Bella Figura, The Tradition of Living Beautifully

In this third and final solo episode of Season 2, I am talking about the American writer Wendell Berry's essay, "Family Work."

Berry makes the connection between work around the home—gardening, cooking, reading, farm chores, etc.—and the solvency of family life.

Discussed in this episode:

Wendell Berry

The history of life at home

The forces that have eroded home life

Why disease is more lucrative to companies than health

How to combat the erosion of home life

Resources:

Dry Farm Wines: Use link dryfarmwines.com/bellafigura to receive a bottle for just a penny in your first order!

Shop: Bella Figura Shoppe

Bella Figura Shoppe on Etsy

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram

Bella Figura YouTube

Bella Figura Pinterest

Ros Byam Shaw is a freelance journalist and writes on design and interiors for "The World of Interiors," "House & Garden" and the "Saturday Telegraph," among others.

She is the author of Old House New Home, Perfect English, Perfect English Cottage, Perfect English Farmhouse, and English Eccentric, as well as Farrow & Ball Living with Color and Farrow & Ball Decorating with Color (all published by Ryland Peters & Small). Ros lives in Devon, England with her husband and dog.

Resources:

Dry Farm Wines: Use link dryfarmwines.com/bellafigura to receive a bottle for just a penny in your first order!

Shop: Bella Figura Shoppe

Guest:

Books by Ros

Ros' writing in "House and Garden"

Ros on Instagram

Antique Shop

Dolores:

Bella Figura Shoppe on Etsy

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram

Bella Figura YouTube

Bella Figura Pinterest

Angela Ferraro-Fanning is an author and the founder of Axe & Root Homestead, a six-acre farm in central New Jersey. A self-described "plant-based permaculture homesteader" (she breaks that down in the episode!), she began homesteading in 2012 after suffering postpartum depression with her first child. Unhappy in the graphic design business she’d worked in for over a decade, she longed to be outdoors, aligning her lifestyle with the seasons and with nature.

She started growing and preserving as much of her own homegrown produce as possible, and the homestead quickly grew from a home garden to a farm bustling with Clydesdales, geese and ducks for eggs, an apiary with ten beehives, sheep and a small orchard. She taps her own trees for maple syrup, creates her own soap and has even recently added a hobby vineyard for homemade wine.

She is the co-author of “The Harvest Table: A Collection of Seasonal Plant-Based Recipes Inspired by the Home Garden,” as well as author of The Little Homesteader Series. She is co-host of “The Definitely Not Simple Life Podcast."

[Photo Courtesy of Angela Ferraro-Fanning]

Things discussed in this episode:

Following your dreams

Changing career paths

Raising ducks, horses

Preserving food

Homegrown food

Learning as you go

Home gardens

Being a mother

Resources:

Dry Farm Wines: Use link dryfarmwines.com/bellafigura to receive a bottle for just a penny in your first order!

Shop: Bella Figura Shoppe

Guest:

Axe and Root Homestead

Angela's Cookbook

The Little Homesteader Series

Angela on Instagram

Dolores:

Bella Figura Shoppe on Etsy

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram

Bella Figura YouTube

Bella Figura Pinterest

Join me for a Christmas special where I talk about cultivating the Christmas spirit with nature, vintage finds, and your own two hands.

Merry Christmas to all!

With love,

Dolores

Resources:

Dry Farm Wines: Use link dryfarmwines.com/bellafigura to receive a bottle for just a penny in your first order!

Bella Figura Shoppe on Etsy

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram

Bella Figura YouTube

Bella Figura Pinterest

Shaye Elliott is founder of the popular blog The Elliott Homestead. She is a cookbook author, farmer, artist, wife and mother of four. She lives with her family in rural Washington state where she records her well-known YouTube videos on inspiration and tips on homesteading, cooking, preserving, gardening, and all around cultivating a beautiful life.

She is the author of four books, including Welcome to the Farm: How-to Wisdom from The Elliott Homestead; Family Table: Farm Cooking from the Elliott Homestead; The Elliott Homestead: From Scratch: Traditional, whole-foods dishes for easy, everyday meals; and Seasons at the Farm: Year-Round Celebrations at the Elliott Homestead. She is co-host of the high-ranking home and garden podcast, “Homemaker Chic.”

Things discussed in this episode:

Growing your own food

The importance of cooking

Why cooking challenges convenience culture

Embracing being a homemaker

It's okay to want to be a wife and mother

Defying the push to climb the corporate ladder

Living a slower life

Food is love

Resources:

Dry Farm Wines: Use link dryfarmwines.com/bellafigura to receive a bottle for just a penny in your first order!

My Guest:

The Elliott Homestead

Shaye's photographs

Shaye's books

Homemaker Chic Podcast

Shaye's YouTube Channel

Dolores:

Bella Figura Shoppe

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram

Bella Figura YouTube

Bella Figura Pinterest

Sara Dahmen is a coppersmith and the founder of House Copper cookware. When Sara was researching a historical fiction novel, she realized much of our kitchenware is no longer available as it once was and no one was making American copper designs. She created the House Copper American copper cookware line using historical references from original American coppersmiths.

Not only does Sara hand-drill, rivet, hand-tin and polish each of her wares, but she also spends time with a tinsmith, where she works weekly with tools from the 1700 and 1800’s to recreate vintage reproductions of tin and copper and build custom copperware designs from scratch. She is the only female coppersmith working in the United States. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and children on a micro farm.

Things discussed in this episode:

The benefits of cooking with copper, clay, and cast iron

What's in modern-day cookware

The origins of copper, clay, and cast iron as cookware

Being the only female coppersmith in America

Creating with your hands

Creating a life that resonates with your values

The importance of community

Embracing your ancestral culture

Resources:

Dry Farm Wines: Use link dryfarmwines.com/bellafigura to receive a bottle for just a penny in your first order!

Sara's website

Sara on Instagram

Copper, Iron, and Clay: A Smith's Journey

Bella Figura Shoppe

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram

Bella Figura YouTube

Bella Figura Pinterest

This is the first of several solo episodes, where I choose a topic and spend a bit of time breaking it down and exploring its many angles. I'm choosing topics, mostly books, that I believe will resonate with listeners. My first solo episode focuses on Alice Waters' "We Are What We Eat, A Slow Food Manifesto." Waters is an American chef, author, and restaurateur, well-known for her restaurant Chez Panisse, and its pioneering of the farm-to-table movement.

Things mentioned in this episode:

Recognizing the values of "fast food culture" in our own actions

Re-evaluating our relationship to convenience

Rethinking our approach to the availability of food

Learning to slow down

Learning to appreciate beauty over speed and convenience

Choosing what we value over what is easiest

The importance of hard work

The need for challenge in our lives

Resources:

Dry Farm Wines: Use link dryfarmwines.com/bellafigura to receive a bottle for just a penny in your first order!

Alice Waters' "We Are What We Eat"

"The Tyranny of Convenience" by Tim Wu, New York Times

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram

Kay Foye is a knife maker and artist who grew up in Princeton, NJ, where her love of horses began. After leaving the hustle and bustle of work in New York City, Kay became a rancher in Colorado, and in 2018 began to learn the art of knifemaking, and she then began forging legacy knives—handmade knives with the mementos of a client’s life forged within the handle. Kay combines an aesthetically appealing blend of ranch life, artist, and blacksmith into her creative expression.

Photo courtesy of Preston Hoffman

Discussed in this episode:

Finding your path the roundabout way.

The importance of storytelling in different forms.

Creating a legacy through tangible objects.

Collecting items for beauty and longevity.

Creating and purchasing heirlooms for your descendants.

The kitchen as the center of a home.

Upleveling your kitchen tools.

The wrangler life.

The artistic life.

Country life.

Doing things simply because they make you happy.

Resources:

Dry Farm Wines: Use link dryfarmwines.com/bellafigura to receive a bottle for just a penny in your first order!

Stetson short film

Kay's site

Kay on Instagram

Chevalier + Co.

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram

Angela Reed, also known as Parisienne Farmgirl via her online presence, is an author, farmer, wife, mother of six, and a successful entrepreneur. Angela lives on a 27-acre farm tucked deep in the woods of Door County, Wisconsin with her husband and six children. Moments from the sapphire waters of Lake Michigan, she spends her days tending to her potager and cottage gardens and caring for her family and farm animals.

In 2005, Angela created the website “Parisienne Farmgirl” and since then has been passionate about developing “joie de vivre”, a joy in life, and sharing that journey with other women as they cultivate memories of domesticity, motherhood and creativity. She is the co-host of the popular podcast, Homemaker Chic, and author of “From France to the Farm: Blending Generational Favorites with French Flair.” She is also the publisher and founder of Old World Design Society, a publication and private society for individuals who cherish the design and lifestyle elements of a bygone era and who believe in lived-in spaces, heirloom pieces, and that ‘new is not always better.’

Discussed in this episode:

Learning how to farm.

Being self reliant.

Adding beauty to your home and work.

Trusting your decor style.

Old World decor.

Antiques as decor.

Country life.

Homesteading.

Raising farm animals.

Preserving foods as our ancestors did.

Learning lost traditions that our ancestors knew.

Rethinking motherhood.

Homemaking and motherhood as artform.

Resources:

Dry Farm Wines: Use link dryfarmwines.com/bellafigura to receive a bottle for just a penny in your first order!

Angela's Website

Old World Design Society

Angela on Instagram

Angela on YouTube

Homemaker Chic Podcast

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram

Bella Figura YouTube

Bella Figura Pinterest

My guest for Episode 13, the last of this season's conversations recorded in 2020, features model and fashion blogger Lisa DiCicco Cahue. Originally from Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, Lisa, of Italian descent, moved to NYC and attended Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) where she graduated top of her class and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Fashion Merchandising. She worked in numerous areas of the fashion industry, specifically in the fashion closet at Harper’s Bazaar, as well as being an assistant buyer. She has since been signed with Wilhelmina, Ford, and is currently represented by Elite Model Management. She has worked for designers such as ATM, Cynthia Rowley, Thom Browne, Ramy Brook, Rebecca Minkoff and Protagonist. Maintaining the perfect minimalist street style and “model off-duty” looks, Lisa hosts her own blog, and in 2018 she became pregnant and now dedicates herself to her own business and raising her son, Sebastian. She has collaborated with some of the best designers in fashion both as a model and an influencer. She had a successful capsule collection with Amazon, selling out many pieces in under 30 hours and hopes to one day have her own label. Things discussed: Pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones Jealousy verse aspiration Motherhood The struggles of the postpartum experience Learning to accept our postpartum bodies Inspiring women to be bold Fashion as bella figura Raising children to have a sense of their roots Embracing our cultural values and discarding those that limit us Fashion tips to feel your most confident How to look great in photos Resources: Lisa's website Lisa on Instagram Bella Figura website Dolores on Instagram The Italian American Podcast