Otherworldly

I am in fantasy-clothing heaven. First the Muses gave us the Rainha gown and now the Shieldmaiden has been released. It uses similar elements to the Rainha gown but instead of leather and chain mail you get leather and linen, for an elegant yet slightly rustic look. As with the Rainha gown you can combine pieces from different sets to mix up the colours and this is helped along by a hud that allows you to adjust the colour of the undergown on the mesh part.

I am also wearing one of the gorgeous new hairs from LeLutka—the hair net is such a fabulous detail—and the stunning knotted pearl necklace from lassitude & ennui.

When Nephilaine Protagonist dropped me her newest dress for The Muses (one of her little army of mesh shops!), I knew right away what I wanted to do with it. This regal mesh gown combines leather and chain mail for a fierce, warrior-queen look and when I put together the red gown with the black chainmail, it truly looked like something that Visenya Targaryen could have worn.

Yes, once again I am going on about A Song of Ice and Fire (which you may know as Game of Thrones), but that is because Ran and I have spent a rather crazy amount of time in Westeros lately, working on The World of Ice and Fire together with George R.R. Martin himself. Much of that work has concerned the history of House Targaryen since their arrival in Westeros and one of the most fascinating characters from the past is Queen Visenya, one of Aegon the Conqueror’s two sister-wives. She was a warrior and a dragon-rider, a wielder of the Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister. And I am sure she would appreciate the Rainha gown, though I think she would be practical enough to wear something beneath that chain mail. ;) Because there’s nothing royal about chafed nipples.

Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel books rank high on my list of best fantasy series, so of course the Plastik’s Namaah set caught my attention. However, there’s much more to it than just a well-chosen name. Composed of a number of pieces—some rigged mesh, some not—and with HUDs for texture changing, this is a unique and versatile set of fantasy accessories. Or a whole outfit, if you’re inclined to show a lot of skin (which I am). I am also wearing one of the latest new hairs from Magika and the Helena skin from Tuli. My poses are from the awesome Music is Life set by Studio Sidhe; these are really full of motion and still so very well balanced.

A couple of weeks ago, Tuli released a couple of previews for a new skin at the Dressing Room Fusion. Since then, I have been eagerly awaiting the full release of the Helena skin, as well as the return of some of Tuli’s previous skins in new and updated tones and with other little tweaks. This weekend, Tuli’s new mainstore on the Cupcakes sim finally opened, with four skins available in three tones each. In this post, I am taking a closer look at Helena, the new skin (the other three being new versions of previous skins).

HANDverk has released a pair of elegant low prim skyboxes in mesh, the single (14m x 32m) and double (27m x 32m) Longchamps. I am showing the single, which can fit in on a 512 sq.m. parcel. Given the fairly simplistic, scaled back look of the skyboxes, they could easily serve for both residential and commercial use. What charming little boutique couldn’t use a view of Paris through its windows, after all?

Gos Boutique opened for members of the update group yesterday and somehow I was able to get in pretty quickly to grab demos. Once I had decided what I wanted, it took a bit longer to get back in to actually make the purchase, but I survived that too. What was much quicker and easier was definitely the setup of the new shoes I had bought; the new HUD system from Gos really is a quite striking feature.

I’ll get into that a bit more, but first the basics. I picked up the Grace Sandals in Bronze and I am wearing them with tone four of Adam n Eve’s latest skin, Siobhan. I am also wearing one of this week’s new hairs from Truth and once again the mesh jewellery from Zaara. The poses and furnishings are from Libertine.

Nomine has a bunch more mesh releases out since a few weeks back, including this comfortably sexy sweater dress. Nomine also has a new store build and to celebrate that everything is currently set for sale at just L$100. This includes all the new mesh items as well as all the skins and anything else available in the store. You really don’t want to miss that.

I must be part dragon, because I do love to hoard precious metals and sparkling gems. It is easier to do in SL than RL, so I make sure to indulge myself with virtual jewellery on a regular basis. My latest acquisition is a brand new set of mesh jewellery from Zaara. It is her first so far, but you couldn’t tell by looking at it since it is absolutely stunning.

I am also back in bed, specifically in the canopy bed by Trompe Loeil, to celebrate that it has been updated to provide access to all previously released sheet colours plus several new ones. If you own the bed yourself, please see the website to learn how to receive an upgrade.

Winter’s should be white, there’s just no two ways about it. Of course, living on the west coast of Sweden, winter’s are quite often grey and rainy instead. After just enough snow in December to give us a white-ish Christmas, I did despair for this particular winter since the year started with rain and temperatures well above freezing. But then the snow came back and while it hasn’t snowed for some days now, we do have a lovely white covering on the ground and the temperature is set to stay below 0 for a good while. That put me in a mood to use this skybox from Barnesworth Anubis from the previous round of Collabor88; I love looking out through a window to watch the snow fall.

Events are responsible for a lot of what I am wearing, too, such as the Lazy boots from lassitude & ennui for L’Accessoires and Perception’s new corset for the Aquarius round of Zodiac. I am finding myself doing more and more of my shopping in SL at events. A sign of laziness, perhaps? I have always liked themed releases, though.

The Body Co is having a sale on their skins at the Warehouse. Only single skins are available and they run L$500 for one tone and one brow colour.  There are also add-on makeups for the female skins and add-on facial hair for the male skins. They may not be brand new skins, but these are definitely still some of the best skins in SL, with diverse and interesting faces and gorgeous, detailed bodies.

I am not wearing much else, but the lovely jewellery set is from the Muses and you get seven pieces in several metals to play with.

Alchemy Immortalis is selling off four of their five sims, keeping only their mainstore to focus on creating more lovely products instead of maining their rental sims. While the prospect of more beautiful creations from Alchemy and Immortalis Cyannis makes me a little giddy, I will be very sad to see some of the most atmospheric sims on Second Life disappear, so of course I had to take some more photos at Empress and Hierophant while the chance still exists. I dressed up in one of the new mixed mesh gowns from the Muses, added jewellery from Alchemy Immortalis and a lovely new updo from Amacci.

This post is a bit of a welcome back to two designers that I’ve been a fan of for a long while; Tuli Asturias of Tuli and Roslin Petion of, most recently, Luxuria. They have both been busy with other things than SL for a good while but Roslin released a gorgeous mesh corset and matching lingerie set for last month’s My Attic event and now Tuli has a beautiful new skin out at this round of The Dressing Room Fusion. Two makeups are available and they are an absolute steal at L$70 each.

This gorgeous burlesque outfit called Lady Vayne is currently available for just L$150 in a gatcha from deviousMind and since all the colours offered are excellent I don’t think it matters one bit that its random which one you get. And if you don’t know where you would wear it, you might also want to look at one of the stage builds available from Chandra Meehan’s other store, chanimations, such as the La Burlesque photostage which was used as the backdrop for these photos.

Holiday preparations and the holidays themselves, not to mention a slight addiction to The Secret World, have kept me rather idle in Second Life for a few weeks. But the photography itch has been there the last week and when I spotted this dress at Bare Rose, I knew it was time for a blog. It also happened to be, or so I think, a rather perfect match for the lovely tiara from lassitude & ennui. I am also wearing a pair of new mesh eyes from Mayfly.

Nomine released another massive mesh release a few days ago. This time, Munchflower is using Standard Sizes, so those of you used to those will find the clothing fitting as usual. There’s everything from a sexy slip dress to a business suit, plus a suit for men. My hair is one LeLutka’s brand new fairy tale-themed styles and the cosy fire is from Trompe Loeil’s new Collabor88 release.