Sette Design

The Details the Simle Life #3

a door within a door

morning espresso for my darling

I love the details in life. The little things my girls say like “I want to eat that cloud” or "I made you an egg and now I want a hug, I expect payment!" Who do you think said that the teenager or the ten year old? The teenager is the answer. I just realized this week that there is a code of things that you are not supposed to say in front of your teenager’s friends. I always thought I was a cool mom. I know we all probably think that. But I actually blast rap music, love fashion, bake chocolate cakes and let them all come over and scream loudly. My problem is I don’t know what the code is, we are in Italy so it’s all in Italian (keep that in mind, if you think you’ve cracked the code), the code could also be An Italian Culture Code or it could be some kind world code that all teenagers know (innate or learned?) and that has definitely changed since thirty years ago.

vine and Medieval wall

shades of orange

Anyway (I diverged) was writing about the details. I believe that sometimes in life when things get tough it is best to concentrate on the details, the little picture. Then suddenly for that precious moment life is so pretty.

I like to buy flowers,
put them in flower pots I have painted.
give them as gifts

I always love walking past these terraces and dreaming

a kiss? an espresso? or a cigarette?

this city girls is proud of her olive "grove"

getting ready for the party
the Quintana Medieval horse racing sport and Medieval food

A friend sent me this quote this week. I don’t know who said it. It makes life feel right and simple and almost easy. We just need to know what our desire is.

As is your desire, so is your will.

As is your will, so is your deed.

As is your deed, so is your destiny.

Cheers, look for the details.

Natalie

Italian Flower Festival

La Infiorata

Oh do I have something special for you today. It is one of my favorite things about living in Umbria, Italy. I get to go to the Flower Festival in Spello La Infiorata. Every year I force my girls (although they love it) to wake up early about 5:30 a.m and we meet up with friends, get on our bikes and bike to Spello for the festival, this way we beat the heat and the crowds. The people who do the actual laying down of the flowers stay up all night working with tents over the designs so they don’t blow away. They party into the night, this in Italy means drinking lots of coffee maybe a glass of wine and hanging with friends.

These designs are laid down with templates, they have wooden boards that cross over like little bridges, to work in the middle and they have misters to wet down the designs. The flowers are picked locally and some are dried and some are fresh and then separated into bins of color. There are lots of teenagers involved and team spirit is paramount.

Spello Flower Festival

Isn’t it just amazing that all this is done with flowers, the perspective, design, thought, creativity and profuse color is expansive and mind-boggling.

I just love the simple designs best. They bring me such a sense of peace and joy that is hard to convey here in words.

the simple life

tree of life

I think it is a great idea to take this flower festival idea and bring it to your home for a party. Think what a splendid impact it could make at a cocktail party, flowers and colored drinks in the back yard. Spread out in the driveway for a child’s birthday party, a wedding or graduation party.

simple they are so pretty you can't do it wrong

flower hearts

Doing the simple designs could be as easy as collecting shapes from around the house, then outline the objects in chalk and fill them in with fresh petals. Think about using buckets, kitchen plates for circles, even little baby clothing outlined for a shower could be adorable, irregular hearts and stars. Have the kids draw the forms and fill them in. It would even be fun to have a summer party where everyone does it together.

Cheers and love around the world from Umbria.

a view from Spell, Umbria

Natalie

I'm linking with:
Between Naps on the Porch

French Country Cottage

Romantic Home

Chalk Painted Chest

chalk painted chest

Hello everyone! I disappeared because my computer stopped working or letting me work. Having a Macintosh computer in Italy is like… well it is like being a barefoot California girl in cut-off Levis, when everyone else is in 3-inch heels and has straightened hair. The fight between Mac and PC, it’s going on over here too, isn’t that insane except no one has Mac unless it is a phone.

I learned something fun recently from a very lovely stylish client of mine who owns one of my favorite café’s in town. She taught me, you can just buy the metal bolts that go on to furniture in stripes. This is what they look like.

distressed faux finish

Nailhead Trim

Then you just line up the stripe and hammer in a bolt every 5^th bolt and thus pinning the stripe down. It makes me think there are so many other projects I could use these for, upholstering a chair, making numbers on a door inside or out, one big SEVEN for example could be way cool, because seven is hip. Man, I think they would be fun to do on a wall also. Does anyone out there know what these bolts are really called in English, it isn’t rivet is it? (the answer seems to be nailhead trim)

Here’s what the chest looked like before. I made my own chalk paint by adding powdered stucco sifted into a small bucket of taupe colored flat paint. I used about two tablespoons of stucco and mixed it really well. It thickened up very quickly so I am thinking that the Plaster of Paris homemade chalk paint recipe might work better. I haven’t found Plaster of Paris over here in Italy yet.

the before shot

The good thing about Chalk Paint is it covers everything and it was easy to sponge off in areas to antique the chest and let the wood come through. After it was painted I wiped over it with a hard dried out sponge to make the surfaces smooth.

The ball gown was one of my mother’s that she wore when she was 18. It has a twelve ft. long satin shall that goes with it. When I was young I used to put it on and stand over the kitchen heater that was on the floor and blew up warm air, the gown became huge like a hoop skirt. I am slowly doing a photo essay of photographing all the girls in the family in this dress. It is quite lovely.

chalk paint and satin gotta love it!

Cheers,

Natalie

I'm linking with:

http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com

French Country Cottage

Romantic Home

Miss Mustard Seed

Between Naps on the Porch

Positivity

I'm wishing you all a happy weekend.

Un bacio,
Natalie

Chocolate Strawberries - The Simple Life #3

chocolate strawberries

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

-Confucius

Do you believe in that quote? I think it is definitely something we could talk about if not argue about, but then we would be making it complicated...no?

I don’t know the right way to do strawberries dipped in chocolate is, but here’s what my girls and I did here.

I washed the strawberries in 1 part balsamic vinegar and 10 parts water, dried them off. Strawberries are actually really dirty and can have a lot of chemicals on them.

Abar (125 mg) of dark chocolate . If you get 70% cacao or more it becomes a super food and it is good for your brain.

Then we mixed a little chunk of butter and a dollop of milk and melted it in a metal mixing cup that was deep and small. I believe in whole foods.

Then we dipped in the strawberries and that’s it. It’s that fun and simple.

The girls of course begged to eat them right away so we ate some and put the others in the freezer to chill.

this plate is from a ceramics line I designed and painted long ago

Keep it simple then a little beauty creeps in.

Un bacio,

Natalie

I'm linking to:

Savvy Southern Style

The Shabby Creek Cottage

French Country Cottage

Romantic Home

Gold and Silver Leaf Tutorial

This is a really fun post because there are so many phases of this little table project that I feel are nice just left where they are. Knowing when to stop is key for whatever you are doing. When I was in Art School in NYC I was the one others came to, for me to critique their artwork and to tell them when to stop working.

My plan here and remember plans make us happy, was to do some silver leaf and then distress it. Leaf comes in silver, gold and copper.

I started by painting this table gray with acrylic paint. I already liked it simple as it is here, 2 coats, I let it dry many hours.

Then I painted on the silver leaf glue (water-based mission) you can get it at the art store along with the leaf packets, here in Europe they cost about 5 euros for 20 sheets. So it is not as expensive as everyone thinks. The glue costs about double that, but can last for years and many projects. With the glue you must let it dry about 20-30 minutes. It should be tacky to the touch. You want to get the whole surface covered. I work fast, but if you feel nervous I suggest you just do a section at a time.

I put the leaf on with an old make-up brush. It must be a very light soft brush or it will break the leaf of silver. I also suggest you do it outside in a non-windy place because the silver leaf gets all over and this drives me crazy. It is impossible to clean up because it flies away and if there is a little bit of glue on it can stick to your floors.

press on with soft brush

piece them together

If the gray paint surface coming threw bugs you, just add more leaf on top, either right away or with more glue and time.

I think it looks gorgeous without the distressing, modern and clean.

silver leaf modern look

Then I mixed raw-umber oil paint with a tiny bit of flax oil (olio di lino). But you can also dilute it with turpentine, just a tiny bit either way. I used a dry brush and first brushed off the oil paint on a piece of wood.

don't get too much on the brush

Then I brush it on the silver leaf and wipe it off (soft cotton cloth) where it is too much. The more you work the surface the less brilliant the leaf will be. I brushed over the legs of the table too.

antiquing - dry brush in oil paint

In theory I should have waited a few days for the oil color to dry. I put on a coat of clear finish, water-based polyurethane soon after, before the oil paint had dried. I’m not too good about having patience and I like a little risk, if it was a big piece or for a client I wouldn’t have risked it.

So I styled the photo of this table bold and intellectual and feminine and romantic. Which way do you like it best?