Friday, December 30, 2011

Buon Anno! Happy New Year!





AUGURI...in Italian means greetings and we use it for birthdays, holidays, any occasion requiring it. For New Year's eve we can also say: "BUON ANNO" or Happy New Year!



A white and gold table, decorated with a variety of materials, expensive silver, simple glass container, white flowers and linens and of course sparkling crystal to celebrate with Champagne or a good Italian Prosecco.




Buon Anno!
May the New Year bring you joy and peace!



©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.   I love to hear from you!

Greetings from Genoa

The Italian hero Giuseppe Garibaldi looks far away for new adventures

Genova, correct Italian spelling, is a charming, elegant city in the Liguria region, close to Portofino and the Cinque Terre. Due to its glorious past it is called La Superba or "the Superb one".
Genova is in fact a city rich in art and a major seaport. The medieval old section, the biggest in Europe, is a labyrinth of alleys rich of ancient palaces, Romanesque churches, little piazzas and it was inscribed on the World Heritage List (UNESCO).








Palazzo Bianco




Palazzo Rosso











Un saluto da Genova!


Photography © by Albarosa Simonetti


©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things". 

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Cheers

Christmas gifts 

To celebrate the holidays and the New Year a flute of Champagne or less expensive Italian Prosecco will be the best. If you have many guests these charming multicolored open rings will help them to recognize their glass.
695560 

The Party-rings by Tescoma comes in 12 vibrant colors.
A cheerful, useful, inexpensive last minute gift for New Year's Eve.


©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.
I love to hear from you!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

A game for designers and wannabe…

Feltrinelli 45 Design game
Until January I will be posting about simple, inexpensive gifts for the holiday season, great also as house warming gift or host gifts any time of the year.

During the Holidays all games are enjoyed by children and adults and it is a special happy moment of being together. This game is called 45 Design and it is a memory game created  to recognize and remember 45 “must” of design, iconic pieces of the masters from 1981. To win you need to memorize and find the appropriate twin card.
This brilliant game was created by the Milanese architect Daniela Galassi who teaches Interior design at Made in Interior school.

A game for designers, wannabes, for everyone interested in design and an inspiration for children who maybe one day will follow that creative path.
Available online at Feltrinelli

The best gift  is creating memories!

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

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I love to hear from you!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Brillante choice for the Holidays

12_b_idee-regalo-natale-economiche
Until January I will be posting about simple, inexpensive gifts for the holiday season, great also as house warming gift or host gifts any time of the year.

This is not just a tray to serve nuts but also a playful way of entertaining friends and family. It comes with instructions for the game and it would be a perfect gift for the Holiday season, bringing joy to the Christmas table.

By Sagaform …“Sagaform stands for joyful, innovative gifts for the kitchen and the set table. Indoors and outdoors. Joyful gifts for friends or family, or to spoil yourself with.”

The best gift  is creating memories!

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.
I love to hear from you!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Laundry time


Until January I will be posting about gifts for the holiday season, great also as house warming gift or host gifts any time of the year.

For that special person who enjoys cleaning (I am sure there are many...) an eco-chic line of specialty detergent and fabric care to take the chore out of doing laundry is provided by The Laundress, from New York, with products made with 100% natural ingredients.


sweaterStone
Sweater Stone, yes you guessed, it removes unsightly pilling.





Wool and cashemere spray, freshens yarns and naturally repel bugs
(we all know moths have expensive taste!)




The Laundress sweater stone
Monogrammed Lint free cleaning cloths.



The Laundress Baby Gift Set
Baby Gift Set



The Laundress soap bar
Kitchen Soap Bar

The packaging itself makes you feel like washing by hand again or even invent new domestic chores…so beautiful these products are!

A nice gift for that special person who loves DIY at home!

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.
I love to hear from you!

Sunday, December 18, 2011

A unique gift for a special person

 
Until January I will be posting about gifts for the holiday season, great also as house warming gift or host gifts any time of the year.  Don’t we all love candles?  Any time of the year but especially at Christmas time, New Year’s Eve or during any holiday.

Their glow creates peace and beauty in any home.

Cire Trudon candles
For this holiday season and for a special gift to someone that has everything I suggest a candle  from France, by Cire Trudon (cires et bougies depuis 1643). The above images show their Paris boutique.


la-petite-bougie Cire Trudon 

In 1643 a salesman named Claude Trudon arrived in Paris and became the owner of a store in Rue Saint-HonorĂ©. He was a grocer but also a wax merchant and supplied his customers with candles for lighting their homes and for the parish. 
Fast forward…
1799- In that year, Napoleon Bonaparte became First Consul of France. In 1804 he became Emperor and with him Trudon entered the imperial court.




12-13-2011 1-35-23 PM 

 One of their candles is appropriately called Empire and its description in the website is: “Pine, sage and hay are vibrating in the air of this Napoleonian camp with hints of cades and maquis. The joyful and indulging warmth of thyme, marjoram and rosemary ring like a fife. A moment of peace right after a battle between dog and wolf. An imperial tent exhaling the perfect scent crowned by the strength of laurel.”



Marie Antoinette Coppola movie

Fast forward again
Cire Trudon lits up the queen Marie-Antoinette once again, supplying candles for shooting Coppola’s film in Versailles.

If you live in Vancouver Provide store has a great selection of Cire Trudon candles, but I warn you: the hard part is choosing the scent to buy, they are all fantastic.


Cire Trudon, everything a candle lover can desire!


©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".


If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.
I love to hear from you!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

A special gift

Until January I will be posting about simple, inexpensive gifts for the holiday season, great also as house warming gift or host gifts any time of the year.  In December ideas for gifts are flowing but we must remember that giving something made by us shows more affection and express our personal involvement. Here are some beautiful compositions taken from the
blog An Apple a Day written by Brooklyn, New York, florist Amy Merrick.

Garland for Christmas 

Let’s go hunting for branches, leaves, seasonal flowers, not forgetting chestnuts, pinecones, winter berries.

Flower arrangement 

With them we can easily (hopefully) compose a wreath, a garland, a table centerpiece for our home or bring this  special gift to a dinner during the holidays.

The best gift is creating memories!

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.
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Monday, December 12, 2011

Bagel Measuring Tape!


Why should measuring things be boring? How to have fun while doing it?
In my previous post, click HERE “Can you guess what it is?”
I asked to identify a strange object, go there if you like to read all the comments I received.

The Bagel Tape Measure is a fashionable object in different colors: orange, white or black.
Bagel measurement tape

It has a  donut-esque hole in the middle to make it portable since it functions as a strap hole, so easy to attach to bags or key chains and also provides a better grip for fingers.
  • Portable donut/bagel-shaped designer tape measure 
  • Colors: black, white or orange
  • Size: 45 × 21mm (1.77 x 0.82")
  • Weight: 290g
  • Material: ABS resin
Design by Chiaki Murata for Metaphys and Made in Japan.

Congratulations to the first two readers who answered correctly:

- A Critic’s Eye, who is very knowledgeable in design and following my blog day and night :)
In fairness for my readers, since we already know A Critic’s Eye will answer promptly and correctly every time… the second timely correct answer came from

- Peggy at Peggy Braswell Design

Thanks for participating, it was fun!

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".


If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Can you guess what it is?


Can you guess what this object is?
Is it a container for hamburger lunch?
Is it a yummy bagel?
Is it…referring to an apple a day?
Is it…?

Only hint I can give you is that the hole in the middle has a special function too!

Now it is your turn to write but remember, comments will be published all together next week, and the first to guess it right will not win anything…but will only have the “privilege” to be named in the follow-up post.

Please don’t spoil the game publishing comments on Facebook!

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.
I love to hear from you!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Virtual Valentino

 
I published a post on RED a year ago, around this time, and of course I was also writing about the
saturated, vibrant “Red Valentino” and you can read it HERE.


Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum
This Red Door is the entrance to a new Museum, the first of its kind…
opening on Monday, December 5, 2011. 

The mythical designer Valentino Garavani will have a computer generated museum showing his archives on this Virtual Museum. Giancarlo Giammetti, Valentino’s long time business partner and for many years in the past also life partner said about this project:

"Real museums need an enormous investment and the assurance that they will exist for years, even decades, and in a perfect way. This is difficult to achieve in today's economy. So I asked myself if it would be possible to create a vast computer-generated museum?
We have kept an organized archive since the seventies that represents an enormous testimony from these years. With expert designers, I was able to create an architecture that belongs to Italy and especially to Rome, Valentino's epicenter, which is described by light and shade, 'chiaroscuro', and at the same time is 'unbuildable' … an architecture only possible in a computer-generated world.
Animated galleries show a life's work, and hundreds of key dresses have been photographed revolving 360 degrees to show every line and stitch.
One click on the dress and the user can discover its history—who wore it, where, and when. Five thousand documents, photos, and 190 videos make up the Museum's database."



Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum
Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress for her second marriage to Onassis.





Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum
Black and White Room



Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum
Red Room

I can’t wait to visit the museum on Monday and I hope you will too, clicking HERE.

Finally, when asked: “What should a woman never wear?” Valentino answered:  "Lady Gaga's clothes."
This quote says it all about Valentino’s style.

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.
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Sunday, November 27, 2011

My cup of coffee


Let’s start saying that often Italian words are misspelled abroad, the image above is missing an f but I have chosen to use it anyway, to make a point, of course Caffè  would be the right word, as the others you will find below in Italic, always often misspelled.

A great cup of coffee is perfect at any time, an occasion to invite a few friends over in a rainy afternoon, a coupe de thèatre at the end of a formal dinner, any moment of the day is perfect:  a hearty cup of coffee  or cappuccino for breakfast, or an espresso after lunch or dinner.

A few curiosities about coffee in Italy:
I mentioned cappuccino… in Italy is served only in the morning, if you ask for it in the afternoon they know you are a tourist…but they know you are one anyway, so go for it when you wish! Another tip for a tourist:  pick the busiest coffee bar you can see near you, go to the till to pay and just say “Espresso per favore”  (or you can simply say “Un Caffè” and they know you want an espresso, no long explanations needed of low fat, tall, medium roasted with caramel and on and on… ) and still standing up  grab your cup, pour some sugar into your 30 ml of espresso, stir briefly and drink at once, leave your cup and saucer on the counter and  out you go to enjoy the day.


imagesCAPX1U9U 

cappuccino 

If you want something similar to the American coffee ask for caffe’ lungo, which has much more caffeine.  In Italy you always see people standing elbow to elbow with others while drinking coffee or aperitivo, a way of recharging batteries in a fast way (even if we invented Slow Food movement, but that is another story…). In the best bars, especially in the South you can often be served a small glass of chilled water on the side, which cleans the palate and enhances the coffee flavor.

Caffelatte is the usual breakfast for kids, lots of milk and just a small quantity of coffee, my mother used to beat for us an egg yolk with a spoon of sugar and pour it on top of the caffelatte, it made a rich, thick cream and it was delicious.

Grown ups, after meals like at times to have a caffe’ corretto, a way of modify an espresso with a drop of liqueur,  usually strong grappa or the sweeter sambuca.

Caffe’ macchiato is instead an espresso with a drop of hot milk.

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At home, when you entertain, to serve coffee the Italian way you will need the espresso cups with saucers, in a set or mix and match vintage colored pieces and coffee spoons, smaller and different than teaspoons and napkins also need to be small, like the ones used at cocktail parties, and preferably linen or cotton.

tazzine 

If possible serve on the side a selection of sugar, granulated or in cubes, raw or white ultrafine, and of course a small jug of milk is necessary if your guests want to add a drop of it and make it a macchiato.


clip_image002[7]

If you serve coffee after dinner it is preferable to leave the table and sit in the living room, when  after dinner drinks and a light assortment of friandise can end beautifully a great dinner (or save a mediocre one, when recipes did not behave as you wished!)  you’ll then have an assortment of  petit four, chocolate truffles or some small meringues.

chiavari-coffee-casa
In the afternoon, to enrich it further you could provide some whipped cream to make it Viennese style or in summer try to add a teaspoon of ice cream, to achieve a delicious creamy taste.

clip_image002
In any case coffee chosen must be of the best quality and always fresh,  buy the best coffee grinder you can afford and ground your own just before brewing so the aroma is at its best, use fresh, clean, cold water and make only the quantity you are going to drink, coffee should never (ever) be reheated and the taste deteriorates when left in the pot.

“Let’s meet for coffee” is a way of entertaining in style, with not much effort
and without spending hours in the kitchen. 

Now I leave you because I need a cup of coffee!
©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.
I love to hear from you!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Just for fun…double vision Art

Classic works of art re-imagined using photography.
Adobe has sponsored this fascinating creative competition where artists are encouraged to submit a “remake” of a famous work of art using photography. Of course some submissions are quite hilarious or ironic and although the winner has not been chosen yet (the competition is now closed), Canadian art blog Booooooom! has been posting some of the submissions:

  
American Gothic” by Grant Wood; “American Gothic” remake by Jesse John Hunniford


Roxana-Azar2 Roxana-Azar1
The Artist’s Mother” by James Abbott McNeill Whistler; “The Artist’s Mother” remake by Roxana Azar


 CraigWhite2 CraigWhite1
“Grande Odalisque” by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres; “Grande Odalisque” remake by Craig White


BazookaBetty-2 BazookaBetty-1
“Self Portrait” by Frida Kahlo; “Self Portrait” remake by Bazooka Betty


ReginaSpeer2 carl spitzweg
“Der Arme Poet” by Carl Spitzweg; “Der Arme Poet” remake by Regina Speer


vermeer  wandamartin1
“Girl reading a letter by an open window” by Vermeer; “Girl reading a letter by an open window” remake by Wanda Martin.


Johannes_Vermeer_pearl Nienke-Zondervan
The Girl With The Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer; “ The Girl With The Pearl Earring” remake by Nienke Zondervan

I am fascinated by the art of photography and by art in general, Vermeer being one of my timeless artists favorites, to the point that once having a 5 hours connection in Amsterdam, even if tired after a long flight from Vancouver  I took the tram and went to see again his stunning paintings at the Rijksmuseum. On the next flight I felt so refreshed and inspired.


marat2 marat1
“The Death of Marat” by Jacques-Louis David; “The Death of Marat” remake by Ewa Wiktoria Dyszlewicz


thron2 thron1
“Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne” by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres; “Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne” remake by Isabella Materne and Christiane König.

This contest is absolutely brilliant and it inspired so many artists to create something totally new from iconic images, have you also noticed how gender is not so important any more?

Who is your favorite artist? Have you ever pushed the limits to see some of his/her projects?


©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.
I love to hear from you!
 
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