New World Notes

Halloween in Second Life Style Tips from Victoria Konnor James

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Victoria Konnor James' recent post Thirsty for her blog “Pretty Things, Nice Life” has me wanting those beautiful illuminated pumpkins in real life as well as first life. I mean, let’s get serious about pumpkins. I like roasting pumpkin seeds and will happily substitute pumpkin for potatoes in a stew or even make a pumpkin soup or two or three, but one good-sized pumpkin is about as much as I want at one time. Also, if you put out a pumpkin the first week of October, it passes it’s prime long before Halloween. But these pumpkins are so pretty and of course, they don’t smell of pumpkin 24 hours a day, not even 1 hour a day. I want them. Do they exist in real life? 

{vespertine}

• Illuminated Pumpkin – short /bloody blue
• Illuminated Pumpkin – short /zombie green
• Illuminated Pumpkin – tall /jack orange
• Illuminated Pumpkin – tall /neutral
• Illuminated Pumpkin – tall /zombie green

If you’re ready for the Halloween spirit, click here:

SL Style & Houseware Shopping Ideas from Thais Akerman

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Thais Akerman’s “Kitchen” post for her blog appeals just because it is the opposite of all the usual kitchens that are almost always too neat. This one reminds me of the summer kitchen my aunt and uncle had down by their two-acre garden. The counters were scavenged and had no doors. Instead, my aunt made a bright, colorful curtain uncannily similar to this one. When they harvested, everything was cleaned, peeled, and canned down in the summer kitchen. The compost piles were down by the garden as was the root cellar so everything was to hand. And of course, my aunt and uncle ‘borrowed’ me during the harvest. All the remaining items are listed in her blog credits, but my mind is fixated on the counters. 

• PITAYA - DIY kitchen Countertop  @Kustom9

For an eggcellent fashion piece, click here:

Great SL Fashion Beautifully Shot With the Black Dragon Viewer

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Val Cloud’s blog Dear Inventory is full of great posts featuring her own products with other people’s creations. I was completely taken by the pose. Look at her hand holding the strap. She didn’t credit the pose, but that is probably because she uses the Black Dragon viewer which has such powerful in-world pose tools. She has a tutorial here but I don’t speak Portuguese. She has a separate blog for her store Guapa, so she does not over-promote in this fashion blog.

Click through to her post “Sienna” for additional details or below: 

SL Style Blog: Tips & Tricks to Creating Your Dream Virtual Home

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Skye Donardson has started a brand new blog called The Feathered Nest. She loves to buy homes and decorate them and decided to share her nest feathering adventures. The initial post, “Let’s Get Started” provides tips on buying homes so they fit on your land.

For renovation tips, click here:

Cajsa's Choices: SL Style Shopping Ideas from Kawaii Fashion Free

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Aisha Cahir’s blog Kawaii Fashion Free features great pictures with excellent credits. “Look 1445” has lovely big pails of tulips and a fun bike that I want in real life. 

• Tulips: Springtime Tulips Planters {What Next}.
• Bicycle Pose: Pose Bento In The Sun Fashiowl Poses with12 bento poses, Bike and decor, plus pose stand @ Happy Weekend for 60 Lindens.

A scythe usually means death; if so, you can see a very kawaii killing clicking here:

Friday's Featured Fashion Blog: SL Free & Offers for Good Shopping Deals

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

SL Free & Offers is a group blog with fifteen contributors who have different styles of pictures and posts. I thought I would focus on Dee Floyd because her picture for her blog post “One Day I’ll Fly Away” caught my attention so completely. I swung between thinking this picture is beautiful or creepy and ended up thinking it is both. Of course, this is my phobia, things touching my eyes. But it is undeniably beautiful. I love the flowers, the tulle, and the tulle seeming to turn into butterflies. I just want it anywhere but in front of my eyes.

• Sarajula Eyepatch and Veil by Rozoregalia available at Uber Event (Ends August 22)

For proof swimwear need not be casual, click here:

Parthenoid 2.0: A Fascinating & Insightful Fashion Blog for Trans Avatars

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Parthenoid 2. 0 is a blog by Sian who focuses on cyber-fashion for trans avatars. Sian’s most recent post “xx:xy tryouts” is a fascinating and insightful exploration of how Second Life offers freedom of exploration to individuals. They write, “one of the unexpected, unintended niches of Second Life has been its use as a testing ground for trans identity, for the sexuality of unaccustomed bodies, a relief from a dysphoria we might not even have known we had. We wanted to investigate another possibility of who we were, tried on gender in the cheaper off-the-rack way, the better to know what worked and what didn't.”

The fashion is interesting in its exploration of cyberkink, but secondary to the intriguing and deeply introspective writing as Sian explores trans identity in their first and Second Life. I particularly loved Sian’s plea for acceptance of making mistakes: 

“Whoever we are, however we are, we have to be allowed to trial who we are without harming anyone, with full consent, as messy and transgressive as that might be, because for many of us, in the worlds we live in, in the closets we inhabit, so often padlocked on the outside, a trial is the best we might get.”

• r2 a/d/e asanagi top, sasa gloves by Rei2 Aya
• out of order 80s geo earrings by DonnaCasta

For a meditation on baldness, click here:

SL Fashion Shopping Tips from Brandi Monroe

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Brandi Monroe’s ‘Oh Look! It’s a Blog!” recently featured this post “Concealed Identity” and I just love the picture so much. It is all so very mysterious and regal. I can almost hear the tattoo of dancing feet and a flamenco guitar strumming Romance Anonimo. 

• Hair: tram K0525 hair @ Collabor88
• Headpiece: – shanghai – Divine Headdress Black @ Collabor88
• Fan: .random.Matter. – The Countess Hand Fan @ Collabor88

For something to wear on a warm summer day, click here:

Just in Time for Tokyo, Dive and Compete in the Really Olympic Swimming Pool -- With Wet Hair, Skin, and Clothing When You Get Out of the Water!

The Really Olympic Swimming Pool is a new product from New World Notes sponsor Really Needy HUD, which turns activity in Second Life into a fun Sims-like roleplaying game. As you probably guessed, any swimming in the pool is tracked as exercise on the Really Needy HUD. As creator Grace7 Ling explains, you just need to click on the pool’s life buoy, to get started:   

“By clicking the Swim HUD it will auto attach as a temporary attachment, and your avatar can swim forward, back, up, down, and also make a jump dive. It also tracks how long you are in the pool’s mesh/prim water and communicates to the Fitness script in the Really Needy HUD”. 

As befitting style-conscious SL users, the pool also enables users to look wet, when they get out:

SL Fashion Shopping Tips from Blogger Kyoka Jun

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

I had to check out this post from Kyoka Jun on her blog, or should I say blogs? She lets her readers filter her content. It’s a unique approach that some readers might appreciate. The post is titled “Sealed Kisses” and I love seeing a gown. Sometimes it feels like nobody blogs clothes anymore, just lingerie and swimwear. That’s not true, of course, but it can feel like a treasure hunt at times. 

I was also incredibly curious about the giant lipstick she was sitting on. Sadly, that was not answered by her post, of course, it could be part of a background somewhere. I am always a bit disappointed when the reason I click through is not answered, but I thought her blog was unique and interesting, so I wanted to share it anyway. The pose comes from a pose HUD that was released for Vintage Fair but that closed Sunday, so look in the store. I like that since she did not use all the poses, she posted the vendor ad for the pose hud so her readers could see all the poses. 

• [[PS]]Noctis Gown<teal green> @ SL18B 
• pose - :studiOneiro: Dixie BENTO set /poses/ HUD

For a pick from another genre, click here: