a quickening

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A breath of cold wine-scented air… and I’m alive. Autumn has been my favorite season for as long as I can remember. When I was living in Los Angeles, a season was mostly a change in air and temperature; months of deadly heavy toxic heat gave way to something fresh and revitalizing. I love spring too but fall means Hallowe’en is just around the corner and it’s my favorite holiday – any opportunity to dress up… and as an adult now I enjoy seeing it through the eyes of children.
This offering is not childlike though – a bit sexy and scary in equal parts I think. I’m once again collaborating with dear Steele Sirnah, who’s helping me to stretch my boundaries artistically, and working with a new computer, which will help me create higher-quality images (joy!) I’m really excited to have an opportunity to wear the KOOQLA Queen’s skin I picked up at DU5, and a SoliDea Folies gown from the Milano Collection earlier this year. Hope you enjoy this piccie! Another will follow closely 😉

On Steele:

GizzA – Dark Swan Male Pants and shirt
::ZED:: MESH Formal Shoe – Gator Black
[monso] My Warmer Muffler
+Nuuna+ Makeup 11 v8
Fall From Grace Devil’s Advocate necklace
E.C Jeweler :Black Horn:
FINESMITH– APHRODITE LIP PIERCEING black
Maitreya Voluminous Scarf Hair #2 – Bistre – Edited
Moondance Square Hand Biker Diamonds 3d Nails
Chop Zuey Tilting At Windmills Brooch Small
[monso] My Warmer Muffler – Black guys
NIVARO– Baptiste Fantasy Skin – Grey

On me:

*SoliDea FoliEs* Sofia gown
KOOQLA Queens(Black) (w/ brows)
[K] Winterbloom(black)
[K] Liquid shadow 02
Exile::Hearts Don’t Breakeven (L)Dark Reds

because I love you

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So I showed him the last post… and he says, in effect, “Too many words.”
A brief moment of disgruntlement later, during which I thought of all the reasons I wrote those words, I decided for this one post to honor the extreme fondness I have for him by sharing a tiny snippet from one of my favorite books of all time, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. Read it if you haven’t. Lots of lessons about how to love. (If you’re in a rush go here for some highlights.)

“If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers…”

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!SSD ~ Frills ~ Ione ~ Jewelry Set
(PixelDolls) Poof (Dress) . Sky .
Vanity Hair:Visionaire-Feux
Blushed -Super Sheer Woven Top w/seams stockings (Slink Applier)
Izzie’s – Fuyu Lipstick magenta
[whatever] High Heel 2.0 – marine
Eyelashes -6- Natural *REDGRAVE*
Slink Mesh Feet (Av Enhance)
Slink Mesh Hands (av) Gesture

I’ve got a crush on… .Shi…

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So I just realized, as I finished that second detail pic above, that I am kind of in love with .Shi.  A few days ago, I posted an outfit featuring their group gift, and not long before that, their Defiant Harness. I don’t mean to neglect other designers – I really don’t. It’s just that there is something about Joy Laperriere’s work that is so effortlessly interesting and sexy and wearable. I love how I look in this clothing, it’s fun to style, and it has a bit of drama built in with the fabrics and materials used – and personally I would rather wear my drama than experience it.
Steele Sirnah, who is featured in the main image here, offered to collaborate with me on a pic, and offered his styling of .Shi’s Caplet Tank Full. This inspired me to create an ensemble with .Shi’s Arreter – Crop Asymmetric Vest and .Shi Outre Leather Pants. (There is actually a matching foil skirt;  it just seemed like a little too much foil all at once but hey – if you want to wear the skirt with the vest, knock yourself out. Just don’t blame me if you start picking up radio signals – unwanted radio signals that is. I take full credit if you start picking up KCRW.)
My hair in this pic and also in the detail is from Dura. I started out with that shorter style because – look how cool it looks with the makeup by +Nuuna+! I had to show you. However, for our pic this hair didn’t work since it covers my eyes – so for the larger pic I wore a collaborative hair by *+JENOVA’s+* & *Dura* – kind of appropriate for the occasion I think. Collaborative art is one of my favorite things… if you’d like to do a pic with me, send me your ideas! I’m not promising I’ll have time to work with everyone but if you have a really cool idea I want in on it.

My accessories were hard-earned. Sometimes I have just the right thing in my inventory but for this set of clothing I searched for a combination of hard-edged and feminine. A tattoo or two seemed in order, nothing too ornate. The Black Stripes VI arm tattoos from .Identity. Body Shop were exactly what I was looking for.  The shape of GeWunjo’s Papiliona silver earrings echo that of the Nuuna makeup. I had run across the Vindictus Studded 4-Finger Gloves by Fade Arcade earlier in my Marketplace travels and to my delight, they offer a color that matches the leather of the vest perfectly.
I had first thought I would wear studded leather boots with this outfit but lo and behold, Belgravia, whom I love because they make many beautiful shoes to wear with Slink feet, had this ravishing pair of studded pumps to offer. At this point the shape of the shoe seems a little vintage, with all of the unusual and outrageous shoe shapes offered in Second Life lately, but I think they are just right with this outfit, which does whisper “updated 60’s and 80’s” if you listen closely. Pointy-toed stillettos were a wardrobe staple in those periods, and, such a feminine type of shoe, they never really go out of style. Besides – shiny! So shiny…
Unfortunately some of the items that Steele is wearing were made by designers that are no longer creating for SL. LionSkins, which still has a small presence on Marketplace, was last active in 2011 and [V] is nowhere to be found. However they still live on in Steele’s styling of the .Shi tunic, which also includes Chop Zuey’s Honour Earrings and  Maitreya’s Couture Leggings (a model’s secret weapon – like “happily ever after”, they seem to perfectly complete so many ensembles).
I will end this blog post with an entreaty to Joy Laperriere. Dear Joy, I love your clothing so much – please make more of it! If I blog anymore of your clothing I will exhaust what you offer in your small exquisite store, and I will be sad. Very sad. Okay, not as sad as I would be about some other things… running out of gas on an ice-cream truck route, midday, because I got lost… for example. Ah, don’t mind me. Enjoy your rl.  Just know that I will be waiting with bated breath for any new item and snap it up immediately, giggling, like a crow with some shiny thing, and run off with it to line my blog. No pressure, Joy, no pressure.

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.Shi Arreter – Crop Asymmetric Vest
.Shi [Femme] : Outre Leather Pants [Femme]
Belgravia – Patent 120 Spikes Silver
.Identity. Body Shop – Black Stripes VI Fresh & Faded
:{F.A.D.}: Vindictus Studded 4-Finger Gloves
+Nuuna+ Makeup v9 8
*+JENOVA’s+* & **Dura**(Hair)(Black)resize (on large pic)
*Dura-Boys&Girls*46(Wood Bark) (on detail pic)
GeWunjo : Papiliona silver Earrings (on detail pic)
Slink Mesh Feet (Av Enhance)

Mr. Sirnah wears:
SKINHEAD 7M-LionSkins (with us no longer)
.Shi : Caplet Tank Full
Maitreya Couture Leggings – Black
[V] – Vanity Angel – Black (also not longer here)
Chop Zuey Honour Earrings

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Not in a great mood today… haven’t been for a few. Working it out with art. I have no piercings irl but when I’m feeling bad there’s something satisfying about the persnickety work of editing a complex mouth piercing like I’m wearing here, by Hebenon Vial.

.Shi’s Joy Laperriere honors her manager Journey Lorakeet with an amazing unisex group gift – a pair of earrings made of leather and steel. I thought it was a great stroke of luck that these came out when I wanted to blog some clothing by Lucien Marcelo, a bold and sexy leather vest and skirt. Adding to my styling luck was a timely gift from my friend Sessie – Gizza’s Electra necklace. Makeup by Blackliquid, lashes by Redgrave, hair from KMADD and shoes by Tokyo.Girl complete this ensemble.

A note about the shoes. It may be that my avi is taller than the designer expected, but the alphas for this shoe did not work for me. However, I have in my bag of tricks a set of alphas that tend to work for number of different occasions by ::Duh!::, and the Layer 5 alpha was a successful replacement.

Lucien.Marcelo // HELMUT LANG LEATHER SKIRT

Lucien.Marcelo // STUDDED CARAPACE VEST 

blackLiquid MAKEUP – ISIS tintable
.::MADesigns HAIR::. ~ ERIN ~ Red VI
.Shi : Journey Earrings {Luxe Gift}
:Hebenon Vial: Metal Mouth
Eyelashes -6- Natural *REDGRAVE*
GizzA – Electra Set [Beige] Necklace
Slink Mesh Hands (av) Gesture
Tokyo.Girl Biyu Boots Black
::Duh!:: Alpha Layer 5 (alternate *working* alpha for shoes)

 

Velvet Ink Poses – coming soon!

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This weekend or thereabouts, Dimitri Shinn will be opening his new pose shop, Velvet Ink, to the public. There will be poses for both men and women, as well as couples.

Dimitri, like me, is a perfectionist, so you won’t find any half-arsed poses there. The pics above are poses that are from both his men’s and women’s collection, although they could be considered unisex I think! Velvet Ink Poses will live in the Snatch sim – I will post an surl when the shop opens. Come take a look and grab a free couples pose 😉

So why the shiny shiny gloves, you ask? Well, for a long time I have been wanting to recreate an image done by my avi’s inspiration, Edita Vilkeviciute. The seated pose is a nigh-perfect copy of her pose in the pic – and my outfit is a close approximation of hers.  [http://fy-edita.tumblr.com/ – page 5, somewhere in the middle. Start from the beginning though 😉 ]

My lingerie is by Gwen Carillon, who readers of my blog might remember designed a gorgeous gown for me earlier this year. Her lingerie is nothing short of perfection – exquisitely detailed, with many wearing options. Gwen puts her heart and soul into each of her creations, and they are all versatile and easy to wear.

My gloves are from KK FetishDoll. What a huge store! They have just about every kind of latex and rubber item you could possibly imagine. The owner gifted me with a full-body catsuit which I used in a photo posted to Flickr – it’s a bit kinky and weird, tiny bit NSFW (nipples!), but I had fun with it 😉 http://www.flickr.com/photos/mielette/9578448086/  I should tell you – I believe this place is the only one that has such shiny shiny gloves. ^_^

My glasses are from Gos. Gos is the source of much goodness, mostly shoe goodness (which is some of the best goodness there is) but they also have other offerings. These glasses are just as well made as their shoes, and have many options to change their look.
Shiny shiny shoes to go with the shiny shiny gloves can be found at VvB Design. I searched pretty extensively for this shoe; there are some other places where you can find a similar shoe but this one just felt exactly right. The owner, Viktoria Brandenburg, takes pride in providing some of the best and most detailed latex and clubwear in SL.

Had to have sexy bare parted lips for the seated pic. The gloss and teeth lip tattoo are from Dead Apples.
Hair from one of my favorite stores completes this look – booN has a variety of very natural-looking and flattering styles. At first glance you might be disappointed in the color selections, but get this – both the hair and the hairbases can be tinted to the shade you like best; just make a copy, rename it, change the color and you’re in business.

I will have some nice things coming from .Shi soon so stay tuned 😉

Velvet Ink Poses – 3 poses: It Doesn’t Matter; Tilted; I’m All Here. (surl coming soon!)

Gwen Carillon Designs – Jonquil Noir Lingerie
KK FetishDoll Latex Long Gloves Black
[Gos] Custom Eyewear v5.0b CATEYE
VvB 6inch COURT Shoe BLACK
{D.A} Lipgloss & Teeth
booN ODU611 hair chestnut