Here we are at week 19 and I feel fairly certain I am still trying to figure out the difference between Umber and Ecru, Sepia, Sienna, Egg shell, Vanilla, Cream, Taupe, BROWN….and the list goes on! After last week I KNEW that I did not know the difference…so this week I wore something with SO many different earth tones…that SURELY…ONE of them is Umber! Geez….I hope so. I really should not complain much though…as this week really came together rather easily.

I was all ready to start digging thru the recesses of my inventory for something that I could pass of as Umber, when I came across a folder of some items that I had recently purchased from Azoury. And my eyes lit up as I remembered these CUTE little knee length shorts that I had just purchased from them with some REALLY nice boots to go with them! (On sale at the time, no less) I had purchased a couple of boots from them once before, but when I saw this little outfit I knew I had to have it…and I could find a pair of boots from my 23842087564925 pairs of boots to match it…..right?

Well once I got to the store and saw all the detailing on the boots….I could not resist. They have gold studs along the edge and if you look hard enough you can find “Azoury” etched in the leather as well as on the belt. And once I bought them and brought them home….Oh man….I was glad! They are adorable! I think I have found a new store to keep my eye on! I just had to buy the specials for this week too…and although I have not had time to try them on, I am sure I will not be disappointed!

As I hunted for skins, I wanted something that was not too light as to be pale next to all these darker earth tones and I came across this one that I had purchased from Pure Poison in an Avatar kit. This particular Avatar kit can no longer be found at her store, but you can still find it on SL Marketplace. The lips were just the right shade and the skin brought a level of sophistication to the outfit that I wanted.

Hair was kinda tricky. I wanted something short. Something almost “boyish”. I didn’t want anything to get in the way of showing off the collar of the outfit. I found several that WERE boys haircuts…and some that were really cute but a little too curly and feminine for the look I wanted to create and finally I came across this one. It was just what I was looking for…and even the color was perfect. I have worn this style with several outfits I have and am always pleased with it, but unfortunately the creator no longer has a store in SL or on the Marketplace that I am aware of. It is a shame. I got SEVERAL pieces from her before she closed and they are all really nice. I hope at the very least, she may read this article….or see people on the grid wearing her creations and know that “Nothing is ever lost.” Her creativity and the love she put into her creations live on.

Not much jewelry was needed to accentuate my umber outfit, as the collar did most of that for me, but I did find these earrings from N@N@ that were an earth tone shade and long enough to peek out from under my hair, but not too long to get in the way of the collar. The bracelets were picked up from Mandala and were a nice mix of wooden and golden bangles. What more could a girl dressed in Umber want?

Well…I can think of a couple of things….one of them would be some really cool poses and a prop to go with them. I found this “Classic sit” Prop with poses at BehaviorBody Animations…and was SO pleased. All the poses you see come with the stool. I have also used another product from there and was very pleased with it. So when you have time, drop by there and check it out!

The other thing a girl could want would be for that said girl to be able to use Kirsten’s viewer better! There are still SO many things I am learning about her viewer and about photography/editing in general. It can be SOOOO frustrating to spend most of the evening looking for the perfect place and then taking the pictures only to find out once you see them up close, that most of them have not “developed” properly and will have to be discarded.

I have been trying to take my pics as large as possible….all the tutorials tell you that….and then sizing down will work the same as AA…and since AA seemed to crash me at times…I was perfectly fine doing that. But most of my pics looked as though they had been taken in blocks that did not develop in the proper way. After some reading (who has time to read and do research when you are taking all these pics???) I found out that it COULD be a problem with some graphics cards. And considering I am using her viewer on a Macbook Pro, I felt REALLY lucky to have shadows at all! So….after taking MOST of these Umber shots, only to find out that I was going to have to trash most of them, I kept the ones that were not TOO bad…and lowered my picture size down until I found out how low I would have to go to prevent the blocks, took a few more…and called it good! It had to lower it REALLY low….BUT…..I could turn AA up ALL the way…and not crash. So I guess that was a nice tradeoff!  To see the rest of the pics I took please visit my Flickr Photostream

We will keep trying next week and see how we do for our next color challenge which is…..SKY BLUE! WOO HOO….something bright and springy!

Until next week…..be challenged!

STYLE NOTES
Outfit & Shoes: Azoury
Skin: Pure Poison
Hair: No longer available
Earrings: N@N@
Bracelets: Mandala
Prop & Poses: BehaviorBody Animations
Nails: Finesmith Designs
Lashes: Redgrave