WillowDarling🌱

A Taylor Swift, Sims 4, Love Actually and book enthusiast 🌸🍁☁️

[willowdarling37]

"It must be nice to be a man and make boring music just because you can" - Florence + the machine

[willowdarling37]

Not in my charcuterie afternoon!

My friendgroup all live scattered amongst three houses within a 10 minute walk so hangouts are often low key and people pop in and out of each other's houses at will. I wanted to do something that would bring people all together so I baked them bread!

Initially branded as my 'bread tasting', I invited over the whole group for my 'charcuterie afternoon' - I even went to Sainsbury's to buy olives, hummus, balsamic vinegar and charcuterie meats!

It was a roaring success until my housemate's situationship gatecrashed uninvited and spent the whole time making strange comments, therefore killing any conversation that got started. Everyone ate as fast as they could, studiously avoiding eye contact with each other as not to burst out laughing and left.

My lovely afternoon and all my hard work, ruined.

So I did what any sane person would do - I hosted another, the next day when I knew the uninvited guest would be busy. 10/10 afternoon with no weird tension and I will definitely be doing that again. Plus it was a great way to procrastinate on my assignments.

Any advice on how to stop future unwanted guests very welcome though...

[willowdarling37]

How to solve an argument with cookies...

This weekend, I found myself at odds with a housemate I tried to talk to her but we are having a communication problem so I did the natural thing: I baked cookies.

Ingredients:

180g Plain flour 150g Sugar 1 egg 1 tsp Vanilla extract 120g Salted butter (softened) 1 tsp Baking powder / bicarbonate soda 125g Chocolate chunks (I like dark chocolate)

Note: the butter doesn't need to be too soft, just soft enough that you can cream it together with the sugar without an issue.

Steps:

Preheat your oven to 180C / 160C fan, line a baking tray (or two) with greaseproof paper.

Cream the sugar and butter together until it forms a thick paste, beat in the egg and vanilla.

When that is all mixed together, add in flour, baking powder and chocolate. If using unsalted butter, add in a pinch of salt here too.

Put balls of cookie dough onto the baking tray, making sure to leave space for them to expand.

Let them cook for 12 minutes and then allow to cool before enjoying!!

I can confirm, the cookies went down well and all is well in the house!

[seaphine]

parked car conversations are lowkey unofficial therapy sessions.

[willowdarling37]

Babel by R.F Kuang (spoiler free)

Immediately drawn in by the promise of a fantasy, dark-academia story set in historical Oxford, this book did not disapoint.

It takes a slightly different track to the typical dark academia Oxford novel and in that way it was a breath of fresh air. The characters were loveable, frustrating and unpredictable and that's what made it so good. Every plot twist was shocking and provided the perfect twist, all ending in an intensely satisfying way.

5/5 stars and I will be going out to purchase Katabasis as soon as possible.

[willowdarling37]

'Butter' by Asako Yuzuki (spoiler free)

Over the past 2 weeks I've been reading 'Butter' by Asako Yuzuki. Taking 2 weeks to finish an approximately 400 page book is unusually long for me but in this case it meant that it required my full attention rather than being able to casually read.

The rest of this review was tricky to write as both the protagonist Riko and the antagonist Kajii were well written and very complex characters, meaning that I don't really know how to feel about them. I personally view this as a strength of the author, being able to create complex characters with such depth and life to them but on the other hand, for most of the book I did not know who I was rooting for.

There were many moments in the book in which I thought I knew what direction the rest of the book would go in, but I was wrong every time. I appreciated being surprised at every turn but some of the plot developments felt rushed or randomly thrown together.

Overall I did really enjoy this book and I gave it 4 stars! I would recommend it to those who have enjoyed books by Haruko Murakami or enjoy psychological crime.

[willowdarling37]

Smart family legacy update

There have been many family events recently, and not all of them good.

Starting off with the birthdays: Charly and Christie aged up into young adults! Charly decided to join the entertainer career with the intention of becoming a musician and Christie is currently focusing on raising her neice, Daille but intends on following her mother's (Billie) legacy and becoming an engineer (#women in stem). Daniele aged up into a child, she has the active trait with the motor aspiration and Daille aged up in to a toddler with the independent trait.

Unfortunately though, both Teagan Smart (wife of Bailee) and Ada Smart (Matriarch!!) have died. Ada died at 97 of old age and Teagan as an adult of electrocution.

Ada is survived by 1 child (Billie, out of 3), 5 grandchildren (Clara, Celina, Christie, Clark & Charly, out of 10) and 4 great-grandchildren (Daniele, Danny, Dallas & Daille). She will be sorely missed by everyone but especially by her loving wife Amara.

A man came to the house off the street and immediately passed away, the reason is unclear. RIP to Kenneth Curtis as well.

Stay tuned to see how Ada's heirlooms get distributed as well as see what the family get up to next...

[taylornation]

Wishing you a happy holidays. Hope every wish comes true! 🎄

[willowdarling37]

Raising generation 4!

Welcome back to my 'alphabet generations' challenge, where I build a family legacy through unique generations and assign each generation a letter of the alphabet.

Currently living in the household we have our matriarchs Ada and Amara (both elders), their eldest daughter Billie (adult), her youngest daughter Christie (teen), Charly (teen daughter of Banana), her daughter Daniele (toddler), Daille (infant daughter of Charles who was Bailee's son).

As already established, we have now started generation 4 although we are still playing generation 3! Charly managed to graduate high school early, is level 8 at piano, level 5 at singing and violin and has just picked up the guitar. She is also anxiously waiting back to hear about her university application that she just sent off. She is also a great mother to Daniele and they have the 'supportive' family dynamic.

Charles has just fathered three children (including a set of twins: Dallas and Daille) and eloped with his boyfriend. He is a much less exemplary parents as he has left his grandmothers to care for his daughter Daille and has never even met his son. (Who he fathered accidentally)

Photo gallery: 1. Charly playing together with her daughter Daniele 2. Charly, Christie and Daniele having a nice time outside together

[willowdarling37]

Raising gen 3 and the start of gen 4

Today, Charly (3) and Christie (1) got promoted to grade school A students. Charly picked up singing in addition to violin and made it to level 3 in both before the girls had a shared birthday party and entered their teenage years.

Currently, both are high school A students with Christie taking up chess team to appease her mother. Charly took up student theatre and has recently been given a keyboard in order for her to pick up piano.

Charly was decided to be the most beautiful of her generation and was awarded Bailee's cheer trophy as an award. The award for academic achievements (Billie's chess trophy) has also been awarded to Charly due to the fact she graduated high school at 16 and Christie was still enrolled.

After graduating, Charly focused on her music (piano mainly) and then was introduced to Lyric Ueda by her grandmother, Amara.

I decided that the family home would be updated and remodelled when we have chosen our first heir of generation 4. One thing that has gone wrong with my mods is that sims almost always fall pregnant after Woohoo and there is nothing I can do to stop it.

As a teenager, Charly had a daughter (Daniele) with Lyric. Daniele was provisionally chosen as the first heir of generation 4. Daniele is a descendent of Banana (3).

Pictured: Billie (adult) Charly (teenager) Christie (teenager)

[willowdarling37]

About !!

Welcome to my little Tumblr page! I've made a new one, separate from my personal one so I thought I'd re-introduce myself (for anyone reading...)

I love Taylor Swift, The Sims 4, Pinterest, Love Actually, baking & cooking, Chappell Roan, beading & BookTok, Maisie Peters, knitting & crafts and journalling!

Honestly I don't know what I'm going to be posting but I already have a Sims storyline lined up so it will at least include that. Potentially could also include movie thoughts/reviews, recipes (&reviews) as well as my thoughts on the books I read. I also find it impossible to talk for extended amounts of time without mentioning Taylor Swift so she will of course be featured.

So stick around if any of that is your vibe or it sounds interesting to you :)