* Project Mojo.

I am trying very hard to lure my mojo back - and not with deep fried doughnuts. I figured I should probably have a go at something I haven't done before and maybe it'd spark my interest in the game again and my real life could go play with the traffic. So I thought I'd have a go at building on a slope. Honestly, I didn't think it would be that hard - but my dyspraxia kicked in big style to a point where I couldn't follow a video tute that I found... at all!

It all went incredibly wrong whilst I leveled this and straightened that and lowered the bit over there and raised the bit over here... if you know me at all.... you know that although I have the attention span of a rabid gnat - I'm also incredibly stubborn and don't understand the meaning of the word "can't".

But I really couldn't...

...to start with.

I was on the verge of sleep one night last week when I had one of those *Eureka* moments (actually these moments are usually an "OMG I did WHAT in the pub last night???!!?!" just as my head hits the pillow) that only occur when you can't do anything about them. I had to wait until getting home from work the following day before I could put into practice the fact that I finally realised where I'd been going wrong... I'd explain, but this ain't a tute.

I roughly followed a house plan I found and liked and managed to get everything in good working order (or so I thought - thank the God Of Sims for the iddy biddy stage tool - getting into the house would have been very interesting without it!)... okay, maybe just working order - then it was time to start decorating and gardening. Of course, as per bloody usual I built waaaay more house than I intended on a plot that's just a tad too small for my liking. I'm still in the midst of an argument with myself, over whether or not to put a pool in - thus the unfinished exterior pictures.

In the Sims 2 I used to love to create alpine gardens - graveled and sparsely planted areas with lots of rocks and succulents. They don't look out of place in either beach or wooded settings. So I did one for this house. I hadn't intended to use any cc of any description, but there wasn't a suitable terrain paint available within the game so I had to go looking for one. Then I just floated into the idea that it might be nice to use cc in this neighbourhood, but pop it into the mods folder as I went, and not start out with a shed load of the stuff that would leave me umming and aahing for weeks over what to put where.

I also decided not to lay out all of the rooms ahead of time, but to wall in a room and then furnish/decorate it to see if I could come up with something a little more organic then box rooms and boring furniture placement. Thus the lack of an overhead view. So far I've almost finished the master bedroom, but feel the need for cushions and Sim_man123's Hillside Coffee Table (box with blanket) at the end of the bed.

I don't want to fill the place up with stuff, just for the sake of it. I've seen some really lovely sims 3 homes just recently that have been killed with overcrowding clutter. I want to be able to play anything that I build with ease, and I imagine when I put them up for downloading, that anyone that wants them wants the same thing.

I will eventually put this one up on Sims 3 Musketeers, but currently have no name for either it, nor the naked Sunset Valley neighbourhood that I've built it in. Any suggestions are welcome :o)