flower_sceptre

Toot toot!

2008-11-27T10:48:50Z

Happy birthday ashechan!

Minami!

2008-10-20T00:12:57Z

Booked places for me and Pete! Huzzah!

One year!

2008-09-21T12:02:59Z

Me and Pete have been married for a whole year! Hooray!

Cosplah

2008-09-16T22:30:54Z

Just posting about my upcoming cosplay plans. I was wondering what else people had in mind for Minami and Auchinawa as I want to cosplay in groups as much as possible this year before I go to Japan.

So far I've made a start on the bottom part of the Minoru's robes and done some work on Edel's crazy stripey leggings. As soon as my university money comes in I'll hit up cosworx for the wigs for Edel and Sue so ideally I would like to know which other wigs I'll need for Auchi and Minami to save on postage. Edel's wig is going to be a challenge but it should also be hilarious. :D

London Expo

Rhyme - The World Ends With You
(Me) Tina Minoru (Pete) Robert Minoru - Runaways

Auchi

Edel - Princess Tutu
Sue - Grandia

Minami

Auron - FFX (to go with my friend Rachel's Braska costume! yay)
Something from Pokemon?
Edit: (me) Aska (Pete) Chang Ang - Rayearth, to cosplay with the fluffily lovely Nia

At some point during this year I simply have to cosplay Komaki from Kujibiki Unbalance, the anime inside an anime that appears in the gloriously beautiful Genshiken which I love beyond all reason. I don't suppose there are any Genshiken fans on my list are there?

Anyone need a tailors dummy?

2008-09-09T11:34:05Z

At the weekend I wasn't really aware of how *much* fabric Aunt Mabel had given to me, because we packed it all into the car without sorting through it. Now having organised it at home I realise I will never ever have to buy interfacing or any kind white fabric ever again.

She also gave me a tailors dummy. I don't need one because I already have a dummy, so would anyone on my flist like it? I'm happy to send it to anyone that would like it for free, you'd just have to pay for the postage which will probably be about £10 if the average cost of shipping tailoring dummy's on ebay is acurate.

It's an old model, and the stand is a little shonky but Pete will fix that before I send it out, or alternatively give it to a charity shop. I'm pretty sure it's adjustable too.

Would anyone like it?

Edit:

Apple Extravaganza!

2008-09-07T21:33:47Z

The title refers to an event taking place in Kent during September - it's an Apple Extravaganza! I want to go just to find out what it is. I want it to be some kind of apple circus with apples leaping from trapezes and a bombastic granny smith acting as ringleader, but it probably will just be lots of mundane non-performing fruit.

I had a great weekend in London, bought lots of fabric in Shepherd's Bush before adjourning to the wonderful odangochan's house for lunch and chattting. I had a great time. I hope we weren't too chatty and/or boring. Just for you Annette, here are some camera phone pictures of the kittens I saw at my mums house. They were super adorable.

It was also a weekend of cake baking. I made a 'The World Ends with You' pin cake for Annette and Phil, and two ivy covered cakes for Pete's grandmother and Great Aunt Mabel. Because I must immortalise all my cakes with internet stardom here they are.

When we visited Pete's Great Aunt Mabel she gave me all her fabric and dress making equipment as she can no longer work with fabric as her hands are too frail. It was amazing, her sewing room was like a treasure trove of wonder. She had beautiful satins and silks, different fabrics in all colours and textures and some funky 60s/70s patterned fabrics that are definitely hovering on the boundary line between awful/retro chic. She also gave me stacks of interfacing, zips of every colour of the rainbow, and at least 50 patterns. It was so lovely and incredibly generous of her, it made me very glad I had at least baked her a cake in thanks.

I'm actually looking forward to visiting her again because she is a formidable old lady, in the 50s and 60s she travelled the world visiting South America, Russia, China and Iran and I would love to hear her stories about those countries. It's still pretty unusual for tourists to go to South America and Iran now, let alone in the 50s and 60s. :D

Fishy fishy

2008-09-01T22:09:11Z

100 points to anyone who can guess what these are. :D :D

Cakey cake

2008-06-15T11:58:39Z

I think without a doubt this is the best pokemon cake I have made thus far.

It's Cacnea, my favourite pokemon from the Ruby/Sapphire era. It was delicious!

4 down 3 to go

2008-05-14T21:36:01Z

My life has revolved around constant revision for the last while which is why I haven't updated. But my exams are now half over (4 down 3 to go) and I'm pretty happy with how they've gone so far. Well except for the Japanese listening exam which was a bloodbath, but I found out yesterday I just managed a pass which makes me very happy. The listening exam only accounts for 25% of that Japanese course so I'm sure my overall mark will be brought up by my performance in the oral and written exams I had last week because they went pretty well.

I have 3 more exams left and tons of cosplay to cram into my evenings. I'm thrilled with how Yuna's samurai sword is looking, it's genius. I'm so looking forward to seeing people at the Expo. I must remember to make cookie nom noms for the wonderful odangochan who is lending my friend Rachel her Paine wig.

My only other news is sad, Pete's grandfather passed away. I have been giving Pete extra specially lots of hugs to make him less sad.

Which came first the chicken or the egg?

2008-04-13T18:56:07Z

The egg was first. After several failed attempts in the past I had another attempt at crochet last night and finally managed to make something approximating amigurumi. I made the egg first and then the chickie. The egg was acutally a failed attmept to make a white ball shape, but I like his little face. It was a toss up between making him an egg or attaching little gray fins to his pointy end and making him the ill-fated Zeppelin 'The Hindenburg', I was quite tempted because I could have make little red and yellow flames to go on his body too.

Anyhoo, they're pretty rubbish but for a first attempt at amigurumi but I'm quite happy.

Sushi Minor

2008-03-28T20:01:10Z

After making my giant sushi cake I was keen to have a go at making mini sushi cakes. I made these sometime in February for a friend's birthday. They were super yummy.

Hey

2008-03-26T21:09:39Z

Just got back from Scotland on an Easter trip to see my family. It snowed all the time we were there and much snowball slinging fun was had between me and Pete. It was pretty good actually. Much love to Dan, because I <3 Settlers of Catan and good company.

And today I bought sewing machiney goodness! Thank you to everyone who gave me advice a while ago, it was all really helpful when I came to purchase my machines. I bought a cheap overlocking machine because I really want to start making my own clothes as well as cosplay costumes; and a very decent machine with some good features. I'm planning to do a lot of work on my costumes for Expo and Ame over the Easter Break.

Other than that I haven't got much news. I have a really good idea for costumes for me and Pete on the Sunday of Expo, but I'd really like to go in a group if possible. Anyone have any ideas?

Hey

2008-02-11T13:29:09Z

Much stuff happening with me at the moment, but I'm too tired out to post about it now. I just hopped online to say

Happy Birthday angelphie, princess_mark! Hope you both have/had a great day.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T15:48:15Z

I hope everyone has an amazing 2008.

Cards

2007-12-20T01:04:06Z

I sent out cards. Some of you will probably get them when you get back to University and some of them might have winged there way out into the ether never to reach their intended targets. They will sit forlornly, unopened on an unfamiliar doormat, honking feebly as their christmas cheer seeps slowly into their reed woven resting place. (I'm imagining one of those straw-ish welcome mats with WELCOME written on it) Oh yeah.

I hope everyone gets their card but I have zero faith in the postal service because it completely sucks.

Don't think me and Pete will make it to Athens, I'm pretty much better at bloody last but Pete's gotten very ill. Ackity Ack. He's got a craptastical sinus infection. I hope he gets better before xmas.

Send your healing vibes to Cardiff! Thankies.

Cosplay Plans

2007-08-19T17:01:35Z

Like everyone else I've started planning my Winter wardrobe :D and I'm squee-liciously happy with what my upcoming costumes are. After missing cosplaying in groups at Paris and Ame due to bad luck, I'm super excited about the two Expo groups I'm in - the Disney extravaganza and the multi-culturally magnificent Magna Carta team. Yay!

I also decided to put Seth on the back burner until later on next year because I want to make Astharoshe instead. I have almost all the materials I need for the costume and since there is already an amazing Seth on the scene I'd love to cosplay with, I've decided to change course. Plus I do so adore Astharoshe in the TB novel. I'm going to aim to finish Astharoshe for my Fancy Dress/Wedding Party in November and then rewear it in Minami. :)

So here are my cosplay plans -

London Expo

Wicked Queen from Snow White on Saturday.
Azel from Magna Carta on Sunday.

My fancy dress/wedding party in November

Astharoshe from Trinity Blood

Minami

Virginia Maxwell from Wild Arms 3
Rewearing Astharoshe from Trinity Blood
Makoto from Enchanted Arms.

I can't wait to get started but I need to finish my wedding dress before I can seriously get stuck into cosplaying. So I'd better get back to the sewing machine. :)

flower_sceptre @ 2007-08-14T22:15:00

2007-08-14T21:16:05Z

Well Ame was very brief for me, disappointingly. Me and Pete missed Friday because were delayed by giving our friend a lift, which we will have to make sure doesn't happen again by ensuring everyone's costumes are finished at least a week in advance.

On Saturday we were only around for a few hours before Pete was waylayed with earache due to a sinus infection he got about a week before Ame. It had been getting better due to the course of antibiotics he was on but on most of Saturday and Sunday he was just too ill. We were around for about 3 or 4 hours on Saturday afternoon though and I managed to very briefly see Angelphie, Odangochan and Lex_is_evil's Trinity Blood costumes which like everyone has said, were beyond all expectations and just perfect.

I was pretty happy with how Xianghua and Lizardman came out and we got some really really positive responses from the people who recognised Lizardman which was cool.

Anyhoo, congratulations to everyone I saw, all the costumes were amazing.

Ciao.

Cake

2007-06-18T22:09:02Z

I failed to do any cosplay whilst in Kent. I blame Pete's birthday and the fact I've been pretty torn up emotionally, despite my best efforts to stay cheerful.

Pete had a good birthday I think. I made him a cake. Since the only person who has recognised it so far is Pete himself I wondered if anyone on here recognises it. :D

I'm pretty pleased with it, especially since it was a ghetto cake made without any of the hardcore baking tools I have at home. For his birthday present I bought him Shadow of the Colossus for the PS2, which is stunningly epic and has sublime graphics, it's so cinematic. I also bought Pete some Lego, which we had fun playing with.

I've been down and listless this week because today is the 2nd anniversary of Dad passing away. It makes me feel depressed not just because the anniversary reminds me of the day itself, but mostly because the idea I haven't seen or spoken to him in 2 years just makes my heart ache. But I don't just react with sadness for some reason, I seem to get periods of being anxious and hyperactive in counterpoint to the times when I'm unhappy and lethargic. I know my Dad wouldn't have wanted me to be depressed though so I'm trying not to get too despondent.

So cosplay fails at Kent. But cake wins. I'm going to throw myself into cosplay in the coming weeks to get absolutely as much work done as possible before going to Paris. I really need to get quite a bit of work done on Selene and Zera before Paris because there's only a month before Ame when I get back and I'm not doing 3 costumes in a month. If the worst comes to the worst and I haven't made enough progress by Paris, then I'll postpone Selene and Zera until October. I'm not going to kill myself trying to complete a bundle of complicated costumes again. It was just far too intense and stressful trying to make Gramis, Larsa, Xianghua and Lizardman in the space of 4/5 weeks. But I'm confident that if I organise my time well before Paris I can get a large portion of Selene and Zera done before hand, as well as finishing off the last of Xianghua, Lizardman and whipping up a devout costume. Thankfully the devout costume is pretty simple.

Anyhoo, I'm tired so it's off to bed for me.

Ciao.

La la la, cosplay cosplay cosplay

2007-06-11T20:15:37Z

This entry is nothing but

I had a nice weekend visiting my sister, going to the zoo with my soon to be inlaws and spending Far Too Much Money on cosplay.

The first volley of spending was undertaken on a trip into London where I was able to pick up all the fabric I need to complete Selene and Zera, as well as the fabric for both the geomancer and devout costumes. I've decided to make the devout costume (Kitty ears!) first with the aim of taking it to Paris, and then work on the geomancer costume without worrying about a deadline. If I finish it in time for Paris it will be nice but if not it doesn't matter. I'm really pleased with the fabrics I acquired for Zera, I picked up some gorgeous satins and delicious velvet, very regal.

My other big cosplay expense came yesterday after a lovely American cosplayer answered a PM I sent her on cosplay.com where I asked her how she made her exquisite armour. Her reply lead me to her website and tutorials where I read about the wonders of resin. The site describes how to make both armour and transparent resin jewels. Yummy! Anyhoo, the idea of making my own jewels for Seth's breastplate and Selene's crown-type-thing was just too exciting so I tracked down a UK website selling the necessary materials and purchased them. I now look forward to a squeelicious evening of messing around with new cosplay toys once the stuff has been delivered. Wheee. I shall post my experiments on here, so everyone can have a good laugh.

If I can afford it in both terms of time and expense I'd like to experiment with resin armour before Amecon. I had already decided how I was going to make Seth's armour and I'm going to stick with that method, but if I can complete my costumes a week or two in advance I'd like to have the materials at hand to experiment with making resin armour because I think it would make my costume look more professional and it would make it less fragile too. Of course if I'm going to finish everything two weeks beforehand I'm going to have to get really stuck into it. Which doesn't bother me at all because I'm really psyched about all the costumes I'm making over the next couple of months. If I can't experiment with resin armour before Amecon I'll work on it before the London Expo in October, where I will almost certainly be rewearing Seth. All this extravagant shopping means I'll need to eBay some stuff though, which I've been planning to do for ages but keep putting off. Whoops.

In any case I am in Kent until Saturday and I have my sewing machine, patterns and plenty of fabric to work with so I hope to make a lot of progress before I leave. (Especially since there's little else to do but write and cosplay whilst I'm here in middle England keeping Pete company while he works.)

Ciao.

Whee!

2007-06-07T19:52:48Z

Just a quick update about two new exciting things which have happened.

One. I have a new (second-hand) car! It's a beautiful metallic blue Nissan Primera 2002 model. I've called him Corben, after Corben Dallas in The Fifth Element. So far I'm super happy with him because he's fast and looks cool.

Two. I'm going to Paris! With two of the loveliest people on livejournal, Angelphie and Odangochan. *Squee* I'm very excited about it. In honour of the event I want to make a simple cosplay that won't take too long to make. Also a costume that doesn't have a huge hat or any other large elements since I want to travel light. My wonderful brother bought me and Pete Final Fantasy III for the DS earlier this year as an engagement present, and it has some cute and simple yet distinctive costumes. Also I've just started playing the game and it seems pretty damn good and I do like being an ambassador of sorts for my favourite games. Like FF5 and FFX-2, the main characters change outfits depending on their job (or dress sphere for X-2) and there are 22 jobs/costumes in all. I have narrowed down my choice to two of the cutest costumes in the bunch since I'm in the mood for a cute costume. Here are the two choices -

So which one do people think I should make? I'm slightly more keen on the blue geomancer costume because it has a pom pom. Pom pom! But the pink Devout costume has cat ears and is pink. It's a hard decision to make. But both of them have hoods which I love. My first ever costume, White Mage Yuna from FFX-2 had a hood and I did adore wearing it because of that. They make me feel all medieval-ey.

Anyhoo me and Pete and Malcolm are off to see PotC: World's End, because even though it has had average reviews I've seen the other two and would like to see how the trilogy ends. I'm going in with the expectation of seeing something which has good action scenes, excellent graphics but is a bit too long and not as good as the first. So hopefully I won't be too disappointed.

Ciao.

EDIT: PotC: At World's End was awful. Half of the film's plot manouevres made absolutely no sense. Even with incredibly low expectations I was disappointed.

Gush gush gush

2007-06-02T09:15:15Z

In my previous Expo round-up post I forgot to mention one of my favourite moments of the whole weekend.

Picture the scene if you will - there are thirteen people crammed round a large restaurant table and at least 4 simultaneous conversations being held above the enthusiastic singing of the restaurant's in-house entertainment. There are 4 or 5 people between Odangochan and the man I'm chatting to, in fact they are almost at opposite sides of the table. As the conversation between me and my chatting partner progresses he says something like "... and the most bloody annoying thing about it was..."

At which point Odango's head whips round like a vampire who's scented the first appetising whiff of blood on the night air. "Did someone say Trinity Blood?" She asks her eyes agleam.

*giggles* Just the mention of the word blood, over a very crowded, very noisy dinner table was enough to register on Odango's finely honed TB radar.

I am only now beginning to understand why she has such enthusiasm and devotion for the series. I finished reading Rage Against the Moon Vol 1 last night, and whilst the quality of writing wasn't that amazing, the storylines and characters were fantastic. I love Tres Iqus. I just love him. And Astharoshe? Oh dear lord she just appeals to me on so many levels.

I have to be honest that after reading the first Trinity Blood manga I wasn't all that impressed, but now I've read the novel I'm totally spellbound by the richness of the fantasy world and in love with the characters. I'd been planning to import Kujibiki Unbalance and Azumanga Daioh box-sets from America with some of my tax rebate money but changed my mind and ordered all 6 DVDs of Trinity Blood last night instead, pretty much on impulse, because I was so hyped about how much I enjoyed the book. It was just so much fun to read.

Critically speaking the book wasn't amazingly written, but I don't know whether there are translation issues going on there, but it was well done. However it really was the characters and setting which floated my boat (or tickled my trumpet as I'm often fond of saying.) The characters are undeniably cool without being two dimensional and I've really fallen in love with Tres and Astharoshe. Oh yes. And the background to the action is amazing, I feel sure that the novel has only given me a glimpse of the full scope of the Trinity Blood's immersive world. I'm actually a big fan of post-apocalypse settings and TB looks like an awesome example of the genre. (If you can call post-apocalypse a genre.)

Before reading the novel I simply lusted after the delicious costumes, but now I'm in that most desirable of positions where I am cosplaying a character out of love of the character/series and love of the costume, usually I only have one of the above when I cosplay. I either love the costume or the character, not both. I am so incredibly psyched about Seth now that I can't wait to have her finished. Squeee.

Last thing I want to say is that I think Astharoshe's Venetian ballgown from Rage against the Moon is just the most sexy thing you could put on your body, plus the idea of having the full white wig, bedecked in jewels and sculpted into a bouffant masterpiece makes my toes curl. I am so going to cosplay this outfit when I get down closer to my ideal weight, sort of as a reward to myself. Her picture is below. Obviously. (I think I would prefer to wear the costume unripped however. He he.)

Anyhoo enough gushing. I really have to go and do important things today instead of just fangirling. He he.

Ciao.

Expo-licious

2007-05-29T16:50:42Z

The Expo was fun. The actual event was quite cool but definitely more enjoyable was getting to see my friends and make new ones. Especially PrincessMark and Xangelwingx, who I'd never met before, you guys were incredibly cool. As ever I was envious of other people's costumes, especially Angelphie's perfectly tailored Rinoa and Elizabeth and Odangochan's awesome Wonder Woman and Captain Jack. Revenant Wing's Penelo was beautiful and the Edea from the FF photoshoot was just stunning. There was a great Auron there as well.

Saturday was fun, wandering around with Pete in Gramis made me very happy, as I think Gramis is the best costume I've made so far, even if it wasn't perfect. Not many people seemed to recognise him, and lots of people thought he was some sort of World of Warcraft character, but he had loads of photographs taken because his costume was just generally pretty cool. Not even Bobby Edner recognised me and Pete, but then that's the price you pay for wearing obscure characters. :D

Saturday evening was probably the highlight of my weekend, going out for Chinese with odangochan and angelphie and lots of new people was really fun and I could be as nerd-tastic as I liked and it was okay. There were even some guys from Bath there which isn't too far from Cardiff so me and Pete will have to try and become closer friends with these close-ish otaku types.

Sunday passed in a blur. I hardly had any time to talk to anyone I knew but I did get to make some new friends who I will hopefully catch up with online and then see again at Ame. Me and Pete were dressed as Colette and Wonder Chef from Tales of Symphonia and we accidentally stumbled across a group cosplaying 5 other characters from the game so much group photo-age was entered upon, which was a good laugh.

My photos of the event are here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/65582541@N00/sets/72157600277078211/

Anyhoo, I'm off to throw together an entry for a writing competition that ends on May 31st. He he.

Ciao.

Cosplay fails :(

2007-05-24T03:16:02Z

It's 4am. I am admitting defeat. After a herculean effort by both me and Pete it's become clear that we can't finish Lizardman and Xianghua in time. It's annoying since they're both 80-90% finished but on a costume of the scale of Lizardman the last 20% means another 15 or 20 hours of work and I'm exhausted. I haven't been sleeping properly and the stress of trying to get everything done before the Expo has been getting worse as I've tried harder and harder and slept less and less in an attempt to find enough time to get everything done. Cosplay is supposed to be a hobby not some sort of obscure punishment. I just found it hard to give up the idea of finishing all four costumes because I thought that having Lizardman at the Expo would be so cool.

On the other hand Larsa and Gramis are finally finished. And they both look pretty good I think. It was unexpected hitchs in finishing Gramis that held up the cosplay regimin I had laid out. His skirt thingy proved to be an unexpected hurdle to the crafting process, it took so long to work the damn thing out.

I feel a little down down right now, but I shouldn't. Me and Pete can showcase Lizardman and Xianghua at Amecon and we can rewear our Tales of Symphonia costumes on Sunday. Which I will enjoy because I really like those costumes and they've only been worn once. Plus we can wear Lizardman and Xianghua to the October Expo if we like. Also withdrawing from the Sunday masquerade means I can sit in the audience and see Odango and Angelphie's skit which I'd really like.

Right now I should go to bed and get some proper decent sleep for the first time in at least a week. I've been having difficulty sleeping due to my own stupid stress over cosplay. On an introspective note I should really try and watch myself and my obsessive tendancies. I'm not that bad but I can become rabidly fixated on things sometimes to the detriment of my health. I should be looking after myself and my liver but I've been so caught up in cosplaying I haven't been taking proper care of myself. I haven't been eating the right amount and I've been forgetting to drink enough, which really is a problem for my liver. Bad Louise.

In any case Since I've finally acknowledged that Lizardman and Xianghua can't be done in time (I could finish one or the other but not both, and I really only want to wear them as a pair) I'm going to spend tomorrow relaxing and maybe doing a bit of shopping. I got some good news the other day, I got a tax rebate out of the blue so I have a bit of money I can spend. The tax rebate is also handy because me and Pete are buying a new (second hand) car in the next week or so.

Anyhoo, enough rambling, I guess I just needed to vent and unwind after pushing myself too hard.

Sorry, to everyone who read through all of this. I shall give you a free hug next time I see you to compensate.

Ciao.

Finishing

2007-05-20T13:44:08Z

Yesterday was very productive as I managed to finish off four major pieces of Gramis's costume, meaning that I will most likely be able to finish him off today, tomorrow at the latest. Larsa is already almost complete so I will be able to put the costume together and do the last few tasks tomorrow as well. Then on Tuesday I should be able to get Xianghua to 100% leaving only Lizardman to do. Because I didn't have enough time to do everything myself Pete stepped up to the plate and volunteered to make the weapons for our Soul Calibur costumes and Lizardman's armour. He's doing an absolutely amazing job, the weapons and armour look brilliant already and will probably be finished in a few days, so with his help it looks like everything will be finished in time for the Expo. Phew. I'm really enjoying have him work with me and I like the fact we've made the Soul Calibur costumes together. It now means that Pete will be able to help out on all armour-y costumes and whip up any weapons we might need. W00t.

I had a mahoosive cosplay drama yesterday over making a plain grey shirt - I could not get it to work. In the end I found a way to make it acceptable but I'm still not happy with it, luckily it's only a teeny portion of Gramis's costume so it shouldn't be too noticeable that it's not up to scratch. I'll have to remake it before Ame though when I have more time. I think I'll have to search out a pattern for it, which is why I probably won't find time to make it before the Expo. Ah well.

Yesterday's other drama involved being woken up at 6am by a loudly squealing mouse. Eventually we found it behind some boxes and it was dying so I asked Pete to put it out of it's misery. It was another one of those times when I was glad I now have a boyfriend who can do these unpleasant tasks for me (usually under the pretext that they are man's work).

Only other thing worth mentioning is that Pete woke me up this morning with an amazing impression of someone having a heart attack, but it turned out he just had cramp. It really woke me up though, and I'm notoriously difficult to wake, so I just hope he doesn't start pretending to have other life threatening ailments when he wants me to get up. Pete is exactly the sort of person who would set up an elaborate scene involving trick knives and copious quantities of fake blood just to rouse me.

Anyhoo I'm off now to have breakfast and then get Gramis done. Wheee.

A short interlude

2007-05-16T16:28:14Z

I'm taking a break and surfing the net for a few hours because I feel like I've been cosplaying forever. Literally all my free time at the moment is being spent making costumes and it's going to stay that way until the Expo. Which is entirely my own fault for picking 4 stupidly complicated costumes so close to the Event. (But on the other hand it's not my fault that I had to choose new costumes so close to the event, I only had to do that because other plans fell through. But still, I should have chosen some easier costumes. Or at least 2 easy 2 difficult, not 4 difficult costumes.) Also because of cosplay fails yesterday I might not get Lizardman completely finished, but hopefully he will still be ready to wear by Expo time. If he's not then I think me and Pete will have to pull out of the Sunday masquerade, where we were planning to wear our Soul Calibur costumes, and we'll just rewear our Tales of Symphonia costumes instead. Which doesn't bother me too much because we'll be wearing the Soul Calibur costumes to Ame anyhoo. And I do really like my Colette costume so it would nice to rewear it.

Continuing on with the cosplay theme. God how I hate making shoes. If there is a hell, and if I've been eeeevil enough to be sent there, Satan will no doubt make me spend eternity making boots. I hate making shoes for costumes. Larsa's boots nearly killed me with frustration and I managed to cut and burn myself all in the space of a few hours. I still have painful blisters on my right hand. Raaar.

However, despite my whining I'm actually very pleased with everything I've made so far, it all looks really good. Gramis in particular is pretty stunning I can't wait to show Pete off in the costume. Even more beautiful is Larsa's little white cape which no-one will see because it's on the back of my costume. So when I bump into you at the expo don't be surprised if I turn my back on you, it will only be so you can look at my cute perfect little cape. It's so *squee*.

Anyhoo I should stop procrastinating now and go and make armoured epaulets and paint some sleeves. No rest for the wicked, so they say.

Ciao.