profbutters (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
profbutters) wrote2009-03-25 02:33 am
profbutters) wrote2009-03-25 02:33 am
Entry tags:
Gardens, pixel and real
Busy couple of days! I have a few days to Sim and get some spring cleaning and reorganizing done. If I sat down to do it on my own, I would probably put it off. This time I'm cleaning and organizing the only way I can do it: "Erg. I can't stand it like this anymore."
So today I went out into the backyard and did a few things. I cut back my lavender bush, which was taking over. When you go into Crabtree and Evelyn, you probably think, "ah, the delicate scent of lavender, what a rare and fragile plant." WRONG. When you grow it in a climate that it's suited to, the Mediterranean landscape of Southern California, you recognize it for what it is: an opportunistic SOB that grows on top of its own dead undergrowth and will try to devour your house. My lavender actually choked out my rosemary, and do you know how hard that is to do?
Then I cut back my roses a little bit and fertilized my citrus trees, poor babies, and finally I trimmed the jasmine a little. That's opportunistic, too, but I left the one that's trying to strangle the Lombardy poplars behind the house. I hate those poplars; they shed and block the light. So if my jasmine wants to try to grow up it, fine. This is war. You'll notice I grow a lot of sweet-smelling plants that don't need lots of water and that I don't have a lawn. I did that on purpose, especially to attract bees and butterflies and the occasional hummingbird.
On to pixel gardens! This is the lot for which my neighborhood nearly died. More accurately, it's the largely Maxis lot I built when I realized that it was way safer to build my new lot that way. I know it's very boxy and incomplete, but I think it's kind of pretty, too, and maybe it's a good thing I had to rebuild a few times, because I worked out the main setting.
Obviously, I built it as a large-scale farm lot, with a lot of pretties.
And a certain classical feel. I'm going to fix that roof, though: it doesn't looks quite right.
You might remember that Jane, Elroy and Count Whoopie's daughter, married a Roman, Appius Marius. Appius has done his best to fit in by becoming a plantsim and having a little spore baby, Chloris. That makes Chloris another of Marina's grandbabies.
Now that her older sisters are coming home, Chloris needed to move out. And while I was moving her out, why not build her a farm lot, where she could put that gold badge to advantage and harvest lots of fruit and vegetables for Sims who didn't or couldn't grow their own?
And while I was at THAT, why not make it a sort of Roman temple of gardening?
With Chloris as a Roman goddess of fruit? (True story: the town I teach in used to be mostly citrus groves, and it was named after the Roman goddess of fruit. I think that's cool.)
Chloris may find the goddess bit hard to get used to.
She has lots of sunlamps, sprinklers, and showers indoors. She doesn't really need much else, though I gave her a pretty house with social areas anyway. She's Family, and what she needs right now is Love. I caught her doing this.
I'm having her greet all her walk-bys and just seeing what happens. Meanwhile. . .
Chloris: I can't help but think that you Garden Club Members need me a lot more than I need you.
With as much time as I lost, I figured I would cheat the last placeholder up fast. This is the last of the Marius boys, Oscar. He's Marina's grandson, my simself's great-grandson, and Cassidy's adoptive younger brother. Simself descendants ought to get a little LJ attention. And doesn't everyone enjoy a little toddler and kid spam?
Oscar's last picture as a toddler:
. . .as a child . . .
. . . and finally as a teen.
I did give him some kind of a life. When I do age cheats now, I make sure that the toddler has learned all his or her skills. I might skip the headmaster visit and let them earn an A+, certainly learn to do some homework. Generally, I'm not this fast, but. . .Penelope graduated! Late last night, ZOMG. With all the stuff going on, it feels like a miracle. I'm going to play the boys up, and get some more houses ready for them, and get serious about those weddings.
BTW, what is the cheat for allowing more guests? I'm calling them by phone right now, but it's a pain, and I'd like for Ulysses to have a roof raiser grad party. And more guests seems to help.
Hope you enjoyed the pics!
PB
So today I went out into the backyard and did a few things. I cut back my lavender bush, which was taking over. When you go into Crabtree and Evelyn, you probably think, "ah, the delicate scent of lavender, what a rare and fragile plant." WRONG. When you grow it in a climate that it's suited to, the Mediterranean landscape of Southern California, you recognize it for what it is: an opportunistic SOB that grows on top of its own dead undergrowth and will try to devour your house. My lavender actually choked out my rosemary, and do you know how hard that is to do?
Then I cut back my roses a little bit and fertilized my citrus trees, poor babies, and finally I trimmed the jasmine a little. That's opportunistic, too, but I left the one that's trying to strangle the Lombardy poplars behind the house. I hate those poplars; they shed and block the light. So if my jasmine wants to try to grow up it, fine. This is war. You'll notice I grow a lot of sweet-smelling plants that don't need lots of water and that I don't have a lawn. I did that on purpose, especially to attract bees and butterflies and the occasional hummingbird.
On to pixel gardens! This is the lot for which my neighborhood nearly died. More accurately, it's the largely Maxis lot I built when I realized that it was way safer to build my new lot that way. I know it's very boxy and incomplete, but I think it's kind of pretty, too, and maybe it's a good thing I had to rebuild a few times, because I worked out the main setting.
Obviously, I built it as a large-scale farm lot, with a lot of pretties.
And a certain classical feel. I'm going to fix that roof, though: it doesn't looks quite right.
You might remember that Jane, Elroy and Count Whoopie's daughter, married a Roman, Appius Marius. Appius has done his best to fit in by becoming a plantsim and having a little spore baby, Chloris. That makes Chloris another of Marina's grandbabies.
Now that her older sisters are coming home, Chloris needed to move out. And while I was moving her out, why not build her a farm lot, where she could put that gold badge to advantage and harvest lots of fruit and vegetables for Sims who didn't or couldn't grow their own?
And while I was at THAT, why not make it a sort of Roman temple of gardening?
With Chloris as a Roman goddess of fruit? (True story: the town I teach in used to be mostly citrus groves, and it was named after the Roman goddess of fruit. I think that's cool.)
Chloris may find the goddess bit hard to get used to.
She has lots of sunlamps, sprinklers, and showers indoors. She doesn't really need much else, though I gave her a pretty house with social areas anyway. She's Family, and what she needs right now is Love. I caught her doing this.
I'm having her greet all her walk-bys and just seeing what happens. Meanwhile. . .
Chloris: I can't help but think that you Garden Club Members need me a lot more than I need you.
With as much time as I lost, I figured I would cheat the last placeholder up fast. This is the last of the Marius boys, Oscar. He's Marina's grandson, my simself's great-grandson, and Cassidy's adoptive younger brother. Simself descendants ought to get a little LJ attention. And doesn't everyone enjoy a little toddler and kid spam?
Oscar's last picture as a toddler:
. . .as a child . . .
. . . and finally as a teen.
I did give him some kind of a life. When I do age cheats now, I make sure that the toddler has learned all his or her skills. I might skip the headmaster visit and let them earn an A+, certainly learn to do some homework. Generally, I'm not this fast, but. . .Penelope graduated! Late last night, ZOMG. With all the stuff going on, it feels like a miracle. I'm going to play the boys up, and get some more houses ready for them, and get serious about those weddings.
BTW, what is the cheat for allowing more guests? I'm calling them by phone right now, but it's a pain, and I'd like for Ulysses to have a roof raiser grad party. And more guests seems to help.
Hope you enjoyed the pics!
PB