✧ life on Lenù...

[river]

11.11.2020

Hello, hello!

Yes, it's been a while again... I hope someone out there is already feeling a bit nostalgic about Halloween because today I thought I'd share some memories from that since I didn't have time to do that earlier.

Let's call it a ~throwback~ lol

Halloween is such a special event in Animal Crossing, and New Horizons didn't disappoint with it, that theme song really brings me back...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1323053675372179457

I still miss getting to scare the villagers with specific masks and all, but seeing them causing mischief around town with they're little costumes is just... unbelievably cute.

I mean, just look at Ruby. She's perfect ♥

Other highlights include Kiki, reigning Halloween Queen, if you ask me, and Eunice prioritizing cute over spooky like the fashionista she is.

Looking back now I didn't even take that many good screenshots, but I guess that was because I was having a lot of fun with playing the event... I have to say, this was the most fun I've had with any events on New Horizons so far. The colors, the mood, the music, the little details, it all came together very well.

Already excited for Toy Day though!

 

[river]

27.11.2020

Afternoon, you!

Early this morning we had our first snowfall in Lenù... Fall seems to be wrapping up so I figured I better stop procrastinating posting my screenshots from the season here.

Two things that I've only actually experienced through media: beautiful red, orange and yellow forests and snow... Where I'm at autumn and winter mostly consist of random cloudy and rainy days and the ocasional irrationally freezing week or two.

The funny thing too is that, even though I get that the northern hemisphere is supposed to be chilly right now, since in real life the days are sunny and warm, I sometimes forget to dress up my island rep. in winter clothes! Funny how the brain works haha

I considered having a southern island to avoid that, but honestly the season change so much around here it doesn't really make that big of a difference most of the time. Plus, I can't resist a good snowy holiday season fantasy... A girl can dream right?

Anyways, here are some scenes from the last couple of weeks in Lenù...

Now, I don't want to jinx it, but... Maybe... Just maybe... I'm getting closer to getting the island ready enough to post a Dream Address

I know, I know... I'm probably gonna regret saying this right now. But the terraforming and layout I'm at right now I'm really happy with, so even if it's not 100% done it might be presentable soon... We'll see...

The fall colors really made all the Possum Springs inspired details stand out, and I'm really enjoying that connection... I think it's time for a replay of that game...

Here's another homage I made with Kiki and Chief btw

The top left pic, Chief's house, there's this little headstone that a reference to one of the neighborhood streets near Mae's house, and on the bottom left there's my Ol'Pickaxe area (though you probably can't read the custom sign I made...).

My museum area also sort of became a Night in The Woods reference, though I took some creative liberties with that one lol

I made it out to be like the Historical Society, an abandoned, mysterious building deep within the woods...

Basically some good, old, haunted house vibes is what I was going for.

This here is my favorite bit of terraforming on the whole island. This big footprint wasn't my idea, I definitely saw this either on Reddit or Twitter, but I couldn't find the original creator anywhere so I recreated it from memory and I love it so much

I love it when people have these kinds of terraforming creations you can just look at and admire... Maybe someday I'll come up with something original like that lol

Finally, some snapshots from yesterdays Turkey Day celebration

Another ridiculously cute event that actually made me go diving for the first time in months, so I even ended up with some new stuff for the museum as a bonus lol

Oof this was a lot haha

As always, thank you so much for reading. Can't wait to post some snowy pics soon!

Goodbye from me, the gang and our new incline!

 

[corvus516]

The palette of the grass and trees in autumn suit your town so well!
Small plazas with fountains, benches, and stone flooring look amazing in any town theme, but especially with more rustic based islands.
The picture in one of your first few posts of the museum during the thunderstorm is genuinely beautiful with such good composition.
I can't wait to see what your island looks like when snow starts to fall! Will you be changing anything to fit a more wintry theme?

 

[river]

The palette of the grass and trees in autumn suit your town so well!
Small plazas with fountains, benches, and stone flooring look amazing in any town theme, but especially with more rustic based islands.
The picture in one of your first few posts of the museum during the thunderstorm is genuinely beautiful with such good composition.
I can't wait to see what your island looks like when snow starts to fall! Will you be changing anything to fit a more wintry theme?

Thank you! This is such a sweet comment ♥

I remember the museum photo! Fun to think of how many times I've changed the area around it over the months... Those summer storms were really beautiful too.

I'm actually kinda worried that after the seasons change my color palette won't work as well as it does now...
I'm excited about winter but it all looks so perfect with the red trees and the yellow grass I don't think I ever wanna leave fall haha

I'll have to wait and see the island covered in snow to figure out what I have to change, I hope it's not too much though! If I have to breed any more hybrids it will be the end of me I definitely will try to put some decorations up too, but I'm so bad at collecting DIYs that that might take a while...

 

[radiical]

I cannot WAIT to explore your town whenever it's ready!! I am so inspired by your last post, your town's general aesthetic is so wonderful and I love all the important references you've managed to sneak in while still making it cohesive. It makes me want to play Night in the Woods myself, I remember watching a playthrough of it but it must be really special if it's influenced you as much as it has

Also, yeah I relate a lot about worrying about how the color palette will translate over to winter, seems like we have similar flower combinations going on and both of our towns are suited pretty well for fall. Looking forward to seeing how you'll end up handling it (and I'll probably take inspiration from that as well, lol!). Loosely defined rustic fall towns will overcome this hardship

 

[river]

I cannot WAIT to explore your town whenever it's ready!! I am so inspired by your last post, your town's general aesthetic is so wonderful and I love all the important references you've managed to sneak in while still making it cohesive. It makes me want to play Night in the Woods myself, I remember watching a playthrough of it but it must be really special if it's influenced you as much as it has

Also, yeah I relate a lot about worrying about how the color palette will translate over to winter, seems like we have similar flower combinations going on and both of our towns are suited pretty well for fall. Looking forward to seeing how you'll end up handling it (and I'll probably take inspiration from that as well, lol!). Loosely defined rustic fall towns will overcome this hardship

hi radiical! So glad you got some inspiration from the post!

I was actually pretty inspired by the rustic vibes on your island and your use of red and yellow flowers when I decided to lean into that color palette! We might suffer a bit once the green grass comes back and all the trees turn pink but we'll get through it together haha

Also you should totally play Night in The Woods, I'm obviously a bit biased lol, but it's a wonderful, beautifully designed game that's also funny and sentimental, which I think is why it stuck so much with me.

I hope I can gather the strength soon to finish the island and put up my DA!

 

[river]

01.12.2020

Hello!

Today I thought I'd write something here since I just finished updating my introduction posts...

Now that my ~island life~ is settling down, the terraforming work is coming together and this dreadful year is reaching it's end I figured I should have the opening pages of this journal reflect that sense of acceptance I'm feeling.

I made a little Lenù postcard where I plan on placing my DA once I get one, finally added a nicer version of my map and made a little yearbook page to celebrate all the dreamies I managed to find this year. To make that, I took all of them to Harvey's and took their portraits, so that's what I'm gonna drop down here.

They turned out a lot cuter than I ever expected them to, so enjoy!

​

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[just-kidding]

Woah, I love how you set this up, now I want to try this myself

 

[river]

Woah, I love how you set this up, now I want to try this myself

thank you! ♥

this means a lot, you should absolutely try it yourself! it's so much fun

 

[just-kidding]

Sure, what kind of software do you use to make these pictures?

 

[river]

Sure, what kind of software do you use to make these pictures?

I made them with the drawing tool from Google Drive!

I take the screenshots from the game, then cut them in that portrait shape and add the white frame which I took from a different screenshot. There's probably an easier way to do it but that's how I did mine haha

 

[An0nn]

I spy Tasha Congratulations on finding her! She looks so at home in Lenù, her color scheme matches so well. The new intro post looks great, I need to redo mine too. Right now I have several "reserved" posts that aren't actually "reserved" for anything in particular.

And I can not wait until you upload the DA! I love every single picture I have ever seen of your island and I am dying to explore it myself. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out

I can relate to the season change not meshing well with decor worries. My favorite flowers in the game are probably the black tulips. They looked awesome during the early fall, but I'm not sure they're going to work as well during the summer months when everything is much more vibrant.

 

[river]

I spy Tasha Congratulations on finding her! She looks so at home in Lenù, her color scheme matches so well. The new intro post looks great, I need to redo mine too. Right now I have several "reserved" posts that aren't actually "reserved" for anything in particular.

And I can not wait until you upload the DA! I love every single picture I have ever seen of your island and I am dying to explore it myself. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out

Thanks An0nn ♥ It means a lot, I'm really trying to push through and finish enough of the island before the end of the year, and the thought of sharing it with everyone here is what's keeping me determined to do it!

And yes, I couldn't resist Tasha After seeing her for myself when I visited your da I knew I needed to get her in my town asap! haha
She's so gorgeous and I love her colors, she's quickly becoming one of my favorites

 

[river]

06.12.2020

Another sleepy Sunday in Lenù...

At this point I'm just patiently waiting for snowy season to arrive. I quite like the brown trees and the light grass at the moment, and I know I'll probably get sick of the neverending whiteness of winter pretty quickly, but I'm so excited for the whole island to change... I can't wait to see how everything will look.

I can already hear the cheery music variations for when it's snowing...

I have a feeling Erik's pretty excited for the holidays too!

Gifting warm and cute clothes to everyone around town has been one of my favorite activities lately. All the sweaters have so many variations, and even though buying each of them at Able's is kind of a pain, I've been doing that every time I see something new.

Here's a few of my favorite looks so far:

They don't always keep the clothes on but they do try it on in front of me like the polite neighbors they are and that's really what counts ♥

Sometimes I get it right though. Ruby seems to love anything pink I get her, and Erik and Kiki have been wearing the matching Christmas Tree sweaters I got them.

I always get so emotional and sooo needy at the end of the year, and especially now that I can't see my family and friends I've been really relying on this game to satisfy my gift-giving needs lol

The holiday cuteness is much appreciated here

Lastly, I noticed it's been a while since I posted some of my random designs...

I haven't really made a lot of new things the past couple of months, but during the height of fall I did start missing some of my favorite New Leaf sweaters that unfortunately didn't make it through to New Horizons. I'm talking folk shirt, deer shirt, gaudy dress, aurora knit, earthy knit, spunky knit shirt, all the good old Able Sister's designs.

So far I've made two of my favorite items from the late great Gracie Grace.
Gosh do I miss that rude giraffe Let's hope this is enough manifesting so that she'll eventually show up in a future update

The first one I did is this unique, very ~fashionable~ Tacky Sweater! One of my all time faves ♥

MO-Q9K5-G4B4-SGK0

And the latest one is this super cute 'dogtooth' dress, which I wish I could wear irl lol

I debated making it a coat for the long sleeves, but I have so many coat designs already and only a few dress ones, I think it looks pretty either way anyway. Though the choice to remove the options to customize sleeve length on any design shape from NL to NH is beyond me,... NINTENDO.

MO-TM1G-04KG-04SX

So yeah,

I'm just a girl,
standing in front of her Switch,
asking it to please cover her Animal Crossing island in beautiful dreamy snow ASAP

Thank you so much for reading, I leave you know with a cute Kiki moment from this past week ♥

(where's everyone around town getting these bowls of soup from? Is Franklin still around? Give. Me. The leftovers, turkey!!! )

Bye!

 

[eseamir]

I love your island!! I have no idea how you've made the in game paths look good but you've managed to somehow haha I love all of the p&p inspired clothes you've got, that's one of my favourite films (based on my favourite book)!

 

[river]

I love your island!! I have no idea how you've made the in game paths look good but you've managed to somehow haha I love all of the p&p inspired clothes you've got, that's one of my favourite films (based on my favourite book)!

Thank you so much!!! ♥♥♥

I love custom paths but I would miss the tip-tap sound the game paths make so I learned to work with them haha

I'm so glad you like the Pride and Prejudice designs! They were the first ones I ever made.
It's also one of my all time favorite movies, I probably rewatched it at least three or four times during quarantine... It's such a relaxing, beautiful film

 

[river]

08.12.2020

Good morning!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1336276978811301889

Can you tell I'm almost in holiday mode already? I mean, three posts in eight days, that's pretty impressive if you ask me.

I'm actually still wrapping up the semester, but I've been able to work on most of my final papers in advance so I've allowed myself to have some more relaxed days these past couple of weeks.

First I wanted to do a quick update on a new area I added yesterday.

Well, technically it's not really a ~new area, per se. If you look back on this journal you might find pictures of a little bakery inspired by the movie Kiki's Delivery Service. It was one of the earliest areas I wanted to make on the island.

I still love it and think it turned out really cute, but I was also itching for a change. So I kept the general concept but updated it to resemble a little italian restaurant called “Pastabilities”.

Yes, yes, for those “in the know” that is another Night in The Woods reference...

I can't help it! I truly cannot stop thinking about that game!

Also, “Pastabilities” is an inherently great name for an italian restaurant. That's just a fact.

I really like how it turned out, maybe even more so than the bakery before. I think it fits in with the rest of the town's personality a lot better. But maybe that's just the Mae Borowski in me speaking...

Now coming back to that title screen scene from the beginning of the post, that's Erik's new cottage. Yes... I moved his house again...

I've been making a little neighborhood on the northern part of the island where I plan on relocating my home, so I thought I'd bring my two favorites, Kiki and Erik, to live nearby too. Plus, I always intended him to live close to the campsite and up on a hill or something like that, so I quite like this different vibe I got for him. Now Erik can say he went from living near the beach, to within the forest to up on a mountain!

We'll have to see how long until I starting thinking that area's not good enough for him again lol

Will anything ever be?

In other Erik news, he said the weirdest thing to me the other day...

I've joked around before about wanting my island to be a bit mysterious, as if there where strange things hiding in the woods, but I did not mean this at all.

Erik, sweetie, what are you talking about???

We comment a lot on how the villager dialogue seems to get less and less interesting with each game in the series, but I find it so funny that Nintendo decided to add so many ominous comments from the lazy villagers.

I'm sure you might've heard about the “night clowns” when kicking a lazy though a campsite visitor, or maybe you've even had that strange conversation about the whole world being a simulation from them...

They're either scarily conspiratorial or oddly perceptive...

Ether way, I must find out more about Islandbeast.

What is it?
Where does it live?
Has it been here before us all?
Why does it come out during full moons?
Where did it learn to play the ukelele?

Questions we'll probably never be able to fully answer... But me? I want to believe.

So I say goodbye for now with one more little souvenir from Lenù ♥

I'll see you soon. And remember...

under the full moon...

beware the Islandbeast!

 

[Bluebellie]

Hi, do you have a dream address?

 

[river]

Hi, do you have a dream address?

aw that's sweet of you to ask! I don't though... yet... haha

 

[Bluebellie]

aw that's sweet of you to ask! I don't though... yet... haha

I’ll keep lurking then.
I’d love to visit when you have one
It looks like Beautiful island from the pictures.