maxi gossamer
Bright Inside My Head
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“Sometimes it’s bright inside my head
Just like the spark in my eyes
And hands are breathing ones, are reaching up
Cause that’s the time we rise …”
Look
Maitreya Body – Lara v3.5
Genesis Lab Head – Melissa
Genesis Lab Skin – Gemma (Cream)
Mandala Ears – Steking Ears Season 5
Damien Fate Eyelashes – FATELashes v2.0
Euphoric Eyes – Eftelya Eyes (2-08) New Release *
Entwined Hair – Lila (Light Blondes HUD) New Release @ Shiny Shabby, through October 15th *
Style & Pose
Maxi Gossamer Jewelry – Maharani Tikka & Nose Ring
Pose – My Own
Destination & Inspiration
🎧 Sounds: Medicine – Time Baby III
Waiting Where the Light Goes
If in my last post I was fielding gentle riots inside my thoughts, this one finds me with absolute ants in my pants. Not presently, that is … the turbulence in my mind has soothed itself to a sort of truce between tranquility and unrest. But this last day or two, oh my stars. There’s a wonderful word that originated in the Italian neighborhoods in New York City and blossomed outward into my part of the state in the 1980s, which my mom picked up on and used on my brother and I with frequency. “You’re giving me agita,” she’d say when we were being particularly troublemaking or otherwise childlike. Agita comes from the Italian word acido, meaning heartburn, but New Yorkers used it to mean anxiety, agitation, or stress. And that’s what I had been feeling: a whole heapin’ helping of agita. Suffice it to say, the center could not hold for long. I either had to deal with it, or be driven crazy.
Something I’ve practiced for many years, though not as consistently as I’d like, is meditation. Having had little luck with mantras, my most blissful experience with it is lying in darkness, white noise or ambient music filling my mind, just focusing on my breathing. Inhale for 7 counts, exhale for 5 … always an unbalanced rhythm to keep my mind from wandering too far. So I spent some time meditating in the early morning hours before getting up to work on this picture, and I noticed when I was trying to make my mind settle, that everything causing me agitation kept coming back to my perceived lack of time. And this is a tricky one, because time is finite; we can’t get more of it no matter how hard we try. But we can manage how we spend it, and that’s what my thoughts were gently trying to express as they urged, eased, and compelled me into quietude.
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“take the darkest hour, break it open
water to repair what we have broken
there’s something that you won’t show
waiting where the light goes
maybe anywhere the wind blows,
it’s all worth waiting for …”
Look
Maitreya Body – Lara v3.5
Genesis Lab Head & Skin – Melissa
Damien Fate Eyelashes – FATELashes v2.0
Avi-Glam Eyes – Elysian Eyes (SummerNight) New Release @ Cosmopolitan, through July 16th *
Exile Hair – Wisteria (Fifty Linden Friday HUD)
Style & Pose
Maxi Gossamer Jewelry – Boho Bliss Tassel-Tastic Necklace (Short 1)
TETRA Dress – Sahara Dress (Maitreya HUD) New Release @ Uber, through July 23rd *
Imeka Pose – Loli Pose 7
Destination & Inspiration
✈ Sights: The Trace
🎧 Sounds: Toad the Wet Sprocket – Windmills
Toward the end of meditation, I started to feel what I can only describe as a sensuous buzz, sort of ricocheting outward from my chest in all directions at once. And even though the lights were out and a sleep mask covered my eyes, I began to feel a kind of radiance and warmth, like sitting outside by the coals of a bonfire: close enough that you can still feel the heat, and be hypnotized by the crimson and gold as it gives off its lingering glow. I felt broken open, like the charred log anchoring the blaze, its skin blistered and carbonized, cleaving open its insides at last. I didn’t feel renewed, more like succumbed– and it’s a feeling I actually cherish more. Because I think I’m finally coming to peace with the understanding that I can’t see, experience, or please everything and everyone all the time. The gamer inside me who chases the Completionist goal, who wants to turn in every quest and pick up every stone unturned, will needfully take an overdue rest. I won’t ever truly stop trying to Do All The Things; it goes against my nature. But I have to be more kind to myself when time isn’t on my side. The things that matter most, they’re like embers: they linger patiently, persistently, just waiting to be stirred once more. And those most important things, they’re all worth waiting for. ♡
Magdalena
“Overcome by your moving temple,
Overcome by this holiest of altars
So pure, so rare
To witness such an earthly goddess
That I’ve lost my self control …”
Whilst visiting the wonderful Enchantment event the other day, I realized that my SLURL was out of date, and ended up teleporting myself to the ground to get reoriented. (Quick Tip: if you’re using the Firestorm viewer, typing “flr” without the quotes into the Local/Nearby Chat box and hitting enter will get you to ground level in a snap!) I cammed around a bit and spied a tempting altar at nearby Pegasoi, and that inspired my look today.
I’m wearing the foxy, fantasy-fitting Isabella dress by Masoom, which offers 7 dress colors in its HUD, along with 6 colors for the side design, and 5 colors for the beautiful jewel detailing. I found the violet/teal combination to be really appealing; it feels very luxe and royal. The dress is available at the Mesh Body Addicts event, which – if you’re as deeply enamored with mesh bodies as I am – is a must visit. All of the details may be found below! ♡
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Look
Body // Lara Mesh Body v3.5 by Maitreya
Head & Skin // Melissa by Genesis Lab
* Hair // Meadow by Rezology
Eyes // Spring Eyes (Soft Blue) by Inkheart
Tattoo // Elektra (Black) by White Widow for We <3 Roleplay, through May 31st Free Gift!
Style
Jewelry // Maharani Nose Ring by Maxi Gossamer
* Dress // Isabella Dress (Maitreya Fatpack) by Masoom for Mesh Body Addicts, through June 10th New Release!
Pose, Destination & Inspiration
Pose // Berry Pose 1 by Label Motion
Location // Pegasoi
Song Spark // A Perfect Circle – Magdalena
Boat in the Sand
I’ve always been somewhat shy about wearing very petite skirts in Second Life, so when I tried on the demo for Blueberry’s sensational Britain denim skirts and saw that they come with optional (and color-change!) mesh panties, I was immediately charmed and instantly sold. The exceptional designers behind Blueberry really do think of everything!
My top is the beautifully textured Ruhi Layered Blouse by Zaara, available at the current round of Colabor88. There were so many wonderful items to discover at C88, but as I only just returned, I had to sneak in for the final push. If only there were more hours in the day, and more days in the week!
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Look
Body // Lara Mesh Body v3.5 by Maitreya
Head & Skin // Melissa by Genesis Lab
Hair // Crave You (Variety Pack) by Lamb
Eyes // Peaceful Eyes (Harmony) by Inkheart
Tattoo // Porsenna (Faded) by .Things.
Style
Jewelry // Karina Karina Daydreamer Earrings by Maxi Gossamer for Collabor88, through May 6th
Piercing // Antares Clip-On Septum (True Gold) by PUNCH
Top // Ruhi Layered Blouse (Rose) by Zaara for Collabor88, through May 6th
Skirt // Britain Denim Skirt by Blueberry
Shoes // Caty Wedges (Maitreya High) by KC Couture
Pose & Destination
Pose // Adrianne 005 by Signature Pose
Location // 4Play
You never quite know what you’ll find when you’re delightedly tripping about the grid’s regions in more-or-less alphabetical order, but when I spied the name 4Play, I had a feeling I might encounter some sauciness! While the sim certainly advertises adult services, it was very quiet when I visited, so I spent a lovely hour or more just enjoying the beachscaping and scenery. Isn’t it pretty? ♡
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The Monster Mesh
I have a lot of thoughts tumbling around in my head at the moment, with regards to mesh heads, mesh body parts, and the like. All pleasant thoughts, mind you — it’s more a matter of my own curiosity than anything. I owe many sincere thanks to the Mesh Body Addicts blog for their excellent “mesh bodies for newbies” guides, which have been very helpful for someone like myself who has barely mastered the art of alpha layering. Well, to be true, I owe them gratitude AND grumbles. I’m meant to be saving my precious pennies, girls. You’re not helping in that regard one bit! :)
Feeling a bit out of sorts and lost in my meandering, I poked around in Search to find a quiet beach to relax at for a while. Searching the word “beach” returns a significant number of results, so one trick if you’re looking for somewhere less populated is to sort by Traffic: High to Low and scroll way down the list until you find a place with a traffic number around or under 2000. You can certainly sort by Traffic: Low to High, but many of the places with 0 traffic will either be inaccessible or end up being parcels for rent. I also opted to filter out Adult regions, simply to narrow to results a bit.
As an aside: the way that traffic and region popularity is calculated in Second Life is quite fascinating (for a geek like me, at least!) There’s detailed information in the SL Knowledge Base, but to sum up, the number seen in Search listings and under the About Land tab is calculated by taking the total number of seconds spent on the parcel the previous day, dividing it by 60, and rounding it to the nearest whole minute. So that means that a location with a visitor volumetric of 2000 had a bit more than 30 cumulative minutes spent there by visitors the following day, which makes it a moderately low-traffic area by SL standards.
After I found a place that looked promising, I clicked “Show on Map” just to double-check that it was in fact a beachy area (sometimes people sneak popular keywords into their listings), as well as to determine how many other members were in the area. Regrettably I don’t recall where I ended up when I got this shot, but I was all by my lonesome — save a few spirited, jumping dolphins — so I was perfectly content. If I do happen to land there again, I’ll be sure to update with a SLURL!
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Body
Skin / Lumae | Adore 4 Peach – Quirk | Group Gift
Hair / No.Match | No Milk – Rainbow | Group Gift
Eyes / Inkheart | Essential Eyes – Faithful | SL Marketplace
Lashes / VoodooMonkey | Mascara 6 | SL Marketplace
Eyeshadow / XCW Gift Eyeshadow – Green Blue | SL Marketplace
Freckles / SHOCK | Tintable Freckles | Group Gift
Lipstick / Alaska Metro | Light Lipgloss – Golden | SL Marketplace
Style
Earrings / Maxi Gossamer | Faylinn Flower Charm Earrings | Group Gift
Necklace / Pure Poison | Aileen Necklace | Group Gift
Piercing / Besom | New Age Septum Ring – Gold | Group Gift
Top / SMC | Cropped Blouse FTW | Lucky Board
Shorts / Blah Blah Blah | Carlie Summer Shorts | Midnight Mania Board
Sneakers / Rien Ne Va Plus | Camo Girly Style Sneakers | SL Marketplace
Poses
Pose Maniacs / Marcia 4 & Melanie 1 | SL Marketplace
I’m experimenting with how to notate when items are group gifts or giveaways; please let me know if you have any suggestions! I always appreciate when it pops out at you in a credits listing when an item is free, on sale, or a promo. You know me and my love for wonderful deals. <3
Speaking of deals, nearly everything in this look is either free or L$1! I’ve treated myself by joining several paid groups that I had been lusting over (primarily hair brands, because HAIR!) No.Match has a one-time joining fee of L$50, and they graciously keep their past group gifts out for new members to pick up. The retro-inspired “No Milk” hair is fantastic; I love the cascading ponytail and soft, pastel-rainbow hue. I’m fairly certain that the Blah Blah Blah shorts came from a Midnight Mania slap, but they have so many wonderful promos (MM, Lucky Boards, group gifts, weekly sales) that I’m not actually 100% sure. As Jedi Master Yoda might say: organize better, I must!
All of my accessories are group gifts (so many thank yous to all the generous designers!), and my sweet cropped top comes from SMC, which has an amazing assortment of Lucky Boards to stalk. Oh! And my hella cute sneaks are 100% compatible with system feet, which is more and more difficult to find these days. And they’re free! Happy days.
I’m off to continue pondering, considering, reflecting and ruminating on tackling the mesh monster. For me, I think a full body is the most appealing prospect, primarily because I imagine it will just look so lush in photographs. What do you love or loathe about your meshy bits n’ bobs? Please share your thoughts in the comments!
Happily, Ever Afterr in Second Life 