Tag: Miriel

Time To Say Goodbye…to Miriel

Time To Say Goodbye…to Miriel

by Lisa Millar ♥ 1 Comment

Miriel Enfield is leaving Second Life, and I for one am absolutely gutted by this news  that was announced discreetly and without drama upon her blog as follows:

THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2009
Some time in the next few weeks, I will be permanently closing the shop and getting rid of the sim.If you want anything — eyes, jewelry, pictures of the forest — it’s best to do so soon.

If you’ve read Kittywitchin’ since its inception you will be well aware that I rarely stray from wearing Miriel eyes. Nothing else has ever satisfied my requirements in quite the same way…and I’m so sad that I won’t be able to peruse the wares on display in her beautiful store anymore.

There has in my opinion never been an eye colour palette to rival the selection available from Miriel’s store. The iris colours are utterly beautiful and they’re so artfully blended that they make your mouth moisten with anticipation. Add to that the excellent menu purchase system and unbelievably reasonable prices and you couldn’t have wished for a more statisfying Second Life shopping experience. Contrary to popular belief I don’t own the entire range, although I wish I did, but I do own a selection of Miriel eyes and what a wonderful addition to my inventory they are too.
Put simply, I’m not ‘dressed’ unless I am wearing my Miriel eyes. (Big or standard for the win, as realistic were always a tad on the small side for my fancy:)

A lot of my peers in the Second Life Bloggerverse are equally saddened by this news, but it’s hardly surprising. You knew where you were with Miriel’s designs, understood that you were getting quality (you only had to look at the stunning design of her sim to realise that) and you were guaranteed great value for money. There aren’t many content creators in world who can satisfy completely such a stringent criteria, but Miriel could.

You may think that I’m being a tad melodramatic here, but the fact is we’re losing a Second Life institution that I personally wish I’d appreciated and supported more upon these pages.

I know others feel the same way, and wished that we’d blogged about her more consistently. I feel ashamed about that because I am always raving about Miriel’s work to all and sundry and now I feel as though we all took the genius of Miriel for granted. The fact is her creations (and not just her eyes although they are my favourite, but also her stunning jewellery, hair and shapes) are so good you just didn’t need to keep returning to the store to make purchase after purchase!

As I mentioned before I don’t know the reasons behind the decision to close, but it’s a fair assumption to make that it may be something to do with the current economic climate. Times are hard for all of us, and if that is the case then it’s an especially cruel irony that a lack of appreciation may well have contributed to the brand’s demise, despite it being held in such high esteem by so many people.

I don’t know when the store will close, so I implore you to scrounge up the few Lindens that you have in your pocket and go to Miriel’s sim before it disappears forever. Take photographs of the sim and revel in the area’s beauty and when you’ve sated your creative urges go into the store and splurge on eyes, hair and jewellery to your hearts content. Work as graceful as this will likely never be seen in Second Life again and such talent cannot be repeated nor replaced.

Finally, I have no idea if Miriel will ever see this post but I just want to write a message for her:

Miriel,

Thank you so much for sharing your creative talents with Second Life. Your work will always be cherished by those of us who purchased it in-world and I hope you will be comforted to know that you made so many of us very happy. For me you contributed a vital element to the fundamental development of Kitty’s appearance.
Your designs are exemplary, and Kitty (and I’m sure many other avatars) will continue to wear Miriel eyes long after the doors to your store have closed for good.
Whatever your future holds I wish you every success..

Hugs and Noms,
Kitty =^..^=

It’s not easy being green…

It’s not easy being green…

by Lisa Millar ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

..No, scrap that, contrary to popular belief, it is very easy being green! I’ve really enjoyed wearing this skin which was sent out as part of Blogger Appreciation Week. It’s called ‘Half Dragon Green Avatar’ and is by IEVL. I told you I would be trying out a load of new things and this is a bit of a starter for ten, don’t ya think? If I’m honest I wasn’t anticipating that much from this at all, but thought it would be only polite to give it a whirl seeing as the skin was a gift. I’m happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this look, in fact, I quite like it! As regular readers will no doubt be aware apart from my occasional Neko-play I don’t ever really try anything ‘alternative’ so I didn’t really know what to expect… I thought at best I’d look like the ‘Jolly Green Giant’, and at worst Zelda from Terrahawks, so imagine my delight when I saw how pretty this is! It’s a fetching shade of pale green and features a scale surface pattern (I’ve brightened it up a tad for the picture) It wears well, but I would have preferred to see smaller scales and a tad more shading on the body area. Those criticisms aside, I think that the face is especially lovely, butI didn’t rate the contacts that came as part of the package, fussy mare that I am – so I opted instead for my Miriel eyes in ‘Sunlit Tree’ and I think it all matches beautifully. The hair that I’m wearing was also a freebie, this time from Magika. It’s called ‘Curl’ and as you would expect from this brand it’s a stunning style, featuring excellent movement and shape. I love the hair-pin detailing and the shabbiness of this style..I’ve opted for black for this photo as I particularly liked the contrast with the skin.For my outfit I’m wearing a scarf that Callie Cline provided and I’m completely in love with it. It fits perfectly, the bow shape looks tidy yet fashionably loose, and I love the texture choice; I opted to wear this with a the group gift from CKSD, ‘Essential T-Shirt Dress’ in Teal. This is a great frock and the kind of inventory item that you can dress up, down and create utterly squillions of looks with. (I know some people need to dress their avs in office chic and I think this dress lends itself very well to that particular look) The dress is tidily finished with prim sleeves and skirt attachments that require minimal fiddling to fit. Finally to finish off the look are some amazing ‘Slip-on clogs -Jewels’ from Duh! Again, a brand that I had no previous experience of but are now firmly embedded in my mental ‘Kitty must shop there’ list. ( You can see those in my other green picture in my Flickr to the right of this post..see it? Good!) The shoes are utterly scrumptious and really complete the outfit. They look amazingly chunky with a fabulous texture on the heel and a lovely glossy finish to the main shoe. They’ve obviously been built with incredible care, and feature embellishment in the shape of either a gold or silver hoop that hangs loosely from the main body of the shoe and breaks up the chunkiness of the style. This takes the shoes into smart-casual territory, but that’s not to say that you can’t dress them down; obviously they work brilliantly with this dress but they would also look just as good with jeans or trousers. The final touch is this enormous chunky green ring, again a Blogger Week gift from Callie, that features a colour change fgem  so that I can match ‘The Rock’ to any outfit I choose

 I think this entire look works surprisingly well and I just love this photo..I hope you agree and are up for the challenge of giving an unusual skin a try-out. Go on, be brave..if I can do it so can you!

(Oh and if you think this is impressive..wait until you see what is up next!)

Bare Rose is Belissima!

Bare Rose is Belissima!

by Lisa Millar ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Bare Rose was the very first store that was ever suggested to me as a Second Life noob. I had no idea about fashion in the metaverse then, some would argue that I still don’t, and I didn’t know what to expect upon arrival, but what I found blew me away. It’s now over two years since my first ever visit and Bare Rose has become a constant in my SL fashion adventures. Bare Rose offers no compromises; just some absolutely fantastic fashion at the BEST PRICES ON THE SL GRID. Now, I’ve no doubt that your ‘higher end’ labels offer just as good value for money and quality goods, well I know this to be a fact seeing as I shop at such places myself, BUT the fact of the matter is June Dion, the uber-designer behind the brand, offers some astonishingly above average clothing at a fraction of the regular cost of Second Life clothing. When you go to the store prepare to feel overwhelmed- there is an exhausting array of clothing styles for any occasion and any fashion genre. From cosplay to gothic gowns you’ll find absolutely *everything* represented here and rendered to absolute perfection. I firmly believe that if the grid were to go ‘pop’ leaving one store behind, and that store was Bare Rose, you’d still have enough fashion to keep the even the highest maintenance fashionsta happy. The only problems I ever face at Bare Rose are location based rather than quality related. The lag can be an absolute nightmare because this clothing mecca gets VERY busy and the ARC of the regular shopper here tends to be a bit on the extortionate side. There are also such a vast array of outfits on show that it can take an age to search through them all. Not necessarily a bad thing but combined with lag it can be a pain in the rear. Still, despite these minor gripes Bare Rose manages to remain at the front of the pack amongst avatars, but it seems to me that it can often be neglected in favour of some of the more elitist, and dare I say it, more egotistical brands on the grid by some, but not all SL Fashion writers. But herein lies it’s strength: it doesn’t need to broadcast from the top of Linden Towers to let us know just how ruddy good it is, we all know and word of mouth keeps trade flourishing very nicely indeed thank you very much..So, kitty rave over-this leads me on to tell you about the outfit on display here. It’s called ‘Miri’ and it’s a bit spesh. I’m wearing the grey version here, but you also get pink and black options included in the pack, as well as a long skirt option. The texture and shading selected are spot on, but what makes this the dogs cogs are the details, such as the prim bow and collar, and extras such as contrast brass buttons. Looks uber smart doesn’t it? I’m wearing it with long grey socks (not included), one of my Redgrave skins and Zero Style ‘Dana’ hair for a smart casual Sundaylicious look. BUT that’s not all…look at the bag! OMG Bare Rose produce bags too and I had NO idea until my latest visit to the ‘Bare Rose Haute Couture’ outlet. This is one of those super trendy huge bags that all the celebs brand as weapons to fend off the paparrazi and it is *utterly* gorgeous.It’s a thing of beauty that I want in real life! Again, this is perfectly detailed with brass rivets (co-ordinates well with Miri don’t you think?) combined with super strap details that look super impressive in close up. I think this is just an exceptionally classy look, and the best bit is both Miri and the Belissima bag cost under L$200 each!!! I know! Pick yourselves up off the floor! June Dion has done it again and proves without a doubt that Second Life style doesn’t have to cost a bloody fortune..perhaps if other designers followed June’s model there would be less griping across the grid with regards to pricing and the freebie culture, but that’s a whole different debate for another day. (Look, there’s only a very select few designers out there that offer similar quality, content and fabooshness to June for such low prices, the only other example that springs to mind is the ever wonderful Ivey Deschanel and her Sn@tch empire but it’s late and I’m tired:)
So, rave over. If you require further convincing zoom on over to Bare Rose HQ and if you can get in fall upon it, make like a vampire and feast yourself on ferocious fashion until you’ve gorged yourself silly and turned into the grid equivalent of Anna Wintour. Eep!

All wrapped up…..

All wrapped up…..

by Lisa Millar ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

 

You know how sometimes in real life  you can feel decidedly ‘Meh’? Well, you can feel like that in Second life too. For all my so-called shopping expertise ( SNORT! SPLUTTER! GUFFAW!) I can often find myself in world thinking I’ve nowhere to go and nothing to do..utterly pathetic really. However, sometimes meh-moods are a good thing. Example: In world the other night mooching around, I thought I’d poddle over to CURIO again to play with their skins. You see, they really impressed me, but not just that-the build itself is pretty cool for wandering around so I did just that-TP’d over and almost peed myself with excitement. Gala Phoenix has released four new make ups and oh my goodness they are bloody scrummo! I quickly got them and a few others I’d had my Miriel eyeballs on and raced home to play dress up. ( I nearly wrote ‘skin-up’ there but that would have been too weird!) I have to say that these latest additions may have just tipped my Redgrave skin from first place. This particular make-up is called ‘Dusty’ and it’s just chuffing sublime if you ask me..I adore it. Teamed with my requisite Miriel eyes and Truth hair I think it looks bloody lovely…BUT what really finishes this off is this snuggly wuggly wrap from Orchid Dreams. I want this in real life ( I say that constantly these days don’t I? I care not a jot..) it looks spot on with its gorgeous woolly argyle check pattern and fabulously floppy cowl collar. You can’t see in this piccy, BUT it has black lace edging and a teensy weensy bow…uber cute. Blinking bargain too..L$99 in a load of smashing colours for all your Autumnal leaf kicking needs! Purrr! Happy non-meh Kitty! Weee!