What can I say about Anime North this year? For better or worse, it was about the same as every other year - I spent the weekend with some of my besties including Kurumasha, Dan the Video Ninja, Yavarice, and Ragz among others; I wore fun, comfy costumes; I was a runner for the masquerade greenroom; and kept too busy to arrange professional photos. So instead of writing out a huge report, I think I'll let the selfies and other photos speak for themselves this time ^_~

​It might be preemptive to call CC35 the convention highlight of my year, but it might well have been. Because, while I didn’t get to attend nearly as many panels as I would have liked, or eat and sleep well, or take almost any photos… I managed to finish all my projects on time, enter not one but TWO contests, and run an imperfect but apparently successful panel/demo. And, as always, spend 4 days with my cosplay fam.

​My entry for the contest was using the coat pattern option (#M7025), and even though the “costume” was just the coat, I had decided to do some character and runway appropriate(?) hair and makeup which was time-consuming (but worth it). Luckily I still got to the greenroom on time and judging/photos went smoothly. I was really impressed by how elaborate some of the Single Pattern entries were, and was feeling pretty intimidated considering that my own coat felt very simple or too close to the original design once I could check out everyone else’s projects. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was thrilled to see someone else had picked a Marvel character for their inspiration - check out this Loki Coat!

In the end the runway/stage section went smoothly, although I had a hard time hearing the MC and could definitely have timed the “reveal” of my coat’s lining better. Regardless, it was fun and a nice relatively chill warm-up event before the Sci-Fi masquerade. And…. [drumroll, please]..... I won best coat!!! I was really, really shocked considering what everyone else had brought to the contest. I got to bask in the crowd admiration (hahaha) with friends briefly at the social before it was time to pick up Mr Stark and Little Stark and get them checked in to the hotel. We went back to the party, but sadly it was pretty empty by that point in the night.

​On Saturday I had a similar plan to Friday - casual wear during the day (this time my twitch-quality Link cosplay) to get me through masquerade tech rehearsal and any panels I wanted to go to before changing for the sci-fi masquerade in the evening. In the end I spent the afternoon socializing and instead of going to panels, but nothing wrong with that. I got into costume a little earlier than greenroom call time to shoot with Dream Land Photography so I  have some great photos of the finally-complete Cersei!!! 

​The masquerade greenroom was chaotic but ultimately everything got sorted out, as it always does. One of the cool things about Costume Con is that very few masquerade entrants are first-timers, so just about everyone knows the greenroom drill. I have to admit that workmanship judging was nerve-wracking, not only because this is Costume-Con, but because the judges really really had their game-faces on and when they didn’t seem impressed by what I thought were the best parts of my costume I panicked just a little. At least the stage portion went smoothly - better than I had expected (especially since I was shocked to discover that I would be entry #5 which meant that I didn’t have as much time to practice as I had assumed). The audience reacted well, and I could hear laughing as soon as the second track kicked in, so that was a big relief that at least some of the crowd knew the song well enough to know where it was going. So without further ado, my masquerade entry “Set the World on Wildfire” (video courtesy of Dan The Video Ninja, as usual).

​Luckily, since I was so early in the show, I was able to join the Starks in the audience to watch the rest of the show! That never happens! Once the show was over I joined the line to return to the stage for photo ops, though this time I was at the end of the line (probably because I was coming from the audience instead of the greenroom hahahaha. Once that was done, I ended up chatting with a bunch of people in the hallway about my costume while waiting for the awards announcement. And at the awards…. I WON TWO! “Honourable Mention for Fabric Painting”  in workmanship, and “Future Arsonist” award for stage!!! I felt so validated in terms of the hundreds of hours I put into painting, especially since the judges hadn’t seemed to like it at the time. I also hadn’t realized until the awards that one of the workmanship judges is the head of the ICG >_>  oops/yay?

​On Sunday Little Stark and I both dressed up as Ghostbusters, though sadly we didn’t get to actually spend a lot of time together clearing the hotel of spooks and spectres. I stopped by the Future Fashion Folio to see what people had made, and then took my Cersei dress and belt to the masquerade show and tell panel (where I got to hear praise from the judges so that was nice), and after that the rest of the afternoon was spent preparing for my stencil demo in the last panel time slot of the day. 

​As for that demo… we started late because the panel ahead ran long, and I’ve never tried to do a stencil in an hour before (the fastest I have done *without* teaching/answering questions is 90 min) so I tried to have as much pre-traced and pre-cut as possible. And while only half the shirt actually got painted I think that I effectively demonstrated the technique, and with minimal derailment. Unfortunately, I hadn’t actually downloaded my photo references to my computer and poor Kurumasha was left with the futile task of trying to get my laptop to connect to the hotel wifi so I could show other examples… and it never did. I felt worse knowing that the wifi had been working right outside the room in the hallway as I did my prep work. In any case, big props to her for trying anyways and helping out where she could. The demo had a full room and everyone seemed to take something away from it.

After that the evening was chill - I watched the Historical Masquerade for the first time and was happy to cheer on my friends who went on stage! I’m also glad to have a much better idea of what is expected of a Historical Masquerade entry now, just in case I ever decide to finish my “in progress” period costume and want to compete at CC38, (which will be in Montreal, as was announced after the show Sunday night! Yes, I have already bought my membership). The night wrapped up with a late but delicious sushi dinner and discussions about fandom, con-running, life, the universe, and everything late into the night.

I didn't get up to any convention activities on Monday - just packing up and saying our goodbyes and being unsure as to how I accumulated so many ribbons over <72 hours.

Kitchener Comic Con was an unusual experience - I was going as handler and assistant to Stark Reality, who was a guest again this year. Instead, Because of course this is how things go, I ended up supervising the kids LEGO activity table for most of saturday and hanging out at the Cosplay dance party corner with Iron Girl on Sunday (which was great until my feet remembered that they hate my ghostbusting boots). But I did get to see some friends, both KW locals and others who drove in, and even got to see one of Mr Stark’s panels (because that never happens)! ​

As usual, here’s photos from the event ^_^

... and also as usual, I'll wrap things up with a few nice shots that friends nabbed at the con.

While I didn’t do any shoots, I did have fun with my weekend cosplay (especially coordinating with Rikkuriffic on Fri and Sat), and the reactions to Holtzmann were heart-warming ^_^. Sadly, almost nobody seemed to recognize our Rat Queens characters >_>
However, I got to meet and hang out with lots of cool new people and old friends, between cosplayers stopping by the contest table and chatting with the neighbouring tables/booths. And if you want to check out the results of the Craftsmanship Contest, all the photos are over on their facebook gallery. I had a surprisingly great time at the convention this year, and I'm hoping that I can do the same again next time!

Oh dear, poor Mai Sheri has fallen down a hole in the past month, only crawling out to Save Hyrule and cause mayhem. but I promised I would post my Frost Con photos eventually, and here we are. 

I spent the weekend working the booth for Cosplay for a Cure which kept me fairly well occupied so I didn't take a lot of photos or do a lot of wandering around. I did, however, chat with most of the people manning the guest/club tables in the room during slower times though, and that was nice to see old friends and meet new people! I did manage to squeeze in a mini shoot for Holtzmann with Dream Land Photography and got some shots at the booth in my bassist Alice, but those pics will be posted a bit later.

So here are my photos:

... and of course some lovely hall shots that I've found:

Bonus! Maximum Khaos snuck me into his convention video!

Somehow I ended up taking fewer "selfiecon" photos this year, despite being at more events (I'm going to blame either being on staff or working with Cosplay for a Cure at most conventions for some of that) so I was determined to get as many as I could manage at DTAC; my last con of 2016. Photos below!

... and a bonus few non-selfie hall shots from other attendees...

My Holiday Holtzmann ended up in a couple of convention videos, too... this one on facebook, and the one below (I'm at 1:05)

Like every year, I ended up with several Halloween costumes and events this year, and so one post will rule them all. 

Firstly, on (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend, Mr Stark, The Video Ninja, Dream Land Photography, and I all went out to High Park to shoot some costumes, one of which was the Space Warrior outfit that I made a year ago. Unfortunately, it's been a warm autumn and the leaves hadn't really changed colour yet, but I'm just happy to have some photos of the costume. Next year's squad goals: a whole group!

Next up was a very last-minute decision to go to Unplugged for the day to give Bear Sailor Moon a hand with the masquerade, and with it came a very last-minute costume: R from Warm Bodies. R is a character which I've had on my cosplay list for a couple years; just waiting for the right opportunity. While the hoodie is way too big (that's what happens when you only have one hour for shopping) I'm pretty happy with the distressing and my makeup. Hope I have the opportunity to wear him again ^_^

(and while we're here, have a few Unplugged floor photos...)

Snailoween was the main event for October this year, with Kurumasha once again coming in for the weekend and we managed to pull together a (small) costume group! Kurumasha, The Video Ninja and I all went as characters from The Wicked + The Divine; I put the finishing touches on my Amaterasu, Kurumasha went as Badb, and I put the Video Ninja in a Baphomet outfit. It was great to be there with my peeps and spending the night dancing with friends - and to top it all off we took home a couple of small gift cards for the store ^_^

Of course I couldn't walk away from the season without dressing up on Halloween itself, even though dressing up is not a thing that people do at my workplace. So, I decided on a "stealth" costume - a non-uniformed Holtzmann. I think I did a decent job replicating her look using stuff found in a quick outlet-store shopping trip (and already accumulated for other reasons ~_^). I've got some sweet non-selfie pics in the queue for a later post.

No blog posts since Bravo? Whoops! How the time flies by!

I was going to post about Fan Expo, but it turns out that I don't have much to say this time. I spent most of my weekend working at the Cosplay Recovery Lounge, which was fun but didn't leave me with any stories to share. I also wasn't able to take photos - definitely not a selfie-con this time around. I spent a little time on Thursday doing some shopping, but other than that, when I wasn't at the Lounge, I was at home being exhausted (real-life job has been keeping me on my toes). However, I was extremely fortunate that I was able to meet up again with Asgard Barbie (and Mr Asgard Barbie) on Sunday for some fun #TeamPepper photos and then being a terrible tour-guide as we explored some of downtown Toronto's sights ^_^

Some other things happened this summer which I haven't commented on yet, like getting to co-host a Game of Thrones themed trivia night with the fab Bear Sailor Moon. While admittedly I was dying of heat in my dress that day, I still had fun and it was great to hang out with "Jon Ho" and meet BrigitFiddle among others!

August also included Mr Stark's birthday, which was a cosplay-filled affair. I pulled together a more complete version of Ammy from The Wicked + The Divine, and had fun spending foreverrrrr doing my makeup LOL

As for off-camera stuff, I've been working away on finishing Cersei for the last couple months, as well as upgrades or additions to the other costumes in my current rotation. That percentage counter over to the right is climbing, but it is so painfully slow T_T. Right now I'm trying to stop myself from working on anything else until Cersei is actually complete, but a couple new projects for other people have popped up unexpectedly and I might have to break for them :/  In any case, my instagram (@maishericostumes) is the place to look for current progress updates until I have more time to post collections here.

I've gotten back several sets of photos from photographers recently which I will be posting soon (I hope!!!) because they're gorgeous, so that'll be the next few blogs.

As for events: I thought that I was going to be finished for the year after Fan Expo, but I just can't turn down working with Cosplay for a Cure, so I will be with them at the Niagara Wine Festival parade again this year (Sept 24), as well as Hamilton Comic Con (Oct 1-2) and probably Forest City Comicon (Nov 5-6) as well! And can't forget about Halloween either. It's going to be a very busy fall!

I wasn't planning to be at ConBravo! this year, because of the convention-burnout from all my spring events. But the masquerade put out a call for volunteers and since I can't resist the siren call of working for a masq (and I could allow myself to have a day off from my sewing projects) I ended up there for Saturday afternoon and evening anyways ^_^

I wanted to wear something comfy, easy to change out of (since I needed to be a ninja for the masq), and "new", so I elaborated a little on my makeup test from the winter and dressed as Luci from The Wicked and The Divine. I love the look of the Devil Herself, and had a lot of fun trying to look like a badass all afternoon XD. I spent most of my time hanging around the Cosplay for a Cure room or shoving my camera in friends' faces until It was time for the masquerade, when I changed and shifted to ninja-mode. I got the "interactive" ninja jobs, which was fun, and there were lots of beautiful costumes entered! However, as a masquerade vetran, I think that Bravo might want to consider reducing the time limit for entries, or we need to bring back the "Masquerade 101" panels. Or Featherweight's tip-sheet handouts. Something to remind entrants that 2-3 minutes on stage is a very long time.

The night wrapped up with spending some time at the dance (it's been years since I went to a con dance!) and hangouts with friends because I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to everyone yet. Thank you to all my friends and the ConBravo! masquerade and events staff who made it a really fun day ^_^

As usual, I'm going to toss in a plug for The Video Ninja's coverage, including the full masquerade, retrospective, and interviews: ConBravo! 2016 playlist

So what's next? Fan Expo! I'll be there with Cosplay for a Cure this year, looking forward to that and the masquerade and cosplaying with friends. Gotta spend the next couple weeks getting my costumes finished though!!!

A couple of weeks ago I hit up Centre Island for a cosplay picnic, and dragged along Mr Stark and Dan the Video Ninja as Hawkeye and The Hulk respectively. The island is one of my favourite places in Toronto and it was great to be back there once again with my friends. Here's a collection of photos from the day, mostly taken by Dan and I ^_^