MeltingMirror Cosplay

Calamity and I were travel buddies for the weekend and we had the joy of getting to the airport for 5am to catch our 6am flight to start our journey. We landed in Atlanta after noon and went straight to the Hyatt to check into our room then meet up with our friends at Hooters. It was my first and last time going there. The food was bland and the service was horrible. We waited forever for our food and even longer for our bills which eventually made me miss out on a planned shoot.  Anyways, the rest of the day was spent wandering the event and eventually partying the in the Marriott at night.

Friday morning I got straight into my Sharla costume for a shoot with Jason Chau Photography. It always nice to collaborate with new photographers :D Keeping with my trend of forgetting costume pieces, I forgot to put on my weird club thing on my left arm - which you can barely miss since so much is going on there. I changed out of it immediately after the shoot to easily move through the event.

Afterwards we grabbed lunch with a bunch of photographers and friends. It was nice catching up and meeting even more new people.

Calamity and I spent the afternoon browsing the dealers room.  There was so much to see although I was not a fan of the layout. I much prefer open warehouse like settings for dealer's room because they are easy to navigate. There is also a noticeable variety of goods in the dealer's room compared to the typical anime convention mostly: Lots of leather, quality kimonos, belly dancing attire, pocket watches, and corsets, corsets, corsets.

Friday night I had a great dinner at Ray's. It was little expensive but the food was great! I then spent the night hanging out with friends at the Marriott lobby again.

My first convention of the year! This will be brief since I was only at the con for a few hours on Saturday because I had a family event in the evening.
 
I arrived after 10 o’clock with Cosplay Calamity and I quickly put on the rest of my Cruella costume. Plunge necklines and frigid weather do not work well together. I threw on my heels and my faux fur jacket and realize I forgot my satin gloves. It seems like I am cursed to forget one minor but noticeable costume item at every event I attend for the last few months. I got to say hi to a few friends before running off with Belziir Photography for a shoot. 

I got to catch up with more friends and devour a delicious crepe lunch before heading into photoshoot number two with Naredo Cosplay Photography. I wrapped up the afternoon by visiting some friends participating in and organizing the masquerade. I really wish I could have seen it, because I heard some skits were great! 
 
I look forward to seeing the results of the photoshoots since Cruella was a year in the making and I had to restart the costume so many times.

This year seems to have flown by. I attended 12 conventions and events this year - a record for me. It was a taxing to say the least. I have also come to the realization that when you start attending more events, you reduce the number of weekends you can work on new projects. Although it doesn't feel like I slowed down this year, in terms of costume progress I have.

I only made 5 costumes - One was a big project but all the others were rather simple. Which makes me a little disappointed in myself. The funny thing is that I am juggling many projects so it doesn't feel like I only made five. Many of my old projects are getting close to completion. What also slowed me down is that I scaled down my commission business and upped my artist alley presence, and so my free time normally spend on costumes was spent on making products.

I was a bit unlucky this year. A persisting (even now) eye problem prevents me from wearing contacts, even regular contacts. Which means I spent most of the year putting on makeup within 2in of a mirror with my bad eyesight and wandering the convention halls with glasses. I can't wait till they get back to normal.

On the bright side I was invited to 4 events (G-anime, ConBravo, Quinte Mini Con, and Geek Market) as a guest this year, in addition to being invited as a judge for masquerades at another 3 events (Otakuthon, Ottawa Comic Con, and Pop Expo). I was very honoured to have been invited to the events and I'm glad I was able to spread some cosplay knowledge, help a few people out with their construction problems, and to be trusted with deciding the winners of the masquerades.

One of my highlight of the year was getting to meet a lot of new photographers, cosplayers and collaborators. Katsucon and ColossalCon were the best events for this. I look forward to seeing them again at upcoming events.

I had a great time at Conbravo as a cosplay guest and masquerade judge.
Here's a little taste of my adventures, Vine Style.

It was so much fun. So much so that I will probably forget to mention some things because it was a crazy weekend. I'll give you the short story then let the photos and the videos fill in the rest.

HIGHLIGHTS: Lion cub, baby albino kangaroo, hottubing, cookouts in the suite, photoshoots galore, water slides, bonding with friends, meeting new friends, and carpool shenanigans.

Photos are mostly from Saturday but I scattered them around for aesthetics reasons.

It was my first time at Katsucon and it was a costume whirlwind. There were so many things to see.
I was stuck at my artist table for most of the weekend but I still had a great time. I wasn’t able to finish my Cruella in time but I am more than satisfied with my Hana cosplay.

Here are the details...

Fun is the only word to describe the weekend I had at ColossalCon. Waterpark+Safari+Cosplay = AMAZING
A suite filled with lovely friends always sweetens the deal, especially if Disney sing-a-longs are involved.
Here's a blog breakdown since there is so much to talk about: the Venue, the Safari, the Convention & Cosplay, and Quality time with friends.