Lovely life of me!

I  always blog loads of words, today I thought it would be nice to share with you some of the photos and quotes from my life

My Susie trike

Penny Lane

Truly outdoor fair

Snapped on the bus

Dotty makes

my fairs

my inspiration

Joanne Jones bonkers friend

My true love

Have a fabulous weekend, your amazing just the way you are, mucho love Dotty <3 i="">

tri monthly catch up!!

Yes, I know I've not posted again for ages, my poor readers I am terribly sorry, life just gets in the way and trying to keep up with facebook, instagram, twitter, shop, life, mum duties, fair organising, looking after pets, home and garden, blah blah takes so much time my poor blog gets left out.
I have been busy working at my shop since my shop partner dropped out, I nearly closed down but things have picked up and for the moment I'm staying open, its pretty hard work being there and away from the family as I miss them loads but on the upside I have a sewing room so I can create whilst I'm there, I'm currently working on a new range of Dotty Wear, I can't wait for it to be finished so I can share it.

I'm also busy organising another vintage and handmade fair for June, I have a smaller outdoors/indoors one at Catforth village hall on June 2nd and the large venue of the winter gardens on June 29th - 30th.

I have other ideas and things in the pipeline too but sometimes it all seems to much, some days I would love to potter around the gardens, read a book or just watch romantic films without the constant guilt feeling that I should be doing something else, being self employed is blumming hard work sometimes, theres ever really a day off as such until your rather rich but then the bigger you become the more demands are put on you. Any way I'm so grateful for all the opportunities given to me and I do love having so many things to do, I'm not moaning about it just expressing myself. Have you got any tips for me to time manage more effectively?

Can I share this too, I have just read a blog post on Galleries, studios, theatre and it is so apt, I could of written it myself! do you know I could of written this myself, its so wonderful that she shared these thoughts because she is right we do fake it a lot, I think if more of us opened up then less of us would feel like we have to pretend. x

Do you know Dotty has a shop?

Did you know I have an handmade and vintage shop in Blackpool?, its called Penny Lane.

You can find it at 28b King street, just around the corner from the Syndicate nightclub, 2 doors away from Junes fabrics (for the locals).
Its an eclectic mix of old and new, handmade, upcycled, vintage, retro, mod, boho, hippy, indian, kitsch and much more.

I sell clothes, furniture, natural bath and beauty products, handmade toys and gifts, accessories, artisan foods, records, vintage electricals and lots of unusual one off pieces.

Everything in my shop is for sale except the rails, Im open to swaps, offers and showcasing talent. Just pop in and have a chat.

I run a stitch and bitch class on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 12-4, its free of charge and includes free tea and coffee.

I will be having a heritage collection coming soon in time for summer where the clothes will be all 'Made in Britain', I think this is important to support our countries makers and designers.

I also have a naturals range including soap, bath bombs, fluoride free toothpaste, natracare natural sanitary towels and soy candles. There will be many more products being added to the range over the next few weeks too.

I also am pleased to say I stock Old Fatty Jones chutneys, jams and preserves. In the coming weeks I will also be stocking fine herbal teas.

I also have a vintage tearoom serving tea and coffee, I have rice milk too for non dairy drinkers and clipper decaff tea and coffee.

I am open tues-sat 11.30 - 4.30. I would love it if you came and said hello, please share with your friends too, there is nothing else like my shop in Blackpool and I would love your support.

Photos by Edwin Firminger hair and make up by Hazel Tyler location and clothes Penny Lane

Its a new dawn, its a new day.....

Good morning, I'm up early the boys have gone on paper round, its just me, a Himalayan salt lamp, laptop and a cup of tea. Its bliss and a secret time of the day when all is quiet before the day fully begins. A day full of anything you could imagine, so many possibilities, so many things to spend your time doing and if yesterday was not too great it doesn't matter because thats gone, it's a brand new day, a fresh start, are you ready? I am.

This morning I uploaded all my photos off my phone to my laptop, a crazy amount well over 1000, I realised if I lost my phone or it broke those photos and memories would be lost forever, some made me smile so Im going to share them with you, have a wonderful day xx
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1A. Eddie the rock monster, whilst making him it made me laugh as his face developed into such a character, Ive made many monsters but he will always be my favourite.
1.  Alice our youngest chicken, is so curious
2. Two guys at a roller derby event in Manchester
3. My youngest boy Chris and our puppy Badger
4. Me and my friend Colette in Ikea ( I know its blurry but it still makes me smile, we was in fits of laughter because my boys were so cross we was sat on the furniture!)
5. Badgers nose
6. Mr Bubbles, my friends dog
7. The Mr, how he poses when I ask to take his picture! T shirt from Me & Yu
8. Dennis Owen who always gets mistaken for the guy from Black Lace in Penny Lane
9. Me aged 4 or 5 with my big sister, look at my smile!
10. Chris, hes bonkers and always makes me smile.

reflections

 Happy new year, a little late I know, but if you follow my blog you will realise I haven't posted since September, my how time has flown by, Ive been so busy doing all sorts of things I have let my blog fall asleep, but its a new year, new schedule, a more proactive me?, well maybe we'll have to see. Some things form last year that I have missed out on here include going to London on a coach trip with my youngest, we had the best time, its the first time I have been away with just one child, it was so nice to connect and have that one to one time. We whizzed around London in 3 hours and then stayed over in a lovely hotel, watching movies in bed, we then went to legoland, he loved it but it was hot and rather busy, the queues are crazy long.

 We enjoyed a few days of sun last year, the weather has changed so much here in UK, the summers are not long and hot anymore, we barely have sun for a whole week so on the days when it was sunny I spent them in the garden growing veg, going to the beach with our new puppy who is now 1.

 I had lots of success organising big fairs at the winter gardens, I did 3 last year, in June, October and December, I had over 140 stalls of handmade and vintage goodness, full entertainment over the weekends and a vintage tearooms, I ended up with holey socks from walking around so much and learnt a lot and fast, I learnt how to deal with people more and tried to show tolerance (which is hard sometimes) to others who can't follow direction well. I also made some new friends and realised how wonderful the crafting community is, its like a massive family reunion every time I do a fair now. There are some really talented people out there waiting to be discovered.

 I also attended a few fairs as a stallholder and went on some days out with my lovely friend Colette Halstead who fuses glass, she uses real leaves you know. We always have a real laugh and a good old chinwag when we get together which is not very often as we are always both so busy with work but you know those friends who you might not see for a week, a month or even years and then when your back together it seems like you saw them yesterday well that's what our relationship is like so its all good.

I opened a collective shop with people I had met through the crafting world and an old friend, it was a craft and vintage clothing shop, unfortunately I felt rather used as some of the others couldn't put any time into running it and there was clashes in personality and ideas of running a business so I left. A week later they all left the building too and as it was a friend of mine who was letting the building I got in touch to see if I could still rent it. I contacted a lady whom I had met and got on wit straight away, who had the same ideas as me, we took over the shop, gave it a makeover, renamed it Penny Lane and filled it with vintage/retro/collectibles/mod wear and much more, we also have a tearoom at the back of the shop filled with vintage tea sets and crafting things. I really enjoy going to work there, each day we get to meet interesting people and have a lovely time sourcing things.
Doing so much last year was wonderful but did give me the guilt's, I realised homeschooling/working/being a housewife is hard to juggle. I spend an awful lot of time on the computer organising things, dealing with emails etc. I find it hard to squeeze in sewing/knitting/reading/children/date nights etc so when I heard the other day about a facebook friend had come up with a phenomenal idea of breaking everything down into hour slots I thought this is it, the way forward, I started today, it works, it actually blummin' works, I got more done today than I have done in a long time, the things I would of put of till last minute I managed to do because knowing you have a deadline and just an hour to get things done make you move your ass and not mess around.
I'm going to implement it into home school too and spending time with the boys, I know you may think that's cold and clinical and I should always have time for my children especially as we choose to home educate, but this is the real world, as much as I would love to be that mum I was years ago when they were little its not possible to do that, have a life and a job even if I am self employed. So if this works for us then brilliant, at least I wont get the guilt's.

Some low lights of last year was my father in law died of cancer and my mum died just before Christmas. Its a funny feeling having no parents (my dad died 8 years ago), even though I have been an adult since I was 18 (when I had my first son and moved out) I feel a little bit lost now, like I have to grow up, I'm an orphan. Its funny how I'm ok most of the time and then I see or hear something and I cry. I can be anywhere, at home, at work, out shopping, on the bus and it happens, I try and stop myself from reaching the point of tears but I cant. I know it gets easier, it did with my dad but things will never be the same again.

So onto this year and our dreams coming true, we have a plan, a big plan, one that involves changing our lives forever, we are going to get together and get a big sheet of paper and write down our plan, with dates - now that's the scary bit because what if we get to those dates and nothings changed or we haven't reached our target? I know I'm not meant to think that way, I'm meant to be positive and know and feel we will reach our targets but...
So after we have done this one evening in front of the fire with tea and cake I will reveal our plans to you.

I hope you had a good 2012, wishing you a very happy new year, tell me some of your highlights of last year x
* all photos are of our trip to Legoland and London