Creepers. When RL and blogging collide.

Thatssss a very nice fashion show you have there...
**BOOM!!!**

I have just realised that I didn't put any of my 2013 blog pics up on Flickr (like this one), and that I have somehow attracted a small following, including people I don't know, which is both gratifying and slightly scary. I am going to rectify the situation and repost some of last year's pics on Flickr. Now is also the time for me to re-evaluate what I'm doing with Flickr and this blog.

If you hadn't already realised, I'm totally clueless on the whole Flickr/Blogspot scene, not a fashionista or 'professional blogger', and have zero time or energy - what with caring for a small boy with Aspergers and ADHD while personally suffering from Fibromyalgia - to look outside my goldfish bubble-bowl of Shiny! Buy! Photo! Blog! Rinse & Repeat. 

I honestly think it's some kind of displacement addiction, or possibly therapy, because for the last 6 years (ever since my son was born) we've been moving from house to house and the bulk of our belongings have been held in storage, so buying pretty things on SL has substituted the ability to wear jewellery, look around at pictures or ornaments, read books, or watch DVDs IRL. That is changing now, because we bought our own house (our very own, very first mortgage!) back in October, and now my fantastic dad has fixed up our loft (attic) so we can store stuff in it, and he has brought everything over, and the house currently looks something like a junkyard until we can get it all up into said loft on an electric hoist. Then the theory is that we'll unpack a couple of boxes a day, or week, until it's all sorted. My fantastic mum has just bought us a dishwasher - and I think whoever invented those things, indeed all large kitchen appliances, should receive the Nobel prize - so now I'll actually have some time and energy to spare for unpacking which previously would have been spent on washing up. I can only do so many things a day before crippling exhaustion sets in.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry I don't reciprocate very much by tracking your blogs/Flickr, though I do take a look when I can, and that I don't socialise. It's not because I don't care, or think your posts aren't worth the effort; quite the opposite! I just literally can't manage to do both. I had this problem with LiveJournal too, prior to finding SL, and abandoned the thing in the end because I couldn't see the point of writing if I couldn't maintain a circle of friends by reading their posts. I suspect the same is true of this blog, so my main goal is just to record the piles of stuff I inject into my hoard before they are swallowed up and lost to all but LL server memory (and to make pretty pictures). But writing about them is also a lot of work and Flickr is a lot easier in that regard, because there isn't really room to write, you just post pics! So I -might- move over to Flickr entirely. I'm not sure yet. I want to keep it for the best pics, rather than showcasing everything, and put links to fuller blogposts with all the credits, for those who are interested, or just so I know what I've got.

And in the meantime, I'm going to post some of my 2013 pictures up on Flickr because I rather suspect people are going there for the immediate visuals and that nobody ever reads all the verbal whitewash I put in this blog anyhow };=8) Go on, prove me wrong with a raft of comments!

~ : ~

For the HOARD! ~ Finesmith ~ Bathing Beauty I

More Finesmith, this one 'Danit', a mesh swimsuit in yellow with a texture change jewellery set to go with it; again using my new gold merrow avatar (because, seaside!). Not really much to say for this post, just pictures of me enjoying myself in the sun - and I have to say, I am LOVING how good my feet look now in all these shots :D The teeth could fit a little better though - I think when I changed shapes to fit the suit, there was a slight misalignment. I'll have to check the shape I wore for those and see what to tweak.

Wheeeee!

Leaping into a rubber ring floaty at my neighbours' on the Foxkin Estates. They buzzed my castle in an army helicopter when I first arrived, but I haven't seen hide nor hair of them since. Maybe I can entice them out by playing on their parcel *g*.

Lookit dat pout!

I have these surfboards too, from What Next, great low-prim beach props. The beach is at Envious, a shopping sim I found through Implings (of all places!) and not Finesmith.

Formal beach attire. Dragons wear jewellery everywhere.

The jewellery looks great with a little glow (menu driven) and you can choose from a variety of different gem colours.

Chillin' in the sunshine.

Continuing to look good in a side shot lying down; I noticed some animations on loungers (elsewhere) were pushing my abdomen up and out of the mesh, which was not pretty, and with a suit in this style you couldn't alpha it out. Wearers of split-front mesh, beware of awkward animations!

If I sound less than usually enthusiastic in this post, it's because I didn't realise the jewellery was colour-change and so I bought this set for the yellow jewels; there was another swimsuit I would have preferred, had I known, although yellow is pretty too. And it wasn't very expensive. It certainly looks good on me!

~ : ~

For the HOARD! ~ Finesmith ~ Top to Toe

Going back to early May purchases, and a pair of mesh boots from Finesmith which I'd been pining over since they first came out (they can now only be found on the marketplace). I also ventured into the store after some pieces to complete a jewellery set, and inevitably came away with a couple more items than I had intended, including the Bar Tiara already shown on my teeth post - and taking pride of (second) place on my new Flickr icon. 

Boots are generally worn with trousers, an unusual form of dress for me, so I had to play around to get an outfit I was happy with. I just happened to be wearing an avatar I made for the Colour Challenge as I tried the boots on, and continued to tinker until it was transformed; same species, but a wilder, sassier, more modern look. And a colour change. Don't ask how I fit those big clawed feet into the boots...

Merrow ~ Spring Fresh

Finesmith 'Fresh' Boots (spring)
Finesmith 'Lika' Porphyra jewellery
Silky drape top by Lillith Anatine

This gorgeous mesh top was made by my friend Lily. It is tintable, and makes use of the new materials texturing so that you can set it to shine with different coloured highlights. It is a backless halter-top so there is plenty of room for wings, spines or other spinal adornments.

Additional Items:
BySnow Sea Sprite skin (starfish) with anglerfish lure & body spines
Rue Horn'd/Diver: Zexmenia
*TSM* Laurel of Water (pearls) & Swansong S.E. Elemental Earth eyes
Schadenfreude Mer-Elf ears
ContraptioN Carnivorous Jaw
Grendel's Children Uthgolian Dragon head fins
Sweet Antidote makeup 'deep blue sea' (gold)
Livid Nosferatu's (sculpted) claws; store gift
Diva Designs gold trim jeans (from 2007)
My own belly claw-ring
L&E solar & lunar armbands

~ : ~

For the HOARD! ~ Ode to Cernunnos

I like masks. And skulls. And horns. And antlers. (Those who know me, know this well.) And so these recent additions to my hoard go well together.

Illusions 'Eikthirnir' Deer Skull Mask & Antlers

A truly gorgeous piece in two parts, mesh with multiple textures to choose from and tintable pattern layers over the top (which I made to glow a tiny bit). I just... I... wow. Pictured using the windlight setting from the previous Illusions sim, Carnivale (she moved in May). It's basically just a re-tint of the atmospheric RGB settings. I found this piece on Siyu's blog. The name belongs to the Norse stag who nibbled at the branches of the great tree of life, Yggdrasil, and means 'Old Thorny'. For this shot I used my first Colour Challenge outfit, Champagne, but with different hair that wouldn't get in the way.

Illusions Dreamcatcher 'Rusa' Antlers

Another Illusions antler set, one piece this time but you can toggle the dreamcatcher netting and feathers on or off, and again, there are lots of textures. The feathers and dangling strings are flexi. I'm wearing it with my Hunter Green outfit from the Colour Challenge, because this outfit suits a shaman, as does the dreamcatcher. In that post, I told the story of how I was challenged by, and eventually befriended, a unicorn; he came home with me, and features in my recent teeth post, and can be glimpsed here in the background as he frolics in my wildflower meadow.

ContraptioN 'Walton's Mask'

This was one of those items I'd been eyeing up for a while but never quite had the Lindens to spend on. I grabbed it along with the teeth when I was visiting ContraptioN, ostensibly to get the music box I mentioned in my Castle post. Stores are very dangerous places for me! Here I'm wearing it with the PurpleMoon outfit 'La Mort Douce', a Halloween special from some years ago, and the jewellery set 'Selva in the Moonlight', also by PurpleMoon, picked up on Friday from the Fashion For Life event which I scurried through on the last day, holding blinkers firmly to my eyes. (That wasn't all I got, but I'll blog the other items later.)

Walton's Mask & Selva Jewellery in close-up

The mask reminds me of the beaked leather head-dresses worn by plague doctors in the Middle Ages, with beautiful metallic scroll-work. He sells them in a range of different colours; naturally I chose gold. The hair was an archaeological find from my inventory; Deadkitties 'Krabat' (the men's prize; I have a large head!) from the 2009 (!) 'Fairytales' Macabre Hunt. It has lots of colour change feathers stuck in it. My gold skin, as in the previous posts, is 'Aquamer-Andri' from The Plastik, one of the best golden (and scaly) skins I have come across, and a gift from the Devil himself :o No really, my friend who role-plays Lucifer, but is in reality a sweetheart. The tree behind me is from Forest Floor Creations; I use both hers and Nadine Reverie's trees on my parcel as they are beautiful and realistic but low prim. My pose is from Juicy, angel ready for take-off.

Implings 'Dark Guardian' Statue

I spotted this handsome fellow while popping in for an item or two in the sales over the weekend at Implings and Angelic Designs (I'll blog the rest later). There are some things which just scream 'You need me!' and this was one of them. He is mesh, stands 3m tall and takes up only 16 prims, at an astonishingly low price (no he wasn't on sale). He stands guarding the entrance to the cave below my castle, a cave which houses a very special waterfall, hiding the Holy Grail itself (something I made for a fun hunt to celebrate when I first bought my castle). 

Although Amy (of Implings) has named him dark, I think of him much more as a nature spirit than a demon, a forest deity like Herne or Pan. Not gentle; he is holding the severed spine and (hidden behind me) skull of some hapless hunter or trapper who has provoked his wrath; but nor is he evil, for he embodies and protects the natural world, which humanity is always inclined to despoil. You can just about see the yellow of a tiny fairy creature nestling in a knothole on his right breast (not part of the statue; it's another recent purchase I will blog later) to show his protective nature. As a horned forest god, my dark guardian stands as patron to a large proportion of my avatars, and to my RL environmental leanings.

~ : ~

For the HOARD! ~ FEETS!!!

I am, at long last, the proud and very happy possessor of a pair of SLink mesh enhancement feet with claw and pawpad addon :D Messing up the purchase timescale somewhat, I only just bought these - but they fit well in a series of bodyparts posts, and are something I have had high on my shopping radar for a long time. When I was last in SL over a year ago, SLink had mesh feet for humans but had not updated the Exotix range to have the enhancement nail polish HUD capability - I don't really know why - so I held off from buying them, as they are expensive and I was pretty happy with my sculpty feet. But now they have been updated and are fully compatible with other creator brands, so I can haz matching hand and foot nail polish. Yay!

See how good they look! Sleek and smooth and pretty!

Pictured on my new, low prim mesh log swing from We're CLOSED and wearing a ZOZ nail polish for SLink enhancement hands and feet :) I nipped into Fashion for Life on the very last day, to pick up the PurpleMoon exclusive outfit, and had a bit of a wander around; I was happily ignoring all the stores until I stumbled on the nail polishes. I'll showcase them properly when I put up my PM Time Traveller.

With the cute little pawpads!

Yes I know, the swing pose is bending one ankle a little awkwardly, not the fault of the feet! They are a little tricky to set up, especially when - like me - you have an unusually coloured skin, but I am used to fiddling around with colour sliders, and although it wasn't stated anywhere in the instructions, I discovered that these feet have the same /13 skin RGB chat command as the sculpts. The HUD doesn't have any custom save slots but with the chat command, you can easily keep a notecard of presets to use, so I'll only have to tint them once for each skin. You also have to turn the custom nails off before adding the clawpads, or the two nail sets clash, and I had to put on a tiny bit of weight (!) before the feet fit perfectly; but once all these things are sorted, the feet are good to go.

I also made a couple of simple anklets to hide the texture seam where the feet meet the shin. You can't really avoid a slight discrepancy here, as the feet and skin use different textures and no amount of colour matching will be exact, but since SL is SLink crazy, a lot of skin designers offer a skin matching HUD that links with the feet, so humans with popular skins can probably get a seamless join. So popular are the SLink feet, many shoe designers have taken to making open shoes to fit various models of the feet - though most of them, being heels, require the raised 'mid' or 'high' feet, and I bought 'flat' because these feet are for when I'm not wearing shoes (duh!) and my nicest shoes all have fake feet inside anyway. I also didn't bother with the textured sock as it didn't counter the join, but these could be good for strongly patterned skins, where some alpha layering gradually merges into the skin tone.

:: Sculpted Exotix Feet for Comparison ::

I wore these for a long time and was very happy with them; but the top of the foot bulges rather untidily above the ankle, and the toes look a bit as though they were re-attached after an unpleasant accident involving a scythe. They look great underneath though! Also of course they didn't have enhancement nail polish like the mesh range, so I couldn't use a range of nail polishes, only the basic incorporated colours. And of course they are about a million times better looking than the default bodyshape feet, below. Ugh, creepy mutant monstrosities :( What WERE LL thinking?!

Poor naked feets... thank goodness for alpha masks!

~ :: ~

For the HOARD! ~ Gnice Gnashers!

After my hiatus there were a few things on my shopping wishlist (an ever expanding and unfulfillable Grail, with items still on it from 2006) that I remembered vividly enough to look up, hoping they would still be available. My ContraptioN musical box was one such. Inevitably, as I browsed around the store, I discovered More New Things I wanted. Believe it or not, I don't actually like shopping. I find too many things I want to buy, and can't, and this is frustrating. Usually I will go after what I want in advance, having seen it somewhere else or on a group notice, and will attempt not to window shop. But after a year's absence, one can't not look around at all the new goodies one's favourite creators have come up with...

So it turns out that ContraptioN has made a slightly different version of the Shark Grin, a toothsome smile I used in my Tea Green post for the colour challenge. The Shark Grin is great but... a bit much for daily use. The Carnivorous Jaw is more adjustable and has better alpha masks, so that it can be quite subtle, until you get really close...

See? My unicorn still likes me!

Without all the windlight, for a clearer shot.

... Or of course if you smile. And then this happens. I had to promise my 6 year old that I wouldn't do it again *eg*.

Smile! It's dinner time!

Also wearing the Finesmith 'Bar' Tiara in champagne which is another recent purchase. I get a lot of jewellery from Finesmith and will be blogging more later.

I really love the polished wet sheen to these teeth, it makes them look very realistic. They are mesh, but come in 3 movable sections, so you can fit the upper and lower dentures better, and there is also a tongue and palate so you can laugh without having a hollow head. There are a couple of other 'expressions' which - for me personally - don't look quite so good as 'subtle' and 'smile', also a bloody just-fed look; and if you don't wear the alpha mask at all, the teeth fit so well that just two fangs stick out like a vampire's, and don't look at all out of the ordinary (for SL). I have to say these are my all-time favourite teeth and I will be wearing them pretty much constantly; goodbye to my old and much-loved XCite fangs! Well I might keep those for the actual vampire avatars. A dragon needs a whole set of nasty, sharp, pointy teeth..!

~ : ~

For the HOARD! ~ One Tail to Rule Them All!

I've been in-world again more than a month already and I have been so busy I haven't got around to posting up my new purchases - but purchases there have been a-plenty, as I have a LL subscription and the pocket money stacked up during my absence! I had two choices; I could cash out the money and regain my entire sub for the year - or I could go on a major shopping spree.

... MUAHAHAHAHAHA! 8D

Well really, what would you expect? ;) The very first thing I bought, I wanted the instant I met AutumnFox, the Foxkin Rentals estate manager, to sort out setting up my land. She had an awesome new tail; admittedly more furry than dragon, but a demi-fae (I'm half phouka) has many tricks up its *ahem*... trousers!

One Tail to Rule Them All!

The NV Fluffy Tail, by Nadi Vemo (the title joke is hers) is an animated, shape shifting, texturable mesh tail. It is hugely customisable, with a very user-friendly HUD and toggleable script settings for use in high lag areas. It can be cat-like, fox-like, bunny-like or - the style I immediately went for - raptor-like! Bearing in mind that raptors are now known to have been feathered, so their tails were (are) plumed. I am going to ask if she could make a no-fluff option in a future update, so you could have a naked tail with all the animation for the true scalies. I have tried to do the tail justice in my photographs, but really it has to be seen live for the incredible, smooth animation to be appreciated, and there is a video link on the marketplace which will show you this and run through the different tail shapes, if you are interested.

For now, here is a stop-motion array of stills, attempting to show the varied motion and fluidity of the tail. It is set against the beautiful yellow roses of my [Angelic Designs] Quiet Moments Garden Arbor, which actually features more flower types and colours than a garden catalogue so would suit all tastes. I am wearing the outfit I used for my Colour Challenge 50: Gold post, without the jewellery.

And finally, another set I just couldn't resist putting up, though please be warned, this image is rather large when you click on it (1600 x 565) as I have a wide-screen monitor.