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 ^_^