Otherworldly

I may be suffering from a slight house addiction in Second Life of late. I suspect I will never get our sim fully landscaped and finished since I can’t avoid rezzing out new shinies rather randomly to setup for photos. Such as this Oakside Bungalow from Convair at the Home Show.

Once you step inside, you’ll also get to see a couple of the new releases from Miamai’s Luxe collection, which launched this weekend.

For the spring round of The Seasons Story the team behind aisling has created a three-part outfit (dress, shoes and headdress) and a matching swing with both single and couple poses. I thought these would pair perfectly with the stunning new house from Trompe Loeil, available at this month’s Collabor88. My hair is also from the Seasons Story and is created by Wasabi Pills.

Gatchas are wicked things. I continue to try an exercise restraint (but that doesn’t mean I haven’t ended up with a bunch of duplicates for sale), because for the most part I really would prefer paying more and knowing what I get, but sometimes you end up fooled into thinking you are an extra lucky person who of course will get just what you want… But don’t believe that feeling, it is always a lie.

Case in point? The Alchemy gatcha at the Secret Affair. I just wanted one of the common iron crowns. By the time I had used up my self-imposed limit for that machine, I had ended up with one common (but not the one I wanted, of course), the rare and the ultra rare. So, lucky indeed, but not what I had originally been after! However, since the rare and the ultra rare are incredible works of art, I do have to show them to you, even if it feels like a terrible tease.

The Secret Affair opened yesterday, featuring both brand new gatchas and brand new non-gatcha products. I have some concerns about an event themed around a copyrighted property and about some of the merchandise on sale, but I’ll stress that it is largely a matter of personal preference and of holding to the same rules that we apply on Westeros.org about not allowing any unlicensed A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones products to be advertised. Actually determining what would be considered a product based on A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones is a tricky matter (is it appearance, names - and if so which names - or a combination of elements?) and it is very possible that I am erring on the side of caution.

But, enough about that. I did go to the event and fortunately I found that the one item I just had to have wasn’t a gatcha! The Wyrmling from Alchemy is my new favourite item in Second Life and I don’t ever want to detach him. Alchemy has put out some really cool-looking attachable, animated pets before such as ravens and wolves (now kicking myself that I missed the latter at the Red Riding Hood event), but the Wyrmling definitely takes the cake.

Also in this post, also from the Secret Affair, a stunning gatcha gown from Junbug and a lovely braid from Calico.

As my blogging of late has no doubt made plain, I love gowns. But sometimes you do need to slip into something more comfortable and practical, and thanks to The Muses latest offering for We Love Role-Play you can now do so in proper fantasy style with the Doronthor outfit (or the corresponding Doronthel, if you happen to be male). Four special colours of these outfits are offered at a discount at the event and will not be available afterwards, so make sure to check them out.

My accessories, the elegantly casual Spring Necklace and Headwrap, are from lassitude & ennui, also for We Love Role-Play, and the same goes for the tied-off pony tail from Epos, who are making their first foray into hair in a very nice way.

Normally, I’d write a fair bit more, but my arms are quite exhausted as I just came in from a riding lesson and Nelson (my horse for the day) was in a very frisky mood and wanted to run a lot more than I was keen on. So this time you’ll have to settle for these (hopefully) pretty pictures.

We Love Role-Play is now open and I am working on another set of photos to showcase some more items from there, but I thought I would sneak in a post from a couple of gatcha events as well, namely the Love & War gatcha (open) and the Secret Affair gatcha (opens on the 6th), to show case a gown from Junbug and more jeweller/accessories from aisling. I also wanted to feature the orchard trees from Dysfunctional Designs which we picked up from the Home Show.

April promises to be another great month for fans of fantasy-inspired clothing and accessories in Second Life, with several themed events about to open. I’ll look first at the new round of We Love Role-Play which is just around the corner. With the elaborate Chestlace piece from aisling and the cheeky Took an Arrow hair ornament from Bliensen+MaiTai, I felt inspired to create this rather dangerously seductive courtesan. After all, can you be sure those arrows are just hair ornaments? I am also wearing the second release from aisling for the event, the Hind shoes which are add-ons for the flat Slink feet.

It has been a while since I tried out a new skin brand. I am pretty picky and I also have tastes that aren’t quite “mainstream” Second Life; in particular, I don’t tend to go for cute all that often. I often look for skins with a bit stronger faces and perhaps more character than classical prettiness or beauty.

When I visited this year’s Skin Fair, I ended up collecting quite a pile of demos, but out of the new-to-me brands I tried only one stood out for me - DeeTaleZ. I tried on several of their faces and found that they had something that interested me. However, none grabbed me strongly enough that I made up my mind (I am indecisive). But I did sign up for their subscriber and started following their Flickr. And then a new face called Shirin was released, catching my attention both with the name (I happen to have a role-play character going by that name) and its appearance. After quite a bit of demoing—I just couldn’t decide which tone to get!—I finally took the plunge yesterday, then immediately set out to create a new shape for the skin. As it happens, I think the look of the skin lends itself quite well to a Dornishwoman, so I made the shape with that in mind and decided to show off another of the Dorne-inspired gowns from The Muses.

When I reviewed Astrali for the Skin Fair (which goes on for just a few days more!), I noted that there was also an in-store release at The Plastik, featuring a massive number of tones, including a wide variety of fantasy tones. I decided to play around with one of these tones for this photo and together with the armour from Bare Rose, we ended up with a lovely desert creature seducing an unsuspecting knight. The photo also uses the Nanda hair from Mina, available at this month’s We Love Role-Play, and the Jewelled Dragon’s Egg Necklace from Maxi Gossamer.

Bare Rose is a true SL institution. When it comes to fantasy outfits for just about any occasion, the store is undoubtedly the one that is likely to have what you need—and that is regardless of whether your avatar is male or female as June Dion almost always offers a variant for both genders. Such as of these fabulous fantasy armours.

Just in time for the start of season four of Game of Thrones, the Muses has released four gowns inspired by Dorne. Dorne happens to be mine and Ran’s favourite region of Westeros and when Nephilaine very kindly asked me to create the posters for these gowns I jumped at the chance. I hope you will love these four gowns as much as I do and as you see by this post I can’t stop playing with them. In this case, I am showing off Shining Sun, but I really can’t pick a favourite out of the four because they’re all stunning. And if Dorne isn’t your thing, then they will work beautifully for other looks as well, both fantasy and (in some cases) more modern.

I don’t usually do posts without an avatar in, but when I went through my recent clothing acquisitions I found that just about everything belongs in a fantasy setting and definitely not in a modern spring cabin furnished as an architect’s springtime retreat! So, for this post I am letting the Convair releases for FaMESHed and The Arcade take center stage all on their own.

The release of two mesh heads by Siddean Munro of Slink can hardly have passed anyone unnoticed. There is already a wide range of appliers ready from many different skin creators and more will undoubtedly be showing up soon. In this post I will be looking at the Becky head with the Amy applier from Adam n Eve, a Skin Fair exclusive for all those who love freckles. I will also be showing off a brand new release from Convair for the Liaison Collaborative.

Skin Fair is now open and it is time for my second skin review, featuring Sunny from Tuli. I am always glad to see Tuli back in Second Life and Sunny is hopefully a sign of more good things to come as it appears to be something of a special edition for the fair. This post also features the Rosalie hair from Calico which is a new release available at a discount through this month’s

We Love Role-Play as well as the Cassis necklace from Bliensen+MaiTai for the same event.

In just two days, on the 14th, the Skin Fair opens. It is quite a massive affair this time around, with three whole sims full of skins and with each participating designer offering Skin Fair exclusives that won’t be in their stores until the fair is over. I have decided to start my coverage of the fair with the new Astrali line from The Plastik. The line itself was actually released in the new store today, but you will have to wait until the Skin Fair for 7 of the tones. The Plastik will also be offering a large set of striking eye makeups at the Fair as well as nail polishes for Slink’s hands and feet. But lets dive in and take a look at the lovely Astrali.