During one of my outings, I found Mycophile, a cute mushroom place. If you're looking for some color to add to your garden or your house, put Mycophile on your list of places to see. I got one for my roof. The colors of the mushrooms and other plants are fantastic. I've always had an infinity toward mushrooms...for salads and stir-frys of course, but also for some of my illustrations (I use Prismacolor colored pencils and markers, and pastels for those of you who are interested).
Have you checked out the warehouse sale at Armidi? I was very good and managed to spend less than 1000L on some cute cocktail dresses, shoes, tops and jeans. There's also some finds for the guys too. Great prices so run don't walk(tons of lag so be prepared). All the clothes in the pics come from the Armidi sale.
I'm working on my photoshop skills so excuse the annoying filters but I have to utilize those sliders!
Skin: Skin Within, Anika, Smoky-Raven
Hair: Truth, Roxana Streaked-Dawn
From Top to BottomJeans: Armidi, Grace Jeans-Indigo
Top: Gisaci, Evelyn Square Cut Blouse-Dove
Dress 1: Gisaci, Barlu Fiore-Casablanca
Dress 2: Armidi Limited, Duo Cocktail Dress-Aqua Afrillia
Shoes: Armidi Gisaci, Dhali Bow Platforms-Black with Ivory Moss
Necklace: ET, Butterflies at Play (not at Armidi)
The second thing I needed to do inworld (the first being, trashing my noob look and getting new skin, see skin post) was to find a place to live. Now I'm not crazy about apartment hunting in rl but in sl, it's hella fun!
There were a few essentials I was looking for in this potentially fabulous place, one being that I only wanted to spend 500L and the other was that I wanted high ceilings. Simple to find, yes? Not really. Since I'm fairly new and I don't know many people inworld (no word of mouth finds), I did a search for rentals the old fashioned way via the search button and the classified section on the Second Life website. I looked at beach houses, house boats, tree houses, house in the mountains, houses behind waterfalls, houses in fairy/furry/wicca areas, apartments and caves. I saw many places none of which I was crazy about, and not to say that these places weren't nice. Many of them were nice but just not me.
Late one night, I heard the word "skybox" whispered among the patrons at this club I was at. Actually, just kidding about the whispering but people have recommended skyboxes to me. The image of a sanctuary up in the sky reminded me of The Fifth Element which I always thought was a cool flick (and I'm not big on SciFi) so I was definitely drawn to the idea. And so I revamped my search to just skyboxes and again I saw lots and lots, many of which were furnished. I was looking for something empty because an empty space equals an empty slate equals a new beginning, right? So after many days, I finally found what I was looking for which resembled what I kind of lost recently in rl. Big surprise there, haha!
So yeah, my skybox was the perfect fit for me. It reminds me of a city I long to return to someday. Here are some more pics of my new place.
On impulse, I jumped off my roof to see where I would end up and this is where I landed. You never know where you will land so quit dangling that foot and JumP!
One of the first things I needed to do inworld was to get rid of my horrifying newbie appearance. Actually, it wasn't that bad (see first post below).
I wanted Epione to have a unique, ethnic type of look but I also wanted a high quality and affordable skin. As I was doing research for this post (translation: trying on many skin demos), I realized affordable and high quality do not necessarily go together especially if you're referring to skin. And, as you know, there are many beautiful skins out there and I am constantly amazed at the talent of the designers. As I was trying on skin, I thought it would be fun to attempt to create one on my own but skin design requires photoshop (I think). And as someone who has just spent many early morning hours trying to make my images presentable(at the very least)for this post, I think my skin design goals will have to be put on hold for awhile. I've taken several classes in photoshop...several years ago so I'm kind of relearning so be patient with my pics.
"Skin Deep" will be an ongoing topic. I have yet to decide on one skin but I can tell you now that I'm already leaning toward one designer/store but my mind could change tomorrow (it probably will). I know many people change their skins often but I'm not sure I want to do that with Epione but nothing is set in stone. Below, is a sample of four different skins at four different prices. For the most part, I only purchased one skin of each style. Most of the prices range from L600-1200 per skin and fat packs range from L1800-8500(the L8500 set included 15 skins). I'm not a skin expert so this review is going to be high on praise and low on criticism.
All pics were taken at Fire Beach
Den-Dou
If you're looking for an Asian style that has a young feel to it then Den-Dou is a great place to start. I had to try on different hair and clothing styles until I warmed to the Heidi skin. The eyes are beautiful and draw you in immediately. I tend to like darker skins but the lighter shades of Heidi are quite lovely. There are also some goth and fantasy style skins at Den-Dou.
skin: Den-Dou, Heidi, Rich-/02 Sugar
hair: Truth, Milla, Chocolate
swimsuit: Sea Hole, star-studded MONoKini
animation: Olive Juice, Clever Girl
Redgrave
I've become a Redgrave believer! Her skins are gorgeous and affordable. A fat pack is L2999 and one skin is L990 which is quite reasonably considering the quality of the product. Hana2 in Mahogany reminded me of a mixed African American and Latin beauty. The skin appears very smooth and the eyebrows compliment the style perfectly. I look forward to trying more skins at Redgrave.
skin: Redgrave, 01Mahogany-Hana2
hair: Truth, Minx2 in Java
bikini: SF Design, Tiger Print
animations: Olive Juice, Morning Glory in Bloom
Skin Within
When I started searching for exotic skins I came across Skin Within. Ayesha Bisiani specializes in ethnic skins and has an amazing variety at her store. Since I wanted to focus on "affordable" skins for this first post, I focused mainly on her sale section. Adhira is a fair, pale skin which normally wouldn't be my first choice but I immediately took to it when I tried it on. Also, it's not a bad deal at L600 per skin (non-sale skins are L1200 each). The skin has a more realistic feel to it from the freckles to the gradual shading of the overall skin.
skin: Skin Within, Adhira Skin
bikini: Sf Design, Ursula in orange
hair: Truth, Eloise in auburn
shoes: A-bomb, Nazumi sneakers
animations: Olive Juice, Morning Glory in Bloom
OC-Orage Creations
OC also has some exotic and interesting skins. Of the four skins in this review, I thought the shading on Rhea was the best. The shadows and shading on her is awesome. Also, Rhea's face is very detailed with a subtle amount of shading. Rhea has an exotic look to her and could come from almost anywhere.
skin: OC-Orage Creations, Rhea skin,
hair: Truth, Joanna in caramel
bikini: Sand Shack Surf Co, Moana, Ocean Flower
shoes:A-bomb, Nazumi sneakers.
necklace: Iced Butterfly Black Pearl, MND hunt gift
animations: Abranimations AO1 and Olive Juice, Clever Girl
Yoga has changed my life. I've suffered from a physical problem for the past couple of years and yoga has taught me to 1) relax 2) breathe and 3) relax. Relaxing and breathing seem like two very simple things to do but for me, I find it almost impossible to get my mind and body to relax. And the breathing part? I have to remind myself to breathe. Seriously. 
Yoga class is one of the few times during the day where I'm able to concentrate fully on what I am doing without stressing about tomorrow or regretting yesterday. I am fully in the moment. I practice Hatha mainly because I prefer to stay in one pose for a longer period. I'm not at the level of power yoga or as I call it, "Madonna yoga" yet but I am working up to that level (it will probably take me several years).
