Charity is a great thing

Here is an interesting letter to read about charity organizing in SL and how it affects the designers. I think designers should be considered more in general, so much of SL runs around money and frankly players are often quite rude in demanding freebies without paying for anything at the store. And event organizing can be quite an ordeal, but the organizers should still consider what the designers and store owners might need in terms on realistic real world money management and the right to be paid for your hard work. The letter is written by the designer and owner of Raw House, and anyone with experience in building knows how detailed and difficult work hair making is.

I admit that I often prefer the 100% donation items at charity events, but now that I think of the costs the designer and store owner has taking part in the event, I will be more considerate and pay for their work as well. I do pay for more than 90% of the products I review in my blog (rest is sent by designers). Still, charity events have been my blind spot in this case.

This is an interesting conversation to have and an important one. Charity is a great thing. And I love posting about charity events and products related to charities. However there should be realistic rules between the organizer and the entrepreneur and the money transfer process should be monitored more openly. Maybe SL should have an impartial charity system that saw through money transfers and approved the rules of events?

Gowns rock!

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this place yet. It has been one of my favorites for a long time: Kastle Rock couture (SLurl)

(Notice hunt signs left)

Freebies, and free for newcomers!

MM board and 60l weekends close by.

Their hunt gifts are of great quality

And to the best part:

Gowns! Perfect for events and weddings.

Gorgeous colors!

They are great quality to wear

There's a lot more to see.

Weekend bargain bazaar and the mall outside.

Kastle Rock is hosting a grid wide Bourbon street hunt (Website) right now.

Truth or dare?

Left Alana, right Adela, front Charis

Adela:

Truth (SLurl) Tilda Bangs Sandlewood

Beatnik (SLurl) Bow shirt gray

Baby Monkey (SLurl) Rosie flats

Ivalde/L'Abel (SLurl) Dinahani Gray pants, Under 30 days avatar package

Rockberry (SLurl) Antique corset, red, Happy holidays gift

Rockberry Kalista dark POE3 hunt item

Eyes2C (SLurl) Angel 24 Dark green eyes

Charis:

Damselfly hair salon (SLurl) Felicity, blonde dusky blend, free gift

Marinoco fashion, new location (SLurl) (Website) Long purple skirt with a hipscarf

Baby monkey (SLurl) Salome boots

Delicious designs (SLurl) Rasberry bikini top with white mesh, lucky board

Loq (SLurl) Chinese love earrings

Mood / Trouble talks (SLurl) T2 choker, free gift

Pinkinnik (SLurl) Yoko, new years group gift

Estyle (SLurl) Emerald eyebrows

Dulce secrets (SLurl) Dream eye 24, freebies 4 newbies

Alana:

Bubblez design (SLurl) Dana Outfit, new release, 75L, limited time

Maitreya (SLurl) Group Gift Pumps

Maverick design (SLurl ) Karma Ivory Natural skin

JD Design (SLurl) Black bracelet, free gift for women

Actchio (Slurl) Ladyskulls tattoo (unisex)

Elikatira (SLurl) (Website) Say, free hair fatpack

Before Sleep (SLurl) Grandpa Charlie Texture Pack Two

Moxee designs (SLurl) Cafe Chair

barbee (SLurl) (Website) Antique Small table 10l

Couverture (SLurl) Flower Cussion, yellow

Kis Kis (SLurl) Light Leafshade Lamp

Cheap Cheap (SLurl) Truth II game, box

Soapizm

izm Mainstore (SLurl) has a newbie gift for less than 30 days olds. I also found cheapies, a freebie and lucky boards.

Soap is right next door (it is a Soap sim). It has lucky boards as well, and quite a few gatchas.

Both stores have awesome clothes and accessories, and gifts. Go take a look!

Sunny sim

I found the Sunny sim while visiting one of it's stores, Hoot (Slurl). Hoot I found because they are taking part in the EaHH (SLurl) event and have an item for The seasons hunt.

Their Fly Away Light for the 50 linden Fridays is lovely. Anyone taking pictures on SL loves the creativity of Hoot's pose prop Birdhouse Perch! Can you find a silly blogger in this picture?

Bingo (SLurl) has droolably cute dresses! They also make nice poses and have a gatcha machine. Don't forget the freebie and dollarbie by the door! I love how the first thing you see when you come in from the snowy cold are the comfy looking cardigans!

I remember seeing some pictures of this skybox by Elate (SLurl) in someone's blog. It's just so well made and pretty!

They also have a darker version of the skybox. Relaxing.

I appreciate the way they have used a phantom prim in the demo entrances and exits in a simple yet stylish way.

Other house demo's by Elate around the sim as well.

The Elate mainstore (SLurl) showcases more of their beautiful furniture. The petal lamps are just a must have and I love the paper cranes.

On your way to meet the Frosty family, you can move by a rowing boat around the sim. Elate mainstore has some great looking clothes in their fashion department.

This is the café I mentioned, when I posted about the amazing art of Ling Serenity (Website).

The building is gorgeous and the decorating just breath taking. I could sip my hot chocolate here any afternoon. The café is by Elate as well.

Decoy (SLurl) sells really nice looking clothes. If you look at the picture closely, you can see a certain blogger transfixed by all the beautiful colors in their jeans. I also noticed this store has great fat pack offers.

Elate fashion outlet (SLurl) has a fashion addict jump for joy. The dresses in the middle, for example, are just 40 lindens!

How about all these freebies then? And the newbie kit for those of you who are under 30 days old!

The checkered Kaylee dress has colors sweeter than candy. And don't forget the lucky chair!

I found a friendly figure while I was looking at the gorgeous green house.

Newbie, meet vintage

Ivalde vintage fashion (SLurl) has a newbie kit for those of you, who are less than 30 days old on SL.

As you can see, there is also a lucky chair at the store.

While visiting the store, my friend won this dress and was kind enough to let me take a picture for the blog. The pose used for the picture at the store was fittingly called "blogger female".

The dress is called: Anka grey dress

Rest of the outfit details:

Skin: Rockberry (SLurl) Megan Dark tan, lucky board price
Eyebrows: Estyle (SLurl) Emerald eyebrows
Hair: Raw House (SLurl) Tijana Hair
Eyes: Dulce Secrets (SLurl) Dream eyes
Ribbon: Ambrosia (SLurl) Black strawberry dress

Friendly, Free and Fabulous

Charisma Designs (SLurl) has lucky boards, Mini-Manias and a MM-board. Found myself at their store while doing the Fashion Freaks hunt (website). Their awesome Freebie room has lovely items. Among them an outfit for newbies younger than 30 days, some items for the Fabfree group (website) members and several freebies for everyone. Go take a look!

Next door there is a store called GBA - Gestures by Amy (SLurl). They are very generous to newbies, offering the Freebies for Newbies gift voucher at their store. Click the sign for more info.

They also have MM-boards, lucky chairs, a camp chair, a ? game etc. Their freebie table offers some nice items. They also take part in several hunts.

Special hello to Nikki, their very friendly and understanding manager. (I clicked something by accident and made a mess and she helped me quickly and was polite and nice about it too). Thanks!

I love Mohawks

So I found the project New Beginners Support Items I posted about, when I saw an awesome picture by Tamara Lowenhar in her blog post "Jodi – aDiva News, news & news" here, where she was using one of the mohawks from the project. All this free hair is available at Black Maria (SLurl). I also took a look around the store while I was there and joined their group. Awesome group gift! And they have two lucky boards. They take part in charity events, always a huge plus, and have some great products, take a look!

New Beginners Support Items

This is interesting: a design project called "New Beginners Support Items", a joint collaboration with HAZ Starship (hsh) and Mao Melody (RibboN).
Understanding how SL is different for beginners, who run around the grid looking for freebies before they themselves are able to design, the pair decided to make items that would benefit the beginners younger than 200 days.

"The project grew and now, we have many wonderful stores that are joining this project.
During a period of one month, from September 19 to October 19, stores mentioned below will be offering wonderful free items", they say in their notecard.

"We are hoping to be able to help the new SL users to enjoy SL as much as possible.
Please bring your friends and have fun!"

List of stores:

:: hsh :: (skin & eyes ) (SLurl)
*RibboN* (apparel) (SLurl)
Black Maria さん (hair) (SLurl)
*chronokit* さん (accessory & apparel) (SLurl)
"R.A.Crystal" さん (accessory) (SLurl)
*Boshe* さん (shape & tattoo) hsh (SLurl) Main (SLurl)
Halcali さん (apparel) hsh (SLurl) Main (SLurl)
o*mさん (apparel) (SLurl)
*Farouche* さん (eyes) (SLurl)
maomi*G* さん (gesture) (SLurl)
::: Cher!sh ::: さん (apparel)(SLurl)
BABELさん (hair) (SLurl)
.::CUTIE KNIFE::. さん (apparel) (SLurl)
*mana-na*さん (pose) (SLurl)
nas:pさん (gesture) (SLurl)
..:.::Tonocco::.:.. さん (scripted gadgets) (SLurl)

I will be visiting these stores and shall post about some of them. You should visit them too. Enjoy!

Indie rose

Reminding everyone that Project Donate for UNICEF (SLurl) is still open, it closes after 19th of September. Please go if you have not been. 

Here's one of the stores taking part in the charity event.

Indie rose (Slurl) has many really beautiful items.

Bargains, gifts, lucky chair, dollarbies, freebies, full newbie kit for less than 30 days olds.


Oh and while at the store, I noticed some lamps they used as decorations. They were really cute and so I checked their object profile. They are from What next.

Lesson in fashion

Quality skin, shape, hair, eyes, poses, AO are essential finds on SL.

Amacci (SLurl) is a huge store spread out in several buildings, full of hairs, eyes, skin and shapes, poses & AO, and jewelry. They offer a couple of free gifts for everyone and a newbie gift for those who are younger than 14 days. Great store to look around in, when you want to know what avatars can look like.

You need clothes too of course. On SL anyone can find their own style.

For the fans of haute couture, Mimi's choice (SLurl) offers a great collection of fashion from several designer stores. Scattered among the displays you'll find gifts, freebies, dollarbies and a bargain booth. They also have a store for men with gifts and a bargain booth.

Click images for a closer look.