Images for Halloween!

So what have I been doing the past little while? I'm usually fairly active here around October, right? I love the scary stuffs, right?

Ding, ding! That's correct! The thing is, I finally got the rare mesh head that I wanted (that's why I had excess of the same face for Iphys), and decided to finally take the plunge and splurge for a Maitreya body, which tends to be waaay more than I'm willing to spend for just about anything. I think it's actually my largest purchase in Second Life in... well, ever. So it took me a while to stop cringing, to tell the truth. But I love it! I love the sheer amount of clothing made to fit Maitreya, and I love the crazy amount of alpha hiding. Now I can actually wear more than before due to the bits and pieces of the body that I can hide.

So what else have I been doing? Well, I've got my heart set on the FabFree Photo Challenge, so I've been taking pictures for that. I'll showcase a few here, and if you want to get the outfits, then just click on the pictures-- it'll take you to the Flickr page which will have the links to get all the free items... since that's what the Challenge requires!

Most of what I've been doing is testing my own photography skills, to be honest. I have a tendency of snapping a nice picture on Second Life and then throwing open Photoshop just to either crop or resize it a little without changing anything at all. I've seen so many other people with super amazing pictures that looks like the entire thing was created from scratch on Photoshop and never understood why anyone would want to take more than thirty seconds on it.

Well, that's what I'm doing now. Taking a bit more than thirty seconds. Granted, most of it is still definitely time spent on Second Life adjusting lighting to get the images right, now I'm doing just a bit more editting to get the colours just a little bit more eye-catching.

Maybe soon I'll learn to do more than that! Who knows?

New to Second Life?

Welcome to Second Life, Iphys!

Today we've got a very special entry, created with a lot of help from someone who decided to finally make an account. In exchange for letting me take pictures of the new newbie area (I was curious! It's been a very, very long time since I signed up) and using her for this post, I'd make sure she had everything she needed to not feel inadequate in-game.

Day 1

So if anyone see Iphys online, go over and tell her hi!

L: pr!tty/EmilyC, M: D!va/RS, R: Truth/Addam/EmilyC

As of this post, her avatar is 5 days old and I swear I've done nothing more than give her a single gacha item I had two of, and 5L for her to join the Third Life group. Every single thing she's accumulated beyond that is entirely free. Sit back for this long, long ride! (Long for me, lot of links for you.)

I didn't have all that much time to guide her around the first day, so we started with the basics: after a few minutes spent learning controls and how to fly, etc, I threw a mesh head I got at SOMEMORE gacha for 88L at her and the 5L to join Third Life, and covered basic shapes to start with. She put on the head, adjusted her avatar, and then it as off to Poetic Colors to get her some better eyes. After that was a stop off D!va for hair, and then we dropped off the Edelweiss booth at Insilico for an Attack on Titan uniform (easy to put on and all) and that was all the time I had for the first day.

L: Mello/Caboodle, M: Truth/M*Motion, R: amiable/EmilyC

Of course, being that she was of a realistic height and the head looks quite young, she decided that she didn't want to look so childish, so on day 2 and 3 we went for different mesh hair and clothes. We picked up a few hair gifts from [Mello], joined the pr!tty group for a gift in it's notices, and then went on to [VALE KOER] for some shoes and socks. After that we hit up *COCO* and Zenith and {amiable} and M*Motion and ::S@bbia:: and M.I.X.* for some really kick-ass group gifts. (Top image is Mello hair with an outfit from Zenith.)

L: D!va/MIX, M: D!va/amiable/Addam, R: pr!tty/cheeky/CP

L: MINA/ZD, M: pr!tty/WhiteArmory, R: Truth/Caboodle

She picked up a pair of sculpted hands from ::YEGRINA::  (lucky board item that I had no patience for), and then we started up again the next day.

Day 4 we hit up Caboodle and realised there was a grid wide hunt going on, so I managed to get a few new items myself! After that it was a stop off at Addams, EmilyC, ZD, and Snowpaws. We went for some more hair after that for different occasions: dropped off at Truth, and then MINA.

Day 5 was a round tour to pick up all the gifts at the You.Gatcha event, and a stop off to the White Armory to get something nice and fancy.

I got curious about the items nowadays that were out for new avatars under 30 days, so we went around... a lot of different sims that didn't offer very good stuff. Most of the gifts were years old and entirely out of date, but Sna@tch seemed to have a pretty decent outfit for newbies, and Kastle Rock Couture has a 500L gift card for newbies.

There's just... so, so many outfits I didn't take pictures of. SO many. But we got dozens of outfits and Iphys didn't have the patience to go through everything just for me to take pictures of her (and you might have noticed I like taking pictures of her), and with all the sim-hopping I haven't gotten around to organising anything of my own inventory yet. All of this were just a few of my favourite stores and a cursory search off the Third Life website. I learned that a few of my favourites were gone (SMC, for instance), and that a lot of others were obsolete (oh, whatever happened to BareRose...)

Everything I mentioned here must have been... maybe half of the stores we went to. Most likely not even that. I'm afraid I lost track after a while, though. Either way, it was a successful outing, and I hope it was a fun introduction to Second Life for her (and for whoever might be using this post!), so I'll leave you guys with just one last picture-- this time, one she agreed to take with me.

Dresses and shoes from *COCO*

Vicarious Youth

As I've apparently skipped over the SL13 celebrations (I hope other people haven't! It's just... X-Men: Apocalypse came out and drew me back into the X-Men fandom-- yeah, I'll stop there. XD), I've only got a rather short post today because of this utterly adorable outfit from Vicarious Youth!

In case my previous kid post with cute stuff from that store didn't inspire a quick peek, then perhaps this cute boy outfit might! Shirt, pants, and shoes all from the store!

Kemono Kids

Alright, so 'Kemono' and 'kid' isn't something you usually hear in the same sentence together-- at least not on Second Life (I can't claim I know much f the usage of the word 'kemono' off Second Life, but I know there are Google results!). And just why is that? While Utilizator's Avatar 2.0 has a sweet, rounded face and body, Kemono bodies tend to be more slender (outside of the hips and thighs-- let's not ever talk about the hips and thighs there) and with the naturally small chest on the mesh body (easily changed for entirely flat chest), it should be a decent option for a childish mesh avatar from kid to young teen, right?

Well... there are plenty of child mesh bodies out there now. The most popular being, of course, being Toddleedoo followed closely by SMB. Unless you spend all your time on Adult sims doing... adult things, chances are you've seen quite a few kids on Second Life wandering around-- there's a thriving family community here, and plenty of spaces to reclaim your inner child. But despite my affinity for playing a kid, I waited quite a few years before I pushed into the mesh territory to try my hand at a boy avatar. I didn't like any of the kid mesh out there, and I already trusted Utilizator mesh, so... despite the Kemono being targeted more at the Furry community, I knew I had to try my hand with its human counter-part to see how well it could be adopted. It's such a beautiful avatar, after all, so why isn't it more commonly used?

Likely because of the above pictures. As adorable as my avatar turned out with Kemono, it would be rather foolish to keep it if none of the clothing could fit, right? The two biggest problems I ran into were: your normal SL mesh clothing seemed to lean just a few centimetres in front of your body, meaning unless the clothes were made specifically for the Kemono, nothing would fit at the collar and anywhere that the torso and even legs were revealed. The second issue, while not as prominent and alarming, was that for some reason the area around the ankles would be elongated greatly while wearing mesh. This meant that pants were suddenly too short (would show the ankles) and that shoes that touched the ankles were too high.

Luckily, the ankle problem can be fixed! It took me far too long to figure this out, but... when you get your Kemono avatar, there is an item in the folder called Bonus Items. Rez that, open it, and within there is something called Kemono Body (No leg deformations) along with the version number. Wear that instead, and it will turn you legs into... voilà, the third image shown above, with the really weird looking ankles. But that means you can wear jeans and boots, even if you can't really pair jeans with bare feet.

Because of this, I have two shapes I use with my Kemono: one shape for shorts (with the original Kemono avatar) and below the ankle sneakers, and the other shape for jeans and above ankle sneakers. Both are always paired with a scarf or something of the like... let's just say it's a quirk my boy avatar has, then.

Zerou is wearing:

Mesh Avatar: Kemono by Utilizator $900L
Mesh Head: M3 System Venus Head by Utilizator $500L
Skin: Tor Shade Skin Mod by =^HARO^= $300L
Hair: Unisex 32 from Dura in black $120L

--FREE ITEMS--

 Adjunct - Check Snood Scarf [MP gift ]

[SKM] Colorful Brutality Watch Clock [ MP gift ]

{-A-} Awesome Every Day - Shirt [ luckyboard ]

{-A-} Awesome Every Day - Jeans [ luckyboard ]

[VALE KOER] VASIFORMS [ group gift sneakers ] 

pictures taken at Chestnut Valley

Frisland

I figured it's time I shared one of my favourite places to go when looking for photoshoot oppotunities-- Frisland.  This cloudy, sleepy little island is not only one of the most beautiful places I've seen in Second Life, but also happens to be extremely accomodating for those looking for beautiful pictures-- join the group, and you get temporary rez rights to allow you a space to put down your pose balls if need be.

This idyllic isle is the perfect place not only to take photos, but to enjoy the calm serenity that can be offered. There are birds chirping, farm animals grazing, and buildings interspaced that serve from housing to schools to windmills and barns, to a tiny rustic chapel at one corner of the island, just waiting for someone to come and sit in search of inner peace.

I've never truly seen anything else of its like on Second Life. Every inch of this island provides new and different opportunities for spending time with friends and family online, taking some of the most beautiful photos I've encountered so far. I could churn out dozens and dozens of pictures for this post, and none would be able to do the entire sim a bit of justice.

There's something soft and sweet here, like honeysuckle in the summer heat, and yet cool enough to make you shiver. A summer storm, perhaps. The grass and leaves are silken to the eyes, and the entire sim embraces that feeling of a calm sanctuary.

From camping grounds to beaches to little alcoves tucked away behind flower-ladden trees and birdcall, this entire place is a visual embodiment of how I felt a Tennyson poem would be-- not so much his Arthurian works, but more like The Islet:

a sweet little Eden on earth that I know,
A mountain islet pointed and peak'd;
Waves on a diamond shingle dash,
Cataract brooks to the ocean run,
Fairily-delicate palaces shine
Mixt with myrtle and clad with vine,
And overstream'd and silvery-streak'd
With many a rivulet high against the Sun
The facets of the glorious mountain flash
Above the valleys of palm and pine.'

Obvious, the comparison isn't perfect (I'm over writing reports on poetry!), but it's the essence that I feel runs parallel and true.

Shamera is wearing:

 *barberyumyum* 53 mixblue [ past LB @ Sanarae ]

  Gritty Kitty Studio Headphones [ discontinued? ]

~Tableau Vivant~ Cho Hair - Sun&Flower [ accessory w/ 75L gacha ]

 :Moon Amore: Traveler Necklace [ past Kustom9 gift ]

[Miseria] Bearnotes Backpack [ past gacha ]

Just a Girl top and skirt [ Carver's End prize ]

Izzie's Leather & Beads Watch Bracelet [ past hunt item, now 249L ]

Utilizator shorts, socks, and boots [ 100L, 20L, 100L ]

FaMESHed 4th year

You know what, since we were just doing a post about the anniversary of one event, let's do a post on the anniversary of another! Yes, that sounds like a great idea because my inventory is totally going to thank me for pulling two events in two days. But then again, events like this (with loads of beautifully made freebies) tend to be extremely crowded, so when I found that it was still easy to get into FaMESHed today, I knew I just had to take the chance.

This month FaMESHed is celebrating its fourth year, and that means that sheer amount of item put out as gifts (yes, you need to join the group. Yes, the group is free!) is quite astonishing, and the majority is more than the usual trinkets I sort through when I go to places with small gifts! This month seems to spring multiple outfits, dresses, shoes, furniture, and various accessories that took me quite some time to sort through. What I've found somewhat disappointing, however, and this isn't a slur to the event or the vendors, is that a lot of places are slowly fazing out the old SL standard mesh sizes to be replaced with certain brands like Maitraya or Slink. While great for them-- this is somewhat devastating to me because the Avatar 2.0 fits the standard sizes well but not the special sizes.

Thus, I won't be showing any of the shoes that I've managed to collect, because goodness knows I'd save up loads for someone to make socks for the Avatar 2.0 that would work perfectly for Slink sizes as well. Let's not even mention normal Kemono socks. I think I'll actually try my own hand at mesh and textures if I can just get some normal ankle socks for my little boy.

Speaking of little boy, though! I'm borrowing Zerou today and aging him up to show another one of the very dapper gifts from the FaMESHed event. He's not exactly happy about it, but it's always good to prepare some outfits for when he grows up, right?

I'm starting a collection of clothes he can wear as an adult, because good men's mesh don't come around often as gifts so he's going to need all the time and help he's going to get.

Zerou is wearing:
Mesh Head / Skin / Shape
-- Genesis Lab. Hiro [We<3RP gift]
Hair - Dura Unisex 32 [$120L]
Suit - Kauna 2BN Casual Suit: Check Grey [FaMESHed gift]

Shamera is wearing:

Hair - /Wasabi Pills/ Marissa Hair

Sunglasses - KITJA gift Silver

Earrings -  [Z O O M] Marine Earrings

Necklace - *{JB}* Crystal Acorn Choker

Armbands - *{JB}* Elegant Arm Cuffs

Dress -  NYU Satin Draped Dress

(all found as gifts at FaMESHed!)

3rd Chapter Four

So it might be really unusual for me to forego my standard glasses and dark brown / black hair (except recently when I've been favouring blue hair thanks to having worked hard to bleach and dye my hair blue in real life), but I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to showcases the gifts offered for the 3rd anniversary of The Chapter Four!


Yes, you need to join their group in order to get the gifts, but the group is entirely free and there are just so many talented people there that it'd be a shame to miss out just because you don't have a group slot left.

Everything on my person at the moment outside of my actual avatar and skin is a gift from The Chapter Four-- even the pose (from Le Poppycock)! And there are plenty more item that I'm not showcasing because I've only decided to put one outfit together for this post and there are various items included that wouldn't really fit the Avatar 2.0 (such as skin applicators and numerous pairs of shoes that would require mesh socks compatible with slink that I've bought in the past and therefore isn't a part of the gifts group), and I have a tendency to delete accessories if I feel like I would never use them anyway. So these are just my favourites among the lot!

Shamera is wearing:

[atooly] the blair bow .rainbow.

Love - Blush hair in Ombre #3

[Z O O M] Gift Earrings

7mad;Ravens Foxy 8-bit Mouthie

Pure Poison - Sakura Heart Necklace

Luas Dream Crop Top

Valentina E - Bella Taffeta Bell Skirt

AZOURY - Bracelet Flowers

"mignon." -bunny gem ring
::C'est la vie !:: Alette purse

Kalopsia - Emily's Bracelets

(all available as gifts this month from The Chapter Four)

We're in the City of Wonder

Your mind is in Disturbia, it's like the darkness is the light.

Now, I know I said there'd be a few more fashion posts, but I was just enamoured with this place the moment I saw it and knew it had to be on this blog!

Welcome to Disturbia, a beautiful little sim rife with opportunities for photographers! It is an Adult sim, so I don't recommend bringing the little ones along on this ride, although the Adult rating is more for the horror aspect (as well as naked corpses sewn on the ground) than it having anything to do with sex.

From what I can tell, there's no game going on here (although it would definitely be amazingly cool if the creators were to make a game out of this place!), a Mystery seems to be a part of the title here. What happened? It looks like an old abandoned carnival ground, with some very questionable blood strewn over the place and green pollutants in the air. One side of the island is inhabited by killer clowns and broken down buildings and rides.

On the other side, however, is something else entirely-- reminding me a lot more of a video game come to life within the confines of Second Life. There are skeleton archers, mages, statues of Goddesses, and monsters that look like they've stepped straight out of MMO rather than a carnival.

And it works! Likely because the two areas, despite both being Disturbia, are on separate little islands connected by a thin wooden bridge. Unfortunately for me, I didn't feel like one outfit could cut both sides of the bridge, so I kept the MMO area unfiltered by my trapeze outfit. Although that just means I'll have to remember this place again when I want to actually do an MMO shoot (which I've been meaning to look into recently because I'm ever so slowly collecting pieces that would make up an elven archer on SL!).

Most of the photogenic areas on both little islands are nice and spaced out, though, so there's minimal lag despite the sheer amount of detail and textures on everything here. That make it a pretty ideal place for pictures if you're looking for something that's slightly horror, slightly video game-ish! It's not often that I find a place as beautiful as this that isn't made by either MadPea or Bryn Oh. Despite the crazy amount of horror sims on Second Life, there still aren't that many which will invest in the amount of graphics that an entire sim of detailed mesh will take. It's nice to see a place bringing SL out of the boxy prim era.

Shamera is wearing:

Astralia - Soraya Headpiece BLACK [ past free gift, now $250L for color HUD ]

Hair - [e] Other in White [ $75L, tinted blue ]

Goth1c0: The Dark Circus Trapezist [ past Twisted Hunt item ]

Utilizator Spandex Pants (short) [ $100L ]

S@bbia :: Suede Knee-high Boots [ past free LB, now $100L ]

Love, From Mattie

Sooooo~ happy fun times, but not a day after I made the previous post regarding child fashions, my computer decides to subject me to multiple blue screens of death! Luckily, my laptop isn't too opposed to Second Life, although it won't let me on for too long at my usual graphics (set to Ultra because I'm spoiled like that).

Thus, it'll be a short post with just Mattie today! I've found that while the Avatar 2.0 seems to suit the child avatars better than, say, the Kemono (which has issues with the body being a few inches in front of the clothes, but I'll get to that in another post), it still doesn't quite fit most of the children's very... very skinny fashions. What can I say? I certainly hadn't been that skinny as a child, so I appreciate this avatar much more with the flat chest if I'm going for sizes.

That being said, what Avatar 2.0 is good for, though... is all those in-between fashions!

For now, I'll just showcase a few things: CoCo, STYLE, Adorkable, and Vicarious Youth.

Top picture:
Dress: Free Group Gift @ CoCo Designs
Glasses: Free gift at 187 Boutique 

Left picture:
Shirt: Free gift from STYLE
Jeans: Free Group Luckyboard @ Adorkable
Ankle Boots: Free Group Gift @ CoCo Designs

Middle Picture:
Ribbon Mufflers: Free Group Gift from STYLE
Raincoat / Boots: Free Gift from Little Sparrow Boutique @ Big Dreams
Capris: Free Gift from Vicarious Youth

Right picture:
Dress: Free from Vicarious Youth
Shoes: Free Group Luckyboard @ Vicarious Youth

The Young and the Bold

From left to right: Zerou (5'0), Shams (5'6), and Mattie (5'2)

 So I feel a little awful for leaving this blog unattended for so long-- but at the very least I can say that I'm still on Second Life! In fact, I've spent the past few months clearing out my inventory (and for anyone who's been on Second Life for years, they'd know how hard that is to do!), brings the ridiculous number I see when I sign on to something far more manageable. That means going back and clearing everything non-mesh from my clothing folder (should I have done that years ago, I suppose) and then slowly (I'm still doing this) going through all my mesh items and then deleting all the sizes that I don't need.

I've discovered that I have far too many clothes for me to ever wear in the course of a whole year. Why do I keep so many things? Not to mention, the majority of it is all freebies and hunt items, so they don't always look the very best or fit my style... which is to say, a style that's a lot more childish than the majority of SL's runway fashions. I tend to like things I would actually wear in real life, and thus the more revealing clothes are out.

So, with the help of my old alts (which I've recently dusted off and also spent a good amount of time clearing out all junk in their inventory), let's have the next few posts focus on a more modest fashion-- from kids to young adults, using Utilizator's mesh avatars (because why not? I've used the same avatar the entire time I've run this blog) and trying to fit the freebie lifestyle (mesh avatars themselves are expensive, so I'm not left with a lot after getting just the basics!) and different niches of items.

Let's get ready to ruuuumble~

Poses: gift @ the pose shop