Valentina

Let’s Revive The Spats | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

02 Feb 2019 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #HowToWearSpats, #ShoeswithSpats, #Spats, #VintageAccessories, #VintageFashion

Riding on the sand along the beach, dressed in a period frock of early 1920’s, a red and black fitted jacket with gold buttons, frills coming out from a white shirt underneath, beige riding pants, brown-black leather boots and gloves, my head covered with a woman style top hat and my long blond hair flowing in the wind. I see myself in this idyllic period picture wearing decorative spats fastened under the foot with a strap to protect my beautiful riding trousers and boots from the wet sand. My fantasy runs wild when I see original pieces of clothes!

(Click on the photos to view them larger).

Spats buttoned up along the ankles were fashionable in the early 1900s especially for a man outfit. I remember my mother’s father wearing beige buttoned up spats over his shoes. He was a tall, blue-eyed man, had a very stern attitude and an elegant comportment I haven’t seen in anyone ever since. I didn’t like him that much, he was harsh and narcissist, his name was Angelo and nothing of him resembled an Angel. However, I admired his sharp, very refined and detailed way of dressing up, when he left the house it seemed as if a model left for a fashion show. He was well dressed every day.

I see myself wearing many types of spats, short and long, in Tartans, Boho, Victorian style and much more. They do embellish a common pair of shoes and add originality to any outfit. I found these beautiful examples at maidestreasuries.
https://www.deviantart.com/maidestreasuries/art/Mucha-Golden-Girl-Spats-152241196

MAIDESTREASURIES

MAIDESTREASURIES

In various countries military infantry still wear spats for formal events even today, I love to see pomp and circumstances.

In our modern dressing up, we can do many things, pairing antique, vintage accessories with new modern fashion is actually a very interesting way to dress up.
If the feet and calves are highly decorated keep a simple style up above and use mostly solid colors. 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 personal 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

Sexy Wood | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

28 Jan 2019 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BathVanityCabinet, #CurvyFurniture, #ExoticWoodFurniture, #ExoticWoods, #WoodAccessories

Did you not think wood is a sexy material? To hug a tree and to get the energy of the Earth is a holistic experience, beneficial to our health and soul, so we hear it often. I believe it is true, I have had that experience myself and felt good. After a piece of wood acclimatize to a new environment, then worked to the best shape for its grain, levigated, and clear varnished, all its beauty reveals. These pieces of artwork Chris Smith made are very sexy, warm in colors, versatile for a male or female décor and caressing them brings nature to the touch, just like hugging a tree.

Lace Sheoak-Australian Timber by Chris Smith

Jacaranda Wood with bronze and patina by Chris Smith

Acacia body with Ebony finial by Chris Smith

Red Morrel Burl Box by Chris Smith

Most of the time people don’t see behind what the market offers as furniture choice. These so-called “designer woods” might be a little more expensive than regular oak or maple, the effect, however, when making furniture out of these woods is stunning.
I can tell you by my experience, that every time I designed furniture, such as built-ins, in various non-common wood, the value of the house increased. Those are features that sell the house faster. The feeling of owning original wood pieces is satisfying and rewarding.

At times, when I have worked for clients receptive to new ideas, I always used exotic but not extinct woods to make special furniture, it takes a special person to understand the sexiness of a piece of wood.

This special bath cabinet is made of harewood. It still stands in my client’s bath and remains a conversation piece with their guests. (Click on the pictures to view them larger).

Master Bath Vanity by Valentina Interiors & Designs

Master Bath Vanity by Valentina Interiors & Designs

Master Bath Vanity by Valentina Interiors & Designs

Harewood

A house is not a container of stuff, a house contains our dreams and our lives. It’s better to have quality objects than a jumble of meaningless stuff, I think. Why not surround ourselves with objects possessing qualities that give great pleasure to see, to hear, or to think about? Remember the only designer who made these woods in nature is our Supreme Being, he made them for us to enjoy and to last more than a few lifetimes. This cabinet will outlive my client. Humans, on the contrary, create cheap disposable items. 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 color psychology to transform people’s life. She is the author of four books, one of which is on the subject of colors ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors.Barnes&Nobles http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Check out her newly published book ©The Road to Top Of The World – https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8

Your Face In The Right Colors | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

25 Jan 2019 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #ColorForTheFace, #GreyMastardBlackCombination, #HowToCombineColors, #JillPillotFashionDesigner, #PersonalImageConsulting

Welcome to a Friday Fashion episode.
Do you always wear the right colors for your complexion? If yes, you are an expert and don’t need to hear anything else. Knowing the right color for your face is half of the battle with any successful outfit.

This week I wore this outfit to conduct my TV show with a fashion designer from Belgium as my guest. The title of the show is: “Stylish Pile”. My guest will explain how to rescue fabrics from worn clothes and make them into a new garment. However interesting this subject was, it is not the subject of today. The reason I chose grey and mustard with a touch of black as the focus of today’s topic is only to talk about the suitable colors around the face. My face doesn’t look good framed with a black color and even if the black is on my torso, still doesn’t look good.
For my TV show, I have chosen to wear grey and mustard with a touch of black because we are in the winter, I wanted the colors to go with the dull nature of January but I didn’t want a sunless outfit. Grey doesn’t seem so dull next to a mustard color and a pile of gold. Most women would wear silver on a grey top. The moon is considered female energy, wearing silver on silver is about calling for that moon, gentile, female energy. The sun is considered a male planet, the golden colors which emanate from it, is hot and powerful. I have a strong character, and always felt attracted by solar planet energy, thus wearing gold for me means being supported by a strong entity which energizing me constantly and gives me the light I need to look alive and prompt for any situation.

This is one of the principals for a successful outfit. One might like a certain color but if it is not suitable to the face, it is the wrong color, simple as that.

As I said, black around my face turns off the light of my hair and my eyes, black makes my complexion washed out or sad, as I often say. Black might be an elegant color, it might be a protective color, it might be slimming and all that jazz, but black receives no energy, nor light and gives out no energy and no light either, that’s another reason I choose a cascade of gold necklaces. They will give light to my face and I can wear a black hat without feeling “turned off”.

Jill Pillot, my TV guest in this show, created the hat I am wearing, French Tweed is the fabric of my shoes, the shirt is hand-painted Italian silk, and the grey gloves are voiles.
If you want to see the show will be posted here in about a week: https://valentinadesignuniverse.com

Valentina Design Universe TV – Valentina On Stage Show “Stylish Pile”

Not knowing the best colors for our complexion is often the case with women. Buying clothes is a relaxing, fun activity. Coming home with packages and try everything on is even more amusing, then comes the usual dilemma “I have nothing to wear”. Well, ask yourself if you bought clothes because the price was right, you had some money or time to waste, or because you really bought garments that would improve your look. Knowing this, next time you shop, you should be able to leave on the racks all the items that are not for you, no matter how cute they are. A professional like me can help, just say so. Ciao,
Valentina
Fashion Services
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion-Interior Designer and author, 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 personal style in their homes and with the clothes they wear.
She is also a TV producer and host at KMVT15. The goal of her shows is to entertain, inspire and inform, while she is living her passion. Find Valentina Design Universe TV, here: https://valentinadesignuniverse.com

Get a copy of her four books here:
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Texture Italian Style | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

20 Jan 2019 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AntonellaSuricoArchitect, #ItalianHandMadeFurniture, #ItalianTexture, #OltreformaDesign, #StrungFurniture, #TexturedFibers

What is texture? It is the characteristic visual and tactile quality of the surface of a work of art resulting from the way in which the materials are used. It is an essential characteristic and combination or interrelation of parts or elements (from Dictionary.com).

I had the chance to virtually meet Italian architect Antonella Surico, who does exactly that. She designs and produces textured furniture, using various material that she transforms in a tubular or flat coil as ropes, then with warp and weft handmade technique she turns them into furniture. “The leather texture, just to mention one material, fits perfectly with a demand of pure minimalism that never neglects the idea of refinement. Velvet, which is a trend at the moment, manages to convey the idea of elegance and warm hospitality”, says architect Surico.

(Click on each photo to view it larger)

https://www.instagram.com/oltreforma_design_official

https://www.instagram.com/oltreforma_design_official

Her creative thinking translates into furnishing objects that embellish any space in a unique way. Each object comes from an idea of lines first jotted on a sheet of paper then transformed using colors and materials to become the harmonious essence of an environment.

https://www.instagram.com/oltreforma_design_official

In Italy people still like the “handmade” concept, as a distinctive feature and personal treatment. Handmade originality is a way to stay out of massification.
“Spaces in a home represent the most intimate places of emotions and life experiences, in there, it is a concentration of fragments of our existence. Each space is unique and deserves to embody the spirit of those who live in it” says architect Surico. I totally agree with her on this one.

https://www.instagram.com/oltreforma_design_official

However, and this is not a criticism of her beautiful work, it is just how I prefer it, I am not a minimalist, to me more is more and less is boring. I don’t feel comfortable living between four empty walls with nothing to look at or play with. A minimalist house to me feels much like a prison. These beautiful textures would go very nice in my maximalist concept, for both modern and traditional styles. Putting a room together, it is all about knowing how to do it tastefully, how to combine textures with colors, lines with styles and knowing when to stop.

In my opinion, the interior of a home must have a warmth character and must not look like commercial space, or have the look of a utilitarian, sterile, often cold place of work.

I wonder if architect Antonella Surico has thought of different applications for her nice textures other than using it in minimal interiors. I would be interestest in her opinion. 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.
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The newly published book is ©The Road to Top Of The World
https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8

The Dream I Am Still Dreaming | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

16 Jan 2019 8 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #GoalSetting, #Inspirational, #TheArtCommunityDream, #Vision, Dreams

They say if you don’t put your dreams out there in the Universe, and shout out clearly what you want, it will not happen. I know for experience that a dream without action it’s only a daydream. In my life, I have realized all of my dreams just because of the actions I took, except for one dream. It hasn’t come true yet, it is still hanging in my head and I see it with my eye open.

The dream is about my desire to open an art school community where teachers can rent a space to teach their arts, whatever it might be, a community where experts, teachers, speakers, and inspirational people unleash their knowledge, train new minds and leave their legacy. It is a community of people young and young at heart who want to create and live in beauty. I envision theatre art, visual art, painting, music, fabric art, glasses, sculpting, modeling, writing, fashion design, interior, robotic, flowers design, design with new and old material, the list is infinite. The building I need to host all the activities is a large antique home or an industrial building, with many floors, a courtyard with fountains for relaxation, for thinking in seclusion, or for meeting people in the fresh air surrounded by odorous plants and flowers. I want a space to have wines, food, and music always available.

I found a similar image of how the building in my head should look like. The street is colorful, surrounding buildings are old or historical, they are mostly made of stones and a lot of trees line the streets. I would like it to lead to the Sea because it is easy for me to think of opening the windows and smell the salty Sea.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Jeff-Frenette-635409-unsplash

I see a pristine interior of the old house in my head, tastefully decorated and peaceful for all the artists who will be creating their art there.

Michael-D-Beckwith-1061006-unsplash

In my head, I see a lot happening in my art community building: fashion shows, photo shooting, filming, art exhibitions, theatre representations, musicals, I see artists growing and only happy people. I see no restrictions in learning and teaching (everything will be permissible within the legality), my art community is a free world.
The bottom area at the street level is a selling point, where artists can sell all they produce and the very last top of the building is my home with a breathtaking view. I will sit on the throne of the arts and feel as if I am the “Grand Pubah of the Universe”.

I know exactly how to make a profit and turn my art community into a super desirable business, a bit like the “Montessori” of the arts. I will not discuss the business terms now. My intention is to write and express out loud what I want for my future. Yes, it is an ambitious dream! Are you listening Universe?

Cliff-Johnson-20686-unsplash

Below, my byline says I am a storyteller and I am, but this piece I wrote is my burning desire. What is your biggest dream and is it achievable? 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 four books, all available on
Amazon – http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The latest book just published is The Road To Top Of The World – https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8

Settling In Your Colors | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

13 Jan 2019 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BohemianColors, #BohemianDecor, #BohemianHomeFashion, #BohemianStyle, #MosaicFloor

I am so very pleased to see colorful home interiors circulating on my social platform pages these days. For a long time, I have wondered why people want to live in mortally boring beige homes when we live under a blue sky filled with the light of a yellow sun, surrounded by brown mountain, green grass, thousands of colorful flowers and food available everywhere (so I said in my book: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors).

Listening to realtors who want your home in a beige or white tone is deleterious to your spirit. A few times I have been indirectly involved in the selling process of homes. One time a client passed away and I had to take care of all her stuff. She surrounded herself in colors and not for one minute I thought it was going to be difficult to sell all those colors. Another time a client moved quickly to a new work in a faraway city leaving me and the realtor in the selling seat. The realtor preoccupied herself with the notion next buyer wouldn’t accept all her colors and she was so wrong. The third time I added colors in a totally white home I staged for sale. In all three cases, the houses sold in a week time.

(Click on each photo to view it larger)

My new-found Facebook friend posted this colorful, vibrant, imaginative set of her homes, and I jolted for joy. This is a person with courage, I thought. The feel is Bohemian style, it is a playful style, not a matchy-matchy style, and difficult for some people to live in. Bohemian style is a mixture of textures, colors, shapes, and style. It is the style hippies of the ’60s adopted for their free-living concept and before them, it was the style of poor gypsies roaming around in the Bohemian area of today Czechoslovakian Republic. The chair, in particular, struck me. I remember reading her post, this is a chair remade from upcycled fabric, trims and decorative pieces found in vintage or second-hand shops.

Photo: Robbie Coole

Why does the Bohemian style still attracts many people today, including me? It’s a free-form style, it has no boundaries, no rules, and no constrictions. Most of all, it is a very personal style, a reflection of creative people who like to express themselves through colors. So, well done Robbie! I know the rest of your home is as colorful as this room.

Photo: Robbie Coole

Another true shocker this week was this stunning mosaic floor. Although many people commented positively and added so many likes on this post, I doubt many of them would do it in their homes. It takes a lot of courage to cover in mosaic the entire floor and three walls of a room, in this case, a bathroom. I can already hear someone says: “I don’t want to clean all that grout!”.

Decorating a home is fun, but then comes the challenge of cleanliness.
Who will dust all the items in a Bohemian style? Can you keep the Bohemian style orderly and organized in its “designed chaos”?
Who will clean this beautiful mosaic floor? Can you live carefully enough not to break this delicate work?

If you want to be yourself these questions should not discourage you from pursuing your dream home. Hire a cleaning person to help you or be diligent to do it yourself. This style will make it easier to accumulate items and will put you out of control in no time. 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.
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The newly published book is ©The Road to Top Of The World –

https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8

Stones Or Rugs? | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

05 Jan 2019 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColorfulRugs, #DecoratingWithAreaRugs, #FloorDesigns, #FlooringSolutions, #StoneFloorDesigns

Wall to wall carpet is slowly disappearing from homes and I am very happy. Smelly, unhygienic wall to wall carpet has never been one of my favorite items for home décor. I have seen horrific carpeted bathrooms and laundry rooms or foyer that made me cringe every time. I am glad all of that nonsense is going away. My title asks a question stones or rugs, referring to a floor of any room. This is not a hard choice, as people know what they like most of the time. If it was up to me, I would never ever propose area rugs, and wall to wall carpet. The dust and germs under the shoes brought in the house from the street, or even the dead skin under bare feet, are two sufficient facts to decide against it and yet people still ask for carpet and rugs. The health of a room depends much on the cleanability of each item to avoid dust mites from making their nest everywhere and create allergies.

Stones or rugs are two different looks with two different textures. A stone floor is washable with soap and water, stays clean and fresh, keeps the room cool in the summer heat and lasts forever. One way to muffle the echo when a room is large like a salon or a cave is to decorate it with upholstered furniture, pillows, throws, wallpaper and a lot of wood accessories. A large room carpeted from wall to wall is just a larger opportunities for dust mites to reproduce and multiply. A colder climate area would be the exception to my rules and I would opt for a rug, but not a carpet. I would place an area rug only in strategic places such as bedrooms, living rooms, or home office, just to add some warmth to the room.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

New Wave Rug – Grandinroad

New Waves rug – Hand tufted, 100% Chinese wool with a beautiful sheen that brings a bit of light on a grey floor.

Heather Rug – Grandinroad

Heather rug – The description says: dramatic, vibrant, “pretty-but-edgy” floral design. Large flowers are all the rage today, on wallpapers and on rugs, don’t be afraid of looking at bold flowers, after a while the eyes get accustomed and space becomes joyful.

Jules Rug – Grandinroad

Jules rug – Colorful abstract puts art on the floor.

Ellis Rug – Grandinroad

Ellis – Traditional rug design fits anywhere, even in a modern setting.

(All rugs are from Grandinroad)

Marble Pebbles and Distressed Wood Floor -Valentina Interiors & Designs

My question, however, is a different one. If the floor is created new, it is original and outside the box, made interesting to look at, the room is small (I doubt the stone floor creates an echo in a small room), what is the reason to cover it with a rug? This is the new floor I created for a guest room in a client’s home. It’s made of distressed wood and sinuous shaped marble pebbles by the French door leading to the garden. My preference would be to leave the floor naked as part of the furniture, my client prefers to have a rug and those above are my choices of a rug. If we must cover a new floor, let’s do it with colors.

We are at the beginning of the year, there is nothing going on out there in January, make changes now. Happy New Year. 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 newly published book is ©The Road To Top Of The World. https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8
All books are available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

I Love Surprises | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

03 Jan 2019 2 Comments

by Valentina in Books Blog Tags: #2019Goals, #LetterFromThePast, #Memories, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor, Dreams

The year has just started, I am back on my saddle with a big smile. I did close the year 2018 in beauty.
First, I am happy to have published my fourth book The Road To Top Of The World.

To add to the pleasure, I received an unexpected article from a newspaper in Italy, thanking me for have cited in my book many well-known artists of Puglia.
The article is in Italian. Read it here: https://bit.ly/2QcA9mo

Article on GioiaNet.it

The Road To Top Of The World

(Click on the photo to view it larger).

Another beautiful news came two days before the closing of the year: one more person registered for my fashion drawing course I have organized for this year.

One of the many surprises I received in December really puzzled me. It was a letter in the form of a chapter for a future novel (maybe) written by one of my lifetime male friends in Italy, who apparently, for unspoken reasons, made me the muse of his dreams.

I am taking a few passages from the letter “On The Restaurant’s Terrace” as he titled it:
“The terrace of the restaurant where we had lunch, had a pergola with lots of chairs and some chaises long, placed there as an invitation to nap. I placed one of the chaises long in such a way to have only my face lapped by the sun and closed my eyes for a few minutes. I found myself floating in an indeterminate space and the light with its colors was the only perception. I saw dazzling beams of light changing without interruption, chasing, crossing and tying themselves in sudden tangles, then finally disappearing into a gigantic prism. No landscape, no seas, no mountains, no city, and no geographical place belonged to that experience. Was I living a sidereal adventure, a journey into the galaxies or was I looking at the reflections inside of a soap-bubble? Then, I noticed that my sensations gradually began to produce signs defining those lights, shaping those colors, and composing the features of a woman.

Her figure, soft, relaxed and gently relaxing on the green lawn, attracted me. Her golden face expressed delicacy, wrapped in an invisible veil that seemed satisfied. Without taking a single step, I joined her and met her blue eyes, bright and open, in a smile that struck me like rain with golden reflections. We danced barefoot on the grass wet by dew. (…)

She circled in the air, inventing dance steps, following music only she heard, and her inebriating voice transformed into a harmonious song. She went down the slope towards the sea, inviting me to follow her, with a slight movement of the hands and a cheerful smile.

That song fascinated me, for the magic moment it created and how it drove me into her dream. She entered the water fully dressed and soaked her clothes immediately. The grace of her casual gestures overwhelmed me,(…). I felt attracted to her and presaged it would have been forever. (…)
What’s your name? I asked her. Live your dream and call me LOVE, she answered.

The lights went out, the colors lost their strength, my eyes returned in the present to find more emotions.

I looked away searching for an imprint of two rolling bodies, but the waves had erased everything. Dreams are beautiful, but they are short-lived!”

What is my friend trying to tell me? Does he have some regrets? Is he still leaving in our teenage years? Perhaps, he knew I had my mind set to live somewhere else in the world and never asked me that fatidical question. Harsh as it sounds, if he did, would have not made a bit of difference, I wanted to conquer a different world and nothing could have messed up my plans. Today, however, it is very nice to read these words, knowing that the dream of me is keeping someone escaping his grey life. 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 four books, all available on
Amazon – http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The latest book just published is The Road To Top Of The World – https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8

Letter To The Parents | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

30 Dec 2018 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ChristmasCelebration, #ChristmasDinner, #ChristmasLettersToParents, #ItalianChristmasCustoms

Certain gestures are like fleeting moments to which we pay little attention, but the memory of them is sculpted forever in our mind.
I was enjoying a tasteful Christmas dinner when in a small moment I had a vision of a custom of my childhood, which repeated every year until I was 10 years old: the Christmas letter to the parents.
It was a letter all the pupils in elementary schools wrote for their parents in class with the aid of the teacher. Everyone wrote his/her thoughts, just one-page or a paragraph that expresses all the gratitude to the parents for raising us the best they could. Some letters were funny and comics and some others were very serious, they followed the kid’s character and personality. The teacher only corrected each letter and had no part in composing it, basically, we forced ourselves to find something good to write that made us look good with our parents.
In this letter addressed to both parents, we promised not to do the bad things we did during the year (often it was an empty promise, we forgot it as soon as the holidays passed), we promised to bring home good grades and keep the parents happy with good behavior. Mainly we praised them for all the good things they did for us, and we thanked them every five words.

Both parents knew about the letter but acted as if it was a surprise. Here, I recreated the table in the simplicity of the era: two plates, two glasses, and the necessary dinnerware, no Christmas decorations on the table, nothing spectacular, not even close to how we decorate holiday tables today. It was an essential table, real food and conversation took all our attention.

The letter was hidden under the father’s set of plates. After the first course, generally, a pasta dish, one of the women in the family removed that plate and pushed the letter out to make it more visible. The father accidentally pretended to see the letter and with a surprised voice exclaimed: “It’s Christmas and the postman came!” Then, he checked whose signature was and invited the author of the letter to come closer to him to read the letter out loud. Followed applauses and compliments from the members of the family sitting at the dinner table. In richer families, the kid who wrote the letter received some sort of gift or money, in less rich families, the kid received lots of kisses and hugs.

I have not had this vision in my life before this past Christmas. The scene was so vivid, real and all the people in it, now gone from this world, appeared the same, immortalized to the time I was ten years old.
It was my film, nobody saw it, I had slid through time, it felt like I had stopped there for a long time, but it was a brief moment and I was happy. A voice in my house brought me back to reality: “Can I take your plate and are you ready for the second course?”
Has this ever happened to you? 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 four books, all available on
Amazon – http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The latest book just published is The Road To Top Of The World – https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8

Christmas My Way | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

10 Dec 2018 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ChristmasCelebration, #ChristmasColors, #ChristmasDecorating, #ChristmasLights, #ChristmasThemes

This week, business coach Georgia Lee London interviewed me on BeLiveTV, an online TV feature of Facebook I use also for my business. The topic was Decorating Christmas. We spent the first few minutes talking about my business and personal life just as an introduction to her audience, then we moved on to Christmas and how to decorate it.

I like to admire all the joyous display of lights around the towns, highly decorated stores and homes illuminated over the top, just like everybody else, to me this huge display of lights is another form of art expression. The bigger the better is what most people think Christmas should be and that is fine. I can’t imagine Christmas not being so lit up anymore. There was a time in my life when my native country went through an austerity period of many years.

Now, I am here in the wealthiest country in the world, where people don’t mind spending $5,000 for Christmas decorations, I want to soak it in as much as I can, taking tours through neighbors and enjoy their labor to put up such a spectacle for the public. I saw a program on the Italian TV dedicated to the transformation of homes in Brooklyn N.Y. every year at Christmas and this is a photo I found of one of the Italian homes. Stunning, it looks like Disneyland. Their electric bill, I imagine, is huge for a couple of months.

(Click on the photo to view it larger).

Deep down inside I have remained a person who likes “conservation”, moderation and classy décor. I would never have such a display of power even if I had servants, labor, chauffeurs, and butlers.
To me, Christmas is about lighting up a way to our new self, welcoming a new year of opportunities to realize our dreams; it’s about resting, renewing our family and friends’ ties; share food and allow our “Supreme Being” (whomever or whatever it might be) to enter our life. Everything else is just consumerism.

Here, in this video, one can see my ideas of decorating Christmas the easy way, easy on the pocket, easy to put up and take down. I care to create pleasant atmospheres around the home by displaying interesting vignettes in different corners of each room. The most important thing is to find a theme, choose the colors, sculpt with various light levels and never leave corners in the dark.

Your Christmas can be anything you like and if this event is not in your belief, celebrate your life. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

It’s my hope that through my writing and my suggestions I am enriching your aesthetic sensibility towards design, style and inspiring you to live in beauty. I love to encourage my clients to show their personality through various expressions of décor, or the clothes they wear. I have loved my profession as an interior-fashion designer since 1990. I am here ready to offer consultations on-line if you need. Check out one of my books on the subject of colors, the third in line of my collection, ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors.
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The Road To Top Of The World, fourth book recently published is also available.
https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8