Steelhead's New Station

Lunar and Tensai have built a brand new structure based upon this one to replace one of Steelhead's most well-known landmarks--the train station...
Steelhead's station has had a main train station for as long as I can remember. It serves as Steelhead's main welcome center and there is now plenty of room inside for new arrivals...
My favorite thing about it is the beautiful ceilings and beams...

Farewell to Ice Castle Xero

High in the skies above Caledon Morgaine, a beautiful castle of ice has been floating...
Owned by Xero Silverspar, many of us joined him and danced upon his ice crystal ballroom floor last night to bid it farewell...There he is behind me in the Strand cover with the Guvnah. I shall always remember being in my shop in Regency when it was new and seeing snow and knowing he was near...I stood in his crystal study, where I knew he had been trying to find a way back home...If the castle is leaving, then he must have succeeded in doing so then. If that is so, then I wish him much luck upon his journey home and he will be missed. It was always a bit warm for him here.

The Emperor's New Things

"Ellie, can you come over and see my new toy?" was the message that I received from Steel, also known as the Mad Blue Emperor of Steeltopia. Only he and one other in this world can get away with calling me by that nickname, and when he says "new toy", I am admittedly always a little nervous. When I arrived, he showed off the latest vessel in his naval fleet...
I did enjoy the blasting of its cannons and guns very much, but its Steeltopia colors fireworks was quite a pleasant surprise!Afterwards, I braced myself as we rattled through the streets in what I can only describe as Steel's "Transport O'Doom"...And he showed me the latest structure in town...the new Pneumatic Club, which has a fantastic central floor and should be a nice place for his dances and such in the future.

Steelhead Museum of Historic Preservation Open!

I've been hard at work for the past month making the Steelhead Museum of Historic Preservation, which is located in Steelhead Harborside. It is in a re-creation I built inspired by the real-life 1897 Antelope Community Church located in Antelope, OR. Its exhibit--showing Steelhead's virtual builds and their real-life counterparts--also includes preservation information and links to national and Pacific Northwest historic preservation websites so that visitors may find out more information...Steelhead is a town with beautiful architecture. As you stroll through it, you will come across many buildings that are inspired by real life structures. Look for the site markers that allow you to click on them to find out more about its RL inspiration...
SL is a fantastic medium for builders and architects, enabling them to use it to re-create historic buildings and structures. In turn, this allows citizens from around the world to visit and appreciate them as well. I created this museum so that others can learn more about these historic structures and perhaps become inspired to look at, or even help to preserve or save, the ones in their RL communities. To visit the Museum, click HERE...http://slurl.com/secondlife/Steelhead%20Harborside/117/90/25

Hustle & Bustle in Steelhead

Sheriff Fuzz found Lunar and me sitting on the curb outside of the Hotel after setting up the aviation display in conjunction with the Library's exhibit. We must have been looking rather forlorn as he said something about us loitering. I suggested that if we were panhandling, that would have been a problem, and we promptly asked him for a few lindens. You can guess what his answer was...
We ended up on the pier docks in the Tackle Company shop at the Steelhead Navy's Recruitment Center in Port Harbor. I really enjoyed building the Cannery Row-inspired structures and Lunar speaks more on that HERE. I was creating a "Made in Steelhead" crate that can be placed around. If you'd like your own free copy of it, do visit the Offices...And in preparation for the tinies dogfight event in Port Harbor on July 1, Lunar created a rather fantastic floating runway. Zoe joined Lunar, Tensai and me as it was being constructed...

1897 Historic Church Build in Harborside

I originally needed the other two parcels in Harborside for extra prims, but I really wanted to create something on them like the Post Office that everyone could use and enjoy. I said I wanted to do good things for Steelhead and I meant it. As you cross the bridge to the other side of Harborside, I built a little building based upon the RL historic 1897 Antelope Community Church in Antelope, OR...
With the exception of the shingles and foundation stones, I created all of the textures for this from scratch. This one is called the Harborside Museum, as I hope to have small exhibits about the Pacific Northwest and historic preservation there in the future. I also hope that it'll be used for another special purpose as well--bringing folks together in a positive way. I love the concept of "purpose to be announced." In general though, here are some interesting historic preservation links, both U.S. national and Pacific Northwest. Enjoy:

National Trust for Historic Preservation
Washington State Dept. of Archaeology and Historic Preservation
Washington Trust for Historic Preservation
Building Oregon: Architecture of Oregon & the Pacific NW (U. of Oregon Libraries)
Oregon State Historic Preservation Office

Steelhead Post Office

One of the buildings that I have been hard at work on is the Steelhead Post Office Harborside Station! It is based upon the historic Martinson Cabin Museum in Poulsbo, WA and I had a great time building and tweaking/creating whole new textures for it. Much of the signage is inspired by RL historic post office signage and visit if only to go inside and read the post office hours! Miss Genie and I were talking outside of it and she has claimed PO Box #36.
I really want folks to come by and actually have fun using it regularly. Anyone may send fun Steelhead postcards with the LM in it to their friends in SL, so they can come and visit Steelhead for themselves. There is a dropbox for Steelhead suggestions and ideas out from and Lunar will be adding one for himself. I'll be adding more things to the post office soon, such as a general drop box for everyone if they want to write letters to one another and have them delivered. Enjoy!

After I talked to Genie, I was riding my little pony around town and came across Lunar's demon brother Chronos. He promised not to eat my pony (or me!) and we had a rather amiable chat...

Castle Wulfenbach Moved

Castle Wulfenbach, the fantastic airship created by Lunar for last year's Steelhead RFL site, has been moved to a more permanent home. Otenth, Jarl of Orcadia, was quite nice and offered for it to be moored on his lands so that others may see this wonder for themselves.

The Europan Consulate folks are still settling in, so do give them a moment to have things ready and officially invite everyone for visits.

A New Shop in Steelhead

I was sitting at the Point and thought I'd take a walk into the City...I came upon Mrs. Peterman's lovely new industrial warehouse-style shop built by Lunar, who was present as well as his demon brother Mr Chronos Fhang. Mrs. P. specializes in Pacific NW items and is very excited about her new dry goods shop . It seems her rather "big-boned" kitty will be keeping watch...

Photo from my 1st Day in Caledon

Here is a bit of nostalgia for me. It is a picture of my very first visit to Caledon (Victoria City) I was a month-old noob then back in March 2007 and I was in the very first dress I ever made. Miss Gallindo's beautiful brownstone reminded me of ones in my RL home and I was awestruck. I just kept coming back to Caledon over and over again afterwards...

Steelhead Port Harbor is Here

Upon my return to Laval Point from the holiday, I realized that Port Harbor had arrived in my absence and my view from the lighthouse was much changed... I thought I would take a stroll over there as for me, one of the most exciting things is when a sim first opens. All is fresh and new with excitement and its residents are settling in...
Dear God, Lunar has truly outdone himself. I had been shown previews , but seeing it all come together is amazing...To me, Steelhead is truly a beautiful set of sims...I am glad to call it home.

Mannheim Water Tower Build in Steelhead City

For a month, Mr TotalLunar Eclipse has been working on a gorgeous build of the 1889 Mannheim Water Tower (Wasserturm) in Mannheim, Germany for the former owners of Novem in Babbage. It will go in their new sim and I've been taking pictures throughout its progress:


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Here are Miss Hilra and Mr Eclipse looking at photos of both the real build (right) and its reproduction (on the left)...
Before it is moved to his new home, he has temporarily set it down in Steelhead City next to the Hotel & Ballroom. I flew up to the tower's top to see its statue of Poseidon's queen, Amphitrite...
I think he did a lovely job with the statuary...It really is a spectacular build. You must go see it.

A Gallop Through Caledon

I was next door in Mayfair and heard that the new Steelhead Embassy in Penzance had been completed, so I hopped on Flashy and rode over. I tethered him and took a look at the beautiful new building...
Afterwards I did something that I used to really enjoy: a cross-nation gallop. North-South Road from Penzance to Vic City, then West through the Moors to Tamrannoch...
From there I took the East-West Road straight across to Caledon I, where I found some water for Flashy and celebrated our ride by having a pleasant turkey twirl...
When I arrived back at the shop in Regency, I found Zoe there and we had a really good time chatting and catching up. I would say that I had a very good evening indeed...

A Quiet Sunday Evening

Lunar joined me at Laval Point for a bit of coffee and tea. He had been up until 7 am his time doing laps at RFL and did over 90K m worth. No wonder he is slumping forward in his seat...He tp'd me to look at textures for his next build--a total revamp of Miss Katt's island and home...
Later on that evening, we rode through the now-quiet RFL sims on horseback looking at all the builds, including this steampunky "Time Machine" sculpture by artist Bryn Oh. For more pics and excerpts from my RL journal that I kept during my mom's battle with cancer, please visit HERE.

Caledon's RFL build

I had a chance to stop through Mr Equine McMillan's wonderful steampunky build for Caledon's RFL site when I went to set up my RFL vendors there. I thought I had pictures of the upper levels, but they seem to have not gone through...

A Rather Busy Tuesday Evening...

I chatted with adventurer Quinn Lazius in Mayfair during his pubcrawl after telling him where to find our neighborhood's local watering hole, the Wheel & Hub Tavern... I thought I would try to get in some work building the town of Steelhead Boomtown in miniature for Steelhead's RFL build...
Lunar danced with me at the anniversary of the Duke & Duchess of Argylle. The Duchess, unfortunately, was unable to attend due to RL power outage issues and they will try to reschedule it once more. Lunar and I later excused ourselves... ...so that I could finish Boomtown mini and he could finish other work at the site. I think Sheriff Fuzz was rather tickled at the tiny version of his Gearz club. It took many many hours, but I finished all of the buildings and structures. I will texture them later. If you want to see the finished result, stop by the Steelhead site in the Heroes 6 sim during SL's RFL! Trust me when I say it is great fun to walk through the buildings!!!

And It All Came Tumbling Down...

Many thanks to Mr. Crap Mariner for filming this fun machinima of our Tower at the Rezzable Garden being demolished. It was quite the takedown!! It was fun while it lasted, and thanks to Mr Madcow Cosmos for coming to see it and then destroying his own!

A Clockwork Tower....

Last night I stood at the base of our Tower looking up at it and enjoying it all for the last time. What a beautiful structure it was and Kheph and I are glad that so many enjoyed it...I looked over the now deserted garden, its terrains a psychedelic kaleidoscope of textures...
With our witnesses in place, we dropped it...gears and glass and copper flying everywhere...
As we stood among the rubble, we both agreed...it had been a wonderful run. Let's do something like it again soon!