1 Million Downloads!

Whoot! How cool is that?

My sincerest thanks to everyone who has downloaded, rated, commented and provided help and encouragement to me - I just wish I was home with better computer access to celebrate this moment more. :)

December Vacation

I'm on vacation to visit my family in Canada during the holidays between December 4-28'06. I'll have limited Internet access during this time so will not likely be able to respond to PMs, guestbook signings and comments until I return, unless it's something I notice to be urgent and can actually do something about while abroad (although unlikely).

Season's Greetings and all the very best to your and yours this holiday season! See you soon. ;)

Yuletide Cheer Giftshop

It's December and you know what that means... Only 24 more days until Christmas! :D

Of course, that also means... Only 24 more days until Christmas - eek! :P Time to get your Sims out to do their holiday shopping and decorate the house (assuming you haven't had them start it yet) and what better place to go then the Yuletide Cheer Giftshop?

Housed within a beautiful log cabin and nestled in a snowy pine grove, your Sims are sure to feel the spirit of Christmas as they browse and shop to their little hearts' content. The Yuletide Cheer Giftshop comes fully decorated, its shelves lined with the goodies from the Happy Holiday Stuff pack. Not only that but if you missed out on the two pre-order objects - the snowglobe from the EA Store and the neon snowman light from Gamestop - they are also included as my very special Yule gift to all of you! :) There's also a cozy little corner set aside for the kids to visit Santa (why not dress one of your employees up for this very purpose?).

Furthermore, this lot contains absolutely no FA content so it will be completely free to everyone. :) I do, however, recommend Windkeeper's 'Santa's Sleigh' set so you can have snowy pine trees but that's up to you to decide.

PS: The snowman radio is unfortunately not available when building a lot so if you'd like Christmas themed music for your shop (who wouldn't?), you'll need to have a Sim purchase the radio and place it in the shop - it might also be available through the wholesale buy mode for owned businesses.

Designer Pointsettias

Have you seen the variety of pointsettias you can buy these days? Last year my granny found these really unusual (to me) blue and cream ones that she just fell in love with. She bought one and under her green thumb the thing flourished for months. I'd never seen a blue pointsettia before but they certainly became really popular fast. My personal favourites have always been the pink coloured ones - solid dusty rose pink, spotted pink, mixed pink and cream - they're just a little softer and more delicate looking than the stark red ones, I think.

Anyway, I thought our Sims should have a wider choice of pointsettias available to them as well so I've made some of these new 'designer' breeds. The set contains 2 pink and cream versions - one a light pink and the other a dark pink (or brighter, if you will) - and a soft blue and cream version. I also made a copper and blue pot to use with them.

Seasonal Doormats

You'll never believe it but I almost forgot to make holiday doormats! Yes, me, the rug-aholic! Eep! But rest assured, after a little time spent playing the game today and decorating my heart away with Christmas stuff, I realized I didn't have a single holiday doormat in my game - for shame! So here they are.

Set A consists of 8 doormats using Windkeeper's 1x1 runner rug. All the mats in this set feature a seasonal phrase as the main design element. You'll find greetings such as 'Happy Holidays', 'Merry Christmas', 'Noel' and 'Season's Greetings' here.

Set B also consists of 8 doormats, again using Windkeeper's 1x1 runner rug. The mats in this set are basically pretty seasonal images - not that there's anything wrong with that. ;P Find Santa Clauses, snowmen, pointsettias and similar holiday icons in this batch.

Ice Queen Theme

Time for a new theme! :) It's hard to get into the wintry mindset here in southern Sweden what with the lack of snow and mild temperatures but I'm ready to welcome the Ice Queen when she's ready to arrive.

Once again, if you'd like a copy of my latest desktop artwork, I've made a zip file available on my server space for you to download.

Christmas & Chanukkah Flags

As promised, I've finished off the Christmas and Chanukkah flag collections and they will be following up on the winter and snowmen flag sets. :)

You'll find 15 Christmas flags available, ranging in designs featuring various Santa Claus figures, angels, pointsettias and more. Many also include phrases.

For Jewish players, you'll be happy to hear I'm providing 8 Chanukkah flags in the appropriate set. It was difficult, to say the least, hunting down attractive Chanukkah-themed designs but I think I managed to root up a nice selection - I hope you'll agree. :)

Winter & Snowmen Garden Flags

You asked for it and here they come! :) Yes, I'm pleased to say that I've had many people eager and hopeful to add seasonal winter flags to their collections of colonial garden flags and I'm happy to oblige.

First up, I have a collection of 10 winter-themed flags featuring snowy scenes of winter birds, snowflakes and the like.

Second, I love snowmen. I'd have to say that snowman are my favourite Yule time decoration. So, since my winter-themed collection was getting spammed with a ton of snowmen designs I loved so much, I decided they needed a collection of their own. :) Enjoy a full dozen snowmen flags with wintry phrases.

Next I'll be adding Christmas and Chanukkah flags to the mix and then hopefully moving on to some other holiday decor to spruce up the inside of your Sims' homes.

It's Alive!

My burnt out computer, that is! *cackle*

I don't know how or why but suddenly this evening I had the sudden curious urge to turn on my computer, which I seemed to have burned out a month ago now, just for kicks to see what would happen and by gosh and by golly, it loaded! Needless to say I scrambled to finally make backup copies of all my necessary documents (that naturally are far too important to lose and thus are never backed up :P ) onto a separate drive. So far the only thing I've lost are my Netscape bookmarks, which is unfortunate but not the end of the world (yet).

I am so stoked! I've made copies of all my dearly missed textures and other TWS materials to my memory stick so that should the ol' girl get fickle with me again, I'll have my goodies at hand to keep creating easily on our second machine. Expect new stuff shortly! ;)

Ginger Mackeral Tabby Mix

Yes, it's another cat. I promise, I haven't forgotten about you dog-lovers out there. :)

Meet Winchester:

Winchester was my family's first real life pet when I was a child - a moggie (mix breed) with an exceptionally unique ginger colour I have yet to see exactly since him, with the traditional mackeral tabby patterning.

Winchester (named after the rifle) was one of three kittens my grandparents had dropped on them. As a kitten he had an almost white/beige colour of fur, which darkened with age to a gorgeous caramel/soft ginger - people who met Winny never failed to comment on his unique coat shade. He also sported a small, heart-shaped patch of pure white on his throat, which met with darker bands of caramel stripes looping around his neck on either side - my mother used to call it his 'locket' or necklace. :) He was a very large and sturdy cat - big head, big paws and a lot of belly - he easily weighted in at around 15 lbs., as I recall.

Sadly, our beautiful Winchester developed feline diabetes early in life. Like its human counterpart, it is very treatable and manageable - we gave him human insulin using human syringes and what a trooper, he never complained. Mum and I had a few terrifying experiences when he fell into a sugar low on a couple of occasions but for the most part he rarely seemed sick - he enjoyed his long naps, ate heartily (loved peas and playing cereal hockey) and kept my mum company in her sewing room for hours on end. Unfortunately, things came to a sudden end when the company that produced the pork based insulin he used decided to discontinue the product and Winchester's body failed to accept the new insulin the vet was attempting to transfer him onto. He was only about 12 years old, about half the lifespan the average housecat enjoys.

I felt it fitting to share our Winchester with you on Remembrance Day - he should be released for download this coming Saturday, November 11'06. Please take him in and find a loving family for him with your Sims - perhaps a small family with a young girl - and give him that longer life he deserved. As usual, we never bred Winchester, which seems a shame considering his unique coat colouring, so if you breed him, I'd love to see your photos of his offspring.