Fanime 2011 Cosplay Report (Days 587 - 603)

I survived Fanime Con 2011! (Read my full review here.) My lack of updates is due primarily to trying to finish costumes in a panic. Unfortunately, I didn't finish everything on time, but it's didn't greatly impact the weekend.

(Photo by Steven)
Koffing was finished on Day 0 of Fanime, most of the waiting was because my mom said she'd make part of it and then said that I didn't remind her in time, or something to that effect, so she finished it the day-of. Made it in time though. I ended up not getting a hammer for Koffing and opted for a grenade instead, both because a grenade was surprisingly easier to find, and I didn't feel like explaining the hammer to everyone who didn't understand it. My Koffing cosplay is ridiculously comfortable. It's so comfortable that I don't even care that I was only recognized about 10 times the whole weekend while my boyfriend was swarmed by photographers, because I was so comfy and he had to wear a wig and hop/shuffle around all day as Magikarp.

Magikarp was about 99% finished, I only didn't make the side fins/ears, which is probably why more than half of the people that saw him thought that he was a red Gyrados. Whoops. I'll make them before the next time that he wears it, though who knows when that will be. Also, the tail got really dirty from, well, just being on the ground. Luckily, the fabric we used was intended for outdoor furniture, so I should be able to scrub out the dirt and red tanbark gunk that got on it.

Fun fact, my sewing machine broke Wednesday night when I was finishing Magikarp, and I blame that for not finishing the ears. Luckily, my boyfriend's mom let me borrow hers to finish what I could.

(Photo by Branden Kong) Pac-Man and Clyde were already finished, though I need to re-iron the letters on the back of the Pac-Man shirt, probably because my boyfriend always carries the Con Backpack, so the letters got worn off more than the Clyde ones on my shirt. I meant to do that before the convention, but never got to it, unfortunately.

Franziska von Karma still needs some major work, I need to completely remake the cravat (necktie thing), including the gem on it because it just doesn't work, and I always have to hot-glue it together while I'm wearing it or it just doesn't stay up right. I'd still like to get a color-accurate riding crop, but it's money that I just don't have right now. Speaking of the riding crop, a Fanime staffer (actually two of them) who didn't know what they were doing decided to zip-tie my riding crop to my belt loop, even though the forums (and other staff) say that they don't do that. I got it taken care of thanks to my buddy FoxBerry and her boyfriend. Also, my shoes for Franziska are just getting old. I'm considering taking them to the shoe repair shop in my local mall, but it's probably cheaper to get a new pair. And I sat in chocolate in my white Franziska pants. I washed them, but I haven't looked at them since, so I don't even know if it all came out.

I didn't have a cosplay for the Black & White Ball this year, I just had a tradition Chinese dress, and I put on the Magikarp wig because my hair was bleh. I'm actually considering gettng my hair cut like the wig now though, I think it looked cute! I found out that the dress (which I bought at a second-hand shop) is actually home-made, based on a lot of the stitching, and did come apart in one place, which is why it was in the second-hand shop. A dart that should go all the way to the bottom only goes to the waist. It's not horribly noticeable, but I would like to fix it before the next time I wear it (whenever that is).

Overall, Fanime was fun, I was only stopped for photos a ton as Clyde with Pac-Man, so it was a really relaxing weekend, and my only really uncomfortable costume was Franziska, which I only wore for a day.

READ MORE - Fanime 2011 Cosplay Report (Days 587 - 603)

Fanime Planning (still...) (Days 571 - 579)

the dance performance that I mentioned in my last post is over, so hopefully I'll be able to work on cosplay more.

I decided that to cut costs even further for my Koffing cosplay, I'm going to use an old pair of jeans that already have a hole in the knee. I'll have to figure out a way to stop any holes from ripping further during wear too, but I guess that's later. I'm really looking forward to destroying a pair of jeans though. It sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun!

Here's a good tutorial that I found on distressing jeans, if anyone's interested.


I'm not going to use all of the techniques in that video, I'm mostly looking at ripping holes, the thing with the sandpaper, and bleaching. I'm also not getting a wig for this, even though I found some really nice ones for $10. Instead, thanks to the brilliant mind of my friend FoxBerry, I'll be making a hat. I've already figured out how to do it, save for a detail or two, and I believe I already have the fabric. The real bonus here (other than saving money on a wig) is that once I figure out exactly how to make it, I can *gasp* sell them! Though none that I make will ever be as good as the first one, that's just how it is.

I also found this picture of a Weezing gijinka that I was really attached to until I found the Koffing one. It's so adorable, and I had been thinking of a way to cosplay Weezing, though I'm not sure why, but it didn't stick in my head as well as the Koffing one did. In any case, it makes me want to have a little bomb prop. Though that's more time and money that I may not have. However if someone wanted to cosplay this when I cosplay Koffing, I might just love them forever. I'm just saying.

My boyfriend's and my panel, Magikarp: A History has gotten it's finalized time of 7:00pm on Sunday. You can RSVP on the facebook event here if you like, as well as get more details about the panel.

In addition to doing that, I applied to be a model for a "Mystery Designer" at Fanime. I don't know if I'll go through with it, since it'll take up Friday evening and Saturday morning and early afternoon, which would make me miss the Pokemon gathering, and I've had some pretty bad experiences with "random" designers, so we'll see what I think of this designer if/when I get chosen and meet them.

READ MORE - Fanime Planning (still...) (Days 571 - 579)

Exhausted (Days 566 - 570)

So I've been run ragged with ballet practiced for an upcoming dance performance at the college that I attend. The ballet piece in the performance isn't really that big, but it is hard, and regardless of our less than five minutes of stage time, we all still have to be at the stage for the full two to five hours of practice (no joke). Just being there is exhausting for some reason, it's probably the high energy level and low lighting. Anyway, because of all of that (and lack of money) I haven't done much.

My mom helped me gather the last $60 that I needed for Fanime hotel and badge, so that's fantastic. I just have to be sure not to spend it. I also counted change to build a cosplay fund for my Koffing cosplay. It's about about... nine bucks, which, actually, if I forgo the wig will cover just about everything.

However, I completely forgot until today that I have to see a ballet performance and write a reaction paper for my ballet class. And that'll run me about $30+. So... There goes my Fanime fund again. T_T I need to sell more hats.

Speaking of which, I did sell another Link hat! I think that's the third Link hat I've sold, actually. It sold to someone in Florida, so I'm feeling kind of awesome now, having three hats on the other side of the country (two in NY and one in FL). Oh, I hope they're being treated well...

It occurred to me fairly recently that I could probably get a lot mmore publicity if I put my hats up on Etsy, but I've just been too lazy to set up an account, list things, and re-link everything on my website. Hopefully I can get that done before Fanime and print out business cards, because every time my boyfriend wears his Magikarp hat out, it's amazing publicity and a lot of people ask where he got it, but they never end up ordering anything. Also, the online store that I use right now (UShops) requires an account to buy from and is rather difficult for me as a seller to navigate.

READ MORE - Exhausted (Days 566 - 570)

ARG! (Days 511 - 515)

So, yeah, most likely not going to WonderCon. And by "most likely", I mean, there's like a 5% chance. So here's the story. (I asked people not to ask, but at the same time, I need to vent it, so here we go.)

Originally, my boyfriend's brother (we'll call him S, for anonymity's sake) was the one planning the trip. He invited my boyfriend and I to go with him and his fiance. Originally, this meant he would drive us there, pay for our entry, and pay for our lunch. Best deal ever, I should have known it was too good to be true.

Then, suddenly, he stopped talking about going. When he was asked, S would just say "Oh, yeah, that" and nothing else. It turned out that he didn't know which day we were going because of his fiance's work schedule. She usually works Saturdays, but we had originally planned to go on Saturday. Also, he wanted to go on the same day that the creators of the Dunny series were going, and for some reason couldn't figure out which day that was.

A few weeks later, when he was asked again, S said that he was worried about being able to pay for everybody to go. I said that I would pay for my ticket, as long as I was told which day we were going so that I could register online (I don't even know if this information was relayed to S). I also offered to pay for my own lunch. After waiting about another week or so, I changed my offer to $20 cash for my ticket (plus my lunch), because if S had been on top of things, I would have been able to pre-register, and $20 would have been the most I would pay.

At this point (probably about a week or so ago from today), I was mad. I can't stand the lack of communication, the constant changing of stories and plans, and the general confusion of the entire thing. This is exactly why I plan convention trips for myself and my boyfriend, and when anyone else wants to join us, they go through me, because I feel like if I don't do it, it won't get done right, and we'll end up sleeping in the convention hallway with one ticket between four people, three energy bars, and no water. It's instances like this nonsense that makes me think this way!

Anyway, about a week before the con starts, I'm told that S's Fiance is going to dictate the entire trip. That if she goes, we'll leave super early, stay at the convention for two hours, shop for four hours, go out to dinner on a "super-special double-date" (or something like that), and then go home. I'm sorry, but I'm not spending $20 just to go to a convention early in the morning, when most of the events are in the afternoon/night, and only stay for two hours. While I would love to go to dinner with S and his fiance on a double-date, that was not the point of this trip, and I'm insulted and offended at the possibility that she's commandeering this whole thing. Again, this is why I plan con trips.

Then, two days before the convention starts (today), I finally said to my boyfriend, "So we're not going to WonderCon, are we?" He gave me his wishy-washy answer of "probably not", trying to let me down easy, but really just making me mad at the thought of false hope.

Because of the way things have been panning out, I expect either Saturday or Sunday morning to go something like this:
S will wake up at about six in the morning, randomly with enough energy to get up. He'll get showered and ready in an hour, call his fiance, and leave. They'll go to the convention for all of an hour, leaving my boyfriend and I behind, then they'll spend the day shopping in SF and get back around midnight. When my boyfriend asks him where he's been, and why he left us, he'll say "lol You were sleeping, and I didn't want to wake you up." Not even out of spite, not even to make us mad or jealous, just because this is something he would just do. He would just not think about the fact that we (I) really wanted to go, and he'll just go. Ugh.

So, yeah, I'm mad. Never letting someone else plan a convention trip ever again. Even if they're my only possibility of going, I'm just going to say "no thanks" because this is too much stress.

And since I'm not going, I'm not going to be cosplaying Terra (Teen Titans) either. I wasn't overly excited about that cosplay anyway, but I am a little disappointed nonetheless. However, in it's place, I will now be cosplaying the lovely gem pictured right. It's a Koffing (Pokemon) gijinka. Unfortunately, I don't know the artist, but I would love to just because I love this design so much. It made me think of Koffing in a whole new light, and I love the subtle "Selfdestruct" reference that sets the tone for the entire design. Admittedly, I've never used Koffing in any of the games, and I was never fond of them in the anime, but I do have a special place for Poison-types in my heart, that's for sure. It's a newfound love, actually, starting from when I played HeartGold and really learned how to use bug types as strategic fighters. I branched out from there to love strategic-fighting Pokemon in general.

In any case, I really can't remember seeing any other Pokemon design as mentally stimulating and disturbing as this one. It's elegantly simple and so subtle, but once realization of it hit, it was impossible to get out of my head. Maybe I'm just messed up in the head like that.

On a side-note, if anybody could tell me what the blue gem on the necklace is supposed to be, that would be fantastic, because I can't for the live of me figure it out.

READ MORE - ARG! (Days 511 - 515)