Favorite Fertilizer Option Please

@Psychotps I relate to that 100%!

I play with aging off, and have a main family that had offspring and most of my play is from that group and their sub-household. Several are highly developed and have many skills and sometimes multiple careers. Many of my favorites were 'born' not made, and I have been through a lot with them. They work hard, and we have 'history' going on. I can rely on them. They test my builds also mostly. I have no issue when using one of them (or their households) to start out in a new pack or world, to test a build or issue, and cheat them money generously if dropping them into a new home or world in a new save.

In my view, they had money from before and worked hard to earn it, so it feels like a waste (and a little mean) to make them go through the grueling start-up work. I'm not even aware of and haven't used any but a small handful of cheats and very selectively and intentionally. I must admit that once I used moo (and hidden objects) for building purposes I was hooked. It also made my building life much more complicated and challenging, as now my testing (placement and live) is much harder.

Those three building cheats and motherlode for the listed reasons are my 'pet' cheats. But how I use them doesn't feel like cheating to me. 

@Psychotps Hmmm... I did the fashion photographer freelance as part of a test (maybe it was your question? I don't remember). I used my main sim (the female of my original couple I mentioned). I play her the most - yes I am a weirdo who made a 'sim-self'. In real life I do website design and professional photography. In the game she does painting and photography. She has been at 10 for painting for many sim years, and at 10 for photography for less of them.

I have have made a 'make-shift' studio before in-game with white-walls (which you can switch the paint/wallpaper on for background purposes) and place the soft-box lights (one or two). You're right, though, I think to get the fashion photographer prompts you probably need the fancy camera and tripod. Not sure if you can get away with a make-shift background setting.

You could upload a few of your dragonfruit plants to a room then place them in her lot to help boost income. You could also have her paint from home and harvest dragonfruit until she has the money for the fancy equipment. Irl you would not even want to know what the fancy equipment costs. I'm sure it's more than in the game, if that's any consolation. Pro photography takes a lot of work and pain. Seriously. 

Have fun! She'll get there! ☕

@SheriGRSince I'm starting this sim from the beginning, she has very few skills yet. Sure, I could spawn a dragon-fruit, money tree, motherlode, I'm just not going to. Trying to do this the normal way.

I'm pretty sure I only need a tripod, problem is the house is small and I don't have the room for a studio. A house expansion is necessary and I don't have the money yet.

I'll figure something out. See what I can get away with. If all else fails, I'll keep gardening and building money that way until I can expand the house and make a studio addition.

@Psychotps Sounds like a great plan. And you will have the opportunity to develop many aspects of your new sim in the process. Have fun! 🙌

@Psychotps, I have some problems with fires.  Many come from the dryer, even though I try to keep the lint tray clean.  I also try to upgrade them when I can so they don't catch on fire.  I also get a lot of fires from unskilled cooks ... I try to train all my Sims to at least get a Cooking skill of 3, but when I'm not looking, those pesky Sim teens decide to cook something other than salad or fruit salad before I get their skill raised! 😃  I've also had many fireplaces catch on fire, but not for a good while. 

If you want to find cherries in the game and not wait for their trees to grow produce in Brindleton (unless you live there near them) and if you have City Living, you can travel around until you find a produce stand , since they always stock cherries (as well as pomegranets).   But the best place to find a produce stand is after a festival ends.... usually the Humor and Hijinks Festival will spawn one , once the festival's food stalls have evaporated.  I can almost  always find a produce stand and either another food stall or a coffee/tea stall after the festival! 😉

I might also get cherries from the gnomes that show up on Harvestfest if you have Seasons.  I can't remember though.  I do know that you can get them in Real of Magic, along with dragon fruit, angelfish, and death flowers! 🙌 Just go to the stall in Casters Alley that sells alchemy ingredients! 

Orchids, on the other hand are a bit trickier to get.  I might have gotten them from gnomes on Harvestfest, or from Patchy the Scarecrow.  And of course if your Sims have enough money and gardening skill you can purchase them, although it is a crap shoot if you actually get an orchid or just another plant with the same level of rarity. 

@Psychotps, I just re-checked the produce stand... I went to the Arts District at night.  Cherrries were there, as usual.  I found them 4th down in the list.  Pomegrantes are closer to the bottom!. 

You should play the game any way you want to! 🙌  I'm just giveing you , as well as anyone reading this, options! 😃

I certainly understand challenging yourself!  I'm debating on if I want to try the Apocalypse Challenge or not. 🤔   If I do it, I think I'll wait until after Christmas becasue I will have more time! 🙂