I earned 2500 gold bars during the valentine quests by putting together 60+ of each set.  To do that, you have to remember to not accept the reward for the quest until you've played the HO as many times as you can stand it, remembering to leave time for the second quest of the day, which also might require you to play the same scene over and over.

It takes a LOT of energy (food) and a lot of time, and it's mind-numbingly boring.  But it enabled me to get the truck that regenerates energy in 3 minites, and I've bought 5 of the large food bundles on sale.  It's put me in the position that I can by anything I want.

Since I rarely spend my gold bars, I'm not sure if I'll "Go fo the gold" the next special event.  It depends on what else is going on in my life.

I'm at level 60.  Not playing that much right now, just checking in to play the Daily quest, play a couple of other HO's to try and get them to Master.  I don't play to level up, I think it's meaningless.  Leveling up is something that just happens when I play.

I measure progress by how much of the town I've repaired/renovated, how many coins and gold bars I have, how much food I've stockpiled. 

I'd rather have my money and assets and be at level 60, than be at level 70 and have used all my food and money to get there.  I'll level up again when the next special event arrives and I have a reason (other than leveling up) to play frequently.

lilyr wrote:

   I tried to get multiple sets of the Valentine's stuff but somehow never found the items I needed.  

That's because some items were only available for 24 hours IF you didn't accept the reward for completely the quest.  You could play the HO scene over and over and get the goodie as long as you left the quest sitting over on the left hand side.  Once the quest disappeared, so did the collectible.  
 

lilyr wrote:

Ah!  Again, thanks.  I don't think I was aware that they were only available for 24 hours.

When there is a special event, before doing a quest, check the BF forums and look for posts by  april3850.  If the quest is one that has an object that is available for a limited time, she will mention it.

You get 24 hours, starting from midnight your time, to complete the day's special event quests. 
So if the special collectible in in the 1st quest, you can gather as many as you like (BUT DON"T CLICK ON THE QUEST AGAIN UNTIL YOU'VE GOT ENOUGH OF THEM), but remember to save some time to do the 2nd (or 3rd, as it was several days with the valentine quest) quest.  Once you click on teh quest, you get your experience and coins reward, and the special collectible disappears from the HO scene.
 

I had that happen in Aunt Margaret's.  There was some text that said spider but there wasn't any and the hint pointed to something different every time.  I can't remember how I did it, I either kept hitting hint and it finally gave me the right thing or else I just clicked on everything and got it, but I remember it took a long time.  I haven't had amy problems in the Secret Library so far.

I just got a quest for the GW Carver stamp in the Maine scene so I will be playig that for quite som  timse for personally.y it's an item that I have no use for personally.  See how my keyboard doesn't keep up with my typing and screws everything up?  It drives me crazy  I don't want to type slow