Genre: Books in the Running Brooks

Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
I would not change it.

William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act II, Scene 1

Genre's Burlesque extravaganza is continuing halfway through the next month, but that's no reason to not head over right now! I made a second gilded look out of the incredible variation being sold, everything you can dream of to make an audience swoon. The glamour begins at the top, with this fantastic leaf-style headdress from +XAnSA+, complete with a color changing HUD which lets you customize every shade on it in three sections - the trim and center, the flats of the leaves and ovals on the center, and the gem accents. There are ten options for each area in the fatpack, the gems subtly different to offer some interest even if you go for the same shade across the board. You can also resize it via the same HUD, which lowers the script count when you finally wear this bad boy out on the town. For a lower cost you can pick up headdresses with pairings of two colors, but I think the full version gives you a lot more bang for your buck in terms of reusability.

Genre: Drag Queens

Drag Queens get their time in the Genre spotlight this month, and the offerings are glitzy, glimmery, and utterly fabulous.

Genre: Surprise Party

I'm squeezing in one last Genre post - this time doing my best to show off some of the decorative items which are available through the end of today. My outfit - this confection of balloons somehow attached to my body, is from DeviousMind and is a great deal of fun! It comes with a ton of appliers for different bodies - L.inc, Belleza Venus, and Lolas Tango - some textured pieces to cover the critical pieces, and different versions of the bustle as well as particle ribbons for the hand which kick in when one moves. It's enormous fun for a burlesque outfit or similar style event, which is what inspired me to pull out the Bliensen + MaiTai party cake, which is set up for a dancer hopping out of it and performing for the crowd! It comes with two hiding locations, plus several "pop out of the cake" events (singing, clapping), and several more dances. It also delivers accessories for each appropriate step, like a microphone for singing to the crowd, and even a cake top hat! I'm definitely keeping this in my inventory for someone's surprise party, or even as a club crowd pleaser.

Once I got started, I couldn't help but fill in the rest of the room. First I pulled out banners and star lights from Spyralle, all of them brightly decorated with Spyralle's signature bright patterns. They are editable, with the banners flexi on large boxes which means they can be resized to fit different areas of the house and made either fullbright or not. I absolutely adore the colors and brightness they bring to the party! In one corner I set up a table with party accessories in red and green from Bauwerk. This is one of my first times interacting with their creations, and they really are lovely. The accessories can all be mixed and matched as you wish, and I love the random combination of the cups and letters spelling out "Happy Birthday."

This set could also work well for Christmas, being the proper hues, and it's all copy-ok, meaning you can fill a wall with chairs to park the pizza on, like I did. The pizza is from Lost Junction, and is nicely textured. It includes full pies and single pieces on plates, which I was able to set down here and there as if this were a snapshot in the middle of a party. They also put out a gift of pizza slice nails for everyone who nibbles when nervous! And finally, tucked off to one side I placed a sideboard from Frogstar, all set up for sending invitations and wrapping gifts. This would be a charming addition to any living room, indicating one is the type of householder who is always at the ready - I particularly liked the touch of blackboard squares to write the contents of drawers on, and may end up stealing that idea for offline drawers.

Upstairs, I set up the perfect little nest for a little girl. Hanging overhead is a lovely runner of cloth from Paper Moon, available with and without tassels and including simple wooden beams for hanging from ceilings. Under it I placed this gorgeous trundle bed from Noctis, it's blankets and pillows texture-change between four colors which can be mixed and matched. It's also available with the trundle pulled out or pushed in, and there's a lovely set of accessories to be fitted on top and into the built-in shelving. This is perfect for a guest room, or even the bed in a loft. Finally, tucked between the bed and the window I put a lovely children's tea set from Distorted Dreams, the tablecloth a lovely mix of blues. The tea set can come either attached or not, and there is an additional tea cup for drinking as one feeds ones teddy bears the best imaginary tea! There's less than twenty-four hours left before the Genre Celebration ends, but I hope you have a chance to swing by and pick up what catches your eyes - be it the perfect party outfit, or some fun furniture for entertaining.

Mermaid Princess

There was a lovely set of poses among the many princess things at Fit for a Princess, from Uncertain Smile. It's an enormous oyster shell, quite large, with a wide variety of poses set around it and it's enormous pearl creation. It also comes with a few lovely accessories for different poses - like the gorgeous mirror so I can admire my pretty face, and a lovely shell with pearls spilling forth from it. Each of the poses is interesting and unique, and the shell itself would make a lovely addition to an underwater tableau. I could have wished for a few more poses taking advantage of the outside, as well as the inside, of the shell - something leaning over the top, for example, or lying back and taking in the sights above, but the variety of poses otherwise is wonderful, including one swimming through the shell, and others in various states of repose from sitting to lying. Like all Uncertain Smile posts I've used, the poses themselves are smooth, realistic, and don't distort the standard avatar mesh, which is really fantastic - especially for over the head poses, where the shoulders can often become disjointed.

I knew I wanted to do a whole mermaid look for it, but all of my mermaid accessories are pre-mesh, and didn't seem quite as fluid and seamless as I'd like. Luckily, however, Genre did a mermaid special and I was able to get a good assortment if mermaiding awesomeness to put together a new mermaid form. The hair first, from Souzou Eien, and is all but made for me - rainbows and shininess, with a fun fin and little tendrils off the sides of my head. This set the bar for a rather spare, colorful mermaid princess, so I added in Sax Shepherd Designs' new forehead jewel set, which has an incredible amount of individuality in terms of tinting them - four different sets of gems that can be tinted individually via a HUD and that look amazing. I love the curves over the brows and the enormous gem in the middle. With my head set up, I headed over to Genre to check out what was in the offering, and found awesome lipstick from Senzafine in a variety of watery colors. I also saw, and thus remembered, this amazing octopus necklace from Eclectica, with it's little tentacles curling around a pretty black rock. I really like the naturalistic style of this necklace,  how it looks like it has the weight and heft it should when it hands around my neck. In order to keep my modesty on top, I layered an old set of scales from Evie's Closet under a new set of rainbow gradient scales from Even Tide. The latter come in a whole set, many colors in addition to the rainbow I'm wearing. And finally, my gorgeous tail is from deviousMind and at the Genre event. I chose it because of the vivid layering of colors, and I fell in particular in love with the edges of the fins - how they curl and lace out at the edges.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Hair: Souzou Eien, Dawn Child of Proteus (Genre)
Headdress: Sax Shepherd Designs, Devi Jewels
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: Mock, Glitter Pop Eshadow
Lipstick: Senzafine, Sirene (Genre)
Necklace: Eclectica, Octopus (Genre)
 Hands: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands
Scales 1: Evie's Closet, Lumina Nymph
Scales 2: Even Tide, Gradient Mer Scales (Genre)
Nails: A:S:S, Royal
Mermaid Tail: deviousMind, Undine (Genre)

Pose: Uncertain Smile, Mermaid Princess (Fit for a Princess)

Location: Skyrah
Light Settings: Phototools, B/W Light 02
Water Settings: TOR, Ice-like

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Fantasy Gatcha Festival: Of Gatchas and Harpies

I spent way too much at the Fantasy Gacha Carnival,which has been a pattern this month. I was joking with a friend that I needed to open some kind of store to raise my spending money, because I can't continue this way! I was inspired by deviousMind to try shifting to another race again, and soon a lot of this will be winging its way to a newly-designated Harpy Alt (who has been a second mermaid, so she's just as happy to have a whole category to herself). Thankfully, the Gacha Gods were with me and I landed a few of the gorgeous rares - not the brightly colored one I was hoping for, but this Golden Nightingale is completely gorgeous and a ton of fun. The feet are rigged to the legs, and the wings are rigged to the arms, with flexible attachments for the proper feathery effect. The tail is not rigged, which is nice since you can move it around a bit to fit up with your clothing. There is, next to the Harpy Gacha of Shiny Doom, a Gacha of vague-bits-of-leather-and-feathers-which-pass-for-clothing. The belt is rigged, and unlike a lot of rigged things demands a bit of belly to fill it out. The top is unrigged, and came with a variety of shades of feathers in a textured top. It does not come with panties, so I added my own; the belt does not over things from all angles, so mind the rating of your sims when you wear it solo.

My harpy is clearly of the warrior cast, diving and guarding the nests of her family, and she wears horns around her neck - some kind of trophy perhaps? - from Enfant Terrible, and someone strung some apples around her wrist as a sort of mobile snack (both commons from the same gacha). The Enfant Terrible gacha has a variety of different things in a few colors - including my new bane, the Ultra Rare. Keeping with the inspiration of jewelry from natural items, this Mini-Staghorn Crown from ieQED means she must have spent hours hunting wild jackolopes in order to weave it together. There is a wild number of colors of crowns, and while the rares are.. well, rare, they are not impossible to get. Finally, having lost an eye in the wars, Harpyia Deoridhe shows her feminine side with an eyepatch made of flowers, a pretty gacha prize from la petit morte; I didn't land a rare from it, but given how lovely the commons are, I didn't mind. The army of flutterbyes, though, bright and sparkly and deadly if they touch you, are a release from aii, aka The Ugly & Beautiful. I landed a small army, and sensibly their creator set them up so that they stagger themselves around you if you have several - something which really comes in handy for the blogger on the go.

The number of gacha events are proliferating these days, which leaves me with really mixed feelings. On the one hand, I love gathering up a small army of things to give people, and gacha is perfect for this purpose. On the other hand, there are a few trends of high prices and low rarity statistics which are leaving me a little concerned about my own spending, and so I've been thinking of a series of rules to try to rein in some of the profligate spending, especially considering that I often end up with piles of stuff I rarely use (though really, that's most of my inventory...).

1. Only spend in gacha where I like everything I might get. One growing trend in gacha is that instead of the items all being variations on a theme, with the cooler ones more difficult to get, a few different things are placed in a gacha. This means I often only want a few items, and often the more difficult ones to get, which leaves me feeling dissatisfied about the other items I end up with in pursuit of the elusive White Stag. From now on I'm going to try to end this problem at the root; if I don't like everything in a gacha, I don't give it money.


2. Be satisfied with commons. Sometimes the rares are really cool, or there's one rare I want more than the others, and I really need to learn to step away at that point. 


3. Be cautious with gacha over 50L each. I know that seems like a small amount of money, but it adds up very quickly. To get the entire common color range of a pair of shoes I like, for example, can be 600L if there are no duplicates on a set of twelve, and very likely more. The higher price gacha, while often understandable given the complexity of the items being gachaed, are even more of a money sink and so I need to be careful.

There are times I miss the early gacha days, when it wasn't uncommon to five a five or ten linden gacha and it was for simple, fun things like juice drinks and lollypops, but it's increasingly clear that the new, higher price, higher complexity gacha are not only here to stay - they are proliferating. I want to keep a sunny disposition and keep gacha something i enjoy and squee over, and I'm hoping these rules for myself help in that endeavor.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: Fallen Gods, Materica
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Kiki
Crown: ieQED, Crown Stag (Fantasy Gacha Carnival)
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyepatch: la petit morte, Eye patch (Fantasy Gacha Carnival)
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Hands: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands
Jewelry: Enfant Terrible, Midsommer Dream (Fantasy Gacha Carnival)
Nails: A:S:S, Gold Thread
Outfit: deviousMind, Harpyia Belt & Bra Ensemble (Fantasy Gacha Carnival)
Panties: Blacklace, Kimiko
Harpy Bits: deviousMind, Harpyia (Fantasy Gacha Carnival)
Pixie Army: The Ugly & Beautiful, Pixie (Fantasy Gacha Carnival)

Poses: Long Awkward Pose

Location: Grendel's Children
Light Settings: AnaLutetia - outdoors
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Taste the Rainbow Hunt: Rainbowtastic

The Taste the Rainbow Hunt is a very small hunt, but one that is extremely heavy on high quality, wonderful things which I completely had a ball collecting and making an outfit out of. I'll do a complete review of the hunt soon, but for now I'm just showing off one of the many looks available. I am by way of a rainbow fiend, as many who know me know, and so this hunt was right up my alley; in addition, the ratio of "keep" to "not quite" is extremely high - I simply adore everything I'm wearing. The hair is from Alice Project, and comes in every natural color, each of them with rainbow highlights woven in. I'm hugely fond of her highlighted textures, and the rainbow ones in particular fill me with glee. This is a gentle, curving style that went sweetly with the rest of my look. The horn, tail, and star-struck eyebrows are courtesy of aisling, and they are simply delightful. Both the horn and the tail have bundles of roses at the base, and there are little bits of sparkle coming from the tips of the horns. I really had fun tucking them into the accessories that came along with my corset from deviousMind. The roses with a rainbow veil, the necklace, the corset, rose pasties I ended up tucking into the top of the corset, a pair of textured bloomers, the tulle bustle, and the fishnet stockings all come as part of the same look in a wide variety of sizes and also as a textured top. I stuck with the rigged mesh, and was miraculously able to pair it with something I didn't get on the hunt, this pair of ruffled shorts from G Field to protect my modesty.

From Ellabella came this really intricate set of piercings, which at least for me fit out of the box with only being moved a little into place. I am not a piercing heavy person, but these are really cute and delicate, and I simply adore the texturing. The lipstick underneath them is from Pink Fuel and is one of a whole bunch of rainbow colors. Sometimes I have difficulties with lipsticks that are designed for the very pouty mouth a lot of avatars have - I have a wider, thinnner lip than a lot of the skins I see, so it's always fun to find cosmetics that work with my preferences. The wings are another set from Deviance, this time in a pale pastel rainbow instead of a rich, dark set of rainbows that were released in the gatcha. I was glad to see a paler set since finding a wide variety of rainbows of different hues can be a real challenge, and these add significantly to my collection. My only complaint about the hunt is the sad dearth of rainbow shoes, and so I ended up returning to my faithful surety, these gorgeous pale pastel shoes from katat0nik. Thus arrayed, rainbo from head to toe, I frolicked across Second Life a very happy fae.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Candace Creamer
Hair: Alice Project, Alexis Glitter/Rainbow (Taste the Rainbow Hunt)
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Mesh Eye Rainbow
Unicorn Bits: Aisling, Rainbow (Taste the Rainbow Hunt)
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeliner: Mock, Glitterotica Eyeliner (Group Gift)
Lipstick: Pink Fuel, Metallic Lipsticks (Taste the Rainbow Hunt)
Piercings: Ellabella, Ballad of Stars (Taste the Rainbow Hunt)
Wings: Deviance, Titania Fairy Wings (Taste the Rainbow Hunt)
Hands: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands
Nails: Nine Inch Nails, Butterfly
Dress: deviousMind, Sweet Rose Valentine (Taste the Rainbow Hunt)
Shorts: G Field, Mesh Frill Shorts
Shoes: katat0nik, Candy Rainbow

Poses: Flowey

Location: Chouchou
Light Settings: Nacon's Afternoon
Water Settings: TOR, Atomist

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

RFL: Gardens of Babylon

Gardens of Babylon (Teleport Point) is sponsored by Tres Beau.

Are possibly one of the only wonders of the ancient world which was purely legendary, but they capture the imagination of all of us in a wave of beauty in the wilderness. Supposedly created around 600 B.C.E by Nebuchadnezzar II for his homesick wife, Amytis of Media, they were said to be destroyed in earthquakes during the Second Century C.E. Stories of them were told by notable Greek and Roman authors centuries later, but no contemporary records or archaeological ruins have ever been found. They were said to be created to replicate mountainous terrain, and festooned with plans and running water. This virtual Hanging Gardens are like a volcanic mountain; you enter up a truly impressive stair, then look down and over layers of terracing with fountains and plants everywhere. The trend of difficult to navigate continues, but the the view is simply stunning. Arranged around the central plaza, the stores curve this way and that and with a little attention you can follow around the ring 360 Degrees. Look for the staircases up, too - gorgeous gardens top the dome over the stores, and there's even a small gathering area complete with pillows to rest at. It's truly enchanting.

Thankfully, the demo dearth has not continued, and there were demos right by the RFL Vendors selling mesh dresses every time I went to look - and I went to look a lot on this sim. It really hit my sweet spot of shiny dresses and gorgeous accessories, and I ended up spending a lot more money than I expected to! It took some work to figure out what I wanted to wear, especially since several favorite stores were represented in the gardens, and I decided to go with an entirely new-to-me store (though don't worry, other things will be showing up later!). deviousMind is a very original store with retro-styled outfits. I purchased both the extremely scandalous Leda - named for one of Zeus' lovers, I would assume - and this much more decorous but still styling Miss Betty. Both outfits are available in other colors, but they have RFL exclusive colors, and those were the ones I splurged on. The dress also comes with a lovely gathering of flowers for my hair; I ended up moving them to match my hair, but they are completely gorgeous. The jewelry is from the sponsor store, Tres Beau, and are a gorgeous and over-sized set of jet that were over the top enough to match my brilliant gown. She also has several gowns set out, one of which matches this jewelry set perfectly as well. Finally, I added something I simply couldn't resist. The newest shoe release from G Field (and with matching dresses made with her rose pattern from the past) has two exclusive colors being released at RFL, and below I'm showing off coral. The shoes come with a HUD which lets you change the color of the edging and the heel, allowing for subtle color matching of complicated outfits. I ended up buying both the exclusives and the fatpacks, though; G Field is rapidly becoming one of my auto-buy stores, which is not happy for my pocketbook but very happy for my look.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De la Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 04-A
Eyeshadow: Pin Me Down, Nacre 4 (RFL Donation)
Lipstick: Adore & Abhor, 13 Lips Orange
Hair: Exile, Loveshack - Hollywood
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Jewelry: Tres Beau, "Miss Ramona" Jewelry (RFL Donation)
Dress: deviousMind, Miss Betty (RFL Donation & Exclusive)
Shoes: G Field, Wedge Pups Adele - Coral (RFL Donation & Exclusive)

Poses: Glitterati

Location: RFL: Gardens of Babylon
Light Settings: Places Astryl's Wild
Water Settings: Phototools Ship Light

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only