Flocks of W’s and V’s wrap up the walls of our new home at Rose Cottage. Patch, sand, prime, paint, repeat. Stretch and bend, over, under, on tiptoes, and balanced on ladders. How tall are you, what is your reach, and how tall are the ceilings? Which tools could help you ergonomically paint your darling home?
I’ve received some questions about renovating. Here are some painting tips. Your best friend is practice, nothing fancy, but your home will look fancy!
Rollers & Extenders: I find an extender useful with a roller for the middle to top in one position, then stretch to bend for the bottom. With so much to do, the body needs care and caution. For high ceilings, steady ladders and a good extender help your back. This also helps to finish the job much faster and smoother.
Angled paint brushes are great for striking out ceilings, woodwork, and corners. Go slow and steady. You can always touch up ceilings later if a bristle flecks paint.
Use No VOC paint and open windows. Towels under closed doors help other rooms stay unscented.
Tiny art brushes are great for narrow window grid trim. Painting tape keeps trim and window glass clean. Use the tape like a straight edge. Pull it to bend, and press to seal. This reminded me of my 2D foundation design class for colour theory. We taped boards to layer shapes and colours with paint and matte medium. Once you get the trick of it, by practicing, you’ll never scrape paint off glass again.
Stretch like in yoga. Bend, balance, strengthen, but don’t breathe in the paint. 🙂
Reuse rollers and brushes by keeping in airtight bag during a project. Wash when done with a colour, and let dry. If painting many areas, a rotating routine helps by having several brushes and rollers to use. Label colours on each bag and set with matching paint can.
*Don’t spray the paint as it’s unhealthy for your breathing air.
Playing music, for whichever mood you’re ready for, helps you sway with the brushstrokes. Take your time to save time.
I like to paint the trim and doors the same as the wall for a serene aesthetic.
Taking breaks is good for muscles, drying times, and an energy boost. Eating well and sleeping early helps complete renovations faster with less frustrating accidents. I like to map out a painting routine for the week with room goals. It helps keep track of what is done, and what is ready to do next.
Supportive shoes, ones you don’t mind getting a bit painty, lend strength and longevity to painting sessions.
Tarps help keep splatters off floors and walls. Burlap ones rattle less than plastic ones when windows are open.
Temperature is important. Is the humidity right? Is it warm enough to paint? Stir paint before using.
Check and clean up as you go. Check for drips, and smooth out overlap marks.
Remove hardware when possible and reattached later. Tape and cover permanent hardware to keep it unpainted and useful.
Use the right paint for each surface. All your work is worth the energy if the paint stays nice and doesn’t chip due to the wrong paint choice. Look at the labels. Trim paint for wood trim. Wall paint and often paint/primer all in one for walls. Anything metal, plastic, or other, find the matching paint type. Ask the shop for advice.
Check the paint colour on the chip to see if it was mixed properly before leaving the store. Check the colour with a sample before ordering large gallon quantities. Paint a spot on each wall to check how light and shadow change your colour.
Surface preparation is key for smooth walls. Fill in cracks, holes, and dents. Sand smooth and prime. Check before painting.
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?
Any more reno questions, I’ll be here painting, and I’ll get back to you once I wash my painty hands. Happy Colours! XOXO ~Amor Milagre
Thank you for all your lovely questions, comments, shares, and stories this past year. In this Miniview (Mini Q & A Interview Series), I’ll answer one question at a time.
Q: What are your favorite food combinations for cooking family dinners?
A: I have many, but for Winter, I really love organic ginger root, garlic, and shallots together…in everything! It works gently in sauces, soups, appetizers, on vegetables, in dips, and with fruit to create a softness. The scent fills the house with a warm, cozy cloud of sweet ginger. Our bodies love it because it really helps boost the immune system and keep us healthy with all the germs about in town. I like to sauté these three, minced, in olive oil, salt, and pepper, on low heat. When tender, add in other things or add it on top of others. We’ll be growing these in our new garden, here at Christmas Rose Cottage, this Spring -Summer -Autumn. This healthy superfood grouping is soothing for the senses and for stomachs, little and big. Ginger was very helpful for maternity illness. I find natural foods so beautiful. The garlic’s airy winged shells, the ginger’s aromatic colour, and my tearful shallotful eyes try to admire their lilac and russet hues fading into one another.
I have included this trio in my new Cookbooks, releasing in 2020. A new Film Series that involves some organic vegan recipe ‘How To’s’ is also on the menu. More Q & A’s are coming up! Please message your questions here. Happy Holiday Cooking! XOXO ~Amor Milagre
‘Be the Light, Live in the Light’ Greeting Card Stationery Sets for this Artwork are Coming Soon!
Sensitivity is a Strength! Sensitivity is Love!
I am an ambassador for positive change. I am here to unveil that Awareness and Sensitivity are Love! We are all born sensitive, but many lose their awareness of it. Illness is a way it comes through, and clouding the awareness of our natural empathy will only cause more illness and suffering. There is another way, dear human friends! We can all listen to our Higher-Inner Self. This is what it’s all about, connecting to our souls, and therefore connecting to everything and everyone that ever was, is, or will be. This is where peace is. Respect is there, too. This is Love. And…my Dear Ones, this is what we all are and need to be aware of. So please read my blog posts here, and my books because I need to help us all get back to being extremely aware of…everything. This is why I’m here, every time. It was always this way, and as I continue to explore my Akashic Records in Meditation (more about this coming up), it seems to always be this way. I am ‘The Teacher’, ‘The Advocate’, the humble sharer of information and messages from the timeless universe. My new books are coming up, as fast I can make them and, of course, new blog posts and collections are lovingly being made here daily.
In the meantime, listen to your children, they know what love is and understand the awareness. Let them teach you about Love and awareness. Their wonder of the world is not only because they are new to it, it’s because they are aware of it and know it very well. Teach them, of course, healthy humans ways, colours, numbers, words, but don’t forget that they are our teachers for the most important lessons for all lifetimes. It’s in their smiles, their laughs, their LIGHT! We are all born with the Light of Love. It transcends all human words and we have it always. Live in the Light!
*A place to begin is to think of sensitivity as a gift, because it truly is. Being sensitive helps guide you. It helps you trust your instincts and your Inner Voice. Have the greatest respect for children and everyone, especially highly sensitive people. It’s incredibly difficult for us to even just be here, and then even more so when we add the daily routines and unhealthy people, places, tasks, and conversations. Sensitive people are amazing at solving issues that are vitally important to solve. If we are allowed a world that feels safe and healthy, our health will improve, and our other gifts can be positively appreciated in making wondrous and helpful systems, ideas, and gifts for all. Everyone wants to feel good, so let’s allow sensitive people to be allowed that simple right.
What can we all do in our own circles, routines, and powers to make positive changes for sensitive people and all to feel their senses relax and focus more easily on the day’s goals and pleasures? Think about all the things that affect your body, emotions, abilities, etc. Think of lighting, sound, vibration, crowds, electricity, chemicals, air, routines, basic needs, voices, attitudes, volume, scents, air pressure, and everything that could feel uncomfortable, painful, or dangerous. When speaking to sensitive people, what kind of words do you use, what tone of voice? Do you know they are sensitive? Are you aware? Now think of these things around you as if they were intensified to an unbearable level that shakes and disturbs the delicate nervous system and all that holds your body together. Now you might be thinking of how a sensitive person experiences the world. Could you focus and complete a task quickly if you felt massive pain just being in an unhealthy setting?
For sensitive children, and parents of sensitive children, finding ways to communicate well is vital. Children with speech challenges need to feel their voice is important, valued, and heard. They need basic things and need to be able to ask for them each moment. It’s incredibly frustrating to be unheard and in great need. It’s a pain no one should experience. Researching health conditions, ways of healing from trauma, and different ways of communicating is important to help those who live a more unusual life than others. Their life has more layers because of the difference, and they have more gifts and strength because of it. They very much need bridges of loving communications and a safe world to live in. These very special people have so much grace and goodness to share with the world. In sharing, they are able to feeling loving and contribute joy into the universe. Their confidence will build and they will do many more great and healthy things for all people, including more sensitive people in need of help and love.
There is much to share and learn about how sensitive people feel in certain situations, places, and emotional environments. There is also much for sensitive people to learn to keep their energy and stay healthy in a world that is not only unaware of their experiences, but too often condemns them and worsens their already difficult experiences. Be kind and ask questions with loving communication. Listening is learning. Asking nicely, with an open heart, is being loving and sensitive back. Have you heard anyone speak of the word ‘Sensitive’ as an analogy for ‘Love’? Now you have because it is! Being sensitive to others is being loving towards others. Love is not something reserved for a few people in your life. This Universal Love is for all people, things, plants, animals, and places. It is for the air we breathe, the water we drink, and all everywhere. Patience is needed when learning, so be patient, as learning about a Sensitive World is going to take imagination, until you understand. It may sound extreme because, for us, it is. The pain is so extreme and often sudden, a non-aware person might not feel it right away, but it would still affect them right away, only realizing it in another form later on.
Much of which we feel is chronic, meaning the world is not changing its’ levels of pollution, and we have to endure it, sort it, combat it, heal it, and rebuild from it every day. Think of it as if your whole world, your house, your job, your health, everything crashed every day, and you have to rebuild it all. When ill, more levels of sensitivity can more easily layer on top of the already heightened ones. Senses that were extremely aware were overstimulated too much, caused injury, or were abused can cause such conditions where the senses are blasted out. For example, sound can be incredibly much louder (hyperacusis) which can cause partial deafness when there is no break from the ‘deafening’ wall of sound, the brain and eyes have challenging aura or blindness, walking can be too painful, or chemicals can affect skin much more quickly or more extremely. Sensitive people are often misunderstood as their painful suffering can be mistaken for unrelated things in a quick moment, glanced at by an unaware person. Inflicting sensitive people with experiences that are painful for them is abuse. Become aware of your affect on people, and treat everyone uniquely. There is no blanket way to treat everyone, expecting the same reaction. Treat everyone with love, patience, and empathy, including your Self.
If you are sensitive, loving the Self, even if others do not, is very important. Listen to you Self and do what you need to do to be healthy in peaceful ways. When the world is painful for sensitive people, we often accrue illness that layers on new and very dangerous illnesses. It makes us even more sensitive, which is still not a weakness, though it might look like it, but it is a great strength because it takes energy that we constantly have to keep rebuilding. We have to keep adapting and become stronger because of the unhealthy things in the world. It’s beyond exhausting, which is one of the illnesses -chronic exhaustion.
Hopefully, after reading this, you’ll never use the word ‘sensitive’ as an insult, and if you hear someone doing so, you can now educate them and say: “Sensitivity is a Strength!” If you meet someone that says they are sensitive, you can say with a warm empathic smile, “That is so wonderful! If there is anything you think we can do differently to help everyone’s senses keep their energy, please let me know.”
Everyone is sensitive about something, on different levels of awareness, and has various combinations of sensitivity. We can come back to an understanding by raising awareness, having conversations, and remembering that all of us are sensitive people who need help with something. Why not help everyone by making acceptance and inventive flexibility a standard way of making positive changes? Things change all the time, and we adapt, so let’s change things for the better, to improve health for all with natural easy ways, such as fresh air and day light, a less cluttered, loud world. See how easily the senses come back down to a healthy rhythm to balance the body and reduce illness. This, in turn, allows us to solve issues and be more mindfully productive, making sustainable choices in all we do!
Everything is simple, but hardly anyone sees it like that. All the planes merge in one space, but not many are aware. More helpful tips for unlayering into awareness are coming up! Remember, awareness is freedom! It is understanding. It is Love!
My company collections, especially the bookshop and blog posts, raise awareness for Love and Gentleness so that all kinds of sensitive people, (which includes all children), can live in this world and feel safe, peaceful, and healthy. If we can change harmful, negative words, emotions, attitudes, and environments to be healthy ones for sensitive people, our gifts can shine and make massively positive connections and solutions for all. We all live in the same world, but many of us highly sensitive, highly aware people are suffering health-wise, socially, in the work place, and just everywhere from noisy, bright restaurants to our own homes polluted by others’ stress, overwhelming environmental settings, and pollution of all kinds. True sustainability is being mindful, respectful, and loving of people and places. In our homeschool classes here, we teach and learn about all kinds of ways people live. It’s not only about what people eat, wear, and the languages they speak. There is a universal language that all people share across all countries and time. It is awareness. It is Love!
Children’s classrooms and library book reading sessions are great places to have a peaceful place that is soft for the senses. Children may sometimes like to make sounds, but they surely do not like being surrounded by loud sounds. They need to feel safe, and their body needs to be at rest, and not in distress. Fresh air is beneficial to all, not just fresh air systems, but windows opened to let in natural air prevents illness. Fresh air gives energy that can be used to learn wonderful things! I’ll be posting more on this blog about what we all can do to be more aware and sensitive.
Amor Milagre signifies Miracle Love. There is a universal light that shines when real love ignites infinitely. Real love is always miraculous. “Live in the Light! Fill yourself up with love from within, and let it flow into everything you do! Surround yourself with Love!” ~Amor Milagre
Amor Milagre’s ‘A Gentle Life Collection’ may be helpful for everyone, especially for: Empaths, Synesthetes, Highly Sensitive People (HSP), Highly Intuitive People, Earth Angels, Light Workers, INFJ’s and all personality types, All Children, and Nature-Lovers.
This very important, universal message is included in my A Gentle Life Book Collection.
