Experimenting with blood capsules!

 Hello neh ~

So this weekend I'm spending at mom's place together with Hasakitsuki. Mom and stepdad are currently in Thailand so the house is empty and we thought quickly that it would be awesome to go there and have some cosplay experimenting with no risk of anyone seeing us and getting scared shitless and well, just chill around in a house that is big enough to live in... for a change. So, while there on the Saturday 15th February, aka today, we decided to put on our Hakuouki cosplays and have me –as Okita– trying out something bloody...

Eeyup, I'm gonna use these things. See where this is going?

Blood capsules, yep. They are not mine but Hasakitsuki's but she kindly let me use some. The ones in the plastic round box are powder edition and the ones in the blisters are liquid edition. The powder capsules say on the packaging –in German– that they stain and you can't wash it off clothing and that it might take several tries to get it off your skin. We'll see...

I went outside far enough into the woods in the big yard so that when mom returns she won't immediately see some suspicious alarming red spots in the snow. Good thing we had already the day before walked in the snow and thus made safe "feet holes" to walk in without sinking through the snow all over again; I wouldn't have been all that happy getting at the very least ankle-deep and at best, knee-deep in the snow in cosplay. Okay, so when I got far enough into the woods which was, not that far I just put one capsule in my mouth –the liquid one– and put on my acting cap and let's go!

I must say the taste of this thing is not pleasant but it wasn't really bad either, at least according to me. Then again, who expected fake blood to taste strawberry cheesecake anyway? Not me for sure.
There's not all that much blood in one of these but still sufficient for a few coughs or whatever you want to do with it. Oh, and obviously because I was cosplaying Okita, who has tuberculosis, I was doing the coughing scheme but you can use these for other things as well.

In my case it's not all that hard to act like I'm sick but then again that miiiiiight just be because around this exact time 3 years ago I was hospitalized with a pretty bad case of pneumonia. *shivers* Sure that doing this, especially in February, gives me some rather unpleasant flashbacks of that time but oh well, what won't we do for cosplay and the love of a character?

Okay, so back on track about the liquid capsule. Except for the not-so-good taste it wasn't really hard to use – sure it needs some timing and acting skills if you want to make it look more realistic but it's not bad. Oh, and obviously you have to bite it whenever you want to use the capsule.

When I was done with the liquid one, which didn't take all that long, I decided to try the powder capsule right after. This thing requires that you use your saliva to get it to work because, well, it's blood powder. I didn't have any problem with this but what I did notice pretty instantly was that this thing tastes even stronger than the liquid one, if you ask me. Yep, still definitely not strawberry cheesecake for you...
Oh, and it's not really noticeable on the pictures but the powder one is a few shades darker as well. Actually, the blood ended up looking brighter on photos than IRL anyway, both of them.

I must say that personally I prefer the powder variant, mainly because it's a tad darker and also takes a lot more time to use up. I was actually pretty surprised how many times I could cough and still have a fair amount left in my mouth. To be honest even when I thought I was done I still kept getting more of it and it took quite a lot of spitting to get rid of the red afterwards. The only slightly hard thing with capsules is to not have it show on your face that you have it in your mouth because yeah, if you plan to scare the bejesus out of your friends they'd better not know you are up to something... ;)

I'm sorry about the photo quality but they are taken with my old camera, which is a lot lighter than my SLR to carry, and thus easier to take self-photos with.
Oh well, when I was done coughing blood I hurried back inside because staying around 20 minutes outside in a not-very-warm-at-all cosplay in 0 °C will eventually make you cold. Duh.

This is what the ground looked like when I was done...

Back inside I washed my bloody hand with warm water and yeah, the powder one seems to stain. It's not all that visible on this picture but IRL it's kind of easy to see. It seems to fade nicely after a few more washes though and all in all it's not bad staining at all if you ask me. I was prepared for worse.

Notice the stains.

Soon enough I was back in the cold again but this time for some quick pictures together with le Chizuru, aka Hasakitsuki. I was the one taking the photos and yeah, still with the old camera and it shows in lack of quality. Didn't really get any good photos because it had already gotten too dark but oh well...

Oh, and before I let you go I must tell you about a funny and rather awkward thing that happened. So when I had put on my cosplay I looked out of the living room windows (they're big) and saw a random man walking on the yard. I hurried to go hide in case it was this guy who mom had told to bring in the mail but......... it wasn't. So this unknown man rang the door bell once and I thought "let's pretend there's no one home" but then he rang a second time and some seconds later he was still waiting outside. I decided to go "fuck this shit" and went –in full cosplay– to open the door and guess? It was no other than this one old friend of stepdad who, more of less often, comes and asks if stepdad is home and I tell you, he does this whenever he pleases and yes, it has happened at least once in friggin' midnight! Another critical detail about this guy is that he is drunk 90% of the time and always asking for alcohol if you let him in. Love Finland. But yeah, I opened the door to this guy and told him stepdad is not here and frankly, he's far away in Thailand. I swear he was looking at me with a weirded out face and there was a moment of awkward silence before I just tried to get him to leave already. xD Yeah, awkward.

With that said Valkoinen Samurai is out!

Masamune's gloves + arm guard test!

 Hello hello!

On 7th February I decided to paint Masamune's gloves and thus get some more progress done on the costume. The gloves I got for free by the awesome Kandi & Cyber some time ago (thanks <3) and now they got a cosplay make-over!

Glove before my treatment

Okay, so what do? Well, first thing was to check how the paint would behave on the fabric. I obviously don't have any scrap piece of the same fabric so I was stuck with doing a paint test on the glove itself. Of course I did this on the inside just to be on the safe side.

Paint test

It seemed to take the paint really well (and it didn't leak to the other side even though the gloves are not the thickest) so I felt sure enough to start painting. But of course before I could start painting I dug up a bunch of Masamune Date references that I had saved on my computer.

Ta-dah! Better.

Because I'm left-handed I figured I would paint the right glove first and wear it while painting. Turned out to be a good idea because I could get a better idea of how it would end up looking and I could turn my hand when needed and so on.

Started painting..

... and painted some more...

... and wham! One glove done.

I did a few layers of paint because it faded slightly every time it dried, not bad at all though.
When I had the right glove done I realized I was up for a dilemma - I can't paint my left glove by using my right hand! D'oh!
Well, I needed to find a right-handed victim helper who would be willing to act as my hand stand while I did the painting - Hasakitsuki was up for the task. So for 1 hour she ended up with only one hand to use meanwhile I painted the glove on the other. I must admit it was a bit harder to paint the glove on someone else's hand but oh well, ultimately it still turned out okay.
With both gloves painted I had to wait 6 hours before going to iron and thus set the paint, according to the instructions on the paint that is. I decided it's better to obey the instructions every once in a while so I let 6 hours pass.
A few hours from midnight I thought it would be okay to go and set the paint. I walked to the laundry room, put the iron to heat and started turning my gloves outside in.

And this is what they looked like when turned. Sexy.

I waited a bit for the iron to heat and did a quick try on one glove and well, it was barely hot at all. I waited some more and put slightly higher heat and then tried again and... it felt like something glued itself to the iron and didn't want to let go! Luckily I had quick reflexes so I pulled the iron away out of instinct that something wasn't right and well, when I looked at the glove I saw this...

PERKELE!!  (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

The fabric literally melted away; the edges next to the holes are a bit harder. Note to self: don't iron stuff if you aren't 100% sure of what fabric it is. Thank God I didn't melt any part with the paintings on or a showing part for that matter! I'm a bit relieved because I avoided a disaster seeing how the damaged part is far down and would likely get covered by the arm guards anyway. But I'm still going to try and repair it by sewing some fabric to it.. now to just hope that mom remembers to bring me a piece of black fabric tomorrow. Yes, I cosplay emergency called her.

Okay, so 8th February dawned and mom appeared with the fabric. I ended up with the whole roll because she couldn't be bothered to cut out a piece for me. Ah, the joys of having a mom who used to have her own fabric store - you borrow whole fabric rolls for your projects. xD

le savior fabric

I must say this fabric is an okay candidate, it's not exactly the same obviously but I would say it's close enough; it's black, feels similar, about the same thickness as the glove fabric and has slight stretch. 

I just did some quick measuring and cut out what I needed...

... and this was it. So worth borrowing the whole roll.

Yeah. After that I quickly zigzaged around the piece (which proved out to be a bit hard because of the ridiculous size..) and then it was time to sew it on to the glove itself. I thought for a moment if I should sew it to the inside or outside but decided that it would maybe be better on the inside after all. I must say this was a pretty scary mission because even if I took off a part of the machine the sewing surface wasn't small enough so that I could pass the glove through and thus avoid the worry of accidentally sewing my glove shut. :'D This might have been easier to just hand-sew but I'm too lazy for that so I decided to rock the more hazard edition anyway.
So I put the glove next to the presser, adjusted it carefully so that I wouldn't have fabric underneath where I was about to sew and then I just slowly started sewing around the square with a straight stitch. It took a while and I was pretty nervous but it went well and at the end I had my glove feat. repair patch.

Sewing in progress

Inside of glove after reparation (yes, my fabric paint test is there..)

Outside of glove after reparation

Sure it's not the prettiest ever but at least there's not a gaping hole there showing my skin or anything. Also, this should prolong its life slightly. Hopefully.

So with the glove repaired I thought I would try the whole arm guard system on and see if I could even put on all the completed parts. I swear at some point I started feeling a bit unsure and thinking it might not work but BAM it sort of did after some struggling! But hands down I must say it was overly hard to put the guards on by myself.. I would need at least two or three arms lol. Valkoinen Octopus' Cosplay. But yeah, as I said I managed to put the guards on... or well, one of them.

This was a test try-on but I did realize that I will need something to hold the top ends bent over each other or its gonna explode in any random direction. If you look a bit closer on the pics you can see that my first solution for this was to use hairpins. xD It actually worked surprisingly well but I'm not sure if I would call it a discreet enough solution... unless I find black ones somewhere that are half the size of the ones I used. I'll have to think about this but I have a feeling that I might end up using hairpins anyway.

But that's it for now, smell you all later! ~

Liquid eyeliner test

 Hi!

For quite some time now I've considered buying a liquid eyeliner for cosplay because some things you just can't do with a pencil one. Last week or so I figured it's time I get one and so I went to the makeup shelf of the store and felt awkward as always #guyproblems, pretty much took the first one and did a quick test stroke on my arm. It seemed good enough so I rolled with it.
Funny thing is that I had this test stroke still on my arm for the coming week and barely shit happened to it; it didn't flake or fade or anything... or wait, correction, veeeeery slight fading around the fourth day or so. But whatevs, yesterday I decided to do a quick test à la Okita edition (because Hakuouki characters are half the reason I wanted a liquid one lol) and well, for a first try it's not half bad I guess?

Sorry for the slight blur.
Oh, and if you wonder the contacts are Volte Green.

I'll be practising some more before I attend my next con but it should be okay, I'll get the hang of this!

Oh, and about the eyeliner itself, well, have some photos:

Rimmel's  Exaggerate Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner

I must say I'm pretty fond of the tip; it's basically like a thin marker but you have to dip it like a paint brush – best of both worlds if you ask me! Yes, that's actually a big reason why I took this as well as the fact that it's waterproof (I tried) and wasn't all that expensive. I think it's pretty good, then again it's my first liquid eyeliner so I don't have anything to compare it with. But yeah, it's easy to use, fairly precise and holds nicely. I've noticed that sometimes after some hours it might flake a bit, especially at the corner of my eyes. Also it doesn't dry instantly so be careful when you apply it on your upper eyelid etc.

Oh, and before I leave you guys I must show you the newest addition to my bed space stealers plush collection. I just couldn't resist, okay? ;_;

Okita please <3

That's about it! See ya!

Lens review: Princess Pinky Orange Werewolf

Hi guys!

Back when I cosplayed Ibuki I promised to make a review of the orange contacts that I wore for him and well, it has been quite a while so I figured it's about time I do it now.

I spent quite some time looking for yellow/orange lenses and finally decided to settle on the Orange Werewolf lenses, made by the Princess Pinky brand. These were my first obviously costume-y lenses and I kind of saw it coming that they would be very bright and opaque. They were. Then again, it's what I wanted!

All photos –except the first one with the contact lenses in solution– are taken in bathroom light by me. There is no color filters and that's to show how the lenses really look!

Lenses in solution. (left one shows "wrong" side)

It's super easy to tell which way you are supposed to put
them in – the wrong side is considerably lighter!

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.5 mm

Water content: 38%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

I like the design on these, they are mostly orange with a yellow circle closest to the pupil hole and soft spike-y black outer rims. They should be enlarging –14.5mm diameter– but honestly it's not super noticeable. xD Slight size difference and I actually like it like this.

With just one lens in.

The pupil hole is rather small which means that barely any of your natural eye color shows through the center. One thing though, with these contacts I almost always have a minor blurriness and/or the corners of my vision are orange; then again, it depends on the light of my surroundings. It's not really a problem but it's noticeable, especially when I move my gaze. It doesn't really bother me though (aka you get used to it) and otherwise these lenses are really comfortable if you ask me.

Both lenses in.

Flash photo.

As you can tell these are really IN YOUR FACE bold – no one who looks at you will miss seeing them. Super noticeable even from a distance!
I think they look really badass; I would almost consider wearing them out in town just to have people do double takes. :'D It's such an intense and fun lens! I like how wild they look, like some sort of wolf eyes; definitely a very cool pair to own if you ask me. I kind of wish I had more cosplays to wear with them than just Ibuki but I think these could look very cool for Inuyasha as well, for example. I want to cosplay Inuyasha someday, my first manga that I started collecting. ;w;

And lastly I of course have the from-a-distance photo.

Want to see these in another color? Check out this: Green

Short summary:

Color: 10/10 
Bold in-your-face color that's very noticeable from a distance.
Design: 8/10 
Solid simple design that looks like a wolf's eye. It's cool.
Opacity: 10/10
Currently the most opaque lenses I own. My real eye color is completely blocked out!
Enlargement: 5/10 
Doesn't seem to enlarge that much.
Comfort: 8/10 
Surprisingly comfortable for being more "crazy" contacts. Only minor problem is orange corners in my vision if I move my eyes and slightly blurred vision in insufficient light.
Naturalness: 0/10 
Good luck getting someone to believe these are your real eyes... xD

Howl and run, I'm out!

Haidate for Date!

 Hello!

On 22 September I was at mom's place and started working on another part for my Masamune cosplay, namely these.. things.. that he seemingly has (on some pictures at least) for some sort of protection or whatnot.

These two black flaps that start just under his belt

Pretty visible on this game screenshot

I did some searching online on Google and ended up with the conclusion that these could eventually be some sort of haidate armor.. if they aren't part of his undershirt that is. Maybe. I don't know, I couldn't come up with any other explanation for what they could possibly be otherwise that would make some sort of sense.. not like Sengoku Basara makes much sense to begin with though. :'D

Haidate set example - a pretty fabulous one at that
(photo is not mine, I found it somewhere in the dark corners of internet)

I don't plan to be historically accurate or anything and I don't have time for traditional methods so I decided to just go cosplay style over the making of these. I thought taking some craft foam and putting fabric over it would be sufficient enough and then just attaching the things to a tie -that I wrap around my hips- would do the trick. Off to test if it works!

Starting position - a piece of craft foam and black elastic

On this day I didn't really do much progress on the haidate because I was busy finishing the arm guards for Masamune. I did cut the craft foam in half and pick a fabric though (black PVC fabric) and measured and cut out fitting pieces of it. I planned to make a sort of "pouch" to fit the craft foam pieces into because this would be the cleanest and probably easiest way to do it; I didn't feel like wrapping fabric around and hot gluing it or anything messy like that.
So yeah, for that "pouch" I needed pretty much the double of the length of the craft foam piece in fabric, along with some seam allowance just to be on the safe side. I did mark and cut the fabric in half before calling it a day though.

Fabric cutting in progress

 ...

......

*snore*

Okay, so I started these things on 22 September, right? Well, time passed somewhere before I knew what was going on and boom 16th January happened, aka today. I have currently borrowed mom's awesomesauce sewing machine (along with some sewing equipment) to my apartment so it's about time I finish this thing, don't you think?

I started by sewing both the fabric pieces into pouches and that's easy peasy - just folded the fabric in half -right sides against each other- and sewed a straight stitch (I don't need to zigzag PVC, it doesn't fray) at both open sides. Then I just turned the thing inside out which wasn't the easiest because PVC seems to almost glue itself when you put the right sides against each other and put the craft foam piece inside it.

Sewed "pouch" with craft foam going inside

Next up I cut out a fitting piece of elastic black ribbon. I used elastic because it's what was easy to find at mom's place.

Elastic cut out

Of course before I started sewing I zigzaged the ends of the elastic. You don't want it to start unraveling everywhere so that everyone can find you by following the threads...

Ends secured

I noticed at this point that I maybe should have had a little bit more fabric because I didn't have enough to fold the top part of the pouch nicely without it folding over where the craft foam was and well, you don't want to sew over the foam. Oh well, I just put the elastic over the very top edge of the fabric and sewed it on with a straight stitch through the middle. Of course I measured the elastic ribbon prior so that both the fabric parts would be on the middle of it when sewn on.

Sewing about to start..

I repeated the process for the other pouch and just trimmed the fabric that showed above the ribbon and ba-wham! Done!

Finished haidate-ish thing :'D

I wanted to see what it would look like when worn as well so I quickly threw on my Masamune coat and the belt and tied this newly finished thing on. Pretty cool if I do say so myself, even though most of it gets hidden by the coat anygay.

Sorry about the mirror photo (mirrored, duh) and that it's, well, dirty.. and checkered-shirt-Masamune.

Eeyup, that's it for now. I swear I'm relieved of finally having more progress on Masamune. Sure, it's not much at all but I reaaaaaaaally need to finish this cosplay for summer. Gonna work on it more from now on, go me!

Bye!

Guideline approach: Cosplay decision process

Hello everyone!

Now -for a change- I'm going to write about how I personally choose my cosplay candidates - also known as "how I decide on who/what to cosplay?" :'D This is mostly just for fun and yeah, I am going to list my cosplay decision process generally; this is just my way of doing it and by no means am I saying that it's the only way or something! Everyone is free to cosplay and have their own decision approaches as they see fit and all that jazz that we should know by now but hey, now I'll tell you how it works for me! .. and it might work as a sort of loose guideline for newcomers to the hobby as well. Maybe.

Get ready, here it comes!

• First things first, number 1) I need to find a character to cosplay. How do I go about doing this?

It's obvious enough for everyone and their uncle's dog - I watch anime, read manga, play video games, watch movies or do anything else where you have characters that could make my "I like this guy" meter go up. No, not in that way. Oh, and if I'm honest sometimes I tend to pick what anime to watch/manga to read partly based on if there's any interesting character designs in the source material. :-D Yeah, that feeling when you watch/read something and then first you go "oh, this character looks cool, I want to know more about them" and then later have it evolve into "I fucking need to cosplay this character because their design is fabulous and so is their personality/story/whatnot aghdsjha;sgjh". In short, don't cosplay a character that you don't care about. You will likely regret it at some point; for example not having inspiration to work on the costume and you might even have your con experience suffering because of it in the end. So yeah, choose a character that you like! (and it doesn't matter if they are popular or not)

• When I have my eyes on likable character X it's time for number 2) Do I like this character enough to want to spend time/money on making the costume?

This should be obvious because cosplays don't get magically delivered to you from the sky by the Cosplay Gods sometimes you wish they would when you have decided on what costume to make. Either you decide on busting your ass off sewing, burning your fingers with hot glue and looking for the cheapest way to make that mega-armor-futuristic-super-samurai-guy come alive or.. you order the cosplay from an online cosplay store, hire a commissioner or buy/modify ready-made clothing parts. Whichever one you choose to do (or even a mix!) they are all good approaches to get closer to your cosplay. All these options have one thing in common -at least- and that's the sad fact that you will have to open that wallet of yours. Yes, the one that saw its grim fate approaching far too quickly after you started this wonderful hobby.. according to you, that is; I'm pretty sure your wallet has been crying and befriending spiderwebs in it's echoing cave since then. Money dear, I miss you, come back soon okay? It's cold and empty in here... *sob* The silliness aside it's pretty clear that if you don't like the character enough you won't be too happy about spending your hard-earned money (and limited time on this Earth) on making the costume or well, at least I wouldn't. I know I wouldn't be too keen on spending 500+ € or something on a cosplay that I would wear just once and then have it spending the rest of its life as just another dust collector in that graveyard-y part of the wardrobe. Brrrr.
So yeah, before I think so much more about how to make/get the costume I decide if it is worth the money, time and effort for me. And rage. 

Oh, and for the love of pasta, when you have decided that the cosplay is worth it then START WORKING ON IT IN TIME. Don't procrastinate for four of the five remaining months.. even though we end up doing it anyway because little pesky procrastinator goblins live full-time in us.. or well, in me for sure.

• Okay, character X is awesome enough to be worth the last of my last savings. But money isn't the only thing, so here comes number 3) Do I have enough skills in sewing/crafting/whatnot to make this costume? (only applies of course if I decide to make the costume. Duh. But in most cases I end up making the cosplay so I'm going to take it as the default on the follow-up "guidelines")

Sure, "you won't learn much if you don't try new things" in all its glory and all that but if I know where my current limits are I'm not going to jump straight into the massacre of Complicated Small Details of Hell.. even if I would love the character enough for it to be worth the eternal tantrum-cryrages it would take to eventually finish the costume. I'd rather take it a bit safer and build up my skills over time with more and more challenging projects. Also, I guess I wouldn't be all that happy if I made a complicated cosplay that cost me half my limbs and then, a few years later, want to burn the whole thing on a bonfire because it's falling apart of bad material choices or/and crappy craftmanship. And guess what, if I still loved the character I would maybe want to remake it with my improved current skills and well.. have to pay with my remaining limbs. Wonderful.
In other words - I'm going to pick my cosplay candidates based on current skill level in addition to the love for the character/design.. which means saving the hardcore costumes for when I have hardcore skills.

• But we are not done yet! Number 4) I like this character, I have the money and the skills to make it.. what am I missing? - It's called your own comfort zone, dude.

At least for me it is a rather important thing to consider how comfortable I would feel/be in the cosplay when I finally get to wear it. It doesn't always have to be about pure physical comfort (I get it, we've all probably had that cosplay with the shoes that killed our feet..) but mental comfort as well. The most common example would be if the character is wearing an outfit that you might not feel perfectly at ease with, for example too high amount of skin showing or having their hands constantly bound or something. Sure I know some people find it more of a challenge to actually go past their comfort zones but personally I'd rather stay in mine.. for now, at least. Thing is, I've had a few instances when I cosplayed a character that I liked and everything was all fine and dandy.. until the con morning when I had to wear the costume to a place where people would be looking at me and then realize that, well, I wasn't actually at ease with how some parts of the costume looked on me or whatnot. It can be anything, really. Sometimes you just don't realize how much some small things can start to eat at you after a while. Then again, I do try to figure out what the costume will look like on me before I start working on it but sometimes you still get these not so funny "surprise, motherfucker!" moments when you just go self-conscious for reason Y and Z and, well, you are already at the con so not much you can do. Not like I've personally had a bad case but there are maybe a few costumes I've made I wouldn't wear again just yet because of comfort issues.
Make sure that the cosplay you are doing won't make you feel too uncomfortable when you actually have to wear it. Focusing too much on what is bothering you can take the fun out of wearing it - no matter if it is uncomfortable shoes, the sixpack that is shining with its lack of presence or a part of the cosplay that you think just looks unflattering on you. 

Sometimes you can fix the issues but then again, most times people won't even care/notice the smaller things that bug you as much as you do.
*lifts index finger* Not to mix things up but remember - never let things like age, gender, height, weight, skin color or anything else that you have little to no control over affect your cosplay choices, everyone can cosplay and screw the people who say otherwise!

• Guess what, guess what? We actually have another one! Bonus final number 5) With all the brainwork done, all the sewing/crafting/online shopping/waiting/thrift storing/whatever done and the cosplay is ready and the con is closing in. What now?

Okay, so you are dressed up as probably one of your favorite characters from whatever fancy you have for the moment and ready to show the world what you've accomplished and you've likely been severely sleep-deprived because of last minute sewing through the last night, but let's pretend cosplay is always wonderful, okay? So, the con is this weekend and you know that soon it's gonna be one hell of awesomeness with friends and fellow cosplayers. There's only one thing left to do - wear your cosplay with confidence, enjoy your time and remember to be a good peep to everyone else!

And when the con is over and you've survived the post-con lag and possibly depression then it's time to roll over and start anew with another cosplay to put on the table of creative.. creations. If you want to make another one just yet, that is. It's just as fine to be green in this hobby as well - recycle your cosplays as long as you find the sparkle of joy in wearing them.

Now I've told most things that I can think of for the moment and I've spammed you with Pokémon gifs and whoever actually read it all gets a virtual cookie from me! :'D I might have missed something but I'm too brainfried to think any longer and I'm freezing to death. Oh well ~

Oh, one last thing! If anyone's interested I could do a follow-up post to this one where I write more personally about what kind of characters/series appeal to me cosplay wise and make me inspired to cosplay them; personality traits, clothes, weapons and stuff like that. :'D Shout out if you want to read about this in the future and I might make it happen!

Live and cosplay guys! <3

Year of Cosplay 2013

Someone please tell me where did 2013 go?

Ehm, okay. So on the last day of this year I figured I'd keep on to the tradition I kind of started on 2012 - aka a cosplay summary of the year. I found it fun so why not? :D

I could kick this thing off by first making a list of all the anime conventions I attended this year. In chronological order, of course.

Närcon Vinter - Linköping, Sweden

Desucon - Lahti, Finland

Skecon - Skellefteå, Sweden

Animecon - Kuopio, Finland

Närcon - Linköping, Sweden

Oulun Animeseminaari - Oulu, Finland

Tracon - Tampere, Finland

Kemin Mangapäivä - Kemi, Finland

Chibicon - Oulu, Finland

A pretty fair lot of cons if you ask me! 2012 I attended two cons more than this year but I have a feeling that next year I might attend even fewer because, well, life happens and so do money shortages. No shit.

   Hmm.. if I try to think which of these cons would be in my top 3 for the year I would say it's between Tracon, Närcon and Skecon. I can't put these in the order because all were fabulous this year.

• At Närcon I got new friends and new experiences (read: con camping!) and well, summer!Närcon is always a blast. Sure the location is a bit maze-like but all the things you can do at Närcon makes up for it tenfold! Then again I must admit that Josbaren wasn't quite as good this year as it was 2012...

• Tracon was very fun this year and I really enjoyed the symphonic wind ensemble. Also Tracon's location is just so me gusta, especially the outside area near Sorsalampi but the building itself is amazing as well. Tracon is for me Finland's best con, hands down.

• Oh, and then there's Skecon - the relatively new, small and comfy convention held at Skellefteå that this year moved to a bigger location (that is fucking awesome for photoshoots, I tell you!) and had Japanese guest artists. I must say Skecon did a big leap into improved awesomeness since last year and I hope that history's third Skecon will be even greater!

Okay, with the cons out of the way let's move onto the cosplays! Yup, this year I also made a list of all the cosplays I wore to cons.

I must admit that on 21st December I was trying to make a cool compiled photo list of my cosplays but I quickly ragequited because I just couldn't get it to work on my art program. So instead of some professional looking stuff, well... brace your eyes and feast on the greatest epitome of art the world has ever seen!

Isn't it beautiful? *Gwonam voice*

What do you mean I have character design preferences? Poor Kureno must feel pretty lonely in there... 

Yes, you are allowed to laugh. It's so beautiful, I know. It took me many hours on Paint to make. Yes, Paint. It's crappy on purpose, I promise I can draw better. Yes, Masamune's swords had to shrink to make space in the lower row... ja Ukitake on persjalkainen kaappi, tiedetään että on erittäin kaunis tapaus. :'D

Upper row, left to right: Kenshin Himura (Rurouni Kenshin), Toshizo Hijikata (Hakuouki), Espeon (Pokémon), Kazuma Sohma (Fruits Basket), Hajime Saitou (Hakuouki)

Lower row, left to right: Souji Okita (Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi), Masamune Date (Sengoku Basara), Jushiro Ukitake (Bleach), Kureno Sohma (Fruits Basket), Ryunosuke Ibuki (Hakuouki)

Then again these aren't all cosplays that I wore this year; I did different variations of some characters (rasetsu and SSL Hijikata for example) and I also rewore my sick!Okita (Hakuouki) cosplay for a home photoshoot and so on.

Hmm.. not so much more to say I guess. I already have some loose plans for what cons I will try to attend 2014 as well as some new cosplays I would like to do! Then again, I'm pretty sure next year will be mostly cosplay recycling for me because yeah, wish money would grow on trees.

Oh well, I just want to thank everyone who reads this blog and I hope you tag along with me next year! I won't reveal any new cosplay plans on my blog just yet but at least have a...

Happy New Year 2014 and let's keep on cosplaying!