look of the day: Vogel T-shirts & Zero Number slippers

Schrottvogel Wei, the designer behind Vogel Surfwear and SJA Customboards, has some t-shirts that are perfect for cruising around the beaches of SL.  His experience as a graphic designer shows in his t-shirt designs. I’ve got a whole bunch of them; I’m featuring my favorites in the image below:

You can click the image to get a closer look at the designs; a much larger version is available on my flickr stream. (Just in case you’re wondering about the saying on the last t-shirt, it’s from a song called Killing in the Name by RATM. You can read a little bit more about it here.)

I felt like dressing up low-key today because I’m going to be busy in RL this afternoon. When I’ve got a full day ahead of me, I tend to just take it easy in SL and tend to small business issues that won’t consume too much time. T-shirts always go nice with booty shorts, so I busted out one of my favorites from League. I also felt like giving my new Laqroki April skins some face time (ha!) as well as my new Charlotte hair from Truth. The headband that comes with Charlotte is scripted to color change, so I was able to match it to my tees.

The freebie Zero Number slippers I got during my recent visit to the head-explodingly adorable Drowsy sim finished up my look. In Hawaii, we don’t call them flip-flops, we call them rubber slippers… or, if you employ local dialect, “rubbah slippahs”. Lol 😀 Over here in the islands, we don’t wear our shoes indoors, so seeing a bunch of slippers and shoes arranged on a shoe shelf out on the porch is not an uncommon sight at all.  I thought it’d be cute to put the slippers at the doorway of my SL house, and I set them up the way you’d see in RL:  some people put their slippers away nicely, others will kick them off hurriedly and haphazardly.

Credits…
Skin – Laqroki April
Hair – Truth Charlotte
Eyes – Detour Crystal Eyes
Glasses – Nea-ban Retro Standard
Shorts – League Booty Shorts
Shape – Mela’s (not yet released)

Tempest, Constanze, and Ryel

Today I had the pleasure of romping about SL as a princess.  Yes, I know a lot of RP people would use the pretty gowns from Kouse’s Sanctum to roleplay elves but I’m going to insist on being Her Royal Highness.  😀  I headed over to a sim named Pirate Fairy Retreat to take some pics of my royal finery from Kouse’s store:

The first two gowns are the Ryel gown in blush, and the Constanze gown in bubblegum. I’m not sure which one I liked more; I adored the poofy long sleeves on Ryel and the way the colors complemented each other, but I’m also really partial to the diaphanous quality of the outer flexi prims on Constanze’s skirt… they kind of reminded me of fairy wings 🙂  The second picture shows off the Tempest gown in irridescence; I loved the colors on this one!  I also have Tempest in the ocean color; you can get a closer view of the bodice in this next shot:

While looking around the Pirate Fairy Retreat sim, I went underwater and discovered some marine life.  I went swimming with a seal, and did it in my gown… because dammit, this is SL and I can do that if I want.  :p  I might revisit as a mermaid…

Kouse Singh very recently announced a photo contest, and everyone who participates gets an exclusive Mayah Tiara! (If you’ve gone shopping at Kouse’s before, then you already know she tends to include jewelry and tiaras with a lot of her outfits.) Here’s my sneak peek at it, I think Exile’s Love Song hairstyle goes beautifully with tiaras and crowns:

I’m just going to lift her graphic off her flickr and plonk it here in my post :p Click the image below and it will take you to her store blog where contest rules and info are available.

Other credits…
Skin – Laqroki Jennie
Hair – Exile Love Song
Eyes – Exodi Zbilja
Shape – Mela’s Maggie

new hair at Laqroki!

Laqroki has released three new hairstyles 😀  These hairstyles are meant to be worn with skins that have hairbases painted onto the skullcap area of the skin texture; this creates a realistic hairline at the edges of the prim hair. (Click on the images to view larger versions on my flickr stream.)

1) Claudia
2) Tasha
3) Kira II

Here’s a quick list of skins at Laqroki that come with this hairbase option: Tess, Imani, Kira, Kat, Tasha, and Claudia. I’m wearing the exotic-looking Claudia skin on the left and right, and a cute freckled version of the Tasha skin in the middle.

While taking these shots, I was reminded again of just how absolutely scrumptious the new lingerie at Blowpop is! So much so, I decided I needed to document these pretties on my blog. This is the Yvette set in Nude. I included a back view because I love the delicate and sheer look of the panties. 😀

Annyka Bekkers, the owner of Blowpop, happens to be on my Plurk timeline, too… and I just saw her post pics of yet more delicious lingerie, so heads up!  Yum yum :p

While I was shooting my pics I saw my little pose chair from the *.:Mon amie-goer:.* group and also remembered I’d wanted to share this, too:

Gogo had actually blogged this sweet little chair from Tuli Asturias back in May. (Follow that link to see a complete set of shots showing off all the poses.) If you missed getting it back then, well now you’ve got another chance to get it! Tuli has generously done a repeat release of the chair in the group notices. You have a limited amount of time to obtain it; SL group notices run a course of 14 days, if I recall correctly. Just go to Search, hit the Groups tab, and type Mon Amie in the search field and it should be the first hit in the search results.

Other credits…
Body Shape – Mela’s Yadira
Eyes – Exodi Zbilja

look of the day: the jilted bride

I love my Jasmin skins from Laqroki. I don’t wear these skins all the time, but they are among my all-time favorites, and today I felt like putting on my Jasmin skin with the streaky mascara.

SL fashion has never been about being “hip” or “fierce” or “making a statement” for me; it’s all about letting your imagination run wild, and playing at using your avatar’s appearance to tell a visual story. Kind of like when you’re four years old and putting on that pretty pink princess costume and tiara. 😀 When I studied my avi’s streaked eye makeup, I decided she needed a reason for looking as if she’d done some crying.  I recalled a recent discussion with some friends during which I’d admitted to having a lot of wedding gowns in my inventory. Voila! The Jilted Bride, hehe.

Out of all the gowns I own, this one from Last Call is probably my favorite.  I felt that the loose updo with it’s nicely placed tendrils falling here and there, worked great with this look.  It’s the Luna style from Truth.  I actually own the blonde pack of that hair, but since my skin’s brows are a dark brown I tinted the hair to look a bit darker.  (Please note, tinting does not always work nicely; textures will lose a bit of “shine” when you do this.  Also, always make a backup of your hair before you play with tinting.)

I also wanted my av to have an expression that would befit her streaked mascara, so I edited my shape to give her a subtly sad look.  (I’ve posted about how to edit your shape for subtle expressions here.)

By the way, if you’re on Flickr and have some images that feature Last Call clothing, don’t forget to add them to the Last Call by Dazzle Haute Couture flickr group.  🙂

Skin – Laqroki Jasmin
Hair – Truth Luna
Gown – Last Call Josephine
Eyes – Exodi Zbilja

FINALLY… beautiful sculpted skates for SL!

I’ve been looking for nice-looking roller skates in SL for a long time, like really nicely textured and sculpted ones, and I’ve even sent notecards to a couple of shoe designers who weren’t interested in making any ;__;  I know I’ve asked pestered Gogo several times over the past year or so if she knows of any nice roller skates, but the conversation would always end the same way:  we’d both agree that no one had yet made any traditional roller skates that were also good-looking sculpts.

Almost a week ago, however, Gogo IM’d me to ask if I’d seen the new skates ad from Pixel Mode. She passed me a copy of the ad and then I pretty much just said something stupid like AHHHH  YAYYY back to her. Here’s why:

Seriously, how can you look at that and not think, MUST HAVE!? 😀 So, I ran over to Pixel Mode, stared at the vendor in admiration for a while (Tya Fallingbridge made this cool discotheque-ish set-up for it) and then paid my L$450 for the most beautiful sculpted roller skates I’ve seen yet in SL.

The shape of the boots, wheels, toe stops, and laces are really nicely done. The tongue part of the boots kind of extend upward and the laces are left undone. When you click the skates, a blue dropdown menu lets you change the colors of the sheels, toe stopper, and laces.

As the ad states, your purchase includes two pairs of skates; one white and one black. For each pair, there are actually three skates included: one for your left foot, and two for your right foot. One of the right-footed shoes is scripted with a skating animation, while the other one isn’t scripted at all so that you can use another AO with your skates.

You are definitely going to want to use a different skating animation HUD, or AO, or whatever, because the one simple skating animation included isn’t that great; I wasn’t thrilled with the way it made my arm completely cut into my av’s torso:

The skates are No Modify, which means you cannot drop a different skating animation into the shoe.  This being the case, you pretty much have to use a separate HUD/AO.  I did a bit of shopping around to see what other skating HUD and AO choices are out there; the only one I could find was the L$650 rollerblade AO sold at Sine Wave. You can call me cheap if you like, but I’d already spent L$450 on the skates and didn’t feel like dropping another L$650 to have a decent skating animation.

So, what to do?  Well, I’ve had Skoopf skates since 2007, though. (Heck, who doesn’t have Skoopf skates?!) It’s easy enough to use the script and animations from your Skoopfs to create your own makeshift skating HUD to go with your Pixel Mode Roxy Rollers.  If you’re not familiar with how to go about doing this, here are some quick and super-easy steps, complete with pictures 🙂  This will take maybe two minutes to do, and your result will be like this:

Click on the images to see bigger versions of them on my flickr stream.

1.  Drag your right-side Skoopf skate from your inventory, to the ground.  You want the right side because this is the one that carries all the scripts and animations.  Right-click the skate and select Open from the wheel menu, and select Copy To Inventory.

2.  You should now have a folder in your inventory called Skoopf Ultra Roller Skates (Right), or something like that.  You can go ahead and delete that right-footed Skoopf skate you had rezzed earlier, and don’t worry about losing it because it should be a copyable object.

3.  Now rez a cube prim, and rename it to whatever you want your HUD to be called; I chose to name mine Melanie’s Skate HUD and textured it with one of my favorite pics.  Drag all of the items from that Skoopf Ultra Roller Skates (Right) folder into the Contents tab of your cube prim.  Be sure to double check and make sure all of the scripts, animations, and notecard have made it into the cube.

4.  Right-click > Take the cube you’ve created.  It will now appear in your inventory, in your Objects folder.  Go ahead and move your HUD into the same folder as your Roxy skates to make it easier to find later.  Now right-click the HUD object in your inventory, select Attach To HUD from the contextual menu that appears, and then select Top Left to attach the HUD to the upper left corner of your client.  (Or you can attach it elsewhere, whatever your preference is.)

5.  Your client screen should now look something like this:

6.  You can reposition and resize the HUD to better fit into that spot by right-clicking the HUD and then using the prim-editing interface.  After moving and resizing my HUD, this is what it looks like on my client:

Now you’re all set!  And since your HUD is made of a single cube prim, you can make it as tiny and unobtrusive as you want (I personally hate having a lot of HUDs cluttering up my view).  Click your HUD once and the blue dropdown should appear that will let you turn it on, and now you’ve got all those Skoopf skating tricks ready to be used.

If you don’t own any Skoopf skates and would like to use the scripts and anims for your Roxy Roller skates, you can pick up a pair at the little vendor in front of Caroline’s Jewelry, which is right across the way from my store.  If I recall correctly, they’re L$75.

There is a completely free alternative, too.  TP in to Abranimations, and you should see a freebie board near the landing point.  One of the freebie items is a pair of roller skates. These Abranimations freebie skates work in such a way that you must use the included HUD in conjunction with the skates, though, so you will need to attach two objects instead of just one. Overall, I personally prefer the Skoopf script/anims. ^_^

Now all we need is for Pixel Mode to make some nice, traditional-looking ice skates for us… 😀

Other credits…
Hair – Truth Linda
Tank top – Mon Amie group gift
Shorts – Maitreya (older item, might not be available anymore)
Socks – Lulu
Sculpted Noobs – Art Laxness Noob Pack (zombie noob is a mod made by a friend)

loreena and michael

My friend Brianna recently released a new skin named Loreena at her store, Le Pinceau. I think this time around, my favorite makeup is #03, with it’s bright pink lipstick and silvery, slightly smoky eyes. I thought the makeup on #00 was interesting; well, I suppose “makeup” is the wrong word since it’s a mostly nude look but she has sort of a flesh-toned lipliner on.

Clicking on the image will take you to a larger version on my flickr:

Their 75% off sale is still going on, too, so if you’ve been curious about their new store now’s the time to take a look!

While I’m on the subject of skins, L’oring or Lazolli skins (or both? I am a little confused as to what the official name of the brand is, honestly) has a Michael Jackson skin that is probably the best one I’ve seen on the grid thus far. I never really paid much attention to the skin other than to think “wow good likeness” in passing.

Last night, though, while cruising around I saw the avatar name MichaelJackson —— pop up on my Mysti radar. Out of curiosity, I sought him out and said hi, and admired the likeness he’d achieved thus far. (I’m usually really shy about approaching people, but I guess the faux celebrity thing was too interesting for me to just pass by ^_^)  I recalled the L’oring (or Lazolli! lol) skin, so I asked him if he wanted to check it out. We headed to L’oring/Lazolli and this is how it looked on his av:

😀 He tried on the shape demo that was offered at the store, but we both agreed his shape was a lot better. Then we did the Thriller dance, haha. A friend of mine recently gave me an attachment that plays a Thriller soundbyte while animating your avatar with the dance from the Thriller music video… it’s fun. If you want a copy of it to share with your friends, let me know and I’ll toss one to you! Just IM me, my name is Melanie774 Kidd. Here’s a quick vid of the attachment at work:

P.s.  RIP, Michael Jackson.

Other credits…
In my pic with MJ (sorry, I don’t know where he got his stuff):
My hair – Exile Rayne
My skin – Laqroki Claudia
Tube top – Tres blah (this is pretty old, not sure if it’s still available)
Shorts – Aoharu

In my video:
Tank Top – Mon Amie group freebie
Shorts – Maitreya (also pretty old and not sure if it’s available)
Socks – Lulu
Roller Skates – Pixel Mode

reBourne dojo, koi pond, and asian house

When I first heard about the new dojo prefab now available at reBourne this morning, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I simply thought, oh a dojo? Cool. Then I actually visited the sim where reBourne is located, and it’s more than just cool; the dojo and house make for a serene, tranquil getaway spot that I wish I could have in real life. Here’s a short video I put together that gives you a glimpse:

(Vimeo has slightly better video quality.)

The textures are superb. The details on the lanterns, shoji screens, and tatami mats are perfect, imo. As for the various wood surfaces, bamboo, and roof tiles? Their beauty is in their realism. These aren’t perfectly shiny and symmetrical surfaces; rather, they’ve been made to look a bit weathered and aged. I often find that builds that strive after a sort of “minimal” and “clean lines” kind of look end up feeling a bit cold, but the dojo’s textures and lighting all pulls together very nicely so that the entire build is imbued with a peaceful and inviting warmth.

Clicking on the images will take you to my flickr page where larger versions reside:

You can tell that Danny Bourne put thought, care, and research into the build. I loved the oni paintings that are at both of the scripted sliding door entrances, as well as the white silk brocade on the zabuton cushions at the tea table; the brocade pattern features cranes and sakura blossoms. One detail that I really appreciated about the zabutons is that they’re not textured identically, adding even more realism to the feel of the build. There are more zabuton placed outside in front of the dojo, making it a perfect place to sit with a friend and enjoy their company while viewing whatever SL scenery you might put there. It’s a great spot to put down a sakura tree or two.

Nestled between the dojo and the rustic house is the koi pond. It features small wooden footbridge, several koi fish, lotus blossoms and lily pads, as well as some short and tall grasses.  I’ve included both day and night shots so that you can see the lighting at work in a darker setting.

The house is small and simple, basically made up of two split-level rooms. In the main room is a batsudan (shrine) that is identical to the one below the katana stand in the dojo, except this one is larger. There are a lot of windows which have bamboo blinds that are scripted to go up and down when you click them. In the secondary room is a simple wooden furo (bath) that sits on a stone floor; it features a pleasant lounging pose for couples.

Here are some of the specs for the builds:
Dojo – 386 prims (including furniture), 25m X 20m footprint
Koi Pond – 94 prims, 14m X 6m footprint
Asian House – about 160 prims, about 20m X 20m footprint

Visit reBourne to see the dojo, koi pond, and house for yourself!

Other credits…
Kimono – Aoharu group gift (visit Aoharu to see other kimonos, there is a 50% off sale until 7/20)
Hair & hair ornament – old freebie
Kimono AO – Bushidou
Skin – Redgrave Sakura
Body Shape – Mela’s Sae
Eyes – Exodi Twilight

look of the day: baggy pants!

I think we’ve all seen the ugly baggy pants around SL, and yeah I’m not afraid to call them out for what they are: UGLY! Stacked torus prims do not make for nice baggy pants!

One of the things I picked up at Bare Rose on my recent spree (yes, I went a little spend-happy there, hence three BR posts in a row :p ) were the lowrise heavy cargo pants set. I actually saw one of my friends wearing them and I had to have them! They’re mostly sculpts, with lots of pockets that have buttons and zippers, and flexi straps and a belt. You get black, blue, brown, green, and pink pants, plus there are a few cropped tank tops included.

You can click on the image to see a larger version on flickr:

As always, Bare Rose prims are No Copy, so exercise care when editing. I found that I had to do very minimal editing; most of my editing work centered around the belt.

Here are a couple of closer looks at the prim details on the belt and pockets:

If you like the baggy pants look, then another store that has some nice ones I’ve seen is [ JP ]:dsg (JP Design), owned by Jasper Potez. I haven’t picked those up yet, but I probably will; they’re scripted with texture change and the belt has a cute little iPod-ish prim attached to it. I think it’d look cute and sassy with a bikini top!

Btw, I was camping for fun stuff like gas masks and machine guns at Sick when I took these pictures, and used a Sine Wave dance animation.  I like how the Stephanie hair from Truth moves.  🙂 Truth is a lean, mean, hair-making machine!!! I’m guessing most people already know this, but just in case you don’t, get thee on the Truth subscribo, now. His hair’s too good to miss.

Credits…
Skin – Laqroki Kira
Tattoo – Garden of Ku, A Night in Kandahar (one of my favorite tats, ever)
Hair – Truth Stephanie
Shoes – UBU Drunks
Aviators – Nea-ban
Navel piercing – Mela’s by Vivienne Graves

sexy rolled up sweaters from bare rose

See, this is what I love about Bare Rose. In addition to being damn cheap, you can get all sorts of different looks out of what June Dion has to offer. Yesterday’s foray into scary sexy was fun, hehe, but I was in the mood for a more mainstream look this morning.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring!  😀

Bare Rose has these great little rolled up sweaters with sculpted attachments. As usual, everything’s modifiable and no copy, so you can edit to fit but exercise care while doing so. There’s four sculpt attachments altogether: two for the parts that are rolled up around your arms, one for the turtleneck, and one more for the part that is rolled up around the chest, just above the breasts. Editing was super easy; the only adjustments I had to make was to reposition the neck prim slightly and to lower the collar slider on the jacket layer.

For less than L$200, you get the sweater in a whopping six colors: black, blue, green, red, purple, and pink. Since they’re transferable, you can share with your alts! :p I’ve only shown black, blue, red, and green in my pics. It should be noted, these don’t come with shirt for placing under the sweater… you need to find something in your inventory to go under. Or you can give everyone a peep show :p

Credits:
Skin – Laqroki Claudia
Hair – Truth Grazia
Eyes – Exodi Zbilja
Body Shape & Earrings – Mela’s Curvy Yadira & candy corn earrings
Tank Top – Celestial Studios
Jeans – Armidi Grace

bare rose’s silent heart

I haven’t been to Bare Rose in a long time because, frankly, my old laptop did NOT like that sim.  I’m happy to report that’s changed 😀

I went there to go pick up some cargo pants I saw on a friend, by my attention was quickly diverted by all the playful cyberpunk, goth, and fantasy outfits.  You know, as much as I love the great textures on mainstream clothes that we can find in SL, sometimes it gets boring and I want to play with looks I’d not wear in RL.  I forgot just how MUCH Bare Rose offers, and in so many colors, for so little L$!  I’m not sure that there’s any outfits there that costs more than L$200, so it’s easy to get carried away in there if you’re not careful.

I picked up an outfit called Silent Heart and I looooooove it, I don’t want to take it off:

There are a lot of prims and it’s all No Copy, so be sure to hop on a posestand and take your time with editing them to fit. Here’s what’s under the flowing prim skirt:

The outfit actually does not come with the fishnet parts and nipple tape.  The nipple tape is from some old store that has been closed for a long time, now, but I believe that Dark Eden has some, as well as Juicy.  The fishnet comes from an outfit called Belted that I got from Winter Moon quite a while back, too, so I’m not sure if that’s still available.  I wore the outfit without those items in the last pic; be prepared to have at least some of your nipples bared if you choose to wear the outfit without anything underneath.

I think the mouth covering mask is one of my favorite parts, hehe.  The sculpted part around the collar also emphasizes your avi’s neck; it looked great paired up with my new Grazia hair in the night color from Truth.

Silent Heart was less than L$200, and for your money you get the outfit in black, red, and pink.  ^_^

Credits:
Hair – Stringer Mausoleum
Skin & Boots – Laqroki
Eyes – The Body Politik
Piercings – Mela’s (my store :p )