Welcoming 2009 at the Bubbly Nightclub!

New Year's Eve is one hot event in SL....revelers are dressed to the nines, and every hour there is a New Year somewhere in the world to celebrate with a kiss! It goes without saying that the romantic ballrooms and clubs are jam packed with couples and singles alike. If you haven't visited some of the romantic dancing places in SL, you're missing quite an experience. From blues to salsa to formal ballroom, several wonderful venues exist to suit your mood. Regardless of choice, the most popular places have several things in common: great music, detailed romantic atmosphere, friendly staff, beautiful dancing animations and shopping on the side. The one problem with many of these popular venues is the lag. Many evenings, the number of avatars present, dancing with complex flexi attachments makes rezzing and walking somewhat of a drag. So it is a great delight to find lesser known places with all of the qualities of the popular ones.
I stumbled upon the Bubbly Nightclub on the Ratopolis Sim about a month ago, but hadn't actually been back for dancing until last night. What a special night to choose this romantic spot! The architecture is very stately with warm toned marble/granite and ocean views. The dance floor is a perfect size flanked by long windows, columns and red curtains while the second floor contains a fully functional dining experience. Best of all, this place was gorgeous without the extreme lag! There were several couples enjoying this place, but not nearly as many as the main romance hotspots. The music was a perfect blend of vintage romantic vocal jazz and slow big band. A reminder that the dress code is formal at Bubbly, and if you need any help picking out that special attire, there are many shops and a wedding chapel across the bridges on the Mediterranean style port (looks like architecture by Barnesworth Anubis which creates the ultimate seaside romantic atmosphere). Be sure to head around behind the ballroom toward the ocean after walking down the stairs....there are proposal animations, a gondola ride and wine cellar underneath the ballroom....this helps Bubbly live up to its mantra: Where Romance is Alive!

Bubbly sure knew how to decorate beautifully for the evening, and the dance animations were very romantic. One of them even included this sweet kiss animation, just perfect for the stroke of midnight! Happy New Year everyone! Here's to a hopefully brighter year! Bubbly will definitely be one of my favs this year!
Sif

Spooky Nights & Halloween Frights!

If you can't tell already, Halloween is a HUGE deal in SL. Not only are there cute Halloween freebies everywhere, but the decorations, dance parties, costume contests and haunted houses can quickly fill up your calendar! Don't forget to visit your favorite stores for freebies and discounted costume accessories. RFyre has some gorgeous witch hats and gowns with orange, red and black colors. Sparkle Skye just released a beautiful harvest ball gown at a discounted L$500 price for members. By mixing and matching some of your finds, you can create a unique look. This ensemble is from the two deals mentioned above. By taking off the fairy wings that originally came with the ball gown, adding the witch hat and some jewelry from Alienbear Castle, I created a fancy witch ready to waltz.

Before October 31st passes into ages past, take a group of friends around to a few of the haunted themed Sims. This activity is fun alone, but even more fun with friends. The Sim featured in the following pictures is the Halloween Horror Village in Antiqua Paradise. The place is huge and includes various areas dedicated to horror movies and tales of fright. Many different pose balls can be found to make the adventure even more rewarding. The various death scripts are quite comical, including the guillotine, coffins and being eaten by a giant spider. Rumor has it that Freddie Kruger even lurks in a hidden chamber.

Another great place for a hauntingly good time is the House of Horror at Paradise City. Wandering through the house will allow you to encounter a haunted dance lounge and trap doors to various places hard to get out of....fun place to lose your friends! From there you should try to catch a ride on the Love Bugg Pumpkin on Lovers Lagoon which seats four people and sends you through a haunted house ala amusement park ride complete with scary clowns. This one is unique, but on Saturday night, the place was crowded and the extreme lag made the ride slow down until it crashed. If you go on a week night, I'm sure the ride would be better.

Speaking of tales of fright, don't forget libraries...seriously! Most of them are hosting scary storytelling sessions that feature classic literature, like this recent reading of Bram Stoker's Dracula held at the West of Ireland Library and Cultural Center. These sessions are held in voice by some very talented people, many with RL theatre backgrounds....so it's well worth the visit!

My advice.....there are so many events, you should invest in more than one costume...you'll need them!

Happy Haunting!

Sif

Searching for Fashion Fun and Other Events

Boredom should never be a word used in SL. There are way too many things going on to keep your SL social calendar crammed full. My first advice is to join your full (or near full) capacity of groups. Search for things you like to do, places you like to go, hobbies near and dear to you in the groups section to find other people and events that share your interests. Once you join these groups their events will be sent to you in the form of notices that offer details and teleports to the social event planned. For instance, I wanted to check out the Holiday action taking place on the 4th of July....so I entered "4th" in the events search tab and pulled up loads of events taking place, from treasure hunts to parades, to dance parties....the amount of fun going on was vast! I checked out a couple of places, but my favorite spot to party this fourth was an impromtu dance party held on the back porch of the White House at the Land of Lincoln Sim. No period dress was required for this event and the music and company were high quality. The attendees were even treated to a fireworks display at the end of the dance...great fun! (BTW - If you can find a nice Civil War era ballgown to wear, there is a historic Ball event planned for Land of Lincoln on Friday night July 11th!)

For the regular event seeker, and to get a glimpse at the newest fashions making their debut in SL, I recommend searching for the word "fashion" in the events tab to locate fashion shows going on. Your best results will be on the weekends of course, but some of the fashion shows involve charity fundraisers with auctions and other great coordinating activities. And don't forget the "notify" function at the bottom of the event description to have reminders sent to you before the event begins!
Just last weekend I searched for "fashion" and came across a fashion show that I missed, but when I teleported the event location anyway, there were still models hanging around and I was able to learn about a neat new period gown designer...definitely worth the teleport! My second fashion show listing described a show that was in progress on the S.S. Galaxy cruise ship! What an experience! The ship is huge with several decks of mall shops and a very nice fashion runway on the upper level. You can even rent rooms and take a cruise - honeymoon suites available :-)

The people and models can make you lag a bit, but take a seat and relax...the models make several trips up and down the runway to allow for the rezzing drag.
What a great way to see the new designs on actual avatars! And as they stand around after their run, you can zoom your camera in to get close-up views of the clothing quality. Definitely a fun and informative way to spend some weekend time in SL!
Enjoy!

Sifriya

More (nearly) Free Fourth of July Fun :)

Hip hip hooray! My RL alter ego and I are both off for the holiday after today! To celebrate I put together another Independence Day outfit:



Both camisoles are from SWA's "Patriotic Cami Freebie Pack."

The shorts are from Free Spirit,and they are free of charge! They are part of a package with a Spanish flag t shirt and some fun poses. Upon landing at the teleport spot, the package is a big poster on the wall behind you.

The shoes are from Seasons, and I got them for free in their Independence Day Star Hunt.

The sunglasses are freebies from Prim Optics, and the bracelet was personal gift to me. The shape is from Body Doubles. The free skin is from Frick, and the hair is free from Diversity Hair.



Enjoy! This outfit cost $1L for the hair :)

Some (nearly) Free Fourth of July Fun

I'm working on a series of posts about skins in Second Life and one thing I've found out is that you can look fierce for free. In honor of Independence Day here is an outfit I put together for the occasion:



The cool stars and stripes pants with the skull belt come from Strayer and cost $1L.

The shoes (I feel like I can click my heels and end up in Kansas with them!) come from Seasons, and I got them for free in their Independence Day Star Hunt.

The top is part of Adam n Eve's Happy Fourth Swimsuit gift, which costs $1L for a pack of US and UK themed bikinis.

The hair is "Victoria" in navy from Diversity Hair.

I got the Catherine Deneuve shape for free in a camping chair at Body Doubles.


The skin is a fabulous free theme skin from Frick. Fricka Morgath, in her words, "specialize[s] in Fantasy, Gothic and
Wildly madeup skins!" Her skins are fun, good quality, and very reasonably priced. This particular skin is called "Fireworks" and comes in a pack with a tanned version, a goth version and a shape. She even through in the cool red white and blue sparkly thing that you can see over my head in the picture. I'm wearing the tan skin with my outfit.

Here is a close up of the "tan" version:




Notice the nice details in the makeup. The Peacock Blue eyes are from The Body Politik, and the hair is "Elizabeth" in Mahogany from ETD.

Finally, here is a closeup of the "goth" version:



The hair is "Jocena" in Black from Diversity Hair. I put together my Independence Day outfit with some things I already had in my inventory and an addition $2L.