Sugar Cube

Sugar Cube came up today. I only have one dress from Sugar Cube, and it took me forever to buy it. I'd see it on a feed, think it was cool, head to the store, then decide I didn't really need it. After the 4th time I finally decided if I was coming back that often, I really DID need it! And I do love it. Admittedly, the shoulder straps get all wonky on my shape, but it doesn't bug me enough to make me figure out what to do about it. So with no further ado: the Goldfish Dress!


I'm wearing the dress with J's Real Toe Belt Platform Sandals, Truth's Valerie hair in pumpkin (which somehow manages to be red but not clash with the orange dress - wish my real-life hair could do that!) and Plastic Flowers' Shattered skin in pale (with my LAQ red eyebrows, of course).

Lashes are Wild Brush from Perse.

Riddle

I am in serious trouble. My linden balance is dangerously low, it's two more weeks before I give myself my allowance, and yet still I shop! My next blogging stop is Riddle, a store that I had no memory of ever visiting. But there in my inventory was a cute sweater with little skulls on it that sent me right over to check out the other offerings.


Riddle is a very nice store with some fantastic items. Somehow I managed to find a coat I absolutely needed to buy. Never mind that I have about 50 other coats, 25 of them bought this fall. This pretty red one is part of the Winter Blues set that comes with a sweater dress as well, but I've paired it with a different Riddle sweater, Skully, in pink. I especially like that I can wear the coat hood at the same time as my sweater neck.


The sweater is also a dress, but I like a little more coverage so I threw on the Essential Jeans from Nyte & Day in stone wash. The shoes are are just something I found tucked in my inventory - I have no clue where they came from. The hair is Maitreya's Lila in ginger. And no, I still haven't taken off my Julie skin from LAQ. I don't see that happening any time soon!

Reale

Today I pulled Reale from my randomizer, which made me very happy. I haven't been over there in a while so the first thing I did was visit the store. And then I bought a few things. And then I tore myself away to concentrate on my blog post.

Reale is one of my favorite SL stores. Maxi dresses have been big for a while in world and I think the ones at Reale are standouts. I love the Floratta dress (here shown in Pansy). It's romantic and pretty but not over the top for a non-gown girl like me. I've put it together with the April skin from LAQ (worn, of course, with their red eyebrow tattoo) and hair that's also from Reale, Francesca in dark red.


For my shopping trip I went with the polka dot bolero top and tank (which is possibly the only cropped top in my inventory) and paired them with Zaara's Mitya shorts in blue and the Ginger boots from Shiny Things. When in doubt, always go with Zaara and Shiny Things! I'm also wearing my Julie skin from LAQ and Maitreya's Dylan hair.

Going Random

I really, really need to get my inventory cleaned out and under control. So I turned it into a game! I've randomized all the designers in my clothes folder and am picking one for each blog posting. This has already forced me to visit folders I never peek into and delete things that I thought were cool when I first rezzed three years ago. You know, before I knew about prim skirts.

When I land on one that's actually worth keeping, I'm going to blog it. Today I was assigned Gemini Couture. Now, Gemini Couture doesn't exist any more, so you can't buy the cute outfit I found in that folder, so to give you something worth reading about I put the word "Gemini" into my search window. I expected exotic space-themed stuff or something. Instead I found this:

You really can get everything in Second Life. I never thought of anyone needing barns and stables, but of course, someone must! This is actually a fun little area. There are several rezzers to rez both large and small barns, stables and tack rooms, and you can ride on all the tractors and hay wagons. They're all covered with fun pose balls (we know how I love pose balls). Plus the sim has a nice Celtic music stream running which makes your shopping experience very relaxing.

Here I am checking out the hayloft in one of the bigger barns. These things really are cool. This one has loft doors that open individually or together and room for tons of horses, if that's your thing. I'm wearing my no-longer-available Vivienne dress from Gemini Couture, the always-reliable Clover pumps from Zhao, the Luna hair in auburn from Calico, and my Julie skin in pale from LAQ. I never get tired of this skin.


I always dress like this to visit the stables. Don't you? :)

PixelDolls

PixelDolls always has something interesting, so despite my assertion that I never wear gowns, here I am in another one. This is Knockout in red, and you can see that the skirt is pretty sheer. The dress comes with the fishnet stockings. I just can't resist those pretty PixelDolls textures! I'm not sure if you can even see my shoes, but I trotted out an old reliable, the Laque pumps from Storm Schmooz.



My skin here is another from Heartsick (the sales! the freebies!) This is Very Berry. The hair is the Model hair from Waka and Yuki. It was a freebie a while back and I like the pairing of lacy dress and short, modern hair. For jewelry I went with Earthstones' Karin set in the Fire Agate tone. Eyelashes are Sin Skins' tipped vanity lashes.


I keep forgetting to mention that the poses here and in the past few posts have all been from EverGlow. I went there to pick up a couple and ended up with something like 20! Normally I don't like poses with hands near the face or head, but EverGlow seems to be the exception to that rule for me.

More Kunglers

Another quickie, folks! This is the most recent group gift from Kunglers. I especially like the jeans, which have a really nice, subtle prim leg that doesn't flare too much . Very smooth. I'm wearing this with the Zimmy Flats in faded denim from the always wonderful Shiny Things. And some new bangles I picked up at the Perse sale.


My hair is another new style from Truth: Trinity. Skin is Heartsick's Long Hot Summer. My orange eyebrows from LAQ didn't quite match up with this one so I'm stuck with black. Still pretty, though!

Quick Look at Veschi

You're all going to have to forgive me. See my blogging folder is overflowing. And I have just enough OCD that I have to actually blog stuff before moving it to my actual inventory. So in the interest of speed, for the next little while no slurls. I know, bad blogger. If anyone desperately needs slurls, IM me.

In any case, I picked up Veschi's Jump Her! jump suit a while back just for the great wide-legged pants. I love that these pants are wide without being flared. Very nice. I don't much care for the top,though, so I paired it with a classic - the Isis shirt from Zaara. Shoes are the Alice Mary Janes that I picked up at Footworks.


The hair is one of my few Hair Fair buys (sorry, but I found the pickings slim this year). It's Dala from EMO-tions. And the skin is an old classic as well, Curio's Elf, which I have once again doctored with my favorite orange eyebrows from LAQ. I seriously wish more skin creators would give us eyebrow tattoo options.


Onward and upward. Who knows what I'll find in that folder next?

Back!

I ended up taking an unexpected and extended trip out of town this month. Now my blogging folder is massively over-packed and I have to hop to it! So starting right off:

I headed over to Modavia Fashion Week just at the last minute, which is good, since I only had time to buy three outfits. It's over now, but you can drop by Kunglers to pick up the Sophia dress, which is awesome. I don't really buy gowns in SL because I never wear them, but I could not resist this one.


Truth Hawks is really upsetting me these days. He will not stop making gorgeous hair! And then I have to buy it and then I don't have money for anything else. Seriously, will it ever end?! This is the most lovely Orchid (without the actual orchids) and I think it's my favorite updo ever. I'm also wearing the Cue jewelry set from Miel.

My skin is interesting. It's Mango, Mango!'s Honey Bee in pale. I almost tossed it out, actually, because I didn't like the black eyebrows and the eyes looked weird to me. But I LOVE really dark lipstick so I messed around with it. I added lashes from Sin Skins and my tattoo layer eyebrows from LAQ. The eyebrows add color to the forehead, so they won't work with every non-LAQ skin, but I think they work really well here. Voila! A skin I wasn't in love with becomes perfect. I do love that tattoo layer! Here are the pics, first the original skin and then my doctored version.





More (much more!) to come. I've got to catch up to my monster blogging folder!

A Cool Weekend-Only Event

I'm going to out myself now. I have an alt. An alt I use for historical role-playing. Yes, I'm one of those.

One of the places I love to play is in the Duchy du Coeur. The Duchy is a representation of 18th Century France - the Aquitaine region to be specific. And this weekend only they're having a special Art and Music Festival. There is a full roster of live music events to attend, but the thing that's special about this is that several of the residents of the Sim have opened their homes for an open house tour. Here's me exploring one of the lovely residences.

It's a rare opportunity to visit some of beautifully designed and decorated homes and to tour a gorgeous sim. Here's how it works. You follow the landmark to the starting point. From there you'll see a horse-drawn carriage. (If you don't see a carriage, there's a sign you can use to call one.) Hop on board and click on the carriage to bring up the menu. Choose "Festival" and then choose "Home Tour" and you'll see a list of homes to choose from. Pick one and you're off! At each home you hop off and tour the house, then click the tour sign to call another carriage to take you to the next destination.

The above landing point also gives you a schedule of all of the musicians performing in the festival. This all ends Sunday night so if you have any interest you need to move quickly!

The role-play is very casual and for the festival folks aren't even required to wear period attire. But if you'd like to get in the spirit there are a couple of freebie outfits on the carts here .

Ibizarre and My Navel

I know I swore in the beginning that I wouldn't be showing my navel, but you guys knew that wouldn't apply to swimsuits, right? And I'm calling this a swimsuit.

This is the Volant dress from Ibizarre. They call it a dress, but it looks like a bikini to me! And since I don't ever, ever succumb to EMS but I really like the "dress," I'm going with it. The hair I'm wearing is Malou in ginger from Maitreya. The pose is built into the fire and log set, which is from Dench Designs.


The shoes I'm wearing with this are the Venus sandals from The Hub. I know everyone is making prim toes now, but I still don't like them. I can never get them to fit right or match my skin. So call me a grumpy old luddite, but I'm sticking with my ugly SL toes for now! And I do like these sandals.

And of course I'm showing off my other new skin from LAQ. This is Pearl in milky and I'm wearing the LAQ cleavage pack as well. Also, since Pearl is a blonde, I can show off the eyebrows LAQ sells on the tattoo layer. On the left you see Pearl with the original eyebrows and on the right I'm wearing the red eyebrows in the eyebrow pack. The eyebrows are meant to go with only LAQ skins, but I'm going to try them on other skins and see what happens.

At Home in Santana

At the moment I'm all about my new SL home - loving the location and the extra prims! So as I fight may way through my to-be-blogged folder you'll be seeing a lot of it, I expect.

You'll also be seeing a lot of those Everglow poses. Still loving those!


See how far behind I am? Of course, everyone has already blogged the Ginger Boots from Shiny Things, so I should just let them go to their designated folder (Clothing - Shoes - Shiny Things) unblogged. But I have just enough OCD in me to prevent that from ever happening. What's in my blog folder gets blogged. And besides, anything as cute as these deserves yet another mention.

Today I've paired the boots with the Flower Garden dress from Rily's $1L shop. You can find this dress in many colors and several others there, all for $1L.

I have to confess I've been going a little skin crazy lately. Maybe it has something to do with being homeless and not needing to pay rent. I've never paid real prices for skin because the Eloh Elliot templates happen to fit my shape really well, so freebie skins have always done me well. But I seem to be completely addicted to LAQ. Feeling a little flush I headed over there today and demo-ed everything. After much intense scrutiny I settled on two lines, of which this is one. This lovely skin is April in Milky, and she's another natural redhead so I don't get to show off my tattooed eyebrows just yet. The hair is from Miel, it's called Sat and this is red 4.

Everglow

First, I've been remiss in posting because I was suddenly left homeless in SL and haven't had a spot to hang my hat (or change my clothes) until now. As a result, I have an inventory full of stuff that I need to get blogged! So I'm just going to throw a bunch of stuff out there and see what sticks.

I was recently invited to join the Everglow Flickr group, so I headed over to Everglow thinking I'd pick up a pose or two so I could post to the group. Well, I ultimately had to drag myself away. Fanny Willis has this way of making me love things I don't usually love in poses, like ground sits, and hands up in the air. I went just a little nuts. So all the poses in this post are Everglow poses.

I don't LOVE this skin, but I like it and could see wearing it in the right situation. It's the new group gift from Cupcakes called Dahlia. My shorts are the Stein Tailored Shorts from Whippet & Buck (worn without the upper buttoned portion) and the tank top is the nice basic white freebie from Fri.day. And, of course, I'm wearing the Zimmy flats from Shiny Things in black and white. There are only two designers in SL from whom I buy everything and anything they make, and Fallingwater Cellardoor is one. And last but not least, I've taken advantage of the $100L sale at Tiny Bird and have stocked up on hair. This one is Time To Pretend II in copper.

And now for something completely different! Still posing from Everglow (I even like that my finger shows through my hair), this dress is from Niniko and includes the white blouse and the jumper. I've matched it up with the Ilaida Mojri slippers from Zaara, the OTHER SL designer from whom I buy anything and everything. These shoes are pretty customizable, as the center part of the upper can be changed to almost any color and the little metallic detail can be silver or gold. I'm also wearing hair from Truth (Piper in Cranberry) and skin is from G&N Quality Design (Silvery Moss - I think this was a recent freebie).

Finally (I think three totally unrelated outfits in one post is enough, don't you?) here's Clio's Pandora dress. I have been waiting and waiting for Clio to put a front on this skirt, and she finally did it. You know I'm not really a gown girl, but I made an exception for this one! I even like the little hat, and I'm not usually into funny hair stuff. I paired this with my Tasha 2 skin from LAQ, jewelry from Donna Flora (Camelia), and another Truth hair (Milla in copper).

I'm also trying out some of the new lashes on the tattoo layer from Miamai. I like them!

Now I have to rush because I've just heard that LAQ has a version of their red eyebrows on the tattoo layer. My quest for great red eyebrows in SL is eternal. This alone could erase all my Viewer 2 complaints!

Like A Ruby

I know it's summer, but my blogging folder is still full of stuff that I picked up during colder weather. So thanks to Thelma Felix's Virtual Version blog I trotted over to the amazing build at Karoastoff to show off another pretty coat.


This is the Rose coat from Lika Ruby. It comes in a bunch of colors and is only $150L. I paired it with Adam n Eve's Leather Sculpted Pants in aubergine and one of my first ever purchases in SL, Lassitude & Ennui's black tapestry ankle boots. These are currently on big sale at the main store - you can get the fat pack for $40L. That's way less than I paid for one pair two years ago!


Of course, I'm still wearing my Julie skin from LAQ. I said I'd never take it off! And this time I've paired it with a recent freebie from Tiny Bird. This is Love Love Love in caramel.

So skate over to Lassitude & Ennui and pick up some boots then head to Karaostoff to explore the trains, lighthouse, and other lovely buildings.

Skin! I Bought Skin!

Seriously, for the first time since I bought my very first skin more than 2 years ago, I paid full price for a skin. In two years I've never paid more than $100L for a skin so this was a big deal. But when I heard that LAQ had a new redhead skin I ran right over. I'm a committed redhead in SL and, really, I think I bought the skin more for the red eyebrows than anything else. But who could resist?



Look at this gorgeous skin! I don't think I'll ever take it off. This is Julie in Milky. How beautiful is she? And those red eyebrow are fantastic. I'm showing it off with a few new hairstyles from Truth that I just picked up. This one is Paige in auburn. And I'm wearing the latest group gift from LeeZu, Noelle, which might still be in the subscribo history.


Here's another shot of Julie paired with another Truth hair - Valerie. I'm also wearing LeeZu's Mailiin blouse in silver.


And, of course, if you're paying full price for one skin might as well pay full price for two. This is what I get for demo-ing! Laq's Tasha 2 is also stunning, even if it doesn't have lovely red eyebrows. It's a little more of a made-up look and I couldn't resist it either. This time I'm wearing Truth's Grace in carrot. Earrings are my favorite big diamond hoops from Jador.

So now I feel terribly decadent in my new, pricey skin and I have to get my butt in gear and do more blogging so I can feel like it was a worthwhile expense!

If Zaara Builds It I Will Come

I'm a careful shopper in SL. I evaluate the designs that I see on blogs and in notices, carefully choosing items that I both love and really need in my wardrobe. I never just buy willy-nilly because an outfit was made by a specific designer.

Except, that is, where Zaara Kohime is concerned. All you have to do is say the word Zaara and my ears prick up. Everything she makes is amazing and I buy all of it. Without question.

Zaara's newest dress, Mahari, lives up to all her usual high standards. I bought it in burgundy but there are both light and dark options in the store.

With Zaara's lovely dress I'm wearing the DeVille pumps from Zhao and a pair of sheer black stockings that I found in my inventory with no attribution (sorry!).

My hair is Truth's new Milla in copper. Skin is Uma from Rockberry. My earrings are the Seasons set in platinum and aqua from Jewelry by Lyn. Which doesn't seem to be around any more so . . . bad blogger! But I liked the aqua with the detail on the blouse too much to change it.

I'm so prolific these days! That's what a short hiatus from SL will do, I guess.

And Now For Something Completely Different . . .

Here's another of my new poses from Long Awkward Pose and a dress I picked up at Triangle for $1L. This is called Lag Shadow. It's not my usual style, but for some reason I could just see it with the go-go boots and all. So I'm stepping out of character for a cool, retro look.


This skin is another $25L deal from Plastic Flowers. This one is Shattered in pale. I love good cheap skin! If you haven't been over to check these out, get going!


I'm also wearing the Dalmation boots from EvA Footwear, Kathy hair from Aoharu in Cherry Brown, and my favorite diamond hoops from Jador.

Poses!

This week I'm finally spending more time in-world since my RL houseguest has gone home. I did something that has been long overdue. I have a massive inventory folder full of dozens (hundreds?) of freebie poses. Well this week I deleted them all. Total wipe out. Then I went out to do something I've never done before in SL: buy poses.

Today I picked up a few at Long Awkward Pose and decided to show a couple off with some new acquisitions.

I found a gift card in my inventory for Sweeter Than Candy and I ran right over to pick up this pretty pea coat. It includes a hat and scarf, but I like it all alone. I live in a warm climate, so I really cling to my SL winters. I'm usually wearing coats and boots long after most residents are trading it all in for bikinis.

Pants are something I am always on the lookout for. I think very few designers are doing good cuffs. So when I saw these from Armidi Gisaci on another blog (I can't remember which or I'd attribute!) I literally ran right over to check them out. These are the Journey Tweed Slacks in golden bronze and I just can't get over the beautiful cuff. The texturing is nice too - you can see that in the close-up below.



The pose is called CC-Seduction and I especially like how it positions the head. My skin is from Plastic Flowers - the Luffly skin in pale that is currently out for $25L. There are a few discount skins there that are really nice. My hair is Luna from Calico Ingmann. I almost never take it off these days.


Shoes are Insolence's Natasha boots in camel. If you look closely, you can actually see the difference between the suede texture of the boots and the wool of the pants.

I've been shopping my butt off lately so more newness to come!