Prim Perfect Jigsaw: A House in Cloud Party

A Home in Cloud Party

All right – perhaps today’s jigsaw isn’t the most exciting of images – and I could have chosen one with islands floating in the sky. But I liked the colours and simplicity of this – and the way the owner has started to customise it.

This is an example of the free house (and the land it sits on) that you’ll get if you complete the tutorials that teach you the basics of how to use Cloud Party – movement, camera, navigation and simple building (well, more manipulation of objects).  One you know all that, you can move around and customise your home. There’s free furniture to help in your inventory, and more can be bought in the marketplace – I bought a free plant pack and started planting bamboo around my home.

Like Gertrude Stein’s Cleveland, there isn’t a lot of there there yet, but in giving people the chance to nest and put down roots, I think Cloud Party have made a shrewd mood.  Would Second Life have had a higher retention rate if they had made an initial investment in something like the Linden Homes? If, to get your initial free 512 (back in the day), instead of having to compete with land bots and insanely high land prices, they had simply handed people the keys and said, “Here’s your first home”?  And what if they’d done that for all accounts, free and premium?

Cloud Party are already letting people replace the provided homes with ones of their own choice.  Could it be a winner?

A Home in Cloud Party, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Prim Perfect Talks at the SL Christmas Expo: Honour Macmillan, Maxwell Graf, Loz Hyde and Kriss Lehmann

Today the talks in the gorgeous Prim Perfect Pavilion are at 3pm, when Saffia Widdershins will be talking to Honour Macmillan of Honour’s Post Menopausal View of Second Life, and at 5pm, when she will be talking to a trio of mesh-enthusiastic designers about their work (and, I suspect, other things as well!): Maxwell Graf of Rustica, Kriss Lehmann ofBotanical and Loz Hyde of Meshworx.

Meet Honour

Honour Macmillan is the writer of the very popular blog, Honour’s Post Menopausal View of Second Life, for which she travels the grid finding new and remarkable places – frequently very beautiful.  She is also Deputy Editor of Prim Perfect, and an amazing organiser (and trainer) of volunteers for events that have ranged from Burn 2 to Second Life birthdays – including SL9B.

Meet the Designers

Last week we had a fantastic discussion with Max and Loz, and Kriss eventually joined us on stage. It started at 3pm SLT – the host bailed at 7pm, whimpering it was 3am in the UK, and the guests carroed on with the audience until 8pm!

So we’ve invited this energetic, informative, enthusiastic and hugely talented group back for a second session of talking to and with our audience.  And Saffia reserved the right to go to bed at a …erm … reasonable hour – after that, it’s up to you!

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We have a full programme of talks coming up at the Expo – make sure that you don’t miss them! And please note that there have been a couple of recent changes … including one “back by popular demand”.

Date	Time	Interviewee	Topic	Interviewer
Thursday, December 6th	3pm	Heavenly Villa & Honey Lusch	Home & Garden Market Village	Saffia Widdershins
Friday, December 7th			Happy Hunting! taping
Saturday, December 8th	3pm	Auryn Beorn	Scripting & education in Second Life	Cinders Vale
	5pm	Isla Gealach	Cheeky Pea and The Nest	Saffia Widdershins
Sunday, December 9th	3pm	Cain Maven	Meshing about in Second Life	Saffia Widdershins
	5pm	Maxwell Graf, Charlotte Bartlett and Loz Hyde	Mesh creations	Saffia Widdershins
Monday, December 10th	3pm	Judy Chestnut	Dwarfin	Cinders Vale
Tuesday, December 11th	3pm	Froukje Hoorenbeek	Dutchie and working with mesh	Saffia Widdershins
Wednesday, December 12th	3pm	Rosamoo Mendelsohn & Xia Nishi	Hunting!	Saffia Widdershins
	5pm	Jessii2009 Warrhol	Nexgen Aviation & Tribute	Cinders Vale
Thursday, December 13th	4pm	Callie Cline	Business in Second Life	Saffia Widdershins
	6pm	DeeAnne Dufaux	Builder’s Brewery and Park Place	Cinders Vale
Friday, December 14th Happy Hunting!	3pm		Happy Hunting! show (with an interview from the Expo, and the final episode in this season of The Blackened Mirror)
Saturday, December 15th	3pm	Candy Cerveau and Malkavyn Eldritch	Strangelings	Cinders Vale
	5pm		Mal Burns & Tara Yeats TV in the Metaverse	Saffia Widdershins
Sunday, December 16th	3pm	Heavenly Villa & Bill Kaye	Centre for Business Development	Saffia Widdershins
	5pm	AGrid Aftermath/Cytherion Revnik	Yumis and Games	Cinders Vale
Monday, December 17th	3pm	Honour Macmillan	Blogging Second Life	Saffia Widdershins
	5pm	Maxwell Graf, Kriss Lehrmann and Loz Hyde	More about Mesh!	Saffia Widdershins
Tuesday, December 18thSaffia	3pm	Edward Pearse	Christmas Traditions	Saffia Widdershins
Wednesday, December 19th	3pm	PARTY!!!	DJ’d by Victor Mornington

Come along and learn more at 3pm and 5pm SLT! And we don’t think we are too hard to find …

Christmas Expo 2012, photograph by Wildstar Beaumont

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: Home and Garden Market Village Winter Fair

Home and Garden Market Village Winter Fair

Today’s jigsaw comes from the Home and Garden Christmas Market, which is celebrating the season with a Winter Fair, which runs from December 1st – 14th.  The whose region has been made over for Christmas, and special events have been planned.

The region is the centre of the Home and Garden Market Winter Fair Hunt – although hunters will also have the chance to travel to other sims as well, as some designers have outlets at the market, but have the gifts hidden in their main stores.  And there is a 10L Mystery Sales Spot which has has been updated with some great Christmas/Winter themed home and garden items.

And from the 8th – 14th December there will be a teaser for a new sales event starting in 2013 – the Fab Four Sales Event, where every two weeks the Home and Garden Market Sim will host an event of new home and garden items sold for 50L for four days only. The Winter Fair teaser will see special seasonal items sold at this special low price.

They will also be hosting live music and a skating rink at the winter Home and Garden Market Sim – so bring your mittens and skates and enjoy the wonderful Winter Fair!

But first … let’s do a jigsaw.

The Home and Garden Market Village Winter Fair

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: an Asian Inspiration by Emerald Beningborough

Asian Inspiration

You may have noticed that – at the end of all of our jigsaw posts – we invite you to add your pictures to our Flickr group, and say that we hope to use some of them here as jigsaws.  There are some very striking photos posted to the group – and today’s is one of those.

It’s by Emerald Beningborough (whose photos you can see here), and it’s a photograph of one of her styling projects for the new Inspirations book – the amazing source book for interior design that’s the brainchild of Pitsch Parx and edited by Persia Bravin.  This is the from the second part of the Second Volume – and the whole is the most amazing and visually ravishing treat. Do go and take a look. And also a discreet tissue top mop up the drool …

Let’s take a deep breath and do a jigsaw!

Asian Inspiration Book Vol 2 by Emerald Beningborough

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Prim Perfect’s Meet the Designers at the Home and Garden Expo: Nexgen Aviation and the Flying Tigers, and Glas Houses and [][]beach street[][]

We have a busy day here at the Prim Perfect Pavilion on Home Expo 13 with two Meet the Designer talks with a variety of people participating!  First, at 2pm, we have Jessii2009 Warrhol and Guarocuya Giano of Nexgen Aviation and the Flying Tigers, who will be talking to Elrik Merlin, and at 6pm we have Sandi Glas of Glas Houses and Heath Pevensey and Rory Larnia of [][]beach street[][] homes and gardens.

Meet the Designers: Flying Tigers and Nexgen Aviation

The Flying Tigers are one of the most intrepid – and largest – flying groups in Second Life.  Their amazing planes and re-creations of combat in aircraft from the Second World War are matched only by the astonishing story of the original Flying Tigers in real life. Nexgen Aviation create many of those planes, and it’s certain to lead to a fascinating discussion!  You can also see more about the Flying Tigers on a recent Designing Worlds show.

Meet the Designers: Glas Houses and [][]beach street[][] homes and gardens

Sandi Glas, of Glas Houses, creates affordable low prim, stylishly crafted, prefab homes and custom builds, which range from cozy beach cottages to open-plan styles inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright – she won the former Frank Lloyd Wright Virtual Museum’s building competition on several occasions! She’ll be talking about her own work, and also the future of building in Second Life. And we’ll also be joined by Heath Pevensey and Rory Larnia of [][]beach street[][] homes and gardens, two child avatars who arun two of the best known business in the family roleplay arena – Larnia Kidsand, of course, [][]beach street[][] homes and gardens. They’ll be talking about their store and about their work as designers.

We have a very full programme of Designers appearing at our Pavilion over the ten days of the Expo, every day at 2pm and 4pm (with a couple of talks at 12 noon and 4.30 pm. You’ll be able to see the full schedule, and details of the other events we are planning (including the peace lantern release and the Blue Willow mini-hunt), on this blog shortly.

Lantern Release on the Prim Perfect stage

And don’t forget our daily release of Chinese Peace Lanterns every day at 4pm on the Prim Perfect stage area on Home Expo 13. Everyone is welcome to join us and release lanterns for friends and comrades – both those we cherish with us, and those who we have lost. Come along, set your viewer to sunset (as in the jigsaw) or midnight, and release you own lanterns! You can read more about it here.

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Home and Garden Expo Guide available now

Home and Garden Expo Guide cover

Here it finally is – the Home and Garden Expo Guide 2012, available to you all, after a few glitches!

You’ll find maps for all the regions, as well as details of music events, classes with Builder’s Brewery, Meet the Designer talks at the Prim Perfect Pavilion (although check the blog too – some of the timings have changed.  Plus there are details of sponsors and, of course, all the stores participating!

There are even some pictures to keep you turning the pages.

Vendors for the Guide should be appearing around the site later today – there are already two at the Prim Perfect Pavilion.  Copies have also been sent to all Prim Perfect, Designing Worlds and Primgraph subscribers – you should be getting yours shortly!

It’s also available from the Second Life Marketplace or, if you prefer, you can read it on the web.

But however you read the Guide, use the landmarks embedded in the web AND inworld versions to come to the Expo and explore all the amazing things there are to see here!

 

 

 

 

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: Nepenthe House

Nepenthe House

Today’s jigsaw is Nepenthe House, created by Troy Vogel. You can read about this stunning house – and about Troy Vogel – in the new issue of Prim Perfect magazine.

Read more about the new issue here – and find out about the celebrations for Prim Perfect’s Fifth Birthday! You can join the hunt, follow the quest, come and dance at our party on May 5th … or just hang out by the nearest pool with a cool drink and a copy of the magazine!

Nepenthe House, created by Troy Vogel and photographed by Tricia Aferdita

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Having a fun hunt at the Home and Garden Market!

Home and Garden Market Hunt II

The Home and Garden Market Hunt 2 kicks off at 12 noon SLT today (17 March) and will run for two weeks.

It’s a 10L sale showcasing some cracking home and garden stores, some brand new and some well established.  The Hunt spans 40 approved stores. There’s a group inworld for hunters and the Home and Garden Market blog will be updated with pics of all items and the hint list in time for the big launch later today> Inworld, you can also join the Hunters Group.

The starting location is the store Marmalade Jam.

The Home and Garden Market supports new and smaller home and garden content creators, providing an affordable location for them to sell from, with a real community spirit and advertising. In addition to the stores in the form of houses that are arranged off wandering lanes around the village, there are market stalls arranged along the winding lanes.

Home and Garden Market Village

The designers here produced the wonderful Christmas Linden Homes for our December 2011 issue- you can read more about their designs and the designers from Pages 105 – 121 of that issue.

The Market is the brainchild of Heavenly Villa and Katy Glendevon, owners of L’aize Days and Marmalade Jam furnishing stores.

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Happy Fifth Birthday, Galland Homes!

The Poipu Dream Home from Galland Homes

“Come home to luxury” is the motto of Galland Homes, the creation of Robert Galland.  And, in celebration of the birthday, for the next two weeks that luxury is even more affordable!

Yes, in honor of turning five years of age, ALL Galland Homes models are 50% OFF between March 17, 2012 and March 31, 2012.

Palm Springs Home from Galland Homes

Galland Homes opened in Second Life in February 2007 and has aspired to provide high quality and unique home designs to the Second Life community ever since.

In its introductory publications five years ago, Galland Homes announced that it wanted to recognize what was so unique about the Second Life experience. In our virtual existence, one can easily be whisked away to luxury beach front property, drive luxury automobiles, and wear beautiful clothing and jewelry. Your housing in Second Life, Galland Homes believes, should be no different and should allow you to realize your dreams.

The Aspen Home from Galland Homes

Over the past five years, they have tried to honor that mission and, judging by the response of the Second Life community, they have been successful!

Now, and for the next two weeks, Galland Homes wants to give something back to the community in recognition for the support it has received. All home models, whether luxury mansions, log homes, or elegant beach homes, are being offered with unprecedented savings and at prices never before seen.

So, if you are thinking of purchasing a new home, now might really be the time to buy!  You can see Galland Homes inworld at:

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Prim Perfect’s First Issue of 2012 says it with Hearts!

Prim Perfect Issue 39: Cover

It’s time for our first issue of 2012—and it’s a very exciting one!

The year 2012 will see our fifth birthday, which is a respectable age for any magazine in these difficult times, let alone one that exists to provide news and information about homes and gardens in virtual worlds!

We’ll be announcing more events as our May 1st birthday draws closer, but in this issue we are giving details of our first Prim Perfect Hunt in nearly three years—the Home is Where the Heart is Hunt, organised by those brilliant people behind the Whiz Hunts.

Prim Perfect Issue 39: All About Our Hunt!

You can read all about the Hunt in the magazine—but there’s more! There’s a Quest to find thirty numbered hearts which will lead one lucky person to win L$10,000!

Some of the hearts are hidden at the Prim Perfect headquarters, some are hidden at the Designing Worlds studio… but no fewer than fifteen hearts are hidden in the pages of this magazine! For details of how to find them, see Page 10.

But, of course, we have a magazine packed with news and features that you will love to read too!

This month we visited the beautiful region of Second Norway.

Prim Perfect Issue 39: Second Life Norway

Jedburgh Dagger set out to explore the fjords and waterfronts of this beautiful land, while Honour Macmillan talked to the man behind it all—Ey Ren. Java Jetcity explored Ten Places in Second Norway you should explore when you visit. And Rowan Derryth has been talking to our designer of the month, Winter Thorn of {what next}, and exploring the special and very lovely home she has created in Second Norway.

Prim Perfect Issue 39: Designer of the Month

We have a special romantic story for Valentine’s Day with a steampunk twist, written by Denny Kozlov. And we have another comic created by Wildstar Beaumont and set in New Babbage (again based on a Designing Worlds show we recorded there). Discover for yourselves what happened when my co-host Elrik Merlin and I became embroiled in the Murder at the Burlesque! And Tricia Aferdita explores our Landscape of the Month – the naughty but very nice region of Lost Eden (and our first adult location in Prim Perfect!).

Prim Perfect Issue 39: Charity News

There’s a very thoughtful and timely piece from Tricia Aferdita on giving money to charities in Second Life—and on how charities can build a presence. Beq Janus presents a roundup of the Christmas Expo in aid of Relay for Life—and a new Heart-felt project that is raising money for Relay for Life too!

Prim Perfect Issue 39: Linden Homes

This month we have gained something very special in our Linden Homes. We have not just one but an entire village of Linden-styled contemporary homes, each using only 117 prims—and we asked a whole team of designers from the excellent Cookie Jar initiative to furnish them for us. I think you’ll agree that they did a fantastic job! Honour MacMillan interviewed the designers, while Beq Janus explored the homes.

Prim Perfect Issue 39: Pathfinders

Qwis Greenwood has been mentoring the Pathfinder programme, and this month the enterprising Harlow Heslop advised the Pathfinders on how to take great product photos. Find out what she had to say—and see some Before and After shots too! We also hear from our Trailblazer Laetitia Aluveaux, who has been blazing a trail with a store on Inworldz!

Winona Wiefel is on hand with Advice for Newcomers on making a picture frame (perhaps for a photograph you’ve taken following the Pathfinder article), and there’s more news about the series of Designer Challenges, as well as the most recent bargains from Spruce Up Your Space.

Prim Perfect Issue 39: Landscape of the Month - Lost Eden

There’s exciting news about Metaverse Arts—where Gwen Carillon is taking over from Tricia Aferdita as host—and there’s a whole new-look studio too! Learn what is happening with the Designing Worlds and Happy Hunting! shows on Treet TV.

And of course we have free Prim Perfect gifts for you. Gifts are only available in Second Life through our inworld Intellibook version, so read on to discover how you can get your inworld copy too. And, of course, amongst the gifts, you will find the hearts that will help you win the Home is Where the Heart is quest!

And our team of talented photographers, led by PJ Trenton, Judith Lefevre, GM Nikolaidis, Wren Carling, Tricia Aferdita, Winona Wiefel, Wildstar Beaumont, and Honour MacMillan, bring you some of the most artistic eye candy from across the metaverse.

All this with News from the Grid and more!

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So how can I get Prim Perfect?

If you prefer to read the magazine online but not inworld, there are choices. Firstly, there’s the wonderful Calaméo system, which allows you to moves smoothly through the pages, giving you the feeling of reading a real magazine. You’ll find Issue 39 here – and please do leave a comment!

Prim Perfect Issue 39: Linden Homes

But, if you like to download your magazines to read as you commute to work, or in the bath, or wherever, you can also download a pdf of the magazine from Calameo – or print it out!.

Prim Perfect Issue 39: {what next} design

It is available through SL Marketplace (just search on the site for Prim Perfect). This will deliver you a copy in the form of an Intellibook that you can rez and read inworld.

We also have subscribe-o-matic kiosks throughout Second Life – so you can just click to subscribe. You’ll be sent a copy of the latest issue, and then you’ll receive your issues regularly!

You can get the latest issue – and copies of all our earlier issues too – at our headquarters in Costa Rica.  It’s got a great cafe to relax in while you’re reading the latest issue too!

Or you can have it delivered to you each month as an IntelliBook, by joining the Prim Perfect Readers group inworld. It costs nothing to join and, apart from delivering the magazine each month, we won’t overload you with chat or messages!

Prim Perfect Issue 39: Murder at the Burlesque!

In addition to delivering the Intellibook version of the magazine, you’ll also get a link to the online Calaméo version of the magazine, so you’ll be able to access that too.

How to Join Prim Perfect Readers

• Inworld, open Search.
• Search Groups for Prim Perfect Readers.
• Click to join

So … enjoy! And let us know what you think of our new edition!

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