So, I've had my Catwa head for a couple months now, I switched when Bento came out. I have found a few skins that look nice, but honestly, I have never felt like "me" in them. I became so attached to how young my beloved LOGO head looked, Catwa skins are older looking, heavily contoured, never really felt like "Sai." I came across a gacha, It was a Catwa skin, but, it looked really young, which I really liked. I tried on the skin, and fell in LOVE. (Well, tbh, I put several thousand $L into the machine, until I got the rare, THEN I tried on the skin a couple days later). This is the *first* skin that I finally feel like myself in. It's been so long since I have felt like this with my head, I've forgotten how it felt, to feel at home. Weird, right? Only in SL. *laughs*

Maitreya also came out with bento hands as an addon to their body. I have had the Vista hands pretty much since they came out, so it wasn't such a huge deal to me. But, I took off the Vista, replaced them with the new Maitreya ones anyway. I don't notice much difference, but some people do. So that's okay. I spent the rest of the night, updating my Catwa head (switching all my saved slots to a new, updated HUD, I swear is the biggest nightmare of all, there has GOT to be an easier way, ugh), updating my body, putting all my body paint back on... LOL. It was a night, ohmigosh. I even switched out my Catwa teeth to the Lelutka Beast Teeth. My canine teeth are just a wee bit pointier than normal now, but the Lelutka teeth look SO much better. However, I can't be bothered to buy an entire Lelutka head, just to get human teeth. These pointy teeth are close enough, and I don't even think anyone would really be able to tell.

After all that, I really didn't even feel like dressing myself for the photo, so please excuse my comfort clothes. Mesh life is exhausting sometimes.

I'm learning to love my Catwa head, after all these months. I will forever miss the LOGO expressions, but the Catwa is growing on me. Besides, someone will eventually release an animation HUD that will give me better expressions.... RIGHT?!

Today, I'm talking about mesh heads! I've bought two of them within the past week, and I'm becoming a bit of a head hoarder! I bought a head from TMP (I hate them so much that I'm not even going to put a link to their SLURL) a while ago, which I have blogged about previously. Long story short, I hated it. The Pink Fuel skin I wore was beautiful on it, but that was really the only thing it had going for it. TMP is brutally expensive for the features you get, mainly the lack of expressions. I think I purchased it, thinking (hoping) that something that expensive would have regular updates, maybe they would add expressions. WRONG. Their customer service is the absolute worst I've encountered (except maybe for 7 Deadly Skins, of which we won't go into). But, anyway, my main reason for looking for a new head was for one reason: I want to be able to look happy.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have a really wonderful family in SL, and I am incredibly happy, but sadly, my face in SL never shows it! I constantly have a really grumpy look, and seems like I always have somewhere better to be. But, I don't, really! I set out to look for another mesh head that was still "me", and had the ability to have expressions!

I demo'ed a Catwa head, and liked a skin from TheSkinnery with it. I bought the head, skin and appliers, was wearing it around to really see if it "grew" on me. As I was still in the 'I don't really know how I feel about this stage', Mochi, from Pink Fuel was plurking gorgeous skin photos of something she was working on for the Logo mesh head. My immediate thought: "But, I literally JUST bought a Catwa head!" Seriously! Why do these things always happen when I make a large purchase like this?!

The Pink Fuel skin was Omega compatible, and guess what! So was my Catwa! Just for kicks, I decided to see if it would apply to the head. And it did! I was so happy, and it even looked SO gorgeous, even on the Catwa. I decided to try a demo of the Logo head, just to look at it, but unfortunately, the Logo demo... is not Omega compatible. However! I absolutely fell in love with the expressions. The Logo head had such fun, beautiful expressions. And I loved them so much that... I bought the head. Without being able to demo the skin on it. Yep.


However, I have absolutely NO regrets. As soon as I was able to put the Pink Fuel skin on the Logo head, it was worth it, I had absolutely no buyer's remorse for this purchase, not being able to demo it first! It really feels like "me", as most Pink Fuel skins do. The smile is big, happy, and as silly as it sounds, I feel these expressions really even show it up to the eyes. They like, change the whole feel of a photo! I loved the expressions so much that I bought all the add-on packs of them!


My husband likes the Catwa head, and I much prefer the Logo one. I can't wait to see what other skins come out for the Catwa and Logo heads, and all the other Omega compatible stuff! I know that the Catwa head is still new, too - I really hope that the creator can make it so you don't have to use the included shape! I used my shape and had a neck gap, and couldn't quite get rid of it.

Notes on Catwa:

• Alpha mask eyelashes! YES!
• Able to alpha hair bases! Great for hair that can't fit, otherwise!
• Omega compatible!
• Able to save appliers into the HUD.
• Expressions! Expressions play like on a loop, but you're able to pause them for photos.
• Need to wear the included shape, otherwise you have a neck gap.
• Required to wear mesh eyes. And even then, I had a complete nightmare of a time fitting them *just* right. And I'm not a noob. 

Notes on Logo:

• Expressions, expressions, and more expressions! LOVE!
• Omega compatible! 
• Fits mesh bodies well!
• Unable to demo Omega skins before buying.
• Gives you like 15 folders when you unpack the box. 
• As for the other features, I'm not sure, as the HUD is too small for my laptop screen to even see! (And it's no modify, so I can't even stretch it to make it bigger)

I've been following the adorable Alica's blog since as long as I can remember! And lately, I have been noticing that she's accumulated the sweetest smile in her photos! It made me bring out my emoter. And I quickly found out that my smile looks squinty, and just... all around derpy. Come to find out, Alicia previously did a tutorial on how she got her cute little smile! I totally had to try it.

It was a colossal pain the in the rear to do, as I have issues with my eyelashes. I do not wear normal alpha eyelashes - each eyelash I wear is an individual prim, and when I first got them, I spent hours to fit each one to where it was supposed to be. I never messed with them after that. However, this required me to get out my editing skills out and modify them once more. But anyway! Most people likely won't face this struggle like I had to!

I think my smile shape turned somewhat cute! I think this might be a normal thing for me to have in my photos now, as the idea for smiling for photos, seems so natural... yet, never really done in SL. All those emoter smiles seemed so ridiculous, and I'm glad someone finally found a way to make smiling not so creepy in SL! Yay!

Let's talk about mesh bodies! So, hands and feet have been in SL for a couple years. I love mine and wear them all the time. During the time that I was in and out of Secondlife, Slink released a mesh body. I ran out and purchased it as soon as I saw it was available, then went and got appliers to match my current skin. It was okay, however, unless clothing is made specifically for the Physique body, I can't wear most of my inventory. I find that the alpha layers do not hide what I need hidden on my body.

Now that my husband and I are coming back into SL and starting over, for the most part - he started looking at men's mesh bodies. Once we decided on and purchased his mesh body, I started exploring other options for female mesh bodies. Boy, have they changed since I first got mine! There's a whole handful of body creators, which makes it even more difficult to decide (I hear even the Avastar creators are planning on releasing an open source mesh body!). After running through the pros and cons, I decided on the Maitreya Lara. Mainly because I wanted to stay with a brand that I know and am familiar with. Mesh Body Addicts was a HUGE resource in deciding which body I wanted. I'm trying to familiarize myself with all the new tools, like the Omega, which Slink Physique will not seem to support. Bonus that Maitreya will support Omega. I feel like if I'm going to wear a mesh body, I need it to be as versatile as it can possibly be.

That being said, I went and purchased the almost L$2800 (plus an extra L$300 for skin appliers) Lara body, and I think I am quite happy with it! The body is absolutely gorgeous! Hands and feet come with it, and although I prefer my Slink feet for now because all my shoes only work with them, I adore the hands! I do not really care that they only come in one position because that's all I need. I've officially swapped out my Slink hands for the Lara ones.


The one downside that I have noticed, however, is when certain shadows cast on the neck join, you can see a visible seam. It's not a "squint and you might see it" kind of seam, it is a blaring you right in the face kind of seam. However, there's updates often with this body it seems, and I'm confident it will probably be fixed sometime soon, or I'll figure out which graphic setting is causing it. I've also gotten the updated version of my skin and appliers, but I still see the seam. But it's not enough to stop me from wearing the body! I love it!

My in world profile has been so outdated! I took some time today to take a good photo to add to my profile. I have also updated the old photos on this blog to reflect the newer photos of me. It had been so long since they were updated, it was long past time!

I mentioned previously that on my return to SecondLife, Sai will not be creating anymore. However, I need something to get me out of my skybox and in the world. I have decided to get a job - a hosting job, specifically. All my talk about SL lately has also gotten my RL/SL husband considering coming back to it as well. When I told him I was considering a hosting job, he started contemplating DJ'ing again. So we'll see how that pans out.

I, however, had applied at a couple of clubs in SL, and arranged an interview today. It went well, and they had decided to hire me, yay! So, I'll be officially hosting in a club from now on. I am actually excited for it, excited to have a reason to come off of my land, and socialize with people. Even before I left SL, I never really talked to people, and was really in my own little world. I'm hoping to change that now. The fact that I'll be making enough money to feed my horses and pay my tier is definitely a bonus!

Be on the lookout for photos from the club I'll be working at soon!

How long has it been since I updated this blog?? Way too long! I have been inactive from SecondLife for a long time, busy with work, maintaining a home, and dealing with two cats now. I miss SecondLife, the whimsy, the exploring, the shopping.

Since my last post, which was AGES ago, I moved in with the RL Jeffry, we now have our own apartment, and I've been living here for almost 2 years now. We are looking towards the future by planning a RL family at this point, but I've been really craving SL for the past few months.

So, I've decided to make a little comeback. I've come back to SL to do what I love, shop, raise breedable kitties, and explore beautiful locations. So much has changed since I left in 2011. Mesh, mainly. Who knew that I could have almost an entire bedroom set for less than 10 land impact?! What is this sorcery?!

I've worked on updating my avatar to mesh lately. Shoes, clothing, hair, updated eyes, skin, mesh hands and feet. It's been an adventure, having to learn what appliers are, and trying to pick out a skin that works well with them. Whew! Once that was all updated, I'm free to run around on the grid freely!

First place I went to explore, was this place called Moonlight Teahouse, Tuli (141, 246, 32). Japanese sims and locations have a soft spot in my heart, considering that I joined SL originally to learn about the culture and religions.


It's basically and small tradional teahouse, with a really great garden. Garden is filled with flowers and trees, fantastic for photo taking.


It's not all that huge of a parcel, either. Pretty neat place though. Good place to bring me back and remind me of why I came to SL in the first place.

SLURL: Moonlight Teahouse, Tuli (141, 246, 32)

Dear Gala Phoenix, why do you keep making such awesome skins that I want, but I can't have? :O

But seriously, I do love this skin, I might eventually buy it. Every time I go to a new skin for a while, and come back to Curio, I'm mind boggled at just how much they are "me". Curio always has a special place in my heart.

Its been a while, and yes, I still live! I've been getting a few curious IM's, notecards and such, with people asking if I am ok. Yes, I am. I've been dealing with RL, an Aion addiction, and a sudden illness that came over a close family member.

But, I've been moving into a new apartment, and settling into life there - which has been a bit of a challenge. I've pretty much gotten everything unpacked, and finally put my shelves and curtains up over the weekend. All I have left is to unload my books onto my shelves. :D I contemplated blogging about the new apartment for a while, even had a whole post written, but then deleted it. I decided that I don't want force my RL onto people. Instead, if people have interest, they can check out the Apartment flickr set I've created. :D

I've been slowly getting back the swing of SL. Jeffry and I gave up our sim, found new land, with the worst neighbors ever. But, its home, and affordable for the amount of time we are in SL lately. I did a new release for [ImpEle], the first one in about 2 months. I've been spending more time in SL, I actually went shopping this morning, and Jeffry bought a new bedroom set for us on Friday, and we watched a silly movie together on our beautiful new Loft bed.

As I said above, Jeffry and I got new land, and I plopped my old Pixel Mode house down. It fits the land really well, with some modding. The rooms are perfect for what we need - Jasmine's room, living room, foyer, kitchen, dining room and bedroom. The house isn't entirely done yet, so I'll hold off on posting pictures of the whole house. The husband doesn't really like to change houses often, so there's really no hurry to finish it.

But, I did decorate it for Halloween. I'm not fond of Halloween at all, in fact ... I believe its one of the worst holiday's ever, but I do like to decorate for the seasons, and I love these pumpkins too much to not use. And, they work well for Thanksgiving too. :D


The one thing I've always hated about this Pixel Mode house - is the textures. Or, lack of. The walls are flat, blinding white. So, I took some time to retexture every room... and am very happy with the result. I looooove aligning textures, and doing this house was so fun. Add in some m.fox accents, and some furniture picked up at the fri.day sale - you've got a win room. xD


And, I need to say something about this hair. I LOVE IT. Seriously. It's the Southern Belle from Exile, and I don't think I'm ever going to take it off. Ever. It's the first thing that I've actually left the house in search of in several weeks. I haven't really wanted anything lately, but when I seen this hair... I NEEDED.

After I grabbed this hair, I actually spent some time doing the Pieces of You hunt to grab that beautiful Evie's Closet gown... So, I'm returning little by little. ^^

I went to restart the sim my husband (eee! Haha, I'm such a dork) and I live on, and needed a place to go for a few minutes.... so I decided to go to Redgrave and check out if they have any new shoes. Little did I know... I wouldn't even make it to the shoes, instead I'd be standing there trying on skin demos.

I've always liked Redgrave skins. I love the cleavage on them, and the shininess of the body... well, shininess on the paler bodies, the orange colored skin tone with the shine always looks a little dirty to me. The faces look sooo cute one most people. But never me. At one point, I tried every single skin in the store, but still couldn't make them work on me.

Well, I had some time to spare, and I picked up a couple demos again, and tried them on. I came to one of the skins and actually did a double take at it. It didn't look that bad :O I did something - I swore to myself I'd never do: I modified my shape to fit this skin. Mainly just my lips, but still.

Then, instead of packing up more boxes to end the night, I decided to pretend I'm a photographer, snap some photos and post process them. xD I'm such a procrastinator, its really sad. I have 2 days until I move, and I'm still sitting here playing with photos and blogging. xD

I think, the photos I did turned out pretty darn good. I found out how to put a pattern in the background the easy way, and found out how to take a green screen out of the SL photo. I love this skin on me, and I actually think I might keep it for a while. Jeffry doesn't seem to mind, he seems to be like the 'whatever makes you happy' kind of mood with skins. xD


I even cropped it a bit, to make this my new profile photo! \o/ Can I just say, how much I love love love the lips on this skin? I'm really not fond of the eyebrows, and I can't seem to get them how I like them, but the lips make the face worth it. :D And yes, I LOVE this Farrah hair... its so perfect for photos. And don't even get me started on the clothes I bought from fri.day during the Labor Day sale.... *fashion squee!*

Now, its time I run off to do some more procrastinating by taking a nap! :D

I've been having quite a few of these random blog posts. I don't really know why. Probably because my SL has been quite boring lately. I've just been snapping a few pictures now and then, and that's about it. So, this will be another random-ish blog post as well.

I finally furnished the lower level of my house, and brought Sakura, my little corgi out again. I snapped this picture and thought it was too cute not to share.


I was feeling a little sad, and decided to try to cheer myself up by firing off some fireworks. I bought these fireworks a long, long time ago, and they are so pretty - they make me happy. :D

And then this afternoon, I needed some serious retail therapy. I was roaming about Baiastice, checking out their discount room, buying some things, and stumbled into the Stiletto Moody side store located there on the sim. I went to check out the main store, and see if they gotten any better from the last time I went.


I seen these. I told myself I would never, ever, ever buy Stiletto Moody's ever again, and when these came out, I swore they were the ugliest things I have ever seen. However, it has been awhile since I treated myself to something expensive and totally useless, and I shelled out the $2199L for them. I'm crazy, I know. I seriously don't plan on taking these off for a while, because dammit. I *will* get my money's worth out of them, just you watch! :D

A new house was long overdue - come on, you guys -had- to know it was coming soon, right? xD The little black house I've had on Bluebonnet originally was temporary until I found a new prefab that I don't already have.

I've been eyeing this one for a while, but - it was much more expensive than I really cared to spend. But, after seeing it at the Home & Garden Expo, I bought it from the RFL vendor, which was the only way I could justify my purchase of it. I love it because its bright, airy, chic and springy. I'm hoping it gives me more pose inspiration than my dark, gloomy, little black house. :D


I've also been working on updating my look a little bit. For the longest time I've had the same eyes and eyelashes. Hey, if it isn't broke - why fix it, right? Well, I spied Alicia wearing some really beautiful eyelashes, and pestered her to tell me where they were. FULL PRIM EYELASHES. Yes, I spent an entire day fitting each and every lash into place. XD But, they are absolutely beautiful - so worth the time I spent.

I also came across a photo in someone's plurk that made my jaw drop onto my desk. Her eyes in the picture, were so gorgeous, I ran out and shelled out $200L on them, and I think they are here to stay. They aren't as big as I'd like - I prefer big eyes because my AO makes smaller eyes look really weird - but, I think I'll sacrifice that for really beautiful eyes. :D


I also spent some time with Alee while he was building. This picture was taken while he was taking a little break - so I got a few cuddles. :D

So, the new Gala skins. I don't want to review them on my fashion blog or anything, because everyone else is talking about them on the feed. Since this blog isn't on the feed, and I give myself more freedom on this blog, I want to talk about them a little here. :D

I had grabbed the Gala group gift when it came out, tried all the demos of every face that was included with the gift, and came to the conclusion that they looked like crap on me. I was sad because I really liked the new faces of them (especially the new lips on Breeze), and kinda liked the shiny on them. I've tried Redgrave skins, and newest Laqroki skins (who recently started going shiny) - but none of them really called out to me. So, I was kinda depressed that the new shiny Galas didn't look good on my shape.

However, some of the girls in Ch'know *coughs* Sehra and Pumpkin *coughs* have been raving about them for days. I resisted the call for as long as I could, until I found myself standing in Curio purchasing a handful of demos. I took them home and tried them on once again. xD

I put on my "Normal Skin" shape (which only has a different eyelid crease number), and put on a different eyebrow shaper. I had instant cuteness! :O

Now, I've been wearing my previous Gala skin since they came out. They first came out at the skin fair last year, which I think was almost a year ago. So, I've had my previous skin for almost a year now, and I have never changed it. Sai changing skins is a seriously big deal. And I think I like this one enough to put my older Gala away for a while.

I found myself in total luff with the Breeze face. It's soft, cute, and doesn't make me look angry or sad. :D And, it's also a fair bit lighter than my older skin. I'll have to modify my windlight settings and such so I don't look washed out all the time. ^^

I had a nightmare of a time deciding on a makeup. Mainly because, my favorite really dark eye makeup, nude lip was not an option. It was all lighter-colored makeup options. I couldn't decide on one, and the fatpack was only $3,000L, I just gave up and decided to get them all. After all, I heard the number of skins in the fatpack was a total of 48? :O A deal, in my opinion.


I'm still deciding if I like the shiny (or is oily a better word?) or not, but so far, I'm kind of enjoying it. These seem to be "updated" bodies, considering the shininess is becoming popular now. I like them better than the blurred look of my older Gala.

But yeah, they still have to pass the Kamian test before I make the final decision to keep them or not. But right now, I'm loving them. They look so sweet and innocent. *snuggles new skins* :D

Seriously. LUFF. :D

I did one of these not to long ago, but figured it couldn't hurt to do another, after Laleeta blogged her brave then/now picture. Here's mine:

I am a bit late on posting this - sorry! Yesterday was a giant swarm of things, from giving tours of my home, to picking an outfit for hump day, to perfecting the build I put together for the hump day party last night. But, anyway. Yesterday's challenge was (from Alicia's blog):

In SL, we're often afraid of looking silly. I've noticed this more with bloggers than with anyone else. Why have you made your avatar look the way it does? What does it mean to you? Do you think people respond to you differently if you're attractive? Today, put on something just totally crazy. It can be a funny avatar, a crazy outfit, weird hair, or just some bling-blangin' jewelry. Go out in public, see if anyone has anything to say about it. See if you think of yourself differently if your avatar isn't perfect looking. Don't forget to take a picture of your outfit!!

My avatar is made to be what I wish I was in RL. I created her with the thought that SL is a world where I can do everything I can't do in RL. In RL, I am constantly dreaming of being able to wear really cute shorts, miniskirts, beautiful gowns and the like - however, I don't have the body to wear them. So, Sai wears what I can't in RL, and she was created for it.


Surprisingly - its meant a lot to me. Before SL, I was fashion clueless (and, for the most part, I still am) in RL. When talking to someone, and they mentioned fall colors, stilettos and pumps, my eyes would gloss over and I'd get all confused. @_@ Because SL follows the same RL fashion trends, and my avatar follows them - I find myself able to follow fashion trends now, in both SL and RL. I still can't wear what my avatar does - I still find enjoyment that I can wear awesome things in at least one life. And that, means quite a bit to me. My avatar has become an extension of who I am.


For the challenge - I went out as a cat avatar. I was actually hanging out at the Katat0nik chair last night, and remembered the challenge. So - I changed into the avatar right there, and as soon as the avatar parts rezzed for me, I had gotten an IM asking where I got the avatar, and how cute it was. I stayed there for a bit, and got about 3 more IMs telling me that the avatar was cute.

I actually enjoy going around as a tiny, or some kind of animal creature. I wish I could do it more often, but with people and their no-script zones, I can't do that. I'd rather not TP into a place, wearing a tiny avatar, with skinny human legs poking out through the bottom. If people would take off their no srcipt zone (WHY would you put no scripts anyway? Pointless.), I would be wearing these type of avatars more often. Why? Because they are cute and adorable :D

I've been working on finishing up some pose sets I have going, and I think I'm pretty happy with how the Handbag poses are coming. I never, ever wear purses of any kind IRL, so I have no idea how to hold them or anything. So, I've had to rely on pictures from websites to make these. But, it seems to be working :D

Here are three of my favorite poses from this set. I've made 10 poses total so far, and I am determined to finish the last 2 today. Then, I can finish up some other sets I've been hoarding. I also hope to have the sword poses finished by tomorrow night, and the despair poses done by the end of the weekend. ^^

And, I just have to say: I love that skirt. OMG. I picked it up in a freebie box from Stellar Designs during the fashion expo, and just put it on this morning. I *HAVE* to run down to her store later today and see if she makes other patterned skirts as separates. Its just so short, flexi, and adorable. :D

*Sigh* With all these people getting partnered and finding 'other's', I think I'm getting a complex or something. T_T /me goes to sulk in a dark corner. :P

So anyway - I decided I needed a break from dealing with the Glenn stuff - so I set out to go shopping. I found myself at Armidi, and buying a couple of their new, adorable baby doll dresses. Unfortuantely, I was in one of my "blah" moods, and didn't think about what the skirts attached to. And of course - it was something other than the pelvis... which I dislike in any skirt.

I rezzed the skirt to put a new root prim in (a simple box in the center, so it would attach to other points with minimal rotating and frustration), took it to inventory, and put it on. It didn't look too bad, but the glitch pants were way to short, and looked really weird with my AO.

So, I spent all day like this on my pose stand in my known obsessive mode, attempting to fix it. I had to shorten each individual prim, and shrink each one to form a skirt. (Oh, the flat box is there so I know how short I needed to shrink the prims - all I had to do was shrink each prim until it meets the top of the box) ^^ I was really only done half way with editing when I snapped this picture O.o;;


However, I think the outcome looks pretty good. On the left is the original, middle is the same skirt attached to pelvis (with a little editing), and right is the finished edit. ^^ I am more likely to wear the one I edited now, because I never really like SL babydoll dresses - I can never get them to look right on me XD

I had meant to go shopping today for tonight's Disco Hump Day Party but.... well.... I was insanely sidetracked, and now it is a bit too late. I do have some really huge flared jeans.... and a few big hairs... so I might just wear them and a non-disco top.

Today is my rezzday. I will not be having a party for it, or won't be going to any club or anything, because I am not a partier. Instead, I will be here - blogging my little heart out. I have gone through several different looks, trying to find my style in that year.

I started creating shortly after I was rezzed, starting out in a little rental space (20 prims for $50L a week) in the mainland Orient sim. But, on June 23rd, I met Bats, partnered to him on July 7th... and he really boosted me into what I am now. If it wasn't for him, I would have never moved from that little rental space.

Now, I know what you want.... old pictures of Sai Pennell. Okies, you got it.



This was actually the first picture I ever took, when I rezzed in Second Life. I did not know about group gifts, store freebies or anything back then, so I was stuck with this skin for a while.



When I finally was able to buy some linden dollars, I purchased my first skin at PixelDeep, and I loved it. I stayed with this skin for a really long time, because I met Bats in it, and he wasn't too keen on me changing skins. Oh, and back in my PixelDeep skin, I was a blonde. Calla was my favorite hair store back then :D



After buying a black hair in an ETD sale (which was the first time I was introduced to ETD), Bats told me that black hair looked great with the blue eyes I had at the time. So, I switched to black hair for good. I sometimes mixed up my look with Kin's amazing blonde tipped hair. Again, I was still wearing the PixelDeep skin here.


There was always a certain skin I always wanted, but never knew where it was. But one day, on a shopping spree, I had found it at Last Call. I picked up a demo, and braced Bats for a change in skin. He liked it, and we went out to buy it. And that stayed my skin for a while, and I actually started blogging at Fashion Labyrinth during my time in this skin.



Imperial Elegance sales were doing well, and I finally got the courage to buy Tasha from RaC (now Laqroki). It was much more expensive than my other skins, but Bats liked them, so I didn't have a problem with buying it.



After a trip to the skin fair, I settled on the skin which is my current one, which I can't see myself leaving. Also in this new skin, was when Bats left SL, and when I became partnerless. I was with Bats about 10 months out of my 12 in Second Life. And, this was the point where I switched from being neko, to having elf ears.

Now, Imperial Elegance made some huge changes as well. As I previously said, I rented a tiny place in Orient, selling some skirts I made for $10L a piece. I drooled over the designer clothes, wondering who could afford such things. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of Imperial Elegance this early on, but I've kept pictures of every building it was in since then.



This was Imperial Elegance's first actual land. This little 512 was bought by Bats as a early b-day gift for me. Its probably important to note that the lant this was on was about 3 lots over from where Bats proposed to me. So, it had special meaning to me, and I wanted my store here. :D But, this is really when IE started to take off. I joined Fashion Consolidated shortly after moving here. As I sat in the store after sending a FashCon notice out, I noticed the extreme lag. Think the Last Call closing sale was bad? This was just like it. I almost cried at watching the people walk, but not get anywhere. So, it was time to move.



I next moved it to Flounder, the same sim in which our home was at the time. I was verty paranoid watching the minimap, and seeing people come and go without buying anything. Kept making me wonder what is wrong with my stuff. So, I wanted to move it away from the place I lived.



The next place was Glenn. I love Glenn so much. This was a huge move for me, and all I could think when I bought it was: "OMG, its so HUGE!!!" But, it didn't have any lag, and it was away from me. Sold.



Imperial Elegance was doing great there, but, I was running out of wall space for my ads. Thats when I started looking around Glenn for a bigger place. I was eying a bigger plot for a while, and after showing Bats, he bought it for me, even before I can tell him not to. I spent a few days puting up walls and floors, and moving stuff in. I held a half off everything sale to celebrate my move, and was shocked at the outcome. This is where it is at now, and because I am running out of space again, I am even looking at a plot that is twice this size. XD

The year in retrospect: I've had a great year, meeting interesting people, I've had lots of interesting experiences, good memories (and bad ones), and have seen many amazing things. I think I have come very far in this virtual world, and I am very grateful for the people who support me.

The future: I will continue to create, explore, shop and blog - its really all I have now. There are a few goals I have not yet reached (owning a sim, getting asked to participate in a fundraiser or grid-wide hunt), so until my goals are archived, I will still be here for many more years to come.

As much as people scream at others who camp, I am guilty of doing it. I secretly love item camping - for several reasons. The main reason being: when I am strapped to a chair, I get quite a bit of inventory organizing done. Seriously, what else is there to do? Camming around the store only takes a short while, and when I get bored, I get productive. The only way I clean my inventory is when I camp for items or wait for the occasional lucky chair (which is very rare for me). And, getting a prize for organizing inventory is much more motivation ^.^

So, yep, I spent tonight camping for some skins at Aoharu. :D See, I even added a picture. XD Sitting 100 minutes gets you this amazing skin, a face light, eyelashes, and even a shape. Not a bad way to spend an hour and 40 minutes, right? Organizing inventory and getting prizes, yay!

Though.... sadly, that 100 minutes of sitting did not even dent the massive black hole I call inventory, but I have no idea how else to tackle this problem. I think I might need to attend one of those "Inventory Sorting" party things... But I wonder if anyone is planning on putting one on soon?

I really think I might need someone to trap me in a plywood box and force me to stay there until all folders are properly organized XD

Anyone care to tell me their inventory organizing secrets? :P

I think I may be the only one who absolutely loves the Dazzle interface. I had really loved it before Windlight® became the main viewer, but I hated the old Second Life skies that it had - so I never used it. I've been hearing about this new ARC feature that Dazzle has, and considering I have plans to go to the Bellagio for a wedding fashion show today, I was curious about how much lag the outfit that took me 5 hours to decide on would cause.

So, I downloaded the Dazzle viewer, expecting to see the old, crappy Second Life skies. However, I was totally shocked to see the newer skies on there. O_O So, I think the Dazzle viewer will become my new favorite one. ^.^ I was also happy to see my outfit was 844 ARC - still in the yellow, but better than in the red.

And while I am on the subject of the new skies, I have to say: I think Atmospheric Rendering with avatars look like crap. I think the rendering looks amazing with scenery photos, and pictures of things - but when it comes to avatars, I haven't seen a single preset that looks somewhat decent. The avatars look white, washed out, and blah. There are a few fashion blogs on the feed that use settings that make the clothing look terrible. Especially skins. Seriously, taking pictures with washed out presets is soooo bad. What were my favorite blogs - after the switch to the new viewer - became my least favorites now.

Personally, I never have the atmospheric rendering on. One: because most of the time, my PC can not handle it. Second: I can not get anything to look right. I had tried several presets - including the praised Caliah Lyon's settings, but still doesn't look right. I am at the point where I don't really care what I look like in other people's viewers. I will keep my 7 face lights and no pretty skies... as long as I look good to myself. ^.^

I asked to be part of the iheartsl.com community blog, and when I was invited to it, I had no idea what to write for my first post. I knew I wanted to post a picture of me on there, but I didn't know what to wear, or what to portray, or anything. Then one day, I stopped worrying about it, and just wore what I wanted, and picked a pose that was like me - goofy, amusing, and totally dorky. This is the picture I came up with:

Fitting, no? I am glad and pleased it came out well... at least I think so. So, yesterday, I posted my first, introductory post on iheartsl.com. You can read it here, if you are interested. :D

Also, I realized my profile picture was out of date. It was taken back when Bats had his Dante skin, and I had my Last Call skin... which was a long time. Both him and I have changed our skins since then, and I wanted a new picture. So, I dragged him into the sphere with me to get a new one! And, here is the result:


Because the profile picture space is so darn small, I only wanted the detail in our faces, rather than the upper body. So, there it is! I like it, and I think it shows us well. ^.^