✨ 🍑 💗 Coral Key Island Journal 💗 🍑 ✨

[Pintuition]

I’m terribly sorry it has taken me so long to update about Toy Day, I’ve been taking some much needed rest from my job over the holidays and wanted to make the most of it by being more present. That meant being online much much less! I can’t believe it’s already 2021 when I’m posting this- that’s crazy! Without further ado, let’s talk Toy Day!

As per usual I really wasn’t sure what to expect from the event. Turkey Day and Halloween were so different, I was kind of afraid I didn’t prepare enough for the day. Thankfully it wasn’t as involved as Turkey Day, which made it both easy and go by quickly. I was glad we didn’t have to fish or do anything crazy- that was way too hard over Thanksgiving!

My first order of business was to get dressed for the event so I put on my best festive dress and Santa hat and headed to the plaza. Sure enough, there was Jingle, waiting for me! The first thing he asked for was 3 crafted festive wrapping papers. Of course I don’t have many non-fruit trees on the island so collecting the ornaments was kind of a struggle. I usually swing by Lorien to collect any ornaments I need but I didn’t want to interrupt the event! So I did my best to cobble together a few ornaments to make with Jingle needed.

I returned the wrapping paper to Jingle and he gave me a magic sack and asked me to deliver presents to all of my villagers. I was super thankful he provided the presents. I thought maybe I was going to have to buy and wrap a specific one for everyone. I was loosely prepared for that eventuality, I did save like 5 toy day items to hand out to my favorites, but I definitely didn’t have a gift for all 10.

For some reason right when I started the event like 7 of my villagers were either on or around the plaza. I felt like I was giving a gift out every two feet I walked! This made it super easy, though. I only needed to take a quick jaunt to the neighborhood to give gifts to my remaining villagers. Their reactions were so cute! And look at those cute Santa hats!!

True to form I exchanged gifts with my three favorite villagers on the island (at least, the villagers AC said I was the closest to), Bluebearr, Marina, and Merengue. They all gave me Toy Day gifts in return. Later in the day I did follow up and gift some items to Dom and a few others.

(Look at Apple, she's so chonky I love whatever this facial expression is so much lol!!)

On the whole I’m not sure how I feel about the Toy Day event. It was short and sweet. I think I was a little let down, though. It felt like a lot of build up for a 20 minute thing. I did like how the event took place on the 24th rather than Christmas day. I definitely would not have participated had it took place on the day itself. So I’m glad they did that at least!

I’ll be back within the next week or two to talk about last night’s festivities for New Year’s Eve! It was much more fun than Toy Day in my opinion. So happy New Year, let’s hope for a great 2021. I can’t wait to share how my island changes and progresses in 2021!!​

 

[Pintuition]

Happy (late) New Year, everyone! I’m back with another rundown of an event- this time for NYE! I was happy to see that after the announcements that they FINALLY let Isabelle out of the plaza for the first time in a long time. Yes girl!! I was kind of expecting Redd to man the hat stall but it was a nice surprise to see Tom work for my bells for once!

I decided on a flapper dress to be festive for the occasion so I built my outfit around that. Thankfully one of the offerings for the hats on my island was pink- it wouldn’t be a holiday on Coral Key without at least one wild pink outfit! My friends and I got together early to trade hats so I think we were able to collect them all. At least all the ones we wanted anyway! I had top hats on Coral Key and cone hats on Lorien so it worked out well!

I’m going to be real with you guys, my friends and I are all old (*cough*, mid twenties/thirties) and there was not a snowflake’s chance we were going to stay up until midnight. We were all kind of disappointed in our chat, wondering if someone should time travel. Then we had a brilliant idea- my friend from Ireland would have New Years hours before we would in the states. She said she was going to stay up anyway and that she could open to have NYE start at 7PM for us. I couldn’t have been more happy- we get to ring the new year in together AND I get to go to bed early!!

The flyover was rough, there was so many of us trying to come at once. Thankfully we budgeted about 40 minutes for flyover/shopping and arrived much earlier than we needed to. We were stuck outside the airport for what felt like forever, but then got to the plaza to take some pictures. Look how cute we are! Of course it was hard to snap pics- someone’s eyes were always closed!! Between us all madly taking screenshots we eventually did get it.

(Isn't the sitting reaction just the best?!? It's so nice for group photos, we barely got everyone in as it was!!)

The countdown happened basically seconds after we stood up to get ready. We had a pretty good mix of champagne toasts, glowsticks, and of course I brought the party poppers. I let off a few during the countdown but tensed up to get it right on the “1”. I got it right on the money thankfully! The fireworks were so beautiful!

(FYI, the video has no sound, I had to majorly compress to upload to TBT so something had to go lol. Sorry in advance for the trash quality, but you get the picture. I am the red hair, middle on the right popping off the party poppers! Haha!)

True to us, we partied a little too hard. Peep some of my friends who have been hitting the celebration juice a little too hard, haha! Just like a real party, right?

It was so nice to be with friends on the last day of 2020, the worst year ever. Even if we can’t be together in person, we were able to connect and it felt so nice. I wouldn’t have wanted to ring in the new year in any other way! I hope you, my readers, have a great 2021 filled with happiness, joy, and of course Animal Crossing! Cheers!

 

[Pintuition]

It had been a minute since I did an update that wasn’t event related. I really want to get back into my journal in 2021 so here goes a new random non-event/holiday post! Since the holidays my friends and I have a renewed interest in meeting up in NH. We had forgotten how fun it was. I think that inspired us to get together a lot more in the last week or two. I hope we can keep it up, it really has made the game a lot more fun/interesting.

The thing is, we’ve all been to a hundred meteor showers, some of us even are complete with Celeste recipes by now. The regular old meet ups were getting kind of stale. One of us said we should do theme days so we’ve really taken that to the nth degree and ran with it.

Our first theme day we ever did was inspired by Disney’s Frozen films. Since there are a lot of Frozen-reminiscent clothes in the game we thought it would be perfect. I’m going to be honest, I spent the better part of the day loading up different wand outfits for the occasion…some of them were “thinkers” but most were instantly recognizable.

(I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!)

So the outfits I settled on were two Annas, two Elsas, one of which even used the ice dress from the game. The hairstyles were the hardest part- nothing really fits exactly in some cases. I made really good use of the bun crown hat thing! I wish there were more wigs like that.

I also did an outfit for Sven using the new reindeer suit that was released in December. I also made use of the snowboy head to make a pseudo Olaf. They may be kind of wonky, but I think it was so fun. One of the things we tried to do was get creative and not just do the predictable Anna/Elsa outfits. I decided this meant I was going to try to do “Wandering Oaken”, the owner of the little shop and sauna from the first film. I tried my best guys, lol.

(Peep me as Wandering Oaken in the Middle. I humbly apologize to the animators for that abomination of an outfit lol)

Honestly we had some fire costumes. Still, no event was complete without some absolutely savage outfits, my favorite being “Elsa’s Parents” which consisted solely of a skeleton suit. I lost it at that. We took a bunch of pictures and even set up mirrors around to change our skin/hair color for each wand outfit. Of course we had snowflake wands, we couldn’t do Frozen without them!

Our first evening was a wild success so later on last week we did get together again for a sleepover themed night. I was ecstatic to get more mileage out of all the PJs I ordered for the TBT fair last summer so I came prepared in my finest PJs. This time our host even decorated a little sleepover area for us to wish on stars and take pics in. It was so much fun!

At each event I really enjoyed seeing how differently we interpreted the same prompts. Our sleepover looks were wildly different. Even standing there with four Annas you could tell we all did the look slightly differently. In the future we’re thinking of doing a color themed night or maybe even more looks inspired by film/tv. I know I’ll be excitedly creating my outfits the next time we decide.

I hope you enjoyed this small look at how weird my little AC group and I are, lol. It truly has been a light in the darkness for us in the last year or so. I hope to follow up this post with a part two soon highlighting whatever antics we get up to next. See you next time and thanks for reading!​

 

[Pintuition]

Finally Festivale has come! It feels like I’ve been waiting about 6 years for the actual day of Festivale, the update came out forever ago. I was glad I had the day off at the least to participate fully. With the length of other recent events, I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough time to do it properly. Toy Day and Turkey Day took forever!

I had heard online that the event wasn’t good so I’m going to be honest, I went into Festivale with kind of a negative outlook. I didn’t really like what I had heard/seen so I went to participate just to experience it, not really thinking I’d enjoy it at all. Yes, the event wasn’t perfect, yes it could have been improved. But I think I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed it, as you’ll see in a moment. So without further ado, here’s my Festivale experience…

I’ve had my outfit prepared since last week and couldn’t wait to put it on Monday morning. Pave even commented right away that I was dressed for the occasion, haha! The silver lining of any event is usually in the outfits. I really loved the Festivale dresses and definitely see myself wearing them again for fun occasions in the future.

Immediately after I came out of my house there was confetti and feathers everywhere. I caught a few, figuring they’d be useful down the road even though I hadn’t spoken to Pave yet. I found that the color of the Festivale items at my nooks (red) was the most prevalent feather to catch. On my second island the same was true with green. It doesn’t really affect the game much, I just thought that was interesting to point out!

I had heard that talking to Pave took forever but I thought initially it wasn’t too bad. I even got a rainbow feather recipe out of it! I decided to build up some stock of feathers before going back to Pave or trying to trade with villagers so I went off, caught about 30 feathers and headed back to the plaza. I was surprised that villagers offered you a random color feather for the feathers that matched the color of their outfit. I felt bad saying no sometimes but I had to approach pretty much everyone multiple times to get all of the colors I needed.

Initially I thought I’d save some rainbow feathers to customize some furniture I already had. Quickly I realized this was a losing game as you needed multiple feathers to customize even something small like a balloon. I knew I wanted pink items so I mainly traded with villagers who would give me pinks in return. It worked out fairly well!

Eventually I had caught/crafted enough rainbow feathers for Pave to ask for 3 rainbow feathers to get his ultimate prize. I really hadn’t seen what the prize was so I went for it. It turned out to be a huge golden bird float, haha. I’m not sure what I’ll do with them, but I ended up with a few of them. I placed it temporarily in my entrance area with some confetti cannons around it. I’m not too sure if it’s cute or creepy but it stays for now!

I thought it was funny that when you refused to give Pave your rainbow feathers that he would do a “rage spin” and get mad at you for it. It was too cute! Thanks, Pave, but I don’t want 62 bird floats. Or…do I? Who knows! Haha!

I think the event took about 45 minutes to complete. Catching feathers and trading them was the best part. Yes, talking to Pave kind of was long but I made sure to do multiple transactions in a row so I kind of knew it would be a long block of talking/dancing with long breaks to do other things afterwards. It wasn’t really that intrusive and I’d much rather an event like this than something that’s based on shooting down the balloons for endless hours. In the end I really enjoyed this event, unexpectedly, and I hope to participate in more like it in the future.

I’m planning on using some of the festival items like the parasols, stalls, and balloons in a birthday area I’m building. Whenever one of my friends has a birthday we throw a little in game party to celebrate. Mine is on the 26th next week so I’m going all out. As always I’ll probably be back sometime after to post some cute pics and talk about it. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed reading and had a fun Festivale!

 

[Pintuition]

This past February I was so excited to finally have my first birthday in ACNH. Unfortunately I didn’t get the game until April last year and last February it wasn’t out yet. I’ve been to so many great celebrations over the last 8-10 months or so I was super excited to plan my own day. And as always, that meant making things a little bit extra, and a lot a bit pink. I think I have so much to say and show from my birthday I’m actually going to have to split it into two parts: part one, the celebration with my friends, and part two will consist of the villager birthday experience. I just couldn’t limit myself to 10 screenshots, sue me. Haha!

If I’m honest, I lightly worked on my birthday area for a week or two in 15-20 minute blocks most days of the week. Even though I didn’t terraform there was a lot to do to transform my Christmas ice rink into a pink birthday party area. Not only did I need to tear down a lot of furniture, fencing, etc, but I also needed to create custom designs and collect birthday and party items.

(I continued to work on the area even after I took these "final" project photos lol, I'm never happy with any build until it's fully extra!!)

One of the first things I did was try to turn my ice rink design into a confetti floor design. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything that was exactly right so I had to make my own. In the end I think it came out pretty good and really made things feel festive! I used the pink decking and steps I have elsewhere on my island as well.

I was so frustrated at first that you could only order 5 things from the catalog per day- just the bar and dance floor area alone took like 3-4 days of ordering to complete! I’m so glad I had cataloged a bunch of things even though I never wanted to use them. I might not need a dj booth on my island 24/7 but it came in handy for my birthday!

The item set I made the best use of I think is the Festivale stuff. Since we just recently had that event I had a bunch of super bright festive items just waiting to be used. I made use of the stage, many balloon lamps, tons of garlands, and more! Basically in any open space I stuck something shiny from Festivale. As soon as I did that the area really came alive!

I think the chief thing that really helped sell the birthday theme were the items I was able to gather right here on TBT. I place multiple orders across a week or two and even tried to time travel on my other island myself for some more birthday stuff. In the end I knew I’d want to place most of that at my entrance or in highly visible spots so that it would look cool for photos/visitors. I think they came out really cool!

One of the things I was dead set on was the theme- pink. To do that I needed a lot of pink balloons. It doesn’t looks like a lot, but in the end it was multiple pockets full of balloons. I got scared the week of because neither of my islands had any for me to finish up the birthday area. I think the day before my birthday I finally got some and was able to put the finishing touches on. For additional décor I used floor lights, some box sofas for a lounge area, some Festivale stalls, present stacks from Toy Day, and more. All taken together, I’d say it was pretty festive!

I had to work all day IRL on my birthday (big sad) but I was so glad I had something to look forward to. So we all planned to have as many people possible come between 6-8 that night so I could still celebrate IRL too. It was a Friday so many of my friends were busy but I was still able to have some of them popping in and out.

Everyone said they liked my set up, I think they had fun using the stage and bar area. Originally, I was just going to do something tiny so I’m happy I went all out! We got so many great photos I hardly know which ones to pick/post.

Everyone who dropped in was kind enough to bring me a present as well. I think at the end of the night I opened over 15 presents from everyone. It was super generous and nice!

So that’s it for my birthday party post. I should be back soon to do a writeup of the birthday party with my villagers. And maybe even another rundown of some recent meteor shower parties I’ve been to. The reason that this post has come so late is actually that I was in the hospital and recovering from a surprise surgery. So hopefully I can get these both out before March ends!

In the end, I really enjoyed my birthday and creating my birthday area and celebrating the day in the game. I’m already thinking about things I could do for next year. Jk…unless?​

 

[Pintuition]

Finally, we’re onto part two of my in game birthday celebration. This literally took place a month ago, I wish I had been able to post sooner but IRL health issues prevented me. This time I’ll talk a little bit about my first birthday celebration with my villagers. I knew very little about it beforehand so some of the things were a nice surprise. If you would like to keep the birthday events a surprise for yourself please do not read on, I’ll be posting screenshots of the event!

The day started with birthday wishes from Isabelle- I’m glad she finally had something else to talk about other than her socks! Immediately on my doorstep I was accosted by Bluebear with no warning. I’m so glad I had changed into my birthday outfit the night before. I had been in a weird mish mosh outfit beforehand!

She ended up taking me to her house and when I went inside Bluebear, Merengue, and Marina were all waiting to wish me a happy birthday. It was so cute! I’m glad these were the villagers the game chose to have me celebrate with. They’re all so dear to me!!

I went through and blew out my candles and collected my gifts from Bluebear. It was a massive star piñata! I kind of struggled initially, admittedly. I was afraid I’d never break it. Finally, it all came down and inside were cupcakes- 10 of them! I knew from my friends that I was supposed to hand these out to villagers for gifts back. Although, I did hold back one or two to decorate with. After all, I had another birthday celebration on my second island to gather some more items.

I couldn’t resist taking some photos with the gals before I left my party. I did stay there with them for a good long while just doing a bunch of reactions and enjoying the day. On a day where I couldn’t celebrate IRL it really did make me smile!!

After leaving Bluebear’s place I went around to hand out cupcakes and talk a little bit to my villagers. Some of them gave me birthday items while others…well… gave me the equivalent of garbage. I really wish they’d at least guarantee a birthday item for a cupcake. But I was determined not to have sour grapes about that on my birthday. It doesn’t really matter!

At this point I went about my day IRL and then opened back up later to visit with my friends. You can check out my previous post for more information about that! After they all left it was time for one last celebration with the villagers- seeing K.K. Slider. I was a bit disappointed there was nobody in the plaza at the time but I wanted to hear the birthday song.

Wilbur even left me a birthday message, I didn’t know he could even do that! I had no idea the NPCs would even wish me a happy birthday (short of Isabelle's announcements) at all, so that was another nice surprise. Apple and my friends left me sweet messages as well during the song. It was a nice sendoff for a fun night.

I’m very happy I participated in the birthday events with my villagers- it was all so sweet. I wasn’t expecting anything special so I was pleasantly surprised. Can’t wait for next year!

Thanks for reading about my birthday celebrations, it makes me really happy to think about them. Next time I’ll be back with another journal about some more fun and even more changes- specifically the recent updates (Sanrio, Mario, etc.) and any changes coming to Coral Key.​

 

[Pintuition]

It’s no secret that in the last month or so we’ve gotten multiple updates and a whole bunch of new content added to the game. There’s been so many updates recently I didn’t even get the chance to post about each one individually. Crazy! So instead, I’ll do a little writeup or my experience with them all- from Mario, to Sanrio, to custom designs and beyond!

I think I’ll start with Mario. It’s something we all knew was coming to the game, they had hinted at it several times in the past. I was surprised, though, at how much content there was to it. There’s loads of individual outfits, display items, and more. I must admit that aside from the outfits, none of the Mario stuff really fits my theme. I don’t anticipate I’ll really use them much in the future. Everything, that is, except the WARP PIPES!!

Allow me to gush about the warp pipes for a second… I am obsessed! As soon as I could order them I ordered up a set for both islands. While green isn’t exactly my favorite I’m planning on finding a way to set them into the ground so they are less visible. This is going to make getting around the island SO much easier.

Another big update came recently that I was over the moon for, and better fits Coral Key, is the. Sanrio and anniversary update. Nothing feels like it matches my island more than the Sanrio items- so much pink and pastel! I was beyond excited to get some of my favorite villagers back as well. Etoile and Chai are inbound for Coral Key! Choosing the villagers to replace will likely be a huge deal so I’m likely to do a separate post about my journey to do that!

(Here is my rep in the Kiki and Layla outfit, I really want to commission some art of this outfit soon!)

The only drawback to the Sanrio update was the cards. Oh my gosh that was a bloodbath. For those who don’t know in the U.S. they sold the cards at Target for pickup only. Each store only got like 70 cards too. Long story short they were hard to come by and my cart kept erroring out. I was crushed! That is, until a friend was able to get me a pack in person. I was so relieved! But in the end, even getting them shipped was difficult. They made a detour to El Paso, TX, miles and miles away. Spoiler alert, I live nowhere near Texas, haha.

Anyway, I was also stoked for the items that came with the Sanrio characters- they truly gave us a lot of usable cute pieces of furniture and clothing. Of course my friends with amiibos sent me a bunch of stuff immediately while I wait for my cards to come in. I know I’ll be gifting a lot of these items to my villagers from here on out. So cute!!

I think probably the biggest update, Sanrio aside, to me was the addition of 50 more custom design slots to both the regular slots and the pro clothing designs. Plus new items to customize like flags, fans, and umbrellas. I have been maxed out of design slots for months so I’m super excited to finally be able to download some new content to spice up my island. It’s inspired me to possibly also make some choices to do terraforming projects as well. I couldn’t run to the Nook Stop fast enough to spent my Nook Miles!

Well, that’s all I have to say today. In the end I’ve been reasonably pleased with the updates in the last few months, finally content people are clamoring for has been introduced to the game. I still think they could have gone a bit bigger with their updated for the 1-year anniversary but it is what it is. Speaking of anniversaries. Next weekend on April 8th it will be the 1-year anniversary of Coral Key. I’m hoping to make a special post about that soon as well, a then and now type of thing. How exciting I’ve been exploring Coral Key for nearly a year, I almost can’t believe it!! I’m wanting to get into posting in my island journal regularly so look out for that post and more coming soon!​

 

[Pintuition]

Why, hippity skippity, hoppity ho! It’s time for a round up of Bunny Day- take two! It’s no secret that last year Bunny Day was not my favorite thing (nor most of yours) but I decided early on that I was going to give Zipper and Bunny Day a second chance this year. After all, my island was super new last year and it happened during my first week or so of playing the game. So I took a deep breath, prepared myself, and tried to psych myself up for Bunny Day. Well, you can be the judge of how well I did. I tried folks, I really did…

I tried to get my island in the spirit, I even changed my entrance to feel Bunny Day-ish with some of the new items they released at the Nook Stop this year. I must admit I really liked all of the new items, I was happy to buy into Bunny Day if it meant an opportunity to decorate, haha!

(Why I took no pictures of my Bunny Day entrance is beyond me. I tore it down right after the event ended so I couldn't go back without setting it all up again. Here's a consolation Zipper for your troubles. Lol!)

Honestly I was unbothered this time having Zipper be there a few days ahead of time. The drop rates of eggs seemed much less and they really weren’t too intrusive to daily island living. I was a bit annoyed at all the earth eggs and my tools breaking but over the week leading up to Bunny Day I had built up a good stock.

I got quite a few recipes last year but knew I was still missing one. Still, no balloons with recipes came, only endless flyovers of sky eggs to add to my egg hoard. I hoped and worried about this over several days- how could I complete Bunny day without all the recipes?!?

And finally that day had come. There he was- hopping and skipping in the plaza- our unblinking turquoise-eyed nightmare rabbit: Bunny Day hath returned. Memories of the past flooded back but still I tried to block them out. I wouldn’t let Bunny Day get ruined twice… or would I?

I spent two hours running around the island in search of more eggs. Trading with villagers was fun at first but it became abundantly clear that I did not gather enough eggs to craft all of the items I needed. Most people probably had most of them already or in storage but I had very few- only a few dresses and a hat or two. No furniture, none of the higher value egg items.

As the day progressed it became harder and harder to craft all the items- there are way too many. I actually had to visit a few mystery islands to gather more eggs. I thought I had enough when I returned. Turns out I did but there was another problem I didn’t foresee… I didn’t have all the recipes.

When I talked to Zipper he kept mentioning I still had one more to craft. I checked my DIYs, I had made them all. I spoke to villagers and they said to check the beach. I probably ran up and down all sides 20 times- there was no DIY bottle, none fell from the sky either. After all that work I still couldn’t finish. I just turned off my switch and walked away this time- it was definitely not worth continuing to struggle like that, not after hours of failure. I’m no quitter usually but I just couldn’t do it anymore. Sorry Zipper!!

Honestly Bunny Day 2021 ended up being just as much of a bust as 2020’s. I really really tried to like it this time but it took too long and I didn’t finish yet again. Oh well, maybe next year will be better. (Probably not, haha). I think next time my journal post will be much more positive. I’ve got my Sanrio amiibos and I’m in the process of redoing some spots of my island and bringing in new villagers. Look out for another update coming soon!​

 

[Pintuition]

Any reader of my island journal knows that I’m all about pink and cute things on my island. And when the Sanrio villagers were added to New Horizons, I obviously went nuts, haha. But after weeks of waiting for them to travel around the country (see my Sanrio post for deets lol), my amiibo cards have finally arrived and I was able to bring in not one but two of the villagers I had always wanted- Étoile and Chai!

I knew I wanted Étoile more than anything, she has been my favorite for a long time. I think she was even my first happy helper on pocket camp when that plan came out. So needless to say I was ready for her to finally come home. But that, of course, meant selecting a villager to leave. Honestly the first three times I scanned her amiibo I tried not to think about it. I definitely pushed off the decision to the last possible second.

I thought the items she asked for were fairly reasonable, I was prepared for 100000 cardboard box items but was pleasantly surprised with a lot of log furniture and other items. Of course she gave me all trash in return. I don’t mind, anything for you, Queen!!

And then the dreaded but happy day came at last- I’d have to make my choice of who to boot to bring Étoile onto my island. My first instinct was Vladimir, I really only brought him on to fill a cranky spot… and even though I love him dearly, I think it’s time to move on. The only problem I discovered was that I never got the final “best friends” level reaction from him. I don’t want to have to start over with a new cranky villager so he’d get to stay for now.

Instead I chose Apple. I love Apple, I even bought her amiibo when I first bought the game- she’s been on my island almost a year now. The problem is over time I’ve lost my enthusiasm for her. She’s still great and I love her, just not as much. And so Ms. Apple packed up her house and was on her way.

Étoile’s house is BEYOND cute inside and out. I was so excited to see it for the first time. One thing I didn’t think about was that I’d need to decorate her yard. It was kind of sad tearing down Apple’s things but who knows, maybe she’ll be back in the future! I’ll never rule anything out.

After I brought in Étoile I knew I wanted Chai as well. I thought it would be super cute if Chai and Merengue lived near each other, my two food-themed besties! I thought again of Vladimir but I still hadn’t reached the level of friendship I wanted with him. I looked around the neighborhood and determined that Bluebear was the clear choice as she was already next to Merengue. I’ve got her amiibo, have received her photo, and she’s filled her house with like 5 massive fish tanks and has no furniture left. I figure if I’m missing her within the next few weeks that I’ll bring her back and she can take Vladimir’s spot!

Chai moved in without a fuss, same as Étoile. She asked for much of the same furniture Étoile did actually. I had to replenish my wood supply after, haha! The only thing I regret in the process was not going to say goodbye to Bluebear. I remember ending the day and feeling like I had forgotten something but couldn’t figure out what. I ended up time traveling to speed up the move-in and immediately realized I voided poor Bluebear without a goodbye. Sorry, girl!!!

I cannot handle how cute Merengue and Chai are with their houses next to each other. I made sure they had a little spot to enjoy a warm drink together. I think of them as co-owners of the Coral Key Cafe down by the shopping area. One of these days maybe I’ll fix that area up to make it more “theirs” in the future.

Anyway, there you have it: Étoile and Chai have arrived! I don’t know who I’ll be bringing on next. Could be another Sanrio villager, could be a regular one- who knows! For know here’s a rundown of the villagers I currently have on Coral Key:

I’m hearing rumors that more amiibos are on the way. If that’s the case then I may cycle through Sherb and Raymond to experience even more villagers if I can bring them back in the future. Until that happens I’m quite content with my villagers and I’m looking to cycle through more in Vladimir’s spot. When that starts to happen I’ll probably do another update. For now, that’s it! Nothing much has been going on. (hehe, I say that but I've been working on some secret projects, shhhh!) A special post in celebration of 1 year of my island is coming soon so lookout for that!​

 

[Pintuition]

We now interrupt your regularly scheduled island journal posts for a special news bulletin: Coral Key has officially turned 1 year old this month! I cannot believe my island is over a year old now. It feels like 5 years old and 5 months at the same time. It’s crazy!

I took a look through my old screenshots and journal posts and I just could not believe how big the change was from the first day. Our islands are so empty when we start it’s a wonder we can make anything of them at all. I often get down on myself for not having the greatest island known to man, but I’ve got to cut myself some slack. That’s why I have made the decision….

To finally make my dream address available! I’ve been too chicken thus far but what am I waiting for? This is what I’m working with. Some islands will always be better than mine to be sure but I shouldn’t be afraid to share my progress and joys too.

I’ve spent the last few weeks tweaking elements of my island that I was unhappy with, especially making use of the additional custom design slots. I transformed my birthday area into a cherry blossom park with picnic area and greenhouse, added new areas for festivale to my beach, reworked my paths, and transformed my home. It truly was a massive undertaking. I had hoped to have it finished by the actual anniversary date (April 8) but there was just too much left to finish. But today, April 24th, I finally have it done.

(Here is a sneak peak of the cherry blossom park- complete with the big tree illusion!)

So without further ado, my dream address is 2132-5444-9998. Please feel free to drop by. If you do, PM me and let me know- I’d love to see pictures and hear what you think. My island in general should be safe for teenagers and PG-13 audiences due to some choice catchphrase changes (lol). I don't use hacked elements and have painstakingly put together what you see through many hours and lots and lots of tweaking. I’m not 100% done with my island, the back zen area and some beach areas aren’t finished, but the most important areas are fixed up. I hope everyone likes it! (Eek, the insecurity is hitting hard now lol).

After I settled on releasing my dream address I had fun making posters on the new island tour app Nintendo released in March. I wish it had more customization options but it's still cool! I even did a tour video but it's too large to post on TBT. If anyone wants to see it, PM me and I can send the link. It's nothing special but I like how they narrate it for you- it kind of feels like a mini direct for your island!

I hope to do a post showing the construction of my cherry blossom park soon. That took deceptively long to put together but I had fun working on a project again. Truth be told I let my island go wild for a few months, I really only came on to participate in events, and it was nice to actually work on a project again. I hope everyone loves what I’ve put together. Happy birthday, Coral Key island!!
​

 

[Pintuition]

I’m back- and less than one week from my last villager update I already have another one. I have been waiting for WEEKS for Vladimir to give me the best friends level cranky reaction. I honestly could not take it anymore. I think if I hadn’t intervened he never would have handed it over. I really wanted to cycle through his spot so I got things moving with a method I previously swore I’d never use: time travel.

I gave Vladimir daily gifts and attention for at least two months of time. I think I must have spent 500,000 bells just on gifts alone. I tried giving him clothes, expensive furniture/items, wrapped fruit, fossils, the lot, but nothing did the trick. I began time traveling over the weekend, one day at a time, until I had reached the end of May all the while showering Vlad with many gifts. Then finally the day came- he bestowed the “inspiration” reaction upon my rep. I was over the moon!

I received a pack of 60 or 70 amiibos for Christmas and I’ve been just itching to try them all out. Initially I thought maybe I’d bring in another Sanrio villager (maybe Marty or Chelsea) but 3 of them just feels like overkill. I may not rule it out in the future but for now I went with a regular villager.

I didn’t get to choose the villagers in my amiibo set, it was just kind of a random assortment but I guess I lucked out with villagers like Rosie, Chrissy, Francine, Marshal, Stitches, etc. This made it super hard to choose!

In the end I narrowed my decision down to two: Chrissy and Rosie. Initially I favored Rosie but her house was so similar to Cookie’s on the outside that I thought it would look weird in my neighborhood. I mean, that’s not the only reason I decided against Rosie, I figured that I already have a cat in Raymond and don’t really need a second. Plus, I’ve never experienced a rabbit before. So Chrissy won out!

I decided to move in Chrissy quicker than I did Chai and Étoile; time traveling is truly a gift and I can’t stop myself any longer. This late in the game it’s torturous to wait so long. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t struggle. Miss Chrissy went straight for the difficult items, I was shocked when the first thing she asked for was a shell bed. She has some expensive tastes I guess! Fortunately I just dismantled my mermaid basement to create a new office/gaming room so I had one in storage. I don’t know what it is with these last three villagers but they certainly asked for some non traditional items at the campsite.

After three days (or 20 minutes to me lol) of fulfilling her requests, I was finally able to move Chrissy in. Though I wouldn’t make the same mistake with Vlad as I did Bluebear. I did go to see him and letting him go was so bittersweet. I’m kind of heartsick that I don’t have his amiibo to bring him back. In the future I’ll probably buy one just to have. Vlad might be gone but he made a huge impact on me. Many of the villagers I pick tend to be the cute/shallow choices and Vlad taught me that even villagers people think are stereotypically “ugly” have a lot of value. He will certainly be missed- I’m already half regretting my choice to let him go now! May we meet again, Vlad old boy!

Finally Chrissy was here. I couldn’t believe how cute she was- and her house. I always wanted to bring her on- you can’t deny her color scheme is perfect for my island. I have to admit I struggled to decorate her yard. Étoile and Chai were so easy- I just slapped down some Sanrio items and was done in a flash. But what to do for poor Chrissy? Honestly I hadn’t interacted with her before and didn’t know what kind of dialogue she had or what she liked. I’d have to do some research to find that out!

Similar to Bluebear and Marina she aspired to be a pop star, or so the Wiki said. I already have a little microphone area for Marina so I knew Chrissy’s needed to be different. Then I had an idea based on some of the new items from events from the last few months- I took a look in my Nook Shopping app and storage and found exactly what I needed. I decided to make use of a Festivale stage to be a little stage for Chrissy. And what stage is complete without music? I put the DJ booth that I used for my birthday area behind it. I was happy to use it and not yeet it to Nooks- that was so expensive! At the end of the day, I think it came out pretty cute!

So that’s it- Chrissy is the newest friend out here on Coral Key. She may or may not be here forever. Who knows what the future will bring. Until then I’m quite content with my island at the minute. I hope to make some posts soon about my recent projects. I never have showed the inside of my house so that should be coming hopefully soon and throughout the summer. Until then I'll leave you with a graphic of my current residents...

 

[Pintuition]

I’m back with another update! Honestly IRL hasn’t been so kind to me lately so the renewed enthusiasm for my island journal I had in recent months has fallen away. I have been seriously unwell for the past few months and most of the time I haven’t been capable of working on my island at all. I’m hoping better times are ahead and what better thing to get me out of my personal funk than Animal Crossing, right?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll find TBT has transformed recently for the Bell Tree World Championships. We’ve been split into four teams (purple, red, blue, and green). I found myself amongst the lovely members of Team Blue aka “Blue’s Clues”! Woooo!

Normally I wouldn’t journal about this type of event but I was fortunate enough to gain a slot in the ACNH Obstacle Course, which is in-game. So I thought I’d do a little writeup of how that went here. Of course I waited until the event was well over and there were no more time slots- I wouldn’t want to give anyone an unfair advantage by talking about my experiences!

I was initially surprised by how many folks signed up for the obstacle course. I think I was smart to put my name out there for a session early on- so many people didn’t even get a time slot in the first week!

Honestly on the day of I wasn’t feeling well at all. I could barely move and was in a lot of pain. I almost called in to give away my slot but I REALLY didn’t want to let the team down so I tried to go anyway. Of course this made me even more nervous, but I tried to push past it. I knew if I just tried my best it would be fine.

One of the things I did to relax before flying in was change my outfit- including my hair/eyes to everything blue. I found this amazing Blue’s Clues dress on the custom design portal and had to rock it to the event- it even has a “B” on the back. Couldn’t have been more perfect! Plus I thought a dress would mean less slots in my inventory when you have to take on/off items as part of the event. Always thinking, haha!

Time had finally come to start the event. I was so nervous! But fortunately the fly-in gave a little look at what was to come ahead in the obstacle course so sharp-eyed viewers would have a leg up.

We all lined up at the starting line to start the first portion- changing clothes. I think my initial idea to wear a custom design really worked out- I was able to put the clothes on quite fast. For basically the whole maze, wheel, and obstacle course I was in 1st place, I couldn’t believe it.

(Lol, Maple wanted to play too)

Then I got...dare I say, foiled by CLAY! There was a portion of the maze where you had to collect materials and craft an item. I found all of them quickly but couldn’t find the last piece of clay to make a classic pitcher. I was besides myself.

To my horror, I ended up taking like an additional 5 minutes after everyone finished all because I kept running past the last piece of clay I needed. Boy did I feel like an idiot! But it’s all in good fun and everyone was so nice about it. I’m still kind of embarrassed for my poor showing though. I hope I didn’t let the team down too badly!!

(Here's a picture of me dying inside standing in the back in dead last LMAO)

Participating in the event was a lot of fun. I wish I had more energy to devote to it. If I hadn’t fallen on tough times I definitely would have likes to participate more. Still, I’m proud to have been a part of team blue. We were always kind of the underdogs, but we always tried our best. I’m looking forward to seeing who comes out the winner in this event. Will Blue’s Clues come out in the end and take the surprise win?!?! (Shhhhh, don’t burst my bubble quite yet lol).
​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Blue's Clues Dress: MO-B40V-DYSG-F07M

 

[Pintuition]

I’ve been hoping to post about this for a while but haven’t yet found the time. I know Cherry blossom season is well behind us but I thought I’d share one of my favorite newest areas on Coral Key: Sakura Park. I hope you love it as much as I do!!

(This video is trash quality, I can't help it. But this is what the "big tree" picnic area of the park looks like finished- it's such a great spot for photos!!)

I have a large platform on my island to the left of my entrance that I typically use as a seasonal area. This space housed my ice rink during the winter months, was transformed into a pumpkin patch in fall, and even acted as my birthday party area, and many more fun things along the way. I never really knew what to do with this space after I dismantled my hybrid garden I built there early on in the game. So I’ve been rotating it ever since. I’m not sure what will become of Sakura Park in the future but it’s here to stay, at least through the summer.

The park was born out of the desire to update and release my first dream address. I knew I wanted a dedicated place to place a bunch of cherry blossom items and decorate to be a natural but largely pink space. In essence, I wanted to transform a place that was an afterthought into something I could be proud of, especially since it’s one of the first things visitors see about my island.

After my birthday I cleaned up the area, I was using it mostly to dump items I had traded for or stage for other builds. It took a while to get it cleaned up! Once I did I knew I’d need a bunch of new trees I got to planting and turned the whole area into a really messy tree farm for a week or two while I let them all grow. Sadly I don’t have any pics of any of this until I was decorating. Oops!

I knew immediately I wanted to try to the big tree illusion I had been seeing online everywhere. Basically with strategically placed trees on cliffs you can make a tree look huge. Here’s a little bit of a look at how I placed mine.

I covered the other trunks with some grass hedges and scattered items around to try to draw away the eye from the other trunks. At some angles the illusion is shattered but overall I think it’s a passable attempt. I’m so happy with how it turned out. It’s a great background for pictures! Other trees I've seen online have been fuller and bigger but the narrow area I had wouldn't allow for that. I actually think I like the small/medium bigger tree illusion than the wild massive ones I've seen elsewhere. So that trick still works even in the smallest of spaces.

After I made the big tree I knew something had to go in front of it. I ended up using the picnic blanket design I already used elsewhere on my island to make a cherry blossom picnic area. Of course this meant hunting for petals for several days to make all of the items. I also had to trade for the missing recipes I needed to make everything. The RNG gods were not kind to me this cherry blossom season. I ended up time traveling for the first time as by the time I had started to set things up, cherry blossom season would come to an end before I finished. Rather than panic, I finally accepted the inevitable- Coral Key could only be sustained by time travel. The slow path was great for a year, but I’m impatient (lol) and busy and it had to be done. It’s an end of an era!!

I didn’t know what to do with the big spaces next to the tree I had made. Everything was looking great but something was missing. Then one night I was scrolling through Twitter and found the most wonderful cherry blossom fence pattern that used the new standees. I chose to download both the fence and the gate. I then had to transplant a bunch of trees to go behind the standees. I think it gives the illusion that the trees are slightly bigger, there’s beautiful white fencing in the park, and helps cover some of the cliff edges on my big tree. It was a pain to set up- it took forever to get them all together and the same direction. I wished I had decided to do that earlier- it would have been much easier to set up without the cliffs there.

After this was in place it was just window dressing. I set up some benches, planted a few more trees and dropped some of the zen/cherry blossom style items around. This was looking pretty good but I still felt the area was big and needed a few more elements. I ended up putting back my mini greenhouse area I originally had in my flower garden last year- it really helped to fill some of the space! I also put in some stalls and created a little cherry blossom lemonade stand area. I was able to make use of a bunch of previously crafted items I had in Apple’s yard and in storage. So I did a little bit of recycling!

I also made use of a bunch of new custom designs, thanks to the recent slot increase. I added a bunch of petals scattered around but also encircling the base of the tree. They really tied everything together. I don’t think it would have been possible to really make this area a year ago. That’s why I love having a few areas that are always in flux- there’s always new elements added to the game to play with.

Sakura Park is one of my very favorite spaces on my island now. You’d be hard pressed to get me to get rid of it for a while. I keep time traveling back to April to see it in all its glory but I do have to admit, it still really looks great with green trees. I was inspired to make some small changes around this area and also fixed up the adjacent land bridge to my orchard with some mermaid fencing. This whole area really looks amazing now and I’m so proud of it!

It’s been too long since I did a post about a construction project. It's been too long since I tackled a big project in general really. I hope I have more to share soon! I haven't been playing as much lately but I'd love to get back into it- there's lots more left to talk about and build on! I certainly hope to delve into what I’ve done with my house soon- that would be a fun one. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this post and Sakura Park. I really enjoyed making it!
​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Cherry Blossom Variant of "The Path": MA-9785-4167-1018

Scattered CB Petals and CB Petal Heart: MA-2666-2445-8950

Park Sign: MO-XCTR-4MC7-99R8

Stool/Cushion Design: MO-1LSQ-STYD-23SN

Sakura Standee with Fence and Gate: MA-4866-7340-6229

Stall CB Design: MO-HK5D-VRQ3-Q34Q

Pink Checkered Picnic Blanket: MA-0250-9684-9093

White Greenhouse Stall Window Panes: MA-6430-8168-5395

Bridge Planks: Unreleased Pattern by Me

 

[Pintuition]

As promised in some of my last several posts- I think I’m finally ready to do a house tour! For length’s sake I will probably turn it into more than one entry. That way I can post more pictures too! For today I’ll start by showing the exterior as well as the front room, which is what I consider my rep’s living room area.

I don’t think I’ve actually changed the look of my house since I did my last upgrade where you could finally customize everything. The exterior has always been pink like this. Except, of course, for the first few weeks when it was red. I changed it to pink as soon as I could, I loved that I could match it to the aesthetic of the rest of my island. That said, the area around my house needs serious work. I’ve never really liked my “yard” and it’s an area I think I’d really like to improve. For now, though, this is what the exterior area looks like!

I knew I wanted the room you first walk into to be the main living room for the house. I’ve seen a lot of great setups where you walk into a game room, kitchen, or multi-use spaces, but I just prefer to have it be more realistic. For my real life house, the main door leads through the living room. I wanted to create the same vibe in my AC house too!

I wanted most of the spaces in my house to match with the pink on my island. I didn’t want to go too overboard on the theme, though, so I use a lot of whites in my house too. It’s all about balance I guess! I decided to go for the white couch that I could shape in a modular way that would fit in the room best. I guess it kind of divides off the little TV area on the left side of the room. I wanted a little space for my rep to kick back and relax. Over the holidays I decorated this space with some stockings and toy day items. The fireplace is such a great place to display different seasonal items!

I chose to place a lot of clutter and decor in the space but it’s not all for show. I placed a dresser in the room to have a place to get changed super quickly when I needed to. The mirror on top of it is for similar purposes as well but for changing my appearance/hair. I left a crafting table in the room as well just so I could save time. Even though they might not look the nicest there, I use them so often that I’d never get rid of them. Besides, there’s other places in my house that are purely aesthetic- the front room needed to be functional!

I intended for the space to feel cute but homey. I’m one of those people that likes to mix and match styles- I could never be purely modern or purely traditional. I love a good white modern couch but give me a nice big bookshelf and some clutter next to it anyday! I think the one thing I really cared about is that I wanted it to feel “lived in” like my rep just hung her coat on the rack, left her coffee cup on the table, has too many books going at once, etc.

I really like my living room, I think it’s a cute comfy space. Next time I think I’d like to show off my bathroom and kitchen area. Maybe even the Sanrio themed bedroom in the back. My game room and bedroom upstairs will probably get their own entries. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this little mini journal/update!​

 

[Pintuition]

Hi all! The house tour isn’t over yet- we still have lots of other rooms left to explore. I think the rooms I’d like to talk a little bit about today include the bathroom, the kitchen, and the new Sanrio-themed bedroom. Then the first floor is fully covered. I think these three rooms are the least “impressive” of what my house has to offer but are still cute in their own ways!

I think we’ll pop into the kitchen first. This is one of the first spaces I tried to create in my house and it has remained largely unchanged since I first started. Oh, the days of trading to build the ironwood kitchen furniture, lol. I know there are nicer kitchen sets in the game but it feels too nostalgic to get rid of it!

I wanted the kitchen to be a flamingo pink kind of 1950s style throwback. My grandmother’s was orange, but I think it kind of looks like hers a bit! I thought about going full modern and slick but it didn’t feel homey- so the original ironwood stuff and clutter all stayed. I could probably tell 100 stories about my friends and I trading online for some of these now common items like the cutting board, etc. We used to have crafting parties so whoever had the recipe would make like 50 of each thing and we’d all trade and flip them and craft the ironwood stuff, etc. It was so much fun in those early days of quarantine! So this room is my little homage to that weird but fun time.

It’s hard to snap a picture of but I also put the HHA plaques and awards in the kitchen, high on the walls mostly out of sight. It’s a great place to get them out of storage! I also decorated the walls with some paintings and Mom’s art. In general I find wall items in the game to be pretty lacking so most areas in my home are kind of similar in terms of wall decor. There are several kitchen-y items though like pan racks, brooms, and knives that all worked really well in the space!

My bathroom is directly to the right when you walk into the house- in the smallest room. It started out as just a toiler and shower but grew to be much bigger than I intended! Early on I used simple panels to construct a functional shower booth you can go inside, and tried to decorate it with small plants, robes, and other bathroom-y accents. I’d definitely not be mad if this was the bathroom at my real house, haha!

I had seen online somewhere that another person used cloud flooring and covered the floor with rugs to give the appearance of a steamy kind of spa atmosphere. I love that so I replicated that in this space with the white faux decking rugs. I think it gives it a little extra pizzazz opposed to just using regular flooring! I think the bathroom is one of the only spaces in my house/island that doesn’t have any pink in it. I really wanted a relaxing atmosphere and just couldn’t make the pink work. Oh well, not every space has to be themed, right?

I think the final room I have to show today is much more in line with the rest of my island- my cute Sanrio room! This room previously was my gaming room in the back but I ended up having too many pieces for that room for such a small space. So I decided to move that room to the basement where it could be almost twice the size and decided to build a simple guest bedroom area with the new (well, it was new when I made it, haha) Sanrio items that came out this year.

I kind of mixed and matched all of these- there’s some Kiki and Lala, some Cinnamoroll, and some My Melody items. They all sort of match or are just generally fun so I thought why not throw them together! I also added an “umbrella illusion” Cinnamoroll dog house that was a big trend online a month or two ago. I was surprised by how good it looked, I think it even holds up from multiple angles. I’m glad I added it in. My Sanrio room is a simple space, but it makes me happy.

So there you have it- this concludes the tour of my kitchen, bathroom, and new Sanrio room. I think my bedroom and game room are my favorites so I’ll save those for next time. My house might not be the fanciest, but I think it’s still very cute. I’m actually preparing to move within the next year or so and I’m hoping I can sneak a few things from my ACNH house into my IRL house- how fun would that be? I hope everyone enjoyed this peak at my rep’s house!
​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Cinnamoroll Umbrella House: MA-6138-6687-7610

Shower Stall: MA-6430-8168-5395

 

[Pintuition]

Like many people, I really leaned into gaming in 2020 while under quarantine. Like ridiculously hard. Because of that I decided that my rep would probably do the same with lots of time to spend on the island. So the basement gamer cave was born! But with a twist- everything is pink and cute!

Originally this room was where my Sanrio room is now but I quickly outstripped the space. It was so tiny before! I wanted to create a room where I could blend a lot of my IRL interests into one space. So I have a little relaxing TV area (probably to watch anime lol) next to a little craft area for painting and lots of art projects. Of course I had to put a gaming setup in there as well! This space is probably the most “me” and personalized out of all of the rooms- many of the things in here are items I have and use regularly- like my switch!

I don’t currently have a big setup but I do have a gaming laptop that is quite nice! But in my ACNH fantasy world I gave myself a nicer PC. I wanted to show that I tend to do multiple things at once so on one I’m scrolling through Discord and on the other I’m organizing my 18542901 ACNH screenshots on my desktop, lol. I keep thinking one of these days I’ll make a little mockup of TBT so it can look more realistic, haha! Either way, this is totally my little geeky space!

Of course nearby is my switch, which is an exact match for the one I have IRL. A friend actually sent me the coral color variant of the Switch Lite- I couldn’t for the life of me get the game to give me anything other than turquoise or yellow! I love that when you interact with it that the little Nintendo screen comes up- so cute! I hope someday they’ll let us use them for mini games or something fun. Probably not, but I can dream!!

I tried to make that corner my little technology area- with a phone, a typewriter, and a stereo, all of which would stay in storage forever if I didn’t use them. A lot of the pieces in this room are just that- items bunched together that I wouldn’t use without having this type of area. If I’m honest, I have one of these catch-all rooms IRL and it looks a lot like that space- a controlled mess, haha.

On the other side of the room I have my more artsy and relaxing type stuff like a little area for painting. I imagine that my rep “paints” all of the custom designs I use on my island. It looks like she’s currently working on our flag! Nearby there is a nail painting area and even a little space to relax and watch TV.

I think my favorite part of this room is something that you really have to know to look for- my “Wall of Fame”. I hung posters of all of my past residents on the left side of the door- basically anyone who no longer lives on Coral Key, but has in the past. Thankfully I’ve collected posters from everyone before letting them leave! In the center I display some of the villager photos I've collected. On the right I display portraits of my current villagers. Well, current up until Vladimir’s recent move- I didn’t even realize I hadn’t moved his over for Chrissy’s yet. Construction never ends!

I hope you enjoyed the post on my games room basement area, I love this space in my home a lot. Definitely more personalized. And I love getting to display and pay homage to all of my past friends who have stayed on the island. Next journal update I get to talk about the final and my favorite room, my cherry blossom bedroom. So exciting!!​

 

[Pintuition]

At last, the house tour comes to an end. I was really hoping to post this sooner but my IRL health issues have been preventing me from doing so. Apologies for finishing the final room in the tour so late! I figured I'd still post it anyway- better late than never, right?

This final room is my favorite- I’d totally love for this to be my IRL bedroom! Mine, sadly, is a quarter of the size and terribly messy. I wanted the top floor of my house to be the main bedroom because of the larger size- it feels like the largest room aside from the basement and the living room area. And besides, right after my last upgrade this was the room I placed my starting cot in. Ah, the memories!

I really wanted a place I could use a lot of the cherry blossom items in. That is my favorite set in the game! I had so many friends come over and help me craft them all. I started my island last year one of the last days of cherry blossom season so I didn’t get a chance to collect all of the recipes until this year. I think I actually traded for most of them here on TBT- so that makes using those items feel extra special!

I knew last year when I completed the wedding event that I also wanted a space to put the white chapel style wall in and some more of the wedding items like the floral swags too. I tried to balance it out to make it look less like a chapel and more like a cool loft in an old building or something. I tried, haha! I just couldn't resist that soft pink glow from the stained glass! Hope it doesn't look too wedding-y!

One of the ways I tried to combat that was by leaning into the boho look or shabby chic kind of vibe with the rest of the items in the room. I had previously downloaded the bed’s custom design to customize a stall for my garden but I thought the green looked so pretty with all of the pinks that I had to keep it. I stole the idea to turn that stall into a bed canopy after seeing someone else do it online. Regrettably I did not record their information or I would share it in this post.

I thought the Celeste items also kind of helped diffuse the wedding decor and cherry blossom items to add a bit of whimsy and light to the space. I am really happy with the way I was able to merge so many different sets of furniture into one space.

Overall I wanted this room to feel classy but not too stuffy. I wanted a place for my rep to relax, a place for jewelry, etc. Essentially I wanted to create a cute space that could still be livable for someone. I know I’d definitely want to spend time resting in this cute girly room!

That’s all folks! So sorry for the short post but I figured a short post would be better than nothing! I am hoping to save my strength to make some big changes on my island when the update comes out. You can bet I’ll be trying to post about here when it drops!​

 

[Pintuition]

The big 2.0 update is finally here!! And it came a whole day early! I think every friend I have on planet earth dm’d me this past Thursday to say the update dropped a day earlier than planned. It’s crazy how it’s bringing the old gang back together like the early days of the game’s release last year. It made me oddly nostalgic for that time but also extremely happy that we have new frontiers to explore in the game!

I honestly don’t even know where to start- one thing’s for sure I’m going to have to separate things into separate posts. I think I’ll start with the things I tried first- Kapp’n, Harvey’s shopping area, home upgrades, and nook mile stuff. Fair warning- if you choose to read on certain aspects of the game may be spoiled for you. I’ve tried to wait a few days so most people should be beyond this point by now. So let’s get into it…

The day started with a never-ending announcement from Isabelle- seriously so much to say. Poor thing! After that ended, the first thing I did was run right to Resident Services to start buying upgrades. Boy, am I glad I saved and hoarded my Nook Miles- I had about 230k of them and whittled it down to 170k in just the first day that the update came out. That was nuts!

I have to admit, having to stand there for like 20 minutes just to buy the necessary upgrades was kind of a buzzkill. I just wanted to get going and it seemed like it took forever. All this new content and they still can’t update their menus? Oh well!

When I bought all the upgrades I went through and checked out all they had to offer for new Nook Mile items. To my delight they had more items that were suitable for my outdoor boardwalk/Carnival area. I bought as many as I could on the first day. I also went for the ABD- I can’t wait to put it in my shopping district. I virtually hemorrhaged Nook Miles at that point and freaked myself out and had to step away- I wanted to make sure I had enough miles left for Kapp’n runs!

After this I talked to Isabelle and enacted the Early Bird Ordinance so my shops and villagers will be more active during the mornings when I’m more apt to play. This will be a huge help and I won’t have to time travel to open my shops early anymore. Yay! I also sprung for the first storage upgrade for my house. At this point I noticed I only had like a million bells left and panicked. I ended up buying some with TBT on the forum- thank goodness for kind folks who run shops here on TBT, I’d be broke without you!!

Knowing I’d get more bells later in the week, next I excitedly checked out my shops but was disappointed with nothing new. Nothing new on Nook Shopping either. Boo! I was so jealous of my friends who had a bunch of cool new items. I didn’t mind, though. I know I’ll collect everything I’m after eventually! Besides, I did see there were new DIYs to purchase. I bought the cooking recipes and permanent ladder recipes straight away. I was too excited to check out other things to make them though, haha!

I decided to go to Harvey’s next. I was happy that I spoke to some friends beforehand and knew I wanted to bring some money to open up a shop on the first day. After checking out all of the potential options I decided to go with Reese and Cyrus’ shop first. The thought of being able to customize previously uncustomizable options was too tempting. I can’t wait until everyone is unlocked and the little shopping compound is complete!

I headed back and ended up doing something wrong- if you even can call it that. I went for an adventure with Kapp’n. I loved his song- the whole boating experience was great. He brought me to an island with my native fruit and I poked around it for a while, taking home loads of resources and a gyroid fragment for planting back home.

Why was this a mistake you ask? I cost myself a day of unlocking the cafe. You see, I decided to go to see Kapp’n without first talking to Blathers. I had no idea the cafe would be dependent on seeing Blathers first. So I was unable to get the unlocking process going on the first day. I was kind of crushed so I decided to time travel to the next day.

Whoa, whoa, whoa- that’s a lot of new stuff don’t you think? Better slow my roll and cut my story here for the day. I think for my next post I’ll share about unlocking the cafe, meeting Brewster, and trying out new items and camera modes. See you then!!​

 

[Pintuition]

So sorry this little update has come so late. Once I got immersed into redoing my island I completely forgot that I was going to do an update about Brewster. So here goes…

Last time I said I made a mistake in that I didn’t visit Blathers before going on my first Kapp’n tour. Fortunately the next day I ran straight to Blathers and he asked me to find Brewster. I was afraid I had messed things up for good! But fortunately Brewster was found safe and sound on a mystery tour.

I was jealous of everyone having Brewster before me so I time travelled a few days to get the cafe open a bit faster. I was so excited for my first cup! Brewster has been a long time coming- I never thought I’d see the day!

In the days since the cafe opened I’ve been delighted to find both my villagers and the NPCs occasionally visit. I almost lost my mind when I saw Isabelle visit- they finally let her out of resident services!! I think my favorite visitor so far has actually been Blathers. His relationship with Brewster is beyond cute. When I discovered the little photo of them on the cafe wall I nearly cried.

I didn’t know until a few days in that Brewster would give you rewards for buying cups of coffee. After I got my first reward I looked it up online and I was shocked that he had rewards all the way up to 50 cups. Then I saw it in all its caffeinated glory…..the brewstoid. Smol bean birdie baby would be MINE.

I wasn’t positive whether or not the events were consecutive, meaning I couldn’t miss a day of playing, or just after 50 cups. Back in November there wasn’t a lot out there about it bar the folks that time travelled to get it. I decided to take it day by day and grab a cup every single day. About halfway through this process I started to redo my island so I was starting to time travel. I still played each day, just some days I’d play a few days worth at a time. I was so glad that in the end I kept getting the rewards and ended up securing the best boy! I am currently building an outdoor cafe so I’m planning on having him live there.

Since finishing Brewster’s rewards I still love to pop in for a cup or a coffee to go. They’ve been my tree-chopping fuel some days! I also have visited friends and had a cup or two together. It’s so fun to get to sit at the tables and share a cup with visitors. I think we’ll be doing this for months/years to come on island visits!

So that’s pretty much it for the Brewster portion of the update. Next time I’d like to talk about my experience with the DLC, especially since I’ve “completed” 30 homes now and I’ve kind of reached the endgame with that. This whole time period from November up until now has been a joy. I’ve been playing loads more and enjoying it more than I have in a long time. I’m super glad this update came out when it did- it really saved the game for me. I’m not sure how long it will last but I’m into it for now!

 

[Pintuition]

Since I’ve had a couple of months to try things out I thought I’d also do a post discussing how things have been going with the new Happy Home Paradise DLC that was added to ACNH in November. It was something I saved for a few weeks so I could enjoy other new aspects of the game like unlocking the shops at Harv’s and setting up the cafe. I’ll be discussing my impressions of the DLC in great detail so if you don’t want to get spoiled please stop reading here!

I think the DLC was something I was probably the most excited for when it was released. I preordered it for both of my islands right away. I was so excited that so many new items were getting added to the game. I had never played HHD in the past so I didn’t really know what to expect, though. Just the thought of having something else to do was kind of thrilling!

After I played the regular update for a week or so I decided to finally fly to work for the first time. I really enjoyed the little cutscene trailer that they played! I, like everyone else, had Eloise as my first client and I really enjoyed making her a reading nook. The only thing I didn’t like at the time and I remember bothered me as I made more homes was that you unlocked things over time. While that is great and leaves things to look forward to, I’ve just been forced to make like 20-30 subpar houses without critical things like counters, roommates, or the ability to add a second floor. I think some of these features should have been available from the get-go.

Another thing I discovered very late was the multifunctionality of the upstairs stock room. I knew you could go there to get changed into your work uniform and that there was a crafting table, but I only stumbled across Niko’s DIY box by accident. I also didn’t find out about the dresser that you can access your home storage from until way later. I’m not sure if I wasn’t paying attention well enough or what but I did bring it up to a group of friends who played and only about half knew about it either. Made me kind of feel like I missed out, especially since other counter/pillar options would have been nice to include in the dozens of homes I’d already had made.

That said, I had an absolute blast spending like an hour at a time designing homes for all of my favorite villagers. At first I was picky about who I’d make a home for but I found I was making more interesting homes for villagers I had never heard of or actively disliked. It was great to see a bunch of familiar faces, too, like Mint and Katt who were previous Coral Key residents.

I really did appreciate the number of islands/ settings they provided for us. I was especially interested in the desert and the icy tundra islands as these aren’t really options for our main island. Changing seasons and times of day was also super cool! I had as much of a blast doing the outsides of villager homes as the insides.

Not long after I started I began unlocking the buildings on the island. I made the cafe and clothing store to match my pink main island but modeled the restaurant after the 90s family style Italian eateries I grew up with. The hospital was fun to make as well- I especially appreciated the additional upgrade to a patient wing upstairs. I just unlocked the gallery for the cafe as well. I’ve finished 30+ homes and the game continues to surprise me with features I didn’t know were on the horizon.

I love the KK concert you get when you finish the DLC. I nearly died when I saw him on a floating island. I made everyone from Paradise Planning join me on the beach in turn. All of the partying villagers were too cute- I’m glad it repeats every week!

Honestly I think the #1 thing I enjoyed besides the new items were the “new” characters added to the game. Wardell is a darling and I love him so much. I love it when he calls you his friend, he is so wholesome. I usually visit him and talk to him at Paradise Planning even though I may not need to buy anything that day.

I could probably say 100 more things about Paradise Planning and the new DLC but I think I’ll end on a high note. While I have some mixed feelings about it, on the whole I’m really enjoying Happy Home Paradise. And with access to a boatload of new items I have some interesting news about Coral Key coming soon. We may just see a “2.0” version of Coral Key as well!!​