Dickens on the Strand

Most piratey picture I've ever had taken of me and I love it.

Okay, so for those not in the know, as I've not thoroughly explained, Dickens on the Strand is festival held in Gaveston, TX that celebrates the culture of the Victorian Era. Similar to a Renaissance Festival. There are shows and vendors and a parade and things of the like. I believe as of last year they added some Steampunk themed events, seeing as Steampunk is getting bigger and bigger.
Anyways, yesterday I got to go for the very first time, all of my sad at missing last year, and it was GLORIOUS~!
Here's what I wore:

Don't ask what my hair was doing cause I don't know.

Anyways, so I got up way too early and finished getting ready an hour before I had to leave. My dad and I picked up my friend before heading to Bells' house. Bells finished up getting ready and then we left to go pick up her boyfriend. Then there was the lovely two hour ride to Galveston, we spent the drive listening to Irish drinking/fighting songs(same thing right?) and getting even more hyped about the festival. We got there and got in and as soon as we got there, we immediately felt inadequate. Everyone there looked so legit! Just like, AUGH! I don't even know. Bells and I were like 0_0 when we saw the other garb, it's like we were invited to fancy party and we were under-dressed. Anyways, we walked around and looked at different shops and I cursed myself for not bringing money as there were some reasonably priced compasses which is just...y'know...EXACTLY WHAT I NEED! But putting that aside, there were a lot of really interesting shops and things of such. We found the Steampunk Square and I saw a lot of people that I've seen at cons before. After that we took some pictures in an alleyway that we found and then went onto a ship and got some pictures.

Because I enjoy being creepy taking picture of Bells taking pictures of Coggs.

The mast of the ship we took pictures on.

Love this pic. I look like messenger fairy.

If only Bells' bracelet hadn't shown up in this pic. Why was she wearing it anyway?

After shooting we walked around a bit being in character and it was quite wonderful. We were looking for a place to eat while other attendees were getting ready for the parade, so we walked straight down the middle of the street pretending like we were our own parade, waving at the bystanders, being piratey and such. We actually got a few waves back, it was great. So we ate dinner at Fisherman's Warf(I think that's what it's called), almost getting run over on our way there, cause we jay-walked. After we finished eating and went back to the festival, our ride decided, unfortunately that it was time to go home, so we finished shoipping and headed home. Afterwards, we chilled at Bells' house until I got picked up.

All in all, it was very fun day. We got a surprising amount of pictures taken of us, I got lots of compliments on my wings(one girl from ASI even wanted to steal me cause I was so cute :D), and did lots of fun piratey things. I'm definitely going back next year, and hopefully look even more legit(cause, not gonna lie, we looked pretty cool).

Until next time,
Sana

PS. The picture of me that top and of Bells with her gun were taken by our bosun, Coggs.

Oh look! I worked on stuff!

.....And then my break was over. -.-;
Ain't gonna lie guys, I wasted my break pretty badly, but here's a quick rundown of what I DID manage to do!

Saturday, the first day of my Thanksgiving break, is when I did the most. As promised, I worked on my steampunk outfit a little bit. I attached the wings to my vest... Let's ignore how gross my arms look and how tired I was kay?

...And made a cute earring.

Yeah, just one earring, and it is heavy as hell...and I love it.
I also practiced fixing my hair on Saturday. Slightly irrelevant to the initial subject of this entry, I'm eventually gonna be cosplaying as Arya Stark, I practiced putting bangs up fixing my hair like hers.

 

For the rest of the week I actually got very little done. Went antique shopping with Bells. I worked on some small pieces of Fluttershy. And that's about it.

This post is a little late, but after this weekend I'll put up an entry for DICKENS ON THE STRAND! Because I'm going this Saturday. <3

Til next time,

Sana

Happy Thanksgiving!

Non-Cosplay Related Report

So, to be perfectly honest, I'm pretty bugged with the fact that a lot of people have kinda forgotten what Thanksgiving is really suppose to be about. I saw some stuff earlier today that basically said that some people think it's just about eating lots of food. Now, I don't really like lecturing about History, mainly cause I'm not very big on History whatsoever. I also don't really like sounding like a cheesy Hallmark movie. (Can;t stand those >_>) But really need to say, it kinda pains me that some people don't really know the real meaning of Thanksgiving.(oh god, the cheesiness of that statement.)

Thanksgiving is about being thankful for what you've been given in this life. Whatever it may be, family, friends. health, what have you. It's a day to contemplate what you're truly happy for. Think about that, and then think about how your life would be without those things. It's not supposed to be about stuffing yourself and watching football(Or in my sister and I's case, the Purina Dog Show). It's not about everything going right or being perfect, or having big parties, or anything like that. This hit me kinda hard today when I was feeling all bleg(trust me, it's a feeling) cause I had to listen to my parents get upset about one thing going wrong or the other. Now, don't get me wrong here, I love my family, and I'm so grateful for them, I honestly wish they would just calm down I little. Jus sayin. >_> Anyways, back on topic, the point of Thanksgiving, the reason why the tradition is to make and eat a lot of food, is to show how thankful we are for how lucky we are to have what we have.

Okay, so first, here are some tiny little things I've done to show my thankfulness and what other people should do too:

• Save your left overs dangit! (sorry, had to get that out)
• Tell the people who mean the world to you, exactly how you feel. 
• You have no idea how much this will make their day, I promise.
• If you're not the one who prepared the meal, tell the person who did, what a great job they did.
• My dad makes Thanksgiving lunch ever year, and we just eat the crap out of it usually. But today I told him that he did really good, and I think I saw a tear form in the corner of his eye, not lyin'!
• Take the day off from worrying or complaining.
• Think about everything you have, and how your life would be without it. (Stated above, I know, but seriously do it.)
• Do something for someone else.
• This can be on a large or small scale.

Now, cause I can, here's a list of what I'm thankful for

• My friends
• I am SO damn lucky to have the friends that I do. I genuinely love every single of them. They would go through hell and back for me, and I for them. I love them so much, and I really don't know how my life would be without them, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
• My dog, Thatcher
• I adopted Thatcher last year, and, even when he's annoying me, I've never regretted it. I would do anything for this dog to be happy. You guys don't even know.
• My eyesight
• Okay, this one is kinda odd... But I honestly don't think I'd be able to go on if I were to loose my ability to see. It's something that I'm legitimately frightened of loosing. Everything I do revolves around me being able to see, and probably wouldn't be able to go one with my life without it. Anyways....NOW THAT WE'RE ALL DEPRESSED NSTUFF...
• The men and women fighting for my freedom, that couldn't come home this Thanksgiving
• SorryIminaglasscaseofemotiontoday. But seriously, if you're American, and not thankful for those fricken brave as hell people, then you've got some inner battles, that I don't wanna touch.
• My family
• I feel a little bad for putting them at the bottom. But, despite how much I gripe about them, I love my family. And am truly blessed to have them.

So, now that I've made myself cry, I want all of you to do the same!! Haha, just kidding, but really, just take some time to think about what's really important this holiday season.  N'stuff....

I promise to update with cosplay stuff next time, sorry for this! ^_^;

Until next time,
Sana

*Tumble Weed Rolls By*

I'm so sorry blog! I've had nothing to update with! *huggles blog*
Sad to say, being in highschool, not being able to drive, and not having a job, really limit a person whose primary devotion involves time, transportation and money. I've been trying to scourge what I can to be able to work on sellables for AM. I know, it's pretty far off, but still. Especially when school doesn't really keep me busy and I have nothing to do and no money to execute what I WANT to do!!!
blahblahblahRANTRANTRANTemoemoemo

Anyways, for whatever reason(probably cause my crew's anniversary was this month), everytime autumn rolls around, I always get in a steampunk-y mood that makes me wanna find stuff and glue it to the telescope I got a year ago in an attempt to make it pretty. But then I realize that I don't have the means to do so and I start wondering if my art teacher would let me borrow some of her paints to be able to color up some wires and bolts to look bronze and copper and I'm just typing as all of this comes to mind. ANYWAYS, I would give some kind of an advice blog about steampunk, but seeing as I don't feel as though have enough skill to give advice on anything of that nature.......FEATURE TIME!!!
I really love looking at other, more creative, people's steampunk creations, there are some really beautiful things that I've seen people make in the past, and it's just amazing.

Steampunk Poison Ivy Cosplay by *orlarose on deviantART

This first one has double love from me. I have been a big ol' fan of Batman since I was a young'n, especially Poison Ivy. I always had this admiration of the character probably based purely on design. Anywho, this is Orlarose who did an absolutely beautiful steampunk version of Poison Ivy. She has an abundance of other beautiful images in her gallery as well, so go check her out.

Steampunk Airship Pilot by ~homarusrex on deviantART

Found this one under the rummage of my favourites, and man do I love the crap out it. Just, the style, and the warm colours. How it mixes pures fantasy and science fiction elements like the genre of steampunk right well should. Homarusrex has a really neat style and I for colour, so I advise giving their gallery a look.

Shiny Balance Necklace by *turnerstokens on deviantART

Time for my obligatory biased fangirl post. I love love LOVE everything Turners Tokens designs. If I could, I would buy from her in a heart beat. Even the pieces that have similarities all have their own qualities that make them uniquely beautiful. My personal favourites being anything that has an octopus on it (loves octopi almost as much as turtles). I suggest everyone look at her gallery, and even if jewelry ain't your thing, she has many other things, including pictures of cute cats, so check her out.

And speaking of the punk that is steamy, possible hopes of  going to Dickens on the Strand this December. HOPEFULLY. Looking at the pictures from previous events and the ever-coaxing temptation of the fact that Airship Isabella is going to attend and host events and such is just like, fffffffffffneedtogonowplz?

Anyways, I'll be getting next week off of school, so I'm going to make an immense attempt to rummage around and work on my navigator outfit, and maybe I'll post some pretty pictures of what I'm doing next week. Nothing is certain as always. ^_^;
IsuckatwhatIdoIknowsorry.

Until next time,
Sana


PS: I know it's not like NEW new, but here's some of Abney Park's newest album. Ain't it purty?

Oni-con/Halloween Recap

This is a week late. ^^;
Omg omg omg! Weekend! You so fun!

Oni-con

I went to Oni-con this weekend in Galveston with Croweh and J-J, a first time con goer school friend of ours. So we got to Galveston on Friday night. So nothing happened then. I didn't sleep AT ALL on Friday night due to a TV the wouldn't turn off, snoring roommates and the fact that we were next to a highway. I heard a car wreck, sirens and a train before giving up on the idea sleep. Everyone else woke up around 6:30-7:30 ish and got ready-ish. Croweh was clad in casual Marluxia, J-J was a very ghetto, but still cute umbreon and I was, of course, Claire. We ate breakfast and went back up to the room to finish getting ready. We drove to the convention center and followed some Asians until we found the parking garage. We went in and waited for Reg to open. Met up with my buddy Josh real quick after getting our badges. I literally tackled him, and it was awesome (I don't tackle or glomp very often). We wandered around and explored the convention center. We chatted with JET TEXAS(if you go to Texas cons, you know who this is probably), which my brain pretty much fan-girled to death over, and actually kept my composure while talking to him, he was really cool. We herped-a-derped about, went to the dealers room. OMG, I saw a fricken BEAUTIFUL Darkside Chronicles Artbook in there and it was $50 and I almost cried at how poor I was! STEALING! WHY Y U SO MORALLY INCORRECT?!? I got a call from my Steve while I was in there and he implored us to attend the Ask a Nation panel because he was helping with it. We walked around a bit more and checked out the gaming room, I met some other Resident Evil cosplayers and got asked for quite a few pictures, which made me pretty happy, seeing as I got barely any at SJ. After the AAN panel, he changed into his Steve cosplay and I chatted with more RE cosplayers, like two Barrys, a Carlos, a Chris, some BSAA members and some Umbrella Corp. grunts(Yeah, we were like all in the same place) while waiting for him. He was such a lady really, took forever to get changed. After that we walked around a lot and he talked to his friends while I stood behind him and was like, "I'm gonna stand here and not talk, kthxbye." We walked around and met FRICKEN TWABI and I was just like "OMG DIEING OF AWESOME OVERLOAD!" We met up with my friends again before heading to the Cospaly Contest room. I just want to add a random note here. I LOVE gamers. I just absolutely LOVE them. That is all. Anyways, we chilled in the contest room and met some cool new people I met an awesome Nathan Drake who's name I wish I had gotten! We did our walk on and I'm sure I did terribly because I was SO tired. After the contest ended, my Steve talked to the Wesker from TWABI who complimented the jacket that I had made for my Steve and on the inside I was like, "AHIGADKFADKLHADLKGADFL DYING!" and on the outside I was like, "Thaaank yooou...-derp-"
I almost exploded, to put it simply. -isafangirltothemaximum-

So a pretty okay con. No drama, no stress. Short and simple. Lots of ego boosting for me. >_> Just sayin.
No photo shoots I'm afraid. But here's one pic taken of my Claire cosplay.

Halloween

I spent Halloween with great friends Mizu, Aza and NamelessAndroid. It was super duper ridiculous fun. I was originally going to wear my Trick and Treat Rin cosplay, but I didn't have my twinsie with me, and I didn't want to do it without him. But I did have a zombie buddy! So I was Claire again instead! :D
First we went to Denny's to go bother Croweh. And we're all pretty sure it made her night. After that, we returned to Mizu and Aza's neighborhood to breifly Trick or Treat. It had gotten late, so not much in that. After that, NamelessAndroid(MAI ZOMBEH BUDDEH) and I did a tiny photo shoot. Twas much fun dahling! We MUST do it again sometime! After that, we chilled and watched Nightmare Before Christmas and then my dad came to pick me up because it was late and a school night. /shelteredchildplz.
Eitherway! Picture time! Yay!

Yay for zombies! I hope everyone had a great Halloween! ^_^

Til next time,
~Sana

Well...

I WAS going to put to up a nice little tutorial blog today, but since photoshop doesn't want to work for me, it looks like I won't be able to do that. So, after doing a bit of thinking, I figured I'd do a little cosplay feature of some great cosplays I've seen. And with Halloween just around the corner, I figured I'd do some creepy horror-themed cosplays from some of my favourite scary games and animes.



Haunting Ground by ~Colicade on deviantART


The first one up is from Haunting Ground. Oh man, did this game scare the living crap out me. It was pretty much my initiation into the survival horror genre, and man did it get me in. Granted, as with most games, I watched it instead of playing it, and I must say that the person who made the walkthrough was a BOSS, because I would've totally gotten caught by Debilitas and died within the first 10 minutes of the game. xD These two lovely ladies are cosplaying as Fiona, the games main character, and Daniella, the tragic villain. They did a beautiful job on these and I implore you all to go check out the rest of their galleries.



Tempt me, Temptation by ~TheWorldAblaze on deviantART

Okay, so it's time to be biased. This is my friend Bells and she is the CUTEST Blair I have ever seen. I love Blaire's character in Soul Eater, she's so ditzy and bubbly, but can be quite the temptress and Bells captures her brilliantly. Also ,I'm the proud photographer of some of the pictures in her gallery so everyone should go pay her a visit. We plan to get more shoots done in the future, so just enjoy what we have up there for now, haha.



Alfred Ashford by *DugFinn on deviantART

Well, you guys probably would've guessed by now that this list wouldn't really be complete without some Resident Evil.Cause if you couldn't tell(looks at layout), I'm kind of in love with those games. And this is kind of a double nerdiness, cause I'm a total fangirl of the amazing DugFinn, who's cosplaying as the crazy, yet ever so loveable Alfred Ashford here. She's by far one of best I've seen of this underdone character, and everyone should go check her other awesome cosplays as well as her awesome photography. Seriously guys, she's like amazeballs with everything she does, go to her gallery.


And that's all I have for now, or at least all I can fit for now (my journal would go on forever if I put everyone that I love!). With some other updates, I'm going to Oni-con, as Claire, of course. I'll only be there on Saturday, and my friend, who's gonna be my Steve, (OMGIMGONNAHAVEASTEEEVEE!!!) and I are gonna be entering the cosplay contest, which I'm super nervous about because I've never entered an on-stage contest before. So, if anyone's going, please come to the contest to support us(or at least me, haha).

Until next time,
Much love,
Sana

Planning is Essential

Hello all once more!

Yes, I have returned at last and with a few tips. And a new layout!  Whilst I was working on a commission for my good friend, I started thinking about my normal habits when sewing and how I have a way of taking extra-double-super-special-chocolate-covered caution when working on projects. Especially when they’re not for me. So I figured I’d give some tips about taking said precautions that will help your projects look so much nicer.

• Pins are you best friends. Use a lot of them.

Being a personal fan of the dressmaker pin, I find these babies quite handy. I use them even when putting together the smallest things. I think that no matter how skilled you get, pins will always come in handy. Sure they seem to take ages to put in, but the result it well worth it. Also make sure to put them perpendicular of the seam, it’ll make the sewing process much quicker. And the best thing about your pins is that, no matter how bad you treat them, they’ll always love you.

• Zigzag stitch along the edges help prevent fraying.

It’s true! And this is especially a good idea when your fabric frays like crazy.  Like the fabric for my friend’s jacket, it’s really great fabric, but if I pull one thread the wrong way, well, yeah. This wasn’t necessary on the edges where I used biased tape, but all of the inside seams I edged with this stitch and it looks substantially cleaner and nicer.

• When planning to paint a design. Draw first!

I don’t care how much of an expert you are, we all make mistakes at one point or another, and you don’t want that point to be when you’re working on a cosplay, commission or otherwise. Drawing it out on paper beforehand helps you figure out size and spacing. It’s also a good idea to put note on the paper as to how you’re going to paint your design, which direction, etc. Drawing out the design on your piece with tailors chalk or a marking pen is also a good idea as it helps you plot your design before finalizing it. I’ve personally made enough mistakes to know for a fact that all of this planning is essential if you want your design to turn out good.  A decent example is my Claire vest, and I’m not gonna lie, I’m crazy in love with how it turned out.

• UNF, dat biased tape!

Yeah, I’m kind of in love with this stuff now. I personally think it makes hemming a much simpler task. Not mention it’s perfect for projects like the Steve Burnside’s jacket that involve different colored edges. Augh, just, yes. This stuff! It really really made the hemming process easier, so much so that when I got to do a real hem I fussed about until I got myself down to doing it. This last tip seems more like a review than a tip, not to mention it’s a bit repetitive, but I can assure you that, especially when projects have different colored hems, this stuff comes in handy.

Welp, those are the main biggies that I’ve got for now. They’ve certainly helped me a ton, and not only during this project at hand. I certainly hope that they help everyone else!

Until next time!
Love,
Sana