SL for Nowt – Page 3 – Living a digital life with (almost!) empty pockets

A full Bento head for just L$150? Don’t mind if I do!

June 10, 2018 Mar

Hi peeps!

This is something you need to reeeeeally get your skates on for, because the offer is only available until 15th June 2018. Akeruka have put out their full Maia Bento head as a free group gift. Since the group itself costs just L$150 to join, you get the flippin’ stupendous bargain of a Bento head for that piffling cost. There’s no complaining about something as generous as that!

UPDATE: This offer is now over.

You’ll need to join the [AK] Heads News & Support group (paste that link into chat and click it – you’ll be asked to pay L$150 to join). Then, with the group tag active, head to the Akeruka store (Be warned: it’s crowded and a bit laggy!) and cam inside the female heads store. On the New Release wall – right in front of the main entrance – you’ll see the Maia head in the middle of three displays. There are two smaller servers (little boxes) under the main vendor, in case that vendor is lagging. You can use any of them to get the head.

You will need to right-click the vendor (or the server boxes) and select ‘pay’. Pay the vendor L$1 (it will be refunded to you immediately) and then wait to receive your head. Depending on how laggy the region is, that may take a minute or so. While you’re there, you can pick up the L$99 Akeruka Omega relay, so you can use Omega skins on your new Bento head!

This is an incredibly generous gift. Not only do you get a fully-functional Bento head, but you also get a myriad of other stuff with it. Perhaps the best one is a full set of body appliers (you’ll need to unbox those) in all of Akeruka’s skintones, for Maitreya, Slink, Belleza, and Omega. So you can match your mesh body to the gift head right out of the box! You also get lots of various HUDs (I’ll post a few quick screencaps of just some of them at the end of this post) including a teeth HUD where you can change from normal teeth to vampire teeth, buck teeth, gapped teeth, etc, and add all kinds of braces and gems.

Mar has teamed this lovely head with some gifties and cheapies from Sn@tch. The dress is part of a standard sizing set in 8 colours, that are just L$35 in the cheapie/freebie section, just to the right of the main entrance. The stockings are completely FREE (same area of the store) and come with Omega and Slink applier HUDs, as well as system layers. The hair is part of the current big ‘Fish for This’ outfit at Sn@tch. And, lastly, the shoes are from a L$20 set of three (for Maitreya, Slink, and Belleza) from Preferred Boutique, available here on Marketplace.

And, boys? You’re not left out, either! Join the Akeruka group in readiness, because the male gift Bento head will be released on 16th June 2018!

Finally, here are some random screenshots, taken from the main head HUD, the animations HUD, and the teeth HUD.

TMP freebie style sample post

March 4, 2018 Mar

Hi peeps!

This post is just a brief one showing just some of the free items available for The Mesh Project female bodies, which I blogged about yesterday. Mar picked up the female deluxe head and body, a skin, some brows, and some eyes, and then a buttload (!) of clothing and accessories. Rather than list everything here, I’m just going to post a few pics to give you an idea of what’s available. There’s tons more in the TMP boutique, and these clothes will fit both the full L$500 bodies as well as the free bodies that – until fairly recently – were also available (although the freebie body can only go up to the high heel height; the ‘ouch!’ height shoes won’t work on the freebie body).

So here we go with the pics!

Hop behind the cut for the rest!

…

Get your Oscars glam on, as TMP goes freebie!

March 3, 2018 Mar

Mesh body parts required for all items
Zero-spend look (unless you’re buying the heads and bodies)

Hi peeps!

Well the big news around the grid this week is the HUGE sale at The Mesh Project. Back in November last year I blogged about how to get hold of the freebie TMP bodies. These have now been withdrawn from sale and instead TMP are offering their full deluxe male and female bodies for L$500 each and their deluxe non-Bento heads (they don’t yet have any Bento heads) for L$500.

However, if you did pick up the freebie bodies the big news is that ALL of the clothing, footwear, and other accessories in the TMP Boutique are now absolutely free! So Mar’s alt decided to get some Oscars glam on after a humungous shopping trip that lasted almost two hours (and which was, frankly, rather exasperating and exhausting, thanks to the shopping HUD system there). But hey, free clothes and shoes, and they are gorgeous!

Strawberry Singh has a great blog post up with more details about both the sale on bodies and heads and the free clothing. I highly recommend watching her video, here, where she shows you how to use the shopping HUD and Style Mode HUD.

As the above image states, there is a caveat emptor, or ‘buyer beware’. This sale is only temporary, and while there are one or two rumours that TMP are going to be bringing out new Bento heads and bodies, there are even more (and bigger) rumours that this sale might be coming prior to a switch-off of the external servers that are required to run the whole Style Mode system, which is crucial for changing your clothes and skins, adjusting your heel heights and hand poses, etc. As many others are saying, I don’t recommend buying the TMP body and head as your main body and head. Fewer and fewer creators are making for it these days, but if you don’t change your clothing all that often, and/or you just want to kit out an alt in all-mesh on the cheap, then by all means head to The Shops and pick up the free clothing for the freebie body and/or the sale heads and bodies.

The sale is on at The Shops right now, but there is no indication of how long it’ll last for.

Stayin’ Alive with 70s glam from Spyralle at The Free Dove!

February 10, 2018 Mar

No mesh body parts required. This one’s for system avatars!
Absolutely free!

Hi peeps!

I’m feeling the 70s glam today with this fab red sparkly jumpsuit from Spyralle, which can be found at The Free Dove this month as part of the February Hunt there.

You need to join the Free Dove group and have your group tag active while you click on the hunt items. More info about the Spyralle gifts and the other two stores participating in the February hunt can be found by clicking the hunt kiosk on your left when you land at The Free Dove. For this Spyralle hunt you’re looking for teeny little green gift boxes with purple bows.

And, since we’re going full 70s here, we need some big floofy hair, which I found in the shape of this big fatpack of mesh hair by Sentinus, also at Free Dove on the wall dedicated to free hair. It comes with a 20-colour-change HUD containing lots of naturals and some pretty pastels:

Lastly, the makeup is from a big freebie pack from Alaska Metropolitan, here on Marketplace.

The skin is from the default Kimberley avatar and the eyes are from the default Iliana avatar, both of which can be found in your inventory’s Library section, under Clothing > Initial Outfits. The shoes are also from the Iliana avatar :)

Inventory-management: Oh no! It’s time to… ARCHIVE!

February 4, 2018 Mar

Hi peeps!

Mar might look a bit unhappy in the above pic, but she actually feels pretty darned accomplished. Yesterday her inventory weighed in at about 70,000. Today it’s just shy of 62,000, after a multi-hour archiving spree of old system avatar items.

You see, Mar is one of SL’s packrats who has an eye for history. She turned 10 last week, and she still has stuff in her inventory from way back in 2008. Being something of a sentimentalist as well as someone who baulks at throwing away something that’s an intrinsic part of Mar’s history, I knew this would be a ‘pack it all up in boxes’ job, rather than a ‘delete all the things!’ job. But I knew that boxing everything up into individual outfits and whatnot would be a daunting task: something that – with no end in sight – would stop me from even starting!

So I decided to work by store, in the cases where I had tons of things from certain stores. And where it was just a bundle of random old clothing from lots of stores, I gave myself a little shake, got realistic about the question “C’mon, will you ever actually wear that again?!” (answer: hell no!), and started up a series of ‘old clothing’ boxes. Once I had 10 of them (never putting more than 200-ish items in a single box) I took them into inventory and put all 10 into another box (‘old clothing 1-10’) and started on box 11. (Yes, I know that I will never unpack or look inside those boxes again, but this is my way of dealing with the emotional attachment I have to those items!)

Over the years Mar has picked up thousands of things, some better than others. On odd occasions I kept a random pair of earrings that still looked good, but in the main it all went into boxes. I’ve still got a long way to go yet, but my goal is to reduce Mar’s inventory to just recent items – mesh and appliers – since she no longer wears her system body. I now have an alt account that will be dedicated to picking up system-only stuff for blogging, and I’m carefully curating all of that alt’s stuff already: keeping one colour of something to wear and archiving the rest, etc.

So here is your challenge, if you’re looking at your inventory and thinking “I really need to get that sorted” –

If you’ve moved to a mesh body and head consider when you last wore system stuff. Not for months? Then archive or throw away all of that old system stuff!
If you’re still a system (or part-system) kinda person, start digging through your inventory for that old stuff, for the unworn sizes (if you don’t have a mesh body or head and the unworn stuff contains appliers or mesh body fits, box those up; you might ‘go mesh’ yet, and you can then unpack those things!), for the duplicates, for the hunt prizes from five years ago that you never unpacked (I mean really; are they going to be that good?!).

Don’t forget the other good inventory habits, such as:

Ooh La La! Fish up some Valentine sauciness at Sn@tch!

February 3, 2018 Mar

Mesh body parts required for some items, but not all
Minimal spend look (initial purchase of fishing rod required for most items)

Hi peeps!

Well ooh la la! It’s time to fish up a new outfit at Sn@tch, and this time it features some super-cute dresses, super-tousled bedroom hair, and super-hot sheer lingerie, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Yowza!

The I Want It, Real Love outfit set is the new ‘Fish for this’ set at the Sn@tch mainstore. I blogged some info on how to get your fishing rod set up, here, so once you have that head to Sn@tch, plunk your butt on a chair, and get fishin’!

The set comprises: Omega applier and system layer lingerie in four colours (white, pink, lilac, and red); mesh skirts in the same colours (fits for Slink Physique & Hourglass, Maitreya, Belleza Freya, Isis, and Venus, TMP, Tonic Curvy & Fine, Ebody, plus Standard Sizing); Omega applier and system layer garter stockings; two dresses (one light: pink and white, and one dark: red and black) in fits for Slink Physique & Hourglass, Maitreya, Belleza Freya, Isis, and Venus, plus Standard Sizing; three hairstyles in platinum, auburn, and black; Omega applier and system tattoo layer lipstick (hot pink and red); and a pink heart choker. Phew, that’s a lot of stuff!

Mar’s 10L$ heels by AC Shoes can be found here on Marketplace.

Mar’s wearing the auburn hair here, and the red lipstick from the set, plus an awesome glittery freebie eyeshadow tester from Alaskametro on Marketplace. (Links to Catwa, Lelutka, and system tattoo layer options are here.)

This is the darker of the two dresses:

And here’s the ad image from Sn@tch, showing most of the items:

In the pink with 7 Deadly Skins & Legendaire!

February 3, 2018 Mar

This one’s a mixture of mesh and non-mesh avatars. Read on!
Minimal-spend look!

Hi peeps!

Some fantastic news for those of you who have just picked up a new mesh head and/or body and want to get some great skins for it. 7 Deadly Skins is approaching its 5th anniversary, and designer Izara Zuta has a ton of treats in store!

First up, the group join fee has been reduced to just 50L$ for almost a whole year! So grab your alts and saddle up to join the 7 Deadly Skins group, because gifts are generous, events are plentiful, and this is a group well worth joining! Even if you’ve not yet hopped onto the mesh head-n-body bandwagon, there will be system skins and shapes as well, so this is one you want to be in!

Before we get into the makeup, this is the first week’s offer for the ladies: the Becky skin. This comes in four skintones (apricot, caramel – which Mar is wearing here – oak, and walnut) and includes Omega appliers for both head and body. It also includes versions both with and without brows, in case you want to apply your own preferred brows. If you want to use this on your mesh head and body, they need to be either Omega-compatible out of the box, or you’ll need to pick up the relevant Omega relays for them. (For example: if you have a Catwa head and a Slink body, like Mar does, you’ll need the Omega relays for Catwa and Slink.)

In this gift you also get a modifiable shape (not shown here), and a brow-shaper. Here’s a shot of the bare-faced skin, before Mar slaps on the lippy!

Guys, you’re not left out either! Here’s the first week’s gift for you. The Dio skin includes Omega face appliers in caramel, clay, steam, and taupe with options for facial hair (the normal versions have a light five o’clock shadow, and the B1 versions have facial hair as shown in the smaller inset pic below), plus Omega body appliers with (V2) and without (V1) body hair. There’s also a Signature body applier for the taupe version.

Now onto the other goodies! Legendaire have a new group gift out: this gorgeous Cora texture-change maxi dress! It comes with fits for Slink (Physique only), Belleza, and Maitreya, plus Standard Sizing. It also includes a pair of heels (not worn here).

The Legendaire group is just 49L to join, and soooo worth it. There’s a ton of group gifts available, some of which I’ve blogged before. This dress, though, is gorgeous: sexy enough for a night out and bright enough to wear to a tropical party night at a hot beach location in-world! There are four possible textures to use, including a stunning yellow one that I almost used for these piccies.

The scarf, hair, and jewellery are part of a 29L (yes, I goofed again on the pic text above; what is it with me and fumbly-fingers lately?!) offer just outside the door at Legendaire: the Donatella set. This comprises hair with a 10-colour HUD (all the natural shades you could want, from blonde through to black), a texture-change scarf with 10 pattern and 10 solid colour options and multiple colours for the gems etc, the earrings and bangles (I did size down the earrings by about 40% – they rez absolutely huge and Mar doesn’t wear enormous hoop earrings). There are also two clutch bags with different holds and a 10-colour-change HUD.

The eyeshadow is this gorgeous Bali free tester from Alaskametro on the Marketplace. (That link takes you to the Catwa applier, but this link will take you to the search for Bali which also includes options for a Lelutka applier and a system tattoo layer.) Alaska has lots of free wearable testers available there, so check them out!

Lastly, here’s a screenshot of the notecard from 7 Deadly Skins, which details all of the offers. Remember to check every week for the new gift skins!

Happy anniversary, Izara, and thank you for all the gifts!

Other items

Body: Slink Physique
Head: Catwa Catya
Nails: OEC Slink Clawz (not available anymore, sorry!)
Eyes: Avi-Glam (Christmas gift, probably also not available anymore)

ETA: I couldn’t resist it! I had to show the yellow dress, too!

Freebie quickie: Eyeshadows, eyes, and jewellery gifts at Musa!

January 14, 2018 Mar

Works for both mesh bodies and classic avatars
No-spend look (absolutely free!)

Hi peeps!

Another post from me today, to give a quick heads-up of some great little makeup, eye, and jewellery freebies at Musa! This link will take you upstairs at the store and, if you look on the wall by the stairs, you’ll see some lovely eyeshadows. Under the main images the word ‘tester’ is in mesh letters. Click that, and you get a wearable freebie single-colour sample of that eyeshadow!

The ones with ‘demo’ underneath them have ‘demo’ written somewhere on the face, but the ‘tester’ ones are fully wearable. As a bonus, they include not only Omega appliers (which will work on any mesh head, with the correct Omega relay) but also tattoo layer makeup for classic avatars!

Then, if you turn to the left, you’ll find more testers, this time for two pairs of eyes. As before, click the word ‘tester’ and – as before – you’ll get applier and system eye versions in a single colour :)

Finally, cam downstairs to find the Subscribe-o-matic kiosk. If you join up (it’s free and doesn’t take up a group slot) you’ll get a gorgeous eyeshadow palette in 8 colours (Omega appliers and tattoo layers) plus some earrings with a massive 16-colour customisable HUD plus 5 metal options!

Other credits

Hair: Group gift at Argrace
Eyes: Group gift at Avi-Glam
Lipstick: Freebie at Shiny Stuffs