✨ 🍑 💗 Coral Key Island Journal 💗 🍑 ✨

[Pintuition]

Here is part two of my Laughs on Coral Key series! Well, hopefully it will be an ongoing series! The first post got too long and I wanted to make sure I stayed under the photo limit! Plus, it's just more fun to spread things out, right?

Even though it’s limited, I love many of the villager interactions. Eugene and Mint had particularly spicy interactions. I love how sassy they are! I live for these moments! Mint hasn’t been as sassy since Eugene left, which is a shame, but this particular gem really resonated with me!

Merengue came out of nowhere as I was trying to take pictures of my newly built museum a couple of months ago. At first I was excited because I thought we’d take some cute pictures there together…then she proceeds to face away from the camera and starts smelling the flowers over and over. Needless to say, it made for an unintended focal point, lol!!!

This is one of my all-time favorite screenshots. We’ve figured out you can roll onto the beach chairs if you’re positioned just so and that you can actually trap your friends (or villagers) sandwiched in the middle of the chairs. It’s great fun, unless you’re the one getting trapped! We have them in random places squished together on our islands just to do this! Well, at least I do, haha!

If these villagers aren’t judging you, I don’t know who is. The sassiest dream team really linked up for this pseudo album cover sunglasses shot. I like to imagine they were absolutely roasting other villagers’ outfits as they walked by. Probably mine at least. In any case, the overabundance of sass and toe beans all but forced me to include this one!

Yesterday, right as I was planning part one of this post I decided to take a quick break and explore my island for a while. I noticed Dom was home so I dropped in. Boy was I shocked when I snapped this screenshot. It was perfectly timed. The group chat had a good laugh about it!

I leave you now with one final…but glorious…image. I stumbled across this when visiting a friend and just about died! She placed the coprolite fossil behind her monster statue. Disgusting? Genius? Either way, it was something I could not believe I actually saw with my eyes. Kind of tempted to make my own!

These two posts were SO fun to make and made me smile the whole time even though personally I’m going through a very difficult time. I hope any of you readers got a kick out of a few of these as well! I will update with more posts- because you know there’s bound to be more laughs! Until next time, then!​

 

[Pintuition]

Yay! The second summer update is FINALLY here. It felt like we’d been waiting weeks for the trailer, and then all of a sudden it was out. I didn’t even get a chance to fully process it yet, but I’ll share my general thoughts now before moving onto…the Dream Suite! Or Whatever they’re calling it nowadays.

I was so excited when the trailer was released that I think I watched at least 2-3 times. I’m super pumped about fireworks and can’t wait to post about my first experience with them on Monday. Hopefully some friends and I will get together that night and put on a show!

I love custom fireworks as well but I’m low key kind of bummed that the fireworks don’t have their own custom design slots. I have only a few that may or may not even work. That’s pretty disappointing! I don’t know if I’m willing to clear them just to experience the fireworks, though, you know? Seems like a waste since mine are all tied up as paths/designs.

I’m also super excited for Redd’s raffle and balloons. My friends and I are already talking about having competitions of who can last the longest while running balloons without absolutely eating it and losing it. If we end up doing that, you know I’ll post pics, haha!

I was also excited that we now get the island backup feature. I haven’t backed up mine yet (I still have to figure out how) but I’m glad to know that’s an option in the future!

Now, about that dream suite…

Part One

I knew it was coming but it is SO GOOD. I’ve been waiting for something like this to come out for so long. I literally raced upstairs into my bed to dream the second I logged in for the day yesterday, I couldn’t wait to test it out.

I absolutely love the atmosphere of dreaming, and I think Luna is a great addition to the game! The custom design portal is such a cool feature, I wish we had this ages ago when I was still searching for them!

The first island I went to was a friends, just to test out the feature. In all honesty, it really wasn’t as fun as being there with them and getting to actually interact. I definitely wouldn’t use this feature to visit friends too often, it’s not really worth it!

I put my switch away for several hours and then decided to get changed into some jammies (well, me and my resident rep both), and climb into bed for more dreaming on islands I found online.

The first island I went to seemed to be a mashup of all sorts of cool things with a space-themed bar, zen garden, playground, celestial ponds, and other cool things. Most of all it boasted a Harry Potter themed area with a quidditch pitch, Hogwarts castle, and Forbidden forest.

This area did not disappoint in the slightest. I loved the way they used stalls and simple panels to make the towers on the quidditch pitch. They even used nets for the hoops on either side! They also had mannequins with quidditch outfits laid out which really was a nice touch.

Going up the hill to Hogwarts you passed a little area that had a winter train set. I loved this tiny nod to Hogsmeade and the Hogwarts express. The use of silos around the house was impressive, as was the Forbidden Forest nearby complete with an Acromantula- or in this case a tarantula ready to attack.

I had a great time at that island and decided I’d find one more before heading to bed. Unfortunately since that post will be super long and full of pictures, I'm going to have to post a part two! So lookout for that coming this weekend!​

 

[Pintuition]

Part One of my first dreaming experience got SUPER long and I had to cut it into two parts. So here’s part two of that, with even more pictures than I could originally fit!

So I knew I really liked the themed islands, so I searched for a bunch of things I liked on Twitter. I ended up finding one that was Avatar: The Last Airbender inspired and I couldn’t pass it up. I went straight to Luna and off to dreamland again…

I was awestruck at the first step. I actually went back to the entrance, and looked up to find they had organized everything by kingdom. The first section was dedicated to the water tribe and absolutely beautiful, especially all the furniture from the frozen set.

As I moved through the water tribe area I entered the earth kingdom and soon saw the landscape dethaw. I didn’t realize until then that I was not actually on a winter island, rather that they used custom designs for the snow. In any case, the earth kingdom was so green and made excellent use of the cherry blossom items. There was lots of stuff there to look at! I even went for a tea at the Jasmine Dragon!

After passing through that area I found a stone arch and followed it through. I think I gasped aloud when I first saw the air temple! They had designed it so you could hop around from cliff to cliff, which both felt right for airbending and looked similar to their temple designs. I was delighted to find these at multiple sections around their island; all four NSEW directional temples.

I quickly backtracked back to the earth kingdom to give Lu Ten’s memorial a bow before heading on my way. I was delighted to find the shop area which had Aunt Wu’s fortune telling station, panda lily flowers for sale, and the absolute cherry on top- the cabbage cart. I think I just stood here for about 15 minutes looking at it all.

Upon my approach to the north side of the island I realized I was once again entering water tribe territory, but this time the Northern water tribe. They had decorated a house to resemble their ice wall and everything. But truly, and I know I’ve said it before but this time I mean it, I stumbled across the pièce de résistance…their Spirit Oasis. Cue gasps. I was shocked, it even had the fish. It was perfect!

Next I headed over to fire nation territory. This area made such good use of bonfires and campfires, it looked like the whole place was on fire! They even made an area that resembled Ozai’s throne room. They had lava and fire everywhere and it just felt hot. Which was really a feat seeing as though I had just come from an ice palace!

I took one last trip through and headed back to my own island. I spent so long at both of these I hardly had anymore time to explore! I’m planning on going to some new spots throughout the week.

It was SO COOL to see what other people have done with their islands and to experience something so much different from my own. Everyone has gotten so creative that even when we have the same items, you can style it in so many different ways that no two islands look the same! I think next time I'd like to go see some islands that are not film/TV inspired but more general themes. I can't wait to see what I stumble upon next. I'm not going to promise to do a journal about every single one I see but if it's really cool, I'll write something up!

As far as my own dream island/dream address is concerned, I don’t think I’ll be posting it anytime soon. My island isn’t 100% finished yet! If anyone would like to visit, I do have a dream address I can hand out but I’d rather send it via a private message than post it publicly! If anyone would ever like to visit please don’t hesitate to PM me and I’ll send over my code.

Until then, happy dreaming! And I’ll see you at the fireworks show tonight!!​

 

[Pintuition]

I wanted to post this on Monday, but I didn’t have the time and then power outages/storms prevented me from transferring my images from my switch last night too. Oh well! At least I’m able to post it now!

I wanted to give a quick rundown of my experience with the first fireworks show this weekend! I’ve never played any AC games (besides Pocket Camp) so this was my first experience with fireworks. I was pleasantly surprised to see that both Redd and Isabelle were waiting in the plaza even before the 7PM show started.

When the fireworks started I ran to Isabelle to get my bopper. I was pleasantly surprised that she gave me the star one! I wanted that one and the hearts the most. Hopefully as the weeks go on I’ll be able to collect them all at each new fireworks show!

I was kind of disappointed I couldn’t access Redd’s raffle until the fireworks started. I wanted several balloons to decorate with but I felt that took me away from the show for too long of a time. I kept running up to get a few things then stepped back to look at the fireworks show. I didn’t have a long time to play on Sunday, so that wasn’t great!

Unfortunately, my plaza is kind of in a bad spot, I’ve terraformed around it and didn’t really have a good vantage point right where all of my villagers were hanging out. I wanted to take pics with my villagers enjoying the show but didn’t manage to get many good ones, short of a few of me and Dom/Merengue on the bench. Oh well!

I really enjoyed, however, running around my island and seeing areas I worked hard on lit up by fireworks- it was SO cool. I finally had a use for Celeste’s observatory too! I lit off a whole bunch of the fountain fireworks there throughout the night. It was tough to light them while in the camera mode then run away fast enough to catch the fountains with the fireworks in the sky. I tried and failed many times! Eventually I moved to my entrance because I thought you could see the sky better and had much better luck there!

After running around my island for a bit I went to talk to Isabelle about custom fireworks. I’m one of those people that uses every last custom design slot so I didn’t have any room left for fireworks designs. Still, I thought one or two designs might still work- and I was right! I was delighted to see the Blathers path piece I use in front of my museum light up the sky!

The only thing I didn’t care for is seeing the custom fireworks repeated so many times. I even talked to Isabelle and removed the designs from the fireworks slots but they didn’t stop. That wasn’t awesome, but thankfully only a few were failures! Hopefully all of this resets for next weekend!

I went home quick to change into a new outfit to match my star bopper and headed to my friend’s daughter’s island to hang out for a while. I was delighted that Isabelle was able to give me another bopper in the same night! And even more happy I got the heart one I was looking for, it couldn’t have worked out better! She had a much better vantage point of the fireworks in her plaza too. Hopefully more of my friends will be open to hang out for this week’s show too!

In the end, I really liked the first fireworks show, and can’t wait for next weekend. I wish they had been around earlier in the summer when I had more time to play, though, oh well! I probably won’t post much about the next shows unless something interesting happens, but I will be back with this week about my FIRST time hosting a meteor shower. At long last, after playing since April, I finally had one! Wahoo! Post coming soon!!​

 

[Pintuition]

Early this week I had my first ever meteor shower on my island. I’ve been waiting since day one for Isabelle to announce shooting stars…I even post about it (and that was WEEKS ago). Every single one of my friends were able to host at some point except me so I was eager to finally tell them they could come to mine for stars!

I wasn’t sure if Celeste would be there or not, but thankfully she was. In fact, she was like an inch from my door when I started the game in the evening and I pretty much slammed into her whilst exiting my house. She gave me lunar lander DIY I believe. No dice on the coveted crescent moon chair that time, it seems!

I couldn’t race fast enough to the airport to open for visitors. I was surprised at how punctual the stars were, they started falling so fast at 7 that I hardly wanted to be interrupted with all the cut scenes! My friends came really fast, though, and we were able to get back to stargazing!

Most of us brought our boppers too- I thought mine were pretty appropriate for the occasion!

Unfortunately there was a huge lull then in the stars (figures) so we spent a long time horsing around with some leftover items from the fireworks show on Sunday. Did you know Best Friends can place and light fountain fireworks on your island? We discovered this on accident! We also discovered you can wave sparklers around by pressing “a”. Who knew? Not me apparently, haha!

We were plagued by my villagers, namely Sherb, who kept coming over to us again and again, no matter how many times we moved or pushed him away. Without fail someone would talk to him on accident while trying to wish on the stars. You can actually see him in the background of the last photo (above)! Mint came to visit us too!

In-between wishing on stars we ran around my beaches a bit and they had time to shop. We eventually made our way over to my new mermaid area I’ve been working on. I haven’t had the chance to see it completed at night yet, so this was really nice!

I wish I had the opportunity to host a meteor shower a long time ago, but now I’m just happy I finally got the chance. I was starting to fear something was wrong with my game until recently! I think the last few updates have cleared up some issues I was having with those types of things, plus my rainy season has ended!

Today’s post was a little shorter than most, I’m still reeling from power outages from the recent tropical storm, and finally have the wherewithal to do a little writing. I'll get my chance to do a larger entry on a villager search this week because Katt is FINALLY leaving today! So instead of adding another 5 long-winded paragraphs, I’ll leave you with just one final photograph: star fall over the Coral Key Café.

 

[Pintuition]

I feel like I’ve been waiting to write this post for 1,000 years…but Katt FINALLY asked to leave this week. She was one of my original two starters with the basic houses. I really never bonded with her, nothing against her, but we just didn’t gel the way I do with my other villagers. I don’t know if it was because she was a forced move-in and that I didn’t get to pick her or what but from day one I just knew she wasn’t meant to be on Coral Key forever. In the end, dear Katt felt the same way so it was time to part ways!

I spent the better part of Thursday trying to figure out if I could find anyone to take her off my hands. I posted her to the forum and some other groups without any luck for most of the day. Initially I thought I would be able to get at least 5-10 NMT for her (I mean, I sold Agent S for like 10) but that didn’t seem to be a possibility! So I decided to offer her up for free instead! A few people on Discord messaged me but weren’t into the fact that she had been gifted. I felt it was important to be transparent about this, so they’d be able to make a more informed choice. In the end, nobody wanted gifted Katt with her two gifts (record player, and groovy tunic) and she went to the dreaded void. It’s sad, but I couldn’t do anything about it, I must have posted about it 20 times! Oh well!

The next day I had some personal things to take care of and was really afraid that my plot would fill before getting to go on a search. That happened with Mint in the beginning, and I wasn’t eager for a repeat of that! Fortunately it was still open when I logged in for the day. I had pre-prepared for this the night before with a new hunting outfit (the famous strawberry dress from the internet lol) and a load of NMTs. I ran straight to the airport and was in the air before I knew it. Like I did at the last hunt, I’ll give you a rundown of (my very short list) who I met along the way!

(A little cameo by Mint lol)​

1. Boomer: OK BOOMER! Lol! I really like the interior of his house but I already have two lazies and I wasn’t feeling the vintage pilot vibes
2. Hamlet: Coral Key isn’t big enough for two hamsters!
3. Al: As a founding member of the Al Defense Squad (which exists only in my mind) I almost took my boy home. I had a super hard time passing him up, but he didn’t match my vibe for this island and he’s yet another lazy. So sorry dear Al!

1. Biff: Might have considered him if I hadn’t just brought in Dom! Not sure I can handle two new jocks right now!
2. Sly: Camo colored villagers aren’t my fav. Sorry Sly!
3. Rolf: Rolf was like a hair close to coming to live with me! I’ve never had a cranky before! But I just wasn’t feeling him in the end!
4. Blaire: I actually thought she was really cute! But I already have Mint as a snooty squirrel! I would totally have replaced Mint with her though!
5. Rodeo: Not a vibe, sorry Rodeo!
6. Eugene: Ugh! I let Eugene go to a friend a few months back and it was super hard to see him again. My only comfort is that I can go see my Eugene (who remembers me) at any time! So imitation Eugene wasn’t brought back!
7. Ozzie: If Sherb or Bones weren’t at my island Ozzie would be sooo there! Ugh, this one really killed me but there’s too many lazies!

At this point I felt like my villager hunt wasn’t bearing any fruit and I was running out of time before I had to go out and do an errand. I already pressed my luck with not getting my plot filled and I didn’t want it to autofill so I opened up Discord to see who was available. I really wanted a select few villagers (Cookie, Lolly, Judy, etc) but didn’t really see any of them coming up, for payment or not. I waited a few minutes, ran to Nook’s Cranny to sell all of my hunting spoils then returned to discord…

Immediately I saw a post pop in advertising an available Judy. The catch was that you had to be the first to respond. I’m not sure my fingers actually touched any of the keys, that’s how fast I was typing. I sent it through not expecting anything. Several minutes heard back, I heard the notification ping, and I opened the message expecting to see a “sorry but you weren’t…” type of message but to my surprise- I was the first person! Judy was my last dream villager I really wanted. After the hard week I had I was so happy that this happened.

I did offer her NMT in payment for Judy in my original message (it’s only fair, she goes for like 300+ NMT so I still got a huuuge deal), and I dropped off half upfront, then went in to invite her to Coral Key. In a snap I was back out, gave her some more NMT, and then I was off home. I don’t know why I do this but every time I get a new villager I run to check on their plot to make sure it was really sold to them. Of course it was and I couldn’t have been happier!

I spent the evening getting her yard ready. Previously I had cat furniture for Katt, and I wanted to do more of a space theme for Judy. I crafted a nova light, a star clock (turned around to resemble a star frag) and my friend stopped by to make me a crescent moon chair. I also changed the coloring on the tiny library faux mailbox I have for all of my villagers. It was perfect! I couldn’t wait until her house showed up the next day, everything looked perfect!

In the end, I think this villager hunt went way better than the one for Dom did. Going into the search with low expectations helped to keep the disappointment at bay. I’m now super happy with my villagers (see my updated villager chart below!) but I’m excited to see who will ask to move next. I’m inclined to let Mint go if she wants, but otherwise I’m pretty content with who I currently have! I don’t know what my next post will cover, but until then, happy crossing!

 

[Pintuition]

Today’s post is a very quick one. But I thought it was worth mentioning! Not many of my island journal readers may know but I love to draw. I found it difficult to translate that into pixel art for custom designs, and really wasn’t interested in making too much art centered around AC for now. Still, I wanted a way to engage with the game in some way. I stumbled across many photos of beautiful bulletin board drawings this morning and couldn’t resist trying one of my own.

Keep in mind I had to do this all with my finger and the controller, so it’s not perfect. I really wish I had a stylus that worked with the Switch! I thought it would be best to try someone easy since I don't have any tools. Who’s easier to draw than Marina? She’s basically just a series of circles with eyes! So I set off on my Marina-drawing adventure.

(Wow, looking back at my first attempt, her head is MASSIVE!! Yikes! Her eyes came out better here, though!)

At first I struggled with the circles, but I got the hang of it after a few minutes. I got all the bits of the drawing done and went to draw the speech bubble. I was horrified that I had ran out of the ability to add color. I didn’t even know that was a thing! I was mad, but decided to add text. I didn’t like the way it looked so I hit “back”. The unthinkable happened. It brought me back to the bulletin board and didn’t save my drawing, I was livid.

I decided not to give up, I’d already come so far, so I went and did it again. I think she came out much better the second time anyway! She’s a lot a bit lumpy and not perfect but I think she’s pretty cool for my first try! I can’t wait to try to make some of my other villagers in the future at some point too! I've been thinking of investing in a cheap stylus. Then I really could do some cool stuff!

(Here's a WIP shot of take #2)

Originally I had planned to post about my neighborhood today but time didn’t allow me to finish it. Hopefully I can get it done tomorrow or the next day. Until next time…​

 

[Pintuition]

I have been absolutely dreading making this post because I’m not the hugest fan of the current state of my villagers’ neighborhood. Initially I had them spread apart, but in May I moved everyone to a small neighborhood in the upper left-hand corner of the island. Their yards are small and not perfectly spaced when compared to the bridges/stairs, which hugely bothers me. In the future, this is an area I’d definitely be willing to substantially overhaul! Recently I’ve been considering making 5 houses on the third cliff level to be at the same height as my house, but I haven’t decided yet.

When I started I knew I could move anyone’s house so I threw them in the front, close to the airport or beach for easier access. As I started to create my museum and my entrance and make my rock garden it became clear that I needed to move ever single house. After I got terraforming, I decided that stuffing them in the back was the best choice. In retrospect, I wish I had given myself a heck of a lot more room to do this so I could add fencing, more trees, and personalize yards more.

The houses took forever to move since don’t TT but I moved all the houses to my new neighborhood in about a week and a half. I had pre-dug the river that runs through the two rows of five houses. Originally, I wanted it to connect to a waterfall in front of my house, but I recently removed that to give me more room for a yard. I’ll make a post about my own house soon!

After adding bridges and a staircase up from my shopping district, I kind of didn’t know what to do with the space in their yards. I originally placed peach trees (because no sticks!!) in each yard and a white iron bench in front of them. This all went out the window when Redd finally became a thing. I had completely boxed in my secret beach, and began removing the iron benches in front of two houses so there was at least access via a ladder. This made the benches look awkward so I relocated them to gardens, the marketplace, and the museum sitting area.

After having Redd sprung on me, I kind of didn’t put anything new in anyone’s yards for a long time for fear I'd have to change it again. Then Bones came to live on my island and I thought it would be funny to put a dog house and a mom’s plushie outside his house to sort of make it look like a mini version of him and his house.

Everyone seemed to like it who visited so I started to think about how I could expand that to other villagers and so this happened…

(Please excuse the horrifying Photoshop job. It truly is awful. I just wanted to give a bit of a suggestion of what my neighborhood would look like all-together! The top row of houses is in the front, while the bottom is in the back!)

Mint got herself a little fashion studio. Bones still had his mini me doghouse area. Sherb got some colorful woodblock toys and a bench. Bluebear and Merengue shared an outdoor bakery area. Poor Bluebear is right in front of Redd’s beach so she doesn’t have much personalization outside of her mailbox! Marina got a microphone and mermaid dresser stage area. Apple got herself an apple chair and fruit basket. Katt has moved out since but Katt had a little girly cat area. Dom has a little protein shake area with volleyball for working out. Raymond got a pet bed, cat tree, and litter box. When Judy came to stay this week I placed a nova light, backwards star clock, and a crescent moon chair. Everyone has their own little area of things that remind me of them. The best part is, they also use these areas all the time too!

The other thing I did that really helped make my neighborhood cool was adding “mailboxes”. One day I had books at Nook’s Cranny and put them to good use, crafting 10 tiny libraries. Placing them in each front yard, I flipped them around so they’d be backwards. I customized each box to match the villager’s home as much as possible. I added a little tuft of flowers in front of their faux mailboxes as well. I’ve had loads of people message me online asking to copy this. I’m delighted people like it so much! I hope loads more people integrate them in their own islands. Or maybe even little post offices! So cute!

At present I’ve been considering redoing the bridges to be land bridges so I can make them line up with the spaces between my house more. I’ve also been considering replacing the paths with something similar to my shopping plaza below (custom designs). I've recently also been thinking the back row of houses have too many blue ones close together. I think eventually I'll have to switch some out so it balances better! Probably Sherb and Marina! Hopefully in the future I’ll be making a part two to this and it’ll all be fixed. Until then, I’m probably going to leave it how it is for now and take my time deciding what I want before spending all those bells to dismantle and rebuild!

Catch you at the next update!​

 

[Pintuition]

Another quick entry for today! I had started writing another construction post but it’s taking forever to find the construction images in my screenshots. I’m a serial screenshot never-deleter. It’s a problem! This week I’m hoping to finish it and go over some new sections I’ve made: Dom’s Surf Shop or my outdoor aquarium area. Or even share my new mermaid painting area! Who knows what the week will bring! But back to today’s post about getting villager photos…

I have been trying and failing for weeks to get someone, anyone, to give me their photo. I have had 0 luck. I’ve tried it all, went through all the guides online and got nothing but fitness tanks and odd other gifts. Every day I order a few things from my catalog (clothes or furniture for those with the starter houses) and load up my pockets to give all the gifts out. I’ve also tried sending letters but never get any replies even with gifts.

(Totally exposing myself for being soft lol)

I have had mixed luck with fruit and shells using wrapping paper. Sometimes they give me nothing back at all or a cheap item I already had. I knew I had to get a little bit more aggressive with my tactics of gift giving. I knew that probably meant giving them really expensive items to gain more points. Previously I had saved a lot of bells because I wanted to ensure I’d be able to get the items I needed. Now that I have a pretty stuffed catalog, it’s not as important to save IGB. Especially since the currency for trades has morphed from NMT/IGB to almost exclusively TBT. Now I can shower my villagers in expensive gifts!

Last night I ordered some rings to give out. I wanted to do some crowns too but I had already hit my ordering limit! Oh well! I thought it might be best to start small. Eventually I’ll probably give all of my permanent residents one of the expensive crowns. I’ll do one every few days so it doesn’t hurt my bank account too much. I have 20 million IGB saved so it shouldn’t be a big deal!

I woke up today and decided I’d try to give one of the rings I ordered to Merengue, since she’s my oldest villager. I’ve had her since my first week. I talk to her probably the most out of all of my villagers and have given her the most gifts to date. I usually give her clothing, though, since she’s so cute to dress and looks great in many different styles.

When she took the ring the game kind of felt like it paused for her response longer than usual. Then she handed me her photo! I seriously wasn’t expecting this so soon after switching up my gift giving methods. I guess she really liked it, huh?

I’m going to keep doing things like this for my other permanent villagers that I don’t want to keep original to sell. One of these days Bluebear might even get rid of the not one but TWO fish tanks in her house. Looks like someone is getting big furniture from here on out, haha!

I’ll probably post an update/checklist in the future of who has given me their photo already. The first thing I did after customizing the photo frame (which I just learned you could do yesterday, which is perfect timing) was mount it on my living room “wall of fame” area. I have a similar area in my office with the villager posters. Here’s to hoping there will be a few more photos at the next update!

Look out for my next construction story coming (hopefully) this week. I’ve started drafting both the surf shack and aquarium, so I’m making progress. Until next time!!​

 

[Pintuition]

I am SO excited to share my aquarium with all of you for the first time. I read about someone’s aquarium online the first week we were able to dive and knew I had to make one too. This was the image that inspired me; all credit for this idea goes to the OP! I made mine a little bit different, but it looks similar enough that I felt it was only right to mention them!

I really didn’t know what I wanted to do with the beach in front of the museum. Through trees and beach stuff there just felt…wrong. Here’s this big elegant museum overlooking towels and umbrellas. It just didn’t sit well with me so I left it largely empty for a long time. A few weeks ago I tried to make a little bar/cookout spot but that wasn’t working either. I was totally at a loss with what to do with the space. That is, until I stumbled across the museum idea. Having an outdoor aquarium makes so much sense with my museum being so close to the beach! It was the solution I was looking for. So without further ado, let’s get into it…

I was so happy that I was working on the beach area because that meant I didn’t need to terraform (yay!) but I still needed to lay custom paths. I chose the same decking pattern I used in the pool area by my house here. I always try to reuse elements wherever possible. I also reused my custom museum sign I made (go back to my first page of posts for a closer look at that!). I had previously downloaded a fish stall design I already had placed on my island. Until I made the aquarium it had been on the chopping block- I’m so glad I kept it because I use it everywhere now! I had to hit up a few nook mile islands to get enough wood to craft all of the stalls I used, but in the end I think the effect was worth it!

I wanted my aquarium to be a little bigger than the inspo pic I found, so I built it just slightly longer but much wider to fit in more furniture. I randomly placed rope fences in sections to give it that beachy vibe too! You can still access the aquarium through the tight spaces in the fencing, which I love! I also designed it so that you can still access the beach behind it without getting hung up on anything sticking out!

I also used the extra long log sofas and the log bench for a little sitting area. I customized them to be white and match the stall design. You really couldn’t see the fish at the bottom or the scalloping, which was perfect! They just look striped! I placed a candle and a fish model on the table so it would be nice and cozy in the evenings.

I started building this new area around the time of the July Fishing Tourney, and since my friends and I played pretty much all day, I had loads of fishing themed items left over to decorate this area with. In lieu of plants and flowers I decided to place coolers, buckets, anchor statues, fishing rod stands, fish drying racks, and other beachier decorations in the area. All that was left was to collect the creatures to display!

I spent a day or two trying to dive for creatures I thought would look cool in the stalls. Unfortunately some do not have the correct tanks or don’t fit on the stalls (I’m looking at you, Gigas Clam..) so my options were a bit limited. I tried to match up the size of the tanks per stall the best I could, short of the vampire squid who was too cool not to add anyway. He even glows in the dark at night!

I also collected a lot of seaweed to place on the ground. When coupled with all the fishing gear, it looks like a marine biologist just came in with some plant samples and new aquatic friends! I may switch out some of the creatures as I get to experience diving in winter and find some new ones to display.

And that’s pretty much the aquarium! I had a lot of fun creating this space, it was such an easy build compared to areas I had to terraform. After doing this I really felt the urge to keep going so I ended up making a surf shack on the other side of the airport building. That area is much bigger than this one yet still feels incomplete so I’ve held off showing that for now. At some point I’ll show it to you guys! That and my house area! That’s all for today, folks!

​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Cream Deck Pieces Creator Code: MA-8285-8825-5686

Fish Stall: MO-NRS2-KH15-5FV2

Beachy Sea Stars: MO-9417-2458-7951

Museum Sign: My design, custom to my island name

 

[Pintuition]

In the weeks leading up to my search for Dom I downloaded a Dom dress custom design. I think it really looks like him, especially when you consider how limited the options are for the pixel art you have to make. I placed a mannequin of the dress behind a stall I had on the beach to make it look like he was manning a juice stand. Then my idea was born: why not give Dom his own little outdoor beach shop?

Immediately I knew I wanted to place all my surfboards there, and that the shop should be as beachy as possible. I collected all the designs I didn’t have from friends and set them up together. I crafted a few tiki stalls and put some beachy items I had saved in my basement on them to kind of play up the shop idea more.

Initially I wanted Dom to man the stalls, but I quickly realized you couldn’t really see him well when walking by. My idea was getting out of hand and turning into a bigger area than I originally anticipated. I decided to craft him a mermaid table and placed a fax machine (faux cash register) and some documents (receipts) on it to look like a little checkout area. I thought this was so cute!

Recently I spent some time trying (don’t judge me lol) to create some custom island merch I could display in the stalls around my island. Kind of like the shirts and stuff you’d actually get on a real vacation. The Coral Key t-shirt is my first stab at it- it’s supposed to be a little image of the beach! On the back, though nobody ever sees it, is a shell! I had so much fun designing this and I think it really helps play up the beachy boardwalk vibe!

As my storage continued to grow, I knew I’d need to get rid of more items I wasn’t using. I thought why not put my collection of wetsuits lined up by the shop as if they were mannequins advertising outfits for sale. I did my best to put them into color order! I then realized I had the same problem with snorkels and the water shoes, so I pulled my least favorite colored ones and set those out on log benches beside the wetsuits. I even added a few pairs of flip flops later! Between all the items I pulled from my house and inventory, I really saved myself a lot of storage room!

I ended up continuing the decking I’d placed for the surf shop (the very same I used as decking for the aquarium in my last post) all the way down that section of the beach. I envisioned a sort of beachy boardwalk. To the side of the surf shack I placed some fishing stalls. Usually I try to keep this area stocked with fish bait or shells for visitors. I’m not sure if I’m 100% into what I’ve done with this section, but it’s what I’m working with for now!

Behind the fishing stall area is my absolute FAVORITE area in and around my surf shop: the outdoor beach shower. I used cosmos showers, mermaid screens, and customized panels to achieve the look of an outdoor shower. I also placed two changing rooms. After all, when you spend all your bells at the surf shack, you have to have a place to change! I made the curtains match the mermaid screens. I think this makes them look unintentionally gendered, which wasn’t really my intention. I’m probably going to end up choosing colors other than blue and pink as I continue to update this area. In any case, I think this little area is super cute!

Going right back to the beach, I did set up a little restaurant area with a little grill, a table, and a two-stall juice bar. I know I have a dedicated bar area further up the beach but current food/drink options are limited and I wanted to make a place where someone could grab a bite to eat! I would turn it into a little hot dog stand or food shack if we were able to have more actual placeable food options. Oh well!

Although I now have Dom as a villager, mannequin Dom isn’t going anywhere! As long as I have room for the design, he stays! Real Dom loves to come visit this area and sit on the benches/ground and survey his kingdom, haha! I love it!

(Dom watching the Domling at the surf shack lol)

And that’s pretty much it for this area. I’m working expanding it and changing things up if I can. We’ll have to see what items get released. That’s the thing about NH that I love, up until a few weeks ago I didn’t have balloons, now they’re everywhere! There’s always a nice decorating surprise waiting for you around the corner! I’m honestly surprised at how much certain spaces have changed since even starting this journal. It’s crazy! I still have loads of things left to cover: the crafting area, boardwalk/game area, ice cream shop, mermaid cove, zen/rock garden, pirate area, orchard, greenhouse/garden, and more! Hopefully I can finish those posts up before I tear them down to make something new! So be on the lookout for those. As always, I’ll be sharing the design codes I use the whole way through!​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Cream Deck Pieces Creator Code: MA-8285-8825-5686

Fish Stall: MO-NRS2-KH15-5FV2

Beachy Sea Stars and White Beach Planks Creator Code: MA-9417-2458-7951

Tiki Stall: MO-BS3N-DG48-JSSR

“Island Dream” Beach Dress: MO-6C7G-511M-PG3C

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

Glass Paneling Customized Simple Panel (Beach Shower) Creator Code: MA-6430-8168-5395 (other colors available to match other panel borders!)

Coral Key shirts are my own design, which I have not made available (not that anyone needs one lol) as is the pink path, which is just a solid color dusty rose pink with one transparent pixel placed over the arched stone path.

 

[Pintuition]

I have another mini post for today! Since the TBT fair is starting today (and I’m going back to work soon too!) I’m probably not going to have quite as much time to post daily (well, almost daily) like I usually do, I thought I’d do a post that was a little bit more manageable today, which is going to be all about my little crafting area!

Early on I felt like I was doing a lot of trades and my friends were constantly coming over so we could craft each other things. In the beginning I plopped a workbench by the entrance but I really hated how that looked on flyover. It was the first thing you saw and so in the way. As I began terraforming my hybrid garden area (oof, that’s gonna be a long one, which I’ll try to tackle soon) I had this awkward little alcove in front of it with nothing in it. I thought immediately to move my workbench to it since it’s a very short walk from my entrance.

I knew immediately I needed to build it out and make it into a fun crafting area for visitors or even just for me to use when I’m in that section of my island! I decided to place stalls on either side. Originally I wanted to place white tool shelves to give off the crafting vibes, but once I thought about it, how big of a waste would that be? You can’t store items on/in them, they’re just decoration. I wanted this space to have a lot of utility, so stalls were it! Usually I try to put some different types of materials like stones, clay, wood, iron, or even some customization kits.

The space in front was kind of still empty so I added some log benches for more material storage. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen friends be 1-2 materials short for something I’m crafting them and have to dip into the free stock in this area. I use it all the time for myself too. Plus, it keeps materials out of your storage. I know what you’re thinking… “how does this not get stolen?”. I only place one or two of each mat and they’re items I wouldn’t miss if the worst happened. I’d never put my last stack of anything out here!

After setting this all up I noticed the area was kind of plain so I decided I’d try my hand at designing my own crafting area sign. I decided to go with a hammer because I thought it would be easily recognizable! It took forever to figure out how to center the letters and to decide on the colors but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

This little area is something I’ll probably always have on my island. I’m always going to need an outdoor space for crafting! There’s enough room here to drop mats and multiple items after crafting. I’ve used it with a lot of success for trading. If anyone takes any inspo from this thread, this is a good contender! Not quite as glamorous as a café or anything, but it certainly has the most utility!

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Striped Heart Stall: MO-Q9CJ-H9P9-GGM6

Pink Mossy Bricks: MO-63SS-FQ02-M7RL
(I'm not positive that this is the same one, but I can't find this one anywhere! It looks to be the same/similar in any case!

 

[Pintuition]

It’s no secret (I even mentioned it in my last post) that I’ve put my island journal on pause as I devoted more time to completing the events/contests for the TBT Fair. It’s been super fun completing challenges so far but I’ve found I’ve been spending more time on the forum than actually playing. That’s why I was excited to see this challenge (Tiptoe to the Tunes) that would bring us together actually inside the game. So I thought I’d journal my experience with that since it is an in NH event!

I couldn’t sign up fast enough for a week one slot. I go back to work soon so I won’t have as much time in the future. I was delighted to see I got chosen for a slot. I don’t know if I would have been able to attend in other weeks! I may try again for another slot at some point, I know you get more points with more events you do, but I didn’t want to be greedy and take all the slots!

Anyway, enough of my rambling, let’s get to the actual event, shall we? I knew we were going to get the Dodo and we were expected 10 minutes before the actual event so I was at the airport ready to go when the time came. I was first to arrive and initially felt awkward like I got their two early. Not long after there was a giant scrum of seven of us at the airport, haha!

We moved over to a section on the beach with mum cushions and all got into place to wait for the go ahead to start running around. Of course on like my second go around I walked waaaay to close to the cushion and accidentally sat down. I had a hard time getting out of it because there were so many people. Fortunately I was able to get back up and moving and it wasn’t a big deal.

(Also, how neat is this pond custom design?!?!?!)

I was actually pleasantly surprised I made it through that round, then the next. My main goal was basically just not to be eliminated first! So I was pretty happy with that. After each round ended the group of all of us went to each new area. Those who had been eliminated in previous rounds helped the host by playing musical equipment that was scattered around the round areas. This was super fun that everyone could be involved, regardless of if we win/lose!

(I'm super into the bear area, not gonna lie!)

I ended up being a part of the final three contestants but lost out in that round. It was kind of a relief, I was expecting to be out much earlier than that! I lost out in the dreaded crescent moon chair area! Foiled by the moon, haha!

(I think just about every time one of us would lose we'd do a different "losing" emote, which I added sadness here to, which I think is so funny! Actual footage of me being happy for the other TBTers while pretending to be sad above haha! Also, peep my sweet PJs! I felt so awk I didn't get dressed up! )

The last round that determined the winner was a futon, and whoever went to “sleep” won the round. We had drums scattered around the area, but I decided to be on the gong lol. Twas a sacred duty to be the gong smasher and I hit it as often as physically possible! When the winner was decided they even gave us party poppers and we were able to celebrate all the fun we had!

(Gong duty in progress)

(Not me popping the popper through a person. Lol!)

It was sooo fun to participate in an in-game event like this. I think this would be an event my friends and I would love to do privately as well! It went really smoothly and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to participate.

It feels SO GOOD to be writing an island journal post again. I think I’m going to write more about the in-game components of the fair in general the closer we get to the end of it. I definitely want to explore what I did for the Sleepover at Harvs and the fireworks, or even some of my fair themed outfits I did for Dreamy Dressers. Expect another update soon-ish!​

 

[Pintuition]

It definitely has been a minute since I updated this, hasn’t it? Since the fair has pretty much ended, I’ll probably be back a little more often with a few updates. I already know I want to talk about fall and a few other things! So look out for that soon. Sorry to all the regular readers, I’ve been so busy with work and the fair, but I’ll update the best I can!

Any who, I’m back with another thrilling saga of bringing home a new villager. Can anyone guess who I ended up with? Bet you can’t! I’m honestly surprised I ended up with them myself. So let’s get into it, shall we?

Towards the end of the week my darling Mint asked to leave and I couldn’t refuse her this time. She’s great, I just want to experience more villagers. So I let her go! Immediately I flew to the group chat, asking who I should take home.

I decided pretty quickly I wanted to hunt for a cranky villager (I’ve never had one before) and I asked my friends for recommendations. Apollo and Lobo were super highly recommended so I resolved to look for them. That is, until my friend unearthed the goodest boy, the pink cub with yellow hair himself, Vladimir. I knew instantly he was the one. The lil tail poof, the yellow messy hair (that’s low key the same cut Mint has) and the Cro-Magnon style brow? Forget about it!

I was half joking when I said I’d search for Vlad the next day, but I told my friends, went to bed, and didn’t think on it again. With a full stack of NMTs in my pocket I started my search on Friday. I ran into two that were immediate no’s (ahem, Monty and Bruce. Two crankys but not my cup of tea)…but then the unthinkable happened. There he was on island #3…VLAD….in all his glory. I smashed my buttons so hard, I had to go get him. It was fate!

Everyone in the GC was so pumped to hear I found Vlad (we even resolved to have everyone come meet him this week). His house is yellow and pink, just like him, so I knew I needed to start working on his yard before the house was even there because visitors were bound to start coming by. In the end I went for some flamingos, a bench, a yellow teddy, and a bunch of pink and yellow balloons.

Later I added this amazing Vladimir jacket (his face is even on the back) with his phrase “Nyet” on the front. It’s just the right amount of ominous yet cute that I was going for… *chef’s kiss*.

So with that said, meet the man, the myth, the legend…Vladimir himself! He's already made some new friends on Coral Key!

Not the villager you would have expected someone with Judy and Raymond to come with, huh? I’m trying something new with my new BFF Vlad, not every villager has to be cute and sweet, do they? I’m resolving to use Mint/Vlad’s house as a place to cycle through and meet new villagers I wouldn’t have otherwise taken. It keeps things more exciting!

I hope you join me on my next hunt when I replace another villager! Who exactly? Who knows! (I’m looking at you, Bluebear. I’ll bring you back, I just want to get those fish tanks out of your house lol. Or Apple too! I have her Amiibo!) Until next time!​

 

[Pintuition]

I know, I know I’m late to the party now. I drafted this weeks ago during the first week the new Halloween stuff came out. I had every intention of posting it but I got too busy. And by the way, I also got a new switch! So I’ll be posting about my new island too. Don’t worry, our friends on Coral Key will still be well taken care of, they just have some new friends on Lórien! I’m planning on creating a journal for that too so be on the lookout for that. Until then, let’s get into today’s post:

I’m so happy we’ve had all 31 days in October to experience growing pumpkins and all the other fun things they sent through during the update! I can’t wait to hand out candy to all of my villagers on the 31st. You know I’ll be eager to post about that!!

Initially, I was kind of disappointed in the update. Not in terms of content, but timing. They pushed through the update on the evening of 9/29 but then said pumpkins would start 10/1. Why not just push through the update on 10/1 so we can all start? I don’t TT on Coral Key (nothing against those who do, you’re all lovely and have the best items for sale) and it kind of felt like they were forcing you to TT or wait and be late to the party. But this frustration was fleeting, as my friends and I made a new discovery: spooky clothing.

My friends and I all found we had cool new items in our Ables on the first full day of the update. I had animal whiskers, another had mage booties, another super cool striped tights. Another friend even had Kicks and sent us the impish wings! So we all had fun when the update came out visiting each other in our new animal hats and mismatched Halloween gear.

The next day I went to an island I found here on the forum and was able to catalog all the rest of the clothing. So that was nice! I spent the next week or two ordering stuff for me and my friends. By that weekend we were all outfitted with all the clothing we could ever want! We love to get together to take pics in out little fall outfits and costumes. You know we’ll probably get together on Halloween night. Thank goodness it’s on a Saturday and I’ll have extra time to hang out with Jack and all my other villager friends!

Ultimately I grew like an OBSCENE amount of pumpkins. Picture a lot of pumpkins, then double that and it’s half of what I’ve got. Even after moving some off to my new island I still am drowning in pumpkins. But that’s okay! Because over the days to follow I was able to get quite a few of the new DIYs and got to crafting. I even redid my entrance to display some spooky skeletons and Halloween candy.

In the end I’m kind of disappointed you don’t get some of the DIYs until Halloween night. I suppose that gives us something to look forward to but I really want a big pumpkin carriage for my entrance. Oh well, you win some, you lose some!

I was super excited for the Halloween update initially but I lost enthusiasm for it in the weeks to follow. It happens I guess! Now I’m eager to get to the night itself so I can experience some new stuff again. That said, I’m not sure what I’ll do with all my pumpkins afterwards! I’ll probably wait to see what November brings before I yeet them into the void. I hope to be back before then, though with a short post-Halloween update.

I also have some news- there’s been some changes on Coral Key for villagers. Our dear Bones now lives on Lórien but our new friend Cookie has come to live on Coral Key. I may do a quick update on that too! Who knows, I’m erratically posting these days, haha! Life got to hectic!

(Here he is on Coral Key one last time in his fav dress lol)

Anyway, see you next post!​

 

[Pintuition]

I’m back with another Halloween-y post, as promised in my last post! Over the weekend I had a blast running around my islands on Halloween, handing out candy and getting tricks (and treats!)

On Friday my friend raised an excellent point to me- how do I expect to celebrate Halloween on both of my islands at once? Needless to say I was shook and decided to do Halloween on my other island, Lorien, during the day to do my main island at night. I’m only going to be discussing Coral Key in this post for now but I also had a blast over at Lorien too. So without further ado, let’s get spooky!

I immediately went inside to make sure I had my spooky skeleton costume on, I have to match my TBT Halloween icon after all! I ended up running into Merengue on the ramp and she taught me a new reaction. After that I went door to door in my little neighborhood area to trick or treat. It kind of felt like the real thing because of the way I laid out the houses. It was super convenient to have it like that for this event!

Honestly I like Raymond won best costume for me. I went into his “lair” and he couldn’t have been anymore precious in his little top hat! I loved that the villagers that were at home were still dressed up and actually gave you candy. I really underestimated how much I would need to complete the event so that was a big help!

I finally went down to Resident Services and there was Jack- I gave him some candy and he asked me to bring back lollipops so I ended up giving him a few then and there. He gave me all sorts of items like pumpkin carriages, spooky garlands, and pumpkins. I kind of wish we had those things before Halloween night itself but at least we’ll have them for next year, right?

One of my favorite elements of this event was actually getting a chance to “become” Jack by putting on his head and robes and scaring all of my villagers. Poor Sherb was all stressed out lol. Vladimir, our resident cranky Papa was irritated with me for scaring him, but laughed it off. I loved how they different personalities reacted much differently to being tricked!

Speaking of being tricked, I eventually let a few of them play some tricks on me. Marina gave me cute face paint but Dom turned me into a blue Granny. So I put on my best spooky face and took some pictures!

After this my friend’s daughter asked if anyone would come stop by her island so I went and we had loads of fun twinning with Jack on her island. I was surprised that you could trick or treat with villagers off your island too. I got a bunch of candy and was able to carry on celebrating for a lot longer than I initially would have on my own island. I have to remember that for next time!!

In the end I really enjoyed Halloween in AC. I didn’t expect to have that much fun. It was such a weird year IRL with no trick or treaters so it was great to be able to participate in something different. I wish it could be Halloween everyday! Needless to say, I’m very much looking forward to the next event/update. Until next time…

 

[Pintuition]

I really had fun time over the summer showing off my favorite outfits for the season so I thought I’d do a little update and talk about my fall favorites as well. I feel like the type of outfits my rep has been wearing is extremely different, especially since I’ve started making my own custom designs. For the most part I've put away my sunglasses, my bright clothes, and other summery items. Say hello to orange and brown! So without further ado, let’s take a look.

As summer transitioned to fall I began to get interested in making my own clothing to hang in my Ables shop. I started with this simple orange and green pinafore style dress. I felt like it would look really cute on a lot of my villagers and hung it up! I ended up wearing this dress most days, since it wasn’t too Halloween-ish, but not too summery either. It was really perfect for early fall)

Speaking of Halloween, I also had several outfits I enjoyed wearing throughout October. The first was a mage dress and impish horns combo. As you can see I got “tricked” Halloween night but I liked it so much I kept it that way for days. Leading up to the day I wore this orange and stripe bat dress. I honestly wore this almost every single time I played during Halloween week, I even displayed it in front of my Ables. I’m actually going to miss wearing it now that Halloween is over!

As it began to transition to fall I got really interested in incorporating fall colors (mostly oranges and browns) into my clothing choices. I really leaned into wearing sweater dresses and boots. I also frequently carried maple leaf and acorn pochettes, which somehow match everything fall! I wore these the most since they’d quickly go out of season. Someone crafted them for me a few months back and I was so excited to take them out!!

Last, but not least, I continued to make more custom designs throughout the last few months and finally landed on a few I’m proud of. On my second island, I wore my café pinafore design to DEATH. It looks so cute on all of my villagers and is the perfect transition piece I can continue to wear as the season changes to winter. I also used a coat base to make a little maroon cardigan/skirt combo design. This one is extra special to me because all of my villagers wear it- everyone loves to see the boys walking around in cute dresses. Wouldn’t have it any other way!

I’ve already been starting to make some wintery designs. When I release them I’ll be updating my clothing gallery, which can be found under “Ables Sisters” here on the forum. It’s usually floating around somewhere on the first page. As always, I’m happy to hang my work in anyone’s Ables if you want to shoot me a DM! I’ll post any and all custom design codes below too for downloading.

On a personal and semi un-related note, I just wanted to mention that I broke 1K viewers of this journal last week. Wow, I’m shocked! Thanks so much for reading my little silly posts, I really appreciate it. I’m so happy to share my game with all of you and hope you keep coming back to read more. See ya next time, friends!
​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Halloween Dress (Stripe w/ bats): MA-0316-96533956

My Creator Code: MA-6478-0820-9912

 

[Pintuition]

Hi all! I’ve been trying to post more regularly lately, so I thought I’d do a quick little update to talk about maple leaf season since it just ended this week.

I’ll start by saying that I kind of wish maple leaves and the mush stuff wasn’t happening at the same time- it added way too many steps to my daily routine and I found it hard to finish both events. I never got the full spread of either of the DIYs, I’ll have to pick the rest up online eventually. I got nearly there, though!

Mush season has been touch and go on Coral Key. One big drawback for me is that my island is more developed than it is wild, I tend to have few trees around with enough room for mushrooms to grow underneath. I also tend to have more fruit trees than cedars and saplings. I suppose in a way it made mushroom hunting easier, though- there were fewer places to look at!

I’m glad mushrooms were available longer- I’ve built up quite the large stock even without time travelling to get more. I was surprised at how fast they piled up yet I’d still be missing whatever mushroom I needed to make DIYs. What’s up with the non-existent flat ones? I think I got 0 in the first week but this week it’s been nothing but flats!

I was really excited for maple leaf season to finally come- I felt like I had been waiting forever. I find it kind of odd that it happens to late, though. My maple trees IRL have all released their leaves weeks ago- it would have made more sense to have maple leaf season be the week after Halloween to allow a bit of a break before Turkey Day.

All I can say is I tried my best. I tend to not have the best of luck with balloons, they can really be hit or miss. My thing is they take FOREVER to farm and I end up standing there half the day. Fortunately, maple leaf season coincided with a few half days off from work and I was able to play more than I usually would.

(actual footage of me crying because the balloons won't come)

I found that compared to cherry blossom season earlier in the year, I found maple leaves were easier to catch and more numerous. I didn’t have to run around searching for them as much as I did in the spring- so that was great! Like the mushrooms, I’ve stockpiled loads of maple leaves to get me through to next year.

In the end, I enjoyed mush and maple leaf season, I just didn’t play as much as I thought I would. Early on I was excited, but Coral Key has taken a huge backseat since I started my new island. I have to make a more concerted effort to continue to participate on an island I worked hard on and really love. As we move into the holiday season I hope I’ll have more time and more enthusiasm for AC. I certainly tried to do that with Turkey Day- which I’ll be doing a little rundown on soon. Spoiler alert- it did not go well for me, haha! Until then, thanks for reading!!​

 

[Pintuition]

Ah, the highs and lows of an in-game ACNH event- this post has it all. Honestly now that I look back on it, it stressed me out sure- but dang is it funny! So without further ado, here is the rundown of my experience with the Turkey Day event this past week…

So picture this, it’s Turkey Day, I’ve had my lovely Thanksgiving lunch IRL and I logon to Coral Key to start the event. I did Turkey Day in the morning on my other island so I knew what to expect. I went fishing and diving straight off to try to collect all the creatures I needed for cooking. I knew from the get go something was off. A bad RNG I’m guessing, but I just could not catch anything I knew I’d need.

At that point I cut my losses and went to visit Franklin. I was able to make all four dishes with the supplies I had and took some super cute images of my villagers on the plaza. They were so excited for Turkey Day- it was so cute. I love their little hats!

But then Franklin said what I was dreading- that the recipes could be improved. I knew I hadn’t caught any of the ingredients he wanted to spice things up so I went to go to fish some more. Another hour passed. I had fish up and down the beach- just none of the ones he wanted. I began to visit villagers, they asked for more fish and again, I couldn’t catch them.

A long while passed of me running back and forth, panicked, not able to catch any fish. Honestly at this point I was ready to give up. I nearly shut the game off and thought “ok, fine. I’ll just buy them at Nooks tomorrow”. I told myself, let’s do it for another 30 minutes and if I don’t get finish, then I’ll walk away.

At this point I’m real chaotic, just running, aimless, trying to get my villagers to give me the mystery ingredients. I even tried to get smart with it. I tried to give Franklin skinny mushrooms I picked myself; no dice. I thought I was going to pull the ultimate scam on poor innocent Raymond. He had asked me for a specific fish, and I thought perhaps I could hoodwink him and give him a different kind. Unfortunately Business Cat saw through my ploy and sent me on my way.

Eventually I caught the last two fish I needed to trade with my villagers and Franklin gave me the Turkey Day DIYs. VICTORY AT LAST! I don’t think I’ve shut the game off any faster in my life. I haven’t played on Coral Key since, haha!

(Look, Vlad was proud of me and he CRIED!)

I suppose not every event will go smoothly, I’ve had a lot of luck with them in the past, it was just my time to struggle on this one. That’s life, right? I really do hope Toy Day is easier and more fun. I’m looking forward to December and all the fun snow and the new items will bring. Expect a new post (or maybe multiple) from me in the weeks to come. Until then, I hope everyone had a fantastic week, celebrating or not, and hope you’ll come back to read my next post.​

 

[Pintuition]

I have been SO excited to make this post! All week I’ve been preparing, getting my island ready for snow season. That meant having to fully redo my pumpkin patch farm area, which was a huge undertaking. I’m planning on making a post about that soon. It gets a separate post because I’m turning it into an ice rink, cocoa stand, and snowperson area! I’m not quite finished with the cocoa area or the ice rink, but I expect to be finished very soon. Look out for that one! For this post I’ll just focus on my first experience with snow in the game.

I could not log in fast enough after work yesterday. I knew the whole island would be covered in snow, but I didn’t realize it would be THAT different. I honestly really love it- the pink/pastel colors on my island really compliment the icy whites of the snow. I think this has been my favorite season on my island yet!

I had to change for this occasion- into my Frozen-style Elsa dress! I also wore a snowflake pochette, which I got from someone in the Southern Hemisphere earlier in the year. Finally a chance to wear my dream outfit!

I knew the snowballs would spawn in my ice rink area since everywhere else was overdeveloped so after checking out a few cool spots I headed over there to make my first snowboy. Of course I rolled the first one into a hedge almost instantly. I panicked and headed to google to see if I had fumbled my way out of getting a snowboy already on day one. It turns out that if you break one you can enter any building on the island and when you come out it has respawned- imagine that! That was certainly good to know!

I wanted to use the path method I saw here on the forum to make a perfect snowboy but I didn’t have enough space (worked perfectly on Lorien though!). I ended up just winging it and tried to get it right. Alas, my first one wasn’t perfect but he gave me a DIY for the frozen treat set anyway. Thanks, snowboy!

After this I spent some time running around catching snowflakes. I think they're kind of hard to see against the snow. I really wish you could gather large snowflakes quicker- one per day is so limiting! On my other island I was able to grab a second snowflake from my perfect one on the second day but for my crappy one I did I got nothing this morning- oh well!

After I placed snowboy I hyped him up and we did a photoshoot for his birthday. He looked so great up on the cliff where I placed him- I honestly could not imagine a better spot for him. On my way down I heard a balloon pass by and picked up a falling snow wall. I’m hoping to make one and transform the “living room” of my house into a little winter/Christmas area.

Then I ran into Cookie who let me know we’d have stars tonight. What luck- new snow and stars on the same day! Of course I let my friends know, who came over later that night. After this I worked on my ice rink for a while and started to figure out what I wanted for an Xmas entrance. Luckily a kind forum member came through with a big festive tree for me for my entrance and house! I’m so happy and thankful- I think it looks great! The pictures don’t do it justice, the little hearts are ice and I have pink illuminated snowflakes in the back.

I could not ask for a better backdrop than stars for the start of snow season. Just look at the pictures I got- insane! I can’t believe it’s my second meteor shower since April when I started my island. It felt like a gift to get snow and stars in one day. I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s snowing- that’s going to be really cool too!

As we get closer to the holidays (and the new forum event next week) I’m not sure how often I’ll get to update for the next few weeks- I’ll definitely be back for a Toy Day rundown and some winter updates/fun. Also look out for when I introduce my new island, Lorien, in an island journal. I’ll make sure to mention when I post the first one. I hope everyone likes my new island just as much as Coral Key- it’s super different but still very me! Until then, I hope everyone reading out there has a great weekend and enjoys the holiday season!