Murphy's Law Sort of Day

                                                                 (image (c) me)
     My mom dropped her tablet today and shattered the screen and my sister's radio and mp3 player took a pewp. The tablet still works (and I believe we can just get the screen replaced but I'm not sure where we could go in all honesty. We bought it from Verizon but don't use them as our phone service anymore due astronomical costs for very little service where we actually live), but my sister's main sources of music are gone so I am on a quest for a new radio/boombox/stereo whatever you may call it lol I think our best bet is going in store because I'm having a pain in the butt time looking online - oh dial up, you're so cute *glares*.


      In other news, in a previous post I mentioned being Wizardmon for Ikasucon 2013. This was before I really did any pricing and pushed back some confidence issues lol Beelzemon was the original plan but self esteem issues made me veer from him for a while until the urge to make the outfit came back to me. Before I truly decided, I went through the process of comparing material costs and somehow Beelzemon won in the end (even if I were to splurge $70-$80 on a pair of boots, the materials for Bee would still be less than Wizardmon. Strange isn't it?).
     I'm actually quite excited and have even begun doing his helmet prototypes in card stock - though any helpful tips on how to be successful in my endeavor would be glorious! Currently my hair is a decent color for Beelzemon, but I think I'll end up buying a wig once the convention date is closer since I have plans to change my hair as we speak. Nothing harsh and drastic so I COULD change back to the yellow tones if I wanted                      (image (c) Santiatier on deviantart)
but still something different than Bee's hair lol

   I'm excited for this as it's the first time I've tried anything with armour bits and even a helmet/mask piece (or even fur and leather for that matter lol) so I wish myself luck on this and hope I can show you guys something nice lol

Thanks for reading,
Hachi

-clears throat- Oops

      Ahhh I never fully finished my vest project (I need to finish sewing the lining to the vest around the armholes and just haven't gotten around to it for whatever reason lol) and despite it not being an expansive amount of time, Ohayocon has already come and gone and I haven't even shown you guys photos!
    Ohayocon 2013 was January 18th through 20th; this is my second attendance, my first being 2010 for Saturday only, and this was Taka's first Ohayocon experience! For class and badge pickup that Friday, I dressed as Isabella Yamamoto from Paradise Kiss (Live Action) by raiding my closet and wearing one of my newer wigs while Taka did a thrown together Ruki of the GazettE look - we wanted to be comfortable but still feel personally cool lol. Saturday and Sunday were the days we wore our planned costumes, Flandre Scarlet and Patchouli Knowledge from Touhou 6: Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil. We would have had a Remilia Scarlet, but our friend who had begun to commission us for the costume (and even purchased the contacts and wig) couldn't afford the costume nor the badge price so the poor dear couldn't even attend. I think I would have enjoyed being Remilia had our friend not planned to, but I'm still happy that I was Patchouli.

    

  Despite enjoying the cosplay, I had some issues with it that had me panicking last minute and/or have me bothered even now. First issue I have is the stripes - the underlayer of the dress I did, I had sewn the stripes and skirt pieces together but found it to be too tedious so I tried fabric spray paint. Needless to say, it bled and caused me a lot of stress which led to taking the light pink fabric and dying it to a purple that was darker than the overcoat. I nearly cried because of how awful I thought it looked, but when I had it on the dress form and took a photo, the stripes didn't look nearly as bad (I recently acquired my dress form and am hugely thankful for it, especially after working with Patchouli's dress). The second issue is the sleep bonnet which merely bothers me because I feel it's too small (while Taka feels hers is too big lol). I've been thinking of ways I can make it larger with the fabric I have left and I have an idea in the works, but we'll just have to wait and see - the friend who attended the convention with us took these photos and wants to get better ones when spring comes around.

      Patchouli took 14.5 yards of lace, 11 yards of fabric for the bonnet, overcoat, capelet, and boots, 7 yards of fabric for the dress and a foot or so of ribbon (along with random bits of elastic and felt lol). Taka thrifted the blouse and already had the white skirt/petticoat beneath the red skirt from a previous project. I believe she purchased 6 yards of red, 3 yards of white and a yard of yellow? (I used to know, but now forget lol). The wings are set on a backpack harness and made of wire, Christmas lights [oh yes they do light up!], and glossed/painted tissue paper while the gems are made from plastic folders and acrylic paint. Her father helped her with the wings and I think they did an amazing job - so many people stopped her, even those who don't know the series.

      Some singles in which my face is covered because my wig and face were being goofy lol

     In more recent events, I finally went ahead and bleached my hair - I had decided on doing my hair and makeup but it took me a week or two to actually get around to it. The photo pictured was taken Thursday February 7th

FIT 110 and a mix of halloween white cream makeup were used for the foundation
Maybelline cream liner, black shadow and black pencil liner were used on my lips and eyes
a Maybelline palette was used for contouring my nose and brows

teasing brush and nylon brush with a flat iron to flip out some layers - my hair had slightly fallen for this photo but it was the best shot of the makeup

I'll try to get back into the swing of things and work on more projects <3
Thanks for reading,
Hachi

Videos, Tutorials and Cosplay

     Yeah about those videos.... :/

     I have videos recorded regarding FOAF's upcoming plans and a tutorial/watch me do this makeup video for my own personal YouTube. I would have them posted already, but my phone, being the only source of high speed internet, says the files are too big and cannot be posted without wifi. I don't have wifi...thus my dilemma.
     For this blog, I'll probably do step by step in photos with pictures of my products which honestly will probably work out better for those interested than the video of me doing it. It took me about 6 and a half minutes and there wasn't much in the way of actually tutoring any of you. I sped it up to about 3 and a half minutes, gave it a little music track - I was pretty proud of it lol
   Anywayyyy ~ for the step by step photos, I'll be sure to take my time. I couldn't tell you why I rushed through it - I can speed it up so the video is shorter etc etc; I suppose it's just my own habit as I'm usually speeding to get ready as to not keep anyone waiting. The video I recorded may still be posted on my personal YouTube, but a nicer, more "professional"(lolwut) video will probably be done at a later date as well as more of my tutorial ideas being posted here photo by photo.

     As for FOAF (Freaks Of A Feather), as much as we want people to help make it a bigger group, it really has been just me and Taka (I guess that works out for Trinity Moon Commissions - our little duo work set up). We have had a decent amount of friends becoming interested in commissioning us and joining in on current and future plans which is great! Now if only they would give us a definite yes or no so we don't get too excited and too ahead of ourselves!
     Ohayocon 2013 is closing in and within the coming weeks, I will be purchasing fabric to begin work on Patchouli Knowledge from Touhou (along with Taka's fabric as she's a bit short right now; she'll be paying me back later). One of our friends has commissioned Remilia Scarlet and Taka will be taking that up while I talk to one of her co-eds about a Jet Black (Cowboy Bebop) cosplay for Whittcon in March. QUITE A WAYS I KNOW! But best to plan much too soon than much too late, right?

     After Touhou - Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil, we want to work on costumes FOR Whittcon - Taka's probably going to do a Sailor Gijinka group with the "Remilia" as Sailor Zapdos (I believe?) and another friend as Sailor Moltres while she's Articuno. I wasn't quite sure I could swing that many costumes in a year as we hope to attend Colossalcon for the first time and are definitely attending Ikasucon 2013, I decided that I would work on the costumes we intended to wear for Colossalcon from the series:

     (~*^*)~ digimon!! As of late, Taka has been extremely excited to begin work on Sakuyamon from the Digimon Series. I was stumped for a while before deciding on Wizardmon (just this past weekend actually). The character has been portrayed with varying shades of hair colour so I was thinking of purchasing a burnt orange wig to be later used for Fujimoto from Ponyo. If I work on Wizardmon for March AND June, I'll be saving myself personal work AND money as I'll be eliminating one costume - an idea that has been increasingly appealing to Taka aside from the fact she's unsure she'll have the money to work on Sakuyamon around Whittcon time.

 

      I think the most difficult part for Wizardmon will be getting the small details like that of the inside of the coat and the zippers etc etc along with getting the hat to stand just so and have the cape cover my face in a certain way. I'm most worried about the designs on the lining, but that's to be thought upon on a later date ~
     I hope to be better with progress photos and fabric shots with Patchouli and maybe even Jet since I'm excited to work on him and will be asking around for help with the boots and arm, but until I get the fabric, I won't really be sure! Until then, I'll just keep telling myself to photograph progress so I can continue writing and hopefully review some wigs, fabric and maybe even contacts soon *^*

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt - Chuck and Brief too~

This is about a month late, but here is me with my Panty and Stocking group! I made the costumes for Brief (the ginger cosplayed by me) and Panty (the blonde cosplayed by a friend ~)

For the most part I used cotton or cotton blends, even with the protopack - it is sagging in this picture since I really wasn't sure of what I was doing; it was my first time really working with props.

Taka (my friend and fellow sprouting seamstress) made her Stocking costume (purple and pink hair) along with our friend's Garterbelt costume (afro lol). I'm pretty sure she used cotton and/or cotton blends as well lol

Finally, we have a humanoid Chuck who is actually a zipper dog in the series; our friend made her costume and the tail and ears herself - I think they came out rather well lol

Our Garterbelt is actually white lol Taka did most of his makeup while she, our friend who was Chuck and I all had a hand in the facial hair at one point or another ~ There were many compliments on his makeup and a few people in disbelief that he is caucasian lol

For Panty's dress, I used a simple halterdress pattern; I had to estimate measurements then finally take it in to fit her when she came for a visit. The dress was a birthday gift of sorts lol

With Brief's outfit, I used a hoodie pattern and a scrub bottom pattern - his design in the show is similar to Ghostbusters so the outfit should have been more like a mechanics uniform, but I had no pattern for that or really any general idea to go about it. I have, however, been given the advice to look for the Kwik Sew 3389 Pattern which is a jumpsuit I assume lol I intend to look this up in the future if I ever want to recreate Brief or just work with more jumpsuits lol
His protopack was made with an altered backpack pattern but next time I want to see what I can do with papier mache - someone who I was talking to before tackling the protopack had actually used a styrofoam cooler lol

Given the things we, as a group, knew could have been done better, we are still quite proud of ourselves as we received an honourable mention; it means a lot to us to get recognition for our hard work. I don't know what we plan to do for Ikasucon 2013 if we rally to go, but I hope we just keep working and improving (:

(photos aside from the first group shot taken and edited by me)

For a further look at Taka and what she does, venture here:

https://www.facebook.com/KagakuCosplay

For a look at our group work visit these:

www.youtube.com/user/FOAFproductions

www.facebook.com/TrinityMoonCommissions

So Tired

I was unexpectedly allowed to stay with a friend this weekend and went garage sale browsing with her on saturday lol We found a painter's mask and some pyramid studs and immediately decided she had to buy them so she could paint the mask then deck it out with the studs and some possible tubing if I can get my hands on it - all together the studs and mask were only $5.25 which is a really good deal lol
I found a really pretty credenza and some nice book shelves but left my money at home so I wouldn't purchase anything lol (though I really wanted that credenza * ^ * )
That night, we went to the movies ~ Dark Shadows! I was really pleased with how good it was and really wanted Barnabas's wardrobe haha
We went for the 10:35 showing and didn't get out until 12:36 or so then went to eat at Waffle House lol so many drunks there at one in the morning.

On another note, I've been trying to draw recently and nothing seems to be coming out right ._. I was able to paint a rose for my mom for Mother's Day, but I haven't really been able to do much else aside from unfinished doodles. I feel rather dissatisfied by this to be honest; I wanted to draw but my tablet and my hand don't seem to be cooperating with each other *pulls out hair*

My artistic abilities must be failing me -.- maybe when I'm in a slightly less stressful environment I'll be able to draw again. Or just continue painting flowers lol (which is odd because I don't like to paint/draw flowers)