21.9.15

Seasonal gatherings.

Hello,

I found some beautiful things on this mornings walk. I love Septembers offerings and the colours that it brings.
I was out buying wool the other day ready for winter nights, and realised I was drawn to the colours of my September palette, so I thought it would look lovely to show them all together.

     

     

                                     

   
        

        

I just love the purples and greens!

   Emma x
   




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16.9.15

Whimsical Wednesday.



Welcome to this weeks whimsical Wednesday!
I almost missed it. I can't believe how fast time is going now they are back to school.
Think I'm just about getting on top of the housework after the 7 week children explosion of glitter, plasticine, glue and tiny bits of paper....
Does anyone else have a home like this? lol

Hope everyone is having a good week! let's hope we get some more sun for the weekend!

Emma x

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13.9.15

Sunday snaps and a seasonal Instagram

Hello,

                      

If you hadn't noticed already, I am loving September! The air smells great, I've been going for lots of lovely walks and collecting beautiful seasonal things that I can either eat or make something with!

I'm so excited by it that I've started a separate seasonal Instagram account called @bloomsandbrambles, I've done this as 1- I didn't want my seasonal obsession to go mad over on what is my home style and family page, and 2- because I thought it would be a really cool place to document and share my seasonal photography with like minded people!

Also to encourage and inspire people to get out into the countryside and look around, I've started a new #tag called gathering the seasons. There's no specific day, anyone can join in. Just get out there, collect anything that intrigues you and create a little collage to snap, then load it to IG using the #tag and tagging blooms and brambles. Let's share our countryside!

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday.

  Emma x

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12.9.15

Seasonal Gatherings.


I  just love foraging about on my walks, and thought my latest little hoard was simply the prettiest picture of September offerings.

Emma x

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11.9.15

Blackberry dye tutorial.

Organic Dye.



Hello,

There has been a glut of blackberries over the fields, and there is still more coming.
I've been freezing them ready to make indulgent comfort crumbles this winter.
I find I'm becoming even more increasingly aware of the seasons, and doing as much as I can to lower my carbon footprint, and make the most out of what nature gives us.
I don't know if this is an age thing, or the fact that with more time on my hands now (since my kids are at school) I've just slowed down to breathe.
Anyway, I just love my textiles, and I'd been reading up on natural dye's, so I thought I'd have a go at dying some linen scraps I had left over with some of my glut of blackberries.


Now I did a lot of winging it! lol and it turned out alright!
I'm not saying it's the right way nor the easiest, but here is how I made my dye, and dyed my linen.


In a pan I put two good handfuls of berries and covered over with water till they where just submerged, then I added 2 cups of table salt.
I brought this up to the boil, then turned the heat right down and left for an hour.
Every so often I mushed the mix with a potato masher.
A layer of salt crystals formed on the top but it gets strained so I didn't worry too much.
Turn off the heat and leave to cool, then strain into a jug.


Now I used raw natural 100% linen, the only thing I did to it was put it under the tap for a minute so it was completely damp. 
I put it in half way as I just wanted to see what it did, and left it for an hour.


I thought i'd sling some little tied ones in while I waited.
Meanwhile i boiled up a salt water solution and let it cool, then after an hour, I took my fabric out of the dye and dunked it into my salt solution.
I've never read about doing this but I thought it couldn't hurt.
Apparently salt is the fixative to blackberry dye, so I figured if I had lots it would work! lol
It did!


Tadah!

I'm so chuffed, I'm going to have a go at making something now, maybe I'll make a linen cushion and give it a nice ombre blackberry dye.
What do you think?


If you are a curious creative or a craft lover, then please join our forum 'Creative Nest' at the top of the blog.

Emma x

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9.9.15

New forum for creatives.

Hello everyone,

I have some exciting news!

The Vintage Good Life now has its very own forum called Creative Nest.
Anyone can join and it's completely free!

I so love to share my creative side, and love to chat with other like minded souls.
So, I thought it would be a nice idea to create a little nest where we can share in all things creative.

I know I sometimes need to bounce ideas around, and sometimes I drive myself crazy with too much info or not enough, I call it the curse of the creative.

All members can start topics on anything creative, but why not start with introducing yourself!

I'd love your opinion and to see you get involved!

Please find the Creative Nest tab at the top of the blog.

Emma x
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Whimsical Wednesday






Its absolutely manic in our household this week as my eldest daughter has just started high school!
I don't know how as I'm nowhere near old enough lol, ok maybe just.... Anyhoo, it was nice to unwind with my camera for a few minutes this morning to snap these shots for my #whimsicalwednesday

Hope everyone is getting on ok! post soon!

Emma x
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7.9.15

5 things I love doing in September

                      

September has to be one of the most giving of all of the months. I love how the summer fades into autumn! There are so many things to enjoy doing in September, here are my five absolute faves:

*Hazy morning walks over the fields and woods, picking lots of blackberries and other hedgerow delights.

*Collecting summer garden seeds from my favourite plants such as sweet peas, cornflowers and poppies. It's a free way to a blooming lovely garden next year!

*Drying and pressing flowers, Hydrangeas are my absolute favourite to dry!

*Making jam's and jelly's! I love making jelly's so much, it's so therapeutic and a great way of preserving a glut of fruit. We nearly always have too many plums to eat, so I make lots of things with them.

*Spending a lazy afternoon in the garden, if it's chilly I put on my big snuggly jumper, make a cup of tea, and sit and peruse the spring bulb catalogue, and change my mind umpteen times over.

What do you love about September? And what do you like doing?

                                                           Emma x
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6.9.15

Warm September day's

                                    

I love to sit and ponder! It's my favourite thing to do! Mr C took this sneaky pick of me pondering over a fennel head today in the garden. (It's quite rare that I'm ever in front of the camera, I pull the worst Chandler face ever lol.)
Today is one of those perfik September day's. It's beautifully warm, and the air smells delicious.
We picked blackberries this morning over at the nature reserve, I'm going to freeze them ready to make crumbles and pies with this winter.

We ended up with beautifully stained hands, that got me thinking! I love celebrating the seasons and feeling inspired by them, my designs are becoming even more about them, and I see Emma Connolly Designs ever evolving. Anyway back to my pondering.... I'm looking into making my own natural hedgerow dyes and experimenting with silks and linens, see what I can come up with.

I love to try new ideas and learn exciting techniques. I'm doing a course on silver clay jewellery this November, I can't wait!
There is much I'd love to try! I'll keep posting how I get on, wish me luck, things are about to get messy!

    Emma x
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2.9.15

Whimsical Wednesday




Happy Whimsical Wednesday!

Its been so busy in The Vintage Good Lifes house hold.
I have the kids about to go back to school, and then theres the house to get straight....
So i've decided to take a week off of my blog starting today.

Best of luck to everyone getting back into a routine!

Remember: Keep calm and drink tea!
If that fails there is always Gin!

Emma x

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