Goldfish!

OK, so I am slow blogging these two wonderful items. The week before last my inworld experience was filled with all things of the goldfish kind.

First I went to SUGARCUBE and bought the goldfish dress in Orange. Wow! What a dress! The spaghetti strapped vest top has a wonderful asymmetric design over the bust. This then flows into a flexi skirt which is a masterpiece of layering, opacity, colour and structure. The whole effect reminds one of goldfish fins and tails. The dress moves like a dream and is so fun to wear.

To go with this I chose Fleur Allure Truffle Audacious 1, along with Cake - Faith - Silver. (Miriel) Eyes - Honey (Big) and SKGShoes Marie FH Pointed Pump Orange complete the look.

I shot this at The Rau Cave Dive site

My second is, I think, a slifestyle change…lol. I found all 3 treasure at Fallen Gods, on the LWTCB hunt. I admit, for the last one I had a little help from a friend. The whole ‘oufit’ is what I could only describe as a ‘Goldfish God’ ensemble. The very carefully positioned scales come on several clothing layers…which is fun as it allows you to add your own skin of choice. In addition to this ‘clothing’ are head, arm and leg fin attachments…all based on goldfish. To complete, there is also an arm amulet. The clothing textures are beautifully done, subtle shading, colouring and scaling make this whole outfit bind together. The fins are brilliant again in the texturing. They shimmer.

I had to think on the skin and I finally settled on the LionSkins Forbidden 14. Although probably not what the outfit creator nor the skin creator originally thought this a use for I think its perfect. It has that skin toned pink grey colour, setting off the scales and fins. The face isn’t perfect with discolouring around 1 eye..this too sets off the goldfish ensemble. A single vertical red line bisects the lips…the skin isn’t human and I do think it compliments the look.

Hair is ETD Resilient – Auburn and eyes are (Miriel) Eyes - Copper Cat (Big).

I shot this at Fallen Gods just out in the little cove.

I love both of this outfits for very different reasons. I am sure I will find opportunities to wear both time and again…lol.

Styling:

Shape: Custom, FuriousDesigns
Skin: Fleur Allure Truffle Audacious 1
Hair: Cake - Faith - Silver - Flexi Hair
Eyes: (Miriel) Eyes - Honey (Big)
Dress: ::SUGARCUBE - Goldfish Dress [ orange ]
Shoes: SKGShoes Marie FH Pointed Pump Orange

Shape: Custom, FuriousDesigns
Skin: forbidden 14-LionSkins
Hair: ETD Resilient - Auburn
Eyes: (Miriel) Eyes - Copper Cat (Big)Outfit:

Fallen Gods Inc. GOLDFISH female from LWTCB hunt

NB. For the more fun shot see http://www.flickr.com/photos/furystapleton/3637824559/

I want to be a princess...

... every time I buy a new gown at Evie's Closet.

I've been wanting to blog these pieces forever, but there was always something else that came up and skipped the queue. So, it's about time I talked about Evie's Closet, probably the best place to go for those interested in period gowns, but also a very interesting landmark for those who just like good quality clothing in general, since their creator, Evangeline Miles, has an incredible eye for detail. Each of these beauties is absolutely flawless, worth every single L$ you pay for it. On a first impression they might seem a bit pricy, but at around 500L apiece, considering the probable amount of time it took to create these gowns, I'd say every single linden is justified. Some gowns include extras in the pack, such as modesty undershirts, different sleeve options, and even a wreath in the case of Aria. But I'd say, even without those bonuses, these gowns stand all by themselves. On the pictures I tried to capture the flow of the skirts on the less poofy ones, but I failed miserably -- it takes seeing them in motion to really understand how skilfully done they are.

Watch and drool, if you feel so inclined... (hands tissues)

I had to stuff a lot of images on this post, so please click on them to view the large versions.


Meanwhile I'll pray to the Blogger gods so that the formatting stays in place and my order makes sense.



First, top left is the Aria Gown in teal, which may be familiar to some because the white version was given away as a group gift a while ago. What I like most about this gown is the texturing -- the satin on the skirt has a glow that is just right. Also, the skirt -- oh the skirt -- is one of those that makes you want to dance just to see it in motion. The gown comes with both long and short sleeve versions, as well as a modesty undershirt and a wreath, so you really can't ask for more.

Next, Top right is Romany Kiss, again previously distributed as a gift (this time, for everyone) in a special colour version. It was actually the first Evie gown to go into my inventory (at some clothing fair ages ago, I think) and I instantly fell in love with it. Anyway, the colour shown here is Passion. What can I say about it, other than that the top is beautifully textured with embroidery, which matches the belt, the skirt flows and the sleeves fit like a glove? Nothing, I guess!!

Bottom left is the Chimera Gown in Onyx. This one also came with a modesty undershirt, which matches with the sleeves, picking up on the colour of the skirt and adding some extra texture detail, but I so loved the fit of the decolletage that I went without. The corset is a must-see, and the delicate beaded belt just adds win to the whole outfit.

Finally, bottom right is the Aurora Gown in Green. This one has me in awe: it came with a system skirt, which I initially disregarded (as I generally tend to do) -- big mistake!! When I put it on I realised that Evie has cleverly turned the extra layer into an essential element, that is, a belt! If you look at the picture closely, it's the darker green piece that covers the hips -- it covers up the area where the skirt is attached, and thus the corset and the skirt, which are a different colour, are beautifully joined.

As to the rest of the outfit, for all the pictures I used Tuli's Hope June 2009 Picks Reward special skin (what, you don't have it yet? gogogo!!); Truth's Sehra hair, which allowed me (yay!!) to match the flower to the different outfit colours (purple with Aria, invisible with Romany kiss, grey with Chimera and lime with Aurora). Eyes are Miriel's Cool Shimmer, lashes are Glamour from Miriel too, and jewellery is Eolande's Picks Rewards Gift #5 (oops, I forgot to collect 2 to 4), the Pearl Valentine set. Shoes are Maitreya's Slinky Stilettos (believe it or not), and poses, Reel Expression's Party Dress set.

Details and slurls on my flickr, to clear up any likely mess.

And with this, I bid my farewell for a couple of weeks. Be well, ciao!!

[Edit: I just read on Miriel's blog that the sim is going to disappear tomorrow, so if you don't have all the eyes yet, run get them!]

Survival tips for hunters

Warning: Not only a fashion-related post. If you don't care, scroll down to the picture - the outfit details are below that.

There are currently about a dozen (or more) active hunts on SL™. People tend to have mixed feelings towards those, but a very common argument against them is that they're lagfests, so some plain refuse to participate, which is something I don't totally get, since I know there are a couple of things one could try before giving up in order to improve the hunting experience.

I am the proud owner of a Frankensteined computer, i.e. one made up of both very old components (including the graphics card) and brand spanking new ones. To give a rough idea what my Second Life™ experience is like: I can't activate atmospheric shaders, reflections on water and glow are nonexistent, and my skies are generally pretty plain. I do, however, have a fairly smooth in-world existence, and I even make it through hunts. But how?

First of all, I am good friends with my Graphics tab on the Preferences menu (or dialog, in geekspeak). I keep changing the settings depending on where I go - Ultra is reserved for photo sessions, Mid works for everyday usage and Low is for crowded evironments - sales, hunts, lucky chair stalking, etc. Low settings basically ensure somewhat quicker rezzing, although mileage can vary, depending on the amount of stuff that needs to be rezzed. Sometimes the many sculpties that people wear never stop looking like giant balls, but to be honest, on such occasions I don't really pay attention to what people are wearing. Which leads me to something else: ARC.

Avatar Rendering Cost (ARC) shows a point score above each avatar's head which indicates how "laggy" they are on the viewer-side. ARC is found in Advanced Menu > Rendering > Info Displays > Avatar Rendering Cost. [...] It's generally best to be considerate of others when putting together your avatar, and to do what you can to stay under a score of 2,000, especially in crowded areas. Under 1,000 is even better. These are only guidelines, but be aware that the higher your score is, the more lag you generate for other Residents, particularly those with older machines.

(from Second Life Wiki)

ARC is something that generates somewhat heated discussions, and I must say I'm no expert in the matter, so I'll stay away from fundamentalism. I try to keep my score low whenever I go to crowded sims; however, I do my best to avoid seeing what the others' rendering cost is. Policing other avatars' ARC will just ruin your mood - it will even make you want to poke some people in the eye - so I just want to propose a healthy (even fun, for those on the geeky side) exercise related to it, hoping it can be useful to some.

First, let me tell you how it all started. Keris (it's always the boyfriend's fault!) was totally thrilled about having a hunt for men (the Make Him Over Hunt), and in joining the hunt group, he commented that a "hunter skin" (that is, a skin with clothes baked on it, on just one layer) had been given away to be worn during the hunt and to help reduce lag. It had me wondering about the effectiveness of having all clothing textures on one layer as opposed to several, so we did the test. We detached all prims (bald! horrors!) and stayed only with textures on, he on one layer, and I, on multiple ones. Result? ARC = 1, for both. Which means you don't really need to go so minimalist - and, good news for the fashion-conscious, you can be well-dressed while hunting.

So, based on that information, I tried to create a "hunting outfit" that kept ARC to a minimum, as I realised that my "shopping outfits" did not quite help reduce lag. This ensemble is just an example, I don't mean to prescribe an official uniform, so turn on your ARC, be creative and make your own. Here are some tips. For starters, skirts (except sculpted ones) are based on lots of prims, so they increase ARC massively - for this reason, trousers are generally better. Also, needless to say, elaborate jewellery is pretty much out of the question.

Here's my outfit, adding up to a total of 285 (306 with the wedding band):



The base skin is Tuli's Hope in natural makeup and sunkissed tone (yep, I think the skinwhoring phase is over). On the jacket layer I'm wearing the Isis shirt in midnight blue by Zaara, with the cami from Ornamental Life called Flower War on the shirt layer to cover sheerness. The nicely matching colour is Bake my Heavens - gotta love the names Shir gives to her stuffs. The trousers are also from Zaara, the Ishaya Velour slacks in white (can you tell there was a sale and I piled up?). I even added the sculpted bottoms, as they increased my ARC next to nothing, but of course, if you go without, that's even lower cost.

Clothes done, ARC still bright green. Now for the tricky bit: hair and shoes. These are the pieces that really make a difference, as they use up lots of prims and alpha textures. I've chosen a shorter (and therefore less primmy) hairstyle, without alphas - the Davina II from ETD. I've tried on lots of hair for this, and Davina was the one that gave best results for me, but I'm sure there's tons of options. Regarding the shoes, I was surprised that these older ones (thus, not made with sculpties) from Shiny Things, the Classics in blue sea, would increase my ARC so little. I decided I could even add a bonus in the form of lashes (Natural, by Miriel); but of course, if you choose to wear a skin that includes painted lashes, you could even save that extra cost. The eyes are Miriel's Cool Shimmer and the poses are from Imperial Elegance.

Whew! Longest.post.evah.

Timeless Ivalde

I've been having a hard time sorting through the Ivalde items in my inventory - I had never fully realised the amount of clothes I have from that store, and seeing the fashion feeds this week, I suspect this is true for a lot of people. Mostly, this is proof of Neferia's generosity, since a lot of those items made it into my inventory as group gifts, Advent gifts (2007 and 2008), hunt gifts, lucky chair gifts, just-because gifts... you name it. Some clothes I didn't even remember having tried on, some fell into oblivion and had never been unpacked, so this week is feeling a bit like Christmas day for me. A few times I've heard people who complain about the quality of gifts, which is something I really don't get... haven't they heard the "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" saying? Anyway, I'm not going to enter that discussion, although for today, I wanted to put together a post that serves as testimony, for such naysayers, that Ivalde gifts do not fall into the category of second-class items at all; quite the contrary, they are sheer reflections of the quality of the store and the skills of their creator. It is also interesting to try them on chronologically, which clearly shows the evolution of Neferia's designing skills - with increasingly more complex and detailed textures, better usage of prims and, finally, the arrival of sculpties.


My first choice, on the left, is a fifties-style cocktail dress, called Rosa (which totally reminds me of an outfit worn by Charlotte York in Sex and the City, by the way). This was given away as a group member gift, and not only does the skirt flow beautifully, the texturing is also flawless. I paired it with the Shiny Things Brandys in white and the ::69:: Egoist hair in fieryred.

In the centre of the picture you can see Pauline in teal - I don't have a clear idea when or where I got it, but I do suspect it was a gift too. This seventies minidress features a clever combination of different textures - satin and crochet (my apologies if that's not the right word, my English vocabulary is very lacking in this area). The seams are perfect, but what I liked best was the fact that I didn't have to do anything to adjust it - it just fit. I combined it with the Aphrodite Creations Rosette pumps, the Maitreya Emma hair in red and, since I didn't want to offend the audience with knees and thighs (:-p), I added the leg part of the Celestial Studios Black fishnet tights, which I shortened to create a legging effect.

Last, but not at all least, on the right is my most awesome discovery, the Taylor blue rose dress - a lucky chair gift. The puffy sculpted skirt totally called for an eighties style (in a good way) for me, sort of how Carrie Bradshaw would do it - so I went straight for the slouchy Maitreya SoHo boots and the Sheer fishnet tights (22: mesh black), topped off with Truth's Linda in cranberry.

As you can see, for all three outfits I kept accessories to a bare minimum in order to keep the accent on the dresses. Skin-wise I used the Tuli Hope June 2009 Picks reward special (which everyone can get by adding Tuli to their profile picks), the Cool Shimmer eyes by Miriel and the Glamour lashes (by Miriel, too). Poses are from the Imperial Elegance Lolita set (left and centre), and from the Reel Expression Party Dress set (right).

Ivalde...Cocktail Dresses

For my last tribute post to Ivalde I have chosen to showcase 2 of the cocktail dresses I have in my inventory.

The first is a retro champagne coloured Ivalde Idunn 1950 dress with the exquisite detail and texturing that nefaria always delivers. The bust and sleeves are 'brocaded', the bodice a tightly wrapped corset with prim bow and a full, knee length flexi skirt (a system skirt is also provided with the outfit). The design is wonderful, the colour delicious and the texturing magnificent.

To compliment the dress I chose a Fleur skin, ETD hair and Armidi shoes (not shown).

My second choice is a more contempory Ivalde Randaline black dress, with a tulip shaped bust in white, bodice corset in black and a wonderful tulip shaped 'puff' skirt with a net overlay. The design again is outstanding, the colour contrast works well and the textures are detailed and awesome.

With this dress I wore a Fleur skin, Cake hair and Juicy shoes.

I wish Nefaria all the best with her rl health and family...from what I have read she is a lovely person and will not only be missed for her creativity but her personality too. Hurry back Nefaria.

Location: the bridge at Error (might have to check that...lol)

Styling:

Dress: Ivalde Idunn tan dress 1950

Skin: Fleur Allure Truffle Lounge 1

Hair: ETD Roslin - Black

Shoes: Armidi Gisaci - Dalia Pump Latte

Dress: Ivalde Randaline black dress

Skin: Fleur Allure Truffle Kitten 2

Hair: Cake - Faith - Black - Flexi Hair

Shoes: Juicy Classic Pump - Squid Ink

Eyes: (Miriel Eyes) - Platinum (Big)

Eyelashes: Cake - Separated Lashes - Tintable*

Why I Love Ivalde -- Part II

First I am wearing 2 dresses from different Ivalde periods. On the left is Charlotte, one of the 2007 Advent goodies. What is so amazing here is the detailed design and embroidery, which also extends to the back of the bodice. The skirt fits and moves beautifully. The only flaw is a bit of alpha conflict in the skirt. My shoes are the Periquita S-Steps in Yellow. They have the same acidity as the dress, edging towards a tinge of green.

On the right is the citified, yet feminine, Margaretha with a gray frill-edged system skirt and a teal peplum overblouse closed at the throat with a bar pin. It's those kinds of details that make Ivalde's clothes so complete. Shoes are ETD Starley in Teal. Skin for both shots is PXL Creations Grace Natural Cat-eye with Flamenco lips and freckles. Mt hair in both shots if Truth's Linda in Auburn and Carrot I believe



Above is Sigrid -- Nef's generous gift to us at the new Retrology store. For some reason I couldn't fit the long skirt to my satisfaction. So, instead, I slid the baby doll skirt down a bit and voilà, a lovely cocktail length dress. Note again the jewel detail at the throat and decolletage--beautiful work indeed! The texture as well as the fluttery stand-up sleevelets are further evidence of the quality that is Ivalde. Skin and shoes are the same as above and my hair is Truth's Luna in Auburn.

Thank you Nef for creating such wonderful clothes to wear for us. Take care of yourself --and when you are ready, please come back :)

Ivalde...Monroe

OK..I couldnt let this pass as it includes 2 of my favourite things...Ivalde dresses and Marilyn Monroe. Now i confess to not being Monroe but I think I can do her a fair justice in Ivalde dresses.

My first is the Ivalde Marilyn Monroe pink dress, famous for the 'Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend* scene. Its the classical straight skirted, tulip topped dress from the movie. The colour and textures are just right and you get a choice of 2 prim bows to finish the dress off with. This dress screams sexy and fun...I feel a real movie star when I put it on.

I chose a Fleur skin, Sinsations hair, ETD shoes and a mix of diamonds to complete the look.

The second dress is what I like to think Monroe wore everyday...it's a simple off the shoulder dress. Again a system skirt. What makes this little black dress is the cut and the texturing. All those cloth folds make it feel like the dress is draped around you. A prim waist tie detail adds to the whole look. This seems a very simple dress but with Nefarias eye for design and detail makes it a stunning one.

For this shoot I chose a gift skin from Fleur and shoes, not seen, from SKG in order to keep it simple and elegant.

Locations were the 'Original Moulin Rouge' and the bridge at 'Old New York'.

Styling:

Dress: Ivalde Marilyn Monroe pink dress

Skin: Fleur Allure Truffle Kitten 1

Shoes: ETD d'Orsay Stiletto (Fuchsia)

Jewelry: Idoru Two-Row Diamond Choker

(Dahlinks) Pamela Twin Channel Diamond Bracelets

Dress: Ivalde marilyn black wiggle

Skin: Fleur Allure Kitten Eyes Cinnamon (Fury Holiday Custom)

Shoes: SKG Black Stiletto Slingback Pumps

Hair: Sinsations Marilyn - Honeychild

Eyes: (Miriel) Eyes - Platinum (Big)

Eyelashes: Cake - Separated Lashes - Tintable*