The Reasons I Don't Update...

Aside from the fact that no one reads this blog anyways.
/wrist
Yesterday was my last day of semester exams at school. Actually, I didn't any yesterday because I was either exempt or didn't have any. So basically I sat around in the library all day. Where as other kids left and got  breakfast. I am the COOLEST kid. The fricken coolest. Damn straight.
Reason #2 is that....I got a tumblr. I know. I know. I swore that it would never happen to me, but it did. My GOD is it addicting. I don't even understand WHY, but it is. Anyways, my URL on there is frozenguineapig.tumblr.com, and I  update there more often, so if you wanna follow me, feel free to do so.
Reason #3 is that. Get this. I've actually been working on stuff. Whaaaaat? Yeah, couldn't quite believe it myself either. I'm about 52% through with my top for Rikku and once it gets to be in a more wearable phase, I'll get to putting pictures up. I ALSO got my Fluttershy wig for Christmas. Yay. It's super duper cute and I love it and here's a picture of it and my Fluttershy shirt:

Ffff, I hate tooting my own horn, but man am I gonna hopefully be really fricken adorable in that cosplay.

Anyways. I'll hopefully be doing another feature later this month. All of my apologies for not doing one last month.
Anyways, next month is February. And everyone knows what special day comes up in February right? That's right. MY BIRTHDAY! Yepyep. I'm going to be turning 18

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?

The Tale of San Japan 4TW

And hence another convention comes to a close all to soon. I'm probably going to spend to rest of the week tired and mopey as already miss the world of over priced merchandise and loud fangirls. And, yes, that's a good thing. Haha. Welp, I guess I'll be starting with Thursday since that's where our adventures begins.

Thursday
Well, I left the homestead around 11:00am Thursday and we picked Croweh up on the way. Her and I chattered as we headed up on what seemed like an endless ride to San Antonio. We arrived in the city around 2:30, so we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering about and making new friends. When our friend Aza got there we hung out with her and her friend and helped her work on last minute cosplay. Around 9:00 we went to get our badges, and then the day came to a definite close as we excitedly rested our heads and slept until the next day came.

Friday
I awoke early on Friday and threw Toph on. I've said it before, Toph gets so much love! I think it's cause Avatar cosplays are rare in general and Toph is the best. Croweh debuted her Axel cosplay. Anyways, we got up way before the convention started and helped an artist friend of ours set up. I then bought a couple things from her when the artist alley legally opened. We derped around until Aza found us as Finland and we hung out with her for the duration of the day. We went to the Cosplay Group panel, which was pretty funny really. We met some new friends. I got to give Malindachan and Ex-shadows yet another gift that I made for them.(causeI'mcreepylikethat) The day seemed to blur together until that night. We went to masquerade, it wasn't as nice as the one at AM, but I got to dance with someone who I had wanted to and it was lovely.(andawkwardwut?)

Saturday
On Saturday I wore Claire and Croweh wore Olette. We hung out with Cosplay in America until the Video Game Cosplay Contest opened. We signed up and went to the mall to get pictures for her. We went on down to Cosplay Chess to see Aza kick some ass as the Queen of Hearts. We met a really nice Rosette while hanging in the wings. After that we did a shoot of Aza and her minions. Which was then followed by ANOTHER shoot for me as we went down to the parking garage. When we came back up, we went to the in attempt to get more pictures for Aza, but almost got in trouble with mall security so I suggested just going back to the con, because I didn't want to get in any trouble. We went to the dealers room for some shopping and I bought a panda plushie that I had been eyeballing all day Friday. We went to the AMV contest and left early to eat hotel food. It was SO COLD in the AMV contest room, I was shaking when I got out. I was also starving at the time so....yeah. We waited around for lineup for the cosplay contest. The line was endless and tiring, but so worth it. Although by this point in the day I had a headache, so lots of things got on my nerves. Anyways, after the contest ended, so did Saturday. We went back up to the room, I took some advil, showered and went to bed with the song from the Nostalg*a Cosplay skit in my head.

Sunday
Mainly last minute spending and other things, no panels or cosplay. Found some of our new friends and said goodbyes before leaving. Every time a convention ends, I feel a whole in my heart that I can't fill up until the next convention.

ANYWAYS! It was great to see everyone and meet new friends and meet some of my subscribers!
Until next time!
~Sana-san

Road Blocks and Stress and Secrets, Oh My!

Thought I'd be cheesy for the sake of cheesiness.  But in all seriousness, I regret to inform that due to money complications, I won't be able to finish Rikku for SanJapan. This where you all frown and go "Awwww!" And on the note of not doing stuff, we, meaning the whole group, have decided to cancel our Nadesico cosplay due to stress and other things like that. We might do them eventually, but it'll be a long while from now. So, this might get you to saying, then what the heck are you gonna cosplay at SanJapan?! Well....Croweh suggested Pokemon, buuuut, while that may be all good for her, I honestly dislike wearing my May cosplay. It's all baggy on me and I don't like using my own hair because it's too long and plus I've been wanting to redo basically the entire thing.[Don't hate me Croweh! ] So I've been considering a few things. The first being wearing either Kagura or Toph, I've never had the right hair for Toph, so it wouldn't be any different if I were to put my hair into a pony tail for her. As for Kagura, now that I think about it, maybe not for one of the same reasons as May, it's kinda big on me. But not so big that it doesn't work unlike May, actually I just tried it on and it looks kinda cute....so yeah, there's that option. The second idea I had was just to kick it nerdy Otaku street style. As I like to call it. A while ago I did a reconstruction of a shirt I didn't wear and put pieces of an FullMetal Alchemist shirt shirt on it, and I really don't get to wear it often enough. I have some other cute pieces that I could put it with(I have the outfit in my mind as I type). Not really exciting, so I'd probably play photographer for the day, but I'd at least be comfortable, hehe....yeah. Another one that I thought of was throwing together another decora outfit, which would probably look better due to having more hair accessories and cuter skirts. That's basically all I could think up. I'm going to put a poll up with those decisions, and it'll be open for a couple of weeks. Also feel free to comment with any suggestions.
That would be for Friday though. As for Saturday, I came up with something that I could easily whip together in a month. BUT! I'm not gonna tell you guys what it is. Why? Because surprises are fun. I might wait to even give any hints until I'm done. I won't be starting until I get payed(well, half payed. Long story, ain't gonna talk about it) for my friends Hungary cosplay commission though. Which will hopefully be before the week is out, but we'll see. But I am pretty excited about the new secret cosplay I'll hopefully do, and the convention altogether(I get too see all my con friends again! Yay!! 8D)

Anyways! I look forward to hearing any input from yous gais!
Until next time,
Sana

Summer Conventions Update Primarily Based Around SanJapan

So, I've decided that, unfortunately, I'm only going to San Japan for the summer primarily due to the fact that I've yet to get a job, and  the place I'm going to apply at is hiring when Delta H Con is going on. Much sadness, indeed, but it will be alright as San Japan is like the prom of conventions.

While I'm on that subject, I'd like to mention I offered to help spread the word about San Japan because I believe that it deserves help, and I think that EVERYONE in the world should because it's that great. Anyways, a while back they put up a post on Facebook saying that they got a butt load of postcards and posters that they needed help distributing all over the state. Them being my favourite convention I was happy to help, they told us to send our address to this one email as well as our t-shirt size saying they were gonna give us a shirt as compensation, which was all cool. So I get a package in the mail the other day and I open it and I'm like "Holy-!" I was expecting a good handful of postcards and a t-shirt. I got three times as many postcards(I'm gonna be a busy woman! I'm so excited to distribute them honestly), the shirt, three bumper stickers, and a cosplay show dvd from last year. Wha?! Yeah, I was a little shocked. But...yeah, I love this con. And I hate saying so more after I got free stuff(at least I think the stuff is for me and not more advert), but it was seriously the best con I had ever been to. Everything started on time(in exception of the rave, but that was due to tear-down and set-up time in the main events room), it has an ever-growing variety of events that doesn't just reach out to anime fans, an awesome list of guests, and is just made of awesome. When I went to Japan Festival a while back I met a guy that knew the people that started this con and he talked about how San Japan is an attendee-based convention, versus being a profit based one. And it definitely shows. Everyone we met on staff when we went last year was uber nice aaaaand do any of you guys know any other conventions that have a three-year long Dealers Room waiting list? I don't. Also, their artist alley sold out within half an hour this year I believe. The ones who've been there know, this is a good con, and I think it's just gonna get better.  I say, if you'd be able to go, go. It's a well worth it convention to me.

Well, now that I'm done seemingly bragging about this, if you're interested. The convention is held in San Antonio, TX from August 5-7. Their website is San-japan.org

Enough of this shameless advertisement then, til next time!
Love,
Sana

Summer To-do List

Yet another non-cosplay related blog. Sorry for posting so many of these! >_< Anyways, summer has finally begun for me down here. And every summer for the past three(I think) summers I've made a "to-do" list. It usually comprises of 20-ish items that I need/want/should do that summer. And my goal for the summer is to accomplish at least 50% percent of them. Thus far I've actually not been able to achieve that goal*headdesk*, but I'm hoping this summer will be different. As usual.
Anyways, onto to more pressing matters, zhe leest!

- Get a job
- Make Ryoko
- Make FF Cosplay
- Make Jenni's Hungary Cosplay (for money+her soul)
- Make Plushies for me
- Do Plushie Commissions
- Buy a new wig for Toph
- Buy fabric for Taiwan
- Go to Delta H Con
- Go to San Japan
- Loose more weight
- Buy wig for Yuni
- Buy wig for Selphie
- Get five more youtube subscribers
- Get five more bloggers followers (Hey, a girl can dream.)
- Participate in my first (real) Cosplay Contest
- Host another Cosplay Picnic
- Buy my first lolita dress
- Make some Cosplay Music Videos (Yes, I'm at that level of dorky)
- Make more friends within the Cosplay community. (Yeah, I know that one's kinda sad and embarrassing, but to be honest, I'm kind of socially awkward and don't have very many friends in Cosplay-land aside from the ones I knew before cosplay[Love you guys BTW! >-<])
- Ensure everyone that that last one was not a lame cry for attention
- Get more photoshoots done (Good or not, I need more pictures. Plus they're fun as heck.)
- Make sure to fun in all of this totally hard work. >3<

Yeah, it's got a random amount of silly things in there as it commonly does, but I personally think it's a good idea to set a good amount of goals for yourself, even when on vacation or break. Or.....maybe that's just my need to be semi-productive talking. If anyone else makes a summer to-do list, I would totally love to see it! I'm really excited about summer starting, and I hope it'll be better than ever!

Much love!
Sana ^_^