If you follow me on instagram, or twitter, or facebook.... you'll know that almost every Thursday night since last November I've been joining Dan the Video Ninja on his twitch.tv channel to stream video games. And you will also know that I wear a (casual) costume every time. I don't always match the game (sometimes I just don't have what I need on hand or I don't have the time to put something together for a single-sitting game), but I always dress up. I've been posting photos to social media every week, and as a baby-step on the way to getting this site up to date, I've started adding them to my side-gallery for casual cosplay, if you want to take a look at everything. I hope you enjoy, check out the photos, and maybe even join us for the next stream!
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I was at ConBravo! for all 3 days again this year, but I guess I was too successful at being a stealthy ninja because I feel like I somehow missed most of it. Go figure. Friday is understandable - I spent the day at work, then took the bus to Hamilton, and by the time I had arrived. picked up my badge, checked in to the hotel, and gotten into cosplay... there was time to take a real quick look at the dealers hall and then go for dinner with Kurumasha. I'm not even sure why I bothered to put on my Kate Bishop costume - I didn't even take a selfie. But it was good to see Sha again and dinner was perfection. Saturday was the big day - convention time during the day, then being a Stage Ninja for the masquerade in the afternoon/evening, followed by a group Wicked + Divine shoot to wrap up the day. So Kurumasha and I spent the morning doing our goddess makeup for Badb and Amaterasu respectively, went to Cosplay for a Cure to get photos and hang out with friends in the afternoon, until it was time to do the masquerade thing. I couldn't ninja my makeup off so I just did what I could to hide in the shadows anyways LOL While it otherwise ran relatively smoothly, the masquerade did finish later than expected which meant that we were rushed to meet with Jen of Verberg and Dan the Video Ninja for our shoot with Dream Land Photography... but we made it work in the end. Jen and I had been trying to find a time to cosplay Luci and Ammy together for months, so I'm glad that it finally happened, and even better that we had Badb and Baphomet along too. Sunday was a lot more chill. I was "on call" at Cosplay for a Cure but the other volunteers for the day mostly had everything covered so it was nice to get to wander away regularly as well as chill with the ever-growing Ain't No Pretty Princess cosplay group. I've got shots from Cosplay for a Cure and Dream Land Photography to share from that group too... coming soon. As usual my own photos (plus a couple others) are below... mostly Saturday. Between carrying around my bass and fighting off con-plague sniffles on Sunday I didn't have my camera out. Last year I had a good time at YetiCon despite being in a terrible mood because of bad cosplay juju, and this year I had a good time despite being constantly rained out so I think that says a lot about the awesome people that I went with (both years). I was much more ambitious than usual going in: I attempted to make 3 new costumes for the con (Kevin for Mr Stark, and Professor Burnet and Milotic for me), and while Kevin was the only one that got 100% finished, my other 2 were more than wearable, so that was a good start. Since Mr Stark doesn't get to attend many cons with me, we picked our costumes to coordinate all weekend - we figured Wendy and Robbie from Gravity Falls would be location-appropriate for Friday (though I don't think we ended up getting any snaps with Ragz's Dipper or Logan's Gruncle Stan, who were both also around); Professors Kukui and Burnet (from Pokémon Sun/Moon) for Saturday's Pokémon Snap hike, followed by Milotic and Blastoise for our friends group of water-type Pokémon for the pool party; and Ghostbusters with Elemental on Sunday. I did try to do more convention activities this year than last - but somehow that didn't really work out... I partially blame the rain, which I got caught in at least once... every day. We attempted cosplay bingo, rode the mountain coaster, played about half a round of mini golf before getting rained out, and went on the Pokémon hike (which not only ended in Mr Stark, the Video Ninja, and I soaked through and temporarily stranded at the top of the mountain, but also the Celebi supposedly at the top had already been stolen). Sadly, pretty much everything else that I had planned or attempted to do was rained out, or missed because I was spending quality time with friends XD So big props to all my hotel roommates (and extended roommates) for the awesome company, great food, cosplay groups, game nights, and not-so-pool-party water Pokémon; to the other friends I saw and played games with and hung out with over the weekend; to Amaleigh for shooting with Mr Stark and I (not to mention the adorable and awesome addition of 50 Shades of Fandom); and extra props to Kiirokeishi and Dan for picking up the camera unasked ^_^ My photos are below, along with some of my faves that other people took... and as usual, full gallery updates with photos from private shoots will be coming later... as soon as I finish all the con reports! I was at NFCC a couple of years ago, and while I skipped 2016, I was back this year to work for my friend Ice Phoenix Art at her AA table. So that means I don't have a ton to write about - I mostly spent the 2 days behind the table, making some sales but mostly keeping Ice Phoenix company. Aside from that I did a little bit of shopping, visited my friends at Cosplay for a Cure (and their neighbours the Ontario Ghostbusters) and finally did a proper shoot of my "Marvelous Coat" with Very Frank Pictures. So I'll share some selfies (the pro shots are coming soon) and leave it at that... for now ^_^ 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. We arrived Thursday evening to have time to chill and prep for an early start on Friday. I didn’t cosplay during the day on Friday to save my energy (and outfit reveal) for the evening. I did hit up a couple of panels though, including the always entertaining “Costume Horror Stories” and “Vinyl Cutting” (the latter of which wasn’t relevant to my budget but was interesting as a higher-tech version of my own Freezer Paper demo). Then it was time to prep for the Single Pattern Contest. 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.
I spent the weekend at TCC this year similarly to how I spent many of the conventions in 2016 - working with the costume contest. This time, however, I was working with a different team of people on a different type of contest. Comicon doesn’t offer a masquerade-style contest, instead it’s a “Craftsmanship Contest” which gives entrants a few minutes each to talk to the judges and show off their costumes up-close. My job was the same as usual though, taking entrant info, answering questions, and generally herding cats. While the contest kept me quite busy all weekend, I was fortunate to have been visited at the table by many of my friends, and of course the rest of the contest team are all great people! Being busy meant that I only took a few photos but let’s face it, I’m always terrible at remembering to do that. 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! Hello friends! I feel bad for not posting anything since my 2017 plans, but the winter blahs hit me hard and I've been hiding from cosplay stuff a little bit. I needed to step away for a little while, and while I'm less miserable now I'm still not going to be going all out on blogs or anything any time soon. So how about a quick recap of the year so far? January:
February:
..... while that little summary is a bit hyperbolic, it still feels accurate. Let's try again. February:
I worked hard in Jan getting ready for Frost Con and then I came home from the convention feeling weird about cosplay and not super energetic about making things. It has only been in the last week that I have finally gotten back to working on Cersei's dress. This weekend I set myself up with lots of entertainment (twitch streams, MBMBAM, Venture Bros commentary, and some Captain Disillusion) and just ploughed through all the hand sewing I had left. I really REALLY want to say that the costume is done now, but it's not, which is getting me down. There's so much more to replace. But hopefully I can get working on that ASAP and get it off my plate so I can finally move on to something NEW for Toronto Comic Con or Costume-Con. Or Kitchener Comic Con, which happens between those two. And speaking of coming up, how is March looking?
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