Jumping into the lake with all clothes on was the cherry on top of a math-filled, novel editing/illustrating, cosy keep cool kind of Tuesday here at Rose Cottage. Tomorrow will be an oil painting, salad mixing, garden green bean & blueberry picking sort of Wednesday.
What lovely littles fill your days this week? Love for all the fun little things! Love, ~Amor Milagre
Then on Wednesday…
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!
July is the month when we have a mini winter holiday, snuggle up to read frosty stories, wrap up gifts for December, and edit & illustrate sweet snowy tales in our finished library.
❄️ Teacups and quiet moments… Love, ~Amor Milagre
The Illustrated Self-Health Novelette Series will begin to release in 2026, one love-packed volume at a time.
My growing book illustration collection (stationery and fine art prints) for each novelette will be available to shop ahead of the paperback volumes & audiobook releases. As there are so many, I prefer to list them as they are completed. These will soon join the Leona novel and children’s book artwork. I’m painting with watercolours on aged deckled-edge papers and with oil on canvas. (FSC) There are also charcoal and fine nib ink renderings, too. I go with what the character tells me they’re most like.
Which characters and places speak to you?
On this cosy rainy Saturday, we: praise the clouds, stir up our weekly cooks and bakes, organize a new homeschool bookcase-locker tree, work on installing our handmade custom-designed kitchen pantry cabinets and mutter puzzle-figures for three other woodworking projects, and try to unglue our exhausted senses from the various terrible news sites. While we all protest the injustices attacking our world, we also need to nourish and appreciate all the goodness that is in our control. A weekly soup to sustain our immune systems, an effortless annual routine in the way of a handy rotating locker to easily find weekly lesson resources, a fresh uncluttered storage space to walk in, and a cosy preciousness of our own making are all easy ways that we take care of ourselves. Pineapples for luck, Love~ Amor Milagre
Airy soft dough relaxes me…
I’ve been sewing up some pretty, breezy clothes that can also be layered up on snowy days. Here is a recent women’s design in a French black floral. I prefer high-waisted A-line vintage silhouettes as they are the most flattering, comfortable, and easy to wear with a variety of top styles.
My early comfort food is homemade pasta. I rolled these delicious little squiggles up for lunch a few days ago. Chef’s kiss…mmmm.
I designed three new pieces for the kitchen and bathroom, and my talented husband is already counting up boards. I like to keep things off of the floor for easy cleaning, and in the case of our endlessly dividing houseplants, they will be closer to the sun this way, too. A little narrow kitchen linen sideboard will go sleekly by the door to house aprons, napkins, and tablecloths. We can place a sweet selection of seasonal decor on top! In our art class, we are making some autumnal pieces now with clay and fabric.
By separating the fridge from the main kitchen area with a glass door, we have extended the kitchen into the back mudroom and this keeps that certain wearing buzz away from us as we enjoy our cooks. All of my designs are for sensitive people. Soon, there will be a counter and upper cabinets for dried foods in here. The base stores bigger pans, pots, pie plates, and glass storage containers. The counter will be where the blender and toaster live, freeing up our main counters in the kitchen for rolling out dough and just a general uncluttered clarity. The fruit bowls will lounge on a bistro table in here as well. We changed this design a bit back here to finish these spaces sooner and to allow for other types of storage to live here, too. It will be so lovely to be finished with our complete kitchen renovation, and I will post the before and after’s soon.
It’s hard to believe that ten years ago we only had a few shelves-worth of books, some of which had to be discarded after a leak. Now, we have so many school books that we chose this carousel case to organize our weekly lesson books. Each area is designated for a specific class. They are in order of the days of the week, from top to bottom, with extras to pull from when one is finished. Our lessons cover everything, so it’s fun and easier to set out a small collection to take over to the library each day, no harmful back packs needed. Later on, we will place this piece in the library and spiral our most beautiful smaller novels all around. It is a bit tricky to get the taller school books to fit, but they can be tipped sideways. Less visual clutter eases the senses, so this will stay in the back room for now. We designed and made beautiful ceiling height bookcases for the library which are now full and need reorganizing. Moving the current school books over frees up a few shelves. We’ll put on an audiobook and shift things around. We love to be surrounded by loving stories. It feels like we have a bookshop in our home. I’m excited to share that my Amor Milagre bookshop will greet a few new novels this year! I’ll be working on the treasuries over the winter, all cosy with my paints and cup of tea. Note to self- Don’t dip your brush in the teacup!
Wishing all the love to those who need it most.
Music of the Moment: The Very Thought of You, Ray Noble, Al Bowlly
