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

DIY - Knot Crop Top

Hello everyone,

I know that lots of my blog readers are creative and crafty type of people so I thought I would share a DIY tutorial with you all today. I really like this DIY idea as it is simple, quick to make, cheap and doesn't need any materials or tools apart from a pair of scissors and an old tank top!

How to make a knot crop-top ....

I also think the top looks really cute when it is just tasselled or when it just has some of the first few knots rather than knots all the way down. You could also experiment with dip dying it in a coloured dye for an ombre effect or bleaching it on the fringe.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial, let me know in the comments below if you do attempt to make this, I would love to hear all about it or tweet me

The Dorothy Days X

New month new me? - The Dorothy Days return to blogging!

Hello everyone,

Well it has been a very long time since I last blogged on here (sorry!!!) and I miss it! The shop has been very busy and my Twitter account very active and I have been involved recently in some really interesting projects so I have been finding little time for my blogging and my blog has taken a bit of a back seat. Blogging is something I really enjoy so I have decided to try to start it up again and find time in my day to do some blogging. I miss the lovely comments I used to get from readers and also doing the research of fun things to put on the blog. 

Going to set myself a blogging challenge of 2 posts a week and see how I go from there. Hopefully once it becomes part of my routine I will be able to find time in my week to do it and it will also be something I enjoy doing.

Anyone else setting themselves any blogging goals? Would love to hear from you and what they are, please leave a comment below.

Here is to a fresh blogging start and an active blog!

The Dorothy Days Xx

Happy Birthday Hokusai

Happy birthday Katsushika Hokusai (born 31st October 1760) !

The Great Wave off Kanagawa - Hokusai - woodcut - c1829 - 32

Above is his most famous work, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Isn't it just beautiful? To celebrate his birthday I thought I would share with you all 5 facts about Hokusai

1. Over the course of his life Hokusai used over 30 different names (this was common with Japanese artists of this period but not to this extent!) 
2. His work, and Japanese art in general, was hugely influential to the Impressionists. Many of these artists collected Hokusai's woodcuts including  Degas and Gauguin.
3. Shortly before his death aged 89 he is quoted as saying "If heaven gives me ten more years, or an extension of even five years, I shall surely become a true artist." 
4. The Great Wave off Kanagawa is part of a series called Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji in which Hokusai recorded mount Fuji in varying weather conditions, at different distances and in different seasons. The 36 woodcuts were printed in a publication of his work but were so popular that another 10 were later added.
5. Hokusai's style changed many times throughout his artistic career and sometimes as frequently as from one painting to another.

The Dorothy Days

Pinch punch first of the month!

Pinch punch first of the month!!! White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits!

Just wanted to say, I hope that May is a wonderful month for you all and that much luck and prosperity will come your way :). The sun is shining, there are blue skies and the birds are tweeting....looks like this month is going to be a good one. Best of luck to all my followers who are currently taking exams and handing in final papers. I hope that you are still getting to enjoy some of the sunshine.

Dominic Alves

The Dorothy Days 

Things my followers love about where they live

Hello everyone,

I posted a little while ago about my favourite things about living in the English countryside and asked to hear what you guys love about where you are from. I had some wonderful responses from lots of different places around the world, was really lovely to read all the responses. Thanks so much for sharing and I thought I would share a few here:

Zoe from stone tree jewelry said:
I'm in a rather rural part of the United States in the gorgeous state of Maine. It's fall foliage season here and we had our first wood fire weeks ago. Not for everyone, but I love it! :)

One of my favourite things about Autumn is coming inside slighty chilly and warming up infront of a lovely log fire so I was so glad that Zoe posted this as some of the things she loves most about where she lives.


Grace left me this lovely reply:

I live in a rural part of California's Gold Country and we are enjoying Indian Summer, still in the 90's here this week and tomorrow is October! I love this time of year, just before the Fall season kicks in. The trees are already turning and things are settling in, with the squirrels bustling about, the birds are especially happy and enjoying the birdbath daily. It is fun to watch them take turns. Mama deer and 2 of her triplets came through the yard last evening, and I am sure #3 was nearby.
The weather is mild enough that my hubby and I enjoy our back porch in the evenings after sundown.
I enjoy hearing about your country life too - Life is Good!

Can't believe its still in the 90s over there!!! WOW!! The last few days weeks here in the U.K have been rain, rain and more rain and quite cold so I am really jealous! Having a deer family visit  must be amazing, we do have deer up the back of the garden which leads into the woods but they very rarely venture down close enough to the house for me to get a good look. I usually see them while driving home at night along the country roads.

Jayne from handmadecuties said:

 Hmmm...I loved where I used to live and I'm settled where I live now. Sleeping with the windows wide open, the sound of bull frogs at night, the cool morning air are the things I miss most about my old home.

These are the things that I like most about where I now live...
*I can make a quick trip to the grocery store a couple minutes away.
*Although traffic is bad, I get to cut off the freeway and reach my home without getting stuck in the really horrendous traffic.
*I, at least, have a little fenced in back yard for my dog to run around.
*The inside of our home has a great set-up with lots of space.
*I have a garden.

I think I want to move now...Can I come and live with you?

Living more in town must have its perks as well, I am slightly less rural now than I used to be but it used to be a 24 mile round trip just to get to the supermarket which was a bit of a nightmare if you forgot anything!!!

I will feature the rest of the replies in my next blog post and if anyone else would like to add what they love about where they live I would love to hear from you too :), please leave me a message in the comment section below and let me know where you live and why you love it :)

Thanks again for all my lovely comments, I really love reading them and so interesting to hear about where you all come from. Makes me want to do loads of travelling and see all these different places!

Have a great weekend

The Dorothy Days Xx

Inspirational Quote of the week : George Eliot

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

- Mary Anne Evans (Under the pen name of George Eliot) 

Mary Anne Evans/ George Eliot (1819-1880) was a English novelist who was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era.  

Hope that you all have a great week.

The Dorothy Days 

 

5 things I love about the countryside....

Hi everyone,

I thought I would do another 5 things blog post so this week. I am lucky enough to live in the beautiful English countryside in a really rural location so this week I am doing 5 things I love about the countryside.

1) You can see the stars and they shine really brightly as everything else is dark around and there isn't so much light pollution. Where I live there are no street lights and the nearest town is about 10 miles away so on a clear night the sky looks incredible.

2) Not having shops or entertainment on your doorstep means you have to find your own entertainment which results in a lot of fun and enjoying the landscape around you. I love going down to the beach or going on a walk through the woods with friends. Means there are no distractions and it is perfect for catching up.

3) Local produce! In the garden we have lovely apples and also other types of fruit but just down the road is a farm who sell the most wonderful local produce in one of their outbuildings. They sell local meat, honey, biscuits, fruit and vegetables, amazing jams etc. There is also a lady who has her own chickens and sells their eggs out the front of her house. The eggs are about as free range as you can get!

4) Community spirit. It is wonderful to see how much of a community there is and how willing they are to help each other out. When our lawnmower broke down and the grass in the garden was getting rather long we had a knock on the door and a neighbour offered to cut the grass for us.

5) Living in such a beautiful area makes me smile nearly every day. It is so quiet and peaceful here and although I love to visit the city and make regular trips to London, it is wonderful to return to the countryside. I can't wait for the leaves on the trees to start changing colour and for us to have the log burner in the evenings.

What do you love most about where you live?

The Dorothy Days

Wordless Wednesday- Vegetable Patch

Hope you all are having a great week.

The Dorothy Days

Hello :)

Hi everyone :), Some of you might have noticed that there was no feature Friday yesterday. Sorry about this but I have been rather rushed off my feet with preparations for a craft fair that I am doing :) ! Next week I have a really exciting feature Friday planned which I hope shall make it up to you all :) hehe! Have a wonderful weekend :) Giveaway winner shall be announced TOMORROW, I am so excited. Best wishes The Dorothy Days

The Dorothy Days features... Fancy Dodo

Hi everyone :),

Today is Friday so that means.......FEATURE FRIDAY :) ....Horray!!

This week I am really excited to be featuring Lora from

Lora is originally from Bostom but has spent her first year away from home this year living in L.A. Her Etsy shop is called Fancy Dodo and she started selling under that name from last year. The common thread with her items is that she takes thing that would otherwise be extinct and repurposes them to be fancy again. Hence the name, Fancy Dodo. Creativity must run in the blood as Lora is mostly inspired by her Nana who gracefully multitasked on many creative projects - making jam, painting, sewing costumes and holiday dresses for her grandchildren, and putting on family dinners for 30.

Lora sells a range of items but her friends fell in love with her earrings so they have become her primary product. She started collaging comic and magazine images onto bottle caps in college because they were the two things which she had in abundance!

I love seeing items repurposed so Lora's bottle cap earrings really caught my eye when I visited her shop. Here are some of my favourites

 How cute are these ? Taken from an 80s film

I also love these ones which have such french summer colours :)

Lora is doing her first craft fair at the end of the month which she has been busy making items for :). I think Lora will do really well as she has such lovely and quirky items :). She says that after she finishes the craft fair her shop will be restocked so keep checking back to see lots of new items!

Please be sure to take a look at Lora's shop.

Hope you all enjoyed this week's feature

Have a wonderful weekend

The Dorothy Days X

Tutorial- How to make a fabric flower

Hello everyone,

I hope that you all have had a great week. I have spent mine preparing for a craft fair, catching up with old friends who I had not seen for a long time, going for a walk and then fish and chips on the seaside and trying to enjoy every second of sunshine as the weather is still a bit up and down!

Today I am very excited to have my first ever guest post which has been written by Ariella who runs the blog Haus of Ariella and also an Etsy shop. She has written a fabulous tutorial on how to make a fabric flower for you all to enjoy.

The Dorothy Days Xx

How to make a fabric flower  (great for putting on bags, hair clips etc)

One of the ways in which the fabric flower can be used

Materials:
-Fabric - light to medium weight fabrics work best; I used satin for this tutorial
-Needle and matching thread
-Large button for the center
-Hot glue gun
-Scissors
-Paper for the template



Step 1:

Step 1

Decide what size you would like your flower to be. The one I made was about 4 inches across and the inner petals were about 2.5 inches across. Measure two circles - one for the large petals and one for the smaller ones - on a piece of paper with the diameter you'd like your flower to be as the large petal template and about 60% of that size for the diameter of the small petal template. Cut them out.

Step 2:

Step 2

Step 2

Fold one of your templates in half over your fabric and cut around the template so that you end up with a circle of fabric. Cut 5 of the large circles and 4 of the small ones.

Step 3:

Step 3

Step 3

Take one of the circles and fold it in half with the right side of the fabric (the side you want showing) on the outside. Thread your needle and put a knot in one end of the thread. Make a line of fairly small stitches close to the rounded edges of your circle, going through both layers. Pull the thread tight to gather the fabric and tie off the other end of the thread as well. Repeat with all of the circles.

Step 4:

Step 4

Take your 5 large petals and sew them together in a circle with the petals slightly overlapping. Do the same thing for the small petals.

After completing step 4 your flower should look like this

Step 5:

Step 5

Take your circle of small petals and sew it on top of your circle of large petals.

Step 6: 

Step 6- The final finished piece!

Take your button (which should be large enough to cover the hole in the middle of the petals) and put hot glue on the edges, then place it in the middle of the flower.

Congratulations! You now have a cool fabric flower to put on purses, hair clips, or whatever else your heart desires!