Eligible 🍂 🧝🏻‍♀️ The Lórien Island Journal 🧝🏻‍♀️ 🍂

[Pintuition]

Speak friend and enter…

Welcome to the Lórien island journal! Here I will share my progress as I embark on creating a Middle Earth inspired island. I started Lórien in late 2021 after getting the ACNH Switch to start a second island but never finished it. Since then it has essentially been a garbage dump for stuff from my main island, Coral Key. Recently I have decided to flatten everything and do a soft restart. I hope you enjoy following my journey as I make the island of my elvish dreams!

(Frodo enjoying the entrance to Lórien one last time before the orcs come and cut the forest down!)

Below is some basic information about my island…

Native Fruit: Apples
Native Flower: Windflowers
Airport Color: Green
Hemisphere: Northern
Island Theme: LOTR/ Middle Earth/ Castlecore-inspired

I named Lórien after Lothlórien- the heart of elvendom on earth. I hope to capture the spirit of the place once I get to building! For all it's magic my airport still doesn't line up (big sad) but Lórien does have a nicely sized peninsula and many big rocks for decorating. It took me over three hours over restarting to get this island, such as it is. Below is an early screenshot of what I was working with...

Currently I am in the long process of flattening the entire island so that I may have a blank canvas. I’m also going ahead and moving as many buildings as possible to the beaches or otherwise out of the way. After that is done I plan on immediately tackling my island entrance and building backward from that. I am also in the process of creating a moodboard for my island (which I hope to post here this week!) and have been busy scouring Pinterest for custom designs that I want to use. I fear I’ll have to make my own designs for some things so I’ve been planning for that as well!

The biggest barrier I think I’m up against right now is definitely bells and resources. I haven’t got the savings to make my island a reality. I’m going to have to start using treasure islands soon or otherwise gathering materials. Especially those pricey nook mile items. Yikes! I’m not looking forward to that part, but I’m sure I’ll be able to make it work. Especially with all the lovely folks on TBT who run shops! But either way, I’ll be taking things slowly this go around. During the last attempt I was too hasty and made some poor design choices…but not this time!

Thanks for taking the first step of the journey with me. I’ll be following up this post with my moodboard and some more information about my island and its residents. Namárië!​

 

[Pintuition]

Hello friends! I'm back already with another entry. Originally for this post I was going to do a couple of the 3x3 challenges that are also popular but with my island theme and…well… this happened...

I spent so long agonizing over the color choices. I couldn’t quite find which color scheme I wanted to commit to for Lórien, so rather than get analysis paralysis I switched gears. While I wait for all of the other decor items I ordered to show up in the mail I thought I’d make a moodboard instead. For those unfamiliar with the concept a moodboard is a collection of images, colors, text, etc, that represent a style or concept. It helps me show what I want my island to be like before I’ve made any progress. I’ve seen a few ACNH moodboards circulating online and thought they were so cool. Here is the basic moodboard I’m working with for my island..

While I’m not setting out to do an exact recreation of locations through Middle Earth (a few will happen, but I can’t do everything!), I plan on creating several areas that at least feel elvish. The first way I plan on achieving this is to set my island to fall as I think that feels the most LOTR-ish with the elves being in the autumn of the time in Middle Earth.

I also plan on including a hobbit style area somewhere on my island, especially since many of my villagers fit that vibe. I plan to include a small farm and neighborhood along a cliffside. I’m hoping that once I start terraforming these areas will emerge naturally as they did on my previous island.

I’m not sure if it will be a failure or will actually work but I plan on adapting some techniques I’ve used on my other island, Coral Key, to create some massive trees and possibly even treehouses like the inspo photos. Here are some items I plan on using in my builds…

Obviously most of the colors will be different from the examples but I’m hoping that some terraforming and key placement of the items above as well as custom designs will give the effect I want. As I did with my main island’s journal I’ll of course always share any custom designs I utilize in a build in a spoiler at the end of each journal entry.

As I close out this journal entry I’ve stumbled into making a decision for my island- I’ll be going with the ivory colored castle pieces. After looking at my concept more closely and creating the moodboard it became clear instantly that the ivory was the right call over the gray. If anyone else out there is struggling with making decisions… taking the time to put a document together, a Pinterest board, or a moodboard like I did can really help. I mean even the background I chose is almost the same color! Now I feel foolish!!!

Next time I will share a bit more about my island’s two reps and the residents currently living on the island, though they are likely to undergo some changes.

Farewell for now. Namárië!​

 

[Pintuition]

Lórien is occupied by two island reps as well as 10 villagers. I am still deciding on what to do with some of them, so likely I’ll be updating this list soon!

​

• Bones: Bones has come by way of Coral Key and was one of my favorite villagers there. While on the surface he doesn’t quite fit the theme, his colors work so well with fall and he’s here to stay no matter what!​
• Raymond: Raymond has also come from Coral Key. I was unsure initially about saving him but I think if I redecorate his house (I like to think of him as a high elf lord or something lol) he might fit the theme better.​
• Diana: Diana is the most elegant villager! I think she’s the most ethereal out of all of the ones I have. She’s my top candidate for my elvish section!​
• Poppy: Poppy comes from the New Neighbor Network right here on TBT! She’s too cute!​
• Maple: Maple is the perfect villager for the hobbit area. How can you have a woodsy island with no cub?​
• Lolly: Lolly had been on my list since day one. As far as the cats go I think she’s the prettiest and I hope to gift her all sorts of ethereal clothes!​
• Lily: Lily came to Lórien through an Amiibo card this week! She is the newest villager and has recently replaced Sprinkle.I hope to place her home riverside in a woodland area.​
• Melba: Melba was one of my random move-ins and I couldn’t let her go for the longest time just because I liked her house exterior. Well unfortunately now that you can change that she’ll likely be moving soon!​
• Beau: I almost let Beau go one time last year, immediately regretted it, and used Frodo to convince him not to leave. I’m not sure where he fits in with my island but I’m on the fence with him now!​
• Fauna: Can you tell I love the deer? She is so cute and will be perfect for any woodland area!​

If any changes to Lórien’s residents do happen down the line I’ll at least mention it in an update. For not everyone still has their original homes and lives on the beach while I get ready to redecorate.

Uruviel is Lórien’s main island representative. When taken literally from the LOTR source material, Uruviel is an elf of Lothlórien during the Third Age of Middle Earth and was handmaiden of Legolas’ mother, most commonly known as Queen Arhendhiril. I like to think that my island’s Uruviel is also a Lórien elf. Personally, I have used this as a pseudonym myself for many years. The name actually originated from me using an elvish name generator online as a child. It has always stuck with me ever since. I like to think of her as a mix of me, or rather me in an elvish form! I haven’t finalized her appearance yet, but for now she wears a mixture of hobbit-y clothing and elvish clothes according to my mood!

Frodo, on the other hand, exists only to be an island NPC for my dream address and is based solely on Frodo Baggins. I placed his home before the latest update when I was struggling with storage options for the island and ultimately decided it would be nice to keep it. I plan on making a small farming hobbit-y area for his home and to decorate the interior in that style as well. After all, it’s not much of a Lord of the Rings island without a hobbit hole!

And that’s the Friendship Fellowship here on Lórien! Next time I’ll show my first steps towards making my Mallorn tree! Namárië.​

 

[Pintuition]

Hello friends! I believe in my first entry I teased that I was attempting to construct a treehouse for my island based entirely on the great elven city of Caras Galadhon. A massive undertaking as I’m finding out…but I intend to make good on that promise! Or at least attempt to!

For those who aren’t big LOTR fans, in Lothlórien there grows massive golden-leaved Mallorn trees, upon which Lórien is essentially built. I was struck by images of the treehouse-like city of Caras Galadhon as a child (particularly its depiction in the LOTR films but also in painted work by Ted Nasmith and Alan Lee, which you can find online).

So with that in mind, I thought I’d make an attempt to block out a potential design (using standees) that may work to create the tree illusion I want. Initially I intended to use a ready made tree design but none really did it for me- they all had ladders or were otherwise set up to be playful in some way that didn’t match my vision. I’ll have to make it myself. As a backup plan if I can’t pull the designs off I intended to use an inspo design and decorate to hide the parts that don’t match. But I’ll never know if I can do it if I don’t at least try first.

So far this is what I am working with…

Please do not judge me on the quality of the sketch, I did it super quickly as a proof of concept only. The real designs will be much nicer- you know me, haha! Essentially the three images clustered at the top are reference images for me. One of the treehouse idea, another of the Fellowship entering the city. I was also able to find a candle holder that was sculpted to look like exactly the part of the tree I needed so I will be heavily pulling design elements from that for the final look.

The tree will take anywhere from 10-12 standees to complete and will span all three levels if all goes as planned. It’s going to be so hard to line everything up! But I’ll try. On the bottom tier I plan to have the staircase wrapping around the trunk of the tree, leading up into some arches, finally branching out into the canopy of leaves at the top. I’ll possibly be able to place some trees in and around this area to fill out the top. I’ll also likely use some gazebos nearby in white to look like buildings along the middle tiers of the tree.

I also would love to have my house at the top (it will be a little distant, I hope it still can be seen. Maybe I can use some medieval building sides or castle pieces or something in between trees! In any case, real or fake, the plan is to build atop the tree just like the real city.

So far I’ve only been able to produce a rough idea of what I wanted in the game- and have only tackled the first two tiers. First I’m only blocking out where elements will go, then I will color match, shade everything, and start making the final designs. This is what it looks like so far…

I’m happy it looks like a tree trunk at least! The white lines are a rough estimate of where the staircase will go. The beige lines atop are just there to indicate that’s where I’ll be putting in some archways into the design. I haven’t even tackled the third level ones yet- the six I blocked out took me like 30 minutes as it was! It doesn’t look like much work but it’s going to be an undertaking. One that, I hope, works out well! I’ll let you know down the line! Namárië!​

 

[Pintuition]

Hi all! I’m currently in the process of looking for custom designs I can use on the island in terms of pathing/accents but I was really disappointed with the lack of options for LOTR island flags. My current one is fine, I guess. It’s really just a lily of the valley with my island name…but it doesn’t really fit the theme.

I saw a few with Lórien leaves I liked but they weren’t customized enough for me- it’s got to have the name too! So with that in mind I thought I’d adapt an existing pattern that was shared online by Char. I created a similar Lórien leaf based on what I could see in the reference and set it in the corner of my new flag.

(credit to Char for the original leaf I took inspo from!)

That left me with barely room enough to tackle fitting in my island name. Thankfully I already had done a scripty version on my original flag so I just used that. Initially I wanted to use a real LOTR font but the space was too small- it made it impossible! I’d love to improve the script over time but now this is the best I’ve got!

The flag came out more simple than I’d like. I might try to make the middle earth map in the background or something to add some visual interest in the future. For now it’s set on a gray-brown backdrop with a simple border. I want to see what it looks like set against the decor I’m starting to put up first.

And with that my island flag is good enough for now! Next up is to start settling on the pathing I’ll be using. Namárië!​

 

[Pintuition]

As I embark on designing my island entrance I’ve been on the hunt for good custom designs I can use throughout the island. I’ve been putting together a Pinterest board for everything I like so that I can find it easier when I go to download. It’s gotten quite large, so now I have some decisions to make now!

If you scroll up to the first post you can see my old island path, which was a natural mushroomy brown floral path. While it is beautiful, I’m not sure it’s 100% what I’m looking for. It is very hard to place properly and unfortunately I think that’s getting replaced. I haven’t decided about some little elements that went with it like stone circles. The circles under the lamp posts are something I made myself so those will likely stay or be altered in color or something. Basically I feel the tone and shaping are wrong in the pathing to work for the season Lórien will be set in. For now since I have so many open slots I’ll leave my previous designs be.

The first major thing I’m looking for is some stone/brick pathing that looks nice with the castle walls and the medieval building sides I have chosen. I plan on using these to create areas inspired by the Council of Elrond, Rivendell, and other Middle Earth-y locations. Many of these kind of paths exist online, but with the wealth of options out there I found it tough to choose. I want something that will look nice but not take up a lot of slots. On my main island this was a huge problem- I had fantastic pathing with loads of extras but it was so limiting that I had to use it everywhere because I had no room for other designs. So in the interest of space saving I’m committing to finding a brick/stone path that has 15 slots or less. That way there’s more room for other elements!

So many of the paths I found were the wrong tone or had so many more pieces than I was looking for. I don’t mind using 15+ slots if there’s enough different elements like steps, embellishments, etc, but so many were lacking in some way. I almost threw in the towel and decided to make my own but then I found it- the path for Lórien! It was advertised as a “spring path” but it had just the tone I was looking for, a mix of taupe-y browns, grays, with some grassy elements. Better still, it came with borders, grassy patches, and cobblestone accents. I love it so much!

(if you are on the second level and look down, the bridge/water design still works, so I can use it in illusion builds!)

I did approach my goal of 15 slots but didn’t overshoot it. Still, I’d need other elements to match it. The only thing this path didn’t have that I absolutely cannot live without is fake stairs. These proved difficult to find to match that exact color. While I couldn’t find an exact match, I did find some cool ones with matching sideways steps and flagstones.They’re lighter in color, but not everything has to match, right?

Not long after I settled on those I landed on some faux bridges over water, which is something I always wanted to feature more on Coral Key but I think will work better on Lórien. Immediately looking at the paths together with pieces of the brick I chose I decided it totally worked. I downloaded a bunch of the water pieces but I’m not sure how many I’ll actually keep. I think it actually works better the less busy it is. So some of those might get the axe if I find more designs I like!

(please excuse the kiddie pool and other random items lol, I was just getting a feel of what I could put where)

For now that’s what I’m working with. I haven’t set my island to fall yet (I’m tting little by little) so I might have to revise some ideas. In any case, I’ll have to make a part two with some more designs that are more specific to the theme such as hobbit holes and other elements I’m designing. I’m not sure if that will come in the next post or if I’ll get brave and actually start building my entrance area. Who knows. Until then… namárië!​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Bricks and mossy cobblestones: MA-7521-7382-3297
Beige diamond path: MA-3699-7940-3608
Stairs and flat pavers: 9278-7443-5692
Bridge pieces: MA-3388-7483-7826
Water pieces: MA-6827-3844-8809

 

[Pintuition]

Hi again- I’m back and with some more designs. This time I focused more on designs calling to things in LOTR, whether that be in the books, films, or both! I’m going to need to design a bunch of things for my island so I think I’ll start with the one I’ve made myself so far…

To my knowledge Tolkien himself never made a specific Lothlórien flag. However, several results do pop up in various but largely similar styles for a general Lórien flag, some of which have been used in roleplaying games or produced as real flags. I’m going to take that as being good enough for me and use that design around my island as well.

It was relatively easy to replicate, as most of the flag lent itself well to pixel art. For once I actually have a design I like just on sight that I don’t feel needs major revision like my island flag. I’ll use this special Lórien flag on streetlamps, stalls, and elsewhere to decorate my island.

I’m still working on the big tree and some other things, so for now I focused mainly on pieces I could download that I didn’t have to make. I found two different hobbit hole designs and I’m having a horrible time deciding between them. I think I like the hobbit hole with the tree leaves around it better, however the leaves are green and my island will be decorated for fall. I worry they will clash or otherwise not blend. On the other hand, the other set of standee designs is pretty but takes up more slots. For now I still have loads of pro slots open so I’ll wait until I start building the area to decide. If anyone out there has any suggestions don’t hesitate to PM me!

I also found this brilliant ‘no admittance except on party business’ sign I’ll use in my hobbit area as well. Well, as close as you can get to that with limited space! I honestly thought I’d have to make this too, so this saved me so much work!! This will go outside of Frodo’s house probably, which I will endeavor to turn into Bag End.

Part of making Bag End also means I’ll need some designs for the inside. I found this trio of standees that matches the standard tearoom wall and makes it look like Hobbiton outside the windows. I don’t currently have any of the vine/moss DIYs on the island so I couldn’t hang the glow in the dark stickers design that goes with the designs…so use your imagination, haha!

I think that brings me to the next piece of the puzzle I’m missing for Lórien- DIYs, items, and resources. I’ve been making trips from my main island with some things but even there I don’t have everything I need cataloged. Before I begin terraforming the entrance I want to make sure I have what I need. To that end, I’ve been busy time traveling to try to collect as much stuff as possible. Next time I hope to have an update on construction. Namárië!​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

No admittance sign: MA-4844-4365-9625
Turquoise hobbit door standees: MA-7512-1274-9048
Yellow hobbit door standees: MA-5898-6084-4984
Hobbit window indoor standees: MA-0515-5045-1390
Lórien flag: my own design, unreleased

 

[Pintuition]

Hi all! On Tuesday I started a big project on my island- tackling the entrance. I have looked at so many reference pictures online but couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. In the end I had the idea to mashup a few different ideas, but so far I’m having trouble figuring out the dimensions of everything.

(don't judge the roughest plan ever lol)

Initially when I picked my island I restarted dozens of times trying to get an airport that lined up with my Resident Services. When I thought I’d finally done it, it turned out to be one tile off. I decided to just go with it at the time since I was so tired of looking at the maps. What I really didn’t give much thought to was that, yes, the resident services building lines up more or less…but it isn’t very far away from the airport. It’s not the closest airport I’ve seen but it’s certainly not as far away as Coral Key.

This airport to RS distance really limited the design choices I could go with for the island. I’ll really have to do something small and closed off to not make it look bad. I knew right away that I wanted an access point to Resident Services this time- so I set to designing an entrance that would primarily be on the ground level. My idea is to recreate a piece of Rivendell here and have you enter into the council of Elrond. I plan to set out a ring in everything. I think that will A. help establish the island in Middle Earth, and B. not be too large to fit in the small space I have.

(imagine the mismosh of junk in the center is the ring, lol)

I had my resident rep on my main island do a massive amount of ordering and crafting this week and ended up with pockets full of vine furniture and castle pieces. I had to do multiple deliveries! I started laying the castle pieces down in front of Resident Services before doing anything else. I made the main center gate align with my airport, and since the rest of the building is occluded from view anyway. Since then I’ve been slowly picking them up to add pathing underneath and slightly tweaking the alignment.

(somehow half my villagers congregated right where I was trying to put stuff. It's like they know they shouldn't be there and come out of spite!)

I’ve also begun terraforming a little bit. Basically the open pit you walk into will lead up to level two raised areas on either side. To do that, I created a square around the entrance area, where I’ve begun to add waterfalls. Likely I’ll make more organic shapes and add more water throughout. I approached it this way, though, mainly because I wanted the staircases to be largely hidden from view. I spent a lot of time blocking out the placement just so in order to have both beach level access as well as hide the staircases themselves. This was something I really messed up on when terraforming Coral Key, and caused me to use two extra inclines. So I fixed that on this one!

For now that’s all I’ve gotten to. Between multiple crafting trips, gathering DIYs, and otherwise doing chores and time traveling to order things, I haven’t actually made massive progress yet. I can’t quite tell if I like how it’s turning out. Time will tell! I hope next update there’s more to share. For now, I’ll be hard at work. Namárië!​

 

[Pintuition]

I’ve been hard at work trying to finish Lórien’s entrance this week! I’ve been time traveling as much as I possibly can and have spent millions of bells on items, inclines, and everything else I needed. So without further ado, here’s what I was able to achieve during that time…

(imagine these are fall trees, I'm time traveling week to week so I don't get roaches and my villagers don't get mad at me)

I think it still might need a bit of work, but it is mostly what I envisioned! I like that I was able to fix all of the problems I backed myself into on my main island, I both blocked off Resident Services and kept it accessible at the same time; the beaches too. The castle walls are a godsend. I have no idea how I lived before they were an option!

I learned my lesson from last time I was terraforming and tried to block everything off from curious villagers wandering through. Still, some managed to slip by and must have teleported or something? Who knows! They just love to be underfoot….that’s their collective hobbit last name, “Underfoot”! And boy do they live up to that! Eventually I just went with it.

Unwelcome guests aside, I took a long time setting down the custom pathing I picked. Originally the center focal point was oblong and looked so awkward. I’m so glad I spent time tweaking it until it was exactly the way I wanted. The great thing about it is that there’s a ring of cobblestones that makes it impossible to misplace the seats around the stone table. I didn’t originally set out to do that, I just thought it ended up looking cool!

(WIP to final choice)

I also tweaked the surrounding waterfalls. In such a tight area there wasn’t much I could do without detracting from the scene. Instead, I plan to have larger, more elegant waterfall bridges to the side of the entrance. It should look really cool, especially during flyover! I have also determined that a gazebo can fit on the second level of the peninsula so I’ll likely be making that an elvish overlook point.

This might be a weird thing to take inspiration from…but a brand new Rivendell lego set was announced this past week and it’s almost exactly the area I chose to recreate on my island. I’m kind of mad I started working on the entrance because now I see a bunch of cool things I could do. I have trouble straying from symmetry but it's so pretty! I might change things. Who knows! Either way, I’ll be looking closely at that set as I make the transition area to the peninsula on the right. That will be my Rivendell spot!

(Here is the lego set! I may choose to rework the area to make a big illusion tree, a stone bridge, then a raised gazebo. C'mon, it's too good of an opportunity to pass up!)

There’s literally so much work left to do and it can be overwhelming at times but I’m just going to pace myself and do it a little bit at a time like I’ve been doing. When I get overwhelmed by building I’ll switch to making custom designs, when I struggle with that I’ll gather resources, and so on until Lórien is what I hope it will be! With that in mind, I’m not sure what’s next on the menu to tackle in terms of update. I suppose Gandalf said it best…”All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us”. Namárië!

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Bricks and mossy cobblestones: MA-7521-7382-3297
Beige diamond path: MA-3699-7940-3608
Stairs and flat pavers: 9278-7443-5692

 

[Pintuition]

Hello again! After “finishing” my entrance I found I really needed a break from large scale changes. I don’t really like what I built now that I’m sitting with it and have analysis paralysis. Instead of just spinning my wheels, I started to work on my big tree project I outlined in an earlier post. I haven’t returned to it before this point so it’s essentially my first rough draft.

(keep in mind this is still super rough)

I started this time by running an image of a fall hardwood tree through AC Patterns online to determine the exact colors I’ll need for shading to match the real hardwood trees the best I can. I’m aiming for something in the middle of an AC tree and something realistic; essentially more organic shapes on the bark but with some familiar rings around it. This immediately helped loads, though I was pretty close with my initial color I chose by eye.

It’s very difficult with the limited palette and pixels you have to make anything look right. I noticed this right away. If I had just been drawing it I could have finished a full color final piece just in the time it took to block everything out. I have such a new appreciation for the many ACNH designers out there that make super complicated items. It really is extremely difficult.

(my first try at the steps lol)

Because it is so hard I only focused on the bottom ground-level tier of four standees. I started with some organic shapes on the trunk first, knowing I’d cover most of it with the spiraling staircase. Then I went ahead and turned the white guidelines to a random lighter color and began to edge out stairs going up the side. At first I made them all uniform but this didn’t look good, it actually looked better and more gradual to have them slightly irregular. After all, there’s few harsh edges in Elvish architecture!

I used the candle holder and reference images I posted earlier to inform some of the shapes. Since it is pixel art I won’t be able to get everything right. But at least this gives the idea. I think once I add more stairs up on the second tier and start some of the arches on top it will really look better. I’m not happy with how wonky some of the curves are right now so I’m taking steps to correct them where I can. Anything angled and rounded in the pixel world is automatically challenging- I’ve got my hands full!

While what I put together is still extremely rough I’m hopeful that it is a good sign that I’ll be able to build the tree the way I intended. I don’t plan to build the area I need it for anytime soon so I’ll be able to take my time. As always I’ll post plenty of progress pics (that come attached with some complaints and crippling self doubt, always) next time I do some work on it. For now, namárië!​

 

[Pintuition]

“I think I’m quite ready for another adventure!”

After I “finished” my entrance I was initially proud but the more I sat with it I began to dislike it. I have a huge problem not making spaces symmetrical, but that really doesn’t work for my island theme. At some point you have to take a step back and say is it me? Is the way I’m approaching this the problem? And I think, yes, in this case it is. So to get past my own personal hangup I’m picking up the terraforming shovel once again…

And it’s flat again! What can you do! Symmetry builds worked so well on Coral Key and I really just finished major construction on that island so I was really in that mode when I went at Lórien. But the more I looked at my map the more I was bothered, for a lack of any other way to put it, by how square and boring everything was. It would have made a fine castlecore island but where’s the magic? Where are the organic shapes and nature? I made a paved box and dressed it up with some rocks as a poor excuse for a “fancy” entrance. It had no soul, no magic. Square and magic just don't mix. So hence the wild changes I’m making now.

(crying because all of that wasted work and bells ugh)

So far what I’ve done is tear out the castle walls, removed the water features, and started chipping away at the box surrounding resident services. I also went ahead and demolished one of the stairways on the side that leads to the peninsula. I am hoping that perhaps the other one can be saved, as they are expensive, but if it has to go to make things right then it will. Nothing is off the table!

I spent some time continually time traveling, ordering more items, particularly gazebos. I’ve also started to plant more hardwood trees to have ready when I need them, as well as a few assorted bushes and flowers. The next try needs to have a better mix of paving and open grassy areas, otherwise it will look too built up.

This time I think I will build backwards from the peninsula; focusing on just one area left me with little options for the sides of the entrance, which limited its function. I want it to look nice, but the citycore style of blocking areas out to be terraformed bit by bit will mean nothing will turn out the way I want it to.

I’m not upset I’ve started over, I’m just happy I went with my gut. After all, I’d rather learn this lesson at the start than at the end! I wasn’t happy with my original island and I don’t want Lórien 2.0 to be a repeat. We live and learn, right?

In the interest of delivering some happy news before I end this entry however, Lórien does have a new resident! You may have caught a glimpse of her in the last entry, but Ione has come to live on Lórien. I actually have her on Coral Key too, so I’m not sure if she’ll be permanently staying on either island. She was a random campsite villager and thank goodness I was curious enough to pop in that day. When she asked to replace Melba I knew it was fate.

I’m not sure which struggle-filled project to jump back to next- the entrance or the big tree area! Either way, I’m sure I’ll have an update soon. While I did start this journal to coincide with a TBT event I do intend to keep it up and continue writing. I hope everyone will continue to follow along with me! Namárië!​