Otherworldly

It is the first of September already and it feels like August went by entirely too quickly. The Hair Fair certainly did! It ends today and I have not had any time at all to blog it until now. Though, I did think it felt a bit smaller and had far fewer styles on offer than previous years. Event fatigue, the increasing complexity of hair or something else?

The hair in this post is from Wasabi, who did two styles for the fair, though both come with multiple options. The one I am showing here, Venere, has a regular option (shown in the first picture) and a windblown option (shown in the second picture—just imagine a fan off to the side!). These two options are actually separate hairs rather than HUD-controlled, but HUDs for sizing are still provided.

I am taking a brief break from packing for our trip to the WorldCon in Dublin and I couldn’t resist putting together a little scene with the vintage kyodai gacha from kisetsu for the Gacha Garden. At first, I couldn’t think of an outfit that would work with the poses, but then I decided that the only outfit needed were these pretty thigh highs from Luxuria.

The latest release from Dutchie is a wooden stage, made to fit in a corner, with a vintage-style rig with lights. The stage and the lights are separate pieces, so you can adjust how high above the lights sit or even use the stage or the lights on their own. There are several colour presets for the lights via a menu and it is also possible to set each light to a separate preset or even to go in and make manual edits. That opens up a lot of options for how the lights look as long as you are comfortable with a bit of editing. Instructions are included in the information notecard.

To take in that beautiful evening sun, I am heading out to sea on Neptune’s Revenge by Rustica and wearing the brand-new Sola set from Adam n Eve for the Gacha Garden. Isn’t it pretty with the beaded strings on the top and the panty as well as the cute little sarong tied off to one side? The Sola gacha includes 10 commons (3 footbead sets, 4 sarongs, 3 slushies with holding animation), 5 uncommons (1 pair of sunglasses with steel rims, 4 bikini sets), 4 rares (colour-coordinated fatpacks that include footbeads, sarong, bikini and sunglasses with gold rims) and finally an ultrarare that includes everything plus the sunglasses with rose-gold rims. The Seed of Inspiration is a matching beaded bracelet. The available fits are Maitreya Lara and Slink Hourglass.

After a bit of a break during the summer, it is time for a new vlog, this time to show off the fully furnished version of Dutchie’s New Amsterdam houseboat. This is a fantastic creation, inspired by an actual houseboat created in 1900 and still in use today. The houseboat is a full-featured house with bathroom, kitchen, living room and bedroom and the furnished version comes with a great collection of mid-century furnishings made to fit within the houseboat. But of course, if you get the furnished version, you can also use the furnishings in other houses as well. If you would rather have just the unfurnished houseboat, that is available too.

In the video below, I show a walk-through of the houseboat, fully setup with the furniture package. I have also included eight photos of different parts of the interior, to give a sense of both the style of the furnishings and of how much actually fits into the houseboat. It really is a full-fledged house! At the end, I have credits for what I am wearing during this video.

Its amazing how busy you can be kept by a vacation and by the transition back to normal life after a vacation. The last week has just disappeared in a blur and there hasn’t been much time left for a Second Life. At least the insane heat has disappeared for a bit, so today I was actually able to sit at the computer for a while without melting. The result were some boudoir-style photos of the latest Voluptas Virtualis release together with a brand-new Wasabi hair, a tattoo from Fallen Gods and poses from Serendipity.

I do love animesh critters and I was absolutely thrilled when I managed to win two of the rares from Jian’s Warrior Wolves gacha for the Epiphany. One of them, the animesh companion wolf, is featured in this post and you’ll probably see the wolf mount soon as well. And I may have to go back to try and win the wandering animesh wolf too, it’d be fantastic together with my Teeglepet horses. But I can’t imagine I’d be that lucky! I absolutely love how well these animesh wolves move and of course how good they look.

To show off the giant wolf I decided to make use of the Pinnacles from Spyralle for La vie en pose, the first set of air platforms for photography with an uncluttered background where you mainly want to show off the environment settings. Myself I dressed in a brand new gown from Faida for a brand new event, Spellbound. Spellbound, run by Juno Mantel of Junbug, features a very nice selection of creators and a magical/fantastical feel just as the name suggests. The Fate gown is sleek and elegant, with the belt being the perfect accent to the clean lines of the gown.

The latest set from the Plastik is called the Valin Fantasy Kini, which of course called for a beachy setting yet again. However, the set also has a bit of a eastern fantasy vibe, so I decided to setup a little Arabian Nights-inspired shelter made from a few different Paper Moon releases to give it the right surroundings. I quite like how it turned out, I need to experiment further with using the fabric fences and market stalls for another photo idea I have.

This post also features a new hair from Wasabi (from the Epiphany, just like the set from the Plastik) and more poses from La vie en pose.

The Crystal Heart festival is opening June 30th and two of the creators offering magical creations for it are the Plastik and Voluptas Virtualis. I thought their releases combined very well with each other—the set from Voluptas Virtualis is a revealing Sword & Sorcery outfit which the huge accessory sets in light & dark from the Plastik blended quite naturally with. As luck would have it, #hashbang! has a gacha of backdrops out with light and dark versions of each style which ended up being just right for showing both versions of the Plastik release. Finally, I am also wearing a new hair from Wasabi, out now at Uber. As all of their recent styles, Juniper comes with a few style options. Here I went with the windswept pony tail to go with the flying poses.

Old Treasures is a fairly newly launched brand which already has released a small but very well-made collection of pieces inspired by history and/or fantasy. For this post, Ran and I selected three pieces to showcase; a wearable for each of us and a piece of furniture. The easiest choice was definitely the throne, released for the GoT-inspired round of Enchantment a while back. It is called the Archon of the Fourteen Flames Throne and well…the company we formed a couple of years ago happens to be called Fourteen Flames. We definitely appreciate it when someone makes pieces inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones but uses more subtle naming schemes like this.

Today is the last chance for you to check out the great sales and bargains at the June round of Redeux. Technically, it closed on the 21st, but I believe it stays around for most of the 22nd as well. So this is just a quick post to give you the chance to visit before it is too late. The fabric wrap by Roawenwood, the pose by Serendipity and the fireplace from Myth are all items available at Redeux. The hair is one of two styles available from Wasabi’s gacha at the June round of the Arcade.

I love books. IRL, I have quite a few shelves full (okay, its a whole wall covered with shelves from top to bottom), but I do wish it looked a little more like a proper library—like this one, from Dutchie. The richly coloured wood, the rows upon rows of proper hardcovers, it all feels very classy and old-fashioned. A far cry from having your whole library in your Kindle, even if that admittedly is very practical! But one could always have a physical library AND a matching electronic one. That’d be my dream, actually—a dedicated library/workroom with the walls covered by books, and an electronic copy of each title as well.

A new round of Redeux has just opened and you only have until June 21st to check out all the great bargains, from items at 50% off to items at just L$50. My first post for this round features the Aisha outfit from the Forge and the Modern Backdrop by Inner Demons. Also new is the Susan hair from Wasabi, for the Vintage Fair.

In the evening, when the worst heat has faded, the market comes to life.

The scene came about as I wanted to showcase the pretty market stalls from Paper Moon for We Love Role-Play. Then, as so often is the case, it drew a little inspiration from A Song of Ice and Fire, again using the Dany hair from Wasabi together with a dress from lassitude & ennui which was available at Enchantment’s Iron Throne round. To that I added new jewellery from the Plastik from Collabor88 and I picked up a beautiful new coat applier for my Teeglepets to let them have a cameo as well.

I started this post two days ago, but then my connection was acting up and I couldn’t upload any images, which made for a rather boring post! Yesterday, I spent most of the day at a dog show and was absolutely knackered when I came home. But after a good night’s sleep (squeezed in between our two boxers), I am ready to tackle it again. While Game of Thrones may be over, A Song of Ice and Fire and the world of Westeros continue on and continue making up a large part of my work. Which of course means it will continue to inspire me in Second Life. In this piece, I combine elements from Enchantment and Final Winter.