Saturday, February 28, 2009

Spring is coming, bring on the dresses!

Almost a couple of months ago, I was hunting tattoos when my friend Gahum said to look up Nardya Rousselot's shop. I did and while I didn't find tattoos I wanted, I saw a beautiful gown that I must have stood in front of for 20 minutes just fawning over the picture. I didn't have a need for the dress, but I made a note in my head to come back and fawn over it again at some point.

Well, notes in my head almost never work and I am the worst at keeping landmarks. Seriously, ask any of my friends. They ask me where I got something and if I have a LM and 9 times out of 10, I don't. So when I thought about the dress again, I knew there would probably be no way I could find it without help. I didn't have the LM, I couldn't remember what store it was, or who the designer was. I couldn't even remember who had pointed me to that shop in the first place. I know, totally helpful. :) Luckily, Gahum came to my rescue yet again and mentioned Nardya's name. Sure enough, it was the place! But not really the place I'd been before - a bigger and better place!

Nardya's store, Nardcotix, is fabulous. Seriously, just beautiful classy clothing that I drooooool over. The store is in the Einstein shopping area, home of Nardcotix, Chloe, LionSkins, The Gift, AlienBear, and Phoenix Rising. Great shopping area, it really is.

Happily, I joined their Subscribe-o and was excited to see a new dress out - the Colleen.

Narcodix - Colleen

Nardcotix - Colleen back


This dress is just so freaking adorable, and had I been thinking clearly, I would have bought the bolero that goes with it. But I love the low back because it shows off my back tattoos perfectly, and the soft wrinkles fall just where they should. But the skirt is my favorite because not only does it make me feel like I have pretty flower petals around me, it's actually in 3 parts, and when you sit the whole thing doesn't immediately just fall down into your seat like other prim skirts do. All in all, it's an amazing piece of work and I love it SO much!

The Colleen comes in 5 colors. You can purchase just the dress, as I did, for $350L, or the dress with the matching bolero for $525L. If you want just the bolero, they are $300L each. Nardcotix also offers a gift option, if you want to buy for the lady in your life. Or the man, if that's how they roll.

I see myself going back at some point this week to get another dress, and I almost never get the same outfit just in different colors. If there was a fatpack, I'd probably buy it, that's how much I love this dress.

Head out to Einstein and do some shopping and admire the build. It's really great!

Also in this post:

Skin: 'Meows In The Nude' by Belleza
Hair: 'Yvette' by ETD [Oh dear God, please reopen soon!]
Eyes: 'Open Ocean' by Miriel
Lashes by Deviant Kitties
Shoes: 'Floria' in Black Rose by G Field, only available at L.E. Look
Locket & ID bracelet by Genesis [bracelet from the Vain Inc. hunt]
Rings by JCNY
Creeping Rose back tattoo by Tuli [found in the Journey sim hunt]
Poses by Flutter Memel of Flowey


Thursday, February 26, 2009

Hey little girl, want some candy?

I don't dress very cutesy very often. I'm really more of a jeans and t-shirts type of girl in my outside life, and that's pretty much how I roll here in SL. And let's face it, my adorable friends Sai & Aisuru do the cute doll look waaaaay better than I ever could.

But today I was out at the Albero shopping area [omg, how CUTE is that place?] when I stumbled upon the Sweets Princess dress by Love Soul. After standing there debating, and conferring with my buddies, I knew I simply had to have it. In pink. Glowing poofy princess pink. And next to it was a hair designed just for this dress by Love Soul & Junwave, and I just had to have it too. SL is the only place where you can have ice cream and donuts hanging off your dress and not look like a complete slob.

So here it is - my super cutesy sugary sweet look of the day.

Sugary sweet


I'll give you a toothache. :-p

This adorable dress came with the legwarmers and shoes, too!! PLUS some prim nails, which I put on just for pictures, but I won't wear because they take my rings off.


Prim nails


The Sweets Princess dress is a complete steal at $200L and there are 6 colors. You can also get the fatpack for $1100L. The hair is $180L and comes with the decorated and the non-decorated versions. I'm wearing the pigtails, but there's another style too that is more wild. Well, wild in my view, but I don't go crazy with my hair much. :)

Also in this post:

Skin: 'Sienna' in Lumine by Gala Phoenix
Eyes: 'Earth' by Miriel [free in the demo pack!]
Lashes by Deviant Kitties
Pose by Laleeta Xue of Pffiou!


Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Tired Tuesday

Thank you to those of you who have told me things to do to try to help my wrists and arms!! I tried resting my arms today from the computer, and for the most part, it worked. Lots of rubbing and advil, plus a couple of hours on the phone while I shopped & made dinner. But it's so hard for me to not be plugged in. I read books on my computer, I check recipes, I look up news stories, etc. I'm sure you guys are the same. I've decided it's not really typing that makes me hurt, because it all seems to be primarily in my right forearm and I figured out it is probably the constant holding of the mouse. Yuck. What a pain. Like, for real. :-p As the night has gone on, though, I find myself hurting more, so I really need a break tomorrow, which I plan on having by removing myself from my house and taking my mom to lunch.

So anyway, it was Fat Tuesday today and I didn't really celebrate. No parties or anything like that. I wasn't really in the mood for a party, but I heard there were some decent ones here and there in SL. I did, however, pull out last year's beads and masks and ended up putting together a little party look for myself.

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras pointing


I don't know why I decided on that dress. Mardi Gras outfits are normally pretty...well, slutty. It just seemed more fun to wear a fluffy long dress instead of something that gave away the farm. I don't know if that dress is available for purchase, it was a camping gift from Hal*Hina some months ago. It's so pretty, though, and I don't know why I don't wear it more often.

The kitten and I were running around the island and stopped over on Layne's land for pictures. Layne has just developed this gorgeous paradise on her land. I'm so lucky to have her living on the island, because her piece of land is truly remarkable. Plus there's a lot of places to sit and hang out!

Swinging

On Layne's land


I also took some time from my solitude on the island to go check out Nika Dreamscape's art show. I just love her work and I couldn't resist buying a few pieces while I was there in hopes that it would inspire me to decorate. I can decorate better if I have an idea of colors. Of course, I bought a lot of her pink ones, so... I may be feeling the call of pink. I'm not quite sure if Brody will mind if I decorate the entire skyworld in pink furniture. :-p

Nika's show


I spent the rest of the evening with my favorite couple, the Harlow-Sodwinds. Sky snapped a few pics of me with Elle [yes, I really AM that into this cat] and Sophia and I were going to have our picture taken together with our cats, but SL decided it was not to be the case and first Sky crashed, then Sophia crashed and couldn't log back in, and by that time it was like, ok, so this is not happening tonight. LOL There were "asset" problems that even caused me to lose an entire pack of skins that I had gotten from a Midnight Mania board. :( I'm so bummed. I don't know what the skins even looked like, but I know I hate losing gifts. If they weren't free, I might be on the phone right now with the concierge screaming, "Don't you know who I AM?!" But since I don't even know what they looked like, it's not a huge deal. :)

It's definitely bedtime now, and I plan on doing some inventory cleaning tomorrow at some point. I don't even know what to wear anymore.

What to wear?

Monday, February 23, 2009

Alone & some water thoughts

Quiet night


I spent a quiet night in SL tonight. Just me and the kitten, wandering around the island. It's kind of funny how often people think that I'm constantly surrounded by friends. Most of my SL is spent on my own, chatting in IMs as I do things. Oh, I know at any moment I could say "Someone come here" and they would, but I don't like to bother them much. Plus it's not like I'm ever REALLY alone when people are on the island. :)

I'm thinking about putting in some underwater stuff in the big space we have under the deck. It's just this huge empty space and I think it could use something. I saw this wrecked ship on Xstreet that I'm thinking about buying, because I think it would be kind of cool, but then I realized I have boats that I could just rip apart. And then I'll want coral and floaty plants and fish and all that neat stuff. I think it's just another way of keeping busy than anything else, but it would also be pretty. I haven't been to a beach in almost 10 years, and I've always been fascinated with sea life, so it would be nice to have.

My forearms have been aching lately when I type for too long, so if my blogs are shorter or further in between for the next few days, or if you talk to me in SL and I don't talk as much, that's why. I've had this happen before back when I used to write a lot more, and a few days of working out the muscles and not typing & using the mouse as much will do the trick. :)

Pictures Pictures Pictures

I take a lot of pictures of my SL. Tons. TONS. If I'm somewhere, there's a 95% chance that I'm snapping a picture. It's that 5% that always gets me, though, because then I don't take a picture of something I need. :-p But since I haven't been blogging quite as much lately [and thank you so much to those of you who nudge me. LOL], I have 3 folders on my desktop of pictures to resize and post. But that's a lot, guys. That's a LOT.

But I did want to show some, so here's some randomness over the past few weeks! And as chronological as I'd like to be, it's probably not going to happen. Also, there's a good chance I might have already shown a pic & have just forgotten. :)

My hunt for Linden bears is still going on, and I've been getting a fabulous collection of not just Linden bears, but all kinds of bears! It's AWESOME! I've got animated bears and sculpted bears and bears to hug and hold and run around with. I love love love it!!

So many bears!


The awesome Caitlain dropped this little cutie on me during the gridwide charity work going on for the Victoria bushfire relief. I loved him so much, I bought more and dropped on a few friends that I thought could use a hug.

Koala hug


Speaking of the bushfire relief fund, did you hear that with all the donations and all the money that the creators who so generously made items to sell for it, the total amount raised was over $12,000 AUD??? Why doesn't THAT kind of news make it into the media? Oh, let some crazy nut try to kidnap her SL ex-boyfriend who dressed up like a lion and they're all over it. Two people get divorced because one caught the other having cybersex in SL, and SL is the epitome of all that is wrong with the world. But thousands of people come together to donate time and talent and money to help, and there's not a peep anywhere. Forget THAT.

All of my friends did their part with donating. Sophia and I ran around buying stuff for the relief. Here we are at Truth buying the Victoria hair.

Victoria hair


My one regret is that I didn't buy the ring Ryker Beck designed for the relief before all the relief items were supposed to be taken down. But I don't have a spare finger for it right now anyway, so I guess it's ok. But it was a gorgeous ring.

But a gift you can probably still get if it's in the subscribe-o-matic is this awesome sweater & skirt set by my friend QueenKellee Kuu of Royally. I ADORE this outfit and have worn it a lot more lately than any of my other clothes because I know that no matter what, if I put it on, I'll be cute. Go to her store and sign up in the subscribe-o and get into the history to find it.

Royally Gift


And of course I've been butt-deep in hunt gifts. We need to have an inventory sorting party SOON because I blazed past 40k in my inventory and am *this* close to 41k. LOL It's sad.

Luckily some things I've tried on, I could throw away immediately. Like...this.

MONSTER Red dress!


Of course, when I wasn't hunting, I was shopping like mad. That pink sale that Armidi had was just heavenly for a girly girl like me.

Armidi load


I've been spending a lot of time out at Sacred lately, too. Sophia's RL & SL husband, Skyhawke, is not just a fabulous photographer. He's a pretty kickass DJ as well, and we go out there at least a couple of times a week to hear some music, dance, and talk until we start laughing and then can no longer speak because we're crying too hard with laughter.

Cute at Sacred


I'm awesome at catching just the most crazy shots of my friends. Seriously, I have SO many pictures where they are in such weird positions. I usually save them for myself, but Sehra looks so boobalicious in this shot, I had to show it.

Sehra's boobs. LMAO


Speaking of Sehra, I caught this picture of her her and her boyfriend Bone dancing at one of our impromptu parties a few weeks ago and never posted it. It makes me laugh everytime I see it.

Bone & Sehra dance


Oh...I caught Sophia on a pole with this noobish guy, too. Then I stole his last $5L. Yes, that's me back there in the purple dress with the green leggings. It was 80s night, ok?!

Sophia likes noob butt



One night at Sacred we were doing what we do and changing into all kinds of costumes when Sky played Blind Melon's "No Rain" and we HAD to get into bee outfits. Except for Pumpkin, who was a flower. Naturally that required a photo. Sophia, Tristan and I are bees, and then menudo lovin' Pumpkin is the flower. I love this picture and it's my desktop wallpaper right now.

Buzz buzz!


I stumbled onto this picture of me and Brody [who yes, was Levi, for those of you who aren't in my inner circle and weren't told, or who don't plurk, or who just didn't guess. LOL] and it makes me laugh because I forgot taking it. We look like we're waking up from a nap and he's just having a really hard time getting up out of bed. But c'mon, look at the bed. It's awesome and looks sooo comfortable!

Waking up


And last...Elle. Oh my dear little kitten. I've bought a lot of things in SL. I've spent a lot of money on hair and shoes and clothes and houses and skins and things to play with and ride on, but nothing compares to this little kitten. If I'd known just how much fun it would be for me to have a prim cat, I would have bought one the very moment they were released! I have always, in my RL, felt better when I have a cat, and I didn't realize that's what my SL was lacking.

Of course, a little part of me thinks, "What's different between this and a prim baby?" But then I tell that voice to shut the hell up and I feed my cat.

Elle stretching

Patchwork Girl

With spring fast approaching [thank GOD for that], I've been looking around for more sundresses and cute things to wear. Ok, so I'm ALWAYS looking for more cute things to wear. Don't hate.

I don't often read fashion feeds. In fact, I probably went about 6 months without taking a glance at any, relying on my friends to tell me where to shop and whichever blogs I happened to glance at that were more fashion in nature. But last night I was reading and I saw some pants that I really really wanted, so I popped over to ve.ne`ra.re, which is a store I've never heard of before, to pick them up. [When you go, follow the beacon because the Flawless sim has a SUPER annoying landing point for being such a large place.] I found the pants, and then glanced around and my eye fell on this adorable dress!!

The Patchwork dress, which comes in different colors, is perfect for spring, and made me feel like I should be in a meadow weaving flowers for my hair.

Patchwork Girl

Closeup


I chose the dress with the brown top, but there are 6 colors available. I just adore the patchwork on the full skirt [what is it with me and patchwork lately?] and the just too cute corset lacing is held in place with stars. If I hadn't been trying to keep it simple last night, I would have paired it up with the freebie star earrings from Hal*Hina.

The Patchwork dress is very reasonably priced at $200L, or you can save 50% and buy the fatpack of 6 for $600L.

And because I can't help it, I caught this cute picture of me in the outfit watching my kitten, Elle, playing. Unfortunately she fell right off of the skyworld chasing her ball, but no worries. She wasn't hurt and landed in the sand on the beach.

Watching Elle


Definitely check out ve.ne`ra.re because they have some really cute dresses and the place is not expensive at all. And go get a kitten, because my friends and I that have the kittens & corgi puppies are dying of cuteness lately with our pets and you know you want to come on pet playdates with us!

Also shown in this post:

Skin: 'Sienna' in Lumine by Gala Phoenix [not one of the new skins]
Eyes: 'Earth' by Miriel [free in the demo pack]
Hair: 'Delilah' in brown by Wonderhair
ID bracelet by Genesis, found in the Vain Inc. Valentine hunt
Silver locket by Genesis
Lashes by Deviant Kitties


Thursday, February 19, 2009

Some thoughts & more kitty pics!

I was thinking about the anonymous comments to my last blog post. I have to say, as much as I didn't want the first one to, it kind of hit me in a negative way. It would be easy to rant & rave about it, but frankly, that's not really who I am. And it's not like I haven't had my blog posts attacked before. :-p

Look, this blog has always pretty much just been a run down of what I do in SL on any given day. This is what I see, this is what I do, this is what I bought, and these are the people I hang out with. That's the bare bones of it all. If I get too personal, I'm accused of being on an "emo rollercoaster" by people who like to get all dramatic. Things happen in between blog posts that no one has a right to know about. Bloggers are under no obligation to throw our entire lives up on the screen. So if the moods switch from happy to sad within a day - well, you don't know what happened in between to make that happen. And really? You don't always have a right to know. In any life, you never really have a right to know someone's every waking thought.

I could go on and on about this, but I don't really need to. My friends know me, they know the ins & outs of what's going on, and they've been completely supportive of everything. I thank god every day for them. If you want to know all the extra stuff I don't talk about, then I guess you should probably get to know me outside of my blog. :)

Besides, I'm too in love with my new kitten to really be negative. I'm so freaking amused by her, I can't stand it. I've mentioned my RL Mr. Kitty in here before, but Mr. Kitty decided the traveling life was for him and he ran off about 2 weeks ago. :( I keep hoping one day he'll stroll back through his kitty door. But until he does [or I find a new cat], my SL kitten Elle is seriously awesome.

A.I. Friends needs to make MORE stuff for kittens because I would totally buy. I ended up buying her one of the puppy houses last night just because it was dirt cheap and she's adorable and needs a house.

Now be enthralled by my cat pictures!!!

Bright eyed

Squeeeeeeeeeee

Elle's new house


I'm not sure if I can modify, but if I can, I'm going to retexture the house to be pink. :-D

I'm seriously starving to death now, so it's definitely lunchtime.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The past few days.

Ok, so I've been kind of a bad blogger lately. I've been lazy. Plus I joined Snapzilla because I wanted to comment on Brody's pics and now I've been cluttering up my page with pictures. LOL I hate hate hate hate hate how low res they are there, though. HATE. But it's still amusing to me right now, so I'm playing with it.

This week I DJed an anniversary party for my friends Night & Margo. One year together in SL!! I met them both around the same time they were getting together, and they've always been just so kind to me, so it was wonderful to get to DJ for them.

Anniversary party


In between parties and doing an enormous amount of shopping, I've been trying to redecorate our home. My friends are AMAZING at decorating. I'm afraid that's a skill I don't have, in SL or RL. I just signed up for a subscription to Elle Decor, so maybe I'll learn something when the magazines start rolling in. But until then, I just go to furniture stores, stare blankly at what's there, and go buy shoes. If you guys have store recommendations, I'd love to hear them. I already know Mudhoney, The Loft, Instinct, Corn, and Mudshake.

When I'm not doing all of that, I've been getting to spend more time with Brody lately. You all can't imagine how happy that makes me. At the risk of sounding too incredibly mushy... when he's with me, everything just seems so much better.

Snuggles


But when he's not with me, I need a friend. And while the girls are great and I adore them to bits, I can't always depend on them to come hang out with me whenever I'm bored. So I went and got myself a new friend who will be there whenever I want her to be.

Elle


Isn't she PRECIOUS?! My beautiful new cream tabby, named Elle, for Elle Woods. I love Elle Woods! When she got Chutney to confess to killing her own father just by talking about perms...oh it was beautiful. So my kitten's name is Elle. :) And I love her. Just LOVE her. She bounces and meows and plays with toys bigger than she is and eats a lot of food and wears sweaters...it's just CUTE. I even got together last night with Khari, Nikki, and Sehra and all their animals and we had a little party with our pets bouncing around.

So yes, for the most part, my SL has been going so well, I have pretty much not had time to blog. But then last night as I was getting ready to go to bed, I learned one of my closest friends was preparing to leave SL. I don't really know why, and I respect her enough to not pry, but I can't tell you how sad I was. She's totally been there for me and my SL is a little less fun without her there. I'm only hoping that she will just decide it's a break and come back, because we love her so much and will miss her terribly if she truly leaves us. I have her email, and will be bothering her, but right now I'm giving her time to breathe. We all need space and time to breathe to recharge, and I love her enough to let her have that. If you're reading this, remember that we love you so much and we will be here whenever you need us to be. We're not going anywhere. <3

I feel another shopping binge coming on.

I'm bringin' hippie back

I don't usually do a lot of reviews anymore that I haven't been asked to do. Most of this stems from me just being lazy, and sometimes I'm not sure exactly how to review a certain item. Then while I'm thinking about it, something else comes out and doing a review of it would be silly. :-p But this isn't really a review - it's more of a "Oh hey, this dress is pretty!" type of post.

As most every woman in SL knows, last night Maitreya released 4 brand new and completely fantastic hairs. I managed to shove my way into the sim and picked up all 4 and ran. The hair is gorgeous and I don't even need to say that because hello, it's Maitreya and when have they ever put out a hair that's less than gorgeous?

But after getting the hair, I was talking to Sophia and mentioning that the Apple hair just needed a hippie type dress, and that I'd seen one at Sn@tch that might be good. She said, "That dress is too big for you." And I said "Nuh uh, because I've grown and my butt is bigger." And she said "Shut up, your butt is not big" and passed one of the dresses over to me because, of course, she had them.

I'm totally not too small for them.

Sn@tch - Barefoot Asian dress

Sn@tch - Back of dress


Now I know what you're probably thinking. "Sn@tch? Isn't that the place with all the punk and rocker and goth type clothes?!" And yes, it is. But if you look around, you sometimes find pieces that are just adorable and not at all "hard." Designer Ivey Deschanel does a great job of mixing it up, keeping it fresh, and throwing down new stuff often.

This dress is called Barefoot Asian and as you can see, the Asian style prints on the patchwork are just too cute. I love the halter top because it shows a lot of cleavage but still manages to not look trampy, and the empire waist makes you look long and lean. Not usually a problem in SL, but still good. ;) The low cut back is perfect for showing off back tattoos, such as I'm doing, or you can keep it clean and just show off even more skin.

I should also mention that the dress doesn't flare out at the bottom like that. I was playing with the posestand.

If you're looking for a great spring dress that is lush and doesn't give away the farm, and that goes GREAT with the new Apple hair from Maitreya, I strongly suggest this one!! I think I'm going shopping again.

Also worn in this post:

Hair: 'Apple' by Maitreya in Chocolate
Skin: 'Meows in the Nude' by Belleza
Silver ID bracelet by Genesis [found in the Vain Inc. Kiss hunt]
Tattoo: Flower Garden by Shady Tattoos

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Valentine's Fun

It's late, very late, but I wanted to go ahead and blog while I still have a little caffeine buzz and since I'll end up putting it off. This post will probably be more picture heavy than word heavy, but that's never a bad thing.

I never make plans to do anything on Saturdays until the evening because my Saturdays are normally taken up by family things. But my poor mom caught the flu that my dad had last weekend, so she said I should stay home so I wouldn't catch it. She's always scared of any time I get sick. So since I was awake early, I decided to go over to the Isle of View and check out the Linden stuff. It was actually fun, even if it was very lagged out.

Garry Linden's kissing booth

Garry...moose? LOL


That's Garry Linden's "bear." LOL Yeah, I don't know either. But Garry was a very nice guy and his moose head thing is a welcome addition to the family.

I actually went out there again later on with Sophia and we met the cuuuuutest little Linden - Ekim Linden! OMG, his little av was just too cute for words. Sophia told him she wanted to bite him, and then she offered to partner him. He gave us hugs and we ran off before we scared him more. LOL

Meeting Ekim Linden


One of the best best best parts of my Valentine's Day was that I got to spend time with Brody. :) We spent almost all afternoon together, which was awesome! He had left roses, balloons, and a card for me to find when I woke up. Yes, I was completely giggly and happy as only a girl can be. :) I moved them all into the office, which is where he found me when he logged in.

In the office


I know, isn't he hot in that new tux? I couldn't let him upstage me in the looks department, so I immediately got into a formal gown and we went down to the fiesta area to dance all afternoon. :)

Valentine Dance


Getting those few hours with him just made my day. :) Thanks for spending the afternoon with me, baby.

After I had to go for dinner, I came back and threw on a crazy Valentine's outfit. I don't often dress too nutty, so it was kind of fun for me to run around with wings and this crazy curly hair. But then I started doing one of my new dances [more dances! I need more dances!!!] and I got an idea to go down and dance on the water. I thought the pics turned out pretty well. Not perfect, but they're cute.

Water dance

Stretching


The rest of my evening was spent over at Sacred with Sophia, her husband Skyhawke, and the rest of the crew. Oh man... I haven't laughed so hard in a long time! I was just crying over some of the things being said!

I probably also am *this* close to being kicked out of my brand new Snapzilla account because I kept sending pics. LOL!! I couldn't help it, it was fun to do! You can check it out to see more pics of today, but it drives me up the WALL that they come out all low quality, so I don't know how much I'll actually end up sending pics in.

A few [clear] pics from tonight.

Sophia and me. This picture cracks me up because we're in such goofy poses.

Sophia & me


DJ Skyhawke got ringed. I'd feel bad for him, but I totally don't.

Ringed DJ


Sophia found an outfit in her inventory called Little Red Riding Ho. And well, of course she had to put it on. I'm not sure what Sky is doing in the corner.

Little Red Riding Ho


Yes...I'm the teacup. LOL! It was just getting late.

We were up just way too late.



I'm like a ringleader, I call the shots. Isn't this outfit cute? It's by Four Yip. I love it when I put it on, but I forget that I have it when I'm looking for something adorable.

Ringleader


And in addition to ALL of this, I got a bunch of bears from friends and readers. Thank you all so much! I just love bears and you all are awesome for thinking of me when you run across one!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's like I did!!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone takes this Valentine's Day to say "I Love You" to those people in your lives that, while maybe not a romantic partner, are just as loved too!

From the bunnies, the bears [well, most of them], and me - Happy Valentine's Day!!!


Happy Valentine's Day!


Thursday, February 12, 2009

Thoughts about these crazy hunts

Hunt gifts



To say the Valentine hunt season is in full swing would be an understatement. That picture just shows a bare sampling of stuff that I picked up from ONE hunt.

What I'm about to say is probably going to label me as ungrateful or whatever, but I really think it needs to be said. So just keep in mind it's my own personal opinion and don't go crazy.

First, before I say anything else, I want to thank the creators who give out gifts. You are utterly and completely appreciated. You make Second Life a better place to be. I know many designers and I see the work they put into making brand new gifts for every hunt or for their groups. I see how they light up when someone says thank you or when their gifts are blogged or worn out. I adore you all and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

However...

These hunts are getting out of CONTROL. There are the people on the sidelines bitching about how gifts and freebies hurt the SL economy. Well, I don't think that's necessarily true as I've found many designers that I just love now and spend gobs of money in their stores just because they had a fabulous gift.

But you guys have GOT to stop throwing so many huge huge hunts together so close together!

There's only so many hours in a day, right? And only so much time any of us have to be in SL, correct? These hunts start becoming ALL we do for the couple of weeks or so that they're on. And then? We spend the rest of the time sorting what we got in the hunts, which usually takes us up to the NEXT big gridwide hunt!

Go to almost any woman in SL and ask her about the Ghost hunt. Ask her about POE. I almost guarantee they will tell you they either

a) Haven't finished sorting those gifts

or

b) Threw away a lot of things because they weren't their style/weren't good quality/they simply got tired of sorting and threw it away just to be done with it.

Is that really what these hunts are about? Just grabbing something to throw it away without looking? If there was a landfill in SL, it would be full of unopened hunt gifts.

For those who think gifts and freebies hurt the SL economy - well no, they don't always. BUT, when do we have time to look at your stores when we're so busy going to 400 stores in 2 weeks? With SL lag, crashing, and blingy crazy people running around with 10,000 prims and 7000 scripts... Yeah, most of us are grabbing and running.

And for Phil's sake, quit being mad that people share cheat sheets. Unless you just want 40 people standing in your store screaming that they can't find the item and IMing you about it. But seriously...what's it hurting YOU if someone shows someone else where the gift is? If it's good quality, you may have made a customer for life who will come back and shop. If you throw a hissy fit, move your gift, and generally act like a complete ass, I guarantee that you will lose customers. It's for fun, ok? It's not hurting you if someone gets help when they're trying to get through 300 stores.

My suggestion would be to please please please scale back on the hunts. If you want to put together a gridwide hunt, limit it to 50 stores, or 100 stores. And make the application process better! Put together a committee and check out the gift that the store wants to give. If it sucks [and c'mon...you know if something is bad quality in SL if you have done even a little shopping] then they don't make it in. Also, space out the hunts. If it's gridwide, make a month. If it's just in ONE store with 12 gifts, then yeah, it can be just a week so everyone can get it.

Will I continue to be sucked into doing hunts? Yeah. Most of my friends enjoy the hunts [some of them are outright refusing to do them now, though, because of all of the mess] and it's fun when we get together afterwards to try to sort through everything. But something really needs to be done to keep them more fun and less of a hassle.

Just my opinion, anyway.

I love my office

[Yeah, just another excuse to show off where I sit when I blog lately. LOL]