Valentina

The Language of Handbags

04 May 2024 12 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #Fashion, #HandbagDosandDon't, #HandbagsLanguage, #HandbagsTalk, #QueenLanguageOfHandbags, accessories, bags, Fashion, handbags, Style

Every woman carries handbags of all shapes colours and sizes, we collect them in the latest style or proudly wear vintage pieces, but does every woman know the language of handbags or their functions?

Every few hours of the passing day requires a certain size of a handbag. The large bags are appropriate for mornings, inside of which anything can be added for every need of the day; the medium sizes are for the afternoons and the smaller bags are for the evenings’ affairs. An evening bag might be added inside the daytime bag for convenience ready to come out at night together with an elegant pair of shoes.

In today’s time is no longer necessary to match the colour of shoes to the colour of handbags, unless one has an invitation to dine with the nobles and the upper class. Today we feel free to combine colours and styles interchangeably with shoes and bags and make creative combinations with the two items. Colours and texture determine the time of the day and the seasonality of a handbag. A yellow handbag is great for daytime but not for an evening event. A black leather handbag is perfect for winter but not for a hot summer.

Like garments, a handbag can embellish or break the body and the whole look. If you are a petite woman avoid carrying large bags, but if you are a tall woman don’t carry the smaller bags, it’s all about the body’s proportion and harmony. The shape of the body also comes into play when choosing a handbag. If your body is sinuous and curvy, choose square and rectangular handbags and vice-versa.

Does the hardware of a handbag matter in the making of your body’s architecture? Does it go with the colouring of the outfit and jewellery? Let’s look at a building designed in classic architecture. We will see a line of rounded top windows on one row and the triangle top windows on another row, then we see repetitions in the same order as musical notes in a refrain. If the hardware of the main door is brass, all the hardware of doors and windows will be brass. There will be people who argue that rules are made to be broken, I agree with that for certain things. However, if harmony in our look is what we want to achieve, those details that make us feel good and make others feel at ease when they look at us, following some basic rules is the way to do it, everything else is fantasy.

Portable bag hooks are a good solution to keep the handbag off the floor when in public places, a pochette or a clutch can always be placed on the lap or in a little space between the butt and the back of the chair.

I found it fascinating how the longest-reigned Queen Elizabeth II spoke with signals using her handbags.
I saw a documentary about her interesting language. The Queen shifting her handbag from hand to hand meant she was finished with the discussion and her aide’s job was to rescue her out of that situation promptly. If Her Majesty placed the bag on the floor, it meant she was not enjoying the chat with the interlocutor, the lady in waiting had to intervene. A handbag placed on the dinner table was a sign that the dinner had to finish in the next five minutes. How an elegant way to say to people “I have had enough of you”!

The handbags featured here are all custom-made by me and sold in my Etsy shop. https://www.etsy.com/shop/ValentinaExpressions

They are made of various materials: macrame’, metallic fabric cloth, metallic string, worsted cotton and much more. The language they speak is the language you attribute to them. Ciao,

Valentina

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel.
Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble

Caffe’ “Al Volo”

26 Apr 2024 17 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ExpressoCoffee, #ExpressoDemitasse, #HowToServeExpresso, #ItalianCustoms, cappuccino, coffee, Italy, latte, Travel

“Coffee On The Fly” is how my Italian title translates. Coffee on the fly in Italy is a common expression all Italians use when they order a cup of expresso in a coffee shop, no fuss, no addition of strange flavours, no cup sizes to remember, no special requests, just a straight expresso coffee served in a white or brown demitasse.

I am enjoying the hand-painted demitasse sets I purchased from a friend who imports Italian ceramics and other beautifully hand-painted products made by skilled artists in Italy. https://www.gioialuce.com
The cups displayed in my photo are exclusively made for expresso, short and to the point. One might serve a spoonful of ice cream in it, but that’s all, those cups are made only for a fast coffee.
Who cares for modern linear design when I can enjoy a traditional Renaissance pattern, a cluster of lemon design from Amalfi or a floral pattern from Sicily?

Sometime ago, a friend asked me why in Italy everyone takes coffee standing up at the counter and in a hurry instead of sitting down. She told me that Americans like to “nurse” their coffee. What a strange expression, I replied. Why do Americans drink a liquid that is sick and needs to be nursed? I didn’t understand it until I started to pay attention to the coffee habits in America.
Coffee is an electrifying and invigorating drink, we drink it to get a boost of energy when we wake up in the morning or anytime we feel sluggish. Italians drink coffee while it is hot and the size of a demitasse is the right size of energy we need.
Italians drink expresso standing up at the counter because they are not tourists in their country, they have places to go and things to do; sitting at a table would raise the price of the coffee, it would take a person to serve it and clean the table afterwards.

The difference between Italian expresso and American coffee lies in the size of the cup and the toasting of the beans. Expresso is toasted dark and strong, a few drops in a cup are enough to shoot you to the Moon. American coffee is toasted lightly, it is brewed watery like tea but it doesn’t mean it is light, in fact, the caffeine content is higher than expresso. Another difference is that no one in Italy walks in the streets holding a cup of coffee in the hand, not done, only gelato to lick, with possible funny and not-so-funny comments from passers-by.

A nice alternative to expresso is cappuccino, served in a squatted large cup with expresso and warm milk foaming at the top for a great effect. A must-know if you visit Italy: Italians don’t drink cappuccino after 10:00 am and get appalled to see tourists drinking it at all hours of the day even after they eat pizza. As the day progresses, Italians also progress into drinking wines for lunch and dinner, aperitifs for mid-afternoon and cordial or bubbly wines for the evening. By the way, the word cappuccino comes from the Cappuccini Monks Order who wear a simple brown cloak with a long, pointed hood hanging down the back (cappuccio).

Caffe’ macchiato, meaning an expresso stained with 2 drops of warm milk served again in a demitasse is another way to drink an expresso.

The biggest surprise is when I say that most of us Italians drink expresso with “ombretta” in the morning.

Ombretta literally means a small shadow and it refers to a short shot of a liqueur that accompanies the expresso in the morning. It is mostly a custom of the northern Italians living in cold regions. Drinking a ombretta in the morning is not to get drunk at the start of the day, but only to stay warm. In the photo, my ombretta is a sip of Limoncello liqueur.
These are the only few ways to order coffee in Italy. You get it bitter from the barista, you add your own sugar or nothing.

How to stir sugar into an expresso coffee is another story. It is often said: “When in Rome, do like the Romans”. In any foreign country, it is ideal to blend in as much as possible and not to attract attention to oneself, unless your somatic treats will give you away. Anyway, learning some customs of the country you want to visit will put you in an advanced position. If you are up to that, then, coffee will be stirred clockwise and not the opposite.

I must say that Italy is a modern controversial country, but the traditions are ancient and will stay that way. Ciao,
Valentina

Glowing With Salt Lamps

14 Apr 2024 11 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #HolisticHealth, #HowToCleanSaltLamp, #SaltLamp, #SaltLampBenefit, home, Interior Design, lamps, mental-health, wellness

Our home is our cocoon, inside of which the work problems vanish behind the door and where we create a soothing atmosphere that will allow us to relax. One element that will help to create that atmosphere is the salt lamp, it glows pleasantly and diffuses a warm light in any room we place it.

I have a few salt lamps scattered in my home and each one contributes to making each room clean, healthy and nicely decorated.

There are a few things we need to keep in consideration about the salt lamps:
how they function and the benefits that will give us.

Some salt lamps have a great theatrical look due to the change of colours; they might range from yellow to pink, red, blue and even purple. Those colourful types have an LED bulb inside that makes all the phantasmagoric colours but doesn’t do anything for us other than having a deceptive appearance as a dream created by our imagination.

The typical bulb we must use is the classic incandescent small Christmas light that once inserted in the salt vessel will diffuse the amber colour we love so much and will give chromotherapeutic benefits as well.

The most important benefits we can draw from salt lamps come from the ions the salt emits. Salt is a crystal, the negative ions are emitted only if an incandescent bulb warms up the salt. The negative ions are then dispersed in the room to provide well-being and harmony, reduce anxieties, alleviate stress, clean the heavy air, fight bacteria and viruses.

One way to know if the room holds too much humidity is to place a salt lamp in a room and watch the lamp sweat. If it does, you have the proof that the room is humid. In this case, it is time to open all windows and refresh the air. The salt lamp is not a dehumidifier, it will only tell us if the air we breathe is humid. Placing the lamp turned off for a couple of hours outdoors is the way to prevent the lamp from sweating and outdoors it will purify itself from what it has absorbed in the house including negative energy.

I am learning about holistic health and natural remedies from an Italian alchemist who has a page on Facebook called “La Terra Delle Streghe”. I find his teaching stimulating and I am “enchanted” with a new world of information that is opening to me. This is an extract from one of his videos spoken in Italian. Ciao,
Valentina

Incense Moments

04 Apr 2024 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #Alchemy, #Incense, #IncensePower, #IncensePurificaton, #IncenseVibrations, #NaturalIncense, meditation, prayer, tabernacle, worship

Let’s talk about the incense, that nice fragrance most of us like to turn on for meditating, praying and especially at the end of the day to create an ambience for a relaxation moment.

Incense has been used since the dawn of time. The three Kings travelled a long way to bring baby Jesus the gift of gold, incense and myrr. In the Catholic and Orthodox Churches incense is burned during the Mass. In Buddhist Temples, the followers burn incense every time they visit their deity.

Other than having a nice scent in the room, incense has a beneficial effect on the human being, its vibrations work on the body and spirit. However, the sceptics will argue that all incense is bad and toxic for our health. This is only partially true. The low-priced incense made of chemical material is dangerous to breathe and can cause harm to our health.

The incense we want to consider for our living and working environment is made with natural products, such as essential oils, tree bark, dried herbs, lavender and various plants, these are not harmful to humans or pets.
Each incense has its function. If we want to clean the air, a burned white or blue salvia is a perfect anti-bacterial and it is used to purify a house from low energy vibrations, those vibrations that make us feel uneasy and weighted down. Artemisia or Copal work the same way. Copal is a powerful incense for meditation as it is linked with the crown chakra and encourages pure thoughts during meditation.

I purchased incense to purify the chakras, one colour a day to go with the colour of each chakra.
I learned about incense from an alchemist I listen to every day who opened up a new world for me. Ciao.
Valentina

Sliced Through Time

23 Mar 2024 14 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #AfternoonDreaming, #Dreaming, #OldFilms, #SpanishArchitecture, #TravelThroughTimes

Billie Holidays’ unmistakable voice came to me soft and caressing, it was so sweet and lazy on a warm March afternoon. I stepped forward to understand where Billie’s soft voice, which I have always adored, came from. The buildings around me, clearly Spanish in style, typical of California, had a straw yellow tone, perhaps also due to the reflection of the afternoon sun on the walls. A beautiful peace reigned between the courtyards of those buildings, I didn’t hear people’s voices or other noises and I didn’t even know if those courtyards were living quarters of upscale shops, I just knew I was attracted to enter. I sat on the staircase to enjoy those notes of the past and then everything changed around me. It was intense, it was magic.

Suddenly, my surroundings were in a different America, I was projected into another era. I saw women and men dressed in 1940s style, their voices were far away, some women smoked with long cigarette holders in their hands and men greeted respectfully people they knew by gently lifting off their hats. Everyone seemed friendly about enjoying life. Some sat at tables in restaurants and cafes, others walked relaxed. Those two-tone colour shoes…I couldn’t avoid admiring them, so fashionable.

I felt an inner peace and was in no hurry to go anywhere else, I wanted to stay there in that yellowed time like an old film. A brown bird sat perched on the stair railing and looked at me. He had eyes that looked human, he looked at me as if he wanted to say: “Everything will be fine.” I stayed there for a while basking and watching the bird.

The loud screaming of a child playing interrupted my journey into the past. The 1940s were certainly not the best years in the world, but today’s reality is increasingly cruel and grey. I woke up reluctantly and continued my tour as a tourist in a city that, despite not being my city, I have lived it for many years.

Nearby, the Stanford cinema was showing a period film with Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger, it was the best thing to do to keep dreaming on that warm March afternoon.

How common is it for you to slice through time and be projected into an unfamiliar territory? It happens to me often, perhaps I have the need to escape reality or perhaps I don’t belong in these times. Ciao,
Valentina

What Did She Teach Us?

04 Mar 2024 3 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #Fashion, #FashionExpressions, #IrisApfel, #IrisApfelFashion, #RedAVoyageIntoColorSecondEdition, dress, Fashion, fashion-design, lifestyle, Style

Fashion’s grande dame, Iris Apfel, known for her sheer brilliance in dressing up, left this world (Aug.29, 1921 – March 1, 2024). She has been called “The Queen of Queens”, The Maverick of Style”, “The Fashion Bird” you name it and all meant she was unapologetic about her fashion expressions. She was a purist of original style and didn’t care to follow trends as she trusted her own taste in clothes.
She combined new with vintage, modern with eclectic style and flea market finds, she had no limit to her fantasy. The most extravagant expression of her dressing up was the jewellery. She knew how to combine bold pieces of jewellery, mixing textures and metals in such a way to always look elegant, full of fantasy, witty and never vulgar.
She was “The Interior Designer” of the White House for eight presidencies, then became a fashion designer and a senior model in her 80s. She has inspired women around the world who love to dress up every day and dare to be different.

In her words:
“When the fun goes out of dressing you might as well be dead.”
“More is more and less is a bore.”
“You don’t have to be beautiful to be stylish.”
“Dress the way you want to feel and not as you feel.”

I searched for a photo of her free of copyright without any results. We all know who she is, I don’t need to take someone else’s photo.

In her honour and the red flamboyant clothes she wore, I came up with this red outfit with a long fringe in the front to elongate my figure. I found it years ago in a fabric store, sold by the yard, I don’t know what it was used for, I bought it to wear on the waist to embellish skirts and pants. This time, I will wear it on the torso and I will go to an outing with friends at a Chinese tea house. I thought the Chinese-style ankle boots made of silk embroidered fabric are appropriate.

Never like today has been so important to get out of the flat massification and become thinking individuals. Thanks for your undiluted love of fashion, Iris, your grace and the inspiration will accompany me. Ciao,
Valentina

Persimmon

24 Feb 2024 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #2024 Colors, #Art, #Decorating with Persimmon, #InteriorDesign, #Persimmon Color

Aahh, Persimmon, nature’s sweet and delicious dessert! The soft kind that I can eat with a spoon for me it’s the best.
The predicted colours for 2024 are earthy and nature-inspired tones, Persimmon is one of them.

Persimmon colour is less strong and less attention-grabbing than orange, although it is part of warm colours, it is calmer and more relaxing than orange. It’s often used to celebrate transformation like the New Year in Hawaiian and Japanese cultures. On holidays and Christmas tables in Italy, persimmons are always present, it has been said to bring good luck and longevity.

Persimmon fruit ripens in the Fall, however, the energy of this colour, ranging from yellow to light orange, can be used to brighten any room in Winter and Spring as well.

You might want to pair a Persimmon colour with a Blue Nova recamier for a classic look or with a leather chair for a modern look. BTW, I love the shell chair almost Persimmon colour.

It seems most people would tone down Persimmon’s colour with neutral colours. My photos of the hanging persimmons above are very eloquent. Nature gives the inspiration with green leaves, brown stems and yellow blooms. Adding a light grey wall, a beige carpet or some light yellow pillows are all great combinations to complete the picture for a vibrant and balanced environment. Sometimes to look at a photo and study the details is enough to find inspiration. Ciao.

Valentine’s Day

14 Feb 2024 7 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ColorOrange, #ColorRed, #REDAVoyageIntoColors, Love, Love Day, Valentine's Day

I am not much of a Valentine’s Day person, but I can say a few things:
I hope you have always someone with whom to share everything.
I wish you to do the things you love ardently at least once and not the right thing.
I wish you to read a memorable book.
I wish you to be on the most limpid blue-green water of your favourite beach, wet with salt and sand, kissed by the sun.
I hope you marvel at the beauty of nature and that you plant your favourite flowers or food.
I hope you have created lasting memories to return to when things are not so well.
I hope you paint your idea of beauty.
I hope your mind hosts food memories:
the earthy aroma of a glass of wine drank with happy friends, or in a foreign country;
a succulent steak cooked in a hot brick oven;
an icecream fallen on the ground;
a fruit picked and eaten right under the tree;
a kiss between bites.

Let Love be the guiding light that always accompanies us with wisdom and compassion.

Swimming upstream, as I usually do, I choose orange as the colour for today. It feels safer, peaceful and not so invasive as the red.

I have been absent

11 Feb 2024 11 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #2024ChineseLunarYear, #ArtByValentinaCirasola, #HandbagsByValentinaExpressionsEtsy, #KMVT15TVShow, #ValentinaDesignUniverseShows, blog, books, valentina, writing

I am sitting in front of this box, the computer monitor, after nine months of being absent and it feels like a stranger is looking at me. Nine months ago, my life took a turn I didn’t like, it was as if a heavy beam of a construction home hit me on the head really hard and knocked me unconscious, thus I decided to disappear for a while for my own sanity.
On another note, it’s good to stay away from electromagnetism anyway and detox for a while.

Meanwhile, I was as active as ever with design work, TV shows, travelling, painting walls in my home and having a life outside the social platforms. I remember when the internet didn’t exist and friends knocked on my door without any appointment or picked up the telephone to talk at all hours of day and night without worrying about what virtual friends on Facebook were doing every second of their lives.

I returned to be closer to the world of art, the only thing that makes my soul sing. I visited the exhibitions shown in all the museums in my area and I even started to paint again, but this time I left out all the rules I had learned in art classes, I want to have a very loose hand to express myself freely and do just what I like.

I paint geometric and abstract nature with any medium except oil. Fabric is one material I feel confident to paint with as well. Basically, I create images using fabrics, but I don’t make quilts.

I have picked up the habit of making handbags. Many people sit in front of the TV and after a while, either fall asleep, eat mindlessly, or zap the remote control with an infinite boredom. If I sit in front of the TV my hands must be constantly doing something, sending a signal to my brain that I am creating. By doing this, ideas flow as a river to do more extravagant handbags, I want to make them all, but time seems to slip away on its own. I sell them on Etsy and privately. https://www.etsy.com/shop/ValentinaExpressions

The TV station, KMVT15, where I had produced a lot of shows before the psycho pandemic, finally lifted all the bans applied for three years and I returned to produce my shows under the same label: Valentina Design Universe. In January, my guest was a money coach who talked about money and harmony.

In February my guests, two chiropractor doctors, talked about how to live a life without medications.

The March show will be about Charcuterie and the small pleasures of life.

Saturn governs this year. It is considered a very hard planet due to the strong energy that it emanates.
The 2024 Chinese Lunar Year is about the dragon, another very strong symbol of power and commotion.
I hope both together will not create a lot of damage to humanity, already afflicted with wars, psycho pandemics, economic crises, government idiots, geo-engineered food and stupid believers hung up on virtual reality.

It’s good to be back in the blogosphere. Ciao.
Valentina

An Easter Speciality

09 Apr 2023 7 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #BenedettoSpeciality, #EasterFood, #EasterSpeciality, #ItalianEasterFood, #ItalianHolidaysDinners

Today talking with my high school friends in Italy about what kind of food they are preparing for Easter, I realized that for a long time, I missed preparing a typical speciality from my native Puglia. It’s called “Il Benedetto”. It is a dish full of fresh sheep ricotta on a bed of arugula or cooked spinach, boiled eggs, slices of soppressata sausage, pecorino cheese, and slices of oranges. The plate is placed in the centre of the dining table, accompanied by fried artichokes, olives and fresh raw fava beans. Some people put everything on one plate as shown in the second photo.

Before eating Il Benedetto, the food receives the benediction with a branch from an olive tree dipped in holy water. Basically, it is an appetizer served an hour or two before dinner.

(Photo by La Cucina Pugliese)

(Photo by my sister Cristina)

Italian holiday dinners are nothing like you have seen before. Italian dinners have no end. Italians know when dinner starts, but don’t know when they will get up and call it finished. It seems this speciality would be enough for dinner but not for the Italians who love to dine at leisure.

Dinner is never served with all food together on one plate or the guests helping each other by passing this and that until their plates are full of ingredients. Italian people eat dinner one course at a time. Between one dish and another, they talk politics, love, family, soccer game, money and all kind of interesting subjects, smoke, drink wines, or get up to dance to make space in the stomach for the next dish, with a time-lapse of 20-30 minutes between each course. Often a holiday dinner last 5-7 hours.
Women sit at the table as well, but they are the ones to prepare and serve. I helped my mom in the kitchen when I lived with my parents, however, I never understood the reason why men couldn’t get up and help.

For years I couldn’t prepare any Italian speciality here in America as the ingredients were not available in any market, now there is nothing I can’t find and I will prepare Il Benedetto from now on. I wish all of you a peaceful Easter Day. Ciao.
Valentina

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