Day 211 - Up Up And Away!

It's been a heck of a week! But, as it always happens, things are settling down. Well, for me anyway. Aldwyn is always a lot busier than me. Rude. :-p

But, tonight we managed to get some time together in SL. Pose Fair is coming up this weekend and since I'm one of the bloggers for it, I have a bunch of new poses to play with. I've been SO excited for this event!! I just love poses, especially ones for couples or friends or with props. A pose can really make or break a photo, you know? I think this one came out totally cute.




I probably should have saved this pic for the fashion blog, huh? LOL But it's on Flickr and it's here and it's cute and that's what matters.

I'm really going to attack our parcel this weekend. I'm sick to death of it looking good in just certain parts. I told Al tonight that I want to redecorate the house already. It just seems really... NEAT. Like everything is just so carefully placed. The only room I really love is the "kid" room and no one even goes in there really. But mostly I want to do the parcel. The house can wait a bit because Ulaa is redoing some of it so I'll end up switching out the houses anyway.

Yikes, it's getting late! Bedtime!

Beautiful Life pose by In~Stance [Pose Fair 2013]

Day 210 - Do you ear what I ear?

A few years ago when I was writing for Second Style, I did an article on some elf ears. They were all the rage at the time, although they've fallen mostly out of fashion now, as things in SL tend to do. [Remember nekos?] Not saying that they're unfashionable or anything, but you just don't see them as much as you did for a while. So I wrote this article, but I rarely wore any of the ears I bought for the article because ... well, I'm not gonna get into why because it's not really worth the keystrokes. But I just didn't wear them.

Today I was cleaning my inventory a bit and stumbled on some of my ears. I don't know...I think maybe I should have worn these before. I think I look pretty cute.




Sometimes I think about other things I haven't done in SL because I was worried about this or that. Don't get me wrong, I've done a lot of things in my time, but I know there's more I haven't done. And some of the things I used to do don't interest me very much any more. But I guess that's how it's supposed to be. But it's sometimes hard to move on when your friends might not be as supportive as they were when you did something else. If that makes sense.

Blah. I'm thinking too much tonight. I think it's bedtime. :)

Day 209 - The Inspiration

I headed out to Neva River today because my plurk timeline basically EXPLODED the day the sim was opened. The owner, Neva Crystall, only seems to keep her amazing sim open for a few days at a time, from my understanding. I didn't go the last time when people were talking about it because I never had time, so I didn't want to miss out this time.

And man... is it flippin' amazing.




This picture? Totally doesn't do it justice.

All the paths, the landscaping...flawless. The houses with furniture...fantastic. Every little detail that Neva put into this is ridiculously good. I'll admit, I came home and stared at our parcel and almost hit Abandon Land! Okay, okay, I'm kidding. But I DID take umpteen pictures out there for inspiration on landscaping our parcel.

Head out to Neva River while you can. You will NOT be sorry.

Day 208 - And we were swangin'

Earlier today I put out a swingset from What Next. When Aldwyn logged in tonight, that's where he found me.




Is it considered swinging if you're on the glider thing? I would assume so.

Anyway, I should be getting in bed or finishing up a pic for the style blog, but I don't wanna, so I will do Berry's Procrastination Meme instead. :-D And hopefully I won't get as long winded as with the last meme.


1. What is the rez date for your current SL Avatar that you use most often?

November 26, 2007 is when Alicia was born. It was, looking back, probably the worst and best day of my life. :)


2. Where was the first place you made friends as a newb and got to know people in Second Life?

Under this av, I would have to say ... some infohub that I've now forgotten the name. I think it was near The Shelter? I sat around there for a bit and eventually a couple of guys started talking to me, and one of them was super nice and took me exploring. He's still on my friends list, as a matter of fact, although I have not seen him log on in years, and I haven't talked to him since probably early January 2008.


3. Where do you spend most of your SL time now?

Mostly Bluebonnet these days. I don't really like clubs or most beaches, no one really invites me anywhere [and, let's face it, I've forgotten how to hang out with most people], and I can't shop ALL of the time. We have a pretty awesome home and there's always something to do here. I feel safe on the island.


4. Who is your closest friend in Second Life? (only pick one)

I CAN'T PICK JUST ONE, STRAWBERRY. Aldwyn and Ulaa tie for the title of my closest friend.


5. What is your favorite thing in your inventory? (only pick one)

God, Berry. What's with the hard questions?! :-p If I HAVE to pick just one thing... Probably my rose from Light Waves. I bought it at the Black Swan before it closed when I was going through kind of a crappy time in my SLife. It just reminds me that beautiful roses grow out of dirt and manure.


6. The last thing you purchased in Second Life?

The Hangover tank from Drift. I had to go back into my transaction history to look and realized I haven't shopped since the 18th. But yet my inventory has grown. What the eff.


7. What color clothing does your avatar wear most often?

Probably aqua, with white and pink coming in neck and neck. I'm a sucker for girly pastels.


8. Do you prefer to walk, run or fly?

I like to run! The funniest thing in the world to me, and I usually only do it when I'm alone on the island, is to turn my AO off and just RUN. It's hysterical!!!!


9. What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in SL?

Oh honey...no. Some things are better left unsaid.


10. Who would you like to play YOU, in the movie of your SLife?

Umm....probably Elizabeth Olsen. What? She's kinda pretty in a weird way, which is how I feel about my avatar most of the time.

Day 207 - It's not forgetting that heals. It's remembering.

Back in December when Renee passed away, Ulaa and I decided to do a garden on her parcel in her memory. I knew that there was no way I'd ever be able to rent out her parcel again. She loved it so much and it was hers. But neither one of us moved to do the garden. Her house came down, the flowers her family left were taken away, and I terraformed her parcel into its own little island. That was as far as it went. "Well, it's winter," I thought. Can't really have a garden in winter.

As spring came back to the island, I stared at Renee's little parcel often. "Later," I figured. We'd do it later.

Have you ever felt so drawn to do something that you knew that if you did NOTHING else on that day, you had to do that one thing? That's how I felt today. It was time. I HAD to do something today for Renee's garden. It was on my mind when I woke up, when I ate lunch, when I talked to my mom on the phone. If I did nothing else today, I had to get started on this.




I don't think that it's really finished. It might not ever be because I'm sure Ulaa will want to add her touches to it, and new landscaping items come out all the time, and seasons change. But for now, I feel satisfied.

If you'd like to visit it, you're absolutely more than welcome to. Just follow this SLurl and you'll land right on the path. You can take pictures, or just sit in the gazebo. Be sure to turn on your music. I think it really adds to the garden. :)

[Please remember that Bluebonnet is a residential sim, so if you do visit the garden, respect the people who live here and don't wander into anyone's house. Thanks!]

Day 206 - Pink Is The New Green

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Well, for another hour or so, anyway. :) I like green and all, but I felt called by the pink instead. Mostly because I love these shoes and felt it necessary to keep them on. I don't really do much for St. Patrick's Day anyway. I kept seeing a lot of my plurk pals talk about eating corned beef and stuff, but I can't say I'm a fan of it. Oh, if someone makes it and puts it in front of me, I'll eat it, but I sure won't go out of my way to make it myself.

I really need to focus this week on finishing up our landscaping. Things just got all crazy in my RL for a while and I kind of put it out of my mind. And, if I'm being honest, it's one of those things where in my HEAD I can see exactly how I'd want it to look, but my skills...oh my skills. They are not awesome! But I'll try anyway because I'd really like to have it finished up soon. At this point, it'll be flippin' summer before I get it all together.

But for now, bedtime.

Day 205 - 7 Things

Earlier today on plurk, Tymmerie wondered why bloggers don't really do a lot of writing challenges like we used to do. Well, mostly I think it's because we don't have a lot of people who do personal SL blogs these days. Let's face it - most blogs are fashion related and not many fashion bloggers write more than just credits. Even I've noticed myself slacking big time in that department when I'm doing style posts.

So, Ms. Berry decided to start a new meme for us! Seven SL facts. I couldn't pass it up!

Basically I’m going to share seven facts about my SL avatar or my SLife that may or may not be obvious to all my readers. The only thing I ask is, don’t judge me (or at least just do it quietly in your head)!

Now sit down and get comfortable. Y'all know once I get going, I talk too much.





My SL Fact #1:

This wasn't my first main account. I know, 99% of the people in my SLife know that about me already, but for the 1% that didn't, there ya go. :) My first account lasted for 13 months and my SLife was wayyyyy different than it is now. I played more of a sexy girl/fetish girl/fantasy girl role back then and it was not me. AT ALL. I said and did a lot of stupid stupid stupid things because I didn't think I was staying, and I sure didn't think about the people on the other side of the avatar. But I also had a lot of issues in my RL going on and coming to SL and doing all these things was basically my way of squishing all my RL issues down. Of course, there's only so long you can do that before you explode in a big fiery ball of CRAZY, and unfortunately, that's what happened. So I exploded, made another alt [oh yeah, I was alting big time in that year] and then deleted Second Life from my computer. But I missed it, so I took that alt and started over. It was hard to be so alone, but SO completely and utterly worth it in the end. I worked through a lot of my problems and people who are my friends now know me really well. I remember when Cen and I first met, she was also on a new account, too, and she said we didn't have alts any more. We had replacements. :) It was really funny, too, because almost EVERYONE that I met in the next year after coming back were on their second or third account. It just wasn't a huge deal any more. I have 4 alts now, but I don't hide that it's me if I'm on them. I use them for different things, mostly island related. And I did reconnect with a few people from my past, but there are others who probably still think I'm evil incarnate. I miss some of my old friends, but people change and people move on.


My SL Fact #2:

I've always wanted a Second Life family. Not really kids, but I always wanted a SL husband, mom, dad, brothers, sisters, etc. I know some people think that it's stupid, or that you shouldn't have SL parents because it's disrespectful to your real parents, but I don't see it that way at all. But much like my SL marriage, I wouldn't just any ol' person because I need someone for that role. I want the RIGHT person to fill the spot. This is why, even though we've kind of talked about it in the past month, I haven't just run over to any of the adoption agencies. If we were to adopt, I'd want it to be RIGHT person, preferably someone we both know already and that we feel like we could have a bond with. We're kind of weird that way. :-p


My SL Fact #3:

I almost never IM anyone on my friends list out of the blue. The majority of people on my in world friends list are bloggers and designers and I'm always worried that if I just IM them, I'm going to bother them or that they're going to wonder what I want. I am really REALLY bad at casual conversation these days. I used to be able to talk the ears off a mule, and I still can if I KNOW you really well [ask Aldwyn!] but there's this part of me that's been there for the past couple of years that has made me kind of shy away from getting too close to anyone. It sucks and I want to get over it, but I feel like I need someone to take me by the hand and pull me out of it.


My SL Fact #4:

I never intended on being a fashion blogger. On my first account, I'd KIND of started doing it a bit, but when I restarted, I was just going to be this goofy casual person [much like I am in RL] and the more I blogged, and the more I shopped, the more people started just giving me stuff for the blog. So I figured, hey, why not? Something to do. I never dreamed it would be one of the best parts of my SLife!! I love putting outfits together, but I'll admit to being terribly insecure when I post a style pic because...well, have you SEEN the other fashion bloggers?? Some of them are amazing! I want to be like them when I grow up. :)


My SL Fact #5:

There are 95 people on the Bluebonnet ban list. Only about 10 of them are people I've banned myself and when I first got the island, it was kind of embarrassing when someone would IM me and ask why they were banned when I had NO clue who they even were! Sometimes I feel like just wiping the list clean except for two names, but I'm too lazy to do it.


My SL Fact #6:

I always think about how our SL house smells. I know, I know. LOL! It's so random. But I associate some of my RL candle scents with rooms in our SL house. Like in the fall, I always think our SL living room and kitchen would smell like spiced pumpkin or apple cinnamon. In the spring, I imagine gardenia or lilac for the living room, maybe lemongrass verbena. The bathroom smells like Lysol and soap and shampoo. The bedroom might smell like lavender and sandalwood. I like to play with fragrances.


My SL Fact #7:

Sometimes I feel like a loser because I still love SL so much. Aside from the almost month long break I took back in 2007 between accounts, I've never felt the need to take a long extended break again. If I don't get a chance to log in, then I just don't, but I don't worry about it. Every day that I get to log in and be in our home or go shopping or take pictures...well, I just feel really blessed. But so many of my friends complain about SL a lot and it kind of hurts my feelings in a way because I do still love it so, and it feels like when they put it down, they're putting me down. I know that's not the case really, but it is how I feel.

And there are my seven facts! I'd love to read yours, too!

Day 204 - These Arms Of Mine

So after a couple of days away, Aldwyn returned to me tonight. Of course, I immediately bombarded him with crazy stories and then when I decided to take a breath, I asked, "DID YOU MISS ME?"

But who wouldn't miss me, right? :-p

Now I'm watching Dirty Dancing, one of my favorite movies ever, and the song "These Arms of Mine" came on as I was snapping this quick picture. I think it's fitting.

Day 203 - Dream A Little Dream

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you.
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you.
But in your dreams, whatever they be,
Dream a little dream of me.

Day 202 - I Have A Problem!

I seem to have a gacha problem. I want too much!! I've been hitting the yardsales but I can't always find what I want. Luckily for me, Aldwyn humors my intense need for useless crap and he headed off to The Arcade for me tonight. He even managed to get me the Princess dollhouse on the first try!! Then I put some plushies in it. And a tornado on top.




He managed to get me all the band instruments, but still not the antlers I want. This is my list of things I neeeeed.

* Whimsy antlers from Half Deer
* Von D skin from Pink Fuel
* All the Pilot dollhouse stuff except the dining set and the steak dinners
* The Turquoise teardrop trailer from Floorplan
* Silver crown charm from Noodles
* Turquoise honey bee necklace from Maxi Gossamer

Most of those are rares in the machines. Of course. Naturally. I couldn't just want the common stuff, right?? Ugh. LOL

But my hardcore gacha shopping will need to be put on hold for a bit because tier time is coming up and I don't think the Bluebonnet residents would be exceptionally happy to find themselves homeless because I chose to spend all the tier money trying to get antlers.

Day 201 - Band Camp

Most people who know me know that I'm a huge band nerd. For many years, marching band was my passion. I had actually planned on making it my career. But, life doesn't always go the way you want and things change, so now I'm just a marching band aficionado. Earlier today I hit up some gacha yardsales and then finally made my way into The Arcade where I saw the instruments from Balaclava. I got a couple, just for fun, but I didn't realize how happy they were going to make me!! I truly want the entire collection!!!!




I had just the worst gacha luck today! Well, I should say I had bad inventory luck, actually. I hit up some really decent yard sales but being that they were decent, they were CROWDED. So I crashed a lot. And in my crashing, I lost items that I'd just bought. SADFACE. I was especially sad when I lost my skates and TWO trailers today, including the Audrey one that I was actually going for! Well, the Audrey and the Turquoise are the ones I really want, but while at the Arcade I did manage to get the Audrey and the crashed and SL ate it!!! Luckily, I have really decent friends who took pity on me and gave me the color skates I bought and lost, and also an Audrey trailer. There are a few other things I bought and lost, but there's really nothing I can do about that except try to find them again at yard sales.

Now, I like the yard sales a lot. I really do. I think that if you WANT something and don't have the money to keep plugging into a machine to get the color or item you want, and someone else has an extra, it's really a great system. What I DON'T like is when someone thinks because an item is a rare, they're allowed to mark it up to high heaven. I saw a $50L charm earlier for $600L. C'mon now. The point of playing gacha is really not to break even or profit off of someone else's work, you know? We're not playing Kittycats or Meeroos. I know some creators have been kind of put off over folks marking their stuff up to over $1000L, and some others who don't care, but I think the practice of doing it is super super tacky.

I don't really remember huge yard sales popping up when Albero used to have the gacha festivals, do you? People just traded for what they wanted, or just freely gave duplicates to their friends as gifts. Now I WAS spoiled yesterday with duplicates, which was really nice and I'm really grateful to my dear friend, but it doesn't seem quite as common any more and I don't know why that is. It would be wrong to say that the quality of the items is just a lot better because some of the same people participated in the Albero festivals. And I know that mesh does seem to make everything a little better, too, but I can't say that's a huge factor either. I just really don't know what it is.

That all being said, if anyone has a Turquoise trailer to sell, let me know. :) But if you try to sell it to me for $1000L, I'll hit you in the face.