Some (nearly) Free Fourth of July Fun

I'm working on a series of posts about skins in Second Life and one thing I've found out is that you can look fierce for free. In honor of Independence Day here is an outfit I put together for the occasion:



The cool stars and stripes pants with the skull belt come from Strayer and cost $1L.

The shoes (I feel like I can click my heels and end up in Kansas with them!) come from Seasons, and I got them for free in their Independence Day Star Hunt.

The top is part of Adam n Eve's Happy Fourth Swimsuit gift, which costs $1L for a pack of US and UK themed bikinis.

The hair is "Victoria" in navy from Diversity Hair.

I got the Catherine Deneuve shape for free in a camping chair at Body Doubles.


The skin is a fabulous free theme skin from Frick. Fricka Morgath, in her words, "specialize[s] in Fantasy, Gothic and
Wildly madeup skins!" Her skins are fun, good quality, and very reasonably priced. This particular skin is called "Fireworks" and comes in a pack with a tanned version, a goth version and a shape. She even through in the cool red white and blue sparkly thing that you can see over my head in the picture. I'm wearing the tan skin with my outfit.

Here is a close up of the "tan" version:




Notice the nice details in the makeup. The Peacock Blue eyes are from The Body Politik, and the hair is "Elizabeth" in Mahogany from ETD.

Finally, here is a closeup of the "goth" version:



The hair is "Jocena" in Black from Diversity Hair. I put together my Independence Day outfit with some things I already had in my inventory and an addition $2L.

A Summer's Evening with the Bard

One of the greatest additions to the SL event scene has to be the full size re-creation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Having the opportunity to attend a live action play is truly memorable and should not be missed. Many of the plays performed by the SL Shakespeare Company are pay for attendance, but for the next month they are performing a free staged reading performance of the Twelfth Night. Don't be fooled by the "voice" aspect of this performance as there is much to see and experience just through stopping by.

There is more than one Globe Theatre in SL and I hope to profile the other one on Renaissance Island at a later date, but this segment will profile the sights of the largest Globe Theatre in SL on the sLiterary sim. I have had the opportunity to attend events on Renaissance Island which require visitors to dress in period style, so for the opening night of the Twelfth Night this past Friday, I arrived in a complete Elizabethan costume, ready to enjoy the show. Ironically, besides the actors in the play, I was the only one in costume since sLiterary is not a period dress sim. I arrived a half hour early simply because I'm still not great about SL time as I am on the East Coast in RL. By arriving early I had the advantage of looking around and hearing the actors practice their lines.

WARNING ABOUT THE SL GLOBE THEATRE: when the Globe opened a while back, I attempted to attend the performance in a flexi costume on an older computer: MISTAKE. The attendance for these performances is usually very high and lag becomes almost catastrophic. For the first performance several weeks ago, people were tp-ing in only to be trapped in walls with cries of "How do I get out of here?" It was a horrible experience and after a few computer crashes I managed to escape back home. I was very disappointed, but I will warn you that they do not impose prim limits on attendees so people show up in all kinds of formal or casual wear regardless of drag on the sim. This is the reason they have had to move to a pay for attendance format with their live action plays. So my advice is (and can apply to many group events) get there early and get your seat incase the program freezes, you might still get to listen to the voice and at least be in a rezed position to tp out if things get hairy. I would also make sure you only attend if your processor is up to snuff and limit the amount of prims you wear in. One other recent discovery, if you search "globe" in places, there are three options for this theatre, each with different tp arrival points to ease the tp traffic...very handy!

This performance was well attended, but not overly so and the experience was a very enjoyable one. Here are some of the highlights to entice you to attend one of the next weekend showings through July 20th.
The complex surrounding the Globe Theatre is quite lovely and includes a literary center and gift shop. For the opening night there was a nice table complete with refreshments. Plays appear to go on each month under the pay admission system, and the ticket booth gives upcoming show times and prices. Each showing usually runs L$350 per person which is a fairly reasonable price for the veteran, but a bit cost prohibitive for the newbie. It would be nice to see them offer a discounted or free seat to those under 30 days old. A nice opportunity to promote the SL art scene.

View from the air...note the full size ship behind the theatre....just waiting to be explored!

From the inside, you can see the spacious seating and stage area. Very unique space and fairly easy to move around in. Sometimes, your avatar may slip through the floor, but you don't get stuck and end up in the location you originally intended.
It may appear by the coloring of the stage actors, that my pc had not finished rezing by the time I snapped the photo, but au contraire, this was a unique effect intended for this production. Each stage avatar was specifically designed in black and white tones to visually represent the lack of motion. The speaking avatars did get up when it was their turn to deliver a line, but in general, the physical action was minimal, hoping to bring the speaking parts into prominence.


Overall, I really found this new presentation to be quite intriguing! The minimalist color, devoid of any flesh tones gave everything a very ancient, ethereal quality. You truly felt as though you were listening to the ghostly voices of actors past. It was announced at the beginning of the production that if you download the newest release viewer prior to attending, you could take advantage of a new feature that allows you to see lips moving in conjunction with the lines spoken. I was not aware of this beforehand and did not have time to download the newest release which would obviously put this production in an even greater realm of performance virtue!
On a comical side note, my costume faux pas did permit me to claim the most coveted seat in the house: the Queen's throne! It is open for anyone to sit there, on the second level, centrally located across from the players, although, in this instance, I think my appearance was a much younger Bess than would have attended the play 400+ years ago. And once again, don't worry about what to wear, just go as yourself, no special costume required as you can see from the downstairs group. (Note the odd script that went along with a few of the seats....I'm not sure what the arms floating in the air was supposed to signify, but from personal experience, the animation also made your eyes shift into a slightly possessed look....was it designed to be a rapture of some sort? Not sure, but be on the look-out for that weird animation, might increase your lag a bit.)

Well that's all for this report on the Twelfth Night production....get out there this summer and try to absorb a bit of culture, SL style!


And..

"May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!" Sorry, got a bit carried away....until next time...Queen Bess a.k.a. Sifriya.

A few thoughts on developing your look in Second Life

In Second Life, as in real life, looking good isn't everything, but it sure helps. Deion Sanders' mantra to explain the size of closet (which by the way, seems to be the size of a modest house in the suburbs for the average person) is "when you look good, you feel good, and when you feel good, you play good!" This statement is just as true in Second Life as it is on the football or baseball field. With this philosophy in mind, here are a few observations about appearance in Second Life that are useful for newbies.

Clothes are great, and in Second Life your avi can dress well on a minimal budget. A five dollar deposit in your SL account will get you over $1000 Lindens. Outfits cost from $100L to $300L on the average at a lot of my favorite shops. You can also join the groups of sims that you particularly like and many times the designers give away nice freebies to group members. You can also find nice freebies around the sim, often in gift boxes, or labeled as free. You can wear fabulous clothes in SL without breaking the bank.

Skins and shapes are fundamental to making your avi individual and unique. Most of us modify our Rez Day avies almost as soon as we exit Orientation Isle to get away from that obvious newbie look. Your original shape is fine as far as it goes, but when you are ready to refine your look there are many shape designers to help you out. The Lindens have helpfully added 16 new avatars for our use. These new shapes are complete ensembles, that is, all you have to do is to drag the folder to your avi and the outfit is complete with shape, skin, hair, clothes, etc. These new looks were designed by renowned SL shape, skin and clothes designers and are a good place to start. To access these new shapes, open your inventory, then click on "Library", then "Clothing", and pick the look. These new looks are helpfully labeled with the designers who created them, so if you find a look you like you can always visit the particular sim and explore.

Some of the designers include Adam n Eve, Grendel's Children, Nylon Pinkney, Wraith Unsung and Renegade Clothing. I already had a couple of skins from Adam n Eve, and some outfits from Renegade Clothing which I like, so I'm happy to see that they have donated their creativity to Linden Labs to help newbies develop their looks.

Next time I'll talk about skins, and review some fabulous free ones! Stay tuned for the next installment—"Skins, skins, where to begin?"

Cheers!

Charisse

Innovation in Hair by Dernier Cri

Greetings! And kudos to my gal pal Sifriya for setting up our blog and for her phenomenal and informative posts :) I just used her post about the SLurl Builder, and as you can see it is very handy.

I confess, I'm addicted to hair. One of the first things I changed about my default avatar was the hair. At times I change my hair styles more often than I change my clothes. I saw picture of a SL fashionista with great hair and looked at her credits to find that she was wearing Dernier Cri hair.

This hair is beautiful, and has a very innovative feature. When trying the demos, you wear both the hair, and a 'dye pack' The hair is white, and the dye pack has the complete color packet; you click on the color you like, and the hair magically changes to that color. The prices are reasonable: $95L for 1 color, $195L for 3 color pack. The nice thing about this hair is that you can pick exactly the colors you like without having to buy multipacks of colors that are all similar. So you can get black, brunette, and red for example, without having to buy 10 shades of each color. How cool is that?

An added bonus is that it is fun to watch the hair color develop. It even counts down the percentage that is done until you get to 100%. You can try different colors with the demos, but when you buy the hair, you can only choose a color once and that's it.

Here is a picture of me with the "Tara" style. It is a very nice mid length layered bob, and I got it with highlights!

Dernier Cri skins and clothes are even more fabulous. Stay tuned for my upcoming post about skins.

~Char

Clothes by: Myra's Fashions (Les Bleus!)
Corsaire blanc pants
Zidane t-shirt
Shape: Ayumi Hamamsaki Shape by Body Doubles
Skin by Cake: Jessica-Island-Bare
Shoes by Kool Kicks: Low Top-Camo Blue
Eyes by: The Body Politik--Vivid Eyes Collection--Cloudy Skies

Look What I Found! SLURL Builder!

When we write posts that include SL links to the specific locations, we link to a SLURL (a Second Life URL) which shows the location on a map and offers a teleport as soon as you sign into SL. These SLURLs are very convenient and helpful for online commentary. If you want to comment and include in-world links, feel free to provide a SLURL. For those of you a bit new to SL, here is the link to the SLURL builder that allows you to enter the address and title of a location and the builder will formulate the exact SLURL ready to use in a web site.

Enjoy!

http://slurl.com/build.php

Sifriya

Putting Together the Summer Wardrobe

Now that summer has begun, you will quickly notice that the events in Second Life pick up rather quickly. Within the past week, I have put at least three new events on the calendar with many more to come. As I attended a couple of events last week, it was evident that the wardrobe needed to be updated. After all, it is now summer throughout the European and North American continents, and oddly enough, the users tend to dress their avatars to match their RL location...strange isn't it?

To get started, I decided to load up some money, and shop around some of my favorite places to see what new little dresses and summer pieces were being offered. In most cases, the new summer pieces were gorgeous and plentiful! I also decided to buy several outfits in one outing by mixing and matching the accessories from different stores to create unique ensembles. I would also llike to remind the readers that I kept within ranges of L$500 for each outfit. In many cases, I was well under that range due to my philosophy that you can remain very simpatico in SL for not a lot of money.

One of my first stops was to Nicky Ree's main store on Tropical Orchid. The range of clothing is great and her high-end designs are gorgeous! The color of her creations and the store atmosphere make for a very welcoming experience and should be tried at your earliest convenience. I will try to do a separate entry for the Nicky Ree store at a later date, but here is your first taste. Her price range is also affordable at anywhere from the low L$100s to a couple of thousand for really high end pieces that should be kept in mind for costume or very regal events.

I mention the Nicky Ree store specifically because she not only has a few new very cute sundresses which I will show you below, but right now, she has a wonderful selection of fun pumps that are so colorful they will fit with most of your new dresses. In fact, I may have returned to buy a different color for each of my new outfits with the exception of one. Each pair is only L$150 and some with spring/summer patterns that are adorable!
I ended up purchasing two dresses from Nicky Ree as you can see below:

This yellow sundress with the daisies is one of her new lines just to the right of the entrance and available in many different colors. Cost is L$380, fairly reasonable, and the shoes are one of her spring collection with little yellow flowers print and purple up around the sides...too cute! Hair is by ETD which I will profile further down the post, and the jewelry is a freebie I picked up somewhere a few months ago. I think this dress calls for flower jewelry, but that's just me.

This next dress is way in the back of the store among some of the higher end and more expensive designs, but was so summery and unique, I couldn't pass it up. I decided it was festive enough to buy for the upcoming Second Life 5th anniversary party. It just screams birthday festivities! The cost was L$480, the highest I paid for anything during this trip, and the shoes, one of Nicky's summer collection matched the dress material perfectly! I was in love with this outfit immediately! The hair is one of the L$1 freebies from Diversity Hair "Jess" in so many colors I won't ever use them all. I love the Jess design. Nice long flexi ponytail with cute bangs and really nice shading. I use this hair style a lot lately, very cute and convenient.

My next dress purchase came from the main DeFleur store. I will have to rave more about this store later regarding their incredible selection of renaissance period dresses of beautiful detail at amazingly low prices. Take your time shopping here, and be sure to hover over every dress...she likes to make the less popular color designs free or greatly reduced!! These offerings change, so be sure to landmark this store and visit frequently for new bargains!

I found this cute little brown number in one of the little loft areas to the right of the entrance. Fly up there for some cute dresses at really nice prices. This one has wonderful unique textural designs with a realistic silk gathering at the waist. It is a part of her seasons of the day series, and I am wearing the sunset dress. The pink noon is on my radar for equal cuteness and I may go back for that one later. The prices in this line are around L$200. A great deal on such nice quality designs.

I recently wore this to an art gallery opening on Info Island and was happy with how it fit in...not too fancy, yet very classic design. The hair is from ETD, another freebie I think, and the jewelry was free from an unknown source (While some freebie clothes can be plain or of really low quality, we Sim-Patico girls NEVER pass up the free jewelry!! Most are fairly nice and expensive jewelry cannot always live up to its higher prices!). Shoes are from the Nicky Ree line mentioned above.

This next little dress was found at ETD. They are more known for their hair, but the clothing section off to the side has plenty of really cute designs.

This is one of the new babydoll dresses for spring available in several different colors. The hair is from ETD, shoes from Nicky Ree, the jewelry is another freebie, but the sunglasses are from Role Optic. Not copyable, but the only sunglasses you will ever need as they come complete with animation that allows you to change the position from on your head to on your nose in a nice realistic manner. Did I also mention the lenses and frames are customizable with color, bling and opaqueness? Available in several different styles at about L$200 - L$400 depending on what you like. Summer is all about the cool sunglasses!! Thanks Angie Mornington for blogging about them!

My last little ensemble is more casual and fun, a blue and white capri outfit from Dernier Cri. Charisse is working on a post to introduce you to Dernier Cri, so I won't spill too much about this new place except to say that the clothes are cute unique designs at fabulous prices, and her skins are beautiful at a reasonable L$900. I splurged and bought one of her skins because summer dresses reveal more, which means the shading throughout the body should be attractive and not one shade - as you can see from the back that accentuates the shoulder blades wonderfully. I am wearing the Dernier Cri skin throughout this photo shoot - taken with un-altered simple photography at Calavar/Pendragon, the most beautiful sim I have ever seen! I will blog more about this newly renovated sim at a later date.

While this little capri outfit comes complete with top and pants, Dernier Cri allows you to buy tops and pants separate with tops below L$100....a great deal!

My shoes are also from Dernier Cri and the little flower ankle bracelet is a freebie from the entrance of the store. Hair is a L$1 freebie from ETD. While not flexi at all, the color and style seemed to be just right for this outfit.

Well, there you have it! Most of my summer wardrobe bought in just a few sessions. I will next be off to look for some cute yet modest (with skirt) bathing suits for the beach parties. I will also keep my eye out for some more casual wear like the capri outfit. My biggest advice is to shop around and don't buy everything at one place. Be frugal and picky to look your best on a budget! Oh, and don't forget to take stock of the skin you're wearing. Almost anything can be worn in winter clothes, but summer requires more revealing outfits so take a look at the back, knees and elbows, etc. Some great skin can be found for free or at low cost, but think about investing in a higher priced skin for the season. At least go to the higher priced skin stores to try on the demos. You will quickly see the differences among sellers! Most shapes can look entirely different with various skins!

Here's to leading a great double life!
Sifriya