Designing the garden to be as soft, natural, and perennial as the interior is something that I love to do. Outside, we have organic vegetable gardens, cottage flower mazes, and wildflower meadow borders. It’s as easy as painting with plants. Choose your colours, textures, seasons, and heights. Replace lawns with perennial flowering plants. Creeping thyme is a favourite bridge for plant gaps, and the pollinators love their dusty lilac flowers as much as we love to use it for cooking. Plant your desired seeds and enjoy all of their stages. Inside, cosy up by the window on a rainy day and sketch the blooms of the week. Go out for a dewdrop stroll to explore watery worlds. Arrange your teacups and dishes on wide heavy cream shelves, and lay down charcoal cacao floors to connect the inside to the garden. Your flowers and curtains can reflect similar colours and patterns. This encourages humanity to feel more a part of nature. By connecting indoor and outdoor spaces with sensitive design, one finds themselves going out more naturally to benefit from the air, blooms, and roots. Fawns love to wander in the meadows, too.
Meditate inclusivity, harmony, and peace. Love, ~Amor Milagre
Amor Milagre: Health Awareness: End Clothing Chemical & Scent Pollution
Did you know that clothing companies are making the world sick? There are hazardous, toxic chemicals in most clothing. Research products before you buy. Even the chemical safety certified clothes will often arrive heavily scented. Look at all aspects of their system to truly know if the garments are non-toxic.
We have given up on clothing companies, even the ones who claim to be organic. Everyone: We encourage you to tell clothing companies who send perfumed items to stop. Ask before you buy for clear answers. Ask: “Are there harmful chemicals in your products?” Research the best fabrics for the body. Demand real transparency and respect for the consumer. Return items, delete accounts, and send detailed messages requesting process and policy changes. Prevent illness and chemical run off into nature. Positive change is needed. It is dire. Illness is prevalent. Illness is preventable.
Most clothing is polluted with PFAS, formaldehyde, pesticides, and other damaging forever chemicals. Items are then sprayed with perfume to distract you from those chemicals. It is a toxic mess. Set boundaries. We cannot even open the box. We cannot even try it on to see that the designers are still not doing fit tests or proper colour matches. Suitable clothing is hard enough to find without adding dangerous chemicals into the mix. Yes, I worked briefly in fashion as a designer and did everything I could to make sure my designs would be healthy and fit real humans, but the big wigs wouldn’t adapt to my changes so I quit. They wouldn’t even do one organic fabric! They dare not order a single swatch. They feared a health-conscious revolution, and that would cost them. One must be proud of their work. The toxic office sensory environment issues and constant sexual harassment also made up my obvious decision to leave. The inhumane conditions and lack of pay/benefits for those making the products is a crime. Children should not be the work force behind our daily outfits. All of the industries need to be examined, held internationally accountable, and redesigned to benefit all involved.
The fashion industry is a foe. They are quite terrible. Research it. The messages are unhealthy. The warehouses are a dump. The waste is expansive. The lack of care is disgusting. The human form, and how we move and live, is rarely taken into account. The off-gassing from a roomful of unboxed shoes or outerwear is instantly damaging to the body. Even the poison exuding from one box of shoes or one coat causes immediate issues. Health is not usually even mentioned. They take no pride in their products. Department store shopping is like wading in a cheaply made sea of strings and tags. Boutiques and designer shops overcharge for the same bad quality sewing and continue to pollute their items. French companies lash out when you ask them to simply not perfume the items before sending, claiming that everyone loves their signature scent. We don’t. They don’t care. We don’t count in their view of everyone. They only count positive feedback and imaginary ideal customers. Even the well known organic companies pollute their clothes. They have sold out and have lost control. Fast or slow fashion, it’s all the same junk if you don’t take care to not pollute your designs. Storage is key as well. What scents and toxins do products absorb in storage? Every step in the process is important. The packaging materials also need to be non-toxic and unscented. Think of a shirt like a pear. Are they grown organically? How does it get from here to there? Is it intact? Is it still good when it reaches the customer? We are absorbing our surroundings…and we do not want to ingest pollution.
Until adding heat to fabrics stops conjuring up clouds of toxic pollution, this is not a pleasure to help your clothes look and feel smooth. It can only be an occasional thing to do with proper ventilation and a mask. The fabrics, iron-steamer-dryer, detergent and packaging all need to be safe and healthy to use. The iron itself emits toxins. The production of these machines is toxic as well. Remove the chemical coatings and replace plastic pollution with earth-friendly simple routines. The amount of toxins in a fabric is obvious by the instant headache and difficulty breathing. Prevent illness and redesign the world to be a healthy life cycle.
This poison and poisonous mindset does not listen to those of us who sense danger immediately. Personal safety is attacked by merely ordering a sweater. Chemical and perfume allergies are real and painful. Their products instantly cause sharp blinding migraines, an inability to breathe, and various painful long-term illnesses solely caused by air and chemical pollution. Asthma, cancer, baby issues, and skin conditions are directly caused by these chemicals. Highly sensitive people benefit the world. We are the truth tellers. Listen to us to prevent catastrophes. The stores won’t change anything and do not tell the vendors of the customer’s concerns or returns. Reviews online are false. The truth is deleted. You are wearing toxins. It’s back to sewing for us, but really…where do we get the fabric, as all of this is true of the textiles industry as well? They go hand in hand…spreading pollution as they ship poison around the world.
Redesign the world to be healthy. We deserve clean unpolluted fabrics and clothing.
On hot summer days, we make simply refreshing flavoured ice.
Sometimes mint or rosemary, often wild berry, and today…lavender!
Amor Milagre Organic Garden Lavender Ice
Homeschool is lovely in the summer. Explore all things botanical in the garden, come in for a cold drink, and let the mind soak up beautiful latin names, fascinating plant uses, and charming origin stories. Nature is the best teacher.
A few fresh books will be finished this month, and then it’s off to the printers!
Stay cool. Love, ~ Amor Milagre
A Gentle Life Collection
Coming Up: New Audiobooks & An Ethical Paperback Option
A table of earthy lavender feels real and full. So much of our modern world is fake, in denial, distressing, and all about the intended facade, but plants are usually pretty honest. I relish in the green air of my garden. The buds, the stems, the scents, the textures, and the flavours…
Bundles of twine-tied and dried bedroom bouquets, petals for dollhouse and wardrobe sachets, and savoured preserves for kitchen teatime potions adorn our Rose Cottage rooms this last week of June. Many blooms are left growing for the pollinators.
This spell is a simple one…scatter some seeds…rain…wait…and enjoy as your plants grow more lush every year! New blooms will come back soon after this trim. Our flowers bolted early from spring’s heat waves caused by climate change, and I am learning their new rhythms. Weeks of rain follow none at all, and I am glad we designed a drought-tolerant garden. The wildlife and pollinators adore the various intermingling plants. Glistening wings hover over large patches of colourful petals in a sparkling, humming cloud. Bliss! This is the ‘reality’ we love the most.
Roaming our rambling minty hills, we find inspiration. A handful of mint makes for a refreshing vegan shake. You can also mix the lavender and mint together in a fresh tea infusion to brew up a calming enchantment. Sit in the moment…feel that you are real and full of life! Grow goodness!
*New Green Witch books are coming soon. Check out my Lavender art pieces and books for more fresh air. Be truly you! Love, ~Amor Milagre