Black Classical Tabby Mix

I've been continuing to work on more pets to share - they are addicting to create!

Meet Oskar:

Oskar is my current real life pet - a black and silver classical tabby moggie (mix breed).

Oskar's mother had the thin build and pointed facial features of one of the oriental cat breeds, along with a long haired coat, which he did not inherit but for two long haired stripes down his spine (we affectionately refer to them as his 'mohawks' :D ). His father was likely one of the stockier tuxedo type cats that are common here in southern Sweden and Oskar seems to have inherited this build instead. He has a lovely shiny black coat with the uncommon classical tabby patterning (marble-like swirls instead of the typical mackeral stripes) in a glittery silver colour and fine white boots and socks on his legs and paws. While my real life Oskar's eyes tend to change in colour from a muddy bronze to light green to yellow, I decided his Sim version would use yellow eyes, as they were the closest match available. He's shown here much more active then his typical daily schedule of 18 hour naps - what a hard life. :P

Oskar would certainly love to be taken in by a nice elderly couple who like him, enjoys quiet times, a lot of relaxation and the opportunity to be spoiled rotten. :D Again, I would love to see photos of his offspring, if you choose to breed him (again, as I have chosen not to IRL).

Tabby Point Siamese Mix

Today I'm updating with my first custom made pet to share. :)

Meet Simon:

Simon is one of my real life pets - a tabby point Siamese moggie (moggie means 'mixed breed' or 'mongrel'). He currently lives with my parents back in Canada since I moved overseas to Sweden.

As a kitten, Simon displayed a lilac point Siamese colouration but as he aged, his fur darkened and a tabby point colouration replaced the initial lilac point. He boosts an unusual and beautiful classical tabby patterning (marble-like swirls instead of the more common mackeral stripes) in a cream and beige tone-on-tone colour, giving him something of a 'watermark' look that never fails to elicite awe and compliments from everyone who meets him. Simon also inherited the Siamese light blue eyes, and even has a touch of cross-eyedness, a common genetic fault found in Siameses due to historically extreme in-breeding practices. His mix breed ancestry is apparent in his stockier build compared to the typical Siamese but my real life version is still 'sleek and svelte', as my mother likes to describe him. The real life version is also incrediably vocal, as Siamese are prone to being. ;)

Hopefully you can find a loving home for my little fellow in your Sim neighbourhood and I would love to see photos of his offspring, if you choose to breed him as I never did (he'd have made beautiful babies, though, I'm sure!). :)

Set In Stone Memorials

My computer may have hamstringed me against recolours and new meshes but I can still build lots, so here I present to you the first of my Remembrance Day creations: Set In Stone Memorials!

Set In Stone Memorials is a unique community lot designed to be an ownable business selling cemetery memorials (headstones and grave markers); perfect for your contemporary funeral directors. This lot uses Bitzybus' beautiful custom gravestones in addition to a selection of Maxis statues appropriate to cemetery d�cor. You will require Windkeeper's Helio doors and windows collections, however, so please ensure you have installed these items first to prevent a lot of flashing blue. :)

The Nightmare BEFORE Hallowe'en

So, you might have noticed I had a slew of Hallowe'en creations queued up and clipping along at a good pace and then suddenly nothing. That would be because my 'work' (non-gaming) computer suddenly up and died on me last week - eek! :o Your sails lose wind pretty darn quickly when you see that 'primary hard drive failure' message flash up on the screen and then sit there, starring and taunting you from the black void of nothing.

Thankfully all of my Sims 2 creations are saved on a seperate hard drive but I still have a ton of data located on my c: drive that I'm hoping I will eventually be able to pull off by hooking up said drive to another computer but that has yet to happen and until we get the time (and most importantly, the motivation) to try and fix things, I'm afraid I might be a little quiet.

However, I have finally managed to post the last of my jack o'lantern recolours, late though they are and will eventually bundle these up into a superset.

With it now being November, I'm looking forward to Remembrance Day in little over a week's time and will be providing you with a selection of goodies in honour of this very special day. You can expect a unique community/business lot that I had originally planned on releasing for Hallowe'en but then later decided would be a good fit for between Hallowe'en and Rembrance Day. I also plan to finally release some of my own pet creations, namely several of my family's dearly departed pets. And I may also throw in a few retro recolours to round out the remembering aspect of this month.

Stay tuned and wish me luck with the computer.

Hallowe'en Rugs & Lights

I am a rug fanatic. My rugs download folder probably contains more rugs than any other type of object I collect so it's only natural that I make some new rugs with a Hallowe'en feel. :) This is just a small set but it includes three super cute cartoon jack o'lantern designs, a very pretty country design and an adorable black cat doormat design that I'm sure all your new black Hallowe'en themed kitties will love. :P

Also in the queue, you'll find some new festive garland lights with a Hallowe'en twist. I've noticed over the years that these style of lights, traditionally a Yule decoration, have also become popular for Hallowe'en (although why anyone would want to string them up and take them down twice a year is beyond me!) so I decided to make a small set with appropriate colours; including all orange, orange and green and a multicoloured red, orange and gold version.

NOTE: I made these as a direct clone from the garland lights that came with last year's Holiday Stuff Pack (or the Holiday Sims 2 edition) so they may well require either of those game versions to work. Also, you'll find them listed in the Decorative > Wall Hangings catalogue, not under lights - this is where Maxis listed the original lights and I decided to keep them there since users of the Holiday pack should hopefully already be familiar with these objects being in this location.

Witching Week Begins

First, I'd like to give everyone at TSR a big thank you for choosing me to be among the first handful of 'Select Artists' - I am flattered and ever so grateful! And naturally, a big thank you also goes out to all of you fellow fans for helping me get this far. I realise it's been said many times before but that makes it no less true - your feedback and encouragement really do make all the difference in the world so thank you!

Now, on to the new goodies. :D With the Hallowe'en theme week launching on Sunday, I have started to post some of my themed creations. Up first on the list you will find some spooky paintings to add to your Sim houses, featuring creepy cemeteries, haunted mansions and other ghoulish scenes.

Also, I'm pleased to say that I've received fantastic feedback on my latest colonial garden flag post mesh so you'll all be thrilled to hear that I've made a BIG batch of Hallowe'en themed flags to decorate your lawns with - 22 of them, in fact!

Expect these new creations to go live somewhere around Sunday or Monday. More should follow shortly, provided I can peel myself away from the new Pets EP long enough to continue creating! :P

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

Okay, so I'm a week late but I've wanted to make these flag posts for ever and it just seemed natural to make the flags seasonal to the holidays so please bare with me. I'm sure that your Sims will enjoy them regardless of their lateness. :)

I've collected various flag objects in the past but have only ever come across wall mounted versions and I admit, I'm more partial to the ground post style. This flag model is similar to those colonial type welcome flags that have become a popular trend over the last few years (such as the one my parents have in their yard :D ) so hopefully it will also appeal to you and your Sims' tastes, too. The set, in addition to the base mesh, comes with 3 autumn themed flags, 3 Thanksgiving themed flags and 8 post colours in both natural wood and painted varieties.

Unfortunately I do not have an ETA on these - with the current upgrades and programming problems occuring on TSR, submission approvals seem to be lagging but hopefully you will not have to wait overly long. Also, keep your eyes open for new Hallowe'en themed flags coming shortly, too.

Merry Turkey, everyone! :P

Autumn Decor

Earlier this week I finally decided it was time to start changing seasons in my Pleasantview neighbourhood. In went the custom content folders containing autumn and Hallowe'en themed downloads and I merrily started changing trees to rich and vibrant colours, littering the ground with fallen leaves and adding hay bales, pumpkins and cornucopia liberally as I went. As I did so, I realized there still doesn't seem to be a lot of custom content for this gorgeous time of year.

First up in the new autumn decor line up are some autumn themed pictures for your walls, including an earthy set of leaf prints and an enchanting series of paintings of a young farm boy and his grandfather.

Autumn Prints - Leaves

Paintings - Grandpa & I

Theme Desktop Wallpapers

I've had a lot of people commenting on my new Hallowe'en avatar (thank you, btw!). I actually make desktop wallpapers to match my TSR themes and I'm particularly chuffed with how the Hallowe'en wallpaper turned out, so I thought since I've been hearing such positive comments on the avatar, perhaps folks would like the wallpapers, too. So, if you're interested, I've made them available in zips on my server space for download - just click the links below.

Hallowe'en Theme: The Witching Hour (Download)

Summer Theme: Beach Party (Download)

Enjoy! :)

New Article: Creating a Custom User Startup File

After the roaring success of my photography tutorial earlier in the year (thank you, to everyone who gave me such wonderful feedback on it), I've been wanting and meaning to write more tutorials but have put them off because they take a lot of time and effort to do properly. I realize that's a horrible excuse at best.

Anyway, you will (hopefully) be happy to hear that I finally prodded myself to write a new tutorial - Creating A Custom User Startup File. If you're not familiar with what a user startup file is, suffice it to say that it's an invaluable little file that will make your gaming experience all that much better - full details on what one is and how to make one is included in the article so head on over and check it out. :)