'an atelier of sorts'...

well it has been nearly 2 weeks since i turned our Mossy Shed upside down and near on 3 since a serendipitous moment led me to the epiphany which led me to my 'turning everything upside down' mode...

i have quite the journey still to take but i am doing a little something towards it each and every day

and on the days when i feel a little overwhelmed i step back and remind myself that all good things take time and this is part and parcel of creating 'an atelier of sorts'. and quite honestly if all i have in life to feel overwhelmed by is shifting my business to a different location in my shed and online, then i should count my lucky stars.

as much as i had hoped, and indeedy i came tres close to signing on a dotted line, my atelier of sorts is not outside of Mossy Shed but inside, shrouded by yards of lace and fabrics and i will do muchly of my atelier businessy busy stuff upon the world wide web. 

at the moment, my man is spending short bursts of quality time finding just the right place to call home, where upon we will work at building an online atelier of sorts for dottie angel. 

(that's quite funny really, because if you were to read the first part of that sentence and no more, it would imply my man has had enough, can no longer deal with living in a world of florals and lace and is looking for a new home. and who would blame him, especially now the 'walls' have gone up in the middle of our downstairs living area) 

my new online home will house the three things which make me most happy, 

handcrafted, 

vintage 

and 

eclectic

 wares 

and i am hopeful this step is but a small step in the right direction, so when i do sign upon the dotted line for a bricks and mortar atelier of sorts i will be already up and running online, ready to make a jolly good go of things

of course there are days i have looked at the jumbly bumbly which surrounded me and declared i was mad to think i could ever do this. and the days when boxes have turned up filled with eclectic goodness and i wonder if others will wish to purchase what makes my little heart sing. 

again i note, Mr Doubter sitting on my shoulder causing me to stumble.

and then there are days which lead into late nights, where i am in my happy place, choosing only to have high hopes and see through rose coloured specs. yes those are the besty best days and the ones that will see me through to september and the launch of dottie angel's 'atelier of sorts'...

with a little help from my clan and my critters, of course :)

a 'country living spring fair' tickets giveway...

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED

i have never ever in all my born days been to a Country Living Fair. i would very muchly like to go one day just to see. my mother~in~law kindly gives me a prescription to their magazine for my birthday and i do look forward to the day it arrives in my mail box so i may rest a while upon the couch with berry tea in hand, small critter on lap and breath in a bit of my home country. indeedy this is why i call it a prescription and not a subscription because it truly is a remedy for my aching 'missing home' heart at times...

recently i was asked if i would like some tickets to go, well being across a pond it was not to be, but i did think perhaps a reader may like them instead. and then the very nice folks at CL Fair Headquarters said they had a spiffy code which gives a discount off the cost of a ticket for everyone. oh hurrah hooray! well that seems quite fine and dandy i thought to myself.

so for all the nitty gritty on the CL Spring Fair in london this coming March 19th ~ 23rd you may wish to visit over here where you can read all about the peachy things that go on at the fair. things like crafting workshops, garden features and theatre, along with lifestyle theatre. 

(alas Mr Spell Checker is not happy, he wants me to write theater, but i note CL has theatre. i am confused, i have lived too long in a foreign land with foreign ways to spell the non foreign words i know. it is all a little confusing for someone of my grand age, things blur and time has erased the knowledge i once had for spelling the english word)  

from having a jolly good ganders at their website myself, i noted there are many folks to visit, listen and learn from and also quite the spectacular array of stalls to browse. a true jolly day out i have no doubt.

if you would like to win a pair of tickets then please leave a comment along with your contact details so me and my trusty buddy from CL Fair Headquarters may pick a winner on Monday 3rd March.

and if you cannot wait to see if you won, then you can book tickets now using the spiffy special discount code Blog10 to save. tickets are available by calling 0844 848 0150 or you can find everything online here.

of course this isn't the most thrilling of giveaways if you happen to live miles away, or in another part of the globe, a bit like moi. but none the less, i do feel it is quite a cheery one for those living in the old uk who have had quite the terrible time of late with the wintery ways of weather. 

righty ho, i think that is is, if it is not, then it is what it is and will have to do...

footynote:
oooh! no that is not it. not in the least... please note i moderate my comments so you only need to leave one comment and i will check comments once a day. please do not fret if you do not see your comment appear straight away, i promise you it will not get lost, it is safely waiting patiently for me to check and publish :)

a rare sort of dumptie...

on monday i had quite the marvelous good fortune to stumble across a dumptie at the thrift store. 

it has been quite the while since a dumptie has found me and i must confess i have no excuse for entertaining the thought of rescuing a dumptie from the shelves of despair when our shed overflowth with dumpties

please note, this may look to some like i took the picture of the dumptie in the thrift store but i did not

however when one is faced with a dumptie of the utmost rarest kind, what is one supposed to do, "walk away from the dumptie" the little voice wisely advised me. "tis a rare old dumptie and so terribly useful" the other little voice wisely tempted me. this was so true for how often does a dumptie become a handy dandy basket to house all manner of crappity crap. 

(actually i am quite sure its not as rare as i have told myself but as i have never stumbled upon one such as this myself, i conclude it is rare to me, thus justifying my need to rescue a dumptie such as this)

upon arriving home with dumptie in hand i noted in the good old days i would have rushed to the drawer, seized my trusty paint brush in my mitt and got busy with a lickity lick of paint. but no, not now, no sirree, my wild and wielding paint brush days may be behind me! shock horror! oh how far i have come, or fallen, i do not know, nor do i care... for i have decided to ponder the fate of my dumptie, i cannot deny my attraction to his 'au naturelle' attire and am thinking he may just stay as he is.

so far together we have passed a few moments considering a roundie cushion for maximum comfort, 

moving onto thoughts of a tray  

to make him into a handy dandy side table dumptie

and of course finding something to fill up his inners, whilst i ponder his fate

ah yes, indeedy quite the rare on he is

handy dandy project sacks...

despite my distracted ways of late i have high hopes of popping some handmade goodness upon the dusty old shelves of my little etsy store this coming march. 

it has been quite the while and after adding a few sweeties in the next few weeks, it will be quite the while again if at all. for a cunning plan is being plotted and planned as i tippity tap this, the sort of cunning plan that turns a Mossy Shed upside down...

i am most happy with the handy dandy project sacks complete with a handy dandy dottie angel notebook and pencil. 

i am having to use all my willpower not to keep a project sack for myself. 

they have sat upon my table for several weeks now and it is all i can do not to stuff my yarny project in one, to keep it safe and snug.

i tell myself this is not the doings of someone trying hard to be more responsible and grown up when it comes to their work and their shop. 

as a reward for not caving in and wearing my 'responsibility' bonnet day and night, i have given myself a pencil all of my own and upon using it the other day to scribble notes i noted just how well it scribbled and much to my delight, the eraser was not pants at all

and the winner is...

oh yes indeedy! i know i have been a little distracted of late, however not so much i forgot what day we are on. 

no sirree! we are on 'giveaway day' again.

and the lucky dearie to win this little string of hearty goodness is....

dah dah dah dah daaaaaah 

Gaile Alexander

hurrah hooray for Gaile!

"I go to pick up my 5yr.old granddaughter at school every Wednesday afternoon, and when I walk into her classroom, see her sweet smile my heart skips a beat.  Then she runs to me, with arms open wide, my heart swells with love.  we do arts and crafts after I get her home, we have so much fun together."

and this is just so perfectly perfect because quite honestly i am hopeful one day i will be a granny just like Gail and get to craft every wednesday afternoon with a 'small being' too.

do not fret, nor weep though if you are not Gail, for another little string is coming in March and i have a few other giveaways coming along in the next week or so. gasp, shock, horror. i have no idea how this has happened as i would say i am rather crappity crap at doing giveways and so i am thinking,

my giveaways are a bit like buses, you wait for yonks for one to come along and then a whole load of them appear one after the other

muchly hugs dearie readers, despite my distracted ways of late, please know you are loved and appreciated each and every day by me

happy happy weekend

x

this & that, that & this

on friday i had an epiphany and since then our Mossy Shed has been turned upside down. 

not the usual upside down 

(which truth be told has not happened in the longest time, my shuffling ways have been greatly lacking this past year) 

but a massive, need my lads of three to help, sort of upside down.

walls will come down, walls will go up 

(well that is a little bit of an exaggeration on my behalf but i did like the sound of it, no walls coming down, but walls are going up)

forsaken souls throughout the shed are quaking in their little forsaken feet.

i tell myself rome was not built in a day and thus, my epiphany cannot be also. 

all crafty ways of the past quite a few days must come to a halt. for crafting cannot take place if my studio space no longer exists. 

there is much plotting and planning to be done before my little roman empire is built and yesterday when i sat upon a couch recently uprooted and transplanted, 

i told myself all will be well. my epiphany has not led me down a path of madness and nutso-ness even if it feels like it at the moment.

i say all crafty making has been halted but i have lied, i have told a whopper, for one crafty make was made on monday. it was a matter of an emergency as the need to make him was so pressing i thought i might go 'pop' if i did not get him out of my head and into my shed

'some bunny' i am hopeful will be one of many, as and when the shuffling and sorting can come to an end and the crafting once again may commence...

hip hip hooray! tis a 'little hearty string of happy' giveaway

GIVE AWAY NOW CLOSED

ah, yes indeedy! already in february, already half way through!

this little hearty string of happy is a dingly dangly sort of little string and you could make it with as many hearts as you would like. it is very easy peasy and requires the most simpliest of hand stitching so perfectly suited to small beings and little critters. although you would have to observe as there are little things which go into the making of this.

gather together everything you see in this handy picture, 

except i forgot one thing, i forgot to put some 'stuffing' in the picture. you will need all these things and some stuffing and perhaps a button or two, yes a button for some folks who may wish to bling out their little hearts

folding your fabric in half, wrong sides together, cut out a heart, do not fret about it being perfect, just snippity snip away. pin together (if you wish) and with needle and thread, blanket stitch around the edge. 

if you cannot or do not wish to blanket stitch then may i suggest a small running stitch or back stitch would suffice.

before you find your way back to the beginning of your stitchy ways, stop and carefully pop a bit of stuffing into your heart, not alot, but just enough. 

holding the fabrics together (perhaps with a pin again) complete your stitching.

when you are happy with the amount of hearts you wish to make, start stringing them together and be sure to add a loop at the top for maxium dingle dangleness.

tails are always quite nice for little strings of happy which dingle dangle so consider adding one with a scrap of lace

and voila!

a little hearty string of happy 

to keep or give to another you are rather fond of

if perhaps you are not wishing to make a little hearty string of happy but are rather liking the idea of one. then you can enter my giveaway for this exact little string! its easy as one two three

one: leave a comment telling me what makes your heart skip a beat and be sure to leave a way for me to contact you. if you are not able to leave a comment on my blog, then you can email your comment to tif@dottieangel.com where i will put you in a special folder marked 'special folder' so i do not lose you.

two: one entry per dearie and any dearie around the globe may enter

three: this giveaway will close on thursday 20th february at 9pm (pacific time) and i will announce the winner on friday 21st of february

footynote: do not fret if you do not see your comment appear straight away, i moderate my comments and will check in every day to publish them :)

blinging carried away...

this week i got a little blinging carried away.

my new crafty basket is a sturdy little workhorse made fairly and tradely. what i like muchly about my sturdy little friend is he has room for everything and if i wanted i am sure my kitchen sink as well. however there is one thing i do not like about my little friend and that is his rather catchy pokey sticky outtie bits. on the outside this is tres okay, (although i fear for my woolly tights at times) but on the inside, this is a big old 'no~no', for precious cargo such as yarny goodness must be carried to and fro to where i may come and go.

with this in mind i bought my little sturdy crafty basket knowing a liner would be the order of the day. my first intention was to make it the usual way, shaping a large piece of barkcloth around the outside of the basket to get a nice fit for the inside, pin and stitch together with Miss Ethel and turn the right side around and plonk inside the basket, et voila. however this did not go according to plan for i spied a scrape of barkcloth with doilified ways lurking in the corner of my studio.

and so many many moments past where i patched and pieced the whole liner by hand, adding as and where needed, till the whole inside was done. my man inquired if this was a matter of emergency whilst scrubbing the bathroom. i replied i was doing research of the utmost importance. 

on sunday after my little basket buddy had his new coat we spent quite a few more moments 'blinging' like i have never blinged before. well actually i probably have, i appear to be unable to not bling, but i think this was quite a mammoth blinging session therefore i have decided it is my most blinging moment to date.

once again my man inquired if another day would be lost on research. i told him yes it looked highly likely, surrounded by my blinging mess, still in pj's in the afternoon and looking slightly wilder than the day before. he looked a little frightened and left me to it, i do not blame him

after a while i declared to my basket i was done, there would be no more blinging for him or for me. when in doubt, 'step away from the blinging' is my motto from now on. 

i test drove my basket buddy and his blinging goodness to work yesterday. he did a mighty fine job at carrying everything but the kitchen sink without a snag or a catch insight. i also admired how well he wore his bling considering he is a 'he'. i decided to ignore how heavy he was, blaming it on my water bottle and not his blinging weight.

on another note,

today i am considering putting a post~it on my forehead for my lads of three, it will say

'please don't talk to me

please don't ask me to wash your underpants

please don't ask me whats for dinner

and please don't tell me you love me

because i might just cry'

things to note on a monday...

thing to note #1:

my crafty cogs have been churning nineteen to the dozen. 

they are whirring so fast i am having quite the trouble focusing on anything else.

thing to note #2:

i have the urge to purge. 

alas and alack i have done nothing about it

thing to note #3:

i made a little crocheted hat for my little stool following this here bit of information.

thing to note #4:

my picture book is still in my head and not my hands, darn and drat it

thing to note #5:

i have had my new specs on for 5 days now. 

they are old but new to me frames from the 50's i believe. 

the lenses are stronger 3 in 1's and it was a little tricky for a few days. 

i like them muchly except for the fact they keep sliding down my nose, then i don't like them muchly at all.

thing to note #6:

mister muchly went out in the snow yesterday, he did a terribly good job at building a snow man.

 really for one so small he is incredibly mighty

thing to note #7:

i feel sorry for my man at the moment. 

i am a bah humbug, alas and alack (yes more woe) he is at the receiving end of my bah humbuggish ways. 

thing to note #8:

last night, Miss Ethel and i got busy. 

it was quite the tearful reunion.

 she kindly forgave my wayward yarny ways of late and i, in turn, forgave her rusty dusty ways

thing to note #9:

i am plotting and planning to go to a knitting convention. 

i am debating whether to wear my crochet knitty sweater vest or not... it will be full of knitty folks, i must confess to feeling quite apprehensive

thing to note #10:

i cannot stop taking photos in square shapes. 

rectangles look all wrong to me now. 

a hanging 'heart~catcher' how~to...

i made these heart~catchers last year, 

i thought as we were in february and folks like to make hearts, i would share them. i do believe hearts are not just for valentine but all year so i would not call these valentine hearts nor suggest you can only make them with valentine in mind.

 i would suggest you make one and hang it above your bed perhaps, just like a dream catcher and see who's heart you may just catch 

("what is she waffling on about?" i hear you cry, "i have no idea" say i)

easy peasy lemon squeezy. 

(the pictures really speak for themselves). 

you will wish to have in your mitts and your crafty kits

* wire coat hanger

* strips of frayed cotton fabric about 3/4" in width

* embroidery thread in happy colours

* old bits of lace or doilies

* charms, beads, bits and bobs

* mod podge or fabric glue and brush (if you need it)

* needle and pins

take your wire coat hanger and bend it into a heart shape, you can be a perfectionist with your heart or you can be a little more squiffy. i think heart makers fall into two camps, perfectly perfect or squiffy, i am the later but there is no right nor wrong way. take the hook of the hanger and fold it over to make a loop

start wrapping your little heart hanger with your frayed strips. knot them together and continue until the whole heart is covered and carefully pop a pin in place to stop everything unraveling. if you are having trouble with the fabric slipping, you could put a bit of mod podge on the wire hanger before wrapping it.

take your  needle and a length of embroidery thread (if its the sort that splits into strands, use it whole) and remove your pin and do some natty bits of stitching to keep things in place. see where the other knots are, if frayed ends are sticking out too much, stitch them down too. you may wish to just stitch all the way around or you may not.

take your old bits of lace and start to put in place, pin down and begin to stitch being sure to keep things taught. add another piece. 

if there are gaps between them and the wire frame then use some embroidery thread and do long stitches to keep things in place. consider adding beads or even a trinket or two. think of it as caught in the heart catcher and just keep on stitching away to your hearts content until you have filled in the whole of the heart space

(study pictures for details)

wrap some lace or fabric around the loop. again, stitch in place 

(use mod podge if need be)

add a dingle dangle from your heart with some beads and thread

hang your 'heart~catcher' up above your bed or anywhere else you may wish to enjoy its hearty handmade goodness