Otherworldly

With the holidays coming up, one question is likely to crop up more than once—what am I going to wear? I think I have decided what I am wearing for Christmas IRL, but my virtual self is even more indecisive. Not to mention that she has a much, much bigger wardrobe in her overflowing inventory.

What better way to illustrate that well-filled wardrobe than with the latest release from Dutchie, the complete women’s walk-in closet (matching the complete men’s walk-in closet released earlier this year). This modular closet set includes 11 different closets, 3 that are closed and 8 that show different sets of clothing, shoes and bags. A colour-change menu offers the choice of 6 wood colours and if you are comfortable editing and tinting you can customize the clothing within the closets as well. Additionally, extra clothing and accessories are included in the full package (and available for purchase separately), for example the red and black dresses shown in the image. These pieces are perfect props for photos or for personalizing your living space in Second Life with a bit of stylish clutter.

I love the We Love Role-Play release from deviousMind, “Mistletoe”. Not only is it a sexy holiday dress, but the little scythe for harvesting mistletoe hanging from the belt is the icing on the cake. Perfect for the girl who wants to ensure that there’s mistletoe hung wherever it is convenient. Alternatively, if she has any Norse gods to slay and needs to fashion herself a few arrows. The set includes an unrigged piece of mistletoe as well, which you can spot in the background. The rest of the decor is from various holiday sets from Libertine, including the awesome decorateable tree.

Deep in the woods, by a dark pool of water, sat a pale princess.

Ironically, the pose from Be My Mannequin? that I am using here is called “Sunlight in the Gray”, but what I ended up with was a foggy night-time scene, a little inspired by one of John Bauer’s paintings of Princess Tuvstarr by a forest tarn. The gorgeous long hairstyle is Alizee by Wasabi, which includes four different wear styles. And the pale skin is Delphine from Nar Mattaru.

The Klara hair from Wasabi adds a touch of playful innocence, as do the pale lilac of the stockings from Luxuria. But the Ohanna slip from Faida is anything but, with both the top and the skirt made from delicate lace (which Titania Halasy does so well). Altogether, the perfect little outfit for an evening at home…with some special company, of course.

When she entered the castle, rows of ice sculptures of strange creatures greeted her. She wandered among them, marvelling at how life-like they were. Not until it was too late did she realise why they looked so real—they were not sculptures at all!

The stunning Sarah Ball Gown by HEXtraordinary looks absolutely amazing and based on the brands first forays into clothing I cannot wait to see more. The texturing is top notch and the meshes beautifully made. This particular gown is of course inspired by the gown worn by Sarah in the dream sequence masquerade in Labyrinth (raise your hands everyone who has that as a favourite scene!) and at first I wanted to capture something of that in my photos. Alas, while I know a replica of the ballroom was made in Second Life, it was many years ago and I did not buy it at the time. But then I got the idea of instead using the ice sculptures that were also made by HEXtraordinary, creating something a little inspired by Narnia instead with the help of the imposing Stalker Castle from Fanatik.

Another great release from the Engine Room is the Monarch hair by Magika. This is a beautiful updo with long tendrils framing the face and a dramatic crown with tall spikes. The latter can be turned off for a more casual look. This round of the Engine Room closes in ten days, so don’t miss out!

The Engine Room is open again and it may be even more amazing than usual, posing a serious danger to any virtual wallet. I’ve been by there a few times already and I expect a few more trips as I agonize over colour choices.

My first choice for what to feature was easy, however. Chandra Meehan of deviousMind has released the Agnes clock harness and leather top which works together with a number of her other releases. I opted for combining it with the Avery set as it included both hotpants and a pair of seriously cool boots. The end result might be called boudoir steampunk?

With Dutchie‘s latest release, chances are the male avatars in your life will take significantly longer to get dressed. The new mainstore release is a walk-in closet for men with a wide array of (display) clothing options. Indeed, if you get the full closet package you also get boxes of additional display clothing on hangers or folded as well as extra display shoes. You can use these to switch out the contents in the wardrobe or to decorate with. Or why not as props, as I do in the second photo? The clothing, both the pieces already in the wardrobes and the extras, can also be tinted for further customization. If you just want the display clothing, you can buy this separately.

There are 10 different wardrobe setups included, 7 with different clothing contents (5 wide, 2 narrow) and 3 closed (1 wide, 2 narrow). You get 6 texture options for the wood, where the white and black make excellent bases for tinting. The wardrobes can be arranged together any way you wish, so if you don’t have the right room for a full walk-in closet setup, it will still work beautifully.

The only downside is that you can’t actually wear any of the stylish pieces filling up the wardrobes! But it does make it look like you have a very expensive Second Life clothing collection.

The current round of Enchantment gives me creative anxiety. I love (read: am completely obsessed with) the Iliad and the Odyssey, which means that I want anything I do inspired by that to be especially nice. Hence I have spent days trying to decide what to do!

Then an idea presented itself as I tried out the set of “Build-a-Battle” poses from Be my Mannequin (available as singles or a fatpack at the event). I wanted to portray one of the Amazons, who came to the aid of the Trojans later in the war (after the death of Hector) under the leadership of their Queen, Penthesilea. With the hunt-gift helmet from Whymsical Marketplace and an earlier release from deviousMind inspired by the goddess of the hunt, Diana, I put together my look and went in search for a good location. Once there, I couldn’t resist this night-time windlight, just look at that wine-dark sea.

A while back, I showed off a pair of Grecian-inspired earrings and a necklace from Old Treasures. Since then, the Kleos series has seen quite a few more releases, including clothing for both male and female avatars. I love the attention to detail with these pieces, from the shape of the garments to the textures that suggest different fabrics. I am particularly fond of the texture and the colours on the male clothing, but the female outfit is very good too.

The male set includes the chlamys (the robe-like garment) and the perizoma (basically a loincloth) and six colour combinations for each. The female outfit is sold as two separate pieces, the chiton (dress) and sash, where the sash comes in a version for wearing on its own and in a version for wearing over the chiton. There are several colourpacks available for each piece.

I found the perfect setting for showing off these outfits in this temple build from Del-ka Aedilis. Admittedly intended as a Roman-inspired temple, it definitely works well enough for a fantasy Grecian feel as well. The temple uses a rezzer and includes two statues as well as some plants, though these can be unlinked and removed after the fact if one prefers. I also added a pair of incense burners from Paper Moon.

Both Ran and I did some shopping when LeLutka had their Black Friday sale ( I picked up Zora and Inez while he got Paxton and Skyler), but with December being so busy we’ve not had a chance to play much with making new shapes until now. But here I’ve got a nice combination of Nar Mattaru’s Delphine on Inez while Ran is wearing Clef de Peau’s Evan on Paxton. I also picked up some new pieces on Salt & Pepper’s current retirement sale, where selected releases are at 80% off and the Miya dress struck me as a great one to wear for this intimate and possessive couple pose from Be My Mannequin?

I love how this image came out, both moody and seasonal. I’ve been struggling a bit with ideas again, but I think it is partly because I have been trying to force myself to blog the wrong things. For next year, I will need to rethink my blogging commitments. On the one hand, if I don’t have some things I actually have to do, I can get too indecisive and just never get anything done because I keep waiting for the perfect idea. On the other hand, if I have to work too hard to get inspired it can be draining.

Anyway, when I saw this lovely dress from Faida and Velvet Whip at Redeux, I knew I wanted to do something with it. But I’ve wandered about in it for a few days now without just the right idea (see above), until I remembered the Starlight Lantern from Contraption that I picked up a few weeks ago. Off to my little winter landscape in the sky I went and then the magic happened.

The 11th edition of the SL Christmas Expo has opened its doors today and you don’t want to miss out on visiting this event between the 3rd and the 14th of December. There’s a total of 15 regions filled with merchants, breedables and entertainment such as auctions, music and other special events, offering visitors many ways to help raise money for the American Cancer Society with a special focus on helping children with cancer. You can find the list of participating merchants, a schedule of events and much more at the official website. For my part, I will do my best to entice to you to visit by giving you some looks at a few of the things you can buy at the Expo!

This year I decided to combat the urge to shop for real things I don’t need during Black Friday by instead buying lots and lots of virtual things. I did get a few things IRL as well, but only planned purchases I had had my eye on for a while. The same was not strictly true for my Second Life shopping spree. ;) Some of it will be seen in this post, but there’s plenty left for later too. I’ve also got a brand new release to talk about, the first new hair from Wasabi for a while and it comes with some big changes for the brand.