I first learned about SL when watching one of my favorite TV shows, The Office. Dwight made a little avatar of himself and was flying around. Merely curious, I joined in December 2008. It was really difficult for me to figure out how to do anything at all, but thankfully other users took pity on the girl walking around with a wooden box attached to her hand and explained the basics. I was too intrigued to give up. At the time I was working as a designer for a doll company in RL (real life), so I enjoyed dressing up my avatar like a digital doll. I mostly went around "camping" for Lindens so I could buy pretty hair and clothes. I finally saved up enough to buy the beautiful curly red hair I wanted badly. I began to wonder if I could figure out how to become an SL Fashion Designer...after all, I did have a degree in Fashion Design in RL so how hard could it be, right?
It was actually really hard. I am creative to an extreme degree, so the technical side scared me. It took trying over and over again and doing things wrong to figure out how to do it right. I took a building class, looked at what other artists made, read blogs and watched YouTube videos for instructions, asked other Second Lifers, read books, and practiced, practiced, practiced.
Whenever I acquired a beautiful new gown, I'd like to wear it out ballroom dancing or just hang out in a welcome area to show it off. This was when Second Life became very special to me because something amazing happened.
One day in Waterhead Welcome Area, someone using voice chat called out to me. He was goofing around with a fake accent. He was funny and he had just a very attractive voice. We sang Lady Gaga songs like nerds and had a blast together. We started IM'ing. He asked if he could email me sometime. The email had his RL name so I of course cyber-stalked him by finding his Facebook page. I could not believe he was incredibly attractive to match his voice. We became Facebook friends. Then we texted. Then talked on the phone. Then skyped. I didn't realize it then, but I had fallen in love with him before we even met in person. He flew out to meet me, and after much flying back and forth, we chose a spot and got married. It turns out he's a "code monkey" so he helps me with scripts and things like that I just don't understand.
My goal is to combine my creative flair and my husband's technical expertise to create innovative designs every SL fashionista will see as must-have for her wardrobe. I am so excited for my official launch--my store I named Primrose, as a play on the "prims" of Second Life.
