Moon Moon

   I'm not a particularly lucky person (recent events not withstanding*), not in terms of fun things, anyway. I am healthy, my family don't struggle for money, and I'm not a chav. I'm lucky in those areas. But, like I said, in terms of fun things, I don't find much luck.

   Except within WoW.

   I found the Green Protodrake in my third egg long before the drop rate had increased; I found and tamed Sambas the first time I went looking for him while Cata was definitely still relevant; I got the Reins of the Thundering Onyx Cloud Serpent on my third kill...there are other things, but I've forgotten them. I don't have the Timelost Proto Drake, 'nor Aeonaxx, and others similar.

   But today I took Atherya to the Darkmoon Faire to do the pet battle daily (I take it down easily just by using and killing the Darkmoon Tonk, using and killing the Dark Pheonix, and then using the Darkmoon Zepplin which usually survives), and I happened to see some wolves while scoping the area. I knew that they had to be killed to spawn elite wolves, and they had to be killed to spawn Moonfang.

   Atherya is still only 86, so she couldn't do much in the way of damage, but I kept her in place and had her kill Moonfang instead of switching to someone else. It took a long time with a lot of people, but we got him down, and right away I got Moon Moon. I also got the quest but I'm not 90 so I can't use it.

*recent events include (and I promise I don't intend to boast) winning the $25 JiNX gift certificate, a $50 Wassupbrothers gift certificate, a 'surprise' from Galaxy, which I'll find out about when I receive it, getting contacted about reviewing a really awesome product and getting a free one to review and keep, and getting a Hearthstone Beta key. I promise this is all just one huge stroke of luck lately, but there are other things I'd rather this luck have been used on instead. Still, it's been an exciting few weeks! :P

Preparing for Christmas (a non-WoW post)

   Hey guys! I don't usually have to explain myself anywhere but my other blog, as I often go quiet without warning, but I've been quite quiet here too as of late, only really posting announcements. Atherya's diary has fallen to one side - but only because I've been too busy to get the screenshots. They're written and waiting to go up, though.

   But the reason I've been somewhat absent is because I've been putting a lot of work into my Etsy shops Peaches and Pebbles and Grumble Cave Monsters - it's not so easy to tell from first glance, especially on the latter, but I've been working on new products, tweaking older listing pages, stocking up and preparing for the holiday season, and attempting to get a few Halloween pieces in, too. I'm hoping I'll do as well this Christmas as I did last, but it's a very foggy and unclear outlook. Selling handmade, especially from the UK (most of my business comes from the US), is an uncertain business, and I won't know what to expect until I get there. I actually have an offer for my readers in regards to my shops but I'm going to wait until November to post that - not to build suspense, it's just because it's a Christmas promotion.

   I've had a few purchases recently, which has excited me a little, and, sadly, causes me to expect more to follow immediately, but they can very suddenly stop coming in. I sold three things over a week after a month of nothing, and they came rather out of nowhere. But I've stocked up my supplies and started making a few pieces to keep on hand for rush orders. I usually make everything on demand, but over the Christmas period, people have a tendancy to wait until the last minute, and any day I can save by having things already made is valuable. The last thing I want to do is have to cancel and refund orders. That hurts - it hurts a lot. I've been amazingly lucky so far. I had a few last-minute orders last year, and I warned them that they probably wouldn't arrive in time (I had the Christmas order deadlines posted in my shops' banners, info, policies, listings, and on my blog), and said they could cancel the order if they wanted, but each of them said it was fine, because it either wasn't a gift for anyone but themselves, or that they wanted the item for someone badly enough that they were happy to wait. They weren't disappointed, though: the postal service really got their stuff together and what usually takes 2 weeks to get the US, and about 3 or so weeks during Christmas, only took one and they had it in time for Christmas anyway. But I'm sure I'll be less lucky this year.

   On to another note, I have a new competition planned which I will be posting about tomorrow - no, it's not the same as the last one. It's easier, more visually entertaining, and hopefully fun. Well, I enjoyed doing my own, at least. There will be prizes - three winners, and perhaps honourable mentions - so there's more chance to win this time, and it's much easier to participate. Like I said, I'll tell you more tomorrow.

Atherya Sunleaf Writing Competition - Winners

   The competition came to a close on the 30th of September, and I ended up with five entries that all came in at the end. I actually don't think it went as badly as it could have, though I didn't get as many entries as I had hoped, each one I did get were great quality, even from those who don't speak English as a first language.

   There can, however, only be one winner.

   I based the winner on ideas and quality of story, not quality of writing. I needed a story that introduced a new character for a short period of time, and an idea for something of note to happen during Northrend.

   So it is with great excitement that I announce the winner as Jojo, of Admiring Azeroth. She's won her story being integrated into the diary, the story's place on this blog, a month of advertising time on my sidebar, a WoW TCG loot card pet, and a custom watercolour painting of her WoW character (not necessarily the one she used in the story). Though I can't guarantee it'll be particularly amazing.

   Two honourable mentions go out, as well. The first to Luxy of Luxypie and Rainbows, first of all for being the first entry, but also because of the skill shown within the writing. The second to Rinike  of Rinike's Wardrobe, for her marvellous attempt. She was perhaps the most hesitant to enter out of everyone, as far as I know, partly because English is not her first language. I'm glad she was able to jump that fence and join in. Both of you have won a consumable WoW loot card each. I'll be in touch with each of you individually shortly to work out prizes.

   While I hope some of you do read the diaries, I will of course publicly announce when the winning story has been posted with the diary, and when the diary entries that feature such a story start.

WCC: Chocolate Arcane Eye Truffles

   My third piece for my WoW Crafting Challenge: Chocolate Arcane Eyes. Before I start, however, I have to give a special shout out to my friend Vicky over at VividPlease for being a star and printing that screenshot for me. I printed it myself but it came out pink. Yes, pink. I wouldn't have had a backdrop for this picture if not for her, and while I could have tried to edit the screenshot in behind it, I'm not sure it would have gone well. So thank you Vicky!

   These were a pain to do. I've made chocolates a hundred times before, but I've never done them quite like this. Usually they consisted of milk or dark chocolate, since white chocolate is the least healthy chocolate in terms of cocoa (those 'happy chemicals' in chocolate only actually exist in dark and raw chocolate. The greater the cocoa %, the healthier and happier it is, and you can't get much more concentrated than raw chocolate), and I'm not as keen on it, but it would have been a true challenge to colour milk chocolate light blue.
   Coating chocolates in chocolate - or anything in chocolate - is difficult because of the tempering (heating and cooling process) the chocolate goes through before it makes it onto shops' shelves. I had heard of Candy Melts by Wilton some time ago, but never bothered with them because they were white chocolate - in truth, they're not really chocolate, but they taste like white which doesn't appeal to me too much. But for this, I decided to get some. They're designed to be melted and then cool again. If you melt a chocolate bar and cover something in it, it won't set quite properly. It'll melt much easier once it's hardened which makes for messier products. The Candy Melts, however, were made with this in mind, and are totally solid after cooling.
   I was planning on buying white ones and colouring them, but just so happened to find some in the perfect shade of blue, which saved me £3 on food colouring, and messing around trying to get the shade right, and cleaning the blue stains afterwards. I also bought 2 bottles of lustre dust in Ice Blue and Ocean Blue, though I only ended up using the former.
   I also used three Galaxy milk chocolate bars and a bit of heavy cream to make the ganache filling.

   First, I made the ganache, with one part cream to three parts chocolate (I used one cup of double cream and three 114g milk chocolate bars). It's super easy, you just heat up the cream and then pour it over the broken up chocolate and mix it until the chocolate has melted. Finding a recipe for it is easy and they're mostly all the same.
   I put it in the fridge, but as you can see from the picture, I was impatient and made a ball a bit too soon. It was still too soft so I chucked it back in. I left it in the fridge over night, but to be honest it would have gone better if I'd left it in there for maybe 2 days instead of one.
   As you can see, it's quite firm even after just one day.

   Next I scooped chocolate out with a teaspoon and made 1 inch balls. They were quite soft and stuck to my hand a bit, and needed rerolling after a few hours - I left half of the mixture in the fridge, unrolled, for another day, which is why I now know it was better to wait and have more patience. I stuck them on cocktail sticks (they ended up sliding down them) and put them in the freezer to harden them faster, and when they'd set again, I rerolled them. They tidied up better this time. You'll also see from this picture that I coated them in cocoa powder. I did this to keep them from sticking to my hand which gave them a rounder shape, but it proved to be a mistake as I tell you later on. Most of the chocolates you see at the end were actually chocolates made from the 2-day cooled chocolate.

   Next I melted the Candy Melts. They kept the same blue colour, but the problem was that they were quite thick. I've looked this up and it's common for them to be very thick, and I read that adding oil to them can thin it without compromising taste and texture, though it did reduce their hardness at the end - they were still hard, but because I wanted them to be coated smoothly all over, I needed it to be thinner. If I was just putting them on a plate and covering them to look more gourmet, then I wouldn't have needed to thin the chocolate and the shell would have been much thicker. The oil did not make the chocolate oily or even remotely weird, it was quite good.
   The Candy Melts can be remelted, and to be sure I had enough to dip into I melted the whole bag. When I was done, I spread it all over clingfilm and put it away. It hardened and I was able to break it back up and put it back in its bag and melt it a week later over a cake.
   The chocolates kept coming off of the cocktail sticks, so I ended up using a soon to spread the chocolate over rather than dipping them in, and I ended up giving them three coats since the chocolate was thinned. Then I put them back in the freezer. The weight of the chocolate shell weighed the chocolates down and some of them slid back down the cocktail stick, but they were easily corrected once they had set. I took them off of the sticks and added a little bit of the melted chocolate to the top to cover the hole, let it set and that was that.
   The reason the cocoa powder didn't work was because it mixed into the melted chocolate once I put it on there. I should have expected this. It left brown, chocolatey streaks through the coat, which was very difficult to correct. The chocolates that had been allowed to set a day or two longer before being rolled had a rounder shape even without cocoa powder, and didn't suffer from the brown streaks.

   When they had fully set, I took out the lustre dust. I could have bought edible paint but that cost more for just one colour, and I had used the dust before, so I knew what could be achieved. However, they didn't take well to the chocolate. What I did was take a clean, unused paint brush and painted a line with water onto the ball for the iris. It let it dry a little bit then put some of the ice blue powder onto it. I used the wet brush to spread it around into the shape of the iris, and it took much better. Once that had dried, I added more powder and was able to darken it. I did this on each of the chocolates. Not all of them worked - it was annoying and tedious so some of them went wrong by human error, but I was happy to have most of them work, and I picked five of the best (yes, those were the best five - this project did not go as well as I had hoped, but I know I couldn't do it better).

Entry 26: Setting Back Out

3rd Day of Summer

   The past few days have been interesting, to say the least. The Dwarves hospitality hasn't waned in the slightest, but, as ever, instead it seems a little too much. There's a lot of food - I can only wonder just where they get it from in a place like this - and a few too many glances in my direction with a different kind of hunger to them. But, all in all, it's been relatively peaceful. After thwarting the Dark Iron's attempt at doing Ragnaros' bidding, the Dwarves say they've not had sight 'nor sound of them. It's presumed they're trying to correct their efforts and start over again, as they seem to have some perverse need to have and serve a fiery overlord, but I doubt I'll be around when time comes to shut their operation down again. It seems to be an ongoing battle, but I can understand why they choose not to take war directly to the Dark Irons. They don't have the numbers, and as far as I can tell from their vague responses whenever I ask, the other Dwarven Clans don't seem inclined to help.
   The Dwarves haven't just been hospitable, they've been educational as well. The blacksmith of the area, Burninate, showed me how to repair my armour, and even made me a new set. It fits far better than anything I had before, and it's darker in colour as well. Of course, how they figured out my size when they're surely used to working with Dwarven figures concerns me a bit. I was told by another Dwarf that the generous gift of their craft was a grand one indeed, because, though they were fighting their brethren, the were shrewd individuals and didn't offer their services for nothing very often at all.
   They also showed me how to make a weapon, and so the axe at my side now has been forged, in part, by myself. I don't have as much confidence in it as my previous weapon, but that belonged to my brother. It was a difficult decision to take it with me when I left, but I couldn't leave unarmed, and neither could I afford a new weapon just for me. Obviously I can't leave it behind so I will have to burden Styric with it. I was, however, able to sell them my previous armour. They said they doubted they could do much with it, so if they couldn't find a buyer, they might be able to reforge the metal. I didn't get much for it, but I hadn't payed for it anyway.
   They also showed me how to swing the axe properly, so I've learned a little self defence from these wonderful people, too. I have to admit, for a race not inclined towards the Horde at all, they've been more hospitable than anyone else I've come across.

   I plan to move off tomorrow, but I'm feeling a little reluctant. Summer has been setting in for some time now, and it's finally ticked over to officially changing season, but the heat in this area - and the areas surrounding it - are more than I feel I can handle. The volcanic mountain a few miles to the south is spewing ash and increased heat over the Searing Gorge, and I don't feel inclined to head towards it, though I wish to see the Burning Steppes and the ruins of Thaurissan, and the jungle of Stranglethorn Vale further south.
   I feel I may just have to suck it up and start moving, or I'll still be here in Midsummer. The heat makes one feel lazy, and it's not just me that has to move, afterall, though I think when the heat truly sets in, I'll have to walk and give Styric a bit of a rest.
   I'll set out tomorrow, either south of back to the east. Either way, I'm not going to be out of this heat in any hurry, and atleast there's water to the south. I just have to pass on through.

   Yes, I'll set out tomorrow.

-- Atherya Sunleaf