I’m very inspired by nature – you could say Mother Nature. I look at things around me and get all kinds of inspiration daily.
—Martha Stewart
Time for yet another resurrected system skin and outfit, courtesy of Bakes on Mesh! The mesh avatar I am wearing is the Altamura Juliet full-body mesh avatar, which requires a couple of additions to support Bakes on Mesh:
A Bakes on Mesh relay for Altamura mesh bodies (which is available for free to Altamura group members at this exact SLURL in the store; please note that this relay only works with full versions of Altamura bodies, including the Juliet body which was a Valentine’s Day group gift earlier this year)
You do have to buy and install the Omega system kit on the body before you can use the Altamura Bakes on Mesh relay (it’s for sale for L$99 at this exact SLURL)
Now that that is out of the way, you can put away the Omega installer and relay HUDs and the BoM relay once you have installed them, and start styling!
And here is Mother Nature in all her glory!
This avatar is wearing:
Mesh Head and Body including Fingernails: Juliet mesh body by Altamura (a former Valentine’s Day group gift; Omega-compatible; more details here; the Altamura group costs L$50 to join)
System Skin and Body Branch Attchments: Fleurs by Fallen Gods (I’m not sure if this is still available or not, as it pre-dates mesh)
System Eyes: Sunrise eyes in Celtic green by Fashism (no longer on the grid)
Hair: Botanical Pigtails – I Am Springtime by Nushru (I believe this was a hunt gift from the Crazy hair Hunt many years ago)
Fruit Branches on Head: Fruit Salad Tree Branches by Concrete Flowers (no longer on the grid)
Dress and Earrings: Spring outfit by Lemania Indigo (an old system-layers-and-flexiprims outfit which is no longer available)
My regular blog readers already know that one of my favourite pastimes in Second Life is to pull together an entire avatar look based on a theme, from head to toe. Sometimes, I will even take older classic avatar looks I had created many years ago, and give them a completely modern, mesh-body makeover. Some recent examples are this nun, a vampire, an elf angel, Mary Poppins, even Santa Claus! It gives me a creative outlet, and I find my quirky little hobby deeply satisfying.
Some avatars lasted only a couple of days before I deleted them; others have been with me since the very beginning of my adventures in Second Life. Witches and wizards and wolves, pirates and painters, sergeants and satyrs, barbarians and ballerinas, harlequins and hippies, gladiators and geishas… my hobby has given me endless hours of pleasure and escape. Some were exclusively for role-play purposes; others were just a means to live inside somebody else’s skin for an hour while strolling the grid. Others were created specifically to evoke reactions from passers-by. I could be whatever I wanted, and I was: an angel, a fairy, a goth girl, Elvis, Queen Elizabeth the First, Lady Gaga, Santa Claus, a supermodel, a hobo, a spaceman, a Na’vi from the movie Avatar, a medieval minstrel.
Sometimes, a single article of clothing in Second Life will send me off on a wild goose chase across the grid, to search out and find individual items and use them to pull together an entire outfit. And today, my starting point was this free Jessica Rabbit dress from COCO Designs!
So I decided to build a whole look for my main avatar (and Second Life supermodel 😉 ) Vanity Fair avatar based on that dress!
It was so such fun to play with the body adjustment sliders on my Maitreya Lara body to see how close I get it to resemble Jessica Rabbit’s curvy figure! I think I came pretty close, although I couldn’t make her waist any smaller, without making the entire avatar look too thin overall. Please note that this is not Vanity’s usual shape; normally she has much more realistic proportions. Remember, I was going for a cartoon look here.
And I was very pleased with the results!
Vanity Fair is wearing:
Dress: Jessica Rabbit gown (free group gift by COCO Designs; the group is free to join)
Gloves: Formal gloves applier by my friend Jasmine Moonflower Gardner of Sweet Tea Couture (L$199 for an eight-colour HUD); Unfortunately, this particular gloves applier does not come in purple like Jessica Rabbit wore in the movie, but fuchsia is close enough, and it looks great too!
Shoes: Gigi pumps in crimson by Garbaggio (my favourite shoe!)
Daria skin by The Skinnery (which has a red brows option to match the Jessica hairstyle; normally Vanity wears brown)
and my favourite forest green Darcey eyes by Suicidal Unborn
UPDATE Oct. 15th: I noticed after I took the pictures I posted above that Jasmine Moonflower Gardner does indeed sell a purple pair and a lilac pair of Bento mesh formal gloves at her store Sweet Tea Couture for L$199 for each single colour. The mesh gloves have an auto-hide for Maitreya so you don’t need to alpha anything out! You could also use the free group gift of purple gloves from COCO Designs’ gift wall, but those gloves do not support Bento hands, and you will have to alpha out your hands completely if you decide to use those instead. Lots of options here!
Here’s another shot taken at Sweet Tea Couture, next to the mesh gloves display. I am wearing the lilac gloves (the purple ones looked a little too dark):
In my opinion, Jasmine makes the best gloves on the grid, whether they be mesh or appliers! She also sells some seriously cute stockings, socks, shoes and dresses. Be sure to check out her store! She just recently returned to Second Life after an absence due to her job, and she has a number of brand new items for sale. The texture work is superb! Everything is very high quality and I recommend Sweet Tea Couture highly.
Today I discovered a really exceptionally well-done sim in Second Life called Freak Show, complete with all kinds of wonderful details and dozens of circus freaks of every kind and description (please see this Encyclopedia Britannica article for some historical background on freak shows).
Freak Show has the biggest collection of freaks (avatars, animesh, and static mesh) that I’ve ever seen in Second Life—which, if you stop and think about it, is quite an achievement 😉 Please do NOT derender avatars or set “view friends only” in your SL viewer, as the circus freaks will be derendered as well! There are some really inventive ones here to see.
I was stopped in my tracks by a two-headed conjoined twins avatar, and I actually had to pull out my handy free What Is She Wearing HUD? to scan her to see what parts made up the avatar! (A very handy tool, and highly recommended whenever you discreetly want to see what another avatar is wearing.)
Here’s a picture of the owner, Uri Jefferson, who (appropriately enough) is a six-armed circus freak himself!
I decided to dress up for the occasion. This is one of the ten Halloween costume hunt prizes from Brii Underground Wear, the Mary Salem outfit, which comes complete with the gown, wrap, and jewelry—even a matching top hat! Find pumpkin #2 and it’s yours for only L$6:
This avatar is wearing:
Mesh head: Cleo Bento mesh head by Akeruka (a former L$1 group gift; the Akeruka group costs L$150 to join)
Mesh body: Juliet mesh body by Altamura (a former Valentine’s Day group gift; Omega-compatible; more details here; the Altamura group costs L$50 to join)
Omega skin applier: (included as part of a package of body skin appliers that comes with the Cleo mesh head; you can pick up the Omega applier kit for Altamura mesh bodies for only L$99 at the Omega Solutions store at this exact SLURL)
Hair: Hurrah hair by Ade (a free gift from the recently concluded 2019 Hair Fair)
Outfit (Except Shoes): Mary Salem outfit (L$6 Halloween hunt prize from the pumpkin hunt at Brii Underground Wear)
This is a blogpost about a different sort of freebie! Backdrop Cove offers you dozens and dozens of backdrops for all your Second Life photography needs, all for free! Just click on the sign on the tree when you arrive at the starting point:
Alas, poor 1950s striptease artist Coupon Clip is still out of a job. But she has a promising new career as a model, thanks to Backdrop Cove! Here are some shots to show you just a few of the many different backdrops available. Many backdrops have built-in poses available, or you can use your own poses. You can also rez poseballs or other objects for one hour without having to join a group!
Hair: Joan by KIN (old prim-based hairstyle; no longer available)
Earrings: Winter’s Pearls by FORSAKEN (an old hunt gift)
Shirt: Natalia boyfriend shirt in white by Addams (purchased using the free L$300 store credit during their 5th Anniversary Sale, which is sadly no longer available; the shirt sells for L$199 at this exact SLURL)
Jeans: Skinny jeans by Mara’s Mysteries (a Peace on Earth hunt gift from last Christmas)
Pumps: June pumps by Garbaggio (my favourite shoe store!)
