So I have a D&D character named Greer (bottom pic - designed by my BF and colored by me) and decided I’d start using Minecraft to sketch what I imagine their hometown is like. Starting from a flat world that is all swamp and building everything from scratch in creative mode. Only 1 farmhouse so far as buildings go.

I’m going to try and combine a medieval/viking sort of aesthetic with gothic architecture. This house is leaning more medieval/viking than gothic, but I figured a little farmhouse wouldn't exactly have soaring towers and flying buttresses and massive stained glass windows.

Made some more progress on Castle Keystone. Detailed out the front edifice. Still LOTS more to do and it’s intimidating but I’m still plugging away every now and then. The second pic is from a nearby village. I just though it looked cool way out on the horizon.

Let me know what you think or tell me some of your favorite building blocks/tricks. I’d love to know.

A bit more progress on those towers I shared yesterday along with a few overall shots. Working on one bit at a time and trying not to get myself overwhelmed.

Finally decided to try to get back to building Castle Keystone. (I know, it’s been forever.) Hadn’t felt motivated to do anything with it til now. Spent a lot of time fighting with these rectangular towers on the lower levels and their buttresses. They weren’t originally part of the design but I came back and the massive blank tiers overwhelmed me immediately so I thought I’d break them up a bit. I kept playing with the roofs. I like that they echo some of the ones from the front of the castle (not that you can see them from this angle...), but they feel like they take up a lot of space.

Also remembering the days without fill commands and structure blocks and not missing them. It’s nice to copy something over instead of having to wholly rebuild it. Although its also scary. I’ve been burned by loading my structure block in the wrong place or filling the wrong area in the past. 

Let me know what you think and if you want to see more of the castle some of my earlier posts and stay tuned. I’m going to do my very best to actually finish this one, at least the exterior.

So what did I end of making out of that oversized glove I showed you yesterday? I made a friend  Meet Schnoofles the Hedgehog, a beautiful oops.

Ever tried to make one thing and ended up with another? Well, that’s what happened this week. Made some silly mistakes in this fingerless glove (my first crochet project). I learned a lot & turned failure into something better. Tomorrow find out what. Hint it’s not gloves ;) Read the full story here: https://tinyurl.com/a2hf6hs8

This new plushie is now available in my Etsy Shop! You can check it out here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/967751273/hamster-plushie-handmade The pattern came from Nuno Runo if you would prefer to sew one for yourself: https://nuno-runo.blogspot.com/2010/02/hamster.html

I’m setting up a Zazzle shop! This way I can add some of my pictures and designs to things you might like or use such as mugs, posters, or t-shirts that I wouldn’t otherwise have the infrastructure to make in my home. For the time being I have a small collection of things up there, but will definitely be adding more as time goes on. For the dragon lovers out there, I’ve already set up a few products with something you might enjoy

Follow this link to reach my shop: https://www.zazzle.com/store/WishUponASpud/?rf=238341835049941368

If you what’s in my shop isn’t for you, I have an affiliate link:

https://www.zazzle.com/?rf=238341835049941368

Anything you purchase from Zazzle by following this link will send a little my way. So please take a look around! There’s lots of cool products available and you can ALWAYS upload your own images to make something custom just for you.

Oh and of COURSE be sure to check out my Etsy for my handmade products. I am certainly not abandoning those!

http://etsy.com/shop/WishUponASpud

I was feeling quite pleased with myself about something and wanted to share the “fun I done” as Adam Savage would put it. Last month I was commissioned to make a very special custom plush. Yesterday it safely arrived at its destination and now it’s safe to talk about it.

I was commissioned to make a puffin, but not just any puffin. A very specific Tufted Puffin. She wanted to gift this fellow to a friend who studied the birds, and one particular puffin, banded TP-10 and nicknamed Ten-ten, was their favorite. I lot of work went into this little guy. Research too, I now know more about puffins than I did before all this. He was a lot of fun to pattern and stitch and I’m thrilled with how he turned out.

I heard from the client that Ten-ten’s new owner is thrilled and she’s a rockstar with them for sending such a clever and thoughtful gift. I’m proud to have had the opportunity to fulfill those wishes for both of them. I’m very glad to hear how happy this little fella has made them both.

I’ve made a new logo for my shop. Still have plenty of stock available, so come check it out.

Come check out my new little Etsy shop! Currently have 4 things up for sale with hopefully more soon.https://www.etsy.com/shop/WishUponASpud

Hand Sewn Lovebird!

Very proud of how this came out. If you are interested in it, I am hoping to sell these in an Etsy shop soon once I hammer out some logistics. Stay tuned!

Castle Keystone WIP Cont. Been not doing great this past week and have procrastinated on this project. But I did manage to get all the crenellations done and I’ve made the buttresses better. I’ve especially been procrastinating on detailing the walls... There’s a lot of surface area to play with and I admit to being overwhelmed. And then I need to worry about interiors and how to get from one area to another... Some are just gonna end up inaccessible due to the size of the space I’ve left myself, like I don’t think you’ll be able to get up inside the tops of the buttress towers on the main spire/keep cause there’s only a 1 block space up through.

Once this build is finished (and I’m really trying to push myself to finish this one) I intend to upload it somewhere. Do any of you know how I can upload just this part of a map somewhere so y’all can download it and play with it/blow it up if you want? I’d put the whole world up but it’s a part of a server and it’d be wrong for me to upload other people’s builds/areas. Also where’d be the best place to upload it? I don’t know how much traffic PlanetMinecraft gets anymore. Would there be somewhere better?

Also still looking for lore ideas for this place if you have any ideas (see original post to see what my thoughts are for the lore so far).

More Progress on Castle Keystone. Still WIP.

Started filling in the wireframes and giving myself some blank canvas walls and floors to work with and adding the roofs and battlements. Also added the little bell towers out the front and detailed the front gate. ^_^

It’s slow going and I haven’t gotten done with the back yet, but I’m making headway. Fill commands and structure blocks have helped in places but there are definitely areas where those tools aren’t gonna help me over much... Haven’t really touched interiors yet. Not sure how much I’m gonna do there but want to save that until the exteriors are done.

Still have no clue about the lore for this place.

Another WIP (I know, I know.... I haven’t finished the last one -_-) . This one has been dubbed Castle Keystone. Not wholly decided on the lore for it but feel like it needs lore. Likely something to do with some Grand Mage. Was playing Dark Souls recently so it kinda influenced the design just a bit. Also rewatched @rythian and @zoeyp‘s Minecraft series Blackrock Chronicles and kinda got inspired by that as well. Wanting to have it be very textured and rather ominous on the outside but have the inside be bright and inviting. The footprint of the building is shaped like a keyhole as are many windows and inlays and even the fountain. Not sure why this mage is obsessed with keys/keyholes. Maybe they have a ring of keys to other worlds or keys are their tool of choice for casting? I also don’t know why they’ve built this in the middle of a massive desert. I’d be happy to hear some of your ideas for lore, denizens of the digital realm.

This started out as just one of the two hourglass/square towers at the front and has been growing over the last few days. Spent most of today making the wireframe of the exterior so I know what I want it to look like and how high I want it to go. (The main tower reaches build limit :P) Now I just need to add all the details.... Ho boy.  It’s been a while since I’ve done anything in Minecraft. Has been nice to feel inspired.

Making some tweaks and changes. Decided having every roof be the same was not as interesting and really wanted to incorporate more purples into the palette, so I replaced the farmhouse roof and the silo roof with some crimson planks and retextured purpur blocks. (I find the normal color far too bright for most applications.) I also tweaked the blocks I used on the silo in general from quartz to bone, dark oak wood to srpuce and cyan terracotta to andesite. The trapdoors started looking out of place with the new roof so I broke them and replaced the bone underneath with a layer of dark prismarine.  Not sure if I’m going to keep the changes to the silo or switch them back. Changing its palette makes it look like it’s no longer part of the warehouse and I’m not sure yet whether or not I like that. I also have started in on a mining town behind the warehouse. So far it’s just 2 houses and a shed (not pictured) but that just means I’ve got plenty more to add. Planning on making a series of little townships/settlements/farms etc all the way down the river which I know for a fact does lead to the sea (I widened/deepened the whole thing by 2 blocks). Planning on building a walled castle town by the seaside with a market and things. Might be a while before I get there but the inspiration exists. I also scouted a fabulous spot to put in a water mill so that’ll be fun ^_^ Part of me wants to populate the buildings with villagers (retextured as elves) but I also don’t want them messing things up. I summoned some farmers earlier and they started punching out the melon stems in the melon farm >_< I imagine if I turn mob griefing off it’d be fine.

Changes to the Farmhouse exterior and some interior work. Kinda wasn’t a fan of my original balconies and had no idea what I was going to do with them and then suddenly got the idea to make them into hanging gardens. Didn’t really have the space to hang much but I did re-texture the 1.16 weeping vines into some lovely flowering vines. Also if you see any blocks that look small and odd like the bread and jam in the dining room, those are custom heads from https://minecraft-heads.com/