Somewhere along the way, because I'm stubborn as fuck, we got a little lost.
However, in recent weeks, we've been spending a little more time together as and when circumstances permit, and everything I wrote back then has started to make sense, all over again.
What better way to celebrate our reaffirmed friendship than to re-take one of the pictures that started my revelation, and helped me along my journey?
I'm so glad to be holding hands and walking with this amazing human, once more.
In another bizarre twist of fate, the Somewhere in time sim has now closed, and I can't help but feel like this is a beautiful tribute to a gorgeous sim, despite my little pictures never being able to do it justice. Looking forwards to seeing what the owners of this lovely location pull together in the future!
Taken on my platform with a random-faffed-with windlight, so no other info!
I may have had a slight rant on facebook yesterday because my brain just wouldn't compute as I was constructing the blog.
If you missed it.. here it is!
"I was gonna post this on my blog, but I just couldn't find the words earlier, but I'm struggling pretty hard today, and not in the regular "Omg my anxiety is ridiculous and I want to sleep 5ever" kinda way (although that too).
Today I'm struggling to keep my fucking mouth shut. It's never been a thing I've been good at honestly, and I'm more likely to shout from the rooftops about how shitty a situation is than shut my trap and let people see it for themselves, but that has never done me any good, and although I'd love to keep keeping shtum I am TIRED. I am tired of watching these people who constantly take and take and take, and then take credit being shown as people worthy of some kind of SL fame, or infamy. I'm tired of being one of those people who have given more than my due, and have been left by the wayside or being painted as the villain in removing these vile people from my SL and my life in general. I know more than people know I know, and although I may say a lot to a select few, it's never the entire story. For fucks sake, be good to each other. I can't keep making excuses for my silence if you're continually being a fucktard."
See, I think it might have gotten a bit of a reaction, not because anyone actually knows what I was talking about (it wasn't one person, nor was it a collective of peoples. There were multiple reasons for me feeling like I needed to rant and most of them are selfish), but because so many of us humans feel so completely taken advantage of by others.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm well aware that everyone has toxic traits, myself included. I'm not perfect, I don't claim to be, but I do try extremely hard every day to remain a pleasant person to be around, but situations like the ones I have been forced into recently make that extremely difficult to maintain, as that stubborn angry bitch in me just wants to rear it's ugly head and snap at the stupid.
Continually I have to remind myself that my idea of a terrible person isn't my next door neighbours idea of a terrible person, and everyone is entitled to their opinions. However, when I see the same people pulling the same stunts over and over again, the angry in me bubbles over, and you get a Pickle Rant.
Today's mission is to calm the fuck down. I'm going to attempt (again) to accept the fact I cannot change people to suit MY agenda. Control isn't love, and more than anything I really DO want to shower kindness over people, no matter how successful I am in this. If I fail today, I'll get up and try and be a better version of myself tomorrow... yet, in being what I consider to be a decent person, I will also be taking care of myself and that means putting me first. I'm a very loud, very opinionated introvert, and sometimes people miss the introversion because of the noise I am capable of making, but I need to take care of myself and ensure my energy is good so I'll be collecting my spoons and distributing them far more wisely.
xoxo
Essences - Luisa for Genus in tones Pale 01 & Pale 02
Essences - Luisa for Genus in tones Medium 01 and Medium 02
Essences - Luisa for Genus in tones Dark 01 and Dark 02
As usual, the Essences skin comes with 6 eyebrow options (actually i think the "no brow" option might be new, but yay! New!), black, brown, ginger, blonde, red and no brows, not shown here today because I derped out!
You can't tell from this picture, but I have included a little gif below just for a hint at how awesome it is. There's some amazing bento animations included, so when the music plays (and it really does play!) the hands of your avatar will move across the keys, and your fingers will wiggle too! It's so stinkin' cute!
I've only shown one style of the piano, but there are several different themes, which enable you to match it with practically every room conceivable to create in SL!
Here's the little gif. I'm still working out how to create video's in SL, so this is as much as I can do. The best thing to do would be to try a demo of the piano yourself. It truly is a dream!
All of the things, Durex :
Helmet : Dominion Dive Suit* Market (Note: Other than one truly expensive gacha mesh helmet, this one was the only one I could find that seemed to fit the theme that had any kind of quality to it. It is made of SCULPTIES)
Suit : Kauna - 2BN Casual Suit (Note: a while back, Kauna set all his items to 0L in a clearout/no more Kauna sale. Kauna is STILL there, as are all the products, so go, buy the things, your wallet will not be harmed in the process!)
Bag : (OLD! May not be available!) -David Heather-Chiot Bag/Grey
There seems to be a bit of a 'thing' at the moment (again) surrounding Body Positivity... and it's all been kicked off (again) by Tess Holiday being given a cover on a magazine.
The overall consensus seems to be "If supermodels aren't body positive because they're too skinny, how is Tess Holiday any better, because she's too fat?"
Let me preface any more conversation on this matter by saying "Hi, I'm Pickle, and IRL I has The Chubs." So, you're getting my unfiltered opinion now, knowing I am not skinny.
As far as I'm aware, Tess Holiday does work out, and doesn't necessarily eat a bunch of shite, but that's all hearsay and we don't actually know for certain. Just because you see her munching on avocado toast on Instagram, it doesn't mean she's not ordering a major Chinese Take-Out when the camera isn't flashing.
However!
These bodies we are given are the only bodies we will ever have. THAT is fact. There may be ways of modifying the body with some work-outs and ofc the whole plastic surgery thing, but ultimately, we can't bodyswap yet, so the body we're born with is going to remain with us until the day we die and although I wish we had our SL sliders in RL, I'm not mad at my body for being the way it is, it's so far served me very well.
Now, I don't think supermodels OR Tess Holiday are suitable for the role model tags. In fact, I'm incredibly unsure as to who would be, mostly because we don't see people 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, we are all human and sometimes we are going to make mistakes. My opinion on the whole scenario is literally "Fuck 'em". Listen to your body - because no one knows it better than you.
If you want to lose or even gain weight, do it. But do it carefully, and with thought and pre-planning. Set a goal weight, talk to your doctor and once you've reached that weight, STOP. Even when I was skinny I thought I was fat, and that's on ME. No one would tell me I was fat, in fact, quite the opposite. I was told I was too thin around my wrists a bunch and people suggested I should eat more when I was at my thinnest - and it wasn't even THAT thin! Since I have put on a lil more weight and now I have my chunky tummy and my fuller cheeks I've been told quite regularly "You'd be so pretty if you lost some weight." Literally, i'm like, whut bitch? Because I have a fuller figure I'm no longer pretty? K.
I think the goal is to feel content with your body. I would like to be thinner - but I would also like to be healthier, too. I know with my situation being the way it is right now, I'm not going to be able to eat as healthily as I would like, so rather than changing my diet (which I will do in the future), I have decided to change the way I eat. I'm controlling my portion size, and spending more time on actually eating - enjoying the food before I use it to just fill my tummy and the crippling void of self loathing *coughs* yes, I can be an emotional eater! I'm not silly enough to believe this is going to make a massive difference, but it makes me FEEL BETTER about myself, and ultimately, that's the goal.
As an end to this Pickle-Rant, what I would like, regardless of your size, is for you to love yourself.
Your body does not define you. Your actions and your words have far more of an impact on the people that matter than your weight ever will.
Love yourself, because no matter what, you are worthy of your own kindness.
Regardless of when Autumn/Fall actually begins, it's fairly obvious that Summer is drawing to a close and the time for cooler days, darker nights and crunching leaves underfoot is getting closer.
For that reason, today you'll find Pickle relishing in a few rays of sunshine as she relaxes on the back of a gorgeous fairground horse.
Happy Monday, guys. Here's hoping the start of your week is filled with love and light.
I've been rocking my Genus head again for a few days, and while it's still technically in Beta and not released publicly again yet, it has been updated to omega, so I've been experimenting with hairbases, make-ups and other cool bits and pieces. I've worked out that most Logo appliers will work for the head, and that's due to the fact that Logo is omega based.
In other news, I've been really stinking lucky this week, and been invited to three new blogger teams. Now, I don't really know how or why this happened, but I was obviously over the moon when I was approached by the blogger managers for Culprit, Hextraordinary and The Enchantment event.
I don't like making a big song and dance over 'sponsorships' across social media, because I know how it feels to watch someone get a spot you were really hoping for, and while there's always going to be a "Yay congrats!" to them, my stomach does sometimes do a flip flop and make me wonder why I wasn't 'enough' to join that particular team.
The truth is, there are many reasons as to why you are or aren't selected for a team. I still feel like I'm not a 'real' blogger. I don't know if I'll ever be comfortable being all "Yeah, hi. I'm Pickle, and I'm a blogger." I have so much to learn, and there are so many different ways to present items... I just hope I do those who put their trust in me justice, and am terribly grateful to those who have supported my ramblings and pictures thus far.
Today I'm going to return to the story of the odd Spaniard chasing me along the beach, briefly mentioned in this post >Here<.
I was 17, and with my Orchestra. I know automatically you're picturing a bunch of music nerds who snort when they laugh and constantly have to hike their glasses up over their noses, but I promise you, we were more a mid-range collection of teens who just happened to play musical instruments. Pinky swear!
So we'd gone on a brief tour of Barcelona, and a group of us quickly found out that the legal drinking age in Spain (at the time, not sure about now), was 16. Along with purchasing some cheap-ass Sangria for the hotel rooms, we'd sneak out after lights out and pop into a bar where we'd chug Cerveza until kick out time and then sneak back, incredibly inebriated via the back entrance of the hotel so as not to get noticed by concierge.
This one particular night we'd drank and laughed until we could barely stand, and took our regular route along the beach back to the hotel. I'm convinced this Spaniard came out of the Sea, because one moment it was just three of us arm in arm singing pop songs (WE WERE TEENS), and the next, this rather large, hairy and very naked Spaniard was chasing us, making over-the top swimming arms and shouting... "You girls, come for swim with me, no?"
For a big dude, he ran fast... and in our drunken state, trying to get anywhere fast on the unfamiliar sand wasn't a pretty sight and he started to actually catch up with us, so one of my friends took off her flip-flops and threw them at him. Which didn't deter him.
Naturally that night was the one night we'd been at the hotel that they'd decided to lock their back doors, so we're being chased by a stranger, unable to get into the hotel and things are starting to look a little bit like a bad TV Horror Movie. I'm convinced we're going to end up in a bath tub with my body parts missing, and honestly, who knows what this naked Spaniard actually wants with us, and why the fudge he's chasing - but none of us wanted to find out!
Luckily, there was one large window open, so we managed to hoist ourselves in (with a little drama, I've never been particularly sporty or agile, despite a bit of a background in dance and of course, our obvious drunken state). We slammed the window shut and lay in a heap underneath the nearest table laughing like Hyenas and praising the fact that we were all safe and sound.
Somehow, we never got found out, either!
xoxo
Have a look at some pretty eyelashes by Go&See!
Here's a lil selection of the symbol lashes by Go&See available at SaNaRae today! Click the image to get it even bigger, and uh, sorry for the wonk, I need to work out a far better system for editing these all together haha.
I didn't quite make Man-Pickle Monday yesterday and I can only apologize, things got a little hectic and I just brain-farted and then decided to concentrate on today's post, because I promised you ALL THE THINGS on the last one!
So here's all the things!
Can I just OHMYSPARKLES at how cute this flippin' Go&See Hela skin is? Literally every tone looks amazing, and I love love love the new TROPIC tone, it's a much 'warmer' tan, and I adore it! so just in case you can't see the little text i tried to apply, from left to right - Albi, Goth, Pale, Summer, Tan, Dark Tan, Tropic. As usual, there's no effects or photoshopping involved in these pictures except for the obvious lines defining the skin differences... and they're taken in Firestorm, on CalWL, on Ultra settings.
I noticed there was an omega face applier in the pack for the Go&See skin, so being the curious Pickle I am, I threw on my Lelutka Chloe head and gave it a shot.
Now, at first, I was a bit "ARGH WHAT HAVE I DONE!?" about it. But now? I think I really like it, and have actually been rocking this skin on the Chloe head for the last day or so. The picture shown here was my initial shape, and I've tinkered about with it a little more, and although this isn't a bad interpretation, I think what I've come up with is actually even better than this. So, from my experimental experiments, i can definitely attest to the Hela skin looking mighty fine on the Lelutka Chloe head too. At some point, I'd like to try it on the LAQ heads I have, but tbh, that might not happen because I can be quite lazy *coughs*.
It's worth remembering that although Omega appliers may be offered in skin packs, every head has different shading points. Something I noticed with the Lelutka Chloe head was that i needed to adjust my nose a bunch and make the nose as wide as possible along the bridge so that the shading made sense. I understand that many people don't like changing their shape, but again, I'll just make it clear that the teeniest little tweak really can make all the difference between "Oh no bb, wat r u doin'?" and "Oooh. Hello Gorgeous!"
I also want to shout out to Lotus here, because I'm a derp... the eyes I'm wearing in this picture come in the Lelutka Chloe hud, but Lotus DOES in fact provide lelutka eye appliers and you can get the same DREAMY eyes shown on my catwa head for your Lelutka head, too!
Stepping away from the Go&See skin for a minute...
Here's an up-close looksie at the beautiful Lashes supplied by Saga currently out at the mainstore.
There are FOUR packs, with TWO different lashes offered in each, and they all come with black and white (to tint, or not to tint!) options. The pack shown here is "Angy" and I'm sure you'll agree they're stunning.
They are only available for Catwa heads, so i'm rocking them on my Catya, and the eyes are of course the lovely "Dreamy" eyes from Lotus.
Pose (Pickle, Right) : *!R.O!* Rain BENTO Pose (Note, this pose comes with a mesh umbrella not shown. The Parasol is part of the {moss&mink} Cake & Lace Pt2 (Gacha) @ The Arcade)
Paloma is making her return to the blog today in order to showcase the pretties I couldn't fit into yesterdays postie from Moss&Mink. I know, I know. More Moss&Mink, but I'm not even sorry!! The cuts of these dresses are absolutely gorgeous, and the designs are different to anything I've seen on SL. They're wonderfully detailed - as usual, the dress that Paloma is wearing has an adorable cut between the skirt and the top that just shows the slightest hint of skin, and the lace detailing in the dress Pickle wears is... well it's stunning, along with the cute bow around the and the delicately placed flowers across the skirt. I love that once again Moss&Mink has managed to make me feel both girly AND womanly with these amazing dresses.
I'm glad it's March now, because although the ground in my RL is covered in snow at the moment (thus causing the whole of the UK to go into a melt-down - I mean people are literally skiing to work, but that's another story) it reminds me that spring is most definitely on the way, which means cute baby animals (C'mon goats, make me babies and put 'em in Pj's!) and slightly warmer weather, colourful flowers and sitting in the garden for TEA PARTIES! \o/
As usual, you can find all the details on Paloma & Pickle below. Happy Saturday!
