April Begins

It's April once again, which means things are (or at least should be) in motion. Last year I participated in VEDA (Vlog Every Day in April), which was almost all cosplay-centric and is available all nicely collected into a YouTube playlist. This year, I am not doing VEDA. The video above is as close as I'm going to get! I haven't been vlogging at all since last summer, and even though VEDA is a great excuse and would make me produce some interesting content, this year I have other more important projects which are calling for my time and energy. (...if anyone cares, vlogging dropped off due to being seriously sick several times, not being home as often since I'm spending many weekends in Kitchener, losing the good light I had in my room last year, and some general apathy)

However, since I am gearing up for Costume Con, I am going to be blogging more regularly this month, at least that's my intent. Immediate progress pics will be going to my Facebook Page, and I will make semi-regular recap posts here. I'm working on "Nightingale" from Atomic Robo, which I want to enter in the Historical Masquerade at CC32. I was working on it previously in the fall with the goal of having it done for NYCC, but ran into the unfortunate problem of not being able to find the fabric I needed locally. So I went shopping while I was in NYC, and found the perfect fabric at MOOD. Unfortunately I am only just now returning to the costume, with the con 3 weeks away. YIKES! 

So here's how things are looking for the costume so far: 

• knickers are complete (finished back in September).
  
• boots have been ordered online (fingers crossed that they arrive on time and fit)
  
• fabric for jacket has been pre-shrunk, pattern not yet drafted
• beret - same as jacket
• wig is in my stash, needs to be cut/styled
• gloves - I have no idea; seriously haven't even considered this yet
• shirt - ??? (I think I will need to wear something underneath the jacket lol)
• documentation/presentation: just a stack of research notes at the moment.

So the jacket is my current/next big project. Wish me luck XD

This coming weekend is Ad-Astra which is being held in Richmond Hill this year. I will be there on Saturday and Sunday, though I'm still trying to decide which costumes to bring with me. I'm leaning towards Either Alice or Crystal on Saturday and Alice or Mrs Impossible on Sunday.... I always have a really hard time deciding though. Argh.

And the last bit of news, as per the video above, is that after Ad-Astra, CostumeCon, Anime North, and ColossalCon.... I will be officially on hiatus. No more con plans, being a guest/panelist/staff/volunteer/etc. I desperately need a break from going to conventions; I'm so burnt out (which is a big reason why the number of costumes I've made has been decreasing in recent years while the cons I'm attending is going up). Will still be making costumes, but on a vastly different schedule, and hopefully, with a much better attitude ^_^