Starting on Tuesday, July 2 and going through Monday, July 9, ten free limited edition versions of a necklace and earrings set called Beatrice will be hidden on Miriel's plot in Nouveau (Nouveau 115, 205). They'll be put out at random times, and an announcement will be sent to the Miriel's Latest group after each release.

The limited editions will come in four color combinations, called Moon, Sun, Stars, and Empyrean. Four copies of Moon will be release, three of Sun, two of Stars, and one of Empyrean. Here's what they all look like:

The boxes these will be set out in are tiny (0.03 meters x 0.03 meters) and will be scattered all across the plot, so look carefully! However, all boxes will be placed either on the ground or on top of something that rests on it, and boxes will not be hidden in such a way that you have to pan through other objects in order to see them (e.g., totally inside another object, hidden between a vendor and the wall, etc.). Please pick up your box after you make a purchase. The boxes look like this:

Regular versions of the jewelry -- set with more typical gemstones like rubies and amethyst -- will be on sale starting Tuesday, July 2. They're priced at L$350 for a single color combination and L$1000 for a collection of all gold, silver, or black pieces. For comparison, here's a picture:

(Fashion bloggers: feel free to use these images!)

This week's release from Miriel is a necklace and earrings set called Cross Your Heart. It comes with color changing glass beads and is available in four metal colors. Because it's part of the Miriel Everyday line of affordable, casual items, it's only L$30 for a single color of metal or L$80 for all four. Sold in both copy/modify/no transfer and no copy/modify/transfer versions. Working demos are available for all colors.

Get it at my store at Nouveau 115, 205.

SL apparently ate a number of the prim skirt textures for Echo. I'm not quite sure how many yet, since I haven't gone through all the colors; it's at least three, though.

To be honest, I'm relieved that for once I'm having a problem with my clothing textures that isn't my fault. Still, I'm not looking forward to spending tonight putting together (and sending out) replacements.

I haven't been feeling well lately, so I haven't gotten any more work done on the vendor. I'm hoping tomorrow or Monday I'll be well enough to resume work on it.

I'm planning a promotion for the week after next. I'll have more information in a few days. I'm pretty excited about it, and hope it gets me some extra attention.

I've been having sim cravings lately. (Just as unhealthy as chocolate cravings, and a lot more expensive.) I don't need one -- it'd be kind of a bad business decision, actually -- and I'm not going to just up and leave Nouveau. The chances of me actually getting one right now are zero, so you don't have to worry about that -- nonetheless, oh dear lord, do I ever want one.

Don't say I've never done anything for you. ;)

I've redone all my eyes: they still come in the smaller, more realistic size that they always have, but they're now also available in the larger standard size. Demos are available for both sizes. Eyes are L$50 for a single pair or L$125 for a collection of four pairs, and are available in both copy/modify/no transfer and no copy/modify/transfer versions.

I've also released a new eye collection, the Spectrum Collection, four eyes with rich color combinations.

Get them at my store at Nouveau 115, 205.

I got the Elaine revision done and all passed out. Phew. All the larger eyes are also done. I do still need to do my costume for Siyu's ball on Tuesday, though.

I'm still working on the vendor script. I've been slow about the gift card script: it's kind of complicated, and it's been a lot for me to mentally juggle. As I work on it more my memory of what it's supposed to be doing when improves, though, so things are getting easier.

I snuck around Romenna when nobody was around and took some pictures. Here, have a looksie. (Click for bigger images.)


A street. My shop is just out of the frame, on the left. There's a tunnel running under the street, too, but I don't have a picture of that because, let's face it: images of hollow cubes are kind of dull.


Look, Art Nouveau! I'm not sure if this is one of Tolkien's actual drawings or not. It could also be an image from the movies. (I also know exactly what it's an image of, but let's not dwell too much on my nerdery.)


Square, over in the nice part of town.


View into Romenna 2, the northern sim. This is where the rich people live, it appears.


I just liked how this one came out.


Looking east. This isn't the Windlight client; all those clouds are on a prim. (There's a weird gap in them at the far eastern edge, not in the picture; I dunno what's up with that.) Though Windlight renders it obsolete, it's a really nice touch (oh, how I hate the regular SL clouds). But the best part is....


The layout. I always get lost when I go exploring. Now, granted, I could get lost in a hallway with exit signs, but still.

There's also a tunnel system under the city, and a strange globe that could be a map of the world in one area. (I hope it's not a map of the world, since the world wasn't actually round at the time the game is taking place.)

This week's release from Miriel is Find Your Way, a necklace with a compass rose pendant that's inlaid with mother of pearl. It comes in three metals (gold, black, and silver) and eight mother of pearl shades, and is full of little prim details. Sold singly or in collections of all eight gold, silver, and black pieces. Choose between no copy/modify/transfer and copy/modify/no transfer. Demos are available.

The necklace is from the Miriel Everyday line of affordable items, so it's only L$25 for a single and L$65 for a collection.

Get it at my store at Nouveau 115, 205.

Still considering gift card security. I think the system I've got is pretty good. It's crackable, but that involves hopping to just the right channel at just the right time and breaking multiple algorithms (not particularly sophisticated algorithms, but still), so I just don't think that someone is going to put in the effort.

A question to those of you that are content creators: if you've got a vendor that keeps records of who bought what and when, how many records do you think it should be able to keep, max? I'm running into some potential memory problems with the record keeping, and I want to know how hard I should try to get around them.

Oh, and I have a Romenna shop! It's an RP-only sim, which makes me a teensy bit wary (I think I'm expected to furnish the room above the shop as a home*, for instance) and it's kind of expensive, but pfft. It's a stunningly laid out sim and I'm happy to be in it. (I should post some pictures at some point.) I do need to be redoing some of my boxes, product pictures, and demos, though, since it is an RP-only area. A part of me is running around and screaming about this, though, since I already have to finish the vendor and redo Elaine and do my donated piece for the Jewelry Expo auction and finish the Expo build.

Speaking of the build, though, it's coming along nicely. I've got the floor texture done, and now just need to get a handle on the walls. The worst part is rezzing the thing; it covers nearly an entire sim, so it takes a few tries before I manage to bring it out and bits of it don't go offworld, and the no build sections of the public sandboxes usually eat away a chunk or two.

* Okay, a home for my alt, who I've decided to use to RP with there. I don't know if I'll like it or not, but I figured it was worth a try.

I actually did some work on the vendor script today. It needs more testing -- including a test to see how fast it gets overloaded -- but it currently seems to be working. It now allows more than one person to buy from it at once, which required a major change in the script's internal structure. This isn't to say that it can handle an infinite number of simultaneous orders: scripts are only allowed so much memory, and it will overload and crash if it goes over that. I suspect I'm going to be looking at an upper limit of around 10 orders at once, give or take, which should be more than enough for everything but limited editions from extremely popular designers. And the vendor doesn't support limited editions anyway, so nyah. (Though now that I think about it, that might be something to add...)

I've also been wracking my brain to figure out how to add a gift card system, but I keep coming up short. It's not that it's so hard to have an attachment keep track of money and communicate with a vendor. That's easy. The trouble is making it secure, so that people don't spoof cards to get free stuff or spoof vendors to grief. The only truly secure method of communication is object to object email, and that comes with a 20 second delay each time it's used, and I'd have to send a couple. Which might be fine, were it not for the prospect of multiple people with gift cards trying to use them at the same time. I don't want things getting clogged up.

On the sculptie front, I've been trying half-assedly. Blender has taken to adding flat sections to my sculpties. The crisp edges of them are impressive but unwanted.

I've been having a desire to make a sort of... arty catalogue. Something that people can pick up, that features fancy pictures and lets you buy the items in them. I probably shouldn't, but, but...

In other news, the big eyes are coming out the week after this one, and the Elaine revision is coming along nicely so far (I've fixed the laces in the back, and now need to get to work on the neckline). And yes, everyone who's bought a copy of the dress will get a copy of the revised one.

Oh, and I've heard that Romenna will be taking merchants. The degree to which I hope this is true is simply not healthy.

This week's release from Miriel is Elaine, a Medieval inspired gown with metallic embroidery. It's entirely hand painted -- no photosourcing, no 3D baking software -- and comes in thirteen colors (the pastels work great as wedding party attire). Each copy comes with a version with gold embroidery and a version with silver embroidery.

Sold both singly and in a collection of all thirteen colors. Also sold in both copy/modify/no transfer and no copy/modify/transfer versions.

Demos are available for every single color.

Get it at my store at Nouveau 115, 205.







(And I'm already freaking out about that uneven neckline. Bleah. It looks terrible. Why did I release this?)

Bleah, I have to redo the skirt texture for the dress. It has some horizontal lines on it, thanks to how PSP handled gradients. They're not visible under normal conditions, but I had the Windlight viewer open, and... yeah, it's something that'll need to be fixed eventually, and better to do it now than after it's released.

A preview of what's coming this Tuesday:





It's coming in 13 colors, including -- for once -- a bunch of pastel tones.