A Little Something Different

I was poking around on Flickr and happened to come across Berry's blog and her new meme featuring Ebbe Linden, which you can read about here. Which I plan to try to do in the near future, but meanwhile, another one of her memes/challenges caught my eye, and what I'm wearing right now in preparation for a new blog post... well that seemed to fit right in.

Here's her original post... but the challenge is to list five pieces of advice you'd like to give to newbies.

 

#1 - Don't believe everything you read. 

          I find that many newer "residents" come in with the idea that this is nothing but an endless sea   of pixel banging. And further, they seem to feel that this is so much the case that they don't need to do anything in order to get "ye olde sexy times."  Trust me when I tell you, Second Life is not actually populated by nothing but nymphomaniacs or victims of severe priapism. You'll have a lot more fun and maybe even get to that pose ball of your dreams if you'll approach both Second Life and other residents as if you happen to have met while exploring a new place. Because after all, that's what you're doing.

#2 - Know why you're here.

        What I mean by that is... because Second Life really defies description whether you call it a game or a social platform or what have you... I think in order to get the most from it - you have to know why you're here. There is a lot to do, to explore, to learn, to experience and so on here. Not only by yourself but with other people. Every day though, I hear complaints about pain and drama and rudeness etc and I think part of that springs from having expectations of Second Life and of other people that may not be really realistic or fair. Two people may come into Second Life with very different thoughts or ideas about what they want out of Second Life or what they want out of being here. The fact there's a difference of opinion can lead to a lot of heart ache.

#3 - Don't be afraid to ask questions.

        The learning curve for Second Life can be very steep at first. And even long time Residents can still learn new tricks. A lot of people get frustrated because even simple things can seem extremely difficult when you first get started. I recently helped a friend who was doing some interactive work in Second Life as part of her work as a Social Worker and therapist, and since she is not at all a computer person, even things like opening a box or sitting down and standing up seemed very complicated to her.  Eventually those things became old hat to her and she was even able to help some of her colleagues with similar problems. But without me to help her get started, she told me she probably would have given up and lost out on the coursework and training that was taking place within Second Life. 

#4 - Explore, explore, explore.

       Some of the coolest things about Second Life come in two categories. a) Things you can see and do and b) Things you can wear.  There's so much creativity, so much building, creating, designing, planning etc.. you really could never see  it all. But there's lots you can see. Undersea worlds, Caves, Cathedrals, Space, and it's always changing and growing all the time. So, get out there and check it out.  And as for things you can wear, I'm not just talking about what many try to do which is "Look like themselves" or "Look like a super model." You can be a panther. You can be a fairy. You can be a munchkin. You can be a robot. You can be a vampire. And on and on and on.  And yes, I know, I'm sort of on the super model track, lol. I guess it looks that way at least. But that doesn't mean I don't know there's other things out there.

#5 - Be excellent to each other.  The biggest thing, the most important thing is just kindness. There's a lot of generosity in Second Life. There's a lot of creativity and an ability to work together for common goals and the common good. But there's also a lot of petty drama and rudeness and general yucky stuff.  So please, don't leave your manners and your compassion behind the barn door when you sign on. Be kind. It will come back to you.

I did this shot to show that even when I'm being a super model, I can still get my demoness on sometimes.  I actually do have a post planned with this outfit so I won't say a lot about it now except to say that most everything I'm wearing is available at The 100 Block event. Credits will be on my post tomorrow and I'll link from it to here or vice versa. The chair I am sitting in is the Countessa armchair from Angelic Designs in black, a former 60L weekends offer.

Skin is by WoW

Top is by 1Hundred

Pants are by D-Style

Horns and Arm Bracelets by Arise

all at 100 Block

Arrghh... a spring time cold is so not fun...

It's been nearly a week since my last post and my only excuse is that I "hab a code in by nose". I catch everything that comes along, germs are magnetically attracted to me or something.

I've had these snapshots on my hard drive for days and just now felt like getting them ready to post. As always, unless otherwise stated, my pics are merely cropped and arranged. I do not edit for anything else. What you see here is what you get in world. I use analu avataropt whiter windlight setting and that's all. I use a fairly high graphics setting with anti aliasing on but that's all. Please note you can get much bigger views of my pictures by going to my flickr page. (it does often take me a little time after I post on blogger to get the pictures up on flickr but it's not too long a delay)

This is just a springy pretty outfit I put together with pieces from Sn@tch plus various accessories. Sn@tch has been one of my favorite stores in SL now for a long time, simply because Ivey offers great value for the money, several colors in a pack of each item or outfit. She also makes things that I think she would wear herself and I find her clothing very wearable and fun. These two items, the top and skirt were not made to wear together but I think they go together quite nicely.

 

The top comes in a range of colors with LOLA appliers included and the ruffle as a separate attachment.  There are eight colors in total in the pack and they are called Annika. There's a lovely little silver lace detail on the bodice that I matched a bit with my jewelry choices.

My skirt is mesh and is just so charming with the little flower applique on front and back and the mixed denim/floral fabric look.This skirt comes with an optional belt which I didn't wear, and the pack includes 7 colors. This is the Rae skirt and I am wearing both items in peach.

The shoes I'm wearing with this are just the kind of shoes I like to wear in the summer time. I go bare foot around the house, especially in summer, so I like to have this type of style to slip on when I need to go get the mail or go to the store etc. 

These are by Sax Shepherd Designs, I've mentioned this shop before. These are the Flirt Cross Strap Mules in Leather. I bought the whole pack of Leather Basics and they come with a hud to change the straps, the inner sole, the outer sole etc. These are made for the Slink Medium foot. I set mine to this creamy tan color which seemed like a nice option for spring and summer wear.

 

In this pic you can see the silver detail on the bodice I mentioned, and I'm wearing the absolutely delightful Cupcake jewelry set from Cae with this outfit. You have metal and gem change options with this set and I set mine to silver and also multi, meaning that the script automatically makes your gem choices multi so instead of all one color it's mixed. So cute.

I am a huge fan of Cae's jewelry and have several sets now. I believe this is the first one I bought and I still love it. Who doesn't love cupcakes!  The set comes with rings also but those are not worn. You can't see the earrings because of my hair but they are just as lovely and wearable as the bracelets and necklace.

My skin is the beautiful Ivy from Lara Hurley skins which I bought during Skin Fair. I am very partial to Lara Hurley's skins and have been for a long time now, I tend to rush to try on each new release and every single one always is gorgeous. I really loved Evon but I think I love Ivy even more. The fatpack comes with lipsticks, beauty marks, choice of eyebrows, cleavage layers and appliers for hands and feet. The appliers for breasts and booty are sold separately but are very reasonably priced and you get all tones at once which is great since I bought two different skin tones of this skin!

The hair I'm wearing is from Lelutka and I have to tell you I kept staring at it because the hair texture is just so pretty and shiny, like real hair! It also comes in small/medium/large for breast sizes and I'm pretty sure I'm wearing the L here and you can see it fits very nicely over my Mirages. The style is called New, and I'm wearing it in Bourneville from the Naturals pack. Hairbases are sold separately for Lelutka hair and I am just wearing one I have from Action Hair which I like very much with it. See below for that info.

The hip belt I'm wearing is made like those candy necklaces we used to get when we were kids. I believe they were offered at the Big Show or maybe the Azz show before the two merged. It's called Hip Candy and is by Geek. There are several varieties, at the time I think I bought all the ones there were as I love hip belts and I loved the idea of this. I think this is the Sugar Crush pack, it's been a few days since I took these shots and I didn't get to make a list as I usually do of what I was wearing. All of the varieties come with a resizer, in my case I have to resize down a bit and then move the belt itself up but that literally takes just a few moments.

My nail appliers which I tried to make sure and show since I like them so much, are by ZoZ. They are a former Designer Circle offering, and are from the Spring Silver 2014 set. I think I might have mentioned this set before. I'm definitely enjoying ZoZ's entry into the nail polish applier market as I've seen some great things. They offered nail polishes with Peeps on them for Easter!

 

As you can maybe tell I took more shots than I really needed, lol. I just enjoyed this outfit a lot, simple and cute and fresh for spring. I also made a new profile picture from one of the shots I took. This one HAS been retouched unlike all the other pictures on this post.

 

Mesh Hands and Mesh Feet - Casual/Medium Respectively by Slink.

Mesh Breasts - Mirage by LoLas

Mesh Lashes - Falsies Set 1 by Mon Cheri

Mesh Eyes - Promise by Ikon, various colors, currently Quicksilver

Skin - Ivy by Lara Hurley Skins - Tan, Natural (breast, hand, feet appliers to match)

Hair - New by Lelutka - Bourneville, Large

Top -  Annika Cropped Top, Peach with Applier and Ruffle by Sn@tch

Skirt - Rae skirt in Mesh by Sn@tch, without included belt - Peach/Medium

Shoes - Flirt Cross Band Mules by Sax Shepherd Designs - Leather Basics Pack set to tan

Hair Base 01 by Action - Mocha (Veganic)

Eyeshadow - Shimmer Shadows (Part of the Harley Skin set) Peach skin tone/ Gold with Wing by Pink Fuel

Lipstick - Tender Kisses in Salmon by Blacklace Beauty

Moles - PXL, Medium Moles from the Jade special skin set Skinfair 2014

Nail Polish Applier - ZoZ, Spring 2014 Silver

Earrings, Necklace, Bracelets - Cupcake Ensemble by Cae.

Hip Belt - Hip Candy by Geek in Sugar Rush

Poses by OOO Studio, assorted sets

Backdrop - Blurred Satin Photo Backdrops by Cupid.

Lovely's Profile Shot & Life

Hey everyone... I've been a bit quiet,  I know. I have some posts coming up but, nothing is really ready to be posted yet. I'm in one of those moods. I redid my profile and a friend of mine asked me to do a profile shot for her. Thought maybe I'd show you all.

Here's the before/after composite.

I did a little bit of Liquify, some work on her hair and hairline, a little skin smoothing, some lighting adjustments and some shadows etc.. Her name is Lovely.  I'm still not quite satisfied with her hair and may mess with it some more before I'm totally finished

Her skin is from Al Vulo - Mimi in milky, hair by Catwa, necklace and earrings by Gossamer jewelry, top is by Sn@tch.

Here's how it looks at the moment.

 

I'm no great photographer or photo editor like some of our artists in SL but I think not too shabby.

Lilies of the field - Quick Post

This one's gonna be a bit quick since I haven't had a lot of time lately but I did want to show you this look because it includes the really beautiful Cara skin from Zoul. Cara was offered at Skin Fair and I'm not sure she is available yet in the main store.

Look at her face! At least on me, I find her so elegant and self assured, she seems like a woman for the ages. The skin pack contains eyebrow variations, cleavage variations,  eyeshadows and lipsticks. I am wearing the #1 eyeshadow from the pack but my lipstick is from Blacklace Beauty.

The only thing about the skin I am not completely a fan of is the brows on the skin itself. They are a bit thick for my taste. That's okay though because the creator has thoughtfully included a no brow version and I am wearing that with a set of brow from a former TDR offer from YS & YS. The skin was called Rebecca and this is the dark brown brow.

I'm wearing Cara in tone 4 which is a little darker than my usual skin choices but this skin just seemed to demand a really bronzed look.

Appliers for Slink hands and feet, Lolas and Phat Azz are available separately in store.

My hair is an older style from Calico, called Monique and it comes with the included Lilies. The flowers are scripted for lots of texture change options.I'm wearing the hair in Mocha with a hairbase from Action, hairbase 01 also in Mocha.  I thought the soft curls and flowers went well with the skin's unique beauty.

My necklace and earrings are from Beloved Jewelry. I honestly do not remember when I bought these so I'm sure it's been a while ago. They are the Strands of Beads Necklace and Earrings, and the beads are scripted for texture change.

My bracelets are from Ryca, They are the ICED bangles in Platinum, scripted for resize.

Finally my pretty off the shoulder blouse is part of a set from Sugar & Cyanide, a former Lazy Sunday offering called Zebra Chic. It is mesh and does come with an applier for Lolas. I did have a little trouble getting the two, breasts and top, to work well together but perseverance paid off and I got it to look pretty good.

Here's my attempt at a more artistic version of my first shot -

Here's the details, I'm not going to bother to separate it all, you all know how I roll, lol. All slurls either here or above for your buying pleasure :D

Mesh hands by Slink
Mesh breasts by Lola - Mirage
Mesh lashes by Mon Cheri
Mesh eyes by Ikon - these are from the Promise collection but I switched to Dune rather than my usual Glass or Starfall.

Skin by Zoul, Cara in Tone 4, worn with the 01 eyeshadow included. Hopefully in the main shop soon.
Hair by Calico, Monique in Mocha worn with included Lilies

Moles tattoo layer by PXL
Lipgloss tattoo layer - Tender Kisses in Peach by Blacklace Beauty
Brow tattoo layer by YS & YS
Hairbase tattoo - Action Hairbase 01 Mocha

Blouse by Sugar & Cyanide, part of the Zebra Chic set

Bracelets by RYCA - Iced in Platinum
Necklace and Earrings by Beloved Jewelry, Beaded Strands

Nail Polish applier by ZoZ - available at Designer Circle, Spring 2014 Silver

Poses by Ploom.
Backdrop by Katink, April Showers Bring May Flowers

A Little Spring Time

I managed to get into Fameshed and wanted to show you possibly my favorite outfit from the event this round. Mutresse has been steadily making a name for itself with beautiful mesh clothing items with lots of options and this spring time fresh outfit is no exception to that rule.

If you are not familiar with Fameshed,(website link) - then you are in for a treat, a chance to see some of the top mesh designers doing their thing. There are clothing items, shoes, hair, jewelry and also home decor and furniture items. They are sold at regular price  however, so don't expect a discount.

Mutresse is offering this adorable pair of shorts and tank, sold separately, this round. They are, as you can see, made to wear together. You actually get two versions of the shorts, one for wear with the tank and one for wearing with other things or by itself. Both clothing pieces come with a hud that allow for color, metal changes etc. The one for the tank is especially detailed, the little knots of the shirt can be changed independently as can the pretty embroidery on the bodice and the lace trim on the hem.

I am not a huge mesh clothing fan but I just really loved this set for some reason. It is very much like something I would wear in real life on a spring day.

The bag I'm carrying is by Je Suis and the animation inside animates only the right hand which makes it very usable with poses or with an ao.

The bag comes with the accessories you can see there, scarf, lotion, sunglasses etc, and is resizable via script if you so desire.

I am also wearing a pair of wedge flip flops which I picked up at Reign this past weekend as part of the Saturday sale. I checked this morning and they were still there but I can't promise that is the case now, at least not for 75L. These are pink but they also are available in a few other colors, made for Slink Medium bare feet.

The embroidery on this top is so realistic, just wonderful!

I am wearing another hair by Emo-tions, the Lora hair which consists of the included hairbase and the braided and curly hair. I thought it was perfect for a casual morning walk or such. It comes with the bands in black but I just did a little retexturing magic to make them pink using a patent leather texture I had in inventory.  (Right click, edit, edit linked prims, very carefully select only the parts you want to change, go to texture tab, select texture etc. I suggest if you try this on something of yours to always make a copy first, just in case. I did, and I've been building and such for a long time now)

I am also wearing more jewelry from Earthstones - this is the "Simply Put" Jewelry set in Amethyst. I was a little sad that there's no Rose Quartz or Tourmaline in this set that would have matched a little better but I think the amethyst is quite nice and not too matchy. I'm also wearing the Zaia hand bracelets I showed you yesterday, this time in MoonstoneAmethyst, also from Earthstones.

 

I'm still wearing the gorgy face Jade skin in Sunkissed by PXL. I have tons of skins I bought at Skin Fair but this one is hard to take off!  This is the petal pink version.

Here's another peek at the cute wedges I'm wearing. I normally don't like to just show feet but, it's how it turned out this time, lol.

Also want to give a quick little shout out to Hello Dave, nail polish appliers. I'm wearing a polish on both fingers and toes from the Spring Mix set.

And that's it. Fameshed is open for this round until almost the end of April - I'm not sure of the exact date. After that the Mutresse tank and shorts will be at the main store, link above.

 

Mesh hands - Casual and Mesh feet - Medium by Slink

Mesh lashes - Falsies Set 1 by Mon Cheri

Mesh Eyes - Promise Collection - Starfall by Ikon

Shape - Kallie by Belissima - Much Modified

 Skin - Jade in Sunkissed by PXL - Skinfair2014 set, pink petal

Hair - Lora - Naturals - by Emo-tions (see slurls above)

Nadya Tank Top - available at Fameshed (see link above) by Mutresse

Guzia Shorts - available at Fameshed, (see slurl above) by Mutresse

Wedge Flip Flop in Pink for Slink Medium Feet by Reign - See slurl above

Necklace and Earrings - Simply Put set in Amethyst by Earthstones - see slurl above

Slave Bracelets/Hand Bracelets - Zaia in Moonstone/Amethyst for Slink Casual hands - see slurl above

Polish appliers for hands and feet  - Spring Mix by Hello Dave - see slurl above

Bag - Prete - Striped Pink by Je Suis

Poses by Ploom, assorted sets

Backdrop by Katink, part of the April Showers set.

Rings on her fingers, bells on her toes...

And she shall have music wherever she goes....

 

I honestly am not even sure where to start with this post, so I guess I'll start here with this amazing skin from PXL. It's been a long time since I've loved a skin from PXL, but this one I really honestly do. 

This is Jade in Sunkissed and is part of the special skin set that was offered at Skin Fair.  The set came with four make ups, a plethora of eyebrow, lipgloss and other types of tattoo layers etc. This is the petal pink, and believe it or not, I haven't added one thing to it other than the moles that come with it. That is how much I love this skin. She is so very pretty, elegant, charismatic, just ... as  I said above, amazing in my opinion.

I missed "Mesh Tuesday" yesterday but I decided to go ahead with my planned post, so here's the beautiful and interesting "Rome's Messenger" mesh dress from Soedara. When I grabbed it yesterday, this color, in a set with a black version was offered at 75L. I don't know if that offer is still good.

I don't know much about ancient roman costume other than what I've seen in movies but this seems to me a reasonable facsimile of a roman toga, especially of a young and pretty servant girl.  It's simple and yet full of little details like the wrinkles on the bodice and the shadows of the skirt.I do recommend you wear a pair of system panties if you are feeling a bit modest, as I was.

 

 This post is partially inspired by two relatively new releases. The new hand bracelets  from Earthstones called Zaia, which come in sets for either the Slink Casual or Elegant hands, is one of them. They are metal change and you can purchase a fatpack of stone choices or single options. This is the quartz version with gold metals to match the toga. Back in the day I was a huge fan of their older versions of slave bracelets so these made me incredibly happy.

The other item is these jeweled shoes by Sax Shepherd Designs. They are called Mata Hari. I bought the Leather Basics Pack and the hud included offers jewel choices, leather choices, sole choices and metal change. They are made for Slink feet and as you can see, absolutely gorgeous.

 

My hair is the Daisy style from Emo-tions and a click of the hair lets you decide whether to show the daisies and metal decorations or not. It's such a pretty style and suitable for all kinds of styles. I do wish that the metals and daisies were texture change but that's just me loving to have choices. It's a wonderful hair just like it is. It includes a hair base to make the look finished.

My jewelry is from Maxi Gossamer, and I chose the Karina Court necklace and earrings because the style sort of matches the look of the hand bracelets. They are texture change and metal change and if you notice in a couple of my shots like a boob I missed changing one earring. I used the gold/white settings to also match the hand bracelets.

I'm sure most servant girls of Rome were not so bedecked with jewels or wore high heels but we can imagine, right? I used a shadow setting for my windlight to experiment and I think it came out pretty well. Hope you enjoyed the post. Details and slurls below.

 

 

Mesh hands - Casual and Mesh feet - High by Slink.

Mesh lashes - Falsies Set 1 by Mon Cheri

Mesh eyes by Ikon - Promise Collection - Starfall

Shape - Kallie by Belissima - VERY Modified.

Skin - Jade Sunkissed by PXL - Skinfair 2014 Skinpack - Petal Pink

Hair - Daisy in Chocolate with included hairbase by Emo-tions.

 Dress - Rome's Messenger in White by Soedara (part of the Duality set)

Shoes - Mata Hari by Sax Shepherd Designs - Leather Basics set

Zaia slave bracelets fatpack by Earthstones

Karina Court - Necklace and Earrings by Maxi Gossamer

Poses - Ploom, assorted sets

Backdrop - Katink, part of the Grungey walls sets

 

Updates from Sugarr's Blog... 50L Friday skin, 99L skin and more.

Here's the updates from Sugarr's Blog.

 

Glam Affair's 50L Friday offer for a few more hours - See here for details.

Free hair, free jeans, free shoes, 99L skin from WoW at Designer Circle - see details here.

 

1L dress, Free skin, Free jewelry, 95L shoes, 99L hair, see details here.

How to make Phat Azz/Cute Azz appliers work for Ghetto Booty...

I thought I'd do a little something different because I've seen a lot of friends and group members talking about the difference between these butts and also how to use these appliers with Ghetto Booty. It's explained in the notecards that come with Ghetto Booty but, sometimes seeing pictures makes it easier to understand, so here goes.

**Couple of Important Notes. The Ghetty Booty comes in 3 versions now, all have demos.

V1 is made for a size similar to the Phat Azz.

V2 is made for a size similar to the Cute Azz, with a size 0 body fat and a size 0 belly. I actually cheated and got away with about a size 3 body fat but your mileage will vary.

V3 I have not tried but it's a horse of another color.

At the U L u k i e shop where Ghetto Booty is sold, you will also see a free designer applier kit. I bought one and I use it to make my ghetto booty appliers as it's just easier to start with a totally fresh applier every time.

Here's a look at my inventory:

You can see the applier kit, plus my various appliers that I've made and that I've labeled them so I know what the heck it is when I want to wear that item again.

On the floor there you can see an example "Azz" applier and also an example Booty applier.

 

Now you can see that I have my edit window open on the Azz applier and you can see the content tab. In the content tab, if it's skin it will say config_skin on the notecard. If it's pant it'll say config_pant, if it's under pant it'll say config_underpant.

Now, what you want to do is you want to take that config notecard and slide it into your inventory. It's smart to try to put it in the folder of the outfit you're trying to set up the applier for, but just somewhere you can find it. I've seen these cards sometimes no copy, sometimes no modify and sometimes like this just plain. So be careful you don't lose the card.

In the screen cap above, you can see that now the notecard is in the inventory folder, and I'm now editing the Booty applier. If you are taking a new applier like I suggested above, it already has a notecard in it. You will need to delete that, as you see here. 

Now you can see I've taken the old notecard out, and put the config pant card in. You can also see the local chat where the applier tells me first that it can't find a notecard, when I take the old one out. Then it says it has the azz notecard and tells me it's ready for shipping, when I put the config card in.

At this point, I go back to the general tab on the Booty applier, and name it something to match the dress or pant or skin or whatever that I just made this applier for. I make sure to say it's pant or underpant layer too so I know exactly what this is. Then I take it back into inventory, wear and click to apply.

And that's all there is to it. I hope this helps make it more clear!

The house I'm in, in these pictures is by Funky Junk, a prefab builder I love.  It's the Sandpiper Cottage.