We attended Con-G (at home) once again this year, and as always it was a great time. I highly recommend checking out the recordings of the programming since most of it is available on their YouTube channel. Top 3 panels of the year were Manda's Blue Prince discussion because that was my go-to game in Nov-Dec 2025, Lenore's Help I'm Trapped in an Isekai for our household's running gag of the weekend, and How to Train Your Dragon to Drink, because we always love the drink panel! Of course, all that isn't even touching on the main event of Saturday evening (and ultimately the reason we throw an annual watch party) which was the masquerade! 90's kids trivia gave it a run for it's money though.
Here's my entry by itself, which ended up winning Best Master Performance! Woo!

And here are some photos from the party... Can't wait to do it all again next year!

And finally, here's my honkin' HUGE ribbon! It's as big as the certificate! (and I thought last year's ribbon was big)

The last time I was at G-Anime was 10 years ago, in 2016. Since pandemic restrictions were lifted I've felt I was long overdue for a trip to an Ottawa-area con to visit my friends there, and when Sakizo was announced as a GOH and friends started signing on, it seemed like the obvious choice! That having been said, for me the trip to Ottawa/Gatineau was much more about visiting friends rather than the con itself, so TBH I didn't spend much time at the convention overall.

On Friday I didn't end up going to G-Anime at all; Heavenly Visuals had organized a special on-location shoot at a deconsecrated cathedral (now event venue) which I'm so happy I was able to join! I wore my War cosplay in the interest of y'know, the Apocalypse and all and got a couple of stunning photos out of it from Heavenly and Elemental. Here I'll share the big group shots, as well as a few of my fave photos from my own camera.

On Saturday and Sunday we went to the convention! I didn't go to any panels or programming other than the masquerade (and masq awards), but spent the rest of the time I was there browsing the exhibitors hall and visiting with friends. I wore my Sailor Venus Witch on Saturday (along with Sha, Popfrocks, and Battlefrocks) and was planning to wear Amity on Sunday but ended up ditching the parts of the costume that made it a costume (wig, contacts, ears...) so that was a bit of a fail but I wasn't really feeling the cosplay vibes. The bottom line though is that I had a good time and hope to visit the Ottawa crew again next year! 

I've been far too ambitious the last few years (every year?) with my cosplay plans, so this time I'm trying to tone it down a bit. There's also a handful of surprises or undecided-between-two-characters, so it also looks different than my usual stuff.

2025 sure was a year that happened. I didn't get all the costumes done that I had planned (at what point do I start copying and pasting those sentiments from year-to-year?) and there was a very frustrating textile failure driving a lot of that. That having been said, I still ended up at more conventions than I had expected, and actively cosplaying more than expected!

​Here's the new stuff that I came up with this year:

Izutsumi from Delicious In Dungeon was supposed to be my first build of the year, but I ran into problem after problem trying to get the right combination of texture and colour that I want for the fabric. When AN rolled around and I sill only had the ears and tail done I decided to roll with that in my bathhouse uniform (considering that's what I was going to be wearing for my masquerade greenroom shift anyways). It was cute, but I hope that I can get the costume actually finished for next year.
Next is Helly R from Severance, which I put together as a closet cosplay after watching the show with my mother this spring. 
Witchy-Sailor Venus ended up being my only "build" cosplay for the year (everything sewn by me). I wore the first (incomplete) version to YetiCon where we had a group of SIXTEEN cosplayers all in witchified versions of Sailor Moon characters, and finished all the missing pieces in time for Pretty Heroes
I've got a photo there of Kim Pine from Scott Pilgrim - on one hand, it's not a new costume, but on the other it kinda is because I had to replace everything since I first put the cosplay together. Sadly this is the only photo I got of the costume (worn to the Fan Expo weekend Cypertronic Spree show).
Finally, we're wrapping up with Dr Ellie Satler from Jurassic Park, from Halloween. We were supposed to have a big 6-person group, but of course Clay and I were the only ones to follow-through LOL.

Only because it's tradition, let's compare to my plans from January...

Every year I find myself with less and less time for cosplay, so this isn't really that surprising. I'm kind of impressed that I got 1.5 costumes (plus three closet cosplays) done in a year when I also took my first overseas trip, ran 5 races, kept up with my dance and aerial silks classes, D&D, played more video games than I have in a long time, and read more books than I have in a long time. Not to mention things going relatively well at work!

As for the cons/cosplay stuff I mentioned before? This year I managed to hit up Con-G Geeks at Home (when I won Best Master Workmanship), Sarnia Pop Culture Show, Anime North, YetiCon, Pretty Heroes, Fan Expo Canada, Oxford Renaissance Festival, and Toronto Game Expo (fall edition). All that and I arranged the first (of many) local cosplay social meet-up, and a handful of Halloween events.

Overall I did a lot less crafting than anticipated, but a lot more of everything else, so I think I just need to re-frame my expectations for next year. Again. LOL

I'm always looking for new events to check out, even though scheduling and traveling challenges mean I tend to keep going to the same ones annually. However, this year everything worked out to be able to visit the (relatively) new Toronto Game Expo! I had a lot of friends going either as guests, panelists, or vendors and I was available to travel that weekend, so I had to see what it was all about!

While a large majority of the con was vendor and artist tables, that was perfectly fine for me, since November is a great time to shop for Christmas Gifts. I enjoyed looking at all the indie/local games in display, even though many didn't suit my taste, I still played demos of ones that were appealing. I attended a few presentations/panels (notably by Kamera Ninja, Holly Wolf, Zee the Raccoon, and Dart) though while the main stage worked well, the other panel/workshop area was pretty terrible for that kind of thing (basically tables in the noisy main exhibitors hall). 

Cosplay-wise, I wore my Mario Kart Rosalina on Saturday and Helly R on Sunday. As Rosalina I joined a small-but-mighty Nintendo/Smash Bros meet-up as well as taking lots of pics around the con. I didn't take nearly as many photos on Sunday (maybe I was feeling self-conscious about how big my wig had puffed up since Fan Expo) but still grabbed some photos from Paul Wishart at the official (and much cooler than my costume) photo booth. 

Overall I had a great time; loved getting to hang with the people mentioned above plus Dan the Video Ninja, Nt3rp and Lulu a la Mode, Captain Pira, A Sleepy Meow, and Bear Sailor Moon (who kicked my heeled butt at DDR). Will definitely consider returning next year if I have the time off again!

As is usual, this year I had the opportunity to attend multiple Halloween parties as well as costume-friendly days at my usual activities. Also as usual, I wore more casual (and recognizable) costumes but that doesn't make anything less fun!

My main/new costume for the year was Dr Ellie Sattler from the OG Jurassic Park. The concept was to have a half-dozen JP characters, but in the end only Clay and myself pulled off the good Doctors. We wore them for our own Halloween party (interrupted by a Jays game) in addition to a friend's party (also interrupted by a Jays game), and of course it's what I wore to work and for handing out candy too.

This year's other Halloween events were a series of classes at my gym (really sweating it out in a sloth kigu), and my aerial silks class with a much more activity-appropriate re-wear of Leela from Futurama.

Hope everyone enjoyed the spooky season!

In late September we headed out to the Oxford Ren Fest for the third year running; this time with even more friends! It was high-time for me to bring out my Butterfly Fae dress again, and Clay only slightly over-heated in his Robert Baratheon gear. It was a pretty typical ren-fest experience: drank mead, joined sing-a-longs, shopped, watched the aerialists, and cheered for the jousting. Oh, and got sunburned, because of course. Here's to doing it all again next year!

I'd like to thank everyone who came out to the first (of many, I hope) Cosplay Social in Sarnia. and a very special thank-you to VanaRosebud for her invaluable work spreading the word. Clearly there is an appetite for casual get-togethers for people with similar hobbies, so I'm going to keep doing these in the future!

For now, here are all my photos from the day! (Yes, all of them, I know there are a lot of duplicate shots!) 

Fan Expo Canada hasn't been one of my favourite cons in a very long time (a glance through some previous Fan Ex posts will reveal heavily mixed reviews), but I had been keeping an eye open for an opportunity to see The Cybertronic Spree live again, so when their annual Fan Expo weekend show came up and the timing worked out perfectly to go to Toronto with my boyfriend, I decided I should also spend a day at the con. But first, let's start with the concert.

If you couldn't tell from the poster, the show was leaning hard into Scott Pilgrim influences (why not, since it was at Lee's Palace, right?) and they were specifically requesting Scott Pilgrim cosplay from attendees. So I re-thrifted my Kim Pine cosplay (since nothing of the original was still around) and was psyched for the show! Clay, Dan, Tyler and I went out for dinner before the show on Harbord st,  and then took a nostalgic little walk through my old neighbourhood before hitting Lee's Palace. I sadly didn't get any "cosplay photos" at the venue - I kinda thought there would be a whole collection of SP cosplayers to take pics with, but I actually only saw a couple of tansformers cosplayers, so that was also a little disappointing. Otherwise the show was lots of fun; Wordburglar was great, I've never seen Dragon Sounds before but they were fun, and of course Cybertronic Spree killed it.

We went to Pizza Pizza after the show and then I was sad and nostalgic again since I haven't spent time at that intersection since Honest Ed's was demolished. What a loss.

Saturday I headed over to Fan Expo, geared up in my Helly R (Severance) cosplay - considering the majority of the convention centre is underground I thought it was appropriate LOL. I'll start with the good stuff: I got to watch both the Avatar VA panel and the cosplay contest, and both were very fun. Always love getting to cheer on my friends competing. It was also lovely to run into the friends who I ran into and got to have a chat with!
Just about everything else was disappointing; nobody recognized (or commented on) my cosplay, I didn't find any of the books I was hunting for from the dealers, didn't have time to browse the whole AA, I ran into relatively few friends, and the ones I did see were working/volunteering (or in the Cosplay lounge where photos aren't allowed) so they couldn't wander with me. And being on my own meant that I had little to no interest in waiting in line for any of the big corporate activation booths, since doing that solo is not how I wanted to spend my day. I almost forgot that social anxiety hit hard enough that I skipped the chance to meet a couple of guests that I follow. It was as cramped and crowded as I remember and I can say with confidence that I don't need to go back again next year. Might be difference if I was still living in Toronto, but now that it's an expensive trip? Ugh, no thanks.

​Anyways, here's a few photos (mostly from the contest)!

I've been to Pretty Heroes a couple of times in the past, but it's never been a must-do con because I'm just not that big of a Sailor Moon fan (and while PH is more than just SM, it's still the driving fandom behind the con). But this year I was feeling the itch to go to more conventions, I had the time available, and for the first time ever I had a Sailor Moon-based costume. Since several members of our SM witches group were already going to be there, it was decided that we'd do the witches again (at least most of the non-Ottawa members of the group) with an additional Lulu joining and it gave me a reason to finish my costume the way I wanted to!
My other costume for the weekend was Amity from the Owl House - she's definitely a "magical girl" and when I realized that her Palisman staff could double as an Artemis staff for Venus, how could I deny the synergy?

Mindless Eye's Photography grabbed me for some photos both days, and nt3rp took a bunch of shots of our group, so I'm featuring some highlights from those sets in my con photos here

I also took a LOT of (admittedly not great) photos of the costume contest - they're here just in case anybody wants to see them.