Countrified Sam

Or I'm a classy hayseed ;)



I ended up in this outfit because my favorite furry dance club, Club Cutlass, was having Hillbilly Night. This was the best I could do on short notice :) I'm wearing ETD Jessica II hair in Blonde Frosted [a dollabie--hat included], /artilleri/ Jed men's shirt, minus the pockets, ETD Vintage Denim Capris and Fleur Skins Allure Kit 2 in Cinnamon. No shoes obviously! And yes, the background is one of Claude Monet's haystacks ;)


I want to apologize for my absence recently -- fortunately Elaine & Fury are taking up the slack nicely :) It's been RFL inworld and RL outworld, including the demise of my desktop graphics card :(

Windows of the soul

In my previous blog post, I commented very briefly -in fact, I only posted the link- on the announcement that Miriel is closing down for good. I felt, however, that such news required further acknowledgement. So here's a full blog post... kind of my elegy. The jewellery is great, granted, because it's all scripted and you can choose the gems you want to wear and always match your outfit. However, Miriel has been the staple store for me in terms of eyes.

Eyes are an item that gets ignored every now and then; in fact, I have more than once thought to myself "I wonder where those eyes are from" when reading a blog post. I always do make a point in saying that the eyes I show in my pictures are from Miriel, but I'm just as guilty of not saying which exact ones they are. If you go back to my first blog post in February (I'm not expecting anyone to really go, it's just a trope), they were already there, and so were the lashes; in fact, a quick look at my Flickr informs me that my addiction dates back to August 2008, and since I turned to Miriel, I've never looked back.

The reasons are many. But if I had to make it short - I guess I'd say they're soulful eyes. They're so well made that they have a life of their own. I must admit I'm fussy about eyes: many times I've heard people say that X creator's are the best, but when I try them on it takes me 0.5 seconds to find fault and get back to good old Miriels. Also, I don't want to settle for just any shade of green, there's always a specific one on my mind, and Miriel has it. In fact, such versatility allows me to change my eye colour depending on my mood - and my clothes, why not. Sam took me there the first time, and I've kept going back for more. When I was there to get assorted one last time yesterday, it was sad to think it will soon be gone.

Ok, let the violin music stop and the pictures speak for themselves. Here is a selection of my favourite eyes from Miriel (I labelled the images themselves to avoid messing up, if you want to see each row separately, they're available here):

Wild about Azul

I have been a fan of Azul since the small shop on a Japanese sim, I wore an Azul dress I purchased from there on my engagement.

So, its no suprise that after 3 visits in a week and a little help from an alien (she's blue and beautiful...lol) I finally succumbed and bought the Azul-Maggie dress in onyx.

Its has great design and great texturing. From the moment I put it on I felt like I was a Bond girl. The tulip strapless top is asymmetrical in design, with half the bodice sheer with a touch of lace to save ones modesty. The skirt too is asymmetrical, although from the back it has a full, classical, floor length skirt. The front, however, is split to the thigh open skirt with layers of lace filling the gap. An altogether beautiful, sexy yet elegant evening dress.

I have to admit, when i was looking for hair to wear with it..it was merely an excuse to pull out Clawtooths: Kitten with a Whip (Black beauty)...what a great name...lol. This recent purchase is built high and with curls and a severe fringe. It did mean my look went somewhat from James Bond girl to Mars Attack girl...lol....oh well.

To set the dress off I used Alienbear Design..Frideswide Set (white) with its wonderfully detailed vines and flowers sitting nicely in the cleavage.

My usual favourites add to the whole look...SKG Black Stiletto Slingback Pumps and Fleur Allure Truffle Kitten 1.

The whole shoot was taken at AM Radio's The Wild and The Wet.

Styling:

Shape: Custom, FuriousDesigns

Skin: Fleur Allure Truffle Kitten 1

Hair: Clawtooth: Kitten with a Whip (Black beauty)

Eyes: (Miriel) Eyes - Platinum (Big)

Eyelashes: Cake - Separated Lashes - Tintable*

Dress: azul -Maggie- Onyx

Shoes: SKG Black Stiletto Slingback Pumps

Jewelry: Alienbear Design..Frideswide Set (white)

Birthday gift

A few days ago I was wandering around -ok, doing the WebQuest hunt- totally oblivious that I still wore my "Happy rezday to me!" tag, when something funny happened. I landed at a store called Spork, which was totally new to me. The store owner, GM Nikolaidis, was there and welcomed me singing "Happy rezday" off-key... we had a short conversation and I was pleasantly surprised by his sense of humour. To boot, he ended up sending me a gift voucher (despite me telling him it had been weeks ago), so I decided to take a look around anyway and pick a piece, just to see whether their clothing was any good.

My choice was the Flight dress, and I let GM pick a colour for me, so that it would be a surprise gift... and yay! he picked blue, which turns out to be my favourite colour. Textures, layers, originality... Spork is definitely on my list of places to get back to. In fact, after trying on the dress I decided to return in order to get one of the "expansion packs" of the dress, the Midi skirt - since I knew I'd feel more comfortable with a longer skirt length.

More stuff. Want to hear some good news? I had been drooling over Keris' shoes from Kalnins every time he bought a new pair, so when he told me they've started making women's shoes and forwarded me the notice, I nearly threw a party. It's not just that the sandals (Coquette) are awesomely well done, but that, instead of releasing a gazillion different colours and making you choose one, or charging a fortune for a fatpack, they only do one pair, with a colour change script, and sell it at a very reasonable price (500L if you're not a gold card member, half that if you are). Besides a ton of options (resizing, sounds, a footlight [!], etc.), the script lets you recolour 4 shoe parts separately, so all in all, for 500L you get... 4... 8... 12... umm... many! different shoe combinations. (Edit: Keris did the calculations, and fyi, there are 14641 variations) *faints*

*Gets up again* All right, time to finish. Other items shown above are: Alexis skin by Laqroki; Truth's new freebie hair, Jess; Miriel eyes and lashes (by the way: this is terribly sad), and the Shiny Things Glass Chunk necklace and double bracelet. Poses are from Reel Expression, if I recall correctly.

As usual, here's the full outfit credits.

Oh, Mama!

In my country (Spain) we celebrated Mother's Day one week earlier that almost everyone else - it's always on the first Sunday of May for us. So, while everyone else was celebrating with their mums, I got away from my family for the weekend. Of course, as is customary whenever there's any special day on SL, I came back to a ton of notices that were doomed to getting lost. I could, however, rescue an important one saying that Nicky Ree had a special Mother's Day gift, available only until 12th May. Lookit!

It is, of course, not me but the dress, Satin Shine Floral Gown in blue. As is usual with Nicky Ree's designs, it comes with two different skirt options, but I'm only showing the ballgown one in the picture because I suffer from that common SL disease, called bigbummitis.

I guess I could have worn prim feet with this one, because surely no one would have noticed a skin colour mismatch. However, I opted for rescuing a pair sandals from last season, which I think picked up nicely on the purples and blues on the gown - they're Sasy Chic in Tulipe, from Aphrodite Creations. Also the delicate jewellery, from Dark Mouse, echoed the blue on the dress. They're the Spring Flowers earrings and necklace in silver, plus the Aquamarine Chunk Bracelet, also in silver.

The skin is an old favourite, a Vogue from Celestial Studios - although I had my doubts, because the new group gift from Rockberry (Uma) matched very nicely, too, also with purple smoky eyes. But I guess I've been changing skins so much lately that I liked the idea of getting back to a classic. The hair is ETD's Tiana, eyes and lashes are from Miriel and poses are from the Reel Expression "Party dress" set.

Full outfit credits, here.

No Mimickery Here!

I'd say it's the real McCoy...lol

I wandered over to Mimikri to buy the sim crasher dress and ended up getting one of their new releases...Sina in nude. Shall we say pretty??? A detailed, spaghetti strapped, brocadded top sits on top of a lace and satin(?) flexi skirt. In fact its 2 flexi skirts...one lace and one material placed such that they fall beautifully together. A very pretty bowed, lace belt finishes the dress to perfection. Ideal for any event.

I teamed it up with ::SC -ketty- Felicidade Peacock Pie hair to give quite a 60's look to it.

Also wearing Fleur Allure Truffle Lounge 1 skin for that classic, elegant look and (Miriel) Eyes - Arctic Ocean (Big) for that 60's sex kitten look.

It seems i cant take this ensemble off my pixels running around sl...thank goodness my friends accept me for who I am....lol

Fun picture here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/furystapleton/3525287122/

Styling:

Shape: Custom, FuriousDesigns

Skin: Fleur Allure Truffle Lounge 1

Hair: ::SC -ketty- Felicidade Peacock Pie Hair

Eyes: (Miriel) Eyes - Arctic Ocean (Big)

Eyelashes: Cake - Separated Lashes - Tintable*

Dress: Mimikri - Sina nude

Shoes: Maitreya Verve Pumps- Black

All about Grace: Finding my "Hart"

To be honest, although I had tried PXL Creation's earlier skin demos, it wasn't until my SL sis, Grazia Horwitz, told me to look at the new Grace, that I found my "Hart."




My first purchase was Grace Natural CatEyes RoseLips. I choose to wear it with Brown brows and freckles. And let me say here that I absolutely adore the freckles--they go all over the body and they are perfect :) It's on the left, above. On the right is Grace Fair Cat Eyes Flamenco lips, also with brown brows.




After purchasing my first "Grace" I offered on plurk to look at an upcoming beta and then asked for a makeup with copper lips and green eyeshadow in the future [I know, pushy pack 'o' pixels] and before I knew it Hart dropped the Grace Fair Blogger's Pack --oh well he calls it Skin-Whores-In-A-Box . How did he know? Anyway I got a look at both the released skins and the new spring makeups.

And YES--my green eyeshadow is there :) It's on the left above. The Makeup is Grace Fair Spring Flamenco lips. On the right is Grace Fair Spring Nude lips.



Above are Grace Fair Dark Eyes with Coffee Lips and Grace Fair Nude with Nude lips. Eyebrows remain brown.


Last, but far from least, are two more Grace Fair Spring makeups. On the left is Red lips, on the right Wine lips. What I like about the Grace Spring makeups is that they move a bit into color in the eye makeup, something I had missed in PXL skins previously.

Hair is ETD Loraine in Crimson. Earrings, the Gypsy Soul from Love Chic

Old and New Favorites from Silent Sparrow

When hyasynth Tiramisu puts her creativity to the pixels all is good, but some delight more than others.

For example the new Voltaire Suit, worn here in Leather, has striped textures nicer than any I've seen from hya before. All the parts work delightfully, but I have to admit that this scarf whore has plans for that jabot ;) Additionally every "suit" has prims sized for the female figure. I also guess this is the place to confess that I thought "Voltaire" referred to the French philosopher. Oh well :)

Worn with Voltaire are:
Skin: Tuli, Meredith Captivating Copper in Pale
Hair: ETD Loraine 2 in Auburn
Earrings: Boing Fromage Horn & Dangle Beads Earrings - Slim
Shoes: Shiny Things hyasynths in Black




But my all time favorite from hya's hand is Beloved --here in Sea. The textures, the flexi prims, the texturing is just heartstoppingly lovely. I've paired it with ETD Aiiyanna in Smoke Faded [old textures] and the Fleur Allure China skin made for hya's Suzume dress. The feather around the eyes matches the Sea Beloved perfectly!

Worn with Beloved:
Earrings: Alienbear's Pearl Teardop earrings in Black
Shoes: Armidi Gisaci Oxford Boots in Black

Birds in Hand: Grace, Octavia & Hogarth

Sometimes events conspire as did my desire for Octavia [after Cajsa blooged this Evie's Closet dress], PXL Creations' Grace with the Flamenco lips and Karl5 Hogarth's pearl earrings, which I have wanted for eons in RL.

I had the skin and the dress. The skin is from Hart Larsson's PXL Creations, specifically Grace Fair with Cat Eyes and Flamenco lips. Octavia in red is one of the sale items at Evie's Closet--on the back wall if you can get by the cupcake hordes. But when I saw the earrings on Flickr --well I knew what was going to happen. Karl5 was nice enough to drop them and the mesh bracelets on me so I could show them to you. Both are lovely work, but, for me, the earrings come so close to a RL desire that I was whimpering softly. The gold mesh basket cups the pearl orb... well you get the idea. And the pearls pick up the pearl decoration on the Octavia bodice. If the REAL Octavia had worn this dress I promise you that Marc Anthony would not have given Cleopatra a second look!

Hair: ETD Loraine 2 in Auburn

1st Date with a 2nd Date Dress

Imagine my suprise and delight when TaP Shepard of Fleur dropped me a folder containing the Fleur Second Date Dresses.

I was a bit rl busy so took a little time for me to throw them on my pixels but when I did....love at 1st sight...lol. I am wearing the berry colour...and it has a gorgeous depth to it, as do the other dress colours. The detailing and design are a delight, with a plunging neckline and a fun flexi skirt it's been hard to take it off. I love the pleating and folds and how the highlights accentuate these to perfection. Oh, and have I mentioned that the skirt moves like a dream? For her first release Roslin Petion has certainly made a dress to be proud of.

The other colours, all reflecting Summer and fruits, are Goldenrod, Lilac, Rose, Spring and Teal. The question will be....which one to choose?

I thought to celebrate Roslins first release I would also team the dress up with the Fleur Azalea Shoujo Spring 6 skin...it's almost as if its made to match. Soft toned pinks on a creamy complexion...stunning.

The dresses and skin are available at the Fleur shop...go grab some now! lol.

Styling:

Shape: Custom, FuriousDesigns

Skin: Fleur Azalea Shoujo Spring 6

Hair: Cake - Faith - Black - Flexi Hair

Eyes: New (Miriel) Eyes - Platinum (Big)

Eyelashes: Cake - Separated Lashes - Tintable*

Dress: *Fleur* Second Date Prim Dress (Berry)

Shoes: Maitreya Verve Pumps -Black

Whippet & Buck go p.c.

Much of this week's buzz has been about the new Spring Collection at paper couture, but another event has taken place which should please those of us with more classic tastes. I am speaking of the formal opening of Whippet & Buck. Bits and pieces have been available previously, but it wasn't until recently that the spring/summer line has been shown together.




In honor of BOTH events I hereby offer a Whippet & Buck/paper couture mash-up.

My dress is the Bardot Tube Dress in Bordeaux. It's a lovely strapless sheath dress with a warm plaid pattern. I will show it soon in other guises, but here it holds its own beautifully with several paper couture accessories.

I'm wearing the belt from p.c.'s older dress, "Falling Leaves" and the new Carnelian Necklace and earrings set that pick up the orange in the dress beautifully. Shoes are my trusty ETD Heel Strap Platforms in Persimmon, my hair is Loraine 2 in Auburn, also from ETD. Skin is Fleur Shoujo #4 in Azalea. My eyes are Spanish Moss from Poetic Colors and eyelashes are the Deviant Nation ones from Celestal Studios.

Poses are from AnaLu *Fresh Poses*

It's a green day

Greetings! I'm going to keep this one short and sweet - I just wanted to share my serendipitous discovery of the week: sometimes designers give out freebies that coordinate perfectly - unknowingly, I presume.

Why do I say this? Well, first, during the weekend I received the new subscriber kiosk gift from Pink Outfitters that every0ne's already blogged, because it's worth it: the Poppy Sheer Chiffon Blouse in light green... which I doubtlessly paired with the *I k i* straight leg jeans in indigo. But here's the twist: no matter how many pairs I have in my inventory, my shoes never match the way I want them to! I tried and tried, but nothing I already own would convince me. And then, poof, I saw the MK Bella Sneaks on Berry's blog ('cuz Berry is my new unofficial style guru). "Nice," I thought. "I wish they would do them in green." When droolage (I know, it's not even a real word) subsided, I scrolled down, and there they were! They did not only exist, but they were also on sale for just 1L. Besides the fact that the colour looks perfect, I love the name - green tea. Kinda awesome stuff, right?

Apologies for the brevity, but I'm redoing my AO and I need to concentrate. :-p

If you want to find out the name of the skin of the week (yeah, I'm afraid skinwhoring isn't over yet), the details of the missing items or any other outfit information, it's all on my Flickr.

Not Your Grandmother's Long Black Dress

From the front this dress from the Nomine L$100 sale looks as though your grandmum could have worn it on the American frontier. But the view from the back is another matter, hence the title of this post :)




A turn to show the back reveals a set of lacings that expose a great deal more flesh than grandma would approve of ;) The skirt moves very nicely--what there is of it!

Will check the name of the dress when I get inworld, but the other details are:
Hair: ETD Loraine 2 in Auburn
Skin: Cupcakes Seduction in Cameo
Jewelry: Pearl Teardrop set in Black from Bijoux d'Or
Wedding Ring: Damilani in Platinum from Bandit Jewelry

The Taboo Shoe

So..this started with me being in a Summery mood and wanting to wear something white...a nice floaty, white Summer dress in fact. I was going to wear something from my inventory until I saw Nadja Baxter wearing the "anuenue. MaiaDress(White). I tped over there and it was busy...and I admit I grabbed and ran as the lag was killing me. I do plan to go back though. The dress I think is a wonderful border anglais texture with a pretty hemmed flexi skirt. It looks and moves beautifully.

Now....I do not lack shoes but I have been avoiding buying the bare foot, prim toe variety since they first were introduced...although I did buy a pair of J's real toe sandels when they first hit the grid. Yesterday I finally succombed after reading the Vain Inc magazine. In there I spotted a pair from a shop called Taboo and thought I would check them out. I promptly bought the Taboo Paris Ribbon Edition set, all colours. Once back at base I began the frustrating task of matching the feet skin tone to my skins tone. *Sigh*...now I remember why I hadn't gotten any before now. As I was bemoaning this to Samara Barzane I suddenly hit the right shade...sheer accident...lol...and promptly saved it. As you can see, it's not a bad match. The ribbon hides the join between avatar and prim extremely well too. These shoes are going to be favourites I can tell. They come with a hud that allows you to resize, retexture (ribbon, nails and toe rings) and allows you to control the ao and sounds. Very, very clever.

The final piece was the *Muism*summer basket_flower(shoulder) that I purchased last year. It comes with a pose and it works well with my own ao. Its a pretty wicker basket full of flowers...perfect.

Summer feeling sated...lol.

I shot all these pictures on the plot where the Taboo shop sits....it has great textures and is a wonderful meadow for posing in.

Styling:

Shape: Custom, FuriousDesigns

Skin: Fleur Allure Truffle Kitten 1

Hair: Cake - Faith - Black - Flexi Hair

Eyes: (Miriel) Eyes - Platinum (Big)

Eyelashes: Cake - Separated Lashes - Tintable*

Dress: "anuenue. MaiaDress(White)

Shoes: Taboo Paris Ribbon Edition set all

Bag: *Muism*summer basket_flower(shoulder)

Location : http://slurl.com/secondlife/Amigo/54/38/349