.. cause it’s all we know ..

December 26, 2017 / Sunshine / Leave a comment

“It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future.
It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal,
and that every path may lead to peace.” – Agnes M. Pharo

arcade blog 122617a

I believe that we need to find peace within ourselves before we can find a peaceful world around us. We all want world peace but we fight each other’s ideals and thoughts and desires. We think that by stating our opinions against those in control, change will come and we will be at peace. Change will come, but peace requires so much more.

As we move through the holidays towards the new year, I find the above quote from Agnes Pharo even more poignant. We should wish for this every day for everyone and in every year. And we should probably carry courage AND hope into tomorrow as in these days, it could take both to find the peace we need.

Control what you can…if you have a peaceful heart and you live courageously and with hope… you might find yourself to be a strong person that can bring change, to be a leader towards the better, to be a warm beacon in the field of cold. Will you try?

arcade blog 122617b

I’m wearing:

Body: Maitreya Mesh Body – Lara V4.1
Skin: Glam Affair – Klea – Catwa Mesh Head Applier – Asia (The Arcade Dec 2017) @
Head: CATWA HEAD Catya [With Teeth] v2.10
Eyes: CATWA RIGGED EYES Catya v1.00
Eyes: Izzie’s – Catwa – Applier Tokyo Eyes (Pale)
Brows: Bossie Autumn Natural
Hair: Doe: Nole [Fitted] – Fatpack (The Arcade December 2017) @
Hair Accessory: Doe: Nole [Fitted] Lights (ADD) – Bright (The Arcade December 2017) @
Earrings: Hazy. Sweety Santa. Earring. Silver R (The Arcade December 2017) @
Earrings: miwa’s airship-Christmas love Tree Earring #Green (The Arcade Dec 2017) @
Ears: _ver-B [MANDALA]STEKING_EARS_Season5
Necklace: Wednesday[+]~Strange Life~Chloe Necklace (The Arcade Dec 2017) @
Hands: Maitreya Mesh Body – Bento Hand V4.1
Rings: Amala – The Lumi Rings – Maitreya
Outfit: OSMIA – Frosty.Day.Gacha.Outfit – Maitreya – RARE (The Arcade Dec 2017) @
Feet: Maitreya Mesh Body – Feet v4.1
Shoes: Ingenue :: Mabelle Oxfords (Maitreya) :: Graphite (The Arcade Dec 2017) @
Socks: fri. – Merry Socks (Holly) – Footless (The Arcade December 2017) @
Tights: Izzie’s Cozy Tights appliers
Companion: *HEXtraordinary* Snowy Owl – Flying (The Arcade December 2017) @
Pose (standing):
an lár [poses] The Sarai Series

Location:
“Winter has Arrived” @ Sol Existence (Land in Village of Sol Existence and take teleport up to Winter!)

°•♫•°☊°•♫•°

.. it came upon a midnight…crystal clear ..

December 24, 2017December 24, 2017 / Sunshine / Leave a comment

Workout + Cute = possible? by Anarinya Crystal

Here we are on Christmas eve, one of the most enchanting days of the year for many. This can be said for those that are young and those that are older as well. As part of the holiday season, I took part in the Blogger and Vlogger Network Secret Santa Swap. Basically it is a challenge to promote another blogger while being promoted by someone else. I submitted my blog/name in to the mix and agreed to take a name/blog as well. In this ‘Swap’, I received the name of Anarinya Crystal – a new to me blogger which made this especially cool as it is an opportunity to learn about someone new!

Old Painting of Yorkshire Farm Life by Anarinya Crystal

Don’t you love her name…? Anarinya sounds so pretty when I say it and heck I’m probably not even pronouncing it correctly. In her profile, Ana tells us that Anarinya means “my sun” in Quenya, a language of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. I love that! And it is a coincidence that my name is Sun(shine)!

Templemore Backyard by Anarinya Crystal

Using a play on her avatar name, Anarinya’s blog is called “Ana’s Crystals“. Ana took some time off from blogging for several months but jumped back in sometimes in early November. When she started back, she indicated that her goal was to blog what she enjoys/loves… and it appears she really has jumped back in with both feet! Ana posts a blog with a gorgeous pic nearly every day! I also am a “blog what I love” kind of blogger so I totally understand that approach – less stress, more enjoyable. Anarinya also works with her best friend – Sassy Nitely – as a brand manager for Sassy’s brand – Chic Moda.

The Chic Moda main store

In preparing for this blog, I did contact Ana to ask if I could feature her pics on this post. Thankfully she agreed so I can show you how great her pics are! I chose from her most popular on her Flickr stream but then I chose a couple of others that I just like because of their boldness!

You Should Do More by Anarinya Crystal

So back to Christmas Eve…yes we are back to this because when I asked Ana what her most favorite Christmas memory is, she shared this one with me:
“On the 24th, when my parents started to decorate the living room, I was sent to my bedroom. and every year I was laying on the floor, peeking under the door to take a peek at Santa’s black boots. Which, of course, I never got to see. Explanation was always “aww and again he came through the back door, hunny” or “oh that was when you were in the bathroom.” While Ana said there were so many other fun and happy memories, this was what came to her mind first. I love this memory because it tells me that she was a happy little girl who believed in the magic of Santa and she so believed that she would try and try to see his boots every year… just his boots! She was persistent and even though she was let down because she missed his appearance, she would be right there again the following year. This also tells me that Ana has great determination and dedication.

I believe Ana shows this in her blogging as well – she is determined and dedicated to show us the awesome things she finds in her journey through Second Life. I hope you will take a look and follow her on Flickr, on Facebook and/or follow her blog! And be sure to check out Chic Moda while you are at it and if you see Ana around, say hi!

Virtual Nights by Anarinya Crystal

Ana… thank you for letting me take a little peek into your blogging life and also for sharing such a sweet and fun memory. I send you the best Christmas wishes and I hope that you finally see Santa’s black boots this year! ❤

Adobe Spark (29)

Credits:
All pics taken and posted originally by Anarinya Crystal with the exception of the pic of Chic Moda (snapped by me).

.. taking the challenge ..

November 19, 2017 / Sunshine / Leave a comment

Blog 11.19.17 secondlifechallenge

Well, since Strawberry Singh posted her latest #SecondLifeChallenge a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been trying to create a blog and vlog in response. Suffice to say, I’m slow but mostly as I mentioned on the previous post, I’ve been trying to figure out options so that I could do this vlog without buying any software. I finally decided that since I have video editing tools in Photoshop and actually have access to Premiere Pro as well, I really only needed to record video/audio. So… for now… until I know that I might do this more often, I used FRAPS for my Second Life footage and ActivePresenter (in the video, I call this VideoPresenter, I think) to capture the browser. I pulled it all together in Photoshop and while there were some challenges that I might still need to figure out… I’m happy with the outcome.

So what is this challenge you ask? It is Strawberry’s “Google Your Avatar” challenge! I kinda screwed up on the final product as I didn’t log out nor did I clear cache/cookies again. However I did that before my first attempt and actually the results have all been very similar. You can watch the video here… or continue reading 😉

Strawberry challenged us with conducting a Google search and answering 7 questions:

Google your Second Life name in “quotations” and share your results. 2,190 results.
What are the first 5 links that come up? My Flickr; my Twitter feed; 2 links for my YouTube channel and my About Me page.
Click on the “Images” tab and tell us where the first 5 images are from. Profile pi;, blog/channel header; an image of a pic from an SL photo contest from 2010’ish; a logo I created for Relay For Life of Second Life in 2014; a still pic from a video interview from Relay For Life of Second Life telethon.
Click on the “Videos” tab and share your results, if any. Links to my YouTube channel and a couple of videos… plus a comment on a video on Vimeo from 2010. Beyond that, it was other older videos of mine on Vimeo which would have been 2010’ish as well.
Click on the “News” tab and share your results, if any. NOTHING found! YAY! I am happy to announce that I am indeed NOT newsworthy!
Did any of the results surprise you? I was mostly surprised that so much that I saw was from 3-7 years ago. I find it strange that those would have had enough traffic to show up today.
Are you satisfied with your results or wish they were different in any way? I am perfectly happy with my results but if I had to say, the one thing I wish was different would to have found my blog on the first page of the initial search.

So there we have it… my first #SecondLifeChallenge in ages and the first one via vlog and blog! I did discover something with ActivePresenter and FRAPS that I do not like when editing… and it might be something that I just need to research more – the audio and video are not separate, so I couldn’t do any editing of each. That caused some challenges in areas and required me to redo the videos a couple of times. HA! However, that could have just been how I uploaded into Photoshop… something to research. If I find I am doing these more, I might look further in to Camtasia as I think it would be faster!

I shot my video on my sim “Sol Existence”. It is open to public so anytime just stop by!

Until next time,
~Sunshine

Location:
Sol Existence

I’m wearing:
Body: Maitreya Mesh Body – Lara V4.1 with DeeTalez Appliers (freckles)
Skin: DeeTaleZ *Appliers* for CATWA Heads *Heidi* NORDIC
Head: CATWA HEAD Catya [With Teeth] v2.10
Eyes: CATWA RIGGED EYES Catya v1.00
Eyes: Izzie’s – Catwa – Applier Tokyo Eyes (Pale)
Hair: … MINA Hair – Romy
Ears: _ver-B [MANDALA]STEKING_EARS_Season5
Earrings: Amala – The Madeline Earrings
Necklace: *PC* Seeds of Metal Necklace long and short
Bracelet: *PC* Seeds of Metal bracelet
Hands: Slink Hands – Dynamic – Female V1.3
Top: Tee*fy Lexie Tank ( Inserts) – White – Maitreya
Top: Tee*fy Lexie Straps – White – Maitreya
Top: Tee*fy Gwen Loose Shirt – Blue Stripes – Maitreya
Pants: Addams // Lixie Ripped Super Skinny Jean // Maitreya
Feet: Maitreya Mesh Body – Feet v4.1
Boots: fri. – River Boots (Earth)
Tattoo: *CST* Tres Clair Tattoo {Fade}