Otherworldly

I’ve gift-wrapped myself today in this little number from Voluptas Virtualis that I absolutely adore. It seemed appropriate since so much of what I am wearing are gifts from generous creators, whether at their stores or at the Winter Shop & Hop. And while the skybox and the furnishings weren’t free, they were bought at Apple Fall’s incredibly generous Black Friday sale.

This is also my first photo on the new Firestorm release, with EEP instead of Windlight. So far, I am finding it incredibly useful to be able to flip through skies using the Quick Preferences but also annoyingly slow to import windlight settings and difficult to use the new way of adjusting the sun and moon. We need batch importing and we need to be able to get and set exact numbers for the sun.

At the December round of We Love Role-Play I came across a new and very promising creator. The brand is called Portal and they have just a few releases out so far but the focus on historical clothing captured my interest right away. Their item for WLRP is a classic medieval gown called Marguerite that is rigged for Belleza Freya, Legacy and Maitreya Lara. I hesitated a bit at first since there is only a HUD-driven fatpack available, though this makes sense since at least half the fun with this gown is how you can mix and match the six independently colourable areas (sleeves, pads, bodice, outer skirt, inner skirt and lace). The price point is a little higher than similar all-in-one options from brands like ContraptionN, but on the other hand it is a full gown. So, I picked it up.

It is the season for getting cosy, but nothing says you can’t combine cosy and sexy. The Holiday Thigh High Socks from Luxuria can go either way depending on what you pair them with. Here, together with the Quinnessa slip from Voluptas Virtualis, the vibe is definitely more towards the sexy end of things. The red of the couch from Roawenwood adds seasonal warmth and sensuality.

I love the train on this gown by Faida & Velvet Whip, it gives it such a sleek and classic look. I think that is what made me choose a lighter colour than usual, option for the pale ice-blue option. The delicate Calla jewellery looks fantastic with it and I was pleased to see that the diadem goes very well with the new VIP group gift hair from Truth. The overall look is quite regal, I think, so it is only fitting that I used the Quinta Palace from Fanatik as the setting.

An elegant, yet comfortable sofa is a much-needed feature in any home, a place to curl up with a book if you are alone and a place for entertaining friends. Sometimes, very good friends. Dutchie’s latest release, the velvet tufted sofa, has you covered for everything from a cosy solitary evening at home, some sweet cuddles with your partner and to a full range of adult animations. The sofa comes in four versions, one PG and three Adult (MF, MM and FF), and includes seven colour options.

The version I have tried out is the Adult MF and the pictures below show only a small selection of the 80 couple animations included. However, we looked through most of them and they are very smooth and expressive. There are auto-attaching props with some of the animations and the adult ones are all Aeros compatible for automatic tilting. Additionally, some animations include the option to slow down or speed up.

Currently, there is an offer of an introductory discount of 20%, as detailed on the product page.

Roawenwood’s latest release is not for the timid, as the somewhat NSFW name (see credits!) would suggest. There are plenty of couple poses (even some threesome poses) and they’re all rather forceful. The fact that this is an outdoor scene as well made me think of Greek nymphs fleeing amourous gods in the woodlands, and that’s where we ended up with this setup, even though the Mara outfit from Adam n Eve has more of a Gorean than Grecian feel to it. I am also wearing Wasabi’s latest hair, Pickle, which gave me the title for the post. Finally, I have another new alaskametro skin, this one is called Yazmin and is available at the Spoonful of Sugar Festival benefiting Doctors Without Borders.

I have been buried under work the last week and I still haven’t dug myself out fully, but I have so many pretty things to share that I did have to make room for some Second Life as well. Both Enchantment and Redeux are going on right now (and Redeux has been extended to August 24th!) so I made a medieval mash-up of items from both events and created a small town and a somewhat overgrown village green (the sheep have not been doing their job lately) with an old well. Then I popped over to We Love Role-Play and found myself a new dress from Senzafine as well.

Of course the heatwave hits a week after we return from our vacation right by the sea, making me wish I was some kind of mer-creature living in the actual ocean. Maybe not so nice in wintertime here in Sweden, but right now it would be glorious. If you too have a craving for the waves, you might also want to slip into the latest release from deviousMind, Meerilyn. I am also wearing Wasabi’s latest release, the pretty Sora hair, which is available at Anthem.

Thanks to the Second Life Destination Guide, I found Voodoo Land when looking for a spot to photo the Solitaire dress from Adam n Eve. The dress is out at the current round of the Liaison Collaborative which happens to have Viva Las Vegas as its theme. Voodoo Land isn’t quite Las Vegas, but it has a lot of great spots for city life photography.

We’re back home again after our vacation, which means we have two sad dogs missing the beach and having free run of the nearby woods. But it also means having a bit more time to kill in front of the computer. For the last few days, I have spent some time messing around with the Firestorm Beta with EEP. Its…interesting, but so far I am not seeing any great advantages and a few drawbacks. Anyway, this photo is taken with the beta, so its perfectly possible to use it for blogging.

I am actually wearing a new (for me, that is) body in this shot: the Legacy Perky body from The Shops. I do like the upper body a lot, but just like on the Maitreya Lara the hips need an awful lot of tweaking to look normal and not exaggerated. I absolutely love the body skins that come with it and wish there were matching head skins, but the neck fade system works pretty well for matching to other brands. In this case, a skin from Adam n Eve.

I haven’t found much time for Second Life this last week, but now the weather has turned a little worse, giving me some time to share some beautiful treasures with you. Despite being on a mobile connection and a laptop, I managed to make my way to the Epiphany when it opened. Once there, my luck held and I was able to collect much of the Fair Lady set from Old Treasures.

It is way too warm and I wish I was closer to the ocean so that I could cool off in the water. Being down at the beach at sunset, especially when the water is still warm enough for a swim, is just magical. Hopefully I’ll be getting the chance in a few weeks, but until then I can only experience it virtually.

Redeux opens today at noon SL time and there you will find the Townhall from Del-ka Aedilis at 50% off. This is quite a large build (footprint is 26 x 27 m
and land impact is 174) with an open arched gallery, a spacious courtyard and several rooms both on the first and second floor. In one of the rooms on the second floor, I setup the Scribery Alcove from Roawenwood for the current round of We Love Role-Play. Both Ran and I are wearing new outfits from the Muses and these can also be found at We Love Role-Play.

I’ve had this build, using components from Jammin, sitting around half-finished for ages. But this week I tired of that corner of the sim looking less put together than the rest and with considerable help from Ran with the alignment of the pieces it finally got sorted out. The decor might still get a few things added to it, but I am pretty happy about where it is at now. Not so coincidentally, it turned out to be the perfect spot for showing of some new pretties from Skin Within, deviousMind and Stealthic.

It can hardly have passed anyone by that the biggest skin event of the SL year, the Skin Fair, opened on the 13th of March and will continue until the 29th. Right now the two sims are still pretty packed, but it has started easing up a tiny bit, at least when it isn’t peak hours. I’ve got a booth there myself this year, with four new Kanon shapes, though the one I am using in this post is actually not one of them. I had made mine to go with the three exclusive skins by Adam n Eve, and then sachi went and added a fourth just as the fair was about to open! So, I’ve made a shape for the Rafferty skin using LeLutka Erin, but I haven’t had time to package it yet.