What A Wonderful World

Today’s blog will be a quick one. “YAY!!” Say’s my besty, Draakje Dailey. Ah heck, and probably 99% of you out there. This Spring, when you are playing with colors, don’t forget your Color wheel! Ever wonder how some of your favorite fashionistas put colors together to create eye-catching and fabulously colorful outfits? Well, The color wheel is an excellent wardrobe tool!

For a positive success, it is best to make the following combos using the color wheel as your guide:

1. Colors directly next to each other (i.e. yellow and yellow-orange; yellow and lime-green; violet and blue-violet, etc.)
2. Colors that form right (90 degree) angles with each other (i.e. yellow and red-orange; blue and crimson; green and orange, etc.) *I find the crimson a bit of a misnomer as the colors are more in the purple shades, but will call it this since it’s on the color wheel that way.
3. Colors directly across from each other (i.e. yellow and violet; blue and orange; red and green, etc.)
4. Colors that form a T (i.e. blue, orange, and crimson; yellow, violet, and red-orange; green, red, and orange, etc.)
5. Colors that form an X (i.e. blue, orange, crimson, and lime green; yellow, violet, turquoise and re-orange)

Since brown is a neutral, it will go with virtually any color on the color wheel. I love to pair a chocolate brown with cobalt blue or fuchsia for a fun and bold combo. Of course white, black, and the hues of blue found in denim are also neutrals that go with just about anything.

As for all of those accessories we as fashionista’s wear? The color wheel also applies to them. Go crazy with colored hats, bags, shoes, or scarves. When choosing jewelry, pair gold (or gold-toned) jewelry with your warm colored outfits. Warm colors have a yellow, gold, or orange undertone to them. Wear silver (or silver-toned) jewelry with your cool colored outfits. Cool colors have a blue, pink, or red undertone to them. Always remember though since colors are broken down by hue, temperature, intensity, and tone any single hue can be either warm or cool. You will have to look at the undertones.

Take from? See? Color isn’t something to fear, just keep a color wheel handy and take the power into your own hands! Get out there and Color your world! I was amazed how much color I saw available when shopping for this blog yesterday! All SLURL’s should be under my “last known SLURL’s” page to the left, if not, give me a holler.

Orange and Blue Outfit:
Hairs: Boon, YNO 421
Lipstick: Lovely Mi
Glasses: Emery, Era Taxi:
Earrings: Mandala, Leather Feather
Watch: Mandala, Hokusai
Necklace: Bon Kings
Shirt: Ricielli, Summer Mini **So many colors and prints, a virtual color wheel on its own!* Taxi:
Shorts: Ricielli, Summer Mini Top *ditto*

Lime-Green and Crimson Outfit:
Hair: Boon, BNG331
Sunglasses: Emery, Leopardess
Belt: Emery, Fuschia
Top: Emery, Candy
Skirt: Emery, Running Free
Purse: Ricielli, Mesh Gia (In Easter egg)

Living in Color

I simply love when Winter decides to recede and Spring finally takes hold, don’t you? A friend and I were corresponding just the other day about the gorgeous green showing on the oak trees this year. You’d think this a silly conversation, right? But not really, colors are one of the things in life that constantly reminds me to slow down and look around, to relax and just view the happiness of the colors around me. I blame it on where I live, Florida is consistently a plethora of color. One only has to look at the implausible color of a flamingo to know the Gods have a keen sense of humor. My home state is such a cacaphony of deep bright colors, it’s a wonder we don’t all go blind over here. I think it is the unique blend of cultures, especially the Caribbean influence. In all ways though, I feel blessed to be a part of this melting pot of flavorful colors and look forward to exploring some colors available right now in SL.

Today I am wearing *SoliDea FoliEs* Carla in a yummy cotton candy pink. Pale hues were spotted in practically every real world designer’s spring-summer 2013 collection, is there any reason we should not share this trend as well? Colors with very low saturation, what I think of as sorbet’s or sherbets, are a big trend this spring. Ranging from very pale to warmer shades, our Second Life wardrobe simply cannot go without pastels. Valentino, Louis Vuitton, Ellie Saab all have brought these colors to the forefront of their 2013 lines and hopefully soon inworld designers will follow suit because there is just something so ultra-feminine about these soft colors.

Take from? Sure it’s easy to get mired in what’s “available” in Second Life, but if you look a little deeper, there are a lot of treasures out there to wear. Don’t fear color, I can’t think of a single skin tone that doesn’t have some complimentary color besides red, black and white in its seasonal color line. Be brave, let your avatar look happier and brighter by choosing the colors that best fit you. In other words, You are now free to teleport around the world in living color. Tomorrow, YIKES! the color wheel… Have a low gravity Monday!

Outfit One:

Hair: Maitreya, Saar
Hairpiece: SoliDea FoliEs, special for Cao (I’m kinda spoilt that way 😉 )
Dress: SoliDea FoliEs, Carla
Glasses/lipstick: Mons, Round glasses
Ring: Mandala, Motsumame

When Fate Hands you a Lemon

It happens, it’s a fact of life. One day you are cruising along thinking you are on top of the world and Whammo! Your knocked so flat on your arse all you can do is sit there and stare at the clouds. Heck it happens to me weekly! Naw just kidding on that, but it does happen and sadly, the moment can come so quickly you are basically blind-sided. I certainly don’t know the ways of the world, perhaps we are given these moments so we can take a moment to quit running pell-mell forward and just stop, reflect and decide what other options you may have. Because often, by pushing forward with blinders on we miss out on so many other, possibly more lucrative or satisfying solutions.

The take from? When fate hands you a lemon, stop what you are doing, take your experience from the negative event (the lemon) and blend it with some of the other life experiences you’ve had, and make it better by creating lemonade. Life can be rather sour at times, but with the right ingredients and experiences, including the good and the bad, you can create a rather satisfying means to quench your thirst for life. I chose this outfit, Gaia, from *SoliDea FoliEs* (available at Avenue Spring Fashion week) to start off my week of color because it’s one of those outfits I call “colors I can smell or taste.” With such a refreshing lemony color, I can feel Spring creeping up on me, bringing an automatic renewing smile to my face. The headpiece is also *SoliDea FoliEs* and found at the mainstore and this adorably chic hair is brand new from Dura. It is Dura Boy/Girl 42. The hairs wonderfully accentuate the face, are resizable and available in all of the normal hair colors. In fact I loved the new style so much, and they fit these new styles from *SoliDea FoliEs* so well I will be wearing a blond version in a blog later this week. The amazing clutch is from Ricielli, but hurry, it’s hidden in an Easter egg and comes with about a dozen color choices. (Thanks for the tip Dragon! As always a Font of Knowledge!)

SoliDea Folies: Taxi:
Dura: Taxi:
Ricielli: Taxi:

Basically.Undateable.

Available right now at Avenue! *SoliDea FoliEs* Celeste

Yeah, unfortunately I’ve begun to suspect it’s true. I am undateable. I always hate to have little labels over my head, I hear its bad form to label people, but honestly sometimes they are true. Lately I feel like I own the old Whitney Young quote, “Recently I’ve been out on so many blind dates, I should get a free dog.” But seriously, it’s not that bad. Well, if I could get my mom to ease up about it it wouldn’t be. My mom may be only about five foot three, but when she wag’s that finger at me, she scares the crap out of me. She half scares me enough to have me marching to the Justice of the Peace with the next fellow who is almost willing and obviously a couple of tacos short of a combination platter. No, I’m kidding, she’s only half that bad and her intentions are good. She just wants me to forego happiness, like any dutiful daughter would, so she can be a grandmother. But I must have some deep-seeded cognitive relationship disorder, because I think it through too much.

Also currently available at Avenue, Viola from *SoliDea FoliEs*

People always fall in love with the most perfect aspects of each other’s personalities. Shoot that’s the easy part, but twenty five years in are you still in love with, or at the least, able to tolerate the flaws? That’s the hardest part for me. I was raised in a fashion of manners that would make the smartest debutante seem like a slob, so I always expect from others (or at least THE other) the little things, like please and thank you, chewing with your mouth closed and all the little details taught by Ms. Manners. Or rather, by my mom, the table Nazi, as it were. If I was around my significant and he wasn’t taught this way, I think after twenty-five years of smacking food I’d probably reach lovingly across the table and stab him with my plastic spork. I mean honestly, its easy to be happy with the stuff I dig about him and hopefully the good will always be there and in more numbers than the bad, but the “crap,” for lack of a better adjective, is what grates on the nerves. Can I live with that my entire life? Or will I cringe every time I see him head to the refrigerator?

Take from? Yep even today. I say this stuff mostly in gest, I wanted to lighten up on this Friday. I’m a little quirky that way. But the point is, dating and relationships are serious business and not for the faint of heart. Do the ground work with positive intent and do worry about the little things that bother you. That little niggling hole in the back of your mind when you talk to your other, in all seriousness as the years pass, it could become a cavernous sinkhole. When the time comes and you think you have found “the One,” sometimes we have to unromanticize and look at the person without those rose colored goggles. Admit his flaws to your romantic heart, let them rest there a spell and decide if it is something that will gently pass unnoticed or if it will fester as the years go by. Remember, “almost good enough,” or “there is just one flaw,” may make for a bad arrangement in time. Oh and mom? Sorry, no date tonight, but I’ll work on it and get back to you!

Outfit Three:
Shirt: *SoliDea FoliEs* Little Lola
Headpiece: *SoliDea FoliEs* Mila
Pants: Leezu! Glitter pants
Hairs: Boon
Shoos: Belgravia

Waiting For A Friend

Do you suppose there is something wrong with me that I have a very limited desire to have an “other” in Second Life? I have had one once before, and I just don’t think I will ever have the heart to try again. To me, somewhere along the line the line changes, you become more interested in what is in the machine than what is in the oxygenated world and it just becomes all consuming. It’s just my own prejudice but I kind of want my consumption in the real world. I sometimes think I am just too picky to progress much further in real or Second Life relationships. Maybe because of my shyness, maybe even a little fear of men, who knows? But probably it’s just somewhere in the pixel dust I want a guy like the guy in “Love in the Time of Cholera.”

Is it too romanticized to expect a man who would wait forever for me to be ready for him? I’d like to think I’d do the same for him. Isn’t that what love is, a conflagration of yours, mine and ours? I honestly don’t know. I know I want this, but yet, I somehow am unsure if it exists. I’d just like to say I am filled with joy for those friends who have found it, just please don’t forget to take some time to enjoy the single noncommital friends in your loop, we may be a little scared and whacky, but honestly, we don’t bite. As for my special guy? Find me, I’ve been waiting since the days of cholera for the love of pete. Honestly! I have! I am wearing the scrumptious new dress from Belle Roussel of Chop Zuey, called the “Spring Fling Gown Set.” It’s a classy outfit and all of the jewelry is included! Hurry on down and grab yours today! Available in several colors! Taxi:

For Every Drop of Rain

I’m not a Cao, I’m a playboy bunny!

Having some fun today, as a Wednesday it’s been uphill all the way. I ran by the pose fair the other day, there are so many different pose maker’s there. A ton I’ve not heard of and a few of my fave creators, but all wonderful. I picked up quite a few too. If this keeps up I am going to have to get a job.. I fell in love with this particular rain pose set from {.:exposeur:.}. The umbrella is from Handverk and is made for the set but I think perhaps any umbrella you have on hand should do alright.

This pose is from Del May

Well looky there, the Cao changed back! And its Spring and I know, for every drop of rain a flower grows, but not a Lil Cao. So if you’re like me, you better get some chic rain gear for the season. This adorable little rainset (includes the boots!) is a sneak peek of one of the brand new *SoliDea FoliEs* outfits Mila Tatham created for the Solo-Evane Milan Fashion Week. I’m walking in the show, so I hope you will attend. I will post up some more information when someone sends it to me. *hint* Thats about all for today because I am late posting this. So see? Sometimes even I don’t have to have an entire blog of Word and Peace. Take that Draakje! 😉

Pauciloquence and Kakorrhaphiophobia

Hair: Lelutka, Invert . Pose: Behavior Body, Squint (pose Fair) . Shoos: Similar Italian, Roma . Purse: JeSuis, Zebra clutch . Couturier’s Dock: Hat: Baoba, Carousel . Dress: Liv Glam, Imani

I know, I know! Another title of “alphabet soup.” I can’t help myself, as I’ve said, I love words. I’ve received a lot of positive reinforcement since yesterday when I stated at times I wish to walk away from SL.To all of you kind hearted people, you are the main reasons I stay. I’ve met so many good people in Second Life. We all have buried somewhere deep inside a good gene, we just have to wrestle it out at times, but in SL there seems to be a lot of good genetic markers in people. Or perhaps I am so sickly sweet the big meanies just choose to leave me alone. Which is fine, I am a steadfast believer sitting in the front row pew of the church of Mean People Suck. I’ve spent the morning working, my “day job” is working with numbers, so of course, my mind wanders. Oh wait, perhaps that’s why I got a grade of “C” in Trigonometry in college. One thing my friend Tai Galicia said as I was floundering around for something, ANYTHING! to blog struck me. When talking about me she said, “you style for the joy it brings.” More amazing than the fact what she said is true, is the fact she heard it a while ago, she remembered it, but I did not.

Hair: Lelutka, Invert . Pose: Behavior Body, Squint (pose Fair) . Shoos: Similar Italian, Roma . Purse: JeSuis, Zebra clutch . Couturier’s Dock: Hat: Baoba, Carousel . Dress: Liv Glam, Imani

I don’t really think it’s abnormal of me to forget, I am a self confessed, “flighty” at most times, it’s why my best friend is Draakje Dailey, she has a mind like a steel trap and makes sure I am where I am supposed to be with whistles and bows. I just suppose being human, I sometimes lack true commitment. I have a hard time being given an item and being told to “style this.” It’s not how my mind works. I’ve never asked a designer if I could blog them or join their blogger group, my blog isn’t about this. I just want to see really cool things, purchase them and style. So my apathy at times stems from these moments when I have commitments to blog but really no free will to put expression in the styles. So please forgive me this week, dear designers. I am actually ashamed of myself. I should do a better job on your gorgeous designs and will put forth more effort in the future.

That said, it’s actually something for all to think about. Don’t be afraid to add little expressions of YOU to your style, it’s what makes you stand out as different. I think when we are teens, most of us, are so scared of self-expression we all tend toward a popular conformity. Wouldn’t the world be an incredibly creative place if we were more accepting of our differences in styles and tastes? Inside all of us are little “style passions,” whether it be for certain colors, materials or shapes. We all have some preferences, lets start to share them with our viewers. Personally I love what I call, colors you can taste or feel. A sweet Tangerinish orange, a chocolaty brown, a red as yummy hot as “red hots” candy. I think when you feel passionate about an element of your style, the passion translates to the look creating a passionate feel. Today’s little cocktail is from Liv-Glam and the elegant hat is Baoba. Both are available at the Couturier’s Dock and perfect for any event that needs a chic elegant appeal.

Take from? Would it be my blog without one? It’s in the title. A person of pauciloquence is one brief in speech. Having just read another version of Cao’s Word and Peace, you’d think I surely don’t suffer from it, but in real life I do. When it comes to personal style, I, like a lot of you, suffer from kakorrhaphiophobia. We fear creating our look with our own personal style preferences because we fear failure. Create the vision that is uniquely you by not being brief in the conversation of your look. Let the unique elements of your style preferences tell the story because honestly? You can’t truly fail. Self-expression, when truthful and about you is yours alone, and who can tell you its wrong if it is what you think is beautiful? Think on it a while, it will come to you. Thank you, Tai! You’ve brought me back to my focal point. I’ve a few more pics to clear away this week but next week I think I will re-explore my passion for color. Taxi:

I’ll Be A Monkey’s Uncle

Hairs: Dura, Boy/Girl 38 . Couturiers Dock: Jewelry: Finesmith, Grapa .

I was going to stand here today on April fool’s Day and say I’ve decided to quit Second Life and this blog, but the feeling was so close to the current truth, I didn’t have the heart to put it into words. The fool’s joke would be on me because it’s an every other day thought for me some weeks. But leaving right now isn’t on the agenda for me, I’ve come so far and learned so much from other peoples comments, here and inworld, and about myself in these musings, I suppose, that leaving seems the cowards way out. You people are the best though, you honestly are, I can’t tell you how many encouraging comments and notecards I receive in a week from avatars and *wink* humans alike. It truly makes me smile and gives me the will to plod on. So thank you! I enjoy knowing you are there and knowing quite a few actually care.

Hairs: Dura, Boy/Girl 38 . Couturier’s Dock: Dress: AD Creations Dollhouse, Roze . Jewelry: Finesmith, Grapa . Pose/Bubbles Set: Flightly Pixels Couture, Bubbles .

Such an odd phrase, “I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.” Do you know where it comes from? There was a legal trial in the United States in 1925, The State of Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes. Scopes, a public high school teacher was charged with teaching his students evolution, which was illegal to teach in state funded schools. Scopes was unsure whether he actually HAD taught evolution, but he purposefully agreed he had because he thought the topic needed to be addressed in the legal arena. What ensued was a media circus pitting modernist (people with radical beliefs of the scientific and cultural influences of the Enlightenment) against fundamentalists (those who have a strict adherence to specific theological doctrines). I suppose technically if evolution is true, “I’ll be a monkey’s niece” would be the correct descending order. Though, the way we act sometimes, I often wonder if such a mix would be an improvement to man, but deteriorate the monkey?

Couturier’s Dock: Shoos: {{BSD Design Studio}}, Pia . Pose/Set: Flightly Pixels Couture, Bubbles .

Take from? Yep! It’s that kind of high-gravity Monday. We all need to evolve at times, whether it’s by learning a new way of viewing the world, defining our relationship within the world or by accepting the inevitable things we may not like and living with them peacefully. Of late there has been a great deal of talk about gay marriage in the news, and being a thinker and a watcher I’ve noticed, unlike past trials, there has been almost no discussion about whether homosexuality is deserving of the public’s moral condemnation. With that rhetoric and moral discomfort gone, I can’t help but think the children of homosexual parents will finally have their voices heard. Is this good or bad? Depends on “what side of the fence” you stand on. But personally, (and this is, of course, just my thoughts for what they are worth. Not too much I am sure) I think for the sake of these voiceless children, it just may be the right thing to do and the right time to do it. Mark Twain wrote much more eloquent than I ever could when he penned, “Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.” If your thinking of checking out the current round of The Couturier’s Dock, you better hurry, its going to be open just a few more weeks. And looky there, I’ve even included the taxi for you! Taxi:

The Couturier’s Dock

Anyone who has followed me for a while knows I love to create fantasy pictures. It is one of my favorite aspects of Second Life. I’ve been a butterfly, elf, burlesque queen, hamster, children’s doll, Alice in Wonderland and many other a character. To me the fun is in the making and creating the style. I’ll be honest sometimes a style can be a month in the making because I want everything to be perfect when I go have the picture done. But even when I am not styling at the time, if I am out and about and see something really groovy and unique, I buy it and put it in a folder in my inventory called “cool stuff.” That way when I do have something to style, sometimes I already have components in place.

Yesterday to get the items for these three days of blog I went by The Couturiers Dock and picked up some of the inventory for sale there. When I saw what Nevery Lorakeet of *LpD* and Blackliquid Tokyoska of Blackliquid had created I had to try a style with them together! I further challenged myself by making Caoimhe style the rest with only items in inventory. *Lpd*’s item is the really incredible skin “Annalise” with a “harlequin” feel to it. Just LOVE this! And somehow it just screamed to be topped with the Blackliquid “Eostara” hair. Both are funky, and create a memorable avatar. My hats off to both of these great designers! The items in my “cool stuff” folder included the collar from the *Doll Coco* “cardster dress joker” and the *SoliDea FoliEs* bustier from the “Marinella” outfit. I happen to love the creativity of this bustier so much I worked it into one of my MVW stylings. What’s not to love about a caged heart? Right? Anyway, I hope you like my thirty minute styling.

We have a new designer joining us this round of the Couturier’s Dock. And it looks like Shaleene Kenin of Pure Poison is going to fit right in. For her first round she included this vibrant and gorgeous Jewelry set. This is a weighty piece that is a good addition to any runway show because it will be visible to the audience and is stylish to boot! All that was needed to complete this is headpiece, mask and dress by *SoliDea FoliEs* and hair from Boon! See even a Cao can be glamorous with a little help from friends!

I hope you like today’s preview (or would that be postview) of items found right now at the Couturier’s Dock. Don’t miss out on this, because when the items are gone, they are gone.. Sneaky peek, for tomorrow? It just may include AD Creations Dollhouse, Flighty Pixels Couture, BSD Designs, or Liv-Glam and Orage Creations. I hope you enjoy your Sunday, your Easter, and your family and friends. But if your looking for a place to shop today, I’ve even included the tax for you! Yeah, I’m kinda nice that way. Taxi: