I was lucky enough to stumble across this gorgeous sim by Eripom Moonwall thanks to my friend Jakeb. For flickr fans, you may already be aware of Eripom, and you can find their stream >Here< and Jakeb is completely responsible for my in-world profile picture and you can find his flickr stream >Here<
TMD opened for a new round yesterday (5th August), and as usual, the selection of male fashion is out of this world. I'm kinda loving how man-Pickle looks today. Being blonde in SL has always been a struggle for me, moreso as a guy because of the restrictions you get on hairbases etc. It's REALLY hard to tint hairbases to blonde, but thanks to the roots on the L'etre hair shown in todays picture, I had absolutely no problem making my base brown, and still rocked the blonde!
One thing I've noticed as a guy is finding shoes and pants that fit together is almost impossible. Today, instead of wearing the Gianni fit shoes I've decided to go with the unrigged version, and edited my height accordingly. Don't be afraid to experiment with sizes, even if it's not for your particular mesh body - because sometimes, creating an outfit that doesn't clip equals making adjustments to the way you would usually wear your outfit.
Tonight (6th August) at Midnight SLT, the doors open and you can shop! I'm always excited for this event, because it brings to light the importance of roleplay and fantasy in the SL community.
The theme of this round is Royalty, and as usual, you can grab more details including a list of designers, bloggers and a shopping guide > Here <
I've skipped the grey pictures again, I guess I'm becoming a member of TeamLazy lately, but I have added a close up of the gorgeous necklace and nails i'm wearing, so that you can see the details in those.
By the way, has anyone seen my Handsome Prince anywhere?
This is the final pose from the Reve Obscura Violin set.
I know by now you're probably sick of the violin theme, but I really can't help myself, so on that note (haha, pun - get it? NOTE. Music. Musical note???) I'm going to tell you about my grade five exam for the Viola.
I was around 14/15, and my parents had recently stopped taking me to lessons at the music centre, and decided that it would benefit the family if I took my lessons at lunchtime at school. I hated this, because it meant I had to drag my viola around in it's case for the entire day, and as we all know, musical kids are 'geeks'. It was horrible. The case would bash against my legs when I walked, and obviously there would be cat-calls from the 'popular' kids about what an absolute nerd I was.
The only thing that made me slightly happy was knowing that I would see the super cute boy from the year above at the end of my lesson, because he played the Viola too. Unlike me, he wasn't a geek. In fact, his musical prowess seemed to promote him even further up the ranks in popularity.
I adored him, and sometimes, if we played in the school band, he'd sit right next to me, and we'd even have a conversation.
I was almost convinced it was love.
The day of my grading exam, we were having what was known as a "Mufty day". It's where you get to wear whatever you like, rather than going in uniform. Of course, I was going to a musical exam, and so my parents had absolutely insisted that it was only proper that I wore my school uniform, regardless. I was uncomfortable to say the least. Not only was I a music geek, but now I also stood out because I wasn't wearing my weekend clothes.
Mr Popular was going on vacation later that day, which is important to note for later, so he's looking amazingly attractive in his ironic Hawaiian shirt and shorts, and even though he's a friendly dude, despite our obvious popularity differences he walks down the corridor and points at me "Hey, nice outfit! See you at the exam!"
At around lunch, we jump in the music teachers car and head to the exam location. Me, Mr Popular and the music teachers assistant. Once we get there, we're lead into a big waiting room. Of course, already my heart is pounding, and I've had a pretty crap morning. Mr Popular is going in before me, and then he's running off to go on his family holiday. However, it seems he's forgotten his flipping piano music - but wait! THIS IS MY CHANCE! I come to his rescue, waving the piano music for our exam under his nose. He HUGS me - YES. MR POPULAR HAS TOUCHED ME, and slinks off into the exam room. By this point, I'm a mix of emotion. I'm riddled with fear for the examination, and i'm walking on air, too. My teenage anxiety is now approaching level 9000.
So my turn to be tested has come, but where's Mr Popular? He's got my piano music!
I find out that he's only bloody gone on holiday - taking my accompanying music with him!
Mr Music Teacher runs out of the exam building and flails behind his parents car, trying to catch their attention, but alas, it is too late.... and there I am, an absolute mess of crazy in my disgusting school uniform... and I have to take this exam without my piano.
Turns out it wasn't actually that bad, I went in there sans piano accompaniment, and actually rocked the test, on the way home, in Music Teacher's car, we discussed ways of making Mr Popular die painfully, which really helped! In the end, I passed and he didn't. Karma. Oddly enough, I didn't fancy him after that, either. Oh, how fickle love is when you're a teen!
He actually asked me out two or three years later when he'd left school.
I'm not talking every day, or even monthly, but there are times when brands you love decide they need to move on, and in doing so, they decide that you'll no longer be a part of their team.
Now the sensible part of me knows this has nothing to do with the quality of my work or the level of effort I have put into my posts, but more that there are SO many amazingly talented bloggers in SL at the moment, they have chosen to give others a chance, and are also broadening their range of customers, after all, different folks, different strokes!
I'd be lying if it didn't hurt a wee bit, but ultimately I DO get it. It must be incredibly difficult for blogger managers and store owners to make these decisions, and how awful must it be to "reject" so many eager bloggers and photographers who are all just as passionate about their blogs as the owners are their products?
Change is an important part of growing, and in this little change that is being made by the brands who chose to 'sponsor' me, there are also new doors being opened. New ideas and new opportunities are being thrown my way and I can't even begin to describe how amazing that feeling is.
Besides, just because these wonderful brands have moved on - their items are still available to me as a customer, and there's no way I'm going to stop supporting the brands that I love!
Do what you do because you love it because if you love it, and your passion shows, I really do believe you will begin to reap rewards. Keep your head up through disappointments - they won't last forever!
This is a bit of a different look, even by my standards. I've always looked at the cute pastel goth girls within SL and adored the style, but I've never been fully able to grasp how to pull it off.
Today, I feel like I might have actually done it.
Some of the people I know are completely amazing, and I feel like as I continue my journey of self-enlightenment (lol?), I'm encountering aspects of these people that may never have unfolded before.
The last couple of days my spoons have been plentiful. I have been throwing them around willy nilly (I LOVE THAT SAYING!) and have had actual in-depth conversations with people that I love, which totally fill my heart with all the happy feels and things.
Anwaaay. One of these people (and he's "awesome" so he'll know who he is), have set me a challenge. I'm pretty well known for having the mouth of a sailor. No, it's not salty or always doused in rum, but I do have a tendency to swear. I curse when I'm sad. I curse when I'm happy. I curse when I'm excited. There is no situation where my cursing is left by the wayside... I am uncouth. Knowing what I'm going through in great detail, Adam (DAMNIT! Now he's gonna think I care about him or something!) suggested I attempt to change my language in a effort to think more positively.
So that's what I'm gonna do. Even IF I fail miserably and end up effing and blinding, I think that the potential for change is HUGE! Not only will it improve my language, but losing the negative context of those curse words might help to bring on a more positive mindset.
Whether you agree with the nonsense I've just written or not, I want you to bear in mind that it's an experiment for personal betterment, and regardless of the results, that in itself is something I think I deserve to be proud of.
I wasn't sure what I was going to write about today, but they say when in doubt, write about what you know.
Now, I don't feel like I know much of anything, most days, but today I'd gotten to thinking about the phrase "Maturing well like a bottle of wine". Mostly, this is due to my mid-life crisis that probably isn't a really a crisis, but more of an awakening (and when is mid-life anyway?).
There's a bit to this, so bear with me while I attempt to put a Pickle perspective on this.
My nickname "Pickle" comes from a very innocuous, semi flirty roleplay scenario I had with a guy years ago. He pulled out a sandwich from his pants (don't act like you haven't had weird conversations, we all know you have), and claimed to have a soggy pickle in it. Somehow, that went from "Ew!" to "That'd make a really awesome name for you!" and tadaa, it stuck, and 4/5 years later, Pickle still exists.
Back to the wine : I was wondering why it was that wine was considered a good analogy for maturing well, so being curious, I had a peek at the process, which I still don't fully understand. However, there was mention of vinegar in that information, because sometimes, wine goes beyond wine and turns. From the little I understand about the process, this is due to some acidic presence. At this point, my Pickle-senses are tingling, because HELLO. I'm PICKLE. How do pickles get to be pickled? VINEGAR. Therefore, I have henceforth decided I have gone beyond maturing well like wine, and have instead started to soak up the vinegar of life which has made me the fabulous Pickle that you now know and love (hopefully!), and let's face it, if you can make it past the slightly acidic taste I put in your mouth, I reckon I can be a great addition to a lot of uh.. dishes? Situations? Eh. You get it right? RIGHT?
Well aware that I might have completely lost my marbles today, but I totally love this reason as to why I am Pickle. It just took me a while to put it together!
