Silentsparrow Month! Day 17 - The Great Olympio!

I should start this post by saying that I have not been watching the Winter Olympics. Neither did I watch the Summer Olympics. Ever. All too much like sport, for my tastes. Although, Curling is ridiculous enough to be mildly fun to look at for a few minutes. I'm sure my stance won't change when the Olympics hit my fair shores in a couple of years, either. Here is what I know about this year's Winter Olympics. They're in Canada, some guy tragically died, and Canada finally won a medal of some sort for something. I also know they involve doing cold sporty things like skiing, ice hockey, sledding, team snowball fights, shivering marathons, that sort of thing. Oh and ice skating! And the only thing I know about figure skaters are that Torvill and Dean existed some time before I was born, and still slide around grinning on occasion for national entertainment, and there was that girl with the knee-smashing that one time. And that I went ice skating once and fell down much much less than expected. Then I went a second time and made up for it by making a whole chain of people fall down, so that was okay. I'm graceful! Regardless of all my ignorance, today, I am an accidental ice skater, and rather proud I am of the look, too!

While colours can be found in abundance at silentsparrow, slapping in the face those who claim goths only wear black, there is one colour that's rather *ha ha* thin on the ground. Other than yellow, that is. And that colour is White. (which is why I...ha'd...because the snow outside...is...white and and...on the...ground? :D? Eh, fine.) Anyway, there are very few white silentsparrow outfits, only one truly white one that I can think of, and, I am not wearing any part of that one! So, onto what I am wearing. The tutu skirt and upper, wide highwaist belt of my outfit is from the wonderfully springlike Fleur dress, with white highlights and patterning, which I discovered by happy coincidence when I was looking for something blue to wear with what I had originally intended to blog today. The funny thing is, I had just before been talking to hya about texture belts, a few minutes previously, and had completely forgotten Fleur had such a thing. But as you can see, it does. Yay! Underneath that, I am wearing the bodice from the Lottie Ballgown Suite, in Sterling, which is also pretty white, but I consider it more a silver colour. It has gorgeous fleur-de-lis type patterning on it, and a nice lace detail at the bustline. Underneath THAT, I am wearing the undershirt from How We Quit the Forest, which, see, I said was totally useful in all sorts of situations. My piercings are another set from Ellabella, I can't stress enough how awesome and original and simply beautiful Ellantha Larsson's work is, this set has, among other things, a teeeeny tiiiiiiiiiny little rose hanging off it. My necklace is another case of my boring adage of "good primwork etc etc", it's an early Schadenfreude piece, and still looks all sorts of fantastic. And my marvellously elegant skates are by Bax Coen, which have the same glorious styling as her super sexy ankle boots, but in a skate! Hooray!

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Curio - Cupid - Moonbeam Frex [dark] - Bouquet 1
Hair: Calico - Hannah - Blood
Big Wide Belt, tutu skirt: silentsparrow - Fleur - Ash
Bodice: silentsparrow - Lottie Ballgown Suite - Sterling
Undershirt: silentsparrow - How We Quit the Forest - Ash
Necklace: Schadenfreude - Alcmund
Piercing: ellabella - A Rose By Any Other Name (silver)
Skates: Bax Coen - BAX Ice Skate White Patent
Ears: Balderdash&Schadenfreude - Etherial Fey Ears

Silentsparrow Month! Day 13 - Like a Balloon and - something bad happens!

At first glance, you might think I dressed in the dark today, maybe at a rave. I wouldn't go so far as to say you'd be forgiven for thinking that, because really, that's quite a rude thing to say. On the other hand, I'm a pretty forgiving person, so you might be in luck. But rather than take that chance, you should first hear my inspiration. My muse, my motivation, my REASON. It's an excuse, you'll find, but a decent enough one. I just watched the Pixar movie Up. Now, first things first, Pixar movies always leave me an emotional wreck, and Up was, oh my, no exception, I was bawling in the first few minutes, and at several later points, although, I am admittedly a huge softie. But they don't normally get to me that quickly! Which is the first part of my excuse. Heartstrings tugged all out of shape. The reason this has any relevance, though (not that most of my babble is even remotely relevant, I know) is because BALLOONS. Millions and billions of beautiful colourful ballooooons. When my husband first visited me, for some reason, he had got it into his head that he was going to buy me a balloon. I don't know why, probably something to do with me being adorable, or maybe because of the balloons we picked up in Second Life when we were new. But he was determined to get me a balloon. He didn't, in the end, but it's still a nice, gently romantic thought. One of the reasons for this is, unless it's for some sort of stunt, you never see big big bunches of helium-filled regular balloons these days, only the foil ones, and that's sad because there's little so cheering to see as a big huge bunch of coloured balloons, all translucent and bright and jostling with each other up in the sky. I only do bright colours in one of two ways - Offset by a lot of black, or alllll the colours, mashed up together in a kind of rainbow mess. And that, in a long-winded, rambley way, is my excuse for how I am dressed today.

Inspired as I was by a rainbow of balloons, my outfit was built around the most difficult-to-find colour in the world of silentsparrow. That colour is yellow (it also barely exists in the world of Schadenfreude). My favourite thing in the tiny tiny range of yellow silentsparrow things is the Hedgies Ribbed Tank Top. These tanks were released to go with the Pajammies II sets of....wait for it? Jammies! all of which feature supercute hyadrawn artwork of various favourite creatures. Each pack of the tank includes two variations, the Ribbed Tank, which has just the one large image in the middle, and the regular version, which is patterned with them, and closet yellow fans, this is the yellowest thing you ever did see! With it I'm wearing the Gloomy Kilt in Lust. I adore the dual lengths of this skirt, as well as the Burtonesque swirlies at the hem. Looking to my rear, you'll see the Sparkle Sparkle Bum Bow, a relic of last year's Starlust Unicorn Wars, which is still available to buy in the Starlust Motel lobby, sitting on a rather fetching rainbow unicorn table. Also at the back, the gorgeously delicate Lysander wings, made of wire and glass and light, they can be got in a single colour from buying the Lysander Suit (my husband lived in it for months) or with a very lovely colour change HUD on their own. The HUD allows you to change the metal of the frames, and the wings themselves. My armwarmers aren't available anymore, they were part of Stumblebum Brigade in December, however, you can still get them in zillions of colourways with cute artwork on them, they are the Knitty Armwarmers. And hello Sailor! My delightfully retro Birdie tattoos come in packs of two colourways, and adorn the torso, arms, hands and hips. My piercings, by the way, are another set from Ellabella, and are awesomepretty and feed my craving for rainbowy stuff. So, see, it sort of makes more sense now, right?

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Curio - Cupid 2 - Moonbeam Frex [Dark] - Flirt 1
Hair: Calico - Luna - Dark Blood
Top: silentsparrow - Tank Top - Hedgies (ribbed)
Skirt: silentsparrow - Gloomy Kilt - Lust
Wings: silentsparrow - Lysander Wings
Bum Bow: silentsparrow - Sparkle Sparkle Bum Bow
Tattoos: silentsparrow - Birdie Tattoos - Berry
Armwarmers: silentsparrow - Ellies Armwarmers
Shoes: Baby Monkey - Ultimate - Rainbow for Haiti
Piercings: ellabella - No Rain Here (full)

Silentsparrow Month! Day 8 - Gloves and Sprockets

Right now I'm listening to Richard Cheese's version of Only Happy When it Rains. It cheers me, but it made it very hard to not to name this something to do with rain. To compensate for this, I took an extra picture, think yourself lucky I stopped at that and didn't redo ALL the pictures, as I was tempted to, but then laziness prevailed, as it so often does with me. Look at me with my umbrella. It's raining. I don't look that happy though, I look perturbed more than anything. Maybe because the rain is coming FROM my umbrella. At least here, the rain is coming from the sky, it's penetrated my soul somewhat, I dressed my PoupeeGirl in rainwear today too. It's a nice umbrella though. I got it from the Gatcha festival at Albero in October.

To more sparrow-y matters, though! Today I am sporting either things that grabbed my love instantly, or took a while for me to warm up to but have captured my heart. It's a theme! First off, the skirt. The skirt is from the Toxine Suite. I waited with immense excitement for the Toxine Suite to be released, after falling head over heels with the Suit version. But at the time, we twittery birds were in a Suite drought, because hya, Allegory and Draconic Lioncourt of Draconic Kiss were having a fashion show, and all the Suites to match suits were being released then. When the day of the show came, I bought some L$. Due to lag, I bought some L$ three times. It's the only time I've had over 10k in Second Life. I had no problems spending it though, I never do. and that's the reason why. But anyway. Toxine. I don't do steampunk well, but I love the aesthetic of it. Cogs and sprockets and rust and love. Toxine has all these things, and the Cocoa version is, in my opinion, something special. I've always loved the look of verdigris, the contrast in the brown and the blue, and the Cocoa Toxine liek, totally has that! I've also spent countless hours trying to catch all the Toxine Swim Suites at the silentsparrow fishing spot. I like Toxine. Oh and check out the stunning tattoo that comes with it! Subtle at the front, elaborate at the back. Yay!
Onto something released at roughly the same time which for a long time I managed to resist. My top is from How We Quit the Forest, a dress everyone seemed to love but me, I didn't like the skirt. I felt quite left out. And so should I have, I was wrong! When I finally cracked and bought it, it was for the armwarmers, I'm a fiend for armwarmers, in SL and RL, my arms, they're shy and chilly creatures. But when I actually looked at what was in there, I realized what a fool I had been. For a start, the 3/4 sleeve undershirt with it is totally invaluable. And look at the beautiful antique lace shirt. I now love How We Quit the Forest, it feels nice to be right.
Over it, I'm wearing the corset from the recent Datura set, bloomers from which I wore in yesterday's post, in a different colour. The Mint Datura corset has a similar verdigris effect to it on the aged brocade, and is terribly, terribly pretty. Datura gets to go in the Love at First Sight column. Finally, back to the slow-burning category, my gloves. Oh, my gloves. They are from the Nemu suit, which was released at a time I was out of SL, dutifully bought one of when I got back, and never really looked at. It wasn't until last week when I was checking out the Suit Sale (finishes tomorrow!) that something caught my eye as I was peering round in a buying frenzy. I'm such a nerd. Gloves. Fingerless gloves. With BUTTONS. They're like spats for the hands! I used to have gloves like that in real life! Vintage, thin brown suede, I wore them until they fell apart, and fall apart they did. But these, these will live forever, or at least until whatever it is at any given time people are saying will be THE END OF SL turns out to be the case. Which will never happen. Turns out the suit I never really looked at is beautiful, too. WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED IT?
So anyway, rather more rambley than usual, I suggest you go YouTube Richard Cheese's version of I'm Only Happy When it Rains. It's lovely.

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Nomine - Primrose - Virgin - Blush
Hair: Calico - Caitlynn - Blood
Shirt: silentsparrow - How We Quit the Forest - Red
Corset: silentsparrow - Datura - Mint
Skirt: silentsparrow - Toxine Suite - Cocoa
Gloves: silentsparrow - Nemu Suit - Sepia
Boots (pic 1): ETD - Rain Boots - Seafoam Daisies
Boots (pic 2): Tesla - Ziggy - Heaven
Necklace: Shiny Things - Copper Industrial Necklace
Umbrella: Weather! Or Not? - Rainbrella
Tattoo: silentsparrow - Toxine - Red
Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears - Plugs

Silentsparrow Month! Day 2 - Greenback

It used to be that I'd just 'collect' silentsparrow clothing. I'd love it, buy it, wear it once, and then it would be carefully filed away in a maze of subfolders in the depths of my inventory. And that made me sad. But then, a flash of the obvious struck me! I could wear this top with those pants, and hey presto! Repeat wearability! Of course, as a longtime reader of Closet Crisis, I was not only aware of (and a devout believer in) making one's own outfits from pieces, but also that silentsparrow pieces could be used. It just seemed somehow naughty to do it with the lovely sets from silentsparrow. What if the patterns clash?! What if I DO IT WRONG?! For those of you who don't know, hyasynth Tiramisu already does a wonderful job of mashing up her outfits for her lucky chair sets and group gifts (by the way, join the group, 250L join fee, SO worth it), so who was I to argue?
But I was being SILLY. Silly silly silly Niv. Because it turns out, hya's clothes are a DELIGHT to mix n' match. It's now my everyday style of dress, rare is the day I'm not sporting some 'sparrow. You're not limited to wandering around in vampiric splendour with silentsparrow, break up the suits and suites and you can look individual and wonderful. Individual JUST LIKE ME *ahem*.

Today I bring you a limey look. Silentsparrow colours are generally consistent between outfits, so you've always got a great chance of shades from multiple outfits going together well. The base of my outfit is the Luxe Corsetm which is incredibly versatile, and manages to be basic at first glance and wonderfully opulent on closer inspection, with gorgeous sexy lacing at the back, and the Gutter Glitter Lolita skirt. I am a sucker for patchwork, and subtle patchwork even more. As you can see in the closeup picture, Gutter Glitter is adorned with a multitude of sewn-on details, moons, stars, buttons, hearts and patches. It's REALLY CUTE. To brighten things up, I've thrown on one of the Cropped Kurai jackets, I adore the spirally patterns of the Kurai suit, and the tiny tails at mid-back make me feel oddly fancy and a little like an RPG military cadet or something. An Ankhy one. The outfit still needed "something" and that "something" was a bum bow. When hya released the bum bows last year iwasalllike Whaaaaaa?! but I've found they can finish any outfit with a girly girly GIRLY flourish. Each pack of Bum Bows features three patterns to match various suites/suits, and comes on multiple attachment points, for those of you with tails of non-standard skirts or...or if you wanted to wear three at once? And because it's still wintery, stockings from the Lottie suite. If you happened to look up my skirt, I'd disapprove and possibly yell at you, but you would also see that the top of the semi-sheer stockings are lime green too. And as for the patterns clashing? They don't. They coordinate. :D

Outfit Credits

Skin: Curio - June - Moonbeam Frex [Dark] - Pure 1
Hair: Calico Ingmann Creations - Megan - Blood
Top: silentsparrow - Luxe Corset - ash (alternate)
Skirt: silentsparrow - Gutter Glitter - Lolita - Gloom
Jacket: silentsparrow - Kurai Cropped Jacket - Lime
Stockings: silentsparrow - Lottie Stockings - Lime
Shoes: Shiny Things - MaryGeos - Spring Green

Perfect Vlintuition!

When I logged in this morning I had received a notecard from the Vlintuition Subscriber. Designer and owner Vlinder Reitveld is hosting a Happy Songkran Sale. The Songkran Festival is the Thai New Year Celebration. (Yeah I had to Google it).

To Celebrate Vlinder has marked down all her items to 100L or Less! Vlinder was my first taste of Ethnic Clothing in SL.. She has created traditional yet sexy outfits from India to Thailand to Korea.

You know me I can't resist and sale and the fact that I had just finished watching a show with a India/Hindi Inspired Wedding my first selection was her Sculpted Sari.

Finally I got to use my [LAP] Bolly all the time poses! The Sari comes with 4 choices of tops, the Sandals and the bindi/eye jewels. She has the jewels attached to the nose so I edited to attach to chin due to my lashes.




Though here you see me in a pink and black sari she has several textures and colors to choose from including the tradtional Red and Gold for weddings. Plus this is only one of many style variations she has


She also has a couple of great outfits for men! Here I got the Churidar in Green for Davey. I love the fact he lets me dress him!




The men's outfit come complete with sandals as well. These sandal for for a size 35 foot and are no mod. So men will have to alter their foot shape to get the right look. I also had to stretch the scarf .

Lastly is the Enchantress gown. Not so much an Ethnic Feel, but is a beautiful gown that comes with 3 skirt options, stockings, Gloves etc. Not to mention plenty of texture/colors to choose from. Since the gloves and the socks had the same texture I decided to mix it up a bit to give this Springtime gown a bit of Umph.



Paired with the long gloves from Sn@tch and jewelry from Alienbear I am ready for a night out on the town. Just don't ask me to walk too quickly in this tight skirt. *winks*

This Sale is only till April 15, 2009 so don't wait to long!

As usual store links are throughout the blog in BOLD Script.

Have a great weekend!


Look 1

Vlintuition Sculpted/Flexi Designer Sari (Pink and Black)
Includes 4 tops options, bindi and sandals
Hair ETD - Bonita - Black (Freebie)
Skin Curio :GP: Sundust [dark] Pin Up-Starlet 1
Lashes and Eyes: Miriel Eyes- Smoky Quartz
Jewelry: Analise *tal* Bangle Hoops and Earrings (Comes with Meela Silks Outfit)
Pose from [LAP] Bolly all the Time Pose Set

Look 2 (Davey)

Vlintuition: Men's Churidar Kurta Suit - Moss
Includes Sandal (size 35 foot)
Skin: Belleza - Ewan - Vain Grid wide Kissed Hunt
Eyes: Miriel - Standard Eyes - Earth (free)
Hair: Calico Creations - Romeo - Dark Midnight (Kissed Hunt Gift)
Pose: FallnAngel Creations -Falln God Stand 2


Look 3

Vlintuition: Enchantress (Violet Bouquet)
Skin: Curio :GP: Sundust [light] Pin Up-Cats Pajamas 1
Jewelry: Alienbear - Princess Felicity Set - White
Shoes: Zhao - Chelle - Silver
Hair: ETD - Aiiyana - Chestnut
Gloves: Sn@tch Long Purple Gloves
Pose: [LAP] Female Blogger set (system skirt)

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)

Brand Addiction: silent sparrow

One of my biggest inventory folders in SL (and I have a LOT, my inventory is an unweildly sort of place) is that of silent sparrow. I have a severe compulsion to the works of hyasynth Tiramisu. It's not the cheapest of addictions, but heavens, it's worth it, and keeps me out of blowing all my money in gin parlours, or something. When I decided to devote a post to one of my favourite designers, my head span somewhat. What to wear? No, seriously. WHAT TO WEAR?!?! I estimate that I've bought at least 70% of the products in her store in at least one colour. And if it's less than that, I've got some shopping to do! When people think of silent sparrow, I think the first thing that springs to mind are the gorgeous suits and gowns hyasynth makes, with their hypnotic hand-drawn textures, luscious contrasts of black and jewel tones, and a deeply romantic gothic bent. And so, being as I am, I decided in the end to show some of her less-travelled gems.

Raies Suite

The very first thing I bought from silent sparrow was the raies suite, back in the mists of time somewhere in 2007. I forgot how I discovered the store in my wanderings, but the instant I walked in, I was hooked, by the beautiful ramshackle house and overgrown garden of the build, by the atmospheric lighting, and oh...by the amazing clothes. All of it was like nothing I'd ever encountered before in SL, despite my haunting of 'goth' shops, and I wanted it all . The only downside was, I couldn't afford anything in there on my 10L$ an hour dancer's wage. I left, sadly, but never forgot it. Generous tipping enabled me to save up a little, and one day, I crept back into the store with the intent to buy SOMETHING. Anything. I just needed it. I must have agonized for about an hour, wearing a path in the floor as I wandered round the store until I decided. The raies suite, with it's serious pinstripes, sexy buckles and straps, and dainty demi-skirt. That was the outfit for me. It remains one of my favourites to this day. As do a lot of older silent sparrow outfits. The style just doesn't age, the amazing texture work keeps getting more and more amazing, but it started out from a pretty damn amazing base. hyasynth's older outfits are NOT to be overlooked. Really. They're amazing.

Meat Cake

Okay, what's NOT to love about Meat Cake? Shown to the right in Buttercream, this dress makes me hungry just looking at it. But first...look at it! The style of it is so delightful in itself, bringing to mind innocent days in the former half of the last century, with it's sweet little v-neck bolero jacket, and vintage pastel tea-dress stylings (the skirt comes in two lengths, for if you want to be even more demure), dainty little short gloves, and delicately patterned stockings. And the pattern? Could it be flowers? Butterflies? No. Why, it's meat, of course! Delicious meat! Chops, and drumsticks, and bacon, and, I think I even see some ham in there! It's like being in some wonderful 1950s Meat Advisory Council promotion. I deeply love that sort of thing. See how happy I am in that picture? In my dress, with my meat? (meat courtesy of Tableau). That's history working it's magic, right there!

RoseNoir Limited Edition (#29, in my case)

hyasynth's limited editions are legendary. Or at least, if they're not, they bloody well should be. *stubborn face*. You see, when there is a silent sparrow limited edition release, it's not just a pile of boxes in a store, it's an EVENT. A hunt. A hunt in the truest sense of the word, free of cheat sheets, asking for help, and all the standard trappings of the modern Second Life treasure hunt. In waves, to compensate for global time-differences, small batches of strictly limited-edition colours of a recently released outfit are put out, some of which totalling to only 25, and then the hunt is on to buy these rare, beautiful outfits, packaged in animals, in the case of the most recent, spikey hedgepigs. Proudly I can report that I bought the full set, the Noir sets being close to my heart as I had the greatest honour of being in the store ad for the unlimited version, RougeNoir. It's one of hyasynth's most versitile sets, and the colours pop against the black lines making the patterns look like light shining through bold stained glass.

silent sparrow is for Life, not just for Gothmas!

Because hyasynth's style can't really be categorized, 'gothic' could never capture the scope of her work. And it's amazing fun to mix up into other outfits, too. My personal favourite mashup of entirely silent sparrow clothes was worn by ellantha Larsson at a silent sparrow party (my god I love those parties) once, where most of us seemingly used some kind of group ESP and wore purple, and ellantha fitted something together using parts I would never have thought of, to create a look I became thoroughly obsessed with. I bought all the outfits she used in her look, and have had endless joy with them. This picture is NOT that look. It lives forever jealously guarded in my mind, as an illustration of how versitile everything from silent sparrow can be if you care enough to admire all the pieces individually for the work of art that each part is. (speaking of art, you can buy SL copies of RL art by hyasynth, Jessica Ornitz and Aimee Weber at silent sparrow, which I highly recommend doing, cos, well, wow). My yummy casual look is comprised of silent sparrow's Snug Cardigan in Lime, jeans from Ryou in Dove, Fond Affections Bustier in Silver, tattoo from the Fog Limited Edition Devana set, and my feathered friends are Possum in Grape, on my hand, and Cloudy Possum on my shoulder, a SuperUltraRare custom fishing prize at the silent sparrow sim. Which you should visit anyway, because it's breathtakingly gorgeous.

My point in this epic post is this: silent sparrow rules. You should shop there.

A Tribue to Persephone

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

Evie's Closet gives Saiyge Advice!

One of my Favorite places to shop for Elegant Fantasy Gowns is Evie's Closet. Every time a new gown comes out I am there buying it. Evangeline Miles, the designer behind Evie's Closet is a very sweet and generous person and has, I think, the best group tag ever: "Be Enchanted by"

Recently she had a Photo Contest. The requirements was to dress in her new gown Saiyge and have the pic taken at the Sim Oubliette. This is where here main store is located. If you get a chance this sim is a beautiful place to visit. I did take some pics for the contest, however, I took to long and missed the deadline. (seeing the entries, I didn't have a snowballs chance *grins* )



The Saiyge gown is a lovely flowing gown with a small train (pictured here is the gown in Ocean). She has included 2 sizes of sleeves as well which mean little or no modifying to fit. My favorite part is the flower wreath for the hair. She makes the best I ever have seen and I keep trying to convince her to sell them in fat packs.


Voting is still underway for the Photo Contest, so if you have time stop by and see the lovely works of art at these contest entries are and vote!

Publish Post

Dress/Gown: Saiyge in Ocean - Evie's Closet
Hair: Sadie in Dark Chocolate - Calico Creations
Skin: Takako 008 (Have Fun) - Lazolli (may still be free.)