Renaissance Festival

 

 This past Sunday I went to the Renaissance Festival for the first time in about 10 years. In about 15 minutes I quickly remembered why I hadn't been to the Renaissance Festival in 10 years, haha. Nonetheless, let me tell you about our day.

 

 

The day started out kind of on the wrong foot when I woke up with a sour stomach. On top of that, I decided to not wear a wig at the last minute so that meant I had to wash and curl my hair which caused me to be late to Jackie's house. We carpooled to Michelle's house and then she drove us from there. We arrived around 11am and it was already pretty warm as we entered the fair. Almost immediately people were shouting things and harassing me (this would continue for the rest of the day). I guess I'd get harassed less in these types of situations if I didn't wear a costume and blended more into the crowd but I really only wanted to go so I could dress up as an elf for the day. All day I had to endure, "HEY YOU, WITH THE EARS!" If you have social anxiety like me, you know how much we hate loud noises and how much we reallllly hate loud noises that are directed at us. So all day I was uncomfortable and wished I could hide from all these obnoxious people. :(

 

We watched two shows that day and the first one was an acrobatics show. There were three performers and they balanced on each other and on buckets and stuff. This show made me verrrry nervous. When people aren't nervous for their own safety, I get anxiety on their behalf. This show lasted about 20-30 minutes and the whole time I'm just waiting for one of them to fall on their face. It was not good times.

 

 

The next show we went to was a comedy show called "Hey Nunny Nunny" which is mostly puns about nuns and Catholicism. I'm not really into "jokes" per se so I was probably the only person there not laughing my buns off. People were seriously howling with laughter while I'm like, "Errrmmm..." Idk, maybe I've become a comedy snob. I have a pretty specific taste in comedy (ie: Larry David, Aziz Ansari, Demetri Martin, The Flight of the Conchords, Louis CK) so most comedy is wasted on me.

 

The best part of the day was sitting in these cool Sky Chairs. They were so comfy and relaxing; if I had a porch to attach one to, I'd totally get one. We just sat and chilled in these chairs for about half an hour and it was sooooo nice to be in the shade with a light breeze on your face. I didn't end up eating anything til after we left the park since I still didn't feel so great and all they had to eat was greasy fried foods (not my jam--I'm kind of a health nut). It didn't help that I'm vegetarian either so I just fasted until about 5pm and was near death. But that was a better option for me than hurling at the Renaissance Festival. The last attraction we saw was the "Living Mermaid" which had the longest line. We had to wait for about 30 mostly unshaded minutes and tbh, it was kind of a let down once we finally got inside (this is the bummerest post ever). On the way home we stopped at one of my favorite restaurants, Chopsticks Express, and I got a giant order of honey tofu (which I scarfed down in the car) just before I dropped dead.

 

So yeah, I think I'm good for another 10 years as far as the Renaissance Festival is concerned. Next week is going to be amazing, though. Next Thursday I'm flying to San Francisco to see my bunny Stephanie (Twinkie-Chan) and also to meet my other bunny, Kelly Anne (TinyTangerines) for a girls weekend. It's going to be the BEST. WEEKEND. EVER.

 

 

 

 

Phoenix Comicon 2015

Me and my fellow Zelda cosplayers were featured in the Phoenix New Times blog!

After many weeks of anticipation, the big day had finally arrived: Phoenix Comicon 2015. Last year had been my first time at Comicon and I had cosplayed as Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service which was a big success. This year I decided to go as a character who I have loved since I was a little girl, the venerable Princess Zelda. Since I was a wee one I've always thought I'd make an adorable Zelda so this year I decided it was time to finally realize that dream.

Pretty much since last year's Comicon I've been on the lookout for the perfect hot pink dress that I could use for this cosplay but it wasn't until about 4 or 5 months ago after much searching that I managed to stumble across the perfect dress at Forever21 (and for only $15!). As much as I hate to admit it being a fiber artist, I never learned how to machine sew so I had to find something that was already made that I could embellish. When I chose this costume I didn't realize how much of a challenge it would actually be. I started accumulating all of the pieces I would need in the beginning of April (ears, spirit gum, wig, fabric, etc.) but was so intimidated by the prospect of sewing this entire costume by hand that I didn't actually start sewing until the beginning of May. Once I started working on it I felt pretty overwhelmed tbh but since I had already invested so much money into building this costume I knew I had to see it through. Luckily, May is a slow month in the crafting business so I was able to dedicate most of my free time to working on my costume. Each day I got a little closer to achieving my goal but I wouldn't end up finishing it until 11:30pm THE DAY BEFORE COMICON! Talk about cutting it close. As it would turn out the most difficult part of the costume was styling the wig. I searched and searched for a decent tutorial on it but didn't really find anything useful so I ended up just using clear elastics and magic tape to secure the ribbons but I would find out the next day that wasn't enough. (D'oh!)

The morning of Comicon was not a happy one if you want to know the truth. I'd been having a lot of family drama the week before and just wasn't in any mood to dress up and be around zillions of people all day. But after all of the hours and hours I'd put into this thing I knew I had to go. It ended up only taking me about an hour to get ready (shocking!) and after I took a few quick selfies I was out the door. Since all of my companions were already at the convention center and the panel I wanted to see started at 12pm I tried as best as I could to haul ass to the light rail station. I got there around 10:20am but had just missed the train so I had to wait (what felt like forever) for the next one. While I was standing there melting (it was 102 that day) I looked at the back of my wig and the ribbons had come undone!!!! I hadn't even gotten to Comicon yet and I was already having a wardrobe malfunction! When I got on the train I fished out my emergency kit (which consisted of a hand mirror and scotch tape) and had to completely rewrap my hair. The entire time I'm doing this two little girls were staring at me and making me very uncomfortable. When I got to the convention center I thought I'd just zip over to registration and get my badge then zoom over to the main hall and meet up with the gang. Well, to my surprise, registration wasn't where it was last year and neither was the hall where Jason Momoa was supposed to be. Being directionally challenged this was not the best situation for me to be in. Somehow I managed to find the North Hall and from there I just let Jesus take the wheel and magically walked right over to where my friends happened to be :/



Jason Momoa (photo credit: Gage Skidmore)

Heather and Jackie had managed to score us primo seats (second row) and soon we would find out that Jason's mother was actually sitting directly in front of us. I was only familiar with Jason's work on Game of Thrones so I didn't really know what to expect from his panel but he was HILARIOUS. He told great stories and was such a genuine person and extremely likeable. I'm really glad I got to see him. After his panel I had wanted to see a discussion on the work of Vic Mignogna (the voice actor) but by the time I managed to find the room it was in it was already full. There wasn't really anything else I was interested in seeing so I just walked around and continued to get lost. While I was wandering around I got fist bumped by numerous little kids which was pretty cool. I personally think Skyward Sword is one of the best Zelda games to date but I guess it was mostly kids who bought it since most of the adults didn't seem to know who I was supposed to be. It was really cool bumping into other Zelda cosplayers and getting pictures with them. After I walked around the exhibition hall for an hour I decided to take a break and eat my snack (I'd just brought a protein bar since my stomach gets upset when I'm around crowds). By about 4pm I was feeling pretty lonely and decided to go find my friends again. I thought if I waited outside the main hall that eventually someone I knew would come out and I was right. Lauren found me and said that she was meeting Maddie to see an author speak. I didn't know who he was but I tagged along anyway. Boy, am I glad I did because this author was the best part of my day. His name was James A. Owen (the author of "Drawing Out the Dragons") and he was delightful. As soon as he came in the room he said that unlike other authors, he wasn't going to just pitch his book for an hour, instead he was going to talk about how he became successful in his career and how it might inspire us to follow our dreams too. As you might remember earlier in this post I started my day feeling pretty down and by the end of Mr. Owen's panel I was feeling 100%. He was so inspiring and had overcome so many obstacles in his life and I was hanging on his every word. My favorite thing that he said was, "If there's something you really want to do, no one can stop you. If there's something you really don't want to do, no one can help you." I felt like the Universe had led me to this discussion and I was exactly where I was supposed to be. Since then I've been in such a better mood. We all have the power to achieve whatever we set our minds to and that includes me :)

After that we went back to the exhibition hall again. I was really good and only bought fries and a Gatorade (I was mega dehydrated). We were burned out around 7pm and on our way out we saw a little kid dressed as Link. Maddie and Lauren told me to go over and get a picture with him and he was SO CUTE. While we were taking our picture 3 other Zelda cosplayers asked if they could get a picture with me too. I remember a whole bunch of people taking a picture of us at once but didn't really notice who they were since people rando people had been taking my picture all day. Two days later my friend Julie messages me and tells me that our pic was featured in the Phoenix New Times blog. I was so stoked! It made me feel like all of my hard work on this costume had really paid off. Now I need to get back to brainstorming ideas for next year's cosplay. Thanks for reading! XOXO!

Halloween

Sadly, another Halloween has come and gone. At least I was able to squeeze in three costumes this year. Last weekend I went to my friend's daughter's party as a skeleton. I'd been planning on being a skeleton for quite sometime and was going to make my costume myself when I realized that oops! I already had everything I needed in my wardrobe. Beneath my breast beats the heart of a goth girl, I guess. However, one thing I didn't plan out too well was my makeup. I had bought some zombie makeup last year (when I was entertaining the idea of going to the zombie walk) and just assumed it would come with some white makeup that I could use this year. About 30 minutes before I'm supposed to leave for the party I get it out and there is NO WHITE MAKEUP. UGH! So I rush over to the drugstore and pick some up but when I put it on it A.) is too sheer and B.) is melting the moment I put it on. It was such a disaster! I had to go to plan B at this point and just used my winter foundation (for my pale vanilla-strawberry skin), black lipstick, eyeliner and dark gray eye shadow. I  guess it turned out alright but it wasn't how I'd wanted it to look so I was a little disappointed. The children thought I looked "too scary" so I suppose my costume was a success. My friend's toddler thought I looked so scary that she ran away from me the whole night :(

My next costume on the other hand came out ABSOLUTELY perfect! About two weeks ago I was making a Puppycat embroidery hoop when I thought, ya know, I'd be perfect as Bee AND I already have a yellow sweater in my closet. All I needed were some pink shorts and then the rest I could make myself. I found the perfect pair at Forever21 (and on sale) then I handmade the bee patch and a peter pan collar. Then I just tied some pink ribbon onto my boots and I was all set. All I needed now was somewhere to go. None of my friends were having a party (no adult parties) and for a long time no one really seemed that jazzed to go out. I had wanted to go dancing and last year I went to Crescent Ballroom so I thought I'd just go there again. A few days before I found some people who wanted to go out--thank the gods. However, when Halloween finally came it was still SUPER hot. I didn't wear my Bee costume to work because I knew no one would know who I was and I definitely wasn't going to be a skeleton since I work at a retirement home and a skeleton would just be too much of a reminder of everyone's mortality. So I opted to wear my new Slytherin tee (it has a detachable cape) and go as Pansy Parkinson. All night at work I debated between which costume I would wear out but wound up sticking with Pansy since I figured it would be hot as heck once I was dancing inside (it was).

Last year we'd gotten to CB around 9:30pm and had no problem getting in so I had planned on arriving again early. Anyone who knows me irl knows that I'm punctual to a fault and being late causes me to go into a bit of a panic so I wanted to get there early rather than risk not getting in at all. However, my friends don't share my planner type personality. By 8:45pm I was ready to roll. My friends had said they'd be ready by 9pm but 9pm quickly came and went. Then 9:15, 9:30 and so on. Long story short, we didn't wind up getting there until nearly 10:30pm. I was one unhappy pappy. On our drive there our friends who were meeting us there texted us saying security was about to cut off the line. Merlin's Pants! When we pulled up Jackie let us out so we could give Maddie her ID and luckily by then they'd made it to the front of the line. The folks who worked there said as soon as people trickled out that they'd let more people in. I was pretty bummed but we only had to wait about 10 minutes before we got in. Classic case of me getting worked up over nothing :/

I was shocked how popular this Costume Ball had gotten compared to last year. It was completely nutzo. There had to have been 500 people there. I had fun dancing minus not knowing any of the songs they played. I don't really know what the dj was thinking by playing music that no one except him had heard of. I enjoy dancing so much more to music I can sing along to. It was fun dancing with my wand, though. I had forgotten to leave it in the car and it kept falling out of my purse so I figured I'd just go with it. People seemed to enjoy it too; I got lots of thumbs up from my fellow Halloweeners. There was this trio dressed as characters from Lord of the Rings who kind of followed me around for  most of the night. Especially Bilbo. Bilbo kept smiling at me and dancing as close to me as possible. I wanted to tell him that witches don't dance with Shire folk, haha. Anywho, we stayed until a little after 1:30am when I abruptly ran out of steam. I went from dancing my face off to ready to be back in my bed in a few seconds.

I was off the next day from work so I took myself on a date to see "Horns". IT WAS SO GOOD! I LOVE LOVE LOVED IT! I personally think it was Daniel Radcliffe's best performance to date. I know it was a horror film but it was more funny than scary. I liked the silliness of the movie. I hope it'll be spreading to more theatres in Phoenix soon so more people will go see it. Today or tomorrow I'm finally going to get to see "Gone Girl" since I finished the book yesterday. I think I'll like it. I was really excited to see "Before I Go to Sleep" since the book was so good but the movie got really crummy reviews so I might just wait to see it on dvd.

Anyway, almost forgot about my BIG NEWS! This February I'm going to THAILAND! I'm sooooo excited! I'm going with my friend Michelle to Bangkok and we're going to stay with her mom who is teaching English there. Last week we bought our plane tickets. The flight will be hell but it'll be great once we get there. I'll tell you more about it when I have more details :)