Thanksgiving Bounty

In just 5 days Americans celebrate Thanksgiving with food, friends, family and football on the menu.  Grocery stores are brimming with shoppers planning their holiday feast.  My favorite part of the holiday season are the baked goods.  I love the smell of fresh-baked cookies, pies and cakes in the house.

I wanted to honor this special American holiday in Second Life by creating a Thanksgiving great room complete with living space and kitchen using a sunroom.  I mentioned in my last post to rethink the expected and I did that by transforming a sunporch into a great room.  I often feel that sunrooms are overlooked and only styled as breakfast nooks or porches, so if you have the space, as I did, make your sunroom a usable space that continues to celebrate your life for many generations.

The perfect autumn collection to mark the harvest season is Finishing Touches Tree of Life grouping available at 50% off at The Designer Warehouse Shopping Event (until Nov 27).  The Tree of Life set includes a tan herringbone sofa and chair, leaf patterned rug, walnut coffee table and side buffet featuring a tree of life design, a brick and wood fireplace, decorative carved wood leaf wall art, and assorted accessories.  A wonderful complement for the living room is the Finishing Touches Pumpkin Pie Kitchen set with baking animations and supplies, decorative gourd kitchen scale, matching walnut hutch with turkey pattern display plates and an apple quilt.  These are lovely pieces for any time of the year with soft soothing tones of cream, tan, brown, bronze, burnt sienna, and rust that will fill your home with warmth and charm.  I wish you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving, enjoy the food (& sweets), the friends and family, and I’ll see you at the Black Friday Sales!

Structure: Heart Homes, Autumn Lovenest II (see previous post, Bask in the Glow of Autumn) 

Kitchen:

• Pumpkin Pie Set (Hutch, Island with Kitchen Scale, Stools, Baking Accessories, + Hat Boxes,  Apple/Pumpkin Quilt & Tall Side Table): Finishing Touches
• Hanging Pot Rack & Menu Sign: Cozy Essentials
• Fridge: Dutchie
• Pumpkin Recipe & Pumpkin Pie Decor: What Next
• Crate Stack, Recipe Tin, Baking Canister, Egg Basket & Milk Can: Floorplan
• Plates, Glasses & Jug: The Loft
• Turkey Plate Display & Autumn Branch: La Galleria (**FREE**)

Living Room:

• Tree of Life Collection (Sofa, Chairs, Rug, Fireplace, Wall Art, Baskets {Log & Apple}, & Lanterns, Books & Candles): Finishing Touches
• Autumn Wreaths, Gourd Urn, Table Lamps, Bench: Finishing Touches
• Drapes: What Next
• Blinds: LISP

Harvest Time Fun!

Autumn is well under way, the air is crisp, the trees are bare, and the sky is clear…great time for a hay bale ride.  Your just in luck, Finishing Touches is offering Halloween specials (50% off) at The Designer Warehouse Shopping Event until October 30, 2014.  The Halloween Hay Wagon & Scarecrow set contains an animated wagon (two versions, friends and couple) filled with hay bales and decorated with candy corns.  A friendly scarecrow makes a welcoming autumnal lawn ornament.  The perfect fall decor set that will transition from Halloween to Thanksgiving.

Taxi please…

Other items used:

• Trompe Loeil, Rivershire Waterwheel House
• Finishing Touches, Pumpkin Picker’s Wheelbarrow (Subscriber Gift)
• Finishing Touches, Bobbing for Apples Barrel 
• Pilot, Cluster of Pumpkins
• Junk, Pigeon Autumn Bench (Free @ Eloquence)

Autumn’s Embrace

Happy first day of Fall!  24Karat Roux of Finishing Touches is offering an enchanting rustic bedroom set, Autumn Embrace for 50%off at The Designer Warehouse Shopping Event, available until October 2, 2014.  The Autumn Embrace bedroom set is made of tree bark and twigs, reminiscent of a woodland forest.  Included in the collection is a canopy bed (5 leaf or no leaf options), bench, two side tables, whimsical chairs, two lanterns, rug, framed leaf art & add your own photo frame.  This is a perfect hideaway for a romantic getaway weekend.  Taxi please…

Other items used:

• {vespertine}, Chanson Dautomne Skyloft
• Shutter Field, Pumpkin Lanterns
• Kalopsia, Old Box (Green)
• Dysfunctional Designs, Harvest Bucket (Red & Yellow Apples)
• StoraxTree, Simple Elegance Mesh Braided Tan Rust Rug Sm
• {vespertine}, Vintage Postbox (Poppy Red)
• Alyxen Designs in Wonderland, Park Bench & Birdbath (The Designer Warehouse)

Monday with Grandpa

I never knew either one of my grandfathers, they both passed before I was born.  However, we had a close family friend whose grandfather became like a surrogate older male figure in my life.  We use to go on road trips throughout California, visiting family, friends, amusement parks, and all the crazy roadside attractions that were off the beaten path, like the giant dinosaur statues near Palm Springs.  It was on this trip, Grandpa Roy shared his love for fishing with me.  We trekked up to a dingy little cabin nestled in the woods near a lake.  Not being an outdoorsy kid, the cabin lifestyle was foreign to me, but at the same time exciting.  A small one room wood cabin with pot belly stove that doubled as the fireplace, bunk beds lined one wall and worn beaten up leather armchairs snuggled up next to Grandpa’s prized possession wall filled with pictures of his catch of the day.  There was something very welcoming in this rustic setting.  I have to admit, I never really got the hang of fishing, but the memory was special and I wanted to try to capture it using Decor Junctions autumn patio set. It’s a perfect collection for those chilly fall evenings cuddled up next to the fire, slipping apple cider and eating pumpkin pie!  Taxi please…

Structure: {vespertine}, Chanson Dautomne Skyloft

Other items used:

• Decor Junctions, Wicker Chair, Wooden Chair, Cedar Trunk & Snack Tray
• Heart Homes, Fishermans House (Hanging Frames & Deco Frame C)
• {what next}, Pumpkin Decor
• Finishing Touches, Autumn’s Embrace (Three-Legged Table)
• Apple Fall, Woodstock (past gatcha item)
• StoraxTree, Woven Rug 58 ($10L Cart sale item @ The Wash from 9/17-10/8)

Wild for Watermelons!

No other fruit represents summer like the watermelon.  I love summer’s bounty with fresh picked fruits arriving everyday from local farms in my area.  The colors and textures of summer fruits have inspired tons of fun whimsy designs in RL, seems perfect that 24Karat Roux of Finishing Touches latest release at The Designer Warehouse Shopping Event would feature watermelons.  The Slice of Life collection is exclusive for the Designer Warehouse and on sale for 50% off until tomorrow, August 7.  The collection includes a watermelon picnic table with texture change umbrella, rezzable food, and change color cushions, watermelon juice beverage barrel, “Watermelon Eating Contest” sign, and melon lawn chairs with picnic basket.  Finishing Touches is currently participating in the Skull ~n ~Bones hunt and the gift is a vintage watermelon crate with decorative melons and sitting animations (please note not sizable).  I used my tribute to Palm Springs retro home side yard as a backdrop creating the garden design with Sway’s Walter Park Bench (released for The Challenge August theme Vintage/Retro), Flowey’s milkshake machine, Inspired red BBQ (no mod), and Tres Blah 50’s camper Pink (Arcade March 2014).  Hurry over the The Designer Warehouse and grab these must haves for your summer party needs.  Let’s Get Decorating!

Taxi: The Designer Warehouse Shopping Event

Taxi: Finishing Touches main store (for hunt gift)