BERRY’S MEMES: Yearbook Smile Challenge

BERRY’S MEMES: Yearbook Smile Challenge

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The ever fragrant Strawberry Singh ( I bet she tastes of Strawberries and her farts smell of glittery rainbow sparkles, but that’s a conversation for another day I feel) has relaunched her Blogger Challenges and she’s started with an absolute stonker!

The latest challenge is to create a Yearbook style photo of your avatar.  Berrycakes has created a Flickr group especially for these pictures and there are some fantastic images in there from all sorts of avatars in Second Life. There are even a few Linden contributions too!  Of course mine had to mention cats in some way.  I was going to write “Most likely to die alone and be eaten by her cats”, but Jez had an epic sad when I wrote that and said I wouldn’t die alone because I’d have him, which was rather sweet really. He’s clearly after something…

Anyway, if you want to take a picture and contribute to the rogues gallery then read all the instructions here on Berry’s Blog.  Thanks for a corking meme challenge Berryburps!

NEW YEAR, NEW KITTY!? (Not ruddy likely!)

NEW YEAR, NEW KITTY!? (Not ruddy likely!)

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HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY READERS!

I hope you’ve all had a fantastic festive season with your family and loved ones.  I know I had an absolutely cracking time, but in between RL work and being with loved ones I found very little time to log-in (which is just as it should be!)   I’m making up for it now though with gusto, and busily compiling some blog posts for you all to enjoy. So let’s start as we mean to go on shall we?

Seeing as it’s a new year I thought I’d share my first semi-nude shot of the year with you all, LOL!  This is me sporting the latest mesh body to hit the grid, ‘Lara’ by MAITREYA. Now, I decided after the BELLEZA malarkey that I wasn’t going to buy any more mesh bodies because with all the DMCA nonsense I didn’t ‘t know if they would prove to be a sound investment. Spendin thousands of Lindens upon something for which you’d expect regular updates, only for the item to be DMCA’d and taken off-grid isn’t a good return on the money spent. Not that I’m tight but I’m not made of Lindens, and I like to be careful what I buy. (Of course you do Kitty, that’s why you have 56k of items in your inventory…PFFFT)

Fortunately BELLEZA returned back to the grid with their wonderful mesh body and a happy Kitty this did make, so when MAITREYA released Lara my initial thoughts were “Nah, I’ll give it a miss.” I already had two mesh bodies, SLINK and BELLEZA, so I didn’t need another one, right? WRONG.

I made the FATAL mistake of demoing Lara. (I blame Magenta De Vinna AKA Skittles for this, because I asked on Plurk if I should give it a go because clearly I can’t think for myself, and Skittles told me that it was definitely worth a demo.) The rest is history. Readers, this body is bloody divine. I zoomed over to a sandbox, opened the box and fell in love.

So what are my thoughts on this bod? It’s very different to SLINK and BELLEZA in that, well to my eyes at least, it’s more ‘lifted’ around the bewbs and bum areas, but not in an exaggerated Nicki Minaj-on-acid manner. It feels youthful and zesty and vibrant and is VERY easy to wear. To me, SLINK feels like the classic mesh body that anyone can wear, BELLEZA feels more modern in some ways,  but this one feels, well, fizzy and vibrant, if you get my drift? Indeed, this is the first mesh body I’ve tried where I’ve managed to get a really good skin match out of the box without wearing one of the designated skins. Seaming issues to the neck in this body have been minimal for me, and after a few minor corrections I can’t see a join at all. I have had problems with my BELLEZA body and my SLINK body with the neck area, but the MAITREYA body has pretty much worked straight out of the box, which has made it a real blessing in my opinion. The whole package feels less ‘fussy’ in a lot of ways; although the HUD doesn’t have the panache of say the Belleza HUD, it’s effective and easy to use. I think the alphas are the most

The whole package feels less ‘fussy’ in a lot of ways; although the HUD doesn’t have the panache of say the Belleza HUD, it’s easy to use. I think the alphas are the most effective thus far too; I’ve found fitting my clothing around this to be the easiest of all the bodies that I wear.  I’ve had issues in the past where I’ve had to change my shape to get the best fit, I haven’t with this and my outfits look grand.

As far as changes go I’d like to see more hand positions included and more nail polish colours too in the basic HUD, but apart from that I really don’t see what other improvements will need to be made, other than enhancements over time.  The HUD needs work I think, even when resized it’s quite intrusive on the screen so if that could be reduced to a tiny icon by the click of a button that would prove useful. It also lacks ‘Oomph’ as far as HUDS go, it could do with prettying up a bit, but that is a cosmetic change that has absolutely no impact on the quality of this body at all.  Of course I ended up buying it, and guys I haven’t taken it off since I got it! 

If you’re into mesh bodies then you definitely need this one in your collection, and if you’ve never tried them before why not give the DEMO a try? The results are really

The results are really fantastic, as I hope my photographs demonstrate..

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I mean just LOOK at my bum, look at the hands…GAH!!! Amazeballs aren’t they? I absolutely LOVE it! There’s plenty of blogger buzz about this release too. I particularly liked Berry’s blog post about this body, which compares it with others on the market (except Belleza), and you can read it here.

Check out the MAITREYA ‘Lara’ body by clicking HERE to visit the Mainstore  The body costs L$2750 (That’s about £5.25), and for the product I think that’s an incredibly fair price.

Have you tried the Maitreya ‘Lara’ body yet?

What do you think?

Let us know in the comments below!

Kitty and The Drax Files

Kitty and The Drax Files

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(Sounds like a band doesn’t it?) I’m a huge fan of Draxtor Despres’s Work, as regular readers will well be aware, so imagine what a treat it was for me when he asked me to appear on the 50th episode of the Drax Files with Drax, Jo Yardley and Tracy Redangel. It’s well worth a listen!

Recording was great fun and we had LOTS to talk about. We were mainly discussing the DMCA process, in particular the situation with Belleza. It certainly stirred our passions as you will hear; with us all condemning the individuals who maliciously brought about the action. Incidentally, I’m delighted to say that Belleza have placed the Venus Mesh Body back on sale again, and rightly so! HUZZAH!

Click here to be impressed by the banter and to laugh at Kitty’s accent..

Witchy Wednesdays: Twig Star Light Group Gift From Tarte

Witchy Wednesdays: Twig Star Light Group Gift From Tarte

1956873_1003658229650997_627982388051715559_oAs symbols go I’m probably right in saying that there’s nothing more prominent than a Pentagram for declaring your witchy inclinations.

Of course, a Pentagram doubles up as a star too and oftentimes you can use star shapes as a way of subtly declaring your beliefs. This Group Gift from Tarte is, of course, completely fitting for the festive season, but once Yule has ended you could keep this light glowing as a focal point in your virtual home. It’s really lovely isn’t it? The group is free to join too,  so it’s a proper treat (as are most things from Tarte) It’s difficult to find inspired mesh pieces to decorate your witchy abode in Second Life, but I think this is an absolute must-have and the fact that it’s made from twigs adds an extra bit of elemental oomph.

Be sure that you don’t miss out on this! Click HERE to visit Tarte, join the group and check the notices for this fabulous gift.