Extras: The Moonbeam-Starchild Family

[strangetomato]

I've been experiencing some serious creative block lately for just about everything. I have images ready for the next story chapter and also for an update to The Tomato Legacy, but I'm finding it nearly impossible to sit down and write anything for them. No amount of coffee seems to help. I thought it might be somewhat helpful to finally post these pics from my recent playing of Blossom Moonbeam in Bluewater Village, as a way to get myself moving again.

Blossom graduated (I know... amazing! :P) and moved into the Romantic Residence, one of the packaged lots that comes with Kitchen and Bath stuff, previously seen in Strange Bedfellows. I gave it a bit of a makeover, as you can see:




I was inspired by the Earth Day theme on GoS, so I gave it a green roof as well as a greenhouse on the roof. There's also an orchard and a hell of a lot of solar panels and wind turbines. In my mind, they're completely off the the grid, and I know that each green energy source does reduce bill costs in-game, so they're probably pretty close.

I'm happy that plants do grow on rooftops (this is my second rooftop garden in Sims 2), but they do float above the garden patch, which is unfortunate, but hardly noticeable from below the house.





Here's another look at the lot, showing the inside. I already posted about Blossom's yoga studio, an addition to the left side of the house. I also took down some walls and added another bedroom in place of the huge bathroom. Family sims need room for children, afterall.




Speaking of, I'm really quite proud of the match I made for Blossom. That's Jared Starchild, from Sim State University. During my creative dry spell of the past year, I've continued playing the game, focussing on characters I've never spent much time with before, including all of the uni kids. Jared is not only an artsy-fartsy flower child type, but he's also a family sim!

I cloned him off and moved him to Bluewater, and the sparks started flying! This ones a triple-bolter, even without secondary aspirations or switching the turn ons and offs. Before long it was nothing but trying for baby or pregnant woohoo or just hangin' out in the nude ('cause body shame is oh so bourgeois).




Blossom is very traditonal about one thing: she gave birth in the bathroom.

(Their clothes are both from the GoS Earth Day monthly theme thread, by the way. Awesome stuff.)




Thanks to all the family sim rewards, she had twins. Two boys, Vata and Pitta.




But why waste time on the next brood? They got pregnant almost instantly after the birth, all thanks to ACR. I get the feeling this will be a BIG family.




Here's Vata. He's a sweet little thing.




The nose is pretty cute right now, but I suspect it will bloom into a proud proboscis like Jared's.




I say that because Pitta has a flatter one, which seems more likely to be Blossom's nose. I have no experience with the template that Jared seems to be based on, so at this point, I was only guessing (but I'll get to that in a minute).

Pitta is a pretty adorable little creature too.




Yes, Blossom, you're pregnant again! Surprise! *snerk*

Or is she just wondering where that kid came from? They have so many...




Jared tucks Vata in for the night. They're very devoted parents, always rolling baby wants. I really wish there was a baby sling item, so they could tote the babies around while they garden. That'd be awesome.

On the same note, I was planning to make a replacement for the boring old default diaper to make it look like colourful Bum Genius (or similar) reuseable diapers. That'd really work well for this family, but I'd probably use them for every sim family, because I'm all about the non-disposible personal hygiene products (I highly recommend Lunapanties and/or the DivaCup, for example).




Blossom's next birthing takes place in the orchard, which is fittingly natural. Jared isn't just happy, he's thrilled! Go Blossom! Wooo!




Here's the loading screen. I moved Blossom in before I changed their names to Moonbeam-Starchild, which is too bad. It wouldn't been better with the full name.

The second set of twins were a boy and a girl, Kapha and Namaste. They also have a tonne of pets: a cat named Nimbus (actually a kitten from Jaxy and Zoe's cats), a womrat named Prana, and a parrot named Gaia.

Now for the real fun... I aged them up just to see what they'll look like, since I didn't want to play too far ahead.






Pitta






Vata

(I was right about the nose!:P)







Kapha







and Namaste.

They're certainly interesting.







Comments

[bondchick-nett.livejournal.com]

I ADORE the house! The roof garden is perfection, and something I'd been idly wondering about recently but figured it wouldn't work. I am VERY glad to be proven wrong!

HOLY MOSES, PITTA! O_O;; Going back to ape-ish roots? Namaste has a tonne of potential :D

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. ^_^ The rooftop garden does function just fine, aside from the hover-veggies. That's a little odd, but as my mother-in-law would say, "it doesn't affect the taste!" :P I wonder what causes the floating...

Yes, Pitta does have a rather interesting profile. Namaste is pretty, but she does seem to have the Jared's nose. It definitely won out genetically.

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

Ooooo I love that house. I'd tried to put a greenhouse roof over a dwelling before and failed, but I never thought of just putting a greenhouse right on top of a flat roof! That's genius, and the house is gorgeous.

Love the kids' names. ^_^ Very appropriate! And the casual nudity -- Blossom and Jared remind me of some of my old friends who liked to hang out in just their skins whenever it was warm enough.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thank you. ^_^ The greenhouse roof over the house should work, in theory, because Rose Greenman's house is like that (one of the more interesting characters in Riverblossom Hills, going back to our chat about how boring it is. I find Desiderata Valley to be the most boring. Riverblossom at least has Alex O'Mackey the Dread Pirate, and the farmer character is sort of fun to play too).

I'd like to try some other experimental things with the garden tool. Trees will also live on rooftops, though it makes much less sense. :P My simself had a rooftop orchard on a three storey apartment in Sim City and it worked just fine. I tend to play small lots, so I try things like that.

Heheh. Awesome. So was there a risk of dropping by when everyone was sans clothing? I guess they probably didn't even bat an eyelash...

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

Maybe I just failed at the greenhouse roof, then. I was probably trying to make it too big.

I've seen small trees growing on roofs. Near the town I was born is a mildly famous tree growing on a courthouse roof. Some urban green rooftops sport trees too, so it's possible! I'm not sure where the root system goes, though.


Yeah, there was definitely a risk of that! I wasn't as casual about it, myself, though I did my share of skinny dipping at the lakes (the more private ones) or the quarries. Somehow the act of swimming made it more plausible to me. :)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

You should give it another try! If you install Seasons, that is. I think it made the cut, right?

That's so cool. I love the photos, especially the second one. I was mostly concerned about the root system too, but I guess there's probably a want to take it into consideration before you plant. Having deep enough soil that's well suported, and all that. So my orchard wasn't so out there, afterall. The orchard trees aren't too large in the game, so it probably would look okay.

I've done skinny dipping too. It's not quite as intimidating to me, because the water does hide the details. Unless you're really looking, you probably won't even see much.

[simtopi]

I had no idea that you can grow plants on the roofs. Can you garden up there too? A rooftop garden would be awesome!

I forgot about Jared in my game. Wasn't he from Sim State U? Something must have happened to him, he's not in the sim bin and I have no idea where he went.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a garden in there. Inside the greenhouse, I have all types of veggies growing and they can tend to it (even the gardener climbs the ladder to work up there). The only problem is the weird floating plants. The sims will bend down to garden, but the actual plant is way above their head, just hanging out in the air.

Jared is a student at Sim State, yes. I think he was a bin sim. Maybe you dropped him into a dorm?

[simtopi]

I think I play all my occupied dorms fairly regularly. I can't remember ever playing Jared and now this kind of bothers me. I have a missing Sim. D:

Ahem. In any case, thanks for inspiring me about the roof garden. I totally want to try it out. And I think the sprogs are cute, even all grown up. Namaste is beautiful and I love her name. :)

[emmelfish.livejournal.com]

Oh my, what a perfect match! It's so nice to see Bloss with someone who actually suits her (I've tortured mine and paired her up with her polar opposite). I love their little commune-esque existence, and that yoga room is pure win. Are those clothes still knocking about anywhere now that GoS is down? They're lovely.

Chillin' out in their birthday suits, perhaps listening to some Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane I imagine. Groovy.

Incidentally the baby sling would make for an awesome game object. And thanks for the links to those websites, I'm a keen recycler but I hadn't a clue about those! We just have cans, cardboard, clothes and bottles shoved down our throats here in the UK but no one ever mentions nappies or feminine hygiene. Typically uptight Brits (not to include myself). I'll have to do some research ;)

I'm looking forward to spawning Jared and planting that nose everywhere. His genetics are so strong in your babbies I'm amazed no one got the gînge bonce... Is black hair more dominant than red? I can never remember...

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

That's some sweet Gonzo nose you got going on. NICE!

Jared's hair is nice, too. Was that a GOS item as well?

And thanks for reminding me of a breeding mashup preview I forgot to do yesterday (I like to take in game couples and breed them in CAS then breed their children to other mashup children--Blossom and Pierre need to add their genes to my pot).

[muslemura.livejournal.com]

Oh, what I gorgeous house! And Moonbeam-Starchild is the greatest name combo ever - the two of them are truly made for one another ^^;

[sophie10.livejournal.com]

Wow that house looks like my dad's idea of paradise! And those are some interesting profiles :D

[pearkiwi.livejournal.com]

Lovely house! Earth Day was easily my favorite theme GOS has had.

Here's a fix for the floating garden problem: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=229680

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you! I had no idea there was a fix for that. I also see a couple of other useful hacks on that user's profile page.

I was very into the Earth day theme. I keep hoping (and voting) that they'll do the Castway/pirate, Creature feature, or rock star themes.

[selenecorvino.livejournal.com]

Thank you for linking the fix.

[budgie-budgie.livejournal.com]

Groovy family :)
I love the whole concept! (I could serioulsy have only hippies/gardeners/musicians/artists in my hood, but that wouldn't of course be very interesting), I love their looks and plenty of great noses there :D. I need to dig up Jared from the sim bin and check him out, I don't know who that is to be true, but he looks so cool in your game! Peace!
/ DivaCup User ;)

[fireflys-locket.livejournal.com]

This house looks fabulous! The Moonbeam-Starchilds are a lucky family. Lots of love and greenness to go around. <3

[dhearest.livejournal.com]

The house is amazing. I love all the plants, and the roof is stunning too. Very creative idea there!
Oh, that nose that nose. I'm wary about breeding with templates because they have such...interesting features.

[simsinthecity.livejournal.com]

I'd have never thought that Vata would look like that as an adult after seeing him as a baby! Sort of like the way Hal Capp ends up changing as an adult ...

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

Their house is gorgeous, and Blossom moonbeam is awesome. It makes me so sad that GoS is gone so I can';t go download her amazing clothes. ;_;

And the template that Jared is based off of is intense. It's actually one of the few faces I have default face replacements for, it's so unfortunate (imo.)

[saunasims.livejournal.com]

Whelp, now I want to build houses with rooftop gardens too!
I love how you lamp-shaded the couch canoodling. :D

[rurouniidoru.livejournal.com]

I love making huge hippie families. They're always so much fun, especially with ACR involved. I've got a commune going in one of my 'hoods where I'm pretty sure literally every one of the (seven!) residents is in love with all the others.

In other news, JFLDSFKLJAL STRANGE TOMATO IS USING SOMETHING I MADE. Pardon me while I die of feeling flattered.

[trippytexan.livejournal.com]

Woah, the schnoz, it kills me! :-D

And I really like what you did with the green/orange theme. The house manages to look more "earthy" as opposed to "tacky". I've always associated the green/orange combo with my grandparents' ancient green shag carpet + orangey-brown faux wood walls (so HOT in the 1970's, dontchaknow) but it actually looks pretty good with a somewhat more modern touch.

[selenecorvino.livejournal.com]

Nice looking house, utilizing every bit of space and being enviromentally conscience too. Where did you eventually fit everybody? Love the picture of her giving birth in the orchard, in real hippy fashion.