So, with my return to Second Life I arrived just in time for Linden Homes to be announced. And I thought to myself “Self, it would be good to have a place to unpack shit and take horrible photographs for your blog of doom and hey, it’s only 10 dollars a month. You spend more than that on way sillier things”. And so I stared at the menu to select one and explored the several different options. In the end I chose the Skylight model in the Meadowbrook theme. And things were good…or so I thought.

The Author Standing In front of His Small Abode.

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Tags: Linden Homes, Linden Lab, Mainland, Second Life

I will not attempt to hide my utter love of the Day of the Dead holiday.  I have posted and written elsewhere about this mania already.  And now you, my friends, will be subjected to it.  One of the little articles of decor that I simply adore about DoD are the nichos, or little dioramas that show funny scenes of dead people doing all manner of things: having their hair done, fighting, drinking, etc.  And when I found the utterly cool Dia de Los Muertos Bride and Groom Avatar sets by Gerstley Quinnell, I just went totally bonkers, elated to have the chance to create my very own misbehaving satirical dead Second Life nicho.

I was aided in this fashion-induced dementia by the gracious Isolahara Catteneo of +mudshake, who gave permission for me to take pictures in her lovely show houses.  Which, by the way, are utterly splendid.  She has several DoD/Mexican themed houses that are utterly adorable.  Dancien also very patiently agreed to be dressed up and play dead house with me.  Here  above we are posing in Frida’s Dream House.

I must say Dancien was a very good sport, because naturally when Juana plays house she thinks of marital strife, and poisonings, and all the other wretched little things married folk get up to.  Here we are in the Skull in Love house, which is a delightful little dwelling.  Isolahara has such a wonderful happy vibe going, with bright colors and wonderful little touches like swirls and just cute fabrics and furniture.  Its sort of a very happy shabby chic–hard to describe but oh so wonderful.  I have bought several of her houses, and they are just adorable in every way.  They come furnished with items that are well chosen and match wonderfully too.

The avatars in this set are splendid as well.  The skins are detailed and wonderful, and the outfits are both semi-traditional and kind of cheeky.  I was also impressed with the eyes, which are stylized marigold flowers.  The avatars come also with a shape, but Juana looks best in her own shape.  I love the outfits as well….they make the avatars look wonderfully like the little stylized skeletons one sees in the previously-mentioned nichos.

Near the end I think Dancien got slightly impatient though….*grin*

The Undead Newlyweds wear:

On Juana Manuel:
Dia de Los Muertos Bride Avatar set by Gerstley Quinnell

On Dancien Graves:
Dia de Los Muertos Groom Avatar set by Gerstley Quinnell

Pictures taken on location with special permission at +mudshake sim.

Special Thanks to Isolahara Catteneo for her gracious permission.

Tags: avatar sets, day of the dead, Gerstley Quinnell, juana manuel, playing house, SL calaca avatar, undead marital strife/bliss

If the Second Life prefab market was an arms race then Bethany Heart and Colleen Desmoulins from The Loft have just dropped the biggest nuke in the history of the platform and now every other prefab builder just completely freaked as a new standard has been set. Their newest creation is called The Wisteria and it is by far the most innovative and realistic house this writer has seen in a virtual world. Featuring a den, garage, dining room, kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, a gorgeous bathroom, a man cave and a kids room as well as an outdoor balcony the full furnished version of this house will require 2994 Prims. The good news is all the rooms are rezzable and as such can be deleted for space or what not.

Every seat in the house comes with multiple animations/poses and the user of sculpties and shading is as per usual top notch.

The level of detail and thought put into the house really begins to show once you enter the kitchen.

The kitchen island features animations for baking cookies, cutting vegetables, cleaning the floor or spilled milk as well as just talking and hanging out. You can do dishes, clean windows, wipe counters. The Stove actually features multiple rezzable foods you can cook inside the oven and on each burner and you can even see the details of the food inside the fridge.

The bedrooms is another area in which the level of detail and thought shine through. While the two adult bedrooms do feature your “Ye old humpin” animations there are also animations you’d never expect to see.

Breakfast in Bed

Dancien’s first and only attempt at yoga

Doing some serious literary work

Each room features poses such as coming hope and showing you friends what you shopped for, chatting, watching movies, and much more and as far as I could tell you could have up to 4 people using these poses.

The bathroom is huge featuring a giant party shower, a huge bathtube, two sinks, toilet, seating in the middle and details everywhere.

The third floor of the build is what I like to call the man-cave. It’s actually the most empty of the rooms and that is fine with me. It features a couch and a pretty big TV. But it also has room for an air hockey table, pool table, or a good foosball table if such a thing exists in Second Life. For Iris and I we’ll probably be using it as our new workspace/photo studio as it has plenty of room.

The kids room is also on the third floor and features very well constructed furniture and if I believed in Second Life Children this place would be pretty awesome for them. More than likely though we’ll also be turning this into maybe a photo prop storage room and what not.

The deck is also very well detailed and actually features a ton of seating from the ledge seats to the four chair table. It even has animations to lean up against the rail. The house itself costs 8000L and weighs in at 504 prims. The fully furnished, very well thought out, and incredibly detailed version runs at 65,000L and as mentioned before is 2994 prims. But considering this is the last house you will ever buy in Second Life that isn’t nearly as steep as it seems.

Tags: Animations, Bethany Heart, Colleen Desmoulins, Furniture, House, The Loft