Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Another Fundraiser Skins

There are very of us who follow fashion that could still be unaware of Eloh Eliot's generosity in releasing her skin files into the world. [I call them "free range" skins ;)]

And I hope that few are unaware of the Another Fundraiser going on at the moment, where wonderful skins based on Eloh's designs are being sold for L$ 50 each to raise money for UNICEF.

The first time I dropped by the sim I over heard an avi say" What would I do with 144 skins?" The answer is what could UNICEF do to help the world's children with the approximately $24 US that those 144 skins would cost. I didn't buy the whole set, but I did find 7 to take home and try -- here are four of them to show you that I thought made a nice contrasting set and a fair example of the variety available out there. Kudos to everyone involved in the project, but special thanks to Sasy Scarborough.

Below is a sampling of what's on offer. I am wearing ETD's Hermia hairstyle in 3 of the pictures -- not my normal choice, but I wanted to show the forehead and eyes more clearly than my usual bangs allow. The colors are platinum burnt, smoke faded and auburn burnt. In the other pictures I am wearing ETD Eglantine in black frosted.


On the left is Nuclear Boutique's "Candy", then Caliah Lyons' "Celestine", next Tigerlily Koi's Jaded in Nude and FINALLY a specialty skin from Justyna Lundquist of J7L Designs. The tattoos weren't rezzing for me this morning, but they ARE very sharp and well done.

Then on a revisit I found the skin I am sure I will actually wear quite a lot, Dark Angel, by Shani Fayray. Again I am wearing Eglantine in black frosted. The jewelry set in all pictures is Second Mirage's Ingrid, an advent calendar gift.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Sam's Experiments

They wouldn't let me in the chemistry lab in high school so ... at least in SL I can "experiment" and it's only pixels. One of the pleasures of the, now-ended, ETD sale was that, for those prices, I COULD experiment. So here they are!

On the left: AJ in Cinnamon -- I usually look for short hair as a lot of long or "big" hair swallows my avi, but for some reason I had never seen AJ in the flexi section. It was love at first flutter.


Middle: I got the Jasmin demo to show a customer and thought hmmm ..... YES! I love the bangs and the top-knotty feeling.

Right: I accidentally bought Resilient when I was trying to buy AJ -- not sure it's for me -- I may need to resize a bit, but nothing ventured ... you know the saying LOL

The jewelry is Nereid by Tekeli-li. The skin is one made by a colleague. Not sure it's going to be released, but I'm quite attached to it atm -- especially the little smattering of freckles :)

Monday, January 28, 2008

Heading East ...

One of the best tips for the more petite avi is to head for the designers in the Japanese sims. Here are three of my recent favorites.

First on the left is the wonderful quilting coat from *pop feel* in the KyuKaruizawa sim. It comes with a fur collar and cuffs as well, but I like the ones that match the coat. Other than a small adjustment on the collar, it fit perfectly on first rez.


My second offering in the middle is the wool flower skirt from GRANDMA!** OLD CLOTHES SHOP in the Osaka sim. I've paired it with the Très Blah turtleneck from the Tweed set and my favorite ETD Calf Boots.

Last on the right began with the Little Town * Women's Clothing * Holiday Gift turtleneck sweater and short skirt found in the JAPAN sim. I paired it with the *Honey Kitty rosesheep cardigan* in chocolate found in Plush Terra. All hair is by ETD -- from left to right: Peppy in Cinnamon, Bridget in Cinamon, Emily in Copper.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The Last Call

The last great sale at Last Call is underway. Once it ends [in about a month] Ginny Talamesca's wonderful designs will no longer be available in Second Life. I actually managed to get in on the first day. I took off all prims and scripts [I've been working pretty much that way at the current ETD sale underway next door], "humped" the sim boundary and got in. I did most of my purchasing using my camera. and only had one stale transaction. Not bad at all! I bought 18 outfits:( And I'm sure I'll go back again and again. Not all of Ginny's clothes suit the smaller avi, but I found plenty to love.

So for this post I am sharing two outfits from the Last Call sale paired with two new hairstyles I bought at the ETD sale. The first. on the right, is Ingrid, which comes with a wonderful red agate prim necklace. It also has prim legs, which I normally don't wear as they are hard to adjust for a smaller avi. So I set my pants length to about 88 and tucked my tootsies into Maitreya's Dune boots in black. I love the high waisted pants paired with the very feminine blouse. My earrings are True's Gunmetal Hoops. My skin is Tete a Pied Parfait 1 in Strawberry. I've been wearing it to work at ETD because it has drawn in eyelashes and I can work without my prim ones. The ETD hair is Bridget in Fire Burnt. I have no idea how this style has escaped my attention for so long. I simply love it's quirky unevenness in the knobs of hair :) I just bought the reds pack, but may succumb further before the sale ends at ETD on January 26 [at noon SLT]

The second outfit is Anamaria in red. It wasn't on my pre-shopping list, but somehow my finger hovered over the buy button and voilà it was mine! It is just a really sexy and classy mini-skirted dance dress. I am wearing it with the Muse Fine Jewelry group gift, Dauphine in silver and black. My shoes are the Tete a Pied Satin Slingbacks in black. The shoes at TaP are one of those well-kept secrets. They are nicely made and equally nicely priced :)

My new ETD hair is Monique in Cinnamon burnt which I had been eyeing for a while. My skin is ... yup ... TaP Parfait 1 in strawberry again :) I realize my pose is a bit silly, but I haven't gotten any new ones other than for my AO. So don't laugh too much ;)

Friday, January 11, 2008

All in a good cause II

With friends like this ...

My good friend Tricia Aferdita is dancing on a table at the Harmony Cafe in the Cetus Gallery District. She also seems to have a flashlight in her hand. You may ask why on either count. I can only answer the first -- Cetus is supporting the organization in New Orleans that helps the artists made homeless by Katrina. Tricia said she'd dance on a table if the contributions got to L$ 2000. I heard later she danced in a bikini -- I guess that was for L$ 3000 ? It was a great night in Cetus -- good music by Aron McBride and plenty of goofiness to go around.

Another friend of mine, Bree, bought this rubber ducky on a recent shopping binge we enjoyed. She looks absolutely mahvelous I think!

No real fashion notes here except to note the option of a flashlight as a "must-have" accessory ;) Oh -- And Bree is wearing the new ribbon-tie boot by Shiny Things.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

All in a good cause! Another Fundraiser skins from Aphrodite Outlander

My friend and content creator, Aphrodite Outlander is participating in the 'Another Fundraiser’ for UNICEF, in which variations on the wonderful "free range" skins of Eloh Eliot's Another Shop are transformed for the benefit of children in need throughout the world.Aphrodite was kind enough to give me a sneak preview of her transformations. Here I model two of them. On the left the fundraiser-scarlet and on the right the fundraiser-cerise.

Both of these skins are eminently wearable. Aphrodite was particularly interested in how they would look on my avi as I my lips are thinner than those of the average SL avi. My verdict is that they look fine! These skins, which she will sell as a fundraiser for UNICEF, are eminently wearable independent of any warm fuzzies one might feel contributing to a worthy cause. The skins are also available in Baisque, Gold and Red Delight.

In both picture I am wearing the rainbow fantasy eyes from Beauty Raine's. On the left my hair is Emily in Strawberry Burnt from ETD. On the right it is Maaliyah in Fire Burnt, also from ETD.

I want combat pay!!!

Working at ETD during the sale [which runs through January 26 at noon SLT] has been a challenge. Despite removing all my primmage I am usually rooted to the spot, with limited ability to cam around. So I get a good view of those struggling to get in the store and sometimes a better view when they run me over :) Here's a view from the front desk this morning before the grid was closed for maintenance.

On the whole people are being great and understanding that it's going to be slow. I've met a lot of super avis via IM. But folks please reduce your prims BEFORE you hit the sim. Best way in is to TP to Canimal or Celestial City and walk into ETD. It may take a bit of time, but you will get in eventually! And then the sale is yours!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Take THAT you lagging sim!

This post was inspired by both the megasale on at ETD [the pose] and wonderful new shoes from Aphrodite Outlander. Her new shoes, Vintish, have a wonderful rounded toe, definitely a vintage look. But there is more. In addition to the colors, Aphrodite has also made a group of shoes with the same colors, but with wonderful patterns. She calls these ART Vintish and they certainly are ART! These are the ones in green, but there are many more wonderful patterns available.

I'm still wearing the new Tete a Pied strawberry parfait 1 skin, as well as ETD's Maaliyah in Celadon Burnt. My top is the green cableknit sweater from Chic Boutique. The trousers are ETD's cords in moss -- a dollarbie in the discount section. My necklace is the heart on in green from Tuli and my bracelet is from Caroline Apollo's store in LoLo.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Please leave your primmage at the door!

[Welcome to the ETD BigSale!]

It's been a bit of a challenge working at ETD since Saturday. We're having a big sale -- amazing prices really -- so the sim is packed. The CSRs are even having a problem getting to work LOL The reason for the sale is explained well in Elika's blog. The prices are astoundingly wonderful -- so get yourself over there before noon SLT on January 26!

We're suggesting that folks remove all extra prims such as AOs, face lights, weapons, pets etc... to help reduce the lag -- I'm even working without shoes!! And I'm standing around like a Linden noob. If I can do it you can too LOL

See you there!

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Grid Down = Sam posts ;)

Can we say addicted?? Nooo ... not me.

But my friend, Rik Zwiers [do visit his Clouds Gallery in Pumori:)], has a vehicle addiction, particularly for airplanes. I'm one of the few of his friends who doesn't mind losing her hair, getting snagged on sim boundaries or ending up at the bottom of a Linden sea from a full parcel, so I have plenty of pictures to share:)

This was one of Rik's first flying vehicles. I have to admit it felt a bit like being back at the dawn of aviation history. Can we say Kitty Hawk?

My favorite is his yellow biplane. We've actually managed to fly from Pumori to Railrider in it without a crash LOL. This day we managed that, but we toured a bit of the sky near railrider on our way. There are a lot of creative builders up there!


Rik's latest fascination is with aerobatic planes. Most of them only take one person, but this one let me ride as long as I removed almost all my prims. I must say I'm glad the ride was virtual. You can see why from these pictures LOL

MY favorite is the hot air balloon. [I even have one on the beta grid LOL] It's slower travel, but lots of fun as you can either drift or control your course. The first picture is of Rik and myself [I think] taking off from Rik's dock in Pumori.


And here we are landing at Rik's Clouds Gallery and Pub. As you can see Rik was dressed for the beach LOL


A number of these vehicles were purchased at the Abbots Aerodrome. Give it a try -- you too may enjoy the skies of Second Life :)

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Absolutely "Parfait"!

You may have noticed that I love wearing skins from Tete a Pied. Well I'm enjoying it even more now that Roslin Petion and CJ Carnot have released the first of their new "Boutique" lines. It won't replace the nicely priced Vivant line, but will add a new layer to their offerings. I did dither a bit, as I love Strawberry Parfait 2, but don't always want to be wearing freckles. So for my first TaP Boutique skin, I selected Strawberry Parfait 1.


It's a very fresh, entirely hand drawn skin with a unique look. While I'm enjoying going through my inventory finding clothes to wear with it, I wanted to show it to you directly, without distraction. To put it mildly -- I'm in love :) The highlights and the skin tone reflect light beautifully. The facelight that is provided is much more subtle than most, and very effective. The eyelashes are ON the skin, in fact my usual prim lashes didn't look right so I'm going "au natuerelle" when I wear this skin -- in fact that's the key here. A hand-drawn skin that looks very natural indeed! Bien fait Tete a Pied :)

My hair is ETD Maaliyah in Auburn Burnt and my eyes are Summer Woods by Miriel.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

I'm a lucky avi ..

With generous friends *blushes*

I received MANY wonderful Christmas pressies, a pretty nice "haul" as we say LOL, but I'm only going to blog [well at this point] those from my two dearest pixel pals, Fury Stapleton and Rik Zwiers.

BOTH of them were naughty, naughty avis. On the left is the fur coat Fury gave me from Vindi Vindaloo. Oh. My. Can we say prims? It is an amazing coat and I'm still stunned! I've been roaming the winter sims to justify dragging that many prims around ;)

On the right is a lovely dress from my friend Rik -- I think he gave it to me to look at my "cleavage", such as that is LOL, but in any case it's a wonderful dress [it was included in white also] -- he's promised to take me dancing soon ... we shall see ;)

My hair is ETD Ashley in Sunny burnt, I think. In the right picture I am wearing Elika's Orsay stilettos in navy. The skin in both pictures is probably Tête à Pied Dakota 3 in buff.

Plus ça change ...

Plus c'est la même chose! Which is French for "The more things change, the more they remain the same" :)

That's something helpful to remember in the new year as we struggle to fulfill our resolutions! My ETD colleague, Jaydie Sapeur, made a great suggestion -- instead of focusing on our negatives in the new year [which is what most resolutions do], focus on making what you do best better :) I may not have her idea exactly right, but it seems a positive way to enter 2008 with a chance of success! Thanks Jaydie :)

The title of this post also refers to the fact I can't get enough of the Artilleri Cherries scarf -- which also comes with a winter breath animation. Nor can I get enough of the Très Blah black turtleneck from the Tweed shorts outfit. What I have added are the G.L.A.M. slacks in gray with black buttons. Lovely detail and nice to get away from the center zipper LOL. Just a note though -- as delivered they are set to be rather full. It you are a small avi such as myself, you might want to reduce that a bit, particularly, as I am wont to do, if you try to tuck them in boots! And my wedding ring is the JCNY "Eros".

Hair is ETD Patricia in Auburn burnt. Skin is Tête à Pied Dakota 3 in Buff, the necklace is a Caroline Apollo gift locket that I like for it's delicacy and it's length as it shows out from below the scarf.