Muir Wood 🌲

[Seelie]

welcome to
Muir Wood

a five star northern hemisphere island

01. Introduction



Hi all! Welcome to the Muir Woods island journal -- where I mostly plan on just posting a bunch of pictures and rambling about Animal Crossing. Like seriously I have no plans other than that I thought it was about time I set something up here, given how much I've enjoyed reading through other people's island journals.

Please feel free to leave comments! I'd love to hear from you. ​

 

[Seelie]

02. Island Representative

Just one extremely stressed human trying to live her best life on an island full of debt and cute animals. Loves fall aesthetics and would live her life in comfy sweaters if her villagers didn't make fun of her in the summer.

As you can tell by the passport, Muir Wood is actually my second island. I reset on September 7th, looking for an island with a Resident Services plaza aligned properly to the airport, and got one in a surprisingly short amount of time. (I think it took me longer to run back and forth repeatedly between the airport and Tom Nook to be extra sure than it did to do the actual resetting.)
​

 

[Seelie]

03. Villagers



current villagers

deirdre | fauna | beau | shep | butch

genji | ruby | purrl | kiki | dom

My current villager lineup may very well be my final. Deirdre, Fauna, and Beau have been with me since the start, or close to -- Deirdre founded Muir Wood with me, and Fauna and Beau came along not long after. I have moved Deirdre and Beau out and back in again to get their houses upgraded, and plan to do the same for Fauna, but otherwise, they aren't going anywhere.

Shep and Butch are living their best life on a farm together. I may or may not ship them.

Genji, Ruby, Purrl, and Kiki were villagers I wasn't originally sold on, but picked up to try them out. I got extremely attached. Especially to Kiki and her smooshed nose and her big yellow eyes. Ugh, my heart.

Dom was (and is) my favorite villager on my old island, and the only one I was afraid of not being able to find again. In the end, I wimped out on hunting for him on Mystery Islands and found somebody selling him, ungifted, on the black market. Sorry, but only a little.



past villagers

sheldon | nibbles | quillson

Sheldon was my starting jock. Sheldon and I had some beef on my old island, where he somehow managed to turn up as my forced campsite villager despite definitely not being smug. I shook my fist at the skies when he showed up at the airport with me, but dispatched of him as quickly as possible.

Nibbles was my first peppy villager. I accidentally chatted to Tom Nook after setting up the plots before I got to go hunting for a peppy, although I'd already found Fauna and Beau at that point, and the plot was auto-filled with Nibbles. She's actually pretty cute? But she didn't fit my "natural colors" aesthetic at all, so she too was kicked out. More gently than Sheldon, though.

Quillson was my forced smug campsite villager. Quillson and I did not get along. ​

 

[Seelie]

04. Island Map



october 14, 2020

september 7, 2020
starting map

I miss that little heart-shaped pond, but we've come a long way. ​

 

[Seelie]

05. The House



a. the foyer

An Asian-inspired and fairly minimalist room for welcoming guests. There's a crafting bench right next to the door for crafting Yet Another fishing pole or net or shovel when mine inevitably break at the worst possible times.



b. the study

Where we do all the stressful calculations about how many oranges I can buy to feed myself and my family when I'm a million bells in debt to a tanuki. (There's another stack of documents on the other side of the desk -- those are the ones that haven't gotten hurled all over the floor in rage yet.)



c. the kitchen

Bright and simple and full of endless cake. It's probably stale by now.

(I'm really, really hoping that the November update brings more food so that I can stuff more of it into my kitchen.)



d. the rec room

Like the study, but for comfy things instead of stressful things. This is also where my collection of villager photos go. I did transfer over all of my old villagers' photos from my previous island; it's nice to have something of that island with me even though it was banished into oblivion.

Dom's photo has a place of honor above the fireplace for good reason.



e. the master bedroom

Sort of a WIP (maybe?). I got tired of having a separate bathroom taking up an entire room, so I'm working on organizing a bathroom into the bedroom, but it's currently kind of awkward. Maybe it's because the toilet is the brightest thing in the room, like a porcelain beacon.



f. the guest bedroom

This one's definitely a WIP, and is what used to be the bathroom. (It's dark because, um, there are no guests. There are never guests.) Like the master bedroom, it's partitioned into a bedroom and a bathroom. I'd like to swap out the white rattan low table for a mermaid table, and maybe replace the wallpaper and flooring, but I'm quite happy with how it's coming along. Surely this is maximum gaudy & no longer needs additional mermaid items --

It's 100% the gaudiest room in the house and that's Fine, okay. ​

 

[GothiqueBat]

The way you've written this out is just , I think this is my favourite Journal I've read yet. Will defiantly watch this thread

Also the rooms you designed look amazing!!

 

[Seelie]

The way you've written this out is just , I think this is my favourite Journal I've read yet. Will defiantly watch this thread

Also the rooms you designed look amazing!!

Aw, thanks so much, that's so kind of you to say! I hope you enjoy my future rambling!

 

[Seelie]

october 15, 2020



Happy October 15th, everyone! I hope you guys are as excited about Halloween as I am!

Since this island journal is still super new, I figured starting with some Random Screenshots TM wouldn't hurt -- sort of an intro to the island in bits & pieces. Especially since I didn't accomplish a lot of visible changes today. The one thing I did accomplish was burying 6 fossils around my island -- a few on the beaches in pirate-y areas, a few hidden behind a cliff -- so that they'll stop spawning and I won't have to hunt around the island every single day for them. Minimal effort for maximum laziness.

I also updated two of the rooms in my house (the master bedroom & the guest room). Those pictures have been updated in the post above, if you're curious about those changes, although they are fairly minimal.

Above we have Beau getting his horns stuck in a tree in the middle of the shopping center. Beau, please control yourself, this isn't dignified.

Beau absolutely refusing to stay out of the camera in front of a small lucky cat shrine. Theoretically, this is where I'd beg the lucky cats to bless me before villager hunts, buuut realistically I haven't done one of those in ages, so mostly I beg the lucky cats for good NPCs and new updates. Gullivarr washed up on the beach today, so I suppose it's working alright.

Since I mentioned that Shep and Butch live on a farm together, here's the photo evidence: This is Shep's house complete with his very organized pumpkin patch (and Butch's house peeking out in the right side there). The pumpkin patch will eventually become a general vegetable garden, assuming that we, you know, get vegetables, but hopes are high.

If we don't have more vegetables after the Thanksgiving update, though, hopes might be real low.

And Butch's house, closer. He has an orchard behind him (the cherry tree to the left of his house is the front of it), a little campfire area to the right, and a lumberjack kind of area to the left that isn't visible. In my head, the farm is pretty much one entity that Shep and Butch run together, wherein Shep is the city-slicker sheepdog that never met an actual sheep in his life and Butch is a literal cowboy -- seriously, have you seen the inside of his house -- and there's, y'know, wholesome farming shenanigans. Your standard romcom adventure.

What? They're cute.

Wrapping up with everybody's standard stargazing area, ft. Many Ducks (that you know would poop everywhere in real life) and lilies of the valley (huge flex, I know).

Honestly I really like this area, but I'm a little disappointed that Celeste will probably never spawn in the little island in the middle, and there isn't really any way for me to shove her around the island until she gets there. Not that I'd shove her around the island anyway. That would be rude.



A side note: You can really tell in the above pictures why my island map has these tiny scattered single squares of pathing all over it -- it's because I like how the dark dirt pathing looks under flowers. I feel like it's such a letdown because they look so intricate and detailed on the map when actually I splatted dirt down at random and slapped a wrinkled flower on top. But, well, here we are. ​

 

[peachycrossing9]

03. Villagers



current villagers

deirdre | fauna | beau | shep | butch

genji | ruby | purrl | kiki | dom

My current villager lineup may very well be my final. Deirdre, Fauna, and Beau have been with me since the start, or close to -- Deirdre founded Muir Wood with me, and Fauna and Beau came along not long after. I have moved Deirdre and Beau out and back in again to get their houses upgraded, and plan to do the same for Fauna, but otherwise, they aren't going anywhere.

Shep and Butch are living their best life on a farm together. I may or may not ship them.

Genji, Ruby, Purrl, and Kiki were villagers I wasn't originally sold on, but picked up to try them out. I got extremely attached. Especially to Kiki and her smooshed nose and her big yellow eyes. Ugh, my heart.

Dom was (and is) my favorite villager on my old island, and the only one I was afraid of not being able to find again. In the end, I wimped out on hunting for him on Mystery Islands and found somebody selling him, ungifted, on the black market. Sorry, but only a little.



past villagers

sheldon | nibbles | quillson

Sheldon was my starting jock. Sheldon and I had some beef on my old island, where he somehow managed to turn up as my forced campsite villager despite definitely not being smug. I shook my fist at the skies when he showed up at the airport with me, but dispatched of him as quickly as possible.

Nibbles was my first peppy villager. I accidentally chatted to Tom Nook after setting up the plots before I got to go hunting for a peppy, although I'd already found Fauna and Beau at that point, and the plot was auto-filled with Nibbles. She's actually pretty cute? But she didn't fit my "natural colors" aesthetic at all, so she too was kicked out. More gently than Sheldon, though.

Quillson was my forced smug campsite villager. Quillson and I did not get along. ​

Love this so far! Going to keep up with this for sure.

May I ask where you found those little images of your villagers? They are so cute and I have being wanting to use them for ages xD

 

[Seelie]

Love this so far! Going to keep up with this for sure.

May I ask where you found those little images of your villagers? They are so cute and I have being wanting to use them for ages xD

Thank you! And of course. All villagers up to New Leaf are here, and the New Horizons villagers are here. Enjoy!

 

[Seelie]

october 18, 2020



No huge updates on Muir Wood -- I've been focusing a lot of my time and energy on Inverness, my new Southern hemisphere island, so I mostly drop by Muir Wood to run through some dailies. However! I have gotten a few cute pictures in the process.

Also, the move-out bubble has made a reappearance! So I'll let that hop around until it lands on Fauna, and then see about upgrading her house.

The first matter of business -- we had a campsite villager today, and it's Ankha! Honestly I'm a little put out that she didn't show up on Inverness instead, where I would've taken her in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, Muir Wood's villagers are all permanent (at least short of Nintendo releasing new villagers), so Ankha, have a nice stay and then please head directly to the opposite side of the world, thanks.

I found Purrl hanging out in her yard at last! Okay, maybe she's rudely ignoring the nice (stale, weather-worn) cake sitting right there in favor of a random doughnut, but listen, I'll take what I can get when it comes to villagers noticing furniture at all.

Found Beau in the art gallery, which looks quite nice if ignore the big gap on the wall where art Isn't. I appreciate Beau for choosing to hang out in a part of the museum that is somewhat more complete than others, it's like he knows I'm taking creepy photos of us hanging out.

Purrl also visited the museum but decided to look at fish instead. For a tank with such big fish in it, it looks awfully empty still.

And we'll wrap up with a photo of Ruby really vibing with that flower. Happy Sunday, all!
​

 

[Seelie]

october 23, 2020



Everything's been slow and steady on Muir Wood while I focus on Inverness, but I've still been logging in to chat to all my villagers, buy candy, and do my dailies!

Today I couldn't for the life of me find my daily visitor until my third lap around the island when I spotted a pair of suspicious looking feet on the beach.

There you are, you drunk seagull.



I also spotted Kiki looking absolutely precious on the beach while I was running around for communicator parts to politely escort Gulliver from Muir Wood (again).

I stopped to have a cup of tea with her. Gulliver can wait. He's not nearly as cute.



Finally, in the Halloween spirit, some of my villagers gathered to tell spooky stories around the campfire at Harv's Island.

Butch wasn't too impressed. We'll have to work on our storytelling skills. ​

 

[Seelie]

october 31, 2020
part one



Wanted to do a quick pre-Halloween event photo dump of some dailies on Muir Wood! One exciting thing that did happen was getting Butch's photo, but he gave it to me from...behind a cliff, lol. Thanks, Butch.

On the other hand, Ruby has been posing all over the place.

Looking like a strawberry near one of the little space filler decorations I have scattered around the island:

Incidentally I probably need more of these -- I still have some empty spaces I haven't filled in yet, but I'm hoping that maple leaf and mushroom furniture can help fill those out!



Then there's Ruby again, posing for an angsty moment in the rain.

(Sorry, Ruby, you're not allowed to leave.)

Kiki and Genji had a socially distanced hangout at the beach cafe. I love that Kiki has a default table / chair that she always seems to go to, and that she's always reading there.

And finally, a little beachside picnic with Purrl! The same spot as Ruby's angst moment, but on a much nicer day.

Part two to come after the Halloween festivities begin!
​