I’m really starting to turn into the queen of piss-poor puns aren’t I? Ah well, I can’t be perfect ALL the time…<ahem>
For today’s Witchy Wednesday post I have a corking collection to tell you about; the FANTASTIC ‘Eerie’ earrings and necklace available from CAE. CAE have to be my favourite jewellery brand of the year; Caelan Hancroft crafts delicate and beautifully presented items that often incorporate features such as texture and stone change as standard. The necklaces are super-easy to resize too.
Discovering this ‘Eerie’ set was a real treat for me, because even though it’s obviously aimed at the Halloween market, it can be worn all year round should you so wish. In fact, it’s nice to have a change from wearing a pentacle. As much as I adore them (and have zillions in both real and Second Life) it’s good to have something a little different to wear and subtly declare your Witchy affiliations.
The strength of Eerie lies in the 8 charms to select from; Owl, Pumpkin, Ghost, Cat, Spider, Crescent Moon, Bat and Witch’s Hat. There’s a choice of Gold or Silver metals via HUD.
I am absolutely LOVING this set and will get tons of wear out of it. You can purchase the earrings for L$395, and the necklace for L$495 from the Marketplace. Thanks for creating such a natty collection Caelan!
You may well encounter a rather beautiful surprise. I’m calling this my ‘Fantasy Fairy Witch-Queen ‘ ensemble, and this post is in complete contrast to the last one, because rather than me walking around freaking everyone out with decapitations galore, I’m instead gliding around and looking very Witchy-glam.
HORRORFEST 2013 is actually bursting at the seams with fantastic fashion that isn’t just limited to wearing during the Spooky Season. I compiled this look to share with you a few amazing pieces that are available at the event, and I’ll be featuring more Horrorfest-inspired ensembles during the duration of the show, but for now let’s kick off with an absolute belter shall we?
SAKIDE is one of those brands in world that rarely puts a foot wrong, and I have many items from the store in my inventory. I was delighted to see that they were taking part in this event, and even more so when I discovered what they were contributing. They’ve allocated a lovely collection of wearables, the highlight for me being this astonishingly beautiful tube dress. This is the ‘Wilds Dress’ in red. The dress is incredibly on-trend, in a style that a lot of celebrities are opting for at premieres, and I’m not surprised because it is so beautiful. It’s deceptively simple; with the dress featuring a double-layered skirt that’s short underneath, but overlaid with a gauze that reaches down to the floor. There’s a black pattern embossed onto it as well as a thin belt defining the waist. It’s absolutely breathtaking. Effortless really, yet works so well. I’ve teamed it with some SAKIDE leather arm-warmers which aren’t featured at the event but I found them lurking in my inventory, and whaddya know? They look spot on with the frock.
The dress isn’t the only star of this show; feast your eyes upon this astonishing headpiece by PAPER MOON. This is the ‘Sisters of the Moon-Sister Crow’ head-dress, and is part of a range available at Horrorfest, with other versions called ‘Sister Deer’, ‘Sister Rat’ and the charity donation item, ‘Sister Autumn’. All of them are equally amazing, but this one really spoke to me. I’ve never really been a head-gear wearer in world, but I know that plenty are, but that changed when I took one look at the quality of these. Oh my word, they are beautiful. This one features a crow skull centrepiece, framed by a pair of goats horns. Flowers also adorn the ensemble, which is completed with a teardrop jewel hanging from the beak of the skull. A final flourish is the pearl beading, which drapes delicately upon the forehead. I didn’t need to make any fitting alterations to this at all; it worked straight out of the box and when teamed with this LAVIERE hair that I scooped out of my inventory it just looked perfect, don’t you think?
A final item to wrap up the whole look is the collar from SOUZOU EIEN, a brand that I had never encountered before Horrorfest. Again, like head-dresses, I’ve never really been a collar fan. This all changed back in August when I was sent the ‘Sansa Neck Corset’ from LARK, and I’ve never looked back. ( You can read that post HERE) Neck collars and corsets really finish an outfit in a far more substantial way than a necklace or simple tie-scarf, and not only that, they can create a drama all of their very own, as is clearly demonstrated by this ‘Elegant Throat Corset’. Again. like the dresses and head-pieces there are a number of varieties for you to investigate at the fair, featuring lace or velveteen fabrics, but each one of them is equally worthy of your Lindens, and as you can see really does add a very classy finishing touch to an outfit. It completes the whole ensemble that I am wearing absolutely perfectly, and I think I look ruddy gorgeous, even if I do say so myself. I bet you’d look just as lovely in this too!
I received a note in my inbox the other day to tell me that Vista Animations had just released a new AO (Animation Override). Now, if you don’t know what one of those is, it’s best described as a scripted attachment which replaces standard animations (walk, jump, stand, run, etc.) with animations created by residents. (Torley Linden has a pretty self-explanatory video posted here which tells you all you need to know.)
I haven’t worn an AO in an age, primarily because I keep forgetting to put one on, but they really do give your avatar an extra boost of reality. They can also make them much more entertaining to watch when you’re in conversation, or exploring a sim.
Vista Animations have a reputation for being one of the best AO creators in-world, and when I discovered that this new release was called ‘Feline’, well, how on earth would I be able to resist?
Answer: I couldn’t, so I noob-strutted my way over to their store to investigate. It’s crammed to the rafters with AO’s for Male and Female avatars,and it’s easy to waste serious amounts of time hopping on and off all the demos on display.
I wasn’t the only one testing out the ‘Feline’ charm either. There are four test stands at the store with each one holding various AO components, when I visited it was very busy with female avatars of all shapes and size eagerly waiting their turn.
Business must be good! Anyway, patient Kitty that I am, I waited for my turn..and then hopped on a pad to test it out!
My problem with AO’s is that they always seem overwhelming with the amount of animations that they invariably offer so many sits for a start. I mean, I have two sit poses that I use in real life; one multi-tasking sit pose which enables me to sit at my desk, drive my car and read my Ipad on the bog, and the other I use to look very graceless and un-ladylike on the sofa of an evening. Why do I need more than two? The answer is of course that you don’t, BUT this being Second Life it’s de-rigueur to have a multitude of poses for every occasion, and Felina has them in spades. (And of course, you can de-activate the ones that you don’t want to use, but why would you when they’re this much fun?!)
Felina features 22 stands, 9 walks, 6 sits, 5 ground-sits, 2 runs, 2 crouches, a crouch-walk (whatever that is, for some reason my brain conjured up an image of Peter Crouch in distress on the football field but I think it’s more likely to involve super-heroes on rooftops) and 8 dances. That’s an overwhelming amount of movement crammed into a single AO package and when my turn came I eagerly jumped upon one of the platforms to test it out..
Felina is evidently aimed at the role-playing crowd, at least that’s what the adverts in store suggest, but from experimenting with the poses I can tell you that, like Catwoman, Felina is VERY adaptable. (See what I did there? Clever Kitty!)
The walks in particular are excellent, with the sideways shuffle (crouch-walk?) being very effective. There’s also a fast-paced, assertive stride which is just an essential purchase for bloggers on a mission at an event or sale. All of the sits work a treat, and I was impressed by the weighting of the animations making the running movements look realistic and fun. There are some Matrix-style leaps and bounds which are perfect for fighting bad guys, and I was surprised and impressed to see swimming movements included too. The included dances are slinky and smooth and just what I have been looking for in Second Life for a very long time too. (Catdance07 in particular is a nice, seductive dance, best conducted at the side of the dancefloor while purring!)
It’s never easy testing out a new AO when you’re in a busy sim filled with its own distractions (I was perplexed and bemused by a semi-naked avatar jiggling her boobies on a dance pad with a pet rabbit at her heels…yup, entry #267 in the ‘Things That You Only See In Second Life’ book), and it can be difficult to get a genuine feel for how an AO will work with your avvie, but Vista have tried to address that by publishing a YouTube video featuring Felina in action….
Note: I probably wasn’t dressed in the right attire for mood-setting for a new AO. Readers will know by now that I’m a bit of a Catwoman obsessive, collecting comics and figurines in real-life as well as owning many a latex suit in my Second, but I didn’t have time to get the talcum powder out and squeeze my virtual flab into something sexy so opted instead to wear my fabulous onesie from Collab88 (which I haven’t told you about yet, see the next post on the blog!!)
I’ve spent almost an hour in-store playing about with this AO and I’ve come to the conclusion that Felina is a really special AO indeed. It’s totally drowning in feline presence but in a stylish, seductive way. It’s bold and really makes your avatar stand out in the crowd. This isn’t in your face Neko posturing and pretending to be a cat; Felina is totally human, in fact I’d go so far as to say that this AO is how Selina Kyle would move and act in RL, which for me makes it a winner. (I’m basing this on my regular reading of the New 52, rather than any recent movie incarnations.)
My only issue was that I found it a little confusing to purchase in-store. There’s some sort of loyalty-scheme in operation, but I struggled to figure it out due to my being small of brain (and also due to being distracted by some over-exciteable avatars next to me typing Cyrillic into their keyboards like it was going out of fashion!), so I’ll need to pop back and read up on it when I’m feeling less intellectually-challenged.
However I’m happy to tell you that this AO is available from the Marketplace and is currently priced at an incredibly reasonable L$1900. (Alas, I’m skint until pay-day so I hope the promotional offer sticks around for a wee bit longer, as I think this may have to be my signature AO!)
Finally, when I was looking for the official Vista Animations Felina video, I came across a few others that seemed home-made but worthy of a peek for illustrating the benefits of this AO.
Click HERE and HERE to check them out, and don’t forget to visit the MAIN STORE to try Felina out for yourself!
So here I am taking a breather behind a rock and having a think about a few things. (This is my intelligent thinking face, stop laughing at the back!)
I’ve actually managed to get into The Arcade a couple of times now (although not for long sadly, I maxed out at five minutes before I was unceremoniously booted out.) As a result of my swift sojourn there I have a superfluous amount of oars in my inventory because the Apple Fall Gacha clearly hates me. (I’m desperately trying to get the rare sideboard!) I was lucky enough to get the tall cabinet and believe me it is a thing of sheer beauty, but then, so many items in this round of The Arcade are, and it’s hard to know where to start once you do get in. I’ve actually taken to sitting outside, behind the venue on the chairs and camming in which is a useful tactic if you don’t want to be bamboozled by busty avatars and unceremoniously booted out of the way by toddlededoodles or whatever the child avatars are called these days.
As you can tell by the picture I got my paws on some CURIO OBSCURA boots and I think they are nothing less than extraordinary. In fact, my mind is completely boggled by the Gachas this round. I knew that they were going to be good, but blooming heck, they’re outstanding! In fact,it’s really hard not to completely lose your way on them and just throw all your money at them. You know, the content creators who have worked on this event must be making an absolute fortune, and quite right too. The effort that has gone into the whole enterprise is there for all to see, and everyone involved deserves to do well from it. I actually find myself just staring at the creations I see on the screen before me in sheer wonder at what has been made. It’s almost meta-wonder too; I’m staring in wonder at something in a virtual world that someone in the real world made for it. Kind of makes the brain boggle a bit doesn’t it?
So, the reason for this post. I happened across a really useful blogpost during the week that features a listing of various yard sales which is very handy to have if you’re keen to hunt down a particular item. I actually had to put a plea on Plurk for said blogpost too, because I thought I had bookmarked it and was seriously alarmed when I realised that I hadn’t. (Amazingly enough someone identified exactly what I was looking for by my asking if anyone..”Knew of a blog post by a lady-blogger that features a list of yard sales..” Plurk really is a clever wee community when it wants to be!)
So the blog post can be found here, and it’s rather blinking good as a comprehensive yard sale starting point. I realise that more locations will have been added since the post was published, but even so it’s a more than adequate way to plan your yardsale tour. It’s on a blog called ‘All About The Little’, which is a blog aimed at the child avatar community, and even though child avatars are not my thing I do recognise the very important role that they play in many a person’s Second Life. It’s actually a really nice blog too; professionally laid out and very informative too. It’s clearly a labour of love for Addison Faye and aims to keep the kids community up to date with events on the grid, and in my opinion does a cracking job of it. And if Google docs are more your thing, get your eyes on THIS LIST too! LOOK AT ALL THE SALES, CAN YOU EVEN?!
A final thought, if you’ve had your fill of all things Gacha, let me frustrate you even further by telling you that this month’s round of Collabor88 has started and it’s a flipping corker.
But don’t despair too much, at least you might be able to get into The Arcade now!
I’m really starting to turn into the queen of piss-poor puns aren’t I? Ah well, I can’t be perfect ALL the time…<ahem>
The strength of Eerie lies in the 8 charms to select from; Owl, Pumpkin, Ghost, Cat, Spider, Crescent Moon, Bat and Witch’s Hat. There’s a choice of Gold or Silver metals via HUD.
Kittywitchin' 