The Best of the Best (CC sites that is)

[Ellatrue]

Okay, we all have our favorite custom content sites... and I think there are some of them out there that really shine among the rest, and you want to have at least half of their stuff in your game (for example). So my question is, which sites do you find truly exceptional? Other than MATY, of course!

My nominations for awesomeness:

pronupsims
www.pronupsims.net

simswardrobe
http://www.simwardrobe.com/

holysimoly
http://www.holysimoly.com/

[flowerchile]

I have to add http://www.aussietopenders-sims2.com/ and http://www.4eversimfantasy.net/  to that list of awesomeness.  I love their stuff 

Okay, some of their stuff is pay, yet I still find that I have a lot of their stuff gracing my D/L folder  >_>

[PlayLives]

All About Style, http://www.all-about-style.com/

[Zazazu]

For hair, I love love love Raon Sims (bootified, of course) - Just updated on the free stuff last night.
*second place, Noukie Sims (free)

For clothes, probably SimChic (bootified again)

Objects, Mango-Sims (free)is where all my staples are from.
*second place, Around the Sims 2 (bootified) the only issue being that some of the wood textures look a little blah at high resolutions.

[akatonbo]

Between MTS2 and TSR I have more favorite creators than favorite sites, but. (I'm addicted to beddingmatch and other texture repository stuff, and very little of that is on individual sites.)

http://www.aroundthesims2.com/ - CLUTTER. And other nice things too, but the clutter is the star.

http://www.xmsims.com/ - If you didn't like their older hair, take another look -- mesh quality has improved light years, most hair is now animated, multiple natural shades are available for each bin (and they ARE binned, and listed by which bin they've been placed in). Pages 52-53 have some really nice curly hair, and their recent style with the scarf would look excellent with some opaque recolors for the pirate laydeez.

ETA: Almost forgot -- http://www.piggis-sims.net/ is the mother of all woodtone recolor sites, and if you want a lot of nice windows and doors with lots of color options, get thee to Windkeeper's section in the TSR booty. (I mention these together because many of Windkeeper's sets draw textures from existing Maxis stuff, including recolors, and Piggi has a lot of Maxis recolors. So if you get a bunch of Windkeeper's sets and Piggi's recolors, you'll have the same color options for a huge variety of windows and doors, both Maxis and Windkeeper.)

[Ennarys]

I love almost all of those sites already mentioned and I'm discovering the others thanks to all of you http://avenidasims.com/ and http://www.pixelsims.com/ are also good.  They don't have alot of stuff but like almost all of what they have.

[Emma]

I love ATS2 (already been linked), Nouk, N99 Forum Paks and Hairfish's Site.

[Berg]

Two of my favourites for clothing are

Stajl - http://sillychic.com/stajl - awesome designs, awesome handpainted textures

SkindeepSims - http://skindeepsims.freehostia.com/ (all of my sims use her eyeliner these days)

[eevilcat]

Most of my favourites have already been mentioned, but I'll add another one to the list - http://sims-2.gameslife.ru/ for gorgeous floors/walls and some beautiful buy mode goodies.

[Hecubus]

Each of the above mentioned are on my must-have lists! I would also add the following for specific categories/objects:

JustSims2 - for great makeup by Barcelona, and some lovely haute couture

Windkeeper (TSR) - MUST-HAVE window sets (donation items bootified)

Dincer - for unique antiquities, including a stunning Nefertiti bust (donation items bootified)

Moune's Neighborhood - for her shelving system, which has become a staple in my game

ssalam style - for some lovely dresses and suits (sadly no longer updating)

Sterling Sims - for gorgeous walls and floors

Stylist Sims - for some gorgeous items, including a great spiral staircase and the Barcelona bathroom (donation items bootified)

Simply Styling - for their great textured walls, which are now a staple in my builds

Sims Kitchen - for just about everything...her Pottery Barn set is stunning in-game

[Sleepycat]

BogSims Institute
http://www.bogsims.com/

[sewinglady]

In spite of recent troubles, I still like 2-for-U ...I even have to admit I've got some of her more 'slutty' stuff in game... romance sims always need something racy to wear...

And previously mentioned - the always free and always topnotch work at All About Style... a must stop destination every Friday and Saturday (that's when Judy updates).

At the other end of the spectrum, I was looking at TSR today, and shudder - there is some gawdawful crap in amongst the good there.

[Flamingo]

Lyran 2.0.

[PandaGirl]

I love Bruno's makeup. It's all I use for lips and eyes these days.

[Strangel]

So very very very very helpful to me.. Recently spousi got together and bought me a new graphics card for my birthday. While installing it, the wrong button was hit on the "Hey, wanna update Firefox, permanently deleting ALL Strangel's two years of carefully collected, hoarded, and categorized bookmarks, including links that can no longer be easily found and/or searched for?!" popup window.


-whimper-

[Tigerlilley]

This is a big list from Exnem:  http://www.exnemsims.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1051

Thanks for the link to Stajl, I'd wondered what happened to her...

[Ambular]

So very very very very helpful to me.. Recently spousi got together and bought me a new graphics card for my birthday. While installing it, the wrong button was hit on the "Hey, wanna update Firefox, permanently deleting ALL Strangel's two years of carefully collected, hoarded, and categorized bookmarks, including links that can no longer be easily found and/or searched for?!" popup window.


-whimper-

Let me introduce you to my good friend and occasional savior, Bookmark Backup:

http://www.pikey.me.uk/mozilla/

[Flamingo]

Yeah, with Firefox and Opera, you can back up bookmarks pretty easily. All it involves is making copies of your current bookmarks file. Firefox will do it automatically.

Go to Documents and Settings>User>Mozilla>Firefox>Profiles>ppgk8s0b.default. This should contain your bookmarks that are currently in use. Your equivalent of my ppgk8s0b.default folder may be named something different, but I am unsure. The folder for your backups should also be located in this folder.

Alternately, for Opera, clicking the help menu and going to "About Opera" will show you the path for your bookmarks.

[Orikes]

I love Bruno's makeup. It's all I use for lips and eyes these days.

I wasn't happy with Bruno's makeup. At least the one I downloaded on recommendation. It's not universal to skin tone, so it looks hideous on the two darker skin tones.

I'll echo the recommendation on Raon's hairs. There's plenty of free stuff, and anything that's donation can be snagged from the Booty. Not to mention that, she's got some great male hair in addition to all the female hair. She's also got a nice porch swing on her site.

I'm also a fan of some of Caravan Shop Sims2 stuff. You have to grab it from the Booty, but they've got some nice stuff. I'm particularly fond of the Alchemy stuff, which gives you a hidden bookcase door that looks nice and is animated well too. http://www.caravanshopsims2.net/EN/caravan.php.

Most of my other favorites have been mentioned. Flem and Shtinky of Holy Simoly are so good they can have my firstborn. I'm also getting to be a fan of All About Style.

For individual creators over at MTS2, there's a couple I like...
Hysterical Paroxysm - http://modthesims2.com/creator/HystericalParoxysm - Love the hairs, and there's some other cool stuff there.
Animera - http://www.modthesims2.com/creator/animera - I love her kids clothes.

I also refuse to live without the ceiling tiles from there http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=42789. They make picture taking so much nicer.

[akatonbo]

Yeah, a lot of bruno's eye shadow is for light skintones only (and for no real good reason). The rest of the makeup is nice, though (and I've kept a few of the light-skin only stuff anyway because it looks so nice on the S1 types). Nobody beats Helaene for greatest total VOLUME of stuff worth keeping, though, for makeup, eyes, and brows.

[Khaki]

For individual creators over at MTS2, there's a couple I like...
Hysterical Paroxysm - http://modthesims2.com/creator/HystericalParoxysm - Love the hairs, and there's some other cool stuff there.
Animera - http://www.modthesims2.com/creator/animera - I love her kids clothes.

I also refuse to live without the ceiling tiles from there http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=42789. They make picture taking so much nicer.

Wondering have you tried HP's "Bottomful Floors" for use as visible ceilings? It's so much easier to place than those individual tiles ...
http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=211418
and I love Ailias for his sheer volume of creations, but especially for all the maxi's completer sets he's made...
http://modthesims2.com/member.php?u=16333

My view of favorite creator/site is somewhat skewed because it's always more important to me if the items are share friendly (not just free) since I want to include the stuff in lots I upload...  I don't have anything in my game that's not share friendly nowadays...

[Strangel]

Yeah, with Firefox and Opera, you can back up bookmarks pretty easily. All it involves is making copies of your current bookmarks file. Firefox will do it automatically.

Go to Documents and Settings>User>Mozilla>Firefox>Profiles>ppgk8s0b.default. This should contain your bookmarks that are currently in use. Your equivalent of my ppgk8s0b.default folder may be named something different, but I am unsure. The folder for your backups should also be located in this folder.

Alternately, for Opera, clicking the help menu and going to "About Opera" will show you the path for your bookmarks.

I did a little probing and found the folder you're talking about. Unfortunately, the oldest backup it has is POST-upgrade. I understand it's my own fault for not backing them up like I used to.. lol I just miss them. What I did before was go to Bookmarks, Manage Bookmarks. It opens a little manager window, then File, Export. That sends the equivalent of one of those files you sent me to out to your desktop.

Amber, thanks for sharing the link to Bookmark Backup.

[Fat D]

Numenor and xanathon (at least his scifi stuff) at MTS2. Also stuff by echo and such. However, that does not mean that MTS2 is perfect. There are many things I don't like, even among the features.
And I like simlogical. There is stuff by Inge that I use as much as some awesomeware. For example her security system (which I need to upgrade and reinstall, by the way) and the clothes changing system. Well, not the original one, but rather mine, which however is based on hers (I took some of the menu options and used it as a base, but all but the clothing options and the NPC check are original code nowadays. That's why my solution works on diagonals and has a few more triggers to make sure that the dresscode is enforced properly).

[stormygsa]

Fat D - I can't live without you're clothes changing system.  Its the one of the first things I place on a new lot.

I recently discovered and fell in love with VJ Development.  She has 80+ lots that are replicas of many Chicago Area neighborhoods.
www.vjdevelopment.com

Gail 

[akatonbo]

Where is this clothing changing system found?