#FallColors | Valentina Expressions

A Bit Of Both | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

05 Sep 2021 2 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #BlueandBrown, #CalmingColors, #ColorCombinations, #FallColors, #TransitionColors

It’s not a Summer and it’s not Autumn, the light has already changed and the days are getting shorter, an indication we are going to take out some clothes for the colder weather very soon. It doesn’t feel cold yet, at least where I am. During the day the heat makes its presence noticed, but at night a lighter blanket is required. I have always had mixed feelings about the Summer, I like the profusion of colors and food that don’t need much cooking, in my case food come fresh from my garden to the table. However, I like to travel in cooler months, trotting the world in the change of seasons is a real pleasure, when most of the tourists are in their countries working, the weather is not very warm, all the stores are opened, the service is so much better everywhere I go and if I encounter a bit of rain I will walk in the puddles of water.

In my Facebook group “Design One Beautiful Life” almost every week I come up with a color challenge. I lead my friends into a search of what they can do with a certain color combination, how they can explore it, how they can use it in their daily life, experience the emotion of some colors that might have never been in their realm. The color challenges are all experiments that will certainly create a stir.

In the midst of this warm and cool weather, I don’t want to look too summery or too wintery. This past week the color challenge was blue or brown, any shade, hues, tint and tones of the two colors. It is just perfect for transitioning in the Autumn.

I wasn’t wearing anymore the chocolate pearls necklace in the photos, I realized it gave no luminosity to my face, but now in this new color challenge I can combine it with a blue crystal necklace and I like it so much more. The union of the two necklaces is really beautiful in person. The crystals pick up many colors from the environment around me, make the chocolate pearls and my face come alive. The color vibrations are high.

It doesn’t matter how many times I have talked about colors, how many ways I have been teaching it, how many books on colors I write, I surprise myself every time.

I just want to say, try new things, get into your closet, mix and match everything in a new way, I am sure you will find something to turn into exceptional. Ciao,
Valentina

Online Virtual Color Consultations

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, born in Italy in a family of artists. Style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. She is passionate about colors and encourages her clients to express their individual style in their homes and with the clothes they wear.
To better help people all over the world, she offers color consultations online. She is the author of six books available on Amazon and Barnes&Noble.

Fall Challenge | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

17 Oct 2020 6 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColorEmotions, #EnergyMedicine, #FallColorEnergy, #FallColors, #FallDepression, #StressReduction

It’s always a fun time for me when I have the chance to talk about colors. Today, I was a guest on Elsie Kern’s show with an interesting topic:
Fall colors and how to overcome a depression that usually occurs in certain people at this time of the year. What really makes people feel depressed in the Fall? Is it about colors, is it about the end of the year approaching, is it about grieving someone and not being able to let go?

My approach to colors is about sensations, emotions, and vibrations. Colors will help people who want to help themselves and are open to change the paradigm of their thoughts. There are people who don’t believe in the energy of healing colors and fall prey to medications. Before taking the hard path of medications, think of new types of natural healing.

Elsie is a naturopath, in this show she talks about some strategies we can all use to overcome certain issues and not just in this season.
Watch the show here, it’s less than 30 minutes.

https://youtu.be/nCnbY8KPW38

https://youtu.be/nCnbY8KPW38 Valentina and Elsie

Elsie Kerns is a clairvoyant energy intuitive combining her expertise in Eden Energy Medicine, Brennan Healing Science, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction to assist clients on their healing journey. She has been teaching and mentoring clients in the art of healing, Reiki certification, and VIP healing events for 30 years. https://overwhelmwarrior.com

Embrace this season, life is too short. Ciao.
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com
Amazon Author’s Page

Copyright © 2020 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer specializing in interior and exterior, color analysis, kitchen, bath, wine cellar, and outdoor kitchen designs. Often people describe her as “the colorist” as she loves to color her clients’ world and loves to create the unusual. “Vogue” magazine and many prominent publications in California featured Valentina’s work. RAI–Italian National TV invited her to appear in “Cara Francesca Show” and she has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15. Author of five published books, one of which is on the subject of colors:
©RED – A Voyage Into Colors, Second Edition.
Amazon and Barnes&Noble

Autumn Calls | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

05 Oct 2020 7 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #FallColors, #FallDecor, #JewelFallColors, #SeasonalStyle, #WarmColors

My friend, I will call her Delphina, says the colors of Autumn are negging colors. Every Autumn she falls into a self-inflicted melancholy, and low self-esteem. For certain people, Autumn means the end of another year, the natural evolution of life galloping where they don’t want to go.

All my life I have lived in European cities with cement and glass buildings with very little vegetation. I craved nature, its colors, its scents, and the peaceful feeling. In my youth, when my friends went strolling downtown, I went to the country instead, where I could admire the change of seasons, feel part of nature, and being in the company of calmer people. It wasn’t until I came to the USA when I first had the real taste of nature. It was Autumn in Virginia, and for the first time, I saw purple trees, red trees, yellow trees, all aligned as in a painter palette. I remember often taking slow rides on roads not too busy with traffic, just to soak in all those colors, with the sun going in and out of the foliage and chasing me. I felt full of joy, and a great sense of gratitude to have eyes that could see all that beauty.

Every two green trees, there was a colored tree. Later, I learned that all those colored trees weren’t a game of nature. City landscapers plant trees with a color scheme in mind and are positioned at a zig-zag pattern, so when they grow look aligned. The variation of colors is meant to keep drivers awake on the wheel.

I told my friend, Delphina, to think of Autumn’s colors like jewel tones colors, she likes jewelry a lot, just like I do. I would like her to start referring to colors as a ruby red, emerald green, topaz yellow, amethyst purple, it would make her feel abundant, opulent and everything around her would change value. She would not feel like a negging middle-aged woman, as she sounds in the Autumn, she would feel precious and needed instead.
She does not listen. 🙄

I adore the warmth of Autumn colors, and I adore the autumn food available in this season. In my home, I change the season decorations as the seasons revolve. I don’t go overboard, I keep it simple, just a few details change, the rest stays the same.
This is an area in my studio where I allow some display.
The leopard purse is a lamp, its warm color at night gives the room a special glow and it goes with all the golden tones you see around it.

In another area of my studio, under a large “oeil de boeuf” mirror I display small ceramic pumpkins with a collectible Mr. Pumpkin. The room feels happy and warm. This is where I work, I like to feel in tune with each current season, the sensations and emotions they all bring. In the rest of the house, I have seasonal fresh flowers once a week.

Outside my entry door, I might place a pumpkin or two while they are in season and that is all.

Decorating with the seasons doesn’t have to be a chore or difficult and neither expensive. As long as one acknowledges the changes life brings and enjoys them. Celebrate the changes, please. Ciao,
Valentina
Amazon Author’s Page
Goodreads

Copyright © 2020 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author of 5 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. She never gives up trying new things and doesn’t fear failure. Some years ago, Valentina became a TV producer/host producing shows under her label: Valentina Design Universe. The goal of her shows is to entertain, inspire, and inform, while she is living her passion.
Get a copy of her books here:
Amazon and Barnes&Noble

Orange Of Today | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

07 Oct 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #FallColors, #MustardYellow, #OrangeandPurple, #OrangeColor, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #SulfurYellow, #WarmColors

October in California is the best month, weather is mild warm and the breeze caresses softly. It is such a pleasure being seated outdoor at a restaurant and enjoy lunch with a chilled prosecco.

Today, I wanted to dress with a mix of intense Fall season colors to convey a certain strength and power nature has on me.
In a cool way, typical of my ability to mix colors, I composed my style with sulfur yellow tank, mustard yellow pants, brown leather belt, mixed brown-gold silk scarf, orange light sweater jacket and mixed jewelry in orange-brown with gold. A bit of leopard skin doesn’t hurt, especially if it is in the form of Kate Spade’s shoes. This combination is vibrant and very safe, colors are all warm and in the same family. That’s the reason they all work well together, especially if the wearer has a golden tone, olive or tanned skin.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Trying a combination with a cool color on the other side of the color wheel it’s not just good, it’s excellent. Orange, purple and a bit of turquoise is dynamic, zesty, eclectic and playful. As for jewelry, gold tones will go better with orange and silver will mix better with purple, it’s up to the wearer getting the sun energy from the gold or the moon energy from the silver.

Of course, many more colors love orange, as green and blue, but I will leave it to your imagination.

It is time to color your clothes, your closet, your home and everything else around. Leave the Opaque Couché color types to Mark Zuckerberg.

Colors play an important role in the vibe you give off to the rest of the world. It keep away depression, sadness and minor sicknesses. If you wear colors that make you feel good, your brain will know it, your heart will be lighter, positive energy will flow from your veins out of your skin and on your lips forming a big smile. A smile is contagious, people will notice it! Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, born in Italy in a family of artists. Style has surrounded her since the very beginning of her life. Her many years of experience in design business led her to offer consultations in both fashion and interiors, so much so that she can remodel homes as well as personal images. She is passionate about colors and encourages her clients to express their individual style in their homes and with the clothes they wear. She is the author of three books, one of which is a book on color theory: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors

Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Nature On The Table | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

18 Nov 2011 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #FallColors, #FallFood, #FallTableCenterpiece, #HolidayDecorations, #ItalianSquashRecipe, #NaturalTableDecorations, #ThanksgivingTable

Jewel tone colors characterize the autumn months along with the bounty of earthy food. This year on my holiday table there will be truffles some friends brought me from Italy, a variety of soups and delicacy made from different squashes. I plan on making lot of risotto with wild mushrooms and prosciutto. I am in the mood for roasted chestnut and dried fruits to munch on while sitting by the fireplace reading interesting books during the holidays. Some of the dried fruit come from garden, in fact I made roasted apples vinegar to use on salads and roasted lemons for grilled or baked chicken.
My table will be colorful with ceramics I hand carried with me in the plane from Sorrento, in the South of Italy all the way across the ocean to the US.
Home-made breads will fill the air of my house. Yes, I make bread at least twice a month.

Since I have been in the process of writing my third book on the subject of Colors I feel like bathing in colors in all my daily expressions, not that I didn’t before, it just seems the feeling is elevated to the nth power.
This year, I will turn to nature for my Thanksgiving table decorations. It was easy to make napkin holders out of scrap fabrics and spray paint in gold a few real gourds to display on a cake stand.
Mums and pumpkins will be a novelty on anybody’s table this year, not only mine and not only for the table. To keep this arrangement fresh, use floral foam underneath the flowers, cut it in a round shape and cover it with mums. Group a few pumpkins in different shapes and size around the mums. Voila’ nature at your service inside and outside your home!
I am scattering pine cones in vases , bowls, to decorate a towel rack and even on the curtains as tie backs. Pine cones, because they are dark and woody, play well with other textures, such as ropes, glass, or golden balls.

Nature doesn’t go wrong in combining textures, colors are always the right colors to each season. I can enjoy the decorations for a while longer past the holidays if I fancy and once I discard them back into the nature, they will dissolve again to become part of the earth once more.

This is my advice this holiday season. Stay away from artificial decorations, be respectful of the environment, support your local artists and craft people, buy local, buy handmade and give unique gifts from your heart.

We will soon transition into winter, we will see bare trees, cold, rain and snow in some parts of the world. It will be a different beauty and as usual I will have a lot to say about decorating in the winter style, along with preparing some succulent heart warming food. For now, enjoy this moment, this season in all the colors and prepare to enter the holiday season with a thankful heart.

The highlight of this year for me was meeting a 5 months old girl, the daughter of my new clients, two fine people. I am very thankful to have the opportunity to be of service to them.

If you are in a bound, or feel the stress of the holidays, relax and let me take care of your decorations for the holidays, or any organization you need to do to make your holiday event successful.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer and former Fashion Designer, working in the USA and Europe since 1990. She blends well fashion with interior and colors the world of her clients.
She has been described as “the colorist” and loves to create the unusual. She is also the author of two Italian regional cuisine books available in this site at the Books page and in various other locations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnq8baaAq0M

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Globe Of Happiness | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

18 Oct 2011 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #FallColors, #FallSquashRecipe, #GardenDecor, #GazingGlobes, #ItalianFallFood, #SpheresOfLight, #VenetianBlownGlass, Italian-Food

The holiday season will soon open the fun part of the year. Preparing for Halloween to me means decorating my clients’ home with fall colors, organize thoughts for Christmas decorations or parties, putting food away for the winter and arranging the garden that will go dormant soon.
Although Halloween is not one of the holidays I prefer, I like to set up a few things for the autumn celebration.
I adore the jewel tones of the fall colors, I like to wear them and I like to see them on my table. It is so easy to design my clothes in striking combinations with purple and orange, or green, baby blue and ochre, blue, gray and yellow, or pumpkin, burgundy and beige. This is the season to be playful, we can just copy what nature does and repeat it in our fashion ensemble.

My globe of happiness must contain all things around me. I want my garden to play with statues, fountains or some jewels and radiate its vibrant energy back into my house.

Even my wild birds are happy playing in my garden. They see their reflected images in the gazing globes and think they are in the mirrors, then coquettish go sing at me from their hideaway in the threes. Often, just like the birds, seeing myself in the globes I experience my oneness with the Universe and the positive energy that these Spheres of Light as they were also called bring to me, to my house and my garden.

Every object in space emanates energy. Inanimate objects such as glass or metals affect our life just as much as celestial objects, stars and planets do. The round shape of the gazing globes like all the circles is a harmonious shape, it supposed to bring happiness, good luck and prosperity. Thus, it is a good idea to place gazing balls near every entrance of a home, in gardens around plants and even inside the home. The legend says the gazing globe keeps away misfortune, evil spirits and illness, but I believe this legend is true, because the round shape is a very powerful shape and keeps things moving around and around.

Placing the gazing ball on iron stands will add a powerful strength to the globe sitting it on stones or on top of vases will add certain elegance. The highly reflective glass of the gazing globes is suitable to show off the garden in different views. Grouping them at different height between plants and flowers will add playfulness, as I have seen the famous glass artist Dale Patrick Chihuly doing in his traveling exhibition throughout the Botanical Gardens of America.

The Swan King, Ludwig II of Bavaria, adorned his palace with globes, he made a copy of a Versailles Palace.

I have made my small Versailles with a few globes in my garden, but only because I heard they keep the witches away. Witches can’t bare to see their image reflected in the globe.

Gazing globes remind me so much of the bull’s eye mirror my grandmother’s had in her kitchen and used it to see who was at the door while she was cooking, or to keep an eye on us kids. We couldn’t escape out the door without being noticed.

Some of my clients have a “Butler Ball” in the Butler Area, which alerts the servants that the guests sitting at the dinner table need assistance without staring at them. It feels a Victorian era all over again when I am invited to such high level engagements. I only need the petticoat and a fan in my hand.
I am joking, I feel very honored being invited at my clients’ table.

Gazing globes are an invention of the 13^th century Venetian glass blower artists and after eight centuries are still bringing enjoyment.

Please, let’s not get the witches disturb us while we are preparing a nice butternut squash bisque for Halloween night and some pumpkins cookies.
My globe of happiness include cooking and enjoying eating as my wellbeing and as fuel for my brain.
Remember that: “The red on the cheeks come from the mouth” – from my book ©Come Mia Nonna-A Return To Simplicity.

Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque
2-1/2 lb. butternut or acorn squash
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
3 medium onions
a hand full of dried thyme, chopped
1 small bay leaf
2.5 oz. of ham or Italian prosciutto, cubed
3-1/2 cup chicken broth
roasted apples slices
freshly grated nutmeg
salt to your liking

Preheat oven to 350F. Split squash in half lengthwise. With spoon, scrape out seeds and fibers from cavity. Season with salt; place flesh side down in a lightly buttered baking dish.
Add in 1/2 cup water to baking pan. Bake 1 to 1-1/2 hours, until skin is browned and flesh is tender when pierced with knife. Remove from oven; let rest until cool enough to handle. Scoop out flesh; discard skin.
In large saucepan melt butter. Add diced onion and season with salt to your taste. Sprinkle thyme over onions. Add bay leaf.
Saute’ prosciutto with onion. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the onions are tender and translucent, about 10 minutes and the prosciutto is golden. Add the pulp of roasted squash. Season with additional salt and pepper. Cook 5 more minutes, stirring often.
Add broth, bring to simmer uncovered, 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season to taste. Remove bay leaf. Puree soup, in blender or food processor.
Add grated nutmeg, taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper. Decorate it with a few basil leaves or dill. I like to add some parmigiano shavings.

I also like the prosciutto cubed and not cooked and roasted apple slices, both ingredients to add separately as you enjoy the soup.

Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens and cooking. She operates in the USA and Europe. She loves to remodel homes and loves to turn unattractive spaces into castles, but especially loves to design kitchens and wine grottos, outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms, great rooms and entertainment rooms. She is the author of two published books on Italian regional cuisine, available here in this site on the Books page and in various other locations:

http://outskirtspress.com/ComeMiaNonna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnq8baaAq0M
http://outskirtspress.com/SinsOfAQueen