Getting from Here.. to There!

Eeeek! Nearly 10 days since I last posted, very naughty. Okay. I've been busy puttering around the homestead at True North, fixing stuff and some new construction.


First, we have a new store teleport system installed at True North. For awhile I've had some thoughts about improving signage, traffic flow and such at the main store and thought this would help. There are about 10 of these things located around at the various areas.

Now, I really did build True North to be a pleasant walkabout, so I have also provided a Site Map that people can Touch and get a copy of. So for those who still prefer to walk around the place, they have a little pictorial guidance.


Hopefully, navigating around and finding stuff is going to be a piece of cake now for True North visitors.

~*~

There's nothing like a new building project to get me absorbed and forgetting all about this blog and just about everything else!

As of now, we have an expansion to the Fountain Court, in the form of a 100 meter square upper platform - henceforth to be designated the Upper Fountain Court. I've been busy setting up some of my larger fountains there, along with the waterfalls and high water jets in their own long marble pool. It's still under construction, and I'll be adding things as time goes along, but perfectly safe to go up and explore :)

The smaller, more compact fountains/water features will remain on the ground level Fountain Court. So...how to get from here to there.. a long distance teleport of course. And those are now installed as well. The up version is sitting right beside the store teleporter at the Fountain Court - it's a little birdbath type affair with a water ball in it. Touch the water ball and awwaaaay we go!

This was hilarious - started off sitting on the thing at an impossible angle, but finally figured out the sit rotation so one is actually sitting at a dignified angle upon landing at the destination. There's a duplicate up on the Upper Fountain Court platform for returning to the ground, both suitably signed so hopefully people can figure out how to use them!

Oh, and along the way, there's a brand new fountain offering, the Stone Angel Fountain, which features a sculpted praying, kneeling angel. I've set that out on the lower Fountain Court for its SL debut!

Bagged!

Well, the lion is bagged, the fountain is done, the customer is happy with it!
Can't be more satisfied than that.

Here's the neat crouching lion I made. I did this in SculptStudio, what a fantastic tool and whoever made that is a genius!










Here it is full view at night. Very stunning.

Speaking of stunning, I got bagged from the Xstreet Forums today! LOL. I think I've posted to those Forums maybe 50 times total in over two years..if that:-) heh, never had time to post incessant commentary there or participate in the usual gab and whine, but today I posted a parcel for sale and for the second time, forgot to put FOR SALE right in the title - so since it's the second time and that means I..'repeatedly' contravened their Forum posting rules, I got suspended for seven days from their Forum. Some people really do have their heads in dark places don't you agree? Now, I can't relate this to LL recently buying out Xstreet because before the merger, old SLX was just as silly and childish as this. Maybe the merger will improve the moronism we see there that passes for posting rules in that forum.. or maybe not.

No problem I got plenty to do in the next week and am sure I will live through it!

Lion Hunting in SL

See? Told you I was a bit of a lazy one when it comes to keeping up this sort of stuff. I've been busy the past few days doing RL (sigh), and then also, I have a new project! Some guy investigates my Fountain Court and decides I'm the one to build him a fountain to decorate his shopping sim. So, I go and look. This place is ENORMOUS, with this huge main building that looks something like the palace of Versailles and a whole mall of shops and underground stores and BIG. EMPTY.SPACE.. right in front of his main store. That's where the fountain is going to be. And not just any fountain. I got shown a variety of photographs and samples. This is going to be a B.I.G fountain, with lots of water streams, critters, human figures if possible, lights! heh, maybe.




Here's a shot of the work-in-progress.

Did I mention, it's going to be BIG?! There's little bitty me standing on the rim to give you an idea of scale.



I decided to go for gargoyles spitting the water spouts as they are a pretty classic figure on these old world type fountains and here is a shot of the cutie I got from a sculpty-maker friend, Bethi Cattaneo (great gargoyle Bethi!)

Isn't he great? However, middle of job consultation with the prospective owner reveals he wasn't greatly keen on gargoyles, so I'm on the hunt for a decent looking lion to incorporate into this fountain, then I'll script up a menu so the owner can adjust all the water particles and sound and that should do it!

I'll try to check in regularly during my safari!

Yes. That is a crab on my shoulder.

So. I guess I should fill in with some history of my sojourn in SL to date.

I was invited by a friend way back in 2005 to come join SL!
I did make a cursory trip in, but didn't look at the place very hard and decided, 'eh, I don't care for this' and went off doing my other stuff. A few months later the invitation came again, only for whatever reason, this time I came in, got thoroughly oriented and then bolstered up by my already-here friends, and .... I got bitten by the building bug!

Am still suffering from the infection today.

I started off building jewelry and that has been fascinating. When I look back at what I used to make, I KNOW I have only improved by a wide margin!:)
And, one thing led to another. Next it was furniture. Actually, you wouldn't think it, but there was a connection from one direct to the next and that was SIZE. When I first got in here and looked at a lot of the jewelry (and then I noticed the furniture).. it was all so damn BIG! I'd see these enormous chain links hanging round people's necks (you know, the pimp daddy look?)..and rings the size of ostrich eggs on their hand practically smacking you in the gob, and I couldn't figure out why people made such unrealistic looking jewelry.

So, I started making very tiny prims, in fact sometimes customers wanted me to 'make it bigger please!'. I think I've found a happy medium and of course, I am really eclectic in my likings so I do like to experiment with different genres and styles of jewelry. I've made some very, very fine delicate stuff, but lately, I've been on an art deco kick (started off with my buildings) and I've been producing some slightly larger sized jewelry pieces, more 'in-your-face-Nooo-Yawk' style if you will :) Here's one recent creation - Fifth Avenue - gorgeous, big, gold and diamond.. very stylish and looks faboo with the right evening gown!

When I first came in world, of course I didn't have any land to speak of, so I rented space in a very busy mall that one of my friends rented in, Promenade, and business went well there. I did the satellite thing for awhile, but eventually, by the end of 2006, I had enough land (and I was making all kinds of other items too by then!), that I decided to jettison the satellite mode, and I established my main shopping complex, True North Designs, in Goun sim. I'm still there today and last January, I even did a total makeover of my stores (besides Dellybeams Gem Gallery, there is also my main True North Designs building with home and office furnishings, fountains, gift and scripted items etc, my Northern Lights Company, 101 Delmations and DellyciousWear).

Inner tubing

Get a load of my updated Profile pic, lol. I took this in SL of course but man, wouldn't you just love to really be doing this? Especially if you live in a not warm place!

Now, my SL pals would tell you, 'oh that pic is so deceiving, that delly she is a crazy woman, working and making stuff all the time'. And, ok there is some truth to this. I've been building stuff in SL for two and a half years now and I'm still not tired of it! I LOVE building and still have new ideas bursting out all over into various avenues.. but! when I get the chance, I like to kick back and listen to the sound of the SL waves whether it be sitting on the virtual seashore or totally zoned out as on this new lil True North blue tube I made as a cool freebie water toy to inaugurate the opening of a beach and patio store I've just set up in this sim called Zeord.

Ya'll have to come over and visit my place sometime. It's really great here, love the ambience with the tropical visuals and the sounds. The neighbors have all been great! Something you can't always say in SL.. remind me to tell you about 'Cyndeeeee' sometime! The folks around have mostly all popped over to say hi, how are ya and 'boy this is an improvement over the last owner!' Nice to hear that:)

This was a lucky purchase after I persuaded a friend he'd be better off getting the large water front parcel in Zeord rather than the skinny cramped one nearby in a sim with a fairly unpronounceable name (what are those Linden namers smoking anyways?!)

My friend really was needing a new parcel with a tropical beach setting to establish an appropriate venue for marketing his beach clothing for guys and this one is highly suited to that.

It seemed like a good idea to buy up some parcels nearby my friend, and park my beach and patio furniture in the same setting, as my main furniture store was starting to get a little pinched for both space and prims.

Both of us had a lot of fun designing and constructing 'store' settings that kept everything very open and casual and allowing free flow and I think we nailed it really. Had a lot of fun adding little details. One of our small neighbors between us decided he'd set up a wharf style shop on his 512 and get into the action, so we are really cooking now! :)

Truly..I didn't wanna do it!

I'm basically a bit of a laissez-faire git, but seems I have to bite a bullet (or two) and launch a blog to relay info and tidbits of news and updates. Maybe I'll find my element and start waxing eloquent (hey that rhymes!..um sorta) about my SL adventures in creating stuff.
Easy to set up here for sure, now comes the work(arghh!) of keeping up with it me own self.

So, here 'tis.

We're on!