I’ve added every picture of us taken that I could find in the cosplay section.

I finally found one of us with the red mage we ran into on Saturday:

We went and saw Silent Hill on Monday night. It was okay. Not the best thing in the world, but decent. I was mainly disappointed in how non-scary it was. I can’t even play the games, they scare me so bad, but I never once felt scared during the movie and only mildly creeped out about once or twice. The direction was pretty good, however. They definitely got the look of the town and camera angles down.

Back from MTAC…let’s see what I can remember…

Friday, I got dressed in my Miwako costume at my parents’ house and then drove up to Franklin with Samantha following me. We got there and found Ben, Chance, and Kris, who had been dropped off by Wayne. We got the hotel room and registration buttons. While the guys were getting into costume, Samantha and I took Lilli down to the Chibi Corner where she colored a nice picture of purple Pikachu. We went to the dealer’s room and I noted the price of Pocky and also that there was an Aeris figure selling for $65. I wish I had money. Lilli fell asleep after that, so we took her back up to the room and hung out. When she finally woke up, she was hungry, so Samantha, Ben, and I all went down to the hotel restaurant to grab a burger. However, Lilli was pretty cranky, so Samantha left after we ate. I wish we could have hung out longer, but I will see her next month!

We all walked around for a bit, going to the gaming room where Ben played Soul Calibur 3 and I gawked at the people playing DDR whose feet were moving impossibly fast. I took a few pictures, as you can see in the gallery, but this was the only day I carried my camera around.

I wore my Miwako costume on Friday because there was an invitation-only Paradise Kiss party happening at midnight that night. I kept getting stopped by other Parakiss cosplayers asking if I had gotten an invitation, as they were supposed to start handing them out after Opening Ceremonies at 6:15. But by 8:00, we still hadn’t received anything. Finally, around 9-10 pm, I received my invitation. Ben went as my guest and my friend Chris somehow showed up. The party wasn’t much, but we did get free sparkling grape juice.

Saturday, I woke up at 9 am and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I put on my white mage costume and went downstairs. There was supposedly a cosplay.com photoshoot going on that morning, but I never did find it. However, there was a family taking pictures in front of the atrium fountain. I wondered if they had been warned that there would be a bunch of people in costume roaming around that morning.

I went and bought some Pocky and then went back upstairs to annoy Ben until he woke up, because there was a red mage downstairs and I wanted to get our picture taken with him. The guys all got ready and we went downstairs.

Our mage costumes were insanely popular. We would move five feet, get stopped for 10 photos, move another five feet, 10 more pictures. And they were INSANELY HOT. We had to keep taking breaks from wearing them. It wasn’t so bad at Momocon because it was cool outside, but it was much hotter outside than in this time, so we couldn’t get relief just by stepping out the door.

There was a Final Fantasy photoshoot planned for 5 or 5:30. We hung out by the fountain but no one was showing up. We did see a Yuna and a very pretty Amano Aeris (I wanted a pic of her so bad, but I didn’t have my camera with me!). So we went and sat down and it was in progress when we walked back! So we joined in and everyone took pictures. Most of the people were from Final Fantasy VII, with the exception of us and Yuna.

At 6:00, we got in line for the cosplay contest. I plan on entered these contests at some point, so I like to see who wins to know what I’ll be up against, skill-wise. The guy that was hosting the event may have been the most annoying person in the world, however, and everyone in our group got fed up and left. Except me. I stayed for the whole thing cause I wanted to see who won. You can see the award winners on this site.

After that was the “rave,” but we didn’t go to that. At 11:30, we got in line for Advent Children, hoping that it was the new dubbed version since the voice actor for Vincent, Steve Blum, was introducing it. However, it was the subbed version that we had already seen. I was soooo tired at this point that I kept falling asleep during it. I did stay awake for all the good parts though!

Sunday, we got up and Ben and I put on our Mugen and Fuu costumes. He had to help me tie the obi. I have no idea how anyone does that without help! We checked out of the hotel and went to the Ramen Eating Contest. The winner was a very small 14-year-old girl who somehow downed 13 bowls of ramen noodles! Then we watched some very strange DVD about people who dress in monster costumes and wrestle?? I’m still not sure what that was, but it was pretty funny. We were going to buy more Pocky after that, but the Dealer’s Room was closed, so we ended up just leaving.

Some of the coolest costumes from the weekend were all the Star Wars people roaming around. Stormtroopers, a very tall Chewbacca, and even a remote controlled R2-D2! I got pics of Chewy. I need to find one of R2-D2. He was awesome!

Overall, it was a very fun weekend. Now I need to start preparing for AWA!!

Okay, I promised an update after the weekend, so here goes…

- Still working on the sleeves of the dress, but everything else is done. I ran out of the plush felt I was using and had to go to the store today to get more, but I’m about to get started on them. My trial run with the bit of felt I had left came out good, they just need to be a bit poofier!

- I put the fur on the shoes with tacky glue. Ha. I’m going to see how well it’s stuck on there after it dries. I may need hot glue. Maybe not. I still need to make the fur bracelets and hair thingies, but that will take two seconds.

- The wig is being delivered to my parents’ house on Wednesday. Yay!

- I began Ben’s Mugen costume. I’ve altered one leg of the shorts; I have one more to go, but I’m making button holes to thread the red fabric through and they are a pain (especially considering I’m just kind of making up how to make them as I go along!). I need to sew the sleeves on the jacket (had to get more fabric for them too!) and then it will be done, and Ben insists that he wants to do the white shirt himself. I have no complaints with that!

- The geta are here! Or rather, they are sitting at the post office and I have to go pick them up in the morning. Remarkable how it only takes three days for something shipped from Japan to get here, but a week for a package across the state.

- Still working on the flowers. I think I have one more to go, and then touch-ups to do.

- The wig is done, as I mentioned in the last post. I just finished working on the hairsticks. The gold paint on them is drying, then I just have to slide on the beads and they are done.

So, to sum up: sleeves on Miwako dress, random fur accessories (I’m so sick of fur), sleeves on Mugen jacket, one leg of shorts, finish flowers, then DONE!

On a side note, I started my DDR workout today. I am NOT good at DDR. Which is probably for the best, because I think I actually burn more calories trying to keep up with the thing than I would if I did it perfectly.

Updating my to-do list:

- Finish Miwako dress (add collar, add zipper, add fur, hem) I have one more sleeve to add fur to and then I’m done!
- Put fur on Miwako shoes
- Style Miwako wig I found one in the exact style to buy, so I just hope it gets here on time.
- Find pieces of clothing to alter for Mugen costume I’m altering two of the three and sewing one.
- And alter them
- Find geta SOMEWHERE Hopefully they will get here in time!
- Finish painting flowers on Fuu’s kimono
- Style Fuu wig It came out so well!
- Make hairsticks

Obligatory MTAC stress post..

So, I’m trying to finish up these costumes. I haven’t even started on Ben’s Mugen costume yet, since it wasn’t even planned a week ago. So I need to do that. I went by the Goodwill today to see if they had any decent clothes I could alter for it, but no. We did order geta off Ebay straight from Japan, which hopefully (please, please, please) will get here in time.

My Miwako dress is sewn, I still need to add the fur, which is where a lot of my stress is coming from. I hate the fur I bought. Oh, it’s soft and it’s nice to touch. But don’t be fooled. This fur is the devil. It looks bad, it sheds worse than any cat I’ve ever known, and it’s more trouble than it’s worth considering it doesn’t even look good. The fur is an integral part of the costume, considering it goes on the sleeves, the bottom hem, the bodice, in the hair, on the shoes, and on the wrists. So, off to the fabric store tomorrow to find better fur.

On top of that, I found the PERFECT wig for the costume, which would be great, but I didn’t find it until TODAY. So I’m praying that gets in on time as well. I had it shipped to my parents’ house, since I’ll be there right before the con.

I have four more flowers to paint onto my kimono for Fuu, and I still need to style the wig and make the hairsticks. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

Breathe.

I’ll post again after the weekend. If 80% of this stuff isn’t done by then, I’m in trouble.

Time for an update…

Despite the lightning and hail outside right now, things are going well this month. Ben’s birthday was on the first, and you can see pictures in the gallery that I don’t really remember taking.

I’ve declared April Get-a-Job month, but I haven’t really started yet. I have a list of places to apply though. I’ve just been trying to clean up the code of this site a little, and make it more XHTML friendly.

Also, MTAC is in two short weeks!! I think it’s time for a to-do list:

- Finish Miwako dress (add collar, add zipper, add fur, hem)
- Put fur on Miwako shoes
- Style Miwako wig (where is my heat sealer that I ordered??)
- Find pieces of clothing to alter for Mugen costume
- And alter them
- Find geta SOMEWHERE
- Finish painting flowers on Fuu’s kimono (I’m such a slacker)
- Style Fuu wig (and make hairsticks)

I hope that’s it.

I’ve been trying to get in shape lately. Mainly for my Esper Terra costume I’m planning for AWA, but also so I can double my wardrobe by fitting into old clothes. I think Becka is going to let me borrow her DDR pad. Doing jumping jacks to Daft Punk kills my legs.