#ThanksgivingTable | Valentina Expressions

My Thanksgiving Table is Ready

23 Nov 2022 10 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #BaroqueThanksgiving, #HolidayDecorating, #InteriorDesign, #ThanksgivingColors, #ThanksgivingTable, SilverandGoldColors

Visiting stores in the month of November feels a little bit like taking a ride on the carousel. Stores are filled with an exceptional amount of merchandise, all very shiny and glittery. All decorating styles are there for all tastes and pockets, Sottish, English, American Country, Urban, Modern, Abstract, French, Evocative of the past, and so on.
I limit the amount of time I want to spend in stores at this time, otherwise I will be dumbfounded in a few hours. Luckily for me, I shop with my eyes. If I don’t see immediately the item I am looking for, or that special something that catches my eyes, it means it’s not there and leave.
(Click on each picture to view it larger)

This year for Thanksgiving I am leaning towards a bit of Baroque style. As a table runner, I will use an Indian shantung fabric remanence from a jacket I made. It’s multicolors, shining with gold filaments. The tablecloth is a damask from Venice, Italy and the napkins is a fabric printed with paisleys.

I have always been attracted by gold and silver together, like the sun and the moon sometimes shine together in the sky. The energy they bring together is fantastic.

The chargers are not plates but mats heavily beaded and the napkin holders are made by me. My table décor often doesn’t match on purpose as I generally don’t match things in my daily life, except the shoes, I do match those. I love the intricate ideas that come in my mind when I decorate and find many ways to surprise people.

The two reindeers were too cute to pass up. They look almost like a McKenzie Childs’s design but they are not. Now, I need food, people and bubbles.

This is a day to really be thankful for our blessings. I wish all of you a great Thanksgiving. Ciao,
Valentina

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Copyright © 2022 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

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

Thanksgiving Thoughts

24 Nov 2021 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ThanksgivingColors, #ThanksgivingFood, #ThanksgivingTable, #ThanksgivingWishes

We are just about at the end of this year and tomorrow will be Thanksgiving Day.
At this point, I would have to use a French expression “Les jeux sont fait, rien ne va plus” meaning “the games are done, nothing else will go”. No, I say no to this, the games are not over yet. Maybe some people have not produced or achieved what they had in mind for this year, and if that’s the case, I would have to say it was not important for this year.

The games are not over yet refers to the challenging games that will start next year. It will be the year of Venus. The planet Venus will dominate the Universe, it will fight the influence of Mars until it gets defeated. Venus, being a female planet, will fight all negative influences by bringing beauty and love. Next year women will do exceptional things, the truth about what is happening in the world will be revealed and we will start living in harmony. It’s not going to be an easy year, beauty and love will be our ammunition.

Calling all Women….! Starting this Thanksgiving, prepare a beautiful Thanksgiving table if you celebrate this holiday, if not, prepare a nice dining table every time you eat from now on. Get dressed as beautifully as you can every day, leave the exercise clothes at the gym and wear clothes that will highlight your beauty, personality or quirkiness. Raise your emotional vibration, raise your feminine conscious, let the world know the wind of femininity is coming.

Women are mothers, they represent the earth, they are grounded. A woman giving birth under a bombshell, knows she is still living a beautiful moment in a brutal reality and knows people will help her in that act of giving her baby to the light. Woman are the beginning and the completion of everything.

With our Venus power, next year we will get rid of the dark and ugly only with beauty. As I have said many times, beauty will multiply when you show what is it to those who live in the dark.

Many people did not make it this year, I am thankful I am still alive and kicking, I am thankful I have the power to think, read, write and create beauty. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Ciao,
Valentina
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Copyright © 2021 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is an art lover, author, and a lifetime designer. Often people describe her as “the colorist” as she loves to color her clients’ world and loves to create the unusual. Currently, she consults on colors that will enhance clients’ personalities and are in tune with their lifestyles. To add harmony and peace to the homes, Valentina creates atmospheres using proper lighting and creating fantasy rooms instead of typical rooms looking like furniture showrooms. She is the author of six published books, two of which are on design subjects and colors. Amazon and Barnes&Noble

Setting Stage For Thanksgiving | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

11 Nov 2015 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #NaturalMaterialCenterPiece, #NaturalTableSetMaterial, #ThanksgivingColors, #ThanksgivingStage, #ThanksgivingTable, #ThanksgivingTableSetting, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns

I have been thinking of a new style table setting for my Thanksgiving dinner. Last year it was Bohemian, two years ago it was all about nature, this year the décor of my table is still in roaming in my thoughts and I better hurry.

Flemish and Dutch paintings, lithograph and prints of course, are under scrutiny at this time for a project I am doing, people want their home to look properly attired for the holidays and I feel inclined to reproduce one of those food still life on my table.
The question is only one. This kind of setting almost requires a formal dining with crisp tablecloths, well polished silverware, sparkled crystals, a menu suitable for all needs and impeccably prepared by a personal chef, all the guests selected carefully to be congenial with one another and the house in order with elegant decorations.

I can see myself stepping in a 1500s dinner set, but most of my Californian friends would rather eat informally, roaming in my kitchen while different dishes are being prepared, pouring glasses of wine to each other and some of them would feel even more adventurous and will want to help out with the preparation of the food. Among all the Flemish paintings I have seen, I am considering reproducing one of these as my table settings, fruit in the bowl is simple and easy to do.

(Painting – Flemish Splendor – Carol Lee Thompson)

(Jacob van Hulsdonck – Flemish Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Pomegranate)

I am attracted also to natural materials, acorn, colorful corn, pomegranate, persimmons, fruit and sprig of autumn spices.

AEGEAN HURRICANES – Pottery Barns

I can take it even further and use some driftwood with natural plant inserts and plants in glass baubles,

(Valentina Cirasola’s photos above)

although the animal print tablecloth is very tempting…….

(High Street Market)

Which is it going to be? In two weeks you will soon find out. Meanwhile, have you thought of how you are going to set the stage for your Thanksgiving? Create a story first, then build on it. Surprise yourself with originality! Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior and Fashion Designer, working in the USA and Europe. She blends fashion and interior well in any of her design work. She loves to remodel homes and loves to create the unusual. She needs your story to design your dream. Check out her books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

My Bohemian Thanksgiving Table | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

30 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #HolidayEntertainment, #PumpkinPieFairy, #TableCenterpieceDesign, #ThanksgivingTable, #TheArtOfDining, Tablescape

Yesterday, sitting with friends at my Thanksgiving table, I was remembering the same day four years ago, when I turned on my computer early in the morning before starting the festivity cooking and found a message from my publisher congratulating me for publishing my first book. The feeling of being on 7th heaven was indescribable!!!

(Click on each photo to view it larger). (Click on each photo to view it larger)

We talked about this event while enjoying the mixture of typical Thanksgiving American food and food from Puglia, Italy, in fact some recipes even came from my book. I think my friends were more surprised to see how the simplicity of my food can hold a high flavors and taste than the huge production I made.

It seemed to me that the mixture of food from two different cultures, called for an eclectic tablescape. I wanted to have a Bohemian style table with colors and things not matching to perfection and that is what I did. The colors of my house lean towards warm tones, they are perfect for an autumn festivity.

I chose a white tablecloth as the base for layering all the colors. Two different colors tea tablecloth covered opposite corners of the table, one black with motif of nature and birds and the other one in golden tones with classical motif.

Playing with geometry and mixing round with square plates from various dish sets was fun. The square plates designed with fruit come from Italy, I carried them with me on the plane.

I made the napkins from leftover material of other projects and closed them in brass napkin rings. Tea light holders made of rusted metal go well with brushed bronze flatware.

Glasses don’t match but the greenish tone is their common denominator that marries well with other greens on the table.

Prosecco bottle has an interesting Venetian embellishment. She is the autumn leaves lady that sometimes is on a wine bottle and sometimes is on a mirror somewhere else in the house. Her purpose is to embellish.

My Pumpkin Pie Fairy by Mark Roberts is a highly collectible character hiding between the tablescape.

Dinner was great. Menu was long, but we paced ourselves through many hours of eating, conversing, drinking and music listening. I was so grateful to have had some friends eating at my table on this day of gratitude. Thanksgiving is one day, thanks-living is a life-style.

Is there one Thanksgiving you remember more than any other? Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens and cooking. She especially loves to design all those rooms with a “make me feel good” tag attached, such as kitchens and wine grottos, outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms, great rooms and entertainment rooms. She is a public speaker and a mentor. She is also the author of two Italian regional cuisine books and a book on colors, all available here in this site on the Books page and on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

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