Otherworldly

A short and sweet post today, the dogs have been two handfuls today and I am absolutely exhausted. But as soon as I unpacked the review copy for deviousMind’s latest release, the Naga gacha, I knew I wanted to head down into my caves by Fanatik and photo this extra special dragon-tail version. And thanks to Bakes on Mesh it was easy to find a skin for it; this is Draco by Fallen Gods. The hair is the windblown version of Elenoire from Wasabi and the magic effect from the Dreaming Thicket.

La vie en pose is now open, so hurry up and check it out before the 25th of October. The event offers poses, props and backdrops and for this round you’ll see quite a few pumpkins and witches. The set I am showing today is one of the latter, a cute prop/backdrop set from Secret Poses with eight bento-enabled poses that include a bottle of love potion.

My Bakes on Mesh-kick got even more intense yesterday when Slink all of a sudden released SIX Bakes on Mesh-ready bento heads, five for women and one for men. Two of the female heads are updates of the previous static heads, Emma and Becky, so if you owned those you can now grab a redelivery for free! How is that for excellent support? Siddean was kind enough to send me the three completely new heads as well and of course this merited a very in-depth look at the whole set. And what better way to do that than with a video? This also gave me an opportunity to show off the new facial animation HUD from Vista that I picked up just two days ago.

In this post I have also included a head shot of each head with various system layer skins I dug up from my inventory to play with as well as credits for what is shown in the video. And if you want to learn more about Bakes on Mesh, do check out the excellent FAQ by Slink.

It is almost time for the October round of La vie en pose (it opens on the 10th and runs until the 25th) and it will be offering you plenty of fall-themed poses, props and backdrops. I went for another occult-themed setup myself using poses from WetCat, a backdrop from Cubic Cherry and decor from Dark Secrets. But it all started with the fabulous Bellatrix outfit from Velvet Whip and Faida, which I accessorized with rings from lassitude & ennui and a hair from Wasabi. I think the end result has something of a “sexy superhero witch” vibe.

I am continuing the theme of the previous post with more oldies but goodies skins through Bakes on Mesh and a ton of October-appropriate accessories and decor. This time, I am hanging out in my little witch’s shack from Jian which I have decorated with paper bats from Paper Moon and a furniture set from Roawenwood. The outfit is another Voluptas Virtualis release which worked great for showing off the fantastic Zodiac tattoos from Fallen Gods. I’ve also accessories with a jewelery set from the Plastik and a hair from Wasabi.

Glorious October, Bakes on Mesh is finally in Firestorm! Oh, and yeah, its THAT month in Second Life, where the whole grid goes Halloween-mad. There’s no escaping that and with Bakes on Mesh available to me I can dig up all sorts of older skins, makeups and tattoos that suit the theme. Even better, because all of those are individual layers (okay, it isn’t so good for my inventory but it has been a lost cause for many years) I can easily see what I am wearing when the time comes to get the credits sorted.

In these images, I am wearing the Bakes on Mesh-ready Athena head from LightStar with a Tuli skin, alaskametro makeup and silentsparrow tattoos. I am going to get a lot of mileage out of my LightStar heads now that I am not limited to Omega appliers.

For the September round of the Imaginarium, deviousMind has a new gacha out. This one definitely has a naughty flair and does justice to its name, Kinky. To show it off, I went back to the stage and stage lights by Dutchie that I first showed a while ago and combined it with the performer chair, also by Dutchie. For the backdrop, I rummaged around in my Libertine folder and found a set of decorative wall panels.

The Ark (which closes today, so hurry up and visit!) is a new event focused on pets, animals and related items. I had been looking forward to it since it was announced, but I must admit that I was somewhat disappointed in the first round as it seemed like too many items that you could have found at just any other event. However, there were definitely some really good things on offer too, with one of the top picks being the latest Teeglepet horse from Teegle—the Friesian. Since I’ve collected all the previous ones, of course I had to get this one too.

In this post, I am also showcasing a bridle for the Friesian by Mythril, decor and clothing from The Looking Glass and Roped Passions for the Spoonful of Sugar Festival and a new dress from Senzafine for We Love Role-Play.

I had not expected to do another decor only post so quickly, but I really wanted to blog one of the recent releases from Fanatik and the “avatar inclusive” idea that I had been working on did not pan out! However, this is definitely proving to be a fun way of doing something new with my SL photography so I don’t mind at all.

The focus of this post, then, is the Trenches set by Fanatik, a collection of deep trenches supported by wooden structures.

This is a bit of a departure for me. While I have gravitated towards more home & garden blogging the last years, it has usually been with avatars mixed in. But for this look at some recent Dutchie releases, I opted for a moody night-time scene of an empty café. It was nice to be able to play around with the windlight settings without being concerned about how it looked on an avatar, so this is something I need to experiment with more.

I definitely have a weakness for the Oops! line from Faida and Velvet Whip, with clothing that transforms from perfectly elegant and innocent to more than a little naughty with a simple click. The pieces are all scripted for roleplay interactions as well, with the option to allow another avatar to do the stripping. There are also optional emotes to go with the various stages of clothing removal.

Their latest release, available at We Love Role-Play, struck me as somewhat Roman-inspired, so I added a hairstyle in a similar vein by Bliensen + MaiTai (also from WLRP) and headed to our bath house by Tia. I am also wearing a collar and a set of cuffs from the Plastik for the Fetish Fair.

Because August flew by so quickly between various trips, I did not manage to make more than one post for Enchantment’s King Arthur round. However, I do have more things to show you, you will just have to hunt them down in the various mainstores now. That is always a good reason to have a browse around other releases from those brand—with everything being so event-focused, that gets done far too rarely these days. This post isn’t just about Enchantment, however, as I also have a couple of brand-new releases from the Dreaming Thicket and Adam n Eve, the latter for the round of We Love Role-Play that just opened.

I could not think of where to photo the lovely Midsummer outfit from deviousMind. It deserved some place magical and fanciful and I did not have the energy to put something like that together right now. And then Searlait Nitschke announced that she was done with her rebuild of the Roawenwood sim. It sounded fantastic from her description and once I got there, it did not disappoint. It is like a permanent Fantasy Faire sim, with plenty of beautiful spots to discover, and I found just what I needed to photo the elaborate Midsummer gacha where swarms of butterflies cover up the essentials and carry ribbons of fabric and an elaborate bustle that further add to the outfit. It is available at Whimsical which is open until the 12th of September.

It is the first of September already and it feels like August went by entirely too quickly. The Hair Fair certainly did! It ends today and I have not had any time at all to blog it until now. Though, I did think it felt a bit smaller and had far fewer styles on offer than previous years. Event fatigue, the increasing complexity of hair or something else?

The hair in this post is from Wasabi, who did two styles for the fair, though both come with multiple options. The one I am showing here, Venere, has a regular option (shown in the first picture) and a windblown option (shown in the second picture—just imagine a fan off to the side!). These two options are actually separate hairs rather than HUD-controlled, but HUDs for sizing are still provided.

This started as an entry for Enchantment’s photo contest for their King Arthur-inspired round. Together with the Homeric epics, the Arthurian legends were among the first stories I fell in love with in the form of retellings for children and the wonderful Classics Illustrated before I got to the “real” versions of the legends—which of course with the Matter of Britain is a very nebulous thing given how many different versions there are! In any case, of course I had to attempt an entry for the contest given my love for the legend, it was just a matter of picking ONE favourite scene/element. Fortunately, it also had to be one that could be portrayed in SL, which narrowed the field somewhat. In the end, I settled for Arthur’s body being taken away to Avalon. Yes, there should be three queens—I guess the other two are hiding in the back (or front, rather)—and Excalibur is generally back with the Lady of the Lake rather than in Morgan le Fay’s hands, but we are allowed some liberties and personal tweaks. Like I said, there are so many versions anyway.