Janney is the first actual new design since Moderna last year. It’s been busy irl, and I just hadn’t had the time or energy to make anything. Since consolidating the rentals, a lot of my Second Life time has freed up and my creative mojo started to flow again. The first result is Janney.
Janney fits 2048s and higher. Clocking in at 106 prims, Janney is a bit larger and has a little more detail to it than the other houses. Janney has two stories, 3 bedrooms plus a great room, foyer and a florida room with a hot tub. There are two interior fireplaces, one in the master bedroom. Terrace leads out from the master bedroom. There are some corner shelves in the smaller bedrooms. Interior colors vary, with a lovely royal red for the master, neutral colors for the common areas, and earthier tones in the smaller bedrooms. Footprint: 26×39.
Touch tint for the windows, locking doors.
Janney is too large to be linked as one item, so it’s packed with a rezzer. Just move the rezzer to adjust placement of the house. Copiable version only.
Posted in Second Life, prefabs
I’ve modified my design for Cristalle Heights into a release that landlords can use. Mariposa is just large enough to be linked all in one piece. A fourth level wouldn’t link for whatever reason, and so I cut it off. It’s pretty spacious, and every floor has a balcony. 54 prims in total.
Copiable only, 20×20 footprint, locking doors, one-way tint. 3750L.
Posted in Second Life, prefabs
I switched out a few houses and added some skyboxes. This has had the nice effect of clearing up some of the space on the ground on the north coast, which was a little cluttered before.
I added a lot of games and dances to the beach, as well as a really fun little water slide that had been collecting a lot of dust in my inventory. I don’t even remember purchasing it. The games used to be in Antares, before I closed it. I figured it would be nice for someone to use them, instead of them sitting in inventory.
I’ve started some decoration of the sea floor under Cristalle Channel. I have some old fish emitters that weren’t being used, and it is better that they make the island a little more interesting to travel around. I have some more stuff that I recently bought, to spruce up the sea floor.
House of Cristalle got a facelift of sorts. It’s still a work in progress, but now almost all the buildings can be rezzed on the holo platform. That will make it easier to see the size and dimensions of the houses. I have plans to add some inventory, but the design process sometimes is quirky and needs a flash of inspiration and motivation to start shaping prims. It’s coming.
There are still more basic tasks that need to be accomplished first, to make things more efficient. No need to write about those here, but it’s what will be taking up my time, unless I get an obsessive streak about creation.
Posted in Second Life, development, properties
Cristalle Properties is downsizing and consolidating our rentals onto Cristalle Island. Any developments will be estate-based, as we will no longer have any mainland holdings.
Why?
Partly because my real life doesn’t allow me the luxury right now of managing 168 rentals. It’s just too much churn, too much worry with too much vacancy to make me feel comfortable at this time. The amount of energy needed to maintain it is just not sustainable at this time. Maybe later.
Another part is frustration with the mainland. It seems that the only way to keep sailable water is to own it, as your neighbors cannot be trusted to keep open pathways. Hopefully in the future, Linden Lab will ensure that all the waterways have a protected path cut into them and that no objects (e.g., bridges) will be allowed to encroach upon them.
So with the downsizing comes a bit of redevelopment on the island – a few new skyboxes, a new rental center, new houses, and new apartments! Welcome Cristalle Shore and Cristalle Retreat to the family of affordable apartments.
So we have downsized to 40 units in total, which should allow me to give each tenant the kind of time and energy they deserve when they need help. With Penn’s retirement from management, it’s just me for now and we will see about getting some other help. Even so, this should be far more manageable than the previous situation, in light of my real life circumstances.
Some views of the island:
Welcome home!
Posted in Second Life, properties
Moderna Loft, fits 512s
So I took a little break to create the first of the new houses coming out for the Relay For Life Home and Gardens Expo.
Enter Moderna: a spacious, low prim loft designed to fit 512s. Moderna clocks in at 18 prims, without teleporters, leaving plenty of prims for decorating. A teleporter is included. Moderna is designed in light, cool blue colors with modern glass doors and windows and Aspen blocked wood flooring. Touch tint and locking doors are standard. The footprint is 13×26, plus an extra 2m for the steps. Moderna is modifiable and comes in both copiable and single versions.
Moderna will debut at the RFL Expo on May 2.
Posted in Second Life, prefabs
The primary thing eating my attention span is the update to HippoRent and its plugins for the doors, security and windows. I’m about 30% complete. I will take a break in order to make the new houses for the RFL expo, but it will be done in the next week.
Posted in Second Life, admin
Longtime readers would have noticed more than just a cosmetic change to this site, in that I have generalized it so that it will cover all of the activities under the avatar name Cristalle Karami. This is meant so that I can discuss all my creative endeavors in one place, as I may branch out to other virtual worlds.
Particularly, I mean Blue Mars, which is going into public beta in June. It doesn’t mean that I will leave Second Life, but it is a creative outlet worth exploring. I have applied to become a creator there, and will soon receive the nondisclosure agreement and SDK. It will be a chance to create in more powerful ways, and to develop on a scale that is not as limited as Second Life, although the personality of the world may be somewhat different.
Blue Mars is not a true direct competitor to Second Life because the average Joe or Jane cannot create content on the fly. That characteristic gives Second Life its Wild West flavor, but even Second Life is working hard at destroying that personality, as seen with the upcoming changes to adult content that Linden Lab (foolishly) thinks only constitutes 4% of the content on the grid. Try a much, much larger number, LL.
Either way, I think this is a world worth having a foot in, regardless of what I do in Second Life. More on that later.
Posted in Blue Mars
I am happy to announce that I will be participating in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life Home & Gardens Expo that is coming up in early May. I have a couple of ideas kicking around and will create a few limited edition houses that will be sold only for RFL and the proceeds will benefit the American Cancer Society.
But a little input can’t hurt: what would you like to see?
Posted in prefabs
I decided to get my own domain for all my businesses. For now, I am using WordPress as a content management system and have imported my Blogger posts here. The buildout will take a little time but it will be worth it in the end, as WordPress allows me to have static pages as well as blog entries.
I will be slowly tweaking the layout as time goes on, as I scrape the rust off my web design skills. But in the meanwhile, here we are and welcome to the new site!
Posted in admin
I have some ideas to improve my communication via this blog, but part of it involves me re-teaching myself a few HTML tricks. 
Hence, the title of this post. If I can, it will be much more than a face lift and will add much utility to this space.
I made a new blog for my sailing exploits. Nothing too fancy, but I’m happy to share that aspect of my second life there.
No new properties or buildings as yet. I have an idea that is not totally stillborn, but I’m not happy with how it’s shaping up just yet. It’s in pieces on my workspace. It’s often a challenge to make a place feel just right, the way I envision it in my head.
Zillow Dejavu of Second Chick has graciously written a very nice feature article about me and my work. I have already told her twice, but it’s true – it’s really humbling to have nice things written about me or the things I do. Second Chick is a Second Life resident blog focused on women’s issues related to SL. It’s very new, and very well executed. Zillow has put in a range of very interesting content so far and it has great potential. I wish you the best, Zillow. I’ll be following your blog.
Posted in admin
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