*9 More Places!* Wrap up!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to peruse the 9 More Places series. It’s been fun, as always, and I hope everyone found something new that they’d never seen before! There is so much amazing, creative content out there, I could probably keep doing these series forever…and I might. 🙂 For now, I’m going to resume my regularly scheduled blogging…hopefully get some new releases out for my own shop…and, of course, keep my eyes open for new super cool stuff!

For the wrap-up, here are the links to each blog post, as well as the SLurls for the shops – all in one handy location. I’ll add a link to this on the main page along with the permanent link for the Top 12 Places series, and then it’s all at your fingertips. Enjoy!

9 More Places!

1. Ingrid Ingersoll’s Homestore [blog post]

2. Belle Belle Furniture [blog post]

3. Another Man’s Treasure [2nd location] [blog post]

4. Tapioca Tastes [blog post]

5. Tesh Gardens [blog post]

6. New Trail [blog post]

7. Organica [blog post]

8. Happy Mood [blog post]

9. Pillow Talk [blog post]

*Second Spaces* Top 12, part 9!

Welcome to Part 9 of my Top 12! Need some background on what this list is all about? Click here for the original post.

Hello, dear readers! Today we continue landscaping with Botanical, by Kriss Lehmann. Botanical and Heart Garden are truly the two places I send anyone who says ‘hey, where can i get some plants?’. Botanical is another place you must visit as much for the sim itself as for the product. When you go, explore everywhere. Every. Where. You won’t be complete until you do.

That’s sculpted water I’m sitting beside, and it’s amazing. The water, and the ground covers, and the pathway texture, and the sunbeam, and I’m pretty sure also the rocks, are ALL available for purchase. Of course, Botanical has trees, and they are awesome. The majority of them are quite prim heavy — and worth every prim! — but if you’re limited in your prim allowance, then the trees may not be for you. There are a million other things here that you’ll want, though.

Japanese Red Maple, Emerald Forest Tree, Japanese Orange Maple:

“Sunbeams, Elle? Really?” Yep! This is the most awesome thing ever, and it fills my heart with sunshine and light. Sunbeams and rainbows. Friggin’ awesome.

It’s magical. 🙂

Another thing I really like is that Kriss has provided demos of some of his ground covers and various plants, like reeds, and these capers:

These capers are one of my favorites, too — they’re mod, and I used them in my KT’s garden (which I totally need to blog) — I stretched them out quite a bit, and the effect is perfect — very wild English moors, in my opinion. 🙂 And having demos available is a wonderful idea — plants and ground covers can be tricky, so many thanks to Kriss for giving us a chance to try them out before we buy.

As I mentioned, there are a million things you’ll want at Botanical. There are beautiful butterflies (I have some on my sim 🙂 ) – really gorgeous crystals ( that I used in the lake on the sim 🙂 ) – also, and these are precious, you can find fireflies and will-o’-wisps, perfect for adding touches of whimsy and fantasy. So go forth! Explore! Enjoy! Purchase! Buy me some fireflies! Kthxbai!

*Second Spaces* Top 12, part 8!

Welcome to Part 8 of my Top 12! Need some background on what this list is all about? Click here for the original post.

Let’s recap: so far, we’ve covered the house and the furniture — next step is the landscaping! It’s my belief that you should landscape regardless of how small your place is, or how close the neighbors are — landscaping can be a potted plant or two on your deck, or it can be an entire formal English garden. Either way, you have to do it!

Anyone who has read my blog since the early days knows exactly where I want everyone to go buy their plants and assorted landscape items — Heart Garden Centre, by Lilith and Dolly Heart. I spotlighted Heart Garden last year, and have mentioned them in about 5 different posts…because I love them. 🙂 Lilith Heart is absolutely the sweetest lady, on top of being a gorgeously skilled designer. Odds are, dear readers, that you all are familiar with Heart – and I guarantee you have all seen their items sprinkled around SL. Those fabulous lighted trees- you know the ones, in pink, blue, or white, that look like 100 individual softly glowing bulbs entwined in a fantastically detailed tree, that you see approximately every 50 sqm across the grid? 😉 Those are from Lilith and Dolly!

I went to visit the Heart sim for the purposes of this post, to get some pictures of items new to me, and I’m going to share those with you here. Please, though, review my previous posts on Heart, and just go there to see the wonders — words cannot do it justice. Here’s what I found for show & tell:

Red Rose bouquet with garlic mustard-potted: Perfection. In a pot.

Hyacinth-Delft Blue: There are several color variations of these gorgeous plants. Perfect for your porch or deck, or even just inside in the foyer!

Tropical Anthurium: Don’t you just want to touch the flowers? It’s like you can almost feel them!

Micro Islands: I’m not sure how i never noticed these before — Lilith and Dolly have actual little (you know…’micro’ 🙂 ) islands, all ready-made for placement on your water property. There are about 6-8 different shapes/configurations — great idea!

This is just the tiniest sampling of the delights waiting for you at Heart Garden Center. You must go, and go now! There will be a quiz!

*Ooooh!* update

Just a quick update on Otis – he’s coming along very nicely. I learned quickly that I should pause growth before I log off SL – otherwise, he slowly drains his water, then sends me an offline IM to let me know he is not happy! The guilt was too much to bear. 🙂 But look how pretty he is!!!

Pick up your own at PlantPets!

*Ooooh!*

Ok – this is awesome. I saw the ad for PlantPets on lindenlifestyles.com (where Second Spaces is also currently advertised – yay!) I absolutely love this concept — plants that grow, and with which you can interact. Genius. Bruce Liebknecht is the mastermind, and I love love love the shop! So cute.

There are a variety of roses, asters, calla lilies, hyacinths, whatever-the-plural-of-hibiscus-is (hibscuses? hibiscusii? hibiscu?), and you can purchase gift copies, too. These would be excellent housewarming gifts, by the way. The plants come potted, and Bruce also sells pots individually, or you can re-pot your plant in your own container. The options are so fun:

• you can set it so friends can water your plant for you (handy)
• you can check the water level, the development, the health, and the happiness of your plant 🙂
• you can turn on IMs from the plant – it will IM you every 12 hours if it’s unhappy (awww 😦 )
• you can turn on particles for when the plant is happy 🙂
• you can set the speed of growth, or pause it completely

So, I had to buy one and check it out. 🙂 I picked up the Eleusis Roseus – which I renamed to Otis, for no specific reason other than because I could. I set it up in the house, then sat on the couch and worked on the club schedule for next week — saw some pretty significant results over about 30-45 minutes.

See the happy particles? And finally, I sit back and enjoy the bloom. I paused the growth after this part because I had to leave, and I don’t want to miss any of it!

I’ll have to post updated pics as Otis continues to grow — it’s like having a puppy. 🙂 Check out PlantPets here – so fun!