Fillion-James Designs Closing

Nearly a year ago, Mickey and I started trying out hand at creation and selling of items, as so many people in SL do. For me, it began as a way to have more toga options for ROMA and then to create a few medieval and Tudor hats for my time in Winterfell. For Mickey, it was furniture building and experimentation with scripting.

We both enjoyed the time we spent learning new skills, and it continues to tickle me to no end when I see someone wearing one of my items. But RL constraints led to a long span of time when I wasn't able to either create anything new, or to improve my skills, and I simply am not willing to continue minding the store knowing that what is offered there will never be better than what's there now. Over this past year, ROMA has exploded with good toga makers who offer much more than we do, and sculpties have made interesting hat creation possible in a way that I'll never be able to do. So, there will be no great loss to the supply of SL clothing props once we're gone. (and yay to that! Like I said, this started as a way to fill a hole - I'm delighted that the hole no longer exists)

What I learned along the way:

- building is fun! but not so fun for me that I want to devote all of my SL time to it. But if there's something you can't find in SL, try to make it yourself... it's really satisfying when you pull it off.

- the tedium of dealing with vender machines and prepping stock for sale was enough to have me hating life everytime I had to do it. I'm awestruck at those who handle large stores with frequent updates.

- after peeking into the fashion world, I learned I really didn't want to jump into that culture, and it truly is necessary if one is seriously going to have a clothing business. (plus, there are amazing creators in the fashion world, and I'm never ever going to be of that quality)

- which leads to the last thing I learned from this rewarding experience - how truly wonderful the people of ROMA and Winterfell are. Our sales came pretty much entirely from our friends and neighbors in these two locations. For this reason alone, I wouldn't have traded this experience for anything. Thank you all so much for letting us try out this facet of SL.

So... after we talked and concluded that neither of us are planning to get back into content creation anytime soon, we made the difficult decision to let our rentals run out in both locations and then close our doors. We've set everything to half price to give anyone who still wants a copy of any of the items time to grab them before they go away, and then that will be it.

There is some possibility that they'll be available in some other fashion down the road, but it won't be soon and may not be at all - so get 'em while they're hot! And thanks again. While I've learned I'm no SL business-person, this has been an enjoyable phase of my SL life, and it couldn't happen without the support of those who encouraged us along the way.

Fillion-James Designs, Winterfell - due to expire in about 8 days

Fillion-James Designs, ROMA - due to expire in about 14 days

What D&D Character Am I?

Interesting - I don't play D&D too often but I do favor Neutral characters - they're just interesting to work with. I'm not sure I've ever thought of myself that way personally, though. But Wizard class? Yep... in my heart of hearts, I'd love to be a Rogue, but I'm just not sneaky enough to pull it off.

I Am A: True Neutral Human Wizard (6th Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-8

Dexterity-11

Constitution-9

Intelligence-13

Wisdom-17

Charisma-13


Alignment:
True Neutral A true neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. He doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most true neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil after all, he would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, he's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way. Some true neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run. True neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you act naturally, without prejudice or compulsion. However, true neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it represents apathy, indifference, and a lack of conviction.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Alien Takeover?

Tonight I noticed a glowing green spike coming out of the back of my head. It comes and goes, but I cammed around to look at the inside of my head and found a green thing had taken over my brain.

Any idea what this is?

Edit: I figured it out. It's part of a dragon avatar I'd had on earlier.

Dressing for the Weather, Pt I

I don't know how it is where you are are, but here where my typist lives, we're in that transitional weather season where it's 20F one day and 65F the next and if it's warm it's raining and if it's sunny the wind is gusting. Ahhh, late Fall, you make it hard to sort my wardrobe.

Now, while SL hasn't added a new feature where our little avatars shiver and turn blue when weather grows cold (and after WindLight, weather seems the next logical step - think WindLight makes your avatars face looks sallow? Just wait till drizzle's running your makeup and frizzing your hair!), I still like to dress seasonally - so this week, that means coats and sweaters and all things that go well with a steaming cup of hot chocolate.

First up is this adorable coat that isn't exactly rain gear but the cheery color reminds me of rubber ducky yellow slicker and boots. Made by Arimidi Gisaci, the Francia Woven Coat comes in a variety of colors. I rarely wear yellow in RL or SL, so it was with some serious nailbiting and hesitation that I chose this one - in the end it was the bright cheerfulness that made me smile on an otherwise grey day.

The Tights are by Lotta, labeled "nep knit socks - caki' in my inventory. They are a thick wooly green, guaranteed to keep your legs warm when the wind is gusting. Keeping my head warm is the Danielle beret by Tesla - a wonderful addition to anyone's wardrobe because it's color-changing. I've finished off the outfit with Adam n Eve's Stompi Boots in Apricot. Like most 1 piece ankle boots, you can see that they cut into my ankles a bit in an extreme pose like this one, but I saw very little problems actually moving around normally. And they are a ridiculously low price, so I don't care if my ankles suffer a bit.

The hair I'm wearing is 0 Style's "Now Seeker" in Brunet and the skin is one of two sets I've been wearing almost exclusively this past month - PixelSpa's Stella di Roccia in Almond. This make-up set is Chanteuse, the cat's eye version. Each make-up comes with a cat's eye version and a regular eyeliner version, and the make-up combinations are all lovely. The eyes are Tuli silver eyes and look just like the sky outside my RL window.

Skin: PixelSpa / Stella di Roccia - Almond Chanteuse (cateye liner)
Hair: 0 Style / *now Seeker* Brunet
Eyes: Tuli / Silver
Hat: Tesla / Danielle (color changing)
Coat: Armidi Gisaci / Francia Woven Coat - Yellow
Tights: Lotta / nep knit socks - caki
Boots: Adam n Eve / Stompi boots - Apricot

Happy Thanksgiving!

For those in the US, Happy Thanksgiving!

For those everywhere, thank you for sharing your lives with ours in Second Life.

And to all of you - have some turkey and stuffing! Your avatars look half starved!

Skin: Stella di Roccia - Almond, Nude, PixelSpa
Dress, Hair/Hat: Plain Dress - Blue. Ghanie Lane@Garda - Plain and Modest
Turkey: Love, Aly, 1L


(I can't tell you about Mickey's - he patched together an outfit and I made him a quickie hat to match!)

Home Again

After a lengthy hiatus caused by the real world, we finally got back to work on our new house. (Good grief, we started in July!)

It's now finished and nestled snugly into the Winterfell forest. We've begun furnishing it and in another day or so we're going to call it done.

Here are a few pictures.

We both worked on the build and I have a new respect for Second Life housebuilders. The basic shapes are easy enough, but getting all the seams to line up and the pieces to fit together is harder than I ever appreciated.

Morgana did all the textures and did a marvelous job. That's also a harder task than it looks, especially when trying to align edges.

The basic design is two main sections separated by an arched passthrough. One end is the bedroom and living room. On the other end is a ballroom and a gallery overlooking it. The second-level room above the archway houses a bath.

The turret at the top was a late addition Morgana built, with some usable space inside. It tops off the main structure perfectly, without overwhelming it or getting swallowed up by the size of the building under it.

So it took some doing but it's done. We have a home again, a one-of-a-kind that we're really proud of. It was a fun project, and we collaborated on it well without any real disagreements over what was needed. Having done it once, we'll avoid some mistakes next time -- if there is a next time, as I think we'll be happy in this for quite a while.

She's creepy and she's spooky...

Time for a bit of catch up - I've got a few pictures I've taken the last couple of weeks that I want to get posted. (Sadly, I'm so scatterbrained that I didn't take note of what it was I was wearing, so it's going to take a bit of hunting through my inventory.

This outfit, I loved so much that I wore it for three days straight and fully expect I'll be wearing it a lot more.

The hair makes it - I picked this up at the Hair Fair awhile back, sure that I'd find some use for it eventually, but it wasn't until now that I put together just the right outfit to set it all. It's called, appropriately enough, Creepy Bun by Curio - and you know? I'm not at all sure it is still available or if it was just part of Hair Fair. If not, they totally need to bring it back out for the month of October, because how perfect is this?

The outfit is a combination of the jacket/blouse portion of Last Call's Catwalk Collection: Virginie and the Comfort Skirt from PixelDolls. Separately, they are elegant and classic - together, they somehow come together in a sweetly gothic way that turns into Wednesday Addams.

I actually went hunting for the right shoes to go with this, and found them in adam n eve's Bronte Slipper. The added bonus here is that these are totally going to work with most of my Regency and Victorian dresses as well.

Completing the look is the skin by Mami in Milk. Not entirely white, this skin has the barest pink tint to it so that it properly looks like I've not out before moonrise in the last few years.

Jacket and Blouse: Catwalk Collection: Virginie - Last Call
Skirt: Comfort Skirt - PixelDolls
Shoes: Bronte Slipper, Black Velvet - Adam n Eve
Hair: Creepy Bun, Black - Curio
Skin: Mami, Milk, Pink Shadow, Dark Lips - Tiny Seadog