Happy Thanksgiving

 2020 has been an awful year but I took some pictures yesterday to show you one bright spot from my year...there is always something to be thankful for!  💋

All pics by Isabelle Cheviot.  With Xalted Violet.

Dog Star Featured Model #325 - Loni Greenheart - Bonus Interview!

I'm happy to share something special today:  a combined Feature Model with a bonus interview!  Loni Greenheart is seriously one of the most genuine and kind people I've met in SL and I really enjoyed the conversation and photo shoot.  She is co-owner of the CMNF Lounge which I highly encourage you to check out.  Instead of focusing on CMNF as an element of D/s, the Lounge focuses more on exhibitionism.  But read on and find out more!

All photos by Isabelle Cheviot - shot on location at CMNF Lounge.

Where are you from in RL?:  I am from Georgia!...the US state in the southeast, not the country. I've lived here most of my life!

Flickr Page:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/151297448@N03/

Turn On's:  I love intelligence and creativity and humor and class, but I also love a well made avatar, and especially a well-made butt :p uniqueness is hot, but RPing having a little something "extra" is a huge turn on for me. in the end though, flattery goes a long way, and making me feel genuinely attractive and desired is hard for me to ignore lol. 

Turn Off's:  I can't stand when people are pushy or overly forward or try to "dom" me, or expect things out of me that I never promised. I don't like rudeness, people who talk like frat boys (especially women!), puerile jokes, or when someone tries to turn literally everything someone says into some kind of sexual reference. We can just lump all of that into "immaturity" I guess! I could probably go on about my turn-offs all day lol, but I don't want to sound negative! lol I actually enjoy far more things than I dislike :)

Isa:  According to your res date, you've only been in SL for a little over 3 years now - you've moved quickly!  Is this your first avatar?

Loni:  It is. technically I still have access to the "true" first avatar I ever made, back in 2006 when I was quite young, but I was only in-world for about an hour before I gave up and didn't come back until 2017.

Isa:  SL has quite a learning curve!

Loni:  Yeah, I was lucky they had a whole tutorial sim thing when I came back. Once I had a feel for it, though, figuring out new things was a lot easier.

Isa:  Well you've done very well in a short period of time. :)

Loni:  Thank you :)

Isa:  So you're the co-owner of CMNF Lounge - tell me how you came into that and who is your co-owner?

Loni:  My co-owner is also my girlfriend, Brooke Fiftyone, and she is an incredibly awesome person lol. I actually found my way to the Lounge originally by chance, as I had a friend who went there a lot, and I just decided to check it out one day. It took me a little while to come to terms with the idea of being naked around men *without* charging them for it (I got pulled into the strip club scene really early) but the atmosphere and the people and the whole vibe of the place was so nice that I just kept going back, and it really didn't take long before it felt like home, and I really appreciated the way things were done there and the whole philosophy of providing a safe, pressure-free environment for women to use SL express their sensuality through exhibitionism, without any expectation of "putting out." So when Brooke felt like she needed to take a step back and bring someone else in to help run and operate things, I immediately volunteered, and the rest is history I guess.

Isa:  So there is no expectation of payment in your Lounge, correct?  No tip jars for the dancers?

Loni:  We have tip jars for the venue, of course, as there are expenses to maintain it, and it's our only source of income, but you're correct in that there's no "pay for play" here. We do CMNF a little differently than most places in that it's not enforced, and there's really no focus on the D/s aspect of it. Instead it's more about exhibitionism, so it's traditional for women to arrive clothed and then get increasingly naked over time, usually at the request of the male guests. Women can arrive completely naked if they wish, of course, but part of the fun is often that interaction that keeps the clothes coming off.

Isa: When you're at the club are you often naked?  I'm asking for a friend....:)

Loni:  Hahaha, not as much as I'd like to be. I'm kind of a stickler for standards, so if I don't get properly asked with a "please" on the end, I don't take something off.  For whatever reason, that can be a challenge for the men! However, anyone's welcome to make a request here, so the other girls help me out some :)

Isa:  I can attest that it's a fun and welcoming place.  Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Loni:  I'd be remiss I think if I didn't express my deep love for SL. It keeps my brain so busy, from simple things like playing dress up with new clothes, to building, and photography, and scripting, to meeting new people from new places, to the sexual, emotional, social, and psychological exploration that runs through it all. I really just love it all.

Isa:  Thank you for chatting with me - on to the pictorial!

A Conversation with Blue from Lalou Erotic Furniture

A recent shopping trip to one of my favorite adult furniture stores (Lalou) granted me the opportunity to meet the owner, Blue.  I'm happy to share our conversation with you and I highly encourage you to visit her store and see for yourself the amazing work she has done.  Enough talk!  On to the interview!

All photographs by me.

Isa: First off, I want to say it's a real privilege to talk with you - I love your furniture and use them often.  Where are you from in Real Life?

Blue: I'm from Sweden

Isa: So you've been in SL for about 3 years - is this your first avatar?

Blue: No it's not, I've been in SL for about 13 years now.

Isa: That makes sense given how advanced your work is.

Blue: I have been creating all the time, but in a totally different field, nothing to do with furniture or erotics so it seemed appropriate to start over with a new avatar for my new work.

Isa:  I see - what was that other field if I can ask?

Blue: Let's just say it is avatar related :)  It's one of my big secrets - I like to keep a bit of mystery! :P

Isa:  So mysterious! :) So how long has Lalou been selling furniture?  Can you walk me through the general history of Lalou?

Blue: Oh yes, first thing I started with here was actually not furniture, but face poses. I made a few while I was buying animations and learning how to use the animation sit system and figuring out everything around the rezzable mesh LOD etc, and not making them too prim heavy.  The first piece of furniture took me forever to figure out with all, especially building the menu and to set all coordinates.  That was the Master and Mistress Wingback chair, which I released in December 2018.

Isa: You're clearly very intelligent - does this type of work tie into your RL at all?  Or did you learn this on your own?

Blue: It does blend with my RL profession as I am in the graphic design field, but all of the 3D I have figured out by myself.

Isa: That's impressive...by the way, what does 'Lalou' mean?

Blue:  Nothing what I know of - I just played around with words and it felt right.

Isa:  Help me understand the world of erotic furniture...you don't create animations yourself - you 'put' animations into furniture that you create, correct?

Blue: Yes correct. I look for every smooth, sensual or fun animation I can find. I'm very picky with what to buy. And I only add the ones I think really work with the furniture. I have made some of the animations myself too, when I can't find something that fits.

 

Isa: What you call being picky others would call having an eye for quality.

Blue: Thank you!

Isa: You may not want to reveal your sources for animations but I'll ask anyway - where do you find most of them?

Blue: I think I buy from all of the ones that make and sell animations, I spend a lot of time trying to find good ones. I pick a few from each, some I buy more from than others;  there are gems to find at many animators.

Isa: I spend time searching for furniture with new animations and I can only imagine how time consuming it is to search one animation at a time.

Blue: Oh yes, it is! Often I build the furniture around the animations, not the opposite.  I spend a huge amount of time on the menu and animations, so it can be a pleasure to use.

Isa:  I love your menu naming conventions.  Sometimes they are just 'BJ2' or whatever but I like some of the more clever ones.

Blue: Gosh, naming is one of the really hard things!  To come up with new names for almost the same pose is hard.

Isa: I see you just created a play room in your showroom - what made you do that?  I think it's a great idea and a great way to show your furniture's capabilities.

Blue: Ahh yes the play room! I made it because I wanted to have a more natural place where my furniture can be tried and used than at my main store. Plus I saw the skybox from Varonis and thought it was really nice for that. I would be happy to know people come and use it, regardless if they buy something or not. Just like a little public apartment filled with erotic opportunities.

Isa: Does your design stem from a personal preference for sex furniture?  Meaning, I see a lot of BDSM or at least power exchange in these.  Is that a conscious decision based on your preferences or is this just SL these days?

Blue:  It is pretty much all my preferences.  Of course some are inspired by what people ask me to make too, but I need to have some kind of feeling for it.  The designs are what I think is pretty; I create with inspirations from RL furniture, but don't copy them straight off, I change and add my personal touch to them.

Isa: I bought your Mistress chaise recently and am AMAZED at how many licking animations you put in there - I love it!  

Blue: Oh yes I added a whole bunch of lick animations, and they are really great.. many of them brand new.  I don't believe in adding animations just cause I have them in my inventory, they need to fit the purpose of the furniture.  That's why I never put the Mistress in bottom positions, for example, like held down hard getting a dick showed in her mouth.. would just feel wrong.  However, she might want to suck a cock though.. even when she's domme. :P  I try to think myself into the situation, when is the furniture going to be used, and how.. what fits, etcetera.  I also try to perfect the mesh. I want to move further with mesh making and get better .. always room for improvement.

Isa: Mesh has really opened up a lot of low prim options.  We've had poseballs....and then AVSitter....what do you see as the next innovation in terms of sex animations?

Blue: Well there are all these integrations with Aeros tilting adjustment, It's Not Mine cum layer etc.. maybe will be a some more of those.  The Avsitter system is pretty strong and used throughout SL now - might need something that can push the memory use further and accept more animations to make people change from using it.  Right now there is a limit that is easy to reach when you have a lot of animations, and that is the most annoying thing for designers .. I think.

Isa: What animations have you NOT found that you'd like to see?  I think there is a lack of good MFM options (speaking on behalf of a friend - ahem!)

Blue:  Yea, always need more of those!  Hmm...more BDSM:  tied and constrained...and of course more femdom ones.  Most D/s in SL seems to be maledom.

Isa:  Well I am confident that if and when these poses start to get created we will find them in your amazing collection of furniture!

Isa:  Blue, thank you so much for chatting with me today - it's been a pleasure!

Blue:  Thank you Isa.