It's getting closer and closer to Halloween! I've been working quite a bit on my store things, as I have a couple of events to participate in. A hunt, and I'm donating a prize to the Carver's End thing! So, I've been really working on those, and a release as well. I've been working on a couple of other things, as well!

I entered our home into the House to House Trick or Treating, and we've been decorating like crazy! It's a constant work in progress, as more and more things come out the closer we get to Halloween. I keep adding stuff! I'm wondering what is too much and where the line is between awesome and tacky. Haha!

This is about where our trick or treater families will land! I love it, it's so adorable! Gives a good view of the house, I think! And it reminds me just how much I love having a driveway! I am not a fan of Halloween, really, so I never really bought anything for decorating before. I tend to buy pumpkins that are uncarved, or hay bales, things that can also be used for Thanksgiving decor as well. I'm much more into Thanksgiving than I am into Halloween! But anyway, I hope I'm doing this holiday right!


And the entrance, all fancy decorated! I've been way from SL for a long time, mesh was really just beginning to come out when I left. So, coming back, I had *nothing* mesh to decorate with! I had to buy everything new to decorate this year with, and quite frankly, I have so many decorations now that I know what to do with! I'd be happy if I never see another pumpkin again at this point. LOL!

I've been really trying to learn how to learn mesh! I started with clothing and Blender, and I decided that I'm terrible at it. However, I still really want to learn. I've tried clothing, and while I love it - I'm really terrible at weight painting. I get frustrated and can never get a product I am happy with. I've given up on clothing, but I still want to learn other things, as well.

I've been really working in ZBrush as of late, trying to learn it, and get comfortable with the Wacom tablet I got for my RL birthday last month. I'm even looking into taking more 'professional' classes on this program at this point, in addition to the wonderful YouTube tutorials I've been following. I spent several days literally JUST working on some form of a plush toy that I can be happy with. The original thought was that I wanted to make a cat plushie. However, it didn't turn out like that. I got this... creature.

I saved the file as "demonic bear thing" originally, then someone on plurk said it looked like a cow. He kind of does, but I'm not really going to put a label on him. He is what he is, a little creation of my own. I'm calling him Herman. I have uploaded him, and different color versions of him. I had Jeffry script a hold animation that also switches between a child and adult hold animation, and a resize script as well! He will be put into a gacha for my store, .ennaline. in the next week or so!

As I was making the different colors for him, Jeffry says to me: "You're not really going to name him Herman, are you?" Of course I am! I like his name!


After Herman, I decided that I wanted to try my hand at making a pumpkin! I am SO happy with this pumpkin, it's gorgeous! I absolutely adore how the texture of this pumpkin came out, it's so pimple-y. And, only 1 land impact for it! I made a couple poses with this pumpkin, which will be a hunt gift for the store! Pumpkin will be included, of course!

I am really enjoying learning Zbrush, and already the things I've made from it are gorgeous, and fun! I hope that I can get better and better with things as I get more comfortable with it, and experiment around with it!

Today, I'm talking about mesh heads! I've bought two of them within the past week, and I'm becoming a bit of a head hoarder! I bought a head from TMP (I hate them so much that I'm not even going to put a link to their SLURL) a while ago, which I have blogged about previously. Long story short, I hated it. The Pink Fuel skin I wore was beautiful on it, but that was really the only thing it had going for it. TMP is brutally expensive for the features you get, mainly the lack of expressions. I think I purchased it, thinking (hoping) that something that expensive would have regular updates, maybe they would add expressions. WRONG. Their customer service is the absolute worst I've encountered (except maybe for 7 Deadly Skins, of which we won't go into). But, anyway, my main reason for looking for a new head was for one reason: I want to be able to look happy.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have a really wonderful family in SL, and I am incredibly happy, but sadly, my face in SL never shows it! I constantly have a really grumpy look, and seems like I always have somewhere better to be. But, I don't, really! I set out to look for another mesh head that was still "me", and had the ability to have expressions!

I demo'ed a Catwa head, and liked a skin from TheSkinnery with it. I bought the head, skin and appliers, was wearing it around to really see if it "grew" on me. As I was still in the 'I don't really know how I feel about this stage', Mochi, from Pink Fuel was plurking gorgeous skin photos of something she was working on for the Logo mesh head. My immediate thought: "But, I literally JUST bought a Catwa head!" Seriously! Why do these things always happen when I make a large purchase like this?!

The Pink Fuel skin was Omega compatible, and guess what! So was my Catwa! Just for kicks, I decided to see if it would apply to the head. And it did! I was so happy, and it even looked SO gorgeous, even on the Catwa. I decided to try a demo of the Logo head, just to look at it, but unfortunately, the Logo demo... is not Omega compatible. However! I absolutely fell in love with the expressions. The Logo head had such fun, beautiful expressions. And I loved them so much that... I bought the head. Without being able to demo the skin on it. Yep.


However, I have absolutely NO regrets. As soon as I was able to put the Pink Fuel skin on the Logo head, it was worth it, I had absolutely no buyer's remorse for this purchase, not being able to demo it first! It really feels like "me", as most Pink Fuel skins do. The smile is big, happy, and as silly as it sounds, I feel these expressions really even show it up to the eyes. They like, change the whole feel of a photo! I loved the expressions so much that I bought all the add-on packs of them!


My husband likes the Catwa head, and I much prefer the Logo one. I can't wait to see what other skins come out for the Catwa and Logo heads, and all the other Omega compatible stuff! I know that the Catwa head is still new, too - I really hope that the creator can make it so you don't have to use the included shape! I used my shape and had a neck gap, and couldn't quite get rid of it.

Notes on Catwa:

• Alpha mask eyelashes! YES!
• Able to alpha hair bases! Great for hair that can't fit, otherwise!
• Omega compatible!
• Able to save appliers into the HUD.
• Expressions! Expressions play like on a loop, but you're able to pause them for photos.
• Need to wear the included shape, otherwise you have a neck gap.
• Required to wear mesh eyes. And even then, I had a complete nightmare of a time fitting them *just* right. And I'm not a noob. 

Notes on Logo:

• Expressions, expressions, and more expressions! LOVE!
• Omega compatible! 
• Fits mesh bodies well!
• Unable to demo Omega skins before buying.
• Gives you like 15 folders when you unpack the box. 
• As for the other features, I'm not sure, as the HUD is too small for my laptop screen to even see! (And it's no modify, so I can't even stretch it to make it bigger)

Yesterday, I found some really low land impact photo frames for my house! I was really looking for a "family" orientated type of frame, or shelf, or something that I could use for displaying Yuna's Adoption Certificate, and the photo I took of when she first saw the question of us asking her to join the family. I didn't find one that looked how I wanted, so I made one! But anyway! I'm a huge fan of photos, in both RL and SL. Some memories, you just can't repeat, or get back, and I'm very forgetful! I take a lot of photos! I'm trying to fill my large amounts of frames with some photos of us as a family now, instead of just Jeffry and I.

I know that I referenced to our fall photo several times in the previous post, and it appeared a couple of times on our adoption day. I never really posted it here, as I wanted it to be a complete surprise! Now that the surprise is done and over with, I can post it! It turned out sooooo great, I'm in love with it!

Yuna and I were watching a movie, and I snapped this photo of us! It turned out super cute, and I love this pose/animation that I made for us. Yuna has officially been calling us mommy and daddy, and we've been calling her our daughter! Because it's official now, and I'm super-excited about it still!


I've been experimenting with different mesh heads! I now have several of them, from Genesis, TMP, Logo, and Catwa. I think I'm going to do a blog post REALLY soon about them! However, for now, I am in LOVE with the Logo mesh head, the expressions are soooo much fun! I think I'm going to stick with the Logo head for a while, and made it a little more official by updating my in-world profile with a new photo!


For real, don't I look SO happy? Well, I should be! My life in SL has never been better than it is right now! I have been so blessed in SL, and I have the best family, ever! I feel like I just want to keep this smile on my face all the time!

As my Plurk friends know, Jeffry and I had been planning something for about a week now! I've been posting updates and preview photos on my Plurk, pretty much ever since we decided on it. We decided to ask Yuna to join our family! I went from not having a single clue how we were going to ask her, to a brilliant plan all of a sudden! We had a couple ideas, but nothing seemed good enough. The original idea was to go on a hot air balloon ride, and rez a huge prim on the ground with the question. We'd point it out, and she'd look down to see it. But, then we started brainstorming, and came up with something incredible.

We told her that we were having a laser tag party with some friends, and asked her to come on a little earlier so that we can "test" some things out. We got in the hot air balloon to "test" it. Once we were all in the balloon, it took off in a path. We had several stops along the way, which I had framed photos rezzed (held in the air by balloon clusters), with photos I took from the 2 week trial we did. They were invisible, and when we approached each photo, they appeared. Each stop had said a little blurb about how we felt about her.

The last stop, we got out of the hot air balloon, and walked up to more photo frames, this one held a photo I took of us a few days before. At first, this photo was a crucial part of how we would ask her, and us asking her to be part of the family was kind of the "unveiling" of the photo, as she hadn't seen the finished photo yet. These frames also held "the question."


I was kind of nervous! I mean, what if she didn't like us as much as we liked her? But, she did say yes! I bombarded her with all kinds of things... like the photo texture, and the Heartsdale Family group invite, so she could "officially" move in.


Then afterward, we had a small party! I DJ'ed the music (my first time playing music for someone other than myself!), I wasn't really expecting anyone to come, but the Zanzibar's and the Oleander's came! Both of these families have shown us so much support through this whole adoption process, it really brought tears to my eyes that they came to the adoption party for us, as well!

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.