Tag Archives: We’re Closed

Rescued

“Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat.”

My great-niece recently rescued a couple horses from a kill pen, the third generation of horse rescuers in my family. Kill pen horses are usually sold for pet food because they are considered problematic, untrainable, vicious and dangerous. They usually require a level of training most people just will not invest. In time, though, they can learn to trust and be trusted. If you want to see the evidence, see my great-grand niece cleaning this rescued horse’s hooves just two weeks into training…and the foundations for a fourth generation of rescuers begins. It was thinking about them, the work they are doing, and that two other nieces are doing, that I thought I might take this month’s house from Barnesworth for Collabor88 and set up a farm. I tinted it, one of the things I love about Barnesworth homes.

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Imagine If Jane Austen Got Angry

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This Spring session of The Arcade has one of the most exciting Arcade sets of all time. For once, it’s a good thing to get lots of commons while seeking your rare. You will need several pieces of the common wall to surround your manor house with a beautiful courtyard. Anyway, it’s just an extraordinarily complete collection with 2 houses, an outbuilding, landscaping and interior furnishing, even a well and a wooden cart. 

 

Yesterday was World Book Day. That, combined with the wonderful Primavera in Toscana set from 8f8 at The Arcade got me thinking about my favorite books of the past year.  What rose to the top was Elena Ferrante’s magnificent Neapolitan novels. Now, the novels mainly take place in a poor neighborhood in Naples, not in a rich manor home in Tuscany, but know, we Americans are supposed to think there is no difference, right?

Actually, the wall reminds me so much of the wall surrounding the Spanish military base where I was living with a Spanish family while attending my senior year in Algeciras, Spain. The one difference is that the wall in Spain had flowers on the top, trailing down the white walls. There were always two guards outside with a sign “Todo por la patria” on the wall next to the guard station. Can you imagine an American military base with a wall covered with flowers?

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I love the contradictions in this dress and coat from NYU. NYU specializes in minimalist design, the aesthetic beauty of a dress and coat coming from the lines and forms of the clothing, not from embellishment or patterns. The dress has this severe post-war austerity except that slit on the skirt is thoroughly modern and not the least bit austere.

John Freeman of The Australian wrote of Elena Ferrante, “Imagine if Jane Austen Got Angry.” The Neapolitan novels tell the story of two women, from their childhood to adulthood. There is a lot of anger in her novels, but also humor and love. They seem so raw and honest, as though the author cannibalized her life to tell the story, though we cannot know as Elena Ferrante is very private. Still, the narrator in this Neapolitan tetralogy is named Elena and plans to be a writer. In terms of the usual publicity authors relentlessly pursue, she said she did all she needed to do for her book, she wrote it. I love that!
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A very, very fine house

My House

from left to right: [we’re CLOSED] summer flowers and shrubs, Silver Birch from Studio Skye, Lark – Desert Retreat Deck – Painted, [ba] hollyhocks, Trompe Loeil – Brooklyn Carriage , Sway’s [Door Mat] international, [we’re CLOSED] tree 01D spring

I do not move houses very often in Second Life® or in real life. It is just too much work. However, when the Brooklyn Carriage House came out at Collabor88 last month, I could not resist its bright red doors and fine brickwork. I finally have everything arranged, but will be moving shortly. I thought I would share before I pack it all up. I love the house and how it looks, but I guess my four year old computer really cannot handle such an open floor plan where everything fezzes all the time. I need rooms and walls that limit the textures my computer has to handle, so I will be on my way to a more traditional space. That is totally a reflection of my computer’s age and is no criticism of the house – which is gorgeous, very, very gorgeous.

My outdoor decor is pretty limited, just a few shrubs and bushes from We’re Closed, a couple trees and the gorgeous deck from Lark that was released at The Liaison Collaborative a few month’s back.

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Bop-A-Lena

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I am ready to bop in these delightful flats from Ingenue. They’re from a few months back, but still as chic as ever.

Oop-scooby-dooby-lena, go-gal-go
bop-a-lena, bop-a-lena, she’s my gal
Oh, bop-a-lena, bop-a-lena, yeah she’s my gal
She’s my gal and I love her so
Oop-scooby-dooby-lena, go-gal-go

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Rockabilly Picnic

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Who does not love the Rockabilly theme that Collabor88 is featuring for May? And to show how perfect Lark’s inclusion of a picnic basket, we have The Fulminators rocking with Teddy Boy’s Picnic. In honor of the theme, I will be playing a rockabilly set at The Velvet tonight from 5 to 7 SLT, mixing classic rockabilly artists like Wanda Jackson with neo-rockabilly singers like Imelda May and J.D. McPherson. I hope you will come and come dressed to the rockabilly nines. Continue reading

Sketch the trees and the daffodils

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FASHIONART opens on May 9th and one of the fabulous dresses is this Impressionism Dress. It comes in several colors, but my favorite was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s fabulous Starry Night. Of course that made me think of the incomparable Don McLean’s song, Vincent.

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer’s day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land

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The HopScotch on the wind pose set with the flowing scarves (sheer or opaque) are one of my favorite finds at Pose Fair. Best of all, they are modifiable, so i can edit the color and transparency.

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free

They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they’ll listen now

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The Impressionism dress has a sheer waterfall skirt over an opaque skirt. The sheer print over the opaque solid works well with every print and color used in the several creations.

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A little bit country

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I grew up in the country and live in a city. I have enjoyed the benefits and put up with the inconveniences of both rural and urban life and in the end, I choose the city. Still, there are times I miss the country. Listening to some neighbor’s car alarm last night, random noises from vehicles, police alarms and a band practicing loud enough to disturb but too quietly to be enjoyed – I longed for the rhythmic lapping of the waves on the shore with the hum of crickets punctuated by frogs and the laughter of loons. So, I went to the country in SL today – with a romper from Peqe (at the Liaison Collaborative) and a cozy jacket from sheep door that I picked up at Japan Fair.
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Luxe

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MiaMai’s Monica Outlander has just released her Luxe collection for spring. It includes a dress, top, pants, jumpsuit and long skirt with items coordinated to mix and match. Items include a HUD that allows you to choose the belts, ribbons and other embellishments so you can coordinate tops with skirts and pants easily. I am wearing the Kalia top with the Anya skirt and chose the ribbon to coordinate with the skirt’s print. Each item comes in solids in cotton and silk and in a range of prints. I love the thought that went into the print and color coordination. Speaking of color coordination, check out the gorgeous gold-tip mani/pedis from FLAIR for Cosmetics Fair.

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Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon

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I go out to work on a Monday morning
Tuesday I go off to honeymoon
I’ll be back again before it’s time for Sunny-down,
I’ll be lazing on a Sunday afternoon Continue reading