Jumble Sale Review

My first UK jumble sale at The Victoria!

A great american style divey rock a billy bar.

My own little table! I got so excited that I forgot to take photos of it before people came to peruse...then I was too embarrassed to take a long time with pictures in front of said peoples.

I brought along some lucky charms, can you see them? Mostly for luck, partly to fill empty spaces if the table was huge. But I was the first one there that day so I had my pick of spots and this cute little combo was just right for my stash.

And see my little matching price tags and cards next to my framed sign? I was stamping up a storm the day before. and writing my web address on anything that wasn't tied down.

The place was great. A pub that has a regluar monthly jumble sale. Free table, great family run business. Was a lovely first experience. I ended up selling only one bow and spending more money on pancakes with american bacon and cider for courage. But fun none the less.

Up next! A jumble sale at an art gallery in Peckham. New Gallery to be precise. I think this one might be more of a success. The coordinator is a promotional powder keg! Girl knows how to sell it.

Love and Jumbles!!

~Valiant V

Leftover Lovelies and Lazy Lunches

Another segment I thought I'd try to add

LEFTOVER LOVELIES

(Things I do with leftover food items)

and/or

LAZY LUNCHES

(Things I make that are tasty but simple because my kitchen space sucks at the moment)

First up a Leftover Lovely...

PESTO PITA PIZZA

Say that five times fast :)

Ingredients: Leftovers from various dinners and lunches of the previous weeks

-Pita Bread

-Fresh Red Chili

-Garlic

-Pesto

-Cheddar Cheese

-Grana Padano Cheese (like parmesan)

Alright I know it looks a little strange but oh my goodness ya'll this was delicious.

Brown up the garlic and chili in a little olive oil while the pita toasts a bit in the oven. Take out the pita, spread on some pesto, top with cheeses and the garlic chili oil awesome you just made. Put back in oven to melt. YU FRIGGIN UM.

Sorry, I get excited when I don't waste food AND the result tastes good.

Try it out if you ever get this combination of things leftover in your fridge.

Love and Leftovers,

~Valiant V

Life Update

This is my crazy face.

You wanna know why? Because I'm making more items for a jumble sale I am participating in this weekend! My first jumble sale in London since I've been here. Very excited. Hope to sell some of my stock that I've had forever. But also wanted to make some new things.

Messy hair aside I'm liking the results.

I also ran out of my professional mini moo cards and had to make some impromptu handmade ones with what I had. And to make it all spiffy I made matching price tags.

Remember these!

I was having a hard time motivating myself to remake these feathered friends again but the block is gone! Gonna go feather crazy for the spring time.

Mid-Week Creative Speak!

I have so many creative and artistic friends. So blessed am I. Artists, musicians, writers, poets, dancers, actors et cetera et cetera et cetera.

Yes folks its back...

Interesting Interviews With Creative People From Arouuuunnddd The Woooorrrlllldd!!!!

AKA: Mid-Week Creative Speak

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Ok so this used to be a weekly segment where I interviewed artistic, creative people, so that you may know, how awesome they are...because you should. It's probably not going to be as often as weekly but I am certainly determined to start this up again.

This week is my buddy Brian's turn.

I have known Bri for many years now and always as a writer among many things.

A fellow food and drink critic...Oh lets face it we love to judge anything and anybody.

Dirty habit. tee hee :)

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

When I was in fourth grade our class had a year-long project to write stories and have them bound into an anthology. I remember writing my first stories during that time period and really enjoying it. Making stuff up and writing it down made sense to me. And when you're that age you can get away with the utter dreck. No one is expecting any different from an eleven year old.

What is your creative process?

If an idea or thought comes to me I usually write it down. Pretty standard stuff. I don't work in order as far as sequence. I flesh out individual ideas as they come to me and leave them if I run out of thread. I've found that my best material has come out of looping together two or more unrelated ideas. Stories rarely come to me 'completed'. It's patchwork. In a nutshell: banging on the keyboard to forge something out of smaller pieces.

Is it difficult for you to come up with things to write about?

Oh I always have ideas. That's not problem for me. It's convincing myself that they are worth putting down and general output that are my problems as a writer. That and being a novice at taking this craft seriously. I have much to learn.

Do you have a preferred medium?

Not really. I spend a lot of my time at a computer and I read a lot of web-related work because I'm already there. Digital media means that we have more content in one place. This is both good and bad. Good in the sense that if we really HAVE to read this great book by so and so and are too lazy to go down to a bookstore to pick it up we can always grab the e-book version. On the other hand, it means there can be too much content to consume at any given time. For our generation in particular, computers are our televisions. I know more people with laptops and internet access than I do folks with television and cable. Of course many folks have both, but given the choice? You can pry my laptop from my cold dead hands, thank you.

There is something to physical media. It's a worn argument, but I do like the fact that a book is just a book and can't also play my mp3s. Single purpose things have a place.

To me, it's all words. Either printed out or on a glossy screen, I don't consume them any differently.

What's the grossest, saddest, fattest, oldest, whateverist thats bad thing you've ever eaten?

Ketchup on wheat toast. Let's move on.

Would you eat it again?

Never say never.

Do you have any plans on trying to get published one day? in a zine or in the Times!?! Or do you want to keep your work secret until you die and then become famous?

I don't really have aspirations to get famous from my writing. I would be fine with earning a living producing work that I'm proud of. Sounds silly, but it's true. I've spent a lot of time doing work that at the end of the day I'd rather not be doing.

Have you ever gotten anything published before?

Not in the literary journal or novel sense. More along the lines of angst-ridden live-journals and school newspapers. We all have to start somewhere.

Do you admire any modern writers? Or have any muses/inspirations of the moment?

There are so many. At the moment I'm smitten with Denis Johnson. I just finished reading his first collection of stories, Jesus' Son. Absolutely devastating.

What would you do if you were able to do anything you wanted? I mean there was no need to work for survival purposes and you can just choose to do things in your life for the pure joy of it.

This answer will bore you: travel and write.

Who's your favorite Golden Girl?

Dorothy! That lady could throw down.

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Thanks for answering my questions Brian! If you have any more questions for my writer friend send them my way and I'll tack em on.

I miss my buddy over in Oaktown CaleeforNyay :( But I'm on the look out for interesting and creative friends over on this side of the pond. We'll see who we can meet. Yay new adventures and new people!

Love and Creative Speak,

~Valiant V

Super Sunday Movie Review!

It seems that British television has the best worst movies playing almost all the time, especially on Sundays. This Sunday's selection included a gem of an 80's movie that I had yet to see.

D.A.R.Y.L.

A child with no memory of his past is brought to a foster family and we soon discover that there is more to this little boy than meets the eye. There's a couple of well choreographed car chases too! Good mix of action and story line and comedy and feel good. Just a very enjoyable movie with lots of great random actors.

Like the kid from The Neverending Story!

And Michael McKean who is in all those great Christopher Guest movies.

And the dad from Pete n Pete has a cameo!

As for most of these older movies that cause nostalgia I become interested in what the actors are doing now. And sometimes that gets me into trouble. I looked up my lovely little Bastian from the movie that I grew up loving. And this is the only photo that might be remotely accurate.

oh god please don't let this balding dread locked scraggly looking pedo be my bastian. Ok fine he's probably really cool and down to earth and not creepily checking out that little girl in the foreground. But still, makes me sad to see that things change and he's not even remotely the same looking as he was as a child.

But anyways! Great movie. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Love and New Movie Discoveries,

~Valiant V

Ashley's Braid Scarf Tutorial

Ok so I've posted this before with a link to the original tutorial but I thought I'd give it a crack at making my own. Cause it's super easy and such a fun addition to anyones wardrobe.

*Get a shirt. The larger the better. If you want to decorate it beforehand that'd be a nice touch. Or just leave it plain, or use a favorite t-shirt with a cool logo that maybe doesn't fit anymore, what have you.

*Trim the sleeves and collar off and cut along the sides to make two even-ish pieces. I left the end hemming on cause it made the braid ends look cooler.

*Sew the two raw edges together and try it on. I made sure that there was enough solid material that would wrap around my neck before I chalked the line I made to stop the strips. You'll see.

*See! So I made the strips about an inch thick but I didn't have a number of them planned ahead of time. Basically make sure that you have groups of threes for braiding and just keep careful watch of how much you have left towards the end. Once cut, carefully stretch the shredded fabric.

By the way a circular cutter makes it soooooo much easier and nicer looking. Invest in one stat!

*And finally, BRAID!

*Make sure you have tension while braiding. And I just tied off the ends. You can trim them so they don't have so much dangly bits but I like the way it looks with the ends.

I think next time I might make the braids a little shorter and have more solid fabric to wrap around.

Simple yes? Try it! And let me know how it goes.

Love and Friggin Easy Craft Projects.

~Valiant V

PS- I got a custom order on Etsy! It's been a while since I've had one of those. Going to be fun.

Gonna turn this into a flower.

New Year

Had a great feeling day!

Sunday, chill, making some breakfast, took pictures of said breakfast cause it looked so happy, making some crafty things just for the heck of it, a little sewing machine action, a little room cleaning, chatted with my momma for a bit, grilled cheese and a cider for lunch, aaaaahhhhh. Im even excited about work tomorrow! Yes life is good.

Remember that shirt I was trying to make? I mean I lightened it and tried to stamp some design on it. I WISH I knew how to make a shirt. Anyway, it didn't look right and I kind of gave up but saved the shirt for possible future projects. Et voila!

I made another braid scarf out of it. The grey one I made before was a little shorter but it seemed to have more braids? I didn't review the original tutorial I got it from, just sort of remembered what it looked like before and tried to do it again from my head. I think it worked well. Pink is not really in my usual clothing color scheme but maybe someone else would like it? And it's not quite light jersey scarf season either. I might just add it in to my early spring wardrobe rotation. My own version of the tutorial to come.

Hope your new year is going well!

Love and getting back in the swing of things,

~Valiant V