Showing posts with label color inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label color inspiration. Show all posts

Fifth Anniversary Sette Design Blog




It is crazy to think that  5 years ago today I started this blog.  Happy Anniversary Sette Design Blog!  I remember the day clearly, because I was living here in Italy and we had just had the first snow fall on the mountains that surround our city.  Now 5 years later with climate change, it seems there is no snow insight for who knows how long.  My girls were 9 and 13 compared to now 14 and 18, huge difference.

To celebrate today I thought I would give you some advice, this I secretly find funny because if you knew my life more intimately you would say (or quietly think) Nat you really are not in any position to give advice.  But when you hear the advice you will see that actually is is common, simple, pure and obvious.  Plus this way we can look back on some pretty photos I have taken in the years past.

Here we go life advice from Sette Design.




Make home made bread, it will make your friends and family so happy it is ridiculous and strangely it will also make you feel good about yourself.  The house will smell amazing.




Light candles it makes everything look and feel good.






Flowers add color and joy.




The sky is the limit.



Go for walks alone,



and with family.


Change is something we can count on.


Paint something white, it will reflect light into a dark space, of course paint something colored too.  I love colored walls.



Too much at times can be splendid.



Just as simple and empty is pure and lovely.



Paint something it deepens our souls, or play music, cook, write, sing or dance.



Home is where you make it.



If possible make love on vintage Italian sheets.




Embrace whatever kind of creativity you have that makes you purrr.





If something feels wrong run for it.



Rest assured you are not the only one who is crazy.




Drink lots of coffee and remember love is what matters most of all.

Now I will leave you with a good quote and a cool scene I came across years back.

"Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder."

E.B. White



 With affection,
Natalie
















Peace - ramps, docks, alleyways and vicoli




It is interesting how little empty passageways can bring us peace.  A via waiting to be chosen, explored, journeyed through.  Both of these photos are taken in places I know well and have walked through often.

The first is on the docks in Sausalito, CA on the way to my mother's houseboat with Mt. Tamalpais  elegantly tranquil in the distance.  The alleyway (vicolo in Italian) below was passed through for years, day in day out on bicycles on the way to the Elementary School for my girls.




Do you remember a beaten path from your childhood that even now to think of it brings you peace? You may have one now, in the city that you live, cutting behind buildings, a break in a fence.  A secret way to get there faster or to be seen less.  In my childhood we even had a name for our path, "Meet you at the top of the Huckleberry Trail".

Today as the hot summer winds down in Italy and in California and where ever you are.  I encourage you to find a path to travel that brings you peace, name it, walk it, bring someone with you.

With affection,
Natalie


Graduates and Glass Bottles





June is actually here, the graduates are taking over the world and I am thankful  for that!  I have Lucia my big girl graduating High School and Elisa from 8th Grade.  It is a nice feeling to think of the new one's taking over and possibly doing a better run of it than we have done.

I must confess that I find myself posting to Instagram a lot more than this beloved design blog.  Come join me there also, you can easily find me on Instagram under Sette Design and you can look for the purple blue store front logo - instagram.com/settedesign . What I should do is post to both.

So here now is a quick review of Sette Design’s opinions, desires and work.

I am thrilled with the Glass Bottle Chandelier I made out of chain, wire, and vintage bottles . 
Gorgeous with mixed colored flowers or just white roses, to decorate as you desire.  Available on my shop here Sette Design Shop
Sette Design Shop

Sette Design Shopn


Happiness note:  A smoothie and flowers for a new garden (in the same pallet of colors no less) helps anyone feel good. Right?  Does anyone have the courage to paint a wall this berry color of the smoothie drink?  I think if the room had enough Southern facing light it could be amazing.




the simple life



Here is the view from a home I have been working on for a wonderful client who feeds me hot American coffee with cream, and a fudgesicle dunked inside, our invention.  You can imagine the job has gone splendidly.



A grouping of Vintage Green Glasses also available on Sette Design Shop.  I do love to create the feeling of a still life, that can be put under happiness note.  Make a Still Life and you don't have to paint it because we are living it.


Sette Design Shop



On my drive to work - I like this kind of "macho" gazebo in a field of wildflowers, the contrast of delicate flowers and big wooden beams is nice.

Sette Design


Cheers to all of you.

Get the Summer going right.

With affection,

Natalie

Houses Covered in Vines - Napa Valley



Structures covered in vines.





Here we are in Vine City.
There is too much going on for this little simple life of mine.


Create Something Pretty- Blue Wall Heaven





Another rainy day in gorgeous Napa Valley, mustard fields glowing day glow yellow, black tar country roads with the white lines polished and wet.  I always believe when life gets crazy and overwhelming it is a good time to take 5 minutes and Create Something Pretty to look at.  Then when the house is a complete mess, like backpacks, dirty Converse sneakers in the middle of the doorway, and even my contribution an electric drills plugged in, sitting on the kitchen floor – ahhgg! It is definitely time to Create Something Pretty


Here all for you I created a glimpse at a fabulous piece of Blue Wall Heaven in my Sister’s home.  The funny thing is, this wall is actually dark Teal Blue, Not Robin’s Egg Blue or Sky Blue as we see here. It is insane how the light changes this color!  Does it make you want to paint something blue?


For this still life  I used, pruned and fading pomegranate branches, daffodils, and a delicate wisteria blossom and a little whiskey.

Sette Design Shop

Happy Weekend my darlings, go Create Something Pretty.

Mexican Aztec Goddess Coatlicue replica done in styrofoam By Artist David Garden

With affection,
Natalie

Red Italian House - Exterior Color




Wait … is it really a Red Italian House, or is it Deep Pink, Burnt Orange, Rust, Coral?  What color do you see?  I like to argue about color and the funny thing about that, is we always think that we are right because it is what we see!

The Game of Peace



Buon San Valentino.

I love stones.  You may  have heard me mention this before.  I do not love games, but today for Valentines I'm going to tell you about a Game of Peace that I have created.  It is really simple and fun (classic Sette Design stuff). Secretely and openly I'm hoping all the cousins, sisters, daughters that live on our compound here in the gorgeous Napa Valley will join in and play too.

Repetitive Behavior




I’m always saving little bits of information that I find interesting.  I like to find them again and see what effect it might have on my life.  I do this also with my journals, pick up an old book, randomly open a page and see what I might learn about my life.  This of course is emotionally risky and can run the gamut from depressing to elated joy.

This week I found this note written clearly on a square piece of paper.  It is interesting to plug this information into some sector of your life from HEALTH, MONEY - LOVE and of course DESIGN.

It takes 14 to 21 days of repetitive behavior to form a new pattern in your brain.  Once that pattern is formed it becomes an automatic behavioral response.

What would you like to change about yourself?
Cheers,
Natalie

Inside Winter Garden




I remember when I was young and going to Art and Design School in Brooklyn, I loved to look at the bare black trees reaching for the Winter sky.  Here presently in California the spring flowers are already starting to bloom, even if the Winter rains are still here in force blowing apart the streets and trees and branches falling, rivers rising. It is nice to create a calm sanctuary inside.

Christmas Eve -Eve Heart in Two Places




Sette Design


Happy Christmas Eve Eve
I love to say that.

My heart is in 2 places this Christmas.
It is also in some Christmases in the past and some in the future too.
It’s funny as the girls grow up, I feel nostalgic remembering back to a Christmas when they were little.  I can remember one Christmas when Elisa was still a little one, she decided to move all the presents from under the tree into the kitchen.  We would go get the tree and strap the Christmas tree on to the back of my bike and push the bike home.

A Christmas Scene




I was creating this beautiful Christmas still life, when Lucia walked by and said, “Oh it’s so pretty.” 
I said,  “It’s my Christmas Scene.”
“No it’s more fall.”
Shocked (and dismayed), I tried to look at it as an Autumn scene and it just wasn’t.  Ok, I’ll admit that I can conger Christmastime out of nothing, for example I have been known to say “Look at the headlights glowing in this rainy night – It’s Christmastime,”  boots by the fire, of course, peppermint hot chocolate, certainly it is Christmastime!


It Is Christmastime




I don’t believe in PERFECT.  It was never something that I wanted to achieve.  There are many cultures in the world that believe if you make something perfect you are trying to imitate god and that imperfection lets the soul in.  In creating art they would intentionally make one color woven off or one imperfect form.  When I look at the wall motifs in Italy, each hand painted motif is not the same as the next.  I love that.  It frees us up to have fun.

Pink Wall- Apricot Wall




Hello my darlings,

It is almost the holiday here in America.  Thanksgiving a day is a day to be thankful.  When I'm in Italy and I explain the holiday to my Italian friends (we get the whole family and friends together, eat a huge amount and fill your hearts with gratitude), they often joke - so basically like every Sunday Lunch in Italy.

Ideas for Holiday Table Settings



settedesignshop

Today I want to show you a few high lights from my Online Shop, treasures from Napa Valley, California and Umbria, Italy.  It might give you some ideas for your table setting for Thanksgiving and there is still time to ship out these treasures before the holiday swings into full glory. www.settedesignshop.com

Return to the Simple Life


Today in America it is definately a day to return to the Simple Life.
I know from past experience that design can be a solice.
I think about form and function, light and color and I feel a tiny bit better.


Patina II




One photo today.  This is our courtyard floor with the rain dripping and the leaf shapes stained into the stone.  The squirrels ate the grapes that hang above the granite tiles, and the grape remnants fell and then the sun and air and dew caused the stone to patina purple-black.

Just gorgeous!

Cheers,
Natalie