Love and thanks and send your review items to...

O hi, it's me again, briefly.

A few designers have wondered where to send review packs of things that are kind of off-the-beaten path. I'd like to recommend that you peruse the Second Sanctuary feed for some awesome people. Anything free, send to SL*Freestyle, and anything pretty and more mainstream to the lovely ladies at It's Only Fashion. (I recommend these sites because I've worked for them!) Send boy stuff to Gabe Bookmite, who just started working for It's Only Fashion!

Also, I'd like to thank the following people for making me water-damage my MacBook Pro keyboard with excessive snuffling:

Infralovely, Grady Echegaray, Faery Sola, Fricka Morgath, Chic Aeon, and Cajsa Lilliehook.

Thank you also to everyone who sent me the IMs and Plurks and offlines and emails. It's been heart-warming, and (in the acronyms of Winter Jefferson), ILUSM. Reading through these made me feel as if the years I've poured into the blog meant something. I appreciate that so much, y'all. Since quitting, I've used my time to research music for articles, and whenever I miss blogging I snap someone else's photo or post something small to my Flickr stream.

~

If you'd like to take part in the revival of this cool bloggy challenge, the Same Damned Thing challenge, Cajsa is running it over here. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

~

Lots of love,

Acha

Achariya.net says goodbye

Click through to Flickr to see who helped usher out my blog.

Dear Second Life,

I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed blogging fashion. It's been an honor, and I had the most fun when I could write with other people.

I'm going to be focusing on real life writing for a while. I'm still going to be playing this game, but I'm just redefining what I play it for.

I'll leave you with a bit of advice from an old SL-blogging warhorse who's managed to blog almost every single day since I began in 2007: If you want to be a good fashion blogger, forget about metrics as a measure of success. Do it for your own satisfaction and for the love of what you do, or don't do it at all.

With respect,

Achariya Maktoum



Me and my trusty old horse photo sphere are riding off into the sunset.

Random pointless statistics:

***Total number of posts: 1,722 posts
***Final follower count: 124 followers (thank you!)
***All-time number of page views: 113,587 (from blogger's analytics)
***Most page views in a month: July of 2010, 17,500
***First post: August 8, 2007
***Last post: March 27, 2011, this one.
***Number of states that I've blogged in: Georgia, Ohio, San Francisco, San Antonio, Florida, New York… Probably more.
***Age of my child at the beginning of this blog: 2
***Age of my child at the ending of this blog: 6
***Other SL blogs that I've written for: Rezzables, It's Only Fashion, SL Free*Style
***Number of events that I've blogged: …Uh… No, can't count.
***Number of other people who have been in my blog: 106 posts are tagged "Not Me", but there are more.
***Number of other writers for my blog: Uh. Six or seven other people can post to Achariya.net.
***Amount of procrastination i've gotten from this blog: One dissertation's worth at least
***Amount of satisfaction i've gotten from this blog: Priceless.

Second to last post: Another Fundraiser

I am proud to be sporting a skin for Another Fundraiser today. I'm also in an outfit entirely from Japanese designers, from Tekuteku to Zero Number to DP**yumyum … I love the Japanese presence in Second Life. It's one of my favorite parts of the world, and seeing how they've been affected by the tragedy is honestly breaking me to bits. One of my favorite housewear designers, Nonino, is closing down because of her need to focus on events in RL. I can't even imagine what it must be like in Japan right now, and my thoughts are with her and everyone else in her plight. I supported Nonino by going and buying every one of the things I loved from her shop while it's still around; I'm supporting the Red Cross effort in Japan by buying up these beautiful skin mods. Hey Japan -- I ache for you, pray for you, and blog for you today.

~

From Sasy:

Another Fundraiser is back! This time we're helping Japan! 100% of all proceeds will be donated to Red Cross (for Japan). Second Life residents again have been encouraged to create skins, and make ups for this event, all skill levels allowed. There are a great blend of roleplay skins, geisha, makeups, and even guy skin! Come see, and help raise money!

SLURL: here!
Flickr group: here!

~


***Skin: Another Fundraiser Miamai RedNju skin
***Shirt: **DP**yumyum shirt 06
***Shorts: **DP**yumyum denim shorts in used/navy
***Shoes: Zero Number Petanko Cross Aza
***Socks: Honey Kitty rose dot overknee socks in gray-blue
***Hair: Tekuteku honey (sienna), with the little hat
***Monocle: Sanu Bunny Hop Monocle

Not me: Sparkly Melatonin

Melatonin Hax

Sometimes, after a week of Srs Blogging, you just gotta photoshop some sparkles coming out of some hands. Thank you to Miss Melatonin Hax for indulging me.

***Skin: [ROCKBERRY] Character skin SASHA
***Hair: Clawtooth: Easy Breezy - Red eye flight
***Horns: *** Call *** Sheep Horn
***Dress: tomoto, narcisse etoile
***Poses: [Lyndz-Matic] A good stretch & [Lyndz-Matic] That's Miss to you

Fashion For Life [last post]: Baiastice, Heartsick

It's strange to think that FFL is over already. Seems like it just got here... I've enjoyed the week. It's enormously fun to see what I can do with clothing outside of my usual milleu, and it reminded me to use new-to-me designers more often in my blog posts. This great skin is by Heartsick, and it suits this elegant and coppery shirt/dress combo from Baiastice. Now that FFL is over, I think I've taken from it a renewed desire to support designers in SL. They work their arses off, and sometimes don't even do it for money. Thank you to everyone who contributed, bought from, and planned FFL this year. Go, us!

***Ears: SLink Sachara elf ears
***Hair: Lamb Bang Bang Bob in twix
***Tattoo: Aitui Tattoo - cover music - mistakes
***Bracelet: Mood Arditezza vivid cuff
***Dress: Baiastice Riyau dress in copper
***Skin: Heartsick FFL HS Spirit Dream Love Life

Fashion For Life [07]: Grim Bros. Skin

We're coming to the end of Fashion For Life; the last day is tomorrow! Today's FFL item is actually this purply-blue cyberskin by Grim Bros. It reminded me that I haven't worn a brilliantly abnormal skin in a long time… I used to love MiaSnow's greens and blues and wear them all the time. This skin seemed to go well with Ezura's new release, this tiny ruffled cyber dress. I like the sheerness of the top, perfect for wearing over detailed skins or this nice cyber tattoo from HUZ. Today's Fashion For Life Link is to this article about Ikon eyes -- I'm really enjoying the "10 Reasons to Come to FFL" series!






***Skin: Grim Bros RFL metalbot skin female
***Outfit (including eyepiece and jewelry): Ezura DIGI Cyber Latex in Silver
***Boots: Lassitude & Ennui Thecla Boots in Purple
***Lips: Schadenfreude Langwidere Blue Apple Lips
***Tattoo: HUZ Android Future
***Hair: Tekeli-li Efreet with horns

Another Fundraiser

Mina Jun contacted me the other day with a heartwarming (yet heartbreaking) message. She told me that she was donating her skin PDFs so that somehow, they could be used to help Japan.

Sasy Scarborough stepped up to the plate, and soon set up an Another Fundraiser. I don't know if you remember the last one, but it was one of the loveliest events in Second Life. Using Eloh templates, designers created unique and fabulous and cheap (50L each) mods, selling them at a skin event where the proceeds all go to the Red Cross. This time, Mina Jun's skin templates will also be there to draw from, as well as Eloh's and Sezmra Svarog's.

More information about this event is posted here at the Another Fundraiser site.

The fundraiser is looking for creators at present. If you've ever had an urge to see what your creative hand could do with a skin -- there's no better time or reason than this.