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Colour Mood: Caramel Cream, Personal Style & Home Design

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New! Children’s Book & Artwork Collection: Golden & Earthen, The Enchanted Tree.

Golden caramel and cream are soft and toasty in the home, cozy to hug for Dear Ones, and as scrumptious as a gingerbread heart.  As I design our new home, these warm neutrals are lovely for all seasons and play nicely with spicy red plum walls, skin tones, wood textures, artwork, holiday menus, and evolving wardrobes.  Check back for a caramel cream bedroom and sitting room & dining room accents in these cuddly colours.  Snuggle up in your favourite hues and textures this Autumn as holiday spirits rise into Wintery winds.  XOXO ~Amor Milagre

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Coming Up:  More from The Colour Mood Series.

Music of the Moment:  Valse Sentimentale, Tschaikovsky, Performed by Georg Mertens on Cello and Gavin Tipping on Piano.

Amor Milagre Caramel Cream Colour Mood Home Fashion Personal Style Autumn 2019 Ethical Atelier Art Apparel white knit throw blanket tan english sofa couch interior design detail amormilagre.com

Shop Colour Mood:  Caramel Cream

 

 

 

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Planting Spring Flower Bulbs & Seeds in Autumn, Soil Health

Amor Milagre Home & Garden Renovation Design Diaries & Tips Planting Spring Flower Bulbs & Seeds in Autumn Trees Soil Health Organic Garden Ethical Gift Shop amormilagre.com

After long rains, we ventured out into puddly soil and fresh morning air in wellies and our ‘Monty Don blues’ (a favourite before we knew of him and that he adores blues for gardening, too.)  Dear little plants nestled into their newly raked flower beds.  Many deep roots and overgrown misplaced plants were moved and removed from beds near the house to allow for lower evergreen perennial gardens.  This design plan helps the house look grander, cozier, visible, and darling.  It also allows for more plants, wildlife, and pollinators.  A symphony of beautiful plants, timed to the rhythms of the seasons.  Whites, creams, apricots, plums, and pinks are on the planting menu this month.  Tulips, alliums, and daffodils of varying textures and hues pair well with an old bulb digger shovel.  A faerie garden for white and apricot foxglove and other English cottage garden flowers is carefully being planted, each wonderfully beautiful seed at a time, in between delicate moss and mushrooms and under a carpet of golden leaves.  We’re careful not to tread on anyone sleeping under leaf tents while planting magic for Spring.

Amor Milagre Home & Garden Renovation Design Diaries & Tips Planting Spring Flower Bulbs & Seeds in Autumn Trees Leaves Ethical Gift Shop amormilagre.com

For a natural planting, think of the wind and soil!  How does the wind carry crisp Autumn flower seeds to new homes?  How do bulbs expand their homes naturally under the soil and how do animals help?  How does a magical underground world of fungi reduce the world’s pollution?  It is truly inspiring!  Plant in small groups, here and there.  Not lined up, but in cozy organic clusters, with the recommended spacing and planting depth.  Think of how plants look in Nature, huddled in little families by a river bank or dotted and spread across a field of infinite plant species.  Think of the heights of each plant, the colours, the textures, bloom times, sun exposure, wind, temperature, soil, and drainage.  For many bulbs and seeds, Winter’s cold temperatures activate the plant to grow in the Spring & Summer.  It’s important to learn which ones needs this and which need immediate planting in warm soil, like tomato seeds in early Summer.  After lots of planting, stretching the legs with a walk about the garden is good before washing up.  How simply luxurious it feels to get your hands ‘dirty’ while planting exciting colours for Spring!  

Have fun, too!  If you’re upset or rushed when planting, it may show when time comes for blooms.  Singing or humming to your plants is positive energy that will help them grow and please yourself as you plant.  Researching your plants and taking pleasure in learning about them will help create an ease before planting time.  No need to mark everything while mixing your bulbs and seeds, as the whole garden would be covered in markers.  Developing a memory of plants is a good practice, and a journal helps keep track of plants between seasons (Coming Soon to My Shop!), as well as video diaries and pictures.  Add in other perennials amongst them.  How beautiful it is to have a mixture of unique beings all together in one garden bed!  What a joy it is to express through the living medium of gardening.  No painting is as delicate and breath-giving as a shimmering velvety translucent flower petal, thought of by the ever impressive Mamma Nature.  An idea, first mapped out through paints on paper, then come to life in the Earth, breathing fresh air and swaying in the wind!

Amor Milagre Home & Garden Renovation Design Diaries & Tips Planting Spring Flower Bulbs & Seeds in Autumn Trees Soil Health Stop Pollution Grow Organic Foods Garden Ethical Gift Shop amormilagre.com

Remember the magic from centuries and eons ago.  It’s in the soil!  Everything grows from the soil.  Once upon a time, soil health was at the forefront of all minds because, as it still is today, it is vital for our existence and daily life.  It is also the source of great imagination!  Stop pollution and take great care of our past, present, and future.  (Paving is a type of pollution).  Healthy soil decreases pollution.  Organic composting and caring for our garden soil is of great importance for all.  Soil health is a big resource, priority, and responsibility.  Think of all who live in the soil.  Worms are a great resource, as are all wildlife.  Grow your own organic foods for optimal health and great enjoyment.  Gardening is helpful exercise for body, mind, heart, and soul.  Growing plants from seeds and bulbs encourages strength and hardiness for the plants.  It aids in a positive personal character and growing lasting patience for the gardener.  It teaches us which plants like to grow where.  There is a relationship there, if gardeners listen to the Earth.  So many answers speak to us.  What colours, textures, shapes, scents, and senses would you like to encourage to grow in your garden?  Think long term.  Take care and time.  A garden can grow in any size space from pot to field.  Everyone is a gardener.

More gardening posts are coming up, and stay tuned to see these darlings bloom next Spring & Summer.  Little voices whisper to each bulb and seed as they’re planted, “Sleep well in your Winter bed, see you soon, sweet dreams, I love you!”  Happy Autumn Gardening!  XOXO ~Amor MilagreAmor Milagre Home & Garden Renovation Design Diaries & Tips Planting Spring Flower Bulbs & Seeds in Autumn Trees Golden Leaves Ethical Gift Shop amormilagre.com

Many of our beautiful garden plants and this text will appear in my upcoming children’s books, artwork, and stationery collections.

New Home & Garden Renovation Design Diaries & Tips:  More from this new series is coming up!

 

Music of the Moment:  Celtic Winter Folksongs

 

 

 

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Home & Garden Renovation Design Diaries & Tips: Right Plant Right Place

Shop Amor Milagre Garden Redesign Home & Garden Renovation Right Plant Right Place Autumn 2019 blue hydrangea Ethical Romantic Gift Collections amormilagre.com

‘The right plant in the right place’ gardening principle is all about choosing the right plant, that you love, and placing it in the right conditions (soil, wind, air, water, sun, temperature, etc), but also in the right place in the garden. 

Our house renovations extend into the garden as the overgrown shrubs and trees were placed too near the house walls, windows, and doors years ago.  Choosing the right plant for the expected mature growth is also very important.  Yes, all the baby plants look tiny and darling when you first tuck them into their new beds, but oh how they will grow!  The plants in our garden here are over 30 years old and many look lovely as a hedge border, but too many are sick because they are too near manmade structures and are not getting the proper amount of light and air circulation.  House foundation and siding issues are common for old houses that have large, deeply rooted, plants too near the house walls.  This week, we’ve been busy removing such large plants, but it’s sad to cut any living plant.  For empaths, it hurts.  It’s very important to choose and place your plants in a well-planned spot because they spend their whole lives striving, growing, and surviving the conditions you place them in, only to be cut down at their beautiful peak.

Everyone can design their gardens with the knowledge of plants so that we may look out the windows to admire them, sit amongst them with a cup of tea, take care of them over a long loving lifetime, and so they may proudly grow in beauty and age undisturbed.  Research your plants before you add them into the Earth, move them, prune, or remove them.

*All ages enjoy Nature, gardening, and plants.  Nature calms the nerves, solves problems, and restores us to our real Selves.  This state opens our ‘Light of Love’ up to the knowledge of the Universe, and this helps us, here, in our daily lives.  Be kind to your plants and they will continue to take great care of you, too.  Live in Nature, where life makes sense…Shop Amor Milagre Garden Redesign Home & Garden Renovation Right Plant Right Place Autumn 2019 Ethical Romantic Gift Collections amormilagre.com

Plants provide beautiful sound barriers as well as creating fresh oxygen for us all.  They are dependable homes for all living animals and insects, and inspire us to live outside more.  If you do have to cut branches, place them in the woods or in a spot in your garden to make a nice organic compost pile.  This also makes a nice home for your garden dwelling wildlife.  Today, we made a kind of burrow stack in the side woods and invited all of the animals and faeries to nestle in before Winter.  Back into the Earth to renew and provide nutrients for a most precious gift, Soil.

How difficult are the roots to remove?  Probably very as that is their beautiful design.  Will everyone like the plants you’re adding?  Yes, at some point, we all move on and new gardeners come in.  It’s tricky to please everyone as plants keep our connections and memories, but if we let go and sense the plants as they truly are, we can appreciate them as they are, connected in Nature.  We couldn’t help but notice that rhododendrons are tricky ones.  Roots spreading sideways like walking trees…so many roots and shoots.  These plants need space, so next to a house is not a good place for them, especially if left to grow into a hedge.

Our new garden plans are coming up so please stay tuned!  In the meantime, take a wander outside into the botanical world and browse your library.  Experience the marvels of Nature.  You can save seeds and spread Nature everywhere again, while keeping in mind to preserve our silly manmade structures, so we use less of Nature’s resources to rebuild our neglected, non-living contraptions.  Exploring how Nature grows proves human invention nonsensical.  How truly smart Nature is…how she weaves all her creations together in such a harmonious world of inclusiveness.  We are the ones who are getting in her way.  Oh, how I wish I were the wind, a snail, a fox, or a more natural human…perhaps I once was and will be again…but for now, I’ll take care of her and us.  Happy Nature Explorations!  XOXO ~Amor Milagre

Shop Amor Milagre Garden Redesign Renovation Right Plant Right Place Autumn 2019 Ethical Romantic Gift Collections amormilagre.com

Many of our beautiful garden plants will appear in my upcoming children’s books, artwork, and stationery collections.

Coming Up:  New Garden Beds and Planting Spring Bulbs and Seeds

New Home & Garden Renovation Design Diaries & Tips:  More from this new series is coming up!

 

Music of the Moment:  Scarborough Fair, Simon & Garfunkel

 

 

 

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Home Renovation Design Diaries: Good Morning, Rose Cottage

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For months prior to moving, I planned the designs for our new home.  Only after removing the layers of days lived before could I recognize this house as our home.  Good Morning, Rose Cottage!  We’ll help you to be a cozy reverie before the winter holidays visit.

The dusty & dysfunctional:  curtains, carpets, plumbing, fixtures, cabinets, windows, doors, and heating system need removing, updating, and fixing.

This month’s renovations include:

  • New flooring (cork underlay and FSC Certified sustainable engineered wood flooring)
  • Editing the gardens to allow for Spring bulbs and new garden designs
  • Updating bathrooms
  • Washing Windows
  • Begin to Replace the Entire Heating System
  • Parging textured walls and fireplace
  • Paint swatches everywhere including the exterior, patching, and painting
  • Measuring for new furniture, designs to build, and lighting
  • A general unpacking of our things and tidying/selling of things left behind

There is much to do and little time, but the breeze is lovely and Autumn is letting her hair down in golden leaves.  More renovation inspiration to come.  Happy Autumn Leaf Enjoying Days and Happy Renovating to those walking in our dusty shoes!  XOXO ~Amor Milagre

Amor Milagre Shop Live in the Light Ocean Autumn 2019 Collection Amor Milagre amormilagre.com

New Home & Garden Renovation Design Diaries & Tips:  More from this new series is coming up!

Music of the Moment:  The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker”

 

 

 

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New Home Renovation Design Diaries: First Dusty Days

Amor Milagre New Home Renovation Design Diaries 1st Dusty Days 2019 Ethical Organic Gift Shop Handmade Gift Shop Art greenhouse sunroom trees amormilagre.com

In the midst of our sneezing party, carpets and curtains caked in age old dust make a swift exist through our newly seen doors.  We explore the light and air in each room, finding secrets and mysteries of the house, cleaning along the way, and leaving paint marks behind like rainbow snails.  Boxes pile to the ceiling, revealing more work to be done, and things, here and there, are tucked into their new place.  New appliances test the nerves of old fixtures.  A garden tour reveals seeds from Summer blooms.  The ‘have you seen the’ and “just over there please’ echo about our new home.  We learn new sounds and are thrilled to have left the old ones behind.  Autumn greets us in every window.  We are very pleased with the sounds of air in the gorgeous garden trees, (open windows), and more renovation design journal posts will travel to your inbox soon, (subscribe below).  Our first calm day ever is here, and our times ahead will be even better once we soothe this old heating system’s sore throat to ensure our sweet, quiet dreams.  Happy October!  XOXO ~Amor MilagreAmor Milagre New Home Renovation Design Diaries 1st Dusty Days 2019 Ethical Organic Gift Shop Handmade Gift Shop Art Autumn decor sugar fruit garden bay windows amormilagre.com

My favourite aspect of a room are the windows, natural light, and connecting the gardens to the interior so it all feels like one peaceful design.

Amor Milagre New Home Renovation Design Diaries 1st Dusty Days 2019 Ethical Organic Gift Shop Handmade Gift Shop Art custom paint colours living room fireplace amormilagre.com

Coming Up:  A cozy plum living room and fireplace makeover!

Amor Milagre New Home Renovation Design Diaries 1st Dusty Days 2019 Ethical Organic Gift Shop Handmade Gift Shop Art demo removing carpet grids windows amormilagre.com

Always be careful when removing old flooring because you don’t know what kind of, now rusty, staples and hardware were used to attach it.  Opening windows and covering your mouth/nose, especially if you have allergies, can help keep dust and dander from making you ill.  Old flooring and the layers underneath are very unhealthy to inhale.

Removing any flimsy, eye-blocking window grids (not for structural strength) helps you see out into Nature and prevents splinters for all ages.  It’s less distracting, it helps to keep windows clean, and the room feels less stuck for optimal design and mindful reflection.  There were many windows here with these grids barely hovering on the windows, but unfortunately the few newer windows have this inside the glass, so we’re stuck with those for a bit.  My designs are centered on openness.  The less lines that divide the home the less that lines will divide the mind.  All is connected.  Be free and open in Nature…

Amor Milagre New Home Renovation Design Diaries 1st Dusty Days 2019 Ethical Organic Gift Shop Handmade Gift Shop Art custom paint colours bedroom fireplace amormilagre.com

When choosing paint colours, the natural light and room purpose are important to consider.  Look for healthy no-VOC paint options.  Find the family of colours you like, then choose one with enough earthiness for a soothing countenance.  Try it on every wall to see the shadows at all times of day.  What feels comforting to you?

Amor Milagre New Home Renovation Design Diaries 1st Dusty Days 2019 Ethical Organic Gift Shop Handmade Gift Shop Art large windows trees amormilagre.com

New Home & Garden Renovation Design Diaries:  More from this new series is coming up!

Inspiration for Kindness:  When leaving a home, give the gift of a clean space, less to do for new owners, and remove all old dusty items as part of the house sale.  Many people have allergies and are tired during a move.  Be kind by caring about every little thing, because it takes a lot of energy and time to remove every dusty little thing, and it’s nice to come home on the first day to a pleasing, healthy space to unpack and exhale.  🙂

For Healthy Beautiful Custom Design, Atelier Amor Milagre

Music of the Moment:  Cool Autumn Breeze in the Trees