Get in the Door, 2007

Lovar, spring, 2007

Emma Seavey is a senior, Ming Wuu and Benjamin Endeavor are juniors, Lainey Lorde, S'Ahmisa Warwick and Verde Herendez are sophomores.

Lainey sometimes wondered if she had the word fool written on her forehead. Sometimes it was painfully obvious that Verde still had a thing for his ex-girlfriend.

Prospect Reduex

I liked the Prospect for Dee by Sims Urbania, but wasn't a fan of the multilevel ground floor apartment, so I redid the complex with a few changes.

The complex has a grunge vibe with hints of a bygone era of glamour to the apartments, but now time has caused its damage.

The complex has four apartments in different styles


The basement apartment is home to the resident rock-star wannabe bachelor. He dreams of stardom on the stage, but in reality spends his days doing landscaping with the occasionally side job of tending to the lady needs of some of the homes he is in charge of.



Animal prints galore and mirrors to open up the space and reflect light since there are no windows in the basement.


Check out the mirrors in the "love room" as he calls it ;)


Thr ground floor apartment is home to a psuedo single father and his twin sons. Mom is spending an extended holiday in the county jail thanks to "borrowing" money from her boss at the record store.



Dad works as a server at Mama's Diner and pulls a second shift as a janitor at a private school, which enables him to enroll the boys there for free tuition.



Every Saturday morning, they have pancakes and eat in front of the TV watching cartoons and morning football.


The boys are seven years old and still love cartoons and sports. Dad was lucky enough to sign them both up for the neighborhood soccor league and have thier equiptment donated.


The second floor apartment is home to a world traveler and current pyshic phone friend.

When not on the phone guiding sims about future decisions, she is hitting the thrift stores for great one of a kind finds.

So far she has been able to use her savings to travel to thirteen countries and

bring back souveniors. This is possible thanks to a strudy bookbag, popup tent and fast legs.


She is content with her wandering life and doesn't mind having to quit each job whenever she is ready to travel.


The top floor apartment is home to two sisters who moved to the big city from the country

The sisters have many touches of home to comfort them and sometimes just looking at mama's quilt is enough to bring back smells of fresh lard on the stove and the sounds of crickets in the nighttime air...instead of car horns and factory smoke.



They have thier own dreams, big sister wants to be a famous movie actress and is passing the time with selling ties until a famous director comes across her path.


Little sister, the more practical of the two, cleans homes as she experiments with flower arranging. Her goal is to attend the local technical university and one day work at a florist shop.

Until thier dreams come true, they are content with thier little slice of the city.
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Everything is maxis mesh or recolor (except maybe buyable trashcan, maxis match windows and door)

Download residential version
Download apartment version

Culling Downloads

I've been on a mission to cut down on custom content as much as possible. Why?

1. I happen to like maxis style items.
2. I need my load times to be quick so I can get more play into my busy schedule.
3. I tend to declutter in RL as well, so of course it's going to happen to my game as well.

So how am I cutting down on custom content?

1. Download ban for two-three months during the process. I can still download, but the downloads may not enter the game.
2. Mercilessly delete duplicate recolors, I don't need 7 shades of white.
3. Mercilessly delete poorly made recolors, I tend not to use it anyway, so why let it take up space.
4. Mercilessly delete recolors that I don't use frequently.
5. If I like a texture, but don't want to use the custom mesh, then I will move the texture to a maxis mesh. This is mostly for paintings and rugs and the occasional seating item.

I do have a plan for deleting object items.

• I'm deleting duplicates of recolors, poorly made recolors and recolors that I don't use frequently item by item. Yes, that means going through the catalog and shifting through each and every item and deleting recolors.
• This obviously can quickly becoming tedious, boring and overwhelming, so I of course broke it down into smaller tasks.
• For the initial pass I will go through the following subcategories within six months: Comfort, Surfaces, Decorative, Plumbing, Appliances, Electronics, Lighting, Hobbies, Miscellaneous, Community Lot-Only.
• For maintance, I will go through the catergories once a month just to make sure I am not shifting through a ton of unnecessary custom content.

My plan for deleting body shop items is very much the same.

• I'm deleting duplicates of recolors, poorly made recolors and recolors that I don't use frequently item by item. Yes, that means going through the catalog and shifting through each and every item and deleting recolors.
• For hairs, I will only allow two shades of the same color family for each mesh. Ie, a nouk curly mesh can only have two red recolors,
• This obviously can quickly becoming tedious, boring and overwhelming, so I of course broke it down into smaller tasks.
• For the initial pass I will go through the following subcategories within six months: Hair, Adult Clothing, Elder Clothing, Children Clothing, Teen Clothing, Toddler Clothing
• For maintance, I will go through the catergories once a month just to make sure I am not shifting through a ton of unnecessary custom content.

Wish me luck!

What Popularity? 2007

Hapar, spring, 2007
Principal: Johan Shazad; Primary Teacher K-3: Jasmine Frankson; Primary Teacher 4-6: Ilila Peterson; Secondary Teacher: Jesse Kent


Secondary Students: Harriet and Henry Mendenhall are in 12th grade; Rosemarie Green and Erricson Frankson are in 11th grade; Si'Enya Warwick and Rojo Herendez are in 10th grade; Elphy Mendenhall, Myra Shazad, Naraj Shazad, Grace Elise Dawson, Bryant Grey, and Annie Grey are in 7th grade;

Primary Students: Abel Wilsonoff Amanda Wilsonoff and Serendipity Herendez are in 6th grade; Rex Mendenhall is in 5th grade; Veronika Kent and Laci McMillian are in 4rd grade; Aaron Sweeny, and Simora Sweeny are in 3rd grade; Breckin Grey and Esther Dawson are in kindergarten

Jesse still wasn't quite sure why the hood council allowed the new secondary students to enter after winter break, but thankfully they accepted his proposal (through Johan of course) to look at an alternate school calendar.

Holding Back, Part 2, 2007

Hapar, spring, 2007

Susie is 21; Anthony Wren is 26

Susie groaned as she heard a knock on the door. She really didn't want to move, moving made her throw up, so did eating, sleeping, not eating, reading, or seeing the color red.

Holding Back, Part 1, 2007

Hapar, spring, 2007

Susie is 21; Anthony Wren is 26

Spring was supposed to be a time of renewed love between sims,

N99 Simlish Black and White Series

Black and white simlish photographs from the N99 members using "Spherical Splendor" maxis mesh. Photographs are framed with a modern black frame and look great as a series of alone.
Download

Design Preferences

I've been trying to expand a bit when it comes to decorating my sims houses. Design preferences have come and gone and have come back again to Apple Valley. Originally based on Simmerville's system, it has been modified for Apple Valley residents.

I now use a combination of my sims' favorite color and their two design styles randomly (or not randomly) chosen from ten options.

The design styles that I use in my hood are: Coastal, Contemporary, Cottage, Country, Eclectic, Exotic, Modern, Rustic, Traditional and Vintage.

Each design style has a few different key words to help me visualize a sim's preference.


A Vintage design style can mean anything from Mid-Century Modern, Hollywood Glam, 1950's Simplicity, Art Deco to Retro 1970's.

A Country design style design style can mean anything from Wine Country, Southwestern, to...well, Country.

An Exotic design style can mean anything from Tropical, Asian, Ethnic, Moroccan or something evoking that sim's cultural background.

A Traditional design style can mean anything from Classic, Arts & Crafts to Colonial.

A Rustic design style can mean anything from Western to Mountain Lodge.

A Coastal design style can mean anything from Nantucket to Mediterranean and all the coasts in between.

A Modern design style, besides Modern and Minimalist can also mean Zen.

A Cottage design style can mean anything from French, Shabby Chic to English Country.

A Eclectic means anything goes and can also mean Bohemian

A Contemporary design style is comfortable and welcoming without being cluttered and dark.

Sometimes I am able to use some of my sim's traits and One True Hobby (OTH) to assign design styles. I don't do this as often as I find that design styles and personality often don't match and I prefer the more randomness of rolling a design preference.

Personality & Design
My neat sims are more likely to like modern or contemporary styles thanks to the clutter free aspect. If they like exotic, then it will be more of a clean zen style.

My serious sims tend to prefer a traditional style.

OTHs & Design
My nature loving sims are more likely to like rustic, cottage or country styles with their natural and organic cues.

My tinkering sims are more likely to like modern styles with lots of metals and glass.

By looking at a sim's favorite color and two design traits, I consider their background and why they have those design traits (besides the fact that it was randomly rolled). My database is allowed to roll the same trait twice, ie Cottage, Cottage. To me, this signals that the sim's design style is pure 100% Cottage.

A Few Examples of This is Action

Jane Smith
You might remember, Jane Smith from my previous post on traits and personality. Jane was assigned Modern & Exotic as her design styles. This gives me three keywords to work with when designing her first apartment: Yellow, Modern, Exotic. Due to her earlier travels around the world as an animal linguist, she collected a lot of souvenirs for her apartment. Considering that she's very neat, she hates clutter and prefers a minimalist style. In fact, it was during a trip to Kimikura that she fell in love with the zen-like design and has tried to incorporate it into her apartment.

John Doe
John Doe lives across the hall from Jane Smith. His design preferences are Grey, Modern, Rustic. He moved with his father to the city as a teen after spending his childhood with his mother in the country, hence his combination of sleek modern with touches of rustic elements to remind him of home.

Designing for single sims is easy, but once you have two or more sims together, then it gets complicated.

The Doe Family: John, Jane, Jack and Jill
Of course, John and Jane eventually bumped into each other at the mailbox and it was love at first sight. Three months later they were married and eight months later they delivered their extra wedding guests twins, Jack and Jill. Their design traits are Jack: Black, Rustic, Vintage. Jill: Brown, Contemporary, Coastal. This gives me a total of 10 design preferences: Yellow, Grey, Black & Brown; Modern, Rustic, Vintage, Contemporary, Exotic, Coastal.

The family must compromise in the living area of their home. Since the John and Jane pay the bills, the living area is mostly a combination of their styles, but a few touches from the teens can be found as well.

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If you decide to try this out in your game, let me know how it works for you.

PS: If you want to take a fun little design quiz yourself, head over to Sproost.

Yummy, 2007

Hapar, spring, 2007

Jorge and Jolie are 40, Grace Elise is 12, Ashlee is 9, Esther is 5, Chase and Amyra are 4

The Dawson family welcomed the new year with lots of changes, some welcomed others not as much. Jorge and Jolie celebrated their fortieth birthday with little fanfare and the discovery of new wrinkles. Esther was starting school and was very excited about the prospect. She insisted on wearing her favorite dress the first day that Grace Elise walked her to the school.

Issue 22 Apple Valley News

Issue 22: 2006

Contents

Fires Spread Across the Hood

Hood Council Changes

New Welcome Center

New School Opens

Announcements

Advertisements

Fires Spread Across Hood

Jadhira Shazad

At the end of the simyear, the hood was shocked to find that overnight two buildings had burned to the ground.

At 10:37 pm, firefighters were called to the Kent residence where they discovered the house engulfed in flames. Thankfully the family managed to escape in time, but everything was destroyed.

"It's a shame," Ayanna Kent said. "To lose everything in the span of a few hours is devastating. Nothing could be saved, the only things that we still have are our pajamas."

At 11:58 pm, firefighters were again called out to the 18th block in the metro where a large commerical building was also ablaze.

"Everything was loss due to either fire or smoke damage. It's a shame, I really liked bowling here." One firefighter said at the scene.

According to Detective Tobi Sweeny, following an investigation it was determined that both fires are unrelated due to faulty wiring in the Kent case and a freak lightening strike in the metro case.

Hood Council Changes

Jadhira Shazad

This simyear residents were greeted with the news that the hood council was changing. Financial Director, Rebecca Wilsonoff has stepped down. S'Ahmisa Warwick will be serving as Interium Financial Director until the next election. S'Ahmisa brings past experience as an intern for Mayor Cunningham of Simmington Hills and has assured residents that she has considerable experience with finances as evident by her past successful business ventures.

New Welcome Center

Jadhira Shazad

Residents and visitors to Apple Valley can now experience a new virtual welcome center. Located in the sidebar, the welcome center provides an easy way for visitors to determine how they want to explore.

"This is the first step in bringing more information over to blogspot," Archives/Technology Director, Jadhira Shazad said. "Eventually we'd want more real estate, public pages, and employment information on blogspot for residents and visitors alike."

The director also mentioned that other changes are expected, such as updates posted twice a week and that residents can expect to have thier DNA collected this upcoming simyear.

New School Opens

Jadhira Shazad

Residents can now see much of their tax money going to good use. A brand new school was opened and it has plenty of room for future additions.

"The new school will help us meet the need of the increasing population," Education Director, Johan Shazad, explained. "With the new school and additional room, we can hire more teachers to serve the community."

Already in the works are adding a state-of-the-art science lab, updated computers and healthier cafeteria food options.

Culinary Corner

Jolie Dawson

Welcome to Culinary Corner! This simday's topic is all about tasty fresh produce. Most sims already notice that food cooked with fresh produce tends to have a different look about it, almost like it sparkles in comparision to food cooked from processed grocery items. But did you know that food cooked from fresh produce fills you up faster and enables you to eat less?
Happy Eating!

Announcements

BIRTHS

•Lesia McMillian, to Bradford and Suzanna McMillian

•Christopher Smith, to Tobi Sweeny and Cameron Smith

•Oliva Humphrey, to Faith Humphrey and Walt Jones
•Jacob Carr, to Bill and Emma Carr
•Richmond Grey, to Grex and Ginger Grey

ADOPTIONS

•none

DIVORCES & SEPERATIONS

•Cameron Smith & Tobi Sweeny

DEATHS

•none

BIRTHDAYS

•none

GRADUATIONS

•none

ENGAGEMENTS

•none

WEDDINGS

•Emma King & Bill Carr

EMMIGRATION

•none

IMMIGRATION

•Ray and Lydia Wilsonoff, along with daughter, Alia Shae, have moved to Apple Valley from Simmington Hills. Ray was a chef and owned Saint Rose Bakery, Lydia was on the fast track to adventure.

EMPLOYMENT CHANGES

•Jasmine Frankson, Grades K-2 Teacher at Apple Valley Academy

•Johan Shazad, Principal at Apple Valley Academy
•Cameron Smith, webmaster with AV Technical Services

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