Quick! While I have internet.

I miraculously have more than two bars this late hour! And I wanted to use this time to show you something I've been playing around with for the shop. Yes I know its a little late but I think it would still be a lovely flower to add to the patch.

It's a pink poinsettia. Made of felt with little white fabric cyathias.

More modeling of the flower to come in photos of my London adventures. I think my next stop is the tower bridge. and then most likely back to borough market for another pie or two, Jess cannot get enough of em!

Love and Cheerio!

~Valiant V

internet here is spotty. I can't post new things until jess is finished using his computer...whenever that may be. ciao!

On the dskjhd Day of London My True Love. meh christmas is over.

The snowflakes I made out of doilies from the dollar store

SO how was your christmas? Mine was very quiet and relaxing. We really didn't do anything. Just opened presents, took a walk down the canal near Jess's flat, came back and roasted a chicken. So in lieu of gorgeous christmas themed pictures, here are a few links.

Some cool old school vintage christmas album covers.

A trailer for a movie that I MUST see. And this trailer too shows you more of the movie.

And finally, for those of us who need a whole year to get ready for christmas, some cute felt christmas ornaments to work on this summer.

Monkey santa ornament again from the dollar store. I love that store!

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN!!!

What're you going to do for new years?

Peace

~Valiant V

On the Fourth Day of the London Trip My True Love Showed to Me

Trafalgar Square and Covent Gardens

An obligatory london shot. Really in the booth trying to get my bank card reactivated. Did you know you're supposed to call your bank to let them know you're going on vacation? Oops.

Trafalgar Square

Im excited to come back and see this place when it's warm. Beautiful open square that at the moment has a huge tree, a gift from Norway, given every year as a thank you gift for the help during the war.

Had another tourist take our picture next to the fountain. I immediately thought of my friends Brian and Jason.

Sorry for the inside joke everyone else. It's beautiful!

Next stop Covent Garden!

It was basically a lovely outdoor/covered shopping centre with a few booths in one section of local artist and craftsman. And we found the one spot we were looking for. Ben's Cookies.

Simply delicious cookies. I got the basic model, milk chocolate. Jess got a white chocolate macadamia nut and a chocolate chips with nuts. Thank you so much for the suggestion Jenna!

We had dessert before dinner. We found a restaurant in the centre that was in this little pit. It was a perfect place for street performers, natural amplification. The group that played during our lunch was this great classical group. They were really fun and one of the women actually had this extension on the neck of her cello that let her dance around and play. Awesome entertainment while eating.

Well that's it for a while. Christmas eve I didn't really do anything and Im doing nothing but eating and christmas-ing on the day of. So Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

~Valiant V

On The Third Day Of The London Trip My True Love Showed To Me...

The Neighborhood of Angel

There is a place on Essex St called S&M... which stands for Sausage and Mash. There I had a proper English breakfast that included:

Four pieces of toast, mash potatoes, baked beans, sausage (a big proper English one mind you), mushrooms, a grilled tomato, an egg and some bacon.

It was pretty tasty but a lot of food. Why do they serve baked beans with all this? It didn't seem to fit, taste wise, at all.

I was still on the hunt for a warm coat and we went through a few shops on a neighboring street called Upper but there was nothing suitable. But I did finally ask someone who worked in a shop if they knew where we could get some christmas lights. She said there was a "Christmas store" on Essex where we just were. After a couple of side roads and a few wrong turns we found it! It was the equivalent of those Spirit stores that only pop up during the Halloween season. We quickly found the perfect ones for us.

WE FOUND LIGHTS FINALLY!!!!! I knew that after finding those my luck will change for the better. And it did for I found my jacket at last. (pictures to come later in a different post, in case you're interested, ah you don't care)

On our quick xmas lights adventure we passed by a taxidermist shop that was so extreme but also extremely closed. I tried to take some photos of all the animals in the tiny shop through the bars on the window. There were so many different animals in there. A kitten on a ledge right next to the hippo head, next to the moose, above the lion. Crazy.

And a puffin with a napoleon hat next to a very christmasy squirrel.

Before we went home we stopped at a supermarket to get some christmas day supplies. I added a few treats to the British food cupboard. The treacle comes in such a cool tin.

I might make something with the treacle. Have yet to try and taste the marmite.

It's hard to see but thats our tree all lit up in the window of his apartment!

And for your information I almost totally finish the breakfast, Jess helped eat some toast and sausage. Why I ate all my beans I have no idea.

CHRISTMAS IS COMINK!!!!!!!!

Sincerely

~Valiant V

On The Second Day Of The London Trip My True Love Showed To Me...

Disclaimer: You'll probably find most of these posts filled with experiences in food. Yes I plan on doing other things but, what can I say I love to eat!

Egg in da Hole for Breakfast. My second, less burned, attempt using Jess's untouched stove.

The Borough Market, Yummy!

The Borough Market was on the other side of the Bridge. Which isn't all that spectacular, but you could see other beautiful landmarks from it....of which I didn't take pictures...sorry. 8)

So lemme back up a bit. Like a true Bay Area native I was not prepared for the real weather here at all. So Jess took me to Oxford Circus to do some coat/gloves/real shoes shopping. It was a mad house there. I saw some things I liked but was feeling a little overwhelmed by all the shops. I ended up only buying some gloves (also kind of shown in picture above).

THEN we went to lunch at Borough Market which is an outdoor, but covered sort of, farmers market with lots of other glorious things. There was a booth that had french pastry items, one in particular I discovered was a Cannele. It was like a bite sized creme brulee cake.

I do not have a picture of my own of these because we ate them too quickly!

There was a meat section that had pheasants and ducks hanging, goose fat in jars, squid dangling off the side of the vendors iced display, very english food strewn about the place. Awesome. Jess bought some mulled wine spices at a wine stall so we could make some at home. I bought some string beans and carrots from the veggie section.

One of the last stops we took there was a meat shop that made its own pies. We bought a pork pie with apples on top! Apparently you traditionally eat them cold but the idea of eating a solid cold meat pie did not sound appetizing. So we warmed it up in the oven just a bit, it wasn't piping hot mind you. A most DELICIOUS first meat pie I must say! With a side of the best green beans I think I have ever tasted. Just boiled quickly with a little salt.

Oh yeah and on the way home it started to snow! There's a good layer out there now.

Snow for Christmas!!!

My friend Jenna suggested that I go to Ben's Cookies in Covent Garden for some amazing treats. Anyone have any other suggestions, food or otherwise, to explore while I'm here?

Love and Creme Brulee Cakes,

~Valiant V

Holiday Tutorial-Edible Ornaments

In this foreign place Jess and I are having trouble finding christmas decorations for our lovely little tree. We just can't seem to find any stores that carry ornaments or even string lights! This need gave me a silly idea to turn one of my christmas presents into ornaments. (I apologize in advance for the bad lighting in the photos, its gets dark in London at about 3:00!)

Jess let me open one present before christmas and it happened to be a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. They're such cute little gold globes, perfect for the job! It's a super easy job too.

I needed something to make sure the string didn't go through the candy all the way so I used some scrap felt for the base.

This set was done so quickly but you could probably do it a little differently with nicer looking glittery ribbon instead. But I think it adds a nice touch to our tree. (AND you could take off the label or add a holiday sticker to them)

I should add a popcorn garland too! Now if I can only find popcorn kernels.....

What kind of ornaments do you usually put on your tree?

~Valiant V

Jolly Ol London!!!!!!!

I have arrived!

I'm visiting my boyfriend Jess in London. The funny thing is, he hasn't really done much of anything remotely "British" yet. So after we got some fish n chips (for me, he already had that) we went to a market to get some basics. Tea, Biscuits, and Brown Sauce. And on the menu for tomorrow, egg in the hole! I have so many places I want to see and Im here for two weeks! I'll keep you up to date all.

p.s.- I thought it was about time to order up some of my own cards. But I timed it so that they would arrive here instead. And guess what was waiting for me. My business cards!!! They're so cute.

Peace, Love, And Biscuits

-Valiant V

It's Finally Here!

That's right. It's what you've all been waiting for...

My shop is up and running!

I want to say thank you to Jill, for introducing me to etsy, Marissa, for doing a great job capturing my creations, and to Jason, for modeling for my shop.

There will be more items up soon. Thanks for your patience people!

Love and Stuff

~Valiant V

AhhhhChoooo

I called in sick today. This cold just refuses to go away and I needed a day to just rest and fight it. But I did not want to be totally unproductive either.

I've had this big bag of leftover tool pieces and I could never think of how to use them. Then I found this easy no-sew tutorial from a lovely site, Treasures for Tots. My tutu looks a little scraggly because they were not even sized scraps but it was super easy to make. I'm going to add it to the rainy day costume box in my classroom.

My kitty Murphy letting me use her at as a model. She wasn't really happy about it.

Peace, Love, and Lots of Fluids!

~Valiant V

Oh Internet

So my man Jess thought a picture I had sent him was so cute that he decided to post it on a public site for all the world to see.

Let me back up a bit...

I was going through my closet to try and clear some things. Found the bottom half of my boyfriend's Chewbacca costume from a few Halloweens ago and decided to try it on. Was so silly I just had to photograph that moment for him. He happens to be in London trying out the whole world traveler thing. Anyways...

Friend of a friend sees the picture on the site and shows it to said friend. Who then proceeds to notice that I have about 70,000 views. So weird. And slightly frustrating that this picture is what's being noticed with no connections to this site or my etsy store. Well at least I got my 5 seconds of internet fame.

You stay classy world. I know I will...from now on.

~Valiant V

French Apple Awesome

Saturday night was spent making this french apple tart from Ina Garten's recipe. It was actually really easy, even if I didn't have a dough making blade on my food processor. Definitely gonna pull this dessert out again next time I want to impress someone.

I want to say thank you to Jason and Brian for lending me their kitchen to make this. I made this in the kitchen while they played Halo 3. Wonderful Saturday night.

~Valiant V

ps- new flower coming soon! And listings available in a few days. yay!