Otherworldly

Carefully, you peer into the clearing, in the middle of which can be found an ancient, stone-walled pond. The knowledge of who made it, and why, has been lost to the mists of time. But it is known to be one of the few places where one can easily spot the elusive fae.

Ostara’s Altar is now open, and there’s a shopping guide to let you plan your purchases ahead. The Olde Pond is by Candle and Cauldron and the lovely spring-green skin is another version of Arcana’s Fae-skins, this time the Cirice face in Clover. The fanciful outfit and matching accessories are a previous release from deviousMind which includes everything worn, from leaves to butterflies to antlers and ears.

From Del-ka Aedilis comes the Beekeepers set, which includes beehives and a beekeeper’s stump with animations, some generic and a couple for preparing honey. The beehives include optional sound and would be a lovely, atmospheric add-on to a garden. Here I set them up next to the edge of the forest and added a carpet of flowery grass around them courtesy of Fundati.

I’ve featured the Ludus Magnus from Del-ka Aedilis before, but what better build to use for a bad-ass battle pose? This is another pose from Be My Mannequin?‘s set of poses for Enchantment’s Iliad and Odyssey round, this time using the included prop sword. The Ines set from deviousMind for We Love Role-Play is perhaps not standard-issue gladiator wear, but this leather-and-feather set has such a fierce attitude. The hair from Analog Dog is currently a free gift in the mainstore, in the Freeball (you need to cam around a bit to find it). I also like how the Ashlynn head from Slink came out with this expression from Vista’s Facial Bento hud.

To show off the Ludus more fully, I built up a small mountain with the help of Fanatik’s Lofoten set and placed it on top, with one of the sim surrounds from Landscapes Unlimited providing the dramatic backdrop.

Night has fallen over the desert. By the fruit trees and date palms of the oasis, a large, striped tent has been erected. There’s no sign of activity outside of the tent, but inside someone waits…

Roughly a week remains of the Fantasy Faire 2021. One of the things you do not want to miss out on doing is the traditional quest. This year it is called “The Language of Birds”. You can buy the HUD needed to participate in a regular (L$250) or deluxe (L$350, includes exclusive outfits from Silvan Moon Designs) version at the landing points on all the Faire sims and all the proceeds go to RFL. The quest package also includes a charming little companion that will help you out with extra hints along the way.

You will need a bit of patience for the quest as you are looking for birds and they are sometimes fairly small and may not rez until you are closer by. But the rewards are well worth it, from the sim-specific gifts for finishing each part of the quest to the grand prizes at the very end. Plus, you get a wonderful free tour of the Fairelands; I definitely saw areas I had missed on my shopping tours! The final sim, The Seventh Valley, is particularly gorgeous and that is where I took this shot. It was very much a spur of the moment photo, I hadn’t actually planned to blog about the quest or the outfit I was wearing right then, hence the lack of closeups on the accessories, but I liked how it came out!

You still have a few days to visit the current round of We Love Role-Play, where—among many other things—you can find the Evrim outfit from the Annex. I knew I wanted that one in gold as soon as I saw it (it also includes a sheer version, btw) but then Skin Fair came between me and setting up a desert scene for photoing it. When I finally did get around to it, I had picked up a couple of more things for the scene such as the beautiful lantern from the Dreaming Thicket and the ornate tack set by Cheval D’or.

Les Encantades has a lovely set with a tunic, pants and shoes (each sold separately) out at We Love Role-Play and to me they suggested a hunter, especially in the Olive green version with brown accents. I found the shoes a little modern-looking so I wore a pair of boots from Senzafine instead and because the pants end a little below the knee that worked pretty well. The set is available for a wide range of bodies, including Slink Physique, which always makes me very happy. There are also alphas included, something I wish more creators did these days. After all, BOM was supposed to be the end of alpha cuts on the bodies, but sadly not all body makers have gone that route.

What wanders the lush woods of Queensgarden? A creature of legends, an elusive wood walker. Her skin is nut brown and dappled like a deer’s, she has long, claw-like nails and eyes like those of a cat, and she wears clothing made of leaves. At her side, a large wolf, a companion but nevertheless a wild animal.

With everything on offer at the Fantasy Faire—from skins to companion creatures—it is easy to create a fantastical character of your own, whether wholly original or, as in this case, loosely based on a pre-existing source. And remember, you will be shopping for a good cause if you buy from the RFL vendors that raise money for the American Cancer Society.

Today also marks the beginning of the first part of this year’s Faireland’s Quest, don’t miss it!

Somewhere deep in the woods stands a tall tower, where a man wearing a mask has arranged for a secret meeting with a lady. Who is the man who will not reveal his face? And why has the lady agreed to meet with him in such a secluded location? Is there a scandal in the making, perhaps? Or does he know some dark secret that he is using to blackmail her with?

Christmas is over and the last day of the year is approaching fast. I was laid low by another round of cold, barely two weeks after the last one, so the video showing off my presents to myself that I picked up on the 25th had to wait until today. I had been eyeing several new releases from Teegle and for the Teeglepets and finally decided it was time to treat myself. I picked up the new Clydesdale Teeglepet, a baroque tack set for the Friesian Teeglepet and a side-saddle animation set. In the video, I show how to add the tack set and how to install the animations. I also show off a lovely new gown from the Dreaming Thicket. For me, that is, not the horses. ;)

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.

Butterflies are growing rarer in real life, but in Second Life they seem to be thriving. This beautiful, whimsical outfit is another creation from the talented Chandra Meehan of deviousMind. I love how the black outlines create something of a line-drawing effect, which looks really interesting in the light I picked for these shots. To go with the outfit, I picked up a brand-new hair from Analog Dog, an updo featuring the brand’s fabulous curls. After the latest update, there is now a mix pack available, which I really like! The hair also comes with a few style options, making the bangs as well as the pony tail optional.

The Ice and Fire event opens on April 3rd and of course I will be blogging it. Even though we’re already starting to get crazy busy now that the start of season 8 is less than two weeks away, I wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity to have fun drawing some inspiration from Westeros for a few posts. After all, I have bought all these castles and medieval buildings for a reason!

First up is a beautiful gown that is a collaboration between Faida and Velvet Whip together with one of a set of six pendants by Adam n Eve. For the background, I decided to setup my Iron Throne from Death Row Designs in the Dungan Castle by Fanatik. Not quite the Red Keep, but pretty good! I could have used some dragon skulls for the walls, though.

Today is the very last day of the Skin Fair so I am wearing one of the new Adam n Eve skins again for this post. I am also wearing another new outfit from Days of Yore, this one by deviousMind, and I just had to take to the desert to do this one justice. In fact, I regret not doing a short video to also show how cool it looked under the swirling sand effect from Balderdash. But the photos give a hint of it, at least.

There is a new round of the Epiphany on, which means elaborate gacha sets that you can either try your luck on OR in some cases buy as complete sets. The set from Chandra Meehan of deviousMind is called Azumi and described as “assassin silks”, which put all sorts of ideas into my head for how to photo it! I rather like what I ended up with, though I did have to use the skirt-less option of the dress for it to work with the first pose. But I think it really shows off the fabulous leather braces with their attached blades in a great way.