Dammit (Maypole)

(My what a BRIGHT PEACH SKY you have! Windlight setting fail. Sorry. Someday maybe I'll get it right.)

A few weeks ago, someone mentioned in a group chat that she was desperately looking for a nice maypole, and unfortunately the rest of us were completely maypole-clueless. I don't remember who the person was or even what the group was, but HEY, I found one today! And on the last day of May, too! (Dammit!)

*looks shamefaced* I guess maybe you should file this post under "stuff I may or may not give a damn about next May."

It's 650L at Kismet and includes those pretty dance balls attached to each ribbon. I think I've mentioned in previous posts that sometimes nothing makes me laugh harder than watching my AV dance. The maypole was no exception. No matter how supreme the animation is, for some reason my AV always looks like Elaine in "Seinfeld" when she dances.

Anyway, sometimes a picture is worth 50 of my words, so everything you need to know about it is in this vendor pic:


BTW, I found it while scrambling (what else is new) to finish Prim Perfect's It's Fun to Be 5 Birthday Hunt, which ends today. If you've still got decorating fever after the SL Home & Garden Expo — which raised more than 8 million lindens ($32,737 USD) for Relay for Life, WOOHOO! — many of the vendors who were there are participating in this fun hunt, which ends today. A list of the 90 participants and hints for the locations are on The Whiz Hunt blog HERE.


This tabletop garden is Kismet's hunt prize. I love it — a big thank you to creator Cierra Anatine! (Because I'm sure she reads this blog religiously, laugh.) Take a stroll outside along the banks of the river near the swans to find the cupcake that holds this prize.

VISIT INWORLD
Kismet (Maypole location) – Medieval, Celtic, Old World Furniture, Homes and Textures

Alchemy Immortalis at SL Home & Garden Expo (and peace lanterns for my Grandma Ruth)

It's difficult for me to write a blog post about Alchemy Immortalis because it's a store I hold close to my heart and, as such, the kind of topic I really don't want to touch unless I can write The Most Awesome Blog Post Ever, as opposed to one with an opening sentence that's about 1,000 words long like this one right here and let's add some more words for the hell of it one two three four five six OK done.

But since we're down to the last four hours of the SL Home & Garden Expo, I want to talk about them. You'll just have to bear with my lack of award-winning prose. Today I'm blaming it on cramps. And the wine I'm drinking for the cramps. So "hiccup" and all that.

I don't know creators Alchemy and Immortalis Cyannis but I'm enchanted by the magic they weave into everything they create — their sims, their builds, their jewelry, their furniture, THE SHEEP, all of it. If you've never gone exploring in their worlds, you MUST go before your avatar eventually and inevitably dies its virtual death. Put it on your SL Bucket List.

I love how just about everything they create has a story behind it. The RFL donation items they're offering at the SL Home & Garden Expo are no exception.


Traditionally in Asia, blue lanterns represent immortality and peace. Here, they are intended to honor the undaunted spirit of cancer survivors and those we have lost to cancer, the legacies they leave in our lives and the peace we strive for during those difficult journeys.

You can buy a Floating [in air] Chinese Peace Lanterns kit for 125L (100% donation item) and release them as often as you want during your own personal rituals, or you can climb to the top of Alchemy Immortalis' rocky exhibit at the Expo and release the ones there for an RFL linden donation for as little as 1L. (See photo at top.) For a donation of more than 1000L, a flock of doves is also released with the lanterns.

I released them in memory of my Grandma Ruth, my father's mother, who died of lymphoma. She lived in Iowa and died when I was 11, but I still talk to her in my head all the time. I ask her to help bring peace into this house. I don't know if she hears me, but it makes me feel better. To this day some of my best memories are of her. She never learned to drive, so whenever I visited her we would walk down the street to the grocery store. My father's family was really poor so she didn't have a lot of money, but those were the days when they put really cool toys in cereal boxes, so she was kind of my hero because she'd let me pick out any cereal I wanted — the hardcore sugary kinds my mom would never buy. We'd get home and she'd dump the cereal in a huge bowl just so I could get the toy out of it.

We would also take those old wooden clothespins and make dolls out of them, using yarn for hair, and she'd paint faces on them and make REALLY KICK-ASS CLOTHES for them out of random scraps of material she had laying around. I saved all those dolls (along with a diary, some sentimental knick-knacks, a couple of notes passed to me by a cute sixth-grade boy and some Tiger Beat pictures of Ralph Macchio and Duran Duran) in a locked silver box under my bed, and I think one of the most devastating days of my young life was when my mom threw that box away or sold it in a garage sale or something. I would give anything to have that box back, even now, but at least I still have the memories.

WOOOO! **teary** I imagine most of us have stories like these about people we've lost to cancer, and I'm sure that's why events like the H&G Expo and Fashion for Life and the Fantasy Faire and others strike such a chord with so many of us.


(WHOOPS — I was inconsistent in my Windlight settings with this picture. BAD BLOGGER!)

From Alchemy Immortalis' Haute Seat collection, The Emperor's Chair, Blue Willow Edition draws on the theme of love's ability to conquer all, which is the foundation of the stories behind the famous Blue Willow china pattern. Read about them HERE.

The 10-prim chair is 250L (100% RFL donation item) with four single female and four single male sit positions, as well as four couples positions. It rezzes matching toss pillows, as well as cups of tea with certain sit positions.

Also shown in the pic above is the Wall Tree wall decor in black, one of the RFL donation items by PRIME (creator Winona Wiefel), available as part of a set of five (various colors and styles) for 65L.

I'm ashamed that I intended to write many more SL Home & Garden Expo posts, but in RL I've been interviewing for a job with a company in Seattle and it got kind of intense last week. SIX NERVE-WRACKING INTERVIEWS with various head honchos and they still can't make up their minds between me and another candidate. OOCH. In any case, I hope you're able to make it over to the Expo tonight if you haven't already. The event ends at 10 p.m. SLT. I'll probably spend the next four hours hauling ass around there myself.

VISIT INWORLD
Alchemy Immortalis at the Expo
PRIME at the Expo

ALSO:
SL Home & Garden Expo 2012 Website
Alchemy Immortalis Mainstore (get LMs to their other scenic locations there)
Alchemy Immortalis Website — a fabulous Website that, besides news on new releases and latest developments, includes downloadable Windlight settings and sim music playlists
PRIME Mainstore

Hey, I like your cacti! (Culture Shock: Funky Junk)

I feel privileged to live next door to Funky Junk creator Ulaa Coronet. Sometimes she lets me come up to her building platform, which looks exotic and mysterious to a non-builder like me. Not only is she unbelievably talented, but I know a little of her RL story and she seems to me to be a strong and amazing woman.

Too bad for her I have a ROCKIN' SINUS HEADACHE and can't write for sh*t today.

Anyway, out of all the designers who are participating in the Culture Shock fundraising event, I think I spent the most at her space. (Do we call it a space? Shop? Stand? Pick one.) She has an awesome house for sale there. I bought it, but then when I got back to my parcel the thought of taking down my existing house and replacing it made me feel a little weary. Usually I only replace my house when I accidentally delete it, which is about once a month. So check back with me in two weeks.

Fortunately she also has landscaping accessories there. Or garden elements. Yard decor. Pick one. That's right — you're doing the writing today while I pop more Sudafed.


Patio Succulent Garden, 17 prims, 149L, 100% donation item

I don't have a big enough patio, so we're going to have to look at it smashed up against the side of my house. This garden makes me miss Arizona. Sometimes I think the biggest mistake I've ever made in my life was leaving Tucson. Oh well. We live and learn.


Patio Tropical Arrangement, 27 prims, 199L, 100% donation item

Imagine it in a corner. Of a patio.

And at the moment, my yard is BURSTING with KOI!


Patio Koi, 27 prims with swimming koi and frog (6 prims empty), 249L, 100% donation item

Awesome.

VISIT INWORLD
Funky Junk at Culture Shock

MORE INFO
— Culture Shock is an annual sim fair event (organized by CHIC Management and sponsored by Modavia Productions) in which more than 180 of the grid's best creators present new and exclusive items inspired by their RL cultures. Some or all the proceeds from specially designated items will go to Médecins Sans Frontiéres (Doctors without Borders), "an international, independent, medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, healthcare exclusion and natural or man-made disasters." Visit the MSF Website HERE. Today is the last day of Culture Shock.

Behind the Seams (Culture Shock: SHIKI, MONS)

I found something cool — well, at least I thought it was cool — when I opened the box that contains this Passion dress, which is one of SHIKI's donation items for Culture Shock.

It's a notecard with info about the brand and the designer. And because of it, I can now tell you these things about SHIKI:

• SHIKI started out as a small men's casual wear collection, launched in spring 2008. The women's line was launched in 2009.

• Shinichi Mathy, owner and creator of SHIKI, was born in Tokyo, Japan. He relocated to Hawaii and lived there for 20 years. He currently resides in Tokyo.

• Mathy describes SHIKI's style as "distinctively urban," and all the details on the clothing are hand-drawn.


("Shall we dance?")

• I met one of my best SL friends at a SHIKI grand-opening hunt in 2009. (That's not on the notecard.)

• In my young, broke SL days, SHIKI's free monthly group gifts were a wardrobe staple for me. (That's not on the notecard either.) Three years later, the gifts are still cool and the group is still free to join.

I like to hear the stories behind SL's creators. It also helps with blogging and allows me to say something besides "Isn't this dress purty?" I wish everybody included "About the Creator" notecards with their work. So get crackin' on that, everybody.


("In Second Life, it's easy to match your eyes to your dress.")

This is the last day to shop at the Culture Shock fundraising event for Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders. THE LAST DAY. I went over there this morning and it's relatively lag-free, especially for a Saturday, knock on wood. So don't do what I usually do and think of heading over to an event the day after it ends. I've missed about half the events in SL this year thanks to procrastination.

VISIT INWORLD
Culture Shock 2012

ROLL CREDITS
Dress - SHIKI at Culture Shock - Passion, 750L, 50% donation item
Eyes - MONS at Culture Shock - Shocking Eyes in Purple, 250L for a fatpack of 15, 50% donation item

ALSO PICTURED
Skin - Sugar - Gypsy, Fire, Tone 2
Hair - Truth - Enisa w/Roots, Champagne

This is not exactly a post about the SL Home & Garden Expo OK well maybe it is just a little bit

I've never had a run-on headline before. You should try something new every day, kids.

So I had to kind of chortle a little when my lovely friend Joonie suggested I blog the SL Home & Garden Expo, which benefits Relay for Life. Even though I buy furniture like a mad woman, I hardly ever put it out. I guess I'm a furniture hoarder. Particularly because I live like a minimalist in SL:


There's always going to be the Bunny, of course. Other than that, right now I only have The Edge of Winter chair and ottoman by Art Dummy, that Haunted TV by FallnAngel Creations ("They're heeeeeere!"), that FLO JAMS Turntable by La Flat (one of my favorite things ever; it streams cool music and I want to marry it), and a PlantPet that I just sort of left on the floor out of sheer laziness.

I live a sparse and solitary existence. And I like it that way.

And don't get me started on the yard.

Well, OK, get me started on the yard because we need something to talk about here.


Koi Pond by buddhabeats, RFL item, 299L

I am the Queen of Terraform Fail. Look at it! Just look at it! Look at those jaggedy edges! You really have to see it in person to fully grasp what a total disaster it is. You know, my RL birthday is coming up in eight days (**sob!**). All I want for my birthday is for someone to come terraform my damn yard.

So back to blogging the Expo: I went there yesterday on Blogger Preview Day, but I really only made it through I think four of the 14 sims (14 SIMS!!!) before all the bloggers were booted out (nicely) at 10 p.m. During that time, I crashed about 25 times. Maybe 40. Even my friends were screaming, "QUIT IT!" because of the constant "Emerald Wynn is online," "Emerald Wynn is offline," Emerald Wynn is online," "Emerald Wynn is offline." It was madness. Damn this crappy graphics card.

I did make it to the .:buddhabeats:. exhibit there, though. Creator Roopert Huldschinsky is both a Buddhist and a DJ — thus the name. I really love his work and his vibe. One of his RFL donation items is that soothing Koi Pond (299L) up there. Even the wonky eyesore of the yard in which it sits cannot mar the serenity it exudes . . . *cough* . . . um, if you squint your eyes and don't look at the grass or the parcel borders.

I also made it to fucifino. (I like how the first words to come to mind are "made it to," as if I triumphed over a great quest that was fraught with peril. It sort of was for me, though.)


This Verona Out on a Limb lamp (RFL donation item, 99L) comes in a set of three sizes. The optional cord and electric socket are also included in three sizes. While creator Trinitybell Meriman's work is always lovely, the main reason I like this lamp is the ELECTRIC SOCKET! I don't know why, but I love electric sockets in SL. You could stick one on a rock and I'd get excited.

That dress-that-I-love-more-than-life-itself is Bliss Couture's Bryn Sculpted Dress (290L, 100 percent donation item), available at Culture Shock.

VISIT INWORLD
— SL Home & Garden Expo - This year marks the 5th anniversary of the Home & Garden Expo benefitting Relay For Life of Second Life. It runs through 10 p.m. SLT, May 28 and spans 14 sims, with more than 100 exhibits. For more information, including a map, visit the Official Website.
— .:buddhabeats:. at the Expo
— fucifino at the Expo
— Culture Shock to benefit Médecins Sans Frontiéres (Doctors without Borders)

(Hair - Kirby w/Roots (NEW) in Champagne by Truth)

Everything silly is awesome (Culture Shock: 22769, IrEn)

I have to crank out some Culture Shock posts or I'm going to end up on a List of Shame somewhere. Then I have to crank out some SL Home & Garden Expo posts. Then I will crown myself Blogging Champion of the Universe and dance a little jig.

Anyway. Now you will see some clothes-that-do-good-deeds, BUT FIRST you must travel.

If you haven't been to the fabulous sim that houses Photon's Castle, I urgently urge you to go check it out. It's an explosion ("EXPLOSION") of color and whimsy and one of my favorite places in SL. I went over there today and was delighted to see that it's still around. You never know when something's going to vanish around here, you know?


And thank you, Second Life, for letting me be a beautiful woman of color for a day. This Idhaya skin by [IrEn] at Culture Shock is gorgeous and includes five different bindi versions. Today I learned that it's HARD to photograph dark skin — at least for me. Kudos to those people who can pull it off.

OK, so I'm going to try to break this post here to see if it'll jump on the feeds as well. I hate to spam the feeds with a long row of usually bad pictures, but that's kind of how we roll over here. So this is a test . . . . .

Voyeurism (and new Sugar mainstore)

I'm trying to write this post with my five-year-old niece hanging over my shoulder, so bear with me while I make it snappy.


I've talked before about how much I admire creator Iokko Molko, which is why I'm pretty excited about the grand opening of her new Sugar mainstore.

(SEE — that's why my pose is all, "Hey everybody, look at this store!" Heh.)

It's located on the Insane Asylum sim, but don't let the name intimidate you — it's actually quite lovely.

This weekend you can get Iokko's new mesh Gypsy outfit, shown here in Fire, for 199L. It also includes the necklace I'm wearing and — not shown — matching daisy ring, hair daisies and flip-flops.

I've grown significantly more friendly toward mesh since I picked up a box of free standard sizing mesh shapes HERE on Marketplace and created an Emerald Mesh version of my shape. That, combined with creators who get their alpha layers right, makes for a painless experience.

I like this outfit because it dips dangerously low but doesn't show hardcore crack. Well, actually my niece and I got into a discussion about it. She thinks it "shows that girl's butt" but I don't. Not compared to some pants I've seen out there.



The new Gypsy skins at Sugar also are on sale for 499L this weekend. Go check out some demos! Dooo eeeet!


Gypsy in Sunset, Tone 2. Hot diggity.

Now that I'm staying at my brother's (and his wife's and their two young daughters') place, moments of privacy are somewhat rare. I had to explain to him what Second Life is, which was awkward. He seemed to take it in stride though, which was refreshing. My brother fancies himself a video game connoisseur and was fascinated by this Truth hair — Georgina w/Roots in Champagne. He had, like, a graphics-gasm over it. "It's more sophisticated and moves more realistically than hair in some of the most advanced video games I've seen," he said. Hell yeah it does — that's why we love it.

Not shown in this post is a scantily clad chick in latex who was doing a booty dance all around me while I was trying to take these pics. When I finally trained my camera on her to give her the attention she must have desperately wanted, she poofed. Oh honey, you missed your three seconds of fame!

It's been a while since I've run a "Hey, look at this blog I like" section.

HEY LOOK AT THIS BLOG I LIKE

For those of you who don't give a damn about clothes, I am fascinated with this guy's fascination with bots in the blog The Bot Zone. He calls himself Little Lost Linden and he hasn't posted in a while, but his blog made me grin. I don't know him but I think I'd like to go on a bot hunt with him. I haven't thought twice about bots in a while. Now I will be watching for them.

VISIT INWORLD
New Sugar mainstore

ALSO PICTURED
Poses by oOo Studio (at Culture Shock), HelaMiyo, and exposeur, respectively
Eyes: Prestige in Gripsholm by A:S:S
Shoes: Jude Boots (Mesh) in Mustard by Ingenue (at Culture Shock)

Woo, I'm overdue for some Culture Shock posts. Trying to crank them out, I swear!

Big hugs,
Em

Escape from witch mountain

For those of you who know about my RL living situation, I called my brother for help yesterday and he came over to the house and helped me pack up my stuff and move to the spare room in his house. I think his wife probably wants to kill me now, but wow, it feels strange and awesome to be in a quiet home where nobody is SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS.

I realize I'm overdue with some Culture Shock preview posts, and I'll try my best to get to those tonight. The whole "Escape From Witch Mountain" scenario set my SL back a little.

And speaking of SL, SADLY the closing of the JuiceBerry KittyCatS market has kind of messed things up for me, KittyCats-wise. Selling them was a source of fun-money in SL for me. Without that income, I'm kind of doomed. I've looked at other markets and can't find anything small to rent.

So I had to narrow my cats down to my favorites in the pic above (LOL - that's still a ton) and release one of my land parcels today. It was painful, but I got through it somehow. (Laugh.) Those things are so cute, it's hard to let them go.

Gotta go pick up my (RL) niece from kindergarten.

Hugs,
Em
P.S. Haha - can you find me in that picture up there? I'm still wearing one of the petite AVs from Fantasy Faire. SO SMALL!