Friends Don't Let Friends Shoot In Low Res.

If you're a fellow blogger, SL photography enthusiast, or you just like clicking buttons and having pictures of your avatar, this may be a familiar, fateful fable. Maybe it happened like this...

*cue Scooby Doo doodle-ooh doodle-ooh doodle-ooh sounds and the wavy yet groovy screen*

You found the outfit. You matched the clothes, the hair...and of course, the shooz. Don't forget the accessories. You have your smexy self and/or photogenic friend poised and posed with you. The camera's ready. You take your shots. Hell, if it was anything like you see on TV, you'd be bustin a move irl with an expensive camera and looking ridiculously cool while doing it. You check your pictures on the hard drive. They're made of awesome. That's a wrap.

And then...

*cue more Scooby Doo music*

You take a break. Maybe grab a beer, an Evian, a diet soda. Snag a munchie. You come back to your 'puter and you click open Photoshop. You're in the zone. You're ready to rock with your awesome pictures. You open the first one, and...

*cue the movie "Psycho" and the REE REE REE! music!*

IT'S PIXEL MAYHEM! Pixels are hither and thither, and your masterpieces are reduced to original Nintendo Mario Bros. quality. You realize, all of the sudden...

You forgot to click "Ultra" in your Graphics Preferences before you took your pics.

*headdesks*

And then, if you're really like me, you convince yourself that it would be madness to simply retake the shots. Oh no. You're going to be the next "Photoshop Picasso" and "fight the man" and "fix" these pictures, dammit! You get back in the zone. You smooth every little pixely edge and liquify the Hades out of almost every body part. You lean back with triumph when you hit save and upload to Flickr. Then...you look at the clock. And you realize you could have retaken about 20 beautiful, "Ultra" graphics enabled shots in the amount of time it took you to fix just this one and it would have looked 10 times better than what you were able to produce.

Now, you may be wondering by now...Adaire, why the heck are you going on and on about this? You probably wasted even more time crying about your original Nintendo-quality shots instead of just retaking them.

Yep. I sure have.

But here you have it anyway, and no extra charge for the pixel tragedy when I say that Sn@tch has got an awesome freebie out this week. It's called "Backstage," and the pants in particular are to die for. It's among the regular vendors in the brand new Sn@tch City shop. Be sure to grab it soon, as I think it's going to poof around Thursday-ish.

Annnnd...if you dig the fortune teller thing, you can score this outfit on the free too, called "Half Dressed." The skirt is color and texture-change with a click, making it uber versatile.

Ooh! And there is a "Condom Quest" event in the Sn@tch sims that starts this Friday, April 17th and goes through the weekend. It's apparently in honor of "STD Awareness Month," so I'm sure all kinds of "love" will be spreading. Stay tuned for details. (But not gory details. I'm a mostly decent person. Mostly.)


And...while not free, all the hairstyles you saw above are a part of the Philotic Energy sale going on now. All styles ('cept for the latest release) are between 25%-50% off, like the "Teagan" I'm wearing in the first pic and the gloriously sapphire "Dakota" in the second one. (Gecko has on Kannon and Kam, also on sale!) If you wanted to score some seriously amazing hair on the cheap, head on over before the sale is over!

And...if you put Philotic Energy in your profile pics, you can get "Shelly" in Mochachino for free!

So remember kids...friends don't let friends take photos in SL in low res. Or, they'll end up like me, hunched over a keyboard, nose an inch from the screen, yelling at Photoshop like it is a sentient being and it is somehow completely responsible for all of your life's troubles.

Style Notes of the Free and Not-So-Free:
Picture 1 ~
April Skin (Freckles): Atomic Kitty (Group Gift - $250 to join, beautifully blogged by the Creamster here)
Teagan Hair (Charcoal): Philotic Energy (25% off!)
Starlight Tattoo: Sn@tch ($200L)
Smash Kicks Shooz (Black Canvas w/Scripted Texture Change Laces): Sn@tch ($250L)

Picture 2 ~
Daktota Hair (Sapphire): Philotic Energy (25% off!)
Misfit Platform Boots (Black): Sn@tch ($275L)
Modeling 15 Couples Pose: SEmotion ($210L)

Picture 3 ~
Shelly Hair (Mochachino): Philotic Energy (Picks Reward)
Butterfly Attack Tee: Kunstkammer (Albero Hunt Freebie)
Nana Choker: Ultra Kitty (Bunny Hop Hunt Freebie #76)
Rust Bracelet: Kosh (Bunny Hop Freebie #281)
Street Meat Jeans (Black): Sn@tch ($250L for 6 color fatpack)

Laaaaaaaazy

Oh god I hate it when I wake up, and it's raining, been raining all night. Dark skies at 7am are just wrong. Specially on a Weds, specially when mini Ash decided at 2.30am that there was no way on earth she could sleep in her own bed. Specially when she takes up my whole damn bed.



Van Stantz, he makes me happy, in fact he makes me squee. These amazing boots are yours for free, for a limited time at EvA. As always, they are scripted sculpts of yum, and we are spoilt rotten. Be sure to fangirl Van and Evangeline if you see them!



Next we have a gorgeous opening dollarbie from Amaranthus, a new project from Elbereth Nightfire of Star Kindler fame. This is a bit of a departure from the jewelery we are used to from this talented designer, featuring Victorian gothic pieces that are just stunning. The perfect foil for these gorgy silks from Silk & Satyr, also an opening gift. Do hit up the subscribo, and do spend lots of lindens in this yummy store, it's my first choice for silks.......srsly.



And here is where Ash got thoroughly fed up today!!! Ash and Q were looking decidedly similar, so here we have the new (for the moment) Ash! I'm prob the only one that can tell the difference, but that kinda counts..right?!





I haven't posted about the cutest store on the grid for awhile. Lo*momo long ago claimed that title in my books, and there has been no contender since!! Shown here are a mixture of group gifts (avail in store with tag activated) dollarbies and the Bunny Hop gift. Ohh and there's 2 lucky boards there now, both dresses eluded me, but they are stunning. And now I suppose I shall drag myself off to do something semi useful, Ash out.

Pic 1
Hair (not free)
Torridwear
Boots
Eva

Pic 2
Outfit
Silk And Satyr Group Gift
Hair (not free)
69
Necklace
Amaranthus opening Dollarbie

Pics 3,4,5
Outfits
Lo*Momo

Hair (not free)
69
Maitreya

Hoofies (not free)
Lazy Places

Skin worn Throughout
Seduction Cupcakes Group Gift

Hunty Goodness

I have to admit, the thought of hunting at 300 stores scared me a little, also the strain of my already ridonculous inv had me fearing sim crashes and all sorts of other madness on Ash. So with that in mind, the only choice is to do it as Q. Also, my personal plan of attack is to go to my favie stores first, then have some exploring time, going to stores I've never heard of before.



This first outfit is the hunt gift from Little Heaven. The ears are made of total win, all floppy and pierced!! You even get 2 types of hair with this gift, but I had a hell of a time trying to get them to look right so I haven't shown them.



An amazing gift from Wretched Dollies shown with shoes from Nonko. You get a choice of aprons to wear with this outfit, I chose the ones with bunnehs on it of course!! The gorgy skin is the gift from Chaos By Design. The pack also has mens skins too, yay for the boys!



And lastly on today's hunt agenda is the outfit from Bare Rose. Shown with the TOTALLY NOT FREE NEW HAIR FROM ETD. Can't wait till the stores properly up and running, oh Elika how I've missed thee!! Look at my adorables shoes!!! These are the new gift from the Dilly Dolls midnight mania board. I'd get in early if I were you, the board has no problems filling up as soon as it's opened again!! No wonder, these are colour scripted so you get 790856078540 options.



And as a break from the hunt, check out this amazing jacket from the Lunas Boutique group. I totally love it, and am so stoked to have such a versatile piece. Shown with undies also from the same group. They were sent out last week, so get in quick. I'm telling you, this is one group to keep in your 25, not just for the gifts, but for news of the new releases too! Ash Out

Pic 1
Outfit
Hunt Gift #2-Little Heaven
Hair (not free)
The Stringer Mausoleum
Skin (not free
Bebae

Pic 2
Outfit
Hunt Gift #246- Wretched Dollies
Skin
Hunt Gift #288-Chaos By Design
Shoes
Hunt Gift #27 -Nonko
Hair (not free)
Aden

Pic 3
Outfit
Hunt Gift #1-Bare Rose
Shoes
Dilly Dolls MM Board
Skin (not free)
Bebae
Hair (not free)
ETD

Pic 4
Outfit
Lunas Boutique Group Gift
Skin (not free)
Bebae
Hair (not free)
Aden

Second Life has no spilled juice

Rainy Spring morning and my daughter's already peed her bed, coated herself in pancake, and spilled an enormous glass of juice. Now she's playing Candy Land completely in the buff. Ah, Saturday mornings.

In other news, I'm still Bunny Hopping. Not sure what it is about Easter that brings out the cuteness, but I've been extremely happy with the hunt items I've gathered so far. Especially awesome, this outfit from Umi Usagi, the skins from Rockberry, earrings from Violet Voltaire, and bubble pipe from Scribble. The pipe spits out big lovely colorful bubbles every now and again (and it's hidden in an eeeevil place; I actually had to bust out my Japanese knowledge to read someone's hint before I could find it.) SLURLS to their stores are below!

Not free but possibly one of my favorite hairs ever, the OMFG by House of Munster. You know those different colored bits? I bought the pack where they're all scripted to color change independently of each other...Hours of color-changing play! (Okay, perhaps I'm easily amused.) At any rate, great hair for sale at the Harold location (SLURL below).






Bunny Hop items:
***Outfit: Umi Usagi Bunny Hop outfit
***Skin: RockBerry Megan Bunny Hop Hunt Light
***Pipe: Scribble Bubble Pipe (rainbow)
***Earrings: Violet Voltaire Cherub Wings Earrings: Black/Violet
Not free items:
***Hair: House of Munster OMFG Platinum + tips (and -Hiccup's Nerd Swept with the earrings)
***Shoes: (Shiny Things) Saturday Flats - black

A different kind of free hare

Welcome to the grid-wide bunny hop! Shown above is Schadenfreude's rabbit head, a gorgeous frock from (elate!), and a little shoulder pig-bunneh from Pink Fuel (close-up on those below, the hare-head has a colorchanging hat!). Along with the Pink Fuel shoulder bunny is a complete avatar, the sad bunny (below). Pick up a starter egg and start hoppin'. Or something. (SLURLs to shops below.)




***head: Schadenfreude rabbit head (SLURL HERE) -- the skin is free from Wingless Emoto.
***dress: (elate!) eve bunny hop gift
***Piggy and avatar: Pink Fuel shoulder pig and avatar

Monday Morning Musings

So this fine Monday morn finds me pondering the great questions in life such as, If my daughter has more than 20 pairs of undies (at last count) why can we never find a pair when we need them? Or, Where the hell have all her matching socks gone? Or my all time most asked question, why is it that no matter how long I spend cleaning, mini Ash's toys find a way to ninja themselves back under the sofa cushions? Yes I've had Redbull, clearly :P



Last week I gave you a sneak peek of some of the amazing prizes from the Bunny Hop Hunt. Someone in comments was all bereft in case they forgot what prize was who's and where it came from and such! Never fear, would I let you down? So here is an update, with extra prizes added to entice you :P This first dress is the prize from Whonose. It comes complete with cute ballet flats and a nifty headpiece thinger.



This dress I think is one of my faves so far. A gorgeous prize from Sister Strawberry. While being totally cute, the black lacing around the bottom of the skirt stops it being cavity inducing. The hunt starts 3/27 and runs till 4/19, you ready?!







These pics are a repost of my original blog post about the hunt. To read that in all it's glory, click the link at the top of the page, the credits for these dresses and the non freebs shown can be found there. Now I'm off to hunt for those missing socks before dragging myself to RL work. Ash Out

Non Freebs From the first 2 pics of this post.
Skin
Bebae

Ballet Boots
DXD

Hair (which FYI, I dragged my 2 besties round the grid for 4 hours the other night trying to find this hair, all clothes must now match the 'hawk :P)
Black Maria