Otherworldly

The leaves are turning and there’s a new bite to the wind. Autumn is definitely here and in Second Life things are turning spookier and spookier. Wasabi has released the Nocturne hair for Uber, which can be worn with or without the hat seen in this picture. And they also have out the Baroque Cross earrings for the 15th anniversary market at Fallen Gods. A very witchy look together with the Sera dress from Senzafine, just right for working in DRD’s Voodoo Shoppe. The “Fancy a Slice” pose from Be My Mannequin? adds the finishing touch.

This time around, Enchantment offers us a look at the magical and whimsical world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. To create a portal into this realm, I setup the Oberon’s Gift statue from Fantavatar & Moonstruck as a guardian by the Dolmen Experience Portal from Fanatik. For my outfit, I opted for Dreaming Thicket’s Fairy Ring dress and added some flowery antlers from Acios.

What is an “Experience Portal”, you might wonder? It is a new line of products from Fanatik that you can use to setup automatic teleports on your sim. You need to be able to enable an experience on your sim and then you load in one or more landmarks in a portal. If there is just one landmark, walking into the portal will trigger the teleport. If there are multiple, it will trigger a menu with options. The portals come in several different styles to suit different environments.

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!

Deep in the Wandering Woods, you may come across her, the Butterfly Queen. From time to take, she takes human form to explore the woods, often delighting in playing a flute that is said to make flowers bloom.

The beautiful butterfly-inspired Asclepia gown from the Dreaming Thicket insisted on being showcased in a colourful and magical way, and the Wandering Woods sim (sponsored by Titans) was just right for it in terms of looks and hues. I added the Anemone crown and collar from On a Lark for a regal look, further helped along by the tall updo from KMH, and wore the Mystic tone of the Jemima skin from Lumae to match the colours of the gown. The lovely flute from Harshlands is the Ultra Rare from flute gacha, which means it plays all the songs contained in the other flutes.

One does not simply walk into Faerie, even if one finds one of the gates that leads there. Faerie is an ever-changing realm of both beauty and terror and one needs to be prepared for the dangers that lurk within. A trusty steed, bold and well protected by armour, is a good companion for a perilous journey. An enchanted dagger at one’s side might also help, and jewellery infused with charms of good luck.

(Also, as an aside, if you have not read The Call by Peadar O’Guilin, do so if you want to read a truly frightening account of Faerie.)

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.

The Home & Garden Expo opens tomorrow, with nine sims full of fantastic creators and many, many vendors raising money for Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society. The event, running from the 27th of February to 21st of March, will make it ever so easy to get your house or your whole sim looking fantastic you give support to a very important cause.

I got the chance to blog the event and to start my coverage I did a tour of my assigned sim, Hope 9. And since Hope 9 is sponsored by Teegle, I did it on horseback. Look below for a video, a sneak peek photo of one of the two new Teeglepets as well as credits for what I am wearing.

I had high hopes for the latest Enchantment round with the theme of “Viking Saga”, but I must admit that I found it a little slim on really interesting releases. Probably a good thing for my virtual wallet, all considered. ;) And there definitely were some things that inspired me, such as Roawenwood’s “Runecasters Table”. Decor items/props that also tell a story and can be used for role-play always draw my eye and this was no exception.

This is a most definitely NSFW look at Dutchie’s latest release, a wood-fire heated hot tub. It does come in a PG as well as an Adult version, but…well, you know me. ;)

This style of outdoor hot tub is quite popular in Sweden and sees use all year around. I knew I wanted to shoot this in a winter surrounding, contrasting the steaming hot water with chilly, snow-covered surroundings. Given some of the activities in the Adult version, it might have gotten a little cool at times; you would generally prefer to submerge as much of yourself as possible in the hot water. Then again, if things heat up in a different way, you might not notice the cold for a while!

The hot tub is available at the current round of FaMESHed and you can read the details of the functionality and included animations on Dutchie’s site.

It probably won’t last over Christmas, but right now it is pretty and white outside my RL window as well, making it particularly appealing to setup another cosy holiday scene in SL too. For this one, I decided to use the dining set by also Known as from Redeux while I dressed warmly in knits from Applique Chic and the Plastik (I am also wearing a cute pair of heels that are matched to the leg warmers) and wore a new hair (with metallic antler accessory) from Wasabi. Poses are, once more, by Serendipity.

This is of course a weekend full of great deals in Second Life and I thought I would share just a few from the flood of Black Friday/Black Weekend sales. I rather prefer the virtual sales in Second Life to the physical ones; they satisfy the shopping urge without making me feel horribly consumerist. After all, a mesh head or two more won’t tax the environment that much! I haven’t actually shopped LOGO’s fantastic sale yet (75% off their heads and hud!), but Ran did pick up their second male head since he’s been very happy with the first one. However, I do have a hair to share from Astrology (50% off all regularly priced items) and a skin from Lumae (70% off all 2018 skins with Skin Addiction group tag). Plus this “swamp girl” outfit from Noble Creations, though that is not a sale item but a new release for Whimsical. Finally, Serendipity does have several heavily discounted pose sets right now, plus 50% on everything else.

Without any help from cute cartoon animals, this Cinderella has to sort out a gown for the ball on her own. I just love the kind of scenes you can setup with well-made roleplay props and some of the best definitely come from Roawenwood. The latest set is out at We Love Role-Play and offers not only a few different work animations but also options for rezzing different in-progress garments on the dummy. The top and skirt seen here is one such option, the dress shown in the background another.

Before sending me this outfit, Chandra Meehan of deviousMind asked if I was up for it, given what I said in my last post about spiders. I assured her that as long as the spiders weren’t animesh and crawling all over me, I would probably be fine. That said, there are a lot of spiders in this outfit! And I am not even wearing all of them here; there are a few more flexi add-ons, some applier layers (with or without blood) and some other hair/head ornaments (with spiders, of course). Additionally, there’s a nice accessory available for the Once Upon a Nightmare hunt.

Every witch needs a familiar—a cat, a raven or maybe a rat? In this case, two of them, a cuddly companion on my shoulder and a cheeky little fellow wandering on my worktable. Both come from Jian’s gacha at the Epiphany, with the shoulder companion being the rare item. Jian has been doing almost exclusively animal gachas or animal sets of late and are a great source for pets and companions. I hope they move into animesh when that is released, that would be really interesting.

I might be getting ahead of myself seasonally, but I couldn’t resist a wintry landscape for the very grey-themed look I had created with Lumae’s Elentari skin, Grier from Wasabi and the Fiona dress in grey from lassitude & ennui. As it happened, I had a couple of very nice bargains from Redeux to show off as well, one being the Winter Castle modular set from Mushilu (just L$100!). The other? A lovely pose set from Serendipity.