December | 2019 | Valentina Expressions

The Evening Of Seven Fish | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

26 Dec 2019 4 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ChristmasCelebration, #ChristmasEveDinner, #ChristmasFood, #ItalianChristmasTradition, #ItalianFood

It was a long shopping the day before Christmas eve, from one fish market to the other to find the freshest fish, and then it was the longest day cooking the seven fish dinner on Christmas eve. The search was about finding langoustine, mussels, clams with a red tongue, razor clams, sea urchin, sea truffles, octopus, baby cattle fish, any bluefish for grilling, lobster, oysters and any fauna the Mediterranean Sea produces.
The sitting down dinner started at 6:00 pm and lasted close to midnight when we finished with a champagne toast, then church at midnight.
That was such a long ago in Italy in my parents’ home and it was the same in most of the homes in Italy. The celebration on Christmas eve was an incredible custom, we ate until our hearts were content and welcome the new spiritual Christmas light in our homes.
As it happens in all families, at one point kids leave the nest, when my turn came, I moved as well to build my life and all of that ended. My new-found friends could never eat a large amount of food and never had the time to be sitting at the table for so many hours. The Christmas celebrations took a different turn.

Somehow I maintained my tradition on a smaller scale. On Christmas eve, I prepare a few fish specialties and Christmas day is about meat. On the eve, caviar opened the dinner experience, followed by shrimps with fregola and dandelion cooked in a clay pot, cod and potato cakes, blue crabs, Christmas cookies, coffee, and Belgium chocolate with sea salt.

Caviar and prosecco

Shrimps with Fregola and Dandelion cooked in a play pot

Cod Potato Cakes

Blue Crabs

Christmas Cookies

This was sufficient for Christmas eve, Christmas day was a different experience, oh my! Everything was delicious and even though I feel like a blimp today, I am very happy. 😀
The end of the year requires courage, the Italian rule is to have 13 courses dinner, one for each month of the year and one extra to honor the new year 😱. This one is no longer my habit.
I hope your Christmas was good and serene. Ciao,
Valentina

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author of 5 published books so far, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. She has conceived a few new books of various subjects to which she is working simultaneously. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking, and travel. She never gives up trying new things and doesn’t fear failure. Three years ago, Valentina became a TV producer/host and she produces shows under her label: Valentina Design Universe. The goal of her shows is to entertain, inspire and inform, while she is living her passion.
Get a copy of her books here:
Amazon and Barnes&Nobles

My experience in a tailoring in Salento

26 Dec 2019 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #Ballerina, #BallerinaDancingOnStage, #Dancing, #DegasTailoring, #ItalianBallerinaSchool, #TutuDesigns

It is my pleasure to reblog Paola’s post of her experience designing her first important tutu’ at Degas Tailor in Italy.
This is what the owner of the shop had to say: “It is always a big pleasure to dress beautiful and prepared ballerinas such as Paola. She is one of the Maestro Domenico Iannone’s pupils at Compagnia AltraDanza and a student of Maestra Sabrina Speranza at Unika School Academy in Bari. Paola reached a high level of grades performing at an international competition and she wore this candid white tutu’ made here at Degas.”
Brava Paola, you will go a long way! I wished I was there to see you wearing that beautiful tutu’.

Paola is very diligent with her training, very competitive, she is focused on her goals, and she is a high grades student in high school as well, but it is not enough.
As she rightly says, the ballerina school is very expensive and when only one person provides for everyone in the family, it becomes a huge challenge to continue her studies. She needs funds, let’s help her out, it’s Christmas, what’s one more gift? Here is the link to donate any amount: https://www.gofundme.com/f/continuation-of-my-dance-studies/donate
Thank you 🤗❤️

Paola, your lucky star is near, make sure you catch it when it falls off the sky. Wishing you a good rest of the holidays and a splendid year. With love,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Dancer Attitude

Hello everyone, in the past few months my life was on the high notes: I went to the Salento area to visit a tailor shop called “Degas” where you can create your tutù for ballet competitions or shows. It can be considered a normal dance shop because you can find ballet shoes, leotards, skirts, pointe shoes and all the necessary for every ballet dancer!😍 It seemed I was in another world!

Here, a beautiful and vibrant tailor showed me how to create a professional or semi-professional tutù.

First of all, she showed me which fabrics I want for this tutù. She asked me what kind of ballet opera I would like to do and I said: Aurora from “The Sleeping Beauty”. Then we started to create my tutù. I chose a white tutù with 7 veils and a particular lace with floreal decorations sewn by hand on tutù. Then I…

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Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Christmas Party – Just One Wish – Guests, Food, Music and laughter

22 Dec 2019 6 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ChristmasPartyOneWish, #ChristmasWish, #SallyCronin, #SmorgasbordBlogMagazine

We all have unfulfilled dreams and keep trying to achieve them. If I look at my dream boards of the past years, I must say proudly that everything I wished for me I got it. I call it hard work, perseverance, and discipline, sure didn’t happen by chance or luck. However, one dream is still out there, floating in the universe, and I am still asking myself what would take to make it, until one day last month, Sally Cronin of the Smorgasbord Blog Magazine announced she needed only one wish from her followers to organize a Christmas party. I participated, “you never know, more times you put it out there, more chances you have for someone to see it” I said to myself. The Dream I Am Still Dreaming is mentioned here in Sally Cronin’s Christmas Party One Wish. https://valentinaexpressions.com/2019/01/16/the-dream-i-am-still-dreaming-valentina-cirasola-author-and-designer/

Thank you Sally, for showing me part of the solution to realizing my dreams, a Coop might be the way to go, just like in the video. You are a very special person. I hope your Christmas is special and the New Year splendid all the way through.
Valentina

Christmas Reflection | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

16 Dec 2019 9 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ChristmasCelebration, #ChristmasGifts, #ChristmasGiving, #EcologicGiftsWrapping

Receiving gifts is an exciting moment, someone is thinking of you and wants to please you or make you happy with a simple gesture. You go through the process of tearing the beautiful wrap covering the box and reading the card attached to the gift. You think “I am so lucky someone took the time to do this for me on this occasion”. Finally, the gift presents itself to your eyes and suddenly you feel sad, your jaw drops as if you have seen a ghost and you are in disbelieve of what you just saw in the box. It is the same present you gave a year ago to that same person giving you the present, the gift returned to you recycled.

Yes, this is true, it has happened to me, I received a year later, the same gift I gave to that very person standing before me, telling me how much she cared for my friendship. My surprise was so big, I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or cry. I exclaimed: “I wanted to buy me this gift last year, I loved it so much…, instead I bought it for you because you like everything I wear, I thought you would have worn it with pleasure, instead I am so fortunate it returned to me, it must have been really made for me.” End of discussion and friendship. She could have simply written my name on the gift to remember who gave it to her and recycle it to a different person. That year, I decided not to give Christmas presents anymore to no one. To most people, Christmas is only the time to overspend carelessly, the holiday itself doesn’t mean much else.

In this period of the year, I spend time with friends I have not seen much during the year, I call people in need of comfort and company, I cook special food, and sweets to share with others, I make simple things to give away, such as decorative balls for the tree and give thanks to many people who helped me in my life and business. I enjoy attending many Christmas shows and parties. This time of the year for me is all about the new light coming into my life, realizing new dreams, and thinking of new opportunities.

I want to give you some suggestions if you are into giving a lot of gifts. All factory items already come sealed in a lot of plastic boxes, often very hard to open. We must be conscious of the environment, let’s eliminate all the possible waste we can. This year wrap your gift in brown paper, better if it comes from grocery shopping, cut away the name of the store and use the rest of the shopping bag. I saw this picture on Pinterest with the photo of the person the gift is intended for, I thought it’s a great idea.

Our Suburban Farm

Jane Lee on Instagram has another great idea, she attaches parts of a newspaper over the brown paper, a fern branch with a wax seal and a handwritten message.

Jane Lee Instagram

Sometimes, I have wrapped gifts in my own architectural drawings for home remodeling I did for clients. It was another way to show people what I do and recycle the drawings. Also, I have wrapped gifts in fabrics to use as napkins or kitchen towels later.

Fabric as gift wrap

Please don’t stress out over Christmas, this is the time to enjoy a renewal of your spirit and collect the strength to start a new fabulous year. Ciao,
Valentina

Valentina Cirasola is a storyteller by nature. Stories are very important to her design career to convey ideas because making someone’s home or personal images is not only about building around shapes, lines, forms, and colors. It is about the story one can create around their spaces and how they want to appear to others. It’s about life experiences and how Valentina can incorporate them in her clients’ homes. She is the author of five books, all available on

Amazon – Barnes&Nobles

Amazon Author’s Page

Doors | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

04 Dec 2019 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ClassicDoors, #DecoratedEntranceDoors, #DoorDesigns, #Doors, #GateDoors, #ImportantDoors, #SecurityDoors

A door is a swinging or sliding barrier by which an entry is closed and opened. A theatre opens its doors when a new show is ready to be viewed. A door could be a gate to secure people inside a dwelling or a closure for some kind of cabinetry. The word “doors” can also mean an opportunity that presents itself unexpectedly. We give many meanings to the word doors, the fact is that before the Neolithic time human beings didn’t know what a door was, they lived well protected inside caves, the fire kept the humans warm and the wild animals away. I saw the first attempt at a Neolithic door in the museum Ridola in Matera, Italy. It was made with straw, mud, dirt, and pieces of wood.

(Click on each picture to view it larger).

Neolithic House, Ridola Museum, Matera, South Italy

Doors evolved in something more decorative as security became a necessity, even when that security served to hold people up in dungeons.

Door In Gioia, South Italy

Painters and artists at times have used doors to immortalize effigies of powerful people who gained high places in society. That’s the case of Swabian Emperor Frederick the II, ruler of South Italy, surnamed “Stupor Mundi” for his love of the arts and cultural innovations as a means to unify all races.

Painted Door, Gioia, South Italy

As times progressed, riches and nobles decorated their entry door with the family crests, faces of divinities or any symbol showing wealth, prosperity, and personal beliefs.

Door in Matera, South Italy

Castle Antique Door in Gioia, South Italy

Door Palazzo Fizzarotti, Bari, Italy

Even door hinges have had a place of importance throughout history. Inside La Salle d’Or recreated at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco we can admire the splendor of the French Court through a disjointed hinge that allows people to get a preview of who is in the room without being seen.

Salle d’Or-Legion Of Honor, San Francisco

Some doors provide a good blackboard for the fantasy of a Flâneur to unravel. Here on this door in Polignano a Mare, Italy, this passionate wonderer wrote a Shakespearian sonnet:
“Love runs to meet love with the same joy young pupils run away from their books, but love which must separate from love has the face of young pupils returning to school.”

Writing of a Flâneur – Polignano a Mare, South Italy

In Barcelona, the city where even the sidewalks are overly decorated, I saw many beautiful Art Deco doors in just as many beautiful buildings lining the streets.

Building in Barcelona, Spain

Prague, an austere and romantic city, displays very elegant doors with caryatids supporting pilasters, arches, balconies, and many classic architectural details.

Jewelry Store

Some doors are just elegant gilded barriers to keep the elite in and the plebeians out.

Royal Door at Prague Palace, Czech Republic

While other doors look like a fortress just because they conceal the secrets of a nation.

Romanian Embassy, Prague, Czech Republic

But then some playful people like to stick birds and flowers on their entrance door and others like to paint puppet’s faces.

Nature Decorated Door

Marionettes Shop, Prague, Czech Republic

As a world trotter, I take pictures of the details of a country. Doors attract me just as people’s expressions, customs, food, and languages. I conceived this roundup of doors only to say “Be Yourself.” The entrance door is your business card, it makes the first impression of who are the people living behind the door in a split of a second.
One of my clients is turning her house located in a nice downtown area, into air B&B. The entry door will be painted red as an indication that the interior rooms will be modern, upbeat, and very colorful. Don’t be afraid to paint your entrance door, to stick charms on it, to add faces and decorative elements, or to use a type of wood nobody else uses. Ciao,
Valentina

Author’s page

Valentina Cirasola is a storyteller by nature. Stories are very important to her design career to convey ideas because making someone’s home or personal images is not only about building around shapes, lines, forms, and colors. It is about the story one can create around their spaces and how they want to appear to others. It’s about life experiences and how Valentina can incorporate them in her clients’ homes. She is the author of five books, all available on
Amazon – Barnes&Nobles