Wildlife on the Sim

In the summer, I had a great time shopping for, and building a realistic coral reef. As a person that is a salt-water-fish enthusiast and a snorkel nut, I am quite familiar with the species. So the reef was quite interesting and yes, Jaws did show up!

Now that we are into a frigid winter, the sim needed some wildlife. This seems to be becoming my trademark as in fall, I had a giant turkey vulture, and a huge brown owl. So the winter needed some wildlife and off to the stores I went. Not being a fan of the "static pose" one prim poster animal, I decided to look and make the choices fitting of our efforts on the sim. Here is what I found.

Animals on the Sim

 The animals on the left are from Sculpty Creation Animals. This store is absolutely amazing, the animals are life-like and low prim. All the animals shown in this blog are animated and move in a realistic manner. The price is within range for the design and quality of the product. I love flying around the sim watching or sneaking up as if I am in the wild myself and spying on these animals in their natural setting.



Pictured above are mountain goats, elk, white tail deer, albino deer, a squirrel, and a chipmunk. I have strategically placed these critters around the sim to appear as if they are roaming free. These animals do not roam around, they have movement and are still until you come withing 10 meters. It is amazing how some wildlife can add a bit of realism to the sim.

More Sim Animals!

There are even off-sim floating polar bears, and a seal Island with a few seals moving in place. The seals are on an island and are discernible to the viewer at even the lowest graphic setting. The snow owl in this picture is from Animania. If you like birds, you will LOVE this place. Animania has much more than birds, but this is by far their best animal. I had a bird aviary (for my Verde of course!) on Parrot Key in the summer and most of the birds came from this place. There are many free roaming, and a few that are perched and fly in a circle that is set in the menu by the owner.

The bald eagle shown in this picture is a free-roaming type that stays on your parcel, it is sculpty and is around 20 prims. This beauty comes from Glowing Heights. This is a great little shop that has quite a few different species of animal, all look the part. The menu allows you to rez 1 to 5 birds at a time, I only rez 2 at a time to keep the look real. Look closely at this bird and please go in-world to see it, you will want it.

Browny and Off-Sim Seal Island

The brown bear pictured above has a trout in its mouth that appears after he bobs his head up and down looking for a fish in front of him. The fish appears in his mouth after a few bobs! It is a real riot to watch, and prompted me to put a few free roaming trout in the area of this browny!  The off-sim seal island is also pictured here. I put a few seals on the bank inland to add a realistic feel. These guys are big and they are animated as well, both pictured animals are from Sculpty Creation Animals.

Check out the wildlife at these stores, it feels like a trip to the zoo for me! I cant wait till spring, I am already plotting and planning the return and addition of a few more critters!

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You like detail? You like Yachts?

I appreciate a fine looking product, even nicely detailed clothing or a textured couch is not for women alone. I look for skins and hair the same way, I am most willing to pay for detail and texture, especially with my last summer habit...Yachts!

The Gollette- from Star Bay

This boat, The Gollette, is from Star Bay Marine. I hope you can see what exact detail Star Bay delivers to us, the consumer, a quality product and a great boat to drive around the sim. This boat took some time to manage but is worth the sailing lesson. The Gollette comes in a furnished and unfurnished version, the prim count is reasonable.

Star Bay has changed some of their yachts since I bought these boats in the summer. I really like their fleet and have a few  gems from this marina. The Atlantis is a higher prim yacht that actually has a decent flyable helicopter along with the package. The helicopter is optional, it stays on the bow of the boat and can be used or not. The boat has a color change hud to allow some tweaks.There is a nice dancing room with a bar, and a grand state room below with another entertainment deck.

The Atlantis- Star Bay

The Atlantis is a great party boat. It is not drivable, but lends a grand quality yacht to the scenery.  I had this boat rezzed for some time during the summer and fully appreciate the texture and build.

The Super Dolphin - Star Bay

The Super Dolphin is a great, sleek yacht that is undrivable, but has a truly authentic look outside and inside. There is a great top deck, a room for dancing and entertaining, and a lower deck with a master suite that is cozy and formal. The textures are rich and the build is impressive. This size boat can sometimes look like a shoe-box in SL, not this one! This boat is a beauty and has plenty of room to cam on the inside (one of my pet peeves for boats!!).

The Aurora - Emerald Boats and Yachts

 
The last boat I am writing about (although I have many more I would love to show!) is The Aurora. This is from Emerald Boats and Yachts. I highly recommend a trip to this marina to see their fleet, quite impressive. The Aurora has a working movie theater and a splendid deck that is textured with realistic detail. The furniture on board has poses that make you look and feel natural. I look for furniture and items WITHOUT pose balls just because it interrupts the look and flow of the item, and it is just lazy. Take the time to put a script in, we will figure it out!



Please visit these sites and have fun showing off your toys! Where else can one have twenty houses in their inventory, a fleet of 20 yachts, and more toys than Donald Trump! In SL of course!

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The Log Home

SculptyWorks Log Cabin on Seahorse Island

After shopping around on Marketplace, and visiting several of their recommended log cabins, Verde and I came up with a very simple log home that was just enough for the both of us. It was simple, and nicely texture. Of course...I derezzed it and got a three-story log home made by SculptyWorks

The Cabin is 115 prims unfurnished for 3000L. Furnished is 225 prims and 7000L. I got the unfurnished version and was allowed for the first time to furnish it. Of course Verde was out ill and entrusted me not to hang Black Sabbath posters or turn it into a man cave, so I did what I think is a "couple friendly" job.

I extended the back porch to accommodate our jacuzzi and was able to light the place up with great low prim nicely texture Victorian posts from Abiss Lighting.

The Cabin is cozy and nuzzled in a prime spot on Seahorse, I love flying around it and looking at its beauty. I am satisfied and hope that the desire to derezz does not overtake me until springtime, when Seahorse takes another new look and Verde and I look to adapt our look to our setting!

Stalled...

This post has been sitting in draft mode for a while. Pie had just rezzed a new log cabin for us to use as our winter home and I had started digging through my inventory to find some furnishings that looked rustic enough. I wanted to take a break and show you some new lingerie I just bought on sale at 5th and Oxford and take a break from rezzing, moving, deleting etc. Before I finished writing this post, rl work got really hectic and I came down with the flu. So here it is. A bit late... actually quite late. In the intervening time, Pie deleted this log house, found us another one and decorated it himself :) I am sure he will be showing you all he has done very soon.

What Verde is wearing

Body

Eyes:  Night Rain by Poetic Colors

Lashes: Bedroom Lashes by Cake

Skin: Misty - Pale by League

Makeup: Lipstain A - by Chelle

Shape: my own

Hair: Mavi - Mocha by Truth

Nails: Nail polish - Basic red by Candy Nail

Clothes

Alicia bra and panties by Luxuria (on sale 5th and Oxford)

Jewelry

Ring: Eternity Bridal Set - Platinum by EarthStones

The Winter Sim

The winter on the Seahorse Islands has brought a new look. Clark found a great raw file and we have some control of our terrain, I got a new set of off sim surround mountains that will change with the seasons. (some of the textures are lame...other are striking!)
It took some planning and trust, but the group has come together and made a very palatable winter Sim. There is flow and continuity now and no wasting valuable prims to make winter look like winter on a sandy beach terrain!
Our group has begun to gel an go beyond the boundaries a bit to create what has been our best look to date. I believe we are getting good at this hope the pictures are proof this group has class and great style. What a remarkable time it is creating in this world.
I have a feeling all the winter animals will soon be available to view in this blog, there are so many animated animals on the sim that it deserves its own post!
PIE

Pictures: All pictures are of the winter sim on Seahorse Island.

The Fall Sim

When we grew tired of our summer look, the neighbors of the SING group spoke about a possible change of season sim. Verde and I planned to do a Halloween look and tried to keep the appearance to a detail of Autumn. Our neighbors Clark and Dulcie did the same.

I put a babbling brook on our once palm-treed parcel, Verde used Linden trees that would give us a low prim detail tree. We also rezzed a new house that seemed to fit the look.

On our neighboring parcel once called Parrot Key, we made a spooky yet real feeling Vulture Key. I found some corn that I covered an area with, a low prim yet nicely textured house, a barn, and I assembled a grave yard under Verde's direction and taste. We both had great fun shopping at this time of year and had some extra add-on pieces by the time our neighbors decided to have a group Halloween party. A rusty windmill, a water tower and a pool filled with blood rounded off the parcel I had the most fun with till that point!
Changing the Sim with the seasons has been great fun. Building and shopping for items was equally as fun for Verde and I.

Top pic: Peacock Cove in Fall
Middle: The view from Vulture Key to Peacock Cove
Bottom: The scary house and water tower on Vulture Key

SING.......The Summer Sim

The beauty of having four parcels split with really like-mined people is there is a nice continuity on the sim. I started renting a parcel with my wife and her friends on Seahorse Isle and soon got to see that one bad neighbor could upset the flow and look of the sim. Our covenant wanted the sim to look the same and not too much terra-forming. Our neighbor made what looked like a giant purple chess set that destroyed the beauty that we had envisioned. After speaking to the landlords the tenant left and I took over the rental on that parcel. Above is what we all did.
We formed a group called SING that stands for: Seahorse Isle Neighbors Group. We dance together, have holidays together and even had a wedding together this last year.
Renting in SL can be fun, finding the right people for neighbors is key to having a great look and great times on the properties.

Above:Peacock Cove (left)
The reef on Peacock Cove (middle)
The parcels in summer (right)

LOTD

I found a great Jean Jacket and hood combo from SEY that I wanted to share, and some great skin and shape combos from TELLAQ that make a very rugged and handsome avatar. REDGRAVE gets an honorable mention here with the shirt and shoes. If you've never been to REDGRAVE do yourself a favor and go look at the great line of clothing/skins for men.
The jacket has a great texture and feel with the sculpty cuffs and collar. I plan on incorporating this jacket into a few outfits I already rock out there on the grid.
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Hair - MADesigns
Shirt - REDGRAVE
Jacket - SEY Denim jacket
Jeans - Phoenix Rising
Sneakers - REDGRAVE
Skin - Alain by TELLQ
Shape - Alain by TELLAQ

LOTD - Smart sleek cityware

Today I am posing in our new skybox from A.T. Design. It has a nice city feel so I chose an outfit I would wear walking in New York. I first saw this sweater on Sileny's blog post. It is Adore & Abhor's Fifty Linden Friday offering from last week. Looking more closely at Sileny's outfit, I see that mine looks quite similar. I swear that I didn't do this on purpose. It just kind of developed that way. I really enjoy Broke by Pay Day so check it out if you haven't seen it already.

What Verde is wearing

Body

Eyes: Summer-cool night by Poetic Colors

Lashes: Bedroom Lashes by Cake

Skin: Lumine-Vex by Gala

Shape: my own

Hair: Devyn Hair - Cocoa by Moderno

Nails: Nail polish - diamont black by Ibizarre

Clothes

Top: Jojoba Sweater by Adore&Abhor

Skirt: Confetti Mini - black by Sn@tch

Tights: Solid Tintable Lycra Tights - Medium Tone by GLAM

Shoes: Vidalia Pump, FuiFui Turquoise by Armidi Gisaci

Jewelry

Ring: Eternity Bridal Set - Platinum by EarthStones

Earrings: Envision Earrings - Champagne Diamond by EarthStones

Handbag

City Handbag- Teal by ETD

Poses

Glitterati

Guitars

As a musician I had an interest in seeing what designers came close, fell short to the real thing when it came to instruments. As a guitar and bass player I looked mostly in this area and did a bit in the brass instrument section as well. GCD Megastore provided the best looking and modifiable guitars with added semi-realistic animations. The craftsmanship is wonderful, the drawback is a 39 to 43 prim guitar, which when we wear it does not add to our land, but displaying these beautiful instruments can add up.
The Guitar Palace,Streams is another great place to pick up any musical instrument. Brass, woodwind, string all have sound and animations and a high quality instrument any musician that is afraid to look like he is playing a guitar made for a Muppet will appreciate! I have a few hanging at the house from both mentioned places and get many compliments for the entire collection.

LOTD - Elegant red gown

I stopped by a new-to-me store yesterday, GizzA (SLURL). They have just opened a new main store and the clothes had beautiful textures. They had this lovely gown on sale. The gown comes with the lovely jewelry as well so all you need to do is add shoes and fix your hair and you are ready to go. I love this hair by Truth, it is elegant and fun at the same time. The flowers are color change although the red color was not an exact match with the gown so I used the black and white color setting.

The set is something I threw together quickly using sculpt maps from Treasured Cove with some textures by Distressed Textures.



What Verde is wearing

Body
Eyes: Summer-Lavender field by Poetic Colors
Lashes: Bedroom Lashes by Cake
Skin: Lumine-Vex by Gala
Shape: my own
Makeup: Metallic Eyeliner - gold by Insufferable Dastard
Hair: Seraphina - mahogany by Truth
Nails: Nail polish - diamont black by Ibizarre

Clothes
Gown: Red Sequine Dress by GizzA
Shoes: Vidalia Pump, Meatallic Silver by Armidi Gisaci

Jewelry
Ring: Eternity Bridal Set - Platinum by EarthStones
Necklace and Earring set: Red Sequine Set by GizzA (part of the outfit)

Poses
Glitterati

New beginnings

Our wedding
Photo by Rex Requiem

Pie and I have decided to do a blog together for the new year, 2011. The previous year was very good to us. We rented some land together and moved in together, then we got engaged, and finally we got married on December 12th, 2010. Our SL is intertwined. So far we have been mostly having fun with friends, exploring and learning. This year we have some higher aspirations. I want to do some more writing and get my back to my photography. Pie.... well he can tell you himself but I think he wants to do more building.

So what will this blog focus on? Well, I guess the types of things we like. There will be fashion, because we both like to shop and dress. There will be lots of photos because we both have fun creating images. I think we will chronicle our Second Lives and our creative explorations. We may even recruit a few more people to help out. One thing for sure, we will do what we enjoy and what makes our hearts sing.
Happy New Year, Welcome 2011