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Friday, February 24, 2012

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

Friday, February 17, 2012

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


Friday, February 10, 2012

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