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 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

Just under a month of Silentsparrow!! Day 1(ish)

Oh plans! I had such plans. They were great plans. Well laid, too. THE BESTLY laid, one could say, if bestly was a word. Which it isn't. But alas, they fell by the wayside. That's where the best laid plans fall, you know. It's convenient because at least you know where to pick them up. The plan was, for every day of February, I would blog only clothing from my beloved silentsparrow (with guest stars, of course! Girl cannot live on sparrow alone). But being the delightfully disorganized mess that I am, I forgot that yesterday, being February 1st, was the first day of February. These things pass me by. So, now, it's every day of February except yesterday and other days I forget! I'm sure I will.

To kick off, I must show off something that makes people who know me throw their hands in the air and wonder what the world is coming to! It's PINK! I am wearing it. By choice! A conversation between myself, hya, and the delicious Achariya has made me realize that I hate pink. Except when hya does it, and even then, I have to make excuses. Item: Last year's Lust lucky chair sets (but that was a red sort of pink). Item: The Candy Nephilim Suite for RFL (but that was for charity!). Item: All the pink things from all the LE hunts! (but I'm a COLLECTOR!).

This, I had no excuse for. It's just so PRETTY! It's the Rose Twittery Bird Lucky Chair Suite.

Comprised of a corset and top combo, and gloves from the Datura set (and a brooch, I love these brooches that keep popping up), shorties and lolita skirt from the Chapiteau bottoms set, and stockings from the Lottie suite, AND a tintable tattoo of a classic rose (also on the skirt), all done up in a yumsome raspberry pink - which makes me want candy and there's an old fashioned candy store right up the street, I could go but I assume they've just closed for the day.

As the name might suggest, to the astute of you, it's in the lucky chair. Which is group only. The group costs 250L to join, and you MUST join it, hya regularly gives out gorgeous gifties, she likes to spoil is, so it's very worth the joining fee.
I've gone bald to show off the other yummies I've been rockin' for the past few days. These Etherial Fey ears are a collboration between Allegory Malaprop of Schadenfreude (who made the ears themselves) and Saiyge Lotus of Balderdash (who made the beautiful swirly jewelry on this set). These and the regular varieties of Allegory's Fey ears are now MY EARS. Go buy them, a billion options, all wonderful. Closer inspection of this pic will also show the detail of the gorgeous Treeflake eyes from Schadenfreude.
And LOOK at the perfect softness of the new(ish) Primrose skins from Nomine. Do Love. I've been totally living in these, they make me feel like a big fleshy rose petal, they feel velvetty soft to look at. Which doesn't make any sense, but why should it? The shading of the facial features is wonderful, I love the width of the nose, and how the lips are full without looking like they were stolen from a small child. The makeups are subtle and flawless, and the skins come with 4 different eyebrow colours, so now, the curtains and....eye...curtains..? can match on me, the redhead! Yay!

Shop at the following, to be lovely! silentsparrow , Schadenfreude , Balderdash and Nomine

Outfit Credits:

Skin: Nomine - Primrose - Virgin - Rush (red)
Hair: Tiny Bird - Breathe Me II - Pomegranate
Outfit: silentsparrow - (Rose) Twittery Bird Lucky Chair Suite
Shoes: Lassitude & Ennui - Hitomi - Classic
Eyes: Schadenfreude - Treeflake Eyes
Ears: Balderdash&Schadenfreude - Etherial Fey Ears
Lashes: Sin Skins - Tipped Fluff Lashes (tinted pink, possibly no longer available)

Oz! Magic of it! Hunt!

The wonderful Magic Of Oz sim turned one year old this week, and as you've doubtless heard, to celebrate, they're holding one of their legendary hunts. It's to my shame that I've only once visited the sim in conditions where I could have my graphics at full pelt, and been able to admire the incredible build properly, but thanks to their innovative hunt system, I know the place intimately. The sim is crammed with fantastic shops, and unsurprisingly, my compulsive nature compels me! to find everything on offer in these hunts. Slippers, candy canes, my eyes have become attuned to their unrezzed forms in unexpected places like beneath waterfalls, atop craggy mountains and precariously perched on rooftops. The anticipation before the hovertip pops up telling me whose object I've found, and the furtive glance at the minimap assuring me that no-one else is about to dive in and swipe my treasure, I really am excessively fond of Magic of Oz hunts. here for your approval are some of my very favourite things that I found this time around!

My mad priority on these things is finding the silentsparrow prize. What can I say? I'm a fangirl. The logical parts of my brain tell me "You've found silentsparrow, now you can stop" but of course, I don't. This time around, the prize was the completely adorable Grassies set, featuring a green plaid layered skirt and matching armwarmers, two vastly versatile tanks, some pyajmmie bottoms, and a sweet little tattoo, all featuring hyasynth's thoroughly adorable hand-drawn grasshoppers, and as an awesome bonus, tentacle horns (inspired by her Cuttles set), and additional antennae by Radio Signals of Scribble.
Worn with it in my picture, is a skin from another of my personal favourite people in the wholewideworld, Allegory Malaprop. Her prize on the hunt is a pack of beautifully glittery-green makeup'd skins, Moonage Daydream Emerald, two for the girls (Langwidaire), two for the boys (Orpheus), which give the face a beautiful classical silent movie star look, if glittery green makeup can be considered classical (I think it CAN and IS and HAS!)
The boots from MnM in the first picture were the hardest prize for me to find, I don't know if they were scarce, or people were just like *grab*, but when I first put them on, I thought they were just pleasantly made, rather large unisex boots. It wasn't until a later misclick (and then reading the enclosed notecard, like a genius) that I discovered their true secret. Which is BEYOND wonderful to me, and I can't even do justice in words or pictures, but, I am very glad I kept searching until I found them.

Another thing I made it a priority to find was the prize from Balderdash. I Only discovered Balderdash relatively recently, but Saiyge Lotus' jewelry has quickly become some of my favourites. The Oz version of Strange As Angels is delicate and dark and beautiful and love, and takes it's name from one of my favourite Cure songs.

Laughing Academy's gift particularly caught my imagination. When I was little and would watch The Wizard of Oz, I'd always be taken by the solid gifts the Wizard gave to Dorothy's friends, as a child would be, I always wanted to hold them. The 'heart' he gave the Tin Man always particularly seemed like it would be fun to hold (I admit, I had completely missed the /point/ in them, but I loved how they looked). And here they are on a wonderful witch's hat! There is also a Top Hat with the same decoration, and I am a sucker for top hats. The outfit I'm wearing is one of Crie Style's two gifts, and the opulant pearl necklace is from Eye Candy.

Finally, Katat0nik's gorgeous Wish outfit. A sweet little Lolita dress in rich blacks and jades, complete with opulant texturing and bows and ruffles and puffs and everything else that makes Katat0nik's work such a joy to wear. It comes with the jaunty miniature witch hat, the fabulous striped stockings, and even the ruffley buckled witch boots, which will be totally re-useable over the spooky season.

A quick note about the red hair I'm wearing, the only item (aside from my traditional Mirel eyes) that is not from the Magic of Oz hunt. Haedon Quine of Tousled has a new, completely squee-worthy sim, called The Field, and for the opening, she has set out several pink bags around the sim, each containing some hair. Very easy to find exploring the new sim, which is both funny and cute, which can be found here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Field/162/94/25

The Magic of Oz Anniversary Hunt finishes tomorrow, October 18th, so if you havn't picked up any of these goodies, hurry over there, quick, quick!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Magic%20of%20Oz/128/128/27

Credits:

Pic 1 + 2:

Skin: Schadenfreude - Langwidaire - Porcelain - Moonage Daydream - Emerald - Magic of Oz Hunt Exclusive
Outfit, tattoos and tentacle horns: silentsparrow - Grassies! - Magic of Oz hunt Exclusive
Hair: Wasabi Pills - Earleen - Sapphire (hunt exclusive shade)
Shoes: MnM - Boro Shoes (hunt exclusive)
Jewelry: Balderdash - Strange as Angels (hunt exclusive)

Pic 3:

Skin: As above
Hat: Laughing Academy Oz Anniversary Witchy Hat (hunt exclusive)
Outfit: Crie Style - Wicked Dress for Elphaba (hunt exclusive)
Necklace: EyeCandy - South Sea Pearl Lariat (hunt exclusive)

Pic 4:

Skin: As Above
Hair: Tousled - Olivia - Candy Apple
Dress, hat and Boots: Katat0nik - Wish (hunt exclusive)

PIECES OF YOU- WANDERING OUBLIETTE

The welcome note to Oubliette begins like this...

Oubliette, known as a place of forgetting, (or the forgotten, as the case may be....) is a floating mass of mysterious things and nonesuch, to which there really is no point. Well, other than to confound its visitors, who sometimes come here with a purpose, and other times are merely floating about like lost luggage with the tide. Which are you? I wonder.... Above all things... Oubliette is a place to wander, to explore. It is an evolving space where one never quite knows what the tide waters will sweep in.




I have visited Oubliette on several occasions, but mostly never really went beyond Evie's Closet. This weeks started this awesome hunt that allows you to not only score some great items, but lets you explore one of the most gorgeous sims in SL.







When you Teleport in, you land at the beginning place of the Pieces of You Hunt.



You need to first join the group for 88L. Each chest you find cost 1L. The proceeds go to support the sim. Between the joining fees and the chests its about 100L.

Prized featured are from Evie's Closet, Balderdash, Frippery and Winx Home and Garden.

Be sure to grab the Oubliette Welcome Notecard. There are LM's for places of interest you will find very valuable.

Featured in these pictures is the Goth Aventine Gown from Evie's Closet and Strange as Angels Earrings and Necklace.





Used in my photos is a special Windlight Setting created by Saiyge Lotus, called The Gloaming. The instructions for this setting can also be found in the Welcome Notecard for Oubliette.

THE HUNT BEGINS HERE! GOOD LUCK!

Dress: Goth Aventine by Evie's Closet
Jewerly: Strange as Angels by Balderdash
Skin: Pin UP Light in Apple Pie1 by Gala
Hair: Aiiyana in Black by ETD

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

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

Yesterday was my Second rezday in SL. I would have posted this then, but I only realized it was indeed the 23rd, somewhat late in the day, and I'm lazy. I can remember that day all to clearly though. An aquaintance of mine, from a Sims forum, hadn't been around much, and when she popped in, she explained that she'd been playing Second Life, and recieved much mocking for it. A few others admitted that they too had accounts, and so I decided I should go see what it was all about. In those days, I was familiar mostly with mmorpgs, cheap ones at that, Runescape, for example, and so once I'd signed up (I messed up on the signup form, Barbosa was my second choice of last name, after I locked the one I wanted), I diligently went through the tutorial sections on Orientation Island. To your left-ish, you will see the first ever photograph taken of Nivaya Barbosa (at 5.41pm, indeed). Of the four tutorials, the first I went for was Appearance, and took it quite seriously, treasuring my free chainmail shirt, and tweaking and tinting and flaring and generally 'customizing' myself with a freedom I was quite unaccustomed to, until I came to a look I was sure would be considered perfectly acceptable and even quite beautiful, once I'd finished the tutorials. I certainly didn't look like the rest of my fellow noobs on the island. I sailed through the rest of the mission-based tasks the Lindens gave me to prepare me fully for my new life (flying took a bit of getting the hang of), and went mainlanding! I landed in Korea 2, in a lagpile the likes of which are rarely seen these days, a mass of grey bodies on top of each other, unable to move or fly, there was a person wearing a box you could click, and all sorts of confusion. Eventually I used my new-found flying skills to escape to somewhere empty-looking, and employing the power of SEARCH, looked for Newcomer-Friendly places, with the keyword 'Free'. I ended up at Curious Kitties, where I found all sorts of pretty things I was sure I'd never ever be able to afford (ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MONIES?!). It wasn't until relatively recently I realised that the avatar I'd started out with, and right away, let's be honest, destroyed, in my zeal to make my own things(!), Haragyaru Female, was made by Ameshin Yossarian, the very person whose things I'd longed for in those early minutes. So, to make amends for my noobish ignorance, here I am, rocking the clothes I was born in, with my own shape, a rather more up-to-date skin, and the system hair tinted to my beloved red.

As the minutes passed, I discovered there were chairs I could sit on for a few minutes that would give me free money (gold? dollars? I had no idea what the money was called), and even better, that there were places where people went and danced, and one of them, The Space Lounge, had a sign you could click and then keep walking around, and it would STILL give you free money, if you stayed near it. I constantly wore freebie wings, a cigarette, and a Space Lounge Bling Necklace I won. Life was good. It was when I started working there, that I met Persephone, and, a short while later, the man who I ended up marrying in the RLz. Slowly, I learned the value of prim hair (thank you Gurl6), changing ones clothes, and, rather later than most, I must confess, non-system skins.

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


Credits:

Pic 1:

All nooby goodness!

Pic 2:

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

Pic 3:

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

Pose credits:

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