Is there something I can bring you from across the sea

I wouldn't be a very good Miss December if I let this moment in Bootsyness go by. Dark Eden released a set of boots called "Vagabond," and I can see why. They're buckled, dirty, tied, scuffed, molted, distressed and sexy, and I can see someone putting them on at the Hobo Telehub for some unwashed hiking action. That is to say, I quite love these boots, especially the contrast between the thickness of the calf and the high delicacy of the heel.

I'm wearing it with the TRADurian outfit from Bare Rose. I was drawn to the line of the jacket part -- it looks a bit like the Mist outfit, but in plaid. I'm happy I got it, the usual prim additions of collar, neck tie, skirt, etc. are well worth the fifty cents.

On Photoshop today, I discovered "Replace colors" and "feather." *facepalm* Boy, that sure speeded things up from usin' the magic wand...


***Booooooots: Dark Eden Vagabond Boots Mushroom
***Outfit: Bare Rose TRADurian (jacket with many prims, a choker, collar, gloves, skirt, socks, in a bevy of colors, the usual. )
***Hair: BettiePage BP* Arranged Braid hair/brown
***Skin: MiaSnow Steel Starlet Skin 2

All things bright and beautiful

This is a swift post to show people the prettiness of katat0nik's new Fruit Swirl dress, as well as the awesome work of Swallowtail's Branch necklace. The dress is a new shape for katat0nik (at least, I don't remember any previous babydolls), and it's neat to see how kat's artwork is adapting to a different type of skirt and top. The top is especially neat, with the doodled fabric forming the shape of the bodice. I can't really say enough about Swallowtail or how much I like this jewelry -- this piece of tree art is along the same lines, and I doubt I'll take it off soon. There's a darker variety of this necklace at the shop too.

Off to catch a plane!


***Shoes: Zero Number Used Boots Ami Brown
***Ears: Atomic Kitty Brown Feline Brown
***Dress: *katat0nik* (orange) Fruit Swirl Dress
***Hair: Find Ash "Lucky Bag" 09
***Skin: MiaSnow GOLDESS Skin
***Necklace: Swallowtail Branch Necklace (white)

I'm wearing Saiyge

Yesterday, I spotted a lovely dress. It was Evie's Closet's new release, the Saiyge gown. I'm a fan of anything Saiyge, so I absolutely had to write about it too. I put it on last night and walked around with it for a while. Something that arrested my eye was the way the fabric flowed -- both the sleeves and the skirt. Evie has worked well with the physics of the fabric so that every motion seems graceful. There are many options to the Saiyge outfit, including an additional pack of bits that you can also purchase. My favorite combination was to mix the two -- the sleeker, more medieval skirt with the long flowy sleeves. It also comes with a nicely crafted beaded belt for the big-skirted option.

While you are at Evie's Closet, check out the rest of the sim! I noticed that the Christmas snow has been take down, and it's back to its lush, mossy glory. (SLURL here). Saiyge's shop, Balderdash, is most definitely worth a look.

I've been kind of going photoshop crazy lately, I do apologize for making everyone go through my learning process (but I guess if I don't do it here, I wouldn't get any feedback). I put on this Zero Style hair, which suits the outfit beautifully, and then realized that it's a complete ***** to photoshop the background out from under the floaty locks. Hence, you get a background that matches the pixelization around the hair. =_= I fail. My image quality still also resets at random. Ah well, it's all a learning process.




***Shoes: Lassitude & Ennui Estampie in royal blue
***Hair: Zero Style chocolat in black
***Skin: Schadenfreude alabaster Elsa in blue face neck upper chop
***Outfit: Evie's Closet Saiyge - Ocean (12 pieces with different sleeve prims, a beaded belt, and a hair wreath, the add-on box has a sleeker skirt and sleeve option)

This is how I distract myself

Hello! I spent my evening with my husband and child having a kinda-traditional Baton Rouge wake. We drank white wine, ate risotto, and danced around to Louisiana jazz, and then my husband shared his memories of his granny. It was a good night, and I pulled my head sufficiently out of my rear to open a few review folders.

Tenshi Vielle of {CRAP} and {BOUTIQUE} gave me a folder of items to poke at. She mentioned that she's proudest of her jeans, and I put them on. Nice bottom shading and cuffs! She also made a checkered shirt with foldy prim sleeves and very subtle boob shadowing. Lumberjack looks sexxeh!

I am wearing these items with some stuff from Beatrice's shop, Lis_Noir. I love how quirky Lis_Noir is! That bag isn't quite released yet, but it has STUFF on it. It's as though the dark evil lurking within my own bag of doom is manifesting as the glittery sheen of dark purse armor. Purse Vader? Also from Lis_Noir are the shoes (frozen chain heels!), earrings (free colorful bows) and hair. The hair is neat, very molded, and puts me in mind of -Hiccup (in a good way). Thank you for these items to play with, ladies.

The button eyes from Kunstkammer are a group gift, a tribute to a favorite author.


***Poses: Skanks R Us poses from various pose packs.
***Skin: Redgrave 02 Lyla Pale Skin / goldbrown
***Bag: Lis_Noir Anna Bag (not yet released)
***Jeans, shirt: {BOUTIQUE} cuffed skinny pants and plaid shirt
***Earrings: Lis_Noir Kimi earrings (gift at the store)
***Shoes: Lis_Noir leopard-mono print
***Hair: Lis_Noir Mercedes hair in blanc
***Eyes: Kunstkammer Button Eyes January group gift

When I am an old woman...

Seven years ago, almost, I met Dave's grandma Eleanor for the first time. We were at a family reunion on the beach near Eugene, Oregon, and the sand dunes and Pacific Ocean stretched all around us. Grandma E welcomed me warmly to the family (even if I was just a girlfriend), telling all kinds of tales about Dave's childhood and family. She's got a colorful family history! Grandma Eleanor is a cajun from Baton Rouge, and her family includes an adventuresome ship captain great-grandfather and possibly some creole blood... I'm not sure whether it was because of this welcome or not, but Dave chose to propose to me that weekend.

Ahh, I guess I should say that this is a eulogy -- I'm going to miss Grandma E. She painted her town red and was a spitfire in her church, in her community, in her family. She was a Red Hat lady, and in her memory, I'm wearing this outfit today. I think it's only fitting that I remember her here because she helped to shape the person that I am, and because she was an extremely elegant woman. She never left the house without her jewelry and lipstick, and her soft white hair was always perfectly done.

WHEN I AM AN OLD WOMAN I SHALL WEAR PURPLE
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
-- More


***Hat: Greta Elegance Hat in red silk
***Shoes: First Flower Hoya Strapped in Ruby Red
***Shirt and corset: ~silentsparrow~ How we quit the forest in violet
***Skirt and glitchpants: ~silentsparrow~ caged bird lolita in plum
***Jewelry: Kunstkammer Porte des Reves set - necklace, earrings, bracelet
***Ring: Kunstkammer Simple Mokune Gane Wedding Band

But which Ryou is it?

Frustration, thy name is randomly changing photo resolution. Tonight's photo challenge became taking all of my pictures, only to discover that they were at a shitty resolution. ARGH. *sigh* ... Moving onward ...

As most of you know, I squat on ~silentsparrow~ instead of having a real home. Lately, the sim has been changing around me. The store has been unearthed! The roof is gone, and in its place there's a land of snow... I feel like I've stepped into Narnia during the white witch's reign. (Ooh. Wonder if there are any stray Pevensies hanging about...)

Along with the new build comes a new suit, the Ryou. It is feathered and distressed and worn, perfect for all of the ice skating I'm about to do on the frozen store floors. The pants struck me especially as something new from hyasynth -- they've got worn bits on the front, giving the outfit a slightly rugged/roleplaying look, much like the Suzume dress (hmmm...feather motif...hmmm).

I'm wearing this outfit with lovely hair from Find Ash. It's one of the SEVEN different hairs in the Find Ash Lucky Bag (for only 350L), outside of the shop on the Island of Tranquility (slurl below). Ahhh, I'm loving this lucky bag thing... I hear there are a few more changes coming to Silent Sparrow, so I'm warning you now: bring gum boots.


***Suit: ~silentsparrow~ Ryou Suit in (dove) -- 14 pieces with prim bits for men and women, including a tattoo.
***Hair: Find Ash Lucky Bag 09 Bronze Pack for women - Airraiz curl
***Boots: Zero Number [ON] Used Boots Ami Brown
***Horns, skin, eyes: Hybrid Archetype Ethereal Phantom

The child is singing 'big bass thumper-thumper' over and over

I struggle with jewelry reviews. Well okay, first off, I never really review anything. I think Dakota does a fine job of reviewing -- s/he points out the benefits and drawbacks of the items s/he wears. I, on the other hand, try to only wear stuff I like. That's the case with these necklaces from Sable Rose. The chain links are carefully made, and the pendants are quite unique. From left to right they are: the triple-chain ankh, the promise necklace, and the om necklace with a moonstone pendant. I also struggle because I'm never sure I've set off the jewelry quite enough, so I sit there and try my best with my touchpad cam... Anyhow, whining aside, I like these. Cheers, and Alba's school starts tomorrow - !

***Necklaces: Sable Rose - Triple-Chain Ankh, Moonstone Om, Promise (silver
***Pierce: FlipSide F7 Multi lip rings & spikes
***Outfit: ~silentsparrow~ Dominion suit in kelly green
***Eyes: Den-dou eyes in emerald green
***Hair: Exile Love Song in emerald
***Skin: MiaSnow Sleet Starlet Skin 3

Absolute Options

I opened the outfit folder for the Absolute Zero - LE Ice Queen Collaboration and felt my heart sink. "Ohshit," I thought, "I can hardly do justice to describing this." See, it has four designers and thirty-two pieces, from skin to hair to shoes to jewelry to outfit, and each of the @#$@ing pieces (aside from the clothing) has a color-changing script for even more options. The idea for this collaboration was brilliant -- Rouge Darcy(Rebel X) wanted to make a complete avatar, and roped in some friends to help. She designed the dress bits, and it combines her usual sculpty madness with a flowing shape I haven't seen from her before. The triple-tiered skirt is frothy and light despite being sculpted, and the sleeves set it off wonderfully.

The two skins are from MissAllSunday of Wasabi Pills. This adorable skin shop has been in my skin rotation for a while (whenever I wear my slightly smiley shape), and these two skins really suit the outfit. The ice queen blue version comes with dramatic gem eyebrows. That musta hurt! The hair and shoes are from katat0nik, and she was kind enough to include an unusual color-changing version of her hair for those of us who've wanted unnatural colors of her hair for a while... It changes from blue-tones to purple-tones, with white and silver too, and both hairs have really cute flowers (snowflakes?) clinging to the locks, as if we've been rolling in white fluffies. The shoes have color-changing bow thingies.

Last but not least, the jewelry (in the form of bracelets, necklaces, dolly keys, and tiaras) are from Violet Voltaire. She's provided a few attachment points for each of the pieces, and the damned things change both pearls and crystals into blue and violet tones. Argh. The choices! (Violet wrote about it here.)

All in all, a lovely collaboration. It will be sold from January 3rd to January 17th, hence the LE-ness. The slurl to the four shops are as follows:
*katat0nik*; Violet Voltaire; Rebel -X-; Wasabi Pills

Meh

*Cry* -- it only took me all freaking day to fix my image quality, and even now, I'm not sure why the thingies are doing what they're doing. I want my old viewer back, and no, none of the tricks worked. =_=.

Aside from that, I went exploring today. I found an old gothic outlet mall, and hopped over to KC Fashions to goth myself up. I'm wearing the Brood outfit from KC Fashions, very spiky and vinyl-y and sexxeh. The outfit suits me better when it covers up my bits, but there's a "wardrobe malfunction" version of the top for the daring.

Now back to kicking my viewer.

***Outfit: KC Fashions Brood in black and red
***Necklace: /Fuel/ Heart felt key
***Hair: DP**yumyum sesame 02 black
***Pierce: FlipSide double labret spikes and FF10 piercings pt2
***Shoes: First Flower Witch-Hazel II Bordeaux
***Ears and stuff: Atomic Kitty Black Wolf ears and tail
***Skin, eyes: Den-Dou Lucky Bag 01 Oiran

I22 4 m3 & U

I was wandering through the Isle of Tranquility today when I saw a sign (below). Turns out that tomorrow through the 11th, there will be little fair booths with lucky bags full of cutely-bundled sale items from the stores of iTuTu.

I took a wander through the booths. They aren't all set up yet (starts tomorrow), but I found sale skins from Den-Dou (worn above), dresses and hair from amerie's Naughty, and cuteness in the form of lanterns, mouth-cards and hair from Atelier AM. Can't wait to see what DP**yumyum has tomorrow, and Kao, and the rest of those addictive little shops...

Sigh. Once again the release candidate is @#$@ing up my photos. I do apologize.

(SLURL to iTuTu.)