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s the holidays edge closer, you may already be considering entertaining family and friends in your virtual home. You want the setting to be memorable, to create a certain ambiance for your guests. But how to create the look? AVENUE Magazine is here to help. We recently asked two Second Life® interior designers to create table settings for the holiday season to serve as inspiration for our own readers’ in-world holiday meals. Taking us up on that challenge, both Neva Crystall and Samantha Hellmann took advantage of the grid’s freedom from weather restrictions to create beautiful, unconventional outdoor table settings. Calling her table setting “Sunday Casserole with Cherry Tomato and Mild Spices,” Neva Crystall says, “For this particular day—it is a Sunday—I am expecting friends to return from a long walk behind the grapevine hills that are around a twenty minute walk from here. The fresh country air is said to have an effect upon the appetite, so there are steaks waiting, smothered in baked gorgonzola cheese for the guys…and, for the ladies, we have bread, wine, and cheese, with some grapes on the side.” Accentuating the rustic feel of the setting, Neva chose The Loft’s reclaimed ash-textured Roxanne Table as the anchor around which she assembled a collection of different chairs. The massive wood dining table is placed outside on the patio, separated from the living
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room by glass panels, so the dining experience integrates the natural beauty of the outdoors but still feels like a seamless extension of the home. “The Roxanne Table is the only table you’ll ever need: sturdy, heavy, but smooth and familiar to the touch,” Neva says. “This dining table loves company. A smaller table was never planned. It had to be a big one—that is what I had in mind from the start—preferably long enough to accommodate six or more guests. There should always be enough room for family and friends whenever they might be around. The table is a true hub for everybody, not only during dinner, but for conversation afterwards.” The holidays are all about entertaining friends and family, and Neva describes her table setting first and foremost as “family friendly and capable of catering groups of people in a comfort zone after a long stressfilled day.” In keeping with that sentiment, she doesn’t limit her in-world dinners to once a year, insisting that regular family meals are a much-needed respite from the day’s toils. Samantha Hellmann presents another unconventional but equally sophisticated spread. With subtle nods towards Christmas, such as the stockings hung on the backs of chairs, Samantha’s setting is charmingly housed in an exposed wooden frame shed surrounded by a snowy winter wonderland outside. Fun and inviting, her table top features a tableau-style centerpiece with rustic wooden