we're...back??

So, I've been restructuring. Right now, it's an issue of getting Lindens, but I actually have ideas again, after a spurt of activity during December. I've reduced the prices on two old items (until I get the chance to poke them and see about rebuilding them), and I've kept the prices low on the holiday horns. It's a very minimal store, but it is a store.

Though I need to redo the logo.

Introducing Tatiana

I made a new shape.

This is not my attempt at revolution, per se--think of it more as my tentative wanderings, circling the herd. I've seen a lot of girls like this on the grid lately. Chinless, breasts out to Mars, butts out to Venus, awkward, sullen little things. I thought, if I'm going to see how I do at one of these shapes, let's really go for it.

So in my head, I named her. She's Tatiana. She's eighteen--barely. She ran away from home three months ago, and she's talked her way into a job at the local diner. She wakes up with a pout and goes to bed angry and fights with the customers and her boss threatens to fire her every other day.

In a lot of ways, she's still a little girl. Those thin arms, those thin legs, that narrow frame tells you that. Her attitude veers perilously close to "tantrum" over "legitimately upset" most of the time. But everything else screams "woman", from the pout on those lip-glossed fat lips to the curve of her ass. And she's learning. She's learning she doesn't have to change her attitude to gain attention from a man. She's learning the little pivot-and-hip swing the other waitresses do when picking up their drink trays.

Sometimes, after her shift, she just stands outside, watching the men leave the diner. Sometimes she'll pick one. Sometimes, it won't go all wrong and feature her scrambling out of the back of his truck, bruises on her arms--or on her throat--clutching her clothing to her thin chest.

(from the [black witch moth] album)

And I've learned something else on my way to packaging her up. This girl really can fit in anywhere.

Put her in sneakers and pj pants and a torn t-shirt, you've got a high-schooler. Put her in a torn camisk and a bond collar and you've got a sullen little slave girl. Dress her up in a skin-tight catsuit, march her through a BDSM club on a leash, and you've got...well, several heart attacks as she sways on by. With those hips, she really can't help the sway.

You c'n have a gander at her over on Marketplace. See you there.

Eviscera is out--again?

I know, I know. But here's what happened:

• Lady Disdain pretty much died on the vine. I had to abandon the store because the land was going away. I then dumped the store group, because at that point, I was the only one in it.
• I thereupon spent several months moping and feeling sorry for myself. (I don't recommend this, btw.)
• As I'd also abandoned both my Caledon property and my Winterfell property (and still regret keenly the financial necessity that caused both losses), I didn't have my Magic Box rezzed out anywhere.
• One of my loves offered me platform space above her section of Lunitarium. Desultorily, I rezzed out the Magic Box--but didn't check it beyond that.
• That same love became employed by Little Dreams Estates. After a month of working for them, she decided it was a stable opportunity, and offered me rental of a skybox. (Not gratis, she's paying me for it, but the skybox only costs L$510 per week, so...yeah. I accepted.)
• I picked out one I liked (the "311 Urban Studio") and moved in. A week later, I rezzed out the Magic Box again--and again didn't check it.
• Then the Direct Delivery disaster (henceforth, DDD) happened. And so I wandered off to check on my online store. Which wasn't there anymore.
• I then tried to put my items back up for listing.
• I failed.
• I then read up on Direct Delivery, and realized part of my problem is that CoolVL--at that time--didn't interface with the new SL Marketplace features at all.
• So I downloaded (again) V3 (still hate it) and checked my items. No items.
• I grabbed the Snowy Antlers just as a tester and threw them up. They failed to go.
• A week of Serious Thought passed. I did some research, more or less blindly picked a new business name, checked it to ensure there wasn't an in-world conflict, developed a mini store logo (which I'll keep), a store banner (which I need to rework), and renamed the Snowy Antlers with the new business name and tossed them up. They went. I now had one item listed.
• I waited a week to ensure it wouldn't corrupt on me, and then threw up Eviscera under the new business name.
• Two hours of struggle then passed, where I slowly realized my keywords were marking this as an Adult item. So I shrugged and listed it as Adult.
• It listed. I now have two items.

So...I think I'll wait another week, but past that, since none of the new listings are embedding in the 14xxxx damaged cluster, I should be fine. And I've already had one sale.

So...yeah. We're now [black wing moth]. See you on the Marketplace until I find another in-world store space.

and then, depression set in

Listen--as much as I am capable of deluding myself for decades, there comes a time when stark reality slaps me across the face and I have to admit that it's just not working.

This is one of those times.

In conversation earlier with the lady who has generously donated space to both Autogenic Alchemy and Lady Disdain, we decided jointly that her continuing to fund at least the Lady Disdain part of the equation was madness--I haven't sold one thing, not one thing in six months. And before that? I sold two dollarbie mirrors. And that was it for the last six months before that.

(I don't count the charity efforts; they do sell, but as they don't make anything I can donate towards rent...)

So today, I've taken down everything I had for sale in the store, the store itself, and killed Lady Disdain Creations, the store group. There is more than a touch of sadness to this, but let's be honest--I wasn't putting out new things even on a monthly basis, and my heart really hasn't been in it for the last year.

So...end of store project. I fail as a merchant.

I will be putting up one or two items on the Marketplace, but I don't expect sales there either. That's just the last sputtering stubborn intent of my merchanting ability, which, as I have regretted learning, is pretty much nil.

It's been...I won't say fun, but it's been something. And now, it's all over but the actual funeral.

Y'all excuse me, I'm going to go kill things on City of Heroes for a while, where I at least feel somewhat less ineffectual.

Eviscera is out!

(from Lady Disdain)

Yes! Finally I have released something!

...I mean, LOOK! She's done! She's in a product box! She's for sale!

And for today only, you can get her for L$75. No, seriously. Possibly even on sale until Friday, considering how late it is.

I am so happy. Fawkes Allen scripted the skirt, I made the viscera belly tattoo (I may rework it later; if so, I'll put a free version out next to where Eviscera ends up), and all other clothing layers.

Note: because it's a prim/clothing layer outfit, it does not come with hair, skin or eyes. It's just the tattoo and top (on tattoo and clothing layers) and the prim skirt.

Really, though. I'm so impressed with how she came out. The skirt is remarkably evocative of trailing entrails, and bits of it twitch. Thank you so much, Fawkes.

For everyone else, go see her! She's just inside the wall as you walk in the front door.

well, that was a blast

So, I've been toying with some new product ideas...

(from the Lady Disdain album)

They haven't gone well.

But I prevail! I'll let you know how it goes.

the new store is out!

I know. It's shocking. Especially shocking considering I was going to take June and do this big promo, and make lots of new stock, and restart my business with a big bang...

...Yeah. That didn't so much happen.

However, today, things happened! For one, I put the custom store down:

(from the Lady Disdain album)

This is just the outside, and it's also the build I contracted out to the designer behind De Baza (that's the SL Marketplace link, not the in-world-store link, but that will still give you Sphynx Soleil's name, and how to get in touch with De Baza in world). It's an odd store, but I want to be clear that that is not Sphynx's fault; Sphynx does lovely, affordable, spacious builds targeted to specific needs (and did I mention the custom work?). Me, I wanted something specific, but tailored to my...um. Design ethos?

Which this build is. (MUAHAHAHAHA...err.) I mean, I got exactly what I wanted. I love this thing.

Unfortunately, because I've been so busy, I've only had time to do a couple quick new products:

(from the Lady Disdain album)

Because they're pretty quick makes, both of them, and also, because they're both targeted for specific communities, I'm only asking a Linden each for them. On the right is the Caledon Sun wall mirror, and on the left is the Winterfell Star wall mirror.

Both examples are full-bright, to see them easier; the sold versions are not, but can be easily made to be full-bright, if that's what you want.

The rest of the store is, yes, still empty, but I have big plans!

Or, well, at least plans. Which is better than I had before!

Happy July, everybody!

well, hell

Here we go again.

Back in September, I managed--somehow--to injure my knee really, really badly. Having no access to health care--and being too stubborn to go to the ER and incur tons of debt--I stayed home and rested, as much as I could.

This meant three things: lots of bitching about the leg (obviously); lots of bitching about resting (obviously); and lots of staying off my main computer (so I missed all but one hunt I'd been committed to be in, and totally ended up spinning out on the second annual Wear Grey charity event, which really hurt).

Fast forward to now. I--again, somehow--did it again. The lesson from all of this? For the love of all gods, don't swivel your body if you're not in peak condition. Because the two times I've swiveled and not actually just turned in another direction? I end up getting freakish sports injuries. The hell. Seriously, the hell.

So, back on the netbook. And again, the timing is direly ironic: because after the first of the year, I wanted to tear down the big tree and get back to the natural world: which for me, means mushrooms. Decor, seating, large, small, I'm going to be investigating the concept--when, that is, I can stay on the main keys long enough to do some graphics work and some building.

Feel free in the meantime to check out the main store while it's still up; furniture items, I think I'm going to be moving back to a skybox, and there's going to be no real order at first. But I'm going to do my best to keep the lower parcel just fungus, and whatever else strikes my fancy.

Hopefully, this injury will heal faster!

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 things must pass

I'm leaving the haunted house up until November 3rd; so if you haven't seen it, and want to, go through it before November 2nd! There's around eight hundred prims of haunt, there, that the land owner would like to have back at some point. (My gracious thanks to the lady in question, and to Solace Beach in general, for hosting the haunt.)

In the meantime, I'm contemplating new designs for frocks, but I've decided my first priority is to track down the store texture sets I was plotting out, and finish them. Woefully past the season of spooking, but I will be putting them out. Look for the finished sets in November, on the second floor of the Treehouse of Doom.

And that's all for now. Ta!