So it's been a while

Sorry for the silence here. Things have been busy.

We've finished the remake of our park land, making it more of an earthy space than the slice of Americana that is was. In place of the bandstand we have a circle of seating that Morgana uses for Practical Tarot group meetings, and that can be used for other informal gatherings.

The playground's still there, but it moved a bit from its previous location. Unfortunately Second Life's upgraded servers seems to have turned the avatar cannon from a boom to a sputter, so I took it away.

Morgana weathered a couple of weeks of unreliable connections that now seem to have been mostly solved with an upgrade to her video card drivers.

Come see the new park and maybe we'll see you around.

Watch This Space

This week, we bought some additional land on Haemosu adjacent to our park, and also picked up a couple of other small plots elsewhere in Haemosu, giving us a bit more prim allowance. We're not quite sure what we're going to do with it yet, but certainly some changes are coming.

"...frame your mind to mirth and merriment,
which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life."

~ William Shakespeare
Taming of the Shrew




Please join us on Sunday, Feb. 24 from noon to 3SLT at Serenity Hall, Winterfell, for an afternoon of feasting, dancing and socializing in fine Elizabethan style! Dress in your best Elizabethan finery or come as your favorite Shakespearean character. Come when you're able and stay as long as you like.

DJ Elrik Merlin of Radio Riel will play medieval and Renaissance hits for your dancing pleasure.

While you're here, we can show you around the manor and you're free to wander the grounds as well. Don't let the ghosts scare you! They're only mildly malevolent.

This event will be broadcast on Radio Riel live and can be heard on their Events Stream.

For those looking for some ideas for Shakespearean characters, look here.

We look forward to seeing you!
Mickey James & Morgana Fillion

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

Skins Off My Back

The entry below shows most of the normal realistic skins I use in Second Life. This one is about novelty skins, imaginative creations that I can't use often but like to have on hand now and then.

The best of these is the one to the right. It's toned specifically to reflect the skin shading in black-and-white movies. Matched up with the right hair, clothes and eyes, it makes me look like I stepped out of a Bogart film ... a very cool effect.

CJ Carnot is the skin's maker, and it comes with one good set of matching eyes. It was available at Tete a Pied, but it was created as a fund-raising item for Relay For Life and is no longer there. However, the creator tells me a new version and a whole new line of skins will be available shortly.

I had put some thought toward trying to make a a skin like this myself, but I was inhibited a bit by, well, knowing absolutely nothing about making skin and also, having little in the way of artistic talent.

The one skin I have made was simply a matter of taking one of the stock SL newbie skins and coloring it for a weird alien shape I'd made. It's amusing, but hardly anything to brag about.

Possibly my next favorite novelty skin, even though it really serves no purpose but to freak people out, is the anatomical muscle skin. Bizarre Berry, who also leads the Second Life Unitarian Universalist group, made this one. What I like about it is the level of detail and also the fact that, when worn where nobody is execting such a thing, it really does freak people out.

Bizarre Berry has a few other skins available, all of them, well, bizarre. I have a couple of others but use them so rarely there's no need to picture them here. They're all available in Modesta

I have a friend in-world with a skeleton avatar (I actually have one too, but he created it.) We should work up some kind of comedy duo bit with the bones and muscles.

The Demon Skin can be used with a normal human shape, but the most effective use I've found for it is as part of the Unicorna from 6ixth. This really incredibly detailed avatar has a unicorn torso and head, but with a simple command that disappears to reveal the human torso underneath, including the skin and hair of choice. The demon, from InsideOut, is the perfect complement.

Like many newcomers to SL, it took me a little bit of time to figure out how much difference good skins make to the avatar look. As you can see from these two entries, I still don't have a big collection of them. But they really are important for anyone who doesn't want to forever look like they just stepped off of Orientation Island.

The Skins I'm In

After yet another skin purchase tonight, I took stock of those I've accumulated in my inventory over the past few months. I've noticed that I tend to wear a new skin set until I get something new, and then the older one gets "retired" and not used much or at all afterward.

Since well-made skins can cost a lot, that probably isn't the best approach. Running through what I have may help with making better use of the older ones.

Second Life starts you out with a very basic newbie skin that almost no features to it at all. I am not sure how long it took me to buy my first improvement to it, but the earliest one I recall buying is this one from PixelDolls, and the file properties tell me I acquired it about two months after first signing up.

This is a decent skin, though not outstanding. After my early days, I began trying to stay away from the body-builder look -- the skins with tightly cut abs and bulging pecs look too action-movie cliche, and far too common in Second Life. Here you set yourself apart by being a little less than ideal. This one has subtle muscle definition, but the level of feature detail is not what it could be. I have two versions of this skin, this one and one with sideburns in addition to the goatee.

(The goatee is another look I've largely shied away from, this one skin excepted. Not because I don't like it, but because for a while it seemed every skin I looked at that had facial hair had a trendy goatee, or soul patch. Finding skins with a full beard took some searching, although they seem to be more available now.)

I also have three skins from Dragonfly Designs. The one pictured here, with the beard, was the one I used for my "Professor" look, although I had a slimmer body shape to go with that. I have the same skin clean-shaven, and also clean-shaven with red eyebrows.

The muscle definition on these is about as far as I prefer to go toward the body-builder look. The nipple detail is nice, and the area around the neck and collarbones is well done. The only real drawback is the tone, compared to some other skins, looks a little yellowish to me. I don't know if it really is or was just some trick of the light the one time I noticed it, but these served me well for a good long while.

Dragonfly also offers a good range of facial hair. They were the first place I found to offer a good full beard, and the eyebrows are not as overbearing as those I've seen on some other designs.

I used these up until a couple of months ago, when I decided I wanted an image change. The Professor look I liked (and still do), but the slender body shape was starting to seem limiting. In real life I am not so slightly built, and Morgana and I have been trying to keep our most frequent SL look somewhere in the ballpark of our real selves. So I ended up getting a new shape, and tweaking it carefully, and that of course called for a new skin.

I hesitated for a couple of weeks before spending the money for Second Skin Labs' Adam. I plan to get a lot more use out of these, even with tonight's new acquisitions. They are very detailed, including a great amount of attention to the back -- shoulder blades and spine -- that many skin makers simply gloss over. And the body and facial hair is the most realistic I've seen. The designer photo sources at least some of the layers in these skins, and while that technique does not always work well, here it does.

Morgana showed me the ones I picked up tonight. They are part of the new Hunter line from Nora Entice. The particular trio I picked up are designed for the older man, with crow's feet around the eyes and wrinkles in the forehead. The same skin comes in a more youthful version and I may pick that up soon too, but the older look appealed to me -- partly because it's rare and partly because these are well done.

The one pictured is called "Grizzled," with the five o'clock shadow. The set also includes a clean-shaven version called "Aged," and another clean-shaven one with less pronounced wrinkles, called "Mature." The three of them give a good range of ages, and I can further enhance the effect with a good choice of hair.

Skin choice in Second Life is about trade-offs. I love the richness of Adam's skin tones, for example, but it doesn't have a bald head option, so any hair I choose has to either completely cover or blend into the hair it comes with. The Hunter line offers a less callow look than many skins, but it lacks body hair altogether, except for pubic hair, so the body looks a little sterile. The Dragonfly skin gives me a good full beard option, but also has abs that I'd prefer to be more subtle. Having a range of options, even though it can be costly, is the only way I know to deal with the inability to find the one perfect skin set.

I am sure women have it as bad, or even worse, as makeup options are hardwired into female skins the way facial hair choices are for men.

Along the way, I've picked up a few novelty skins, things I can't wear often but have been glad to have on hand when they're needed. I'll post another entry soon about those.

I Heart Aries Celestial

This is so overdue.

I post so irregularly and Mickey and I don't only talk fashion (though admittedly, I like doing so), so I have never thought of this in any way as a 'fashion blog'.

I don't think I'm reviewing clothing here - I'm just a clotheshorse that likes to brag about what I've bought. I started it mostly as a way to record what I'd picked up - since SL is virtual space and all we're buying is pixels and bits, this adds a tiny bit of permanence to the items. Well, as permanent as any digital recording of digital imagery can be, I guess.

But my point is... I have never put this on any of the fashion feeds, I am not linked to any of them, I don't even sign the url to comments I post for fear of someone mistaking this as a very lame attempt at 'fashion blogging'.

So, imagine my surprise (and yes, little squiggle of pleasure) a few days ago when I logged in to find a box of review copies had been dropped on me by Aries Celestial Designs! The excitement quickly turned to trepidation - I'd never thought about this, so I definitely have no 'policy'. What if I hated this stuff? What should I do?

A quick scan of my inventory reminded me that ACD and I have a happy history - this is the company that makes the silver and gold sandals I've owned forever (or at least, six months or so) which I always wear when in ROMA. I've recommended them in the past when people have asked about those sandals, so there should be something good in here, yes?

Turns out... yes. No, YES. Not everything was to my taste - there was a set of silks that seemed well made enough, but they are silks. And pink... so pink that Mickey and I started riffing on the idea of Ava Gabor doing a sort of Gorean Green Acres. (No slur at all on the outfit.... we have strange minds. And these were pink. And silks.)

There was also a nicely made cross jewelry set that I'd happily recommend to anyone looking for some good cross jewelry - but it's not something I'm likely to wear unless I'm playing a nun who doesn't believe in that vow of poverty thing.

But none of that matters, because I struck gold with the Silver Texture-Change Heart Birthstone Set. These are lovely, flattering, non-blingy and the stones have twelve scripted options so they go with just about everything. The picture only shows the choker and earrings, but the set also comes with a bracelet, armcuff and ring. I've been wearing bits and pieces of this for days, and haven't gotten tired of it yet.

This may be the last review copy I ever get, but it led me straight over to the store to see what else I might snag (and I wound up with a very nice amber sun-themed jewelry set I might take pictures of at some point) and I hope I'll remember to check back now and then. Between the jewelry and the sandals, this is one of the few stores that has never disappointed me.

Jewelry: Aries Celestial Designs - Heart Birthstone Set
Hair: Sinsation - Carlie II Chocolate
Skin: Naughty - Alina Eye Shadow Smokey, Red Lipstick

Is Summer Over Yet?

This outfit makes me long for the cool drizzle of fall and a few leaves to kick through.

The skin is Naughty Alina in Pale Beige. The Alina line is at the top of my list of favorite skins - it seems to be a skin that creates strong feelings and seriously does seem to be one that requires a particular facial shape to pull off. It does great things for me, which makes up for all the lovely skins out there that don't suit my shape even a little.

The hair - oh man, how much I love this hair! It's Bewitched Britney in Brown. That was very much real-life me for a long time, and it's nice to see full and fluffy that doesn't look teased in SL. Curly hair like this requires a lot of alpha texturing and that does create alpha issues, but I'm willing to put up with that to get this effect. The hat is adorable and scripted with a bunch of different textures. I strongly wish that a no-hat option had been included, but even so, I'm very happy with this the way it is.

The showpiece of this outfit is, of course, that adorable open trenchcoat with the ties hanging loosely at the sides - the Nomad trenchcoat from Sinistyle. There is a sense of weight to this coat that is very realistic. I went to Sinistyle initially to go pick up one of it's Heroes inspired trenchcoats, but was so charmed by this open version (with optional shirt and pants to match) that I bought this one instead.

I don't recall the jeans I was wearing, but the boots are by Shiny Things and the tank top by Celestial Studios and both qualify as required basics as far as I'm concerned.

Hair: Bewitched - Britney Brown
Skin: Naughty - Alina Pale Beige
Boots: Shiny Things - Old Lace Up Boots Brown
Jeans: unknown
Top: Celestial Studios - Trixie Tank in Wheat
Trenchcoat: Sinistyle - Nomad

80s Glitz

It should be apparent by now that my intentions outreach my follow through - I want to post, oh yes I do, but it's haaard...

This past month, I managed to get some pictures taken, with every intention to show off a few lovely purchases, but then I got no further than that. I am so not the person to see about the latest offerings in SL, but fortunately good outfits don't stop being good a few weeks after the fact, so without further ado:

This just makes me happy from head to toe. The main elements are all from Veschi, although I switched out the skirt - the 80s Child set comes with a very large and colorful Cyndi Lauperish skirt, but this Bubble Skirt... oh my. It's the bottom part of the Shwank outfit (which itself comes with a glitzy sleeveless top). Not only is the skirt terribly cute, but the prims are worked in such a way that it looks good while moving, posing - you name it. The skirt is a must have.

The jacket isn't what you'd call a basic, but it's a lot of fun too - bright, flirty, pushed up prim sleeves that don't turn into strange prim bits when you raise your arms.

The shoes are by Solange! and have long been favorites of mine, but they have enough shiny gold in them that they require a high wattage outfit to avoid having them overpower the rest of the look. This outfit was made for these shoes.

Finally, the hair that everyone's been blogging, and with good reason - Cake's "Rumor" which seems to work perfectly with everything and everyone, in every color I've seen it in.

I don't think I want to see 80s fashion come back on the RL scene, but it sure is fun to dress up this way in Second Life.

Hair: Cake - Rumor (Currant)
Skin: Mojo Au Naturel - Tone 3 - 07
Shoes: Solange! Legacy Stillettos - Black/Gold
Skirt: Veschi - Shwank Bubble Skirt
Top: Veschi - 80s Child Dress Top
Jacket: Veschi - 80s Child Orange Jacket
Neck Scarf: Canimal - Flower Choker (colorable)
Stockings: CGBG Thigh Highs, Tintable with Backseam

A perfect end to a nice evening

Ivories

I was busy working on the new castle tonight when a friend IM'd to invite me to a live piano concert at Oyster Bay.

The pianst, Origin Rang, was just magnificent. I haven't attended a lot of live music events, but all the ones I've been to have been well worth the time, and this was no exception.

Home Improvement

Some time ago, we set our big gothic castle on our land in Winterfell facing the river, with its back to the main Winterfell island. Since then, Serra Anansi has made a lot of improvements, building a village and shopping/communal area, with the arrival of the new island Winterfell Ebonshire just the latest advance.

So we decided to turn our house around, to face inward, making us more a part of the community. It occurred to us that we might seem a little stand-offish facing away. We spent a few minutes picking up all the furniture, poseballs and other items and then repositioned it all. It went smoothly enough. The castle's self-aligning script worked as it should and everything came back together as we'd hoped.

But then, we started to talk about something we'd discussed in the past ... designing and building our own. The last time we talked about it, we were too new to SL and didn't have enough confidence in our building skills to tackle it. Then the pre-fab we'd bought served our needs and there was neither a need to change nor the free prim space to experiment.

But with the old one empty and our building skills much improved in past seven or eight months, this seemed like the time to try it. we talked over what we'd like to have, then built the scale model you can see in the top picture here, and then started the actual work.

We are limited by the oblong shape of our lot, so the one idea I've wanted to try for a while -- four wings enclosing a courtyard -- isn't really feasible. It would take a square lot of about the same area that we have to make it work well. So the new one will have the same general shape and exterior dimension as the one we've had. But we're bulding this one with an atrium between the two main wings, a ballroom that can be entered directly from outside so we can host social events without opening up the more private areas to visitors, and a second-floor balcony overlooking the ballroom.

Morgana or I will post more as we get closer to completion.

Ghostly Sighting

Winterfell has seen a bit of upheaval over the last day (or night, as the sun never rises on on Winterfell). A new land mass has risen out of the sea to our north, bringing with it rolling clouds of fog and, it appears, causing the destruction of a passing pirate ship.

All hands are lost, I fear, save for one babbling seaman who told a tale of a ghostly woman on shore that led them to the rocks and their watery graves. But he was clearly not in his right mind, and after a final hysterical cry he ran off into the woods.

I fear he may find the darker denizens of Winterfell even more frightening than the ghostly vision he blames for the demise of his unsavory colleagues. I do not expect to see any more of him but we will leave the remains of his ship behind as a warning to other pirates and invaders who are foolish enough to disturb the peace of our shores.

The new region of Winterfell will be called Winterfell Ebonshire and promises to be a dark, rural area, more remote than the township that surrounds Winterfell Castle and the beautiful estate lands of the other three regions that have been developed this past year. At present, it is empty but I have seen our Queen Serra at work before and eagerly await the new view beyond our borders.

Dress: Greta - Last Call
Headpiece: White Bridal Chaplet with Ribbons - Vandeverre's Emporium
Shoes: Egyptian/Mayan Sandals (Silver) - Aries Celestial Designs
Skin: Gala (Medium - Earth) - Empyrean Emporium
Hair: Ember II (Dirty Blonde) - Calico Creations
Other: DE ACLS Lighting (Blue) - DE Designs - good for luring pirates to their watery death

Real Life has been breathing down my neck lately - a new job with a schedule that has collapsed most of my routine SL social life. But today is my first full day off in over a week, and I thought I'd take some time to sort through inventory and file away a few recent purchases.

As a result, I found myself wearing this ensemble and was so charmed by the effeft that I decided it was time for yet another very rare blog entry.

Most of the outfit is part of Bare Rose's Rosarium set, which comes with the top, the gloves, the silk flower neck adornment and more hats than I can believe - a large and medium version in black, purple and red, all with matching black net and silk flower decorations. The set also comes with a long system skirt which was the only part of this that I wasn't entirely excited about - like so many system skirts, the legs tend to break through the fabric and there are no glitch pants to go along with this set. Even so, Bare Rose's prices are so reasonable that I'm really happy I bought this.

Instead of using the system skirt, I am wearing iki's Bell Skirt with the Net Overlay, and it creates an entirely different effect than the long system skirt did - I think there's a happy little Audrey Hepburn era thing happening here now that is sophisticated and very sexy. Paired with less dressy items, this skirt takes on the personality of whatever it's paired with and promises to get a lot of wear time from me. The bell shape really sets it apart from most SL standard prim skirts. Iki also makes a bell skirt with a pleated overlay, and I think they are essential basic requirements to any SL wardrobe.

These shoes are Tete a Pied's Maryjanes in red to add a dash of color to the outfit and we just won't talk about how hard it was not to want to buy them in every color offered.

The earrings are part of Random Calliope's Eboness set and oh my! If you haven't made it out to Random's newly redesigned gallery (appropriately named Worthwhile), get out there! He's rolled back prices and now all sorts of his stunning jewelry art are available for as low as 25L (yes, that is not a typo). Bring lots of Ls anyway though - with so much wonderful goodies available for so little, you're going to want them all.

Jewelry: The Eboness - Worthwhile by Random Calliope
Skirt - Bell Skirt, Net Overlay -iki
Outfit - Rosarium - Bare Rose
Shoes - Red Maryjanes - Tete a Pied
Skin - Tone 3 - 01 - Au Naturel
Hair - Jennifer (Simmer) - Celestial Studios