Happy New Year!

Let's take our annual look back on 2023, shall we?

The year was a real struggle for cosplay - I ended up short on time  for new builds which is definitely a running theme and (realistically) is only going to get worse year-over-year as I get older and also pick up other pastimes and hobbies (more on that later). Let's take a look at the costumes I made:

What I ended up with here is all easy/casual cosplay plus one old costume finished off. I still take that as a win!
Chrissy from Animal Crossing was just something fun for both Year of the Rabbit and Easter posts
Mom/Grace from Umbrella Academy was a cosplay I had started in 2019 and really wanted to just get completed. I finished the costume in time to enter the Con-G Virtual masquerade, where I won Best Master! I wore her again to Anime North for a meetup - unfortunately I am not sure if I'll be taking her to any more cons since the size is no longer good.
Robert Baratheon was a fun project to go with my Cersei from Game of Thrones. I spent more time than I wanted to making alterations to Cersei so that she would fit again, but in the end I got Robert done in time for Halloween, which was the goal.
Princess Waluigi was this year's silly "April Fool's" costume - very ridiculous but I had fun throwing it together with stuff from my closet plus making a custom crown.
Amity Blight from Owl House is a repeat character but new "winter" outfit which I literally finished yesterday so I don't have photos yet... if I go to any winter cons in 2024 she will probably make an appearance.

Other less cosplay-related projects from the year include a cross stitch I made as an Umbrella Academy prop (for a specific photoshoot which hasn't actually happened yet), progress on my Impervious shawl, a commissioned Monokuma hat, one (of a couple) soap saver bags, a set of luma plushies for friends' children, and I started learning crochet with a couple of Woobles kits. I love how cute the critters turned out.

I didn't attend a ton of conventions this year - checked out a couple of local events with SPCS and CKX, then the usual Anime North and Yeticon. I had hoped to do more but timing and travel just weren't on my side. The Oxford Ren Fest ended up replacing the con experience a bit, but I'm planning to do a few more in 2024 - I miss my con friends.
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As for how all this compares to my plans at the start of the year....

Mom got done! I made good progress on War, and am very close to being finished, but really need like a couple more days of holiday/vacation to get the wig done. Emi got cancelled altogether pretty early in the year - it just wasn't something I was passionate enough about for the amount of work it would have been. And the rest... they weren't touched. maybe next year.

So, if I haven't been cosplaying, what did I do with my year? There's the usual boring stuff: I changed jobs, have been hanging with friends, etc. Aside from starting the year with Covid then a rotator cuff injury, I've been pretty good about staying active, so I end up at the gym pretty regularly. After a few summers of training I was finally able to run a full 5 km, and ended up doing three local races in September. The goal for next year is to improve my time - I want to be 2-3 minutes faster. I picked up a hip hop style cardio dance class at my gym as well which I am LOVING. I miss my old dance life a little LOL. 

Along with being more active, I've also gotten more nerdy as our weekly D&D group started a new campaign in Feb, so we are coming up on the anniversary soon!

Of course, I've been doing my best to keep up with shows, games, and also my huge to-read list. Since it seems like everyone provides a yearly summary now, I'm tossing those in here (too bad GoodReads doesn't do an easily sharable graphic). My Spotify wrapped was interesting this year, since it ended up being almost entirely my gym/running tunes. Tears of the Kingdom dominating my game time shouldn't come as a surprise - but that fact that I'm still not even close to beating it might. It looks like I real a lot, but take into consideration that a lot of that was comic books, not novels (feel free to click-through for more).

There's one more thing this blog post needs: what's coming up???

A lot of my cons aren't confirmed - I would like to go back to TriCon in January, but it depends on the weather and other factors. Of course I'll be "attending" Con-G again in Feb, and the usual SPCS and Anime North in the spring. If YetiCon is happening *crosses fingers* of course I'll be there. Costume-Con 42 in Colorado is also on the list, I just need to confirm logistics. I'll try to keep my home page updated with the most current plans.

​As for costumes...

War is absolutely getting done this year. As I already said above, I really just need a couple of days to get it done and I'll be glad to have her off the list. 
Twili Midna is the other older unfinished costume I want to focus on this year - it's been a decade since I started the sewing (and much longer than that for buying supplies), and I think that's probably the best reason to pick this one of my many abandoned WIPs.
The "Blanca" jumpsuit will be for the Costume Con single pattern contest, but exactly what I'm doing with it will remain a surprise for now.
Princess Buttercup has been on my to-make list for a while, but I recently changed which outfit I want to make. I want to have her ready for YetiCon 2024
Finally, there are plans in the works to make Akuoart's Witchy Princess trio with friends - maybe for Halloween??