SteamPunk/Victorian Fashion

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Several months ago I learned that Stani seriously likes SteamPunk. He even has two SteamPunk tie clips in RL! Majorly cool!!

We love to dance together, so I went in search of a ballgown. It was easy to find imaginative SteamPunk dresses.I did not see anything I thought of as SteamPunk that I would wear to a ball, so I went strictly Victorian without the SteamPunk influence. After a couple of disappointments with textures, I found this vision in satin and embroidered tulle by M'Lady Fashions. I feel like a princess in it, especially after I put on my jewelry and have my hair done.

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Gorgeous it may be, but it was also fly-away! Many times the layers of netting covered both of our faces. And the gloves must be replaced, they are the same texture as the skirt, which translates to streaky in satin gloves.

I didn't manage a good picture of Stani. He is wearing the new gift from BlakOpal (bottom of the stairs) as seen here. It really does need good boots, shoes won't work.

This soft skin by Tuli is and the pearl choker by Rhiamon's Realm are perfect for my Victorian clothing, helping complete the look.

You can also find appropriate footwear at Lassitude & Ennui, BlakOpal and Arundul.

Outfit ~ Princess Sissi ~ M'Lady Fashions
Jewelry ~ Victorian Ivory Cameo Choker ~ Rhiamon's Realm
Skin ~ Hope (pale/br) ~ Tuli
Hair ~ Hikaru Updo ~ Pocket Mirrors
Poses ~ n/a
Location ~ Baby and Jim's palace

Emy's Birthday Party

Last weekend was my good friend Emy's RL birthday. I treated her to brunch at Ruby Tuesdays. We try to get together in real life every few weeks to catch up. We had fun sampling the crab omelet and apple cranberry crepe (we split and I took a box home).

She has a regular Sunday night dance event from 6-8 pm SLT that she choreographs. Last Sunday she invited everyone to her birthday party. Jim and Baby decorated their palace for the event complete with balloons and a huge chocolate cake.

She wanted to do a couples dance, which is difficult to pull off in SL. Many of us have a special person in our lives, but a specific time to meet for an event frequently doesn't work out. Jim encouraged everyone to make a special effort for her birthday and the turn out was really good. The only way the sim didn't overload was that everyone wasn't there at the same time.

Almost all of the ladies dressed in a soft light neutral shade and the gentlemen worn evening suits and tuxes.

Winston, who DJ'ed and Emy. Doesn't she look lovely?

Stani and I dressed in Victorian/SteamPunk, and Tulsa and his date worn modern evening attire.

Fazzled in RL

My work day is over thank goodness. My energy level was somewhere below sea level by the time I took lunch at 3:35. I multi-task with customers (work with two or three at a time). That is frequently the only way I can help everyone who wants to work with me. I felt as though I had a few steps left in me, but I had walked my last mile. I told the two customers waiting for me that I just had to go eat. Surprisingly I didn't feel as though the ground were coming up to meet me, which meant my blood sugar wasn't hitting rock bottom. I had a multi-grain bagel with low fat cream cheese for breakfast and took half with me to keep me going until lunch. I had a chance to take a couple of bites around 1:00.

We were busy and everyone working was worn out. I called the owner's son up to my department to cut fabric for my break. He didn't show. I went in search of him and his mom said he wasn't there, so I asked her to take over for me. She can't run the register, but she can cut fabric. That's better than the owner, who can cut fabric but can't run the register or put the phone on hold and page someone. I'm not criticizing either of them; she runs the stock room, he has had several small strokes.

All I wanted to do was go home and crash. I felt frazzled and stretched. Every time my name was called, I could feel myself square my shoulders and turn around to assess who it was and how badly they needed me; not good. One of my customers told me she could tell I needed a break as in a serious vacation. I had mentioned that the owner suggested I work Sunday or Monday this Labor Day weekend and get caught up. As though that would be sufficient!

But eight or nine uninterrupted hours would be a god send. I could get my fall table with displays finished, rehang one end of a quilt that managed to unhook itself, hang the new patriotic quilt from Kathy, whose husband came in today to let me know how his job search was going, And take down an oriental display and put up the Christmas displays, and coordinate the jelly rolls (forty 2-1/2" x 44" strips of fabric that are rolled together) that has literally been waiting weeks for my color sense (I've managed to roll five). Today my assistant asked if I was ever going to get the kits she cut out for sale? And I was able to tell her two days ago the IT guy finally got the shared printer working with the four computers running Vista, XP & Windows 97 so now I will be able to print the instructions I wrote for the project as few weeks ago as soon as I can discover why the printer says it needs ink, when it has ink. I just wish I had a good way to hold the quilt flat for pictures, mine doesn't look professional. Besides the two shipments I got out, three more came in for me the last of the week. September has hardly begun; I will probably have a good 600-700 bolts come in this month. Can I escape to a tropical island somewhere?

This is the quilt. It's "Nana's Garden" with a few changes to fabric choices. The yellows and greens are softer in person. The tan is bunnies: leaping in the stripes and sitting with their backs to you in the border. Hopefully Tuesday I'll be able to print the instructions, which I tweaked to comply with the fabrics and added some clarification.

It's cute, and I have a buyer for it when I am finished with the display! Yay!

Lunch always revives me. I exercised this evening. It's lovely here, 80 degrees and 31% humidity.