Winter Wonderland, Linden Lab's Winter Sim Open Now and Annual Community Snowball Fight Monday

Visit Linden Lab's Winter Wonderland open to the general public here:http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Winter%20Wonderland%205/128/128/22


See Xiola Linden's official Linden Lab blog about Winter Wonderland, the Linden Lab community snowball fight, premium half off special and premium Portal Park here:  https://community.secondlife.com/t5/Featured-News/Joy-to-the-Grid-Exclusive-Gifts-the-Magic-of-Winter-Wonderland/ba-p/3088250



I started out in the brand new LL Portal Park which was a very cool entryway into the LL premium member special areas around the grid (see pics below) then entered the annual Winter Wonderland area that is now open to the general public.  (The direct link above is to the Winter Wonderland area open to all residents)

This year's Winter Wonderland has many of the same features as last year but with added features, and includes the huge play area with tracks for skiing, snowboarding, (free loaner boards, snowmobiles, skates and supplies available for use on site)  skating, a ferris wheel, etc.  The Snowball Arena and snow track area is bisected by the quaint City of Lights that houses a gift for visitors and is a perfect segue between the two areas.  Paths lead to the snowball arena that is home to the giant ice castle and frozen magical light changing tundra where visitors can explore, enjoy fireworks at the top of each hour, free snowball shooters, and a monster that rises from the depths of the ice pond at seemingly random time frames for only just a moment before diving back to it's icy home.

When visiting the snowball arena chose your free weapon to lug around while exploring as you can nail your friends, strangers or enemies around any corner possibly briefly shooting them sky high if your aim is true.  Watch out for avalanches, fellow players, and some ground areas that seem to want to bounce a person around for no apparent reason.  This is truly and beautiful and magical area.

The big event comes this Monday, 12-19-16 at 10am SLT.  The Lindens are hosting a snowball crawl this year for residents to join them.  (Alas, I will be at work as usual during this time frame so enjoy this without me) You can read about the details here: https://community.secondlife.com/t5/Featured-News/Jolly-Holiday-Crawl-amp-Snowball-Showdown-at-10-am-SLT-Monday/ba-p/3087782  The tour will visit some of SL's finest winter sims culminating at the WW snowball arena for the annual LL community snowball fight between noon and 2pm SLT.  So if you ever wanted to hobnob with some Lindens, here is your chance.  There are also gifts and freebies around (including a Blueberry special ladies) and even more gifts for premium members so be sure to check out her blog posts for more info.
 
(Portal Park below)
 

3 Great Winter Sims to Explore, Fallen Angels, Arctic Express, and Winter Showcase and Art Show

Visit Fallen Angels riding sim here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Coral%20Gables/128/128/23

I got a tip from Milky (Selena.twig) about this beautiful sim.  The ground is absolutely beautifully landscaped winter sime and the riding roads/track winds it's way through the sky.  My pics are of the ground area.  Beautiful job sim owner, Cat (Cat666Kat666)

Here are some more associated urls:
[http://secondlife.com/destination/fallen-angels-riding-sim
https://www.facebook.com/catkat.catkat.12/posts/372315149769485
https://www.facebook.com/SelenaTwig/posts/648102852061671

The sim info. reads: "Riding sim for all,and Hangout for everybody.features a paintball dragon arena with rideable dragons, we have an amazing space time track bike shops,clothes store,winter ro
mantic area for photographs,graveyard,amazing road from top to bottom.all welcome."



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Visit the DRD (Death Row Designs) Arctic Express at Moonlight Sonata here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Moonlight%20Sonata/128/128/23

This is a gorgeous winter sim with The Arctic Express, great for skating, exploring and photography.  Be sure to get inside the train for some great detailed design that really are super cool


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Visit 2016 Winter Showcase and Art Show here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Meadow%20Gardens/128/128/22

This cool winter sim has shopping (for a good cause) art, and landscaping to explore.  If you want your Christmas pics on Santa's lap, there is a spot for you to pose.

Their info. states: "Team Diabetes of Second Life is proud to present for the second year in a row, the 2016 Winter Showcase and Art Show! This event will take place from December 8 to December 18 and will include ten days of live djs, performers, tribute concerts, 2 hunts, photos with Santa, ince skating, ice fishing, fundraising and more! The sim will open at 4 am slt on December 8! http://www.teamdiabetesofsecondlife.org/2016-winter-showcase.html"

Anu Papp's "The Nutcracker Ballet" Official Trailer

This looks like a great show. THE NUTCRACKER - TONIGHT AT ORIGEN'S CHINESE PLAYHOUSE DEC 14TH 7PM SLT
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondli…/0%200%20Acajou/…/96/522

Hand

Visit Bryn Oh's Hand in Immersiva here : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Immersiva/128/128/21

Saturday Dec 10, Bryn Oh's "Hand" opened to the public.  This is another immersive story telling artistic adventure sim created by this RL artist for us to enjoy in SL.  Thankfully I took a friend, John Corey, along as between us we were able to navigate the precarious path needed to complete the story.  There was occasionally falling or the need for a teleport from each other back to where the other was in order to progress without setback.  Ok, it was actually mostly me falling off stuff and double clicking myself back to the beginning, so fair warning don't try to double click teleport yourself or you'll have to start over. But it's a exciting challenge too.

The storyline follows a young girl, Flutter.  It's a creative and interesting explore and although I didn't get any pics of them the textures on some of the walls along with the use of projectors were truly intriguing.  I won't say too much about it, as I've taken a few pictures as a teaser and really everyone in SL should check this place out for themselves. We are lucky to have this opportunity.  Be sure to tip or purchase some of the items along the way or in the gacha in order for Bryn to continue to host these kinds of sims for us to explore.  Enjoy, and give yourself plenty of time as there is so much detail to think about and work through along the way.

The Only Venue for Christmas

Visit The Only Venue here:http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Deja%20Vu%20Amores/128/128/27
Their Facebook page here for performance schedules and other information: https://www.facebook.com/TheOnlyVenueSL/

I've been noticing many live music and entertainment sims have really been decorating their whole sims up beautifully for the holiday and winter season.  I always respect sim and venue owners who spend a great deal of money and effort simply to share and enhance SL for others. It's common knowledge most venue owners, especially live music venues, don't come close to breaking even on their expenses once tier and the entertainment is paid.  They do it for the love of SL. And I'm thankful.



Since I love to explore SL, see all the amazing SL sims and also enjoy SL live music, I wanted to take this chance to highlight one such sim.  The Only Venue, a live music venue hosted by Jake Puhpow and Molly Masingh, that regularly hosts live musicians has engaged one of SL's finest singers, hosted by Jake Puhpow and Molly Masingh.  Toxie/ Toxic Darkmatter, known on Facebook as Kristin Craig, to decorate the rest of their sim area for visitors to enjoy.  She did a fantastic job and I had a ton of fun exploring there. My pictures don't do it justice but you can get a little bit of an idea what some of it looks like.  It works great with various windlight settings too.   The venue itself is spacious and well done but I'm highlighting just the outdoor explore area here today.  So if you are looking for great SL live music as well as a beautiful sim to explore before or after a show, I highly recommend this one. Toxie's Facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/kristin.craig1




I took a few pics there then, since I was in my new fur, invited my friend Kathy Nikolaids over in her new fur since she is a fashion blogger to enjoy and take some pics too. Then we went to another of her favorite sims where she can rez poses and she took a picture for her blog post with all the styling information, so be sure to check out her blog post if you like any of our styling for the details here:https://slnikknacks.wordpress.com/


                    

Naughty & Nice Party Dec. 10th

~Naughty or Nice X-mas Party~
Saturday, Dec. 10th, 2016 9PM

Visit here:http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Zodiac%20Beach/73/66/3510

Their promo reads: "Ok secret santa helpers.. Who has been naughty and who has been nice? The holiday season is opon us and you know what that means? It's time to throw down Inner Room style for some naughty Christmas fun.. get out that red lingerie, those snowflake pasties, or just come in a santa hat.. We have some amazing entertainment for you this weekend...

9PM - Collin Martin has carefully crafted his sound and style. His genre includes Coldplay, Counting Crows, Eric Clapton, the Avett Brothers, a little bit of country, and alot of classics from the 70's. Many have commented on his vocal clarity and range, and his set list will attempt to showcase that clarity and range.

10PM - Toxic Darkmatter - What started as a bit of a joke with her performer friends, turned into a new outlet for her "musical therapy." With a collection of music that's a blend of classic to contemporary, sweet to naughty, Toxie has a rich, sultry voice that can shift gears and really soar. Enjoy jazz? Blues? Rock? A little pop maybe? Check out her song list and bring your requests, be ready to sing along, and let Toxie show you just how much she loves the music she shares.

ATTIRE: CHRISTMAS, ELF, SANTA, HELPERS ECT.
EVENT IS BEDROOM ENCOURAGED

See you there!"

A Patron Christmas 2016

Visit Patron here:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Patron/128/128/21

Well known SL artists and designer Eliza Wierwight  has some fabulous new Christmas items over at her lovely store "Patron".  I've blogged Patron before as she makes gorgeous products but Christmas is special over at Patron.  It's a great place to explore and buy yourself or a loved one some decor or gifts, or even just window shop.  With the windlights dimmed to enjoy the colorful Christmas lights, it can really bring back some Christmas magic.  She has many trees of various sizes, decor, gifts, enchanted statuary, landscaping, homes, art, holiday and non-holiday decoration, etc. You can see her beautiful homes, and regular home decor products in the main store on the same sim. Click directly onto one of my pictures to be taken to my Flickr to see more images or just tp to her place and have a look for yourself as there is so so much more.   Here is my blog post regarding her latest home, the Banyan:  http://karasecondlife.blogspot.com/2016/03/patron-banyan-house-just-because-kimbra.html

 From Eliza's own profile I quote: "The Christmas & Holiday Store at Patron is now officially open, with truly exquisite items being added daily. I loved every moment designing and wrangling these pieces, and I believe the life of that effort resonates. Please feel most welcome to visit, and as a final note I highly recommend you view the animated and lighted creations in both midday and midnight.
Magic ........
Eliza Wierwight
PATRON"

Indeed.

Be sure to visit for some Christmas magic.


(if you look closely through the giant wreath you can see some of her fantasy statuary)

The Avi Choice Awards 2016

Today I attended the Avi Choice awards 2016 final including lifetime awards.  I was honored and please to be a nominee for blogging and am glad to see kudos going out to some of the people who help make this SL go round.  I always appreciate those who help make my SL more enjoyable in a variety of ways through their hard work.

There were a lot of high profile attendees and performers including AleyKat, Luciano Lionheart  (they sang separately and in a touching duet at the end) Savannah Rain, and Christopher Quan. I enjoyed seeing and hearing Persia Bravin announce the fashion section along with other announcers.

I sat with friends Kathy Nikolaidis and Cash Benelli.  Kathy and I posed it up for the paparazzi prior to the show.  There were approx. 80 people on the sims in attendance and another 50 in the next associated viewer sim, so it was a little hard for some to stay stable, but I was able to get some decent photos though. I really enjoyed the shows and pretty sets.

The Avi Choice official web sites will list the winners so I'll direct you there for the nominees and winner lists.  They said they had over 8,000 hits on their web site this year, 98 categories and about a quarter of a million votes,  You can find it, the winners, and other info. here: https://avichoiceawards.com/


At the end of the show they said they have a policy of never saying the best, but rather, the favorite based on the votes, but they broke that when they announced the best producer and director for the Avi Choice awards which went to Nikki Matheson.  Then 3 hours later we were joined by the listening sim attendees in the lobby for the after party with dancing and music and grabbing our swag bags full of free goodies.