Guess the Photo - Italy or California

It is a rainy day somewhere in the world, now since you don’t really know for sure if I am in Umbria or California today we are NOT going to play a little game, NOR are we going to take a test.  I don’t like to do either of the above, in fact my friends and family think I should begin to like to play games.  I would rather read a book or go for a run, than play a game.

San Francisco Colored Houses

Recently I finished painting an apartment in San Francisco.  It is a space I have worked on before, twice actually traveled from Italy to work on the interior.  Every time I return to the neighborhood of Pacific Heights, I find myself in dreamland, architectural wonder, full on cloud nine o.k. !  It is amazing. On the top of the hill with views of the Bay, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge.  Then I fall in love with every single house.  Watch and see if you don’t do the same.

Inspirations in Grey

I'm sorry my readers I disappeared for about 10 days there.  Life gets complicated sometimes...no?

Today I want to post up some inspiration in Grey.  I love grey as a neutral color.  Here in my home I have grey and taupe checker board painted floor and a grey and white kitchen and a dark taupe colored floor in my bedroom.  I love how grey looks with color and how it absorbs color.

So I’m going to show you some inspirational photos with uses of grey.

An Ancient Wall

The Simple Life

I found a spot in the sun on a wall to sit and write and think for a moment.  A friend came by and as usual he offered a bit of interesting information.  He said did you know that wall, pointing to the wall I was leaning against was build in the 1500’s.

The Magic of Spello

The Simple Life

Here in Umbria if you don’t like the weather wait 20 minutes.  That’s what they say I think in the Northeast of America too.  We do not say that in California, so it pisses me off.  I’m always getting fooled.

This week in Umbria Spring has sprung with glorious green fields and pink and white budding fruit trees, Mimosa galore puffy and brilliant, shocking yellow.  The birds are going crazy, chatting away, they have so much to sing about.  We all have so much to sing about!

Joy- Gioia

Joy -Gioia in the new year 2014

Oh ragazzi

Happy New Year


Buon Anno!


Joy - Gioia

This is going to be a year of astonishing joy.

and 2014 =7

I hope you will keep coming back to this little Diario di Design because there will be lots of joy around here, because of you and because we bring it around the world.

Cheers,

With affection,
Natalie

I love Christmas in Italy

Il Vischio- Mistletoe

I love Christmas in Italy.

Today is the day after the Winter Solstice, from now on in our hemisphere the days are getting longer, brighter.

I think this will be our tenth Christmas in Italy and I must say I love it.

Alfredo my park ranger boyfriend found Mistletoe (Il Vischio) in the forest and brought it home to me.  If he had hung it in our short Medieval doorways we would have to crawl under it.  Now we have a chair for kissing under.  Italians believe it brings good fortune.

It rarely snows in our valley in Umbria, as it does in the mountains around us.  We always are hoping for snow.

Hope brings joy.

 

downtown

A foggy Christmas is lovely too.

It makes everything blurry and the colors soft and bright.

 

Christmas in Italy

Here is proof we really do live the simple life.  Just bliss pushing the tree home on the bike with gloves on and sucking on candy canes.  Ellie my little one refused to let them rope it up, as they like to do here in Italy.

 

Medieval wall, bike and Christmas tree

Since our living room is my paint studio this means the Christmas tree is in my bedroom. It’s pretty fantastic to snuggle in bed with the Christmas tree a glow.

Christmas in Umbria

I saved a baby sock from when Lucia was a baby

some of our ornaments are from my childhood
MANY years ago they are antique now!

I recommend it.

This year we had a party with Elisa and her-ten-year old girlfriends.  They made cookies with mashed up candy canes inside.  The hammering part was fun!

mashed candy canes and dough from
a chocolate chip cookie recipe -YUMMM

Pink roses and a red candle.

crazy yellow ring on the candle

The girls seem to check on an hourly basis to see if more presents are put under the tree.

Art in progress, books to read, cyclamen and vintage Christmas balls.

art in progress

I hope you are all happy and warm and savoring every moment.

Cheers,

Natalie

I'm linking with:
Between Naps on the Porch

Letters of Love - Good Design

The simple life

 

a packet of words

I’m a bit of a romantic.  You may have figured that out by now.  When I went back home to California recently I decided that I wanted part of my heart to be in Cali (silly since a big chuck of it is always there). I brought back a bag of letters of love.  When I put them all together in a big heap, it struck me how beautiful they were, what good design. How maybe the art of writing letters is being lost.  Will my daughters find themselves at some point with a heap of letters of love? I hope so.

traveling with love

I say letters of love because these letters were letters that girl friends had written to me, my brother when he traveled the world for two years, my sister when she was away at University, my parents.  There were a few love letters from boys and men of my past.  In this travel bag there were also letters I had written.  These letters were brought back to me after a best friend committed suicide.  Her sister brought my letters back to me!  My own letters saved me and made me sure I had shown this friend I loved her.  My own words of love gave me the strength to carry on.  Isn’t that gorgeous how the past can come back and help us in our present journey.

I’m writing this now not to bring you all down, but to encourage you to write a letter, just one letter to someone you love, hand write it, stamp it and mail it with a kiss on top.

 

letters of love

It might just be the best present you give this year.

With affection,

Natalie

I'm linking with:
Romantic Home
French Country Cottage
Between Naps on the Porch

California Coast

long hallway with five tiny bedrooms on the sides

Simple Life
This San Francisco girl living in Umbria has made it home with her girls and we are lavishing every moment here on the California coast.

Oh how I love the smell of the Pacific Ocean, the twinkling orange lights of San Francisco.

I have so much already that I want to share with you, but I am limping along with other's computers, as mine is having problems, it makes it hard to work and to write.  So if I disappear for a while you will know that I am unable technically to handle much, but also we are enjoying the much needed time with friends and family.

this is not our house,  I do love the faded hydrandea

I do have to show you a winter garden in Napa Valley, a cool alternative houseboat community in Sausalito and some cottage style houses that the California coast is known for, it is all so old and solid in my heart, then fun and fresh to bring to this Diario di Design.

I hear that it is snowing in Umbria.  Life on the California coast is supreme, people in the sand, in the shower, chatting on the deck, the hills settling into water, American coffee, something cooking, the holidays are brewing.  I am excited and filled with gratitude just to be home and breathing in the air.

I am also so thankful for all of you, my friends and readers around the world.  I want to inspire you all to slow down and savor the moments that bring you joy and peace.  To keep your creativity going, and take time to relish in it.

To those in America Happy Thanksgiving and to everyone else I wish you tranquility and happiness.

Simple as that, embrace it.

how cool is this house, I couldn't find this in Umbria cheers!

With affection,

Natalie

Styling Empty Frames

candles, little bottles and pink flowers 

It is going to be a gorgeous day here in Umbria.  I’m silly about the weather and think about it way too much.  When I was young I wanted to be a meteorologist.  I’m really glad I changed my mind.   I have one friend who thinks what you wanted to be as a child does reflect who you become.  He says, "I should have known I would be gay when I was always rearranging my bedroom at 8 years old!"  He became a photographer.

I go crazy for the this pink and gold 

if only  I could have an armoire or dresser
 in the same chippy style

Today I want to do a post of showing how I love empty picture frames.  I have done this for years way before it was in style (hasn’t it always been in style?).  Well before people used to come into our home and say, “What’s going on?”  I would respond, “There you can see the future”.

old antique frame from from the 1700's
with little mirrors and chalk drawn on the wall

this is where we leave our keys

cool reflection

and reflecting the painting in front of it.

Plus I love the massiveness of empty walls and I believe in lots of good art and beautiful photographs. 

This gorgeous little gold frame I brought in Ecuador with the same friend who became a photographer.  He was such a jerk, when I said I didn't want to buy it because I would have to carry it all the way home.  He said, "You can enjoy it for the rest of your life, or regret it for the rest of your life".

gold frame and hand painted walls

painted olives bring peace

Sometimes I put this little photo I took of Elisa, she was so tiny then.

To me empty frames are just fun to play around with.

here's in my studio with a inner frame,
photo, plus wire, crystal and ripped velvet ball

that's me at 13.  I'm glad I didn't become a meteorologist
or a ballerina

Empty frames they may be temporary and on their way to becoming part of something more important.

Cheers,

Natalie

I'm linking with:

Between Naps on the Porch

The Shabby Creek Cottage

Savvy Southern Style

French Country Cottage

Romantic Home

How To Paint French Provincial Style

I love the French Provincial look because to me it is timeless and easy to do.  It is a bit time consuming but this is the game with painting furniture.  The key is to just bring it a long slowly and do other work or have fun in between.

french provincial style painted furniture 

I like this French Provincial style mixed with modern bright pieces, colorful upholstered furniture.  It also looks good with bare Swedish furniture and Shabby Chic American type furniture.  Mix it up, you can’t go wrong. 

I have also done this look with a very architectural armoire with finials and arches, in gray with black dry brush and it looked gorgeous.

admit it this was just GROSS before

Here I choose a really creamy vanilla color as the base color.

I sanded the piece some.

I painted it with a base coat of white 1 or 2 times, only because I didn’t have tons of the creamy color, you go straight to painting without the base coat if you want.

Then I painted the creamy white color another 2 times.

This piece actually has a glass cabinet that I painted too and left out of the photos because I like the piece better just a credenza.

here's what it looks like with just cream colored paint

Once all the coats had dried I went over the piece with a dry brush of raw umber oil color.  A tiny tube I bought at the art store.  I mixed this dark color with turpentine and brushed it on a separate piece of wood (or cardboard) anything to take off the excess of the oil paint to make the paint sparse.  You can also add a drying medium to this mixture to make the oil paint dry faster.  Oil paint usually takes about 4 days to dry.

oil color even over the key and hardware

I paint with the dry brush only on the moldings
and detailing and slightly over the top

If you want you can add a clear coat of polyurethane over  it all to protect it, but it does make the look a little less antique.  I would wait 4 or 5 days for the oil paint to dry.

If this was going to be mine and not going to a client I would love to save it for my future loft.  I could cut two holes in the top and turn it into a double basined bathroom sink.  Put some curved silver 

faucets.  It would be so pretty with all the fluffy towels stacked on the shelves below.

I just love what a drastic change this look can accomplish.

Cheers,

Natalie

I'm linking with:

Between Naps on the Porch

French Country Cottage

Miss Mustard Seed
The Shabby Creek Cottage