the green gal

Life in Instagram

You can follow me on Instragram as @thegreengal.

Thanks, Nora

Yesterday I heard that Nora Ephron died, aged 71. To many people that name means nothing but she was an American writer/director/producer who was responsible for creating some wonderful feel-good movies. Rom-coms aren't the coolest movie genre to like but I'm a big fan, what can I say, it's the funny dreamer in me!

My favourite Nora Ephron movies are When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail and Julie & Julia. Her depictions of New York, Seattle and Paris gave me a major hankering to live in those cities and I watched, and fell in love with, the classic movie An Affair to Remember because it's discussed in Sleepless in Seattle. And I think When Harry Met Sally introduced me to the wonderful talent of Harry Connick Jnr.

Plenty of people dismiss these movies as corny mush but they've given me plenty of joy over my many viewings. A very long time ago a housemate blamed my rom-com movie-watching for my 'unrealistic expectations' of life and told me: "you don't want to be in love, you want to be in love in the movies". The fact she had unwittingly quoted a line from Sleepless in Seattle amused me no end! 

So, thanks, Nora. Thanks for such likable characters, for making me daydream about living in New York, for introducing me to more great movies, for letting me indulge in romantic dreams and for making such cracking movies that I want to watch over and over again.

Make your own elderflower cordial

I posted a recipe for elderflower cordial a couple of years ago but I thought I'd give you an updated version rather than send you to the depths of my blog!

So, it's really easy to make, all you need are about ten elderflower heads, 600ml water, 800g caster sugar, one lemon, grated and juiced, and 45g citric acid (buy it from a chemist). 

Dissolve the sugar in the boiling water and leave to cool for ten minutes. Add the lemon peel and juice, the citric acid and the elderflower heads (having checked they're free of bugs first!). Give it a good stir and then cover and leave overnight.

Pour the elderflower mixure through a sieve and then fill up your sterilised bottles (to sterilise I put them in the oven at 100 degrees C for ten minutes). This recipe makes about one litre of cordial and it's really quite strong so a little goes a long way. Keep the cordial in the fridge and you should be able to enjoy it for a month.

Good news for stationery fans

New notebook and postcard designs have joined the stationery range at the green gables, and they all feature my hand drawn illustrations!

And of course they are all printed on recycled and FSC paper in the UK (about one mile away from me to be specific). You can find the three new postcard designs in the cards section and the new notebooks can be found in the notebooks department, funnily enough! As you can see some of the new designs have been created to co-ordinate with exisiting illustrations so, if you like the tea set or suitcases postcards, for example, there are now notebooks to match.

Plus, I now offer a gift wrapping service, at no extra cost, so if you need a present wrapped in lovely, top quality recycled paper (one happy customer described it as "Beautiful wrap, felt like something you would pick up at an art gallery") you know where to go. 

If you're reading this as a retailer and are interested in stocking the green gables range of eco-friendly stationery, gifts and decorations, just email gabrielle@thegreengables.co.uk for wholesale info.

Lovely Monday

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I love this room. It's so light and fresh. Some might consider it stark as there's little colour and much of the seating is hard metal but I find it hugely inviting. I love the vintage jelly mould light and that the two lights are at different heights. The oversized clock looks perfectly propotioned next to that enormous window. The cloth on only part of the table, the blue coffee pot, the enamel mugs, oh I'd love to breakfast at this table!

This inspirational image is the work of Rachel Whiting whose website I bookmarked within minutes of finding it via this post by SF Girl By Bay. Take a look at both sites when you get the chance!

Summer fair season

Whether the sun is shining or the rain is pouring down, now is the time for summer fairs. I'm doing two this year – one I've done a couple times before and another that's brand new to me. This Saturday is the Vintage & Handmade Fair at Shalford Village Hall in Surrey. I've taken part in the last two fairs and they have such a lovely atmosphere with talented small businesses and friendly visitors. I will have my full range on display plus a few new stationery products too!

  find it here

There are three new additions to my range of A5 recycled notebooks, all featuring my hand drawn illustrations with signature stripy inside covers.

find it here 

I'm hoping to bring along new postcard designs too but it depends if my printers can finish them in time (you can see one in the top photo). I'm also trying a new idea, it's not on my website yet as I thought I'd see how it goes at the fairs, plus I'd love to know what you think. These are gift tags with my popular typewriter illustration hand stamped onto brown manilla tags (measuring approx 11cm x 5.5cm). They're available in sets of three white, blue or red tags, what do you think?

You're a discerning bunch so I'd love your opinion. And I will, of course, have my paper bunting with me – both plantable and colourful versions! You can find out more about the fair on Vintage Pixie's site.

The other fair I'm exhibiting at is the Village Vintage Country Living Fair at Cuckfield Recreation Ground in West Sussex on Saturday 7 July. This is a new one for me but it looks absolutely gorgeous, I'm worried I'm going to want to leave my stand to spend lots of money at other people's stalls! Plus they have a Champagne Hay Bale Bar…!

If you can come along to either fair I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time and leave with your purse a little lighter. Do pop by and say hi to me too!

Marvellous printable poster

While joining in the brilliant weekly twitter discussion led by Jessika Hepburn of the oh my! handmade goodness blog, I was reminded of a poster I made myself a while ago:

I had posted about it on this blog but I hadn't made it into a printable poster for you, for some unknown reason. But I have now!

Simply click on the link to download the pdf and print the poster on A4/US letter size recycled paper. 

Download marvellous poster

As always with my free printables, feel free to tell other people about them but please do link to the post, not just the download, and all my free downloads are for personal, not commercial, use.

I pinned the poster on the wall in front of my desk in my studio to remind me whenever I need a little spark of energy.

This is my wall looking relatively bare, I've got a lot more stuff stuck to it now! The other poster you can see is another printable poster using an Anne of Green Gables quote: "One can dream so much better in a room where there are pretty things". You can find the free poster here.

And if you want to check out Jessika's twitter chat, just follow the hashtag #OMHG on twitter between 6pm and 7pm GMT on Thursdays.

Lovely Monday

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There is nothing I don't like about this image. It's a photo of Selina Lake's lovely wedding that was recently featured in You magazine and I found this photo on Selina's blog. The flowers, the china, the candy striped bags, the tea lights, it's all so beautiful! My husband and I were married seven years ago next month and we had a wonderful day. I do sometimes wonder if we were to do it again (and again and again!) what we might do differently, I have a lot of versions in my head! And one of them would certainly look this this.

I love my dog

Okay, this is a little self-indulgent. I love my little dog, Georgie, so when she stayed still for a few minutes in the sunshine (a few weeks ago) I couldn't resist snapping a few pics of her…

I couldn't resist including this one, she has a habit of nodding off while sitting up, bless her! (In case you wanted to know Georgie is a cavalier King Charles spaniel.)

Mr D's Print Shop

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Remember a few months I wrote about a talented surface pattern designer called Ian Dutton? Well he now has his own print shop so you can own a piece of his cleverness yourself!

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Ian has opened his store with a few select prints of his designs and plans to keep adding to the range as time goes on.

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You already know I'm a fan of his work and I think I'm torn between the birds and the monkey prints. The birds is just so pretty and the monkey looks fun for kids but I also think its retro feel would work well in a cool kitchen with a vintage vibe.

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You can find Ian's print store, and examples of his licensed work at ian dutton designs. Oh and p&p is free everywhere!