52 Colours: Wales

Wales is a green that to me looks like a child drawing grass with crayons. I was initially rather worried about finding anything in the right tone, but then out of nowhere (read: the depths of my inventory) I found this mini-dress by The Plastik to save the day! Even when I wore it as a top with pants by Somnia instead of a dress.

Today is Bandana Day, so if you haven’t yet got your bandana, Hair Fair has a handy booth in every sim. This particular watermelon bandana is by Curious Kitties. I made sure to match it with a watermelon noming bat by Pink Fuel and delicious basket of noms by Poche. The latter is available in Okinawa Summer Festival.

The Nasreen-skin by bilo was fittingly innocent to go with the summery relaxation and it seems I’ve been unable to get these Nostalgia-boots by lassitude & ennui off of Sonya, since she’s still wearing them.

Remember that today is the last day of Hair Fair, so if you haven’t yet bought all the things, now’s the time!

Scene: Tree: New Trails – Mediterranean Tree Set | Basket: Poche – Watermelon Punch Basket | Bat: Pink Fuel – Watermelon Bat

Body: Skin: bilo – Nasreen-ATG* | Makeup: M.O.C.K. Cosmetics – Parrottia Makeover | Eyes: Poetic Colors – Poison Ivy | Lashes: Redgrave – 39 – Luscious 

Outfit: Top: The Plastik – Carnival Dress Stem | Pants: Somnia – Tweed Waders Green* | Boots: lassitude & ennui – Nostalgia Boots Sepia* | Bandana: Curious Kitties – Hair Fair Bandana (watermelon) | Ring: .(bewildebeest). – Bubbles Ring Green Silver (not available) | Earrings: Tekeli-li – Chained Crystal Earrings

Poses: !bang – Stand 135 | aDORKable Poses – Swords Ground Sit I

Freedom

That’s the theme of this year’s Hair Fair Photo Contest. The rules are pretty flexible: only new pictures, hair can be any old thing or even self-made and the contest runs until June 30th. The Hair Fair itself will be in July, 14th to 29th.

I know it’s a cliche and an obvious association, but it’s such for a good reason. Flying is freedom, at least for me. Thus wings are the perfect symbol for it. I wanted a picture of flying, of long hair blowing in the wind and picked one of the Diva hairs from [ 69 ], probably not available anymore. There really should be much more editorial hairs on the grid, they’re wonderful for this kind of things.

Freedom is also about cutting ties and sailing wherever your imagination leads you. I originally wanted this one to be about cutting your hair — since sometimes it feels like I’m one of the few spokes-avatars for short hair on the grid — but what worked well as an idea looked like a beheading in the pictures. So symbolic pretty ribbon it is! The short hair is one of my favourite default ones from Waka & Yuki.

Freedom Wings: Hair: [ 69 ] DIVA – Dark Noir | Skin: Fallen Gods Inc. – Feathers xx Raven Carbon + PG Cover* | Eyes: Repulse – Callous Eyes (Grey) | Makeup: M.O.C.K. Cosmetics – Smokey Licorice Kisses | Wings: [europa] Nyxus wings Magpie | Eyeliner: Pin Me Down – Darkside 2 (ZP Carnival) | Lashes: Redgrave – 39 – Luscious | Pose: Astalianda – Freedom Wings

Freedom Cut: Hair: Waka & Yuki – AGATA Model 02 | Outfit: Mimikri – Patty Neptune | Skin: League – Sia Fair Bloom | Eyes: Poetic Colors – classic frozen silver bright | Lashes: Redgrave – 39 – Luscious | Lips: M.O.C.K. Cosmetics – Clear Lipgloss | Liner: Sorry.Asia – Drama.Eyes (black/blue) | Jewelry: .( bewildebeest ). – Alma Set – Silver & Blue Spinel (not available anymore) | Scissors: *YEN* – Scissors | Ribbon: lassitude & ennui – Ophelia | Pose: Astalianda – Freedom Cut | Sim: The Epic Toy Factory 

52 Colours: Deep Pink

I’m sure you know how I generally feel about pink. Abomination unto the gods of colour, yesyes. My inventory is rather void of it unless it’s over the board silly on purpose. Thus to avoid posing in lingerie with a cake on my head — again — I turned to Maya of Many Colours and allowed my Miss Deep Pink to be fabulous in a bold, summery sari.

These new mesh saris by bilo are called Chandramukhi, which means ‘moon face’. Miss Deep Pink posed in sunlight, though, just to flaunt the radiant colours. Sonya’s usual skins tend to be gothic pale, but fortunately YS&YS has this Cara-skin in the Dressing Room at the moment. Adding the new Wasabi Pills hair (available in Culture Shock) to it turned the whole look randomly into Jungle Book, I just failed to find Bagheera.

I took the pictures in bilo’s yard, so fittingly full of pretty Indian things and pink flowers. Speaking of, the splashes of colour in the picture above are caused by the flowers and the angle, I didn’t do any post-processing on it, the crazy amount of colours just amused me greatly.  Feel free to admire the Lost Eden bangles by Maxi Gossamer while oggling at the flowers, though.

The saris come in layers: the skirt and the covering dupatta are mesh, the choli (top) is a system layer. You can wear all three or leave the dupatta away for a lighter look. The skirts and tops are also sold separately, but come automatically with a sari if you buy the whole thing. Now the only thing is missing is an elephant…

Culture Shock: Hair: Wasabi Pills – Shiori Night Shadow 

The Dressing Room: Skin: YS&YS – Cara Tan Black Eyebrows 

Tropicalia Bazaar: Poses: Art Body Store – My Cute Wings 06/05/09

Other Credits: Sari: bilo – Chandramukhi Hot Pink* |  Bangles: Maxi Gossamer – Lost Eden Rebecca Gold + Amethyst | Hand Henna: bilo – Gatcha Mandala Top Hand | Hair decoration: Bewildebeest – Sun Queen Hairstick (not available anymore) | Bindi: Bewildebeest – Bindi Gold Ruby (not available anymore) | Makeup: M.O.C.K. Cosmetics – Basically Pinkaboo! (eye and lip) | Eyes: The Plastik – Aleria Fool Flare | Lashes: Redgrave – 39 – Luscious

Outside Whose Norm, Exactly?

I spotted this challenge in Plurk and first it made me cheer, then it made me confused.

“I was thinking that it would be a fun challenge for you to do something out of the norm for a day. Do something that is uncharacteristically you! Try sci-fi, steampunk, grunge, burlesque, etc. Step outside your comfort zone and show us what you can do!” – Adorkable Peapod

I’m all for seeing everyone doing sci-fi and steampunk and burlesque and and… waitaminute, I blog those things all the time! Obviously I can’t do those for this challenge if it’s what I mostly do. So, after  a moment of pondering I realized I will have to blog casuals. Not just Sonya’s usual hang-out clothes which are sort of… near-vintage with a dash of couture, but like… jeans, tee-shirts, hoodies, shoes without heels! End of the world as we know it!

To complete the opposite factor, I took the pictures in a studio instead of in the world. Without props. I had to do -something- besides just stand there, though, so I played with projectors for fun extra shadows! I couldn’t bring myself to spend lindens for this, but fortunately I’m half-hamster and I had enough stuff in my inventory. I had to try and add something of my own taste into it, so tadah: bunny and coffee!

Most of the things are either not available anymore or old hunt gifts, but do take note of the skin. It’s the latest group gift by Mynerva, and it’s absolutely adorable. (I felt like I was borging Ely, though. Clone all the friends!) The format of the lower picture is one of my favourite versions to -read- when I’m browsing fashion blogs. I blog for the joy of character creation and the challenge of story-and-mood-expressing pictures myself, but for the actual shopping ‘lookit-awesome-new-things-on-grid’ blogs this is awesome. Shows the details. My most favourite version is of course the pictures that blur the line between screenshot and art and promise a story, but if we all blogged the same way, the feeds would be very dull. Hurray for personality differences!

After this challenge I can really tip my invisible hat to all those people who shoot in studio and still make pictures interesting. It’s truly a challenge!

 

Skin: ~Mynerva~Group Gift~Sara Pure | Eyes: Poetic Colors – classic – frozen silver (m) bright | Make-up: M.O.C.K. Cosmetics – Shadow Brown Winterberry 1 [eyeshadow only] | Hair: Dark Mouse – Sydney/Red4 | Hoodie: Acid & Mala – Bunny Hoodie | Jeans: Ducknipple – Faded Blue | Boots: COCO Designs – Flat Ankle Boots Black | Ring: .( bewildebeest ). – Good Morning! Ring | Bag: Sweet Leonard & Needful Things – Lonely Bird Bag | Poses: Croire – Shy Geek 1 | Glitterati – Long Hair 3-9

Celeste

Sometimes I feel medieval. Not in the historically correct dirt-and-misery kind of way, but in the fantasy version way. Medieval sword-and-magic fantasy has always been my favourite, despite how many times it’s been done and done again. I have a soft spot for scifi, steampunk and gothic characters, but medieval fantasy is the bread and butter. That in mind, I was delighted when Dima Plessis approached me with a review packet full of such goodies! So I give to you Celeste by Cazimi Designs.

I especially liked the cut of the robe, the golden trims coming together and parting again. There were several ways to wear the dress — shorter, sexier versions of mostly black or this blue robe over the gown, also in different lengths and volumes. This slim robe was my absolute favourite.

I took Celeste into ImagiLearning and wandered around admiring the build and playing with windlights. I kept Sonya’s default League-skin and Redgrave-lashes, but I exchanged her usual eyes into hematite gemeyes, also by Cazimi Designs.  The jewelry and the hair ornament are by .( bewildebeest ). (not available anymore), except for the pearl decoration in her hair. That and the hair are both by Sky Everett. The poses in order are by Niqotine Poses, TeaSoup and [69].

Waiting to see a ship in the horizon…

Black & White

I love monochrome palette deeply. I tend to create drows and snow elementals almost automatically and I enjoy mixing the two extremes for emphasis. It seems I’m not the only one! The latest release by Fallen Gods Inc., Tao, is a proof of this.

Tao is a combination of a black skin and white body tattoo — or a white skin and a black body tattoo — both versions in the packet. The body tattoos can obviously be worn with other skins, as well. As usual, Alia’s talent challenges mine: how to pose in a SFW style while wearing nothing but Slink boots, Wasabi Pills hair and a lot of .( bewildebeest ). jewelry? It took a lot of pose and angle adjusting, I assure you!

Note the yin-yang eyes that are a part of Tao! Also note — with sadness — the gorgeous jewelry by .( bewildebeest ). Why sadness, you ask. Because there is a closing sale going on. 10L per piece, 20L for set and 1L for the gatcha items… trust me when I tell you that you need the whole shop. I kid you not. The whole shop. All the things! The sale ends on January 16th, so hurry!

The additional make-up layers are by Nuuna’s Skins, three layers from her latest make-up packet. It’s for sale for 200L at the moment (normally 300L). The subscribo note said she’ll keep it at lower price for a week, but I must admit I don’t know when the said week will end. I bought them today, though! The poses in order are by Diesel Works, Croire and Eternal Dream.

The gothic moon goddess of the balanced night was posing against a mausoleum by Stone Misery.

52 Colours: Coral

Coral obviously cried for a mermaid. Unfortunately I had done one in nearish tones not long ago and didn’t want to repeat myself, so I went completely another way. The new Miss Coral went searching for corals, but found flamingos instead!

After frantic searching in my inventory, I ended up wearing this gorgeous dress by Broken Doll. It’s an old hunt gift that I just had to keep, despite its very non-sonya-colour. Once I was wearing it, I knew Miss Coral would end up being all sweet and innocent and just slightly curious. She would also end up wading in the sea barefooted, searching for corals. The fitting location was found after plenty of beach and reef check-ups, this is in Las Lagunas.

I was very amused by the matching flamingos, so I played with them a lot. The cute-but-curious look of Miss Coral was achieved with a skin and eyebrow tattoo by ^Re.Birth^, Poetic Colors eyes, Miamai’s tattoo lashes, lip gloss by M.O.C.K. Cosmetics and slight touch of eyeliner by Mynerva. The gorgeous flowers in the Elikatira hair are by LaGyo, the rings are by .( bewildebeest ). and all the poses are by aDORKable Poses.

Perhaps after Miss Coral gives up on the wading, she’ll retire back to the porch of a seaside manor to sip some ice tea… but for now she is modestly, amusingly wild and willful. Searching for corals, of all things!

52 Colours: Champagne

It’s started again! Round two of the colour challenge and another year full of colours I’ve never even heard of! This year begins with champagne, very appropriately. Unfortunately I posted champagne pictures yesterday, so I figured I’d do something else for this. As I was digging through my inventory for things in this colour — I always have trouble with yellowish tones — I suddenly knew exactly what I wanted. I hopped over to Violent Seduction to leak more lindens their way. I’ve been visiting them every now and then and grabbing things since they have a -50% sale going on until January 12th.

Miss Champagne is an extremely classy kind of girl and if she is intoxicating… well, that is a secret between you and her. She loves parties, but only the fancy kind — ballrooms, chandeliers, gowns — aristocracy as it only exists in fantasies.

I took Miss Champagne to my favorite fancy ballroom castle area in Japan Tempura Island and as I mentioned before, fancied her up with Muse-gown from Violent Seduction. I’m certain she’d inspire plenty of things in it. As for Miss Champagne herself, she’s made out of a skin by Pink Fuel, eyes by Poetic Colors, lashes by Redgrave and hair by Sky Everett.

I couldn’t resist the drinkwater looking glass necklace by .( bewildebeest )., it was so perfectly classy and fitting. A monocle was a given, she is a traditionalist, after all. This touch of old-time class is by E&D Engineering. The pearls around her wrist are by Bonita’s. The first pose is by TeaSoup, the second by PurplePoses, the third is a part of Sonya’s AO — snapped the picture as I had just arrived.

Here’s to 51 more colours!

Champagne in Montmartre

Why not? After all, if the Mayans got it right this is the last New Year, hmm? Break out the champagne! Teleport to Montmartre! What do you mean we don’t have working teleporters yet? You call this 2012? For shame. (While I’m at it, where are our flying cars?)

The absolutely gorgeous little studio (yes, in Montmartre) is by Milk Motion. The champagne props and poses are by Glitterati. All of this was a part of the very last 50L Friday, marking an end of another SL era. 50L Fridays was the first of its kind and definitely deserves a toast in its honor. The sparkly little New Year number is by League (from an earlier 50L Friday, see what I mean?) combined with tights by LeeZu. The jewelry is by .( bewildebeest ). and otherwise I kept to very default Sonya-look. League-skin, Poetic Colors-eyes, Redgrave-lashes, Waka & Yuki-hair and make-up a combination of Sorry.Asia’s drama eyes and gloss by M.O.C.K. Cosmetics.

In case this is the last year — and especially in case it isn’t — it would be nice to fill it with all kind of awesome things to remember. More reasons to smile, for starters. You know, I wonder if that’s the reason for the champagne… every year-change is like a mental audit on things you did do and things you didn’t do. We all need a drink after that, right?

Bird at Window

Are you familiar with stamp rallies? They are a very fun form of buy-one-get-one-for-free systems. You need to buy something from participating shops (who have further defined which of their products are a part of the rally), get a HUD with the purchase, then visit a bunch of shops with the HUD to get it marked, then pick a free gift from an exclusive selection as your prize. The latest of these rallies is the Puffling Present Pursuit! It celebrates the Ozimals releasing their latest breedable, the puffling birds and thus the prizes are somewhat birdy-themed as well.

I played some more with the windows in this adorable house by Kukuvaya, I just can’t get over how there’s not only so many of them to create shadow criss-cross effects, but how beautifully decorated they are. The birdy is wearing a Lift Off! dress by katat0nik and Bird of Paradise mesh boots by Lassitude & Ennui, both prizes in the Puffling Present Pursuit. The rally is on until January 12th, so make sure you get your prizes before that! These won’t be for sale later.

The skin by LAQ and hair by Exile are both xmas subscribo-gifts. I added liner-and-lash by Miamai and a face tattoo by White Widow to the look. The latter is from Christmas Hunt. I had to use birdy-accessories, so there’s a chickadee hairpin by .( bewildebeest ). and birdee blue ring by KUE! to chirp away. The almost hiding flutterby is by CheerNo, the eyes are by Poetic Colors and all the poses are by aDORKable Poses.

If only I could fly…