Graveyard and Rock Garden

I remember in the early game, Al gave me a gravestone.  I had no idea gravestones were items in the game and from that point on, I was obsessed with the idea of creating a graveyard.  I waited not so patiently to find the "western style stone" DIY...and it took AGES!!!!  As soon as I found it, I went to work creating a graveyard just outside of my spooky town.

I love a graveyard in real life, some of my best vacation memories are of visiting graveyards.  Some of my best childhood memories too.  You'll see more graveyards on future islands, but this is my very first and it's so, so lovely.

The rock garden was inspired by the movie The Village.  I thought it would be so great to follow a path (behind the pumpkin patch) through the woods and stumble onto a creepy rock garden filled with flowers of "the bad color".  You can see one of the scary red-cloaked monsters up on the hill to the right!

I'm so proud of this rock garden, because I made it without time-traveling AND on a sparsely decorated island.  I filled every spot I could with pathing and mannequins in order to get them to spawn where I wanted them.  It took forever, but when that last rock spawned, I was SO happy and it was well worth the time and effort.  

Spooky Town

I'm a fan of all things spooky and goth adjacent.  Fun shows like The Addams Family (both original and new), not really anything too gory or scary.  I was super excited to build a spooky Halloween town, but didn't have any of the pumpkin DIY's (one of the things I hated most about not time traveling, not having access to seasonal DIY's).  I did the best I could, creating a town square centered around a spooky well.  

Past that was an alley where you could buy potions and other spooky things.  Behind that, a tiered neighborhood lit by candlelight.

On the beach, one of my favorite little builds: a moon bathing spot.  

I learned a lot building this spooky town.  I wanted it to be so much more, with more items and spooky clutter...but I did what I could with the DIY's I had (oh how I longed for a leaf pile!).

The Pumpkin Patch and Apple Orchard

One of my favorite things to do in the fall is dream of visiting apple orchards and pumpkin patches.  I don't actually ever visit them, but I love the idea.  Of course I had to build an apple orchard and pumpkin patch on my island.  When I first started my island, I was SO happy that I had apples because I knew that there was no way to get them in the game unless you had them as your main fruit or sister fruit (or traded with ACNH friends, of which, I had none at the time).

I had seen a lot of different orchard design ideas and fretted about what would be the best for my island and the space I had.  I think it turned out really well.  I had big plans to turn this area into a full blown pick your own apple orchard and festival, but I found myself not really up to the task.  I tried to keep in mind that I would be building more islands in the future and I could always revisit an idea another time.

The pumpkin patch was mostly a way to make bells.  It wasn't really an aesthetic pick your own pumpkin patch that I would design these days.  But I still like the design and how the villager house was incorporated.

The Campground

When starting my first island, I couldn't decide on a theme (island themes were all the rage in 2021 and are still going strong in 2026).  I have so many interests, a multi-themed island seemed like the best idea.  

I knew a campground was a must.  When we were kids, our parents took us camping once every couple of summers.  While I wasn't super into camping, I did enjoy the long days spent reading Stephen King novels in the tent, or at the picnic table, or at the beach, or in the car.  I also enjoyed a campfire, and still do.  The smell of wood smoke is one of my favorite scents, even to this day.

Campsite design was a big deal in ACNH at the time, everyone wanted to have the best campsite.  I wanted mine to look like the wild campgrounds of my childhood.  Winding paths through the woods, follow the path most worn and it will lead you to the lake.  Bring a lunch, sit in the sand, swim until you feel sick from the waves and the sun, return to your campsite and sit around the fire while dad cooks dinner over the flames.  Fall asleep to the sound of crickets and wake up with the sun.

I think I captured that feeling pretty well.

A Watershed Moment

Not quite two months into the game, I was getting annoyed that my game kept giving me the same items and DIY's, over and over again.  I still didn't have simple panels, and anyone who knows anything about ACNH before the 2.0 update knows that simple panels were 100% necessary to make fake buildings.  

There was also the issue of only having access to one colorway of each item.  I wasn't comfortable trading items with strangers, and didn't know anyone in real life that could help me add items to my catalog.  I was feeling really frustrated...all this time I was playing the game "right" (not time traveling, not going to treasure islands), only to get the same items in the same colors with no end in sight!  I wanted to build, I had so many ideas...but I just couldn't get the items!

I knew I needed to do something drastic or I'd burn out trying and failing to get items every day and never getting to build.  I learned about "catalog islands" and worked up the courage to go to one.  It was hands down the most fun I've had playing the game (the island and the host were SO nice and it was all really exciting!), and when I got back to my island, I was able to purchase any item in the game in any colorway.  AND, part of visiting the island was that they let you fill your entire pockets with bells, which I had mixed feelings about (I had dutifully and enthusiastically earned every bell up until this point), but was a nice bonus.

This was a watershed moment for me.  I felt so free, so excited to design!  It was overwhelming and awesome and I finally had simple panels and life was amazing!  Now I just had to get designing...which was harder than I thought it would be!  And yet, I loved it from the very start and being bad at it only made me want to get better.  

I should clarify...I think I was okay at designing, even early on...but I had seen so many mind blowing ACNH builds on YouTube and Instagram...I had very high expectations for myself and I fell so far short of them at first.  

But I kept at it and started getting the hang of it and really loved the process of designing and seeing my ideas slowly come to life.  The surf shop was the first build I really liked!  The little beach bar would have been awesome, but...alas...I didn't have the coconut juice recipe.

Also, Admiral sent me this statue and I didn't know what it was and when I put it down, I actually laughed out loud...I SO wasn't expecting this:

Summer Nights and Celebrations

Looking back, one of the best things about not time traveling is experiencing the game at night.  I didn't really appreciate it at the time because it made it hard to decorate...but there's just something so peaceful and magical about this game at night.  Except for the scorpions...the first time I saw one I just about fell off my chair.

I especially love firefly season!  I've always loved fireflies, they're one of the best things about summer!  (Other best things include drive-in movies, swimming at the lake, very early sunrises, and thunderstorms.)

My birthday is also in the summer...but it's not one of the best things about summer.  If your birthday is near the 4th of July, then you know why...everyone is too busy camping or going to the lake to come to your birthday party.  One time I did have a birthday party and my friends did come to it...but it was interrupted by a severe storm, and we had to shelter in the basement, and the ice cream melted, and then everyone wanted to go home.  

I enjoyed celebrating my birthday on my island, though.  I turned 40 and Ian I were planning a 40th birthday trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, but then we couldn't go because of COVID, so instead, I played my game in the morning and Poncho was waiting for me outside of my house.  It was a cute little party and I left very early (the best way to do parties, I think), and then Ian and I biked 20 miles round trip to get Herbie Butcher's vegan fried chicken for lunch.  It was the perfect birthday!

Race to 5 Stars

After getting 3 stars, I immediately started terraforming.  I wanted to try a multi-themed island but had a lot of work to do before I could get started.  

I worked on breeding flowers and planning for a rock garden.  

  

There were lots of fun times, like the first time I caught a shark, and the time Al was upset about wind chimes.  I started building a few small areas on my island...none of them actually very good, but at least I was trying. 

I was in constant agony over not seeing simple panels in my shop.  How was I supposed to build my Venice area if I didn't have simple panels?!  And I wanted nothing more than the beekeeper's hive DIY...which I, sadly, did not acquire for months.  

It took about a month (no time traveling) to get five stars, and it felt like it took forever!  But it was worth it because I got the golden watering can and finally felt like I could focus on decorating.  

I look back on these early days and know that they were magical, even if I didn't appreciate it at the time.  I was in such a hurry to move on, to get through the early game.  I'm happy I didn't time travel because it forced me to slow down, even though it was frustrating to do so.