Valentina

What Did She Teach Us?

04 Mar 2024 3 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #Fashion, #FashionExpressions, #IrisApfel, #IrisApfelFashion, #RedAVoyageIntoColorSecondEdition, dress, Fashion, fashion-design, lifestyle, Style

Fashion’s grande dame, Iris Apfel, known for her sheer brilliance in dressing up, left this world (Aug.29, 1921 – March 1, 2024). She has been called “The Queen of Queens”, The Maverick of Style”, “The Fashion Bird” you name it and all meant she was unapologetic about her fashion expressions. She was a purist of original style and didn’t care to follow trends as she trusted her own taste in clothes.
She combined new with vintage, modern with eclectic style and flea market finds, she had no limit to her fantasy. The most extravagant expression of her dressing up was the jewellery. She knew how to combine bold pieces of jewellery, mixing textures and metals in such a way to always look elegant, full of fantasy, witty and never vulgar.
She was “The Interior Designer” of the White House for eight presidencies, then became a fashion designer and a senior model in her 80s. She has inspired women around the world who love to dress up every day and dare to be different.

In her words:
“When the fun goes out of dressing you might as well be dead.”
“More is more and less is a bore.”
“You don’t have to be beautiful to be stylish.”
“Dress the way you want to feel and not as you feel.”

I searched for a photo of her free of copyright without any results. We all know who she is, I don’t need to take someone else’s photo.

In her honour and the red flamboyant clothes she wore, I came up with this red outfit with a long fringe in the front to elongate my figure. I found it years ago in a fabric store, sold by the yard, I don’t know what it was used for, I bought it to wear on the waist to embellish skirts and pants. This time, I will wear it on the torso and I will go to an outing with friends at a Chinese tea house. I thought the Chinese-style ankle boots made of silk embroidered fabric are appropriate.

Never like today has been so important to get out of the flat massification and become thinking individuals. Thanks for your undiluted love of fashion, Iris, your grace and the inspiration will accompany me. Ciao,
Valentina

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel.
Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble

Persimmon

24 Feb 2024 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #2024 Colors, #Art, #Decorating with Persimmon, #InteriorDesign, #Persimmon Color

Aahh, Persimmon, nature’s sweet and delicious dessert! The soft kind that I can eat with a spoon for me it’s the best.
The predicted colours for 2024 are earthy and nature-inspired tones, Persimmon is one of them.

Persimmon colour is less strong and less attention-grabbing than orange, although it is part of warm colours, it is calmer and more relaxing than orange. It’s often used to celebrate transformation like the New Year in Hawaiian and Japanese cultures. On holidays and Christmas tables in Italy, persimmons are always present, it has been said to bring good luck and longevity.

Persimmon fruit ripens in the Fall, however, the energy of this colour, ranging from yellow to light orange, can be used to brighten any room in Winter and Spring as well.

You might want to pair a Persimmon colour with a Blue Nova recamier for a classic look or with a leather chair for a modern look. BTW, I love the shell chair almost Persimmon colour.

It seems most people would tone down Persimmon’s colour with neutral colours. My photos of the hanging persimmons above are very eloquent. Nature gives the inspiration with green leaves, brown stems and yellow blooms. Adding a light grey wall, a beige carpet or some light yellow pillows are all great combinations to complete the picture for a vibrant and balanced environment. Sometimes to look at a photo and study the details is enough to find inspiration. Ciao.

Valentine’s Day

14 Feb 2024 7 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ColorOrange, #ColorRed, #REDAVoyageIntoColors, Love, Love Day, Valentine's Day

I am not much of a Valentine’s Day person, but I can say a few things:
I hope you have always someone with whom to share everything.
I wish you to do the things you love ardently at least once and not the right thing.
I wish you to read a memorable book.
I wish you to be on the most limpid blue-green water of your favourite beach, wet with salt and sand, kissed by the sun.
I hope you marvel at the beauty of nature and that you plant your favourite flowers or food.
I hope you have created lasting memories to return to when things are not so well.
I hope you paint your idea of beauty.
I hope your mind hosts food memories:
the earthy aroma of a glass of wine drank with happy friends, or in a foreign country;
a succulent steak cooked in a hot brick oven;
an icecream fallen on the ground;
a fruit picked and eaten right under the tree;
a kiss between bites.

Let Love be the guiding light that always accompanies us with wisdom and compassion.

Swimming upstream, as I usually do, I choose orange as the colour for today. It feels safer, peaceful and not so invasive as the red.

Happy Valentine’s Day. Ciao,
Valentina

Copyright © 2024 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

I have been absent

11 Feb 2024 11 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #2024ChineseLunarYear, #ArtByValentinaCirasola, #HandbagsByValentinaExpressionsEtsy, #KMVT15TVShow, #ValentinaDesignUniverseShows, blog, books, valentina, writing

I am sitting in front of this box, the computer monitor, after nine months of being absent and it feels like a stranger is looking at me. Nine months ago, my life took a turn I didn’t like, it was as if a heavy beam of a construction home hit me on the head really hard and knocked me unconscious, thus I decided to disappear for a while for my own sanity.
On another note, it’s good to stay away from electromagnetism anyway and detox for a while.

Meanwhile, I was as active as ever with design work, TV shows, travelling, painting walls in my home and having a life outside the social platforms. I remember when the internet didn’t exist and friends knocked on my door without any appointment or picked up the telephone to talk at all hours of day and night without worrying about what virtual friends on Facebook were doing every second of their lives.

I returned to be closer to the world of art, the only thing that makes my soul sing. I visited the exhibitions shown in all the museums in my area and I even started to paint again, but this time I left out all the rules I had learned in art classes, I want to have a very loose hand to express myself freely and do just what I like.

I paint geometric and abstract nature with any medium except oil. Fabric is one material I feel confident to paint with as well. Basically, I create images using fabrics, but I don’t make quilts.

I have picked up the habit of making handbags. Many people sit in front of the TV and after a while, either fall asleep, eat mindlessly, or zap the remote control with an infinite boredom. If I sit in front of the TV my hands must be constantly doing something, sending a signal to my brain that I am creating. By doing this, ideas flow as a river to do more extravagant handbags, I want to make them all, but time seems to slip away on its own. I sell them on Etsy and privately. https://www.etsy.com/shop/ValentinaExpressions

The TV station, KMVT15, where I had produced a lot of shows before the psycho pandemic, finally lifted all the bans applied for three years and I returned to produce my shows under the same label: Valentina Design Universe. In January, my guest was a money coach who talked about money and harmony.

In February my guests, two chiropractor doctors, talked about how to live a life without medications.

The March show will be about Charcuterie and the small pleasures of life.

Saturn governs this year. It is considered a very hard planet due to the strong energy that it emanates.
The 2024 Chinese Lunar Year is about the dragon, another very strong symbol of power and commotion.
I hope both together will not create a lot of damage to humanity, already afflicted with wars, psycho pandemics, economic crises, government idiots, geo-engineered food and stupid believers hung up on virtual reality.

It’s good to be back in the blogosphere. Ciao.
Valentina

An Easter Speciality

09 Apr 2023 7 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #BenedettoSpeciality, #EasterFood, #EasterSpeciality, #ItalianEasterFood, #ItalianHolidaysDinners

Today talking with my high school friends in Italy about what kind of food they are preparing for Easter, I realized that for a long time, I missed preparing a typical speciality from my native Puglia. It’s called “Il Benedetto”. It is a dish full of fresh sheep ricotta on a bed of arugula or cooked spinach, boiled eggs, slices of soppressata sausage, pecorino cheese, and slices of oranges. The plate is placed in the centre of the dining table, accompanied by fried artichokes, olives and fresh raw fava beans. Some people put everything on one plate as shown in the second photo.

Before eating Il Benedetto, the food receives the benediction with a branch from an olive tree dipped in holy water. Basically, it is an appetizer served an hour or two before dinner.

(Photo by La Cucina Pugliese)

(Photo by my sister Cristina)

Italian holiday dinners are nothing like you have seen before. Italian dinners have no end. Italians know when dinner starts, but don’t know when they will get up and call it finished. It seems this speciality would be enough for dinner but not for the Italians who love to dine at leisure.

Dinner is never served with all food together on one plate or the guests helping each other by passing this and that until their plates are full of ingredients. Italian people eat dinner one course at a time. Between one dish and another, they talk politics, love, family, soccer game, money and all kind of interesting subjects, smoke, drink wines, or get up to dance to make space in the stomach for the next dish, with a time-lapse of 20-30 minutes between each course. Often a holiday dinner last 5-7 hours.
Women sit at the table as well, but they are the ones to prepare and serve. I helped my mom in the kitchen when I lived with my parents, however, I never understood the reason why men couldn’t get up and help.

For years I couldn’t prepare any Italian speciality here in America as the ingredients were not available in any market, now there is nothing I can’t find and I will prepare Il Benedetto from now on. I wish all of you a peaceful Easter Day. Ciao.
Valentina

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Spring Vibes

02 Apr 2023 4 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #ColorEnergy, #Pink&Green, #SpringColors, #SpringVibes, #ValentinaBookOnColors

After the Equinox there is an update of the vital forces and a repositioning of all the elements that move nature. Around the equinox (aequi+nox-night) the sun shines directly on the equator and consequently day and night have an approximate length all over the Earth. Due to this new event, Spring is born, we must sing at a different tune and think a little more clearly.

Last year I discovered a felt artist who I invited to my show. I fell in love with the art of felting. Wet felting is an ancient method of fusing together silk and natural wool from which scarves, shawls, lightweight garments, and even jewellery can be made. The process requires the use of olive oil soap, warm water and the motion of the skilled artist’s hands that will produce original, delicate, one-of-a-kind creations. The application of heat, moisture and friction causes the wool to felt.

Nuno Felting or Laminated Felting is a more modern technique in fabric manipulation that produces highly textural textiles, lightweight, visually appealing and fun to wear, says Nadia Bevegni, felt artist.

I sent one of my tulip photos to the artist and she reproduced it onto a piece of silk. It was an easy process, at least it was for me, and we communicated well. I like it when that happens, people in the art business seem to be much more relaxed than in any other business.
I added to my collection of scarves a beautiful, warm piece made by a real human with her hands. Here are a few of her creations. Find the artist Nadia Bevegni here https://itfelt.wordpress.com/

Photos by Nadia Bevegni.

On this first day of April, open the door to new possibilities, colours and all the energy colours can bring.

In my book RED -A Voyage Into Colors, Second Edition one can find a variety of information on how colours affect us in life.

Ciao,
Valentina

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Hang It Pretty

22 Mar 2023 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #HangingPlants, #MacrameArt, #MacrameFibers, #MacrameRevival, #MacrameWallArt

A long time ago, was fashionable to hang plants, big and small, in an intricate macrame work. Macrame is a technique of crafting a textile that will become wall hangings, plant holders, hammocks, hats, area rugs and many other decorative items. Several knots, each with its own name, forms the shape of each piece, some knots are very complicated and some are basic. Jute, twine, yarn, hemp, or leather are the fibers used for knotting. In the past, I have even cut up the fabric of some of my discarded dresses, made it into long strips and used it for knotting.

The art of knotting macrame was not born in the ’60s and ’70s, it is a very old art originated in the Arabic countries that used to trade products and food with the western world.

Women worked with the macrame art to pass time and sailors, being masters of nautical knots, enjoyed making items they could sell once had touched shores.

I am happy this art is coming back again, homes will not look so sterile any more. Greenery and plants in homes purify the air providing a good exchange of oxygen. They also make a good sound barrier against city noice and excellent room dividers. Ciao,

Valentina

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Invoking The Sun

17 Mar 2023 6 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #GoldandYellow, #GoldAttitude, #GoldColor, #GoldEnergy, #GoldenFashion

California is known for the wonderful weather, sunny days, gentile winds accompany our working and relaxing days, everything I plant grows well, it feels like Spring most of the year. The mild climate provides different pleasures to different people. In an hour or two we can go from sunny beaches to skiing in the mountains, we can wear short sleeves in January, or a light weight jacket in December and never feel inadequate. I keep buying winter gloves I never wear.

Long time ago, I planted an orange tree right in front of my home office. It is such a pleasure to work with the window open and smell the sweet orange blossoms coming through the window, however, lately, this good weather doesn’t feel like paradise anymore. It has been raining heavy for four months straight, night and day, gusty winds have eradicated heavy trees from their habitats and often I thought the roof of my home was going to come off.

My only protection against the dark, grey and wet days are colors. I hate to think I am probably the only one wearing a lot of bright colors in the rain, but it just feels like the only colors I sees in the streets are grey and black, not even a colorful umbrella every once in a while.

Purple is not a color I wear often, however I adore wearing it with chartreuse and yellow. I think the combination is strong and vibrant. The flower is a semblance of an umbrella for a playful moment.

Why not adding a pair of funky shoes for an amusing look and brighten the day? Maybe dressing in a combination of gold and yellow will call the sun upon me again.

There are areas in this world where rain is part of the everyday life, I would not know how people deal with the rain six or more months out of the year. I was born on the water, under a sun, in a sunny country, without the sun my life would be very sad. I invoke and worship the sun everyday, when it’s not around, I surround myself with a colorful home and clothes. I might be the brightest person on the block, but I care for my wellbeing and believe me, I cheer up a lot of people anywhere I go. That’s my golden attitude, I do what I like and not what is dictated.

Looking forward to sunnier dry days and I strongly hope all these months of rain have not been a weather manipulation by the hands of some psychopath with extravagant ideas on how the world should be….. these days everything is possible. Ciao.

Valentina

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Bees, Birds and Bunnies On Plates

10 Mar 2023 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ChampagneCoupeGlass, #CreativeDinnerTable, #DiningInStyle, #MissMatchedDinnerPlates, #NatureDesignedDinnerPlates, #OldFashionDinnerPlates

Are you tired of these traditional patterns? Maybe you have inherited these plates from your grandmother and have lived in your China cabinet forever? Do you want to get rid of them for something more modern? I would say stop! These old fashion plates are coming back in vogue and are quite expensive.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

One of my friends gave them away to charity shops, then one day while browsing in stores, she saw these plates that resembled much what she had from her mother and kind of regretted to have given them away. She saw the different way the store visual display people composed a table setting and liked how they mixed patterns and colors without matching them to the teeth.

I told my friend that I don’t like to match my table setting, actually I like it quite miss matched and somehow all the items come together nicely and attractive. I could never convince her, she is the matchy-matchy type and gets surprised when she comes for dinner at my home on how things look orderly without any order. It takes a bit of fantasy, that’s all.

I would have used a golden tone flatware to add more luminosity to the table setting, it is the only thing I would have done different. The etched glasses look perfect with these antique and country patterns. The coupe champagne glass reminds me of films in costumes of different eras when champagne was served only in coup glasses. Marie Antoinette dreamt of a type of round glass large enough to contain one of her breasts with the intention of reminding men of it every time they drank champagne, thus she found a master glass blower and had them made in Venice. From that moment on, the coupe glass was mass produced as the champagne glass par excellence until the flute glass replace it.

Bees, birds and bunnies on plates are the new bucolic style for a dinner in the nature. Everything old is always new, think about it before giving items away and how you can revamp them. Ciao.

Valentina

Illusions On The Walls

03 Mar 2023 9 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #FantasyMurals, #FrenchCountyVillage, #JohnPughMurals, #StanfordShoppingCtr, #StreetMurals

I love walking and unexpectedly finding murals on the walls. They are imaginative, colorful and put a smile on the viewers. This mural is located in Stanford. a fancy shopping center European style, where many stores display expensive merchandise. This long wall has been covered with a view of a French country town, very quaint and peaceful. Have you noticed the cat?
Famous muralist John Pugh painted this scene.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

In the photo below, the balcony rail and the open door are real, everything is a make believe.

The plant on the ground and the hanging pots are real, nothing else is.

In this photo only the tree branch is real.

Murals are nothing new, human beings have had the need to describe their environment since the beginning of time, sometimes adding fantasy to their paintings and sometimes seeing the reality as it is. In any case, murals transport me out of reality into a different world for a few minutes.
This is my entry for Dan Antion’s Thursday Door Challenge. Ciao,

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