Con Bravo and what's next

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 ^_^