When I was about 10 at school they taught us a song and fragments have been in my memory ever since. Enough to give me a 'thing' for caravans. It never conjured up the pulled-by-car -aluminium versions. Always a gypsy caravan.
Added to that was Will's approaching birthday which, because I had accidentally had to reveal the bridge early, had no surprises left.....

So I built a caravan.

As always, I had a lot of fun building it. I made a couple of textures and bought one and used a few existing ones. I didn't get it finished on time. Too late when I started it. And to tell l the truth, the doors were a complete pain. Was it SL or me doing something? I don't know... but the result was that the doors kept leaping away from their right place. I cant tell you how many times I have put them back. Then the whole thing went phantom just when I thought it was all sorted.....
Anyway, today it is behaving itself. And I will check it and if it is a good little caravan, I might try to get it up on Slexchange.

I hunted down the song today. Um. I will survive another 30 years without it.

But for the record, here are the words:

Mike Batt
Caravan Song

The early light is breaking
The morning sun is waiting in the sky
And I think I'm gonna break away
And follow where the birds of freedom fly
I need to give
I need to live
For the world is slowly turning
And the light of love are burning
In my eyes

Caravans
Oh, my soul is on the run
Overland
I am flying
Caravans
Moving out into the sun
Oh, I don't know where I'm going
But I'm going

Recent Building Acitivity

Sigh.. I am running out of prims again!

Took a little longer than we might have thought in the past... but here we are again! 140 prims Naturally I have enjoyed building with them. So many building that by now I have accumulated a village in the sky.. have I put a photo up here of it yet? I cant remember... so here is one now. 700m above Fathom. Lots of small foot print, low prim houses for sale.

So much building!

The recent spate started with finally loading the Paint.net software that Will (Wilberforce Beaumont) had been nagging about for a while. One thing I had wanted to give a try was making alpha's. Something I hadn't even heard of before SL. Basically it is the see through bit in texture that lets you see beyond the texture you are applying. Clear as mud?
Well! It turns out that while they are difficult to explain to the uninitiated, they are dead easy to make.
The first thing I made once I had mastered the skill was the Gingerbread Quilts Studio and Shop.

You see, the quilting group I belong to in SL has been trying to organise a shop hop, and I had nothing to offer. So the only sensible thing to do was to build a shop. Cute isn't it? All the white fretwork bits you can see are the alpha bits... they let you see through to the house behind, see?

The quilt shop is now full of quilts for sale, but in this back corner of my sim at an inconspicuous edge of Winterfell, the only visitors are the ones I drag there !
So having built the cutest little shop, I wondered if I shouldn't make a larger shop to sell things associated with the quilts. So far I have made a few beds and put them in the larger building, Gingerbread Furnishings.

It is such a pretty building too! I will probably put in front door and offer as a home for sale.

Will, famous now for pushing me into loading paint.net was getting close to gaging from all the pretty. Winterfell is supposed to be dark.. closer to Gothic than fairy floss. So as I have been throwing a bucket of sugar around on my sim, I felt I owed it to him to build something gloomy. So while he was doing some real life sleeping, I tip-toed over to his place and built the beginnings of a Gothic cathedral. He has bought one of the Baron's wonderful organs and needed a home for it. I hope this works. When Will finally arrived in SL, he seemed pleased with what I have been up to and we spent the rest of today working on it together.

He's gone back to sleep again, so I have snuck in and wasted a few more of his prims and added flying buttresses!

Progress Report!

Building goes on. I am having a fabulous time.. did you know?
I still have a heap of prims up my sleeve... 1199 anyway... and going fast....
But I am having so much fun using them.

Last week I worked on Smugglers' Point. The smugglers of Fathom are not that bright and are using a shed under a light house.... Dear CheeseWeasel is working on a script so that at a touch a barrel I have sculpted will fall over and roll away from the door to their stash.
Two boats are currently docked at the wharf. I think it needs more clutter.. but then... more prims go..

Before I left Wyre, I had been working on a chapel for my garden block. The chapel is all but finished now and has been placed on the South West corner of Fathom. The chapel is called Saint Paula's.
www.scborromeo.org/saints/paula.htm
Recently there has been a lot of worry amongst the men... well pretty much just Wil actually....that the widows are killing off their husbands in Caledon. To prepare for any further untimely deaths, I have built a graveyard next to the chapel. I hope Wil is comforted by my care for his future accommodation.

Great Change. Sadness and Happiness

There have been disturbances in the ether. Recently across from Laudanum, a new business was built. A Naughty Bits business. Complete with a rounded Gothic breast shaped building topped with a full bright nipple. The widows of Laudanum are not amused. The add in the search suggested it was a good location for free sex. You can imagine the crowd we were expecting.

But then fresh news came to hand.....
It happened on Wednesday evening... rumour that land was changing hands. Suddenly there were two large tracts of land available . Winterfell Harbour, a whole open space sim (home of the nasty naughty bits) and Winterfell Fathom, a half sim were available. The nipple was leaving and there were decisions to make.
I clearly can not afford a whole one and really did not think I could afford the half one. Eleanor was making all the noises of a sorely tempted prim princess and I thought it was a pretty much done deal that Harbour had a new and much better mistress.
Meanwhile Fathom beckoned.
I sent Miss Serra a note card asking for details and then waited and tried not to think about it.

Friday I got a reply. It was going to cost me less than $2 a day.......ohhhhh how can you say no to half an island of prims.....
So the rest of Friday was happy and sad. Mostly sad though as I had a lot of coffee and a lot of packing to do and by the end of the day, I was in a very strange caffeinated place!

Goodbye to Isle of Aud.
Not as terribly sad as it might have been. Otenth asked if he could keep the light house. I am flattered and happy. A little less heart break about leaving my island if it is doesn't have to lose its house too.

Goodbye to the Garden
The garden is still pretty but the new sim across has stolen the sunset so it was less tearful than it would have been.

Goodbye to the Pavilion
I spent so much time building this.. More time than anything else I have made. I am happy enough but it doesn't really show how much time went into it. Once I built Nettlewood, I didn't need the pavilion any more. And Nettlewood came close to being just what I wanted.

Goodbye to Nettlewood Laudanum
Nettlewood... Lukos says it is better than he thought I could make. Hmmm take that anyway you want!! I am always suspicious when people admire your wall paper. But that aside, I love Nettlewood so it must come with me........

Welcome to Winterfell Fathom, Smuggler's Top.

In my whole state of whelmed of the over variety, I forgot to take photos for 'before and after' so this is it as it currently appears- 'during'.

To the right of the photo you can see the bridge that Wil has installed to continue the road that passes through Winterfell Undertow. As it passes into Fathom the incline increases and I have spent some hours devising stairs to negotiate the steep hillside that Nettlewood now finds itself on.

Isn't it beautiful?

When I first bought the land it was so bare and barren and steep. I was completely at a loss to imagine where I was headed. Friday night I actually ran off and did the blitz at NCI as I just couldn't get my head to work at Fathom.
It must have worked as things are starting in grow now in my mind. I have planted a lot of trees. That is really making a huge difference to the ambiance of the place.
I have put up the light house in its own nook though it needs more work to make it look like it belongs there. Early days.

I really don't want it all 'done" as I will then want to move again! ;)

And here is what it is all about in SL for me........ I had the pleasure of a visit from Eleanor and Xavier and even Lukos at one point. Sitting at the new house enjoying the outlook. With friends...

My name is Audrey and I am a Builder

Two things in SL have me hooked. Company and building. Ozzie evenings are the wee small hours in the US so there are evenings where the company in Sl dries up completely. And then I have to build or wander hopeless.

Currently the land and prims at Laudanum are all but used up. The rescue package came with the announcement from Guvnah Des that Saint Kitt islands were open for play. Hiding at the back on the island, building against the steep hill and at the waters egde, I built a little villa.
I have sat in this seaside villa and gazed out to sea.
Watching... waiting.....

The problem remains however! I have two small blocks in Laudanum and two small blocks in Wyre and I dont have one large wallet of prims to build with. So I did something a bit sad today and bought a larger block in Laudanum. It means I need to give up either Wyre or the Pavilion at Laudanum. And I just cant decide. I cant!! If I keep Wyre.. then my prims are split between to sims. But I have my little beauty and the escape. If I keep the pavilion I keep all the prims together. However there is no retreat and the pavilion is a primmy little princess. She has already absorbed half the allotment.
Upsides on the new block?? Neighbours! Laudanum has most of my favourite people in or around it! I willl be able to keep an eye on Xaviers bowl of water and make sure it is fresh.
Eleanor and I figure on hurling watermelons at each other's homes!
And I hear that June Wozniak thinks we could call the island Widow's Peak! Very amusing indeed! I prefer to find a few more gentlemen and call it Widow's Peek!
I have so much enjoyed running into Star, and Wildstar.

And within easy flying distance though through two sim crossings..... Wil!

I need help.. I cant decide!