Hiya Friends

I did warn you... when I first started this blog that I had no idea if I would be able to keep up with it. I started home schooling my 7th grade daughter this past fall and it has consumed much of my life, that and trying my hand at writing a novel. I do post here and there on the forum- the sims 4 forum- since the TS3 forums have all but died. Honestly the forums in general seem dead to me. They did change that god-awful green, to where you can choose white instead, that helps with the headaches a bit.

I did buy TS4 and it is hit and miss for me. I've built a lot, but since there are so little customization options in the game, it has just become boring to me. Yea the roofing tool is amazing, but I hate that I can't recolor anything to my liking. I hate the plasticiness of everything. I am sure some of you remember me complaining about the specular layer that was on some of the clothes/ furniture in TS3...I just don't like shiny, unless it is supposed to be, like plether. I am not all that fond of the gameplay either. It is too "circular" same reactions, same emotions... not at all as charming as TS2 gameplay was. It's really sad to say that I play to build, playing just doesn't hold interest for me in either TS3 or TS4 and of course building has become boring in 4 so... where does that leave me? Building for myself or my daughter in TS3 and Playing Morrowind!

I've never played a single game like The Elder Scroll Series before, and I really want Skyrim. My husband says if I would play through his copies of Morrowind and Oblivion he will buy me Skyrim... so that is what I have been doing in the evenings after everything and everyone has wound down. And to be honest... it is fun! I enjoy playing my character and going on the little quests! I am almost towards the end of the main quest and have completed all of one of my faction quests (I have 4 factions, so... well I still have a ways to go!) I even have a mod in place so that I can have my own house, because there was just no more room for all my goodies at the Mages' Guild. My husband has been helping me with obtaining things like "boots of blinding speed"...which is hilarious, because when you put them on everything goes dark, take them off cast a resist magica spell, put them back on and you can see AND go fast! I also can levitate everywhere which is making transversing that world a lot faster! He told me he could get me a mod to get rid of the flying dragon thingies, but I declined, because killing monsters is super fun! LOL! There have been a few (as mu daughter calls them) jump scares.. mostly when I am in a dungeon and a monster spawns right near me! I do cleansing breaths before I go into a dungeon because I don't do scary very well. HA!

So, friends... what have you all been up to since I have practically gone MIA...? (even my normal Facebook has not seen much of me either... let alone my Sims Facebook.)

Simming Around

So, I have taken a brief hiatus from building. I am lacking inspiration to continue my downtown build I was working on. I pretty much know what I want it to look like, I am just not feeling it right now. So, since the new forums went live and not being able to be on them like I used to (figured out that they were the root cause of the pinpoint headaches I have been getting) and just not being very social, I am playing a bit with my simmies. I did have an orphanage going with two members of the clergy running it.However, I am bored of that. So, I am thinking I am going to do some sort of a homeless thing. I will probably get bored of that too.  I don't find playing the sims to be interesting, thus is why I build. However, I just want to play right now... take my mind of the humdrum and try to build inspiration. I know, I know...I am just a little bit crazy, eh? I would like to put people with completely conflicting personalities and no relation in the same residence! That would be pretty fun to watch. In fact I would probably just sit back and watch it all unfold. (with exception for them getting a job, etc). I wonder how story progression would handle that group of people? Anyhow. I just wanted to post a quick update. I will get back to building again, once my brain decides to be less... ornery! :D

I Am Not Thrilled

The new forums are live. I am not thrilled about them shutting down the old forums. I don't like having to navigate between so many sites just to keep up with people I have come to adore. I guess the migration would not have been so harsh if they would have moved everything over to the new site, including the store and what not... but it just feels so disjointed now. I will get used to it in time, I suppose. I will probably use this blog as my primary source of information, pic posting etc. I will link from my thread to this blog. I just don't want to do both pages, it feels really redundant. However, I am sure there will be times I post pics on both. It saddens me to see this wonderful era of simming drawing to a close. A few of my friends have already walked away from the new forums and I don't really blame them. It is not the best set up. The very first day I was outraged by the fact that people could edit each other's posts. Luckily, this got fixed within a couple of hours of it being live.

I have some new links for you, if you want to keep up with me through social media: Facebook and Twitter. These are both my simming accounts. I feel a little overwhelmed by all the different sites I keep up with and I guess that is why I feel so disgruntled.

Anyhow, I hope I see you there! -Sherry

Cowboy Bill's is Live!

I finished Cowboy Bill's Trading Post and Chuckwagon. You can click on my "Sims 3 Build's" tab to get the link! Thank you for any rec's, downloads, and comments!

I appreciate you all for your support!
Hugs!

Cowboy Bill's Trading Post and Chuckwagon WIP

I have been working on a request build for Queenie08, a fellow simmer whom I met through BishopBettie. You see, BB gifted me some pretty amazing things, and her wishlist was empty so I said I would like to do a build for her because she was so very generous. She suggested I make a build for Queenie, who had the Brunch at the Old Mill set and wanted a venue that would go in her Appaloosa Plains town. After befriending Queenie, she and I hit off very well and she gave me really good insight as to what she would like to see in her build. I posted the facade on the forums, but since they are down I have no place but here to share my pictures.

I worked quite extensively on the interior of the build. Making it cluttered, southwesterny, cozy and rustic. I am so excited to show off the inside. I still need to give the ceiling color, maybe "wood" beams on something that appears to be corrugated metal or punched tin...Punched tin... yes, that would be great! I love that pattern anyhow! ;)

Things not shown in some of the pictures is that I filled the nectar racks in the rooms that have empty nectar racks showing... all with perfect nectar. I used a few tomb items to create secret entrance into the subterranean basement, plus some other goodies. Not really all that special but fun to mess around with! 

You'll also see that I used the savvy seller doors in place of the double swinging doors that I originally had. I wanted a way to set the hours of the building itself. (outside the registers)

Otherwise it is mostly done! :D I can't wait to finish and share it with the community and I especially cannot wait to for Queenie to use it and tell me how she likes it! 

The Chuckwagon:

The Chuckwagon's kitchen

The Trading Post using both the savvy seller and the bakery cash registers!

Outdoor dining that overlooks the stream (this build is next to a large body of water, so ignore that)

The walkout basement and cannery: (I need to get some canned goods on the shelves!)

The subterranean basement (Oh! not pictured: added clutter to make it seem more cozy)

I really hope you like what you see Queenie!!! I also hope others like it as well! I have had so much fun with this! 

My Pre-Game Thoughts on The Sims 4

I'm worried. I wonder what is happening to my beloved game. I've played The Sims since it came out in 2000. I have migrated to each and every installment happily enthusiastically. When EA/Maxis announced The Sims 4, I was ecstatic! However, over the course of the last few months, I have felt a quite a bit disappointed. So much that made The Sims great for me with the most recent installment (The Sims 3) will not be in game, anytime soon or at all. After the lucky simmers came back from Creator's Camp, I started to feel slightly more okay with this new format...

...then I saw how few presets we actually got of things in the game. The fact that they were not as well thought out as some of the earlier iterations of the game that didn't have Create A Style. I am confused to how I am supposed to build in a game with so few ways to be an individual, to be creative.

I saw a build mode video on IGN this afternoon, with Graham Nardone, and while to tools seem more intuitive I was disgusted with the lack of a color palate to choose from on each item. This one couch had maybe 8 single color presets... 8!!!! On TS3 I have a choice of thousands, millions...hell I will go as far as infinite choices of colors, plus a very wonderful selection of patterns, that is if I don't choose to make my own (but not a fan of the Create-a-Pattern tool, so I don't use it much, nor do I use patterns from it in my builds/sims at all). I used to, but my game got so laggy with all the extras.

I can handle the plastic sims, the smaller world, the neighborhoods, really I can. Why? Because I build more than I play. I really don't like the plastic textures of the buy items and the cartoony style of the art. But, I could get used to it... if I had a color wheel or lots of selections of colors and patterns to choose from.

Things that also have made me sad:

• No CASt: WHY OH WHY??? I need CASt!!! I can't hardly live without it!
• No Color Wheel: Only presets, and a limit on those
• No Move Objects On: that means no clustering my decor to make more eye appealing groupings, no more natural landscaping, no more creating new objects out of old, or making awesome looking stove nooks. 
• No Constrain Floor Elevation: that means no more arched bridges or garages attached to foundation houses, no more interesting buildings that creators like GreenCats and Fischio make, that I am dabbling in slowly to learn. 
• No Terrain Tools: that means completely flat, boring landscape.
• No Pond Tools: That means exactly as it says
• No Swimming pool tool: ditto
• All or nothing foundations. Gone are the days of making houses with attached garages, tool/ gardensheds on the ground when you have a foundation house. 
• No toddlers (as of yet, and I saw somewhere that it will end up being DLC? DUH FUH!!!)
• No Cars- I guess it doesn't matter about garages if you don't have a car
• The Gallery: From the looks of it, it will be in game only. I prefer to save my files so I can scan them. I also don't like how fast the gallery seems to fill up. I want whatever I build to be seen... How will we be able to promote our things if there is no "link" to direct people to? Oh sure we have a search feature, but I don't want to say "search sherry_lynn1979 each time I want someone to see my stuff!
• BORING Create A Sim: Yep, I have the Demo, yep I have made several sims... Nope I don't like it. I hate the selection of clothes and lack of color options and I hate the tactile/push/pull/sculpt feature of making sims' faces. (I am going to add what I like soon)
• No toddlers... just REALLY?
• Babies as objects... tied to crib, cannot carry them around or go places with them. 
• Lack of careers... mostly not normal careers... and no community service type careers. I really liked how TS3 handled careers. 

Things I do like:

• Roof Sculpting: this is quite an awesome idea and I love it! This goes along with being able to add trim to roof lines, changing the eves, and roof decor
• Build-able chimney stacks! I really like this (though you only get a limit of different types and colors, it is still a good addition)
• Lots of clutter items, though I probably will be peeved that I cannot move them into places I want (MOO)
• Adjustable foundation, walls, doors, windows: I really love this concept, and that will be fun to try out.
• Adjustable curtain heights and the magnify tool (although it won't share the way you magnify it) I can see some really unique things happening with this magnify tool! 
• Footprints are nearly nonexistent! You can have 1/2 square between a wall and a bed and they will still route to it
• Overall better routing system
• Overall better multi-tasking system
• CAS Bust and Butt adjustments, this is just awesome... I love that I can make a sim have a bubble butt or a saggy chest! I don't like that every shirt/jacket sticks to the form, it should be able to loose drape down from the bust (i.e. jackets and "loose" fit clothing that has a normal drape on a less busty sim)
• Walk styles: though some are pretty stupid, I do like that I won't have a neighborhood full of the same walking styles... Though I wish there were MANY more

These both are short lists, but the dislike should be much longer... I just don't want to get all into it. I'm very displeased with the overall new game, even though I haven't gotten to try it out past the CAS demo. I'll still buy it. I will give it the good ole college try, if I don't like it, well my daughter is sure to... if she doesn't: Hey! I just bought a $70 coffee coaster!

Comment below and tell me what you are disappointed in or like about the new game. Please be  courteous  to fellow comment-ers, if you can't I will remove your negative post. Why? Because this is MY blog and I don't have to put up with negativity towards others!

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome

Hello lovelies! I'm very happy to announce that I have a new blog that I don't know if I intend on keeping up with. However, with so many changes happening in our simming community, I would like to say this would be a one stop shop for everything that I do with The Sims.

I do plan to continue interacting within the Creative Corner of The Sims 3 Forums. You can see my current thread here! You can also visit my personal My Page on The Sims 3 official page and also my new wall on the new forums here! A lot of my friends are either nervous or excited about the new changes coming to the Sims franchise. We are currently awaiting changes to our forums. We are anxious to see how they change. All we really know is that our beloved forums will be down for several days while they "upgrade" and that we will have to change our avatars to something else when they are done. I am curious to see what changes will be made and whether that will cause us to lose more members of our community.

I have no plans on leaving the TS3 community for as long as it is running. I plan to continue to build for the TS3 community, even if I do happen to migrate slightly over to TS4 (if I like it... if not, well you will see lots of TS3 builds and sims!)

I hope to see lots of comments from my friends that I have come to enjoy (quite immensely) chatting with! I will comment back when I see lovely comments from you!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day! HUGS!