Real Keepsakes Of Your Sims Family Legacies & History

AUTO-GENERATED

[00:00:00] Gloria from Yellow Llama Co.:

Welcome to Sentimental Simmer, a podcast made for emotionally attached simmers and storytellers with wild imaginations. I’m your host, Gloria, and I run Yellow Llama Co., a planner shop made to help simmers play with purpose. Every week, I talk all about things, sim life planning, storytelling, and memory keeping. I’ll also brainstorm new ways to obsess over our pixel people, whether they be in the Sims or another live sim game. And now let’s get into it. In today’s episode, I’m gonna share my 5 favorite ways to collect keepsakes in real life. These simmers tend to be in it for the long haul and play our games for decades on end, so you’ll want a way to remember all the good times. As described in the past episodes, there are many ways to create and collect memories of your pixel people in game whether that be, you know, with an object, a symbol, an heirloom, a monument.

Gloria [00:00:58]:

But what if you wanna look back on your sim, you know, yourself and and what they’ve done. What if you don’t wanna have to open up the game to do so? And, I mean, screenshots are really not sufficient. So how do you do that? I vaguely remember the 1st family I created in the Sims 3 back in 2009 when it was first released. I think I played them for, I don’t know. 3 generations or so. A handful. But, unfortunately, I don’t really have that save anymore. I couldn’t find it.

Gloria [00:01:25]:

I could’ve sworn I had screenshots. I really don’t know where they are either, but I know I have, like, a handful, but that’s that’s about it. I recall, like, you know, when you have a sentiment of a memory, but you Can’t really you don’t really know anything. You have, like, an emotional feeling. Well, I know there was some drama, and I noticed that there was some scandal. And I know I enjoyed it very much, but I don’t know the details. I can’t even tell you their names, and that’s a real shame. I mean, even the fact that it was the 1st family ever played in the Sims 3, wouldn’t you wanna have More evidence of that.

Gloria [00:01:52]:

And, oh, we can’t even get started on Sims 2. I don’t have any memory. I mean, I remember when when I first Got the game. I think I played it. No. When I first got yeah. PC that could play the game proper and then install the game. I think I played for 30 hours on In one go, I remember the hookah very well, the bubble machine, but I don’t remember the sims I created.

Gloria [00:02:12]:

And this is such a shame. I mean and I know I’m not I’m alone. Like, I’ve been playing this game for, What? It’s gotta be, like, 20 years. It’s been a long time. I wanna be able to look back on the stories I’ve made and experience with my sims. This is the point of the episode today. Imagine if you were a writer and lost all the chapters of a book you’re working on. That’d be pretty devastating.

Gloria [00:02:31]:

And even though I don’t plan on publishing most of the things my sims get up to, I do wanna look back on them. You know, have something tangible. And, also, you know, it’s not uncommon to binge on the Sims or whatever life sim game of your choice and then leave the game closed for months on end. But then, you know, by the time you decide to come back to the game, you’re strangers. Like, you don’t know that sim anymore. They sure don’t know you anymore. Well, maybe they do. It feels like Just yesterday for them.

Gloria [00:02:56]:

Right? I think if you have their memories on file, it’ll definitely help you get up to speed way quicker and be immersed in their stories again, you know, in no time. So Even in that if even if it just has to do with being able to jump back in the game after a long hiatus, that’s already reason enough to collect those stories and their memories and to just have some sort of log line of what happened. But then comes the next issue. It can be quite overwhelming. There are so many different ways you could collect memories. It depends on your play style and, of course, personal preference. There are really many ways you can lock them and keep them safe, and I’m gonna share my favorite 5 ways to do so. And I hope that helps you find some system for yourself, to really organize the way you play your game and save what you’ve done.

Gloria [00:03:43]:

Of course, we have the planner, notebook, slider, diary system. So this is classic. I think probably every 2nd swimmer has made an attempt at collecting memories in a notebook, maybe in a in a diary planner of some sort. I think it’s great for role play, for scrapbooking, but also for planning the lives of your Sims. So if you have a physical planner, you know, you can have a physical or digital one. If you have a physical one, the benefits, you know, obviously, you have that pen on paper experience, and it’s in your own handwriting. So, you know, you have that familiar experience of just, you know, pen on paper, but it’s also very more intimate and personal. It’s also fun to physically flip through pages of memories.

Gloria [00:04:21]:

You also have it immediately. Like, there’s no need to open up any document. You don’t have to turn your PC on. Nothing like that. It’s just ready at hands always. You just need a pen, really. You could have, for example, blank journal or notebook, like, really clean slate. It really gives you the ultimate freedom, you know, on how you want to collect the memories.

Gloria [00:04:37]:

You know, you can get scrapbooky with it. You know, you can add you know, print out screenshots. You can use stickers. You can add doodles, Different colors. You can also just strictly use it to write. It could be a bound book, a moleskin or something like that. It could be, you know, a notebook or like a spiral notebook. It could be a binder that you have, you know, with pages.

Gloria [00:04:53]:

Like, it could be a Filofax. It could be, you know, just really a classic document binder. There’s so many, you know, Possibilities in size and format. It can be overwhelming, but, I mean, in the end, I think everyone at some point in their life realizes what They personally prefer I personally like my own sim planner, which is, you know, what is that, 6 by 9 inch? But, when I’m looking at Moleskin, I like the a five ish Size, but it’s slimmer, so it’s not as intimidating as maybe a full on. I if I I like it a bit smaller. I’ve actually, got a Notebook, not too long ago, and I can’t wait to get started with that. I’m just waiting for the rest of the little accessories to come. And I think that’ll really be a fun way to have, like, a Scrappy scrapbooky, ecology style memory book that I wanna keep of my sims.

Gloria [00:05:40]:

So that’s the blank journal notebook situation. You can also have a planner. I’ve already mentioned you have a sim planner that I created that actually has templates catered to Organizing the lives of your sims, but you can also use it to document their lives. So you have, you know, symbio pages that you can fill out with their information. For example, the sim, planner daily has a diary entry section on the daily pages that you can use. So it’s not only about, you know, keeping track of what they need to do, but also, you know, you can use it to keep Keep track of memories as well. The same goes for the weekly version. It’s just more on a weekly view.

Gloria [00:06:14]:

And I I’m actually planning on having, like, the ultimate System, I’m gonna have, like, a little memory book with, and I’m gonna have a weekly planner, you know, my sim planner for tracking what they need to do in my sims and organizing their lives, which in itself is also kind of like documenting of history. Because if you look back on any of your old planners that you’ve used to organize yourself, you see what events you went to, what Work you had to do, what things you’ve accomplished. In itself, it’s kind of like a, a memory tracker. Right? Yeah. It it just gives you a bit of more structure if you’re using a planner. So you have the physical, you know, either a blank slate, you know, notebook journal or planner. And if you’re looking digital, The benefits with a digital planner or or notebook or diary would be obviously, it’s digital medium, so you do have an undo button. You can use different fonts, fancy schmancy ones or handwritten ones.

Gloria [00:07:08]:

You have an endless amount of pages so you can duplicate, duplicate, duplicate page. You don’t have to get a new planner or or notebook once it’s full. There’s no printer needed for stickers or screenshots, and you can also, like, filter for things. You can, like, We have a search bar in most of these, you know, solutions. So if you just search for a word or a sim name, and you can, you know, bring up their information. I actually made the Digital Sim Life Planner, which is a hyperlink PDF file that you can use on your tablet, GoodNotes app, for example, and it has A lot of premade templates that you can use that also assist in memory keeping. So it has so it is a planner that was made 1st and foremost with organizing your students’ lives in mind, But you can, you know, use these pages also as diary pages, and it also has sim profile pages that you can use as a couple’s journey page. Many different templates that you can use to Keep track of the history.

Gloria [00:07:57]:

The fact that you can use it on a tablet and write on it does bring you a bit closer to that physical experience. So it’s a nice in between if you were to have a word file and, you know, the actual physical planner. So it’s it’s nice in between, nice marriage of both worlds. One app I really like to use to Keep track of my sims’ lore and their stories is OneNote, which is a free app for Microsoft. And you can really build, like, a Wikipedia style structure for your lore, which is, you know, great, of course, to collect any information about sims and their history and the worlds and all the things you can take notes on. And it also makes it super easy to link between those things. Beauty is also OneNote is compatible on all devices. So So it doesn’t matter if you have a tablet or a a PC, a Mac.

Gloria [00:08:42]:

You can use it on your phone. You can use it on the web. So It really is very accessible and also has handwriting. And so you can use it on tablet and write on it as well. So if you wanted to, like, doodle and and have handwritten notes set, also works with OneNote. I also made a template for OneNote. It was called the Sim Chronicles for OneNote, and it has a lot of templates more geared towards lore and storytelling and stuff like that. It’s It’s definitely useful if you, you know, are more keen to that or, like, rotational gameplay, but you can really use OneNote out of the box without anybody’s templates.

Gloria [00:09:11]:

Definitely, it’s a 100% recommendation for me. Another app that is very dear to my heart and, introduces also a new way to collect memories about your sims is if you get a genealogy app. So that’s basically just an app made to collect family history. Like, the well, not necessarily family history, but The relationships between families. So family relationships. Family tree. And it’s especially great for legacy gameplays if you really like to have longstanding families with multiple generations. The family tree in the game, whether it really any of the sim games has never been perfect, And bugs can always creep in, so you we wanna have a way to safe keep all that information, all those connections within those family generations.

Gloria [00:09:56]:

Right? You wanna keep track of it with an external app. Genealogy apps are perfect for this because they’re really made to collect family connections and relationships. Depending on the genealogy software you choose, you will have additional options or features to collect stories and memories as well. So I swear personally by the free My Family Tree app, which is not only super easy to use and allows for complex relationships, but it also has so many features that lets you really add more information about the Sims and their story. So you actually have a story feature, which you can add photos to. You can add a family crest. It’s really cool. It has a lot of formatting options as well, so it’s not, like, super basic.

Gloria [00:10:35]:

And you can also add events that are it could be just an event that’s Connected to another sim as well. It could be an event just about that one particular sim. And if you use real time dates, they even show up on a timeline, which is really cool. The only downside is that the app is only compatible on or with Windows. So, yeah, it’s not so great for Mac users, but there is an alternative, like a really strong app alternative for Mac users that would be the Mac Family Tree. It’s not free like my family tree app, but it’s still super strong and super cool. And it also has storytelling features. So I think it’s definitely a strong strong alternative.

Gloria [00:11:09]:

And I think if you play family legacies and that’s important part of your gameplay, then you really need a family tree app. Another cute way to have keepsakes of your your sims and what they’ve been doing is to use slideshow software. Like, for example, GSlides, I think what it’s called. GSlides. You could use Google Slides, for example, to create a mini photo album of your sim memories, and you also don’t have to start from scratch. There are quite a few templates out there that have, like, a scrapbooky or memory book memory keeping look to them that you can use. There are also, of course, modern templates out there if you prefer, And I personally really like the site slides go.com to find cute and free templates to create a photo album, maybe like a memory album or a wedding or something like that. So I would use it more for, like, micro memory taking for, like, specific occasions or events, life story of a sim, because, obviously, you know, it can get a bit cumbersome, you know, to create a 100 page slideshow, but it’s a fun way to create, like, a little memory album.

Gloria [00:12:10]:

Another way you can Create a keepsake for your sim is to create artwork. So I know it’s super nerdy, but I’m serious. Why not? Right? I mean, it could be as simple as editing the screenshot of your sim and just making it pretty, like adding, like, some floral Elements to it or some filters and then creating a collage of different photos. And, honestly, I think too much lives on our PC. People tell you that all all the time about photos on your phone. But let’s be honest. The only photos I really care about are the ones with my sims. I’m gonna be honest.

Gloria [00:12:45]:

Okay? This podcast is called Sentimental Simmer. So are you surprised? Why not print out some of those screenshots as well and put them in a light like a nice frame or something on your desk to look at, like your favorite sim, like the founding sim of your, You know, of the generational family gameplay you’re so proud of, it’s like a generation 3 now finally or something like that after 2 years or something. So that’s fun. You could also draw or paint your sim. You don’t have to be talented to do this. You know, you don’t have to show it to anyone, But I think it could be a fun little, you know, activity to to actually draw your sim. Of course, if you’re talented, then, oh, even more reason to do so. Right? Wouldn’t that be cool? That have, like, a an illustrated portrait of your sim or maybe even scenes of their lives.

Gloria [00:13:27]:

So that’s a a fun, you know, way to create A tangible keepsake that is that is super valuable. It’s creative as well. And another unique way to collect your favorite Sims To literally collect them is to put them on glass beads. So I found a tutorial online on how to create personalized magnets with glass beads. So, basically, you put on one side a photo and on the other side of a magnet. And then, Yeah. You have, like, a personalized bead, so you can do the same, but with some portraits. If you do attach magnets to the beads, What are the possibilities? Like, you could collect them and put them, like, on a magnet board and arrange them like a family tree.

Gloria [00:14:08]:

You could maybe take that sim bead or that that glass bead, and you can use it to secure a note about their history on the metal board. I think you can that can be really cool. It takes a little bit of work, but it the tutorial is pretty straightforward and pretty easy. So you really just need magnets, a glass bead, Some glue, I think, like, some special gesso or something like that to or I don’t know what that stuff is called, but that white stuff to make the, portrait smooth on the on glass bead and pretty much done. So You don’t need any special hardware, really. I think that would definitely be something that is unique and could be cute, you know, to hang up on your wall. Another keepsake that you can get creative with is if you were to create life souvenirs of your Sims. If you really wanna go the extra mile and get immersive with your memory keeping, Why not mock up documents for the milestones your Sims have experienced? There are only so many ways you can do this in game, and there are limitations of what the game actually shows you for these things.

Gloria [00:15:02]:

So why not create these documents yourself? And you could print them out in small sizes to put in your memory journal or, you know, collect them in a real life keepsake box. And there are so many templates online to use to create these types of documents or certificates, for example, in Canva. Some examples would be a birth certificate, Homeownership deed upon buying a home, maybe a wedding invitation. You can really give, you know, some fun with that. A mugshot. Why not? You can, like, Create a mugshot of your sim, some love letters. Like, you can actually, like, handwrite some love letters or use some, like, a handwriting Font online and, like, mock that up and then print it out, and I don’t know. I think it’d be cute.

Gloria [00:15:41]:

Or, a fake ultrasound, A will, some postcards. You can mock up like, you can take a nice photo of Solani, a screenshot, and then Actually made that look like a postcard. You can mock up tickets of that neighborhood concert they went to, restaurant receipts of maybe their 1st date with somebody. You can create actual maps of the, world, and that’s actually something, you know, which would tie back into That magnetic board and give it more use than just using it with those, you know, cool glass beads that I talked about just before. But you can actually, like, make, Like, a map of where your Sims family lives and, I don’t know, like, little pins about where they’ve been or I don’t know. But get creative with it. There there’s so many ways, but that could be cute. You can also just create a little map that you wanna put in memory journals so you see where they where they’ve been.

Gloria [00:16:32]:

You can mock up a newspaper article, like some sort of scandal that happened to town or something like that or plane tickets of when they visited Mount Komorebi and stuff like that. So that could be really cute. And it’s a way that you could get creative and, you know, you can make all of these unique to your own sim. You know, like I said, there are templates online, but you can really get unique with it. So I hope this this, helped, you know, inspire you with some ways that you can actually bring those memories that you have in game into your real life so that you can look back on them. To summarize, my personal favorites to collect in real life tangible keepsakes are to, of course, you know, keep a journal, both digital and physical in my case. I mean, like I said, I got a Hobonichi Hobonichi. I’m really bad at pronouncing it.

Gloria [00:17:15]:

I got one of those notebooks really cute, a 6 size a 6 size for keeping. I’m gonna be, like, Getting all creative with it, but screenshots, it’s gonna be so cool. I don’t know. By now, the podcast when this one’s out, I might already be posting photos and stuff. I wanna do that, and I wanna use the planner weekly for planning. And I want to use my OneNote for, as a wiki I mean, I’m already using that as a Wikipedia for various save files, but I wanna use it, you know, continue use as a Wikipedia as, like, The main home of where lore is, like, the the encyclopedia basically of my save files, and I want to use my digital planner for role play because I think that’d Been really fun. Just, you know, one particular sim, a single woman sim probably who is living her life. Because I don’t know if I think I really like using the daily pages in the digital planner for I mean, everybody’s different.

Gloria [00:18:07]:

You know, there are weekly pages as well if that’s what you prefer, but I’d like to Use it as, like, a diary, slash organizer for her, and, yeah, I think that’ll be fun. And so that’s my current System for different planners slash journals, but, yeah, I’ll make it work. And I feel like I need all of them. Okay? You can’t tell me anything else. Then, of course, oh, I almost forgot. My second on this list, but also, like, maybe 5th and the one I just now described, the family tree app. Obviously, you have to upkeep that as well. Very important for my family legacies.

Gloria [00:18:37]:

I don’t do this for every legacy, but I think it’s important for your important ones. So we have journals, the imagery app, Then you have slideshows for your cute little, like, mini photo albums of, like, maybe a wedding. You can create artwork of your Sims. I have yet to do this, but I think that’s something I definitely wanna explore. I’m the best artist, but I think it’d be cute. Of course, also last but not least, Live souvenirs, which I also wanna try out, especially now that I’m gonna have a little book dedicated to memory keeping. Like, really, Like, every session I do, I wanna, keep in that one. And, yeah, I think that’d be cute and get scrapbooky with it.

Gloria [00:19:12]:

I think it’s important to keep track of the memories that your sims, experience. So if you haven’t yet, I mean, think about it. Do you remember what happened in your game last year and, you know, what journey your sims have been on since then. I mean, I think it’s important. If you haven’t already, you start keeping track. I hope I’ve helped, you know, illustrate some fun and easy ways you can do that. I think also each one of them is flexible enough in their own right that, you know, you can do it in the way you you know, it feels best for you and what you like. Yeah.

Gloria [00:19:41]:

Have fun with that, and Happy Simming!