I hope by now that you have gotten yourselves into some sort of regular rhythm, regularly visiting those stores offering Advent Calendar gifts! Here is a selection of today’s gifts from several stores. All the gifts shown here today are free, and all of them (except for Appliqué Chic) require you to join their store group for free to pick up each day’s gift.
One store that always has lovely gifts for female avatars is Virtue. This rich purple dress is the Advent calendar gift for December 8th:
Here we pair two gifts: the belted wool jacket is the Dec. 8th gift from WellMade’s Advent Calendar, and the leggings are part of the Dec. 8th gift from Appliqué Chic. The WellMade jacket comes with a mini-HUD to change the colour of the jacket and the belt separately to one of three shades: white, black, and red, which makes it an essential winter staple for your wardrobe.
The Dec. 8th Advent calendar gift from Firelight Hair is this lovely long hairstyle in three different shades of red:
The proprietor, Abiela, is a devout Christian who believes that modesty does notmean being unfashionable. Her clothing is stylish, but never slutty! If you are tired of the countless stores on the grid selling nothing but skimpy, indecent clothing, Virtue is a truly refreshing change.
Just inside the entrance to the right are three free group gifts for various groups (the Third Life and MLM Frees & Offers groups are free to join, and the Mesh Avatar Appearance Maniacs group is L$50 to join):
And if you exit through the back of the main Virtue store and go into the right door of the smaller store behind it, you will find the group gifts and discount section. Abiela, the owner of Virtue, has been extremely generous with her group gifts—48 free gifts in total! (You will need to join the Virtue group to get these gifts, but joining the group is free.)
And that’s not all! Right next to the group gifts wall are some Midnight Mania, Mini-Mania, and Lucky Letter Boards for even more chances to snap up a fabulous freebie!
Time to take another alt from zero to hero(ine)! And time to update this popular blogpost on freebie shopping from last May. And this time, I beat my old record of 789 freebies in 10 stops! Yes, it can be done!!
This weekend, I wanted to see just how many high-quality freebies I could vacuum up in as few stops as possible, for a newbie (unisex) Second Life avatar. My only rule was to ignore any older system (non-mesh) clothing, any applier-based clothing, tattoos, classic avatar skins, shapes, and poses. My total budget was L$51, which was spent on full-body mesh avatars. Everything else was free!
My starting point was Altamura, where I picked up the free group gifts of the Juliet and Romeo mesh bodies, for only the L$50 group join fee for the Altamura Design/Mesh Avatars group! (More information here. You have to pay the vendors L$1 after you join the group, and your Linden dollar is automatically refunded.)
UPDATE Feb. 25th: It would appear that there was a miscommunication from Altamura about when this promotion would end. I was told Feb. 27th and I originally wrote that in this blogpost. However, today I learned from the Altamura Design/Mesh Avatars discussion group that it actually ended at the end of the day yesterday, February 24th. Sorry if you missed this fabulous offer!
However, you still have many free and inexpensive options for mesh heads and bodies for male avatars and for female avatars (follow these links for more details).
SECOND UPDATE Feb. 25th: Due to the number of unhappy customers who believed they had until Feb. 27th and still wanted to pick up the Romeo and Juliet group gifts, Altamura has posted the following notice to their group late this afternoon:
Due to a miscommunication, Romeo & Juliet gift was removed. It WILL be back tomorrow until the 27th as was originally expected. So make SURE to bring yourself and friends along before they’re gone!!
After I visited Altamura, I hit only six more locations in Second Life:
Virtue (group is free to join): 46 group gifts (beautiful, modestly-designed women’s dresses, blouses and T-shirts)
Coco Designs (group is free to join): 47 group gifts (women’s clothing and shoes; note there are two separate Group Gift walls in the store)
!Soul (group is free to join): 114 group gifts (women’s hair, clothing and shoes)
Hilly Haalan (group is free to join): 68 group gifts (women’s clothing and shoes)
The Free Dove (group is free to join): 198 group gifts (men’s and women’s clothing, shoes, hair and jewelry)
The freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil (no group needed): a whopping 350 gifts (men’s and women’s clothing, shoes, hair and jewelry)
Female Avatar Looks
Here is look number 1 for my female avatar: everything my avatar is wearing, from top to bottom, except the mesh avatar itself, came from the excellent freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil.
Mesh avatar body: Juliet by Altamura
Hair: Leslie by Firelight (3rd floor, Ajuda SL Brasil freebie store)
Dress: Irena by Prism (1st floor, Ajuda SL Brasil freebie store)
Pumps: Classic nude pumps by Marquesse (3rd floor, Ajuda SL Brasil freebie store)
Look number 2 is very Audrey Hepburn:
Mesh avatar body, lipstick and nails: Juliet by Altamura
Shoes: Classic black pumps by Marquesse (3rd floor, Ajuda SL Brasil freebie store)
Rest of outfit: René black and white outfit by Giulia Design (1st floor, Ajuda SL Brasil freebie store)
Here’s look number 3. all set for a night on the town! Everything is from The Free Dove except the avatar itself:
Mesh avatar body, lipstick and nails: Juliet by Altamura
Hair: Naomi braids by Firelight (from The Free Dove)
Dress: Donna dress by Stars (from The Free Dove)
Shoes: Animal Attraction Zebra shoes from Shoe-Ddiction (from The Free Dove)
Male Avatar Looks
Here is the first male avatar look, a casual sporty appearance:
Mesh avatar body (including beard applier): Romeo by Altamura
Mesh eyes: Realistic eyes by Dossier (comes with a HUD with 6 different eye colours; this fabulous unisex freebie I found tucked away on the 4th floor of the freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil, at the Dossier display along with some sandals and boots)
When I started, the size of my inventory for this newbie avatar was 3,924 elements. When I finished, it had grown to 8,856 elements!
So, now you see how easy it is to fill your inventory with high-quality Second Life freebies without a lot of running around, or a lot of money! Happy shopping!!
UPDATE Feb. 26th:Scandalize has another one of their periodic free group join periods! You can join their group for free from Feb. 25th to Feb. 28th. If you join their group, you can pick up no less than 88 wonderful group gifts for female avatars:
So, take advantage of this opportunity to add even more high-quality women’s clothing, shoes and jewelry to your inventory!
The latest round of the Crazy Fashion shopping event is now on in Second Life, and Abiela of Virtue has created a line of classy Sophia dresses! They come in six colours: Blossom (pink floral with a geomeric pattern background), Blue, Flora (red floral on white), Noir (black floral), Oro (gold geometric pattern), and Purple. Each is available for L$195 as an exclusive design at the Crazy Fashion event.