54 Reasons to be happy

Hello hello, Fab Fam! I hope ya’ll had a wonderful holiday with family and friends and fun festivities. We had a quiet little Christmas here at home but it was still a lovely time.

Now I know that the big day of gifting is over but we have SO many things still going on in SL. Like the 54 event headed up by LeLutka. See what I did there? 😛  As Ms Aline showed us, Lelutka is giving away two gorgeous full version mesh Heads: Raven and Quinn. And I got all inspired to make a totally FREE avatar with only things off the 54 list.

Remember our kids, Kerydwyn and Alistar from the “Makeover Mondays” posts? I rounded them up again to make fresh new avis! Let’s start with Kerydwyn since the list is mostly female oriented. As per last time, Kerydwyn is wearing the free version of the Legacy Classic mesh body and it’s the only thing I didn’t get off of the 54 Event list. I will be doing a guys only post tomorrow with Alistar using the 54 List.

Lots of designers are offering their take on the Raven head, in fact most of the skin gifts included their own face shape and brow shape. I picked the “Nicole” shape and skin from Clef De Peau. And believe me, it was hard to pick just one shape from all the gorgeous one on the list. The Nicole shape will shape your entire body not just the head for a nice cohesive look.

I also ended up wearing the Nicole “RoseKiss” skin from Clef De Peau made to match the Velour skin tones. It’s such a nice fresh faced skin with subtle details and a sweet glow to it. I did however love many of the other skins. There’s a skin for just about everyone here. From super vampire pale to deep exotic darks. In fact, Moccino’s gift is all shades of delicious browns and ambers and Nuve has ten fantasy colored skins too!

The body skin is from Velour and as always it’s a stunning creation. Velour is giving out full body skins for Legacy and Reborn. This is the “Venus Athletic” design body skin, “RoseKiss”. I love when designers collaborate and make for the shades offered by other designers. But, if you need a neck blender, I HIGHLY recommend the free fixes from Bold & Beauty which is another free gift on the 54 List.

EDITED to add -> I do apologize, the neck fixes are contained in the gift for “Nicholas”. While that gift is free, the fixes are designed for male skins/anatomy. So your mileage may vary

Now on to eyes. This is the “Mistletoe Collection” from Gloom. It’s a nice little fatpack of eye colors ranging from blue to brown and a neat half and half colored one. The gift includes BOM versions and appliers for LeLutka and Omega.

There are several designers offering hair bases for the List but my favorite is this sleek style from Not Found. This designer is offering a collaboration with Doux for this event. The hair bases lines up with a super long pony tail which you pick up at the Doux shop. As you can see, I skipped the pony tail and went with a sweet bow and bun. “The Gift Hair” from Studio Exposure comes with a HUD for 8 colors of ribbon and 33 hair colors for the bun. Plus you get the cute little flexi bangs too.

Last but certainly not least are the beautiful earrings from Andore. These are the “Igdry” set. In the gift you’ll find  pairs for both LeLutka Evo X human ears and the Elf ears and a HUD to change both the gem colors and the metals. Not little HUDs either… HUDS with 7 metals and 10 colors of gems. There are also a pair of free Christmas earrings at Andore too!

So there she is! A full avatar for free! Now is a great time to get a top of the line mesh head and skins, shapes and makeup and hair from some of SL best designers. Lookin’ like champagne on a beer budget!  The 54 Event requires you to join each designers Group to grab the gifts but all the groups are set to free. This is a great time to get in those groups that may be too expensive at other times of the year. And be sure to look around each shop. Many have loads of free group gifts out as well as the 54 List ones. I was able to pick up a ton of free eyeshadows and lipsticks as well as other skins.

And one last note. I did not edit the shape you see at all. I simply wore what the designers gave us. That said, the shapes are modifiable! So find one you like and use it as a base or a starting point to design your own look if you don’t like the “right out of the box” look.

The 54 Event only runs until Dec. 30th! That’s just a few more days to get your hands on all the wonderful gifts! Here is a quick link to the page from Lelutka that lists all the stores and has direct Teleports.

Head – LeLutka – Raven – FREE/0L – Free 54 Event Gift

Body – Legacy – Classic – FREE/0L – Gift for all

Skin – Clef De Peau – Nicole – FREE/0L – Free 54 Event Gift

Eyes – Gloom – Missletoe Collection – FREE/0L – Free 54 Event Gift

Hair Base – Not Found – Christmas Hair Base – FREE/0L – Free 54 Event Gift

Hair Bow and Bun – Studio Exposure – The Gift Hair – FREE/0L – Free 54 Event Gift

Earrings – Andore – Igdry –FREE/0L – Free 54 Event Gift

Dress (Warning! This gift was set to expire on Dec 24 but as of this printing, it is still available)- 1 Hundred – Warmth Mini – FREE/0L – Gift for the Maitreya Gifts, Sales and News Group – Group is free to join.   

MakeOver Monday part 4

Hello hello, Fab Free! It’s that time again… MakeOver Monday! And we’ve come so far! Two full avatars for exactly ZERO lindens. And I really had to grit my teeth a few times. I’m so weak when it comes to having that “perfect’ (To me anyway) look. I really fret over poor Alistar’s hair. And I’m still looking for something better for him. I swear, if I ever become a designer or builder… I will have good free stuff for the guys. But anyway…

Let’s jump in here. SO, we have bento bodies, Mesh heads, Animation Overrides, and hair. All we need now is clothes. I don’t want to dwell on the clothing part since that’s basically what we do here at the Blog everyday. But I do want to mention a few places, I’ve found very helpful.

First is R&R Swag and their “Rookie Alley” . This is a very nice selection of things for both male and female avatars under 30 days. This outfit is a bit of a mix and match from the Rookie Alley and the past group gifts.

Alistar’s second outfit is a second set of jeans from R&R Swag’s Rookie Alley and a group gift from Asteroidbox for the L’Homme group.  L’Homme is one of the hands down best groups to join if you are looking for male clothes and accessories. The group is free to join, the designers are top notch and you have three -ish months to pick the gifts up. I highly recommend it. 

Last is a current gift for one of our own FabFree Group designers – MaxMagic. They are offering this great Trekkie hoodie for both men and women. I do love geeky stuff!

Kerydwyn’s clothes are much easier to find, go figure. But I still want to show a few choices for our newbs. The first is from BoHo Soul one of our FabFree Group designers. This is the “Impish” outfit which comes with top, pants and shoes. Which is awesome because free good shoes are hard to find. 

The second outfit is from the Cozy Fest event. This event is a bonanza for free gifts from real quality designers. Plus, for new folks… it’s just about everything you can ask for. The group is free to join and each booth has a free gift! Kerydwyn is showing the ‘Maggs’ top from Apple Blossom and the ‘Natasha’ leggings from 1313 Mockingbird lane. These events are great places to “shop” for designers landmarks as well. If you like the gift or what you see in the booth… check out their main store. They may have a free group or other gifts there. Also,

The boots in the second picture are another totally free gift from Body Cult the Marketplace. Digging through the MP can be frustrating… but worth it.

 

Okay that’s it for today cause it’s late and I’m tired and cranky today. ;P  But I think we have covered some ground. Our new kids are looking like real stars on the Grid now.  Take a look at a side by side!

Wow! And remember we spent exactly… ZERO monies! 

SO… next week I will talk about housing and inventory. Or “Now I got clothes… where do I unpack ’em without putting on a free show?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alistar ->

Mesh Body + head + skin – Altamura – TakeMYWay – Free at the eBento event until the 25th 

Hair – FireLight – Michael (Purchased with 250L gift card for new residents under 30 days)

Shirts –

• R&R Swag “Rookie Alley” – Quilted Jacket – Free in the Rookie Alley
• Max Magic – Trek Hoodie – Free FabFree Group Gift
• AsteroidBox – Willian – Free L’Homme Gift

Jeans + Shoes – R&R Swag – Past Free Group Gift + Free Rookie Alley

Kerydwyn ->

Ruth Body – LBD

Mesh Head – LeLutka Kaya (Free Christmas gift 2021) Remember you can pick up the “Leah” mesh head for free from Kalhene 

Hair – FireLight – past free group gift still available

Eyes – Ikon – Apex eyes – February group gift – Group is free to join

Pic #1 – BoHo Soul – Impish – Free gift for the FabFree Group

Pic #2 – CozyFest free gifts from Apple Blossom and 1313 Mockingbird Lane

Boots – Body Cult – knit Boots Cuffs – Free gift on the MarketPlace 

 

 

MakeOver Monday part 3

Hey Guys and Gals, it’s Monday so that means our next installment of “MakeOver Monday” is on the air. Or on the web… or whatever.  First I want to say a big THANKS to Karl Jacob who gave me the tip that Altamura had a new free avatar gift at the  eBento Event! I popped over and grabbed the male gift “TakeMYWay”. And I may have done a little happy dance when I saw it was BoM ready! Then I got it set up and I was SO much happier with this avatar. Right out of the box he is miles ahead of poor “Robert”. The shape is nicer and the face is so much less “I’m gonna cut you” angry. He also comes with his own skin and since he’s BoM ready I won’t have any trouble finding more skins and tattoos, etc. for him.  

But for every step forward…  Unfortunately, “TakeMYWay” does not come with a body HUD of any sort. So we are stuck using alpha layers for clothes. Which (in my opinion) is extremely inconvenient. So many mesh clothes don’t even come with alpha layers anymore. So there is that. It’s almost a deal breaker for me. Your mileage may vary. 

 

So, moving on. As you recall we were going to talk about hair today. Again, this was soooo much easier for Kerydwyn. But I found three styles for each of them but there are more out there.  Let’s look at the Ladies first. I also changed, Kerydwyn’s skin to show some of the basic BoM skins you already have in your inventory. Just look under the ‘Clothing’ folder. You’ll also find some hair there too. Some of it, is rather nice, especially the newer mesh avatar’s hair. 

Fist is Firelight. The group is free to join and they offer many gifts and several lucky chairs. The best thing is they offer a gift card for 250L to new avatars ( 30 days old or less ) and unlike some gift cards this one is enough to buy a regular hair completely. This is the “Monica” one of the past group gifts available. I’m showing the “Anna” skin from the Inventory too.

Next is “Leela” Hair from Analog Dog. When you hit the landing point, just walk to your left all the way to the ‘coast’ where you’ll see a big glowing ball. Click it and get a selection of free hair. I’m showing the “Kimberly” skin here once again, in your inventory.

Last we have “Tsarina” from A&A. This is the free group gift for the Fabulously Free Group. Of course, FabFree is free to join.

For Alistar, the selection was a bit more challenging. Free hair for the guys is few and far between but it is out there. Having said this, I think this is where I would get off the free ride and lay out some Lindens. The group for N0_Match is 50L and with that you get monthly gifts for BOTH men and women ( Usually a Unisex style) and you get access to literally dozens of past gifts with many many male styles. 50L is literally 0.21 cents USD… I can find that in the couch cushions… ( A note here… yes, it’s 21cents but the minimum amount you can buy is $2.50… so I’d have to check under my car seats too.)   If you’re set on free, do check out the mesh hair in your inventory. The ‘Brandon’, ‘Johnny’ and ‘Wyatt’ hairs aren’t bad.

So first here is “Mike” from Sintiklia. The Group is free to join and there are loads of Group Gifts to pick up. And don’t forget to check the ladies hair as well. Lots of styles are aimed at women but are more unisex.

Modulus’s “Cole”. You can get it on the MarketPlace or in-store and you get the entire Fatpack of colors. This is an extremely well made hair. And the fact that’s free is just icing on the cake.

Lastly is one of those hairs sold as a ladies style but I think it works as unisex. I found “yume” from ASO on the MarketPlace and there doesn’t appear to be an in-world store.  Again, this was the result of a “Free Hair” search on the MarketPlace.

 

Okay, that’s going to do it for today. I thought I’d get to Inventory control today but I’m thinking that actually needs it’s own post. SO until next week, my dears!

And remember, comments, ideas, opinions etc. are ALWAYS welcome! So let me know what you’re thinking!

Links ->

eBento Event – Altumura “TakeMYWay Full Avatar ( Open until the 25th )

Fire Light – 250L Gift Card for Avatars under 30 days + Free group with past gifts + Lucky chairs

Analog Dog – Free Gift Ball with several Hair styles

A&A – FabFree Designer with free gifts for our group 

Sintiklia – Free Group join and huge wall of past gifts

Modulus – Single free men’s hair

ASO – Free hair style “Yume” on the Marketplace