8+1

Eight years and one day. I was going to say something about how the time had flown but I can actually feel every day today.

I am still around even if I don’t blog anymore. Mostly I’m interested in interior decorating.

LotD:

I’m wearing Belleza’s Mimi skin #5 from the Arcade, my Gacha addiction is horrible and the community are all nice, terrible enablers ;-). Luckily, it’s perfect with my appliers because since I broke down and bought Slink hands and feet I’ve amassed quite a collection of manicures to go with them. Today’s pink is from Fishy Strawberry’s Bon Ton set. It’s perfect with this Chevron dress from Cracked Mirror. I’m loving the fitted mesh, being able to use my actual shape makes me happy.

The necklace is from A:S:S and the shoes are Ingenue’s Pandora flats, also from the Arcade. I was just going buy a few until I got a duplicate but somehow I wound up with the full set, except the Noir which was ridiculously rare.

 

As for the interior decor, I am particularly happy with what I have right now. I saw the Nicholaston Skybox from Theosophy on Willis’s blog. I went to check it out and fell in love. The open, warm interior with that wall of glass was exactly what I was looking for.

I managed to fully furnish it with things I already had. It’s like I’ve been collecting for this house for years. I did pick up the decking from Lisp on FLF but I was just as happy without it.

Lucky number 7

Still here, actually starting to feel like interacting again. There’s a long post on multi-year depression in this mess but I haven’t gotten to the point where I can look back yet.

So somewhere in the last year I surrendered to mesh. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like mesh: shoes, hair, furnishings. I just haven’t liked mesh clothes because with standard sizes it meant serious changes to Amelia’s shape. I can deal with a flatter stomach, it looks like she started doing sit-ups.  Small breast reductions for certain tops are ok, although I prefer to avoid it. What really gets me is the ass. Amelia didn’t have much of one because I don’t and the addition looks like she had implant surgery and breaks the illusion that she’s me. I would have never expected to have this big a reaction to this particular area but there it is. I know creators are doing their best with the tools they have, I just want to remind people (if anyone is still reading) that the tech isn’t perfect yet.

So I have gotten several tops and some great jackets but today I’m focusing on mesh bottoms because I’ve been so picky about them.

This violet blouse from Maitreya was my first mesh clothing purchase. It’s beautifully vintage and feminine without being frilly. I love this photo because she looks like she’s going to kick someone’e ass in the most ladylike way possible.

The pants are Dench from MichMi. All mesh pants seem to be skinny or giant legs while really defining the ass. Just not for me mostly. These are a nice elegant straight leg. Possibly the most important part is that they fit under many mesh tops and jackets! Mesh items from different designers often don’t play well together but these go beautifully with several other things in my wardrobe. I keep hoping she’ll put out lighter colors but no luck.

 

The jacket is the Piper blazer from Elate! and the boots are Will from *G Field*. I got the fatpack and I’m considering proposing to them. They are wonderfully customizable with a number of options to mix and match. The skirt you may not have seen before. It’s the pencil skirt in dark blue from Bilo. Bilo does wonderful Near East inspired clothing but they also have some more traditional western pieces. This skirt is a mesh hybrid so I get the beauty of mesh while it still conforms to my shape instead of the other way around.

 

One more shot, these jeans are from Jane and the top is from Ingenue. It’s interesting because it comes not only in the standard sizes but  also with “wider hip” versions of each so that it works better with mesh bottoms. It sits on top of these jeans without any problem.

So that’s me for now.

 

 

6 Years

It’s weird to think I’ve done anything for this long. I still hang out but I don’t buy as much. Recent loves are this “Sara” skin from Tuli, which has a nice variety of lipstick options and most of the jewelry from Undefined Lilies. I love the light and whimsical designs.

 

 

 

SL Evolution

A lot of challenges go around the Second Life fashion scene but I don’t remember any interesting me like this one. The premise is that you put together a photo showing how you’ve changed your avatar since you started. I used to have a folder with screenshots since I started that showed a huge evolution but it’s gone missing. So instead is the photo from the first blog post Tanya made for me in 2007 (when everyone thought I was her alt <g>).

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Wow, five years

  Not really into blogging right now but my birthday seemed like the time to tie myself to the computer chair.

• 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

Happy Fall

I’m not blogging much but I’m in world pretty much every day. The way outfits have been redone in the new viewer to link to the items instead of moving or copying them has finally made it useful for me. Now I really with it used tags for searching through all my outfits 😉

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.

In Exile

I don’t review skins much so forgive the lack of details. I’ve been on a hunt for new skins since I came back to SL a couple of months ago. Not that I particularly needed them, just wanted some new variety. I hit paydirt when I saw this new release (Chloe) from Exile.

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.

I’m 4!

It’s my rezday so I’ll show you what I’m wearing.

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.

I’m back? Kinda, sorta, a little bit

Many moons ago, My laptop stopped being able to keep Second Life open for more than 5 minutes without crashing the whole computer. Various remedies helped a little bit but I was never able to stay in world for more than 15 minutes.

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.

Jewelry Fair

Fairs are so popular not only because favorite creators put out new releases but also because they give us a chance to browse through others we haven’t seen before.

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