It All Starts With a Smile

It's always fun when someone makes a personal sim and then opens it to the public, and It all starts with a smile is a charming place with meandering paths amongst some very lovely views. I particularly like how it goes from high up to down by the water, offering a variety of different landscapes but with lovely little details and bright splotches of color. I really love the landscaping, and had a lot of fun exploring and checking out the different angles of water and surrounds. I only managed to photograph a fraction of the little nooks and crannies built in and tucked around the mountain rising up out of the waters. There are lovely curved pathways, festive fish, and little buildings and stores tucked in all over the place. I was particularly struck by the waterfalls, which are not the solid sheets of water I've run into in the past, but rather are splashes of white finding their way down various cliff faces, over which lambs gambol. There are even a few nice soundscapes you can find if you listen well enough, which lured me to a enjoyable place to settle down and read a book. Everyone and their sister is reviewing It all starts with a smile with good reason - it's a lovely sim to explore.

I've been having a little bit of a crisis of blog (and by extension life) lately. My love of taking pictures hasn't changed, but it's been harder and harder to write the copy which goes along with each post - mostly because I can't decide what I want to say, or what part of my life is most important to me. I didn't start this blog as a fashion blogger, I started it to show off my pictures and hopefully get some feedback on them, but by and large what I get the most feedback from - besides Strawberry Singh's very lovely and traffic driving memes - is the fashion that I do when I cover peoples' creations. It's an interesting and often frustrating sort of thing; I don't find writing copy about peoples' creations terribly difficult, but I do sometimes find it rather dull. I love pretty much everything I'm wearing, warts and all. I think the pictures I take do a good job of inspiring, or not, people to pick up something they also like. I feel like there is deeper and more important things I want to say than simply a description of how awesome something is that I bought, but once the pictures are taken and the posting window opens my mind is a total blank. The big thing I'm thinking about today is how I miss people I knew in Second Life who have gone, or who are no longer friends. I value those who remain and their total loveliness, but I have two people I met who are largely gone, one of which the relationship never transcended Second Life, and all I could think is how much I wish I could send them both a landmark to It all starts with a smile and say, "Look at this. Look at this." And also say, Zen and Em... I miss you.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Yun
Horns: Alirium, Pan's Horns (Chapter Four)
Feathers: Lode, Boohoo (Chapter Four)
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Cosmetics: Souzou Eien, Cultist Tattoo
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Wings: Una, Steampunk Wings (Fantasy Gacha Carnival)
Shoulder: Bryn Oh, Shoulder Beetle
Hands and Feet: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands and Feet
Nails: Flair, Juicybomb
Dress: Junebug, Sandy's Sundress and Cardigan (Chapter Four)
Shoes: Mango Cheeks, Recherche Heels (Chapter Four)

Poses: Exposeur

Location: It all starts with a smile
Light Settings: TOR, MIDDAY Rebranded Skies
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only