Wonder how many did it??

I joined premium membership today. I wonder how many did? I uhm’ed and ahm’ed about it. I had premium membership when I first started SL, but I never wanted to work. I work full time and don’t want to work in SL too. So eventually I didn’t really see the benefit and down graded.

Now, I normally pay rent for a house and just be on my merry way all the time. I log in when I want too, buy linden as I need and do what I want, but then RL gets busy and I don’t feel like logging in and then one day turns into the next and one week turns into the next and bam! I’m SL homeless. I log back in, search for a home, decorate, stay a few weeks and the cycle starts all over again.

Premium I think, will work well for me as I don’t have to log in to pay rent. I now have my own little oasis and it is not that expensive compared to what I spend it SL anyway. So for me, it did make sense and I sort of feel more committed again. How about you?

at my finest

This morning was one of those mornings. I woke up way too early and fell asleep just as I was about to get up. So when I did get up, I was in really still sleeping. So doing the things I had to do in the mornings I was surprised that I actually had time to eat breakfast and water the plant babies. Feeling very happy and relaxed when I know I should really be in a rush, but taking it cos you know… how often are you happy and relaxed in the morning. 

That was until I walked into the office. Not only did I forget to any put jewellery on, I’ve put mascara on only one eye. It also slipped my mind to prepare and bring my lunch (what!!??) and of course my phone was left at home too. On the bright side, I did not put two different shoes on… yup that has happened before. Not only did I put different shoes on the last time, but I was standing at the printer looking at my shoes and was wondering what was off… not even realising! Only much later, after I have been through the office a few times I sat on my chair, and it just hit me… not one of my finest days.

But lets get back to today, I can cope with most of my slip ups today, but my vain self refuse to let me go without mascara on my one eye… It is really noticeable since I have blonde eyelashes and I wear black mascara. I’m not going to do the Cruella look today! I had to slip out and buy myself a new mascara, even though I don’t need it, but I’ll keep this one in my drawer at work for days like these. I need to start covering my bases. This is happening way too often.

Now just to get through the day without my phone… that in itself, is a massive challenge.

The picture doesn’t have much to do with this theme, but hey that’s food I don’t have today. 

worked from a cafe today

I always wanted to be like the people in the movies, where they sit in their favorite cafe and work away on their laptops. Always thought that was pretty cool, but it can only happen if you are self employed or working from home, right? And I’m one of those 9-5’ers that slog away the day.

Well today I was working from home and decided to try it. Goodness, I really loved it! I felt the buzz around me and it was just all happening. Such a weird thing to be excited about, but I had recently had very mild Covid and couldn’t go out as I was in isolation. I worked from hom and have to say, I actually miss the interaction with my colleagues. It also felt like my life was standing still while the world seemed to be moving on. So today, working from home (not sick anymore), I did it! I wrote a 12 page report and did it in a few hours. When I’m doing it at home or work, it takes me days! To be fair normally I’m also interrupted a million times.

Weird what a little change in location and inspiration can do.

This is just an old picture I took in 2018, not new, but it fitted the theme, so why not?

late to the party

I know I’m really late to the party, but how good are those new Swallow ears? This is not a sponsored post by the way. I have been wearing Mandala ears for years, but recently I went to RichB to find the cross that I’m wearing on the side of my head and saw that you could buy accessories for Swallow ears. Another awesome thing about these ears is that you can buy (without cost) your skin to perfectly match what you are wearing. I totally recommend. It is super cute!

Hair: Magika – Amanda / Brows: [SB] EvoX Avalon* JE SA.L Brow and scar / Eye Shadow: WarPaint: Kintsugi Eyeshadow / Nose ring: B L A I S E Hinged Septum Ring / Ears: Swallow Gauged S lel Evo ears / Earrings: Vortex Earring / Top: Milota Ista Devata dress and top / Nails: Conviction Beast claws / ring: RichB Vick ring / Face tattoo eye liner: WarPaint Possession catliner, healed scar and undereye liner

has anything changed

In my previous post, I said that I’m not sure if I’m back, but I’m going to enjoy this stint while it lasts. I’ve been blogging for years before and did so many events. As a result my inventory ballooned. I had way more than a 100 000 items in my inventory. I always felt so bad deleting stuff. Then I basically stopped blogging and starting shopping – well I shopped while I blogged too.

I decided that I need to be a bit lighter and I spend hours going through my folders and deleting things I can’t wear anymore – because of mesh bodies and faces and just things I have no idea why I have it. I was pretty brutal. Oh the hairstyles I loved! But I will never wear them again because of the 12 year ago texture on them. It was time to let go of those too. I’m back on 37 057 items. This is an amazing feat.

And then I went shopping 😉

I ended up with this outfit and couldn’t take it off for probably two weeks.

The deeds:

Skin: The Skinnery – Antonia / Hair: Doux Christwo / Glasses: The Sugar Garden Smooches Shades / Eyebrows: SB EvoX Avalon Julia Earth Soft Arch / Eyes: WarPaint Kintsugi eyeshadow / Nose ring: Blaise Hinged Septum Ring / Fact Tattoo: Warpaint Possession / Necklace: Amias – Enise / Chest Piercing: .Pekka. Rake piercing (old piece) / Body Tattoo: Dappa – Rou Tattoo / Top and pants: ELEVEN Mini top and Short / Bracelet: RichB Love & Hate bracelet

The actual reason why I can’t take this off is how super cute it makes my butt look – am I right??

It was fun doing this again. Have a good one!

Back?…probably not

Hi There

Am I back? Probably not. But I am in the mood to write. So here I am. I stopped this blog to start a new RL blog, but that didn’t even last as long as this one did. Looking back on my previous posts are actually quite fun and I can remember ever single emotion I had with almost every post. Love that about it.

Why am I here? I felt like telling you that I’m not really back in SL, but also I am. When I first logged on I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. The first five, six years I was obsessed. Not just mildly obsessed, I mean for real. I ate, dreamt, lived for SL. And then I became sad, and I wallowed in my sadness for years. SL is about making connections and being creative.

For a long time, I thought that I have to do both to be happy in SL. Making connections is something that I really struggled with. I enjoy SL because I can see other people’s creations, create an avi that I enjoy looking at. I can take pictures and play around in Photoshop and just give free reign to my creativity. And only recently realised that I don’t need connections. I’m normally tired after a long nine, ten hour day at my full time job and don’t feel like living up to someone else’s expectations at how often I had to IM them to see how they are doing. I’m normally there to wind down and relax. And the days that I feel like interaction I go to a club and talk to people. I have to be the only person on SL that honestly have no friends in my list and that is okay. I find that freeing where in the past, I would have felt guilty for not saying hi every time I see someone log in.

The place I’m the most active and you can find me, is probably Plurk. Check it out and join me there!

More poses… really?

Yes really, I know my previous post was about poses. But since then I decided to actually sort it and I found some really cool poses! Some I never knew I had!

So while everyone else are at the Skin Fair and Whore Couture, I’m hard at work sorting poses. I found this one from Sari-Sari – Voyage. One of the cutest poses.

 So wait up! I’ll meet you at the Skin Fair.. and I’m bringing my suitcase!

Lola ♥

Favorite pose

Hi All

Do you have that one pose that you have had for sooo many years, but you keep using it over and over.

I have one of those. This one from Atooly. Every single time I go through my poses I always love to use this one.

On the note of poses, how do you sort it? I have sooo many that it is impossible to find anything. Currently it’s all sorted under brand name, but I really struggle to find a pose if I was looking for sitting or a back up pose. Then I end up buying a new one, only because it is sooo much easier. I’m aware I may have like 200 sitting poses already. Let me know your magic formula!

Below is the pose I always use from Atooly.

 

Arriving Home

Hi All!!

Yes! I have been away a while… well a long while. Mostly gone from blogging, but I have been around in Second Life. I have decided that I may start blogging again and there is a new store I will be telling you about, but more about that later!

When I said that I was around in Second Life, I really meant that I was around more in Second Life than blogging, but I was away from Second Life too. That was for around 5 months. Nothing has changed much since the time I left. This is a good thing, and a kinda bad thing. I didn’t have to update Lola that much, but I also didn’t have anything to be excited about. So I’m looking forward to exploring some more and showing you guys some stuff!

I’ll update my blog and add a resources page where I will link all the credits.

Hope you will join me on the journey again.

Much appreciated that you stopped by!

Lola

Tutorial: How to make your avatar pop

This is my first tutorial in Photoshop and I’m actually a bit nervous. I’m not doing it in a video, but if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment.

From years of fashion blogging I liked to make my avatar stand out when I take a picture but I got really bored with the same wall background. But sometimes my avatar just blended into a more busier one and you never really notice her fashion. Sooo if you have the same problem. I have a really subtle but effective way to make it pop.

The picture below is not totally raw, I have already liquified the parts that was a bit jaggard and blended the neck where there was a bit of a line.

 

1. Firstly, duplicate your layer. (CTR + J).

2. Change your layer mode to “Vivid Light”. This should make your picture really dark.

3.Then go to Filter > Other >High Pass. Play around with the Radius slider. This will make your image much more defined. Take care not to make the radius too high, since it’s a second life picture, it is already a cartoon and if it’s too high it may appear cartoonish. We don’t want it to be too strong. In my case I decided on 1.8. Three is about the maximum I normally go. The trick is to just define it, so if you turn off the layer, by clicking on the eye icon, you can see the difference.

4. Then click on Alt and your layer mask button.

5. Use your paint brush tool to paint the color white over the parts you want to highlight in the image. In this case I’m painting over the eyes of my avatar and the sides of her nose as well as her arms and stomach parts. Again this is really just a very subtle way of drawing attention to the part of the picture which you want to be a bit brighter. If you turn the layer off and on, you will see that it is just a little brighter, subtle but enough for it to stand out. Suddenly, when you look at the picture for the first time, you don’t see the back ground first.

You can play around with it until it’s to your liking. I just find this is a really soft (?) way of doing it and to still looks natural.

Below is the final picture. I added my signature and a border.

Much love!