BOM Toot

I'm not doing this just for y'all. I need to relearn this stuff again and again.

 

BOM makes all your old stuff (relatively) good again. And you can still wear new stuff made for whichever mesh body and/or head you have chosen. I will go over Maitreya and the LAQ and Genus heads. I have a Genus head because one day it was free. And I'm all about Free. It's my favorite color.

Here's all you really really need to know: for BOM, no body or head alpha, have the BOM relays handy or use the toggle on the HUD. Really, that's it. But I'll drag you through what my mom would call "A Shopmyer Story." Never ask my dad what time it was or he'd tell you how to build a watch.

So (I hate it when people start sentences with "so") I logged Annthrasite in on the Firestorm viewer (because I like it, the old fashioned pie menus and the handy perks like Area Search and calling outfits "Outfits" instead of "My Outfits" which confuses me because, whose outfits would they be but mine?). Annthrasite prefers to stick to non-BOM, but that's her decision. She has enabled BOM in case she needs to wear some system clothing she can't live without. Lludmila is all BOM all the time because she only wears the one skin and she's so happy to have it back. Lludmila has no trouble with this because you set it up once and you're done. She does include the relays in her basic outfit, just in case. Be glad Annthrasite goes back and forth because then I learn how to explain things.

The last we saw of Annthrasite, she must have been trying on some system clothing because when I logged on her basic outfit (no clothes, no BOM), this is what I got:

Oh nooooes! What happened?

She's wearing her whole body alpha! You can't do that with BOM, but you need it for the regular mesh body and head. All I have to do is apply the omega 7 Deadly Skins applier and she's back to normal. Note that my basic outfit has that as part of it: the relays (the one for the LAQ head is hiding behind the skin applier, but it's there) and the applier. And the Maitreya HUD. If I'm going from one outfit to another, the foot position might need to change or a different part alpha'd. Best to have everything on hand.

But now it's time to look at the BOM. I have another basic Outfit (or My Outfit, if you're on the LL viewer - but then it would be your outfit, wouldn't it?) that's for BOM.

Note how the applier modestly covers Annthrasite up.

The BOM outfit has the Maitreya HUD and the BOM Relays, but no body alpha. And you can see extra feet and head. Then all I have to do is click on the relays, first LAQ and then Maitreya.

Dress included for modesty.

Ahh, down to one head.

And extra feet are gone.

Now Annthrasite can wear an old system outfit, that includes the alpha for a mesh top, because the alphas in the package work again! Note that the alpha doesn't show up on the HUD.

The outfit also came with an alpha for the boots, but look! The toenails still show! What to do? What to do? Taking the nails off didn't work.

We have to resort to the HUD alpha and take off the feet. Might as well ditch the shoe alpha as well. You never know when you're going to need some extra alpha space. I have to remember to "add" system alphas instead of "wear" so they don't cancel out some important system layer. 

What is this? There seems to be a bit of stray alpha on the shoulder. It's not from the HUD.

Nor from the sweater's alpha. I think it's a strap of the shirt below the sweater (see previous photo).

Let's try another outfit. This came with system panties (even though it was a trouser outfit) and sandals that came with feet. Remember sandals that came with feet? You can still wear them! That is, if you really liked them. Just alpha the feet away with the HUD. Oh, and I can at least recolor the toenails, but not use the fancy toenail polishes - which no one probably looks at anyway. I'm coordinating nail polish with outfits all the time (and including their HUDs in the Outfit) and no one ever says anything.

Now I'm going to investigate BOM with the Genus head. I've pulled up the Maitreya BOM relay in case I need it because I'm starting from a regular mesh outfit. The BOM for Genus is on the Genetics tab. This was a slight problem until I figured out I had the wrong HUD up. For some reason I'd pulled up the Basic Animation HUD instead of the Setting Universal HUD. I just don't use this head enough. [Sorry about the white skin thing - I should redo the BOM outfit and wear something else, but this really points up that something's wrong.] 

Several minutes of bad words later and I get to the point I want to be at. In the process I seem to have changed my environment settings, so that's what the light aqua color is in the background. I also had to remember to remove the other head. See? Even I get confused. What a pain. 

Anyway, there's the BOM toggle next to the cheek. Now, we've got the red head again and what does that mean, class? Let's not see all the same hands. The head or whole body alpha is still on. It has to go. 

If her head looks weird, it's because she's wearing the shape for the LAQ head. But she's got on a system skin (also from 7 Deadlies) so her head and body match. Ahhhhh. 

And now it's Quiz time. I put the skimpy black lacy dress outfit back on and what happened? The body disappeared! 

Oh, nooooes! How to fix?

If you said "Just slap on the relays and the skin applier," you get full marks. 

Any questions? Then you may spend the rest of class reading until recess.

Going All Mesh On Us

Easel with modern paintings and animations.

[kusshon] is going to change to only mesh items, so some old but still lovely sculpt stuff is going at 60L or less ... and there's a hunt on for 8 pumpkins filled with cute furnishings, two of them mesh, until November 1. Lludmila loves [kusshon] and the pun in the name. Cushions with a kiss! Beolas, das verdient einen Kuss.

Curved retro shelf.

Table with chairs and animations and props.

Delicate Queen Anne occasional tables and a precious
umbrella stand.

Cat Shelf Cuteness

Cutest Thing Evah: Cat Shelves. Gacha for 50L at Izzie's. Pick up the free dripping blood jewelry while you're there!

Having Issues

Cool birdhouse from Night of the Living Cart Sale Mini-Hunt

The plan was to post pix of some of the really cute stuff Lludmila picked up at The Night of the Living Cart Sale and Mini-Hunt. She had on some clothes she'd found (yes, sometimes she is allowed clothes - she originally went to see what Cupcake Clothes had and to buy those cute fall flats from d.l.s. that Annthrasite blogged about) and an array of some of her favorite prizes or 10L sale items. It was artfully arranged. Then I failed to click the second button to save it - apparently. And I carelessly removed everything from the photoblock.

I did manage to get a shot of the birdhouse I found later, putting it up on the wall on Waldinsel. I still have that, but I was surprised to see that I didn't have a photo of the tidily arranged haul. grr.

You can probably tell by how few and far between the posts are that I have some ... issues. This is actually a lot of work. My avs actually go out and hunt down 98% of this stuff (that's half the fun), open the boxes, deploy or wear things, evaluate how well they work or if they're worth keeping, take a picture, put on or out the next item - lather, rinse, repeat. I should also be remembering where the items came from and record the slurl for the shop or venue. This is usually done in Notepad as a reminder and so I don't have to be in SL to finish the blog, but I'm not always organized. And then there are the times that rain interferes by knocking out my internet. Oh, and I have a day job.

So, you don't get fancy backgrounds or lighting in these shots and sometimes I just can't be arsed to blog.

And I don't know that I can be arsed to go back and redo that picture, so let's just say there are some cool 10L items on the cart sale (among some interesting more expensive items), and some really fun things for 2L in the mini-hunt. The mini-hunt is fun and ranges over the snowy, spooky sim. The brains are difficult enough to find (look on, under, in anywhere and open things) in noonlight, much more so in the sim's chosen lighting. Because the prizes do cost 2L, be sure to check the pix on the website here before you buy. Lludmila made a list of things she really wanted ... and still didn't find them all. These folks are fiendish, y'all!

Happy hunting/shopping!

Sidenote: For the first time in ages Lludmila was hit on during this hunt. She meant to tell this guy that his auto-translator was lousy (she had to look at the Portuguese to figure out what he was really saying), but he was getting in the way of her hunting ... and she couldn't be arsed. She just said "No, thank you!" and went on her merry way.

Update: Annthrasite helps Lludmila out with
her own finds. Bless her! 

"Thanks, kiddo!" "Inga problem."

I Simply Remember ...

Lludmila waits for a house to rez at the
Collabor88 Home and Garden Showroom. 

I've been remiss of late - not posting anything on my blogs. I've got lots of good reasons. Well, reasons, anyway. It's hard to photograph, trim, write up, document items. So I have decided to just list a few favorite shops here - and post some photos if I feel like it.

This post is limited to houses and furnishings. I have no end of both - much of which was exceedingly cheap or free, "free" being my favorite color. But there are several shops I will go to and actually pay for things. Okay, I cheat with Trompe Loeil - I get that stuff from Collabor88. Oh, I dread the coming of Collabor88 each month - knowing how little resistance I have as well as how difficult it is to even get in there in the first week to ten days.

Frostbite Cottage, Willoughby Lakehouse, Cortona Villas,
Rustic Cabin, Beach Bungalow, oopsie - Outdoor Rock Shower,
Chatham Loft Skybox. Note how some houses hover in midair. 

So, that's my first shop: Trompe Loeil. I have counted 12 houses/buildings from Cory Edo, whom I follow on Plurk where she entices us with unfinished versions of things for Collabor88 and FaMESHed. I avoid FaMESHed because I think the wares there are over-priced. Some of these TL structures have only been deployed long enough for me to say, "Ooooo, miiiiine." I've lived in others. By "lived in" I mean I kitted them out with furnishings and spent some time with them. They are all gorgeous. They are perfection. And that is my only quibble with them. I don't live in perfection in RL, so a lack of scrapes and dings makes me uneasy. "Perfection" is not necessarily realistic.

Barton Creek Tower section, Caramel (with Trompe Loeil furniture),
the Moose that made me so happy, Westlake Mini in the trees.

I have only four buildings from L2 Studios, but I have used them all. L2S structures are all about dings. My absolute favorite house was the Caramel, which has been deployed several times. The Westlake Mini was out for ages because I liked it so much. By "ages" I mean many months. Second Life time works like dog years, only even faster. The Writer's Shed is now up on Awen - and is sprinkled with quirky things from Art Dummy, Kusshon, Ionic and Sway's.

The Writer's Shed - in some artsy midnight mode.

Waldinsel is littered with my buildings and Waldron suggested I could just pile them all up at 100 meter intervals, but he's nice enough to let me stick stuff all over and I don't want to wear out my welcome. And too many houses are distracting. Yonks ago there was a hunt on some island where you could get a coffee shop, if you found the egg or whatever the prim was, and that building lived in my inventory unused (typical) until recently. I was so intrigued by the overly generous freebie (I think an entire building with really nice textures is pretty darn generous) that I went to the shop's showroom and looked at all the houses. I picked one called, prosaically, "08" and purchased it. The two of them now stand side-by-side on a huge grass prim (oh, so much easier than trying to arrange a house on uneven ground), "08" now filled with almost every piece I've ever gotten from this last favorite shop-where-I-will-actually-pay-for-stuff, Zinnia's.

Cambodia inspired jungle pool (subscriber gift), psychiatrist
furniture, bathhouse (and HY's 08), more Zinnia stuff.
I'd add more, but frankly, there's so much. Go look at my
Flickr pages.

I love the colorful southwestern style from Zinnia's. Sure, I've accumulated some free stuff through the hunts from there, but I've also bought quite a bit. As colorful as it all is, it all seems to coordinate. I haven't been so happy with decorating since I found the moose head to put in the Westlake Mini (see L2S photos above). There is no more room in "08" and I've already had to remove a bed so I could put in a daybed instead. And if she puts out something else, I suppose I'll have to sacrifice some other furnishing to stick back in a file folder for a while.

There are so many other places with great things (Post is one that springs to mind), but these are the main three.

The Dreaming House is probably just up long enough
to admire it. Sigh.

Shops:
Trompe Loeil Mainstore
Collabor88 (Several favorite shops are regulars there - Clawtooth & Barnesworth Anubis, for example. Collabor88 opens on the 8th day of each month and is heck-on-toast to get into.)
L2 Studio
Zinnia's

Other Locations:
Lludmila's Pied a Terre in Awen (Wormhole to Chatham Loft skybox inside)
Willa Waldinsel (a collaborative work in progress)
Cafe Lludmila (just 'cuz)

Small Pleasures

Beware of lazy cat!

What does Lludmila keep in her shed?

L2 Studio put out a new house, which Lludmila had to go see because she's addicted to houses and one of her favorites came from there. The latest creation is usually set out a short ways from the shop, all kitted out with furnishings to inspire the buyer. Lludmila didn't stay long looking at the Padre Island house because there was a couple on the bed sexting each other ... in chat and not IM. Sheesh.

Anyway, while trying to escape from an embarrassing situation, Lludmila saw an open storage locker-type thing. Wondering if it were part of the house and if the doors worked, she clicked on it. It's a free broom cupboard! You can bet she "bought" the freebie and took it home to stick on the outside of her current house as a garden tool shed!

On the side of the shop (near where you rez) there are some cute signs that are freebies as well. Lludmila chose the "Danger: Beware of Killer Cat" to go with her new static cat feature (that came from the Dreamland Designs fireplace collection). The cat looks just like our RL cat, Collage. The only thing you need to beware of Collage is to be sure to be out of her way when she tries to run away from you. A truly scaredy cat.

The many sleeping positions of Collage.

OMG! Just like the static cat! And about as much movement!

I have to keep cat beds at the desk to keep them from sleeping
on the scanner/printer and breaking it like the last one.

Amazing Things

Annthrasite doesn't look out of place or anything. 

Annthrasite was innocently trying to wrangle some freebies out of Paisley Daisy when she saw a gorgeous fountain out in front of the shop. She clicked on it to see where it came from and got the landmark for the shop. Wow. The role-play oriented furniture is beautifully textured and detailed and low land impact - but not cheap. However ...

Hmm, seems to be available for another 18 days ...

They are holding a one year anniversary celebration with some snazzy freebies. So, hop along to aisling and just gape at how beautiful things are. Oh, and play Las Vegas with the gachas. There are some really cute vintage office accessories for 50L a try!