January | 2018 | Valentina Expressions

Variations | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

29 Jan 2018 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ColorsOfBarcelona, #LaBoqueriaBarcelona, #LaBoqueriaFoodVariations, #LaBoqueriaMarket, #TravelSpain, #WordPressPhotoChallengeVariations

Art, food and street life are the three things I want to explore when I travel. They are three variations of expressions of people and their culture I want to learn.

In a few TV cooking shows, I learned about Barcelona La Boqueria Market, I could not wait to go down Las Ramblas to visit this open market as soon as I arrived in Barcelona. I was hit with a profusion of colors, aromas and flavors to which was hard to resist. Inside La Boqueria market, I spent a few hours ” A Ramblear” as locals would say, getting lost in food heaven, looking, learning, tasting and taking photos. It is an open street market, covered with a hard canopy, sun or rain don’t seem to bother people or activities and the variations of one or another are so interesting.

Everything I had heard about La Boqueria market was true. Colors and flavors were so vibrant and inviting I didn’t want to leave. Many curiosity filled my eyes and my camera, picture after picture flowed like water in a river and I also tasted an incredible amount of food. The Jamon Ibérico with a flavor of juniper berry was delicious, hoof or no hoof, and I really enjoyed the various ice creams with a chili pepper kick mixed in with the flavor of the ice cream. What a treat !!!

The choice of tapas variations prepared at all the bars was infinite, the aromas were irresistible, try eggs and cuttlefish, of my, what a variation on the egg dish! The wine……that’s another story, as a tourists drinking at hours normally not conceived for drinking, was so liberating. At La Boqueria I felt at ease, regardless of all the noises, people are friendly. I speak Spanish and that helps enjoying the market in its fullest.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Above: Dry peppers of many colors and heat spice up the area.

Above: Xorico Sauces in many colors, flavors and texture.

Above: Sangria in bulls, in flamenco dancers and in toreadors shaped bottles.

Above: Jamon Bellota with a hoof on a Jamonero ham holder, a typic gadget of Spain.

Above: Jamon Ibérico with pata negra (black hoof).

Life is full of variations, explore them and don’t be afraid to try something awkward. Ciao.
Valentina
https://valentinaexpressions.com/trips-to-puglia-2

As a writer and cultural promoter of Puglia, her native land, Valentina’s intention is to let readers feel and experience a new ”wheel of emotions”. She wants to encourage them to visit areas of Italy not beaten by massive tourism. Through stories of local customs, art, architecture, fashion, food-wines, shopping, she wants them to create their special adventures and live it up in Puglia! Check out her books on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

Say It With Colors | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

23 Jan 2018 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColorfulAccentWalls, #ColorfulHomeAccessories, #ColorfulTextures, #HowToCombineCreamColor, #Pantone2018Colors, #UltraVioletColor

Say It With Colors, is the TV show I conducted last week by myself in front of a live audience. The show is about presenting the fresh, unusual color combinations we can do this year with Ultra Violet color, one of the bold and very powerful colors of 2018.
(Click on each photo to view it larger)

Entry Scene: “Say It With Colors” TV Show – Valentina Design Universe

(Above: Photo was taken in the studio by Tyler Wiest)

Questions from the audience were interesting. Time always feels very short, in only 30 minutes show, I could not answer all the questions, but I will elaborate on them here:

What is the most attractive color to the human eye?
I would say that red, green, yellow and gold are attractive to the human eye.
Red is the color of the heart pumping red blood. It is the color of passion and love. Products on sale always have a red tag and we feel the urge to buy them while the discount lasts. It’s the color of impulse buying and the color of those who take action. In fact, when selling a house, an entry door painted red and some red accessories scattered around the rooms will help to sell the house faster.
Green is a peaceful color of nature and everyone feel at ease.
Yellow is the powerful energy of the sun and gold is the powerful energy of wealth.

Modelo Paint Finish

(Above: accent wall Red Modelo paint finish by Douglas Greenberg)

Ceramic balls

What color is the sexiest?
It is hard to answer this question without thinking of a nation and its culture. Not all colors have the same meaning in all the cultures. For example, in European countries black is associated with death and funerals, white in China is used for death and funerals, but in Brazil purple is the color for death and funerals. Funny, how three different colors mean the same thing in three different continents.

What color looks best with cream?
Cream color alone, to me, is a very boring color, for some people is a calming color. The eyes need light and shadow to feel rested. If a room or the entire home is cream color without any other accent colors, the eyes will wonder constantly and soon will feel tired. The vibe from a cream color is very feeble, to create an interesting monochromatic cream color scheme, the option is to pair cream with a few earth tones, such as brown, olive, rust, coral, or to pair it with a few dark accents as navy blue, purple, or even black. With warm and hot colors, such as red, orange, red and rust, cream becomes the color which dilutes the others and calms them down.

Beige Color and Texture Concept Board

How to spice up a personal space with colors?
Answering this question is like having a clean canvas and splash any colors on it. Rhythm is what you want to create to spice up any room. Look for something that will attract the viewer, such as an accent wall painted as an art piece or painted in a bold color; mix furniture changing style and colors; add textures in the accessories or mix floor textures; paint kitchen/bath cabinetry or add whimsical doorknobs/hardware; mix antique and modern lighting fixtures.

A mix of textures and colors for a sitting room

(Above: Mixed furniture)

Painted Verdigris Patina – Laundry wall

(Above: Accent wall painted as an abstract art piece by Gyorgy Sofalvi)

(Above: Mixed ceramic hand painted kitchen cabinet doorknobs)

Whatever you do, it’s your home and if you like to have one polka dots wall with an animal print sofa or a red kitchen with Salvador Dali hardware who is to say it’s wrong? Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author, who became a TV producer/host. She is currently producing her shows at KMVT15 in Mountain View, Los Altos & Cupertino TV station, under her label Valentina Design Universe. The goals of her shows are to entertain, inspire and inform, while she is living her passion. She never gives up trying new things. She found new energy conducting shows by herself and interviewing guests on the stage of her shows. Find Valentina Design Universe TV here: https://goo.gl/2tbN3N

Get a copy of her books here:
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB

Weathered | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

16 Jan 2018 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #TravelItaly, #VeniceStyle, #WeatheredArchitecture, #WeatheredItalianStyle, #WeatheredStyle, #WordPressPhotoChallengeWeathered

Ah, Venice, the only city in the world where pigeons walk, lions fly, sexy men are made of stones and gondoliers are the richest taxi drivers in the whole world!

When I am in Venice, photographing conventional sites, even as beautiful as they are, is not my goal. Sure, I have done those tourist photos too, but I am more intrigued to find weathered details usually people leave behind, because they don’t appeal to their eyes. I like to find details which tell a story.

Most buildings in Venice beautify the sky with characteristic weathered ‘comignoli’ (chimneys). They are tall and look like small homes with a gable roof on top of buildings. Many wealthy Californians have embellished their “Tuscan style” homes with copies of Italian style ‘comignoli’ and ‘faccioni’ (cherub’s faces), sometimes stuck on garden walls as planters.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

(Above: chimney called comignolo)

I could have spent endless hours more than I did talking to the older man, owner of the restoration laboratory. He spent his entire life among stunning and weathered objects, furniture, fabrics, grisailles and historic pieces. It was so fascinating listening to his stories !!!

(Above: Restoration store)

I am amazed of how well the weathered wood poles and stilts deeply planted in water, hold Venice up and how well lintel beams hold together the walls of many weathered homes.

(Above: Santa Maria della Salute in the background)

(Above: Casa Goldoni decorative lintel)

(Above: Venice characteristic street lamp)

Perfectly weathered pewter and bronze street lamps are still standing not decayed, as are the marble stone statues, precious mosaics on buildings‘ facades and marble carved capitals with acanthus leaves still showing the intricate details on top of columns.

(Above: Marble acanthus leaves capitel)

(Above: Store pewter door handle)

One might imagine finding weathered home gardens, where courtship and lover quarrels might have happened one time, but they are hard to find today.

The local Venetians are leaving town for a better living. Venice has no longer stores of primary needs for the locals, such as bread shops, meat shops, vegetable shops, dairy shops, fish market, drug stores, clothing stores, book stores, the seamstress shops, hat shops, shoe maker shops, the clinic, a local doctor office and all the shops which regulate and take care of the needs of a human life.

Venice has become a stumping ground for tourists with a little interest in history, art and theatre art. Their needs are to go to the bathroom, buy a gelato, a cheap tourist meal, a few meaningless trinkets made in China, get a photo with the pigeons in St. Marco square and return to the ship or wherever they came from. The town today is made of B&Bs, restaurants with tourist menus (what kind of crap is that?), cheap souvenirs, super expensive gondola rides, counterfeit fashion items sold in the streets by illegal immigrants and nothing else.
Venice belongs first to the Venetians, to Italy and then to the world. That Venice charm I had known is forever lost. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinaexpressions.com/trips-to-puglia-2

Second Time Around | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

06 Jan 2018 6 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: ##EnvironmentalFashion, #ReconstructedGarnment, #RecyclingClothes, #ReinventingFashion, #RestylingClothes

In this climate of saving the environment and recycling, every opportunity is a good opportunity to give something a second chance that would otherwise end up in land fill.
We buy an awful amount of clothes that we wear perhaps for one season, or only one time and discard them as soon as we get tired. The fashion industry is a big influencer, if it says they are no longer acceptable, we promptly get rid of them.

Have you ever thought that all those items we literally throw away, sometimes even with a price tag on, are all workable into new items? With a little creativity, it is possible to enlarge a garment with a new and different fabric or color; it is possible to pair a vintage fabric with a new one; it is possible to upgrade the look of a skirt by using the fabric of another skirt that will add interesting details and profiles. These are a few of the things we can do give a garment a second chance and to make it into something original.

My mom and her sisters, all teenagers during World War II, remade clothes due to shortage of fabrics. My grandmothers, who lived two great wars, did it before my mom. They taught me not to throw away anything and to use my imagination when time comes to give something a second chance. Remaking clothes into something new is amusing and rewarding.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

I made this original black jacket (above) using a folk Romanian fabrics purchased in one of my travels. If I had made the jacket with only a black fabric, it would have looked like a common black jacket. Using a colorful folk print, front and back and only on one side of the jacket, not only I created an unusual look, but the colors brought life the black side. Closure was off-center with clay buttons I created and painted myself. Lining it with golden-yellow was a great idea, it added an interesting view when the jacket was open.
I sold it big time and I made a few people unhappy along the way. Due to the limited fabric, I could not produce more than one piece.

I want to remake the sun jacket above with animal print fabric at the bottom edge.
How do you know when two fabrics look perfect together, you might ask?
Your eyes are the first judge of that. If it looks good in your eyes, it means it is right.
Colors are common denominators. Find one color in the existent garment to match with the new fabric.
Prints go well with solids and geometry makes playful matches.

In the case of my sun jacket, the animal print has black in it and the uneven shapes of the animal design pairs well with the uneven shapes of the sun designs. What I like the most about this match is the lighter weight of the fabric I am using for the edge and the undulating movement it will create when I walk.

The velvet military style jacket (above) has been revived with a new velvet front panel, Renaissance style. Now, it lends itself to a new look, perhaps a Bohemian long skirt with boot, or a pair of pants in one of the bright colors in the panel.

I know that remaking clothes using old and new is a novel idea for a throw away society and some people are catching on, but if we want to be conscious of saving the environment, let’s start in our closet saving our clothes. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, born in Italy in a family of artists. Style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. She is passionate about colors and encourages her clients to express their individual style in their homes and with the clothes they wear.
To better help people all over the world she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Barnes&Nobles: https://goo.gl/Xme8Hn
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB

At The End Of The Year | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

01 Jan 2018 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ItalianNewYearEve, #NewYearCelebrations, #NewYearEve, #NewYearEveCustoms, #NewYearEveRedUnderwear

The end of the year marks a passage of time and the hope for new experiences, new love, new peace and new expectations. Whether it is celebrated on December 31st or not, people worldwide do celebrate it, and in much different ways. I remember how we celebrated it in Italy, long time ago. It was colorful, fun and very dangerous.

As midnight struck, heavy fireworks started from every windows and balconies. Kids played with the less dangerous fireworks and adults played with heavy ones, often losing parts of their body with it. Loudest and powerful fireworks lasted for more than an hour and during that time, it was customary to throw everything old and no longer wanted out of windows.
It was not advised to come home from parties before 5:00 am, that’s when people finally quieted down. This practice is now prohibited by law, but for some people is hard to desist from this custom.

Before the Southern Italians went absolutely crazy with fireworks and throwing things out of the windows, they went totally crazy with food. They sat down at dinner table around 6:00-7:00 pm surrounded by many people, usually family, with the intentions of eating 13 courses, one for each month of the year passing and an extra one as a good wish for the new year. The 13th course was a plate of cooked lentil eaten soon after midnight. Lentils represent money, more lentils we eat, more money we will have…. and everyone hopes…..
Eating lentils is still a custom of today.

(Click on each photo to view it larger)

No matter what color Italians like, at the end of the year, every woman from North to South wears a red pair of underwear to wish for a new love or to keep the one they have. That’s is something I still do today.

(Photo above: https://www.zappos.com/p/b-temptd-lace-kiss-thong-haute-red/product/8343688/color/401264)

The last and the first day of the year are two days equally respected and celebrated in Italy. Italians never pay bills on Jan.1^st even if they expire on that day. We believe that whatever we do on the first day of the year, it will repeat itself all year round. Laugh, make love, travel, eat in company of people, cook, create art, visit museums, go to the beach, start writing a book, play music, whatever we do, must be a fun activity that we want repeated again and again throughout the year.

Those who decide to go out at the end of the year, willing to pay a high price for dinner and dance, after midnight, will end up in a single file, making a train with people, often strangers, rolling through tables and going around the dancing hall, at the tune of Brazilian music. I never understood why Brazilian music became the brand of celebration for the end of the year. The best part of going out at the end of the year is that most everyone waits until 5:00 am to get warm croissants, freshly baked and just out of the baker’s oven. They go so well with a cup of cappuccino or a double espresso. The aroma of a fresh croissant is a prelude that something sweet will happen in the new year…..and so everyone hopes….
True or not, it is good to have hopes and beliefs. I wish you a splendid 2018, all the way through and celebrate what you want more of. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinaexpressions.com/trips-to-puglia-2/

As a writer and cultural promoter of Puglia, my native land, it is my intention to let readers feel and experience a new ”wheel of emotions”. I want to encourage them to visit areas of Italy not beaten by massive tourism. Through stories of local customs, art, architecture, fashion, food-wines, shopping, I want them to create their special adventures and live it up in Puglia! Check out my books on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0