As I get more comfortable with our trial daughter, Yuna, I've been trying to use her Yuus/Nuuu HUD a little more. I love being able to pick her up and carry her around, it also makes for better photos, too.

Well, last night, we planned to all watch a movie, and I wanted to hold her a during the movie. We tried by using the HUD, but it was a huge fail. I tried holding her before and after sitting, but well.... it didn't work well. Eventually, we just used the HUD to sit, and although we were hovering probably 2-3 meters in the air off of the ottoman, I rezzed some books and we sat on them just so that we could watch a movie together. Even then, it looked absolutely ridiculous. LOL! However, the experience made me want to make my own pose for watching movies, and just general parent/child cuddles.

As I was thinking about doing a pose last night, I also decided to try my hand at an actual animation. Sure, I didn't want or need it to be fancy, just a tiny bit of leg movement so that it's not completely static.

It turned out really well, I really like it! It's subtle, not static, and does exactly what I envisioned in my mind. I've got my alt, Ennaline, with me in the gif, but I'm hoping it will be just as perfect with Yuna, as well! I've raved about Anypose several times on my blog, but this animation, is yet another reason why I LOVE (!) it!

So, lately, we've been spending a lot of time doing a variety of things. A little over a week ago, we messaged a girl who's panel we liked at Heritage Adoptions. We met up, did a couple of things together, before deciding to go on a trial. We have been on a trial for almost a week now, actually, and it's still going great! I blogged a little bit about her when we took her to the sim-warming party, but I didn't mention too much about her, really. Well, this morning, we all agreed to extend the trial a little longer! This was a big thing to me, because, it actually said to me that she's interested in continuing with us, and likes us enough to want to spend more time together! More milestones!

So, we've been doing lot of things together, as Jeffry says: "as a family," but I still worry we are boring people! We took a few days to do PaleoQuest, we've watched a couple of movies, and even visited The Cornfield. It's been fun, doing these things all together! I really hope it continues, and I hope that we can have a very happy outcome at the end of this "extended trial!"

This is where we are now venturing into territory that we are completely unfamiliar with! Other trials we have had did not get this far. Actually, they really didn't even get past a couple of days. So, I'm not sure where to proceed from here, and when we know that we're "ready" to adopt. I'm just thinking that, When we know, we "know" right? Like finding the perfect wedding dress? LOL! I don't know what I would have done without Alicia and her adorable family answering all the questions I have about families/RP, and all their guidance and tips they have given us through the whole adoption process!

So, the Zanzibar's and the Oleander's had their official Sim-Warming party on Wednesday night! Lolita has been working making their sim beautiful for a little while now. It was finally finished, they finished moving in their homes - so of course they held a party for everyone to come, have fun and tour their newly-designed sim!

It really did not disappoint. Their sim is gorgeous, photogenic, and it's really well done. I keep saying that Lolita needs to change her career into sim design! Every sim she's done is absolutely stunning! Anyway, the party was so much fun, we had a great time! Bluebonnet has always held a special place in my heart, as some people who read my blog might know, I used to live there! And, it's also where Jeffry and I shared our first land together. I have always loved Bluebonnet.


We actually invited our current Heritage trial, Yuna, to come with us. I know she's shy, but she really handled the event like a champ. She was lagging a lot, and didn't talk much, but that's okay! I was still really, really happy that she came with us, and met all of our friends as it was the first time anyone else had met her. Milestones!

Eventually, Yuna logged off for the night, and the party continued. Of course, like many of their parties... it turned crazy. Somehow, it turned into a tour of the sim while riding in cars. Me, hearing that Lolita was one of the best drivers of their families, I opted to ride with her. LOL! Jeffry, flat out refused to go driving with us, saying "this doesn't look like a good idea." I probably should have listened to him.


I got a gif a little too late, all the craziness had already happened, but still! I wanted one to remember the night. The cars never rezzed fully for me, but, it was an incredible night of speeding through Bluebonnet, picking up kids who somehow fell out of someone's car, and watching Takeo park his car like a pro. That night, I literally laughed until I cried.

Remember me saying, "Oh, I'll never blog fashion again"? Me either. LOL! No, but seriously... the more I shop and play in SL, the more I miss it. I miss playing around with clothing, seeing how many fun attachments I can wear and all of them looking okay. I also miss wearing weird, random things on my head, and calling it fashion. I really think that fashion blogging is in the blood, and there's certain things I miss about it. I decided to take it up again. I'm going to blog the way I want to blog, and that's it. Because, I do it for myself, and no one else. That's how it should be, right? Interested? Check it out at Sai the Fabulous!

That being said, I've been working on several pose sets at a time. Currently, I have about three family poses, and three pose sets that's ready. I just need to dress up, make vendor photos for them, and bag them up to be released. It's a lot of work, and I hate this part of having a store. So, I procrastinate. And, how do I procrastinate? By making more poses, of course! It's a never ending cycle.

I saw a photo of a horse on Lolita's blog the other day, and instantly wanted them. She gave me a marketplace link, where to buy the horses, and I had to get them. Cheap, full permission horses (of course, I also found that a pack of deer and a golden retriever also hopped into my cart from them as well, I suddenly needed ALL THE THINGS). A light bulb went off in my head. Poses!

So, I've also finished a couple poses to use with this horse. Once all the minor tweaks are taken care of, and I mirror all the poses, I'll put the poses I made for sale, with the horse included! I think it will be awesome. AnyPose has really taken a lot of the guesswork out of working with complicated props like this, and made props fun. Of course, the poses that come out of AnyPose still need to have minor issues tweaked in an external program, but it still makes it so much easier. It really keeps the fun in making poses (for me, anyway).

In my previous blog post, I mentioned that I had decided to re-design our sim. It was a long, miserable process, but I'm finally done with it! I am so pleased with how it looks now, it is so much better for us! We now have designated areas, with much more room to grow!

Of course, I had to buy some more things, like the driveway and garage that matches my Roost house, some cliffs for the mountain areas and pathways for the "valley," as I'm calling it. It all came together really well! I am very pleased with myself.

I'm also working on decorating for fall. Fall is my favorite season of all, as I love sweaters, the crisp clean air, the smells of cinnamon, and I love pumpkin-everything! So, I've been changing my shrubs to autumn colors, and putting out my pumpkins, leaf buntings, and hay bales (well, actually, I made the hay bales). The Arcade event this month is fantastic for stocking up on all the incredible fall decorations, I'm loving everything!

I've been getting increasingly more and more dissatisfied with the design of our sim. When I picked out the terrain file, I was trying to replicate the sim we used to have years ago. It worked well for us back then, it was only us two, and we didn't need many things. However now, we are still trying to adopt a child, and we need more things for a child to do, as well. We have games now, a outdoor cinema and a playground, that we did not have before. I've been trying to move things around.... but it just looks like a huge, hot mess on our sim, with no flow at all.

I went to The Arcade, and came back with a beautiful car. As silly as it sounds, this was the final nail in the coffin for our sim terrain. I wanted to rez my car in front of my house, but all I have is grass. I didn't want to look.... "trashy" by putting a car on the lawn... so obviously, I wanted a driveway. I went out and purchased the driveway and path add-on that matches our house... it was a fail. It didn't look right, I had to resize it smaller, and it was just totally out of place. I made the decision that I wanted to change the sim.

I contacted Lorena Chung, the person we rent the sim from. I hate dealing with them, because it will literally take hours for them to just do one simple thing. It drives me crazy, I have other things that I need to do, too, you know! Luckily, I don't need to deal with them that often.

Eventually, she got around to changing our terrain, and I think this will be perfect for us, as a family (one day?). I really wanted my house up higher, overlooking the sim, and I wanted plenty of room for a driveway. Also, I needed to have several different areas. We now have an area for a playground, dancing, games, the house, our cinema, and our pool AND I can have our house up high. Soon, I plan on getting these things, to really complete the sim. It's going to look fabulous!

Already, I definitely feel happier with the sim, and I feel like we have enough space to expand outwards in the future, as well.