Late!

Well, as you can see, to your left, I have released the 3rd in my Back to Basics Tutorials... Wall Murals! These need a bit more concentration and a little bit more working in Photoshop, but heck arent the results worth it?

2nd Back to Basics Tutorial Published Tomorrow!

Indeed... The second tutorial is inflicted upon your good selves ttomorrow! this one goes more indepth and rather than my erm... blatant plagerism of maxis walls, I go about showing you (in a fashion) how to make your own walls from scratch! From finding the textures, the fancy pants cornicing etc plus several important notes and tips on unstretched walls, and submitting to TSR.

Not a patch on Judi's ever so fantabulous walls, but hey! its a start!

On the work front - would you believe it? I am now a "Formally qualified DSE Workstation Assessor" Ooooooh!! Indeed I can now tell everyone how they should be sitting at their computers etc whilst I sit here, Laptop on a cushion, no wrist support, and I can without doubt say that when playing Sims2, i definately do not "take adequate breaks from my computer screen" oops!

Zakk

Wow.. what a week! I have many ideas simering in my head, I have done several lots that I plan to upload to the Simaholics free site that I contribute to, Totally CC free, and only requiring Ep's upto Nightlife - courtesy of Numenor's Basegame Starter App. Onto the main topic ad the title suggests Zakk. He is our soon to be new addition to out family. Zakk was rescued by a friend of ours who saw the little mite being kicked around the back yard of the so called owners house. choice words were exchanged and our friend tok the puppy away. The thought of this poor mite not having a home really got to us, and we are going to pick him up tomorrow... He is a Rottweiler male, we think he is somewhere between 8-12 weeks old... Looking at him, How on earth could you resist this little chap?

Bleurgh!

Firstly, an apology... I have not been around much lately, I havent created much either - Ive definately been a bit "Bleurgh!" Work has been making me later and later home over the last few weeks, and doing all manner of things around the house, not just cleaning, but dcorationg, tiling, grouting, painting.. its all been taking its toll on any quality time I had left.

Im currenly having one of those rare moments, in my conservatory (ie. sweltering greenhouse!!) taking a well earned break, I was grocery shopping, gadget shopping and at the garden centre this morning and i fell asleep whilst typing out a chores list in here a few hours ago!! oops!

I really do hope to be back to my former glory soon! so I do hope you will all forgive me!

Tutorial to be Published!

My 3rd tutorial - and my first in the Back to Basics series, is to be pulished tomorrow! (6th June) It deals with How to make your own Wallpapers - but using a clone of a Maxis wall so that the skirtings and cornicing and dado rails are already in place - one less thing to worry about for the true novice to easily be able to make their own walls - There will be a second part to this which will deal with making wallpapers from scratch and showing how to make patterns look "unstretched" when placed in the game.

I hope to start work on the 2nd tutorial in the=is series within the next few days...

Back to Basics

Recently I had a PM from a guy called Tomas, asking me for a bit of help as he was new to Sims2... and it made me realise that althought we have some of the best ever tutorials (mine included of course!! lol) that there was a bit of a shortage of Basic how to's and so, I have started on a series called "Back to Basics"

The first tutorial focuses on one way of making basic walls for the game. by cloning a maxis wall that has skirtings and such already in place and changing the design... really basic stuff, but its the stuff that all of the budding creators need.

I will probably move onto a more advanced version of walls - making them froms cratch and ensuring that the design doesnt look stretched. possiby move onto things like Floors, maybe recolouring a Tshirt, garden designing, maybe even tips onlot building... i dont know i have a few ideas whizzing around my head - so if anyone has any really Basic tutorials they would like to see, then PM me..

I have just released a set of Damask walls, they will be published tomorrow, and hopefully my first tutorial will be out soon!

...So Thats Why Mistress Hates Pink!

I bet youre all just dying to know huh? Go on.. I know you are glued to your seats unable to move out of the sheer suspense, and not becuase i have squirted a bucket load of Araldite super contact bonding Adhesive to your sofa!

So why does Mistress hate Pink? why wont I have this offending colour in my house? or my wardrobe? or ruffles, and flounces? well, are you sitting comfortably? then I shall begin...

Imagine this, Mistress is a little 8 year old girl, a bit tomboy'ish, I liked to make mud pies on the building site near my home, I liked to play on my bike - yes.. it was a boys bike.. it was a bright yellow Grifter.. no pretty clinky belled bycicle with shopping basket for me... Noooo! My mother would put me in a nice dress each weekend, and I would either go off to the building site to "bake pies" or help my father tinker with his car in the garage, or sit on the floor and band 2 bits of wood together with a gazillion nails and a big whopping hammer. Ace!!

She gave up after a while.. so she began buying me dolls.. doll houses, baby dolls that pee'd and Ice Cream dolls (the rubbish UK equivalent of cabage patch dolls i think) and Cindy dolls (the equally rubbish UK equivalent of Barbie) so they were promptly discarded, given away or in the sad case of poor old Cindy, she had all her hair shaved off, my older sister's make-up proved excellent camoulflage paint, and she enjoyed her brief time in the Action Man tank my father smuggled home for me, until her sad depart in a bad accident when Action Man took Cindy Paragliding - His "Eagle Eyes" werent quite as effective as I thought... oops!

The Pink thing happened soon after - think as a form of punishment and desperation shortly after Cindy's sad demise... It was School Trip time! We were due to go to some caves with Stalagmites and such, and mum said i could have a new outfit.. she ordered it (or what i though was what i picked) from a catalogue and we waited for it to arrive... and then... It did.

It was a dark dark day in the budding Mistres' life indeed. the new outfit i was made to wear consisted of a CANDY PINK Jogging Suit, with matching PINK waistcoat, with a PINK tshirt, PINK socks, PINK trainers, PINK hairband and a PINK denim Skirt...darn it if there was even a PINK vest and knicker set... Mistress was heartbroken!

Ever seen one of those unfortunate photos someone took which had one kid with the biggest scowling frown ever that dominates the whole shot?

That was me that was....

Snuffles....

Ok.. Ill admit it, I have no idea who the heck snuffles is either, it was just one of those random entries i made to make my blog sound half interesting! I admit is was a feble attempt at making myslef, the ole Mistress seem Multi Faceted, because you dont know me!! I could be a Barbie affiliate, I could have an un-natural love of the colour Pink, I could Have a house filled with floral fabrics, lacey curtains, flounces, pelmets and an unholy collection of Porcelain dolls that have this habit of staring at you when you eat dinner... But I dont! so there! I have Dragons that stare at you when you eat dinner, I have a sword collection that dangles precariously on the wall behind the dinner table, my walls are a deep shade of purple, so ow you may breathe a sigh of relief - Mistress has not lost it! Heres a piccy of the kind of Dragon that frequently stares at my dinner guests... And the thing with Pink? well, Theres an ineresting story behind my intense dislike of Pink and ruffles... maybe next time, if im feeling all charitable, i might tell you all!

Todays Blog Entry is about Nothing!

Yeah thats right... nothing... What has Mistress been doing in Sims style for the last few weeks you may ask? nothing. What has Mistress managed to create? nothing. When old Mistress Hubbard went to her cupboard, what was there? nothing.

Indeed the theme to this entry is - nothing - Well.. not exactly nothing, merely bits of somethings that look like im doing nothing becuase I have several projects on the go but i have finished none of them. Does anyone else get these little Hiatuses in creativity or does my brain matter really suck that much?!

Ive been doing a recolour of one of my fave FA's sets, and its been lurking on my hard drive for over a week now because stupid real life dictates that Mistress does not have time to spend on such frivulous activities such as this thing termed "taking a break." Noooo!! I come home from work, later and later each week, I cook, I clean I yell at the kids, and whine at him indoors for not doing XYZ or for doing XYZ but not how I wanted... you know how it is, one had to keep him indoors in check!! Sorry fella's, but Mistress cannot be Mistress without ensuring that him indoors knows whats what... indeed!

I also thought of a great maxis recolour, but only got so far as firing up SimPe, and realised it was already 11:30pm, so shut it back down again...

I am sure though that this temporary "brain fart" will not last, I will kick into gear once more, I guess its better than trying to rush something out that my heart really isnt into... And you know what? ONE of the ideas Ive got hatched isnt at all dark and gothic.. now what do you think to that then!?!

Next week on The Blog: Did Mistress finish any of the ongoing projects? NOT dark and Gothic?!? has Mistress lost it completely?! Did snuffles really bite bob? and who the heck is Snuffles??

Mistress attempts Spelling error free blog post shocker!!!

Indeed! I am going to attempt a first for me today - I am going to type a bit slower and more carefully in order that I may produce at least one blog entry that has no spelling errors in it at all! - Correct punctuation aside of course! Do you folks realise how long that paragraph just took me??!! I refuse to say for fear of pointy laughing type gestures. Today I though i'd do one of those "insert some random picture someone thought it would be highly amusing to send me" things that has the slight undertone of "saw this and thought of you" messages... Hah hah haw! indeed... But anyway! What have I been upto this weekend? Well, apart from running around like a mad banshee woman tidying and cleaning one has been indulging in another of my un rock n roll passions - that of Cross Stitching - ok ok, stop laughing! Jeez! I got into this when I was having a right old rough time with my crumbling dust type bones. Making huge pretty pictures from teeny tiny little xxxxxx and ///// things - sometimes I can actually do that once ive spent several hours threading the flaming needle! This one Im doing now is of an American Indian releasing an eagle into the sky, and it has a burning red/orange and gold sunset in the background - and i can safely assume i will have a lot more grey hairs by the time that is finished! Speaking of Mad banshee tidying up - I came across David's rather battered leather jacket plus leather waistcoat jacket sewn on the top with Motorhead patches all over it from his - well, less quiet gardening days of headbanging so hard he gave himself whiplash injury... Im surprised he hadnt compressed his spine with the sheer weight of it... a hefty 10kg! Edit: This post was repeatedly edited over 74 times to correct awful, inexcusable spellings - this edit alone was edited 14 times.. go on, laugh all you want - I have my fingers in my ears and im singing so I cant hear youuuuuu!