Colour Challenge 18 - Thistle

~ THISTLE ~

Yankee Doodle went to town

Prancing like a pony

Tied a flower to her horn

And called it macaroni.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up

Yankee Doodle dandy

Mind the bakefail and the lag

And keep those colours handy!

In the middle of her forehead

Yankee had a horn

With braided tail and dainty hooves

She was a unifaun!

Yankee Doodle, keep it up

Yankee Doodle dandy

Mind the bakefail and the lag

And keep those colours handy!

Yankee liked to roam the world

And wander near and far

Snapping pictures everywhere

Her hoard her guiding star.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up

Yankee Doodle dandy

Mind the bakefail and the lag

And keep those colours handy!

Yankee met a Púkel-man*

And asked him for advice

He said to take a toadstool seat

And think things over twice!

Yankee Doodle, keep it up

Yankee Doodle dandy

Mind the bakefail and the lag

And keep those colours handy!

*Púkel-men were the ancient carved images, thought to be of Woses or Drúedain, that lined the road to Dunharrow in the White Mountains (from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings). I don't know if this is really meant to be a Púkel-man or not. Knowing Svarga, it wouldn't surprise me.

For my mother, who wanted more story with the posts, based on the old popular children's rhyme. If I'd thought of this before I took the photos I'd have put a feather in my hair, but I didn't, and 'dragonfly' didn't scan.


CREDITS


Location: Svarga (see shoutout below)
Windlight: Annyka's Soft Lavender Day


Hair: Boudoir Dragonfly Hair from CAHH3
Horn: {Rue} Horn'd/Innocent: Faerie pack: Vengence (free wearable 'demo' horn style in all colourpacks! Yes, comes with the orchid, and is mod!)
Skin & Eyelashes: Baiastice J&JS Fairy Avatar
Eyes: KOSH eyes-berry pick 7
Legs: RoTtEn DeFiAnCe White Raven Faun (birds removed)
Ears & tail: Chimera Industries free horse (silver) by Wingless Emoto


Clothes: Lilac flowered halter freebie by Torrid Midnight
(Pixeldolls) Jewelled Top jacket
ETD Floral Jeans (stone wash)


Accessories: Awesome Designs Purple Manicure
Inks & Kinks Amethyst Velvet Choker (retextured freebie)
Unique Needs Amethyst Heart necklace & bellychain (freebie)


SHOUTOUT: Location


If you have never visited Svarga, you absolutely must. I'm not doing it justice with this photoshoot, because although it's a very pretty bluebell meadow, you can find particle flowers anywhere in SL - but the colour scheme on most of the island isn't suited to Thistle. Most of Svarga has a unique prim flora and fauna which interact, pollinating, growing, seeding and dying at random all over the sim. I had horripilations a couple of years back, when the owner/creator left SL and Svarga went up for sale - we all thought that was the last we'd see of this unique and incredible AI landscape. But she came back, and Svarga lives! I'm going to have to do another post to show it properly, but in the meantime, don't take or discount my word for it - go and visit. You won't be disappointed. And you can take a guided tour of the island on the back of a giant wasp.

Colour Challenge 17 - Shuttle Gray

This one was looking hard - then I found a really old and languishing set of colour changing armour. The rest of the look followed on from there very quickly and my new pet came along to help, so welcome to:

[ ] The Futuristic Adventures of Dragon Commander and Space Kat! [ ]

Coming out on deck for some fresh sea air

What was that noise?!

Argh! A horrible alien sea monster!

Defensive positions!

The commander sneaks around while her faithful
sidekick holds the monster's attention

Katlien leaps!

Outnumbered & outfaced, the monster dives back
into the sea and we watch as it leaves...

Outfit Credits

Location: Alcyon Sector (taking liberties with someone's spaceship)

Windlight: [TOR] Night - Mighty Moon (parcel default)

Spiked Claw Armour by Zeria Sassoon

Chainmail clothing layers by Phyren Yossarian

EA (Escade Athel) Naughty Boots (black)

Open Collar Colony & [AiTech] Cage collars (descripted ;)

Griddie LUNCH hair (CAHH2)

MIASNOW Sugar Skull Hunt Eyes - Chrome

Re.Birth freebie skin Demon: Mara: Special: Fairy Sneeze

Ray Gun from P.Corp's Target Game which is only L$10 and lots of fun! (The gun doesn't do anything outside the game but it looks good.)

Monster: Wandering Nowhere Elder Deep One (Basic Edition) - yes it was me ;)

Free Poses: Katlien - rooftop crouch and the Open Collar ~jumphug

Commander - Hardbow-stance and punching

If you want to know what Katlien is wearing, let me know. It's hard enough collating info on my own outfits and hers didn't match the challenge so I left it out. I think she makes a really super cool space cat though! And a fine lieutenant. We gave that monster what for!

Colour Challenge Week 16 - Bright Turquoise

I seem to be coping with the amount of blue in this challenge so far but come on the warm colours!! Maybe Luna is saving them for summer *g* It's not been a brilliant week, although I did get the outfit sorted by the end of MONDAY!!! - and then went around SL in it hunting for hair. But I've been ill, the weather has been freezing and wet, and my pet snake had to be put down :( So I'm keeping this one short.


Turquoise, stone of the mysterious Orient. It's another neko because I found the turquoise ears and tail, and then this lovely skin which I picked up on some hunt or other (not necessarily the hunt I was supposed to be doing!) The silks are heavily modded, with a different buckle to the original, and a new texture - but they are full perms so if you would like a set, I can give you a copy of the ones I'm now wearing :) I admit to slightly cheating on the hair, because I didn't already have it, but I've had my eye on it for a while and knew it would be perfect for this outfit. So ok I spent money - but it will be used again! I'm already thinking of how to adapt this into an avatar of Bast-Sekhmet. Silks in SL tend to be sold for slaves and submissives but I like using them in emancipated concepts - and just try telling this kitty she's a sub! I seem to have found the necklace during one of the many fall hunts which run alongside the Halloween ones I often take part in, which proves the wisdom of collecting any and all hunt prizes you happen to see - it's absolutely gorgeous and I would totally wear it IRL so thank you to the creator for putting this out as a gift :) And finally, I dressed my little summerhouse up for the setting, with home-made drapes and an Oriental carpet, seating area and coffee set. Welcome to

~ MYSTIC MOG ~

~ CRYSTAL GAZER & SOOTH SAYER ~ 

~ THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT: THE FUTURE IS TURQUOISE! ~

Mystic Mog's Crystal Readings

Gaze into my crystal ball...
Don't worry, the blindness wears off after a few hours.

Meditating on the future

Yeah it's a shame LL seem to have broken the body shape so that flared pants now make your ankles look like mushroom stalks - but as harem pants have a full bellbottom, and these were pre-sculpt era, I shrugged and put up with it. They would have looked sillier skinny.

My silks, in full.
They be turquoise.

CREDITS: 

Wearing: LMI Turquoise Silks (heavily modded but full perms)

Tekeli-li Ashtoreth hair (monochromes)

bewildebeest Salome Veil (gold/aquamarine) - I know, I'm sorry she's closed :(

Touch of Ireland native turquoise necklace (hunt gift)

Tekeli-li Ouroboros bracelets

Awesome Sauce Paw'd collar dangle (snitched for a belly chain)

Entrapment Designs blue bikini thong (tinted)

Cobalt Creations Blue Harem vest & pants (full perms) - also tinted a darker blue, the originals are pretty with gold edging but the blue was too light against the turquoise. But the silks alone weren't quite enough.

Body: Chimera Neko ears & tail in turquoise tabby (freebie!)

Curious Kitties Azil Whisp Skin - Light Sparkle (hunt gift)

Wildchilde Aqua Dream eyes (my first purchased eyes :)

[mock] Eyeshadow Pink Winterberry

Sensations nails

SLink Jolie Pied Exotix feet - with colour changing on/off pawpads! =^.^=

Decor: Drapes & wall hanging made by me

Angelic Designs Gazebo & hanging lamp

Creative Fantasy yellow rose trellis panels (Julia Hathor)

Dorasht 18th century rug design by Dirk Talamasca*

JOMO Chinese table & cushions set (freebie!)

Melino Style Turkish coffee set

Kinzart Kreetures Rift Dragon vendor 'box' hijacked for use as crystal ball!

Shout Out:

This week's shout-out goes to the lovely gentleman Dirk Talamasca. I owned a carpet of his from waaay back, a gift from one of my oldest friends and mentor in SL. Problem was, it was no copy. And during one of those laggy sessions of modding at home, I managed to hit the wrong object and change its shape - which nixed the texture >.< I looked for the designer, in the vain hope he'd still be in SL let alone know what I was talking about after all this time. To my surprise he was online, and also after I'd explained my predicament, most kindly replaced not only my original deshaped rug but gave me several other examples! All lately updated so that they don't conflict with alpha textures either (that was a leetle issue with the first one but it was so pretty I put up with it). Now I don't know if Dirk owns a store of any kind - his profile seems to be about SL help groups - but if he does, or ever did, I hope it brought him the profits he richly deserves. Thank you Dirk, you are a treasure, like your pretty Oriental carpets =^.~=

Oh and by the way - now I lock the darn things as soon as I've set them down! :P

Colour Challenge Week 15 - Seashell Peach

I thought this was going to be another hard one, and was pleasantly surprised when a search for 'peach' turned up an old frock in just the right colour, called peaches and cream! My hoarding tendencies are vindicated once again! The rest was accessorising, and after I found a lovely Edwardian hat, I decided to make it a vintage look. After my last post talking about how my avatars are hardly ever human, this is the most human I've looked in the colour challenge - but if you could peek under the hat, you'd see that my ears are pointy ;) It occurred to me that I should have kept the chocolate eggs from Royal Purple for my photoshoot, but didn't have much time left to find another location and decided my giant bunny chair would be ideal in a home setting. I was searching for a nice soft colour palette in Windlight when I found the Dusty setting, which is perfect as it gives everything the sepia tone of old photographs. Finally, because it's Easter after all, I couldn't resist a little surprise change of accessories. 


Short post, I know. Don't die of shock! It's been a busy week.

FADED MEMORIES ~ SEASHELL PEACH

Lazy Easter Memories

Seashell in Sepia

Rabbit and Parasol

Shell necklace in detail (so pretty!)

And... the Easter surprise special! :3

Jessica Rabbit

Wabbity

Lazy Log

CREDITS

Windlight: Sky: Dusty

Outfit: Peaches and Creme Ruffled Linen by Bianca Barbee (business sold)
BC Boutique Pearl Satin Formal Gown Gloves
Hat Heaven Edwardian Champagne Trimmed Hat
Julex boutique peach bow socks

Buttoned Boots by a friend, Sir Snoodle :3
Beach Party shell necklace by Damen Gorilla of Adam n Eve (from Male Party Outfit in the library; I just took off the collar)


C:K Azil Peach Skin
Calla Camellia Lights (Blonde) - perfect hat hair!
KOSH Eyes - Winter End Gloom 3


Easter Specials: Stars! Colored Eggs jewellery (*L$60 current sale*) 
Eclectism Bunny Ears from last year's Crazy Ass Hair Hunt (tis the season...)
^Re.Birth^ Makeup: Lipstick: Wild Bunch: Bunny-White


Props: Defensible Brolly by Ordinal Malaprop (one of my first purchases back in 2006!)
[TANGRAM] Fuzzy the Bunny: Brown
Khargo Tropical log
Easter basket by a friend, Ferryn Myriam :3
Bedazzle Field of Dreams meadow emitter (full perms freebie)

A Million Hoodies in SL - Justice for Trayvon Martin

So: I was invited by Renoobed to join her Flickr group - a million hoodies in SL - which is to raise awareness of and protest about the tragic shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. If you don't know what I'm talking about then you are seriously news shy and should google it forthwith. Anyway, the purpose of the group is to get us all to wear hoodies in a gesture of solidarity - Trayvon, like most teenagers, was wearing this fashionable item of clothing, and it has been suggested in the media that this went a long way towards prejudicing the reactions of the guard who shot him. That, and the fact that he was black. 


So here's my hoodie pic:

Scary, aren't I? :P

Featuring the gorgeous Racoon Hoodie from ChiChi's Pocket (a Dangerously Cute Hunt gift) this avatar has several nuances of meaning.

1. This hoodie, with ears and tail, has connotations of the Furry. Now, I'm not going to suggest that any group in life has suffered as much mistreatment as black people throughout history, but Furries certainly come in for their unfair share. There are whole groups dedicated to carrying out mass griefing raids on Furry sims; and even if you mark this down to a minority of dedicated trolls, it's my bet that anyone who is Otherkin (the whole range of not-quite to completely inhuman species including Furries, Ferals, Dragons, Fae, Demons, Nekos, Vampires, Werewolves, Aliens and so forth) will have encountered abuse at some point during their SLife, unless they are a hermit. It ranges from casual jokes (even by well-meaning friends!) to the outright disrespect and prejudice of total strangers, and even exclusion from public property. But light-hearted to malicious, it all has one thing in common: someone has seen you, in an avatar which isn't human, and they have made a judgement upon you, without knowing a thing about you except the way you look. This strikes a parallel with what happened to Trayvon; he was young, male, black, and wearing a hoodie, and so he was judged: erroneously, and with tragic results.

2. I hope I don't offend anyone by bringing this up, but it is a sad fact that 'coon' (generally taken to be an abbreviation of 'racoon') is one of the worst (i.e. most disgusting, degrading, insulting) slang terms for a black person. So here I am, with a black skin, in a 'coon hoodie, just juggling with metaphors really. People can be awfully prickly (and understandably so) over racist issues, so I really hope nobody gets the wrong end of the stick here and accuses me of ill intent. I assure you it is quite the opposite.

3. As anyone who has been following my blog will know, I myself am NOT human - I am a Fae-Dragon shapeshifter, and although my inventory houses hundreds of different forms, there will always be some small detail to mark out even the most human looking (generally the eyes). There are very, very few where it isn't immediately obvious, in any case. This is one of them. Horns, wings and a tail would have conflicted physically with the hoodie itself, and since I wanted to wear a black skin, my usual coloured fairy skins and dragon scales were out. It is another testament to the adage that appearance is only surface-deep. You look at the photo above, and you see a young, urban black girl, casually dressed in jeans, hoodie and beach sandals. I'm not very young, I'm not black, I identify as Otherkin, and I hardly ever dress this casually - my thing is formal dresses and period costume. 


Now, because I'm in SL, I get to look how I want and indulge my tastes, and craft a unique identity. This isn't really any different to what teenagers are doing when they follow various RL fashions, including that of the hoodie. Trayvon had a hoodie when that guard shot him - but the hoodie itself says nothing about Trayvon except that he wanted to wear it. Unlike in SL, he couldn't do anything to change his skin (if he'd even wanted to) but clothes - as any actor, any fashion designer/retailer, any model, or any teenager will tell you - have a remarkable transformative effect. Unfortunately for young Trayvon, costumes signal different things to different people, and this one - to this particular guard - apparently signalled Dangerous Criminal Target. 

There are many who say "well, people should be careful, they should conform, they shouldn't wear things which might trigger controversy". And a sad, dreary world we would live in if we all followed this policy - besides which, you can never know for certain what kind of impressions a stranger will form from the most banal and benign appearance. Instead of limiting people's creativity and freedom of expression, we should all better take care to limit our own impulse reactions to what we see. The clothes do not 'maketh the man'; they make only a fleeting, illusory glimpse into that man's (or person's) wardrobe. And nobody was ever put in danger from a wardrobe.*

Outfit Credits:

Incidentally, if you would like to jump on board this campaign, and you don't already possess a hoodie, you might like to purchase the one Renoobed found on the SL marketplace which  has R.I.P. Trayvon Martin on the back, with his picture. The seller brought the price down to only L$10 so that everyone could afford it.

ChiChi's Pocket Racoon Hoodie (Dangerously Cute Hunt gift)

PurpleMoon Boho Jeans in Dark Blue (group gift pre-release)

SSUS Tiedye Gypsy Sandals (group gift, store sadly closed)

Schadenfreude Vitalle jewellery (the one item I paid good money for, besides my nails!)

W&Y (Waka&Yuki) HAIR 30 - short punky spiked (mahogany) - store freebie, demodded to fit the hoodie (YAY for moddable hair!)

Splendor Ruined Tower Cocoa skin (freebie)

*aN* Pop Star Cat Eyes Sunny Yellow (my 'real-me' eyes, so old I forget the obtaining)

Alady Island free prim lashes & Linden lash killer alpha mask

Sensations nails (claws - not that you can easily see here)

Location: "Subvay" shop (hehe) in City of Dangerfield urban rp sim. Obviously, I have just been out to the snack machine for sweets.

*Yes, unless it was falling on them from a removal hoist, now shush :P

Colour Challenge Week 14 - Royal Purple

Purple again... I'm really not good with this colour, and as you may remember from Electric Indigo, I cheated at the time and used an avatar - well it's not really cheating, the challenge is simply to match the colour, but I want to make outfits if I can. I have a great avatar from Tekeli-li which would have matched, but that wouldn't have been so creative on my part. You NEARLY had me wearing just the head as a squid headed pole dancer, but the royal purple silks I found turned out not to be the right shade, and were prim and *no mod* for pity's sake - who makes no mod prim silks? They showed EVERYTHING because they were for a much bustier shape. I won't name and shame the designer as they were old, probably from a lucky chair, and she has a thriving business so she must be doing something good. Maybe these days they're scripted.


But then I realised that the avatar skin is actually very nice and even has good face detail - I didn't realise until I took the head off, because most prim-avatar creators don't bother detailing the face. So I decided to be a purple fairy like my friend Lola instead. I had to tint the hair and dress just a smidgeon (they were more pink than purple) but finally I had a result. I found the location while doing the Steam Hunt and it just seemed to have lots of fun photo opportunities for a fairy, also I wanted to showcase the sim because it's so awesome and I had a lot of fun exploring and doing the mini-hunt for extra items; the hunt is over of course but you can still have fun with all the fantastic creations at the Epic Toy Factory.


Incidentally I couldn't use lighting and shadows because they made the transparency of the skirt texture show up like an invisiprim against my legs - bizarre, since invisiprims themselves fail to show under these settings. I'm not sure what was causing that; it's a very old skirt and possibly uses a form of transparency that everyone has stopped using. Very peculiar. If anyone has any idea what is going on there, please let me know!

ROYAL PURPLE

Easter egg - all MINE!

Close-up

Riding the Easter Bunny Carousel

(There were lots of different carousels but this was the only one I didn't break by sitting on it!)

Sob - stuck in a bubble!

Giant flowers - or small fairy?

Scrying for who will come see my post

Champion, the Wonder Humminghorse

An octopus's garden neath the waves

This last shot was in an environment which seemed tailored to the Steam Hunt so I don't know if it will still be there, underneath the factory; I hope so, or else I hope she puts the Ents somewhere else. You can just see one floating to the left of shot, a sort of cross between a dryad and a mermaid with floating, willow branch hair.

CREDITS

Location: The Epic Toy Factory

Windlight: Sky - [TOR] Foggy - sad purple; Water - [TOR] Watermelon Juice

Purple tulle dress by Allana Dion, from Yadnie's Junkyard (a freebie warehouse)

L&E 'Estampie' medieval slippers (lavender) - these require NO invisiprims or alpha masks

DellyBeams Pink Sapphire Garnet jewellery

Skin by Tekeli-li from the Starspawn Voidcaller avatar

'Butterfly Caught' hair by Burning Chrome, from a past Crazy Ass Hair Hunt

*TSM* Craze eyes - c3 darkpurple/green

Pixeldolls (Pixelmuse) Fairy - Winter Plum wings

Sensations nails

Alady Island free prim lashes & Linden lash killer alpha mask

Using a DOLLCOCO facelight for these shots; normally I have no truck with facelights and love the way lighting plays on textures throughout the course of a day, particularly with the new system (try jewellery just before sunset - it sets it on fire, no need for fullbright, glow or bling!) but with these windlight settings I needed that extra touch of brightness.