Em's Random Sim Pics and Projects

Here's another variation on the room above.



Here's what I've done with the middle room so far.







While I was working I switched into live mode for a minute and suddenly found myself unable to go back to buy mode. Stuart started a kitchen fire when I wasn't looking.



Luckily I remember to put in a fire alarm, so the fire dept was there right away.

Nice digs, Em! Especially for someone you said is scaling down. I like the living area better in the second set of pics, but either way you go, they are living in a pretty nice place. I really think they are a nice looking family. Thanks for sharing it!

A very nice house!

And I know you can do some more landscaping around it! ;)

Lovely family you got there Em.

My sims always starts fires when I´m not there watching over them.
That firealarm is the first thing I put in the kitchen otherwise I forget.

Hey, Em! I do believe this is the first time you've shared any of your abodes' decorating schemes with us. Thank you for that.

I think the first living area with the maroon/wine colored red definitely clashed with the bright red chairs and the red in the fireplace.
When you redid it with the grayish walls and carpet, it came alive. I like the changes you made in that room.

The creamy living room looks more handsome with the new changes you've made as well.

I believe the kitchen dinette chairs ... the wood may clash with the rest of the kitchen wood.
Perhaps go with a lighter wood for your chairs.

I'm not the guru of decorating, but these are just a few of my thoughts. ;)

Thank you for sharing. I enjoyed looking at your screenshots, as always.

Thanks, ladies. I appreciate the feedback. I don't usually spend much time on decorating. I usually just plop down some chairs, tables and the other neccessities and call it a day, but after seeing what other people can do I'm trying to do better too. And I know it needs so landscaping. I'm starting on the inside first, then I start improving the outside as well. ;)

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I believe the kitchen dinette chairs ... the wood may clash with the rest of the kitchen wood.
Perhaps go with a lighter wood for your chairs.

That's what I thought as well, but I don't have any thing that matches better in my game. I think I'm going to have to find, request, or attempt to recolor something that goes better with the counters.

I was worried that it wasn't looking very scaled down. lol But I think that's ok. Especially when you consider that her old house used to look like this...



And she had to move out of that house after Maura was born, so she's had about 15 years to establish herself again and make her new home look nice.

If those counters/that table in the kitchen are not from an EP I don't have, I might be able to do a "Maxis Match" recolor for you, Em.

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...but after seeing what other people can do I'm trying to do better too...

I've been inspired by Ulli and Sewnutz (over at SIMply Edward's) lately.
They are both amazing decorators and landscapers.
I know I will never have the patience to painstakingly choose every little precious item that truly helps bring a room or lot all together,
but if I can IMPROVE my decorating and landscaping skills (not to mention my building skills, which are seriously lacking), I'll be a happier Simmer.

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I've been inspired by Ulli and Sewnutz (over at SIMply Edward's) lately.
They are both amazing decorators and landscapers.
I know I will never have the patience to painstakingly choose every little precious item that truly helps bring a room or lot all together,
but if I can IMPROVE my decorating and landscaping skills (not to mention my building skills, which are seriously lacking), I'll be a happier Simmer.

I absolutely agree with that! ^

Do the chairs or table look familiar to you, Sugah? I think the chairs are base game, but the table is probably from Pets or Seasons. Do you still have Pets installed or not? If you could do a recolor for me, that would be great. I'd really appreciate it.

I'm not sure if those counters are Seasons or not.
Let me take a closer look at them. I don't have either Seasons or Pets installed in my game, only NL, Freetime and AL.

If you need me to do a base game recolor of any counter and match up those chairs (which I think ARE base game) with a similar table, I might be able to manage that, Em.

Okay, I just took another look. The counters might be base game afterall, but that table isn't. I don't recognize it.
It could be Seasons, perhaps the Ranchers Round Table?

Is the color of the counters the one you'd like to stick with in that kitchen?
It appears to be a very soft rose and looks like it matches the soft rose wallpaper border. Correct?

I was thinking the counters are base game. I'd like to keep the counters the same and then have better recolors of the table and chairs to match. I don't remember the name of the table, but I think Seasons and Pets both added some country style furnishings that the table might have been a part of. A similar table would be fine. I'd like it to still be a single tile, round table like the one I used, but I don't mind if it's a slightly different style otherwise.

I took a peek over at T2S, where they have a catalog area so we can see what EPs and SPs contain which newly added buy/build items.
It appears that country table - Ranchers Round Table - was added with Seasons.

Since I don't have Seasons installed, I'll see if I can find a one tile round table that's somewhat similar, Em.
And I will stick with the color of your base game counters, when I try to recolor chairs and a table to match.

I should be able to get to it this weekend, if that's okay.

Thanks, Sugah. That would be great!

I'm on it, sista!

Okay, Em. I had a bit of a problem today.
When using your screenshots to try and capture the color of the Maxis counters you've chosen, it doesn't quite match it up.
Something is lost in the image, of course ... There's all kinds of reasons (mainly game lighting, I'd imagine).
I tried to pull it up in SimPE, but only the mesh color of the Maxis counter comes up (can't remember if it's the rust or aqua one).

So, I winged it. This is my first attempt. I can do others, if you aren't happy with this.



I'm not sure about the grayish padding on the Contorto chairs. The top chairs padding is the same as the wallpaper.
Both sets of chairs have the same wood color as the table. The lighting just makes the top set look different for some reason.

I've used La Table Square Dining which is either base game or NL. Can't remember.
Same goes for the Oaktown Eastside Dining chairs and Contorto Dining chairs (either base game or NL).

If you like either of these, I'll offer them up in a little mini update tomorrow, along with the walls I created for Ed and some other goodies.
If not, it's no problem to start SimPE back up again after I eat a little dinner and watch a movie tonight.

Em, I think I figured a way to match the Sycamore Pearl colored Quaint Counter.
I needed to pull it up in Wizards of SimPE.

Let me see if I can do better than what I've shown you already, now that I have something to work with. :dancinkitty2:

They're very cute, but not exactly what I was looking for in this room. The bottom set is closer to what I had in mind, but I think it would be better with lighter colored cushions on the seats, maybe an off white or a gray. It's a shame you couldn't pull up the counter colors in simpe. I know the in game colors can be funny. I tried recoloring a backpack accessory and an purse object with the exact same texture, for Penelope's Journey, but they looked totally different colors in the game. Do you think you could match it to the bar stool, if you have that in your game (can't remember if it's from an ep or not.)? Or would it have the same problem?

I hope you'll still offer them as an update. I would probably use them somewhere else and I'm sure others would love to have them too.

P.S. I like those blinds a lot. Where are they from?

ETA: Oops, we posted at the same time. I'll wait to see what you try next. Good luck!

The blinds are by Sweetswami77 of MTS2 and are called Homey Touches Roman Shades. Aren't they fabulous???

The Contorto Dining chairs that you like have a cream seat as a Maxis choice already.
So, I didn't bother to do that shade for you.

Here's what I've come up with thus far...



I have some time to do more today, if you'd like me to do something different than these.
I'd like to try something else with the chairs...maybe make them look less woody? Grainy? What do you think?

Added later at 12:40pm cst -

Okay, I used the same texture on the Contorto chair and La Table as is used on the Maxis counter here.
I also made the seat cushion a soft gray, as you suggested.



Will any of these I've done for you suffice, Em? Or were you wanting something different?

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The Contorto Dining chairs that you like have a cream seat as a Maxis choice already.
So, I didn't bother to do that shade for you.

Oh, duh. Why didn't I realize that. lol

I like this one a lot. I think that will work for me. You were right about the previous ones being a little too grainy, but this set looks good. Thanks Sugah!

You're welcome and thank you.

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You were right about the previous ones being a little too grainy, but this set looks good.

Good deal! Yes, evidently all textures are not created equal.
I'm going to remember the counter texture, as it seems to give off a nice smooth wood look, doesn't it?

I shall package up the last Contorto chair with gray cushion (NL req), the La Table (NL also req), the brick loft wall & the vino painting in one zip.
I may offer it here just like that. You can pluck what you want to out of the package and install only those items in your game, k?
Gonna offer the terra cushioned one with the bicycling chef art, too, I think.

I should have that done in the next few hours, Em...definitely before the afternoon is over.

Sounds good to me! Thanks, again!

I wanted to share some pictures of Lucy's kitchen with her brand new dining set from Sugah's Place.

Here's her kitchen/ dining room before...



And after...







Now that Lucy's house is looking pretty good (except for the upstairs. I haven't done much with the bedrooms yet.) I felt like jumping over to Lawrence and Eileen's house. I built this house myself a long time ago and I really do like it, but it can use some polishing up. Here's the exterior before.



And after... I want to put some plants underneath that bush, but nothing I tried really looked right. I may have to look for something to put there.



This is the living room as it was before. I'm still working on making it better. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do though.

WOW! The Pearl Sycamore set looks terrific (if I do say so myself ) in Lucy's kitchen, Em.
Thank you so much for posting a screenshot of it.

You know I'm not the guru on landscaping, but I think what you've done looks very nice so far.
I really like it.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the living room. It definitely has potential!
Let me know if there's anything you might need for it (wall, recolor, Maxis Match, etc).

Ms. Sugah wrote:

WOW! The Pearl Sycamore set looks terrific (if I do say so myself ) in Lucy's kitchen, Em.

I really think that room came together with Sugah's recolor. The rest of the house is looking great also. Thanks for sharing the pics with us.

Looking good Em!

I was thinkingn of something simlar to the thing you have done underneath the big tree, use some smaller stones and take some of the flowers.

Or take some of the small fence you have used and put it around the tree and add some of the flowers from the big tree. As Sugah did on the Lavendel cottage.

That's a good idea to add fencing, Ulli. In my mind I wanted to make the plantings underneath round, which is hard to do when the flowers come in square or triangular plantings.

Thanks for the compliments, ladies. They are much appreciated.

I'm wondering if the piano is too large for that room or at least for where I put it in that room. I'm tempted to move the master bedroom at the back of the house upstairs and make it into another living room or make it (or this room) into a dining room. I'm not sure. I haven't been back to visit that house since I posted the pictures. Gosh, looking at the pictures on this screen, I realize the front door and windows really clash! It looked a lot better on my computer. Isn't that weird?

I think the piano looks okay there, but I can see why you might consider moving it. This depends on your preference more than anything, I think; either way it will work.

Em wrote:

Gosh, looking at the pictures on this screen, I realize the front door
and windows really clash! It looked a lot better on my computer. Isn't
that weird?

I can't count how many times that has happened to me. It could be the way one monitored is configured (do you have yours set up optimum color and graphics for your card?) or it could be your eyes or vision from one moment to the next. I will decorate or dress a sim one day and when I load it the next time I have to wonder what was on my mind.