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!

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.

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

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.

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!

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)