Pink or Yellow?

It is time to decide about the colour for the outside walls.

Pink?


Or yellow?


Pink?


Or yellow?


This is the picture I got as a proposal. Difficult to tell on the screen what this color would be on the wall. Is it more 'yellow' or 'orange'?.

It is a coloured plaster. Different from painting on plaster. Some technique that gives the facades a kind of antique look.

I really like the colour of the seaside facade. We call it 'pink'.
Although, to me, it is more a 'pale coral'. (I think of the coral fishers that used to dive for coral underneath the house).


BTW, the seaside facade's color is the background color of this blog!

And I think that the blue tiles fit perfectly to this 'pink'.


But would it look good on the other facade that faces the piazza?


Maybe?


(We want to paint three sides of the house in the same color and leave the one stone wall as it used to be for the last 200 and something years.)

Picture source: drawings of the house by Pino Pitt (colored by me);
other picture by me, except the yellow palazzo which is the Xara Palace in Malta via Architectural Digest magazine.

Calabria: Amarelli Liquorice

On this side of the world it is wintertime and cold outside.
I am sitting at the computer (in Beijing) and next to me I have a tiny blue tin of 20 g best Italian liquorice (thanks to my Italian mother-in-law). I thought, I am going to post about this tiny tin.


It is Liquirizia Di Calabria from Amarelli in Rossano. The Amarelli company, founded in 1731, is one of the oldest liquorice (or licorice) producers. And Rossano is a city on the Ionian coast, the other coast of Calabria.



This is my favorite one. A red tin of 40 g pure liquorice. Same like in the tiny blue box.


"Liquorice is an elixir of longevity in Chinese medicine and according to Hippocrates, this root with a characteristic bitter-sweet taste, and vivifying, digestive and throat-soothing virtues, has been harvested since antiquity on the Calabria Ionian coast, where it grows naturally."

Throat-soothing, that's why I am a fan of it. Actually I was not aware of all the other benefits!


I love these nostalgic boxes. I hope Amarelli keeps them that way for ever!

Here I love the design better than the product inside:



The Beach-mare tin contains 20 g of liquorice with natural mint and is colour sugar coated.




The Sassolini are soft liquorice with natural anise and colour sugar coated. They come in a tin of 40 g.


In 2001, the Amarelli have inaugurated the "Giorgio Amarelli" Liquorice Museum which was awarded the Guggenheim Enterprise & Culture Trophy.

More info here:
Amarelli Company
Amarelli Museum
Amarelli history by Henokiens

Photo source: most of them via www.amarelli.it

Natural Sources of Light for a Bathroom & more

The latest accomplish rate was 13.55% as of November 30, 2007.
More than 10% in one month... maybe we can make it until the summer holidays? - I am just kidding. I will be more than happy if we make it according the plan - until November 2008.

My son (4 y.) asked me today: Who is fixing my Italian house in Pizzo? (my !) And then he asked: Do they know how to repair it? - I said, Angelo knows and he is there.

It is so important that he is on site, as there are tons of additional questions to answer and new decisions to make.

Today, Angelo and I, have been writing a lot of emails back and forwards. He most of the time in Italian and me most of the time in English.

The longest was about natural sources of light for the new bathroom. As we re-located the bathroom in piano terra (ground floor / first floor) we got a bigger space for the kitchen and of course a new bathroom. The old window of the former bathroom belongs now to the kitchen. The new bathroom will get a new window. The window will be small. So I had a thought once, about glass bricks (Glasbausteine) in a certain height towards the neighbouring storage area... I never mentioned this idea until about two days ago - when it was too late. Angelo and Pino, the architect, apparently liked the idea right away. But, ups, the new wall was already perfectly finished. Remember the working speed?

The wall can be demolished partly, no problem (only extra costs). So now, we discuss via email about the size, the height and the position of the glass bricks. The glass bricks come 20cm x 20cm and in many beautiful colours to choose of. And the question was asked if we want to use them on the opposite wall towards the kitchen as well.

However, I cannot picture where this could probably be. In the niche of the shower? I suggested see through glass, so we could have sea view from the shower (through the kitchen) - hey, why not? There is a technique with a certain liquid that runs over the glass and turns it to not see through... tricky. But I think I will place the fridge there. On the side of the kitchen, not in the bathroom... confused? Me almost.



This is the new space for the kitchen after cleaning up the debris (the light area, behind the yellow bucket - before the yellow bucket is the dining ares).


This is the new bathroom. The shower will be in the left niche. Looking at the picture, I think the bathroom is smaller than I thought. We plan 2 sinks, 1 WC, 1 bidet, 1 shower and 1 washing machine, maybe a 'working' sink for hand wash laundry (something Italian). Maybe we have to reconsider. I guess, when you split a big room into two, both new rooms always appear smaller than assumed.







Where is this hole? I know it is in the wall between the kitchen and the new bathroom. Can we please have a picture from the entire wall? Maybe this is a place for glass bricks? - Or, one window and one area of glass bricks are enough.




And the outside renovations just started as well. The first picture above shows the scaffolding on the sea side facade as of December 1st.

For those who worry about our cliff - the rock was professionally renovated a few years ago. The concrete plate underneath the house was part of the project.

Me & Writing & Design Blogs

I am a writer! At least once in a while, when I am blogging or when I am writing for a magazine like

tbjhome. It is a monthly English lifestyle and interior design magazine that is distributed together with

That's Beijing, the essential monthly guide for life in Beijing. It was fun working with the editor and with the bloggers Danielle, Grace and Jennifer (see details below). Thank you for the cooperation!

I love to work from home, anytime, best time for me is nighttime.

Here is the article, two pages - click on the pic to enlarge:

I proposed to the editor to introduce some creative design blogs to our readers instead of recommending design books. They liked the idea, and gave me even two pages. However the editor said they only want design blogs that have their own domain name because blogspot is blocked in China (censorship).

So I choose from my favorites:

the style files by Danielle de Lange, The Netherlands

design*sponge by Grace Bonney, New York U.S.

and The Peak of Chic by Jennifer Dwyer, Atlanta U.S.

At the end the editor decided to at least mention three more of my favorite design blogs that are on blogspot (if anybody in China faces access difficulties, go via pkblogs.com):

Absolutely Beautiful Things by Anna Spiro, Brisbane Australia

Decor8 by Holly Becker, Boston U.S.

and Designers' Block by Di Overton, National Park Northumberland U.K.

As thinking green is important for our environment, I was looking for a green blog and found

inhabitat. This blog, founded by Jill Fehrenbacher, New York is entirely devoted to green design.

Two more inspiring blogs were suggested by the editor:

Core77 - the industrial design super site

and NOTCOT - a visual filtration of ideas + aesthetics + amusement

And what does this have to do with our Palazzo in Pizzo ?

Well, it is mentioned in the magazine as well, sort of, shortly, in my bio.

As I know lots of other bloggers from pictures, I feel like I owe you a picture of me. And as it is published in this Beijing magazine anyway, why not publish it on my blog?

Here it is:

Bye for now.

9.82 %

We are so lucky that Angelo is in Pizzo and supervising the work and work process closly! Grazie Angelo!!!

Yesterday I got his email saying that 9.82% of the work has been done! ("Attualmente il valore dell'avanzamento lavori calcolato è pari al 9,82%.")

Can you guess what Angelo's profession is? Ideal for our project!

So far almost every day there is a small decisions to make. A change at the roof, another wall here and no wall there, no door here and a door there... My husband and I get the emails from Angelo with photos and drawings attached together with his suggestions and we send back our opinion. I have my mother in law together with her sister in law visiting us in China. They are involved in the discussions as well as they know the house. Although I wish I could see the progress myself - it couldn't be better handled as it is now by Angelo.

Of course Angelo is not the only one we are depending on. Thanks to the young architect and his team we are having a great project. I heard that il giovane architetto does not mind to have his name published on my blog. It is signore Pino Pitt - not related to the American actor who is interested in architecture, but not less charming. It is also him who provided me with new drawings of the house that I posted some weeks ago.

Also I want to thank another talented family member, the cousin of my mother in law, who made a very detailed plan, better to say planS, for all electricity related issues by each floor. It is an amazing work and we still have to study it carefully. Grazie Giorgio! Hope to see you, your wife (one of my loyal readers, I posted her thoughts about Calabrian holidays) and son soon again for summer holiday in bella Calabria.

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Remark: thank you Suzy from Studio Anetta in Hong Kong who helped me to post a comment to let you know I have difficulties to access my blogs in Beijing (the Great Firewall of China is blocking blogger, blogspot and others). I just found a way around thanks to pkblogs.com.