Secret Santug Update

Greetings, Decorators!

The usual plan for the SSHHS is for the organizers to go through the various houses and check to make sure that everything has been completed.

Unfortunately, I’ve come down with a horrible case of food poisoning, and haven’t been able to log in and check. While I hope that everyone receives a completed home, sometimes emergencies happen and a Santug isn’t able to complete their home or let us know that they won’t be able to.

If this is the case on your home, please REPLY to the email you received. Homes and Tomes will complete your home as soon as possible. Everyone deserves to have a lovely home for the holidays.

Feel free to enter your home on the 24th.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday,

Jazabelle

Secret Santug Holiday House Swap 2015: 5 More Days To Decorate!

Secret Santug Holiday House Swap Reminder

Greetings, Secret Santug Holiday House Swap decorators!

This is a reminder that you have 5 more days after today to finish up your Secret Santug Holiday House Swap house. December 23rd is the last day to decorate.

If you wish to save a layout of the home you built or to take screenshots of what you’ve done, do so before the 23rd, as some homeowners like to remove trustee shortly after the event.

DO NOT tell the homeowner when the home is done. The home reveal is on the 24th of December, no sooner. Don’t ruin the surprise!

If you wish to leave a note for your homeowner, feel free to pick up a notebook and to leave a little something for them to read when they come home. You can do anything from tell them what you were thinking when you built, to explaining various features of the home, to giving them a book walk-through of the house--whatever catches your fancy! However a book is NOT required.

The house swap isn’t anonymous (unlike a “real” Secret Santa exchange), due to the fact that your names will be on every piece of furniture you crafted if you’re a carpenter. There’s no need to remain anonymous after the fact--in fact, revealing yourself is encouraged, as that way if the homeowner decides to publish their home, they can do so and give you credit for the decoration.

HOMEOWNERS: when you enter your home for the first time on the 24th, please DO NOT remove Jazabelle’s trustee IF YOU WANT YOUR HOME SCREENSHOTTED BY JAZABELLE/VIDEO TOURED!

You have two options for screenshots. Screenshot THE HOME YOU OWN yourself, and then email them to the HomesAndTomes Gmail address in a .zip file. Make sure that your graphics settings are turned up to HIGH QUALITY at least, or your screenshots won’t turn out well.

Instead of taking the screenshots yourself, you have the option of having Jazabelle do it. However, because there may be quite a few people asking for screenshots, this can take quite a bit of time. If you want Jazabelle to screenshot your home, please REPLY to the HomesAndTomes email, stating that you wish her to do so. Screenshots will be taken in the order she receives the requests.

If you want Jazabelle to do a video tour of your home, please REPLY to the HomesAndTomes email stating that you wish her to do so. As with the screenshots, this will take some time, as each home takes a minimum of half an hour, even if the end recording is much shorter. Videos will be recorded in the order she receives the requests.

Please REPLY to the HomesAndTomes email when you’ve completed the home you’re decorating.

Thank you!

Secret Santug Holiday House Swap 2015

Homes and Tomes proudly presents:

Secret Santug Holiday House Swap 2015

It’s that time of year again as the holidays slowly creep up on us… that time of year to make someone else’s year-ending incredible and exciting.

The Secret Santug Holiday House Swap is a fun exchange meant to bring smiles to decorators of all skill levels. Simply put, this is a name-drawn-from-a-hat “Secret Santa” style gift exchange of a decorated home. We will assign each of you (the Santug) a home to decorate (your Santee). In turn, someone else will decorate a home for YOU!

WHO: Anyone who wants to join in.

If you aren’t an incredible decorator, that’s fine. People love to receive houses, no matter the skill level. This is about fun and the spirit of giving! You’re giving someone a smile, no matter what you do. After all, you’re building a house for THEM! All for them! It makes people feel SPECIAL to get a house like that! So stock up on house items, because we don’t care what your skill level is. If you want to spread a little holiday cheer, and receive some in return, while having fun decorating, this is for YOU!

If you don’t celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, or what have you, that’s OKAY! We’re not celebrating them. We’re celebrating FROSTFELL, Norrath’s winter festival. Remember, we’re in EQ2. We’re celebrating a holiday that we can ALL enjoy together. Merry Happy Cheerful Exciting Special Frostfell to you!

WHAT: Secret Santug Holiday House Swap

WHEN: Signups are open NOW until November 29th, at 3 PM Pacific.

You will receive your home signups ON or BEFORE December 1st.

Decorating will run from December 1st to December 23rd.

PLEASE DO NOT PROCRASTINATE! We don’t want anyone panicking the days before That Holiday With A Tree In Real Life With All Those Evil Songs On The Radio because they haven’t finished the house yet. You have 23 days to work on this house. Use them wisely!

WHERE: ALL SERVERS can participate! The bulk of the event will be happening on Antonia Bayle, since that’s Homes and Tomes’ home server. However, in prior years--and this year--we’ve arranged it so that other servers can participate on their home servers, too!

WHY: Because we like to spread holiday cheer! We’ve found that quite a few people don’t get a chance to give or receive gifts. This holiday isn’t all about gifts, it’s about caring for yourself and others. However, nothing says “I care” quite so much as a personalized home in a game where you spend a lot of time. This is a gift that doesn’t cost any real world money, so even the least wealthy of EQ2ers can both give and receive this gift.

HOW: To sign up, please send an email to HomesAndTomes@gmail.com IN THIS FORMAT

SUBJECT: SSHHS2015 ServerName.CharacterName

Server Name:

Character Name:

Character Race:

Character Gender:

The city the house you want decorated is located in:

The home address:

Home theme; if you do not have any ideas, please write “Decorator’s Choice”:

Do you want any Frostfell decorations put up in your home?:

WHAT TO DO AFTER YOU SIGN UP:

• Choose the home you wish to have decorated. Try to keep it to a 4 room house or smaller, although you can choose a bigger house if you have an awesome idea. Keep in mind that this awesome idea needs to be decorated in 23 days or less, though!
• If you are on AB, give JAZABELLE trustee on the home you choose to have decorated.
• If you are NOT on AB, please give JAZABELLE trustee.
• Change the name of the home to SSHHS2015 ← VERY IMPORTANT! Do not modify this at all. Even if you have multiple houses you’d like to have your Secret Santug pick out of to decorate, name them all SSHHS2015. No spaces! All capital letters!
• Make sure the home’s public access is set to “None.”
• Map out what you want to have done. In a player written book placed in your SSHHS2015 home, please list character name, character race, character gender, home address (just in case your Santug decides to leave the house with the book, and can’t remember where it is), and home theme. If you do not have any ideas, please still place a book with your character name, character race, character gender, home address, and “DECORATOR’S CHOICE.”
• Please make sure that you have at least 60 days paid upkeep if your home is not a prestige home.
• Once all of that is done, DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, enter the home after December 1st, until it is announced as completed on the 23rd!

DETAILS:

• Please DO NOT sign up if you think you won’t be able to finish a house in this amount of time. If you do that, the organizers have to scramble to finish the home that you left partially done.
• Please DO let us know if you sign up, and a real world emergency happens that causes you to be unable to participate. We will happily take over the home for you, as long as we know that we need to!
• There is NO maximum and NO minimum on the amount you can spend/have to spend on a house. We’ve seen gorgeous homes of elm. However, we would like you to try and keep it under 100 platinum. If you choose to go over that, that’s your choice.

Who to contact if you have questions:

Jazabelle

Happy Merry Cheerful Festive Fun Sparkly Frostfell!

EQ2 thread

Remember our Crafting Depot?

Yes, that says 'remember', as in past tense.

The Homes & Tomes crafting depot was hit yet again by someone who cleared it out.  Now, the good news is that we do not lose everything.

Last time we were hit, we lost approximately 3.5 million resources.  After that, we set up a tiered depot system where deposits go into a large depot, and then Strings in one of her many incarnations works to keep a smaller depot updated with 5k of each resource.

As a result, Homes and Tomes is only down about 900,000 resources.  While that is a huge amount, we still did not lose everything and as such we are grateful.

However; we will not be reopening our depots immediately for server crafting use.  Both crafting depots are currently set to Trustee access, while we discuss and assess when we should reopen the hall.  Guild members, please talk to an officer if you have an immediate crafting need.

Please understand that we are NOT looking for people to replenish our depots.  As stated above, with our tiered system we did not lose everything.  At the same time, we do not wish to reopen immediately just to watch another 900k resources go pouring into someone else's pockets.

We do not know who did this. Based on the fact that imbuing materials and things such as milk were left behind, we can assume that someone did this through crafting.  Likely Raffik's amalgamations, as those require a huge quantity of resources.

If anybody hears anything, please do talk to Rosaphina or Jazabelle immediately so that we can talk to a GM and get this little matter handled.

In the meantime, Jazabelle is on the road to recovery - thank you to everyone who sent your good wishes to her.  Enjoy the Heroes' Festival and hold onto your britches for the new expansion!

Speaking of Terrors of Thalumbra - if you have not done any heritage quests please prepare to do them after the expansion drops.  Guild level max increases to 150, and after level 101 writs will not increase guild level! We'll need all the status possible pouring into the guild to level it.  You can do as much of the HQs as you want before it drops, just hold off on actually completing them.

Important News Regarding Jazabelle and Guild Points

It is my unpleasant duty to inform you all that Jazabelle's player is currently undergoing a bout of Shingles. She will, as a result, be out of game for a week or two while she deals with the unpleasant illness as well as the side effects of being on prednisone.  Please keep her in mind, but never fear! Our awesome leader will be back as soon as she can.

In officer notes, Iosabella's player (that's me) is pulling Iosabella out of Homes and Tomes shortly for roleplay reasons. Her main character will be replaced with Rosaphina, who has long been Jazabelle's harried secretary.  I apologize for any confusion this may create, but I am still an officer and still in charge of points, just under a different name to you all.

Speaking of points, Xakane has created a database system for us officers to use in handling point management.  The first good news is that this will take hours off each week of the time it takes me to update points. The second good news is that each and every one of you will be able to view your (and others') current points in real time, simply by going to a webpage and searching for the name of a main character.

There is, of course, always bad news. In this case, it means that points will not be updated for a week or two while I work on transferring all of the old data into the new system.

Guild Hall Portal Wall

PARDON OUR CONTINUED DUST!

Guild hall construction is chugging along as planned. Thanks to everyone for all of the black marble tile that has been donated thus far.  We seem to have a good amount of black marble tile on hand for finishing the hall. However, we are still counting double points on any black marble tile donations made before Midnight PST, Sunday, October 4, 2015. 

The Crafting area is almost complete. The walls have been constructed and all that's left now is some tweaking of the crafting circle and general room decoration/finalization.  The general depots are now located in 'drawers' along the northeast wall.  Harvesting depot locations have not been finalized, nor has the location of some of the NPCs such as the harvesters, banker, and broker.

The Portal Wall is Coming Down for Relocation!

In order to streamline the hall design and try to cut down on counted items, we will be renovating the portal wall.  This is the wall intended for portals to our members WIP (Work-In-Progress) projects only, in order to facilitate easy transportation.

As part of this process, we will be taking down every portal that is currently up on the wall. Note, this does not include the 'office' portals in use by Site Managers and up that are along the second floor of the main room.  Those will be redone at a future date.

Once the portals are down, we will only be replacing those requested.  Talk to an officer to get your portal replaced if you wish.  Again, this is only for WIP projects.  If there is enough demand, we will consider updating the guild's portal hub for use for finished projects.  If you do not ask for your portal to be replaced, it will not be replaced.

Please, let us know what you think of the hall redesign.  We love feedback and suggestions!

Reminder: Guild Points

  As we've had quite a few new members confused on how to advance in Homes and Tomes, a refresher course on how to earn points is in order. Advancing in Homes and Tomes is not difficult, and is tracked via guild points.

Note: reading the above linked post was required as part of your admission to Homes and Tomes.

  We are afraid that there are too many active members for us to make exceptions to the rules if you have problems with informing us what you have donated. Because there are so many individuals who play at disparate hours, and an officer is not always online, the only way you can be sure of being granted the points you have earned is by posting in the Guild Donation forum.

  There is a pinned post at the top of the forum with a comprehensive set of instructions on how to post. Do not deviate from the requested format--updating guild points is already a several hour long process, and the easier you make it on the officer updating points, the less time it will take them. Remember, our current Points Officer (Iosabella) is giving up her play time to do this for you.

  Include a summary of everything in a certain category that you have donated. If you have donated 2502 common harvests, let us know that you have donated 2502 harvests. We do not need to know that you donated 27 jumjum, 854 sumac lumber, and 22 roots. You're welcome to include that, but also include the summary so that we can easily look at your post and translate that into points.

  Construction Workers cannot donate directly to the Furniture Warehouses. Because access to the Warehouses is not granted until Foreman rank, a Construction Worker who wishes to donate furniture to one of the Warehouses will have to approach a Foreman or higher, and ask them for help. If a Foreman or higher is not available to help you immediately, please be patient--other people are involved in their own games, too!

  A reminder on how the post should be formatted:

Examples of point threads:

Example 1

Post Title: Jazabelle: Guild Dungeon Group

Post Content:

Palace of Ferzhul
Sarka
Froggen 

The Vigilant: Rescue
Sarka
Froggen
Iosabella
Blazewolf
Kasumie

Example 2

Post Title: Jazabelle: Multiple Locations

Post Content:

Food & Drink Depot
195 items total
98 Ambrosial Mead
97 Ambrosial Steak 

Poison, Potion, & Totem Depot
7 Redwood Patch Kit 

Lore & Legend Depot
82 various L&L items 

Harvest Depot
3205 common harvests total (A little over 16 stacks)
34 rares

Spell Depot
23 Adepts
3 Masters
1 Grandmaster 

Furniture Warehouse
37 mastercrafted items
2 plundered items
155 handcrafted items

Example 3

Post Title: Degaahr: Furniture Warehouse

Post Content:

162 handcrafted house items
7 mastercrafted house items

H&T's October Player of the Month: Zanzlily!

It's a few days early, but...

We love our new members and Zanzlily is a great example of why. Super active, super friendly, and super generous. Yes, that's three supers and it's probably not enough. If you haven't had the chance to meet Zanz, be sure to say hello and make her feel welcome.

If you have a recommendation for next month's Player of the Month, submit a nomination!

Homes and Tomes News and Guild Hall Update

PARDON OUR DUST

Homes and Tomes is redecorating the Guild Hall. Well, more specifically, Jazabelle and Iosabella got to talking and one idea lead to another, and now we've got a massive backlog of ideas that we'll be working on implementing.  In general, you can expect the hall to feel a lot less industrial, and have much more usable wall space for offices, portals, and the like.

What does this mean for Homes and Tomes members?

DOUBLE DONATION POINTS for anyone donating (square) Black Marble Tiles thru 10/4/15.

That's right.  We're woefully short-stocked on black marble tiles, and the Freeport City Fest isn't until November.  From now until Sunday, October 4th at Midnight PST, anyone who donates Black Marble Tiles can get 2 points per 5 black marble tiles donated. (That's 0.4 points per tile, for you non-math people.)  This counts for both the DBC (Daybreak Cash) tiles, and the ones normally obtained through the city festival.  If you need to donate DBC tiles, please note that these are heirloom and you'll need someone with trustee status on the hall to help you drop them for use. Check with any officer for that. This is for the tiles only, if we end up needing other black marble blocks we'll let people know.

Be sure you make your post detailing your donation on the Homes and Tomes forums under the Guild Donations section, or you will not get points credit. We cannot reiterate this enough. Having an officer help you does not mean they'll give you credit for it, as they'll assume you are making a post.

Speaking of points, we apologize for the backlog of crediting points and getting promotions handed out.  That has been taken care of and everyone should be up to date.  Iosabella also responded to all emails that she still had in her inbox regarding missing promotion books.

If you're missing a book, that means your email poofed. Bug Iosabella again.

In other points news, we have changed the amount of points that people will get for donating DBC items.  This is going forward only.  We will not be retroactively rewarding extra points for previously donated DBC items.  Now, each DBC item donated is going to be rewarded at 1 point per every 50 DBC worth of item. (0.2 points per 10 DBC, for the non-math people again.)  This brings it in line with the credit received for donating treasured items.

Be sure to indicate in your donations post if an item you donate is treasured/mastercrafted, or a DBC item.  We will not look items up for you, and you will get basic credit if you don't let us know.

We've now opened a THIRD item warehouse, Warehouse C in Athema's Skyblade Skiff, thanks to all of the donations we've been receiving.  Don't forget, these Warehouses are for anyone to use in decorating their houses.  If you're a foreman or higher, you should have trustee access to the warehouses. If you do not, please talk to any officer and they will give you access.  All you construction workers, you're allowed to get items from the warehouse too - just ask a foreman+ for help.

Thanks to everyone for holding the guild together during this past month. All of your efforts are truly appreciated, and we are constantly amazed by the generosity and friendliness of each and every Homes and Tomes member.  You guys rock!

Seeking Volunteers For Monthly Crafting Faire

Homes and Tomes is planning to start hosting a monthly crafting faire on Antonia Bayle on our very own Carnival Cruise ship! We are currently seeking a variety of volunteers to help get this up and going and make this a monthly event!

Volunteers Needed:

• Crafters to man the various booths within our Fairgrounds. 
• Roleplay inclined actors to go out and about within designated zones and offer "quests" that can be done to obtain items from our Faire.

We also have several booths at our Faire that are available to be rented! Fee (in status for the guild hall, platinum for future events, or harvests) to be determined on a case by case basis. These extra booths can be for pure roleplay, quests, crafting, or anything else that one might come up with that fit with the theme of a "Faire" or "Carnival." 

For more information or to sign up to volunteer please visit the Crafting Faire planning thread found here. If you wish to volunteer and are not a current member of the guild please register to the site and post to the thread with the name of the character you'd like to help with and what you'd like to sign up for! All questions, thoughts, and ideas are also welcome!

Norrathian Punkocalypse Challenge Extended!

The deadline for the Norrathian Punkocalypse Challenge, hosted by Niboota Bloodyeyes (the lady behind the Evertour Entries) has been extended!

Quoted from Niboota on the Homeshow forums:

So a few people have told me they are having trouble completing their home, so I'm extending the deadline for this contest to 11:59pm CST Sept 30th. I hope that helps!

This gives anyone who wishes to participate more time to sign up, or those who didn't think they'd have time to get it done more time to finish up! All homes muse be completed and published to the leaderboards by the new deadline in order to maintain eligibility for the contest. Find out more about the decorating challenge here.

New August Commission!

Hellos again! It is I, Meeba, bringing you another August commission!
This time it's a creative challenge to turn a New Halas home into a speakeasy!  There's a story to go along with it too, and it pays well!  If you're interested, please go to page two of http://bit.ly/hat-commissions and check it out!

As always, please CONTACT MEEBA about the commissions, NOT the homeowner. This is to ensure that multiple people don't contact the homeowner, AND to allow me to keep track of which commissions are still open. Once I has informed you that you are the decorator on a commission project, THEN feel free to contact the homeowner. Remember, just because you have talked to the client and toured the home DOES NOT mean that you are obligated to take on the request! If you feel this is not a match for you then go ahead and decline, just make sure to let mes know that the job is still open and also let the client know that Meeba will still be looking for someone to match them with.

As of late, the horrible end boss called REAL LIFE has proven a bit difficult for this maus to handle, and my raid party (i.e. family) is needing my constant attentions. If you don't see me sticking my nose in game, feel free to contact me via the facebooks or attach a note to a guild officer or the Jazabelles and throw them at mes. :)


I'm almost as excited as the homeowner to see what you come up with! Thanks again for all your time and creativity! :)

~ Meeba

Sacred Spaces Winners

  Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Sacred Spaces contest. It was a very close contest in terms of judging. Our winners all had nearly perfect scores, and were within a few points of each other. That trend continued throughout all of the scores. Everyone did an amazing job!

First Place

Raainy of Crushbone

Niboota's tour video:

Second Place

Chess of Antonia Bayle

Jazabelle's tour video:

Third Place

Delepitore of Antonia Bayle

Jazabelle's tour video:

  The full list of videos can be viewed at the Sacred Spaces playlist on YouTube. Any new videos will be added to this list, and announced in the Sacred Spaces video tour thread on the Norrathian Homeshow forums.

  All contestants, please be on the lookout for a special prize from Daybreak over the next few days.

  Participation prizes are still being granted, so do not worry if you haven't received yours yet; you're still on the list to receive your prize.

  Mail any questions or concerns to homesandtomes@gmail.com

  Thank you very much for participating in the Sacred Spaces 2015 competition. We hope you had as much fun participating as we did running it!

Boglily: First HoF house on Stormhold

  Boglily of Homes and Tomes on Antonia Bayle, and Better Homes and Dungeons on Stormhold, is the first person to enter the Hall of Fame on Stormhold. Not only is she the first, but that means she discovered the Hall of Fame trophy on Stormhold!

  Congratulations Boglily, on a wonderful job with your Hopsalong Cottage!

  This is the video Niboota did:

  A link to Boglily's consolidated homes thread can be found here. And if you'd prefer to be taken directly to the post about her home, you can go here.

Sacred Spaces Video Tours Update!

  The Sacred Spaces Video Tours thread has been updated with the three most recent videos.

  I highly recommend stopping by the various homes in person. The videos don't do them justice at all, and stopping by means that you'll be able to show your appreciation via the leaderboards.

  As I am on vacation, I will be unable to do video tours of the remainder of the contestant entries until I am back home. Don't worry, they'll be done, it'll just take a bit longer.

  I wish the best of luck to all the contestants,

~ Jazabelle

Sacred Spaces: Reminder

  Ladies and gentlemen, there are only a little under 30 hours left to publish your Sacred Space!

August 9, 11:59 PM PST: Homes must be completed with all requirements met, and posted on the Leaderboards with "SS2015" somewhere in the name.

August 10, 12:00 AM PST: Judging begins.

August 16, 11:59 PM PST: Judging ends.

August 17, sometime during the morning or afternoon PST: Winners announced

August 24, 11:59 PM PST: All prizes to winners should be sent out. If prizes have not been sent out for some reason, winners will be emailed with an explanation and update.

  Please keep in mind that participation prizes are granted after confirmation that your home is published, so it may take a bit longer for them to go out, especially if you haven't yet published your home.

  We look forward to seeing everyone's work over the next eight days as we work hard to judge your entries.

  Remember that the winners are not the "best" homes, just the ones that our judges liked the best--and there's no guarantee that all of the judges agreed, either.

  We wish everyone the best of luck with the judging.

~ Jazabelle

New Commission Request!!

Hellos again! We gots another commission rounding out the month!  This time it's a bit on the smaller scale, and nature-y to boot! Auna is looking for someone to help her turn her Glacial Villa into something any worshiper of Tunare would love to own! If you're interested, please go to http://bit.ly/hat-commissions and check out the bottom of the second page! Also note that we still have some other requests open as well!

If you are interested in taking on a commission, please CONTACT MEEBA about the commissions, NOT the homeowner. This is to ensure that multiple people don't contact the homeowner, AND to allow me to keep track of which commissions are still open.

Once I has informed you that you are the decorator on a commission project, THEN feel free to contact the homeowner. Remember, just because you have talked to the client and toured the home DOES NOT mean that you are obligated to take on the request! If you feel this is not a match for you then go ahead and decline, just make sure to let me know that the job is still open and also let the client know that Meeba will still be looking for someone to match them with.  Also, if I seems to be MIA from Norrath for a bits (and I can be as the demon called Real Life has me by the tail at the moment!!!) feel free to attach a note to the Jazabelle or another HaT officer and throw thems at me.  Or you can just contact me via the website or the Facebooks. :P

As always, we appreciates your time and creative energies and I looks forward to what you makes!

Cheers and Cheeses!!!

~ Meeba

Sacred Spaces video tours!

The most recent Sacred Spaces contest entry tours are up and available for your viewing pleasure!

The thread on the Homeshow forums is here.

If you'd like to watch the videos all together in a playlist, check out my (Jazabelle's) Sacred Spaces playlist here.

Jazabelle is AFK 7/31 - 8/10

  Jazabelle will be away from the keyboard from July 31st to August 10th.

  While I will have some internet access, it won't be regular, and most of will probably be through my phone. Please don't burn down the guild hall while I'm gone!

  If you need to reach me, ping me on Facebook (not a good way, I check it maybe once every few days when not at the computer), send me an email (jazabelle dot wraeth at gmail dot com), prod me via Hangouts (same info as email), or wait until I get back! Please try to keep the prodding to true emergencies.

  Happy decorating!

Jazabelle

John Smedley steps down

John Smedley is stepping down from Daybreak. Read more here.

Important Sacred Spaces Update

  Due to the recent days when Everquest II was unplayable, and to the schedules of several judges, the Sacred Spaces competition dates have been changed. We are extending the competition by several weeks. If you have already posted your Sacred Space on the leaderboards, you are welcome to remove it and make any changes you deem appropriate. Do not forget to republish! All homes must be published in order to be considered for judging.

• New end date for decorating: August 9th, 11:59 PM PST
• New start date for judging: August 10th, 12:00 AM PST
• New end date for judging: August 16th, 11:59 PM PST

All prizes should (barring real life conflicts) be sent out by August 24th. We will update the contestants if something happens to prevent their items from being presented by that date.

Happy decorating!

The Norrathian Punkocalypse Challenge

  Niboota Bloodyeyes (the woman behind the Evertour Entries) is hosting a decorating contest! Imagine a Norrath in which the gnomes and their technology have overrun Norrath... and then it all goes KABLOOEY! It's called the Norrathian Punkocalypse Challenge, and you can read more about it here.

  I highly encourage people to sign up. It looks like a lot of fun. (Plus the more people who sign up, the more neat houses we get to see!)

  Important dates:

• Started on: July 7th at 12 AM CST
• Runs until: September 7th at 11:59 PM CST (Please note that there is no deadline for entering the contest. You can enter your home on September 7th at 11:59 PM CST exactly, and still participate! Just make sure your home is done by then.)
• Appraisals (her term for the judging): However long it takes! No firm dates, since the appraisers have "real life."

Winners get:

The Grand Challengee

• Any giftable Daybreak Store items up to 2000DC.
• Your very own category on The Evertour Entries, and a video for every house you ever design from your winning moment on, as soon as it's complete.

The Efficiency Flanker

• One giftable Daybreak Store item up to 500DC.

The Presentation Princess or Prince

• One giftable Daybreak Store item up to 500DC.

The Feel Good Furnisher

• One giftable Daybreak Store item up to 500DC.

So what are you waiting for? Go go go!

Opening Commission Services to Antonia Bayle

  Good news! Homes and Tomes' very own Meeba has decided that it's time to open our commissions up to all of the Antonia Bayle decorators!

  Homes and Tomes is constantly receiving commission requests (you must be a member of our webpage to see the form, sadly). Unfortunately, we do not have enough decorators to cover them all, and commissions sometimes sit there waiting for months before one of our members has time.

  Because we've found our commission process to be easy on both the decorator and the homeowner, we're offering our service to the decorators of Antonia Bayle. (This service will remain for Antonia Bayle for the foreseeable future. Sorry, other servers, but Antonia Bayle is where Homes and Tomes is located.)

  The process is simple: You will submit your name and email address via email to homesandtomes at gmail dot com. Your name will be added to our commissions mailing list, and when we receive a new commission request, we will send out an email informing you of that fact. It will be your responsibility to check the Open Commissions for H&T! thread for commission details.

  Do not contact the homeowner directly! Meeba will coordinate with the homeowner. This way, we know which commissions are taken, and which are still available.

  We are happy to provide this service to you, free of charge. We're simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of commission requests we receive, and would like to ensure that people wanting gorgeous homes can have them built in a timely manner. Any platinum or Daybreak Cash items or codes you receive in the course of a commission taken through Homes and Tomes is entirely yours.

  With that said, we will not turn down donations. Platinum on our guild hall door (Homes and Tomes, Commonlands, High Keep T3) helps us to keep our crafting circle open to the public. If you prefer a real world donation, help us keep our website running! Simply go to http://homesandtomes.com/ and scroll down on the lefthand side. There you will see two links, to donate towards the Enjin upkeep and the domain name fee.

Guild news moves to Blogspot

  Homes and Tomes has moved its news updates to Blogspot; this allows the officers to easily post any news they may hear of, in a manner that will reach as many people as possible.

  Don't worry if following a new page isn't your cup of tea--all posts published on the Homes and Tomes news blog will be sent to Facebook, as well as showing up on the Homes and Tomes main website.

  We know this means an extra click for those checking news on the Homes and Tomes Facebook page, and we apologize for that. However, it means that more people will see the news posts on Facebook (because the more activity and interaction our posts create, the more people Facebook shows the post to. Yes, not everyone sees when we update the Facebook page!).

  Blogger allows RSS and Atom feeds. If you would like to include the Homes and Tomes news feeds, just add http://homesandtomesguild.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss (RSS) or http://homesandtomesguild.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default (Atom) to the feed reader of your choice. Please note the word guild in the URL; http://homesandtomes.com will take you to Jazabelle's gaming blog.

  There are a lot of benefits to posting news on Blogspot. People wishing to search the news archives can easily do so, because each post will be labeled with all relevant topics. Sharing news has never been easier--if you would like to share a news post with your friends via social media, you can easily do so by clicking one of the buttons at the bottom of the post. There's even a button for email!

  This is also an easier method of news updating for the officers. We don't have to retype or copy-paste our messages multiple times, nor do we have to log in to a special account. We can even email news updates to Blogspot, so we can post news while out and about! (Not that I think any of us are quite that crazy, but... you never know. Maybe someone shares some awesome EQ2 gossip with one of us, and we just have to let the guild know!)

  And finally, Blogspot allows us to schedule posts, so we can write up the event posts early, then schedule them to post on the appropriate day! (Yes, I know Facebook does the same, but we always forget to use it there...) Hopefully this will mean that we get event posts out as soon as events begin, rather than shortly before or after, as we have been currently.

  We don't foresee too much of an adjustment period with the new news page, but please be patient with us if we fumble it a few times along the way.

Happy decorating!

Jazabelle
Maddest HaTter in Homes and Tomes (that's "leader," to those of you not in the know)

New Commissions (July 15, 2015)

We apologize if this is a duplicate post for some of you. We're testing out our new system.

Hellos again everybodies!!! *waves frantacially!* I, Meeba, has another commission for you all to take a gander at, and boy is it a biggun'! This time around the client would like their Thurgadin Grand Hall converted into a multi-level shopping mall. Yes, that is huge but they are willing to pay over 10k plat for it! Interested? GOOD! head over to http://bit.ly/hat-commissions (page 2) and check it out!! Also, Sirwillypete is still waiting on someone to takeup his Guild Hall request. I have had someone willing to talk to Sirwilliepete about his request! Thank you!


As always, please CONTACT MEEBA about the commissions, NOT the homeowner. This is to ensure that multiple people don't contact the homeowner, AND to allow me to keep track of which commissions are still open. If I am not in game (and I haven't been lately, as RL has become really really really busy and left me a frazzled maus) you can contact me here via Facebook or message me on the guild website. Attaching a message to Jaz or an officer and then throwing them at me also works!

Once I has informed you that you are the decorator on a commission project, THEN feel free to contact the homeowner. Remember, just because you have talked to the client and toured the home DOES NOT mean that you are obligated to take on the request! If you feel this is not a match for you then go ahead and decline, just make sure to let me know that the job is still open and also let the client know that Meeba will still be looking for someone to match them with.

Thank you again for all your excellent work! You guys and gals are awesome! *two thumbs up!*

Housing Rally 4-26-2015 – New Hall of Famers 3+!!!

Welcome to the April 26th 2015 Homes and Tomes House Rally – New Hall of Famers 3+!!!

We’ll start off in chat to let late-comers join up, and then switch to group/raid channel (if we need to) once everyone is on board!

I’m your host Kuerden Basajuanak, and tonight we’ll be looking at some new Hall of Fame housing! Take a look and see what is liked!

As we take a look at these houses, don’t forget to reward the designers by liking creativity and/or style! Try to wait until everyone zones in to LIKE a house though – otherwise the house can shift in the list and make it hard to find!

For anyone new, we’ll be visiting houses via the Housing & Leaderboards selection of the main EQ2 menu. Sometimes the numbers have shifted a little, just ask if you can’t find it!

So set your Leaderboard for Medium Homes/Newly Published and head to:

Caeley’s Portals and Crafting (#59 Hall of Fame/Newly Published) by Caeley

A three-room apartment…

Here we have a beautifully done three-room! I have to say I was quite impressed by both the cleanness of design as well as the lighting. I also give extra credit for using non-prestige housing!

As you look be warned there are many portals. The lighting using tuptan wall sconces is enhanced by the use of appropriately colored woods in the main room. The fishtank idea is interesting too!

The room to the right uses red/yellow lighting and some red tones to achieve a pink effect that is quite nice. Has some actors as well to give life to the room!

The final room is done in cool browns! All in all I really liked it!

Look a few and we’ll move on!

Gia Brewery Estate (#53 Hall of Fame/Newly Published) by Habbitt

Lavastorm Winter Retreat…

I wanted to show this house because it is a complete reskin of the Lavastorm – which is used to seldom despite the fact it offers a lot! Habbitt has completely covered the lava everywhere making the house look TOTALLY different.

Wander through the house a few minutes and see how the feel has been changed!

All-in-all a very nice job and a very creative use of the Lavastorm house! Don’t forget to Like It if you Like It!

A Vampire Mystic’s Armor Shoppe (#3 Medium Homes/Newly Published) by Gdoinye

A Three-room Acorm

Disclaimer – this is my most recent attempt, just published yesterday! I hate acorns – they badly need an update, as they are a misery to decorate due to their irregular shape.

Having said that, the three-room has some advantages… 1st, there is no ‘leaf’ to cover in the entranceway. 2nd, the ramps line up, making a stairwell possible. 3rd, it has reasonable headroom and size.

In the first room there is a Goahmari Meditation Pit, which gives off a lot of yellow light. That highlights the acorn orange walls nicely. The vent above gives a location for the smoke to go.

As the character is a mystic, this room is dedicated to meditation, with the statues, mirrors and banners to give a contemplative effect. Antonia is there because Gdoinye is one of the 8 Faceless Ones guarding the Crypt of the Bayles (another house).

The next level down is the Armor Shoppe, with assorted armor and weapons displays and a forging area.

The lowest level is T’Vien’s bed chamber (i.e. crypt). Gdoinye’s is through the vault door (another house).

I do want to mention the use of crude stone blocks here. In many irregular areas they can be used to give a rough-stone effect. I got the idea for the steps from an old movie called ‘She’ about an immortal. Pretty bad movie, but she had a set of stairs she’d worn down over time…

Lytlpox’s Manor and Market (#54 Hall of Fame/Newly Published) by Kamoj

A 6-room House…

Here is a neat home with an out-of-box element. There is a lot to see! Just ahead of the entrance is a portal to the rooftop garden, dock and marketplace. Take a look at them all!

There are quite a few actors!!! Note the drunken sailor on the dock!!! This house is a really neat example of a hybrid in-box and out-of-box approach! I’ve always enjoyed Kamoj’s work!

Take a look for a minute and don’t forget to like it if you like it!

Vagabond Knight’s Unpublished Giant Bar

We are going to have to wing this one! Strings suggested it and it’s a great example of issues with scale! Originally a BB day joke, I thought it was thought-provoking with regard to designing multi-species homes.

First we’ll visit the Vagabond Knight’s Bar (The Spider) at 4 Bayle Road to see the original size, and then head for the Giant Size version of the same thing! Bear with us as we try to get everyone here and there!

That’s it for tonight folks! Come back in two weeks for our next Rally!!!

Good Night Everyone!

Housing Rally 3-15-2015 – Newly Published Houses 3!!!

Welcome to the March 15st, 2015 Homes and Tomes House Rally – Newly Published Houses 3!!!

We’ll start off in chat to let late-comers join up, and then switch to group/raid channel (if we need to) once everyone is on board!

I’m your host Kuerden Basajuanak, and tonight we’ll be looking at some new Hall of Fame housing! Take a look and see what is liked!

As we take a look at these houses, don’t forget to reward the designers by liking creativity and/or style! Try to wait until everyone zones in to LIKE a house though – otherwise the house can shift in the list and make it hard to find!

For anyone new, we’ll be visiting houses via the Housing & Leaderboards selection of the main EQ2 menu. Sometimes the numbers have shifted a little, just ask if you can’t find it!

So set your Leaderboard for Medium Homes/Newly Published and head to:

A Very Special Potato Birthday Party (#Medium Homes/Newly Published) by Koural

New Halas 3-room

Here we have a small tavern, that looked cool – but I couldn’t check it out as there was an active RP birthday party going on there earlier. Looked like they were having a lot of fun though!

Take a quick look at this and then we’ll move along.

The Deadly Poisons Tavern (#2 Medium Homes/Newly Published) by Kalleih

A three-room apartment

Here we have a nice little tavern that I thought was quite nice. You can tell by the placement of the seating that it is intended as an RP location – room has been left for people to sit.

The back room is a patio (look up) and again is set up for RP use. The third room is a very nice small stage for performances. I liked it a lot. It is just the right size for a small audience.

All-in-all a very nice job that is very functional for RP.

Wander a few minutes and then we’ll go on to our next house. Don’t forget to Like It if you Like It!

A Vampire Nystic’s Armor Shoppe (#3 Medium Homes/Newly Published) by Gdoinye

A Three-room Acorm

Disclaimer – this is my most recent attempt, just published yesterday! I hate acorns – they badly need an update, as they are a misery to decorate due to their irregular shape.

Having said that, the three-room has some advantages… 1st, there is no ‘leaf’ to cover in the entranceway. 2nd, the ramps line up, making a stairwell possible. 3rd, it has reasonable headroom and size.

In the first room there is a Goahmari Meditation Pit, which gives off a lot of yellow light. That highlights the acorn orange walls nicely. The vent above gives a location for the smoke to go.

As the character is a mystic, this room is dedicated to meditation, with the statues, mirrors and banners to give a contemplative effect. Antonia is there because Gdoinye is one of the 8 Faceless Ones guarding the Crypt of the Bayles (another house).

The next level down is the Armor Shoppe, with assorted armor and weapons displays and a forging area.

The lowest level is T’Vien’s bed chamber (i.e. crypt). Gdoinye’s is through the vault door (another house).

I do want to mention the use of crude stone blocks here. In many irregular areas they can be used to give a rough-stone effect. I got the idea for the steps from an old movie called ‘She’ about an immortal. Pretty bad movie, but she had a set of stairs she’d worn down over time…

Library of Ancient Antiquitiese (#1 Small Homes/Newly Published) by Maeltrom

New Halas One-room

Here is another very nice SMALL home. The small library is well laid-out, with the librarian’s apartment upstairs complete with bathroom!

This house shoes how much you can do with a very modest non-prestige home. I found the layout of the bookcases particularly good.

Take a look for a minute and don’t forget to like it if you like it!

That’s it for tonight folks! Come back in two weeks for our next Rally!!! Don’t forget to rate it if you like it!

Good Night Everyone!

Housing Rally 3-1-2015 – New Hall of Famers 3!!!

Welcome to the March 1st, 2015 Homes and Tomes House Rally – New Hall of Famers 3!!!

We’ll start off in chat to let late-comers join up, and then switch to group/raid channel (if we need to) once everyone is on board!

I’m your host Kuerden Basajuanak, and tonight we’ll be looking at some new Hall of Fame housing! Take a look and see what is liked!

As we take a look at these houses, don’t forget to reward the designers by liking creativity and/or style! Try to wait until everyone zones in to LIKE a house though – otherwise the house can shift in the list and make it hard to find!

For anyone new, we’ll be visiting houses via the Housing & Leaderboards selection of the main EQ2 menu. Sometimes the numbers have shifted a little, just ask if you can’t find it!

So set your Leaderboard for Hall of Fame/Newly Published and head to:

Simplicity (#1 Hall of Fame/Newly Published) by Alexai

Personal Dojo

Here we have a beautiful Hua Mein themed dojo that I thought was a neat effort. Again, this shows the Dojo to be a tremendously versatile home, whose small size and shape lends itself well to custom decoration.

The front room features a portal gallery, stone lanterns, and extensive wicker and Hua Mein décor. The back room features a Spartan bedroom and a bathing/reflecting pool.

Some appropriate plants and sumac, white marble and cloudy tiles complete the effect!

Wander a few minutes and then we’ll go on to our next house. Don’t forget to Like It if you Like It!

Villa Sizes (#3 Hall of Fame/Newly Published) by Ocarinah

Tenebrous Refuge

I thought we’d stop here because it brings up an important concept – scale. Here we have a small, medium and large ‘villa’ appropriate for the size of the occupant! I see many houses that are actually too large for the race of the owner. Just something to think about!

Take a quick look at this and then we’ll move along.

Shimmering Serpent Mens Lounge (#4 Hall of Fame/Newly Published) by Dawnstriker

Personal Library

I found this to be very creative! I’ll have to take another look at this house. By raising the floor and reskinning, this gives the house a completely different – and very nice -- look.

The colors also were neat. The use of Kromzek furniture and dark wood furnishings give the house a 19th century study appearance. Creative and beauthiful. Take a look at the ceiling mirrors as well!

Don’t forget to rate it if you like it!

The Sweet Shoppe (#5 Hall of Fame/Newly Published) by Nefariaa Darksoul

Personal Dojo

I’ve really enjoyed Nefariaa’s efforts! Here is a sweet shop built on the ever-versatile Dojo. It has a fabulous look – it’s really hard to see the dojo at all!

This house has it all. Actors, displays, a register and ice cream! Wander a bit and check out this place!

That’s it for tonight folks! Come back in two weeks for our next Rally!!! Don’t forget to rate it if you like it!

Good Night Everyone!

Housing Rally 2-15-2015 – New Hall of Famers 2!!!

Welcome to the February 15th, 2015 Homes and Tomes House Rally – New Hall of Famers 2!!!

We’ll start off in chat to let late-comers join up, and then switch to group/raid channel (if we need to) once everyone is on board!

I’m your host Kuerden Basajuanak, and tonight we’ll be looking at some new Hall of Fame housing! Take a look and see what is liked!

As we take a look at these houses, don’t forget to reward the designers by liking creativity and/or style! Try to wait until everyone zones in to LIKE a house though – otherwise the house can shift in the list and make it hard to find!

For anyone new, we’ll be visiting houses via the Housing & Leaderboards selection of the main EQ2 menu. Sometimes the numbers have shifted a little, just ask if you can’t find it!

So set your Leaderboard for Hall of Fame/Newly Published and head to:

The Plantation by Nafariaa Darksoul (#6 Hall of Fame/Creativity) by Nefariaa

Tenebrous Refuge

Here we have a beautiful scratch-built plantation, complete with barn, windmill/gristmill and manor house – all very nicely done.

Let’s look at the Mill first, since it has some very interesting construction. Let me know if you find a way inside!

Next check out the barn – again, nicely done.

Finally, let’s look at the manor house.

Don’t forget to look at the carriage if you didn’t at zone-in. Wander a few minutes and then we’ll go on to our next house. Don’t forget to Like It if you Like It!

Grand Temple and Gardens of Erollisi (#7 Hall of Fame/Creativity) by Kaian

Felwithe Estate

As we enter, note that this is a standard house decorated largely by adding tree and shrubbery.
Proceed forward and look at the lovely fountain, surrounded by golden marble columns. Expensive but very beautiful!

The trees and other vegetation give the illusion of being outdoors, despite the dome overhead.

Moving straight ahead and continue to the shrine of the bow.
This area has beautifully arranged landscaping, again giving a very tranquil effect.
Looking up the standard dome above just adds to the effect.
Continue on to the temple. The use of Vigilant Screens for some neat geometric effects can be seen here. Ahead you can see an open-air bedroom, again beautifully landscaped, with a kindof creepy Antonia Bayle Fay Plushy… You’ll see her other places as well.

Turn around and go back to the dome. Use the teleport pad to visit the Red and Blue rooms.
I’m a particular fan of novel lighting effects, so look at the scratch-built bath in the red room. Note the use of flickering Braziers of Hatred to give a blue-white light, and an Acropolis feel.
The blue room uses the natural waterfalls and Purple/Blue vegetation to give a darker effect. A few bright green plants set of the darker colors.

Let’s move along now to one of the great ‘undeveloped’ tracts available! It has wonderful possibilities because there are NO structures that come with it!

Botanical Garden and Conservatory (#17 Hall of Fame/Creativity) by Twinklin

Tenebrous Tangle

I found this to be very creative -- and yes we did briefly visit it before to look at the construction techniques used in the Conservatory.

Here I want to focus on the landscape. Take the circular path that runs arounfd the island – which by itself is something to check out. Can you see how it helps to channel visitors through the outside gardens?

Wander the paths and check out the exhibits! Note the use of stone and varied plants to give visually interesting areas.

Be sure to check out the Butterfly garden in the Conservatory as well.

I like this effort – it gives a very bright and happy feeling, and a real effort has been made to make everything just be lovely!

Next we are going to look at a RP Themed Garden. This is near and dear to my heart, as most of my own houses are designed to enhance the roleplaying aspect of my characters!

That’s it for tonight folks! Come back in two weeks for our next Rally!!! Don’t forget to rate it if you like it!

Good Night Everyone!