Category Archives: Features

Good News

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I was very happy to read an update from Ziki Questi with the good news that Kylie Jaxxon is alive and as well as can be expected when living with leukemia. She is getting back on her feet and is deeply appreciative of all the community has done to keep her sim going during her absence. The fundraiser will continue as it is to raise funds for The American Cancer Society. Please read the update yourself for the good news.

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I do not know Kylie Jaxxson, but I love her sim. From it, I imagine her as someone who finds beauty in simplicity, in the raw and unadorned flotsam of life. I imagine a kind of serenity coupled with an ease with herself, that feeling comfortable in your own skin acceptance that is so rare. I could be wildly off the mark, but I don’t think so. I think we reveal ourselves when we create and landscaping is one of the most elemental forms of creation. There is something so relaxed and comforting in the simple tableaus at The Trace Too that I feel they must be drawn from the designer’s inner self.
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A Morning Trip To Say Goodbye

I hadn’t ever heard of The Trace Too until Cajsa linked to Ziki Quest’s blog. I feel a bit sad that I’ve probably missed out on something all this time, and now it will be leaving us. I am sadder, however, that it seems another SLer is struggling with health issues.

I don’t know the person who’s sim this is, nor the people doing a little fundraiser. But what I do know is what it’s like to feel helpless while someone you care about is ill across the globe, to watch and worry about the worst, and how it feels when the worst happens. All of that I’ve got in spades.  So I went over to shoot some pics and promote their effort to remember their friend.

In SL sometimes that’s the best we can do for our friends, and I’m glad to support that. Continue reading

Details

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While big elements of a design may draw our eyes, it is the details that win our hearts. Sure, I love the beautiful color combinations in this floral crown and in this dress, but it is the beautiful butterfly and seed pods and the gorgeous ruching that make them special.

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I love how this look came together, the bold dress from Valentina E. is a perfect foil for the organic modernism of Kunglers jewelry and cheeky retro-chic of the undo from Vanity Hair – and each item has exquisite attention to detail.
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Modern Romance

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The Fernando gown from Dead Dollz is romance personified. I love the beautiful embroidered tracery of flowers and vines in that soft peach, blue and mint. I love the fitted bodice with the bouffant exuberant squirt and the sheer overblouse. the definition of the belted waistline. It takes so many elements of historical and folk costume and the result is completely modern. It borrows from the baroque to make something minimalist and resolutely of the the now. It’s just great design on every level.

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To Bed

Quiet reflection to end my day is proving more and more valuable every day. What went well? What did I get done? I know I didn’t accomplish everything but no one ever does. I feel good, overall, about my day. I’m going to sleep well, and I’m going to wake up ready to face my new work work.  

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You Can’t Go In Here

I think everyone’s mom but mine had that room, that perfect living room. The room where things matched, and were coordinated, where things got dusted.  We never had that room, we had chaos and messy and mismatched furniture.

When it came time to buy my own house in real life, having that room wasn’t much of a priority to me either – I coveted a proper dining room. But secretly I’d love to have a room where everything is as it should be. Where guests can drop in and you have no worries about what scary things might be hidden in the couch. Continue reading

After A Journey of 900 Miles

I’ve been desperate for three days to sleep in my own bed and now that I’m here I can relax. I’m so glad to be home on Juicy again, where I can sleep listening to the waves crashing on the shore.  It’s a perfect spot for me, and I have to admit I feel so very spoiled living here.

I can’t quite relax enough to get to sleep. Continue reading

hallucinatory heat

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So it is hot again. One of the joys of living in the Pacific Northwest is avoiding blistering heat, but thanks to global climate change, I am afraid that may become a thing of the past. However, I suppose I should keep it in perspective. It is far hotter elsewhere.

Most of the time, when you read about someplace deathly hot with temperatures in excess of 120° Fahrenheit, you can also add “but at least it is dry heat” which might be small comfort at that temperature, but it still makes a difference.

This was made very clear when I read a news article that left me reeling and think I should be grateful. There is a city in Iran, on the Persian Gulf, that reached a Heat Index of 165° degrees – that is heat of 115° and a dew point of 90. Heat and humidity, that is just not fair. Now my response to heat is to dress lightly, so imagine that heat in a burqa. It makes me very grateful for my much lower intensity heat discomfort.  Continue reading

Read Any Good Books Lately?

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Foxes has released this beautifully fitted and textured dress in a mind-numbing 24 different versions from sparked to ombres to solids with standard sizing and sizing for specific mesh bodies. Obviously, the Foxes creator has given up on sleep.

The long list for the  Man Booker prize was announced yesterday and I have only read one of them. That is one reason it is my favorite book list. It goes beyond bestseller lists and borders, elevating excellent fiction from all over the world. Usually by the time the next list is out, I have read my way through the list. It is changing, though, until 2013, the authors had to come from the Commonwealth and now it is open to authors from any country so long as they write in English and their books are published in the UK. For the first time there are five American writers on the list. Will this change the complexion of the list? I don’t know. I hope not.

I have been on a lucky streak lately, reading several good books in a row. Right now I am reading The Sellout by Paul Beatty, an hilarious satire of post-racial America. The protagonist’s father is killed by the police in what is supposed to be a ridiculously senseless and satirical example of police violence. Unfortunately, reality has surpassed satire on that score.

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Selfie Time At LEA

My travels have taken me to LEA and thank GOODNESS they haven’t banned Selfie sticks here because this is PERFECT for me! I may just start using this for everything. Do you have one yet from RC Cluster? You need one, it’s epic. Continue reading