Valentina

La Modiste and Le Trottin | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

02 Sep 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #1800sHatStyles, #BelleÉpoqueStyle, #DegasExhibition, #DegasMillinaryPaintings, #HatsDesigns

My mom, in her life as a fashion designer/tailor, often used a Modiste (stylist) for her client’s special requests and employed a Trottin (errand girl) the same as the girl on the Champs Élysée painted by Jean Béraud (below). The woman in the painting is as flirtatious as Carlina, the errand girl working in my mom’s tailor shop. Carlina took that time to run errands as her own playful time to flirt and act coquettish with the guys. Often, she returned to the shop out of tune, with her head in the clouds. My mom used to say she had taken too much sun on her head while she was out. Blessed youth!
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Degas had the deepest admiration for the creative work of young shop girls. In the painting The Millinery Shop (below), Degas is clearly absorbed in the Modiste’s gestures working with colors, textures, silk fabrics combined with straw hats and the gentle touch she puts on each hat decoration. Degas focuses also on the environment in millinery where ribbons, plumes and artificial flowers are laying around in the shop.

(Below: The Shop Girl by James Tissot-French)

In this visit to the Legion of Honor Museum, where Degas, Impressionism and Paris Millinery Trade was showing, I have learned the names of what I wear on my head these days:
Boaters, Boudoir caps, Bowlers, Bonnets, Capots, Peach Basket hats, Gainsborough or Picture hats, Touring hats, Riding hats, Fascinators, are some of the names given to various women’s hat styles in the 1800s. I am not surprised to see many of those hats have passed the test of time and are still being made in our third millennium. Of course, today we wear them for fun and not because they are required to complete an outfit.

(Above: Tall Hat from Musèe des Art Décoratifs, Paris – UFAC Collection)

In the latest works, Degas placed his attention on skilled women working in milliners under difficult or hazardous conditions, their creativity and hard labor, he depicted their working life. Having reached a certain wealth and not having the pressure to paint for a living, Degas painted millinery scenes for his own enjoyment and never sold his latest work, which was found in his studio when he died 1917.

(Above: hat with a dead awl)

Birds of Paradise, Purple Tangaras with black tail, Septicolor with shimmering breasts and ostrich were some of the tropical birds imported to Paris from France’s African colonies. Parisian hat industry supported a massive trade in exotic feathers from South America and Asia as well. Feather, stuffed birds, wings or bird heads were popular ornaments. To stop decomposition, milliners used arsenic, a new toxic substance unknown to be toxic and dangerous for the workers. Mercury, used to soften animal hair and felting of animal fur, was another hazardous material present in millinery work.

At the same time, the artificial flowers became indispensable accessories on chapeau de paille (straw hats) and that industry employed thousands of women. Maison Virot successfully created seasonal hats with intricate flowers even dyed in new colors and hats with velvet fabrics embellished with plumes.

(Above: Capot and Bonnets Hats: Philadelphia Museum of Art – Gift of Mr. and Mrs. George K. Rodgers)

Purple dye color, especially mauve, extracted from mollusks, appealed to the wealthy and soon was established as the color for royals, power and wealth. The use of purple has continued through time. Men’s hats took a small space in this exhibition, even though men, just like women, were not completely dressed without a hat.

The caricatures, just like in any era, makes us laugh and ponder on the futility of our customs.

It is a small exhibition and would have liked to learn more, as the 1800s were a time of novelties, inventions and preparation for modernity. If you have a chance to visit this exhibition, it’s well worth and it includes a few famous impressionists of the era. It will be on until Sept.24, 2017. Ciao,
Valentina
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 three 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

Don’t Worry About The Small Room | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

31 Aug 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #DecoratingSmallPlaces, #SmallSpaces, #SmallSpacesSolutions, #SmallSpacesStorage

Are you challenged by a small room in your house? Don’t be! Consider a small room as the jewel box you will create, think of the fun you will have decorating and planning a functional space.
Small rooms teach us how to stay organized and how to save money as well, because you will only buy the necessary items. In a small space every inch counts and every piece of furniture must have a double function for storage and living tasks. Before starting a decorating fun, it is important to assess the room. Take out of the room all the items, edit them heavily, donate, sell or throw away the items not needed anymore and start fresh. There is a great feeling of freedom in doing a complete de-cluttering. You will see the actual size of the small space for the functionality and purpose you want to assign to it. You will know how much storage and shelving are needed. Yes, even small rooms can have a multiple purpose.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Furniture – must have many functionalities and be adaptable to any situation. Choose seating that have storage, cabinets that hide a retractable table or shelves, compartmentalized drawers to have everything in plain view. Use decorative boxes, trunks, luggage or ottomans as side tables and coffee table that can be used as extra storage. Choose a sofa for the daytime that easily turns into a bed at night. European furniture makers are masters of small spaces, they have created an array of items for small European homes. Heavy and dark furniture make a small space seem even smaller. One way to trick the eyes is to incorporate glass items and furniture with legs instead of boxy furniture. Seeing open spaces under the furniture will improve the room look bigger, at least visually.

Small Trunk Side Table with Storage – Wayfair

Convertible Love Seat – AllModern

Side Table with Storage – Ballard

Storage Bench – Grandinroad

Lighting – Layer heavily. It doesn’t matter if recessed lights are already in place inside the ceiling. To create an ambience and a sculpting atmosphere, scatter around the room, tall and small lamps with different colors and styles. Don’t try to match.

Scale – Trick the eyes with large pattern wallpaper design, large artwork and large decorative items.

Color – Bold colors go well with large scale items, together will make the room look expensive and, no, dark or bold colors don’t make the room smaller, it’s a myth! Have fun painting horizontal stripes if you want a room to look longer, or vertical stripes if you want a visually taller room.

Mirrors – Will open the space, especially if they are placed across or near a window. The bigger the better and if they have details is even more playful, will add interest to the décor.

Natural Light – It’s always welcome, along with the sun energy. If privacy or the view outside are not an issue, don’t cover windows with curtains, let the outside in. The room will benefit from natural light and everything will look more luminous. Otherwise, hang curtains as high as possible, and from wall to wall, outside the window frame to give the window wall a larger appearance.

Hidden Storages – People tend to use the space under the bed to store shoes and seasonal items. A positive energy must flow freely in the room to impact positively your sleep or your quiet hours, if boxes occupy the space under the bed, that positive energy and natural flow of air circulation will be blocked. This is where saving money comes into play. Buy only the necessary clothes, shoes and accessories to keep at a minimum the need for storage. You will win the clutter!

Rules are made to be broken, allow your fantasy to go where it wants to go.
I am happy to help you anytime, online design consultations are available. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

It’s my hope that through my writing and my stories I am enriching your aesthetic sensibility towards design, style and inspiring you to live in beauty. 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 my latest book on the subject of colors ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Let’s Fix This Room, Shall We? | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

22 Aug 2017 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColorfulInteriors, #FurnitureCoordination, #LivingRoomColors, #LivingRoomDesign, #LivingRoomFurniture, #SpacePlanning

At times, my home projects with clients fly by at the speed of light without even knowing how they happened. Other times, they come to a halt due to vacation time, kids interrupting schedules, hectic daily life, disagreement between husband and wife or for no reason at all. This is one of those cases. We started this room somewhere around February of this year and here we are, in the middle of August, with an unfinished, unwelcoming room.

I had to wait for walls to be painted, electrical system to be completed and the floor to be restained. The floor now is an attractive distressed, warm greige and a very elegant floor, so different from the previous butcher block floor. After all of that necessary work was done, it was time to choose furniture and sometimes that process can take a long, long time, depending on how clients react to ideas, style and colors, or how fast they take decisions. The secret of making fast decisions when choosing furniture is about answering three questions:
Prices – can you afford it?
Colors – do you like it?
Sizes – does it fit?
However, for people is never so cut and dry as it is for someone like me, trained not to waste time.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

(Above: the unfinished room as it is now)

So far, we have a red sofa, a laguna color Coletta chair, a rustic credenza with metal profiles and a beige cuddle chair. These pieces look disjointed in the room, the element that will function as trait-d’union between all the colors is missing and the project is not moving forward. I had envisioned a colorful room, a space vibrating with interesting and whimsy elements.The room has been dull for so long and that would have been a good enough reason to fix it fast. Ouch, I must wait to see my vision realized and work at people’s pace. 🙃

Many times, I must deal with people’s fear of colors and their preconceived ideas that colors will tire them and the room. The result is a fight with their emotions.
How can anyone get tired of colors?
My role as your designer is to calm souls, emotions and to convince that colors can only help them get out of the boredom of vanilla living.

(Above: my proposed concept of furniture)

The room needs a punch with a golden-yellow element to pull the golden tones of the walls together with furniture (a yellow chair). I want to add warm wood elements to contrast the subdued distressed floors (side tables, floor lamp) and warm elegant metals to elevate the metal of the credenza (lamp metals, coffee table).

(Above: my proposed pillows)

To complete the picture, I would like to see colorful pillows in yellow, red, orange and bluish to blend everything, just like a tasty cocktail. How can anyone get tired of this moderately colored room?
If it looks good on paper, it will look good in the room. Shall we fix and finish this room? Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

It’s my hope that through my writing and my stories I am enriching your aesthetic sensibility towards design, style and inspiring you to live in beauty. 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 my latest book on the subject of colors, available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Chartreuse Mix Inspiration | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

18 Aug 2017 2 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #ChartreuseColor, #ChartreuseComboColors, #ChartreuseFashion, #ColorsToCombineWithChartresuse, #DressingWithChartreuse

Welcome to my Friday Fashion episode.
This year, I have written many times about green and gold colors, alone or with other colors and I haven’t yet exhausted all the possibilities. Think about it? Green represents the lawn, the grass, the leaves, gold represents the sunlight. We feel good under the sunlight that energizes us. If we sit on a green lawn and greenery surrounds us, we feel infused with peaceful relax, just by simply looking at it. Green and gold are perfect together for our emotions and wellbeing. Nature does it, we can too.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

I take inspiration mostly from my food to make up an outfit. Strange as it sounds, going to a grocery shop for me is more about taking photos of food first, thinking of exciting ways to use those colors in my various life expressions and manipulating photos to feed my creativity, than the banal act of buying food. I put those photos together when I need to come up with original outfits. It’s so much fun!
People stress so much about getting dressed, complaining of not having anything to wear and the wardrobe is full of clothes they might not even be aware of having. I don’t think much when I put together my outfits, nature provides me with all the colors I need to make excellent combinations. If it looks good in nature, it will look good on me and my food photography helps me immensely.

I feel good in any green colors, better if it is a yellow-green, Chartreuse, or blue-green. I use any green tone as a daytime color, as well as for evening dressing up. I hear people saying green will make them feel “potted”. Green and golden tone skins are a perfect match, but green-bluish tone color works well on people with pinkish skin tone. That’s the secret.

For this time, I am having a close encounter with Chartreuse (my purse and necklace), arugula green (my pants) and gray mushrooms (my top). I have a great ability to mix jewelry metals and manage to make them look attractive together. I wear gold and silver together without inhibitions. A small touch of pearls won’t hurt either. The detail, which makes this ensemble more interesting, is the tapestry sabot shoes by Steve Madden.
There you go, as I often say, don’t be afraid of colors. If you do it right and tasteful, color will change your life. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

As a designer in business since 1990, I am interested in helping people designing their interior and exterior spaces with an overall feeling of peace, relaxation and harmony that will draw them home eagerly. I am always looking to add that special touch with original findings to the spaces I design. Color is the focus of my business today, changing people’s energy and life force just by introducing them to colors they would have never imagined. Vogue Italia magazine, Gentry and many prominent magazines in California featured my work, I appeared on RAI, National Italian T.V. and nonetheless my story continues. Find copies of my book on colors ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors , and the rest of my books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Elemental | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

15 Aug 2017 4 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #Elemental, #https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/elemental, #NatureElemental, #WordPressPhotoChallengeElemental

Northern California skies are hardly an interesting elemental nature, they are always flat blue, rarely have any clouds, it doesn’t rain for years, in fact we suffer severe drought, nature is mostly yellow-brown even though colorful flowers embroider it. Palm trees and odorous eucalyptus compete with the blue skies.
I love California weather, it is always Spring-like, windy and mild, the perfect weather for work days and now, I am spoiled.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

It isn’t all perfect, however. There isn’t much change of seasons. We wear the same clothes all year around and often I see people in short pants in the middle of December and January, when the temperature goes down a little. They look awkward and confused in their perception that, here, in California is always summer.

On the other hand, summer is a real surprise for tourists. They expect to find a summer warmth, instead July and August cold and grayness greet them. As Mark Twain said: “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”. Blue skies, sunny days and palms are deceiving when summer temperature ranges around mid 50 to low 60 F.

The land is rugged, ideal element for hiking and discovering driftwood sculptures.

The fog is the characteristic elemental nature of this area. People seem to think fog is magic and mystical. In the early afternoon, it rolls in like a huge cotton ball, even thought it might be still sunny.

Although, I am used to this mild weather, I must say, not having a change of seasons and having the same weather elements just about all year around it is a bit boring to me, thus I tend to distort or manipulate the nature I see, with my vision of colors and textures.

At time, a regular pine tree, might seem to grow under a vanilla sky.

Other times a path might look like a fall path, when in reality it isn’t.

And other times, camelias take electrifying colors of its own.

If something doesn’t excite you, free your fantasy and find ways to see it differently. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian interior designer in business since 1990. She is passionate about colors and all expressive arts. She is a “colorist”. To her, selecting art means to bring out the best energy of her clients and nourish their soul. She trots the world and loves to write travel notes, from which she draws inspiration to design home interiors of her clients .
She is the author of her book on the subject of colors: ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Story Of A Designer: Belvedere | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

13 Aug 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #Belvedere, #BelvedereArchitecturalFeature, #BelvedereClassicArchitecture, #BelvedereGardenTerrace, #BelvedereRoofTop, #HouseWithBelvedere

Summer time in Italy is for fun, eating and meeting with friends late in the evening to burn the night until the small hours. Music playing in the distance, that type of elegant night clubs music of saxophone and piano fills the air and encourages people to stay sit in comfy chairs, sipping expensive drinks, while soaking the freshness of the sea. The breeze of the Adriatic Sea enters the room to make us feel the salty aroma of the waves. White sheer curtains dance around in the soft and warm sirocco wind. Nothing matters in the night, other than enjoying the cool air, good company, interesting conversation and….romance.

(Click each photo to view it larger).

Leonida, aka Leo is with Enrico leaning on the belvedere, admiring a great deal of beauty. In front of them, the green-azure waters of the Adriatic Sea have turned dark blue in the night, the distinctive smell of salt still comes through pleasantly. The true azure color of the water is visible only in the pool of lights reflected in the water from the villa. From the belvedere, Leo and Enrico try to define the horizon, imagining Greece on the other side, as it might be possible to see it during clear days, but at night the horizon makes a confusing line, sky and water become one.

Belvedere derives from two Italian words, bel, which means “beautiful,” and vedere, which means “view.” Belvedere is the ideal term for an Italian house or villa with a view.
Leo and Enrico started a talk on architecture, slipping into a deep conversation of classicism and pure architecture, they shared a vision of a house they would build for their soul and nobody else.

Some people are dancing the night away, cheek to cheek, on the same marble tile 18″x18″, clinging to each other for hours. Is dancing on one tile still done these days? Apparently yes, romanticism is still alive and Italy is the right place to get romantic. Leo and Enrico are there, on the belvedere, without a care in the world. The image of their relationship is taking shape in those small hours of the night melting away in a new fresh dawn. They are fantasizing about running away to a Greek island and never to return. Architecture and design as the common denominators, romance as a foundation. Their eyes sparkle…….

Every reference to facts, people, and situations is purely random fantasy.

I designed a belvedere for a client in California born on an Italian island. He grew up seeing this kind of architectural structure, which takes advantage of a scenic view of his homeland. His house on the Italian island looks over the Mediterranean on one side and the Tyrrhenian Sea on the other side. Listening to the stories of his youth, I knew he wanted to replicate the belvedere in his California house. I was ecstatic I designed it for him, to entertain his friends and family at night under stars and to sit down for lunch under the umbrella, soaking the warm indirect sun rays of the daytime, sipping a Corinto, typical Sicilian white wine.

The belvedere is usually built on the upper part of a house. However, the actual structure might have a rooftop garden, or it might be made in the form of a turret, a cupola, or an open terrace. That’s exactly what I wanted to develop for my client in California, a rooftop garden terrace with a cozy Italian feeling, fountains, putti, chili peppers plants, tomato plants, and many colorful flowers. I added an exterior spiral staircase from the master bedroom, which conveniently would lead directly to the belvedere.

You might not know that in California every little thing that will be built, must go first to the approval of the city and then the neighbors. Well, the neighbors didn’t approve of being seen in their backyard from the top of another house and probably were afraid of noisy parties lasting all night. Sight!!!
C’est la vie! Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

As a designer in business since 1990, I am interested in helping people designing their interior and exterior spaces with an overall feeling of peace, relaxation, and harmony that will draw them home eagerly. I am always looking to add that special touch with original findings to the spaces I design. Color is the focus of my business today, changing people’s energy and life force just by introducing them to colors they would have never imagined. Vogue Italia magazine, Gentry, and many prominent magazines in California featured my work, I appeared on RAI, National Italian T.V., and nonetheless, my story continues. Find copies of my book on colors ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors and the rest of my books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

August Textures | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

07 Aug 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #foodie, #GardenFood, #HomeMadeBread, #HomeMadeFood, #OrganicGarden, #OrganicOrchard, #WordPressPhotoChallengeTextures, #ZenGarden

My Zen garden is such a paradise on earth! In the morning, I salute the sun there, have breakfast, I read a book in my private corner, sometimes I like to stay still, watching the birds chasing each other and all the textures I created. During the week, I hang laundry to dry in the sun, the old fashion way. That’s right, I don’t own a dryer, never wanted one. Call me old fashion, some people call me a Martian in fact, but my way is simpler, saves electricity, saves the environment, the clothes smell like nature and not like chemicals, but then I can enjoy the textures in the wind hung laundry creates.

I am in love with my garden and not only because I designed it to transcend the ordinary look of a traditional garden. I made it mystical and playful for an intimate union of my soul and Mother Earth. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

My Zen garden it’s a working garden as well, it keeps me healthy with a great production of fruit and vegetables. The oranges abound most of the year, when the orange trees stop producing, the apricots come out and then apples. These fruits produce many textures for my table, from tarts, pies, muffins, ice-cream, vinegars and marmalades. The rest I can create with fruit and vegetables is all still in my fantasy.

Of course, it takes two to tango, the garden alone wouldn’t produce anything if I didn’t put any work into it. And what a work it is….!

In the month of August, the garden gives me a lot to do. Zucchini plants blossom with beautiful yellow flowers so big and open that the only thing I want to do is to stuff them with various ingredients every time. I make them ready for the winter, cook and pack them for the freezer.

I stuffed the zucchini flowers in the photo below with brown rice, gorgonzola cheese, arugula, olives, onion, ginger and Parmigiano cheese. Filling is low in calories, texture and taste are delicate. They bring freshness to the table and are perfect for a warm day.

With the potatoes I grow, I made potato bread, super delicious with a rough texture outside and soft inside. It’s ideal to eat it as soon as it comes out of the oven.

This blue plant was once a red cabbage forgotten in the veggie drawer of my refrigerator, when I noticed it was growing in the bag, I planted it in a pot and now I have a beautiful ornamental blue plant with great textures and shades of blue purple.

Ultimately the textures of my august garden, satisfy my subconscious body, my emotions, my physical body and give me the pleasure of the table in every season. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is the designer who cooks. She has a deep interest in food that led her as an autodidact in the studies of food in history, natural remedies, nutrition, well-being and learning food of the world. She wrote two books on Italian regional cuisine and one book on color theory, in which she included one recipe for each color. Robert Taitano, a friend and business associate of http://www.wine-fi.com says: “Valentina – an International Professional Interior Designer is now giving you an opportunity to redesign your palate”. Get your copy of Valentina’s books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Safari In The City | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

29 Jul 2017 8 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #EarthToneColors, #FrenchPithHelmet, #SafariColors, #SafariFashion, #SafariStyle, #ValentinaCirasolaFashionDesigner

Most of the people I know are trotting the world now, cruising, exploring world cultures, tasting ethnic food in foreign countries, safari in the Serengeti and some are doing a quiet staycation.

A few months ago, a client brought me a blue-green fabric and an off-white cotton lacy fabric wondering what I could do with these two rummage fabrics. I asked a few questions and if she was going to a special event or on a special vacation this year. Good enough she was planning a safari.
Immediately, a jumper shorts with an oversized duster came to mind. The blue-green color with some brown details is a subdued color, ideal for making a safari garment, it would mix and camouflage well with the nature. We don’t want animals to attack my client because she is wearing bright colors. In fact, the colors of a safari outfit gravitate around earth tones, from shades of white, off-white, to cream and beige; from rust to olive-green and military green; some grey and browns are also present.
I designed my client’s safari outfit on paper, took the fabrics to the seamstress, made the outfit and off she went to capture the soul of the animals in their eyes through the lens of her camera. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

What are the essentials for a safari outfit? This is my concept, easy, doable and not terribly expensive. Links of each item will take you to the products.

French Pith Helmet. – It goes with any men and women’s safari outfit and it is equally attractive for both.
A Pair of Sunglasses – always protect your eyes from sun glare and dust.
A Safari Binocular to observe the animals from a distance and in silence.
Convertible Pants – they conveniently change from long to short pants as the necessity of the moment requires and occupy less space in the luggage. One pair of convertible pants makes two pieces.
A Vintage Belt – it’s always needed, even in emergency situations, you never know how it will be used. Somehow a rugged, vintage belt feels better for a safari outfit.
A Safari Coat with a millions of pockets. You never know what you will collect to take home.
Ankle Boots – protect yourself from brushwood, dry branches, stones, pointed plants and possible snakes. I choose Nero Giardini.
I throw in a pair of Animal Print Loafer for the evening casual relax.
A Safari Scarf, just to “look good” for the animals, or to wipe the sweat off the forehead. Those felines might work you up.
Travel with a light Duffle Bag. Going to a safari there isn’t much to show off to or to buy, other than bringing back a lot of memories and digital photos.

Mind you, the safari outfit in my concept board is also well adaptable for a weekend in the country, in the woods and for a hot day in the city. Why not?
In a hot weather, people tend to slack off dressing, it really doesn’t matter if they wear the usual shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops, as long as they stay cool. I agree, it’s so difficult to wear clothes that look good in a hot weather. Choosing cool, light weight fabrics, cool colors to keep us from overheating is the utmost importance.

However, in the last concept board below, I am showing a safari outfit more suitable for the city, playful and cool looking for work or business.

Ciao,
Valentina
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 three 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

I was in the old far West | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

26 Jul 2017 4 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #HistoricalWoodsideCalifornia, #WoodsideCalifornia1800s, #WoodsideCaliforniaGeneralStore, #WoodsideGeneralStoreMuseum, #WoodsideSequoiaTrees

On the way to my friend in Woodside, California, I got lost in the hills, went around and around to find my way out, instead I stumbled in this little gem hidden among the sequoia redwood trees. Being the curious person I am, I took the time to browse around and found a pleasant surprise. This is the general store of rich Woodside area, where many American wealthy entrepreneurs of the late 1800 and the roaring ’20s lived.
Woodside was originally home to native Ohlone tribe. In 1769 Spanish explorers led by Gaspar de Portolá spotted the site while searching for an area where to camp the troupes.

Going to the General Store in Woodside, now a museum since 1947, one has the impression of stepping back in the old far West of the gold rush. Redwood trees surround the rugged area, the same wood which in the 1800 supplied the booming construction industry in San Francisco.

Dr. R. O. Tripp and M. A. Parkhurst built the General Store in 1854 and soon became the center of the town where notable families of the era attended their daily businesses. It operated as a general store, United States post office, dentist office, a stagecoach stop, a bank with the only armored safe in the area, a lending library and a community gathering spot. Today, visitors can see artifacts on display that reflect the varied activities of the people living in Woodside in the 1800.

Notable people of modern era living in Woodside have been George Whittell, Jr. who had an odd collection of exotic pets kept on his 500 acres, Steve Jobs, Willie McCovey player in the San Francisco Giant, Michelle Pfeiffer actress and Shirley Temple Black, the cute and clever girl actress who charmed the world over. The General Store is very secluded among the sequoia redwood trees, there is no public transport, visitors must have a car and drive through winding roads where at times it is possible to see some famous homes with horse stables, well hidden away from public reach.

The area is beautiful, it smells like a clean earth, silent, no city noises, every so often the gate or the top of a wealthy home appears, one feels in another stratosphere, the one of riches and powerful.
I have been living in California a long while now and I am still considering myself the tourist in my life. Summertime is made also for discovery and taking time to do things I normally wouldn’t do. 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 three books, all available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
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Unusual | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

23 Jul 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #CaliforniaLife, #CaliforniaNature, #SantanaRow, #UnusualStreetAttraction, #WordPressPhotoChallengeUnusual

I planned to go to a vintage wine bar with a group of friends and asked them to meet me at the corner of….across from…. ,we will walk there together.
We got closer to the wine bar and someone surprisingly though I was taking the group to a church. The unusual façade, is in fact an architectural salvage from a gothic chapel. Inside, it is a very modern wine tasting room and hopefully we will pray to the best wines and best fun.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Not too far from there, if one needs to breathe some fresh air after the wines, can take a seat in the unusual street living room fitted with a real functioning fireplace. In the winter days, when it doesn’t rain, sitting there soaking the feeble sun rays is cozy and warm.

(Below: Street fireplace in the street living room)

The lizard is an unusual fountain shooting a thin stream of water down instead of up.

Sitting at the round benches, surrounded by a nice vegetation, one can watch the exotic lizards playing with water in another unusual fountain.

The unusual large shells spout water in clay basins. What do they do on a white mosaic, kitchen counter like square box? They should have been on a beach vignette spouting water on a mermaid.

I would love to know why the Left Bank, a French restaurant chose a fat chef riding a pig for their sign. Such an unusual choice, but very fun. Somehow, when I see this sign, I think of their food as homey, traditionally French and country good.

The usual flat blue, clear sky of Northern California has nothing unusual. Hardly, we have clouds or colors in the sky, it’s a bit boring to photograph, but at least we have a spectacular weather.

This is Santana Row, South of San Francisco, designed as a European fashionable street with shopping-dining at the street, expensive lofts and apartments up above. It has been designed with nature in mind, that’s the reason of so much lush vegetation and symbols of nature.

During the day, leisure women do their best to spend free time there. Night crawler people and single women looking for exiting adventures crawl the streets and drinking joints in the evenings. The first few years of its existence, the place was quite deserted and stores could not make it. In fact, I decorated a beautiful shoe store, carrying European stylish shoes and closed in six months’ time due to lack of customer traffic. Now, Santana Row it’s an unusual busy place, very different from any American shopping centers, people seem to enjoy every bit of this European street feel, away from Europe. Life is good. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

As a designer in business since 1990, I am interested in helping people designing their interior and exterior spaces with an overall feeling of peace, relaxation and harmony that will draw them home eagerly. I am always looking to add that special touch with original findings to the spaces I design. Color is the focus of my business today, changing people’s energy and life force just by introducing them to colors they would have never imagined. Vogue Italia magazine, Gentry and many prominent magazines in California featured my work, I appeared on RAI, National Italian T.V. and nonetheless my story continues. Find copies of my book on colors ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors and the rest of my books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w