The Ottoman Empire arises!

Well. It's a small Empire at present. Only six, really.

But still! It's a start! Soon, the grid will be...actually, no, I don't want to take over the grid. But I do want to get better at the occasional furniture build, and to that end...well, here, pictures:



Yes, I did snap these on the fly, and I'm sorry for that; but these are about as simple and functional as I could make them, and I wanted to tell people. They're six prims each, and I may work on a few additional variations, or trade them in and out seasonally. I'm also pondering more animations, but that takes scripting.

On the left, the Lavender Tufted-Leather Ottoman; on the right, the Red Tufted-Leather variant.



From left to right: Green Crushed Velvet Ottoman; then a muted Blue Leather Ottoman; then an Embroidered Velvet Green Ottoman.

I'm contemplating adding a shadow, but that would bring the whole thing to seven prims. Still, I may go in tomorrow and toss a shadow that can be positioned separately into the contents off the Ottomans, so people have the choice of shadowed, or not.



Finally, on the left, the Blue Velvet Ottoman; on the right the Green Velvet. The Blue has silver sphere legs, the Green has copper sphere legs.

While we're on the topic of the Blue, it's currently in the Midnight Mania, so come down and tap that if you want to get one for free. And if you don't quite have fifty Lindens to spare (my asking price), but don't want to wait for the ottoman in the Midnight board to lock, if you hunt around, there's a single-Linden version somewhere on the premises.

Pictures of what started all this--my participation in the Twisted Christmas Hunt, and the three holiday-themed Ottomans for it--will follow in a day or so.

Just hop to the main store to check everything out. Cheers!

(Skin is from Adam & Eve, a group gift some while back; hair was a limited edition offering from Little Heaven, but they sell the style in other colors. Eyes are SN@TCH's "Gloss Eyes" in Blue/Brown. The outfit is Sweet Poison/IMPulse's "Winter Wooly Blue", purchased on one of the 25LT runs, this month or last month.)

all alone, flesh and bone, evil carved in stone

I break with established tradition because I am pairing this with an entry on the Train Wreck. This was too good not to announce in both places.

The past week, I have been spending nearly every hour possible in Twilight Tears, building a haunted house. It's named "Hunt House" partially because I wanted something simple and memorable, but also because, with very few exceptions, what I didn't create on my own, I acquired on various sim-wide and grid-wide hunts. While there are items I've bought in there, even some of those items I bought while on grid-wide hunts.

It's also a hunt on its own. There are fourteen (I tried for thirteen; I went one over) pumpkins to find and buy in the house. There are three levels to search. It's a Linden per pumpkin not because I'm wanting to make money--I won't--but because I did put a bit of effort into everything I put out.

With every pumpkin, you get the pumpkin you see (included in its decorated shell) and an item. Warning to the arachnophobic: Spiders are involved in the prizes! And the house, sort of. I'll explain.

Two of the hunt gifts are spider silks; they're all prim-based, because the spiders are talented, hand-trained Chechoslovakian clinging spiders: Primmatica adhesiva, in natural orange, and in specially bred pale, glowing green. There are also four variants of the spider crown.

In addition to those and to the pumpkins themselves, there is a bloodstained clown dress (that I may be inspired now to make additional versions of!); a box of radiant moss textures (you can see examples on the first floor of the house); a box of glowing light beams for spooky ambience; the rest are things I've had up in the store, but don't any longer.

Oh, one more spider thing--the clown dress? Comes with glass spider eyes.

You start here:



Yes, it's a door, standing in a field of black grass! I was amused by the concept of the cornfield with a door, but it struck me that it worked better as just a door, fairly unhidden.

It has an "ENTER" sign above it, that might help. Also a pumpkin tree. And a grave with floating ghosts.

(I love the grave, actually. Click the mound of earth--you're a zombie! Click the headstone--you get to float with the ghosts!)



Each level is a mini-maze; or maybe just a maze of corridors. You'll be going in the right direction, you won't get lost unless you turn around, and in general, if you've heard the sounds before, you're going backwards. It's not that confusing.



Some of the props used in the house are also for sale. If you just want the prop itself (mostly collider sound panels), just buy it when you find one you like. If you'd rather have the sounds full-perm for your own creations, drop me a notecard, we'll work something out. Nearly all the sounds I have--and all the sounds I used in the creation of this house--I either created and imported myself, or I got from royalty-free sites and imported in.



Go up level by level until you reach the attic. And there, you will find a lovely Victorian lady...who still thinks she's alive. Poor dear. But she's very loquacious, and just...dying...to talk with you. Something terrible happened to her, after all...

(There's a door to the side that will let you come back down to the main store, so you don't have to retrace your steps. And if you haven't gotten the gift for the Unknown Hunt, stick around and pick it up.)

I'm looking forward to this. I may tweak some things, as I said, but really--it's open, it's live!

Well...in a sense.

Come join us. We'll be waiting for you.

oh, come on now.

Group Notice From: The Unknown Hunt

OK so some of you have hidden your hunt items early. 2 days early. I need you ALL to move you hunt item. Why? Because if people have already been to your store they will know where the hunt item is!! That defeats the purpose of it being a HUNT! Please move it ASAP because Ronnette will be doing a walkthrough TOMORROW. This is why I told you to PUT IT ON YOUR SIGN! I'll also need new hints.
Thanks. Evelyn

Okay, so, because I'm efficient--and I want people to find the damned thing--I have to think up a new hiding spot and a new hint, and man. It irks me, it really does. And all my old objections about grid-wide hunts come surging to the fore.

So, I am "re-hiding" my hunt item. The new hint is "Going up?" If that doesn't help people locate it, I will gladly take IMs and notecards.

*grumbles and wanders off to move the hunt prize and build more on the haunted house*

introducing Hauntine!

I know, I know, nothing's up now, but I promise, by the weekend, there will be! And in the meantime, my hunt gift for the Unknown Hunt is live in the store, so you can start that hunt on the 9th, or come by and pick it up early.

What you'll be getting:

This is a very simple, casual outfit, that's much the worse for wear post-zombie apocalypse. I made it for guys--and believe me, without the aid of sales at Nightshade (for the skin) and Discord Designs (for the hair), I wouldn't have been able to pull a male avatar together. Since, you know, I'm not a guy.

(Bizarre side note: I essentially took my base shape, switched the gender, made him taller, then tweaked here and there until he "looked right" to me. Then I tracked down the Nightshade skin and decided on black hair, and...realized what "looked right" to my eyes? Was young Asian male.

(Miss Neome tells me it doesn't surprise her, but--considering I'm also not Asian? Is kind of perplexing to me. Still, I think he looks good--young, and fey, but good--so I'm happy with him for occasional male-avatar needs.)

Now, on the fun side? I made the top and the jeans for guys, but they look pretty decent on girls, too.

Next up: Hauntine in green:

Last Friday, Twisted Thorn Textures had a texture hunt, and tossed up some similarly-themed Halloween fabrics in various prints, stripes and solids. They went together wonderfully for a set of dresses, and I'm definitely planning more with the series. In the meantime, this is the Unknown Hunt prize for women: it includes a dual-layer cocktail-length flexi skirt, bloomers on two layers, a striped corset, self-stockings, and two versions of the off-the-shoulder top (one with the fingerless gloves, one without). It's a fun little dress, and it's yours for the finding (along with the Zombie Hunter outfit).

Want more information? Drop by the store. Consider going for a dip in the pool...

In the meantime, I made two other versions I plan to put out for L$100 each, Hauntine Orange:

and Hauntine Purple:

They came out great, too. They'll be up in the next few days, so check back!

a tree grows in Twilight Tears

Yes, friends and neighbors, I discovered I do still have the haunted treehouse from my art-sim glory days. So, in defiance of protocol (but after checking with the lass what owns my sims), I am popping it up as the main store. I'm going to keep the yard sale going for a bit longer, but everything will slowly be coming down and either going into my inventory, or going up on the walls.

If you port in and think things are in a bit of disarray, this is why. I am making great sweeping changes on the business end of things, and this is all part of that.

I still haven't decided yet if I'm changing the name. But if I do, this blog will still stay as the shop blog. Therefore.

Give me a week or two, I'll have more things out. In the meantime, the only thing new I've added is changing the Midnight Madness board to the Dark Carni demi-Victorian gown, and adding a second set of veves for the Virtual Haiti Relief campaign. I've also reduced the cost on both sets, so now, you can get either set for L$120, for six different veves (for a total of thirty textures in all, five per lwa) in each set, or both for L$240, which is still over half off what I had them priced before.

And all proceeds from those vendors go, as stated, to Virtual Haiti Relief.

Coming up: If I ever get it done, two mummified skins for the Unknown Hunt; at least one dress, if not several outfits, for Wear Grey for a Day; a voudon doll skin for the Voodoo Hunt; and whatever I think of for the Hunt for Roleplay hunt. (Though those last two may fall apart, I haven't yet applied.)

Check back if you're curious! And slowly, things will start to make more sense in the big empty tree.