Writing the Sonnet

There’s so many happy things going on lately that I’m not even sure where to start. I guess that’s a big part of why I haven’t been posting to the blog lately. A lot of the good stuff has a common theme though, so I’m just going to start there. The common theme is Ivy Falls, a beautiful sim owned by Rekka Berchot and managed by Kere Delcon.

If home is where the heart is, then Ivy Falls is definitely home for me. Two of my closest friends live and work there, and now I also rent an amazing castle there as well. I still own my land in Winterfell and don’t intend to give that up any time soon, but I find that I’ve very much been in an Ivy Falls state of mind recently. You can see an outside shot of the castle to the right, and I’m sure I’ll do a post soon that’s a more involved tour. I’ve decorated it a bit more sparsely than my Winterfell house, but it also reflects a certain part of me that maybe isn’t quite as visible elsewhere.

Ivy Falls is also now home to some of my in-world photography in an exhibit at the Ivy Falls Gallery. It’s my first exhibit, and the whole experience has been really exciting. When Kere first asked me to share some of my shots there, I was honored but I didn’t feel like I had anything to display. He then spent some time with me going through all the photos in my Flickr stream and picking out a few of his favorites, and it was a really good experience for me to hear and see what someone else liked about them. Between that and the general encouragement from my friend Kavar, I’m noticing that I seem to have found the joy in documenting my experiences on Flickr again. A few people have told me I seem more myself lately, and I feel that way too.

You can see part of the Ivy Falls sim in the above screenshot that I snapped while playing with Windlight. I’m honored to say that shot is being used on a couple of signs within the sim and on the Ivy Falls website. It was also used in an Ivy Falls promotional video, and you can see Kavar and me dancing in the Ivy Falls Amphitheatre in that video as well. Kere made the video, and it’s amazing like everything else he touches.

I’m feeling this wave of positive and creative energy flowing around the people I care about, and it makes me so happy for all of us.