Day 94 - She certainly is beloved

Do you like my pretty flowers?




These are made by my friend Aisuru Rieko of Beloved Custom Designs. Since the latest craze is to talk nice about people who brighten up the SL community, it seems only fitting that I feature her flowers in this post.

Aisuru is one of those quietly gorgeous people who doesn't seem to quite realize how awesome she is. We met back in 2008 when she sent me a cute little IM and a slice of cake with a sit pose that she'd made. She was one of the original members of the Ch'Know group [I think she was the 4th member, the 2nd to ask to join, actually], and as time has gone on, I've watched her grow as a very talented creator. She's quiet, but if you pay attention, she's incredibly funny! She's also really smart and has more style than should be legal. Although I wouldn't say we sit around and have heart to heart talks very often, she's definitely one of those people that when I see her name on my friends list, I smile. My SLife would be a little less cute and whimsical without the adorable Aisuru in it. :)

And she really does make awesomeness! I was on the hunt for trees and after being sticker shocked by the price of many many trees, and not finding anything I truly loved, I slapped myself in the head and remembered - Aisu makes trees! So I skipped out to her store and picked up her new Seasons tree. Absolutely perfect.




7 prims and color change, and only $500L for the mod/copy version. And it's not just leaves, there's flowers and bare branches too! Seriously, they are fabulous!

So that's my community highlight or whatever the challenge is. I guess it would be good if I'd actually go read the challenge post, huh? LOL But if you haven't gotten to know Aisu yet, you're missing out. <3

The answer to why you might not be getting blogged

Oh hey, look! A non-365 day post!

So, I have a lot of friends who create things in SL. Most of them I've met via plurk, and as such, they are more likely to talk and ask questions. One of the big questions I've seen is "Why isn't anyone blogging my stuff?!" And then of course, their blogger friends make up all kinds of excuses and tell them that their stuff is great and we'll totally blog it! [Yes, I do it, too! But usually I try to make good on it.]

Well, there are truly a lot of reasons why your item may not get blog exposure. I'm not a professional in marketing, but here are some of the reasons why I personally wouldn't blog something that I've received. And I gather if it's the same for me, it might be the same for several others.

I received a review copy through a bloggers group, and upon rezzing it, I realized it wouldn't make the blog for a few reasons.

1. It was completely not my style.

The item was a VERY short, tight, nipple baring minidress with a photosourced texture. [I'm assuming it was supposed to be a dress, although it might have been more of a shorts outfit as there was no skirt prim.] Although I'm not against sexy clothing, it simply was not my style at all. I love to play dress up, and I'd actually love to blog more things that are outside of my normal comfort range, like costumes and such, but if it's not my style, it's just not. Plus, I'm not down with photosourced textures unless blended with hand drawn to make something wonderful. That leads us to...

2. I didn't care for the quality.

I won't say that I'm overly picky, especially when the designer is new to SL [I'm unaware if this person is or isn't], but there are certain qualities I look for in an item. Are the hems too smeared on my arms or legs? Do the seams even meet? Does one strap look like it might tear apart? Do the prims match the rest of the outfit at all? Do I look like I'm wearing a photo of an item or is it hand drawn or a hand drawn/photo blended combo? Can I modify any prim pieces to make them fit or will I be stuck with a skirt that I can't wear? Is it just a recolor of an XStreet purchased template? If it's a non-fashion item, will I be able to use it ever? Are there texture glitches? Do the poses work properly? Are the prims lining up correctly? If I find the quality to be severely lacking, chances are, it's never going to be blogged. Maybe something might not be my style, but if the quality is there, I can't argue with it.

And the biggest reason in the world why something will probably not be blogged?

3. I had no idea where it came from.

Listen to me carefully: Bloggers get at least a couple of review copies a day, either through people dropping things on us, or through groups. If you do not LABEL your item with your store name, we will not remember where it's from. Just titling your folder or box with "Dress outfit" means it will get lost in my inventory and thrown out at the next inventory cleaning. I need it clearly titled, "MY STORE - Dress Outfit." Or even better? "Review Copy - MY STORE - Dress outfit." Then I absolutely know what it's for. It also did not help that in the group notice, the creator never said the store name either. Your store name, your brand name, can NEVER be said or shown too much when you are attempting to get noticed.

Upon further inspection of the item, there was not a store name on the vendor. At all. And when I opened up the colors of the outfit, again - no store name and no landmark. I need a landmark so I can come to your store and check prices and check out your other items if I plan on blogging it. Don't ever worry about someone getting annoyed that they have your landmark 50 times now. I can delete a landmark, I cannot make one appear out of thin air. Especially if I can't get to your store anyway because I have no idea what your store is.

These are just 3 of my biggest reasons. There's other smaller ones, like I think the item has been shown off much better in several other blogs, it's named after someone I don't like [shut up, yes I am that immature at times], the creator has been horrible in public forums, reviewing it would make it seem like I'm taking sides of some fashion drama, or...I just get lazy. Seriously, I just get LAZY. I try very very hard to show off each item I blog to the best of my ability and so this usually means I spend a LONG time taking pictures and looking for the best shots. I will never be one of those 10 posts a day, show everything with crappy lighting and too much blur type of bloggers. I don't think that does me, or the creator of the item, any good at all.

I'd love to hear more reasons why someone may not get blogged. I know all the bloggers are very different and some of them may have other ideas as well! :)

Day 93 - Thinking about V-Day

Again...almost missed a day. LOL




I've been thinking a lot about Valentine's Day coming up. I keep getting a lot of Valentine stuff to blog or just to have, and of course that means I keep thinking about it. I think I should just pick a random single guy friend of mine to be my valentine for the week. But one, I don't want to snag some guy that one of my friends may like, and two, I don't know if any of them would be willing. LOL! I don't like rejection!

But I do miss having a valentine. Someone to leave little gifts for when he logs in, someone to take mushy pictures with, blah blah blah, you get the idea. I think I'm just in a sappy mood tonight. I'll get over it.

Longer post coming tomorrow. Meant to do it today, but it just wasn't happening.

Day 92 - I didn't think I had much to say, actually.

An hour to go before Sunday and I almost missed day 92! Tomorrow will be better, because I'll have time to sit and write this big long thing I want to write about. And believe it or not, it has nothing to do with team shirts! LOL!

It was a good day for me. My parents [for those of you who ask me about them <3] are doing much better. My dad's lungs are getting a lot stronger daily, and my mom's health is remarkably improved over this time last year. Heck, even just 3 months ago, it's much better. She gave up smoking when she caught the flu back in November kind of cold turkey. It was hard, after a 40 year habit, but WOW. What an improvement to her health in just this short time! If you smoke, I strongly strongly urge you to stop now, and ESPECIALLY if you have children. You may feel perfectly fine right now, but I guarantee your quality of life will improve if you quit!

In SL...well, yes, there is some stuff going on. You don't need me to tell you about it. :) But there's the I <3 Originals fair that starts on the 8th, and I suggest you guys get out there and support some of these creators. I know, I know. Conspiracy! Secret agendas! Blacklists! Whitelists! Yeah, not everyone is part of that or knows anything about it. Some of them just want to create and sell in SL, and those are the ones I support. :) I was out there tonight for the blogger preview and I found a lot of old favorite and a lot of shops I've never heard of before! Good stuff, too. :)

While I explored out there, I had a nice chat with a friend who I haven't known for all that long, but I kind of hope as time goes by, we become better friends, because she's pretty much awesome.

My evening hasn't ended yet, there are blog pics I need to get done, but for day 92... I went out with one of my best friends tonight to listen to great music and just forget about things. :)




I'm using one of Torley's windlight setting for that picture, btw. It's called Heaven and it makes everything white around you. Pretty nifty, huh? :) I kinda had to do it, because this girl was dancing nearby in this like, crazy zebra dress and well...there's too much crazy going on around here anyway, I didn't need Ms. Zebra Formal 2010 all up in my camera.

Wow, I wrote a lot more than I intended. LOL I need to stretch my blogging muscles again. It's been 92 days of pretty much just some pics. I think I did need a break, but maybe I'm back now.

In the immortal words of one of my idols, Elle Woods, "I once had to judge a tighty-whitey contest for Lambda Kappa Pi. Trust me, I can handle anything."

Day 91 - *squeak squeak*

Yikes, just realized I almost missed day 91! Noooooooo! LOL

Good day today. A pleasant change after yesterday. How-freakin'-ever...I lost my voice this afternoon. Do you guys know how BAD that is for me?? I'm chit-chatting allll day long, singing, humming, laughing. As quiet as I appear in-world, I'm actually quite chatty in my physical world on a daily basis. Not being able to talk...so bad. LOL My throat doesn't hurt a bit, and I was talking fine this morning, I just don't know what happened. Now I can whisper and squeak.

Anyway, I do have loads to talk about, but I'll wait until tomorrow or Sunday.

For day 91, here's the view I had earlier tonight while in a photoshoot. I know people usually think of SL modeling as being this glam thing, but really? Photoshoots can be kind of quiet while you have your eyes clicked on a box & the photographer takes pics. I still love it, though. :)

Day 90

It was one of those days.




But even though some are down, they are not out, and never will be no matter how hard someone else pushes.

Day 89 - Threesome

Don't get the wrong idea, you perverts. I'm talking about just having my alts both in world with me at the same time.




I used Aidan in my last style post, so I decided to pull Piper in to dance. No real reason, sometimes it's just nice to see them. :) I don't work on my alts as much as others do. They took advantage of the LE Look thing, as you can tell. Poor alts. They're pretty much committed to a life of freebies & hand me downs.

Hmm. I just wrote this big long rant about how people should respect their avatars more, but you know...it's all opinion. So nevermind.

day 88 - Fireflies

When I fall asleep
Leave my door open just a crack
Please take me away from here
Cause I feel like such an insomniac
Please take me away from here
Why do I tire of counting sheep
Please take me away from here
When I'm far too tired to fall asleep
To ten million fireflies
I'm weird cause I hate goodbyes
I got misty eyes as they said farewell
But I'll know where several are
If my dreams get real bizzare
Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar

Yeah, lyrics just don't get much better than that. LOL!

I have had terrible insomnia lately, though. It's...bad. It's given me a chance to play and chat with a lot of people that I would maybe not have gotten to before, but it's getting a bit insane. Luckily I'm feeling really tired tonight, so hopefully I can get some sleep.

But because I am run down, I don't feel like doing anything in SL, and as such, this post is boring. :-p

Day 87 - Thinking and stuff like that

SL was having some massive issues earlier. I couldn't shop, teleport, anything. So that gave me a chance to just sit around and think.




What did I think about? Leaving SL. Oh no, not me. God, no! I'm in this for the long haul at this point. But I see other people say they're leaving. They write long diatribes on their blogs about how they're leaving, they hate SL, they hate creating, they're bored, they're reclaiming their "real" lives, etc etc etc.

I don't think that they really want to go when they do these things. I think they WANT someone to tell them, "Please don't leave."

Sometimes they do this to just feel like they matter. Hey, we've all been there, right? But sometimes it's just for the dramatic attention. If they didn't want someone to say something, they wouldn't bother sitting there and writing out why they're so upset/bored/whatever that they feel they have to go. They'd just...do it.

In other news... Well, there's not much other news. :) I'm trying to pull myself up out of my blogging slump. We need a good challenge or something. I'm also in a shopping slump and desperately need to figure out what I want to wear lately. It's been so so so easy to just throw on a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers and I find myself doing that more than anything else lately. I look at the feeds and nothing truly has been catching my eye. Not to say that there aren't GREAT things out there, but I'm not EXCITED about anything, and that's the difference. But it's winter blues, it really is. I expect in a month or so, I'll start feeling much much better. Being out on the island with all its green and springtime feeling has been incredible and as funny as it sounds, it makes me feel much better and as such, I've been spending a lot of time outside of my house, sitting in the grass. Of course, I'm still looking for the perfect trees and the perfect landscaping items, but that will all come in time, I'm sure. :)

Day 86 - I'm united

After hunting in about 80 different shops in SL, and after my friends attempted to uh, help me, I finally decided on something for over the fireplace in my house.




I won't lie. I got the idea from something similar I saw at Deco*licious, and actually ended up spending $25L more making this than if I'd just bought that one, but that one was not QUITE right, and this one is. Of course, I'll always have my eyes open for something better.

So most of you have heard that Linden Lab bought Avatars United, which is like a Facebook for virtual worlds. I won't get into my thoughts on it much. I've been signed up over there since 2008 and hadn't logged into it since 2008. But since everyone is signing up for an account, I've been accepting friendship & group requests. I don't know what all the Lindens have in store for it, maybe not even anything in the end, but it's nice to have one more way to meet new people. If you have an account, please feel free to unite with me over there. I accept pretty much all requests.

Well, unless I don't like you.

Day 85 - I didn't think I was short!

For some reason over the past couple of weeks, I've felt like I've been getting a lot shorter. I was standing next to Sophia the other day and I could have motorboated her. Today I was standing next to Gauge and look how SMALL I appear next to him!




Am I shrinking and don't realize it? Or do heels really give me THAT much height? I've been wearing flats a lot more recently. I haven't changed my shape at all. Maybe I need milk or something. LOL

Btw, that's Gauge's new mainstore location. His store is called +blacklisted+ and he sells some cool shirts for men & women, and some lingerie for women. I'll be blogging his shirts soon, when I get out of this slump. :)

I've been continuing working on my yard for the house the past couple of days. It's slow going because I'm so picky about most things. I want it all JUST right...or at least as close as it can be to just right. I would almost pay someone at this point to just fix the yard for me!

But speaking of that, it's back to work. I WILL get this done this weekend so I can stop thinking about it!

Day 84 - Did she just say that?

I've been in a bit of a blogging slump lately. I'm sitting on a bunch of reviews that need to be done, and I have thoughts in my head, but nothing seems to want to come out.

Oh my god, I'm blogging constipated!

Anyway, that fence I'm on was a gift from the Glitterati group today. I love it, and it's only 2 prims. If you're not in the SoM, sucks to be you, I guess?

It's cold & miserable here today, so I'm going to go warm up and play a game.

Day 83 - Getting dirt under my nails

I asked on plurk this evening where to go to get some trees. My yard is starting to take shape and I am in need of trees to fill in spots. One place I headed out to was New Trails. I didn't see anything I really wanted, but I ended up climbing up on a rock because it was just so so pretty there.




Last night I was working on my yard and I decided I needed to move what I was making to the backyard, because of the wonderful view. But to do that, I needed to move my massive house, make sure all the furniture and decorations moved right, terraform more...on and on. And quite frankly...I'm not good at any of this stuff. Plus the ideas in my head of what I want don't always transfer into SL, because my building skills are not that great and because I can't seem to find everything that I want in SL. It gets quite frustrating! But, I am lucky that I have so many friends who know a lot more than I do about where to shop for home/garden supplies, and they've been a huge help so far.

*sighs* Back to the grindstone.

Day 82 - I'm not throwing it away

I've been playing with my yard. It's not terraformed very well. LOL




But I'm working on it. I kinda know what i want, but finding it is the big thing. Same for the inside of the house. I saw something I liked earlier and I thought "Well, you know, I can just BUILD that." And it's true, I could. But the problem is finding the next part because while I could build it, I couldn't build it for less prims. And honestly? How hard is it to find a simple, low prim, and inexpensive votive candle with a nice flame and that isn't a light source?

Pretty damn hard.

You'd think in my inventory I'd have something, but for some reason, all the candles I own are no copy/no modify, and that is NOT going to work for me. I have some that I would love to use but because they're no modify, I cannot pull them from their stands and holders. Ridiculous.

Speaking of inventory, my friend Emerald has a massive one. So massive, in fact, that she ended up on New World Notes for it.

I understand how it happened. Sales, hunts, regular shopping, gifts, fatpacks, it all adds up. If I allowed myself to open every single box and kept every hair color or makeup or shoe color in a fatpack, I could easily surpass Emerald's number within a week. The problem is, there's no really GOOD way, if you're an avid shopper, to keep your number from soaring unless you're really really good at organizing, boxing up, deleting, or having multiple alts to shop with. Yes, I can transfer things I'm not using if it's possible to do so to Piper or Aidan [my 2 alts], but so few things are transferable anymore.

Some people in the comments were saying that having a huge inventory number is the fault of the user and we should just throw things away. Well, they can suck it, because some things I will NOT throw away. And why should we have to throw things that we paid for away just because there's not a way to place them in a storage or something of the sort?

As I mentioned when I was boxing up my ETD hair, these things hold memories for me. I have items in my inventory that were given to me by people I will never see again and I cannot get rid of them. I have things that I bought from stores that no longer exist and I cannot get rid of them. I do throw things out regularly that I am not using or that I do not want, but some things...I cannot and I will not.

If you keep a low number of items in your inventory, how do you do it? Do you just not shop? Do you not get attached to certain items? Are you really that good at putting things in boxes?

Maybe I'm just too sentimental. But if it comes down to being too sentimental and keeping things or not caring and throwing things out because nothing means anything to you, I choose my kind.