For whatever reason, the chronic pain that I am usually habituated to has decided to make itself front and center this week. I swear it’s using bullhorns and neon signs to make sure I can’t ignore it. Even my fingers ache, so I won’t write about the outfit other than to tell you that what you see is what you get. There is not even the tiniest bit of editing since I cannot save pictures to disk now and have to upload them directly to Flickr.
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I shot these pics a few days ago wearing an outfit featuring items from last month’s Collabor88. Don’t despair, you can now find them in the store. The top, leggings and boots are all from Tres Blah. They come with a puffy jacket, too, but I left that off. Growing up in a place where it’s really cold, I have never understood those puffy jackets with no sleeves as anything more than an extra lining if your coat is not warm enough.
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Nonconformist of the Year – The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. – George Bernard Shaw. .
Second Life® Memestress Strawberry Singh has kicked off 2015 with a fun blogger challenge. She asked folks to shoot a high school yearbook picture with a smile – and explain how we achieved that smile. It was not easy, but I did manage a ghost of a smile.
How I Did It: I used a combination of methods, adjusting my face shape, using tips from Melanie Kidd. Then I turned on slow animations following Gogo’s tips on slow motion animation and Iris Ophelia’s tips on lip-synching.
Saying Cheese did not work at all!
I also tried using emotes on the AnyPose HUD I use to control my eyes in combination with the lip-synching and slow animation. OH well! PhotoShop can help.
Alchemy is more a philosophy than a study. A belief that somehow base metals can be transmuted into fine metals, as water is into wine in Christian communions. In the abstract, though, we can think of alchemy as the process of changing elements by bringing them together. This modern kimono from Atomic has some alchemical magic of its own coming in 3 colors and 6 tank colors that can be transmuted with a HUD. The other alchemy at play is adding an overlay of a light leak to add some color to my blue sky. You can download that video and screenshot individual light leaks from it. I used this particular capture.
In this shot, you can see the gorgeous amethyst crystal necklace from BOOM at Collabor88. There is a lot of interest in crystals for use in healing and balancing our lives – a belief that they focus energy. I think they are pretty and that is all they need to do. The gorgeous manicure is from FLAIR.
Baiastice turns on the heat with these too hot to handle caged bra top and colorful belted miniskirt. In several colors and solids, it’s heating up the joint at Collablor88.
The heat is on, on the street
Inside your head, on every beat
And the beat’s so loud, deep inside
The pressure’s high, just to stay alive
‘Cause the heat is on
I have such a hard time remembering hisw to spell Loovus Dzevavor. Thankfully, Google autocomplete finishes it for me. I had a hard time, too, choosing just one of the delightful outfits from the Fall Winter Collection that was released for Penumbra Fashion Week. You can take a peek at a few others on the Loovus web site. I chose the wrap-up top and skirt because I love the inset triangles and how they highlight the curves of my hip. It’s a single mesh piece, but it feel like separates. There are two other versions of this outfit at Penumbra with the same top but different color skirts – brilliant and bold. Continue reading
Queen Elizabeth I had it right some 450 years ago when she said “I would not open windows into men’s souls.” We all have opinions and we have a right to them — even if they are stupid, destructive and wrong. I think most of agree on that. Where we diverge is when our opinions move to actions that impinge on other people. That happens all the time in society. Much of politics is about building enough political power to be able to take our opinions and move them into actions that impinge on others whether it’s trying to prevent others from marrying whom they love or blocking companies from polluting our groundwater – it is about making our opinions trump those of others.
But there are places where moving from thought to action has no place. The particular circumstance I am thinking of is the effort people make to discourage others from giving to or supporting community efforts to help others in Second Life®. We all may have opinions about the relative merits of one fundraiser over another and we certainly should make no effort to support anything we disagree with. We might think this person is not doing enough to help herself or that person’s need is frivolous or distrust the circumstances or even doubt there is a real need. That’s fine. Skepticism is a healthy quality to have.
However, there is no Selective Service Administration drafting designers and ordering them to produce for this tour. Shoppers are not herded into venues to spend money against their will. Moreover, if you are a shopper and buy a pair of shoes for 250L at a fundraiser, you get a pair of shoes that would cost 250L or more at the store since designers often discount for fundraisers. You’re not donating, you’re shopping. You might spend a little more because you think it’s for a good cause, but you get a fair return for your money.You lose nothing. The only people who risk are the creators and if they have made the decision to contribute, that’s their prerogative.
There are a couple of fundraisers right now to help individuals with urgent family needs. The hair, dress, shoes, mani/pedi and necklace in today’s outfit come from one of those events, <3Ulaa. <3Ulaa is raising funds to help Ulaa Coronet to take her son to meet his grandmother for the first and final time. His grandmother is dying of cancer. For me, this is a compelling need and one that I think is worthy of my time and my lindens – and that’s my prerogative. If you don’t agree, don’t shop there. You will miss out on all sorts of adorability, but that’s your prerogative Continue reading
Once a year, us non-creators are challenged to toss our bandanas in the ring along with other creators such as Lelutka, TuttiFruti, MiaMai and others. For me, it’s always a fresh reminder of why I am not a creator, but I manage to pull something out my hat (or bandana).
For these pictures, I wore various colors of ISON’s Little Black Dress, this leather trim bodycon dress from ISON. I also used the various colors of Kunglers Luna earrings. The skin is Florentien from imabee that has a porcelain delicacy that i love.
****SHOPPING LIST******
Poses: aDorkable
Skin: !Imabee: Florentien – Scarlet
Eyes: [UMEBOSHI] Eon eyes light Green (med)
Lashes: Lelutka
Mesh Attachments:
Slink Hands & Feet
Mani/Pedi: FLAIR
Hair: .::MADesigns HAIR::.
Bandana: Various bandanas from Cajsa Lilliehook, Gidge Uriza, Mel Vanbeeck, Bizarre Hair, Lelutka, MiaMai, Stellar, TuttiFrutti, Rebakery and Dirty Grind
Clothing: – ISON leather trim dress – various colors
Shoes: Slink Siren Leather Stilettos -Various colors
Jewelry: Kunglers Luna Earring – various Colors
Second Life fashion is full of moments of synchronicity and this is one. It all started with the dress from Baiastice. It was released in many solid colors and prints, but I was most drawn to this earth-toned batik. I was fidgeting about, trying to choose hair and MiaMai released some gorgeous turbans with an Afro-centric inspiration and this tobacco version is perfect with the dress. Meanwhile, Kunglers released a necklace in a coffee color and of course, coffee and tobacco are the peanut butter and jelly of louche lotus-eaters. And then, if that were not enough, PXL Creations released a Jazz quartet of skins for Rhapsody. All events have no causal bearing on each other, but they are uncannily in synchronicity.
The combination of pieces made me think of Ballaké, a classic of African Jazz by Bembeya Jazz National— after all, Jazz developed in America from African roots and American music traditions. Then it migrated back to Africa and found a new iteration. These pieces draw their inspirations from Indonesia and Africa but are modified and changed in translation just as the music was. Continue reading
The bright lemon and lime colors in the top and skirt from Tee*fy make me happy. It makes me think of hot summer days and cold summer drinks. I have a real love for gin & tonic and that crushed fresh lime is so wonderful. I love salads made with some fresh squeezed lemon juice or lime juice and generally buy a 3 pound bag of lemons every month. I used to buy about a dozen limes every month, too, but they have gotten too expensive, doubling in price since last year.
