Otherworldly

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.

I definitely have a weakness for the Oops! line from Faida and Velvet Whip, with clothing that transforms from perfectly elegant and innocent to more than a little naughty with a simple click. The pieces are all scripted for roleplay interactions as well, with the option to allow another avatar to do the stripping. There are also optional emotes to go with the various stages of clothing removal.

Their latest release, available at We Love Role-Play, struck me as somewhat Roman-inspired, so I added a hairstyle in a similar vein by Bliensen + MaiTai (also from WLRP) and headed to our bath house by Tia. I am also wearing a collar and a set of cuffs from the Plastik for the Fetish Fair.

I could not think of where to photo the lovely Midsummer outfit from deviousMind. It deserved some place magical and fanciful and I did not have the energy to put something like that together right now. And then Searlait Nitschke announced that she was done with her rebuild of the Roawenwood sim. It sounded fantastic from her description and once I got there, it did not disappoint. It is like a permanent Fantasy Faire sim, with plenty of beautiful spots to discover, and I found just what I needed to photo the elaborate Midsummer gacha where swarms of butterflies cover up the essentials and carry ribbons of fabric and an elaborate bustle that further add to the outfit. It is available at Whimsical which is open until the 12th of September.

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.

In my previous post, I mentioned having picked up the latest makeup release from Alaskametro, Summer Beauty. In this post, you’ll see a gradual addition of makeup from that set, matching a few of the animations available in Dutchie’s fantastic mid-century vanity. This stylish piece is such fun, with an excellent selection of animations. I had no idea there were so many animations for putting on makeup and brushing your hair available, but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised when there are lifestyle/roleplay animations of so many other kinds available. I would have loved to do a video as well, but that doesn’t quite work when we’re not at home. As it is, I am really pleased with the photos, though I could easily have added twice as many because there were so many nice animations to pick from.

I may have managed to setup a lot of pretty photo locations on our own sim, but a proper beach is definitely still lacking. And the gorgeous Aegean Halter by Paper Moon for We Love Role-Play simply had to be shown in an appropriate location. So, I headed off to check out one of the recent releases from Studio Skye—the Pebble Beach building set—at one of their showcase sims, Skye Neist Point. It turned out to be the perfect place to show off the halter as well as some beachy poses from Ecru for La vie en pose.

Having a vacation just around the corner should be nice, but it always manages to make me all stressed out and of course totally locked up creatively. I like going places, I just don’t like the preparations. I am already preoccupied with what I need to pack, and we’re going next Wednesday!

Anyway, after a bit of teleporting around between various builds on the sim, this simple setup struck me as a fine way of showing off this beautifully textured gown from Senzafine. I really like the colours that Synjari has done for this release, they are very vibrant and a bit unusual. There are six colours in total and five sizes and you will find the gown at Midsummer Enchantment until June 30th.

The long, lovely braid I picked up at Magika’s 50% refund sale. Alas, it ended yesterday, but Magika’s regular prices are so good that its certainly worth getting it anyway.

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.

For once, I decided on a touch of modesty. This top from Voluptas Virtualis has quite the plunging neckline, but I actually prefer it with something underneath. A nice, lacy bra would have worked well too, but the bodysuit from Luxuria gave it a feel of sexy yet cosy. As a result, curling up in front of a fire in a comfortable chair from Dutchie seemed like just the thing to do.

Would cherry trees grow high up in the mountains and could there be a gorgeous pool like this in such a spot? I have no idea, but I love the way this looks together. The cherry tree from Organica is actually animesh and looks beautiful in motion. The big lagoon/pool from Fanatik comes with a large set of single (sits, sunbathing and bathing) and couple poses, including adult ones, and it has three different areas that you can sit in. The pool comes in a summer and a winter version.

The bikini I am wearing is from the Plastik, a mainstore release first released for Fifty Linden Friday but now out at a regular price. The set includes two patterns and fits Belleza Freya and Isis, Maitreya Lara and both Slink bodies. Also included are a pair of earrings which are not worn here.

I picked up this bed, called Court of Love Bed, from Violetility on the last Saturday sale. A fabulous deal for all the animations included, I am particularly impressed with the range and variety of single animations. Having lots of great couple animations is always good, but for photos single animations are often much easier to work with if you also want to show off an outfit. Like this Gabriella set by Voluptas Virtualis for Kinky, which definitely deserves a good look.

I have so much more to show from the Fantasy Faire, but I can’t (completely) neglect everything else while it goes on. For example, this little lingerie number from Voluptas Virtualis was really begging to be shown off together with these new heels from lassitude & ennui. However, I did add a touch of fantasy in the shape of a new jewellery set by the Plastik which is available at the Fantasy Faire.

Winter may largely be over (except on TV, of course, where it should be alive and well for roughly the next six weeks once Game of Thrones starts), but getting cosy in front of an open fire on a chilly spring evening is not bad either. And a big old castle can certainly get a bit drafty! That’s when some nice furs to curl up on are particularly nice. And if you have some company to help keep you warm, even better.

I hadn’t intended to do another video quite so soon, but Dutchie’s Cafe Table really deserved one and then I decided I might as well include a closer look at LOGO’s Jolie head and some Skin Fair items from alaskametro. I ramble on for quite a while, so I might as well leave off to the video right off!

To check out the credits for the featured items and the rest of what I am wearing, see the end of the post.