Thank you @carabinersims for the ask! (Here's the link to the original list for reference.)
Also… you also have no idea how difficult it was for me to NOT post 30+ hairs for each category. x__x Be thankful I managed to get them down to 6 each! XD
Here we go! Click through the cut to see all the hair +links. :D
5. Pixie Cuts
Diana Hair II (Shorter) by @rustys-cc
Robyn Hair by @serenity-cc
Micro Bob by @candycottonchu
Side parted short bob - Hanako Yamada by @anlamveg
Monet Hair by @ice-creamforbreakfast (I had to dig deep to find this one! 😅)
Fantino Hair by @laeska
You can argue what a real "pixie cut" hairdo is, but I interpreted it as any shortly cropped hair that had a bit of a feminine feel to it.
10. Locs
Dread Panda Hair by @yooniesim
Renee Hair by @simtric
Yvette Dreads by @nolan-sims
Adonis Hair by @okruee
Imani Hair by @nolan-sims
Piece Hair Retextured by @johnnyzest
Goodness, it was SO HARD to only pick six!! 😭 I left so many good ones on the table, but in the end I chose a few of my faves, so I hope you like them! <3
14. Wavy
Madelyn Hair by @aladdin-the-simmer
Nebula Hair by @clumsyalienn
Katya Hair by @miikocc
Dahlia Hair by @oydis
Vintage with Pearl Hair (v2) by @rustys-cc
Same here… my original picks numbered ~30. Whittling them down to just these six was so hard. x___x I'm not cut out for this, haha!
Hi! I was wondering if you have plans to update your Petrichor eye defaults to work with the new Infants update? I love these eyes so much; but due to the recent update they break the toddler eyes :(
Hello!! Long time no see, everyone. ^^;
First of all, I'm so sorry I disappeared there! Real life and my worsening chronic fatigue symptoms have made it too difficult to keep on top of the Sims community. I'm excited about this recent expansion/update, though, so yes! I will be updating my mods!
I've been out of the game for a few months though, so it might take me a while to figure it all out, but once I do I'll DEFINITELY share updates for my default eyes, my default skinblend, and my CC Wrench replacer.
I'm on the case! 💪 Just please be patient with me. I'm looking forward to getting these updates to you all! <3
I want so badly so be someone in the sims community, even to just have a friend group in the sims community, but no matter how much work I put in I get no traction/friends/etc. How do you do it?? Did I join too late?
Ooof… oof. :(
I'm going to ramble a bunch under the cut. Forgive me for the brain spew that's gonna follow. <3 I'm like an old lady who just can't keep her mouth shut. ^^;
[Skip to the bottom for a TL;DR.]
Listen, I hear you. I hear you so strongly. Finding a group of folks you feel connected to in online communities is such a difficult/often very random/unexpected/miraculous thing. It's so easy to see all these names come up so often on your dashboard, see the numbers associated with them, and to see them call each other out or post silly chat logs or other fun things they do with others, and then not feel like you're being left out of some amazing, fun thing.
Here's the thing:
Social media is an illusion.
We see these groups of people all chatting with each other, and we think they're all best friends having a constant party behind the scenes. We think they're hogging all the opportunities, getting all the commissions, finding all the agents and getting the publishing deals, etc. (this was my experience as a young artist online, btw), while the rest of us are struggling to get by.
Here's what we DON'T see:
We don't see the many many years of obscurity and struggling it took them to get to that point. All the hard work of honing their craft and marketing themselves and doing the work of the daily grind. Yeah, they made friends, but a bunch of those friends were made when they were all in the same trenches, learning together before ANY of them got big or famous. [Also: all that hard work doesn't stop just because they've reached some arbitrary "famous" point. It's just as much hard work, and often even more.]
We don't see how hard they currently work, and how difficult it's been. We don't see the years of low-level community building they did when they were just starting out. We didn't see them when they each had ten followers, making fun of each other's OCs in the comments because they had something in common and just found each other and made the effort to reach out.
The thing is: we all start out somewhere. And many times the friends we make when we first start out are the ones that stick with us.
Also: a lot of those "cliques" are an illusion.
Sure, some of these people are close friends. Most are only just barely acquainted with each other, or only occasionally communicate. They might sing each other's praises in public, but that could be that they're just as much a fan as you are, and are excited to get a chance to engage, and might not have directly spoken to each other before. But with the limited information we see we might assume that they're well known to each other, and all hang out in some secret discord somewhere, and feel that exclusion that doesn't really exist.
Me, for example? It might be easy for someone new to chance upon my page and assume that I've been in this community forever. They might look at the note/download count on some of my CC and think "Wow, she's famous O__O". They might see me joking with another user and thinking "Wow, they have so many friends, man, I wish that were me".
But honestly? I only really joined Simblr a year ago (so yeah, it's not "too late" to get into this community!). I got lucky that the CC I posted was something people liked and wanted to use. As for friends…? I'm not in any discords. I don't have secret group chats. I only feel like I've made 1 whole friend in the time I've been here, and that friend is someone I only talk to on Simblr, and only occasionally, when we make posts that the other likes; we don't hang out or chat anywhere else. I don't make any money on this, or get any donations to my ko-fi page. I don't get tons of asks or other comments behind the scenes. If I make a gameplay post, I'll be lucky if it gets 10 notes, or one comment from that one friend I mentioned.
I do have a lot of people I've spoken to in passing. Folks I've had conversations with. But I barely know them, and we don't "talk" or "hang out". Very rarely I'll comment on their page saying "Gosh, I'm such a huge fan of yours, uwu" and they'll respond back saying "WHAT really?? I use your CC all the time!" and that's amazing and mind-blowing and OMG HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?! But that's the extent of our conversation; it doesn't always lead to private chats and years of in-jokes and friendship. Honestly, I just follow a bunch of people I like, and occasionally I'll reply to their posts or send them an ask, because that's how community works.
Which brings me to another thing:
You get out what you put in.
What I don't mean from this is that you'll definitely get famous if you make the effort to make lots of posts/CC. No, what I mean is, if you're kind, and you reach out to folks, help them with their problems when you can, comment on their stories, laugh at their jokes, play in their ask games, reach out when it seems like they're having a hard time, etc.… if you make these genuine attempts to just be kind, friendly, and talk to people, you know what will happen?
People will respond. They'll do the same right back to you. And a bunch of those people, while they won't be the people you idolize, will be really cool people who you'll be glad to eventually, maybe, call your friends.
And that's the whole world.
If you're friendly, folks will be grateful, and they'll be friendly back. As long as you're kind and genuine about it, and not just spamming for likes or follow-backs, people will reciprocate.
You know what else really draws people in?
Seeing you have fun.
Seriously.
What do you enjoy doing? Lookbooks? Stories? Random gameplay? Builds? If you post regularly, and you post things you're proud of and it's obvious you're having fun with it, then people will find your content so much more enjoyable to follow and interact with. Especially if you make an effort to reply to people.
Nothing is more off-putting than seeing someone jumping on a recent trend, making posts that look more like an obligation or a half-hearted attempt to cash in, and then seeing them complain that no one's engaging with them. As long as you're having fun, that's what matters. Never force yourself to post. Take long breaks if you want/need to. Utilize that queue if you must. People can tell when you're forcing yourself and just jumping on the latest bandwagon. The most enticing thing is seeing someone enthusiastic about their own content, and what will attract like-minded people.
I know it's hard, but seriously: Try not to criticize or put yourself down. You're allowed to vent, of course, but try to be kind to yourself. The world is a difficult enough place, and if you uplift yourself as well as others, people will respond likewise. <3
Also: Do everything you can to not. Care. About the numbers.
I know this is hard. I know this is hard because I've struggled with it my entire teen/young adult life.
But I'm in my 30s now, and I've been in various different online communities and social medias since 2001, and I've been through ALL that shit. I've been that person refreshing DeviantART over and over hoping for more notes on my latest artwork that I spent hours on. I've been that person on Twitter at 3am wracking my brain for something "interesting" to say so that SOMEONE might respond, all the while feeling like crap because I "missed" a tweet exchange a couple friends had an hour ago and now I'm having FOMO like a mother-fucker. I've been that person watching my friends and acquaintances post photos from parties and announcements of engagements and promotions and things on Facebook and wondering how is it possible that EVERYONE is living a better life than me…?! (Answer: It's an illusion!) I've been that person looking at my artwork with +1k notes on it and feeling absolutely WORTHLESS because none of those 1k notes have resulted in a genuine interaction or connection with someone else, which is what I really wanted all along. I've been that person seeing the art I spent 20 hours on get only three comments while someone else's ten-minute sketch gets hundreds and I'm crying and wondering why my work is so worthless.
The longer I've spent online, the more I've realized how little all those numbers matter. Anywhere I can, I try to turn off those numbers. I DEFINITELY turn off the notifications of those numbers. Because really, what I want is that connection, that interaction, and I'm not going to get it unless I take that first step and reach out to others. If I'm too caught up in note counts or favourites I forget how much fun it is to just post stuff and comment on others' things.
We all want the "result" of fame. We all want the friends, the respectability, the acknowledgement of our hard work, and that feeling of community. What we don't always remember, though, is that you can't force any of those things. You just have to be yourself, be genuine, and reach out to folks, and all those things will grow organically.
And it won't be instantaneous. It will sometimes take a LONG time. Most of the time you won't even notice it happening until it does. And even then, it won't ever be as "amazing" as you thought it would be. It will just feel normal, and you'll still have all the same problems as you do now. Maybe even more, depending on your popularity.
Speaking of popularity: it's a double-edged sword. I don't EVER want to be "popular", or "famous". Sure you might get a bunch of random positive engagement, but you'll also get the negative engagement, too. And that can be devastating, because as we all know, one negative comment overshadows a dozen positive ones in our own heads. Social media sucks like that, and it takes such a long time to grow a thick skin about it. Lots of people aren't even able to do that, and while they put on a brave face, every negative barb is like a knife to the heart. A lot of that stuff is hidden from public view. It's why we get so many "popular" or "famous" people going silent or leaving communities, because the cost of that popularity is often too high; and it's exponentially worse if you're part of a marginalized group. It SUCKS so bad.
Honestly, just be yourself. Post stuff that makes you happy. Uplift those around you. Reach out, be kind, be genuine. Experiment and have fun in this space. That's the only way to make this shitty thing that is social media and all the horrible negative things that come with it worth it. I promise you, if you have fun in the short term, you'll have a much more rewarding experience than you'd ever have if you treat it like a popularity contest. <3
TL;DR:
Social media is an illusion.
Most of those "cliques" you think exist are also an illusion.
Often the best friends you make are the ones on a similar level/journey as you. Lift each other up.
You get out of your community what you put into it.
Do anything and everything you can to NOT CARE ABOUT THE NUMBERS.
Popularity/Fame often sucks REALLY bad. Focus on connecting with each other instead.
You'll have a better time if you focus on having fun than if you treat it like a popularity contest.
I absolutely love your Petrichor eyes, but I've been having some trouble with the heterochromia unfortunately- it shows up fine for the infants, but from toddlers onwards, I can't find them anywhere under skin details. I've switched my toddler's eyes to the aveira felicity eyes since cuz the heterochromia on those works for them, but I figured you ought to know.
Hmm, this is a weird bug! I've tried replicating it myself, but I'm having no luck; the heterochromia file works just fine for me in all ages. :\
It's listed under "Dimple - Right" in the Skin Details section; here it is in my own game (thumbnail near the bottom right of the image).
Could you try re-downloading the heterochromia file from SimFileShare and see if replacing it helps? Sometimes files get corrupted or messed up a little when downloading or updating your game.
Anyone else having this problem? Worst comes to worst I could try re-creating the file from scratch.
Hmmm… actually, you know what could be the problem?
Try removing the Aveira Heterochromia eye file from your mods folders and see if it shows up then.
It could be because I copied the Aveira heterochromia package file to use for Petrichor, and they might be interfering with each other in the game.
If that's the case, I'll do my best to fix it. Let me know how it turns out! <3 (Sorry I can't do too much investigating right now, I have some IRL stuff to take care of!)
I have an automated Photoshop action that does it, but it's really easy to do. Click through the cut to see the steps!
First I take a screenshot of the text box/notif I want to use. I open it in Photoshop and select the relevant part using the selection tool, then copy and paste it on top of my edited screenshot.
Then I apply a layer style to the notif. You can reach the Layer Style options by right clicking on the layer and selecting "Blending Options", or double clicking on the layer thumbnail. Here're the relevant settings:
The Outer Glow adds a very fuzzy dark shadow the notif, to help set it apart a bit more from the background. You can also use Drop Shadow for this, but I use Outer Glow because I don't want it to be offset. :)
The Inner Glow just softens the inner edges of the notif a teensy bit, blending it with the border a bit better.
The main part is the Stroke, which is set to 41% opacity so it's not so stark.
The result:
I made adding this layer style into an automated action so I don't have to redo the layer style settings every single time I edit a notif.
