Dolores, Kuwait, and the Sims

It’s a super random post today.

First up, I’ve already talked about Carrie Fisher’s passing both on FB and instagram so I’m not going to do it here. I don’t want to talk about it no mo.

In happier news we booked our hotel for Celebration. We are going to do 3 days at Disney, 1 at Universal, and 1 at the con. Hopefully. Staying at my favourite place of favourite places, Port Orleans French Quarter, yaaay. The sucky thing is that our APs expire like, 3 weeks before Celebration. If we’d realized Celebration was going to be in April, we’d have waited and done our first trip in April this year so they’d last, but unfortunately that’s not the way it all worked out. So we have to buy passes uuuugh. At least Kevin’s AP will still be good (his goes through May).

Third point of discussion – I got home yesterday to not one, but two unexpected packages in the mailbox. I was hoping one of them was Chase’s shirt I bought him for Christmas that we still haven’t gotten, but it wasn’t… the first one was a Disney Movie Club title that I forgot to decline. But it’s Finding Nemo and Finding Dory, neither of which we own (and still haven’t seen Dory), so I might keep them. Might not. Haven’t decided.

The other was very curious. It was a returned envelope. After looking at all the stickers and stamps and partially covered up address I realized it was the copy of SunDowner I sent out to Britt back in November. It had a lot of scribbles all over:

And there was one stamp that I couldn’t make out what it said. I took a photo of it so I could zoom in and finally made out one word along the bottom:

THIS THING WENT TO KUWAIT INSTEAD OF CANADA
WTF
KUWAIT

On the address somebody with a red pen scribbled a bunch of lines under “CANADA” like can you guys not read, why is this in Kuwait instead of Canada?
But I’m super relieved it at least came back (and was undamaged) because I don’t have a lot of these left. Now to try again.

Fourth bullet point, sims! I started playing a new game on Monday – haven’t played in a long while.
I actually made, like, a serious family and no cheating. They were a super hipster couple and both artists. I used the first bit of money you get to build just a really nice kitchen, two couches, and a simple bathroom on a lot. I set them up with two easels, and had them start painting. It wasn’t long before they made enough money selling paintings to get a nice bedroom, and then eventually a nice living room. Then they had a kid, and then another kid, then they both joined the art career after they reached level 10.

The sad part is I forgot I had lifespan set to short so the dad already became a senior citizen. I realized it after that and switched it to normal lifespan so the mom is still an adult.


The dad did portraits of all 4 of the family and hung them in the dining room.

BUT… you know I wouldn’t be here telling a Sims story without something crazy happening. This dude right here:

So when they had the first baby, one day they hired a nanny so they could both focus on painting. This is the nanny that showed up. He did a good job so when they had baby #2 they hired him again to watch both kids for the day.

And he didn’t leave. The first kid, he said “Ok looks like I’m done here” after about a day and left. The second one he stayed until we finally told him to leave after like 4 days? From what I’ve read that’s normal, he’s supposed to stay until you tell him to leave, but I don’t know why he left the first time around.

But that’s not where it got weird. He started calling both the kids around midnight-1AM every night, asking to come hang out. I’d usually say yes, because the parents kept odd hours and having someone else for them to socialize with was handy. Then one night he came over, and stayed. He stayed for like 2 days straight. Not long after I took that screencap of him above, I sent all my sims to bed, and he was left wandering around the house. Suddenly he sped up, walked super fast into the parent’s bedroom, and totally disappeared. Without any kind of “I’ve got to be going” message or anything. Just poof, gone.

I know it’s the game being glitchy and dumb but it was also kinda creepy. He hasn’t been back or called since.

Anyhow onto the next point… sewing!

I worked on Dolores last night and actually got it to the point I could try it all on.

First up I got the little bustle finished:

It’s just a little square of the quilted fabric with a pleated section attached and a ribbon sewn on for wearing it. Nothing fancy but it gets the job done. I did realize I do not need the petticoat at all, it’s making it look much too full, so I nixed it.

I got the skirt pleated and zipper installed:

I pressed the pleats but they’re still not laying quite right, so I may have to go in and tack them down in a few places on the interior.

Haven’t hemmed it yet of course.

The top is getting there.

I need to curve the front point in a little.

And the back has a little too much width at the lowest point, causing it to curl/not lay flat at the seams, so before I finish off the top edges I’m going to flip it back around and fix those things, and then I can get the sleeves in.

I’m hoping to have the bulk of it done this weekend, as well as a solid start on Bespin Leia. (By solid start, I mean, I’ve actually transferred the panels onto the fabric and started playing with embroidery).

Speaking of Leia, I dug up an old white backdrop photo I never posted to post to fb yesterday:

Not my fav pic but I don’t hate it, either.

Last point of business… I did some art of Chase and his brother as a Christmas present for Chase. He’s been asking me to do something like this for a while, something kind-of Final Fantasy/samurai warrior-esque of the two of them in my style. So I finally got my crap together and did it for him.

This day is creeping by so slow seriously I just wanna go home and seeeeew all the thiiiiiiings