Otherworldly

We’ve reached March but the last week has been treating us to winds from Siberia, so I am not quite feeling that spring is in the air just yet. But the lovely Bellflower gown from Dreaming Thicket is definitely a dress for spring and fortunately its easy to have whatever season you like in Second Life. I do feel like I need to shop for some nice grasses and flowers to complete my landscaping, however; I always get stuck somewhere after I’ve tweaked the shape of the land and plopped down some rocks and trees.

When I first tried posting this entry, we ran into some persistent uploading issues on the site. As a result, I am posting this well after I already put up the images on Flickr, and more as a place-holder than an actual blog.

Thanks to a giveaway by Violetility, I received a copy of the Bound Box for February. This is a subscription boxed aimed at the BDSM/Kinky community in Second Life. I considered doing an unboxing vlog, but given the nature of the box I decided to take a look at the contents first and determined that photos might be a better way to show it off. So, what I am going to do is pick my favourites from the box and show them across a few posts, intermixed with other items. For this first post, I selected the items from Dictatorshop and Essenz, which I paired with among other things new releases from Wasabi and Luxuria. I am also wearing glittery makeup from alaskametro’s Alchemy gacha at the Cosmetic Fair.

Spending the morning at the stables is always a good way to start the day. I am helping start up a horse that has been resting after an injury and this time of the year the cold weather can make that a rather “exciting” affair. Fortunately, she’s very well behaved and has been keeping all hooves on the ground. I suppose I should add a “knock on wood” here, because you never know.

My Second Life is rather undressed at the moment; I have ended up with a variety of more or less naughty things to review. In this post, a harness from Voluptas Virtualis plus decor from the Plastik and Roawenwood. I will need to feature the Roawenwood item in more detail later on, I didn’t have a playmate on hand for these photos. I’ve also made another shape for Vista’s new Diana head, this time for an alaskametro skin.

Now that I have started doing vlogs, I seem to come across opportunities for doing them on a regular basis. Take the Performer Chair from Dutchie (PG version here), for example. How could I not showcase this with a video? It is great for photos, too, but that’s the beauty of combining blogs and vlogs, I can do both. Video is also a great way to show off the rigging of mesh clothing, such as this new bodysuit and harness from the Plastik.

It is not easy to find motivation to stay at the computer when we finally have some snow outside. Or time, for that matter, since the dog would prefer to be outside playing all the time. (Un)fortunately, the snow also came with a rather cold northern wind, which makes cozying up inside a little more appealing. The dog still insists, though, and sighs in a very suffering fashion if he doesn’t get what he want.

Given the cold, I opted for a warmer scenario for this post. I had picked up this rug with massage and cuddle animations from Roawenwood during a prior 25 Linden Tuesday and it came in handy for shooting one of the new sets from Voluptas Virtualis.

For sexy photos, I often opt for strong colours, like red or black. But here I took a liking to the contrast between the very naughty outfit from deviousMind with the pale ivory colour, which also is reflected in the decor of the room. It actually started with the mesh stockings from Salt & Pepper, since the colour I won from the gacha was this pale cream. I then picked the best match from the “Making You Blush” set by deviousMind (which is available in quite an array of colours, with each set containing to complimentary hues) and pondered where to shoot it. I remembered that I still had the bedroom from December’s Shadow Box setup, though the bed didn’t have any adult poses. Enter the laptop from Dutchie and all of a sudden I had my scene, which I then framed as voyeuristicly viewed through the window. More than enough for a blush, I think!

Yesterday, I received an update to one of the products I own from Landscapes Unlimited, the Sky Water. With new textures and options, it has become Sky Water and Ice, allowing for wintry scenes featuring water up in the sky. I decided to do a quick video to showcase the new hud and the options included with it. I also talk (okay, ramble) a bit about the overall range from Landscapes Unlimited, which has proven very useful for setting up multiple landscapes on a single sim.

With the holidays truly over, I am working on getting back into a good work routine, which is always a bit of a challenge when you work from home. There’s also the risk that comes with using the computer for both hobbies and work. Writing a blog post like this one isn’t so different from writing a blog post for Westeros.org, after all, but one is—strange as it still seems to me—work and the other is a hobby.

I’ve spent most of the last four days at a big dog show in Gothenburg, leaving very little time for sitting at the computer. Which isn’t bad, admittedly, since both my work and several of my hobbies involve the computer. The dog training doesn’t, except of course for talking on dog forums, looking at training videos and so on. ;)

But anyway, I did find myself at the computer in the evening today and I finally came up with a nice idea for how to shoot this cloak from the Dreaming Thicket. I had picked up the Wood Works set in Light wood from Fanatik during their sale, and using that at the edge of our wintry woods gave the feeling of someone venturing out into the woods on their own in the deep of winter.

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.