Bella Bombast is the name behind the lovely designs of Uzuri. She’s versatile enough to create the most amazing outfits as well as eye-catching jewelry, great shoes and even amazing eyes and rich-texturised ethnic skins.

Useless to brag about the quality of her creations. Just have a look at them for yourselves:

Skin: Unique
Hair: Fishy Strawberry
Outfit, sandals and jewelry: Uzuri
Pose: Amaris
Shot at Warrick

Hope you do not mind me sharing some thoughts once in a while, together with the images. I have been wandering why I keep stumbling with gorjeous avatars in some of my favourite stores… but not that much in concerts, for instance. Have you ever had a good look around while attending a live concert in-world ? And gosh, I am not only referring to the audience. Obviously I will not refer any names but for heaven’s sake… don’t ALL musicians earn enough in-world to get themselves a decent look ? So why on earth do some of them insist on a less than miserable newcomer look ? Is that a marketing strategy that I am not aware of ?

Because as can be seen in the examples below, residents do their best to look awesome, with great results… so why can’t they ?

Latisha Carlucci

Carrie Scorfield

So here it is. What people have been making of themselves in-world.

Yes, I know much has been said about how an avatar expresses our creativity and personality. That is why I am not going to write much on the posts I will be making under this subject. The whole point however is: yes, design has evolved a LOT since I first rezzed almost three years ago. But are desigerns often able to see that people actually have also followed the new trends ? I guess they have an idea from fashionistas and bloggers… and perhaps they keep an eye on the crow. What I intended to do, however, was something a bit different. I aimed at showing common people wearing their amazing creations.

I am NOT reading their profile previously, so these are total strangers to me. If they are known for their work, I am not aware. If they are celebrities of their own right for any reason, I totally ignore that fact. These are simply shots, taken as these men and women went by on their daily affairs. My improvised models were not even told they were being shot. BUT they were asken permission for their pictures to be published, and I’m really happy that each and every one of them said yes.

Yes, it is true – there are pretty amazing avatars in Second Life. People with awesome taste who actually combine the best design in-world with their own creative skills. Now, have a look and see how different we all are. How each one of us has something to state. And one thing that often makes me wonder… can we tell something about them, not knowing them, just from looking at what they have created ? *smiles*

That said… avast with the first pictures:

Apollonia Bertolucci

marilyn Mistwallow

Miri Clowes

Rindou Seesaw

I believe I had mentioned the Fifty Linden Fridays in here already – yes, I could check it but I’m sort in a hurry to go to work, lol.

I think I started doing the Friday Shopping almost from the start, when the first shops joined to put up this awesome initiative and I soon noticed this gathered a lot of my own faves. Since then, I have to confess that the first thing I do on Fridays whenever I get to work is loggin and spend some cash, hehehe

Yesterday, even though I didn’t buy the Fishy Strawberry 50L$ item, I totally fell for this jeans and top, and I couldn’t resist wearing them at once. That’s a store totally worth visiting and shopping, it gathers so many styles that’s quite impossible for you not to find something that you will like.

Fashion details:
Skin:.::>>CI<<::. (Corrupted Innocence) Eva Skin
Hair: fri.day Tatum
Outfit: *Fishy Strawberry* Equinox Jeans with Poisonous Lotus Top
Bangles: Style Starts Here
Boots: *Kookie* Pomski Coffee Candy Boots
Pose: VOGA
Shot at: Innu

… while shopping after these bargain items I looked around and was again pretty amazed at some avatars who were also doing the friday Tour. Which gave me an idea that I hope I'll have the chance to materialise. *winks

Today I returned home in SL. To be totally honest, I cannot quite remember how long had it been since the last time I had been there. For the last couple of months I’ve been passing most of my time in-world at Ephemeria – which no longer exists as I built it.

Life has its own timings, I guess. In a way, it is curious that the same day I signed a new rental in FL, I also receive a note from my SL landlord saying I was delayed in paying the tiers, which I had totally forgotten to do. It’s great that at ACS theya re very organized, that way I could simply remove my things and abandon the land.

Anyway, I couldn’t help finding it a bit odd that I was writing dismissal letters both in FL and in SL. With a mixed feeling of sorrow and hope I became conscious that I am moving on and choosing my path, which I expect will be healthier and happier than this last stage of my life.

In SL, I am obviously keeping my home and land in 100Limite and have no intentions of letting it go. At ground level, I might have my neighbours complaining about my sometimes odd tastes in landscaping and building, but there’s where I will now set up the scenarios for my pictures.

In FL, I am finally going back to a proper appartment, after a year and half in a temporary location which was my refuge from a world that I sensed as a threat but actually looks more like a bunker than like a home, lol. My future bedroom will have TWO windows, and oh boy for someone who hasn’t seen much of the day light at home this is a luxury!

But in a way, I am sorry to leave from there. My current landlord is the mother of a dear friend whom I first met in-world. They were a huge help and probably saved my life… and I mean it literally. They gave me a place to hide when my whole life came apart and my fears overwhelmed my senses.

It’s time to move on, however. Now that I finally accepted that my ex-partner is dishonest enough to want me to pay half the house while he asks the court to grant him the whole place with no reimboursement to me, I had to face the fact that I totally misjudged him and for eight years was able to love him and his daughters dearly. I guess that we all make those kinds of mistakes, once in a while in our lives. In a way, I pity him for not being able to support himself and his family and for having to take advantage of other people in order to fulfil his basic needs.

Me, on the other hand, I am on my feet again, in spite of his attempts to bring me down. I am being helped to trust myself again, and I was lucky enough to find this amazing guy who has been standing by my side in so many dark moments, supporting me in every possible way.

Bah, I didn’t intend o write such a long post lol. I belive I needed to landmark the moment, that’s all. I have my head full of images of my new place now and yeah, some of them are a bit… different, let’s say hehehe. In time and with a lil help I will be able to set it up the way I would like it to be. We shall see. Yesterday, I was smiling just before I fell asleep… you know the feeling when you’re coming back home ?

Often, one thing leads to another. This time, I got curious about this store called fri.day… and the lovely hair made me finally change clothes hehehehe.

That… and the fact that I was exhausted last night and fell to sleep at 9 pm. I guess that was the reason why I woke up at 4.30 am today. Oh well, just in time to jump into the shower and get ready to another working day.

Skin: Curio
Hair: fri.day
Dress: Tyranny Designs
Jewelry: Miel
Flats: Lassitude & Ennui

Wish I could have posted this earlier, but my weekend tied me up more than I expected. Anyway, I loved the outfit launched by Miel for this holiday and just had to share it with you – socks are also from the same store and the hair accessory is part of the outfit. Hair is one of my faves from Lamb and flats are an old classic from Lassitude & Ennui. Skin is also from a store I love, Cupcakes and finally pose by VOGA, the most recent venture of AnaLu.

I do hope you had a lovely weekend and if it was the case that you enjoyed your Halloween. Mine… was angellic *winks*

Dreams and Dust

The poet, they say, often dreams so deep that he loses track of his soul in the whereabouts of the universe. Often he chases her, only to find her haunting some strange planets.

They say that once they are together again, the poet sighs with relief and takes her to drink in the source of thoughts and reflexions, to calm her down.

Often she struggles and tries to drag him to her nightmare world,

…filled with somber characters who despise reason and seduce her to unbound places, where concepts such as peace and silence do not exist.

The poet is said to be weak, too fragile to resist these spells of unborn beings

…inevitably he finds himself in one of those places, arguing with dark ghosts of his future. Hopelessly trying to bring them back to godly endeavors.

Over and over again, he fails. This is a mission he will never accomplish, a quest he will never survive.

So he succumbs. Lays on the desert soil, unable to resist any further.

And the world, any world, all the worlds, keep their unchanging movement around each other.

Indifferent.

Images and text by: Summer W(ardhani)
Shot at The Tower and the Quest, temporary installation by Alpha Auer and Frigg Ragu @ Burning Life ‘09

Halloween is not really a popular tradition in Portugal. In fact, I don’t think people around here were even aware that holiday existed some twenty years ago. November 1st is indeed the All-Saints holiday, a catholic day off to celebrate those that departed to other less physical worlds (no, I am not referring to metaverses this time, lol).

I remember having my first halloween parties some 12 years ago, when my son was a very small child. Yes, they are lots of fun, if you are in the right mood, hehehe. But like all the somewhat artificially-imported holidays, it was never a day of much importance to me. Even because I prefer to stay connected to my beloved dead ones in other more private ways – and also because the month of october for the second time in a row stole from me someone who was close at a certain point of my life and therefore I rather forget this month is part of the calendar.

BUT… yes, there is a but. A huge one, lol. The witch theme, on the other hand is a very attractive one when it comes to set-up scenarios. Autumn and dark colours make translate in perfect combinations of oranges and blacks to which I simply cannot resist. That was the reason why, after the TEDEX event came to an end in 100Limite, the sim I live in SecondLife, I suggested to Cat to assemble my own interpretation of a haunted place. I tried to keep away of most stereotypes, even though pumpkins, abandonned houses and spooky trees, along with witches are impossible to avoid in scenarios like these, hehehehe

It was fun to build it up – hope you’ll have the opportunity of enjoying it as well – here, at 100Limite !

So I wandered a bit around some of the Burning Life sims. and obviously depending on each one’s eprsonal taste, some of the things are pretty basic, other only reveal bad taste, lol. However, some of them caught my attention for different reasons, and I decided to share them with you. If you have some spare time, give them a try and let me know your feelings about it.

You may start by having a look at Out of the Box, Not allowed ? by Cienega Soon. That is what I call a statement ! Impossible to keep indiferent, I would say!

Then turn your brain on a different wave, and enjoy Dripped chocolate (my own title, lol) by four Yip – please remember to turn your video on for an amazing all-senses experience

Right beside you’ll find AuraKyo Insoo’ Theater of Shadows which is now playing The Burning Woman – dedicated to all children and women who were battered and murdered, but never silenced.

If for any reason you don’t have the time to visit Bryn Oh’s Vessel of Dreams, at least watch this machinima and you’ll get an idea.

But then, you will want to go and see the amazing ginormous Gulliver, built by Ub Yifu and Copan Falta. Please take a moment to watch the details closely! ah, and see the small black don Quixote and Sancho Pancha at the left side of the picture ? Well, they’re actually the avatars of these two awesome builders !

I have to admit that seeing so many different ideas co-existing side by side was very refreshing both for my eyes and soul. And while I awed at this and that, I couldn’t help thinking that Second Life must surely gather all the creative minds in the world !