It's that time of year when all the retrospectives and "Top # whatevers" are being posted, but this year I don't have much of anything to post about, which makes me kinda sad. I mean, I went out in the world and did a whole lot of stuff! but I also made very few costumes and very little progress on ongoing projects.

I went to 9 conventions in 2014, including Tri-Con, Con-G, Ad-Astra, Costume Con 32, Anime North, Colossal Con, Atomic Lollipop, Con Bravo, and Fan Fare Geek Fest II. I also did a photo shoot with the Oakville Camera Club, got to go to the Game of Thrones costume and prop exhibit, saw my costumes on display at the CNE, hung out at Lookin' for Heroes for both Free Comic Book Day and the shop's 25th anniversary, saw Welcome to Night Vale live, and partied hard at Snailoween. And I can't forget travelling to Ottawa to spend a weekend with most of my Ottawa cosplay friends! At the conventions I went to I got to be: on the runway for Simplicity designer Andrea Schewe, a cosplay guest, a masquerade judge, a cover model, and part of a massive cosplay music video.

But unfortunately there are only so many hours in the day, and I am not a "professional" cosplayer; I have a full time job and a boyfriend in another city and friends to spend time with... so I often don't have much time and energy left for making things, which was especially true this year. I only made 3 new costumes for myself: T-shirt Chell (very simple and casual), Erika (which was a fair amount of work, but a lot of which had been "accidentally" done long before hand), and Izabel (which is cute but I'm not sure that my time-spent is apparent in the result). I also made a light jacket for myself, an Iron Man dress, and a River Song dress for 'Manda.  ...and one or two goofy things. I made progress on the ongoing project of Twili Midna... but there is still a very long way to go on that. As with all my ongoing costumes.

I really don't know how other cosplayers keep up such a high creative output... it's something that can really get me down on myself when I see how much awesome stuff my friends are constantly posting on social media. I know that some don't need day-jobs and can build and model full-time, some put less care and detail into construction than I do, some collaborate a lot to lighten the work-load, and a multitude of other differences; but I have never been able to get that time management thing working for me. I can either make costumes, OR play video games/watch movies and TV/read books, OR see my friends and boyfriend, OR get an adequate amount of sleep - all things I love to do. OR quit my day job to give me time to do all those things, which part of me would love (LOL) but would be very problematic in terms of paying rent and bills. Despite taking a break from conventions the second half of this year, my costume output has not increased, if anything it has stagnated further.

But hey, at least the break from cons has given me enough time to spend actual energy with my fandoms again, like reading Saga, Fables, and various Marvel titles; playing video games both off and on camera; finally discovering The Thrilling Adventure Hour; binge-watching GoT, Veronica Mars, Castle, Brooklyn 99, and Archer; and of course, planning new group costumes with my friends which will probably never actually get done (hey, at least I'm self-aware enough to know!)

In any case, here's to a 2015 with new costumes, new conventions, and better time management!  I only have four conventions confirmed for this year so far (as usual my home page has the current list) but I will consider anything else that looks interesting! :)
 

I have been meaning to post about my upcoming costumes for a while now, especially since I don't have any new photos or progress to write about, but I do have a LOT of projects in various stages of being started. The recent meme going around about posting the next 4 in the works seemed like a pretty good place to start though, so here we go with that :)

Fan art Mai (and Zuko) is mostly purchased items. Boots need to be altered, shirt and vest need to be sewn, and the wig needs to be styled. Deadline: none.
Nightingale has been on hold since Oct 2013. Anxious to get back to work on her jacket and hat. Also need gloves and to style the wig. Deadline: none.
Twili Midna has been on hold since May 2014. Recently got the last supplies I needed so I should be back to work on that. Bodysuit is 95% complete, everything else is still just supplies. Deadline: Anime North 2015, but that's just a goal, i'll finish it when I finish it.
Extremis Pepper is just waiting for me to work through the baffling design of Pepakura patterns (and this coming from someone familiar with how clothing patterns work). Had a test-run at Halloween this year using the arm that KW Iron Man made for me, and borrowing his glove since I'm making my own for that part. Deadline: none. 

More to come next time!