Valentina

Coming Of Age | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

03 Jan 2020 13 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #18YearsOld. #AdulthoodParty, #CominfOfAAgeHighFashion, #ComingOfAge, #ComingOfAgeParty, #YoungstersPresented

This article was published in Electric Press, literary magazine, London. Here is the link:
https://issuu.com/electricpress/docs/epfebruary20/36
https://issuu.com/electricpress/docs/epfebruary20/38

It feels like yesterday my coming of age, 18 is a magic number. One feels on top of the world, invincible, unbeatable, conquering the world seems easy as it should be at that age, beauty is just blooming, strength is at its best, everything is possible. Kids dream of the day they will become 18 years of age, then that day comes and goes, it lasts one year and it is over. Life after that takes a different meaning.

In the high stratosphere of society, youngsters coming of age, are presented at court, just as in Downton Abbey, when rebellious Lady Rose is presented officially to the King and became a legal adult, that also means the chaperon is no longer needed.

In a less stratified society, youngsters are still presented today to their friends, teachers, family, neighbors, and perhaps to some city dignitaries as it happened to me many moons ago. The mayor of the city was invited to my party. It took place at the “Sail Club” an upscale place for the upper crust and notables of my native city of Bari in Puglia, Italy.

I arrived at the Club in a landau carriage with a horse and a coachman. I was dressed in a long shimmering silver dress my mother made, the kind Hollywood actresses wore, tight at the waist, spaghetti strap at the top with ample décolletage and flared out at the bottom. The dress shaped me like a siren at the shore.
My first dance was with my father, we glided on the dance floor like two leaves in the wind at the sound of Strauss’s Waltz. We opened the dances. The night went on with special food and drinks served by waiters in white gloves and formal livery. My head was muffled, I felt in a precious glass bauble.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Coming Of Age Key

At one point, during the evening, the Mayor of the city came up to me with a red velvet cushion and presented me with a symbolic key to the city. He declared me officially an adult with all the duties and responsibilities the coming of age brings. It was magical and powerful, it felt important. The Mayor of the city kissed me on the cheek and wished me a good life. I heard someone crying in the background…

Next February, I have been invited to my goddaughter’s coming of age, she will make 18 years of age.
I received the picture of her red dress she will wear on that day for a party in the same “Sail Club” in my hometown, still there, still celebrating so many young women.

I will refrain from showing the beautiful red dress she has selected, perhaps she will want to blog about it, instead, I will show you what I will wear at her party. My outfit is a bit retro. These are my accessories, my dress is red and black, short a bit above the knees, the nylons have a seam in the center back, very 1950’s.

Red Pochette

My father was not royal or a blazoned noble, he was a regular bloke with a regular job, who wanted the best for her daughter and a memorable 18 years old party. He is no longer in this world but the memories are grand.

Let’s enjoy the small things in life, those are the things that make life worth living. Ciao.
Valentina

Fashion Services
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. She produces her own line of clothing and accessories and designs custom outfit for special occasions when her clients requested it. To better help people all over the world, she offers consultations online. She is the author of four books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on

Amazon and Barnes&Nobles

A New Challenge | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

02 Jan 2020 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AdekHanukaiProducer, #Challenge2020, #InteriorDesignProfession, #KMVT15ValentinaInterview, #NewBeginning, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor

I love to be challenged, especially at the beginning of the year. Resolutions are useless, nobody keeps them passed January, challenges are almost an attach to self -discipline. I am in every time someone challenges me. This month, I am participating in Paul Taubman’s blog challenge, writing one blog a day for the entire month of January. http://www.facebook.com/groups/UltimateBlogChallenge

On January 1st, I never do any work, I refuse to get closer to anything resembling work. I am starting from day 2 of the blog challenge by telling about my work as a designer. Often people think designers live in a gold bubble, have a golden life in a high stratosphere, and are fortunate people to discover where fantastic items, fabric, furniture, and rare clients are. Some of this is true only when a designer reaches a certain level of fame. Starting out is a hard climbing uphill for 90% of the designers unless behind them there is an angel ready to shell out lots of money to subsidize the new profession.

Valentina on Construction Site

To produce something spectacular takes hard work and the behind of the scene moments are not that attractive. Designers often hang out in the industrial areas, dirty and unsafe places, where things are built. As an interior designer, I have dealt with fabrications of cabinets, wood, stone, iron, lighting, furniture in shops and warehouses located never in the richest and elegant areas of the city. One time, for only a second, I didn’t get caught in a crossfire of gangs shooting each other. The daughter of the iron fabricator got a bullet in her head and remained a paralyzed vegetable for life. She was at the time only 16 years old and I witnessed that very sad moment.

Designers must be psychologists dancing around clients’ troubles, quarrels, stress, and problems. They must know how to keep the peace and how to use the clients’ budget. We don’t want to talk about liability….of my!

If I was told all that I had to face in the real world at the end of my design studies at the university, I am not really sure I was going to stay in this design profession. However, knowing me and my love for design, I would have challenged everyone. In the meantime, thirty years have passed by and I carried on both professions, fashion, and interior design. Have I arrived? No, I have so much more to do, keep evolving in new future challenges.

If you want to see my evolutions, click on the video. TV producer Adek Hanukai, interviewed me this past summer on his show at KMVT15. The name of the show is simply “Valentina”.

What is your challenge this year? Wishing you a splendid 2020 all the way through. Ciao,
Valentina

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. She produces her own line of clothing and accessories and designs custom outfit for special occasions when her clients requested it. To better help people all over the world, she offers consultations online. She is the author of four books.
Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors, Second Edition on
Amazon and Barnes&Nobles

It will be soon 2020 | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

01 Jan 2020 8 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #DressingUpEndOfTheYear, #EndOfTheYearFashion, #Fashion2020, #GoldColor, #GoldenFashion, #REDAVoyageIntoColors

The end of the year is the most special day, at least it is for me. I was taught that the way I end the year and greet the new year is the way I will live the entire year. If I laugh or cry, if I eat a Lucullan dinner or have only a sandwich, if I dress up or not, if I am in the company of people or not, that’s the way it will be for the rest of the year. I do believe in these things, our thoughts become actions, as we know, thus at the end of the year I dress up, wear a pair of red “knickers” for good luck, eat special food and make noises.

Dressing up at the end of the year can be tricky. December is a cold month even here in California. Shops offer cold sleeveless dresses and everything flimsy, unfortunately. I don’t want to get sick on this night and still want to look stylish.
I found a metallic quilted coat to wear with my golden outfit underneath, it’s warm and comfy.

Laurier-metallic-quilted-coat – HSN

This year as part of my fashion collection, I made a couple Nobility Shoulder Wraps with the cold shoulders feature. The silver/bluish is in my Etsy shop, maybe someone will purchase it for Valentine’s Day and I will wear the golden/greenish tonight with a black top (in my photo).

Golden Nobility Wrap

I chose to go out with pants, boots, and gloves to keep myself a bit warm, all three items are in the gold color scheme. There are a lot more colors to wear at the end of the year besides black and red. Gold is for people like me, goal-oriented and high achievers, it fits my personality.

I am on high heels most of my working days, but I never wear heels taller than I am. The heels of my golden boots are not super high, I will manage to keep the boots on all night without pain.
Remember high heels like skyscrapers are only good when laying down…..

Golden Pants-Boots – Midnight Velvet

The lining of my quilted coat is black, thus I decided to go with an elegant black top to wear under the nobility wrap, black pochette, and a black shimmering long necklace.

Make-up is my usual soft golden coloring, red lipstick and perhaps a bit of shimmering powder on my face.
I never want to look like a panda bear and you?

It’s time to go to a show. Beach Blanket Babylon is in my plans tonight at the Club Fugazzi. It’s a cabaret show, vaudeville-style. The show is a riot, it has been running for over forty years with a changing script every 2-3 months. I will laugh until my stomach muscles hurt.

I hope you all have a great end of the year and a splendid 2020 all the way through. Ciao,
Valentina

Fashion Services
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. She produces her own line of clothing and accessories and designs custom outfit for special occasions when her clients requested it.
To better help people all over the world, she offers consultations online. She is the author of five books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Amazon and Barnes&Nobles

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…

View original post 162 more words

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

Author Spotlight: Valentina Cirasola

27 Nov 2019 7 Comments

by Valentina in Books Blog Tags: #AuthorJamesCudneyIV, #InterviewWithJamesCudneyIV, #REDAVoyageIntoColors, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor

In the event of a new Thanksgiving Day, I am very grateful to have met fine authors and artists such as James Cudney IV and for the opportunity, he gave me with this interview, to be seen in his community of writers. Thank you, James and Happy Thanksgiving. If you were any closer, I would have invited you to my home and celebrate together the release of our new books. Thank you.

Click on this link to read the interview:

https://thisismytruthnow.com/2019/10/26/author-spotlight-valentina-cirasola/

This is my truth now – author-alert-spotlight

Spotlight: Bonnie Smith

27 Nov 2019 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Spotlight: Authors and Artists Tags: #ColorCombinations, #ColorsOfZodiacCancerSign, #DesigningWithZodiacSigns, #REDAVoyageIntoColors, #ZodiacandDesign, #ZodiacColors

Bonnie Smith

As a designer, I visit art galleries to meet artists and learn about new art in the world, that’s how I met Bonnie J. Smith. “She is a California based textile artist whose artworks have been exhibited at United Nations Headquarters around the globe. Smith’s textile artworks have also been exhibited in London, Paris, Japan, and Taiwan to name a few locations. Smith is a self-taught textile artist who has taken Master Dyeing Studies from Joan Morris, a professor at Dartmouth University. In 2016 Smith was the recipient of the “Leigh Weimers Award and Grant”.

Bonnie created the celebrated textile series “Swimming Upstream”, which tells her story of recovery after a work-related injury that forced her to use a wheelchair for over a year. Once the textile series was completed she realized the artworks were not just about her but anyone trying to swim upstream through life. The series has been exhibited widely and received “The Health Care Heroes Award” from VotersInjuredatWork.org and was featured at The Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, United Kingdom in 2017.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Swimming Up Stream

Thoughts of the Mind, Interpretation in Indigo

Her indigo installation “Thoughts of the Mind, Interpretations in Indigo” and the subsequent book of the same name tell her story of persecution endured by her, her family and surrounding neighbors while living in a small town because they belonged to the out of favor religion.”
For this installation, she dyed 60,000 feet of string in a bath of Indigo blue. Imagine!

The book is available at https://www.blurb.com/b/5239967-thoughts-of-the-mind-interpretations-in-indigo

In her words, she says: “My textile artworks are about what I see and know. What I see is the terrain of California and specifically the drought that is affecting my state. Watching the progression of our environment into an abyss has overwhelmed me. Creating my textile artworks has allowed me to push this alarming message further out into the world. She has been invited to exhibit her “Drought” series at Visions Art Museum, San Diego in 2021.
What I know is family and all that the subject entails. As my immediate family has gotten older it became my desire to let my family know how much they mean to me and celebrate them. Many people in our society simply fly under the radar and they need to be celebrated.
It is my aspiration in life to keep telling my stories and that of others.”

Bonnie was a guest in one of my TV shows, titled “Swimming Up Stream” just like her art series. It was a fun show, watch it here, if you like.

SwimmingUpStream – TV Show – On stage Bonnie, Valentina, and Crew

Get social with Bonnie Smith here:

www.bonniejofiberarts.com

www.bonniejosmithfiberarts.blogspot.com

BonnieSmith 5800 – Instagram

bjs8934@gmail.com

Facebook

Image by 13smok from Pixabay

Bonnie participated in my book launch and tour for my new book ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors, Second Edition and as a token of my gratitude she is receiving a color reading of her zodiac sign. She was born under the sign of Cancer (the crab), June 21-July 21. Her element is Water where her soul likes to rest and relax, the Moon is her ruler, a feminine planet. The dominant colors of this sign are White and Silver, secondary colors but equally important are Lavender, Blue, Azure, and Black colors. Now, I understand her fascination with Blue Indigo.

I am going to create a meditation room where Bonnie can think and conceive her future work. I am sure she creates in a space conducive to her art, perhaps this post will give her new ideas. For this exercise, Bonnie must choose a room facing the rising sun or where she can admire the sunset for the entire time she will use this room, a room that has the quality and feel of a garden. Nature is balance and harmony, it provides instant relaxation, that’s the reason I envision a room inspired to nature filled with indoor plants, baubles topiaries, and driftwood.
To satisfy her Cancer element, the room must have a large vase with shells in the sand, scented plants, a water fountain to block external noises and emulate the sea waves movement.

Moonstone is the most appropriate stone for a person born under Cancer, other personal touches might be soft music, bells, wind chimes, artwork, beeswax scented candles, and anything that makes a peaceful environment.

Each color has a psychological value and influences any emotion. The mood I want to create for the meditation/creation room is soft and harmonious. I will limit the color combination to three or four colors. In her fabric creations, Bonnie uses a lot of indigo blues, thus this room will have azure walls and large dark blue throw pillows. However, light blue walls can make a room feel chilly, to balance this effect warm hues accessories, furnishing and fabrics will do the trick. Natural light is very important for this room, and sheer window treatment is equally important to let it blow softly in the breeze and carry the scents of nature in. The floor is rigorously real wood treated in the silver-grey wash and some comfortable white (dominant colors) club chairs will complete the picture.

Meditation Room-ColorConcept for a Cancer born person

This concludes the series of color readings. I want to thank everyone for your participation in my book launch and tour. It has been fun and rewarding, I am very grateful to have had the chance to know a bit more about all of you and that is priceless. Thank you. 🙏🏻

Now, allow me a bit of shameless promotion for my new book release of ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors – Second Edition. It happened at the end of last month and a lot of fine authors or artists are helping to take the book on tour.

The book is all about colors, color emotions, color vibrations, color atmospheres, color compositions, color analysis and any which way one wants to use them: in design the interior rooms of any space, in fashion, in food, and/or in more mystical ways. Just remember, colors speak a message, your message…
Visit my Amazon Author’s Page
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. A couple of years ago, Valentina became a TV producer/host. Valentina Design Universe is the label under which she produces her shows in the studio and online. The goal of her shows is to entertain, inspire and inform, while she is living her passion. Get a copy of her books on
Amazon and Barnes&Noble