Colour Challenge 24 - Raspberry Glace

~O~ Raspberry Glace ~ Pretty as a Fairy Princess ~O~

Late again, because oh my what a week! The colour itself wasn't the problem, as Katlien found some promotional ballgowns - they weren't really my style, but I looked hard at the pink one and thought it might work, so I yoinked it. Turned out that the darker shading on the bottom of the dress matches perfectly! As do the lighter ends on my hair, something I'd picked up recently as I'm on the lookout for mesh hair. With the dress and the hair, I decided to go all out and be the pinkest, prettiest fairy princess I could be - just to show I can! Rudh nearly fainted when she saw me, and my mother said 'that is very pretty, but so not you!' I like to run rings around the boxes ;)

Swinging Pretty

I already made use of a magnolia tree in the Deep Pink post, and I wanted to make this gentler and more fairytale-like, so I found a lovely starry evening setting with plenty of light for photography and this lovely watermelon sea (one of Torley's, obviously). My hubby said it reminded him of a scene from one of the Flower Fairy books, which makes me feel that a goal has been accomplished! Clearly, reading those books as a child rubbed off on me at least a little. Or else pink really is genetic and lurks in the mind of the most resolutely ungirlish!

Serene contemplation

~O~ I'm too pretty for the server! ~O~ 

(Anyone remember Right Said Fred?)

For the first time ever, because I'm not much of a cosmetics girl either iRL or iSL, I worked hard to put together some pretty makeup, and hoo boy did that cause problems. I kept having the most horrendous bakefail issues when I logged in - normally, I can just switch outfits and it is fixed, but this time, no matter what I did, my upper torso (chest, neck & arms) would show whatever layers I'd worn on the previous outfit - skin and clothes - producing some quite odd unmatched results! Eventually I worked through the Firestorm wiki guide to bakefail, which incidentally says DON'T clear your cache, this almost always leads to worse problems. I found out that there is a known issue (in Firestorm, I don't know about other clients) which can cause bakefail errors when you wear multiple tattoo layers. Now, I don't know how multiple FACE tattoos can cause issues with your BODY, but that certainly seemed to be the problem - I did what it said and took off all makeup layers; rebaked; then added the tattoos one by one, rebaking each time. That did the trick.

Too pretty for the servers!

I went to town on my head gear too, I know. Feather hairstick, side flower, flower circlet and tiara *g* They just looked so pretty!

~O~ Castles, castles, everywhere! ~O~

Once I'd got that sorted out, I went hunting for castles for my location shoot. The top result in search when you type 'castle' is a sim aptly named. I counted 13 castles within my usual draw distance of around 300m; there may well be more further out. I happily hunted around for backgrounds with pink in them and got lots of shots, including the ones on the swing above. More on the castles at the end of my post.

The princess in the tower

Wishing for her prince - or maybe a dragon? - to come and sweep her away...
I really like this castle. Even if it is pink.

Belle of the Ball

This shot makes me think of those debutante balls where you make a striking appearance before joining the party. The stairs had the exact shade of pink.

Stopping to smell the roses...

And reflecting on the old fairytale of Beauty and the Beast. Of course you know me well enough by now to realise that I probably wouldn't have screamed when I saw the beast - actually I would prefer a prince who was a monster of some kind :3 Not that I'm really looking, because I met my prince long ago iRL (and he's not any kind of monster!)

~O~ Item Credits ~O~

Location: Castle Q Castles
Windlight: Sky: *Starley* Settings 2 and Water: [TOR] Yung buk

Miamai 'Susan' Pink ballgown
Taboo Paris Roses ~shoes~ bought at the Pacific Fundraiser (colour change)

Taboo Paris Rose Shoes

Al Vulo! [Debbie] [Ohh Deer Chantilly] skin (May group gift)
Magika mesh hair 'Calm' - raspberry (store gift)
Tea Lane Concord eyes
Pink Glitter Wings by Meritum Lily of Faerytude (her very first wings)
Alady Island prim lashes
Skinthesis Linden Lash Killer avatar mask


The fateful makeup: birdy. color me: pinks eyeshadow
White~Widow petals tattoo ~ Travel for Fashion Limited ~ Pearl/Brown wo/eyeshadow
KOSH sweet lips: wine cream

Hair ornaments: Diamond Platinum Tiara (full perms) by Datura Fairchild
1890 Flexi Floozie Feather (mauve) by Shenlei Flasheart
Lavender hair flower by Lola Frederick
Waka & Yuki flower hairband


Ganked 'Bubbles Gold' necklace & bracelet
Lemania Indigo Precious Metal bracelets (left arm)
L&E Solar/Lunar arm rings
Tiny pink hearts particle emitter by Mecha Dinosaur

There were a few items - the tiara, the wings, the heart emitter - on which I did wonder if I'd hit overkill, but a princess needs her crown, a fairy needs her wings, and the hearts were very subtle. In the end I think they all added nicely to the overall effect.

~O~ Raspberry Glace 2011 ~O~

I think fate lined me up to go castle hunting - why otherwise would Katlien have found a princess dress and set me on the path for this photoshoot when I already have pictures of a raspberry pink outfit sitting in my vast hard-drive photo store? I was just looking through them for something today and found this set of pics I took last year, of the Purple Moon Anniversary Hunt outfit. I don't like sculpted skirts because they look stupid and wobbly when you move around in them, but they are gorgeous for modelling shots. (There needs to be a gliding walk animation for these kinds of dresses.) Anyway if I'd remembered this, I'd have used it, but I'm glad I got the chance to make the fairy princess because she is beautiful even if she is a walking case of bakefail! Clearly something about last year made for lower resolution photos, whether it was my client or my graphics card - it's a shame, because I certainly saw things more clearly on-screen at the time, but as in real life, the photos never come out so well as things look off-camera.

Peekaboo!

Blossom in Spring

Flower detail

PurpleMoon Anniversary Hunt Pink Spring Dress & accessories (July 2011)
(hunt prizes included hair, nails, jewellery & shoes)
Sin Skins Etheria Fae Golden
XCite! fangs
*aN* Pop Star Cat Eyes Sunny Yellow
Forest Floor cherry and apple trees in my Biodome sky station

~O~ Shout-out for Castle Q ~O~

The castles on this sim were really pretty but I wondered just what they were doing there, though it should have been obvious. Eventually I came to a central tp board and realised that OF COURSE! - this is a display sim and all the castles are for purchase! I had an idle look - I don't usually consider buildings of this size because they tend to be too highly primmed for my use, not being a sim owner or anything. I was amazed to find out that even the moderately large castles WOULD FIT ON MY LAND WITH ROOM TO SPARE!!! :D At this point I was well and truly hooked on finding myself a castle, because HELLO! Perfect home for a dragon in SL! The owner/builder Baron Q found me at this point, no doubt taking in my princess outfit and seeing an ideal customer, and proceeded to give me a very detailed and helpful tour of his castles, showing me extra points in their favour - not just low prim and excellent workmanship and textures, but interior walls which can be slid aside like partitions to make larger rooms, balconies/stairwells which can be blocked off, colour changing roofs and doors, and lifetime customer support including the possibility to upgrade to a bigger castle (but only if you get the trans. version). You can temp rez all of the castles at the display sites, but do watch out for explorers before you drop them to their virtual deaths! As a side note, there are very few sculpts employed in the building, and no mesh, making them fast to rez and visible to all SLers.

Now, I do still think these are lovely castles, very roomy and beautifully made, but I have a small confession to make, something that added to this post being so late. Upon telling my friends I was castle hunting, they took it upon themselves to find MORE castles, so that I would have the best possible choice. I spent half the week roaming the grid looking at castles! And found another that... well. I won't wax lyrical about it on this post as I'm sure it will get a post all to itself soon, but I have to say it just tips the scales on the previous lot (sorry, Baron Q!!) I do still like the Castle Q castles, very much - they are lighter and more spacious, much easier to live in for practical purposes - but they are more like pretty summer castles for a fairy princess (or perhaps a fairy dragon!) and not quite so dragonish. I will probably end up getting one anyway, so I can switch and enjoy both - I never like to live in the same house for very long - but for the moment, I think I'm going to get the Dragon Castle. Only problem was, that was too large for my current parcel! My partner, after seeing me sigh and gaze longingly at the screen all night, said he thought we could probably afford a slight raise in expenditure, with the result that I upgraded my land - fate clearly intends me to have a castle, because a parcel twice the size opened up for rent slap bang opposite, and I switched in a trice :)