Swimsuit Edition?

You might think that my avatar looks a little awkward in a swimsuit, and you'd be right in thinking that. Thing is, I never let her wear one! I never let me wear one, but that's for quite different reasons. Niv never gets to wear swimsuits because she's rarely in a swimsuit-needing scenario. Not the type to hang out on beaches, rarely part of the pool party and hottub set, although, I do have a particularly nice kiddie pool out where I keep my bunnies. But right now, it's hot here (by UK coastal standards...I'm sure most of the world would consider it fairly brisk for July) and while I'm flopping around in front of electric fans, drinking gallons of ice water, and spraying myself with overpriced aerosol cans of water, I figured I should let my avatar have an easier time of things, in this gorgeous new bikini from Adam n Eve. There is of course the slight issue of Niv's pale, pale skin to take into account, but fortunately, dweeb that I am, I keep a folder labelled "Summer Skins", for just this type of occasion, glowing and lightly golden, like I've taken a bath in self-tan, and rolled around in some bronzer to dry myself off. If only real life were so simple.

The skin I've picked out to wear today is my most recent "summer skin" acquisition, from I C COCO. When Persephone first saw me in it, she was startled at how much darker it was than my usual skins, but I couldn't resist how incredibly cute the face was, and the genuinely healthy-looking glow it had to it. I say the face was cute, but I must confess, I had to tweak my shape quite a lot to keep from looking rather goofy. But when it was done, it was worth it. The skin features full, innocent-looking lips, and delicate freckles over the nose, and I'm all about the freckles, as readers may have noticed. I'm also fond of the wispy, natural looking eyebrows, and the rosy cheeks. So it was the perfect compliment for my new bikini!
I've been on rather a yellow kick lately, so this Ringed Bikini in Lemon, from Adam n Eve was a buttery delight to me. The top is a sexy strapless bandeau, shaped at the centre with a white ring, and gathered to a straight clasp at the back. The shading on the folds is soft and immaculate. The bottoms are scanty little bikini bottoms, low cut and skimpy at the front, and high-cut and pleasantly butt-bearing at the back (the I C COCO skins have excellent butt shading, quite showoffable). For the shy/modest/slightly prudish amongst you, the Ringed Bikini also comes with this stylish little wrap. Sculpted and ever so slightly sheer, it drapes over the hips and helps one feel just a little less exposed, without straying into the realms of frumpy. Overall, a very elegant, but all the same, very sexy beach ensemble.
With it, I'm wearing silentsparrow's belladonna:lepidoptera tattoos, in bluesky, it must be an ADHD thing, but when I see a smooth canvas of pixelflesh, I have an overwhelming need to cover it in swirly patterns. And, it would seem, moths. It's for this reason that I'll probably never be a good housepainter. My adorable necklace is by Lazy Places, from the current Gatcha festival going on at Albero, I'm such a sucker for Gatcha thingies, my goodness. My hair is shiny and new from Magika, Sally, it's called, and I was drawn to its epic quiffiness. And the astute among you may have noticed that I am not wearing my usual Schadenfreude ears, but instead, SLink ears, which I don't wear nearly enough, they're really very lovely, and I am wearing now for reasons of laziness (one of the preset skintones for them is acceptably similar to this skin, likewise, the pretty feet!)

Adam n Eve's Ringed Bikini also comes in Pink, Blue, Green, Black and Purple, so even if you're one of those who refuses to acknowledge the existence of the colour yellow (and I know a few!) there's no excuse for not checking them out!

Outfit Credits:

Skin: I C COCO - Scarlett 21 - Freckles
Hair: Magika - Sally - Wild: Red
Bikini: Adam n Eve - Ringed Bikini - Lemon
Tattoos: silentsparrow - belladonna:lepidoptera - bluesky
Feet: SLink - Jolie Pied Barefoot - Medium
Ears: SLink - Sachara Ears with Studio Sidhe Kaleidoscope Earrings
Necklace: Lazy Places - Cute As A...necklace from Albero Gatcha fest

Silentsparrow Month! Day 26 - Niv The Desk Potato

Christmas came late today! I'd been given a cheque last Christmas and with it, we decided we would buy WiiFit Plus. However, of course, it being just after Christmas, there was what was described woefully by the people in the various game shops as a "worldwide shortage" of the balance boards. But today, that shortage ended! Or, maybe some days ago, I dunno. Point is, at lunch time today my husband came in proudly bearing an enormous bag from Game, and as a direct result of this, I have spent the majority of this afternoon variously wobbling across tightropes, hoola-ing hoops, and running around after cats, among other adventures. Being quite the desk potato (I don't watch much TV, but gosh do I ever have a healthy monitor tan), I am now pleasantly tired and mildly sore. I choose to also attribute this in part to how badly attired I was for the whole affair. I have a tendency to wear trousers that are at least two inches too long for me, which means I was constantly stepping on my hems and stumbling and being a perfectionist and having to start all over again. Another downside to my adorable style of RL dress is that when it rains, I get very very wet. But that's another story. Anyway, due to this, I have come to resent my trousers today, and chose to dress Niv in something a bit more sporty. Being, of course, lazy as I am, I have done it wrong. And here it the result!

Of course, it's quite hard to find "sporty" clothes in even the most extensive silentsparrow wardrobe, it's somewhat the antithesis of what hya does. So I lamed out, and went for SHORTS. These happy plaid shorts are from the Cuttles outfit, from whose sibling sets I've worn some stuff in older posts (WOW that was an awkwardly written sentence). It's not shown so well in my pics, but the cuffs of these are very cute, lightly scalloped, and all sorts of orange. My T-shirt is another delight from the Bird of Randomness in the silentsparrow courtyard, the larger of the two birds, for this one. It's the Deep Sea Creatures t-shirt, again in a shade of purple I really, really like. I also have particular fondness for the artwork, I had it as my desktop for a while after hya posted the pic on Plurk. With a big border of black around it. Very deep-sea-ish. And look! A little seahorsey sneaked round the back. Small things amuse me. My socks came from a semi-fruitless search for lower-leg wear that wasn't stockings OR plain dress socks. In the end I settled for the (frost) Wrath Stockings from a group gift that is no longer available. Sorry! But to dress them up, I veered into my daring "Not silentsparrow" category, and throw on these adorable legwarmers from Concrete Flowers. Look! They have carrots and bunnies on them and don't really go with the rest of the outfit! :D That's just how cool I am.

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Nomine - Primrose - Virgin - Oil (red)
Hair: Magika - Neat - Red C
T-shirt: silentsparrow - T-shirt of Random #12 - Deep Sea Creatures Tee
Shorts: silentsparrow - Cuttles!
Stockings: silentsparrow - Wrath Suite Stockings - Frost (Frost Group Gift)
Legwarmers: Concrete Flowers - Carrots Legwarmer
Sneakers: In Her Shoes - Dirty Denim Sneakers
Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears - Spiral Horns

Silentsparrow Month! Day 25 - In which Niv cowers

Cowers and whimpers. From thunderstorms! Of which there is one going on outside now. The silly thing is, I like thunderstorms. Lightning is very pretty! Thunder is dramatic and noisy! I like rain! But, whenever I see a flash of lightning, I jump out of my skin, and when I hear a rumble of thunder, I gibber like a...grown woman who is scared of thunder. My husband seems to like it though, gives him an excuse to be clung to. So, there is that. It gives me an excuse to wear this skin, all pale and pink cheeked. So really, thunderstorms are made of excuses. And so am I, all the time, so maybe I'm a thunderstorm! Maybe that's why I'm scared of them. Maybe I'm really scared of MYSELF! Ooh, that's deeeep, maaan. I think I ate too much tiramisu after dinner and confused myself.

So onto my clothing! Before my head explodes! I started out by wanting to wear the wonderful, sculpted Kurai Tart miniskirt, but without my bottom showing. I'm shy about my bottom outside of summer. What if I sat on something cold?! *shudder* So, of course, I needed something under it. Something bloomery. I went to my most favourite fallbacks in the area of bloomers, Datura, this time in Dusk. I simply adore this shade of purple, deep and bluey and mysterious and pretty, with the same lovely details of the other Datura bloomers, soft velvetty texturing, with a shiny ribbbon and lace hems. Paired with the Kurai skirt, it looks pleasantly like a dancing warmup sort of outfit. The next part of it is brought to you by the magic of OPTICAL ILLUSIONS. It is in fact the famous Chapiteau Henley, worn under the Datura corset that matches the bloomers, but by wonderful squinting, it really rather resembles a shrug worn over a very very fancy and pretty tank. It's awesome of me to do. From the back view, you can see the cute raggedy details of the Henley, as well as the beautiful ribbon on the back of the corset. And see how daring I am, showing off my hips like that! The shoes I'm wearing, I WON! from the Random Prize Bird at the Rookery, they are the First Flower Hemlock shoes, which I've worn on the blog before, in Sapphire Blue, and I simply adore the shape of them. They're cute and flirty and sexy at once, and I'm a sucker for a well-done ankle strap. Oh, I'm also wearing the Goth version of Violet Voltaire's Doll Face necklace, which has gathered equal amounts of comments along the lines of "Awesome!" and "Creepy!". Both are good in my book. Also, I like it when I get called dollface, in a 50s sort of way. I think it's charming. Try it out on me!

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Curio - Moonbeam Frex [Light] - Winter - Pure 2
Hair: Magika - Sneaky - Red E
Top: silentsparrow - Datura - Dusk
Undertop: silentsparrow - Chapiteau Henley - Ash
Skirt: silentsparrow - Kurai Tart - Ash
Bloomers: silentsparrow - Datura - Dusk
Shoes: First Flower - Hemlock - Sapphire Blue
Necklace: Violet Voltaire - Doll Face - Goth
Ears (just visible): Schadenfreude - Fey Ears - Spiral Horns

Silentsparrow Month! Day 24 - Limey

The other day at the Rookery, we were discussing the colours we wear least. A few people, Achariya, Persephone, said perhaps green for them. And I thought to myself "Hah! How silly! I would never wear green not-much, green is my favourite colour!" (as, it is). But then I realized, I actually wear surprisingly little in the way of Lime Green. And lime green is the green hya does most! My taste in green is more a dark, hunter green sort of shade. That's not to say I don't like lime green! I do. Just whenever I put it on, it contrasts too much with the black it's paired with, and I go "ouch, that's too bright". Which somewhat goes to show, that gothwear isn't all black, indeed, it has a lot of bright colours, like sunlight coming through a stained glass window. And what's more gothic than stained glass? Ooh, ooh, stained glass bats! I want those now. Stained glass bats.

Given my relative lack of bright green-wearing, I'm wearing something I'm not sure I've actually worn before since buying it. Also because I'm not much of a long-shirt person. But today, I felt like wearing a long shirt! And so I am! This is the Skullyrock shirt, which I'm thinking might not be available anymore, but, I might be mistaken. It's a yummy western style shirt, brimming over with details, lacing at the front and the back, pointed breast pockets, and a light mayan-like skull detailing over the top part. I enjoy the way that there's a tiny bit of belly showing at the opening at the bottom, given that my pants are tastefully low-riding. My pants are the Lime Gloomy pants, which have lime green stitching down the side, and the gorgeous swirly Gloomy pattern creeping up to mid-calf. It's a very simple outfit, but I think that paired with my Sentou Yousai cowboy boots, it all works very well. I'm also wearing another one of my beloved Ellabella piercings. This one is Gemmed Bites: Steamed, and as the name might suggest, it's happily steampunk themed, with a little verdigris cog hanging from it, and a cog and spike verdigris chin piercing thingy. It's really very nice, and the lip piercing parts are studded with little tiny black gems. So, a horribly simple, short post today, but I think it's good and nice and I'm lovely and a bit sleepy now.

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Curio - Moonbeam Frex [Dark] - Cupid - Crush 2
Hair: Magika - Flow II - Red C
Shirt: silentsparrow - Skullyrock - Sage
Pants: silentsparrow - Gloomy Pants - Lime
Boots: Sentou Yousai - Black Cowboy Boots
Piercing: Ellabella - Gemmed Bits:Steamed

Silentsparrow Month! Day 23 - Happy Birthday!

Not to you, though. Unless it actually happens to be your birthday today, of course, in which case, Many Happy Returns. But in fact, it turns out to be my daughter's 6th birthday today, and I've spent several many hours of today watching kids running round and screaming and generally having a delightful time. Last night, I was having a delightful time at the Rookery, the club over silentsparrow. Persephone decided we should have an impromptu gathering there, and impromptuly gather we did! When hya showed up online, she DJ'd like an awesome trooper, having just woken up and it being terribly short notice. A great time was had by all, I was briefly pantsless, then my internet crapped out and I was sad. I was going to blog what I wore then, but I'm going to save that for another day, and instead show this partydress-like ensemble I put together today. My girl didn't get to wear a party dress today, her party was a little more rough-and-tumble in a big play area, so I'm wearing one for her. Although I'm sure she wouldn't approve of my choice of colours, but Bah! Not everything has to be pink!

I've layered two tops to make my...top. I think it works wonderfully and it's something I will try again, I think. The top underneath is the top from the Sylvan Lolita Suite, which is a lovely set, and I particularly like in this colour (copper) because of the way the black detailing has a very distinct bluey tinge to it, and the shape of it lends itself to layering beautifully. Over it, something I hadn't noticed before, it's the Open Front Celador top. I particularly enjoy the naming convention with it - "YOUR NIPS ARE SHOWING". If only all my clothing was so helpfully labelled. Then my pantsless incident of last night might never have happened. It's the same smiley little touch that I like in my silentsparrow clothing as "omg hya my belly is showing" for filler layers. They make me happy. Anyway, the Celador top normally has a nice white filled in part over the boobies, but this version of it forgoes that, for wearing with either pasties, or as I have done, with a corset underneath. It's really a very very nice effect, and I'm glad I discovered it. My skirt is from the Ritual Suite, which I adore the shiny shading on, and comes with all sorts of fun bits, like a chalice and a rosary and a big booming wonderful ballgown skirt and a top and and and pants and um this lolita skirt. All party dresses should have lolita skirts! Also, lookit mah boots! I first saw these on hya, wearing the hyablue version, of course, and was like "I LOVE THOSE BOOTS" at the same time as she was saying "LOOK AT MY BOOTS" so I think the boots count as instant win. They are the Patchwork Ankle Boots, from Lassitude & Ennui, classic bootmaker of wonderfulness. Jackal Ennui was at the gathering last night, it was exciting, I was skeptical about her really existing, and whined at her that my legs were too fat for her lovely new boots. Then later I remembered that this is SL and that I could - hey, wow! make my legs less fat. So I DID. And so now I can wear them and they're wonderful and the buttons on them are colourchange and it's awesome. I liek patchwerkz.


Outfit Credits:

Skin: Curio - Moonbeam Frex [Light] - Cupid 2 - Allure 2
Hair: Magika - Curl - Red E
Top: silentsparrow - Sylvan Lolita Suite - Copper
Over-top: silentsparrow - Celador
Skirt: silentsparrow - Ritual Suite -Penny
Boots: Lassitude & Ennui - Patchwork Ankle Boots - Brown
Necklace: Schadenfreude - Flewksbriar

Silentsparrow Month! Day 22 - Blue Monday

I have no good excuse for brevity today (I hear it's like, the soul of wit, or something, I fail bard). I'm just feeling the traditional Monday blah that gets bandied around with such excitement. My day consisted of doing the dishes and being told by my daughter that it's extremely rude to call someone a "pie" (after I called her a pudding-pie) and failing to manage to offload my excess bunny nests (*ahem* Visit our meadow if you so desire, and take a peek at the nests. And hang out! I like company). That's enough pimping my bunnies. I feel dirty now. It's not as fun as I've been led to believe! But I have nice bunnies, and their babies need nice homes. Apart from that, blah. Happily, though, I remain in possession of a very big folder full of silentsparrow clothes, so at least I can still look very pretty, and that can only be a good thing.

I like to think that today I am chapioning some somewhat under-appreciated gems from silentsparrow. Just in that, with exceptions, I don't see people wearing them very often. Also I'm still in slouchycasual mode, as partially explained above. First off, my corset. It's one of the older Seperates I know of that is still in the store, I think it was around when I first started haunting silentsparrow and gazing longingly at the pretties. it's the Blue Velvet corset, from the Ribbons Velvet Corset pack. The detailing on it is truly impressive, with tulips and roses adorning the front, and a great big blue bow, and 15 little metal clasps (I counted!). At the back, the ribbons lacing it have a vaguely greenish, iridescent quality to the shading, and it's all over very pretty. With it, the Gloomy Shrug, detailed with glorious spirals, like the tentacles of a particularly artistic seamonster, or some sort of grabby black ooze, or something equally sinister and pretty. Or else, I could just give the cop-out that's in my head and describe them as "Burtonesque". If you squint at the detail on the sculpted cuff, it looks a little bit like a stylized skull. It's lovely. The collarless version I'm wearing here is particularly fun in that it doesn't actually appear to have anything holding it together, it's just sleeves for the sake of wonderfulness (and a bit of a return to my ooze theory). My jeans are from a suit I think is definitely overlooked by many, but is one of the more traditional "goth" outfits in the whole store. It only comes in black and has a freakin' trenchcoat, land's sake! House of Leaves is a delight in details, slinky and sexy while covering every inch, with three coat-tail options and sculpted leaf-shaped buttons, and these incredible jeans! They're very lightly patterned, with faded patches on the knees and the seat of the pants, which is where you can really see how lovely the patten is, and they even have that little patch that I've never known the name of. You know, the one that's like a big belt loop and has the name of the brand on it? Anyway, with these, you can proudly display your designer goth jeans, which is nice. I'm not much of one for 'labels', but this is subtle and awesome enough for me to accept and love, and the silentsparrow logo is, after all, very pretty.

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Curio - Moonbeam Frex [Dark] - Winter - Frost 2
Hair: Magika - Jackie - Red C
Top: silentsparrow - Blue Velvet Corset
Shrug: silentsparrow - Gloomy Shrug - Sorrow
Pants: silentsparrow - House of Leaves
Locket: silentsparrow - Chapiteau Locket - Seanorse
Shoes: Kari - Kicks

Silentsparrow Month! Day 20 - Breeeeathe Iiiin

The astute reader may notice that today I am looking a little more svelte at the waist. The further astute among you may notice that I'm dressed more like a certain someone else, today. This is partly because I'm lame. In all sorts of excitement, a ran out today and bought the amazing new fully sculpted Petit a Petit corset from silentsparrow (it took priority over sorting out a hungry Ozimals bunny, who I should point out is just fine now), and proceeded to make a pig's ear of fitting it. I managed to get as far as altering my shape, as the included notecard advised me to, and went and bought a marvellous non-wiggling AO from Posture is Everything, as the included notecard advised me to (I'm all about following the instructions) and looked at myself proudly...and had NO ARMS. I'd been rather clumsy with the invisiprim. So, being a whiny sort, I went whining to hya for advice, who then donned my shape (it was surreal, she looked just like me, but blue) and fixed it up in a jiffy and I had arms and a gorgeous nipped-in waist and all was wonderful. [note: please do not do what I did and go bother hya to do this for you, she will explode and it'll be my fault and I'll be sad and that'll be YOUR fault, and the shame cycle continues]. Once that was done, I stood dumbly, thinking how I'm not on form today, and tried to think of something to wear that would show this off nicely. And that's how I came to be dressed by hya!

First things first, the corset. It's tricky to fit if you don't follow the instructions, so do that, and, wonderfully, once you have it done, that's it, no more fitting! Each colour of corset comes with a HUD, which has three variations on the colour, a largely unpatterned version, a gentle brocade, and a coloured-and-white striped version, and here's the clever part! If you buy another colour, you just have to use the HUD from that, on your old, already-fitted corset, and hey presto! another colour without all the hassle of fitting! Or you could just buy the Uberpack, which has all the colours in one, easy-to-manage HUD, and save time AND 20% monies. I'm wearing the mid-blue shade of the corset without prim laces, which I am told is the less tricky of the two to fit. It has a marvellous shape, fitted and shaping without making your eyes water and your ribs ache just by looking at it. The effect is accentuated rather on the striped version, which actually makes you slightly dizzy if you stare at it too long. Which is totally cool. Underneath it, hya advised I wear the top from Severina, with fluffy lace sleeves, and a fancy lace halterish-arrangement which I fell quite in love with from the first moment I saw it, and rich jewel-coloured trim at the neckline. My bloomers are unfortunately no longer available, but the blue matched so wonderfully, it would be wrong NOT to wear them. The are from the old Spiderbaby suite, which has recently been cleared from the (Not So) Secret Sale room, and sated my insistence on bloomers with RUFFLES. Added to the ruffly effect are some frilly white ankle socks from sn@tch, and the collar from Schadenfreude's lolita-tastic Jerry's Lament set, which also features colour-change HUD goodness. My shoes are Shiny Things' "hyasynths", and are every bit just as wonderful as their namesake, quirky and pretty and unusual all sorts of good things. So there. Now, go fit your corsets!!

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Frick - Pin Ups - Peach - Sophia (lt brows)
Hair: Magika - Ju - Red C
Sculpted Corset: silentsparrow - Petit a Petit Underbust Corset
Top: silentsparrow - Severina - Robin
Bloomers: silentsparrow - Spider Baby - Blueberry
Socks: Sn@tch - Hep Chick
Shoes: Shiny Things - hyasynths - Black
Collar: Schadenfreude - Jerry's Lament
Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears - Plugs

Silentsparrow Month! Day 19 - Faunication

One of the fun things about the general group of fandom for silentsparrow (I know! I'm on topic from the very start, don't get used to it) is the great diversity of types of not-fully human avatars you see there. My original thought was to say "bipedal avatars", but come to think of it, I've seen dragons and scorpions and all sorts of amazing avatars shopping there, I can only assume it's a case of like, wrapping a pants leg around a claw here, squeezing a carapace into a corset there, and hoping for no rips (or, alternatively, a human form too, but, pfft, that's just silly :D). Silentsparrow is very popular with members of the furry community, and I must credit hya for helping me overcome my initial aversion to that particular segment of society. But among the Twittery Birds, you will also find a plethora of people with human avatars with additional animally bits. Winge'd folk, of course, are prevalent, and you'll find of course a healthy scattering of nekos (setting the cat amongs the pidgeons...heh), elf ears are practically de rigeur, but at most gatherings of 'sparrow junkies, you're most likely to find yourself face to face with an awful lot of (at least part-time) fauns. Digi legs, whether naked and fuzzy, or in Lazy Places' wonderful boots, can be found hoofing around all over, and whatever your sensibilities towards morphing into a fantasy creature are, spare one the chore of choosing what shoes to wear.

I don't wear mine often because it cuts down my options as to what pants I can wear, but I do like their quirky elegance a lot when I do break them out. Outside of skirts, capris are the best option to wear with them, due to length, and in this case, I'm wearing the bloomers from the Severina suite, which have a soft, velvetty look, and are simple enough to not be overwhelming to the eyes, but kept interesting by the silver design on the left thigh. I've kept most of the busyness to my top half, with a whole bunch of layering. The stripey underlayer is the bodice from the Meadowlark dress, and although I'm covering most of it up, it's a beautifully feminine and at the same time sexy piece, with a clutch of roses at the centre of the bosom, and beautifully cut and shaded cups. The colour I'm wearing is not available anymore, being a group gift at a party from some while ago, but Meadowlark is still around in some other beautiful colours, so buy those. Over it, the beyond-adorable Knitty Sweater, in Vixen. Each different colour of this asymmetrical big-buttoned, loose-sleeved cardigan features a different hand-drawn patch design, including crows, toadstools, test tubes, skulls and starbunnies. It comes in a long version and a cropped version, which I am wearing here, and also has a big pretty patch on the back. An extra, small detail I am wearing is at my waist, the belt from the Piaf dress, an oldie-bit-goodie, which while searching my bulging emails the other day, I found an ancient group notice announcing its release. It made me smile. God bless Gmail and its boundless capacity, allowing me to keep such little tokens of times past. You may notice, if you squint, that I am not wearing my usual Schadenfreude Fey ears, in order to be a wee bit more fauny, I am instead wearing SLink's Sachara ears, in Outy, they're a complete bargain, you get four different styles of ear when you buy them, and they have the same easy-to-use style of recolouring HUD that SLink's foot shoes feature. So, yay! My legs and sweet little tail are by Titania's Court, and is one of the most elegantly shaped faun sets I've come across, with a good choice of colours, and also included ears and horns, but I'm wearing Schadenfreude's Kinder horns, for adorableness. It works, I think.

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Curio - Cupid - Moonbeam Frex [Dark] - Pure 2
Hair: Magika - Backslash - Red C
Cardigan: silentsparrow - Knitty Sweater - Vixens
Undershirt: silentsparrow - Meadowlark - Sepia
Pants: silentsparrow - Severina Suite - Kohl
Belt: silentsparrow - Piaf
Faun legs and Tail: Titania's Court - F_Faun Autumn Red
Ears: SLink - Sachara Elf Ears - Metal Free - Outy
Horns: Schadenfreude - Kinder Horns

Silentsparrow Month! Day 16 - Frowny Gowny

I've never been much of a ballgown person. Even within Second Life, when I first started, EVERYONE I saw wore gowns, "because they could" and most of them were that box of free gowns that permeated every freebie place, and I was like "This makes no sense! You're not a fairy princess! Stop it!". Don't get me wrong, a nice poofy frock, I like to look at, but there's a time and a place for such things, and for me, it never seems to be the right time or place. Oh, sure, I've been to "proms" at the club I used to work at, or I could subject myself to the numerous Jazz Clubs, but seriously, oh my, No. Even when I used to RP at a Victorian Steampunk sim, I'd go with dour, sensible, not-too-flashy, modest dresses...with the exception of the Ball that was held there once, THEN I hammed it up entirely. I was the belle of the thing, totally. But my only real concession to wearing any part of a gown in SL stems from my lame teenage years. I used to have a local newsagent import some American teen magazine for me, like, Seventeen, or Teen Beat, or Seven Feet, or something inane, I forget. One issue was devoted to THE PROM, something that always held fascination for me, as someone who not only lived in a land of no prom, but also left school at the age of 14, and besides, was sort of, y'know, weird. There were of course, thousands of ads for fancy gowns that made me roll my eyes at the extravagance, but then, there was one that I fell in love with. It wasn't so much a gown at all, rather, a suggestion, that you could wear a ballgown length tulle skirt was a casual, graphicy 3/4 length sleeve top. It was the mid 90s, that sort of thing was cool. And as I've never been much of a dedicated follower of fashion, more someone who holds onto ideas she finds aesthetically pleasing as she sees them and they drift out of style, it has become my way!

This outfit actually come together by accident. The top part of it came to be from a game of "match hya!" a few months ago, when she advised me that I the cropped jacket of Blood Tart made an excellent jacket with all sorts of things, including the Ratties T-shirt I had gained from the Bird of Randomness in the silentsparrow courtyard earlier that day. Ratties is one of my most-worn of the gatcha shirts, I enjoy the shade of red, and rats are adorable, so long as they're not carrying plague, and these cuties are clearly not doing that. But indeed, the Blood Tart jacket looks fantastic with all manner of things, I'm always in the market for lace toppy thingies, and this one can be dressed up or down easily with its sculpted shoulder puffs and draping open bell cuffs coming from the elbow. My skirt, in all its gowny glory, is from the Moonchild Suite, and took me a while to decide to wear, originally I was going to wear pants from the Voltaire Suit, but then the reds didn't go together well and I was all like "Wah". Then Perse said something oblique about raggedy skirts and looking all Cinderella, and while I didn't have such a thing in my silentsparrow folder, I had something even more awesome! The Moonchild Suite combines a rich, bright brocade pattern under-skirt, with an open, contemporary flame pattern on an open overskirt, and has a cute little ruffle at the top, plus, capris in a matching style which I almost second-guessed myself and wore instead, but then, I didn't. My skin is from a store I love, but always seem to forget about. It's by Frick, and combines elements of both the Eloh and Sezmra skin templates to create something both cute and sexy, with original makeups simply to die for, in fact, one of the reasons I tend to forget I have these skins is that often the makeup is a little /too/ original for my tastes. But that's okay, they're gorgeous, and the new-ish Pinup line has more in the way of everyday makeups with a twist, such as this cateye look, with the extra feathering underneath the eye, which is just perfection. And the prices at Frick are amazing too, I got all the makeups in the Pinup line, in the peach skintone, with freckled options and two brow choices, for slightly over half the price of many of my other skins. So, be betterer than me, remember to go to Frick!

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Frick - Peach frex light brows - Marie
Hair: Magika - Mika - Red C
T-shirt: silentsparrow - T-Shirt of Random #05 (Ratties)
Jacket: silentsparrow - Blood Tart
Skirt: silentsparrow - Moonchild Suite - Scarlet
Ears: Balderdash&Schadenfreude - Etherial Fey Ears

Silentsparrow Month! Day 11 - It'll be on your desk by the end of the day

The other day I joined Avatars United. If you've not heard of it yet, it's sort of like Facebook, for people in online gamey things, and Linden Lab have recently acquired it, spurring a buttload of SL residents to join. I rather like this. I think it's especially nice for players of games such as Runescape (which I occasionally dabble in), where fraternization outside of the game is generally discouraged due to underagedness and so on, which is well and good for protecting the kiddies, but some of us are adults with pure intentions towards each other. It's odd though, mixing your worlds. Long ago, when I still worked in a club, a new player came in, and he had an oddly familiar and distinctive name, and it clicked, that I had met him in Runescape, before I'd started playing Second Life. We'd been acquaintances at best in Runescape, fished in the same place on the same world from time to time, sort of thing, and in IM, I confirmed that it was indeed him (I'm Nivaya there too), and we chuckled over the coincidence that in all the clubs in all the virtual worlds, he'd wander into mine. He got a bit clingy for a while and then said his mom wouldn't let him play SL anymore, so I'm guessing some underage ban went on there, and I started to idly worry about cross-world stalkers. But anyway, I've "united" with a nice wide range of people on AU, from close friends to people whose name I know, to people whose name I don't know, and linked my Runescape avatar to my SL one and feel strangely accomplished about it all. I'm still not sure of the point in the whole thing apart from to microblog without the bitchiness of Plurk, but on the slim chance that you're reading this from my Feed Reader on AU - HI!

So it looks like my accidental schoolgirl of yesterday graduated nicely and found herself a nice secretarial job of sorts. In a place with a cool dress-code, natch. The basis of the look formed from it being bloody cold here right now, and me wanting to wear one of the silentsparrow's aptly-named Snug cardigans. So I did. The Snug cardigan is the most incredibly cozy-looking thing, rich chunky knit, with sculpted puffy sleeves, with safety-pin fastenings at the front, and pinned on patches, a big one at the back, and a little one at the front. The patches are texture change, and filled with various black and silver artiness, and if you were lucky enough to get the version from last year's Starlust VD hunt, there's also heart-themed patches in there. Underneath it, my 'blouse', with its little sprocket buttons, is actually a vest, from the Twinstar lucky bird suite. If you missed it being in the chair, do not despair! In a move of great loveliness, hya has many many of her past lucky bird sets set out to buy, in the panels of glass next to the lucky bird cage. While you're there, say hello to Otterly and Gravity, parents of one of my bunnies! My skirt is from the semi-vintage Dreaded Sunny Day set, one of the older items in store, which has one of my favourite system skirts in the world. Because I don't fear the system skirt, it's called a skirtshape, yo. Make one right, and you'll have all the best curves in all the best places. Anyway, what I love about this skirt is the wraparound front, with its fishtail effect sexy bit at the front, and the excessive beltage. And the pattern. And the colour. Never, ever ignore classic pieces like this. Do remember to wear panties, though.
Oh! Earlier in the post I mentioned the Starlust VD hunt, the 2010 hunt started today, go do it, and bring your clue-solving head, my gorgeous lip piercing is the prize from Ellabella, and we all know how much I love my Ellabella piercings, this one has four little lip studs, and on a chain, a tiny little heart in a round cage. With some extra chains. It is Love. There are ridiculous amounts of wonderful prizes other than this, too, so go hunt!

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Curio - Cupid II - Moonbeam Frex [Dark] - Pure 4 (with dark brows, yay!)
Hair: Magika - Denise (back picture) & Saturday (front picture) - Red C
Cardi: silentsparrow - Snug Cardigan - Blood
Vest: silentsparrow - Twinstar Lucky Bird Suite - Orangecream Sprocket Vest
Skirt: silentsparrow - Dreaded Sunny Day - Fawn
Shoes: First Flower - Hemlock - Magenta
Glasses: Prim0ptic - Celeste Glasses
Lip piercing: Ellabella - Starlust is for Lovers
Necklace: Eolande - Heart's Devotion Necklace - Silver
Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears - Ankh & Plug

Silentsparrow Month! Day 5-6 - SUNDAY BONANZAA!

No blogging yesterday due to a friend coming over and being here and being all in the way and stuff. He's a Second Life skeptic. When I logged in to check on my bunnies (one had foolishly hopped into a river, luckily, all Ozimals are equipped with scuba gear, so she was fine) he bombarded me with stupid questions. Not noob questions, stupid questions. "Who's that lady? That's not you, your hair isn't that colour, you're not wearing that skirt, you're not wearing that belt! You're not flying, why is she flying? What are those bunnies for? You should shoot one! Why are your ears pointy? A skirt wouldn't move like that if you were flying, why are you flying? How did you walk through that window? THOSE MOUNTAINS ARE REALLY CRAPPY" (I happen to agree with him about the mountains, they belong to a neighbour and are an eyesore). What eventually shut him up was when I was showing him what one could do with one's avatar, and he said "make her a DANDY!" and I instantly suited her up in silentsparrow's Gloomy Suit, with Schadenfreude's Digital Alchemy top hat, and he was like "COOL!". He still thinks Second Life is lame though. Can't win 'em all. So, instead, he and my husband sat around playing Bayonetta, which made me feel like all tough chick. And when I feel all tough chick, I default to either Pirate or Viking. I'm a fantasy seafaring type, me.

So here I am, slightly piratey. I'm wearing bloomers from Datura, which is a just gorgeous set anyway, these bloomers ain't your granny's glitch pants. Ironically, given that they're bloomers. Rich and velvetty, with a thick ribbon garter around one leg, and such beautiful ruffled cuffs, with layers of faded brocade and lace, if the skirts with this set weren't so pretty, I'd stretch up these cuffs and wear them as a skirt. It would be a weird-fitting skirt, but the thought is there all the same. At my waist I'm wearing the highwaist from the Cerise Selador set, another Limited Edition set, I'm afraid, but there are lots of similar things out there, should you be man enough to want to emulate my look. And the Fond Affections bustier, big sister to the bra I was wearing in my last post. Here you can see the elaborate, vaguely heart-motifed brocade of the lower part if it. Pretty, isn't it? It also has a bright heart on the back. Valentine's day is coming up, you know. This would be a nice, tasteful way of wearing your heart on your...back. My tattoos are some of my favourites. The belladonna:lepidoptera tattoos come in a million colours, and has an impressive 7 options per colour set, 3 for the upper body, 2 for the legs, and one each for the hands and feet. I particularly like the version I'm wearing because of the shading on the shoulders, which looks a little like a sheer mesh top being worn underneath the clothes. Also, while my friend was here, we spotted the book "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters". As a nod to that, I'm wearing Schadenfreude's Electro-Cute plugs in my ears, see the little octopus? Aww, so tentacley.

So to today, spurred on by my semi-victory with the hat yesterday, I decided to don the new Chapiteau Chapeau, a collaboration between silentsparrow and Schadenfreude. As can be expected from a hya/Alle venture, it comes with scads of options. There's a squeefully cute mini version for all the loli types out there, a small version, for small people, a full-sized version for full-sized people, and a decadent scarfed version, for ladies who ride, and ladies who don't ride, and dandy, dandy men. It comes with a HUD, which allows you to change the texture of the hat, the scarf (two options per colour, one with lace at the tips, and one plain) and to change which of the endlessly adorable Chapiteau cameos you want to wear at the front. It's like [insert number of combinations I'm not clever enough to work out] hats in one! Here I'm wearing it in Dollie purple. Playing to a theme, I'm wearing a Dollie t-shirt, from the second silentsparow Bird of Random gatcha in the courtyard. It's number 18, in the SMALLER of the two birds, and at 25L a pop, it's quite the bargain, unless you happen to be compulsive like me and pokemon bounces around your brain telling you to CATCH 'EM ALL! Then it's slightly less cheap. But worth it! I am also wearing the jacket from Batties, a fun set released around Halloween, you can't see it in my pictures, and I only noticed today, but there are bats on my boobs! How goth is that? Batties, and its sibling sets Cheshire, Cuttles and the location exclusive Babbage, are some of the most versatile sets you can get at silentsparrow, as far as casual-wear goes, packed full of skirts, tanks, gloves, and all sorts of other cute little extras you know you can't live without. On my bottom half, pants from the Severin Suit (which is still, until Tuesday, at 50% off in the Suits room at the silentsparrow mainstore). The Severin and Severina matched male and female sets are possibly my favourite matching things, each for their own lovely reasons. The pants in Severin being a huge part of that. They're bi-coloured! And stripey! And have these neat buckley strappy awesome bits, and awesomeness. So I'm wearing the Iris, a purple that doesn't match the rest of my purple, but matching is for saps anyway. Also, look at my shoes! They're nothing new, but they're cool as can be. They're from Katat0nik, and apart from being such a sweet shape, they're texture change, individually texture change, so look! Stars and Stripes! It's like I'm American! A really purple American.

So yes. This post has been tl;dr, I know. If you've read this far, I heart you.


Outfit Credits:

Pic 1

Skin: Curio - Moonbeam Frex [DARK] - Beach - Crude 1
Hair: Magika - Crim - Red E
Top: silentsparrow - Fond Affections Bustier - Sea
Middle bit: silentsparrow - Celedor - Cerise (Limited Edition)
Bloomers: silentsparrow - Datura - Strawberry
Tattoos: silentsparrow - belladonna:lepidoptera (upper)A - Ash
Feets: SLink - Jolie Pied - Mid
Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears (with Elecro-Cute plugs, using a seperate HUD)

Pic 2:

Skin: (as above)
Hair: Truth - Sage - Cherry
Top: silentsparrow - T-Shirt of Random #18
Jacket: silentsparrow - Batties
Pants: silentsparrow - Severin Suit - Iris
Shoes: Katat0nik - Bubbly Mary Janes - Purple
Hat: Schadenfreude&silentsparrow - Chapiteau Chapeau
Bracelet (L): Schadenfreude - Bangle and Jellies
Bracelet (R): Schadenfreude - Starlust Charm Bracelet (from Starlust Motel lobby)
Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears - Spiral Horns

Would You Adam n Eve It?

I live somewhat near London, but not near enough to get away with Cockney rhyming slang. So, I apologize for the title, Londoners. It was wrong of me.
Anyway! The glorious sachi Vixen of Adam n Eve dropped this gorgeous dress on me earlier today! It's a funny thing about Adam n Eve, when I started, they were one of the huge big names in SL, but now you don't hear so much about them. This is a pity, because they still produce oodles, OODLES of beautiful things, I'm particularly taken with their skins, very much worth checking out <3.
This dress is a bit of a departure in style from what I might expect from the store, which is a pleasant surprise. It's also more daring than I normally dress, I think I'm getting prudish in my old age, so it was nice to see my legs!
The Off The Hook dress can be worn in three main ways (I can eke more styles out, but I'm creative!). The first is this sexy micromini dress, with strategically placed fishnet rippy bits, punky but tasteful, the most "shockingly" revealing part is a tiny bit of butt crack showing through the fishnet at the back. I enjoy how it's traditionally sexy, without making one look like they forgot to...y'know. Wear clothes.
This is a dress that can go from night to...well. Later that night!
The second way of wearing Off The Hook is more 'me'. More cabaret-ish. Have I ever mentioned how much I love open-fronted skirts? I should do so more often. I really should. The flexi option is luxurious and cascading and danceable and oh so hot, with a long layer of tulle and raggedly feathery bits, and gently bustley solid panels at the hips and behind. The dress also comes in a spicy yummy red.

Having stripped myself of everything aside from the Teddy Bottoms of the dress, I can show show off my adorable kanji tattoo which I am informed says "Love", a gift instore at Adam n Eve for a limited time, go grab at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Genesis/67/170/38/

Outfit Credits:

Skin: L.Fauna {Lapine . Pale 1} [Fresh-FR] OO
Hair: Pic 1 - Magika - Lady - Red C
Pic 2- Magika - Denise - Red C
Dress: Adam n Eve - Off The Hook - Black
Shoes: Shiny Things - Tuli Pumps - Black
Watch Necklace: *chronokit* clock necklace 'loy' (from Winter Choice! 2009)
Purse (in Pic 1): Prelude - Gabrielle Purse
Eyes: Schadenfreude - Geoflake - TreeFlake Eyes

Glamorized on for pennies!

So, the other day in a group I'm in, the perennial question of "Where can I get good skins for not much money?" came up. I sat the discussion out as my skin tastes nowadays run to the not-cheap (there are exceptions, such as Frick, but I somewhat lamely tend to stick to my Curio of late) when someone mentioned a store owned by Yoko Leeeroy. I like a triple-E at the best of times, and then someone else in the group piped up saying happily that Yoko Leeeroy was her other account, so in group solidarity, I headed over to Glamorize to have a peek. The tiny store turned out to be well worth a visit, and I left with only a tiny chunk taken out of my L$ balance. The first specatcular thing about this store is the generosity of the prices. No single item in Glamorize costs more than L$5, fatpacks at their upper limit cost L$22.

For L$20, I picked up a Princess Pack of the Jonquil skins. A fair peach tone, with auburn eyebrows and a subtle dusting of freckles over the nose, and a delicate little mouth, and nice eye-makeup. These skins retail singly at L$2, and come in a number of tones and styles, and for my L$20, I got 12 makeups, each with a boosted cleavage option too! And, in a remarkable turn up for the books, there are also male skins! In a gothic pale, and a 'normal' fair tone, with various facial hair options and whatnot, for the same great prices.

Glamorize also has a nice range of shapes, priced wonderfully, and rather pretty eyes. The eyes are in the smaller size, which I must admit isn't to my taste, I feel they make my av look at best surprised, at worst, high, but these are lovely nonetheless and really at the price, I can't complain, it's my own taste. Also worth a look were the prim nails. I'm not usually a fan of prim nails, too much to go wrong with flappy hands and posing and general disaster, but I was quite taken by the rainbow glitter prim nails Glamorize had, and at L$12 for a pack of 6 shades, there wasn't much wrong I could do so long as I didn't get too adventurous with how I stood. These nails are of a modest length, too, so they don't look scary and talon-ish, just nice and bright and shiny.

There is also a small range of clothing, fantastically decorated jeans for L$2, a range of dollarbie tops, L$3 minidresses, and some beautifully patterned fringed scarves, a few nicely shaded mens shirts and jeans, and some pumps, which I havn't shown, but are prettily designed.

So, yes. Whether you're a penniless newbie (or a friend of one) or you just want to bulk up your inventory for cheap, I heartily recommend a trip to Glamorize, and while you're there, throw a bit of love in Yoko's tipjar for her generosity.

Outfit credits:

Pic 1:

Skin: Glamorize - Jonquil 01 Skin
Hair: Magika - Julie - Red C
Eyes: Glamorize - Glamor-Eyes 2-8
Top: Glamorize - Pokey Brown Cami
Jeans: Glamorize - Pretty Paisley Pants
Scarf: Glamorize - Wrapped Scarf with Tassels - Plum Paisley
Boots: In Her Shoes - Warm Winter Boots - Red
Nails: Glamorize - Wine it Up nails

Pic 2:

Skin: Glamorize - Jonquil 02 Skin
Hair: Magika - Snow Queen 2009 - Red C (it snows on you! :D)
Eyes: (as above)
Top: Glamorize - Shooting Star Long Cami
Jeans: Glamorize - Jack
Sneakers: Scribble - Heel Biters
Nails: Glamorize - Red Glitz Nails

Summer Cocktails at 5th & Oxford

Due to my awesome grabbiness, I was lucky enough to be in receipt of a review pack of 5th & Oxford's (formally Fleur) new Summer Cocktails line of things! Fleur in the past has been one of my favourite sources of skins, and while I knew Roslin Petion has been known to make clothes, I must admit I hadn't really given them much thought in the past. So when I opened what I was sent, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it not only contained skins from their new Audrey line, but dresses, too! Not only that, but later in the day, I had dropped on me an absolutely gorgeous retro bar, complete with stools and accessories. It had never occurred to me, with all their beautiful sim builds of the past (my personal favourite being the Nouveau with the station and the big long train, so noir, so clever) that one of the team of Roslin Petion and CJ Carnot must be a rather marvellous builder. But I'm getting ahead of myself, of course, as is my way.

I've long been a fan of Roslin Petion's skins, in my overflowing inventory I have just about one of every makeup from the old Fleur Vivant line, and a fair few from the previous Allure line of skins. The new Audrey line of skins has all the glamour and soft beautiful quality that I have come to expect. One of the odd little things I adore about these skins and have noticed with the previous lines, is how wonderfully done the hands are, striking a perfect balance between not being too plain as to be featureless, but also not all veiny and haggard-looking, and the nails beautifully manicured. The makeups of the Summer Cocktails skins are just as the name suggests, summery, light, and fruity. The cheeks have a light flush of colour to them, hinting at a day in the sun and perhaps a couple of drinks, and although it doesn't show up so much on my chosen Fair skintone, the darker tones in the range show a soft highlighting sheen. The skins themselves are simply lovely all over, shading and highlights soft but flawless, and the body parts beautifully drawn. I was particularly taken by the elbows, oddly. I did have to modify the shape of my face a little to make the skin look 'right', but I've been finding myself doing that a lot lately, and it's really rather rewarding in the end.

The dresses too, were fantastic. The Summer Cocktails Dress is a satiny vintage number, slinky and elegant, in six colours, named for yummy colourful drinks, and comes with prim sleeves and belt. The shading and gathers of the fabric are particularly well-done at the bust, which makes me wonder if I spend too much time looking at boobs. It's a distinct possibility. The Summer Cocktails Mini is a more flirty, fun style, a little less grown-up, and with more a nod to 60s hipsters. It clings to one shoulder, and gathers at the waist, and is a party dress if ever I saw one.

And so to the matching bar! In a fabulous retro style, fit to grace the den or the poolside or anywhere else where it's feasible to have a party with a gorgeous retro bar! But unfortunately not the rooftop upon which I live. The bar comes with a myriad of sweet little accessories, plates of olives, slices of lemon, a drinks shaker (which gives out martinis!), soda syphons, and holdable, drinkable drinks! The prims all add up sadly, and my poor little parcel couldn't take it, but it's soso cute, it's worth the relatively heavy primmage if you can at all spare it. the front of the bar, and the stools are colour change too, which means you can match with your decor or mix it up and it remains all good!

5th & Oxford's Summer Cocktails skins, clothing and furniture are really a wonderful way to round off the last weeks of summer and see you into autumn, a memento of long days and longer evenings, of parties and sultry sunshine, and generally a glamourous good time. Available only from 5th & Oxford

Outfit Credits:

Pic 1

Skin: 5th & Oxford Audrey - FAIR - Summer Cocktails 5
Hair: Gritty Kitty - Ghetto - Red
Dress: 5th & Oxford - Summer Cocktails Dress - Appletini
Shoes: LC Vamp - Caliah - Emerald (no longer available)

Pic 2

Skin: 5th & Oxford Audrey - FAIR - Summer Cocktails 1
Hair: Tiny Bird - WillowC - Pomegranate
Dress: 5th & Oxford - Summer Cocktails Dress - Purple Haze

Pic 3

Skin: 5th & Oxford Audrey - FAIR - Summer Cocktails 4
Hair: Magika - Lady - Red E
Dress: 5th & Oxford - Summer Cocktails Mini - Blue Lagoon
Shoes: Periquita - Mary Jane Shoe - Black Stars
Bar with goodies: 5th & Oxford Summer Cocktails Bar

(eyes [marine] and lashes in all by Miriel, no longer available)