Guest Blog: Decorating with flowers by Constança Cabral of Saidos da Concha

If you like eye candy, then you will enjoy this post by Constança Cabral from the blog Saidos da Concha. Makes me wish for a vacation to the English countryside!  – jen

By  guest contributor Constança Cabral

Have you ever thought about how the place where you live can affect your creative work?Until four months ago, I had only lived in big cities (Lisbon, my home-town, and Paris, as an exchange Law student back in 2004). Urban life is usually quite hectic and fast and people tend to be confined to their apartments, their neighbourhoods, their city. Since my husband and I relocated to the English countryside, I started really noticing the change in seasons. I’m lucky enough to be renting a house with an established garden right in the middle of open fields and, after a very long and hard winter, it’s been fascinating to see nature waking up.

The profusion of flowers in my garden has led me to making floral arrangements. I grab whatever I can find, choose a container and then start playing with colours and shapes. I’m obviously limited to what the garden has to offer and that stimulates my imagination and makes me think of new combinations I wouldn’t have tried otherwise.

First came the daffodils. In March, the garden was covered in yellow and white and I even found some crocuses near an old tree. I especially like arranging flowers in enamel jugs, old porcelain pitchers or even lab containers. My husband studied Chemistry so we have plenty of the latter!

This house has brought me lots of fantastic things, one of them being an open fire with a proper mantlepiece. I like making several complementary arrangements and placing them on top of it. In April and May I had more choice of flowers and playing around with different colours and heights became very satisfying.

As the days are getting warmer, weeds are appearing everywhere. I don’t know if it’s because I’m such a recent convert to the joys of country living, but I love most weeds and can’t bear to completely eradicate them from the garden. Recently I was even inspired to make a small weed bouquet!

I find arranging flowers a wonderful creative activity. Go for a walk in the countryside, look at road borders, visit your friends’ gardens. Pick whatever takes your fancy, forget all rules and just give it a go!

About the contributor: Constança Cabral is a 28-year-old Portuguese living in the UK. She and her husband moved to a lovely brick house in rural England 4 months ago. After living in Lisbon, Portugal, in a small apartment; their only neighbours now are cows, pheasants, rabbits and lots and lots of birds. Constança studied Law and History in university; however, 4 years ago she started sewing and hasen’t stopped since. She now works full-time making bags and other handmade goods and blogs almost everyday at saidosdaconcha.blogspot.com. You can see what she makes (and sells) in her Etsy shop at saidosdaconcha.etsy.com.