Tag Archives: MiaMai

The Hydrangea God Surveys His Minions

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From the bottom of the garden, enthroned in his earthenware pot,
the hydrangea god surveys his minions— Rosanna Warren (listen here)

Who does not love hydrangeas? They blossom with such abundance and generosity, their palette of colors at once delicate and wild. Oregon is awash in hydrangeas and their leaves are budding now. I thought I had seen every color of hydrangea until I saw this gown from Gizza with the black umbels of hydrangea. Now I know all about adding or subtracting aluminum phosphate to make soil more or less acidic or alkali to change hydrangea color, but how did they get black. I turned to Professor Google and learned they simply paint the umbels. However, the effort pays off with a gorgeous drape of hydrangeas for the neck and headpiece that accompany this gorgeous gown.
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Serendipity shows her face again. These bracers from MiaMai for We <3 Role Play were in the same grouping of notices waiting for me when I logged in. They were sent with a few hours of each other. Now some might thing they are rough-hewn in contrast to the delicacy of the dress, but contrasts between hard and soft can be exciting and the silver petals on the braces are reminiscent of the hydrangea petals.

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Rockabilly Red

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The theme for this month at Genre is Rockabilly and Fission’s Paula dress is pure Rockabilly. It comes in black, pink, blue and red and of course, I had to go with Rockabilly Red.
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A Damn Fine Cup of Coffee

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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.

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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 →

In Living Color

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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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Imagine If Jane Austen Got Angry

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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?

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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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The Healing Power of Sprites

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We can imbue talismans with tremendous power through the powers of faith and suggestion. If you believe something will work for you; it often will. Monica Outlander of MiaMai has created in real life and now in Second Life®, a collection of talismanic sprites that  can bring health and happiness to those who invest the power of belief in them. If your worldview is more prosaic and devoid of supernatural beliefs, they can also be enjoyed for their quirky adorability and the come with a magnificent free shelf that can be used to display these sprites, but I think I will also rez a few more of these shelves for otters things as well.

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There’s also a home protection sprite hanging on a branch that is equally adorable. The gorgeous house is the Hudson Townhouse from Scarlet Creative and can be found at Collabor88 this month.
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Shooz Nooz #5 : 21Shoe PREVIEW – Ingenue & Miamai

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There is a great lineup at 21Shoe this month and I’ve got two previews for you today.

What’s 21Shoe? 21Shoe is a montly event held at each creator’s mainstore. They release two exclusive shoes that are for sale BOGO for 24 hours only. After the 24 hours POOF they’re gone. So if you fancy them, you gotta step up and go get them!

First up are some wicked dotted heels from Ingenue. These fit SLINK, Maitreya and Belleza in the HIGH foot shape. They are pretty wicked and personally I’d put them on my “must have” list. Continue reading →

Bedazzled or Shoe Glue Is Magical

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When long-time model Fuzz Lennie told me she had begun designing for Zanze and had just produced her first dress, I had to see it. She has a great sense of style and exquisite focus on detail and I was eager to see what she was going to make. All I can say, is wow! if this is her first, I cannot wait for her second. This dress spoke to me on another level though, reminding me of one of my favorite gifts I gave for Christmas.

It was several years ago, back when I had my very first job in political organizing – working for the mission more than the money. My “discretionary income” was close to nil and in choosing between getting the NY Times of a telephone, I opted for the Times and walked two blocks to a convenience store for phone calls. So Christmas would have to be frugal and I would have to make gifts. Well, I grew up on frugal Christmases with homemade gifts, so that was no problem.
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Feminist

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Misogynist bullshit from TIME magazine’s annual ban-a-word poll.

I was feeling fiercely angry after learning that TIME included feminist on a list of words to be banned from common usage. I will not provide the link because they did it for traffic and they should not be rewarded for their indecency.

And it is indecent. For clicks, shits and giggles, a human gerbil desperately spinning for male approval and working far above her competency suggested that feminist is overused and included it in a list of words that should be banned. Responding to richly deserved backlash, she demanded we consider the context; she is critiquing media trends, not feminism. This is doubly shameless when she blithely ignores the context in which the “I am a Feminist” campaign came to be. I am sure she is proud of herself, though, because she is the kind of feckless  crystallization of vapidity that always will be very, very, very proud of itself.

I am not going to rehash GamerGate or the War on Women or review the depressingly long list of women whom retrograde knuckle-walkers have tried to silence with rape and death threats. I am not going to list the long list of anti-women legislation proposed and passed. I will only sadly mention that 36% of Oregon voters voted that women should not have the same legal and civil rights as men. It is all sad and depressing, but, Katy Steinmetz, that is context.

Feminism is controversial because as women have become more economically independent and achieved a measure of parity in society, they are less susceptible to social and economic extortion to remain in bad relationships. Is a good relationship possible with a man who thinks women are second class citizens? That, Katy Steinmetz, is context.

Of course, Katy Steinmetz is not that important and she never will be. Though I imagine someday she will realize that she is paid significantly less than men in her same position – notoriously common in journalism. She may be angry, she might want to express that anger with a word. I wonder what word she will use?

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Audrey

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When I put on this dress, Half Measures, from Dead Dollz for Penumbra’s Autumn/Winter Fashion Week, I immediately thought of Audrey Hepburn. It has a similar front neckline to the little black dress by Givenchy for Breakfast at Tiffany’s. While the wide circle skirt is a complete opposite to the long, slim pencil skirt of that iconic gown, it is still something she would have worn.

Audrey Hepburn remains one of the great fashion icons achieving a kind of immortality with her legacy – not just in film but in fashion and even more importantly, with her activism. She was far more than a pretty face, but was a wise woman who worked tirelessly on behalf of refugees as Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, a passionate commitment that may have risen out of her experiences as a teenager in World War II working as a courier for the resistance while one stepbrother went underground and the other was in a labor camp.

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