Otherworldly

The 13th of December means Lucia here in Sweden. I did not get up early this morning to sing and serve lussekatter (saffron buns) while wearing a crown of candles on my head, so I am making up for this with a rather saucy Lucia in Second Life, wearing the latest release from deviousMind. I also decided to pick up the new Christmas tree from Dysfunctionality and it was a lot easier to transport than the actual tree that I carried home from the store yesterday. That tree is now residing in our living room, a bit earlier than usual since we’re gone this coming weekend, though I’ve yet to decorate it.

Wasabi is having a huge sale on all hair using their previous, pre-HUD set of textures. I have a lot of favourites among those hairs and I thought I would do a portrait with one of them, the Donna style. This has been a really versatile braided style, perfect for both modern looks and period/fantasy looks. It also turned out to be perfect for showing off the Bianca jewellery set from Voluptas Virtualis. The set features a bindi, two earring styles and three different chokers, all very elegant and detailed. Of course it comes with a HUD for changing the metal and the gems.

The gown, which I will have to show in more detail in another post, is by the Muses and the wintry archway a new release from Noble Creations.

I have been making more shapes for Vista’s Lia head and the latest one inspired me to do this photo, featuring the charming new Briar Rose gown from Dreaming Thicket (formerly Anachron) together with two gachas from the Arcade by Wasabi and HEXtraordinary. The gown comes fitted for Belleza Freya and Isis, Maitreya and both Slink bodies. Wasabi’s gacha hair, Sloane, comes with and without a cosy knit hat. HEXtraordinary’s Owl Keeper gacha includes several varieties of owl as flying or perched and they can be rezzed or worn. The rares include the Snowy Owl in both versions as well as a brass cage and a brass stand.

I am in the middle of baking for Christmas, which leaves the house smelling wonderfully of cardamon, cinnamnon, cloves and saffron. Gorgeous spices that are essential for a proper Swedish Christmas, despite their distant origins. Given this, it seemed seasonally appropriate to use the Spice Merchant set from Roawenwood as part of the decor for this photo, which also includes pieces from Paper Moon and ANE. The new items featured are the dress from Noble Creations, the hair from Wasabi and the gacha jewellery set from lassitude & ennui.

I have been way too busy the last few days but now I finally managed to make time for setting up and filming the fourth Shadow Box in the first series of six from Death Row Designs. Once again I opted for more of a reveal than an unboxing, since I felt it would not do the items justice to simply rez them out. And there were so many of them that I had to make use of four rooms in my Hartwick Manor from Apple Fall to display both the Light and the Dark version.

To learn more about Shadow Box and how to subscribe, make sure to visit the DRD website linked above. And remember, if you get all six boxes in a series, you will get both a Light and a Dark bonus build.

I am in the middle of organising a puppy show (have to get up at 4.30 am tomorrow, ugh), so this will be a few short words and two pictures. It was that or nothing, I am afraid. The Plastik has been doing some bento attachments lately, tails in particular. This set features both a tail and ears as well as a bejewelled horn to turn you into part unicorn. This would be the more deer-like variety of unicorn, as evidenced by the tufted tail and the style of the ears. The pieces come with HUDs both for colouring and for controlling the poses of the bento attachments (if you get the fatpack rather than one of the six preset colours, you get additional options), allowing for both static and animated positions.

I am still playing around with the Lia head from Vista, making shapes and trying out skins. For these photos, I am using the YS&YS skin that was included with the head and I made a shape specifically for it which I also put up on the Marketplace. And, since I was also planning to showcase the Enelia set from Voluptas Virtualis, I made the shape for Slink Physique Hourglass, which is one of the three bodies supported for the set (the other two being Belleza Freya and Maitreya).

Just in time for the Black Friday/Weekend sales, Vista Animations released their first bento mesh head, Lia. I had heard nothing of it until I saw it mentioned on Plurk and to be honest I wasn’t expecting that much when I went to demo it. I have fairly particular tastes in mesh heads and I have demoed and discarded a large number. But, I was very pleasantly surprised and that, together with the excellent introductory price of L$2000 (20% off the regular price, which is still a great deal), led to one of my fastest mesh head decisions ever. In fact, I was so pleased with the head that I simply had to launch into making a review video for it. It should have been up earlier today, but I had some uploading issues. Fortunately, the sale price is still on at the store right now.

Also featured in this video is a new hair by Wasabi, a new tree by The Little Branch (who just opened up their mainstore) and clothing by Senzafine.

Tomorrow is the last day for the Coven where you can get Paper Moon’s lovely decor item, the Bolognese Tarot, which is an actual historical tarot deck from the 1600s, I am using three pieces from the collection as the backdrop for this image, which also showcases the Mirror Mirror dress from Noble Creations. The throne is an earlier release from Dysfunctional Designs and I liked the effect of leaving it empty and playing the power behind (or beside) the empty throne in this image.

Speaking of Paper Moon, you also need to make sure to check out the mainstore, as they are having a Black Weekend sale with everything except gachas at 50% off.

During the weekend Froukje Hoorenbeek of Dutchie dropped her latest creation on me—a sauna! Since it definitely needed both photos and a video to do it justice, it took a few days before I found the time to properly play with it. I kept the video PG (there is a PG as well as the Adult aka “Swinger” version of the sauna) but the photos in this post are rather more NSFW. Alas, neither me nor Ran have any alts setup with mesh bodies, so we couldn’t test out the poses intended for more than two avatars, but I do give a look at the menus to give a sense of what’s available.

Time for the third and final new face from alaskametro. Spark is a freckled, charming face which I paired with I see as the cutest of the LightStar mesh heads, Marian. But since I also decided to show off another new release from Poppy, this one for ROMP, things took a decidedly naughty turn with this post. The decor is all from the recently released November Deco(c)rate.

The second new face from alaskametro is Solace, a somber face that gives a melancholy look. I paired it with the Athena head from LightStar and dressed up in a recent release from Noble Creations, also with a grecian theme.

Alaskametro has recently released added three new faces to her skinline and I will be featuring them one at a time. And since she releases all her skins for LeLutka, Catwa and Omega (plus as system skins, even!), I will be featuring each of them on a different mesh head from LightStar. I really wish more brands would include Omega versions of their skins, to allow for more variety in head and skin combinations.

The first skin featured is Harmony, an in-store release of a skin in two darker tones, which I’ve decided to pair with the Maya head. Also shown in this post is a bodysuit from Voluptas Virtualis and a suspenion rack from Roawenwood.

For November, Enchantment takes us to the world of Snow White, full of poisoned apples, dwarves and evil queens. I think I saw at least three glass coffins on sale as well, which brought back fond memories of a lovely pose prop from Studio Sidhe. There were also a few magic mirrors, which makes me fervently wish for reflections in Second Life. But enough reminiscing and wishful thinking! I have a lovely dress from Dreaming Thicket to show you, together with a pose set from Double Take, a new-to-me pose store.

Rewind has gone back in time to the 40s and to blog the Joan hairstyle from Wasabi (a rebrand of Wasabi Pills), I decided to pick up the Oakley Garter Slip from Poppy from the same event. A couple of days ago, I had also gone shopping at Collabor88 and picked up the two new releases from Trompe Loeil, which when shot in a vintage-inspired windlight seemed to work pretty well with the Rewind items.