Bridal Collection 2010

I'm back after a few months' break with my 2010 Bridal Collection, comprising four bridal gowns in a variety of styles to suit all tastes, ranging from slinky mermaid to fairytale ballgown to a sleek column silhouette.

I've made all the gowns available for adults and young adults, but do bear in mind that young adults cannot get married.

This set requires three external meshes by Biene, Chriko and Rosemat. I am sad that two of my favourite Sims 2 sites, 2-f0r-u.de and sim2-fashion.de, remain offline. Both sites had a wonderful range of interesting meshes. Fortunately, Pronupsims hosts several of these meshes and I have linked to this site as a source of the meshes in the meantime (this site is a fantastic resource for all things wedding-related for Sims 1 and Sims 2 and is definitely worth browsing if you're planning a Sims wedding). The fourth gown in this set uses the original base game Maxis bridal gown mesh - a lovely mesh, simple but elegant, which re-textures very nicely.

I have created a collection file which includes not only these new gowns but all of my previous formal gowns which would generally be considered suitable for use as bridal gowns, so now you can turn your CAS into a bridal salon. Have fun!

For further Sims 2 wedding tips, take a look at my tutorial here at TSR: The Sims 2 Wedding Planner.

Birkins by Bunny

Continuing my third wedding anniversary leather theme, I have created a set of gorgeous Birkin bags. I've been fascinated by Birkin bags ever since watching Samantha's struggle to get her hands on one in Sex & The City and was delighted to be given a bag in this style as an anniversary gift by my husband (not a real Birkin!). I've fallen in love with these bags - they're just so stylish and come in so many different colours and textures. I've created eight bags and have attempted to represent a cross section of the huge variety available. A real life Birkin may be unaffordable, but happily this is not so for your Sims!

Thank you to NataliS for her wonderful mesh which you can download here at TSR - and don't forget to check out her own re-colours of the mesh which are beautiful.

You will find the bags located in the glasses section in the game.

Cuero

Every year I create a set to celebrate my wedding anniversary. For our first (paper) anniversary I created a set of books: Love Stories. For our second (cotton) anniversary I created a set of cotton bathrobes: Cotton Club. This year it's our third anniversary, which is traditionally associated with giving gifts made from leather. After some thought, I hit upon the idea of a set of his & hers leather jackets. I've made two pairs, one in black and one in brown (shown below).

The female jacket requires University. The male jacket requires Open For Business. All jackets are available for adults and young adults and are top half only. The female jacket goes best with the H&M low rise jeans (shown in the preview pictures) - with other bottom halves the lower part of the jacket gets cut off to a varying degree, although it still looks OK.

Verona

It's not often I dabble in wall and floor creation, however I am in the process of planning a new bathroom in real life and thought it might be helpful to create some Sim versions of the kinds of tiles I am considering to give me some idea how my bathroom might look. Is there no end to the many uses of The Sims? It isn't just a lot of fun; it also has many practical applications. ;-)

The tiles I have made are all marble and come in seven shades with matching wall and floor tiles in each.

As for the name, I visited Verona once and I seem to remember marble was very big there. All the streets in the city centre were paved with marble. It was really beautiful.

Peace

Due to a torn calf muscle, Sim yoga is the closest I am going to get to a real yoga practice for some time (sob!). I can't tell you how frustrated I am feeling. So to cheer myself up I wanted my Sims to have a wide range of outfits to choose from for my vicarious yoga practice. This is my third set of yoga outfits, the first two being Unity and Harmony. This set comprises four outfits, with a more casual feel than the previous two sets, featuring linen Capri pants worn with either a kaftan or a halter top. As always, all my yoga outfits are worn with bare feet.

I felt that these outfits, unlike most of my previous yoga outfits, would also work well as everyday wear, so I have also made a version of this set with flip-flops - perfect as vacation wear for use with Bon Voyage.

All these outfits are available for adults and young adults and are base game compatible (do you recognise the pyjama mesh?). I have categorised the outfits under gym wear because the Sims change into gym wear before practicing yoga, even though these outfits wouldn't be particularly appropriate for running on a treadmill or going for a jog. The set comes with an updated collection icon which includes all 14 of my yoga outfits. I will shortly be combining my three yoga sets into a superset for ease of dowloading.

Ballerina 2

This is my second set of ballet outfits. I was delighted when Maxis included ballet as part of FreeTime but disappointed by the extremely limited selection of ballet outfits provided - including only a single tutu! So naturally I felt compelled to create some re-colours of the very cute Maxis FreeTime tutu mesh (I love the lace straps and the rose on the bodice). I have created six new tutus (3 pink, 1 white, 1 black and 1 red) all worn with white ballet tights and classic pale pink pointe ballet slippers with ribbon ties. The later Maxis meshes are less flexible than earlier meshes as far as re-colouring goes, so the basic design of my tutus is the same as the Maxis original i.e. crossover straps at the back and rose embellishment.

All outfits are available for adults and young adults and require FreeTime in order to show up in your game. I have categorised the tutus under both athletic and everyday wear. You need to have them available as athletic wear as the Sims change into athletic wear before using the ballet barre - but bear in mind that you might not want to have a tutu set as your Sim's athletic wear choice if you're planning to have your Sim go jogging or tackle an assault course! I have included a ballerina collection icon with this set - all 14 of my ballet outfits will appear as part of the collection - to enable you to find the outfits more easily in your game.

Harmony

My first set of yoga outfits, Unity, has been quite popular so I decided to create a second set. This set comprises four outfits: two with leotards and footless tights and two with Capri pants and tank tops. All outfits have bare feet.

All four outfits are available for adult and young adult females, use a standard Maxis mesh and are base game compatible. They are categorised under gym wear.

Unity

These days I am creating content for the game based on what I find lacking whilst playing the game myself. I noticed recently that there really aren't any outfits included with the game suitable for yoga practice, which should ideally be performed with bare feet. So to remedy this, I have created six comfy, bare-footed outfits specifically for this purpose; three with leotards and footless tights and three with capri pants.

All outfits are available for adult and young adult females and are categorised as athletic wear (although some outfits could also be used as everyday wear if re-categorised). All the outfits use a standard Maxis mesh and are base game compatible.

Ballerina

This is my first new set for several months. I was playing Sims 2 recently and was frustrated by the poor selection of ballet outfits included with FreeTime. I've always had a thing about ballet, ever since I got my first ballerina Sindy one Christmas - do you remember ballerina Sindy? She had fishnet tights and a pink tutu with a velcro fastening - so I decided to create some re-colours of the Maxis FreeTime ballet mesh. I love the cute pointe ballet slippers. The colours I've used are my usual choices - pink, white, lilac and black. Two outfits come with fishnet tights, the rest have seamed tights. One outfit borrows the legwarmers from my Work That Body! aerobics set.

All outfits are for adults and young adults, are categorised under athletic/gym and require FreeTime.

Poll results and new poll

My 6th poll ran from 19 June to 8 September 2009.The question was "How many Stuff Packs do you own?" Thank you to the 159 people who took part. The results were as follows:

26 people (16.4%) owned 0 packs

11 people (6.9%) owned 1 pack

16 people (10%) owned 2 packs

9 people (5.7%) owned 3 packs

9 people (5.7%) owned 4 packs

9 people (5.7%) owned 5 packs

8 people (5%) owned 6 packs

8 people (5%) owned 7 packs

15 people (9.4%) owned 8 packs

48 people (30.2%) owned all 9 packs

So, as I'd predicted, most people took an 'all or nothing' approach and decided either to embrace the Stuff Pack concept and buy them all or to reject the concept and to buy none of them.

My new poll is about attitudes to Sims 1, 2 and 3. Do you love Sims 3? Have you uninstalled Sims 1 and 2 to concentrate all your energy on it? Or did you install Sims 3, decide it wasn't for you and go back to Sims 2? Perhaps you're still a Sims 1 addict? I'd love to know...