Oh Chloe, you’re irresistible. I’ve been having issues with my SL eyes popping out of my head (SL glitch?), so I’m wearing Chloe’s eyes again. Iris wrote a great review of Chloe over at NWN, and included links to reviews done by other SL residents too. If you still think we all look the same, look again! I think my Chloe doll has a Gogo flavor, and is different from everyone else!
Check out this new Beyond the Waves hairstyle from Exile. It’s so lovely, and can be worn with the color-changing flowers or without. I’m also trying a new hair color today — Mahogany, instead of my usual and darker Swiss color. Exile also has some gorgeous Pink fades, I promise to make a look with some pastel hair colors soon!
Wunderlich’s has just released this Limited Edition Marie Antoinette ‘Tassles’ gown. There are only 20 copies available in each color. I have 1 of 20 of the Pale Pink version available (even though the color looks more Purplish than Pale Pink). When you teleport to the main store, you’ll see an individual vendor for each color, showing the number of gowns that are left. Once the gowns are sold out.. they’ll never be available again in that particular color (or ever!).
What’s better than sparkly hair? FREE Sparkle Edition hair from Exile! This After the Rain hairstyle in a special edition pack comes in Blonde, Red, Brown, and Black. Get it for $1L (goes towards Wigs for Kids) @ Hair Fair.
Images & seamless textures that I generated with AI
A few months ago, I blogged about MidJourney art in Second Life. Second Life designers are now using AI to create more than just pretty pictures for sale. AI can also create seamless textures, help with logo creations, and other graphic design elements. It can be used as a tool to help with the creative process if used wisely.
SL snapshot vs Stable Diffusion edit
I’ve been playing around with Stable Diffusion to give my Second Life avatar more realism, but not so realistic that it looks like a morph. I try not to stray too far from the original Second Life image, and that requires trying a lot of different settings. You can view my AI Glow Up album on Flickr for all of the images.
I was playing around with the Solaris glow in ReShade the other day when it hit me that I can already do this in the Aperture Viewer. This is still my favorite viewer right now, but it looks like the creator’s stepped away from the project since last year, which is really sad. It feels like every third party viewer I end up liking either doesn’t get updated enough or just gets abandoned completely.
This post isn’t about TPVs though, I just needed to say that.
You might’ve heard about the newly released Ridgewood Enclave Commercial shops, or maybe you haven’t. Even when something’s “big news” to some people, most Second Life residents stay in their own bubble and don’t follow updates or read blogs. And that’s fine. A lot of people just want to log in and play Second Life at their own pace.
I’m not one of those people, especially when it comes to Bellisseria.
Last week in the middle of the day, my friend messaged me saying “omg, shops dropped!” We’d been waiting for these for months after the Lindens hinted at them during a land meeting. Even though I already knew I really don’t like the Ridgewood Enclave home theme, I still opened the map, teleported, and claimed a shop.
My Shop
It’s free for Premium Plus, doesn’t count against your tier or your Linden Home, so you really do get to have everything here.
I’m not going to complain about a free perk. The experience has been nice so far. I ended up on a full block with friends because we all rushed over at the same time and grabbed one.
Some people are upset that they didn’t get one, or that the Bellisseria Citizens group heard about it before the official blog post went out. It sounds like it was shared a couple of hours earlier. But honestly, that’s just how things go sometimes. If you’re in the group and paying attention, you’re going to hear things sooner. If you find out later, then unfortunately on a limited release, it’ll be sold out.
There will be more shops. Probably Monday, based on what was said at the land meeting today.
Even though it’s been less than a week, residents are already creating events and websites around the new shops. I’d barely started moving in before I was getting messages asking me to pay for advertising or join groups to promote my shop. No thanks. I don’t want to advertise anything. I just want a quiet little shop. I’m a Lifetime Premium Plus member and I’m just enjoying the perk.
I also think Linden Lab shouldn’t make too many of these. I know the demand is high right now, but the number of shops should stay small compared to homes. If there are too many, Bellisseria starts to feel less like a place to live and more like a mall.
Sparkle’s Shop, the prettiest
When something’s limited, people get weird about it. Sometimes ugly. Or maybe some people just aren’t used to how Bellisseria works yet. If I had to describe it in two words, it would be “sold out.” And that’s not a bad thing.
Some themes are always sold out, and that’s fine. It’s better than being undesirable. We’ve already seen what happens when there are too many. Chalets, Fantasy, Log Homes, Houseboats. They were all in high demand at one point. Now there are more than people want.
We don’t need everything all at once. People move on, and when they do, the community around something new fades too. It’s better to let something stay a little rare.
Also, we don’t need to overcomplicate how people use these shops. If someone wants to pretend to sell virtual coffee, let them. Commercial doesn’t have to mean serious business. We’re all already paying customers anyway, no one deserves a shop more than others.
“Your shop, your way” feels like the right idea. With some rules, just not a million of them.
At the end of the day, this is supposed to be fun.
Couverture has just released the pretty Zephr dress in five yummy colors! They are White, Green, Amber, Coral Pink, and Wisteria. I love the flexi prim skirt on this, because it's doubled layer with a semi-transparent print on top of a solid one, it moves and looks wonderful in-world.
I'm using a pose here from couverture made specifically 'for prim skirts', while you're there, be sure to check out the poses they're great for photos!
AtomicBambi is a floral accessories store, and you know how much I lurve my hair flowers!! I am wearing the AtomicBambi 'Manhattan' hair corsage in Pearl; this is copy/mod but also includes a resize script for easy re-sizing.
Visit AtomicBambi to view the entire collecetion of hair acessories, she's made TONS for all different popular hairstyles in SL.
What I'm Wearing:
Truth – Cheryl (Mocha) hair BeBae – Erin *Cinna /Classic-1b AtomicBambi Hair Corsage – Manhattan (Pearl) couverture – Zephyr dress Dark Mouse – Points of Light set (Copper/Garnet) House of London / Cherry – The Allice Cullen Ballet Flats (ivory)
These shirts are so perfectly textured, I went for wine I think it was called!