The Wicapi Wakan outfit from Soedara

Wicapi Wakan is a new native-style outfit from Soedara, and one of the colours is currently discounted at We Love Role-Play. The outfit includes four different variations of the dress, option feather belt add-ons, necklace, headband, necklace, earrings, bracelets and moccasin shoes.

Slink appliers are included for the outfit's gloves. This was my first time using a clothing/tattoo applier with the Slink hands, so if you're not already familiar with this, remember to use the Slink Utilities hud to turn tattoos on.  I had to ask for help :)  You'll find loads more colours of the outfit in the Soedara  mainstore.

The skin in these photos is also from We<3RP - it's from Lumae, which is kind-of a rebranded Aeva // Heartsick. It might be more accurate to say it's the new skin brand from Amesha Jewell as the older products are still under the previous name. Lumae is more of a 'fresh start'.

You find the poses there too - the very cool huntress set from !bang. The spear I borrowed from an older outfit from Qalma.

My familiar

Some more previews from Enchantment, and a cute pet from Fantasy Gacha. Both events open tomorrow. Lots of pictures in this post, as there's a lot to show you!

The beautiful gown is Blanchette from Miamai. It has an elegant 1930s look and feel to it, but the hood at the back lends it a quirky touch. It also pays homage to Little Red Riding Hood, the underlying theme for this round of Enchantment.

The jewelry is from Bokeh, and comes in a variety of colours, including pearl, red, black and green. The ring sets include rings for left and right hands and versions for Slink hands. The necklaces include three different lengths. I really like nice, big chunky jewelry in SL - people can see it without having to cam in!

As with yesterday's post, the poses are from Infiniti. You can see that some of the  dynamic 'Running scared' make the mesh gown look as though it's billowing in the air.

Crayon Colour Challenge: Week 46, Metallic Sunburst

Metallic Sunburst

Metallic Sunburst

I'm wearing a bunch of clothes from The.Plastik tonight, so I guess it's a good time to remind you that there's just a couple of days left in their retirement sale. Everything on the second floor of the main building has been discounted 50-75% to make way for new releases coming this Friday.

The mesh sweater, which is my colour match, was a lucky find in The.Plastik's Halloween hunt, but it is one of the items included in the sale. (You now get a colour pack of 4 or 5 different shades or prints for 199L). You can probably guess, this wouldn't be one of my favourite colours, so I'm very grateful this was in the hunt!

The skin I'm using is a current special offer too - Aeva have released 3 tones of a special makeup from upcoming skin line Una. Each is only 50L on Aeva's cart at The Wash. As it's a preview, it doesn't have any appliers yet, but it does have clothing layer lingerie!

More info about the crayon colour challenge over on Softpaw's blog.

Sweater: The.Plastik-Astreia Sweater // Dijan
Shirt: The.Plastik - Ambrice Corset-J-Patchwork/Brown
Pants: The.Plastik - Stardust Pants://s:Tigah
Boots: Bliensen + MaiTai - Calamity Jane - Ankle Boot - Black
*Earrings: Ellabella - Nahimana's Autumn Earring 
Necklace: .mala. - hamsa boho necklace
Hair: !lamb -  Stay Don't Go (Mesh) - Ink
Shape: Self-made
Skin: Aeva - Una ~ Honey // Smudged  (at The Wash)
Eyes: IKON - Ardent Eyes - Pewter

Pose: Ma Vie

*Review copy

Crayon Colour Challenge: Week 45, Rose Quartz

Rose Quartz

Rose Quartz

Another late night, anoher quick post!

The outfit in this picture I picked up just about a week ago, when this silk was the 25L Tuesday offer at Soedara. I took advantage to pretty much buy it in every colour I didn't already have!

Also featured - and  you can see a closer shot after the jump - are two items from this round of We Love Role-Play.  They are a makeup from Aeva, and the Maris headdress and necklace from the GSpot gacha.

Aeva are offering six different makeups, each discounted 25%. Meanwhile, the gacha can be round in the special cheapies area, which is between two of the cabins.

Hunt at the Shack - free stuff!

*Shack* Andora (S) Lagoon

Shack are participating in the Femdom Hunt, and their hunt prize contains lots for anyone roleplaying as a slave girl. In the box you'll find a set of dancing silks, a pretty camisk, and a work tunic. Also - not shown here - are a box of 'Whipped' tattoos, if you've been punished recently. Ouch.

A quick word about the hair - I do love a fabulous swishy ponytail style - which is from Mina and available now (discounted!) at We Love Role-Play. This round will be open until the end of the month, when it closes for a few days before re-opening at 3pm SLT on 4th November.

Alternative geisha

This evening's rants brought to you by Grumpy Geisha

I've been having an absolute 'mare with viewers lately. Firestom starting being really slow and crash-y, so I switched to the official Second Life viewer.  It ran a bit more smoothly... but not especially well - still slow and maybe it crashed once.  It has this ridiculous quirk though - textures don't stay rezzed. They blur and unblur continually. What is that about?!

So much for the official viewer as the be-all and end-all that some people make it out to be. Maybe it runs better on a PC, but on my macbook? Pff. I'll take the customization options and features that Firestorm offers me any day.  I love that I can right-click and derender any object that might be spoiling the in-world ambience.  Anyway, I've just deleted all my old Firestorm folders to perform a clean re-install, so hopefully that will help.

That's another thing - all those people who find it oh-so-easy to say bloggers are only in it for the free stuff are so wide of the mark. By the time I've put a look together, found a location, taken the pictures (with some really slow viewer performance and probably a crash or two thrown in), done a few small tweaks in photoshop, written the post, tidied up the credits... I've probably spent a couple of hours on a post. Doing all this just to get free stuff - in the form of review copies - must be one of the least productive and cost-effective ways to spend time ever!

Of course, I'm not suggesting everyone with a blog has pure motives. Yes, some people do it for free stuff. Others like to stir up controversy or to become "slebrities" (lol). But anyone who manages to sustain a blog for a reasonable length of time is probably doing it for other reasons, because photos don't take themselves and posts don't write themselves. It has to be a labour of love, or it won't last.

I started this blog because of a friend's suggestion - I had a huge amount of silks and gowns (that I bought) and was pretty good at finding freebies! Why do I blog? Because it's fun. Because I love creating a character, dressing her up, and finding a setting for her. Because I love sharing my finds, and especially sharing freebies and gifts for people who don't have any L$. I love being able to ping newbies, or people helping newbies, the link to my free page.  I love that I can promote and support reputable designers rather than shady ones. (If I ever have or do feature copybotted items, please forgive me - you can be sure it was because I had no suspicion.) I get a real kick out of seeing a new follower on my blog, or that someone has linked to me, or when someone tells me in-world that they like my blog.

Do I get review copies? Yes, now I do, but I can pretty much guarantee that for the first year of this blog I neither received nor requested review copies! I'm very grateful to all the designers who send review copies or accepted or invited me to their blogger groups as it helps me sustain the blog.

Do I request review copies or apply to blog events now? Yes, very occasionally, as in a couple of a times a year. I might send a request to a designer  I've already bought from (if I don't like their creations enough to buy, why would I want to blog them?) if I think they might be amenable to it, based on what they've stated in their profile picks. If they haven't put anything there, I ask what their policy is, if it's something they ever do.  As for events, I applied for We<3RP and Fantasy Faire, and there's an upcoming event I'd love to blog so I will make enquiries about that too. I don't have the time to do justice to lots of events, so I keep it to what fits best with my interests and to which I can devote a reasonable amount of coverage. Most of the time I'm splashing the cash like everyone else!

Am I a big ol' poopyhead? Yes, probably, but that's a separate issue.

RIGHT OK RANT OVER NORMAL SERVICE WILL BE RESUMED AFTER THE JUMP

:D  I'm pretty sure that extended rant was as a direct result of viewer hassles these past couple of days. It's very unlike me to write so much or comment on controversial issues.

Normal blog service, featuring this gown from the current Steampunk round of Genre, will be resumed after the jump! Congratulations if you made it this far :) and thank you for bearing with me!

Mother of Pterodactyls

Dragons? So last season.

The shoulder pet to have now is a baby pterodactyl, as all the fantastical fashionistas know.

The Mieville Midway fair and gacha festival, featuring steampunk, goth, and alternative designers opens at noon SLT on Tuesday October 15th, and the cute Pteri shoulder pet from Unrepentant is just one of the gacha prizes you can play for.

Coming soon: Round 2 of We Love Role-Play

Are you read to get your shop on? Round 2 of We <3 Role-Play will open at 3pm on June 4th, featuring some of SL's finest creators offering items at discounts of between 25% and 50%.

The list of creators for this round appears below, and it's just as awesome as last time out (but please do bear in mind that it is subject to change, real life happens and so on).

Check it out - especially if you're not already familiar with the event - some of your favourites are bound to be on it.  (Slurl to follow when the event opens!)

Hunt for flowers at the Shack!

*Update: The hunt will end on Sunday 19 May, so don't delay!*

A treasure hunt has just started at Shack. If you can find all 12 flowers, you will be rewarded with a gift box stuff full of prizes. The prize contains a set of silks, camisks, a slave/panther outfit, a female rogue/outlaw outfit, sim/roleplay props, and even an outfit for men.

Simply the Best of Second Life spring hunt

Blue Moon Enterprises - Lady Rhiannon  gown Purple

I had a quick run around some of the Simply the Best's spring hunt locations this morning and grabbed a few prizes, including some romantic gifts from Roawenwood and Blue Moon Enterprises, and some raunchier offerings from Arachne Silks and House of Dragovar Silks!

It's a 10L hunt, but you can find previews of the prizes at the official Simply the Best blog. There are lots of home and garden items, but I mostly picked out clothing, cos that's my thing :)

We Love Role-Play: Velvet Whip and EZ Weaponry

Yes, it's another shot taken from the back - but I couldn't resist having this beautiful bow from EZ Weaponry in the first shot (along with the gown from Velvet Whip). I don't know much about combat or weaponry in SL roleplay,  but I know when something looks good, and this surely does! It's called the Guilded Bow of Jie and there's 25% off at We <3 Role-Play. It comes with a useful looking hud for those of you who know about these things :emb: with sheathed and drawn versions of the bow, and a separate quiver.

The mesh gown from Velvet Whip is 50%, so it's a mere 100L at the event. It includes snood, veil, and mask, so you could wear it as a Gorean free woman, or else any kind of medieval roleplay. I think it'd be really nice in an ASOIAF setting.

The We <3 Role-Play event opens on May 4 (only two more days!) at 3pm SLT and I'll post the LM when it opens, but you might already have come across the parcel on a well-establishing shopping sim :)

I just want to take a moment to mention the skin from Aeva, which is at the special fundraiser, for aevaheartsick, to help Amesha Jewell with the cost of a new computer. She will be participating in future rounds of of W<3RP, but right now she has two brand new skins at the fundraiser. They are all only 100L for each tone of the base skin. I usually wear light skins for this blog, but IMO, Amesha does beautiful dark tones too. Please go and check them out! :)

More pics after the jump!

Fantasy Faire 2013: Sax Shepherd Designs

Have you been to Fantasy Faire yet? All good things must end, and unfortunately the Faire's too brief existence - for this year - will come to an end on April 28. The Key of Hope hunt continues until May 19; hunt-lovers, don't miss!

Back to the job in hand. In these pics I'm wearing a very skimpy outfit - more a set of body jewelry really - from Sax Shepherd Designs. I blogged one of these outfits was for the One Voice benefit last summer, and it now seems to have taken up permanent residence at the top of my most popular posts.

(The poses btw are the Magical set from Two Cats again.)

Fantasy Faire 2013: Feredir from FATEwear

Another men's outfit to show you today (don't worry ladies, normal service will be resumed shortly). This time it's Fereir, a dashing male elven outfit from FATEwear. (Though it would also be wonderful for a hunter or ranger character.)

It's an exceptionally well crafted and textured piece of mesh, and the ultimate in simplicity as it's an 'all-in-one' outfit; so all you need wear is one piece of mesh and one alpha. In the box, you get two versions of the outfit -  cloaked (shown here) and not.

Crayon Colour Challenge: Week 16, Sizzling Sunshine

Sizzling Sunshine

Sizzling Sunshine

Busy, busy, busy, so a quick post. This week's crayon colour challenge is yellow, which is... a lot like green, and therefore not all that easy.

The outfit is new from Shack, but I'm not breaking my self-imposed rule of no new buys for the challenge. I didn't buy it because it was that week's colour, I bought it because it was the new release half-price special at Shack last Friday. So there.

The skin (including matching mesh feet) and make-ups are from Aeva. Go and buy or donate so Amesha can buy a new computer RL and keep making us lovely skins with mesh feet, cos some of us.

Next week is gonna be grey. That can't be hard! Find out more about the challenge on Softpaw's blog.

Now I know the truth

I caught the amazing video for Ellie Goulding's 'Anything Can Happen' recently (I know, I know, I'm so out of the loop). She wears two looks in the video, one of them being a fantastical, grecian draped gown.

I don't know if it would be possible to create a close approximation of this look as there's lots of volume and fluid draping, but it was so beautiful and inspirational, I thought I'd have a go at interpreting it, just for fun.

Delicious Delilah silks

'Kay, before I get stuck into telling you about this recent release from Delicious, I just wanted to mention a really neat extra that comes with the new Aeva skins I mentioned last night. (I didn't spot it until now, DERP.) Pre-tinted mesh feet. Yup, no more messing with huds or anything like that; each tone of the four new Aeva skins includes matching mesh feet in six sizes, plus alphas.

Crayon Colour Challenge: Week 15, Licorice

Licorice

Licorice

This colour wasn't too hard to match, in fact I found I had tons of things that would match... and somehow ended up becoming a cowgirl (I think it might have been the hat). I had a harder time finding a photo location. Most of the Western-themed sims  tried seemed to be inaccessible (maybe group only), uninspiring, or very strict on Victorian era clothing.

Full credits after the jump, but I wanted to mention the skin which is brand new from Aeva (formerly Heartsick). Creator Amesha Jewell is having a hard time at the moment as her computer is giving up the ghost, but she managed to release four new skins.

Love roleplay? Love shopping?

There's a new roleplay shopping event on the way, and I can't wait.

So many favourites will be participating in this event. Regulars will include The White Armory, Soedara, Roawenwood, Evie's Closet, Kouses's Sanctum, The Plastik, Silkworms, and Aeva/Heartsick. Guests will include Arwen's Creations, Fallen Gods, and Zaara.

That's just a small sampling of the stores involved. A lot of those listed I don't know so well, so it will be nice to discover some new stores. A full listing is included at the end (or you can read more about it on the We Love Role-Play blog.

Burlesque for life

Yay burlesque! The best excuse on the grid to play with chiaroscuro lighting, poses full of attitude, and stripping down to bare essentials.

If you love burlesque in Second Life, you'll already know !dM deviousMind and (*chanimations. This year, deviousMind are participating in Fashion for Life and have three outfits to benefit the cause, one of which is Lady Vayne in lilac.

Sun rises in the East

Pink with red has always been one of my favourite combinations; how they clash yet complement each other all at the same time.  There's a lot of pink and red in these pictures, courtesy of another amazing outfit from Bare Rose, a brand new skin-makeup from Aeva, and one of the themed sky boxes on the Humanoid sim.