CHALLENGE: Tell Someone You Appreciate Them!

I was sorting my vast, endless inventory when I came across some Balaclava stuff. Now, I love me some Balaclava, and have for years. It made me smile to see it all. So much of what Balaclava's creator Uriah makes is just pure fun. It's not something created just to make a buck. It is obvious there is a lot of thought that goes into the items and how to make them all amazing.

Take the ukuleles out now at Summerfest, for example. It's not just a ukulele you hold or hang on the wall. You can play it alone... and *with other people*. There's a HUD. It plays multiple songs. Uriah even provided a cute gift box for those who want to give it as a present. And it's not expensive at all.

His marching instruments for Arcade last round were so much fun - alone and with a group, and his trickster boxes at the current Arcade are just as amazing. I have an old outfit he made for an event - Mr. Crow for Designer's United, all the way back in 2009 - that was so gorgeous.. and still is. I would **kill** to have that outfit on Wilmur, but sadly it was before his time. There was another outfit Balaclava made back in 2010 for the Narcissus event, the Narcissus on High Street short suit, that remains one of my favorite outfits ever. It is so well made, it still beats a lot of mesh things put out now. Remember the 1011 event? He made the coolest jackets for that event, and while almost every other designer there had exorbitant prices, his were reasonable.

Let's also not forget his lovely old superhero underwear. Wilmur has melted many hearts with those for years. He almost never takes them off.

BAM indeed!

As I'm going through all this in my inventory, I realize how much fun Uriah has given me in my SL, and he has no idea. So I start thinking about all the other people who have made my SL fun - Donna Flora, who has always been so gracious in helping me dress Edith’s unique shape; to Nylon and Poly, who have always been wonderful and supportive of Edith/Wilmur beyond just the brilliance of those avatars’ skins, shapes, and clothing. To Katharine McGinnis of Intrigue, Allegory Malaprop of Schadenfreude, and dazai voom of d-lab whose minds are just one big glob of whimsy. To Corksoaker Gloom, Neva Crystal, and Amelie Knelstrom, who make some of the prettiest pictures on Flickr. To Carthalis Rossini, Attero Diavolo, and Alles Klarr/Kynne Llewellyn who remind me that blogs don't have to be just static models with vapid expressions - that they can be works of art themselves. Scottius Polke, Gracie Kendal, Ziki Questi, Rowan Derryth, and PJ Trenton... and countless other artists and creators. They have no idea how much they have made my SL better... but they are about to.

So, that's where this comes from. It's just something I ask you to consider doing. My own challenge, I guess. Blog it, notecard it, whatever. You won't be able to get everyone - I sure won't be able to. But I will send some now, and try to get in the habit of doing it more often: letting people know that what they do isn't just ending up lost in the interwebs, but that they are actually touching someone... that they and what they do matter.