The Echo vendor should be working properly now, for the record.

I'm feeling the urge to make sunglasses. Will it be a disaster on par with my hair and shoe making attempts? Only time will tell!

I'm also working on a vendor system to sell, based on my own. (People keep wanting to buy mine...) The urge to add more bells and whistles is fighting with the desire to keep the lag down (I've already had to chop the main script into three pieces, it's so long) and sheer laziness. More features means more testing, in an attempt to idiot proof things as much as possible.

I've also discovered a small flaw with my current vendors, which I'm in the process of fixing in the vendors in my new build. For the next week, you probably shouldn't hack the SL client so that you can pay more than the asking price for my items. (I know you were all rushing to do that.)

This week's release from is Echo, an empire waisted gown that comes in seventeen different colors. It's entirely hand painted -- no photosourcing, and no texture baking software -- and includes the top, a flexi skirt, and glitch pants. An exclusive version in my store colors is available to members of my update group (Miriel's Latest).

It can be bought singly (L$300) or as a collection of all colors (L$850), and comes in both copy/modify/no transfer and no copy/modify/transfer versions.

I don't know if it's clear from all my posts or not, but... I'm done! With redoing the blog template, my remodel is basically done. All I have to do now is wait a week, then move the new store down and get rid of the old one. (I also have to finish my landscaping, but I can't do much on that front right now, as I'm not sure exactly how the new store is going to sit, and I've nearly run out of prims.)

And here are some pictures of my little island way on the sim corner. I'm really pleased with it, even if it does prove that I really don't know the meaning of the words "too much."





I love my wishing well. It gets dark a little too quickly for me, but I didn't really have much choice in that. (Besides, it's a wishing well! If a magic well can't get dark faster, what can?)

I also put some sound in, because it's just a pretty little area outside of the store. I know some people don't like sound, but I really think that in this case, it enhances the environment. I'm using the Country Ambiance system from SmartSounds (which, unfortunately, doesn't seem to have an in world store), and I highly recommend it. You can set the volume and how often it plays sounds, and it's not repetitive -- I'm fairly certain it doesn't use a sound loop at all. And it plays different sounds at night! I'm not sure what on earth the "unique Spatializer technology" mentioned on the product pages is, though, and I wish the prim could be modified. I'm not normally short on prims and I just hid the thing in an oak tree, but it'd be nice to be able to stuff the sounds and script into an object I'm already using, or at least turn the prim transparent.

Behold, my craptactular layout!

At least it matches.

Fair warning: the blog is going to be a total mess for the next few days as I try to get a handle on the template. My standards have lowered significantly; now I'm just going to try to make something that's in my store colors.

Oh, and if you've got the time and a reasonably good computer, you might want to check out the far northwest corner of Nouveau. I'm just sayin'.

Seriously, what gives? I used to be able to do HTML! And now I'm trying to redo this blog template and it's a total mess and nothing is ever ending up where it should. I've even ditched trying to master CSS and gone back to HTML tables, and things still aren't working. My table's second row ended up on top of its first! Gah! All the tutorials I'm reading make it look so easy. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Oh yes, and Ben Vanguard of slmen.com asked me to add him to my blogroll. Ben, if you're reading this, I will, once I get my blogroll back. I hadn't realized this template didn't have one.

Oh, and I've just discovered that the ends of my bigger pictures are now being clipped by this template and all the other ones I'm looking at. I should have stuck with the pink.

Wow, my traffic broke 1,000 for the first time, and then some: 1,964 yesterday. Hooray for sales!

(And I have to start sending out my FashCon notices later in the day, I think.)

In this entry: this week's release, a sale, and a call for models.

This week's release is another set of hand painted eyes, all with smaller irises for a more realistic look. They're available singly or as a collection of all four eyes, and are sold in both copy/mod/no transfer and no copy/mod/transfer versions.



The sale: not everything is coming with me when I change builds, since they don't meet my standards anymore. Some things are being discontinued, and others are being cut down. All of these are 50% off, and marked with signs saying so. The sale will last for two weeks, and after that, the store will switch.

For the interested, here's a list of what's going:

Flora: the prim pieces are being removed, and the rest will be sold at a lower price.
Queen of Heaven Gown: going away entirely.
Queen of Heaven Jewelry: the tiara is staying and will be sold at a lower price; the earrings are going.
Dancer: going away entirely.
Fairy Tale Gown: will no longer be sold at my main store location.

And now for models: my new store will have a live modeling stand. Models will be asked to join a group, and to wear items they've been given. In return, they get free stuff, selected to look good on their avatar, and a small amount of payment for actually modeling. (The stand is essentially a useful camping chair.)

People interested in modeling should toss me a notecard containing snapshots of their avatar, including one full body shot and one face shot. I'm interested in avatars with realistic appearances, and people should either have or be willing to adopt a classy, conservative look. (I've got nothing against tattoos and unnatural hair, but they just don't fit in with the look of my store.)

I continue to make progress on the new build. I've got the poses done, I think I've got all the ad snapshots I need taken (for the moment, anyway), I've got one whole wall covered in ivy, I've started struggling with CSS to redo the blog layout...

For those of you not entirely clear what I mean when I say I'm putting ivy on the exterior of my build, let me give you a picture:



That's one side wall. I still have to do the other side wall, and the back.

Oh, and I know what I'm going to do as a Relay for Life item. I've been productive today! Now to figure out how to get my hands on one of those vendors.

Also: Laurelin? Is it possible there is another jewelry designer as nerdy as I am?

A preview of what's coming, this week or sometime after:



I'm a bit worried that somebody else has a similar dress out -- it's not like RL dresses like this one don't exist -- but I think I should be okay.

On the store building front, I've accomplished the following things:

1. Built the planter and paved areas around the entire store.
2. Finished the ivy on the store front, and started on the ivy on the side. This is painfully dull.
3. Put up signs with my policies and such.
4. Finished one more ad, and taken a few pictures.
5. Gotten all of my vendors up.
6. Redone all (but one) of my vendor pictures, so that "Choose your permissions" now explains which permissions you can choose. Some of the pictures are a bit cramped now, but better that than vague.

What I still have to do:

1. One or two more ads.
2. Poses.
3. That last vendor image.
4. The rest of the ivy. Bleah.
5. The blog.
6. Oh, yes, and pack up the old store.

Things I still have to do for the new store. Yes, I know, none of you care.

1. Shoot one new product photo.
2. Make Medallion demos.
3. Put up six more vendors.
4. Make ten (or so) more poses. Bleah. Poses are tedious.
5. Make two or three more ad pictures. I've already got two done; I want a supply that I can use for classified ads.
6. Make various signs.
7. Put up ivy on building. Double bleah.
8. Edit this blog template to look more appropriate. Stupid pink.

Medallion is a prim necklace, inspired by Medieval and Renaissance jewelry. (Or Medieval and Renaissance jewelry I saw on a quick Google search, at any rate.)

It comes in three metals (gold, black, and silver) and nine different gemstone colors. Each box comes with two versions of the necklace: one with the gemstone of your choice with diamonds (like what the model's wearing), and one with just that gem. (The diamond version of the necklace, meanwhile, comes in an all diamond version and one that's diamond and jet.) All the gem textures are entirely hand painted.

It's sold singly or in collections of all gold, black, or silver pieces. Choose your permissions: you can buy both copy/mod/no transfer and no copy/mod/transfer versions.


(Skin: Rose Au Naturelle in Rosy, by Tete a Pied; hair: Refined in Chestnut, by ETD; lashes: Thick, by Lynnix's Lashes; dress: Solstice in Burgundy, by RFyre)

That skin is was absolutely perfect for that picture.

Bauble II is a set of prim earrings with color changing beads. It comes in three metals (gold, black, and silver), and the beads are hand painted and can be turned to thirteen colors.

It's sold singly or as a set of all three metals, and comes in both copy/mod/no transfer and no copy/mod/transfer versions.

(In the picture: skin by Gala Skins, shirt by Iki, hair by ETD, eyes by me.)

My earlier lag problem seems to have fixed itself: I checked the build later, and the numbers made more sense. Just to be on the safe side (and because it was overly busy), I did remove an elaborate stained glass window from the back wall.

I think things will be ready to open in two to three weeks: I have to package everything up into boxes all over again, and get demos ready, not to mention making about a dozen more poses and some signs.

Anyway, I come bearing pictures, because I have no patience.


The main room. The little stand you can see at the back will be my live modeling stand, assuming Roslin and CJ don't demand my blood. Those doorways lead off to the different departments the store will have.


One of the departments, partly full. The vendors need some tweaking, now that I look at them. Kindly ignore the lone posing stand.


The front exterior, during the day. Fun fact: the window texture is only 64 x 128 pixels. Try not to look too closely at it when the store's open.


The store exterior at night. I'm unduly proud of the way the windows look from the outside, as well as how welcoming and bright the store looks.

I'm also unduly proud of how well the shadows in the interior look, something that doesn't entirely come across in the pictures. The inside is entirely full bright, and all the shadows were either drawn onto the textures, tinted onto the prim face, or (in a few cases) the result of a shadow prim.

The one thing that concerns me about the design is the faint whiff of the '70s that clings to it, but I'm hoping that covering the exterior with ivy will drown out any "crappy mall decorated in harvest gold" vibes the building may send off.

I've basically finished making the build that was going to be my new store.

I say "was" because it's giving me a lower fps than my current store: 17-25, on my scary machine. I'm really pretty distressed about this: I thought I had a faster design -- not really speedy, but significantly better than my 1000+ prim build. And I spent weeks on this build. I don't know what I'm going to do now.

This doesn't even make sense. The new store uses 150 fewer prims, the KTris drawn numbers are about 90 lower, and this build isn't full of vendors. :(