I AM 5

Today is my 5th rezday. Which is frightening. That's half a decade I've been playing Second Life. When I started playing, ain't nobody was 5 years old.
Last time I wrote any kind of Rezday post was 3 years ago, over at my dear friend Persephone's blog, Dressing in Pixels. If you promise not to laugh at appearances, here it is - an origin story. Really there's nothing I can do if you DO laugh, so, y'know. Do so if you want.
So I'm spending it in a Finnish rock club where no-one but the owner speaks English, as you do when you speak only English. They seem like a nice enough bunch. It's weird and a bit humbling being the foreigner.

The fellow in this picture is not Finnish. He SUCKS. He's, I'm pretty sure, my oldest friend in Second Life. Or the person I've known longest, or something like that. There's a picture of me taken when I was 2 days old, with him in the background, looking quite different. Gigantic white feathery wings, he had. 2007 was a different time. *nods*

Anyway, he's a bitch because he deleted his account some 3 years ago. I machine gunned him down, on a stage, beforehand. It was very dramatic. But like two day ago, he shows up, all "I'M ALIVE AGAIN NOW" and I was happy. I've missed him. It's not every day you find a nice straight guy to be platonic friends with. So here's this nice picture of us, after I've fixed him up, and it's fun because he's like a noob, but not. For instance, he didn't know about Third Party Viewers. Crazy. But he knows how to put clothes on, and that's a step-up from a lot of people I help.

So, something about a mixing of the old and the new, there. I'm happy to see him again after 3 years, and we both look different than in that old photo.

Here's to another 5 years!

Weekly Rainbow Parts: St Patrick's Blue

One of the notably fun things about being Englandish (other than being able to mangle the language like that with confidence) is that Ireland holds very little romance for me. They're literally just the guys next door, like France but not as frighteningly foreign. When my American in-laws expressed an interest in visiting Ireland when they were next over here, I was like "Why? It's  like here except smaller and with more charming accents and a less stable currency!". Consequentially, St Patrick's Day isn't that much of a big deal here, although admittedly more of a big deal than St George's day, but that probably has more to do with having an excuse for extra drunkenness than any particular affiliation with the Saint. And on top of it all I read this Cracked Article and decided not to put a particularly high priority on getting this 52 Weeks of Color post out in time for the 17th.

I'm all like, Top o' the bah, humbug, t'beshuure.

But seriously. What actually made this week tricky was that Wikipedia is maddeningly vague on what sort of shade of blue it is. It's more of an idealogical shade of blue than an actual one. No wonder leprechauns go for green, much easier to quantify. 

When I was doing "research" for my earlier Aquamarine post, I had occasion to go to Trap, to like, make sure they still exist. They do, and be sure to Search for "Trap Skins" or some sort of qualifier, rather than just "Trap", or else you should probably practice saying "Why, madam, what a cartoonishly gigantic penis you have" as nonchalantly as you possibly can when you wind up in futanari sim. If you don't know what that is, don't look it up, I pretty much just summed it up with that phrase up there.

ANYWAY.

On my way out, my eye was caught by this awesome sleeveless coat, because Trap actually make a whole host of stuff that isn't skins. Just...the thing I said above applies when talking about them. So, eye was caught by coat, wondered what colour to buy it in, settled on the blue, because it seemed suitably idealogical and adventurey and such. 

My favourite thing about it is actually the back, which I obviously didn't capture in the main picture, so here's an extra picture. It also shows more what the true colour of it is, without all my silly tinkering and messing around that I do with my pictures. See that braided effect that runs all the way down that back, including over the elegant sculpted wasitband? THAT is what I love most. Also, the shape of the shoulders, structured but not overly masculine. It's just generally a really nice coat thingy. Probably uncomfortable around the spiked collar that gives it its name though.

Once I had that chosen and in love with, everything else fell into place, incorporating various shades of blue that could count. The exquisite pants are from Lupine, an older silentsparrow Lucky Bird suite, which is still available to buy out in the courtyard, and the top is part of Sn@tch's new super classysexy Aurora lace Bodysuits, which are gorgeous, and I've been lookign for an excuse to cram into an outfit since I got them. And the boots tied it all together perfectly. They're the Flutter boots by Lassitude&Ennui, from last month's Back in Black event, and they're all mesh and feathery and wonderful. As much as I love mesh hair and...well, everything, I think my favourite game-changer from it has been how much more perfect boots can be now, and Lassitude&Ennui's mesh boots have become constant must-buys for me. 

Credits:

Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Pale - Clean

Hair: RedMint - Hair 20 - RubyRed (Champagne)

Coat: Trap - Spiked Coat - Blue

Top: Sn@tch - Aurora Lace Bodysuit - Blue

Pants: silentsparrow - Lupine Jeans

Boots: Lassitude&Ennui - Flutter boots - Jay

Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears 

Makeup:

Eyes: Mock - Demerara Shadow - Periwinkle

Lips: Mock - Lucir Lipcolor - Tall Poppy

Nails: Sexy Mamas - Glitter Manicure

Stuff I bought at Fashion for Life 2012 - Part The Third

So, I'm not a big gown person. I'm neither a person of big gowns, or a person who is big on gowns. I think that pretty much covers every permutation of the phrase.
For a start, I'm not so good at elegant, oh my no. I end up doing stuff like wearing sneakers with them, or putting a cardigan over them, or holding a bunny, or something. It's my way. Secondly, they generally don't suit my shape well. I used to wear them a fair amount when I was hosting fashion shows, back in the day, but that's ancient history. But when wandering around Fashion For Life 2012, I found my eye variously caught by gowns, a whole genre of clothes I would normally overlook, and thought to myself "O hay, there's a whole genre of clothes I would normally overlook, boo" and went on a quest to find some that I liked, which I would post on the last day of Fashion For Life as like a...thing. Y'know. A thing.

And today is the last day of Fashion For Life! So, first of all, go there (before midnight SLT), go buy everything you can see, and for heavens sake, buy a pile of raffle tickets, there are tons of amazing prizes on offer, and tickets are 100L each or 3 for 250, all money going to the American Cancer Society and therefore, good causes. Also don't forget to pump lots of money into those wonderful gachas dotted around, and oh, all the things!

So anyway, I bought gowns. Here is one of them. This is the kind of thing I end up doing, you see. Knee-socks and sandals. I'm not dramatic. But this gown by Basiastice is. It comes with two different styles of skirt, this one, with the from all tulle and see-through, and the back forming a sort of bustle effect, and the other which has a more traditional, solid front. It is variously adorned with black roses, including the one tucked behind my ear there. I particularly adore the fact that it has delicate little straps, which seems to give the whole bodice a more sophisticated structure than if it was left strapless. The necklace and earrings are by Je Suis at FFL, and are endlessly customizeable and massively versatile. The aforementioned knee-socks and sandals are another bargain from Azoury at FFL, and I thoroughly dig that they don't match at all. As for my makeup, the barely-visible eyeshadow there is from the Mock gacha, and the very one that eluded me so much and caused me to throw literally thousands of L$ at it in an attempt to get it. It's worth it though, I loves it all up.

So for this second gown, from Purple Moon, I made the attempt to actually, like, look like a grown up. I literally had to "grow up", by making my legs quite a bit longer (for both of these dresses...so that's another way in which I'm not a big gown person, I'm mostly too short to not look super-weird in them), and filled out my boobs a bit in Photoshop. Since what I first liked about this dress was how the bodice was like strips of silk, cupping the boobs, but not looking even remotely skanky, and I was disappointed when on my no-boobs it didn't look as good...I'm really really not built for pretty gowns. This one is so fun though, with its epic feather collar, and puffy train. I also like the black lace insert at stomach level, which goes around to the back, and adds an extra layer of texture. If I was the sort of person who wore gowns, I'd go swishing around in this all over the place.

I'm not though, so if you'll excuse me, I'm going to make a last circuit of FFL and look for some cardigans.

Credits:

Look1
Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Pale - Clean
Hair: elikatira - Listen - Red 8
Gown: Basiastice - Jordis in Dark Tulle (skirt version 2)
Shoes/socks: Azoury - Les Chaussures Aalyah Noire et Rouge (FFL Exclusive)
Necklace&Earrings: Je Suis - Eternelle (FFL Exclusive)
Makeup:
Eyemakeup: Mock - Amelia Pond eShadow (FFL Gacha)
Lips: Mock - Glace - Grenadier  (FFL Exclusive)

Look2
Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Pale - Clean
Hair: Exile - Queen Bee - Rouge
Gown: Purple Moon - Pheasant Gown in Purple (FFL Exclusive)
Makeup:
Eyemakeup: Mock - Androzani eShadow (FFL Gacha)
Lips: Mock - Glace - Turkish Rose (FFL Exclusive)
Nails: Sexy Mamas - Glitter Manicure

Weekly Rainbow Parts: Aquamarine

This picture is cursed, I swear.

Tres grumpy about the whole thing, I can tell you. Hence the slight lateness of this post. Grump and a big pile of flailing and yelling of "fgsfds". It seemed like such a nice, simple idea.
"My pretty eyes are Aquamarine" I thought to myself, upon learning that the current colour for Luna Jubilee's 52 Weeks of Color - Part Deux challenge was indeed it, and then I amended "My pretty eyes are treeflake, and all trees are Aquamarine when they become flake'd" and so I went to bother the maker of my eyes, Allegory Malaprop, for matching purposes. After talking about some stuff (because we are friends, and like each other, and discuss stuff other than business) she explained that in general she keeps her green out of her blues, but that the trim on an older outfit that she'd made as a collab with Trap skins might fit the bill, and Iwaslike "OKAYS" because I always want an excuse to wear that sort of thing, and it's a bit slinkier than I've been of late. Plus it's subtle like yum.

As I just mentioned (if you're paying attention), this outfit, Houxin, and its male/unisex counterpart, Bixin, were made in collaboration with Trap Skins a long time ago, but it, and the skins that go with, are still available and looking really fantastic considering their relative age.
Houxin is a long straight dress, held up mostly by magic. Its neckline plunges past the naval, and flares all out to be curly and heart-shaped and delicious under the bust. Hold up, I just (literally, just) realized that a Spade in cards is pretty much an inverted Heart with a stick. So it might be one of those - I don't know what to think anymore. Seriously, I'm all Conspiracy Keanu over it. Because there are Spades! Spades of Spades! All over the place on this dress and its sexy matching gloves! I just always considered them stylized hearts. Wow, I feel dumb now.

Anyway.

The point is, I was wearing this, and needed something to be doing in it, because it's a system skirt, and while there are very few people on the grid who make system skirts as well and flattering as Allegory can, it still limits posing styles some. Obviously in a dress like this I needed an old-timey microphone and then this pose was perfect and then I was playing with lighting and shadows and had it all perfect and quite honestly very sexy, with how the light was just highlighting the length of the exposed thigh, while everything else was artistically enrobed in shadow, and I was feeling all pleased with myself, and I opened up Photoshop, and - LOOK AT THIS MESS. Something to do with Ambient Occlusion or something had completely mangled how my shadows turned out, just the same as how it throws weird lines on pictures. Plus, my delicate little Violet Voltaire necklace wasn't showing up.

And it had done it with all the pictures I'd taken. And so I was cross and killed everybody.

When I came back a day or two later, having calmed down from being HOPPING MAD, I shoved the picture into Liquify in Photoshop to bash out some of the horrid avatar lumpiness, and when I'd got it all smooth and pretty, I was feeling a little better over the whole thing, and then for unrelated reasons, I hit Undo a couple of times, and lost all my Liquification and had to do it over, at which point Iwaslike GRUMBLY BOO. And just slapped on some background and called it done.

DONE.

Credits:
Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Pale - Clean
Hair: Burley - Liu - Red 2
Dress & Gloves: Schadenfreude - Houxin - Aqua
Shoes: Gos - Pimp Your Pumps V2 - Point Platform (from Fashion for Life)
Necklace: Violet Voltaire - Eternity Necklace - Aquamarine/Silver (not visible, but I was wearing it!)
Makeup:
Eyes: Mock - Bright Meadow eyeshadow
Lips: Mock - Turquoise Lip Jelle (old group gift)
Lashes: Beetlebones - Mesh Lashes - Minimalist Black
Nails: Sexy Mamas - Geeks & Freaks Manicure
Microphone Prop: (*chanimations - MidnightMuse

Stuff I Bought at Fashion For Life 2012 - Part 2

I feel like I was going to say more actual stuff about the current Fashion For Life event itself, but I can't for the life of me remember what. Let's see, good cause, pretty builds, lots of nice clothes and stuff...nope, it's gone. Point is, you should like, go there or have gone there by now or go again. It's cool.

Ooh, I know!

Roskco Cobalt, who is responsible for building one of the sims, made this amazing guide to the event, on the Ruca Tease blog. The amount of work that's gone into these maps and such, I'm all sorts of impressed. Wish I'd seen that the first time I visited the event, I flew around for hours looking for one place that turned out wasn't even participating. Oops.

So here's another outfit made of stuff I bought there, anyway. The top is the Bindi top by Sn@tch. The dark colour pack is exclusive to FFL, but even after the fair is done, you can still get the same pretty top in light pastelly colours at the Sn@tch mainstore. My favourite thing about this top, is something I didn't actually capture in the pictures, it's that the back is fastened by 8 little round buttons, so dainty and delicate, I love it.
So, from an Indian-inspired top, to shorts from a store known best for Indian stuff, but a thing that isn't an Indian...thingy, but still a thing, which is a thing that Zaara does gorgeously. Because the shorts are from Zaara, and Zaara does shorts (and pants) gorgeously. Not just in the luscious butt-shading and the fact that they're not too low-riding, but in all the little textural details that make them nice to look at, like the gold braiding over the pockets, and the decorative stitching under the waistband.
The shoes are from Azoury and I'm evidently a sucker for this style of footwear, open-toed sandals with cute rolled-over socks. They were a total bargain, Fashion For Life vendor items, but cost only 70L$, so I was all like yoink. My only gripe with them is that the texture is Full-Bright, and they're No Mod. So at night, I have blindingly glowing feet. But aside from that, I adore these. I just have to make sure to only wear them in daytime!

Here's my obligatory headshot. I am, of course, wearing Mock makeup, This time, the eyemakeup is Gallifrey Green from the FFL gacha of doom, and the lipcolour is Mock's Falu Red Glace lipcolour, also only available at Fashion For Life.
The necklace is something I picked up on my second trip there, from Caroline's Jewelry, as is a key with a clock on it, which is adorable, and also includes a version with an actual working timepiece. It's available with black pearls, white ones, or sweet little pinky ones.

Credits:
Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Pale - Bardot
Hair: Exile - Bring It On! - Rouge
Top: Sn@tch - Bindi top - Moss
Shorts: Zaara - Denim Shorts - Red
Shoes: Azoury - Les Sandales Meli - Melo Kaki
Necklace: Caroline's Jewelry - Vintage Key Watch Necklace
Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears - Widowed
Makeup:
Lips: Mock - Glace Lipcolour - Falu Red
Eyes: Mock - Gallifrey Green eShadow
Nails: Sexy Mamas - Geeks and Freaks manicure

Stuff I Bought at Fashion For Life 2012 - Part 1

The Fashion For Life event kicks off Second Life's biggest annual fundraising thingy, a season of events leading up to the actual Relay For Life in July, and incorporating a whole bunch of good excuses to spend money for the benefit of the American Cancer Society along the way.

This year I was really all sorts of impressed with the whole thing. Firstly I showed up all naked and invisible, as is my way, expecting the lag hell of other recent events, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that at the time of day I visited (early afternoon in Europe), this wasn't necessary, and promptly dressed to look pretty. This is due not to low visitor turnout, which would be sad and bad, but rather down to the fact that Fashion For Life is spread out over 10 (10!) sims and so on a weekday at a time of day when most Americans aren't on yet, there was no reason for everybody to be crammed all together in one place. So yay that!

The sims themselves are gorgeous, striking a great balance between not being too fiddly and laggy, and not being bland and basic looking. Each sim has been designed and decorated around a loose theme of epochs of time (this year's overall theme being "It's About Time"), and are a wonderfully eclectic mix. My personal favourite for general styling was the sim Dreamseekers Zeit, built by Grace Loudon. All pastel-coloured small town America, it's like what the 80s thought the 50s were like, and all built by someone whose long-gone steampunk town I used to hang out in. But every sim there is amazing, full of vision and artistic touches and detail. Really, I recommend going and having a look around at the fantastic builds, even if you don't plan on spending any money.

But you should spend money. It's for charity and there are plenty of opportunities to donate without having to feel too altruistic. In addition to the standard donation kiosks, and Fashion For Life vendors, in which designers put event-exclusive items from which all money raised goes directly to the ACS, this year there is also a hunt (the prizes are by donation, between 1 and 100L$), a raffle with tons of fantastic prizes on offer, and my own personal ruin, Gachas. With all these great thingies, the event has a wonderful fair-like atmosphere, lots to explore, lots to do, all good!

At this kind of event, my general policy is to buy things only from the FFL vendors themselves. Firstly because, exclusives, yum, and secondly because, if I go round buying stuff willy-nilly, I'll run out of "for a good cause" excuse money, so if you're reading this after March 20th, most of the stuff I'll be featuring won't be available anymore. I'll be spreading out the goodies I bought over a few posts.
The first place I hit when I arrived was Sakide, which is fast becoming a firm favourite of mine. One of the things I picked up there was this "Insanely Cute Outfit", which is their words, not mine, but you don't hear me arguing! It is indeed, insanely cute, especially for Sakide, and comes with a few options, for instance, the denim highwaist skirt has a choice of straps or strapless, and the included t-shirt with prim sleeves comes in both grey and white, plus the prim roses that adorn the skirt can be hidden. So, yum that.
The boots, the booooooots. Are from G Field, and although in my picture they look a little on the light tan side, they're actually Peach. Ordinarily Peach is a colour I'd avoid, but I fell in love with the sweet floral textures of the lining, four choices in all. The boots are rigged mesh, and super detailed, and I love them and kiss them, but not in a fetishy way, because that's not my thing.

Where I spent the most money at once was Mock. Always Mock. What happened was a fatal combination. First I bought the beautiful Glace lipcolours in the special FFL vendors. All of them, even the pink ones. Then I hit up the gacha. 15 beautiful duotone eyeshadows. 15 beautiful duotone eyeshadows, named for Doctor Who stuff (Time, see?). 15 beautiful Mock eyeshadows, named for Doctor Who stuff, in a gacha. I dropped about 1000L$ trying to get them all, and you must bear in mind, this is a very reasonably priced gacha, 20L$ a pop. But I get them all I did! Which just goes to show - gachas + compulsive natures = A Powerful Fundraising Tool!

Credits:
Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Pale - Clean
Hair: Exile - Midnight In Paris - Rouge
Outfit: Sakide - Insanely Cute Outfit (FFL Exclusive)
Boots: G Field - Long Cuff Boots "Will" - Peach (FFL Exclusive)
Makeup:
Eyeshadow: Mock - Time Vortex eShadow (FFL Gacha)
Lashes (tattoo layer): Mock - Pandora Lashes
Lips: Mock - Glace Lipcolor - My Pink (FFL Exclusive)
Nails: Sexy Mamas - Spring Manicure

Weekly Rainbow Parts: Avocado

Tres lazy this week, so, to summarize

How much I like avocados: A whole bunch. But I used to hate them.

How much I like my clothes this week: Quite a lot, they're things I throw on a fair amount.

Picture is taken at my house, isn't it nice?

Credits:

Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Pale - Clean

Hair: Exile - Rumour Has It - Rouge

Cardigan: Sn@tch - Last of the Roses Granny Sweater - Avocado

Shorts: League - Sunday Sweatshorts - Grey

Shoefeets: Maitreya Gold - Flip Flops - Eclipse

Makeup:

Eyeshadow: Mock - Olive Branch

Lips: Mock - Opal Lipcolor - Roman

Nails: Sexy Mamas - Geeks and Freaks manicure

Weekly Rainbow Parts: Dandelion

I was all excited when I saw that Week 9 of Luna Jubilee's 52 Weeks of Color - Part Deux would be Dandelion. But I'd had to learn to love yellow.

I suppose you could call it positive reinforcement. Once, for some reason I've forgotten, I conversationally mentioned to hyasynth Tiramisu that she was lacking representation of yellow in her store. She said words to the effect of "Yes. Yes I am." and we left it there. Among my friends, and particularly among my friends who make pretty clothes, yellow, for the most part, isn't a colour that exists. After all, it's not the most gothalicious of colours. Hell, even orange has halloween on it's side to make it respectable to people of a dark-loving inclinaition. Yellow just has sunshine and baby chicks and daffodils. Between me whining to her and also Allegory Malaprop, I've gained a reputation as a shameful yellow-lover.

For the record, my favourite colours are green and purple.

But nonetheless, in the following time, I become the emblem of yellow. If spares from gachas were to be had, and they were yellow, they were sent to me, and even the occasional "Look, I even made a yellow one! For you!" while I graciously protested that my favourite colours were really green and purple, I just thought that yellow should exist. hya even named the lovely creamy yellow version of her Fox Trees wall stickers in my honour, which made me all grinny and happyfaced.
And then a funny thing happened. Between all of this, and my shopping for Hogwarts uniform (I never really got around to RPing at Hogwarts:Your Story, but I have such an extensive Hufflepuff wardrobe) I found myself actually voluntarily choosing the yellow option of things to buy. Or sighing sadly when I saw such a thing wasn't available.

I HAD BECOME THE YELLOW-LOVER.

These days, I will happily wear yellow, and how! It's a sort of badge of pride for me. All like "Yes, yes I do like yellow" and "I'll take that yellow one" and....well, that's it really, I'm not really the sort of person who obsesses over a colour, but dammit, I will own yellow! I was already pretty fail as a goth anyway.

So here I am! With my namesake'd Fox wall sticker. Any property I own is quite lavishly decorated with various silentsparrow wall stickers. This particular shot is in my shed/outhouse.

Despite my new-ish fondness for the colour yellow, "Dandelion" was a surprisingly tough assignment for me because it's quite a delicate shade of yellow, and everything I was coming up with was too vibrant or too orange or too green or didn't show up next to my skin. I bought a whole bunch of various yellow cardigans, but in the end fell back on fri.day's Short Cardi, which is a staple in my wardrobe. I have the fatpack of it, and not only does that include a whole bunch of colours, it also has several different sleeve options. I've paired it with JANE's Hadlee denim mesh mini skirt, Whippet and Buck's I'll Be a Ghost blouse (which actually I've mangled by not wearing the bow with it, but oh well) and silentsparrow's cuppycake stars socks from the gacha there. Because now, in small quantities, yellow does exist. :D

Here's a close-up of my face in the picture. I include it for a couple of reasons - firstly, because I like it, and it's my blog. Secondly, though, to show my awesome yellow makeup. It's currently in the group notices for MOCK Cosmetics, as well as the standalone lipcolour, and I adore it. It came about from some discussion in the group chat about lipgloss colours, and someone said something along the lines of "Anything but yellow" and Mocksoup Graves was all like "I'M MAKING YELLOW" and did and gave is to us as a present because while the group has a 250L join fee, if you like makeup, it's, no word of exaggeration, the best value on Second Life. Mock is super-incredibly-awesomeface generous with gifts to her group, sometimes sending out several exclusives a day, not to mention group rewards you can pick up in store. It's a very chatty group though. I cannot stress this enough. It's almost as much a social group as an update group, and a good one at that, really nice dynamic, good people, do love. If you don't like chat, you can always close it when it opens. 

I'm also wearing Beetlebones mesh lashes, because first, they're a DREAM to fit! but secondly, they have tintable tips! My historic favourite lashes have been Sin Skins, which are no longer available, but I've looked so much for tintable lashes that kept the most of the lash black, and just the tips tinted, and now I've found some lovely new up to date ones and squee <3

To drag this long post on even longer - Look how cute my nails are!! Just look at them! omg so cute! They're from one of the most recent of Sexy Mamas manicure sets, and I do love me so Sexy Mamas prim nails. They're a shape I like (not too pointy talon-y, not too long and square, just natural and pretty) and come in so very many HUD-based options, so in theory you could just keep the one pair of nails, and just change them with the various HUDs, and (and this is important for me) go up to hand size 30. Yes, I have gigantic hands. And so, look, chick nails! Little chicks popping out of eggs! Do Love. And at 199L per set, with 50 designs on each HUD, they're a fantastic bargain too! Hooray!

Credits: 

Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Pale - Clean

Hair: SLink - Sarah - Cardinal

Shirt: Whippet&Buck - I'll be a Ghost

Skirt: JANE - Hadlee mini skirt - Demin - Ebony

Cardigan: fri.day - Short Cardi - Cream

Socks: silentsparrow - Treats socks (Gacha) - Cuppycakes - Stars

Boots: Gos - Triumph boots - Massai

Necklace: Dark Mouse - Midsummer Amusements necklace - Dreamy Blue

Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears - Plugs

Makeup: MOCK - Bright Sunshiney Day Lucir Makeover (group gift)

Nails: Sexy Mamas - Spring Manicure

Lashes: Beetlebones - Mesh Lashes - Minimalist Tintable

Wall Stickers: silentsparrow - Fox Woods - Nivaya (Summer pack)

Weekly Rainbow Parts: Dark Raspberry

Week 8 of Luna Jubilee's 52 Weeks of Color - Part Deux blogger challenge was Dark Raspberry. I prefer blue raspberry, myself, and in a fit of minor synesthesia started to worry that Dark Raspberry was probably too rich and sweet for my tastes, I'd probably have to dilute it. Then I remembered I wasn't eating the stuff, and everything was okay. It's a common problem when you're me. Forgetting you're not meant to be eating something.

Anyway, being British, I'm quite quite over all of the everything exhorting me to "Keep Calm and Carry On". I already WAS, poster! Don't tell me what to do, shirt! You don't know me, mug! And then in a dramatic act of defiance, I explode in panic. It's really quite messy, but there it is. I'm also similarly over parodies of said slogan, which were mildly amusing the first time I saw them but now cause me a certain amount of eye-rolling and unconscious mutterings of "cha, I'm liek, sooo over that" because of how like, totally over that I am, and whatever, and such. Happily, I'm willing to make an exception for this awesome shirt from Witches & Rats, which made me all delighted and smiling when I saw it and I was all like "snag". The 8-bit fontage pulls the whole thing together nicely, and the sentiment is perfect for someone who has Birabuto Kingdom as their ringtone. But you know, the beauty of it is, it can apply to ANY princess! Peach or Buttercup or Garnet or any other princess whose name could be a colour in this challenge. Or like, Zelda. Whatever floats your boat.

The skirt here is an oldie but awesomeieieie from Elate, from the Annalisa dress. Really it's one of my favourite skirts ever, even in this age of mesh and all the technological goodies, this skirt is a marvel of prim engineering. It's made from layers and layers of semi-rigid flexi prims, not a sculpt in sight, so that it hold its shape even if you're dancing (I have a wonderful old photo of the impromptu dance party we had in her store when Kellie first released the dress) but still has life and movement worthy of such a sparkly, net-petticoated marvel. Alas for you, the dress is now retired, but you can get a free copy of it in "Night" from FabFree's HQ, if you want to pay homage to the awesome construction for yourself.

For the record, I do have legs, I didn't just decide to go stunty for this post, the awkward photo angle arises from the fact that I wanted to show off just a little of these glorious Mesh Boudoir Mules by Lassitude&Ennui. I nearly, NEARLY made it out of my first visit to Festival of Sin without having spent a large pile of money, and then I saw these and had to Fatpack. HAD TO. There was no other way. So here, have a peepfoot, and go get some yourself.

Credits:
Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Clean
Hair: Exile - Maren - Rouge
Shirt: Witches & Rats - Save the Princess
Skirt: Elate! - Annalisa - Plum
Shoes: Lassitude&Ennui - Boudoir Mules - Purple
Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears
Makeup:
Lips: Mock - Sahne - Bitter Chocolate
Nails: Sexy Mamas - Manicure 1

Weekly Rainbow Parts: Folly

Oh, Wikipedia. I've spent the better part of the last week working my way through Wikipedia's "Unusual Articles" project page (also, going to Disneyland Paris, but that's a different story). The point in my mentioning this, other than wanting to waste your time, is as follows: one of the first articles listed there is "Folly". "Buildings prized for their uselessness". Oh yes, I read the article! I now have a literally encyclopedic knowledge of the subject, and felt quite nerdishly prepared when it came up as this week's challenge on Luna Jubilee's 52 Weeks of Colour - Part Deux.

Except, um, obviously, that has nothing to do with the Wikipedia page that I'd read. So instead, I had to do something with some pinky-red. Or reddy pink. I was going with the former, and have I ever mentioned?

I don't do pink.

Then the group notice came through of a MINI-CHALLENGE!!!11, and that MINI-CHALLENGE!!!11 was to be all out-of-the-norm and such. For yourself, that is. And Iwaslike "Dude, I'm already wearing pink! zomg!" but then I figured I'd enter into the spirit of things, and I went blonde. My usual hair would clash with Folly horribly anyway. Except, I have a confession to make.

I'm a closet blonde. Not in person, oh my no. But....whenever a hair store offers a "mixed" shade pack that includes my shade of red, I'll always buy it rather than the reds pack, even if it costs a little more, so that I'll get a blonde or two. And then I try on the blonde hair in secret and giggle at how pretty I look, then quickly put the red on and hope nobody saw.

True story. Shameful true story.

I also don't do "sexy" with any great authority. So, here's my attempt at being generally a bit out of the Niv-box.

As part of my ongoing attempts to be a bit less of a librarian-looking thing, I've been buying quite a bit from Sakide, which in my opinion combines fairly original design with decent quality, and prices that don't make me sad in the face. Slutwear that I can enjoy is a rarity. The dress from there that I am wearing in the picture, however, is all black, quite lacking in Folly.
What I did have that I could remember loving was an old silentsparrow Limited Edition, called Rosenoir. The [x]noir series is one of my favourite ever suites from silentsparrow, partly because of the million ways it can be worn, and partly because of the gorgeous art-nouveau stained-glass looking corsets, all delicious in their bright jewel tones. It's one of the few things I can love in this sort of colour. So here's the Rosenoir corset, over the dress. Rosenoir is no longer available, but Rougenoir, the original, can be got and is just as lovely!

I'm still a cutie though, so I wore white ankle socks with my sexy pumps.

Credits:
Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Pale - Clean (blonde brows)
Hair: Elikatira - Parade - Blonde 2
Dress: Sakide - Essential Black Dress
Corset: silentsparrow - Rosenoir Corset
Socks: Sn@tch - Lolli Socks - White
Shoes: N-Core - Coquette - Pink
Ears: Schadenfreude -
Makeup:
Eyes: Mock - Fae-Rly UnCertain - Golushia
Lips: Mock - Into the Pink - Lucir Lipgloss
Nails: Sexy Mama's - Glitter Manicure

Weekly Rainbow Parts: Alice Blue

This week I went just a little bit Meshy. It's like a Mesh lightbulb was turned on in my head. Sure, I owned some Mesh clothing before, since the day it was launched gridwide, some stuff from Jane, the AWESOME Something Wicked corset from Schadenfreude that you might have missed by looking at my butt, some pretty sexy Lassitude&Ennui boots...but it was only really this week that I started buying it less as a novelty, and more as a "thing". I bought several Mesh hairs, skirts, belts, shoes, a whole bunch of stuff, even a typewriter! Yum yum. So while this week's look for Luna Jubilee's 52 Weeks of Color - Part Deux challenge does have a lot of technological newness, I've been careful to show love to some old skool classics too.

I hadn't intended to go Vintage. It just sort of happened, as these things do. I'd already decided on the sweater from Koketka (which took me forever to find because I fail at spelling the name), and fallen quite head over heels with Ingenue's part-mesh Lana pencil skirt, and while I was there, the nice Mesh Bertille belt (I usually avoid belts in SL due to fitting issues and unsatisfactory movement) and then found myself buying seamed stockings and putting a blouse underneath and looking quite secretarial. So of course, I NEEDED a typewriter, which was happily to be had at this month's Collabor88. Then, by happenstance, I was over at Elikatira, and this new Mesh hair was there and suddenly I had a LOOK. The part I love most about it though is the shoes, which are ANCIENT. I think they were possibly the first things I ever bought from Shiny Things, not even available in the Discount section anymore and nearly 5 years on, they still look absolutely phenominal. That's craftsmanship. <3

Both of the other pieces of furniture here are by Kellie Iwish of Elate!, and I love how delicate they are, particularly the chair. Kellie has some big health issues to deal with right now, so she's lacking a significant inworld presence, but hopefully once she's all better, these beauties will be on offer once more.

One more thing to note, my ears may look a little more understated than usual. That's because they are! They're Schadenfreude's new Changeling ears, which are sort of halfway between the Fey ears I normally wear, and regular normal boring rounded human ears. While I won't be wearing them fulltime, I do adore these perfectly formed little fellahs, which are a nice compromise for times when one doesn't want to go Full Elf.


Credits:
Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Pale - Clean
Hair: Elikatira - Locked - Red 8
Sweater: Koketka - Liza Sweater w/stones
Skirt: Ingenue - Lana - Nautica
Blouse: Schadenfreude - Eleanor - Blanc
Belt: Ingenue - Bertille - Coffee
Shoes: Shiny Things - Shelle Pumps - Cherry
Necklace (which was rendered invisible by photography, but is totally there): Undefined Lillies - Holly is Manifold - Silver/blue
Stockings (likewise invisible): No.9 Nylons - Vintage (6 straps) Blackseam
Ears: Schadenfreude - Changeling Ears
Makeup: Mock - Morado Oroto Makeover

Desk: Elate! Writing Desk (from Cabin Furniture set)
Chair: Elate! Cornet Chair (from Vintage Sitting Room)
Typewriter: Cheeky Pea - Hemmingway Typewriter

Weekly Rainbow Parts: Patina

Last weekend, my husband bought a whole pile of Lego minifigures, because the new 6th series of them is awesome. My 7 year old daughter opened one of them, and it was the Statue of Liberty! Being not-American, she didn't know anything about it other than the name, so we spent the rest of the afternoon on-and-off talking about it, and spotting it in the background of various things and such, and my (American) husband explained to her that at first, it wasn't that greeny colour, it's actually copper that oxidized, and then I learned that that greeny effect is called a "patina".

And I was like "Oh."

Because I'd already done my picture for Week 5 of Luna Jubilee's 52 Weeks of Color - Part Deux challenge and posted it, and I'd interpreted "patina" quite badly, considering it something I could just sub in turquoise for, when I now knew it was a quite particular shade. Luckily for me, though, I'd made (or at least tried to make) the focal point of the picture the gorgeous makeup made by Mocksoup Graves, and she'd been clever enough to not Doin It Rong.

So if I may for a moment flail and praise the makeup of Mock Cosmetics. In my opinion, the bestest of all makeups on the grid, and the makeup I wear almost exclusively, she's also super generous with group gifts and and and has a friendly group and a pretty shop and the point is, Yay!

This particular makeup also goes real pretty with my eyes, which I don't credit enough, but they're the Treeflake eyes by Schadenfreude. Whenever I try on new eyes, I'm like "Yeah, these are nice" and then putting my Treeflakes back on as quick as I can. They're called Treeflake because if you zoom right in, you can see that they're like a paper cut-out snowflake, with the cutout being a Tree! The other colours have other shaped cutouts. They're delightful.


But the point in my original ramble there is, it always pays to do a little bit of research into why the chosen colour is named as it is, instead of just guessing or trusting that kind designers will do all the work for you.


It is supposed to be a challenge, after all.

Credits: 
Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Pale - Clean
Hair: lamb. - Wild Nothing - Sun Dried Tomato
Clothing: LeeZu - Tamara Pantsuit - Turquoise
Makeup: Mock - Patina Luna Eyeshadow
Hairbase: LeLutka - Jessica
Ears: Balderdash & Schadenfreude - Etherial Fey Ears
Eyes: Schadenfreude - Treeflake Eyes

Weekly Rainbow Parts: Iron

So for week 4 of Luna Jubilee's 52 Weeks of Color - Part Deux challenge, Iron. Iron's easy! Iron is grey! I love grey! But that's too easy. So I made a clever pun. A wonderful, wonderful, clever pun. Ironing while wearing iron! Geddit?! IRON...ing. Uh. Yeah. So. Anyway. Astonishingly, I found that I had two choices of ironing board/iron (seriously, I'm a terrible homemaker in RL), I went for the RC Cluster one because it had a choice of glamourous clothing items to flatten.

I chose a T-shirt.

While you're reeling from the results of my tough decisions, I'll talk about more relevant stuff, for instance, my underwear. I wear this set a LOT, it's the Simplicity set from Pig, and it's just so beautifully made, while being normal, ordinary underwear. Do Love.
This look also showed me how ALREADY, rigged mesh has ruined me. I bought the awesome cardigan thingy from Pivaaca, exactly what I was looking for. But then when I was walking towards my photosphere, I found myself thinking "this cuts through me, tsk". Then, I slapped myself for being so ungrateful. I (just about) remember a time before sculpts, let alone mesh. I'm lucky to have such fantastic clothes available to me. Not everything can be the brand new shiny, and the brand new shiny isn't always the best thing. Given that I still wear some stuff from 2007, I shouldn't be a brat about that sort of thing.

But on the subject of shiny! and new, there I am rocking Slink's new mesh bare feet. I like the shape of them a whole bunch, and they were easy to get to the right colour, but I like my feet a bit bigger (like how I have gigantic hands) and it's a sadface that with mesh they're not resizeable, and there's probably very little demand for different sizes. But the toenails are colourable! Yay!

Credits
Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Pale - Clean
Hair: Fri.day - Kristen - Dark Red
Undies: Pig - Simplicity - Light Grey
Cardigan: Pivaaca - Femme - Long Knit Gown - Gray
Feets: Slink - Womens Natural Barefeet (Mesh Rigged)
Makeup: Mock - Iron and Fire Sahne Makeover - Lip 0
Ironing Board and Iron: -RC- Suzie Homemaker Ironing Set

Weekly Rainbow Parts: Electric Indigo

Here's my butt. That is all.
Week 3 of Luna Jubilee's 52 Weeks of Color - Part Deux

Credits: 

Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Pale - Clean

Hair: Ploom - Ricki - Little bit of Everything

Corset: Schadenfreude - Something Wicked - rigged Mesh version

Bodice: silentsparrow - Corbie Suite - Ash

Pants: Sn@tch - Second Skin Leather Pants - Black 

Choker: Schadenfreude - Sarissa Collar

Also wearing, not shown:

Shoes: HOC - Platform Pumps

Makeup: Mock - Eyes - Makeup Mood Indigo - Ella Style

Mock - Dark Kiss Lipsmacker 

and

Mock - Nuit Lip Creme

Weekly Rainbow Parts: Coral

Week 2 of Luna Jubilee's 52 Weeks of Color - Part Deux was Coral. To be perfectly honest, Coral is a colour that doesn't exist for me, in Real Life or Second Life. I'd even go so far as to say it's a colour I actively avoid. It's a disaster with my real-life complexion, and within Second Life, I'm quite um...well....I don't like Coral! It a combination of two colours I don't care for (pink, and light orange) and when I was a young thing, my mother had a necklace made of real coral and it was very very pointy and uncomfortable to wear.
So I went into this particular challenge all bad-natured and fairly lost-ish. I came out of it a bit of a convert to the Coral cause. Not a whole lot of one, and not outside of Second Life, but I won't avoid it as much in future. Maybe.

One of my most invaluable recent(ish) purchases was the Greedy pack of Jane's Sheer Layers. I like the option of wearing stuff under stuff to hide my bits, and when the pack calls itself "Greedy", it's not kidding, there's like, one of EVERY colour in there. Even ones I avoid. This is technically "melon", but, near enough. Over it, the top is from an ancient dress from Versteck, one of my historical favourite stores, who amazingly still maintains a tiny tiny presence in Second Life. I like it when that happens. Too many of my old favourites are gone forever. It makes me feel very old. The tights I've had since forever, from a tiny obscure Japanese shop that no longer exists, and although you can't really tell from here, are decorated with random flowers and stars and fun stuff. The shoes with socks there are from Crazy,  store I only discovered recently on my quest to dress less like a missionary, and bought lots of shoes/boots from but no clothes. True story. And the skirt is from Sn@tch, because, dude, you can't beat Sn@tch for fairly-priced basic awesomeness. It reminds me of kale chips. That's a good thing. Kale chips are delicious. You should eat some.


Credits:
Skin: Tres Blah - C88 - Pale - Adored Redux
Hair: Elikatira - Again - Red 8
Top: Versteck - Prairie
Undershirt: Jane - Sheer Layers - Melon
Skirt: Sn@tch - Tought Luck skirt - Green
Tights: *yamy* See-throught Tights - Brown
Shoes (socks included): Crazy - Vanity Sandals
Necklace: Mocha - Charm Necklace - Cat
Makeup:
Lips: Mock - Brazen Bronze Lipstain
Nails: Sexy Mama's - Glitter Manicure Sculpted Nails

Weekly Rainbow Parts - Champagne

Check me out, updating this thing on a 6-monthly basis whether it needs it or not!

So, in lieu of me actually being a competent/reliable blogger, I've decided to entertain myself with Luna Jubilee's funtastic 52 Weeks of Color - Part Deux challenge, for reasons that are as follows:

• I'm bored.

Okay, that was less of a proper list than I had anticipated. The bulletpoint seems redundant now. Regardless, it stays! But yes. I'm terribly bored. As much as the title of this blog might suggest I've got a whole new lease of excitement and such in Second Life, it's really only partly accurate. I've been in quite the rut for some time, and this challenge (coupled with my new year's resolution to dress more slutty) gives me an excuse to buy stuff I perhaps wouldn't normally. Like, things that aren't black (or brown, grey...etc).

It also gives me a chance to work on my unimpressive Photoshop skillz - I learned everything I know from Katey Coppola's video tutorials which are just wonderful, and simple enough for even me to follow, but the downside is, they're simple enough for even me to follow. So I've been trying to expand my repertoire of styles and such. Yay me!

I decided to do this last week, so I've spent parts of the last 7 days dressing and taking pictures as if I mean it. A few of them, I'm even pretty proud of.

Week 1 had the colour theme of Champagne, fittingly, since the ACTUAL first week started at New Years, not the random date in February that I decided to pick the challenge up. 

A simple Inventory search for "Champagne" turned up a few results, but being raised on Closet Crisis, I wasn't going to be satisfied with just throwing those on and calling it done. I probably should have, later weeks turning out to not be so simple, but there we go. So having a Champagne base like a sexy cocktail, in the skirt and matching hairband from Miel, I searched my brains for something to go with it, Champagne being the first in a long line of colours I don't buy, and realizing I have pretty much one of everything from Silentsparrow, there was a fair chance that I'd have something appropriate from there. The mixture of jacket and cuffs from two vintage outfits provided the unique look I was hoping for, so, yay! 

My picture ended up rather darker than I would have liked or intended, and this seems to be a recurring theme with me, so in the end I've decided not to drive myself mad trying to get the EXACT right shade of anything, because because aside from matters of interpretation and whatevs, it'd limit my "boundless" creativity regarding photos. 

That and I'm lazy.

Credits

Skin: Tres Blah - Blessa - Pale - Clean

Hair: Alice Project -  Wonderland SE - Red

Jacket: silentsparrow - Ryou suit - dove

Cuffs: silentsparrow - Clair de Lune - fawn

Skirt: Miel - AM TULIP skirt - Champagne

Hairband: Miel - AM TULIP headband - Champagne

Makeup: Mock - Simpatico Eyeliner - Brown Black

Mock - Back to Basics Eyeshadow - Paarl

Mock - Red Hot Lipstain

Nails: Sexy Mama's - Manicure Sculpted Nails