* Ninoo's Cemetary

When Ninoo requested a Chapel, she also slipped in (illegally) a request for a cemetary to go with it. BAD NINOO. I've been sort of distracted just lately and Ninoo has been my ray of sunshine. The girl is absolutely, utterly and completely NUTZ and I love her. So I figured I'd finally better pull my finger out, and do this for her.

As requested, it has all the gumpf that a cemetary normally has, and there's an underground *tomb* type bar, with a grotto style hot tub. Nothing special, just a little extra that's completely alterable. The lot has been play tested and is fully functional. All the gravestones are generic ones, and can/should be replaced as you play your games and your sims actually kick the bucket :D

I kept the shades of blue that Ninoo wanted for the Chapel, too... and I have a feeling that I forgot to designate it as a cemetary!!!! You can do that though ;)

* One more reason to love this community

I'm not often given to soppiness. It makes me cringe. But I had to share now, because although this community has it's share of ups and downs, it's highs and lows... occasionally, someone goes that extra mile and reminds me why I still play this game. It's not the game that keeps me coming back for more. It's the people that play it.

Let me explain... at the The Sims Daily Forum, I asked if anyone had seen a multicoloured chandalier, as a sim object, that I could use in my game. Loads of people helped out with suggestions and links, Laure even went as far as creating one from different chandaliers in her own game, to show me that I could do something similar in my game.

ATS Sandy went the entire distance though, and meshed it.... but she's a devious little bugger and wants people to participate in the challenges that we create at The Sims Daily, so although she made it - I now have to join in the Valentines Challenge, if I want to have it. Crafty or what?

Here's the Challenge...

...and here's the participation prize

NOW can you see why I was feeling all soppy???

* Here We Hoe

A couple of weeks ago, after reading through through a few comments at the TSD forum - we decided to run a gardening challenge that might encourage our members to think outside the box, when creating outdoor spaces... and I had to share a few images from the challenge, so far, because I am in awe of how much people have pushed themselves to try something truly new. The above image is the entry by Phyre, a wildflower meadow on an uneven landscape.

There are more images below, by other members. I'm sorry I couldn't include more but you'll just have to go see for yourselves how beautiful they all are.  I'm unsure if you'll be able to see the complete entries unless you are already a member.  We recently had to change what guests can see in the forum, due to an excess of spamming traffic. I just wanted to share these images, because these people are my friends and there is nothing quite like sharing *The Happy*!

* Sandy's Challenges

We have two brand new challenges in The Sims Daily Forum! Both have been created for us by one of our favourite Simmers and forum members - Around The Sims Sandy. To know her is to love her ;) .

There are two participation prizes for Style My Sim. One for the *Client* - a vanity. And Two for the designer - His and Hers Dressers.

So come along and join in the fun!

* Four New Challenges at The Sims Daily

 

 

 

* Triple Trouble - Round 1

The LivingSims Forum, currently has a contest running to decorate a pre-built home (downloadable for both Sims 2 and 3) and I thought I might have a go. I wouldn't usually, because there's a deadline. I'm a bit crap with deadlines. It's a personality defect that I must aim for just after a deadline, or not aim at all. Don't give me a deadline, and I'll get it done. Go figure...

* Jardin de Champs Les Sims

This Champs Les Sims Park is a brand new one - brought into existence by the Challenge me to Garden 3.0... Challenge... at Living Sims - Sebausten challenged me to create a garden in the style of  *Jardin à la Française* and using these three gardens and Wikipedia as inspiration - what you see before you, is the end result. I had SO MUCH FUN doing this! It appealed in immeasurable ways to my OCD tendencies, and to how I play my game. I truly hate to build something that I cannot use for my little simmies to visit - and this ticked all the boxes.

* Start Somewhere

Yes... I know... "WTF is that Lily????"

It's a house. A very empty, very unstyled, very *don't got no plants* house... I built it for the Start Somewhere Challenge at Living Sims. A very simple, but extremely challenging challenge, to create a starter home with no (or hardly any) third party custom content - and come in under a specific budget - that budget depending on how many bedrooms and whether they were singles or doubles. I managed it. Just.

Other people managed to furnish theirs, rather beautifully - and that pissed me off enough to make me refurb this one completely... OVER BUDGET.... way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over budget :)

* Small Quarters 3.0

It has taken almost as long to organise the photos and cc list for this, as it did to bloody build it. It's enough to put me off for life... or until next time at the very least. This is Crystal Springs Vista, a small but tall cabin in Sunset Valley, built overlooking the Crystal Springs Lake. I built it for the Small Quarters 3.0 Challenge at LivingSims. Stupidly, I decided to offer it up for download at Sims 3 Musketeers, which has involved scouring the web to put together a detailed list of Store and Custom Content... and where to get it from. Also, for whatever reason, blogger decided that "No" today it was not going to upload my photographs - took me ages to work out I could do it via Picassa... I'm slow, not stoopid. Honest.

* Whitsands Bay

I was recently challenged by Robodl95 at Living Sims to create a beach - no details other than that just "I challenge you to create a beach"... I originally attempted to use the large beach at the front of Sunset Valley, I forget it's name - but after coming close to head butting my keyboard and smashing my monitor and developing a nervous twitch in my left eye that could only be cured by eating copious amounts of chocolate - I switched to Recurve Strand, one of the smaller beaches in SV. Even then, I demolished it at least three times - until I built the beach huts, after that it all came along fairly smoothly. 

* Student Digs

Meet Sonia Mayberry. She's my current *floating sim*, which basically means that she is motherloded up to the eyeballs so that I can move her into various houses/homes and take photographs using the TAB button. TAB does not work for me in build/buy mode, not even once (which other players find, does occur). Sonia is a young adult, and is currently posing as a student for a challenge that I've just completed for Living Sims. Gotmilk challenged me to create a studio apartment for a broke student, using only 12,000 simoleons - the apartment had to include a desk and computer... I managed to do it all for around 11, 574 simoleons. I'm thinking Gotmilk was incredibly nice to give me such a large budget to work with - I hope she wasn't expecting grungy... I can't do grungy. Grungy makes me want to get out a scrubbing brush and a bucket full of bleach... so grungy doesn't occur in my game. Ever.

* A Home By The Sea

I'm currently in love with building and decorating challenges, and if you scour the right forums - you can find plenty to choose from. This project was a challenge at Living Sims, to create a Beach Cottage for a Sim with particular traits, likes and dislikes. Took me bloody ages to come up with something that didn't look like I'd recovered everything in deck chair fabric. I chose more nautical colours, and quite like the end result.... though I really over used the wicker texture - won't be using that again in a hurry!