“Valentina, do you have the keys to my house? I have a cold and my house door doesn’t recognize my voice, I can’t get in the house.” That was a client who demanded a voice-activated entry installed at his door. One day, he had a cold and the computer didn’t recognize his voice. His wife was on a business trip, the kids had gone camping and he had left the keys in the house as he usually did, he trusted the system would never fail. He ended up going to a hotel until he figured out what to do.
Electronics are excellent when they work and hopefully can free our time of nuisance house chores. However, electronics are made by humans and will always fail. Alternative plans are in order. In this video, you will see a “smart refrigerator” it will tell you when your milk or eggs expire, it will talk to you about various need you have with food and many new features we are not used to seeing in refrigerators.
Today’s appliances seem to be made for wealthy people. The refrigerator featured here costs around $5,000, but this beautiful invention cannot be the only appliance in a kitchen, it calls for all other smart appliances to play the same role in a sophisticated kitchen. In a remodeling situation, it is not difficult to come up with the “magic price” of all the appliances needed.
Watch this video, it’s fun and probably you will fall in love with this beauty.
I welcome innovations that will let us use our time in a better way, to socialize with other human beings, to read, to write, to create beauty, to help the world, and hopefully, will not give us a robotic life.
However, I am always wondering what kind of listening-in devices new appliances have these days, just saying….a thought for you.
I can spend hours in awe looking at homes of flamboyant, audacious people, those who decorate their homes as the last paradise on earth, or as if they are living in their own fantasy. In my reality, I rarely visit homes that leave an impression on me. People think decorating is all about rules, geometry, and functionality. Although functionality is a requirement for harmonious homes, playful fantasy is not, and somehow people think an undescriptive home is better than a fantasy home. That overwhelming feeling of admiration we feel when we are in front of a piece of art, that sense of sublime we feel when we see an originally decorated home doesn’t exist in today’s homes. Most decorating today is about minimalism, straight lines, and space-saver container furniture. I can understand that, builders are not interested in making artistic homes, they want to turn around more shoeboxes homes as possible in a very short time and saturate the market.
I am not complaining, I am only wondering how is it possible to live in a home that doesn’t show any fantasy, any hidden dreams and the playfulness towards life.
One of the people I have extreme admiration for is a former interior/fashion designer, and a geriatric fashion model: Iris Apfel, I believe now is 96 years of age. Iris is a maximalist and has cultivated a personal style that is both witty and exuberant. She can mix high fashion with low street fashion, modern with ethnic jewelry, baroque with French-style and oriental furniture. She carried her vivacious personality in home decorating as well as in fashion.
Through her designing years, Iris collected incredible home accessories that show off all her personality.
Iris Apfel – Accessories
Elephant cocktail table
Iris is an original. She combines fabrics, colors, and patterns like nobody can.
Iris Apfel- Source: Vivienne Westwood FB page
Someone else got my attention years ago, French fashion designer Christian Lacroix with a totally different style, colorful and equally flamboyant as Iris Apfel.
Hotel designed with Christian Lacroix fabrics
Histoire Naturelle fabrics by Christian Lacroix
This zebra sculpture is fantastic.
appartement_Sacha_Walckhoff
belle-rives
I am glad my home is not any less than the flamboyant, audacious people that inspired me in my design career. In my theatrical home, I broke all decorating rules because I can and I made it very colorful.
“Life is a theatre and this is my comedy,” I said it. Ciao, Valentina
I love to be challenged, especially at the beginning of the year. Resolutions are useless, nobody keeps them passed January, challenges are almost an attach to self -discipline. I am in every time someone challenges me. This month, I am participating in Paul Taubman’s blog challenge, writing one blog a day for the entire month of January. http://www.facebook.com/groups/UltimateBlogChallenge
On January 1st, I never do any work, I refuse to get closer to anything resembling work. I am starting from day 2 of the blog challenge by telling about my work as a designer. Often people think designers live in a gold bubble, have a golden life in a high stratosphere, and are fortunate people to discover where fantastic items, fabric, furniture, and rare clients are. Some of this is true only when a designer reaches a certain level of fame. Starting out is a hard climbing uphill for 90% of the designers unless behind them there is an angel ready to shell out lots of money to subsidize the new profession.
Valentina on Construction Site
To produce something spectacular takes hard work and the behind of the scene moments are not that attractive. Designers often hang out in the industrial areas, dirty and unsafe places, where things are built. As an interior designer, I have dealt with fabrications of cabinets, wood, stone, iron, lighting, furniture in shops and warehouses located never in the richest and elegant areas of the city. One time, for only a second, I didn’t get caught in a crossfire of gangs shooting each other. The daughter of the iron fabricator got a bullet in her head and remained a paralyzed vegetable for life. She was at the time only 16 years old and I witnessed that very sad moment.
Designers must be psychologists dancing around clients’ troubles, quarrels, stress, and problems. They must know how to keep the peace and how to use the clients’ budget. We don’t want to talk about liability….of my!
If I was told all that I had to face in the real world at the end of my design studies at the university, I am not really sure I was going to stay in this design profession. However, knowing me and my love for design, I would have challenged everyone. In the meantime, thirty years have passed by and I carried on both professions, fashion, and interior design. Have I arrived? No, I have so much more to do, keep evolving in new future challenges.
If you want to see my evolutions, click on the video. TV producer Adek Hanukai, interviewed me this past summer on his show at KMVT15. The name of the show is simply “Valentina”.
What is your challenge this year? Wishing you a splendid 2020 all the way through. Ciao, Valentina
Receiving gifts is an exciting moment, someone is thinking of you and wants to please you or make you happy with a simple gesture. You go through the process of tearing the beautiful wrap covering the box and reading the card attached to the gift. You think “I am so lucky someone took the time to do this for me on this occasion”. Finally, the gift presents itself to your eyes and suddenly you feel sad, your jaw drops as if you have seen a ghost and you are in disbelieve of what you just saw in the box. It is the same present you gave a year ago to that same person giving you the present, the gift returned to you recycled.
Yes, this is true, it has happened to me, I received a year later, the same gift I gave to that very person standing before me, telling me how much she cared for my friendship. My surprise was so big, I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or cry. I exclaimed: “I wanted to buy me this gift last year, I loved it so much…, instead I bought it for you because you like everything I wear, I thought you would have worn it with pleasure, instead I am so fortunate it returned to me, it must have been really made for me.” End of discussion and friendship. She could have simply written my name on the gift to remember who gave it to her and recycle it to a different person. That year, I decided not to give Christmas presents anymore to no one. To most people, Christmas is only the time to overspend carelessly, the holiday itself doesn’t mean much else.
In this period of the year, I spend time with friends I have not seen much during the year, I call people in need of comfort and company, I cook special food, and sweets to share with others, I make simple things to give away, such as decorative balls for the tree and give thanks to many people who helped me in my life and business. I enjoy attending many Christmas shows and parties. This time of the year for me is all about the new light coming into my life, realizing new dreams, and thinking of new opportunities.
I want to give you some suggestions if you are into giving a lot of gifts. All factory items already come sealed in a lot of plastic boxes, often very hard to open. We must be conscious of the environment, let’s eliminate all the possible waste we can. This year wrap your gift in brown paper, better if it comes from grocery shopping, cut away the name of the store and use the rest of the shopping bag. I saw this picture on Pinterest with the photo of the person the gift is intended for, I thought it’s a great idea.
Our Suburban Farm
Jane Lee on Instagram has another great idea, she attaches parts of a newspaper over the brown paper, a fern branch with a wax seal and a handwritten message.
Jane Lee Instagram
Sometimes, I have wrapped gifts in my own architectural drawings for home remodeling I did for clients. It was another way to show people what I do and recycle the drawings. Also, I have wrapped gifts in fabrics to use as napkins or kitchen towels later.
Fabric as gift wrap
Please don’t stress out over Christmas, this is the time to enjoy a renewal of your spirit and collect the strength to start a new fabulous year. Ciao, Valentina
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. It’s about life experiences and how Valentina can incorporate them in her clients’ homes. She is the author of five books, all available on
A door is a swinging or sliding barrier by which an entry is closed and opened. A theatre opens its doors when a new show is ready to be viewed. A door could be a gate to secure people inside a dwelling or a closure for some kind of cabinetry. The word “doors” can also mean an opportunity that presents itself unexpectedly. We give many meanings to the word doors, the fact is that before the Neolithic time human beings didn’t know what a door was, they lived well protected inside caves, the fire kept the humans warm and the wild animals away. I saw the first attempt at a Neolithic door in the museum Ridola in Matera, Italy. It was made with straw, mud, dirt, and pieces of wood.
(Click on each picture to view it larger).
Neolithic House, Ridola Museum, Matera, South Italy
Doors evolved in something more decorative as security became a necessity, even when that security served to hold people up in dungeons.
Door In Gioia, South Italy
Painters and artists at times have used doors to immortalize effigies of powerful people who gained high places in society. That’s the case of Swabian Emperor Frederick the II, ruler of South Italy, surnamed “Stupor Mundi” for his love of the arts and cultural innovations as a means to unify all races.
Painted Door, Gioia, South Italy
As times progressed, riches and nobles decorated their entry door with the family crests, faces of divinities or any symbol showing wealth, prosperity, and personal beliefs.
Door in Matera, South Italy
Castle Antique Door in Gioia, South Italy
Door Palazzo Fizzarotti, Bari, Italy
Even door hinges have had a place of importance throughout history. Inside La Salle d’Or recreated at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco we can admire the splendor of the French Court through a disjointed hinge that allows people to get a preview of who is in the room without being seen.
Salle d’Or-Legion Of Honor, San Francisco
Some doors provide a good blackboard for the fantasy of a Flâneur to unravel. Here on this door in Polignano a Mare, Italy, this passionate wonderer wrote a Shakespearian sonnet:
“Love runs to meet love with the same joy young pupils run away from their books, but love which must separate from love has the face of young pupils returning to school.”
Writing of a Flâneur – Polignano a Mare, South Italy
In Barcelona, the city where even the sidewalks are overly decorated, I saw many beautiful Art Deco doors in just as many beautiful buildings lining the streets.
Building in Barcelona, Spain
Prague, an austere and romantic city, displays very elegant doors with caryatids supporting pilasters, arches, balconies, and many classic architectural details.
Jewelry Store
Some doors are just elegant gilded barriers to keep the elite in and the plebeians out.
Royal Door at Prague Palace, Czech Republic
While other doors look like a fortress just because they conceal the secrets of a nation.
Romanian Embassy, Prague, Czech Republic
But then some playful people like to stick birds and flowers on their entrance door and others like to paint puppet’s faces.
Nature Decorated Door
Marionettes Shop, Prague, Czech Republic
As a world trotter, I take pictures of the details of a country. Doors attract me just as people’s expressions, customs, food, and languages. I conceived this roundup of doors only to say “Be Yourself.” The entrance door is your business card, it makes the first impression of who are the people living behind the door in a split of a second.
One of my clients is turning her house located in a nice downtown area, into air B&B. The entry door will be painted red as an indication that the interior rooms will be modern, upbeat, and very colorful. Don’t be afraid to paint your entrance door, to stick charms on it, to add faces and decorative elements, or to use a type of wood nobody else uses. Ciao, Valentina
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.It’s about life experiences and how Valentina can incorporate them in her clients’ homes. She is the author of five books, all available on Amazon – Barnes&Nobles
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
I wrote this book after I visited Puglia with American friends. They kissed a fish, swallowed a mozzarella shaped i… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…Twitted! 3 days ago
Great rooms in Medieval time were very large rooms where everything happened, cooking, eating, card games, reading,… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…Twitted! 4 days ago
This year I had decided to travel on a Mississippi riverboat, then the infectious virus hit the world. I am reading… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…Twitted! 5 days ago
Inspiration is our vision as it is the key to success. This Blog is about Personality Development, SEO, Amazon Affiliate Marketing, Blog ideas, and photography.
