✨ 🍑 💗 Coral Key Island Journal 💗 🍑 ✨

[Pintuition]

Hello friends! Welcome to the Coral Key Island Journal! I’m a bit late to the party, so I thought I’d begin by telling you about what my island is like now for my first post. I plan to share my thought process as I designed areas around my island, tackled construction issues, and more!

Native Fruit: Peaches
Native Flower: Hyacinths
Airport Color: Blue
Hemisphere: Northern
Island Theme: Pinks, Purples, and Cute!

I chose the name “Coral Key” because of my coral Switch Lite! Initially I thought I would be able to have more coral items on my island, and that the orangey-pink color would become my theme, but the lack of items in that color-way made me decide pretty quickly that I needed to incorporate pinks if I was going to create a cohesive space. So far I’m loving the results, especially considering where I started (pics to come)!

I couldn’t have been happier to get hyacinths and peaches as my native flowers and fruits. I think they go really well with my theme. In the photo (above) I liked them so much that I chose to line my entrance walkway with peach trees!

Name: Nikki
Gender: Female
Timezone: EST
Started Playing NH: 4/8/20
Ultimate Dreamies: Merengue , Judy, Dom, Bluebear

I’m Nikki and this is my first official AC game! I started to play Pocket Camp with friends a while back and when they told me NH was coming out, I just had to buy it! While stuck working from home I’ve definitely enjoyed creating my island, trading items, and interacting with other players.

Starters: Katt & Sprocket
🏘 Basic House Random Move-ins: Merengue, Anchovy, Agent S
🏕 First Campsite Villager: Eugene
Current Villagers: Merengue, Sherb, Raymond, Katt, Mint, Bluebear, Marina, Agent S, Bones, & Apple
Villagers I want: Dom, Judy, Diana

I love all my villagers, no matter how popular they are and I’m always so cut up about letting anyone leave. Still, I love experiencing new villagers! I really enjoy going on mystery island hunts but usually I end up running out or tickets or settling for someone not on my list! I haven’t bought or got any villagers through trading yet, but I’d love to try that too!

Here is my current map! I only have a 4 star island because I always keep too many items on the ground. Check out some of my other posts if you’re looking for DIYs/Fossils/Items! It’s taken me a long time to move buildings, terraform, and make custom design patterns to fill the space. I’d probably say my island is 85% done the way I’d like. My house? That’s another story!

I thought it might be nice to also show my map with labels on it, since it doesn’t really show you what things are on the map. My newest are are my market, house area, and the concert space. Below are some pictures of what it looks like now—just wait until I post about what it was before! I don’t time travel so moving rocks, terraforming, etc took punishingly long. I’m so glad I don’t have to do that again, haha!

I hope to update this journal soon and show a then and now kind of thing. I was floored when I went through my first few weeks of images on my switch. My island is entirely different! I hoped you liked reading this entry, it was very fun to compile!! ​

 

[Pintuition]

(That hair though!!)

Since I started my journal late, I thought it might be nice to show you all where I came from and started with first, in terms of both villagers and construction projects. I'll go back and forth in each post between present and past to compare and contrast!

My first two villagers were Sprocket and Katt. Sprocket was the first to ask to leave, and I decided to let him go early on. The next couple to move into the basic houses (the forced move-ins) were Merengue, Agent S, and Anchovy. I was delighted to get Merengue, who quickly became my favorite! She tells me about her poetry and cooking all the time, which are things I enjoy engaging in outside of AC. We were fast island besties!

My first campsite villager was Eugene, who was one of my friends dreamies. I let him go to her a few weeks ago and still enjoy going to visit him on her island all the time. He even remembered his time on Coral Key, which I thought was super sweet! I always love exchanging villagers with friends- it’s nice to get to still visit them.

I had a very specific set of villagers I wanted in the beginning and I really wanted certain villagers to move out. I was obsessed with maintaining this cute aesthetic. Since then I’ve relaxed quite a bit and I’m just letting move outs play out naturally. It’s not worth getting bent out of shape for! I’ve learned that the least popular villagers can oftentimes be the most endearing.

I’m not going to lie, I was absolutely shocked at the state of my island when I looked back at the screengrabs. We all had to start somewhere! Some of the initial path and design choices were…not good. Haha! See for yourself…

(Oh Bunny Day, how I do not miss you)

I didn’t remember how hard it was to make your island look nice before you could terraform or had access to the path tools. At the time I was using ACPatterns to create custom designs as I was not confident yet with the in-game design tools. I remember being super proud of that brick design and couldn’t wait to show it off…to my friends who already had unlocked terraforming. I have retroactive embarrassment! Is that a thing? Well, it is now! I guess in the end it was a good effort with a very bright/mixed result!

I remember being very frustrated and felt unable to unlock K.K. and terraforming at first. It took me about 20 days without time traveling to get the tools I needed to really start my island. It wasn’t until that point that I understood I made terrible design decisions early on, my houses were all over the place, everything was staggered- in short, a MESS. It took me weeks to get everything aligned the way I wanted (Not 100% true, I’m STILL moving bridges all the time ugh!)

What stopped me from getting K.K., you ask? My thoughtful (but seriously dumb) idea to make a “free items” area on my island to help friends and other players. Read on to the next post (coming soon!) for more info!​

 

[Pintuition]

I had so many items laying around on the ground, I think Tom and Isabelle must have been going crazy. This being my first AC game, I had no idea that you couldn’t do that without paying the price in your island rating. Once I cleaned up, hunted for fossils and branches, within a day or two I found I was able to terraform.

I was kind of sad that my nice idea didn’t work out and it wasn’t until recently that I realized that I could have a marketplace, I just couldn’t do it in the way I did before. Honestly though I think a lot of the areas I experimented with in the beginning ended up being fixtures on my island in the end. I think most of the remaining entries I make will have that tinge!

My first then/now post will focus on that free marketplace idea. I had this strange patch of land by resident services surrounding my staircase area. Initially I had trees there but it just looked junky and the tree branch collection was getting old! I put a few stalls up there with the trees just to keep DIYs off the ground- that’s when I got the idea to go full marketplace!

I decided to make two areas, with a gardening stall (for flower bags and shrubs), a fruit stall, a generic stall (for clothes, furniture items), and four stalls to hold free DIYs. This way, Isabelle wouldn’t freak out and I still could make unneeded items available to visitors!

In the days to come I made a custom pink stone path from the reference below. In order to change the color of the stones I pulled the image into photoshop, cropped it to the photo in the bottom left-hand corner and uploaded it to https://acpatterns.com/. I then used the resulting pixel image to recreate the path in the in game custom design editor to match the diamond path that was made for me in this post.

I also chose to decorate the area with some tree standees so I didn’t need to worry about branches. It’s a bonus that I have cherry blossoms all year now! I added the pocket camp fortune cookie cart, some drink/snack machines, popcorn machines, benches, and more to dress up the area. At night, the floor lights illuminate the area so it’s accessible at any time of day. I surrounded the whole thing with hedges to fence it in to make it a little more put together and to hide the areas where the two designs met awkwardly. I finished the area off with a marketplace sign I found online. I'm not quite done decorating it yet but it looks good enough now to share at least!

I think it came out pretty neat! Now anyone who visits can shop, rest, and hangout in my marketplace area on their way to the real shops or up to my house and the neighborhood. I love how through failing with my initial idea, I was able to make something even better.

Next time I’ll show you my first ever real terraforming project- my secret beach bar!

​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Fruit Stall: MO- HR17-4NR0-576K

Marketplace Sign Creator Code (Also use many other designs by them): MA-1894-7994-2676

Original Grey Stone Path Inspo: MO-2QX2-L62N-WLBF

Flower Stall: MO-NHTR-GFDY-06Q7

Striped Heart Stall: MO-Q9CJ-H9P9-GGM6

DIY Stall: MO-3DCM-Q5FY-J4YV

Rose Lattice Panels Creator Code: MA-2986-1926-8832

 

[Pintuition]

I had seen an image online (that I’m desperately looking for but can’t seem to find- will update if I do!) that had a beach bar/spa area surrounded on three sides by waterfalls. I knew immediately when I saw it that I wanted to create a similar space on my island. That became my first big project!

As I waited to unlock terraforming I began experimenting with custom designs. I saw a decking set of three designs I liked but ultimately when I added it to my island, the decking looked washed out and the illusion effect was not good. (Since then many finer examples of this effect have been released!) That’s when I went outside to my actual IRL deck to see how all the boards on the stairs connected. I recreated the effect with a custom design. I’ve edited it a lot since taking the picture (below) but that’s what I was working with as I built the secret beach bar! Unfortunately I haven't made this design public yet, it's still a WIP! The first photo shows what it currently looks like with more shading! I use this decking literally everywhere around my island now!

The night I got terraforming and K.K. performed I began demolishing everything on the left side of my island. Originally my orchard and river had been there. After flattening the area I began to follow this tutorial to create a double waterfall effect. I didn’t realize at the time that you couldn’t make curved waterfalls or couldn’t connect the corners of the waterfall. Initially I was disappointed that it would have 1x1 blocks of land where all the corners met. Later I realized I could plant some flowers on those areas, and that they would look intentional. Even with the odd corners, I’m not unhappy with how it turned out.

I added some diner counters and chairs, a few coconut drinks, and a blender to the bar area. Everyone loves to come and take pictures in this spot! I also placed poolside beds around a swimming pool. I recently added two more to fill the space more. I remember I had to do a lot of hustling online and spent loads of NMTs to track down DIYs like the palm tree lamp and shell fountain. In the future I may add more decorations (hello new update mermaid furniture!).

For some reason Apple loves this area! She comes and sits at the bar with me (but only ever at night?) all the time! Celeste also loves to wander around here. Whenever I can’t find someone, I check the beach bar first!

So on to maybe some things that was a bit of a struggle…One regret I have is that I did not lay the custom design slots over another path, so on my island map it just showed as being grass. This week I actually went in and fixed that but it took forever to move everything in and out! I also didn’t think about the fact that on top of both tiers I have open squares of grass. As I filled in my island, I found my fossils were constantly spawning up there and it was a pain to climb up all the time. Consequently, I added some flowers to fill to spaces to prevent that. I think it looks cute up there like that! Plus, it hides the fact that my orchard is right behind it, you can’t see the treetops anymore!

I think next entry I’ll take a break from the construction talk (repetitive much?) and do a little journal on the Bug Off event from Saturday. I had loads of fun!​

 

[Pintuition]

Finally, a post set in the current time! And a fun one too!

Anyway, the first Bug Off of the year was held on Saturday and I had a great time! I didn’t get to start until almost 2:00 but some friends came through to help me cross the finish line. Check out our literal single file line we had to make between each round to get our points and empty the bug cages, haha!

We bounced around each other’s islands for several hours until we were done. I swear up until the timer started, there were bugs everywhere, and as soon as it started they’d yeet themselves off cliffs or into trees. Some rounds we only had one or two each. My personal best was 9, which isn’t really a lot! I feel like catching the bugs should have been a lot easier than it actually was.

Honestly we spent at least half of our time hitting each other with our nets and messing around. (Pro tip, visitors are easier to catch than bugs!!). We took things slow and tried to enjoy ourselves as we played, which I feel is what the Bug Off is all about!

I even stopped to talk to a few villagers in-between rounds. Dom was competitive to say the least. He said I’m his “greatest rival” and that he’d show me no mercy…then proceeded to zoom around his house and water flowers. Way to stick it to me, Dom! Haha! In all seriousness, it would have been very cool if villagers could participate in the challenge. I’d love to see more events where villagers can have active roles!

In the end, we finished the Bug Off and collected all the items and then some. I loved some of the items but wasn’t crazy about some of the others. I wish they had more of a selection. I don’t know what I’m going to do with 3 butterfly wands! Still, it was super fun and I can’t wait to do it again! I missed out on the fishing tourney, but I was happy I got to participate in this!​

 

[Pintuition]

Wahoo! The diving update has finally arrived! Naturally, my friends and I stayed up right until it was released last night to try diving as soon as possible. I loved it immediately! I think it’s super fun.

I ran to Nooks and discovered my first wetsuit would be red stripes, the snorkel I was sent in the mail was green, it was like diving at Christmastime, haha! I ended up heading to my friend’s island and buying a blue suit while attending a meteor shower. Incidentally, another friend sent me a blue swimming cap, so it matched perfectly!

I loved jumping right into the water from the pier. I heard you can even do a flip if you press “b” while you jump. I’ll have to try that out! Swimming was a little slow but it was really cool to see your island from a new vantage point.

Initially I had a super hard time diving. It was pouring (thunder and lightning too) on my island and it was very hard to see the bubbles that indicated there was a creature to dive for waiting underneath the surface. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any scallops (which meant no Pascal or mermaid recipes) so I cut my losses after an hour and a half and went to bed.

I woke up today, tried it again, and found it was much easier to dive in the daylight. I quickly found scallops and a few pearls and met Pascal for the first time. He gave me the mermaid bed recipe, which you can see below. I really love it and plan to use it in my underwater themed basement.

After this I discovered I had water shoes at Ables so a few friends came over to shop and dive together. It was really hard to find each other, I’m surprised how far away from the island you can go. Admittedly, I got lost on more than one occasion.

In the end, I’m really glad they introduced diving and I can’t wait to try it again!​

 

[Pintuition]

It’s over…it’s done! I finally have a complete set of all 43 works of art donated to the museum!

Two or three weeks ago writing this post wasn’t even on my radar. I think I had about 7 or 8 pieces of art I had bought on my own island or on a few of my friend’s islands. Art collecting was going so painfully slow and I thought my museum would never be complete.

Then I started to see lots of lovely people here and on other groups selling art. At first I thought that might be a good way to get scammed and then one day I dipped my toe in and bought my first piece. I was surprised how easy it went and from that day on, I hustled trying to make NMT and TBT so I could afford to finish my museum. I sold every fossil, DIY, and extra item I could. I watered flowers, sold access to Nooks for turnips, everything.

Finally, yesterday I finally bought my last three pieces of art. I was so happy to run donate them to Blathers. Of course, I rushed right in to see what the finished museum looked like. I love the statue area in the front. I hated seeing it so empty initially! Statues were a huge focus of mine initially. Since they typically sell for more than paintings, they were hard to come by! I think I averaged buying 1-3 pieces of art per day (depending on what payment someone would accept) so it took about 3 weeks or so to collect it all.

Not every experience along the way was great. Fortunately, I’m happy to report I was never scammed once but that wouldn’t save me from all the calamities that could befall me. Last week I paid to access Redd on someone’s island. That being the first day of diving, after collecting my painting in the mail I went for a dive. I promptly sold everything at Nooks. Unfortunately for me I also sold the painting by accident in the process. That was a lesson I for sure needed to learn- I have to be more careful!

Even with small setbacks like that, I’m surprised how easily I was able to finish my museum. I hope that in the future they expand it or will add more art! I doubt it, but I love the art side of the museum so much. My fossil wing is complete as well. Of course, I’m still working on the bugs, sea creatures, and fish. I can’t wait to see what those areas look like in the future too!

Until then, I’ll be enjoying touring the art wing of the Coral Key museum with my villagers and friends!​

 

[Pintuition]

Pretty early on I was attracted to the cafes I had seen on other players islands. I knew I had to try to make one on my own, despite the fact that I hadn’t yet unlocked terraforming. In the end I wound up moving the café and turning it into more of a bakery and cake area! I still call it my café, but it looks a lot different now!

To start out I used the same decking and stairs that I used for my outdoor beach bar/pool area (see posts above!). I always try to reuse custom designs as much as possible to limit the amount of custom design slots I take up. I also used the same pink and white striped stall pattern (that I’ve since replaced).

It took me forever to order the items for the café and track down the iron garden furniture DIYs. I remember going to a lot of mystery islands to farm more iron in those days! It was a simple little strip of land but once Leif came for the first time and I was able to make hedges, I decided to fence it in and it looked 1000 times better than it had previously. I only have one terrible picture of the original café (below)!

Ultimately I knew in my bones that I wanted to move my shopping area to its own little district (which I’ll cover in a post soon) and that I wanted to move the café to be right next to it. I thought villagers might use the area more if it was closer to their homes. Turns out, I was right!

Initially I walled in my new café with the terraforming tools and encircled it with one or two outlets. I put hedges on top of that. I left it that way for a bit but I ended up hating it. Instead I incorporated my original idea and put hedges around it. I left the waterfall feature, which I thought was really pretty in the outdoor space.

I brought the original furniture I had used in the smaller space to the new one. I replaced the tables with cute tea tables because I thought the originals were too garden-y for the café! I brought in some larger square tables, box sofas to make corner booths (which took forever to order), and crafted some brick ovens.

Initially I brought my stalls back and thought I’d leave it at that but I didn’t like the open look of them with the blank brown cliff behind them. Then I got the idea to use custom panels to hide the cliffsides. I found a bakery pattern online, which totally focus-shifted my vision of the space to a bakery. Fortunately my friends helped me out and sent me some more panels and I was able to get those done in a day!

I really liked the panels and didn’t want to cover them with stalls, so I ended up turning white den desks around to make little counters. I think they worked pretty well! I also added some hats (turned around) to look like cakes on little black cake stands. I started off with way more patterns before I was able to buy some mom’s cakes, wedding cakes, and other baking items. In the end I added a stall on one side with a espresso machine and sugar bowl. After all, who doesn’t want a nice cup of coffee with their baked goods?!

I tried to stagger the table decorations to have mugs and candles initially. I actually ended up being gifted a cupcake, so I put one of those in the front. Last week I also purchased a birthday cake so that went in as well! Unfortunately I had to say goodbye to the candles for now!

I keep adding and taking away little pieces to this space. Only this week I added the wedding arches at the side entrances. My café and bakery is the space on my island that is constantly changing in small ways. Each time it comes a little closer to my vision. It’s my favorite space right now on the island! (And I think the villagers love it too!)

​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Striped Heart Stall: MO-Q9CJ-H9P9-GGM6

Cake Hat (Strawberries): MO-HLSQ-WC7B-PD38

Cake Hat (Chocolate Heart): MO-7FHH-JCB5-V714

 

[Pintuition]

Hey there! Today I wanted to talk a little bit about all the villagers I’ve had on my island so far and how they got there and who I’ll be looking for next.

I shared this image above in an earlier post but I thought it made sense to throw it in here again. Since initially posting, my villagers have not yet changed!

My first villagers were Sprocket and Katt. Sprocket was the first to ask to leave. He gave me some great DIYs early on but I just didn’t vibe with him. I’m not really crazy about any of the bird villagers. Katt was just…okay. Not the worst I could have gotten stuck with, but not the best either. I was never going to restart because of my starters, I know eventually everyone is replaceable and I didn’t want to be stuck with all starter homes anyway!

Then of course they force you to build the three houses (which I placed in the worst possible spot!) and Merengue, Agent S, and the bane of my existence, Anchovy, moved in. I was super excited to get Merengue, she’s my favorite villager! I’m still kind of sad that her house is basic inside, oh well!

Agent S is sort of like Katt to me, she’s not the worst thing ever but I still am not her biggest fan. I have way too many peppy villagers right now and everything is getting repetitive!

Don’t get me started on Anchovy. We did not vibe at all. He was so weird. Again, another bird villager. I couldn’t wait for him to go. I couldn’t get him to leave on his own so I had to order Apple’s amiibo. It took forever to arrive but after three days of making cardboard furniture, the bird was finally evicted!

Pretty early on Sprocket asked to leave. I obliged and went on my first villager hunt. Honestly, I panicked because I was getting really odd villagers and took the first one I thought was even remotely cute, Bones. He’s been on my island ever since. I think he’s so cute, he loves to zoom around everywhere with his little ears flapping! I put a little doghouse in his yard and he loves to stare at it. The more I think on it, the more I think Bones might live there forever! I’d be sooo sad to let him go!

To fill in my villager count, I ended up searching three times after this and went home with Marina, Deidre, and Bluebear. I think I got Bluebear in about 10-15 tickets but Marina took over 35. I don’t remember searching for Deidre. I know I did but I have absolutely no memory of it. Like what happened with Bones, I kind of panicked and took them. Ultimately both Marina and Bluebear are permanent as they were on my list of villagers I was looking for! Mint also arrived and filled a plot without me searching, but I liked her so I’m not even mad about it!

In-between this I also got Eugene as my first camper villager. I knew right away he’d go to my friend, who really wanted him. It took him a while to move, and it wasn’t after Sprocket went that he decided to go. So he went to my friend, and I visit him a few times a week. I absolutely LOVE this because he remembers me every time and its like never having lost him on my island.

Then came the infamous hunt, where I found Raymond on like my 20th ticket. I had no intention of even trying to find him and I was floored when I did. I took him thinking I could give him away to someone who wanted him, but when he asked to leave recently I found I had grown too attached to him to let him go yet. He’ll be staying with me for a while for sure!

The last villager hunt I went on I found a second new villager, Sherb, who I took home. Deidre finally asked to leave after staying a few weeks and I was ready to let her go. Her house was cool but honestly she was kind of boring. She never engaged with anyone or anything! I like Sherb much better but I’m not wild about having more than one lazy villager. I think I’m going to decide soon who of the two will stay and who will get booted!

I really hope Katt or Agent S asks to leave soon. I’m itching for another villager hunt. Especially now since I won a NMT giveaway and have loads to spare. I’m especially looking for Dom or Judy but I wouldn’t be unhappy with Chrissy/Francine, Cookie, Tia, Diana, or someone like that! Hopefully I’ll be making a new entry about going on a search very soon!​

 

[Pintuition]

I hardly expected Gullivarr to wash up on the shores of my island this morning, not after I already had regular Gulliver on Wednesday, but I was pleasantly surprised! So buckle up, me hearties, yer in for a fun post today!

I was running on the beach to collect sand dollars to make some mermaid furniture when I noticed Gulliver was back. I thought it was strange because I already had him only a day ago, then I noticed his pirate outfit. I think I manifested him when I bought a pirate outfit yesterday. I couldn’t have been dressed anymore perfect to see him!

I ignored him for two hours to dive, to no avail. I couldn’t find Pascal. Does he not come when Gullivarr is here? Interesting potential conflict! I’ll have to see if he comes later. Anyway, I finally went to talk to him and he took forever to wake up, as usual.

I was pleasantly surprised with the new pirate dialogue. I thought it was hilarious!

I didn’t realize that pirate Gulliver didn’t work the same way as regular Gulliver, I assumed I’d be digging for parts on the beach as usual. When he asked me to dive for his communicator, I was taken aback! Thankfully I keep wetsuits on the beach!!

I went in and immediately grabbed like 10 whelks and seaweed bundles. I think I had been looking too far away from the beach. I was returning to shore to sell my hoard of creatures when I saw bubbles maybe 3 feet from the water’s edge. Fortunately, it turned out to be his communicator. I guess that goes to show you, don’t try to over complicate things; it was right under my nose the whole time!

And it really was as easy as that. He took it back from me and said to expect something in the mail tomorrow. I have a few pirate items I’ve already bought but honestly, I’m fine with doubles, especially the furniture items! I’m really dying to know what it is! Until then, I’ll be enjoying bothering Gullivarr on the beach today!

 

[Pintuition]

I was so sad when I missed the first fishing tournament in the spring. I had just started playing so I don’t think I had all the necessary buildings yet and the tournament was never held on my island. But I was so excited to participate today! Here’s my experience doing the tourney today!

I wish it didn’t start so late into the day, I was ready to do the tournament about two hours before it actually started. At first I did a few rounds on my own to get a handle on what I was supposed to do. Then I packed up all my rods and stacks of fish bait and headed to my friend’s island.

I was surprised at how hard it was to catch the fish even with bait. I ended up going through 10 stacks of it. I couldn’t stop pressing A before the fish was hooked. I must have lost dozens of fish that way. I couldn’t help myself. I always seem to do that!

It definitely went faster with more people. Still, I noticed I only got 20 points, no matter how many we managed to catch. I didn’t know there was a point cap on that! So I did find that interesting.

When it became time to redeem for prizes I was a bit disappointed. I thought it was supposed to be like the Bug Off where you were able to get one of each prize before you got doubles. I must have gotten at least 20 doubles right off before even getting some of the prizes. Of course the items were ones I wanted the least. Who needs 5 fish wands anyway?!

I think I enjoyed this tournament less than the bug off. I found it kind of stressful and less fun. I ended up sticking in the same beach area and the time wasn’t long enough to access all the different bodies of water on anyone’s island. I wish it allowed you to explore more than it did! I also noticed that the fish took forever to bite on the hook, much longer than usual. Like the Bug Off I feel like the normal behavior and spawn rates are much different during tournaments, which is a bit disappointing!

In the end I did have a fun day running around catching fish with friends! I’m interested to see what the next tourney will bring!

 

[Pintuition]

This post will be dedicated to a project I tackled early on, moving and terraforming my museum area! The museum is highly visible during my flyover, and it’s a place I spent a long while trying to make it look alright.

I knew very early on that I had put my museum in a bad spot. Originally, it was jammed close to my Town Hall and shopping area. I really didn’t like that, everything was too compact. Especially after the museum exterior got updated. I knew it had to go.

Where my “free item marketplace” (see marketplace post above!) area had been I decided to make a large cliff for my museum to sit on. I knew I wanted it to be higher than the other buildings, on more of a grand scale! Originally, I just started going at it, making the cliff huge, later noticing it looks awkward from my (not yet finished) entrance. I tore most of that down and went back to the drawing board.

(Peep the villager houses in the way right behind the cliff, haha)

I ended up looking up the dimensions of the museum, and stumbled across this post. I soon realized there would be no way to make a staircase that led up to the museum without it being off center. I decided then that I’d do a double staircase to correct this issue and make everything symmetrical. These took AGES without time travel to build. I was seriously tempted to during the project! In any case, I used that guide for the building sizes in all of my later building projects. I can't tell you how much grief it spared me from!

Once I had the cliffs the way I wanted, I measured the space in front of the museum and went ahead and moved the building. I allowed for some room in front of it to walk, for signs, and to add a custom Blathers design I had found. I planned for it to fit perfectly in front of the museum, at a bit of a distance, so it could still be seen from the air. I love it so much I ended up using it again when I built the library (post coming soon).

Before building my museum, I spent many long hours making the fossil design for my stall. It’s not perfect but I tried my best! I also replicated another museum sign I saw online, but changed the island name to my own and changed some of the colors. I think the two designs work together perfectly!

After building out the cliffs, adding waterfalls, and filling in paths, I started to landscape with flowers and bushes. My friend donated some pink flowers for the project and I remember being so proud of them (I have like 3783264 flowers now lol). But in all seriousness, the landscaping in the front really made the project!

I also saw spaces on a friend’s island where she filled little small areas (like the ground area in front) with hedges. I added some trees, benches, and some flowers to make it my own. The view of the museum from this area even won me a giveaway once. I couldn’t bring myself to change it for anything!

(This is the photo that one, but I've since added white benches here)

In retrospect, it’s kind of a simple design but it looks good from both above and below! I don’t mind being kind of bland! In the future, I’m hoping to add some statues and other elements to dress it up a bit. In a future post I’ll talk about my dig site (which was added later) and Blathers’ library!

For now I'll leave you with one of the all time favorite photos I've managed to snag. A few months ago Celeste came to visit when the museum was newly built. She went right up to the design of her brother. It was too cute not to share!

​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Blathers, Fossils, and Fish on Sand: MA-5483-9093-4023

Yellow Museum Info Panels: MA-0942-8720-9272

Museum Sign Inspiration

Fossil Stall Design is My Own!

 

[Pintuition]

I’m back with another construction story! This time I’d love to share Blathers’ Library and Celeste’s Overlook! Since I shared my museum construction stories, it makes sense to share this right after.

Ever since the game came out I’ve worried for Blathers not having any place to call his own in the game. He stands, day and night, in the museum. I thought maybe even if he couldn’t interact with it, that it would be a symbolic gesture to make him a library area. After all, he has to do his research somewhere, right?

After gathering the DIYs I needed (wooden bookshelf, tiny library, log chairs/couches, etc.) I set off in search of books to build with. I cobbled together one measly bookshelf a day with what I was able to order from Nook Shopping. It was so frustrating not to be able to progress faster. Finally I got brave and put out the call on the forum to see if anyone would let me stop by and fill my pockets with books from their Nook’s Cranny. Fortunately, I was able to find a kind person who allowed me to stop by (since then I’ve paid it forward several times for others libraries!).

After I had the shelves I started terraforming and building out the library behind my museum and dig site (post on that coming soon!). Since my airport and Town Hall are off center I built my museum off center, which meant that the library could never be straight and looked super awkward next to resident services. I terraformed to take up the least space possible but the next day I tore everything down and straightened it out. I ended up making a land bridge from the museum to the library. This caused some issues of its own because I had effectively cut off beach access to the entire right side of my island.

I grappled with what to do for almost a whole day until I decided to plow through it to make two walkways (secret tunnels!!) through the land bridge. Now to access the library you’d have to make a jump twice, which ended up being no big deal. My villagers can even still access it and frequently I find them there! At this point, it was time to decorate.

I knew I wanted to put the wooden custom design in the library, but I also wanted a rug. I ended up using a beach blanket design (with fringe) that I had downloaded for use elsewhere. When I put it all together it really looked like an area rug and wood floor! I took it a step further and put in some faux stairs someone had made to match the wood design. Now to access the library it looks like it has a few small stairs, then a few more in the back to access Celeste’s lookout spot.

At first I couldn’t decide what tone to make the bookshelves. Ultimately I went with white, which matched my island theme the best. I made the furniture birch to match but kept the accent colors in the brown/plaid family to match Blathers and his outfit. I snuck in a whole bunch of little elements like globes, a typewriter, a book on bugs (eek, he’d hate me for that), a travel suitcase (for research trips), and more!

As you move through the library the back funnels down into a small landing/overlook spot. I feel like Blathers would want somewhere for his little sis to hang out too! From below, this cliff is made of waterfalls and looks just as cool down there! I crafted some nova lights and roped them off outside, placing a telescope in the center for stargazing. Later (not pictured) I added some star clocks facing backwards, they look just like star frags!

Honestly my library is probably one of my absolute favorite places on my island. It definitely took about a week to decorate and tweak. I’m really pleased with how it turned out!

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Blathers, Fossils, and Fish on Sand: MA-5483-9093-4023

Stairs Creator Code: MA-7337-3395-0359

Plaid Pattern is from Sable!

I can't find the code for the rug/edges. I've been searching forever. I'll update if I find it!

 

[Pintuition]

In my last post I briefly mentioned the dig site I created behind my museum. I loved making this area but I really didn’t know where to start and made some disastrous mistakes early on that got me in serious trouble with Isabelle!

I had seen a couple of dig site areas online and really liked the idea, but I wanted to do my own take on it. I thought it might look cool on the flyover if I did it right behind my museum, sunken in. Originally, I wanted this area to be accessible with a staircase but I ran out of room and I hit my stair limit. Unfortunately, I had to rope it off and make it more of a display area than anything!

Initially I wanted the fossils to be visible in the dig site so I dug some holes and buried them. I placed shovels and axes around like someone had been digging for them. While this looked really cool, I didn’t know that this would cause Isabelle’s limit of “items on the ground” to go up. I ended up having to dig them up and put any fossils I wanted on benches/tables inside. Since then I’ve been careful not to leave anything on the ground!

I love to decorate so I really enjoyed collecting items for this area. I thought I’d throw in an “Indiana Jones” type of hat and a camping lantern. Lots of placed smaller fossils, benches, and tools. I wanted it to really look like a bunch of people were doing an archaeological dig. I think it came out about the best it could have under the circumstances!

I would have loved the actual space to be much bigger and further away from the back of my museum. Because of my plaza placement and the way I had started my entrance it was impossible. The current dig site is the biggest I can make it with the rope fence. I wanted the library to be still accessible from the back so unfortunately I was left with a dinky dig site. If they ever let us move our Town Hall, then I’m making it much bigger. I won’t hold my breath, though! Until then, I’m content with my little area!​

 

[Pintuition]

This post is dedicated to all the time I rode the struggle bus while I was terraforming my island. We always share the brilliant final products of our construction projects but never our failures, mistakes, and ugly parts of our islands. From misplaced bridges, walled in inclines, and other strange choices, this post has it all! I want to show you the ugly that comes with the beautiful. Not every aspect of an island is perfect. Allow me to introduce you to some gross iterations of mine along the way…

I’ve made no great trouble of hiding that I’ve flip flopped a lot as I’ve tried to create my island. I constantly have made errors that cost millions of bells to fix. I think the number one mistake I made early on was making too many permanent bridges/inclines, like the one above. I ended up having to totally reconstruct all of my river areas, and these had to go. Because I don’t time travel, there was once a point where I had at least three random bridges over a puddle of water during building sessions. These areas were always backburnered and took me forever to get rid of!

Recently I switched up my house area. It used to be very small and didn’t leave much room for outdoor furniture. As I was terraforming that I ran into a situation where I needed to terraform around a white plank ramp. I ended up blocking it in and creating a maze-like path up to my home. It stayed like that for days. Why? I’m lazy! Haha.

I’ve also changed my mind LOADS while designing. Whether it’s placing a different kind of stairs, moving a house one block over because I placed it wrong, or tearing down bridges I didn’t like, our countless other things. Even know my island isn’t perfect, especially my housing area. I’m dreading doing a post on that because it looks soooo bad. Maybe I’ll force myself to tackle that next! (Ugh!)

One of my biggest personal hang-ups is my huge population of flowers. I literally didn’t clean up the ones by the museum until this week. It rains pretty much daily on Coral Key and I have so many hybrids (and regular flowers too) that my island quickly gets overrun each week. This is a pain in the neck to clean up so I often let them do their thing. I’m making it my mission to stay on top of these in the future!

And before I show you more areas I worked hard on, allow me to introduce you to the infamous crap piles. They’re everywhere. Whether it’s a dense grouping of trees overrun by weeds, piles of items I’ll never use, or DIYs I’m hoarding for some reason, these little garbage heaps are littered everywhere around my otherwise well-kept island. I think of it like Monica’s closet in that one episode of Friends where she has her messy space. They drive me batty, but I thought I’d keep it real and show you guys! Basically I make sure my path to the shops and front trading space is looking okay…but don’t look around too hard lol.

(while building my shopping district you had to weave around dozens of trees and random hybrid breeding areas lol)

(where items I don't know what to do with go to die)

(random DIY & junk pile #62)

I hope you guys enjoyed my post about keeping it real. I think it’s so important to talk about, but rarely is! Hope this made you smile/laugh! ​

 

[Pintuition]

I always get a lot of compliments on my entrance area when I do trades, so I thought I’d dedicate this post to how my entrance has evolved over the last couple of months.

I think this space actually looks pretty similar to what I started with, even before terraforming. Big cliffs and bushes aside, I’ve always had a long path all the way up to my resident services with some peach trees. Immediately I knew I made a bad island layout choice, as my airport was nowhere near centered to my airport entrance. Fortunately, the Town Hall is so far away from the airport that you really can’t even see it when you arrive. I’m in complete and total denial, and I just made it how I wanted anyway!

The inspiration for my entrance was this post I found on Reddit. I fully give them credit for the idea! But instead of doing the circle of trees I wanted to line the walkway with trees, and kind of force any visitors to stay on the path to my shopping area. I also expanded upon the idea by including different flower types and bushes.

My first big hurdle was figuring out how to do the angled heart paths. This took a lot of trial and error but within a few minutes I got the hang of it. Once I watched this tutorial, it was easy peasy! Basically, you make a 3x3 square with one corner blank, then round off the edges around that blank hole, then the corner on the top, and the one on the bottom depending on what direction the heart is facing. I just repeated the process four times in different directions.

The key here that nobody really tells you is that you absolutely CANNOT use the same custom path base type as the long path that goes through the middle. The design won’t work. I believe I used the lighter dirt path for the hearts, and the arched stone path for the actual path.

In order to color the paths with whatever design/color you want you need to sacrifice a custom design slot. I colored the canvas a dusty rose color (the color can be lighter or darker than what you choose depending on the path type) and I colored in one pixel in the corner with a single transparent square. This is key, without a single transparent pixel the heart won’t be rounded anymore! When I laid the pink overtop it really started to look pretty! You can still see the texture of the arched tiles underneath. This looks especially beautiful when wet, it really brings the color to life. Since I life on the isle of perpetual rain, it works for me!

I remember being so proud of my fountain back in April/May because it took so many materials/nook miles to build. I think it looks great customized to white! I then decided to landscape a bit and put in some Azalea bushes. They look amazing in the springtime! I’m just sad they don’t bloom all year. Oh well!

Down the path I’ve recently started lining the cliff edges with various pink flowers. I think they look amazing but with my island’s rainy weather pattern, they’re really hard to keep manicured. Each day I usually have to throw out 5-10 flowers just along this entryway alone. It’s a struggle, but I think it’s worth it!

I absolutely love my entryway! I definitely acknowledge that it is not the most original space ever but it was exactly what I was looking for. I have so much control over the space with the cliffs and can easily block off areas of my island if I’m open to unknown visitors. I honestly can’t envision having anything else at this point! That is, unless I added “the path”. But that takes up too many design slots for my taste! Until then I’m over the moon about my entry way! (And it was easy on the custom design slots too!!)

 

[Pintuition]

I've got a quick/short post for today! If you’ve read some of my past posts you’ll know I’ve had a very hard time getting a few of my villagers to leave. Namely Katt and Agent S. I’ve tried everything, increasing friendship, ignoring, gifting, all of it. Nothing seemed to do the trick. On Sunday this weekend Agent S finally asked to go. I was over the moon!

I’m so ready for a change. Not that there’s anything wrong with Agent S, she’s just not my cup of tea! Plus her house is a starter home and I’m not that into that. I really wanted to let her go too because I have way too many peppy villagers. I need more of a variety! So, onto a search I will go!

I always feel just a little bit guilty when I see villagers in boxes/moving. It makes me sad! I was hoping someone would want to take her, but nobody responded to any of my posts this morning. Finally, I got a hit on Discord and someone wanted to take her off my hands for 10 NMT. Of course, I said yes. I was assuming we’d trade right away but hours passed and I began to doubt whether we’d actually get together.

Finally we were able to meet up and they took her. I was getting a bit nervous I was being scammed but I’m so glad it worked out. They were very nice, just busy trading as it turned out! I'm sad to see her go but at least she didn’t go into the void!

Every time I go on a hunt, the night a villager is in boxes I throw my switch into airplane mode. My friends told me this is a good was to prevent a random move in from villager they’ve recently voided. Don’t know if that really does anything, but it makes me feel better about it at least!

I’m so excited to search for a bit tomorrow. I’m looking for Dom. I have a feeling I’ll come up empty so I might have to suspend the search and buy him on a group somewhere! Who knows! I’d like to search a little bit first, though! I’ll post all the villagers I run across in another post tomorrow, so look out for that!​

 

[Pintuition]

(I dressed for the occasion lol)

I woke up bright and early, so ready for a villager hunt. I knew I was going to likely have to buy Dom or trade for him online, but I always like to do a little bit of searching each time I look just for the experience. Needless to say, the search was futile, not one I’d take in the bunch! Not over Dom that is! Here’s a list of some of the ones I ran into along the way...​

1. Norma- I actually think she’s really cute, if I wasn’t looking for a specific villager I would have brought her home. Still, I already have two normals!​
2. Deidre- I already had her on my island! I recently let her go so I was surprised to find her on the second island!​

1. Rocket- Sorry, dear! I’m not a fan of the superhero type villagers!​
2. Freya- Now this one was hard to pass up! But if I’m going for another snooty it’ll be Judy!​
3. Rowan- He’s one of my friends favorite villagers, but he’s not for me! I almost took him because I need a cranky and I could have given him to her but I stayed strong for Dom!​
4. Paolo- I’ve had him at my campsite on PC! Any other day, he would have been the one to come home!​
5. Prince- That unnerving mouth! No thanks, Mr. Frog!​
6. Rodeo- I couldn’t run away back to the plane fast enough!​
7. Gladys- I thought she was really cute but not cute enough to think seriously about taking!​
8. Candi- Nope. Not a fan of the mice!​
9. Peanut- If I didn’t already have another squirrel right now I would have totally taken Peanut. But since she’s replacing Agent S, it didn’t feel like enough of a change!​

1. Rhonda- My island isn’t big enough for two rhinos. No competition for my girl Merengue!!​
2. Ed- If it had been another blue horse I would have thought about it, but no.​
3. Deidre (Again)- She really wants to come back I guess!!​

And this is when I felt like I had enough searching and pulled up about a half dozen villager trading sites. I got my offer accepted pretty quickly for Dom, which was awesome! The price was under 100 NMT so I was very excited about that too. Then things started not to go so well.

After filling my pockets with NMTs and bells I went to enter the dodo code to go pick him up. It errored out every time, claiming I couldn’t connect to the seller’s console. I don’t blame them at all, but it was really frustrating and I wasted an hour trying to get there. Ultimately their internet wasn’t strong enough and I was forced to cancel the order.

(I did try to troubleshoot and tested my internet, which came back fine! Who knows why we couldn't connect!)

Then the selling site (three guesses which one) seemed to explode with outrageous offers. People were sniping me, offering 200-300 NMT or more to start. I feel like these kind of players make villager unattainable for the rest of us. I’ve never sold anyone for over 20, let alone 300. I was quickly priced out of buying him on that site and nobody would accept my offer, even when I was the highest bid. I have no idea why, but it really made me sad. In the future I will not be handling any of my business there.

Hours went by and I had several failed trade attempts where I was bidding NMT with other people and they obviously had thousands of hacked/duped tickets compared to my few hundred. And I thought I had a lot compared to most people!! Needless to say I was super frustrated. But still, I was determined and never gave up hope that I’d find him today. I thought about starting another search but I didn’t want to preclude myself from being able to pay for him later. So I saved the tickets I had left and kept looking

I was so relieved to find somewhere else where I was able to pick him up and take him home. It took forever to meet up and I feared I was being scammed. When I arrived it couldn’t have been more smooth, though! I was in and out in a minute! They even moved the house right by the entrance for easier access. Needless to say I was relieved and when I returned home I ran right up to the plot to make sure it had gone through. I’ve never been happier to take a screenshot in this game!

.

I’m SO excited to have Dom join my island. He’s NEVER leaving so I hope he likes working out on Coral Key!

 

[Pintuition]

Since we’re in the thick of summer, I thought I’d make a different sort of post today and share some of my favorite summery outfits that I wear frequently. I’m planning on doing this once (or maybe a few times if new items come out) each season to share what I love to wear.

I was actually pleasantly surprised with the number of actual articles of clothing we have available in the game. There’s so many more clothes than pieces of furniture! Plus with custom designs, the combinations are endless!

Speaking of custom designs, I find myself going back and forth, unable to decide if I like using them or not. My regular design slots are full, but I’ve never quite filled out my clothing custom design slot section. I find that I usually like the clothes so much that I don’t feel any great need to put on custom outfits most day. I do, however, have a few that use custom designs that I think are pretty neat!

I wear this ocean dress fairly ocean. Especially since I was able to get the Mermaid shell shoes and a shell pochette! It’s something I feel is very summery, I probably won’t wear it after August! The second is my Dom dress. I wear this ALL THE TIME. I even displayed at as a mannequin at the checkout counter of my surf shop (post to come on that soon!)!

Here’s a few more tropical ones I love to wear. I usually pair them with hibiscus hair pins, sunglasses, and sandals/flip flops. Nothing screams summer like these two looks!

Occasionally I also like to make monochromatic looks like the two below. I think these are great everyday casual options. Plus, when you go with a single color it’s way easier to coordinate with your wetsuit! Usually if I do a pink look I’ll grab the pink wetsuit and I never have to take clothing off. That’s why I usually pick pieces that will translate to diving. There’s nothing worse than seeing someone dive in a knit hat and a monocle, haha!!

I find that craftable items in the game are hard to pair with existing clothes. The exception being the grass skirt. I think they work SO well with the hula tops. If I’m not diving at a particular time sometimes I like to throw this outfit on. It matches the tropical feel of my beach areas!

Last, but definitely not least, are my two favorite outfits. Since the Gullivarrr and Mermaid items just came out within the last 3 weeks or so, I’ve made it my mission to collect as many pieces as I can. I’m still missing some pirate stuff, but I do have all the mermaid outfits. Chances are if we’ve got a trade, this is what I’m wearing when we meet up. I probably wear variants of these two at least 3-4 days per week!

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I have more clothes in storage than I know what to do with, and there’s so many possible combinations, but these are the “greatest hits” of what I’ve loved so far this summer. I’ve already been thinking about fall and transitional outfits. I can’t wait to make the next seasonal outfit post sometime in September or October depending on if any new clothes are released! I can't wait to break out all of the new coats sweaters I've collected! Unfortunately I didn't start my island journal soon enough to do a post for spring, but you bet there'll be one next year!
​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Dom Dress: MO-8XMH-DBBS-825X

Beach Dress: MO-6C7G-511M-PG3C

 

[Pintuition]

(Part One)

I recently saw this post about funny pictures of everyone’s villagers, which inspired me to make this journal entry! I thought it might also be fun to include pictures of NPC and some of my friends and I! We’ve had plenty of laughs on my island. I’ve grouped a few photos in order to be mindful of the photo limit and to keep the post a manageable length. Part two will be coming tomorrow! I literally couldn’t fit it all in one post!!

This past Sunday I was running by my ice cream shop and noticed Daisy Mae was perfectly positioned behind the stall to look like she was serving ice cream. I got this absolute miracle of a screenshot. Just squeezed it in before she darted off in the other direction. All I can think of when I look at it is “gee, I hope that ice cream’s not snot flavored!!”

On more than one occasion I’ve found that either in a villager’s home or at the airport, I’ve “merged” with a friend. Sometimes we get melded together to make a two headed monstrosity, sometimes we’re superimposed on top of each other. Either way, these shots never fail to make me laugh! This glitch happens to us so often I barely even take the screenshots anymore!

These two photos are kind of complimentary when I look at them grouped together. Late night out with Marina gone wrong? I mean, just look at Marina’s eyes, and what is she holding? A Heinooken? (Lmao). Sauced for sure! I always find screenshots of my inevitable failure to catch scorpions/tarantulas absolutely hilarious as well! Just the way they make you slam down on your face and zoom in no matter what outfit you’re wearing is just priceless!

One of our favorite things to do when visiting anyone from our ACNH group chat is come and whack each other with nets. I’m minding my own business, chilling on the bench then I get hammered! You can see I came prepared for battle in my second photo (complete with mask, serving serious bank robber vibes) but I’m getting absolutely clobbered by my friend in her murder dress. Nobody is safe from getting shoveled!

Oh, Raymond. There’s nothing in there? Then what are those gold bricks? I know a lot of people like to imagine Ray as an accountant or banker but I think he’s a scammer for sure. This dude poses as a banker, scams you, and hides the gold in his safe. Why do you think he moved all the way out to a deserted island? To escape justice! In any case, Raymond’s got some explaining to do!

Stay tuned for part two, coming tomorrow!!​