I'm too nice. Because it is too big of a pain in my butt to have this guy up in my IM about it, I took his name out. Word travels fast, and he was all over me within 10 minutes of me blogging this. Which is amazing because this blog has like 4 readers.

So okay, mr. man, you can stop refreshing my page over and over again now.

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So, because it is EVERYONE'S FAVORITE THING EVER TO LOG IN to random IMs from people you don't know that just say "hello" or "hi," I was OVERJOYED this morning to log in to exactly that. For some reason, I chose to reply to him.

[9:50] Spammer: (Saved Fri May 01 11:45:36 2009) Hello.

(logged in to that offline.)

[9:51] Rosie Barthelmess: May I help you?
[9:51] Spammer: Hi, How're you?
[9:51] Rosie Barthelmess: Fine thanks, what can I help you with?
[9:51] Spammer: I was wondering if you are a land owner?
[9:51] Rosie Barthelmess: To what do I owe this inquiry, please?
[9:51] Spammer: I work with [Name redacted]
[9:52] Spammer: [Name redacted]. We are interested if you would like to place one of our theatres, within your land to raise your lands value.

(OH MY GOD IT IS THE HOLY GRAIL, A THEATRE I CAN PUT ON LAND I OWN TO RAISE ITS VALUE. QUICK EVERYONE, LAND VALUATION PROBLEM SOLVED!)

[9:52] Spammer: Do you use Voice Chat?

(uh, what?)

[9:52] Rosie Barthelmess: Okay, so (1) you are one day old.

(born date: 4/30/2009)

[9:52] Spammer: I just got back from Afgainstan.

[9:52] Rosie Barthelmess: (2) your profile contains a picture of you flipping me off.

(A RL photo of a redneck lookin kid hanging out of the window of his small truck, baseball cap on backwards, flipping off the camera. And the text, which read something like "Yeah, this is a picture of me flipping you off because I'm that badass.")

[9:53] Spammer: United States Army.
[9:53] Spammer: I lost my old avatar.

(It's really hard to lose an avatar unless you're a fuckup or there's some kind of catastrophic LL failure, right?)

[9:53] Rosie Barthelmess: (3) It's pretty easy to tell if I'm a land owner, because then I would own land.
[9:53] Rosie Barthelmess: How did you get my name, please?
[9:53] Spammer: Classfied.
[9:53] Rosie Barthelmess: I beg your pardon?
[9:53] Spammer: Alright, nevermind.
[9:53] Spammer: Have a nice day.
[9:54] Rosie Barthelmess: You too.

Right after this fabulous encounter, our hero changed his profile picture to one of a bulky square-jawed soldier wrapped in BDUs, strings of ammunition, and wielding two machine guns.

The text on his profile was also upgraded to something considerably nicer.

Awesome.

--- EDITED TO ADD

I was contacted by the actual owner of the actual business, who claims that the guy who contacted me is not affiliated with them in any way. They were going to follow up with him, so I don't know if he's a scammer, or what.

Well, obviously he's kind of a scammer.

But anyway, if you saw the name of the business which I have removed from the post, they'd like you to know he's not affiliated with them.

I know it might seem weird for me to blog about the custom work I do without following it up with, "and this will be released in the store!" But, I am really really proud of this necklace, and it was a gift to one dear friend of mine, from another dear friend of mine.

Zarabella Ming approached me to take her vision of the perfect charm necklace/locket and customize it for Noirran Marx for her rezday. As I am close friends with both of those amazing ladies, I was happy to take on the project.

Here's how it came out.

This one of a kind necklace is made of interlocking silver links with a variety of charm-bracelet type embellishments:

Musical notes, handcuffs, roses, a paw print, and treble clefs.

The necklace has a front-closure pass-through in which the locket is suspended on the dangling end.

The locket is a working locket in which the front cover swivels around to present the photo in a cameo-type arrangement with framing reminiscent of celtic knots.

255 prims.

And to give you an idea of the actual size:

I guess this is where I say "Custom work is available, IM Rosie Barthelmess."

Thanks, Zara and Noirran, for allowing me to be part of such a wonderful gift and great project.

I know you all secretly looked me over and thought I was a "bad girl." You know, visions of what kinds of ink or piercings were tucked away under my clothes, picturing me raising hell and running off to Mexico for the weekend to drink tequila and dance on a bar, things like that.

Right?

Pfffffft.

Fortunately for me, I don't have to necessarily be a hellraiser to enjoy some great tattoos in SL. I don't have kind of personal style to pull off sleeves or full body tats, but I am all for flashing a little personality in the form of unique, original tats that make a statement. And, one of my favorite spots for tats that fit the bill, is .:Collisions:., where the tats made by my friend Guenevere DeCuir do all that and more.

Guen has multiple shops around the grid, but you can find her mainstore at Freakheim (SLURL) along with freebies (she also makes lovely unisex jewelry), some awesome photography showcasing her tats, and other information.

And before I forget, let me make sure to mention she is available for CUSTOM TAT WORK and does an excellent job. One of the tats I wear whenever my legs aren't covered, is a very lovely bear-themed kanji-mixed with-tribal piece of art on my calf that I commissioned with her -- I gave her some very loose guidelines and she put together a gorgeous piece that gets comments almost every time I wear it.

So here's the important info: All Guen's tats are available on all layers, and they are copy/mod/no transfer.

Okay, so I know these are little, but click through and see them on my flickr for more detail. My blog template borks with larger pictures. Blah blah blah I know.

First things first, RFL. This is Guen's item that's up for sale at her store for L$100, to benefit Relay For Life. The kanji reads: Courage, Strength, Wisdom, and it's framed with lovely colored accents on the sides.

And sticking with the spine-tattoo theme, here's another one that I just love.

Rosie - Roses - get it? Get it? Quill & Thorns, another spine tat from Collisions, also L$100. What you can't see is the little red droplet of blood coming off of the quill-point at the bottom (it's covered by my corset) but it makes a statement for the writer in all of us.

And just because I want to show you my belleh, here's one I'm especially excited about:

Serenade, a belly/midriff tat by Guen, features a heart-themed musical score that floats over your tummy. Now remember, my tummy is bigger than average so it'll look slightly different on a regular-sized avie. Serenade is a companion piece to the Sable Rose Ballad pendant, which also features the same treble-bass-clef-heart design. I was really, really thrilled when Guen released this, and you can find this tat as well as other tats that match up with some Sable Rose jewelry, both at Collisions and at the Sable Rose mainstore.

Guenevere DeCuir puts her heart and soul into all her designs, whether they're her own creations for the store or custom pieces for clientele. I've commissioned her for custom tats (color and monochrome) in the past and I've never been disappointed. I highly recommend her for unique, personal tattoos that show off your personality.

Collisions Tattoos & Unisex Jewelry Main Store: (SLURL) -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/freakheim/225/226/22

So it's been another week or so since bloggin. I guess I've seemed pulled a bunch of directions and trying to keep it all managed.

Everything's good, just been busy in RL (thankfully) and SL both. I keep getting things gonna stack up on the bloggin posts and then semi-forgetting about them.

Stay tuned, there is blogarificness. I promise.

Oh, wait. Here's a semi-funny story I'm thinking you might get a giggle out of.

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So I was at the club, this was probably a few weeks ago, now. And this avie, a 2007 avie in a 2007 linden skin and static prim hair and linden shoes and a freebie dress, and a pretty noobish shape, and was wearing some kind of intricate +~->ZOMG I'M A MODEL<-~+ kind of tag.

You know the ones.

And suddenly she says:

"I see a big girl dancing there, go big girl, go! I could never be fat, my agency is so strict about my appearance."

So I said, "Oh, I've done some modeling in SL. Each agency is different I guess."

So she said again, "Yeah, I'm big in RL but I could never be fat in SL and still be able to keep my job modeling."

So I said: "Must have been hard to find a modeling agency that would let you model in freebies, non-prim shoes and a Linden noob skin, huh."

Then I said, "Would you like me to give you some landmarks to places like Gnubie's and Sarah Nerd's, so you can pick up some higher quality freebies?"

She shut up.

I know, I know, did I fall off the face of the earth! No! But I've been pretty busy in RL and ultra-busy in SL lately, which means my blogging here has fallen by the wayside. For that, I apologize.

To try to sort of burst back onto the scene, I'm going to actually (*gasp!*) do a fashion blog. I KNOW, RIGHT?

So, some of you may know the name Lissa Maertens. I have had the pleasure of knowing her for a while, as she is a friend of Eirik's. And for a very long time, I have been totally fangirl in love with her clothes. From when she was working at Simone, to now that she's in her own shop called Cattiva e Cattivo, it's a favorite spot for Eirik and I to pop in from time to time to see how her talents are progressing.

For my birthday, Eirik gave me a gift card to Cattiva e Cattivo, and I was thrilled to be able to add some super cute and very affordable things to the pieces of hers I'd already had. I'm constantly complimented when I'm wearing her stuff, so it's about darn time I show it off to everybody here.

Cattiva e Cattivo has clothes for both men and women, including shoes, ranging from casual to formal. I've broken out some items here to demonstrate her complete versatility, so bear with me while I ooh and ahh! All the photos are available on my Flickr Photostream in sizes up to REALLY REALLY HUGE, so feel free to click on over there and check them out in more detail since I can't really post big ones here.

This is her very adorable, very versatile, Loli outfit (named "Loli"), and for L$250 you get a crazy amount of options. This outfit comes with a red lace-up corsette on multiple layers, a black jacket layer with long sleeves (that shows a peek of the red lace from underneath it), corset-lace glitch shorts, TWO flexi skirt versions (red/black, and black) in a lovely lace, stockings, stocking embellishments including bows and rolled stocking tops, forearm lace sleeve poufs, shoulder lace, and an adorable rear-veiled top hat. I've worn this outfit in a variety of ways and mixed and matched pieces with other things. It's really great and richly textured, and for the price you can't beat it.

We'll call this look "badass casual." In RL, I LIVE in outfits like this. I am absolutely in love, LOVE LOVE LOVE with Lissa's hoodies. The prim hoods fit great and her texturing is just beyond good. In this photo, I am wearing her Porn Star Hoodie (but other graphics are available in the hoodie collection) which comes with prim hood complete with flexi laces that hang in the front, AND prim-bunched-sleeves. I've paired it with one of her great pants options, the "Bitchez Britchez" in midnight. Bitchez Britchez are richly textured jeans (with a really great butt on them, I must say) that are the non-prim-leg option. She also offers prim-leg jeans with the same high quality texturing and a rumpled, soft scrunched prim flare leg.

Moving up from badass casual into smart casual, this is an outfit that I assembled from Cattiva e Cattivo separates that I got so many compliments on, I didn't take it off for two days.

I would love to say that this great look was due to my amazing fashion sense or me having a serendipitous moment, but the truth is the color ranges at Cattiva e Cattivo are all made to go together. Wonderful neutrals and great, rich colors make the entire store a potluck of different mix-and-match fashions and you really can't go wrong.

Here, I've chosen to wear the Pleated Dress Slacks in Slate with prim legs (notice the double-buttons on the front, how sharp is that?) with the Sheer Delight set in Navy. The Sheer Delight set in itself is an amazing bargain (I think it was L$100) because it includes the sheer top on the shirt and jacket layers with tucked and untucked versions, plus the sheer top in a "dress shirt" version on all layers tucked/untucked that comes with the front of the shirt actually open rather than buttoned for those sultry days -- PLUS the bustier. I slipped on the new Stephanie sculpted high heels in Navy for this look (more about the heels shortly) and one of the new Sable Rose necklaces I've been working on but is not yet released.

A sexy, smart, sassy look like this one is incredibly versatile -- and the fact that the slacks come in a ton of really great neutrals and the top comes in its own fabulous range of deep colors makes it them both must-haves.

From smart/dressy casual to formal, Cattiva e Cattivo really does have it all:

This amazingly gorgeous dress is the Frosted dress in Antique Red. The movement and workmanship on this skirt is really quite amazing, and it drapes and flows in a way that makes me want to go dancing. As a matter of fact, not long after picking it up, Eirik and I took it for a spin with some friends and it really is gorgeous. I think I especially like the sheer, glitter-trimmed asymmetrical peekaboo decollatage with the lovely sheer sleeves. The Frosted dress is available in a TON of color choices and also comes with optional fur stole and sleeve poufs for the holidays or those chilly fall or winter evenings. The skirt is click-to-resize, which makes it all super easy. Oh! And this dress comes in a babydoll version also when you purchase the gown!

And now, shoes. Who doesn't need shoes?

The Stephanie high heel shoes come in, as I told Lissa, "all shades of awesomeness." I lost count of the number of colors she's made available to us. All the texturing on these shoes is 100% hand done by Lissa herself, which is important to point out. The colors range from antique ivory to deep ebony and everywhere in between, some with streaks of complimentary shades of colour on the sides. The red/alternately coloured soles that curl up toward the toe really make this shoe, and make it a stand-out choice. There's no excuse for you not to have at least one pair of these Stephanie pumps, because there are colors that match not only every personality but also all the colors available in the Cattiva e Cattivo line of clothes.

Do yourself a favor and stop in to Cattiva e Cattivo -- really brilliant texturing, amazing quality for a very reasonable price, and she's always cranking out new things. Tell her Rosie sent you. <3

When my friend Damon Dollinger put out the word looking for folks who'd be willing to review parts of his collection that he's recently updated, I immediately volunteered Eirik.

Because, you know, I'm like that. All pushin him around and offering him up to do work.

*hides*

But when I saw Eirik today trying on pieces from Damon's collection, I couldn't help myself and immediately asked him to hop on a pose stand for me so I could blog some myself. What gal doesn't appreciate it when a guy's looking great?

First of all, the store is called Fear & Clothing, and there are more than one location. I am familiar with the location in Londoom and the satellite shop at Subtle Submission, right across the hall from my Sable Rose shop there. SLURLS to follow. First, yummy picturey goodness.

Eirik put this look together featuring the Fear & Clothing Black Sharkskin Jacket (with little skull embellishments, I love it) and the Low-Rise Striped Pants, in Blood.

The thing that stood out to me immediately with the jacket and pants is that even though they are in a striped-pattern fabric, the seams were really excellent. I know seams are some of the hardest things about designing SL clothes, and there were obviously great depths of care taken to make sure everything matches up here.

Another feature of these pants is the very well done prim belt buckle, and the fact that there are two versions of the belt buckle for easy adjusting depending on the size of your waistline. I am a HUGE fan of the prim belt buckle concept, especially for men's pants. Guys are supposed to have big metal buckles on their belts. It's just the way it should be. And here, it looks fabulous.

There will be more reviews of Damon's items to come, I'm sure, but -- and I say this for the ladies as well as the guys -- if you want to look great, or you want your MAN to look great, make a trip over to Fear & Clothing for some fabulous, edgy casual clothes to suit all kinds of styles.

Fear & Clothing, Londoom: SLURL

And now the credits: on Eirik --

Skin: Belleza
Eyes: Zen
Sheer top: FORM
Jacket: Fear & Clothing (Sharkskin Black Jacket, No Straps)
Pants: Fear & Clothing (Low Rise Striped Pants, Blood)
Hair: Black Maria
Boots: Cattiva & Cattivo
Piercings: Originals by Eirik Haefnir