Spirit Animal Award

April 9th 2016

I got an absolutely amazing surprise this morning when I logged on to the forums.  A wonderful message from Twiggy of snn77sims to say how much she had enjoyed my writing on this blog and that she wished to nominate me for the Spirit Animal Award!  All I can say is WoW!  I have been enjoying partaking in the short story challenges on the forums, and this blog is just somewhere to store them.  To know that people are truly enjoying them is wonderful to hear.

The rules of this award are simple and are as follows...

Spirit Animal Blog Award Acceptance Rules:

1. Once nominated,add the award picture to your blog.

2. Write a short paragraph about yourself and what your blog means to you. Also, let the world know, if you could be any animal, what you would be.

3. Pick and notify ten nominees for the award.

A Little About Me

Well, I am 33 years old and I live on a 'farm' in Central Scotland.  I say 'farm' because I don't want you imagining a sprawling farmstead of hundreds of acres.  We bought the farmhouse and around 14 acres of land for our own personal use, so perhaps Smallholding is a better term?  We raise chickens and Shetland Sheep, we have a dog, cats, fish and a rabbit.  We grow vegetables and try our best to live sustainably.  

I have had a whole host of jobs in my time but I am currently in my most challenging to date; stay at home mum to two beautiful girls.

I have been a fan of the Sims since my (then) boyfriend (now husband) bought me a copy of The Sims way back in the long, long ago!  I have been hooked ever since, following every incarnation.  I have, however, only realised it as a tool for my creative writing since getting the Sims 4.  I was aware of the forums but never partook of their riches, except for the occasional "How do I do (x)?"  or  "Why does my sim (y)?" kind of search.  But, for a reason I can no longer remember but am glad I had, I came across a thread regarding the legacy challenge concept and then when I discovered people actually told stories with the Sims...  I had very much a "Duh!" moment wondering what on earth I had been playing at for so long!

I got into blogging because of this move to the country, I have blogged extensively (until recently) about the whole process of finding the place and getting it fit for our purpose.  No shameless plug, but if you are at all interested it's at Realising the Dream.  But once I had seen the amazing storied told using the game I knew I had to get me a piece of that.  And that was how my Legacy Challenge and my Rosebud Challenge stories began.

This blog was entirely different, I'd had an idea of doing a kind of Sim Star sim for a while but couldn't quite place how to go about utilising it.  The forums, once again, opened my eyes.  I found the monthly short story challenge and realised that this was a perfect way to give my little sim star some roles and to be able to explore different styles of writing. 

Spirit Animal

This one was a tricky one.  In the end I settled on one that most people will say "Whaaatt?" whilst spitting their beverage all over the person next to them.  I have chosen a sloth.  (Pause for you to get a cloth for that poor innocent bystander)  Two reasons I have chosen that animal, firstly I think they are possibly THE best animal ever invented!  But my second reason is a little more reasoned out.  They move so slowly, which gives them ample time to fully see, hear and feel the world around them, unlike us who rush from task to task, always worrying we don't have enough time, we fail to fully appreciate the now.  They also live almost entirely upside down, now I know this is normal to them, but it does mean that they see things in an entirely different way and I think being able to look at something form multiple perspectives can only be a helpful thing to have.  They also have such an air of calm, of knowing, of peace about them.  Don't worry, we'll all get where we need to be in the end!

My Nominations

In no particular order

1. Cathytea 's  cathytea's site (I don't know what the site's grand title is but you'll find loads there!)
2. MDianaSanders 's Mission Melt Master
3. eXokamikaze  's Switch! A Neighbourhood Rotation
4. VanityHigh 's The Starling Legacy
5. RecursiveAcronym 's Rosenfeld (Rosebud Challenge)
6. SpottyDog714 's Looking for Mum's Murderer
7. RachelRosebud 's Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May
8. Chandier 's A Rag to Riches Story
9. RosaleeMae 's The Real Me
10. StSciurus 's First Impressions