I is a chatterbox!

I’m kinda psyched, Wizard World just acquired the Atlanta comic con, which may add another convention to my list. (You will notice it on my pending list atm) hopefully they do it in November or next January so I can attend.  I can’t usually get off work in December and even if I could I’m so busy that I don’t think I would enjoy it that much.  ATM they don’t have a date or a venue set, let’s hope they do that quick.  Of course the person who makes all my wigs is in Atlanta… not that I’m like omg I want to meet them but they do some really neat work and I wouldn’t mind seeing their shop.

And with me working all weekend I haven’t hardly touched a costume.  I came in last night and didn’t do much, I was rather tired.  Hopefully I’ll get off work early today and I can get going on that skirt again.  I know I say every time I work on it my goal is to get it done and I never manage it but that would be awesome if I could.  Of course when I was as work the other night I grabbed a pair of underwear I hope won’t show through the skirt.  I’ll do a test when I get home.  I tried it with some that say ‘no panty lines’ and they lied.  So I bought a pair of boyshorts… cross your fingers cause I hate boyshorts.  I did talk to mom a minute about her funny collar.  She didn’t have much by the way of suggestions, basically how I’m going to do it seemed like a good idea to her.  She won’t be home tonight, I wanted her to help me with the darts… suppose I can try it on my own and see if I’ve had a tailoring skill up since the last time I tried darts. (And yes that was a WoW reference)  And I need to get going on her top.  Thankfully I have a pattern for that so I hope that means it will go fast.  The fabric for Sailor V should arrive in a day or so, along with Kusanagi’s stuff.  And I need to get that done too. >.< so much to do, not enough hours or energy!!

I may try to get up early Thursday before I go into work and do something on the costumes, paint Seras’s buttons or something.  Friday I’m headed to the optometrist to see if I need glasses (I don’t think so but some of the really small print I’m having issue with.)  And that way I can get a prescription so I can get the colored contacts I need for the con season this year, cause they won’t give you any, even if you don’t need any sort of correction, without an optometrists signature.  I understand why but I don’t want to go.  But I want the contacts so I’ll do what I must.  Supposed to meet with the trainer Friday too, my calves are still hurting after last week.  We did my assessment last week Friday and he basically said you have 12 min to run as many laps as you can… Go.  I didn’t get to stretch or anything and for those of you who know me, you know when I jog I stretch before, during, after and probably some other time I forgot.  But no stretching=days of pain.  My calves are finally stretching out and I worked the floor all weekend so that should have helped.  And for those curious I lacked half a lap to do a mile, not bad for someone who hasn't run in three months.  But nonetheless I am so going to give him shit when I see him.  And this is guild weekend *squee*  So I’ll be headed to Jon’s once I’m done with the optometrist and the gym.  We’re taking the SLR with us, so I’ll be uploading pics like crazy.  And I’ll get to run some BG’s with my girls again.  "Gimme your badge, Bitch!"  Yes we get that into it... god this going to be fun.  I think we’re having a bonfire, or I know fire was involved… ^_^  I may take Sailor V and Tuxedo Masks mask out and see if Jon has any tools that will cut them out the way we want… he has an awesome collection of tools I’m told.  He and Rob and Pip were going to fabricate Nariko’s sword for that costume but they never got around to it, course the costume never got 100% done so it’s not much of a loss.  Since I’ll have Lisa there I may take Pip’s wig and see if she can help me style it… course I’ll have to let her know ahead of time so she can bring her shit.  And I believe Krista is going to give me a hand with Seras’s.  I managed to take some of the curl out of the sides when I was messing with it.  Gimme a break my hair doesn’t curl I don’t know how to make them!  I may run that by Friday too since I’ll be in Jackson… may take it with me to Jon’s we’ll see.  I have a couple days to decide.  'Cause if I get that skirt done it might be fun to take a few pics as Seras in a black tank the yellow skirt and the thigh highs and boots… *ponders*  The guild would probably find it amusing.

Continue

Sooo Cold

I am so freaking cold, the high today isn't supposed to make it above freezing nor is it for the next basically week.  /cry.  I am so not meant for this weather.  I want my sunny and 70 degrees please!  But more costume updates, and I'll give you the low down on the camera.
I'll break it down by costume because I've made a lot of progress on some and not so much on others.  Let's start with Seras.  I bought a belt for her Friday?  Maybe it was saturday?  Either way one more thing to check off.  Also ordered 5 yards of yellow stretch twill for her outfit, along with a yard of red.  I wanted a half hard since the only red is on her arm, but I couldn't get anything less then that.  I wanted to order some white stretch twill too but they only had off white so I decided to wait till her thigh highs came in to see if they were artic white or more off white.  Of course I have a feeling it won't match, just cause that's my luck.  And speaking of thigh highs I ordered those last week so they should be arriving hopefully sometime this week.  I ordered her wig last week as well, so she's coming together quite quickly.  Only thing that is causing me some issue are her patches.  I'm currently in contact with a couple of people who may be able to make them for me but you would think these things would be easier to find then what they are!  Sailor V hasn't seen much progress though, I bought a masquerade mask that I'm think of using as a base for her because the one I bought is just HUGE.  I mean hers is big, but this thing looks retarded on me.  I think I'm going to start sanding on it this weekend, hopefully dad can find his dremmel so I can expand the eye holes.  And as for Kusanagi, I ordered the light purple thigh highs at the same time I ordered Seras's and I finally ordered her boots last week, according to amazon I should see them Wednesday.  So, not much real progress anywhere but I'm getting there, not as quick as I'd like but... I would much rather have them all done and be tweaking on them. 
I am going to have dad do some reasearch on the Wild Geese, since Pip is the leader of them and see if they have any special patches for Pip's costume.  Hopefully he will have some success only because I would find that more interesting then just me throwing random patches on it.  Of course we are going to put a G.I. Joe patch on it, just for shits and giggles.
Now as for the SLR

Yes that is me modeling the new camera.  We already have over 100 pictures on it, mainly us playing with different ISO settings and with the flash, etc.  And don't ask me why I'm holding my hand like that, I think I was trying to get the strap around my arm or something... unno.  Now as for actual functionality, its fun even though we're still figuring it out.  And I think its going to be able to do everything we need for sometime.  I mean when you can take a picture of a fan going at high speed and its not blurry or anything, but perfectly clear.  Oh yea ^_^

Continue

Yay for more cosplay updates!

All right lots to say lets see how much I can get out before I forget everything I was going to say... First, a new con added to the usual lineup.  OMGCon.  Its in Paducah, which for me isn't that far away.  I've wanted to attend for about three years now but something kept getting in the way.  (Yes Rob I'm still upset you had to pick THAT WEEKEND to get married. :p) But I have mine and the new b/f (yes, yes we'll get to him in a bit) badges bought.  So no skipping out this year.  Its June 11-13 for anyone interested, and if you get on it quick badges are $25 till Dec 31st.
Next on the agenda, the costume list for Kawa Kon has been revised.  Remember how I said I was just going to do two costumes?  I lied.  -_-" No I didn't lie, I was talking to someone on the forum and they are doing an Alucard costume and it just so happens that I'd already be attending with a Pip, then they told me that they had an Integra so it only seemed natural to be Seras.  Anyone shocked?  No I didn't think so.  I'm planning on going with the yellow costume, and keeping it very close to the manga.  Meaning black and white patches.  What's that you say?  Black and white?  Yes if you look at the front cover of the second issue you'll notice Seras's patches are black and white and not in color as seen in the ova.

Picky detail I know but I wouldn't be me if I didn't worry over such things.  Currently I'm hunting for said patches.  I'm not having much luck, most places that will take custom orders require a minimum order and as between Pip and I we will be needing a max of 5 or 6 that doesn't work.  Hopefully someone on etsy will be willing to make some for me.  Dunno if I'll be making the Harkonnen, at least in time for the con.  Unfortunately I have a lot of work to do with Sailor V and Kusanagi, so it will depend.  I do want to have it for photos though.  And am I the only one who hears Harkonnen and doesn't think Seras but I think House Harkonnen i.e. Dune?  I read (most) of the series years ago and loved it but in my world Harkonnen=bad.  I know I'm crazy.  But as for the creation of the costume itself I think I have it pretty much mapped out.  Some stretch twill for the uniform, I'll be able to reuse Kusanagi's boots for this costume and her and Sailor V's contacts (red and blue respectively) which will make for some neat pics.  I think I'm going to go with white gloves a la the cover I posted above.  I know a lot of Seras cosplays I've found on Cosplay.com have gone with brown boots and brown gloves with a black belt.  Unfortunately I have this issue with black and brown being on at the same time so therefore I have to do black or the fashion ninja's will get me >.>  <.< 
Thankfully the cost of Seras's wig won't be up there with Kusanagi's or Sailor V's.  A very nice lady on cosplay.com who has already done a Seras cosplay was nice enough to respond and tell me where she got hers and what she did to modify it. 

You can find her on Cosplay.com under the s/n DestiniteLuna. But not to nitpick but you can see see did the brown gloves, which is correct if you do the OVA Seras, but I'm (as always) being different and doing the manga.  You'll also notice her Pip is in green, mine will be in khaki.  Why?  Hell if I know.  He saw some picture of Pip a year or two ago when he made the costume in brown and loved it.  It worked on him first time, I'll just need to find him the scarf and a few other minor things for this time.
But while I'm on the subject of Seras and Pip I ran across a couple rather racy pictures of the duo someone did (I can't find credits).  Dunno if we'll post them but you can bet we'll probably do our own variants of these:

And how are we going to do these semi racy photos?  Well ladies and gentlemen you'll be happy to know that we're investing in a new SLR.  A Sony 330 to be precise.  We're picking it up Thursday.  Sadly I don't think we'll have any fun lenses before the con, maybe a filter depending on price.  But they will be coming.  Splitting the cost of it made it a lot more reasonable for both of us.  And my bff has one as well that we can use if we need a second camera (why we'd need a dual camera shoot is beyond me but I'm just the stupid model he's the photographer).  And yes that's pretty much how it will be.  I don't mean to be egotistical but expect to see a LOT of  me and very few of him unless he has a mask on or is facing away from the camera.  For whatever reason he's mega shy about cameras.  /shrug
But as I'm thinking about variant costumes, have I prattled on endlessly about my Sailor V Artemis Variant?  No?  Hope your seated, this will take awhile.  The costume idea started when I was telling ... how should I refer to him... my photographer?  No.  My b/f?  No, even though he is.  Pip?  Meh its short, it'll do.  It all started when I was telling Pip about the plushie I commissioned for my Sailor V costume.  He loved the idea of doing some pictures with the plush then we started acting ... like ourselves and came up with this shoot I cannot wait to do.  Ok you all know the whole Family Guy Peter vs the Chicken thing?  Yea, same idea.  V vs Artemis.  Me 'fighting' a stuffed animal.  Figure first time V will win and he'll have to continue being the sidekick, but what if he won?  And had his own Sailor fuku?  Well then V would just have to be the kitty... Ok so imagine this

Only in white plus ears and a cat tail.  Expect to have a good laugh once we're done.  I'll post more details about the Sailor V Variant later have other things on my mind.
I finally, FINALLY got to dye my fabric for Kusanagi tonight.  I'm testing out a satin.  I plan on using the dull side for the costume but I can't find any satin in my hometown in a pale purple like hers so I bought a white and some purple RIT dye and went to work.  The first piece I used came out way to dark which was a major shock because about two years ago when I was making my Nariko costume I had to dye some satin to be the shade I needed and for the life of me I couldn't get that stuff to take color.  I ended up just having to setting for a paler color then what I wanted.  So knowing that I made it at full strength, and left the fabric in the dye bath maybe two minutes, pulled it out and rinsed it just out of curiosity.  The stuff was way to dark to salvage.  Before I gave the next piece a try I dumped about half of the dye out and refilled the pot with water so it was at about 50% strength.  This time I dipped it for maybe 30 seconds before I pulled it out and rinsed it.  It matched the thread I bought which is a very, very pale purple.  Which is what I'm going for.  I hope it dries that way.  See my idea is when I'm wearing the 1st gig outfit (the bikini bottoms and thigh highs) for the top to be questionable if its white or purple, but if I'm in the 2nd gig outfit (the white jeans) then it will be obvious that it is a very light purple.  So cross your fingers that it dies even and the color I need.  Otherwise I just wasted 3 yards of satin and a box of dye on nothing. :/
Alright on to the thing that most of your probably suspected from the last post but wasn't confirmed.  No I'm no longer single, but no I'm not telling you his name.  We'll just call him 'Pip' and be done with it.  Yes for those inquiring minds I'm extremely happy and finally able to gush this as we will probably still have ex-bf problems for awhile.  Hopefully he will get it that I'm done with him before the local con so we can hang out again this year.  I feel kinda bad I didn't mean to break it off with him the way I did, but I was unhappy and frustrated and didn't see things changing.  I felt it was better to nip it in the bud, besides he started the whole 'where are you and who are you with' type line of questioning and the only person who can ask that is my mother and she doesn't even do that.  That and he asked for me to 'think long and hard on if I wanted to be with him' I think he expected me to say yes so it was a major blow to his ego when I didn't.  But as for what happened with Pip, it was a total accident.  Just kinda happened, and although I'm extremely happy about it a certain part of me has reservations about it, I'm afraid of something going wrong and loosing a friend that means the absolute world to me.  (And no I'm not talking him up or exaggerating, we went 3 months without talking once and I was about to loose my mind I missed him that much.)
But one last thing and I think I'll have caught everyone up.  Christmas presents.  I got many, which was unusual, last few years have been... blah.  A Kohl's gift card and some amazingly warm socks from the paternal grandmother, a beautiful vase and a Hancocks fabrics gift card from Dad, a pre-paid gym membership from Mom (I may just be in Kusanagi shape yet!) and some money toward the white leather jacket (which was the only thing I asked for).  An XM radio from one of my jobs which in turn was a present from my grandmother because she didn't have anything for me under the tree so she gave me some money for it even though my boss gave it to me as my bonus o.O yea that was a twisted one.  $100 from the grandparents as well, $50 from the aunt and uncle (all of which is going toward the SLR), a funny little outdoor spinny decoration from my cousin (I'll post a pic when we get the new camera, it'll be something to take a picture of) And a kickass mug from Pip, with a quote from Alice and Wonderland "Somebody's head is going to ROLL for this!" Anyone who knows me knows how true that is in the morning.  And the very best present of all...

Everyone, let me introduce you to the newest member of my family, Lucky.  My parents found him when they were leaving my Grandparents Christmas day, he was running in the field covered in ice from some of the cows, which apparently thought he was a towel wearing terrorist.  And as soon as I set eyes on the lil guy he was adopted.  He also is going to be my Hellhound for my Seras cosplay.  Oh yea, double duty.  But in all seriousness he's the cutest and sweetest puppy I've been around since Rex was born. 

Continue