Alice Griffin

So great to meet so many other writers here!

I write... I write articles, books, short stories, poetry... and of course in my notebook most days. I couldn't not write.

On my website (see my signature) you will find examples of my writing and I share ramblings from my notebook and excerpts from previously published work and my current work-in-progress, on my Facebook page: Alice Writes

I live a wandering off-grid lifestyle inspired by nature, so much of my writing is centred around that...

Would love to connect with fellow writers!

Hey Froggy,

Sounds interesting... do let us know which way you go. We have spent a lot of time in Portugal and it's definitely got many plus points - we're now looking to head off from the UK in January for a while to see what transpires....

Definitely keep in touch and thanks for saying hello!

Alice & family

I love to be barefoot... it provides greater connection to everything... and my daughter has to be convinced to wear shoes. We were out recently and she was barefoot - someone stopped us, mouth aghast "she has no shoes???" but for me, allowing my child to be free is the best thing I can do :-)

Hey Nicole... honestly it's so much fun with kids... because they can collect what they want to use, make the dye, dye the fabric, then make (or wear) something from the fabric.

The colours are all quite natural... but you can get quite a strong pinky/red from avocado stones! Or maybe try blackberries for a darker purple colour...

Dye length depends on if you use a mordant (pre-soak fabric in soya milk, for instance) and how long you dye for (can leave fabric in dye bath for 24 hrs!) ...

Rebecca's book is great - guides you through all the steps really easily.

Do share any results you get - I would love to see them :)

I had a go at natural dyeing with my daughter and her friend this week and we were really excited to see the potential of what you can do!

We missed some steps and didn't soak our fabric over a long period of time (which you should) simply because two eager children wanted to dye in one afternoon! but I think we're hooked and will now be doing much more of this. It's a great thing to do with kids.

We made two dye baths - one using mint and rosemary and one using avocado stones and skins... this produced green and pink hues.

The book we followed was a lovely one (available in ebook and hard copy) by an independent plant dyer here in the UK - Rebecca Desnos.

Now a patchwork sewing project shall commence!

Thank you for this wonderful post... we'll be making ink today from blackberries!

Thank you so much!

Just beautiful. I did some natural dyeing with my daughter yesterday and we just loved it... we have since started talking about growing and spinning flax... I love that we can see how it's all possible!

Hi all,

We're fairly new here but love all the information we're finding on this forum and particularly interested to see what others are doing to generate enough money to live.

Our little Etsy shop: Little Loquat Natural Creations
 is where we share some of our handcrafted wooden creations and I thought perhaps it would be good to share it here amongst likeminded folk :-)

We use mainly what we find in nature: fallen branches, sea glass, driftwood, prunings and other natural bits and bobs collected on our travels and hope we turn these precious finds into something beautiful that will connect others to the earth.

Would love to see what other people are doing/making and find out where you share your work so that we can follow along!

We have our Etsy Shop and also a Facebook Page and Instagram.

~ Little Loquat Family ~

Hey Sam and family,

Thank you so much for getting in touch. YES! we are interested in your area... in fact, we have plans to visit for a little nose around very soon in what sounds to be close to where you are.

Would love to meet up. Not sure how to email you, but you can email us via my website link (in signature) if that helps.

:-)