Leonardo Da Vinci bought many birds kept in cages only to take them home and set them free. I thought of the same thing when I painted one of my interior doors with birds.
Master bathroom door painted by Valentina Cirasola
The flowers I painted don’t exist in nature, they exist in my fantasy and have big seeds. The birds I painted are also fantasy birds, they resemble parrots and in my imagination, they talk. I made them a couple, in my world, living creatures do reproduce.
Master bathroom door painted by Valentina Cirasola
I know one thing, I painted a cage and set my birds free, because in my home everyone is free even those characters living in my fantasy.
Master bathroom door painted by Valentina Cirasola
Are you curious to see behind this door? This is a bathroom and this is the immediate corner.
Designed by Valentina Cirasola
I have the tendency of painting every white surface and also like to design only one interior door in a different color or paint a mural on it, just to create an element of interest. I don’t know where this habit came from, but I started this trend a long time ago, then my clients followed it. Now, almost every client I have served has one different color door in their home.
Doors do close and divide spaces for privacy and functionality. The way I conceive them is about one world set into another world. I like to learn how and what people see in their doors through this Thursday Doors Challenge hosted by Dan Antion. Ciao, Valentina Amazon Author’s Page
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
Springtime, for me, is a time for renewal. It’s the time to shake away the chill of the winter, and not just from my bones – from my heart and soul too, as I find winter depressing and dreary. Not my favourite time of year at all, so the spring has always been for me a time when I take conscious action to renew myself and to ‘come alive’.
At the first signs of spring, I get to work, opening windows wide and letting the sun soak every nook and every cranny of my home, while I go through it with a fine comb, so to speak, to renew it from the inside out.
Starting from the inside, other than the much-needed spring cleaning, I always make sure to go through my wardrobe, giving away what is not needed. Next, I go through the books in my heaving bookcases. Thank goodness for the local library and the eager friends, who take the unwanted ones from my hands!
I believe in the Universal Law of Recycling, which says that if you create a vacuum in any physical space, the Universe will rush to fill it with something new. More often than not, people come with offerings shorty after I’ve given things away. Always makes me chuckle!
Other than cleaning the house and giving away what I don’t need, I also tidy up all living spaces from the clutter that tends to accumulate in the winter months. I find this helps to calm and clarify my overloaded mind, which tends to get worse when I see disarray and overstuffed corners, especially when it comes to paperwork in my study.
Tidying up and getting rid of unnecessary old papers do wonders for my sense of well-being and mental clarity.
All the above are indispensable procedures I follow religiously every spring.
But that’s not the fun part. The fun starts when I venture out to my balcony and garden… where my two fur babies daily offer me laughter and affection in abundance.
Loulou and Sissi
Meet Loulou (left) and her daughter, Sissi. They are both gentle souls, and the only cats I’ve ever had who’ve never clawed at me. I feel so lucky to have them, as they bring me untold joy, though I may occasionally feel otherwise – that is, whenever they bring up to the balcony birds of all kinds and sizes, mice, roaches, or lizards. I tend to like them a little less, just for a little while, as I clear up the carnage LOL.
Loulou and Sissi take great interest in my activities on the balcony and around the garden – when I replant pots or pick weeds or vegetables, for example. They tend to follow me around when I water too, making me laugh with their excited manner and meows. Every spring, especially, there is lots of that, because I tend to plant colourful flowers to place on the balcony. By miracle, Sissi, who is quite naughty, has never destroyed a single one of them, even though she tends to attack everything else!
Working from home, especially in the spring, has wonderful benefits. One of them is that I will occasionally take a small foldable table outside to sit with my laptop and work in the fresh air, sweet birdsong in my ears. Having beautiful blooms around certainly brightens my day even further.
I live in a small seaside town near Athens, which means I get to enjoy wonderful sea views during my walks along the seafront. There are beaches and a large marina with a string of cafes and eateries, and it’s all pretty idyllic.
This is one of my favorite spots for sitting to look out to sea (and the island of Salamina that’s opposite at a very short distance). Sitting on this bench, I love to empty my mind, and other times to plot my stories, or even to pray or meditate when I feel stuck mentally or emotionally. Sitting on this bench has often proved a lifesaver, my mind clearing and my heart lifting within a few minutes as if I’d been touched by a magic hand. In the spring, of course, this idle pastime serves to plan my summer vacations, too, or simply to dream endlessly about them!
Living near the sea is a huge blessing that adds fun and beauty to my days all year round. Enjoying swims daily is easy throughout the summer since the beach is only a five-minute drive away from home. My husband and I love to sit under a pine tree and enjoy a packed lunch (or a bought souvlaki!) sometimes after our swims with the cricket song in our ears. During the spring, picnics on the beach are just as precious and help to bring the summer a little closer. Personally, I start daydreaming about the summer at the first sign of spring, and it tends to offer new inspiration for new stories to write too. Blessings all around!
A novel by Effrosyni Moschoudi
$1.99 on preorder. Clean romance short read (launches April 25)
Spyri never forgot that old summer in Corfu when she met Markos…
Spyri, a half-Greek restauranteur in her early thirties, is back on the island of Corfu, staying in her grandmother’s village home for a few days to decompress from her busy life in London. Her nostalgia for the good old summer days hit her upon her return.
When she hears that Markos, the one she never forgot, is staying at the village, she becomes excited. Sparks begin to fly when they meet, but Markos has his own hurts of the past to deal with…
About the Author Effrosyni Moschoudi was born and raised in Athens, Greece. As a child, she loved to sit alone in her garden scribbling rhymes about flowers, butterflies and ants. Today, she writes books for the romantic at heart. She lives in a quaint seaside town near Athens with a British husband, two naughty cats, and a staggering amount of books and DVDs. Her little town is heavenly enough, yet her mind forever drifts to her beloved island of Corfu.
The Ebb, her new adult romance that was inspired by her summers in Corfu in the 1980s, is an ABNA Q-Finalist. Her debut novel, The Necklace of Goddess Athena, won a silver medal in the 2017 book awards of Readers’ Favorite. Her ghost romance novella, The Boy on the Bridge, was a Top 10 winner in the “50 Best Indie Books” awards of Readfree.ly in 2021.
What others say about Effrosyni’s books: “Effrosyni layers her words on the page like music.” ~Jackie Weger, author of The House on Persimmon Road
“Very few writers have such a gift for realism.” ~Kelly Smith Reviews
Visit her website for free excerpts, book trailers, her travel guide to Corfu, delicious Greek recipes, and to join her email list for her news and special offers: http://www.effrosyniwrites.com
I remember my many visits to Greece and Corfu. It was easy to cross the sea with an overnight ferry from my native city of Bari when I lived there. I will never forget the blue-green transparent waters of Corfu and the food, of course, was delicious! Good luck with your new launch on April 25th, I wish you much success with “My Corfu Love Story” *************
Allow me to attach a bit of advertising for my books.
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
Flâneur is a French term meaning ‘stroller’ ‘observer’ or ‘loafer’ used by nineteenth-century French poet Charles Baudelaire to identify an observer of modern urban life. With high observational skills, a flâneur, usually a man, is able to see things that others fail to see. He wanders but remains detached from the world he encounters and generally, the world he sees conceals a story.
On the Adriatic Sea, a small quaint town of Polignano a Mare in Italy, showcases its own flâneur who writes poems and poetries on doors, walls, and stairs. Nobody erases his thoughts, he writes about love and life, he quotes classical authors, philosophers, and great thinkers.
On this door, the flâneur writes a W.Shakespeare’s phrase: “Love runs to meet love with the same joy pupils run from their books; love that separates from its love has the same sad face the pupils have when they return to school”.
On this door, he quotes R.Tagore: “The butterfly doesn’t count the year, it counts the seconds, that’s the reason its brief life is sufficient”.
Here the flâneur quotes Torquato Tasso, an Italian poet of the 16th Century: “Lost is all the time that is not spent in loving”.
Here he wrote one piece of poetry from satirist Giuseppe Parini: “May the morning raises in the company of dawn, in front of the sun that large appears on the far horizon to make happy animals, plants, the fields, and the waves”.
Many of the flâneur’s writing can be seen on the doors of this quaint town, and many are his own expressions on life. I hope you get a chance to visit. Doors are the anticipation of what they conceal. This Thursday Doors Challenge hosted by Dan Antion is a fun opportunity to understand how people live, their dreams, their business, and their social status. Ciao, Valentina Amazon Author’s Page
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
I am not the only one amazed at how a tiny seed can grow into a giant healthy plant. This year, I planted strawberries, and for the first time, the birds are not eating them. These little red juicy jewels hanging from a pot beautify my garden incredibly. I mix strawberries with a bit of sugar to make a natural facial exfoliating that refreshes and nourishes my skin. Of course, I eat my strawberries as well. Author Anne Goodwin feels the same amazement with her Spring seeds.
Author Anne Goodwin
“I love to watch my garden emerge from hibernation, to awake to birdsong, to see butterflies and bees and find frogspawn in the pond. I’m always amazed how a tiny seed can grow into a plant that dwarfs me. It’s like the germ of an idea that becomes a story. But, like writing, gardening with nature does not always go to plan. Some seeds take root where I least expect them and, like weather and reader reactions, it’s not all within my control. Yet it’s wonderfully therapeutic to bury my hands in the soil or the keyboard. Such a thrill to harvest the fruits of my labours: the food on the table; the words on the printed page. Or to lift my gaze from my desk to the window and catch the flowering cherry in bloom.”
Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home Blurb
In the dying days of the old asylums, three paths intersect.
Henry was only a boy when he waved goodbye to his glamorous grown-up sister; approaching sixty, his life is still on hold as he awaits her return.
As a high-society hostess renowned for her recitals, Matty’s burden weighs heavily upon her, but she bears it with fortitude and grace.
Janice, a young social worker, wants to set the world to rights, but she needs to tackle challenges closer to home.
A brother and sister separated by decades of deceit. Will truth prevail over bigotry, or will the buried secret keep family apart?
In this, her third novel, Anne Goodwin has drawn on the language and landscapes of her native Cumbria and on the culture of long-stay psychiatric hospitals where she began her clinical psychology career.
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
The legend goes that Emperor Frederic II, King of Sicily, King of Germany, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor, King of Jerusalem all in the decade of the 1200s, ordered the incarceration of Bianca Lancia in the dungeon of the Castle in Gioia, Italy. To these days, nobody knows what crime she was accused of, maybe her only fault was her beauty, and that she was the lover of the Emperor, pregnant with his baby. At that time, it would have been good enough to lock her up to get her out of the public eyes. Once his baby, Manfredi was born, immediately inherited the Kingdom of Sicily.
On the dungeon’s walls, there are two balls carved in stone, they appear to be Bianca Lancia’s breasts, says the legend…. what a cruel fate reserved for lovers….!!!
Emperor Frederick II also surnamed “stupor mundi” (wonder or amazement of the world) seems to have been a well-liked Emperor then and now. He was a charismatic person with a fascinating polyhedral personality, spoke many languages, loved the arts and cultural innovations as a means to unify all races, and as often happens, his advanced thinking was contrasted by the Church.
The theme of these painted doors is portraits of people and life in the 1200s depicting effigies of the Emperor’s era: soldiers, war scenes, courtesans, and lovers are all there to tell the story. Every few years, the city of Gioia organizes an international artist competition, during which artists choose one unpainted door and give space to their creativity in interpreting subjects Emperor Frederic II would have loved. These painted doors permeate the center of town with a great sense of history.
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
Spring in California is magnificent. On the same day, one can go to the beach and in an hour or two, one can reach the mountain to ski on fluffy snow. It sounds rather tiring, but a lot of wealthy people in this area live exactly like that. The weather is always very comfortable, not too warm, not too cold, it’s always Spring even in the winter. Heavy coats and heavy garments are not part of our wardrobe. I forgot what it is to live in cold weather. I look at my garden and feel like a parent watching the kids growing year after year. I see how it has grown from seeds, how time and my various moods have changed it and how much food it has produced for me. I feel so proud, a city girl like me has shaped a non-descriptive, anonymous yard into a beautiful garden.
Author Colleen Chesebro has a different Spring. “Here in Michigan, it seems like we are in our third or fourth winter. Most days are sunny, but the biting wind makes it hard to enjoy the sunshine. Occasionally, southerly winds caress me with warmth, which is spring’s way of flirting—like a pretty girl who doesn’t realize her own beauty. Those warm days help me forget all the cold days.
Colleen M. Chesebro: Word Craft Poetry
Much of the snow has melted and last year’s spent leaves litter our front yard. I’ve spent some time thinking about what I will plant in front of our house this year. So far, I know I’ll plant flowering bushes (hydrangeas, come to mind) after the old maple tree stump is removed and I can enrich the soil.
After the maple tree—what will I plant out front?
Spring, inside the house, blooms in unexpected places. My Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter cactus blooms on a southerly facing windowsill.”
Are you ready to learn how to craft Japanese and American poetry? Consider this book the first step on your journey to learning the basics of how to craft syllabic poetry. Inside, you will discover many new forms, syllable combinations, and interpretations of the different Japanese and American forms and structures of haiku, senryu, haiga, tanka, renga/solo renga, gogyohka, haibun, tanka prose, the cinquain, and its variations, Etheree, nonet, and shadorma poetry.
So… what are you waiting for? Let’s craft syllabic poetry together!
I’ve done the work of researching these syllabic forms for you. Word Craft: Prose & Poetry is available as an Ebook and a Print book. mybook.to/WordCraftProsePoetry Let’s write syllabic poetry together! ❤
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
Beautiful and fresh April, the beginning of a new nature’s bounty. April in Latin is translated in Aprilis, it derives from the words aperio, aperire, apertus, a verb meaning “to open”. In Roman time, April 1st was the beginning of the year, here we are my friends, Happy New Year to all and happy Spring.
I wanted to open this new Spring year with authors who can inspire us with thoughts of Spring, showing what they do to beautify their lives, and how they keep negativity away, suggestions that might be very important to keep our sanity at this time. Lately, I have not been much in touch with authors, I have been reading about politics and history in my language trying to learn this new global situation and be able to make my own decisions and conclusions versus what the media wants to push on me. This is my chance to get to know authors I am not familiar with.
The first to open the series is Sharon Marchisiello. She lives in Georgia, where spring has a very small window of pleasant temperatures before the weather starts getting hot and where she enjoys yellow-and-white daffodils, a redbud tree, and purple azaleas.
Sharon Marchisiello
“When I’m stuck on a scene, or just depressed about the latest news, taking a walk rejuvenates me. We live next to a cart path; our town maintains 75 miles of multi-use trails for walkers, cyclists, and golf carts. My route takes me past a lake where, if I’m lucky, I’ll see a great blue heron or a pair of Canada geese tending to their goslings. Then it winds through the forest where I’ll sometimes see does and their fawns foraging on new vegetation. Afterward, I love to sit outside on my patio, reading a book or sipping a glass of wine, inhaling the fresh scents of springtime, or maybe a neighbor’s barbeque. And when the sun sets over the golf course, bands of orange, pink, and purple steak the electric blue sky, reminding me that I’ve made it through another day”.
Camelia
About her latest book My most recent novel, Secrets of the Galapagos (Sunbury Press, 2019) is set in an archipelago 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador. Located almost on the equator, the people and unique animals of the Galapagos enjoy perpetual spring.
Secrets Of The Galapagos – A novel by Sharon Marchisiello
Here’s a summary of the story:
“Shattered by a broken engagement and a business venture derailed by Jerome Haddad, her unscrupulous partner, Giovanna Rogers goes on a luxury Galapagos cruise with her grandmother to decompress. At least that’s what her grandmother thinks. Giovanna is determined to make Jerome pay for what he’s done, and she has a tip he’s headed for the Galapagos.
While snorkeling in Gardner Bay off the coast of Española Island, Giovanna and another cruise passenger, tortoise researcher Laurel Pardo, both become separated from the group, and Laurel is left behind. No one on the ship will acknowledge Laurel is missing, and Giovanna suspects a cover-up.
When the police come on board to investigate a death, Giovanna is sure the victim is Laurel. She’s anxious to give her testimony to the attractive local detective assigned to the case. Instead, she learns someone else is dead, and she’s a person of interest.
Resolved to keep searching for Laurel and make sense of her disappearance, Giovanna finds that several people on board the cruise ship have reasons to want Laurel gone. One is a scam involving Tio Armando, the famous Galapagos giant tortoise and a major tourist attraction in the archipelago. And Jerome Haddad has a hand in it. Thinking she’s the cat in this game, Giovanna gets too involved and becomes the mouse, putting her life in jeopardy. But if she doesn’t stop him, Jerome will go on to ruin others”.
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
Venice, the only Italian Venice I know, never stops to surprise me. Recently, I visited Giacomo Casanova’s exhibition at the museum in San Francisco. One of the rooms was set up as the “Putta House” (the prostitution house), the only one allowed by law in the Carampane district, often frequented by Casanova. The background wall in the exhibition showed how the lady of the night incited the trade by flashing their breasts from the brothel’s windows that overlooked the “Ponte delle Tette” (the bridge of tits).
The trade of selling sex was a common work in the Republic of Venice in the 16th Century, a city frequented by rich merchants, kings, gamblers, Italian and foreign nobles, art dealers, and a lot of the upper crust of society. The government made this kind of work legal and collected taxes from the women, but they weren’t free to live as they pleased. The government, with a decree, decided on the life of the brothel, limiting the area, time and days of operations, even dictated what the women had to wear such as a yellow scarf to distinguish themselves from respectable women. Although they were allowed to sell themselves legally, they were often scrutinized by the Inquisition for their licentious customs.
Inside a “Putta” House – Casanova Exhibition
The society divided them in two categories: * the low-rank courtesans “cortigiane di lume” (courtesans of the light), poor and inexpensive; * the high-rank courtesans “cortigiane oneste” (honest courtesans), very stylish and educated that could pass for respectable women regardless of their sins.
The high-ranking women were social climbers, depending on “la creme de la creme” of the Venetian society, and on influential lovers to accumulate wealth. Among these honest courtesans, Veronica Franco, became well known on the international scene. She was beautiful, educated, classy and was the subject of Tintoretto’s paintings. In the poetries she wrote, she encouraged women to stand up for themselves.
Inside of “Putta” House – Casanova Exhibition
Does this last view look real? Yes, it does but it’s not. It’s a tridimensional painting I brought from Venice.
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
“When there is no color, there is no energy and if there is no energy there is no life” ~ Caravaggio.
I just finished painting one side of my studio. The colors and style are not for everyone, I am sure. In my home, I am not looking for relaxing colors, I will have enough relaxation when I will be dead, now, in this life, I want colors that will vibrate my existence. I sit at the computer with this closet door behind me, it used to be white. I was tired of covering the white closet door with a curtain printed in a Paris scene, the Eiffel Tower, and Montmartre stairs, a view of Paris that offered a vicarious traveling pleasure to the audience viewing the videos I produce on various subjects.
I decided to paint colorful fantasy butterflies on this door. I had no previous drawings, photographs or ideas, I just grabbed some colors and brushes, and freehand I composed as if it was music.
Butterflies on the door
I liked what I saw as I progressed in the painting, so much to determine the colors of the wall next to it. Before it was light yellow and it became glittered red with metallic gold stripes.
I continued with the glittered red paint over the door, I thought it needed to be in unison with the wall.
I am showing the door first closed and then opened to the corridor to reveal another mural I painted a few years ago.
Door Opened
The goal of painting my home in a fantasy way was to see another view instead of a simple white wall when the doors are opened. I carried this concept in every room and it feels cheerful. I have a couple of other areas to paint, the fun continues, hoping I will stop before the roof… This is my entry for Thursday Door Challenge, hosted by Dan Antion. Ciao, Valentina Amazon Author’s Page
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
I had the opportunity to meet the renowned Italian artist Gino Donvito whose art doesn’t reflect anybody’s fashion. The artist lives in the Puglia region, a southern part of Italy. Emperor Frederic II and the Medieval life of the Emperor’s time are the focus of his art. A common friend to the artist introduced me to Gino Donvito. He drove me to his home and a new world of art opened up to me. A sign outside the artist’s home grabbed my attention. It said “An artist lives here” almost like a warning. Gino Donvito, the man wearing glasses in the sign, is looking straight into the eyes of Emperor Frederic II, in a confrontational attitude. I felt the sign was a challenge, at least to me.
Sign outside the artist’s home
I couldn’t help, while I was admiring his art, to notice the décor of this very peculiar home. An antique Indonesian door was readapted into a coffee table, with a glass top protecting the beautiful design and the metal decorations.
Artifact Door at Artist Gino Donvito’s home
The mixed eclectic décor made this home masculine, but very interesting. Eastern furniture met Western furniture; modern lighting and old gas oil lamps beautifully illuminated each room; Egyptian fabrics and Persian rugs contributed to the elegance of the home. Nothing matched in this décor, brass and bronze statues, ceramic and carved wood objects, old books and a lot of music records decorated the home. One main area looked into a courtyard full of olive trees, stones and tall succulent plants. The exposed wood ceiling beams and a very tall fireplace made a warm inviting home. The artist’s paintings, brushes, the many boxes of colors, and his wines were scattered everywhere.
Usually, we are accustomed to seeing the same style of interior doors. This home didn’t have a lot of interior doors, but those few were designed with different crowns and everyone hosted books.
Entrance to Gino Donvito’s home
Outside his home, nature was rough, uncultivated, and virgin, therefore the architecture of the home communicated in that context. The wood entry door was very simple, a couple of signs portraying the artist and the Emperor created the excitement of what was inside. His family’s vineyard produces excellent wines and I got to taste them as well. Getting to know Gino Donvito felt very comfortable, I had the impression to have known this artist for a long time.
If you like to know about some of his art, he paints on wood Medieval faces and Medieval life views. I wouldn’t mind having one of his faces painted on one of my doors.
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
Welcome! Immerse yourself in the colorful world of Modern Tropical, an eclectic lifestyle brand for people who love the retro-modern beach aesthetic. It is produced by independent award-winning artist Kristian Gallagher.
Valentina Expressions 