Garden Memories - Making Magical Spaces

When I was a junior in High School, I wrote my first serious attempt at a fantasy short story.  It was titled, Garden Memories and was a fictionalized account of an adventure I’d had playing in a nearby park with friends.  It was The Little Rascals meets The Secret Garden.  My English teacher and then writing mentor, Helen, convinced me to submit it for the literature journal and a national contest.   It was accepted into the journal and awarded 3rd place in the contest.  I’ve been writing more or less ever since that event.

I’ve always been in love with and fascinated by the short lived beauty of flowers.  They live vivid but brief lives.  And because of that beauty, they are snatched from nature to be placed in vases and gazed upon by adoring eyes, who have now hastened the flower’s demise.  I find that tragically ironic.

I surround myself with flowers - fresh cut, potted, pictures and paintings.  Here’s one of my favorite paintings.  I’d willing walk into this picture and stay forever.  I’ve also dabbled in digital photography where flowers were a favorite subject.  Having said all that, it should come as no surprise that I got around to building a garden in EQ2 Ex.  The player housing and in depth crafting system make it too easy to experiment with recreating your every imagination.

Mystical Garden
Creating a magical garden is the last decorating project for the store.  I used it to showcase the variety of plants and flowers I’m starting to receive while leveling my carpenter.  It will be easy to add more, as I acquire more.  I also included the new clay and porcelain vases I can make and other accessories that can be used in and out of doors.

I wanted something lush, fanciful and exotic with little hidden surprises as you move through the relatively small space.  It’s also an inspiration room.  I can envision doing an indoor spa or lavish master bathroom suite.  For one of my customers, we’re using it as a reference for a meditation room make-over.  We’ll need to tone it down a bit.  Monks aren’t known for being flashy but many of the items will be used.

I had an enormous amount of fun creating this space. It was somewhat rushed. I have three customers waiting for their decorating projects but I needed to show my current customer these items for his meditation room anyway, so I killed two birds with one stone.  I can’t wait for the outdoor areas to be added to player housing so I can go all out.  I wish Halas wasn’t frozen tundra.  Ugh! But it has the best housing in my opinion.  One of my Fae’s is actually a citizen of Qeynos.  If that outdoor zone is very appealing I may have to purchase a house on that character just to do a garden!

 

 

To see the garden live, visit my shop at

EQ2 Extended

Freeport Server
New Halas / Frostfang
Erollisi Manor
Visit Alysiaa

Comments

[Stabs]

Simply beautiful. I'll pop in soon.

[Capn John]

When I was in High School I entered one of those short story competitions. I didn't win anything but a consolation prize, being a copy of the magazine that included all the winners' stories.

On the way home from school while reading through the magazine I ran across a very familiar story. Very familiar as in I'd read the exact same story in the Reader's Digest a couple of months before.

I got home, found the Reader's Digest with that particular story in it and showed it and the magazine to my parents. At their urging I took both books to school the next day and showed them to my English teacher. A week or so later he held me back after class to tell me that the person who had submitted that story had had their 'win' officially revoked by the Judges.

On the MMO front, I just got my copy of Mines of Moria in the mail last night ($10 for the CE on Amazon). I haven't upgraded my account yet. Apparently if you're a VIP when you ding 20 you get a quest for your permanent Horse, rather than having to spend Gold or Turbine points on it, so I'm going to wait until the boy and I are level 19 before we do that. (I actually got 2 copies of MoM, being $20, and we added a book for my daughter to get the total to $25 for the Free Shipping.)

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

Your story reminds me of a Senfeild episode with the RD cartoons and Elaine. LOL Loved that show.

I'm glad you're enjoying yourself in LOTRO and that the whole family is on board. Those were some sweet times when I was MMO'ing with my children when they were young. They felt like REAL adventures.

[Ziyi]

I think you forgot to pay your rent, can't enter the shop anymore.
Unless you banned just me! Wheeeeeiiii! :o)

xox

Ziyi & Twinkle

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

Has it been a week?? I haven't been on for a few days. Not feeling well. Thanks! Will pay it today.