Hello Lovies!
Most of the day yesterday, and a lot of today I have been on Minecraft working on my home. When I first spawned, it was right next to a jungle temple, so I just made a door and used that as my home. I took out the traps and made a mine, I set up a bed and chests.
The other day I decided to finally make it look more like a home. I started a base beside it trying to figure out how I was going to incorporate the temple, after all it was full of chests and had my mine entrance, I didn't want to destroy it and move everything. I figured, first I would finish what I was doing so I laid out the base and slowly worked up, going out and gathering more sand for glass and more clay for brick, and more wood when I needed to. Soon the house was completed but the temple, made of cobblestone stood out and did not look very nice beside it. I started putting wood here and there, changing the steps to brick and adding glass and before I knew it, the temple had become a new part of the house.
I took the picture above and just loved the house but I wanted more to it, I wanted maybe a flower garden and a pond. Perhaps I could build a bridge. What I did notice was that the animals in the front with the farm just took away from the house. So carefully i moved the farm and the animals to the back, making a new home for them there with better pens. I happened to have some dandelions on me, as they grow everywhere in the jungle, and so i made some yellow dye and dyed a sheep yellow, capturing a black sheep as well and bringing it in.
In the achievements, there is one that rewards you if you collect all 16 colors of wool. I decided that sounded like fun, but I would figure that out later. I walked to the front and started digging down to make a pond, with a granite edging as a path. It took me many many tries to get the bridge right, but once I did it just looked magical, only problem was I really wanted lily pads in the pond but they are found in swampy waters, not a jungle. I had another problem, the only flowers in the jungle were stupid little dandelions, I hadn't seen any actual flowers. So I gather up my compass, clear up my inventory and started walking away from home. I walked a very long time, out of the jungle, through a pine forest, back through a jungle and then I saw it, a huge field of wild flowers. It had flowers of every color and kind imaginable! I was so excited i instantly started collecting a full stack of 64 each. I looked around but could not find any lily pads though, so I turned around with my flowers and followed my compass back home, stopping to take wool from grey sheep, where I planted the flowers around my pond and in the back.
Something was still missing, a fence around the property to protect it from the monsters if I am out of peaceful mode. I decided on cobble stone and slowly set it around the entire perimeter. I put it around the house side of the pens, leaving a path. In some parts i had to dig away from the hill, but I got it done and after grabbing some iron and making some metal fencing, I put it around the cobble and made a lovely gate for my home. Now, flowers are the main ingredients for many of the dyes, so gather up some wheat for the sheep and making as much dye as i could, also using some lapis for blue, I started making the sheep mate and changing their colors, taking their wool when they were full grown. I took a picture of all the naked sheepies because it made me giggle.
Their wool soon grew back and I added more and more colors until I hit a problem. I could easily do brown from cocoa beans since they were everywhere here, but the only way i could get green [and there for lime green and cyan] was with cactus. Cactus grows in a desert and I had yet to find one. But I had to try. So I set out in a different direction and walked. I found another field of flowers, passed a pack of wolves and alot of bunnies. I even made a boat and set sail untill I finally found a desert. Happily I gathered up as much cactus as I could and returned.
The reason i never made a grey sheep was that you need an ink sack to make black and grey. So, i just gathered the wool for the achievement instead. There wasn't a lot of room in my sheepies home, so i expanded it for them. The dummies however love to converge in one tiny spot.
The Important thing was, I got the achievement and all of the different colors of wool. I was very proud of myself. Not only did I have a rainbow of sheep, but I also had the achievment and my home looked amazing.
Now, while I was on my long cactus journey I found little patches of swamp and guess what was in the water? Lily pads! I gathered up tons of it and once home I instantly put it out on my pond. Lastly I planted some reeds in sand around the pond and I was finally done with my home. The inside I put flowers and dug a basement for my brewing stand and all my potions.
Walking around my home, making sure everything was as I wanted I put the dogs outside. They have a nasty habit of jumping up on the fencing and trying to go into the fire place. The cat is good so far, it loves to just sit around.
The cat I got from taming an ocelot I found wandering around. Ocelots are harder to tame then wolves. Wolves you just give a bone to till they are happy. Ocelots you have to have fresh fish and you cannot walk up to them. Holding the fish in your hand you have to wait for them to decide to come to you before you can feed it to them till they are happy. Then the ocelot transforms into a house cat. Mine became a tuxedo which reminded me of the first cat I ever owned, Princess, who died at 20 years of age. The red and yellow cube in the picture is glow stone I gathered from the nether. It is brighter then a torch so I used that to light the inside of my home. You need plenty of light, because in the darkness any kind of nasty can spawn.
Finally though my house was completed and it looks so fabulous. I have a picture of the front and the back so you can see my handiwork. I don't think it looks that bad for someone just going off random ideas. The squarish part of the house on the right is what used to be the jungle temple. The left is the home I built from the ground up.
In the last picture you can see the back of my house, with all my farm and animals. I have pigs, cows, sheep, and chickens. On my cactus journey I found a village and gathered up some potatoes I have planted in my farm. The only thing I am missing now is carrots.
I am super excited about my home. I hope you enjoy it to. I found that when life sucks and is hard to deal with creative tasks like mine craft are soothing to me. They are a form of active meditation for me. Active meditation is a task that takes up all your concentration. A task, such as drawing or knitting, or things like that that your mind shuts off to focus on. It's meditating without the stillness. Life is hard for me right now. The cardiologist is doing tests but does not think they will find anything and I am loosing hope. This is something I could do and enjoy while forgetting the world for a little while.For anyone wondering I am using the Windows 10 version of Minecraft, and I have the Fantasy Texture added to it.
Goodnight Lovies!
J. K. Van'Ellessad
