Hybrid Ansar's Big Girl Challenge was one I had to give a go, being as in real life I am, let's say, a touch on the Rubenesque side. Over the last few months, my avatar has been gradually creeping up in weight, from a usual SL 'petite' to something that could just about in RL count as curvy. Slimly curvy, but curvy, nonetheless. To me, it's not enough just to ramp up the 'Fat' slider and say you're done, so for this challenge I based Niv's shape on my own shape. And that shape is pear-shaped. Oh so very pear-shaped. I have almost no bust to speak of, but hips and thighs forever and ever. And not much in the way of a butt. So I'm a sort of 2D pear, really. A cross section of a pear, perhaps. As some sort of self-esteem thing, I've come to consider pearshaped a very sexy shape, in a quirky kind of way. In smaller proportions than my own preferably, but small breasts and big hips are now terribly aesthetically pleasing to me.
I was proud of how "I" looked.
Look 1:
The Jewelry featured is by Violet Voltaire. As many of you may have heard she is going to be focusing on her RL Jewelry Designing and is closing her store. Currently she is having a 50% sale on many of her items.
The sequin texture has great sparkle without being over the top.
The Cleo Hoodie and Shorts are sold separately. Plus you get both white and black with a color stripe. (green, pink, yellow, blue and purple)
nd rezday in SL. I would have posted this then, but I only realized it was indeed the 23rd, somewhat late in the day, and I'm lazy. I can remember that day all to clearly though. An aquaintance of mine, from a Sims forum, hadn't been around much, and when she popped in, she explained that she'd been playing Second Life, and recieved much mocking for it. A few others admitted that they too had accounts, and so I decided I should go see what it was all about. In those days, I was familiar mostly with mmorpgs, cheap ones at that, Runescape, for example, and so once I'd signed up (I messed up on the signup form, Barbosa was my second choice of last name, after I locked the one I wanted), I diligently went through the tutorial sections on Orientation Island. To your left-ish, you will see the first ever photograph taken of Nivaya Barbosa (at 5.41pm, indeed). Of the four tutorials, the first I went for was Appearance, and took it quite seriously, treasuring my free chainmail shirt, and tweaking and tinting and flaring and generally 'customizing' myself with a freedom I was quite unaccustomed to, until I came to a look I was sure would be considered perfectly acceptable and even quite beautiful, once I'd finished the tutorials. I certainly didn't look like the rest of my fellow noobs on the island. I sailed through the rest of the mission-based tasks the Lindens gave me to prepare m
e fully for my new life (flying took a bit of getting the hang of), and went mainlanding! I landed in Korea 2, in a lagpile the likes of which are rarely seen these days, a mass of grey bodies on top of each other, unable to move or fly, there was a person wearing a box you could click, and all sorts of confusion. Eventually I used my new-found flying skills to escape to somewhere empty-looking, and employing the power of SEARCH, looked for Newcomer-Friendly places, with the keyword 'Free'. I ended up at Curious Kitties, where I found all sorts of pretty things I was sure I'd never ever be able to afford (ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MONIES?!). It wasn't until relatively recently I realised that the avatar I'd started out with, and right away, let's be honest, destroyed, in my zeal to make my own things(!), Haragyaru Female, was made by Ameshin Yossarian, the very person whose things I'd longed for in those early minutes. So, to make amends for my noobish ignorance, here I am, rocking the clothes I was born in, with my own shape, a rather more up-to-date skin, and the system hair tinted to my beloved red.
e money, if you stayed near it. I constantly wore freebie wings, a cigarette, and a Space Lounge Bling Necklace I won. Life was good. It was when I started working there, that I met Persephone, and, a short while later, the man who I ended up marrying in the RLz. Slowly, I learned the value of prim hair (thank you Gurl6), changing ones clothes, and, rather later than most, I must confess, non-system skins.Ahoy! It is I, Nivaya Barbosa, newly-appointed other blogger for Dressing in Pixels.
Ah, 
but Perse flatters me with her welcoming post. The truth is, I owe a great deal of who I am in SL now, to her. In a lot of ways, if I was the kind of person who did SL families (I'm not) I would consider Perse my SL mom. She's been there for me since...ooh, let's say, day 8? I met her when I was around a week old, when I started working at the same club as her, and immediately looked up to her as a role model. She was the one who made me appreciate the importance of having good quality things, of accessorizing, of generally making an effort. Gosh I wanted to be her when I grew up. She was always one step above me on the promotions ladder in the club, shortly after I became a dancer, she became a host, when I became a host, she became a manager. And she spoiled me. It was her who bought me my first silks (what? They're PRETTY!), when I had no idea what silks were, and I still have a picture of that day, me, her, and another friend, all thinking we were the coolest people in the world in our red silks (!), when in reality, Perse's avatar desperately needed to eat a sandwich (or 5), mine needed a strong course of iron tablets, and as for our other friend....well. Watermelon ass doesn't begin to cover it.
Failed relationships, successful relationships, abandonment by (watermelon-assed) friends, my promotion to 'junior manager' of the club, shared recipes for sweet potato casserole, we went through a lot together before I really began to really feel like I was her equal.
As time passed, our own styles diversified, and at the height of this phenomenon, I took to teasingly calling her 'mom', much to her disdain. Next to her trend at the time for 
wearing classic vintagewear, pencil skirts, blouses, jackets, highwaist pants, perfectly matching colours and her hair in immaculate updos, my quirky eclectic neko-
without-the-cat-bits look really did make her and I standing next to each other look like a conservative mother and her rebellious teenage daughter.
Eventually, the club we worked in closed down, and she and I made a brave (but ultimately unsuccessful) stab at the world of shape-making and image consultancy, before going our seperate ways, me, to focus on modelling, Perse to make her home and career in a medieval fantasy land. Happily we are both awesome. Other stuff happened in between, but that was mostly boring, the point is, we've both now developed our own unique and fantastic senses of style, based at least some on the times we've spent together. And now she sometimes even comes to me for fashion advice! And so, for my first post in Dressing in Pixels, I would like to present my homage to the many styles of Persephone Paine, my host, my mentor, my confidante, and my friend (also SL mom...but I don't do SL families...Shh!)
Outfit Credits
Pic 1:
Skin: Nomine -Sylvan - Ultralight - Dita Purple
Hair: Ingenue - Jitterbug Doll - Red
Dress: Ingenue - Polynesian Princess - Pink Leopard
Shoes: Shiny Things - Retrosweet Pumps - Powder Pink
Earrings: Miriel - Teardrop Earrings - Gold
Eyes: Miriel - Aqua - Standard
Lashes: Nuclear Boutique - Vintage Lashes
Manicure/Pedicure: Candy Nail - Basic Silver
Pic 2:
Skin: 42 - 118 Freebie Skin - Pale
Hair: Calico - Emily - Blood
Dress: Evie's Closet - Saiyge - Ocean
Wings: Material Squirrel - Storm
Eyes and Lashes: (as above)
Manicure: Candy Nail - #16 Diamond Elegance
Pic 3:
Skin: LF Chai - Cream - Vixen
Hair: ETD - Ginny - Scarlet
Shirt and Jacket: Last Call - Frida
Jeans: Naive - Damaged Jeans Blue
Boots: Bax Coen - BAX Black Suede Ankle Boots +
Lashes: Magika - Reall Prim Eyelashes
Pic 4:
Skin: Ashia Designs - Victoria Fire Fundraiser - Timeless 2009
Hair: Refuge - Alex - Red
Dress: ETD - Floral Babydoll - Fresh
Boots: Maitreya - Dune - Brown
Bracelets: Chaoslotus - Starlusty V-Day Hunt
Lashes - Sin Skins - Tipped Fluff lashes
