Oh Dear...

Well, my logs of my time in Lunavale came to a halt recently as my laptop decided to go a little wonky, throw a hissy fit, die- whatever you want to call it. The temporary replacement I had was... slow at best... so it wasn't really possible to do much with it, or visit any websites that took an ounce of working memory. However, I now have a lovely new laptop with a screen that works, it isn't melting on the inside and lets me visit any website I want to! Yay! I'm a little out of sync with what I was writing about before though so it might still take me a few days to get set back up again. I do hope to continue with the story of Lunavale though so if anyone is still out there, stick around!

Happy Birthday Tabby!

A special post today, as it was my first villager birthday in town. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to say, Happy Birthday Tabby! You are one awesome pop star neighbour! No released records as yet, but she's an artist, you know? She won't be pushed and pulled by any old record label, so she's holding out for the perfect deal... yeah that's it... In celebration of this grinning Cheshire cat's birthday, here is a post all about her.

Not going to lie, I thought she was really cool, but slightly scary when we first met. There is something somewhat sinister about a smile that large and a ribcage t-shirt in combination. Sinister, but awesome. That mingled with the fact she's a cat, a peppy villager and has the cute catchphrase "me-wow!" makes me very happy to have her living in Lunavale. Now, we are pretty close friends, so I had to get her a gift she was going to like, no, love for her birthday. Seeing as her favourite colour is black, she loves pretending, jumping about and generally having fun, I bought her a superhero mask which she seemed to think was fantastic. 

Hey, check out these party animals! Sorry...

Apparently Cherry also bought her a pretty awesome gift, but I'm going to believe mine was way better, she just couldn't say that with Cherry at the party too. I can just imagine her now, running around in the dark tonight pretending to be Lunavale's greatest superhero, Super Tabbicat! Or maybe she'll just use it to scare people or cause mayhem... I hope not, but she does have a mischievous spirit so who knows? We have a police station now in our fair town, so public mischief would be a poor idea with hard nosed cop Booker patrolling the streets. In fact, it was Tabby's suggestion to build the station in the first place, so a huge thanks to her for that, I've been waiting for that request for a long while. 

Psh, you said it! 

One last thing, I'd just like to take the time today to thank her for living in Lunavale and being an awesome neighbour. To Tabby! Hurray! We love you birthday girl!

(She is totally going to freak when she sees I made a blog post about her, I just know it.)

Summer Events!

The best place to start with this topic would of course be to start with the first event in summer, the summer solstice, which took place on the 21st of June this year. It was the first unique event that I had been to in town, so it was pretty interesting to find my assistant standing in the middle of the plaza, just taking the day off to hand out ladder shades to anyone who would take them. At first, I was a little... 'get back to town hall Isabelle, I need to do more town renovations!' but then I figured the poor girl rarely gets days off, I can give her this.

I shine bright as the sun :D

Aside from the free gift, what else was special about the summer solstice event, I (pretend to) hear you ask? Firstly, the sky stayed light and clear all day and night to celebrate the longest daylight hours of the year, as well as the start of summer. Secondly, there was a cute face cut-out standee in the plaza for two people to stand behind, which I personally hope happens again with future events because it's just too adorable. Not the most exciting event, granted, but it was still nice anyway to have a day a little different from the rest.

Dem pears...

July was pretty dry for events, however I did encounter several rainbows, which I believe are a unique weather phenomenon during the summer season here in Lunavale. There was also the second bug off, the first being held in June. In the bug off we were expected to catch the best bug we could to impress a rather hungry looking chameleon, he judged them based on size and colour, as well as rarity; I'm guessing he secretly judges them on taste too. Each time the top score was beaten he would give out a piece of furniture from the bug set. I only managed to do this in the July bug off due to my overly competitive mouse Rizzo, who had already handed in a bug worth so many points I found it hard to beat his score just the once in June. Luckily, there will be another bug off in August where I am planning to try and get more items from the bug set, I will share a couple of tips with fellow mayors before then on how to maximise your chances at increasing your score with each bug handed in. I need that spider clock. Seriously.

Summer Events, to be continued...

The Early Days, Part III.

As Isabelle informed me early on, I was expected to put my own money into improving the town as much as I could through public works projects. OK, so the other residents can contribute, but really, it's mainly going to be my money going in to these things, but that's fine. I am the one who gets to pick what to build and where to place it after all. My first project was to build the camp site, I really wanted a tenth villager, and I really wanted some say in who it was. I just stuck the camp site near the entrance of my town, I didn't feel like it needed to go anywhere too special, but somewhere I could easily see it daily so I could tell if anyone was staying there.

Come visit me my pretties...

Maybe it would have been nicer to the campers staying there if I hadn't placed it so close to the train tracks, but hey, at least they wouldn't have to carry their luggage far from the station this way (that's what I keep telling myself anyway). In any case, it doesn't seem to bother anyone who's stayed their so far, they all seemed to love Lunavale! The first person to stop by was a bear called Klaus... Um... no thank you Klaus, I'm flattered you like Lunavale as much as you do but really, there's no need to move here, so, goodbye! I was holding out for a girl as my last resident as I already had five guys in town.

Welcome to sunny Lunavale campers...

The next visitor was much, much better! A cute little rhino called Rhonda, she was perfect! An interesting new species and she seemed really nice. You want me to what? Play games against you to convince you to move here? Huh, OK then. So I lost my fishing rod and other various things to Rhonda as I kept losing these games, starting to doubt whether some one so willing to take everything I owned was a good villager to have, when I finally won, and she decided to move in. So welcome, my tenth and final villager, Rhonda, I know you will fit in just fine here.

The Early Days, Part II.

Moved in, unpacked, met all the neighbours, became mayor... But still, the town feels a little empty. Luckily though, it doesn't take long before a reserved spot appears near Retail with the name "Annalisa" marked on the sign. Exciting! Who is Annalisa? Will I like her? Will she be cool, awesome, cute, quirky or just plain annoying? When a new villager moves to town it's a pretty big deal, in the first couple of weeks about four new faces will move to town, usually leaving the tenth spot open for a little while. The good news is, when Annalisa the anteater moved to my town, I was very happy; she was cute and lovely, two qualities I appreciate in a neighbour. Shortly after she moved in we were also joined by Eugene the Koala, Cherry the dog and Tex the penguin. While having two dogs in my town seemed less than desirable at the time, Cherry was cool enough for me not to mind.

Welcome to Lunavale Cherry!

Now my town felt busier, and this was a good thing. With more townsfolk comes more people to talk to, more chances at getting gifts and trades, more chances of finding new furniture to fill that home you keep expanding, even though you have no clue how to decorate it yet.

Time to go get into some more debt I suppose...

Home loans seem like a lot of bells to begin with but I found out quickly that stag beetles are worth a lot of money in these parts, so bell making wasn't really a problem when I gained access to the island. A trip there every evening would cover my home loans to begin with, a few trips an evening (if I had the time or inclination) would cover it with bells to spare later on. Of course home loans aren't the only thing to spend hundreds of thousands of bells on in this town, so sometimes the home renovations would have to wait.

The Story of Lunavale, to be continued...

The Early Days.

In the beginning, there were five villagers, a dizzy town hall secretary and a rather confused new mayor. Of course that's how all New Leaf stories start, but they differ from the very beginning with who was there to great the new resident at the station. When I first arrived in Lunavale I was greeted by Rizzo the mouse, Tabby the cat, Portia the dalmatian and Flip the monkey... I discovered Rodeo the bull soon after while wandering the town, and was pleasantly surprised by my nice selection of townsfolk living in my new home. Sure, they weren't the town full of cats I half hoped for, or even the cutest animals or the coolest, but they were my new neighbours and I was happy to meet them, and I became attached to them straight away.

Myself, left and my friend Pickle from Puggle, right.

I chose to place my home by the waterfall in my town, I thought it would look dramatic, and that it does. It does limit space a little, no front garden for me, but still, I was happy with my placement. After a couple of days of expanding, my first room layout looked something like this...

Rainbow bright!

At the time, I was happy with it, it was pretty much all I had gotten my hands on by that point but I tried to make it work as best I could. I decided designing custom wallpapers and carpets was a good way to tie in items in a room that may look out of place with regular walls and floors- something I still do now in several of my rooms. I also spent most of my early days creating my own custom clothes, talking to my villagers often and trying to make as much money as I could to upgrade my home. Now my home looks a lot different to how it did then, but I will have to cover that in a future post.

The Story of Lunavale, to be continued....

It's been almost 2 months...

... Since the birth of Lunavale; A sleepy little town run by mayor Rose with her faithful but sometimes absent minded assistant Isabelle, and inhabited by a cluster of cute and quirky animals. I love my town, and I love the townsfolk, so I have decided to share it with the world. I will also share hints and tips for players to get the most out of their town, including sharing some of my designs and project placement ideas as well. 

Welcome to Lunavale!