Xen's Pen
Fashionable ramblings from Xenobia Foxclaw's virtual pen.

When I saw the name of this gown I knew it was meant for me–Trouble–by Sascha Frangilli of Sascha’s Designs. First I had trouble deciding which color to buy–there are 12 colors! Which was my favorite…um…Red…no…Royal Blue…no…Pink…um…no…I’m in trouble…I got them all. Second, there were so many skirts…which one(s) to wear…the Battleship skirt…oh, wait…the Big Sucker skirt…oh, wow, you can wear them at the same time…hey, I like the look of the system skirt and I can wear it in a wheelchair with or without the Stola…hmmm…there’s the Sleek Flexi skirt…and the Sleek Transparent Flexi skirt…oh, no, maybe I should wear the Swooshy skirt…I’m definitely in trouble…I can’t make up my mind. Third, which one to show you? The purple one…um, no… the Summersky…that’s pretty, but…um…Choco…I took pictures of them all…I’m in Trouble–literally.

After all that, I still can’t decide which one is my favorite…mmmmm…maybe the Silver…no…Teal….um, maybe Moss…I don’t know…I’m still in Trouble. But right now, they’re the perfect thing for me to wear.

Style Sheet

• Gowns: Sascha’s Designs–Trouble (400L)
• Skin: CUPCAKES–Seduction (Copper/Noir) (1000L)
• Hair: W&Y Model Hair 8 “Type B” (Gold) (100L/4-pack)
• Eyes: InSight Eyes–Night Eyes (125L)
• Eyelashes: Amacci–Prim Lashes “Lux” (75L)
• Shoes: Basevi Moda Shoes–ColorChange Stiletto (295L/2 Pack or 445L/Megapack)
• Poses: Striking Poses (50L)

…ok, well, maybe not Simone herself, but this great new outfit of hers. Somehow it just fit the country dancing I was in the mood to do. Take a look–cute jeans with a gold heart encasing the word “LOVE,” suspenders to hold those low-cut jeans up, and a great cropped t-shirt with another “LOVE” surrounded by a gold heart. What’s more, the sets comes in four color combinations that could be mixed and matched. (I want to be clear on that–a set has a pair of jeans and a shirt. I started with two sets then bought the other two.) Let me see what I can do with all four sets…

I admit it, I got carried away. I liked the four sets so much (see the outfits with the suspenders), that I bought the extra two pairs of jeans (green and brown) and the fatpack of Love shirts which included colors I already had, but I really needed those other colors. I already had the red boots and I bought the other three pairs because the red ones fit so well and looked so great and, well, I couldn’t help myself.

Style Sheet

• Sets of Tops & Jeans: Style Starts Here–Love Casual Set (285L)
• Set of  7 Love Tops: Style Starts Here–Love Tops (385L)
• Jeans: Style Starts Here–Love Jeans–(160L/pair)
• Boots: Style Starts Here–Strapped Boots (450L/pair)
• Hair: Damselfly–Paxtyn (Beach Beige Warm) (200L/4-pack)
• Skin:CUPCAKES–Seduction (Copper/Princess) (1000L)
• Eyes: InSight–Night Eyes (125L)
• Poses: Striking Poses (40L/pose)

I’m convinced a designer hasn’t made it until the sim crashes during a show. Given that, Agnes Finney, Sykao Adamski, and Alienbear Gupte have made it! Just a few minutes into their show on Saturday it happened–the sim crashed. Fortunately, everyone had a great sense of humor and, after the sim restarted, the show went on without a hitch. Well, maybe a grey skirt or two, but everyone in attendance seemed to have a great time. Better yet, after the show, the outfits were on sale for half price and Alienbear set out a gorgeous necklace as a gift. Since I was in the show, I didn’t get a photos of everything, but I have pictures of my gowns and jewelry for you below.

2009 AlienbearXAgnes Gift Necklace

Saryona in Pink

Sara in Cream

Charming Xen in Silver White

More Charming Xen (Yes, it’s named after me, so I get to show you more.)

I was honored to have such a lovely gown named for me, but it’s more than just one lovely gown. It can be worn with the train when one wants to look regal and with or without the shoulder scarf with flower. Take the train off and it’s a beautiful slim long skirt. Switch glitch pants and skirt into a short version. What’s even better–it can be worth with a wheelchair in either the long or short version and with or without the scarf. Yay for sexy gowns for women on wheels!

Style Information

• Jewelry: AlienbearxAgnes Gift Necklace is no longer available (sorry)
• Gown 1: Entre Mares--Saroyan (Pink) (680L)
• Jewelry: Alienbear–KrisCar Forehead Tiara (400L), KrisCar II Earrings and KrisCar II Necklace (400L)
• Gown 2: Entre Mares–Sara (Cream) (680L)
• Jewelry: Alienbear–Ambrosia II Earrings and Necklace Set (Cream) (280L)
• Gown 3: My Precious–Charming Xen (800L)
• Jewelry: Alienbear–Princess Gelasia Crown (500L), Princess Gelasia Scepter (250L)
• Jewelry: Alienbear–Chouko Earrings (100L)
• Skin: CUPCAKES–Seduction (Copper/Princess) (1000L)
• Hair: fascino Hair Salon–Lill (Platinum) (200L)
• Shoes: Basevi Moda Shoes–ColorChange Stilettos (295L/2 Pack or 445L/Megapack)
• Eyes: InSight–Night Eyes (75L)
• Poses: Striking Poses (40L/pose)

Designer Lexi Morgan answered the Athena’s Cup challenge with two new outfits from Stellar for which 100% of the purchase price goes to the Athena’s Cup efforts to raise $500,000 for cancer awareness. Look at the Athena’s Cup link to learn more about her RL efforts to break a Guiness Book record.

The Pink Frilly Lingerie has bra, panties with a frill on the backside, garters and stockings. These make me feel sexy even if they are underneath something else.

The second item is a pink sequined bikini. It’s just perfect for a trip to the beach or hopping into the hot tub. That reminds me–I need to get a hot tub. Oh my gosh, now that I have the perfect bikini, I HAVE to get a hot tub! : ) Before you send me a comment about where to get the perfect hot tub, pop over to Stellar and get one or both of these great designs.

• Lingerie: Stellar–Pink Frilly Lingerie (200L)
• Bikini: Stellar–Pink Sequin Bikini (200L)
• Skin: CUPCAKES–Seduction (Copper/Gift 6) (250L) (no longer available)
• Hair: {fascino}–Lill (Platinum) (200L)
• Eyes: InSight–Night Eyes (75L)

Saturday at 4:00 SLT the October fashion show for My Precious and Entre Mares will feature their new gowns as well as jewelry from Alienbear Designs. Click the ad for your limousine.

On your way in, you’ll want to stop by the gift area at My Precious and pick up some new items. For those of you hunting for a sexy Halloween costume, you’ll want to pick up Agnes Finney’s Red Devil outfit for just 1L.

All set for Halloween? Then you might want to pick up Lana, also only 1L. This is a dress you can wear year round.

While you’re there, pick up this lovely gown by Sykao Adamski of Entre Mares for only 1L and it’s tucked among the My Precious gifts.

Now head on out to the runway, have a seat, and watch a great show featuring some beautiful new gowns and lots of gorgeous jewels.

Red Devil Information:

• Devil’s Costume: My Precious–Red Devil (1L)
• Boots: Style Starts Here!–Strapped Boots (Red) (450L)
• Hair: Little Heaven–Rabi (Black) (200L) (This is the scariest hair place in SL, but don’t let the outside scare you off. The hair is worth the trip inside.)
• Skin: CUPCAKES–Seduction (Copper/Diablo) (1000L)
• Eyes: InSight–Night Eyes (125L)
• Eyelashes: Amacci–Lux (75L)

Lana Dress Information:

• Dress: My Precious–Lana (1L)
• Shoes: Basevi Moda–ColorChange Stilettos (295L/2 Pack or 445L/Megapack)
• Hair: booN JUN762 hair (200L) and booN hairpiece WAKA22 (200L)
• Skin: CUPCAKES–Seduction (Copper/Pastel) (1000L)
• Eyes: InSight–Night Eyes (125L)
• Eyelashes: Amacci–Lux (75L)

Entre Mares Gift

• Entre Mares Group Gift: My Precious–Group Gift (1L)
• Shoes: Basevi Moda–ColorChange Stilettos (295L/2 Pack or 445L/Megapack)
• Hair: booN JUN762 hair (200L) and booN hairpiece WAKA22 (200L)
• Skin: CUPCAKES–Seduction (Copper/Fairy) (1000L)
• Eyes: InSight–Night Eyes (125L)
• Eyelashes: Amacci–Lux (75L)

I love getting group gifts like these great t-shirts in five colors from Simone Stern’s group Simone Design Group. I love the colors, the design, the sheen, and the message. As soon as I got them unpacked, I popped over to Style Starts Here to find some new pants to go with them, but when I spotted the vendor with the perfect pants, I realized that I already had them. Yeah, me! Then I looked at my feet and knew I needed something shiny on them too, so I added my Better Than Sex Boots also from Style Starts Here. This outfit is great for shopping, which I’ve already done, now I think I need to go dancing. Hmmm, I wonder if someone is playing I’m Too Sexy because that’s just how I feel.

If you’d like these shirts, join the Simone Design Group and go into the Notices. You’ll find a couple of free gifts there with the same great quality you buy in Simone’s shops.

• Shirts: Simone Design Group (Group Gift)
• Pants: Style Starts Here–Vinyl Hawt Pants (Black) (150L)
• Shoes: Style Starts Here–Better Than Sex Boots (Obsidian) (450L)
• Hair: LALA Moon–Pizzicato (Blonde-Light) (225L)
• Skin: CUPCAKES–Seduction (Copper/Gift 6) (250L)
• Eyes: InSight–Night Eyes (75L)
• Eyelashes: Amacci–Lux (125L)
• Poses: Striking Poses (40L/pose)
• Body: Xenobia’s own design

The fall semester has been in session for awhile now and the weather is turning cooler. Students and faculty are hurrying across campus in sweaters and lightweight jackets trying to stay warm. I thought I’d put together a look for these early fall days–one that I might actually wear in RL. It didn’t take much digging in my inventory for me to find this richly textured turtleneck from Simone Stern at Style Starts Here. What was hard, as I recall, was picking the purple because the colors available were so rich and I liked all of them. I’ll have to go back and pick up at least the rust, green, grey, red, blue, and multicolor.  The turtleneck comes on three layers and has two neck rolls–one with a necklace by Dahlinks and one without the necklace. I had the perfect pair of pants for a college campus, beautifully detailed black jeans with a design burned in–also from Simone at Style Starts Here. While I was writing this, I had to go back to check out the colors in the jeans–in addition to the black there are purple, green, red, blue, and brown–and ended up getting the green ones also. The detail is just so great!  The low-rise boots are perfect for a walk across campus, and no college outfit would be complete without the ubiquitous pile of books.

• Turtleneck: Style Starts Here–Turtleneck (Purple) (140L)
• Jeans: Style Starts Here–Burned Jeans (Black) (125L)
• Shoes: N-Core Design–3″ Ankle (Multicolor) (Group Gift)
• Hair: fascino Hair Salon–Ayan (Orchid) (200L/2 pack)
• Eyes: InSight–Night Eyes (75L)
• Skin: CUPCAKES–Seduction (Copper/Gift 6) (250L)
• Books: ICING–Study Date (250L/books and dress)
• Poses: Striking Poses (40L/pose)

I wanted to go to ::69:: (Sixty Nine) to get a new hairdo I had on my buy-someday list, but I couldn’t transport there. “What?” I wondered. “Is it gone?” I dropped Kumii Yoshikawa, the owner/designer, a notecard asking what had happened. Those of you who keep up with these things may have realized that if you joined the group for 300L, you got access to the new items 5 days earlier than the rest of SL. Hmm, I love her hair and I know most such groups get free items that more than make up for the cost of joining the group, so I decided to spend the cash and join. I was, of course, immediately able to get in. I tried on all 12 of the new hairdos. There is something about that woman’s hairstyling ability that is so amazing. I couldn’t afford all 12, and I model so I want hair that doesn’t stick through my body when I change poses, so I bought the 4 short styles. I wanted them in all of the colors, but that was out of my price range, so I settled on the light blonde set from each.

These hairs will be available to the general public on October 15. I’m glad I got mine now, because that sim is going to be swamped on the 15th. You might want to wait a day or two, but not too long. Be the first one in your region to get the new hairdos from Sixty Nine. Oh, and you’ll want some of those long hairs too–they are amazing. I never did get the hair I went after–gosh darn, another trip to Sixty Nine

Blush 30 in Pale Blonde

Blush 50 Blonde

Neguko in Palest Blonde

Sultan 30 in Blonde

• Hairdos: ::69:: Sixty Nine (300L/3-pack)
• Skin: CUPCAKES MAINSTORE–Seduction (Copper/Gift 10) (250L)
• Eyes: InSight–Dark Brown Big Eyes (125L)

The other day I stopped by The Graceful Lily to see Talia Lefavre’s new shop. There were some free gifts and a small hunt going on–small enough to keep my attention. I found four of the five hidden lilies. I’m sorry to say the hunt items have been taken up, but I want to share them with you to show the quality and creativity of Ms. Lefavre’s work and because you can buy them even though you can no longer get them as hunt items.

The quality of the items is excellent and I had a great deal of fun trying everything on and taking photos. One of the great aspects of this designers’ outfits is that they usually come with options like two tops and two skirts or two tops and two pairs of pants. Then there are often collars, shawls, belts, and/or cuffs. Mix-and-match is the name of the game with her designs and that makes her outfits very flexible. Many pieces are adjustable via a menu and all pieces are copyable, so if you want to mix and match items and make folders of them, you can then mix and match them again and make a new folder with all the pieces copied into the new folder–what a time saver. Then there is the way the fabric in the skirts move. I was mesmerized watching the movement as I changed poses. I got a couple of shots that demonstrate the movement, but you can’t really get a feel for it until you see it in person.

The Opening Day Gift (5L): The Lily. This one is still out. I love the large, calla lily pattern on the black fabric and the belt in a different but complementary pattern. The upper part of the bodice and arms of the blouse are in a solid white, and the contrast is quite striking.

The Free Gift from The Graceful Lily (0L): Black Lace. This one is still out also. This short number with spaghetti straps that cross in the back and a short, lacy black skirt that moves beautifully makes me want to dance.

Hunt Prize One: This is the one I didn’t find.

Hunt Prize Two: Beaded Belle (300L). Ruffles like the ones in this short dress of peach beaded fabric with dark blue underneath always remind me of the rhumba, samba, and other sexy Latin dances. It doesn’t show a lot of bare skin, but every motion you make is repeated in the movement of the ruffles.

Hunt Prize Three: Subtle Sunshine (500L). The color combination and movement in this gown are downright mesmerizing. Shown are two combinations, but change the collars with the skirts, take off the collar, wear the skirts together. There are lots of possibilities here.

Hunt Prize Four: Gold Digger (550L). This is one outfit that came in lots of choices for combining the pieces. Solid black pants work well with the black-with-gold striped fabric as well as with the black-and-gold patterned fabric. Pieces that include two skirts, two blouses, pants, cuffs, and much more.

Hunt Prize Five: Soft Winter Greens (Set III) (370L). These pieces look so comfy and are so very well designed that I want to take a walk to look at the fall foliage or curl up with a good book or maybe go shopping. I like this one so well that I may just have to buy the Soft Winter Greens in Sets I and II. If you missed the hunt, just pick up the fat pack and save a bit of money.

I just had to buy one of the items on sale at a special price: Autumn Poplars (550L). The fabric is gorgeous, the two tops (one with spaghetti straps, the other strapless) and two skirts can be mixed and matched, and again the movement is amazing. I had to take two sets of shots on this one–a set with the short skirt and another with the long. This outfit is on special right now for only 200L. Grab it while you can.

By the way, there was one red lily set out for the hunt and the lucky finder received the Drop Dead Gorgeous set that has many pieces and normally sells for 1300L and the Liberty multi-set that is plastered all over the wall to the left as you walk into the store sells for 2000L. Great prize!

Outfits: The Graceful Lily (See each outfit description for price)

Hair: Cake–Afterglow (Blonde) (375/color)

Skin: Cupcakes–Seduction (Copper/Glimmer) (1000L/skin)

Eyes: InSight–Dark Brown Eyes (75L)

Shoes: Basevi Moda–Color-Change Stilettos (Color changed with the outfit) (345L/double pack or 445L/mega pack)

Poses: Striking Poses (50L/pose or 400L/set–usually 10 in a set)

In my last entry I shared with you my favorite item from the My Precious Hunt–the Xenobia gown. In this entry I’m going to share the other items in the My Precious Hunt. I enjoy treasure hunts, but I have a pretty short attention span, so it’s difficult for me to complete most hunts. Then there is the minor problem of an inventory of items I’ve never unpacked. That frustrates me when I think about because I know there are some great treasures that have yet to be opened, on the other hand, I’ve found some really great shops on hunts that I go back to again and again.

There are four things I really like about the My Precious Hunt. First, it’s small so I was able to complete it in a fairly short period of time and get everything unpacked. Second, the items are things I will keep. Third, there are some items for men and women. Fourth, every third day until October 14, Agnes hides 20 gift cards; she does it once in the morning and again in the evening to be fair to people around the world. If you are in her group, you receive a notice as soon as the cards are placed.

Below are pictures of the items from the hunt. The first is a dress from Agnes Finney called Kathy. I love the bright pink-and-white pattern. It would be great for dancing, shopping, or having a coffee klatch with your friends.

This next outfit is from Entre Mares. Pick up the landmark at the Entre Mares’ kiosk in the My Precious Main Store and pop up to Entre Mares to pick up this edgy outfit perfect for the dance floor.

This gown from Agnes Finney is called Farla Farla. The swirly black-and-white pattern is a real eye-catcher. The design is just a tiny bit daring with a low neckline, cut-cut away sides, and only a strap across the back. The long, swirling skirt is perfect for slow dancing with your significant other or a romantic evening in front of the fireplace.

I love InSight Eyes and these two pairs from the hunt are no exception. A lovely blue (Clear Blue Eyes) and a beautiful brown (Mountain Eyes) are great additions to your eye collection and can be used by men and women. The eyes come with a prim gleam. (I find most sparkly effects to be a problem, so I leave those off.)

This black sweater, from Kenneth Keng, is for the men, but as you can see, women can wear it also. It has a small white KK on the left side that is barely noticeable. If you don’t like it, you can always cover it with a scarf or other accessory. I’ve paired it with white pants from one of Agnes’ designs, Audrey, that is not part of the hunt.

I could not find a shirt in my inventory that would work with a tie, so I added it to the sweater so you could see it. The tie, like the sweater, is by Kenneth Keng.

If you are a fan of Alienbear Jewelry, you’ll want to be sure to pick up this double-strand pearl necklace with earrings. If you are unfamiliar with Alienbear, you’ll still want to pick this one up so you can see the quality. This set is one I’ll wear often. (Okay, I admit it, I picked up more than one because it’s not copyable, and I like to put all of the parts of an outfit together in a folder. Dressing is so much quicker when you can just drag a folder onto yourself and change clothes.)

Sunglasses are needed year round, so I was delighted to find a pair from B & G in the hunt. These are simple, classic glasses that you can wear any time you are out in the sun or, if you’re really cool, at night–assuming you let it get dark. I’m fond of the sun, so it’s almost always midday in my world.

That’s it–a nice manageable hunt with some must-have items. Take a half an hour or so and complete the hunt then unpack it all before you forget. Have fun!