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

I'm a Little Bit Country...Day 1

...and I'm a little bit rock n roll. I'm actually a lot more rock n roll, I'm not very country at all, to be honest. Thing is, I don't really like the music. Sure, I like Dolly Parton's Jolene, and the music from Smokey and the Bandit, not to mention the smatterings of Alt. Country that hya plays on the silentsparrow radio stream on the silent sparrow sim, and Johnny Cash if he counts, but for the most part, no, just can't do it. On the plus side, I'm exceedingly fond of the accents and scenery of the southern US, I harbour a kitsch-fuelled desire to visit Dollywood, and I really, really, really like cowboy hats and boots.
I learned this for proper when Emee and I moved our herds of bunnies to a rather countrified sim, our parcel had a stonking great barn in the middle of it, and not much else. So, being me, I just had to decorate. Which posed a slight problem for me. Our previous bunnyhomes had been decorated in a meadow style, acres of wildflowers, lots of trees, that sort of thing. A barn though, that called for something different! Something more farmy. Given that the main store on the sim (Jody's Bunny Barn) is done up in, as the name would suggest, a barn style, with posters of country music and cowgirls and saddle stools and barrels and oh, just all sorts of country wonderment, there was my theme. I tarted our parcel up with wheatfields and squeaky windmills and dirt paths and picnic tables, all the fun of the farm! But this left me with a problem. I'm a great believer in dressing for one's surroundings, and my usual style just didn't cut it. Not at all. And so I threw on some cowboy boots that I happened to have languishing in my inventory. And then I remembered a hat that I had! Oh and jeans. So many jeans. And I discovered, I really liked that style of dress, especially with the sun shining and the fresh air coming through my window.
Of course, I'm British. I'm British and a city-dweller and a half-hearted goth, I have absolutely no business trying to be in the slightest bit authentic about any of this, which is a bonus, since it gives me leeway to be a little more "alt" than country in the whole business, but it makes me feel a little less out of place when I ride my horse over to Jody's Barn to see what she's got on the bidboards there. And so, I would like to proudly commence my series of "Little bit country" posts, which will go on for as long as I can be bothered.

Today's post contains a few bargains, a few oldies but goodies, and some shiny newness. We shall start, I think, with the old bargains! My hair/hat is historically one of my favourites, Ministry, from Gritty Kitty. Given that it's over three years old (in fact, my avatar is only a week or two older than it), and predates sculpties in Second Life, it holds up amazingly well. The all-prim construction of the hat itself is flawless, and the style itself is ageless simplicity, slightly messy, long straight hair, in a wide range of sleek textures. The best thing about this unisex hair? Nowadays, it's free! Or perhaps 1L. I just checked. Fatpack of colours, 0L! Can't say fairer than that.
Another oldie I'm wearing is the jodhpurs from silentsparrow's Nightmare suit, an elegant long-tailed riding outfit which comes in four shades of dark, and is coupled with Daymare, in light pastel shades. And right now, it can be yours for a mere 50L. Up until August 1st only. Everything in silentsparrow's not-so-secret sale area, (underneath the store, watch out for laser sharks) is marked down to 50L until then, at which point it will be ruthlessly culled and you'll have lost your chance at some of hya's most classic outfits at super bargain prices.
My layered top is part of the Buckley Lolita dress from Katat0nik, which unfortunately, if my wanderings around the store are anything to go by, it looks like isn't available anymore. Sorry for being a tease, get used to it, perhaps. Okay I took pity on you, it's listed on XStreet, here.

And so, onto the less-old! My boots are Schadenfreude's new Riga Kicks, sculpted greatness with amazing softly glossy textures, which come in at least a million colours. I am perhaps exaggerating, it is in fact 15, but in true Allegory style, the fatpack of the boots is colour-changeable by HUD. They come as a one-piece full boot, or a two piece shoe-and-upper combo, so you can wear the shoe part to peek out the bottom of pants. The part that fulls me with glee about them in particular is that Allegory has included invisiprim-free versions to be worn with 2.0 alpha layers, so they won't clash with any alphas you're standing on/in-front-of/in. Also, they make the bottom of your legs vanish, so you can float around all spookylike if you so desire. Cowboy boots, they ain't. Yummy boots, they so so are.
My lovely skin is from the new Cupcakes skin line, Dahlia. Longtime customer of Cupcakes as I am, the Dahlia skins I think are my favourite of theirs so far. the makeup I'm wearing here was part of their excellent 1000L Skin Club deal, which sadly is no longer available (hah!) but at the moment they have some fantastic deals in store on certain unnamed makeups in the Dahlia line, as well as others, for only 250L, which in my opinion is well worth checking out.
With all the strawberry madness that's been going on what with the current Strawberry Festival hunts going on on the Magic of Oz and Ozimals sims, and the Strawberry Elite bunnies, I havn't been able to bring myself to take of silentsparrow's beautiful Strawberry Vines tattoos, either. So here they are!

So when I'm checking out the new and beautiful bunnies on the bidboards in the friendly relaxed atmosphere of Jody's Bunny Barn, it's nice to know that I can do it in style, even if I am just a very, very little bit country.

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Cupcakes - Dahlia - Cameo - Brownout (freckled) [this makeup no longer available]
Hair: Gritty Kitty - Ministy - Redhot [free!]
Top: Katat0nik - Buckley Lolita Dress - Brown [available on XStreet]
Pants: silentsparrow - Nightmare - Ashes [50L until retirement on August 1st]
Boots: Schadenfreude - Riga Kicks - Brown
Tattoos: silentsparrow - Strawberry Vines (Ornate)
Eyes: Schadenfreude - Geoflake Eyes - Treeflake
Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears - Solid Acrylic Plugs

Silentsparrow Month! Day 27-28! - Theend

My last Silentsparrow February post is going to be another doublepost. On Saturday I was preoccupied due to not wanting to go to a wedding. I don't much like weddings, especially those of people I don't know (in this case, my husband's boss). So we made an excuse to not go, but I married a bloody boyscout, who doesn't like to use people as false excuses, and so I spent much of yesterday trying to teach my daughter how to ride a bike (with stabilizers). I think whoever coined the term "Like riding a bike" didn't figure 6 year olds into the matter. This was the third time we'd taken her out on the bike she got for Christmas, and each time, she has NO idea what to do when faced with having to pedal. By the time we're on our way home, she's got the hang of it, more or less, but then the next time we take her out, it's back to square one and I find myself repeating "Move your legs! Like you're running! One after the other! Keep going, not backwards!". At this rate, we should be ready to take the stabilizers off by the time she's, ooh, 15? Then it was a Pixar shorts DVD and Wii Fit and paranoia at the hands of the chavs who harrassed and confused me while we were out, for the rest of the day. See, look at that! I have no qualms using other people as excuses. As I was barely on SL yesterday, my outfit for this part is a somewhat arbitrary collection of pretty pieces.

First of all, the skirt. The Bustle. The bustley, skirty thingy. The skirt is from a suite I've mentioned a few times in this series of posts, the Severina Suite. I'm a great fan of short skirts with a train-y bit, and this one is glorious. It has a big sculpted ruffle at the hips, which cascades down at the back into a burlesque-tastic...skirty bustley thingy. It's yummy. And named for a very nice lady. Who does not have button eyes. With it is the lovely Shruggie in Ash, with bell sleeves and a turtleneck collar. You can't see it well in my pictures, but it's got big bandy stripes on the sleeves. It's a wonderful piece that can be dressed up or down and worn with just about anything you can think of. Really, I am thinking right now and can't think of anything it wouldn't look great with in one colour or another. Even a SPACESUIT *makes note: "badger hya about making a silentsparrow spacesuit"*. Under THAT, I am wearing the corset from the Ritual Suite, in Ash, again. I wore the Penny Ritual skirt the other day, this is the pretty top that goes with it. It has a beautiful, slightly ruched, silk-effect texture, with fantastic boning down the front, and flatteringly shaped cups that suit any size of bust. The whimsical lacing, if it can be so called, at the back is my favourite part of it, though. It's pretty leafy twigs! With my shruggie, I've covered another nice detail of it, the lacey drapings over the shoulders and front, which you can just about spot, peeping out underneath. Ooh, and, my skin! My skin is the preview of Schadenfreude's upcoming new skins, which boast a reworked nose and collarbone and softer, more porcelain-doll like texturing, among many other improvements, and I'm very excited to see more of these. I'm *ahem* not sure of where it can be got yet. But I'll be sure to ask! My entire head is by Schadenfreude. That's pretty awesome.

And so onto this day, Sunday. One of the reasons I logged on briefly yesterday was because of a silentsparrow group notice telling of a new Limited Edition outfit! Not a hunt, just a single, out there to buy, limited edition outfit, being released in four waves of 25 (the other reason was that my bunny monitor said I had a new nest, it was mistaken, it had found an old nest of mine - Bah!). Of course, I missed the first wave of releases, and a friend very kindly offered to pick me one up when the next wave happened (they're transfer!). Relatively short story shorter, I now and the proud owner of the Blood Ritual Tunic Set, the husband or brother or son or some sort of male or tomboyish female relative of the suite from which the corset I was wearing earlier came from.
It makes me feel pleasantly Joan of Arc-ish to wear this, but like, less crazy and French. Maybe like Joan of Arc was in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. But still less French. I can't help but feel like in my pics I've made it look like a shorts-and-tights ensemble, which is very nice but not what it is. Instead, it is, as the name might suggest, a tunic and tights set. What I've made look like ornate shorts, are in fact the sculpted bottom part of the tunic. What look like tights are tights, but in the Men in Tights style of tights, I've shown them off in brown on here, before. Remember when I made you stare at my crotch? Yes, I know there's been a few times...I still respect you though. As a person, you know. Then there's a rich deep red velvet top, at the awesome suedey half-jacket, which I would buy the outfit for, alone. it has sculpted shoulder caps, and the same viney pattern that formed the back of the corset I was wearing before. My hair was a Stumblebum exclusive from Clawtooth, which you may have just missed, I think. It's the first hair from Clawtooth I've seen with flex, and is very, very nice, it moves prettily and I'm all for braids in semi-random places. But back to my pretty suit, when last I looked, there were a few left from the third wave of release, which means you can either try your luck now (this was a few hours back I checked) or wait for the final release wave. Hang out at silentsparrow if you're the keen type. And of course, join the Twittery Birds group, to keep updated about this sort of thing and all the other sorts of things and and and things!


Outfit Credits:

Pic 1:

Skin: Schadenfreude - Langwidaire - Dawn - Audrey
Hair: Schadenfreude - Cinder - Razzamatazz + Grey Goose bangs & undercut
Top: silentsparrow - Ritual Ballgown Suite - Ash
Shrug: silentsparrow - Shruggie - Ash
Skirt: silentsparrow - Severina - Ash
Shoes: Shiny Things - Tuli Pumps - Black
Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears - Spiral Horns

Pic 2

Skin: Nomine - Primrose - Virgin - Oil
Hair: Clawtooth - Morning Revamp - Sunset (tinted)
Suit: silentsparrow - Ritual Tunic Suit - Blood (limited edition #17!)
Boots: Kookie - Armada Boots - Vintage

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 21 - And breathe out...

Today, very, very lazy Niv. Not feeling so well. Also, been rotting my brains watching my husband play Fallout 3 all day. I've been helping. Mostly by yelling "Look out!" when he's about to die. It doesn't help, his character has died at least 20 times today, but it makes me feel everso useful. So, a lazy me = a lazy Niv = lazy blog post. But also comfy blog post, oh yes. After yesterday's breathtaking corset, I figured I should wear something more slouchy anyway. Better for the innards, you know. So, here I am in my jammies!

I am wearing the silentsparrow Ratties Pajammies II. In the me to the left, I'm wearing the capri bottoms with the Ratties tank top, and to the right, the capri bottoms with the 3/4 length sleeve top. They're comfy and cute and cozy and everything you could want (that starts with the letter C, at least) in sleepwear. I like the Ratties best, something about an affinity with rodents. And the colour red. And the ADORABLENESS of them. The others available are incredibly adorable too, of course. When these were released, hya had a slumber party with a movie, and it was lovely, but I had to leave because my clothes were glitching and no-one could see how cute I was, and it was sad, and when I came back, I was naked, and that was sad too. But this is what I wore, anyway! Also, the Belladonna:Lepidoptera tattoos in Sepia, this time the less epic version, and the hand parts. Subtle and swirly and mothy and lovely. And because since I got these, I can't stand to be proper SL barefoot, the Jolie Pied sculpted feet from SLink. They're such nice feet, and I'm one who finds feet creepy normally, but look! My toenail polish matches my jammies! Yay! So there. I've been lazy. Less words. More sitting. I'll go do that. Good.

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Curio - June - Moonbeam Frex [Dark] - Pure 1
Hair: Maitreya - Amber - Red
Pajamas: silentsparrow - Pajammies II - Ratties
Tank: silentsparrow - Tank Tops - Ratties
Tattoos: silentsparrow - belladonna:lepidoptae - Sepia
Foots: SLink - Jolie Pied - Med Bare Fin
Snuggly Elephant: Schadenfreude - Stuffed Elephant (Starlust Souvenier)

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 18 - Prairie Princess

So, recently I've been on a bit of a Disney kick. Within the last less-than-a-week, I've watched Up, Snow White (Valentine's Day gift), Enchanted (which I realized we owned and never watched) and The Princess and the Frog. The Princess and the Frog was yesterday, and it was the most extraordinary thing, my husband and I had the entire cinema to ourselves, with it being towards the end of its run, and being 'late' on a school night. So I was free to enjoy the movie in the way I do at home, like a child, with various shrieks of horror, cheers of joy, and little, tiny sniffles. I'm cute. This concentration of Mouseness has made me rather aware of the concept of "princesses" (not the real ones, they tend to be horsey and dull). You'd think in a world of make-believe, where sovereign nations with beautiful adventurous daughters can easily be fabricated, there'd be more in the way of hard and fast rules as to what counts as a princess, but really, of all the movies I've watched lately, the only one that was formal about what counted as a princess was The Princess and the Frog. And that was only in an oblique, coincidental sort of way. So I figured, I can claim to be an impoverished princess too! I'm certainly cute enough, and in this outfit, my adventure can be that I'm a humble but impeccably dressed scullery maid who turns out to be secret royalty. Yes! I am a princess. Look at me princess around. Here I go!

My gorgeous top is from the silentsparrow Caged Bird Lolita suite, and has a nice layered look. The blouse part underneath has stunning shading, with the green and turquoise combining to an effect of silken sheen, and the pinafore-like upper part features a beautifully sparse line-drawing of a caged bird, which puts me in mind of elegant 50s and 60s lounge artwork. I'm a nerd like that. On an amusing side-note, my husband once accidentally got a pink (PINK!) version of the Caged Bird Lolita suite from the silentsparrow Lucky Bird, and even now still actually wears parts of it. He's a manly man, my husband. The skirt is from the Datura suite, in Mint, and while the colours don't match the top entirely, I think the darker green of the skirt highlights the details in the top nicely. This version of the skirt, the Prairie skirt, is the simplest of the three included with Datura, but still stunningly lovely, crushed velvet in texture, with a fine lace underlayer, and floor-sweeping in length, highly wearable on an everyday basis. On my arms, are the Kurai Tart armwarmers I neglected to show, some days ago! Sculpted and cozy, with thick velvet Kurai-patterned bows, and lace peeping out the cuffs, there is nothing tarty about these, unless they're all that you're wearing. Then, y'know. Have at it.

My skin is the adorable new Luan skin from Rockberry. With freckles. And what freckles! These are no mere sprinkling of fairy kisses (as my grandmother used to refer to my own childhood freckles as), these are full-on, redhead and proud freckles, accentuated by the healthy rosy cheeks, giving the whole thing a nice wholesome outdoorsy look, especially given that the lightest Rockberry skin tone is rather darker than I normally wear. Also of note, is that the beautiful soft lips are tintable in Appearance, which means that for the price of one skin with eyemakeup, you have an absolute TON of options for lip colour, from a deep nude, to a frosty pink. Each skin also comes with a boosted cleavage option, as is all the rage these days. Being a somewhat flat-chested avatar, I really appreciate this, that the shading on the boobs is not by default all inflated and pushed up. Rockberry's Luan skins come in four tones, with a huge amount of options, so go buy them, and be cute like me!

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Rockberry - Luan - Light - Makeup B
Hair: lamb - Milk (skull part only) - Sun Dried Tomato
Top: silentsparrow - Caged Bird Lolita - Verdant
Skirt: silentsparrow - Datura - Mint
Armwarmers: silentsparrow - Kurai Tart - Lime
Shoes: Katat0nik - Bubbly Mary Janes - Green
Locket: silentsparrow - Chapiteau Locket - Doveys
Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears - Plugs

Silentsparrow Month! Day 15 - In which Niv is all "teehee!"

Yesterday, when I went out for dinner, the restaurant we ate at happened to be in the same building as my husband's office. After we had eaten, for no other reason than "because we can" we went up to his office and admired the view of the building site across the street, from the conference room. Something that I saw in there amused me somewhat. In the dust of one of the floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows was the distinct shape of a bird, which had clearly flown smack into the window at some point. After convincing myself that it was surely fine, had merely been a bit startled, hoped no-one saw that, and flew off trying to look cool, I was quite fascinated by the way you could clearly see the tips of its wings, and the shape of it's body, preserved there in the slightly grimy window, from the size and shape of the wings, I'd have guessed it had been a careless pigeon. After that, my husband got a drink from the water cooler, from a plastic cup that secretly had a crack in it, and spilled water all over himself, now THAT was amusing. But anyway, the point is, there was a pigeon yesterday, and today, more pigeon!

silentsparrow's new Lucky Bird set features cutecute hyadrawn picture of a pigeon, which, unless I am misinformed by my brain, was drawn for hya's partner Jessica as a Valentine's gift (but purpler). The reason for my particular bout of "teehee" is that it features various parts of outfits which I LOVE. The Pigeony Rose set consists of a male and female version of a t-shirt in the delicious rose colour that I refuse to admit is really pink, with a pigeon (which I will henceforth refer to as Pidgey, for two reasons, 1: I'm adorable, and 2: as I may have mentioend before, I'm brainwashed by Pokemon), and with a nice thick border of black at the cuffs and neckline. Also included in the set is the always wonderful Kurai Short Jacket, with its incredible jewelled and lacy cuffs, and what made me grin extra hard, a special version of the Nemu gloves! this version of my beloved gloves are particularly gorgeous, as they feature a softly painted-on version of Pidgey, and swirly vines which extend to over the top of the glove. But you can't see that properly in my picture, and here's why. Modesty! I only wanted to show you, the viewer, the bottom of my boobs. And my belly. Because on my belly is the supersweet Pidgey tattoo which also comes in the Rose Pigeony Lucky Bird set, and hey look, some of those vines look like a swirly heart! Remember, the silentsparrow Twittery Lucky Bird is only available for members of the silentsparrow Twittery Birds group, which has a 250L joining fee but is all sorts of worth it, but if you don't want to join, or are totally impatient, liek wot i iz, the set will be out for sale for a very reasonable price next to the Bird.
My skirt is NOT part of the set, it is the Roses Grimley A-Line skirt. The Grimley skirts are wonderfully versatile packs of various styles of richly but subtley patterned black skirts, and are an invaluable nicer-than basic thing to have in your wardrobe. Finally I feel I should say something about my shoes. One day, out of the blue, I said to myself "I want some bowling shoes" and after a small amount of searching, I went to JC's and bought these beauties. Even though they're almost as old as my avatar, and pre-sculpt, they look absolutely fantastic still. As I was saying to Persephone the other day, "Excellent primwork never ages - at least in shoes"

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Curio - Moonbeam Frex [Dark] - Cupid 2 - Allure 2
Hair: Clawtooth - Velvet Hearts - Valentine (tinted)
T-shirt, jacket, gloves, tattoo: silentsparrow - Rose Pigeony Twittery Lucky Bird set
Skirt: silentsparrow - Grimley Skirt - Roses - A-Line
Shoes: JC's - Strike! - Checker
Ears (just visible): Balderdash&Schadenfreude - Etherial Fey Ears

Silentsparrow Month! Day 14 - Happy You Know What!

Brief post (for me), unlike many of the cynics who hate Valentines Day, I'm a happy, thoroughly spoiled girl today, and wish to continue the nauseatingly cute whirl of presents and kisses of the day! It's still a bit of a novelty to me, as my ex was not the romantic type at all, while today I was given a giant (like, dude, seriously, two foot tall) card, a gigantic, delightfully tacky heart shaped box of chocolates, and various other greatness. It's nice to love and be loved in return. Possibly, and this is, I assure you, a completely original statement, not quoted from any neuveau musical movies, the greatest thing you'll ever learn. Is...that thing I just said. See, it wasn't a quote, I mangled it, with awkwardness!

Independently from Persephone, my post today is also Stumblebum Brigade based! This round of Stumblebum goes on for the whole week, so I don't have to feel too bad about posting about it late on a Sunday, you still have plenty of time to grab these goodies. When hya told me she and Allegory were conspiring again for this week, and it would be PINK, Iwaslike "RAAAAAGE!" but it turned out that I was, as I so often am, wrong. If this is pink, I bloody like it! It's dusky and dark and a bit like a red wine stain, but without the headache of it being a stain. The corset and OMG SO TINY skirt are from silentsparrow's new Kurai Tart sets, and wonderfully, you can buy the pieces seperately, or you can buy them in an outfit set, and there are also delightful chunky armwarmers in the ensemble. When the regular colours were released, I was told I could wear the Chapiteau bloomers underneath in order to feel less naked. I did so. I'm not used to my bottom being visiible in silentsparrow! But these are beautifully made little skirts, sculpted, with sexy little knickers to go underneath, I've already enthused about my love for the spirally brocade pattern of the Kurai sets, and this is absolutely no exception. Now, given my adoration of armwarmers, it might seem odd that I'm not wearing the ones that match this, but instead I'm sporting the jacket and stockings from Allegory Malaprop of Schadenfreude's Stumblebum exclusive offering, I love the loose stitching on the arms of the jacket, and the stockings make me feel ever so much less naked, and besides that, Alle's Lucent heels have a colour option that matches PERFECTLY. In a departure from my usual style, I'm wearing one of Schadenfreude's prizes from the Starlust VD hunt, the pink Heartflake eyes, if you click the fullsize of the pucture, you'll be able to see the pretty pretty overlapping hearts that form the detail of these eyes. My usual eyes from this line are made of trees! My skin, I ADORE. It's a Valentine's Day gift from Nomine, and is of the Primrose line, and has that very fashionable at the moment style of lipstick, but also, look! FRECKLES! Beautiful, beautiful freckles. Like, really nicely done. Want. Want moar freckles. I hope there will be more freckles on Nomine skins, I'm all about the freckles. Anyway most of these things are totally limited edition, so go get them NOW! Also, you know - Love each other always!

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Nomine - Virgin - <3
Hair: Schadenfreude - Lethe - Razzamatazz
Bodice: silentsparrow - Kurai Tart - Rose
Skirt: silentsparrow - Kurai Tart - Rose
Jacket: Schadenfreude - Seith Jacket - Rose
Stockings: Schadenfreude - Amortenia Stockings - Rose (opaque)
Shoes: Schadenfreude - Lucent (bows) - Rose maybe?
Eyes: Schadenfreude - Heartflake Eyes (from Starlust VD hunt)
Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears - Spiral Horns
Necklace: Eolande - Candy Hearts

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 12 - Bundled Up

In a country that doesn't know what to do with snow, my warm, coastal little corner of it had about a foot of the stuff dumped on it overnight a couple of days ago. It was rather fun at first, no-one was out, I got new boots (my footwear collection consists mainly of maryjanes and eccentrically designed suede sneakers), saw my first real icicles (I lead a sheltered life) and built a little tiny snowman on my windowsill. South East England being a temperate, salty sort of place, though, it couldn't last, and by the time I ventured to the supermarket last night, in my new boots, all the knee-high fluffy white snow had compacted and the entire town centre resembled a very big, lumpy ice rink. Also, my little tiny snowman had gone off to become clouds. Given that the denizens of my town have little knowledge of this white cold stuff, when people got brave and came out today, it was very comical. I was woken by the sound of industrious Nepalese men (who DO know what to do with snow) breaking up the ice with shovels, around the Oriental Buffet I live across the street from. And a big delivery truck jack-knifed on the narrow cobbled street outside for three hours because he couldn't get his tyres to stick to the road. Good times. I much prefer the eternal pristine whiteness of snow in Second Life, I have decided, and even more so, the choice of outerwear I get to enjoy it in. Those new boots hurt my feet.

To cheer myself up, I threw on the newly-retired silentsparrow Marzipan coat. I'm about a month late blogging this, it was one of the wonderful pieces in the (not-so) Secret Sale room, which are now gone FOREVER, making me feel a bit old, as most of them were new when I first stared shopping at silentsparrow. But still, here it is, it's my blog, my hoard of old things, enjoy the pretty pictures and work on time travel. The Marzipan coat really does make me happy. All stripey and bright and pretty. It puts me in mind of something a fictional Edwardian child with really cool parents who had access to magic fabric dyes might wear. It's at the top of my list of coats I want that don't really exist, along with the coat from the movie Penelope. That's pretty much the entire list, actually. But anyway! It comes with four different bottom options, I'm wearing the Open Front with Bows. Because, bows. And also, if I was wearing the closed version, I couldn't get you to gaze in wonder at my crotch, thusly: gaze in wonder at my crotch! It looks a little bit like a face, doesn't it? Either friendly or menacing, depending on how you look at it. These are the pants from the Ritual suit, a kind of fantasy medieval affair which matches the gorgeous Ritual gown. In a somewhat flowery worn leather, with brass rivets, and a lace-up front, I admit they'd make more sense if I had an extravagant crotch bulge, but I don't, and for that, I am truly sorry. They're wonderful pants though, rich in texture and colour and detailing, and while I'll spare you any more closeups of my nether-regions (in THIS post, at least) the butt shading is pretty sweet too.

Outfit Credits:

Skin: l.fauna - Lapine - Pale 1 - Fresh FR
Hair: Deviant Kitties - Music Kitty - Blood Red
Coat: silentsparrow - Marzipan - Berry
Pants: silentsparrow - Ritual Suit - Penny
Boots: Kookie - Pomski Boots - Ocean Blue
Gloves: Twosome - Gatcha Gloves - Dark Grey (20L from gatcha machine)
Scarf: Scribble - Warm Stripes Scarf - Big Buttons
Piercing (barely visible, but there!) - Ellabella - Shadow of the Day

Silentsparrow Month! Day 10 - Back to school

I look, like, 12. Not me personally, you understand, I look every bit of my 26 years and some bits of some other peoples', but my avatar. Looks 12. It wasn't intentional. At first, I thought maybe it was the skin, Curio skins do have a somewhat rejuvenating effect, and the Cupid line is no exception. But then I looked at Persephone, wearing the same skin as me, and she managed to look like a grown-up. So, okay, it wasn't just the skin. Must be the hair. Riffled through my hair folders, tried various effects. I managed to come up with: prissy schoolgirl, tomboy schoolgirl (as a sub-discovery from this, I discovered my ears needed more tinting to go with the skin), mouse schoolgirl (not mouseY, mouse, you don't want to know), anchorwoman schoolgirl, schoolgirl-in-a-wig...I think we're sensing a pattern here. So okay, it wasn't just the skin, it wasn't just the hair. Maybe it was the outfit? Tried a shorter skirt. Now I had discovered Slutty Schoolgirl. Tried taking off the lace undershirt. Now I was a Halloween Cheerleader. Back to the skins. I tried a skin with a more adult face. It made me look unnaturally short. Really, wearing that skin, I felt like a midget. And compared to a lot of my SL friends, I'm relatively statuesque. I looked at Persephone, in her button-down blouse and jeans, and she looked like she was my mom. And I'm okay with that, sometimes! It reminded me of old times. So I decided to embrace it, and go with my original outfit, and here I am, in all my accidentally 12 glory!

The outfit started with me wanting to do something cool with the cuffs from the Kurai suit. They're really nice cuffs, with their curly swirly patterning, and little bits of lace brocade sticking out. There's a little ankh at the bottom of the cuff, and at the top, a pair of glistening jewel buttons, adding just that extra touch of vibrancy. I wanted to put something relatively plain with them, so they'd stand out, so I went with the Voltaire shirt, remembering having advised my husband towards it the previous day at the Suit Sale (which is now over). The shirt from the Voltaire suit is basically just a really nice ribbed V-neck sweater, perfect for more casual days, and comes on a couple of layers, which is great for...y'know. Layering. Under it, the Chapiteau Lace Tank. This one is from the Tiger set, it has an orange button, see? The high collar of this slightly worn top makes it great for wearing under other things, but there's also a thicker band of lace over the boobs that does a good job of hiding one's nipples, unless you're really looking, if you wanted to wear it as is. The skirt is the Lolita skirt from the Babbage set. Babbage is only available at the silentsparrow location in Babbage Canals in the steampunk haven of New Babbage, and features the New Babbage tartan, and now I feel like I've said Babbage way too much, THE WORD HAS LOST ALL MEANING. At my footy area, the socks from the Voltaire Suit, dressed up with my trusty Shiny Things Ballet Flats, a bargain at 100L a pair from the discount area there, and a beautiful classic. So yes. I look like a schoolgirl. But at least I go to a school with a supercool uniform!

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Curio - Cupid - Moonbeam Frex [Dark] - Pure 1
Hair: Deviant Kitties - Sammy - Blood Red
Sweater: silentsparrow - Voltaire Suit - Ash (alternate)
Shirt: silentsparrow - Chapiteau - Tiger
Cuffs: silentsparrow - Kurai Suit - BrassHeart
Skirt: silentsparrow - Babbage - Lolita Skirt
Socks: silentsparrow - Voltaire Suit
Shoes: Shiny Things - Ballet Flats - Cocoa
Ears: Schadenfreude - Fey Ears - Ankh and Plug

Silentsparrow Month! Day 9 - Rookerations!

Last night was the grand opening of the Rookery, a new gothy hermit club on the silentsparrow sim, owned by hyasynth, Allegory Malaprop of Schadenfreude, Azazeal Whitfield of October Rust and I think that's it? Azazeal's jaw-dropping build teemed with some of the most gorgeous, talented, charming and well-dressed avatars this side of um...well, there was a whole lot of cool right there, and a rather delightful porcupine too. Conversation ranged from baked potatoes (informative!) to giant viking peen (also informative!), with interludes of bunnies, slightly drunk Achariya, how genuinely beautiful everyone looked, and how sexy the voices of the DJs were. And they were! Azazeal and Mourna Biziou provided some thoroughly excellent music, and vocal candy in-between, and after I crawled off to bed at the sensible hour of 4.30am, the everso cool Recidivist Sideways took over the musicings. I didn't get pictures. I'm far too lame to take pictures. Although, I only crashed once, the whole night! For people wondering "How do I get to this wonderland, this hermit commune, this Tim Burton Viking Hall?", I shall tell you! From nomming on delicious mushrooms in the courtyard of the silentsparrow mainstore, that's how! There's a sign next to them that says "Rookery". Do not try to sit on this sign. It is pointy.

So! Today I treat you to my look from last night! I like to think of it as a sort of clubbing burlesque cutie lederhosen perhaps? I'm wrong to think of it that way, but there it is. I am sporting the hotpants from the Toxine Suite, the same Cocoa one I showed the skirt from yesterday, which have the verdigris cogs and sprockets and gears and...so on, at the waistband and cuffs, and shading on the behind that does not look like you shoved some cantaloupe halves in your pants, and furthermore, a rarity in SL these days, cover your whole bottom. My corset is the Starbunny Chapiteau coset, which was worn by no less than three of us last night at the Rookery, but that was okay, because everyone there was marvellous and we all wore it quite differently and there were no catfights (well, maybe one, but it was rather comical). The Starbunny Chapiteau pieces (tops, skirts&bloomers, locket and top hat) are available exclusively at the Ozimals mainstore, and are based on the SQUEEFULLY CUTE Elite Ozimals bunnies, whose pattern was designed by hya. Mark my words, one day, one shall be mine! Under my corset, to spare my boobies from the public eye, I am wearing another corset, the Luxe corset in Ocean, which, I love the way the little bows peek up at the back. My legwarmers are another Limited Edition goodie, from the CielNoir set, which can still be got in red as RougeNoir, as with the pretty orange corset in my Day 3 post. The tattoos are the faded Sleeve versions of the Song of Anubis tattoo set, the un-faded are incredibly, unashamedly bright and colourful, all scarabs and ankhs and vines and has a ton of options besides faded and unfaded, including with sleeves, without sleeves, full upper body, hand and feet (there's even ink on the palms). The beautiful Someplace to be Flying necklace completes the look, especially in the name of the club. A quick word about my ears, which you may notice are not my normal Fey ears, these are the Schadenfreude MerElf ears, which I put on in concession to seamonsters when I was visiting the incredible Innsmouth sim, well worth a look, even if you don't know Lovecraft.

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Nomine - Primrose - Virgin - Temper
Hair: Gritty Kitty - Ghetto - Red
Corset: silentsparrow - Chapiteau - Starbunny
Corset underneath: silentsparrow - Luxe Corset - Ocean (alternate)
Shorts: silentsparrow - Toxine Suite - Cocoa
Legwarmers: silentsparrow - CielNoir (limited edition, RougeNoir still available)
Tattoos: silentsparrow - Song of Anubis
Shoes: Shiny Things - Belles - Teal
Necklace: silentsparrow - Someplace to be Flying - Starling
Ears: Schadenfreude - MerElf Ears
Horns: Schadenfreude - Kinder Horns