Slacker Update!

Alright, so it's been at least a week, alright, more than that, but I DID actually start getting things accomplished!

Let's take a look at the original list:

1.  Plan out blog posts
2.  Make August ATCs
3.  Make Sept. ATCs
4.  Start planning for upcoming Craft Shows
5.  Sort unfinished scrapbook projects.
 
Okay, so I only did 2 of the 5.  TWO IS BETTER THAN ZERO!  I probably could have crossed off number 1 too, as I did get a couple of good suggestions for blog posts, and they can at least get me through September. 

So what have I been doing?  I'm ashamed to admit it, but since Guild Wars 2 launched at the end of August, I'd kinda gotten myself sucked back into the gamer world.  I was playing a lot, and ignoring my other responsibilities, so obviously I had to put a stop to that.  For the last couple of days I've limited myself to an hour a day.  And surprisingly it's been in the last couple of days that I've started being productive in life again lol  Go figure.

Oscar is growing and becoming more awesome each day.  Puppy Socialization is going MUCH better.  He's actually getting out and sniffing/kinda playing with the other dogs!  And yes, here comes the mini photo spam ;)

He seriously gets cuter every day :)

As far as crafting goes, I'm FINALLY feeling creative again!  I've finished my ATCs for August (lol slacker) and September (EARLY!).  I have a few cards I need to finish up, Christmas Cards to start (for craft shows and for my peeps), and a couple of potential card classes to plan.  I'm not even going to include all the Scrapbooking projects that are staring at me right now... 

Oh, and I made a YouTube Channel!  There's no videos on it yet, but I've been asked to do some video tutorials, so I figure I'd at least get it all set up before I start.  So Subscribe to me!

Well that's about it.  I PROMISE to be better about blogging.  I have my list to work from, so I'll get something up by the end of the week.  As always, feel free to give me topics to write about, ask questions or request tutorials!  AND FOLLOW MY BLOG IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!

;)

Sunny Summer Weekend :)

It's Sunday night and Oscar is out sleeping on the couch with J, so I figured I'd throw together a quick post.

It was a gorgeous weekend here!  On Saturday J & I went down to the Farmer's Market with some good friends of ours to have a little look around.  It was SO crowded because Tall Ships 2012 is this weekend.

Regardless, it's always fun to people-watch...

It's hard to tell from this pic, but she has socks on with those sexy heels lol Oh my.  Moving on...

We had a nice walk around and then got some fresh samosas and other Indian yummies from a little booth at the market.  It was SO good!  I really need to search out a good Indian restaurant locally.  Comment if you know of one!

After eating we popped outside and guess who was pulling up to the dock?  THEODORE TUGBOAT!

I've never seen him on this side of the 'Big Harbour' before, so it was a nice treat :)

Same place we had our wedding pictures done, almost 6 years ago :)

We walked around for a bit more, took a couple more pictures and then J dropped me off at my parent's place so I could go down to Carousel for Demo Weekend with Mom.  Lots of amazing demos, as always, and a cute little Snowman card Make n' Take.


Today I tried to decide on a plan for July's ATC theme of Birds.  It's due next weekend, so I figure I should get started.  I was able to figure out an idea, so hopefully Oscar will be nice and sleepy tomorrow so I have time to do get them done.


I spent sporadic moments playing in the final Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Event.  This time they released the Sylvari & Asura classes (for those that are not gamers, ignore all this.  It won't make sense lol).  I really enjoyed the little bit of time I spent on both of those classes.  I didn't want to play too much, because I wanted to have something to look forward to for release.  Here's a couple of screenshots I took.

Sylvari starting area.

My Sylvari

Asura starting area

My Asura

I know you are all dying to see how adorable Oscar was this weekend, so here's some random shots of him too.  He's now 10 weeks, and about 4.5lbs.  You're welcome :)

I'll try to update soon.  Hopefully with completed ATCs!  Tell me how your weekend was!

Guild Wars 2 - Beta Weekend Event 2

For those of you that are non-gamers, you'll probably want to skip this post since I'll be talking about the second Beta Weekend Event for Guild Wars 2.  You have been warned ;)

So this past weekend was the second Beta Weekend Event (BWE2) for the upcoming MMO Guild Wars 2. I also took part in BWE1 at the end of April, and will try to mesh my thoughts of both events together in this one post.  Please excuse me if t comes off as a confusing mess :)

For anyone interested in more information on this game, it's features, and professions, you should absolutely check out THIS POST on GuildWars2Guru.  It's a one stop shop for information, and will give you a better understanding of things I may reference here ;)

For BWE1 I played a Human Elementalist.  I wasn't as focused on the profession itself because I was too in awe of the beauty of the game in general, and all the overwhelming newness of a different MMO.

I should probably take a minute here to explain that I was a pretty hardcore WoW player for almost 4 years.  I was a WoW purist.  Any other MMO I tried, I would always compare it to WoW and think "Why bother changing?".  Well my time with WoW ran it's course (Read: Cataclysm ruined the game), and I decided it was time to take a step away from online gaming for a while.

A couple friends I played WoW with (and who quit way before me) started telling me about this new game on the horizon called Guild Wars 2.  Now, I tried GW1 on a free trial and I wasn't impressed at all.  You couldn't even JUMP ffs.  But the more they talked about it, the more interested i got.  Before I knew it I was in BWE1 and OMG was I happy I gave it a chance!

This game is BEAUTIFUL.  I'm not kidding.  The art department, animators, creators, EVERYONE should be proud of themselves.  It took my breath away.

Divinity's Reach  (BWE1)

Queensdale (BWE1)

Lion's Arch (BWE1)

Lion's Arch (BWE1)

As I said, for BWE1 I rolled a Human Elementalist.  It was the obvious choice for me since it was in my comfort zone (I always played caster classes in WoW, a shaman being my main).  During that event I got to enjoy and explore Divinity's Reach, Queensdale and Lion's Arch.  I had a love/hate relationship with the vast number of spells (Earth, Air, Water, Fire) that were available to that profession.  I guess I just didn't have enough time to play with them all, and pretty much stuck to one element while I played.

One thing I noticed right away about GW2 was that the UI is very clean, simple and out-of-the-box usable.  By that I mean that GW2 has accomplished what took me lots of addons to achieve in WoW.

UI from BWE1, during combat.

UI from BWE2, out of combat.  The major differences this time were the change to the minimap, and the dodge meter was moved to arc the health bubble.  Love.

For this event I decided to roll something completely different:  Norn Necromancer.  I don't have too many bad things to say about this profession.  The only thing that I didn't like was that my minion's health didn't return after combat like mine did, and that his AI was lacking.  After playing an Elementalist for BWE1, it was nice to be able to try out the weapon swapping this time.  


I was able to check out Hoelbrak & Wayfarer's Foothills during this event.  I completed both maps:

It wasn't nearly as 'overall pretty' as the human areas, but there were still some gorgeous spots.

As for storyline, it was pretty awesome.  One of my favourite lines:

 For the record, she ended up kicking his ass ;)

The armor dye system makes me so happy!  No more shoddy looking gear while you level!  Check out a small taste of armor progression as I leveled up to 12:

 In the 3rd & 4th shot, it's the same chest piece, just different dyes :)

So far my favourite area in the game is Lion's Arch.  It is AMAZING!  I could absolutely do a whole blog post about it, and probably will someday...  Here's a quick video, it's even more beautiful at night :)



Alright, alright, I'll stop now and go do something productive.  I just needed to share how amazing this is.  Hopefully I'll see some of you in game :)

Have a fab Monday!