Otherworldly

Just like yesterday, I am a bit late with this post in relation to the events that some of the new items in it were released at. February has been a very busy month and it could definitely have used a few extra days this year! Fortunately, the setup for this scene was extremely easy as it uses the pre-furnished bonus house from the first Shadow Box series by DRD.

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.

I have a great fondness for fairy-tales and my book shelves bear evidence of this, being home to a number of different collections of classic fairy-tales as well as various modern retellings and reworkings. Once I knew I wanted to photo the Lucrezia gown from the Muses—out now at the February round of We Love Role-Play, which has a brand new and quite striking build—in front of a window in my castle from Fanatik, a spinning wheel seemed like the perfect fairy tale decor item. Fortunately, I had one from Cheeky Pea from an earlier Deco(c)rate. It also seemed appropriate to decorate the walls with some tapestries from Paper Moon.

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!

Time has rather run away from me this week, in part because I’ve ended up spending too much time trying to reorganize and clean up a room to fit in a treadmill for our dog. As a result, I have been waltzing around in the new gacha set from Voluptas Virtualis for a few days without getting around to doing the blog. In the end, I ended up deciding to show off some of the options included on the HUD through a video. This also allowed me to demonstrate the bento animations included with the Snowlace Cookies from the Plastik. I also took the opportunity to highlight some perennial decor favourites.

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.

My apologies in advance for my voice in this video. A persistent cold is keeping my company since the holidays, which is anything but ideal when trying to do a video. However, since the fifth Shadow Box in the first series of six from Death Row Designs came out on January 1st, I didn’t want to wait too long before showing it to you. This time, I had to break out a large villa from Trompe Loeil to fit in both the Light and Dark kitchen sets that made up the fifth box.

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. Just one more box to go now!

While many of you are celebrating Christmas, the 25th of December is the second laziest day of the year in Sweden, with most everyone recovering from food-induced coma after eating way too much Christmas food on the 24th as we celebrate on the eve rather than the day. This left me with plenty of time free today (leftovers for dinner, yay) and after visiting the stables where I ride I decided to continue with the horse theme in Second Life to review three of the five new full body mods for the Teegle Bento Horse Avatar; the Baroque Horse mod, the Light Horse mod and the Pony mod. Please note that you do need to own the base avatar to use these body mods.

I had also planned to review the Spanish Walk and Spanish Trot from Teegle, but I wasn’t able to get these working with the riding system, only with the horse moving on its own. I just haven’t messed around enough with the AO to know whether this is something you can work around or not, but since the horse is more geared towards being used as a stand-alone avatar as opposed to a riding horse, some things don’t work when it is being ridden.

Alaskametro has recently released several, sparkly festive new items that fit the season perfectly. One of these is the shimmery Kristal bodysuit, here worn without the optional underlayer to make it less sheer. To make myself feel a little cosier, I added a cardigan from Cynful; the size I am using is actually for Physique Hourglass, but for a loose fit like a cardigan it worked fine on Physique Original too. The decor in the scene comes from Noble Creations, Senzafine and the Plastik.

I will have to keep this short and sweet with all the holiday preparations going on, but I do want to urge to to visit the very last round of Genre with the theme of Fantasy Winter Role-Play. The lovely gown from the Annex that I am wearing is from the event, as is the pretty necklace from Sn@tch which is a gift at the event. Also featured in these photos is hair from Stealthic and new decor items from Paper Moon.

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.

Tomorrow is the last day for the Coven where you can get Paper Moon’s lovely decor item, the Bolognese Tarot, which is an actual historical tarot deck from the 1600s, I am using three pieces from the collection as the backdrop for this image, which also showcases the Mirror Mirror dress from Noble Creations. The throne is an earlier release from Dysfunctional Designs and I liked the effect of leaving it empty and playing the power behind (or beside) the empty throne in this image.

Speaking of Paper Moon, you also need to make sure to check out the mainstore, as they are having a Black Weekend sale with everything except gachas at 50% off.