Valentina

She Will Keep Dancing With Your Helping Hand | Valentina Cirasola | Designer and Author

06 Aug 2019 4 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #DancingFundRaising, #DancingSchool, #FundRaising, #HelpPaolaDancing, #PaolaBallerina, #PaolaBallerinaDreams

During my years of traveling through Europe, I met a cute girl who had a dream of becoming a ballerina. I visited her every time I was in her hometown. She was six years old then. Through the years she took the ballerina matter very seriously, she put all her passion into it, and she became a real pro. She is 17 now, she studies at a regular high school in the morning and at the ballet school in the afternoon every day. She makes the best grades of the whole school, she reads and writes in 3 languages, she writes blogs in English, she is disciplined in her dancing training, always focused on her goals and sustains healthy nutrition to suit her ballerina regimen.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

She received a few accolades and recognitions for her dancing art, among which she is the recipient of a second place in the international dancing contest at Baridanza and she passed the audition for the Alvin Ailey New York.

Her goal is to study at the School of America Ballet in a New York and be part of the Summer Intensive at the San Francisco Ballet School. To get the qualifications she needs to make a successful dancing career, she needs to enroll in a prestigious school, and she needs funds. Ballet is the art of harmony, graciousness, and spectacular movements. She needs to study with the masters to be recognized in the world of ballet, that’s just the way it is in this special industry, but it puts a lot of stress on the parents’ finance. She lives in a family of five and only the father provides for their living needs and the kids’ school needs.

Paola Dream Board

As her promoter and a woman without kids, I want to help her as her Godmother. In my life, I became the aunt of all my clients and friends’ kids.
I want to be part of this deserving kid’s life, watch her grow professionally and finally see her in the famous theaters of the world in a very near future. She needs all the financial help she can get, any amount will work. Her name is Paola, she is 17 and she thanks all you for contributing to the making of her future. Without your help, she cannot continue her path, her dream, and her life’s work will go wasted. Youth is our heritage, let’s help to realize her dream.

Visit her donation page here – https://www.gofundme.com/f/continuation-of-my-dance-studies
and if you like, please visit her website where you can watch her dancing in a few video clips – https://dancerattitude.wordpress.com
Her dancing career must not stop here.

Please help Paola out, any amount will work. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 😀❤️🌹
Paola is forever grateful to you and all you can do for her. ❤️❤️❤️
Valentina

Valentina Cirasola has been in business as a designer of interiors and fashion since 1990. She has helped a variegated group of fun people realizing their dreams with homes, offices, interiors, and exteriors. Furthermore, she has helped various charitable communities raising funds for different causes. Valentina’s life is a continuous evolvement of colorful events. Being Italian born and raised, classicism, style, and timeless designs influenced her design work. She will create your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away a comfortable living. She is a blogger, an author of 5 books and a public speaker. Get a copy of one of her books here:
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Visit: http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Ethnic Summer | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

04 Aug 2019 3 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #AfricanEthnicFashion, #BohemianFashion, #Chinoiseries, #EthnicColors, #EthnicFabrics, #EthnicFashion, #ExoticFashion

Welcome to a new episode of Friday Fashion.
Traveling to a foreign country is about learning a different culture, taste new food, approaching local people in their language, trying their customs and bring back some of the beauty to talk about with my friends over a dinner party. Ethnic fabrics, jewelry, and some home décor are usually the things I bring back, hoping I will have a place or a use for them.
Ethnic fashion is about creating a distinctive look wearing a garment of a racial group or foreign society that can be incorporated in the western fashion, just like this mandala skirt below. It is like celebrating diversity in a personal way.

ZuChic -Mandala

Etsy – Mandala Fabric

I would make a spectacular jacket out of this mandala fabric. I found it on Etsy https://etsy.me/2YFropx

Flowing dresses and layered patterns is one of the ways to combine ethnic design.

ZuChic-Layered

ZuChic-Purple

In the 20th century, western society was smitten by the Eastern far side of the world from the European Bohemian style outfits of the hippies and flower children to the Indian style, China style, Middle Eastern and African style of the ’70s. In the 1990s, approaching the new Millennium, designers felt to reconcile with the ethnicity of distant countries, creating new expressions of eclectic without being too faithful to the style of a particular country. Exotic was a word coined then. If it came from elsewhere, it was exotic and therefore accepted as new and out of the ordinary. Of course, if we look back in history, chinoiserie and silk fabrics were the high styles of Italian and French courts in the 1700s. Their fashion and home décor reflected the acceptance of foreign influence in their culture.

Ethnic Hat by Cicely Gilman

My friend Cicely Gilman hand-embroidered this style hat, reminiscence of the traditional Arab Kufi hat for men. Today, western women can wear this style of hat with modern clothes, casual jeans, or ethnic clothes. However, think how good this colorful hat could highlight a woman stark business outfit and take the serious edge off of it. Cicely is not a person afraid of colors. She produces fabrics for fashion and interiors. Find her bold and vibrant creations here: www.etsy.com/shop/cicelygilman

This necklace is one of my latest purchases on eBay and I will wear it with a very modern outfit. All the little metal beads will make a nice sound when I move, kind of like wearing windchimes and all the nice thoughts will come in. I heard a phrase in the film Return To Me:
“When bells ring, angels appear”. Perhaps, the sound of this necklace will do it.

eBay Ethnic Necklace

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

A Life With A View | Valentina Cirasola | Designer and Author

23 Jul 2019 6 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #BariItaly, #FocacciaBarese, #PugliaArchitecture, #PugliaFood, #PugliaHistoricalSites, #PugliaItaly

I went to street markets and discussed food with the vendors, I tasted the food I will never see again (unfortunately) unless I return soon, I got drenched in colors, breathed the salty air of the Adriatic Sea and soaked the local traditions. I heard the patois I am so familiar with and amused myself listening to people speaking it. I made new friends, and I wrote a lot of travel notes. That was my travel to the South Riviera of Italy.

Remembering those days, feelings of rage and happiness run together now, I don’t even know if I belong there even though that is my native land, but on the other hand, I don’t feel I belong somewhere else either!

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Lungomare Bari

Along the wall of the military fort, it felt as if I was on the balcony of the Adriatic Sea. The Fort of Sant’Antonio Abate, a lookout tower since the first half of the twentieth century is the highest point of the old city. From there the gaze follows the entire layout of the medieval walls and the outline of the waterfront. People living up here enjoy the sound of the waves every day. The air was cool and fizzy, we kept climbing to the top, dusk was coming, maybe the wind was going to pick up speed, the Sea and the sky were going to be dark in unison.

Fortino Colors

I heard the passerby saying they would love to live here in these picture-perfect places. Of course, who wouldn’t? This small house sits on valuable land, the circular entrance takes to the upstairs loggia and inside the house through small steps, it faces the Sea and has the best exposure to natural sunlight. People living here have a life with a view. It feels harmonious, it feels healthy. The sun’s energy welcomes them in the morning where the horizon meets the Sea and salutes them falling into the Sea at dusk. Magic!

Balconcino-Bari

Dusk caught up with us and suddenly we had a desire of the local focaccia, the top filled with fresh tomatoes, olives, oregano, course marine salt, the best olive oil and nothing else. It goes with a super chilled Peroni beer, which the local people prefer to drink out of a sweating glass bottle. At that moment, everyone was quiet, and I heard a total silence speaking in the beautiful rosy sunset background. The food here is so good that silence people!

Photo: Sei a Casa Sei a Bari

Like all the good vacations, they must be short, intense with emotions and all must stop when everything is still pleasurable.

Focaccia Barese in Preparation

I returned to my California home and made the focaccia I ate on the Southern Italian Riviera. It was very good but not as good as the one I ate that evening at dusk on the Fort of Sant’Antonio Abate. Here, the water, the soil and the ingredients are so different, nothing will ever come the same as in Puglia, at least I am happy I can do it.

Geez, a month of vacation is never enough!
My European genes are calling. See you soon, Europe!
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
The latest published book ©The Road To Top Of The World is a travel narrative on short stories of Puglia – https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8

Blushing Backstage | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

20 Jul 2019 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #2019PantoneColors, #BlushColors, #FashionColors, #MutedColors

Welcome to a new episode of Friday Fashion.

Pantone today emphasizes “Big Sur Sunset” of California. The light on Big Sur is really different compared to the Mediterranean golden light I am used to seeing at sunset. In those parts of California, the coast is rugged, the roads are winding and the view is breathtaking. The sunset reminds me that occasionally in California the gargoyles spit blush wine, a cool, gentle and refreshing wine for summer days. In the Pantone photo, the blush color melts away into the light blue of the ocean. Immediately, when I saw this photo, I thought of the blush color evening bag I gifted my sister. The clutch is very extravagant with an incrustation of glass and rhinestones that can illuminate a city. I would like her to wear it for her soirées at the theatre.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Pantone Big Sur Sunset

It seems the display I made for my picture, with the crochet blush fingerless gloves and all the jewelry colors go well with the graphic description Pantone makes about Big Sur Sunset.

Blush Glitzy Bag

Will my sister wear the sky blue floral and gem-studded shoes or the black ones? I will leave it to her choice.
These shoes are an eye-catcher for sure!

My Goody Shoes

Luxury floral gem-studded heels

The fashion forecasts say that this blush and powdery color will continue in the next winter season. Some women just look washed out in this color, how you wear it, can be interesting or dull. Free People combine a blush velvet jacket with a graphic t-shirt. I adore Free People fashion.

Free People

I hope you are having many Summer blush sunsets. 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. 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 Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Naked Lemons | Valentina Cirasola | Designer and Author

18 Jul 2019 2 Comments

by Valentina in Books Blog Tags: #HowToUseLemons, #LemonBeautyProducts, #Lemons, #TheNakedLemonseBook, #YellowColorEnergy, Limoncello

Hear, hear, ©Naked Lemons, a short ebook was just born yesterday.
This 26-page booklet was born from the Limoncello making class I teach two seasons out of the year when oranges and lemons are in a fragrant full production. It is something I like to do to get away from my design business. Many times, the participants to my Limoncello classes asked me if the material now written in this booklet was included in my previous published cookery books featuring the cuisine of the Italian southern region of Puglia.
Their question always caught me off guard. I never thought the ancient practice of making simple food out of scraps that generally are thrown away, would have become such a great hit but it did and finally, I decided to collect all of those traditions in one short pamphlet. With this information, no food will go to waste, it will create a new awareness that all parts of foods are good to use for consumption.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Naked Lemons

Limoncello is a yellow drink, traditional of the Italian Amalfi Coast. It is a cordial fragrant drink, sweet to the right point, spirited but not too much, extracted from lemons. It brings people together and makes them happy, it’s all about that yellow energy exuding from the lemons.

Limoncello

Limoncello has a dual function, it can be served with appetizers as an aperitif or a spritz, and it can be served as a digestive after-dinner drink. That’s the reason Limoncello is a popular drink among party-goers and especially during the holidays. I have a lot of pleasure making Limoncello during the summer and give it as a gift for Christmas in a basket full of other goodie produced from the lemons I grow. I make candied lemon peels, lemon cookies, and roasted lemons to mix in baked chickens, salads, sandwiches, and meat rosts. “Giving the gift of food is like giving the gift of love”.

Making Limoncello leaves 10 lemons without the skin. In this booklet, I give suggestions on how to turn all the “naked” lemons into different products for cooking, for daily beauty, products, and daily house cleaning. No chemicals, no harmful agents. That chapter is called: “My food is not only for cooking”.
©Naked Lemons ebook is available on Amazon all over the world – https://amzn.to/32x6pZ5
Get that great yellow, juicy energy. Ciao,
Valentina
http://valentinaexpressions.com

Valentina Cirasola has been in business as an interior designer since 1990 improving people’s life by changing their spaces. Most often she designs kitchens and wine grottos; outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms; great rooms and entertainment rooms. Her deep interest in food led her as an autodidact in the studies of food in history, natural remedies, nutrition, and well-being. Finally, she wrote two books on Italian regional cuisine and one book on color theory, in which she included one recipe for each color. Her latest book, a travel narrative contains many stories of food and entertainment.
©The Road To Top Of The World – paperback and kindle –
https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8
Get your copy of Valentina’s books on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Cheetah and Yellow | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

15 Jul 2019 7 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AnimalPrintAccentWall, #AnimalPrints, #DecoratingWithAnimalPrints, #DecorativePaintRoller, #OrganicDecorating

A few days ago, I was wearing cheetah print pants with funky yellow shoes. I was waiting for someone to come to the appointment.
As usual, when I get bored waiting, I take a photo of my shoes or what I am wearing, I am not much of a selfie person. I find my selfie feet don’t have that frozen look all faces have in selfies.

Later, I posted the picture on my Pinterest board “So Chic, So Stylish“ and made a comment that, in my fantasy, I see an interior with that combination.
Good enough, I caught someone’s attention. The comment intrigued a person who asked me how I would see yellow and cheetah combined in a room.
We started to talk and pretty soon I had a solution for her.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Cheetah and Yellow Shoes

Cheetah Yellow Dream Board

(In this dream board, the lanterns and wood shell photos come from rajeesoodhome on Instagram)

In my dream board, I see a yellow love seat, and various rustic, wood type elements: bamboo floor lamp, a chiseled edge coffee table, wood accessories, a stack of colorful pillows and many different shapes of lanterns gathered in one same corner. The cheetah wall I think it’s impressive as an accent wall.
Animal prints require natural and organic material. After all, cheetahs live in the wild nature.

I researched on how to get the cheetah effect on the wall. It’s an easy DIY paint project. Jennifer at Etsy sells all kinds of decorative paint rollers. In this video, she explains so easily how to do it, mix paint with glaze and roll over the desired pattern. https://www.youtube.com/artisticpaintingstudio

I shall be waiting for the photos of the interior I conceived for this new Pinterest client, I am so glad she found me. Technology is just great when it works. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer since 1990, specializing in interior and exterior, color analysis, kitchen, bath, wine cellar, and outdoor kitchen designs. Often people describe her as “the colorist” as she loves to color her clients’ world and loves to create the unusual. “Vogue” magazine and many prominent publications in California featured Valentina’s work. RAI–Italian National TV invited her to appear in “Cara Francesca Show” and she has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15. Author of four published books, one of which is on the subject of colors
©RED – A Voyage Into Colors.
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The newly published book is ©The Road to Top Of The World
Paperback and Kindle – https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8

Why Humans Make Art? | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

10 Jul 2019 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ArtandInteriors, #ArtisticDecorating, #ArtisticInteriors, #ColorsandArt, #InteriorDesign, #InteriorsAsArt

Last week I appeared on KMVT 15 TV in the show Why Human Make Art. Producer Adek Anukai sees my interior design profession as art and art as an expression of life. This is is very true. Each one of us makes art every day, whether we procreate, we design a home or a garden, whether we cook exceptional meals or the way we build cities and illuminate stores, whether we create fashion or extravagantly wear clothes, whether we learn ballet, play a musical instrument, or to drive creatively like Italians. I don’t believe people who say they are not creative. Every one of us makes some artistic expression.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

©Sunglasses Mirror by Valentina Cirasola

Prologue by Producer Adek Anukai:
The psychologist Nathan Lents, believes that “throughout history, much artwork was made for no other explicit purpose than the production of beauty.”
Merriam-Webster dictionary defines art as “something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings.”
It seems that the common drive in making art is to produce “beauty”.
Even at the dawn of mankind, humans drew pictures, danced, and sung. From the cave paintings to the breathtaking works of Leonardo Da Vinci, was the motivation the same? We paint, compose, sing, dance, write. We design beautiful dresses, jewelry, and decorate houses. We create new ways of expressing ourselves through the creation of “beauty”.

Remembering one of Dostoevsky’s affirmations: “Beauty Will Save the World.” And it will. In beauty there is harmony, in harmony, there is peace, in peace there is prosperity and in prosperity, there is a good healthy life.

During the show, the producer asked me: “Art does not seem to be critical for our survival and in most cases has not been financially rewarding. Actually, for most people, being an artist is a lifetime uphill battle, but it does not stop anyone. Why not?”

Most of us have the desire to leave something to posterity. Often artists make art to prolong life into the future, even when they are recognized as great artists only after their death.

©Natura Morta by Valentina Cirasola

Art is a kind of rebellion. Nobody stops producing art even when is not profitable. Through art, people express their anger, anxiety, contentment, happiness, social events, or just memories.
I remember when I returned from Africa the first time I went there, the only thing I wanted to paint was the mesmerizing sunset I saw, bold and colorful. I wanted to immortalize a spectacle I had never seen before, a sky at dusk with purple, red, yellow, orange streaks, sometimes all mixed together. To these days I can’t forget those bold colors in the sky and even though the canvases I painted are no longer with me, those sunsets are sculpted in my mind.

Exotic Sunsets

People making art keep pushing even when nature creates impossible barriers. Deafness does not stop composers and blindness does not stop painters from creating their artworks. Artists want to defy destiny and prove that anything is possible because “beauty” is the only thing humans want to be surrounded.

©Guest Bath – Concept Two

©Guest Bath – Concept One

The producer/host of the talk show went on comparing my interior design work to modern art. He wondered how challenging must be to interpret everybody’s taste and creating spaces where people feel their lives have improved. Yes, it is very challenging, but that’s what I chose to do.
The show will air in September 2019. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola has been a lifetime designer in interiors and fashion. Her extensive training and knowledge in both fields led her in both directions successfully. She is well-known for designing custom furniture. She cares to make spacious and functional pieces, but she doesn’t forget to introduce the element of surprise, sinuous lines, attractive shapes and colors in the style fit for each of her special clients. She also focuses on color theory and psychology to transform people’s life.
She is the author of ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors, Second Edition.
Amazon and Barnes&Noble

Check out her latest books, a travel narrative ©The Road to Top Of The World

Straddling A Bidet | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

03 Jul 2019 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #Bidet, #BidetFunctions, #HistoricalBidetNotes, #HowToUseABidet, #TechnologicBidet

Just a week ago I had an encounter with a client who years ago inherited from a previous homeowner a bidet in her master bedroom and had it removed at once. A hole in the floor covered with a metal cap reminded her of that “thing” she referred to as “a dirty and offensive object”. Then, she proceeded to ask me what would I do with such an object if I had one in my bathroom. She was much surprised and much appalled to find out I do have one in my bathroom. With her hands covering her face 😱, she kept repeating the same phrase for a few minutes: “OMG, what a nasty thing….”. I asked her what she used the bidet when she had it. To rinse the mop in it, was her answer. At that moment my eyes went out of the orbits 😳. She didn’t know the bidet is used to clean private parts after any intimate moments.

The conversation with her reminded me of a few episodes I lived in Italy when I saw what foreign people did to their bidets. One woman grew a plant in it but forgot to put a plug in the bidet. After a few years, the roots of the plant grew in the plumbing of the building she lived and caused huge damages to the building. The law stepped in and forced her to pay all the damages caused to five apartments below her.
One other person washed her infant and the dog in the bidet but never used it herself. Someone else I met, used it as a urinal and couldn’t understand the reason in Europe people had a toilet and a urinal, that’s what he thought was the function of the bidet. It’s baffling how people move overseas without gaining minimal knowledge of what to expect or without the willingness to learn a new culture.

I am not here to criticize anyone, it just puzzles me that I am still faced with horrid comments from people who claim to have traveled all over the world and can’t accept different ways of doing things. That’s all.

Storybook of Dreams and Beauty

(Source: Found on Facebook). Thanks to Storybook of Dreams and Beauty for posting this beautiful picture. I wished a similar decorated example would occupy space in my bathroom.

19th Century French Bidet

The first bidet appeared in France in 1600 when taking a full bath was a rare activity. Only nobles and riches bathed once or twice a month, with the introduction of the bidet at least feet and private parts were cleaned every day, especially after love encounters, body function daily needs, and horse riding. The shape of the basin evoked the straddling on the horse, faucets face the user, not the other way around. Since the last century, the shape hasn’t changed much. The material did change from the rudimentary wood box with a lid to the high decorate porcelain of the 19th century to a minimalist style of today. The use of the bidet is still the same. Let’s say one works in the garden and gets only the feet dirty, that’s when the bidet comes handy. Think of it as a water conservation device, no need to take a full shower if only the feet are dirty. However, it is not a device that substitutes a full shower or bath.

(Boilly, La Toilette Intime ou la Rose Effeuille. Image @Wikimedia Commons)

Today, we can select bidets from the most modern and pleasant technology to assure us a healthy, clean life.
https://www.brondell.com/healthy-living-blog/what-are-bidets-and-bidet-toilet-seats/

In fact, in Japan, I have experienced a toilet with heated seat and enhanced bidet capabilities. Here is a funny video of a Japanese woman explaining the washlet.
https://youtu.be/L8ndLz4SGmU

For a less expensive solution, here it is a removable device. https://bit.ly/2FOuD7o

Valentina
www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior and Fashion Designer. She blends fashion and interior well in any of her design work. She loves to remodel homes and loves to create the unusual, as much as she likes to restyle people’s images. She is a storyteller and finds inspirations everywhere to write her stories. She needs your story to design your dream home or your dream look. She is also a public speaker, a mentor, and author of 4 books. Check out her books on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Awakening Cosmic Energy | Valentina Cirasola | Designer and Author

25 Jun 2019 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #HypericumHerb, #ItalianSummerCelebrations, #PugliaTraditions, #SpaghettiStJohnStyle, #StJohnCelebration

Yesterday, June 24th, I forgot it was St. John’s’ Day. In Italy, this saint celebration “greets” the arrival of summer, awakening the cosmic energies. Some traditional customs are still alive and well in Puglia as in most regions in Italy.

Saint John the Baptist, the first apostle of Christ, is the only saint whose birth is celebrated instead of his death.

On June 23rd, the longest night of the year, people gather to celebrate a midsummer eve, with a bonfire, music, parades in period costumes, special street markets, craft, fireworks, drinking and eating. In the Marche region in central Italy, the feast culminates in the “Infiorata” a carpet of flowers all over the towns, and in Florence, St. John feast continues to be observed since the medieval time with a 3-day celebration of various street expressions.
According to an ancient belief, on Saint John’s night evil spirits and witches fly around, thus herbs must be hung on entry doors.
In Puglia, on this evening, women collect herbs besides making a Nocino liqueur and prepare a special pasta dish.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Hypericum_perforatum_Carl Axel Magnus Lindman_Wikipedia

In the darkness of this evening, new herbs are gathered to compose the bunch of St. John’s herbs, which drives away the evil eye, brings good luck and, if put under the pillow before going to sleep, calms the person down, bringing sweet premonitory dreams. Many different herbs compose the St. John’s bunch for good humor, prosperity, the removal of the evil and negativity and medicinal benefits: hypericum, also called “cast out devils herb”, artemisia for fertility, rue, mint, rosemary, parsley, garlic, lavender, fennel, lemon verbena, mallows, laburnum, foxgloves, and elderflowers. Crusaders treated their wounds with St. John’s herbs, considered beneficial, so history says.

Propitiatory water is made with these herbs, one can wash and refresh the face, or make a bouquet to gift the special friends who have a deeper relationship with us.

Green Almond – Game Widow – Wikipedia

The preparation of the Nocino liqueur considered the witches’ liqueur is one of the many traditional customs on the night of St.John’s celebration. My father made it every year, it was very strong, didn’t much like it, but I drank it anyway just to be a good sport. Green walnuts are the main ingredients, they are picked green because it is easy to pierce them with a pin from side to side to allow the alcohol to penetrate the almonds during maceration time, until the night of San Lawrence, on August 10th.
On this date, walnuts are filtered, sweetened, flavored with spices, such as cinnamon and cloves.

Of course, there is a special dish for this celebration, Spaghetti St. John’s style. During my recent visit to Puglia, I tasted spaghetti made with old grain and brought a bunch with me to California, My spaghetti St.John are seasoned with anchovies, capers, chili peppers, cherry tomatoes, and basil. It’s a simple, fast and very tasty sauce. It takes only 10 minutes of preparation and cooking.

Spaghetti San Giovanni in my California garden

Celebrating my Puglia holidays in America is a thing I do with myself or with very close people who have the same desire to celebrate something different than Americans do. 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 Puglia 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
The latest published book ©The Road To Top Of The World is a travel narrative on short stories of Puglia.
https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8

The Special Status Of Number 3 | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

23 Jun 2019 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #RuleOf3, #ThePowerOf3, #ThreeAsPerfectNumber

For centuries, in many cultures and for some inexplicable reason, number 3 has been considered the perfect number.
Tesla the most influential scientist was obsessed with the number 3 and created everything in multiple of 3.
Followers of magic and esoteric, think the number 3 has a magical power, in fact, the word Magic itself has 3 consonants.
3 represents the alignment of brain, heart, and body or the triangle in geometry with three sides.
Shamrock, the three leaves clover weed is the Irish lucky symbol, used in the 5th Century Ireland to explain the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to people converting to Christianity.
The Resurrection of Christ happened on the third day of his crucifixion.

In decorating is where we see the full expression of the number 3. We can decide to make a vignette by grouping 3 items, tall, medium, and small. This arrangement is pleasing to the eyes, shows harmony, rhythm, and style, or we can decide to create a gallery by grouping odd numbers together, 3-5-7-9 and so on.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Tiles-Lamp-Vignette

I created a gallery wall with antique mirrors, a ceramic ball, and an antique candle holder. It’s funny how the subject in my picture is about two people dancing and a street lampost behind them. It’s also curious to see the reflections in the small mirrors doubling the effect of the gallery.

Small-Antique-Mirrors-Gallery

I love to put colored glass objects near a widow. The reverberation of sun rays on the glass is amazing, colors change in different hours of the days.

Glass_Balls

In photography, the law of a 3 works well for a composition. This is my calla lilies studies grouping.

3 Calla Lilies Vignette

In various cuisines of the world, the trittico, a base for many sauces, is made of carrot, celery, and onion.
Food plated in odd numbers 1-3-5 always look better than 2 or 4 food items, sauces or dollops.

I experienced this tasty apricot dessert at the Culinary Academy, designed with 3 elements: a cake, a friable cookie, and apricot sauce.

Apricot Dessert

Human beings attach meaning to colors in 3 particular ways: nature, culture, and personal feelings.
In Nature – Red represents fire. Green is associated with plants, forest, and vegetation. Blue is associated with the ocean, seas, and lakes. Yellow is the sun which energizes us, a little daily exposure to the sun gives us a healthy life, bones and good vitamins; without a yellow sun, we would not exist.
In various cultures, colors pick up many meanings: white is a mourning color in India, black is either a mourning color in western civilization or the elegant color for parties and galas. Red in China is a fortune color, often used in weddings. Earthy colors define a South-Western civilization, bright and bold colors are for tropical areas.
On personal feelings – Often, we speak in colors and we don’t even notice it. Colors are abstract, they are electromagnetic waves, but one color expression can in an instant show our character. By using certain expressions related to colors, we vibrate the same way colors do, emanating sensations of temperature, feelings of love and anger, fear and joy, attention and caution, mood, state of mind and much more. Here are some fun expressions: “green with envy” – “bolt from the blue” – “red carpet treatment” – “yellow fever” – “green belt” – “yellow press” – “as brown as a berry” – “golden opportunity” – “silver screen” – “grey matter” (…) Except from my book:
© Red-A Voyage Into Colors – http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Ceramic Eggs

There you have it, number 3 seems to be the perfect number in any situation. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer working in the USA and Europe since 1990, specializing in interior and exterior, color analysis, kitchen, bath, wine cellar, and outdoor kitchen designs. Often people describe her as “the colorist” as she loves to color her clients’ world and loves to create the unusual. “Vogue” magazine and many prominent publications in California featured Valentina’s work. RAI–Italian National TV invited her to appear in “Cara Francesca Show” and she has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15. Author of four published books, one of which is on the subject of colors ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors. Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The newly published book ©The Road to Top Of The World
is available in paperback and kindle. https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8