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!) 

Sarnia Pop Culture Show! It happened! I decided to wear my "Butterfly Fae" outfit from Ragz's wedding to the show since I've wired up the wings since then. In hindsight, probably not the best idea since they made navigation through the aisles a pain, but at least I felt pretty :) I only took a handful of photos this year, but also took advantage of the location to get some cosplay photos by the river while we were out in costume.

It feels a little odd to make a blog post about a virtual convention, but it's still my first event of the year and I made an event of it, so here we go!

Panels!
I had other obligations going on all weekend so I couldn't watch all day every day, and there were several panels that I only caught about half of, but they all had something interesting to offer. I'll link to each of the videos where available. On Friday I caught the Opening Ceremonies, part of FMV Chaos, most of Surviving Capitalism, my BF and I performed shockingly poorly in the Name That Tune game, and had a lot of laughs in the Monsters I'd like to F--- late-night panel. Saturday daytime was busy with party prep (more on that below) but we did make sure to catch our friends panels There's An Indie for That V and Secret Lessons of Video Games. Sunday was the hardest to manage since it's sleep-in day plus we had tickets to a hockey game, but did watch Neurodivergent Strategies as well as Kon's Mystery Conclusion and Closing Ceremonies.

Masquerade (and more) watch party!
It's always more fun watching a masquerade with friends, so we invited a bunch or people over for an evening watch party/drinks and dancing. Also because it was my Birthday LOL. I threw on an even simpler version of the Team Rocket grunt cosplay I wore at Yeti last year and settled in to hang with friends. We watched Con-G the rest of the night: the Masquerade, Warning: Incoming Drinks (while madly mixing beverages for the party), FMV dance party (with lots of dancing along), and finally more late-night content with Intro to Kink for the last partiers.

I submitted TWO entries into the masquerade this year - one "serious" entry (below), though the content of my presentation was not - and one just for funsies since I had the video already recorded. I ended up winning Best Master Workmanship for Mario NasKart which was so exciting! Considering the win, and how much effort I accidentally put into the workmanship judging video, I'm sharing that below as well

It's a new year with new ambitions!

Well, not really. I'm taking a hard lesson from the last couple years about how much I can reasonably take on, and I'm trying to set realistic goals to match. Moving into 2025 I only have two costumes with "deadlines" which I hope will help keep me from getting overwhelmed and burnt-out. 

Cosplay
Akuoart's Mario Witches group is still on - this one should be a priority since the group was planned several years ago and I really want it to happen, but at the same time, if I'm being honest I'll probably end up procrastinating in favour of costumes I have a better idea on how to construct.
Izutsumi was added to my cosplay wish-list last spring after watching Dungeon Meshi with my partner and really enjoying it. For a hot minute I thought I could throw something casual together, but then I didn't have the supplies I thought I did and I got this idea in my head that I want her to be FUZZY, so now I have a pile of supplies and need to make time to become a cat-person. Or a person-cat.
Sailor Venus is here representing this year's YetiCon group project - I'll be doing an original interpretation of her with a bunch of other scouts and the design process has me excited in this moment, so wish me luck.
Midna is ONCE AGAIN on the list - I really want to finish at least one of my forever-WIPs and she seems like the logical choice. At least until I try on the bodysuit and have to face the possibility that it no longer fits and I may have to start  over from scratch.
Finally we are wrapping up with that Tufted Puffin, which is the inspiration for Coco: my D&D Kenku Monk. Our campaign is actually wrapping up in just a few weeks so I fully admit that I might lose interest once I'm not playing her weekly anymore, but the challenge of making (or at least modifying) a bird mask is intriguing. 

Conventions
I'm planning to travel to Europe this year (not for cons), so that does reduce the convention travel budget a bit. I'll definitely be doing Con-G Geeks @ Home again, but other conventions are a little more tenuous due to travel dates not yet confirmed. I hope to do SPCS, Anime North, and Yeti again, with the potential to add in Youma or maybe some other surprise cons in the Southern Ontario area. 

Looks like it's that time of year when I force myself to make time for blogging - the annual year-end wrap-up post. But here's a secret: if you're reading this close to New Years 2025, it's like you're getting exclusive access to my costumes (since I've barely posted anything to social media this year)
​...so yay?

​As is tradition, let's start with this year's new cosplays:

It wasn't a big year for sewing (again). Of the 7+1 new cosplays here, only the two on the left were constructed from scratch, with the rest being a combination of closet costumes and purchased pieces with varying levels of customization. 

"Mario NasKart" Rosalina was a very fun project in my (apparent) collection of Rosalina cosplay. I made it specifically for the Single Pattern Contest at Costume-Con 42 in Colorado, and won best in pattern for my interpretation of a flight suit!  
The blue and pink dress has been dubbed Butterfly Fae, and is an original design I made to wear as part of the wedding party at Ragz Cosplay's wedding this year! I also ended up wearing it for Halloween and hope to give the wings an upgrade and wear her to cons or renfaires in 2025.
If you attend a lot of cons, or just shop for cosplay online, you'll probably recognize my Vaporeon bodysuit/hoodie. This year YetiCon was all about silly group costumes for my friends and I, so a whole bunch of us bought the Eeveeloutions suits, added lights, and wore them to the glow parade. In the photo you can see the "butt waterfall" light-up skirt I designed and made for mine.
Speaking of silly YetiCon groups:  Team Rocket. Literally just raided closets/costume bins to put together vaguely grunt-like fits, and then added the R's (provided by the other Jen) at con. Very extra fun.
War was the pre-pandemic project that I finally finished this year, and got to take for a test-run in Colorado. I'm happy with how the wig turned out and with the new pants, now I just need more places to wear her.
Leela and Zapp are Halloween party projects. I bought all my Leela components (unfortunately ran out of time for her wrist thingy), and Clay ordered his costume online. Unfortunately it didn't fit him at all, so I ripped out the salvageable gold bits, and made him a new velour uniform using the rest of the original bits. It was a huge hit at the "Futurama" theme party we attended. 
Finally we have one more Halloween thing: Hela. I started learning aerial silks this year, so I bought a printed Hela suit as something to wear to class for Halloween, and maybe also use for a con. TBH, I'm not sure if the fit/quality is where I want it for convention wear, but it sure was fun to toss around Mjolnir while suspended in a roll-up LOL

How does this compare to my plans at the start of the year? I'd say mixed success.

I finished War at the beginning of the year, which was great. Then my Blanca Flight Suit (AKA Rosalina) which, while simple, took a lot of planning to execute plus learning how to use a Silhouette.  When you add in that I made Amity's winter outfit at the end of 2023, I definitely burned myself out on costuming by the time I went to Costume-Con, so my great progress basically came to a full-stop. I missed my YetiCon target for Princess Buttercup, and the Mario witches got postponed for another year. Midna, particularly sadly, did not get any attention. All my creative energies in the fall went to Butterfly Fae and nothing else from the list was accomplished.

Much like last year, I've been spending my time on (maybe?) less creative pursuits: staying active between running, dance, and silks; reading; videogames; and D&D - on top of trying to see friends regularly. And thank goodness all the apps track that stuff for me these days *insert eyeroll here*

I did make (some) time for cons - I participated in Con-G again, travelled somewhere very new for Costume-Con 42 (and mountain adventures), hit up SPCS for a day with friends, and of course the perennial favourites Anime North and YetiCon. I hadn't expected Yeti to be the finale to my cons if you'd asked me a year ago, but also the wedding had so many of my cosplay friends attending that it felt like that was the actual last con of the year.
Halloween aside, Meagan's Hug was the only other cosplay-centric even that I did, which was lovely to return to, even though I (once again) ended up with a terrible choice of footwear.

​Coming next: What's new in 2025?

This was a busy year for Halloween events! Since I started taking an Aerial Silks class in the summer, and didn't have anything (wearable) in my cosplay closet which would be appropriate, I ended up ordering a Hela bodysuit online. I'd been thinking about cosplaying her since Thor: Ragnarok came out, but only ever pulled off my "punk" version, so this seemed like a natural choice. I wore it to Silks with a short wig to avoid hair issues, and then again for a Halloween party with something a little closer to the film. While it was fun to wear at Silks (especially getting the "who is that?" reaction), I ended up not feeling particularly comfortable in head-to-toe spandex at the party, so I'm not sure if I'll ever wear it to a con.

 The other Halloween party I went to this year had an (optional) theme, which was Futurama. I had a lot of fun putting together costumes for myself and Clay, even though the (surprise) required sewing for his meant I didn't have time to finish Leela's accessories. That's what can happen when a costume is ordered online and ends up arriving laughably small - but at least this way he got a uniform made form Real Velour™ LOL. Anyways, it was a blast, and we had over a dozen assorted Futurama characters show up and (miraculously) no duplicates!!!
...can you identify them all?

Finally, wrapping up with actual Halloween (work and handing out candy) - I decided to wear my Butterfly Fae to work, since it's probably the most appropriate thing I have for the workplace, plus it's new and who doesn't want to wear new things! I even had a (reluctant) Feline Fae helper for trick-or-treat time

This fall saw a couple of non-convention events which were cosplay-esque. In September I headed back to Oxford Ren Fest at their new location! I was hoping to have something new and appropriate to wear since Cersei was going to fit even worse this year than last, but the timing wasn't quite right. So I raided my closet and decided to go as a super half-assed Crow. Cosplay-fails aside, I had a good time hanging with friends and I'm looking forward to going again next year (with a better costume, of course). 

Shortly after the Ren-Fest was the big event of autumn: Ragz and Jonathan's wedding! Ragz asked me to be in his wedding party so of course I had to make an outfit, and with absolutely free rein other than the colour scheme, I went full fantasy (yes, this is what I was thinking about wearing to Oxford, but that was before I learned it was before the wedding). I'm calling this outfit "Butterfly Fae", and yes it's gotten it's own gallery page. Please enjoy a small selection of wedding photos <3
Some are mine, but mostly they're pro shots from Paul

I've been working on something new, but not a full costume. A group of my cosplay friends thought it would be fun to all purchase the Mobbunny cozy/sexy Eeveeloutions costumes, add light-up skirts/accessories, and wear them for the Glow Parade at Yeticon this year. I ended up choosing Vaporeon, so I wanted my skirt to have a watery vibe. I ended up designing a layered skirt which I hoped would resemble a waterfall, and make it out of sheer fabrics with lights sewn into the bottom layer to light the whole thing up. After a trip to Fabricland, I had 5 fabrics with a variety of textures: tulle with a dark blue to navy gradient, plain blue chiffon, bright blue tulle with flocked white dots, baby blue gauze with little tufts, and white tulle with little iridescent hearts on it (hearts were the closest I could get to "bubble" shapes with that one).
Thinking back to my Rosalina Gown, I cut an offset circle skirt from each fabric, at 5 different sizes - the largest from the darkest fabric and so forth. That way I would have little to no skirt in the front, and all the party in the back. At this point I started hand-sewing strings of lights to the bottom layer of tulle (I had anticipated sewing by machine but the light diodes turned out to be just a little too big for that plan). It wasn't fun but at least I got my skirt to light up.
I split the narrow section of each layer so that the waistband could be an easy-to-wear front closure and hemmed each layer with fishing line to get that nice ruffled edge. That part was a challenge with these specific fabric choices so some layers look better than others, but overall I think it worked OK. Then it was just a matter of sewing all the layers to my elastic waistband (for comfort) and VOILA! Waterfall-butt!

As for YetiCon itself, the weekend started out with our traditional visit to Chuck Burger for dinner, where we ran into so may friends! After eating, a group of us put on our first costumes of the weekend: easy/casual/mostly-closet-cosplay Team Rocket grunts! Popfrocks provided us with beautiful glitter "R" logos to stick to our clothes and off we went to try to find some Pokemon. It was a really fun time and I hope we get to do it again in the future!

There was a second cosplay for Friday night though - our Eeveeloutions group for the Glow Parade! I didn't get many photos (too busy glowing LOL) but we had a good time, and ended up with allllmost every eevee! Jolteon was missing, but then Jolteon was out of stock for the whole run-up to the con so that wasn't even an "us" problem. The parade itself was as the previous year - good silly glowing fun.

Saturday started out rough despite a nice brunch at Sunset Grill (I stayed up way too late with friends after the Glow Parade) and it was a little chilly, so I decided to put on my NasKart Rosalina outfit (as opposed my alternate cosplay, Tennis Rosalina). I ended up running into friends in a big Mario Tennis group (and maybe slightly wished I'd worn the other costume) but it was still just nice to see them and grab some photos. I did some shopping in the exhibitors hall, witnessed the "wedding" meet-up, and then squeezed in some lunch. For unknown reasons I started feeling a little unwell, so I kinda called it a day mid-afternoon and spent the rest of the day in the hotel just hanging with friends and having dinner.  

Sunday was our designated chill/activity day, which kinda worked out. Clay and I put on our Team Rocket outfits again, hoping to have the group together again, but most of my friends were in better costumes looking to win cosplay awards LOL. We also messed up the timing of our activity passes so we only had time for one coaster ride and one trip on the gondola. On the up-side, we stayed at the hotel Sunday night this year, so we had the whole evening for hot-tubbing, date-night dinner, and celebrating friends' prizes while learning contact juggling. It's so nice to get to enjoy Sunday at Yeti without thinking about timing the long drive back home.

I definitely don't want to call Anime North "routine", but I've been going since 2004 and being on staff yearly now, there is a definite pattern to my weekends. I'll try not to say "as usual" too often here LOL.

For Friday of Anime North this year I decided to bring out Megara again! She needs to be seen more while she still fits! It was a pretty typical AN Friday: I met up with my friends and roomies, picked up badges, and sat in on a couple of cosplay competition-related panels by Kurumasha and Hatless_Sheep. I managed to snag Kameraninja for some fantastic parking lot photos of Meg before wrapping up the night with Ninja hangouts.

​Sunday was the Canadian debut of Kart Rosalina! Nice and comfy for check-out, shopping, and watching the Masquerade awards ceremony before hitting the the road for home. I picked up some super cute luma earrings from Krafty Ninja's Hobby Shack which I had to put on IMMEDIATELY lol. I was also super pleased to grab a photo with Witchy Rosalina and Witchy Peach (CottageCosplay and Witch.cos respectively) at the masq awards - I loved their costumes!

OK, so neither of these events is really "small" but they're not cons with tens of thousands of attendees either so they're pairing up today.

​SPCS (Sarnia Pop Culture Show) was in April, and coincided with Cherry Blossom season! So we went to the con, did some shopping, said hi to friends, had a catch-up with RayGreyCosplay before heading out to the park for photos! I wore my Mario Kart Rosalina (because it's new and shiny so of course), and Karen (Kiki) and I had fun posing with the trees. Park photos from WCES, and convention backdrop photos from D.Groombridge photography

Meagan's Hug is an annual fundraiser for pediatric brain tumors, and every year they invite cosplayers to entertain the kids and families who are participating. I went in 2022 but had to skip it last year, so I was happy to get to be there again! I brought out good old Holtzmann and once again had a great time with the group! Small group photo is from Guelph Spiderman, and the full photo in front of Sick Kids Hospital is from The Last Son Cosplay.
If I am invited back next year, maybe I'll actually wear shoes that won't destroy my feet after a 5km walk, because I need to break this streak! lol