Member Blogs

Bombings in Turkey

A serious item for a change. We spent the weekend helping our youngest son and his girlfriend get off on holiday to Turkey, then woke on Monday morning to hear about the bombings in Marmaris and Istanbul.

We were a bit panicked until we eventually heard from them by text. They're in a resort a little further up the coast from Marmaris. Oh well, nowhere's safe today, I suppose!

New hair mesh

I've converted NL choppy peak hair to work for teens, kids, and toddlers. Nothing special, I just liked the adult mesh and wanted to have it for all ages in my game :). The mesh doesn't require NL, adult version not included.

Lace Walls & Floors

Hello Everyone!

I am going to be submitting my new sets SLOWLY. Usually I rush to get them all up on TSR and then don't have anything ready to submit for a month or so; so this time I am going to be releasing only 3 to 6 sets a week approximately, it may be more, but hopefully not less. I have one more month of this college session and then I have a short break, at which time I will start submitting some new things. In the mean time I hope everyone enjoys these latest sets of lace walls and floors.

Take care and stay healthy & happy! May :o)

Lace Sets will be perfect for the Glamour Life Pack!

As I stated in my last blog entry I started Graphic Design school on August 2nd. I had forgotten about the amount of time needed to go to college. When I graduated from X-RAY school 23 years ago I was still young and energetic, heck I was only 28 years old with all my future ahead of me. Now I'm 51, with a lot of my life behind me, a serious lack of energy and a pain level that is sky high. Oh, I'm NOT giving up, don't get me wrong...it's just a lot harder being able to do it all like I used to.

Which brings me to the lace sets I am working on. First of all there are a lot of them; 466 walls and 131 floors. I wanted to give an update to my progress with them. I still have to package the floors, the walls are finally ALL packaged. After everything is in packages then I will make my preview pictures and after that I can start submitting them to TSR - hopefully this week. That is the goal I have set and will be working on. After these sets are done I will definitely be limiting my future sets to more manageable sizes! ;-) And I will be doing something other than lace!! LOL!

FINALLY....

For all of you that had just about given up hope of seeing anything new here on my site, the wait is almost over! I have everything in HomeCrafter, but I still need to package everything...which doesn't take quite as long to do. These last lace sets feature three different wallpapers (as you can see below; there is a paisley, a plaid and a stripe) in many colors and 7 different laces, in many different combinations for a total of 466 walls and 131 floors! I don't know why I make such large sets of walls and floors...except for the fact that I just want people to have their choice of colors and some variety of the designs. This will be the last set of lace wallpapers that I will be doing, at least for the time being as I am all "laced" out! :) Here is a preview picture of some of the walls: I am working on some recolors of BitzyBus's Mirror Floor Tile and also some recolors of some of the Maxis pictures. I want to try my hand at some new and different things in the future; although my first love will probably always be walls and floors, I need to broaden my creative interests. To this end I have decided to go back to college to learn some new things, mainly graphic design and multimedia. Today is my first day of school, needless to say I am very excited, but also somewhat nervous. I have chosen an online college environment, as it best suits my needs; as I spend at least 30% to 40% of my time in front of my computer anyways I might as well get an education while I'm sitting here! :) Please wish me luck. Have a great day! May :)

My Puggie Babies!

I hope you enjoy the picture and their story. Usually I reserve this spot for what I'm working on, but today I just wanted to share a picture of my "babies". That's Yoda (4 years old, female and a Pisces, March 14th) on the left and Ivy (3 years old, female and an Aries (like me), March 31st) on the right. I live in Maine and both girls came from Kansas (about 1200 miles away), it's interesting because I "adopted" (bought) them a year apart from the same place; and when I got Ivy's papers from the AKC I found out that they were half-sisters, what a surprise that was! They don't look anything alike and their personalities are like night and day. Yoda, the "Boss" is very demanding and even a little overbearing at times, whereas Ivy is very sweet natured and loving. Both girls have to be where ever "Mom" is, which is okay with me, because they both keep me company while I "play" at my computer. We all hope you have a great day! May, Yoda & Ivy :)

New Files Overwriting Old Files with Same Name...Or My Plug for Sims2pack Clean Installer!!

It was brought to my attention that not giving "Individual Items" in sets separate names was confusing and this person was afraid that the new lace walls might overide the older lace walls (the darker ones). As I am not entirely sure one way or another I am renaming the new ones, I started with the ones that were approved but not published yet, those are all done now. I will slowly continue to work on the ones that are already published, this is much slower as I have to do each one individually, instead of being able to do a batch edit. In the meantime if you install using the Sims2pack Clean Installer it will make installing a lot easier...it will ask if you want to overwrite a file with the same name, answer "NO" and it will rename the new file...so both files will be able to coexist in your game without conflicts. In the future I will strive to give items in sets separate names to avoid any confusion.

Even if you didn't have any problems installing these new lace walls...I still HIGHLY recommend Sims2pack Clean Installer and it can be found at: http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com/
Thia is the program I use to install everything into my game...I also use it to weed out empty packages, hacks I don't want or need, most everything...or you can just go browse your "Downloads" folder - with preview pictures! It's a great program and it's FREE!!! ;-)

GOOD NEWS!!!

I am in the process of submitting the walls and floors tonight, I don't know why everything always takes longer than planned...but it usually does. Hopefully these will be published in a couple days. My wish is that everyone will enjoy them!! There will be all 14 of my usual colors as well as: Cottoncandy (pink), Buttercream (a pale yellow) and Sunshine (a somewhat brighter yellow). The following is a preview of the violet color... NOTE: I will be uploading the plaid and stripe textured walls with some NEW* laces soon. *New...as in no one has seen these designs yet! Stay tuned...

... and more clocks

3 more wall clock meshes: daisy-shaped, starburst (retro), and spheres (another retro). Each will come in several colors. Will publish them somewhere in September.

New BambooEgg

Sounds like a nasty combination,lol, you be the judge. Two sets due to publish Sept 1 and 3. I've used images from the internet and manipulated, squashed, expanded, rearanged, recolored and repixelated them to make them unique for you. I am getting ready for the September FA theme week. I will have extra sets this month as I love the ritzy, swanky, posh, tres riche styles. I hope you will, too.

About comments

I read every comment left for me. Unfortunately, I don't have time to respond to each and every comment. I appreciate each one, though! I just want to say a big thanks to you all for commenting and downloading! And if you want a response, the very best way to reach me is through the PM system or my guestbook.

Lace Heart Cami Sets

Continuing my University theme, I've created something for the girls this time: 12 pretty cotton and lace camisole sets in a range of colours and patterns. These are based on my Weekend Away cami set but with a heart motif.



Six camisoles have white lace panels and six have black lace panels (three polkadot patterned, two floral patterned and one plain in each).

These camis are for adult and young adult females (provided you have University installed, obviously) and use a standard Maxis mesh.

Sims 2 -- XBOX`

I'm hooked. Arrrrrgh... It's so addictive in story mode. lol

Victorian Inspired Kitchen, Aug 27th

Well, my Victorian Inspired Kitchen is taking shape, and Part I (large appliances) release date is August 27. I consider the new set more Victorian inspired then a vintage set. I really wanted to include counters and cabinets, instead of using tables as workspaces. In addition, it would be a sort of difficult to disguise the dishwasher, trash compactor, etc., as vintage objects, so that they would �fit� into a Victorian kitchen.

Therefore, my inspired kitchen has the �feel� of a vintage Victorian kitchen. However, I do plan to include a few unique vintage pieces, for those who prefer a more historically accurate kitchen.

I found a wonderful picture of a vintage kitchen pantry sink with skirting around its base, I would really love to create this for the kitchen. I have a feeling I am going to be stuck in the kitchen for quite a while, LOL!

Very Busy week

I've had extra tasks lately in both my personal and professional life, so haven't had a lot of time and energy to create lately. I'll be working on some stuff over the weekend and should have something soon for you all. I have played around with some objects and will load them up today--after I look at them again. I may decide not to if they're too crappy. lol

Princess Diana

*More pics added* This coming week's project is a slight departure from the wonderful world of dolls. It is a request from the TSR Skinning forum for the face and some fashions of the late Princess Diana. I have about 10-12 outfits that I'm looking at plus I'll be including faces with those fashions as well. Pics to be posted as they are completed.

Edit: After finding a fantastic site that had pictures of about 80+ dresses from a 1997 auction of Diana's things, I have decided to expand this theme into a 2-3 week project that should yield between around 20-30 skins total(I hope).

Upcoming set

I thought I'd share what's coming up next :) It's a work in progress and won't be finished for about another week. I won't reveal all just yet, but it's a Greek theme. Here is a partial "sneek peek" so to speak :)

Lace Walls & Floors

Hello Everyone!

I am going to be submitting my new sets SLOWLY. Usually I rush to get them all up on TSR and then don't have anything ready to submit for a month or so; so this time I am going to be releasing only 4 to 6 sets a week approximately, it may be more, but hopefully not less.

I have one more month of this college session and then I have a short break, at which time I will start submitting some new things.

In the mean time I hope everyone enjoys these latest sets of lace walls and floors.

Take care and stay healthy & happy!
May :o)

Get a boat

It takes some time to change the item when you make it have new interactions. But finaly this project seems to work. Its a toy box bench. The toddler can sit on it and rest and also get a boat (or several boats) from it. Isn�t it what toddlers do.

Medieval buildings remade for Nightlife only

While pottering on Hagrid's Hut (he gets annoyed) I've re-jigged my series of medieval thatched-roof buildings so that they just need Nightlife. A lot of downloaders don't have University, and this came as a request - a good idea. So they have invisible driveways, ready for all the horses Sims tend to use. I've also re-designed each one so that they're even easier to use (I think!!!). So if you haven't seen them, they're still on page 3 of my Lots Archive - hope you like them! ;) Here's a new pic of The Golden Hall from The Lord of the Rings:

Thank-you! Thank-you! Thank-you!

Thank-you! I took a few days away from the site to work on my kitchen project. I just checked, and I have 373 comments on my creations.

Yikes! I do read all your comments, but unfortunately I can not always respond to every comment. So, thank-you again for your wonderful comments, and I really appreciate your feedback, and kindness.

Hi All!

I've been elsewhere for awhile. I have been recoloring objects and you can find a lot of them at http://www.simsfashionbarn.com/simsfashionbarn.htm
I have just uploaded my first set at TSR and I hope you will like it. I plan to put a few more things here from time to time. I'm really enjoying recoloring. The summer is almost over, but hope you all have a great 'rest of it'.

Love, Nancy

Lesser Spotted Redface - ode to ornithologists

When TSR rolled out v6 of the TSR website, they smilingly gave a small collection of hapless artists a blog. The purpose of the blog is to announce (to you good people) what we (hapless ones) are doing our best to create for you...

Big mistake!

For I'm about to waste yet MORE valuable 'creation update' space to tell you a funny story instead (and every word of it is true)...

Imagine this: you're a woman in your thirties, and an enthusiastic bird-spotter. Planning a walk, you take your three dogs along with you and your binoculars (in case you see any interesting feathered creature that, for some peculiar reason, is going to hang around DESPITE the fact your three prey-hungry dogs are with you). You're strolling across open bird-spotting country when you see a very peculiar-looking bird standing in the middle of this big, open space. Your eye-sight isn't very good so you put the binoculars to your eyes and peer right up to this strange bird. It doesn't do anything, and isn't bothered by the dogs either, which is fortunate.

Now, let's rewind this tale a little to set the scene. Hours earlier, seasoned birdwatchers the length and breadth of the UK have travelled down to the place where an extremely rare bird has been spotted. It's possibly the first time that this bird has ever been seen in the UK, for it is from southern Europe and might never be seen in the UK again. Therefore, many, many birdwatchers have arrived early and have taken up station in bushes everywhere, their binoculars trained onto the centre of the field where there is a small pond, and where the bird has been sighted before. Eventually, after much waiting, the foreign bird appears. The birdwatchers can't believe their luck and prepare their telescopic lenses for some fine photo shots...

But wait! Some idiot's walking right out towards the bird! (that's you in this sorry tale) To the horror of the hidden onlookers, the thoughtless intruder has three dogs with her! It's fortunate that the bird remains, but no-one can believe that this woman is walking right up to the bird anyway, with her dogs, and is now peering through binoculars directly down at it - about a metre away, if that. The birdwatchers are mortified and can't believe that they've travelled for nothing, that the bird will fly away because of what must be a very inexperienced (or bold) birdwatcher risking everything for some selfish, close-up views. The birdwatchers hold their breath, their telescopic lenses trained on the bird in the hope you will finally MOVE so that they can take some photos for their local Ornithologists clubs before the bird disappears.

Back to you then. Not being able to identify birds easily by sight (your eyesight is poor and that's why you had to stand close to the bird in order to see its detail in your binoculars), you make a quick but leisurely sketch of the bird with the intention of looking it up in a book when you return home. You then realise that (a) you're a long way from home, and (b) you should have gone to the toilet before you came out (you know where this is going, don't you?). You look all around you. Not a person anywhere for miles and no-one really comes out here anyway, so in urgent need of relief, you crouch down near the bird...

It is only as you're finishing this much-needed wee that you notice a glint of metal in a bush not too far away. You wouldn't have paid too much attention were it not for the fact that there is also a similar glint of metal in the next bush, and the next. In fact, you notice rustling in the bushes, and with sickening disquiet, you realise that, in EVERY bush all around you, there are an unprecedented number of bird-spotters surrounding you, all peering at the bird right next to you - or were, until you did what you just did! With horror, you realise that you seem to have walked right in on some very special and important birdspotting event, and that the bird next to you is no ordinary bird at all. You also know that these birdwatchers won't now be able to seek fame by sending their pictures to any Young Ornithologists Magazine - because of you. Worse still, because you live in a small village nearby, some of these people will even KNOW who you are! Yes, you have been caught well and truly with your pants down!

Now, I'm not going to tell you WHO this very special woman is, but suffice to say that she will MURDER me if she sees this, and chances are that she will. However, I could not resist the retelling of this tale as it had me laughing all night. So, I will bid you all a fond farewell and my epitaph, should it be needed for my grave, can be: "Should have kept her big trap shut!"

Last set

Unfortunately this current set I'm working on will be my last. I will try my best to bring it to you in a timely fashion but, due to those pesky real life issues, I'm not going to be able to do anymore recolors.

I just want to thank everyone for their support and kind words. It's been a lot of fun and I hope the things I've been able to make bring everyone a little bit of enjoyment.

Victorian Inspired Kitchen Project

Victorian Inspired Kitchen, Part I (large appliances) is set for release on August 27th. The set includes 2 new meshes, stove and ice box (refrigerator) and several recolors.

American Football Jerseys

Recently, I was asked to create a Dallas Cowboys American football jersey - a slight departure from my last two sets :-) Hope you like what I've come up with, Steph!

I decided to make a set of football jerseys, and chose three other teams to make up the numbers (based entirely on the colours of their jerseys!): Green Bay Packers (green), New Orleans Saints (black) and San Francisco 49ers (red). I've tried to make these jerseys as authentic as possible.



These are tops only, are for adult and young adult males (provided you have University installed) and use a standard Maxis mesh.

House Number Superset

I've made my first superset. :) With over 100+ files, the house number series is definitely deserving of this bundling. If you've been interested in this collection but hestitant to download it, hopefully the superset feature will make things easier on you as far as ensuring you have all the bits and pieces - I still can't help you unzip the mountain of files, though!

Small Preview

I've been playing around with the gothic theme and thought I'd give you a little preview of what I have so far. I have the fireplace and walls but the fireplace is still a work in progress. I think I overdid the "carved" marble and will have to make some changes with that and, right now it is kind of cream colored. It may end up being a lot more desaturated. I still have quite a bit of work left to do on it.

I think the walls, on the other hand are finished. The little "statues" you see are just wallpaper. Unfortunately, I'm not a mesher so, I'm reduced to coloring on the walls. One of the good things about being a grownup is that I don't get spanked for it anymore.

I actually probably could submit things more quickly except I tend to obsess, take a break for awhile and then look at my screenshots again to see where I'm going to go from here. I tell myself it's a worthwhile obsessive compulsive streak. lol

Well enough said. Here's the work in progress.

Masquerade Ball Masks

The Masquerade Ball Masks are now fixed! Sorry - I forgot to upload the files! (Aside: Raveena, where's that "duh" smilie you made?) Hope you like them.

So, now that I'm married...

Firstly, thank you all for your wonderful wishes! I was surprised and happy to see your messages and comments, and was really happy to read them.

So, now that I'm a married woman, what can you expect? Well, first of all, I'm turning my attentions to some gingham table cloths and matching twee print tea-towels, then some frilly lace curtains in various flowery designs. Then I'll design some homely wall and floor sets for your kitchens. After this will follow some beautiful pot plants, sets of beautiful kitchenware items and...

NOT!

Now come on. You know me all too well already! My creative aspirations are, in fact, leaning towards steel construction girders, cement butresses and shabby old scaffolding - naturally.

Project: Hagrid's Hut

I've been pulling together different ideas and materials, to get ready for making Hagrid's Hut from Harry Potter (best seen in The Prisoner of Azkaban).

I do get asked to build some very big buildings - Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings or Hogwarts, or Windsor Castle! But it's worth saying they are just to big to fit onto the largest lot size, and only a kind of 'cartoon' version can be made, without proper living spaces. But the big man's hut is fine!!! ;)

More clocks

I'm testing various clock meshes. Decided to fit the clock into a tummy of my Japanese lucky cat, lol! The other mesh - tower clock. Fits inside my Helios round window. The window will be published in the next Helios set, don't forget to grab it if you want to use this clock :).

To Create

It's always sounds so silly for me to say "I'm a creator." And this doesn't apply to how I view others, just myself! So don't get offended anyone. Like I was saying, it always sounds so silly for me to call myself a creator. I know that I create custom content so the word is appropriate, but it just seems to contain more meaning than I assign to what I do. Maybe because I have too much fun when I'm making things. My self image is of a player that makes stuff for her game. I share it because I enjoy that aspect of it as well. I really like the attention that submitting here gives me. I'm a Leo. Go figure. Anyway, I hope this wasn't too random. Here's a quote I like:
"Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century."
- Dame Edna Everage

Lace Sets will be perfect for the Glamour Life Pack!

As I stated in my last blog entry I started Graphic Design school on August 2nd. I had forgotten about the amount of time needed to go to college. When I graduated from X-RAY school 23 years ago I was still young and energetic, heck I was only 28 years old with all my future ahead of me. Now I'm 51, with a lot of my life behind me, a serious lack of energy and a pain level that is sky high. Oh, I'm NOT giving up, don't get me wrong...it's just a lot harder being able to do it all like I used to.

Which brings me to the lace sets I am working on. First of all there are a lot of them; 466 walls and 131 floors. I wanted to give an update to my progress with them. I still have to package the floors, the walls are finally ALL packaged. After everything is in packages then I will make my preview pictures and after that I can start submitting them to TSR - hopefully this week. That is the goal I have set and will be working on.

After these sets are done I will definitely be limiting my future sets to more manageable sizes! ;-) And I will be doing something other than lace!! LOL!

Houses

*Pics added* For this week's project, I'm doing some house building. I've got a few houses sketched out on graph paper already, so time permitting, I hope to get about 5-6 houses done. Pics will be posted as the houses are completed.

*Note: Because of other commitments this past week, I was only able to get 3 houses done.*

FINALLY....

For all of you that had just about given up hope of seeing anything new here on my site, the wait is almost over! I have everything in HomeCrafter, but I still need to package everything...which doesn't take quite as long to do. These last lace sets feature three different wallpapers (as you can see below; there is a paisley, a plaid and a stripe) in many colors and 7 different laces, in many different combinations for a total of 466 walls and 131 floors! I don't know why I make such large sets of walls and floors...except for the fact that I just want people to have their choice of colors and some variety of the designs. This will be the last set of lace wallpapers that I will be doing, at least for the time being as I am all "laced" out! :) Here is a preview picture of some of the walls: I am working on some recolors of BitzyBus's Mirror Floor Tile and also some recolors of some of the Maxis pictures. I want to try my hand at some new and different things in the future; although my first love will probably always be walls and floors, I need to broaden my creative interests. To this end I have decided to go back to college to learn some new things, mainly graphic design and multimedia. Today is my first day of school, needless to say I am very excited, but also somewhat nervous. I have chosen an online college environment, as it best suits my needs; as I spend at least 30% to 40% of my time in front of my computer anyways I might as well get an education while I'm sitting here! :) Please wish me luck. Have a great day! May :)

Gothic!

It's a word I've heard frequently lately. Seems it's something several people want so... for my next set, all I'll say is "Gothic".

Apologizing

I'm very sorry about the lack of submissions lately! Yet since August 10th the submission system is down on my account. There are several major bugs each of which resulting in all the information I've added til its occurance will be lost. I cannot get any data whatsoever into the system apart from set piccies. Thus all submissions are on hold up until everything has been fixed...

Thanx for your patience everybody!

Sorry...

I'm really sorry that it's been so long since I updated my blog. I've been creating as you see, but I've been really busy at work and when I'm home I'm with the family. I'm trying to be balanced so that I don't burn out again!

I just submitted a set that will be published this afternoon. It's a 50s inspired swing skirt with a collar and short/no sleeves. I have wanted to do this mesh for a while, but there's always something else to do. I'm planning on doing a whole series of these dresses and I look forward to seeing what the other, more talented skinners, come up with here--if they're inspired that is. I can't wait until Shannanigan's cat eye glasses are published, I think they'll look very cute with the dresses!

Next project

A little sneak peak of what I am working on. Fun 4 + Kreativity. Little animated Play TV. Can be used by toddlers.