Bloggage two days in a row? Been a while since I managed to do that! I was lucky enough to find myself playing with a bushel full of poses from Glitterati today and decided to get off my lazy bum and blog again. I love the poses that have been released recently by the designer of Glitterati. Always on the hunt for amazing poses to use in my photography, these certainly hover at the top of my list. Full of character and movement, worth a moment of your time to wander on down to their new build and check them out!I can promise you will see even more of them (yesterday as well!) in future blog entries here on GI.
After yesterdays fancy smancy posting, I went super comfortable and casual today. The top is a fantastic separate from Apple May, and the pants are actually from the same post as yesterday, by Pixeldolls. A bit of the detail, I admit, was lost in editing, and has prompted me to start including more raw pictures in each blog entry from now on. Dark pants always end up looking solid with my modifications, while all the other pieces hold their true colors and detail losing them in the pants is seriously disappointing. I am still learning though! The scarf is one I have had forever from Maitreya and the shoes are fabulous flats from 50 Flats. Hair is one of my favorites from Fri.Day and the skin is still Belleza.
It's been an extremely quiet morning and afternoon here, SL is nice and calm, little people are asleep currently in RL, friends are preparing for the holidays. Poor Sands being forced to work even harder as the shopping season goes insane and he works his butt off to keep all of the stores under him running properly. Even with the calm, I have a massive amount of things to do that all keep getting pushed back, for later. Yet...I blogged! One more thing off the list for today! Tonight is a bit of shopping with friends in SL and raiding/questing and such with Sands in EQ2, all of which I am so looking forward to. We are going to be doing a strat that Sands has been working on with our guild for about a week now, and they are learning! We did it with our last guild, we can so do it with this one. I see a lot of progress and promise as the members learn how to work together, and the amount of pure, what is the word I am looking for her, dedication? The dedication they have shown to learning and progressing since we joined the guild and started helping has been amazing! I know, it sounds so silly, but I find the simpliest pleasure in people sometimes. Just another thing I can add to my list of things to be thankful for this season. List to be blogged tomorrow!
I hope everyone is having a fantastic day. For those getting closer to Thanksgiving this week I hope you have so much to be thankful for and look forward to time with friends and family! I love this time of the year, love love love it, always have. There is so much to do, its a bit of chaos, but it brings people closer, mends old wounds, rights old wrongs. Too bad it wont last past New Years...maybe it will this year.
While I haven't blogged as much this month, its been a good one! I've said it before, so it should come as no surprise when I mention yet another Pixeldolls sale going on, store wide no less. They have been with us as long as I can remember, and its always the perfect place that I take new, limited funded, residents to pick up a gathering of essential pieces for their inventory. A starting ground or stepping stone, if you will. Another long time friend (and I mean, long time, even just as an online friend) of ours has come back to join us in Second Life and Kerra and I enjoyed taking some time out today to get her all set up in a perfect 'look'. She was the oldest newb in SL, I swear, having been born in 2005 and still wearing freebie hairs and an AO that had maybe one pose in it, dumping her into the newbie stance over and over. Of course, we had a few wise cracks about all of that first, then took her shopping.
I quickly found a wall that I basically purchased, once we got to Pixeldolls. I love mix and match pieces, but I have to be the laziest person when it comes to it, honestly. Because of that I adore the walls that they create of their pieces into full outfits. We all wandered, did our bits of shopping, and then traveled back to our sim to get some organization and pictures done. This is a process when you have three people with RL going on in the back ground, inventories that are now a mess from shopping trips, and a lot of chit chat interrupting as we go. Above I tossed on one of the Timepiece outfits, matched up with a hair by Truth (which we all ended up wearing as well) and a pair of the new shoes from Nardcotix. I adore the new lines that Pixeldolls has been releasing and happily snapped up as much of it as I thought my inventory could handle. The shoes I also fell in love with and yes, the fatpack is mine!
After playing and roaming a bit casual for a time, we decided to do a few other pictures. There are a handful of them on my flickr page, but I thought to include the ones that I felt came out the best. Coming up with a look that you love in SL isn't really all that difficult nowadays, though there was a time it was a long adventure! Here we were able to set our friend up with her 'needed' items within an hour or two and tada, a new look is born (to our oldest newb ever, lets not forget that). Once we each chose something more formal from Pixeldolls we wandered out onto the back deck of our studio, which is the amazing build from NotSoBad.
I love the build, I love the sim, I love these dresses and I absolutely love the women that spent the day with me. Incidentally, these are the same women that went out in RL with me on Friday for my birthday, all be it a bit late. I have never had a group of people that I laugh with more, or that understand me more, than I do right here. I may get frustrated, or frustrating, have my moments of insanity, and I know I can be more than annoying. However, I am so extremely blessed to have so many people in my life that love me either regardless, or in spite of, my many flaws and faults. Between these two, others that we know that just don't play SL, and Sands, my online escape time is perfection. They all understand my quirks, accept and actually enjoy my sarcastic playful sense of humor, and let me be me without judgment, and unconditional acceptance. I adore them for it, you guys are amazing.
So much of my online time within SL has changed, but so much has stayed the same. We have the sim complete now, as complete as it is ever going to be since I am sure we will change things consistently. It is the home of the [42] main store as well as our studio, but the work part for me is the homes that I am working with Kerra to get rented out. There will be more on this as we fast approach our sim Grand Opening this weekend, and our first hunt for over the holiday season. There has been a lot of progression in the photography that I have been doing, more clients, and I've learned so much the last few weeks. I will never come right out and say I am an artist, or that I do amazing work, it is what it is and its mine. That's all there is to it, I enjoy it, I enjoy doing images for people in my own ways and I am thankful for the amazing support I have had from people as I go.
Life beyond SL is still fantastic, lately even more so, if that was even possible? EQ2 had a wobbly week about a month ago, when Sands and I made the decision to switch guilds because we each were unhappy with the progression of bad attitudes by a couple members in the guild we were in. When I am in a game, SL or an MMO, I tend to still want to take care of others and what they need in the game before myself. It was no different in this guild but when people started bickering amongst themselves over loot, we decided this wasn't the online environment we wanted to be in. Before the move it was days in and days out of PvP with different groups, got my Overlord title and had an awesome 221 killing streak at one point. I've always done really well in PvP, in Lineage2 because I had to (died in PvP there once in all the years I played, I loved my class and miss it so much!) and now in EQ2 because its flat out fun! Maybe its more fun because all I have to do is run in and blow things up, couldn't care less if I died as long as we got our PvP updates, I can't even count my amount of suicide missions just to get the group updates and we had a blast! Its also nice running around in full PvP gear, now its just relax, raid and get a new piece here and there until the next expansion. Its been a while since we went out and PvP'd though, and my title has decayed, darn it all *shakes a fist at the Dev who came up with decay* Luckily the guild we joined is an amazing PvPing guild! Will have to grab my tank (thats Sands of course, he is an amazing tank I swear) and a good group and get that title back.
The new guild is really amazing too, the people are so much fun and far more respectful than I ever would have expected in this game really. Sands was asked to be raid leader on our 2nd raid and has been leading and teaching them through progression ever since. He is having to turn down guild invites now, because our goal is to progress where we are and we really like the people, so why move? Lets see, beyond SL, beyond EQ2, things are still good! We are surprising the masses and coming fast to 8 months together, Sands and I, and are looking forward to amazing holidays together! I also fully intend to make him love his birthday again. Determined! I love birthdays, and holidays, and any time I get to spend with people I love online and off. The holidays are fast approaching us here and I hope everyone gets to spend them happy with the people they love.
There are some awesome hunts and holiday events coming up in SL too! I cant wait to see the things designers are going to be bringing out, and the holiday spirit as it envelopes people. There has been so much talk about people needing to learn to lift each other up, show them the potential they have and treat them as the amazing person they are instead of tearing them down. What better time to start? I think now is good....onward and upward SL people! Lets go!!
As a great many people know, this time last week I was in a completely different place than I am today. It seems all of the plurking world has gone through a few ups and downs this week too, and I think its going to be refreshing for everyone in the end, when it all settles down, which, I hope is soon. Sometimes it takes a really good temper tantrum, a fit of emotions released in rash movements and 'mistakes' or errors of judgment, to find yourself on the better end of life again. As I said, last week I was in a different place and one night deleted my entire timeline. Aw, shame, thousands of replies and hundreds of plurks, just gone. More might have ended up deleted in this mood of madness, but thanks to Kerra I signed off and went to bed. I left my plurk gone for a couple of days before being talked into remaking my account and joining the plurkworld again. Do I regret deleting my old timeline? Not -one- single bit! Going through that friend list and deleting people would have taken forever, and there are so many accounts out there that are inactive that having a list with 300, 400+ people is easy, but a ridiculous thing to keep up with even with half of them inactive, most likely. Once my timeline was created and my plurk layout fixed I started the process of finding people to re-add and found myself in a mad whirl of activities! Dozens upon dozens of Welcome Backs, What did you DO!, and Don't ever do that again plurks and IMs in world made me laugh and realize that I had grown attached to some of the crazy people on plurk. Granted, not everyone accepted my add again (its ok, I don't mind, helps me weed out certain people anyway and that is awesome!) but in their place I have gotten over 100 new friends that I never had before! No, not everyone is always active, but my timeline seems to have a different feel to it than from before the deletion. So no, not a single regret, its the best thing that has happened to my plurk actually!
What else did this week bring, well, tons! I did a bit of a friend list clean up (because deleting there is not an option, heaven help me) and was happy to welcome a dozen or so new people from plurk to it as well! One of those people is the designer of the *Dreams* stores and an absolute amazing person, I am so glad to welcome her to my plurk, in world friend list and messengers so I can cyber stalk her at will. Should I say thank you or I am sorry now? I took a little side trip over to her store and picked up a few things, received a blogger package and promised myself I would get her blogged as soon as I felt up to it again. I have felt up to it for a while, just so extremely busy I have slacked on blogging again! I think I should be back on track soon, but I make no promises. The holidays are always really chaotic and there will be so much to do, I just don't know how much blogging will happen. However, I of course will try!
The *Dreams* store is filled with a lot of accessory pieces that are absolutely adorable! Chokers, suckers for your mouth, leg straps (like the cupcake worn here) and so much more you really should pop over and take a peek. I picked up a neko tail and ears set first because I have missed being a neko once in awhile in SL and thought a new set would be nice. They are great! She also has a few pieces of clothing up as well, lots of Ts and such. One of the great things about her clothing is she does included it on as many clothing layers as she can, so layering with other pieces is a snap. I dug out an old pair of pants from Dutch Touch, my favorite Dilly Dolls shoes and a hair from Truth before starting to play with my windlight settings for the photos here. I used a couple of poses from Persona and one from Diesel Works for these shots, credits and SLURLS at the end of this post for you to TP right over and start shopping!
In other SL related news, the sim work that I have been focusing on for the last couple of weeks is finally done. People are now more than welcome to come and visit us on the sim (and darn it all I logged out, will add a link soon or just check my in world profile for one) and we hope you enjoy it! We still have a couple of store spaces available right outside of the [42] main store location and ten (ONLY ten, ever) homes for rent. I still to get in world and find a tv and radio for renters to control their media, its on the top of my list I swear. The Grand Illusion studio is done and clients are already being welcomed to our home away from home. A grand opening for the sim is in the works, so if you would like a tour ahead of time or to participate in any of our activites please get in touch with us!
After that, I've decided on my next project! Shapes. I can't tell you how many people daily will ask me where my shape is from, or if I will sell/give it to them. First let me say, I made my shape, and second...no! You cannot have this one, it is mine, and I am a greedy greedy wench when it comes to what is really mine. Instead, I have decided to get a handful of demo skins, or purchase more (I have to be careful, this could get expensive) and start making shapes to sell. So, if you catch me online and I am looking like ruth for a few minutes don't worry, thats just where I will be starting for each and every shape I make. I'm kind of excited about it, to be honest, and its a good project that should keep me busy so I don't rip up the sim and start over, again!
Out of SL news is pretty much the same, per usual. Playing a lot of EQ2, WoW and the tiniest bits of Lineage2 again, with Sands. He has crazy work hours now because of the holidays, cant imagine running a handful of stores and dealing with people this time of year. Its crazy enough on this side of the shopping. Everything else in that regards is going fantastic right now, surprised? Good. Best to leave it that way huh! I hope that everyone has had a fantastic week, and that your weekend brings you good weather and great times with your loved ones. Don't do anything drastic...or wait, better yet, do! Leave them all wondering and wanting more....
I've had this long post written out, poured a lot into it, but have decided...its not worth it. So, instead, just a couple of pictures sharing Kerra's new look, and it is amazing. She picked out a new skin by LAQ, took time with the shape I helped her make and redid the entire face and glammed herself up with new hair as well, from Truth. I will get the credits at some point today, and update this and my last blog post. I figure an entire post for Kerra was due, since she is the reason this blog wasn't deleted last night in the first place. I have my own karma to deal with right now, and so much more to stay thankful for, trying hard to remember that at the moment. I could say a ton more, its right on my finger tips...but I just cant bring myself to do it. Instead, I'm opening my hands, uncurling my fingers, and...letting go.
I took a much needed break from blogging and even plurking over the last week or so. I needed a bit of time to get a few things done, and oh so much has changed that I didn't even expect. Really, between the flu, a cold (almost on top of each other, ouch!) and an entire sim pretty much dropped in my lap, other online insanity, EQ2, my time with Sands, the list goes on and on. My inventory has become even more insane than when I started the organization project, you remember? The one I quickly dropped for a shopping spree? Yes, that one, all a mess now thank you so much. I opened up my Object folder and just started dropping out boxes that needed to be unpacked. After sucking up about half of my prims on my last rented piece of land, I started unpacking them and watching my inventory fill even more. Pushing towards 45k now, I started digging for something to wear. Oh look......a gift from Mischief!
Now, normally, you won't see me wearing shirts with text on them. First, its on the boobs, look what the boobs do to it, how sad for the text! Second, ok wait...no, there is no second, its all about the text stretchage! However, even though I am far from an SL hussy, the text on this one made me laugh. I love it, its eyebrow lifting and gave me a smile for the day. Hey, it could be true, somewhere there is an ex of mine doing something I taught him, right? Oh you hush, just nod, smile and say right! I tossed on my comfy drawmachine jeans and found some boots from ETD, and tada! A great outfit for working in, and trust me, working is all I have been doing in SL lately! There will be more updates on that as time goes on, trust me.
Now, when I first started SL on this av I was a redhead neko who wore glasses all the time. Well, I dug out the glasses at least? I love them, but since I am not in world at the moment I couldnt even tell you were they are from. When I log in tomorrow, for more working, I will update my SLURLS. I'm just sort of blogging to make the time go by a bit faster and because I needed something to do. I hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween, here we have just gotten past my birthday (as of, well, just hours ago!) and are looking forward to Thanksgiving. I love the holidays, and this time of year, most of the time, I really do. So much work to do, but keeping my mind and hands busy helps me get through the days. With all of the projects in SL I am working on, a fierce raiding schedule on EQ2 with Sands and the couple of other games we have decided to play at leisure...its going to be an amazing season. Have a great Wednesday, people of SL, I hope its filled with as much happiness as you can handle...and even, a wee bit more that makes you so happy that people get sick of it. I love that kind of happy....
Dina's Duds Surroundings: Prefab by NotSoBad Top: Mischief (gift) Pants: DrawMachine Boots: ETD Hair: fri.day Skin: Belleza Glasses: Right above my nose from....to be updated!
Its been an incredibly long time since I was able to run around and get into trouble in SL with Kerra, but today was the great exception. She put up with my random, and long, AFK's and even let me snap a picture of her in ...ok well, you will see. SySy's released some amazing new pieces and they are so perfect for fall I couldn't resist wandering around in them today. I think my favorite part are these pants, the prims for the bottom and the belt are absolutely amazing. The top is fabulous as well and I cannot get over how comfortable this look...looks. Hey, I'm still sick, cut me some slack!
I really wanted to find some business environment, or a city area, or...something. We ended up over at Princeton University (which I actually enjoyed wandering around) and snapped a couple of pictures. I could have done better, I admit it, but cold+flu+pictures in sl=well, you can see the results. I also didn't modify them as much as I normally do because I really wanted the details of the outfit to stand out on their own and my typical tweaking makes things like this too dark. I slipped on a pair of Maitreya shoes, purchased a clutch bag on xstreet from Ariana's Trinkets, left my hair as it was and even slipped on some old bangles I've had in my inventory for so long the store that sold them is gone.
We kicked back and chatted for a while, I put up with...whatever that is she is wearing, until she finally changed. She looked much better later but I forgot to take another picture! Then she jumps up, proclaims she is going to New York and poofs. Because she adores me and lets me have full rights, I mapped her funky butt! We did not end up in New York, but ran (literally) around some sim that had women on leashes or in a cage in random corners of the builds. Thats the last time I let her lead the way...tomorrow its my turn by golly!
On the RL front, I am still sick, this is getting old really fast and I am tired of being sick but I do at least feel partially human today. Why am I feeling human? I have good reason to! My youngest turns 1 today. Ok, it kind of makes me cry, this year went by really fast but wow, she has grown so much and is so amazing. Yes, I am biased, but seriously I adore my kids and the fact that this is our last 'first birthday' is just crazy. When did time go by? I mean really, they were all just 1 just...yesterday? I will share pictures of the messy face tomorrow, I hope. I'm looking forward to making her treats with her siblings here as soon as they get home...so off to prepare the kitchen. You know...for the insanity. Halp!
Nothing really ramble worthy today so lets stick to the credits! I know its fall, but I love this dress by So Many Styles so I had to do a look of the day for it. Since I am still fighting the flu, I think I am fighting for Spring already! A light airy look that just sings healthy to me, go figure. Feet by SLink, of course. I love these bare feet and they come in three angles. Flat, mid point and high. Necklace by Canimal, though you can't see it very well. Should have done another picture, I don't get to use this necklace enough. Another favorite of mine, the hair by Waka & Yuki, the best updo I have, and I have a lot! I wasn't really on long enough for good pics, but wandered out in my gardens and played with a few Diesel Work poses and tada...a look of the day for the blog that almost died lol. Hope everyone has a fantastic hump day!
Contradictive, anything -but- simple, mysterious, intense, sarcastic, sassy, passionate & obviously on the fiesty side. I'm a pain, obviously.
Grand Illusion, to me, is a great many things. A place to share my adventures within the grandest illusion I know, Second Life. Exploration, friends and loved ones and best of all, fashion and the addiction that is, shopping!
