SL for Nowt – Page 6 – Living a digital life with (almost!) empty pockets

Today’s look comes courtesy of the plethora of free group gifts at Gizza. And when I say ‘plethora’ I really mean it! There’s a huge area at Gizza’s landing point, dedicated to free gifts both for men and women. Everything from formal wear to high couture, to everyday stuff.

Firstly, you’ll need to be a member of the Gizza VIP group (it’s free-to-join). Copy this link and paste it into local chat in Second Life, then click the link that pops up in chat history. It will take you to the group page, where you can join. Make sure you have your group tag active before you start clicking the gifts! Ladies, make sure to take your menfolk with you, because they’ll find some great free stuff there, too!

Here, Mar is wearing the November 2016 group gift for women, which is a cutie-pie pink top with floofy cuffs and a flared short grey plaid skirt:

The skirt section comes in fits for Belleza Freya, Isis, and Venus, Maitreya Lara, and Slink Physique and Hourglass, as well as standard sizing. The top comes in a clothing layer, as well as an all-in-one applier for Slink, Belleza, and Maitreya.

Her shoes are from the (still-ongoing) L$15-per-item Halloween hunt at Ricielli. You’ll find them in pumpkin #20. They are fitted for Slink High, Belleza, Maitreya, and TMP, and they come in four colours: blood, midnight, potion, and pumpkin.

Mar’s hair is ‘Save the Queen’ from Rezology at The Free DoveÂ (it’s also available for L$1 here on Marketplace). You’ll get a single style with a ‘naturals’ colour HUD. Her makeup is the freebie ‘Party All Night/Indifference’ eyeshadow from Mock Cosmetics at the Free*Style location (you’ll need to take the teleporter up to the second floor to find it!)

I’ve not included the earrings in the full cost of this look, because you can’t really see them too well under the hair. I’ll feature them separately in a different post, but for reference here, they’re group gifts from Swallow. That group costs L$30 to join (group link) and there are several lovely gifts on the wall. (The store also has a L$99 room, which is out of the main financial remit of this blog, but contains some absolutely gorgeous stuff, if you want to splurge a teeny bit more!)Â These ‘Deco’ group gift earrings have a colour-change HUD for both the metals and the fabric strips.

(In case you’re wondering what Mar’s skin is, that’s also by Swallow! I was teleporting around the latest Skin Addiction event and discovered Swallow’s beautiful skins that way. Since the event gives you 50% off, I picked up some demos and went back for this lovely ‘Roberta’ skin. Not cheap or free, I’m afraid – although it was only L$350 in the event – but one good skin with a set of appliers is all I need for the blog!)

Magenta divine: gorgeous glam at The Free Dove

November 28, 2016 Mar

Hi, peeps!

Have you been to The Free Dove lately? If not, then it’s time you hopped in that limo-link, because there’s some fabby new things out. The Free Dove has always been one of the places I’ve sent newbies to, and while it’s sadly lacking in quantity of content for male avatars (the poor guys always seem to get short shrift when it comes to good freebies anywhere) it still has a few gems for the menfolk. But I’m here to show you one of the female items, and it’s this simplyÂ gorge frock by Purplemoon!

It comes in standard sizing, so you don’t need a mesh body to wear it (although Mar’s wearing it with her Slink Physique body, after a bit of clicking through the alpha-hiding HUD for the body). The included gloves come with a standard glove clothing layer and an Omega applier for the mesh body peeps.

The jewellery is one of two sets available at The Free Dove, by Lazuri. I love this to bits! It’s so elegant and classy, and it’s massively customisable. Just click each item to choose from lots of different gem, metal, and pearl colours. The pack includes earrings, a necklace, and two bracelets.

Mar’s hair is also from The Free Dove. I did say there was a lot of fabby stuff there now, didn’t I?! This pretty up-do is by Rezology (and they also have another style available, which I’ll show in another post). You get a HUD for several different colours (although do be warned that there’s a bit of subtle glow to the hair, which shows more with the lighter blondes, but it still looks gorgeous!)

Mar is wearing the pretty Star Bliss nail appliers (for Slink/Omega and Maitreya; Omega will work on Belleza mesh bodies) from LIVIA. They’re available for L$10 on Marketplace, and come with several pink and lilac mixed options.

The finishing touch is the makeup. Mar picked up these eyeshadows in a previous Ricielli treasure hunt for just L$15, but they’re now available on Marketplace for L$50 for seven shades. I love these, as they’re so striking and they really make your eyes look sparkly! So, while L$50 might be a bit of a high price for this blog to recommend for some eyeshadows, I think it’s worth it :)

BOO!

November 26, 2016 Mar

*taps blog*

Is this thing still on? It is? Oh, good!

HI, PEEPS!Â

I can’t promise that I’m back for good, but let’s see how things go, shall we? This will be a little bit of an adminny sort of post to begin with, but I have some bargains for you, too.

First up: When I logged on and saw how much my weekly stipend had added up to, I realised that Mar could afford a mesh body bit or two. So that’s one positive change around here: I can blog about cheapies (and freebies, although I think those might be a bit thinner on the ground!) that are specifically fitted for mesh bodies and mesh body parts, as well as non-mesh body stuff. That also means (wheee!) nail appliers, of which there’s a plethora of cheap-n-free options out there on Ye Olde Marketplace.

The financial focus of the blog will therefore shift a wee bit. I’ll try to stick as much to the old ethos of a L$75 maximum spend, but when it comes to things like skins with appliers and whatnot, I’ll probably do some special posts with a L$500 limit (or something thereabouts; I’ll feel it out as I go along).

The mesh bodies and body parts that Mar now has and will be blogging things for are:

Slink Physique Body
Maitreya Lara Body
Slink hands
Slink feet (flat, mid, and high – and I may get the kitten feet at some point, but those will do for now)

OK, so with that out of the way, onto the bargainage! I’m going to yoink you back into Halloween mode, because Ricielli’s Halloween Hunt items are still out in the store, and there are some scrummy bits to be found there. Here’s the look Mar put together for a paltry L$30 total:

The blouse and skirt are together in pumpkin #13 (which costs L$15) and only come in the colours shown. The heels are in pumpkin #8 (which also costs L$15) and those come in blood, midnight, potion, and pumpkin colours. The fit options are as follows (lordy, this bit’s going to be a tedious addition to the blog, I can tell!) –

Blouse & Skirt

Belleza Freya and Isis
Slink Physique and Hourglass
Maitreya Lara

Heels

Slink
Belleza
Maitreya
TMP

Here’s your limo to Ricielli. Make it snappy, because I don’t know how much longer those pumpkins will be out for!

Oh, and here’s Ricielli’s image for all the hunt items. Each one costs L$15:

Handsome enough (aka: Mr Darcy, you suck!)

September 7, 2013 Mar

Hi, peeps!

I’ve been AWOL, I know. I’m really sorry about that, but RL is seriously kicking my butt of late. I wandered past the blog last night and realised I hadn’t posted sinceÂ May. Eek! So here’s another wee post to tide you over. I hope I can get more time to get back to blogging soon.

I felt like going old-fashioned again, so I found this lovely little Regency-style dress by Duquesa on Marketplace:

Hop behind the cut for more pics and info!

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Boogie on down with Humanoid

May 10, 2013 Mar

Pity my poor neighbours IRL, because I’ve got the new Daft Punk single blasting through my stereo speakers and Mar’s dancing like a maniac in her skybox ;)

There’s a fab dollarbie dance out at Humanoid: the Kevin 31 street dance. It’s unisex and just one measly Linden Dollar. What are you waiting for?!

Hop behind the cut for your limo and a guide where exactly to find it on the Humanoid sim!

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Help a much-loved kitty get well, and get a lovely skin and/or fun tattoo while you’re at it

May 3, 2013 Mar

Hi peeps :)

I don’t normally blog about this kind of thing, but this story touched my heart. I’ve had beloved pets fall terribly ill in the past, and I’ve struggled to meet veterinary bills for their treatment, and I’m sure that some of you have experienced that, too. Pets aren’t ‘just’ cats/dogs/birds etc; they become much-loved members of our families.

Voshie Paine of La Petite Morte is now going through the same thing with her cat, Alli, and she’s placed out a special version of her Wixson skin priced at L$100, and a fun kitty face tattoo priced at just L$10, to try and raise some money to help cover Alli’s vet bills. You can find the items here.

If you can’t afford the skin (or even the tattoo) there’s a tip jar beside them (the little bluebird). Even a couple of L$ will help (you remember Grandma telling you to look after the pennies and the pounds/dollars will take care of themselves, right?).

I’ll paste Voshie’s touching notecard after the cut. Voshie, I hope this blog brings poor Alli’s plight to a slightly wider audience, and helps you both out. Love, Mar <3

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Quick freebie fix (guys’ edition!) – Male footwear lucky chairs at Baby Monkey

April 28, 2013 Mar

Guys! There are three lucky chairs in the Mens’ Section at Baby Monkey. At the moment, they contain a great pair of brown boots, some olive-tasseled loafers, and some awesome flame-patterned sneakers. Just hang around at this location, and when the first letter of your name comes up (your username – the one you log in with – not your display name!), jump on and win!

The bird is about to die: a post for Phoenix users

April 27, 2013 Mar

Hi peeps :)

This post is aimed specifically at people who use the Phoenix Viewer to access Second Life. If you haven’t heard yet, then I’m afraid that the beloved blazing bird is about to stop working.

I don’t mean that the Phoenix Firestorm developer team have stopped updating the viewer (that news came a while ago, and you probably already know about it); I mean that – very soon – Linden Lab will be deploying new code to the main Second Life Grid, and that code will finally break the Phoenix Viewer (and other viewers that haven’t been updated to work with that code).

The code is called Server-Side Baking, and it’s a fix for a lot of long-term issues in-world. In very basic terms, what it will do is move the responsibility of ‘baking’Â textures onto the server and away from the viewer. This should fix a lot of rezzing issues, not least:

– Ruthing (rezzing wierdly, with ‘grown’ hair and boobs – even on the guys!)
– Rezzing as a cloud or egg and not being able to edit appearance
– You seeing yourself just fine while others see you naked

It’ll be fixing a lot of other issues as well, but those are the big avatar-related ones. But what it means is this: all viewers (both the official one and TPVs – Third Party Viewers) – have to update and include a lot of code in order to work with Server-Side Baking (SSB, for future ease-of-typing!).

So, what happens if you’re still using a viewer that hasn’t been updated when SSB goes live?

Hop behind the cut to find out. And, Phoenix users, this post is primarily aimed at you (I was one of you, once, and clung on for aaaages!) so you really should hop behind the cut. I have a pleasant surprise waiting for you behind there! ;)

NOTE: This is an image-heavy post. Open it, then go make a cup of tea while it loads!

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Mar’s Mutterings: A brief lesson in land

April 21, 2013 Mar

Apologies for the preponderance of ‘mutterings’ posts of late. Hopefully, this will be the last annoyance I have to put up with for a while. *sigh*

A brief lesson in land

1. Just because a parcel has ‘anyone can build’ switched on, that doesn’t mean you SHOULD build on it. If it’s not marked as a sandbox, check with the owner first.

2. If a parcel is set for sale, you have to BUY IT before you can build on it.

3. If you have not RENTED or BOUGHT a parcel, and it’s NOT A SANDBOX, then DON’T BUILD ON IT.

This post brought to you by an irate Mar, who just found two avatars – fashion bloggers, both – with an entire bloody STORE and several pose studios rezzed high up above her land. And no, I didn’t set the land so anyone can build. I own two parcels that are divided by a teeny, thin strip of abandoned land (which I don’t quite have enough tier to cover, hence I can’t buy it). Both parcels, upon purchase, were set to: Build and Object Entry = Group Only, and Run Scripts = Anyone and Group (because some AOs don’t work if scripts aren’t enabled on land). I have a two-minute return time set on the main plot, since that’s where I have my store and I like to let people unpack things, and sort their inventory on the chairs up there.

Here’s the map of Endicott:

See the tiny thin yellow strip of land on the right? That’s actually a 512m abandoned parcel that’s about 2m wide. I own the plot beneath it and I also own the plot above it, where you can see two green dots (those two avatars, on their platform). I’ve highlighted my land in pink.

SOMEHOW (God alone knows how) both of my parcels’s permissions changed, and I don’t know when this happened. They became: Build, Object Entry, Run Scripts = Anyone.

The only other people in my land group are my own alts, and Mar is the only one who has full land permissions; the others are only in the group so they can Set Home and build/unpack boxes. Something screwy has happened here, maybe during a server upgrade or something, because I know that’s not what I set the parcels to.

Regardless, in short:

There is no such thing as ‘free land’ in Second Life. Every plot of land is paid for by someone. Yes, sometimes they allow others to build on their land, but usually that land is clearly described as a Sandbox or something similar. Both of my plots are described thus:

Mar’s place: Home of the Del Mar Store. Homes, useful stuff, freebies, photo studio, newbie help :)
https://www.sl4nowt.com/

So tell me, how is that an invitation to build your stuff wherever you please? These weren’t exactly newbies, either: one was 1245 days old (over three years) and the other was 704 days old (almost two years).

They seemed to assume that, since the tiny strip of land was for sale, they could build there. And around it. On a 30m platform.

Without actually BUYING the land.

And, when I started returning stuff, they were yelling, “NOOOO!” at me.

Sorry, ladies. I’m not paying Â£40 per month for you to have 200 or so prims rezzed out. This may be a harsh lesson in land ownership, but it’s one that some people clearly need to learn.