Calla: Random Ramblings from Tigerlily Koi

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Catalogue Entry deadline (and a small RL rant)

Today is the last day to submit your notecards for the Calla Catalogue. Please, please, please drop them in the red ball at the front door! We'll be removing the ball either tonight or first thing in the morning SLT (like 3am or so, or maybe midnight SLT if Hae is still up) and all entries after that point will not be accepted.

All the details are here in case you missed it.

Now on to my little personal rant. If you've ever tried to find a pair of boots in the middle of the summer, you know my pain. If not...then you're way cooler than I am, because I don't even own a pair of boots.

We've started our 4-year old taking horseback riding lessons. She loves it. We have to pry her away and she cries the whole way home. So, being the girly-girl that I am, and never having a horse (which I asked for every single birthday my whole life, btw) I'm going to be taking lessons, too!

However, this necessitates that I have a pair of boots suitable for horse riding, and traipsing through mud and...horsey poo and stuff. I spent hours today going store-to-store trying to find a pair of boots. Any boots. I was even so desperate that I'd settle for a pair of boy boots! I seriously spent about 2 hours in the quest for boots. Which you'd think, in BFE, North Carolina where horses are commonplace, that you'd be able to find boots any time of year. Not so, I say!

I did finally find a tiny little shoe repair shop that had some boots. They were nice boots, too! Hard toes, all leather, good heel, etc etc. And on sale (that's one good thing about shopping out of season, if you can find it, it's cheap!) for less than half price!

I'm cheap, there's no way I'd have ever paid as much for them as they were charging not on sale. A hundred bucks?! For boots to go get muddy and poopy? No way! The man who owns the place has horses (go figure) and he said they'd be good and sturdy. And he even sized my foot and did that "come here let me feel the shoe" thing and got me the right size.

But it never even occurred to me, until I started looking for boots, that I couldn't just go out and get whatever I wanted. In SL, I can get boots all day long, every day. I never for a moment thought "I'm going to have a hard time finding boots" until I started looking.

I don't know what that says about me, and probably don't want to know, but sometimes the virtual world is lots better than the real one!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Hair Color Testers Round 2!

Yay! Round two is ready for your feedback!

We are looking for SERIOUS testers only. We need actual, notecard, written feedback. So, if you're really serious and don't mind taking 15 minutes or so to try on the colors and rate them I need:

- A note card named "Calla Color Tester #2 - YOUR NAME"
dropped to me (Tigerlily Koi)

I am going to hound you for your answers if I don't get them by Monday. (July 2.)

Again, this is only if you're really serious about giving written feedback.

I'm doing things a little bit differently this time. This time, the hair style is all the same. There were several "It might just be the style" comments, so hopefully by using the same style (which is all ImSoPreddy v1, btw, because it was easy to color) you can ignore the style and just focus on the color.

I also didn't break them down into "pack colors" as much. I just listed them all in alphabetical order so it'd be easy to go down the list.

Here's the scale system (which is also on the notecard that will come with your Survey Pack #2) in case you lose it, or the notecard won't open, etc etc.

Don't forget to put your name on the notecard. 'Cause I'll come after you if you get your card back to me!

Monday, June 25, 2007

And then there were six....

I was going to blog them all together, but Flowering Reed just needed its own space.

All of the following are my styles, 'cause Hae has been way busy building a top secret (I assume it's top secret, I haven't seen it yet) sim. She's been building furniture, which she is really, really good at. She's one of those people that really irritate me because they can build anything. All I can do is hair. If she starts making clothes, I'm gonna cry...and then fill my wardrobe. Anyway, she's been building some other stuff and I haven't actually seen her pretty little avie face in nearly 2 weeks. I hope she's done soon. Or I'm going to go a little more crazy than I already am.

On with the new stuff!



Cinquefoil - Was a request from one of our customers. She wanted Wild Hyacinth but with braids. So that's exactly what she got. It turned out really cute and I decided to make it available for everyone. The tails are flexi, and the bands and bows are scripted color change.



Coriander - This one was a lot of fun for me, and I actually learned a lot making this style. It was also inspired by Nicky Ree, the Gypsy outfit which you see in the ad. (Which is the Relay for Life version.)



Gloxinia - Here's another one that I learned quite a bit on. I was trying to play with the alpha vs. non-alpha textures to get a really "alpha" look, without all the flicker. I gave this out to a handful of our group members after I'd gotten finished with it to get some feedback on the flicker. It was a big hit, with very little (maybe no) flicker. It's also flexi and has very soft movement. It is by far one of my favorite mid-length styles.



Lunaria - This is what happened when I tried to fix the flicker problem that Yellow Carnation has now thanks to the whole sphere/texture deal. Like I said in the post about how to fix Yellow Carnation, the bangs just have a different look this way. It's one of those either you like it or you don't things. This one is slightly longer and a little more face-framing than Yellow Carnation is, so there are subtle differences. If you own Yellow Carnation and are unable to edit it, or just plain like this one better send me a notecard and I'll replace it for you with the Lunaria in the same color pack as what you purchased the YC in.



Osmunda - This one is really very formal. I didn't intend for it to turn out that way, but it did. It's gorgeous with formal gowns, and especially if you have a pretty tiara to wear with it. It would make a beautiful wedding style, too, it would be perfect for a veil.



Viscaria - I had a lot of fun making this one. It's got a modern look to it that I just enjoyed creating. There are tiny little braids across the front, with curls (or tentacles as Salome would call them) coming out of the top. It's an updo, but it's one of those really great styles that would be great with just about anything.

As promised, batch two of the testing colors will be out soon, likely tomorrow barring anything unforseen. I'll let ya know, though!

Flowering Reed - The Wish Collection

Nicky Ree sent me a message a few days ago and said that she needed hair for a gown she was working on. She sent me a picture of the gown, and nothing we had seemed to really fit with it. She told me the dress was Greek Goddess inspired, and that Random Calliope had made jewelry to go with it (which I don't have a specific picture of at this point but you can see it in the ads) and a corona (which is the tiara). I tried one of the styles that was actually in this release, but it just seemed too casual. So I told her to give me a few days and I'd have something for her.

I saw in my head what it was, pulled up, but falling down, whispy and soft. The pretty pretty princess in me shone right through. I actually built the hair to the tiara so that no adjustment would be needed. These creations by myself, Nicky and Random are all interconnected. It was an honor to be asked to work with something they'd so beautifully done. Random's set is truly magnificent. This is the first piece I've ever had in my hands that he has made and I've spent a lot of time admiring it. Even on my bald head the tiara was amazingly beautiful.



As you can see, I originally did it without bangs. But I know you girls and your bangs, so I added some. I really messed with the bangs longer than the hair itself. Because it just doesn't have bangs when I see it. I tried the bangs from Fennel but that just didn't work for me. (Or Nicky, which was key.) So I kept playing with it and here is the final result:



As some of you know, our hair is all named for flowers. I really spent a lot of time deciding on the name for this style, because I wanted it to be incorporated with the "Wish" gown and jewelry. I finally found the answer: Flowering Reed. It means "confide in heaven." It seemed perfectly suited to a gown inspired by a Goddess and jewelry sent from the heavens.

You can purchase the hair, the gowns, and later today, the jewelry all at our location in Callatropia. You can also purchase all 3 pieces from Nicky's store in Deco.

I hope you get all of the collection, and feel like a Goddess!

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Colors - Batch 1 - The results

I've tallied the results, and only a handful of the colors are going onto the next round. (This is like American Idol, but for hair...Hae gets to be Simon.)

We really got some great and very honest feedback, which is exactly what we were looking for. Surely no one can say that any of you sugar-coat things!

Here are some of my favorite comments from the surveys. And sorry, but I didn't have all your names with the results when I pasted them into Word, so these are without credit. If you wanna claim yours, feel free. :)


"Beautiful! Very nice work. It's not something I'd wear everyday, but I do love it."

"not really a fan but hey thats me"

"This one grew on me. At first I was a little meh, but I like the subtle chestnut tips."

"The color isn't horrible, but I so wouldn't call this blonde."

"I thought this one was full bright. Not horrible, but I don't think it's quite ready."

"very rich looking color, love the way it is highlighted"

"This one could be okay but it's very dull looking. The others have a shiny, lighted look to them."

"This color looks flat and kind of blah."

"I wouldn't wear it but I like it."

"still needs work."

"Eh... just not a fan, I really am not so fond of the blondness."
(from same person about a different color) "I may actually consider wearing this color blonde! Would be great for sufer style hairs. Especially mens."

"As an avid redhead, I'm kinda disappointed in these two."

"I think the color looks really washed out. I think the color should be brighter."

"omg now i am usually NOT a fan of "off the wall" colors, but this is WOW!!! Definitely one I got noticed and complimented on a lot!"

"I think you're on to something with this, but it just really doesn't stand out to me or appeal to me."

"a keeper in my opinion :) Looked great in all kinds of light and fabulous with my skin! :) Blonde's not my usual shade but i'd definitely consider this one!"

"This one is great... I might even stray from red for this one"

"Absolutely gorgeous!"

"Not horrible, but... something just feels off."

"I am not sure if it is the style or the color but there is something about it that doesn't seem right"

"it sorta looks like there is dirt in the hair with the darker bits"

"what have you done? I actually like a blonde!!"

"the darker shades in this one aren't right somehow. Tehy detract from the overall effect rather than accenting the lighter shades."

"erm.. deff needs more work on the whole honey kinda part of this one"

"could you get any more perfect here?! seriously!"

"My favorite of the blondes. It seemed true to RL shade (was just what I would have expected)

"this seems to be two tone and lacks the complexity that I usually love about your colors."


And my absolute favorite comments:

"Hmmm, wonder if Ms Clairol has this color?"

"OMG! like a milkshake!!!! its fab!"

"OMG OMG OMG OMG YES!"

"Eww. I like the concept, but it's just ugly."

"eww it's just..no"


So you can see we got some very honest and constructive feedback. I really appreciate the "needs more..." and the "too ..." and the "not enough ...." comments.

Batch 2 will be ready soon! Hopefully there are less eww's in this one.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Always watching




This is how those of us who are moms get anything done.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Why must people steal?

There's been a rash of theft going around, especially for hair designers/creators. We had a taste of it a while back with our ImSoPreddy freebie hair. Thanks to Stumbelina Ophelia of CAKE who filed a DMCA quickly, the copier took everything down and it was pretty much a non-issue by the time I even found out about it.

But today. Ugh. Bless Miss Teagan Blackthorne. My morning routine consists of a cup of coffee and my email. I go through there to see what's happened while I've been sleeping. I read email, I drink my coffee, my kids have breakfast, it's fairly quiet. 'Cause I am just not a morning person.

I'm sorting through email and come to one from Teagan, which is usually some great story about how she's watching Lost and some chick is wearing our hair, or something cool like that. Today, it's a location in-world. I just cringed.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/mega%20resort/86/235/501/

Of course, I go, cause Teagan's the hair-theft watch dog and she's always right. Here's what I find.




My men's freebie style, Cougar, is on the right. The stolen copy is on the left.




I threw my ad on a prim next to his. Just cause I could.

Okay, I know. We're not losing any money because this style is free. But it's the principal. You don't steal someone's stuff. You just don't. It's blatantly mine. Cause, and let's be honest, this was the first boy hair I ever made and it's not all that great to begin with. It's one of those "Wow, yeah, that's definitely Cougar" things when you see it.

I've given this guy the benefit of the doubt and asked that he remove it. Which, he did. So yay for him for doing the right thing! I thanked him and told him I appreciated it and offered to put the styles up for his customers for free (just like we have at our own location) if he'd like.

With all that's going on, there's no telling if the "owner" of a stolen item is the one who actually copied/stole/etc. anymore. People seem to have no qualms lately about taking things that aren't theirs and reselling them to every Joe off the street. Poor innocent Joe's have no idea that it belongs to someone else.

I don't understand why people feel it's okay to do this. Maybe I'm more morally strict (that kinda comes with being a prude I guess) than others, I don't know. But that (admittedly not-so-great) boy hair, Cougar, took me seriously about a week to make. I have umpteen copies of inprogress, "eww this sucks," "hmm...maybe if I do this...oops nope that was bad," of this particular style sitting in my inventory. It really was not easy for me to make. I actually had no idea what I was doing at that point. For me to come out with something that I felt okay about selling, and could then offer for free to noobs as I made more (and better) boy hair is something I'm proud of.

And to whomever stole it and sold it/gave it away/etc, I hope you see this, and I hope that it makes you think, and I hope that you'll stop taking things that other people have worked really hard on.

Edited to add: I've also just seen this post on Tami McCoy's blog and I'm feeling a little queasy now knowing this person will take it down, and then put it back up, etc etc.

/me sighs. I don't get people sometimes.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Hair Color Testers!

A while back (a few months now I guess) we set out some Color Surveys. We got a lot of feedback from them and a HUGE thank you to all who gave us your ideas. We're still weeding through all the "dream colors" and seeing what we can realistically do. But we've got batch one ready!

We are looking for SERIOUS testers only. We need actual, notecard, written feedback. By Friday. So, if you're really serious and don't mind taking 15 minutes or so to try on the colors and rate them I need:

- A note card named "Calla Hair Tester - YOUR NAME"
dropped to me (Tigerlily Koi)

I am going to hound you for your answers if I don't get them by Friday (June 22).

Again, this is only if you're really serious about giving written feedback.

Here's the scale system (which is also on the notecard that will come with your Survey Pack) in case you lose it, or the notecard won't open because Linden Labs has a consipracy to eat all text on notecards everywhere.

*****~*~*****~*~*****~*~*****

INSTRUCTIONS:
Please rate the hair COLOR (not the style) on a scale of 1 - 5.

1 = Eww, gross. What WERE you thinking?!

2 = Keep working on it, you might be onto something.

3 = Meh, could take it or leave it.

4 = Oooo, I like!

5 = OMG I LOVE IT!

*****~*~*****~*~*****~*~*****

The colors are already listed on the notecard that comes in your survey pack. So it's a fairly simple process of rating each one listed, and adding any additional comments or suggestions you may have.

Once you're done rating all the colors, put your name in the notecard title (where it says YOUR NAME HERE!) and drop that card back on me.

Remember, be sure to add your name so I won't needlessly hound you.

Obviously we aren't going to be adding all these colors, as there are more in the works, and Haedon has threatened bodily harm if she has to box a billion colors for all our existing styles. Okay, she hasn't yet. But she's going to as soon as she sees this.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

<3 Wednesday

A picture tells a thousand words.


Feelin' blah, and a sneak peek!

Some of you might have noticed I haven't been in-world much this week. Sunday I started getting really dizzy. I'll pause while everyone makes a joke. ;) Anyway, I ended up in the Dr's office Monday, he wants to follow up tomorrow and do brain scans, etc etc if it's not any better. So far, it's not much different. It comes and goes. If I move, the world spins. If I'm still, it's not so bad. And I have a brain cloud. Twenty L to whoever knows what movie that's from. I just feel kinda foggy and my attention span is worse than my three-year-old's.

But anyway, I'm not feeling so great. If you've sent me a message, please resend. Cause likely I've read it and forgotten it. I've tried to keep an actual physical list, but that's not going so well either.

However, we do have some stuff in the works! Hae's got the cutest ever dreads. To die for. I wish I had a picture (grid's down or I'd go get one) to show you. They are so, so great. Color change beads and the whole shabang.

Here's one I've got for the next release. I've been wearing it a lot, simply because I'm just too foggy to worry about changing. But the outfit is killer and so it's okay.



Oh hair. Yeah, it's flexi, and kinda whispy all over. I was trying something different with this one and it came out pretty cute. Some of the group got it in two blonde shades because the blondes show flicker much worse than any other colors. This one should have been unbelievably flickery due to all the alpha textures in it. Somehow it's not, so yay for that! It looked great on the handful of girls that got to try it, and I didn't see any fitting issues with anyone. So it'll be out with the next release. Which will be....? Hae? I dunno. Whenever we get to it. This weekend maybe.

Oh oh oh! Much uber thanks to Hae for holding the fort. It's really nice to know that I can be all spacey and she's got things covered. Y'all be extra nice to her. I've been forgetting her coffee.

Hopefully I'll be in tippy toppy shape again soon and back to normal.

I hope everyone has a happy Wednesday. Aren't these just the worst sitting around waiting for the grid to come up? Let's all pray they don't bork things too badly.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Say "cheese!"

We have a lot of styles. We have a lot of group members and customers. What better way to combine both than to make a catalogue featuring Calla fans?

There isn't one!

Get your cameras ready. We want a picture of you in your favorite Calla style!

We know we have more customers than styles, but never fear. We may do some group shots, and we'll certainly be adding to the catalogue as time goes on and we add more styles. So if you don't get in this time, there will be more opportunities.

We are not looking for model quality snapshots. We want to see your hair, and your pretty face! We will be reshooting for the catalogue, so this is just to put names to faces, and faces to styles.

We wanna pick your brains, too. (Not your noses, relax.) We would like to know what you think is special about Calla? What does your style say about you? We will be using quotes throughout the catalogue.

Don't forget, we have men's styles, too. So gentlemen out there, (and we know you're out there, we watch you) send us your picture! Guys, in your entry, please be sure to specify if you are single or married. That way we know if we can drool on you safely or not, or hit you up for a date. Kidding, kidding. Really though, we do want some guys in our catalogue. So if you'd like to participate, we strongly (breathlessly) encourage that.

Rules:

- All entries must be submitted on a note card named "Calla Catalogue - YOUR NAME."

- Snapshot images attached to the note card must be full permissions. Only one (1) snapshot/image per person.

- Name the picture and note card the same - "Calla Catalogue - YOUR NAME." This is so we can find it in our bottomless inventories.

- On the note card, please write a few sentences about why you like Calla, and your favorite style(s). For example: What makes a particular style unique to you? Or why does that style fit your personality?

- You must submit your entry to the box at the front of the main Calla location in Callatropia.

- Any entries submitted to our inventories will be discarded. They must be put into the entry box.

- Only one (1) note card entry per person, please.

- Note cards will be accepted until Friday, June 29, 2007.

By submitting the above, you agree to give full rights to images, quotes, etc. and allow Calla to use the information provided for any current or future advertising/marketing. All quotes will be credited to their source, and your name will be published with the image(s) of you in the catalogue.


The fine print:

There is no pay/reward/etc for doing this. You'll get nothing but your pretty face and your name in our catalogue. No one is getting paid. This is not a modeling job. This is strictly voluntary. We will choose people at our discretion, and at whatever whims we're feeling that particular day.

We know there are going to be a lot of great people (just look at how awesome our group is!) and we just can't get you all in. This is just a unique, fun way to get to know some of the wonderful customers we have out there and to give you all some credit for being the great people you are. So, please let's keep this in the spirit it's intended, and everyone have a good time with it.

Get those note cards in!

Much love,
Lily & Hae

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Six new!

I should have done this Friday, but life got crazy on me. So here's the new stuff we put out Friday afternoon!



Basil - Originally Hae said I was going to model this one for her. Because I "have that french snooty look." But turns out she does a good job looking snooty, too! I really like this one, and just love the little curls on the side. She did an awesome job on the beret, which is color change. The hat actually has a sculptie prim. So she's the first of us to scuptify a style.



Lady Fern - Fern gets make-over number two! I personally prefer this one better. The shorter braids don't stick through your body so much at funny angles. The braid is much wider. The tail is still flexi, and the bands are color change. It's also considerably less primmy than the original Fern.



Periwinkle - This one didn't turn out the way I thought it would when I started it. It started taking on a flapper feel, but with a more modern, kind of nostalgic look.



Pleniflorus - This is, as requested, Ranunculus without the hat. I tried to keep it with the same feel, so it looked like you'd just taken the hat off. It's got a color change clip in the back, holding the hair loops up.



Tares - This is Haedon's. It has flown out of the shop, so no doubt you'll be seeing this one around the grid. It's really great, and flexi!



Winter Tares - Version 2 of Tares, but with pulled back bangs and a little side clip. The tiny (miniscule) little flowers on the clip are color change! Yay!
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