Cute designs! I especially like the last two. The house with the browns and the one with the blues. They're both really pretty.

Thank you. Yes, Sugah, I've read about how much you love the beach. Many years ago when I was on vacation in Santa Barbara, I was lucky enough to get a hotel room right across the streeet from the beach. All I had to do was, put my bathing suit on and cross the street. I never had the desire to come home. But, sadly reality set in and I had to.

I'm still working on Michael's bedroom. Get a load of the wallpaper behind the bed. In game, they cost a hundred bucks per panel. SHEESH! Plus, I followed Lady Z's suggestion a found a wallpaper to just about match the one large stripe. I'll explain the half wall in just a moment.


The half wall.....

The idea for that came from the vase on the floor and the carpet. It goes with nothing. But, see the slippers on the floor? I found these walk around "hacks" over at MTS2. How they work is, you put a square on the floor, then an object, then turn it invisibible. Michael doesn't walk around it, he steps over it.

Lady Z, suggested I find a darker color of carpet for under the dining room table so it stands out. I found this.

I LOVE IT my dear Sunshine!!! Now his room looks very masculine! I LOVE the half wall and the darker wall colors! The dinining room looks freaking SUPERB!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that rug under the table and the wall art! They definitely make this dining room stand out my dear!

I knew eventually I'd get it right. That is not a rug, per se. That's a wooden floor underneath the dining room table, I found roaming the highways and byways of Sim sites.

And, I'm leaving his bedroom just the way it is. I'm not changing one **&#$%$%&* thing.

I've been working on his office and bathrooms. But, take a close look at his desk and tell me what you see.

Oh, it's gorgeous, Ed. The bedroom is perfect. I love the "hundred bucks per panel" (outrageous, btw) wall. Very unique.
All of the accessories you've found and furniture for both the bdrm and dng room are fabulous.
You must put a lot of time (and patience) into finding just the right items for each room. Don't know how you do it!

The Michael McDonald cds on his desk are a hoot, btw. Did you have someone make those for you special?

Great job, as always.

Yes. I put a request in over at BlackPearl to recolor the CD accessory over at AroundTheSims and I just got it today! I supplied a few pictures and she found a few more. I'm really jazzed over it.

Usually how I find things Im looking for is, I always keep a mental picture in my head of the entire house. If I run across something that has a possiblity, I take a good long look at it and merge it with one of the rooms.

Take the floor under the dining room table for example. I saw the one floor, put six squares together, and set the entire dining room set on top of it. The picture was already on the wall. So, I sat here and went, hmmmm.

The outrageous wall panels behind the bed. I saw those and said, come to daddy! I just knew I was going to find a place for those in his bedroom. Same thing with the wallpaper on the half wall. I had the carpet and that vase already pictured in my head.

Same thing with TJ and Charles. I have a mental picture of their house. Very easy to do.

Since I'm working on TJ and Charles now, thought I'd show off a bit.

Susie/VADiexieGal over at Thyme2Sim, made me this bedding out of a texture/image I found online. The whole house is being decorated around these colors.

This only the bedroom.


This is a wall hanging Sugah Sim made for me from my desktop wallpaper.


If you look real close at their nightstands you'll see something interesting.


Downstairs, I got someone over at, Black Pearl Sims, to recolor one of their diningroom sets for me using the same pattern as the bedding. This came out really nice.


If you look close, you'll see the table has a tiny green trim on it.


She did the table chairs, sideboard and lights for me. I only asked for the table, chairs and sideboard. The lights were an added bonus. The placesettings I found on my travels to here and there. Remember, I keep an image of both houses in my head.

I love those bright springy colors. You sure have a knack, Ed.

Thank you, Ari!

Back to Michael's place.

I got a new mesh to from Black Pearl. A Songwriter's Award. It's got a chrome look to it and it even reflects light. It's base game compatible and very low poly. Less than 500.


In his living room......I found a globe to put on one of the end tables.


Then, I found this picture.


His music room. Get a load of this painting I found. And, I already know the piano is in the way.


Now for the rest. I spent over two hours yesterday decorating. Plus a another hour or so this morning. Once I got the new award, I started changing things again. I tore down a wall, then put it back up, tore it down, back up it went. I swear that wall got more action than I do. Geeze! Anyhoo, I'm still not happy with the outcome. But, I did find a nice piano painting. I think the floor might be the problem.

Everything looks fabulous, Ed. Those beachy-type colors look great together. Love the way it turned out!

I am thinking of using that Nordsee image (is that a German town and/or seafood restaurant or something?) in my own game, but maybe just getting rid of the "Nordsee" word on the tag and putting the name of the family (whose abode it will be hanging in) instead. Hmmm..

I love the pic over the tv. It's one of Kate's at Parsimonious. I have several of that type, as I have always liked the size and style of it.
They're called Arabatics Paintings.
The vases on either side of the tv are gorgeous, too.

Thank you for sharing!

I was going to comment on the tv area too. Love the combination of the painting and the vases around the tv. Breathtaking!

You ladies know how to make a guy feel good. Thank you!

Well, I finally broke down and learned how to recolor. It seemed like the next natural step. I've only done a few small things, so far. These are Custom Meshes, not Maxis ones.

Remember in that one picture of Michael's desk, he had those CD's sitting there? Well, I did my own.
The mesh belongs to ATS. It's their CD Clutter Mesh.

I even did the CD itself and put Michael on it. I goofed and forgot to move his name to the left side of the CD.

Then, I recolored Jonesi's Blanket Mesh.









Excuse the bedding, but I've been keeping my downloads folder empty when I do this.

And, this is the bed from the Leaf Bedroom Set over at TSR. I hunted down a blue wooden texture and played around with the Hue, Saturation and Brightness. If you look at the bottom front, I even recolored the legs white. On the left is the mesh, my recolor is on the right.




And, I finally learned how to do bedding. I almost did cartwheels when it worked out!

On the very first mesh I recolored, it took me two tries. The first time, I forgot to name the package file when you first start it up. I ended up recoloring the png file.

So, I'm just trying out a few small things here and there. Nothing big or major. I'm not ready to jump that hurdle yet.

Ed, that's awesome! I've been wanting to recolor CUSTOM objects and not just MAXIS for awhile.
What tutorial did you use? I would love to know. Was it an easy or challenging tutorial to follow? I'm looking for EZ with lotsa images, as I'm a visual learner.

Everything turned out so well. I love the recolor of Jonesi's blanket. Looks great!

Bedding isn't that tricky EXCEPT when you have something centered on the double/queen bed and it has to look right on the twin bed. That's when it becomes a greater challenge.
Yours turned out terrific! I love it!

Way to go, dahling!

This is the tutorial I read. It even comes with pictures.

It works the same way with Maxis meshes, export, copy, paste, import.

I finally did a picture.


I recolored an entire bedroom set. It's the Salsa Bedroom Set from TSR. Isn't it simply tacky?!!?


And, I got really dorky and put Michael's picture in an IPod.

Here's the newest Sim in my neighborhood, Jeremy Piven.

I requested him over at Sim-Antics.


Here's his livingroom. I'm kind of at odds with the picture on the wall. It is a dark color, but I'm just wondering how it looks against that red wall.


And, I'm still playing around with the diningroom