Unsettled but Grateful

I am suspicious of gratitude. All too often, like forgiveness, it's a word that gets thrown around to distract from injustice and inequality. Be grateful you have food, ignore how your wages are being cut in the name of increased profits. Forgive those who harm you, don't expect them to stop. There are times when I feel blessed and grateful, though; times when I recognize the positive things I've gotten out of what I hoped was a good idea at the time, and times when people have been generous and I appreciate it.

Advent in Second Life is a wonderful thing. Some store owners decide, out of the generosity of their hearts or as gratitude for group members, to give things away for twelve or even twenty four or five days! Usually there are also smaller events during that time - the odd store sale, or event. Some do discounts instead of gifts, or even two levels of give aways - one for everyone and another for group members. I've worn various advent things as the month went on, and in this post I'm showing off a few more as I continue to go though my backlog; I expect this will be a well of beauty I'll be plumbing for some time. I also thought I would list the store I liked the most, and the ones I found along the way, as a place to start next year when Advent season comes again.

First, to what I'm wearing! My hair is one of the many Ploom Advent releases, a style which made me giggle and wriggle when I saw it - the bell shaped puffs at the end of each pig tail are amazing. One of the things I love about her "candy" color pack is how the colors show up differently on different parts, and in this case the bob of shades at the tips just makes me happy. They are, in every way, delightful. My jewelry is actually the result of picking up all twenty-five of Krystal's jewelry advents (she had a separate one for clothing which is similarly priced) and collecting the ornaments inside of them. Once you had a full set, you could send it and a notecard for a desired item from the store (Krystal or Kouse's Sanctum respectively) and get a free set of jewelry or a lovely new gown.

My clothing is another advent which involved a small outlay of Linden - in this case Purplemoon Creations, which in addition to her usual generosity with group gifts (monthly at least, usually an exclusive color) also took a few days before Christmas to offer up several sets of lovely jewelry and clothing at dramatic discounts. I took the chance to round out some of my ballgown and formal jewelry collections with offerings from Purplemoon Creations and Lazuri, which offered the same deal in nearly the same place. I'm still only a hair's breadth into unpacking all of the riches I accumulated, and I'm already thrilled.

In addition to the stores mentioned above, I had a lot of fun with the tree under Cosmopolitan, which had a few different additions each day and the added bonus of including pictures in the announcements; you could wait until the last days for picking things up, as they remained in play until the tree came down. Abranimations had an entire wall of Advent, from the first day to the twenty-forth, each clickable in their own day and offering up a remarkable panoply of avatars, objects, and dances. The same boxes were hidden all over DMC's store, offering up dance balls and single dances among many other things - the searching for the boxes added a fun frisson to what is usually a walk-and-click. Alice Project offered up three different hair modifications, one ofr anyone and two for group members, to a bunch of the hairs she released this year; she does something similar at a bunch of other events, and over the years I've accumulated quite a selection of themed hairstyles to play with. Falln Angel Creations offered up his usual advent capped with a hunt through the store - clothing, skin, and fun world items all available for free or a single Linden.

The widest cast set among the advents had to be the one at Kittycats, though, which had a multitude of gifts from all kinds of stores, and all of them available the entire advent period - I will admit to having brought a few of my alts through for a full set of gifts near the end. Another store that I missed a few days on but was able to catch up later was Loordes of London, which offered up tons of shoes and outfits in their sleek, modern style. Also modern, but sweeter and for your house, is the incredibly offerings from Sway's; the gift cycle starts with a hunt for ornaments that give passwords, and then the passwords are used to get the advent gifts. Much more straightforward is the jewelry from Virtual Impressions, available once each day by clicking on a disordered and lovely calendar; I've been a member for a long time because of the generosity of her group gifts and the discounts on new releases, but the generosity of her advent is likewise immense. And finally, I found NaYu Designs during Advent time and got a lovely selection of shoes, jackets, and dresses for my troubles. One lovely thing about advent is finding new stores through their generosity, and marking them down for future visits - their generosity is so appreciated.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Sparkles: Folly, Rainbow Sheen
Hair: Ploom, Ayane
Ears: .:Soul:., High Elf (We Love RP)
Eyes: .:Soul:., RooMee
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe
Hands: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands
Nails: Orc Inc, Rich Lights
Jewelry: Krystal, Hope Set
Clothes: Purplemoon Creations, Drew Gown
Shoes: L.Warwick, Ambrosia

Pose: Don't Freak Out

Location: Scribbled Hearts
Light Settings: Places Cromac
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping