Otherworldly

Skadi, the huntress of Nordic mythology, is a most appropriate guise for the depth of winter. The lush dark gown, brightened by a scattered fall of snowflakes, and the collar adorned with arrows are the creations of Axi Kurmin of Pale Empress. This brand is without a doubt one of the best in Second Life at taking a theme and an inspiration and interpreting it in a unique and wearable way. A gown might not be the first thing you’d imagine for a huntress and skier like Skadi, yet surely every goddess needs a chance to be festive? In Skadi’s case, perhaps she’s celebrating that her husband Njord, whom she selected based on his beautiful feet, is off somewhere else…

A little quickie as the end of the year approaches, to draw your attention to the fact that Zaara has released some of her delicious lingerie sets as appliers for Slink Physique and Maitreya’s Lara body. I am wearing the Chanchal set here, which has to be one of my all-time favourite sets from her. Its so barely there and yet so exquisitely detailed. The elegantly designed applier HUD offers five ways of wearing this set; in addition to being able to wear everything, the bra, the panties and the garter + stockings can each be worn on their own or you can wear the bra and panty together.

From The Mesh Project at The Shops comes the long-awaited beta of the male mesh avatar that they have been working on for quite awhile, according to all indications, and the fact that The Shops! have been jam-packed since the release a few days ago suggests that they’ve come not a moment too soon. The Mesh Project’s male avatar is, I think, the first really serious attempt at a male avatar aimed at the widest possible market, including support for third-party appliers, complicated alpha setup, and more. Alongside the release of the body was the release of their male mesh head in five different variations, another much sought-after accessory, and no less than seven brand new male skins. For this review, however, I’m using a somewhat older skin, Prince from The Skin Shop (part of the The Shops! collective, who are known to have included the prolific designers behind some of SL’s most well-regarded brands over the years: Naughty, ARMIDI,and Abyss.)

Not my usual style, but I wanted to do something that fit a pose set that I picked up from elymode. Then I spotted the bodysuit from Luxuria for Fifty Linden Friday and Ran suggested that I go with the white version (you also get a black and a nude) and use a more austere build than what we normally go for.

Sometimes, the best present might not be something you buy…

I am much too stuffed from enjoying the fruits of all the cooking done the last few days at our julbord to write anything particularly lengthy, but I should manage a little festive post at least. It all started with the lovely Aphrodite jewellery and matching shoes from Sax Shepherd Designs. It is texture change using a HUD and after a bit of playing around, I settled on this striking black and red combination. Then I saw a post on Flickr using the Giselle lingerie and Alexis corset from erratic which I had completely missed at Uber in November. Once I went to try it, I found to my delight that one of the sizes was fitted mesh based on the Slink Physique body. This is now without a doubt the best-fitting piece of mesh lingerie I own and I think it looks stunning. You still use some alphas around your midsection to properly simulate a corset and that works perfectly.

But what really inspired the specifics of the photo was the “A Libertine Christmas” gacha from Libertine. It features a very nifty scripted Christmas tree that you can decorate with the ornaments that you win. But you don’t need to fiddle around with placing the ornaments and you don’t need to worry about winning 50 red balls. Oh no, you just click the tree, select decorate, and after marking an ornament you have one, you hold down CTRL and drag it to the tree. You will then be able to active that ornament in as many or as few of the pre-defined spots as you want. It was actually quite a lot of fun!

I love the contrast between the frosty surroundings (and the streetlamp, for that Victorian touch) at the Neva River sim and the black and dark red of this outfit, which is based around a gown from Senzafine and jewellery from aisling.

Gothmas by Gaslight is now open, offering two full sims of dark, elegantly twisted creations with a christmas/winter feel to them. Nephilaine Protagonist has really outdone herself with her Pale Empress releases for this event so it is fitting that they are both names for goddesses, namely Skadi and Persephone. It is the latter ensemble that I am featuring in this post, with a bonus gothic gazebo from Souzou Eien as part of the backdrop.

Elymode is back. After a long hiatus, Elysium Eilde has returned to Second Life and reopened her store with new clothes, makeup and poses. I am showing one of the new lingerie sets in this post and it comes with a full set of appliers for Slink, Belleza and Omega.

I am also teasing a few releases that will be available at Gothmas by Gaslight when it opens tomorrow. This is where you’ll want to do your holiday shopping if you prefer it with a dark twist.

Time for another of those portraits inspired by The World of Ice and Fire. Both Ran and I are big fans of Dorne and we were absolutely thrilled that GRRM wrote so much about the region for the book. In particular, the story of how Nymeria led her people to Dorne and joined forces with Mors Martell made us squeal with excitement when we first read that part of the manuscript. So, of course I had to do an interpretation of Nymeria. There are a couple of great pieces of art in the book showing her as well, though in this case I didn’t really look at any of those.

Still waiting for something resembling winter to make an appearance around here. Maybe more snowy pictures in Second Life is the key to reminding the weather what its supposed to be like? It also gives me the opportunity to show off a new fantasy skin from PXL for We Love Role-Play as well as a set of seasonal pauldrons from ieQED for the same event.

I wish I was some place like this right now, in a cosy cottage surrounded by snow. Instead, I have am stressing with holiday preparations while it is distinctly green outside. Fuck global warming, I say. The only thing green around Christmas should be the fricking tree.

But oh well, at least I can get a little extra holiday feeling through Second Life. I went on a bit of a splurge during the Black Friday sales and picked up an enormous, heavily discounted (seriously, like 90% off) package of skyboxes and sim surrounds from Landscapes Unlimited. Some of them are getting on a bit in years whereas others use the latest features such as materials and there’s definitely some great options available for giving yourself some larger vistas to work with, whether just as a nice place to hang out or for photos. We’ve still not had time to finish the different environments on our sim (landscaping really isn’t one of my talents), so this will give some great options for different backdrops.

This is a post of last minute reminders for A Tattered Page, My Attic and for various Black Friday sales. We’ve had a busy weekend (culminating in a dog show today), but its a few hours until midnight still (especially if you’re in a different timezone from us).

I’ve been a very absent blogger these last two weeks, apologies! It has been quite a hectic month and somewhere along the line, my photo ideas seem to have been misplaced. But for the last week or so, I’ve been toying with a themed series of shots and after a few false starts (trying to find appropriate prefabs proved to be a bust) I think I know how to do them. The basic idea? Portraits of various characters that appear in The World of Ice and Fire, the book that Ran and I released together with George R.R. Martin exactly a month ago.

So, this is the first such portrait, showing Rhaenyra Targaryen, one of the two siblings who fought over the Iron Throne in the Dance of the Dragons. This portrait is showing her towards the end of her life, not long before she will be devoured by her half-brother’s dragon, Sunfyre. She wears a rich, but more modest gown and several pregnancies has left her plumper than in her youth.

Have you been to Enchantment yet? The event is more than halfway done, but there is still time to get those stamp cards filled out to claim the prizes that you want. For this round, the creations are inspired by the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin.

I love getting new skins, not the least because it is always a good excuse for getting naked. That is, save for some gorgeous jewellery and a pair of ultra-sexy shoes. And once you’re mostly naked, then lounging about on a new bed seems like a really good idea… You see? It all comes together so nicely.