Pre-Con Thoughts

C2E2 is here. We are two days away from my nerdom event of the year! And if you think for even a second that I am ready, then HA. You haven't learned yet.

Back in December, I wrote an article here on Nerdom titled "Tis The Season...For Cosplay". We reviewed all my past cosplay's and lessons I learned from them. The biggest lesson being: DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. I want to say, in all fairness, that I do not feel like what has happened can be considered procrastination. You see after I wrote that article, I spoke with my husband, my sister, and my friend Bethany, aka all the people I cosplay with. And we all decided that we would not cosplay this year due to busy schedules and budgets. I truly meant that agreement too.

But then last week I changed my mind. So, with less than two weeks before C2E2, I decided to whip together two cosplay's to my con-going groups dismay. Yes, they were completely exasperated with me. But what can I say, I needed a pick me up and nothing quite says pick me up like last minute cosplay/crafting projects. It just gets your blood pumping as you are rushing to get it all done in time. I don't know if that is a good thing though. Regardless, I wanted to give you guys a sneak peak at the chaos I have wrought and my thoughts on it.

Cosplay #1: Genderbent Kyo Sohma [from the 2019 Reboot Anime Adaptation].

This picture was taken at C2E2 two years ago, when I cosplayed as Kyo Sohma from the original anime. I am not going to share pictures of the new cosplay quite yet but I wanted talk about how excited I am to cosplay my favorite character from one of my favorite series once again. Especially, since it will be based on a version I actually love and am proud of.

They made quite a few changes to Kyo in 2019, not counting the huge animation upgrade. They gave him a whole new wardrobe and changed the colors of his signature bracelet. All of these changes made sense and I felt were truer to the manga, but we aren't here to review the anime, we are just looking at what I have to work with this time around. I took the base of what I did two years ago and just tried to revamp it to 2019 Kyo. Which means changing some color schemes mostly. I am happy to say that this cosplay is almost completely done. All of the bought pieces have been purchased, on wonderful sales thankfully. And last night, I finally obtained new beads to make a new bracelet for my new Kyo. The bracelet is my only custom piece for this cosplay and after it is done all that will be left will be to relace my sneakers with a different color. See con-group? Easy peasy.

Cosplay #2: Modern Take Sailor Moon [Fan Art Inspired]

Ugh, do you see my problem? I just happened to see this image one day and I loved it. But as you could probably guess, this one is a little harder to do than Kyo. Luckily since I did a Mash Up Sailor Moon last year, I already had the wig. Yay me! I didn't completely mimic this picture but I went for a similar aesthetic: tied crop top, blue skirt, fun white glasses, and a custom jean jacket. Plus I am adding my custom boots that I wore last year. So, let's review: Wig? Check. Boots? Check. Shirt, skirt, tube socks, and glasses? Bought. Custom jean jacket? ...I'm working on it. I genuinely have been so blessed because every bought piece for both cosplay's was on sale and I was able to do both for much cheaper than any other year. Also, there was only one custom piece per cosplay and one of them was small (Kyo's bracelet). This jacket though...this is where my con-group deserves to be exasperated.

I decided, in all my wisdom, that with less than two weeks left, I wanted to make an anime jacket. If you have never seen one it is simply a jean jacket with an anime scene hand painted on the back. They are usually commissioned and they are usually expensive (and rightfully so). But I snagged a really nice jean jacket on clearance and brought it home to my oh-so-talented and generous and kind artist of a husband and said "please". Once again let me express how very blessed I am because I have an incredible husband who humors my crazy antics. Rather than throttle me like I probably deserved at that point, he rose to the challenge. And while he started sketching out ideas I started painting the background.

First I splatter painted the whole front and sleeves. Then, I painted a white base and then my blue background. From there James and I practices various techniques until we could get the different effects we were searching for, for the background.

Eventually, I stepped up my chaos game and brought James to an enlightenment on the topic of HIM wanting a jacket. Back to the store and hallelujah, I found ANOTHER jacket on clearance. The photo on the right shows the last bit of progress on either of our jackets that you will get to see before C2E2 because: no spoilers. But I think you might see where we are going with things. If you don't then I am thrilled to have the opportunity to surprise you.

I can't say that there hasn't been any stress when it comes to this last minute project but I will say that I think it will be worth it and it has been fun. This pick me up has given me something to not only focus on but to look forward to and expel my pent up creativity to boot. I am so excited for C2E2 as a whole but mainly getting to cosplay once again with people I love. Not to mention getting to soak in all the nerdom this little heart can hold and getting to bring it back here to all of you.

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Thank you for joining me for some Pre-Con Thoughts. Due to C2E2 and mainly, my last minute project, we will not be having a post this Sunday. I will miss you all but will be thinking of you all while walking the con floor. I hope you all have an incredible con weekend and look forward to seeing you all back here next Wednesday for some Post-Con Thoughts! In the mean time, stay nerdy, stay crafty, and stay messy my friends.