Tampere Kuplii 2018 - Save the poor dog!

It's been 84 years since I last updated this blog.
Or at least it feels like it.
And this blog post is SOOOOOOO late. For some reason I didn't even want to see a computer after a school day during spring so... Yeah. And my crahstop didn't even work properly.

But yeah, on 24th of March I visited Tampere Kuplii and attended its cosplay competition too! At first I considered taking part to the convention on Sunday too but in the end my fiancé (who wanted to tag along) and I decided that we wouldn't do that.
For me Tampere Kuplii has become a festival I only want to attend on Saturday since that's the main day for cosplaying.

But, anyway.
We started our trip to Tampere on Friday. It was quite hectic, leaving itself I mean - we were just chilling like "okay, we have a lot of time" and all of sudden many people contacted us like "Could you please bring some stuff with you when you leave?". Yeah, not as chill as we thought it would be...
Anyway we managed to catch our train. The trip went well (except both of us being a little nauseous since we hadn't slept too well - the week before convention both of us worked during the night) and soon we reached our destination! TheOneAndOriginal contacted me during the train trip and confirmed that we were going to spend a little bit of time with her and her friends during the evening.

We slept in the Torni hotel - if you've ever visited Tampere, it's the enormous building right next to the railway station. It wasn't very cheap but well, we could literally see Tampere-Talo when we looked out of the room's window so yeah, talk about staying near to the convention place. :D

The evening went quite well, just relaxing, eating and meeting TheOneAndOriginal and her company. She had also promised to help me during the competition since I cosplayed Avalon and couldn't see literally almost anything - I had covered my face since Avalon's face doesn't show. Usually I've worn a wig with that cosplay but, since I was competing, it was out of question.

And, because I hadn't competed in a long time, guess if I was nervous in the Saturday morning?

...Yup.

I decided to not to put my costume on in the hotel; the streets were full of snow and water (thank you Finnish spring!) and since Avalon's robe is so long that I always step on its hem... The costume would have been ruined during that 300 meter walk so I decided to put on my costume at Tampere-Talo.

When we arrived there I rushed to the dressing room and begun to put on my costume. After that it was time to get photographed!

Photos & edit: Santtu Pajukanta

As you can see, I didn't see anything...
It's been quite a long time since the convention so I don't actually remember that much of it and I'm sorry about it. The whole morning also went in some kind of a blur - I couldn't walk properly, the costume was too hot and I just didn't feel good. And, since this was my fiancés's first convention he has ever attended so I felt kind of guilty that I didn't spend that much time with him...
But soon it was time to go to the stage!

(c) Santtu Pajukanta

As I guessed, I didn't place but it wasn't even a wonder - there were so many brilliant costumes! <3 When I went to get my feedback from the judges (and take my cosplay off) I was told that my costume wasn't that bad and I should keep on competing - for example some materials were quite a bit off etc., but overall my costume was good.
Certainly brought me some motivation to keep on competing - and I will, I just won't attend that many contests than I did a few years ago.

After the contest I went to find my fiancé and texted Henzz that I would go to change my costume. You see, we've been role playing for a while and decided to do a pair cosplay, me as Jeremy and Henzz as Verna.
Sadly there are no photos, even though we took a bunch of selfies but crashing SD card happened. :I At least we had so much fun~!
Oh, and the title of this post... When we were walking around Ankkalampi, we saw a fire truck and fire fighters there. For a while we were like "wtf is happening here" but then it occurred to us; you see, the pond was frozen. There are small stairs at one side of the pond, and from under those stairs we heard a dog barking. I'm still not sure how the dog got there but everybody was clapping when the fire fighters finally got the dog out of there! :')

After that we went to check the Dealer's Hall... And I got a frickin' heart attack because of my fiancé! xD You see, he had told me that he'd stay at the hotel but all of a sudden he was behind me when I turned around! When I checked my phone he had tried to contact me about the Lugia raid which had been going on there but, well, I hadn't noticed. ^^"
And, of course, I had to spend some money on stuff...

The raven necklace by SirRoi, the steampunk earrings by Purple Octopus Jewellery.

(Those are for my upcoming steampunk photoshoot - I still don't know when it will take place but anyway.)

Quite soon after that it was time to say goodbye to Henzz and go back to the hotel, pack some stuff and go to eat something - gosh, I had been waiting for food for the whole day so guess if I was hungry :D
After that we watched Titanic. I know, it sounds like a cliche but it just happens to be one of my all time favourite movies. And the story behind the movie, the actual tale of the ship, it frightens and interests me at the same time, it has always done that.
And during that evening I decided to cosplay Rose DeWitt Bukater next year... :D

Well, when Sunday came it was time to pack rest of the stuff and run to the railway station - the damn elevators of the hotel were always busy and we waited for one for almost 20 minutes, damn it! D:< Fortunately we didn't miss our train.

So, it has been almost half a year since I attended a convention and I have to say that this break has done wonderful things to my passion for cosplay  - I'm actually excited about this hobby again. :') I was supposed to attend Tracon but well, didn't happen for personal economical reasons. Thanks water pipe for breaking during the summer. :I

But yeah, my next convention will be Eura's Manga Day later in September! <3 After that I don't know - I have some plans for Desucon Frostbite but to be honest, Tampere Kuplii sounds like more fun and not spending that much money.
We will see.

Until next time,
Firith.

Cosplay year 2017

I just noticed that I've completely forgotten the birthday of this blog. Well, going to publish my "birthday blog post" later - I still haven't edited all of the pics for it.

But.
Cosplay year 2017.

This year I concentrated more on photoshoots than conventions. Despite it I managed to host my first convention, Euran Mangapäivä II. And yes, it still feels surreal.
I made three new costumes, borrowed a few and photoshooted a couple of old cosplays. x)

I won't make a cosplay compilation pic because I'm lazy and studying InDesign at school right now, oops but continue reading, please - I will list all of the cosplays from this year.

My favourite cosplay this year

Avalon from StarStable Online. Photo © Picair.

Avalon - definitely my favourit one from year 2017. I spent a lot of time sewing and painting the robe and I'm very pleased with the result.

I actually would've wanted to compete with this costume but sadly my version isn't the most original one. In the game itself Avalon's face, hair and hands can't be seen. This is how I pretty much imagined him to look like.
I debuted this costume in Yukicon and wore it again when I modeled for my classmates.

The only contest cosplay this year

Teutonic Knights!Prussia from Hetalia: Axis Powers. Photo © Shiro Samurai.

Oh Prussia, Prussia...

I don't really like this cosplay that much. So many mistakes, I failed the make-up when I was in a hurry, I should've cut the wig... -__-"
But, well, I've made worse cosplays too. *looks at Conchita Wurst from 2015*

I borrowed the costume for Shiro Samurai at NärCon Sommar 2017. I've only worn this costume once and it was at Matsucon in March.

For a Swedish convention

Lord Cob from Tales from Earthsea. Pic © Shiro Samurai. edit by me.

 Yeah, lord Cob... I just wanted to make something simple for NärCon because making a huge costume wasn't even an option (lack of space) and I was too tired to make something difficult (I was working for the whole summer in a factory) so I made this genderfuck beautiful sorcerer from Tales from Earthsea.

Mainly making this was just a joke between me and Shiro Samurai but well, I like this character a lot anyways.

Costume is made by me. My uncle helped me to make the staff. Going to wear Cob for another photoshoot, hopefully in the near future! And probably for some conventions too, not sure yet. 

 

So, those are the costumes I made myself... Then the borrowed ones! x)

Just for photoshoot

Japan from Hetalia: Axis Powers. Photo © Shiro Samurai.

Yep, we photoshooted Japan again in 2017, in March (if I remember correctly). Costume was borrowed from Shiro Samurai. 

For Euran Mangapäivä

Sasuke Uchiha (own design). Photo © Shiro Samurai.

I borrowed this costume from Shiro Samurai, except for the kusanagi which I made myself back in 2013 (...it's almost five years old...). Because Shiro Samurai had wanted to wear his kimono!Itachi costume I decided to be the lil' bro for him. 
And I didn't have any costumes I could've worn... Ayame was my first choice but the jacket is in very bad condition and I'll repair it this year. I want to cosplay the awesome snek again! <3

(Believe it or not, Sasuke and Japan have the same wig.)


I also cosplayed mafia!Francis Bonnefoy in NärCon. I have a pic of him but, well, guess do I have the photo in this PC... Nope, it's in my crashtop laptop. -__-"

At Tracon I didn't cosplay anything - the lecture I was supposed to keep with one of my friends had to be cancelled and my grandfather died just a day before Tracon so... Yeah, I didn't have the hype to make that lecture myself and I'm very sorry about that.
I didn't have a ticket so I just hung around in the yard and gave photoshoots for the few of my friends. I'm going to publish some of those pics at some point - I still haven't had time to edit all of them and I'm very, very sorry about it too! D:

I know that I haven't been very active with blogging these days but well, personal things. Nothing bad but something that takes time - and money - a lot.

But I'll be back in business sooner than you think - and I promise that! <3

Sincerely yours,

Firith.

Avalon photoshoot vol.2... At school!? (2/?)

You can read the first one here.

Yes, it's time for another Avalon picture spam! I haven't made anything for my future cosplays so... Yeah, let's just roll with these. The weather hasn't been good enough for making circle lens reviews either and I'm very sorry about that; whenever the sun is shining I've been sitting at school cursing at my computer so... No can do.

But here are the next pics of my Avalon photoshoot - once again, taken by my awesome classmates! <3

NOTE: I know that this version is a lot like a certain fan art. I would've worn different lenses but, for my great sorrow, all my other pairs of lenses had dried up (except the ones I got from my friend but I can't wear them for many hours) and I wanted to wear lenses with the make-up I had decided to do, so... Yeah. :/

Let's roll!

Photos & photo edit: Jukka Haapasalo

Photos & photo edit: Annika Malinen

Photos & photo edit: Jenina Alajärvi 

And one sneak peek!

Photos & photo edit: Photographer Lisbet Joelsson

I hope that you like these because I surely do! <3
And the best thing is that I still have pictures to post~!! So stay tuned! <3

-Firith

Avalon photoshoot vol.2... At school!? (1/?)

Oh yes.

During the autumn we had a photoshoot session at school - I modeled and my classmates practised photographing & advicing the model.
This is going to be a long photospam but I hope that you'd check the pictures since my classmates truly deserve that. They're very talented in both photographing and photo editing. I truly enjoyed working with them. <3

The costume I wore was Avalon since the campus area provides perfect backgrounds for this character.

NOTE: I know that this version is a lot like a certain fan art. I would've worn different lenses but, for my great sorrow, all my other pairs of lenses had dried up (except the ones I got from my friend but I can't wear them for many hours) and I wanted to wear lenses with the make-up I had decided to do, so... Yeah. :/

But let's go on with this post!! <3

First the pictures by Picair! <3
Pictures: Picair
Photo edit: Picair 

 Photos & photo edit: Kaisa Hyvärinen

And the last picture to the photo spam!

Photos & edits: Jaakko Pöntinen

There are so many pics that I really can't put all of them in just one post... :'D Had I done that this post would've been a bit too long - but this only means that there are other photospams coming up! Stay tuned~!

-Firith 

The menthor and the student - Avalon + Avalon & Linda photoshoot!

Here are the photoshoot pictures I mentioned in my Yukicon 4.0 summary!

Character: Avalon
Game: StarStable Online
Cosplayer: yours truly
Pictures & picture edit: megurinemagnet

Blogger pls could you stop ruining the quality... 

And then the pair cosplay pictures!

Characters: Avalon and Linda
Game(s): StarStable Online, Linda is originally from Starshine Legacy
Cosplayers: Avalon; yours truly, Linda: Merezone
Pictures & picture edit: megurinemagnet

The book prop is made by Merezone; it's The Book of Aideen. Aideen is, according to The Legend of Jorvik, the girl who brought the light and life to the island.

And, of course, there's a bonus pic... xD A random car suddenly honked somewhere and I cracked up - which resulted in Merezone cracking up too. :'D

"OMG it's The Book of Aideen!!" :DD 

But there they are~!
Thank you megurinemagnet for photoshooting us and editing the pictures! <3
And of course thanks to Merezone for being my partner in crime~!

Lens reviews and WIP posts (and a small surprise for you all) coming soon~!

-Firith

Yukicon 4.0 - "F-cking druids!"

Yukicon 4.0 is over now and I'm super tired at the moment - but that doesn't mean that the con would have been bad. No, quite the opposite!

Friday (pre-con)

I left Rauma to Helsinki in Friday afternoon. The trip went quite well - except that I managed to amaze myself with my own stupidity when I changed the bus in Espoo (I had bought a ticket there since I was originally supposed to sleep the night between Friday and Saturday there but things happened and I had to go to Helsinki). Anyway, I found my way to Kamppi where Hant and Miru were already waiting for me.
We went to Hant's place - it was already quite late so there was no reason to hang out in the center of Helsinki - and begun to create a logical solution to this problem: how to fit four people in the small apartment (yes, we were waiting for Hanny to join us a bit later). You see, I was the one who called Hant just a couple of days before the con and asked him if I could sleep at his place that night... I'm sorry if I caused some extra headache ^^"

Anyway, we solved the problem quite quickly!

My "bed" for that night. Yep, a bed made out of pillows, sleeping bag and almost empty lilo.

Hanny joined us an hour or so later - at that point everybody was kind of tired already but we still had to check the bus timetables etc. for Saturday - we wanted to be at Kokoustamo quite early.

We decided to wake up at seven o'clock in the morning.
...at that point I literally told them to kick me out of the bed in the morning, if needed. I'm not a morning person AT ALL.

Oh, and this explains the title: I was talking about my costume for Saturday with Miru and Hanny - or actually I was cursing the character design of the druids in StarStable Online.
"Fucking druids."
Yep, their design is quite awesome but the costume was everything but practical to wear. :I

Quite soon we decided to go to bed since it was already well past midnight and we had to wake up early in the morning...

Saturday

I actually managed to wake up at the same time than the others. Quite an achievement for me, really.

I decided not to put on my cosplay just yet. There was water and snow (AND SLUSH) on the ground and it would've ruined the hem of my cosplay completely. Instead of putting on my cosplay I decided to take a shower and do my make-up...
...and at this point I noticed that I had forgotten my foundation at home. FML. Hanny was nice and let me borrow their foundation - thank you so much! <3

Pretty soon we were ready to begin our short travel towards Kokoustamo, the convention place!

The theme for this year's Yukicon was survival games. Yukicon is one of the conventions that concentrates on video games.

When we reached our destination I fetched my badge and decided to hang out outdoors - they were still organizing something inside the building so I didn't want to be in their way.
Pretty soon I found Hanny again and we decided to get something to eat. I hadn't had time to eat in the morning and my stomach was practically screaming for food. Luckily the local Subway restaurant was only half a kilometer away.

Once we had eaten we went back to the convention place and I decided to go to put on my cosplay - and to find my gamer friend to whom I had promised to style a Bill Cipher wig (I didn't make a tutorial about it since the internet is full of better tutorials). Luckily I found them quite soon and together we begun our search for dressing rooms.
It took a lot more time to put on my cosplay than I had expected - and gosh, that costume is a damn sauna! Totally one for winter conventions (note to self: do NOT take this costume with you to Närcon if you manage to attend it this year).

When I had managed to put my cosplay on I decided to walk around the place and see if there was anybody I happen to know.

A couple of pics of the lobby. These were taken in the evening though; I couldn't photograph anything in that costume.

Quite soon I ran into Merezone and Btloov. They were looking for other members of Frosty Hearts Legacy - our club in SSO, run by Merezone - and we decided to wait for them next to the cloak room.
Apparently it was difficult to find us among so many people but in the end we found everybody we had been looking for. The whole squad decided to go to check the Dealers' Hall - it was fun but it was definitely difficult to try to walk there with Avalon's clothing. I tripped on my hem more than ten times and I'm still amazed that I didn't do a faceplant on the ground.

Some view from the Dealers' Hall. As you can see there were a lot of people.

I was so happy to see that Tiia, the founder of Purple Octopus, was there once again selling the jewelry she had made! Her products are true pieces of art <3

Some close-ups and then Tiia with the products. 

I've bought some jewelry from her in the past and I couldn't help myself this time either... Oops. :')

Because the crowd was quite big I had lost the other members of our squad - until I almost literally ran into Btloov. It was really nice to spend time with him; I had talked to him before but I don't think that I had actually met him IRL until now. It was so nice to get to know him!
At some point I decided to go outside just to get some fresh air - and then I ran into some Fruits Basket cosplayers! They were cosplaying Honda Tohru, Uotani Arisa and Hanajima Saki. Guess if I fanboyed for a moment? ...yes.
I chatted with those cosplayers for a while, they were so nice to talk to! I would've wanted to take a picture of them but I didn't have my camera with me at that moment and I didn't see them later anymore. No can do.

When I went back inside I found Btloov again and we decided to back to the Dealers' Hall. At this point we also wanted to check out the flea market.

The flea market room wasn't very big so it was quite crowded most of the time.

Only a couple of minutes later we ran into Merezone at Artists' Alley. At this point I sent a message to megurinemagnet who had kindly promised to take a photoshoot of my Avalon costume. I asked her when she would have time for it - and she answered that she had quite a lot of time just that moment! I decided to go to the photoshoot with Merezone since we wanted to take some pair cosplay pictures too (she was cosplaying Linda from Starshine Legacy).
When we met megurinemagnet I asked her if it would be okay if we took some pair cosplay photos too and she said yes (in the end she ended up photoshooting Merezone's cosplay too)! Thank you so much! <3
(I will put the photoshoot pictures on a separate post.)

When the photoshoot ended Merezone and I rushed to the 2nd floor; you see, we were supposed to host a lecture about StarStable Online and especially (cyber) bullying. Before that we had a club meeting. It was so nice to see the other members of Frosty Hearts Legacy - I hadn't seen most of them ever so it was nice to get to know new people!
Merezone filmed our lecture. Even though there wasn't that much audience I think that the lecture went quite well~

After the lecture I noticed that Trixena had tried to contact me and I decided to go to look for her. You see, I had booked a hotel room for us (Holiday Inn is basically in the same building than the convention place itself, it's like 50 meters away) and both of us wanted to go to check the room and leave some of our stuff there.
Once in the hotel room I decided to take off my cosplay. I really liked cosplaying Avalon but sadly that costume isn't very practical in conventions... :( I'm going to cosplay him in the future again though!

Tired Firith is tired.

Our hotel room was quite basic - it was roomy, the beds were soft and the bathroom was quite big. And we had a bathtub (which neither of us used though)! *o*

After leaving some of our stuff in the hotel room we decided to go to the Dealers' Hall again. Now I noticed that Head Hunter Store was there selling stuff! I've bought a couple of products from them in the past. This time my budget was too tight so I couldn't by anything from them - but gosh, I will buy that leaf of Lothlórien in the future!

After this we went to sit down in the cafeteria for a while. No, not the Maid Café - even though I had wanted to go there I had no money for such luxury. Well, I can always attend one in the future!

The "normal" café.

We also met Henzz during that evening. It was so lovely to see her - seriously, it had been a year since I had last seen her! She hadn't bought a ticket so we waited and shivered outside in the cold wind until she had to leave (Trixena had already gone to see the Spyro lecture). At this point I decided to go to the green room and get a cup of coffee - and something to eat.

When I was waiting for Trixena I ran into Xaoryuu (almost literally). I decided to hang out with them and their squad for a while - especially because one of our common friends had decided to attend Yukicon too and I hadn't seen her in ages either.
When Trixena came back from the lecture we went to our hotel room, drank some white wine and watched a musical called "Tanz der Vampire". I hadn't seen it before but I'm definitely not disappointed that I begun to watch it. If musicals and vampires are your thing I recommend this one - especially the German version of it.

We went to sleep quite early - both of us were very tired.

Sunday

We woke up at eight o'clock in the morning. Or, well, Trixena did. I just zombie walked my way to the shower, showered quickly, put on my casual gear and went back to bed. I had no intentions to put on a cosplay on Sunday so I decided to sleep an hour more (during that time Trixena did her make-up).
When she had kicked me up we decided to go to have some breakfast. I decided to check my Facebook while eating and noticed that my friend, Bloodyflowercosplay, needed a photographer. I quickly messaged her that I could take pictures of their cosplays (Bloodyflowercosplay cosplayed Petra Ral and her girlfriend cosplayed Levi Ackermann, both characters are from Shingeki no Kyojin).

After eating I went to take that photoshoot of them - you'll see the pictures in the near future! ^__^

After that I went to fetch my luggage etc. from the hotel room, gave the hotel room key cards back to the receptionist and begun to waddle my way towards the railway station of Pasila.
When I was waiting for my bus in Kamppi I noticed that some people had asked in a certain group if there was someone who could hang out with them. I decided to be a bit more social than usually and messaged them that I could hang out with them for a couple of hours.

And that's how I got two new friends <3

My con loot this time wasn't that big but here are a couple of pictures:

I bought these Demonia Concord 108 shoes from Trixena <3

I entered Genrewear's raffle and won this! Yep, I'm a Potterhead for life. x) 

Well, that's basically it - Yukicon 4.0 from my point of view.
Except that there's still more...

...random picture spam!

Finally they decided to prevent people from hanging out in that corridor... Last year it was full of people and walking there was definitely mission impossible.

Miru...

...and Hant. I know, I'm that lovely "paparazzi friend". :'D 

Seems like the security officer had fun. x) 

Now, there it is!
Thank you everyone who kept me company! <3

Oh, and by the way... I'm not going to Tampere Kuplii this year. There's another event at the same time and I want to attend this other event - heck, it might be my last chance ever to attend it. That's why I chose it over Tampere Kuplii.

But yes, photoshoot pictures, lens reviews and WIP posts coming soon~!

-Firith