Saturday, March 28, 2009

March Leaves like a Lion too!

Its said that the month of March comes in like a lion and leaves like a lamb. However, for
the final weekend of the month were have a slew of happenings across the grid! Its hard to choose what would be the biggest event! So here goes in no particular order.

When I signed on today I got special treasure of the new landmark to ETD. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, ETD is once again open. Elika is dtill in the process of setting things up , but has given us 4 new hairstyles, updated textures and a new pair of boots to leave us smiling. I am very happy to report that the new textures have the same classic hair colors we have loved only better.



Here I am wearing the new "Torwen" hair in Copper. The dress and jewelry is from the Grid Wide Bunny Hop. The Grid Wide Bunny Hop has some great designers and I know there are many that are just tired of all the hunts I find it a great opportunity to see new places and discover new designers as well as enjoy the works of old favorites.

The skin is also new from PXL. This is his Group/Picks gift Grace. This skin comes with blonde hair and a prim hair attachment and the tattoo's are part of the skin.

The next happening to report is a bit exciting for me. My good friend Leah from .:Naive:. is about to release some new items in her store and this is a personal fave as it was a request from me.



Whenever I search the grid for lingerie I seemed to come across a repeating them of BabyDolls, Teddies and Bra and Pantie Sets.. I wanted a Peignoir Set. Those lovely and sheer robes over gowns that as a little girl I dreamed of wearing on my wedding night. This is Leah's interpretation based on pics I gave her and its stunning!

Leah tells me she should have her new items out by Sunday. Be sure to stop at her main store and join her Subsciber for updates.


Last but not least, Starlust Motel has now become "Sparkle Village' on Glitter Poof Unicorn Sex Island. Home of some good unicorn lovin' but rife with dreaded anti-corns too. So be sure to avail yourself of the sweet sparkly unicorn goodness that the designers of Sparkle Village of bestowed upon us mere humans to make us unicorn lovin' machine of doom! "DOWN WITH ANTI-CORNS"




So, in review, get your low ARC on and head to ETD, stop by .:Naive:. to check out her new releases, Stop at PXL Skins to join the group and add to your picks. Hop Around the Grid and grab the Eggs for the Grid Wide Bunny Hop and join the Unicorn vs. Anti-Corn Battle at Sparkle Village (Formerly Starlust Motel)

See you around the Grid! Oh and "DOWN WITH ANTI-CORNS!"

CREDITS:

Pic 1
Dress: Elate!- Eve Dress- Bunny Hop Hunt
Hair: ETD- Torwen- Copper
Skin: PXL- Grace Fair (Group/Pick Gift)
Jewelry: Eolande- Easter Egg Jewelry Set - Bunny Hop Hunt
Eyes: Miriel- Absinthe- Standard
Lashes: Miriel- Glamour
Manicure: Detour - French Pink
Pose: Striking Poses: Monica Bellucci Dollarbie Pose


Look2:

Lingerie: .:NAIVE:.- Persephone's Nightgown in White
Eyes: Miriel - Pacific - Standard
Skin: Curio GP Sundust[light] Pin Up- Starlet 2
Hair: ETD Chel- Blonde (modified)
Shoes: *ZHAO Shoes* Zoey II - Silver
Lashes: Miriel - Glamour
nails: Detour - French Pink
Pose [LAP] F-Blogger4 Purshold Mirror Fist (pr4)



Look 3
Hair: Calico- Elka III - Dark Chocolate
Lashes: Miriel- Glamour
Eyes: Miriel - Pacific
Shoes: Shiny Things: Mary Jane Mule - black
Skin: (IS) Unicorn Lover- Irene- Ese (Unicorn Gift)
Top: *katat0nik* Making Memories Top- (Unicorn Gift)
Accessories: BCD Make Me a Pretty Unicorn Playset
Ears, tail (with colorchange gem) and Horn(bling of no bling)(Horn reset to mouth) 75L
Socks: Glitter Unicorn Sex Socks - (Unicorn Gift)
Wings: ~silent sparrow~Unicorns R Love! Sparkle Sparkle Wings
Pose [LAP] Ooh Ahh

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Just Jeans..

I have found lately my RL affinity for jeans has leaked into SL. So I have decided to put together a few looks around some of the jeans I have found in my inventory. This was not as easy as I thought since many of my fave jeans are from Last Call which is Sadly no more. I felt this unfair to my readers since they are no longer accessible. However, upon inspection and with asking around I have discovered quite a few new favorites to wear around the grid.







Its amazing how many different looks can be based around a pair of jeans, here I have chosen the new "Grunge Jeans" by .:Naive:. and Pair it with a cute tank top and jacket. Great for a cool date at a cafe with friends on a Sunday.



















For those of you that didn't know Malt have opened a new sim and along with Spork is having a Treasure Hunt. Each item you find is 50L but so worth it. I didn't even have to work to put this look together, Malt did it for me. Perfect for a dinner and movie date or with your girlfriends. Malt has 10 Items, some are complete outfits like this one and the hunt goes on till March 28, 2009
















I am trying to figure out how I managed to miss Spork with all the blog reading I do. I must have skipped it altogether. These Jeans weren't on the hunt but oh so worth it. I would totally wear this in RL. I was almost worried that the fedora would put it over the top, but Niv assured me I did good *grins* This is definitely for Saturday Night at the Dance clubs! Very V.I.P lounge. The top is one of the 5 Hunt Gifts that Spork has and well as
the bangles I am wearing.



















Last but not least we have the nerdy college student look. Simple Jeans and button up shirt with comfy clogs. Perfect for a night spent at the library studying for the dreaded mid-term. The Jeans by WoE and The top by *Diversity* are both items from the RFL fair.













I would love to see your favorite denim looks so just email me a photo with a description so I can share it!

Credits:
Look 1
Eyes- Miriel- Violet Plant
Skin- Curio Gala Sundust Breeze Pure 2
Hair- ETD- Emily - Chestnut
Hair Bows- Eolande bows for Emily
Nails - Detour French Cream
Lashes- Miriel Glamour
Jacket- Meh- Short Velvet Jacket
Top- Naive Classic Halter Green Tee
Shoes - Shiny Things Sugar Pumps in Brown
Jeans - Naive Grunge Jeans in Blue
Pose- [LAP] F blogger1 Primpant



Look 2
Eyes: Miriel - Violet Plant
Skin: Curio Gala- Sundust Breeze Robins Egg 1
Hair: Truth - Wendy - Auburn
Lashes: Miriel - Feather
Shoes: Maitreya - Grace - Black
Malt: Hunt 3 Outfit
Loose Fit Denim
Grey/Black Bangle
Madwin - Green
Twily Neck Tie - Conifer
Pose LAP F-Blogger10 Primpant PR4


Look 3
Skin: Curio Gala Sundust Breeze Sepia 2
Hair: ETD Charley- Chestnut
Lashes: Miriel-Glamour
Eye: Miriel- Violet Plant
Shoe: Sn@tch- 5 Dollah Lap Dance
Top: Spork - Hunt Item #3 Janis Top in Red
Pant: Spork- Nova Jeans in Black
Bangles: Spork Hunt Item # 5 Silver Bangles
Pose: Hiccup - Boogie Woogie


Look 4
Skin:Curio Gala- Sundust FREX[light] Breeze- Pure1
Hair: ETD- Katie- chestnut (Store currently closed)
Eyes: Miriel (standard) Violet Plant
Top: *Diversity* Blossom Top (Guava) RFL
Glasses: Artilleri- Gladys Glasses (Subsciber Gift)
Earring: Eolande - Pearl Stud- Silver
Bracelet: Schadenfreude Starlust Charm Bracelet
Jeans: WoE RFL- Relay For Life Beaded Jeans
Shoes: Shiny Things- Tied Clog- Gold Pattern (discount room)
Pose: LAP - Come and Get it.

When I was a noob, I spake as a noob, I understood as a noob, I thought as a noob..

...but when I became a few weeks old, I put away noobish things. (blasphamously paraphrased from 1 Corinthians 13:11)

Yesterday was my Second 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 me 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.

As the minutes passed, I discovered there were chairs I could sit on for a few minutes that would give me free money (gold? dollars? I had no idea what the money was called), and even better, that there were places where people went and danced, and one of them, The Space Lounge, had a sign you could click and then keep walking around, and it would STILL give you free 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.

I like to think I've come a long way in two years.


Credits:

Pic 1:

All nooby goodness!

Pic 2:

Skin: Celestial - Vogue - Pure - Classic Glitter - Gold 2
Eyes: Miriel - Marine (standard)
Everything Else: Haragyaru Girl starter avatar (available in a box of old library content at Stillman's Bazaar)

Pic 3:

Skin: Naive - Camille skin - Light Brunette 01 Lips 02
Hair: KIN - Liv - Red
Shirt: Toastface - Candyheart T-shirt
Pants: Veschi - Jeanius! - Gold
Jacket: Bare Rose - Pirate Queen Version 3 - Dark Jacket (worn with shoulder and upper-arm prims only)
Shoes: Schadenfreude - Pointy Buckle Boots
Gloves: Digit Darkes - CAP gloves Black/Gold (worn with Gold bows)
Necklace: Balderdash - Rosary - Coal (I treated myself to this and the hand version, which is epic win, yesterday <3)
Lashes: Sin Skins - Tipped Vanity Lashes


Pose credits:

2nd pic: Schadenfreude - Hyper Japanese Schoolgirl
3rd pic, left to right: [LAP] Yup, [LAP] Not Buying It

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Low ARC FTW!

It's that time of year again folks! Now we're running out of holidays to overcelebrate in Second Life, the Fair cycle is beginning! What this means for us, in the very shortest terms, is lag, and lots of it. There are a lot of things you can do clientside to make life a little easier, the simplest of which being to turn your graphics settings down to looooow. The next thing you can do, for yourself, is, for the love of all the little pixels, prim down. There are always disputes on this matter, there are the people who say "It's not what you're wearing, it's the scripts running on the sim", or "There are so many people here, taking my skirt off isn't going to help with the lag", personally, I'm of the school of thought of "every little helps". Exchanging your long flowing alpha curls for a sleek prim bob may not magically unlag a sim, but it does fractionally reduce the strain on the area, and that is a fact, one where if everyone worked together, instead of standing around complaining about the lag, could really make an tangible difference.

So really, it's the time of year where bloggers and strangers lecture you about being considerate to your fellow avatars, and stripping off some prims. I will be no exception.

I will admit right now, that there are laggy occasions where, yes, you DO care what you look like. No-one (no-one stylish, at least) likes being bald and barefoot in public. Call it paranoia, but I, for one, like to feel like I don't look as if I've just waddled off of Help Island when I go to a fashion show, for example. So, it helps to know what things in your inventory carry a low Avatar Rendering Cost. ARC is not the be-all-and-end-all of lag-reduction, it's a flawed system, but using a combination of it, and common sense, can really help you put together something suitable for a laggy occasion. Prims are not the Enemy, but there are certain properties of prims that are. Flex is the obvious one, and tinyprims (like you'll find in most jewelry), scupties are less than ideal but sometimes a nessessary evil (as we'll see), alpha textures and invisiprims are NOT your friend here, and illuminated prims, glow, and bling/particles are very definitely no-go for this sort of thing (and in general, shame on you, bling wearer). It also seems to help psychologically if your clothes are good quality, with care put into their textures and lines, just to abate the whole 'I FEEL NAKED WITHOUT MY PRIM CUFFS' noobish feeling.

Nivaya's 55 ARC outfit - For me, the trick is to convince myself wearing a lot. Sure, I could venture forth in some jeans and a t-shirt, but if I did that, I may as well just don a nice low-lag solid black skin like some sort of awesome ninja and not bother at all. As it stands, for this outfit, I've tried to make as much use of layers as I possibly can. My corset and capris are on the underwear layers, the belt in two parts on the shirt and pants layer (funny story, I didn't notice until I was doing the credits for this that I was wearing parts of two different belts, but hey, it looks okay, I won't tell if you don't), and the coat on jacket and skirt layers. The ornamentation on the belt helps me feel a bit dressed-up and negates my need for jewelry a bit, the open stitches on the shoulders of the coat, and the tail, makes the outfit feel a little more substancial while still being a bit quirky. The hair, I love. It's from the GNUbie store, and is one of Pudge's older styles. The version I'm wearing in the picture is a copy I've modified, I've removed the spiral curls from the sides, which left the ARC of the hair the same (16) but as people are always banging on about, twisted torii produce much more lag than...I dunno. A box maybe. Point is, I feel a bit more smug having taken this step. Also, glove manicures, to help the ensemble feel /finished/.

Persephone's 46 ARC outfit - Perse outdid me! She ACTUALLY outdid me! I was properly scandalized. It comes down to the shoes, in this case. The Baby Monkey Ballet Flats I chose are a dainty 3 prims, whereas Perse's Shiny Things Ballet Flats are a hefty 16, but the difference comes in the types of prims they are. You see, mine are scupties, Perse's are regular prims. And the fact that my shoes are sculpted makes them a whole 9 ARC points higher than Perse's. That said, they're still pretty hard to beat as far as shoes go. For her outfit, Perse has gone a less complicated route than I, favouring comfortable casual simplicity, with a yummy use of colour, and as ever, great quality. I believe she even forsook her beloved prim pant cuffs. The real surprise for me came with her hair, Diversity's Brat, which clocked in at the same ARC as mine, 16, despite being rather more elaborate. So in this case, I am forced to bow to Perse's superiour low ARC-ing, due to my forgetting to take sculpts into account. Well done and fair play to you, lovely.

Of course, there are occasions where you don't care quite so desperately what you look like. Things like fairs and expos and extremely crowded hunts, where you're just another 'body', and everyone's mostly concentrating on trying to get textures to rez, or as was the case at the recent 7Seas Fishaversary, catching fish in a sim crammed to the gills (ba-dum-tchhhh) with people running fishing scripts. And that's when it pays to have a less lovely, but rather more streamlined outfit. Still staying clear of ninja skins...

Niv's 1 ARC outfit - The basis of this outfit is the skin. It's an Eloh mod I made around the time of Hair Fair last year. My original plan had been to edit it so that it would have a shaved head effect, I'm not scared of pulling a Britney, I just don't want to look so pedestrian as to have just plain taken my hair off and left it at that. Unfortunately, it turns out the reason there are so few skins with hair or stubble on the head is that it's extremely, incredibly difficult to do. Not that I'm any expert in these matters, but the seams, the boundries, and getting it all to look even...wow. Gave me a whole new type of respect for skinners who can pull it off. So instead, I modified my plan, and decided to tie it in with the system mohawk I had made some while ago during a craze for making Allegory Malaprop style 'hawks to make system hair a little more paletable, and added some colourful tattoos on the head, to match the overlong rainbow eyelashes and painted-on bindi I'd put on it for an effect of 'something'. The other thing here that most fashionistas wouldn't dream of wearing, and probably couldn't find in this day and age, is system boots. These were one of very first things I picked up when I started Second Life, almost two years ago, and have been trusty emergencywear since, they don't look too bad...as long as you don't look too hard, or from the side, or...POINT IS, I'm not barefoot here. With this, some clothes with buttloads of detail in the texture, like the jacket, and the jeans, and I've managed to throw together a look that actually almost is wearable in public, sort of. Also, I have once more outdone Perse!

So, yeah. Go low prim. It's not hard, it does help reduce at least your own lag and you get to feel a bit self-righteous about it while not actually looking too horrible. Mm.

Credits:

Persephone:

Skin- Curio Sundust- Breeze - Mauve Mist 2
Hair - Diversity Hair - Brat - Hershey Dipped
Shirt- Mayuki nozaki- Liru-Flower Dress- Camisole
Shrug- Silent Sparrow - Shurggie top - Sea
Jeans- Sn@tch - Moroccan Jeans(Blue)
Flats- Shiny Things - Ballet Flat - Black
Eye- Miriel - Violet Plant (Standard)

Nivaya 1:

Skin - Ashia Designs - Timeless 2009 Bushfire Appeal
Hair - Pudge - Bee-utiful Bee-Hive - Crayon Red (edited)
Corset - silentsparrow (special) luxe corset (alternate)
Jacket - Schadenfreude - Ghost Revenant Jacket - Open, Open Sleeves
Pants - Savvy? - Roslin Capris (underpant)
Belt - Pixeldolls - Black (Empress bottom, Dauphine top)
Shoes - Baby Monkey Classic Ballet Flats - Conker Brown
Eyes - Miriel - Marine (standard)
Manicure - CandyNail - Basic Nail - Silver

Nivaya 2:

Skin - selfmade - Bindi and rainbowlashes and tattoos skin (eloh mod)
Hair - selfmade - Niv System Mohawk
Shirt - ETD Striped Top (silver)
Jacket - Bare Rose - Chronicle Gray Jacket
Jeans - Fashionably Dead - Graffiti Jeans
Boots - Tall Boots black motif hip high (creator unknown, ancient freebie)
Nails and fingertape - SiniStyle Taped Fingers and Black Nails (index, middle, pinky)
Tattoo - TCinSHELTER ChainhartTattoo

Pose credits:

Pic 1: [LAP] Maxim Girls
Pic 2: [LAP] Cuteness (from Kewt as a Button set)
Pic 3: Hiccup - My Brain!
Pic 4, L to R: Schadenfreude - Eh, Piss Off; [LAP] She's Lethal (from Spice set)

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Gothic Barbie Blogger Challenge!

I can still remember the day I got my first Barbie doll. It's one of my earliest memories, in fact. Christmas 1987. I was 3 1/2 years old, and I ran to my mother's bed with my stocking, and eagerly started opening presents. One of the first things I opened was a ballerina Barbie outfit (omg this one!!). This puzzled me somewhat, there was surely some mistake, and I explained earnestly to my mother "It's lovely but...I don't have a Barbie...". She kindly explained to her vaguely condescending toddler that she was sure Father Christmas would have thought of that, and sure enough, some presents later, I was the proud owner of a My First Barbie, wearing a nice pink lycra and velcro-fastened ballet outfit. I'm told the first thing I did with her, as became my tradition with Barbies, was to take all her clothes off her. Some things never change. But at the risk of diving so deeply into the sentimental I could drown in pink syrup, from that moment on, Barbara Millicent Roberts (that's her name, you know. I read it in a book) became my lifelong friend and inspiration. Yes, I said inspiration. Originally, in the early days, Barbie was sold as just a doll, in a swimsuit. It was up to YOU to decide who she would be, how she would dress, she was a beautiful blank canvas. Although by the time I was a child, all this had fallen by the wayside somewhat, there were still ample opportunities to be inspired by her, and to make her your own. My the time I was a teenager, I had a hideously large collection of Barbies, in a big box (which was semi-legendary among friends and family and still remembered by them), which I still have, although most of them have been 'customized' in some way or another since. Like everyone, I cut their hair and coloured it in with marker pens, I gave them 'new makeup' (mostly with nail polish and a fine fine brush), put together 'interesting' outfits, and went out of my way to have a degree of diversity in them. Eventually my Barbie fandom gave way to online pixel dolls, kisekae, The Sims, and eventually Second Life. But sometimes, I treat myself to a new doll. Just to show that over 20 years on, with her approaching 50, I still love Barbie. My collection is worth roughly nothing in real money, but to me, it's pricelessly precious. It's a chronicle of my style, of how I used to play, it's mine, and that's the beauty of Barbie. She is what you make of her.

Of course, there are detractors out there who say she's a terrible role model, or, ohmyholyfrickin'gosh, her proportions are not that of a real woman, or that she's an airhead (/me cites the Malibu Stacey episode of the Simpsons that everyone seems to think proves their point, and says no more on the matter), but that's just it. She's only those things if you want her to be. People say "but Barbie's just all like, tanned and blonde and wearing pink and whatever, blech, how dumb", but, y'know what? Imagine you had some horribly shaped, flat-orangey skinned doll, with inflexible long blargh brown hair, wearing let's say, a lilac sweater and blue jeans...

Imagine what you could do with her if you tried...

So Anyway! The point in this post goes thusly! The Goth Barbie Challenge! As laid down by Akasha Divisadero here! So anyway, Barbie, just like you or I, can't go round changing her skin, eyes or shape at will, so it must be admitted that, if she suddenly decided to go goth, she'd have a slightly hard time at it with her California tan and smiling outlook. So I thought I'd go easy on her, transition her into the look gently. Barbie, especially nowadays, is especially familiar with the Princess look, and I've always wanted a good excuse to wear Schadenfreude's amazing Mephisto gown with the epic full skirt, it's always struck me as a sort of offbeat basic princess dress. As dedicated to her sunshine locks as she is, I find it hard to believe Barbie could commit to dying her hair fully black, so my Goth Barbie has her hair tipped, and adorned with pretty black roses. Makeup, would of course, be a problem. Taking inspiration from Achariya's post, I did the SL equivilant of taking a sharpie to her eyemakeup, and treated her to some overly dramatic prim lashes. And for a bold stab at pallour, I tinted some of Curio's AWESOME free (oh yeah!) prim blush to an ashy grey, to give the effect that Barbie at least tried to powder her face a bit. The Hunger's Forever tattoo fits the front of this dress almost as if it was made for it, Alienbear's Arachine earrings and necklace are Halloweeny enough to suit the casual or new goth perfectly, a simple spiked lip ring to make her feel all hardcore, and the last minute addition of some epic claws finish the look.

Happy 50th Birthday Barbie. I'll always love you, no matter what.

Credits:

Skin, shape, eyes: Complete Barbie Av from Dollicious Doll Skins
Hair: Calico Ingmann Creations - Juliette - Burnt Champagne
Dress: Schadenfreude - Mephisto - Silent
Necklace and Earrings: Alienbear - Arachine Spiders Dark Metal
Claws: GIANETTI - Nails & Melee Claws - Jet
Lip ring: Synthetic Memory - Lip Ring Spiky Steel
Lashes: Sky Everett Designs - Eyelash w/Dots
Tattoos: The Hunger - Forever

Pose Credits:

All by Long Awkward Pose
1st pic, left to right:
Cam Hor Too (from Drama Queen set)
The Shy One, and TeeHee, (from Sweetheart set)

2nd pic, left to right:
JewelryPose12 (from Eye Candy set)
Sunny (from Sweetheart set)

Thursday, March 5, 2009

The post ellantha Larsson doesn't want you to see! (due to modesty)

I can't in any good conscience claim to be a piercings afficionado. Having my ears pierced in RL triggered my having allergies to EVERYTHING, so I stopped there, and I'm not much better in SL. Although, that's for different reasons. When I started in SL, I had this freebie set of piercings that I thought was AWESOME. It was supersuper basic, just a bunch of little rings stuck to the face, but I wore the lip ring and eyebrow ring constantly with asymmetric pride. At some point I discovered that things like hats would knock them off, and then when I finally discovered prim eyelashes, and facelights, and all the other trappings of fashion (note: I don't wear facelights anymore), it was hasta la vista piercings, and I rarely looked back. Thing is, most piercings in Second Life are either too basic for me to want to forego my various facial attachments for, or too...well...too pointy. It doesn't really follow, to me, that if I want to put pixellated metal through my pixellated face, I should want to pixellated impale everyone within a 10 yard (pixellated) radius. Also named too technically. I'm a novice, I don't know what things are called! So, for the most part, I abstained from the piercings. As I have previously mentioned here, I have a creepy, almost stalkerish (if accidentally occasionally being at the same place at the same time as a person and then obsessively camming over and 'Inspecting' everything they're wearing counts as stalking, anyway) admiration for the personal style of Miss ellantha Larsson. Particularly intregued I was upon spotting her a few months ago by her piercings, which were delicate and original and at the same time hardcore and....piercingy. Upon inspection I discovered were self-made, and eagerly profile stalked in search of a store. Alas, there was none. That is until a month or so ago, when I spotted on the venerable Free*Style blog, a lip ring from a store named ::ellabella::. Could it be?! Ran there I did, and sure enough, ellantha had opened a store, and in it was the dollarbie Garnet Lovin' lip ring (on left in top left picture), a delicate jewelled double lip ring that looked almost like fangs, with a little triple-heart charm hanging down on one side, and a double chin piercing thingy (see, I told you I was no expert on what these things are called) which I snapped right up. Also to buy were the Skully Lip Chains (on the left in the second pic), an assortment of rings piercing the lower lip, linked together with a dainty chain, with a teeeny tiiiiny liiiiittle skull hanging from a chain on the one side. When I next visited the store to buy the Starry Lip Chains (top pic on the right), a less morbid version of the Skully ones, I spotted she'd set up a Subscribe-o-matic, and clicked it for all I was worth. A few days later a gift came through on it which made me SQUEAL! The Rainbow Ravin' set (second pic, right), which, as the notecard warned, required some adjusting to fit me properly, but is SO PRETTY! A single wide ring in the centre of the lip, dotted with four little brightly coloured, slightly glowing dots, and a rainbow star dangling from it, with fine diagonal double-rings on each side, plus a ring at the centre of the nose with a little blue ball captive, and then four little bindi-ish piercings between the eyes in matching colours to the ones on the lip ring. It only comes on the Nose attachment point, but this was easily something worth losing my eyelashes for! With it was a note of a new release, Cog Me, which is simple steampunky greatness, a triple lip ring set, with fine chains linking all three, and a little cog hanging from the middle, plus a plain nose ring. All ::ellabella:: piercing sets (apart from Rainbow Ravin') come on three attachment points, Chin, Mouth and Nose, which is epic win in itself, given my previous whines about my precious prim lashes. Out of the box, the metals are dark, but I've tinted mine a lighter colour apart from Cog Me. ::ellabella:: also has a shapes section, featuring some really beautiful, unique and quirky shapes. But I don't but shapes, so you'll have to take my word for it and go look. They're yummy.

Also for some reason I've been wearing this outfit for days, so I figured I should talk about it. Starting at the top with silentsparrow's Shruggie in Creme, which is the main thing I havn't taken off, I bought the uber pack, and want it melded onto my skin, plz. I'm a big fan of shrugs, in RL too, and this one just makes me happy in my pants. It's softly textured in a chenille sort of knit, and looks all soft and warm and yumcious, fastened at the front with dainty metal hooks and eyes, and with a nice chunky turtle-neck, and sculpted bell sleeves, striped in a way that reminds me delightfully of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. Underneath it is the cupcake tank from Elate!, an opening gift from her shiny new mainstore on the Cupcake sim (which I'm thoroughly in love with), which might just be up and running now, maybe, perhaps. Added to it, is Canimal's Lowrise Cargos, in the Boxer version cos I don't want everyone seeing my bottom, and Urban Bomb Unit's Pornstar Hi-Tops, which everyone should have.

::ellabella:: be's located at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Axis%20Mundi/207/116/23

Outfit Credits:

All pics:

Skin: Nomine - Sylvan - Ultralight - Vamp Brown
Eyes: Miriel - Marine (standard)
Lashes: Sin Skins - Tipped Fluff Lashes
Shrug: silentsparrow - Shruggie - Creme
Shirt: Elate! - Cupacke Tank
Pants: Canimal - Low Rise Cargos - Brown (boxers)
Shoes: Urban Bomb Unit - Pornstar Hi-Tops v2

Hairs, left to right:

ETD - Kiley - Fire (tinted)
/artilleri/ - Sabina II - Cinnamon
Gritty Kitty - Bubblegum - Red
Hiccup - Amelieish - Burgundy
Kin - Shai - Red

Monday, March 2, 2009

A Classy Collaboration




So the day before yesterday I begged my friend Nivaya to show me some new stores. So she takes me to what I knew as Saavy?. But now it seems that Twiggy Whippet and Dakota Buck have gotten together to form a new Shop appropriately called... Whippet & Buck

This shop is still in the Imogen Sim and you can still find the lovely pieces that set Savvy? apart. At this time I don't know if or when these great outfits will be retired so I suggest heading out there as soon as possible. Especially since they are marked down to amazingly low prices.

These pics feature a dress in which the proceeds go to the Australian Relief Fund.

Here we have the Bardot Tartan Tube Dress in Electric Cyan. I tried really hard to make this a bit funkier looking so relied on Nivaya once again for her opinion as I dragged Jewelry and shoes out of my inventory...Bless Her! The plaid is matched up very well and I love the detail in the back as well.





I very much look forward to future designs from Whippet & Buck so keep your eyes open and your bank full of Lindens.

Dress: Bardot Tartan Tube Dress in Electric Cyan from Whippet & Buck
Shoes: Grace Shoes in Black by Maitreya
Skin: 118 Free Skin in Tan from [42]
Hair: Starley II in Chestnut from ETD
Nail: Pink Nails- Persona
Necklace Heart Chain Necklace (silver/Pink) by Juicy (hunt gift)
Bracelet: Gift Charm Bracelet in Silver & Pink by Juicy
Earring: Celeste Earring (pink) by Second Mirage