Sixteenth Night?

Posted on January 10, 2017 by Three Knots | 1 Comment

I know there’s something I’ve forgotten to do.

I know there’s something I’ve forgotten to do. The days go by so fast in this season, as if we’re hurrying Winter out the door. Which I guess, in a way, is what we’re doing, what with all the bell-ringing, sun-waking, clock-starting traditions.

Oh, yeah!

And of course: that’s what it is. My human mother always, without fail, took “Christmas” decorations down on Twelfth Night, the sixth of January. And here we are, four days late, and I still have a Yule Tree and all these beautiful cards tacked up over the hearth. Right. Needless to say, those traditions don’t matter as much to me now as they did when I was a kid in school, but it would do the reception room good to have a bit of a clear-out, and it’ll help potential visitors to think I’m on top of things (ha!).

Trouble is, Clutie and Danae have buggered off somewhere for the day, and Bran is in a meeting, and Kern, well. Gods know where he’s got to, so I’m all alone in the Atrium this evening.

But I am mighty!

But I am mighty! Just because, as Queen, I let other beings do lovely things for me because they are my devoted subjects does not mean I cannot do them for myself when duty calls. And so…

Ah! Just like that.

Ah! Just like that. I’m lucky Fae magic doesn’t have a lot of reagents and spell components, unless it’s something super-important: if everything required equipment, I’d never get anything done. But here we have no cards on the hearth and no book tree.

Now, I just have to figure out what to put in this space.

Now, I just have to figure out what to put in this space. Not a clock. Not a posh lamp. Oh! I have just the thing!

There. Table, decor, candles, whoosh!

There! Table, décor, candles, whoosh! Ah, I’m not half bad, for a lazy old Queen, am I?

And yes, let’s update the chandelier to this one.

And yes; let’s update the chandelier to this one. Many twinkling lights, fewer little birdies.

And now, I’d say my work here is done….

Until Imbolg, that is.

Until Imbolg, that is. The advent of Spring will require a major redecoration on my part. I might even change houses. Move everything two feet in one direction or another: won’t that please Nathaniel! Or maybe… maybe I’ll just colour everything pink.

Style Card:
Body: Maitreya
Head: Catwa, Catya Bento Mesh Head
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Alexa (COMING SOON to The Season’s Story, which opens TODAY, 10 January, 2017)
Eyes: Mesange, Sekhmet Eyes (Omega eye appliers) (Available NOW at The Chapter 4!)
Ears: Bent Box Elf Ears (with appliers by the amazing Lumiya Rae)
Skin: Lumae, Ruby (for Catwa heads), Tone 1 (Available NOW at the Lumae Main Store!)
Hands: Vista, Bento Prohands
Necklace: Minimal, Camera Necklace (Available NOW at The Project Se7en!)
Dress: Baiastice, Lya Slip Dress (Available NOW at The Liaison Collaborative!)
Poses: Most from An Lar, the Rory Series (Available NOW at The Liaison Collaborative!)
Hand Poses: All from Nantra, Show of Hands (Available NOW at The Liaison Collaborative!)

Scene:

Book Tree and Hearth: Book Tree: {e}lusive designs, Book Tree
Tree Art: Lybra, Quasi- The Tree
New Table: Second Spaces, Frozen Elegance Table (Available as part of the January DecoCrate!)
New Chandelier: Hextraordinary, Winter Chandelier (Available as part of the January DecoCrate!)
Sofa: Libertine, Justine
Paintings: All by Erin Wylde (Available on Marketplace)

Spiffy photos taken with the indispensible aid of my LumiPro. I never give Gwyneth a day off without it!

Ban Síde

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Three Knots | 2 Comments

Gwyneth:

Oh, do not fear the winter night
The broken branches dull with snow
And do not fear the death of light
Or any fright that dreams bestow

And neither fear the fox’s cry
Nor fear a tapping at your door
Or worry over some old lie
That doesn’t matter any more

But when the thread is wearing thin
And time fragments to feathery
Then, as you fear the fear within
You may be frightened now of me

Cold, cold, always cold.

Cold, cold, always cold. It is the first feeling when I rise and the last before I fall. And now another Realm, another town, another street to walk down. Another song, another rhyme, another soul run out of time.

I am called.

I am called. I am cold. I am hungry. Is this the house? No; not this one. Carry on; carry on.

Closer now.

Closer now. I smell it clearly. From this window, or the next. No, not this one. Next year, maybe. Carry on; carry on.

Oh, here.

Oh, here. Now here. This door; this light. Now I breathe and start the keening, carry on into the night. And sing until the widow’s weeping on the floor her hands as cold as the hands she still is holding. Always cold; always cold. Wail from sundown, wail to midnight, wail all night and let them cry. Now the gasping, now the weeping; tears are always the reply. Only when the widow’s broken, only when the bond is cut, then the others of us sweep the soul away, elf-struck.

Finally.

Finally, when songs are over, I can walk away. Forget syllabic, rhyming sing-song, I say to myself, but echoes always follow me. The wailing. The keening. The grief of a hundred loves, all weighing on whatever thing—I don’t even remember now—whatever thing I did to deserve this burden.

And then I see a statue of a Fae harper.

It’s easy: I rise with the clouds until I’m there.

It’s easy: I rise with the clouds until I’m there, perched on her knee, hand to her hand, and something stirs inside the bronze casting, something that is still alive, trapped for a century or more.

—Lady, who bound you?

—Bound me? This is where I live.

—But once you had a body.

—Of course. That was long ago.

—But don’t you long to escape?

And as if an echo comes her reply:

—But don’t you long to escape?

—Escape? I cannot escape.

—But once you had another calling.

—Of course. That was long ago.

Her laughter is like harp strings, tings of brass.

—I’ll not move until they melt me down and sell me. But you could go, give it up, let the others carry the keening.

—They’d find me.

—Not if you know how to run.

And now I look into the green-cast eyes and think, is there hope? Might there be hope?

—I know how to run.

She laughs again.

—But where? Do you know where to run?

—I confess I do not.

—But I do.

—Tell me.

—So simple it is, you’ll think you thought of it yourself, and you’ll think no more of me. I need a promise.

—Anything.

—Promise you’ll remember me.

—If your words save me, I could never forget you.

—Then promise, and be bound.

—I promise. I will never forget you.

—Now run, run as fast and as far as you can, and think of oceans and deep water, and when you think you cannot run any more, you must fly into the air and fall and ask for haven. You will meet water, and then you will be free.

—It seems too simple.

—All things are. Now run, before they call you for another keening.

I leave a kiss on the cast fingers, find the ground, and flee. I run until I think I cannot run any more, and there before me is a cliff, above an ocean, so I dive. I cry for haven.

So I dive.

So I dive, and falling seems to take forever, and in an instant I see the beach and the rocks and the waves and the houses and the trees and in each house a sleeping soul or more, and then the water breaks my fall and I am cold and colder still again, and then it’s dark.

Ugh!

Ugh! I woke up from a dream of drowning. I was thinking how much I hate dreams about drowning, when I realised I was actually in a rather large body of water. Fuck me: I’ve never dreamed myself physically into another place before. And what was all that about being a Bean Sí? I coughed water and treaded water and turned around and found an accessible shore: the other side seemed to be a sheer cliff.

It took a while, but I did manage to swim to the beach. And I don’t know why I didn’t just lift and fly: I don’t think I remembered I could fly until I was already on the sand. I guess that’s what happens when your thoughts are addled by dreams and drowning, one after the other.

I stepped up on to a boardwalk.

I stepped up on to a boardwalk. The day was fine, which was good, because the water was cold and the sun was a welcome friend.

And then I looked ahead.

This was a very long boardwalk.

This was a very long boardwalk, with an inexplicable bend in the middle, as if someone thought it’d just be fun to make the journey half again as long as it would have been—or maybe there’s some rule against straight boardwalks. Is there a rule against straight boardwalks? Next time I’m in a Realm with an Internet connection, I shall have to check.

Onward.

And so, having no idea where I was, no immediate notion of how to get back to Faerie, and no plans for the day, I continued up the hill and on to the next adventure, whatever that would be.

Style Card:
Body: Maitreya
Head: Catwa, Dyana
Ears: BentBox Sylvan Ears
Eyes: Soul, Sidhe Eyes
Skin: Lumae, Eirtae Bare, T1 (The Eirtae Bare skin has been updated and is available at the Lumae Main Store now!)
Hair: Mina, Neah (available at Hair Fair! Hair fair is open until 31 July!)
Clothes: Silvan Moon Designs (A collaboration between The White Armory and Blue Moon Enterprises), Aquella Marina Dress in Grey (Available at the Fantasy Cream event!)
Circlet: Coquette, Fairy Crown
Leg Wraps: Empire, Forsythia (Available at We RP!)
Shoes: ChicChica, Fairy Pointes for SLink Pointe Feet
Location: Private Sim (for now!)
Poses (In order):
1. “Cold, Cold, Always Cold” an lar Daydreamer Series — Fantasy
2. “I Am Called” an lar Beauty Series — Allure
3. “Closer Now” Bauhaus Movement — A Night of Madness
4. “Oh, here” Bauhaus Movement — Again
5. “Finally” Bauhaus Movement — Cherry
6. “I Rise With the Clouds Until I’m There” Bauhaus Movement — Annia 2
7. “So I Dive” Roquai Poses — Dive
8. “Ugh!” Roquai Poses — Surface
9. “I Stepped Up On To A Boardwalk” Imeka — Lucy 1
10. “This Was A Very Long Boardwalk” Imeka — Lucy 2
11. “Onward” Imeka — Lucy 2

Spiffy photos taken with the indispensible aid of my LumiPro. I never suggest that my primary rp character is actually a Ban(shee) On The Run (sorry!) without it!

Camping at Midsummer

Posted on July 16, 2016 by Three Knots | 2 Comments

Gwyneth:

Don’t ask me why I decided to go camping by myself at Midsummer. I could have gone to any number of festivals, any number of pagan moots in London, but no.

I borrowed my dad’s VW caravan, this thing he’d modified like back in the 80s, and I drove up into Epping Forest, and I got as far back into the nowhere as I possibly could.

It must have been something about sleeping overnight in a cramped caravan the night before Midsummer, but the mist that morning really caught my imagination.

There was a kind of ruined folly.

There was a kind of ruined folly about 200 yards from where I’d decided to set up camp, such as it was. And Josh kept texting me, which was super annoying, particularly when I was trying to set up a tripod and use my mobile to take photos of myself so you could also see the folly. I guess that just means life in the twenty-first century, or something.

I kept playing with the zoom on the phone lens, controlling the whole thing from my Apple Watch, and Josh kept texting, and it was really pissing me off.

Despite all that, I managed to get a couple of good shots.

Despite all that, I managed to get a couple of good shots. And yet, when I got in to the folly itself, it somehow seemed wrong to take photographs there. I decided to stick to selfies, since that’s what my Facebook friends care about anyway, right?

Once the mist burned off, the day shaped up.

Once the mist burned off, the day shaped up to being the perfect Midsummer. I started second guessing myself: maybe I should just drive back to London and find an open ritual. Staying in the caravan for another night wasn’t all that appealing, to be honest. But the truth is, I had this dream where this voice kept telling me that I had to do it alone this year. Just me. My own ritual, my own balefire. My own moon, my own longest day.

It felt like I spent most of the late morning staring into the sun.

It felt like I spent most of the late morning just staring into the sun. I know you’re not meant to do that. I do. Eventually, I got hot and made myself a picnic lunch and went off to look for usable ritual space. I brought all the usual stuff, but then I wasn’t sure I was going to need any of it. The woods were deeper beyond the folly, so I explored there first, picked a clearing, and started bring fire rocks from the caravan. That was the only time I actually missed Josh. Then again, he texted so often while I was carting rocks from the caravan to the clearing that I just about broke up with him, but then I thought better of it because somebody has to help me get rid of the rocks. Or maybe it wouldn’t be awful if I just left them here. These are the thoughts that go through my head. Weird I am.

I was going to meditate and get myself ready for the night’s ritual. But to be honest, I took a nap. Those rocks were heavy. So, yeah. I took a nap and I woke up in time to go and build the fire. I don’t think it’s wrong to do sausages over the balefire before the Midsummer ritual. Of course, it’s my ritual and my balefire, so fuck anybody who says it’s not OK to do sausages over a balefire before the Midsummer ritual.

It was nearly ten o’clock before it was dark, because, fuck. Longest day of the year and all.

So I began invoking.

So I began invoking. I felt the fire rise higher as I called on the ancestors, the nature spirits, the gods.

Working alone was so different.

Working alone was so different. There were bad things and good things about it. I mean, duh. Obviously there were bad things and good things about it. Bad: nobody to chant with, hold hands with, feel together with. Good: nobody to tell me what to do! No Wiccan telling me there’s something wrong with my cosmology. Yeah, because yours is perfect. omg.

Something happened, though. Something really happened.

I was there, visualising the fire as the sun, the great initiator, and suddenly I felt a shiver in my body, and it was like, I don’t know, almost like, I left my body.

And as if in an instant, I had a completely different life, all there in my head.

As as if in an instant, I had a completely different life, all there, in my head. As if it was a memory that had always been there.

Somewhere around this time, I just pulled the bindings out of my hair.

Somewhere around this time, I just pulled the bindings out of my hair. It didn’t feel right for it to be back, not with this other life coursing through me.

And who was I? I was as I am now, a Sidhe of fine descent, only by some freak accident I was brought up in a world where there were purported to be no Sidhe, no Elves, no Trolls, no Dragons. No magic. My parents were academics, and I became an academic, and then one day I left that world and again, through a series of highly improbable coincidences, I became a Queen in Faerie. Imagine me, a Queen. Father would have a good laugh at that. Mother too, even if her sister actually is a Queen, it’s not like she consorts with the likes of us.

It was like a physical blow.

It was like a physical blow, these memories. Not mine, but the Sidhe in them was me. Another me. Could have been me. Might have been me. And now she lives in a world without mobile phones and the Internet and everything even remotely technological has to be accomplished with magic. I felt kind of sorry for her.

And I wouldn’t want to be her. Probably she doesn’t know (assuming she exists at all and this isn’t some bizarre hallucination brought on by the cheek of doing sausages over the balefire before the Midsummer ritual) I got all these memories in such a flash, but just in case she did, I tried to tell her to get out of this backwater Faerie she’s living in. Because fuck me: a girl deserves an iPhone, am I right?

I awoke in the Remembrance Garden.

I awoke in a plush bed in the Remembrance Garden. There wasn’t a bed here before. And I had the strangest dream.

Story notwithstanding, this is the first of a series of posts that will be showing you some of the coolest things at Hair Fair, which is now open! Both these hairstyles are from Analog Dog, because of course I am the world’s biggest Analog Dog Fan and so of course I had to show you two of Queue’s amazing styles before I move on to anybody else. Hair Fair only comes around once a year, and a percentage of everything sold there goes to benefit Wigs For Kids. It’s the best place on the grid to come and see great new hair. Don’t forget to join the demo group before you make your big shopping trip: that way you can pre-shop and choose what you want to buy before you make the trek. Hair Fair is four complete sims of hair, and it’s on until the 31st of July.

Style Cards:
First four photos:
Body: Maitreya
Head: Catwa, Dyana
Ears: BentBox Sylvan Ears
Eyes: Soul, Sidhe Eyes
Skin: Lumae, Eirtae Bare, T1 (The Eirtae Bare skin has been updated and is available at the Lumae Main Store now!)
Hair: Analog Dog (natch), Love (available at Hair Fair! Hair fair is NOW OPEN!)
Clothes: Wonderlost, Olivia Boho Skirt and Top (sold in loads of colours at The Secret Affair!)
Necklace: The Plastik, The Wenje Jewellery, (Available at this month’s Liaison Collaborative!)
Poses: Frolic, Route 66, Don’t Touch the Hair and Sun In My Eyes, (Coming soon to the Mieville Route 66 Celebration!)
Trees: Studio Skye, Enchanted Woods
Caravan: Contraption, The Cuddle Camper, Pink

Midsummer Night Photos:
Body: Maitreya
Head: Catwa, Dyana
Ears: BentBox Sylvan Ears
Eyes: Soul, Sidhe Eyes
Skin: Lumae, Eirtae Bare, T1 (The Eirtae Bare skin has been updated and is available at the Lumae Main Store now!)
Makeup: Fetch, Luna Makeup (Available at at The Secret Affair!)
Hair: Analog Dog (natch), Evolve (updo) and Love (loose) (available at Hair Fair! Hair fair is NOW OPEN!)
Clothes: Poet’s Heart, Marisol Skirt and Top (sold in loads of colours at The Secret Affair!)
Necklace: ieQED, Antler Necklace, (Available at at The Secret Affair!)
Poses: Frolic, Harbinger 1 & 2 (Available at the Frolic Main Store!)
Trees: Studio Skye, Enchanted Woods
Bonfire: Heart, Forest Bonfire Medium

Faerie Photograph:
Body: Maitreya
Head: Catwa, Dyana
Ears: BentBox Sylvan Ears
Eyes: Soul, Sidhe Eyes
Skin: Lumae, Eirtae Bare, T1 (The Eirtae Bare skin has been updated and is available at the Lumae Main Store now!)
Hair: Analog Dog (natch), Evolve (updo) and Love (loose) (available at Hair Fair! Hair fair is NOW OPEN!)
Clothes: Eve, Ethereal Swimsuit (available at The Secret Affair!)
Necklace: ieQED, Antler Necklace, (Available at at The Secret Affair!)
Circlet: Junbug, The Sabrina Circlet
Poses: Frolic, Seated 4 (Available at the Frolic Main Store!)
Bed: Death Row Designs, Evening Romance, White Clouds (Available at the Indie Teepee Event!)

Spiffy photos taken with the indispensible aid of my LumiPro. I never subject my primary rp character to dreams with glimpses of what might be alternate lives, or possibly just proof that she’s completely losing her marbles, without it!

So, I guess you could say I’m into mesh heads….

Posted on June 24, 2016 by Three Knots | Leave a comment

I know a lot of other bloggers have done this, but as my friend Lapis says, everyone brings their own perspective.

I seem to have several mesh heads.

Mostly, I have gravitated toward Lelutka and Catwa heads, because these heads are easy to match with the skins I want. And, as much as I like the look of some of the Genesis heads, I’ve rarely bought one, because the appliers just aren’t out there. Now, I’ve heard many rumours as to why this might be the case, but I don’t really know for sure, so I’m not going to speculate here.

The very first mesh head I bought, probably over a year ago now, was the Lelutka Aria. At the time, there were only a couple of Lelutka heads out, and I bought it because it was the one that had the smallest lips, believe it or not! I have this thing where I don’t want my avatar’s lips to look super-botoxed, and I’m so glad that lately, I’ve been seeing some mesh heads that look closer to right for me. Of course, every one I see that’s closer to right, I buy… so now I have a bit of a collection.

The Lelutka Aria

So this is the first mesh head I bought. It’s the Lelutka Aria head, and it’s pictured here, as all the other heads I’ll show in this post with Lumae’s gorgeous Eirtae skin, Emo-Tions Leni hair, and BentBox Sylvan Ears. And yes, at the time, these looked like the least full lips that Lelutka had to offer. I’m one of those people who loves to jump on the bandwagon and try new things, so I did go out and grab one shortly after they were released.

Later on, Lelutka’s range broadened out quite a bit. Over the past year, I’ve acquired four Lelutka heads; they’re pictured below.

All four of my Lelutka heads.

Here are all four Lelutka heads, pictured next to one another. I’m aware I don’t own the whole range: I spend a lot of Lindens, but I don’t blog for Lelutka, and I am not made of money, you know. 😉

Of the four, I think my personal favourite is the Stella, and that’s really all about the lips! I know, I know, I keep going on about lips, but to me, they really matter.

Lelutka Ever Head

I also quite like the slim nose on this head, and the pointy chin, again, these are personal preferences.

For the others I have varying degrees of love. I use a Lelutka head sometimes with The Amazing Catwoman, who needs a blog of her own sometime soon, and I’ll be using a Catwa head in the near future for The Gypsy Davey, who’s also long overdue for a Three-Knots-style update.

For Gwyneth, though, who’s my primary roleplaying character and the love of my SL life (hey! self-love is important!), I admit that I still haven’t found the absolute perfect mesh head. But I suspect, as they keep getting closer and closer, that if and when it appears, it might very well come from Catwa.

I, um, own six Catwa heads.

I, um, own six Catwa heads. Seven if you count the Nicki head, which is not a personal favourite and which I only bought because it was L$100. Eight if you count the Justin head, which is the boy head that The Gypsy Davey will be in sometime soonish.

First, I fell crazy in love with Jessica!

First, I fell crazy in love with Jessica! I mean, look at her! Those pronounced cheekbones, that lovely, straight nose, and lips that don’t look like they’ve been plumped to three times their natural size! (OK, OK, I’ll try to stop it with the lips, or at least tone it down…) I was in the Jessica for a while.

Annie and I never really got on, though I’ve used her on TAC a couple of times. Gwen… well. OK. I bought Gwen because I’ll buy anything named Gwen. It’s true.

Then, I was head over heels for Helena!

Then, I was head over heels for Helena, partially because the face shape makes me think of a more mature version of Jessica. The only thing was… (Oh, no; here she goes again!) the bottom lip. It’s just kinda sticky-outy. Which, I know, is probably a good thing for some people, and the lips are perfectly proportioned for the face, but I just… Gah! I might be obsessed with lips. Right. Moving on.

Then, a miracle happened.

Amy!

Amy! I mean, I know she is meant to look like a doll and all, but I just love her! I love her perky little nose, and her pointy chin, and…. OK, I promised. You know what else I love.

And then, right on Amy‘s heels, came Dyana.

Dyana

Right, now, I’m thinking the Catwa Dyana is my forever mesh head. It’s doll-like without being totally a doll head, the features are lovely, and I think it takes the Lumae shading exceptionally well.

Of course, next week, Catwa will probably introduce another amazing mesh head and I’ll fall madly in love with that one…. yeah.

I can stop buying mesh heads anytime! I can! I can stop!

Spiffy photos taken with the indispensible aid of my LumiPro. I never yammer about mesh heads without it!

I do promise to get back to story-blogging soon! I know, I know. I just keep saying that, don’t I?

Not Cheating!

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Three Knots | Leave a comment

On9 Contest Shots BLOG - 1

This is just how Faeries surf!

This is my entry for the June On9 Photo Competition.

In-World Name: Gwen Enchanted

Style Card:
Body: Maitreya
Head: Catwa Helena
Ears: BentBox Sylvan Ears
Eyes: Soul, Sidhe Eyes
Wings: Soul, Oree Wings
Skin: Lumae, Eirtae Dolce Summer Sky, T5 (this month’s Group Gift at Lumae!)
Feet: SLink Pointe
Dress: Lakshmi Raffia, Color Pack 3 (featured at this month’s On9 event)
Hair: No Match, No Fooling (featured at this month’s On9 event)
Necklace: Baubles! by Phe, Peacock Necklace (featured at this month’s On9 event)
Anklet: Alaskametro, Jess Fringed Anklet, Color Pack Jungle (featured at this month’s On9 Event)
Surfboard: Bad Unicorn, “Rocket” Summah Surfboard
Recognisable forest tree in background: Jian, Dryad Hideaway
Forest Sim Design: Dyisi Oppewall
Pose: Infiniti, Dust In the Wind, 1
Lighting: Windlight: TOR Sunset, Barcelona; Model lighting: LumiPro

I’m making a concerted effort to credit the great pose creators whose work I use in my blog posts. I haven’t been doing that, mostly because I use an Ani-Mate Pose Hud most of the time, and so I cycle through poses very quickly. From here on out, I’m going to try and make sure all poses are credited, not only so that folks know where they might find them, but so I myself can remember which ones I used!

Spiffy photos taken with the indispensible aid of my LumiPro. I never enter photo contests without it!

I do promise to get back to story-blogging soon! I just wanted to show off this photo; I think I did a pretty good job. 🙂

Hairology!

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Three Knots | Leave a comment

Gwyneth:

I’m still not feeling creative enough to work on the story-blogging, so you get two posts in a row that are mostly straight-up fashion blogs for me. Sorry about that, and I do promise to get back to the story blogging as soon as I can.

I’ve been blogging Hairology for a few months now, because it’s one of my favourite events. This would be because I’m a complete SL hair addict (I hear my friends going, “No!”). This month, Hairology gave the designers a month to rest, because Hair Fair is just around the corner (OH YES!), so the Hairology designers have put some of their favourite styles out at a discount this month. So there’s great hair there at discounts of between 25 and 50%, not to mention many of the creators have little cakes in front of their stalls, which contain (YES!) free hair! There’s so much good stuff at this event I can’t possibly show you all of it, so I’ve picked just six styles to highlight.

First up, Wasabi Pills!

First up, Wasabi Pills! Wasabi Pills has been a staple of Second Life hair since I started coming back to SL to role-play about five years ago, and I used to pretty much live in Wasabi Pills hair. This is one of my favourite styles she’s done in some time, and it’s called Ocean. It’s available at Hairology for 50% off for the duration of the event. Now, because I can never highlight just one thing, I’m also playing with some different skins in this post, and of course I’ll tell you all about the clothes as well. I’ve also indulged in a little SL tourism in this post, so I hope you’ll enjoy the great photo locations and maybe visit a few of them yourself.Gwyneth is wearing a Glam Affair skin here; I picked up the Viktoria Catwa applier at this month’s Collabor88, and of course the Maitreya body is loaded with Glam Affair skins, so I didn’t have to worry about body appliers for this one. I wanted to keep all the skins in the same shade range that Gwyneth normally wears: as a Sidhe, she is naturally pale but healthy looking; this is tone “Europa”. The dress is from Tres Blah; it was in the May Luxe Box. Body is Maitreya, Head is Catwa Helena, eyes are Soul Sidhe Eyes, ears are BentBox Sylvan Ears.

This location is The Yorkshire Dales.

This location is The Yorkshire Dales. It’s in the SL Destination Guide Editor’s Picks at the moment, and it’s well worth a visit. The poses here are from the Bauhaus Movement Luna Beam series, which I picked up at this month’s Liaison Collaborative.

And here we have hair from Phoenix!

And here we have hair from Phoenix! The style is called Kathy, and it’s 25% off at Hairology this month. The skin here is one I’ve already showcased in the last blog entry, but it’s worth an extra mention: it’s 7 Deadly s[K]ins Leslie head applier in new colourway Sand. The crown is the Kibitz Mynerva Circlet, and the necklace is Serena Teardrop, by Maxi Gossamer.

The dress Gwyneth is wearing here is very special.

The dress Gwyneth is wearing here is very special. It’s the Callista Rain Wedding Gown Set from Silvan Moon Designs. Who are Silvan Moon Designs, you ask? They’re a collaboration between The White Armory and Blue Moon Enterprises, and as you can see, this style is just stunning. It comes in a variety of colours and has that amazing flowing-but-fitted look that Bee Dumpling manages to put across with so many of her designs for The White Armory. Body is Maitreya, Head is Catwa Helena, eyes are Soul Sidhe Eyes, ears are BentBox Sylvan Ears. The first pose is from !bang, number 562. The second one is again from Bauhaus Movement’s Luna Beam series. The location is The Balladwood, which is part of my sim.

Mina Hair always has something to offer

Mina hair always has something to offer; this style is Juliet, available at Hairology for 50% off this month. Mina’s textures are so lush! I wanted to take Gwyneth somewhere hot to shoot this photograph, so I picked New Brighton Beach Pier, which is one of those places that’s been around in Second Life for ages and still manages to be a fun location to visit and great for photography. You can even rez stuff there, so it’s easy to get your poses exactly the way you want them to be. The clothes are from the current round of Cosmopolitan: they’re from Asteria, part of a mix-and-match collection of sleeveless blouses and short-short skirts called Taylor. The shoes are Empire, the Erica flats from the most recent Enchantment round. Body is Maitreya, Head is Catwa Helena, eyes are Soul Sidhe Eyes, ears are BentBox Sylvan Ears.

Here’s a closer shot of this beautiful Mina hair.

Here’s a closer shot of this beautiful Mina hair. The skin in these photos is from LeForme, and it’s my first LeForme skin. Well, second, really. See, I liked the LeForme skin that was on sale at this month’s We ❤ RP, but it was too dark and freckled for Gwyneth, so I went to their main store and picked up this one as well, Luna, in their Pale shade. I about tripped myself up looking for body appliers in their main store before I realised they were all right there in the skin package! Both these poses are from the An Lar Kildare series.

Pr!tty!

Pr!tty! I travelled back to White Owl Island for these next two photographs. White Owl isn’t ready to open yet, but we have kitted out the book store, as you can see! Now, I don’t buy a lot of Pr!tty hair, mostly because the styles are a bit too sleek for Gwyneth. But this style, Navi, I think I first bought at The Chapter 4 a while ago, and I love it—and not just for the sparkly headband that comes with it! It’s at Hairology for 25% off, so I fatpacked it since I only had one colour previously. Because, you know. One day I might want pink ombre hair. (What? I really might! Stop looking at me like that!) Are these jeans not amazing, by the way? They’re from Purple Moon, and they’re at this month’s On9 event. The shirt is from The Vintage Fair, which really must visit if you haven’t yet; it’s made by Gawk, the Anthracite Favourite Sloppy Sweater. I picked it up because ICly, Gwyneth is originally from London and she feels a bit nostalgic about it from time to time. These shoes are Reign‘s Kiko Flats from this month’s FaMeshed. The base remains the same: Body is Maitreya, Head is Catwa Helena, eyes are Soul Sidhe Eyes, ears are BentBox Sylvan Ears.

Still Pr!tty!

Still Pr!tty In this photo, you can see the light-uppy headband better. Gwyneth loves crowns, being a Queen, and she also loves things that light up, being Gwyneth, so those two things stuck together make her a very happy Fae Queen. This skin is from The Skinnery, another kind of skin I’ve not worn in ages. I really liked the Magali Catwa applier (in tone Milk) they had at Collabor88, though, so I took the plunge and invested. And, boo-yah! When I went to the Skinnery main store to pick up body appliers, I found that they make appliers for my beloved BentBox ears! Happy, happy day! These poses are from the InMotion Summertime set, which is available at this month’s round of The Instruments.

Mithril Apothecary’s Taproot

Next, we move from White Owl to Everlong. I know I’ve shot in Everlong before, but I think a few things have changed since I’ve been there. I discovered this fun stage, and I liked the sentiment expressed on the white board, even if it is an old General Foods’ International Coffee slogan. I also love anything that has to do with swans. Anyway, Taproot is another hair I’d bought in only one colour previously, but the 50% off price at Hairology enabled me to buy the fatpack! The clothes are the Spirit Sianna Jeans and Shirt, available at this month’s Collabor88. The shoes are also available at Collabor88: they’re the Schadenfreude Flannery Loafers. As always, Body is Maitreya, Head is Catwa Helena, eyes are Soul Sidhe Eyes, ears are BentBox Sylvan Ears. This and the pose in the photo that follow are both from the An Lar Hollow series.

More Taproot

Here, you can see the texture on the Mithril Apothecary Taproot hair a bit better. The necklace Gwyneth is wearing is the Bellona Necklace from a Tia gacha, though I couldn’t tell you which event I got it from. As for the skin, it’s from DeeTaleZ. I have long been a fan of DeeTaleZ skins; this is one of their recent Catwa faces, Fable, in their lightest shade, Celtic.

And finally, No Match

And finally, here is No Match‘s No Answer, which is at 25% off for Hairology. Once again, the clothes come from Collabor88: the Addams Rocker Zipper Jeans and Tina Classic Shirt and Bra. Gwyneth’s basic construction remains the same: Body is Maitreya, Head is Catwa Helena, eyes are Soul Sidhe Eyes, ears are BentBox Sylvan Ears. Now, this location is a place I just found out about today through Ziki Questi’s Blog, The Gates of Melancholy. You have got to visit this place. It’s stunning. Designed after the paintings of Andrew Wyeth, I could not get enough of this sim. In fact, if I hadn’t already shot all those photos in other locations and this had been my first location, I would almost certainly have shot the whole set in The Gates of Melancholy. But I’m too lazy to reshoot ten photographs, so you get The Gates of Melancholy as a sort of “last but not least”, even though that might be a cliché. Might be. Anyway, not since I discovered Windwept have I been so utterly enamoured of a SL location, and you can bet I’ll be back here to shoot some more. In fact, I can almost feel a story coming on, just looking at this place. And isn’t that what the best places in SL do, anyway? They inspire us. They make us want to create, ourselves.

Now for a closer look at Gwyneth at The Gates of Melancholy

Now for a closer look at Gwyneth at The Gates of Melancholy. This time, the skin is one anybody who reads my blog (all two of you! Thanks!) will find very familiar: it’s Lumae’s Eirtae, in her lightest Tone 1. Lumiya Rae also makes appliers for my beloved BentBox Sylvan Ears, which is only one of the many reasons why I love her and her skins and why I’m so proud to be a Lumae blogger. I’m really chuffed to say that just today, she updated this skin. Of course, I’d already taken these photographs, and we know from above that I just can’t be bothered to go back and reshoot photos. However, the next time you see Gwyneth in Eirtae, it’ll certainly be the updated and repainted version! By the way, if you own the Bare version of Eirtae and you haven’t received an update yet, Lumiya says there are thousands to be sent out and you might get them quicker by popping by the Lumae Main Store and hitting the redelivery terminal there.

So just to wrap up, this month’s Hairology is worth a visit for so many reasons, not just these six. There are so many more great discounted hairstyles waiting for you there, not to mention the freebies inside the cake pieces! And don’t forget that the most exciting thing about all this is the reason why Hairology is offering discounted hair this month: the designers are being given time to prepare their wares for Hair Fair, which opens on the 16th of July! I can’t wait!

No Style Cards today; they’re all embedded in the text.

Spiffy photos taken with the indispensible aid of my LumiPro. I never ramble for hours about hair and skins without it!

Ramblings about We <3 RP, Skins, and More!

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Three Knots | Leave a comment

Gwyneth:

There’s not really a story today. Mostly, I’m just going to be talking about some of the fun stuff that’s available at We ❤ RP this month, and also about a new direction I’m taking.

I actually bought a sim! Yes, that’s right. As it turns out, we need a little more space for a forest bit in our upcoming role-play sim, so I took the plunge. While the Amazing Dyisi Oppewall is down designing us a Pacific Northwest-style rainforest, I’ve been putting together an OOC office and home in the clouds. I’m going to need a space to myself while I’m working on my PhD in the upcoming months and years, so it seemed like as good a time as any to fashion a real just-for-me, OOC home. I’ve also got new skins to show you from 7 Deadly s[K]ins and (YES!) Curio!

So, here’s a view of my OOC office.

So, here’s a view of my OOC office. I self-indulgently put some of my favourite photos from past blog posts up on the wall, because they make me feel happy. The cool lamp is from Epic Toy Factory, a hunt gift from the 2016 Fantasy Faire and a memento of their sim, Tinker’s Hollow. The table is from Thor, and I’m pretty sure I got it at a Love To Decorate event a while ago, but I couldn’t promise that. The skybox itself is one of RageWorks‘ beautiful designs, the Classical White. Great camera angles, plenty of space for stuff, and a crisp design that makes me feel like working on stuff.

What’s Gwyneth Wearing?

What’s Gwyneth Wearing? The outfit is comprised of two of my favourite things that are at We ❤ RP this month, Emo-Tions beautiful Linea bra, and the Leather Pants from Yasum, in Metallic. The shoes are from Reign, the Kiko Flats, and they’re available at FaMeshed. The hair is Analog Dog (natch!), one of her Fantasy Faire releases, Omega. I picked the light brown colour way to go with this fabulous new skin from 7 Deadly s[K]ins, which you can see more closely in the photo below. Body is Maitreya, feet are SLink, ears are Lumae‘s Leevi Long Ears, and the eyes are the Soul Sidhe Eyes. The head is the new Helena head from Catwa, which I bought because it looks a little older than the Jessica Gwyneth had been in, and it reflects Gwyneth’s IC maturation into an ageless Sidhe.

New Skin Colours at 7 Deadly s[K]ins!

And (yay!) there are new skin colours at 7 Deadly s[K]ins! This is the Sand shade, and the face is Leslie. Izara is now making Omega appliers, which work beautifully on my Catwa head. This is Leslie version 2, which I chose because I love that eyeliner. In this photo you can also see the beautiful detailing on the Emo-Tions bra; it looks even better in world.

Here’s a view of the (faux!) fireplace wall in the skybox.

Here’s a view of the (faux!) fireplace wall in the skybox. I’m having such fun decorating this place, but you know I’ll change it all around in 3 months when we move from summer into autumn. That said, decorating is fun! The cats on the rug are from Mutresse; they’re a common from the Witty Cats gacha at the current Arcade Gacha. I love this one because they’re all animated: here, one cat is giving another a massage! The two baby pegasi, also at the Arcade Gacha, are from Hextraordinary; they never seem to stop having great ideas for beautiful collectibles and gorgeous things to put in your home. These two beauties are the rares, the Nesting Crystal and the Nesting Midnight. The Pegasus Pony Hatchling is on the left bookcase, and I’m not ashamed to say I played this gacha 50 times. The ponies are all so beautiful; I only wish I could display them all… Wait, I can display them all, because I have my own sim! OMG THE PRIMS.

Right! Also on the bookcase is another one of the 50-pull prizes from the Arcade Gacha, the Princess of the Swans, from OMEN. The books on both shelves are the product of Stormwood‘s really cool Literati Book Set, which has add-on HUDs that let you customise books to various genres and types. I have Fantasy, Children’s, Crime, and I think some Library books up there. The fighting hedgehog is from Loki, a memento of the 2016 Fantasy Faire Echtra sim, and it was a hunt gift. On the mantelpiece is another lovely memento of FF 2016, the Lucentia music box from The Looking Glass, whose creations never cease to delight and amaze. The mirror is from Mushilu.

The Amazing Catwoman in Rosemoor

Now, there are often things at We ❤ RP that aren’t Gwyneth’s style, but luckily The Amazing Catwoman is always here to help me out if I need someone else to look great in things that are a bit too, hm, badass for Gwyneth. Here, she’s wearing the Wicca’s Wardrobe Eileen outfit. Her hair is also from We ❤ RP; made by Emo-Tions, it’s Warlord, which comes in sizes for both men and women Her skin is, as often, from 7 Deadly s[K]ins; it’s the very beautiful Ymke in Faun. I just love the spots, which you can see more clearly in the next photo.

This skin was released for the 2016 Fantasy Faire.

This skin was released for the 2016 Fantasy Faire, but should now be available in the 7 Deadly s[K]ins Main Store. If ever you’re looking for something specific and you can’t find it in the main store, by the way, you can always IM Izara Allen, and she will be able to tell you where you can find it or source it for you. The 7DS group is also a great resource; most of the time it costs a (small!) fee to join, but she does make it free for special occasions. You can find all the group links in her profile. These eyes are from Gauze; they’re the Paradox Cat Eyes. The ears are also from Gauze; they’re the High Elf Ears, in the Drow colourway. The body is Maitreya, and the mesh head is the Catwa Gwen, because I’ll buy anything called “Gwen”! No, seriously; try me. 😉

Rosemoor.

I found Rosemoor through Ziki Questi’s Blog, which is where I find a lot of great places to photograph. This is only one view of this gorgeous sim; you can see more in Ziki’s blog post, or why not visit the sim and see for yourself? It’s gorgeous, and the windlight the sim designer has chosen just gives the whole place a slow, relaxed, almost nostalgic feel. I loved visiting and photographing there. The above photographs of The Amazing Catwoman were all taken in Rosemoor. Such a yummy and beautiful place.

Now, I had so many beautiful things to show for this blog entry that I decided to take just some quick editorials of outfits I put together and loved. So bear with me, because I’m just going to give the style cards under the photos.

Senzafine and Aisling!

Senzafine always hits the ball out the park with her beautiful designs, and this one is no exception; it’s the Ysmay gown in the blue from colour pack 2. I love that her colourways are so consistent; the gowns always go perfectly with the Aesbrenni slippers she released a while back. I always wear those slippers with her gowns.

And yay! Aisling has made another beautiful crown! I love jewellery from Aisling. The crown is called Nealane, and it, along with the Senzafine gown, is available at this month’s We ❤ RP. The crown is great because it comes with a colour-change HUD that gives you a lot of options for both metals and gems. The hair is from Damselfly, also a We ❤ RP release; it’s called Cedar.

Body is Maitreya, head is Catwa Helena, ears are Lumae Leevi Long Ears, feet are SLink, and the skin is Leslie in Sand from 7 Deadly s[K]ins.

And then there’s this fun, sexy design from !go!.

And then there’s this fun, sexy design from !go!. It’s the Lottia dress and panties, also available at We ❤ RP. For this outfit, I changed Gwyneth back in to one of the Lumae skins she commonly wears; this one is the Eirtae skin in colour way Shell, released for a Genre event a while back. I love that Lumiya Rae has made appliers for the BentBox Sylvan Ears; you can pick those up, along with the skin, at the Lumae Main Store. Body is Maitreya, head is Catwa Helena, feet are SLink, and the foot jewellery is from Carrie’s Lingerie, the Silver Sandals. They come with a gem change HUD so you can match them to whatever you’re wearing. This hair, by the way, is from Magika. The style name is Love Song, and it’s available at the Magika Main Store.

Last, but not least…

Last, but definitely not least, here is a beautiful new outfit from The White Armory, just released in The White Armory Main Store. This is the Guardians of Mirkwood dress set, in Hunter. Now, Bee Dumpling has been designing clothes in Second Life for a long time, and I, like every other fantasy fashion junkie, have been buying her stuff for as long as I’ve been in SL. She is always right on the trend with designing things for mesh bodies, and this is a Maitreya fitted garment that works beautifully. The trousers (thank the gods!) are both system and applier, so The Amazing Catwoman can wear these beautiful Moccasin Boots from Maitreya over them with no problem. Like all the shady hunter/ranger types out there, Tac is always frustrated when she can’t fit boots over a pair of mesh trousers, and her poor player spends hours (I am not making this up!) searching on the SL Marketplace for boots that will actually work with ranger-style outfits, because Tac lives in these when she’s working in a fantasy environment, and there’s nothing worse than suddenly discovering your trousers are peeking through your boots at an inopportune moment. Throws you right off your stride when pickpocketing in the better parts of town. 😉

The other amazing thing about this outfit for TAC is that she is in a Curio skin! Gala Phoenix has amazingly released all her original skin tones as appliers for mesh bodies! And they look beautiful. Along with this, she’s also released three new faces. This one is Pout. There aren’t any Omega appliers or mesh head appliers yet, but I shall keep hoping. Some of you know that before Gala had to take a break from SL, I pretty much wore nothing but Curio skins, and now that she’s releasing more, I just go to her shop every time I get a notice and fatpack that shit. Gwyneth absolutely adores her lighter tones and hopes desperately for Catwa or Omega head appliers in the near future! This is the Bean Light colourway. I think it looks great on TAC, and I can’t wait to try some of the others. Body is Maitreya, hair is Tableau Vivant, Luminay, from last month’s Collabor88, the necklace is Miamai‘s Rise In The Sun, and the ring is Aisling‘s The Good Wife. Eyes and ears are Gauze, Paradox Cat Eyes and High Elf Ears (Drow).

Just one more photo!

Just one more photo! Now, the thing about Guardians of Mirkwood is that you have to look at the back! I love this beautiful design on the back of the jacket, so I had to show it to you. It’s one reason why I put TAC in such a short cropped hairstyle for this photoshoot; I wanted you to be able to see the beautiful line of this jacket from the back.

Whew! Such a long info dump; thank you if you’ve read this far. I’ll get back to my regular story-blogging later in the week. I’m about to have exciting stuff to show you from Hairology, and The Vintage Fair is just around the corner, as well. Collabor88 opens in just a few days, too: I can feel my Linden Balance slipping even as we speak…

No Style Cards today; everything’s noted below the photographs themselves.

I am instructed to thank Dyisi Oppewall for something, so I shall thank her for helping me have what was for me a very difficult conversation with a friend last night. Thanks for holding my virtual hand, and I shall continue to butter your biscuits for the foreseeable future.

General thanks also go to Moxy Macbeth for being awesome, and to Lanella Little for restoring my faith in youth. Dickensian Dreamer also helps keep me sane, and my life would not be complete without the inimitable (and occasionally snoring) Benbold.

Spiffy photos taken with the indispensible aid of my LumiPro. I never ramble for hours about clothes and skins without it!

Three Twisted Knots

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Tag Archives: BentBox

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Ramblings about We <3 RP, Skins, and More!