Reviving an Old Frock - Nathrien on Bullroarer

Now that the NDA has been revoked, I can post this amazing War-steed and old school Annuminas-based outfit combination. Gotta love the perks from Beta, especially when it comes to daily allowance for skirm marks and medallions...I would never be able to afford this on the live servers, as I never seem to have them in abundance. So I went to town on retro-gear I normally couldn't get my greedy little hands on! Even though the outfit you'll see isn't entirely original, I feel I should spotlight it.

This will probably be my only mount-centric post, as I'm focusing on player cosmetics. If you love horses, especially these, I'd suggest keeping an eye on my friend Ely's site Pony Lovers Anonymous. You'll see some astonishing mounts with matching outfits!

Lithe Festival 2012

The Summer Festival is BACK! I wasn't around last year for this festival, so all these cosmetics are new to me. However, I've done some poking around to see what's actually new. Basically, it's all the green pieces in the following pictures. To start collect these fabulous pieces, use the festival horse at the Michel Delving stable and then talk to the race master, Dodder Twofoot. Unfortunately, the festival tickets are bound on acquire again, which means no stacking all of them on one toon. It sure made it easier to collect the needed tokens for the Farmer's Faire...anyway, enjoy these cosmetics!

From left to right, we have the following:

1) Summerdays Tunic and Trousers (18 tokens)

2) Summerdays Dress (18 tokens)

3) Summerdays Hooded Cloak (15 tokens)

4) Summerdays Cloak (15 tokens)

If you love several shades of green, then you'll have to don these during your adventures across Middle-Earth! I can't believe how beautiful the tunic and dress look. The designers did a wonderful job keeping the pieces steamlined and ever so subtly detailed. Even the cloaks look wonderful :) If you dye these pieces, only the white portions will change. And I must say almost all the colors work with these pieces! Personally, I love what burgundy and rust do to these.

Riders of Rohan - Cosmetic Preview

Yes! *does a happy dance* The NDA has been lifted from the Riders of Rohan Beta! Which means...

It's time to unveil a sampling of the cosmetics (some shields included) from the RoR Expansion to whet your appetites! I spent a few dedicated days collecting the recipes for these sets. They do look lovely for the most part, though it seems some of the pieces have a black base for their color, which will make for some creative mixing and matching. Some pieces are also undyable, most likely due to missing codes. If it changes, that'll be when the expansion goes live. I hope you enjoy what's featured here! There will be no more chitchat from me...just an onslaught of pictures :D

Bear in mind that the names of the armor may not be set in stone just yet! I'll make notes if they do change...and I'll add more screenies if I have the chance to spend more time in the Beta :)

If you're interested in seeing some beautiful pics and outfits for the War-steeds, please check out Hymne's post on Cosmetic LOTRO!

Crafted Light Armor

Early Cosmetic Adventure - Cirilyn of Gladden

Defender of the Greenwood - Aldebaraan of Gladden

Grace of the Golden Wood - Nathrien of Gladden

For those of you that don't know, the Perseid Meteor Shower is at its peak this weekend, which means I won't be around to make new costumes or barter for new cosmetics like I do every weekend. I'll be venturing out into the boonies of Connecticut for a crystal clear night sky. I had this post scheduled for Sunday, but since I'll be away, I'll post this early for all of you! Enjoy : )

Blog Layout Changes?

I wish it dawned on me that not all monitors can view this blog like mine can. I was on two different computers this afternoon and each one had to scroll left and right to view the entirety of a blog post.  Therefore, I will be slightly altering the layout of Material Middle-Earth to make viewing easier.

I'm thinking of doing the following:

• Smaller pictures, but keeping to 3-4 seperated images per post in a vertical fashion
• Going back and either breaking down the pics in previous posts to accomodate the previous idea OR just shrinking the display size on the blog. I believe you can click the smaller photos to see the original size one in a powerpoint-like style. (EDIT: And yes, this does work...yay!)
• Arranging the gadgets to be on boths sides of the posts that way one side of the screen isn't overwhelmed with everything. Trying to make this more navigation friendly.
• New color scheme and possibly a new banner for the blog. The pictures here seem to be brighter than expected, so a brighter theme may be in order.

For those of you who view this, feel free to chime in with suggestions or comments : ) I'll start working on this sometime next week!

Thank you for the feedback so far!

Fleetfooted Defender - Cirilyn of Gladden

Roaming Captain - Morghann of Gladden

(Retro Twitter feature on 11/25/14)