A rejuvenating morning of just being…by the sea. Too mucky for swimming, but some sandcastles were built, a picnic enjoyed, merry-go-rounds spun, smiles photographed, and books savoured. I adore our family downtime. We’ve been needing this. Just sit…stroll…breathe…
A Soft Breezy Weekend… Love, ~Amor Milagre
That special feeling when you’ve found just the right gift for a Dear One…mmm…just delicious!
Sometimes in life you are unable to find dream gifts, or you are unable to afford them. It’s never too late! Today, I am wrapping up something that I wish we had found several years ago, but the thrill is still the same in the giving of this gift. I am very happy that we are finished with our home and garden renovations because now we have time to celebrate every day, every drawer, every plank, and every outlet cover. Teddy bears, ribbons, and pink! That sums us up right now.
I provide personalized gifts in my shop, so please take a gander and see what sparks a gifting notion for you. Happy Birthdays! Love, ~ Amor Milagre
In the humid mountain-lake mist, a baby gardener chose pink for our front stone garden. A humorous family-joking drive over to Young’s Greenhouse in South Paris, ME is always a fun outting. The people are so lovely there, and so are their endless rows of fashionably displayed plants. There are floral gowns everywhere! We brought home eight different flowers to adore each morning over breakfast and to tuck us in when the stars shine down clouds of hope to us every evening. This place has good deals, and the healthy junipers we adopted from them in the spring are doing very well. It’s fun to explore all of the greenhouses, and they have family-friendly seasonal events. They were even so generous as to give out kiddie gift baskets at the spring Easter egg hunt. Can’t wait to see what the autumn-winter events are like! We’ll revisit to explore again.
(unsponsored post…just dig it)
The sunset is a foggy gold sepia-glow tonight… Happy Bloom Season! Love, ~Amor Milagre
Later on, I’ll add more flower photos in here after the plants settle into their new bed.
Each pink is gloriously unique!
I love gift shops so much that it was my dream to have my own, but full of my original art, books, stationery, and home goods. While we do use and decorate our home with my lovely seasonal gifts for special occasions, we also like to shop once a year at The Bees Knees British Imports shop. These women exude happiness. It’s so fun to visit their online shop, and we hope to one day visit their MA store.
The British Store, Bridgham & Cook shop in Freeport Maine, is a local (to us) place to choose our annual themed ornament. I used to love exploring every UK-sourced shop in whichever city I was living. I’m a collector of newsboy hats, tartan scarves, and cable knit jumpers, but only the rare organic cotton ones. (As always, not a sponsored post, just like this co.)
Then for some extra flavour, we bake and snuggle up with our favourite BBC programs like Gardener’s World and Agatha Raisin, Miss Scarlet, Jane Austen movies, old stop-motion Paddington episodes, Beatrix Potter’s friends, Mr. Bean (not while eating), and our silly old Pooh Bear movies. Recently, we found an odd but funny little show called, Five Children and It. Very odd, but fun to see what the kids wish for. Many of our books are by British authors, so it’s a cosy day of tea and reading in the sitting room nook, curled up in bed, or in the sun of the library. We hope the Brambly Hedge fine china designs come back! We love the puzzles.
This week, we’re organising our sewing supplies. This little thread tin will help to keep our current threads in one place…and not rolling off the table. The prettily threaded tote bags will hop along with us on outtings in town. We’re very much a family of library owls. And, the mugs…we just use daily so it’s fun to catch up on certain ones. Love the flora-fauna one. It has a good feel, and when we find some each year, it builds up a nice collection in our custom-made tea drawer. Ours is a home of artists and writers, so having these classic illustrations about is another fun way to celebrate the imagination. I’ve been waiting years to see these lovelies in shops again, and done very well. Quality matters a lot to me. We only buy special things that will last lifetimes. We only make special things that will last for ages. It’s fun to take care of your treasures.
When I was a teen, there was a beautiful online French gift shop where I got some lovely tablecloths and some amazing rainbow striped high-top espadrilles. There is just something about wanting to find a gift for yourself, or a Dear One, and being surrounded with a curated array of gorgeous options to wander and choose as you like. As a child, there was a local gift shop that was absolutely bewitching to explore. I recall a very elegant (expertly handmade) winged frog fae on a shelf that really sparked a new kind of magic in me. I have many plans to add to A Gentle Life Collection…coming up, my Darlings.
Well, we’re away laughing on a fast camel…bringing strawberry vegan icecream cones down to the beach. Happy summer birthdays! Love, ~Amor Milagre
I’m sipping a festive mug of spiced cocoa and ready to regale our recent trip.
To reward ourselves for finishing our home renovations, we explored some shops in New Hampshire in the hopes of bringing back a few sweet holiday treasures. The amazing, themed rooms in The Christmas Loft shop held our attention all morning. The center of the store was especially captivating as it showcased a full-scale village. We’ll have to dress in tails and top hats upon our next visit when it begins to snow so we fit in with the toymakers and carol singers. It’s the first time our family got to wander through a themed shop like this. All eyes were aglow with the magic within. And outside, the natural view is a refreshing mix of earthy jungles, smooth mountains, and fluffy air that bent down to us. We’re enjoying this town more and more, despite the heat and crowds. We had a car-picnic on the way home as every shop had lines out the door. I think it will be very cosy to revisit in autumn and winter. Look out, below, well really above…for the flying reindeer! This place had so many specific styles and items that it’d be super fun to buy gifts for Dear Ones, too.
(If you’re not near NH, they have an online shop. This post is unsponsored, we just had fun!)
This night scene was wonderful…
Look up!
So much to see in every window.
Next door, as a part of this co., there was a little toy-Halloween shop. It was a little too spooky for me, not shown. I like sweeter pumpkins and ghosts. My new Halloween cards will reflect this trick-or-treat spirit. We also sculpted and painted some pumpkin decor this week to display on our mantle. Our crafts are a part of our homeschool art class.
Love this hutch though…so many drawers.
When you’re a little elf, it’s so magical to be able to choose your own precious things. The train moves around the track with the music, even around the back. We’ll try the real train ride in this town sometime, maybe even dressing up for our first day of witching school. North Pole elves would love to try returning back home the mortal way.
When you’re older, it’s possibly even more fun…? This piece will probably stay out all year as we have many cardinals in our garden, and this sitting room nook likes this glow.
We were a bit overwhelmed in there, but we managed to hold on to our favourites today. I like to note the date and location on the tags, if the ornaments have them. It helps us to remember what age the little elves were and where we found these gifts. We recently got into ornament felting, so we’ll be having fun with this new form of expression.
I still have a list of certain kinds of very special holiday decor pieces that I have yet to find anywhere. I remember seeing them when young. We make as much as we can, but there are dreams of snow-encrusted snowglobes and elegantly hand-crafted pieces of art that I cannot find anymore. I do think that everything used to be made with more care, detail, quality, and dreaminess long ago. As we have more time, we can make more of these. It’s a bit ironic with all the modern technology that so much is only mass-produced, but still I’ll keep a look out. This shop did have some lovely painted advent house-shaped boxes and German candle-powered carousels, as well as some laser cut wooden items. Little ceramic village cottages are on my list. Of these, they had many but they weren’t the old-style I’m looking for. They did look glowy and pretty with the lights out, see first photo above. We may just make some with clay and paint them up very prettily to match our rooms. Making things together builds the best childhood memories, but this was a very fun experience! It really did give the feeling of entering Santa’s work shop, and also a Dickens’ novel… We just forgot our bonnets today!
This shop was near the Storyland park we visited recently. We’ll have to try out Santa’s Village, too.
Now, we’re off to install our handmade pantry counters. Our custom woodworking post will release soon. Stay cool… Love, ~Amor Milagre
The snow princess now resides over the icy blue-cream nursery bathroom.
