The Nookstone starter lot in Oasis Springs has gotten a glow up. My up and coming young chef moved in with no money and no skills and now he has a really nice place so I thought I would share it.

I picked up the Crystal Creations stuff pack on leap day, the day it came out, and overall I'm pretty happy with it. The CAS options are on the lean side, but I like the pieces they gave us. I completely agree with everybody who have been saying that the clothing and hair feel very Realm of Magic like. I like most of the furniture that came with the pack though I wish there was more of it and I think the new wallpaper is gorgeous. Making the jewelry and cutting the gems is enjoyable, though I do wish there was a small popup screen we could easily see that would show us exactly what pieces we are wearing instead of them just being in our personal inventory- I'm imagining a little rectangle with slots for earrings, necklace, bracelets, rings so that you can easily see what you've got on and how long until their charge drains. I've got a lot of jewelry in my girl's inventory now and that little "You are wearing this" green hanger icon is easy to miss. The cut gems rock. I've been thrilled with the crystal that bumps all your needs up, the one that makes you constantly focused, and the one that helps you with creative skills. I'm waiting for somebody to complain about them being too overpowered and EA to nerf it- if that happens I will legit be mad. The crystal trees are gorgeous. They take entirely too long to sprout IMO and I'm still waiting to be able to evolve them, but they add a special something to the yard, especially at night when they glow so prettily. I haven't got any rare crystals from them yet- maybe when the tree have evolved they'll give those harder to get ones.

So the last couple days I've been playing in the game, doing Maxis premade character makeovers for my new "This is where I want to start every game" Save File, but I can only fix so many Maxis characters before I feel that need to make one of my own. Enter Lucas Adler- my head cannon for him is that he was injured while in the military and he now aspires to live a calm, peaceful life in Sulani, painting and writing books. I gave him the Island Living aspiration + he's loyal, active, and… I can't remember the third one. He's a cutie that I throw up on the Gallery and unlike most of my 'Playing in CAS' Sims I feel inspired enough by his little back story that I actually plop him down in a starter home near the beach and play for a little bit… a few hours… ummmm… make that a lot of hours. Luc was no where that fit when he came out of CAS- the man likes to work out a lot.

But anyway… I haven't played in Sulani much and I have never done this beach life aspiration before. He got his suntan- he was sunbathing in the buff on his little over the water porch things and then started walking around his lot digging for seashells naked. I was legit cackling- my kids were "What are you laughing so hard about????". He finally found the "Beachy Things You Might Want to Buy" vending machine and bought a coconut to eat. The only left in the first set of goals is the is the "Get a Gold at a Kava Party" and can I just say "Urrrrrggggggggg!!!!" What do we need to do to get a freaking Gold level party??? He's thrown 5 of them- the first was bronze, all the rest were silver. We'd be this close to gold and the timer would run out. I was so aggravated after the last one that I saved and closed the game and went to Google to see if the party is somehow bugged. Apparently not- it's just stupid hard. I kid you not, I dreamed of Kava Parties and woke up mad. LOL

I don't play with supernatural sims (other than Ghosts) very often, but my Current Legacy just happens to have Magic in the veins and I if my Gen 10 Heir still has it I want them to really embrace the Spellcaster lifestyle so I'm trying to be more friendly to the paranormal types in the game. I've deleted Vlad/the Vamps, the Spellcasters/the 3 Sages, and the Aliens in the past and then the game just gives me new ones that I have to ID so I figured for my new Save File I'd just give the Maxis Sims a makeover so they fit my aesthetics better. I was just in CAS working with L. Faba one of the Spellcastor Sages- I have never liked how she looked so she was the first of the Witches I needed to "fix". I Googled her because I wasn't sure which magic she taught and found out her name is a take on Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, so in addition to ditching the AWFUL base game hair they gave her I made her green in her makeover. I don't know if I'm going to keep the hair or the green skin, but my younger son thought I should.

Are there any core Maxis Made sims that you feel like you need to update every time you start a new Save? I rarely play with the premade Maxis Sims, but I've realized that I always "fix" the Goths, the Calientes/Don Lothario, the Landgraabs/Johnny Zest, the Pleasant Twins/Dirk Dreamer/Dustin Broke in every single game, at least in CAS. I've never had a "This is How I want my Games to Start EVERY SINGLE TIME" Save before, but I just started one and I've been doing makeovers in CAS. I added Bella's brother Michael Bachelor to the game and I had to introduce him to Dina. It might not work out for them, but it needed to happen.

I'm not sure who I'm going to work on next. Maybe Vlad. He's iconic to the Sims 4, but I'd like to give him a few tweaks in CAS. I think I can mellow his looks out a little while allowing him to still keep his Vlad-ness.

Help! Does anybody have any idea how I can stop the vampire and werewolf facial details (including the pointed ears) from randomly showing up anytime I try to use the genetic tools to make a child teen aged or older in CAS who has a Spellcaster parent? I have no mods in. I did not notice it happening until after I added my last EP, Horse Ranch. It is making me extremely annoyed- it was bad enough that I had to strip dozens of accessories off CAS sims and deal with bad clothing combos, but now I've got dark vamp details and werewolf scars popping up constantly too. Most of the details I can get rid of by tracking them down in the Face Details section, but the smudged eyeliner look that the girl with the pink shirt is sporting seems to not exist because I have looked for it everywhere and can't find it to click it away!

The price of the Horse Ranch EP finally dropped to a Game Pack price tag over at Instant Gaming so I bought it yesterday night. I haven't done much yet, but I had to share these pictures- this is my Horse Ranch test sim, Carly and her horse Poppy. I literally laughed out loud at Carly's face- kudos to the game developer who worked on the first/early riding expressions!

It's my 10 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

My Gen 6 Legacy siblings Finn, Felicity & Frankie brought their cousins and Finn's GF Paige along with them on a outing to beat the heat. This was the first time I have had anyone visit the Splash Pad Park that came with the Growing Together EP. It's a cute little area, but I felt a little disappointed that there wasn't more to do.

My Legacy Founder Audra shakes her pompoms! When you have ghost relatives visit you never know exactly what you are going to find them doing

Playing in CAS. I’m very pleased with how cute Maddie turned out.  

Who are all these Sims and why did they just walk into my house??? The 4 red circles are the sims that actually live here, everybody else, plus another half dozen that are out in the yard, just invaded the place after my family got home from a family trip to the park!