Five for the weekend!

It's been kind of a rough week for us Calla Girls. I won't go into details. But trust us. It sucked. Somehow we managed to get some hair done. I'm pretty sure it was a miracle.

Here they are:





Begonia - (aka "the hair from hell") The hat is color change, and it was really fun to make. But coloring it, was just pure hell. It took foreva! I thought it was all finished, and went to box it up last night and discovered I'd missed two whole packs! I wanted to cry. Oh, and there's flexi. Which is why I wanted to cry.




Butterfly Weed - This one's also flexi, with scripted color change flowers on the hair clip. I was going to do the actual clip color change too, but I kinda liked it white with the colored flowers. So I left it. But since it's mod, if anyone really wants to color it, you can in the edit window.




Wild Plum - This is my 20's flapper 'do. That looks just like Annie. What can I say, it was one of my favorite movies as a kid.




Yarrow - PIGGIES! Hae does the most incredible piggies. I just love the little bobby pins in the front. These are all flexi, and really long, and of course have color change bands.

And last, but most definitely not least is a very special Ayeshe's Angels style.




White Rose - I asked Simone Stern what Ayeshe's favorite flower was, and she told me it was a white rose. So this one is named for Ayeshe's favorite flower. 100% of the sales from this style go directly to Ayeshe. We will be putting up a kiosk of some kind very soon, and keep a running tally of how much total L Calla has donated to Ayeshe's Wellness Fund. The number is pretty sizable, and I think it'd be a great thing for you all to be able to see what you're contributing for her!

So there ya have it. That's what's new at Calla for the weekend. We hope you enjoy them, and we sincerely hope your week was better than ours!

We have pants!

Release Notes for Second Life 1.13.2(12) January 19, 2007
=====================================
Bug fixes:
* Fixed loose clothing appearing tight upon login

And there was much rejoicing across the grid.

Being the child of the 80's that I am, I used to peg-leg my pants so this bug wasn't too annoying to me. Until I saw a guy with jeans that looked like leggings. And those big clunky boy feet. It was just so many kinds of bad I don't know where to start.

Haedon's been boycotting pants until they fixed this bug and I actually saw her with pants on yesterday for the first time in...a while! And I picked up some super cute jeans the other day that I'm so gonna have to blog.

So, yay for pants being normal again!

Color change love - Six new

Anemone - This one is absolutely gorgeous. This is Haedon's and is such a nice side chignon. She took the lilies I'd made and added them as a chin attachment, of course with scripted color change. Because we love color change.




Delphinium - Everyone seems to really love this one, I guess because there are few curly styles out there in SL. I don't know, but it's been an instant hit. I was in total denial of a max limit of linked prims when I made it. Thankfully it came in under 256.




Ground Laurel - I've been wanting to do some styles with hats, headbands, clips, etc. There's a hat style I've done, but is a bitch to color so you'll see that one some time next year. This one, however, came out awfully sweet. Of course, the band is color change.




Hydrangea - Another of Haedon's and one of my personal favorites. It looks very "pretty pretty princess" as some *cough* Haedon *cough* would say. And I fit the "pretty pretty princess" description...remarkably well. This one has flexi, and I just adore the layered back. And the hair clip is color change!




Solidago - I can't repeat the things we said about this ponytail without breaking some kind of ettiqute rules. But let me assure you, this pony by Hae rocks! We are both totally in love with this one. It kicks some serious bootay. Not to mention, the bands are color change!




Wild Hyacinth - Last up is this one, inspired by Hae's Solidago. I'm seriously piggie challenged. I fight with them every step of the way. I just can't seem to get that middle part down the way I'd like to. I'm gonna keep working on it, and eventually someday it will be perfect. And have I mentioned we love color change? Oh. Well then. Yeah, it's got color change bands.

A hair show!

We had a hair show put on by Aspire Modeling Agency and we had so much fun. Even with the grid issues (160something regions being shut down!) it went amazingly well. The women of Aspire were wonderful, and had everything so organized and planned out that we just got to sit around and look pretty and look at the models looking pretty.

Then we got to go sit up on the platform and oversee the show from the VIP seating.

The models were beautiful, and they showed off our styles fabulously! Some of the styles in the show were Gardenia, Nettle, Acacia, Eupatorium, Iris, and Ivy.

We had 30 styles in the show, worn by ten different models. They really did a fabulous job, and we're so pleased that it went off as well as it did! I can't imagine trying to coordinate it all.

For the grand finale, all ten models hit the stage again and they made me and Haedon come to center stage. Haedon said a brief thank you, and I just smiled and looked dazed.

But all in all, we had fun, the show went off without a hitch, and the ladies of Aspire were a joy to work with.

It puts the mayo on the roll....

So I've been reading SL blogs... lots of blogs... OMG so many blogs. Sometimes when I read them I'll stumble onto a little snippet about the blogger's personal everyday shit. The first few times, I thought to myself, "I came here to see if you had new stuff, read some reviews... Who cares about your personal junk?" And as the days passed, I realised the answer to that question was "I do! me me! I care!" Cause I am friggen bored at work, and all you bloggers out there are giving me something to read. So thanks!

Then I think to myself, "Hey! I should return the favour and tell stuff about me!" But you know what? I'm not that interesting. I don't have kids, I'm 26... I have a crappy job that pays me when they feel like it. I don't have any super powers (not that I'd tell you anyway!!!) >.> The biggest thing that happened to me today is that my sammich had no mayonnaise on it. It was a breakfast sammich. I got turkey and american on a croissant with mayo. It's not such a big deal, but the deli fucks up my order EVERY DAY, no fail.

I used to order sausage egg and cheese on a roll in a styrofoam container. I did that cause when they gave it to me wrapped in the paper, it was a mess and a half. How hard do you think that is? To make a sammich and place it into a container, rather than wrap it up? Apparently WAY hard. I got all sorts of variations on that one. I had the sausage, egg and cheese in the container with no roll. I once got that, with a roll wrapped in paper tossed in WITH the stuff. I once got the roll buttered, in the container with the other stuff. I suppose it was the new Do It Yourself breakfast sammich.

The issues withe the turkey sammich were fun. I didn't know why I was paying 6 dollars for a breakfast sammich, till I opened it up to find a mound of friggen turkey. It was like a deli lunch sammich. So the next time I called, I specified "a little bit of turkey, not a huge lunch portion". Sometimes it was right, sometimes it wasn't. But I was getting a little pissed off that I'm spending an extra 4 dollars every time they screw up my sammich. So finally I call and ask them what language I need to learn to speak, in order for them to get it right. They clear it up, appologise, and tell me the next ones free. I'm okay with that.

So I order my free sammich today... no effing mayo. I seriously give up. I'm going to go back to bringing in those personal bowls of cereal.


A very uninteresting,
Haedon

Snapple cap say: A hummingbird's heart beats 1,400 times a minute

One more!

We added one more to the list of new releases. It was a tad late but somewhat fitting. Haedon got married on Saturday, and we put out Ivy.



Ivy - This is a really gorgeous style, and one of Haedon's. We've had a lot of girls come in and need help fitting hair to their wedding veil. We have a lot of updo's that will usually work, but Haedon said he was going to try making one with a veil. I think it came out so pretty. And the veil is exquisite. The textures are great, the little flowers are so pretty, and have tiny pearl centers. The veil is not color change, but being modable, you can color it if you'd like something besides white.

Sixteen New!

Yep, that's right. Sixteen. We've really been working hard and have some amazing new stuff! I'll get right to it. Here's what we put out:




Acacia - This one is Haedon's. It's a magnificent 40's style with color change pearls. It looks wonderful with a hat. I wore this one around for days with a fuzzy winter hat, a vintage look dress and fuzzy gloves.




Carnation - Okay, really I tried to make a boy style. But it got too girly. Carnation is the result. It reminds me of a Demi Moore style, sorta Ghost-ish.




Clove - This one stayed on the pose stand for a really long time, nearly a week. I just couldn't get it to look the way I wanted it. Haedon finally made a suggestion that worked perfectly. It did have three braid loops, but the third one was 150 prims, and it exceeded the max link limit. So there are two.




Eupatorium - You guys wanted more flexi, here ya go! I'm actually pretty happy with how this one came out. I'm still not a flexi fan, but this one's okay. I'm really pleased with the bangs.




Lotus - I really like this one. I had actually just read Memoirs of a Geisha for the first time when I made this one. I guess I was inspired. The hair sticks are color change, and are attached to the hair. I thought about doing them as a separate attachment, but Haedon said they should be part of the style. She was right, so they are. And with 140 colors to choose from for the sticks, you can match just about anything!




Monarda - This one, just a plain old French Twist, sans octopus. I'm a big fan of the Linden Lifestyles blog, and couldn't help but indulge Salome in her search for "classic octopus-free French twist". Especially since I happened to agree with her.




Peach Blossom - I love this one. Super cute, flexi ends, braids, 4 scripted color-change bows with 140 color options, and you can change the bow color for each bow separately. What more can a girl want?




Petunia - This is one I was really iffy on, so I asked the Calla Update group for a hand. (I actually blogged about this one a while back when I'd finished it. It looks great on everyone. Seriously, I've yet to see anyone who doesn't look fabulous in it.




Stephanotis - Another of Haedon's, which I think is great. The hair clip is color change and it's just a really fun, laid back kinda style. It's perfect for jeans.




Sunflower - This one, I am so proud of. I completely reserve bragging rights for this one. It was really a challenge, but I love how it came out. I'd found this picture and loved the style.

So I decided I'd try it. I'm so happy with how it turned out. Especially since I had no back to look at.




Sweet Alyssym - This one is actually a smoother, more sophisticated Yellow Rose. (Actually what happened was my husband said that I looked like I had horns when I was wearing Yellow Rose, and he said it'd be prettier if it wasn't so flippy. So, for him, here's less horns.)




Sweet Pea - PIGGIES! Aren't they cute?! This one is Haedon's and it is so adorable. High piggies, with color change bands. Again, 140 colors! Woot! And the bangs on this one are so perfect for this style! She did an awesome job. Love it.




Vinca - Another of Hae's, and more flexi! I have to say, for flexi, this rocks. I really love this one, it's probably one of my top 10 favorites. The bangs on this one, to die for. Color change bands, 140 colors, flexi and so long! This one's gonna be a hit.




White Mulberry - A really sweet friend of mine, Phia Vaughan, and her SL hubby Sampson, own the most awesome jewelry store ever - Simply Spoiled. Which was formerly *SS* Creations. Which I read about on the Linden Lifestyles blog, a really long time ago when I first started playing, and have been in love with their stuff ever since. Anyway, Sampson just made a beautiful tiara, and I asked if they'd care if I made hair specifically for it. So, White Mulberry is what became of that. I'd actually found another picture that I used for this one:


The tiara is not included, but we will be having them put it up for sale at our shop, so you can grab it when you get the hair. It's really a beautiful piece, and has earrings and a necklace to match.




Yellow Rose - I had so much fun making this one, it grew from Petunia, and became a long tousled curly look, with a little bit of sass.




Zinnia - And last but certainly not least, Zinnia. This one is Haedon's and definitely tops my current list of favorites. I absolutely love it. She said she finished it because she knew it would look great on me. And as you can see, it so does! Had she tossed it out, we'd have all been missing out on this one.

So, there's the list! The sim's been crazy with all the grid issues, so if you can't teleport anywhere, at least you can look at the ads here!

Have a wonderful weekend, and again a big thank you and congratulations to all who participated in our slogan contest. You guys rock. We really have the most awesome group.

Calla... We got something!

Well, the contest went extremely well. Entries poured in daily, and every day we were greeted with the most awesome slogans. You guys crazy creative, I love it! Not only that, but we got some idea of what you really think of us. The words that were used to describe our hair... sophisticated, beautiful, stylish, pretty... those words made us feel REALLY good about who we are, and the work we do. So a huge thank you! to anyone that submitted an entry. We wouldn't be anything without our [fantastically beautiful] customers.

Of course it was not an easy decision... there were loads of great ones. But we finally came to an agreement on what ones really stood out. So, I present to you our winners of the Calla Slogan Contest:

In Third place we have Ysera Nyanda with:
"Calla, Blossoms of Beauty"

Second place goes to Mishi Li (just for having the balls to submit it) with:
Calla, We're just better.

And our First place winner, with our new Calla Slogan is Sonne Greene with:

Calla, Discover Your Style!

Congratulations to all of our winners, and thanks again to all who submitted an entry. We'll be contacting you guys soon with your prizes.

~Hae

The best laid plans...

So I had all these plans for what I was going to do today. My husband's grandparents have been here the last 4 days, so I've been mostly absent doing RL things. Today, I was gonna be back hard at work on all the goodies we have coming this week.

Until my mom called. I haven't really talked to her in the last 4 days (my mom calls and wants to talk for like an hour every day) since we had company here. So she talks for an hour, kids are screaming because grandma and grandpa are gone and life just isn't as fun without them. And because they're 3 and 1 and that's what they do best.

So finally mom's off the phone, kids have cookies and are at least somewhat entertained for the time being (yay for coloring books!) so I go to fix myself some breakfast and the phone rings again. It's my husband, who needs me to bring him contacts. I'd taken him to work today so I could run to the store for a few things we needed.

So he says, "What're you doing?"

"I'm fixing breakfast."

"What are you doing for lunch?"

"Umm...I don't know."

"Want Mexican?"

"Okay, you want me to come out there for lunch?" (We're like 20 minutes from anything. So this isn't just an around the corner kind of deal.

"I need you to bring me contacts."

/me sighs

"Okay."

So now my morning is shot. And probably most of my afternoon by the time we get back, and then I have to go get him again from work this afternoon. And maybe do laundry and put away the dishes at least.

50% Off Sale

We've discounted the Holiday Edition Color packs to 50% off. There's just a few more days left to grab them, so stop by. The 25 color pack is just 300L. (That's only 12L per color!)

We've got some wonderful things coming next week, I'm so excited! We've got the contest going on (see Hae's post below, or the notecard in world at our shop) and we've got I think 17 styles now to release. Woot!

Calla... We got nothin'

Seriously, we got nothing. We were trying to come up with a slogan type thinger the other day, and while we may be creative with prims... we find that we are uncreative with words. We need your help! Help Calla find a slogan.

What's in it for me, you might ask. Well, there IS a prize. Whoever comes up with the slogan that we like best will have their avatar featured in one of our new ads for the upcoming January release. (There's like 15 styles being released in January! but shh... I didn't tell you.) So, you want to see your gorgeous face on our wall? It comes with an "I gotta have em all" pack of the hair style you'll be modeling. That's like... well... it's a lot of colours!

How do I win this awesomely spectacular prize??!? Well, get those creative juices flowing, kick around some ideas. When you have something you like, put it on a notecard, and come to the store in Plush Kappa. There's a mailbox right in the front door for you to drag that notecard into. Make sure your name is on the notecard!

First prize - Featured model of a brand new hairstyle with an Everything pack of colours.
Second Prize - 1000L Gift Certificate
Third Prize - 600L Gift Certificate

If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up, Haedon Quine, in-world. You have till January 3rd to get your notecards into the mailbox. Winners will be announced on January 4th.

Much love and all that jazz,
Hae

Nex Brannan you're my hero!!!

About a week ago, I was told by Lily that our blogger images weren't coming up in FireFox. I was a little perturbed because I had looked for a pretty blogger template for a few days before settling on the one we had. I desperately needed to get away from that awful pink, I don't know what I was thinking when I put it up.

So, it was back to searching. What else is there to do at my RL job but browse page upon page of blogger templates. I needed something pretty, something classy... something that spoke to me. But really, there's just a limited amount of things out there that fit.

I had noticed that the Brutal Gear blog was super spiffy. So I asked Nex if he could help my poor webtarded ass out. Thankfully he said he would, even though he's swamped at the moment. Look how awesome it is! Like I said... You're my hero ;)

I'm also going to take this time to elaborate on just how awesome Nex is. I should have done this a while ago, but I'm a little bit of a slacker. He recently accepted my offer to put his stuffs in our sorry looking Calla men's section.





There are mechanic shirts with prim rolled sleeves for added definition. It's that extra something you won't find elsewhere. They come in black, blue, brown and blood. I haven't tried these on.. mainly cause I'm a girl and I like looking like one. But I've seen Nex in them and all I have is "Yum!".






On top of the shirts, jeans, belt buckles and uber cool Bomber Jacket.. he makes sunglasses! (And Squishy Pete.. but that's a whole other story). You have to see these. I actually used a pair of the Carbon Cross Sunglasses in one of our Calla shadow box displays in the store. These are not just for the boys!


Nex's stuffs are not only available in our store. They can be found on both SLBoutique.com and SLexchange.com. The holidays are near... it's freakin' cold. Wouldn't your guy look great in a bomber?

~Hae

Ayeshe's Angels Item

Some of you may have heard about Ayeshe Millions, or seen the fundraisers, the yard sales, and events raising money for her medical care. If you haven't, you can read about it at the Simone! Fans blog. Most of you may recoginze her work, we have had her skin demos up in our shop for a long time.

Ayeshe is really one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet. I've had the pleasure to get to know her and spend time with her, and I have to say, Ayeshe is one of those magical people who just radiate joy. She's truly a gift. When I got the notecard from Simone about her medical struggles, I knew I couldn't sit by and do nothing.

We put six styles up at the yardsale, all discounted to 100L and 100% of the proceeds going to Simone Stern for Ayeshe's medical fund. Just for those sales alone, Calla (and you our customers!) raised 42,800L. (About $145 usd.)

We are putting out a new item in our store as part of the Ayeshe's Angels drive. Every L used to purchase it goes directly to Ayeshe's medical fund. Please wear it with pride and know that you've contributed to helping this amazing woman. Buy one for your friends, give it as gifts, tell your friends about it.

Sometimes, things take on a life of their own.

You know what I mean. You start out, you're just going to do one little thing, and it turns into something much bigger.

I'd been working on hair (yes, I still do that believe it or not) and wanted some input on how it looked. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, and Hae wasn't home to look at it, so I decided to ask the gals on the group list for some opinions. I tp'd 5 girls in, and gave them all a copy to see what they thought, and to see how it looked on them. Sometimes you really have to see it on someone else to be sure that it's finished. Jeanie, and Mui, that hair was made for you two, I just didn't know it. It looked so cute on everyone that was there, but seeing it on those two did it for me. I knew it was done.

We stood around chatting about how we all looked the same and kinda laughing at ourselves. Digit Darkes (of X3D) is a friend of mine and she was there. She said she was going to blog it, I threatened bodily harm if she called it the temporary name I'd given it, and then she starts running with the idea. She passes out matching dresses to all the girls, we head to her studio/office to take pictures. By this time Hae's home and she joins us. Of course we can't leave out Aleri and Dakota who are there. So we keep adding girls, playing with poses, adding more dresses, passing out more hair, and having a huge blast.

I got to play with my customers, and a couple of friends, and that's always the best. I really appreciate you girls being so willing to give up your time, and your opinions, and kick back and have some fun with us. I had an awesome time, and I hope you all did too!

Here's a picture of the new style, and all of us posing glamorously! ;)

Holidays Editions

Holiday colors! Yay! I had so much fun making these textures. They kinda snowballed (no pun intended there) once I got going. It was just going to be reds and greens. But you can't have reds and greens without golds and blues. The Cranberry was an afterthought. Then they all have to be tipped. Then Haedon suggested white with the Evergreen tips, so of course, I did that. Then Snow/Cranberry Tips and Snow/Gold Tips. Then just for fun I tried a candy stripe, like a candy cane. That came out so well I had to do a red and green striped.

I've gone texture crazy. Don't worry. I don't think it's contagious.

A few of Hae's favourite things...

I don't blog so much... I'm sure someone, somewhere has noticed. (Maybe) But anyway. 'Tis the season, and I've decided I need to start blogging more often.

For those of you that know me, you know my all time favourite thing (besides Ra!) is shopping. If you leave me unattended in a store of any sort, I will undoubtedly purchase at LEAST one item. Clothing is my downfall. If you walk past me, I can most likely tell you the name of the outfit you're wearing, where you got it, what colours it comes in, and how much it cost you. I can't remember what I ate for lunch, but I know where you got your skirt!!

I thought I'd take the opportunity to tell you all about a few of my current faves. They change all the time, but currently I'm just in love with this stuff. I even took pictures to share!


Sooo... on the left we have a brand spanking new outfit from Panjen (click to visit the store!). Panjen was actually one of the first places I went to when I started playing. I don't know why I waited so long to join the group, but now that I did I'm there all the time for her new stuffs. I put this on last night and pranced around in it for quite some time. It's the Flexi Bound Tutu Dress. You can also find her items on SLexchange. I decided to wear it with my Oi! 16 eye Doc Boots!

But baby it's cold outside.... That's ok! That's why Shai Delecroix made us coats. Pictured in the middle is the Ruby Shearling coat in Cocoa ( I bought one in Ebony too, cause... well cause I needed it). The texture on this is amazing. The lapel looks so soft. It comes with a mock turtleneck, and a cute pin (not shown). You can find this at Casa Del Shai. Shoes are Mary Jane clogs in brown by Shiny Things.

And on the right, last and definitely not least... the oh so warm velvet coat by WRONG. I landed at WRONG one day, maybe two weeks ago... and proceeded to buy the entire store. One of my fave items to come out of that spree was this gorgeous velvet coat. Comes with prim fur trim on the sleeves and collar, and a fluffy prim skirt. Shoes are the Sleek Lace-up Boots in Charcoal by Shiny Things.

And those... are a few of Hae's favourite things. You know, besides the whiskers on kittens and all that jazz. I promise to try and blog more often ;)

~Hae

A hodgepodge

The aftermath of the update, gotta love it. Nothing works, you can't TP anywhere, and now "Search Places" is turned off for the whole weekend?! What kind of bs is that? That really pisses me off as a business owner.

The trip to NYC was awesome, but much too short. Hae and I had dinner (with our respective husbands and my kids) at a TGI Friday's on Times Square. OMG, it was so funny. My (almost) 1-year-old grabbed my glass of water and pulled it towards him. Well he was sitting in my lap. I instinctively knocked the glass away from me...and right into my husband's lap across the table. (It was payback for him throwing our 3-year-old in a puddle *wink*) But the food was good, the company was better, and afterwards we walked around a scary part of NYC in the dark. We stopped in a little souvenir shop and I picked up some little odds and ends and a pink I <3 NYC coffee mug. Then we had coffee at a Starbucks (they had to go to Columbia to get the beans or something, it took foreva!) and got to walk and talk on the way back to Penn Station. And we saw the Empire State Building all lit up and red and green, and we saw a couple of mice playing around some shrubbery.

My kids were cranky and tired and my husband was too, and so we cut the day much shorter than I'd have liked. Next time, I'm going alone and staying as long as I want.

And during my boredness these last few days, I stole this from Ciera's blog, who stole it from Elika's blog, who stole it from....you get the picture.

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool..

Here's mine:

Opening Credits: Tone Loc - Wild Thing

Waking up: Bud Light Presents Real Men of Genius - Mr Edible Underwear Maker

First Day at School: Tiffany - I Think We're Alone Now

Falling in love: Toasters - Don't let the Bastard Grind you Down

Breaking Up: Unwritten Law - My Girlfriend's Dead

Prom: Enigma - The Cross of Changes

Life's Ok: Hooters - And We Danced

Driving: Tom Jones - Secret Agent Man

Flashback: Paula Abdul (okay, so I grew up in the 80s, shoot me) - Forever Your Girl

Getting Back Together: Chicago - I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love

Wedding Scene: Buddy Holly - Great Balls of Fire

Birth of Child: Mary Poppins - Let's Go Fly a Kite

Final Battle: Rocky Horror Picture Show Cast - The Time Warp

Death Scene: The Beegees - Staying Alive (I'm sooo not kidding)

End Credits: Def Leopard - Pour Some Sugar on Me

Ugh, it's Wednesday

Seeing as I just got home last night and want to build, of course the grid is going to be down and then wonky all night. At least I get some things up on SLexchange and SLboutique on these kinds of days. Some of the new things this update look pretty cool, and I'm loving that I can choose who can stalk me and who can't.

I just thought I'd voice my frustrations. I know we're all feeling it. Hopefully they'll get things sorted out. I've got all this hair in my head I need to clear out! (Yes, it's sort of like cobwebs.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, as some of you might have noticed, I'm on vacation! We went to NJ to see my hubby's dad and stepmom. (I totally love my step-mother-in-law, so it's actually pretty nice to be here.) Anyway, we drove all day yesterday in the rain. That rotten Nor'easter storm. The flooding was horrible through NC and up into VA. They actually closed the road we were on, the one that was supposed to take us to the interstate. So we spent an hour lost and trying to find our way back to the interstate. Then we got a little turned around again later on after getting into NJ. What should have been a 9 hour trip turned into a 13 hour long trip with two kids who weren't very happy. They didn't scream the whole way thankfully, just part of it.

The first stop we made, my husband threw our 3 year old into a puddle. (Okay so he didn't but I like giving him a hard time about it. She actually slipped on the curb and landed face first in the grass in a huge puddle.) Of course it was cold and rainy, and she was soaked, so we had to take her muddy wet clothes off, and she spent the rest of the trip in a t-shirt.

So phase one of vacation trip is over. We'll do it again next week. Hopefully without the rain and flooding.

But the biggest best part about this trip, will be going to NYC and meeting Haedon there! Woohoo! I can't wait. I'm going to go do sufficently stupid touristy things and stand around with my mouth hanging open. I've never been to NYC before. And Hae and I have never met face-to-face (though we talk on the phone and stuff) so this is going to be an extra special trip.

I hope you all are having a great Thanksgiving full of family and friends, and all the things that make life special.

Two new!

I'll get right to it. I put out two more that just fell together. I love when that happens! Here they are:





Cornflower - This is a big elegant pulled back chignon. I had a lot of fun making this one, I really love the updo's.





Nettle - This isn't quite what I was shooting for, but it came out well anyway. The hair band/comb thing is pretty simple, but I didn't want it to take away too much, and it is on the back of your head, so I just left it a plain white with a low shine. Feel free to add your own textures if you want, but it is color change of course.

I hope you enjoy wearing them as much as I enjoyed making them!

New this week @ Calla!

I'm getting horrible about posting these lately. I'm blaming it on my children's sudden change in wake-up times. 4:30! Can you believe that?! I'm soooo tired. The last two mornings have been a bit better, 5:30, so maybe we're on an upswing. /me isn't holding her breath.

We put out three new styles on Tuesday! One of which was the sneek peak I showed you guys last week. ;)




Laburnum - Really long, and flexi! I can't remember, but I don't think I made any changes to it after posting the sneak peek. You girls seem to love it, and the guys I've seen in the shop have commented on how pretty it is. (Don't guys always love the long hair!) I'm still a little iffy on it, but I usually am until I wear them a few days.




White Heather - This one is Haedon's, and I think she did an excellent job with it. This is the longest ponytail I've seen anywhere, and of course, it's flexi too! Don't forget the color change bands! It's amazing how many people I say "You know those bands are color change?" and they're all "OMG really?! How do I do it?"

Btw, if you've got a Calla Color chart that you can't read, please drop me an IM. I thought I'd updated them all, but somehow the little ones (I was trying to reduce rez time) are still floating around, and you can't see the color names on it. I'll drop you a bigger one so you can see what colors there are to use! Our friend Polly Patterson IM'd me the other day asking how to make the color chart bigger so she could read it. She'd spent 20 minutes trying to stretch it and get it readable. So, if any of you are fighting the same battle, let me know!




Nightshade - I did a short style to balance out the super longs we did. ;) This one is boy-cut short all over, except the few long pieces in the front. For some reason, that middle pic of my avie (with the brunette hair on) reminds me of Kristian Alfonso. Guess I've spent way too many years watching Days. ;)

Shopping!

I'm walking through the grocery store the other day, and a woman comes around the corner and I look up at her. My initial reaction was "Oh my God! You're wearing Nasturtium!" I nearly said it out loud. How embarassing would that have been?

I got an IM yesterday from Ciera Bergman of Vitamin Ci. I love her designs. The first dress I ever bought was from her. I'm now pleased to say that I own that dress in every color she made. I'm also dying to get her to make me one in some spring colors. I'd give my left arm for one in color change. I digress.

She IM'd me yesterday which was a pleasant surprise. She's really a great girl, and so talented. I asked her if she had any new dresses that I needed to come see. She tp'd me in to see a new dress Simone has made (omg gorgeous) and a new set she had put out.

I'm one of those girls that loves the modest clothes. It's so hard to find them. But this set is amazing! The sweater covers my stomach (there is a shorter sweater option) and my buttcrack doesn't show. (My husband will occasionally walk past while I'm playing and say "Your ass is hanging out.") Even the skirts with this set are longer than most! I hate those tiny little flexi skirts that barely come past your waistline. They're just so not me and I feel uncomfortable wearing them. (I'm a self-admitted prude.) So I'm really pleased to have this set. It comes in 5 awesome colors (I had to get them all) and the sweaters have these great prim turtleneck attachments! They're so warm looking! This is a must-get!

Then we went shopping for shoes. I needed a pair of chocolate shoes (especially after getting that pants/skirt set in brown) and she took me to Paper Couture which I'd never even heard of. They had the perfect pair of shoes! They have some really pretty things, definitely worth checking out.

Sneak Peek

Here's something I've been working on this week, in addition to the upcoming Holiday textures!

I'd love some feedback on it, these long flexi styles are so hard to make look right. You have to have the non-flexi for the shaping, but we all want the pretty sway to our hair.

Front

Back

Oh yeah, THREE new!

I meant to blog, went to blog, forgot to blog. We put out three new on Monday, two for the ladies and one for the men.

Ladies first:



Red Poppy - This one is totally my new favorite! I had a pretty jeweled hair band in it, but it just wasn't working for me. I made the color-change flexi ties, and fell in love. This is my soccer-mom-meets-sexy 'do.



Bryony - A longish, side-parted, no bangs, flexi. Really, I'm trying to make some long styles, but they all come out looking the same. I'm working on it. This isn't quite as long as White Camellia, Holly, or Meadowsweet. But longer than Forget-me-not.



Puma - Say hello to Hae's first ever boy hair! Woot! The bands are color change, and the pony tail is flexi. (Guys like flexi, too. I tend to forget that.) It has no bangs, which is really a difficult thing to accomplish even though you wouldn't think so.

We've also put out the "I Want Them All" packs. Those super-mega packs of every color we have, including the LTD Edition colors. I even threw in the Pumpkin LTD's in the packs that we had the Pumpkins available in. Super low priced at 2000L for all 60+ Calla colors.

What you gon' do with all that junk?

We get a lot of noobs. We generally like noobs, because... well probably mostly because they're amusing. And we like helping people figure things out, and start to feel a little more normal in their second lives. But every once in a while, you get one that just doesn't get it. And you have to go to extreme measures.

Hae was gracious enough to put it in black and white for this noob.

To the clothing designers

You rock, seriously. In a huge way. I can't even successfully make a t-shirt. The one tank I made, that's it. All the stupid little miniscule details , trying to get the seams to line up right, making the lines of the collar and sleeves so they're straight, adding shadows and lighting so it doesn't look so flat... I just don't have the patience for it. Then add in the way the textures are going to have to stretch across the watermelon sized boobs every girl in SL seems to have.

I'm really not a photoshopper. (I use PSP anyway, but you get the gist.) I don't enjoy it. I really admire anyone who can sit and work for hours on a shirt and make it come out looking like an actual shirt. 'Cause I sure can't.

So a big hats off to you fashion designers out there. Keep on making those clothes, and I'll keep buying them!