#ValentinaDesignUniverse | Valentina Expressions

Be Inspired In My Design Universe | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

16 Apr 2020 7 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #AuthorJamesCudneyIV, #ChefRosaMariotti, #InspirationalShows, #PaolaBallerina, #ValentinaDesignUniverse

Watching people getting marriage proposals, getting serenaded, playing neighborly bingo, and singing from balconies in Europe has been my latest divertissement. Me, I am OK being quiet on all fronts, blogging, on social platforms and with my design work. It’s even hard to write when there is no life around us. I am keeping in touch through video calls and messages with people who had disappeared from my life and I am happy to know they are all alive and kicking.

As the world turns, days have become all the same, Sundays, Mondays or Friday are all mixed in as if making a cake. I am allowing myself to feel what I feel in this strange situation, instead of beating myself up for not being a superhuman and not producing as I did a few months ago. Some days, I do see a glimmer of light and I think rebirth is approaching, it will be better than ever before when it will happen, I am excited already.

Due to the closing of many businesses, I can’t even produce TV shows in the studio with cameramen and the whole crew of technicians, we are still on the social distancing mode for a little while longer ☹️🥺. I miss being in the TV studio, preparing the stage and the shows. I thought why not bringing online the same shows? I started a mini-series called “Inspiration From…” My guests are varied and speak about their trades, specialties or quirks.

Click on each photo to view the show or click on each name to visit their web homes.

The first guest was a young Ballerina, Paola. She catapulted me and the audience in her fascinating world of classical dance and the glamour of theatre performances. She is very disciplined in how she spends her days and pursuing her dancing career goals. With her will, she can inspire the stones, if that is possible.

Paola Ballerina

Author James J. Cudney IV talked about his art of writing. Is it challenging being an author of contemporary and mystery fiction? I believe it is. To produce these kinds of novels, one must include good drama and a good dose of suspense without giving out all the secrets until the very last page. Two of his books have been translated into the Portuguese language, how lovely. 😀

Author James J Cudney IV

How can the day not be delightful with a chef on board? Chef Rosa Mariotti makes extravagant fancy food look so easy and maybe they are to those who cook for passion or for work. Her food is spiced up with the right salts. Who knew so many salts from all over the world are available to us !!!!
Her food and her food photography are a huge inspiration, if you like to eat well like I do.

Chef Rosa Mariotti

A musician specialized in Renaissance music, Gabriella Perugini, performed on the show with a lute. She says a sound is a form of energy produced by vibrations, which in turn are caused by the movement of particles. The sounds she produces with Medieval and Renaissance instruments are multisensory, as she involves all the senses of the audience using scents, chocolate, flowers, poetry, paintings to amplify the experience.

Musician Gabriella Perugini

Next week, my guest will be a sweet woman from London, England, Sandra Phillips, who is not in the fashion business but loves being in fashion her own way. She uses pre-loved clothes to make her own interpretation and then she produces a daily drawing of every outfit she wears. A fun way to see her style combination though each day. Instagram as DressIntoArt . She will inspire people to reuse and upcycle clothes while saving the environment and limiting child exploitation. I will post the link to her show next week.z

Dress Into Art

Would you like to be in my Design Universe and be an inspiration to other people? The series “Inspiration From…” will continue only for a short while, please contact me if you like to participate. Ciao,
Valentina
https://www.amazon.com/Valentina-Cirasola/e/B0031A02H2

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author of 5 published books, 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 few 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: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

What’s Up Peeps? | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

02 Apr 2020 13 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #HomeHistory, #HomeStyles, #HomeTallk, #InteriorDesign, #InteriorDesignTalk, #ValentinaDesignUniverse

The coronavirus has brought all of us to our knees, everyone I know is sheltered-in, but not everyone I know is doing good emotionally. Some of my friends cannot work due to the nature of the work they do and some others work from home. Some people are getting depressed and some are very happy with the slow, downtime as they realized their life was on the accelerated mode. Many people have rediscovered their homes and the people they live with and some other people are getting farther apart, too much closeness might not be a good thing for them and they are just finding out.

I heard the divorce lawyers are on stand by. I also heard that in China, after the lockdown for the coronavirus was over, there has been an increase of divorces by 30%. I also read a funny advertisement from a realtor, it said:
“At the end of the quarantine, if you decide you can’t stand the people you live with, remember I’m your Realtor” and I will add: “I am your Designer, I can design a new home for you, finally the way you want it”.

Everyone is doing something online to spend time in a productive way. Since we must stay home, why not loving where we must be for a while? I am producing daily short videos on how certain home items have come about, their history, their meaning in dreams if we happen to dream about them, and how they have evolved through time. I came up with the idea of “The Evolution Of A Home”. I love history, the human race wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t made history good or bad.
My daily episodes are intended to inform, entertain and keep each other’s company. I hope you like them.

So far I produced nine shows, all on my Youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/designsvalentina
Follow me if you like and if you need me at this time, I offer consultations online. Nothing is simpler than to connect with a video and give you some of my sage advice. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Amazon Author’s Page

It’s my hope that through my writing and my stories I am enriching your aesthetic sensibility towards design, style and inspiring you to live in beauty. I love to encourage my clients to show their personality through their home décor, or the clothes they wear. I have loved my profession as an interior-fashion designer since 1990.
Check out one of my books on the subject of colors, ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors, Second Edition.
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Bxhq08
Barnes&Noble: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Your Face Immortalized | Valentina Cirasola | Designer and Author

16 Aug 2018 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #iPhonePortraits, #ModernPortraits, #PortraitPhotography, #Selfies, #SittingPrettyTVShow, #ValentinaDesignUniverse

Shooting a portrait these days is so easy, especially doing selfies with iPhones. Knowing a few photography rules, everyone can turn a good photography product.
In most photographs the background is not so crucial as it is in a portrait. Doing a portrait photo session in a studio, might intimidate the subject looking at all the cameras, the lights and the equipments, but doing the portrait session in an open space where a field of greenery accentuate the skin and color of the subject, and the view leads the eyes in the background is a better solution. Depending on the goal the photographer wants to achieve, a portrait done against a beautiful colored building, or against something that creates a shadow behind the subject will add much more interest than a portrait taken in an empty field.

This is a bad portrait of me in Barcelona. I look as if I was leaning on one side and I was not. The background is too busy, the taxi car, the busyness of the Sagrada Familia construction, my hair, scarf and top matching the color of some parts of the building, all work against me, plus I was wearing dark sunglasses, no one can see my eyes.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

This is a better portrait of an Italian woman. She is smiling and we can see her dark eyes, however as soon as we look at her face, we are drawn immediately to her two balls necklace. The background tells us what she does in life, she is a shop keeper.

Clothes play a big role in a portrait. Wearing something cutting edge, might tells the viewers the subject is in the arts. Wearing something conservative, a suit or dark colors might be indicative the subject is a professional. If a portrait will be seen quite often, such as on dating sites or social sites, one might want to consider doing a new portrait every six month to keep the clothes look up to date with fashion and the face always new with a new hair style or color.

The man making mozzarella shows happiness for the piece he just created for me before my eyes. His face to me is very expressive and sincere. His eyes invite to smile.

The idea of a portrait is to let your character or quirkiness come out through the image that will immortalize your face, not to stand in the photo frame like you were doing a chore. The man above is doing just that. He likes to imitate statues and puppets in their poses, a quirkiness which lets him out of his serious profession for a few minutes. I immortalized him when he least expected.

To extract the best details of your personality, a good photographer should keep the subject distracted from the photo shoot with talks and laughs.

If you want to watch the episode Sitting Pretty in my TV series Valentina Design Universe, my guest, a renowned photographer will reveal some of his secrets on how to shoot a portrait.

Have fun immortalizing yourself and make some remarkable memories changing your face, your colors, your style. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

In my 28th years of design business I am having more fun than ever, experience eliminates stress and dictates the pace of work. I am evolving in different directions while still helping people realizing their dream spaces in homes, offices, interiors and exteriors. Colors are the main focus of my business today, changing people’s energy and life force just by introducing them to colors they would have never imagined. I am on TV once a month, that is my TV show produced under my label Valentina Design Universe, bringing fun topics to my audience.
Check out my books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

My First Experience As A TV Producer | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

18 Jul 2017 5 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #KMVT15TVShow, #KMVT15ValentinaShows, #ValentinaCirasolaTVHost, #ValentinaDesignUniverse, #ValentinaDesignUniverseShows

Valentina_Design_Universe_TV_Show

Wow, I finally made it. Check mark to another one of my dreams realized !!!
(Click on each photo to view it larger).
My first TV show production under the label of Valentina Design Universe was recorded live Friday July 14, 2017 at KMVT 15, Mountain View, CA.

I have been on TV as a guest many times before, but never as the host and a producer.
Being this the first show, I decided to appear on stage by myself to introduced the series and here I am, a few days later, with my own criticisms.

Stage_In-The_Making

A show of only 30 minutes without commercials seems a very short time, but once up there on stage, it becomes an infinity. I had prepared the topic and rehearsed it many times, as if I were reciting a script of a film.
However, I forgot to leave my notes beyond the stage and it looked as if I needed a backup security, just in case I would forget the sequence of lines to speak. So, I made the first error.

My_Wonderful-TV_Crew

Generally, in my everyday life, I wear mascara and lipstick, that’s it. My skin is very healthy and want to keep it that way. To go on stage, I needed to wear ton of makeup, so I did and felt very uncomfortable.
I thought, well…. 30 minutes will pass very fast. Jeez, I was so wrong! The hot spotlights pointed at me, melted the face make up in the first five minutes, making my face very shiny and reflective. Fortunately, the eye makeup stayed solid, however the face glossiness took all the attention and the eyes went unnoticed. The red lipstick, being blond with tanned skin color, usually looks good on me. Under the spotlights, the red lipstick became bright orange and picked up even the reflection of my bright yellow top. Not really the effect I wanted !

Afterwards, I was wondering how actors take all that make up caked on their faces for the duration of the performance, often a long performance…. I felt the pores of my skin were choking. Make up was not enough and the red lipstick was not the right hue. I made the second error.

My worst fear was a sudden sneeze, a cough, or a hiccup would appear for no reason at all. Nervousness can cause all kinds of unwanted reactions in a crucial situation and… good enough, a hiccup came. Nonchalantly, I said “excuse me” and kept on talking. I don’t know if the audience thought I made a mistake in my speech or heard the hiccup, either way the show went on. Speaking in public taught me to overcome minute issues.

Stage_Drawing_By_Valentina_Show_Gold_A_Treasure_Color

The topic was about GOLD – A Treasure Color. I chose it because I wanted to exude an aura of positivity, just like the golden light of the sun recharges our batteries. I explained why the golden light of the sun is important for both our emotions and physical being, then went on briefly explaining how to decorate with gold and how to incorporate it in our clothes.

The crew assisting me in the production of the show was marvelous. It was the first time producing and hosting my show and wanted to be perfect, but perfection is achieved with experience. I had thought of producing my TV show for a year. The time was right, I started it without fear and in total confidence. Perfection will come, I will learn as I go along producing the next shows. For now, the dream is coming true and that’s important. My motto has been always: “Just Do It.”

Staff_In_Production_Room

Working in TV and being behind the scenes is fascinating. The crew has a language and gestures of its own to communicate silently with the people on stage. The stage goes up and is taken down in matter of a few seconds, the speed of preparation is fast, timing is tight, people operating electronics, light, sound, microphones and cameras are synchronized to one command: “Quiet On Set” and “Talent Go!”.
Energy is high and at the end, when the curtain falls, it seems a train running a 1000 miles a minute, have come abruptly to a halt. What an exhilarating feeling!

My show under the label of Valentina Design Universe will run once a month every third Friday. I will invite guests with interesting topics in most shows and it will be fun. Stay tuned. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Designer Valentina Cirasola is a creative master in the art of living who makes little distinction between work and play. She expresses her creativity in the homes she designs or decorates, in the accessories and furniture she designs, in her books of colors, in her cookery books and in the way her energy influences people around her. She is now bringing her love for colors on TV in her own colorful shows she is producing under the label of Valentina Design Universe at KMVT 15, in Mountain View, CA.
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w