Ahhhh..the crisp, cool, air….the fiery color of leaves on the hillside… no, strike that.  At least not in this part of the world, and not at this time of year.

90 degree heat.  Higher humidity.  The stink of a crowd pressed too close together and the “eewwww” as the guy in the row behind you, who has been drinking since 10:00 in the morning, sloshes his Coca-Cola laced with bourbon down your back.

Even so, I’m ready!

Especially thanks to the good folks at Freestyle Designs, who hooked me up with a bit of custom work, a classic Archie Manning Saints jersey.  The store has jerseys and other team wear available for most American professional sports teams.  The ladies versions are available on the jacket layer, and come in two lengths, for those who live in cold weather NFL towns like Green Bay or Buffalo, or for those that just don’t feel like baring their tummies.

And some added love for the customer service staff at Freestyle Designs.  I asked for a Manning jersey because he was my Dad’s favorite player.  I only requested the name and number. They know their retro, though, and I was pleasantly surprised (ok, thrilled, actually) when I received the item and saw that they had gone to the extra trouble to include the 70s era white numbers, not the gold numbers the team currently wears.

In sticking with the theme of the Black and Gold, I dug out my jeans from Drawmachine, one of the first purchases I made in SL, and still a favorite.  I figured spike heels would give me at least as much traction as cleats.  The Bax Coen ankle boots also lend a high-top, ankle-supporting, Johnny Unitas era touch. Not to mention the HUD-driven color changing metal on the toe caps and eyelets.  What more could a fangirl want?

And whether you are Bob Sanders, Steven Jackson, Larry Fitzgerald, or Troy Polamalu, ya gots to have the the dreads, mon!  Or a close approximation thereof.  Like the cropped twists from Twist Out.  The hair has a handy HUD for size adjustment and for tinting.  A nice feature is that you can tint the front and back separately.

And, lastly, but certainly not leastly, my friend Ella couldn’t believe I would do a football post without woofing for my first sports love, my LSU Fighting Tigers.  I told her I could find LSU shirts in SL, but not jerseys.  Darned if she didn’t whip up a purple road jersey for me, in addition to the poses and football prop!  Thanks, Ella!

So whether your team is pro, college, high school, plays with four downs and 11 men, or if you are deep in the tundra and only play three downs with 12 players, best of luck to your boys this season (unless you are a fan of Alabama and the false prophet Saban, but that’s another post!).  But, most importantly….ARE….YOU …..READY?

Style Notes

Shape - Kiko Life, Oyadele

Skin - Kiko Life, Golden Sarcophagus – Tea Tone

Hair – Twist Out! Cropped Twists, scripted

Jerseys – Freestyle Designs (Manning was a custom order, but players for all teams are available in the store) and Ella’s Creations (LSU purple)

Jeans – Drawmachine – Sexy A** Jeans, bronze

Boots – Bax Coen – Ankle boots

Football prop and poses – Ella’s Creations available now on Xstreet, and possibly, soon, in-world.

Location – Rutgers Stadium

Annagram

One of my favorite installments of the old HBO series “From the Earth to the Moon” is the episode entitled “Galileo Was Right,” which dealt, in part with how a bunch of pilots were trained to act as lunar field geologists and learned to spot the right rocks during their limited time on the moon. The mantra became “Get the unusual one.” Anyone who has wandered the grid for any length of time can happily list the “ohhhhhh” moments when you stumble across something really interesting that you have not seen before. That happened to me a couple of weeks ago during the Ivalde sim hunt when I wandered into Aurora Borealis and saw the jewelry sets made from pieces of patchwork quilts and the beautiful pearl jewelry.

Sequoia Nightfire and Kymsara Rayna are good friends that work as store models at Ivalde. Sequoia began making jewelry, and Kym brought her rl interest in quilting into Second Life, finding sl quilting groups and working with other quilters. Kym’s designs are not created in photoshop, but, instead, use highly detailed images of actual quilted pieces available in real world quilt shops. She sells the items as quilts that may be displayed in your SL home, or as jewelry pieces like the necklace, bracelet, and earrings shown.

The level of detail is remarkable, right down to the stitch marks. (Forgive the giant image, but it’s worth waiting for it to load, and click the image to see an even larger size.)

Kym sells the pieces at Sequoia’s store, Aurora Borealis (formerly iGems), and the quilted sets are available in about a half dozen styles, with more on the way. I fell in love with the shades of blue and purple in the “Sara’s Star” set. (Yes, and I went with blue eye shadow, too. Get over it.) I originally planned to wear something more casual, but went for the blue blazer with floral accents from Mashooka Designs and the pants from the Seth Cream set at UK Couture.

While the quilted pieces are really unusual and a lot of fun to wear, Sequoia’s wonderfully detailed pearl sets are worth a trip on their own. It is easy to find basic pearl strands in black, white, and pink all over SL, but the sets at Aurora Borealis are something special. The textures have beautiful depth and subtle shading variations. They also come in a wide variety of colors. Black, white, and pink, of course, but many other shades as well, all inspired by the colors of, duh, the Northern Lights. Sequoia brings in swatches of color from actual NASA images of the lights, with beautiful results. Think “shine” without the bling. A great way to dress up any outfit.

If you look closely at the pictures, you will see that the pearls are not black, but aubergine. Not a match, but a nice complement to a mostly black and white outfit mashed together from sets from AnnaH and Kungler’s, (the subject of one of next week’s posts). I love having jewelry pieces that stand out and don’t just blend in, and yet don’t overwhelm the outfit.

Sequoia also graciously passed along a sneak peek of some new items that are not yet for sale. Some very beautiful and exquisitely detailed pearl and cameo pieces.

Look very, very closely and see if you recognize the lovely lady in the cameo. None other than Ivalde owner Neferia Abel. An appropriate way to depict the designer of one of the best vintage fashion stores on the grid.

Again, I was blown away by the detail of the pieces, right down to the linking chains connecting the pearls. I immediately thought of some of my in-world friends who love all things Victorian and asked Sequoia if she planned on taking special orders. She said she enjoys working on special things for her customers. Commemorating your special friend in cameo for a rezday gift? Why, yes, yes, I think so!

So get thee to Aurora Borealis. It’s like a very fun trip back to grandmother’s house. Dive into the linen closet and wrap yourself in her favorite quilt, then sneak into her bedroom to play with her pearls and jewels. Smell the cookies baking in the oven. And tell them that you read about it in the Annagram!

Quilted Jewelry

Shape - Kiko Life – Oyadele

Skin – Redgrave – Naomie2 blue

Hair – Laqroki - June – black

Jacket – Mashooka Designs – MD Blazer Chic flower (blue)

Pants – UK Couture - Seth Cream

Jewelry – Aurora Borealis – Sara’s Star Blue #2 set

Aubergine Pearls

Shape – Kiko Life – Oyadele

Skin – Redgrave – Naomie 2 white

Hair – Mau and Mej – Chachi – black

Jacket – AnnaH (now StoRin) – Leopard prints – Satin Bolero – Short Sleeves

Top and Pants – Kungler’s – Estela

Jewelry – Aurora Borealis – Zelda Tahitian Aubergine Pearl set

Cameo Jewelry

Shape – Kiko Life – Najja

Skin – Redgrave – Naomie 2 Old Rose

Hair – Calla - Lavender

Dress – Lemania Indigo – Creme Brulee (group gift from last fall)

Jewelry – Aurora Borealis – Neferia Cameo Set

Other Stuff

Because it’s good for you, and because you should, go watch “From the Earth to the Moon”! You can watch it free online here.

Sequoia’s blog

Kym’s Sewn Jewels blog

Last week I was wading through a backlog of IMs and group notices and saw an interesting blurb in Fashcon from a store I had not heard of before. The flyer was advertising bustiers for what seemed a pretty reasonable price, but what I really noticed was the bright colors. I’m not sure one can rightly call it spring fever when one lives in a subtropical climate, but I decided to go check out Vivium.

The store is an explosion of color. Bright greens, yellows and blues all over, and that is just the tile on the store floor. Sidharta Philo, the owner, offers a variety of items for sale. Some cute lingerie, nice jeans, shirts for the guys, but the bustiers were very eye-catching. Lots of pretty floral prints, as well as many others with very interesting textures and wonderfully bright colors.

In the store entryway was an adboard for two other tops that I did not find for sale, one done in the style of the Jamaican flag, and the other in the red white and black of Trinidad and Tobago. I had to have the bright green RIGHT NOW, but couldn’t find it anywhere for sale. Sidharta happened to be online and very sweetly agreed to let me have a preview copy. It, as well as other flags of the world tops, should be available soon.

Properly attired, it was time to hit the beach for a bit of a virtual spring break. I couldn’t dredge up anything in my inv that really matched the deep green of the top, so went with the black shorts from a Cupcakes outfit I found in their hunt last week, and I was pleased to find some green shades in a freebie pack I picked up somewhere a year or so ago.

But, as anyone knows, one can only stay out in the sun for so long. Eventually any good beach vacation comes down to a comfy, shady spot, and a good trashy novel. The pink top is also from Vivium, paired here with the cuffed pants from U.K. Couture’s Seth outfit.

Don’t forget the Kiko Life Fierce Flower Styling Contest

Entries close at the end of the month. Check the Kiko Life store in-world for more info. 5,000 lindens up for grabs, plus other great goodies.

Shape: Oyadele — Kiko Life

Skin: Naomie — Redgrave

Hair: Minerva – Skyshop HOC Elite

Tops: Jamaica (preview copy) and Bustier – Pink — both from Vivium

Shorts: black denim shorts from the Easter egg hunt at Cupcakes

Pants: from the Seth Couture outfit at UK Couture.

Kris Svenska’s cOre sim continues to grow, and she is celebrating today with a party from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. slt.

Come boogie with DJ Katey Coppola, check out the cute build and the new shops, and stick around for the groovy prizes! There will be a contest for most outrageous Neko, so dig out those ears and tail, already!

See you there!

What: Party party party!

Where: cOre

When: 9 am to 11 am SLT Saturday 11 April TODAY!

I love shape and skin hopping. After almost a year in-world I still very much enjoy the playing with paper dolls aspect of SL. I was lucky enough to win a major shape store’s big drawing my first week in SL, and I have at least half a zillion (yes, I counted) skins, demo skins, freebie skins, spam, eggs, bacon, spam and skins in my inventory, including a variety of ethnic skins I have played with from time to time. Nothing ever looked quite right, and many of the shapes I tried seemed overly exaggerated.

About ten days ago I saw an interesting post by Khitten Kurka mentioning the Kiko Life sim. I went to check it out and was immediately impressed by what I saw on the adboards. The shapes themselves were curvy and quite lovely, but I was particularly impressed with the time Kiko had spent on the faces. Full, but very, very pretty. Kiko himself happened to be in the store when I stopped by, and he was extremely friendly and helpful as I dithered, finally deciding on the Oyadele shape.

The shape packages include eyes, and a style card if one wants to look just like the girl in the picture. Kiko and I discussed various hair options, and, after checking out a couple of places, I went with the card’s suggestion of Skyshop HOC. I tried on just about every darker skin in my inventory, demo and otherwise, and kept coming back to the Naomie from Redgrave. A few others were also interesting, but that is the topic of a future post.

Kiko’s “no sticks here” philosophy made it a bit of a challenge for a girl whose second closet is stuffed with lots of small dresses and skirts, but getting the opportunity to reconsider the wardrobe was all part of the fun. I started with one of my staples, the tight jeans from Drawmachine and paired it with the cropped sweater, currently available in the store hunt at Cupcakes. Grabbing the freebie bangles from Mythology out of the jewelry box, I slipped on my favorite Wicked Soles heels, and this Louisiana girl was ready for cafe au lait and beignets at the “Cafe du Gos,” in Fat Tuesday, one of the best looking New Orleans-themed sims on the grid.

Later, it was off for a night out at the movies with friends. Rapidly falling in love with my new posterior, I decided to go with something shiny. The leather pants are from the Absolute Black outfit at BareRose Tokyo. The shimmery top is part of the Limelight fatpack from PixelDolls, and the faux fur shrug is free from Curio Obscura. The FNKY catwalk glasses are crazy versatile. Many, many options for lens and frame color, shininess, and bling. Now, if only they toggled to flip on top of your head they would be perfect, but, as is, still pretty darn good.

Kiko is currently sponsoring a styling/modeling competition. Take three pics, post to the competition’s Flickr group, and win loads of goodies, including thousands of Lindens. Hurry, though. The entry deadline is April 10.

So what are you waiting for? Stretch a bit, explore that new shape and skin, and see what fresh wonders you can pull out of your closet. After all, Italian Vogue did it last summer, and it is more fun than getting a new Barbie under the Christmas tree. So, in the immortal words of James Brown, “Say it loud!” And have fun!

Both photos:

Shape and eyes – Kiko – Oyadele package
Skin – Redgrave – Naomie2

Cafe du Gos
Top – Cupcakes – Cropped sweater pink – part of the current store hunt
Pants – Drawmanchine – Sexy jeans black
Hair – Skyshop HOC – Minerva
Jewelry – Mythology – Southwest bangles
Shoes – Wicked Soles – Ariel glossy black

Red Carpet
Top – PixelDolls – Limelight Silver
Pants – BareRose Tokyo – Absolute black
Shrug – Curio Obscura – Fun Fur Jacket
Glasses – FNKY – Catwalk
Jewelry – Persona – Pearl Drop Cream set
Boots – Helen’s Latex – B10 Ebony

When I first met Kristya Svenska she was relatively new to SL and had her own photo studio. We also happened to have been pretty much twins, having both independently chosen the same shape and skin. We have kept up with each other through mutual friends, and I recently heard that Kris had gone all buildery and now had her own store, .:CORE:.

I love the shop’s creative look. A sort of distressed warehouse in the midst of lush greenery, including a tree sprouting through the middle of the store (a bit like post-Katrina south Louisiana, but that’s another post). Kris has a bit of everything in the store…furniture, clothes, and jewelry with a slant towards neko/grunge.

Never having done the neko thing, I started digging (clawing?) through my inventory and did manage to find an old freebie tail and ears. I very much liked the plaid and the belt on Kris’ schoolgirl outift, and paired the socks with some free Mary Janes I found at Tesla.

Kris sells a variety of neko jewelry and accessories, including a nice digital photo frame collar (not pictured). The school girl outfit includes a matching plaid scarf, but I preferred to add Kris’ very cute collar with the paw print and could not resist going for the dead fishy. I grabbed a distressed cropped tee from Rebel and the Celtic Princess tatt from Prozak and headed out to the nearest dumpster.

Sometimes you feel the need for too-red lipstick. When that need strikes me I go for the Blacklisted skins I picked up during a hunt at Innovations last Thanksgiving. When last I checked, they were still available in the store. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, doesn’t really go with the grunge. Did I mention I am new to this?)

CORE is well worth a visit. Spend a little time in the camping chair to pick up some coolio retro patio furniture, wander and enjoy the pretty build, go play a little Seven Seas down at ground level, and, remember, tell them you read about it in the Annagram!

Shape — Alady - Eva
Skin — Innovations – Blacklisted Skins — Tone 4 Makeup 2
Skirt/leggings/fish/collar — CORE — SkoOl GuRl SkuRt (includes socks and scarf); Kat tag collar; MmmmM…Fish
Shirt — Rebel — short top floral black
Shoes — Tesla – Elise2 Mary Jane heels (freebie)
Tattoo — Prozak — Celtic Princess

Fairies, butterflies, or super heroines. However your costume fantasies tend to run, the odds are you will be able to find a dollarbie to your taste at the hunt at Lemania Indigo.

The hunt started Sunday and runs until March 30. There are 30 fantasy globes scattered around the main store and sim with Lemania’s and Summer’s creations, and most of the other shops in the sim also have many globes scattered about, all for one linden each.

I love super heroes, and I picked up several outfits back during Halloween. I wish I had seen this one then. It includes the bulletproof bracelets and the lasso. I substituted the red Tabetha boots from Wicked Soles for the stockings and shoes that came with the original outfit.

Next up are two for those who prefer to fly with wings and not invisible planes. The monarch butterfly outfit is cute cute, and the antennae also serve as poofers for your own swarm of matching monarchs, the ultimate accessory.

The blue fairy outfit comes with a very nice variation in textures on the dress, and the wings are pure gossamer. The package includes a skin, but I preferred sticking with my usual, the Venus skin from Redgrave. The Lavender updo from Calla, including the floral accompaniment by Eolande, seemed to add the right touch.

For those of you interested in non-costume items, there were several very cute dresses and outfits in the hunt as well, but that’s another post. In the meantime, check out Gidge Uriza’s favorite dress from the hunt at the It’s Only Fashion blog.

Wonder Woman

Costume: Lemania Indigo

Hair: Laqroki – Southfork

Boots: Wicked Soles -Tabetha Valentine Boot

Skin: Redgrave - Venus

Shape: Alady – Vogue model

Butterfly

Costume (including shoes): Lemania Indigo

Hair: Laqroki - Southfork

Skin: Redgrave - Venus

Shape: Alady – Vogue model

Fairy

Costume: Lemania Indigo

Hair: Calla - Southfork

Skin: Redgrave - Venus

Shape: Alady – Vogue model

Ok, ok, ok. Call it what you will. Carnival, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras. Who can resist the temptation to dress up and act crazy.

I stumbled across the New Toulouse sim when I saw a group notice about a hunt there a few days ago. Alas, I was a bit too late to find many of the gifties, but I loved the sim design and couldn’t help but try to put together a Mardi Gras outfit and run take some snaps.

I looked through xstreet and in-world search, but mostly found variations on Brazilian Carnivale outfits. Not that there is anything wrong with that, of course, but I wanted something a bit more formal.

While digging through my out-of-control inventory I found the Wendy gown I had picked up last spring from Bliss Couture and had tagged “Mardi Gras colors.” I was thrilled to find this gold gown with purple and green accents, traditional New Orleans carnival colors. I love the one-shoulder look and the bright floral print strikes a festive note. The skirt is full and twirls nicely when dancing.

I paired it with the Mardi Gras mask from Masks for Mardi Gras and Such and the Lavender dreams updo from Calla, including the terrific flower attachment designed for the Lavender Dreams style by Eolande, available right by the hairstyle display at the Calla store.

I finished the purple, green and gold theme with the drop earrings and necklace from Shiny Things.

Skin: Venus smoky2 from Redgrave
Dress/gloves: Wendy from Bliss Couture (possibly discontinued)
Jewelry: Gold drop chain dangle earrings from Shiny Things
Hair: Lavender dreams (Honey, brunette highlights) from Calla, worn with Flowers for Calla’s Lavender by Eolande.
Mask: Mask 63 from Masks for Mardi Gras and Such

It scares me to think how big my closet might be if I had an unlimited shopping budget. One of my first SL friends was a lucky chair addict, and she showed me the wonders of lucky chairs, group gifts, and hunts. After a while, my inventory looked like the Florida Keys after a hurricane. Junk everywhere.

I have since become slightly more judicious, but still love a good bargain. I have a regular circuit of shops that have nice items in the lucky chairs.

At the top of my list is Lemania Indigo. She is one of the most generous designers I have encountered in my short time in SL. She has three lucky chairs scattered around the sim, and, like a good rock album, no filler material.

She also has regular dollarbie hunts and a separate “Retirement Home” building in the sim, where everything is L$25 or less. Oh, and don’t forget to check the graveyard next door. Many of the headstones contain past group gifts.

In addition to her main store, she has several other buildings and barns around the sim. The aforementioned Retirement Home, and other buidings dedicated to new releases, costumes, shoes, etc., as well as several other vendors with outlets in the sim.

Lemania has a passion for classic, retro designs, spanning many eras. I am a great ditherer when shopping. I usually have to go stare at an adboard at least two or three times before making a purchase. I had had my eye on this Art Deco dress for at least a week, then bounced up and down like Tigger on a sugar high when it showed up in one of Lemania’s lucky chairs with a big, beautiful “A.” I love the detail work on the colorful beading, and the way the skirt moves. I decided to go with the butterfly theme and am wearing the AFantasy Chrome Butterfly shoes from Six Leaves. And, in honor of the way in which it was purchased, my favorite, tacky, clashes-with-everything lucky chair earrings from Kitsch.

Lemania currently has a Grinch Hunt going on throughout the sim. 50 boxes from her shops and at least 30 that I counted from other shopkeepers in the sim. All priced at L$1 apiece. I picked up several very nice items from the hunt, including many different gowns and skins, and several cute sweater sets, including the snowman print shown below. I particularly liked the multi-color ribbed cuffs. The Grinch hunt continues through December 30.

Lemania is currently in an Audrey Hepburn phase (not a bad place to be at all!), working through Ms. Hepburn’s wardrobe from the film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Two of the outfits are ready for purchase in the new release barn, with more on the way.

Photos 1 and 2:

Shape: ALady- Vogue Model
Skin: Redgrave- Venus
Eyes: Miriel – Open Ocean
Lashes: Miriel – Feather
Earrings: Kitsch – Lucky Chair

Dress : Lemania Indigo – Beaded Butterfly Art Deco Dress
Stockings: No. 9 Nylons – Shiny Pantyhose II Classics – Black50
Hair : Laqroki – Southfork
Shoes: Six Leaves – AFantasyChrome Butterfly Sandals

Photo 3:
Sweater and pants: Lemania Indigo – Frosty
Hair: Indulgence – Sultry – ink w/ dark red band
Shoes: Kenza- Paris

Ok…the inaugural post. Welcome to the Annagram, spouting random gibberish about my wanderings through Second Life.

I have really enjoyed reading the various fashion blogs, particularly It’s Only Fashion by Cajsa Lilliehook and Gidge Uriza, and the consolidated feed from Fashion Planet World of SL.

And onward we go.

I love Zaara. I found the store almost by accident. Cajsa Lilliehook was wearing the Melange jewelry set in one of her posts. I went to the store hunting for the earrings and walked out with about four outfits. I love Zaara’s use of color, both the brightness of her palette and the interesting combinations.

My SL sister Jennny Meredith and I each bought the Menaka Sari. Jen went for the plum, and I could not resist the lovely deep green.

The sari itself comes with multiple options. Pants or skirt, narrow or wide sash, and three options for the top, short sleeve, halter, or bandeau. I am combining it with the aforementioned Melange jewelry, a wardrobe staple for me. The colors are wonderfully rich, as is the detailing in the pattern.

Zaara Sari Close-up

Jennny is wearing

Skin – Another Level (AL) v1.2 Almond – Sexy Devil Skin
Earrings – RYCA Freebie Earrings Silver, part of the Freebie outfit Available at RYCA and Cocoluv
Collars – My Masters Garden Collar, worn over an Amethyst Collar
Eyes — SYD – Baby Blue Eyes
Dress — Zaara – Menaka Sari Plum
Hair — Wrong – Style 1 (red & Black)

Anna is wearing

Skin – Redgrave Venus (blue makeup)
Hair – Reale Tessa black
Dress – Zaara – Menaka Sari Deep Green
Eyes – Miriel – Open Ocean
Lashes – Miriel – Feather
Bangles and earrings – Zaara – Melange olive

Pose – Best Friends Forever by AnnaH
Location – Belonging sim