IKEA TOKABO Table Lamp

Category: Lighting -> Table Lamps
Cost: $35
Poly Count: (1222)
EPs Required: None – base-game compatible

As you may or may not have noticed, lamps are my goto “hi, I’m alive!” item. 😛 What can I say, I like lamps. Making lamps is almost therapeutic to me – and God knows I’ve needed that lately. RL has been… pardon my French, but it’s been f*cking hell (and that’s without throwing corona into the mix). So yeah. Lamps.

Two IKEA-inspired Tealight Holders

Category: Lighting -> Table Lamps
Cost: $15
Poly Count:
EPs Required: None – base-game compatible

Hi. Yes, I live. 😛 And I sim, too, but it’s been at an even slower pace than my usual snail-with-arthritis one. Real Life has been… a lot. And we haven’t even been under lockdown. 😕

Anyway. Since it’s been a while, I thought I’d better put something up to show people that I do, in fact, live. And sim. Rummaging around in my WIP folders I found this cute little tealight holder, based on an IKEA one called SOMMAR (“summer”), that I apparently made already in 2018 but for some reason never uploaded back then. (It might simply have been that I couldn’t get it to look Exactly Like In Real Life; it’s happened before, and more than once, that I’ve scrapped something for that reason.) It was all finished, though, it just needed some recolours and it was good to go, and that was easy enough to fix.

Then I checked the IKEA catalogue to see if they still sell SOMMAR. I couldn’t find it (but you can still see a picture here, that I amazingly had saved for posterity) – but I did find another tealight holder called ÄDELHET (“nobleness”) that looked quite similar. So similar, in fact, that I could make it using the SOMMAR mesh, I just had to tweak it a little. So I did. 🙂

So today I bring you not just one, but two IKEA-inspired tealight holders – functional lights, of course.

Happy New Year!

Background vector created by FreePik

Happy New 2020, everybody! 2020?! How did that happen?? 😮 Could have sworn it was 2015 only yesterday.

You’ve heard it before, I’d hoped to be more active this year simming-wise than I have been. I do think I had a valid reason this year, though; I’ve really not been in much of a simming mood since losing Signe in September. I’ve poked at some BHAVs here and there, and written a few lines here and there, but that’s about it. It’s slowly been getting better, but I’m still not quite there. It’ll probably be a while before I am. This place is still very quiet and very, very empty without my little doggie.

I’m not giving up simming, though, absolutely not! I still love TS2 and I still love creating for it, and I’ll keep doing it in 2020. Hopefully, I’ll be uploading more things than I did in 2019 (so… three? 😛 ), and hopefully I’ll finally start publishing that medieval fantasy story I’ve been going on about forever, but… I know from past experience that if I make any promises, Real Life will go “lol NO”, so I won’t be doing that lest it might get ideas.

I will wish you all a Happy New Year, though! 🍸 Here’s to hoping it’s a good one – and that it’s a better one than 2019, for those of you (us) who’ve had a rough year. The only way is up, amirite?

Love ya. ❤

Completer Completers: MOAR Maxis Counter Add-Ons!

Category: Counters and sides: Surfaces -> Counters; wall cabinets and sides: Decorative -> Wall or Surfaces -> Shelves
Poly Count: to
EPs Required: Varies

I’m still not at my best after Signe, but these have been finished for a very, very long time, so my uploading them is long overdue.

Backstory: Three years ago, in 2016, I made a set of Counter Completers – that is, add-ons for eight of the Maxis counters. It’s been one of my most popular downloads to date. Then, about a year ago (has it really been that long? Yikes!), the wonderful Croiduire very nicely asked me if I might consider making side pieces for the wall cabinets and counters with shelves, so they wouldn’t get eaten by the wall if you put them where two walls met. I thought this was a brilliant idea (much too brilliant for me to have thought of it myself; I’d noticed their being eaten, of course, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out a good way around it), so of course I agreed. And that was all this set was going to be: sides. Quick and easy. Should be done in a day or so. Uh-huh.

But as I was making the sides, I thought I maybe should make a some more wall cabinets as well; just a couple of short ones, for the sake of completion. And maybe a couple of full-length ones, too. And I could make a couple of new counters as well. And maybe polish my old counters some. And… then things went rapidly downhill from there. 😛

So here you have a second set of counter completers – completer completers, if you’d like. 🙂 As the name suggests these are meant to complement my first set, so if you haven’t downloaded it already, I really suggest you go and grab that one, too. (I’ve also updated some of the items in the first set – fixed some shadows and slot positions, and also did some remapping – so even if you have downloaded it before I’d still suggest you pop over there and get the updated set.)

Signe

 
Yesterday, I had to put my beloved mini schnauzer girl Signe to sleep.

22 Scented Candle Recolours

Category: Lighting -> Table Lamps
EPs Required:

Yes, there are lots of other things I’m working on, some that are almost ready for upload, but I just realised it’s been almost a year since I last uploaded something and more than four months since I made a post, so I thought I’d best put something out there lest someone I don’t know from Adam takes it upon themselves to declare that I’ve left the community never to come back or somesuch (this has happened before). 🙄 Besides, sometimes it’s nice to take a break from BHAVs and other complex things and just make something plain and simple, you know? Like recolours. 🙂

Backstory: In early 2017, I made a couple of scented candles – as in, lights with snapdragon effects – loosely inspired by two IKEA ditto, BRÄCKA and SPRALLA (that I don’t think they sell any more). I quite like them and frequently use them in my own game, but I wanted some more, simmish recolours. So today I bring you twenty-two plumbbob and freezer bunny recols for my SPRALLA scented candle, all with patterns from Colourlovers. (Have I told you I love that site? I love that site!)

PSA: Alternate Download Links

With SFS still down and no news on when they might be back up, I’ve now added alternate Google Drive links to all my downloads (I hope).

In the future, all downloads will have an alternate link in addition to my usual download button. If anything, this experience has taught me how v. unwise it is to put all your eggs in one basket.

Edit, 24 Feb: SFS is back up, hooray, so now my download buttons work again. But as I said before, all future downloads will have alternate links, just to be on the safe side.

Happy New Year!

 

Wishing all my commenters, downloaders and visitors a

Background vector created by Freepik

Well, I had hoped to be much more active in 2018 than I have been. Don’t know where this year went, it just whooshed past, and there always seemed to be something to take time and/or spoons away from simming. 😦

But hopefully, this year will be better (seeing how I only posted one item in all of 2018, it’s not as if the bar is set high). I have a couple of things that are very close to being finished, one medieval and one not, that I hope to be able to get out the door… well, before 2020, at least. 😛 And things that were high on my list for 2018 (that sword mod, publishing my medieval fantasy story…) are still high on the list for 2019.

Happy New Year, everybody! 🍸 Here’s to hoping it’s a good one, for all of us. ❤

PSA: About Animations and NPCs

Since this is a question I’ve been asked a few times, and also something I’ve seen come up on other sites:

None of my animated objects are controlled by NPCs!

 
Contrary to what seems to be popular belief, animated objects don’t always require an NPC to run; whether they do depends on the type and complexity of the object and not just on whether or not it’s animated. Objects that move around the lot, like Rebecah’s farm animals, usually need an NPC to work, but simple animated objects like mine, that rotate/swing/rock in place, do not.

But if any object of mine did spawn an NPC (which I say again, they do NOT), I promise you it would say so very, very clearly in the upload post. I know there are creators out there who like to foist undisclosed features upon their downloaders, but I’m not that kind of creator.

Training Dummies V. 3.0 – Now Also for Lefties!

Category: Hobbies -> Exercise
Poly Count: Canvas (980); Armoured (1210); Invisible (12); Swords ( < 500)
EPs Required: or above

UPDATE, 1 NOV 2019: By request, I’ve added a “no sword” option to the “Select Sword” pie menu, that lets your Sims fence with – you guessed it – no sword (or rather, with a tiny, invisible one). This in case you instead of my TSM swords want to equip your Sims with a handheld accessory, be it a different sword or something else entirely (wands, lightsabers, cucumbers…).

I’ve also cleaned up the interactions a bit (you no longer get the “watch” option if you click on the dummy while the active Sim is fencing, for one thing) + have fixed some mega bork with the child sword selection. Also fixed the swords so they actually work with v. 2.5, for those of you who have both versions. (Yeah, I was seriously sleeping on the job when I tested these. 😳 )

Please redownload if you want the updated versions!

 

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I blame the fellow in the title pic for this. This wouldn’t have been necessary if it weren’t for him. He’s one of the main characters in my upcoming story – the first one you’ll meet, in fact (I know, I know, I’ve been talking about that danged story forever, but it’s getting close now!) – and he is, amongst other things, a pretty good swordsman. He’s also left-handed. Granted, he can use the sword just as well with his right hand, but when he can choose, he prefers his left. Which causes a bit of a problem when the sword-fighting happens on camera, since even though I can use my training dummies to stage it, all Sims fight right-handed with those.

Now, I’d never force a fellow lefty, pixellated or not, to use the right (or rather wrong 😉 ) hand if he didn’t want to, so of course I had to update my training dummies for him. (Polished the swords some while I was at it, too.) So now your Sims can choose not just which sword to fight with, but which hand as well. Left-handed high-five!

BTW, all this has put me in a sword-fighting mood, so you know that sword mod I’ve been talking about? That’s what I’ll be doing… not next, I’ve got a request I need to see to first (that’s well under way, even though it’s kind of… I was going to say “snowballed”, but “avalanched” is probably a better description), but after that, there will be swords, yes, there will. 😀 (Just as a heads-up, I’ll probably need testers for it, but we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.)

PSA: Moving House

Or moving file hosts, at least. 🙂

As you may have noticed if you’ve downloaded something from here recently, I’ve now joined many if not most creators in the community, and moved my files to Sim File Share.

“Silly Nix,” I hear you say, “why didn’t you do so before?” Because before, the SFS terms of use said that, if and when they closed down, they would rehost all your files, both public and private, on the Graveyard or wherever else they might see fit, and if you had a problem with this, you shouldn’t use SFS. (There was no way to opt out.)

Now, I have no problem with people doing whatever they dang well please with my files after I’ve left the community (which certainly isn’t anything I’m planning on doing any time soon, but you never know what may happen in the future, especially when you have medical issues), but as long as I’m active, I’ll be damned if I give Nysha or anybody else the right to decide where my files should or shouldn’t be uploaded. 😡 So I haven’t used SFS.

But now their ToU (yes, I know they’ve been up for a while, but I saw it only recently) say that they’ll only rehost public files, and to me this puts things in a different light. I do think SFS is a great idea for and service to the Sims community (show of hands, everybody who’s had their files removed by their file host because they haven’t been downloaded in six months? Or who’s had their host change their URLs, so you’ve had to edit every. single. gorram. link. on your blog? Yeah, me, too); it’s just the MTS-ish “you’re too stupid to make decisions about your own files” mentality I don’t care for. At all. But since private files are now exempt from rehosting (and I wasn’t planning on having my files and folders be public anyway), I felt I could start using SFS. So now I am.

This move won’t affect you, my downloaders, in any way, of course. The only difference is that you’ll be taken to a download page instead of having the files download directly, but since it’s like that for everybody who uses SFS, it’s nothing you haven’t encountered before. So download away!

Happy New Year!

Wishing all my commenters, downloaders and visitors a very

Image by Freepik

I know I haven’t been uploading much this year, and I’m sorry about that. This has been one of those years when RL has been interfering with my simming more than I’d have liked. Often, I just hadn’t had the spoons for both RL stuff and Sim stuff – and no matter how badly I wish it didn’t, RL stuff has to come first. Which means less Sim stuff.

But hopefully, there will be more spoons in 2018 – and more downloads for you. 😉 I do have things planned, lots of things (and if you know me at all, you know there’ll be unplanned things as well). A certain sword mod is very high on the agenda (Charity, if you’re reading this, you know what I mean).

I also hope to start releasing this medieval fantasy story I’ve been poking at, but then again I’m an even slower writer than I am creator, so it might very well be 2020 before that happens. 😛

Happy New Year, everybody! ❤

REQUESTED: Bella Statue, Floor Version

Thanks to Colin Hay for the title.

Category: Decorative -> Sculpture
EPs Required: None – base-game compatible
Cost: $1500
Poly Count: (1982)

A while back, downloader Joke Dam asked for a life-size (well, life-size for Sims) version of my Bella table statue, “so Mortimer Goth could have one hidden at his attic”. I thought this was a great idea – I mean, it’s not just Mortimer, every Sim home ought to have a statue of Bella, right? So, as requested, I made one. 🙂

“Still Here” Lamp

Category: Lighting -> Ceiling Lamps
Cost: $95
Poly Count: (1160)
EPs Required: None – base game compatible

First of all: I’m NOT on hiatus and I’m NOT inactive! I’m very much active and I am working on stuff, on several stuffs – but a lot of it is pretty complex stuffs, and complex stuff takes time (at least if you care about pesky little things like not crashing people’s games). So I thought I’d best make a lamp to show that I’m, you know, still here, before someone I don’t know from Adam decides to be “helpful” and proclaims that I’ve left the community forevah, or somesuch. 🙄 (Yes, this has actually happened in the past.)

Anyway. The “Still Here” lamp is loosely based on a ceiling lamp that one of my neighbours has in their kitchen. (No, I don’t spy on my neighbours, honest, but the apartment buildings aren’t very far apart where I live.) It come in no less than four different palettes: Anna’s colours, Kiri’s Colour Surge a.k.a. the MLC palette, Poppet’s Lonesome and Shasta’s Yeti palette. All in all, that’s 78 recols, so I’m sure you’ll find something that catches your fancy. 😉

For Nonni: Four Rocking Cribs

Category: Misc. -> Children
Poly Count: to
EPs Required: ,

Well. These have been a long time coming, to say the least. They were supposed to be posted already during Toddler Month in July, but that didn’t happen for various reasons. At the time I thought it would be no big deal if I uploaded it in early or mid August instead… but then Nonni died. 😥 Nonni wasn’t just a dear friend, she was also one of my most faithful and frequent commenters and had been following this blog from the start. This upload was something I knew she would have liked (she loved the toddlers in game), and I had been greatly looking forward to getting her enthusiastic comments on it… so I needed some time to adjust to her being gone before I was emotionally ready to post it. (I always knew I was going to post it, though; my shelving it on her behalf would have been the last thing Nonni would have wanted.) Then, of course, I had to go on hiatus on a bit for health reasons… so yeah. Time passed.

But now they are finally here: Four rocking cribs for your littlest Simlets. For Nonni. ❤