A Change of Focus

So many things have changed for me of late -- mostly because of my not so quiet outlook on the Tilia TOS and privacy policy.  True to my word I stopped trading in linden dollars in order to avoid signing the Tilia agreement.

With that decision -- and particularly since I decided to keep my store open -- came some changes.   I knew this plan would make a big difference in my virtual life and I was OK with that. I believe in following your own personal drummer and trying to be my best authentic self. We all have choices and we live with the consequences of our decisions.  Happily things are pretty much "all good" with me.

As you might expect I have an abundance of linden dollars these days. What to do with them. I have TRIED to shop and indeed have purchased a few impressive items over the last months. But, perhaps simply because I am OLD and JADED (laughing here) I can't seem to get up a lot of enthusiasm for designs that have been reworked over  and over during the last few years -- and for some, over the last decade.  I realize that the saying "there are no new ideas" is cemented into our culture, but I would really like to think that there ARE some new ideas out there -- or at least twists on some old ideas.

With a hefty saving hanging out with my alt, I turned to "land experiences".  I love making new areas -- both for myself and for people to visit. With the demise of the Machinima Open Studio Project (lastly at LEA7) both the need and the ability to keep styling areas disappeared.   I moved from my mainland plot to a homestead and had fun bringing some of my favorite MOSP scenes into a new arena.    Then I found a lot in historic Babbage (the canal district) and set up a small environment there.  It is fun being part of a place that I have visited regularly over more than a decade.  I like "history" as well as "tradition".

As mid-November rolled around I had four places to call home in some sense of the word.  Was that enough? Apparently not.

Tuesday eve I was wandering through the Destination Guide looking for snow sims for winter photo shoots. I had been looking for a snowy area to rent for the season but that wasn't going well at all, so "snow for photos" was the plan of the night.     I found a couple areas and bookmarked them. You will likely see them in the background over the next couple of month.  Then I let my mind wander and fingers roam to other spots in the Editor's Choice category.


And there I found Peony, a mix of rentals and photo shoot areas in that upscale high land impact  (read that as primmy) design.  Fun and eclectic and niche -- it grabbed my attention. Some perusing found me at the website where I read through both rules and available properties.    Properties listed as available were no longer so, but I did fine one just-my-style small home in the community area of the sim -- which it turns out had JUST been released into the wild. 

The house is the Apple Fall Country Hall which is small with an open plan.  There is a large hilltop deck overlooking the sea and plenty of privacy.  It is part of the community area with its slightly junky ambiance.


The rental comes with 750 land impact points. I had planned to do a before and after styling post showing the house empty and then decorated with those 750 prims. Well -----    I only used about a third of my allotment. Not much story there :D. 

So over time you will see bits and pieces of my new place. It is very very different from any other home I have decorated. I found things in my inventory that I had never used and it was great fun making a "rich gal fallen on hard times" styling.

My only two purchases were the Nutmeg piano and some great plants currently out at Cosmo from Compulsion.   There is definitely atmosphere!

My top photo is the music room and  parlor -- or a corner of it.  Yesterday I added some of the new gacha items from the Trompe Loeil Advent Gacha.  Note the Narrow Tree and Leaf Wrapped Gifts in the corner and the clever Deer Head Candle Holder on the piano. 

For those of you wondering how the Trompe Loeil Advent Calendar works, here is an explaination:  https://trompeloeil.biz/advent-calendar-faq/

The calendar this year is a display table with holiday scene on top and ornaments in the glassed area.  A 16 land impact item it is free and available at the Trompe Loeil store as well as the Trompe Loeil gacha machine area at The Arcade (December).  So a lovely gift whether or not you complete the whole calendar.

The gacha key is here.


And before I close this long tale, here is a snapshot of my favorite piece of the set: