Countdown and Cards

Since I've been a bit quiet there's lots going on in this post, and unfortunately some of it is now ancient history. So I figure while I show you gifts you may have missed out on (don't worry, I missed one too) I'd also brag a little. You see, everyone does year end reviews, everywhere you look it's the "Popstar whose name starts with a K of the year Awards!" and other such stuff, but I must admit I was very flattered to be nominated for the Best Of Blogs show at Show Me Yours. Now yes, it's true I know the committee, but I still needed a nomination to be included so it filled me with pride when someone suggested the shot from my post This Is England. That was the first time I actually admitted I was English on the blog; I would've happily kept on using Atlantic agnostic words but when it came to a story of my childhood there was no avoiding it - I had to come clean! The post meant a lot to me, so it was great to have that response from it.

Which brings us to this post in a double whammy funday type thing! You see, whilst nosing around the SMY hall (and I recommend you do go visit, there are some stunning shots in there from some amazing people) there is also a little side room with guest vendors. This is great if you're pushed for time or slightly lazy, but as the guest vendor in there right now is actually the big store across the bridge I'm going to recommend you take a little trip to Background Check if only because they have a nice little advent board giving away... backgrounds. The hint was in the name of the store really.

So yes, this is a little reminder of Marguax's extremely handy Advent List 2011! Which has proved helpful in making myself a little Christmas card!

The background is from the aforementioned Background Check, and given they made the parka that got me into the show - I raided the 22769 unisex advent for my outfit. On the 12th I picked up that shirt, the 8th gave me my Christmas kilt, and the 7th offered up earwarmers that obviously had Christmas music in judging by my face! Actually they didn't, the face is thanks to the free emoter HUD I picked up while grabbing advent gifts from aDORKable. Now these are largely female poses, aDORKable do make male poses too, but the advent seems to be female offerings, however as with much in SL if you ignore the packaging you'll quickly find that there's a lot of unisex goodies available - this one came from the 4th (and if you're lamenting not having these items then be glad you weren't trying for them - for some inexplicable reason I don't have one for the 5th from there...). And really, poke around just inside the door - there are a mountain of freebies for one and all!

I must admit though - I did cheat slightly. I was too lazy to find a font for my card and Background Check had a nice little Merry Christmas alpha texture that I could put in front of myself, it even had a sprig of holly on it so I splashed out the 25L and rezzed myself an extra prim. It really was easy, here's the set-up shot.

And as a bonus those snuggle winter boots are the 22769 group gift this month so you can still grab them. But honestly, December is a great month for freebies in general - if you've not been adventing yet get cracking, a lot of stores take the gifts down after one day (although it never hurts to try the old boxes...). I've managed a handy collection of poses, frisbee games, snow games, clothes, accessories, furniture, avatars, musical goodies, ornaments... who knows what else - this is more gifts than many a hunt and no brain power required! Thanks to all the vendors being so generous - you've given me much to cheer about this Christmas.