Otherworldly

Fantavatar & Moonstruck has several Egyptian-inspired items out at the Fallen Gods 14th Anniversary Market, as well as an item in the Duat hunt, which led to this Cleopatra-inspired look. Given that, I could not resist placing her in a Roman villa and lounging on an opulent Roman both, both courtesy of Del-ka Aedilis though only the bed is a new release, for the Narrative Event.

It is that time of the year again, when it is time to get in touch with your darker side. I am easing into it with a moody evening shot which features a flamenco-inspired dress and a distinctly gothic jewellery set together with a skin pale enough to suit a vampire. Two elegant poses from Be My Mannequin are used to show off this intriguing blend of influences. Mon Cher and Cara Mia release today at the Dark Style Fair where they are sold in an event-exclusive fatpack called Gothic Romance. After the event, they will only be sold individually and the fatpack exclusive couple pose En Garde will not be available.

Its a fair trade. I made Froukje Hoorenbeek of Dutchie laugh when I asked for suggestions on Plurk for cheap or free hair for outfitting an alt soon after she had sent me her latest creation. Then she made me blush as I explored the various options of said creation together with Ran and a couple of totally innocent alts. ;)

The item in question is the Sleigh Bed, released at FaMESHed’s October round. Wood with a smooth, polished finish and soft, light-weight fabrics give an elegant (and perhaps somewhat Scandinavian-inspired?) look to this bed which offers nine different colour options for the blanket and bed spread. The modelling and the textures are, of course, top notch, with great attention paid to the finishing touches.

The bed comes in four versions—PG, Adult FM, Adult FFM, and Adult FMM—and the photos shown below are from the Adult FFM and the Adult FMM versions. These two versions have completely different animations from each other and from the PG and Adult FM beds, so if you want any solo animations or two-person cuddles or sex you want to look at the PG and the Adult FM versions. But if you prefer more of a crowd in bed, then you will have a lot of fun with the FFM and FMM beds.

First up are four photos of the FFM bed and then four photos of the FMM version follows on. I’d say the FFM bed features more intimacy/sex between the two girls than the FMM does between the two guys; for the FMM bed such animations are constrained within a single meny. The focal point of each bed is definitely the single guy or girl, but there’s good variety among the 70 animations.

Full feature lists, including lists of the various menus on each bed, are provided on the product page for the Sleigh Bed.

Until October 8th you can visit the Ice and Fire event to pick up, among other things, the Sunspear seating set from Del-ka Aedilis. The set includes a couch, a rug, a side table and a tea table, all with coordinating textures with a clear arabic/moorish inspiration and a colour palette that will remind you of a desert. I arranged the set in the Desert Villa from Lore and picked a sunset EEP setting, perfect for an invitation to evening tea…and perhaps more.

The Samira outfit from deviousMind is a little too Thousand and One Nights for Dorne, but it is certainly very lovely. Very appropriate for the Dornish theme, on the other hand, is the Serpent Choker from Schadenfreude, so simple and elegant. You can find it at the Fallen Gods Inc 14th Anniversary Market. If snakes are your thing, you will find a lot more cool stuff at the market!

When you blog events it sometimes leads to you discovering creators you have never come across before. My personal find at the SL Renaissance Festival is Wythburn Fine Furniture. The two pieces I am showing here are both nicely modelled, with good choices of textures (and you get a lot of options, too) that look extra nice with advanced lighting on and, on top of that, a selection of animations that for the most part fit historical or fantasy roleplay very well. The sits for women, for example, work well with gowns and skirts. Such as the lovely Carnation gown from the Dreaming Thicket, another release for the SL Renaissance Festival. The building is Fanatik’s imposing Stalker Castle, which has a great grand hall lined with torches on the first floor.

Remember that the SL Renaissance Festival is a charity event, raising money for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. All proceeds from the furniture is donated and the gown varies between 50% and 100% depending on colour.

On September 24th (that’s tomorrow!) the 2nd annual SL Renaissance Festival opens its doors, running until October 3rd. This is a charity event supporting Making Strides Against Breast Cancer and it will consist of four sims of shopping (naturally with plenty of items available that donate the proceeds wholly or partially to the charity), auctions, events such as performances, tournaments and classes and also booths presenting various roleplay guilds and groups. Schedules are posted to the official website, linked above, so make sure to check it out to see what the festival has to offer.

Since the bloggers got a sneak peek of the sims today, I used that opportunity to dress up and pose in front of the gate leading in to the tournament arena. My gold-brocaded gown is from Kitty Creations and it includes matching slippers and the necklace that I am wearing. The gown comes fitted for a range of bodies. My hair is an earlier release from Fantavatar & Moonstruck.

The Horse Show is back! From September 18th to October 2nd you can visit this fabulous event and shop for tack, coats, stable decor, stables, riding clothes and, of course, Teeglepet horses. In fact, this year there are two brand new breeds at the event, the Tennessee Walking Horse and the American Saddlebred. These are both so-called gaited breeds, meaning that they have different and additional gaits compared to the walk, trot, canter and gallop you’re used to seeing. The new animations are fabulous! Of course, this required a video. In it, I also take a look at new releases from gSpot, Majestic Designs, Star Sugar, Multifarious, Tutto e Vanita and Cheval D’or. You also get to see the two Limited Edition versions of the new breeds. These are available ONLY during the duration of the Horse Show and sold in no copy only and they are gorgeous.

And speaking of limited editions, there are some even more rare things on offer at the One of a Kind auction where you can bid on tack, coats and even a OOAK horse. These are produced in a single copy each, meaning the auction winners will have something no one else owns. The auction ends on the 26th, so get your bids in!

Below the video you’ll find some photos as well as full credits for everything shown in the video.

The Fawn outfit from On a Lark is a special offer for 25 Linden Tuesday; individual colours are 25L and the HUD-controlled fatpack only 125L. It includes six different fits, among them Slink Hourglass so that is what I opted for this time. To show it off I decided to make use of a backdrop from Faida for La vie en pose as well as poses by Creative Stylez, also for La vie en pose.  The backdrop includes several different textures both for the stone and for the drapery, the poses come with mirrored versions and a lipstick prop for each version.

Welcome to the Roman Bath from the Civitas Series by Del-ka Aedilis. Classic and elegant, it a perfect addition to a roleplay sim needing a public bath house. The two tritons bearing braziers at the front are not part of the build but a separate release from Fantavatar & Moonstruck, but I thought they fit really well in thematically and they also show how you can add more of a fantasy touch to the setup. The Tritons include left and right versions and here I have sized them down considerably; at their original size they would make great centrepieces for a temple or similar setup.

The basket with bath supplies is also from Del-ka Aedilis and can either be worn or rezzed out as a decor item. Here, the bath slave (dressed in clothing from On a Lark) is holding it to welcome visitors to the bath. I also want to mention the skin because this is a brand new release from alaskametro for the Spoonful of Sugar Festival, benefiting Doctors Without Borders. Estrella is a 100% donation item and is available in five tones for LeLutka Evo X.

With new and old items from the Dreaming Thicket, a tattoo from Fallen Gods and a pose from Be My Mannequin? I created this scene of a guardian of an enchanted wood. The gown as well as the tattoo are from the Age of Avalon event, which inspired me to think of a secret haven which not everyone could reach. The amulet—available in sun and moon versions—went well with the priestess/enchantress image and the forbidding stance of the pose makes her seem like she’s not going to let just anyone pass. The landscaping consists of items from Fanatik and Studio Skye.

I’ve tried doing portrait series before, but I always get too ambitious and too caught up in making them feel similar. So, we’ll see where I end up with this one. The genesis of the idea was to do some nice portraits for our game to spruce up the website a bit. Here, I am trying to portray Melissa “Missy” Blackwood, one of King Aegon IV’s mistresses.

To create her look, I am using LeLutka’s Erin head with alaskametro’s Ingrid skin (using the flat chest add-on since Missy was supposed to be quite slim and flat chested), which I think gives her a sweet sort of beauty that suits the description of the character. The hair is one of F&M Oblivion’s releases for Hair Fair, a style inspired by Giulia Farnese, also a famous mistress. It is a very elegant, ladylike style with a silk cap at the back. The raven jewellery is a nod to the arms of House Blackwood and I thought that the Heloise gown from Junbug could fit into Westeros well enough.

We’re almost halfway into Hair Fair 2021 and now is a great time to visit. There’s gifts out in most booths and all of the sales donate a percentage to Wigs for Kids, so it is a perfect type to stock up on some new styles. Wasabi has two new styles out, each with styling options. I accessorized lightly with a couple of pieces from Cae’s retirement sale.

Roughly a week remains of the Fantasy Faire 2021. One of the things you do not want to miss out on doing is the traditional quest. This year it is called “The Language of Birds”. You can buy the HUD needed to participate in a regular (L$250) or deluxe (L$350, includes exclusive outfits from Silvan Moon Designs) version at the landing points on all the Faire sims and all the proceeds go to RFL. The quest package also includes a charming little companion that will help you out with extra hints along the way.

You will need a bit of patience for the quest as you are looking for birds and they are sometimes fairly small and may not rez until you are closer by. But the rewards are well worth it, from the sim-specific gifts for finishing each part of the quest to the grand prizes at the very end. Plus, you get a wonderful free tour of the Fairelands; I definitely saw areas I had missed on my shopping tours! The final sim, The Seventh Valley, is particularly gorgeous and that is where I took this shot. It was very much a spur of the moment photo, I hadn’t actually planned to blog about the quest or the outfit I was wearing right then, hence the lack of closeups on the accessories, but I liked how it came out!

Exploring Khol Dracys is not without its perils. If you climb too high, be prepared to meet some of its larger inhabitants. They have a taste for shiny things and the occasional adventurer, so it is imperative that you stand your ground and firmly tell them to snack on something else!

Petrichor (formerly the Plastik) has an absolutely massive amount of new releases for the Fantasy Faire, including skins, clothing, accessories and even decor items. Among these is the Araleus outfit that I am wearing here, consisting of the outfit itself, armour for arms and legs and a sword. The colouring huds for each part allow for almost unlimited texture combinations and for the outfit and the leg armour the huds also allow you to hide certain parts to change up your look even further.

When you want to wear your favourite body and there’s no new mesh lingerie that fits, what do you do? Wear some of alaskametro’s gorgeous BOM lingerie, of course, with a pair of brand-new BOM stockings from Luxuria. Not that alaskametro doesn’t do mesh as well; the satin robe is also hers and fortunately includes fits for a wide range of bodies.

To show this sultry combination off, I am using two new releases from La vie en pose: a draped cloth backdrop from Faida and poses from XTC PoSes from a set called Du Jour. I sized up the backdrop somewhat to make it easier to use standing poses and have it cover the whole of the frame.

As far as heads go, I am lately rediscovering my Vista heads (they are really very good!) and I have paired Lia with one of the skins from Lumae’s relaunch, Jemima.