No Designer of the Month this month, as I would like to post a variety of pics from anyone who would like to share their work here with others — I would especially like to see what you have done for the holidays — so send me a pic or two! I noticed someone new making a lot of trips to La Galleria over a couple of days, picking up some very nice things. When I talked to Ginger, she said her house was gorgeous, so I asked for some pics — and indeed, she has done a fabulous job! I especially like the way Ginger uses colors and tones. They are subtle, and all complement one another so well.

This is my second appearance on the Second Life TV show Designing Worlds — this time featuring cooking a Thanksgiving dinner in one of my kitchens, followed by a Thanksgiving dinner party. It was such fun! (The dinner party segment starts about halfway through.)

http://api.treet.tv/ttvplayer/release/ttvplayer-generic.swf

The November Designer of the Month is Yshmael Zapatero, who is decorating two very different homes, one of which is a La Galleria house. By masterfully mixing contemporary, antique, and traditional styles with Asian accents Yshamel has created homes that are understated but dramatic, sophisticated yet inviting, as you can see in the pics below (and it was hard selecting the dozen best ones!). Here is part of an interview with Yshmael:

How do you create a room? Do you mostly have an idea of what you want it to look like, or do you mostly see things and develop an idea as you shop?

When doing a room, I go for what my mentor, Ray Hoffman, always tells me, the wow factor – I want to walk in to a room and go “Wow, I want that.”

I never have an idea of what I want a room to look like, and it’s funny the room can come from a rug, or an art piece or a color, but it’s never the furnishing.

How would you describe your style?

I dont have a style, that would be restricting; I love Oriental decor, but I never do anything totally Oriental — I find that mixing things makes it more interesting. That’s why I liked La Galleria from the beginning: there was the Louis XV chair next to the Chinese screen.

I love color and texture, well made furniture with details, that is all I need, and prims I tend to forget those.

I really do love this one! I have made several other things out of the same wood — coffee tables, writing tables, and some other chairs with the rush seats, to go with other tables.

If you are a kitchen owner, IM me for the newest update package, which includes a hanging pot rack that rezzes 4 or 8 pots, 6 potted herbs, and a very cool shadow to slip under the kitchen!

I have some great new kitchens, too, among which are the ones you see here.

Yes, I am concerned. For the convenience of customers, I keep everything but houses rezzed, even though it costs me a lot of prims to do so. However, that makes me even more vulnerable to theft, as thieves can copy anything that is rezzed. That’s not to say that clothes, skins, shoes, etc. are not vulnerable, because they can be stolen literally off your avi’s back.

Thieves justify their thievery in a number of ways, but it boils down to creators not being entitled to reap the rewards of their labor — somehow, the thieves are entitled to those rewards. Sometimes people ask me if I really made everything in my store. Yes, I made every stick, all by myself, plus a whole lot more in inventory that I don’t have room for. I do all the customer support, advertising, etc. You can imagine how many thousands of hours that has taken, and how it must feel to see someone else reap the rewards for those hours.

There are a number of things that can be done to reduce theft by making it more inconvenient, but nothing that can prevent it. Nothing. What we all can do, however, is be on the lookout for stolen merchandise, because SL and Xstreet are full of it (and now, so are websites outside of SL). There are whole stores, even whole sims, that are nothing but stolen merchandise.

When you see something that does not look right, notify the original creator, or whomever you think the original creator might be. Think carefully before buying that super-cheap (or free) item from someone that seems to sell ONLY this sort of thing. For example, the Xstreet listing for 12 very nice FULL PERM hairs for 295L? All stolen, of course, from easily recognized creators.

I love Pandora’s decorating because she thinks outside the box, as you can see in the pictures below of the Rose Cottage — she has not only decorated it with an exciting sense of eclectic style and bold color, but she remodeled the cottage to suit her needs. She has added two baths, a nursery, an art room, and yes, a room for her dogs! Her property has a boat house and tree house and interesting things to interact with everywhere. It looks fabulous! She says:

“I buy what I like and then build around it … I like unique, lots of people just buy what they see out and leave it, you need to make it comfortable for yourself. I just put out what I like, not what others think I should, I have to live here…. lol!”

Pandora always has a clear vision of what she wants, and I love working with her to modify things to match that vision. That’s a lot of fun for me, and very rewarding also to see the final creation. I supply the artist with the tools and materials, but it is the artist who makes the final art work, and I love seeing that.

Pandora welcomes anyone to come see her home here. If she is home, just IM her to let her know you want to take a peek. She also has several shops — clothes, flower arrangements, and contemporary furnishings– which can be found at her mall here.

My new 18c English cottage! Below are pics and a description from the notecard.

It has:

* detachable 4 linked columns,
* a detachable patio with pool and pool water,
* a detachable front walk with planters.

Also rezzed along with the house are copyable and modifiable:

* ceiling fans,
* hanging light fixture,
* planters with rose bushes,
* rose bushes,
* sculpted open-close curtains (lace pattern and solid
* open-close privacy shutters.
* security orb

Two of my favorite customers are Giancarlo Takacs and Ryker Infinity, who together have built the gorgeous and very popular Costa Rica sims — and have absolutely stunning taste in furnishings. I asked Giancarlo to be this month’s Designer of the Month, and you will see why in the pics here (read more about Costa Rica Sims at http://www.costaricasims.com). I asked Giancarlo to tell me something about how he went about creating his masterpiece”

“For many, the first thing that comes to mind when they hear Costa Rica is beautiful beaches. And that is true, Costa Rica has some of the most gorgeous beaches in the world, but the country also has many other environments — every form of terrain, wildlife, and plant growth that can possibly survive in a tropical climate.

Being the estate CEO of the Costa Rica Sims, I am aware that the beach environment is the most popular among SL residents and I have designed over 60 sims with a beach theme. My partner, Ryker, and I were thinking for quite some time about moving somewhere else within our estate. But while he is more of a city dweller, I have always loved the country and honestly I was growing tired of the beach scene — in RL Costa Rica one of my favorite places is the province of Heredia. This inland province is known for its beautiful mountains, magnificent waterfalls, cloud forests, and manor homes.

One day while talking to a fellow resident about the idea I had for our country estate, he recomended Cierra Anatine, owner of Kismet. I went there and right away fell in love with the homes. Now the hard task had just begun. How do you take a city dweller to the country? Later that morning, Ryker came online and I asked him to come to where I was, because I wanted to show him something, but I needed him to keep an open mind.

When he teleported to Tir Na Kismet sim, right away I explained what I had in mind for our new home and to my surprise, my city dweller was very happy to move to the country!

One of our greatest joys in SL as a couple is to create projects together. In the 17 months we have been together we have seen our estate grow from 24 sims, to over 60 today. One of our “projects” we were working prior to our house was furnishing of our new welcome center. The Costa Rica Sims is a brand known in Second Life for offering the best of the best and that is how we discovered Pamela Galli and La Galleria. We used her beautiful furniture for our new welcome center and loved it so much there was no doubt we were going to use her designs for our home. We really loved the traditional elegance of her furnishings, her impeccable taste in textures, and exceptional sense of scale and proportion. This made her designs versatile for mixing and matching to fit different rooms, create compelling ambiance, and set distinct moods for various living spaces. In the end, we were able to achieve a relaxed, yet still refined and luxurious retreat, surrounded by natural beauty.”

The La Galleria Designer of the Month is Cocoa Jewell, CEO of Creative Jewell and Jewell Enterprise, who has taken her love for interior and landscape design and turned it into a business. Below you will see pics of some of her designs, in which she blends a variety of styles into a warm and inviting environment. Cocoa makes every effort to personally build and design her gardens and interiors to reflect her clients’ tastes. Whether it’s warmth and home….or peace and serenity, Cocoal builds and designs according to her clients’ needs and desires.

Feel free to IM her to set up a free intial consultation. You can view more examples of her designs at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Christal/195.139.21.