Back from Atlanta. I don’t even know where to start…

I need to find some setlists for the concert because I can’t remember everything that was played. The Strokes and Tom Petty both rocked, as to be expected. The biggest surprise of the evening was when Stevie Nicks came out and sang three songs with Tom Petty.

We went to AWA on Saturday for a little while. Started out in our mage costumes but got way too hot and Ben’s hat wasn’t cooperating, so we took them off after a couple hours and roamed around like normal people. Took a couple pictures. Haven’t found any of us yet, but I just got home and I think we have plenty of mage pictures as it is.

I know this is short, sorry. I’ll try to find some setlists tomorrow and give more details.

Back to work…

I recently took a week’s vacation to Clarksville to visit with my family and see a couple of my friends. Ben and I also went to the Renaissance Festival this past Saturday. It was nice to have a week off work, but now I’ve got to get back in the swing of things, looking for a job. I didn’t have my camera at the Ren Fest, but I did get a couple pictures while I was gone, which I’ll put up in a couple days (maybe tomorrow). I have a bad sunburn on my shoulders right now because it was like 90 degrees at the Ren Fest. It was too hot to really enjoy it that much.

As for costumes, I recently styled my esper Terra wig, and I think it looks awesome. It’s very fluffy. I’ll try to get some pics of it soon as well. I’ve got to go to Joann’s tomorrow and see if the trim I want for the skirt is on sale. My bodysuit came in, but in the wrong color (white instead of ballet pink). It doesn’t really matter because I wanted to dye it anyway, so I guess it works out. I do need to try to shrink it though because the gloved fingers on it are about twice the length of my fingers! I may be doing some altering if it doesn’t shrink too much.

My mom let me borrow her copy of The Da Vinci Code when I left since I had been wanting to read it to see what all the hype was about. I’m about three-fourths of the way through it now. It’s pretty intriguing.

And now for bed…

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.

Back from Momocon!

It was a lot of fun. I’ll try to recap.

We got to Atlanta on Saturday around 11:30 am. We went to the hotel and put on our Aeris and Zack costumes. Except Ben’s hair didn’t want to spike and my wig wouldn’t stay on. I went ahead and dropped Ben off at the con so he wouldn’t be late for the Soul Calibur III tournament and then I went back to the hotel to mess with my wig some more. I finally got it tolerable and headed over to Georgia Tech.

It took me forever to get to where Ben was because I had to stop for a picture every 5 seconds, hehe. I just wish my wig looked better from the front (i.e., not showing the front of my hair and the bangs got flat from where I kept trying to pull it forward). I ran into another Aeris, from Kingdom Hearts II, while I was looking for him as well. I finally made it to the tournaments building, and we hung out there. Ben made a good showing in the competition, but ultimately did not win.

After that, we were tired of messing with our costumes (Ben’s shoulder pads kept falling down), so we went back and changed into our mage costumes. After we got back to the convention, we went to see the costume showcase. There were some really cool costumes, unfortunately I didn’t know what half of them were cause I couldn’t really hear. Belle, from Beauty and the Beast, won first place (you can see a picture in the gallery). We hung out for a little while longer, mainly wandering around, before going to the hotel and going to sleep.

The next morning, we donned our mage costumes again and headed back. We went to a panel on voice acting first thing. After that, I bought some Pocky (yummy!), and we went to eat at Arby’s. While we were there, a man came up to me and asked me if I was with the ritual. ???? I guess my white mage costume makes me look like the leader of a cult or something. That was pretty weird.

We hung out in the board game room after that, and learned how to play a game called Spooks. It was a very random card game. Then we went to a panel on prop making that was very interesting. It was led by people who mainly worked on Star Wars costume replicas. After that, we went and played a few more random games, and then decided we should head home.

All in all, it was pretty fun. I didn’t get a chance to get a whole lot of photos, cause it was a bit of a pain to get out my camera in my white mage costume, because it was so big and I didn’t even know where my hands were half the time. But I got a couple and they are in the gallery. I also posted some pictures of our mage costumes in the cosplay section.

With Momocon coming up this weekend, I need to make a list of things to do.

- Sew the sleeves on my white mage robe
- Applique triangles onto robe
- Dye hair
- Buy red and black gloves
- Finish altering Aeris dress
- Sew Velcro onto Aeris jacket
- Spray paint jacket cuffs
- Check staff for chipped paint and do touch-ups
- Help Ben make face mask
- Find green striped pants for Ben
- Style Aeris wig
- Pack!

I don’t get paid until Wednesday, so anything involving money (gloves, pants, hair dye, etc.) has to wait until then. I have hair extensions for my Aeris wig sitting at the DHL place, so as soon as they get delivered I can do that. I’ve already got the millions of triangles cut out (and a nice-sized cut on my finger from my rotary cutter to prove it), but I can’t put them on the robe until I get some Heat’n'Bond, which I need money for as well. So until Wednesday, I need to finish up any sewing (robe, dress, jacket), and I think I still have spraypaint left over, so I can do that stuff as well.

For anyone attending, we will be wearing Zack and Aeris on Saturday and our mage costumes on Sunday. Yeah, it’s apparently a Final Fantasy con for us.

I can’t believe it’s so close! Then as soon as we get back from Momocon, I’ve gotta start working on stuff for MTAC because it’s only about a month away. I’ve got to finish up my Fuu costume (finish painting flowers, style wig, and buy shoes) and make my entire Miwako costume! Luckily, after MTAC, I have a 5 month wait before the next convention (AWA or Dragon*Con if I’m not completely broke), so that will be plenty of time to get Lloyd and Presea done. Ah, the busy life of a cosplayer.

I added a new cosplay section to the site.

I wanted to keep my cosplay pictures separate from the general photo gallery. There’s not much there right now, but I am hopefully getting some sewing stuff for Christmas, so I can get started on these costumes. My Aeris costume (that I wore for Halloween) is basically done. It needs a little editing (mainly the dress needs to be taken in a couple inches, the cuffs need to be attached to the jacket better, and I need a wig) and then I will go take some good pictures of it to go in there.

I currently plan to start on my Fuu costume as soon as I get the sewing machine because I figure a kimono is a nice and simple beginning sewing project, and I hope to have it done by April for the Middle Tennessee Anime Convention. From there, I’m going to work on the Final Fantasy Tactic’s flower girl dress to be worn to the Renaissance Festival in May. After that, I hope to have my Presea costume (which I was going to make for Halloween this year but deemed it too difficult and did Aeris instead) by Halloween time. Yay!

Sorry for the lack of updates. Been uber-busy lately.

Ben’s birthday was this past weekend. We ended up going to Murfreesboro to hang with one of his friends and to an anime convention in Nashville. Whenever I find my USB cable, I will upload some pictures.

There’s less than a month of class left. Needs to hurry up.

Been playing a lot of Sims lately, since the expansion came out a month ago. They recently announced another expansion that’s coming out in fall.

Bonnaroo is only two months away.