There’s one a year up to tonight. When I was going through past blog posts, I was often struck with “This outfit is *that* old?”

I’m pretty sure I still have everything in these photos.

For tonight we have Whippet & Buck’s boatneck, which may be my favorite piece of clothing ever. The pants are mesh wide-leg by Jane. I’m interested in the possibilities of mesh but the difficulties of fitting it to the av shape make me hesitant. This is the only mesh piece I’ve bought so far. Skin is one of the more recent Curio releases and the shoes are, as always, Shiny Things. It’s very representative of me today.

• Hair - [elikatira] Early – Brown 02
• Skin & lip gloss - Exile: September: Creme: Laguna
• Eye shadow - (PixelDolls) Eyeshadow . Fiametta . Lime
• Nail polish - Adam n Eve Manicure & Pedicure Tattoo Pink Spark
• Dress- e! Zahra Dress (Light Green)
• Leggings - **MIS** Pins Pants – Snow
• Cami -jane femme lace cami milk
• Shoes- [elikatira] Flair Flats – Teal/White
• Belt - (Elate!) Black Belt (low)
• Earrings, necklace, & eyes by Miriel, who I miss even if my linden balance doesn’t

I’ve also fallen in love with the tattoo layer. The new beta viewer giving us the ability to wear multiple ones made me squee.

I’ve gone through my Fall outfits for pics for this post. I’ll point out some pieces but feel free to ask if you want something I didn’t list. Pretty much all the hair is from Truth, I’ve fallen in love with the textures in the last few months. Most of the skins are either my old favorite 5th & Oxford or Exile. I spent the Summer wearing Exile’s Chloe line and Have rarely taken off the September line since it came out.

This was supposed to be a post of it’s own but I was too busy. Whippet & Buck put out this dress in several colors. To me it makes the perfect LBD. So we have both a day and an evening look for demonstration. The black flats are from Ingenue, I collected several pairs of both styles in the store and have thus far resisted grabbing the rest of the colors and the heels.

I’ve also been experimenting with my hair and eye colors lately. Hair is Truth, eyes are from the late, great Miriel and skin is Exile. The September skins have cleverly put the darker eyebrow colors on tattoos. The sweater is an oldie but goody from Pink Outfitters. You’ll see these boots from Shiny Things in various colors in many of the pics.

I’ve also been in love with these tweed pencil skirts from Sn@tch. They’re inexpensive and come with two fabulous belts in both black and brown. The striped top is also from Sn@tch, a group gift I think.

Top and skirt from Whippet & Buck. Just assume I rave about everything they put out. The minis have been ideal for layering over the plethora of leggings/tights available. Brown hair is more Truth, the violet eyes are still Miriel.

I’ve been trying to come up with different ways to wears these tights from Fishy Strawberry. Something about the color combinations, the texture and the widths of the stripes is just right.

You’ve all seen the dress I’m sure. The tights are from This is Fawn and the undershirt is from Janie Marlowe’s new store Jane. Jane is another store I’m resisting buying out. Which is harder because it’s so inexpensive. There are a set of tank tops in just about every color for free in the back.

The jacket is another Jane find. I love it so much I bought all three colors.

They’re a great summer skin for me, a little darker than my normal lines, but not too dark. The detailing is light too, so I don’t look like I’m using makeup to “sculpt” my face. And the makeups are gorgeous.

Here I’m wearing “Smut” with Exile’s “Lush” lashes.

A more normal look for me, wearing “Myst.” Kavar Cleanslate does an excellent job diversifying his eye and lip colors for a wide variety of looks and the blond brows are very natural looking.

This outfit started with the leggings that were one of the freebies from TuttiFrutti for the Deck’s birthday. The shirt was this month’s group gift from Mischief. The hair is an ETD classic. The skin is old Chai (Launa Fauna). The jacket is from Luminosity, which has been dead for a while, Refuge made the belt and the shoes are Lassitude & Ennui.

Just so you know I’m still me <g>. I go this dress from the PixelDolls reseller in Liome.

My second favorite part of the new viewer is how it treats premade Outfits. Originally, you’d save an outfit and it would physically move the items into the outfit folder. Which was a pain with no copy stuff like shoes. I never used it because I wouldn’t be able to find anything. Now it just does a sym-link so you can save the outfit without loosing the item.

This was enough of a problem but it coincided with a growing ennui on my part, a simple boredom with the world and with myself. I tried creating alts but that just gave me more people to neglect. If you can’t explore and interact with people SL just isn’t much fun. I also felt like I was buying the same stuff over & over, I’d see stuff I liked but it just wasn’t “Amelia” – I had set her so firmly in my mind she was stagnating.

Two things happened to change things recently.

1. I got an ad for Launa Fauna’s tattoo layer beauty marks
2. I got a new computer

Number two is fairly self-explanatory. I love my new iMac with an unholy passion and it has no trouble at all with SL.

As for number one, ever see something and get slapped in face with “Want!“? Amelia is basically a perfected version of myself. She has many of the same characteristics and flaws that I do, those being understated or exaggerated at my whim. Probably the biggest difference (besides stomach size and hair color) is that I have this giant witch’s mole on my chin. (Seriously, it’s the exact same size and placement as the Wicked Witch of the West.) I gave up the idea of her having one when I created her because those things were up to the skin creators.

I’d also given up on the idea of Amelia having a tattoo. I’ll never have one in RL because of sagging skin and, you know, pain but I do admire them and what they can say about a person. I’d played with them for a bit on the underwear layers but the fact they got taken off so often for layering made them too “unreal” and annoying. Plus I never found one I liked for her permanently.

So when I saw the ad and found out that not only was the tattoo layer usable but beauty marks were already out, I logged right in and ran over to get them. And they were exactly what I wanted, except for the placement. My first though was to commission a custom one. I had thought about the tattoo I had wanted during my “break” and had a decent idea of what I really wanted. So I was looking at two tattoos, one a lot of work for the artist to narrow down what I wanted, when I went google surfing to find out more about them.

Problem: There is only one tattoo layer, so if I wanted both the mole and the tattoo, they had to be on the same layer which meant basically by the same artist.

Solution: The viewer is past the obscure file extension and the difficult to understand alpha channel transparency and now supports 24-bit PNGs. This I can do.

So over several days and a couple of hundred linden in uploads, I have my own personal beauty mark and tattoo that I never take off. Just knowing I’m still wearing it even if it’s covered by clothes makes it more “real.”

Anyway, now  I have to show you pretty pictures. Be warned, these may be the last you see from me for months more. Fashion blogging is time-consuming and hard work and I don’t have the time or the energy for it right now.

This is what I was wearing when I started this post. Do you recognize this av? I don’t. I found the hair when I went looking for something else at Exile. It”s called Amelia and I love it so much I’m pretending it was named after me The glasses are from Primoptic, they fit better with the outfit than my regular ones.  The skin is one of the Audrey line from 5th & Oxford. Yes I know both they and Launa Fauna have new lines out but they look pretty bad on me, I’m pretending I’m ok with this. At least it leaves more money for other stuff. The outfit is Urban from Gypsy Soul. I was so proud when the boots from Shiny Things (still the best shop name evar) went perfectly with it until I realized that they were the ones shown in the ad *pout*. Bracelet is from U&R Dogs. And the bag was a love at first sight from Veschi I think, it doesn’t say.

This one is totally to show off my new tattoo. Even if it’s not the world’s best, I like it because I made it. Hair is Sabrina from Dark Mouse. Love her textures but this lighting doesn’t do it justice. Glasses are my normal Sophie from Primoptic. Jewelry is Eolande’s Cameo & Pearls locket. Pearls are very popular for jewelers in SL but difficult to do well and realistically so I was thrilled when these came out. The detail is gorgeous. Shrug is from Mischief (I’m very into layers this year when I never have been before *shrug*) Top is Leopard Love from Atomic. As is the tote. That was another must have once I started wandering around again. The jeans are my old painting jeans from iki, which were the first thing I could find that rode low enough to show off the tattoo. A problem I’ve since rectified however

And because this stuff is addictive like all time-pits, one more because I just can’t stop. The bag is one of my favorites from Bare Rose. A shape that is one of my favorites in RL too. Hair is the demo from Exile, it’s a freebie in all the colors. Jewelry is Eolande’s Princess pearls, which I’ve been beating myself forever for not blogging.  Everyone has blogged the new Jori outfit from 5th & Oxford (I loved them way back when they were Tete a Pied I like the contrast of the cardigan with different colors. You can see the cami peeking through the little holes. The cami, btw, is from last month’s freebie from Mischief. The bottoms are Boardwalk shorts from Raspberry Aristocrat.

It’s a classic Amelia look, and yet not, I like it.

BTW, any tips on lighting for the new viewer? I haven’t been able to come up with anything I really like.

If you’ve read this blog at all, you can’t have missed my jewelry obsession. It’s one of the things that has carried through from real life to SL where I can indulge a lot more freely. I had a blast at this year’s jewelry fair and found 2 or 3 new (to me) designers I plans to keep an eye on.

Freebie-(Elate!) Square Stone Ring – Jade

*~*Illusions*~* *~*Orinthia Ring: Copy

Freebie-Dark Mouse 30′s Art Deco Ring

Dark Mouse Abalone Dreams – Copper

Dark Mouse Stainglass Blue Bangles & Earrings

Eclectica Herbals  Violet Set

Kunstkammer Black Forest Suite – Pearl/Crystal/Moonstone

PRIMALOT JF09 Freebie ‘Hortensia’ necklace & earrings

Outfit is from Mischief. The pants were a group gift. Hair is Rosie from SLink and the closest I’ve found to my current RL hairstyle.

One of those styles my real hair would never do. *sigh* Myrna by Ingenue.  The sweater and slacks are new releases by Mischief and the pin is a jewelry fair release from Whippet and Buck. The detail is really amazing.

This is my third alt. So far, she’s a lot like what I originally envisioned Amelia being. Don’t ask me why I made her, I just did. I used to have this list of places for new avatars to go get free stuff but when I was shopping for her I surprised that most of those places didn’t have that stuff anymore. I did, however, find other places to fill in the gaps.

Her shape is a freebie from Lemon. It is copy/mod although I hadn’t changed anything when I took this picture. The skin and eyes are from the Pixeldolls L10 sale that’s been going on. Her coloring is inspired by a friend who just got back from Iraq. Her hair is a 1L items from ETD.  Her clothes are from ETD too, the same sale area as the hair. Her shoes are a gift from joining the Maitreya group. And her earrings are from Junk which is always cheap.

Total to this point is less that 100L for a fairly personalized avatar. Where I really splurged was the AO. I could have probably made a fairly nice inexpensive one with some hunting but I opted for a fully premade one from Torrid. 350L for 15 poses, sits, walking and flying animations at this quality was just too good to pass up.

So that’s my experience with SL life on the cheap side. I might most more pics of later as she evolves.