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 11 - It'll be on your desk by the end of the day

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

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

Outfit Credits:

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

Brand Addiction: silent sparrow

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

Raies Suite

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

Meat Cake

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

RoseNoir Limited Edition (#29, in my case)

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

silent sparrow is for Life, not just for Gothmas!

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

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