Green Tea With Mint

Be Back Soon!

2010-06-25T08:32:00.000-04:00

Sometimes life picks fights with you... sometimes life wins... Oh well.

At AnthroCon this weekend. After that I'll be posting regularly again.

For now pictures and notes from the con:

http://twitter.com/redwerewolf

Spring Doll

2010-05-04T22:04:00.001-04:00

A year or so ago someone decided it was Bare Rose appriciation week. There was much blogging and wearing of B@R stuff, and the whole thing ended with a huge party at B@R. What you might not know is that there are huge awesome parties at Bare Rose about every week with prizes and fun stuff. This past Friday was one of the EGL themed events, with a spring theme. When I showed up, Sereni (http://serenitysemple.blogspot.com) demanded I blog my outfit, so here it is :)

The newest thing I'm wearing is the crown from Illusions, which was from the wild.released event and may not be available anymore. The corset and dress are from a silentsparrow released that's almost two years old but I still wear it all the time. The top is once again the part of the gypsy chemise from Wishbox which is even older.

So here's my sweet lolita-ish tribute to spring. Even if it feels more like summer tonight, ugh

Credits after the break

Avatar: Lost Furest Evolutions
Hair: Tiny Bird
Necklace: Curious Kitties
Crown: Illusions
Shirt: Wishbox
Corset and dress: Silentsparrow
Shoes and socks: katat0nik

Hair is actually a kind of fur

2010-05-02T21:43:00.000-04:00

I feel a little hesitant posting about hair. Just about every hairstyle I've ever bought has needed some degree of modding to fit on my big fuzzy head. Sometimes it just needs a little resizing and moving. Most times it involves at least a little bit of moving around individual strands. I've had hairstyles end up looking very different from their original form by the time they finally fit. This particular style however needed only a little resizing and a few strands moved to widen it to my head. It's a new-ish style from Exile called "Scene."

I'm not really into the whole scene subculture, and I tend to think that scene hair in real life is kinda gross due to all the chemicals and product required to look that way. But in a virtual word? Give me big crazy hair please.

The outfit is from Frick, a store which I've long known about for affordable, quality skins. I didn't know that Frick had expanded into clothing until I wandered into their booth at the Alternative Fair. I would like to point out that at the top of the corset, in the back, there's a little line of white. I don't think it'd be visible on fair humans or light-furred furries, and it doesn't really bother me much.

Credits after the break.

Avatar: Lost Furest Evolutions
Hair: Exile
Outfit: Frick
Boots: Ducknipple

Non-SL awesomeness

2010-04-27T21:25:00.003-04:00

Look at this, fav it, love it <3

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3776094

Wolves don't make good pets...

2010-04-26T19:38:00.001-04:00

unless they're teacher's pets? That's the name of this new outfit from League, anyways.

The grid is packed with sexy takes on school girl outfits. Most of them look like crap. Fortunately, this being from League, the textures are yummy. Take a look at the folds textured along the arms and just belong the belly. The socks, which are sold separately (and as a result, are available in way more colors than the outfit) are also textured wonderfully.

There are several different ways to wear the outfit, which is always a plus to me. Pictured above is the entire outfit, with the undershirt and jumper. If school girl isn't your thing, the badge is actually an attachment, so you can wear the jumper without it. It's also possible to wear just the jumper or just the undershirt. The later is supposed to be sexy, but to me it looks like I just woke up and need a nice cup of tea.

Or maybe it was just one of those days when it's too hot to wear pants.

Credits after the break.

First two pictures:
Avatar: Lost Furest Evolutions (modded)
Hair: Truth
Outfit: League
Socks: League
Shoes: Shiny Things

Third:
Avatar: Lost Furest Evolutions (modded)
Hair: Truth
Shirt: League
Panties: =Hoot=
Lower legs and feet: Modded from a Tokushi avatar

Rainy

2010-04-19T15:50:00.000-04:00

I originally meant to post this Friday, but I have a bad habit of simply falling asleep after a long day at work. All those bloggers with kids AND jobs, I don't know how they do it...

Anyways, this outfit was inspired by some of the crazy storms we had on Friday. Power outages, trees down, all sorts of fun storm stuff.

It really started from the bottom up, with the shiny rainboots from Surf Co. that had been sitting around my inventory waiting for spring to come. From there I decided to go with a greenish-blue color theme that makes me think of wet spring days<3

Today, however, it's bring and sunny and warm again. Spring is weird. Credits, as usual, beyond the cut.

Bonus picture time! What Alex has been doing in her spare time:
Credits:
Avatar: Lost Furest Evolutions (modded)
Hair: Calico Ingmann Creations
Shirt: fri.day
Pants: SN@TCH
Socks: Schadenfreude (previous 50L friday item)
Boots: Surf Co.

Places that don't suck

2010-04-01T00:16:00.000-04:00

After my recent bad experience buying medieval/fantasy clothes, I thought I'd go out and support creators I do like. Hopefully over the next couple days I'll show off some nice fantasy-ish stuff that you CAN mod to fit an unusual body type.

This dress, from Kouse's Sanctum, has a belt attached to the skirt. While this might make modding a little bit difficult, it's a blessing for a furry because separate belts tend to take up attachment points needed for a tail.

I had to mod the hell out of this to get it to fit my wide and short shape, but after the frustration of no mod dresses, I kinda enjoyed it...

Credits after the break

Avatar: Lost Furest Evolutions (modded)
Dress: Kouse's Sanctum
Hair: Calico Ingmann Creations
Hair flowers: Illusions (wild.released prize)

Well that was a waste of 600L$

2010-03-26T01:52:00.001-04:00

Dear designers of SL,

If an outfit is no modify, do not try to tell me it's modify. If there is a script inside for resizing that does not give you the right to advertise an outfit as modify. ESPECIALLY if that script doesn't give the ability to resize individual prims. Not everyone in SL wants to be tall and skinny. If your clothes are only wearable by those with a shape similar to yours, please put a sign in your shop, don't hide it away in your profile picks.

Claiming an item is modify when it's not is lying.

Thanks.

Yeah, I'm not a happy wolf today. I was going through some of the stuff I had bought at the clothing fair and decided to wear the fantasy dress I'd gotten from Moonstuck. Oh, it says no modify. No biggie, the script inside it is probably making it appear that way. Put it on, oh it's too small around my middle and too long. No problem, I get that a lot. Modify linked prims. What? Click my head, working fine. Click the dress again.

Ffffffffffffffff.

Larger +++ several times. It just about fits my tummy but now it's so long that half the dress is in the ground. This isn't going to work.

At least it was a RFL item, so the creator didn't get any of my L$, and they won't be getting any in the future. If you really need to make your items no mod, fine do it, even if I don't like it (that's a rant for another day). But all the scripts in the world do not give you the right to claim a no mod item as modify in your advertisements.

Moonstruck? No thanks. Even if I did have the usual tall and skinny shape, I wouldn't shop there due to this experience.

(not the exact item I bought, but the ad claims the same)

I'll have a normal post up soon

Memory

2010-02-22T21:47:00.000-05:00

I lost a very special kitty this past week. In her memory, I've been running around SL as a black and white cat lately. So don't be surprised if you expect a wolf and get a feline.

I almost didn't get this corset because my shapes tend to be quite a bit rounder around the middle. Even fitting skirts and belts can be a challenge at times, and this is a full prim corset. After a bunch of editing and some shape adjustments, I managed to make a kitty-sized version. I haven't tackled my normal wolf shape, but I have a feeling it's gunna be even harder.

At the very least, once I get the corset fitted, I can change the style and color of it without having to totally re-edit a new one.

Credits after the break:

Avatar: Lost Furest Evolutions
Hair: booN
Dress: Nomine
Corset: silentsparrow

Oh yay red!

2010-02-15T02:10:00.001-05:00

Okay, so techinically it's the 15th already, but I still want to post this. The first half of February's been fun for me because there's so much RED all over the grid. And I like red. A lot. There's been enough color-themed sales over the past few weeks to last me.... oh a month maybe.

This is one of those outfits where.... even I'm not sure what I was going for. But sometimes that's the fun of mixing and matching, right? I think I started at the bottom with the boots and worked my way up. The legging are from Sheer, which is new to me. I've seen tons of torn of stockings on SL, but I was impressed by the detail in these. And as I never fail to ruin any hose I wear IRL (I fail at being girly) I know what runs look like!
A little random fact about this avatar (and all recent Lost Furest creations it seems)... See the little "shines" in my eyes? They're hearts! A little random fact about this avatar (and all recent Lost Furest creations) you can choose not only the pupil shape/size and eye color, but the look of the shine/reflection.
Credits will be here tomorrow because I need sleep

And stripes

2010-02-06T23:08:00.000-05:00

It's kinda funny how my procrastination builds upon itself. I had this posted planned for a while, but I wanted to include a photo.... but then I couldn't find my camera, then I wanted to include a slurl but didn't have it on hand....

Like my failing, the releases in this outfit have been built up.

It started out with the corsets from Silentsparrow, with cute little toony illustrations on them. Then came the matching skirts, and then about a week ago the cute tophat set in a collaboration with Schadenfreude. I usually have a tough time getting hats to work on my big head, but the little lolita-sized option works perfectly.

Why yes I love this hair... why do you ask? :D In other news, my little shop, [3rd Wing], has moved sims. It's now in a bigger spot \o/

To celebrate, all avatar sets are 50% off until Valentine's day!
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hydrogen/167/185/22

Credits after the break

Avatar: Lost Furest Evolutions
Corset and Skirt: Silentsparrow
"Undershirt": The Plastik
Hat: Schadenfreude + Silentsparrow
Hair: Tiny Bird
Boots: Slink

Spots

2010-01-25T00:57:00.000-05:00

Ever since Scribble released the new spotty bum set, I've been wearing around the red version. This weekend, I only too it off to replace it with the special "rootbeer" color. It's only availible until tonight at 12am, though, so hurry! Gah, I'm horrible when it comes to limited edition stuff. My impulse buying goes up 200% if you just slap "LE" on something... But look! The spots kinda match my fur, don't they? :D

It took me a little while to find a top I liked with it. I ended up reverting to an old favorite: part of a gypsy chemise from Wishbox. I bought it quite a while back, and I've certainly gotten my L$ worth in all the different uses I've had for it

Credits after the break <3

Avatar: Lost Furest Evolutions
Hair: Tiny Bird
Shirt: Wishbox (part of outfit)
Bodysuit: Scribble
Shoes: Lazy Places

Avatars and Identity (Part 1)

2010-01-14T21:59:00.001-05:00

There's a blogger challenge thing going around. People are looking back at how they looked in their newbish days. I've wanted to do a post like this for a while, and a combination of the challenge and nostagia from the end of a decade has given me the push I needed. See, as a furry, my SL identity is linked closely to the avatar I wear. More than clothes, more than a skintone, more than hair. With the right avatar, I feel like "me". So here begins part one of the history of my quest for "me" in SL.

When I first joined SL, I didn't stick around long. For the two or three days I was on, I was a human avatar with system hair, system shoes, and system skin. Oh, and angel wings (partially due to my aversion to playing human characters, and partially because of the name I picked). I didn't pick the furry avatar at signup because... well, I still have nightmares about those eyes. At this point in time, the quality of free avatars a newbie fur could hope for was.... yeah.... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v23/timechaser/Snapshot_048.png So I ran off to IMVU, where I made stuff for a good while.

When things at IMVU went sour (trust me, IMVU staff makes Linden Labs look like a gift from above), a few friends and I jumped back into SL. I was extremely fortunate this time around because Wingless Emoto's free avatars were just begining to make the rounds. So now, with friends to roam the grid with and finally furry, I stuck around.

Now that I was enjoying SL, I felt comfortable enough to buy some lindens. The Wingless avatar was nice, but it didn't feel right. And it was a little too "toony" for my tastes. Actually, most furry avatars at the time tended to look really cartoonish. The only one with enough realism for my taste was the Werehouse.

Continued beyond the break
I'm not going to start on my tastes in hair back then... at least I'd already been introduced to Bare Rose. That outfit, Zashiki Warashi, was the very first B@R outfit I bought. No, I didn't know what a skirt shape was back then. Due to the relatively realistic nature of the avatar, sometimes I didn't even wear hair, going instead for a more "feral" look.

Even at the time, the werehouse avatar was a little dated, but it felt more "me" than anything else I'd been able to find at the time, and I had a lot of love for that avatar. However, soon the sheer number of avatars available in SL started to get to me. I became an avatar addict. My first spontaneous purchase was a fennec fox by Lost Furest, mostly because although the species was wrong, the colors and large ears weren't far off

More B@R clothes. And no, don't adjust your monitor, my hair-adjusting abilities really were that bad. The hair was from Gurl6. I had a lot of Gurl6 hair back then... >>

Yes, more Gurl6 hair. And another Lost Furest avatar. This was released durring the Easter after I returned to SL, and when I first saw it, the head of this avatar just blew me away. Even two years later, the Bunneh avatar still looks good. The clothing is from WRONG, who'd been having a sale with the entire store marked down. I think that aside from Bare Rose, WRONG made up most of my inventory.

Yes, I own a Aventity fox. Even though now I'm so sick of seeing them that I kinda want to punch them in the face >> The number one reason I bought it was because this avatar had the best digitigrade legs at the time. Also I really liked getting new avatars.

At this point, I was ready to settle down and commit to an avatar. I ended up going back to Werehouse, but this time I bought a matching "Critter" or feral avatar, seen HERE. Technically, it was a coyote and not a wolf, but red wolves and coyotes are cousins, so it was okay. My hybrid of the anthro avatar with the critter head turned out really nice, in my opinion.

Because the head consisted mostly of a muzzle attached to the default avatar head, fitting hair was incredibly easy. This allowed me to explore different creators and find favorites. I was also wearing a lot of Little Heaven clothing at this time. I'd had an interest in EGL fashion before I came to SL, and I was finally starting to learn about different EGL-themed stores in world.

My love affair with my combination Werehouse avatar lasted for quite a while. I felt very comfortable in my avatar, and felt no need to change. Until I went to the AnthroXtacy wolf release party. I hadn't really meant to buy a new avatar, but I just looked at the vendor and it felt extremely.... me. I bought it right away, and quickly put it on. As soon as I put on red hair, even though I had yet to mod the shape, even though I thought the leg prims needed changes, I felt more like myself than I had ever felt before in SL.

The head was difficult to fit hair to, but fortunately my modding abilities had improved since my earlier days. I ended up recoloring the legs from the Werehouse avatar because I thought the bulkier legs looked better with my short and curvy shape. Durring this time I discovered most of the stores I still love dearly, and really became active in SL.

I stuck with my AX wolf for nearly a year, an eternity in SL. Eventually, though, it started showing its age in comparison to newer creations. And that's where part 2 will pick up. Eventually >>

Here come the credits... Some of these stores may have closed, or changed names.

Picture one:
Avatar/hair: Wingless Emoto
Dress: Asian Inspirations

Picture two:
Avatar: Werehouse
Hair: Ravenwear
Dress: Bare Rose

Picture four:
Avatar: Lost Furest
Hair: Gurl6
Dress: Bare Rose

Picture 5:
Avatar: Lost Furest
Hair: Gurl6
Outfit: WRONG

Picture 6:
Avatar: Aventity
Hair: LALA Moon
Outfit: Goth1c

Picture 7:
Avatar: Werehouse
Hair: Calico Ingman Creations
Dress: Little Heaven

Picture 8:
Avatar: AnthroXtacy (old avatar, but it's still available at the HQ only)
Legs/feet: Werehouse
Hair: House of Munster
Outfit: Silentsparrow

A resolution

2010-01-12T16:00:00.002-05:00

I told Serenity that my new year's resolution was to blog. Now it's January 12th and I still haven't posted anything, gah I'm bad.

Where I live, we've been getting way more snow than usual. It's not really any colder than an average winter, but the snow's just been piling up. I kinda want to run outside and frolic in it, but then I remember that I'll just end up cold and wet.

I think I'll leave the snow adventures to SL, where yummy sweaters from League don't get wet and scratchy and jeans are perfectly acceptable snowpants. As a bonus, here's a picture of my tiny little Misia on the night she was born~ Credits after the break.

Avatar: Lost Furest Evolutions
Hair: Clawtooth by Clawtooth (Edited to fit my big head, and tinted slightly)
All clothes: League

A day off

2009-11-13T11:40:00.000-05:00

For a little over a week, I've had a job. A RL job. I'm so not used to working long days, so I've been falling asleep as soon as I get home. And now, at last, a day off.

I cannot begin to describe how relaxing it felt to just sit around in my avatar after several long days of RL work. Does this happen to everyone in SL? Is it a furry thing? Or maybe just me, I don't know. I feel like I'm shedding my work persona the same way I take off my uniform. Letting the kind, smiling me take a break as I slide into an identity that allows me to indulge my darker moods.

Of course there's also the fact that my coworkers don't know I consider myself a furry. And I don't intend to tell them, due to all the negative connotations so many people have, and the nasty kind of furs who bring all the stereotypes to life. (Questions may be raised when I ask for a weekend off for AnthroCon, but that's still months away. I'll deal with it when I get to it.)

Credits after the break

Avatar - Lost Furest Evolutions
Hair - Fri.day (modded to fit my big head)
Shrug + skirt - Silentsparrow
Top - Nomine
Scarf - Plastik
Boots - J's

Prim feet and fuzzies

2009-10-23T19:35:00.000-04:00

Oh hey an actual post on actual fashion stuff. wth?

I love shopping for shoes in SL because I don't have to stop and consider if the heel height on a given pair is going to screw up my already bad ankles or anything like that. But over the past year or so my happy shoe time's been threatened. By prim toes. Prim HUMAN toes.

When prim toes started invading the grid, I was freaked out by them. I completely recognize the hypocracy in my prim paws good, prim toes bad thinking, but still toes... ew. Now that there are some well sculpted varieties I'm not that bothered by them in theory, as long as they're well tinted. But now it seems I can't find a good pair of open-toed without running into a set of prim toes, or even a whole prim foot. It's enough to make SL shoe shopping as annoying as RL shoe shopping.

The other day, while poking my nose into SLink I saw something that made me do a double take.

My first thought is the usual "Oh hey a furry on an ad in a mainstream store... yay!" (I'll probably write more about that in the future) but on second glance I noticed what's being sold. Furry/neko prim feet. Most furries I know prefer paws, but as I remind people, there's no rule on how human or animal a furry should be. I've seen plenty of furry art with characters whose feet are closer to well, feet, than paws.

So in the interest of furries and fashion, I grabbed a demo (I'm a failblogger, I wouldn't feel right asking for a review copy at this point). After a bit of fiddling with the included HUD...

The feet are quite well made, with a nice natural shape rather than a blob like some prim feetsies I've seen. And I was pleasantly surprised by the cute little pawpads on the bottom of the feet. The claws have a whole host of colors the paint them. It took me only a few minutes to get the feet reasonably matched to my skin (and I checked, it looked okay under a few different light settings), but I do wish the feet had more of a fur texture to them. As it is, they appear closer to skin textured. Also, I'd like to remind SLink that not every furry has black paw pads, so a way to customize that is just as important as choosing a skin tone.

As to whether or not I'll get them myself.... I don't know yet. I always have dark paw pads so there's no issue there. As a werewolf, I sometimes go a little more human or a little more animal than usual. These feet are 600L$ per style (with three styles, flat, tiptoe, and halfway, the picture shows the half version), which is more than I'm usually willing to pay for shoes. And for something that I frankly have no idea how much I'm going to use, I'm not really in a position to spend that much on a maybe right now.

Despite my own indecision, I'm sure there are some out there who'll love it. Besides, it makes me happy any time a non-furry designer thinks of us. So thanks SLink!

Oh, can I get claw options on shoes with prim toes? :B

On another note, SLink also has some silly halloween prim feetsies (which could also function as regular feet for any zombies out there):

Hair: Stringer Mauselum ~ Top: WWI (Nightmare Eden gift) ~ Shorts: TRAP ~ Avatar: Lost Furest ~ Feet: SLink (10L)

Don't mind the dust

2009-09-10T16:35:00.000-04:00

I'm just trying to redo the layout to try and get something a little more functional. In the mean time...

Deer! My most recent avatar set for 3rd Wing. Everything about this avatar was much harder than the previous canine avatars I've made. But in the end, I think it turned out great. Especially the little hoof-toes, I'm proud of those! Unfortunatly, so many new open-toed shoes have creepy prim toes in them D: Oh well.

3rd Wing is here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Oxygen/117/194/22

Motivation

2009-07-31T14:28:00.002-04:00

I should, like, hire someone to keep me posting, although in my defense, spring was crazy for me, and summer's been all about readjusting.

I figured I might as well use this blog not just to show off my obsession with playing dress up with my avatar, but to promote the few things I've been making lately. But first I think a readjustment of the layout is needed, to making posting pictures a bit easier.

Mawaru, Mawaru, Moulin Rouge

2009-03-31T14:52:00.007-04:00

Due to their recent DVD release, I've been having a huge Sound Horizon fixation lately. Expect posts with song titles and lyrics that get stuck in my head. Actually, that might be a good expectation for anything I do. I don't know how many drawings or stories have started because of a certain phrase or word from a song. But isn't that true of everyone?

The song that inspired today's post is off the "Roman" album, which takes place in France in, I dunno, 19th? Early 20th century? Whichever, the yummy new Aesthete waistcoat from ~silentsparrow~ reminds me of some of the outfits worn in the live version. I paired it with the woman's Dominion suit, which remains a favorite of mine <3 I was a little surprised how hard it was to find a windmill to screenshot. I'd have preferred a nice little country windmill instead of this one, but meh, can't be choosy.

Avatar:
AnthroXtacy http://slurl.com/secondlife/Elliquiy/243/128/28/
Feetsies:
Part of Wingless Emoto's free reindeers, recolored
Antlers:
Illusions http://slurl.com/secondlife/Carnivale/208/94/32
Waistcoat, undershirt, and pants:
~silentsparrow~ http://slurl.com/secondlife/silent%20sparrow/188/92/22
Hair:
Bishwear http://slurl.com/secondlife/BishWear%20Island/157/71/22

First Steps

2009-03-26T01:20:00.000-04:00

After a couple false starts, some experiments with codes and graphics, and a new computer, I think I'm finally ready to get my paws wet. Yeah. Paws.

Hi, I'm Alexiel Magnolia. I love Second Life fashion, and taking pictures of my avatar. I also identify as a furry, both in real life and SL. While a lot of people might put on a furry avatar now and then but be human (or a neko, or elf, etc) most of the time, I spend most of my time fuzzy with only occasional human skins, usually with a tail or other wolfy parts so I don't feel too weird.

I have several reasons for making this blog, which I'll probably be getting into within the next couple of posts. But most of all, it's just because I'd love to see more furry (and other non-human) Second Life bloggers.

Too often I see an amazing outfit on the feeds, only to realize it really wouldn't look good anything but a human avatar (and a tall and skinny one at that). Fashion's a little different when your avatar's a little different, so let's see clothing and accessories in new ways (if you're a Bare@Rose fan like me, check out the wonderful Serenity Semple's flickr for images of how new BR releases look like on furry avatars). And then of course there's the eternal struggle of fitting hair on my big head, and the disappointment of no mod items.

If you've a furry or other non-human SL blogger, or know of one, please send me a link! I see plenty of furs when I'm out shopping (at all the awesome stores, at least), so I think it's time for us to really participate in Second Life's fashion community.