My name is Rouge and I'm a feedaholic

I've been wondering for the last few days what's up with fashion feed and apparently it's just having some issues right now.  Which kinda sucks cause it gives me part of my shopping fix and lets me know about random sales and contests.  Not that I need to know where they are because really I have a booming inventory already.  Thankfully the shoe fair didn't break me but there are a pair of Kalnins I want to go pick up still so it will add to the limited pocket break I had.  I've hit a few stores over the last few 50L fridays and project themory events but I'm missing some of my favorite old stores that aren't on either list too often these days.  I am enjoying several of the new hair offerings from Bliss Couture Hair which have been very pleasantly surprising and if you haven't seen them go check them out.  Same thing for fab u lous and ICONIC which gave me a very funky mohawk a few weeks ago (shouldn't say gave lol but offered me the chance to buy).  I'm getting closer to having to break down and either use Emerald or the new viewer cause I really want the face tattoos that aren't available in the regular viewer oh and the new hairbase layers--want em lots. 

I applied for the MAD Agency casting.  Not sure if I'll make the cut but I feel like I need to be taking more risks right now so I'm going for it.  I did enter the last round for Miss Virtual World and I doubt the results will be any different lol but again the risk thing.  I have at least one photographer signed up for September's phase of Project 2010 but still have the final few months of the year to arrange as well.  We'll see how it keeps going but I'm excited as I have a shoot coming on the 22nd and then on the 11th of next month.  Okay that's it for now.

I may be a Fair Hater but I'm a Theme Lover

I shared my lament with the pose fair (and skin fair and accessories fair and hair fair-I think, fairs in general) in my last post.  I again didn't spend much money there but it left with lindens to peruse 50L friday--didn't get to all of the shops this week but I did grab this adorable pillow I saw on the feeds made bye Annunziata Macchi of Molto Bene!  When I saw it I thought it would just be cute to have and would probably take good photos in the bedroom theme.  Then I thought oh crap, the photographer boyfriend is out of town and thus can't buy this today and since it was no transfer I couldn't buy one and send it to him.  So I contacted Annunziata and she was happy to both tell me about the fact that it would be on xstreet soon and sell me one for him while it was still 50L and on off the off chance he didn't get it to resend it when he logged back on.  Now let me say typically almost all content creators are great when I ask them a question but Annunziata was great, cheerful and quick so I had to give her a nice nod on the blog.  I grabbed some glasses and a great pair of boots and was done with my 50L Friday shopping.

That led me to The Dressing Room.  I didn't grab a lot there to be honest but love most of the designers that were featured so I had to join the subscribo and add just a snippet to the tip jar.  By all means head over and check it out because you'll be pleasantly surprised by the prices and selection.  My final theme shopping stop was The Fashion Circus.  I totally can't list everyone that is featured but I grabbed some new stuff from Opa's and Sonatta Morales and wandered around to the Hope for Haiti tent that is still on the sim and found a lovely dress there.  I had a good time roaming around and will be back there as well.  Good old subscribos.  Anyway I have theme love all around me.  Be sure to check them out before the next round of designers is inserted.

Take Another Trip with me to Opa's Boutique

Okay Topaz was busy over the last few days. In addition to my lovely dress, and the Veronica which came out the same time and another fantastic dress named Keira, she released Shanghai Surprise. Now please don't let me skip over the aforementioned dresses because really they are well made and much attention was paid the the right parts of each dress. The textures fit the time period the dress was inspired by, the skirts weren't god awful too small for any normal sized avatar lol and there were no quick prim attachments that as unskilled as I am would notice and be cranky about for eternity. Opa's Boutique puts out lovely high quality dresses and you should hurry down and check out what it has to offer. Back to the purpose of this post though ha!

Shanghai Surprise actually may come as a surprise to you. The texture is very much Asian inspired but it's more of a subtle touch than you might expect on the grid. The pattern is simple and light against the black fabric which gives it a great contrast against skin tone. The top provides another set of details that have to be fully examined as well. The plunging neckline is complimented wonderfully with the bare shoulders all leading to the black band covering the midriff and joining the top to the skirt. The prim attachment gives the dress more structure and pop all without losing the texture or becoming overwhelming. Gathered at the hips but not covering the front of the dress it reminds me of the Claire Huxtable dress I lusted after as a child loving the Cosby Show as it gives definition without making a trouble spot for most women even more obvious. The other thing I love about this dress, as well as Opa's Boutique in general, is that it can be dressed up or down or made vintage or contemporary all based on what you choose to pair with it. I wanted to go more Shanghai than vintage this time and with pieces I didn't have to search farther than my inventory for I think it came together well. Let me know what you think. And big thanks to the boyfriend for helping me get that icky prim box from around the shoes I was wearing.

Items Worn:

Dress: Shanghai Surprise from Opa's Boutique
Hair: Na Young in Ebony from Tukinowaguma
Jewelry: Ahi Set from Miel
Skin: Tasha2 in Ebony from Laqroki
Shoes: Shanti in Black from Maitreya Gold
Lashes: Cake Bedroom Lashes

Woot Woot

Ok nothing much is going on in the world of Rouge right now. I was able to catch a graduation show tonight from my old training school featuring a new friend. I took some snaps, nothing fabulous but I'll post the link in a few seconds. I added a few links to the blogroll and still have a few more that I need to add that I have been reading more of lately. I added one primarily because they did something I had wanted to do which was look at the selection of darker skins in SL and sing their praises or not. I love Laqroki and Rockberry's Uma line is a close 2nd. I have tons of skins because I catch things on sale but I rarely wear most of them because my face changes so much in them or I look washed out. I'll post my own reviews as I can and try to take pictures. I've been hired by another agency and have joined the avvie revolution on Moolto. The show ended up being a no go due to rehearsal times but hey it happens, sorry for the missed opportunity but a girl has to mkae money to feed her shopping habit. Talk to you later so until then have a good one boys and girls.

SE Grad Show

And the Winner is.....or In Other News

First things first, the runway show went AMAZING. No one crashed, the sim was actually full, no one tripped off the runway (like yours truly did in her 2nd graduation show) and the crowd seemed to have a blast. A few people were there that I knew from JCNY so really appreciate the support. Everyone else just seemed to be enjoying the fact that we styled ourselves and found the right poses to accentuate the outfits and not take away from them. I sincerely thank everyone who told me that I was beautiful or that I had a great walk. I can't wait till I get the chance to do it again because for the first time I wasn't super worried about the falling or the crashing and just focused on hitting my poses. Join the Model's Workshop if for no other reason than it's a great group and you'll likely enjoy it a lot.

Okay so we still don't know who won yet. SL was acting wonky yesterday and JCNY didn't want to have anyone miss out on the activities so the big announcement for May Model'Fest winner will happen this afternoon---which happens to be my early day so yeah I won't miss it. I did give in and go get another outfit cause while I was loving the purple gown I was rocking from Sascha's it was partially purchased because yesterday was wear purple day. Actually I got two outfits. My partner thinks I look good in soft colors and we argued over one until I found one that would work for me. But then the net went down and I didn't get to go into make it look perfect mode. Instead I worked on some pictures that had just been laying around and took some more for the Angel Dessous Angel of the Month contest. I had one that might work but in retrospect I'm glad that I went out and took more pictures. One it was just a lot of fun and two it gave me a chance to play with enviornment settings in world to change the shots I was getting. So far I've only uploaded the ones I submitted and the original raw shots I had to my flikr account but I will be tossing in the best of the others just because I think they kinda rock. Speaking of flikr, you can see what I've uploaded and toyed around with now on the page. I'd recommend going to the flikr page directly but hey whatever works for ya.

Okay so we've talked about my minor shopping addiction especially when something is on sale. The past few days, when I was on shopping hiatus, I broke down and just let it rip. Marly's is going out of business. It's a very cute vintage shop that I had never heard of before now which is probably good as I would have been broke. I found tons of cute hair (including the pixie cut I am wearing in some of my flikr shots) there as well as some cute swimwear, dresses and the like. I also stumbled over into the Einstein group sim (phoenix rising and the crew)---please keep me out of there. Too much cute stuff and a lot of cute jewelry either free or 1L scattered about the store. I might enter their Model of the Month contest if I hear about it soon. Didn't see any news about it on their page in May so I'll just have to wait. And last night right before the sale ended I happened to end up in Zaara. There are lots of beautiful things there but the traditional Indian clothing is what I ran over for hoping I hadn't missed out because I was trying to be good and not be all over the grid shopping. Turns out the fatpack of the bridal wardrobe I wanted was marked down to just over 250 of what it normally cost to buy one of them. So I bought those and one other outfit and skipped on out of there.

So now I really have three options to wear to the finals and I doubt anyone would be in any of them but we JCNY models do have good taste so who rightfully knows. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

it's the weekend baby!?!?!?!

Ok so yesterday I assumed I'd have a relatively good weekend with little to do but attend rehearsals and shake my moneymaker on the JCNY runway---okay so maybe shake is a bit of an exaggeration but I was gonna be down there posing. Well I was wrong of course. First my late evening appointment to straighten my hair was postponed till this afternoon. Now I told her then I had an appointment at 6 and needed to be out of there. But any woman any where, and some of you men who have been waiting for us women, know time moves like molasses on the weekend in a hair salon. What should have taken a few hours, three at most, took 5 instead. So of course I was late for my appointment and rushed back home. The appointment was dress rehearsal for the Model's Workshop runway show tomorrow. Thankfully they were very understanding and I think I did well for the part I was there but I soooooooooooooo hate being late.

I've also been looking at random contest notecards coming my way and some things look interesting and others well just don't. Most of them want you to join their update group, which in the day of limited group space, is a slight problem. If SL ever did expand the group limits no issues at all but I have been leaving groups left and right these days that I don't really need or aren't active just in order to keep the 20 ish I have now. Not a lot of room to play with. That and because I am being more active with the modeling I'm wary of certain types of contests and have just had some odd interactions with a few of the contest promoters I've seen. Granted it could be me and my perception of them may be skewed but it makes me hesistant to enter. And that may be to my detriment, cause hey exposure is exposure. But I have to wonder if exposing myself to repeated rejection at the hands of the same person is even remotely logical lol. Ahh well, we live and learn.

My time as a showcase model for this month is winding down. Monday the May winner will be announced and I will take a break. I've loved doing what I'm doing but it's a bit tiring after awhile especially when you're there basically by yourself. It's great when the other models are there but everyone has noted the fatigue that sets in after awhile. I will definitely be applying again though, sometime next month for sure. It's a fantastic opportunity and everyone should take the chance if you are given it.

The last thing I will ramble on about is my unfortunate shopping habit. I say unfortunate primarily because I don't need any more of anything I buy really. I have a ton of formal dresses and hair and skins and shoes but I so hate when I hear about a sale. I will check it out if nothing else and every now and then I manange to not buy anything there. Alatiel caught me last night and Sascha's mainly cause I wanted a purple dress for Monday---Monday is wear purple day in honor of those still in the middle of a cancer battle. I also stumbled upon Savvy Avvy which oh my goodness if you have never been there by all means check it out. And then I finally got over to Maitreya's hair store. I love several of them and you can't be 700L for a fatpack of hair. I seriously doubt I'll need white hair but dang it I have it now lol.

All righty, enough of me. Have a good one boys and girls

Rouge

Incredible Randomness

I really meant to come update the blog last night with my random shopping adventures. I try not to get shopping happy on SL because I can quickly become bankrupt trolling my favorite shops. And I try really hard to ignore the sale notices because that's like invitations to free crack lol. But this weekend Pixel Mode was having a 50L sale so I couldn't pass that up right?!? One problem, I was fixed in my head that it was PixelDolls lol as I had been there and seen similar sales lol. Well not so much and there were lovely things there and I found the cutes shoes EVER along with a great fat pack of boots. I tell a few friends and fellow models on the JCNY runway and vow to stop spending lindens for the day. One tiny problem, turns out PixelDolls was also having a sale so of course I traipse over there and it's 50L/100L feast. And I joined the update group and oh my that was group gift heaven. By all means if you haven't joined their update group please do, as well as the one at Deviance which gives out lovely things as well. As a random aside, update groups are the bestest. They don't eat up group spots and don't ever seem to crash my inbox with tons of messages. Yeah update groups.

Okay so after my day of shopping and several hours on the JCNY runway I got an unexpected instant message. Unexpected and yeah fantastic. I was selected to be Model of the Week for SuperElite which ummm rocks. You can read all about boring little old me on the blog--link is in my blogroll. As soon as I remembered how to save a texture to my hard drive I was able to use the great picture that was taken for my first JCNY submission. I'm not sure what I did to catch anyone's radar but thanks to whomever thought of me and I am incredibly flattered to have been chosen. I should get back to trolling SL and prepping dinner so we can eat all afternoon and watch basketball.

Love ya,
Rouge