Month: March 2016

Let’s go: 17th century Cotswold cottages

/ get back, laurettadimmick / 1 Comment

Think of Britain and an image like this may spring into your mind:

780px-Cotswolds_Panorama_Fields

As we continue with our virtual time-traveling tour of the UK–following the path set by the BBC Two show The Great Interior Design Challenge, Season 2–our next stop is the 17th century, where we visit the living rooms of three cottages where the proletariat once lived in rather crowded conditions.

We are visiting this highlighted section of England today:

Cotswolds_AONB_locator_map.svg

The cottages look like this on the outside:

256px-Castle_combe_cotswolds

Charming, no?

Although originally meant to house many families, four hundred years after they were originally constructed, the cottages have been expanded within  to single family homes.

Despite having larger interiors nowadays, however, the insides are often quite dark and usually centered around a massive fireplace.

images-12

Updating with a special eye towards brightening the interiors of living rooms in three similar cottages is the challenge facing the three amateur designers on this episode of my favorite new tv show.

You can find it on Youtube.  It’s a pretty good episode. https://youtu.be/02oB-2KWslE

 

And, you can read about the Cotswold here, if you are the nerdy type like me:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotswolds

 

 

1920s British beach huts

/ get back, laurettadimmick / 1 Comment

OMG!  Who knew?!!

images-2

Having never lived on the British coastline, I had no idea that these so-called huts even existed.  Built in the 1920s, these darling little buildings make an appearance on that tv obsession I currently have, The Great Interior Design Challenge, on BBC Two.

You can watch the episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/dn0OtnufTC0

 

images-5

Aren’t they sweet?

So, here are some of the interiors.  I want one.

images-3

images-7

images-9

Want to join me?

Here’s a little more into on the place they inhabit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canford_Cliffs

 

This is considered to be Britain’s best beach hut:

CO109713_005 hut nb.jpg-pwrt3

Read about it here:  http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/13609885.Mersea_Island___s_Betty_is_Britain___s_best_beach_hut/

 

Daylight savings is sprung and so am I!

/ get back, laurettadimmick / Leave a comment

Can spring be far behind?

IMG_6652IMG_6655

I’ve spent the last few weeks, since before Valentine’s Day actually, designing flowers for a local florist.  Now that spring is more or less officially here, I’m sprung from my little part-time job playing with nature’s bounty.

Here are some recent spring blossoms I’ve been arranging.  Love spring flowers!

 

IMG_6643

IMG_6645IMG_6644IMG_6657IMG_6650

It was fun for a while, but now its time to work in my garden helping nature produce even more.  Ah, spring!  I love ya!

 

 

 

 

 

Bel Paese, the beautiful country and an everyday pleasure

/ get back, laurettadimmick / Leave a comment

 

a1a538b29182fa773dc0304fbd651a85

 

What a gorgeous, elegant, art deco image!

 

And it was designed by R. F Quillio in 1928 to advertise, of all the humble things in the world, an Italian cheese.

 

Ah, Italy!  You never fail me.

2128

 

Have you ever had slivers of Bel Paese paired with slices of ripe pear and/or a glass of hearty red wine?  If not, you must!  You owe yourself this essential everyday pleasure.

images-9                     Wine-and-Cheese-Desktop-Wallpaper

Bel Paese is a very common product in Italy, a semi-soft cheese made from cow’s milk with a mild, buttery taste. Made in small discs, the cheese matures in six to eight weeks, and finishes with a pale, creamy yellow color.

ch-004

Bel Paese was created in 1906 by Egidio Galbani in Melzo, a small village near Milan, in the Lombardy region of Italy. Galbani wanted to produce a mild and delicate cheese to sell mainly in Italy, but to compete with the fine French cheeses such as brie.

images-3

Once Galbani was satisfied with his final recipe and brought it into production, he named his cheese after a popular 1876 book written by Antonio Stoppani, the well-known Italian geologist and paleontologist.  Stoppani was very important as a popularizer of science. In his most popular work, Il Bel Paese, he presented – by means of 32 didactical/scientific conversations in front of a fireplace – ideas and concepts of the natural sciences, with a language that was accessible to the average 19th-century reader, and particularly deals with geology and the beauties of the Italian landscape.  Coming of age at the same time as the formation of the modern Italian nation, patriotic fever inspired both Stoppani and Galbani.

240_002

 

Today Bel Paese the cheese is produced both in Italy and in the USA.  The Italian product is packaged with a map of Italy and an image of Antonio Stoppani on the top.

1bdff3fec939c51a8cd3088e890bbab2

While the wrapping of the cheese made in the U.S. has a map of the Americas.

2128

There were several good advertising images created to market this simple cheese in Italy, including these

 

9590d73446df61f1ad30683402669518

 

images

images-6

 

images

 

But never, I think, has an ad been as successful and gorgeous as the one below.  Let’s have another look!

a1a538b29182fa773dc0304fbd651a85

It melts my heart with its beauty!

 

Bellisima! Exhibition of post-war Italian high fashion

/ get back, laurettadimmick / Leave a comment

bellissima_promo1

An interesting new exhibition at the NSU Art Museum in Ft. Lauderdale traces Italian high fashion from 1945 to 1968.  Check out the link below to feast your eyes on the show’s photo gallery.  Some stunning stuff is included.

BELLISSIMA: ITALY AND HIGH FASHION 1945-1968
FEBRUARY 7 – JUNE 5, 2016

The show was recently written up in the New York Times, which you can find here.

Here is a little Bulgari number to make your heart race until you can get to the included links!

Bulgari-collar-Bellissima-Cocktail

Bellisima indeed!