Showing posts with label cool idea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cool idea. 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
















Happy Third Anniversary Sette Design Blog




Happy Anniversary Sette Design Blog

#3

To tell you the truth.  I forgot and I got the date wrong.  I'm that bad.  I actually love this blog and so I should have remembered her day. To be honest I just have too much going on right now.  It was November 5th 2012 when I took the leap and started it up.  I was living in Umbria, Italy then.  Click Here if you want to flash back and view my very first blog post.

Ukrainian Egg Dying




Buona Pasqua

Around this family compound there is lots of Ukrainian Egg Dying going on.  Since this is the wine country, I can also say that friends bring over bottles of precious wine and then sit down and let their creativity go.  It is interesting how good people are at it.  Everyone wants to dye eggs!

Springtime and The Nashberry Cocktail




The Simple Life

Oh do I have a special treat for you.  It is COCKTAIL TIME, now here in California (and the U.S.) we have change our clocks forward to save daylight time.

Spring forward
Fall back

Almost Christmas



Winter Solstice

It is the darkest night of the year.

From now on it starts getting lighter.

Stones for Peace



The Simple Life

You never know what you might find here at Sette Design.  I hope this is a tiny part of why you keep coming back.

I made a simple discovery recently, if I leave stones around the house it makes people happy.  I love to collect stones from the river or from the Adriatic and then display them around the house, sometimes with art or sometimes just randomly left around.

How To Grow Rosemary Topiaries




Hello EVERYONE

Yes I did tint the colors on the photo above, did I get your attention?

I have been working on this project for so long and I have been excited to show you.  Why, because it is easy and simple and so pretty. This is what we just love here at Sette Design.

Lavender in Umbria, Italy




The Simple Life

Just a few words today.
Lavender lavender lavender,
Umbria not Provence,
A whole heap of lavender.
The smell is so pungent it almost knocks you over when you walk in our door.

Almost September





The Simple Life

I cannot believe that it is almost September.  Here in Italy it seems like the heat is hitting us now. 

My girls still have another 2 weeks before school starts.

I’ve started lighting candles in the morning at the breakfast table, even if no one wakes up to come to breakfast.

Earthquakes, Espresso and Ice Cream




The Simple Life

Yesterday at 3:20 A.M. there was a huge Earthquake in Napa Valley.

My family in California is fine.
We have a house in the Napa Valley and even one on the coast that the San Andreas Fault passes under.

Paint It White - Add Color





The power of white is grand.
If you read this blog you know by now that I love color!

White always looks modern and fresh.  I adore interior spaces with white floors and walls and then color added in the furniture rugs, art and flowers.


Here are a few before shots.




I also believe that it is a good exercise in design to paint a few items from your life WHITE and then just add COLOR as you choose.

This little side table I’m creating a special process for my E-Course on Painting Techniques and as you see it here, it is in the white primer phase.  Doesn’t it look so pretty?



Go around your house and grab a few items and paint them all white.  I took a lamp, a cigar box, perfume bottle, side table, basket and a jar.

Sette Design White makes color pop!

My kiwi-green floor is still holding up Click Here for is the post on how I painted it.  I think the key here was I used an anti –scrap finish at the end.  The green floor is doing far better then the floors painted without the anti-scrape varnish.

Sette Design
Next post I’ll share how I made the lampshade, it was so fun and easy.  Do you like it?  There are some people in my life I won't mention who, they sarcastically question my sanity after seeing that lamp creation.

Tomorrow is a big summer holiday in Italy.
Buon Ferragosto a tutti.

With affection,
Natalie


I'm linking with these fun parties:
French Country Cottage
Romantic Home
Miss Mustard Seed
Between Naps on the Porch
Mod Vintage Lif

A Little Bohemian at Heart






Here is the dictionary description of
Bohemian.
As a Noun

     1.     native or inhabitant of Bohemia
     2.     a person, as an artist or writer, who lives and acts free or regard to conventional rules and practices.
     3.     The Czech language, especially as spoken in Bohemia.
     4.     a Gypsy


I say a little Bohemian at heart referring to design. Yet it may have to do with my lifestyle too.  What about YOU?  Do you have a little Bohemia in your heart?

Aged Mocha-Black Armoire




Before we begin with the how to paint an Aged Mocha-Black Armoire, anyone interesting in my online painting class can click the ad below.  Come join us in this intensive, uplifting, inspiring painting techniques course.




Hello my darlings!

I must confess that it torments me to post badly lit photos and not styled.  But I really wanted to show you this armoire because in real life it came out just gorgeous.


It was simple to paint.

Medicine Bottles and Flowers





Do you ever have a simple little design obsession that just makes you so happy to think about it? O.k. you probably have a thousand little design ideas going around in your head and this is what makes life pretty when times get tough, escape into the world of gorgeous – for the moment, do not think about … all that troubles you.  Then once you have added a little “bellezza” to your home, things begin to improve.  I understand it all has to do with perspective.

Flowers in a Box



Let's add come color!

Oh how I love flowers in a box.  I just put a couple jars of water in the box to not rot the wood and arranged the flowers from there.



Here is an arrangement I created by for the arrival of my niece, Rosalie I put them by her bedside table as a welcome. I did not make up her name just to fit this floral gone crazy blog post.  I collected the flowers on a bike ride to Spello, resting them in my bike basket on the return home.

How to: Play with Glass Paint and Silver Leaf



I’m supposed to be working on my Painting E-Course and finishing up this gorgeous gray and silver table but instead I played hooky.  Hooky is what we call it in California you don’t go to school and instead go to the beach or to a café.   Of course, one can play hooky and not go to work also.  This Diario di Design is kind of like always playing hooky for me.

So I played hooky because I became inspired to do a vignette of tarnished silver and painted glass, then I thought it would be fun to just add silver leaf to encourage more reflection. 

Easter Decorations




I’m on to a new stint where I am going to try to wake up at 5:30 a.m. and see if I can’t kick it a bit more effectively.  I know, what you are thinking that I won’t be able to handle it, well maybe by confessing my plans to you my lovely readers I will be more committed.  “They” say if you want to save money, if you tell your friends, you actually save more money and your friends help and encourage you to do so.  Did you know that successful people wake up early and then get this, they exercise.  I have read studies about it.