I swear this thread is like visual therapy. All of these pictures are very gorgeous and it's relaxing just looking at them. I have this thread bookmarked and when I have some scenery of my own I will post it.
When you downloaded the poses, did you make sure to download ones that are pose list compatible? Because if not, you will have to type in the code and add it to the list.
BluebellFlora is right about not being able to keep your game's file size down if you do not use mods, however, there is a tool you can use to decrease the size of your save. You can either use the Save Cleaner, by Kuree, or manually clean your save using S3PE (Sims 3 Package Editor). I'd stick with using the Save Cleaner…
NO! OMG no you are not safe. Your game WILL crash. ALWAYS remove your mods before patching. Gosh, I don't understand why people think it's ok to leave outdated mods in the game.