Valentina Expressions

Jewel tone colors characterize the autumn months along with the bounty of earthy food. This year on my holiday table there will be truffles some friends brought me from Italy, a variety of soups and delicacy made from different squashes. I plan on making lot of risotto with wild mushrooms and prosciutto. I am in the mood for roasted chestnut and dried fruits to munch on while sitting by the fireplace reading interesting books during the holidays. Some of the dried fruit come from garden, in fact I made roasted apples vinegar to use on salads and roasted lemons for grilled or baked chicken.
My table will be colorful with ceramics I hand carried with me in the plane from Sorrento, in the South of Italy all the way across the ocean to the US.
Home-made breads will fill the air of my house. Yes, I make bread at least twice a month.

Since I have been in the process of writing my third book on the subject  of Colors I feel like bathing in colors in all my daily expressions, not that I didn’t before, it just seems the feeling is elevated to the nth power.
This year, I will turn to nature for my Thanksgiving table decorations. It was easy to make napkin holders out of scrap fabrics and spray paint in gold a few real gourds to display on a cake stand.
Mums and pumpkins will be a novelty on anybody’s table this year, not only mine and not only for the table. To keep this arrangement fresh, use floral foam underneath the flowers, cut it in a round shape and cover it with mums. Group a few pumpkins in different shapes and size around the mums. Voila’ nature at your service inside and outside your home!
I am scattering pine cones in vases , bowls, to decorate a towel rack and even on the curtains as tie backs. Pine cones, because they are dark and woody, play well with other textures, such as ropes, glass,  or golden balls.

Nature doesn’t go wrong in combining textures, colors are always the right colors to each season. I can enjoy the decorations for a while longer past the holidays if I fancy and once I discard them back into the nature, they will dissolve again to become part of the earth once more.

This is my advice this holiday season. Stay away from artificial decorations, be respectful of the environment, support your local artists and craft people, buy local, buy handmade and give unique gifts from your heart.

We will soon transition into winter, we will see bare trees, cold, rain and snow in some parts of the world. It will be a different beauty and as usual I will have a lot to say about decorating in the winter style, along with preparing some succulent heart warming food. For now, enjoy this moment, this season in all the colors and prepare to enter the holiday season with a thankful heart.

The highlight of this year for me was meeting a 5 months old girl, the daughter of my new clients, two fine people. I am very thankful to have the opportunity to be of service to them.

If you are in a bound, or feel the stress of the holidays, relax and let me take care of your decorations for the holidays, or any organization you need to do to make your holiday event successful.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

Copyright © 2011 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved  

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer and former Fashion Designer, working in the USA and Europe since 1990. She blends well fashion with interior and colors the world of her clients.
She has been described as “the colorist” and loves to create the unusual. She is also the author of two Italian regional cuisine books available in this site at the Books page and in various other locations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnq8baaAq0M

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w