sharks!

How adorable are these?! These circus bears are made by Claire from The Bear in the Hood. Claire also makes and sells personalised children's wear, hand knitted hats, nursery prints and teepee patterns so if you are looking for something a little different this Christmas her shop is a great place to have a look.

Find Claire's shop on Etsy Bear in the Hood

or come along to the Christmas Fair to see more of Claire's work

Get ready to welcome fairies into your home with this toadstool manor by Lizz from Mid Summer Lily.

The toadstool has been hand painted and would make a really lovely decor piece for a child's room. I have heard lots about parents using things like this as a way to comfort children who are struggling to sleep by knowing the fairies will be watching out for them.

Find Lizz on Etsy or at the Christmas Fair

The final product on my gift guide is this personalised vintage style print by Phamie from Fizzy Lemonade.

I chose this as I remember the delight I had when I was younger and someone would buy me something with my name on it. It always felt super exciting and special. This print is something the child can treasure and keep when they grow up and is as much a gift for the parents as it is for the child.

Find Fizzy Lemonade on Etsy or at the Christmas Fair 

Thanks for reading. I hope you have enjoyed reading this post as much as I have enjoyed writing it!

The Dorothy Days X

Hello Autumn - Half Price Sale

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! Autumn is now in full swing so to celebrate I am offering 50% off of my pinecone necklaces.

The offer will last until Sunday and means that my pinecone necklaces are now just £2.50 instead of £5.00 and all will come with a organza gift bag too!

Shipping is just £1 for U.K buyers and slightly more for abroad.

They make a great end of week treat for yourself, a gift for a friend or even a stocking filler gift for Christmas

Please take a look at them in my shop here

Have a great weekend and thank you to everyone who has already purchased :).

Item of the Week: To and From handmade gift tags

It seems that as soon as it turned September people started mentioning Christmas. Not Christmas crazy but just little mentions here and there! I know a lot of crafters (myself included) have started preparing for Christmas. People often ask why we prepare so early. It is because it is such a busy period that we need to try and get lots of items made to be able to keep up with orders so I always try and use August which is a bit of a quieter time to prepare and make new stock. This is also what high street shops do, they prepare their stock way in advance to make sure they have everything prepared. But, unlike highstreet shops I continue making orders and new stock right the way up until Christmas time! I always feel like a bit of a Christmas elf with all the making, gift wrapping and posting!

 For my item of the week this week I wanted to share with you all my handmade gift tags. I have made a few packs of these for my shop recently as they are always popular in the run up to Christmas.

I am going to be making the tags in different colours soon as well including in red and green for Christmas colours and also in brown for a more rustic style. The great thing about the tags is that they can also be used for birthdays, anniversaries etc not just for Christmas.

My 'To: From:' tags are available to purchase over in my Etsy shop. Please view them by clicking here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/200896930/to-from-gift-tags-in-white-luggage-label 

I am always happy to do custom orders. Please contact me if you require a different quantity or in a different colour!

Thanks for reading

The Dorothy Days X

Hello September

Hello everyone,

Can you believe it is September already!? Where did the summer go? I am hoping for some lovely sunny September evenings as lots of August did seem to feel like a bit of a wash out. I really love this time of year as there is a good mix between sunny days and colder autumnal days.

I have sadly lost my lovely bobble hat that I bought last year and was rather in love with so I am on the hunt for a new one. If anyone knows where I can get a lovely warm bobble hat please let me know in the comments section below.

I always feel quite motivated in September. I think it must be years of September being about going back to school that September always feels a bit like the beginning of something so this month I am hoping to get lots achieved particularly with getting my shop prepared for Christmas (eek I know I said Christmas ALREADY!). I also hope to reach 6000 Twitter followers this month. It would be an amazing milestone especially as Twitter is one of my favourite platforms to use. I am currently on 5958 followers so not far off. I would like to get more active on my Instagram page and my Facebook page. I only recently relaunched my Facebook page (a few months ago) so am still trying to get used to posting to it but have really enjoyed being back on Facebook and the interactions I have been receiving. I hope to make lots of new stock for the shop and finally I also hope to keep blogging much more regularly. I do love writing on here and recently have started chatting to other bloggers which is exciting and reading their blogs really makes me want to work more on my own blog!

Big hello to any bloggers reading this, please feel free to leave your blog links in the comment section below, I really enjoy reading other people's blogs.

Got some exciting blog posts coming up. I am going to try and keep the posts quite varied so please expect everything from my ramblings to style posts and from art blog posts to craft tutorials!

Have a great September

The Dorothy Days X

Sunday's need adorable dog photographs so meet Tonkey - possibly the cutest dog ever?!

Hello everyone,

Happy Sunday! I hope you have all had a good week and a relaxing weekend. This week I have been totally obsessed with the cutest dog ever who looks like a little bear! He is just so adorable. So just take 5 minutes out of your day to admire how adorable this little pooch is!!

Meet Tonkey....!

A photo posted by Tonkey Bear (@bearcoat_tonkey) on Jun 14, 2015 at 10:30pm PDT

He is a Shar pei dog and totally adorable!

A video posted by Tonkey Bear (@bearcoat_tonkey) on Jul 7, 2015 at 2:10pm PDT

Oh stop....! How he be so cute?!

A photo posted by Tonkey Bear (@bearcoat_tonkey) on May 31, 2015 at 8:17pm PDT

He is a rather popular puppy and hang outs with some pretty cool dogs!

Hope this has made you smile today!

Thanks for reading

The Dorothy Days Xx 

Happy July!

Happy July everyone!

Hope this month is a great one for you all.

The Dorothy Days Xx

A productive May and only 5 days in!

Hello everyone!

Wow, what a busy May it has already been and we are only 5 days in! Did you all have a wonderful Bank Holiday? Hope you all had a relaxing one and got to spend it doing things you enjoy.

My bank holiday was really busy. I spent the weekend doing shop things and Monday relaxing.

I have high hopes for this month so here is what I have been up to and achieved in the first few days of May, here's hoping May is going to continue to be a great month.


Firstly I reached 1000 followers on my Pinterest page which was super exciting. Big thank you to everyone who has followed me. If you missed my post I wrote the other day about my different pinterest boards please take a look here HERE.

Secondly, super big news..... I RELAUNCHED MY FACEBOOK PAGE!

I have not run my Facebook page for a long time so am super excited to relaunch! I would love if some of you were to pop over to my Facebook page and say hello! The link is here: https://www.facebook.com/thedorothydays

Thirdly, and probably the MOST exciting news...you know the news that I couldn't tell you all yet?! Well, it was that I have been working on a whole new range of items for my shop AND working on a new way to photograph my products. I wanted to make my photographs more consistent as previous I had been using different backgrounds and trying different styles. I am super pleased with how they have come out and have also re-photographed some of the items already in my shop so that the shop looks a lot more uniform.

A before and after photograph showing my improved (I hope!) shop photography.

Here are some of my new products and also the new shop photography. What do you all think ? I hope you like them and please keep checking back in my shop as I am adding even more new listings.

Thank you so much for all your support and for reading my blog too.

The Dorothy Days Xx

Style Saturday: I am very busy....drinking coffee!

Style Saturday - Watercolour painted Easter Eggs

Does anyone else like hand painting eggs at Easter time? This is something we love to do in my household and try and be as creative with it as possible. It is a lot of fun! So for this week's style saturday I wanted to share with you all these incredibly creative Easter eggs which have been painted using watercolours. Aren't they beautiful?

Hope you all are having a wonderful Easter weekend

The Dorothy Days Xx

Dorset Team Autumn Fair and Christmas Fair - Christchurch and Wimborne

 Hello everyone,

For anyone reading my blog from Dorset I just wanted to remind you all that the Dorset Team, a group of small shop owners who sell their wares on Etsy.com, will be holding two craft fairs this Autumn/ Winter. 

Do you love handmade items? The Autumn Craft Fair will be in Christchurch and will have 40 stallholders selling a variety of different products. Dorset Team Autumn Craft Fair - Click here to view the event page which will give you more information about our fair and also a taster of some of the products to expect at the fair.

Looking to buy from independent sellers this Christmas and pick up some really unique gifts? Our Dorset Team Christmas Fair on the 6th December 2014 is the perfect opportunity to do so! Please click here for more information. The link will take your to our Facebook event page. This fair will have 80 stalls again selling a variety of different handmade and vintage items as well as some wonderful festive themed items.

Both events are not to be missed! Please come along and say hello, there will also be an opportunity to speak to Etsy sellers and gain advice about starting up your own shop and gain some more information about what the Dorset Team is about.

The Dorothy Days Xx

This or That Thursday - Summer vs Winter

Photo Credit - Thank you so much to Nikos Koutoulas and Jarek Zok (Flickr)

Please leave a reply in the comment section with what you prefer; summer or winter.....

Lots of Rosy Apples - The Dorothy Days summer necklaces

Hello everyone,

Hope you all have been having a wonderful week so far! Well now that summer is here I thought I would start filling my shop with lovely summery jewellery.

One of my favourite summery items which I listed recently was this awesome apple necklace!

I love it for many reasons including....

*The charm is 3D and I think that is pretty awesome if I may say so myself!
*It reminds me of my sister whose nickname used to be Apple
*It looks good enough to eat and is just a really pretty and unusual necklace
and finally....
*It reminds me of that primary school song about 'rosy apples on a tree' ....ah...memories!

Love it too? Take a look at it in my shop by clicking this link

The Dorothy Days Xx