Bellisseria Parade of Homes Review

Landscaping on Sand

By Teresa Firelight

A lot of people find it easier to landscape a grassy yard than a sandy one. So what I would like to do in this article is to give some hints and ideas on how to landscape on Sand.

I would like to start with a few general guidelines:

1- Realism – in real life, sand is a very unstable foundation. You don't see a lot of Brick or stone structures on sand, unless they have dug deep and made a cement foundation… and even in those cases, the sand under the cement eventually erodes and the cement base shifts and the bricks break apart, crack or crumble. So in second life, if you want it to be believable, shy away from brick walls and/or large cement structures.

(Interlocking bricks can be used in sand as a patio type floor, usually packed inside of a wooden frame. These bricks are not cemented in place, they are hand packed on the sand and can be adjusted when the sand shifts.)

2- Density – grass and plants do grow in sand, but not in dense packs. Generally, they grow in little patches. So when you decorate sand, it is believable to have little patches of plants (sand-grass, flowers) scatted around. But if you get too many too close to each other, it won’t look right.

3- Flatness – Sandy beaches and lots are generally not totally flat, but the yards of SL houses are. It is a good idea to use a few mesh sand banks or small boulders to break up the terrain and keep it from being totally flat. Fallen trees and driftwood can also be used to break up the flatness of a yard, as can varying heights of scattered plants.

4- Plant Selection – Think about the type of plants you find at beaches and sandy coastal areas. You expect to see palm trees, twisted oaks, leafy tropical plants, clumps of beach grass or pampas grass, small clusters of flowering plant. You don't expect to see rose bushes, willow trees, banks of groomed green grass, etc. So when you are selecting plants for your sandy landscape, choose tropical or coastal plants that you might find in beaches or coastal areas in real life.

With that in mind, I would like to talk about some tools that are out there for you to use in landscaping. I am going to mention a few specific brands but be aware that other brands will have similar items.

Love has some lovely beach landscaping stuff. I used their “Beachside Fence & Grass Pack,” along with their “Big Beach Pack 2.” I also used their Bella Flower Patch. I love their rope fence and board walk (in the Big Beach Pack). I had originally used another brand for the rope fence, but was frustrated to discover that the LOD wasn't very good, and the fence disappeared from sight when I was in the center of the parcel. The LOD on Love’s Fence and on their boardwalk is both quite good.

I also like how natural their various grasses look.

If you would like some believable sand flowers, check out Love’s Bella Flower Patch Pack. They pack has many excellent flower options in it I choose to limit myself to two because I find that landscaping looks more believable if you don't have too many different color sets. The ones I choose to use on my parcel were “YELLOW” and “LILAC DAISY.” As you can see from the picture, they look great on the sand.

There are so many excellent palm trees to choose from. I prefer mesh over sculptie because mesh rezs in faster. In addition to that, I want my palm tress to have good LOD so they look nice from a distance, and I would like them to be as Low LI as possible. I kind of hit the jackpot with a set of 5 different palm trees that Dekute Dekore sells. They come in different shapes – all with a shadow and a cost of only 1 LI. My favorite is the set of three palm trees pictured above, which cost me only 1 LI.

Botanical also has some nice stuff for landscaping sandy lots. I personally don't have much of their stuff, but one of my neighbors used Botanical’s Beach Boardwalk set along with some plants to make an absolutely lovely side yard and path to their deck.

You might notice the Pampas Grass in that picture as well. That is actually a popular item that I have seen in several beachy homes. It is by Kid Grass Garden landscaping. I personally don't use their products because I don’t buy No Copy landscaping items, but it looks like they have a collection of lovely beach plants. If you don’t mind No Copy items, this store might be another great landscaping resource.

Skye remains another great resource for beach landscaping. I love most (but not all) of their stuff. For example, I purchased the “Skye Sandy Beach Pack 1 Building Set” and was very disappointed. It was not up the quality that I am used to from Skye and it was very difficult to work with. And there isn't much in there that would be useful for landscaping a sandy Linden Home parcel.

However, Skye makes a lot of other nice beach stuff. In addition, I use Skye non-beach products in my sandy landscaping. As pictured above, some of the plants in the “Skye Zen Garden Building Kit” are perfect for the sand.

Also, the Skye Twisted Tree looks just like some of of the trees you see along the beach in Carmel California. It is another plant that is perfect for sandy landscaping. This twisted tree looks particularly lovely if you remove the base and put a little ground covering under it.

This is my favorite tree to use for landscaping on Sand.

Finally, you can take the option that one of my neighbors on Gullible took… you can put a mesh prim over the sand to emulate a grassy area. My neighbor used Aethis Creations Mesh Landforms v.2, flattened it a bit and choose a texture that is a mixture of sand and grass. This type of thing is not my first choice for landscaping sand, but it does look good when placed under an OL Stilt house. It can be a useful tool for stilts, especially if you don't fill the whole lot with it, and still include some sand plants around the perimeter.

In conclusion, there are a lot of tools you can get to do some very attractive landscaping on a Sandy Parcel.

Low LI Landscaping with Skye’s Zen Garden Building Kit

Writer|Photographer: Teresa Firelight

I recently discovered the Skye Zen Garden Building Kit, and it is extremely low LI for incredibly beautiful landscaping. I discovered it because I was walking in a newly released Sakura region shortly after getting my parcel. I noticed someone with the kit on a platform just above his house and watched as he put it together to make a lovely yard. It looked nice, and it looked easy to do, so I IMed him and asked him a few questions about it. He invited me over to take a closer look. He also told me that when you link it all together, the LI used goes way down. In his case, the entire large yard (including some Japanese pieces that did not come with the kit) was only 79 LI.

 

I left there thinking, I really need to get this. So I went to the marketplace and bought it.

 

As it turned out, the pieces were a bit too large for my 512 yard. So I began pulling them apart and creating my own smaller landscaping. I was amazed at how easy it was to do this. The kit had been put together in a way where you could put the pieces together or where you could edit it and pull off parts. There were filler pieces to use. Most of it was easily resizeable.

 

It was sort of the best of both worlds. If you knew how to edit, it was easy to pull this apart and use it to make your own unique creations. If you did not know how to Edit, no worries, you could just lay the pieces down and stick them together – super easy. And if your editing skills were not up to that, they even had a couple of pre-made configurations in a rezzer.

 

I remade the pieces for my tiny 512 Benibara backyard. I enlarged the small waterfall, and it looked great as larger pieces. I was rather plush with the plants and rocks. The garden turned out really pretty and only cost me 25 LI once I linked it all together. In addition, they included the ground and gravel textures in the kit. So I was able to stick a flat prim over the entire parcel, texture it, and completely hide any “holes” that did not have the kit covering them.

 

I decided to use the same kit in the front yard. I also threw in a tiny 5 LI boxed Koi Pond that I created from Prims and Skye water. The portion of the front yard made from the Zen Garden kit only cost 8 LI.

 

This kit works really well with the 1024-sized Sakuras. I upgraded from a 512 to a 1024 and choose the Ajisai style house, which has a U-shaped patio and a large rectangular backyard. I filled the “U” with a little koi pond and used the Skye kit in the backyard. I really wanted a large pond, lots of plants, and not that much path. So I decided to dissect the pieces and make my own lush garden, similar to what I had done on the 512 lot. Only this area was a LOT larger. I started by pulling the tiny waterfall/pond piece out and enlarging it to make a relatively large pond. I stuck some full pieces (like the kinked path and gravel path pieces) in there and filled in with dissected other things to fill in the gaps. I added a few of Love’s Mixed Wildflowers and some assorted full perm tropical plants I had purchased a long time ago. I duplicated the pond on the other end and had a path connecting the two ponds. I did not link everything together because I might want to move some pieces around. The whole thing (unlinked) cost only 42 LI.

 

The front yard created more of a problem for me. It was a very long and very narrow rectangle. I must have tried 5 or 6 different things before I finally found one that worked. I divided the front into three rectangles. I put Love’s ground cover and some cherry blossom trees on the two ends, and the center rectangle was filled from the Skye kit. (I had tried to put a wood frame pond there, but it just did not work.) I enlarged the waterfall/pond even larger than what was in the backyard and stuck it in front. I accompanied that with some wide Zen Garden steps, more plants, and some mossy ground cover. The front yard Skye Kit pieces only cost 9 LI. (The Love flowers and Felix trees were also very low LI and only cost me 7 LI.)

 

I don’t want to give the impression that the Skye kit only works with the Sakura. I have seen it used nicely in the Newbrookes. In fact, I have enclosed two pictures of that. One is the side yard of a 512 Gatewood house. This is a narrow strip running the 16M along the side of the house and curving around to the front. A path worked perfectly there, and the Linked landscaping cost only 13 LI.

 

The parcel behind the Gatewood home is extremely narrow. But it was “finished” beautifully with a Skye rock (slightly resized to fit), along with some ferns and mossy ground cover. That only cost 3 LI.

 

Also, the Zen Garden kit has been successfully used in Victorian homes. It makes a lovely victorian garden if you add some nice flowers to it (as pictured above). The garden in this picture costs 47 LI.

 

Just in case you want to try this, here is a link to the marketplace page: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Skye-Zen-Garden-Building-Kit/18025666

 

Happy Gardening!

Newly added Listings. Week of July 26th. 2022

For the week of July 26th. 2022, we have 3 new listings this week to share with you.

NEW LISTINGS	WEEK OF 26.07.22
The 512 Square Meter Home More info in box on porch. Find Under Sakura Home Listings.
Tara A Stilt Home Find under Stilt Home Listings.
Wyldforest A wild one Under Fantasy Home Listings.

 

 

Secrets to Effective Low LI Interior Decorating or How to Decorate Your Home Using Very Little LI

Writer|Photographer: Teresa Firelight

Secrets to Effective Low LI Interior Decorating
or
How to Decorate Your Home Using Very Little LI

Last week I showed you pictures of the Bradbury house that I fully decorated for only 75 Land Impact (LI). Well, more precisely, I decorated the interior for 75 LI so that I would have a bunch of LI to make a very lavish yard.

This week I am going to give you some hints (or secrets) to make a nice interior on a very low LI budget. (I won't have many pictures this time, but I will have a lot of helpful information.)

The secret to decorating your home beautifully with very low LI starts way before you rez the first Prim. You need to be equipped with some nice lower LI furniture and plants, and it helps to have a few extremely low LI pieces as well. I will discuss these shortly.

When you are shopping those L$50, L$60, and L$99 sales, look at the LI. When the sofa is 18 LI, the Coffee table is 4 LI and the two matching chairs are 6 LI each, that is 34 LI just for a bare-bones part of the living room. Add 3 or 4 of those beautiful 5 to 6 LI plants, and you are over 50 LI (1/7th of your total allowance) just in that tiny area alone. The best secret to not using high LI items is not to have them in your inventory. So next time you are looking at weekend dirt-cheap sale items, ask yourself where you plan to use them and if you have the LI allowance for it.

Don’t get me wrong, it is OK to have higher LI in your favorite rooms. For example, I love my LAQ modular kitchen and use it frequently, costing 70-ish LI for that room alone. But if I am targeting a low LI interior, then I use another kitchen with a much lower LI cost.

Here are some Low LI decorating Secrets:

1. Secret #1 is to start collecting some lower LI Furniture. LAQ’s Bed is beautiful and it is only 6 LI. The matching nightstands, lavishly decorated, are only 4 LI each. That gives you a very low-cost basis for a nice bedroom… add some shelves or pictures, a rug, maybe a dresser or wardrobe… all of which are usually also lowish LI.





Along the same lines get some low LI curtains. Fanatik has a set for only 2 LI. In fact, I love FANATIK’s curtains cuz they open/close and even come with some shadow maps so you can create your own curtain textures (if you are into that sort of thing).

Bazaar has some nice low LI chairs, bookshelves, entry tables, etc – and theirs are relatively cheap. But you have to be careful and check the LI before you buy because they also have some not-so-low LI items. One of my favorite things from Bazzar is their Paris Armchair… looks nice, has some color and texture options and poses, and is modifiable… all for only 2 LI. Likewise, Bazzar’s Arizona bedroom shelves beautifully fill most of a wall (bedroom or living room) and are only 3 LI.

And for kitchens, there are several places with low LI kitchens. For example, Kazza has a ByTheSea Kitchen unit (including stove and sink) and matching wall shelves for only 14 LI. In fact, I used it in my 75 LI Bradbury.

I could go on and on about lovely low LI furnishings and places that sell them, but I think you get the idea.

Let me also give a warning about low LI objects. Some creators sacrifice LOD (visibility when you are not right next to the object) to get low LI. In general, I avoid poor LOD objects like the plague. That is because when you move a couple of meters away from it, it either deforms or disappears. Before you buy something, back away from it a bit and make sure it holds its shape.




2. There are tricks to keep a place from looking barren. Use Low LI mesh shelves, wall-mounted bookcases, 3D art, photo sets, etc to fill in walls. Likewise, interior wallpapers can make a sparsely decorated wall look great and not sparse at all. There are 1 and 2 LI potted plants that you can stick in corners or near entrances. And beautiful large rugs can fill out a room in amazing ways.

But be careful with the rugs, because some of the small mesh ones can get pretty high LI when you expand them to fill in a bedroom or living room area. I had one rug that started at 3 LI and was beautiful. I stretched it a little for my room, and suddenly it was 6 LI.

In general, I don't like sculpties, but I find that sculptie rugs often look as nice as the mesh ones and are only 1 LI no matter how big you make them. One of my favorite rugs is the “Sculpt Carpet FairChang pack” gift from Nekka (a marketplace store) for only $1L. It comes with several textures but is also copy/mod so you can re-texture it to fit any room.




3. Collect some Extremely low LI items for your house. These are usually not cheap, but they can make a huge difference in LI cost. For Example, Dekute Dekore has 1 LI living room sets (sofa, 2 armchairs, and a coffee table as a single 1 LI piece of furniture). These tend to be largish, and won't fit is some of the Linden Homes with smaller rooms, like the Trads. This same-store has 1 LI Kitchen Table with 4 or 6 attached chairs (including poses and even rezzes some food on demand). They have 1 LI bed with nightstands on each side. They have a 1 LI piano, and several 1 and 2 LI pieces of individual furniture.

What Next has a large selection of low LI wall products... shelves, bookcases, multi-item picture frames, and knick-knacks that are only 1 or 2 LI each. In fact, there are a lot of other excellent creators who offer very low LI wall items… way too many to mention them all.

4. Editing Tricks To Reduce LI.

I am not sure how LL’s Land Impact calculations work. Sometimes adding/or removing a script from an object has zero impact. Other times, it can increase/decrease LI. For example, I had one LI TLC Egret (bird). I wanted to put it in a rezzer, so I added a rezzer script to it.. and the LI suddenly went up to two. A lot of creators (Kazza for example) deliver their products in rezzers. Sometimes removing the unnecessary scripts will reduce the LI of the object. Other times it won't make any difference.

My recommendation is to duplicate the object (drag-copy or rez new instance – either one is fine). Then delete the scripts and see if the LI goes down. If removing the scripts in the test object's LI goes down, then do it for real. If it doesn't make any difference and you might want to the script in the future, leave it in.

BTW, scripts can increase a region’s LAG. So if you have the color you want to use in your house, you might want to remove the texturing script. In fact, if you are not using animations or giver scripts, it is a good practice to remove scripts from all copy items. If you need the scripts in the future, you can always rez a new instance of it.

Another thing that can help or hurt is Linking objects. A lot of creators make ½ LI items. Rezzed separately, they are 1 LI each. Link them together and it only costs 1 LI for both of them. Sometimes items are maybe ¾ or 80% of an LI on their own. Linking two together doesn't make any difference, but when you like maybe 7 or 8 mesh items, LI goes down by 1 or 2.

HOWEVER, some creators make mesh objects at 1.4 LI. Rezzed alone, it only counts as 1 LI. But rez two of them and link them, and the 2 stand-alone objects go to 3 LI. It doesn't always save you LI to link... sometimes it costs you more. For example, What Next’s “Spring Bloom Tulip” is 1 LI when rezzed individually, but the cost of linking multiple ones together is higher than the cost of leaving them unlinked.

You can make a copy of the set you want to link and link that copy. If the LI goes down, link the original. If it goes up, leave it unlinked.

There is more that could be said about low LI furnishings, but this article is already rather long. I hope that you find it helpful and are about to “get more bang for the buck” out of your limited Linden Home LI allowance.

Newly added Listings. Week of June 26th. 2022

For the week of June 26th. 2022, we have 0 new listings this week to share with you.

 

NEW LISTINGS	WEEK OF 26.06.22

 

Furnish The Newbrooke Bradbury With Only 75 LI

Writer|Photographer: Teresa Firelight

Furnish The Newbrooke Bradbury With Only 75 LI

A low LI furnished house does not have to be barren, sparse, or unattractive. However, a low LI house interior will, by definition, not be lavish. You won't have nick nacks, plants, art, and paintings filling every wall space and spare corner of your house. But you can still have a lovely and fully furnished home. For example, I decorated a Bradbury house (a Newbrooke) for a mere 75 LI (Land Impact), leaving 276 LI for a plush exterior.

This article is part one of a two-part series, and it will give details (room by room) of how I furnished the whole house using only 75 LI.

The rooms to the left of the front door became 2 bedrooms and a “piano room” connecting them. I used the large room to the right of the door as a living room. I kept all but the leftmost set of patio doors in it closed and treated them like windows. The far-right room became the kitchen and dining room.




Let's go over how I furnished each room, starting with the kitchen. The main kitchen structure is 2 pieces from the “Kazza ByTheSea” kitchen. The two Kazza pieces are sold separately and named “KazzaByTheSeaCounter” and “KazzaByTheSeaShelf.” I put a 1 LI “Jars and Utensils” (from LAQ Decor’s Kitchen) on the counter. I linked these pieces together, and it came to 14 LI.

I placed the Hive “wall pot rack” (2 LI) on the wall between the counter and the Fridge. For the Refrigerator, I used the one from the LAQ Decor’s “Kitchen set,” which is 5 LI. There are lower LI refrigerators I could have used, but I happen to like this one. (It opens and has a couple of poses.)

The total LI for the Kitchen is 21 – the highest single-room LI in the house.




The dining room has an extra-low LI table with 4 chairs – all part of a single mesh object. It is sold by Dekute Dekore and is named “[Mesh] Modern Dining Set for 4.” It is only 2 LI! The table top was very plain, so I covered it with a 1 LI prim and put a nice wood grain on it. I also added a 1 LI coffee service decoration to the top, which came from LAQ Decor’s “Kitchen Set.”

Note that the table itself can rez individual dining sets -- dinner, dessert, wine, coffee, etc. Each thing that is rezzed adds to the LI when it is in use. I choose not to rez any of them.

I also put another of the 2 LI Hive “wall pot rack” on the wall. I could have used something else, like hanging utensils or art. But I happen to like that pot rack so I used it on both ends of the room. Finally, the Spice rack (2 LI) is also from the LAQ Decor’s “Kitchen Set.”

Total LI for the dining room is 8.





The living room is the largest room in the house, but it did not take many LI to decorate it.

I created a sitting area using two Extremely Low LI sofas. The Dekute Dekor “1 Prim Modern Wood Living Room” includes a sofa, two end tables, two chairs, and a coffee table as a single mesh item– all for the low low cost of just 1 LI. The second sofa is the 2LI Dench Designs “Colour Change Sofa.” Both sofas were modifiable, and I tinted them to match each other. I placed the sofas facing each other and put them on top of a 1 LI sculptie rug. (You can get that rug on the marketplace from Nekka for only one Linden.)

I created my own 1 LI potted plant, which I used in 3 corners of the room. The 4^th corner was an open door and did not need a plant. I made the plant by combining the planter from XED Design’s “XD Iris In White Wood Planter with 4 iris” with the “Tropical Plant” from Reid Parkin’s Mesh Plants store.

The room is mostly scenic windows, so I choose NOT to use curtains. There was one blank wall that needed something. I put a very interesting 2 LI pipe bookcase on it. The bookcase is from Bazzar and is named “Toronto-Study shelf.”

The total LI for the living room is 9.






The entry hall leads into the piano room, which is a rectangular room connecting the two bedrooms. It is too wide to be a hall, so it needed to be furnished. It could have easily been a study or a sitting room. But I thought it would be fun to make it a music room and put a piano in it.

The piano itself is another of those amazing 1 LI pieces from Dekute Dekore. It is named “[Mesh] Grand Piano – White” and includes both the grand piano and its bench. I did not want to crowd the piano but I also did not want the room to look empty, so I filled it with a large 1 LI rug. It is basically the same rug as in the living room but sized for this room.

Everything else is around the walls. One wall is filled with a pair of wall shelves from What Next. The pair is sold as “Winter Picture Shelves” and they are 1 LI each.

The wall across from the shelves is a window, covered by Fanatik Home’s “Curtains.” This is a 2 LI set that opens and closes and can be resized to fit any window. It comes in gold and blue textures, but also includes a shadow map. I made my own white curtain texture for it. (The view outside that window is “awful” so I left the curtains closed.)

I put a cute little wall rack with some wine bottles next to the window. It is the What Next “Wine Wall Rack,” and costs only 1 LI.

The remaining wall is a short wall, but it has just enough room for a cute seat… well actually two seats with a small table separating them. That is another 1 LI item named “[Mesh] Modern Wood Chairs”, and is sold at Dekute Dekore.

The total LI for the piano room is 9.





The larger (or master) bedroom has a walkway to the deck and a large floor-to-ceiling window. They pretty much fill up that wall, so it doesn't need anything else on it.

The bed is a 1 LI piece from Dekute Dekore that has two nightstands attached to it. It is named “[Mesh] Wood Bed – Blue.” This is a marvelous piece because it gives you most of the basics you need all for only a single LI – it even contains some poses and props. It came as white wood with a blue cover and pillows, so I made the theme of that bedroom Blue.

The lamps I used on the nightstand are 2 LI each. They are from a store named “Not Sorry” that has since gone out of business. I like them because they match the bed perfectly, but they are no longer available to buy. Fortunately, there are tons of other nice 1 and 2 LI lamps available.

The shelf above the bed is one of the 1LI What Next Winter Picture Shelves that I used in the piano room. But I retextured it by downloading images I liked from the internet, making it look totally different. The modern art on the wall (2 LI) is from Fancy Decor and is named “Lewis Wall Art.” If you want to save a bit more LI, you could use a 1 LI Framed picture there instead.

The Rug covers half of the floor where the bed leaves off. It is another of the Nekka 1 LI sculptie rugs. Only I downloaded a texture from the internet that I liked, and then tinted it to match the bed.

I made a mirrored dresser (2 LI total) from 2 pieces that I linked together. The mirror is from Hive and is named “hive // wall mirror – silver”. The bottom part is a dresser from Dekute Dekore’s “Wood Bedroom Set.” I reshaped it to be shorter and wider, and tinted it to match the bed. This creation is 2 LI. (Sadly, the dress did not make it into the pictures, but it matches the bed really well. However, a green version of the same dresser is shown for the small bedroom.)

The wall shelves are 3 LI and are Bazzar’s “Arizona Bedroom Shelves.” I like them because they fill a whole wall rather nicely and are pleasant to look at.

I threw a bean bag chair in the corner that is only 2 LI and has some cute poses. It is made by Celeste and is part of the “CELESTE - Ombre Vinyl Bean Bags” set.

The total LI for the Large Bedroom is 16.





This is a smaller room and most people would probably be inclined to put a bathroom here. But it is hard for me to make a bathroom that uses less than 20 LI. So, I put a 2^nd bedroom in here instead.

The curtains are the same ones as in the Piano room (Fanatik), except here they cover all 3 windows and take a total of 6 LI. The bed is the same 1 LI one as in the Large Bedroom, except it is tinted green. The dresser is the same 2 LI one that I created from Dekute Dekore and Hive parts, except it is tinted green to match the bed. The corner plant (not pictured) is the same 1 LI plant I used in the living room.

The only new addition is the lamps. They are 1 LI each and sold by Ktziztz Bravitz. The lamp is named “Verrae Lamp.” I tinted the lampshade green to match the bed.

The total LI for the Small Bedroom is 12.

In summary, you can see that it is indeed possible to have a pleasant interior for a very low LI cost. In this case, it only took 75 LI to do the entire inside of the Newbrook Bradbury home. Please feel free to use any of my ideas directly. Or, if you prefer, let them inspire you to create your own magnificent low LI furnishings.

Newly added Listings. Week of June 19th. 2022

For the week of June 19th. 2022, we have 1 new listing this week to share with you.

NEW LISTINGS	WEEK OF 19.06.22
Nevermore Gothic chic Under Newbrooke Home Listings.

 

Create Landscape Beauty For Your Home

Writer|Photographer: Teresa Firelight

Create Landscape Beauty For Your Home

I would like to talk about how to convert a home at a “mundane” location into a thing of beauty. For this article, I choose a 1024 Newbooke in a neighborhood that did not have any of the classic “desirable” landscaping… no ponds, lakes or streams. No community pools or parks. This is a neighborhood of house after house, without much nature separating them. (This article talks about the Newbrooke, but you can do something similar with just about any linden home in any neighborhood.)

(Click on images to enlarge)

Make Your Home Beautiful

 

I selected the Bradbury model because it had a lot of windows to allow me to see the beautiful exterior I planned to make.

I intended to put most of my emphasis on the exterior, so I planned for a low LI interior. (This is not to say a plain or unattractive interior – there are ways to make it lovely without using a lot of LI. I will cover that in my next article.) The interior took 75 LI. I wanted to leave a buffer of 50 LI for things like kittycats, short term rezzes, etc. That left me an allowance of 226 LI for my exterior (351 – 75 – 50). As it turned out, I did not need quite that many.

 

Before

After

I chose to use a pond for a front yard. You could do the same exact style but use grass or ground cover where I put the water. But for me, I love water. Since there was no lakes or streams or even small ponds in my view, I made my own.

 

With yard instead of a pond

There are three keystones to making my beautiful exterior/yard:

1. The Needful Prims Bradbury Exterior Paint Shell, created by Christhiana Resident (http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chinati/235/47/22). This shell is low LI, and it fits perfectly without flickering. It positions itself automatically, and locks into place. I unlocked it, then re-textured it using a nice brick texture. (The Newbrooke Homes come with a lot of exterior textures, but I wanted something different and unique but still in theme.) I used the Bradbery shell, but Needful Prims makes excellent exterior shells for pretty much all of the themes and house models.

 

Front Pond (close up)

2. The Skye water System 1.2.1, which I purchased from the marketplace (https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Skye-Water-System-Natural-Water-Materials-Enabled/7483345). It seemed a little expensive (L$ 899) when I bought it, but it has been WELL worth the price. It allows you to make very realistic looking water in a variety of sizes and shapes. I made the pond’s frame from simple prims, which I textured from the Newbrooke’s content creation pack. I built it where I wanted the water to go, and put a lower concrete layer (a very thin flat prim) under it so that the grass would not peep through. Then I added the water on top, selecting the size closest to my frame size from the kit. Then I resized it to fit perfectly. Of course, I made the water phantom so that your feet sink into it if you should happen to step into the water. I added a few water lilies, lotus flowers and koi fish to the pond to complete the effect.

 

Front Steps

3. The Newbrooke Home’s Content Creation Pack. This comes free with the house. This creation pack has a lot of nice low LI stuff to decorate with – all of which looks very professional and is very easy to work with. Most of my build was either pieces from the kit or prims textured from the kit. Let me explain how I used this in a little more detail.

 

I resized a planter to 3.34 x 0.9 x 0.36 and loaded it with two “Hydrangea A – white” and one “PeaceLily1 – Purple,” then linked the pieces together into a single easy-to-work-with piece. Then I pretty much alternated 2 planters with 1 potted HedgeBush – making a sort of perimeter around the house/pond/deck. I used double potted plants in a few places, like on either side of the main entrance. Framing the parcel with flowers and bushes is a great technique to make a home look lovely.

 

Back Pond

I wanted to isolate my house from the houses behind and beside it, so I used the High 6M fence from the Content Creation Pack. I filled in the areas that did not already have mole fencing. There was one tiny place where I had to use an off-parcel extender (e.g, rez a cube and texture it transparent, then link the fence piece to the cube. Leave the cube on your parcel and edit-linked to slide the fence piece out about a meter to line up with the existing Linden fence.) You have to be careful when doing that because it is against covenant to block off public areas for your own use. But this was a case where it was only a meter and lined up with an existing fence and was in an area where I doubt anyone would want to walk.

Since I had water, I needed some sort of steps to get from the sidewalk to the front door. I made them out of two prims. One was hollow and was textured with the “Newbrooke – Exterior Metal Diffuse” texture. (I had to tint a bit to get a perfect match with the metal on the house). The other prim was just a solid prim sized to fit in the hole of the first. I textured that one with “Newbrooke – Concrete – Diffuse.”

 

Back Patio

I also used this technique to make the little platforms for the trees and art. Some of the platforms went into the water and others were placed on the deck. Because the steps and platforms were textured from the content creation pack, they matched perfectly and looked like part of the original build.

There are a couple of other items that might be worth mentioning. The Art I used came from two places. The pond statue is from Akina Creations (https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Metal-Coil-3-revised-base/9046678) and the wall art is from Petrichor (https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/P-Fatpack-Leava-Wallpanels/13637436). The Water Lilies and Lotus flowers in the pond came from Botanical (https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Botanical-Waterlily-Clusters/7849030) and Fantasy China (https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/18022/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search%5Bcategory_id%5D=&search%5Bmaturity_level%5D=GMA&search%5Bkeywords%5D=lotus)

 

BBQ Area

The deck chair set is the PacificSetChair from Kazza (http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/KAZZA/128/128/22) and the barbecue is the Palisades BBQ Grill Set from What Next (http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hodgepodge/113/98/31).

I hope this article will inspire you with ideas on how to create your own beauty in whatever Bellisseria parcel you land in.

Newly added Listings. Week of June 12th. 2022

For the week of June 12th. 2022, we have 3 new listings this week to share with you.

NEW LISTINGS	WEEK OF 12.06.22
::mystic:: belle Cozy hideaway. Rez a leaf sailboat and explore the mystical seas. Under Resident Owned Places of Interest Listings.
Uchi No Ichika Teahouse A Relaxing Teahouse Retreat Under Resident Owned Places of Interest Listings.
The Submissve Refuge A refuge for submissives Under Resident Owned Places of Interest Listings.

 

Newly added listings, Week of May 29th, 2022.

Editor|Writer: Prudence Anton

Next week we'll be coming off our Spring Break.  We have a few special articles for you by Teresa Firelight, starting this coming Sunday.  We are also changing up our schedule for our blogs. Starting in July, we'll be publishing our articles twice a month, on the 1st and 15th of each month.  Lastly, the new Sakura theme homes are featured on our listing now, some open house models are included below.

 

Newly added Listings. Week of May 29th. 2022

For the week of May 29th. 2022, we have 1 new listing this week to share with you.

NEW LISTINGS	WEEK OF 29.05.22
The Ryukyu Robin A place for calm Under Sakura Homes Listings.
My Boho Home A Newbrooke Home Under Newbrooke Homes Listings.
Something Synister A quaint Victorian with a sinister past Under Victorian Homes Listings.
Topaz Tea House and Bath Tea, Whisky, Snacks, PG Bath, Sujisan View Under Sakura Homes Listings.
Sakura Sakura Modern Japanese - the door is open Under Sakura Homes Listings.
UwU A Sakura Home. Under Sakura Homes Listings.

 

Parade of Homes Video - Newbrooke Home Models

Editor|Writer: Prudence Anton

This week we are happy to present a video by BBB's Videographer, Sceneris, featuring decorated Newbrooke Model homes by some of our Parade of Homes residents. Sit back and enjoy.

 

Newly added Listings. Week of May 15th. 2022

For the week of May 15th. 2022, we have 1 new listing this week to share with you.

NEW LISTINGS	WEEK OF 15.05.22
The African Bee A bit different Under Newbrooke Home Listings

 

Parade of Homes Spring break

We'll be taking our Spring break starting the first week of May and returning again on June 5th, 2022.  Newly added homes to our listing will continue during this time.

Newly added Listings. Week of May 1st. 2022

For the week of May 1st. 2022, we have 1 new listing this week to share with you.

 

NEW LISTINGS	WEEK OF 01.05.22
Punto Azul Under Stilt Home Listings.

 

Home of the week - Coniston Newbrooke

Writer|Photographer: Teresa Firelight

Home of the week - Coniston Newbrooke

Honey, I’m Home owned by Lina (melina Aurotharius)

 

The Newbrooke’s are still pretty “new.” It is fun to look at different ways that people transform their homes into “something stunning.” That is why I am featuring another NewBrooke home this week. (This one is a bit special to me, because it is my next-door neighbor. Her design inspired me in landscaping my own place. I hope her work will inspire you too.)

 

This week’s featured home is “Honey, I’m Home”, owned by Melina Aurotharius. She has a lovely Lakeside location on Spindizzy. She rezzed the Coniston model, then added a bit of landscaping construction to the exterior. And voila! She had a stunning pond around her house.

The back deck has a view of the lake, and has just about every household amenity (except for a toilet) on it. There is a covered area where you can eat. There is a comfortable sitting area with two sofas. There is even a hammock and a covered day bed. All of that is surrounded by a picturesque concrete pond – complete with Koi, water lilies and birds. It is so pleasant out there that it is hard to bring yourself to go inside the house.

 

But once you do go inside, you are greeted by a beautiful and modern elegance. The living room, for example, has an S-curved sofa and a candlelit fireplace. It also offers a stunning view of the deck, pond, and lake. And it is separated from the entry by an indoor waterfall.

 

The kitchen is sleek and sharp – the Catia kitchen by Consignment. (This kitchen is not the one they sell in the store, and is only available on the marketplace.) The rounded edges on the counter-ends and center island really add something nice to the overall effect. And Lina has placed some some kitchen items to the counters to make it look more lived in.

 

Coniston Newbrooke

backyard . living room

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The bedroom has rich wood paneling and hand-woven carpentry. The bed has an interesting brass headboard and frame. There is also the standard dresser and an ottoman, making the room comfortable and inviting.

 

The entry has stained glass windows, rich wooden paneling, hanging plants, and an indoor waterfall. The waterfall serves as a room separator between the entry and living room, and lets you catch the elegance of the living room through the falling water.

 

I was fortunate enough to sit down with Lina and chat. Here is our conversation:

 

Coniston Newbrooke

kitchen . bedroom

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Your yard is very beautiful and very unique. What inspired you to do this design with the water around the house?

 

“From when I first saw the Newbrooke homes I knew I wanted to use a water feature around mine. I have always loved ponds and fish and birds. I feel they give a little sense of realism to my home.”

 

What was the most challenging part of decorating/furnishing your Newbrooke home?

 

“My biggest challenge is always prims. I love to use as many as possible and I love to decorate to the max. I really recommend linking your prims, this really made it possible for me to make my home as I wanted it.”

What is your favorite thing about this home?

 

“Frank Lloyd Wright has always been my favorite architect and I try to use a lot of his elements in my homes in Second Life. The open floor plans in these new homes and the flat hint at the same type of look I was always drawn to.”

 

Overall (e.g., inside and outside) this house carries quite a WOW factor! And I recommend visiting it.

Newly added Listings. Week of April 24th. 2022

For the week of April 24th. 2022, we have 1 new listing this week to share with you.

NEW LISTINGS	WEEK OF 24.04.22
Teacup A place to have a cuppa. Under Resident Owned Places Listings.

 

Home of the Week – Sakura House

Writer|Photographer: Teresa Firelight

Home of the Week – Sakura House

Many people tend to think of “Modern” and “Asian” as two completely different/separate themes. But not Anita Leonoase. She looked at the new modern Newbrooke design and saw a perfect fit with her love of Asian architecture.

 

She choose a Heaton home and turned it into a thing of beauty. For starters, there is a fascinating fountain in the front yard… with water pouring out of three modern curved metal arches. And there is a row of lovely Japanese Pink Irises behind the fountain, making the area seem warm and alive.

 

Once you go inside, you will be greeted by a very inviting living room. There is a Cherry blossom tapestry above the fireplace. This is very fitting because the word “Sakura” in Japanese for Cherry Blossoms. And Cherry Blossoms are beloved in the Japanese culture, in fact they are considered by many to be Japan’s unofficial national flower.

 

The sofa is loaded with comfortable pillows and there are scented candles on the coffee table. The entire room has clean modern lines, and yet manages to be welcoming at the same time.

 

Sakura House

front yard fountain . livingroom

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If you go upstairs, you will find the most amazing bathroom… complete with a sunken Japanese style bathtub and a window fireplace. Next door is the bedroom, with cherry blossom pink walls and a lovely Japanese art hanging above a modern bed.

 

If you go back down the stairs and follow the hall, you will find the dining room. It has wide open glass doors that lead to a beautiful outdoor garden area. And you will come to my favorite part of the house… a small patio sitting room -- with a low sofa, an Asian-style dining table and a two-sided fireplace.

 

If you continue down the garden, you will find a Koi and Lotus flower fountain, two cherry trees in full blossom and a cute little bamboo fountain. There is also a yoga mat on the floor if you would like to try it out.





Anita was there and was kind enough to grant a short interview. This is what she had to say in answer to my questions:

What inspired you to choose an Asian theme for your home?

 

“This new edition of SL Newbrooke houses inspired me to create the Sakura House. The architecture of these houses are in complete harmony with the Asian decoration and landscape – the whole places appear so zen and so beautiful. Sakura house is that; it is in complete harmony with this place and the balance of Yin and Yang. At Sakura house we can feel and find that balance and harmony most important peace..., the colors used are inspired in Japan landscaping and the Sakura and Wisteria trees, Sakura House was designed to serve that purpose.... you can "almost" smell the perfume of the Wisterias and the Sakura flowers.”

 

Sakura House

patio sitting room . koi fountain

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What aspect of this design was the most challenging for you? And Why?

 

“The most challenging bit was trying to create Sakura House on the 351 LI allowance. I looked for items with very reduced prims as much as I could, so that I could decorate the Sakura house and give this Asian look to the place.”

 

What is your favorite area in the house, and why?

 

“Definitely the back garden where I can do Yoga and meditate. Itake deep breaths while looking to the Sakura trees, with a smile on my face.”

Is there anything else you would like to share?

 

“Indeed, I would like to say thank you for this opportunity to introduce Sakura house to the Bellisseria community and to the Parade of Homes. I find that the Parade of Homes is an excellent idea to keep Bellisseria alive and kicking. Also, I would like to thank the Moles for the amazing job they did on the Newbrooke theme. Also, I invite everyone to feel free to come visit Sakura house, and to stick around, enjoy a cup of tea or meditate.”

Newly added Listings. Week of April 10th. 2022

For the week of April 10th. 2022, we have 2 new listings this week to share with you.

NEW LISTINGS	WEEK OF 10.04.22
Honey I'm Home My waterfront dream home Under Newbrooke Home Listings.
Coral Cay - Panama Lovely tropical beach house.  Under Stilt Homes Listings.