Well, it took me a while, but I think I have the hang of CAW. I've made a world that is currently loaded in my game and doesn't look too bad. I have already started on populating it with Sims, making bios and setting up stories for them.

It's quite fun!

I'd like to play test it first. If I like it and it's not too horrid, I'll upload it!

I hope you're all having a happy, safe holidays...whatever your holiday of choice might be. :)

Well, I uploaded one of the lots from Belladonna Cove. I may be working in that neighborhood for a while. I think I wrote in an earlier blog that I will most likely be taking the apartments w/families and turning them into houses. It's a bit of work (not that I mind, obviously, or I wouldn't be doing it) recreating nearly every detail from TS2 to TS3. The thought of trying to recreate those entire apartments does not sound as appealing. Plus, I'm still working on that pesky ole' Masters degree. My schedule is across the board. I never know when I'll have free time and for how long.

Hey, there is still the possibility that TS3 may have apartments someday. If so, I might be interested in giving those recreations a try.

Anyhoo...

*start of incredibly sappy message*

Love your family. Spend as much time with them as you can, even if they annoy the snot out of you. I lost a family member a month ago under devastating circumstances. Don't wait to pick up the phone and call a loved one. Don't wait to visit. Trust me. Family and loved ones are everything. When they're gone, they're gone forever. And that royally SUCKS.

*end of melodramatic mushiness*

Hope everyone is having a safe, happy and great holiday season so far.

Take care everyone!

Huh, I forgot all about bios when recreating TS2 sims. Which would be why some TS3 sims have Don Lotharios bio! I have him saved in my saved sims bin and I often use whatever default sim pops up in CAS and go from there.

I hope to get to more lots today. I thought about how I was going to recreate some of the lots from Belladonna Cove, as we don't have the ability to create apartments. I decided I preferred to create the actual apartment the sim(s) inhabit as an actual house on a lot. I don't want to jump around from neighborhood to neighborhood, but I have a desire to recreate certain lots.

On the flip side, certain lots have me cringing...like the Summerdreams. That'll be a doozy.

In any case, I have SIX papers assigned at the moment. No joke. Literature classes...yay. *head-flopping to my desk* They're due within the next four weeks, so I will have to get some classwork done today. Then I'll be back at the lot building, so stay tuned for new lots soon!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

I have some things to do today. This afternoon when I get home, I plan to finish Strangetown. I was halfway through the Specter lot last night before the need to sleep finally got to me. I still have to make those sims that are in the bin, along with trying to do those community lots. I'm not sure if I can, but I'll try!

I'm not sure which neighborhood to do next, but I do like sticking to one neighborhood at a time. It makes things easier.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

I'm working on finishing up the Beaker household. Dang it, there are no aspiration rewards. There are all these little things that can't be recreated because there aren't any comparable items in TS3. Often, there's something a least similar enough that you can use a substitution. But not always.

Anyhow, I'm hoping to finish the Beakers (boy, was that a tricky one) and start on the Curious bros.

This has been fun, I have to say!

Again, if you don't have the Store items I've used in some of the houses, I believe the game makes a substitution (don't quote me on that, though). So if you download a lot and something in the house just does NOT fit, that's most likely why. I've tried to be as accurate as I can. I've tried to match personalities and lifetime wants where I could, which often means turning aspirations into traits. If a sim is neat, outgoing and has the family aspiration, I've selected the neat, schmoozer and family-oriented traits. And so forth...

I just wish there was a desert terrain! It seems odd to recreate these Strangetown lots on a lush landscape.