Month: May 2013

Home & Garden Expo For Relay For Life 2013

Home & Garden Expo For Relay For Life 2013

by Lisa Millar ♥ 1 Comment

It’s a bank holiday weekend in the UK, that means rain, wind and crappy weather.  But fear not, dear reader, the sun always shines in Second Life, and it’s going to be blazing down upon the Home & Garden Expo for Relay For Life 2013, a fundraising event that’s not to be missed!

You’ll find over 100 exhibitors sharing their very best homes, gardens, landscaping and interior design products in Second Life.  This year there are also an additional 30 creators from the breedables sector in the second annual Breedables Fair too..<phew!>

I’ve been lucky enough to have a sneaky peeky at the event and I can assure you all that you won’t be disappointed. There 8 regions full of home products, can you imagine?! (There are also 2 sims just for the Breedables fair and 1 entertainment sim as well!)

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Each exhibitor is going to be showcasing their very best designs, but will also feature new items that you can buy to support Relay For Life and the American Cancer Society.

The event runs for just over a week from :  12PM SLT on May 24th until June 2nd, so you have plenty of time to wander around and enjoy the amazing displays, and trust me you’ll need it because there is so much to see here that it’s overwhelming!

So what do you need to know? Well first things first, the builds are absolutely brilliant. Each exhibitor has really gone the extra mile to make their display look brilliant and invite you in to spend your lovely loot!  The environment feels like it’s been designed and engineered to make the entire space come alive with things to see, experience  and enjoy.

There are garden spaces to wander around and relax in, as well as cobbled streets and rustic villas juxtaposed with family homes and contemporary structures. If you’re a texture freak like myself then you will *drool* at the wealth of pattern and colour that surrounds you. It’s a total treat.

Rustic and traditional are as well served here as modern and contemporary, so even if role-play, or  past-times living aren’t your thing in Second Life you’ll still be enchanted by the displays that you’ll discover in Expo 1. (There are a number of items aimed at petites here too)  Be sure to gasp agog at the Devonmoor Manor from Kismet, which is like stepping back in time.  In fact, I actually turned the music OFF so that I could walk around and soak up the ambience from some of the garden environments,  and I heartily suggest that you do the same!

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I spied a myriad of wonderfully built abodes across all 8 expo sims. In particular look out for contributions from BA, Pixel Fusion, NACH Homes and Furnishings and Funky Junk.  With the increasing application and development of mesh it’s fair to say that houses are really becoming grander and so much more realistic than ever before, and there are plenty of luxurious abodes here to suit every budget and requirement.  T

Wandering around I was struck by how many were family homes, with many offering multiple bedrooms and furnishings to suit. There are lots of structures suited to Second Life families this year, and a number of retailers are here purely for the family role-play market.

I’m always keen to find knick-knacks and elements to enhance the space in my home, and you’ll find lots of essential homewares from brands like Second Spaces, Cheeky Pea and Mudhoney.  There’s a huge emphasis this season on outdoor entertaining and there are many different patio sets, barbecues and seating solutions to be had from some of the best names in furniture.  You’ll also find lots of plants and garden inspiration from names like Botanical and Heart Botanicals, helping you to transform your virtual lawn into something more spectacular. (Note: Don’t visit the expo if you need to go to the toilet, there are so many water features dotted around that you may struggle to keep control of your virtual bladder!)

Of course the expos allow newer designers upon the grid to make an impression, and it was great to become acquainted with names that I hadn’t really encountered before, such as Cobblestone and Shabby Tabby.

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Aspiring builders are well served too, you’ll find texture artists and mesh retailers such as Zwicked Textures,  Clutter and Builders Brewery have representation here.   In fact, Builders Brewery have a a huge staging area for lessons and lectures, with an extensive programme schedule for the duration of the Expo. If you’ve always wanted to learn to sculpt and texture, now’s the time to check the lecture timetable out!

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It’s really difficult to pick a favourite build or a singular item from the assembled throng of loveliness that’s on display here, so over the next few days I’ll feature a few choice items that I think  are worth sharing with you.  Is the Expo worth a visit? Most definitely; it’s inspiring. Illuminating and above all else it’s a great way to support an undoubtedly worthy cause. This is definitely one of the highlights of the year, be sure to enjoy it!

Exhibitors include: 

-JoHaDeZ- “Poetic Furniture”/::A&A::/::WetCat:: Builds&Poses/.::Sense and Sensibility::./
[beach street home and garden/[ba] barnesworth anubis prefabs/[CIRCA] Living/[LeeZu!]/
[PM]Pixel Mode/[RNP] Animations/{what next}/*ionic*/%Percent Furniture & Lighting
~*~Inspired~*~/22769 ~ [bauwerk]/3S Creations/Akaesha Designs/Amaretto Ranch Breedables/Aphrodite Shop/ARIA modern furniture and lights/Atelier Visconti/BellaRose/Beyond Prims/Black Tulip/Botanical/by Chiana Oh/By Dorian/Cheeky Pea/ChiC buildings/CLEO DESIGN/Clutter for Builders/Cobblestone Home & Garden/Cozy Homes/Creations Kitchen/De Baza/Dekute Dekore/Dysfunctional Designs/Fancy Designs/Fennux/FLRN BABY’S & FLRN DESIGN/forest feast/Full Perm Mesh/Funky Junk/Galland Homes/Glas Houses/Good Furniture/Green and Wild Garden Centre/Heart Botanicals/Home and Garden Market/Home by JLZ/Hybrid Productions/Island Dreams Realty and Seaside Lounge/Kabuki Creations/Kaerri/Katy’s Kreations Sculpties & Mesh/Kismet/Kuro/La Dolce Vita/LOTTIE Garden & Home/Lovers PlayGround/Maven Homes/meadowWorks/Meeroos/MESHWORX/Mission Home Store/MudHoney/NACH Homes and Furnishings/Naked Mesh/Nexxus Arts/Oceania Breedables/Organica Specialty Landscaping and Home Décor/Overland Trail/Park Place Home Décor/Persnickity/Pet Peddlers/Petals on the Wind Gardens of Gentle Decay/Pillows & Things/PILOT/Pixel Fusion Homes/Prim Perfect/PRIME/PrimTique/RE Blueprint Designs/ReBourne PreFabs/Roawenwood/Robin (Sojourner) Wood/sanctuaire/Scarlet Creative/Sculpty Republic/Second Spaces/Shabby Tabby/Soul Effects/Spargel & Shine Homes/Steaming Ahead/Gothic’s Musing/Stonewood Homes/Studio Skye/Terra’s Closet/TexturAni Textures / MeshAni Mesh/THE Beachstore/The Dark Fae/The Domineaux Effect/The Forest/The Nawty Box/The Virtual Kennel Club/Thistle Homes/Tranquil Homes/Tribute City/Two Moon Gardens/Unrepentant/West Studio/Zigana/Zwicked Textures

Quick TP (Click each to teleport)

Breedables Fair TP Links: 

Kitty LOVES The Catnip Carnival!

Kitty LOVES The Catnip Carnival!

by Lisa Millar ♥ 1 Comment

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Well come on guys, I wasn’t going to dislike it given that it’s so feline-centric!

It’s a bijou event; there are only a handful of participants and it won’t take you more than ten minutes to peruse the offerings that are available, but every single item on show is lovely and raises funds for Kitties. YAY FOR KITTIES!

You’ll find furniture, skins, poses, hair clothing and jewellery from ten superb content creators who have generously contributed items to the cause.  The full dazzling array of loveliness can be viewed via the Seraphim blog or by visiting Elysium’s Pinterest boards, but I thought I’d share a few of my favourite finds from the event with you here.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve fallen totally in love with Izzie Button’s work, and she has provided a fantastic skin, ‘Irene’, to  this event. It comes in pale and mocha tones (you get each shade in the pack) and features a discreet cat-eyeliner.  I tried the demo on and was completely sold.  At L$890 for two superb quality skins I’d say you can’t go wrong, and it works really well with the fantastic hair that Truth has contributed to the event, see?

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 This style is called ‘Noemi’.  I love the heavy fringe (bangs) on this style, and the volume and curl on the pigtails. It’s also my first try-out of Truth’s new shades and I am especially in love with the ‘Gingers 04 Fade’ shade that I’m wearing in this picture.  There are a number of colour packs available at L$200 each at the event , but I treated myself to the fantastic variety pack at L$350 so that I could experiment with the colours.  (Stop Press: Truth’s promised me he’s working on some bobs; when they are released I will spontaneously combust!)

I also FINALLY got with the in-crowd and bought myself some Gos Boutique shoes. I’m not really a shoes-y gal in RL, and I can’t say that I am in SL either, but having tried these ‘Lolita Espadrilles’ I fear that I may be about to change (and lose!) my mind. Of course I’d heard all about the amazing GOS skin matching system and that it was totally easy and super-effective to use, so when I bought these (I had to buy them; leopard print) I sort of knew what I was letting myself in for. But OMG it’ really is THAT easy to match your skin to the shoes that it now seems plain ridiculous that I don’t own every pair that they have ever created!  What an absolute blessing to Second Life this concept is, and by the way, the shoes are absolutely sensational.  They’re perfectly shaped and textured and I predict that I will be wearing these all summer long, because they’re just THAT pretty!

I also splurged on a cat-bed (even though I currently don’t have any cats!) and lusted after the Cheeky Pea sofa.  I don’t have need of a new sofa so couldn’t really justify the expense, although I do think that if I was looking to purchase a new one this would have been perfect.  The textures are ideal for a cat-lover and applied beautifully. (But what do you expect, it’s Cheeky Pea!)The poses in the sofa and the co-ordinating floor cushions have been well thought out and carefully applied making this entire ensemble a worthy purchase indeed. I think it would work especially well in a small sky-box.

My absolute favourite item though has to be the Catnip necklace from Cae.  

The detail on this is just brilliant; from the intricate and extremely delicate chain to the cat pendant with crystal embellishment. It’s colour-change and is just so ruddy lovely that I want this in real-life, desperately.  I can’t think of a nicer and classier way to show your support for all things feline than by wearing this.  The metal can be changed to either Gold or Silver, and there are six crystals to select from in a variety of colours, meaning you can team it with practically any outfit in your wardrobe. I don’t envisage that I’ll be taking this off anytime soon!

 I really do hope that the Catnip Carnival is a HUGE success and hope lots of lovely cash is raised for the  River Cities Humane Society For Cats  (Thanks so much to Harlow Heslop, and to all the generous contributors, for bringing this event to our virtual world!)

 Click HERE to go visit!

 

Berry’s Memes: ‘My Second Life Guilty Confessions’

Berry’s Memes: ‘My Second Life Guilty Confessions’

by Lisa Millar ♥ 2 Comments

I’ve thought long and hard about whether to actually do this meme challenge from Berry because I don’t actually think I’m guilty of anything especially bad enough in-world to consider the action worthy of a confessional…so let’s see how we go, eh?

I have a feeling that my smugness may be about to fade and my halo may be about to slip!

1. If there’s a cat on it, I’m in!

Let’s start slow and easy shall we with something that’s fairly obvious, and that is that I’m ‘Kitty by name, and Kitty by nature’.

This means I am very guilty of  loving anything cat related that can be found in-world, especially clothing, but also furniture and of course breedables. There’s a huge neko-culture in Second Life  that I’ve dabbled in and enjoyed, and I’ve also got a tiger-style  skin in my inventory if I want to go the whole hog and be totally furry.

Most of the time though I’m happy to display my love for all things cat with a pair of jewellery cat-ears or a nice jumper with a cat motif, but I’m always up for cat-themed items so if you know of any please give me a heads up so that I can indulge!  CATS FURREVER!!

2. I like being nosey in other peoples houses….

This is a big confession.  I have a ‘Space Navigator’, it’s a prized possession of mine,  and it means I can be pretty nosy and easily cam in to locations from a distance. Now, you could see that as an intrusion upon someone’s personal space, and actually I suppose that it is *gulp*, but I do set myself rules.  I don’t physically enter someone’s property uninvited, and I NEVER cam in when people are at home. (I always check to see if anyone is on the sim by using the map first)

So why do I do it? Well, fact is, I’m an SL Interior freak.  I LOVE seeing how people in-world choose to decorate their homes. I’ve studied houses where the owners have created the most amazing virtual spaces, so beautiful that they could make you weep, and I confess it’s a bit of an addiction. You see I just love a beautifully put-together home, and in real-life my house isn’t.  It’s in need of repair, there are arcade machines everywhere..it’s just a mess, frankly. It’s clean and tidy, but it’s never going to appear upon the pages of ‘House Beautiful’ anytime soon.

That’s where owning a virtual home comes into play, because I can decorate and make my virtual abode sensational for a fraction of the real-life cost.  Not only that, but now that mesh has taken over the grid I have even more prims to play with, which means the decorative possibilities are endless.

It’s always been a dream of mine to own a home in one of the more exclusive Second Life locations, and one of my favourites has to be The Grove Estates.

The houses here are sensational, and the styling is just to die for.  The sim is beautifully decorated , with carefully landscaped features like a park, as well as a marina. I love the fact that people’s homes have gates and driveways here.  I guess it’s the nearest I’ve ever gotten to visiting Beverley Hills, and one day I would LOVE to live there.

Would I mind if someone cammed into my home to look around? Actually, no, I wouldn’t mind at all.  I’m proud of my home, and I try to keep it looking as nice as I can.  If someone cammed in and was impressed by the way I had arranged something I’d be really pleased and if it inspired them to do something similar in their abode I’d be absolutely delighted!

But I don’t ever intend to break my rule of setting foot on someone’s property without permission, nor will I nosy anywhere that has people inside. I may be a voyeur, but I do have standards!

Of course in a few weeks time the SL Homes and Gardens expo will begin, and I’ll be in heaven.  I’m really looking forward to that event!

3. In fact, I like being nosy, end of!

I love reading people’s profiles. In fact, if I’m in a busy location I’m more likely to be reading profiles than I am to be actually checking out what I actually visited for! It’s a proper addiction as well. I’m not sure why I have to do it,but I actually do HAVE to do it when I’m surrounded by strangers. I guess it’s because I believe that a well-written profile really does tell you so much about the personality of the person behind the avatar.  I think an empty profile is pretty sad, and a poorly maintained one even worse.  I’ve read some incredibly awesome profiles, and some equally horrific, offensive and downright nasty ones too. There’s a message here: People DO read your profiles, so be careful what you write in there folks!

4. Inventory maintenance,or lack of it.

My inventory is just shy of 50k, and it’s an absolute disgrace. I’m really ashamed of it, and whilst I do try to keep on top of it I find it very quickly gets out of control. Demos and notecards seem to be legion,and they seem to breed whne I’m not logged-in. I have no idea where anything is.  It’s utterly ridiculous. If someone could invent an easy inventory sorting system they would make an absolute fortune, and I would be at the front of the queue to but one!  Sadly, I have to accept that a shiny clean inventory will never be one of my strong points. (For a Virgo that’s very hard to deal with!)

5. I’m a Second Life Snob.

There, I’ve said it. I am, and I’m not proud of it at all, so perhaps by my confessing I can take the requisite steps to purge myself of this trait, but I fear it will take more than a bowlful of leeches!

Fact is, I cannot for the life of me understand how some avatars can look so bloody awful.

Oh gosh, that makes me sound so bloody terrible! Let me elaborate; you will see some people in-world and they’ve been around for donkeys years yet they still wear hair with ropy textures and skins that had their heyday in 2007. I just don’t understand it; why would you want to look like that when there is so much newness and variety and MESH for goodness sake? I mean, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune to maintain a trendy avatar image; there are some fantastic freebies out there on the grid just waiting to be found.

I also can’t believe how some stores manage to trade when the clothing that they sell is, quite frankly, below par.  If you craft with poor textures, specialize in dreadful fitting and shoddy sculpt-work how are you even staying open? And yet I’ve been to sims and seen stores like this and people shopping in them, and I find it completely puzzling. Even more so when the items are priced the same as much better items to be found elsewhere upon the grid.

I feel like grabbing the avatars concerned by their collars and screaming at them, “Why?! Why are you doing this to yourself?!” But of course that would be wrong.  You can be whatever you want in Second Life, and if your heart’s desire is to look like a n00b then that’s your call, but I find it frustrating as heck because you don’t have to!

You know what I said at the beginning of this post about not actually thinking I’m guilty of anything especially bad in-world to consider the action worthy of a confessional?  Evidently I lied, I’m a BAD person!

New Episode Of ‘The Drax Files’ available NOW!

New Episode Of ‘The Drax Files’ available NOW!

by Lisa Millar ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

It’s Friday so that must mean it’s time for another episode of The Drax Files, right?

This week our esteemed reported Draxtor Despres investigates the world of virtual motion.

Most avatars in Second Life know of Abraminations, and have probably shopped there.  It’s one of the most successful AO (Animation Over-ride) stores on the grid, and rightly so. Abramelin Wolfe has invested hard in his virtual business, and deservedly reaps the rewards of creating beautiful movements for us to enjoy.  There’s no doubt his hard work enhances the virtual experience for many, and it’s brilliant to see how he works in real life.  It’s also lovely to see the face behind the name, and meet his gorgeous wife too! (His talented missus creates avatars, check out the Pig Avatar, it’s too cute!)

Thanks again for this latest episode Drax, keep ‘em coming!