Plans for Fan Expo 2016

It has been a fairly quiet summer. It's been so hot this year that I haven't done any photoshoots. I'm still hoping to get some photos of some of my costumes before the cold weather starts to set in. Crossing my fingers to get some photos of Celia, Saki, Sailor Mercury and Super Sailor Chibi Moon. Kind of forgot to finish fixing up my Dilandau costume, but hopefully with help from my friend Adrien, I'll do that soon. I probably won't get a chance to shoot that costume this year, but I would like to get photos of it in the spring or fall in a season when I won't boil in the costume. XD

In terms of Cosplay, I've been on a hiatus from sewing. Making my Sakura costume for Anime North and preparing for the Nominoichi really took a lot out of me. Once I was done making some alterations to Sakura and my Splatoon costumes, post-AN, I stopped thinking about costumes for a couple of months. It wasn't until the end of July that I thought about working on something new. I started watching the DC Super Hero Girls web shorts in early July and I really liked the outfit and character of Barbara Gordon. In the first season of the show she acts as the IT person for Super Hero High. I just got two new pairs of glasses in June and one of the pairs resembles the glasses Barbara wears with her casual outfit. Her civilian outfit has some hints of her new 52 costume design and looks really comfy. I decided to try to Cosplay it so I ordered all the outfit pieces through eBay, Walmart and Amazon. Everything came super fast! I ordered a tank top, crop top, a pair of jeggings, boots and a wig from Arda. The costume turned out to be expensive thanks to the boots and wig, but hopefully it'll be fun to wear! I had to shorten the pants, tank top and crop top. All that's left is getting the wig trimmed. I'm planning to wear the costume on Friday of Fan Expo.

Since it's been a very light year for me for conventions as Atomic Lollipop is no more, I've decided to volunteer to help with the masq at Fan Expo. I'll be getting a badge for the con this year so I'll actually be attending the convention for more than one day. I will be attending Fan Expo for the full day on Friday. I know Saturday of the convention is extremely crowded so I'll probably head down to the con just for the masq itself and if I'm not too tired from helping out with the masq, I would like to go to the con on Sunday afternoon for the Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy panel. Looking forward to seeing the Halloween and Anime goods for sale and being able to see the Artist Alley and Dealer's Areas earlier then the last day so more goods will be available and won't be sold out already. XD It should be a fun event and I'm looking forward to Cosplaying again. Fan Expo 2001 was the first con that I've ever attended so despite its corporate nature, Fan Expo does make me a bit nostalgic. I've made lots of friends through attending Fan Expo so hopefully I'll run into a lot of people that I know there this year! I'm only planning to Cosplay on Friday of the con because of my volunteer commitment on Saturday and the relaxed nature of Sunday. Hopefully I'll be able to go to a photo booth so I can get some photos of my Barbara costume to post here later.

I'll definitely post here after Fan Expo about my experience. As I've already stated, I am hoping to get some shoots done in September. Pan and I have a goofy costume idea in mind that we might try to get done for Halloween or for AN next year. I won't spoil the surprise on that one just yet. We still have to get some fabric for it. I still have the Madoka school uniform on my radar hopefully for AN. I'm still determined to get it done in 2017. Another costume option that I'm considering is Batgirl from the DC Super Hero Girls series. Her outfit is super cute! I know I've wanted to properly Cosplay as Batgirl for years so this version of Batgirl is looking pretty tempting! She has such a cute hoodie and I love the bat jet pack. There is a lot to the outfit that I would need to plan out, but I definitely have it on my wish list!

This may be a quiet year for me in terms of cons, but it does seem to be a fairly productive year for Cosplay. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how much more I can accomplish before we head into 2017!