The Day I Played Fixer Upper

Most of the non-blogger men that I know in Second Life don’t change their look too often. They don’t really have to. They can put together a couple of casual looks, a formal look, and that can get them through most things. The funny part is that some of them didn’t even really put those looks together themselves – they had a partner to do it!

My own SL husband is not really an exception to this. Oh, he loves to shop. When we first met, he had a lot of outfits and costumes and even did some modeling here and there. But when mesh came out, and mesh bodies in particular, things got a little harder. It was like that for a ton of people, by the way. Go to any live show or older club in SL and you’ll find a lot of people who simply can’t get down with mesh and utterly refuse to even entertain the possibility. To them, mesh is still a passing phase, despite the fact that we’ve had it since 2011. Luckily, Aldwyn doesn’t go THAT far! I’d never stand for it! But since January 2016, he’s looked like this.

Now don’t get me wrong. This is a good look! He wore the Catwa Jackson head with the Hugh skin applier from The Skinnery. And I’m a fan of older men, so you know I was totally into it!

But there are some problems with looking older in Second Life that we didn’t anticipate when putting together this look. The main one being…it’s freaking hard to dress an older guy!! Seriously, go take a look at basically every men’s store in SL. The clothes are generally geared towards guys who are under 35 years old. Unless he wanted to wear a suit all of the time (which I wasn’t against, tbh) there were very few options for someone who looks 50+. And add that to the fact that the more “trendy” pieces like the ugly dropped crotch diaper pants and oversized tank tops that reach the knees were/are at every event and we hate that look… well, dressing was not all that fun.

When LeLutka came out with the Andrea head for men, I was into it. I knew I wanted to take Aldwyn younger again, because I tend to look a bit younger in SL and while I’m still into older men, I thought maybe it was time for both of us to look near the same age again. Plus, his head was not bento, and if I’m going to be bento, he’s going to be bento because that’s just the way it works. Not to mention, I adore the LeLutka HUD so so so much more than the Catwa HUDs for their heads, and I knew he would like it, too.

If you watched my vlog from yesterday (I’ll link it at the bottom of this post), you know that he gave me carte blanche to play Fixer Upper on his avatar yesterday! So I took him to…

LeLutka… To get the Andrea head. (5000L)

Stray Dog… To get the Breno head applier, plus a skin applier for his body. He uses the Slink Physique body and Stray Dog does not make a skin applier specifically for Slink, only for Signature and Belleza. However, the Signature body applier can be used on Slink if you have the Slink omega relay. So that’s what I did. (590L for the head applier, 490L for the body applier.)

Stealthic… To get the Like Lust hair. (300L)

I created his shape myself based off of what he already had, but just made adjustments to his head to keep the bento head from looking like the mouth had collapsed in on itself. I’ve found that this is the case with most bento heads.

So the grand total for everything… 6380L, or about $27 USD.

Totally. Worth. Every. Penny.

I did take him to get a few clothing items, too, and oh my gosh. It’s so much easier to dress him with a younger face.

Well, except for the fact that people are starting to only create for the Signature and Belleza bodies, and not for Slink.

But that’s a struggle for another day.

If you didn’t know, I’m doing Vlogmas! If you want to see me taking Aldwyn’s avatar to get his makeover, along with looking at a couple of Advent gifts and dealing with some Christmas “decorations” that Groves left for us, feel free to watch!

To The Moon and Back

So I don’t really take naps in my life. I don’t enjoy them and I always wake up more crabby and disoriented than I was before I fell asleep. The only time I take naps are if I’m sick or if my body and mind are just completely worn out. I ended up napping for a couple of hours earlier and now it’s almost 3am and I’m just up.

I meant to finish decorating this house tonight so I could blog it, but I started to miss Aldwyn and I figured he needed to be with me. He’s actually on a trip right now and I won’t see him until probably Monday. 😦 But it’s a good trip for him and so I can’t be too upset that he’s not here with me right now. I want him to enjoy his trip a lot!

Well, except that I miss him and I want him here. But still, I’m not too upset. LOL

It’s kinda fun being on his avatar sometimes. I usually end up taking him shopping. Tonight was no different. We went to get the Gos sneakers that are at Gacha Garden. The girls helped me get an extra Rare pack earlier so I could pass it to him and he could have black sneakers. For yearssssss, Al wore the same Converse style sneakers. Only they were SUPER old. Like, sculpts and invisiprims old. He wore them with everything!! But finally he gave them up. I think mostly because once he went to a mesh body and mesh feet, they didn’t fit anymore. I’m not sure if he misses them, honestly. But when I saw these sneakers, I figured I’d take him to go get them! There was not a size specifically to fit the male Slink feet [there is for the women, and a Maitreya size], but there was an unrigged pair. I managed to get them to fit his feet and also just look proportionate to his body. I did end up using some socks from a pair of his Fatewear shoes to make it look better, too. He has several colors in his HUD now, too, just because well…I made him play for colors 20 times. Because I needed the exclusive unicorns color for my shoes, and you could only get them if you played 20 times and my purse was empty. 🙂 Isn’t he the best??

We also went to The Mens Dept and there are some cute cute t-shirts there! Most of the time we can’t find anything there for him. But these tees are great! Fit for his body, cool retro prints, really awesome! And it’s like 30 prints for $399L. That is a ridiculous price for something like that. So he needed those, too!

I dunno. Maybe it’s pathetic that I drag him around with me when he’s not online and I miss him. But I don’t care. Yolo. *laughs*

I guess I should attempt sleep. ❤

I love it when a plan comes together!

Have you ever had one of those moments, where someone says something off the cuff, and you realize something big is actually about to happen?  I recently had one of those moments.

Alicia and I were having a normal conversation, just chatting about our day, when she said “Oh, that is cute!”.  Of course I asked what was.  Then it happened.  She said “this (whatever it was) that is coming out at Arcade”.

My world stopped.  It was coming back!  The Arcade!

I have experienced The Arcade once before.  She was all excited about it.  I was breaking out in a sweat as I was thinking “OMG!  Not again!”  Maybe I should explain.

From what I can gather, The Arcade is an event where creators make stuff, and then put them in these arcade type game vendor, where you pay lindens for a random selection of what that creator created.  The contents are actually quite amazing.  It is interesting in how it is all set up.  I give cudo’s to whoever thought it all up.  But that is not the point here.  The point is that the “stuff” is so damn cute, that people go nuts over it.  And when I say people, I mean my wife.

Now, I get that ladies love cute stuff.  It’s a girl thing, and I get it.  What is a guy to do, right?  Last time around, Alicia fell in love with this set of pigs in teacups.  I cannot even tell you how many were in the set, but there were regular ones, then the “rares”, or royal ones.  THOSE were hard to come by.  You either had to keep playing the game (and paying for each turn), or find someone that had extras, and buy them that way (more on that in a minute).

Now, Alicia has been having some computer issues of late, so going to the actual event really was not an option for her.  So as the dutiful husband, I went in her place.  The setup is actually very well done.  I am always impressed with the creativity shown at events like these in Second Life.  I worked the game for a while, even got 1 rare I believe.  But she had mentioned that she would love the whole set.  So I set out to get her just that.

So, how do you find these rares?  One way, is to scour the “yard sales”.  People set up these places where you can sell your “Arcade items” that you have duplicates of, or decide you don’t want to try and get a complete set of something.  There were quite a few yard sales last time around, although only a few of them really seemed to get a good supply of things.  I even had a list of landmarks, and I would pop through them on a regular basis looking.  In the end, I was able to get a full set, which made Alicia squeal with joy.  That made it all worth it!

BUT IT WAS COMING BACK!  The blood was draining out of my body as that thought washed over me.  What was I going to do?

Things are a little different this time around however.  Alicia and I have recently been become part of a family in Second Life.  That has been coming for a long time I think, but that is also not the point.  In our family, there are other “wives” that are getting all gaga over the coming event.  And what do these SL wives all have?  SL HUSBANDS!  Then it hit me…time to get organized!

So I sent off the man signal (otherwise knows as a private plurk), and gathered my new brothers.  We needed a plan to deal with this.  We all gathered at the local watering hole that is not too crowded and has a nice pool table.

Once we all arrived, we played a quick game, then settled down at a table to go over our strategy.  We are men. We needed a plan.  We always have a plan.

Takeo started taking the chess pieces from the game on the table, and layed them out in the pattern of the vendors.  I really liked that idea. I always work best with visual aids.  I almost felt like Takeo needed one of those long wooden pointers that generals always have when moving models around on those miniature battlefields you see in the movies.  Between me, Rune and Takeo, we finally settled on a strategy.  It only took a few beers, and some nice cigars, but I think this plan will work.

Once we had the plan in place, preparations needed to be made.  This was not going to be a sprint; it was going to be a marathon.  We needed to get in shape for this.  We needed to prepare as a team!

All in all, I think we are ready.  Arcade?  Prepare yourself.  The A-team has arrived.

– Al

Day 202 – I Have A Problem!

I seem to have a gacha problem. I want too much!! I’ve been hitting the yardsales but I can’t always find what I want. Luckily for me, Aldwyn humors my intense need for useless crap and he headed off to The Arcade for me tonight. He even managed to get me the Princess dollhouse on the first try!! Then I put some plushies in it. And a tornado on top.

He managed to get me all the band instruments, but still not the antlers I want. This is my list of things I neeeeed.

* Whimsy antlers from Half Deer
* Von D skin from Pink Fuel
* All the Pilot dollhouse stuff except the dining set and the steak dinners
* The Turquoise teardrop trailer from Floorplan
* Silver crown charm from Noodles
* Turquoise honey bee necklace from Maxi Gossamer

Most of those are rares in the machines. Of course. Naturally. I couldn’t just want the common stuff, right?? Ugh. LOL

But my hardcore gacha shopping will need to be put on hold for a bit because tier time is coming up and I don’t think the Bluebonnet residents would be exceptionally happy to find themselves homeless because I chose to spend all the tier money trying to get antlers.

Day 191 – Daisy Smooch

We went out tonight to look at landscaping stuff for when spring comes to Bluebonnet. But well, you can only do so much shopping before you need to take a break.

I just can’t wait to start landscaping again!!! As much as I love winter on the island, I am always always ready for spring. And there is SO MUCH great mesh landscaping stuff out there now! I really just can’t wait!

Day 182 – Well, I guess it’s been a while since I’ve seen the sunshine

So in the middle of my decoration non-inspiration phase, I realized that I’m having a style one as well. I cannot put an outfit together to save my life this week. I’ve bought lots of great pieces, but I can’t get anything together. It…well, it sucks, if I’m being honest.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s a matter of there being too MUCH great stuff out there. I want this and that and this over here and that over there… and I have an inventory full – FULL – of beautiful items and nothing to wear. I’d probably do myself a huge favor if I’d just take one evening to be utterly ruthless with my inventory. I started to one night not that long ago but after about 30 minutes, I got tired of it and went to do something else. The problems of a shopaholic and blogger, huh?

Speaking of which, I spent a big part of the evening hopping around trying to find some new-to-me stores, or at least some new items in some stores I don’t get to a lot. It’s kind of fun to just pop a word into search and start hitting a few places. A couple of times, I wondered if I was in someone’s house!

Maybe after spending the day out in the sunshine tomorrow [well, hopefully sunshine] I’ll shake off the fog that’s been around me lately.

Day 153 – If You’re Happy And You Know It…

I’ve been ridiculously into Skyrim for the past couple of weeks. I didn’t think I’d ever be into this game this much. But well, I guess give me a few cheats and some funny mods, and I’ll play anything.

But, I always make sure my playing time is done by 10 or so because that’s when Aldwyn is able to be in SL and I have to be a good wife and not make him a Skyrim widow! Tonight we were sitting around and I told him I needed to go to SLink to try the new mesh hands. I didn’t expect to feel like I really needed them because I actually kind of like my regular hands and I like my nails from Izzie’s and I love my wedding ring. But well, these were so very cool, my very awesome husband bought them for me!

They’re just so cool and come in all kinds of different poses and you can mix & match. ALSO, I can wear my wedding ring with them! But I don’t think I’ll use them for more than just pics probably since to wear my rings, I have to adjust them for each different hand position. But I do just love the hands! Now if Siddean would just make more nail tints for them…. 🙂

I’m all freaked out because of a big storm that’s going on over my head right now so I think it’s time to go bury myself under the blankets and pray that it passes soon.

Day 59 – On the wall!!

So a few nights ago, Rainey Manx-Innovia [partner to Ikon Innovia, one of the better eyemakers in SL] asked if she could do my photo for IKON eyes, to stick on the wall and stuff. Naturally I said yes, because 1, I love IKON eyes, and 2, I’m fucking vain and love photos of myself. She did an amazing job on the photo! I’m using it as my profile pic now. Rainey told me that the picture would be their in the Fashion For Life store, and I thought it would just be a little picture on the side or something, maybe with some of the other girls that had their pics done, too.

So tonight I went to FFL [early blogger access for the WIN!!!] and I thought, “Oh, hey. I should go see my pic.” Nothing prepared me for this!

BIGGER THAN LIFE!!! WOOT!!

Fashion For Life opens tomorrow, and IKON is on the Dreamseeker Zeit sim. There are SO MANY DESIGNERS out there too. I’m about to run back and start looking around again. I saw some great stuff and gacha machines too!

Day 17 – "I so rarely get to do it!"

It’s not easy being a blogger’s husband. I mean, almost anything we do ends up in the blog. Almost anything funny he says [or that I think is funny] ends up in the blog or on plurk. Even worse, I’m a fashion blogger, so I usually do a lotttt of shopping before he’s even able to get online. Well, not lately because of the fashion funk I’m in, but usually. So tonight I dragged him to Aura because Tyr has a new skin out for a pre-sale [the full line isn’t out yet]. We took it home and I put it on and played with my shape and my hairbase and checked to make sure we could stand looking at my boobs [What?] and then I decided I did like it. He asked me how much it was. I told him and then I hear the money sound.

“Aww, thanks honey!”

“I so rarely get to do it!”

Then we sat while he insisted I had something dark on my arm, I insisted I did not, and then after he relogged, I actually looked at my arm and realized I had a prim on it.

Yeah…well… That happens.

Buying for men is hard!

So Aldwyn’s been mentioning that our tv is broken. I dunno why he cares. I mean, it’s the holiday hiatus. There’s really not much on. But when I wanted to watch something today, well…that’s when I got mad that it’s broken!

I have a little technical training, so I tried to fix it. I jiggled the wires. I blew in the back of the tv. I jiggled the antenna [you think he’d spring for some cable up in this house]. I even tried putting foil on top of the antenna tips! Finally I pulled out the last trick in my arsenal of tech knowledge.

But then I realized that I’ve yet to get him a Christmas gift so hey! A brand new television would be the perfect gift, am I right?? What man doesn’t like electronics for Christmas? I quickly ran out and stopped in at the first television store I saw.

It didn’t go so well. There were just too many options and all the televisions were as big as the house! Then Christina Aguilera and some guy started singing and wailing and I had to run out of there.

The next television store didn’t go over so well, either. The televisions were, again, of monster proportions. I’m not about to let some huge ugly tv in the house to mess with the decor! Oh, and not only that, but they sold… well, see?

He can keep that stuff out in the garage, if he wants to.

I don’t know. Maybe we’re just not meant to have a new television. Do you think he’ll like socks for Christmas?