Merry Christmas

Another year comes to an end.. good times, bad times, and our 328th post (today!)

We'll be taking a short posting break - the first in quite a while.

We'll return Monday January 4th.

Merry Christmas to all our dear readers and friends.

Thank you to all the wonderful designers who make the awesome things we model and review.

Thanks also to our commenters and everyone who supported us from the start. You know who you are, darlings.

(And for anyone wondering, the fun "Mother Claus" outfits are from Latex Station, and the lovely snowy landscape is at Maison Broceliande.)

Equestrian Items

I know I have mentioned this before, but I think it warrants another mention now. Many useful items for use with or around ponygirls already exist in the equine world.

Items such as riding crops exist in the D/s realms. These things do not have to be exclusive to the ponyplay scenes.

Which brings me to my point for this week. The pony has spent a lot of money on tack. So the trainer should make an effort too.

A few themes and styles for a trainer now present themselves for classical equine trainer roles.

A western style of dress perhaps? Traditional English riding outfit? Prim and proper Victorian attire perhaps? Throughout history, horses were a popular transport method.

So why can't you include this with pony play? I do.

Let me talk this week about a popular wild western take on this - as i love this addition to my inventory - Cavalry officer.

E Watkins store offers a complete cavalry officer uniform, and if i am honest, I think it looks great, with a number of ways to wear it.

The outfit comes with several shirts, including short (with rolled up sleeves) or long sleeve and see-through variety, plus a buttoned up jacket. Perfect for the Dominant look.

The E Watkins store also offers different cap versions with attached hair, should you prefer that style, as an optional extra.

The basic cavalry uniform is a complete outfit (just supply your own boots and hair) for L$800.

It should be an item every uniform-oriented pony trainer can't be without.

It just remains now for me to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!

Hugo's Design Upcoming Events

Deirdre:
A short post tonight, I'm sure everyone will understand.

First :

Hugo's Design's next fashion show is coming up : Alien Invasion Runway Show is Wednesday, December 30th at 1PM, SL time.

If it's anything like the last one, it should blow your socks off.

Second :

Hugo's continues their contest for a cover model : deadline for this round is December 23rd, 23h59 SL time.

(this isn't an ebay auction, don't wait til the last second!)

The finale will be in January, and should be something to see.

On a sad note

Deirdre here. Tragedy struck my sweetie recently, and she wanted to say a few words :

I lost my mother suddenly this weekend, from heart failure. She died the way she wanted, quickly, just way to soon. I'll miss her dearly: her warmth, her love, her pride of her children, the way she was happy with every little gift she received. She was a simple woman, she loved you or she didn't, if she didn't you would be in no doubt she didn't, but if she did she would spoil you rotten. And spoil us she did, making sure we never lacked anything, always giving, never asking for anything. We said our last goodbyes today. It didn't seem right to write about some clothes today, normal services will be resumed tomorrow. Deirdre, my love, i want to thank you for your support these past few days, holding me tightly while i silently wept in your arms. One final word, "Mom i love you and i always will, you'll be missed, but always in my thoughts" and a final song... with the English lyrics for those of you who don't understand German.... lelo

Whittentons - Lexi Boots

Deirdre:
We finally got around to visiting Whittentons - I picked up these great Lexi thigh boots, as representative of their boot style.

The heel is great fun, and while it's not quite a ballet boot, it's nearly there.

The store is huge, though, and has much more than boots... from men's clothes to bridal gowns.

We were greeted by Jordan Whittenton himself, who was quite pleasant and helpful.

He took a moment to discuss the history of the store with us : five years in Second Life, nearly unimaginable in RL years.

As it happens, we visited at a terrific time : everything in the store except the very latest designs is 100L$.

So if you want to buy cool boots for the price of tipping a DJ for two song requests, hurry over ;)

lelo:
The Whittentons boots have a very distinctive look, the short foot and the high heel make these true fetish boots.

These boots are called the Lexi, barbed wire would have been a better name, but i guess that one was already taken.

The barbed ring in the heels is a nice little touch and i love the metal top of the heel.

The fit is quite good, just the tops of the boots take a bit of work, but using a pose stand helps with that.

At the current price, a must-have fashion accessory for every boot lover.

Name : Whittentons
Owner : Jordan & Lizziey Whittenton
The SLURL :
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Esplanade%20deWhittenton/126/112/30

	Deirdre	lelo
Quality	8	7
Price	9	9
Service	9	8
Store	8	7

Kayliwulf Kingdom - My Fair Lady

"All I want is a room somewhere,
"Far away from the cold night air.
"With one enormous chair,
"Ah, wouldn't it be loverly?
My Fair Lady

Deirdre:
My Fair Lady is a 19-piece outfit from Kayliwulf, and many of those are prims you'll want to adjust to fit you just right.

The black and white color scheme is really good, and the few discreet touches of gold (buttons, corset eyelets) don't jar.

I love the hat.. and it's pretty much the first ever in SL.

It is easy to shrink - it seems that most accessories aren't, I've cursed at more than a few belts ;)

The ankle boots look good, and sport a shiny number six metal heel.

A lovely, detailed outfit, and a lot to like here. Do give it a look!

lelo:
Laz is getting better and better with his hats, and as you can fully mod this one you can adjust it easily to your head size.

Fitting a hat in SL isn't an easy task, but a full mod hat and some straight hair makes it easier.

Only better option would be to let the designer add the hair to the hat, but then it would hardly by your own hair.

Or just do like all the rubberdolls like me, ... wear a hood. *winks*

Still, add a whip and this will make a sexy riding mistress outfit.

Name : Kayliwulf Kingdom
Owner : Lazarus Luan & Daphne Goodnight
The SLURL :
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kayliwulf%20West/115/97/39

	Deirdre	lelo
Quality	8	8
Price	8	8
Service	9	8
Store	8	7

Reindeer

About this time of year, it is not uncommon to see some ponies adopt an appearance of reindeer. Complete with antlers, and in some cases, a red shiny nose.

I have over the years found a few reindeer items that help to form the basis, onto which regular pony hooves and bridle and be applied to give the overall desired look.

Kayliwulf have a lovely reindeer set, complete with little tail and large antlers, and this is the one i use most.

This is because it has the latex clothing as underwear, allowing a clothing layer harness to be worn.

Mesmerize Dungeon also fashion a wonderful latex reindeer set, again with antlers, and is certainly also worth considering.

This is named Santa's Vixen and includes tail, antlers and jinglers.

It Burns offers a cheap and cheerful reindeer collar, which offers a lovely sleighbell sound effect, though this can become rather annoying for the reindeer after a while.

So now you want a sleigh? Well, Trilobyte offer the stunt sleigh, which will follow your flying reindeer perfectly.

Xcite offered last year (not sure if it is on sale again this year) a lovely large sleigh that follows the reindeer everywhere.

Most pony AOs do not support flying, for obvious reasons, so I edited mine to include the standard pony walk when flying, to fit with the popular images of reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh.

Oh, and the nose was something I had made real quickly last year when I was standing around in reindeer tack, was pretty easy to make a red textures sphere prim and make it glow.

Good luck, and happy holidays!

Intellectual Property

We were recently enlightened about content theft by a well-informed designer, and boy was it a shock.

So we decided to share our feelings on the subject, and link to a few good resources we found.

Anything valuable in Second Life is the result of work. Lots and lots of painstaking work.

Someone knowledgeable, creative and patient spent a lot of time making that hair, those boots, or whatever.

They are entitled to be rewarded for their work.

Unlike the music industry, in SL, there is no fatcat distributor getting rich off the artist's work.

When you steal, you steal directly from the designer.

When a thief takes a copy for themselves, it's bad enough. They don't pay the designer, and get the fruit of his or her labor.

But when that thief turns around and sells the stolen goods, it's even worse.

They make a profit off the work of the designer, and the designer loses a sale.

How long would you keep working if your employer told you you weren't getting paid?

If designers get discouraged by content theft and stop creating, we all lose.

Support designers if you like their work.

Refuse to buy from individuals walking up to you in stores, and report them to Linden Labs.

We found a few good links for anyone who wants more information.

If you have more, send them our way and we'll add them.

Deirdre and lelo,
proudly supporting Second Life designers

http://contentcreatorsassociation.blogspot.com/

http://stepupsl.wordpress.com/

Armyst - Mallica

Deirdre:
This is the latest outfit from Armyst, called Mallica. The boots are called the same, but sold separately.

As you see, they're color coordinated with the outfits.

The tops of boots have fun contrasting colors as well as the boot color itself if you want a solid look.

The belt is cool, but was a little big for me - nothing new there - so I didn't wear it in my pic.

The skirt is tiny on me, but looks fine on fuller hips. If there was non-proportional stretching on it, I'd lengthen it, but no go.

A cool little dress with a bunch of good variations, especially if you get the fat pack and the boots.

lelo:
The outfit comes with a few nice options and so do the boots.

You can wear the outfit with a net inset in the side panels, showing some extra skin in the top, pants and skirt.

The net-stockings come in full lenght or thigh high versions and the belt comes in two colors.

The texturing on the gloves and top are great, i love the folds and sowing lines.

Moving on to the boots, which have the now almost standard resizing script in them, though this one has a new feature we haven't seen before, there is a simple pose in it so you can fit your boots.

And the boots come with 3 choices of color for the top and belts.

Name : ARMYST-design
Owner : Panjomy Ames
The SLURL :
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Oeconomica/223/20/31

	Deirdre	lelo
Quality	8	7
Price	8	8
Service	8	8
Store	8	8

Divas - Ambrosia

Deirdre:
Holiday season, little black dress season.. and while I love my boots, there are times where you want something a little lighter.

I dropped by Diva's and was greeted at the door by the owner and designer, Bigdaddyfr33k Beres.

The Ambrosia shoes caught my eye immediately : leather, straps, O rings... what's not to love?

The straps going through the heel, in particular, struck me as really cool and original.

(What's more, they're a brand new design : released just yesterday, so I had to pounce! )

As with any shoe that has more going on than "slip on, forget", a little help is a good thing, and I got that at the store.

Cameras Oh, Bigdaddy's business partner, helped me with fitting : size and coloring... we were done in no time flat.

I now have a cool code I can say on channel /888 to any Diva's shoe and match my skin color.

The Ambrosia comes in a bunch of wild colors : 8 in leather, 9 in bright colors (called shimmers) and 6 in glitter, a wild moiré effect you just have to zoom in on and see.

The store is clean and easy to navigate, and there's a wide variety of prices for the more budget-conscious diva.

Tell Bigdaddy Deirdre sent you ;)

lelo:
Beware of the box these shoes come in, it's a special box which will keep you amused for hours. *winks*

The sandals are of the already very popular prim toes variety and comes with a color picker hud.

The shoes themselves have 2 menus in them : one is the resize menu, and the other lets you adjust some options on the shoes.

You can save 3 feet for your different skins or styles, there are 12 toenail options, the buckles can be made silver or gold and you can hide or show your toe ring.

Great shoes for the up coming party season... ohh and guys one small hint, a girl never has enough shoes... *smiles*

Name : Diva's
Owner : bigdaddyfr33k Beres
The SLURL :
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Phoenix%20Fantastic/164/67/22

	Deirdre	lelo
Quality	9	8
Price	8	7
Service	9	8
Store	8	7

Kayliwulf Kingdom - The Count

Deirdre:
Another outfit for the men.. I think Lazarus looked at his wardrobe and found it a little bare, judging by his recent offerings.

This is a classy look, and the classic Transylvanian medal is a nice wink at the old Dracula movies.

The cape is nice and simple, with straight lines and no unnecessary parts.

I love the white gloves, they're another impeccable touch... I just love this whole outfit, not a bad thing to say about it.

As I told Seph, (the utterly dependable and recommended mister Ishelwood), now go and make the girls swoon ;)

lelo:
The Count is a 12 piece outfit which has a real royal feel to it.

The combination of black with the dark red works very good, take a look at the cape, the dark red lining is pppprrrfect. *winks*

Another thing you might want to give a real good look are the shoes, took me a good second look before i figured out that this are in fact socks, amazingly good textured socks that is.

The bling cuff links are a nice little touch, giving the outfit that little bit extra and for once the bling isn't to much.

So get ready for that royal dance during the holidays... *smiles*

Name : Kayliwulf Kingdom
Owner : Lazarus Luan & Daphne Goodnight
The SLURL :
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kayliwulf%20West/115/97/39

	Deirdre	lelo
Quality	8	8
Price	8	8
Service	9	8
Store	8	7

Pony Places: Frilly Filly Farm

Frilly Filly Farm was the first stable I visited upon arriving in SL, and is the one where I have spent the most time.

Since my initial arrival, the farm has changed much, and yet it still holds a special place in my heart.

Obviously, this does mean my comments may be a little biased in favor of FFF, but that is no reason why you shouldn't go and check it out for yourself.

It has a lovely layout with a cart trail leading you all the way around the sim's edge, giving a fantastic tour if you are lucky enough to have a ponygirl and a cart nearby.

FFF has a relaxed atmosphere, making it a great place for new and nervous ponies to get the feel for it and find their hooves.

Having said that, there is a new "strict pony" training course, and ponies enrolled on this are not able to even leave their stall without a trainer.

All the usual facilities are at FFF, including slalom, 3 steeple courses of varying difficulty, the barrel racing and also a racetrack for the carts.

A long, twisting ramp in the sky takes you to a separate set of fields with the aim of reducing lag.

You will also pass a puppy area on the way up.

Add to that a large, well-stocked tack shop in a neighboring sim, and there is also a new, separate sim with the more competitive ponies in mind.

Lots of cart rezzing vendors are available at key locations and a lovely landscaped lake and stream pass through the farm.

Put simply, no matter how much time I have spent at FFF, I still feel drawn there.

If you are conducting a whistle-stop tour of the pony stables, it just is not complete without a visit to FFF.

And if you see a pony or trainer standing idly by, say hello to them. I did and i made some wonderful friends that day.

WarDooM Shoes - Natalie Chained

Deirdre:
lelo must have the best WarDoom boot collection in SL, and we just added a new model : Natalie Chained.

I don't know who poor Natalie is, but she keeps getting strapped and chained.. she must be some kind of masochist ;)

The front zipper is really good, and a little easier to see in this version.

Great pencil heel, amazing shine, and some fun functions I'll let lelo tell you about.

We danced for hours at the last WarDoom launch party - join the group to get notified, it's worth it!

lelo:
Don't you just hate it when you have to choose between wearing boots or ankle cuffs, no problem with these new WarDooM boots.

These are the newest version of the Natalie boots, the name should tell you enough. *smiles*

Simply put the boots have all the functions of a collar imbeded in them, including some very nice poses.

The details on their boots are getting better and better have a look at the zipper it's a piece of art.

The cuffs only show when the boots are locked, by selftimer or your owner, and feature a pair of great looking Abus locks.

Once looked you can't get at the menu only your owner has controle of the boots from then on.

Great new version of the Natalie's, fashion boots when unlocked, bondage gear when locked, what else could you wish from a pair of boots? *winks*

Name: WarDooM Shoes
Owner: WarDooM Voom
The SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/WarDooM%20Voom/78/71/26

	Deirdre	lelo
Quality	8	9
Price	8	8
Service	8	8
Store	8	8

Hugo's Design - Deamon

Deirdre:
This is the last of our recent Hugo releases, a wild flame-covered outfit called Deamon.

We're modeling the two different tops - mine is marked open but I had no idea *how* open when I started ;)

The outfit is available in orange/red (worn by yours truly), pink/purple (worn by lelo), blue and black/white.

You'll note that I'm wearing the chaps as underwear and lelo is wearing them as pants - quite a difference at the bottom.

I like the heart shape in the non-open top.. it really draws the eye.

A quick word to congratulate Lexie Jansma and Rob1977 Moonites for last Saturday's fashion show.. the setting was amazing, and the models looked quite deadly ;)

lelo:
This one is hot, i mean really hot, but then latex usually is, even without the flames on it.

As usual with an Hugo outfit you get loads of options in each and every layer.

17 pieces in this one, including a pair of open fingered gloves and some fun flame pasties.

But the best thing falling out of the bag were the shades, we both instantly fell in love with them.

Great clubbing outfit as you might expect from Hugo, good design, great texturing and a great little extra.

Name : Hugo's Design
Owner : Erik Hugo
The SLURL :
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sheer/202/130/23

	Deirdre	lelo
Quality	8	8
Price	8	7
Service	9	8
Store	8	8

Squeaky Rubber - Draconic Catsuit

Deirdre:
A neat whalenet effect on a latex catsuit, this is Draconic by Squeaky Rubber.

As usual with Squeaky, it comes in a rainbow of colors : blue gem, pink, metal, red, green, purple and blood red.

In all but the red, the color is down the middle, and in the red, the middle is black and the color is on the "outside".

Don't want any black at all? The blood red and blue gem are almost solid, with only a slightly darker band down the sides.

See how carefully we shop for you guys? ;)

And as we've said before, Elisa will do custom colors on request.

Maybe this is what latex would look like if Chanel made the outfits.

lelo:
A simple 7 part catsuit, the perfect base for a special outfit.

In this kit you get the top in 3 layers and the bottom in 2 layers so you can mix and match.

You'll also get a pair of gloves and stockings matching the rest of the outfit.

As usual with Squeaky Rubber the texturing makes the catsuit really stand out, giving it a scale like effect in this case.

So add your own boots, gear and hood and you can make your own unique look.

Name : Squeaky Rubber
Owner : Elisa Kumaki
The SLURL :
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sikkima/44/83/563

	Deirdre	lelo
Quality	8	8
Price	9	8
Service	8	8
Store	8	7