Sneak Peek

Here's what I've been working on! They'll be going out sometime this week, I'm shooting for Tuesday. I still need to finish putting the ads together and get the demos ready. I have 5 skin tones finished to my liking. A couple more are nearly there, but I'm still not thrilled. And there are lots more makeups, but this is the first round. More details soon, pics for now!

In answer to some questions

I've been getting a good number of questions regarding the split of Calla and how things are between myself and Haedon. There's no short answer, and those questions deserve answers. If you'd like to hear them, you can read it all here.

Hunt Extendend, Group Freebie, RFL, and Lily's MIA!

Due to borkage and quite a number of reports of people losing the hunt items, I'm going to extend the hunt until Tuesday morning. I'll go around and gather up the boxes early am Eastern (probably 4am SLT) so you have a little while longer to pick them up if you lost them or haven't been able to get over there.

Apparently someone has made and been handing out a handy-dandy note card with all the box locations. I'm kinda glad, cause now I'll be able to find them.

Head on over if you haven't yet! http://slurl.com/secondlife/Calla%20Lily/128/110/35

Also due to my own borkage when coloring, I've sent out the Willow-herb style in the LTD Editions colors to the Calla Update Group and the Calla Subscribe-O-Matic group. If you haven't joined, you can go over to the store and touch the kiosk. I will be taking them out of the past notices tomorrow as well, so hurry if you want to catch them.

My RFL team raised 410,000 L$ last night! I want to thank all of you who came out to support the fundraiser, both with your bids and your spirits. There was quite a crowd! I must brag on my team a minute. We are the Designers in Seclusion team, and not only have we raised over $5,000 usd for the Relay in the last two months, most of my team members run full time businesses within Second Life as well. That's no small task, and I am so grateful for all the effort they have put into raising funds to fight cancer. They are an amazing group and I as Team Captain have had the immense honor and pleasure to work with them on a much deeper level and can assure you they are some of the best folks on the grid. So a huge thank you goes out to each of them as well! We're not done yet, though, so keep an eye out for more events from the DIS RFL team!

On a personal note, I won't be around quite as much the next two days. My youngest daughter turns 5 tomorrow so there are birthday plans tomorrow evening, but I will be around most of the daytime.

In case you haven't heard, I tore a ligament in my lower back about 2 1/2 months ago.
It's making my life very difficult; I can't empty the dishwasher or move laundry or lug around hay and horse feed. I'm not able to do much of anything and have been given the pretty handicapped parking tag. This is a huge blow, especially given the fact that I'd do just about anything to be out riding right now.

I've been in a constant state of a good steady 8 on the pain scale for a long time now. (I had to have an MRI on my RL birthday!) I go Wednesday for some kind of injection to numb the nerves in that area. It can take up to 18 months for a ligament to heal. They're going to explain it all and then do it so I'm not exactly sure what is entailed, or how long anything is supposed to take or what my limitations afterwards will be.

So please, if you have customer issues, send me a note card and I will get back to you as soon as I possibly can. Just know it may be a few days. If you need urgent help, you can contact Katoria Stevenson who is my new Store Manager, or Always Loveless who is also Calla Store Staff. If you purchased something and it didn't get delivered, please go touch the cash register at the front of the store to have it redelivered!

Treasure Hunt All Weekend!

There are 65 boxes hidden throughout the entire island, in the store and outside of the store!

There's hair in them there hills! (And some unreleased skins and other goodies too!)

Come get 'em! http://slurl.com/secondlife/Calla%20Lily/128/110/35

Have a wonderful weekend. :)

Eight new and Flickr!

There's a Calla Flickr Group! Feel free to add your Calla pics there!

Now, on to the newness!



Artemisia - I have been hanging onto this one for a while now. A really long while. It's one of the ones that kind of grows on you. It bears a resemblance to Spanish Jasmine but the more I look at it, the less resemblance I see. Artemisia is more disheveled, more just-ran-your-hands-through-it (or someone else's hands were in it!) and haphazard. It's become one of my favorites.



Bellflower - This was actually a request from Simone. I really had fun doing this, and wanted it to have that sexy come-hither look without being totally overboard.



Buttercup II - The original Buttercup has gone to the discount section ages ago. But I still get a lot of requests for it, especially in more colors. Rather than resurrect the old one, I took it apart and gave it a makeover. It still has the same style bands, color change of course, and the same side-pulled look. It did get some sculpts though, and I'm pretty happy with the more natural look it has this time around. After a year and a half, it deserved the makeover!



Flax - This is one of the (if not the) first ones I did with sculpts that actually turned out the way I wanted it. It's a vintage, Barbie style ponytail with a tiny little metal headband at the base of the pony. There are also tiny little pearls that line the headband as an optional attachment in case you want to dress it up a little.



Lierre - This was a happy accident! I was attempting something else (again with the sculpts) and had just haphazardly placed a couple of sculpts near the side out of my way. When I cammed back around it was a total "Oh!" moment. There's also flexi in it to give it a natural sway.



Spindle-tree - This one is right on the edge. It's got a subtle "don't push me" undertone to the look, but it's still great for wearing to a corporate event. There's flexi added for movement to the style.



Willow-herb - I love this one! This one was also a request from Simone. She wanted something "Runway." After finding this and this one of Victoria Beckham I started playing with it. Simone gets credit for her "just use the apple sculpty" suggestion for the back of the hair. As you can see, it worked like a charm!



Yellow Tulip - Another one that wasn't what I'd planned when I started, this one came out really well anyway. This one also has sculpts in the ponytail to give it more of a realistic lay to the curls. The scrunchie at the pony base is color change.

As you'll notice, all of these releases have the Touch-to-Fit system. I will be incorporating it into all current styles over the next few weeks. I've had many requests for it, it just got pushed to a back burner with the rebuild and move.

I've really tried not to use a large amount of sculpts in my styles, and you'll likely never see more than a handful in any one style. I simply can't stand the "bubble-head" look. Sculpts are notoriously slow to rez, and seeing people walk around with big blobs for heads just makes the hair stylist in me cringe. But I'm really enjoying the little extra realism that can be created with a few well-placed sculpts. It's still a learning process for me and I hope I'll continue improving with them over time, but I'm really pleased with this start!

More coming soon about the re-opening celebration!

And happy Rez day to me! Two years has gone by so fast!

You can find all the new stuff at the new location in Calla Lily: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Calla%20Lily/128/110/35

Front page of SLNN.com!

I was approached by Osiris Pfalz a few days ago for a brief interview, which I fully expected to be buried someplace in the depths of slnn.com and only a brief few sentence mention.

Imagine my surprise when I got a link from Katoria this morning and saw this on the front page!



Okay so they typo'd my name. Koi, Coi, it's the same sound, who cares!

I didn't manage to snag a screen shot of if when it was on the front page with the little lead in blurb and link, I've been way too busy with other things today.

If you want to read the whole article you can find it here: Southern Charm

A huge thank you to Osiris for the wonderful article. She was wonderful to chat with and I very much enjoyed meeting her.

Calla is moving! Reopening Friday!

And the new SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Calla%20Lily/128/110/35

I hope to see you there! Group members, you will need your Calla Update Group tag on in order to get in, so be sure to activate it before you come over!

Calla is moving, and other big changes!

Tousled will be staying on the sim that Calla is currently on. Callatropia is now Bricolage, and all Callatropia landmarks will continue to take you to the same island, with the new name, and soon the home of Tousled.

Calla is moving to a new location!

I will be sending out landmarks for the new location tomorrow as well as an invitation to the re-opening of Calla!

For the last month, I have had the immense pleasure of working with an extraordinary builder. Her name is Holly Klaxon, and she has been nothing less than a godsend. In the time that I've worked with her, I've been amazed at how well she understands the vision for Calla I have in my head. She has gone above and beyond, and has worked magic where there once was only plywood. The new build is breathtaking, full of incredible detail, and has been crafted with love and care. I want to give you a sneak peek, but I've yet to be able to take a picture that does it even the smallest amount of justice. You'll have to see it for yourself in a few days.

The next part of the magic is brought to you by Katoria Stevenson. She has been baking things up, and you will not believe how awesome things are going to be. Every time I said, "What if..." or "I'd really like to..." she figured out a way.

First off, there will be a new store card system. Gone will be the days of having to wait to get your gift certificate redeemed. No more losing them in transit from your inventory to mine, and back again. No more filling out note cards! If you have a Calla Gift Certificate that you would like to trade in for a new store card, please send me a note with your gift certificate and I will send you the new card by Monday.

Not only will there be store cards, but they are refillable! You'll be able to add L$ to your store card balance. If you want to get something else but there's not enough L$ on your card, you can go to the front desk and add a little more. There will also be a bonus L$ amount added every time you refill your Calla Store card.

In addition, there will be an automated re-delivery system. You know, for those times that you pay for something, and the Lindens think, "Ohhh, I want that!" and it disappears into the void. No more going through your transactions and filling out note cards, waiting on me to verify your purchase and resend it to you. You'll be able to go to the front desk and get it sent to you again - instantly.

In the coming weeks, there will also be a frequent shopper's program which will get you discounts and free hair!

Calla for Men is being taken over by my real life brother, Griptape Pro, and will be its own entity within Calla. The Men's department will have its own Store Card system, and the new re-delivery system as well. He's made some fabulous men's styles and I have no doubt that this will be better all around for you gentlemen! Griptape has been in Second Life for a good long while now and has had his own store, Musician's Paradise, for over a year, so he's not new to the grid or to the way things work in SL.

Keep an eye out tomorrow for your invitation to the re-opening. As always, it will be open only for Calla Update Group members first, and then I will open up to the public a few hours later. I'll be closing membership to the in-world group Friday morning. If you're juggling groups, here's your head's up!

A very fond farewell..

Hi! It's me... the quiet one. Late, as usual!

It's been a pleasure to work under the Calla brand alongside Tigerlily for nearly two years now. When we started, I never would have expected we would grow so much in such a short amount of time. I don't think either of us did! It's been a great ride though. I've met so many amazing people and made great friendships.

But sometimes, people take different roads... and I think Lily and I are traveling in two different directions. They may be two different directions, but I believe they will both end up somewhere really great. While it saddens me to leave Calla behind, I find myself very excited to be doing my own thing with Tousled, and taking new steps. I'm also excited to see where Calla is going, as it has been such a large part of me and my life.

So where am I going? What am I doing? Are there cookies there?

As I mentioned above, my new store and brand name is Tousled. I'll be taking all the styles I've created with me to the new brand. They will all have new textures, and some will have new names. (When I thought to name all our hair with flower names, I never thought about how difficult it would get as we used up all the good ones... I've actually resorted to using fictional plants from Lord of the Rings!) I'll still be working hard to create new styles and fun products. I will be keeping up the same dedicated customer service that Tigerlily and I have been known for in the past. If you'd like to keep updated, you can search for the Tousled Update Group, and join. Though I may pick up another subscribe-o-matic system, seeing how bad group chat spam has gotten lately. I have actually released three new styles this week. You can find pictures on the Tousled Blog. (which has yet to be picked up by Fashion Planet... le sigh)

Tousled is currently in a temporary location in Romero, and the main store location will be in the Bricolage sim sometime next week. I will of course honour all Calla gift certificates that list my name as the creator. (This includes all box certificates and the texture holiday certificates) I think Lily is adopting a new scripted store card system, which will be great, and way easier on her and her customers. Tousled will have it's own scripted store cards as well.

Yes, there are cookies. I don't go anywhere that doesn't have cookies.

I'd like to give a special thank you to all of the Calla Update Group members. You're all amazing fun people, and I have had some of the best group chats with you. It was one group I was always happy to be a part of.

If anyone has any questions, comments or if you just want to say hello, please do :)
All my love!
Haedon Quine

Calla - Temporarily Closing & Subscribe-O-Matic (finally!)

After nearly two years, Haedon and I are ready to do our own thing. Haedon will have her own, new island, and will be working under her own, new brand. At the moment, I'm unaware of what the names of her new brand and her new island will be, so they will be a surprise for me too. Keep checking the fashion feeds.

I will continue on, working as I have for nearly the past two years, under the Calla brand. Calla will be closing for a short period of time this week; my hope is that I will be able to reopen the doors after 3 days or so, although the duration depends primarily on Linden Lab and how efficiently they complete their side of things. The closure will happen with little to no warning, so if you find suddenly that you can't get to Calla, you'll know why!

I wish I could tell you more specifically when the period of closure will begin, but unfortunately that also depends upon Linden Lab and I'm afraid I have little influence in the matter. But, there is one thing I can tell you for certain; once the doors temporarily close, there will be huge changes behind the scenes, and Calla will be back - bigger, better, and more beautiful than ever before. I'm not going to share yet exactly what those changes will be, but rest assured I have some great surprises in store for you!

If you've been waiting for Calla to finally get with the program and get the Subscribe-O-Matic, wait no more! The in-world group is not closing, but I have added the option of the Subscribe-O-Matic. If you're part of the in-world group, you have already been automatically added to the Subscribe-O-Matic as well. If you need to drop the in-world group, go ahead and rest assured that you won't miss any of the important notices over the next week!

The Subscribe-O-Matic sign is up at the front door, and also at the information desk. If you'd like to join, swing on by and touch the sign.

I will be giving more information about the new changes coming to Calla in the next few days, so stay tuned!