The Cat's Christmas

 Tis' the Season for Mistletoe and Mischief. Cats certainly deliver the second, don't they? This year, for the holiday season, I've decorated the Trompe L'oeil Darford Estate Cottage. It's an elegant house, and a change from the last few holiday houses I've chosen. (That reminds me, I never did show you last year's house, did I? Maybe later.) I love this house, even though I feel as if I could have added something else to make it shine for the holidays. The wreaths in the windows ended up making it look like it had eyes, which was not the look I was going for, so I removed them.

My favorite room in the house, with its warm and cozy fireplace, is the study. The cats enjoyed curling up and keeping warm on those cold, snowy nights. I combined the Fall Wall Panels from Kraftwork with the lovely Warm Hearted Tales Keeper from 8f8. The Heritage Furniture from Merak and the Velvet Boheme chair and pillows with their leather textures and dark floral fabrics combined to make this a room I want to curl up and read a book in all day. The cats tend to steal all the good spots, including my comfy Winter Gray armchair, where I left my tea and pralines. 

Speaking of mischief... the dining room is always a place cats can find something to get into. They know they're not supposed to be on the table, but when mom's not home, who will know?

And, nothing is more attractive to cats than a tree this time of year. Mine was no exception. It's from Fancy Decor - Festive Christmas Tree, though the base tree is the Apple Fall tree. I surrounded it with holiday decor - several things from the [Zerkalo] Noel gacha collection, plus a glass cabinet from Enaitch that I filled with my collection of snow globes from Fancy Decor. Jake updated the previous year's snow globes with PBR versions and sent them out to everyone who had previously purchased them. As you can see, the cats are having a lovely holiday. I hope you did too! 

A Bright Autumn Day

Autumn is in full swing, and I've been enjoying all the beautiful colors both in real life and in Second Life. In perfect timing, Trompe Loeil released a lovely cabin last month in three color versions, which just begged to be surrounded by the vibrant colors of autumn. Earlier this year, Studio Skye also sent out a PBR update for their trees, making it the perfect opportunity to create a charming little forest on my parcel!

I included some pine trees from Fundati to add a touch of green. To complete the look, I incorporated various autumn grasses, rocks, paths, and birch trees from LOVE. I also used a few items from Evergreen Gardens and Kohono, along with a garden wall and gate from Apple Fall. The fire pit and chairs are from Nutmeg. 

 Trompe Loeil - Lisbette Country Cabin in red.

The Little Library and Bench from Nutmeg make a nice place to sit and read when you find them in a clearing in the trees.

The inside of the house is welcoming with warm wood floors and trim, and the white plaster walls show off the beautiful stone fireplace. I used some comfy furniture from Nutmeg, along with a few odds and ends from Apple Fall and other places. 

The kitchen is the same one I've been using since it was released earlier this year from Kraftwork- The CottageCore Kitchen. The dining set is from Chez Moi, the curtains from Elm (tinted darker), and the bar and buffet cabinets are from Merak. Merak has been hitting all my buttons with their last few releases this year, and the Heritage Collections are wonderful!  

I always like making a little coffee nook and laundry space to show off all the cute things I can't help buying, especially when they release them in fall colors! 

Last, but not least, I have a cozy bed set from Lou Chara upstairs in the loft. I didn't finish out the entire upstairs, as once again, I ran out of prims. All those trees and pretty grasses add up! 

I hope you enjoyed my Autumn retreat. Now I need to start thinking about getting ready for SNOW! 

It's Been Awhile, But I'm Still Here

Hey there!

It's been a while since I posted, but I'm still here and still decorating my homes in SL. I just forgot to post the photos. 

Anywho... I'll probably (maybe, who knows) make a post of several houses all at one time to catch up with the last 18 months, but for today I'm just going to post the one I just finished. Then I can pick it all up and start with my autumn house... I already have some ideas on what I'd like to do.

On to today's home. This is the latest house released by one of my absolute favorite creators, Apple Fall. It's called the Patricia Cottage, and it's completely lovely. It's made with the new PBR textures, and also has several different options for floors, walls, and outside paint schemes to customize it to your tastes. I also like that while it's a decent size, it's just a one-bedroom home, which I prefer to decorate. I get bored with the bigger houses before I finish, and I also run out of prims... ooops! 

The brick doesn't change, but you can select your door color and the wooden siding (far right side of the house). Apple kindly included several of the textures in the package, so I was able to retexture a garage to match the house.

The entryway is a decent size, and I used a photo Apple Fall posted on Primfeed as inspiration to decorate part of it. I switched out some items, but the arrangement is similar. The living room has items from AF, Nutmeg, Merak, and Kraftwork. I also used a lot of AF furniture throughout the house because the textures blend well. You'll also notice quite a few pieces from Nutmeg, another of my favorite creators. 

The kitchen is a mix of the Kraftwork CottageCore kitchen with the Apple Fall Douglas kitchen sink. I tinted the white kitchen black, but it is sold in black too. The dining area and bar are a mix of AF, Fancy Fall, and the chairs from the Merak Harborline set that I tinted black to match. I've been having so much fun with textures since PBR was integrated into SL. I retextured the top of an old AF table with a new PBR marble as well as the marble part of the Camillia Bar. The checkerboard tile floor is also a texture I purchased and applied. 

The bathroom has the latest bath set from Merak, the Caldera Spa set. It includes the bathtub, surround, towel rack, floor, and several items behind the tub on the shelves. The other half is mostly from Nutmeg and Fancy Decor, with a few random decor pieces from other places. I don't know what was going on with the sink mirror. PBR mirrors still give me fits and act wonky sometimes.

The bedroom is a mix of Kraftwork (bed), Nutmeg (tables, chair), and AF (wall panels, cabinet, bench) with assorted decor and plants from my inventory. The patio set through the doors is from Fancy Decor. 

Also, I wanted to mention my curtains! They're animesh and blow in the wind. I saw them being used at a store and had to find them! They're from Sweet Pearl Fusion. They're adjustable in size, but the adjustments are limited, and you can't mod them outside of the kit that comes with them, but you can play around and make them work if you've got a big enough set of windows. 

As always, let me know if you want to know about a specific item in the photos, and I'll try to remember where I got it from. Now it's time for me to go think about autumn houses.

Gatekeeper's Lodge in Winter

 

This autumn one of my favorite SL stores, Apple Fall, released a recolored version of a previous gacha item, the Gatekeeper's Lodge. They also released a modular greenhouse that works well with the Lodge, though the windows require a little tweaking or hiding behind things. Still, with a little effort, I have a complete extra room to decorate. As it was the holiday season I made it the place to put my tree. Quite a few really nice home decor items were put out this fall, and I enjoyed putting them together. 

The Lodge is one open room on each floor, which makes a cozy home but can be tricky to decorate. I think I made it welcoming, even if it's snowy and freezing outside. Here's my holiday home this year in SL. The main room is divided into a small kitchen area, entry way, and combination dining & living room.

Nothing like reading by a nice warm fire while it snows outside!

Upstairs is another single room, which becomes a nice bedroom with another cozy reading nook.

And out in my holiday room, I have a lovely tree by Apple Fall and Fancy Decor that came out last year for Christmas. I added the beautiful new fireplace from 8F8 - Imagine...-Warm Hearted Tales Keeper and bracketed it with some wall panels from AppleFall. The colors matched amazingly well and I tinted the top of the wall to make it all blend together. 

I would say that 80% of my decor in this house was from Apple Fall and Nutmeg, because they do the cozy old fashioned look so well. I hope you all had a lovely holiday season, whatever holiday you may celebrate. Meanwhile, Raynee is gazing into the fire while it's freezing outside and dreaming of her next vacation to the place she has in her picture frames. 

Tiny Homes

Happy Autumn! 

I hope you're enjoying all the cooler weather (or warmer if you're on the other side of the equator!) I certainly am, though it's a little chillier than I like this weekend. 

My most recent home in SL was not a singular home, it was a set of Tiny Homes from Kraftwork. They are color-change both inside and out including the woodwork, plus the deck can be removed. I had fun decorating each one in a different style. 

In the green one, I tried to keep everything inside of it from Kraftwork, just to see if I could. I managed to do so except for a floor panel I put under the kitchen area and the toaster oven, which is from Fancy Decor. I had to do some editing to make some of it fit, but it wasn't too hard. The outdoor decor was not all Kraftwork, but that wasn't my intent so I'm okay with that. I did use a few outdoor items from there even so. 

In the navy-colored house, I went with more of a fun, beach theme. I did keep the Kraftwork Mini Boho kitchen in it because it fits with only a little editing, and I used a bed and cabinet from Kraftwork as well. 

The final color the house comes in is red. I did use another Kraftwork kitchen in it; it's the modular kitchen collaboration with Fancy Decor. The rest of the decor is from a mix of places. 

I had fun seeing what I could manage to fit into these tiny houses. I hope you enjoyed seeing what I did, and if you have any questions about anything in the pictures just ask and I'll see if I can tell you where to find them. 

Now, I'm off to take pictures of my latest decor adventure, which is almost finished.

This Was Supposed to be August's Blog

 

This was supposed to be August's blog post, but I got distracted. I had all the photos picked out but time just got away with me. I was just enjoying the sun and water so much that I couldn't bring myself to blog. At least that's the excuse I'm giving to you, and doesn't this photo just look like that was true? 

This house was another of the {YD} houses; the {YD} Houseboat. Their houses are usually on the smaller side and that helps me finish decorating them before I get distracted by another house! This one was the perfect summer house to decorate. 

It has a patio area on each end of the houseboat and a balcony on the top between the bedrooms. That's a lot of places to relax and enjoy the summer sun and I sure did my best.

Sunsets are beautiful on the deck with a drink!

I don't usually catch many fish, but it's always nice to sit and relax in the sun. You can always make up a story about the one that got away, right?

It's always 5 o'clock somewhere!

Inside the boat started out as a fairly open plan area with one small room at the side and then an open stairway in the center of the boat. I chose to enclose the stairway and give the different areas more definition. 

Kitchen, because I love to cook and I love to eat. Thank goodness I don't gain weight in SL.

I used repurposed some outdoor fencing an wall panels into a stairway railing and to enclose the staircase. 

Some of you might recognize my bookcase. I saved it after decorating it once and now I just whip it out and add a few bits and pieces to make it match the house it's being used in. It's the Kraftwork Bellosguardo Library with a lot of random decor added. I also made a little area around the corner for listening to music. I put some rattan window screens in to give a little privacy without blocking the light completely. 

There was a small room on the first floor that I put a bathroom in, because you know I have to have a bathroom if I can; if only to use all the bathroom decor I buy!

 

Okay, I have a confession. I did get distracted by a new house and didn't finish the second bedroom in this house. I know, shocking I'm sure. I did enjoy decorating the one I finished though. It's nice and spacious. 

 Ah well, it's time for me to actually work on my next blog. I've already done the photos and everything. Maybe I'll manage to get it posted in September and make it a two-blog month!