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I had this wild idea to do monthly (or semi-monthly) update blogs - probably only because I feel like I've accomplished a lot of cosplay stuff so far this year. "Feels like" is the operative phrase here, but still, let's take a look: ProjectsWar: In January I finally finished my War cosplay (started 2019). I had put time into the accessories in late 2023, as well as replacing the pants, but the wig/hairpiece was the biggest (i.e. most intimidating) and final piece. I made the faux-hawk and braid combo from scratch using the wefts from a ponytail clip (dyed to match my hair) and red wefts, both from Cactus Mafia. All the wefts were hand-sewn to a felt strip - probably not the best choice for my base, but it was convenient and a discrete colour. Then came lots of teasing for texture and volume, curling the top, pinning the top into place, and braiding the back. It's not exactly what I had envisioned (but what ever is?), and it definitely reads as War. In any case, it's better than having to use my own hair again next time I put on the costume. Blanca Flightsuit: I'm keeping the inspiration for this one under wraps until the Costume-Con 42 Single Pattern Contest, so I'm going to label it with the pattern name instead of my inspiration. I laid out a very reasonable timeline for myself in early January to keep me on track for the deadline but also ended up with both less time and less energy than anticipated. No surprise: I'm way behind and I don't know if I will get it done. But I did sketch out my design options, chose fabrics, and assembled the pattern pieces in January. February was all about working out the design details, fitting a mock-up, trying to source materials, and cutting fabric. Not too much to show off here, so I'll just add pics of my mock-up as proof of life - I promise the finished garment will be at least a little bit prettier.
Amity video: At the very end of 2023 I finished a new Amity Blight cosplay with the hope to use it for some Christmas cosplay photos, but sadly didn't get it done early enough. However, it seemed like a great option for the Con-G masquerade, especially since for once I wouldn't freeze if I wore it outside! Since I have multiple Amity costumes at this point, I settled on a montage video showing all of them off, and doing it in the style of a sitcom opening. Prepping, shooting, editing, and putting together my build book and video accounts for most of my flightsuit time sacrificed in January, but I think it was worth it. More on that below... EventsTriCon: I was psyched for this to be my first con of the year - to see friends in the Kitchener ON area again and also go back to The Museum, which I haven't seen since the first TriCon in 2014! Sadly the winter weather wasn't in my favour and I had to cancel the drive, but I'll try again next year! Con-G Geeks @ Home: It’s difficult posting about a con when I wasn’t actively cosplaying and meeting up with my friends, and feels silly to recap programming when almost everything is now available online. It was a bit more of a challenge attending (viewing) this year than previous because I had many other things going on over the weekend, but I managed to catch several panels as well as the masquerade, made some drinks, and enjoyed the FMV blocks! As mentioned, all of the panels are already available on Youtube to watch on demand so I highly recommend taking a look at the playlist and checking out some of them! Additionally, here's the link to the masquerade and to my entry by itself. I ended up winning Best in Class for Master division, which was awesome; especially considering how many other Master entries there were this year! Looking forward to Con-G at home again next year! What else?I have so many (far too many) things in-progress these days. I'm knitting on TV nights with my mother, which means I'm making very slow progress on my Impervious shawl. I love the pattern but it's somewhat tedious to knit, so maybe I'll make enough progress to show off in a future post. For now, this is the point I was at around the start of the year  Website updates are coming - I know I still have a few "new" cosplay galleries which are missing, but it's been really hard to set aside time for that kind of work. Sadly, costumes with actual deadlines have to come first with my scant time for hobbies.
Unrelated to cosplay or crafting, I'm still staying active with running and dancing at the gym, and still playing D&D (in the second year of our current campaign!) I managed to squeeze in two visits to Kitchener to see friends, and celebrated my birthday at home with new and old friends. I finally defeated Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom so I can start a new game guilt-free (though I'm still working on finishing up all the side-quests). That's enough for now - look forward to the next update after Costume-Con 42!
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Let's take our annual look back on 2023, shall we? The year was a real struggle for cosplay - I ended up short on time for new builds which is definitely a running theme and (realistically) is only going to get worse year-over-year as I get older and also pick up other pastimes and hobbies (more on that later). Let's take a look at the costumes I made:  What I ended up with here is all easy/casual cosplay plus one old costume finished off. I still take that as a win! Chrissy from Animal Crossing was just something fun for both Year of the Rabbit and Easter posts Mom/Grace from Umbrella Academy was a cosplay I had started in 2019 and really wanted to just get completed. I finished the costume in time to enter the Con-G Virtual masquerade, where I won Best Master! I wore her again to Anime North for a meetup - unfortunately I am not sure if I'll be taking her to any more cons since the size is no longer good. Robert Baratheon was a fun project to go with my Cersei from Game of Thrones. I spent more time than I wanted to making alterations to Cersei so that she would fit again, but in the end I got Robert done in time for Halloween, which was the goal. Princess Waluigi was this year's silly "April Fool's" costume - very ridiculous but I had fun throwing it together with stuff from my closet plus making a custom crown. Amity Blight from Owl House is a repeat character but new "winter" outfit which I literally finished yesterday so I don't have photos yet... if I go to any winter cons in 2024 she will probably make an appearance.  Other less cosplay-related projects from the year include a cross stitch I made as an Umbrella Academy prop (for a specific photoshoot which hasn't actually happened yet), progress on my Impervious shawl, a commissioned Monokuma hat, one (of a couple) soap saver bags, a set of luma plushies for friends' children, and I started learning crochet with a couple of Woobles kits. I love how cute the critters turned out. I didn't attend a ton of conventions this year - checked out a couple of local events with SPCS and CKX, then the usual Anime North and Yeticon. I had hoped to do more but timing and travel just weren't on my side. The Oxford Ren Fest ended up replacing the con experience a bit, but I'm planning to do a few more in 2024 - I miss my con friends. As for how all this compares to my plans at the start of the year....  Mom got done! I made good progress on War, and am very close to being finished, but really need like a couple more days of holiday/vacation to get the wig done. Emi got cancelled altogether pretty early in the year - it just wasn't something I was passionate enough about for the amount of work it would have been. And the rest... they weren't touched. maybe next year. So, if I haven't been cosplaying, what did I do with my year? There's the usual boring stuff: I changed jobs, have been hanging with friends, etc. Aside from starting the year with Covid then a rotator cuff injury, I've been pretty good about staying active, so I end up at the gym pretty regularly. After a few summers of training I was finally able to run a full 5 km, and ended up doing three local races in September. The goal for next year is to improve my time - I want to be 2-3 minutes faster. I picked up a hip hop style cardio dance class at my gym as well which I am LOVING. I miss my old dance life a little LOL.  Along with being more active, I've also gotten more nerdy as our weekly D&D group started a new campaign in Feb, so we are coming up on the anniversary soon! Of course, I've been doing my best to keep up with shows, games, and also my huge to-read list. Since it seems like everyone provides a yearly summary now, I'm tossing those in here (too bad GoodReads doesn't do an easily sharable graphic). My Spotify wrapped was interesting this year, since it ended up being almost entirely my gym/running tunes. Tears of the Kingdom dominating my game time shouldn't come as a surprise - but that fact that I'm still not even close to beating it might. It looks like I real a lot, but take into consideration that a lot of that was comic books, not novels (feel free to click-through for more).
 There's one more thing this blog post needs: what's coming up???  A lot of my cons aren't confirmed - I would like to go back to TriCon in January, but it depends on the weather and other factors. Of course I'll be "attending" Con-G again in Feb, and the usual SPCS and Anime North in the spring. If YetiCon is happening *crosses fingers* of course I'll be there. Costume-Con 42 in Colorado is also on the list, I just need to confirm logistics. I'll try to keep my home page updated with the most current plans. As for costumes...  War is absolutely getting done this year. As I already said above, I really just need a couple of days to get it done and I'll be glad to have her off the list.
Twili Midna is the other older unfinished costume I want to focus on this year - it's been a decade since I started the sewing (and much longer than that for buying supplies), and I think that's probably the best reason to pick this one of my many abandoned WIPs. The "Blanca" jumpsuit will be for the Costume Con single pattern contest, but exactly what I'm doing with it will remain a surprise for now. Princess Buttercup has been on my to-make list for a while, but I recently changed which outfit I want to make. I want to have her ready for YetiCon 2024 Finally, there are plans in the works to make Akuoart's Witchy Princess trio with friends - maybe for Halloween?? October's main attraction is usually Halloween, though this year I double-dipped and added something new: The Oxford Renaissance Festival. I was mostly looking for a substitute event I could cosplay at since I was making a cosplay for my partner with the idea to dress up together for Youmacon as well as Halloween, but when the problems with this year's Youmacon surfaced I decided it wouldn't have been worth the trip. But the ren-fest ended up working out really well - not only would our Game of Thrones costumes be suitable, but we had friends who were already planning to go! The prep work ended up being two-fold: I was making a basic Robert Baratheon cosplay for my partner (top and crown), as well as alterations on my Cersei (because sadly she no longer fits). My alterations worked out OK; the costume is less accurate now and does not fit well so much as it is wearable, but it is wearable. I made Robert's clothes in 2 garments: an undershirt made of faux leather sleeves stitched to a moisture wicking t-shirt, and a jerkin/tunic layer overtop. The aim was to make the whole thing as comfortable and easy to wear as possible. I purchased a belt to accessorize with, and the only finishing touch needed was the crown, because what is a king without his crown? It's all made of craft foam and if you ignore that I skipped some of the fine details I think it turned out quite well for a rush job! Post-Hallowen I have to replace a few of the gems but it held up well to some hard partying. Clay's costume was missing all the little details when we went to the Oxford Renaissance Festival, but I did at least get one good photo from Halloween which shows most of the finished cosplay. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to keep wearing Cersei but I hope that we can maybe hit at least one con together next year.  My YetiCon photo-dump has been on my to-do list for far too long; I know posting it at the end of August is late - but better than never! I didn't end up doing as many mountain activities as I would have liked because I was too busy hanging with friends... but really that's not a bad problem to have right? I wore Amaterasu on Friday night for the (unofficial) glow parade. Saturday ended up being 2 versions of Amity Blight, though one didn't end up leaving our suite. I brought Clay with me to the con once again, and he very much enjoyed his first convention cosplay experience (as evidenced by the photos lol). Sunday was the weather-wise choice of Tennis Rosalina, and it felt like everyone else was on the same wavelength because there were so many Mario (Tennis) cosplayers around! I never seem to pick the popular stuff to cosplay so that was quite the treat. This may end up being my last convention post for the year, which feels very strange, but since Youmacon doesn't look like a great choice anymore, that might be it. I'm definitely going to try to find some other events to attend though since I definitely miss the scene
Anime North was back to business as usual this year, if not even bigger than before the pandemic. And as usual, I took very few photos... it seems like the bigger the event and the more people are there, the less I want to take out my camera. I need to work on that LOL. Friday: With the long drive in to Toronto from my hometown I arrived later than usual, but did manage to (barely) make it to the "Hot Moms" cosplay meet-up wearing Grace from The Umbrella Academy. Afterwards I ended up spending most of the evening in the Greenroom for the fashion show with Kurumasha and Sarcasm Hime (along with running into a handful of other friends between that and the drag show). After dinner, we wrapped up the night having a dessert party with the ninja crew.  Saturday: Saturday was very by-the-books as AN goes: get in cosplay in the morning (season 1 Amity Blight), browse the artist alley/dealers room, visit friends where I find them, then change into the bathhouse uniform to work the masquerade. This year I ended up running for the Master division, which was a nice - it's cool to see friends competing again! Overall I think the masq ran as smoothly as usual, but there was a notable difference - there is always a sense of camaraderie, fellowship, and friendship in the greenroom, but this year the contestants had cranked the positivity and support up to 11 and the vibe was just amazing. So very glad I get to play a small part of the event every year.  Sunday: I decided to double-up on Amity this weekend, so Sunday was my (relatively) new season 3.1 version. I hadn't planned to go back into the vendors hall but somehow ended up there anyways, mostly chatting with friends. Dan the Video Ninja and I found ourselves watching the idol showcase - I've never gone before and I'll admit it was a much more polished show than I was expecting. The showcase was followed by the Masquerade Awards presentation, and then I wrapped up the con by attending Zee and Stillvisions' Caramelldansen throwback panel. Good weekend, good con, good friends.  And now here's my photos from the weekend:  This year was my first time attending CKExpo, and it was a good time! I went to see some friends, hang with new ones, and enter the costume contest. The contest was an experience... not quote what I was expecting but then new events often have surprises. I suspect it would benefit from having audio available to the contestants like most masquerade-type contests, given the performance focus. Most of the photos I took were of the contest, and most of them turned out quite badly, but here's a selection of the best shots  Photo: D Groombridge Photography April 16 2023 marked the return of the Sarnia Pop Culture Show a.k.a SPCS, which I had previously attended in 2019. Now that I have moved back to my hometown, I've been happy to see the local shows return since I've really been missing meeting new nerd people. There wasn't much programming to comment on (aside from a MtG pre-release tournament), but it's designed as a vendor-type show, and that's certainly better than nothing. There was a really good turn-out, and I got hall-photos of as many of the cosplayers as I reasonably could... so here's the gallery! Enjoy! This doesn't happen so much anymore since most shares are on social media sites only, but sometimes my work has gotten a little more "press" which is kinda fun...
Pixivision (February 24, 2017) Paul Hillier Photography (November 21, 2016) Kotaku (November 22, 2016) She Does The City (November 3, 2016) We Got The Geek podcast (May 4, 2016) The Sheridan Sun (December 1, 2015) Anime Ushi (November 2, 2015) We Got The Geek podcast (September 28, 2015) Andrea Schewe (July 24, 2015) Cosplayers Canada (Niagara Falls Comic Con 2015; page 21) Geek Girls (May 18, 2015) Chicagoist (May 1, 2015) Women Write About Comics (April 27, 2015) Chicago Tribune (April 25, 2015) Arda Wigs (April 3, 2015) Adafruit (March 17, 2015) Adafruit (February 16, 2015) Comics Alliance (November 4, 2014) Comics Alliance (September 22, 2014) Geek Inked Magazine (Cover) (April 22, 2014) Comics Alliance (March 3, 2014) Geek Inked Magazine (January 29, 2014) Geek Girls (October 30, 2013) All That's Epic (May 6, 2013) Kotaku (March 23, 2013) Debs & Errol (March 6, 2013) Comics Alliance (October 15, 2012) Hmmmm, my last post was at the beginning of 2020... I wonder what happened there?! The pandemic has hit us all differently, and while in a perfect world I would have used the break from conventions and new costumes to get all my photo folders organized and my website up-to-date, that's clearly not what has happened. I didn't quite stop cosplaying altogether during 2020 and 2021, but pretty close. I buried myself in Animal Crossing, Drag Race, working (not from home) and didn't leave much room for anything else. 2022 brought big life changes and a moderate return to cons and cosplay, but also trying to deal with the nightmare my digital backlog has become. And now here we are. One month+ late with my previously annual New Years post and a lot of "coming soon" galleries. But the important thing is that we are here. Let's take a little look at 2022... Costumes  Rosalina by Desi-Desu became my white whale during quarantine. The wig was sponsored by Cactus Mafia and I was supposed to finish her by the end of 2019, but had bitten off much more than I could chew on the deadline I had committed to. Then... well you can guess. I managed to put the bulk of the work needed into finishing her in time to enter the Con-G Virtual Masquerade (right after a big move), and then the final finesse was added before Meagan's Walk in the spring. She finally got her convention debut at Youmacon 2022. Photo from Elemental. Megara happened because I watched Disney's Hercules for the first time near the end of 2021, and really liked Meg. When I was looking for a new cosplay I could put together before Yeticon (as opposed to something I started years ago and was feeling stale), I found the perfect base wig on sale from Arda, and Meg plans were sealed. I was even able to cosplay in an amazing group at Yeti with Ice Phoenix Art and Lulu Rush Cosplay as Hades and Herc respectively. Photo from the Video Ninja. "Tennis" Rosalina was the result of wanting to cosplay Rosalina (and make use of that labour-intensive wig), but being fully aware that the fancy costume would be a bad idea in both heat and high winds. So I did something I've never done before and bought a costume online. Of course, I had to make myself custom accessories like the racket, shoes, and shorts for under the dress. Photo from WCES. Amity Blight "3.1" was a relatively unplanned costume. I was thinking of a comfy costume to wear to YoumaCon as a break from Rosalina and Megara, and landed on one of Amity's costumes from the recently released Owl House special "Thanks to Them". It's mostly a closet cosplay but I hope I can take her to at least one bigger Owl House meet-up. I'll have to put together her season 2 outfit sometime so I can have one cosplay from each season hahaha. Photo from WCES. Miss Elizabeth wraps up the year - I've never been a wrestling fan but this is what happens when you let other people choose your Halloween costume: expanded horizons. Again, very much closet/thrifted but a lot of fun. Photo from Valius. Slothplay Let's face it - there isn't even a legit reason to have a separate section for slothplay this year, but it's not up there, so here we are. I only did one costume which I think qualifies, and it was Fierce Deity Link for April Fools posts. Enjoy.
Conventions: Obviously I don't have any blog posts to link to (unless I sneakily write them now and post-date them hmmmmm) so we'll stick with the very brief summary versions of "con reports". Con-G Geeks @ Home (panelist and virtual masquerade entrant) Android 18, Rosalina YetiCon (attendee) Plague Doctor, Megara, Amity Blight (S1) Anime North (Masquerade staff and Craftsmanship contest entrant) Android 18, Megara, Tennis Rosalina Youmacon (attendee) Megara, Rosalina, Tennis Rosalina, Amity Blight (S3.1) Non-cons: My non-con highlight of the year was definitely being invited to Meagan's Hug - a fundraiser for paediatric brain tumors. Every year cosplayers are asked to attend as entertainment/morale boosters and it was a fun event, even though doing a 5km walk in Rosalina in the May heat wasn't my wisest decision ever. I very much hope that I am invited to return again next year. Otherwise, I'm still trying to find the local cosplay scene in my new city. I have a couple of leads, and our local con is returning again in 2023, so wish me luck finding them.  Let's move on to bigger and brighter days! My calendar year started off a lot slower than I would have liked (*ahem caught Covid for Christmas ahem*) but I'm ready to work hard (OK, not too hard) at keeping up better this year. In the past month I've already got the ball rolling on finishing some projects which have been neglected too long. Much like in my last post, I'm going to tell you that I really want to complete some unfinished projects, with a few new things tossed in to keep my motivation up and to join groups with friends. I'm at a point in my life now that most costumes made/started before the pandemic hit no longer fit, so I'm also trying to be logical about which costumes are even reasonable to attempt. I'm also hoping to stick to my guns better than I have in the past and not multitask cosplay (finish one before picking up another). Maybe I'll pull it off. So here is how things look at the beginning of the year:  Mom/Grace from Umbrella Academy was on this list in 2020, too. But this year, she's finally getting finished. No question. The skirt is almost finished (I’m trying to engineer a simple hoop for the hem) but there’s some wig styling left to do and the shirt to sew. At least I don’t have to paint any more polka-dots.
War was a bit of a debate for this list for me... I'm not feeling super motivated to finish her, mostly because I don't know when or where I'll have the opportunity to wear the costume. On the other hand, at about 75%, she's so close to done that it almost feels like a shame to not just do it, and then she'll be ready to go for some Good Omens get-together in the future. The to-do list includes making a hairpiece, replacing the pants, and making a cool flaming sword. NBD. Emi from DDR is a new addition because I just can't resist a fun group. Already dreading a repeat of the Umbrella Academy custom-painted polka-dot hell. Cybersix. Yeah. The costume which has been on my bucket list almost as long as I've been cosplaying. I got motivated by Zeekay's Adrian cosplay last year, bought some new fabric and a pattern on an impromptu trip to Joann's, so now I just need to find the time to build it. Midna has been on my list even longer than Cybersix. That bodysuit is basically done (if it still fits). I have the supplies for her outfit (since 2010). I can do this. Milotic is on this list because I have access to the beach again, and where else are you going to cosplay a Pokemon mermaid? Only hundreds of hours of painting scales stand between me and that shoot XD As always, I'm sure lots of other fun things will pop up along this journey as my whims take me elsewhere. Conventions I have the first half of the year planned out so far: Con-G Geeks @ Home virtual con again, then my local-ish SPCS and KCExpo, followed by my standbys Anime North and Yeticon. I'm definitely open to doing Youmacon again, and maybe even Fan Expo if the timing and costs work out. I'm a lot farther from the GTA now though, so I have to be a bit pickier about what I can travel for than I used to be. As always, I would love to connect with people - visit new cons, join new cosplay groups, shoot with new photographers, and have new experiences. You know how to reach me ;) If you read my 2019 wrap-up post, you'll know that I had a tough year creatively. A large part of that was wanting to do things other than cosplay, but having committed to the costumes and getting stuck in in-progress-purgatory. This year, although I'm starting out with these plans… I'm trying to place no pressure on myself to finish anything except Rosalina. My main goal is to finish UFOs, only start costumes I already have materials stashed for, and just take on less. I love cosplaying with groups and will always make efforts to join people when invited, but I have to get better at not pushing my limits this year. ...So here is how things look as of January  Rosalina (redesign by Dessi-Desu) is part of a sponsorship with Cactus Mafia, so that's top priority to finish ASAP. I'm close… it's mostly hand finishing and a couple of accessories left to do.
Mom/Grace from Umbrella Academy was supposed to be a simple, easy, basic sewing project which really ended up being more work than I expected (story of my life). The skirt is almost finished (I’m trying to engineer a simple hoop for the hem) but there’s some wig styling left to do and the shirt to sew. At least I don’t have to paint any more polka-dots. War is almost done; I just have to style the hairpiece so I don't have to spend a couple hours styling my own hair every time I want to wear her. The wig fiber has been dyed, so I just need to get over the intimidation factor of building a fauxhawk from scratch. Captain Marvel has been stuck in progress limbo for at least 4 years. It would be nice to get that done. Milotic is another bigger-than-expected project… I just wanted to make a mermaid tail and change up the aesthetic of the Milotic gijinka I made a few years ago. It would be nice too be able to bring her to Yeti this year. Espeon: again, I have had fabric for YEARS. I know Kurumasha has been working on her coordinating Flareon so Espeon might get started this year. Basically I really want to finish the top row, and will be satisfied with any amount of progress on the bottom row. I'm definitely going to end up working on things not on the list though (including partnering with Stark for his new costume this year, and probably something for munchkin too). Conventions Along with fewer costume plans, I'm making fewer convention plans too. I'm definitely going to Costume-Con 38 in Montreal, Anime North in Toronto, and Yeti Con at Blue Mountain. Kitchener Comic Con and Pretty Heroes are maybes because munchkin wants to be there. It would be nice to visit a US Con again this year, but budgeting for that is hard. In any case, I'm looking forward to seeing lots of you this year! |
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