Well hello there, long time no . . . blog

OMGoodness it has been a hot minute!  I got really caught up in some stuff, but I think I'm good now so time to get back in it.

First, videos, I has them.  I just posted some Killing Floor videos and Killing Floor 2 is about to come out.  I am so ridiculously excited for zombie destruction.  I hope you are, too; so check out my vids if you so please.  Alas I will not provide a link to the Killing Floor 2 trailer or stuff about it.  I really want to go into that game blind for maximum terror.

Killing Floor madness :-)

 Part 1
 

 Part 2
 


Second, and I guess last, cosplay photos!  So this year at bout Emerald City Comicon and Sakura-Con I went as a Harley Quinn OC and as a Ninja.  Yes these are different than my original plans - had some re-organizations at the last second.  I actually had a third costume (with a photoshoot, too!), but I haven't received those photos yet so you'll have to wait, sorry.  So here is some background for each of the other characters.

Harley Quinn

I actually had an idea for Miss Quinn for quite a while, but I'm not the best artist so I couldn't draw it out to see what it would look like beforehand and I didn't want to do the character an injustice (no pun intended).  So I was hunting around online for general cosplay references, as was my partner, and all of a sudden he sends me this.

Harley Quinn Reference

All glory and kudos to the wonderful artist of these pieces, Helen Chen.  I've no idea who or where she is, but she is awesome.  This is exactly what had been floating around in my head, "like to the T".  So I set to work with some sketches and notes:

As you can see, very rough, but hey it works.  And I ended up with this:



Alas my bright blue contacts did not come in until after I had worn it, which was sad (it went to NY, to MA, to PA, back to NY, and then here, how does that work?).  And you can see my hammer :-)  I actually have a lot of progress pics for this one (yay!), but way too many to post here.  I will post them to my FB (link is on the right of this page!) shortly though so you can check them out there.

Now, NINJA!

So we initially had a different plan for this one, BUT we had some changes and just couldn't do the original plan.  So after a few days of brainstorming my SO looks over at me and goes " . . . Ninjas, steampunk ninjas."  And that was that.  So I made some rough sketches:

(If you look closely, my friend decided to leave a message in pencil on the page.  No clue what it means.)

And ended up with this:



We are very proud of these costumes.  The idea was SO's, actually fleshing out the pieces was both of us, and I did the bulk of the sewing (simply because, at this point, I am much quicker than he is).  There were actually some additional ideas for designs and such and I had another weapon, but time and such so oh well.  But you can view the rest of the pics on the FB page :-)

That's all for now.  Have a fantastic day!  Oh and watch Daredevil . . . go . . . watch it

ECCC

Hello everybody!  I deeply apologize for my abscence!  I had some cosplay stuff I had to handle and I threw myself into it, but now I'm back!  I will be at ECCC all weekend and will try to keep my Twitter feed going.  Stay awesome people!

Cosplay time! Cosplay time! Time to talk about Cosplay!

Well hello there!  It's that time of year again - Con Season!  Not that it isn't always Con Season because there are Cons all the time, big and small, and such . . . BUT I am now working on my cosplays hardcore, all day, err day!  So here is a an update on the one with the most progress.

I actually had to change my plans up because my close friends are pregnant (we were doing a group thing, but she said she won't be comfortable doing it any more because of the wee baby).  So I decided to cosplay she who is, arguably, one of my favorite characters of all time: Harley Quinn.  Now I love all of her costumes, but when I was a kid watching Batman The Animated Series for the first time . . . I just loved how whimsical she was.  Yes I know she is a homicidal maniac and loves a homicidal maniac and is just all around insane, but I found her antics so goofy.  With this in mind I decided I didn't want to do one of her more sexy outfits, but I didn't really feel like doing her harlequin jester outfit . . .  I had always wanted to do a hoodie for her, but, being inadequately skilled in fashion sketching, I could never get a full physical visualization of what I saw in my head.  This really annoyed me because as a cosplayer I come up with stuff in my head all the time, but for some odd reason I was just stuck with her.  After hunting around for a bit . . .

Source HERE.  And my sincerest admiration to the artist, Helen Chen.

This is almost exactly what I was seeing in my head.  Suspenders are amazing, the ears/horns on the hoodie are not outlandishly large or small, just a hint of sexy, the whimsy is there . . .   There are some minor adjustments to be made such as the mallet, the gloves, maybe a shirt underneath the hoodie, but . . . I'm just so happy.  So have some progress pics!

The pants!  I took two sets of jeans and ripped them to pieces.

So much thread!  Hand for scale.

The headpiece.  As you can see, it still needs to be attached and needs white on the ends.

Attempting to make a pattern for the neck frill (?) when this happened . . .  Kind of creepy . . .

Finally got that figured out :-)

Thus far!

The only thing I have really had a problem with at this point is the jeans.  I got them too big so I would have room to adjust the sizing, but I am having issue with the crotch area . . . It is not too long at all, but too baggy - it looks like I've got some random skin flap from my belly button down.  I attempted to fix that and it looks good, but there were some flaws in the fix that are bugging me.  Everything else seems to be going swimmingly . . .  Now for that mallet . . .

Post-Sickness Ramblings

You ever feel like you don't have something to talk about?  That's not usually me, BUT I was sick all last week and a chunk of this week.  Now that I'm not coughing and headachy every five minutes (more like every few hours or so now) here is some blog material!

First, nerdy news.  I'm sure you've all heard this by now, but Nintendo is dismantling Club Nintendo.  According to a notice from Nintendo - CLICK HERE TO VIEW - there are three big dates coming up.  January 20, 2015 - all products released after this date cannot be registered.  March 31, 2015 - the last day to obtain coins, register products, or sign up for the service.  June 30, 2015 - last day to cash in your coins for awesome stuff and last day to access your account at all.  It is a sad thing, but, on the bright side, there are rumors that they will be rebuilding and upgrading Club Nintendo.  Keep your eyes/ears open for any news on that!

Second, random fashion thing.  So for a while TeeFury has been promoting their new thing ShoeFury.  Now at first I was like okay, interesting, but not nearly as cheap as their tees (yes I know they are shoes).  And then I dug a little deeper and realized the shoes they are selling are Zipz.  What are Zips?  Well if you Google Zipz shoes you are greeted by a site explaining the shoes - you can buy a whole shoe which comes with a removable canvas.  Yeah, the part with print/design on it (the "Top") is removable.  After buying this first pair, you can then purchase other Tops for much less than the whole shoe and just swap them out whenever.  So that means . . . I CAN HAVE MULTIPLE PAIRS OF SHOES FOR MUCH LESS AND WITHOUT ENTIRELY TAKING UP MY WHOLE CLOSET!  This is pure genius and if you haven't seen then, why haven't  you seen them?  Check it out here:

ShoeFury

Third, I started working on my Sakura-Con cosplay!  Technically I should be working on my ECCC cosplay first, but I went nuts trying to find the perfect fabric for

And after a minor brain implosion I spotted the perfect material!  Alas, I accidentally created a monster when I started working with it . . .

I made the neck too small - I doubt it would fit a child's head at this point.  Fortunately, I figured out a solution to the problem so it should look awesome next time I update.

Okie dokie smokies!  That's all for tonight.  Gonna take some medicine now!

NEW YEARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Hello Beautiful People!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!  If you couldn't already tell, mine were a bit hectic/busy; so much so I didn't even have time to blog for you all!  So here I am ready to spew some information.  Let's get to it shall we?

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First, Christmas.  I discovered Pinterest some time ago, but only recently did I make an account.  For Christmas I went a bit nuts making gifts using Pinterest ideas.  I made this jacket for multiple people: Cocoon Cardigan.  I also found the beginnings (sorry no links because I didn't actually use any one pattern) for the following hat:

GO SEAHAWKS!

Both of these DIY were very easy to do, BUT, if you are able, I recommend altering patterns or sewing ideas to suit you.  Sometimes posters provide instructions that don't quite fit what you're doing or just don't make sense.  As such, adjust accordingly.

Anywho, after using the site to make presents I went a bit nuts finding pins that I felt were important: Cosplay, Bounds, Sewing, and FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD!  Check out my findings using this handy dandy link: Pinterest: TheECGeekette

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Second, Cosplay Plans!  As we all know ECCC and Sakura-Con are fast approaching.  My plans thus far are ECC: Freyalise (MTG) and SECRET (no seriously, not telling you what this one is, you can just guess) and for Sakura: Team Magma Admin Courtney (Omega Ruby version).  I will post progress pics when I can :-)

REFERENCE PHOTOS:

 All rights to this photo belong to MTG!

All rights to this photo belong to Nintendo (I think?)

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So that's all I got for the time being.  BUT BUT BUT, if you haven't checked it out yet, by order of my cousins, I did a Happy Wheels Highlight Reel!  Check out the first video:

Geek Girl Con 2014

Hello everyone!  So I went to my first GeekGirlCon over the weekend and had quite the blast so I thought I would give a big ol' shout out :-)

I decided not to cosplay this time around (actually had a meeting at the con and wasn't sure so . . .), but I present you with a Harley Quinn "Bound":

At first I wasn't sure about doing Bounds, but it seemed to be well accepted - I had a few people approach me for a photo!  So heads up to all my cosplayers, wannabe-but-too-nervous-cosplayers, budget cosplayers, or, really, just whoever, Bounds work and are fun!  I even found something to add to my Bound while wandering the Con.  Check these out:

(Photo is courtesy of Espionage Cosmetics!)

These are nail wraps.  You put them on your nails rounded part pressed flush to your cuticles, trim them and voila you have this:

(Photo is courtesy of Espionage Cosmetics!)

These beautiful babies are all products of Espionage Cosmetics.  They sell many nail wraps, all themed from Legos, to superhero masks, to just straight colors.  They also sell lip serums and eye shadow, including single colors and collections like the Borderlands 2 Collection and the Gamer Girl Special Edition.  Awesome Fact:  Many of their eye shadows can be mixed with their lip serums to create beautiful lip glosses.  AND the lip serums smell delicious - I was almost tempted to eat some (no, I don't recommend or encourage the eating of lip gloss!).  Check out more of these awesome products here!

Espionage Cosmetics

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Continuing forth, I typically don't go to panels at Con's (I prefer to wander and meet people and talk shop), but I went to a panel!  I sat in on the Cosplaying While Fat panel and was very pleased at the information I received.  Here are some helpful links :


 - Atomic Cosmetics - PLEASE NOTE: The site has a different name than the name of the product(s)! Now during the panel one of the speakers made a point I hadn't thought of: if you want to know how to do amazing make-up look to Drag-Queens!  Think about it, have you ever seen a professional Drag-Queen with bad makeup?  And they usually do it themselves!  I was then directed to Atomic Cosmetics and their foundations.  I think it may be a specific product (I am not sure, but I think it is the Spackle?), but I recall the speaker said you can put it on underneath your regular foundation (or theirs!) giving you a flawless finish and it WOULD NOT come off until you wash it off.  Sorry for my uncertainty - I made the mistake of not bringing a notebook!  Anyways, Atomic Cosmetics is a local company so check them out in person or in the link!

 - We Love Colors - OMGosh!  Tights and leggings and thigh highs!  In a ridiculous amount of colors!  And plus sizes!  I don't know about you all, but I have the thick thighs.  Most tights/leggings products that are supposed to be built for a woman at my weight DO NOT fit me AT ALL.  My thighs are always too big and end up ripping the product or being dug into :-(  This glorious site gives me options for this!  And the best part, they don't charge more for the bigger sizes.  The Cosplay, and just in general Clothing, Gods smile upon this site.  Check it!

 - Bandalettes - Prevents chafing.  Nuf said.

 - Sock Dreams - Glorious socks.  I love knee high socks.  That being said, they typically don't fit me right and cut off my circulation.  This site provides socks in bigger sizes :-)  The prices range, but they don't appear to charge much, if at all, more for larger sizes.  Yay!

Overall, I'd say the panel was very successful, I mean I got a bunch of information to use and share so hooray for these speakers!

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So I met awesome people, found useful information, and enjoyed myself.  This equals a successful con in my book!  If you'd like more information on this Con then please check them out here!

GeekGirlCon

Did anyone else go to GeekGirlCon this year?  GIVE ME YOUR STORIES!  O and enjoy this photo of me and my SO on our 3DS's

(Photo courtesy of Michael Smith)

COSPLAY UPDATE - Akali and Secret Cosplay

I am so focused on cosplay right now. . . or cosplaying at PAX, hard to say . . .

UPDATES!  I started putting together Akali's scythes.  I've got a PVC foam board base, EVA foam as a brace/hilt type thing, and PVC tube as the handle.  The base and tube are supposed to be sandwiched between the EVA foam, but I ran into a problem - the tube was too big to fit between the foam.  I could have gotten a smaller tube, but then i might not have had enough stability so . . .   Lucky for me my best friend suggested melting the tube to flatten it.  I thought the tube couldn't be melted, but woo-hoo it can - heads up, PVC tubing smells awful when you melt it.  So after cutting a slit for the base to slide into I melted the tube, sandwiched the base in the slit, and then melted it flat, well, flat-ish.

And my SO said I should be kind so I'm posting some photos of part of my secret cosplay - ARMOR!

One of the pieces actually belongs to Akali, but not saying which.  Anyone care to guess the secret cosplay?  Whoever gets it will get a big "WHO'S AWESOME?  YOU'RE AWESOME!" :-)

Oh and COSPLAY BOO-BOO!  I don't usually hurt myself while working on stuff (not sure how), but the glue gun dripped and my instant reaction was oh-no-grab-it!  Needless to say, this happened

Not that bad, but still OW.

Cosplay Update 2 - Akali

So over the weekend, I worked on cosplay like a beast and . . .

PAX TICKETS ARRIVED!!!!!!!

Ok, now that that's out of my system, I just stopped working on cosplay for the day and thought it was time for some progress photos :-)

First up, raw cut pieces of armor (sorry it's dark!) -

These will soon be sanded, bent, scored (for battle-worn-ness), and painted.  I'm using PVC Foam board, I believe it 1/4 of an inch thick.  It will be heated with a heat gun (gives me more control).

Second up, the dress (it's somewhat janky here, but just keep reading)

This was so hard to sew.  At first I tried just using a second dress as lining.  Made the mistake of NOT taking the second dress a part, just tried to work around it.  Yeah, sewed the whole thing, realized it was wrong, took everything a part.

Third, the jacket!

Spandex was not as hard to sew as I thought it would be.  I tried reading up and got all these great tips, but, for what I was doing, a lot of stuff just wasn't necessary.  I used black polyester thread with a zigzag stitch with the machine set to stretch.  Worked like a charm!

And now, the partially finished look!

Put it all together and so far so good I think.  Now for the fabricating!  I don't typically do armor so wish me luck!

Also, who else is going to PAX?  Anyone want to talk some cosplay shop?

And so begins PAX Countdown

So it is officially 31 days until PAX! (it is still July 28 where I'm at)  I am oh so very excited and have gone into full cosplay beast mode.  I have 2 cosplays I'm working on for PAX this year: one is secret and, as discussed before, the other is Akali (from LOL).  The secret one you will just have to wait for updates on BUUUT I finally got all the pieces for Akali's weapons cut and started on the clothing.  I have spent the last 7 hours (almost straight) working on costumes and while I worked I had to remind myself of some things:

1. You will mess up.  That's okay; just work around it :-)
2. Be creative: this seems obvious because cosplay, but I've seen many many people become so focused on "how do I do this properly?"  There is no properly.  If you can't work one way then find another way.
3. REFERENCE PHOTOS!  Look at them, look again, Again, AGAIN!!!!!  This saves me every single time.
4. Pick good background noise - I usually put on some random favorite movie or show, but right now, My Little Pony.  Yup.

Anywho, that's all for tonight, just a random little note :-)  I need sleep . . .

PAX Tickets Achieved!

So if you didn't already know Pax Tickets went on sale today!  How you wouldn't know that I have no clue, but hey people have lives besides conventions, right?  Right?  I had to get all single day badges and I'm missing one day, but I'll figure something out.  Where there is a will there is a plan that leads to a way.

So yes, today was a most exciting day indeed!  I am super stoked for PAX this year as I have cosplays and decided to try my hand at weaponry - I've got four blades to make by hand, FOUR!  I'll be doing some progress posts in the next 3 months so be on the lookout!  Anyone else going to PAX?  Want to share your cosplay ideas???  I love to talk shop :-)

Anywho, keep up to date with all the PAX goings on by checking out the link below!

PAX Prime 

Sakura-Con 2014!

Now that I've had a week to recover (yes I needed a week!), I can write about Sakura-Con!  Sakura-Con happens every year, Easter Weekend, in the city of Seattle.  This Con is definitely an anime convention, but it is also a Japanese culture convention.  That being said I have no idea how to write about this particular Con because it is rather large, full of friends and good times, and I'm so excited I don't know what to do with myself.  So here we go.

To start, this:

It's a PUG KIGURUMI!  Kigu's are the best thing ever after a long day of cosplay or after/during con-going (is that the right word?)!  Sakura-Con had quite a few booth's selling these amazing creations of fashion science.  I found this one and actually screamed across the main exhibition hall at my friends and then waved it around like a trophy.  So happy!    Everyone must have one of these.  Go, check them out, let them take your money!

HERE!: Kigurumi Shop

Continuing on, the first day of Con was an investigate and find people kind of day.  Do I take photos?  No.  Sorry, but there's just so much to look at.  I did, however, find a photo of a quite creative cosplay two of my friends did.

Photographer: Jared Mitchel
Cosplayers: Mike and Elizabeth

Yes, they are an Anime Body Pillow (wife-u!) and a Basement Dweller Nerd.  The pillow actually has a manga styled drawing of Elizabeth on the other side of it, too!  I am genuinely impressed by the ingenuity of this costume.  All the kudos to the cosplayers and more kudos to the photographer for snapping this awesome shot :-)

And now to segue into the second day of Con (bad segue I know, hehehe . . . .)

Late start on day 2.  I had to finish up some last minute adjustments to my costume and then walk in the rain back to the Con.  Rain was no good for my costume as I had painted parts so I went into a bit of a panic, but we finally made it to the hall!

Photographer: Undiscovered Photography
Cosplayer: ME!
Character: Duela Dent

I am very satisfied with this costume.  The work was a bit . . . frustrating, but "being" Duela Dent was awesome.  I was able to be a little more free and silly with my poses and faces, which was quite liberating.

After a rousing day of cosplay we went to the rave.  HOLY COW!  So much fun to just let loose and be with friends and other good company.  BUT, I have to give the biggest shout out to Totoro.  There was a guy, whose name I did not catch because it was too loud with music, who cosplayed Totoro at the rave.  He had basically made a round totoro body suit type thing and was dancing in it at the rave.  There was just something about the way he moved that was just too awesome to not be mentioned.  So all props to KBLNoodles for managing to get some video!

Totoro shows up BEFORE the 30 second mark, but please feel free to watch the rest of the video of course.

And then Sunday . . . last day of Con.  It was just a lazy day that day.  Just wandering about, finding people, and chatting about our next cosplays.  Oh and one more thing, this guy!

My friend Greg is the biggest Legend of Zelda nerd I have ever met so, naturally, he had to dress up as a character . . . or two . . . or more actually, hmmm.  Here we have him cosplaying Ravio.  Why?  Because Ravio has a bunny hat and Sunday, the last day of Con, was Easter.  He was also giving away Easter eggs which made it even better!  Hopefully you're laughing . . . it was a play on words . . . :-)

That was my Sakura-Con experience this year.  I can't wait for next year!  But in the meantime, I've gotten inspired to work hard on my upcoming cosplays and even possibly do some fashionable geek pieces.  More to come soon!  Night everyone!

Aki Con and Pokemon (Hey, that rhymes!)

So since I live in the greater Seattle area I try to make it out to as many of the local conventions as I can.  On October 26 and 27 I attended Aki Con.  This convention recently decided to take up it's annual residence out in Sea-Tac.  My favorite part of any convention is the Artists Alley.  Aki Cons Artists Alley is a bit small, but they have some amazing talent.  I am always excited to see what new things they've come up with :-)

But I got to say, my hands down favorite event: the Final Fantasy Fight Tournament.  Cosplayers fight each other (pretend of course!) as if they were the character they are cosplaying and fighting Final Fantasy style.  They even have Summons!  And I was one!  Why you ask?  Because I was dressed as a beautiful Glaceon!  I was joined by an equally stunning Flareon and together we took on our enemies!  Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a photo of my partner in destruction - I need a better camera :"-(

For more information on Aki Con, please visit their website at 

Aki Con

In any case, you may be wondering why I went as Glaceon . . .  Because Pokémon Y is amazing of course!  I went out at 1 o'clock in the morning hunting for this game.  First store (a retail-giant-who-shall-not-be-named) we went to said "We have them in back, but you we won't be putting them out until the morning."  Oh really?  Called the another store location (of the retail-giant-who-shall-not-be-named) and they said "Oh yes, we'll sell one to you right now!"  Success!  I have a lot of Pokémon games - check it out - 

So I thought it was time to cosplay one of the lovable creatures.  The costume was rather successful and the game is rather awesome as well. The new Amie system is one of my favorite things in the game.  You can pet, feed, and play with your Pokémon - makes me wish my Pug lived with me!  And you can catch Pokémon from every generation - I was pretty surprised when I ended up with a Squirtle.  In any case, the costume itself wasn't too hard to make.  I got a pattern for a regular hoodie (men's because I had more to work with) and kind of played around with all the embellishments.  My boyfriend thought I should wear chuck and fishnets to finish the ensemble because he always thought of Glaceon as a little punk.  Look at the face; she does look a little punk-ish . . .

And here is a shot of the finished outfit.

And a professional photo by the talented Ed Tan.

To see more of Mr. Tan's work, please visit his website here:

Cosplay Photos by Mr. Ed Tan

All in all, it's been a fun couple of weeks . . .  And that's all for tonight folks!!!!!!!!!!