Designs 4 Living

Dreaming of Italy

2011-05-01T06:14:00.000-07:00

By Erin Ferucci
Celebrity Lifestyle Designer

In September

I will be there.

Chef Amanda Cushman: www.amandacooks.com

The tour was designed by Italy In Style. It is cooking in Sicily.

Tour dates: September 30 - October 8, 2011 (9 days/8 nights)

Itinerary

Day 5 - Tuesday, October 4 – Agrigento area

In the afternoon hands-on cooking class with Chef Amanda and your local chef.

Day 6 - Wednesday, October 5 – Taormina

Guided sightseeing tour of the town.

You’ll enjoy a visit of a local winery where you will explore their wine-making techniques.

Day 7 - Thursday, October 6 – Syracuse

iCooking class with Chef Amanda and Chef Fiora.

Day 7 - Friday, October 7 – Mt. Etna

Your last cooking class will take place on Mount Etna. Here you’ll meet book author and Chef

Eleonora.

Before returning to your hotel, visit the Honey House and honey tasting.

Farewell dinner at a local pizzeria and presentation of the cooking certificates.

Day 8 - Saturday, October 8 – Arrivederci

DepartureSicilian specialty

There are still openings if anyone is interested in joining me in Italy. http://amandacooks.com/html/italy.htm

"Has anyone noticed this or is it just me"?

2011-04-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

Erin Ferucci
Celebrity Lifestyle Designer

Since when did big, stuffed hairy animals become so Vogue???

How does everyone feel about this? Feel free to post your comments.

I am not sure how I feel about this.

Donna Karan

2011-02-18T08:35:00.000-08:00

By Erin Ferucci
Celebrity Lifestyle Designer

I've been a big fan of Donna Karan for close to 20 years.....I have even met her several times and she has a real presence about her in person.....

This is her new line she designed for Lenox.

The sensual lines on the vase (the brown ones) sort of co-exist with the lines of one of my favorite new dresses from her spring collection

www.donnakaran.com/collections/spring-2011/

photograpghy by: Martyn Thompson

View collection here www.lenox.com/index.cfm?spec=content&cat=karan

Finally, A New Lighting Line

2011-02-02T09:14:00.000-08:00

By Erin Ferucci
Celebrity Lifestyle Designer

bronze Giacometti

bronzed cage floor lamp

This one from the UK..(which I am currently obsessed with).

Last week while I was shopping at The Pacific Design Center, www.pacificdesigncenter.com, in Los Angeles, I was sort of desperate for new lighting sources, as that is usually the last thing I need to fill in on my jobs....and Voila"! Something new out of England.

chalk finish snail fossil lamp

Mayan gold Rockefeller

An amazing inspirational and different lighting company out of the UK, wwwportaromana.co.uk , represented in the U.S. by Donghia Showrooms, www.donghia.com.

scratched gold with fired copper

I love this duck feet lamp!

deYoung Museum French Impressionist Exhibit

2010-12-13T07:06:00.000-08:00

By Erin Ferucci
Celebrity Lifestyle Designer

Photo credit: Lisa Romerein

I will be meeting with Lisa Romerein, http://lisaromerein.com/, soon to shoot some projects.

On my recent trip to San Francisco, I visited the deYoung Museum, which is currently displaying a large exhibit on impressionist paintings. They are temporarily on loan from Paris's MUSE D"ORSAY. Enjoy the photos!

Masterpieces such as Van Gogh’s Starry Night over the Rhone, a haunting Portrait of the Artist, and Bedroom at Arles. The exhibition includes a superior collection of paintings from the Pont-Aven school, including Gauguin’s masterpiece Self-Portrait with The Yellow Christ. The exhibition concludes with the Orsay’s spectacular collection of pointillist paintings, represented by the masters Georges Seurat and Paul Signac.

The de Young is the only museum in North America to host the exhibition.

The second of two exhibitions from the Musée d’Orsay’s permanent collection, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay follows on the heels of the first with a selection of the most famous late-Impressionist paintings by Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir, as well as works representing the individualist styles of the early modern masters, including Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, and the Nabis Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard.

Paul Signac, The Riverbank

For more on the exhibit, which runs through January 18, 2011, visit http://deyoung.famsf.org/deyoung/exhibitions/van-gogh-gauguin-cezanne

Who Sells Duck Fat?

2010-12-07T07:18:00.001-08:00

By Erin Ferucci

Celebrity Lifestyle Designer

My new favorite eatery is Bouletts Larder, which I discovered on my recent trip to San Francisco.

Bulettes Larder was opened in 2004 by Chef Amaryll Schwertner and business partner, Lori Regis, as a restaurant that also sells its ingredients for use in the home kitchen. Throughout her 30-year career, Chef Schwertner has authored the cuisine in seminal restaurants in the bay area. The daily changing menus at Boulettes Larder reflect her commitment to using conscientiously produced farmstead ingredients and applying her research and curiosity in pursuit of spices and artisan oils, vinegars and grains.

My friend Jason Asch, owner of Diamond Foam & Fabric, www.diamonfoamandfabric.com, asked Nancy Silverstein, founder of La Brea Bakery and Mario Batalli’s new partner, to refer me to Boulettes Larder. Visit her bakery at www.labreabakery.com

You can check out their website at www.bouletteslarder.com