In the event of a new Thanksgiving Day, I am very grateful to have met fine authors and artists such as James Cudney IV and for the opportunity, he gave me with this interview, to be seen in his community of writers. Thank you, James and Happy Thanksgiving. If you were any closer, I would have invited you to my home and celebrate together the release of our new books. Thank you.
Often people refer to shades when they really mean the value, brightness or the darkness of a color.
What is a color without referring to its profile and character? Just like humans, colors have their own character. If we understand how to describe the emotions and sensations they provoke, we will always have a good reaction around the colors we choose, we will subconsciously feel the harmony inside of ourselves and in turn, others will see it and respond positively to us. How people perceive us through colors is very important, colors transmit a message and that is what others see.
What is your message when you get dressed? It doesn’t matter where you go. If you go to grocery shopping with rollers on your head and you are dressed in red, it means you don’t care what others think of you, you dare to be you, the red color will project you as having courage, and the rollers in your hair will pass in a second order. In the same scenario, rollers on your head and you are dressed in black, it means you are trying to hide from the viewers and protect yourself from their criticisms. The colors of your home have messages as well. If your front door is painted red, it means you are an upbeat person; if the front door is yellow, you are an inviting person, cheerful and sunny. My front door is burgundy… exactly…I like red wines and beyond that burgundy door, I added a bit of sophistication to my décor.
Can you sleep and wake up in your zodiac colors? Of course, you can, you were born under those colors, they are natural to your soul.
The moment you came “into the light” many planets revolved over your head making those colors your aura and affected your entire life since that moment. Often, people prefer totally different colors away from their zodiac sign and perhaps totally contrary to their character, simply because they are not aware of the beneficial effects of the colors they were born under or don’t believe it. Colors will determinate their actions, the troubled or unsettled souls living in the wrong colors will continue to feel troubled or unsettled.
With this book, I wanted to depict a colorful bouquet of information regarding home interiors, fashion, and food, all the subjects dear to my heart, each of these subjects thrive on colors. I also delve into explaining colors from a spiritual point of view and how to use them in a technical way. Nature is our best teacher, where all colors are mixed together and co-exist well without rules and prejudices. We can simply copy nature and feel perfect in our choice of colors.
If we live in a home reflecting our personality, if we wear colors becoming to our face and body and if we eat in the rainbow, we can only expect to exude positive energy, which in turn will captivate our surroundings.
Gauguin said: “Color is the language of the listening eye”. It helps our imagination soar with inner power and mystery”. Allow yourself to experiment with various color combinations and challenge your fantasy!
Let’s travel into the cosmos of colors with Valentina and RED
Starting on Oct. 25, 2019, for twenty days, I will travel with them to their planet of birth, I will write about them, their books and arts and they will receive something special about their zodiac sign. This will be a fun and unusual book launch! Some giveaway will happen as well. Anyone can participate in the giveaway by following me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest , Instagram, MeWe, and commenting on the launch. The contest will start on Oct. 26th and will end on Oct.31. https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e5ee1a9212/?
I am so grateful to my Supreme Being to be able to see all the glorious colors in its realm, fantasize, wallow in their vibrations, sentimentally self-indulge in their atmospheres, and to be able to talk about them every day. Ciao,
Valentina http://www.valentinadesigns.com http://valentinaexpressions.com
Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author of 5 published books so far, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. She has conceived a few new books of various subjects to which she is working simultaneously. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking, and travel. She never gives up trying new things and doesn’t fear failure. A couple of years ago, Valentina became a TV producer/host. She produces shows under her label: Valentina Design Universe. The goal of her shows is to entertain, inspire and inform, while she is living her passion. Her goal is to write a screenplay for theatre or TV.
Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble
My previous publisher with whom I published the first version of this book in 2012 has asked me to raise his earning percentage on my sales to 50%. This is an absurd request, it would double the price of the book, making it unsellable. I refused to comply and as a result of it, the book was made “temporarily not available” on Amazon for many months.
I got discouraged for a while and tried to find a solution to return my book back on the market quickly, but books are not fritters and life gets in the way.
The first version was a hardcover, 135 pages, filled with my photographs. I thought of reducing the number of photos to lower the price, but then I remembered how hard it was to read a couple of books by other authors on the subject of colors and no photos to stop and ponder. It was hard to take. My new second version of this book will be softcover, smaller in size, with almost the same amount of pages and still filled with my photos. It will be available in paper format, and shortly after its publication will be available also as a Kindle and audio versions.
Right now, I am finishing up a few details, it is a matter of a few days and the new version will be out. Stay tuned.
“Creativity is the greatest form of rebellion.”
Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author of 5 published books so far, a blogger of many years and a storyteller. She has conceived a few new books of various subjects to which she is working simultaneously. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking, and travel. She never gives up trying new things and doesn’t fear failure. A couple of years ago, Valentina became a TV producer/host and she produces shows under her label: Valentina Design Universe. 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 books here: Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Her book launch is unusual and fun. She is taking all the participants helping her in the launch on a trolley, touring Savannah, Georgia. With the group, Teagan will be waiting for me on the bluff above the Riverwalk. The foundations of some of these buildings date back to the late 1700s, the author says.
Now that I have learned about Savannah, this historical part of the American East Coast, I want to go there and learn some more. I read that in the 1950s, many of Savannah’s historically and architecturally significant buildings were demolished until seven local women stepped up and formed the Historic Savannah Foundation to keep, preserve and restore the old buildings once lived by real families who made their marks there. Many of the Savannah historic homes have been converted into museums, restaurants or inns and are open to the public.
It seems that Savannah is one of the most haunted places in the area, and very appropriate for Teagan’s subject of her new novel “Ghost In The Kitchen“. The book is about a kitchen mystery, where a 1920’s flapper Pip is learning to cook with her grandmama…..but there is some kind of supernatural going on…
Back to Teagan’s launch party, take a look at her books, she is a creative novelist and she writes fantasy stories. She is on Amazon.
It doesn’t seem I have ever enough colors in my life. This past week, I ran a week of colors on Facebook, spreading my knowledge, explaining some properties of colors and presenting some methods for using colors.
I had a client, who poor thing, didn’t understand anything about colors, did not know how to combine colors, anything about the subject of colors was gibberish to her. In her native country, taking art classes was considered not that important, it was the reason for her lack of color knowledge, which made her very unsecured in some tasks of the day, like getting dressed. I had to create a color system for her to make the act of getting dressed in the morning easy and worry-free.
Waldorf Colors of the Day
Some people hear, see, or smell something and immediately memories of a person, a situation, attached to that sound, that view, or particular aroma, perfume, or odor comes to their mind. This condition of receiving a stimulus through sensory perception is called synaesthesia and some people can either taste colors or see their days in colors without any efforts. They dress in the color of each day because they see specific colors for each day.
Many are the color methods for each day of the week, it all depends on your belief. The Waldorf color method invented by Rudolf Steiner was used for educating kids in kindergarten and elementary age to use a specific color for each day. The method created a daily routine, a new life rhythm and apparently, kept them from making tantrums. The method teaches kids the basic order of things, kids are better prepared for the natural succession of life events, i.e. Tuesday comes after Monday, and know-how to transition from one thing to another, i.e. Red Day comes after Purple Day, meaning for example on the Red Day the kid must organize his/her closet as one of the chores to do daily. Kids using the Waldorf method know to get dressed in the color of the day without any problem (they know what to expect) and do activities using those colors.
However, kids are going to be kids. I am wondering, what if one kid wants to change the color of one day? Will he/she be considered a rebel, or a free thinker?
As a kid, I could not possibly follow any method….although disciplined and focused on my studies, I had my way and that was the way. My father often came to my elementary school to apologize with the teacher because I had studied what I wanted and not what was assigned. 😀
Color methods were not always accepted as a discipline to learn something organized. There were times when color combinations and believing that the color of each day came from the colors of planets, were associated with witchcraft.
I believe in the theory that the colors of planets affect us human being on earth, thus I went to visit Mars when I published my first book at the end of that year. Ah, ah, 😂
Valentina on Mars
Color of the day method is also used in marketing, i.e. blue sale today for menopause day or yellow day for the sale of your virgin grandmother. Get it?!
Selling products on discount must have a certain bright color, red for instance, to create immediacy and a need to buy it now.
In certain religions, the color of each day is for the celebration of Deities’ birthday. The color palette of each day might change in various religions. The world of colors unites many cultures and that to me is fascinating. If following a method of colors means to have a structured life with less stress and worries, then, by all means, do it. Ciao.
Valentina http://www.valentinadesigns.com
Limoncello is a yellow drink, traditional of the Italian Amalfi Coast. It is a cordial fragrant drink, sweet to the right point, spirited but not too much, extracted from lemons. It brings people together and makes them happy, it’s all about that yellow energy exuding from the lemons.
Limoncello
Limoncello has a dual function, it can be served with appetizers as an aperitif or a spritz, and it can be served as a digestive after-dinner drink. That’s the reason Limoncello is a popular drink among party-goers and especially during the holidays. I have a lot of pleasure making Limoncello during the summer and give it as a gift for Christmas in a basket full of other goodie produced from the lemons I grow. I make candied lemon peels, lemon cookies, and roasted lemons to mix in baked chickens, salads, sandwiches, and meat rosts. “Giving the gift of food is like giving the gift of love”.
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
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
It’s a glorious time in my city “Top Of The World, CA” expressing my power and happiness in written words. I am at my fourth published book and not counting.
Some years ago, in a conversation with friends, I said, kind of jokingly, I was going to write books on design topics, the field I know best. Up to that point, I had sporadically written articles for the local newspapers and magazines. Then, I opened up my first blog on home design topics, it was the year 2008. However, being a very talkative person, I felt writing only about design was a bit reductive for me, thus, a year later, I opened two other columns on Friday Fashion and The Good Life. The writing career started and I didn’t even realize it. So many things were locked up in my drawers of thoughts, it was about time they all came out in some form of communication or another. I started caressing the idea of writing books, and do you know what they say? “If you can see it, you already have it” meaning if you can see your dream, it is already a reality. Dreaming about something is not enough without actions. I set aside time to write and made appointments with myself every evening after 8:00 and nothing else was important until I finished and ready to go to bed.
The snazzy Fiat 500 will start the tour from my location “Top of The World, California”. Some people have asked me if such a town really exists in California. It is not a city, it’s a state of mind, that is where I live every day and where all the fun things happen.
Domenico Cafarchia is a dear friend and an
Epicurean Entrepreneur-Marketer-Relationship Manager
Rooted in Apulian tradition yet uniquely Italian. https://www.facebook.com/cafarchia
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Kez Wickhan St.George is an internationally known author and painter.
We follow each on Facebook. https://twitter.com/KezSt
Carolyn McAndrew is the owner of Picardie Press. https://www.facebook.com/PicardiePress
If you are writing a book and need a publisher, she is the person to contact.
Georgia Lee London leads an online consulting agency, inspiring women to the greatness they deserve, with a business they love.
She is a great teacher. https://www.facebook.com/BeBoldlyBrilliant
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Alessandra Chimenti is a friend, a festival coordinator and the owner of Pizzicali, a musical group featuring folk music of Puglia and Southern Italy. https://www.facebook.com/AlessandraChimienti1990
From the bottom of my heart, I thank all of you and more who want to participate in my Fiat 500 pre-holidays virtual book tour launch.
Sharing is caring. Ciao,
Valentina
Being a cultivator of the good life, I would also like to add good reading and interesting authors that contribute to the well-being of people and entertain with their stories. I am reblogging Teagan’s Party Bus for the launching of her new book “Atonement Tennessee”.
Go to the link inside the post and see who else Teagan has on board her bus. We are all authors helping each other spreading the word.
This is fun! Congratulations Teagan with your new book “Atonement Tennessee”.
Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit — Atonement in Bloom is finally published! It was a wild ride, even after I finished all the work on the novel. Meaning I’m not best pleased with all the bumps in the road from the Amazon take-over of Create Space… Now, let’s get this party bus on the highway!
The bus is headed to Atonement, TN, the fictional town of my urban fantasy series. The stories in my “Atonement universe” are not romances, not science fiction, not family drama, or religious — and they certainly are not high-brow literature. They’re whimsical, suspenseful, magical, fantasies set in our current real world.
I have stayed away from some of my activities, especially blogging, as you might have noticed my absence. For more than six months I have dealt with an ergonomic problem on my right hand caused by too much computer usage, but this downtime did not discourage me from continuing the most important things. Stubborn, disciplined, high tolerance for pain and goal-oriented, that’s what makes me.
Despite all pains and sometimes the impossibility to move my hand as I wanted, I went on anyway to write the fourth book I had planned for this year 2018. The Road To Top Of The World is coming in September!
(Click on the photo to view it larger).
Book Reveal
I cannot call it a novel really, it is a book of short stories, a mixture of my memories of the region growing up there, my impressions of the new region of today, some history, use, customs, traditions, stories and experiences made with a group of Americans I took there with me.
So many things are locked up in my drawers of thoughts, it’s about time they all come out in some form of communication or another.
The region of Puglia exists at least since the 11th century, but now tourists of many nationalities are flocking to Puglia as if fresh water was discovered. Everyone wants to taste, feel and see the region. A couple of years ago, an Indian Maharajah got married in Puglia and brought 800+ people along from India.
For more than 10 years, Hollywood has found characteristic spots and special corners to film there many blockbuster movies.
Tourists used to land in Puglia only to take the ferry-boat to Greece and showed no interest to even spend a few days visiting, but now they land in Puglia, stay for a while and cry when they leave.
Even though I am an interior/fashion designer by trade, TV producer and author of three other books, I wanted to write outside my trade this time, for pure enjoyment and fun. Living in California didn’t make me forget who I am, what my roots are and what Puglia taught me in terms of values, traditions, and morals.
It all transpires from this book: The Road To Top Of The World.
The above picture is the draft of the book cover. It is a colorful book of 40 chapters corroborated by many colorful pictures in each chapter.
Stay tuned for the launch at the end of September 2018.
As a writer and cultural promoter of Puglia, her native land, Valentina’s intention is to let readers feel and experience a new ”wheel of emotions”. She wants to encourage them to visit areas of Italy not beaten by massive tourism. Through stories of local customs, art, architecture, fashion, food-wines, shopping, she wants them to create their special adventures and live it up in Puglia! Check out her books on Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
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 