Bellisserian Voice: Deco With An Echo!

From Avalon:

Galdor’s eyes aren’t green any more. I noticed when I woke up, the morning after the Crab Crawl. I noticed because he was perched on my bedside table, staring at me, which was frankly a bit disturbing, but I did let him in.

“Um, your eyes changed colour,” I said. Because stating the obvious is a talent, apparently.

“It’s because I have a home now,” explained the bird.

Well, that made perfect sense. Instead of pursuing this revelation further, I suggested we head to the Anniversary event site and get some breakfast. Galdor never turns down food, so it was an easy sell.

We’d barely gotten to my favourite of the multiple food courts (because it’s the quietest) when Galdor started chanting, “Chip buttie! Chip buttie! Chip buttie!” over and over.

Everyone else who likes this food court best also likes it better because it’s quiet. No one was happy.

“Galdor!” I hissed. “Can you shut it? You’re a wee foghorn!”

“Chip buttie! Chip buttie! Chip buttie!”

I facepalmed. Literally. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before.

“You see that, Henry?” one of the other breakfasters said. “That’s what happens when you make friends with magpies. Public embarrassment.” She nodded as if she’d seen this happen many times.

“Chip buttie! Chip buttie! Chip buttie!”

“Everyone knows you want a chip buttie now, Galdor,” I said. “Look, the lady is already making it.” Sure enough, she was.

“Yours is a flat white, yeah?” asked the lady, when I was close enough. “And that’s takeaway,” she affirmed. She had no intention of giving us the choice to eat in, I gathered. I just nodded. It was better.

“Chip buttie! Chip buttie! Chip buttie!”

“I can put duct tape around your beak, you know.”

I took the takeaway sack and fled. “We,” I said, “are going somewhere where you won’t be able to plague folks!”

He just sniffed. I moved us, quickly, to the Bellisseria Sandbox, so I could decorate a house with some of the free items from the Gift Area.

In case you didn’t know, there is a Bellisseria Sandbox! It’s a place where you can come and check out the Linden Homes, plus you can Rez stuff and have a play with decorating, whether you’re thinking of changing your own Linden Home or you are interested in trying out a new one. As with all Linden Sandboxes, there’s a four-hour return on things, so you have four hours before the region starts auto-returning stuff to you.

One of the gifts, from Needful Prims, is a fatpack of exterior paint shells for the Traditional style Linden Homes. This is a pack that sells on the Marketplace for L$999, so even if you do not live in a Trad, it’s a fantastic bargain (because one day you might!).

If you’re now asking, “OK, Avalon—what the heck is a shell?” here’s your answer. You know how when you select the outside colour of your Linden Home, you only have a few choices? Needful Prims makes, among other things, exterior shells for Linden Homes. You can also get interior shells and floor shells, but we’re only going to look at the exterior shell here, since that’s what’s on offer in the Gift Area. The shells from Needful Prims come with a placement prim and a HUD. You rez the placement prim near the entrance of your Linden Home and just touch the prim. The system should recognise which home you’re next to and rez a shell placed precisely where you need it. Then, you can use the HUD to choose different textures and placements. Each home pattern has its own HUD, so you won’t get confused figuring out which pieces your home has.

And for those of you who are wondering why we can’t just select a face and apply any texture we want, that’s because the Needful Prims shell is initially locked. You’ll need to unlock it in order to apply your own textures to individual faces. But the paint shells are incredibly useful. If you’ve seen interior photos of any of my Linden Homes, this is how I get those nifty painted wallpapers onto the walls if I don’t want to go with just a flat colour.

“This is boring,” Galdor said.

“You brought this on yourself, you ingrate,” I replied. “Hush and eat your buttie.”

“Well, if you’d stop talking to the walls…” he muttered.

“Fine. We’ll go inside. You have to let me take a picture of you, though,” I said.

He preened. “I,” he said, “am a Pretty Bird.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes. Yes, you are. You’ve developed some lovely blue plumage, as well.”

“Another advantage to having a home,” he said. “You will also be pleased to know that I talk more now.”

Oh, joy. “Calloo, Callay!” I said.

“I’ve been to Calais,” he said. “It’s a dump.”

I sighed. “Someone from Calais is going to read this and send me nasty IMs,” I said. “Besides, it’s not that Calais. It’s from Jabberwocky, which you should know, because you are also a smart bird.”

He snorted. “I assume you have a copy. I will read it. Can we go inside now?”

I snapped a quick photo of him on the way in.

So, in the gift area, there are many wonderful things, but not a lot of console tables or shelves, so I had to ask Gwen (she’s the one with the Inventory) to come and put down some tables for me so I could display these pretty things for you.

This is the Di’Cor Saisha Console Table, and it’s the only thing pictured here that’s not a gift. The big picture is one of my favourite gifts this year: it’s from Folklore & Fable, and it’s as beautiful in-world as in this photo. In fact, I can’t wait to put it on my wall in FairyStone Park. On the table itself are Swank & Co.‘s Enchanted Gemstone Egg, Esoterica‘s Flower Arrangement in Pitcher, and Enchanted Fantasy‘s Butterfly Storm Lantern. The frames in which you see Galdor’s picture and a little copy of my train logo are from Tiptoes, the Basic Frames, Paint Splatter Set.

“I look good!” Galdor said.

“Well, that didn’t take too long,” I replied. “Let’s put together the living room!”

“You are way too excited about this,” he said.

I just gave him a look.

In this photo, the one item that’s not a gift is again the console table. This one is from Nutmeg: it’s the Quaint Foyer Console. Quite a lot of what you see here is from this amazing gift from Bazar. It’s a complete living room, just called Bellisseria Living Room, and it includes the sofa, lamp, white and black artwork, the grey table, and the rug you see here. The Bellisseria sign (like the one outside the house) is from Givoria, and there are tintable and PBR versions of this in the gift box. I wish I’d been able to place the large vase so you could see it better; it’s really lovely. It’s from Fayded, called Rustic Vase. The large table with all the deco on it is from Atrium, the Tui Center Table. On the console table is just a small selection of some of the beautiful gifts from Cerridwen’s Cauldron. Here you see the Heart Pothead, two Bottled Crystals (one is PURPLE), and the Axolatl Pothead. On Lalou‘s Flower Sit Pillow, and on the rug from Bazar are two kitties from Esoterica. So it’s possible to (mostly) decorate a whole room with just gifts from the Bellisseria 5th Anniversary Event.

“But there’s more to this room,” Galdor complained. “And why do there have to be cats?”

“Because there have to be cats,” I said, and left it at that.

“Look,” I said, “we’ll make this corner cat-free.”

Here, you can see the gift from Petite Mort, the Elba Gold Chair and Pictures. The lamp is part of the gift set from Amandat Tamatzui Art Gallery; this is the Four Corners Tall Lamp. The books on the table (another borrowed item from Gwen; this one is the Scarlet Creative Monteverde Console Table) are part of the Living Room set from Bazar, and the cacti are from Chez Moi, but they appear more clearly in the next photograph.

“And there is a nice perch here,” Galdor said. “Why did you close the shade?”

“Because you’d see a bunch of empty Linden Homes out the window,” I replied. “Stop chewing on that.”

“Can’t help it,” he said. “I finished my buttie.”

“Can’t wait ’til you get around to chewing on the cactus,” I said.

Now you can see all the cacti! There’s a barrel cactus, a prickly pear, and a star cactus; again these are all from Chez Moi. The artwork and pillows are the rest of the gift set from Amandat Tamatzui Art Gallery. Here you can see the Four Corners artwork, the Four Corners cushion, and the Places Visited cushion.

“It’s not like you decorated a whole house, though,” Galdor said.

“Well, yeah; but we’ve only got four hours in which to work here before the Lab starts returning things to me.”

“I could decorate a whole house in four hours,” he retorted.

“Well, next time, I’ll let you do it.” He was getting on my last nerve.

“Well, next time, I’ll let you do it!“

“Seriously, stop that.”

“Seriously, stop that!”

Notes & Credits:

Items you can get for free at the Bellisseria 5th Anniversary celebration:

Avalon’s Blouse: Pink Cream Pie, Bellisseria Gift Shirt
- Entry:
  - Bellisseria Gift Art (black and white): Folklore & Fable, Bellisseria Gift
  - Głowy Egg: Swank & Co, Enchanted Gemstone Egg
  - Flowers in Pitcher: Esotecica, Flower Arrangement in Pitcher
  - Lantern: Enchanted Fantasy, Butterfly Storm Lantern
- Living Room (Large Area):
  - Sofa, Lamp, Rug, Grey Table, B&W Art: Bazar, Bellisseria Living Room
  - Bellisseria Sign: Givoria, Bellisseria PBR Sign
  - Large Vase: Fayded, Rustic Vase
  - Large decorated table: Atrium, Tui Center Table
  - Console Deco: Cerridwen’s Cauldron, Heart Pothead, Bottled Crystals, Axolatl Pothead
  - Flower Pillow: Lalou, Flower Sit Pillow
  - Kitties: Esoterica, Kitty on Back Calico; and Sleeping Kitten Grey Tabby
- Living Room (Cat-Free Corner):
  - Gold Chair and Pictures: Petite Mort, Elba Gold Chair and Pictures
  - Lamp: Amandat Tamatzui Art Gallery, Four Corners Tall Lamp
- Living Room: (One Last Corner):
  - Cacti: Chez Moi, Barrel Cactus. Prickly Pear, and Star Cactus
  - Wall Art and Pillows: Amandat Tamatzui Art Gallery, Four Corners Art, Four Corners Cushion, Places Visited Cushion
All items available in the Gift Area at the Bellisseria 5th Anniversary Event.