Chronicles of Crayola Island

[MelanieScribbles]

March 9th​

Well, it had been a short day today, buy boy, was it ever an an eventful one! Let's start this story at the beginning, though.

First up was my daily visit to Katrina.

Well, a little good friendship luck definitely can't hurt, especially since I haven't gotten any villager photo's that I wanted yet. I'm kind of keeping Phoebe, Monique and Tiansheng around for that purpose, but you will be seeing the latter two on my archipelago. I'm usually not a fan of Jock villagers to begin with, but Tiansheng sort of grew on me over time. And I just like Monique for both her sense of style, and just because she ends up being this sort of over the top kind of person once you poke through the Snooty personality type. Like, you'd expect she'd initially act like one of those mean girl characters, but she was always pretty okay to be around.

Also, Isabelle announced that Flick was actually visiting today, so I took the opportunity to finally get that Orchid Mantis model made! I was going to place one in the bamboo forest, so I knew this was my chance. So I grabbed those 3 Orchid Mantises that had been sitting in my living room for a while now, and went over to go get this done first.

I've also unloaded some of the more expensive bugs in my storage on him, and my patience definitely paid off: after running the numbers, I've earned around 130k IGB from this alone today! And the second run wasn't even a full inventory of bugs. Flick, you're an absolute lifesaver when it comes to that massive Nook debt.

Also, that's not the only work that got done on the bamboo forest: a few trees I had planted around the natural onsen area had produced shoots today.

So since they'd definitely not grow where they ended up being, I had dug these up, and planted those further around the place like I usually do with new bamboo shoots. A few trees should be growing to the south of it in a while. I don't want this area to be fully obscured by the trees, but it would be cute to at least have it partially hidden to have it serve as a bit of a secret area. Like, you'll know it's there, but you'll only fully see it if you'd go to actually check it out.

I did notice the good friendship luck, though: Two villagers had a ping today! First up was Spike, teaching me the Sheepishness Reaction.

Since English isn't my first language, I legit had to look up the definition of that: a grin of embarrassment or of a lack of confidence... Well, I definitely don't have any confidence issues! I guess I'm saving this one for when I'm embarrassed in some way that would warrant an awkward giggle. I often try and joke to lighten the mood when I'm nervous, which isn't always a good thing. I mean, I have a decent sense of humor, but sometimes, this nervous habit isn't helping, so I tend to push it down whenever a joke would be highly inappropriate. So I guess I'm saving this Reaction for when a joke falls flat.

Also, Biff gave me a gift: A Cube Light. I have no use for it in my house, so I fully intend to just catalog this and sell it off.

Also, O'Hare actually applauded me for catching a Wasp today. I have been showing them who's boss on a more regular basis, so thanks for the support, dude!

After that, I went to the Roost on a Nook Mile task. No special characters there today, but it was nice to at least say hello to Brewster. He's the OG quiet guy in the squad, after all: gotta wonder what a conversation between him and Wardell would look like.

After that, I decided to go and visit a Kapp'n island: I got the vine island.

Now I've heard that this vine island is quite rare to get and that you're really lucky to even go there, and people tend to go absolutely crazy over this one. I understand why, since without the DLC, this is the only place to get Vines and Glowing Moss. But I really didn't know there was such a low chance of even getting here, since I've been sent there like 3 times already. And that's counting this one. I think I had it unlocked really early on: knowing my usual luck on randomized stuff like this (in more hardcore games, the RNG tends to hate me), I kind of assumed it was just some more common island.

There's definitely some nice DIY's to find here, though. Some of the items crafted with the two materials found here are really pretty. I mean: the Gowing-Moss Dress is criminally underrated if you're going for anything faircore.

Here's all the loot from this island:

After emptying out my inventory and storing everything caught worth over 1k IGB, though, I almost completely forgot about checking the archipelago! So I drag myself over, and lo and behold: I almost missed out on one of my dream villagers having arrived there!

I didn't have an idea for his home yet, and we know that I won't settle for anything but the best when it comes to my dreamies. So I just snapped him up while I had the chance, placed the mandatory items, and left the photo blank to mark his vacatiuon home as 'still in progress'.

Also, I always check who replaces any villager I build vacation homes for. For example: if you find Cherry on the beach and build her a vacation home, then another villager will replace her on that beach. Apollo was replaced by none other then Zucker, and I definitely wanted him around. I had no clue on what to do with his house, though. I also wasn't planning on Ketchup having any roommates, and I originally just gave her house a basic diner theme with her as the chef. But the idea of two food-themed villagers living together was just too awesome, so I recruited Zucker as a waiter.

I know his basic look stands out way too much with this theme, but don't worry, I gave him a more appropriate uniform later. It's only his first day on the job, after all.

Well, this is about where I called it a day. I kind of forgot to screenshot my progress on the Nook debt today, so I sadly only have rough estimates instead of precise numbers today. But I do know I was starting to make some headway on it at around 1600k or 1700k IGB out of 2498k IGB. So far so good, right? Give it a few more days, and I'll finally get into more affordable territory again when it comes to these. With a little luck, I'm honestly expecting to be rid of this one by the end of next week. From what I've read, the next debts are 500k, 700k, and then turn up to a more challenging 900k and 1200k IGB again. But If I can drum up a good 2 and a half million Bells in this game, then 1,2 million should definitely be achievable by comparison.

Thank you for reading, and hope you enjoyed!

 

[MelanieScribbles]

March 10th​

Another day, another step towards finising the last major Nook debt! But before I hit the dailies, first things first: my visit to Katrina.

Well, since Isabelle announced a Campsite visitor today, I was not going to just sit through this! The whole sequence to get them to live on your island is already tedious enough without some bad luck in the way, thank you very much... Not like it's really difficult, just really time-consuming. Like, it'll eat up about half of your play session in some cases. I frankly don't even want to find out whether bad friendship luck influences this!
Needless to say, the purification fee was promptly handed over.

Well, let's go see who's in that Campsite anyways... Because an active Campsite means that someone's getting cycled out today! So I went over to check who it was in there: I mean, had it been Olaf, then I would've definitely sat this one out!

Well, Bianca isn't that ugly, so someone scheduled to eventually leave had to go today. So since I didn't actively choose someone to leave, I spun the Wheel of Names to decide who got voted off the island, so to speak. It landed on Biff. Kind of weird that my first starter villager is actually leaving... But I didn't exactly like him from the start, so this was always in the cards.

I don't downright hate him, but I'm just not a fan of Jock villagers in particular. Like, the personality type is bearable on Tiansheng for some reason. But on Biff, it just seems annoying. And as an aspiring character designer for videogames, his overall character design gets a resounding 'meh' from me. It's not horrible, but not memorable or pretty either. It's just... forgettable, if that makes sense? Like, his eyebrows and the shade of red they made him just lowkey bug me, and I know I'm not alone on that eyebrow thing. Now if they had change the default state of his eyebrows, then I probably wouldn't even be typing this. But now, he just looks constantly angry or annoyed. If they were just sitting horizontally or 'flat' on the top of his eye in a more neutral facial expression, then he'd look halfway decent. Also, what's up with the brick-like undertones of that shade of maroon? They should've definitely gone for a red with more purple undertones.

Sorry not sorry, but it's kind of sad if the people who draw gijinka's and general fanart of the character make Biff look more interesting as a character then the in-game version of him does. Like, if the fanartists are basically beating you as a character designer at your own game, then it's definitely time to reconsider your life decisions.

Also, me solving that one argument between Rhonda and Phoebe must've paid off, because Rhonda asked me to deliver a present to our favorite phoenix today! Good to see that my two homegirls are getting along again.

It was a clothing item that looked awful on Phoebe, though, but it's the thought that counts. Also, speaking of clothes, I hopped by the Able Sisters like I usually do, and actually found the Elegant Dress in there. I didn't actually buy it, but I just had to try it on just for fun.

Well, it looks more decent in-game then it does on the wiki, but I still like my custom design better with the Elegant Hat. Really, if you're wearing any default clothing item with that hat, then please try the Fashionable Royal Dress instead of this. The main problem of this dress that it looks way too simple in comparison to the hat itself: this definitely should've had more details on it.

Also, Saharah was visiting, so I bought some rugs from her.

I actually still had some Saharah tickets in storage, so I got those out and tried my luck at the wallpaper and flooring. Well, at least the way that the Saharah RNG hates me feels familiar... Was already scared that this game would go way too easy on me.

Well, I finished my dailies around this time, so I headed off to the archipelago like I usually do after that. The beach was full of those really weird-looking villagers, so I wasn't expecting that much today. There are some days when the archipelago is really full of gros-looking villagers, so I usually stick to remodels if it there's nobody remotely interesting around. But I always check the Café and Restaurant as well, just to be safe. Well, Katrina must've really given it her all on that purification this morning, because I found yet another dreamie in the archipelago today!

None other then Kabuki himself! With Apollo appearing this week as well, turns out that the RNG has gone soft on me here! At this rate, I'll have all of my dream island villagers living on the archipelago before I actually have them living on Crayola. Needless to say, I had to snap him up while I could: a situation like this is exactly why I try to keep the prettiest plots open. I 100% save them for the dreamies and B-listers like Monique: nothing but the best for them. I am planning to have Kabuki room with Genji later, since I headcanon the two as besties.

Well, since the rest of the villager candidates on the archipelago was a complete mess, I could really take my time with Kabuki's vacation home. First up was the exterior: this place was going to look like an absolute palace, of course. There were a lot of Baobabs in the unchangeable parts of the environment here, which wasn't exactly the plan from the start. But I decided to just lean into that instead of giving up and moving him to another plot later. I was getting kind of tired of just mindlessly spamming bamboo trees in these traditional Japanese front yards anyways.

After this, it was time to get to the meat and potatoes of this vacation home: the interior! Well, since Kabuki is based off of a real-life Japanese theater type, there was really only one way to go with this.

But actor or not, Kabuki needed a place to relax after a long day of rehearsing.

And of course, a place to get into costume. For any of these 'open villager closets', I just pick clothing that I think would at least look decent on them if they'd actually wear it. I always leave out what they currently have on, though.

And lastly, the bathroom. Honestly, to a westener like me, those squat toilets just look kind of weird, but it's probably more normalized over there. I was glad that the default shades for the bathtub and sink turned out to match the wallpaper I used for this house, though.

I actually considered that screen wallpaper as an accent, but it just ended up looking weird due to the tokonama being in the way. But this house could definitely use a second floor if Genji is going to end up living here as well. It was a bit of a challenge since the game only has like 4 types of tatami flooring to choose from, and I was way too lazy to be placing the tatami rug of across this entire room. Ironically, the screen wallpaper as an accent did end up working here, so I decided to recycle the idea on the second floor.

I ended up having some spare space left after putting in the roomie essentials like a bedroom and bathroom. So since I heard that Genji was a bit of a poet, I decided to give him a little office to write in. The chair actually has a custom design on it.

And on the bedroom, the basic Able Sisters patterns ended up saving my butt: none of the default shades on the Futon really seemed to fit Genji, and my custom design made it look more like it belonged to a female villager or otherwise feminine villager instead. Also, any excuse to place that gorgeous Stair Dresser. I dunno, that and the Japanese dresser in the Antique variation just match this particular Shoji wallpaper so well.

Also thought it would be fun to have him place a picture of his bestie: I kind think it's weird for a villager to have a picture of themselves around, but something this would make sense if two villagers are close friends. I kind of wanted to place one in Kabuki's sleeping area as well, but I forgot, so that'll have to wait until a remodel.

Also, Genji's 'open closet' was a bit of a challenge, since I actually needed to have his wiki entry open to get a feel for his sense of style.

I kind of kept the bathroom simple, as I was just running out of ideas at this point. Might consider putting wooden floors in both this and the downstairs bathroom, but I usually only get to small stuff like this on a remodel.

I always have to remember to place ceiling items as well: I just tend to forget they exist for some reason. I usually only get tosmaller details like rugs and ceiling items near the end of a build, so I usually end up taking screenshots like this twice because I forgot something.

After this, I went back to Crayola for some last activities like storing the Bells I got from exchanging Poki, and just generally some last mucking about for the day. But who do I see on my island?

Celeste! Oh, if only my connectivity issues had already been solved... I got a Pisces Lamp DIY from her this time, and decided to get my 20 wishes in anyways. Also, while waiting for more falling stars, I decided to take a screenshot of my mantis model, since it was sitting near my stargazing spot anyways.

I honestly love it when a plan comes together like this: now that it's actually here, it looks even prettier there then expected. This area truly looks like a forest now. There's one actually functioning, game-placed rock across the dividing river where I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it there, but I'll see what to do with it once I actually start placing trees there: the set I've planted around the onsen area is still growing, so that general area is only just starting to come together. No need for me to start thinking ahead on that one just yet.

Thank you for reading, and hope you enjoyed!

 

[MelanieScribbles]

March 11th​

Well, today was definitely short, but sweet. I'm really starting to make some headway on that last big nook debt: I'm around at 1900k / 2498k IGB. So if I really put in some effort here, I'm expecting to have it paid off by the end of next week.

Well, before I set off on earning around 100k IGB on the dailies, I went on my daily Katrina visit.

Well, I have been burning through Shovels the most lately, so some good belongings luck definitely can't hurt! Also, along my fossil hunt and combing the beach for shells, I found something else on the beach...

Oh Gulliver, not again! You'd think that the rest of his crew would try to keep him away from the edges of the ship at this point... Or at least give him a waterproof communicator. I again helped him find the missing parts to the darned thing and helped him fix it, though.

Also, I've incorporated visiting villagers indoors into my daily routine lately, as I've heard that you can get up to 3 DIY's or cooking recipes this way per day. I mean, that's kind of a lot if you do that daily! I'm always looking for more ways to work through my extra materials, so I figured that a few extra recipes definitely wouldn't hurt.

Who on your island is either cooking or DIY'ing changes every 3 hours, and they'll be inside for most of the time you're walking around the island. So after finding them, you have more then enough time to do other stuff while waiting for that. Basically, just visit any villager's house that has the lights on and has smoke coming out of the chimney, and you're bound to find them that way.

Well, after that, I decided to hop by the Able Sisters: I didn't really end up buying much today, but I decided to try on the Student Cap for fun: I kind of ended up looking like a character from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure in it.

Like, tell me that doesn't lowkey look like Jotaro's hat in part 1!

After visiting Nook's Cranny and Nook Shopping as well, I decided to go check the archipelago as usual. And lo and behold: my luck on finding good villagers was lasting! I found none other then Ione at the beach today. I do have some villagers that I exclusively want on my archipelago, and she's one of them, so I had to place her vacation home on a decent plot. I usually don't have a specific idea in mind whenever I see a villager, but in Ione's case, I pretty much had a clear theme in mind. So messed around in Room Sketch before I even started.

But when I did officially sit her down for a design, first up was the exterior, of course. I 100% went for a zodiac and star theme: I wanted a space sort of theme for her, but I didn't want to go as full sci-fi on this as I did with Kevin and Cephalobot.

And, of course, you didn't even need to point me towards the Starry-Skies wall and the Galaxy Flooring when it came to this build.

...Not to mention me throwing any kind of zodiac furniture that I could get my hands on at this. I pretty much tried to match everything in the room up to the gold accents in those, and the Elegant Sofa was frankly a lifesaver (same with that starry cloth on the little table: couldn't believe that was a default pattern!). but sadly, there was no such option on the lava lamp. At least it matched the white in that furniture series, though.

Also, I really don't have enough opportunities to use the Taurus Bathtub.

In the bedroom, the Dreamy Bed fit oddly well: I didn't expect it to be this cute in the context of this theme, but that blue variation was absolutely perfect.

Also, remember how I pictures Sasha as a hardcore gamer? Well, I figured that he needs someone else to play against in multiplayer, so I gave Ione a small gaming room.

After that, I decided to visit a Kapp'n island: I really don't go to these enough. I've kind of taking to just wearing a wetsuit to these just in case I feel like trying for some new Critterpedia entries in the 'deep sea creatures' section. I got sent to a winter island today: as if I haven't seen enough snow since I started this island during that season!

Anyhow, here's all of the loot from that island:

After getting back home to Crayola and emptying out my inventory, I decided to finally get to crafting some Mermaid Chairs for my little beach lounge area. I have had the DIY recipe for a while now, but I hadn't gotten around to actually placing them yet.

While I was at it, I found that the way that sand path to it was laid was bugging me... It just seemed a little small in comparison to the size that this area ended up being. So I extended it to make this area feel more like it's a part of the island's actual beaches.

Well, this is about where I called it a day. I do have exact numbers on the Nook debt this time: 1919k / 2498k IGB , so my ABD is building up nicely here. I feel like it's only a matter of time now before I actually pay this one off.

Thank you for reading, and hope you enjoyed!

 

[MelanieScribbles]

March 12th​

Well, most of my day took place on the archipelago today. But before I headed over there, I still had dailies to do.

So first up on the agenda was Katrina, of course: you really want to just go there first to get the most out of your gameplay. For example, you don't want to be doing Bell-related stuff like hitting the Bell Rock or planting a money tree without good money luck...

Well, with that out of the way, I decided to go welcome a new resident to Crayola: Bianca had moved in today. I was actually surprised by her house's exterior: I was not expecting it to be this cute

Well, you actually do have to talk to a villager if you want them to move out, and Bianca sure isn't a permanent resident... They won't even be able to get the move out thought bubble moved to them via resetting the game: it appears two weeks after your last villager left that way. So a villager can't be in your move-out queue unless you talk to them at least once. If she's not staying, then let's at least make her a candidate for that thought bubble once it appears again, right?

Well, after that, I absolutely raced through my dailies: sometimes, I just get them done faster, and today was definitely one of the days where I felt like 'did I really get that much done already? '. So with the daily routine out of the way, I decided to go and visit the Able Sisters like usual: they actually had a Loose Fall Coat available that really looks like a coat I own in real life. I do actually have a winter coat like this: it's also a red plaid, only it's a different plaid then this one. It's is just a small tad shorter in length then this in-game coat, has this black fluffy fabric on the inside, and has a black fake fur trim on the hood.

Sadly, it often doesn't get cold enough in the Netherlands for me to actually to wear it: it could be fine for Canadian winter temperatures according to a few of my relatives there, but it's actually too warm for Dutch winter temperatures, though. I think I only wore it once when it was like -10C, but it sure was a lifesaver there. I legit miss wearing it, though, because it's so cute: gotta hate global warming! I kind of liked this in-game clothing item when I saw it on the wiki, since it resembles that real-life coat. So you can understand: I just had to buy it while I had the chance.

After that, I headed over to the archipelago. I've actually managed to get a lot of work done, despite the beach, Café and Restaurant all being full of weird villagers today. So I just decided to get to some of my backlog in the DLC.

First up was the hospital: now that I've learned there's going to be a separate patient ward, I've kind of been wanting to change up the doctor's office for a while now. But while I was there, I gave the waiting room a few quality-of-life upgrades: I didn't know that the reception desk was used as a sort of standing desk by the villager assigned as a receptionist, so I just removed the chair there. I also threw in some more wall items: there's always a clock in a waiting room at a doctor's office.

I also added in a few small details like light switches to really make the place look a tad more realistic. I had also forgotten to get some ceiling items in there: I somehow always forget those exist.

But most of my work on this facility went into the doctor's office itself. I partially based the layout on the doctor's office in my neighborhood: they sort of have their little examination area in that same corner of the room, and it's separated by some curtains hanging from the ceiling. Using only the Operation Room wallpaper looked a bit boring, though, so this place really needed an accent wall.

My neighborhood's doctor's office also has this anatomical model thing in the office itself, only it's just a head, I think? Anyhow, any good doctor's office just needs one of those models somewhere. They also have two chairs instead of just one, in case a parent brings in their kid. I really remodeled this room more because I wanted an excuse to use that shelf behind the desk, though.

And while I was on a remodeling binge anyways, I decided to go and work on Lucky and Coco's house. Since they're both described as looking a bit creepy sometimes, I kind of made their house look like a haunted house. The idea is that it looks all scary, but that the villagers themselves have no clue how either they or their house could possibly be scary. But with their wallpaper letting outside light through and me setting the yard to the sunset hours, the whole place kind of looked to bright and cheery for that kind of horror aesthetic! So I just set it to night. Itdid unintentionally make the yard look just that bit more foreboding.

The thing is: when I went back inside to work on the interior, this made stuff a bit harder to see, and not in a good atmosphere kind of way... So I put some thematically appropriate wall lights up so visitors can actually see all of the cool spooky stuff I put in here. I also originally wanted to play K.K. Dirge throughout the house in addition to its original Creaky soundscape, but I hadn't unlocked the song at the time yet. Lucky also wasn't fully in costume yet: Coco had hers on, but he still had his default hoodie. So I went back in there to fix some small details like that: I dunno, that music and the Mummy Costume sure got him into character.

He actually did that emote on his own when I was going in for a bird's eye view of this floor, and he legit held it until I zoomed back in on him to take this one instead. I mean, I was going to get into costume myself first, but that sure was a cover image for this build if I had ever seen one.

My HHN ID is RA-4073-0316-7483 , and the build is called 'Not Haunted, I Swear'. But be warned, it's not for the faint of heart... But in all seriousness, it's a full on horror build. If those don't sit well with you, then absolutely no judgement if you sit this one out. It is arachnophobia-safe, though: no spiders were used in the making of this build.

And for the people wanting to skip this one, I still have plenty of other vacation homes to tour: I had found Marina on the beach recently, but I still had to remodel her home. I did have a specific plan for her, and got her into costume for this one, but I hadn't finishe the interior yet. But I fully completed her vacation home today, yard and all.

For her front yard, I kind of went for classic island vibes, but make it kawaii. The game won't let you lay paths on beaches like this, so I pretty much had to 'sculpt' a path with the plants: I usually let the spots where plants are absent guide potential visitors to the front door in cases like this.

And since Marina was going to originally ask for an underwater theme, the game didn't need to tell me twice to throw as much mermaid-themed stuff as this as possible.

That Siren of the Sea custom design that I made a while ago definitely was a lifesaver here, though. I didn't have much clothes to work with for both her bedroom, and for stuff for my character to wear in the screenshots.

I do like the combination of the Mermaid furniture series and the Shell furniture series, but to be honest with you: I'm still not completely happy with this build. I might still come back to this one with more stuff unlocked. I haven't crafted most of the Mermaid furniture yet, and I don't have all of the DIY recipes for it yet. I mean, I would've loved to put a Mermaid Lamp in that living room area, and maybe the Mermaid Rug would've been a better option. But we'll see what I'll adjust once I have more options at my disposal.

I especially want give the kitchen a major makeover: I went for stone since there are stones underwater, but the colours feel a bit too dark in comparison to everything else, and just generally contrast with the rest of the theme too much. I'm 100% keeping that fridge and that pitcher, though.

So yeah, Marina's vacation home is good enough for now, but its main problem was my lack of options at this point in time. So I definitely need to remodel this one later down the line, and it's definitely going to take come planning. But hey, that's going to be an extra 10k Poki once I do get to it, so I'm not complaining.

I did manage to finish the first floor of Apollo's vacation home, though: I couldn't just let a dream villager of mine live in a work in progress forever!

I really wasn't sure what to do with 'A Home in the Rough' when I properly started on this build, but the mandatory items definitely gave me 'overgrown ruins' vibes. And I had already had crafted some Glowing Moss furniture from spare materials, so I also had those to work with. The Glowing Moss rugs were very much a lifesaver here: they perfectly mimicked some plants growing through the cracks of ancient tiles.

The real challenge here was to not hang any lamps on the ceiling: the regular lighting mimicked sunlight falling through a crumbling ceiling well enough, so I just stuck to hanging some vines there to imply there's a second floor.

Speaking of that second floor: I still need to get to that one, since I was starting to feel a bit spent on the creative area at this point. But I'm pretty happy with the first floor so far, so this seemed like a good point to call it a day.

Well, I forgot to actively screenshot how far I was on the Nook Debt today, but I think I was at around 1919k / 2498k IGB. I am expecting to be paying it off somewhere next week though: the countdown has finally started! The debts for the storage expansions are really a lot more manageable then this one, so I can't wait to be spending Bells on something else then these debts for a change. It's a bit of a shame that we can't expand rooms, since I do feel that they're just a tad too small for what I want to do with them. But hey, that's the way the cookie crumbles, and some more storage space would definitely be welcome.

Thank you for reading, and hope you enjoyed!

 

[MelanieScribbles]

March 13th​

Another day, another step towards paying off that last Nook debt... I actually didn't play for that long today, but I did get a lot done in addition to my dailies.

So first up was my usual visit to Katrina.

Oh no, I am not going to be tripping every few steps. I really hate anything in a game that impedes your character's movement: in more hardcore games, I'm really more the type to get into an enemy's face instead of trying to attack them from a distance. In MMO's, I always play some kind of tank class as well: me dealing damage to an enemy is a certainty, but how much damage it's going to be solely depends on how fast I can actually get to the front lines. So anything impeding my movement speed just generally annoys me in a game: ask every enemy in a videogame who temporarily slowed me down, not a good idea... I'm usually a DPS tank for a reason. And in New Horizons, I don't really dash around, I just generally move at the basic movement speed unless I'm in a rush. But I'm always on my way to somewhere on the island, and there's really no way that I'm going to be spending 3 extra minutes on going anywhere because I keep tripping all the time!

So after that, I went about my dailies: this was another day where they didn't really take too long. Am I just getting faster at them, or am I just getting luckier with the fossils being closer together? That's the task that often takes me the longest, because while I usually have no trouble finding 3 out of the 4 fossils... I'm often just combing my island over and over for that last one. But if that last one isn't actively hidden behind anything on my island (like a tree, flower, furniture item etc.), then it only really takes me half an hour at most to find them all. I've also hopped by Daisy Mae to get my Turnips in for the week: with Turnip Prophet, I felt daring and went in for a whopping 500 this time: I usually only go for 50 at most, so that's a lot of Turnips in my case.

And while visiting villagers indoors, O'Hare actually gave me a perfect DIY recipe for the bamboo forest: a Stone-Lion-dog!

I know that lion dogs (better known in the west as 'foo dogs') like that are technically Chinese and not Japanese, but tell me that they wouldn't look great in the front yards in that area! I was actually struggling to come up with some general ideas for those, but these definitely make for a nice garden ornament. In Chinese culture, they're considered to be guardians, and are said to protect a business from harmful spiritual influence and general human threats. A Chinese restaurant that my family often goes to for celebrations have these outside, and they're always placed in pairs outside of the entrance to a business: in real life, there is actually a male and a female. But you actually can't tell whether the one in the game is male or female: a male will have its paw on a ball, and a female will either have her paw down or her paw on a playful cub lying on its back. But the one in the game doesn't have its paw on anything, so I guess it's non-binary? I'm still placing them in pairs in those yards, though: one lion dog would just be weird, regardless of its gender.

Also, I've always wanted to remodel the homes of permanent residents on my island, and then I remembered: I already have Rhonda living here! So I decided to cross our favorite goth rhino off the list early. I mean, I'm not exactly mad at her default interior: I don't get what that Shell Partition and Shell speaker were doing there (especially since the speaker was on the floor!), but you can't really call that a goth interior. Like, it was just not quite looking 'Addams Family' enough. They really did tone Rhonda herself down from other games: in New Horizons, she actually dresses oddly colourful for a goth, but you can still tell. And a fellow goth deserves a decent lair to live in!

After this, I decided to go to a Kapp'n island: I've been wanting to incorporate them into my daily routine, but I really don't do that often enough. I dunno, I always feel like it takes me forever to fill my inventory on those islands. I like to think that empty inventory slots means wasted Nook Miles. And once you head home, you're basically bleeding in-game Bells by not filling out your inventory.
I got sent to the produce island today.

I'm not sure if it generates produce based on what you've unlocked, because while I went to at least three of these before, I've never seen any produce that I didn't have yet. Also, maybe it picks the first produce plant you've ever had, because mine was Sugarcane and I've seen nothing but that on these islands. Like, maybe I've seen one with nothing but Tomatoes, but it was mostly Sugarcane. Here's all of the loot from that island:

After emptying out my inventory, I also did some remodeling on the archipelago: I dunno, I was kind of on a home deco binge in the game today. had found Sprinkles on the beach, and I had been looking to fill out the winter / icy plots on my archipelago anyways. My catalog unlocking really saved my butt on the front yard, as I had most of the Frozen series of furniture to work with. I've practically crafted all of it before since the snowflakes kept piling up during winter, save for one or two DIY's I missed during that season. And with a snowy yard like this, there's really not much else to do then slap those down, toss in a few cedar trees, maybe include a few flowers or rocks for good measure, and just try your best. I feel that this yard is still not my best work, and kind of too generic for my tastes, so I'm definitely remodelling this later.

But I felt that screw it, I might as well go for a theme here. I actually saw this same wallpaper and flooring combined with a Frozen Counter in Puck's default house back on Crayola, and I remember really liking that general 'frozen igloo' idea when I originally saw it. But I hated the sports equipment in there: I mean, he's a Lazy villager, not a Jock villager! So I decided to do something similar: I kind of went for a mix between a cozy cabin and frozen palace look for this one, though.

And again, I forgot the ceiling items... Definitely a classic Mel move, I somehow always forget they exist. I'll remember the wall decorations for sure, but I just never seem to remember to put up ceiling decorations in the moment. So I had to go in for a remodel a few seconds later to put them up.

The White Wood variation of that kitchen lamp was a real lifesaver: some items do have a white wood variation, but it just ends up being this really light wood colour (or even beige) instead of straight-up white. Like, the game can keep telling me that's white all it wants, but an artist like me knows a beige when she sees one. And in a snow-themed vacation home like this, you want stark white as an accent colour before you even start thinking about incorporating beige tones.

The bedroom here is actually a good example of what I mean by this: the white variation of the Iron Closet matches the bedding of the Frozen Bed better then it matches the white of the bathtub in the same screenshot. Like, that closet listed as white when you're picking variations of it in the menu, and it actually does look white in that menu. But it ends up looking really light beige once you actually place it.

I'm still proud of how the interior on this vacation home turned out, though: I feel I did what I could with the whole frozen theme here, and that I didn't resort to just mindlessly spamming every item form the Frozen furniture series that I could get my hands on.

Also, I had found Greta somewhere on the archipelago recently, and I really only snapped her up for some stuff she unlocked. I needed Poki, though, so I decided to actually remodel her vacation home: I went for this dingy, traditional Japanese look. I dunno, I just named the theme after the Japanese word for 'dingy', and called it a day. I'm really not a fan of Greta to begin with, so I legit didn't put too much effort into this one.

I think I was done within 15 minutes or so? I just put a nice Kotatsu in here, some general pillows to sit on, and my much-hated Tatami Bed. To me, it just looks cheaper and generally less aesthetically pleasing then the Futon. I actually didn't want to make the room too big either, since that would just not fit with the general theme of dingy-ness.

No, really, this screenshot shows you just about everything in the room I didn't really bother with any custom designs either, and I really only changed the variation on the Zen Cushions and the Paper Lantern to match the Kotatsu better. Well, I pretty much called it a day after this one: enough damage done for one day.

Thank you for reading, and hope you enjoyed!

 

[MelanieScribbles]

February 4th​

Wow, I haven't posted here in a looooong time! I actually haven't played New Horizons in ages, but I've found myself playing again for 2 days now, so maybe I'm getting back into the swing of things again. I can't promise that I'll be posting daily again, but I'm hoping to get back into that rhythm at some point. But with Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom coming out as well, Hyrule might eventually need my help more than Crayola. My family kind of has a feud with Ganondorf at this point, as he was the one boss my mom had trouble getting past... She also has a bone to pick with Demise, though. So either way, you bet that I'm sending that final boss Mama Scribbles' regards. But for now: it was an eventful couple of days after my return!

First off, it turns out that my last debt to Tom Nook has been paid off! Well, that sure is a pleasant surprise to come back to. Also, I had finally found the last fossil needed for my Museum in these past few days: I only needed one more, but it just wouldn't show up. But I come back, and bam, there it is on my first day back in the game! That's actually the first Museum collection that I've ever completed: I didn't even manage to do something like that back when I was still playing New Leaf! So needless to say: I'm kind of proud of myself. I came back to Crayola during winter, which was lowkey kind of appropriate since I created the island in winter... Man, I can't believe that it's been a year already. Well, after my character fixed up her hair on that first day, I decided to say hello to everyone to let them know that I'm not dead. Everyone on Crayola was happy to see me, of course.

Clyde did move out in my absence. Luckily, he was scheduled to move out anyways and it was none of my two dreamies leaving, so that only meant that I had to drop by the Campsite real quick. After that, I just went about my dailies: Katrina, looking for the bell rock, etc. I'm just using an island planner app to keep up to speed with everything I used to get done in a day. After visiting Katrina, I decided to drop by the archipelago first to see what Lottie was up to. But on the beach, there turned out to be a villager from Crayola's history there...

Oh, you've gotta be kidding me! What is Olaf doing here!? Ooh boy, the past does have a tendency catch up to you, huh? He seemed shocked to see me too, and he frankly didn't dare talk to me at this point. And after talking to Lottie about my past troubles with him, we agreed to not give him a vacation home. EVER. No joke, we created a villager blacklist just so we could put him on it. With all of the trouble he caused on Crayola, there was no way that I would allow him to ruin anyone's vacation here!

Luckily, Audie was on the archipelago as well: She's actually a pretty villager in my book, I'd frankly only change her outfit to match her shades. I find the shade of red of her fur a bit too bright to actually have her walking around on Crayola, but I like her as a villager regardless of that. And she sure sounds like better company then Olaf... So I decided to decorate a vacation home for her instead. She asked for a DJ party zone, and I happened to have both the Club Wall and matching flooring unlocked. So I decided to go for a fancy, exclusive nightclub vibe here.

If you're interested in visiting this vacation home: my HHN ID is RA-4037-0316-7483 . So you can consider yourself one of the VIP's now When I got back to Crayola, I noticed that I had a Nook Mile task to change my outfit. New year, new look, I guess: don't get me wrong, I love that Visual Punk Dress to death, but I agree with the Nook Mile tasks... It was time for a change indeed. But during my search for fossils on the island, I noticed that the flowers have gotten a little out of control in my absence.

Looks like I missed a few spots when placing those transparent tiles back in the day... There were even a few flowers growing on path tiles that I missed. The hyacinths around the stargazing area especially were out of control, so I just couldn't leave this be.

Well, it's about time to fix that! I knew that I'd be busy with this overdue maintenance for a while: the tiles I placed to fix this very issue are fully transparent, so one just can't visually tell where exactly I missed them. And I only came up with the idea to just leave holes in the places where I had to place the transparent tiles after digging the flowers out, I fear that this is going to take me more than one day. So I reluctantly got to work.

I spread out some of the leftover flowers across the island, as Crayola had some dead space around the island that I didn't know what to do with. And a bit of elbow grease later, everything was in a presentable state again.

I only stuck around for a bit longer to attend KK's concert, and since that final Nook debt is paid off, I'm just going to read back my old post to see what should be on my to-do list for now. I'm thinking of going on a bit of a dream villager hunt, since I have a lot of Nook Mile tickets laying around from past Nookazon trades and Nook Mile exchanges. But I'm just checking some old posts to see if there's anything that should be on the priority list first. I actually keep an excel sheet of everything I need to collect for once those dreamies arrive, so I'll just give that a quick sweep as well. So we're having a bit of a short post today, but rest assured that there will be more content to come.

Thank you for reading, and hope you enjoyed!

 

[MelanieScribbles]

February 8th​

Well, I have decided what my next goal in the game is going to be. I had been hunting for dream villagers in the past couple of days... And I have been successful! I had an empty plot on my island that actually stayed empty for a few days, so I just started up my Switch in the evening for some casual Mystery Island-hopping, not expecting much else then a loooong search that would empty most of my Nook Mile Tickets... Yet who do I see on that fateful Mystery Island?

None other than Fang! I was just walking across the mystery island over there like 'Is there even a villager on this island, I've been walking around this entire thing 3 times- waitaminute, is that a dreamie!? HOLY CRAP IT IS, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!' I thought I lost this screenshot, but it turns out that my Switch just saved it in an unusual place amongst my other screenshots and I had just misplaced it.
Man, I couldn't believe my luck that day, yet here his house is, right here on Crayola.

Well, let's go give this dream villager a warm welcome! I always give Crayola's A-listers the royal treatment, after all: both Rhonda and Kabuki got full house makeovers, so nothing but the best for Fang as well.

Welcome to Crayola's elites, Fang. Don't worry, you won't have to straighten that house up alone: I'm already planning a upgrade to the absolute basics that Tom is going to leave you with. His house also just so happens to have landed right in the neighborhood where I had planned to place it, since that's where the empty plot was. So since I don't have to swap housing plots around, that saves me a lot of Bells and waiting for houses to move around the island! Of course, I did visit Katrina before all of this: I actually got bad belongings luck, but I had enough Bells on me to avoid that.

After this, I quickly hopped by the archipelago: Ken was there, and I thought that he fit in perfectly with the island that Kabuki's vacation home is on. I know that I haven't worked on decorating a vacation home in a while, but I have been warming up by decorating a few other vacation homes. So I hope I'm back on track when it comes to that. I'm kind of proud of this one, though.

After that, I hopped back to Crayola to do the dailies. However, I did notice along the way that the flowers on Crayola have really gotten out of control in my absence! Flowers are STILL growing on the paths, despite me having transparent tiles around every flower area to keep them in check. Turns out I missed a few squares in multiple areas... The hyacinths to the north of the bamboo forest are out of control as well, and so are the Lilies to the south of it. Not to mention the patch of Lilies around it's south-east entrance! Well, I guess that know what's on the agenda for the upcoming few days.

It's not a difficult job to fix all of this, it's just time-consuming: for each flower, I'm going to have to dig it out, switch to my tiling tool, close up the hole, and place the transparent tile. And with the amount of overgrowth, that's probably going to take me a few days... Funny story: turns out my mom had a similar issue in our back yard before she remodeled it... So she definitely understood why my character was sighing so deeply! On the plus side, though: this gives me a new goal to work towards: the Crayola Re-Beautification Effort! We can't have flowers taking over the island. I was looking for something new to do anyways, and I now actually have that and a few other things I can work on.
I also have quite a few rare flowers that I had temporarily stored on the beach before I took an unexpected hiatus, and in my efforts to start taming Crayola's flower overgrowth, I've actually found a few more... There even were some Black Lilies in there that I desperately wanted! So I fear that I'm going to have to plan a rare flower area as well, because I have so many different rare flowers, that they've blocked off a few of my palm trees. Those trees produce Coconuts that I regularly use in crafts to sell to Nook's Cranny, so that's definitely an issue that needs to be solved.

The problem is: I don't have a lot of space on the island to put that rare flower area! I think I'm focusing on flower control first, though: if I just leave that for later, the problem will just get bigger. And the rare flower area is frankly going to take a bit more planning: I don't want visitors to my island to be able to easily glitch their way in there, so it can't be right next to water or a beach. Also, I need to plan how Fang's home is ging to look, and I need to get him a vacation home: I bought some DLC chocolates in bulk back in the day, just in case I move in a dream villager. But I'll get to the urgent stuff first, and I'll plan the longer-term stuff out while I work. Fang isn't going anywhere, and that rare flower area is a project all on its own, but those flowers will take over the whole island if I just let them be. Gotta have my priorities straight, right?

It was an eventful day, though, so that's all going to have to wait until tomorrow: Rhonda actually had a ping, and invited me over.

​

And believe it or not... when I left, she actually gave me her photo! It's my first villager photo ever, and it's from my first dream villager, no less. A dreamie moving in and another finally handing over a photo? Best day ever!

Plenty to celebrate today, I guess, as I finished a second incline towards the museum as well. I actually hung the photo in my character's bedroom, as that's where my Rhonda poster used to hang. I gave a classier spin on it, though, and hung it next to my museum poster. I might get the frame customized, though, as it's a bit light compared to the rest of the room.

After that, it was time to celebrate with a cup of coffee at the Roost. Blathers was there today as well.

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I know that owls are nocturnal, but I'm not surprised that he needs a cup of coffee every now and then: I keep waking him up all day to appraise fossils and paintings! Well, since I often see Celeste hanging around the little cafe area of my island: I guess the love for caffeine runs in the family.
After that, I did some crafting to earn Bells and I called it a day. The Crayola Re-Beautification Effort starts tomorrow, and I'll spend the rest of my evening planning Fang's home: that's going to take the most time, effort and Bells, so it's important that I know what items to keep an eye out for. I currently have over 1 million Bells at my disposal, and I've built up a bit of Poki over the last couple of days. So at least funds won't be an issue, and Wardell from the archipelago will have my back on most of the items that I still have to catalog.

Thank you for reading, and hope you enjoyed!

 

[MelanieScribbles]

February 9th​

Phobia warning: This post partially talks about a graveyard, funerary rites, and generally mentions death. If this doesn't sit well with you, then please stop reading and/or scrolling after the section of Kabuki singing. I'll also put a warning at this specific section, just in case. Also, absolutely no judgement if you choose to sit that section out.

Now without further ado, let's get into today's post.
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Well, today was all about getting those dang flowers under control! Yup, the Crayola Re-Beautification Effort starts today. After this, maybe I'll just spend some Bells tomorrow to change Crayola's ordinance. I kind of kept the Beautiful Island ordinance in place to keep Crayola neat if I was away for longer, but it has clearly missed its mark. Anyhow, before I got to work, I decided to go visit Katrina and do my dailies first. However, on my way to her trailer, I ran into an old enemy...

Oh no, what's Redd doing here!? We do go way back, but definitely not in a positive way... I did check his shop to see if I could turn his little art theft scam back around again, but all he had were fakes. So on my way to Katrina I went.

Well, I'll sign for that: some extra help moving around sure wouldn't hurt today, as the flower overgrowth is spread out all across Crayola: I'm probably going to have to run around the entire island for quite a bit. Not tripping will definitely help me get from area to area. I did stop by Harriet before I left: she actually had a decent hairstyle for me, but it's more of look that I'd wear in summer than anything else.

Funny story: I actually had bangs similar to this as a child. It's actually back in style to a degree, but trust me when I say that it's a lot of maintenance if you don't want your bangs eventually covering up your eyes. I also stopped by the photo studio real quick to unlock some posters. I mean, I had to have Fang's poster in particular, and I figured that I might as well unlock the posters of the villagers who are getting cycled out as well. It's actually kind of nice to see a bit of a history of Crayola through all of the posters I've unlocked over time.

So with Katrina's blessing, I set out to get my dailies out of the way first: I usually hop by the archipelago after visiting hera, since you can go there directly from Harvey's island. I usually just go back to my island after I'm done on the archipelago. Well, Crayola's past sure was catching up to me today: I guess that Olaf knows where I work now, because our former island menace was causing trouble on the archipelago's beach again!

In the same spot as last time, even: right where I can see him on my way to Lottie. This just can't be a coincidence anymore, dude is straight-up stalking me now. Olaf, don't make me call Wardell! Never mess with the quiet ones, and Lottie isn't the only one who knows you're on the blacklist... But an old friend from Crayola was there as well: Biff was also on that beach, probably keeping Olaf in check. Well, good that someone's keeping an eye on him! I didn't offer him a vacation home, but I did stop to say hello. I hope he's doing well, regardless from where he may be visiting from.

Enjoy your vacation, Biff. We'll never forget that you were around for Crayola's founding days. And finding an actual favorite villager of mine in the restaurant today sure cheered me up after the whole Olaf debacle! Muffy was there today, so I quickly snapped her up. She might not be a dreamie, but she's still one of the most important B-listers in my book. She actually almost made it onto the list of dream villagers at the time! I still have some work on her vacation home to do, but the Room Sketch app is going to be a lifesaver here.

Man, I wish that you could invite villagers from the archipelago to your island. But sadly, you can only invite villagers from your island to come over to the archipelago. After that stroke of luck, I decided to get some final preparations done for the Crayola Re-Beautification Effort. Well, trimming back Crayola's flower overgrowth would probably take more than one shovel at this point, so I set out to craft about 5 spare ones. I figured that I probably wouldn't think of customizing my tools to refresh them and I didn't want to risk my beloved Colourful Shovel breaking on me, so I just went for a few ugly ones that I wouldn't mind losing.

While I was doing the dailies, I had of course kept an eye out for the areas where the flowers really got out of hand: The lilies in the bamboo forest were a mess, there was a whole bunch of White Lilies to the south of it, and the hyacinths of the northern woods were misbehaving as well. I figured that it would be the most efficient if I just dug everything up, left the holes, and then switched to my tiling tool to cover up the holes with x and place the tile down before moving to the next square. This would give me a visual on how many I had left to go in that area.

So with my route planned and shovel in hand, I started up the construction app and got to work! And boy, did I ever have my work cut out for me... I mean, look at this mess!

...Yup, definitely changing the island's ordinance after this. Queue Wind Rose's 'Diggy Diggy Hole' song , because I sure have a lot of digging to do here! Metal music like that often gives me a little extra pep if I have a difficult task to do.

'I am a dwarf and I'm digging a hole...' Darn, it's stuck in my head now. You actually can't put whole plants in your home's storage, so I made several trips to Nook's Cranny to just sell off the regular flowers I had to get rid of: rare flowers that happened to be in the overgrowth were just added to the beach for now. It's not a lot of Bells per inventory, but at least I'm making some kind of profit while cleaning up this mess.

Along the way, I did see a few balloon presents float by, and I just slingshotted them down as usual. But one had a strange, golden balloon that I had never seen before. So I decide to shoot it out of the sky with my trusty slingshot, pick up the fallen present as I usually do, and I couldn't help but wonder what was inside...

Wow, my first golden tool! Did I really shoot down that many balloon presents already? I'm not going to craft it yet, but I still consider this a big milestone. Also, it's a good thing that I crafted all of those shovels, because one of my spares did indeed break while I was working.

Phew, good thing that was there for that exact purpose, because that could've been my Colourful Shovel! This is why I always plan these big operations out in advance. Kabuki had been singing on the plaza all afternoon, and I caught him singing K.K. Dirge on his own, just to help motivate me.

Thank you, Kabuki, the support of one of Crayola's A-listers means the world to me.

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Warning: death section starts here
(Last chance to turn back, folks)​

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That did remind me, though: I couldn't tile the gyroid fragment area near my orchard, due to actually having to bury the fragments there. It's actually supposed to be this spooky halloween-y graveyard sort of area, with a music player that plays K.K. Dirge on repeat. The gyroids are actually based off of haniwa, who are involved in ancient Japanese burial rites, so it just made sense. Haniwa were either set outside of the boundary of a graveyard, or were supposed to be containers for the soul. Some were actually set on the graves themselves as a sort of marker, and they actually date back all the way to the earliest recorded history of Japan!

I did forget exactly how creepy I made this gyroid area, though... It's just some fences, a record player and some flowers, but it's definitely ready for Halloween later in the year. Well, some haniwa from the Kofun period actually were modelled after warriors, so those gyroids that I've neglected to dig up might actually come for me if I don't clean this place up! So you can understand: I quickly got to it.

There, I cleaned the place up, please don't come and haunt me. I'm actually not one of those goths who is comfortable with hanging out in real-life graveyards, and they kind of freak me out a little. A rare breed of goth actually does that, but not everyone in the subculture does so, and I honestly don't know how those graveyard-dwellers manage. I'm just going to be grateful that I happened to reach this area of Crayola in the afternoon... Wouldn't want to have to clean this area up in the evening.

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Death section ends here
(Yay, you made it through!)​

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I did walk past a few stray bushes and flowers on the north of the island on my way to Nook's Cranny, and I remember putting it all there because I didn't know what to do with it. I figured that now was as good as time as any to get rid of that as well, and I replaced it with a few decorative plumerias that I saved from that area. Well, that part of the island does mark the end of my immense task of cleaning up the flowers, though. I didn't expect to manage to get the place cleaned up in a day, so I decided to just sell off my leftover shovels and celebrate my victory by treating myself to some retail therapy at the Able Sisters.

They did have a really cute top, and some other stuff that I wanted: I always end up spending WAY too much in that store. It did cheer me up, though: I didn't expect that blouse I'm wearing in the screenshot to be there in black, but it looks darned cute on me. Also, I think those Python Pants have bit of a tradgoth feel to them, so they'd definitely fit my wardrobe. Labelle seems to have a whole different idea about what's goth or not than me: she had that particular challenge theme for me, but some of the things that the game labels as goth don't really look the part to me. But since I've been in the subculture for over 16 years, I think I can teach her a thing or two about gothic fashion: it's not all skulls, ripped tights and lace, but I do agree that those things are staples of the fashion.

Thank you for reading, and hope you enjoyed!