So after a weekend with the minecraft 1.8 Pre-release, I'm liking what I see so far, and am excited to see what the official release of 1.8 has/changed and what 1.9 will be adding on. Here are some pics from what I've been doing...
My little house (i hate the roof, planning on redoing)
My storage room, complete with waterfall (unintentionally hit a pond)
My garden, complete with 8 melon plants and more vines than I know what to do with. I kinda like them just randomly hanging though.
A view into the Ravine underneath my house. Abandoned mineshaft above it. The picture is taken from the ladder down it. (just happened to line up perfectly with the shaft I was making)