The #SecondLife STEAM hunt is on, alongside a bunch of other springtime hunts. So after about a week, I started my speedrun.

One of the first gifts I found was this cute robot-penguin dance floor that rotates. It looks nice up in the Secret Garden platform for now.

I used to stress out about participating in the grid-wide STEAM Hunt years ago, but I did enjoy it. The organizers announced that applications were open for Steam XX, “The Waltz of the Automatons,” and I really was tempted, but didn’t have any great ideas. Recently, I’ve been taking a really good Blender course at Builder’s Brewery (calendar) and feel like I could make it stick this time. The class notes are thorough and so far I’m still on familiar, if poorly remembered, ground.

Here’s the poster – the theme looked good, and I managed to complete the hunt in an afternoon. Some well known stores are represented, but almost none of the big extravaganza ones are still participating.

I”m almost done unpacking boxes (or in many cases, unpacker HUDS) and most of the things will not stay in my overstuffed inventory. But there are some nice finds and I’m quite excited about some of the new-to-me shops with builder’s perm items.

This Victorian suit-dress by CIL Boutique is a really nice Meli Imako kit, with a timely shamrock/Irish theme. I’m saving it as a quick change outfit. Incidentally, a class I took today was about a scripted tool to make texturing full-perm kits less tedious, and I have several kits in inventory that I’ve never done anything with. Plus there were some nice textures back in the Mieville merchants village, too, so I’ll have to go back and drop some $L before it disappears.

A welcome change is how mny options there are for Dinkie (cute animal) avatars. However, I may need to get an updated Dinkie AV  with the “supertail” option. Eh, maybe later.

But I tell you what, this bookshelf is a keeper! 7 LI. due to all the tiny details in their attire. That will go in my little wee farmhouse for sure.

It’s from Kaleb’s House of Cats (SLurl)

There’s even a gift from Prokovy Neva, a little assemblage like a Faberge’ egg with a Chinese fire horse inside. Keeper.

Prokovy had a Winter Shop in her Ravenglass Rentals area, which was tucked into a roadside area with nice landscaping and some quality gacha tchochkes.

I’ve nearly made it to the end….

This is a keeper – an automaton cocktail dress, with a robotic half mask like Phantom (or a really obscure Farscape character).

From Simply Sebastian (SLurl), it was packed in that nice rose vase… which is also a keeper. There’s a men’s version, a Dinkie one, and something for kid/Toodledoo avatars. I don’t usually do fashion shoots for myself, but it semed like a fun way to end.

I’ll keep most of the gifts, some don’t fit my style, and cull the sizes I don’t need. It’s always tricky with the Star Mesh Body – it’s apparently easy to design for, but most creators don’t make for it. Fortunately, it’s usually fine with a Legacy, Maitreya, or Lara rigged avatar.

Time to go feed the Damn Farming Serfdom livestock in my new outfit…