Showing posts with label Lizzie Valentino. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lizzie Valentino. Show all posts

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Forks Washington

I have no shame in my game. Two years ago, we took our oldest daughter to Forks Washington because she loves all things Twilight... I mean really loves all things Twilight. Now honestly, I was never a fan myself, but her pure love for it reminds me of my love for all things Star Wars... So her excitement is infectious and fun. Before the whole Twilight craze totally dies, we wanted to take her and the rest of the kids to the place where it all takes place one more time, Forks Washington. I mean who am I to tell her what to like and not like, if she likes it, then I'm going to support her happiness.

For all the hype that surrounds the town, it's a tiny place with a few hotels, one primary road, a few diners and a smattering of essential shops. But packed in this three thousand person town is a myriad of tourist destinations made famous by the books and movies. For those in the know, there's the Swan's house, The police station, the high school (sign), the hospital, Bella's workplace, and the Native American Indian reservation of  La Push, to name a few.

We went with all three kids, Liz's sister, Jen, her daughter Autumn, and her son, Noah. Oh and we brought Luna. So everything was crazy, all the time. But you know, for all the craziness that went on, it was a great time and no one had any issues or problems... it was somehow a pretty stress free trip (yes with five kids and a puppy) and we had a wonderful time seeing the cheesy landmarks, shopping for the last hold outs of Twilight souvenirs, and eating at the places that were either in the movie or had Twilight themed food. (I will say that the Bella Burger and Twilight punch at Sully's is the best thing to eat in town.)

So in short, our trip went like this: We arrived on Friday around dinner time, we ate at the diner where Bella and Charlie ate in the first movie, Liz and I went to the Grocery/Hardware store where Bella apparently worked to get some snacks and beer. The next day was Twilight mania day. We visited and  took pictures at Bella's truck at the Chamber of Commerce, visited Dr. Carlile's parking spot at the hospital, back to both of Bella's apparent workplaces, the high school, the last two remaining Twilight-esque stores, the police station, the "Cullen's house" (which is a B&B) lunch at Sully's Burgers, then to First Beach in La Push where Jacob is from. We spent some time at the beach then went to the "treaty line" where we had dinner. By Sunday, we were pretty worn out but went to Port Angeles to have lunch where Bella and Edward had their first date but sadly it was only open for dinner, so we went to the apparent bookstore where Bella got vampire books and had lunch at a surprisingly pretty good spot called Smuggler's Landing. A whirlwind of a mini-vacation but a great time had by all. And we have pictures to prove it!
 
The Grown Ups in front of Bella's Truck

 
Luna Running on First Beach at La Push
 
The kids at Dr. Cullen's parking spot at the hospital. Noah is doing his own thing.
 
Lizzie, Luna and I at First Beach
 
At the "Treaty Line"
 
The kids at Bella's truck
 
There are two hardware stores in Forks. Both claim that Bella worked there... This one had her vest, so naturally, Kaya posed for a picture.

 
Trystan at First Beach in La Push.
 
The view at first beach. I think it looks like a scene from The Goonies.


Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Luna

We are big time animal lovers at our house and giving our Siberian Husky, Skye, to another family was heartbreaking. At the same time I know she has a better life full of long hikes with outdoorsy people in the Washington wilderness.

Lizzie and I went on the search for a dog that would be a better fit for our family. We looked at a multitude of dogs and did a lot of research on behaviors and breeds. Among the types we checked out Havanese, French Bulldogs, Pugs, Poodle mixes, Yorkys, and Pomeranians seemed to be the best for us.

After visiting a multitude of shelters and pet fairs, out of the blue we came across a female runt in a litter of "Porkys" (Pomeranian/Yorky) and we absolutely fell in love. Upon seeing her picture, we both knew she was the one.

An amazing 9 week old puppy, we snatched her up and named her "Luna" after Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter. She's a typical puppy, full of energy, tiny play growls, naps and pure unbridled love. Being that she probably won't get over ten pounds, she's manageable and eternally cute.

Meet Luna


Thursday, February 28, 2013

Debutantes & Divas


As I hinted in previous posts, Lizzie has started a new children's clothing company! We're very excited as she's a really talented seamstress and has a unique eye for fashion. This kind of started with they idea that she would make top quality princess dresses for girls but it's blossomed into much more than that. In addition to the dresses, she also makes jackets, fashion dresses, skirts and tops. And that's just the beginning. There are plans for a bunch of new styles and a line of childrens books. (Be on the lookout for a really fun Kickstarter soon.)

She already vended at The Chocolate On The Beach Festival in Ocean Shores, WA last weekend and this Saturday, we'll be at The Fox Island Craft Fair in Fox Island, WA. There are a ton of events coming up and of course I'll keep you posted on where we'll be.

In more cool news, Will Routon, the same artist that did the Thomas Riley cover art, did the first princess (Princess Mia) logo that you see above and we're in talks now to hopefully have him do a lot more in the very near future.

In addition to the traveling, Debutantes & Divas has a
Facebook Page
Twitter Page
and Online Etsy Shop

Also check out some product pics from our test shoot:




Sunday, January 13, 2013

The Blackout and guess what? We had another wedding!

Huge aplogies. We had over a month without proper internet capabilites, then all of our computers died due to hard drive issues... It's like they had a suicide pact. But thanks to the amazing talent of Lizzie Valentino, we now have one back! That was crazy. But we're back and things couldn't be better.

There are tons of blogs I want to write but I figured I'd start with the biggest news first.
Liz and I got married again! This time was more of a celebration for friends and family as officially we've been married since labor day weekend. The niftiest part is that we did it all for about $150. No kidding. The clothes, the food, the drinks, the decor... everything for a grand total of $150. We had 1000 butterflies (instead of cranes) which I'm particularly proud of. Liz traced and cut them out while the kids and I decorated each one uniqely. See pics below. Liz's brother, Brian, officiated the ceremony which was awesome and we had a great crowd (bigger than expected) show up which was really great.

So it was wonderful to marry my love again. It was magical in a new way this time. In front of people, new vows and happy things to say... The experience was once in a lifetime but this time, I got to expirience it twice. Thanks to everyone that came out, shed us well, posted on our walls, took pictures and generally were amazing all the way around. Super special thanks to everyone that helped us with this... (Brian, Jen, Anthony, Mom, Autumn) It was crazy to pull it off but your help really made it all possible. A thousand thank yous!

In other news:
-I'm waiting on the release date for Thomas Riley 2 and the rerelease of Thomas Riley (1). I'll let everyone know the instant I hear something.
- Look for new blogs on "The 33 days of Halloween", "Loss (The band)" Lizzie's new princess dress company and tons more.
-Now that I have a computer back, you'll be hearing much more and more often.

 Me and the very lovely Lizzie


Our Officiant, Brian having a celebratory glass of vino


Our Seattle friend and fellow Steampunk, Andy.

    1000 Butterflies

Thursday, August 2, 2012

The Moveable Feast

This weekend was wonderfully kooky. We went to "Whaling Days" in Silverdale WA which is like thirty minutes from us. It's basically a fair with rides, food, bands etc... On Sunday we went to The Movable Feast in Tacoma.

I love food trucks and The Movable Feast featured 40 of them from all around the region in Washington. It was a free event, you just had to pay for the food you wanted and luckily there was tons of low priced samples. They literally had anything you could want, Cajun, German, Jamaican, ice cream, cupcakes, Mexican, Argentinian, Native American... to name a few.
We tried Gumbo from, "Where ya at Matt", Tacos, Native American Fry Bread from "Off The Rez", Cherry Fritters, Curried Chicken Pockets, and even a donut called the Homer which was a homemade pink frosted donut with rainbow sprinkles straight outta Springfield from "Original Sin Doughnuts".

This was the first annual movable feast so I'm already looking forward to next year! In the meantime, we'll keep looking for more awesome food trucks.
Enjoy the pics!

Lizzie getting a Mexican Coke with her taco.

  German Cherry Turnovers!

The Ultra Awesome Pig Truck!

                                                       Great Gumbo fom Where Ya At!
Bad ass logo and doughnuts!
The Homer!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

My first time at the drive in


There's only one drive-in in Nashville and it's like an hour out in Watertown TN. So throughout my childhood I never went. No reason really, it was just easier to go to a normal theater to see a movie. When I moved to Washington everyone seemed shocked that I'd never been before. It was apparently some rite of passage that I never experienced.

Well, last night I was privileged enough to go to my first drive in double feature no less at a real deal honest to goodness old school run down drive in. It was a blast. Lizzie and I pulled the car up backwards, popped the hatchback and got to see the last day The Avengers was showing in theaters along with the drive your girl crazy movie Magic Mike. Darn right I watched it. I wanted to know what all of the hype was about. We came prepared with beers and snacks and settled in for four hours of nothing but movies, which was really nice since we are busy nearly 24/7.

As the movies went, The Avengers was great just like everyone said. Super fun, funny and nerdy enough to satisfy any con-goer's needs. Magic Mike was... different... Not what I expected really. I was looking for a super over the top goofy movie with humor but honestly it was just kind of weird. If totally ripped dudes with no shirts on is your thing, then it may be pretty cool for you but that's all there was. A stripper movie with no other nudity was just kind of weird. It really didn't live up to the hype. You know what it was like? Think a watered down version of Boogie Nights with awkward dialog. I'm glad I went and it was totally fun but that's just my take.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Drinks!


Today we're going to take a quick break from wonderful authors, music, and steampunk culture to talk about drinks. Homemade drinks at that! Lizzie and I are always on the search for wonderful and powerful new adult beverages that have yet to be discovered or have been sadly forgotten in the past. When we lived in Nashville one of our favorite places to go was the famous Patterson House which is a speak easy style place that serves drinks from the prohibition era along with seasonal offerings that you're not going to find at most other places.

So we've stumbled upon a few of our own really great and easy to make drinks that we'd like to share.

The Nikki Heat
Named after a fictional character in the show Castle, The Nikki Heat is a slight variation of a drink I tasted from John "Ichabod" Anderson at Dragon Con a few years ago. It's spicy, sweet and tastes like Christmas!
1.5 oz. Fireball Whiskey
3 oz. Cream Soda
.5 oz Grenadine
Serve over ice and enjoy.

The Valentino
Named after our surname, Lizzie constructed this drink that's smooth, a little sweet and can transport you to your favorite beach in one sip. Warning, you can probably drink ten of these if you're not careful.
2 oz. Coconut Rum
4 oz. Pomegranite/Cranberry Juice
1 sliver of lime
Serve over ice and enjoy.

Orange Hook
The Orange Hook (which I just named because we couldn't think of a great name before) was discovered by Lizzie when she had a beer in one hand yet was craving orange juice. With the beer flavor still in her mouth she took a sip of orange juice and wow... genius struck. It sounds gross but it's amazing! Think of a more robust mimosa. The measurements for this drink vary as you can drink a lot so it depends on the glass you're using.
1/3 glass of Copper Hook Beer (from the redhook brewing company)
2/3 Non pulp orange juice.
Serve cold (No ice) and enjoy and enjoy and enjoy.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The Gig Harbor Restaurant Review Blog


Lizzie and I love going to new restaurants and bars. It was a little difficult to find a comprehensive review site for restaurants around Gig Harbor where we could get a good cross section on what was here. Yelp and Urbanspoon are great but I feel like sometimes people just go on there to slam a place unjustly. We decided to start a little separate blog where we can review places in and around Gig Harbor from our perspective. This is usually pretty short, honest and to the point. We'll give readers a nice look at what's good, what's not and what will make your trip to Gig Harbor more enjoyable.

So far, we have twelve reviews on the books now and we'll update it when we try new places. We understand that this won't be the next Perez Hilton blog but it will stay around as a nice little place where people visiting beautiful Gig Harbor Washington can rely on honest opinions.
We hope you enjoy!

Visit the Gig Harbor Restaurant Review Blog here.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Elizabeth Darvill "Steamed Up"


How cool is this? Liz just got her new cover for her Spice Brief story "Steamed Up" which is part two in her steampunk erotic series from harlequin today! The first one is Steam Heat, available here. Last time we got a booty shot, this time we have under boob! Who knows what the next one might show. I'm super proud of her for getting these done, not only are they uber naughty but the writing brings in even non romance readers which is a huge feat! I don't care who you are, you'll need a cold shower after reading these.
This comes out in September on Harlequin Spice Briefs so be on the look out for some naughtiness in the early fall. I can't wait to see it!

In the meantime, follow Elizabeth here on Twitter and Friend her here on Facebook.