pandorazblog

Animal Crossing: Top Cosy Creators.

Hi Readers,

It’s been a while. I find myself saying this.. a LOT.

Speaking of ‘lots’… an awful lot has changed in the past few months – both in real life and in the Animal Crossing world. With the introduction of the latest update in early November, us Animal Crossing Addicts had Christmas come early. An abundance of stunning farmcore items, new furniture sets and let’s not forget the reappearance of familiar NPC faces provided a lot of us with a burst of energy – a second wind as you will.

For me, the burnout is REAL. Some of you may think, ‘how do you get burnout from a game?’ It’s as simple as real life. A loss of interest. A general sense of overwhelm – especially with so many new features all thrown at us at once. However, a talented few have thrived under this pressure and created some truly stunning content. If you’re looking for that bit of inspiration to get going and rekindle your love for the game, these creators won’t disappoint.

1. CosyChey

animal crossing image from instagram creator cosychey — @cosychey on Instagram

One of my absolute favourite creators is cosychey on Instagram. Their feed features a beautiful spectrum of earthy tones, relaxing neutrals and the perfect mix of cosy gaming flat lays and Animal Crossing content. Cosychey’s islands always feature a beautiful rural charm that often makes us think of country picnics, fields of flowers and gorgeously decorated cottage homes. With a carefully selected mix of outdoor decor, custom paths and well-placed flowers, cosychey’s content is perfect for inspiring us to pick up our switches again and get lost on our island getaways. Recently, cosychey has started streaming on YouTube – even more cute, cosy content that I just can’t get enough of! If you’re into cosy gaming, low-Fi music and just a general good time, you’ve found the right gamer.

With the amount of attention to detail and overall sheer beauty of this content, we’re left questioning ourselves. Are we playing the same game here? What’s real life anymore. With cosychey, real life is just as comforting and cosy as her Animal Crossing feed.

Does it get any dreamier than this? If you’re as in love with this set up as I am, you can actually grab yourself almost everything you see in these images. Just pop over to Amazon. With a relaxing area to game, the inspiration and ideas will come flooding in!

2. Autumnweeds

autumnweeds on instagram — @autumnweeds on Instagram

Next up on my list of inspiration content creators is Ali, AKA autumnweeds – a staple in the Animal Crossing community. Featuring beautiful imagery throughout all the seasons, autumnweeds often dominates our feeds with a sea of stunning, overgrown greenery and plenty of before and after shots. In addition to picturesque scenes, we’re also treated to a bunch of inspirational builds with a new and exciting feature – Happy Home Paradise.

In case you miraculously missed the hype of the 2.0 update or you’re a new player, Happy Home Paradise is a paid expansion for our beloved Animal Crossing. With this new DLC, your character can ‘go to work’ from the airport and arrive on a whole new island. It features a tonne of new features that allow us to become interior designers – creating holiday homes for vacationing islanders. A stunning option is the feature to decorate outdoor areas in a ‘decorating mode’.

Autumnweeds uses a combination of new update items and the Happy Home Paradise expansion to create stunning yards, beach houses and more for visiting villagers. New in game camera angles also allow users to get more creative with their shots, and Ali takes full advantage of it. I don’t know about you, but after every post my heart is screaming for more!

Feeling inspired? It’s hard not to! Autumnweeds lists all creator codes and custom paths in her stories, so you can start decorating your island with those hard to find designs.

3. Goldenmirmy

goldenmirmy on instagram — @goldenmirmy on Instagram

One word, terraforming. For some of us, it haunts our dreams. Others have mastered the skill and use it to create stunning landscapes and mountains that bring their islands to life. Miranda, known as Goldenmirmy on Instagram uses the perfect combination of terraforming, waterfalls and custom paths to create dreamy, lifelike rural areas – the perfect inspiration for getting out of that funk and rekindling the nostalgic love that is Animal Crossing.

By using a mixture of furniture from existing items and the 2.0 update, Goldenmirmy blesses our Instagram feed with beautiful woodland scenes that make us want to dive into our screens head first – just so we can sit and relax on a picnic blanket made of 0s and 1s.

goldenmirmy on youtube and instagram — @goldenmirmy on Instagram

Not only are we gifted with stunning inspirational content, but Miranda also has her own Youtube channel where she frequently posts the most beautiful island tours and unboxing videos for those of you who are into that sort of thing. There’s something really peaceful about sitting snuggled up under a blanket with a hot drink and watching tours of islands created on Animal Crossing. I must admit, it’s a guilty pleasure I have – but it always leaves me feeling inspired.

goldenmirmy instagram feed — @goldenmirmy on Instagram

Have you ever come across a post on your explore page and ended up down a rabbit hole where you find yourself stalking the Instagram account of an Animal Crossing user who lives halfway across the globe – just because you like the colours on their feed? We’ve all fallen victim. Goldenmirmy has created a Preset that you can use to help you create your own Animal Crossing Instagram Feed with a warm, cosy aesthetic.

feeling inspired?

There are thousands of creators on Instagram who publish Animal Crossing content who make my jaw drop. Maybe you’re one of them. For all of those out there who tirelessly create cosy, inspirational content for the rest of us – we salute you. If you’re wondering what my content looks like, you can always check it out over on my Instagram.

3 Reasons why it’s okay to fail.

Dear reader.

I’ve been a little quieter on here than I’d like as life has been very busy at the moment. I managed to get myself onto a new career path after several long years in retail. I’ve taken the first steps in becoming a digital marketer which is super exciting and even means I get to do a little bit of creative writing too! You may be thinking; “It doesn’t sound like you’ve failed.” but I’ve actually tripped over many hurdles to get here, and I know that there will be many hurdles to come. And that’s perfectly okay

Whether it’s failing a level on a video game, flunking an exam or getting the dreaded ‘Unfortunately you were unsuccessful’ email after applying for a job vacancy, in one way or another we’re all bound to fail at something at least once in our lives. Just because we fail and make mistakes does not make us failures and here’s why.

Failing is inevitable:
You WILL fail. We’re humans and therefore we naturally make errors and mistakes. Sometimes you may not possess the right skills, but that doesn’t mean that you never will. By accepting the fact that it is near impossible to succeed on the first time every try, you’ll be less hard on yourself and won’t feel as deterred from giving it another go. Most success stories didn’t get it right the first time. The beloved Walt Disney was told he ‘lacked imagination and had no good ideas’ by the editor of his former newspaper, and we all know how that turned out.

“I think it’s important to have a good hard failure when you’re young… Because it makes you kind of aware of what can happen to you. Because of it I’ve never had any fear in my whole life when we’ve been near collapse and all of that. I’ve never been afraid.” – Walt Disney.

You learn more from failing than from succeeding:
By making mistakes, we are able to learn from them and know what areas we need to improve on. Instead of viewing it as set-back, view it as an opportunity for personal growth. Think of when you’ve ever started a new job. Your mistakes are pointed out but this isn’t to humiliate you or make you feel bad, more so to help you better yourself and improve your skills. If you never accept making a mistake you won’t ever be able to move forwards and learn from it.

By failing your eyes are opened to new paths:
When you fail at something, you may realise that the path you’re currently on isn’t the one for you. Sometimes it may seem like the right one to begin with yet it develops into something that you’re no longer makes you feel content. Failing may make you reconsider pursuing other things or even perhaps changing your views and opinions. If you never fail, you’ll never discover all the other options the world has to offer you.

The past year has been hard for everyone. Covid-19 has seriously affected our daily lives and mental health and probably will for the foreseeable future. A simple mistake could be enough to tip you over the edge if you don’t view it with a positive mindset. Be kind to yourself.

H x

Animal Crossing: Garden of Eden

Dear Readers,

It’s Thursday! The weekend is nearly here and my week off work is drawing to a close. It’s been the perfect opportunity for me to wind down and recuperate after such a busy first week of the store being open. I’ve spent a lot of time rekindling my love for Animal Crossing which I haven’t played much of recently as I felt a bit burnt out. However, with the spring updates meaning players can get an additional 50 custom design slots, my island was screaming for some titivation.

I decided to take the time to go with a bit more of a spring vibe for my island, meaning I spent hours digging up flowers and shrubs that weren’t ‘spring colours’ and replacing them with beautiful yellows, greens and refreshing whites. I’ve found that Instagram has an abundance of Animal Crossing Fan Accounts which showcase some amazing work, sometimes I don’t believe we’re playing the same game! Anyway, I decided that I wanted in on this little bit of fun. After all, I am a photographer at heart. The creative freedom within this game allows me to stage my own virtual photographs, which I have fallen in love with doing. I love showcasing my adorable little furry villagers and imagining what their day to day lives would possibly be like on an island getaway.

I decided to set up my own Animal Crossing Instagram account which I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, but I thought I would share some of my work with you on here too. I recently discovered some in game tricks to add to the different ways I could capture the shots I wanted. I then used instagram to give my photos the sense that they’d been taken on a vintage film camera and I absolutely LOVE the outcome.

A camera trick I learnt to get close up angled shots. – Eden

In a world where we move at 100 miles an hour every day, I love that I can capture moments like this that allow me to feel like I can have a breath of fresh air. It’s a miniature escape for me, even if only for a few minutes and from behind the screen of a Nintendo Switch.

Using the daydream emote outside Nook’s Cranny. – Eden

As you can see, the game is extremely interactive and like I’ve already said there is a vast amount of creative freedom. You have almost total control over the game, you can play at your own pace and for as long or as little at a time as you want. There’s nothing worse than when you’re playing a game and you want to take a break from it, going into the menu to save the game only to get the dreaded ‘unable to save right now’ message. With Animal Crossing, there’s none of that. If you’re an OG player, you may still have PTSD from Ressetti the Mole. If you know, you know. At least the game now has an auto-save feature and you no longer have to spell out ‘I am a loser’.

For me, Animal Crossing has allowed me to connect with a completely new community of people who all have the same love for the game, it is a very wholesome community and the amount of talent some people have when designing their islands is inspiring. You may not be interested at all in this game, and if that’s the case I’m sorry for rambling on about it! If I’ve peaked your interest or if you’re already an Animal Crossing fanatic like myself, I’d love to introduce you to my little safe space.

Welcome to Eden.

H x

https://www.instagram.com/eden.crossings/