Craft Room Clean-up, v2

I cleaned up my craft room once, back when we were still apartment dwellers.  But since we're now in a house, I've got to step up my game and create a longer term solution for the "stuffs".

The chaotic before:

The goal was simply to make the room more organized, and less visually confusing. 

And though I could have just found matching boxes for all my supplies, I thought it would be cheaper if I just "hid" it all.

I bought a KVARTAL curtain system from IKEA, and used leftover fabric to make three panels. Penga-Dad helped me install the slider-thing to the ceiling, right in front of all my craft cubes.

Instantly hidden!

The panels slide back and forth for easy craft-access.

Next, we had a wobbly white mini-stand which was so unstable it was pretty much useless.

To give Wobble some more support, I cut out some cardboard, covered it in wrapping paper, and stapled it to the back of the stand.

A little red pizazz and no more wobble!

Since I had some office supplies in lidless cardboard boxes (two halves of a shoebox, really), Sak origami'ed some lids for me.

And lastly, I cleaned up all my crap!

Cleaner! Though I will eventually hang up some pictures and figure out how window treatments work, I feel like I have space to think now, which is good!  Plus, if we ever put a guest bed (murrrphhhyyy!) on the other side of the room (currently an empty wall), visitors won't have to worry about my "hobbies" attacking them like closet monsters in the night!

Harvest Moon

Though I do not play videogames as much as I used to in say, college - whenever I feel like taking a break from life, I will flip the switch on my DS, pop open a game of minesweeper, or attempt to wrestle Sak for control of the PS3. (I lose - he's playing his freebies from the fiasco.)

Lately I've been playing Rune Factory.  Yes - it's an older game, but I always play games long after they first hit the shelves because I'm cheap and have a ridiculously hard time paying full price for uh, anything.

It's by Natsume, the creators of Harvest Moon.  My very first Harvest Moon game was "Save the Homeland" for the PS2.  

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I loved, loved, loved that game - and since then have made it a habit to buy any Natsume game that is under $15. (I told you I am cheap. That's just how it is.)

The basic tenets of Harvest Moon are simple: you start with a bag of seeds, crude tools, and a farm in which to earn your living. You plant, water and harvest - you buy and raise livestock, and make friends with the local community. You upgrade tools, your farm, your home.  

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And the best part - you woo and propose to your choice of the neighborhood girls (or guys, if you're playing the elusive girl's version).  You raise a family, make your farm profitable, get old, and die.

(source) Sak's favorite: Muffy, the easy barmaid.

(source) Melody, the onsen owner I'm currently trying to court!

Each Harvest Moon game is a bit different, some with different girls, different crops, different goals. But the main idea of farming is the same.  Additionally, there's games like River King which focus more on fishing rather than farming, or Rune Factory, which introduces a dungeon fighting element to the traditional farming aspects.

I'm not sure what I like so much about Harvest Moon, as each game is painfully tedious.  Maybe it's the complexity, the life-sim qualities that really make you invested in the success of your character.  Or maybe it's just the cute graphics and the watered-down dating sim. Knowing myself, it's probably the latter.

Though I do have a confession to make - I hardly ever "finish" my Harvest Moon games.  I will play one, and since they take so long, will likely get a new one before I finish the old one.  This, people, is not a good strategy, and a good parent would be wise to force their child to finish one thing before starting another.  But as it's my money, I guess it's a problem of my own making and lack of self-control. Ah well.

My HM cow plushie, gifted long ago from best-buddy E!

List of Natsume games I currently have (though I've also played a few of the older, GB games, they weren't mine):

• Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland (PS2)
• River King: A Wonderful Journey (PS2)
• Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition (PS2)
• Chulip (PS2..and deserves it's own review in the future for being epic-ly awesome)
• Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life (Gamecube..you can play as a girl and court the dudes in this one, though the choices are terrible in my opinion!)
• Harvest Moon DS 
• Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (DS)
• Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon (DS)

And in case you are wondering, there are many, many more games that I haven't played yet!  I especially want to try out Princess Debut, because who can resist a dating sim? Not I.

(source) No, I don't think the rabbit is one of your options here.

Have you played Harvest Moon? Is it similar to Farmville? I admit I haven't gotten on board with that because my snubby self thought it looked like a knock-off HM.

Happy Fourth of July!

It's a long-awaited Saturday and our weekend-long open-house/Fourth of July party is about to begin.  My lack of presence on the internet this week definitely means I misjudged the amount of time it would take to get the house into a guest-acceptable state!

Ridiculously cute paper straws from HeyYoYo on Etsy.

Delicious angel food, strawberry "shortcake" cupcake found from instructables.

Not shown is how the middle is filled with whip cream/diced strawberry goodness! Mmm.

May BBQs, fireworks, and good ol' Americana fervor abound this weekend - Happy Independence Day!