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Saturday, January 31, 2009
 It seems to be Festivale time. Maybe the snow is still falling and the air is frigid in RL, but Pixel Dust and Long Awkward Pose have come together to bring us a beautiful Festivale Sim for shopping and wandering enjoyment. Rolling hills surround rides, activities and big top adventures mingled in with a few shops to tease your pocket book.  During my visit I stopped in each shop and came away with Sticky Fairy by Winter Moon. I don't know what possessed me, this is just another symptom of my ever changing shopping style. I just couldn't help myself, I even walked away and went back to get it! It is so light, delicate, and was absolutely perfect for the area. (Please note, I did edit the belt, a little re-texturing of the belt, it comes with a red with white polka dotted belt originally) I found an out of the way area to snap a few pictures, not traditionally near the rides. I will probably return often, there are countless areas for photography and you can even rez a pose or stand. I literally love that and have a landmark set aside as another other Sim that may be used for pictures. It means I can drag the few couples that let me take pictures of them out to new places and toss them onto a pose.  View the rest of the photos from this series here on my Flickr Page. If anyone has suggestions of places to take beautiful pictures, please leave me a comment here or talk to me in world. If you would like photos done, feel free to contact me as well. To answer the number one question first, what do I charge? Its simple...I don't. Dina's Duds Outfit: Winter Moon Hair: Zero Style Skin: Redgrave Location: Festivale |
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Friday, January 30, 2009
 I have spent the last week or so taking pictures and working on them in paint shop pro. I know, most people use PS, I just can't seem to force myself to learn the program and it seems extremely cumbersome to me for some reason. So, PSP is me. After visiting a group on flickr that features a short list of places you can rez for photography, I decided to visit the PAX sim, Where The Wild Things Are. Following are some of the photos I did for myself, as well as a couple of shots I took for a couple that are friends of mine. I enjoyed working with them, and working on the sim, and will certainly be returning. You can see my entire Flickr account here.     |
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Sunday, January 25, 2009
Not all that long ago there was a plethora of bloggers paying homage to Barerose, and with good reason. For the longest time I was unable to go and spend any amount of quality shopping time at Barerose, due to a wimpy computer, but I have recently made up for that. My Barerose folder now holds dozens of outfits, and I revisit them often as their new releases come out. One of my favorite things about Barerose is that not only do you get amazing quality of items, including prim attachments to enhance each outfit, you also get it (most often) in the variety of colors they have created. Unlike most creators who set out each individual color for sale, Barerose tosses it all at you, to organize later. I do suggest you organize it, else run the risk of just skipping the outfit at a later date due to being overwhelmed by the amount of items in one folder. I didn't mind the organization task at all!  I wandered out to a small grassy area next to my new home (to be blogged about later, I love my new home!) and snapped a few shots by the gorgeous waterfall that is my front window views. I've been tinkering with the environmental settings lately and, last night as a matter of fact, downloaded the presets released by the ever fabulous Torley Linden. In the weeks to come I am sure I will be playing with them in my photography, I will include a link each time I do for you to go and get them yourself. However, the setting that I used for the pictures today were given by Redgrave with their skins. Its a fabulous setting that makes all shadows on the face disappear for photos, without the use of a face light (which drives me crazy in the first place.) If you would like the settings feel free to IM me in world, I will share them. Take a moment and check out the environmental settings for yourself and save a few of your favorite settings. You will love the changes and varieties of worlds you can create within your Seond Life.  Forgive me for the rather bland photos today. We are working on the house to prepare for the onslaught of teen age boys coming over for my brothers birthday. Halp! Dina's Duds: Outfit: Barerose Shoes:Lassitude & Ennui Skin: Redgrave Hair: Truth Poses: Semotion |
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Saturday, January 24, 2009
 I am pretty sure I mentioned this blog wasn't going to be all about fashion and shopping. If I didn't, well, now I have. If you took away the fancy clothing, the shoes, bags, hair, and all the other things we spend a vast amount of our time shopping for, what would be left in this 3-D virtual world? I suppose not much, but the key ingredient to having all of these other things are the people behind them. I think many of us forget that this is a social game, a world for people to interact with other people. If we just wanted a place to content create, I fully believe we could do that in some offline venue. I also don't think many, if any, come to this world just to create items. Beyond the world itself are, as always, the people.  This person just happens to be one, if not the, most important person in my Second Life right now. No, I am not a lesbian and we are not a couple. A couple of oddballs, perhaps, but this is just my best friend. A long time ago we met as much smaller, and less animated avs, in The Sims Online. We went from TSO to There, as much larger and freer avs, with our jeeps and hover boards and spades games and chatting in voice until we couldn't laugh, or cry, anymore. We still visit There once in a while, and haunt Pogo together when we need a break from the every day movements of SL. Even better, when we aren't online, we can sometimes be found out shopping together in real life now as well, since my family and I moved across the country to the town she lives in. No, it isn't some big city or town you have ever heard of, but when we knew we would have to leave our old home, this was the best option for us. Now, online friendships are stretched and put to the test in a real world environment and I think, as I hope she does, we are doing pretty darn good.  So even though our RL and SL has mixed, and I never do that, we still can be found out roaming around SL together. Shopping, as seen in a couple of these pictures. Last night it was a shopping trip for hair and furniture. We are each properly broke now, as one should be after a good shopping spree I guess. It puts off our next shopping trip, but we are good until then. Plenty of hair and clothing to fiddle around with, and with some new settings in SL and a computer to handle them? We are off to do some exploring, clubbing, visit a few events. If you see us, say hi. We don't bite, often, much...ok I bite, Kerra just sorta nibbles around the edges sometimes. Dina's Duds: Hair Truth Skin Redgrave Outfit Gothicatz Shoes ETD On Kerra...to be updated. What IS she wearing anyway? All furniture in these shots are by Plush Pod. If you haven't visited their store, you must. They have fabulous furniture filled with awesome poses. The price and the prim count made these two nutter shoppers extremely happy. Like I said somewhere, my house is 90% Plush Pod. Thanks to the plurkie who recommended them! |
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
 I adore sales, there were a few this week and I haven't even hit them all. I tossed something from each sale into what you see above. Skin is from SinSkins, a large variety of the skins are being retired and are for sale at 50L per makeup. The outfit is from Pixeldolls. Previously they were running a sale on all of their dresses, currently its their seperates that are for sale, 50L a piece. There is also a grand selection of items at only 10L each. The hair is from the Truth hair sale, all color packs are listed at 50L and the fatpacks, if I remember correctly, are 300L. These sales won't last forever so get your lindens and go shop! (Shoes by Juicy) |
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Friday, January 16, 2009
Not sure how I ended up in a jeans and boots kick, but I am sure its just a phase and will end soon. In the mean time I am loving the many looks I can combine with my few pairs of drawmachine jeans and these Kitties Lair boots. Here they are set with a top and corset from a dress set by Last Call. Still in a Redgrave skin, zero style hair, wearing jewelry by House of Heart. As fabulous as the Last Call clothing has always been as their own outfits, I often find I prefer to mix and match it with other pieces. I often use their jeans, those including prims for the legs that is, when I am not tossing boots on. Drawmachines jeans just happen to work best for boots, so far.  |
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I think we all go through moments of true self doubt and loneliness, even in a vastly populated world like Second Life. I was lounging around in a hoodie and new jeans from Dutch Touch, hair by zero style, and it all just seemed to fit my melancholy mood. Warm, comfort clothing, from RL to SL. Thought I would share.  |
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Monday, January 12, 2009
Quick and simple post today. Been spending a lot of time trying to get my monster machine to work at a faster pace only to give up completely and toss out the idea to everyone in the house...I need a new computer! So, it is in the works. Hopefully within the next month or so I will have a shiny new machine to play SL, blog, play with photos *and* play music at the same time. Ah, sounds good, doesn't it? Spent a little bit of time wandering and shopping today. I have been honored with being allowed to participate in a new blog called Second Sales. If you haven't heard of it, well, now you have! I am actually quite positive it has more traffic already than I will have here in a year, but I'm sharing anyway. Its all about the good bargains and deals within Second Life so go sneak a peek, bookmark it and I will see you at the sales!  Dina's Duds: Top & Vest: Armidi Pants: Drawmachine Boots: Kitties Lair Skin: Redgrave Hair: Zero Style Pose: LAP |
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Friday, January 9, 2009
 Second Life has been having a few growing pains lately, it appears, but I did manage to get in some shopping this week. Pixeldolls has a huge selection of dresses at 50L each, I did some careful choosing and got a lot of bang for my linden buck at that sale. I also went and picked up some nails, though none are featured here. I only mention it because, for the first time in a long time, I was able to wander the sim that held the shop where I purchased them (to be featured at another time). I found a few small shops that I had never shopped with before and got a few cute pieces. Here are just a few looks for today, credits included.  Dina's Duds: Looks 1 and 2 (Poses LAP) Left: Dress: Pixeldolls, Shoes: Juicy, Skin: Redgrave, Hair: ETD Right: Dress: Anuenue, ShoesL Kitties Lair (brown), Skin: [42], Hair: Celestial Studios  Dina's Duds: Outfit: Chikka Designs (freebie), Shoes: Stonekeep, Skin: Bebae (group gift), Hair: Zero Style, Tat: .:Inkd:., Poses: LAP   Dina's Duds: Dress: Ibizarre, Skin: Redgrave, Hair: Zero Style, Shoes: Juicy, Poses: LAP |
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Another sneak peek at the upcoming release by [42]. Filled with inspiration, they just keep coming up with fabulous skins. This is only a sneak peek though, if you want to see what else they have done with these skins you will just have to visit them on Saturday for the release. Never disappointed, see you there!  Dina's Duds: Skin [42] Lingerie: Ingenue Hair: Ingenue Shape: My own Eyes: What eyes? Pose: LAP |
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Thursday, January 8, 2009
 Unlike so many of the fabulous photographers within Second Life I have only been taking pictures and modifying them for a short time. I have a lot to learn and I cant wait to learn new tricks that so many seem to use as second nature. Most people use PS to edit their photos, so I seem to be the odd man out while using PSP to do my work. It makes it a little harder to find brushes and the same sort of effects, but its my legit copy and I'm happy with it for now.  Recently, Evei...sorry, I mean Evie released a beautiful gown and opened up a photo contest for anyone to participate. Upon seeing the gown I instantly fell in love, and decided this is the contest I would finally enter. Wearing the Saiyge Gown I ventured off to the Oubliette sim to snap a few shots. It wasn't easy, honestly. I have a hard time with my camera controls in most cases unless I am at home with nothing else going on on the sim, but this area was completely worth it. I also landed on another person there working on their own contest entry. I may have broken her wing! I ventured off and did my own snapshots and the photos in this entry, of course, are the results. You can see more entries here, at the Evie's Closet Contest flickr stream.  |
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No, not bed and breakfast, though I surely could use a vacation. Its all about boots n bootay. No flat non existent rear end for me, unless of course I am wearing a system skirt. The look here includes, as far as I am concerned, the best jeans in all of SL. I don't know why, to be honest, but I absolutely adore these jeans. The details across the tush is fantastic. They come on both a pant or underwear layer for with boots, and boots I wear!  The boots are also so amazingly well detailed that they are in one of my favorites folders so I can find them quickly. Great with pants as well as skirts, these are my 'when all else fails' boots. The prim work is exquisit and work well with almost any of the many poses I have up my sleeve. This was just one of those looks I tossed together with bits and pieces of things I had laying around in my inventory. My favorite way to dress.  Dina's Duds: Top: Last Call Jeans: Drawmachine Skin: Redgrave Hair: Zero Style Boots: Kitties Lair Shape: My Own Pose: LAP |
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Tuesday, January 6, 2009
 Though many of the Winter themed sims seem to be quickly melting to spring, a bit early but welcome none the less, I can't seem to stop wearing warmer clothing. At the very least, grabbing a shrug and tossing on leggings instead of wearing dresses just as they are. Its still very cold where I live and I tend to dress the way my real world weather demands. Most of the time, that is. I managed to get in and out of zero style today without injury and with a dozen or so demos in my grip to take home. Through grid troubles and slow machine woes, I picked out a handful of new hairs. I am sure you will spot them as the weeks go on, yet I am not done on the hair search by any means. This little dress was a freebie a while back, I think, by ACGirl. The leggings are fabulous, by Truth, and go with just about anything you want to toss over them. The boots look so warm and cozy, I couldnt resist the fat pack at the last ETD sale. The shrug came from a random outfit by Canimal and I put on absolutely no jewelry this time. I need more of that too!  Dina's Duds: Skin: Redgrave Eyes: SinSkins Shape: My own Hair: Zero Style Shoes: ETD Dress: ACGirl Pants: Truth |
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Monday, January 5, 2009
 I rarely get to do any exploring within Second Life these days. My computer needs a walker just to go through a handful of sims without needing a reboot, so I tend to do a bit of shopping or visit friends and that's about it. When Evie sent out the update a couple of days ago about her newest release, I went over to start my long debate of which color to get. I am still working on that debate. Once you step outside the archway of her store you are greeted by the most amazing sites. I have never taken time to wander around Oubliette in the past but I certainly started to. I managed to get to a sweet area and snap a few pictures before SL started having conniptions and I logged out for the evening. Over the next few days I will be returning to see what other photos I can get of this amazingly well done sim. From what I have been reading by other SLers is that this is an ever changing area, with the seasons and anything that strikes their fancy I assume. Always welcoming a revisit and is even set up for those that are into taking pictures (waves) so that they may set up poses and get just the perfect shot. If you are looking for an ever evolving creation, please take some time to visit them here at Oubliette. I would love to see some of the pictures people take here, the setting is amazing. Here are just a few shots I managed to take. Outfit credits can be found here.    |
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 Just doing some tinkering with one of the Galaxies skins by [42]. Its amazing how inspirational a rainbow color filled folder of skins can be. I paired it up with a hair from Celestial Studios and a dress by Evie's Closet for a little out of this world fun.  |
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Sunday, January 4, 2009
 Somehow I ended up a bit over dressed for what I planned to do today. I started noticing I wore the same hairs over and over in most of my photos and that just isn't acceptable at all. Out hair browsing I go. A majority of my hairs hail from ETD or Magika with a couple tossed in from Truth or Zero Style here and there. Now, if I am expanding on my shape and skin collections, I may as well go all the way with a few more hairs to tinker with. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. As it stands I will be browsing through the feeds today to visit some already mentioned hair creators. I wish I had the time to browse stores the way I used to, its always nice chancing upon a new designer or one of the lesser known creators. Hopefully I find a few things to add to my Hair folder by the end of the day. Would certainly make it a good hair day.  Dina's Duds: Skin: Redgrave Eyes: SinSkins Hair: ETD Top: TART Skirt: Nyte'N'Day Shoes: Juicy Pose: LAP |
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 Sn@tch has this great freebie currently, though not sure how long for, up at their store. It may be the middle of winter here in Ohio yet in SL we can enjoy a good pair of booty shorts all year long. Even better when they are they are snow melting hot. You can pick up an additional variety of colors for each, the shorts or the halter, in the store. A huge purchase for me this past week are these shoes by Juicy. I actually took the demos for her classic pump and the slingback and debated for a good hour or so while playing with them. I was unable to get both, but I knew I had to have one of the Everything packs for one of these shoes. I went with the classic pump for the oddest reason, but it was simply what I would have chosen in real life! Now most of the time in SL I am wearing things I would never be able to wear in real life, nor would I try. Yet thats how I decide on shoes? Er, as Kerra would say "Ok George!" I think she has some secret crush on someone named George and is displacing that on me. Back on track... Another huge purchase, this was the week for it, was a skin bundle pack from Redgrave. I actually went to the store and purchased every demo set for every pale tone they had. Took them home and spent, well, too long, trying each set of skins on to see just which bundle I had to have. I finally settled it down to two, Jennifer and Moon. Since Jennifer was more practicle I decided on adding Moon to my 'save up for' list. Its a short list, I try to keep up.  Anyone that has ever skin shopped with me knows that I am a royal pain in the neck about them. After almost 5 years in Second Life I have on all accounts been faithful to my choice in a skin for long periods of time. The first being 2 years. Yes, 2 years in the same skin. I currently now only use 4 different designers for skin purchases. Thats slowly changing as I have stopped being quite so stubborn about changing my shape here and there to work with a skin. There in lay the problem of the past, I wanted to find a skin that simply fit with my shape and needed no tweeking or managing. Now I have different shapes for different skins and am fast learning how people can end up with hundreds of skins in their inventory! A few minor adjustments (seriously, very minor changes thank goodness) and above is the results. Well smack me and call me Jennifer, I think I love it. Dina's Duds: Outfit: Freebie by Sn@tch Skin: Redgrave Shoes: Juicy Hair: ETD & Magika Eyes: SinSkins Shape: My own Pose Chair: Luth |
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Friday, January 2, 2009
Finally Friday! I am sure many of you SLers are out celebrating now that Friday has gotten here. I'm still fighting the flu which might explain why this blog post took me hours to get done. I've never been so slow to take photos and get them edited before in my life, and they are just basic shots! (My apologies to Imandra for the simplicity of them, I will make it up to you I promise!) At least the skins and shapes are able to clearly speak for themselves, so I will let them get to it.  If you somehow missed the update from [42] last week here is a fast reminder about the fabulous skin Flux that was released and its partnering shape Jessie. Each skin pack comes with the shape or you can shuffle over and purchase the shape separately. I often have a hard time finding skins that will work well with my personal shape, which was designed to go with my favorite and normally used skin. However, the skins from [42] are a rare exception to the rule! They always blend well with my features and often sport my favorite eye makeup, I love a smokey eye. In the photo above, for this package I did use the Jessie shape that comes with the Flux skin. I have no doubt it is fast becoming her best selling shape yet! I am extremely excited to have been lucky enough to get a sneak peek set of tomorrows release! Gravity will come with all the normal bells and whistles a [42] skin is known to include which means the Carrie shape is in each skin package or may, again, be purchased on its own. If you want to see more bits n pieces of any of the skins I have shown please be sure to pop on down to the [42] main store or visit their blog here. Not surprisingly, the eye makeup pulled me right in. The smokey eye and sweeping liners are, once again, amazing. The shape is fabulously sweet, slender and brings out the best of the skins details. Come down to [42] to try out the demos of the different skin shades as well, those shown are in Neutral.    The designer behind [42] knows that all work and no play is, well, RL! Thankfully this is SL and this weeks release is accompanied by Galaxies, a colorful and awesome set of skins. These photos are just to show off how fabulous they are, however, I have a photo manipulation in the works to show off one of them in another entry. They certainly spark some inspiration and will have you rummaging through your inventory for just the right outfit to set them off.   Now, I'm not quite sure how I have gotten this far without passing out. My backspace button has gotten plenty of use and I hope I have caught all typos and errors, but if not, just focus on the skins people, focus, focus! Hopefully later I will have the picture done that I have started working on to play with one of the freebie skins. If you like to take shots in SL then I hope you will do the same and share them with us. I know the [42] people would love to see them! Many thanks for the previews! Dina's Duds: Lingerie: Carnal White Wedges: Shiny Things Hair: ETD Latex Outfit: Sweet Dreams Boots: Drawmachine All skins by [42] All normal tone skin photo shapes: [42] Shape for Galaxies freebie: My own, cuz its fun to see your face in multicolor! |
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Thursday, January 1, 2009
First I want to pause and wish everyone the very Happiest of New Years! May all your dreams, wishes and resolutions for the year come true and prove to bring you the best year ever! I hope that everyone had a fabulous New Years eve, and that those of you with hang overs are feeling a wee bit better this night. I spent my New Years eve curled up on the couch under as many covers as I could find while shivering from a fever! Such a let down after spending time in SL buying a new party outfit, and I didn't even get to hit one single party. Deciding I would end the year with a bang, I had decided to go out in gold. Since I never made it back online after putting the outfit together, instead I will go IN in gold. It still works! Just pretend I wore the outfit last night, its worth it. After seeing the outfit through the feeds I couldn't resist (and hardly tried to) the new outfit and jewelry featured as “The Silvester Dress & Alienbear Design Jewelry .“ The dress and jewelry came in Gold or Silver. Being as pale as I am I always figure I will wash out in silver, so gold it was. Combined with hair from 0 Style, shoes from ETD, and I was ready to hit those parties! That I missed....what a waist of a perfectly hot and schmexy look! I am saving the outfit for whatever next grand event there will be in SL. I will wear this by golly, I can't even say how much I love the skirt! It makes you want to shake your hips just to see what the material will do! Shake it into the new year!  After that I figured I would need an after party casual look, sticking with Gold as the theme. I tossed together some of my favorite jeans from Last Call, a top from a dress from Gisaci while keeping the same hair, shoes and jewlery. The jewlery was done so well I cant get over it. I am not normally a big jewelry shopper, but this set has such great detail I had to have them. The rest of the outfit I have had for a while, the top found simply by typing in Gold in search. Search is your friend when you have an inventory as messy as mine. Resolution #1 for SL, clean out inventory! All poses for these photos are by Long Awkward Pose. Skin by Tuli, Shape is my own, eyes by Sin Skins. See full details together at the end of this posting.  Coming tomorrow I have a sneak peak of the new release and freebies from [42] as well as some of their fabulous shapes. If you havent taken the time to go and look at their skins I would highly suggest you do so, each comes with different makeups and a shape to go with it. You also will find fabulous customer service and plenty of eye candy in the store to purchase. I hope you all are having a fabulous year thus far! Looking forward to many more happy blogging moments with you all, be it from reading your blog or you venturing over to take a gander at me here. Enjoy your Second Life and thank you for being a part of mine! Dina's Duds: Pic 1; Skin: Tuli Eyes: Sin Skins Shape: My own Dress: VictoriaV Fashions Jewelry: Alienbear Shoes: ETD Hair: Zero Style Pic 2; Skin: Tuli Eyes: Sin Skins Shape: My own Top: Gisaci Pants: Last Call Shoes: ETD Jewelry: Alienbear Hair: Zero Style |
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