Things to share!

Good afternoon! Just a few updates for you from around the grid. Good stuff!

Belle Belle - I adore Leyla Firefly's latest set, Raffa. As always, there are multiple rooms in the set: living, kitchen, dining, bathroom, bedroom, and office. Gorgeous leather texturing on the living room pieces, and the stone wall/fireplace is awesome. I also really enjoy the flat file in the office - I have a weird fascination with file cabinets, and this style is one of my favorites!

Leyla has also just added a gorgeous Flower Fountain to the Lucky Boards! The boards are for Belle Belle group members only, so if you're not already a member, then you need to join! I've shared with you before that Leyla gives awesome group gifts...you need to get in on that!

**************************************

Gwendolyn Bieler Interior Design: Gwendolyn let me know that she has a $1L cabana now available in her shop! This is an amazing deal - you get the cabana, daybed, 2 lounge chairs, ceiling fan, 2 towels, rug, AND the deck for just $1L!! I love a red striped awning! Cute!!

**************************************

I had heard whispers of a fairly new furniture shop opened by my pals, Serendipity Nerd and Windy Crawford, and I just finally made my way over today to check out Nove. It's still a small inventory, mostly nice basics in a cottage style, and certainly worth a visit to see. I really like their cute little cottage bathroom - specifically, I love the details and accessories!

My favorite piece in the shop is the Get To Work desk (also available in black). This is so cute with its double-sidedness, and I adore the hanging baskets on the side! Precious!

*Home Expo 2009* The rest of my finds!

The Expo wraps up tomorrow, so be sure you get there soon!! Four sims of goodness to explore, live DJs and performers throughout the day, and tons of awesome auction and raffle prizes! Remember, too, that this is all for Relay For Life - all purchases of items displayed in RFL vendors go 100% to Relay, as well as the proceeds from the auctions and raffles. There is no better reason to spend your Lindens! :)

I finally finished my exploring last night...so much to see! I also ran into Krissy Muggleston, which was a nice surprise. :) Be sure to check out her blog KrissyLately - it's in my blogroll! And now...on to the finds!

A Take On Simplicity by Felicity Sneerwell: I met Felicity through our mutual friend, Stormy McCallister (Another Man's Treasure), but this was my first opportunity to check out her work. Nice, simple designs, fairly low on prims and still full on style. I like her Karma Outdoor Set - again, really simple, but a great staple for any modern patio...and something about the cushion texture speaks to me. It's got a sort of buttery leather look to it - I like it.

Felicity also has the Karma Bathroom Suite - I really like the mix of stone and wood, and the way she's connected the tub  and shower with the shared stone mount is really clever.

Ambiance Furniture by Desiree Bisiani: the Aphrodite Bathroom is very romantic, without being too froofy (it's a word). There are several more pieces to the set, I just really like the tub vignette. The towel rack is gorgeous, and I love the curves on the candle holders. Very nice!

Elements in Design by Gwen Carillon - another new designer to me. Gwen has several furniture sets on display, as well - it's her Gossip Girl Cafe that caught my eye. Now, I don't watch the show, so I can't comment on authenticity -- but it sure is cute. :) Very warm and cozy interior, and it's a just-right size. This would be adorable nestled in a city block or in a quiet village neighborhood.

The Loft by Colleen Desmoulin & -RC- Cluster by Redd Columbia - favorites of mine, of course. :) For the Expo, Colleen has the Speyside Hutch available in green, a color exclusive to the Expo, and all proceeds for RFL. Redd has included her Craft Bag as a RFL item - and it's precious! I had to pick one up for me. It's full of pens, pencils, markers, notebooks, scissors...everything I need to spontaneously wreak havoc. :)

Scarlet Creative by Charlotte Bartlett: Charlotte has one of her amazing houses on display, and it's also her RFL item. What I fell in love with is her Make Me A Star object -- rez it (it's invisible), and tada - glowy stars circle all around. I grabbed one to add to the fairy garden. I also really love her packaging - clear glass boxes? Yes, please!

[ba] by Barnesworth Anubis: and finally, another of my all-time favorites. :) Barnes has a few of his houses on display, all yummy and a required walk-thru. For his RFL item, he's got the Square Modern Gazebo - great piece for the beach, a zen garden, even a quiet forest hideaway. Possibilities are endless!

Ta da! That concludes my Home Expo 2009 finds. Be sure to get over there today or tomorrow -- I've only shown you a small percentage of what's there, you've got to get out and see the rest! Enjoy!

*Designer Review* Maerok Westland

Hello, dear readers -- something a bit different today. You may remember the Second Spaces Shadowbox Design contest back in August...the grand prize winner was Maerok Westland with his way-cool outerspace getaway. After the contest, I did a quick interview with Maerok, and we talked about the nanosculpts he's been working with. Well...he messaged me recently to let me know he just finished a big commissioned job for Freesoul Fashion, and he sent over a bunch of it for me to check out. This is why I love being a blogger! ;) Now, of course, I am not a fashion blogger...but since it's our old friend Maerok...and I can see nanosculpts being useful in lots and lots of applications...I figured I'd show you a bit of what Maerok has done.

For starters, we have the diamonds...ahhh, the diamonds. I really do love the tiny little sculpted gems -- very real!

Another set Maerok sent over is the Silver Branches set. This is quite detailed and the nanosculpts really capture the daintiness of the pieces...I'm familiar with similar items in RL, and they are very delicate. Great job on this set!

There are also several men's pieces, too -- way too big for me to model,

so go check these out at Freesoul or IM Maerok for more info.

We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging. ;)

*Special Event!*

**UPDATE** Thanks to all who came out last night -- between tips and direct donations, Hooters & Shooters raised $22,871L for Relay For Life during our event!! Great job to my awesome dancers, and many, many thanks to all who donated. The kiosk is still up in the club if you want to drop a few more lindens in there!

Sorry for the lengthy pause since my last post; the new club/sim has kept me busy. I have started working on a new patio set for Second Spaces, and I hope to have it finished and blogworthy in the next few days.

In the meantime, I wanted to let you all know that we're having a Relay For Life event at my club, Hooters, tomorrow night! That's 4/5 from 4-6PM SL time. We always have awesome parties at Hooters; for this one, my dancers and I are going to donate 100% of our tips to Relay For Life!! You gotta come check out the new place, the hot dancers, and hang out with me while I'm DJing! My pal, Kalia Meiklejohn, will be hanging out with us -- she's already placed a RFL kiosk in the club, so you can always swing by and drop a few lindens in there even if you can't hang out for the event.

Hope to see you all there -- great music, hot dancers, maybe some boobies and man-parts, and it's all for a great cause!!! Everybody wins! :)

Hooters & Shooters Night Club

*Designer Spotlight* The Loft

I attended the opening of The Loft's new sim last night - and I was like a giddy schoolgirl in the hours leading up to it. :) As I expected, it was beautiful. The shop is centered around a gorgeous courtyard; there's a lot of empty space right now, but I'm sure that will be filled up soon enough. Check out the shadows from the trees - I love that!

The party was nice - The Loft folks had set up one of the empty spaces with a dance floor, tables, and a stage for the live performers. Phemie Alcott started the night with an impressive acoustic set - she did a soft acoustic cover of Umbrella by Rihanna which was just beautiful. Next up to the mic was Kafka Dinzeo who took us through a pounding set of live rap mixes, including one he made just for The Loft which was really fun. It was great to finally meet Colleen Desmoulins and Bethany Heart in person; Kingston Augustus, the third designer, was not in attendance.

I did wander around, of course, but I didn't take a ton of pictures because I want you to go there and see it for yourself. Yes, you, dear reader! There were two new sets displayed that looked awesome:

AND there were pre-fabs, which is what I was most excited about. There are three displayed on the perimeter of the sim, and they're all fantastic. My parting words, as I said my goodbyes and gave my thanks for the invite, were "Colleen, I'm going to marry all three of your prefabs." I am. Seriously. You have to go see them -- the details and the depth we know from The Loft's furniture is all over these houses. The little details, the awesome textures - gorgeous. Here are exterior shots, just as a tease! From left to right, the Pusa Hilton, the Hattan Skybox, and The Bago:

I also loved that The Loft crew used the lighted tree from Heart Garden Centre as decoration in the party room. It IS the best tree ever!

Get over to the new sim to check it out, here. Go buy yourself one of those lighted trees at Heart Garden Centre, too, while you're hopping around the grid. :)

*Grand Opening Review*

Thanks to all who came out for the Second Spaces grand opening!! It was great to hang out with everyone, and we had a hell of a time. :) The freebies are still out, at least for now - I will probably pick some of them up this weekend. Get in there and grab 'em while you can! I'm also going to do some rearranging in the South Beach store, and I'll post an update when that's done. In the meantime -- here are some pics of the grand opening fun!

There were some AO/animation conflicts - it's to be expected:

JT & Roxie

Ab & KT

Everyone's favorite pose on the Marie daybed, as demonstrated by Ath & Maruko:

Kalia provided entertainment, much to Patric's back-bending delight:

That may be why Patric ended up under the table, more so than the champagne.

Speaking of which, the champagne was flowing:

The champagne was really good - Kalia's just a surly drunk.

Thanks again to all who came by, and I hope many more of you will swing by and check it out! The Envy store is located here, and you can grab a LM to the South Beach store from the Envy store. Be sure to join the Second Spaces! update group for notices on sales, freebies, and special events!

The designer collapses after a great party -- and, like, 9 glasses of bubbly.

*Design Job* Ulrich's Place

I decorated my friend Ulrich Renoir's place several months ago, and am just now getting around to blogging it. Truth be known, there's still more I'd like to do with it, especially landscaping around the patio and hot tub, and maybe Ulrich and I will venture into that someday in the future. Regardless, the place still looks great, and I hope Ulrich is enjoying it. (Ulrich is easily distracted ;) and has been occupying his SL time with setting up his own rental properties - they look great, too, and there's been mention of me landscaping those properties. In the meantime, check Ulrich's profile Picks tab in-world if you're looking for a cute rental house!)

The house is another great prefab from Barnesworth Anubis. The villa style doesn't necessarily 'go with' the alpine hillside, but who cares. It's a cool house. :)

We'll start with the entry. The bookshelf is from the Loft3 -- one of my favorites, of course. The planter in the corner was made by me, and I filled it with some gorgeous lillies from Heart Garden Centre -- another one of my favorites. The Rocky poster was Ulrich's, and the one item that he insisted remain in the house. No objections from me - I love Rocky! - so I made it a focal point. The Alabama posters are more creations of mine -- Ulrich is an Alabama boy. :) The rug is from Del Sol, an awesome shopping experience, and one that I should highlight soon. As you come through the front door and turn to your left, you see the awesome spiral staircase, and we set up a basic entrance. If Ulrich received SL mail, I imagine he'd place it on this table.

We kept the living room simple with a basic, tailored set from Ramos Designs. Ulrich had previously procured the candles and placed them in the fireplace, for which he received 10 decorating points. :) The rug is from Van's Home & Garden, and the mirror is from The Old Curiosity Shop. The Monkees poster is another surprise creation/gift from me to Ulrich. We both <3 the Monkees.

At the top of the stairs, we have a small seating area. The chaise is another piece from the Ramos Designs living room set, and the dresser goes with the bedroom set, which is also from The Loft3. Both pieces of wall art are from The Loft3, as well. The rug is from Del Sol.

Finally, we have what Ulrich deemed the Love Nook. I'm not sure if capitalization is appropriate, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. :) The seating is from Neva Naughty (heh heh), the white rug and the candles are from Ramos Designs. The pictures in the corner are more creations of mine, just for Ulrich's house.

Check out these designers in SL:

Ramos Designs, Del Sol, The Loft3, Neva Naughty, Heart Garden Centre