Box of Bloodied Water - Assassin's Creed Black Flag VERY Special Edition

   The specialist of all, in fact, because it's one of a kind.

   I had seen lots of people on 9gag hiding GTAV in lots of marshmallows in September. We'd pre-ordered the game, so my boyfriend already knew he was getting it, and when, so while it was a nice idea, it couldn't be done. But, I did bank the idea in my brain box!

   Shortly after all this, I remembered Assassin's Creed 4 was coming out at the end of November, but Koruth said he wanted it for the PS4. He didn't expect to get the console until some point in 2014, because it was so expensive. Though I did so well over Christmas with Peaches and Pebbles I knocked the lot of it out at the beginning of November, and I gave it to him for his birthday today. He was most pleased! Unfortunately he isn't the type to show that enthusiasm for anything other than one thing in particular, and that makes it difficult for someone like me who loves giving people gifts and loves seeing their reaction. But I know that he does like it, and he is happy.

   Anyway! I got AC4 for the PS4 after preordering the machine, and it came in some time ago and hid in the wardrobe. And I began to plan my ultra special Box of Bloodied Waters edition of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag.

   First of all, I got a wooden box. I wanted blood splatters on it, and that was easier said than done. I don't tend to kill people, so I have no idea off of the top of my head what blood splatters typically look like (at least in any realistic way), so I took a bottle of red paint that was almost empty and shot it at the box. It didn't work too well - acrylic paint and blood are not really very similar in terms of thickness. Still, I did my best, and applied darker red paint to some areas.

   Next I painted the inside of the box. I went from blue to black so it was similar to deep waters, but I had the intention to fill it with blue as well when it was all done, so it wouldn't just be that. I think it came out really nicely actually ^^ the blood came out okay, but the only bits I really like are the bits that run down the sides. Still, I did my best!

   Next I made my plaque. I had actually gone around to lots of people on Etsy asking if it would be possible to cut a piece of metal for me, but every one of them turned me away either because it was too big a piece, or they didn't want to do just one. They all suggested I try myself with a jeweller's saw. I did not. Instead I stuck to something I knew: clay. I actually free-hand cut the clay instead of using some kind of stencil, and as always it was a needle I used because I have no tools for clay at all. I was and still am very surprised with how well it came out! It's not perfect; if you look at it portrait ways you can see that the rounded parts come further out on one side than the other, but it's not meant to be looked at that way ^^ from a landscape view it's actually perfectly acceptable and you'd never really notice.

   Another reason I decided to try it with clay was because I had actually been practising the lettering. Initially I had planned to just write 'Box of Bloodied Waters' onto the box itself, but it didn't work very well and I needed to cover it up. I should have expected the bloody ink to bleed. That was entirely my mistake. But I didn't want to have to push my practised lettering to one side, so I engraved it into the clay with a needle. I filled the lettering in with black because I wasn't sure what sort of coverage spray paint would give, but it gives awesome coverage. If anyone is interested - because I know I would be - I used Rust-oleum Metallic Brilliant Finish Chrome. I had read about lots of different paints but none of the silvers were much good. Chrome is brighter and more silver than silver, but it certainly isn't any kind of mirror. If you're looking for a silver spray paint, get chrome.

   I then screwed it down to the lid, and that was that! Then came time to fill it. In truth I had wanted to fill it with blue sweets for water, and a few pockets of red for blood, but I couldn't think of any blue sweets he likes, and any that were red were more like pink. Nuisance! Though my solution was simple enough: use blue and red cellophane bags. I got packs of 30 for £1.50 on Ebay and that did just fine. In the end I used 750g of marshmallows, 500g of Millions, and some gummy dolphins.

   Along with Assassin's Creed 4: Skull Edition, I also added £18 worth of Riot points for League of Legends, and a set of 'Nothing is True/Everything is Permitted' rings I found on Etsy by EriCreations. They look a lot better in person than in the image, and I was really chuffed with the quality to be honest. I could have had the bands in gold, silver and so on, but they were for Koruth so I thought black would be best, and I could have had the lettering coloured too, but I felt that black on black was best given the nature of Assassins :P

   So, I wrapped up the game, painted a little wooden box for the rings to go in (which you can see 2 pictures up), made a little pillow for them and put them in the bottom of the box.
   I used about 300g of marshmallows and 2 blue cellophane bags to create a sort of marshmallow sheet to hide the gifts, then I made 5 red pouches totalling 500g of Millions and put the 450 Riot point cards in them, and made lots of bags of 3 marshmallows so that there'd be lots of 'water' as well. I finished it off with some gummy dolphins as fishies ^^ it was a very heavy box in the end, you really underestimate the weight of marshmallows!

   Then I wrapped it up in brown parcel paper, because I wanted it to stand out from the other gifts and make it look a bit more relevant to the game, which is set in the golden age of Piracy, so around the 1700s, late 1600s I believe. I also added a wax seal I bought some time ago from the amazing Katrina Alana on Etsy to it as well to make it a bit more special.
   He was surprised by it, though he was more interested in the game, but at the end of the day it was just about presentation ^^ I like to put the effort in and had loads of fun doing it.

Merry Christmas!

And Back To WoW.

   Yup, my business is all finished for Christmas. After a very long and very busy November and December rushed off of my feet filling in orders, I'm finally able to relax, and it feels good. I had loads of fun with my shop, I realise how lucky I am to be payed for crafting, but it can get tiring, and I'm glad to be done with it now until the new year.

   I managed to get the Emerald Hippogryph - yes, I recruited myself, just like I did for the Obsidian Nightwing, but none of my friends are gamers, and none of them are at all willing to pay for WoW and all the expansions (despite the Vanilla-Cata edition) and then the monthly subscription after it, but nevermind. I only did it because it was on sale - this mount ended up costing me £13, which is £4 less than an average Blizz store mount, and £7 less than the Enchanted Fey Dragon (which is so worth the money - I was worried I'd be disappointed with it once I got it, but I'm not!).

   I've been doing a lot of archaeology. I love it, I really do, though I have little idea why since it's so repetative. The only idea I have is that it gets me all across WoW and into all of the different zones, zones I've not been in for ages, and that's nice ^^ But I get bored and distracted and so on so it's not surprising that I give up eventually, or grow bored, but it's the one thing that I'm always eager to return to when I think of it.

   I managed to clear the Vrykul, Nerubian, Orc and Draenei digsites last week, and get all of the rare items (and, I presume, the normal ones too - I never actually thought to check achievements...well that's something else for me to do, isn't it!), and now I'm working on getting the last single rares from Troll, Dwarf and Night Elf. Once I've done that I'll go back to Mogu, Pandaren and Mantid. I'm a little sick of the sight of MoP, but only because I've been out there for so long and not in the other lands, and it's nice to have a change, but so far I've not completed a single MoP rare, though I have at least discovered the Mantid's sonic gun thingy.

   I also got this shot of Zes'qua on the Timeless Isle - I'm pretty sure it's a bug. I've only killed her about three times so I can't remember but I'm pretty sure she's not supposed to die like that, but I think it's quite a pretty shot! :D

    I'm getting back to WoW now, anyway. My sales came to a stop today, and I'm (kind of) pleased for it, because yesterday was my last posting day this year. They'll start up again soon, but to nowhere near the extent they were during November and December - but I have learned a lesson: don't base the current year's success off of the one before. I tripled everything this November and December compared to November and December in 2012, and while I doubt that I'll triple everything again next year, I had better be sure I have loads of stock and supplies, just in case. If it's even just as busy as this year, at least I won't have to panic and overnight supplies from overseas. Ouch. But, I can say that, while some people did purchase too late to get their purchases in time for Christmas, I did get everything out of the door by the deadlines and within the shipping time frame stated on each order, so I'm very happy ^^

   Is everyone else ready for Christmas?

Rotten Helper Box

   I don't know what the rarity of this item is - in fact I didn't even know it existed until I got it. I presume it's a new addition to the Winter Veil world event this year. I got it on my second go - I took Atherya out, did the daily, wondered why I was doing it because I thought I had everything, but I had already gotten Spinegrinder to Tirisfal Glades, so I decided to just carry on. When I came back, I turned in the quest, opened the box and there was a flash of blue! The Rotten Helper Box.

   The little freak has a board with a nail in it, and he mounts up on a reindeer when you mount up. Sadly, it does not fly, which I find a bit odd to be honest, but it's quite awesome that he gets on a little reindeer! Good luck everyone else on obtaining this pet!

It's That Time In The Expansion...

   On my server, at least, it's quite dead. There's little to do to keep me interested. The Timeless Isle was amazing, but I felt it got quite repetative. Not so much that I'll complain about it, but enough so that I can't be bothered to log on just for that. And given that I don't have any friends on my server, I've got no one to play with, and also given my little business, I've had little time to anyway. I still have a long to-do list including JoJo's watercolour (it'll get done, I promise!), and Christmas planning is also taking up a lot of my time.

   I've not managed to do anything new for the WoW Crafting Challenge - while my shop's been doing well, Christmas shopping has taken the lead and I've not had the money, time or imagination to work on anything new. I have things that are half-done, and I'm planning to pick it up again in January when things have settled down, though I am also hoping to make a Winter Veil specific piece in time for Christmas, but I haven't decided what yet. I've never knitted a day in my life, so that knocks out the Gaudy Winter Veil Sweater! If I could, I would! Also, rather surprisingly, everything that I was selling from the challenge has, in fact, been sold, and quite quickly, too - both maps, the bag, the jewellery, and I've sold the sewing pattern for the bag twice, too. I'm quite surprised!

   I'm looking forward to the new WoW expansion, but it looks like it's probably still quite a way off, which bums me out a bit. I went about recruiting myself for the recruit a friend too, while the game was just £4, but I've not gotten around to buying the second month of game time on the recruited account. I'm not too interested in any of the pets that are available - they might be rare and only previously available in Asia, but they just don't do it for me. I'm only interested in the mount - it's gorgeous!

   Is everyone else ready for Christmas? I got my proper Christmas shopping knocked out a month ago, but started buying things like decorations and working on my chocolate topiary tree for the family with more Lindt and Ferrero Rocher like last year, and I'm also working on smaller ones for my 4 year old nephew.