July and August have been so busy. All summer I’ve been riding the work-sew-sleep-repeat-cosplay cycle and I’m really, really surprised that I haven’t burnt out yet. I have, however, pretty much run out of time for writing blogs and posting photos from all these events! I thought that I would have plenty of time for all that online stuff after Otakuthon; after all, I didn’t have any more conventions scheduled for the rest of the year. Then an opportunity to go to Fan Expo came my way, and I got invited to a bunch of smaller events, and this whole hot mess of a convention year is going to keep going! 

In addition to Fan Ex (which I’m trying to give another chance - I haven’t been back since the 2010 debacle), I’m also going to be doing the Parkinson Superwalk (in Brampton) in costume with a few friends [if you feel like sponsoring me with a donation to Parkinson Society Canada drop me a line], I’m considering attending the Niagara Wine Festival with Cosplay for a Cure (I just have to figure out transportation), and I’m also planning to check out Forest City Comicon pretty much entirely because I really admire Twinzik’s work and we don’t normally run the same convention circuit so I’m jumping at the chance to meet them ^_^

Anyways, moving forward from future plans to looking back to last month’s last event: ConBravo!

Like almost every con I attend, I feel like I missed out on a lot of interesting panels and events at Bravo. But at least I got lots of cosplaying in, especially doing the Needle Panic™ thing with Kurumasha! On Friday I pulled a serious “surprise” costume by doing my first crossplay since 2006. Kurumasha was going to wear Kate Bishop at the con, and I thought "while double-Kate is fun, it would be nicer if we had Clint-and Kate", so when I realized I could pull off a closet cosplay Clint for less than $5 the decision was made. I’d only told Sha (because cos-partner) and Mr Stark (because partner-partner and I wanted to borrow mens pants) and I’d say that the costume was quite successful in terms of being a disguise. I confused a lot of friends who didn’t recognize me until I smiled at them or started talking! We ended up only managing to catch the end of the fabric swap and have some photos done at the Cosplay for a Cure booth before having a late dinner and chilling at the hotel for the night, but I had a lot of fun :D

Saturday started with a field trip - Needle Panic™ took a walking tour from the convention, up a hell of a lot of stairs that we wish Google had warned up about, to our destination of Ann’s Fabric Shop, where we had a ball looking at alllllll the pretty fabric and trying to buy only a reasonable amount. In the end I got everything I need for a Captain Marvel costume, as well as a very pretty piece of chiffon for a different Captain Marvel costume (can you tell how much I’ve gotten into a few Marvel comics this year?). Unfortunately once we got back, it took so long to get into costume and makeup for our Postal Warriors masquerade entry that we just had to go straight to the greenroom for show prep and judging. Not too much of note about the masquerade itself… aside from disagreeing strongly with a couple of the greenroom rules (no practicing, no leaving) it was a pretty standard masq. Here’s video of the whole thing! The video below is just our entry, “Going Postal”!

We wandered the con for a little while after the show since we put so much effort into getting dressed and needed more time to enjoy wearing the costumes. Ran into Paul Hillier and got this sweet pic that I love ^_^ After dinner was just hangout in our hotel room with friends, because we had a kickass suite and know awesome people.

Sunday was the first time I actually got to hangout with Mr Stark all weekend! And I got to see the con in general! I threw on my super comfy “L.A. Woman" Kate costume and Sha and I bummed around the hallways and dealers room. I picked up a cute Hawkguy pendant from JellySquid Crafts in the Artist Alley, and a sweet custom Midna shirt from Chop Shop Goods. I learned that ProJared is a Hawkguy fan, and did a fun, goofy photoshoot with old and new friends at the Cosplay for a Cure booth ^_^. My day wrapped up with an invitation to run backup for Kudrel on her “Horns, Helmets, and Headdresses” cosplay panel! I love doing panels at cons but haven’t been on any lately because I can’t really keep up with new materials and techniques, so it was great to have been invited to join her ^_^

I helped Cosplay for a Cure with some of their tear-down and stuck around to have a really nice sushi dinner with the “Cure” ladies before hitching a ride back to Toronto. Overall it was a pretty good weekend, and I’m really glad I got the chance to hang out and cosplay with Kurumasha so much because we don’t get that many opportunities. I only had my camera with me on Sunday, and I was a little brain-dead by then,so photos for the weekend are a pretty slim selection; but here's the rest of my photos! 

Special bonus content: Dan the Video Ninja's weekend retrospective, in which he managed to catch me in all three of my costumes ^_^

Another A-Pop has come and gone, and I have mixed feelings about the convention this year. It was my 4th time attending, and while on paper it looked just as exciting as it has the previous years, after actually attending I think that the shine has effectively rubbed off the event for me. 

On Friday I wore a Kate Bishop Hawkeye outfit (a bit of a mix of my other costumes since it was too cold and rainy for the summery one I had planned) and after arriving at the Ontario Science Centre around 6, we spent the next few hours in line to get wristbands, greeting friends, and having dinner. By the time I actually got inside it was after 9pm, and what ended up happening was mostly Mr Stark, Yavarice, and I checking out the open exhibits and getting a feel for the con until I wanted to go home and crash hard at midnight. most of my photos are from Friday since I wasn't "working" and had full use of both my hands LOL

Saturday was the "debut" of my Extremis Pepper Potts, with an almost-complete arm from KW Stark Resilient.... a certain boyfriend didn't double-check that the finger joints were packed LOL. The arm will be ready for next time, and I should have a better wig too since the one I wore was the "close enough" one from my stockpile. I spent the afternoon volunteering at the Cosplay for a Cure booth raising money for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. When I wasn't doing that, I was chilling with Mr Stark in his full armour, Dan The Video Ninja in a rare cosplaying appearance as Bruce Banner, and Ragz Cosplay as Spidey. I even ran into one of my friends from university (yes, I have a science degree) who works at the Science Centre and we had fun torturing Dan and Kat. In the evening, we managed to catch the circus show, and some of Elijah Wood's DJ set, but missed out on seeing Prozzäk perform when the fire marshal shut down entry to the area just after we left. We waited in line to try to get downstairs for a little while before being told what was going on by OSC staff and then we just gave up, headed home to take off the armour and makeup, and just listen to Prozzäk on CD. Still took me right back to being a teenager. 

On Sunday I had been thinking about wearing Izabel, but I just couldn't get up early enough and I also didn't have all the costume pieces prepped and ready to wear. I decided to just go with my Iron Man dress instead, and in a twist, Mr Stark and I put "Deadpool" in one of my other costumes - Erika from Welcome to Night Vale. That was fun and he confused a lot of people at the con LOL! I spent the whole of the day on Sunday at the booth which was relatively chill compared to Saturday. More friends stopped by and I tried to talk them into shooting with us ~_^ My pals and I stuck around for the booth tear-down and we all had a lovely post-con dinner.

Still... A-Pop just didn't "do it" for me this year. Or last year either, really (though I kept the con report very positive). I could list off all the little negative things, but I think it really comes down to the size of the convention and the venue; all the programming is really spread out throughout the (huge) building, and the con has gotten too big for me to enjoy the events and activities that I loved the first couple of years that I went - either because of crowding or because they're not offered anymore. Although it was great seeing so many of my friends there and I enjoyed spending time with the Cosplay for a Cure booth, I don't think I'm going to be back again next year.

Additional photo credits: Joe's Garage Photos, Elemental Photography, Dan The Video Ninja, Skyleaf Creations.

Just a quick post today with all the progress images from my Kate Bishop Hawkeye costume! Blurbs on each photo ^_^

This summer is turning out to be incredibly busy as I'm being much more ambitious than usual with my event plans. Also much, much more ambitious than usual with cosplay plans! Here's how things are shaping up at the moment:

Game of Thrones

One of the costumes on my (long) list that I want to make is Cersei from Game of Thrones. Although I didn't put it on my list of "next 10" back in January, I ended up bumping it up on the schedule since Shelle-Chii invited me to her Thrones-themed birthday party and Elemental convinced me that I could put it together quickly. In the end, Elemental was mostly right. I got the dress completely sewn in time (although I did miss the beginning of the party because I insisted on hemming it hahaha), but I didn't get the belt done at all. Luckily Elemental had something almost perfect for me to borrow to wear to the party. I have since finished the belt and I'm going to try to do a little bit of the embroidery detail before the cosplay picnic this weekend. Below you'll find photos from the party, and the dress with my newly finished belt. I've also decided to toss in the closet/modern/whatever version of Ygritte (my other planned GoT costume) from my trip to see the costume exhibit, since Mage posted the photos she took recently ^_^  
The actual Ygritte costume currently consists of a large bag of faux fur in my storage room, a small swatch of experimental home made imitation leather, and a wig.

Phase 2 things

I managed to squeeze in a couple of "fun" projects around my costumes recently, because taking breaks from big things is good and my creation-motivation has been unusually high for a while now! I made a baby-luma on order for the new child of a friend of the Video Ninja. Apparently the baby liked it, just like his big sister's ^_^ 

I also threw together a new shirt for summer, which was a frustrating exercise in creative pattern placement. I bought the fabric last year not really paying attention to how big the piece was and not realizing it wouldn't be enough for the dress I wanted, but it was so pretty I had to do something with it. And I think it looks nice with my Majora's Mask leggings from Lunaria.

Back at C2E2 I joined a Hawkeye shoot with some american friends - The AnarCHris as Hawkguy, Pepperbots Cosplay as Black Widow, and Allycat Alisha as Mockingbird. I also brought along Ragz Cosplay as Wiccan and KW Iron Man as Iron Pool, because everyone loves Marvel LOL. My favourites from our shoot with Eddie B Photos are up in my Hawkeye gallery now, as well as some of the fun photos I got at Niagara Falls Comic Con!

Hawkeye Cosplay Gallery

A couple of weeks ago, I went to my first NFCC! Since I couldn't go to ColossalCon this year, and SouSho was delayed to 2016, I figured I should add something new to my calendar, and apparently a lot of my friends were going to be at Niagara Falls. I commuted in with Ragz Cosplay on Saturday and Sunday to save some money on a hotel. I had wanted to finish my Iron Man mk. IX gauntlet to cosplay "Extremis!Pepper" from Iron Man 3, but unfortunately I had considerable trouble with the paint on Thursday night and had to leave it at home. Instead I brought out Mrs Impossible for Saturday (most likely the last wear for that costume because it is way too small), and Kate Bishop on Sunday.

I didn't end up going to any panels or signings, or other programming at all over the weekend, with the exception of the costume contest awards announcement to support my friends who entered. What I did do for 2 days was walk the hall and exhibitor's room, did a little shopping (Hawkeye vs Deadpool and Sex Criminals vol 2 from Big B Comics, and a shirt from TeeTurtle because I hadn't packed one and needed to change), but mostly just talked to people and took photos, with the Cosplay For A Cure booth being the main loitering point XD  It ended up being a remarkably enjoyable convention since I had excellent company all weekend, I was amazingly anxiety-free, and I was able to get in a private shoot each day (with Sean's Photography and Elemental) as well as a few mini-shoots on the grounds with other photographers I have met over the last year or so like Very Frank Pictures, Peter Wang, and Cosplayers Canada. I even made it into Cosplayers Canada's magazine! (page 21)

This was one of those cons which was made great by the people who were there. I'm not a big-spender (especially at conventions) so vendors and AA aren't a big deal to me, and while there was a nice variety of programming, none of it specifically spoke to me. Same with the celebrity guests. Organizationally, the con was a little lacking. Doors were signed but with things like "re-entry not guaranteed" instead of useful information like "entrance" and "exit". Different days the entrances and exits were in different locations, and even throughout the day the doors we were allowed to use constantly changed. I was very surprised that an event which boasts "more than 23,000 fans" attending didn't have a badge system for attendees - some got wristbands (to be honest I'm not sure if they were for weekend or VIP passes) but single-day people like myself and Ragz only got a hand-stamp on entry (or a somewhere-stamp, because: costumes LOL). 

I made this the first "selfie-con" of 2015 and I'm pretty sure I managed to get a picture with almost everyone there who I knew, and some I didn't XD Gallery posts from my private shoots coming soon!

My C2E2 recap is being split up, because it's just too much for one post. Part 1 is the usual con-report, and Part 2 focuses on just the Crown Championships of Cosplay.

Thursday (Day 0)
It was a long, long drive from Burlington to Kitchener to Chicago, but at least I had good company with my awesome friend (and driver) Ragz and equally awesome boyfriend Mr Stark. Highlights of the drive included watching the first episode of Daredevil, dropping in on my parents for a short visit, billboards for Lion's Den because we're mature grown-ups, and marveling at Michigan's roadkill (too many raccoons and deer to count plus TWO wild turkeys!). Lowlights included a traffic jam for an invisible flipped truck before we even picked up Stark, a long detour before realizing that the GPS was sending us to Ottawa to avoid toll roads, the interstate we needed to be on literally not existing due to construction, and creating a time paradox (I mean, getting confused) when the GPS knew that Chicago is in a different time zone but we didn't.

In the end we arrived exactly 12 hours after leaving (objective time) and were very relieved to discover that the Chicago South Loop Hotel was precisely as advertised: free parking, free wifi, clean and pretty, and the staff were all very very nice ^_^  We took a quick walk around the area after settling in and ate at the only place we found: White Castle. Started to realize why the hotel was so affordable. 

Friday (Day 1)
We started off our convention bright and (relatively) early with a photoshoot! The AnarCHris (of Chris and Carrie Creative) arranged for a Hawkeye-based cosplay group to get together for some fun photo times. CHris was Hawkguy, Allycat Alisha was Mockingbird, Pepperbots was Black Widow, I contributed Kate Bishop, and of course, that's Ragz as Wiccan and Stark as Deadpool/Iron Pool. Big thanks go to Eddie B Photos for taking the pictures! 

After the shoot wrapped up we picked up our badges and headed to the show floor! Unfortunately the Canadian contingent managed to get separated from CHris within about 10 minutes of being in the exhibitors' area (which could only be the result of how busy and chaotic the place was, because it's actually difficult to lose someone as tall as CHris - see photos above XD). So we just wandered on our own, resisting the temptation to buy everything everywhere. We got stopped for lots of photos (Iron Pool especially was a big hit!) and I even saw someone with a super cute Katie-Kate shirt! (I regret not getting a photo with him) In the afternoon Mr Stark and I caught the Thrilling Adventure Hour Concert Film screening, which was pretty sweet. The brief Q&A with a lot of the main Workjuice Players was icing on the cake.

We had wanted to catch Adam WarRock in concert not to far from the hotel on Friday night, but exhaustion and a few other things conspired against us. Things like having an extremely difficult time getting a hold of some dinner, and having to evacuate the hotel for a possible fire somewhere on the second floor. In the rain. That was... fun? Not really. So that was lame - I had really wanted to see him live. 

Saturday (Day 2)
This was the Crown Championships of Cosplay day, and a lot of my day was taken up with craftsmanship judging and photos and greenroom time and the actual show... but not quite the whole day. We stopped by the Marvel photo shoot in the cosplay lounge for a little bit and the guys hopped into some photos. I made sure to stop by the Image booth with Izabel, found a The Will cosplayer for a photo (unfortunately I didn't see any of the other Saga cosplayers who were around that day), and said hi to CHris and Carrie over at the Athena's Wink booth. And then costume touch-ups and back to the contest stuff. 

Sunday (Day 3)
As the only day when none of us had any obligations in the morning, we all slept in. Very snooze, much yes, etc. When we did get moving, Stark and I went with our Viria13-Avatar costumes. I regret not getting a chance to do a test run of Zuko's scar before hand, but after just a couple of attempts I think I got something acceptable. It was barely visible under his wig and hood anyways, and at least now we know how to prepare for wearing them again at Anime North. Like, three people recognized us as our characters (though two of the three thought I was Azula, not Mai) so that's good I guess? In our relatively "comfortable" costumes, Sunday became designated shopping day while we picked up some things for ourselves, a couple of gifts for people at home, and too many (ha!) copies of Yaya Han's bodysuit pattern from the McCall's booth as requested by friends at home. The rest of the night was spent decompressing back at the hotel with some drinks, card games, Daredevil, and Game of Thrones. 

Monday (Day 4?)
I had hoped that we could do some sightseeing before heading back home on Monday, but we were all pretty worn out from the weekend, and considering how long the drive to Chicago took, ultimately the decision was made just to drive back home. It was another long trip, though significantly shorter this time since we never got caught in traffic, construction, or headed the wrong way. Tried to turn roadkill-spotting into an actual game (especially in that apparent Michigan Kill-Zone), but nobody wanted to keep score. "No Stark, for the last time, we're not stopping at Lion's Den". And the last bit of geekery for the trip: getting Ragz hooked on Thrilling Adventure Hour on the ride home. It was pretty good driving entertainment ^_^

TL;DR
But tell us Mai Sheri, how did C2E2 measure up? 
I had fun at the con. It was nice to see my AmeriCon friends and meet some new ones. There were a lot of cool guests and panels and meet-ups going on. Lots of fun, positive cosplayers, and if the exchange rate wasn't so bad, I would have come home with a LOT of books and merch. Unfortunately, a lot of other factors decreased my enjoyment a bit, mainly our issue with the hotel's location. It was the same distance from the convention as our hotel was from NYCC when Ragz and I were last there, so I thought it would be fine, but the big difference was that the NYC hotel was close to countless restaurants, coffee shops, convenience stores, etc, while South Loop had nothing. So concerns about food and travel meant that I didn't do as much socializing as I would have liked, and that also contributed to missing some meets and panels I would have liked to have seen. As did the cosplay contest.... I'm used to giving up a lot of my Saturday if I'm competing in (or staffing) the masquerade, but this one was definitely the biggest time-sink so far.

I would like to return to C2E2 again... but I probably won't be back next year. Even though I had a great time at the con, I have a limited travel budget, and I think in 2016, I'd like to try somewhere new, once again ^_^

Another year, another Ad-Astra. My ninth time attending; their thirty-fourth year running! Which I really only mention because it makes me a little sad that so few of my convention-friends have even heard of Ad-Astra, and many have asked me if it's a new convention. Despite its small size and relatively low attendance, I like Ad-Astra. I got to know most of my good friends because of this con, I entered my first masquerade (and won my first award!) at Ad-Astra, and I've learned more in the cumulative cosplay panels I've attended there than anywhere else*. I really hope that more costumers start attending (or go back) in the coming years.

So here's my quick con report, with a photo gallery below ^_^

Friday I dressed as Gabriel, for what is probably the final time. (I would like to keep cosplaying Gabe, especially with the renewed interested generated by the Constantine show, but the costume is old, doesn't fit anymore, and Gabe's wing stumps need to be entirely replaced after what I put them through) Most of the evening was spent hanging around the hotel lobby, waiting for Calamity and Kurumasha to arrive so we could check-in, and then waiting for Elemental to finish her Thermoplastics panel, then foraging for dinner. But then, then... it was time. Time to put Gabriel in a pool. Time for the photoshoot that I've been waiting to do since 2007 (no, seriously, look at this: me complaining that I missed my chance eight years ago), and which Elemental has wanted to shoot with me for almost as long. We were fortunate with our timing in that the kids cleared out just as the lighting was set up, and nobody kicked me out XD. Looks like Elemental got some great shots, Toast was assisting with lighting and grabbed my BTS pics, and I can't wait to post the new images when they're ready!!!

Sunday was a little rough around the edges - not enough sleep plus check-out plus masquerade awards at 10am (are you getting that I'm not a morning person?) but I was eventually vertical and presentable by 11:00 and we even checked out around noon XD  But the day still went well - I wore Kate Bishop again, and this time with the "right" makeup XD,  won an Honourable Mention for Izabel ( the "You got guts, gurl" award XD) from the masquerade, got rid of some ribbon and buttons at the cosplay swap meet, had a nice lunch with friends, and attended the Cheats, Tricks, and Illusions for Costumes and Props and Mascots and Big Costumes panels, both of which had some very interesting little tidbits for me to take home for my own projects.THe whole day wrapped up with a long chat with Jen and Dawn about conventions, masquerades, and costuming in general.

Saturday was unusual for me in that I actually wore two costumes in one day! Since I was planning to enter Izabel in the masquerade, but didn't want to deal with the makeup  all day, I decided to just wear Kate Bishop for the first half of the day instead of just dressing "civilian". Kate"s "costume" is mostly street-clothes as it is so the plan worked out well... except that I couldn't put on my usual fashion makeup because it would mess with my facepaint for Izabel. So I feel like my face was very under-dressed for cosplay, especially when next to Kurumasha who was in full Hawkeye and looking awesome, Bro. Team Katie-Kate play-tested Exploding Kittens in the game room as part of International TableTop Day and I had a lot of fun with that. I didn't back the Kickstarter, but I'll very likely be picking up the game once it gets a major release. Big ups to our other players Jon, Jon, and Mike :)

As green-room time approached I ran off to pink-ify myself for the masquerade, and this time I timed myself. Two hours to fully get into makeup and costume on Izabel. I might be able to shave that down a little with having my supplies better organized, but there are so many little fiddly things to take care of, that it won't make a big difference. Which means I'm going to be dealing with a hell of an early morning for the Cosplay Championships at C2E2. UUUGGHHHH. Anyways, the Ad-Astra masquerade ran well. Very small (only 11 entries including 2 "young fans") but with Dart, Jayuna, Kurumasha, Sarcasm-Hime, and I all at Master level I think we put on a good show for the audience at least. Even though there weren't many entries, the audience was still full! I ended up with footage of myself, Jayuna and Kurumasha, so I'll share them with they make it to YouTube. I was really hoping to hit up the dance or at least one room party after the masquerade, but instead er ended up hosting most of our friends in our hotel room just hanging out and chatting until finally a decision was made to get dinner around 11. No energy left for partying when you don't get back to the hotel until 1:30 and still have to remove all that pink makeup!

* Costume Con might have beaten it, but I managed to attend almost no panels there so... oops. >_>

I was going to do a photo post of Mai last week, since I have shots back from both Very Frank Pictures and Everage Photography now... and then all kinds of STUFF happened. 

Cosplay: I've been working hard to finish my Kate Bishop costume, but I needed to stop to get grommets for the quiver. Which I then couldn't find (for a reasonable price). Between many hours wasted searching 5 different dollar stores and then the Easter holiday store closures, I just got a hold of what I need from Fabricland today. So, barring any more disasters, I want to finish assembling the quiver as soon as possible and get the shoulder straps attached before Friday. Since I didn't do any work on Hawkeye over the long weekend, what did I do? 

Good Friday: Elemental and I were joined by Darthmarysue at the Mystery Shack for a day of thermoplastic, wig-styling, and spring cleaning, apparently. I had planned to work on Hawkeye and Midna, but tidying up a few things so I had room to work soon became a full-scale clean up of my studio area. The cleaning was long over-due... I managed to purge two garbage bags of trash, and I have two more bags of stuff to donate or give away. There's still much more to do, but in terms of my fabric stash I've achieved a lot, and only have a couple more boxes of fabric to sort, label, and repack.

.... once that's done though, the next big job is getting rid of most of my retired costumes. I still have more storage space to reclaim!

Seems a little corpsey around here: The following Saturday, Sunday (and Monday) brought a BIG change of pace for me. Hannibal is one of the ongoing TV shows which is produced in Toronto, and my friend Katherine is working on the effects team. They needed some sewing done on a costume for the upcoming season, and since their usual seamstress is on vacation I got the opportunity to fill in! "Baby's first industry job" was the phrase of the day. It was really cool getting to spend a few days surrounded by display pieces from Hannibal and all the Saw movies and more, and to see some of the process on various FX pieces, even though I myself was mostly stitching velcro! I'm not going to post about exactly what I was working on until the episode airs, but I will be sure to follow up on that ^_^

Ad-Astra: This con really snuck up on me! I'm working on last-minute fixes/additions/repairs/finishing touches on all of these costumes, but I have faith that everything will at least be wearable. Aside from the masquerade, I'm not planning to participate in events or panels, but I'm looking forward to doing some photo shoots with Elemental and hanging out with Kurumasha and Calamity; girls from the awesome Ottawa cosplay crew. only second to Anime North, Ad-Astra is one of the conventions I've attended the most, and I'm definitely excited to be back again this year (even if most of my cosplay friends are going to GTA Comic Con instead :P)

C2E2: Things seem to be coming together nicely for my Chicago trip with KW Iron Man and Ragz, although I still haven't picked out a costume for Sunday. Plans for Saturday are set in stone though since I'm going to be competing in the C2E2 Crown Championships of Cosplay!!! It's my first ever competition at an AmeriCon* and I'm really excited to get to go on stage with so many very talented people! I can't wait to meet everyone and ogle all the costumes backstage. And I'm also excited to get to talk to the judges - it's not often that I have my workmanship judged by a panel of cosplayers, FX artists, and TV costume designers. 
You should totally check out all the entrants and judges on the competition page!

Still going to try to get those Mai photos posted soon, but with everything else I'm working on at the moment, I'm not making any promises.

*AmeriCon: convention in the US. I'm a literary genius.

While I wait to get photos to go with my KCC report, I want to do a small progress post. I had really really wanted to finish one of the 3 costumes that I'm actively working on by the end of February. I tried hard to push at least one of them to a point where I could consider it complete. Unfortunately, I failed in that goal. (Though I take solace in that it's due to the fact that I've been splitting my time between >5 costumes this month instead of due to me slacking off)

I ran into different problems with each of my main projects (what I've decided to call 2015's Phase One)

Although I'm disappointed that I didn't get any of those three done, I am far enough along to still consider myself on schedule for my goals this year. Izabel was completed in January, and Mai and Princess Hawkguy are both far enough along that I can easily get both done in March. Then I can get down to serious cosplay business through April and May working on Midna and my Anime North back-up costume. Extremis Pepper's completion goal is for SouSho in June. Then I'm going to spend the summer working on the rest of Phase One (namely Nightingale and finishing Midna),  collaboration costumes with/for KW Iron Man and Iron Girl (Phase Two!), and a couple brand new projects which I'm really excited to get started on (Phase Three!!)

Finally, I've been posting fewer individual progress photos lately, mostly because I've been working on so many different things a little at a time, saving image posts for when whole sections of a single costume are done. Sometimes I randomly put single progress images on Facebook or Twitter, but it really is random; I'm god about taking photos, but it disrupts my workflow at lot to try to post while I'm working on things. If you realllly want to keep tabs on whether I'm on track though, I've put a running progress meter for each costume on the right side of my blog (assuming you're reading this on my blog page). This way it's easy for me to keep myself accountable without having to constantly post images and boring descriptions!

Anyways, time to get back to work!