Second Life ~ Real Romance and Successful Business

t

2011-10-17T08:30:00.007-04:00

Second Life version of Project Runway?

2008-08-21T19:07:00.003-04:00

INDEED! It IS going to happen! This note was sent earlier today to many fantatstic SL designers and we are still in progress! We already have some incredible designers and fashion bloggers involved in what will be a massive grid wide project!

"Dear Designer,

Sweethearts had decided to produce and organize a special SL version of "Project Runway" and you are receiving this note because we would like you to participate. We hope you are up for the challenge! This will be an unprecidented fashion event, many SL blogs will be involved as well.
Once per week we will provide an "inspiration" or basis for a clothing design for ten designers involved in the competition and SL residents will be given the opportunity to vote for their favorite design. Those designs will be on display at Sweethearts, as well as for sale, for that entire week. The winner each week will be determined based on votes as well as sales, and each week one designer will be eliminated.

Ten models will be chosen via a compettion prior to the designer contest and those models will be responsible for "make-up". Each week the winning designer will have their choice of model for a fashion show the following week at Sweethearts, followed by the 2nd place winner and so on. We will provide all designers with a well known SL "hairdresser" to provide their models with hairstyles to work with their designs, as well a a designer who will provide accessories.
The winning designer will not only receive all the press and acolades involved with winning a contest of this scope, but they will also receive a feature store at Sweethearts....not a kiosk, a full size store, for 60 days. The winning model will receive a yet to be determined cash prize.

There are many more details to discuss and explain, but we first need a committment from you as a designer and you will be asked to committ to a contract for the event for fairness, confidentiality, and rules. Sweethearts is known for its great management, promotion, and honesty, and this production will be no different. Please contact Charity Colville ASAP if you are interested in participating in the "SL Runway Project".

Thank you for your time,

Charity Colville and Dilbert Dilweg"

I am so excited! This is going to do great things to promote creativity in Second Life! It will take time to organize and work out the details but this will be so FUN! If you are a designer and are interested and have not yet received an invitation please IM Charity Colville!

Finally my ULTIMATE Shopping Guide...

2008-07-12T16:45:00.008-04:00

So sorry it has taken me so long my darlings...some of you know I have been just a tiny bit busy ;) LOL! Sweethearts has finally been reopened and is going full steam ahead! We have had tremendous response from all of Second Life and have even received some rather surprising support from outside of it. (I'll discuss that at another time) As I said before we opened, Sweethearts is a tribute to love :) We have Dilbert's wonderful romantic music stream running once again at the jazz lounge, romance is in the air and folks are enjoying the romatic feel of the waterfalls around the dancefloor. There are some truly cool things to do as well...romantic boat rides, we have a real "Lovers Lane" where you can neck in a hotrod, a crazy psycho psychic to tell your fortune, a dating service where singles can connect, and my favorite of all things...SHOPPING!

So on to the Ultimate Shopping Guide for Second Life! As a ballroom diva I am privileged to know most of Second Life's best designers. Some of them are my best friends, some of them sell their products at our island, and some that I will list I do not even know at all. I plan to be honest and very fair in my opinions. If there is a top designer that you feel is suspiciously missing from my list, there is probably a VERY good reason why. Life is too short, and there are too many great people to do business with in SL, so I don't support brats. I am seen by many people every day at the club, what I wear is scrutinized and I help sell these products, so I insist on promoting not only talent, but people who are "sweethearts". I will be blogging more frequently in the future and there are some new lesser-known designers that I have set up shops for that you will be hearing about from me. The people on this list have been tested by me in many ways. You can trust that if I name them that they are fair business people who do what they do because they love this community and they love the work they do....they aren't just around to rape the consumers.

Gowns, Dresses, and Professional Attire ~ There isn't a day that goes by that I am not in a gown. When we started our first venue, and it shot to #1 on the most popular list, it was a huge boost to gown designers everywhere and every ding-dong in SL saw how much people enjoyed dressing for a formal venue and started their own ballroom. These are my favorite clothing designers:

Nicky Ree ~ Designing Nicky Ree ~ Nicky is a genius with shading. Some of the gowns I literally wear so much I put holes in them are from Nicky Ree. My favorite dress of the moment is "Mooie" in white by Nicky, and I pair it up with a fantastic hat she made called the "Divine SiSi Hat". While I am usually in formal attire, I do need to dress casually on occasion, and many of Nicky's sets include pants or a short skirt that I can wear if I want to dress casual and yet still look professional and not like a hoochie. I also love the "fit" of her skirts. For some reason, many designers insist on making skirts that require me to alter my butt so I don't look like a Kardashian. I don't have to alter my shape at all in Nicky's designs. My shape is tall and curvy and it stays that way without having a gigantor butt.
Recently I had a semi-noob book a wedding at Sweethearts. He was so in love it would make you cry, and he bought an entire trousseau for his bride from Nicky before realizing the items were all no transfer. (poor guy has spent hundreds of usd on this lucky girl) I spoke to Nicky on his behalf and she fixed it for him lickity split. She is a wonderful person and she also is very giving of her time to new designers. You can't go wrong buying from her.

Simone Stern ~ Simone! ~ I was talking to Simone last night, and I have to say that almost from the moment I met her I knew she was one of those women I could always be friends with, She is brilliant, funny as hell, very insightful, has talent oozing out of her, and she is honest and blunt. She pulls no punches and always calls it as she sees it. Some designers are talented, but are dumb as dirt when it comes to business...Simone isn't one of them. She has business savvy and isn't fooled by fakes or phonies. One conversation we had, she discussed making a SL version of a dream gown someone had found in a magazine and how happy she was to have been able to do it for the girl and that she was pleased with the result. This woman truly loves fashion and making people happy with it....A MUST HAVE ATTITUDE in a designer worth anything. She is one of the most giving and generous people around. Second Life is lucky to have her.

Nonna Hedges ~ Details ~ Nonna's business is aptly named. She painstakingly finishes all of her clothing with truly beautiful details. Her lace textures are some of the best I have seen. She also has a very nice selection of casual yet elegant looking separates that are professional looking in addition to her gorgeous gowns. She designed perhaps one of the most famous free gowns ever given away in SL for me and it’s still available at Sweethearts. She is definitely "sweet"

Mia Haller ~ Illy ~ Mia is one of those truly great all encompassing designers that doesn't get nearly the attention she deserves. She is a great gal and I really love the movement of her gowns. We have also known her for ages and for a long time I never even knew she designed. I am SO glad to have discovered her gorgeous dresses.

Neferia Abel ~ Ivalde ~ I am a big fan of vintage and retro style clothing, but in real life I refuse to wear somebody’s old cast offs. The styles at Ivalde allow me to wear some great little retro numbers without spending 700 USD at some trendy thrift shop to buy an outfit that some old hippy died in.

Clio Cardiff ~ Clio-pret a porter ~ Clio has been a good friend of ours for quite a while, (she used to visit us when we started our club in swamp land) and I was thrilled to see she became a designer in SL. She is a designer to watch in my opinion. She has great colors and shading, some truly gorgeous pieces, and I think is truly on her way to being one of the best. She has provided Sweethearts with a free gown that I think is a knockout. You can grab one in our freebie area at Sweethearts and she also has a kiosk at our Endulgence Enclave inside the club.

There are more formal designers that I plan to add to this list going forward, but these are my absolute favorites right now. Dil and I are in the process of setting up a pretty comprehensive website for our club, the dating service, our vendors, and we will have weekly columns to discuss fashion and other items of interest in SL.

Next up....Jewelry! Jewelry is such fun in Second Life and it is difficult to choose just a few designers to list. It is such an expensive indulgence in real life, but SL gives us the ability to really dive in and enjoy! We have a ton of great jewelry designers at the Sweethearts Plaza so do stop by and check them out. I couldn't list all the ones I love here. Some people really LOVE bling scripts, but I tend to avoid them. I find them rather annoying if not used sparingly.

Alexandra Nichols ~ Dahlinks Jewelery ~ Where do I even start about Alex? Alexandra was actually once a hostess for us and God bless her for quitting and finding her gift and designing jewelry. She is one smart cookie. She and Simone are great friends and they hooked up to work together. My absolute favorite jewelry sets have been blessed little gifts from heaven that I have gotten from Alexandra. Aside from the AWESOME company name, she has oodles of talent, and is great fun!

Alyssa Bijoux ~ Alyssa Bijoux Jewelry ~ Alyssa is a great gal and has great talent and business sense. Whenever I can't find something I ask her. She is well known for good reason...intelligent marketing and good products.

Fallingwater Cellardoor ~ Shiny Things ~ I do not personally know Fallingwater, but we have mutual acquaintances that assure me she is a straight up cookie. Her jewelry is cleverly designed and not the usual junk you see in every JC Penny catalog. I also have some pretty darn cute shoes from Shiny Things.

Random Calliope ~ Worthwhile by RC ~ Perhaps one of my favorite jewelry sets of all time is "Wish", and I am not the only one. It has inspired other designers, and Nicky Ree has a gown that delivers a knockout punch when paired with it.

You can find some of these designers right at Sweethearts Jazz http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sweethearts/32/172/34 or you can search their names in world to find their main stores.

Coming up VERY soon....skins, hair, and my favorite thing of all....SHOES!

Coming Soon ~ The Ultimate Second Life Shopping Guide

2008-02-27T14:55:00.002-05:00

"Charity, where in the world do you get such fabulous clothes?"

I probably hear that a few times a day, so I plan to share with all of you my personal opinions on who I feel are the great SL designers....from top (hair) to bottom (shoes). I'll warn you in advance, I have pretty loud opinions, I don't buy from people I feel are phoney, and I NEVER buy on sale. So stay tuned for my list........ *hugs*

Charity and Dilbert back in Second Life ~ A New Sim Devoted Entirely to LOVE

2008-02-26T16:30:00.003-05:00

We're BAAAAAAAACK. Truthfully we have sorta been back, but we were contemplating our options. Over the last few months, we took a long break from Second Life. We spent some wonderful time just enjoying each other and talking about all the things we wished we had done better in SL. We have received literally hundreds of IMs and emails from friends, and even people we never knew, about how our presence in SL was missed. It was incredibly flattering and overwhelming, because frankly, we had no idea we had affected so many or that we would ever be missed at all. So we came back into SL a little over a month ago to see what we wanted to do and if there was anything we really had to contribute to the community anymore.

Drama and threats ensued. I guess the idea of Dilbert and I back in the Second Life business community is not an idea that everyone relished. When we began our first club the landscape in SL was much different than it is now. There were a handful of small jazz clubs...none of which were very successful or well known. Since then, I would hazard to say, at least fifty percent of our loyal "regulars" have started little romantic clubs of their own, everyone looking for the same measure of success we were lucky enough to manage. I suppose that should be flattering, and more romance is never a bad thing, we just wish that we had seen more original ideas instead of folks just looking to cash in on a hot trend.

We are so grateful and happy together in our real lives that we feel and overwhelming sense of gratitude to Second Life. We decided that if we were to come back, and give up some of the precious time we spend together, that we had to do it in a big way and have something really worthwhile to contribute to Second Life as payback for the joy we have both been so blessed to receive.

The final purchase has been made and our new sim, aptly called "Sweethearts", will be opening shortly. Our new sim will be a tribute to love. Romantic love, passionate love, family, and friendship. We have based ourselves out of a tiny temporary location right now called "Sweethearts Jazz". We are limited as to what we can do until our sim is ready, but our stream is flowing as it once was, and we are having a BLAST putting together all of the fun, new, and creative ideas for this new LOVE SIM. We have some truly innovative ideas to implement and that's the only way we would have ever wanted to come back.

While we still need to do proper business to ensure the sim can sustain itself, our goals are far different now than with our first club. Status and profit are not longer important to us...it's all about love and gratitude now, and we plan to reflect that in many ways at Sweethearts. We are still putting together a staff, handpicking select vendors, recruiting experts for areas of the build, and a million others things that need to be done, but there is pure joy in every minute of it now, and in many ways easier because Dil and I can work right next to each other.

We are VERY excited to be back with all of you in Second Life. Thank you to all of the wonderful people who are helping us in this exciting project and we hope everyone feels the same satisfaction we do in bringing true excellence and elegance to our community. If you would like to pay us a visit in our temporary location we would love to see you. We can't wait to open the new sim!!!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Isles%20of%20Ituana/217/156/24

P.S. An FYI to folks contacting Dilbert or Charity...we get so many requests and IMs it is sometimes hard to keep up. We try VERY hard to answer everyone.

If you are a vendor...we will have limited space for select QUALITY vendors on the new sim and we are customizing our shopping area for each designer. If you want space, please drop a notecard and a picture or sample of your goods to Charity Colville in-game ASAP. Please be aware that we will require all of our vendor to offer one free item, exclusive to Sweethearts, as a gift to the community.

If you are looking for employment...we are still hiring staff and management for different aspects of the sim, but only to those truly interested in giving something special of themselves to the community and interested in learning. We take our responsibility to Second life seriously and expect the family we work with to feel the same. Again, drop a notecard to Charity if you are interested.

If you are a builder or scripter...most areas of the sim already have preliminary designs, but if you have ideas you would like to contribute for the exposure we would love community involvement. Drop a notecard explainng your talents to Dilbert Dilweg in-game.

The Rise and Fall of Phat Cat's...the TRUTH

2007-10-05T01:42:00.000-04:00

Most would be surprised at the time and effort that really goes in to running a top ten venue. Dilbert and I spent more time online than either of us cares to admit, but it was a labor of love for us and our time was spent together. We hired people to work with us that we hoped shared the same vision of what Second Life could and should be. Some did, some did not, and some joined us just to sabotage us. While we still like to think most people are good and honest by nature, there are also those people out there that resent success, get pissed at a good love story, and would like to do nothing more than see you crash and burn. We ran into some stinkers that went to great lengths to destroy not only Phat Cat’s, but our relationship with each other as well. There were also the Phat Cat’s copyCATS…but that is a whole OTHER story.

When the time finally came that Dilbert and I were ready and able to be with each other in our real lives we had a lot to consider besides just the mundane, like where to live and work. We had built a virtual world that people had come to love and respect and we took that responsibility to Second Life very seriously. We knew we needed time to get settled together in our new home and we desperately wanted time to spend together to make up for a lot of lost time in our lives. It was daunting that we were finally going to have each other to hold and not just to type to, but we did not want to let down our friends who had come to love Phat Cat’s either.

We decided we needed to sell “our baby”, but that we would have to find the right buyer, someone we felt would uphold the standards we had tried to instill in our staff and that we ourselves had lived up to. The word got out that we were looking for someone to take over Phat Cat’s and a long time patron of ours, Alix Abruzzo, approached us. Alix had always gotten along well with us, seemed nice enough, and through our conversations with her we became convinced she might be up to the challenge.

Prior to the decision for us to sell the club, Dil had made a trip to come and visit me in South Carolina. I was very concerned about having enough management to handle the club while he was away with me. We had a few who were excellent, but for a sim that needs to be monitored twenty-four hours a day it’s never enough. I convinced Dil that we should hire back a manager, who had previously left us, to help out while he was away, and even though he was against it, I convinced him we needed to. I should have trusted his instincts.

When the sale of Phat Cat’s finally went down it was painfully difficult for both Dilbert and I. The club was a part of our love story and us. We had built it…prim by prim…together. We had promised Alix that we would stay on as a management team for a time and make sure the patrons at Phat Cat’s didn’t feel too much of a change and make a mass exodus. The manager we had rehired, Brianna Talbot, stayed on too and promised to help Alix settle in and help manage the staff. The week of the final sale, Brianna disappeared as we hired two new assistant managers to help Alix. When Dilbert observed this he asked one of the new assistant managers, Melah Carter, if Brianna had actually been around and assisting with the management of Phat Cat’s. Melah Carter then violated the terms of service and Dilbert’s trust by copying and pasting his questions to Brianna. Dilbert had every right to ask questions as we were still paying all the salaries. Brianna came to me and tried to cause problems…claiming she had never been paid. We showed through transaction histories that she had. Dilbert tried to speak to Brianna about it and she went berserk. She started attacking him…then me…and began telling insane stories about us that were completely untrue and the most bizarre lies I have ever come up against. It wasn’t until then that I found out she had been working on Dil for a while and apparently had a crush. She had also been working the new owner Alix, and had developed a close friendship with her. Alix bought every single one of the lies being told. The most disturbing attack on us, that we never anticipated, is that Brianna actually BANNED us from the sim that we created, built, and developed…and Alix supported her. We were completely devastated and still are.

We saw huge problems happening. We would show up and there would be no hostesses or a manager anywhere. (Even though they were online) Marketing and events were being ignored. We were getting complaints constantly from long time friends that there were attacks and security issues at the sim. New hostesses were being hired and not being trained. The music stream would go down and no one would notice for hours. When we tried to talk to the managers we were flat out told we were no longer in charge and they didn’t give a flying fig what we had to say. Dilbert was getting messages from long time visitors that for no good reason were being kicked off the sim and banned…and when he relayed these issues to the current management he was accused of backstabbing the employees when he was just trying to assess the situation and correct it for a long time Phat Cat’s fans.

Phat Cat’s was an amazing venue and perhaps the most amazing part of it all is that it was the first truly clean and camp free venue in the #1 spot in Second Life. It is no longer #1 and it falls farther down in traffic everyday. Current management will give you a multitude of lame reasons for it, but the fact remains that even if people have great intentions and are good people…. it does NOT make them good business people…and make no mistake…Second Life IS a business. Phat Cat’s exists today because of strong branding and amazing romance. Any marketing done now for Phat Cat’s is ego motivated and not good commerce. We are embarrassed by most of it as well as the new atmosphere.
We have wonderful friends that know the truth of our abilities and of our hearts. We love so many in Second Life and we are blessed to have met such great human beings. Our reputations have been attacked and perhaps can never be repaired, but we remain content with the truth, with each other, our love, and the knowledge that it built a great Second Life institution…and we can again ;)

Phat Cat's Jazzy Blue Lounge ~ Dilbert Dilweg and Charity Colville ~ Our Love Story

2007-10-05T01:31:00.000-04:00

While many consider internet dating dangerous, disturbing, and beyond nerdy, there also are some fortunate success stories. In Second Life, there are many added dimensions to having a relationship besides just chat, but it is the written word, the initial anonymity, and the ability to hide behind an avatar and let loose that lend itself to a very swift level intimacy with others.

I never intended to get involved with anyone in Second Life. My interest in it was strictly for fun and I was also curious about its profit potential. I decided one day while dancing at a rock club in Second Life, to step outside my own box and do something I had never done and ask a man to dance. (I am an old fashioned girl and like being pursued) A little more than a year later, he and I are living a dream come true together a block from the beach near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We moved from separate areas of the United States, Oklahoma for him and New Jersey for me, and we are living together in an area new to both of us, are happier than either of us have ever been, and are planning our real life wedding after being married in Second Life for over a year.

Our romance has been remarkable. Both of us had given up on love and we were so scared and tentative when we met, and yet it was clear almost instantly that we belonged together. We spent all our time online together trying to find places we enjoyed. We were both huge jazz fans and we were desperate for a romantic place to go for an online “date”. We tried a few places, but all of them were deserted, and none hit the mark for us musically. So we scraped what lindens we had together, bought some swampland in Agriopis and opened our own jazz joint….Phat Cat’s Jazzy Blue Lounge.

Dilbert was an incredible DJ and entrepreneur. I did some damn clever marketing. We both spent hours together at Phat Cat’s greeting the fabulous people who came by and most could see how crazy in love we were and thankfully it was contagious. We witnessed many people falling in love and it only inspired us more. We were actually running a clean and camper-free venue! Before we knew it, people were having a tough time getting into Phat Cat’s and we needed staff and we made sure we found people who felt the same desire to bring excellence to Second Life that we did. Our original staff is some of the most amazing people in Second Life and they helped us make Phat Cat’s the success that it was and we love them all. (Myna, Miltone, Skipper…you rock) We also had great support from the Lindens (thanks Sejong) and some special friends (The Nieders rule! So do you Peglegs!)

Running a business together also allowed Dilbert and I to learn a lot about each other and how we could manage together in our real lives. We often disagreed, but managed to make compromises and create a huge Second Life success story. We built the most successful clean venue in Second Life to date, and we knew from that minor accomplishment that we might have the stamina to make the business of our real life relationship work too. We have sold Phat Cat's since, to allow us time to spend together in real life.....and that is a whole other story to come later ;)

I am more in love everyday. I am so grateful to Second Life for giving me the platform to meet the man I dreamt of all my life. Turning your Second Life into real life is not for everyone, but it happened for us. We made a conscious decision to commit to each other and we reaffirm it everyday. I wish the whole world could feel like we do.