2012 Color Challenge: Week 39 - Hunter Green

The Gatcha Event at Arcade is all over the feeds and blogs, so I'm sure you've seen things from it, but I was completely blown away by the landscaping around the event. Set on a pier, with beautifully sculpted gatcha machines for all of the prizes, the texturing is completely gorgeous. A lot of it is mesh, but I found despite the crowds which were always there I had surprisingly little lag. Once I headed outside of the main building (visible on the left side), I was barely lagging at all. One positive effect of the mesh is these gorgeous fences with all of the detailing and sculpting on them which is incredibly crisp and clean. I know mesh has had a rocky start in Second Life, but I have to admit I appreciate it more and more as increasingly skills individuals begin to raise the bar even higher. Really, what can be accomplished in Second Life now is simply unbelievable - the equal of any other game on the market even on lower level computers like mine is. I was reminded of a recent post from The Digital Pasture, about how Second Life defaults are unattractive. She theorizes that a major part of this is that Linden Labs doesn't employ designers and artists, nor does it take advantage of the very talented artists in Second Life (with a few exceptions, like the new picture ads). I wonder sometimes if it might be different if more of the builders in Second Life were part of the community, but it's difficult to say that would make a difference given how involved lindens once were and how even then people perceived them as being distant.

Recently, I seem to have been channeling the color challenges; this week I dressed up in Hunter Green without quite realizing I had until after the pictures were taken. It was harder to work the windlight this time because the sky was textured, so setting up something which looked good but still lit the environment sufficiently was a real challenge; I ended up not doing anything too flashy. The dress from Wishbox and the watch from katat0nik were the twin inspirations, and then I ended up with the green wrap from Schadenfreude and it seemed completely perfect. The dress is a longtime favorite, and I took advantage of Wishbox's recent sale to pick up all of the rest of the colors; the colors on it are so rich, and I adore the shiny texturing on the bodice, and the ribbon around the neck. katat0nik's watches are part of the the gatcha event, though this one was a gift from a dear friend to lure me there. I have further plans for these - part of a conversation she and I had - but you'll have to wait to see what it is! As for Schadenfreude, their style doesn't always fit me - difficult to say why, but it's true - but I really love this fox stole with the button eyes; it's rigged mesh, so it stays with your torso as you move.

The mouse ears are actually tinted to be a darker green, but they are also a prize from the gatcha event but from Auxiliary, and I'm still tempted to thrown more linden their way looking for those rainbow rares! That's the problem with gatcha events; they suck me dry and tempt me to keep going until I have everything!  The hair is a new release from Secrets Hair, and I really love it. It didn't fit right out of the box, but Secrets Hair is wisely mixing rigged mesh with prims and so I was able to shift a bit of bangs to cover my bits of skull. The bit of lipstick to give just a hint of color is a gorgeous offering from Mock; I went with simple cosmetics to highlight the Lolita styling of my dress; Lolitas tend to have very simple or innocent looking appearances. I'm not sure I ever manage innocent, but I think simple exists here! The boots are an amazing offering from Kcreations; like every time I've worn some of her boots I've been pleased, and the fact they are color changing and tintable means that they are infinitely matchable, even for difficult to find colors.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De la Soul, RooMee Rainbow
Ears: Illusion, Seelie Ears
Eyelashes: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Lipstick: Mock, Lucir Lipcolor - Vin Rouge
Hair: Secrets Hair, Cristina - Caramel (promotional item)
Mouse Ears: Auxiliary, Gatcha Mouse Ears (Bow) Black
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Watch: katat0nik, Nada Watch - Candy Green (Arcade Gatcha Event)
Dress: Wishbox, Charm - jade (Arcade Gatcha Event)
Stole: Schadenfreude, Green Foxy Stole (Arcade Gatcha Event)
Pet: D Lab, Skunk Arm Black (Arcade Gatcha Event)
Boots: Kcreations, Feline Boots - Leather

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Arcade Gatcha Event
Light Settings: TOR, NIGHT Brighter
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Bloody Wimp

I am a total wimp when it comes to horror and scary things. Even patently false things, even on the internet, I can get thoroughly creeped out.This photoshoot was no different; my feet were tucked up, I had lights on, and I turned the volume OFF! But I like how the pictures turned out, and to do this creepy outfit from Blue Blood credit (it was part of a special event recently, but I couldn't tell you which) was totally worth it. Pairing it with my favorite thigh high boots from Kcreations was also a must - these are patent leather and I'll be following her store until I get all the thigh high boot styles my little heart could desire. There are vast amounts of the hotel which I didn't explore; I ended up finding a few places for pictures, and I might come back during the day with brighter in-world lighting, but I don't think I will. If you like the ghostly and the creepy, though, this is a wonderful place to go - extremely well made and textured. There are many floors of different styles of frightening things, including creepy teddy bears and floating ghosts, and I think I even saw tentacles on my quick scan through to find the bloody words my hands implied should be there.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, MESH Eye - Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Eyelases 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Lipstick: Mock, Bella Vetro Gloss - Lepore Red
Ears: Illusions, Mystic Ears
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Kumi Mesh Hair (promotional item)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Dress: Blue Blood, Nina
Boots: Kcreations, Ballet Thighboots Patent (gift)

Pose: Glitterati

Location: Falmouth Hotel
Light Settings: TOR, HORROR Namob islet
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

Fuzzy on the Details

This has been a very frustrating week for me, as a person who photographs in the wild. Every night I've tried to take the pictures for this post, and while I finally managed tonight - it took me the better part of five hours, with nearly a crash an hour, and you'll see in the pictures that I didn't manage to actually get them all clear to the way I'd like (as you can see above - that picture took an hour and a half and I finally gave up on rebaking my textures because it did nothing). It's completely maddening, especially since the outfit I'm wearing was at Fashion for Life, and I'd wanted to blog it before FFL ended but I kept crashing! Or not loading! or loading, managing to cobble together a picture, and then crashing! I have uninstalled and reinstalled more Second Life browsers in the past few days, and I seriously want to strangle my LSL bridge (which keeps having scripts added, wtf?) and the SL media plugin webkit which was loading just fine before I upgraded to the latest Firestorm, but which is now crashing there times each time I open my browser. Not to mention the flickering to black happening every minute or so and sometimes followed by a crash. Grrrr!

I love this outfit, though, and while this is a Fashion for Life exclusive, it's available in other colors at Falln Angel Creations. The curving snakes are absolutely my favorite, and I thought they fed in nicely to the temptress-in-the-garden feel of Happy Mood's awesome sim of gorgeousness (and sadly, lag). Azriel's prims are always fully editable, which makes it easy to modify the snake to fit if ut hugs a little to tightly to your curves. I usually find things a bit thin and long for me, being a small and plump Deoridhe, but very easy for me to fit. The boots are a very welcome gift from Kcreations; I had mentioned when I blogged her fantastic mesh ponyboots that I hoped she'd make ballet boots, and low-and-behold what found it's way into my inventory! Like her ponyboots, these come with a fantastic tinting HUD which allows for extreme amounts of customization and matching, are a wonderful fit out of the box, and simply come multi-colored for one astonishingly low price - literally cheaper than a single thigh high boot from other stores. A final new shiny thing is this amazing cosmetics set from Mock - the eyes and mouth come together and are really striking and powerful. They were in a gatcha, but kindly there was an option to just buy them all, and that's the tack I took~!

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee - rainbow (mesh, promotional item)
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A Planty
Ears: Illusions, Mystic Ears
Cosmetics: Mock, Aos Si Leaves Red
Eyeliner: Adam n Eve, Hepsut
Glasses: Air, Cresta
Hair: Analog Dog, Bound
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Dress: Falln Angel Creations, Toria Dress (FFL Exclusive, promotional item)
Shoes: Kcreations, Ballet Thighhigh Boots (gift)

Pose: Olive Juice

Location: Happy Mood
Light Settings: Places Cromac

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

Friday's Child is Loving and Giving

My last good memory of my father was around my twelfth birthday. I was very into My Little Ponies as a child, and he had agreed to get me a special, much more expensive Pony Palace as my gift. I was near the tale end of the time when I would spend hours spinning stories of pony adventures; what stands out for me now, years later, is  how it was the last time we were really alone together. We ended up going to several different toy stores; at one of them I indicated we should just give up, but he was determined to get it for me - and it is that determination, that desire to bring me happiness that I cling to as my last good memory of my father. It's my reminder of a time when I was important enough for him to see.

He did other good things for me, but they were always tainted in some way - absent of his presence in a way that memory is not. My memories of my father effectively end four years later, when he made it much more difficult for me to visit him and nullified the custody arrangement my parents had since I was eight. In a way, that other memory has become a good one as well - viewed form now backwards - for in violating the agreement and making it more than clear he'd rather not see me, he gave me back my life, my happiness, my ability to feel joy. I was suicidally depressed until three months after the last time I visited him, and while artifacts of the depression - self hate, fat, reluctance to succeed - remain, I am now a healthier and happier person than I might have been if I kept stewing in the environment which made me want to end my life.

Sometimes the greatest gifts we are given are only apparent years later, in hindsight.

A quick note on some of the clothing - Since Monday I've been taking pictures of Dilly Doll's Renna's Weeklys undies - which are each marked with a day of the week and cover a wide gamut of colors. Two more days, and we'll have reached the end! The boots are my latest find at a new-to-me store, Kcreations, which is a fetish store - so yes, those are horse shoes you see on the bottom! However, the boots are flly color changable, including tinting, are fully mesh, and cost only 500$L! You read that right - 500$L for completely tintable, mesh, thigh high boots! I'm really hoping Kcreations will come out with some heels and ballet boots in the thigh high version, and then I will be in hog heaven.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De la Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De la Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Ears: Illusions, Mystic Ears
Eyelashes 1: Sauce, Sidewinder Lashes
Eyelashes 2: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Eyeshadow: cheLLe, Tropical - blue and green
Eyeliner: cheLLe, Cleo Called Indigo
Lipstick: Mock, Micare LipGlimmer - Flirtatious
Hair: Calico Ingmann Creations, Calico - Light Violet
Headband: LaGyo, Peonies - aqua
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Necklace: Earthstones, Jumoke Necklace - Larimar
Lingerie: Dilly Dolls, Renna's Weeklys (promotional item)
Bracelet 1: Easrthstones, Stne Bangles - Turquoise
Bracelet 2: Silk & Satyr, Cloisonne Bangle 3
Ring 1: Earthstones, Eternal Blossom Ring
Ring 2: Alchemy Immortalis, Nestling Finger Talisman
Heels: Kcreations, Pony Thighboot Leather

Poses: Magnifique

Location: Drowsy
Light Settings: Places Astryls Wild
Water: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only