FINALLY! A hot-air balloon! I've been dying to own one.
Actually I bought three, hoping someone will trade for one. :-) One is in storage and the other two are parked "at the fairgrounds."
Since Webkinz doesn't have any type of fairground-type accessories, I've had to make up a lot.
In front Gaudior is taking a hot air balloon ride (there's a seat for the proprietor, of course; I just don't have anyone else there). To the right is the concession stand selling pinwheels and garden Zingoz (I wanted balloons there, too, but the Welcome balloons that come with each Webkinz don't go outside, darnit). In the back at right is a "stage" (the beach bench was the only big thing I found that would go outside) and some benches for watching the performance. There's a tower to survey the countryside and in the left corner the judging area for the flowers and the pumpkins (guess which pumpkin will win! LOL). The sandsculpture Ws are supposed to be the fairground gates.
Up, Up and Away!
The Webkinz in the Dell
LIKE some other Webkinz property owners, I have started a farm. I harvested "farm-fresh" tomatoes, strawberries and carrots this morning and thought it would be good to invest in a new yard and move my existing vegetables there. They are in essense "replanted" and will not bear fruit again for a while now.
In a couple of days I will buy a few more plants of various varieties and then in a few more days a few more, and so on until the rows are full, so that I will have plants harvesting at different times.
Some folks talk about garden plots large enough that they are selling their produce back to the W Shop. [waves at Jerry] Right now I'm just providing for my brood. :-)
My former vegetable plot is now a little grove of trees next to an expanded picnic area.
Everything Old is New Again
or REDECORATING ON THE CHEAP
THEY call them "nesting urges." This phrase is used to describe the need some women have to redecorate. As you can tell if you watch HGTV with any regularity, redecorating doesn't come cheap. Even on Decorating Cents it will cost you at least $500.
Redecorating in Webkinz World will cost you Kinzcash, but at least it can be recouped by judicious visits to Quizzy's, daily tasks, and certain dexterity at the arcade. (Buying trading cards helps, too!)
When you buy a Webkinz, you also get a room and a certain amount of Kinzcash to furnish the room. You can start with paint or wallpaper and even pick a different floor. A bed is recommended because it is advised you leave your Webkinz pet asleep when you log off. A bathtub is also suggested, as it's one of the easiest ways to increase a pet's health and happiness.
For minimal Webkinz coverage, you can buy things in the Kids Theme, which are the cheapest, and start housekeeping in one room. But if you earn Kinzcash and then peruse the W Shop other than to buy groceries or take a look at other members' rooms, you'll soon have a hankering to decorate...or redecorate...or re-imagine your Webkinz living space.
The problem with this is when you adopt a new Webkinz, a new room is just added...wherever. Where if you purchase a room, you can place it anywhere you like. Did you want your pets' rooms around a central hall that led to a kitchen, living room, and yard? Tough luck; your new koala's room just was placed where you planned the hall to be.
I'd wanted my exercise room and game room to be in a wing by itself, but Gaudior's room ended up next to the exercise room (and that was a tiny room; it didn't need a door in the wall!) and Pablito's place was placed next to the game room.
However, there is a perk that comes after you adopt ten Webkinz. (Actually, there are two: first you get the choice of a "super bed." These come in various styles, including a dragon bed where smoke comes out of the dragon's nostrils, a bed that looks like Cinderella's coach, a movie bed with film reels for a headboard, and the bed I chose: a book bed with a bookcase headboard and the bedclothes in the style of open pages of a book.) On the eleventh Webkinz, they no longer give you a room; instead, you get extra Kinzcash to purchase a room and put it anywhere you want.
Gibson's adoption meant that I could redecorate. I lined the "common rooms" along the yard, kitchen and dining room on one side, living room and conservatory on the other, with a den off the living room. The tiny "winter retreat" room I placed at the end of the garden became a deck, and I now plan to put some rooms on the other side of the yard.
I placed a park on the opposite side of the complex (next to the cats' room, so they can prowl at night LOL), and next to that placed a little cafe. I understand from the Insider group that there are multiple Christmas trees and some other decorations given out at Christmas, so I'm planning a big "Forever Christmas" room there. (I figure I can use some of the gingerbread/red-and-green trimmed things that are part of the Sweets Theme as part of the room as well.)
At least I don't need the $50,000.00 decorating budgets they constantly use on Designers Challenge to get the nesting urge out of my system!
Crazy Over Christmas
WHEN they ask for room theme suggestions on Webkinz Insider, I always say I want a Christmas theme and a fall theme. (It's me, after all.)
Here's some screen caps of the Christmas things they have sold in the past. I hope they have all these wonderful trees this year: Christmas 2006
I still would love an animated fireplace with stockings hung from the mantel...maybe some holly on the mantel.
Just Following the Trend
APPARENTLY it has not escaped the attention of the folks at Ganz that a certain very popular movie is opening this week and that the final book in the series that this very popular movie is based upon is coming out next weekend, because there is now a Wizard Theme in the W Shop. You can get things like a potions table (okay, as long as it doesn't come with Snape!), a dining table and chairs, a flying carpet sofa, etc.
According to the theme room preview, there are going to be other items in the Wizard Theme, including a bed and a really neat-looking set of floating lamps, but those haven't been released yet.