Elle Crescendo of Designer Prims is a talented designer whose modern buildings have an open airy feel, and she also does cute furnishings. I was very sad to see that she is closing down, and everything on her sim is on sale for a few days (so go now!). This includes the mesh house that I loved so, featured in a previous post. The location of Designer prims is http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dreamy%20Isle/210/153/25

After a little unplanned, but good, hiatus, I’m excited to be back blogging some home decor. The steady stream of awesome stuff didn’t abate while I was gone, and I know I will not be able to make up the time I lost — so I’m just going to jump back in where I am! And where I was today was a fantastic new event called “We Love Role-Play”. You can read more about their whole event on their blog.

I don’t really do roleplay much these days, tho’ I have in a former life. I was always terribly impressed by some of the really skilled creators that contributed to the visual story through a detailed and realistic role-play environment. Many of these creators were known in role-play circles, but often not heard from outside of that. That is why I was so excited to see this new monthly event! You’re in for some very fun treats. And even if you don’t role-play, there are many pieces that you can enjoy in your own day-to-day environments, whatever those might be!

Now let me tell you a little bit about this amazing herbalist’s worktable from Aisling, available at the event at a discounted price. First off — it is just darn beautiful! The detail is wonderful, and beautifully textured. Some of the things that you can’t really see in the picture are the incense wafting into the air, the candle flame flickering, and the steam coming out of the little hanging pot. You really should see it in-world for yourself to appreciate how nicely-crafted it is. But it doesn’t stop there! The whole things weighs in at an economical 7 LI. It is resizable. It is texture-changeable with 14 different wood textures to choose from. You can turn the shadow off or on. You can hide the shelf or show it. The scripting is designed to be low-lag, but you can also delete the script entirely if desired from the handy-dandy HUD that manages all of the options. I’m seriously impressed with the flexibility in this lovely piece of furniture. You’ve probably seen other pictures of it, many of them in traditional woodland or medieval style. I decided to try to style it up a little differently with a white-colored wood, and some modern accessories, and I think it worked pretty well!

Aisling is a new store, and they have a fairly small inventory right now. But I’m definitely going to keep my eye on them, and expect to see a lot more fun stuff! I snapped a few more pics at the shop earlier, and put them below. (I believe the deer head is also available at the Event for a discount.) Click on thru for larger pics

Herbalist’s Worktable: Aisling [at We Love Role-Play]
Floor Lamp: Trompe Loeil
Bowls: Teawood and Lisp
Chair & Screen: Apple Fall
Cat: KittyCats
Rug: Wayward Muse
Prefab: RageWorks

Yet more cherry blossom viewing… I love this time of year! The Hanami Furniture Set from Fuubutsu-Dou is available at Genre this month for only 100 Linden. It consists of a little mound with stone steps, bench, parasol, stool and various plants (including a cherry blossom tree). Very cute! It would work particularly well placed on sloping ground. I added: Cherry trees by Alirium Gardens (the large one at the back) and by Forest Floor; Friendship Bear (free on Marketplace) by Damien Fate. Green tea cups from the Hanami Tea Set by Nonino, and Sakura lantern by Nonino. Picnic tin by What Next.

My other new purchase (from the Fantasy Faire, but you can get it on marketplace) was the Lantern walkwayway by The Looking Glass. It consists of two bare trees, each with a persian rug hung on it, and three jewel lanterns strung between the trees. As well as the trees and lantern from the previous picture, you can also see fields of bluebells by Frog’s garden.

This is the downstairs part of the Scarlet Apple windmill tower. The Charlotte sofa (new at collabor88), record player, green print on the wall and records on the floor (they are also seats) are by LISP. The hanging chair is by Pilot and the record shelf beside the sofa is from Ponitee. The hanging plant is from Frog’s garden and the hanging lantern from What Next. Unsurprisingly, the tower has slightly sloping walls, and is octagonal, so it was a while before I worked out how to fit in the sofa. At the back of it (not seen) is the ladder up to the top room, and behind THAT is the front door. It is a little bit tricky negotiating your way up the ladder, but it is still a cute feature.

This picture shows the view through the heart-shaped cut on the front door, and the rest are views of the upstairs room. The heart lights are from MMG’s (think they were free at Christmas). The flowery chair is by Trompe L’oeil (new at collabor88) and the wooden Chair de Lune is by Floorplan. The forget-me-nots in a pot are on Marketplace, by Ya’s Dream Creations. The skateboarding shelf (under the window) is from L and K in the new shop at Kitten’s Dream; I got the the texture for the rugs from Limehouse . There is a clothes rail from bbq, and on it some free display “Clothes for yur closet” from Awram Viie. The shelf behind it is new from Ribbon (who mostly does clothes). The lifelike rabbit is from HPMD, the fishing cat by Kari and the odd rabbit from Luxus. The round picture is by Balderdash, no longer available.

So this is a view through a window info the back room of the Scarlet Apple windmill, on sale at Collabor88. There are some very cute features including these porthole windows and cut-outs on the doors (which I will show in my next post). The furnishings include rugs by Aju and (nearer to us) Melino Style; chair by Zigana, plank bench by Urbanized (no longer available); wood box by What Next; fireplace and pictures by Designer Prims, part of a house I blogged a little while back.

In this picture you can see the pretty table with lace cloth and the tin jug of baby’s breath from Spargel and Shine: this costs 10 Linden as part of the Antiques grid show (on til 21 April). The dish of pinecones is from Dreamscapes. There are big windows on both sides in this room, so I can enjoy the good views I have over the water.

Finally in this post, I look up to that back room from the downstairs part of the tower. This picture shows the intriguing angles and slopes in the building. The Weathered mirror is from Zigana and the potted ivy from the Loft.

I’ve always been fascinated by windmills, when I was young my friend and I had a (for us) adventurous tour of Sussex windmills, trying to draw them. So it was a no-brainer when I saw the Scarlet Apple windmill at this month’s collabor88. The mill fitted nicely on mmy piece of mainland land that has Linden protected water on 2 sides. I added a striped canopy from an itutu building , but I didn’t do any modding except for turning one of the tower walls into a wood finish. To be honest I only meant to do the inside, but although I “selected face” before changing the texture, it turned out the face was both sides (and I hadn’t checked). The sweeps of the windmill are static, by the way (unless I missed something). But, anyway, I really like it.

The plants etc. are from various designers: rocks and lily pad from Heart, pampas and bullrushes from Kidd, red ivy and bluebells from Frogs Garden, some aster from Organica, hanging ivy from Zinnia’s and cherry and alder trees from Forest Floor. The big tree is nocc and no longer available. I was a bit lazy and kept some of the outside furniture from previous posts: I love the those quilts-on-a-line from Infinitude in particular.

I will show the inside in another post: if you want to visit (there wasn’t a link to a windmill demo, at Collabor88, when I was there), it’s at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noyo/27/56/22. I’ve run out of prims, so at the moment the cute upstairs room has just got a couple of chairs, a rabbit, a music box and a picture.

As Collabor88 is winding down it’s March cycle, I want to be sure to show you this amazing treehouse from Trompe Loeil. Ever since my first days in Second Life, when I stumbled across the magical creations of Julia Hathor, I’ve dreamed of living in a treehouse! I didn’t have a place for one back then, but times have changed, and homes have changed — and Cory Edo’s offering at Collabor88 this month is definitely enough to get me back into a tree! I’m not sure pictures can really do it justice — the texturing is just so amazing, and the space is very livable. The tree foilage is color-change — I’m showing the teal version in this picture. Be sure to go check it out before this cycle closes! (P.S. The hanging bed is also available from Trompe Loeil at Collabor88, and is just the place to hang out on a spring day.)

The Arcade Gacha event is almost over! The adorable bears pictured here, by Sway’s, are just some of the amazing offerings available this cycle.
For more information about the event, visit their official website.

I just stumbled across +9 which is at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/miu%20island/186/176/1952, a little Japanese shop with some cute items, many of them free. I have been lazy and photographed them in the shop (but it is a very pretty shop!). Of the free items, I particularly like the glazed vases and there is some nice free food. If you join the group there are some interesting items of the Lucky Board, including the cushions on the floor below. Of the other things in the photo below, I know that the kotatsu (low covered table) is by MMGs and the house is by POST.

Cherry blossom is starting to spread across SL, and there is no shortage of places to buy trees and accessories. For large impressive specimen trees I go with the wild cherry from Heart Garden Centre, which is here in SL. You can see the sweeping lower branches and trunk in the last photo in this post and there is a copy at the landing point in the Heart sim. You can also get Heart things on Marketplace, but one advantage of going inworld is that some of the items which are sold online in multipacks, can be bought individually if you click on a display tree, plant, rock etc. A favourite if I want a forest of cherry trees is Forest Floor: in the fatpack you get three styles, which are season-change and resizable: you can see one most clearly in the picture with a chaise, below. Also in the final picture is a pale pink petal-emitting tree from the Shop “gura-ya” in EDO JAPAN KITAMACHI. If you are shopping around for trees, don’t forget to search on “sakura” (Japanese for cherry blossom) as well as “Cherry blossom”.

Turning to the picture above, the stool (free) and Sakura lantern (not free, money goes to Japanese Red Cross) are both by Nonino, at Swayland. The cherry blossom petal ground cover is 30 Linden from Virtual Gardening (note: transfer only). The mossy rocks and the green leafy tree are part of a freebie pack from Hayabusa (by Mitsuko Kytori) free accessories box at marketplace here. I think I might buy one of Hayabusa’s copiable trees, as the foliage effect is really good (as you can see) The Deco Rug is by POST.

Another freebie from Nonino (link as above) is the Sakura pot set (tea cups, cherry blossom in pot, mochi on plate). Zacca’s freebie (same location as Nonino) is the Sakura bark and flower in an oblong pot (on the floor). The Sakura teapot by Harima-ya, Kokedama moss ball with flowers free on Marketplace from Tsunami Creations; Lace table (pink version, but with the wood tinted brown)from JPK. The Toro Nagashi (small Floating Lantern) is from Hanaya and the (rotating) giant cherry blossom candle with leaves, floating on the water is from *RnB*.

“Hanami” is the Japanese name for cherry blossom viewing. Sway’s hanami chaise and screen are on marketplace here https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Sways-Chaise-Screen-Hanami/3440864; the lace canopy is a real favourite, from Picnic, you can buy it on Marketplace. It’s copy and modifiable and I’ve used it a lot. The string of Amalfi Lights is from What Next. Other items as before.

Finally, below is a view of the cherry blossom trees lining the river banks.