Give Me an Inch

I have become one of THOSE friends about whom I have warned you. You know, the kind of friend who fills your house with beach balls and sporks. /me waves to Hell. The kind of friend who has wild parties and trashes your house and steals your bed. /me waves over at Oura, Dale and Jonah. Perhaps I”m not that bad yet, but I am on my way down that path.

I was wandering about my friend’s property. She wasn’t there and I was walking about under water. I discovered a posing stand. I inspected it – it was hers. I figured it was there for changing in semi-privacy. I looked about. It was VERY private down there in the ocean. It was beyond private. It was lonely. Bare. I guess I am not a minimalist. The landscape cried out to me for MORE. And I DO have rez rights there.

I figured that maybe my friend would appreciate a personal shopper. *grin* The next time she came to use her posing stand, perhaps she would appreciate a suggestion for an outfit. What is appropriate attire for underwater occasions? Why, a mermaid outfit, of course. *grin* I am not up to making a mermaid outfit but I can certainly make a tee shirt. I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted the word “mermaid” with the letter “i” being represented by a mermaid’s tail.

This probably won’t sound impressive but for me it represents a major victory in so many ways. I went to the computer and looked for pictures of mermaid tails. I saw several, most of which were way too ornate for me to approximate. I finally found one that looked reasonable, that I could simplify and approximate for my use. Next I needed a texture for it and looked for fish scales for inspiration. The most amazing part was that I managed to create the tail and the filler pattern in Gimp. Without screaming, crying or swearing, all of which are the usual accompaniments to my efforts with Gimp. I have been sleeping lately. I’m wondering if there is a correlation between getting a lot of sleep/rest and being able to figure out how to use the Gimp software. *grin* I took a photo of a tee shirt on a hanger. I trimmed that up and added the mermaid text to the tee. It was amazing – I was doing what I was TRYING to do. Yes, there were a few times where I was baffled. For instance – color erase. I kept trying to use my paintbrush when what I should have selected was color-erase. 🙂 I got there. Anyway, it took me four hours to conceive the idea, make the tail, make the word, make the tee shirt texture, make the vendor prim, and make the actual tee-shirt. Yes – I cheated at the end. The picture on the hangar shows a white tee shirt with short sleeves. But when I wore that shirt, it bored me. So I trimmed the sleeves and tinted the shirt a pale aqua. No, I did NOT change the “advertisement”. Deal with it. Maybe you think that is a ridiculously long period of time. But for me, well, 4 months ago I couldn’t have done any of this except shove things into a vendor prim. Not only did I do it, but I walked away feeling satisfied and proud.

May I interest you in a tee-shirt? *grin*