Wade In the Water

Kathy in the Black Suit from  !129129

 The thing about men's suits - or, rather, the thing about a really good-looking woman is that she looks good in anything, especially a man's suit.  Here are a couple of clothing items from the wading pool with the goldfish in it at the SM29izm Summer Festival.  I'll blog about other things at my Other Blog.

The Black Wedding Dress from !129129

Amongst the frequent box heads you get from the wading pool (which you can click on up to five times and then you have to wait five minutes before clicking again) are these two lovely outfits from !129129.  These outfits are non-copy but transferable, so if you get, for instance, six of them (which I did in trying to get the swingset), you can pass them on to your alt or someone else.  Other prizes are not transferable, probably because they weren't specifically for male or females.  There is also a Lucky Board with a dark red version of the men's suit.

Normally I hate wedding dresses, but this black one is fab.  Look how it moves!  Look at the beautiful textures!  It's certainly worth waiting around for hours and hours [looks shifty and clears throat] for these.  And there are lots of things to look at and pose balls to hop on while you're waiting.  Who knows, maybe you'll get your inventory sorted while you're waiting!

!129129 Mainstore

Last Gasp of Summer Fun

Fun sand castle with shaping anim
(if we could get Lludmila's snoot out of the cocktail).

Lots of fun for 35L or less at Boof again!  I'm not even showing the freebies!  There are three hunts in progress and a free golden snitch just sitting out where anyone could get it!  But Lludmila was really taken with the sandcastle, which comes with bucket and shovel and an inflatable ring.

In addition, there is some newness in the form of a grass skirt collection that comes with all of the following:

Bikini and nut necklace.

Sportier bikini and tropical beverage.

Flower lei and hair flower.

Grass skirt with obligatory coconut bra.

Lludmila had been looking for a really nice grass skirt for the next hukilau, and who doesn't need a coconut bra?  Boof is really worth the visit.

Dept. of Shameless Self-Promotion

Grin and Bear it!

Free Bear: Untroubled t-shirt if you stop by Lludmila's vardo on Awen.  Also, info on Bear's cd "Untroubled."

Also coming up: Lludmila's RL(tm) Husbob has a new cd that will be available at the end of the month.  Teaser video here: Metamorphoses.  Husbob plays guitar, Bear plays keyboards, and Sarah does cello and violin on this cd.  All the cuts are in Dadgad with the Harmonic Capo, available from his website.

While you're at the vardo, ahem, note that Lludmila will be hosting a discussion of The Iliad during August.  Pick up a notecard.

Bellissimo from B[elle]issima

British Navy Uniform

 Cal found a wealth of goodies at B[elle]issima at bargain prices.  This is only a small selection.  The British Navy uniform (and the British Army uniform below) are free.  The British Army uniform came with boots.  Fortunately, Cal had some buckled shoes from another outfit to complete the British Navy uniform.  Peruque is from Arundel Design which has some great stuff for the historic role player.

British Army Uniform

Cal Kilted in Group Gift

 Joining the B[elle]issima group is a mere 25L and is worth it just for this kilt ensemble (includes boots and tam with feather hackle).  There is also a separate group gift for women.

Angel in a bargain dress

Along with the group gift and the freebies, there are some inexpensive outfits for both men and women.  The black dress on Angel was only 15L and looks terrific on her plush shape.

This place is definitely worth a visit - there is more and the shop is also participating in two hunts.

Indiana Llud

Fun accessories for the adventurous - from Boof.

For a single Llinden (1L), Boof is offering some Indiana Jones gear: fedora, bag, whip (of course), and a little traveling music!  You'll feel heroic just walking around!  

Accessories by Boof, a dollarbie with a bonus in case someone knocks you on the head (hint, hint!)

Khaki dress from La petite fleur (very old freebie - they have a new one now)

Ensnared boots (previous blogged on, prolly last October) from {MF}

Hurrah for the Red, White, and Green!

Lludmila relaxes in her dollarbie outfit.

I know I haven't been here much, but I did go on an extended vacation (and while they might have WiFi at Mesa Verde, I don't really want to be on it when I'm there) and shortly after I got back, my graphics card died and Dell dragged their feet about replacing it.  Although two other cards have bitten the dust, first they made us wipe the harddrive before they would admit it was the card again.  Sigh.

My enforced absence from all but the barest minimum of virtual life (I did try to keep up with my hosting job at Grizzy's Cafe) soured me on the whole idea.  I started cleaning and ironing, for Omssake!  Worse yet, I was enjoying it.  It's taken me some time to decide what I'm going to do and I guess I'll stick with this virtual existence, but I'm going to start adding more real life to the mix.

That said, I found this very nice dollarbie at justB.  Apparently, it's a monthly thing.  Join the group (get the freebie roller skates from the notices) and keep your eyes peeled for a regular bargain.  I paired it with the slingbacks from G. Field.

We Don't Just Stand Around

Totally excellent cocktail party dress from The White Armory ... in action.

 This may have happened to you.  It happened to me just this weekend.  I put on a gorgeous gown and went dancing ... but the skirt didn't work.  While my avatar's legs went all over, the skirt hung relentlessly down between her legs.  Despite the dangers of changing in public (especially with someone like me around who's always taking pictures), I put on a different dress.

Designers, what I'm telling you is that we don't all stand around stiffly like Barbie or shifting our weight seductively with an expensive AO.  Avatars go out to do things.  We dance.  We get shot out of cannons.   We sit on poseballs.   We're animated.   I get the impression that you all don't take that into account when you design outfits.  No one is going to put on some gorgeous dress with flexi-prims all over it and not shake them to watch them move!

If It Billows, It Needs Glitch Pants.

And another thing - glitch pants should match the relative length of the skirt.  I had to quickly make some longer glitch pants for the above pink outfit.  You can see them; they're the pink without the print.  Lludmila's interesting bits had been covered, but the skirt billowed so much that it looked like she wasn't wearing glitch pants.  Please re-read the name of this blog.  [I'm touchy about that, even though I was sent to the principal's office in high school for an outfit that was almost exactly like this only the skirt was sheer.  It had matching bikini pants.  I still don't understand that whole incident.  You could only see through it if I were standing in front of a bright light.]  

A natural amount of leg showing.

 In the above ensemble, there was enough gravity on the skirt that it didn't billow out so easily, even with this amount of exaggerated movement.  Lludmila doesn't need glitch pants to the knees with this because the gravity and flexi-ness were nicely balanced.  It might have been accidental, but it gave a very natural look to the flow of the fabric.

You know the dance ... the one where you soar in the air, spin, and float down again.
No outfit could possibly stand up to this - I'm not expecting that.

Ideally, in an ideal virtual world where you can control absolutely everything and all the pretty clothes are free (whoops, got carried away there!), there will be clothes that will look realistic when they need to and surreal if that's what you're looking for.  I'm not suggesting that virtual clothing are not allowed to do things that real life (tm) clothing can't do or that you should never go around flashing thigh all the way up to your waist.  I'm just saying that's what I'm looking for: virtual clothing that looks real and thigh-flashing ... in dresses that are cut that way.  

Before you put something out for sale, take it for a spin on a dance ball.  Is it behaving naturally?  If this were in a real life (tm) location, is this what you want your creation to look like in action?  Or, if you conceived it to be used in a zero-G environment, does it work in that?  If not, don't put it out, not even for free.  If you do, I'm not going to review it anymore - I'm just gonna throw it away.

Give us clothes that make us free - free to dance, free to spin, free -

Free to fly ... in a dress from Paris Metro.