Member Blogs

Time To Celebrate!!

Having finally managed to sign in today, I discovered that I've reached over 3 MILLION downloads!! - WooHoo!!!!!  So I'd just like to say a huge THANK YOU to everybody who has downloaded my stuff (for Sims 2 and Sims 3), and particularly to all those who have left comments and ticked my 'heart' - it means a lot and long may it continue!  LOL

So to celebrate, I've submitted my two sets of 'Modern Abstract Art' which will hopefully be published within the next day or so, and have also uploaded two more sets ready for release which, all being well, I will submit tomorrow.

Since there seems to be issues with accessing the site at the moment (is it just me?!), I've spent some more time creating new paintings sets, so here's a few previews of things to come!  ;)

Two Egyptian 'Desert Dreams' paintings:

Two 'Flowering Orchid' paintings:

Four Japanese 'Karma Sutra' paintings:

 and four 'Martini Cocktails' paintings (shaken not stirred of course!!):

I just need to test them all out in-game, but once I've done that, they will be here!!

Hope you like them, and if you've got any ideas for paintings you'd like to see, just leave me a message.

Enjoy!

Ambitions hands-on preview - part 2

Well, sorry to keep you guys hanging so long! Let's get to it!

Private Investigator

The private investigator profession might just be my favourite of all the professions included in Ambitions. You join the profession via the computer or the newspaper, and there are a few different ways to advance.

Obviously the main way to advance is to solve cases. You can find a new case by checking the newspaper or the computer to pick up your first lead. The cases work similarly to the adventures on World Adventures, but obviously these are based in the home hood. So if you liked the adventures, you'll love the cases.

A Private Investigator is never off duty. Wherever and whenever there is a case, the PI is there. If they can be bothered, anyway. Basically, you can work when you like. As each case progresses, your PI will be asked to perform various tasks to gain information. Maybe they'll have to rummage through someone's rubbish, or read their letters; maybe they'll even have to break into someone's house. There's no limit when you're searching for justice.

The cases your PI will have to solve have all the classic humour of the Sims series. During my time playing the game, my PI had a client who wanted me to discover who had been kicking over their garden gnome. After rummaging through someone's rubbish, they found a shoe which, shock horror, matched the footprint on the poor garden gnome. I questioned the owner of the shoe and they cracked like an egg. Garden gnomes all over Twinbrooks will be safe from now on.

But that's not all there is for PIs. You might just want to go and look for a case of your own. Find some dirt on one of your friendly neighbours by going on a stakeout. A Sim's idea of being subtle on a stakeout is, of course, hilariously misguided. What could be a better way of concealing yourself than grabbing a large bit of foliage in each hand and then hiding behind them? Surprisingly, though, other Sims don't seem to notice the new hedge on the block, and the large Sim holding it, and you might just uncover some valuable information this way.

When you've got info there are a couple of things you could do with it. You could write a report for the police, and get a reward that way. Or you could go for the big money... and blackmail the Sim you've got the dirt on.

Inventor (and self-employment)

There are a few new skills in Ambitions. Namely those are inventing, sculpting, and tattoo...ing. Two of those skills, like the skills in the base game, have an associated trait, and Sims with that trait will find that the skill comes naturally to them. Those new traits are:

Eccentric - good inventors
Savvy sculptor - good sculptors

I didn't spot a trait that makes Sims particularly good tattoo artists, and I did check the trait list quite carefully. Also, in my time playing the game I only got time to check out the inventing skill. I was too busy having a blast with the new careers, really.
Anyway, so you want to be an inventor huh? First, you'd best be heading down to the junk yard and digging through the piles of junk to get some scrap. You can't be an inventor without getting your hands a bit dirty.  You can only retrieve a certain amount of scrap from the junk piles each day, and you'll find that some of the junk piles have already been plundered. However, the ones that might still hold some useful scrap are clearly marked with a shiny sparkly effect surrounding them.

Once you've got your scrap, it's time to head home, and get working on your inventor's workbench. You bought one right? Your Sim will randomly play with the scrap for an extended period of time. They'll put bits together. They'll tut and pull them apart again. They might just set themselves on fire (either have family members ready to put your Sim out in this eventuality, or put a fire alarm in the workshop!). Eventually, they will make something. Maybe it'll be a sculpture, or a toy. It might even be something useful.

When you have one skill point in inventing, that's enough to prove your intent. You can head down to the town hall and register as a self-employed inventor. In practical terms, the main thing this will change is the fact that your career status will not say that you're "unemployed" when of course you are making an incredibly useful contribution to Sim-society. The ability to register as self-employed also applies to some base-game skills too, for example writing and painting.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to max out the skill. In fact my Sim's inventions were really of the lame and useless variety. The most useful thing he made was something that went on the floor and gave off a nice smell. Except it didn't seem to give any moodlets or anything, so it was pretty well useless.

Luckily, Grant showed us a higher level inventor in his demonstration, so we also got to see some of the cooler inventions. And yes, there is a Sim robot in this EP. It's called a SimBot. Like the Servo in The Sims 2, the SimBot is a part of the family, can Woohoo, do the cleaning and the laundry. And inventing isn't the only way to get the SimBot. For the inventing-challenged, there's also the option to buy the SimBot as a new life time reward.

Another particularly exciting invention is the time machine. Who knows who your Sim might meet as they travel into the past or the future? Maybe even a character from another EA game, but surely, surely EA wouldn't go in for such shameless product placement. Or maybe you'll run into Shepard from Mass Effect. I love Mass Effect.

Ghost hunter

There's a strange new kind of entity wreaking havoc around the neighbourhood. There are spirits on the loose. Luckily, your Sim is pretty business-minded and they've spotted the opportunity to make some money a mile off.

In the ghost hunting profession most of your jobs will involve going round to another Sim's house and hunting down some spirits. And then when you find them you can zap them with your big gun. Grant told us that as you get more skilled at ghost hunting, you might be able to talk them into leaving instead.

As you arrive at a job, the lot will be filled with fog and spooky music will be playing. All you have to do is look around the lot for signs of spirits. Spirits are a little different from ghosts. So don't worry, you're not going to be zapping away the ghost of your great aunt Betty. The spirits don't look like Sims, they look a lot more like Casper the friendly ghost, and just like Sim-ghosts, they are all different colours.

(Quick note: some of the pictures we've seen seem to show the ghost hunters hunting real ghosts, like the one on the right here. I'm not sure if this is because higher up the ghost hunter career you do hunt ghosts instead of spirits, or just because EA are using a bit of artistic license.)

When you "banish" a spirit, your Sim yanks out their big zappy gun, and sucks the spirit up. From there, the spirit appears in your Sim's inventory, and at this point they're just like any other collectable. You can find out a little bit about the spirit, like their age, and what kind of spirit they are ("friendly", "lonely", etc). You can collect them up, or sell them for a tidy profit at the science lab, to supplement your income.

In addition to these "normal" jobs, your ghost-hunting Sims will also get some sort of "special event" jobs at rabbit holes. These are pretty cool, because despite your Sim disappearing inside and going out of your control, a bunch of special effects appear around the rabbit hole, and it looks awesome.

It's the little things...

Despite all these completely totally fabulous new careers, skills, and gameplay, some of the little things included in this pack really made me go "wow".

Laundry

The first one is laundry. Now, when your Sim gets changed out of their every day clothes before showering or going to bed, the clothes don't magically vaporise. They fall in a little pile on the floor (although, all the little piles look the same, whether it's a dress or jeans and a t-shirt, but that's really not the point).

If your Sim is lucky enough to own a washing machine and either a dryer or a washing line, you can finally do the laundry. You can move the laundry to the machine, either by directing your Sim to do so, or by using the hand of god. Then you instruct your Sim to get the wash started.

Once the wash is started, you can place the cursor over the washing machine to see how much time it has left. It takes an hour to complete its wash cycle, and your Sim doesn't need to do anything else until the machine finishes. If you have a cheap machine, it might make a lot of noise, in which case your Sim can attempt to subdue it, which is quite amusing to watch. If they "win" their fight with the washing machine, they'll get a positive moodlet out of it.

Once it's done in the washer, you can get your Sim to move the laundry to the dryer or out onto the washing line to dry. And finally, when it's done there, you get your Sim to collect it, and the next time they put some clothes on or get into bed they'll get a positive moodlet from having clean clothes or fresh sheets.

Create-A-Style

Create-A-Style's capabilities are expanded in a couple of ways.
You will be able to use Create-A-Style on your ceilings, to further customise your rooms.
You will be able to use Create-A-Style on the edges of floor tiles, where they overhang a staircase, or on a balcony.

Create-A-Sim and tattoos

The new tattoo system is pretty cool. This isn't something you can do with Create-A-Sim when you first make a new family, so you need to head down to the salon or buy your own tattoo chair to get a tattoo. When you're ready, it loads up a Create-A-Sim style interface, where you can design and apply your own tattoos using a bunch of different elements. For example, you could layer up a pair of wings and a skull. You can adjust the colours and opacity of each layer on the tattoo, and choose where to place it. You can also save the designs you create, share them, and reuse them.

Things are a little different in Create-A-Sim too. Finally, you can adjust the opacity of your Sim's makeup, so you don't need to fiddle with colours for hours to get a subtle "barely there" shade of lipstick.
There are also a few more new traits that I didn't mention before:

Eco-friendly: eco-friendly Sims love to try and save the environment. They like to take quick showers. They love cycling and car pooling. They hate inefficient washing machines and riding in a car alone. They also always eat organic food (this isn't something you need to buy - just like vegetarian Sims will automatically use vegetarian sausage substitutes, eco-friendly Sims will automatically use organic food).
Born salesman/saleswoman: I honestly didn't check this one out, but I guess it probably gets your Sims a bit more money out of selling their stuff.
Perceptive: again, I didn't really check this one out, but the icon was similar to the one for the observant life time reward.

User interface changes

With the new EP, as well as with the base game patch that will be released at the same time, there are some small changes to the user interface.

Firstly... you know when your Sim comes home from work with a promotion at the same time as your toddler learns to walk and your kid brings a friend home from school and grandpa catches a really big fish? Suddenly the right side of your screen is bombarded with pop-up messages that fill up the whole screen and seem to take forever to get rid of.

In the new format user interface, these messages are sorted into three tabs for different types of messages. You can press "forward" and "backward" buttons to browse through them. You can keep the messages for as long as you like. And if you just want to get them all out of the way and play, you can click a button to hide them all at the edge of the screen.

Secondly, the opportunities pop-ups have changed. Now, instead of a popup with all the blurb, it also shows clearly what the requirements for the opportunity are before you accept it, and this same style of pop-up is used for most of the new careers. For example, when the Private Investigator gets a new lead, the "opportunity" pop-up will show an icon of the PI, with a thought bubble filled with some film-noir style blurb. Below that, there's the list of requirements that your PI must fulfil to move on.

So what's the verdict?

Well, I have, for a long time, been a real naysayer when it comes to "following your Sim around at work" and "doing laundry". I thought it would be dull, and tedious, and really annoying. I thought it would suck all of the fun out of the game. But after playing the game for just a few hours, and watching Grant Rodiek's demo, I am more excited for this EP than I have been for any EP, ever. Seriously. So if you're one of those people sat there going "oh it'll be boring, it'll be irritating, I won't use any of the new features, I'll just buy it for the robots"... then I think you will be not just pleasantly surprised but fantastically delighted. If this game could convert me in a couple of short hours, it could convert anyone.

Lights

My Sim Family hates me.  Lights on, lights off.  Lights on, lights off.  Lights on, lights off

First Creations

Yay! My first creation... well, creations, are up here on TSR! From my David & Goliath collection I present 'Girl Boxers' for the ladies! All based from actual David & Goliath boxer shorts pyjamas and vests, this collection features 'Rock is Dead', 'Give Peas A Chance', 'One Tough Cookie', 'We're in Cahoots', 'Zexy', 'Take a Chill Pill', 'Hot Diggity' and 'The Freaks Come Out at Night'. Four of them might look familiar. That's because I uploaded them on my old account, but ever since they were so successful I wanted to add to the collection, and so I did! Hopefully my next fashion set shall be up very soon :) until then

I�m home!

Hi everybody!  Yesterday night I came home!  My next upcoming set is a pattern set! Hope you´ll like it! 

It's going well...

So far so good with the band tees. Only one is giving me trouble, Versus The Nothing, their logo is a little splattery and bloody looking... which is really cool looking... but it makes getting the background haze completely wiped and the alpha channel just right a little tough. I'll get it eventually... just need to focus.

Now... if only I could figure out how to upload here. Yeah... I'm *that* dense. Then again... it's not like these are big famous bands... chances anyone but me and a handful of folks from Ontario (maybe scattered across Canada) would know any of these bands are pretty slim.

Not that they aren't great bands. The SHOULD be hugely famous.

Maybe I'll do a total geek fan thing and send the files to the bands and tell them they can post it on their pages for fans who play The Sims 3.

Yeah... I'm just THAT dorky.

New Sim 3 Creations

NewsFlash

hi everybody i feel like i'm starting to become a sims 3 creator! and as a note all of the creations i've uploaded so far are older files i saved from mts2 so my best works are yet to come....

Creations by PiperK1980/PiperJRL

You can find me at ModTheSims, Insimenator as PiperK1980. At WickedSims, I am PiperJRL. 

I create homes. There is a wide selection from single living to multiple children or roommates. All lots are fully landscaped (as I remember) and some are furnished and some are not. 

I'm not sure if I will share my homes here yet or not. Just don't know.

Modliving, submitted

Wait for Sunday to get it , have fun! :)

http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/Newtlco/downloads/details/category/sims3-sets-objects-livingroom/title/modliving-by-newtlco/id/975434/

My Banners a coming!

Hi there fellow Simmers, Just to let you guys and gals know that I will soon have enough kudos to be able to get a nice shiny banner. As you will notice, I have already replaced my Avatar with a less menacing picture..(those cybermen always  did have me hiding behind the sofa when I was a kid!) Catch up with you guys real soon!

New Banner

I would like to say a big thank you to Marhz a member here at TSR, who took the time and effort to make my lovely new banner for me....I hope you all like it ....Lorraine

Exams Time

Over the next few weeks I have several exams at school. I need lots of time to study so won't be creating for a few weeks :)

cazarupt

Adorable Bears Paintings And More!

Here's a sneak peak at a couple of new projects I've been working on and will be appearing very soon!

Firstly, who can resist these adorably cute mother and baby bears paintings:

 And secondly, something a little different:

Enjoy!

Hit 500 downloads

I am very happy to see that my 9 Sea Front Road has hit 500+ downloads in such a short time.  Please keep the numbers rising :o)  thanks all

Third time's a charm, right?

Could never figure out how to make custom content in TS1.

Attempted to make some REALLY pathetic custom content in TS2.

After a year... I decided why not... I'll give it a go.

So far, I'm actually not minding it. Maybe it's the fact I actually decided to bite the bullet and give Photoshop a try.

Hopefully I'll be able to manage something a bit better than 'pathetic'. My big goal is to get a bunch of band shirts made up.

See, I'm a Canadian, and I am a BIG supporter of the Canadian independent music scene. My own wardrobe is essentially made up of NOTHING but t-shirts from mostly unknown bands. So I'd LOVE for my Sims to be able to sport their own Flatlined t-shirt, or go to a concert at the theatre and come home and change into a My Darkest Days shirt.

Or maybe outside of the indie scene... a really BIG artist is coming to town, and the Sims all change into their Meat Loaf merch.

I know... I'm a total dork... but I LOVE music... and I find a LOT of the band shirts that are being made, they're ALL for the same bands. I want a little variety.

20,000 Page Views

Joy to the world, I've reached 20,000 page views! Thanks to each and everyone of you who have taken the time to stop by my profile page for a chat, to read my stories or to downloaded my creations (although there's not many of those! lol). I really appreciate it and I cherish everybody's friendship that I've gained along the way.

~ Jen ;)

Get Ready, I'M BACK!!

Are you ready for it, Get excited for it....

Yay! I have updated my "Flora Bikini" set, it now comes as a set instead of taking a detour to my page to find the other recolours (which most dont) Here is is!! Coming soon....

The images are clear, you can see what your going to get, so get excited for it! This is probably my most favourite creation, and I was SOOOOOOOO disappointed with how I displayed it to the world of TSR the first time round! So here is my re-creation! These look so GREAT in the game, and you will be so pleased, it will go with your theme of (plant/nature sim) or just a fancy dress... Only as SWIMWEAR, but I am sure you little cool heads could categorise it as anything you want (outerwear? Brrrr...)

I will keep up updated with any other creations I decide to upload... may move into toddler wear?? Something a bit different!!

New lots coming!

hi everyone my first upload was published today:) and i have 2 more complete lots that were approved also another complete resedental lot that is currentlyt pending also coming so enjoy all my stuff! also if you have any ideas for lots please post it in my GuestBook not as a comment on one of my downloads

Hi!!! I�m back again...!!!

After a long time and after solving some problems with my Pc and Sims 3 game... finally I am here again uploading my newest creations,

Sinceresly, I have been missing the fact f being an active submiter.

Next May, 13th, a new OSSA - Empire Line dress will be published. So, I hope you like it!!

Yet More Paintings!

Due to an unexpected afternoon off work, I have been able to spend some time creating some more paintings, and have just uploaded 3 new sets - the Butterfly Collection as promised, and two previously unmentioned sets, "Cherry Blossom" and "Dandelion Puff" as shown below:

I have also been working on some others, including some really cute kids paintings - previews will be up later  ;)

Enjoy!

Modliving (new meshes)

Here is the latest objects of my newest set, hope you like them :)

Working on Lot that was request to me by Sunpowder65... Tell me what you think!!

I got a private message the other day for a request lot. They wanted a one floor 5br+3ba house with plenty of outdoor space for their sims to play around. Here's a sneak peak at what I have so far should be uploaded by tonight ready for download in a day or two... Tell me what you think!

About Pin up Artist

I've posted several pin up paintings, with more upcoming.  I feel it only fair to give credit to the original artist and provide a little info on him (all but one of the pieces was from the same artist).  The artist was named Gil Elvgren and the following is from wikipedia.

Gil Elvgren (March 15, 1914 – February 29, 1980), born Gilette Elvgren, was an American painter of pin-up girls,advertising and illustration. Elvgren lived in various locations, and was active from the 1930s to 1970s. Today he is best known for his pin-up paintings for Brown & Bigelow. Elvgren studied at the American Academy of Art

Elvgren was one of the most important pin-up and glamour artists of the twentieth century. In addition, he was a classical American illustrator. He wasn't limited to the calendar pin-up industry. He was strongly influenced by the early "pretty girl" illustrators, such as Charles Dana Gibson, Andrew Loomis, and Howard Chandler Christy. Other influences included the Brandywine School founded by Howard Pyle.

Elvgren was a commercial success. His clients ranged from Brown and Bigelow and Coca-Cola to General Electric and Sealy Mattress Company. In addition, during the 1940s and 1950s he illustrated stories for a host of magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post and Good Housekeeping.

note: many elvgren titles are reused so if posting ones with the same title, i try to distinguish between them by year of production, but this is not always possible, or in some cases it's not completly clear which one came from which year.

Zodiac Starsign Pictures

I am doing a set of Zodiac starsign pictures. I will post the picture of the starsign as the year progresses. So look out for your special starsign picture.

Taurus will be the first starsign picture.

All the pictures will be by the artist Josephine Wall..

Downloading Content Addiction?

Does anyone else spend more time downloading content and adding it to the game than they do actually PLAYING the game? I keep seeing *really cool* stuff that I want to add to the game...and end up spending all day downloading and installing stuff. Especially when I find new Sims 3 sites with cool stuff on them. I found this one site that had a "Secret Experimental Base" to download, which looked amazing! The thing is, it required some content from about 10 other sites - now this was specific content, so it wasn't a LOT of content...but those sites had some COOL stuff there too!

AAAAAAAH! It's enough to drive this OCD content-hungry Simmer crazy! lol! But it's a fun kind of crazy I guess. Hopefully I'll be ready to play again by tomorrow...lol!

Chinese Art Paintings - Preview!

Another new set arriving soon: traditional Chinese Art.

Here's a sneak peak:

They do appear a little dark in the preview pictures, but I have tested them in-game and they look fine.

Enjoy!

100,000+ downloads?!?!? Little ol me? I nearly fell out of my wheelchair from shock!

100,000+ THANKS for 100,000+ downloads!  Thank you to everyone who has downloaded any of my lots, pets, or walls.  So far I've just been making things that I know I will like playing with & hope that others also will like having them in their games.  I may not be the best creator out there but thanks to all of you I'm now one of the HAPPIEST creators out there! :D

Custom Paintings

Hello out there..

If you've taken the time to visit my blog, thank you! 

For a while now I've had many ideas for the kinds of paintings I would love to have hanging in my sims' houses, but all I could do was search for them from other people's creations.  I've found some really cool stuff that way, but now that I've learned how to make cc myself, I will be spending way too much of my free time making tons of paintings!  Soon I will have many uploaded here.  I really like anime, zen and Asian art, and much more. Can't wait to get started!

Butterfly Paintings!

My latest offering: a set of 3 butterfly paintings as shown below:

Also arriving shortly, my "Chinese Art" collection, and two sets of "Modern Abstract Art" paintings - previews coming soon!

Enjoy!

Hello everyone

hello everybody I'm Ertt95 and i am new to TSR and i would like to say to everybody i got my first item uploaded and approved yesterday and i would like to say that i hope alot of people comment on it and give me feedback to help me get better at creating lots and eventualy objects!

May 16th, Colette Bed and Extras

Colette Bed and Extras, is a collection of new Sims 3 Vanity Fair meshes, which includes a Vanity Fair/Victorian inspired canopy bed, round table, table lamp, antique clock, floor lamp, and a decorative tissue box, a former Sims 2 mesh. Creating the Colette bed was labor intensive, but I think worth the effort! 

The bed and draped round table have stencils for decorative details like, fringe!

Here are a few pictures of Colette set objects, the decanter, goblets and gold tray (pictured below) will be available later this month in another set.

Carolyn

Old Fashioned Community Lots

I've added more images to my gallery and updated some others. The arts district is almost finished!

Custom Content Poll

I spent some points to add the poll pod to my mini-site.  I was wondering how other Simmers felt about Custom Content.  I personally KNOW that I have WAY TOO MUCH of it in my game.  And a lot of it I've taken one look at and know I'll never use.  When Ambitions is released, I plan to "clean up my game".  This will take me a few days, at least.  I will be dumping everything out and going through my custom content with a fine-toothed comb. 

A lot of the CC that I have, I only have because there was ONE item in a set that I wanted.  Not all sites are as TSR.  Here, you can pick and choose what content you want, piece by piece.  Also, there is the TSRAA thing.  What a great idea for us builders.  We can simply filter what we even want to look at.  So after I clean up my game, I intend to go TSRAA all the way! 

I you would take the time to vote on my poll, I would certainly use the good information to determine how I build my lots.  Thank you all!

Ambitions hands-on preview - part 1

Picture the scene: you're playing The Sims 3. A family member or loved one peers over your shoulder and asks "what are you doing?". What's the answer? In my case, it's almost always "I'm waiting for my Sim to finish work". Sound familiar?

Well this scene will be changing very soon. As soon as you install The Sims 3: Ambitions, the answer will become "I'm waiting for my Sim to start work".

It's impossible to understate how much this expansion pack could change the way you play your Sims game. I only played for a couple of hours and I found that the new careers, or "professions" as they're called in the game (to distinguish them from the rabbit-hole based careers) are extremely involved.

Of the new professions, I played at least a little bit of the following:

• Stylist
• Interior designer
• Fire-fighter
• Private Investigator
• Inventor (self-employed)
• Ghost hunter

During the 4 hour preview session in London, I got plenty of hands-on time with the game. Plus, we were treated to a demo from Grant Rodiek, the producer of Ambitions, who showed us some of his favourite aspects of the new expansion. So, without further ado, here's a little bit about those professions:

Stylist

The stylist has the power to transform your townies' clothes from threadbare to designer flare, their hair from looking like hay to "hey good looking" and their makeup... is also something you can edit in this particular profession.

As a stylist your Sim will have working hours when they should head down to the salon. How much or how little work your Sim does is your choice. You could just hang out with your co-workers, and mess about all day. Or you could wait for a potential client to come in through the door. During your working day, you'll get special assignments to make over certain Sims. These pop up like opportunities.

The client will come along with a story about why they want or need a makeover, along with a list of requirements. These might be something like 3 x everyday clothes, 1 x formal wear, 1 x shoes, 1 x accessory, new hair style, new hair colour, new makeup. That's not a restriction, that's just the minimum you need to do to complete this client's makeover. So if their swimwear was offensively hideous, you could change that as well.

Will your makeover be a hit or a flop?

So you get your client to step up to the new stylists' object, and you'll find yourself in something that looks a bit like Create-A-Sim, but with a slightly different background. It allows you access to change hair, facial hair, eyebrows, makeup, and clothes. There are also some extra hair styles that are only available from the stylist, including a really cute new ponytail style for women. After you've changed all the different things the client asked for, they pay you for your work, and off they go.

As a stylist, your Sim will also have a couple of new socials available to them. They can compliment a Sim on their style to increase their relationship. Conversely, of course, you can also insult their sense of style, which will upset them.

Interior designer

The interior designer profession does not have a special lot or rabbit hole assigned to it. You can join the profession by looking it up in the newspaper. After that you will have certain working hours when you are "on the clock". During that time, available jobs will show up around town.

There's quite a large variety of jobs that might be available, and they will in some cases link in with story progression. For example, a couple expecting a baby might ask you to design them a baby room. A couple whose kid just aged up from a toddler to a child or from a child to a teen might ask you to redesign their child's room to suit their new age group better. On any given working day, there will be a handful of these jobs for your designer to complete for a fee.

There are a couple of restrictions on the interior design jobs. For example, if you remove everything from the house, the game won't let you return to live mode until you've replaced at least the basic items that Sims need to live (i.e. a toilet, a fridge, and one bed space per Sim).

Can you measure up to expectations?

Before your Sim starts the redesign, it may pay off to get to know your client a bit. Learn some of their traits and you might be able to provide them with a design that suits them better. A computer whiz might not have specified that they wanted a computer in their new living room, but you know they'll thank you for it. Your Sim can also "measure up" the house that's to be redesigned. This is just a little interaction that they do, and it has no real effect except that it will boost the final score for the redesign.

When you're ready, and when you know your client, you can hit renovation mode. This is very much the same as build mode and buy mode. As with the stylist profession, the client will give you a list of requirements for the job. In this case, it will be a list of new furniture that must be bought. Again, this is not a restriction, it's just a minimum. The renovation mode also features a budget, visible in the top left corner, which clearly tells you what your client's budget is, and how much you have left to spend. Most clients will like it if you manage to come in a little bit under budget. Frugal Sims will be delighted, of course, if you have plenty of money left over from the budget. However, if your client is a snob, they will prefer you to go over the budget!

If you want to give your makeovers the personal touch, you can actually access your family inventory from the renovation mode. This is great because it means you can place down paintings, sketches, and any collectible items you've placed there. Or if you're Cyclonesue you can put a dirty toilet in the family inventory, and leave it as a charming gift for your client.

After you've completed your fabulous redesign, you report back to your client with a quick phone call, and if they're available they'll come home to check on your handiwork. They'll check it all out, and tell you what they think. If you've paid no special attention to it it'll be "ok", but if you measured up the house, and really got to know your client and considered their personality in your design, they will love their new room, and should pay you a bit extra to thank you for your efforts.

Finally your Sim can take a photo for their portfolio. If you have World Adventures, here's where you can bring in the photography skill, and the nice cameras, to take a professional-looking photo. Otherwise, your Sim will have to put up with their less-than-spectacular camera phone for this.

Fire-fighter

If your Sim likes a bit of adventure and action, or just likes bright flashing lights and loud noises, perhaps they'd enjoy the new fire-fighter profession. Like the stylist profession, this new profession has its own open community lot. The lot contains a fire engine (of course!), an alarm in every room, plus a bunch of recreational stuff for the fire-fighters to use when they're just hanging out.

When your shift starts, you have to head down to the fire station. You can do basically whatever you want there until your shift starts. You could even just sit around eating and watching TV. However, if you prefer to do something more productive, you could maintain or upgrade the fire engine and maintain the alarms around the station. Alternatively, you could hang out with your co-workers, or hit the gym in the basement to keep yourself in shape.

Whatever you're doing, when that alarm starts ringing you'd better get to the fire engine - and fast. Of course, if you're upstairs, you can slide down the pole to get back to the ground floor really, really fast. Well, you could just hang around a bit longer, after all you haven't finished your sandwich yet... mmmm sandwich... ok ready now, did someone say fire?

Save the day! And impress the ladies...

Depending on how well you've maintained your fire engine you'll either zoom to the scene of the fire, or you'll be overtaken by your elderly mother en route. All of the jobs my Sim went on were small house fires, however Grant told us that that there are plenty of other different kinds of fire that your Sim might get called out to help with.

Upon arriving at the scene, your Sim can start to extinguish the fire. Or they can take a few pieces of furniture first. Y'know, you can just tell them it was burnt. They'll never know. Once you've put the fire out, you'll be given a grade depending on how long it took you to deal with the fire, and you'll be graded accordingly.

And for those of you wondering - yes, you can buy the fire pole for your Sims' houses, without them necessarily being in that profession. I had a pole going from my Sims' bedroom into the kitchen. It was sweeeeeet.

________________________________________________________________________________

I'm going to cut this review off here, for now, because it's getting rather late and... wow look how much stuff I still have to write about... new traits, laundry, and three more professions, and "more", as they say. So you've read all this? On to part two then...

What's new? New legacy, mad scientist, ect.

Ok, so far in my legacy:

First gen: I started with Clara Freece, she married, had one child - a boy, Chad.

Second gen: Chad married Janny. Clara died. Janny ended up reaching lvl 10 of the science career. Chad stayed unemployed, but painted.

Third gen: Chad and Janny had a boy. He married, they had two children and adopted two. Chad died in an...accident...where he /somehow/ got trapped in a room...with an oven...yeah.

Fourth gen: I have four children. Two are toddlers, two are babies still. Ian, Sylvia, Chance, and Graham.

I'm planning on having them adopt one more. Chad and Janny had this awful wish to have five grandchildren. I killed Chad to make room for the last child that my third gen will be adopting later, so Janny will get that fullfilled. I hought it would be fun to tackle that challenge. If it was just the parents, I couldn't do it, but with the help of Janny and a babysitter, it's working out just fine. The two children that I had them adopt were babies, but this last one will be a child. I cant handle another baby for my own sanity.

I'm blanking on my third gen's names...that's awful. The wife is unemployed since her main job has been popping out two babies and taking care of them and the adopted ones. The husband is an athlete, but he hasn't been to work in quite some time. I've been timing the adoptions so that he hasn't had to go for a while.

The legacy house looks great. Two stories. Four bedrooms (so far; I'll be adding some soon), two bath, study, two living, kitchen w/ dining bar thing. All of the appliances and electrinicas are either self-cleaning or unbreakable.

In the family's posession we have the collector helper and three deeds (one of which is the actual ownership of the grocerey store). Low on money? Check the deeds, if they don't have anything to be collected, find some gems.

I'll be getting some screen caps soon. I've been lazy.

Poll Results Are In!

From my fist poll, here are the results:

What character set would you most like to see for toddlers/kids?

1st- Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies

2nd- Tie between Sesame Street and Spongebob Squarepants

3rd- Tie between Ni Hao, Kai Lan and Caillou

Last- (With no votes) Dora the Explorer

I'll be releasing these sets in the order of placement in the poll.

Thanks to everyone who participated!  Your feedback really helps me understand what members want.  Please continue to visit my page and participate in new polls.  And remember, I'm always taking requests for stencil work!

You all rock so hard!

-Jez

Similicious TSR Award .. or June to June Award.

Hey everyone,

The first award show  will be hold in June 2010. The categories are :

Best Artist
Best Cloth*
Best Hair*
Best Accessory*
Best Shoe*
Best Make-up*
Best Sim*
Best Pattern
Best Set
Best Lot
Best Object
Best Story
Best Screenshot

*This Categories are for Male and/or Female

You all can send me an private message what you would nominate for an award.

Not allowes is :

- Nominate me

- Nominate yourself

- Nominate something that is before June 2009.

So, send me a private message with your choices.

Nice day, Guslucky

The Garden Family tree

I promised you the Garden Family tree and here it is. The red line is the heir-line and thus you can see that the next heir is Broccoli.

Enjoy:)

More on Belladonna

I worked some more this weekend on "The Fae of Dolphin Cove".  Belladonna is difficult to work with sometimes cause I just never seem to know what her next move will be...she is somewhat "unpredictable".  I'm getting anxious write the last few chapters.  I'm glad that you are enjoying her story, and hope that you will read it to the end. 

I've also been busy building.  Two more lots will be available for download tomorrow, May 10th.  One of them is a remake of "Fae Cottage", since EA came out with more Fairy items, I just had to go back and add them in.  I also chose a bigger lot for a garden and added a pond.  I wasn't happy with the color of the house, so I re-painted and added a driveway for those non-Fae-types.

The other house is called "Tom's Cabin".  It's a large lot with a huge pond, boat dock and very secluded in the woods.  I'd like to live there myself!  (Then I could just hide away and Sim all of the time!)

I'm going to be emptying out my game and downloads in the next couple of weeks, getting ready for "Ambitions".  You know the routine, move this file here and that file here...ugh, I just wish there was an easier way.  Takes me weeks to get everything back the way I want it.  Happy Simming!