Three Twisted Knots

Nope, this is not an IC post about decorating. It is an OOC post about decorating an IC space. Clear as mud? Great! 

I also thought I’d answer a couple of questions here that I keep getting asked about my blog.

So basically, don’t expect great art here; we’re mostly talking presentation. And of course, there are a couple of amazing things I want to show you!

First off, the blog has been quiet for a couple of days because I’m finally going back to work after my knee surgery and it’s been a bit tiring, as you might imagine. But enough about my petty life….

So, there’s nothing like an empty room to get you feeling creative! This is the upstairs of the truly lovely Trompe Loeil Josette Boutique. There are four of these in different colours on the White Owl Island High Street, and as shops for rp, they’re some of the nicest SL has to offer. Like most two-level SL structures, the upstairs can seem a bit small and cramped. However, the upstairs at Codex, the White Owl Island (sometimes abbreviated as WOI) book shop, is meant to be sort of an occult study group spot, so I needed to make the space both work-space for Gwyneth and cosy space for others.

If you’re using Phototools in Firestorm, you know how I’m making it possible for you to see most of this room. I’m doing it by widening the view angle in the Depth of Field (DOF/Glow) tab in Phototools. This is really useful, particularly if you’ve already got your focus set but you realise there’s more you need to show.

Gwyneth’s wearing things I picked up at The Forest. If you don’t know about The Forest, it’s a members-only event that you join by paying a fee to join an in-world group. Then, when all the designers are ready, you head over to an absolutely beautiful sim and just pick up all the loot! I’ve done this for the last couple of months, and it’s a really lovely event. Anyway, the dress is from u.f.o (ur.favorite.one), the Ruffle Blouse & Denim Skirt. The shoes are from Breathe, the Amely Flats, which come in a good array of colours.

This skin is from DeeTaleZ, the Dorothy skin. It’s featured at this months’ Enchantment. And I can’t talk enough about how much I love this round of Enchantment: It is full of Wizard Of Oz goodness! DeeTaleZ also did a special edition of this skin, but I wanted the lighter tone on Gwyneth, and the special edition isn’t available in their Celtic tone, which is my favourite for her.

And this hair! It’s from the current round of Hairology, from Stealthic. It’s called Sanctuary. I discovered Stealthic at an event a few months back, and they burst on the scene at this years’ Hair Fair; people couldn’t stop talking about them. I like this style because it’s long but also controlled, a bit out of character for Gwyneth, but hey. She’s the Faery Queen; she can wear what she likes!

Right! On to talking about decorating this room IC.

Every room needs a corner accent table somewhere, right? This one is from Pastiche, part of the lovely set of stuff they have at the Fable event this month. I particularly like the hourglass, but I would like that. You can also see some more details of Gwyneth’s outfit in this picture, particularly the lovely texturing on the socks from Breathe.

Another Pastiche offering! This is the Woodlands Shelf, which I like both because of the cool decor on it and the fact that it’s obviously made out of a tree! Gwyneth loves stuff made out of trees, because duh, Seelie Fae and all. The beautiful shelf above it is from On A Lark, the Remembrance Shelf, from the 2015 Fantasy Faire. I think it’s still available at their main store. Again, the Woodlands Shelf is available at Fable.

Fae Queens are like cats. They have quirky little traits that might seem really weird and possibly a bit amoral to other people. One of Gwyneth’s quirky traits is that she loves to keep demifae (tiny little faeries) as pets. Or in a collection. She deludes herself into thinking they want to be there, and they of course are too scared of their Queen to say, “Gosh, I’d really rather not be caged up like this”. Once on a rp sim I had a collection of faeries in little terrariums in Gwyneth’s kitchen. This prompted interesting questions from visitors. Once again, this adorable little thing is from Pastiche, who really hit it out of the park for the Fable event. This is Seasons of the Fairy—Mother Nature, and it has some fun effects: you can make it rain or snow in the cage, which is amusing but difficult to catch properly on camera.

Here’s a view of the fireplace end of the room, again shot with a wide angle using Phototools. On the mantelpiece are two of Hextraordinary‘s gorgeous Pegasus Ponies, Buttercream and Amethyst. These came from an Arcade or two ago, but the dacha machine is probably up at their Main Store if you, like me, are totally in love with things that are so cute they make other people want to cry. The fireplace is built in to Trompe Loeil‘s Josette Boutique.

Coffee? Pick your flavour! Gwyneth could not survive in a world without coffee. I can’t remember which Arcade this was at, but it’s one of my favourite things, from Standby Inc, and it’s called Instant Coffee, but I prefer to pretend that it’s proper ground coffee, because Gwyneth would never drink Instant, and I think instant coffee is illegal in the Pacific Northwest or something. The shelf is one of the rates, the Sunrise Shelf.

One of the great things that decorating an office or personal space gives me a chance to do is show off some of the cool things I’ve collected over years of gacha (I’m not addicted!) shopping.

Here’s a corner of Gwyneth’s desk, adorned by Pastiche‘s other Seasons of the Fairy from Fable, Fire/Summer. The effect on this one is a glowing hot rock that gives off little sparks. And the little faery’s eyes glow red. The desk is also from On A Lark, the Velazquez Desk. The shelf behind the desk is the companion Rare to the Instant Coffee set, the Midnight Shelf.

And there you have it! Gwyneth seems pretty proud of her space. Behind her is an offering from 22769 from an event that centred around Neil Gaimon and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens, the Book of Accurate Prophecies.

Here’s a final wide-angle shot: this time you can see the comfy couch, from Trompe Loeil, the Chesterfield Couch that’s available at the current Liaison Collaborative. And of course the whole space is watched over by those beautiful Pegasus Ponies. Because Ponies!

I’m often asked how I get my pictures so big. It’s because I take them at a 6016 width, which you can set in the “custom” settings of the SL snapshot camera. I like to take the photos at a much greater size than my display is showing, mostly so that when I go back to edit details I can focus in on even the smallest thing. This makes for very large images, but they can be cropped down, which is great for photo composition and balance. 

As usual, Gwyneth is in the Maitreya Lara body. The mesh head is from Catwa; it’s the Destiny head. Ears are Lumae‘s Leevi Long Ears, and the glasses are from Earthstones, The Countess.

Spiffy photos taken with the indispensible aid of my LumiPro. I never ramble on about SL Decorating without it!