It's Nearly Over...

I've actually been taking quite a few costume photos at Connecticon this year! I'm pretty proud of myself. However, I neglected to think about how I'd get the photos to my computer while in CT... oh, dear. I suppose there won't be any photos until Sunday or Monday. Sorry. :<

I picked up a lot of Pokemon-related merchandise this year, and dropped some money on some hardcover volumes of Black Jack (discounted heavily... awesome!), nice prints from the artist alley, and a Totoro piano book. And a handful of Japanese goodies, since Connecticon lets vendors sell them :3

I also was gifted a Jirachi on my Pokemon Diamond game! And here I had thought I'd missed my chance to get it. So cute, and with a crazy 140-power move. o_o;

That's all for this little update. I'll be hitting the con un-costumed tomorrow for a few hours. I'll be going to a makeup panel, and maybe try for an autograph. A relaxed day.

Hope everyone attending has been having a good weekend.

Connecticon is here!

...why am I still awake? It's Connecticon time, I should be sleeping! Oh, well. I'll be quick here.

This year I'll be going to CTcon for all three days, and I have what I believe is a functional camera, so I'm going to try to post some pics and notes throughout the weekend. I don't have any particular goals this year... my friends aren't really around for entering the Rock Band tourney again or anything... so I'll be floating, which is, frankly, pretty awesome. I'm going to try to get a mix of experiences. I might even try out the scavenger hunt ^_^

Poor Mike's wig still makes him look a bit like a Beatle in this photo... oh, well. I still like it. It's from Anime Boston last year, but the costume is relevant... read on... ._.;

The costume situation is a little sad. My wig never arrived (I still haven't heard word about it despite sending emails... I'll provide updates on this saga for the sake of helping those of you considering making a purchase at limebarb... I'm trying not to judge, yet), so no Pokemon this time around. That was okay and planned for. I spent some time today ironing my Souseiseki costume, hemming the cape (the only thing I had time to fix on this costume for now, which is fine), and getting everything else together. I planned meticulously! I organized, as I do best! And yet, somehow dropped the ball and left the clothing parts of my costume hanging on my fridge door. Oh, my. I guess that black plastic bag made it blend in... you know, to the white fridge... >_>

Not my finest moment. >______> Uh... I blame work-related stress?

Fortunately I have some other costumes here, and for the sake of comfort and cuteness, I'm going as space commander Haruhi Suzumiya again. I really like the costume, so I'm not exactly upset about it ^_^ Look for me in red, if any one is ever at all looking for me. I don't think Kyon will be making an appearance this time around.

And, from now on, my checklist goes with me into the car for a once-over just before pulling out of the parking lot. Just in case.

I'm going to rest up for the big weekend. Hope you're doing the same!

Oh man, am I actually making a post? Yeah. Don't fall out of your seat.

Life is nuts right now. Really. Here's a costume-related update.

• Connecticon is this weekend! Yay! Since I already ordered the wig from limebarb.com (I just can't do wigs, at least not now >_>), I decided to bring out my Pokemon Gijinka costume for the occasion. I only have a few days to fix it up. I did a test run the other night with what I have done, and, well... it makes me look fat! D: Let's just say it needs a little help. Additionally, everything still needs fasteners and the like. I'm going to try to fix up the vest to give a little more waist definition. The nice thing about this costume is since it's based on someone's interpretation of a Pokemon, I can modify it however I please! I'm thinking of a lower vest neckline, and maybe ribbon or some other kind of tie around the waist. The shoes are also a bit problematic, but they will likely stay as they are, unless I find some kind of miracle solution at the craft store today. The stores in this state are awful, though, so I'm not holding my breath.


• My job future is a bit uncertain, so I've had to stop production on my WoW Druid costume. However, I've already bought lots of planning materials and books, so the planning will continue. Patterns will be made! Techniques will be learned (in theory at least)! Horray. Horrah. In this vein, I'll be making one or more posts about leatherworking techniques in the future, so look out for that.


• I ended up with no photos from Anime Boston this year, as I broke my camera about half an hour into the event. Boo! It was a complete whirlwind this year, anyway... so strange...


• And, finally, once I DO have some certain money again, I will be posting a list of upcoming projects. It seems I won't have anything done for Blizzcon this year (again >_>), but hopefully I can still pull off a costume for the Harry Potter premier!

That's my world right now... a bit all over the place, but the costumes are finding their way into the shuffle. Hopefully things will stabilize for me soon. I also have some tutorials in the works, which I know I always talk about and rarely post. But they're in progress. Truthies.

Leave a comment if you're going to be at CTcon next weekend... we'll look for each other!

Sad Incidents, and Things to Look Forward To

Well, I'll be a day behind on my costumes already, because last night my sewing machine totally broke. Bah! I'm going to go back to using my mom's old machine, which I used to use all the time until I was gifted a new one. I'll only lose one or two nights of work.

Before it happened, I managed to finish the front and put a collar on, but I'm not happy with the collar so I'll be resewing it.

Luckily, I know I have enough time to finish my costume work, and I'm really looking forward to the convention! Only a couple of my friends can go this year, but it should be a good time... it's easier to coordinate fewer people anyway, I suppose.

Also, I wanted to mention that there's a pretty cool-looking game that quite literally was just released called Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. I didn't play the first Sacred game, but this one seems pretty interesting, and the character designs caught my eye. Anything with a Dryad in it is worth trying out, to me. I often see games coming out that I want to get, but I rarely do... they're so expensive! I usually wait for a sale, holiday, or to buy it used. Fortunately, this time I'm going to have the opportunity to play this game almost right after its release to see how it is... I'll let you know ^_^;

You can check out some screenshots, videos, etc at the Sacred 2 website, if it seems like it might be your thing.

More costume updates to come in the next few weeks! Hope yours are all coming together!

It's all over, for now

So it's been a while, and all that time has been full of obsessive costume making and attending of cons large and small. It's all over now, so we've reached the exhale part of the month.

I won't go into any details in this short post... but you will probably be seeing many posts from me over the next few weeks, starting this weekend. I'll have some how tos, con reports, costume reports, and the like.

In the mean time, I hope that anyone who went to Connecticon or Otakon had a great time, as I know I did. Can't wait to look at all the thousands and thousands of photos... :D

For now, you can enjoy this... probably the best thing at the Otakon 2008 masquerade, although the video doesn't really do it justice.

"Flute Link" at Otakon 2008:

Still Alive

I'm still here. I haven't given up. Do not worry.

I just finished college, and finals were all up ons my time. I am graduating tomorrow... can't wait to go home this summer and work on some costumes!

I've also been putting together a few step-by-step guides to creating some things. I've gotten emails about my Tachibana Izumi goggles, so that will probably be the first one up, followed by Zabuza's sword. Please leave a comment or send me an email if you have any suggestions about guides I should be making, or other issues you'd like to see addressed!

And, thanks for reading my blog. I think it's going to be a good year! ^_^