Sunday, April 20, 2008

Merovingi Fashion Awards

Okay, I know it's been a really long time since I've blogged but I've been sooooo busy! Not only did Mr. Coolname and I decide to add garden apartments to our offerings for our business but I have been attending MODA and doing all the stuff that goes along with that.

One of those things is that I will be participating in my FIRST Runway show with other MODA students and Spotlight Models this next week. The shows begin at 8pm each evening Monday through Friday with a Gala to end the event on Saturday.

I will be walking in Tuesday and Thursday nights fashion shows and I can tell you the beautiful clothes that I and my fellow models will be wearing are simply wonderful :)

Please consider joining us to see these wonderful fashions and also suppport a worthwhile charity at the same time.

Please see MFA website for more details.

If you have a moment I will try to post some pics of some of my outfits but if not, come see me at the shows :)

Thursday, March 20, 2008

I'm in! I'm in! I'm in!

OMG! I hadn't mentioned this cause it was something I really wanted and mentioning it was like jinxing it or something.

But, I applied with the FACES sl modeling agency and have been crossing my fingers and toes and doing visualization and stuff and I'm in!

I'm an official FACES model.

You can see the list here.

Party time!

Lost in Wonderment

This is gonna be a quick post and yes, I know I'm a slacker for not posting more but we all can't be the lovely and posting-lots Alicia. ;)

If you, somehow, are perhaps brand new to SL or perhaps don't follow the fashion scene at all - then you may not know about the SL Relay For Life Clothing Fair, to benefit the American Cancer Society. You can read about the businessy side of things at the SLRFL site. You can read about all the amazing items produced for this event on any blog with the remotest interest in Fashion. I recommend that you check out the What's New blog to see even more new items being added all the time, and also the Fabulously Free blog which has a sim by sim rundown if you are interested in the freebies at all.

What I want to say, is simply this.

T H A N K Y O U to every single one of the people who has worked on organizing, advertising, designing, creating for this event. Walking around seeing all the work that has gone into this is, for me, a humbling and very moving thing. I lost two of the dearest people in my life to Cancer and it runs in both sides of my family. I keep crying when I think about it or look around at all you have done to help the victims of this overreaching disease. Anyone who can truly look at Second Life and say, "oh it's just a game about sex and whatever", has no idea what they are talking about. They have only to look at you prodigiously amazing people and what you have wrought to know this isn't true.

I happened to be present when ONE KIOSK slipped over to an amazing 100,000 Linden dollars. You read that right, One Hundred Thousand. Multiple that by, as an estimate since I don't have an exact figure, around 3.50usd (Linden Labs do take a cut when you cash out regrettably), yeah you get the picture. The total of donations is even more jaw-dropping. So T H A N K Y O U also, to the generous donors who have opened those Pixel Wallets and dropped in whatever they could spare. It is not going unnoticed, and it WILL make a difference.

Today, I am very happy to be one pixel girl in our incredible pixel world. *Hugs*

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Of Fashionista Totem Poles and Really Cute Shoes

This is gonna be a mega supah deluxe post cause I have so much to catch up on and just not a lot of time to do it in. I hope anyone reading who doesn't wanna read all of this will just skim by because every attempt I have made to put a cut in this thing just screws it up royally. Yes, I am lame. In fact, I may just split this up, yes, I think I will.

In case any of you were not aware, there is a hunt going on at Skin Fair and I meandered over there yesterday evening to take a peek. Whilst there, I ran into quite a few pixelettes and at least one pixelman. Scar Ayres astonished me with her Shoulder Sitter Skillz and then Whimsy Winx, Sai Pennell, Phinn Boffin, Hepzibah Beaumont, Gary Beebe, Tesa Jewell and even the fabulous Celebrity Trollop arrived to join us in the attempt to hold the record for most people standing on heads, at Skin Fair, at least.

The following two shots were taken by Miss Tesa, I played with them a little but you can hardly see me standing about midway in the stack. ;)



Clicky for an, as Whimsy might say, "It's beautiful, Jesus would like it," enlarged view of the proceedings. (Quote from a gesture Ms. Winx uses, lol )



I also took a roaming view around the Cassiopeia Isle Sim, home of LVS, where a dollarbie hunt is going on. Most of the items are for the ladies but gentlemen will be pleased to find there's a noble gent's outfit (medieval looking) to match the noble maiden's and some tee shirts to match the one I'm wearing in these pictures below for 1L each.

In addition to the tee shirt, I'm wearing the Fedora from the ETD hunt as well as one of the pairs of shoes. My hair is from Armidi as is my skirt, and my flashy green nail polish is from The Body Politik. Fatpacks for the win ;) The tattoos are a dollarbie gift from Etchd in honor of St Patrick's Day. I'm also sporting one of the pairs of earrings given out by Alienbear, and if you have not gotten the third gift from Alienbear and Sparkle Skye, today is the last day to do it.

Okay, now we has picatures.



I was a little sad to see that the fedora does not fit my admittedly slightly oversized head too well, and that it does not stretch. Nevertheless, I thought it looked pretty darned kewl.

There are three choices in this tee shirt as mentioned above. I got a kick out of, "If you pinch me, I will punch you," but that seemed a bit militant for this blog. Sooo, I went with the "Play with my Lucky Charms" one instead.



I want to take a moment to say thanks to all the many, many generous designers who give out freebies on holidays, during special events and just every day. You really help make SL what it is and that's much appreciated <3

I am in love with these shoes and quite hope that Elika Tiramisu is able to release them in tons more colors. Even a new (male) friend of mine mentioned, "Cute shoes!" No, he did not ask me if I wanted to adjourn to the bedroom pose balls afterwards either!



To see more of my "Irish Day" pics, click over to my flickr page.

I have lots more to talk about. MODA, applying to fashion agencies, participating in contests, putting in a free changing room for our "Five Units in One" Luxury Skyhomes as mentioned here. That will have to wait. Now I need some fortifying lunch and those pink hearts and green clovers just aren't going to cut it!

Doh! This shows how busy I have been, I have not been getting my regular dose of fashionosity as I didn't realize the Hampton Wedge *Was* released in tons of colors. Sheesh, send me some fashion iv stat!

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Sidonie Takes Pictures Part I

I have a habit, as I am wandering about the grid, of taking pictures. Lots and lots and lots of pictures. Sometimes it's of things I think should be reported to the Fashion Police immediately. Sometimes it's of things I think are cute, interesting, cool. Sometimes it's of me. Sometimes it's of friends. Sometimes it's of stuff I'm doing.

I thought today I'd post up some of my pictures with perhaps little paragraphs about what was going on, what was happening, while I took the picture. If you are not aware before, all my pictures are viewable in larger size through the good offices of Flickr and I try to take you right to the largest possible size with my link. Bear in mind that both Firefox and IE have a tendency to shrink larger size images and you may have to click on them with your magnifying glass to see the pic in full size. I recommend hitting open link in a new tab when you do that, but that's up to you!

These are in reverse chronilogical order, meaning the picture was taken/event happened more recently than pictures farther down the page. This is simply because so much happens every day I can't remember it all forever!

These first few are because of my lovely friend Ms. Tesa Jewell. I can't remember if she has a blog so I can't link it right now if she does, but nevertheless she is lovely. And, she shares with me my shoe fetish. My shoe fetish is so bad that Mr Coolname has started calling me Imelda. I promise though, that the only resemblance between me and that other Imelda is the shoe love.

So, last night at some point, Tesa and I are talking about, what else? Shoes! And she mentions a common related complaint. "I hate my toes." This brought up the fact that there are shoes with prim toes! Yes, if you didn't know this, you heard it here first! A bit of head scratching came up with a name for the same and at that point we got separated. I ended up finding these little treasures and carried a pair home to try out. These are made by a company/designer called !QUIT and are available only on the wall of a little Mall called Crumbi.

I also found they have to use their own ao and come with a hud to control skin tone on your toes, plus toe ring position, plus a ton of toenail polish options. The ao is meant to keep you in the proper position while wearing them and this, as you may have guessed has pitfalls. Nevertheless, the shoes are cute and I ended up with little skullies on my prim toenails.

So here's a pic of my foot with my prim toes, TADA!



We also paid a visit to Minx shoes and posed for a while on the couches that are there. I snapped this photo of Tesa there and edited out the shoes and customers in the background. I hope she likes it as I thought it came out very nice. I did a lot of fancy schmancy editing on this picture, including curves, some blurring stuff etc.



This next pic is one I snapped of me the night before. I just bought this new hair which is basically a short version of my much beloved Harlow from Cake. This one is called Berlin. What's interesting about this pic for me is that I happened to be editing something and caught my avatar's eyes closed. I thought that looked nifty so I took the shot. I've edited out the background of the store I was in and added a lot of different editing effects etc. See what you think.



I do a lot of freebie hunting, treasure hunts, whatever when I have a few free moments to do so. I see a lot of interesting things while doing this and this picture was taken on one such hunt. This little tableau was so cute, it was irresistible.




Now we have to hop into the wayback machine, cause this next pic was taken quite a while ago. The story behind it is that I was waiting to meet Mr. Coolname at Jades Jazz Lounge where there was a concert on her skating rink. I'm on a ball that makes you float and spin like an aerialist and I caught this snap just at the right moment, imo.



I think this is enough spammage for one day. I did, however, want to draw your attention to the beautiful pictures taken by the wonderful Miss IcyQueen Nightfire and the accompanying blog entry over here. She came by to visit the Skyhomes that Mr Coolname and I have for rent and I think her pictures of the same are much better than mine. Please go over to take a look and admire her work. (And see what she has to say about the homes!)

Friday, March 7, 2008

Shout Out to a Real Gentleman

It may not have been apparent to most people I know, but I have been in that state which can best be described as Hormonally Induced Madness. You ladies will know what I'm talking about, and I'm sure you gentlemen can guess.

I have been cranky with hair. No, I have been a virago with hair. Everything upset me. Everything pissed me off. Everything made me want to curl up in a corner and cry and simultaneously use those laser beam eye things to render people who annoyed me into dust.

It was bad. One of the worst episodes I can remember having.

Mr. Coolname put up with a lot from me. He didn't yell at me. He didn't break up with me. He didn't tell me to take my bad mood and go to hell. He is an amazing man and a real gentleman and I just wanted to take the time to say so here.

Thanks, Ras. You're really the best.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Quick Note to Say...

I have updated my blog links to the right over there. ==============>

If I've added the blog it's because I regularly read it, seek it out, refer to it, etc. This is entirely personal preference and what I enjoy. You have just won a sparkly link back.

I'll Get You, My Pretty or How I Got Tagged!

So the petite powerhouse of creativity and dj "itgirlness", Alicia Chenaux, had the nerve to tag me. How dare she?

*giggles*

Here are the rules!
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

"I am not enamoured but carry on."
They cleared away the last of the impedimenta. Phryne picked up a case-opener, which bore a distinct resemblance to a jemmy, and inserted it under the lip of the tomb.


The book is Urn Burial by Kerry Greenwood, an Australian mystery writer. It's very good but if you start with the Phryne Fisher stories, start with Cocaine Blues.

I shall tag, Quaint, Icy, Whimsy, Caliah and anyone who has not been tagged and would like to be. (Despite the rules, no one is under any compulsion to participate.)

Monday, March 3, 2008

A Brief Mention of RL Because of SL

One of the blogs I read as often as I can, is the Michami.Net Blog written and conceived by a pixel girl of outstanding style and fashion sense. This isn't just my opinion but the opinion of lots and lots of ladies on the grid and probably gents too. Her name is Milla Michinaga.

As I was getting ready to wend my weary way to bed tonight, I took a peek at her blog as I had not had time to look the last few days.

I love the latest look but, what I liked even more was the video she was linking to by Jennifer Lopez. Whether you like or hate the music doesn't matter. What does matter, to me, is that Jennifer was taking the idea that singers, actresses and spokespersons must be rail thin to succeed and kicking it in the crotch.

Since I *Do* live under a rock in real life, a brief google informed me that Ms Lopez has just given birth to twins. And yet in this video, Hold It, Don't Drop It, she manages to look stylish, sexy and cool. I don't think we can ask any more of any woman, of any size, at any time in her life.

Being that the issue of size is one that impacts me in RL through no fault of my own, i.e. I don't eat chocolate bars or potato chips every day for every meal despite the assumption by even my friends that I do - it is very, very nice to see such a positive image of a woman over a size 2 no matter what the reason.

If you don't want any RL with your SL blogging, please scroll on by!

Skin Fair! and Rue D'Antibes

This is an incomplete list and I do not have slurls because SL mapping has decided to be borked. However, the Skin Fair is being held at Vanity Universe and can be found there if you just log in to that region.

These are the gifts and bargains and tips which I know from personally finding them or being told about them directly by the designer. They are there so please don't im me that you can't find them. Be patient, go wash dishes or something and wait for stuff to rez, I dunno.

Adam n Eve. This is a stellar box which contains demos, free skins for both male and female, manicures, pedicures and I don't know what all. It is FREE. In the center of the stall is a cute pedestal with an apple on it. The floating text above it says "Buy me for 0L for a taste of Adam n Eve". You can't miss it.

Chai Skins. Chai is selling their skin gift cards for 18percent off the regular price. In other words get their skin for 1k rather than 1200 or whatever it usually is or get three for 3k etc. The more you buy the more you save. If you are a fan of this skin this is a great time to buy them. They are also right next to Adam n Eve and you can walk right through.

Darkes Sisters Skins. This kiosk or stall is almost directly across the main concourse from Adam n Eve. Just walk across and you will see it. Once you are inside, you will see a little pink sign on the bottom left corner of the back wall which reads 1L and the box itself is an adorable hat box/powder puff box right there. I don't know if this is the same gift as the member gift given over the weekend and haven't had time to check.

At a couple intervals along the concourse there are pass through areas to even more skins. There are changing rooms in these pass through areas and seating areas for resting those pixel tootsies.

If you go through one of them, you will see on the left as you come out a circular display which has three different skin makers on it. One of them is giving away a free oil layer. The name is Dreamy something. Another skin maker, Wax Poetic, has a free skin box. (dollarbie actually)

BiancaF has a free skin which she may change each week. Her little kiosk is to be found right before Ars Nova so look for it!

Fleur had a great skin called Marni which I believe is released especially for SKIN FAIR when I was there. It was regular price though.

Celestial Studios was displaying the entire seasonal Vogue series so if you like these skins which I do, and missed them, which I did, you should grab them. And I will!.


Switching over to the Rue D'Antibes Sim opening. As of this writing, La Sylphide's sim opening gift is still there as are the gifts from Silent Sparrow (in a cute blue bottle on the table outside) and Mimikri. No idea how long they will be there, so go go go.

Silent Sparrow also has a very nice outfit reduce to 100L for the event and there are other freebies in the area.

Edit: The Fleur outlet at Rue D'Antibes is selling the boutique line for half price. This will continue until Roslin logs on and has time to change them.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Meh

I deleted my previous ranty mcranty pants post. I was very pissed off and I'm still angry. Nevertheless, just doesn't feel good to lay it out and if you're gonna rant, it should feel good.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

So Busy, Oh My! Luxury Skyhome Rentals Open!

Addendum - it seems as if grid.iheartsl.com is down while the servers update. I would appreciate it therefore, if any of my blogging buds read this, if they would be willing to at least refer to it. With Skin Fair going on, we have tons of competition!

Yes, I definitely fail at this regular blogging gig. But I have an excellent excuse which I am about to show you all right here. This is gonna be a bit long and rather picture heavy so I apologize if it offends anyone for length and simply exhort them to please scroll past!

"Sidonie, what have you been doing instead of blogging faithfully?"

Mr Coolname, whose real sl name is about to be revealed made a suggestion one day that was very attractive. Namely, why not open some rentals. Many people seem to do it and do very well at it, why not us? We found some highly unique and imo original builds to use for our business, top quality. We then enclosed these in a privacy sort of affair. A guest can see out but others cannot see in unless they are deliberately camming in. There is also no access to these from the ground except through locked tps or direct landmark and guests must join our group in order to place objects and then they can also set home in their particular unit.

Next we also developed the grounds above which our skyhomes float for the pleasure of our guests.

The scripting, arranging, investigating of rental devices etc, has consumed a large part of our time. Landscaping and building also took up a lot of mostly my time. We are now officially open, however, and I'm very proud of it. Now all we need is some people!

If anyone reading this is in need of a skyhome with a unique flair that also includes grounds amenities please feel free to instant message myself (Sidonie Larkham) or Mr Coolname, aka Erasmus Weatherwax. (See, cool name!) Or, they can simply tp right over to look around, the landmark is in my picks.

Here is a bunch of pictures of how things look. Please do click through to my flickr to see larger 1024 x 1024 versions of these.


Upon arrival, a prospective guest (a word I prefer over tenant) lands with this view before them with an arrow pointing helpfully towards the office.



If the guest turns around, this view is presented.



Proceeding around the lagoon, yields this view.



And in yet another direction is the Greenhouse which does duty as a mini ballroom.



Upon entering a guest's rental unit, behind them will be this view.



The hedge texture is customizable and the rent box automatically resizes to a tiny box upon renting. The other prim there is a direct tp to a landing which in turn leads to the ground without having to resort to landmarks. Naturally these items do not count towards the guest's prim count.

A guest has the choice of five builds every time they rez. They may choose a favorite or they may alternate as they prefer. We also have plans to add more builds to the choices as time goes by.

Here are a couple of the five choices:

Asian Retreat





You can see a tiny glimpse of a neighboring skybox in the interior shot but these have all been carefully placed to be completely outside of earshot from one to the other. That little bit of plywood has since been edited also, lol.

Loft Retreat





I have seen rentals both for skyhomes and ground rentals of a similar price with nothing like these amenities. In my honest judgement I think these are some of the best skyhomes in SL, I hope if you visit, you will agree.

Even more great news coming up but I think this is enough "spam" for now.

Mr. Coolname wanted to do a clothing optional area on our grounds lol, but we don't really have enough land for that, just yet.

Monday, February 18, 2008

The Friday Five - On Monday

I admit it, I'm a slacker. Too much to do and say and not enough time to do and say it! Big announcement in the next post. Meanwhile, here are my answers to the Friday Five, posted by Alicia over here.

1. If you could do one thing in SL, what would you do?

This is a toughie, cause there are many "one things" I'd like to do in SL. I think the biggest one is learn how to make animations. I keep thinking of ideas for animations that just aren't around.

2. If you could be anyone else in SL for a day, who would it be and why?

The lovely and cool Miss Babyhoney Bailey, SL Miss Universe. She runs a sim and a business, makes jewelry, models and a lot more. Plus, she's Miss Universe! I read about her on a blog and if I could remember which one I would note it here.

3. If you could change one thing in SL, what would it be?

LAG

4. If you could hop on a naughty poseball with one person of the same sex, who would it be?

You know? I have no idea.

5. If you could hop on a naughty poseball with one person of the opposite sex, who would it be?

You mean, other than Mr. Coolname? Probably one of those hawt guys featured over on the Mean Girls blog. Eenie, Meenie, Miney...you get the idea.

And that wraps this up.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

In Defense of Stiletto Moody Shoes

This is an Opinion. It is only an Opinion. Your Mileage May Vary, Please Drive On.

"Opinion," says Wikipedia, "An opinion is a person's ideas and thoughts towards something. It is an assessment, judgment or evaluation of something. An opinion is not a fact, because opinions are either not falsifiable, or the opinion has not been proven or verified. If it later becomes proven or verified, it is no longer an opinion, but a fact. Accordingly, all information on the web, from a surfer's perspective, is better described as opinion rather than fact."

Comments are welcome, but rudeness will be deleted and since it's my blog, I'll decide what's rude, mkay?

I love to read other people's blogs. I am an avid reader of several, some of which you can see listed on my blog roll to the right. I discovered GogoLita at some point in the last few weeks and I spent some time reading not only the current posts but the previous ones and I stumbled upon one there about Stiletto Moody Shoes. After careful consideration of not only the post but of the comments, I decided I have some things to say about this "issue" if it is an issue.

Before I even talk about the shoes, I want to bring up a few points around the whole argument.

Very few of us, in Second Life, are seeing ONLY brand new never before seen, totally came from the mind of the designer, designs. Photo sourcing is an everyday part of SL, for example. You see it in skins, clothing, hair, shoes, houses, everything. One of the most popular and expensive stores in SL, which shall remain nameless, is exclusively photosourced content.

Let's look at what photosurced means. It means that the creator either bought copyright free photos or found them through google search or some variety of the two, and then pieced the content of those photos together along with perhaps some hand drawing and heavy photoshop work to create a garment in Second Life.

Where did those photos come from? They came from real life. Whatever route they took on the way, they came from real life. And chances are they came from someone's copyrighted work.

99% of gestures, a very popular item in Second Life, are sound clips from songs, movies and tv shows. Do you suppose the people who made those gestures paid a fee to the creators of those songs, moves and tv shows in order to use that copyrighted material? I'm thinking that answer is no.

Furthermore, the idea of knock offs is very prevalent in the real world. Most department stores and certainly lower end stores like Target are carrying copies of copies of copies of that designer item that maybe was on the runway a couple seasons ago. Shoe and handbag designs in particular are usually knocked off almost as a matter of course.

These are a few examples of "copying" a designer's work from real life for use in sl and from real life to other items in real life, and doing so is taken as a matter of course. There are probably dozens more but I'm not willing to dig that hard. Please note, I'm not pointing the finger of blame or guilt or anything like that at anybody when I mention these examples. I'm simply saying, it's okay over here; why should it then not be okay somewhere else?

I know that there's a group of people who say rather loudly, nothing should be copied from real life. I wonder if those people have any photosourced items when they say that.

Then there's a group of people who say, does it really matter? To some extent, I don't think it does, depending largely on my own feelings of how much material harm it may or may not be doing and sense of fair play.

There also seems to be a school of thought in SL that a designer's work must be entirely his or her own work. Well, photosourcing, clearly by definition, is not the designer's own work and yet that's okay. Yes, I know that photosourcing takes a lot of work from the designer, even though I don't really understand it. I'm taking that part on faith.

What about furniture or prefab makers who buy textures from someone else. Surely the item they make is still the item made by them? What about gestures, surely a song clip and chat line from "The Simpsons" is not their own work? Sure, they made the gesture, took the time to make the song clip, but that's not their voice. That's the voice of Lisa Simpson. What about shoe makers who buy shoe parts, or even learned how to make shoes at a class. Does this somehow change the fact they took the time to assemble the parts, texture it, etc?

I am not so sure that I'm convinced that this school of thought, that the designer's work on a sold item should be theirs and only theirs, particularly when so much of what is sold is not really any designer's total work, is correct. Only people who can claim that are hand drawn artists who then make the clothes or furniture or whatever themselves. The number of people who do that, compared to the total number of reputable designers, is fairly small. Hand drawn meaning no photosourcing of any kind.

Now, let's talk about Stiletto Moody shoes.

One of the "complaints" I've seen is that Stiletto didn't make every single prim herself. My response is, so? As I've already shown, lots of things in Second Life are not made exclusively by the person whose name is on it. And how do you even know that the designer who made that dress actually drew it? You don't. Anybody can upload a texture and apply it to a prim. We take that part on faith. I don't really see all that much difference. Another very lovely designer's partner made some sculpties that she then applied to an item she had for sale. What's wrong with that?

That's really all Stiletto has done except she has paid someone, probably very handsomely, to create sculpties for her. Considering that I doubt I could understand the dynamics of sculpties, I might have to do that too. Understanding our limitations is the first step towards greatness, after all. Or at least, that's what my Mom says, lol. Obviously, Stiletto has not tried to hide the fact that someone else made the sculpties when it would be very easy for her to do so. All she would have to do is apply the sculpty map to the prim herself.

Another complaint was that someone didn't get their shoes during the sale. From personal experience, I can tell you that there *was* a problem with a number of the vendors caused by Linden Labs breaking a script protocol. If you wish you can check the Linden Blog for the week prior and find the post concerning the same. I believe the broken script protocol was later repaired. However, if the person or persons who did not receive their shoes, did not bother to follow up with Stiletto and her staff, then that's their fault. That person is the one who knows she didn't get her items. Not the staff. It took me a couple of extra days to get my shoes but I did get them and I don't blame Stiletto and her staff at all for something that was unavoidable. I, however, did not expect anyone to have their mind reading glasses on and followed up assiduously and had the privilege of talking to the scripter involved as well as with other members of the staff. In all, I bought five pair of shoes at the sale and I love all of them.

Yet another complaint was that the shoes bling or they make walk sounds. Okay, people, this complaint is pure and simple bs. The notecard which comes with every pair of shoes specifically tells you how to manage your bling and walk sounds with a simple click on your shoe. The left one I believe. If a buyer doesn't bother to read the notecard, this is not the fault of the designer or her staff. That's that person's laziness. (Incidentally, Zhao shoes uses a similar system only it's the RIGHT shoe)

One more complaint was that some of the designs are reproductions of real world styles. In the first, place get real. Every pointy toed pump in SL is a reproduction of a pointy toed pump in real life. Every sandal, every ankle strap, every sneaker, are reproductions. For that matter, to some extent, every pair of jeans, every halter top, is a reproduction. Why? Cause we make what we know. As someone famous once said, Shakespear I think, "There's nothing new under the sun." Paraphrased heavily, of course.

True, a few of Moody's styles are closer to real world shoes than others. My response is, So? I have boots in SL that look very similar to boots I have in RL. So? In fact many people *Try* to imitate their RL wardrobes in SL by looking for Doc Maarten style shoes or chucks or converse or whatever the thing is they want. I think this complaint is simply something to complain about.

Someone said that all the shoes were just for strippers, and blinging disasters. I don't recall the exact quote but it was along that line. It is true that some of the shoes do look as though they were made for dancers or with dancers in mind. Even the advertising mentions a pole. ;) However, this is not, by any means, the sum total of the styles within the walls of the store and to dismiss a store based on one assumption is pretty hard judgement. The strippery ones were not for me, but I found plenty of others to like.

Someone else said that the shoes don't fit well. I have to say, that when I first put mine on, I was severely disappointed because I thought that too. It turned out, though, that my shoes had not rezzed totally. Once they were rezzed completely they fit fine. I did adjust the ankle strap, according to personal taste but that's it. Otherwise I wear them straight out of the box and if they fit me they will fit anybody with size 0 feet.

Finally, the price. It's true. $900L or $1000L for one pair of shoes is a lot. It's more than I can pay without a sale. It's more than I can justify to myself to pay without a sale. I'm sure there are many of you in that same boat. Judging by the crowd that was at the sale the first day when I and Mr Coolname went, that was the case for many shoppers. And/or, they, like one lovely woman at the sale have a partner in a position to spare no expense for her to be well shod. ;)



There are a few considerations however when one thinks of the price. For one, you have a lifetime right to updates and or replacements for every pair of shoes you buy from Stiletto Moody shoes. That's right, all you have to do is go back to the vendor and click it to get a whole new copy of the pair you bought. This means if your inventory goes nuts, you still have shoes without even having to ask the store. Plus, any time the shoes are updated, you get a new copy. That's some extra service that has to get paid for somehow and to me it's worth the probably extra 150 or so linden I pay above what I'd pay for other sculpty shoes at a sale.

True, I wish Stiletto's shoes were priced closer to 600L than to 1000L but I am willing to wait for a sale to buy them. I think they are pretty, well made, and make me feel special. That's all I ask of any garment.

Incidentally, here's my pink moc croc elegant slingbacks. The designer gave them to me in honor of my buying so many pairs in spite of the difficulties with the vendors. I also bought the red elegant slingbacks that were on valentine special bringing my total up to seven pairs.

Rant in A Minor and Related Oddities

Before you ask, I am up now because I went to take a nap around 8 pm my time and got sucked down into the world of Morpheus and just woke up. All sane people are asleep, leaving me time to ponder things.

The rant is about pose balls. Mr Coolname (about whom more soon) is now quite a bit taller than he once was. Therefore pose balls, even my beloved Slow Dance v7, ends up putting my arms through his chest or some other ungroovy thing. This, as you may well imagine, tends to detract from the romantic nature of the dance. It looks as though I'm an Acolyte of Kali trying to tear out his lungs while smiling dreamily at him.

This is not the beginning of my woes. Naturally you can't adjust someone else's pose balls. Sometimes, it seems impossible to adjust your own pose balls. I think romantic and love (And even sex, blush) ball makers should include a notecard. "This pose was made for two people of this approximate size and shape." It would save a lot of fumbling and bumbling about, especially in your own home or that of your beloved (or should the spirit move you - just the home of your friend with benefits, your favorite escort, and so on)

We can make self sizing hair and skirts now. Why not self sizing pose balls? Is some clever person working on this desperate need alone and with sweaty brow attempting to solve the problem of arm through chest disease? If you are, I will donate whole lindens to your cause. (For a modest return on investment of course!)

I have in another area of my life been advised to get taller. My sliders were a rather middle of the road 62 for height, and I was admittedly slightly short waisted for my size. I still managed to tower over our resident tiny powerhouse, Alicia. I can justifiably call her a powerhouse, though with a cute voice, since I have now attended her host/dj gigs. Also, of which more later.

With my sliders sitting around 70 for height and my waist lengthened, I'm erm, taller. But still not tall enough for these blasted pose balls. They were all made for giants!

Self Adjusting Pose Balls are the wave of the future.

PS: I find that the Pillow Talk animations usually do not cause arm through chest disease and other related syndromes and they usually adjust simply. If she can do it, the rest of ya'll can do it too. So get on that, chop chop.

And now for the other oddities portion of this post.

In my travels recently, I have had cause to discover a paradise blanket. From that, I and Mr Coolname proceeded to the paradise blanket store in order to explore the possibilities therein.

Here's a picture of me at the paradise blanket store. I think the real name of the store is Octoberworks but don't quote me on that. Herein lies the oddity.





See what the sign says? It says Nursery. Somebody thinks the kids room is a place to be sexy? Pardon me while I stare! I don't know 'bout you.

Notice how I do look very spokesmodelish, waving my hand gracefully to indicate the Paradise Blanket Package - including your freaky nursery!

I have another post on the way but this should tide you over. I'll get to the Friday Five in a bit.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Alicia Made Me Do It!

I've been neglecting my blog. I know I have. And today, or possibly last night, the lovely Miss Alicia Chenaux of Ch'know blog fame called me out! Me and every other blogger neglecting their blogs. LOL

I do apologize to anyone reading this over my neglect. Though I do love to blog, I am the kind of person who needs a sit down and maybe a cup of tea to write a decent post. I don't know how some of the more prolific bloggers - cough Alicia cough - do it!

I do love to read her posts though and hopefully I'll be more on a roll with blogging and ya'll won't get bored.

By the way, I agree with her on Windlight. Though I think some of the pictures I have to show you would be prettier in Windlight, the problems with it, including the fact that my computer goes into electronic cardiac arrest every time I try to use it, keep me on the release candidates. It would be nice if they'd come up with a big red button. Windlight ON and Windlight OFF but somehow I don't see that happening.

Sidonie, you ask, where have you been?

Very, very busy.

I'll start with Mr. Coolname. I truly consider him, above any romanticness between us, my best SL friend. We spend an enormous amount of time together and we constantly have things to talk about. He is always dragging me to places which I might not go. A party populated mostly by escorts and their clients might not be a place I *want* to go but that's neither here or there, right? *g*

I was upset about something last night, for example, and he said something which I think a lot of women would like to hear. No, it wasn't, "Here honey, have my credit card." It was, "I will always have your back." And, he takes things that I say to heart. For instance, I'm not always sure if my getting pissy about things is really overreacting or if I'm on target because I've been accused in times past of being over sensitive. Lately, he's started saying to me, "That's a perfectly valid response, Sid." To me, this is a very touching and supportive thing for any friend much less a person who is pretty much also my boyfriend to say. He's chosen to DO something about the fact that I'm worried about overreacting. I don't think I could ask for more than that - but in fact he gives me a lot more.

He is consistently considerate, fun, warm, and sensitive. He also thinks I'm the most beautious thing on two legs. <3 We have not yet made the commitment to be exclusive with each other but that's coming. We also talk about some real life things and we've shared names. Last night I gave him my mailing address after a joking reference to me giving him the same so he could send me chocolates for Valentines got, "You should, Sid," from him. I am not one to really ask anybody to give me anything. I make jokes about people spending money on me, but when someone DOES, it's a big surprise and I usually cry. Mr. Coolname is unfailingly generous as I've notated previously on this blog.

BIG FLAMING WARNING: I feel safe in giving Mr. Coolname my real mailing address for a lot of reasons. However, I don't recommend this activity until you know someone extremely well and then know them better. Be careful on the internet with personal info. END OF WARNING.

Oh also, remember Mr. Coolname's noobie looks. Well, he's gone through a lot of experimentation some of which would have been unnecessary if he wasn't being quite so thick headed about taking advice (:P) and a few incarnations. He still is a bit prim adjustment challenged, partly cause I think he's a little too impatient about camming himself when he could be camming me instead, lol. We also discovered that while I'm a touch typist, he is not and this sometimes causes some miscommunication while he hunt and pecks and I'm typing for ten minutes. I have learned to slow down a little bit to let him keep up and I think he's learned to scroll up a bit.

I can now happily report that Mr. Coolname has evolved very handsomely. :) I would show pictures but I haven't gotten his permission yet and it seems unfair to show pics without that.

I do have more stuff to post and I will make a concerted effort to get it posted today but since I don't want to entirely spam you I'll wait a bit to post the next thing.

Oh, one other thing. Mr. Coolname bought land (which I will be reimbursing him half for in a week) and we are going into the real estate business together. Specifically Luxury Skyhomes. They are fully furnished units with custom sex animations and a choice of themed builds with the press of a button. On the ground we are putting in a lagoon, paths, gardens and so on replete with poses for both couples and singles. I am very excited about it and we hope to open for Valentine's day. We have also put in a building for parties and I am investigating shoutcasting to host parties for our guests. The rent is higher than most skyhomes but when you see these places, you'll see why. I honestly am very proud of these homes because I've looked around and I haven't seen anything to compare with what we are offering.

I'll leave you with one picture. This was taken from a gazebo I built on our lagoon.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Yay Freebies! And a Sidenote

I just want to again thank all the many designers of SL who participated in yesterday's Rez Day party for Fashion Consolidated Group. Despite the problems created by a stampede of probably hundreds of avatars to various places, I think most of us had a jolly good time. I think most of the designers did too as many were on hand to hear a chorus of thank yous from we the grateful! (I know there were a few who were less polite and grateful than they should have been but I was in many places where we all said thank you as we came and went.)

I haven't had time yet to go through everything that I got even!

I do want to say one other thing, and then link to read Alicia Chenaux's excellent soap box post about the same thing. Not to belabor the issue as reported on a certain freebie blog, but a comment made there - if we "freebie obsessives" bought something now and then, store owners wouldn't kick us out" really got my goat.

Nobody has to explain why they do or do not spend money on SL. No one has to justify it to anybody else. If you can't understand that getting a bargain, or getting a gift from someone (and that's what freebies are) is fun - well I can only say I feel sad for you because you are really missing out.

Ironically, I was in the store that Creamy mentions namelessly and saw her moments before the incident. As it happens, I spent close to 1K at that same store after picking up the freebie there and got invited to their update group this evening. So much for the notion that freebie hounds never spend money, eh?

Now, here's the link to Alicia's much more insightful comments if you're interested.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

OMG!

Soooo many freebies, soooo little time and now sl wants to be all crashy and stupid.

I am so sad!

I already missed out on some stuff!



I do want to take a moment and say thank you to all the many many designers who took time out to put out their gifts in celebration of Fashion Consolidated. It is much appreciated by me and I'm sure many other people!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Modeling, Revisited.

A quick update here to be fair to the lovely people at MODA Modeling. Mirrabella Schumann got in contact with me yesterday afternoon while I was out of world and hopefully as soon as classes begin, I'm there! There was a mix up with even though there was a script error she still got my applications, yay! Plus, SL is playing silly buggers it seems and hiding people in the people search. They can be found, however, in the all search. Thought I'd mention in case some of you are having trouble finding people through the people search.

By the time I got back online, my messages had capped and I missed Mirrabella but also Licentious Malady mentioned one of the MODA models had seen my blog and passed it along. A comment was left also for follow up, and thank you very much Licentious.

So, first steps accomplished! Since I'm young still, -only 4 months- I hopefully will have an interview today.

I blogged about receiving this gown as a gift in a previous grid filtered post so here is the picture again. The gown is by Nicky Ree, hair by ETD and shoes by Aphrodite Creations. Tasha skin by RAC.



This pic is viewable in larger size on my flickr page. Click through to the all sizes option.

Soooo Much to Write Here!

Okay, since I promised, here's an update on me and Mr. Coolname.

So much has happened I'm not going to tell you everything. In the words of Inigo Montoya, "There is too much, let me sum up!"

Mr. Coolname continues to impress in pretty much every way in terms of being practically perfect as far as dating material. He's smart, witty, appreciative, complimentary, warm, funny and understanding. He listens when I talk (with a few little exceptions, lol) and also draws me out of myself. He wanted to hold my hand so much he went and bought a little hud so he could. How sweet is that? We've talked about each of our real lives a little, something that I'm not generally enthusiastic about, but it gave us each a little more understanding of where the other person is coming from. I found myself opening up about things and he made that much easier and more pleasant than it might have been. There were one or two rocky moments when I had to explain the virtues of saying you're afk and how much I hate the sensation of being ignored. ;)

Despite this blog, there's a lot I do hold inside because I'm basically rather shy. The blog is more of compulsive journalism, lol, than anything.

I've got some pictures here of things from yesterday. Mr. Coolname is pretty well-traveled and also interested in history so he tends to seek out things in SL in those veins. I'm happy to tag along and hold his hand, especially when there's so many places yours truly has not been yet. ;)

Our first visit was to somewhere (sorry I forgot to get lm or slurl, I'll try to edit that later) that attempted to recreate Ancient Rome. I thought the builders did an excellent job.

Here are a few pictures of one courtyard we were in when I looked over the balcony from the marketplace.









Mr. Coolname was called away after buying me the beautiful toga I am wearing in the next pictures so I paused to take a few snaps. :)



The hair, btw, is Vivian from ETD and I thought it set off the outfit very nicely. My only complaint on this lovely ensemble is that I wish they'd used flexi a bit more. Then again, I suppose togas are meant to fit close to the body.



I edited this second pic to make the red darker, I like the effect very much.

At this point, I too was called away and so we didn't regroup until later that evening.

Mr. Coolname and I share a passion for dancing and we both belong to one or two Jazz clubs. -Specifically Frank's and Jade's Jazz Island-. He had received a notice of a red event at Frank's and invited me to join him there. This was a great idea except for one small problem. I didn't have a red dress. Red heads and bright red don't usually go together. Mr. Coolname scoffed at this minor detail and we proceeded on a shopping expedition. We ended up at Nicky Ree, where I couldn't help but pause and sigh over the gorgeous Winter Flame ensemble. The full set is way out of my normal shopping budget so I was prepared to pass it by for something a bit more affordable.

"Do you really want this dress?" inquired Mr. Coolname. I replied in the very definite affirmative.

"Come here then," he said. "Forget about it," he said.

Yes, that's right folks, Mr. Coolname bought me the Winter Flame ensemble in the red color. I cried all over him. He didn't seem to mind. ;)

Here's me in the dress.



And here's us dancing together at Frank's.




I'll apologize now for being spammish since I have another post to do and also I don't know how to cut my posts for iheartsl.com. If someone has some tutorial on that, please pass it my way.

Last, but certainly not least, gentlemen - run, do not walk, to Tymmerie's blog (Girl Wonder Speaks About SL) where you can complete an important poll on what men look for in women in SL.

As ever, if you would like to see these larger sized, you can go to my flickr page. Click through the part where it says all sizes and choose the largest if it isn't on there already. As I've said before, I'm thrilled to get comments and to exchange blog links. So don't be shy!

Monday, January 28, 2008

Daemon Spammage

Saw this a couple places, thought I'd do it, whatdya think?

Isn't Insomnia Grand? And Modeling?

This is a post I was planning anyway but I was waiting for tomorrow. Technically it is tomorrow so I guess that'll do. Since the delightful and lovely Ms. Alicia Chenaux asked me were I and Mr. Coolname still seeing each other. Let me just put that to rest by saying that yes, we are, and more will follow on that soonish.

Over the course of my time in SL, I've become really fascinated and intrigued by the notion of Sl fashion models. I love the fact that there is such a profession in SL because it's one of those fantasy professions for many of us, I think, and I would be willing to guess it's much harder to do than it might look in videos or at shows. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that I wanted to do that. (I've thought about getting a job more than once to help offset some of my spending but since I don't want to be a stripper or an escort and I'm still working on content creation, I wasn't sure what direction to go in).

But, I've decided I want to make a serious attempt at modeling and so, my first step was that I went to the Moda Fashion Showcase to apply to the Moda Modeling School. My guess is that a school can teach me a lot and also according to the MODA info, I'd end up with a portfolio, etc. However, I've applied twice and both times I get a script error that makes me think that my application is floating around in the digital world somewhere and not reaching the intended recipient.

Here's me applying the second time. I think I look svelte and glamorous!



I dropped a notecard on the Director of Admissions at MODA but I never got a notification that it was accepted and now I realize, she probably gets 84985308644570965793 notecards. I also know I'm a little bit young for their admissions limits but I'm determined on this and I'm in a quandary for what to do to see that my application gets where it needs to go. I'd like to at least maybe get an interview!

Meanwhile, with the assistance of Alaska Metropolitan (of Metro Models) I got the names of several photographers who might be willing to take some shots in order to have something to show in contests and so on and the name of the extremely talented and lovely Ms Ryker Beck (of Rykerized.com) popped out at me. She is every bit as nice as you might think and she took the following shots for me. I am so impressed.

I resized these to fit on my blog but you can see them in their full glory on Flickr.










The last photo is my favorite but I really think all of these are wonderful and I'm so happy Ryker was willing to take them for me!

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Evolution of an Avatar

I'm guessing that by now there may be some mild curiousity as to what I look like. If i were anyone reading this *I* would be wondering.

Here are a few shots representing the incarnations of my avatar. I have a few more also but this is mostly of the ones I kept for more than a day or two. If you'd like to see bigger versions *you pervs* you can look at my flickr page.

Version 1 - this was pretty soon after I rezzed, note the freebie hair and I think this was a freebie skin too from the wonderful Minnu Models skins.



Version 2 - I changed my shape a bit and got this lovely hair from Analog Dog. I think this is also a skin I bought from MM.



Version 3 - This is fairly recent incarnation, Tuli s4 skin and etd hair. I made quite a few changes to my shape here, most very small.



And this is me now - again some small changes here to my shape but not a lot. Hair by Cake and skin by RAC.

This is just so i can add this tag to my blog

Nothing to see here, just need this so I can filter onto iheartssl.com as recommended by the wonderful Ms. Creamy Cooljoke.

Lookie!

I found this while reading through Kitty Lalonde's blog.

I got curious after seeing her pr0niness on the Mean Girls blog. *coughandi'mcuriouswhereshegotsuchaparrentlyhighqualityanimationscough*

So, um, have some instant personal analysis.

You Are An INFP

The Idealist

You are creative with a great imagination, living in your own inner world.
Open minded and accepting, you strive for harmony in your important relationships.
It takes a long time for people to get to know you. You are hesitant to let people get close.
But once you care for someone, you do everything you can to help them grow and develop.

In love, you tend to have high (and often unrealistic) standards.
You are very sensitive. You tend to have intense feelings.

At work, you need to do something that expresses your personal values.
You would make an excellent writer, psychologist, or artist.

How you see yourself: Unselfish, empathetic, and spiritual

When other people don't get you, they see you as: Unrealistic, naive, and weak

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Befores and Afters

Here's a peek at my house, sort of before and after. The before is actually pictures of one of my neighbors houses which is still very sparsely furnished. Love the piano though.

The houses are identical except for a few variations in flooring.




This is the front of the house. Above is the neighbor's house. Below is my house.



I think the way they do rental property on this particular estate is kind of weird. They let you choose a house like the houses already on the island but if you say you don't want the house, they don't give you those 60 or 70 prims to build your own.



Above is the before. Below is the after.



I still have some things I want to do to my house, especially the yard but I'll get around to that.



Above before, Below after.




Here's a few more After shots.



This one is of the entryway, it's an awkward space so i made it kind of like a foyer.



And this is as if you were walking into my bedroom. LOL



And this is of my bathtub area, and I built the tub. I bought one of those Enkythings ones but there was some kind of weird texture problem so I built one myself with a little tinkering. Those are pillow talk pillows in it and that towel is too. I made all the rugs too.

I have to give a shout out to Xandi Mars of Del Sol Open Market where I got most of the living room furniture and the chairs in the bedroom. She was so nice and made that swing thing for me to match the rest of the set and then retextured the chairs in a darker tone at my request.

If you would like to see these in bigger size, I refer you to my flickr. Don't set too much store in my appearance there though. I've already changed it, eep! The evolution of my avatar will be some other post.