The Game of the Gray Doors

“There are years that ask questions, and there are years that answer.”

 -Zora Neale Hurston (Writer)

Happy New Year Everyone!

2013

I am so happy to be back.  I love a fresh start, a new beginning.  I want to encourage everyone to make some resolutions especially about your creativity – do something with it this year, embrace it, enhance it, explore it.

Today I want to play a game with these Gray Doors.  I want you to image opening each door and behind it you will find some part of yourself or your life changed for the better.  Try to imagine how you will get there and how it will look, whatever blocks you, jump over it and go directly to the point where it is real.  Later you can go back and figure out how to actually get around it.

“THEY” did a study with musicians and athletes and they found that if they imagined a piece of music that they could not play, had never accomplished before or run a race in record time.  If they went over each step over and over again precisely, in their minds, when the moment came to actually perform their goal, their minds thought that they had already done it. They were able to trick their minds into accomplishing what they thought their bodies could not do. Isn’t that just the coolest.  This is what I want you to do with these Gray Doors.  Open them and imagine step by step how you will accomplish these goals.

Also “THEY” (now this a different they) did a study that found when people wrote down their goals it increased the probability of them achieving it by over 70%.

So write down what is going to happen behind these Gray Doors.  There are six doors, so you can have six little dreams or changes or goals.  Remember sky is the limit.

Lastly since this is a Diario di Design I want to say, environment matters.  Create for yourself an environment where theses goals and dreams can actually happen.  Notice what people or situations in your life sabotage your plan.  Could it be you? Stop that action right away.  I am going to do the same, and I’m going to be aware.

Good Luck Natalie 

here is my favorite and it's number 7 by chance

“The thing always happens that you really believe in and belief in a thing makes it happen.”

-Frank Lloyd Wright (Architect)

Christmas Trees

centro storico

  

Nat’s taking a break till the first week in January.

Come back to Sette Design 7.

Or I’ll miss you.

I would like to say any kind of Christmas tree is cool (fico) and hip.

In our downtown there is a tree that is very large, structural and FULL of lights.

it will be here next year

I like tiny and full of hope and simplicity.

mother christmas

Innovative and cool, plus some humor.

our tree

Homemade, crazy-joy.

I WISH FOR YOU

PEACE

JOY AND

SPERANZA

Buon Natale

See you next year!

-Natalie

Easy Handmade Winter Solstice Candelabra

Winter Solstice Candelabra

For us here in the Northern hemisphere the Winter Solstice kicks in today.  It will be  the darkest, longest night of the year.  From here on out the days start getting longer.  We are reaching for spring.

Here is my Winter Solstice Candelabra.

wood painted metallic gold and pale blue

I took a piece of wood, painted it gold and blue. 

the ribbon is transparent blue and gold motif

Then I wrapped the wood with a pretty ribbon, the kind with wire inside, taping it on the back to secure it.

make sure to secure the candles on the wood part

Then I took all the left over candle stubs from around our house and dripped on the wax to secure them to the wood.

sometimes simple is better

It’s that fun and simple.

A cup of hot cider or mulled wine and the party has begun.  See and the world didn’t even end, in fact we are doing craft projects and have a little party.

E Via!

Salute,

Natalie

Raining

days before Christmas

“If you don’t like Louis Armstrong, you don’t know how to love.”

-Mahalia Jackson

The days are quite dark and wet, black trees and charcoal-gray pavement.

I want it to snow in the valley.

If I had a temperature reader on the balcony as I have had in the past.  I would be the type to yell the degrees back at everyone in the house with joy, or elated horror.

It is almost the Winter Solstice.

It would be nice if we could find some peace in the world, suddenly an unexpected, overwhelming sense of peace calming the world.

The girls delicately suggest I put presents under the tree.  I say, but then you will feel them out, shake them, sniff them.  I’m exaggerating to make a point.

A cup of tea is in order.

Louie Armstrong is singing Christmas carols with that velvety, deep voice of his.

He sings,

“He comes a calling when the snows the most.

And all you cats are sleeping warm as toast.

And you gonna flip when old St. Nick,

takes a lick from a peppermint stick.”

I'm relieved that Mahalia thinks I know how to love - big time!

Cheers,

Natalie

Some Italian Furniture Design

glass draw pull - a nice detail

I believe that design preference is often just a contrasting reaction to the generation that came before us.

Our eyes want to see something new.

What’s nice about design now is that it is a big mix up, something old, and something new.  A little modern – clean line next to ornate with color, smooth and shiny paired with old and worn.

Today we are going to take a look at a store I love Savini here in Foligno.  The owner Grazia has a wonderful eye for design.  Keep in mind we are in Umbria, although there are many cities it is not Milan or Rome.  Umbria is the only region in Italy that the land does not touch a sea.  This I believe (since I'm a San Francisco girl) grandly affects people mindset.

black and white check chair comfortable and simple

love this little chair for in front of the fireplace

Eco Christmas tree a decorated branch -gorgeous!

I like the idea to hang a love note or gift in mesh bag

dark red always a good accent color -the lamp is made of thread spools 

wooden table framed in metal very masculine

this door I painted in gold paint, then gold leaf and antiqued

colored glass is always timeless

way cool shelf in aged mirror

gray distressed wood dresser - I like it for the kitchen

page holder and weighty letter opener a great gift for the book worm 

little metal table paired with folding wooden chair

off white-gray wood table and chairs

Was that fun, see anything that could go in your home?

Natalie

  

Christmas in Italy

Christmas lights

 

Christmas in Umbria.

Here in Italy there is an old saying:

“Natale con i Tuoi e Pasqua con chi vuoi.”

Christmas with yours (family) and Easter with whomever you want.

In Umbria all the jewel like hill and valley towns string the historic centers with lights.  It is so fun and festive to go around and see the other cities glowing.

Friends chatting in the rain

Special moments when family is together.

Cappeletti made by hand in broth.

Citrus leaves painted gold framing doorways.

holiday glow

Wet pavement and snow covered mountains.

Nativity scenes made in tiny figurines and even constructed big as live human statues.

Running into friends and having a Prosecco at a cafe.

hot chocolate is waiting

Christmas theater and music concerts at school.

Gobbi (thistle) alla Parmigiana (Parmisian).

Taking the kids out for a hot chocolate served warm and thick like pudding.

Everyone – everywhere saying Auguri – Buona Festa – HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I say the same to you!

Natalie

12 Photos for 12/12/12

For the fun and joy of today which is 12/12/12.  I am going to post up some simple photos from my life here in Umbria.  And I will leave you with a funny quote from the fabulous Muhammad  Ali.  It makes me laugh every time.

"If they can make Penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you."



1.

my studio

2.

an angel

3.

ceiling on an outdoor terrace

4.

a job site

5.

our front door -very classic Italian

6.

cutting out venetian stucco

7 7 7 7 7 7 7

medieval wall with fig tree behind

8.

a night photo -gorgeous wall

9.

our main piazza

10.

strawberries and flowers

11.

wet cafe chairs

12.

a red bike -love the basket!

With affection,
Natalie

3 Little Italian Houses

a little house in Spello

I had an epiphany this summer.  I knew how I wanted to spend my old age.  I was working painting a huge villa here in Foligno, it was hot all summer, suffocating and hovering around 40C./100 F.  I started waking up early to beat the heat.

Early one morning I was biking to work through the vacant streets, on my way I passed an old woman in her garden.  There in her garden was a little out building, a studio type structure with arched windows.  I instantly fell in love with her, the garden, and her studio (even if I think she actually had wood stacked in it).  Right then I knew and I made a big wish, that where ever I was in the world, when I grow old I want to have a little house, with a garden and a studio nestled in the garden.  Then I will go to work in my studio (doing whatever I want).  Every hour or two I’ll take a break and have a cappuccino or a cup of tea in the garden, maybe I’ll even cut some roses and put them in a basket.  Isn’t that just sublime?

right below the Basilica in Assisi waiting to be loved

When you look at these little houses, don’t you just want to fix them up?  That little house in Spello, is just begging for me to put some fuchsia bougainvillea climbing down from that roof terrace.  Oh man and what color would I stucco it?

in Sperlunga, Southern Italy in front of the Tereno sea

What is fun about this Diario di Design is that I am starting to have readers from many little corners the world.  It makes me happy to think of all you the creative types out there, working in your studios or dreaming of having a studio, and just working at your kitchen table.  Then there are some of you who are getting ready, to start thinking about working at your kitchen table. I hear ya!  Promise me you will at some point SOON get a cup of tea and think about it.  I confessed about my silly old age dream.

Happy December 10^th.

Natalie

December in Umbria

  

december in umbria

Nature never said to me:  Do not.

Still less did she say: Be rich.

Her cry to me was always: Be independent.

-Nicolas da Chamfort, Writer (1741-1794)

This week I have been painting furniture and touching up some walls in a villa up in the hills in Umbria.  It isn’t deep into nature but it still gives one the feeling of peace and freedom and it is possible to get a little lost up there if you don’t know your way.

umbria is all about olive trees

man it is cold out there

In the morning it was -1 C. and the fog was in deep.  Inside it was warm compared to the bone chilling cold outside.   I was working fast, yet I grabbed a few moments to savor the view and the fog.  I love the fog, as I have mentioned before.  I promise to be redundant in this blog (diario di design).  I had brought my beloved thermos of hot coffee – how cool is that, hot coffee, gray fog and silver-blue-green olive trees everywhere.

which way to go?

Remember you can choose your path.

Natalie