Happy Halloween 2022!

For this year’s spooky season, I’ve been happily immersed in a few fun things…another rewatch of Stranger Things, which led to an impromptu recreation of the infamous alphabet lights wall, a fun new book, and the new Disney Dreamlight Valley game!

Disney Dreamlight Valley

I’m really, really loving this game.

As in, really loving it.

Did I mention I love it? :D

I’ve always been the most casual player of games that it is possible to be. I don’t even call myself a “gamer” because I just don’t play enough, and I so rarely get into games that I can barely even call it playing. I had an Atari growing up…had some fun with it, but never fully got into it. Got the Xbox when it first came out…had some fun with some of the games, but then lost interest & moved on. I always WANT to play stuff, but I think because so many games truly take a LOT of time to really get into & progress with, I lose interest quickly & move on to other things.

But every now & then I do try new games because I love the idea of them.

I’d recently been playing Cookie Run Kingdom on my ipad, and I really love that game…but after a certain point, there’s not as much to do, but it’s adorable and fun to pop in each day & mess around for a little while. I was drawn to it because it lets you do some decorating of your kingdom…which is something I loved with Castleville years ago. Just arrange & rearrange things, la de da, pretty this & pretty that.

Clearly I enjoy games for stress relief more than a challenge/beating teams, hahaha!

So a couple of weeks ago I came across a mention of the new Disney game…and the graphics were pretty, and I idly looked for info but didn’t think much of it. I don’t currently have a game console, so I figured I’d probably not be able to play it.

Well. I saw the graphics…saw how much you could customize not just your avatar, but the entire village…fully, completely customize & decorate & rearrange however you wanted to…all while chatting with all the Disney characters. I thought oh dear, I MUST PLAY THIS GAME!

I started plotting how to get an Xbox again, hahaha…then I realized “Xbox Cloud Gaming” works on my ipad.

*cue singing angels!*

Grabbed it fast as I could, fished out my controller & charged it, and dived into the game.

It’s been soooo much fun so far! Especially with the Halloween events. I’ve collected fun jack o lanterns, a Halloween bench, and floating candles:

I’ve just recently gotten Wall-E and Moana into my village, too:

And yes, those are selfies hahaha. There is a ”selfie” function in the game where you can take all kinds of funny photos with all the characters & critters…I’ve not used it much, but those two pics above came out so funny that I’m going to mess with the camera more.

I am currently working to unlock the ”Frozen” area so I have it for the Christmas season. It’s one you can unlock fairly early in the game, but I sort of went out of order because I was on a mission to unlock a later area in order to get my hands on pumpkin seeds, because growing and selling pumpkins gets you lots o’ cash in the game – but more importantly, one needs a pumpkin patch for Halloween season:

Today, actual Halloween, I donned a skeleton onsie with huge wings & cat ears…because why not!

(My favorite part of that first image of the costume is Scar peeking over the hedge at me as if he’s thinking, “What nonsense is this human up to?” 😂 )

There are also candy buckets all around the village that we pick up, get candy from, and then give the candy to all the characters in the game with us so far. So adorable and so much fun!

Even with all of this so far, the game is technically in “early release”…I can’t wait to see what all they do with it.

If you want to see just how much you can customize your village, check out videos on Youtube…it’s amazing what people are creating!

(I’ve never been all that interested in ”VR” things, but ok, ok, I admit that if I could ”be” inside my Dreamlight Village via VR, I’d be willing to give it a go. Hahaha!)

Back to the Upside Down

So during this Halloween season, while I’m NOT puttering around in my game village…

My rewatch of Stranger Things from the start inspired me to finally make the alphabet lights wall! Yeah, I’m a few years late to the party, but hey, better late than never! 😂 It was fun to put together & was a hit for a virtual Halloween party I attended, as well:

Sadly the lights don’t blink…ah well. (Or I suppose if they DO start blinking, I better R – U – N as Will instructed his mom to do in that one scene… 😂 )

Always new books

I’ve got to do a big reading update post soon, but for now I’ll just do a quick mention of a wonderful new book I just found: Keeper of Enchanted Rooms: Whimbrel House Book 1. I got it via Prime First Reads, which I’d never paid attention to – I’m a picky reader & only am interested in whatever I’m currently interested in/reading. An author I really enjoy has a book coming out Nov 1, so the other day I went looking for it just in case the release date was moved up (ha, wishful thinking)…and saw that it was available NOW as a First Read! Of course I snagged it, and doing so signed me up for the First Reads mailing list. I thought eh why not, maybe other authors I like will be available that way too in the future. The next day, I opened the email, glanced at the available books – not having any interest, since I now had the early new release I was wanting – and saw a title that piqued my interest enough to click it & read the blurb. And yeah, I was fully entranced by the premise & grabbed that book too, hahaha.

So far it’s very imaginative story & I’m really enjoying it! Here’s the blurb:

Rhode Island, 1846. Estranged from his family, writer Merritt Fernsby is surprised when he inherits a remote estate in the Narragansett Bay. Though the property has been uninhabited for more than a century, Merritt is ready to call it home—until he realizes he has no choice. With its doors slamming shut and locking behind him, Whimbrel House is not about to let Merritt leave. Ever.

Hulda Larkin of the Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms has been trained in taming such structures in order to preserve their historical and magical significance. She understands the dangers of bespelled homes given to tantrums. She advises that it’s in Merritt’s best interest to make Whimbrel House their ally. To do that, she’ll need to move in, too.

Prepared as she is with augury, a set of magic tools, and a new staff trained in the uncanny, Hulda’s work still proves unexpectedly difficult. She and Merritt grow closer as the investigation progresses, but the house’s secrets run deeper than they anticipated. And the sentient walls aren’t their only concern—something outside is coming for the enchantments of Whimbrel House, and it could be more dangerous than what rattles within.

It was ”bespelled homes given to tantrums” that pulled me in…reminded me of some of my favorite parts of the first Harry Potter book where we find out that at Hogwarts, sometimes a door isn’t a door, it’s a wall that is ”just pretending.” I love mischievous buildings! 😂

Ok I’m off to play more of the game & watch movies & read…hope you’re having, or had, a wonderful Halloween this year!