I do not know Brandy Maltas (Kalli Birman in Second Life®). However, I know a few things about her. Most urgently, I know she has cancer, a second recurrence of metastatic uterine cancer that has spread to her liver. Secondly, I know she must be a kind person because people care about her and are trying to help her. From the event information, I know she is a single mother of three who is trying to do her best to survive and make it through this battle so she can see her children grown. Lastly, I know that I hope people will support The Road Ahead, an event to support her struggle, before it closes on January 1st.
As an exclusive for the event, Mami Jewell has released a special amethyst color of her Electra dress. As you can see the dress can be worn different ways, all amethyst or black and amethyst, with all the billowing attachments or without them, with sleeves or without. Azul’s clothing is always versatile.
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Category Archives: Showcases & Discount Rooms
I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields
I stopped by Orchid yesterday. What a lovely place to visit. There are deer, horses, and birds chirping away in a rustic winter wonderland that made me think of Alice talking to her cat, Dinah.
Do you hear the snow against the window-panes, Kitty? How nice and soft it sounds! Just as if someone was kissing the window all over outside. I wonder if the snow LOVES the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”
If you’re not feeling sleepy, though, this fun skater’s dress from ISON at Collabor88 is a winner in eight gorgeous colors. ISON also presented coordinating Nordic sweaters to wear over it, but I was drawn to this fur hoodie from Xen’s Hats for the Instruments. It also comes in several colors, but the white one is my favorite.
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If Only In My Dreams
Christmas Eve’ll find me
Where the love light gleams
I’ll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
Lelutka has released a new mesh head called Simone. It’s a special edition head with additional expressions including this mournful one that perfectly captures some of the emotional turmoil I am feeling this Christmas season. With the passing of my aunt this summer, everyone from my parents’ generation is now gone. My sister had a tough struggle with cancer last year and came though in the end, but now has a new cancer that has gone from Stage One to Stage Four in just one month. I will confess I cry a lot lately, but I am still hopeful she will beat the odds. She is the strongest woman I know. Homesickness has manifested itself in the kitchen with traditional Christmas baking like lefse and rosettes and cooking up Cherry Soup with Dumplings, the foods that make me think of home and family.
No one loved Christmas more than my mom. Each year, my dad and my uncle would scour the woods for the perfect black spruce or balsam fir. It has to be 17 feet with no bare spots, so when I put the angel on the top it stopped just shy of the ceiling. Dad made a tree stand with wheels so we could turn it to decorate it evenly. I did the top from my bedroom balcony while they did the middle and bottom before we oh-so-carefully wheeled it across the living room so it was framed in the center by all the windows that faced onto the lake. It was a huge undertaking that was never done in a day, particularly since many of the ornaments were generational hand-me-downs and hand-made memory-laden pieces that prompted stories and remembrances of the past. There were no themed trees or single-colored trees because that store of ornaments was much more precious – a store of memories.If you walk across my camera
Several years back, Billy Bragg and Wilco did a few albums on Woody Guthrie songs. Guthrie wrote the lyrics but they were never recorded. Guthrie’s daughter allowed Bragg and Wilco to write music and record the songs, Among them was the cryptic Ingrid Bergman.
If you’ll walk across my camera,
I will flash the world your story,
I will pay you more than money
Ingrid Bergman
I thought about her when I chose this background for these pictures, It’s reminiscent of Scandinavian embroidery and rosemaling. A few years back, dinking around on some genealogy website, I discovered she and my dad were cousins – sixth cousins, but still, he would have love to have known that. He admired her so. She once said, “Be yourself. The world worships the original,” which seems fitting since today I am not wearing my mesh head. Now worship me. 🙂
like stars filling the dark trees
“Snow was falling,
so much like stars
filling the dark trees
that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness.”
― Mary Oliver
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There is no path
Within this world
there is, indeed, no path!
Even deep in this mountains
I have entered, heart set,
I seem to hear the deer cry!
Fujiwara no Toshinari
Cooking and Eating at My House
I live in Barnesworth Anubis’ Classic Brownstone which has a huge kitchen/dining room. I contemplated using it for a roller rink, but well, that would be silly. Instead, I have a formal dining table on one side, a casual nook for solitary meals and a fabulous kitchen. Here’s a tour of the space and the Christmas decor.
The focal point is the dining table and chairs from The Loft. They were released in October and remain a favorite because of the powerful statement their sleek style and form deliver. The come with gorgeous place settings and I imagine will serve well throughout the year. The NOMAD Baubles Tree from The Arcade is a modern and minimalist bit of decor and the Schadenfreude Festive Cheese Snack was a gift I found under the tree at The Arcade
I’ve tucked the Swedish dining table chairs and candelabra from Nomad into a corner for a less formal place to drink some coffee, read the paper or grab a bagel. The fruit bowl is also from Nomad. All of those items were released in November at Collabor88. The lovely red cuckoo clock is from Fancy Decor and was released in a panoply of colors at The Arcade. The washbasin planter and hedge are from Trompe Loeil and is also at the Arcade. The chalkboards I repurposed from floorplan and Willow’s Astrology Chart, replacing the chart with some chalk art I found on the internet and tinting the frames red. Many of the frames sold at events are modifiable and will allow you to replaced their pictures with your own and some, like this wonderful one will let you change the frame’s color and size. Over the table is a big chalkboard from Clutter. They have released several different ones for the holidays. Below that, you can see Trompe Loeil’s JOY letters, a part of the holiday decor collection at The Arcade.
On the left, you can see the black Christmas ribbon from The Loft for the Botanical Christmas tree at Tannebaum. I thought it would be fun to use it as a sculptural tree on its own. For me, it seems a fitting complement to the dining table and chairs. On the wall, you can see the sign I made using Riders Mesh Factory’s Neon font rezzer. Riders Mesh Factory makes all sorts of fonts and to make your own words, you just rez their contraption, and follow the directions in the blue window. They are really difficult directions like press Start and press Finish. The other decor on The Loft’s Baxter buffet that matches their Baxter table and chairs will be highlighted in closer pictures.
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Let It Snow…
The Cascades are expecting 20 to 40 inches of snow in the next few days. That is the best kind of snow. In the winter, I am all for letting it snow…elsewhere. But, Second Snow does not get cold, does not cause car accidents and does not make the stairs slippery, so I am happy to see it snowing in Second Life®. It was light fluffy snow, the kind that falls when the weather warms up so you can wear something like this lovely cardigan from Emery and not freeze.
Decorating the tree in the back yard and making a few snowmen made for a fun afternoon. For you snowmen manufacturers, there’s an entire kit of materials and end products from Sway’s at The Arcade and What Next also makes a lovely, well-dressed snowman which you can find at The Arcade, too.
I really love this cardigan which comes in five options at Collabor88 this month. The lovely long, casual hairstyle is also at Collabor88 from Exile. It is called Cozy Winter Night, but as you can see, you can also wear it on a chilly winter day.
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The Exercise Room
I am taking a short break after a lovely morning workout in my exercise room. The attic of my townhouse from Barnesworth Anubis is huge, light and airy, perfect for a playroom or, for singletons like me, for a room to dance, exercise and even chill with a book on the massage table after a workout.
Continue readingIt looks like a movie; it sounds like a song
Pixicat has a wonderful ballerina skirt and bodysuit at The Arcade along with several darling ballerina globes to decorate your space. I was inspired to make a short video using the Resplendent Rose Ballet Barre that I purchased a few years ago. However, I have gone to the store and to the marketplace and cannot find it for sale any longer. If folks have recommendations, I would love to hear them.
I will do a separate post about the studio furniture and decor. I wanted to focus on this lovely ballet outfit from Pixicat. When you watch the video you will see how flawlessly it fits.
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