Bohemian Spring

I shop a lot in SL. Not just a lot, but a lot a lot: 80s- era-Imelda-Marcos-hopped-up-on-caffeine-and-unleashed-wild-in-Bergdorf's a lot. But the nature of shopping like a fiend with a forest full of money trees is that, though I love a lot of what I get, there aren't too many items that I wear again and again. The clothes that I keep coming back to are my true favorites.

That's the case with Zoe Llewelyn's "Thrift Store" top and skirt sets I bought at Boneflower Designs a few weeks ago. They're not flashy or high fashion, but that's part of their allure. The outfits are down-to-earth, pretty, feminine, and well made overall. Zoe's probably best known for her wonderful neko skins (which cover me quite often :) ). But she's one of my favorite clothing designers, too.

Her Thrift Store line is well named, as it reminds me of pretty stuff I discover in little hole-in-the-wall arty places in downtown Portland. I bought the more general-themed matching blouse and skirt sets (the other two sets feature more Asian-inspired patterns), and I love the range of textures Zoe's used: from pastel swirls to primitive animal drawings in silky fabrics. They give a trendy bohemian look that can be a pleasant change of pace from more haute couture fare.

Each blouse or skirt set features 10 designs, while each blouse design in a set has three different styles: sleeveless, sheer sleeves, or fishnet sleeves. Put the skirt and blouse sets together and you have a mix-and-matcher's dream, and a bouquet of lovely casual looks for SL Spring.

Skirts and tops: "Thrift Store," at Boneflower Designs

Jewelry: Leather Necklace and Star Choker, at Shiny Things

March Madness

Okay, take one part March Madness (Go Gators! :P), one part Smells Like Teen Spirit video, a smidge of post-modern, puree it in the Second Life blender and what do you get? Anarchy Cheerleader!

I don't know why I did this look. It just seemed like something fun. I tried to contrast some punky and "cheerleadery" accents. I originally went very over the top with guns at my side and a nose chain. However, the good people at Kindly High School, where I took the pictures, well, kindly asked me to remove the sidearms, and I found I liked the weaponless look better anyway. Then I decided the bright silver nose chain just stood out too much. Soooo, a little more "understated," I'm ready to cheer on Anarchy to another big win over archrival Order :)

Hair: Resilient, Red, Blackened, at ETD

Top: Anarchy Sunshine Latex Top, Sweet Dreams Latex and Clubwear

Miniskirt: Black Latex Cross Miniskirt, Sweet dreams latex and Clubwear

Boots: Cru Hook Spiked Lace-ups, Crucial Creations

Earrings: Razor Blade Earrings, Boneflower Designs

Collar: Kitty Bell Collar, Boneflower Designs

Pompoms: taken from Sexy Cheerleader Costume, Intimate Confessions

Baroness

I'm terrible at friendly emails, or --for my Luddite friends-- letters. It's not that I don't like writing letters and emails; I do. But I usually have so much I want to say, and so little time, that I put off the correspondence until I have enough time to write all that I want. That time, of course, turns into never.

It turns out the same thing has happened with my little picture blog. Between work and the rest of real life, I've had even less time than usual. I barely scrape by enough time to jump in Sl and do my part for its economy. Taking quick snapshots and writing all that I want to on outfits is a lost cause. However, I still love doing it. I just have to reconcile myself to the fact that writing about it will become even more abbreviated. Three or four paragraphs may turn into three or four sentences. Of course, you wouldn't be able to tell that with this entry :) .

That said, I popped in to see Ginny Talamasca's new Last Call stuff tonight. I love, love, love Ginny's stuff. Her place is high on my fashion pilgrimage list -- stores I visit multiple times a week, every week to pay homage with linden sacrifices ;). Tonight I picked up her new Baroness set in "Blood" red.

"Baroness" is part of Ginny's Last Call Hunt Club release and a sexy, semi-casual outfit available in five colors that combines a short tartan kilt with a knit ank top and sheer shrug. The set gives you a nice variety of looks, as Ginny has included the shrug and tank top both in combination and as separates on the jacket layer, as well as silver and gold belted versions of the kilt.

The kilt belt itself is a cute, unique accent, although I do wish Ginny had included it as a separate prim rather than melding it to the kilt prim. Because of where the prim must set (on the roundest part of the butt) for the best skirt look, the belt (which is the top of the skirt prim) appears to be resting just a tad too low in back. However, aside from that slight bit of criticism, it's a wonderful outfit and complemented perfectly by the jewelry Ginny gave her Last Call group members.

The Long, Hot Summer?

I love the holiday season, but have wound up buying lots of summery clothes in SL lately. Maybe it's to balance out all the holiday shopping I've been doing in real life.

Anyway, I was at Simone Stern's charity yard sale to benefit Ayashe Millions. Simone is selling a fair amount of her stock there for 100 lindens each. Anyone that has been to Simone's knows that's a huge discount on her line. Among the items I bought was a pretty gold fan with an animation overrider included. The fan looks lovely, the AO is very natural and, most importantly, does not conflict with the general overrider I wear.

I wound up pairing the fan with the "Olivia" outfit I picked up at Pixel Dolls' new location in Port Seraphine. Nephiline Protagonist has been on a roll with her designs lately, and this is one of my new favorites by her. I love the elegant red-and-black floral print and the long, flowy scarf. Combined with my "Mia" scarf-accessorised hair from ETD, and the gold fan, I think it makes a very pretty 50s' era, sleepy, Summer-in-the-South type outfit.

DarkDharma

With Halloween coming up, almost everyone is adding costumes to their stores. However, for my Halloween linden, I prefer DarkDharma Avatar Isle. DarkDharma Daguerre has a wide number of full avis and separates them into various themes throughout the property. A walk around the island includes avis of pirates, cowboys and salloon girls, Disneyesque characters, monsters, tykes, celebrities. The avis are very well detailed and many are a steal at 600 lindens. Many of the celebritiy avis are as dead on identical as I've seen in-world. What's even better is Darkdharma's avi "rental" option, which lets you return an avi within 48 hours and receive your purchase price back, less a 100 linden rental fee.

Darkdharma has also built a haunted house display just for Halloween. The build is wonderfully done and includes a number of freebies. All in all the island is a pre-Halloween must to visit.

Ahoy Matey! A Newly Discovered Boutique

New people always ask me what I do in SL. I give them the abridged answer that I shop and hang out with friends, but the reality is that I shop, talk with friends, shop, explore new places, shop, help new people, shop, and, of course, shop with friends. Many times even when I seem to be doing something else, I'm shopping. For example, when I'm at the welcome area, there aren't any genuine new people around, and I get tired of the gesture spam and pointless debates, I will peruse the classifieds. That's how I found Tres Beau Designs and my cute little sailor girl outfit.

Tres Beau is a mid-sized, well-designed little boutique with direct teleport access to various clothing departments, including formalwear, bridal gowns, menswear, tres beau classics designs, and retro outfits. Though I didn't buy a gown, I stopped briefly at their bridal section, which has a number of lovely designs, including *Angel,* a flexi gown with a lovely, unique scarlet border at the gown's hem, bosom, and veil's edge.

The retro section, where I was drawn given my retro-hollywood phase, has a nice littl e variety of '30s through 50's inspired outfits, including two sailor girl suits, a design I really haven't seen much of in SL. One is Sailor Blu, and looks vaguely like Christina Aguilera's sailor girl outfit in Candyman. The one I purchased, First Mate, at 400 L, is white with navy blue trim and is reminiscent of a mid-40s pinup girl costume. The sailor hat is particularly well done and one of the few hats I've run into in SL that doesn't look absurd sitting on prim hair. The little shoulder cuffs are also a nice touch, and the prim skirt is done as well as most prim minis. I'm not a designer, but it seems impossible to join the underpant and a prim mini attachment without some kind of edge showing on the rear. The edge on this one is visible but does not take away outraegously from the mini's overall line. My one problem with the outfit is the pinkish swirly design of the print on the top. I wish she had left it plain with just the tie. Other than that, it's quite a fetching little outfit and puts Tres Beau on the list of places I need to pop in to every now and again. ;)

Vampires cannot live on blood alone...

I confess: as one of my many incarnations on Secondlife, I am a vampire. I'm a laid-back vampire; one who doesn't bite that often. Indeed, I find myself turning down many, many offers to bite newbie guys with bad pickup lines. Anyway, for quite some time I have been living my vampire life with my good ol' reliable regular human skin that I love : the Hybrid II Vestal # 9 by Santana Lumiere at Nevermore Studios. Indeed I love my vestal skin so much that I can't bring myself to wear other beautiful human skins that I've bought on a whim or that have been given to me by very sweet designers. It just doesn't feel like "me."

However, in honor of halloween, I decided to buy a more vampire-appropriate goth-looking skin. The catch to my conscience of course is that I'd have to get it from Nevermore. So last night I picked up my Hybrid II Achromatic # 9. I love the look because it really does just appear that my "regular" face has had all the color drained from it. Although Santana doesn't appear to have updated her skin line since I got mine 7 months ago, there's nothing to criticize in failing to try to improve upon the wheel. Some may not care for the fact that her skins are not exactly photorealistic. However, I love the more hand-drawn approach and how elegant it is. And at $1000 L a makeup option, she falls right in line with the standard price for a high-quality skin.

Heady with my prize skin capture, I needed a new outfit. Sure, I have all kinds of gothy outfits, but, well, a new skin is a special occasion. ;) With that in mind, I flew off to DE Designs, one of the better large-scale stores to find a good gothy dres.

My pick for the evening was Doc Eldritch's new design of the week, Waiting, in red. The outfit included the top, skirt, and gloves for $275L, and features wonderful eyelet stitching textures. I also love the unique cut of the outfit: a top with a high, narrow collar that plunges around the breast and a skirt giving the appearance of a knee-length lace overlay in front of a silk gown that is ankle-length in back. Out of the box, the gown was not wide enough, either with my animation override poses or the standard poses, which caused the gown to look ripped. However, the outfit is moddable, allowing for an easy fix in editing.

Now, if I could just keep cheesy would-be victims away from me, I'd be set. :)