Otherworldly

No, I wasn’t thinking directly of the sin, but I am not opposed to a bit of sinning. However, it was the lovely vintage vanity from Trompe Loeil at this months FaMESHed that inspired the title and provided the setting for this look at another new skin from Adam n Eve set to debut tomorrow at the Skin Fair.

So many gorgeous new things, so little time. That continues to be my bane, though I imagine that is only too common. Plus, these things do have to come together naturally for me to be really pleased with them. Like this one, which definitely grew quite organically. I had had a number of the pieces sitting in my inventory for a while, and then this fountain by DECO showed up at Collabor88 for March and provided the (almost) final piece of the puzzle.

When Nephilaine Protagonist dropped me her newest dress for The Muses (one of her little army of mesh shops!), I knew right away what I wanted to do with it. This regal mesh gown combines leather and chain mail for a fierce, warrior-queen look and when I put together the red gown with the black chainmail, it truly looked like something that Visenya Targaryen could have worn.

Yes, once again I am going on about A Song of Ice and Fire (which you may know as Game of Thrones), but that is because Ran and I have spent a rather crazy amount of time in Westeros lately, working on The World of Ice and Fire together with George R.R. Martin himself. Much of that work has concerned the history of House Targaryen since their arrival in Westeros and one of the most fascinating characters from the past is Queen Visenya, one of Aegon the Conqueror’s two sister-wives. She was a warrior and a dragon-rider, a wielder of the Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister. And I am sure she would appreciate the Rainha gown, though I think she would be practical enough to wear something beneath that chain mail. ;) Because there’s nothing royal about chafed nipples.

Gos Boutique opened for members of the update group yesterday and somehow I was able to get in pretty quickly to grab demos. Once I had decided what I wanted, it took a bit longer to get back in to actually make the purchase, but I survived that too. What was much quicker and easier was definitely the setup of the new shoes I had bought; the new HUD system from Gos really is a quite striking feature.

I’ll get into that a bit more, but first the basics. I picked up the Grace Sandals in Bronze and I am wearing them with tone four of Adam n Eve’s latest skin, Siobhan. I am also wearing one of this week’s new hairs from Truth and once again the mesh jewellery from Zaara. The poses and furnishings are from Libertine.

Winter’s should be white, there’s just no two ways about it. Of course, living on the west coast of Sweden, winter’s are quite often grey and rainy instead. After just enough snow in December to give us a white-ish Christmas, I did despair for this particular winter since the year started with rain and temperatures well above freezing. But then the snow came back and while it hasn’t snowed for some days now, we do have a lovely white covering on the ground and the temperature is set to stay below 0 for a good while. That put me in a mood to use this skybox from Barnesworth Anubis from the previous round of Collabor88; I love looking out through a window to watch the snow fall.

Events are responsible for a lot of what I am wearing, too, such as the Lazy boots from lassitude & ennui for L’Accessoires and Perception’s new corset for the Aquarius round of Zodiac. I am finding myself doing more and more of my shopping in SL at events. A sign of laziness, perhaps? I have always liked themed releases, though.

This gorgeous burlesque outfit called Lady Vayne is currently available for just L$150 in a gatcha from deviousMind and since all the colours offered are excellent I don’t think it matters one bit that its random which one you get. And if you don’t know where you would wear it, you might also want to look at one of the stage builds available from Chandra Meehan’s other store, chanimations, such as the La Burlesque photostage which was used as the backdrop for these photos.

Holiday preparations and the holidays themselves, not to mention a slight addiction to The Secret World, have kept me rather idle in Second Life for a few weeks. But the photography itch has been there the last week and when I spotted this dress at Bare Rose, I knew it was time for a blog. It also happened to be, or so I think, a rather perfect match for the lovely tiara from lassitude & ennui. I am also wearing a pair of new mesh eyes from Mayfly.

A new round of Collabor88 opened today and I fell madly in love with the Leith boots from Schadenfreude. Indecision kept me from buying her gorgeous boots for the last round, so I was determined not to make the same mistake again and snapped these up right away. Conveniently, they provided another excuse to play with our new bed from Trompe Loeil. I also slipped back into the Five hair from Point B/Analog Dog, since I love it to bits.

When it came to flexi curls, Analog Dog used to be my hair crack of choice. These days, Queue Marlowe mainly produces hairs for her newer line, Point B, and I have to admit that I haven’t been as enamoured with these styles. In part, I miss the Analog Dog colours (especially the reds!), and in part it is due to mesh, which obviously doesn’t lend itself as well to flowing curls. However, I do check out every new release, and the latest one included the Five style, which became an instant favourite. I love long hairs that work both for modern looks and more fantastical looks, and this style definitely fits the bill. This is just what I want to see from mesh hair.

I am also wearing the new Adam n Eve skin once again; if you haven’t already demoed Carolyn, what are you waiting for?

The third With Love hunt started a few days ago and an impressive lineup of quality merchants are offering high-value items for just L$10. I haven’t had time to do more than check out some of the absolute must-haves so far, and I have not been disappointed. I am showing just one of the many prizes from the Plastik together with a necklace from newly-opened store Cae and a brand-new Adam n Eve skin which isn’t part of the hunt.

I didn’t shop as much as might have at the various sales over the last weekend, but I did make sure to pick up a naughty little number from Solange. I am not much for keeping my blog entirely SFW, I am afraid. ;) I thought it looked particularly fetching together with the Zodiac offering from Evie’s Closet, a delicate “bridle” that comes in two beautifully ornamented versions.

A new round of Zodiac by the Hottie Cooterati Experience opened yesterday and I fell head over heels in love with the archery poses from HopScotch. My first impulse was to dress up as Artemis, but then another idea popped into my head. This one’s for the really obsessed A Song of Ice and Fire fans; a loose interpretation of Princess Daena, having snuck out of the Maidenvault dressed as a peasant girl to go hunting.

I do love gowns. And this mixed mesh gown from Volstead for Around the World is a beauty. I am also wearing one of the new Wasabi Pills hairs, a new item from the Sagittarius Zodiac cycle from Perception and Adam n Eve’s Disa skin, a little tweaked with the help of brows from alaskametro.

Unhinged is still going on and if you’d like an idea of what’s on offer, check out this list—with photos—of all merchant booths. I’ll be showing three more things myself; a charming mesh dress from Geometry, boots from lassitude & ennui and a necklace from Perception.

I am also showing Afia, another new skin from Adam n Eve, and one more of Alice Project’s hairs from Around the World.

I’ve never been able to stick to just one shape in SL. When I joined, it was to recreate various roleplay characters, so it didn’t take me many weeks to end up with several shapes. Since then, my personal collection has grown and grown, and somewhere along the way, sachi suggested that I could create some shapes for Adam n Eve’s skins and have them for sale in the store. I couldn’t pass up such an opportunity, of course, and I have been creating shapes for Adam n Eve skins ever since. And so, for the release of the first three skins of a new generation of sachi’s skins, I have of course created a shape each for Disa, Laina and Afia.

Also featured in this post are three of the gorgeous new hairs from Alice Project for Around the World (she made nine in total and you will find them all in the Asia section), some of my favourite Zaara lingerie and the mesh eyes from Mayfly.