The Progression of Bella; Or Why Your Texture/Photo Album Folders Are The Scariest Folders In Your Inventory

No one comes into SL looking like a model.  NO ONE.  Unless they are an alt, has a friend who is into fashion and they come armed and ready with a credit card ready to drop big bucks on Linden. NO ONE.  It's an evolution.  Well..at least it was for me.  My inventory recently hit the 20K mark...and because the thought of going through my unorganized clothing folders was enough to make me weep, I thought "Go through the textures and photo's it will be easier to clear some of that.".... Easier physically..yes...emotionally no.  I couldn't help but laugh AND cry at how I used to look while trying to find myself on SL.  In most of these pictures, I don't know what I'm wearing.  Many of the outfits have long been deleted or given away if they were transferable. The same with some of the hairs. I do know I am rocking my first Redgrave skin (which was called Jennifer) in a lot of them.  A lot of Cake hair (the place a lot of us went before we discovered Magika) And yes...many clothes from Freebie Galaxy and other places.  I did not take some of these pictures.  When I could, I did give credit to the original photographer.  So here it is...the good, the bad, the ugly...but it's all me.

The earliest known picture of me on SL.  I was a mere 8 days old when this picture was taken, with my first SL love Krypto Dragoone who I am proud to say, almost two years later, is one of my best friends.  Yes, I was a red head. I thought I looked pretty hot for a noob. The Skin, the hair, the oufit were all freebies. Yes, this predates the first skin I bought, the Redgrave Jennifer Skin. I DID buy those boots with the money I earned from stripping...I thought they were sooo expensive at 500L...now I know better (/me lovingly strokes the 22 pairs of Bax Coen Boots in her inventory). I should also mention that many many of those pair were gi\/en to me as gifts by my amazing best friend Justen Harvy.  He knows how to shut me up and stop the nagging....gift the Bax from the marketplace. THANK YOU JUSTEN FOR FEEDING MY HABIT FOR AMAZING SCULPTED BOOTS ON SECONDLIFE).

Krypto and I had a fight and I was sad. Ugh.  Yes I thought this was hot.  But even back then, at less than a month old, I knew that emote huds for the face were not a good idea for me.

Pic by Wesley Wardell

This was my profile pic for a long time.  I still think it's funny.  What I think is even funnier is that my hair is about 2 inches above my head...and I walked around like that blissfully unaware.  Hey. I was only a few weeks old, gimmie a break. I mean, I knew how to rez a box at least.



Pic by Wesley Wardell

Woot, Here I am, a month old but a brand new vampire in the world known as Bloodlines.  I was totally anti-vampire when i first joined sl...but the things we do for SLove. Yes, I turned cause of a boy...and now I am proud to be a Princess in my Clan of Sleepless Knights (same clan I joined when I became a vampire) and a Bloodlines Liaison.  


I may be new here but I still think this picture is hot.  Ahh the joy we all feel in our little Gothy vampy Hearts the day we discover Avid.

Krypto loved me as a redhead, so when we broke up, I promptly "dyed" my hair black and I haven't looked back. This is a HIGHLY photoshopped picture of me at about 2 months old, taken by one of the first people I met on SL Wesley Wardell, who is no longer on SL, but he is missed. This is also the very first Magika hair I got...Ella (and I think I still have it in my inventory...great for playing Bloodlines War..it looks great and it low prim).

Pic by Wesley Wardell

Artistic, Nakie and Photoshopped to within an inch of it's life..once again by Wesley Wardell (and believe it or not we did NOT sleep together....I left that to my friend Liberty).  I think it's pretty hot for a noob.

Yeah, I don't remember this picture, but I really have no excuse for it.  It's just a bad noob picture of me....slowly growing into my own....veeerrryyy slowly. These are the days before Bella discovered face lights

This was actually my profile picture for a long long time. When "morph" photography was new to SL.  I think it's a good picture, especially considering the photographer, Rachael Jinx, was just learning morph photography then and I was still rocking my very first Redgrave. I love the hands in it. (and anyone who knows me in sl knows the issues i have with SL wrists)

I was out shopping one day, and this random person took this picture of me, photo-shopped it and sent i back...just because. No that is NOT a collar around my neck (although I am a submissive...no I won't, no don't ask, yes I'm sure, I really don't care).

Oddly enough, this picture actually looks a lot like my RL aunt about 30 years ago.

Yes, I thought I looked hot.  No, I was not on LSD or any hallucinogenics.  No I was not drunk. No, It wasn't on a dare. No, I did not sustain a head injury.
















These next few are a montage....an HOMAGE if you will....to my deep deep denial....an ode to non flexi hair, to no face lights...to too much face light..to be unaware of to what wind light settings were.

 Ok at least I'm getting better. I discovered Truth Hair (THANK YOU SISSY INAYA)

Yes, \/irginia, there is a thing as TOO much facelight.

I get the point of silks...I still think they don't look good. And these were beautiful custom made silks..(no I was never a true Gorean...I went a few times with an old master and rped as Kajira...I serve a mean ass drink, but that's it)...This was also before my breast reduction on sl.(Ladies...even on sl they can look fake).

I rotated this picture so it wasn't lopsided, which is why my fancy scripted tears are flying away from my face.God knows why I was crying and being all emo.  You think a woman who is mid 30's in rl wouldn't do that...but it's SL..it brings out the best and the worst in us.

I thought I looked hot. Now I know I just looked like a Drag Queen.

Ahh, getting better. Truth Hair and I also just discovered the wonder also known as The Plastik.  I still refused to get a new skin. Pic by Inaya Rajal.

I thought I was the hottest thing on the GRID.  In my little red dress and my pre breast reduction tata's.  Another profile pic for a long time. Pic done by my baby brother Rhydal Silverfall.

Finally, after a year on SL, my sisters, Inaya Rajal and Josslynn Fhang FINALLY convinced me to get a new skin. They convinced me by saying "HAPPY REZ DAY!! We are taking you out and paying for a new skin for you!"  Why was I so hesitant to get a new skin...well plain and simple...I liked my face. No joke.  I built my own shape, tweaking it here and there along the way) but I didn't want the look of my avatar to change drastically. I was..I AM attached very much to the way Bella looks. Yes she has big eyes and not the sleepy bedroom eyes of most SL Fashionistas...yes her lips are bigger, yes her features in general are bigger, yes she's paler, her face is rounder, she's got fuller cheeks.. But she's me.  She is what I find to be the ideal of beauty.  So many times I see people get new skins and they look COMPLETELY different.  Well, if that's what you want, that's fine, but it wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to look like ME...but better.  So after many long hours of shopping, I finally found it.  The Martina Glow Skin in Fair by LAQ.  The skin was a pretty amazing present, but the real gift was the day spent with two of my amazing sisters.

Finally...Truth you came out with Francesca..oh how I love you.  Long, Curly, Flexi and no bangs that make me look stupid (My avi, more times than not, can NOT pull off shorter bangs).

It will be interesting to see how I feel in another two years when I look back at the first few months of this blog. I hope that I am still doing it.  Maybe not as often as we never know what RL will throw at us.  But I know I will be taking more pictures, laughing with many more friends and hopefully still pushing the envelop.  I would say that this is the end, but it's not....it's the middle.