New Sim Joins the Enchanted Family!

I have some exciting news! Some of you may already know about the new addition to Enchanted, but I'd like to go ahead and make the announcement official :) We now have a new sim adjoined on the north side of Enchanted where the dark forest is located. The sim itelf is Elven Mist and it contains another wonderful forest built by Andrek Lowell called, Bewitched, formerly known as Bentham Forest. Lauren Bentham, who integrated her creations with Andrek's build, was the original owner of the sim. She decided to sell it and contacted me to see if I might be interested in purchasing it...and here we are :) If you've never visited this sim before, you are truly missing out! It is a haunted, dark forest full of beauty, whimsy, spooks and frights! In order to get the full effect of the sim, you need to put your environment to midnight at the entrance. I did a blog about Bentham Forest a while back, here is the link: http://nataliemontagne.blogspot.com/2010/09/bentham-forest-spooky-and-fun.html There is also a great youtube video about the sim: I hope you all are able to visit soon. When you arrive at the entrance, you'll be offered a landmark, notecard, url to the sim blog and a group invitation. Please come and enjoy!

Bewitching Bentham Hollow

Bewitching, beautiful, whimsical, magical and colorful are just a few words that describe Bentham Hollow, one of Lauren Bentham and Andrek Lowell's newer forest creations. Lauren already owns a store selling products that can be found on her sims called Bentham Manor. She also owns the wonderful Enchanted Wonderland Forest and Bentham Forest (both also created in collaboration with Andrek Lowell), all part of Bentham Isles. Bentham Hollow is a sparkling, vibrant, and simply gorgeous forest full of fun and wonder.

I landed,was welcomed, and then given information about Bentham Hollow and also, the other Bentham sims. I was in awe of the magic and richness of color around me, including the bright bluish "sparkles" falling from above all over the sim. I walked toward a large gate in front of me, which was the entrance to a forest full of giant, chromatic flowers and mushrooms in abundance! Everywhere I turned the forest was full of foliage, trees, vines, large flora and especially MUSHROOMS. Not just any old mushroom, but HUGE mushrooms of every shape and color. Some even had faces that gazed as I walked by. As I went deeper into the woods, I realized this land was reminiscent of Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. There were tree trunks with staring faces, polka-dotted mushrooms, mushrooms that glowed, large ponds, babbling creeks, caves, and lovely, shining crystals. Once you land, and then if you turn around and go toward the back rather than forward, you will run across an area full of burning trees. Everything is bright and cheerful, then all of a sudden you enter a dark, gloomy area that looks like it has some kind of flashing lights ahead. When you get closer, you realize it's the tree trunks with faces on fire! As you walk through, ashes and soot fall from the trees and land on the ground making it black to add to the overall effect of this eerie part of the forest.

If you want to enjoy viewing a magical, fantasy sim full of beauty and whimsy, Bentham Hollow is a place you need to see! Bewitchingly beautiful!

Forest gate entrance and a view of some of the flowers and mushrooms of the sim

Some of the glowing mushrooms and sparkling crystals

Red and white polkadots along with faces on mushrooms can be found

The burning trees of Bentham Hollow

Giant colorful flowers, pools of water, green foliage and caves of the Hollow

Clothes: Honor by Evangeline Miles of Evie's Closet
Boots: ED Gryphon in bronze by Bryce Randt
Skin: Jadis in Natural #3 with Makeup Layer #16 by Aida Ewing
Elf Ears: by the Plastik
Hair: Wanda in Gold by KateForster Akin of Tukinowaguma
Pearl Drop tiara by Vivienne Daguene

Bentham Forest: Spooky and Fun!

Red eyes glowing at every turn!

Spooky, eerie, dark, scary...there are alot of words I could use to describe Lauren Bentham's haunted Bentham Forest. It's all these things, yet fun and whimsical! When you first arrive, you land in a small, wooden house with its own kind of charm. Inside is the opportunity to join the group or purchase some of the items displayed within the region. You also have the option to begin one of the quests the Forest offers. Once you get all the way through and complete the quest/quests, you receive a reward.


I think my favorite thing about the forest is the way everything glows at every turn, yet it's dark enough to achieve its goal of complete spookiness, hehe. Yes, environment designer extraordinaire Andrek Lowell has done it again! He is also the creator responsible for much of the beauty found in Chakryn Forest, which I wrote about in a past blog. The glowing effect covering the whole forest reminds me of the night scenes in Avatar's Pandora, it's truly beautiful. Not only do alot of the plants have a glowing effect (especially the mushrooms), but there are also colorful lights here and there all over the area, along with "moonbeams" filtering through the abundant trees. Another thing that glows are the bright red, evil eyes that stare at you from among the dark trees. I have not seen so many mushrooms in my life, and I don't mean just mushrooms, but MUSHROOMS of all shapes and sizes. I also found a pretty cave with brightly lit and colored crystals aglow. The entire sim was full of dead, dark trees and ruins either lying in the creek or partially standing. As I said before, the forest did have some fun and whimsical features and those include the dark trees with faces, the big mushrooms with witch faces, and many other things. Make sure you set your environment on midnight (try it on sunrise too...to see alot of the details) and go explore this wonderful haunted forest if you haven't already, there's nothing like it in all of Second Life!

I took all the pictures within this post (except the last one) with my environment on midnight so you could see the glowing effects. Be sure to click the pictures to enlarge them.

The little, wooden house which is the landing point. Notice the red eyes underneath.

Gorgeous glowing effect surrounding the creek waters.

Mushrooms of all shapes and sized cover the sim. Notice the GIANT ones!

These are the crystals I found in the cave I explored.

Who is that with the big, pointy nose? lol

This is what the sim looks like when the environment is set to sunrise.

Lauren Bentham also owns Enchanted Wonderland Forest within Fae Fantasy Forest. I did an earlier post that showed quite a bit of this region. Here is the link: http://nataliemontagne.blogspot.com/2010/07/designer-focus-kira-lavendel-of.html. All these areas are within Bentham Isles.

Clothes: Anfaela by Kira Lavendel of MysticHope Designs

Boots: Amazon Boot in brown by Elvina Ewing of Caverna Obscura

Elf Ears: ICED Elf Ears with diamond piercings by Scarlet Chandrayaan

Skin: Lyla in Pale Floral by Emilia Redgrave of Redgrave

Hair: DrLife Healthy Hair in Yi-bang Platinum by Leena Ying