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!

Peer pressure, Pt. 2 (Fantasy Faire: The Plastik)

As I've said in previous posts, I don't know a lot about petite mesh avatars. I never thought I'd have one. They're so small — I'm always slamming into them in stores and tripping over them in the streets. I really don't want to be part of the petite AV obstacle course that's taking over the grid. I'd rather be a giant.

But then stores like Skinthesis and The Plastik came along and created their own versions of petites and I thought, "Well damn, these are actually kind of bad-ass." And now here we are.

The picture above — yeah, I actually used some WINDLIGHT SETTINGS, Y'ALL! — is one of the new petite mesh avatars from The Plastik. They feature The Plastik's Ataciara skins, and I'm wearing the Elven version in Nautical. If looking like a pointy-eared crayon isn't your thing, she also offers these AVs as humans in her six natural skintones.

One of the most awesome things about this AV is the head. Creator Aikea Rieko's petites have custom mesh heads with features that are a bit more distinguished and adult than those of other petites. They are exclusive to The Plastik, which is pretty cool in my book.

Here's a closer shot:


The Plastik's Petite Mesh Elven Avatars are 1500L and include the body, three types of heads (pointy ears, human ears and no ears) — each in five different makeups, two types of hands, some feet (just in case you were worried you'd have to go footless), more pairs of eyes than I feel like counting (sorry), a full-body alpha, the Yabusaka body deformer (petite mesh AV shape), the Yabusaka Fairy Mesh Control HUD (controls levels of brightness and other cool things), the Yabusaka Petite Control HUD (facial), and the Yabusaka Mesh Skin Tinting HUD.

Wooo. I feel like I forgot something. Now your world will crumble!

Aikea also offers three limited-edition AVs as her RFL donation items. They're 1000L each and include just about everything listed above. I love all of you passionately, but there's no way in hell I'm listing it all again. The only difference I can see is that each head type includes four different makeups instead of five and there are EVEN MORE EYES in these sets. I bought the RFL Petite Mesh AV in Cosmonaut:


MORE NUDITY! Let's see if Photobucket bitch-slaps me again for my offensive pixels this time. (BTW, the whole time I was taking this picture, I was praying, "Please God, don't let my neighbor log in and catch me crawling around naked in her yard.")

Yeah, wouldn't it be nice if I took the time to put on some, oh, I don't know, HAIR and CLOTHES? I had every intention of doing just that, except I couldn't log in to SL until about 1 p.m. Tennessee time today. And I don't own many things for petites. So hey everybody, look, I'm naked.

Sometimes I think maybe Linden Lab desperately needs a very involved SL resident on staff. You know, someone who could look at a calendar and say, "Oh hey, this is the last day of the month, which means there are dorks out there like Emerald Wynn who are scrambling to finish the Crazy Arse Hair hunt and, OH YEAH, it's the last day of a major fundraiser event for cancer so, um, MAYBE THIS IS NOT SUCH A GREAT DAY TO SCREW AROUND WITH NETWORK MAINTENANCE."

Sheeeeezus.

Fantasy Faire is open until midnight SLT tonight. At last count, SL residents had raised $24,646 USD in Relay for Life donations there. WOO HOO! Go us!

VISIT INWORLD: 
The Plastik at Fantasy Faire


FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Fantasy Faire 2012 Blog

(Poses in this blog by (pda), Magnifique and estetica, respectively.)

Em caves to peer pressure, Pt. 1 (Fantasy Faire: Skinthesis, Fairy Pearls)

Fantasy Faire has been extended by one more day, which is awesome. Ironically, I really haven't been able to spend a lot of time there. I last about three minutes before I crash. Hopefully people with younger, stronger computers are having more luck than I am.

I will admit that being assigned four (and don't get me wrong, absolutely fabulous) Fantasy Faire creators to blog kind of kicked my arse a little. I have to hand it to the writers/photographers who blog every day. These days I'm having kind of a weird problem where I'm associating my laptop — especially my email — with total sick anxiety. It's kind of a good thing because I've rediscovered my love of books. But it's not so good when email and other responsibilities go neglected. I didn't blog as much as I planned to, so I'm glad I have a couple more days to give love to the people who are working so hard to give love to Relay for Life.

Fairy Pearls is my last assigned Fantasy Faire creator, and designer Napolde Vella specializes in making beautiful little accessories and more for PETITES, among her other work. A while ago I wrote a blog post that joked about stomping on Petites. I was sort of horrified and amused by the people who IMed me with loud "HELL YEAH!"s. Oops. In any case, I swore I'd never jump on the Petites bandwagon . . . until two of my favorite creators, Cane Sutter of Skinthesis and Aikea Rieko of The Plastik, announced their own petite mesh AV lines and then I knew I was going to have to eat my words.

So nom nom nom and all that.


Holy crikey, they really are small. (This is my favorite cat. I like him because he looks like a newspaper. I named him "No More Money" because back in the day he cost me a small fortune.)

This is the female Dualities in Nature AV in Chalk by Skinthesis. The 1400L set allows you to create two complete Petite Mesh Fairy AVs, including two skin tones — Chalk and Obsidian — with PG and not-so-PG mesh bodies, full prim outfit, two sets of wings, two pairs of matching prim eyes, two colors of hair, two nail options, and three hand options. Wooo.

It's kind of a personal tradition for me to go nuts in the Skinthesis store every year at Fantasy Faire.


The wings shown in these pics are not the wings that are included in the set. These are the Little Me & Petite Enchanted Wings in Blue from Fairy Pearls. The 222L RFL donation item pack includes five colors of petite wings, also including gold, green, red and gold.

Fairy Pearls also has this cool Little Me & Petite Meditation Bottle (99L) as its other RFL item:


Hang it from a tree or your porch or, since this is Second Life, just throw it up in the air and it'll stay there.

Om.

VISIT INWORLD
Fairy Pearls at Fantasy Faire
Skinthesis at Fantasy Faire

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Fantasy Faire 2012 Blog

Next up: The Plastik