Valentina

One Day In Geneva | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

24 Sep 2019 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #BernSwitzerland, #EuropeTravel, #Geneva, #LakeGeneva, #TravelMemories, #TravelSwitzerland

It’s midnight, dark, winter and cold, I want to take a walk on a long straight street and smoke a cigarette. Geneva is very cold this time of the year, I am not used to it, and now it’s raining too. Illuminated stores across the street invite me to look at their merchandise, perhaps in the morning, I will be in the mood to buy something I can’t buy tonight. Their lights will go off at a programmed time, but now are still shining on beautiful objects for the nightcrawlers people like me. I want to go across the street, a red light tells me to halt. As far as my eyes can see, no cars are coming from any direction and the need to get under a protected portico in a hurry is stronger than getting wet waiting for the street light to change color.

Jack Ward Unsplash – Switzerland

As I cross the street, I hear the sound of a whistle as if a policeman is whistling. It couldn’t be whistling at me, I am thinking, but he is. Where did he come from? A minute ago I was the only one in the street. He really dropped out of the blue. He is gracious at first, his voice is soft while he is giving a 10 Francs ticket for walking on the pedestrian zone with a red light. I am so surprised a small act like mine can cause a pedestrian to have a ticket, I tell him but he doesn’t listen. I also tell him that in Italy, no one gets a ticket for walking on a pedestrian zone with a red light, not even for J walking dodging cars in the moving traffic. I soon realized it is the wrong thing to say in this circumstance. The policeman hands me the ticket accusing me of not observing the law. I protest, argue with him as much as I can and he begins his intellectual speech of anarchy. In his opinion, my disobedience for crossing the road with the red light is a libertarian act, a rejection of society based on the order. My theoretical flexibility and individual action in deciding which laws to obey and which to ignore could result in a revolution against regimentation and consequently in terrorist acts, he says. Mind you at that time, the world didn’t know terrorism as we know it today.

By now, I have unleashed my persuasion arts. I am trying to tell him I am not a terrorist or an anarchist, that I have no intention of starting a revolution and that I have only crossed the road on the pedestrian zone with a red light. What harm my action could cause to others since I am the only one in the street in the deep night? He doesn’t want to listen and gives me another ticket for disturbance of the night peace.

I better shut my mouth and pay for my ticket. Walking away I am thinking some people are made in blocks on the assembly line, no creativity, no compassion, no flexibility and are not even equipped with a vision to see two inches away from their nose.

My hotel room overlooks Lake Geneva, and it has the cutest balcony. it’s an old building with stone stairs, decorative cast iron gated elevator with glass doors, the type we see in films of a different era, vaulted ceiling, and the bathroom in the corridor. I should have stayed on that cute balcony to smoke my cigarette in peace and enjoy the rain hitting the waters of the lake.

Bern – Clock Tower

Since then, I have returned to Switzerland and had great experiences. That episode had gone unnoticed in the maze of my memories until today. I don’t know why it has returned….., I guess my traveling experiences always leave an impression on me. BTW, I have stopped smoking since then, that was many, many moons ago. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinaexpressions.com/trips-to-puglia-2

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
The latest published books are ©The Road To Top Of The World
and ©Naled Lemons

Dressing Up In The Golden Age | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

14 Sep 2019 9 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #1920FashionStyle, #DowntonAbbeyFashion, #DowtonAbbeyFilm, #GoldenAgeFashion, #GoldenAgeMutedColors

What a great self-treat was last night to watch Downtown Abbey film premiere. Stunning costumes, interesting dialog, sizzling lines, fast-paced scenes, moments of hilarity and the grand atmosphere of the period set, all contributed to a couple of hours of great entertainment. If you want to be extrapolated from today’s reality and fall into the grandeur of a golden age, this is the film to watch.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Downton-Abbey-Outfit — ©My Downton-Abbey Style Outfit

It was the premiere of the film, I felt to dress up for the occasion. We are having an Indian Summer here, it was too warm for this kind of layering, I couldn’t wait to get inside the air-conditioned cinema. Some people came dressed as they could trying to be like the Downtonians, some came with just a hat and jeans, some wore a large gypsy skirt with a long plastic pearl necklace and some others came in shorts with a parasol. It was funny but to each its own.

In my fashion studies at the Italian University, I studied the history of costume, which knowledge has helped me through my life when buying clothes. Every piece of clothing I buy is a well thought out study of how and when this new piece will be used. I always ask myself these questions: “Can it go with a period style, and if yes, which historical period can represent? What else do I need to purchase for a specific period that goes with the new piece? Can I use the new piece in a modern outfit? If yes, which is the modern combination I can use the new piece?
I have a photographic memory, which allows me to scan my wardrobe in a minute and see what I own while I am buying new clothes and study their proper use. Pretty lucky, eh?!

©My Accessories for Downton Abbey Film Premiere – Martinez Valero shoes

Another system I follow when buying clothes is to go mentally through my social activities. What do I do the most?
I go to theatre plays, shows, and Opera a lot. To me, these outfits must be original, not too elegant because sometimes I go to matinée shows, but I like them to have original details.
I visit Museums and art shows at the reception openings, thus these clothes must be artistic and colorful.
I attend fundraising and charitable events, these clothes must be cocktail style, modern, colorful and showing off my personality.
Occasionally, I am invited to particular restaurants to experience something special or ethnic, these clothes must be playful and smart elegant.
I visit clients, and for this, I am always well dressed in a feminine way, not business-like. I have always despised that the look of women dressed in men’s business suits.
I don’t go to sports events, thus I don’t have clothes for sports activities and very rarely I go to pop music concerts for which I wear the only jeans I own, leather pants, or a pair of gold pants.
I trot the world with comfortable clothes, not too flashy, stylish, versatile and colorful. All the clothes and shoes I own are interchangeable and can easily be adapted to a period-style or become a modern outfit. As you see, I don’t buy clothes just to buy or because they are on sale, I buy them with a purpose in mind. Getting dressed is my art and appearing good on every occasion is my goal.

The biggest concern when owning a wardrobe full of interchangeable clothes is to keep the same weight through the years, now that is a real challenge!

Let’s go back to Downtown Abbey film and the beautiful women fashion. In the Golden Age, colors were soft, or even muted, mostly solid and if fabrics had a pattern it was tone on tone, never a boisterous jam of designs. The daytime outfits were mostly long dresses revealing the calves or were made of two pieces, a long tunic over a long skirt. They were embellished with some decorative embroiders, lace, or passementerie. The waist was long to counterbalance the length of the dress and the sleeves usually were lightweight and transparent. Evening gowns revealed a sophisticated décolletage and sparked a lot more with rhinestone or paillettes.
Since the hemline rose, shoes were visible and attractive, made in a solid color or double face (two colors), were often leather, suede and even fabric for the elegant affairs. T-strap style shoes were very popular with Louis Heels (the same as my shoes in the photos) or Tango Heels.
Hats and gloves were the mandatory accessories for a daytime outfit, occasionally in this era women carried a parasol.
It was such a different time, I felt elegant, and at the same time, I felt as if I came out of a nostalgia shop. The evening was pleasant, the film was great, be sure to watch it if you like this sort of thing, however, outside, the reality looked so harsh in comparison. 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
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Out Of The Ordinary | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

08 Sep 2019 4 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #FashionJewelry, #FashionTalk, #HowToWearJewelry, #Jewelry, #JewelrySolutions, #ManyWaysToWearJewelry.

Do you always do things the same ways? I am talking about wearing a pin on jackets, sweaters or coats; hanging a necklace always from the neck and cinching the waist always with a belt. I have many vintage jewelry items that really push me to use them in alternative ways other than the traditional way. Their shape and what they represent call for innovative ways. A 1950’s bee pin, I am sure has been seen on a lapel of a woman’s jacket for at least two-three decades. Now, I wear it at the bottom edge of my pants or at the beginning of some pants’ detail, as shown in my photo. Suddenly, the bee pin is new and unexpected. I wore this outfit last night at a networking event, my bees on both sides of my pant legs became the attraction.

(Click on each photo to view it larger)

Bees-On-Pants

How about wearing a vintage pin as a pendant hanging from a necklace. The brushed silver on the pin and the bluish-green of the crystals go really well with the stone necklace in my collection. If I didn’t have that necklace, I would still hang the pin on a gold or silver necklace. The important thing is not to match to perfection. I have attached this same vintage pint on pockets of jackets and even on skirts.

Pin Pendant

Here, on the stage of my TV show, I am wearing three metal belts as necklaces. One belt is made of squares and circles, the second necklace has blue and silver beads, the third one is a straight metal chain. The necklaces are all silver metal, together they have picked up a certain style and don’t even look like belts. Do you like how I interchange jewelry and how I shift their function?

Stay out of the malls, where you will find one item repeated a million times. Go look for your pieces in the most unusual places, instead. My two 1950’s bee pins came from an antique store, where household items are sold. Often, I find beautiful stuff in second-hand stores, small boutiques, family-owned books store, ceramic shops, wineries, and arts/craft fair. Getting out of the ordinary will make you an original. In the sea of people made with a cookie-cutter, called the “followers”, if you do your own things, you will be regarded unique and people will follow you. It will boost your self-esteem, try it. 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 five books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on Barnes&Nobles
All the books are available on Barnes&Nobles and Amazon

A Week In Colors | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

02 Sep 2019 9 Comments

by Valentina in Books Blog Tags: #ColorMethods, #ColorOfTheDay, #HomeColors, #Synaesthesia, #WaldorfColorMethod

It doesn’t seem I have ever enough colors in my life. This past week, I ran a week of colors on Facebook, spreading my knowledge, explaining some properties of colors and presenting some methods for using colors.
I had a client, who poor thing, didn’t understand anything about colors, did not know how to combine colors, anything about the subject of colors was gibberish to her. In her native country, taking art classes was considered not that important, it was the reason for her lack of color knowledge, which made her very unsecured in some tasks of the day, like getting dressed. I had to create a color system for her to make the act of getting dressed in the morning easy and worry-free.

Waldorf Colors of the Day

Some people hear, see, or smell something and immediately memories of a person, a situation, attached to that sound, that view, or particular aroma, perfume, or odor comes to their mind. This condition of receiving a stimulus through sensory perception is called synaesthesia and some people can either taste colors or see their days in colors without any efforts. They dress in the color of each day because they see specific colors for each day.

Many are the color methods for each day of the week, it all depends on your belief. The Waldorf color method invented by Rudolf Steiner was used for educating kids in kindergarten and elementary age to use a specific color for each day. The method created a daily routine, a new life rhythm and apparently, kept them from making tantrums. The method teaches kids the basic order of things, kids are better prepared for the natural succession of life events, i.e. Tuesday comes after Monday, and know-how to transition from one thing to another, i.e. Red Day comes after Purple Day, meaning for example on the Red Day the kid must organize his/her closet as one of the chores to do daily. Kids using the Waldorf method know to get dressed in the color of the day without any problem (they know what to expect) and do activities using those colors.
However, kids are going to be kids. I am wondering, what if one kid wants to change the color of one day? Will he/she be considered a rebel, or a free thinker?
As a kid, I could not possibly follow any method….although disciplined and focused on my studies, I had my way and that was the way. My father often came to my elementary school to apologize with the teacher because I had studied what I wanted and not what was assigned. 😀

Color methods were not always accepted as a discipline to learn something organized. There were times when color combinations and believing that the color of each day came from the colors of planets, were associated with witchcraft.

“Today, scientists have attributed various colors to each planet they have discovered. We know that Mars is the red planet and the Moon is silvery. They also have attributed certain colors to the substances each planet is made of. If you ever had a birth chart done for you, then you know that zodiac signs and planets represent the cosmos influence you were born under. One or two planets rule each astrological sign, their color energy can affect our personality as well as defining lines of character.” I wrote it in my book ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors

I believe in the theory that the colors of planets affect us human being on earth, thus I went to visit Mars when I published my first book at the end of that year. Ah, ah, 😂

Valentina on Mars

Color of the day method is also used in marketing, i.e. blue sale today for menopause day or yellow day for the sale of your virgin grandmother. Get it?!
Selling products on discount must have a certain bright color, red for instance, to create immediacy and a need to buy it now.

In certain religions, the color of each day is for the celebration of Deities’ birthday. The color palette of each day might change in various religions. The world of colors unites many cultures and that to me is fascinating. If following a method of colors means to have a structured life with less stress and worries, then, by all means, do it. Ciao.
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola transforms and creates spaces realizing people’s dreams in homes, offices, interiors, and exteriors. She infuses your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away a comfortable living. Valentina is well-known for bringing originality on any project and for thinking outside the box. Her interiors are not made with cookie cutters, only follow client’s inspiration, lifestyle, and personality. She offers online design consultations through Skype or Zoom and the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge anywhere in the world. She is the author of four books. The latest 2 newly published books are
©The Road To Top Of The World on Amazon
©Naked Lemons on Amazon
All other books are available on Barnes&Nobles

You Are the Glass | Valentina Cirasola | Designer and Author

26 Aug 2019 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColorfulGlass, #GiantGlassFlowers, #GlassArt, #GlassSculptures, #HomeDecor, #InteriorDesign, HomeAccessories

“A pile of sand made you, strong but fragile, soft and malleable, sharp and smooth. You melt under the delicate touch of the forger. You face fire with courage as if nothing happens in that hot furnace, but something does happen. You become sensual, your curves are more sinuous than a curvy woman, you take on brilliant colors for the pleasure of your admirers’ eyes and you come out shaped into a masterpiece. We want to possess you. We want to caress and feel you, we want to shelter your fragility, we want your shapes to embellish our life. You are the GLASS”.

I wrote this thought one day at a client’s house. I was putting the final touches together, beautiful accessories, scented natural candles, shimmering crystals, skillfully decorated ceramic plates by French and Italian artists, colorful lamps and the glass peppers on the kitchen island. I fell in love with them. They looked juicy and appetizing in their glass form just as much as they do in real life. They vibrate healthy energy. It took a bit of an effort with this particular client to show her that colors exude positive energy and she needed so badly in her all-beige home. Now she is totally into colors and even when she gets dressed, she asks herself if Valentina would love the colors she is selecting. If the answer in her mind is NO, she will not put it on. I must have converted another person to colors.

Glass Red Pepper

As an Italian, I grew up appreciating the beauty of Murano glass. The art of Murano is unparallel, colorful, transparent like tissue paper, delicate and precious. It always fascinated me how a pile of sand can be transformed into something so mesmerizing. One moment seems the glass lays there lifeless and as soon as the light goes through, it picks up a totally different dimension, inside the glass every little nuance comes alive.

I was at an art and wine fair this weekend and I fell in love with tall glass flowers, glass teapots, and glass sculptures, I would have brought home everything I saw.

Giant Glass Flowers

Glass Teapots

Glass Sculpture

Picture one of these colorful pieces in each room of modern sleek décor, one of those style with very straight lines, black and grey color combination and very minimalist. Do you see it? One of these art pieces will add color and character to minimalist room décor.

So many artists, so many ideas, so many choices. Going to fairs and art shows is one of the many ways I help clients. I find items they might overlook, or have no access to it.
I hope one of these glass artists will want to appear on one of my TV shows, the invitation has been extended. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola transforms and creates spaces realizing people’s dreams in homes, offices, interiors, and exteriors. She infuses your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away a comfortable living. Valentina is well-known for bringing originality on any project and for thinking outside the box. Her interiors are not made with cookie cutters, only follow client’s inspiration, lifestyle, and personality. She offers online design consultations through Skype or Zoom, as well as the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge anywhere in the world. She is the author of five books. The two latest published books are ©The Road To Top Of The World – Amazon – https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8
and ©Naked Lemons – Amazon – https://amzn.to/33bVRyQ
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Cheddar and Bluestone | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

24 Aug 2019 8 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #CheddarBluestone, #CoolWarmColors, #Fall2019Colors, #FashionColors, #VibrantColorCombination

Welcome to a new episode of Friday Fashion.
This week I participated in a fashion event, an evening of dining with women and a talk on Fashion Disrupters.
I arrived at the venue wearing the outfit in my photo and someone greeted me with a big: “Mercy, mercy, you are sooooo visible!!!”
Perhaps the organizers expected to see invisible people at this event……I don’t know but I was surprised by the welcoming comment.

I sat at the table for dinner and a woman looking at my outfit said: “You need to wear more colors”. We both laughed, I am sure she was joking.
Then I looked around at my table and I saw businesswomen and women entrepreneurs wearing nothing by black and grey. Very sad.

All the women at the event had some very interesting to say, but their faces looked like the light was turned off. Society judges with the eyes in the first 90 seconds of coming in contact with us. The outer shell is what society sees first, and forms an opinion based on the colors we wear and the way we dress. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is.
I wonder what the colors I wore conveyed to the audience that evening: frivolous, carefree, shallow, girlish, attention-grabber, feminine, social climber, fashion slave……

(Click on the photo to view it larger).

Cheddar_BlueStone

These are the colors of Fall 2019, cheddar and bluestone, the shoes carry the same colors with one band and heels in magenta as an accent. Bluestone will show up in many collections this coming Fall.
Its profile is not pure, it is tinged slightly with a grey hue. Its character gives a sensation of calm and quiet. Its value is dull and that’s why it is called a muted color. I paired the bluestone colors with a cheddar lacy sweater (BTW, I crochet it) to enliven it with some light.
I am still wondering how I was soooo visible….. 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 five books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
and the latest book, paperback or kindle ©The Road to Top Of The World –Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8

Neglected Home Entrance | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

13 Aug 2019 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColorfulMainEntrance, #DesigningFrontEntry, #InvitingFrontDoor, #MainEntrance, #TheImportanceOfMainEntrance

During the year, I have the habit of visiting my past clients, just to see how they are doing, asking if they still like the house I designed for them, or if they need anything new from me. I bring them a little gift as a thank you for being my clients, just a little something they can use, such as a box of blank cards, a set of pens, a new year calendar, a set of kitchen towels, a book of stamps, things of this sort. Rarely, I found someone at home, therefore I leave my little gift at the main entrance and then call to tell them there is something from me at the front door waiting to be picked up.

Why do I have to call them and spoil my surprise? A long time ago I realized people enter their home from the back door or the garage, Instead of going through the main entry. Of course, it is easier to park the car in the back to unload grocery, packages, kids, and everything else, then enter the house from there and most likely they end up directly in the kitchen. These people spend a load of money to decorate the main entrance they never see and enjoy.

Landing Main Entrance

The main entrance is used for guests who never park in the backside of the house or in the garage of their friends, they are honored through the front entry. The guests have the privilege to see all the beauty of the front entry, artistic lighting, plants, smell the scent of flowers, enjoy the decorative items whatever might be, stones, metal sculptures, fountains, statues or sounds of chimes. It makes me think guests are reputed more important than the people living there, who pay the mortgage, the property tax, pay for the gardener to keep all the vegetation manicured, pay the window cleaner, and at one point might have paid for a landscaper or a designer to make the front entrance inviting and beautiful. Is it really this way? Are guests more important than you are?

It reminds me of my mom’s house when I lived at home with my parents. My mom kept one room always closed, we called it the salon due to the large size of the room, which hosted the living and dining room together. Nobody was allowed to go in that room, except for cleaning it or when we had guests, which was often, yet us the family, were not allowed to use the room if nothing was happening. Things changed when I moved away, museum rooms did not exist in any of the houses I lived.

One day, I returned to visit my mom, I sat in the salon, I did it on purpose, brought along a magazine, something to eat with drinks, raised my legs on the coffee table and parked my derriere in that room she didn’t want us to use for so many years. She was furious about my belligerence, but I made her understand that as her daughter I was supposed to be more important than her guests, just because she made me. From that moment on I forced her to allow me to eat in her best dishes and drink out of her best glasses, in her company, in that salon she never enjoyed in all the years she had it.

Life is too short not to enjoy the beautiful things we worked for and surrounded ourselves.

Front Yard Display at Main Entrance

I just want to point out that being greeted with the usual mess of the garage (I have seen some horrific garage mess), boxes, dirty laundry, sports equipment, maybe cars, maybe the husband’s mechanical/woodworking machines, Christmas decorations, etc. etc. is not a good vibration, it’s not harmony and it’s not pleasant to come home to.

Picture this: you return home after a long day at work, your boss has been nasty, your kids have done something stupid, perhaps you realize your husband has a sexy secretary. your grandmother became a virgin again or it has been just the wrong day with Mercury retrograde. There is nothing in that garage greeting you with beauty, no nice scent to smell, no vibrant color to uplift your spirit, nothing to make you feel better, but your main entrance has all of that and it is neglected.

After a bad day, try this, enter the home through your well-decorated main entrance, you will hear it saying: “Come in, this is your home and nothing is going to bother you here”. The spirit of your home will take care of you. Do you believe a home has a spirit? I do and I can tell you some pretty stories, but I will leave that for another time.

I am not trying to change the world, people will live as they want, in dirty houses, with a messy garage, in all-white walls, minimalist empty homes, aseptic, lifeless homes, or kitschy decor. I am just trying to make a point, if you spend money for something, whatever it might be, enjoy it now while you are alive, do it for yourself, you are the most important actor of your life’s film.
“My life is a theatre and this is my comedy” ~ I said it.

Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.valentinadesigns.com

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. She is the author of five books, all available on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The latest published books are ©The Road To Top Of The World – https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8
and ©Naked Lemons – https://amzn.to/33bVRyQ

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