Time for the reveal of my Single Pattern design for Costume-Con 42: it's a take on Rosalina's Mario Kart outfit, but a more realistic racer-inspired design, with lots of sponsorship deals! I think what I ended up with is a very solid combination of the  design elements of the canon outfit and the Flight Suit pattern.

The Costume-Con trip  was really a 2-in-1 cosplay holiday - a group of 5 of us all flew down from Canada to Denver, rented a cabin in the mountains, and spent a couple days taking photos of our costumes in the Rocky Mountains (and putting finishing touches on our convention outfits). I had a lot of fun being a tourist and hanging with the girls who I don't get to see much now that I'm not in Toronto any more.

After all that, we headed back to Denver for the convention itself. I entered the Single Pattern contest with Rosalina as planned on Friday night, and ended up winning the award for Best in Pattern (that is, the judges liked my costume the best of all the entries who used the Flight Suit pattern). I am thrilled with the win and couldn't be prouder of all the work I put in to what appears to be a fairly simple costume. Then again, clean construction is my forte.

I didn't enter any other contests, but I did end up volunteering for both the Saturday night and Sunday night contests, which for me is the next-best thing, no question (even though some of the other volunteers could not believe I would travel as far as I did to "work" over the weekend LOL).  I love being in the greenroom and helping costumers however needed, and anyone who has run into me at local masquerades knows.

I did the thing I usually do and neglected to take many hall photos, but I still have a fair sized gallery of photos to share from the various events.

War:
In January I finally finished my War cosplay (started 2019). I had put time into the accessories in late 2023, as well as replacing the pants, but the wig/hairpiece was the biggest (i.e. most intimidating) and final piece. I made the faux-hawk and braid combo from scratch using the wefts from a ponytail clip (dyed to match my hair) and red wefts, both from Cactus Mafia. All the wefts were hand-sewn to a felt strip - probably not the best choice for my base, but it was convenient and a discrete colour. Then came lots of teasing for texture and volume, curling the top, pinning the top into place, and braiding the back. It's not exactly what I had envisioned (but what ever is?), and it definitely reads as War. In any case, it's better than having to use my own hair again next time I put on the costume.​

I have so many (far too many) things in-progress these days. I'm knitting on TV nights with my mother, which means I'm making very slow progress on my Impervious shawl. I love the pattern but it's somewhat tedious to knit, so maybe I'll make enough progress to show off in a future post. For now, this is the point I was at around the start of the year

Website updates are coming - I know I still have a few "new" cosplay galleries which are missing, but it's been really hard to set aside time for that kind of work. Sadly, costumes with actual deadlines have to come first with my scant time for hobbies.

Unrelated to cosplay or crafting, I'm still staying active with running and dancing at the gym, and still playing D&D (in the second year of our current campaign!)  I managed to squeeze in two visits to Kitchener to see friends, and celebrated my birthday at home with new and old friends. I finally defeated Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom so I can start a new game guilt-free (though I'm still working on finishing up all the side-quests).

That's enough for now - look forward to the next update after Costume-Con 42!

Anime North was back to business as usual this year, if not even bigger than before the pandemic. And as usual, I took very few photos... it seems like the bigger the event and the more people are there, the less I want to take out my camera. I need to work on that LOL.
Friday:
With the long drive in to Toronto from my hometown I arrived later than usual, but did manage to (barely) make it to the "Hot Moms" cosplay meet-up wearing Grace from The Umbrella Academy. Afterwards I ended up spending most of the evening in the Greenroom for the fashion show with Kurumasha and Sarcasm Hime (along with running into a handful of other friends between that and the drag show). After dinner, we wrapped up the night having a dessert party with the ninja crew.

Saturday:
Saturday was very by-the-books as AN goes: get in cosplay in the morning (season 1 Amity Blight), browse the artist alley/dealers room, visit friends where I find them, then change into the bathhouse uniform to work the masquerade. This year I ended up running for the Master division, which was a nice - it's cool to see friends competing again! Overall I think the masq ran as smoothly as usual, but there was a notable difference - there is always a sense of camaraderie, fellowship, and friendship in the greenroom, but this year the contestants had cranked the positivity and support up to 11 and the vibe was just amazing. So very glad I get to play a small part of the event every year.

Sunday:
I decided to double-up on Amity this weekend, so Sunday was my (relatively) new season 3.1 version. I hadn't planned to go back into the vendors hall but somehow ended up there anyways, mostly chatting with friends. Dan the Video Ninja and I found ourselves watching the idol showcase - I've never gone before and I'll admit it was a much more polished show than I was expecting. The showcase was followed by the Masquerade Awards presentation, and then I wrapped up the con by attending Zee and Stillvisions' Caramelldansen throwback panel. Good weekend, good con, good friends.

And now here's my photos from the weekend: