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: Erté Inspired

Genre is winding down, only a day or two left before it closes, so make sure to swing by and pick up some gorgeous Belle Epoche goodies. I'm channeling Erté today, or I'm trying - he's a devilishly difficult artist to rise up to, but this gown by LouLou&Co seemed the perfect vector to try. It has gorgeous drape, in front and in back, which is a mark of Erté's style - arm drapes would have been even more awesome, but I have no idea how they could be rigged! The extremely low-cut back is a step up from Erté's suggestive standards, but I don't think he would have minded. The drape is perfect, however, skimming over the buttocks and along the side of the body to frame each curve. The texturing works well with the mesh, long lines accentuating the fabric folds while lace-like tendrils catch the fabric up at the waist and set the stage for a more demure ankle length skirt to offset the thoroughly scandalous décolletage. It's fully lined, which is important with a dress showing off this much skin, and rigged to fit standard sizes, fitmesh, Belleza, Maitreya, and SLink. The rigging is good - usual skirt breaks with crossed legs, but otherwise no clipping or over-stretching and the textures work well with movement.

Sunday Squee: Soup Dumplings

The Sunday Squee is when I can talk about things that make me happy and excited. The main focus will be on different things people created, from books to movies to television shows to podcasts, and my effort will be to highlight less commonly known things as a way to share what I love. If you want to join in the Sunday Squee, please link back to me so I can enjoy what you love!

I have been introduced to a new love, a creation of peak perfection - all liquid and filling and deliciousness.  I first ran across these pillows of culinary delight in an Anthony Bourdain episode - one of his travel shows - and I have wanted to try them ever since. Today, I got that chance. Beef, cheese, and mushroom, each redolent with a savory broth and melting with perfection on a plate.

Served family style at an enormous table full of cheerful, chattering people. I'm sure they're nothing like traditional dumplings in Jiangshu Provence in China - the cheese alone makes that unlikely - but they were absolutely delightful and I had a wonderful meal - followed by hours of game playing fun with wonderful people. It was truly a Sunday of Squee~!

As a side note - I've been running around in this outfit for days. The kissers and lipstick are both from .:Soul:. and well worth a purchase. I'm wearing .:Soul:. skin, too, so the kissers line is seamless; that's why I'm on the peachier side of pale, instead of being pink and white.  A lot of the rest is from various events, but the shoes are a re-release from Dilly Dolls as she works her way back into releasing at her store full time. There's a bunch of other shoes there, too, so make sure to swing by and check it out. A lot of the styles are form her earliest releases but remade in mesh, which is kind of awesome I think - shame to let good ideas moulder because technology has moved on!

Genre: Curb-Stomping Kawaii

The Military has rolled into Genre-town, and the results are... mixed. There's lot of camouflage in some very interesting places, and by far one of the most interesting is this combination of Lolita and combat colors. It's lover-cut than the typical Lolita, but pleasingly fluffy with the rough edges and rounded profile of classic Curious Kitties. It's fitmesh, so trying a demo first is a good idea, and in addition to the dark green I'm showing here it comes in water blue, sand tan, and urban gray. The skirt is more tutu than flowing layers of petticoat, and it's a fun shape to mix and match with tights or pants. There are also some very nice buckly belts around the waist, setting this apart from other Lolita styles. It comes with matching boots (not shown) making it a cohesive look. It was a lot of fun to take two very different things and try to combine them, and I think I managed admirably!

The rich, jungle color was an easy match with a variety of accessories - for example these amazing bracelets from Tanoshi, which also come in a bunch of other shades - like red, brown, teal, and navy. They have heavy rifle-sized bullets pinned around the edges with enormous grommets, and half of them come with lace in addition! They match my shiny star nails to perfection! Those come from Vengeful Threads and are enormously fun. Purple, pink, the green I'm showing, blue, and red are all options, each with silvery stars and bits of camo laid into them. I rounded out my look with two non-Genre offerings. The first are these awesome, flirty stompy boots from Dilly Dolls which seem simply made for combining steel toes and ruffles. They come in solid colors, but thankfully they are editable and one can select individual faces, so I was able to add dark and bright green to various surfaces and make it fit in better with the rest of my look - I adore modifiable clothes for so many reasons, but this level of individualization is a big part of it.

In contrast, the gray matches the bullets of my bracelets and the spines on my headband. That headband comes with the matching hair from Wasabi Pills with a fun single shoulder flow. I'm wearing it in mottled cool shades and gray to carry the color scheme further; I didn't want to go to warm and unsettle the effect. Look at how seamlessly the hair curls over one of my ears - and Wasabi Pills has moved more and more towards individual strands of curling hair, which make them really stand out. The final touch is my necklace, a heavy round shape like dog-tags but a little more sinister - this is one of my favorite necklaces from Eclectica, an octopus hugging a stone. I love every little coil of its tentaclely goodness, and it really pulls the whole outfit together - so to speak! Now I'm ready to take on all comers in the jungle, the prettiest General you've ever seen!

I Gotta Be Free~!!!

LaVian&Co is having a special through May 20th - the group is free to join, and the immediate offerings are vast - an entire room of womens' clothing for all group members. I've been busily outfitting the Deoridhes as well as the Alphabet Alts, and you can see the beginnings of my haul here - arranged on a few of my closest alts. It's fun to see them all arranged here, from the center figures who all have roughly the same shape, to the more eclectic forms like Bizarre Lastchance the Unicorn and Gossamer Thistle the Harpy. I try for variety among the Alphabet Alts in particular, though even among the Deoridhes there is a Kirin. You can get a hint of the sheer variety above - from mini-skirts, to formal wear, to dressy slacks there's a little but of everything on offer at LaVian&Co.

The shoes on the Main Deoridhe - Deoridhe Quandry - are also a special, though in this case an announcement of the return of Dilly Dolls in the form of one of her awesome Midnight Manias. These come out along with a bunch of purchases, but if you just want to get your feet wet - so to speak! - head over to Dilly Dolls' Main Store and click on the Midnight Mania. Together we can lock that baby down!

Sky Blue Dollies

After a very long hiatus, Dilly Dolls is back with awesome stripy shoes from the depths of her inventory. They're completely cute, with offset stripes across the nose of the shoe. I also like the curve of the heel -with the flair out at the bottom for support. There are solid colored ones at her marketplace for sale, but you can actually pick up these at Freestyle for absolutely free. Yes, you read that right - free.

The pretty jewelry on my ankles - and also around my wrists, upper arms, and neck - are a torc set from Sublime Shroud Kreations that are color change on touch. They're simple but elegant - check out the gems on the open edge.

Flying Above It All

In the oldest books with angels, the first thing the angels would always say is, "Fear Not." In an era where angels are more associated with pretty women in big dresses plucking babes from danger, this seems like an odd opening line. These days, everyone could easily pick an angel out of a lineup and would most likely go to them for directions first, if they were lost. In days long ago, though, angels were fearsome creatures, as likely to smite and burn you as to protect you from danger. The cuddly, sweet version of angels is a modern invention; a de-toothing of the undercurrents of wrath and danger which permeated most cultures around the world. We, and by we I mean the relatively moneyed, privileged sort, can afford this distance from danger over-all because we are so little under threat. With few exceptions, I can count on not expiring from most threats. When I'm sick, I can go to the doctors, and the same when I'm injured. I have more than enough food - even too much some times - and of such a wide variety that I get all of my nutrients. Wild animals are easily avoidable, as are most serious accidents. In a world so insulated from death and despair, and even often minor inconvenience, there is no wonder that the stories children grow up on can likewise be so insulated from pain and death.

And so now angels protect us, and no longer say, "Fear Not"... because we wouldn't fear them anyway.

All of my expressive poses are are from a relatively new to me store called Don't Freak Out. What I love most is how natural they all seem - there is no stiffness or awkwardness in the poses. Also, many of them have a certain amount of emotional resonance and content which is what I've really been seeking out lately. I felt like their attitude fit this angelic badass outfit from Bare Rose, complete with wings and an awesome spindle-killy thing which I promptly threatened all my friends with. It has all kinds of spikes for smashing and slashing. I love the armor style of the bodice, and how smoothly it moves with me through the world. While bare Rose only comes in one size, it is a size which thankfully works for me, and I think I look fantastic. My cool, buckle boots are the latest release from Dilly Dolls, and they're a really smooth, thick shape with a texture sort of like a heavy rubber. I love the dual color style of them; it really makes then stand out. I saw the hair I'm wearing on someone else and inspect-stalked my way back to Ploom. I love the rise in curly hair on Second Life, especially when it's combined with rigged mesh and length like this - it really looks like the hair is tumbling free and wild, while it is also kept in place as I move.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Hair: Ploom, Lislie
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyeshadow: Mock, Pantone Fall eShadow
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyelashes: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Lipstick: Mock, Peenk Secret Menu
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe
Hands and Feet: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands and Feet
Nails: Nine Inch Nails, Butterfly
Outfit: Bare Rose, Fortune
Stockings: Stellar, In Bloom
Shoes: Dilly Dolls, Charla Boots

Pose: Don't Freak Out

Location: Nouk Land
Light Settings: TOR, DUSK Fairytale Glow
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Pod People Back from Vacation

You may have noticed a distinct lack of Deo around for a while, and there's a very simple explanation - no internet. I was on vacation, a vacation that involved a lot of sleeping in cars and waking up in new and amazing places. I apparently really needed the sleep because until the last couple of days, any time I was in the car for longer than twenty minutes I would be snoozing. I had planned on catching up on a ton of podcasts, but it turns out that doesn't work so well when one keeps falling asleep and waking up at random times, so I switched to music or silence pretty early into the vacation. I had a ball, though; I was out with my family, seeing more distant family and beautiful places, and sometime soon I should upload a few videos of animals, as it seems like I'm no longer capable of going to a zoo without ringing out my phone to make animal videos. It's like some sort of weird sickness, or something. I missed my bed and my cat, but I'm afraid, darling internet, I didn't really miss you much. It still feels a little weird to be stepping back into the routine, but I did manage to pull together a new outfit and snap some pictures, and I'll be gradually catching up on memes and challenges over the next week or two. Right now I'm trying to get into the Halloween Spirit by being creeeeepy in a sort of understated, cute way, and I had a lot of help from some really fun designers.

These amazing, really fun horns are a recent release from Remarkable Oblivion at the Body Modification Expo, which I have to admit I bailed from early. Not to rant too much (I'm totally going to rant), but events where there isn't a single path to follow reasonably easily just frustrate me to no end; if I am feeling lost and not sure where I am one layer into your event, there's a better than even chance I will just give up. I was really glad Remarkable Oblivion was near the beginning because the discounted price on these horns tempted me to buy them even though they aren't my usual style - and they ended up blending so perfectly into the hair from Alice Project (currently a special deal at her store - one free a day - go and get and join her group for more free stuffs) that I couldn't resist building the rest of the outfit around a sort of creepy, bloody punk look. I also wanted a drizzly, smeared mascara, and Virtual Insanity came through for me - there were a bunch of different styles, but I really liked this totally drippy one. I think is sort of looks like oil is leaking from my eyes... eyes of the pod people. The pod people eyes are totally the creepiest from Rue, free and shiny as part of the Horrorfest Hunt (I totally have drowned in hunts now that I'm back - yay hunting). The necklace is also part of a hunt, specifically the EarthStones Mystery Hunt, where you pay a certain amount of Linden for an unidentified item, but all of them are really cool.

The new corset and sleeves from Dilly Dolls are really awesome and unique. They come separately, so you can add the sleeves to another look, and the bows on the wrists are totally cute. It has a peek-a-boo back, too, so you can wear it alone for that extra-sexy effect, or show off a pretty blouse underneath. One thing I love about the corset in particular is the enormous jack-o-lantern smile across the front; very festive and halloweeny. Under it I tucked this miniskirt from Rue, which has once again finished a corset look. One of the really fantastic effects of getting blogger packs is the inevitable Object That Isn't Your Style. I usually keep them kicking around in folders just in case, and in this case, with this micro-mini, this has been an unexpected butt-saver. It fits beautifully under almost every corset I've gotten so far, and in this case it perfectly bridged the divide between the richer, redder orange of the corset and sleeves, and the yellower orange of my tights and boots. My tights are from Frick (yay Frick - pretty Goth Loli clothes nao?) and were a cursed color in her tights gatcha; I have about ten million of these, even after passing them to everyone who was still online when I was spending (too much) money on the gatcha. Ironically, I got doubles of both of the Rares before landing a green - see, cursed? The gorgeous bats of my tights are echoed in the batty blue of my nails, too; also from Frick, there is even a candy corn coloration. Finally, Dilly Dolls returns with these awesome ombre boots which, in a stroke of unexpected luck, matched my tights perfectly. I really like how they're styled, with the heavy fabric wrapped around the calves and angling over the heels like legwarmers but without losing the boot feel at the top. I've long liked the combination shoe effect, and this one also has a fade, which is totally my favorite.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Hair: Alice Project, Delirium (Halloween Massacre Special)
Horns: Remarkable Oblivion, Baphomet Horns
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: Rue, Lotus Eater
Eyeshadow: Virtual Insanity, THE DIRT Face Tattoo3
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Lipstick: Skinthesis, Liquid Heat
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe
Necklace: EarthStones, Karin Necklace
Hands and Feet: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands and Feet
Nails: Frick, Halloween Nails
Corset: Dilly Dolls, Vivian Halloween Corset
Gloves: Dilly Dolls, Vivian Gloves
Skirt: Rue, Threads/Artist Miniskirts
Stockings: Frick, Batty Tights (Gatcha)
Boots: Dilly Dolls, Calypso Boots

Pose: Grafica

Location: Asalia House
Light Settings: Phototools, July Light 02
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Goddess on a Mountaintop

Goddess on the mountain top
Burning like a silver flame
The summit of beauty and love
And Venus was her name

She's got it
Yeah, baby, she's got it
I'm your Venus, I'm your fire
At your desire
Well, I'm your Venus, I'm your fire
At your desire

Her weapons were her crystal eyes
Making every man mad
Black as the dark night she was
Got what no-one else had
Wa!

From toe to head - these gorgeous boots are a Twisted Hunt prize from Dilly Dolls, and they well make hunting for that cursed little box worth it. I love the pointed shape and those enormous buttons; they're really a unique addition to anyone's wardrobe. In addition to these, rigged and sized for women, there is a men's version, so guys you have no excuses! Hunt!! My amazing outfit is something I picked up ages ago at Fantasy Faire from Evie's Closet, and I've been waiting for an excuse to tromp about in my undies and take pictures in it. The red was exclusive to the faire, but you can find it in blue, brown, green, and purple at her store - all of them gorgeous. It is a rigged mesh and flexible prim combination; the bodice and undies are mesh, but the floaty additions are flexible prim and the corset underneath is textured. It's a real combination of all of the best Second Life has to offer in couture, and rigged beautifully. My jewelry is another old release - what can I say, I'm slow! - from Lassitude & Ennui. I particularly like the circlet, and I'd love to see some bracelets and anklets int he same style. The drop effect is so fetching and delicate, without getting lost in more distant pictures. My hair is a gorgeous example of Discord Designs' fatter braids, and I really love how it blends in with the hairbase underneath. I think the effect is very natural and funky without being out of control. Finally, my hat is from Ma Vie, a new-to-me store I discovered through this gatcha at the Arcade event going on through the month. This was one of the prizes, and I really was in love as soon as I saw it. It's a beautiful, striking hat - and I'd love to see a similar design in a fan, too; the detail of the roses is very unique, and I love the pattern on the headcovering, too. Her store seems to be mostly a pose one, which I'll have to check out for the future, but hopefully we'll get a chance to see more beautiful accessories from her as well.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De La Soul, Candace Creamer
Hair: Discord Designs, Robyn
Hat: Ma Vie, Plumage hat (Arcade Gatcha Event)
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Mesh Eye Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Lipstick: Adore & Abhor, 13 Lips Blood
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe Wings
Hands: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands
Nails: Nine Inch Nails, Deco
Jewelry: Lassitude & Ennui, Macabre
Outfit: Evie's Closet, Dyisi
Shoes: Dilly Dolls, Ringmaster Boots (Twisted Hunt 2013)

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Sea of Fables - Mount Olympus
Light Settings: TOR, BIG SUN Slips Through Walls
Water Settings: Default

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Twisted Color Challenge: Week 30 - Sweet Light

Sweet Light is a really cute color combination for the Twisted Color Challenge - a pale pink and a bright yellow together, like a spring evening. It took me ages to find something that worked; that particular shade of pale pink was unusual, and while I had some bright yellow it was harder to figure out how the two would go together. I started with these brilliantly bright shoes from Dilly Dolls, a recent release that goes with the SLink medium feet. They have a delicate ruffle along the edge and a fun and funky bow across the toe which I really liked. SLink only recently made creator packs so that other people could make shoes to fit her feet, but already it's massively increased the value of my delicate tosies, and the line from the leg to the ankle is pretty much seamless since these are the enhanced feet, which skin makers can make appliers for as well. My hair is another new release - this time from Underscore. It's a fantastic, full-bodied, free-flowing style in rigged mesh, with smooth curves which look good from every angle.

The dress is a gorgeous one from Lavanda Chic I've had in my inventory for an age which seemed simply meant for this - the pink and white are delicately formed and the collar lining is the exact bright yellow I needed for this color combination. It's also a fantastic fluffy style, with a full balloon skirt and enormous puffy sleeves; I fell in love with it the moment I saw it, and I'm so glad I finally found a theme that worked with it. Finally, the jewelry is an amazing release from Donna Flora, color changing gemstones with seahorses. The set comes with two earrings; I'm showing just the second ones, which are repetitions of the gem-carrying seahorses. Love Donna Flora the event has finally opened - you'll find a lot of fantastic things inspired by this truly unique creator there.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De La Soul, Candace Creamer
Hair: Underscore, Bad Medicine
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Mesh Eye Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Wings: Deviance, Titania Mesh Fairy Wings
Hands & Feet: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands & Feet
Nails: Nine Inch Nails, Butterflies
Jewelry: Donna Flora, Seahorse
Dress: Lavanda Chic, Dolly Dress
Shoes: Dilly Dolls, Ella Light Heels

Poses: Studio Sidhe

Location: Bay of Balfalas
Light Settings: Annyka's Soft Lavender
Water Settings: Pond

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Twisted Color Challenge: Week 29 - Vamps Night

For Vamps Night, I got rather caught up in the orangey red of the challenge, and the silvery gray only exists as an afterthought, but I quite like the effect none the less. I have had a completely exhausting week, though; I tend to not go into my personal life much on here, as much as more immutable parts of myself like my opinions, but lets just say I have a relatively hard job with pretty complicated clients and three of them have gone into crisis in the past two weeks, and I kind of want to crawl into a hole and die. It doesn't help that I am not the most organized person in the world - more on that in a bit - so in addition to the world being complicated and a lot of things being very important, I keep tripping over my metaphorical untied shoe laces. I love being me, really. I've ended up scaling back a lot on online-type things, like my attempted return to roleplaying and any hope of blogging anything in a timely manner, and spending a lot of critical time staring into space and trying to match up glowing little crystals in lines because that is such a good use of my time. I love being me... really.

One of the things I have wanted to blog - and also the source of a silly story about how awesome I might be to be - is this fantastic hair from Discord Designs which is named ...dun dun DUN: Deoridhe. Yup, that's me, on a hair, me, shiny happy me with a hair that has her name on it, and it is awesome. I love the curly tendrilly bits, and how it seems to escape gravity, and I felt all wriggly and squeeingly about it for ages, so yeah - awesome, right?

Ok, now for super awesome story about how I suck - Kallisti Burns had dropped me a line showing me the awesomeness that was this hair (from Discord Designs), and letting me know that it would show up in my inventory when it was released because she is Just That Cool. And then Hair Faire opened (it was released at Hair Faire, by the way) and I searched my inventory, and no Discord Designs Deoridhe hair, and I went all, 'Well, she probably forgot, and I don't want to bug her 'cause she's busy and awesome and it might cut into hair making time, I'll just buy it,' and I waited for my chance to sneak into hair faire (wearing this without the hair, by the way - people loved me) and picked it up in blond figuring I'd get the fatpack later, or maybe she'd remember, or something, and then I looked in my (by then bloated and disorganized) objects folder to sort things and found... a box from her.

Yup, had it all along.

I love being me. Really.

I look fantastic. 8D

It's mostly the hair from Discord Designs, but I should take a moment to talk about the supporting cast. The bow and purse are a semi-matched set, both of them from katat0nik and sold at collabor88 for very reasonable prices. They are completely adorable and awesome, and as soon as I saw them I knew I wanted to wear them. I figure I'm using itty bitty bobby pins to hold it to my braids. The jewelry is a very old artifact of my inventory from Primalot (on hiatus) - like it was filed in a subfolder to sort later kind of old - and it's color change on touch with a ton of stone types and three metals. One bit of the "gray" of Vamps Night is the silvery metal of this awesome jewelry set. The other is the gray tines of my gorgeous wings from Deviance, which have been on my back since I bought them. I love my old fancy fairy wings, I really do, but I have wanted three dimensional wings for at least two years, and these are completely blowing me away. Every angle, every curve, is completely magical. I can't wait to see what else she makes - I will want it all forever and ever and ever and ever and.... etc...

Yes, I'm very gushy, I know. It's been that kind of week - sobs or hysterical laughter.

The lips are an older release from Adore & Abhor, and I really love how it cuts inside the lipline and makes a new shape for my face that way. The dress - which really is the meat of this look, is a recent release from Volstead that draws on Art Deco influences to make a clean line and a really fun bodice. I love the texturing along the front and the bottom edge, and the richness of the color. Finally, these really fun boots which I utterly failed to get a flattering picture of because - as seen from data above - I really suck, are from Dilly Dolls. They're mesh and unrigged, so I was able to scribble and scrabble and alter them to fit my unusually (for SL) large calves and short legs. All of her things are sold with handy color changing HUDs, which is really handy since you fit things once, and change for every outfit. Rock on, awesomeness. Rock on.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Candace Creamer
Hair: Discord Designs, Deoridhe (Squee~)
Bow: katat0nik, Dolly Vine Hair Bow
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Mesh Eye Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeliner: De La Soul, Aestali Curly Lash
Lipstick: Adore & Abhor, Silent Star - Baroue Orange
Wings: Deviance, Titania Mesh Fairy Wings
Jewelry: Primalot, Gravitation annulet
Hands: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands
Nails: Orc Inc, Glitterslash
Dress: Volstead, Deco
Purse: katat0nik, Woody Purse
Boots: Dilly Dolls, Julia Boots

Pose: Olive Juice

Location: Wizardhat Studios
Light Settings: Nacon's Test
Water Settings: Nacon's Lake Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

SL Disney Bound – Week Twelve: Mr. Smee

I always loved Peter Pan, though I tended to focus more on the books than the movie from Disney. Mr. Smee we was jolly and kind and thought to be feared when he wasn't, and in a lot of ways he's more Captain Hook's valet than anything else - something which would make sense for the archaic stylings of pirates of fiction, with their aping of the mores of English nobility. The valet, like the lady's maid, was a body-servant, your most intimate inferior, simultaneous close and eternally divided by class. Jeeves and Wooster is one series of stories about the relationship between a gentleman and his valet where the gap in understanding - where the valets are often far more knowledgeable of the Master than vice versa - is made very clear. This is something which I, raised in my invisible class system where we confuse affluence and skin tone for class, don't fully understand, though I do understand having privileges which blind one to the experiences of other people who are different and who have more demands placed on them. Mr. Smee, with his actual kindness and yet his desire to be seen as fierce, embodies this inherent conflict between reality and the dreams we try to bring about in our lives, as well as showing that there are none so blind as those who cannot see.

I began my makeover into Ms. Smee with this dress from Dilly Dolls; it seemed perfect to me, from the Peter Pan collar to the stripes, even if they were vertical instead of horizontal. I love the little cap sleeves on the top, and the frills of the skirt; it's so cute and flirty. The shoes, likewise, were a simple fall into my inventory - a new release from Felicity, they have a fun strappiness and some gems along the edge like every good pirate should have. The tinting on the foot has changed from her previous releases; I found if I made my skintone brighter - closer to pure - and lighter at the same time, and it was fairly easy to match up. I tossed a cute pigtail style on from Truth in white to match Smee's beard, and tinted the bands red to match Smee's hat, and then added a cap on top of it from a store I hadn't heard of before called Yj-vita. I love the bright red of it, the delicate white patterns and the tiny pageboy brim. The final touches of red come from Mock, in the form of double layers of her lipstick, and nails, a saturated color from Izzie's. I'm a very girly Smee, but I think I qualify for First Mate.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De La Soul, Candace - Creamer
Hair: Truth, Bunny
Hat: Yj-vita, Casquette Cap
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeliner: Belleza, Neon Eyeliner
Lipstick 1: Mock, Pimento Lip Kelle
Lipstick 2: Mock, Mizu Venetian Red
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Hands: SLink, Enhanced Mesh Hands
Nails: Izzie's, SLink Metallic Nails
Dress: Dilly Dolls, Kasset White & Dark (promotional)
Shoes: Felicity, Olivia Stilettos (promotional)

Poses: Adorkable Poses

Location: Fair Winds
Light Settings: Places Astryls Wild
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

SL DisneyBound – Week Five: Dory

I actually had a lot of fun with Dory, though the style is much more modern-casual than I usually wear. The color contrast was really strong - a vibrantly bright yellow and a rich, bright blue - and while the blue is relatively common in Second Life, the particular shade of eye-blinding yellow that Dory sports is much rarer, and I actually dialed it back to more of a gold because I ended up not being able to make it work well.This is a very different style than my usual, modern and casual with a bit of a club edge, and I've completely fallen in love with it. I especially like the effect of the bare back in between the corset laces - I think it is edgy without slipping out of what I find attractive. This overbust corset from Dilly Dolls is an old purchase but one that I pull out even today when I'm looking for a good corset with a lot of coverage. I thought the relative brightness of the blue on the corset actually went well with the slightly duller blood of her new boots release; too much bright color can appear cartoonish instead of couture, and this look is one of the ones which walks that line. I really adore the boots, though - in the line of the cloth-over-boot effect with an angled opening on the outside and large buttons which really set it apart from other, similarly styled boots. There's all kinds of texturing available, and like usual Dilly Dolls clothes come in sets of colors that are HUD driven, which means lots of bang for your buck. My hair is a very old release from Wasabi Pills, I think; my Wasabi Pills folder is alphabetical, so I always end up getting confused about when things come in and, eyes crossed, just sort of wear whatever I like most for a given look.

The other store I'm wearing a lot of is De La Soul - both these jeans which were a much older release but still stand the test of time - and a preview of a new skin that I nagged Charlie into giving me so that I could wear the latest SLink hands with the modifiable nails. Despite an overload of pestering and begging, Charlie won't be releasing hand HUDs for Aestali, my old favorite, but he will be releasing them (and boob appliers, and all kinds of things). Except for the brows, Candace is a softer face than Aestali was (I'd love to hear what you think of the brows; I can pass on feedback to Charlie as he finishes Candace up) with some of the quirks of the Aestali face smoothed, but still recognizably De La Soul. He passed over the hand tinters (which will also tint her feet) after only a little pouting and now I can show off my amazing nails from Adam n Eve, complete with little flowers. I love how long they are; I could never keep nails this long offline, so it's a dream to have them both online and smoothly connecting with my hand. One nice thing about the SLink hands is you can make the nails go away, so if you have modifiable nails you can edit them to match perfectly; isn't it amazing? Finally, I found this amazing necklace and earrings set from a new-to-me store called Lazuri; I really love the texturing and shape, and it's a fantastic chunky large set which can be dressed up or down depending on your mood.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Candace - Creamer (promotional item)
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Ears: Illusions, Seelie
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Amelie (promotional item)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Jewelry: Lazuri, Classic Glamour Midnight
Corset: Dilly Dolls, Dola Corset
Jeans: De La Soul, Cross Jeans - Sunny
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Nails: Adam n Eve, Rhine & Rose
Shoes: Dilly Dolls, Dina Plaid Boots (promotional item)

Pose: !bang

Location: Armenelos
Light Settings: Places Kunming
Water Settings: Mirror Glass

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Twisted Color Challenge: Week 15 - Boysenberry Field

Boysenberry Fields is a warm, snuggly set of colors - a brownish gray and a warm purplish pink - and I was feeling particularly warm and snuggly, and so ended up snuggling into this gorgeous beary hoodie from Violent Seduction in a rich shade of purple. It has these wonderful, but pockets - maybe on a future time I'll attempt to fill them with something appropriate, like candy or frogs. I crowned it in Wild Things style with this adorable new crown from Dilly Dolls - who also supplied my cute short skirt and a pair of heels I tinted to match the overall look. I loved the style when similar crowns in gray and white were released for FreeStyle, and these are just darling and come in white and black with dark and light versions of the colors. My Dilly Dolls fuscia was match with this awesome fuscia lipstick from Adore & Abhor, while I echoed the paler pink in my beary Violent Seduction ears is echoed in a simple eyeshadow from Elymode. I like pulling individual shades out of a look to reflect in cosmetics; I think it's a subtle way to pull together a look without getting too "matchy." My hair was by far the hardest part of this look - I went through two stores before finally settling on this short hairstyle from Wasabi Pills, and am considering making a new section of my hair organization "fits under hood".

Around my neck, I tucked this really awesome scarf from Miel which was thankfully editable enough to make it fit; much as I love mesh, several of the looks I've done over the past few months would have been a lot harder if all of my inventory was mesh. That being said, my SLink hands fit perfectly under the Violent Seduction hoodie arms, and I even got to have the little thumbs through the holes which always makes me giggle when I see them. Wriggle and be free, little thumbs! Wriggle and be free! The mesh skirt from Dilly Dolls is also rigged mesh and yet, using a couple sizes smaller than my usual, I was able to fit it and make a really polished, yet adorable look. The stockings are from G Field, and I actually tinted them slightly antiqued to match the brownish-gray of my Miel scarf. Those slightly tinted toes got tucked into majorly tinted shoes, also from Dilly Dolls, so that I was co-ordinated from crown to toes.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Ears: Illusions, Seelie
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: Elymode, Brown & Pink
Lipsticks: Adore & Abhor, Shreveport Lips Fuscia
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Princess Mesh (promotional item)
Crown: Dilly Dolls, Hearty Crown
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Hoodie: Violent Seduction, Ferale Hoodie
Scarf: Miel, Fringe Scarf - leafy
Skirt: Dilly Dolls, Kasset Black
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Tights: G Field, Print Tights
Shoes: Dilly Dolls, Saula Dark Heels

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Split Screen: The Scribbled Cliffs
Light Settings: Phototools - Dream Book 02
Water Settings: Mirror Glass

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

ICHP (Dilly Dolls): Faerie in a Story

The world is full of wonderful and terrible things. I'm a Pisces, a symbol of the divergent fish - one always seeking the surface, the other always seeking the depths, tied together with an indelible and unbreakable cord. More and more, I have grown to think that it is by facing these wonderful and terrible things - by embracing the rising joy and the fall of despair - that so many of us truly embrace and live our lives. Just as important as the facing, though, is the knowledge that we are not alone, that someone cares about us, that someone knows us and recognizes us. There are so many people out there living lives of quiet desperation, hiding from their fears while they hide their fears from all the world. I am literally paid to be with the suffering of these groups, to have enough integrity and compassion to rightfully earn their trust, to have enough discernment and disinterest to see them truly through and through, and to still love them. I keep expecting it to get harder, to hit the moment where I realize I'm breaking on some fundamental level, but more and more I feel like I am feeling things more deeply and truly, seeing things more clearly and accurately, riding the highs and lows of more than two hands of lives while somehow maintaining my own, flawed as I am.

On a more prosaic note... I really need to pay my rent and check the mail.

My gorgeous, classic shoes (close up here) are a new release from Dilly Dolls, and I paired them with one of her older releases - this cute, scanty dress. Dilly Dolls' standard is to release color sets instead of individual colors, so any version you pick up will give you a ton of options. She tends to pair things in light and dark, which is painful for someone like me who likes them all, but the prices are low enough I'll usually just pick up all the sets and be done with it! I added these new mask releases from Souzou Eien, which are SO AWESOME. There are a couple which seem more skin-covering, but I imply fell in love with this lace mask which shows the skin through - and since it's mesh, it's easy to refit it to fit my fat head (no, really, my head is rounder than the standard). I had just picked up this recent release from Majika, too, in the triple color version - which is an innovation I wish more hair stores would copy; fades are the best (see, also, amazing dress). To continue my theme of "lets wear things actually released recently", I actually picke dup this jewelry brand new at some sort of Ostara or Easter Faire from LanTN (I think you have to say the end REALLY LOUDLY). I'm neither Wiccan nor Christian, but I love five petaled flowers and amethyst is one of my favorite stones.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Ears: Illusions, Seelie
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Mask: Souzou Eien, Lace Masque Purple
Lipstick: Mock, Lucir Dandy Lion
Hair: Magika, Rewind
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Jewelry: LanTN, Ostara Pentacle
Dress: Dilly Dolls, Nykki Yellow
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Stockings: G Field, Basic Color Tights - Lilac
Heels: Dilly Dolls, Saula Dark Heels - brown (Promotional Item)

Poses: !bang

Location: The Noble Storybook
Light Settings: Phototools - Jessica Light
Water Settings: Mirror Glass

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Twisted Color Challenge: Week 11 - Crucible’s Pom

I am very, very, very late for Crucible's Pom. In my defense, I did blog the entire Fashion Faire inside of a very busy week, but still I might have been able to combine if I'd had a brain to do so. I'm catching up, though! And I began by checking out a few of the recent events and piecing together something orange and gray. It was almost inevitable I'd end up revisiting Halloween, this time pulling out an awesome dress from Pinkmares (sadly closed) that I'd been meaning to blog for a while. Sometimes I feel like my inventory is a vast well of things simply waiting for me to blog them too late! I love the little gray skulls along the edges of the skirt, and the grinning yellow Jack o'lantern head makes me giggle every time I look at it. Keep your fingers crossed - Pinkmares may re-emerge on the marketplace in the future, and you too might be able to get something gothy, cute, and funny all in one. The other base items I chose was this awesome new hairstyle from Discord Designs. Cornrows are always entertaining on my very whitebread avatar, but these are simply divine. The braid-to-head-tattoo is seamlessly perfect, and I love the fall of braids down my back. I used to see this hairstyle sometimes on other women, and I simply loved it; it's even more fun to see it on me (without the eight or nine hours of braiding! Bonus!). Also as a bonus, it fit perfectly behind my ears, which is always a challenge with me and hair. I capped off the bottom end of my outfit with these gorgeous heels from Dilly Dolls which were released as part of Adore & Abhor Birthday, which has such a fun collection of gifts!

With the basics of my orange and gray look established, it was time to seek out some accessories, and L'Accessories seemed to be the perfect place to go. I find this event very challenging, because on the one hand I really love a lot of the stuff, but on the other hand I can easily drop $1kL on a given store, and that's a lot of Linden going out the door very quickly. After the Fashion Faire, where I went through $5kL easily and very likely more, I'm feeling the need to reign in my spending - something this event does not make easy! I started with this enormous hat from Lode, which is a major departure from my usual style, but I loved it so much. It's an oversized, soft felt hat with a huge poofy flower, and comes in a variety of colors - each of them with a color changing flower! I really like how it covers only one half of my head, which makes it easier to pair up with different hairstyles.The other purchase was practically a sinecure from when I first saw it - this gorgeous pearl collar from Lassitude & Ennui. I love the delicate patterning of the pearls over the lace, and I ended up buying the whole display out (see what I said about me and Linden? It's a curse!). The final touch was the cosmetics; I wanted to echo the coloring in my outfit without becoming too cartoonish, and so I turned to Virtual Insanity again, this time pairing two eyeshadows to get the orange and yellow effect I wanted. One nice thing about her eyeshadows is that the silhouettes of color vary widely from style to style, meaning that layering them really has a significant effect. The lips are a very old release from Rue which I simply love; they're one of the only lipsticks I have which contour to my unusually wide and narrow (for Second Life) lips, and I always seem to turn to them when I need a very dark, precise lip. It's too bad she doesn't have a whole line available now, since I'd buy the Hel out of them (*clears throat, tapping foot meaningfully ;)*).

( 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, 05-A
Eyeshadow 1: Virtual Insanity, SPRING Tangerine
Eyeshadow 2: Virtual Insanity, La Ligne - Yellow
Lipstick: Rue, Gothier Than Thou
Hair: Discord Designs, FBR01 - Dirty Blond (Promotional item)
Hat: Lode, Magnoli (L'Accessories Event)
Collar: Lassitude & Ennui, Viola Lace (L'Accessories Event)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Dress: Pinkmares, Pumpkin Potion (Closed)
Heels: Dilly Dolls, Saula B-Lace Heels (Adore & Abhor Birthday)

Poses: Alchemy Immortalis

Location: Neva
Light Settings: EUPHORIA Fin de Siecle
Water Settings: Mirror Glass

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

ICHP: Dilly Dolls Free Style

This is the blog post that took two days and an assistant! A very kind person, upon hearing me whinge in group chat, helped me figure out how to reset my avatar so I could add cosmetics - which is why I'm able to showcase this brand new hunt prize from Dare Designs, which is taking part in the horrifically difficult Twisted Hunt. Dilly Dolls is as well, with a white-textured version of the above boots, but these are the very special release for the new FreeStyle Store which opened recently. Everything in it is under 50$L, and quite a few things are 0$L, so it's a good place to send your friendly impoverished or new friends. The FreeStyle version of these boots and the crown are color-changing, so if you aren't prepared to goth it up with black, there's a bright and shiny white version. The dress is not, sadly, available at FreeStyle, but it is a recent release at the Dilly Dolls's store. As always, her clothing comes with a wide variety of colors with a HUD to change the textures, and this dress has an added bonus - you can remove the top, the skirt, or both to wear just the corset, so it's incredibly adaptable. These boots and crown from Dilly Dolls are also mesh, but are not rigged, so they can be very easily resized and fitted. I ended up making the boots a lot larger because I am not a bird! Belying the not-a-bird, I added wings to my head as well as my back - the creator behind Remarkable Oblivion send me a second set of these headwings with a white option, and then I heartlessly used the black texturing instead because I have no gratitude (no, really, thank you!). I have no idea if these are for sale anywhere, or if they're reserved for bloggers who complain - you could try a notecard complaint, too, and see if it works! (No, don't do that, wait... bad idea.)

My hair is an older release from Alice Project, making use of her incredibly versatile HUD which allows you to not only color the hair with fades and tints, but also to tint different parts of the hair with different colors, thus allowing for entirely weird styles like above, where I attempted to put every color in my outfit into my hair. I think it worked pretty well, actually. The collar is a very old purchase from DownDownDown; I had found it during one of the gatcha festivals on the sim her store was on; it wasn't a gatcha prize, but it was reasonable and unique, and I fell in love. The collar has a wire which arches from the back, curving around my body elegantly. One thing I love about shopping malls, and miss now that they've become more rare, is the way that events would introduce me to brand new stores I might have never run into otherwise. To an extent, sales and themed events can do a similar thing, but it often seems like the stores are frequently the same - not that I don't love them, believe me I do, but I sometimes feel more insular than I used to be. That being said, blogs are a great way to find new places to take pictures, and I found the Nitroglobus Gallery through one of the blogs on my sidebar - now I have no idea which one, but thank you! It's an extremely changeable place; the basic idea is simple, mushrooms and a bridge, but the mushrooms have ever-changing textures on them, and there are eyes floating around to look at you, and the final effect is rather creepy. I really like it, especially with the floating lens-flares and mist.

( 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
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Cosmetics: Dare Designs, Delirium 01 full (Twisted Hunt Prize)
Hair: Alice Project, Grace
Headwings: Remarkable Oblivion, Malificient Head Wings - RGB
Crown: Dilly Dolls, Hearty Crown - Freestyle Edition
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Collar: DownDownDown, Code choker
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Dress: Dilly Dolls, Kasset - Black & Dark
Boots: Dilly Dolls, Matilda Boots - Freestyle Edition

Poses: !bang

Location: Nitroglobus Gallery
Light Settings: In Situ

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

50 Shades of Sexy: Intoxicate Me

This challenge was (heh) a challenge for me until I remembered Absinthe. I'm not a huge fan of dressing up with various alcohols, but somehow absinthe has eclipsed the normal scale of drink into something which inspires the most amazing fashions. I took a small detour for a while before I remembered I was supposed to be in lingerie, and then settled on this amazing set from Dilly Dolls from a twisted Hunt years ago. It was so old it came with those invisible blocks to clear out my feet instead of an invisible layer, but that was something fixed in a moment, and the rest of the set holds up very well despite the years! I stacked one of the two absinth sets from Falln Angel Creations on my head like a hat, tossed on some jewelry from Amorous on my wrists and around my neck, and dragged a very old monocle from Sanu out of the depths of my inventory to give the whole look that historical bent. The final touch was two of about half a million group gifts that Mockie gave us from her brand Mock - I almost wore out my fingers accepting them all! Every couple of months she goes on a gifting spree, and between that and the group clubhouse where you can try on things, there are a lot of advantages to being in her group!

In line with the words I wrote last week on Objectification, the simultaneously subversive and yet not quality of the 50 Shades of Sexy Challenge raised some comment on Shopping Cart Disco's SL Secrets. Using the word "whore," and followed up by a comment saying, "Being a slut/whore/skank/tramp/ect is not fashion style," I have to admit for a long moment I felt ashamed of the pictures I've taken so far. Anyone who has viewed my history of pictures knows I tend to vary my style quite a lot - everything from extremely demure Lolita styles to my new exploration of lingerie through this challenge. Dressing scantily seems to be more common than not, though, for several mostly-female subgroups on Second Life, though, and this fact has sometimes taken me up short.

I remember in particular meeting a woman wearing what amounted to loosely woven mesh who attempted to point me to the store and give me her physics layer so that I could improve my look; in a world where women are valued by our appearance of being available for sex, wearing a lot of clothing can be seriously discomforting. However, I'm more discomforted by being scantily clad - which is part of why I took part in this; being sexually objectified is inevitable when one is female, however Second Life offers and chance and a place to explore the ramifications of that, what it feels like, how we objectify or subjectify ourselves, and the relationship between semi-nudity and personality which subverts the idea of alluring women being blank slates for the sexual desires of others.

( 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
Glass: Sanu, Scribble Monocle
Eyeshadow: Mock, Party All Night / Indifferent Bitter Lime (Group Gift)
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick: Mock, Sarah Jane's Bloody Lips (Group Gift)
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Sachiko (promotional item)
Tray: Fallen Angel Creations, Absinthe Set Tray
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Jewelry: Amorous, Antiquarian Absinthe
Outfit: Dilly Dolls, Absynth Adorea (Past Twisted Hunt prize)

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Green Fairy Cabaret
Light Settings: AnaLutetia - Studio Lights

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only