Shape Up for the New Year

“A Novel, in the end, is a container, a shape into which you are trying to pour your story into.”
~Helen Dunmore

I do admit I was very resistant to getting a new shape last year because I’d had mine forever and I love it and it was MEEEE and yadda yadda yadda.

But then, I tried on my shape made by Hybie of Savoir Faire (and our newest contributor here at IOF) and I fell in love. It’s amazing what a difference a shape made by someone with a brilliant eye for proportion and a great fashion sense can make. Continue reading

Blue Christmas

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Donna Flora released some beautiful gowns before Christmas that may have stuffed a few stockings since they were transferable. The gowns are called Faith and come in five fabulous colors. This one is Argentina – with its splashes of silver.

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Family we have heard on high…

O hey it's christmas.

How did you celebrate Christmas? This year I was with family, a full solid day of it. I had fun, but given how loud and raucus my family is, my ears were ringing by the end of it. If you’re anything like me, you’re sitting at your computer with a glass of wine breathing a sigh of relief to play dress-up with your SL dolly. Acha looks cosy today, right? I think my avatar spent a quiet Christmas at home in her skybox, lying around in these super comfy mesh pants from Plastik and a few oversized sweaters, reading Pride and Prejudice. Lucky girl! And cheers to you all this Yule.

Lip ring: Ellabella Phedre – noel
Pants: Plastik Elizabeth mesh pants in Volcanic
Earrings: Bewildebeest hypatia gold earrings (Thanks Jackal! 😀 )
Fox stole: Ohmai for Collabor88 – a lil’ foxy in black
Skin: fashionably Dead bird skin – Winter 6
Shirt under the sweater: /artilleri/ Eartha top in green
Sweater: Nerd Project Cardigan 02 in gold brown (resized down for a chick, and without neck prim)
Hair: Kik – Lily (honey)
Eyes: Mutsu neko eyes in green
Socks: Vintage – Corduroy argyle socks in forest green
Shoes: SLink Felicia capped stiletto in black
Poses: Luth

Merry Christmas, Baccara Rhodes

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In Oregon, there are all sorts of buildings, streets and villages named after our pioneers. If we did that in Second Life, surely there would be many towns, sims and maybe even an ocean named after today’s guest stylist. Second Life launched on June 23, 2003 and just a little over a month later on July 10th, Bacarra Rhodes rezzed in-world for the first time.  In the book, Second Life: The Official Guide she is even designated The Grid Queen.

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When I saw her gorgeous purple ball gown I wanted to shoot at Wanderstill on the Ode sim which reminds me so much of Monet with its lush abundance of flowers. I also used Elysium Elide’s windlight settings to give me that saturated rich purple sky.

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Merry Christmas Alicia Chenaux

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I met Alicia Chenaux on Plurk, though I had read her blog for a long time before that. I should say blogs since she has a fun journaling blog where she chronicles her Second Life adventures as well as her fashion blog. I first began paying attention to her blog when she began her 365 Project which was such a huge commitment. I don’t know if I would commit to blog for a full year even after blogging for four years. For me, it’s so much easier to do something than to say I will do something, because then I really have to. I admire people who have the will to make that kind of commitment up front. I also admire the kind of openness and vulnerability that journaling blogs require. It, too, requires a commitment beyond what I would do.

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I was looking forward to seeing Alicia’s outfit because she’s a former model and I knew that work history would translate into an impeccable outfit that was perfectly fitted. And I was right from every Elikatira hair on her head to the GField shoes on her feet, everything is perfectly fitted. Her outfit seemed perfect for sightseeing and wandering the streets in the fashionable city of Venice which you can find on the Prada sim. I could see her modeling skills at work as she positioned herself on the dock by the gondolas while I was flailing around in the river after falling off the dock a few times. In fact, I had to run inside one of the stores and dry off while she patiently waited.

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Dolly In Exile

She knew it from the start…there was no one who loved this little dolly. One day she was just thrown away and forgotten about. It wasn’t such a horrible tragedy, she dusted herself off and vowed to eventually find a new home. For now, she roams from village to village and from the shadows watches all the little girl’s cuddling their dollies. One day she will be loved……..one day.

Hybie is wearing:
*DOLLCOCO*_Body(snow) (mesh) (free to group members)
*DOLLCOCO*_Head(snow)_Lily (mesh)
*DOLLCOCO*_SleevelessDress_Black (mesh)
>TRUTH< Marielle – ivory
*photos taken at Innsmouth

Marketing 301 For Bloggers

Probably the most controversial subject for bloggers and blogger marketing is the relationship between bloggers and designers and review or promotional items that they may feature in their blogs. This is a topic fraught with misconceptions, angst, resentments and drama, so let’s just jump right in.

Let’s start with one of the most widely held misconceptions about bloggers – that they are motivated purely out of avarice, blogging solely in order to rake in free stuff from designers. As with any misconception, there’s a few grains of truth out of which people have made a whole loaf of error. It’s likely some people start blogging in hopes of raking it in, but they don’t last. Once they realize how much work and expense is involved in blogging, they quit. That’s why so many feeds, events and store review policies have a requirement that someone have blogged for three months or so – it winnows out the ones who are not motivated by love of fashion and blogging. You can look into Ful.io to get more ideas about how to make your blog stand out from rest of the others. Continue reading

Merry Christmas, Heidi Volare!

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Heidi Volare may be familiar to blog readers as the author of The Fashionable Heart, but she graces us today as Guest Stylist. She has an easy, casual style that ranges from jeans and t-shirt to super-sexy club dresses, or as she referred to it, “the hoochie.” I don’t know, myself, I think she looks a bit too elegant for hoochie. She’s the perfect femme fatale.

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Everybody knows that femme fatales haunt moody, eccentric and atmospheric nightclubs, so we went to Flashman’s, where Art Deco meets idiosyncrasy and one can imagine a thousand stories. I can imagine the “Lost Generation” idling here while arguing the finer points of  a sentence or Weimar Republic spies passing maps or world-class thieves planning their next caper around the hookah.

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The Christmas Sweater Party 12.26.11

Right about the time you’ll be ready to strangle your family we’ve decided to have a party. It’s a Christmas Sweater party but don’t worry if you don’t have one, I’ve got some of the ugliest on the grid and they’ll be free to everyone who comes if you are in need.

Because I’m a giver.

Cajsa will DJ and it’ll be the most fun AFTER Christmas party around.

So get up on the 26th and put on that Christmas sweater and head over to my house.

I hope to see everyone there, if you can read this – you are invited!

YOU CAN TAKE THIS TAXI!!!