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.
One evening, a young lord walked through the gates, leading instead of riding a fine horse, with ribbons tied in its mane and tail. He went up to one of the elegant townhouses and knocked on the door. After a while, a servant opened the door and the lordling gave him a letter. Then, he retired to the nearby fountain to let his horse have a drink while he waited for a response.
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.
Journeying alone, she keeps to the less known roads, always with her bow and arrows within easy reach on her horse. The slight, elegant mare is a little too fine to pass as a common traveller’s horse and her own garb might also arouse too much interest. On this evening, she passes near the eastern shore of the peninsula. Some distance out into the water, a pair of houses on tall stilts are visible, their lights beckoning in an inviting fashion.
The sand storm delayed her and left few tracks to be followed, but eventually she found the site of the battle. But she was too late.
Be My Mannequin? is a pose store that I discovered quite recently and then was fortunate enough to get accepted as a blogger for. They offer single, couple and group poses of the “storytelling” variety, meaning they are great for building a scene around. That suits me perfectly, since I rarely have much of a need for straight-up modelling poses but instead want to show a moment from a story.
This particular pose included two variants for different shapes and I found that even though mine and Ran’s shapes tend to differ a bit from the SL average, the fit of the alternate version was very good. I also wanted to show how different a single pose can look depending on the angle, so I setup two similar shots from different angles.
Tomorrow is your very last chance for this year to visit the wondrous realms of the Fantasy Faire. This may be my last post for the year, unless I manage to squeeze out another one tomorrow, but don’t count on it. For this one, I opted for focusing on a couple of builds available at the Faire to create a Viking homestead.
As soon as I saw the Alicorn from Teegle, I knew that once I had shown it off with its “out of the box” appearance, I would have to transform it into one of my favourite fictional equines. Imraith-Nimphais, the blood-red flying unicorn from Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Fionavar Tapestry. If you don’t know it and you love fantasy, please give it a try. Its one of the most beautiful, heart-wrenching series of books that has ever been written. Those of you who have read it will know why I included a dragon in one of the shots.
The dragon, of course, is one of the amazing creations by Prehistorica: The Dawn Kingdoms, who also created the whole of the Khol Dracys sim. I don’t think actual animesh pets are for sale (alas) but it seems for display purposes they turned their dragon avatars into animesh. And now that I saw that the avatar comes in five sizes, I have to get one (unless, of course, there’s a pet version around the corner…). But dragon or wyvern? Decisions, decisions, but I think wyvern to use for some Targaryen dragon photos.
The Fantasy Faire has been extended until the 12th of May, giving you a few more days to explore the gorgeous sims and shop for a good cause. I finally caved in and bought the gorgeous Noahne Barding from Tutto e Vanita for my Teeglepet Pegasus, which of course will mean that I know need to get a copy version of the Pegasus to have both winged and wingless copies around. You see, the Pegasus makes a fantastic baroque horse.
Together with the beautiful armour from Old Treasures, which happened to match one of the texture options for the barding extremely well, I ended up with a look that made me think of a conquistador making his (well, her) way through a lush jungle on the hunt for a lost city in the Seventh Valley.
There are many things that are the best part of the Fantasy Faire (after all, it is the Fantasy Faire, so of course it can have many best parts!) and for the last years one of these best parts has been a new Teeglepet from Teegle. First it was Fable the Unicorn and then Mythos the Pegasus. This year, the two have snuck off for a bit of romance on the side and the result is Serenity the Alicorn, a gorgeous blend of the two with the most wonderful head shape and a stunning creamy white coat with pink undertones. This may be the prettiest Teeglepet yet and that’s saying something because they are all so gorgeous. You will find that both Teegle and other merchants already have plenty of accessories for the Alicorn out at the Faire, so go crazy!
Now, mythologically speaking a valkyrie would not ride an Alicorn, but who is to say what valkyries in the Fairelands ride? I just knew I had to take some in-flight photos at Alia Baroque’s amazing Valhalla sim and the Alicorn plus a valkyrie outfit seemed like the perfect fit. As it happened, Poseidon also has a set of valkyrie poses out at the Faire and their store is on Valhalla. And so, for that matter, is Wasabi and I am wearing one of their two Faire-hairstyles. My final Faire-item is the tattoo from Nefekalum, one of several special RFL editions out for the Faire.
And speaking of RFL, while not all the items I am using for my posts are RFL items, all of the vendors at the Faire do have RFL vendors out with wonderful things that you can buy to benefit the American Cancer Society.
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.)
You still have a few days to visit the current round of We Love Role-Play, where—among many other things—you can find the Evrim outfit from the Annex. I knew I wanted that one in gold as soon as I saw it (it also includes a sheer version, btw) but then Skin Fair came between me and setting up a desert scene for photoing it. When I finally did get around to it, I had picked up a couple of more things for the scene such as the beautiful lantern from the Dreaming Thicket and the ornate tack set by Cheval D’or.
We’re now heading into the final week of the Home & Garden Expo so I wanted to remind everyone that Teegle has two new Teeglepets at the Expo, the Fjord Horse and the Connemara Pony. I picked up the new pack of Fjord coats in all allowed colours from Teegle and decided that in this pale coat, he could play Bäckahästen (the River Horse, a creature from Nordic folklore) in this mystical woodland scene which features the Edo Freshwater from Konoha, also for the Expo.
In my last post, I did a tour of Hope 9, one of the Home & Garden Expo sims. I teased the upcoming releases from Teegle and gave you a look at the other creators on the sim, such as RVi Design. Now the time has come for a closer look at the Horse Ranch Homestead from the latter as well as the Teeglepet Fjord Horse and Teeglepet Connemara Pony.
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.
Les Encantades has a lovely set with a tunic, pants and shoes (each sold separately) out at We Love Role-Play and to me they suggested a hunter, especially in the Olive green version with brown accents. I found the shoes a little modern-looking so I wore a pair of boots from Senzafine instead and because the pants end a little below the knee that worked pretty well. The set is available for a wide range of bodies, including Slink Physique, which always makes me very happy. There are also alphas included, something I wish more creators did these days. After all, BOM was supposed to be the end of alpha cuts on the bodies, but sadly not all body makers have gone that route.