Easing into autumn

Easing into autumn

Thanks to some fabby gifts on the grid right now, Mar’s slowly easing into autumnal colours.

First up is SF Design‘s gorgeous instore freebie for September: the Burgundy Leather Biker Pants. Male and female versions are available, so look in the relevant store!

Next up is the new freebie group gift skin from Al Vulo: London Piccadilly Circus (milk). If you’re not already a group member, paste this link into open chat and click on it to bring up the group-join window (the group’s free to join). Then, teleport to the Al Vulo store (it’s a good idea to be flying before you teleport, because the landing spot gets busy!) and – while wearing your group tag – click the ad on the back wall of the little wooden shack there.

Mar’s teamed these freebies with another from the Sn@tch Bargain Pit: the Way 80s Dress in cocoa. Follow the red arrow down into the pit and it should take you to the right place. I’ve put a screenshot of the exact location behind the cut.

Lastly, is Hoc Industries‘ latest release: the colour-change Platform Pumps. While not free, these are a great investment, as you get a ton of colour options (even more if you wear your HoC Industries group tag before wearing the HUD).

Hop behind the cut for more info on the items, where exactly to find that Sn@tch dress, and how Mar got her hair the perfect colour for this look!

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Hints & Tips: Adding a bit of character with different hairbases

Hints & Tips: Adding a bit of character with different hairbases

One of the things about leading a freebie or cheapie life in SL is that, when a great new free/cheap skin becomes available and is blogged all over the place, you see a lot of people wearing that skin. And while it’s not as bad as turning up to a party where two other people are wearing the same dress as you, when a skin is quite distinctive and you’ve fallen in love with it and it’s just so you that you want to keep wearing it, it can be rather mortifying to find yourself looking at clones of you all over the grid!

The shape that you wear goes some way toward making that skin look different on you than it does on other avatars with different shapes, but there is a handy little trick that you can use to give yourself just a bit more individuality, and that is to try on different hairbases. Take a look at these pictures of Mar:

In each of those pictures Mar is wearing the same skin and hair, and no extra makeup. Yet she looks different in every one. Why? Well, in each picture she’s wearing a different hairbase.

If you’ve read this (or any other tutorials blog) you might know by now that hairbases get rid of the horrible default ‘grown’ hair (the stuff that looks like it’s erupting from your head like something you should go to see the doctor about!) so that it doesn’t poke through any prim hair that you’re wearing. But did you know that hairbases can also shape your eyebrows?

Most skin and hair creators include their own hairbases in with their wares, so if you’ve been trotting around the grid for a while you’ve probably acquired quite a few of them, and yet it’s something that many of us don’t think to change much. We were ‘born’ wearing a decent hairbase (at least, those of us who signed up after the old, original ‘grown hair’ avatars were phased out) and since it’s not an obvious thing to change, in the way that skins, prim hair, and clothing are, we don’t bother to try on different ones.

If you’re wearing a skin that a lot of other people are wearing, though, different hairbases can make quite a difference when teamed with unusual hairstyles and layered makeup; to the point where you can make the skin look totally unique! It’s worth having a go with different hairbases, just to see if you can give your avatar a bit of individuality and character. What’s more, if you don’t already have one you like you can even make your own hairbase!

There are, though, two things in Second Life that you will find called ‘hairbase’. Hop behind the cut for a guide to the difference between them and a quick tutorial for making your own.

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A no-newbie look for nuffink!

A no-newbie look for nuffink!

Want to get rid of those newbie looks, fast and on the cheap? Here’s a great, casual no-newbie look that costs you absolutely nothing. All you’ll need is a bit of time and patience.

Note: This post is written for newbies, so it’s a lot more detailed than my usual outfit posts. Oldbies, you can still get this stuff, too!

Hop behind the cut to find out how to get it :)

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Skybox, sweet skybox

Skybox, sweet skybox

I have two bargainous skyboxes for you this weekend. The first is a permanent freebie from Domicile: the Norfolk Skybox. It’s a 10m x 20m skybox in soothing pastel colours and it’s 17 prims. You actually get two skyboxes in the pack: a plain one and one with spotted end walls.

Here’s the plain one:

Hop behind the cut for a pic of the other one, and for a limited-time (this weekend only!) gorgeous night-time skybox from A:S:S :)

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Tutorial: Make your own pose HUD

Tutorial: Make your own pose HUD

Have you ever wished you could adjust prim items on your avatar on-the-fly, but you can’t seem to grab hold of them to do so? (I know that some third party viewers have a great ‘edit’ option direct from inventory, but other viewers don’t have that.) Invariably, it’s in a place that doesn’t allow rezzing, so you end up having to teleport home where you have your pose stand rezzed, or you teleport to a sandbox so you can rez a stand.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could go into the classic ‘star jump’ adjustment pose without all that hassle? Well you can, and to that end here’s a little illustrated tutorial showing you how to make your own wearable Pose HUD.

Hop behind the cut!

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Admin: A note about mesh clothing (and why I won’t be blogging it yet)

Admin: A note about mesh clothing (and why I won’t be blogging it yet)

Now that mesh has been rolled out across the grid, we’re starting to see some designers making good use of it. Jane has released mesh clothing, Pixeldolls has released mesh jewellery, and mesh will become more and more prevalent across Second Life.

BUT… until mesh is supported by the majority of viewers then I probably won’t be blogging it here (for exceptions, see the end of this post). The latest official Linden Lab viewers support it, but the vast majority of TPVs (third party viewers) such as Phoenix, Imprudence, etc currently do not, and these TPVs are used by a great many residents in SL.

What does this mean for those wearing mesh? Well, a large portion of the grid will not see your lovely mesh dress. What they will see is this:

Or something along those lines. It may be a squished sphere like that, or it may be a big cube.

Mesh is still in its infancy, and for those of you that don’t know, it’s non-modifiable by the end-user. That is: if you buy a mesh dress and the alpha layers don’t quite fit you and the dress is too small or too big… there’s nothing you can do. If you start searching online you’ll begin to see some blogposts about this. One that I came across yesterday was here, at Crybaby. You can see the benefits of mesh (heck, we’ve all been waiting for skirts that our legs don’t poke through when we sit down or dance, right?) but scroll down for some of the pitfalls.

There is a JIRA requesting the ability to modify mesh in-world. To read more on that and to vote, click here and log in using your avatar name (it’s an official Linden Lab site, so it’s perfectly safe) – CTS-693: Request for Rigged Mesh Parametric Deformer. (UPDATE: This JIRA is no longer viewable, because it’s been moved to be actioned by Linden Lab, so hopefully we should see some ability to resize mesh items soon!)

Exceptions
If an outright mesh bargain is available, then I may blog it, but since I’m not using a viewer that’s currently mesh-enabled I won’t be able to model it for you. Thus, my pics will be of the item’s ad board, and I will ensure that the post states the item will only rez properly to those using a mesh-enabled viewer.

Late summer poppies

Late summer poppies

Ladies, the new group gift from Kunglers is a lovely one. Paste this link into chat and click on it to bring up the group join window. Kunglers’ group costs L$50 to join, but you get a great free outfit every month. I know I always look forward to seeing what it is!

This month there is a pretty dress and ring set in group notices. The dress has a sculpted skirt and comes with a prim belt as well. The ring is a gorgeous red flower. Mar’s teamed the whole outfit with the L$30 Chunky Stilettos 2 from HoC Industries (colour-change, so they’ll match just about anything!), the free Ellie hair (shown here: the chocolate shade from the fatpack that you get) from Tameless Hair @ Savoir Hair, and the pretty Silver Heart Pendant, free from Virtual Impressions at the Vanity Hair mall.

Mar’s skin is the current group gift at Al Vulo. Paste this link into chat and click it to bring up the group join window (it’s free to join) then teleport over to the Al Vulo store. The nilpez – orange kauai skin is in the little wooden shack that you’ll land in front of. Simply click the image at the back while you have your group tag enabled.

Also included in the look are the Sexy Girl Red prim nails from Love Soul.

Script Count
All together, this outfit has a script count of 60 scripts, which can be reduced to 49 if you remove the scripts in the hair and belt (once you’ve re-sized them to fit you). If you don’t wear the ring then the script count goes down to just 21, so it’s a lovely low-script look. Read more here about script counts and why they’re important.

 

A little bit of landscaping

A little bit of landscaping

Today Mar logged in and decided to spruce up the Newbie Haven a wee bit. She dug out her old landscaping kit and the hedge-making kit, and set down some hedges for a bit of privacy (also to shield the house from the worst of the fuglies outside. While there isn’t too much, and Phoenix’s de-render option lets me get rid of the worst of it, I think it’s nice to have hedges around a house). She also put down a tree, some planters of cheerful pansies, and an adorable little birdbox with birds.

Hop behind the cut for a couple more pics! :)

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You would have laughed, too ;)

You would have laughed, too ;)

So there Mar was, whizzing around the Sn@tch sale, when a giant penguin av started bumping around the nearby doorway… and then promptly started humping her O.o

I’ve changed his name, to protect his… er… feathers? *grins*

Mar: Nice. Haven’t had a shag in a while!
Mar: Cheers, mate! ;)
Mr Penguin: :D
Mar: Penguin suit’s especially nice.
Mr Penguin: you soo hot tho
Mar blows kisses. And you’re… kinda cute
Mar: For a pengie
Mr Penguin: :D
Mar: Thanks for the giggle <3
Mr Penguin: i can be human too :p
Mr Penguin: lol
Mr Penguin: np
Mar: Now lemme go shop! :p
Mr Penguin: ok
Mr Penguin: have fun
Mar: You too!

Weekend mashup!

Weekend mashup!

I love mixing and matching clothes. A skirt from here, a top from there. Just because you’ve bought an outfit that doesn’t mean you must wear the whole thing at the same time. Take the belt and put it with something else. Try the top from that gown with a pair of jeans!

Today’s look comprises a couple of great sale items/cheap offers, with two bits of freebies. First up, ladies and gents, get yourselves to Aitui, where all of the old hairstyles are on sale at L$25 per colour. These will soon be retired, so it’s your last chance to grab some great hair. (Please note: the hairbases and the new styles in the very centre of the store are not on sale; only the stuff on the outer walls is L$25 each.)

Mar’s second bargain is the gorgeous shoes from Adam n Eve. On taking a teleport over to check out their Moody Mondays item (gorgeous, sexy lingerie, and it’s out early today in the middle of the store for L$55; offer ends Monday night) she also discovered that there was a shoe sale on. After digging in her pockets for a great pair of shoes, she then spotted these ones set out on a table in the shoe section, for just L$10!

Lastly, two freebie bargains. The skirt is from the three-pack of dresses by Elate at The Free Dove, and the top is from the pack of items by Bingo at FabFree. Phew!

Hop behind the cut for a closeup of the shoes :)

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