Amor Milagre Design | Amor Milagre

Posted on May 7, 2025June 1, 2025 by Amor Milagre

5 Spring Rainy Day Pleasures

In between our homeschool lessons, an influx of doctor’s appointments, work, renovating, and gardening, we find it necessary to plan little pleasures to calm, rejuvenate, and excite our greening up spirits. The trees and plants unfurl and awaken this week, as we unwind our senses with:

If an appointment is quick, but we have to drive far for it, we’ll plan a visit to a nearby nursery, or an art store like we did yesterday. Wandering around, finding beads and ribbons for our Fine Arts class is a fun way to lessen the previously serious mood and get excited about tomorrow’s crafts. On occasion, I will find something for my atelier… but just seeing all the hues all lined up relaxes me. New oil paintings list soon! (Listening to a favourite audiobook also somehow shortens the drive and distracts me from wishing that Maine would clean up more. It does sadden me that with so much natural beauty here, people choose to pollute their yards…where gardens and even wildflowers could sing. We focus on our garden…planting as much green air as we can each year. Perennials are my thing. I like building up a family of plants. We take care of them, and they take care of us.)
Sewing up doll clothes is a baby favourite here, and this week I’m joining in to stitch up some creamy soft organic cotton shorts for summer. They are a little bigger than doll size, but not much… This is where ironed lace and new shining beads come into the sitting room and library to play with us.
Reading rainy day May poems and Spring Stories with a cup of tea is cosy and embraces the season. I wrote about forty such tales this week… We keep a 365 day poetry book on the rug. It’s massive, but turning the page to read each morning’s poem gives us insight into another’s senses of this day and a different place. We write our own observations of THIS moment. Let go of yesterday, and feel today.
Meditating, and a gentle massage of the head, neck, feet, and hands using light pressure on certain points, releases strifes and struggles, leaving space for movement and growth. Guided mystical musical tracks are very helpful for setting a short, yet effective, time and space for this daily practice. Stress stores itself in the body…let it go.
When life feels externally unsatisfying, one can control the little things like the week’s flavours. Yesterday, I baked up some clove-spiced chocolate walnut pastries, our weekly bread, and a spring greens teatime tart with asparagus, green beans, and darling mushrooms. I love photographing everything from tulips to dishes around our table for my upcoming cookbook (vegan, organic, sugar-free). Today, we’re planting up some seeds in the garden for more fresh plant foods to enjoy!

A tiny yellow cardigan waits on the back of a chair. An open sewing box invites nimble fingers to experiment. All of these little things smile up the mind. Release and fall into the poetry of the positives that live inside our day. Love, ~ Amor Milagre

Soon, the apples will PINK with soft creamy blossoms…and bees…

The raindrops deepen and saturate all the colours…I love rainy and snowy days the most. Mermaids love healing waters.

Tactile pleasures satisfy the senses. Smell the spices, roll out floury dough. Synesthesia can feel beautiful.

Old tools of stone to crush up beautiful owl-like walnuts connects us to all times. This is quieter than machines. There is tact involved and little sounds, but the whirring -pound -trickle- put-put-put is a song I like.

Dripping translucent petals soothe…instantly. Breathe in fresh oxygen.

Soft sleepy pajamas…soon… Oversized for when little legs kick off quilts. Pleats are needed for now, but are then removed in a few years, and all the while there is a soft, flat, smooth waistline for comfort. Rest easily, and sleep well.

A carpet of petals.

Inhabiting Mrs. Crustybread’s world for an afternoon…

Teatime…mangiamo…

Puffs of air out in the garden fill up our world…

Music of the Moment: Chopin, Prelude Op. 28 No. 15 Raindrop

while you’re waiting…listen to the rain…

Also, new song by Fiona Apple-Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)

Posted on April 21, 2025April 21, 2025 by Amor Milagre

Keeping Cool in the Shade

Amor Milagre Kitchen Design, Stay Cool with a Shade Sail

The sun is now upon us, the snow has melted, and a shade sail helps us to keep the new kitchen cool and shaded with less help from the AC and curtains this spring. Loving this vacation-glow that it casts on our table as the wind billows, showing movement and change in the world…make it positive, kids. Staying hydrated, planting more fresh air-producing evergreens to look out upon, and cooking up soups and breads only once a week also keep us at a steady temperature. It is now salad growing and enjoying weather. We’re making our own mustard, with a sail and toast to match. Get a little sail (or make your own with sun fabric, hooks, and grommets) if you’re in need of a bit of shade. It really helps. It only takes a few minutes to install. Now, for juice and strawberries…

Keep cool and hydrated…it’s heating up out there….highly sensitives and babies especially.

*P.S. Our world needs more (privately owned) helpful organizations so people everywhere have access to water, food, medicine, clothing, support, shelter, and therapy. If everyone could realize that the old wars are over, then they really could be so, and then all the time from now on can be used for healing and supporting people and nature. Every day is full of chances and choices. Make them good, for everyone. Even the smallest improvements shine and build up hope to welcome more wonderful possibilities for tomorrow.

Love ~ Amor Milagre

Music of the Moment: London Song, Off You -The Breeders

Posted on April 5, 2025April 5, 2025 by Amor Milagre

Organic Gardening: Boxwood & Juniper Spring Evergreen Additions

Amor Milagre Organic Gardening, Evergreens: Green Velvet Japanese Boxwood

Beautiful plants, tucked into earth with love, is our family’s favourite pleasure for spring weekends. Bring out the toys to help, too! This week, we are taking advantage of the pre-bug moment and doing up the gardens here at Rose Cottage. The snow melts a little more each day, with rain and snow flurrying over everything each night. Spring always feels soft and patient to me, and then it lends this gift to us. Doing what you love feels good, so we do it often. I wake up writing stories, and tuck in bed after painting the illustrations. Many many many…..new books are on their way, dear world. What do you love today?

Amor Milagre Organic Gardening, Spring Hats

Cloudy days are our favourite time to explore neighbouring towns in search of green treasures and fun new spots to revisit. We have been renovating and building houses for the past decade, so it’s refreshing to have a day off. Today, we found a lovely family-run nursery and farm where a very affordable juniper greeted us at the door of one of several massive greenhouses. We found a cute craft shop where people can learn how to felt and embroider. There were some ‘out to lunch’ signs so we’ll have to return to roam the bookshop. Some lovely women told us about fun annual holiday events…and we’re marking them down in our family calendar. Maine is not an easy place to find town things we like to do, so we really appreciate their time and sharing.

We support family/small businesses as we have one and know how much depends on every sale. Support your local talent and efforts whenever available. Today, I remembered the days of watering plants at a farm when I was a teenager. I baked pies and hauled in corn. The owners took everything seriously, as do I with my Amor Milagre. You have to. You want to. It just makes sense. Support creative ideas that help the world bloom, laugh, and heal.

The front view is not the only one to consider. This line of evergreens is beautiful to gaze upon as we do laundry from the side of the house. Explore every windowscape and make the most of them. We love waking up to flowers, leaves, doves, and robins. I do space these low plants away from the windows so birds don’t become too exuberant at nap/bed times. We removed huge overgrown dead shrubs and trees from every side of our Rose Cottage years ago, and now we add in green structures each year to build it up. Remember, right plant right place to grow well.

Planting in layers, repeating patterns of odd numbers, and varying the greens creates a lush effect over time. They even look so sweet now. Leave proper spacing for your purpose and plant type. Bulbs look even more elegant when surrounded by green friends. Leave leaves alone. Allow the wind to stir and blow your leaves about quietly. They become soil and nutrients that block unwanted plants.

By slightly layering the evergreens, the result is a spaced out line with room to grow. This gives the plant its own air to thrive in while providing a privacy screen from the road and house. This used to be just a lawn. We planted hundreds of plants to replace most of our grass, added pathways, reduced the need for mowing, increased our pollinator count massively, and provided homes for wildlife. We use a push or electric mower for the bit of lawn left, only necessary once or twice a year. Thyme beds are low and self-sufficient. Neighbourhoods can be quiet enough to enjoy bird songs. Choices matter and can make a huge positive difference for everyone’s peace and health. Plant for pollinators. Shall we all have a beautiful year?

Periwinkle alba and creeping thyme is our garden floor. It took a few years to grow the carpet, but the bees love it! This replaces lawn and prevents other plants from taking over. The flowers are gorgeous! We only plant perennials as we’re into building up our natural investments. Save your seeds and spread them!

We hope to find some healthy, affordable Italian cypress and green giant thujas to layer in as a privacy screen near our fence. More garden updates soon!

Ah, yes…thank you rain for watering in our baby plants…

Happy Spring Gardening, Love ~ Amor Milagre

Posted on April 3, 2025June 2, 2025 by Amor Milagre

Organic Gardening: Evergreen Spring Planting Additions

This snowy, rainy, hailing week of spring, we added some structure to our newly hand-renovated organic garden. A line of five baby Dwarf Mugo Pines was spaced out into the front border. They will grow up with three Japanese boxwoods, daffodils, tulips, and a spreading carpet of bee-loving thyme and alba periwinkle flowers. More lavender will dot in here later. These candle cone cuties are slow growing and can be annually shaped or left wild to sprawl. We’re excited for these pretty pines to be a layered part of our cosy winter garden. They will bolster up summer blooms as well. After the snow melts down, enhancing the soil, we’ll be doing our big spring garden tidy up, editing, pruning, and more planting. I’ll add some archival garden-themed fine art photography prints to my shop this year, too!

A plan for more drought-tolerant evergreens is on our list of homey to do’s for our sustainably re-designed Rose Cottage. I will post about all the changes we’ve made to the gardens. It was a massively overgrown mess before we enacted the ‘right plant right place’ practice here, taking it all down first. Always do your research before planting. What is your zone? What is the expected size the plant could grow to? Colours? Textures? Number? Layers? Pollinators & wildlife? There are many things to consider. How far from the house is a good distance? You want to be able to age gracefully with your garden, making it as effortless as possible to care for, while enjoying the biggest amount of relaxation from your patch of healing earth.

These are mad expensive times, so it will take more time to build up privacy screening with taller plants, such as junipers, Italian cypress, thujas, and more spruce trees. These more deer-resistant types reduce the gamble of plant care. There is so much less green in the world for wildlife to roam through now. We love animals to visit us, but we also care for our plants and don’t wish for branches to be nibbled right up come springtime. We have been covering our new shrubs in burlap, which helps to protect them as they grow. The long drive home from the nearest nursery is odd when one is seeing so many trees, just there…and our pockets feel skint. We understand the care and cost involved with growing, but still…it’s mad times for buying plants, or anything really. We recently divided up our house plants and more than doubled the potted plant amounts. We plan to take lots of cuttings to get started on growing more green air for our property, especially with our Mediterranean plants. Lavender and pollinators everywhere, please!

Happy Spring Gardening whether on your windowsill, balcony, yard, or field. Love, ~ Amor Milagre

Pollution Awareness:

We added three of the Dwarf Mugo Pines to this little front stone bed, recently designed to be a mini potager, a kitchen herb garden, as we have just finished our new kitchen in this area of the house. The new terribly smokey/loud unrelenting pollutive neighbours have poisoned this possibility. We’ll soon have to move the herbs, such as a thriving rocky row of sage, into the less sunny back garden soon. It is most upsetting not to be able to fully finish, work on, sit with, study in, paint, muse over, and enjoy the massive scale garden renovation we began five years ago when we moved in (whilst also renovating our entire Rose Cottage interior).

*Give everyone peace, especially on their own property. This easily preventable pollution needs to be illegal. If you smoke and listen to music, do it inside your own house. Our food in the front garden is polluted and now inedible. Organic gardening, and farming, only works if what is neighbouring you is not polluting your plants, soil, air, and water. We cannot go out, open windows, breathe, run, be…or even have peace inside. How…is this allowed? We need exercise and air. Their pollution has directly caused devastating health issues for our family. Change laws to save lives. Make sense. Care. Be kind. Keep your own life in your own house. Dreaming and working towards a home and garden of one’s own needs to be allowed to be enjoyed. It’s hard work and expensive, every year. I’ll post our garden before and after photos soon. The changes have been great indeed. We fight for our right to live every day, just as our neglectful world must. Protest pollution on every scale. Our earth needs protection and freedom to be.

We’re trying to grow healing peace for us…and for the bees here. When in the garden, one desires to think of nothing, no one, but only nature. That is healing, instantly. Let go of what controls and pollutes you and everyone. Live peace. Preserve & grow goodness for all…this is true equality.