Pushard (R11)

Here we are, starting Round 11 -- Yay! Last time at the Pushard's Allan and Jaiden transitioned into Elders. Jaiden continued to work at the grocery store and primed James to take over after he finished at SimState. Allan's grandfather's dog, Suzi passed away and Allan got a visit from the social bunny. At the end of the round, James went off to university. This round it will be Allan and Jaiden alone in the house, lets see how things go

Pushard (Lot 1) Tuesday-Sunday
Pictured (left to right): Allan Pushard, Jaiden Hurt
[I neglected to draw a jar card for this house this round, so I'm eliminating it entirely this round]

Despite both of their children growing up and leaving the house, Jaiden and Allan didn't have time to suffer from empty nest syndrome... things were as hectic as ever in the Pushard household. When Jaiden wasn't working, she was tending her plants

Since James was off at college, Allan had to help pick up the slack in the greenhouses. They planted planted so many crops that season that Allan managed to earn his Gold Gardening badge

He also was awarded a special plaque from the garden club for his devotion to the craft

When the fruit matured then came the task of packing them for the market

Fresh produce always brought a lot of patrons into the store... it was the most stressed Jaiden had felt since her school days

She spent so much time at the register that season that she earned a Silver level register badge

The rewards weren't enough to detract from the stress so Allan decided it was time to take a vacation as far away from Silvervale as they could get...

The airport shuttle arrived the next morning to whisk them off to their week of rest and relaxation

When they arrived at the hotel something magical happened...

... they finally they decided it was time to get married

Allan and Jaiden tied the knot right then and there on the front steps of the Flaming Dragon Hotel with the oxidized bronze dragon statues and passing tourists as witnesses

Then they retired to their hotel room to celebrate the best way they knew how

They passed the rest of their vacation by sightseeing and trying out all the local passtimes

((since all vacations are essentially the same and I'm lazy... here's the home video they made of their vacation, lol))

After a wonderful and relaxing vacation, Jaiden and Allan returned back to Silvervale refreshed and ready to begin a new chapter in their lives...

...in a few short years when James returned from school, there would be toddlers filling their home again

Scoring: 1.5 points (.5 point for Allan's Gold Gardening badge, 1 point for Allan's nature hobby plaque)

Household Net-Worth:

((This house was actually pretty hectic with the garden and the store, I don't think I appreciated James enough when he was around, lol. Neither Allan nor Jaiden are retired because I don't think I would be able to stand it if they were both in the house all the time. This will probably change when James and Magenta move back in, especially since Magenta wants 6 kids. I'm glad that these two finally decided that they wanted to get married, however, immediately after they married, they both rolled up the woohoo with 3 different sims want /facepalm, silly secondary romance aspiration! We're off to the Teer house next to check up on our little green alien spawn!))

University I3

And here we are... last post of Round 10 featuring Vinaya and her elvish boyfriend, Kennedy. In the last installment of university, Vinaya and Kennedy pledged in and spent a lot of time at the Greek House (and autonomously did lots of homework so I came back to them in the dorms and they had full grade bars). I broke down and installed ACR, so lets see how things went, shall we?

Vinaya and Kennedy, despite being members of the Greek House decided that they were going to rough it in the dorms their first half of college life. As long as they had each other, they didn't need anything else

The first item on the agenda was makeovers. Vinaya decided to ditch the pink bow and cut her hair shorter

Vinaya Devivio - Libra (2/9/2/10/10)
Knowledge (LTW: become Head of the SCIA)

Kennedy wasn't one for a normal look, he had a unique appearance and he thought that his clothes should reflect that. In addition to a striking outfit, he opted to go for some Ink too...

Kennedy Smith - Aquarius (4/4/4/7/6)
Family (LTW: become Captain Hero)

After spending so much time at the Greek House, it was hard to be happy with life in the dorms... the food was kinda crappy, but they suffered through it

Also, the bathrooms tended to be quite disgusting being shared by 20 college students. ((Luckily Kennedy tends to clean a lot despite only having 4 neat points!))

The dorm also lacked privacy at times...

A few consolations of living in the dorms was that the particular building they were assigned had a pool table a a few other interesting things to do...

Vinaya also talked the University into installing a greenhouse that they could use to produce their own food

After classes had started, both Vinaya and Kennedy started thinking about what they would like major in... Vinaya thought that she might like to major in Physics, though she was unsure how it would help her achieve her dream of heading the most prestigious intelligence agency in the Sim Universe

Kennedy also chose a major that might not exactly help him in his criminal justice pursuits, but literature was something he enjoyed, so he decided to go with it

Since most of the fun stuff was on the second floor of the dorms, the common room never seemed to be occupied... and doing homework in the study area was much preferable to studying in their cramped dorm rooms

The dorm rooms were good for one thing though.....

Being free of their parents was refreshing, and Vinaya knew that her parents were doing the same thing when they were in college (afterall, she was born on that very campus!)

When they weren't studying, both Vinaya and Kennedy spent a lot of time out in the greenhouse, they had to do something to make the food more bearable. Vinaya managed to earn her Gold gardening badge and Kennedy got a start on his skills earning a Bronze gardening badge in the process

Even though college was a lot of hard work, Vinaya and Kennedy soared through their first two years of college both managing to maintain 4.0 GPAs in the process.

Scoring: 1.5 points (1 point for adding Kennedy as playable, .5 point for Vinaya's gold gardening badge)

((Sorry the update was so short, I played most of the time on 3x speed because uni bores me pretty much to death. Kennedy is quite the looker and I'm glad that he's family because I won't feel bad about making these two have many many beautiful babies! Also, Vinaya should have a blonde recessive gene from grandpa Guy, so hopefully we'll start to get some genetic variety. A couple outtakes:

The cow decided to pillow fight the cafeteria guy, and the cafeteria guy liked it... the ran around pillow fighting for the better part of the day

And this is what happens with ACR... tisk tisk Vinaya, I'll have to remember to lock the dorm room door so they don't have access to a double bed when their significant others aren't around I guess... /sigh

And that wraps up Round 10. I'm thinking of doing recaps at the end of the round and a score sheet tally since this is starting to get long... We'll see if i get the energy to do so, lol. I have the first two houses of Round 11 played but I need to edit pictures, if work isn't busy, hopefully I can get them edited tonight :) Stay tuned for the kick of of Round 11 and the Pushard household next!))

default replacement: 2 TF basegame outfits

Here's my first ever try at default replacing maxis ugliness :) There are two files and you just pop them in your downloads folder. This will show up on any sims or townies that are currently wearing the pictured basegame outfits.

The original conversion mesh is by ntoni and the retextures are by Mikexx2 both at Mod the Sims. Thanks to the Daily Dish for the awesome tutorial!

You get all of Mikexx2's original colors. Green replaces the green business suit, fuchsia replaces the pink business suit, apple replaces the yellow couture dress and black replaces the white couture dress. Preview picture modeled by Alcea Eich :)

~Download~

Disclaimers:

• You can ONLY HAVE ONE default replacement of a mesh in your game at a time; I recommend making a default replacement folder in your downloads folder that way you can keep track of what you have

• You'll have to delete your Documents/EAGames/TheSims2/Thumbnails/CASThumbnails file for the thumbnails in bodyshop and CAS to regenerate to reflect the new image.

Stuff & Things

Hiya Folks,

I just wanted to drop in and tell you all that I'm still here! Things have been super hectic the last month and a half with personal life and work so I haven't had much time (or desire, unfortunately) to play or blog my simmies. What free gaming time I do have, I've been using to participate in the GOS Christmas in July activity (you can see all the goodies here). I've also been working on culling and organizing my downloads folder... with 2.5 gigs of CC it's been a pretty daunting task but it's looking pretty good :)

In sorting my downloads folder, I realized that I generally don't ever use Maxis clothing with the exception of a few pieces so I began the search for default replacement clothes to keep my catalogs from exploding. So yesterday, I learned how to make default replacements of maxis clothing, using an awesome tutorial I stumbled upon at the Daily Dish. She also has a link in the upper right hand corner to a Default Database where you can find pieces of Maxis clothing that have already been replaced. The database isn't complete yet though so it still takes some digging to find replacements for certain pieces (I also don't like some of the pieces so I've endeavored to make my own). My goal is to replace anything that I don't use regularly (which would be like 80-85% of the catalog I think)... Anyway for my experiment, I replaced these two Teen Female uglies (4 outfits total) that I never use and drive me crazy in-game:

I replaced them with the super cute H&M swing coat conversion for teens by Mikexx at MTS. I Will post those for download later today, or tomorrow.

I finished editing the pictures for the last post of Round 10 (Vinaya and her beau Kennedy at uni) and I'm going to try and hammer that out today... and I think I'll actually have time to play tonight, yay!!! So keep an eye out for a few updates hopefully in the next few days.

~Liz

Hoppes 2 (R10)

Last Round, Emmett moved back to the neighborhood after college. Since he didn't have a lot of money, he bought a home that wasn't much decorated nor furnished. Emmett found a job in the Artist career and was slowly able to buy furniture and decorate. He also entertained family and friends and went on a few dates; some of the dates were even with his girlfriend, Victoria. This round, Victoria will be moving in, lets see how things go with these two lovebirds.

Hoppes (Lot 14) Monday-Saturday
Pictured: Emmett Hoppes, Victoria Hurt-Pushard
Jar Card 199: Write a Novel

Emmett couldn't be more excited, Victoria was finally graduated from Sim State and would be moving in with him. When She arrived, he was so happy to see her

The first thing on the agenda was to head downtown to get some new clothes and things for the house. Emmett had managed to save enough money from his promotions to purchase a pick-up truck and a rusty old beat up car that he intended to restore

While Victoria was picking out some new threads, Emmett socialized with some new people. The lovely blond introduced herself as Aurelie Beaumont from who lived in the next town over

Emmett tried to befriend Aurelie but she seemed not to be interested in anything he had to say... Emmett thought everyone in the world was interested in Sumo Wrestling... apparently not Aurelie

There was one thing that Aurelie was interested in... it was pranking people, and, unfortunately she has Emmett in her crosshairs

Emmett couldn't have been more happy when Victoria emerged from the fitting room and took Aurelie's attention away from him. Surprisingly, Victoria and Aurelie seemed to get along swimmingly

When they got back home, Victoria hopped on the computer to see if she could find any open positions in the Culinary Career... most of the rooms in the house were still unfurnished, and a secondary income would really be help

The carpool wouldn't arrive until later that afternoon, so Victoria and Emmett decided to pass the time with a little at-home date. It would also help Victoria to be in a good mood for her first day on the job. In all the chaos of the adjustment Victoria found herself wanting things she never thought she would want anymore. Despite having Romance aspirations, she really could see herself spending the rest of her life with Emmett

be careful what you wish for Ms. Victoria...

With Victoria working her way up the food-chain (literally!), and Emmett only working a few days a week, Emmett had a lot of time during the day to kill. He decided that he might try his hand at writing a novel

Emmett thought about what types of books are popular... Crime... Mysteries... Thrillers... he could write a best seller, he was sure of it

When writing got boring he invited over his lady on the side, Shannon Platz... she didn't have to know that his girlfriend had moved in... did she?

That evening Victoria returned home with her first promotion. It wasn't hard when her father had already topped that career path and his name was still well-known in many circles

Victoria spent all day cooking but rarely actually got to eat, so they decided to head downtown to a diner to celebrate her promotion

The Diner was a busy place, it took a while for Victoria and Emmett to be seated. In the meantime they decided to get a photo to hang on the bedroom wall... it was cheaper than buying a real painting for the time being

Dinner was OK, Victoria enjoyed sampling the fare at other establishments to get ideas for her own menu. She also wanted to scope out the competition in case she ever decided to run her own restaurant

As they were leaving the diner they ran into Marty and Sierra and chatted for a bit

So far, Victoria was enjoying her new life with Emmett... they did so many fun things and went on great dates that she decided that she would declare a secondary aspiration of Pleasure

Emmett was at work the entire next day, it was Victoria's turn to occupy herself. She managed to save up some money to purchase an exercise bike similar to the one she enjoyed in college. Conveniently they also had a great big space upstairs where she could use it

She also took advantage of the newly remodeled kitchen to try out a few new recipes. She figured Emmett wouldn't complain about a hot meal when he got home from work

That evening Emmett returned home with another promotion, he was quickly rising to the top of the Artist career... he was so close he could almost taste being a Visionary

It started to become a tradition that they would take advantage of their evenings together by heading downtown and taking in the sights. Emmett had a colleague who was having an exhibit at a gallery downtown, so they agreed to go check it out

While Emmett was taking in the art, Victoria was meeting and greeting. She met a strange old woman who had an almost sickly glow

As they were getting in the truck to head home, Emmett's friend Shannon came out of the blue... needless to say she was very angry to find out that Emmett had a long standing girlfriend

After a hectic night, both Victoria and Emmett had to go into work the next day. Victoria got a great opportunity to endorse a new product and her choice paid off with a nice share of the royalties

Emmett also lucked out and came home with another promtion, this time to the top of the artist career

He had made it to the top of one career, and it set him up for success to achieve his dream of being a Game Designer

When Emmett arrived home, Victoria had a huge surprise for him... and it wasn't a new delicious recipe... She had discovered that she had gotten pregnant

They were both surprised by the news, they thought they had been careful to take precautions against accidental pregnancies...

Emmett decided to do the honorable thing and ask Victoria to marry him

Maybe it was the hormones... Or mayebe, she thought, she would be truly happy with Emmett and ONLY Emmett for the rest of her life... Victoria accepted his proposal and they exchanged their vows in the entry way

Immediately she began having second thoughts, but it was too late now...

Scoring: 1 point for Emmett TOC art career

Household net-worth:

((This house was actually a lot of fun to play. Shannon over at Rosebud packaged up some of her simmies for me to torture and I just kept sending Victoria and Emmett downtown to see if I'd have any Rosebud sim sightings! I'm really surprised with Victoria, Emmett tends to be more promiscuous than she is. As long as Victoria has her exercise bike during the day and a date at night, she's happy as a clam. The pregnancy was a complete surprise because I could have sworn I put her on birth control in college... unless it resets when they age transition... oh well, they're babies will be cute, so I don't care. One more lot this round and that is Vinaya and her beau Kennedy in the Dorms at Sim State... Pictures aren't edited yet, so it'll be up in a few days mebbe... stay tuned!))