There’s so much going on, I don’t even really know where to start. So I’ll do this in an orderly fashion, really… all bullet-pointy and stuff.
The Second Mirage jewelry store is having a Flickr Contest for which first prize is every piece newly released in 2008. THAT… is a sweet deal. For all us girls out there that love jewelry, this is a hell of a reward for taking a few decent snapshots. Perhaps even the guys could get in on this… wonder if Serenity would be willing to forward the prizes on to one lucky lady should a guy win? Hmm… well, anyway, here is the scoop:
Take a photo featuring you in Second Mirage Jewelry and post it to the “Second Mirage” group on flickr! Enter as many times as you like, but only ONE submission per named set/item though, so pick your best shot for each! All submissions to the group need to be before January 22nd! The winner will be unveiled at the upcoming Second Mirage showcase to be held over the weekend of January 25-27!
Any questions, contact SerenityVal Alcott inworld or by email at serenityval[@]gmail.com.
Also, as I’m sure many of us in the blogosphere have heard by now, Last Call (AND Moderno) will be having their “final shebang” beginning 11th of January during which all items for sale by Ginny Talamasca, Katterina Dagostino, and Devyn Carmichael will go on sale one final time for $100L a piece. After the sale, all items by these designers will be permanently retired — more details as follows:
Starting Friday 1-11-08 at 9am SL Time, all Items created by Ginny Talamasca, Katterina Dagostino, and Devyn Carmichael will go on a final $100L sale. All Items will be marked as Modifiable and Transferable but will NOT be Copyable. So please be careful with items you purchase, once this sale has concluded all sale items will NO LONGER be available in SL from their original creators.
I will continue to honor all Gift cards up until 7am Tuesday morning 1-8-08 when I shall close off the island to begin reprogramming the vendors and their respective inventories. I know that not everyone will get this notice before the deadline, so let me be clear. I will honor Gift Cards submitted after Tuesday morning and for the duration of the sale, BUT they will only be redeemed for the ORIGINAL item’s price NOT the sale price. Once Last Call has closed its doors following the conclusion of the sale all gift cards will be considered Void. The sale will run for approximately one month or possibly longer demand permitting.
For those of you wondering if the Dazzle Sim will be shutting down for good, don’t fret. Lyra Muse assures us that that is in fact NOT the case… simply that Ginny Talamasca has virtually “left the building”… a tragedy in itself, but from the sounds of it, a personal need. I wish him all the best, and sincerely hope the rest of you do too.
Moving right along…
The current Second Life hair texture guru (in my personal opinion) has released some new styles over at RaC (SLURL). I simply LOVE these hair textures… I’ve never seen them more real. I have to say that my favorite one is definitely “Silk”, closely followed by “Princess”. To see some shots of these awesome new styles, head over to Melanie Kidd’s blog and check them out. Then, while you’re at it, head on over to RaC and buy them!
Raskella Canadeo, lovely designer of Blooberry (SLURL, OnRez, SLEX), has announced that she will be completely redoing her storefront, including a new building, new posters, etc. Until previews are ready on her blog, she also has some quite lovely new releases for us to enjoy. A little sample:
I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I’ll definitely be shimmying my little butt right on over to Blooberry to grab this cute lil number! Along with the other new releases she’s proudly displayed on her blog.
And finally, another thing I’m sure most of us have heard about… Simone! has opened her fantastically fantastical $100L discount outlet store (SLURL), full of LOTS of $100L clothes for all of us to play with. I know I stopped by the other day and spent a cool $2k pretty easily. If you’re on a budget, this is probably THE place to stop and shop, so I’d recommend polishing off those wallets and getting on over there to do some serious comfort shopping.
WHEW! Lots going on… So much to do, so little time!
The lovely Cattrina Careless of Catt’s Creations (OnRez, SLURL) is not only an incredibly pleasant woman to speak with, but also very talented. I am happy to report that she is selling a rather lovely set of lingerie… in seven colors, with both boyshorts and a gstring thong (BONUS… I <3 the boyshorts!)… for $550L! That’s right. Five hundred fifty lindens. That’s pretty damn good for seven pairs of lingerie. Oh, and matching sheer black stockings too!
Now, for right now, this phat pack (you like that word play there? I keed, I keed!) is only being sold as a full set of all seven colors on OnRez until the 6th of January. So boys, this works out great for you… because you can buy it and have it delivered to your favorite girl with no trouble! Think of it as a belated Christmas present. And every girl loves lingerie! Isn’t OnRez grand?
After the 6th of January, the set will be available as both the fat pack and individual colors. And while we’re on the topic of colors, available ones are aqua, green, blue, red, pink, purple, and black). My personal favorite is the pink, and I kind of wish there was a white one too… because pink, white, and black are my favorites. But that’s just me… I’m a picky bish. And since I’m so frickin’ girlie… those are my staples. Ya know? A girl’s gotta have pink, white, and black!
For critical purposes (I know, I know, everybody’s a critic!) the only real thing I see on this lingerie that could use a little improvement is the cloth texture and shading. For example… under the breasts is an area that is commonly missed when it comes to shading detail. Without it, the fabric simply looks painted over the breasts, with no real depth to it. Remember designers… the shadows are as important as the light.
At $550L, you simply can’t beat this set. Ladies… well worth it if you’re a lingerie hound like me. Boys… your girlfriend/wife/mistress will love you. Check out Catt’s Creations on OnRez, or visit her main location in world! Go ahead. Be sexy… and click the image for a larger view!
I would also like to note that the poses used in these photos are actually created by the lovely and talented Roxana Demina of Dilemma (SLURL), an AO and poses shop. The poses displayed here consist of her as-yet unreleased line of AOs that will soon be available on the 1st of January! While the poses are meant to be used in animation overriders, they worked very nicely as model poses for this set. As an animation overrider however, they are some of the best I’ve seen, especially the sitting poses. Need a new AO??? Plan on creating one? Stop by her shop and have a peek! And don’t forget to come back after the 1st of January to see her new “Beachy” AO, my personal favorite!
Just a very quick note…
I have created a page of “guidelines” (more like “requests”) for those of you that wish to submit review copies of your products to me in game. Hopefully this will clear up some questions I’ve been asked!
View the Review Submissions page here!
Thank you! :)
I’m back! The trip to New Orleans was fantastic. Drank way too much, got wayyyy too little sleep, and consumed some rather questionable substances, BUT… had an all together excellent time with all of my colleagues. Don’t you just love it when work sends you on trips to cities that don’t suck? Thank God for hot, young conference coordinators that know what’s up!
So, now that I’m back to the metaphorical “grind”, so-to-speak, I am happy to announce that I have many exciting reviews coming your way, among other things I am sure. Once I actually manage to catch up with my news aggregator (a week’s worth of unread blog posts… yikes!), I fully intend to do a consolidated post (and likely frequently updated one) of all Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza/MerryCheerfulTimes items available on the grid. I’m sure there are a dozen posts like that out there, so this will probably be for my own reference… but still, it never hurts to share, right? RIGHT!
Also I am happy to announce that I will, in fact, be creating that group that I wrote about last week. I have yet to decide what it will be CALLED… but know that its making is in the works, and I will be sending out invites soon! If you would like to receive an invite, please drop a note card on me in game with your name (my IMs have been capping rather frequently lately… sorry!) or leave a comment here. I will be sure to get you into the groove!
I have some fantastic ideas for this group that I hope will materialize soon, but for now just know that I will be doing my best to keep everyone as updated as I possibly can with regards to sales, bargains, deals, steals, blog updates, and reviews!
Whew! Okay. Now… to write those reviews! So good to be back! *hugs!*
I am off to New Orleans tomorrow (my home town, woot!) through Sunday, so I mayyyyyy not be blogging much until Sunday night. Those of you expecting a review from me, I will be doing my best to get them up during the course of my trip, but seeing as how it’s a business trip, I don’t really know how easy that will be yet. But I promise, I will do my best!
I can’t believe I’m going to miss the opening to the Cannery Gallery… *sighs*
Much love, and see you all in a few days!
I thought I would take this particular question to the readers of this blog, however few or many I may have! Seeing as how you’re all avid Second Life residents (except for Ed, who is undoubtedly reading this… hi Ed), I was wondering if perhaps the following may or may not be of interest to anyone.
If you’ve been reading my blog here, you’ve undoubtedly noticed my tendency to announce sales happening at stores, steals, giveaways, etc. Now, all too often these sales and things are happening on a very limited basis… and for those of you that do not read this blog often (or subscribe to the feed), I really have no way of getting this information TO you. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t want to know about it. You know what I mean? So here’s my proposition:
Would anyone be interested in joining a group if I created one in SL wherein I will announce my blog updates, sale discoveries, great finds, etc… things like that? If desired, I could also attach my actual blog posts (reviews and all, complete with landmarks and textures of photos as required) to the announcements I make.
What does everyone think of this idea? I would love your feedback.
Here is my latest installment: a quick and dirty drop shadow technique to use and master for your enjoyment.
This will show you a very, very simple and basic technique on how to create a drop shadow from a green screen snapshot. Hopefully someone finds this useful!!!
Ricky, you got some ’splainin’ to do!!!
I don’t know why, but I just love that line.
Anyway, I’m back!!! I know you all missed me dearly (right? RIGHT?). Hahaha. Wow, this last week was fun and full of traveling mishaps. I’ll spare you the nitty gritty but to sum it all up, this Thanksgiving I drank way too much, ate way too much, spent WAYYYYY too much time in airports, and didn’t get nearly enough time with family as I would’ve liked. But… it was a blast. And I had a great time. Anyone interested in hearing the whole truth and nothing but the truth? IM me. It’s a lot of talking!!!
However, now that I’m back to the blogging experience, I am here to tell you that I’ve been MISSING OUT on some CRAZY goings-on… and I’d love to share them with you before I rush off to spend all of my lindens, which I am apparently prone to doing.
First off… freebies. FREEBIES!!! I’m saying, freebies. There are lots of them in SL. You know it, I know it… it’s kinda the norm. However, I managed to run across one in particular that struck my fancy as I’m sure it may yours. Given my unnatural love for butterflies, I thought this was an incredibly appropriate ring to buy for myself (seeing as how no one wants to buy one FOR me… *pouts*) and it’s just so cute I had to have it. Best of all it doesn’t bling which gets you an A+ in MY book. You too can pick up this little cutie (as well as some free diamond studs and free Rubiks Cube earrings) over at Cailyn’s Classic Jewelry (SLURL). Be sure to check out her other jewelry too as it is well worth the gander. Future review, perhaps? Hmm. *ponders*
Diversity Hair (SLURL) has finally opened their new island “Addictive”, not to mention switched half of their hairstyles over to the newly reworked textures. Culled from the Diversity blog:
Over half of the current styles have been changed over to the new textures but I am still working on the rest. We decided to open as soon as possible to get you into the comfort of a non laggy shopping experience , and decided rather than fill the store with all the styles in the old textures I would put out what ones are finished and add to the store as the remaining are completed. Sorry if this is inconvenient , but I decided it was better to not have customers buying old textures when there are new ones to be had. Notices will be sent out when more styles are added but for now I hope you love the new textures as much as we all do! I have also added FOUR hairstyles to the 1L section so now there are 3 womens styles and 1 unisex style in mega packs at just 1L to the right of the entrance!
Claudine Jewell, over at CJ Hair (SLURL) has released a new black and red version of the Xtina hair style that I adore so much! I fully encourage everyone to hop on over to CJ Hair and pick it up! It’s fantastic. The black and blond version is quite lovely too. Both versions can be yours for the very low price of $85L per style. What’s not to love about that? I mean, really. If you’re not convinced that you should grab this hair style, feel free to read my review of CJ Hair! I could tell you how fantastic her stuff is all night, I tell you!
Sy Designs‘ new store (SLURL) is ready and raring to go with several new sale items up for grabs as well as new releases, including these stunning polo shirts. I have to say that I am guilty of spending at least $500L in this store, and while I’m not the biggest fan of the leather pants in this store, I am EXTREMELY happy with the fantastic tank tops I’ve managed to grab… and everything is SUPER cheap… it is a bargain shopper’s dream. Everything is lovely and nicely made, so if you’re looking for a new place to shop and have yet to see this little gem of a shop, feel free to check it out! Guys, there’s also some cute things in here for you too, so don’t hesitate to follow the crowd of screaming females!
Another fun thing to note… Ohana Isle is having a treasure hunt! While I personally have never even heard of Ohana Isle, I am all about a freebie treasure hunt. Especially ones that involve clothing and shoes. Some details:
Over the past several weeks the shop owners and residents here on Ohana Isle have been hard at work creating goodies for you to search for. Clothing, shoes, accessories, tattoos, decor, furniture….the list goes on and on. All original designs…. no second hand junky freebies here!
You can find the 50 numbered Leaves scattered about Ohana Isle (SLURL):
……simply find them, buy for L$0, and the treasure inside is yours.
The hunt will be open from Friday November 23rd through Sunday December 2nd.
Woo! How’s that for an update? I missed you guys!
Have you always wanted to work for a magazine in Second Life? Well, do you hear that? That’s opportunity knockin’!
Culled from the ASpiRE! Magazine Blog:
Do you love SecondLife fashion? Do you want to be on the cutting edge of new releases, meet well-known designers, interesting people AND be creative at the same time? If you are a photographer or writer that meets this criteria and are responsible and conscientious, ASpiRE! Magazine is interested in speaking with YOU!
We are currently hiring new writers and photographers to add to our well-known magazine. ASpiRE! Magazine is currently in about 270 locations, reaches over 20,000 people per issue and is posted online in pdf format at http://www.aspiresl.com/.
If you are interested in applying, please contact either Ally Geer or Anastase Rosewood, Editor-in-Chief for a scheduled interview. Please contact them through a foldered notecard, in order to ensure that we receive your submission, NOT through regular IM. We look forward to meeting you and welcoming you to the ASpiRE! family!
I do believe I will be applying. Yes ma’am. *YAY for potential job opportunities*
Again, this is TOTALLY NOT Second Life related, BUT… for all my designer babes out there Crestock.COM is having a Photoshop contest with prizes so crazy spectacular, that if I were a guy, I’d be blowing a photoshoppy-load right now.
Culled from the official blog post about the contest:
There are four rounds with different themes, and you can contribute one image for each round. Sign-up and submission is completely free and without commitment.
For each round we will supply a set of source photos from our image library. Your entry must be based on one or several of these photos, but you are free to do with them whatever you like. You may also use other elements in your design, as long as one or more of the source images can be recognised as a central part of your design.
The winner is determined 40% by public vote, 60% by our highly qualified judges’ votes. The public voting will open after the deadline for each round and run for one week.
The winning entry will have incredible visual impact and exhibit fantastic creativity and technical skill, perhaps also with a twist of humor. Amaze us or make us laugh – or both. It’s up to you and your skills, creativity and imagination, but whatever you do, don’t miss out on the action!
You will need to go to the block post (linked above) to download the stock photos needed for the Photoshop contest. Then, once you have finished your picture, click the “Submit an Image for Round XX” button!!! That’s it!
Remember, this is going on for four weeks, so PARTICIPATE!!! And omg… MacBook Pro. *drool*
