After a month of planning and building and revising and biting my nails and swearing and cheering, tomorrow is the day I start moving the new Winterfell build down to the ground level. I decided to build it up at 650m to give myself time and privacy to really work out what I wanted the new area to look like. And not disrupt the venders or visitors, which I think I did despite my best intentions.

Starting tomorrow night at around 8pm SLT I will start returning the old shops, taking what I can of the build into my inventory and doing the first round of terraforming in preparation for the new build to be moved down.

I figure that will take about an hour to two hours (with the normal interruptions that SL and RL provide), after that I will cross my fingers and carefully lower the new building down into place and do another round of terraforming. It shouldn’t be too hard; I have it linked up into about 8 pieces… OH, maybe I will rezfoo it tonight!! Great idea Serra… LOL!!

If I can get the new build into a rezfoo tonight, the instillation shouldn’t take long at all, hour tops with the extra tweaking of the land. Then I will bring all the merchants shops down that I can and IM the ones I can’t or don’t have a new shop set up. Hopefully there are a good number of merchants online and I won’t have to get nasty about getting set up in time for the opening party on Saturday.

Then comes the art and furniture and then finally I will move down the trees and install the secret, which will take a good deal of terraforming, but hopefully if I do it right throughout the process of getting things down from 650, it wont be much work at all.

I will be doing things slowly and carefully, but I hope I am over estimating the time it will take to move everything down. I would like to spend the rest of the night and following morning shopping and building some more furniture… and setting up my own store. Yes, you read right! I will have a store in my own sim FINALLY! Took me long enough don’t you think?

Feel free to come and gawk at me while I do the move!

Much love and kisses!
Miss Serra

Threik Wilkinson in SL - Keith R. Ainsworth in RL - reads from his book of poetry The Courage of Intimacy. Life, death and the relationships we forge between: The Courage of Intimacy is a collection of modern poetry exploring the fundamental human need to connect with others.

3:30pm to 4:30pm SLT
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Winterfell/128/126/21

... and you have the waterways which must be kept open to sailing, and you want some land to be open to wandering visitors, but you would like to keep them out of your private areas… visitors falling in love with the area for its beauty and charm and then hopefully wanting to move in, is what will keep Winterfell flourishing and vital.

How can you make it easy for visitors to know where they can and where they shouldn’t wander?

EASY!

All islands should have parcel divide enabled, so you can do some snazzy land management to let visitors know where they are welcome to explore in a few easy steps:

Step one: Name your sim something neato like “Sea of Rosy Sunsets – Open for sailing” or what ever suits your fancy!

Step two: Cut a parcel around the land mass of your island and name it something like “Land of Hippo – Open to Public” or what ever is appropriate.

Step three: Cut a parcel around your home or just a section of your home and name it something like “Marshmallow Manor – Open by Invite Only” again, what ever suites you and your home.

Step four: This is for the people who really want to be left alone! You can then add a security syetem on the section of land you want to be fully private. I HIGHLY recommend you to use “Star Security“ It has a nice particle test system, so you can press a button and see spheres of particles to show you the height and width etc of area it will scan, boot range, etc. It is also low lag and the particle setup really helps you understand what you are protecting.

Security notes: I request that you only protect as much of your building and land as you need to be comfortable, and no higher than 30 meters high. Give AT LEAST 30 seconds of warning time, lag and other SL issues can delay visitor’s ability to comply with your security settings and boot them home and cause the hapless visitor to get a sour feeling about Winterfell. If you protect a specific room in your house, and it is a reasonable size area that you have given plenty of warning with the other land parcel names and settings, and if you are careful with the security radius settings, you do not need to offer people any warning time at all.

I hope this helps everyone, and I do hope I didn't add any confusion, but as always... respond here if you have concerns or comments.

Much Love
Miss Serra

I finally gave into my itchy building finger and have started a rebuild of the village and palace in the heart of Winterfell. Because this its been eight whole months since I did any revamping and I feel this build is a bit more special than anything else I have done, I will be having a huge reopening party!

Music and entertainment provided by Gabrielle Riel of Radio Riel.

Prizes and trivia and other nonsense provided by little ol' me and my W.I.C.K.E.D.team.

Please stop by August 23rd 2pm - 4pm SLT and help me bless the new village and palace with good cheer!

I am so behind on my shopping... so behind on so many things!

While perusing my favorite designers blogs, I came across this dress by Hyasynth Tiramisu of Silent Sparrow. Oh la la!! I love the waist line!! I got the white one in the middle. Pretty!



Silent Sparrow was the very first time I ever found clothes in SL that made me say "OH YES!!! EXACTLY" Flair, style and grace... with a dash of whimsy and humor. If you have never been to the Silent Sparrow island, please do... you wont be disappointed.

Every thirteenth of the month I host a little meet and greet for the residents of Winterfell. In the past the time for the party was pretty much "when ever I want" but that makes it hard on people to plan on attending.

Being that most thirteenths will fall on a weekday and not a weekend, and I have limited hours on week nights, I have decided that the party will be at 6pm SLT on the thirteenths that fall on weekdays.

On the days that the thirteenth falls on a weekend, I will do everything in my power to have the party at a time when the residents who live in non north american time zones are more likely to be able to attend.

On the oh so groovy days that the thirteenth falls on a Friday, I will be sure to set up something super extra special!

And to commemorate my finally sitting down to figure out a set schedule for this event, I wrote a poem!! LOL, it's not very good... but I had fun writing it!

Much love,
Miss Serra

I have been gone for a while, but now I am back!

I will have a new release in a few days, stay tuned!

It is no secret how much I love jackets ... some might say it boarders on being a fetish, yes?


You can get yours at [CIVVIES] @ Kyoot Army HQ

I am not a huge fan of Victorian dresses (Victorian jackets yes, dresses no), but this one for sure appeals to my aesthetic. Rich colors, subtle fabrics, a bit of lace, a touch of velvet, and a heap of oo la la! You can get yours (or treat your favorite lady) at the Ivalde main store in Second Life.

I have been tagged, TWICE... dirty rotten scoundrels!

Okay so the rules are as follows...

(1) Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

(2) People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.

(3) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

(4) Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

(5) New rule added by Serra: If you get tagged and dont have a blog, post your list as a comment.

Simple, right? Here are my facts:

1) Favorite color is pink, then black.

2) I can't stand dairy products, but favorite food is ice cream. Grasshopper Fudge.

3) I am the oldest child, my father was the oldest child of his family, and his mother was the oldest child of her family, whose mother was the oldest child of her family.

4) When I dream, the main feature is the building the dream is taking place in, and there is always a building.

5) I am completely and totally addicted to Diet Mt. Dew

6) I am not an elf girl in RL, but my RL best friend is… really

7)I read about 330 words a minute

8) I actually like washing windows.

And now for my tags, if you dont have a blog, you can post your facts here as a comment, so you have no excuse not to make a list!

And even if you do have a blog, you should post your answers here as a comment. (yes its a new rule, and yes its kinda cheeting... but I don't have 8 friends with blogs)

Julie, Azazeal, Wildstar, Andrion, Andreas, Desmond, Rilan, Naga

Seneschal of Winterfell
Miss Serra Anansi

and

The Duchess of Caledon Carntaigh
Miss Gabrielle Riel

cordially invite you on behalf of both their nations
to the Winterfell-Caledon Winter's Solstice Ball

Saturday, December 15
2:00pm - 5:00pm SLT
Winterfell Palace, Winterfell
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Winterfell/129/227/35

Formal, Diplomatic or Military Attire

As you all know I have been a bit crazy insane busy the last few weeks, so I thought a quick run down of what has been happening and what is coming up for Winterfell would be helpful.

In October, Winterfell was featured in the Second Life magazine Prim Perfect. It was an honor to be recognized by such a well known publication. You can read all the articles here.

Also in October the dark Victorian themed sim of Winterfell Absinthe was delivered. I added this themed sim to act as the gateway to the amazingly popular and respected Victorian/Steampunk nation of Caledon. Early next year Winterfell and Caledon will share an ocean link and we will be able to either sail or take a ferry between our two fine nations. I can not begin to tell you how excited I am about this link, it has been a long time dream of mine to share a boarder with my dear and long time friend Desmond Shangs nation.

In the next week or so another set of void sims will be delivered, and next month I will be ordering Winterfell Laudanum (another dark Victorian sim). When Laudanum is delivered, Winterfell land holdings will be 983,040 square meters. WOW!!

Which brings me to my current project: I have regained the 8192 meters of land north of the village, to re create Winterfell Castle. To facilitate the new build the north wall of the village will need to be taken out so the castle opens up into the village. This has the potential to be another semi painful expansion. I need to ask for some help with the following:

- Merchants who have larger shops and are willing to move into smaller locations with the same prim allowances

- Merchants who are willing to move to a second floor location.

- Tent merchants will be moved to proper shops

- And finally, something that I don’t want, but if there happens to be any merchants who would like to leave the village, I can offer a refund on remaining rent.

When the castle is finished there will be the following areas:

- Club 13 (looking for a better name, if anyone has ideas. Does not need to have 13 in the name.)

- Community meeting hall

- Space for the upcoming Winterfell Library

- Shop space in the base of the castle to help replace shops lost by the expansion

- Formal open gardens and gazing pool in the middle of the village

- My personal residence.

In addition to all the physical changes in the village, I will be working at making the village a proper “capital” for Winterfell. Silverdrake Sparrow has started the community projects by setting up a group Flickr account, you can see it here. Anyone looking for a place to hold regular meetings, group events, civic services will have my full and enthusiastic support.

That’s it for now. Please IM or email me if you are able to help me with the village expansion, or if you have ideas on how to get it all to work.

Much love,

Miss Serra

Late last week Silverdrake asked me if I would support a Flickr Album, and I said "Hell yeah!!" So here it is and I have to say that I am stunned with the images. I have always been a pretty hard core Second Life supporter... but now with the spectacular addition Windlight, I think I am officially a fangirl.



In the past year I have been so happy with what everyone has done with Winterfell. And now to see these photographs I am moved beyond words. Everyone has taken my vision (the very essence of my heart to be honest) and embellished, nurtured and sent it soaring past my wildest dreams!

To say that I am proud of you all for making Winterfell as beautiful as it is, would be an understatement of enormous proportion.

I love you all!!

Miss Serra

go now... go quickly... post more photos!!!