Welcome to Kuu Ipo!

I just got a sim!

I’ve named it Kuu Ipo.  Ku’uipo means “my sweetheart” in Hawaiian.  I thought about what to name my sim for quite a while, and I know it makes more business sense to name your sim the same as your business? But I followed my heart, instead, and chose a name for it that I love.

I’m hoping to share all this space with a few people, so if you’ve been looking for land to rent for your store, I just might have a new home for you! I’m renting out a couple of quarter sims and another parcel that is a bit over an 8th of a sim. Kuu Ipo will be the main location for my own store, Mela’s, as well as the recently revived pose store Poseur, which is co-owned by a team of pose designers. The sim adjoins the popular Juicy Estates area (with sims like Malt, Juicy, Juicy Mirabella, Yabu, and more for neighbors) and is directly side by side with the Juicy De Costa sim.

I am still working on the sim, but here are a few shots and a short video of what’s there so far. Decorating the sim is proving to be a lot of fun!

If you’re interested in renting, please let me know! You can IM me in-world, my SL name is Melanie774 Kidd. Or, you can leave a comment on this post and I’ll get back to you when I’m online again.

Please feel free to visit the sim!  Kuu Ipo 120, 128, 23

Kouse’s Sanctum Mira Gowns

The moment I put on the Blood version of the Mira gown from Kouse’s Sanctum, I was transported <3  I stopped being Melanie and became a creature of magic and mystery, and I promptly teleported off to the Lost World location to take some Let’s Pretend pictures.

The Mira gown comes with several skirt options but I’m only featuring the ballgown version, since it’s my favorite.  The full skirt is adorned at the top with more ruffly layers, and the bodice has a prim bow attachment right in the cleavage area.  It’s all very romantic

I enabled shadows for these shots, so there isn’t any anti-aliasing in the shots but scaling down seems to help with that a bit.

After I was done playing with the Blood version of the Mira gown, I decided to put on the Meadow color.  It reminded me of one of my wings from Fancy Fairy, so naturally I had to transform into some kind of regal fae.  :P

I did my own poses for these shots, but I’m not sure if I’ll release them in my store.  If you want the poses for yourself, just shoot me an IM and I’ll pass them along!

Credits…

Gowns – Kouse’s Sanctum, Mira gowns in Blood and Meadow
Hair – friday, Yelena 2
Eyes – negaposi, elfin eyes (darkmatter) and fairy eyes (sumi)
Wings – Fancy Fairy, Aphrodite clear

My skin is from LAQ.

Victoria Scarlet and Mela’s GE Poses

I recently got my hands on a red gown from Nardcotix that features bare shoulders, a plunging neckline, and a leggy, thigh-high slit.  Sexy!

The gown comes two skirt versions.  The version I’m wearing in this post features an adornment at the hip; the other skirt version comes without the adornment.

The back of the gown also exposes a lot of skin.  I like how my LAQ skin looks in certain lighting conditions when I have shadows enabled in SL, so I did that for these shots.  :D  The only drawback about enabling shadows is the lack of anti-aliasing.  :(  It’s not as noticeable when you scale the image size down, though!

As soon as I put on this gown, I knew I wanted some poses that would show off some leg! I decided to make my own poses for this post, and I ended up making a total of four. I’ve used the poses in the images above.  :D  I had made a set of four poses for a previous blog post, too, so I figured I may as well set these out in my store, Mela’s.

If you’re in my store group, you’ll be getting these poses for free; I’m sending them via the subscriber group right before I post this.  Random group gift for tonight only!  :D  The poses will be up for sale in my store later tonight.  ^_^

Other credits…

Hair – LAQ, Tess
Earrings & Necklace – Paper Couture, River Stone set
Shoes – Nardcotix, Absinthe Scarlet
My skin is from LAQ.

021 to 025 of 365

I think my latest images from my 365 project thingamajig kind of reflect the way I currently see SL fashion.  For me, it’s basically like being a kid again with all these crazy fun possibilities for letting your imagination go.  You can dress up as an alien, a superhero, or a mythical creature… it’s just endless!

None of it would be possible without the amazing content creators that grace our grid with their talents.  <3  I normally don’t do the gushing fangirl thing and reach out to designers at random, but when I laid my eyes on the Laya hair demo from Exile I *had* to IM Kavar Cleanslate just to say “THANK YOU”.  I liked this hairstyle so much, I actually used it in three of the five shots I’m posting about!

Anyways  Here are my latest…

Day 21 of 365, at Inspire Space Park.
I was *trying* to give this image a comic book cover feel because I felt the pose came out looking sort of superhero-ish, but I’m not really sure what else I should do to it.

I think it’s looking a bit busy, though, with that background >.<

Day 22 of 365, snagged.
Lol. \o/

Have I mentioned that Carson is awesome? <3

Day 23 of 365, lashes.
I really like these eyelashes that I got during the latest 60L Sunday, from Crimson + Clover. 60L Sunday has an INSANE amount of stuff but at least they’re really organized, allowing you to go through their notecard and quickly filter through everything.

I’m in the group as a merchant but I haven’t done any 60L releases myself. I am a lazy bum. I think I need to fix that!

Day 24 of 365, insilico plant.
I shot some pictures for a blog post that I plan on putting up soon. This is one of the shots I took. I tried playing around with it to make it look like a painting? Not sure if I really succeeded in doing that. ^_^

Day 25 of 365, casting a spell.
Kouse Singh made a recolor of her Hope gown and I had fun setting up some shots as a wicked fairy. I actually blogged this earlier and you can find that here.

Some style credits…

Image 021:
Hair – Exile, Laya
Outfit – Bare Rose, Echidna

Image 022:
Hair – friday, Neva.2
Dress – Musashi-Do, Tender Blossoms (limited edition color)

Image 023:
Hair – Exile, Laya
Eyelashes – Crimson + Clover, Blind Mag Lashes (60L Sunday)
Eyes – Nomine, orbital

Image 024:
Hair – Exile, Laya
Dress – Donna Flora, Jillian platinum (60L Sunday)
Boots – LAQ, Knee High Boots white

Image 025:
Gown – Kouse’s Sanctum, Hope for Haiti recolor
Wings – Fancy Fairy, Bloodvine ebony XLarge
Skin – Curio, Moonbeam Light Elf Happy Holidays (group gift)
Hair – Mau’s & Mej’s, Daiyu No Needle
Particles for hands – Pixel Mode, Pixel Dust Dance Particles white/pink
Eyes – Body Politik, Total Darkness
Poses – from my store, Mela’s

My skin is from LAQ.

Dark Fairy

I got the Hope for Haiti gown recolor from Kouse’s Sanctum last night and immediately began taking some fun snapshots with it.

For an hour or so, I was a wicked fairy alone in the forest at dusk, up to no good and casting spells for dark and selfish reasons.  <3

I really love Windlight.  The two shots I’ve posted here are unedited and straight out of SL, save for some cropping adjustments.

I normally don’t wear facelights, but I did bust out my old ones from Gaynor Gritzi that I got all the way back in 2007.  I’m not sure if she sells her facelights anymore, but every now and then I find them useful for lighting up pictures in interesting ways.  The lights come with roughly a dozen different color presets, and they’re not obnoxiously bright.

The wings are one of my favorites in my inventory, from Fancy Fairy.  These are the Bloodvine wings and they’re scripted to respond to chat commands that make them flutter or stand up rigidly.

If you like taking fantasy pictures or if you just plain love flouncing about in gowns, the Hope for Haiti gown is one option to look at.  Plus, it’s just a couple of bucks that will be sent where help is really needed right now.

Credits…
Gown – Kouse’s Sanctum, Hope for Haiti recolor
Wings – Fancy Fairy, Bloodvine ebony XLarge
Skin – Curio, Moonbeam Light Elf Happy Holidays (group gift)
Hair – Mau’s & Mej’s, Daiyu No Needle
Particles for hands – Pixel Mode, Pixel Dust Dance Particles white/pink
Eyes – Body Politik, Total Darkness
Poses – from my store, Mela’s!

011 – 015 of 365

More of my Project 365 shots.

Day 11 of 365.
Every now and then I like to stalk Chris Palen’s flickr stream. I haven’t seen him in SL very much these days, but when he does log in he often ends up taking some fantastic photos.

I paid a visit to the Pathfinder Lowlands because of this shot of his:www.flickr.com/photos/chris_palen/3657777012/

Day 12 of 365. Shot at Japan Kanto sim for the Rashomon Project.  (You should join this group if you already haven’t!  Queen Coronet sends us to great locations to take our shots.)

Day 13 of 365, room with a chair. I revisited the REZ sim and found things were quite different since my last visit.

Day 14 of 365, losing time at Bare Rose. Love this store! When I go there I’m guaranteed to spend a lot of time just staring at everything.

Day 15 of 365, working on stuff for my store.
I first opened my store, Mela’s, over two years ago. I had this tiny 40-prim rental on a sim called The LOLO.

My shop has grown a little bit since then, and it now sits on a quarter sim parcel on a region that is called, purely by coincidence, Lo Lo.

This shot was taken in my workstudio area.

LAQ Special Holiday Offer!

Prices on Glow skins that are currently available as singles at LAQ (Imani, Elin, Kat, Kira, and Blondie) have been slashed 50% from now until January 10!  These are currently the only Glow skins that are sold as singles (everything else is in packs for 1990L).  The singles are normally priced at 1490L, but right now you can pick them up at just 745L each.

The packs, however, are an even better bargain:  just 1500L for 8 – 12 skins!  If you’ve been wanting these, now is the time to grab them.  After January 10, these skins will no longer be available as singles and will be sold in packs only for the standard Glow price of 1990L (which I think is already a great deal).

And, what better time than now for me to show off some shapes that I sell in my store for these skins!  :p  Here are some pics of the skins that are on sale, and some of the shapes I’ve made to go with them.

For LAQ’s Imani skin:

For LAQ’s Kat skin:

For LAQ’s Elin skin:

LAQ’s Kira skin:

LAQ’s Blondie skin:

heading for dance class

I picked up fri.day‘s freebie ballet sweater a while ago for my alt and I really liked it, so when they held their sale earlier this month I knew I had to get it in black.

After I put on my new sweater, I decided I wanted to dress my av up as if she were heading to ballet class. ^_^ While doing so, I ended up rediscovering some oldies-but-goodies that still look good.  You can click on the images to see larger versions.

My Tess hair from LAQ, which works with the hairbase option on my all-time favorite skin, was perfect for this look. I searched for legwarmers in my inventory and unearthed some older BP* “ungry rabbit” legwarmers! These are no longer sold at BP* (hehe, vintage), but the lace versions are still available and Bettie’s got lots of other colorful types available now. I also threw on my Blaze tights (another old favorite) and the cute free flats I recently got at In Her Shoes.

I felt my look wasn’t complete, however, without a shoulder bag. After all, when you head in to dance class, you need to bring things like your shoes, extra hairbands, water bottle, towel, and maybe some jeans for afterward. I rootled through my inventory for a bit to see if there were any shoulder bags that would work, and I found some old Sumi (Tuli) lucky chair bags that I got last year.  (I wish she’d make stuff like this again, they’re so freaking CUTE.)

I realized at that point that I don’t have any bag holding poses.  I’d always meant to make a bunch of shoulder bag poses but that’s just one of the one-hundred-gajillion things I’ve been meaning to do in SL that I never got around to.  I decided that I would do some poses right then and there, and here are the four I did just for this post

I’m probably going to be making these bag poses available later at my store, Mela’s. I dunno when :p

Right after I took these shots, I found out from my friend Vivi that I could get my WinterChoice!2009 CSR cards stamped a day early if I joined the Choice! group.  (If you’re not familiar with the Choice! events, please visit here for more info.)  I wasted no time and got my cards stamped, and one of the first things I unpacked was the DPyumyum white tiger avatar.  Oh my god… this avatar is SO KEWT.  Seriously! I fell in love with it and ran around SL as White Tiger Mel for several days <3 and took this fun, short dance vid:

Credits…
Sweater – fri.day, Ballet Sweater
Tiger avatar – DPyumyum WinterChoice!2009 CSR gift (obtained by redeeming fully stamped CSR card at the Choice! Event Hall)
Tights – Blaze pantyhose
Legwarmers – BP*, legwarmers usagi (discontinued item)
Shoes – In Her Shoes, Bows Bows Distressed black flats
Bag – Sumi (Tuli), When pigs fly (discontinued lucky chair item) [slurl leads to current temp location in the sky]
Skin – LAQ Trisha (hairbase version)
Hair – LAQ Tess; Mau’s & Mej’s, Daiyu noneedle
Necklace – custom gift from the best partner in the world, Carson <3
Poses by me, which I might make available along with the rest of my poses at my store Mela’s depending on how lazy I’m feeling

addendum:  People have been asking where the video was shot.  It was shot in my workstudio!  I use a KMH skybox, with a couple of walls removed and a deck added.  The clock on the wall is a freebie from Chronokit.

Ingenue: Marguerite, Jane, Judy, and Rosie

I have to admit, when I hear or read the brand name Ingenue, I pretty much immediately think of the typical retro stuff you’ll see in fashion mags and google searches:  sweet, pillowy skirts made of generous helpings of tulle; bobby socks, oxfords, and poodle skirts; Esther Williams style pinup swimsuits that were daring decades ago but are now modest by today’s standards.

What I generally don’t think of are items such as jeans and overalls, which is precisely what Betty Doyle released a little while ago.  And I love them!

Click the images to see larger versions.

I wore Ingenue‘s Marguerite sweater top and Jane jeans for this look.  The Marguerite top has excellent knit texturing with an argyle detail on the chest area, and what I really love is the sculpted blousing prim that goes right above the waist.

The high-waisted Jane jeans are organized in several layers for mixing and matching, allowing you to wear your shirts tucked or untucked. One of the things I immediately noticed about the jeans were the leg sculpts; they’re the perfect skinny jeans! <3  The sculpts are modifiable, too, so even if you have a bit more thickness/muscle tone in your leg area you’ll be able to edit these to fit.  I also wore one of my bigger shapes just to check if the prims could be modded to fit and I forgot to take a picture of the result for this blog, but I think the jeans sculpts looked just fine with a few tweaks.  ^_^

My friend Gogo told me I was channeling my inner Minnie Mouse when I paired Ingenue’s red Judy blouse with the Rosie overalls, lol.  The overalls are very 40s and look great; they come with sculpted rolled-up cuffs that are modifiable.  I’m probably going to wear these again with some of my favorite old standby tank tops from Celestial Studios and a cute, short hairstyle.   The Judy top comes complete with puffy sleeves and a cute round collar attachment.

I’m also wearing something that is very, very special with my Ingenue outfits:  It’s a necklace that my partner, Carson, had custom made just for me!!  <3 I really love the thought that he put into it; it features my birthstone at the center, and of course the hibiscus represents my beloved home, Hawaii.  This is actually part of a set that includes an anklet and shorter necklace, and all of it was designed by the ever-so-lovely Caroline Apollo of Caroline’s Jewelry.  (She currently does not do custom designs, but you should check out what she does have available )

Thank you, Carson, for being one of my best friends in SL, for making my SL more fun, for watching old musicals with me, and for being Don Lockwood to my Kathy Selden. 

Other credits…
Skin – LAQ – Trisha; LAQ – Molly
Hair – 69 – Omnia 10; fri.day – Eloise; fri.day – Neva.2
Shoes – In Her Shoes – Bows Bows Distressed Red flats
Poses are all from my store (Mela’s), except for the last one; I think that’s from Reel Expression. ^_^

Mon Amie’s Active Summer Girl!

Mon Amie cafe on the Omotesando sim has a really cute limited release called “Active Summer Girl”.  It’s a collaboration between Amerie’s Naughty, Uw.st (Uncleweb Studio), and Kana-Na.  The pictures below feature the Amerie’s Naughty S&S T-dress, and the Uw.st Giselle hair in Angel shine&mesh pink.

The hair is copy/mod, and the dress comes with two options for the top half:  you can wear the prim version, or the non-prim version.  This allows you to opt for the body-hugging, snug look or the more blouson look of the prim version.

To see a sample of what the Kana-Na limited edition skin looks like, you can visit Amika Jewell’s flickrstream… or, just visit Mon Amie and check out the free demos. ^_^

When I saw the dress and hair, it immediately make me think, “Ooooh KEWT!” and I knew I wanted to play around with this look a lot!  I ended up putting together a short, silly dance music video with a song that’s been stuck in my head for the past couple of weeks.  Most of it was shot at Photon Pink’s sim.  I pretty much fell in love with Photon’s sim!  It’s whimsical and crazy colorful, and should be on your list of places to visit if you haven’t already been there.

Anyway, here’s my vid

Other credits…
Periquita Wrap me up Dolly (Crazy Barbie Pink)
In video: Pink Fuel Raine skin (older group gift, no longer available)
In images: Rockberry skin (Bunny Hop Hunt freebie)
Pink Fuel Star Lollipop
Poetic Color Eyes (Bunny Hop Hunt freebie)
Poses in first image by Mela’s