Cosplay madness..Otakon is only two days away!!

I have been working my ass off to get this costume done, also had to go through some physical pain that I'm gradually getting over thankfully..I hope it all goes away before Saturday when I wear my crazy cosplay. I'm so thankful I had my friend Amy helping me. This is the first costume I've actually sewn a lot myself! :D Many of the ideas used for the costume were mine as well ^_^ I feel like I've become a better cosplayer because of it. It goes beyond just wearing the costume, I put my heart, soul and blood (yes literally you can see it on my shoes) into my costume! It feels good. I am going to continue sewing everything I cosplay, unless its certain things requested by friends and I wanna focus on more important cosplays (like favorite characters and series)

I want to show progress pics sooo badly... D: but I cannot, not yet. I dunno who actually reads this blog XDD so I don't wanna spoil the surprise ;w; I will be uploading cosplay pics from otakon on my cosplay blogspot. I'll post a few on here though.

Here are some spoiler-free pics of last week.

Sadly Borders is closing :( but there's a lot of deals going on. I bought this BioShock prequel novel which is very suiting since my hair is messy like a splicer xD I also bought the first seven volumes of Petshop of Horrors, only because it was Tokyopop and I've been wanting to read and own my own copies. I liked the anime and read a random volume of the manga once and enjoyed it :3

Random doodle, trying to not draw anime style. Looks like Marth I made for Sarah (and never showed her out of embarrassment XD;), I tried. lol

James being adorable, eating gobstoppers at work :3

Another poster of Snape my friend Sam gave to me. :D I love Snape sooo much :D it replaces the creepy DH Part 1 poster she originally gave to me..I think I may either put that in the basement or give it away x_x its just really creepy..

My dog, sleeping peacefully as she always does around the house.

As I was watching the Office I couldn't help but notice how James looks like Jim in this angle! James says that I must have been going insane and missed him to see the 'resemblance'. I think he may have been right..lol

And lastly, me and James gave Sadie a bath. :D She looks so tiny without her fur being dry, even for her. She's a fattie XD

Happy birthday Faline!

Its my dog Faline's 14th birthday today (July 19th), so we gave her a little bit of ice cream minus the birthday song since she hates....like, literally she hates it. If its someone's birthday and we sing it she runs away and claws at the door!

Faline is a very healthy dog for her age. She is the right weight and looks good too. The only problems she faces is losing hearing and eyesight, arthritis and some sort of bladder stones. If she has too much protein, it builds up and forms rocks inside her making it painful for her to go to the bathroom :( The only way to help is for her to only eat her prescribed food..we give her carrots and potatoes sometimes, along with things that do not have protein in it. I feel bad for her.. :( since she loved biscuits back in the day.

Anyway I love my dog, she was my best friend when I didn't have anyone! :] She's very important to me, even if she is senile and doesn't get along with new people very well..

Suuuuushi :D

My father treated me and James out for sushi. I'm so happy...i actually had a dream I went to a Japanese restaurant...actually it was Thursday night before Otakon, where Ant said we'd all have a nice Japanese dinner. This is how badly I missed the stuff >_< so we went to Nishiki's, it was soo good. Some of it was expensive XP but still gooood.

James bought the Knights vs Dragons decks so I got to play dragons and red for the first time...it was interesting, definitely different from using an elf deck.

Naji wearing the HP glasses XD Hairy Potter!

Also the other day my mom got me this book, its pretty much a mythology on faeries, REAL faeries. I can't wait to read it D: I'm always either busy or tired...like now >_<; I should be sleeping..

Harry Potter

The passed few days have been quite eventful. Thursday night was the midnight release of Part 2 of Deathly Hallows. James and I watched part 1 (Mike and Ant did the same downstairs) while enjoying a nice glass of butterbeer I made :]

Ingredients:

-Vanilla Ice Cream (I used Breyer's coz I loove Breyers lol)

-Butterscotch syrup

-cream soda

-Whip cream and more butterscotch syrup to top it off :D

Instruction: Add a few scoops of ice cream (Like three at most) add cream soda..Blend in a blender until they mix, and add as much butterscotch as you like and do taste tests :D Simple recipe and cheaper than others and still delicious. You can even spike it if you want lol

After that we go to the theater just in time for seating. We aw it in 3D...only because it was the only showing we could get...3D wasn't really worth it at all. x_x but it came with glasses that look like Harry Potter's! It even says the title of the film on it.

So during the movie, it was a very emotional experience. Scroll pass this paragraph if you want to avoid four year old spoilers >.>; So I was very emotional with the deaths of the film, but one in particular of course! Severus Snape :( I was crying..like I was at a funeral or something. Snape was my favorite character and probably the most well-made character of the book series...seeing him die before my eyes >__< oh snape....I couldn't control my crying, and I only got worse when I saw the Weasley family crying over George, and seeing Remus and Tonks together, dead. :( I'd also like to say my boyfriend has no soul. He says he was trying hard not to laugh as Severus died....and as he COMFORTED me >_< Kinda wish another Snape fan was with me for it too...namely Mike :( But he and Ant had to sit elsewhere since we arrived late and couldn't sit with each other. The memories of Snape and 'Always' were all done perfectly...

Today, I hung out with Fred and Ant. We went to the mall where he exchanged the Batman Beyond dvd he got me for my bday (which I already had) for Slayers first boxset!! :D whats funny is my Lina Inverse plush arrived..and I ordered on my Bday adventure to Anime Castle. So that's some fun coincidence :D

We met up with our friend Sara and Brian :D we went to Sonic for a bit (its like 12am..lol) Sometime during the car ride there I get a text from Sam asking if I wanted to have a stand of Snape and that I need to go there ASAP because they will throw it out...so we went to her theater and rescued Snape! We also saved 2 Bellatrix, Neville, Ron and Hermione. Sara took Bellatrix and Ron. Ant took Neville and the other Bellatrix and Brian took Hermione for his friend. The whole ride home was torture since I sat in the back and the seat was half folded down so I had to 'hold up' the posters...Brian had to do the same, so we were both Atlas for the night.

Me = 4'10

Fred = 6ft (right Fred? lol)

So you get an idea of how tall that thing really is. I'm going to cut half of it, pretty much everything bellow the crease you see from folding it. I don't have the room for the whole thing XP I LOVE SNAAAPE. :] Also got a Slytherin hoodie you see me wearing. Most of the HP merchandise in Hot Topic and Barnes and Noble were quite disappointing :/

edit: I can't believe I forgot these pics..

Brian didn't seem to want any of the characters for himself, instead he grew attached to the triangles that were part of the posters' stands XDD

Brian form 1: Jewish powers!

Brian form 2: Pyramid Head...RUUUUUN!!!

Michael's birthday!

Yesterday (or rather, two days ago on Wednesday) Ant came up with a last minute idea to have a surprise party for Mike! So me, Fred and James joined in :]

We made him banners as decoration:

Its Michael, you NEED to have a triforce.

That dratini would have been better if the marker didn't crap out on me D: made in 15 minutes! Yay rushed drawingssss

I drew the dalek :D which was also made in at least fifteen minutes

ICE CREAM CAAAAAKE :D turns out his sister MADE ice cream cake for his birthday..so Mike got to have a lot of ice cream XD we didn't get a picture, but the candles we used had different color flames. Also some trick candles that didn't work.

At the mall today I bought an elf deck, took out the cards I liked and put them in my elf deck :3 I took quite a few cards out of my deck to make room for better shit. Surprisingly this deck didn't come with a Planeswalker card..

Harry Potter is tomorrow, midnight release! Seeing it with James, Mike and Ant. I think I may try to buy ingredients to make butterbeer as a celebration. XD I am soo not ready :( oh Snape... ;__;

Red Mango!

Went out to lunch with Anthony during our lunch break, and the car next to us had this awesome bumper sticker! Man I wish I had that for when I get my car :(

We went to Johnny Rockets, I got a simple salad just lettuce, tomato and balsamic dressing.

Afterwards, I got Red Mango for the first time. I got dark chocolate with strawberries and popping boba O.O I just HAD to try it. They remind me of fish eggs only it didn't taste like I was eating a pimple. They are bursting with flavor when you chew on them!

I'm debating on rather or not I should post my anime collections here. I would only focus on Escaflowne, Utena and Hana Yori Dango since those are the things I'm focusing on collecting. Which reminds me, sometime soon I want to make a sales post of all the anime stuff I am selling so they can find nice homes. I don't really need this much crap x_x

Now out to work on my secret cosplay with Amy's help. It was frustrating the crap out of me since my mother's sewing machine is 20 years old and is a bitch to work with..that combined with other stressful things (when I went to go get the bobbins (sp?) I dropped them all..and the fire alarm was ringing for a good twenty minutes) baaah >_<

Well later :3

Fun day :]

Its like..4am right now and I should be sleeping..but I'm too happy to just go to sleep and not write an entry about my day XD

First I tried working on my secret cosplay...frustrated me sooo much..>.< I was ready to just can it but James convinced me not to and said he would help me...I just hope it doesn't look bad... ._. I'm gonna try...may as well..I put $140 into it... >__>;;

Anyway to the fun stuff!

During the day I hung out with my immediate family and their kids. Me, James, my brother Nes and his wife Rachel got bubble tea at a nearby Japanese restaurant..overpriced as hell but still bubble tea. Also got some magic cards, none are good for my elf deck but I'll save them in case I make a new deck (I plan to make a black or white deck next). We played scategories XD my mom, me, James, Rachel, Darlene and Nestor were playing. Lots of laughter and jokes were made. XD like for a breakfast food starting with J...I said Ja-bacon. XD it was a lot of fun, I'm glad I got to spend some time with my brother without there being a super big crowd..

At around 10 or so we went to a hangout at Sam's. I actually went in the pool 0.0 not only did I go in the pool..but I went down the slide...AND used a diving board for the first time. Jumped backwards, did a crazy weird thing with James he wanted me to do off the board XD it was crazy. It was nice hanging out with everyone. :)

Now I am off to go to bed so I can wake up in six hours for an early breakfast, saying goodbye to my brother and his family :( I dunno when I'll see them again..

New Layout and Cosplay

I really love how easy it is to make a layout on here! :D I made mine Utena themed. The picture I did not draw, I found it on tumblr, probably from pixiv.

Pretty much what has been going on lately is my family reunion, my brother, his wife and daughter flew up here to celebrate with us :] They've stayed the weekend at our house so its been nice having them around.

Today I'm going to be hand-sewing some parts for my secret cosplay. I have two cosplays I'm working on and Otakon is a few weeks away @__@ anddd I'm a beginner with sewing.. (Only making Shuichi's rage beat outfit 9 years ago, and recently my boyfriend's blanket and pillowcases I made for him for his b-day)

Well once Otakon is over I may be uploading pics on my cosplay blog. The blog may become a strict cosplay construction blog, or just for cosplay and conventions in general. I want to ask Anthony, who runs the video podcast Vidgle if I could write up the cosplay blog as part of his website's features.

Either way, Miaka I will take progress pictures and post as it happens. Secret cosplay I will take pics and post them AFTER the con is over. Miaka is rather simple so I probably won't make a how-to blog for her, but the secret cosplay I may. Because like I said in my cosplay blog, I wouldn't really be any where without tutorials or help from my friends, so I think it'd be good karma and overall helpful to make tutorial posts once in a while.

Here's a picture of delicious sake don from Mt. Fuji..reeally missing Japanese food..I gave it up so I could have money for Otakon and my cosplays :(

family Reunion

I'm at my family gathering right now. Playing left right center for the third time

Magic: The Gathering.. +5 to nerd stats :B

Yoooo. I decided that I would like to have a picture blog. I really like Steph's, so I want to start one here. So this thing becomes less dead and useful than an old dusty part of the interwebs. It seems very easy to do with the picture function of this site. Much easy than Livejournal..and minus the drama XP

Its been three years with James..three years and two days to be exact. Haha :3 I love and adore James so much, I'm so happy and in loooove :B

anyways james recently got me into Magic: The Gathering :3 that's his "Really you're taking my picture as I sort through your huge elf deck?" face. A lot of the cards are from his collection of 2000 cards. He also bought me quite a few of my more amazing and helpful cards on the interwebs. He didn't have to..but he did. So sweet of him :3 I think he did it so we could be a bit more competitive together instead of him just whooping my ass the whole time XDD Its been a while since he's played, but he's starting up again and dragged me along in for the ride. More so, it intrigued me and I really like it a lot.

So yeah started with a strictly green deck focusing on elves, something that's common with noobs according to google. I've only won two games. The last game I had was against his White deck. The heart of the cards was not with him. lol

These two cards together are BEASTS

Other elf creatures you control get +1/+1, 1 Forest, Tap - Put a 1/1 green elf warrior creature token into play

So I kept using its ability each turn..I only had two forests for a long time (and one elf that could tap and become mana) I eventually had 8 2/2 tokens on the battlefield LOL and even though I had other elves on the field, I ONLY fought with the tokens! James actually pacified my elf TOKEN..he said he never had to pacify a token before XDD

So combined with the tokens, there was also this amazing guy..

Tap, Target creature gets +X/+X until the end of turn, where X is the number of elves in play

it costs NOTHING to tap! I LOVE this card soo much and I abused the shit out of it LOL so even if I had a weak 1/1 elf out there, it still help contributed for this ability. I used it on one of the tokens, and attack James with all of them XD at some point one token buffed with this ability became a 14/14, maybe stronger..it was amaaaazing. lol

The decks I plan to build in the future are a Faerie Deck and a Vampire deck. Faeries are just more tricky since they are not just exclusively one land. I may use vampires so I can feel the power of Black :3 but we'll see. I'm just LOVING my elf deck. Thank you James <3