Once upon a time I made a mad dash to Artilleri because I had to have all of the things. Right about the time I got all the things, mesh came and made all the things I had just gotten obsolete. Or did it? Continue reading
If you are anything like me, you wait a day or two for the fast frenzy of an event opening to slow down a bit. Then, distracted, you forget and start anticipating the next event which you will also defer attending for a day or two. Meanwhile, the first event continues and all of a sudden it is nearly over and you are this [ ] close to missing it. Well, you are that [ ] close to missing Fashion For Life. It ends tomorrow, so go today.
That is where I found this delightful sky blue pink dress from G. Field. It gets all the feminine details just right from the ruffles along the neckline to the softly puffed sleeves to the bow that ties in the back. Add the cherry blossoms that fade into the blue of the sky and it’s just a dream of a dress.
There is no shopping guide this year, so it is a bit tricky to find specific stores. However, there is one way you can always find exactly what you want and exactly where to find it. Go the list of in-world items at Relay For Life’s web site. Here is the link to a database of all the vendors. Select the type of item you are looking for. For example, I wanted to find Essenz shoes for Fashion For Life, so I selected Avatar Shoes and hit Go. This brought up a list.
As you can see, the item name is there, I can mouseover for a picture, and it has info on the team and the price as well. The far left text is hyperlinked to a slur that will take you to the exact spot where you can find the item you want.
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Don’t you love it when the sun is bright and streams in through the windows creating an interplay of light and shadow in your home? I know cats love it as they shift to follow the light. I am more a shade person and will shift from the sunlight into the shade, but I still love to see the beams of light moving across my home.
My dress is a super-feminine lace dress from Gizza called Cara. It is very demure and feminine from the front, though there is a bit of a surprise from the back as you shall see.
I am relaxing in the living room from my new cottage by dust bunny that I picked up at The Arcade. Through the windows you can see the greenhouse as well. The side tables and the pitcher of baby’s breath and the book on the far table are all from the dust bunny collection at The Arcade. Scarlet Creative’s Amelie sofa seems made for this sweet little cake of a house. I changed the pictures in the frames from the DRD frames I got at December’s Arcade. I thought it might be fun to put in old family photos, so the pictures are of my grandmother, great grandfather, great-great-great grandfather, a family reunion in 1901 and other old family photos.
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One of the surprises when I moved to Oregon were the magnificent magnolia trees. I had seen them in pictures, of course, but I thought of them as southern trees, not trees to flourish in the Pacific Northwest. But flourish they do. They are in bloom now.
Magnolias have such a grandiose beauty, without fear of being gaudy or flamboyant. They just are what they are. They don’t hide their exuberance, their size or their extravagance. It reminds me of one of my favorite Bible verses, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;they toil not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”
The scarf that is belted to this dress from NYU reminds me a bit of the exuberant magnolia petals. With a color-change HUD, there are 10 plain or 10 print scarf options. The dress itself comes in 10 colors that match the scarf options.
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Relaxing at Agent Cooper’s desk with a damn fine cup of coffee from Schadenfreude.
When my father died, my sisters called to tell me. It was not unexpected and was, in many ways, a relief for him and everyone who loved him, but that does not lessen the loss or the finality of death. They gave me the news and I sat there, quietly stunned at how much more painful it was than Thought it would be. I think I whimpered, trying not to cry. So my oldest sister said, “Go make yourself a coffee. It’s a good thing. I’ll call you back after you’ve had a coffee.” I had to laugh to myself, because coffee as comfort is so very much the legacy of my dad, a first generation Swedish American.
Such a messy desk! some of the mess comes in a great collection of clutter from Tres Blah at The Arcade that are must have pieces to turn houses into homes.
Coffee is a ritual for Scandinavians who consume more coffee per capita than any other people in the world. Most people in the US are familiar with coffee breaks at the work place, but in a Swedish American home, there are coffee breaks every day, when we would all sit down together and enjoy a good cup of coffee with some bread and cheese or some fruit or a dessert. And by all, I mean all. Children get coffee with milk as soon as they are old enough to hold a cup without spilling it. Continue reading
How many of us have predominantly black, grey, and white clothing? How many homes have all white walls and neutrals with a “pop” of accent color? We don’t have achromatopsia, so why do we live like we do? Why are neutrals considered more tasteful than active, vibrant colors?
Did you know that those classic white statues from ancient Rome and Greece were not originally white? They were painted and full of bright gaudy color. I wonder sometimes if the centuries of elevating their pristine monochromatic grandeur are why we are so shy with color in our lives today.
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It should come as no surprise that I ALWAYS overpack when I travel. This time I’m heading north north north from my warm southern home. It’s still terrible winter there, and I’m ill prepared for what that’s going to mean. But I’m going to pack pack pack and hope for the best. I know two pair of pajama pants might seem excessive but one is warm and one is cooler. And I need both casual clothes and work clothes.
Oh my this is going to be a lot of bags, isn’t it?
Well it doesn’t matter, the adventure alone will make lugging all these things along well worth it!
Gidge Is Wearing:
Lashes: Amacci – Eyelash Tattoo 5
Beauty Mark: [PXL] Beauty Mark POS10 Dark SX
Hare” .ploom. Hare (HB) (small) – Ploomage
Chemise: : Baiastice_LaceDream-Celeste-size S
Panties: Baiastice_LaceDream-panties-Celeste-size S
Wedding: EarthStones Destiny Bridal Set – Gold
Other Rings: Schadenfreude Badger Wee Beastie Ring
Schadenfreude Owl Wee Beastie Ring
Feet: Slink Avatar Enhancement Feet Mid Left V2.0
Slink Avatar Enhancement Feet Mid Right V2.0
Hands: Slink Avatar Enhancement Hands V2 – L – Casual
Slink Avatar Enhancement Hands V2 – R – Elegant1
Slink AvEnhance Hands and
Slippers: Slink Boudoir Slippers LDF White
Slink Physique Mesh Body V2.2
Skin: *League* Skin Erin Pale Mocha Blonde Chest D
Eyes: IKON Charm Eyes – Denim (M)
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?
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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They say the devil is in the details, but there is nothing devilish about this dress.
When Pixicat shared this dress as a Work In Progess on Plurk, I knew I had to have it. The details were so carefully wrought that anyone who loves great craftsmanship would admire the dress, whether it is their personal style or not. A lot of thought went into the design in ways to allow you to wear it as you please. For example, it comes with or without the white blouse, there’s a detachable bow you can opt to leave off, as I did. And then the lacy overskirt can be worn, as I did, or left off, as Gidge did in the previous post. On top of that, the lace overskirt it tintable so you could color it anything your heart desires.
The original title of this post was “If you go out in the woods today…” because it was going through my head while I was getting dressed. Then I went looking around on Honour McMillan’s blog for a good place to shoot and EXACTLY the place I wanted was found in a blog post by the same name. KISMET! But I figured, she just used that title, I know we’ve used it, I’ve got to come up with something new.
I realized I’m clearly headed to Grandmother’s in this outfit. Traditionally I’m taking her a basket of food as she’s sick. So obviously, in this version of the tale, Grandmother is going to be having three eyed cat soup. Right? Yum yum. Continue reading