It Really Is A Wonderful Life!

Okay, so, I started to write a blog post around Thanksgiving and I even have it saved in my drafts, but I got busy and didn’t finish it. Ooops. 🙂 I can’t say I’ve given up on this blog entirely. I probably never will. But Aldwyn was right. [Although don’t tell him I said that.] I basically took this blog and plopped it over to my YouTube channel. Now more than ever, actually, since I’m doing Vlogmas. I love doing the daily vlogs a LOT. They are SO fun!! But I admit, I will be glad when Vlogmas is over. Today will be my 14th one and I’m almost out of things to talk about!

Vlogging is a weird thing, if you think about it. Vlogging in Second Life, especially. If I were a real life vlogger, I’d go about my day and film here and there and edit it together. And I could do this in SL, and probably will once Vlogmas is over, but right now my days are pretty set. I sit down, I get everything all set, I record for a good 45 minutes to an hour, and then I spend the next hour attempting to cut down the vlog to – hopefully – less than 20 minutes. It’s pretty solitary work. I mean, blogging is, too, unless I drag someone in a photo with me. But other than that, I’m alone a lot in my work. Which… probably works best for me, so I dunno what I’m even complaining about. Not that I’m complaining. I’m just talking. *laughs* Vlogging has helped me to meet new people, and although I make no money off of YouTube, I’ve been invited to a few groups and that helps offset some of the costs of things that I usually buy, which really is quite helpful and I am grateful.

But things in my SLife are pretty good in general. The girls are happy and very excited for Christmas. We *have* to find time to “go get” our tree this week! I have a space in the living room that I’ve cleared to put the tree, but getting a Christmas tree involves heading to a tree farm, and posing for pictures, and our schedules have been random lately. So that’s actually my goal for today, once the vlog is done. I have to start on some poses for us for the photo. Plus we have to do our holiday photo, too. Lots of poses to make, lots of pictures to take. But that is my life.

Speaking of which, I have been wanting a better photo of Aldwyn and me. The last one I have of us together, it was snapped pretty quickly while we sat up in the bedroom. It looks like we posed for it and all, but we were just sitting while he finished some work before bed. *laughs* So romantic, huh? After he logged out last night, I logged him back in so I could make a pose for us. Sometimes our height difference REALLY is a problem when I’m doing standing poses. There was one I wanted to do but there was just no way. I would have had to stand on a box or something. So I ended up with us sitting.

I’d prefer to have him on when I do photos and poses, but there just isn’t time. Especially when it takes me almost 2 hours to do something because I can’t be happy with the first 5 things I do! So it’s probably best for him that I just use his avatar while he’s sleeping.

I don’t know if I’ll blog again before Christmas, although I will try. But if I don’t, and you are not a vlog watcher, then let me wish you and yours a very happy holiday! ❤

Life Is Rosy!

I took a break from our Arcade crazy to finally finish up a pose I’d been working on for Aldwyn and me last week. I think it came out cute! You can buy it here!

I really love doing poses with the AnyPose! This was a great Christmas gift. [Thanks, honey!] I have a folder fulllll of pose ideas that I keep on my desktop. The fun for me is trying to match the pose with the picture. Usually it doesn’t work. *laughs* Like this particular pose, the photo of the couple had them with their arms outstretched, like an airplane, and they were holding hands. But when I stretched Al’s arms out, I knew immediately there was nooo way my arms were as long. And man, was I right! My hands came to about his elbows. So, I improvised. And I actually like this better. We used a pose similar to this for our wedding invitations back in 2011, but it was more of a piggyback ride pose and not an “I just jumped on your back!” pose like this one is. I wasn’t able to do everything I wanted with this pose, though.

There are limitations with the AnyPose. Which are most likely SL limitations since when I drag a pose into Qavimator, sometimes I can’t get it to do what I want there either. The avatar just doesn’t move that way. [Or if it does, it’s being done in Poser, a program that I have but can’t really use because I am like a bull in a china shop when I use it and everything comes out crazy.] If I had a wish for the AnyPose, it would be to be able to move the body parts in smaller increments at times. Especially the hands. It can go from “Almost touching” to “Oops, I accidentally ripped a hole in your chest” REALLY fast.

I really want to start making family poses. I did the one for my sis and me, but that could be used for any two friends, not just sisters. I want to make more involving the kids. We have to take our spring family photo soon. I think I might wait and do that when we’re on vacation, that way we have a pretty background [not that we don’t have a billion places on Bluebonnet to take pics!] and a good memory attached with the photo. I have some pose ideas for what I want, but getting everyone to sit their butts down so I can do it… well, we’ll see. *laughs*

Speaking of sitting on your butt, I have been on mine for far too long today. I think it’s time for lunch and a walk.

Oh! And here is the song I was listening to while making this pose. I LOVE it.

This feels right, feels so bright bright
All the world somehow starts to shine shine
With you by my side
Life is rosy!

Got The Sun!

We had kind of a more RP-ish day on Tuesday. It’s rare that we do a whole lot of what people think of when they think of SL families. I mean, just answering questions from folks, they think we are in this constant RP mode where we’re doing dinners every night and tuck ins and all of that stuff. Truthfully, we’re kind of boring and most of the time we’re just sitting or standing around the house talking about random stuff or being quiet while we do our own things. *laughs*

But our friend Jill has opened up a little homeschool and the girls were invited to attend. Birdy, unfortunately, couldn’t do it because of her RL school, but Abby was excited to give it a try. She asked me on Monday if I would be able to take her to school, and if so, could I also take our friends Rory and Heath to school, too. The more, the merrier, so of course I said yes! I decided since we were doing the drop off thing, maybe I should be a better mom and feed the kids before we went. So before school, the kids had sandwiches and lemonade. [I considered cupcakes and soda, but I thought I’d take it easy on Jill and not get the kids all riled up!] My niecey, Riley, was also going to school, so I snatched her up before we left so she didn’t have to go on her own. School drop offs are very easy, and the kids were excited to see old friends, so I just dropped them off quickly and headed back home.

When I caught up with the kids later [I had to be offline for a while, so I dunno how they made it home. Magic, I guess.], they were quite happy with how their class had gone and I was glad! Schools come and go in SL and some of them have NOT been very good. I’m just happy the kids have something to do. There’s not always a lot that SL kids can go do where they can be together in a safe space.

Abby wasn’t feeling well so she went to bed early, and so Aldwyn and I took Birdy, Rory, and Heath out for dinner. The kids had to deal with my driving and they MIGHT have gotten an ocean bath on the way to get burgers, but… well, yolo. 🙂

I really had a lot of fun with everything on Tuesday. We don’t often do that kind of thing and we really should. Plus it was fun having more kids in the house. I’m soooo lucky that Aldwyn just rolls with the punches when we’re doing things because most of the time when he logs in, he doesn’t really know what he’s logging into. *laughs*

He really is wonderful and I probably don’t say that enough. ♥

And speaking of him, I’ve been putting his gift to good use and I made us this pose! Woo! It’s better than my last one. *laughs* Well, kinda. It’s still pretty rough but I’m learning how to work with the AnyPose. There are a few things I wish it had – like the ability to rotate the arms a little better, or being able to adjust how small the increment is when adjusting limbs. Or maybe there is and I don’t know because I don’t read instructions? I mean…that’s pretty likely. 🙂

But, if you like this pose, you can buy it here on marketplace. Because well, I think it’s cute, so if you think it’s cute, you might as well buy it.

Man, I’m good at marketing. *laughs*

Pick Me Up!

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sooo happy the holidays are over! It just feels better to be back into kind of a routine, you know?

One good thing about the holidays, though, is that you get presents sometimes! Aldwyn bought me the AnyPose pose maker thingy that lets you save your poses! I have been wanting this for a while but it was just one of those things that I couldn’t quite justify buying for myself. I am actually HORRIBLE at spending money on myself, in both lives. I wasn’t always, but it’s a struggle now to get me to buy sometimes even the most basic things because I feel like the money could be spent better on someone or something else. It’s actually a pretty bad habit to fall into. I don’t suggest it.

But I have wanted this gadget for a while because sometimes I can’t find the proper pose for either myself, or for posing with others. Aldwyn and I are quite different in size and so most poses don’t really work for us a lot of the time. I have the Avimote pose adjuster, but it just works on me, and I can’t save the pose later. [It’s actually a fabulous little gadget, though. I’ve used it LOTS of times over the past 4+ years.] So my new toy will help me with pictures with others, which can’t be anything but a good thing!

In fact, I already made a pose!

It’s rough. *laughs* In fact, I had to pose Aldwyn twice because at one point I hit a button and he went into some crazy pose and it was just…bad. But then when I posed him again, I COMPLETELY forgot to move his legs at all. So they’re just kinda standing straight. Which kinda works for this pose, but it would look better if he had a little bend to the knee or something. But hey, for a first try, it’s not too bad. I threw it in my super random marketplace store for $1L in case anyone wanted it for whatever reason. I really can’t promise it fits anyone, though. 🙂

I think this thing is supposed to make simple animations, too, but let’s face it. I don’t read instructions. I probably should. Life might be easier if I wasn’t always winging it. *laughs*

Speaking of winging it, it’s time to try to figure out how to make dinner tonight. I have ingredients and I have kind of an idea. We’ll see what happens!

Day 211 – Up Up And Away!

It’s been a heck of a week! But, as it always happens, things are settling down. Well, for me anyway. Aldwyn is always a lot busier than me. Rude. :-p

But, tonight we managed to get some time together in SL. Pose Fair is coming up this weekend and since I’m one of the bloggers for it, I have a bunch of new poses to play with. I’ve been SO excited for this event!! I just love poses, especially ones for couples or friends or with props. A pose can really make or break a photo, you know? I think this one came out totally cute.

I probably should have saved this pic for the fashion blog, huh? LOL But it’s on Flickr and it’s here and it’s cute and that’s what matters.

I’m really going to attack our parcel this weekend. I’m sick to death of it looking good in just certain parts. I told Al tonight that I want to redecorate the house already. It just seems really… NEAT. Like everything is just so carefully placed. The only room I really love is the “kid” room and no one even goes in there really. But mostly I want to do the parcel. The house can wait a bit because Ulaa is redoing some of it so I’ll end up switching out the houses anyway.

Yikes, it’s getting late! Bedtime!

Beautiful Life pose by In~Stance [Pose Fair 2013]

Day 24 & hey, poses!

Do you guys think my pics are too small on the blog? I can never tell. On my old monitor, they looked just fine. But once I got this new wider one, they look small. Bah. LOL

I was playing with FilterCam again today, and with this awesome Sci-Fi Hallway from Glitterati. It’s got 10 poses in it. I must be easily amused, because I spent an hour switching poses and Windlight settings and filters and snapping pics. So either easily amused, or conceited. :-p No, I’m just really interested in poses in SL, poses and dances. Although I’ve made my own poses before, I’m not really good at it, and I’m just so so happy so many talented posemakers are out there because I just LOVE poses. Can’t get enough! And dances…wow, I will watch myself for ages doing any new dance I find, switching outfits to see how they work with the dance, switching hairs to see if they swish the right way…

Maybe this is why I never get off of the island much.

Lazy

If you didn’t know, I’m one of the official Shoe Expo bloggers for this year. It was a REAL honor to be asked. It’s even a bigger honor that I get to DJ for a couple of hours tomorrow during opening day!! I’ll be out at the expo from 3-5pm SLT if you’re interested in coming out to hang with me. 🙂

But in being one of the expo bloggers, I’ve also gotten more review packs dropped on me in the past 24 hours than I’m used to in a week. LOL! I know, cry for me. :-p So my big thing tonight is to start getting the shoes and poses I’ve so generously been given photographed and blogged.

The problem?

I’m lazy tonight. Utterly lazy.

So Sophia came to be lazy with me for a bit. And at some point, that big shoe and the awesome heels I’m wearing will be blogged.

At some point.

Ali’s Thanks of the Day: I’m a continually grateful for the generosity of designers in SL. They give so much in so many ways.

Rainy

I want to wish all my adorable Canadian friends a very happy Thanksgiving!! I have to admit, before SL, I had NO idea that you guys celebrated Thanksgiving. I know, that’s horrible, right? But, now I know, and knowing is half the battle.

Pork chop sandwiches!

[10 points if you caught that reference.]

Speaking of Canadians, I feel like I kind of need to bring something up because I was checking my Google Analytics last night and something came to my attention yet again. As most people know, CeNedra left SL in the spring. I was not informed of it any more than any of you were. She has deleted her blog and her SL account. I do not know why or what her reasons were. I know her RL became very busy with her boyfriend and her child and her job, but that’s all I know. I have no contact with her whatsoever. I also do not have any contact with Dyami and have not for quite some time. So to whoever keeps pairing their names together and looking for them – stop it. You’re not going to find anything because as far as Second Life goes, neither of them exist anymore. Please quit googling them and causing their names to pop up in my analytics. I miss the both of them dearly, but I respect their decisions to leave Second Life, whatever the reasons behind their leaving may be. I also respect their decision to not tell me why they were leaving, or to have contact with me or basically any of their former friends again. That is their story, not mine or anyone elses’. I wish the both of them well in their lives and will always hold a place for them in my heart. And that is probably the last time they will ever be mentioned in my blog again, so you can quit searching for them now.

_______________________

It’s been dreary in my physical world lately. I have not seen more than 5 minutes of sunshine in about the last 2 weeks, which makes me quite grumpy and sad. The autumn & winter season usually does that to me anyway, but I’m lucky enough to live in a place where usually there’s some sunshine. Not so lately and man, am I feeling it. I’m irritable and weepy and bitchy constantly. I’m SO sorry if you IM me and I rip your head off for nothing lately. Supposedly we’re supposed to have sunshine on Thursday, so cross your fingers.

But since it’s been so rainy here, I wanted to do a rainy day shot in SL. SL is actually a great help for me, usually, with the sunshine issue. I can turn the sun up and run around in the ocean and that makes me feel better most of the time. But today, rain. I have several umbrellas in my inventory, but no real poses for them. Turning to plurk to get some ideas, Rosie Shark told me about, and then showed me, the Paraplu umbrella & AO from Torridwear. It was exactly what I needed!!

I really like the way the pic came out. It might look different on your screen, but that’s your monitor’s fault.

I’m almost pro on Wii bowling, so I think I’ll go back to that now.

Style & Smile!

I’ve mentioned cutie pai Sai Pennell several times in my blog because not only does she have incredible style and is one of my good friends and neighbors, but also because she makes some fabulous poses just perfect for fashion blogging. Her store, Imperial Elegance, is one that all fashion bloggers should be familiar with because Sai has the knack for making poses that don’t make you look all crazy and twist your clothes all out of shape.

Sai usually does one or two releases a month, usually near the beginning when she also puts out a picks reward gift. I was very lucky this time because she sent me a folder full of her new poses – Style!

As you can see – perfect! My clothes aren’t stretched weird and I’m not contorted at all. I did no photoshopping aside from resizing and cropping, so my body and clothes are exactly as they were in world. Do you see any crazy twists and turns? Nope!

The Style poses will be released on Friday, May 1st, along with whatever little goodie she’s got for us in her picks reward board. Imperial Elegance also has couples poses [so cute!] and a wonderful free AO for women, so it’s always a store that you should be sure to make a stop in and recommend to any new residents looking for a free AO. Thanks again, cutie pai Sai!!

Also worn:

Skin: Kimberly in Candy by Free Speerit
Hair: Love Story in Harlow by Exile
Eyes: Open Ocean by Miriel
Lashes: Diva lashes by Lelutka
Feet: Bamboo Barefeet by SLink
Top: LucyBelle by Cheap Love Song
Shorts: Perfect Jean Shorts by Cheap Love Song [Dollarbie!]

Balancing in my barefeet

I’ve been thinking a lot about balance lately.

Balance is a word that gets thrown around in Second Life quite a bit. People are looking for it. People are trying to achieve it. People feel unbalanced.

But you know, so many people see the world in black and white, yes and no, full force or nothing at all. Either they’re in Second Life for 20 hours a day, forgetting family, friends, and work, or they can’t be in it at all and then spend 20 hours a day telling us how much better they are without it.

Balance isn’t black and white. It’s shades of grey, pink, lavender, gold…all those pretty colors that blend together and make something new.

You can HAVE a wonderful, amazing, inspiring Second Life without giving up your physical world. It happens all the time, you know. People work, eat, sleep, have friends and lovers and family, and still find time to be in Second Life and enjoy themselves. It’s not a yes or no thing. At least, it shouldn’t be.

Balance isn’t about saying “This makes me happy, therefore it is all or nothing.” Balance is about saying a mixture of things. No one is 100% one mood or another usually anyway. 🙂

Years ago I was in a yoga class and this quote came up. It’s beautiful and I’ve been wanting to share it but I never could find the right time. But since I’m being all hippie like and Zen right now anyway, it’s as good a time as any. 🙂

“There’s no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves”

Ok, the hippie stuff is over. LOL Last night Sophia and I went out to SLink and bought the bare prim feet. So cute! Now I know what you’re thinking. “I can’t get prim feet! I can never get them colored right!!” I know, I was the same way!! But this super awesome amazing tinting tip from the Virtual Freebies blog changed it all! If you’re too busy to head over to check it out, here you go:

Enable the Advanced menu if you haven’t already (control+alt+D).Go to
Advanced >> UI >> Show color under cursor (down the very bottom).

This brings up some tiny white letters in the lower of your screen. For me
they display just above the sound controls. When you move your cusor across the
screen the numbers will change and spit out the RGB as the first three numbers.
Ignore the last number, it usually stays at 0. Move your cursor to just above
your moody shoes where the skin joins and take a look at the values. This should
give you a starting point for coloring prims to match. Yay!

As a tip, any “pure white” of 255,255,255 when *worn* on the body as clothing
or skin… is 205,205,205 on prims (in my viewer anyway).

The tip came from Symphony Skins designer Claire Harford, btw. I tried them out on a pair of SLink shoes I got around Valentine’s Day and was so happy! You WILL want to get on a posestand for it, though, because I tried to do it just standing up and every time I shifted, I lost the numbers. LOL! Plus you have to play with it because your skin is not just one flat color. Or at least, it shouldn’t be. If it is…um…get out of 2004 and into 2009, thanks.

Then this morning the awesomely cute Sai Pennell dropped a pack of poses on me called – get ready for it – Balance! I love Sai’s work. Her poses are always so natural and great for fashion blogging. 🙂

I have to go strut around looking at my barefeet some more now!

Oh, and for those of you who like that sort of thing…

Skin: ‘Meows in the Nude’ by Belleza
Eyes: ‘Forest’ by Miriel
Hair: ‘Chel’ by ETD
Shirt: ‘Electric Girl’ by Celestial Studios [Discount section, only $15L!]
Jeans: Classic blue jeans by Zaara
Skellyflies headpiece by Canimal
Barefeet by SLink
Poses by Imperial Elegance
Back tattoo by me