Hello, everyone! I have to apologize for not keeping up with this blog very well. I’ve been pretty busy lately, between writing for Prim Perfect and more recently – Second Chick. Not to mention my personal blog. Still, I want to attempt to keep some posts coming for this Second Homes, when I’m able to. Which brings me to the post I’m writing, now.

A couple of days ago, I was reading one of my favorite freebie blogs, Baking Cupcakes. Pumpkin Saenz made an absolutely fantastic find from a store called Urban Affliction. You can read her post here. I was not familiar with them before reading her article, and I’m not usually a fan of skyboxes. But when I saw this incredible Los Angeles By Night skybox was available on XStreetSL for only $1L, I couldn’t believe it.

The Los Angeles By Night is a fairly simple skybox that contains only one room. But what really made it stand out to me was the beautiful LA skyline view through the floor to ceiling window.

The baked light texture used on the floor looks just like moonlight streaming through the windows. I fell in love with this skybox as soon as I saw it, and I still can’t believe it was only $1L. What a generous gift, from creator Al Ogee. I love how a city looks at night with the dark blue sky and all the lights. After I got the skybox, I was inspired to continue that theme and add more windows of a similar type, before decorating it. It has turned out to be one of my favorite prefabs that I’ve owned in SL, so far. If you’d like to see what I ended up doing with the Los Angeles By Night skybox, you can see the pictures on my personal blog here.

Al Ogee co-owns a store in world called Def Store @ Death Row. They sell all sorts of items like clothing, tattoos, weapons, etc. But I found the Urban Affliction section of the store where you can buy other urban and grunge accessories for your builds.

I noticed the Los Angeles By Night skybox was for sale in the store for $199L, so the $1L offer on XStreet may be for a very limited time. For the direct link to the $1L skybox on XStreet SL, CLICK HERE.

Slurl to Urban Affliction/Def Store: http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20DeATh%20RoW/251/30/22

From time to time, I’ll go map hopping and explore the grid to check out prefabs or cool furniture places that I might not be familiar with, yet. Its a good way to see whats out there, and maybe discover some talent that I didn’t know about, before.

Possibly the best example of this happened the other night. I was out exploring, and a house caught my eye that was very nicely done. I cam’d around for a little bit, and the more I saw, the more impressed I was. Checking the creator, I saw the house was built by Tya Fallingbridge. I was surprised that I had not heard of her yet, because the house I was looking at was one of the best I’ve seen. I checked her profile to find out where she might be selling the house, and made my way to Pixel Mode. She actually owns a large store where she sells boots, prim nails and makeup, and other accessories. But I found her prefabs across the sim. She has a few different styles.. but it was the Purity house that I have absolutely fallen in love with.

The house is impressive as soon as you step onto the front patio. Across from the front door is a full length waterfall wall with lights, and across the patio is a hot tub.

The textures Tya has used for the flooring and interior walls are very nice and crisp.. but there are a few other features to this house that really stand out, to me. First of all, I just love the decorative room partitions that seperate the living room from the front foyer area. That was one of the very first things I noticed about this house. It looks really nice, and is something I haven’t really seen in other prefabs.

The other thing that really stood out to me was the raised living room. The tier flooring looks fantastic, and really adds to the stylish feel of this room. I have to point out that the furniture in these pictures does not come with the house, including the fireplace with shelving. But it is all available for purchase, if you would like to keep the decor the same. I highly recommend the Purity fireplace, because it looks fantastic in this room. The shelves are included with the fireplace,  and they are functional shelves as opposed to a flat prim texture. The whole unit is only $300L which is pretty incredible. The only downside is that its a bit high in prim, but if you have the prims to spare, I would say its well worth it.

The kitchen is located just to the right of the entryway. It has a sliding door, and one wall opens up to look into the dining room area. As far as I can tell, the kitchen appliances ARE included with the house. This is a very modern kitchen, with stainless steel appliances and black granite countertops. The back wall is glass, and looks out onto the front patio.

The bedroom is located just beyond the dining room. It also has a wood finish sliding door. As with the rest of the house, you can click on all the window blinds for privacy. This room has a door that leads out to the patio.

As I said before, this is one of the best prefabs I have seen. Especially when you consider the size. Its actually quite small, yet it has a lot of wall space and seperate rooms.. thats the number one thing I look for in a great prefab. So many of them are built like one or two room studios. This home is extremely well done.. its very modern, and includes features like privacy blinds, and scripted light panels that will switch the light from dim to bright with a click of the mouse.

And the most remarkable thing? This house is only 250 prims, unfurnished. I think thats pretty impressive! Tya did an outstanding job on this house, as well as the other prefabs you will find at Pixel Mode.

SLurl to Pixel Mode: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Pixel%20Dreams/130/160/24

Astrid Lednev contacted me a little while back to invite me to come have a look at her store, Kitten Kreationz @ Earth and Sky. I had that on my list of things to do for awhile now, so when she sent me a reminder last night I made a mental note to have a look at her store, today.

At Kitten Kreationz, Astrid specializes in texture changing furniture. All of her tables, chairs and couches that I saw allow you to change their textures via a menu system.

The really great thing about this is that you really can customize the look of your furniture to match the rest of your home. But what I liked the most was just how detailed you can customize her furniture. For instance, this table really caught my attention by how strikingly unique it looked.

But what really impressed me the most was when I clicked on it, and saw how many different options it had for retexturing. Once I clicked on the table, I got a menu that would allow me to change the texture of the rims, frame, spokes, surface, and motive. And then of course, each of those options brought up a sub menu with several different color and texture variations. Here is one example after I changed the surface and motive.

All of the furniture at Kitten Kreationz has texture change options, including their couches and chairs. There are some display set up around the shop and just outside so you can demo how the texture change menu works. Take a look around- if you’re like me, you’ll have fun playing around with the different options for awhile.

SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Underclaw/9/82/75

If you have ever wanted to host a party, or just have a realistic table setting to add to the ambiance of your home, Food at Cas by Casandra Jackson is a good place to start.

Food By Cas has just about every type of food or drink item you can imagine.. be it gourmet dishes for elegant dining, or more simple items like pizza or hamburgers. No matter what you are looking for, you will most likely find it here.

There are an array of dining tables and place settings available, as well. Clicking on the placemat will give you a menu of food options. Click on a napkin to get a folder containing silverware, chopsticks, a checkbook, menu, etc. Then, just click on the chair you are seated on to get a menu of dining animations. There are demo tables set out so you can try it for yourself.

If you are looking for something a little bit different than just food or meal items, there are other options available. Food stands and vending machines could be a clever addition to your shop area.

If you own a shop or a gallery, sometimes having a plate of fruit and cheese along with some glasses of wine can add a nice touch for your customers. Currently, Food by Cas can be found at such places as Blaze, Kabuki, Outrider and Pennie Lane.

SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Voti/196/41/23

Cornelius Sloat has two furniture stores that he’s associated with. The first is Corn, where he designs and sells modern and contemporary furniture. Corn is a rather large store with seperate sections for bedroom, living room, office and kitchen furniture. The displays are all set up very nicely, and most of them include a rezzing system so that you can cycle through the different color selections.

One thing that Corn offers that  I don’t see all that often is childrens furniture. There are single and bunk beds in bright and cheery colors, as well as playsets and cribs.

In addition to Corn, Cornelius also is the co-owner of Instinct Furniture, along with Devon Fischer. Instinct furniture was designed to be functional, using poses and scripting systems to make all of the furniture interactive.

In addition to the animated furniture, Instinct also sells their poses and animations individually. There is a seperate section for all the poses- in both casual or sexy.

Cornelius and Devon have a blog for Instinct, that can be found at http://sl-homestyle.blogspot.com/

SLurl to Corn: http://slurl.com/secondlife/CORN/128/128/22

SLurl to Instinct: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kisping/156/78/467

Earlier last year, a friend of mine was terraforming his beachfront home and I noticed some very realistic water effects that I had not seen in world before. He had terraformed a small cove along the beach, and the waves were churning and swirling around the rocks, and sending up sprays of water. It looked so cool, I asked him where he got them. He told me they were done by Naiman Broome of Las Arenas Rosadas. When I got the landmark, I came to look around and was SO impressed by the island set up. The landing point puts you on a dock, with water spraying up on either side.

The shop where you can buy the waves is on the other side of the island. I believe it was set up that way so you can enjoy the beauty of the island itself. This is a great place to come for the scenary, or to enjoy some quiet time with your partner, or to take pictures.

The whole island doubles as a display of the plants and animated water you can buy. Walk around the edge of the island to see the waves along the shoreline. Or cut straight though the ‘jungle’ to see the tropical plants with sounds. The shop is located on the opposite side of the island, at the end of another pier.

Inside the tiki hut (which even itself is for sale), you will find all the plants, animated water and waves, and other accessories. The tropical plants and palms are very pretty and include bird sounds.

But most impressive to me are some of the waves and animated water thats available.. I especially love the whirl pool and water spray.

If you are looking for some great water for your island or beachfront home, this is the perfect place to start.

SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Las%20Arenas%20Rosadas/117/56/22

A few days ago Shyayn Lusch invited me to come have a look at her store, ~Shag~. As soon as I TP’d over, I recognized this as a store I had visited fairly recently. But I’m so glad I came back to see the new items she has, including some really great Christmas ideas. One of the first things I noticed were these extremely cute Christmas palm trees she has near the front of the store.

California Christmas Palms

I commented on how neat they were, and she said she had just made them! It may be a little bit difficult to tell from the picture, but the trees have multi-colored particles slowly floating from the palm branches, which gives them a very pretty effect.

Also for the holidays, Shyayn recently made the new suspended star lamps, as can be seen in this pink retro living room set. The larger star lamps emit sparkling particles. I thought the whole effect overall was really pretty with this room.

Pink Retro Living Room Set and Star Lamps

I also would like to be sure and mention that all the furniture at ~Shag~ uses the embedded pose script system thats becoming more popular. I love this so much more than poseballs, not only because it looks better but because you get the menu option to switch poses.

I think my favorite is this Black and White pillow seating and couch set. As with all the furniture sets at ~Shag~, you have the option of buying each piece individually, or you can save 10% by purchasing the entire set.

Black and White set

For a unique and decorative touch, I just love these ‘risky eggs’. They look like they’re made of crystal and are very pretty. Also, that modern Inspiration table lamp in the background has a matching floor lamp. Clicking on the shade will allow the light to slowly fade off or on.

Risky Eggs

Make sure you don’t miss the patio section, either. There are some lounge chairs and patio tables, as well as pool or beach accessories.

Patio Furniture

Shyayn currently has a very nice free gift for you, too. This Elegant Table with Amber Swirl Glass and two autorezz chairs can be found near the entrance of the store. The chairs have 6 different pose options!

Elegant Table with Chairs

Shyayn let me know that she has some more items in the works that will be released later on. Keep your eye out for some campfire and cabana sets, and some Valentine’s Day items coming soon.

SLurl to ~Shag~: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kon%20Tiki%20Island%20West/209/175/21

Hello, everyone!

I’m sure most of you are aware of the huge Peace On Earth grid wide hunt thats happening right now. But what some of you may not realize, is that there are a surprising number of home and furniture stores participating in this one. Its not all fashion and clothing, this time around. Not only that, but all of the gifts that are available were made especially for this event. These are not items that were available in the stores before this hunt. Each designer that is participating has spent time coming up with a special design to symbolize peace, culture, ethnicity or faith. The ones who organized this hunt put together a blog that has all the information you need to know.. including updates, links and slurls to help you along.

http://gridwidehunt.blogspot.com/

The list of participating stores is huge! I believe the current count is close to 400 stores now, and more are constantly being added. This hunt will run until the end of December, so you have lots of time still.  Here are a list of the starting points:

#001 iGems
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Amberdragon%20Realm/218/220/37

#051 KatKreation
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Putiki%20Fold/234/150/52

#101 A Piece of Candy
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jersey/193/48/22

#151 Annuarisu Fashion Confectionery
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kissena%20Park/160/217/22

#201 Couture Chapeau
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kissena%20Park/160/217/22

#251Amberdragon Designs
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Amberdragon%20Realm/139/138/22

#301 Vain Inc.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Joomos/60/160/23

I can’t possibly list them all, but just a few of the funiture/home stores participating are:

Fairy Pearls

Barnesworth Anubis

Ambiance Interactive Furniture

C&D Designs

Christmas Holiday Central

Christmas Pets

Dahaus Modern Furniture

Greene Concept

Hearth And Home

Mudhoney Designs

Quilts by KymSara

Wine and Roses

Yxes Gallery

For Wine and Roses, I put together an SL Photography artwork with a matching vase and tea lamp. This gift will only be available during the hunt. After December 31st, I’ll be taking it out of the store.

POE Hunt gift from Wine and Roses

To get the Diamond Skies gift set, just look for the small globe in front of the Wine and Roses subscribe-o-matic and buy for $0L.  And please  join my subscribe-o-matic while you’re at it!

Wine and Roses http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chindogu/22/150/24

Hello everyone! I just finished putting out new artwork and vases in my store, Wine and Roses. These will be available for the month of December. Also for today only, I am giving away a free artwork, ‘Moonlit’. You can find it propped against the display table at the center of the store. I’m also marking down the matching vase to $75L for the rest of the day. Please enjoy, and feel free to join my subscribe-o-matic. Thanks!

SLurl to Wine and Roses: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chindogu/22/150/24