My Flourishing Retrospect Overview 2018

I can’t believe how fast time has gone.  One day I was creating my first blog, the next its 4 years later I’ve change the name and focused more on what I wanted to blog about and I've created a blog that I'm so proud of.  This New Years I want to kind of use this post as a reflection on what my blog has been to me and what I’ve done to help improve it over the last 6 months.

Merry Christmas 2018

Its officially Christmas and that means this is the last of the Blogmas posts.  I want to thank everyone for joining me this month and helping me celebrate Christmas all month long.  You have no idea how much fun I’ve had writing these post, chatting with you all on Twitter, and reading what you all have written for Blogmas.

30 Blogmas Post Ideas

Its never to early to plan for Blogmas next year, and in my second to last post of the season.  While I was planning all of these post I began writing them back in October just so that I was able to post as many days as I could. 

The possibilities for Blogmas are endless, and this holiday season I though my no share a few of my Blogmas ideas.  If you're planing on participating in Blogmas next year, I would highly recommend that you plan 2 month in advance.  You never know what can come up during the holidays.  Instead of preparing post one day ahead try to plan them about a month or two in advance.  Thats what I did for Blogmas this year and I’ so happy I did.  Now let's get started to see what you could write for Blogmas next year.

Christmas Stocking Stuffer Ideas 2018

When it comes to Christmas stockings stuffers, I’m always trying to come up with cute and small items that I can put in my stockings.  Each and every year it's a struggle to think of new things that I can get.  So this year I though why not share with you a list of items that you can put in everyones stockings this year.

The 12 Games of Christmas Wishlist 2018

Since Christmas is getting closer I thought I would do a 12 games of Christmas post!  This is a list of all the games that I have been really interested in playing and I can’t wait to play.  Some of these game are not release yet so I still have to wait if I want to play them.  So let's get see what games do I want to play.

Christmas Breakfast Ideas

Every Christmas I try and make something new for breakfast each year.  Well, for todays Blogmas post number 20, I’m going to be sharing a few Christmas breakfast ideas that you can make.  You don’t have to make anything super fancy unless you want too.  There are so many creative ideas on Pinterest that have sparked my interest on what I want to make this year.  So let's get to all they yummy ideas!

Homemade Hot Cocoa Recipe

If you’ve been following my Twitter then you’ve probably see me talk about my homemade hot cocoa.  Well, Christmas has come early today as I decided to dedicate this 19th Blogmas post to the recipe that I use to make my homemade cocoa.  The great thing about this recipe is how malleable it be.  For those of you that are vegan or can’t eat any dairy products this recipe could be changed to fit your wants.

Fluffy and Soft Donuts Recipe

For todays Blogmas post.  I have decided to share my new favorite recipe for soft, melt in your mouth doughnuts.  But don’t tell anyone ok, this will be our little secret.  Now before I continue, this is not my recipe.  I found this recipe over at The 350 Degree Oven and now I’m sharing my find with you.

These have to be the best doughnuts that I have ever mad at home.  The last time I made doughnuts at home, I basically wanted to throw them out the window because of how frustrating they were, nothing was turning out right  But now, I no longer have those issues with this new recipe!

My Favorite Things About Christmas 2018

There are so many things to love about Christmas, its impossible to just a few things since there so much to love about this holiday.  So for todays 8th Blogmas post.  I will list off a few things that I love about the holiday season.  I will try to keep my list to a minimum since I could probably go on for ever about the things I love about Christmas.  So lets get into this!

Nancy Drew Games to Play This Christmas Season

It's that time of year again to pull out all of my favorite games to play this winter. Since I don’t get snow where I live, I can’t very well look outside and have a white snowy day. So I can only do the next best thing. So this Christmas season I will be playing all my favorite Nancy Drew games to get into the wintery spirit!  So let's get started!

Simple Ways to Decorate a Christmas Cake

As Christmas is coming closer my baking itch is starting up again to the point of where all I want to do is bake a cake.  Well, this year I’m going to share a few design idea that anyone can make!  Any of these designs will fit any recipes you want to create for your very own Christmas cake.  So let's get started!

What to Bake This Christmas 2018

When it comes to the holidays there are so things to make that you normally wouldn’t make in the off season of the holidays.  Well, this year I plan on baking anything and everything I can this year, I want to make as many desserts as I can before the end of the holiday season.  Now all I have to do is figure out what to bake this year.

Christmas Gift Ideas for a Gamer

When it comes to gamers, I would like to think that we are very simple.  Especially when it comes to buying gifts for Christmas.  Well, if you don’t play video games then knowing what to buy for a gamer is probably one of the hardest things to figure out.  Well, this year all your prayers can be answered on my quick list of items you can buy for the gamer in your life.

Video Games

This one is probably a no brainer when it comes to buying gift.  However there are so many games to choose from that you could probably get lost on what to buy.  The simple solution to this problem is this.  Look at the games they own and look for recommendations online based on what they play.  Just make sure that the game will work on their device before you buy it.

Headsets

Headsets are a gamers lifeline to having great sound to listen to storyline or to just keep their game from distracting others around them.  There are so many headsets your can get such as ear buds and the nice and expensive headset.  Now what ever headset you decided to get them remember that we as gamers want to experience really good sound quality that will make the gaming experience amazing.

Giftcards

Now sometimes it's hard to pick what kind of video games you would think a gamer would like.  Well, if your unsure about what game to buy then you can easily buy them a gift card so they can pick and choose the games themselves.  Before you buy just any gaming gift card make sure that it a place that they play games from.  For example Steam, Playstation, or Xbox/Microsoft just to name a few.

Snacks

While playing games, it always fun to have snacks on hand and buying a gamers favorite treat is one of the best things to give them.  It can be candy, pop corn, beef jerky, or whatever they love to snack on.  I would also recommend that you probably get them one of the other gifts above since they will probably look at you confused if you just give them a random food item.

I hope this helps everyone with a gamer in their life.  This is just a few of the simple things I though would make giving a video gamer for Christmas easier.  I kind of based this off of what I would want for as a gamer, but if you have any other suggestions then please commenting them below, I would love to read you suggestions and ideas.

Until next time,

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Favorite Christmas Movies 2018

Its Blogmas day 5 and I’m getting super excited for Christmas!  Now the only thing that will help put me in the holiday mood is Christmas movies!  There are so many good Christmas movies out that its almost impossible to list them all in one post.  So for today I decided to list my top 5 Christmas movies.  So let's get started!

Christmas iPhone Wallpaper

Were on day 9 of Blogmas and todays post is going to be a little shorter than my other post.  Today I’m sharing 5 cute Christmas wallpaper themes!  I have been scavenging Pinterest for some super cute wallpapers and today I thought I would share with everyone my finds.  To keep this post short, I will only be sharing about 6 since that will take up quite a bit of the page.

Cookies to Bake This Holiday

 

As I’ve said in previous post, I just love to bake and I have so many ideas of what I want to bake this year.  Well, this year is the year where I’m really in the mood to bake a bunch of cookies of all different kinds.  From the usual cookies that I love to bake with a bunch of new ones that I’ve just been recently introduced too.

12 Kind Things To Do This Christmas

I hope everyone is have fun this Blogmas.  Were on to Blogmas post number 4.  I’ve been having so much fun writing all of these and I though, since this is the season for giving why don’t I share with everyone a few acts of kindness you can do this season.  There are so many kind and selfless things you can do this holiday season and this year I want to share just a few things that everyone can do this year!

Custom Christmas Ornament ~ Review

As my Blogmas post continue, I’ve been looking up a bunch of different things I could do and this year I found the cutest thing I could possible ever find and that is a custom Christmas ornament.  I fell in love with the idea the second I laid eyes on it.  After adding my two kitties into my family I needed to get something to remember my family members and kitties and puppies.  So for this post I’m going to be reviewing my cute new ornament today.

Rolled Out Sugar Cookie Recipe

Since it is getting closer to Christmas I wanted to share with everyone my favorite sugar cookie recipe.  I just love using this roll out sugar cookie recipe.  It helps make the cutest sugar cookies cut outs and I use this recipe every year since I found it 4 years ago.  This recipes not only look cute when you use your cookie cutters but they also hold their shape while they bake!  These are easy to make and I can't wait to make another batch.

Best Way to Buy Christmas Gifts

When it comes to holiday shopping, I think this is one of the hardest things to do during the holiday season.  I know I struggle when it comes to thinking up of gift ideas.  It almost to the point to where I just ask people to give me a list of items they would want or like as a gift.  Well, for this post I’m going to give everyone suggestions on how they can shop for gifts this holiday season.  There are so many ways you can sneakily ask people if they like this or that or just want to figure out what they want.

My Favorite Christmas Music 2018

Ah Christmas music, one of the best ways to get into the holiday season.  For some, I’m one of the few people that begin listening to it in November instead of the beginning of December.  Well, now is the time to share what I’m going to be listening to this Christmas!

When It Feels Like Christmas 2018

When it comes to Christmas time, theres just a special feeling in the air that make me just happy and joyful.  I don’t really know what exactly causes this feeling but its just something that I look for every Christmas.  Sometimes is super easy to find while other times its just a tad more difficult.  So I thought I would share with you when it feels like Christmas to me.

12 Days of Blogmas Tag

As of today, December 1st, I’m officially doing Blogmas!  Or should I say the 25 days of Blogmas!  This is the second time I'm attempting all 25 days, the first time didn't go so well but this year will be different.  Today starts the first day of posts and I can’t wait to share with you all my new post for this holiday season.  So today’s post is a Christmas tag, I compiled all the questions I could think of and I hope you all enjoy!

Happy 4th Birthday To My Flourishing Retrospect

I can't believe that its beens 4 years since I've started blogging.  Over the last 4 years, I've change my blogs name 3 times and I have 125 published post on my blog to this day.  It amazing thinking about all the big and small changes my blog has gone though over the years.  I've tried to write beauty, lifestyle, baking, chit chat, video gaming post, and exploring all that I could about blogging.  I can see all the changes in my writing and how I've improved everything you see right here on my blog.  Its just amazing where one thing can take you.

How to Survive Banished on Hard Mode

Over the last few times I've played Banished, I've noticed that my skills in the game have improved very rapidly, to the point of when  I play on the easiest level I get board because it's just too easy.  After switching too Hard mode I've noticed that I now basically kill everyone within minutes and have to start my game all over again, which is a pain if you forget to save before you start the game.  So over the last few months, I've collected some of my own data to test out a few theories on how to survive on hard mode.  While collecting this data, I played on the game’s largest map with natural disasters on.  Making this probably one of the hardest challenge  for me as a player.

Sims 4 Small Cottage Build

After about a month from the last Twitter poll, I can now share with you all my newest Sims 4 build!  The winner with half of the vote was the Cottage!  This had to be one of cutes cottages I’ve built in a while.  To make it feel more like a cottage I decided against any technology such as computers and tv’s so that you could just immerse yourself in the cute home.  I just love how this little cottage turned out and I had such a fun time building it.  So lets get into exploring it!

Favorite Sims 4 Autumn Clothing

After coming up with my autumn theme decoration set, I found a quiet a few cute clothing items that I just had to share.  Since its still autumn and it will not be winter for a little while longer, I thought why not share with you one more autumn theme Sim 4 CC find.

The Fall Tag

Recently I was tagged by Daniella over at The Little Book Spy to participate in The Fall Tag!  If you haven’t already go check out my twins blog!  The creator of this lovely tag was Ellduclos, so go check her out as well.

Favorite Sims 4 CC Halloween Costumes

Its 5 days until Halloween and now has come the time for makeup and costumes, well in the Sims that is. As promised here is a list of some of the cutes CC for the Sims 4.  Now, I wasn’t able to find very many children costumes, and quite frankly costumes that were rated G for the adults.  However, I did find a few things that were super cute.

Scary Games to Play This Halloween

When it comes to Halloween everyone is trying to get spooked and scared.  Some people read books, watch scary TV shows, while I play games.  This Halloween is no exception.  So, I thought, why not share what kind of game you should play with Halloween.  Now, do know I’m not the biggest horror game, so my list if going to be very short. However, this will not stop me from sharing a few suggestions.

Favorite Sims 4 CC Halloween Decor

Whenever it comes to Halloween I’m always going overboard with new ideas on how to celebrate since I’ve gotten old.  Well let’s just say that my new Halloween tradition is playing games that have Halloween themes in the game or in this case, decorating my Sims 4 house with Halloween decorations and dressing them up.  Ever since the Sims 3 had Halloween I’ve always wanted to have my sims have a Halloween party and decorate.  Now with seasons in the game I finally can with the calendar mode.

What Do We Know About Nancy Drew: Midnight in Salem

In possibly 6 to 7 months from now, the next new Nancy Drew game will be released.  It’s been almost 4 years since the last Nancy Drew game was released and I am super excited for its.  Now before anyone starts to complain “Why did it take forever to make Midnight in Salem” or bash the game at all, let me tell you something before we break down all the information we know currently about Midnight in Salem and we go over my own theories on what could happen in the game.

Favorite Sims 4 CC Autumn

Since it’s autumn, I though why not make your Sims dream of Autumn as well.  This is my second post sharing my favorite Sims 4 CC, and I though why not make this one themed my favorite autumn décor.  I’m always building houses and I thought, let’s share your excitement for cooler weather, the yellow, red, and orange leaves.  While looking though my CC folders, I noticed I didn’t have very many autumn themed CC. So, then I set off to find the loveliest CC for autumn.  While looking I couldn’t find very many things but at last I found some of the cutest decorations and room sets to share off.  As of September 10, all of the CC in this post has worked in my game.

Rise of the Tomb Raider Review

When Rise of The Tomb Raider was first released, I just starting to play Tomb Raider. During the Christmas of 2017, I was given a physical 20th edition of the game, coming in a hard cover note book style case, showing off fan art from all around the word of Laura Croft. After 12 hours of game play over the course of the last 8 months, I've finally finished the game. Rise of the Tomb Raider was released by Square Enix on November 10th, 2015. So let's get started! 

Autumn Home Style

Its finally September and I’m done with summer and want one of the best seasons of the year, autumn. If you’ve been following me on Twitter, then you know for a fact that it has been super-hot where I live, and I’m just done with the heat.  But sadly, season cannot change at the snap of your fingers or by using a Sims 4 Weather Machine.  However, I’m going to change that by making my home more feel more like autumn and I though why not share how I’m going to achieve that.

A Video Gamers Tag

When I was trying to come up with some ideas for some post.  I thought that since I’ve never seen or found a video gamer tag post, I thought it would be fun to come up with my own questions and make my very own gamer tag! 

Sims 4 Victorian Mannor Part 1

On the July 21^st, I decided to ask everyone what kind of house you would like to see me build on the blog in the Sims 4.  The winner of the poll was a Victorian House (Manor). I have always had a soft spot for the Victorian Era specifically the clothing and house designs.  I’ve built something close to Victorian homes before, but today I’m sharing my own creation from this time period.  I’m going to try and keep the descriptions of all the rooms short since there are so many rooms.  Since there are so many rooms, I have decided to write 2 post for the house with a little description.  The link of the second post can be found here if you want to go check it out after reading this one.  Also, I'm sorry if any of the photos are dark, I tried to make sure that there was as much light as possible when taking them and I tried to edit them the best I could.

Sims 4 Victorian Manor Part 2

The second part of the Victorian build focuses on the second story of the house.  Most of the rooms here are the main bedrooms and the guest rooms. There aren’t as many rooms as the first floor, however, these rooms in my opinion feel the most personal in the house since they are based on the type of the person living there.  Like in the first post I’m going to be excluding the unimportant rooms and focus on the main rooms.  If you haven't seen the first floor then click here to go and see the beautiful downstairs.

How to Install Older Nancy Drew Games on Windows 10

Updated (06/01/2023)

When it comes to playing older Nancy Drew games, it seems almost impossible.  However, I have accomplished the impossible and have managed to not only install the disc version of Stay Tuned for Danger, but I have also installed the Original 1998 version of Secrets Can Kill!  For the fact that I was able to install the game is a not only a miracle, I want to share this with all of you Nancy Drew fans as well.

My Favorite Sims 4 CC Part 1

When it comes to owning Sims 4 custom content, I probably have a catalog worth of items if not more. After working on my Sims 4 Victorian build I’ve decided to share a few of my favorite Sims 4 CC with everyone. As of August 17, 2018. All of the items I’m about to share with you still work in the game with the latest update. Each post is going to be a theme of items such as bedroom items, living room, decorations, etcetera.  The theme for this Sims 4 CC is going to be bedrooms.

Sherlock Holmes The Devil's Daughters Review

After finishing Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments, I immediately began to play Sherlock Holmes The Devil's Daughter.  The game was released by Frogwares on June 10th, 2016.  This game is a stand alone from Crimes and Punishments, though it does have ties to the game The Testament of Sherlock Holmes which was released in 2012.  However, in this review we will focus on The Devil's Daughter as stand alone game.  So let's get started!

Tomb Raider Review

Over the last few years, I’ve been playing quite a few RPG games.  These games have been so much fun to play.  One of my top games that I loved playing was the 2013 edition of Tomb Raider.  I was originally recommended this game by Little Jackalope at Her Interactive while they were live streaming one of their Nancy Drew games. She raved about how good it was and so I decided to try the game.  I bought a copy during the summer sale back in 2016 for $4.99 dollars and just recently bought it for the PS4.  So let's get started!

Nancy Drew Battle Challenge

When it comes to Nancy Drew games, I’m always trying to find new ways to play my favorite games.  A few challenges that I’ve done in the past were trying not to cheat, playing all the games on senior mode, and trying to play the games as fast as you can.  And I realized that there are quite a few challenges that you can do with these games!  There is, however, one challenge that Daniella (The Little Book Spy) and I have created that have out shined all of the rest of them called, “Nancy Drew Battle Challenge.”

Sherlock Holmes Crimes and Punishments Review

I love a good mystery game and one of the best detectives games to play is no other than the famous detective, Sherlock Holmes.  So today, I will be reviewing Frogwares Sherlock Holmes Crimes and Punishments, based off of Arthur Conan Doyle, Crimes and Punishments.  Sherlock Holmes was released September 29th, 2014 and is based of Doyle's book Crime and Punishment.  So lets get started!

Stardew Valley Multiplayer

On April 30, the creator of Stardew Valley released the beta for multiplayer for the first time!  When I first bought Stardew Valley I remember thinking that this game would be super fun to play with friends. A year later, the rumor and confirmation came out that there will be indeed a multiplayer feature.  The second that I heard this, I convinced my friends to buy the game and learn the life of Stardew Valley.  Ever since then, we all have been addicted to playing and building up our own farms.

My Flourishing Retrospect

Its official!  My blog has been renamed to My Flourishing Retrospect.  Its been over a month since I've really written any thing for my blog and I can't believe that my blog has surpassed its third birthday that was back in November.  I didn't really write a post for my blog anniversary, but today I'm going to do just that...three months later... But it's better late than never.  Yeah, I know I'm not the best at keeping track with everything on my blog and I don't think I ever really said why I stopped posting in the first place.