The HodgePodge Mall is having an event this month with many of the shops there having exclusives just for February. Chez Toi is a new store that’s still moving into the mall, and their first item is an exclusive shabby chic beach house for only L$150. Now that price would be awesome just for the cottage, but it’s even better when you realize that it comes with a deck that has 5 animations built into it in 2 different spots. The very end of the dock has 3 lounging animations, and the middle of the dock has 2 sitting animations on the side.

Our sim is still in the midst of winter, so just try to ignore the snow and icy trees and focus on the promise of summer in the form of the cute little cottage. Even though I was dressed for colder weather, I still enjoyed the dock and swinging my feet over the water.

I’m such a hermit that I’m never sure how to invite people over, but maybe I can entice you inside my new little house with a cupcake? This cupcake and pose is just one item from the Pink Fuel I <3 Cuppycakes Pack that's part of the Snacks and Sweets Hunt. Just go to Pink Fuel and look for the big yellow arrow pointing to the pink cupcake to get the set for yourself.

I was in such a hurry to show you the house that I didn’t have a chance to decorate. That made me a little sad, but I was glad to have my handy Sad Purple Popsicle from Lolapop! to help me show my emotion. The Popsicle Emotions set is Lolapop!’s gift for the Snacks and Sweets Hunt, and Lola’s main shop is at the HodgePodge Mall, so you can go grab that while you’re picking up the cottage from Chez Toi.

Sharing so many deals with you has made me happy again, so please note the big smile on my Lolapop! Kawaii Popsicle Emotions necklace now. The trapped heart lip piercing is also from Lolapop! The skin is one of the Valentine’s Day Bazaar exclusives from Pink Fuel, and it’s such a steal at L$50 that I ran over there as soon as I got the notice. There are lots of other great deals at the bazaar, so be sure to check it out.

Body
Hair: Exile Amelia / duskwood
Skin: Pink Fuel Skye – Pink Sugar – Flushed (dkbrow/hair)
Eyes: Shine Silent Lucidity Gasoline

Clothing
Sweater: Boom Hickey Hider – Powder
Jeans: Decoy Dana 76 Jeans – Dark
Boots: Kookie Pomski Coffee Candy Boots
Jewelry: Lolapop! Sad Purple Popsicle, Kawaii Popsicle Emotions Necklace, and Trapped Heart Lip Piercing

Props and Poses
Poses: Reel Expression Curvy Casual AO
Cupcake Pose with Cupcake: Pink Fuel I <3 Cuppycakes Pack
Cottage: Chez Toi Lake Cottage

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen a few people blog about the items that they couldn’t live without in Second Life. Of course, I can’t find any of those posts now to link to them, but they got me thinking about the things that make me feel like me. The most basic item is simply the shape I created, which makes sense. But what else goes on that shape to really make Brandy Rasmuson look like Brandy Rasmuson to me? It’s no surprise, I guess, that the answer to that has changed over the year or so I’ve been in SL. The screenshot below shows off some of the items that most feel like Brandy to me right now.

After my shape, I think the biggest items are the hair and skin for me. I’ve been wearing the Brandy hair from Exile as my default hair since Kavar gave it to me for my birthday in January, and the blackmix shade is the one I wear the most. I just really like the way the red and blonde mix with the black. Although I have what seem like a million skins, I keep coming back to the Chai Siyu skin in Cream. It just feels right.

Eyes really make an impact as well, and until recently, I was wearing the Intense Brown/Aqua eyes from Sin Skins (left close-up in above screenshot) almost exclusively. Then Kavar released these amazing Prism eyes at Exile (right close-up in above screenshot), and I haven’t been able to take them off since I tried them. I almost always wear prim lashes, and the ones I wear the most are the Tipped Vanity Lashes from Sin Skins. I’ve also been wearing my piercings from Magika so much that they feel like an integral part of my look. One set includes an eyebrow piercing and a lip ring, and the other set has multiple silver hoops in both ears.

Everything else in this outfit are things I wear often but aren’t worn practically daily like the items I’ve mentioned up to this point. One of those that you probably can’t see that well in the screenshot is my Sin Skins Glitter Manicure in Black. My dark blue jeans from Exile have become one of my favorite pairs of jeans because I love the depth and color of the texture and because they just look comfortable. A hoodie or sweater is pretty typical too, and this Heartbreaker one from Reaction Girl is one I often grab when I just want something quick to wear to go shopping or exploring. My Shiny Things black Flare Oxfords and charcoal knit socks go with just about everything, and they get pulled out of my inventory quite often.

I’m going to come back to this topic in a few months to see what feels most like me then as opposed to now. Right this moment, I can’t imagine the core items like my skin and hair changing, but I guess that’s why these are the things that most feel like me now. Who really knows if that will change in the future?

I’m really horrible with titles, and that’s all I could come up with for this little hodgepodge post of things somewhat related to shopping.

First, as Rosie has mentioned, ETD is having a huge sale that I’m sure you all know about it, and I bought some hair there myself. I actually showed some restraint because I’m on an Exile hair kick right now, and it’s pretty much all I’m wearing for general running around the grid kinds of things, but I still bought quite a bit of a hair because the deals are amazing! The hair below is not from ETD but from Sinsation, and it’s a somewhat hefty hair at 199 prims, but I love it, and I’m glad to have it. However, I would not wear this to the ETD sale along with enough blinging attachments to power a small country and then have the nerve to shout about the lag. That’s kind of stupid and annoying, and I wish the person I’d seen doing that today had a brain.

Another shopping lesson I’ve learned is that no matter how much you’re able to resist a certain item for really good reasons such as the fact you don’t need another skin because you already have a bazillion of them, the second you see a friend looking amazing in that item, you’ll run to the store and lay down your lindens. The Vin and Dakota skins from TaP will most definitely be coming home with me very soon. See why for yourself at Rosie’s Flickr stream.

Very tangentially related to shopping, I’ve also learned that items you splurged on just weeks ago will suddenly just not feel like you any more. And that’s fine of course. We all change. It’s just interesting to see how that works and to try to figure out what has changed your opinion or tastes. My first skin purchase in SL was a Celestial Studios skin, and for quite some time, that was the only skin I owned. Then I picked up a few more of the Celestial Studios skins, and I really thought I’d stick with them because I liked having some continuity in how I looked but still wanted a variety of makeups for different outfits. Just a short time later, and I’m not wearing my CS skins at all. They’re still lovely, but they just don’t feel much like me.

Another item that’s changed very recently for me is my AO. I love Surrealia Anatine’s work at ANA_Mations, and getting some custom stands from her was a great way of refreshing my AO a couple of months ago. At that time I chose several poses from her “shy” collection that have your head tilted down a lot. They felt very right and unique on me. Then over the last couple of weeks, I realized that having my head down all the time was getting on my nerves, and when I was talking with a friend about AOs and he mentioned that it was hard to see my face with my AO, I realized that I really should change things up.

Thankfully, I had more of the Ana_Mations stands, so I just took out the shy ones and added in some other ones. I also decided that the 3rd stand from Surrealia’s new animated Vixen AO was close enough as far as fitting me without my hands completely disappearing, so I picked that up and added it to my ZHAO as well. Now, I’m happy with my AO again with just a couple of small changes.

I’m having a hard time getting back into the swing of things for some reason. Nothing feels quite right yet, and I seem to always be missing my friends and events I want to attend. Even shopping doesn’t seem as much fun, but Tuli releasing the Veronica outfit did get me to run out with wallet in hand while still bald because none of my hair would rez. That’s just how much I wanted the outfit.

I was cautious and bought just the aubergine color even though I wanted the fat pack because I wasn’t sure how the whole outfit (sweater, skirt, capris, and tights) would work on my shape. I’m happy to say that the sweater fit without any modding other than moving the neck around just a tiny little bit. Yeah, let me say that again. I bought a sweater with prim neck and wrist attachments, and I barely needed to adjust anything! /me faints. The sweater texture is so lush and fits me really well.

As expected, there is some distortion of the plaid pattern on my shape, but the skirt being in three pieces allowed me to get a good fit with that as well. After stretching and adjusting those prims, I don’t notice the texture stretching as much. The pose I used to show the skirt here has an issue with my leg sticking through, but that’s just the pose, and I think you can still see that the plaid lines up nicely across the prims of the skirt.

All the Halloween hunts have been fun as well because they’re available whenever I am even when it’s the middle of the day and because freebies are always music to this bargain shopper’s ear. My favorites of the hunts have probably been the DG Innovations and Deviant Kitties ones because of the mix and quality of the items. I found myself enjoying a little different look for myself with the Deviant Kitties items as you can see in these photos. I liked pairing them with the Halloween freebie skins from Minnu Models.

I also have to say that I was surprised by how easily I was able to fit this orange skirt from Deviant Kitties. I almost didn’t even try because I have had no luck with similar skirts from other shops. I just stretched it out quite a bit and then moved it over and up a little, and it fit! I’m guessing my waist-to-hip ratio is similar to Helyanwe’s shape, which is a theory I’ll be testing out in the future by buying more skirts!

Guess who finished her project and submitted it almost a week ahead of schedule! Yeah, that would be me, and now I don’t have that hanging over my head, and I’m getting a bonus. Of course, that’s just because they’re trying to burn through grant money, which bothers me, but I’m definitely happy with being done and with getting more money.

Speaking of money, I have lindens begging to be spent and a whole day to shop and explore. Grid, watch out because a bargain-crazed Brandy is on the loose! I have pages and pages of notes and SLURLs, so I better get started.

It’s been another week where I haven’t been in world very much. I’m working on a project that is only being done to use up some grant money that would otherwise disappear if not used by the end of the month. The work feels a little useless with that in mind even though I’m getting a decent paycheck from it. I guess I shouldn’t complain, but it’s hard to focus on finishing something that doesn’t seem to serve a purpose and will probably never be used. It’s off my desk after this week as long as I dig in and get things done, so that’s my focus at the moment.

I have been able to do a little retail therapy in SL the last few days though, and my closet is packed with t-shirts from Boing Fromage thanks to the half-off sale at the Nakama store. I’ve had a Gizmo shirt from there for ages, and there were others I wanted but never got around to buying. For a half-off sale, I can definitely get there with wallet in hand! Dove Swanson of Long Awkward Pose is also selling all her poses for half-off. She’s closing up shop sadly, but for one more day, you can still pick up some great poses that are just 25 lindens each.

My friend Zin met a couple of sisters new to SL the other day, and we’ve (mostly Zin) been taking them around to the good freebies and showing them how to use the newbie vouchers for some of the hair shops and for free shoes from Adam n Eve. (A free pair of shoes – excluding all boots – from Adam n Eve if you’re less than 30 days old!) They’re less than a week old, and they’re looking great! I don’t think they’ve spent more than 10 lindens each, and that was mainly just trying on demos and buying the awesome Phoebe hair at ETD for 1 linden. Seriously, if you’re a female avie, and you haven’t bought the Phoebe hair yet, you need to run there right now.

Our new friends Brandy (nice name, huh? ) and Coriander are looking to role-play together. I told them about Midian City and City of Lost Angels, but I think they’re looking for something a little less urban or maybe urban but less gritty. Any other possibilities for them to check out? I’d actually be interested for myself as well. It’s something I’ve meant to explore in SL and just haven’t tried yet. I think I’d like something similar to Newford, the city where Charles de Lint sets some of his stories. I’d definitely want something a little more light-hearted than I perceive the roleplaying areas I know about, but it’s also possible that I just don’t have a good understanding of places like Midian City.

This week new surnames also became available in SL, and one of the new names is Munster. In somewhat related news, I created my first and only alt named Lily. I think I’m just going to dress her like the famous Lily and have her around for kicks, but I haven’t had a chance to do anything with her yet.

For my honorable mention in the Photosphere contest, I got to pick any outfit from Kyoot Army as my prize. I’ve had my eye on the Swirly Cyclone dress for a while but wasn’t sure how the texture would work on my shape, so I decided that I’d take a chance on it as my prize. I’m so glad I did! I think it looks great on me, and I don’t notice any problems with the texture at all. In fact, I was very pleasantly surprised by how nicely the belt on the jacket layer maintains its crispness even as it’s stretched across my much thicker than average avie. This is the second Kyoot Army outfit I have, and both this one and The Last Mobstress have worked wonderfully with my shape without any loss of detail.

And I have even more new poses in my collection now. I contacted Surrealia Anatine of ANA_Mations on Monday to ask about getting some of her stands customized for my shape because I was looking for something to make my AO feel a little more natural and me, and by Tuesday evening, I had a huge collection of stands from her. It turns out that she had been thinking about poses for bigger avies for a while, so in addition to the stands I asked about, she took some of her best-selling stands and reworked them for larger shapes. She gave me the entire set! We loves her, and she is our precioussss. LOL Seriously, the poses are fantastic, and Surrealia was nothing but kind. Check out her new “Big Girl Pose Collection” if that’s of interest to you, and even if it isn’t, take a look at the rest of her poses or maybe contact her for a custom AO just for you.

The skirt I’m wearing in the pose photo is from Boing Fromage, and I picked it up the day it was released a while ago because I loved it at first sight. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite get it to work on my shape, so I never wore it. Yesterday I came across it again in my inventory and decided to give it another shot now that I have more practice sizing skirts. As you can see, it wasn’t a problem at all this time around. I may never take it off.

Dove Swanson from Long Awkward Pose sent out a free “chubby pose set” to her group members this weekend. I know it must be hard to try to take into account such a huge variety of shapes, but I’m so thankful for some additional modeling poses where my hips and boobs don’t eat my hands. This set of nine poses is a very handy set to use in my Photosphere for my “pretending to be a model” days. In this photo, I’m using the C-Hush, C-Yup, C-Cuteness, and C-Baby Got Back Too poses from left to right.

If you haven’t been to Long Awkward Poses, you really should visit! There’s a very sweet set of pregnancy poses and a geisha pose set just to mention a couple of the many options she has created. Dove really helps us show off our avies in all their different kinds of beauty.

To go along with my “pretending to be a model” mood, I’ll give some details about this simple little outfit I pulled together to show off the poses. The hair is Jackie in Espresso from ETD, and if this didn’t have bangs, this would be a very close match to the way I often wear my RL hair. Even though you can’t really see them here, my eyes are IdealEyes in Midnight Sun from EyeFidelity, and I’m also wearing the Bedroom Lashes from Cake. The skin is Vivant Buff Septembre 2 from Tete a Pied, and this Vivant line has really made me a big TaP fan. Can you believe how many great looks they’re giving us for only 500 lindens per skin (a little less if you’re like me and just buy the 3-packs)?

I’m wearing silver cross and wooden heart necklaces from Tuli, and I love the way those layer together. My tank tops from Camie Cooper at It’s All Good! are some of my basic layering options that I use again and again, and I love them with the crocheted shrugs from MG fashion. The shrugs also come with some cute attachments to give poofier sleeves, but I find that I usually wear them without the attachments. It’s great to have both options!

Every girl needs a pair or two of “perfect jeans”, and my dark Trusty jeans from LF Fashions definitely fall into that category. The color is great, and they make my butt look like a million lindens. Having a couple of options for the prim attachments is handy, and I love the way that I can’t even tell where the prims meet the jeans. Finishing off the outfit are my black Clara slingbacks from Shiny Things. I’m one of those freak avatars who doesn’t own a lot of shoes, and I don’t buy many heels at all, but these chunkier heels with the rich texturing have become a staple for me.

This weekend was so much fun! Thank you to all my wonderful friends who helped make it one of the best weekends in recent memory. Two of my best RL friends actually spent time in world with me, and showing them around and shopping was really fun. They live on the other side of the country, so it had been ages since we had a girl day together. I’m crossing my fingers that they’ll come back more often now.

Both Aly and Zin have had accounts for a few months, but they hardly ever sign in. Aly is actually my sister-in-law, and she had her husband (Uriah’s brother ) join as well. Uriah’s brother is named Tull. Classic rock fans might notice a connection with those two names.

I managed to sign them all up for Tiny Empires a while ago, so they got more hooked on that as we shopped. I became a little irritated with TE when it didn’t acknowledge me accepting a bribe that I really wanted to take, and Aly and Zin thought that was hilarious for some reason. I’m glad someone had a laugh over it. *sniff*

I’d really like to get Uriah, Tull, Aly, and Zin together in SL at the same time and take some group photos. I even have a brand new photosphere that would be fun for that. That was part of the big shopping spree of last week, and I’m still figuring it out. Perhaps I’ll even join the photosphere contest.

I also became hooked on SL fishing this weekend. (Bad pun alert!) Going through the official Neo-Realms fishing camps, I found some really cute areas. With SL fishing you don’t get just fish. My favorite catch so far is an adorable little penguin with a fork and knife. It was definitely good for some photos and laughs.

Then Saturday night Club 9.13 had a Nekos & Furries night. I decided to wear some really cute cat paws from Honey Kitty, but I wasn’t thrilled with the ears and tail from that set. I also didn’t really see a need to go out and buy the scripted ears and tails that I’ve seen on some of my neko friends because it’s not like I’d wear them that much.

Right before the event I was cleaning out my inventory, and to my surprise I had a whole folder full of scripted leopard ears and tails! I had black, white, brown, green, purple, and pink, and I still have no memory of buying them. I put on the pink set and decided to wear my dead doggy skirt from JetDoll, which is a black poodle skirt with a skeleton poodle on it. I was like a pink leopard girl from the 1950s, and the whole look just made me smile so much.

I signed out after the event Saturday without changing, and when I signed in yesterday for a little shopping and Tiny Empires chatting, I changed outfits but left my ears and tail on. Wearing them just makes me feel a little silly in a good way, and while I probably won’t wear them a majority of the time, I’ll definitely be pulling them out again.

In fact, I was thinking that they’d look really cute with some silvery hair and one of the drow skins from Tête à Pied. I already have the matching dress and hair from Silent Sparrow and Calico Creations, so I obviously must buy the skins anyway. The leopard ears aren’t part of the traditional drow look of course, but it’s just smart to think of ways to mix the skins into my other looks. /me nods quietly to herself as she runs out the door with her wallet.

I’m going to start this post with some personal musings, but I promise I’ll connect it up to SL in just a bit. Some of this beginning bit can possibly be summed up by ISFJ, Aquarian with Libra rising and moon in Sagittarius, and Queen of Swords. For the rest of you, I should mention that I’m a perfectionist peacemaker, and I’m always trying to figure out “the right thing” so that I can do it and make everybody else sing along in perfect harmony. I’m not willing to entertain any deception to do that because I want to get to the real heart of the matter even if the truth isn’t pretty.

I take it upon myself to take care of everyone else, and then I forget that I have to take care of me in order to take care of them. There are some stresses going on right now that are making me a little crazy, so I decided that yesterday and today are going to be a mini-vacation for me. I’ve been hanging out online, reading, and cleaning and organizing because those are all things that connect and center me.

That’s all great, but then I start stressing over my online activities, which defeats the purpose. It’s been X days since I blogged or added photos to Flickr or went to this hangout or whatever, and then I worry that I’m not being good enough. What’s good enough? I don’t know. It’s all more than a little insane, but it’s me, and I can usually smack myself around and recognize that I need to take a deep breath or two and calm down. In an amusing twist, this kind of anxiety paralyzes me, so then it’s even more time before I do that mythical thing that’s supposed to be so important. Yeah, my brain is a messy place at times, but it can also be a lot of fun, so I’m keeping it.

In the midst of all this inner crazy-making, I did what any self-respecting consumer does and indulged in some retail therapy. Happily, this is much cheaper in SL than in RL. See, that’s the SL connection that you may have been wondering about. I started with a trip to ETD to try out the latest hairs and then debating on what packs to get. In the past, I’ve been a Smoke girl, but then I have some skins that look better with dark brown hair rather than black hair, so I dabbled in Chocolate as well. This made the Elika’s Favorites pack a huge bargain for me.

The new Smoke texture is nice, but it doesn’t feel quite as right on me for some reason, so I’ve been debating going to another color. Yesterday felt like a good day to do some experimenting, so I ended up getting the Naturals II pack after some color demos, and that gives me Ebony and Espresso as my black and brown shades. I think these might be keepers, but I’m sure I’ll go back and forth on that for a while. I left with every new release in my shopping bag except for the cowboy hat. I’m not one to wear cowboy hats very often, and I already have one to pull out for Country nights at Club 9.13, so I don’t need another one.

Then I finally made my way to Celestial Studios for the big half-off skin sale. A CS Vogue skin was my very first skin purchase, and I’m still a big fan even though I wear several different skins now. My first skin was from the Muted Lips series (I think) in light brown. I went back and forth between the Pure and Champagne tones before plunking down the lindens on Pure. My second skin purchase was the Equinox makeup from the Spring series, and that one was also in Pure. For the Summer series, I made the leap to Champagne because I figured a light tan would be appropriate for the season. By that point, I was a hardcore shopper, and I just went with the entire series rather than picking one makeup. While at Celestial Studios yesterday, I picked up the entire Fall series and decided to stick with Champagne. I then picked up the entire Spring series in Champagne as well, and I have my eye on a couple of other sets that might make it into my shopping bag before the end of the sale tomorrow.

My final stop on that shopping spree was Straylight Botanical where I finally picked up the Orange and Red Japanese Maples. They’re a real bargain with the small, medium, and large sizes along with the optional shadows and groundcovers to match. I changed around the trees at my home, but I’ll continue to work on that as I’m not so good at using the groundcovers on my sloped land. Just having the new trees makes the place feel like autumn though, and I’m sure I’ll get the other bits up to my satisfaction at some point.

After some landscaping, I signed off from the husband’s computer and went off to do other things before booting up the laptop for DJ Rosie B‘s set for Cops and Criminals night. The laptop really hates SL, and I wasn’t even sure I was completely dressed when I got there, but I think I was fine. I tried dressing like the robber from Sims 2, but I think I ended up looking like a French artist. I crashed before the contest started, but I had a great time while I was there. This morning I signed in to SL to check something and realized that my hair from last night needs some adjusting. My perfectionist screeched about that for a bit, but then I just waved her off. She’s in the corner pouting, but she’ll get over it.