Ashraya, which means shelter in sanskrit, is an organization based in India which operates with the purpose of providing aid to Indian children in need and abused women through the implementation of various projects. The Ashraya Project in SL opens tomorrow, May 5th, and the proceeds will go towards this wonderful organization.

There are many events planned for this project, including fashion shows and parties, check out the Schedule of Events page for all the details. The Ashraya Project will run from May 5th till June 4th.

I’m wearing a mesh sari from Bilo that will be available tomorrow at this event in many bright and beautiful colors. The proceeds from the purple one I’m wearing in the second picture will go towards the charity. What I love most about this sari is, it can be worn with or without the dupatta.

Bilo is a new brand to me which I noticed on plurk a few weeks ago. You’ll find lots of gorgeous mesh dresses here. Check out Bilo on Marketplace for more of their designs.

Remember, all of the festivities start May 5th at 10am slt. Check out Editorial Clarity’s blog for event details and slurls.

Credits:
Skin: League Jen Dark Feline (Cleavage C) by Nena Janus
Hair: [elikatira] Abbey – Black 04 by Elikapeka Tiramisu
*Sari: Bilo Chandramukhi Sari by Mayaa Thistle (Available on May 5th @ The Ashraya Project)
*Henna tattoos: Huz Tats and Bilo
*Jewels: Zaara Nizam colored by Zaara Kohime
*Poses: Long Awkward Pose and oOo Studio

My apologies ahead of time because this post might be a bit picture heavy. I got my hands on this gorgeous new skin from PXL a few days ago and I have been having loads of fun snapping up pics in it. Kate has now been officially released and you can find it at the PXL mainstore. Check out the PXL blog for all the details on Kate and see pictures of the 6 tones it comes in. I’m wearing the dark tone in this post. For a raw shot of me wearing this skin, check out my plurk here.

The rest of the items I’m wearing are all mesh. I am so excited to be fully meshed out. Starting with my clothes, my tank is from coldlogic and my jeans are from Maitreya. These are two of my favorite shops for stylish mesh items at the moment.

My hair is from Discord Designs and I am so happy to see my most favorite braids are available in mesh now. There is more mesh goodness being released from Discord Designs, check out the flickr for pics.

The bag and shoes I have are also both mesh and both are exclusives at OGlam right now. Check out the OGlam blog for all the other details and exclusives.

The earrings I’m wearing are also mesh and are available at Aura. You will find many other gorgeous mesh items at Aura.

Finally, I am so totally loving these new poses from Diesel Works. They are named Colleen and they are just full of attitude!

I hope y’all have a wonderful Easter weekend. Happy shopping everyone! <3

Credits:
*Skin: [PXL] KATE DA NE DEB C1 by Hart Larrson
*Eyeliner: [PXL] KATE DA Cat Eyes (Tattoo) by Hart Larrson
*Eyes: [PXL] SOUL Eyes – Brown (S) by Hart Larrson
*Eyelashes: ::BeetleBones:: Mesh Lashes V.01 (Dollface black) by Suetabulous Yootz (MESH)
*Hair: -Discord Designs- Atlas (Brunette) by Kallisti Burns (MESH)
*Tank top: coldLogic top – lauren.peach (S) by coldlogic (MESH)
*Jeans: Maitreya Zipper-Skinny Jeans * M #2 by Onyx LeShelle (MESH)
*Shoes: NX-Nardcotix MANA Era Gator Peep Toe L Red by Nardya Rousselot (MESH) (Exclusively at OGlam Shopping)
*Bag: je suis… le printempts bag (l) by Julia Merosi (MESH) (Exclusively at OGlam Shopping)
Earrings: [Aura] Dia De Los Muertos – (Rust) by Tyr Rozenblum (MESH)
*Poses: Diesel Works – Colleen Female Poses by Rogan Diesel
Location: Milis Muirnin found on Koinup Places

It’s been a while since I’ve done a male fashion post on my blog so I thought I should bring it back with a bang by introducing you to one of the sexiest men in my friend list. I’ve known Mr. Claudius Fouroux for a few years now and I cannot say that I have ever seen him look anything but completely drool worthy. He may look like a gorean master to you in this post, however, he’s one of the most brilliant male stylists I’ve seen on the grid. Every time I have seen him he always has a completely new look that he’s been playing around with. My favorite was when he had his dreadlocks, I was just swooning! I wish I had taken a pic back then.

Rumor has it that Mr. Fouroux is quite the ladies man, although I haven’t really seen anything to back that up, but I thought I should mention it in any case to make this post more scandalous. Sorry Claud, but you knew I was gonna throw you under the bus when you signed up for this! <3

When Mr. Fouroux is not busy being his incredibly handsome self in SL, I really have no idea what else he does or what his likes and dislikes are. He’s actually kind of a mystery. I know he used to be a fashion blogger back in the day, but I really haven’t seen him doing much lately. Perhaps we should all do some investigating. :P

A big thank you to Mr. Claudius Fouroux for taking the time out of his busy shagging schedule and posing for me. Also a big thank you to Miss Zaara Kohime for joining us in this photoshoot to be one of his harem girls.

Credits:
Claudius Fouroux:
Skin – the body co. Blaze (08 Dark) black hair
Eyes – BIGBrown Eyes by Aradia Dielli
Facial Hair – *Valiant & Sacred* 2.0 Beard V8 by wavie Haller
Hair – /Wasabi Pills/ Magnus Mesh Hair by MissAllSunday Lemon
Piercings – [twee.] – Prime Piercing by Verinne Ansar
Outfit – Roquez T.E.D. /BLK by Valekio Rau
Gloves – Feroz – Vendas II (hands bandages) by Juampi Sparta
Tattoo – Tattoo Moa-Moa (male)_GoK by danel Kurosawa
Boots – T.E.D. Wurr-Blades/BLK by Valekio Rau
Weapon – Centipede Axe Pluto by Centipede Weapons

Zaara Kohime: (Girl on the right)
Skin: Body Co.
Hair: Maitreya
Clothing and Jewels: Zaara

Strawberry Singh: (Girl on the left)
Skin: Aura
Hair: Elikatira
Silk: Solange
Jewels: Zaara
Tattoo: Huz Tats

Poses:
1st Picture: Diesel Works
2nd Picture: oOo Studio & Geez

I am participating in Linden Lab®’s Fashion Event today in the SL™ Community Forums, please read and participate if you can, I will love you forever and ever! <3

My blog post is in the blog section here: Fashion Expert Strawbery Singh: Ethnicity in Second Life

I’ve asked a few questions in the Fashion Forum already. Login to the forum using your SL username and password and participate if you can:

1. What do you think was the hardest thing to get used to when you first started SL?
2. Is the SL you similar to the RL you in looks?
3. How do you feel about content creators using templates?
4. What are your thoughts on Mesh?
5. What skins have recently caught your eye?

I will probably add more discussions later today so keep checking out the fashion forum and participate in some of the other discussions that the other participants have started. There are some great topics in there.

I loved Harper Beresford’s “How has your look changed over the years” question. I participated in that and also added it to the SL Evolution flickr group she created this morning. I hope you guys participate as well!

Please feel free to IM, email or leave a comment in my blog post or on the forums if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to discuss!

When I was deciding what to write for my post, I thought this topic would be perfect. I created the Ethnicity in SL flickr group back in 2008 and it’s still going pretty strong. I would love for you to join it and add your images. I also have an Ethnicity in SL category on my blog as well.

All of my style credits can be found in my blog post on the SL Community forums today. I am honored and totally excited about having the opportunity to do this. Please take a moment to pop over to read and participate if you can!

Finally, I just wanted to give a big thank you to the folks at Linden Lab for this event. I think it’s great that they are reaching out to the community in this way. I follow them on Facebook and Twitter as well and it’s so fantastic to see them sharing pictures, posts and thoughts from different members of the community. Thank you for noticing, promoting and supporting us! <3

Linden Lab will be having a four-day fashion event with lots of fashion-related activities from September 18th to 21st. They have requested certain members of the fashion blogging community to write up a blog post which will be posted on the official Second Life blog and forums. More information about the event in this post.

My blog post will be up on September 21st (a day before my birthday :D) after which I will be available on the SL community forums to answer any fashion-related questions or just to socialize and have fun. I hope you guys visit the forums that day and help me out because I am definitely no fashion expert and can use all your help to field any questions that are thrown my way! I’ll do a reminder post that day but make sure to check out the whole event from the 18th to the 21st, several of your other favorite fashion bloggers are participating!

Also, today is my plurkyversary! \o/ Three years ago today I found out about plurk through Ms. Ana Lutetia. I blogged about my love for plurk last year linking to some of my favorite plurks and my reasons for being so attached to it. I remember when I first joined plurk, it was such a wonderful tight-knit, small community of SLers and everyone was very caring, thoughtful and genuinely wanted to get to know each other. It’s been a wonderful few years on plurk and I’ve had a lot of fun getting to know all of you! Thanks for adding me to your timelines and responding to my goofy plurks. <3

Credits:
*Skin: Glam Affair – Gio Skin by Aida Ewing
Hair: LeLutka – Brigitte AlmostGoth Hair by Thora Charron
*Jewels: {Zaara} – Nizam Collection by Zaara Kohime
*Promotional copies

The August issue of Avenue Magazine has me going back to my roots for my column. I really enjoyed doing this piece because it felt so much like me.

There was more I wanted to cover and talk about so I am thinking of starting a new blog category for my silks and focusing more on ethnic wear once again. I really did miss it.

Read Harem Girl from pages 44 to 49.
Edit: Also check out Rodvik Linden’s interview starting on page 174.

Tomorrow is the first day of Ramadan in the Islamic calendar and I just wanted to wish y’all a happy and fulfilling month of fasting! <3 I’ll be fasting for the next 30 days so no one's allowed to plurk about food before sunset! :P

Learn more about the month of Ramadan:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan

Credits:
*Skin: -Glam Affair- Amelie – Dark – Bl – 02 by Aida Ewing
*Gown: ~Mystic Sky~ Cherish Gown: Silver by Skyler John
Veil: ViGo – Gorean Veil by Vilandra Miles
*Pose: Frozen Panty Mod 5 by Takeshi Kiama
*Promotional copies

So it’s time for me to enter another contest! :D As I’m sure you’ve noticed I am a contest addict. I think during my four years in SL I have entered literally hundreds of contest and contrary to popular belief I have only won nine of them! I love entering contests because it really gives me the opportunity to push myself to better my skills. And every time I don’t win a contest, I just tell myself to try harder next time. Just a few days ago I submitted a photo for the Hair Fair contest, which ends on the 19th btw so don’t forget to enter!

Now I’ve decided to try my hand at the Kari Komrad Hud Contest. This contest is actually very different for me because I’m used to photoshopping my pictures like mad for contests. This contest however, you’re not allowed to do that. So it was definitely a bit tricky and different for me but I really wanted to push myself and try it. I’m pretty satisfied with the results I got with these two pics so far, however we are allowed to submit as many pictures as we want so I am definitely planning to do a lot more, especially now that I have the hang of this hud and find it quite fascinating!

The first thing you want to do is actually pick up the hud itself, it’s only L$500 on the marketplace, (then you can leave a detailed and informative review for it like I did :D) or you can also find it at the Kari mainstore. Then check out this awesome and funny video to learn how to use it. I am embedding it below but you can also find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6wbw1wSaHA

The hud is actually very simple to use and it adds so much more creativity to your inworld snapshots. You are going to have a lot of fun with this, so definitely try it out. The contest ends on June 30th and the prizes are pretty sweet too, L$5000 for each category and there are three categories to submit your pictures in. I think for the two I’ve done here, I’ll go for Candid and Landscape. I’ve got a few ideas for the Minimalism category but still figuring it out. Kinda excited to try it! :D And check out the flickr group, people have already submitting. I really love this one so far.

While we’re on the topic of huds, I thought I’d mention it in this post as well since I used it for the first picture. People are always asking me how I get my eyes to focus on the camera in my pictures, well before I would rez a prim and have myself look at it by alt-clicking and then I would get my alt to take the picture. It was quite the ordeal and I still do that whilst shooting clients. However, recently Mr. James Schwarz of the Slipsters plurked this awesome auto focus hud. For some reason it’s been taken down from the marketplace where I originally purchased it from but I did hunt it down in the gi poses mainstore today. Here’s the slurl to where the hud is at and here’s a picture of the vendor to give you an idea of what it does. Basically you just wear the hud, don’t need to rez anything so it can be done on any sim, and then just use the hud to position your eyes. It’s every photographers dream so if you don’t have it, definitely go pick it up!

UPDATE: I just noticed the hud is back on marketplace! YAY https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/gi-poses-Auto-Focus/2250209

Good luck in the contest! <3

Credits:
*Skin: PXL Linda Dark by Hart Larsson
Outfit: ~*Fantasia*~ Priceless-White by Dream Resistance
Eye hud: [gi poses] Auto Focus by Nakari Tolsen
Photography hud: Kari – Komrad hud by Menno Ophelia (Rules to Kari Komrad Hud Contest)
Location: Garden of Dreams
*Promotional copies

“Beauty’s sister is vanity, and its daughter lust.”
Proverb

For my bare series.

Credits:
*Skin: Glam Affair Layla by Aida Ewing
*Hair: Truth Kalia by Truth Hawks
*Jewels: Zaara Nizam by Zaara Kohime (Annual sale – 50% off everything)
*Pose + Props: oOo Studio Red Light Special Vignette by Olaenka Chesnokov
*Promotional copies

Tuli has released a new skin line by the name of Sara, and it is delectable. I love the way Tuli’s skins always make me feel pretty, girly and youthful. Sara comes in 10 gorgeous tones (fair, pale, peach, pearl, powder, sunkissed, tan, bronze, mocha and petal). I am wearing the bronze tone. Each tone comes with lots of makeup and tattoo makeup options. Also available are eyelash tattoos, three different brow options, cleavage options and several eyebrow shapers. Lots of options to choose from and play with for this absolutely beautiful skin, so take the slurl and check it out.

My colorful dress is called Kamasutra and is a new release from Fellini Couture. Now you know I am obsessed with anything bollywood and as soon as I put this outfit on and started dancing one of my fav bollywood songs popped into my mind. It’s called “mujhe rang de” and it kind of translates into “color me” It’s a fun and flirty song and I think suits this dress wonderfully. I love doing these kinds of pictures, I hope you like the song too! <3

Credits:
*Skin: [:Tuli:] Sara / bronze / lips :: Pink by Tuli Asturias
*Hair: >TRUTH< Pia - cocoa by Truth Hawks
*Outfit: Fellini Couture- Kamasutra by Joy Fellini
*Head Jewel: Part of Kamasutra outfit listed above
*Other jewels: Zaara Nizam color set by Zaara Kohime
*Pose: oOo Studio bellydance pose by Olaenka Chesnokov
*Promotional copies
Location: Zaara Nasha Lounge