Toss a Coin to your Stitcher

Happy 2020 everyone! The new con season started off great this year, with a fun whirlwind of an Ohayocon. I debuted two new cosplays, made a new friend, got to see lots of awesome people and great cosplays! So, enough chitchat, let’s get to some photos!

The first new cosplay I did for Ohayo was a casual one, Alexander from FGO in his outfit from “The Pharoh’s Great Winter Thanksgiving Festival.” It was a simple and comfy outfit, but considering we haven’t even gotten this CE on the global server yet, and he’s a relatively minor character, only one person recognized who I was (granted she also is a friend of mine who saw me working on it so she already knew anyway shrug).

I think my favorite thing here is Bucephalus (his horse) lol. I do hope to eventually do his official outfit and make his sword, I feel like I might be more recognizable with it but who knows. My friends and I are also assembling a crew with the youger and older versions of both Alex/Iskandar and Waver/El Melloi II which should be a fun group to hang out with.

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The second new cosplay was much more involved (considering I ordered most of Alex so all I had to do was style his wig and cut a pair of pants into shorts), and it’s one who I’ve been wanting to cosplay since I played the game he appears in. I’m talking about Teb from Horizon Zero Dawn!

I immediately fell in love with this precious cinnamon bun, I mean who wouldn’t? Construction on this cosplay was really interesting given a lot of the details involved. The pouch and several sections of his belt are all woven, which I actually hand-wove myself with cotton webbing and strips of real leather for the front section of the belt.

The second fun/weird bit was all of the tubing involved in the costume. There’s red tubing around the openings in his vest, he has bits of tubing around his neck, and there are a bunch of different types of tubes on his belt. I ended up getting a few different types online, and ended up using all of them in different places. The ref tubes on his vest are actually rubber, so they flex more easily (which is helpful for getting the vest on & off), and the more plastic-y tubes, along with some other rubber pieces were used on his belt to give it some nice variety. All in all I like how it came out. I was worried about the machine parts strapped to his shins but even those were relatively easy when I figured out how to do them. They’re just sections of EVA foam with plasti-dip on it that I then painted. I did have to be careful though, cause they clicked then I walked if I didn’t have a wide enough gait. It felt kinda like I was walking like a cowboy but at least I didn’t destroy them!

Once again, I wasn’t much recognized, and sadly I never found an Aloy while I was in him (but of course I found one immediately after I changed out of him), but I still loved wearing him, he’s actually pretty comfortable (besides the weird walking), and he makes me happy, even if almost no one knew who I was. I also got a couple of nice photos thanks to my wonderful friend Andrew.

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Aside from that, the con was a lot of fun, and like I mentioned before, I made an awesome new friend who was cosplaying Oliver from Ni No Kuni on Sunday! I recognized them and their partner as the Bastion cosplayers I ran into at Matsuri last year and we slowly spiraled down the rabbit hole as we discovered how many overlapping fandoms we have.

Here’s Jynx’s awesome Oliver cosplay! We’ve also been discussing a Pyre group together for next year and I’m super stoked about it!!

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There were lots of other great cosplay I saw so here’s a selection from the weekend!

I hope all of your years are starting off well! I have a few commissions I’ll be working on over the next couple of weeks so you can follow my instagram for regular updates. See you next time!

Ohayo (gozaimasu) 2019

Hello again, my dears! I’m back from one of the best Ohayocons I’ve been to in a long time, and I want to tell you all about it! If you’re wondering about the post name (although most of you weebs probably already know this) “ohayo gozaimasu” means “good morning” in Japanese, which is relevant for this con in particular because I stayed up much later into the wee hours of the morning than is customary (there’s a reason #GrandpaMike is a thing between my friends and I).

Friday

Actually, the story really starts on Thursday when some time in the afternoon/evening, our furnace decided to die… for the second time in a week. It was late enough that we didn’t have heat for the night, so Jordan, Donner and I grabbed lots of blankets and sleeping bags and snuggled in the living room in front of the fireplace, which we kept lit as long as we could manage with the wood we had.
So Friday morning was not exactly a great start to the weekend, since it was cold, I had to wait around for the repair guy to fix our furnace before I could go anywhere, and I was out about $200 before I’d even left for the con.

Once that was all dealt with and the car was packed, it was finally time to head out… to Akron. So this Ohayocon was special because it was my good friend Speck’s con debut! The main reason she cae with me is because we won free badges from an Ohayocon event at the Cleveland Museum of Art, in which our team was the first to correctly complete the scavenger hunt (we weren’t the first ones back but the teams ahead of us didn’t get some of the answers right). So with a free badge she decided it would be a great opportunity to check out this whole con thing that I’d been telling her about all these years. The third free badge, which unfortunately couldn’t be used by our last team member as he’s currently in France, went to sunsetsirises after winning having a little giveaway event on my fb/instagram/twitter.

When we finally got down to C-bus on friday afternoon, I got into Newt Scamander, which is the first time I’ve actually worn this cosplay! You all might be surprised, given my penchant for magical creatures, but I usually dress in an OC cryptozoologist chatracter who everyone just assumes is Newt because we are basically the same person. Both Hufflepuffs, both like dressing in vests and wearing bowties, and of course our shared love of magical critters, and huge collections thereof. But since I managed to snag the Newt cosplay on ThinkGeek when it was on supersale (seriously I paid $30 for the coat, bowtie & vest and it would’ve cost more than $30 just for the coat materials so SCORE), I decided it was time to actually cosplay him for real, instead of just being his spiritual doppleganger. Unfortunately, since' I’m not proportioned like a normal human being, the vest didn’t fit properly… it also didn’t have real pockets which annoyed me but that happens all the time so I got over it. So naturally I spent the few days before the con constructing a new one since I already had appropriate fabric for it that who even remembers what I originally bought it for because that’s the story with 80% of the fabric in my collection.

I patterned the vest myself because like I said, I’m not proportioned like a normal person (torso is too long & skinny so big vests can fit 12 of me in them and small vests stop at my navel -_-). I made real welt pockets because I am that extra, and because Newt carries some sort of pocket watch or something like that which needed someplace to sit. And of course I lined it with adorable dinosaur fabric because that seemed appropriate (headcanon: accepted). I was a dummy and forgot to make a facing for the side with the buttonholes so I had to jankily fix that after I’d already done the buttonholes themselves so you didn’t see a weird white edge along that side, oops. But ultimately it came out looking good. (standby for Sunday photos to see the whole thing cause that selfie is the only one I got on Friday since I wasn’t wearing him for long).

We went to the formal lessons, taught by the wonderful Trickssi and got some refreshers for use at the fantasy ball later, and stopped by the Fate photoshoot that afternoon before going back to the room. I had every intention of going to the Fate shoot except our room hosts didn’t get there until later and I was not about to try to put on a white satin dress, petticoat, and hoops in the heckin parking lot cause we all know I would have dropped it and been reaaaaaal mad at life. This is the only photo I actually took at the Fate shoot since we didn’t stay long (though I did ogle a lot of the other cosplayers there).

This was an awesome Mashu Alter that I chatted with for a hot second because he looked amazing and I couldn’t figure out who he was cosplaying from behind, but the lance and armor were beautiful and the shield was a dead giveaway once I saw it up close.
(Also, you may want to take note of that Achilles in the background because you’ll be seeing him again later).

After perusing the Fate folks for a bit, we went back to the room to change, grabbed dinner, and headed to the drag show!! I wasn’t aware that friday’s show was actually a Drag Race competition, hosted by the magnanimous Oriana Perone and we arrived in time to see the dance battle that took the contestants from 8 to 4, and was definitely a good moment to catch. The 4 remaining did a cute Mad Libs version of The Princess and the Pea, where they lived “prickly ever after” and was hilarious on the whole. But the most impressive performance was next as the bottom two contestants (one of whom was that Achilles in the background up above) Lip Synched for their lives. You can watch the video here because I cannot adequately describe how incredible it was, but needless to say, no one got eliminated. The final round was a makeover competition between the final 4 in which they each had a model and had to create their own Sailor Scout and come up with their “special move.” The winner was an amazing Haruhi (Ouran) cosplayer who presented “Sailor Fab,” and the “one-Kiss Kill.” If I can find them on some social media platform I will link you all to them because they had the perfect combination of attitude, dance moves, and cute face to have been deserving of the win.

After the drag show we went to the Fantasy Ball, also hosted by Trickssi ,and had a lovely time dancing and even made a new friend! Highlights from the ball include me still not figuring out the Tokyo Polka despite my efforts, since they were just finishing teaching it when we arrived at the lessons but one of these times I’m gonna get it! Also, I almost couldn’t get back off the floor during the Cha-Cha slide after the “how low can you go” part. Lastly I almost got whiplash when I heard the opening chord to one of the songs and was like “BASTION MUSIC???!?”

At the formal Ball! Sadly you can’t see Speck’s fabulous sequin dress under the bright pink coat

After the ball was over, we headed back to the room and celebrated Christmas with my roomies, changed again, and headed over to the EDM dance party for the night after stopping at the hotel bar. I was super into the music and going pretty hard so I’m glad Specks made me stretch my legs after the rave. We also ran into that same Achilles cosplayer and the winning model from the final drag race competition on the way back to the hotel room, so I stopped and complimented them both on their fabulousness from earlier (they were both exceedingly attractive so that provided some extra motivation for me to stop and say something since I’m often too awkward to talk to people).

Saturday

Saturday morning was a bit rough since we closed out the rave and as such didn’t make it to bed until after 2, and my wonderful inability to sleep in meant I was awake at 7 and couldn’t get back to sleep. But it wasn’t all bad cause I got bearkfast at the hotel and had plenty of time to shave and do my makeup for Fran before we headed over to the con to check out the leatherworking panel that morning.

Saturday was fun and pretty chill for most of the day. We hung out for a while, got coffee, ran into some other Fate cosplayers, I finally got to see Genki since she didn’t make it over to the con Friday night.

We ran into this awesome Cu & Irisveil in the dealer’s hall.

I spotted another adorable Fran in the hallway!!!

We also ran into this Mashu Alter again and I got another photo

I was also delighted to run into Holy.Grail in her adorable Nursery Rhyme cosplay (she was our Jack the Ripper at the Apocrypha shoot at Youma). I ran into her earlier in Ereskigal as well, but sadly didn;t get a photo.

After spending most of the afternoon hanging out in Fran, it was time to go change (she’s super comfortable but I was ready to not have to wear a wig any more), and I put on my Witchsona for the Saturday night drag show.

The show was absolutely phenomenal, all of the performers were amazing, and the outfits were amazing, and everything was just awesome. It was particularly great to see the Haruhi cosplayer who’d won the drag race the previous night get to perform and hot damn I’m pretty sure they paid for their whole con with all of the money the audience was giving them. Oriana was also a star in her Daimonds/Titanium mashup, that the whole audience lost their mind when she came out in her sheer cloak that had lights in it which looked like a galaxy. Also the shimmery silver number underneath the galaxy cloak was just as impressive! All in all it was one of the best drag shows I’ve been to.

I love this outfit so freaking much and I can’t help but slip into diva mode when I’m wearing it. I walk differenty, carry myself differently, it’s great. My favorite thing was that I had 3 separate people comment on how fabulous I was, and two of them even asked for photos! I wasn’t expecting that at all since I wasn’t cosplaying a known character so it was definitely a nice confidence boost.

Leading the Wolf Pack to dinner.

After dinner with the Wolf Pack we went back to the room and changed yet again for the Saturday night rave. I wasn’t feeling the music quite as much because the beat was really inconsistent, and also super fast most of the time so I had a harder time dancing to it than Friday night’s DJ. Fortunately that problem solved itself almost immediately because I was waylaid by to exceedingly attractive young men who cam and started dancing with me. As you may have guessed, that same Achilles cosplayer (whose name I finally learned was John) was one of them since we kept running into each other all con, and the second was the winning model (not the Haruhi cosplayer but the one that was done up to be Sailor Fab, whose name I also learned, was Andrew) from the Drag Race the previous night. Specks also made friends with an adorable 10th Doctor cosplayer so she had a dance partner too since I was a little preoccupied. After the rave we chatted with John for a while (since Andrew left to go to a friend’s panel) and finally went back to the room to call it a night. Well, that was the intention anyway but when we got back to the room I realized that the one occupied spot in the other bed wasn’t actually Salem, but her Majima pillow, so I figured she & Genki were still hanging out over at the con center. Since I’d been spending most of my time with Specks and not as much with them I figured I’d go hang out for a while. There was also some ulterior motive that I might here from the two boys again, which to my delight I did. So after hanging out with Genki & Salem for a bit I chatted with Andrew, who was shortly joined by John, and we ended up having a big ol cuddle party on one of the couches in the convention center. Honestly it was a highlight of my convention because they were both very sweet and genuine (and a-fucking-dorable) and we just chatted and snuggled together for a few hours getting to know each other. By the time 5:30ish rolled around I finally decided I needed to go lay down in a real bed, since as much as I was enjoying snuggling with the boys, I totally would have fallen asleep and woken up so sore I wouldn’t have been able to move.

3 very sleepy, very snuggly boys

Sunday

I actually managed to sleep in a bit Sunday (compared to usual at least, cause I was till up by 9) and we got the car packed up and got some brunch with my good friend Nick, who lives down in Columbus these days. We ate some delicious tacos at Condado, then hung out at the convention center for a while before taking off. We did hit up the Potterverse shoot, since we were in Newt and Umbridge that day. It was a pretty small shoot but it was lots of fun. We also met up with our Doctor friend from the previous night, who was no longer dressed as the Doctor (I believe he said something about “Cells at Work?” I’m not familiar with whatever it was so that might not be correct). He did get one of our only photos of the two of us dressed together (though we haven’t seen any from the Potterverse shoot yet, so there should be more floating around at some point).

Thank you for the photo, Dustin! And thanks to whoever made created Portrait Mode cause it’s lovely.

I did manage to connect with Andrew again for a bit on Sunday morning before we left (John was already gone by then), which was nice. And that was pretty much my con! We did have a long trip home because we had to detour down to Dayton for work-related stuff, and we drove together so I had to drop Specks off at home before I could head home myself. Thankfully the roads were clear after the snowstorm we got hit with on Saturday so it was a fairly uneventful drive home.

When I did finally get home, I left the packing for Monday morning, and cuddled with my own boys. I also promptly fell asleep on Jordan’s lap while he watched Aliens. It was definitely a fun and exhausting weekend and I’m already missing my con friends, new and old, but I’m not missing going back to a normal sleep schedule XD

Now that I have my first convention of the year under my belt, it’s back to work! I’m going to be finishing that Silas armor soon (hopefully) and I have a couple of other projects lined up, both personal and commissions. I do, however, have my commissions open again so if you’re interested in ordering anything from me now is the time so start that conversation!

The Overdue Review(s)

Hey guys, so it's a month after the fact but hey Ohayocon was a thing! I actually had a lot more fun this year than I have in a long time, and it was all thanks to awesome con friends! Here's a quick play-by-play.

Friday I got all dolled up in P'Li and headed south. Honestly, I think my makeup this time around looks even better than last time!

Don't hate me cause I'm beautiful.

*Muah*

Sadly, my Red Lotus group still hasn't panned out, but people have started stuff so hopefully the next time you see me in this costume I'll have some other kickass benders with me! As such, I changed out of her pretty quickly because braid of doom is not very comfortable and I wanted to hang out in my new costume, so consequently the only photo I have of me actually in the costume is the selfie I took when I got there.

Next up was Torchwick from RWBY! I promised my friend, who make a gorgeous Cinder that the next time she's running a formal ball, I'd have him done so we could attend together. And guess what, she ran a fantastic formal ball and these two lovely villains danced the night away!

We also did a wonderful photoshoot with a friend of Cinder's and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the results! Just from looking at the photos on his camera, things looked amazing so I'll definitely be sharing once we get them back!

Saturday was a day full of RWBY, as my Coco and I hung out as the (once again) only CFVY members at the convention.

Naturally, since my phone camera isn't that great, I don't have any photos of us, but here's a shot of the insanity that was the RWBY shoot that evening.

There were way too many people in way too small a space, so it was both claustrophobic and hotter than hell. It was still awesome though, and we got cheers on our way up to the stage for team CFVY... or really just CY. We also made a bunch of new friends and did a little photoshoot afterwards with a much smaller subset of the group. I also haven't seen any of the photos from that yet but I'm looking forward to it!

Sunday was the usual lazy day, and I stuck to my decision of Banjo-Kazooie being my forever Sunday cosplay. He's comfy, recognizable, and rare enough of a cosplay that people get excited about him. And I finally have a photo of the whole costume thanks to Genki Wolf!

And that was it! Mostly hanging out with con buddies, and having a lovely time dancing the night away! I even hit up the rave for a little while because I magically wasn't tired Saturday night. There was also some solid cosplay from other folks, so here's a smattering of photos.

Now I'm back to the daily grind with a vending event coming up this weekend and several commissions in the works! So I'll be seeing you next time, and hopefully it won't take too long for me to get to next time XD