Cosvision 2016 - it scarred me.

(Or actually Cosvision didn't but I'll tell you more about the title later.)

Cosvision is over now and I'm super tired but I'm trying to write this blog post before I forget everything I have in mind.

So, on Friday I left work a bit earlier than usually (half an hour or so) and went home to wait for Lawi with whom I would travel to Hämeenlinna. After 4 p.m she and her mother (also known as our driver) arrived at my place and we started our trip to Hämeenlinna.

The weather was kind of... Interesting. Everything between snow and rain poured down to the earth and I have to say that I was in a little panic. Luckily nothing bad happened to us but I guess that it tells you enough about the weather that someone had actually driven off the road so... Yeah.

We arrived to Hämeenlinna in the early evening and went to our hotel. They had a room on their own and I had booked two rooms for Shiro Samurai, Frozen Angel and Sacchan. They would arrive later so I had promised to inform the hotel about the late arrival etc. Anyway, I got the key card for one of the rooms and took my stuff there. 

We had decided with Lawi and her mother that we would walk around Hämeenlinna and get familiar with the city. We were very happy to notice that Valintatalo (a market) and the convention place itself were pretty near to the hotel! There were also many good places nearby for photoshoots. 

After our little walk (and visiting Valintatalo to get something to eat and drink) I decided to go and sit in the hotel room. I also tried to make a vlog but my camera decided not to cooperate with me (fuck you camaro). 

I was pretty happy to have my laptop with me because I would have been bored as hell without it while waiting for my company to arrive.

At some point I decided to have a glass of wine and Lawi kept me company for a few hours. We laughed our asses off because she said something like "the abuse of coca" while meaning Coca-Cola... We were pretty tired. xD

Twenty to twelve p.m I had a small heart attack when my mobile phone decided to tell me that it's alive - in other words, Frozen Angel called me and told that they were in Hämeenlinna and would arrive to the hotel soon. I went outside to greet them and believe me, I was super happy when I saw them - it had been AGES since I had last seen them! ;__; 

We had decided that Shiro Samurai and Sacchan would sleep in one room and Frozen Angel and I would take the other room. We all decided together that we would wake up at 8:00 a.m. and then we decided to get some sleep - well, I managed to fall asleep at 2:30 a.m. or so...


I had decided to cosplay 2p!France on Saturday. Even though I didn't make anything myself for that costume it nearly drove me insane because I just couldn't find a right kind of a dress shirt for it but luckily Frozen Angel had managed to find one for me so I didn't have to cancel my plans. It took us a few hours to get ready but it didn't bother me that much - I enjoyed just spending time with my company.

Hashtag selfie addict.

When we arrived at the con I immediately bumped into Trixena (who had actually tried to contact me but I haven't had time to check my phone, oops) and we begun talking about the con. The area outside the building seemed to be a bit empty but I thought that it was because of the weather which was not that great.
But then we went inside...

There was much lesser crowd that I had expected. Really. I had expected a lot more since Cosvision is that one convention focusing only on cosplay and then... I don't even know what to say. I spent an hour or so chatting with Trixena and greeting Päivi who was in a hurry because of the cosplay competition but had time for a little small talk.
Finally I met my company again and we decided to go to check the Dealer's Hall. There was this guy from whom I've bought a few T-shirts and I decided to go and check his table. And what's the first thing I see? A PERFECT LORD VOLDEMORT FIGURINE. ;__; It cost something like 35 euros so I decided to buy it - I would have felt sorry for myself later if I didn't buy it.

I also bought a Deathly Hallows necklace from Purple Octopus and I just might have ordered a customized Malfoy family crest necklace from her.

After that we were going to see a lecture but then we noticed that it had been cancelled so we didn't have almost anything to do. At this point I think that we decided to visit Valintatalo, buy some food and go to the hotel. Shiro Samurai and Sacchan stayed outside at the ruins nearby the hotel and Frozen Angel and I decided to go to our hotel room...
And at this point I noticed that I had forgotten my jacket at Verkatehdas - the convention place.

In other words that meant that we had to leave the hotel again quite soon and go to Verkatehdas again to get my jacket. We decided to check out the photoshoot places though since we wanted a good place to have a photoshoot of France and Prussia.
It's funny how nobody recognizes 2p!-versions of Hetalia characters, especially if their design isn't that much out of ordinary. For example nobody recognized my France - not that I expected anybody to do that but I find it quite funny in some way.
Anyway, we found good places nearby Verkatehdas. At this point we went back to our hotel room and decided to eat something. Salad and beer, that's my diet. :DD
I also had some kind of an anxiety attack for some reason and I was so lucky to have Frozen Angel with me (Shiro Samurai and Sacchan had gone somewhere for a food hunt)... Those anxiety attacks can turn out to be hellish and it's not nice to be alone when you get one, I can tell you that.

Pretty soon it was time for a photoshoot!
It was freezing as hell outside without my jacket - my arms were frozen, my feet hurt and posing for camera felt almost an impossible task to do. For some reason (probably because of the dry skin) my chest was very itchy and because I'm known for my intelligence I decided to scratch it... Doesn't sound too bad yet but wait for it.

At first we decided to photoshoot my France. Here we go!
(And remember kids, never start smoking. It kills you. Slowly but surely.)

Lying on that staircase killed my back but I love how well the pictures turned out! ;__;

After this shoot it was time for the France/Prussia photoshoot.
Note; Frozen Angel and I are just friends. Very good friends indeed, but just friends. And if you definitely dislike PruFran/FranPru pairing, scroll past these pics. I'm not forcing you to watch them. Thank you.

All of the pictures above © Shiro Samurai.

After taking these pics everybody was so frozen that we could have found a choir and start to sing "Let It Go" so we decided to retire back to the hotel. Shiro Samurai and Frozen Angel decided to go to the rooms while Sacchan and I decided to have a glass of white wine - tasted damn good!
When we tried to take the elevator upstairs (the rooms were in the 3rd floor) we noticed that Sacchan's hotel room key card had somehow broken and we couldn't make the elevator work. We decided to call Shiro Samurai who kindly came to rescue us.
Then I went to the hotel room, begun to take my costume off... And noticed something very interesting.
I told you that I had been scratching myself during the day. You can't actually see it in the pics since the itching area was under the shirt. And now I have two, almost 10 centimeters long scars on my chest (this explains the title of this post)! The wounds were bleeding a bit and I just stared myself from the mirror like "Eh..!?". Also my shoes had killed my feet pretty badly and walking properly is still out of question.

Cosplay without pain is pretending.
We decided to wake up at 7:30 a.m. next morning. I was so tired that I felt like fainting and fell asleep surprisingly early - 1:30 a.m. 0__0

On Sunday I had decided to cosplay Ayame Sohma. Shiro Samurai had told me that he would cosplay Hatori Sohma but then shit happened and he couldn't do that. Well, someday we will make this pair cosplay - won't we? >:3
He had also bought me some lenses - one pair for Ayame, one pair for Italy from Hetalia (wait for Tracon - I kicked Cicero out of my cosplay list since I haven't got time to make that costume this year) and one pair for Tetsuhiro Morinaga from Koisuru Boukun/The Tyrant falls in Love. I will review the pair for Ayame soon so stay tuned!

Since it was Sunday it meant packing our stuff and so on. For me it was a pain in the ass since my stuff was almost literally EVERYWHERE. I will never learn.
Anyway, this is the first time I managed to make the make-up for Ayame just the way I've always wanted to make it. I'm proud of myself.

Bonjour, madames et messieurs. 

At 12:00 I had finally packed my stuff into Lawi's mother's car and Frozen Angel and I were able to start our walk to the con place - the other two had went there with a car.

At first we just walked around the con place randomly and then we found Lawi. I chatted with her for a while. Then we decided to take a selfie - there's always time for one. Even when you're looking for your photographer.

Believe me or not, we're not related in any way but we look kinda same - excluding the nose thing though since my nose has been broken two times. :I

Soon after we found Shiro Samurai and Sacchan. Since it wasn't raining at that time we decided to go and take photos of my Ayame cosplay.
Photographer © Shiro Samurai.

I'm very pleased with these pics - I just love them! I also noticed that I haven't had a solo photoshoot for Ayame yet - well, that one quick photoshoot in Tracon 2013 doesn't count right now. This is the first real photoshoot I had... And I'm going to make some other Aya's outfits too! The red coat is one of my plans next year... x)
After taking the pics we headed inside to look for Sacchan and Frozen Angel whom we found in the Dealer's Hall. We spent time together for a while and then I decided to visit Valintatalo again since I was running out of cigarettes. When we came back Sacchan went... Well, somewhere and Frozen Angel and I headed back to the Dealer's Hall. There we ran into Trixena, Päivi and Satu. We chatted for a while and Trixena kept us company quite a long while - it was nice to have her around since I don't see her that often either.
There was this epic Dalek cosplayer once again. I had been longing for a chance to speak with him and finally I had that chance! ;__; He was a very nice guy and he had a great sense of humor.

The rest of the con was spent speaking about different topics... And this thing happened: when I was about to say that I was going to get the costume off me someone came and asked if she could take a picture of me! ;__; I was super happy since I'm very pleased with Ayame as a costume but hardly anybody has asked pics of it and now it happened! ;__;
Then it was time for me and Lawi to leave Hämeenlinna. I almost started crying when I had to say "goodbye, see you soon" to my company since I had been missing them so damn much and then suddenly I had to leave again and ugh ;__;

My feelings about the con itself, you ask?
Well, it could have been better but I've also attended worse cons. There could have been more lectures and panels but otherwise the atmosphere at the con was pretty relaxed. I still don't know if the large crowd missing was a good thing or not... But anyway. I had pretty much fun in Cosvision and I would attend it again! There's some things they could improve but I still enjoyed attending the con, meeting my friends and spending time with them.

Some bonus pics...

It was completely freezing and Frozen Angel decided to hug the hell out of me when I begun to feel like I had been made out of ice.

Eyes please, could you even try..?

"There's a fucking branch in my wig! Damn birch! :I"

See you in a next WIP post - or perhaps in a lens review post? ;)

-Firith

Tampere Kuplii 2016 - let's keep it laconic.

Yep, let's keep it laconic since there's not really that much to tell you.

Because my sewing machine decided to have a holiday with a horrible timing I didn't have time to finish Chikane and that meant no competing for me. This was the second time that it happened to me with this cosplay and I'm seriously starting to get annoyed with this.
But anyway I decided to attend the convention on Saturday. Not on Sunday though; I decided to go to the Krav Maga training instead of attending the con. Tampere Kuplii is more like "I'm just hanging out with friends" type of a con and even though it's fun to spend time with friends... Well... This time I didn't feel like staying for two days.

On Friday I left work a bit earlier than usual (fifteen minutes or so) so I could catch the bus on time. I seriously don't like travelling anymore but then I noticed that my little cousin Danya was in the same bus and I went to speak with her (she also goes to conventions a couple of times per year).
When I arrived to Tampere Rikari and Monccu were there waiting for me. I had to go to Cybershop to get the lenses for Severus but then we just hung out for an hour or so when we waited for the rest of the group (Kage, Yuurei, Minskitsin, Terhi and Heini) to arrive - we had decided to go to restaurant HuviRetki and have a nice dinner.
When we were waiting for them at the railway station a drunkard came to me and Rikari and begun to speak to me.

"Hey, I'm sorry I have to say this. You're a beautiful young lady (if only my glance could kill the man would be dead by now) but I have to ask you this; why do you have that thing?" and then he pointed at my lip piercing. I stared at him for a while and just told him that I like piercings and tattoos and I'm likely to get more of them in the future.
It seems like I'm some kind of a drunkard magnet or something... This always happens to me. ":D"

Anyway, the rest of our group arrived soon enough and then we went to get some food. I was a bit worried about the eating thing since my stomach has been malfunctioning for a few months now and eating... Well, I eat because I want to stay alive but I don't still enjoy it. Somehow I still managed to eat some chicken and French fries without constant burping.
Gure and Jarkko had kindly promised that I could stay at their place and Gure came to collect me from the center of the city in the evening - before that I had already met Asuka, Hukkai and Alex and had a quick chat with them - and then we went to their place.

Doctor Who and wine is a great combination, I tell you that.

I also tested the lenses I had bought for Severus and then I realized something,..
They were circle lenses.
It's not like I couldn't wear circle lenses but it's not that easy to get them into my eyes since my eyes are so small (and that's also the reason I will never use sclera lenses). It took a few moments of swearing and drying the water that ran from my eyes before the lenses settled into my eye and I was able to see and function normally. After all those lenses are quite nice to wear.

In the Saturday morning I woke up because it was way too damn hot - seriously, I slept on a black leather couch, I had a thick blanket and sun shone directly onto the sofa. I felt like a breakfast bacon while laying on that damn thing and decided to rise up.
Gure and Jarkko were both still sleeping so I had to sneak around the apartment very silently. My mother told me that I should sing so they woke up but I decided not to do that and instead have a shower and put the costume (casual!young!Severus) on.
When I was almost ready they finally woke up and we had a long breakfast since everybody was way too tired to function properly. In the end I got a text message from Shameless that he, Elizzy, Camo and Oona had arrived to Tampere-talo and I finally managed to pack my stuff and get out of the door.
And then we had to run to get to the bus in time... We will never learn.

At Tampere-talo there were pretty many men in suits and women in dresses. They were much older than people in the cons usually and we were like "what the fuck is going on here" before we saw a sign that there was some sort of a meeting in one part of Tampere-talo.
Monccu and Rikari were the first people we met and then we just hung out with them for a while before they decided to get some food - and I decided to find Shameless. It was actually quite an easy task to do since he was waiting for me in the hall.
We (Shameless, Gure, Jarkko and I) also met Joona and hung out with him for a while. We talked about gaming and stuff like that and Gure decided to scare the shit out of me with some Snapchat video filters. My dear friend, if you ever read this: fuck you xD

At some point Shameless and I just hung out - well, we went to the Dealers' Hall and I bought very beautiful necklace from Purple Octopus. I'm way too huge Harry Potter fan and I collect stuff related to it. I might never actually use this necklace but it's way too beautiful so I had to have it ;;___;;

And then we had a photoshoot of my Severus cosplay. Pictures © Shameless, (shitty) photoshopping by me.
I've just started to photoshop some things. I don't do much but usually I try to search a better background for the pics. Now I just did it to one pic but still.

A cookie for the one who recognizes the book I'm reading.

Tried to decrease the amount of light and make the shades of black more intensive.

Well, I'm not a wizard with Photoshop but anyway.

Then I took a few pictures of other cosplayers. I didn't actually do much else since, well, I fell almost unconscious at one point (thank God I had Shameless with me) and then I heard that my brother was in the hospital and... Yeah. Even though it was snowing heavily I had to get out of the house because I felt like I would have started hyperventilating,
In the end of the day I bid my gang farewell and walked to the bus station with Rikari. I managed to catch my bus in time and started my travel to home.

There's not much more to say, here are the pics of the other cosplayers.
And I tell you, even though the photoshopping is quite simple it takes time quite a bit. My respect towards those who can actually use the said program increases every time I try to manipulate the pictures.
Oh, and I didn't manipulate every pic since, well, I didn't have time and I was unsure about the backgrounds for them so I decided not to do anything to them. Oh, and the background pictures are taken on Google.

Monccu as lolita and Rikari as Zone-tan. Gotta love your rapeface, Rikari... :D 

My friend Juuli and her girlfriend Anniina cosplayed Princess Cadence and Shining Armor.

SANS <3 

I bumped into this Armin cosplayer and I love that costume! <3

There!
And, my Cosvision cosplay plans...

On Saturday I will cosplay 2p!France. I don't have time to make his real costume... :I And on Sunday I will cosplay Ayame Sohma once again. :DD See you there!

-Firith

Tampere Kuplii 2016 cosplay plans

Since my cosplay plans for Tampere Kuplii 2016 have changed a bit I decided to update them here too. I will attend the event next weekend and sadly I won't be able to take part to the cosplay competition - my sewing machine decided to have a holiday and completely just... Broke. After an angry staring contest with it I decided to make Chikane ready some other time (the costume is nearly ready now!) and concentrate on something else.

So.

Saturday

Young Severus Snape from Harry Potter. Note; I don't have this costume at ready yet so I'll be cosplaying a casual version of him. I'm likely to dress in my black jeans, black cowboy boots and black polo shirt since, well, it's almost the greatest joke in the fandom how much Severus reminds people about an overgrown bat. 

I don't have the wand for him either and I won't use Ebony's wand for him so that costume will really be... Casual. Another option for Saturday is Ayame but I really don't feel like putting any "real" cosplay costume on. Of course this will be a real one too but... Nah, you get it. 

Sunday

If I'll cosplay anyone on Sunday it will be Josh. Another option was Itachi but that costume needs some fixing and the wig is quite horrible to wear so no can do. And I actually like Josh as a costume very much; even though I made nothing for it myself the costume still looks good and I actually look like the character. Not to mention I just simply love Josh; he doesn't speak that much and I've always seen him as a young rebel.

So there are my cosplay plans for the weekend! Shameless will also attend the con on Saturday but I have no idea what he's going to wear probably because even he doesn't know what to wear lol so I have no idea if we'll have a pair cosplay or not. 

And hopefully I'll get a new sewing machine/I manage to fix that one before it's time to start sewing the costume(s) for Cosvision... *bangs head to the wall*

Firith

"Mä vihaan tätä madafakin darraa" - Yukicon 3.0

In English the title means "I hate this motherfucking hangover" because that's exactly how I've been feeling for a few days now. Ugh.

As you can see I decided to write only in English. At first I'd like to apologize for every spelling mistake and grammar error; I write and speak Finnish better than English and sometimes it's pretty difficult to translate things from one language to another.
But let's begin with this post which will be all about Yukicon 3.0!

I left Harjavalta (well, I don't actually live there but that's where I had to go if I wanted to travel with Onnibus) to Espoo on Friday. In the morning I had been quite stressed and almost forgot some parts of my costumes and other important stuff at home... Well done, Firith, well done.
It took two and a half hours to get into Espoo where my friend Annika was waiting for me (actually she was a bit late because the public transport in Espoo sucks). At first we visited IKEA quickly - not to buy any furniture but to eat something, except that the kitchen closed just when we got there so it was one of those "no can do" situations. Then we just decided to travel to her apartment and do something nice; we drank way too much tea and had fun. At some point I decided to try and get some sleep because on Saturday I had a Starshine Legacy lecture to host and I didn't want to sleep in front of the audience.

Saturday

On Saturday I dressed up as Josh from Starshine Legacy. He doesn't have that big of a role in the games but I'm still very fond of that character. I didn't post almost anything about him earlier because I just bought the clothing for that costume so there really wasn't anything to tell about.

The selfie I took at Annika's place before I left to the con.

At first we had to take a bus to Leppävaara and from there we took the train to Pasila. Annika didn't actually attend the con but because I suck at using the public transport she showed me the route to the con place. 

The first sight I was met with was a quite long queue; people were waiting for the paper tickets to be transferred to the wristbands. I went to stand in the queue too because I had to get the wristbands to Shameless and Henzz who hadn't arrived yet. 

Then I went to get my badge... And apparently I'm not the only person who hears things sometimes in a wrong way because at first they thought that my first name was my last name and... Well, stuff like that. I don't blame them, I don't always speak very clearly so that was probably my own fault.

Since I didn't know where everybody was and Shameless told me that they wouldn't be at the con place very soon I decided to take a look around the Dealer's Hall - and there I ran (almost literally) into Hant and Hanny. I think that none of us was that familiar with the convention place since it had changed from last year so pretty soon we decided to have a look around.

Then we found the rest of Hant and Hanny's 'convention gang' and I felt a bit outsider for a while since I didn't know any of them - actually I think that I hadn't talked even to Hanny before so Hant was really the only one I knew so... Yeah. But well, I actually had to check my phone every now and then so I would get some information from Shameless in time. I had told them to wait outside; it wouldn't take me that long to get out of the building but at that time they were in a subway so it would take them some time to get to Pasila,.. 

Pretty soon Miru (who was also one of the people I didn't know before Yukicon's Saturday) appeared from somewhere. At that moment I understood one thing...

I had no idea where the room called 'Peach' was.

And the said room was the one that had been booked for me to have my lecture...

I quickly explained my problem while I tried to look for the location of that room on Yukicon's web site. Unfortunately I didn't find information there - at least not that quickly - but then Miru happened to have the program and we were able to locate the room in theory. After a while of room hunting we finally found it and then the realization struck me; I would really have that lecture in the afternoon. I was beginning to feel a bit nervous but that feeling went away when we just derped around for a while. 

Then I got the message from Shameless that he was waiting outside with Elizzy, Henzz and Sirkku so I quickly excused myself and started to fight search my way out of the building. And there they were - I was so happy to see them again! ;__; 

For a while we just spent time together (except Henzz who disappeared to look for Jutta) and then we went back upstairs only to find me previous company there. :'D So we just... Sat/lied down/in whatever position we were we hung out. And I got the most beautiful drawing from Shameless - seriously, I almost cried when I got this. 

Just... Seriously. Look at it ;__; Not many people get the real meaning of this drawing but to me this is one of the most important things I own right now. And yes, I stole the picture from Shameless' art album, whoopsie. 

Soon I spotted megurinemagnet and managed to get a photoshoot time from her. I've worked with her before (she took the pictures of my Miku Hatsune cosplay) and I wanted her to take the pictures of Josh too. She was a bit busy but quite soon she appeared again and we went to take some pictures. Here they are! 

(And yes, before anyone asks, I smoke out of habit. Do I consider it clever? No. Am I dumb when I continue doing it? Yes. Am I clever when I consider quitting it? Yes, thought so.)

The young rebel.

"I wonder when I'll get away from here..."

" -chuckle- ...well, I might have to wait for that."

"Not interested to take part to the class, bitches."

"Fuck it all."

When the photoshoot was reaching its end we ran into Trixena and I ended up chatting with her for a while. She also promised me that she would come and see my Starshine Legacy lecture and we talked about the games for a while. When some of her other friends appeared I excused myself and looked for my previous company. 

The derp level of Saturday was this:

"I yawned so hard that my eyes fell off!" - Elizzy 2k16. I have no idea what she was actually trying to say but I laughed at that way too much. :'D We were all more or less tired but I was getting more and more nervous about my lecture - and then I understood that I had left my medicine at Annika's place. Not many people know about it but I got medicine for my anxiety disorder a while ago and now when I would have needed them... I didn't have them.

Luckily Shameless managed to make me relax a bit.

But my feelings before the lecture.

"I'm a bit nervous" would have been the understatement of this and the previous year.

I was fucking afraid to go there. I just wanted to run away. I wanted to shout and cry but I knew that I had to keep myself composed, at least on some level. I counted minutes when I could go to 'Peach' and get everything ready. 

Outside the room I ran into Merezone who had helped me with my lecture a bit and I'm still very thankful to her that she really had time to do that. We chatted for a while and then... I went to face my destiny. 

The staff was kind and they did their best to make me relax. However, if anybody has ever seen me getting a panic attack... It wasn't that far away. At least I knew that there would be some people to attend the lecture.
And when they opened the door...
A FEW DOZENS OF PEOPLE WALKED IN.

I'm not sure if I looked like this but this actually describes my feelings at that moment way too well.

I still had to wait a few more minutes since they had opened the door ten minutes early so... I just had to wait and sweat.
Merezone had asked me before if she could take my lecture on the video and I said yes. In the video we speak Finnish since there's no way I would host lectures in English just yet. Anyway, I talked (and discussed with the audience) about the psychological point of view of the game series called Starshine Legacy. The game series was published in 2005 by Stabenfeldt and very many people played them at least back then.
After the lecture people told me that the lecture was interesting and funny. Seriously, thank you guys, you were the best audience I could have wished for! ;__; And thank you for answering my questions also; I know that I should warn people next time that I will ask some questions but... Yeah.

After the lecture I hung out with Trixena and we discussed about the games - and concluded that Garnok was actually almost perfect copy of Kraken. The discussion escalated just a bit and we laughed our asses off while thinking about Kraken attacking Jorvik and Alex dressing up as Captain Jack Sparrow and shouting "Don't worry guys, I've got this!"... :"D

I don't even remember what I did after that... Well, I guess that I just casually hung out with my friends (perhaps Hant, Miru, Hanny and some other people whom I didn't know). Then I left the convention place to go back to Annika and during the evening we also went to visit Markus who is also one of my dearest friends.
(And we got lost - we were supposed to walk along the road but we chose the wrong direction, whoops).
When we were finally back to Annika's place we decided to watch a movie. I hadn't seen Edward Scissorhands ever so we decided to watch it - and I just fell in love with Edward's character. Not to mention I love Johnny Depp's talent as an actor... ;__;

Sunday

You know those days when you just don't want to get up from the bed and put a cosplay on? Sunday of Yukicon was exactly like that. I woke up but I didn't feel the tiniest urge to get up. I was so tired that I don't even find the words to describe it. On top of that I didn't feel that well in general but that feeling wasn't too unbearable and I decided to dress up as Darkrai - even though I knew that I was likely to take the costume off at some point.

And of course, before I left to Leppävaara-Pasila-route, I took a selfie.

I hate wearing that costume so much - and it's mainly because of the wig that is just one big son of a bitch. Next time I will use Ayame's wig for this costume and sell this fucker away. Or cut it a lot shorter... 

Anyway, I went to Leppävaara by bus and then to Pasila by train. In the entrance hall I ran into Merezone and we took a selfie. Memories! <3 

Friends! <3 

In the entrance hall I also ran into Lawi who was there chatting with his friends (or her friends; (s)he doesn't care which one I call him but anyway). We just started to walk around the place chatting and laughing at our stupid jokes. Pretty soon I found Shameless and all of a sudden Sirkku, Elizzy and others appeared.
I definitely didn't feel that well in my costume and for half an hour or so I just sat there and leaned against Shameless until I finally decided to go and look for a friend who had a camera. Shameless accompanied me in the hunt. I was lucky; soon enough we met Hant and Miru at the artists' alley and they promised to take a few pictures of me.
I can clearly see in the pics how uncomfortable I was in that costume. I'm very critical when it comes to my facial expression when I try to be serious... And most of the pics didn't turn out as well as I would have wanted to. I'm not blaming Hant; seriously, he's a wonderful photographer, but it seems like I quite much ruined the pictures myself.
At least I learnt a bit how to use Photoshop and made the pics look pretty much darker. I'm not a master-level Photoshop user, but I will learn. I might publish more pictures of Darkrai at some point but now these three will do for a while. Thank you Hant for being patient with me and taking these pictures! ^__^

Well, I didn't photoshop this one that much. Apparently I need to learn more how to manipulate pics, since... Aaaagh. And I need to learn a better make-up technique for Darkrai...

Perhaps my favorite by far.

The contrast in this one is damn strong but it actually has a meaning; I turn my face away from the light which tries to reach me, just like Darkrai would have done. 

After the photoshoot I decided to take off my costume since the wig annoyed me to Hell and back and the whole costume felt awful to wear. Luckily my normal clothes were part of the costume so I didn't need to bring other clothes with me, yay!
There isn't much to tell about Sunday though; mostly I just hung out with my friends. When Trixena and I were at Subway just minding our own business some random guy appeared and asked Trixena to kiss him. o__O Of course she said no but the guy was... Well, he didn't give up that easily and was annoying as hell. His presence really wasn't needed.

Found this on Pinterest a while ago and I thought about this picture immediately when the guy started to invade our personal space. Note; Krav Maga isn't about violence. If the guy had tried something more I would have used some of the techniques I know but violence doesn't solve anything. If you know Maga techniques you need to use them in a rational way.

At the end of the day I left my stuff with Shameless, Elizzy, Henzz and the others and hung out with Hant and Miru for a while - and then they begun to close some areas at the convention place! I had no idea where Shameless and the others were but luckily I ran into Jutta who was looking for Henzz (and Trixena told me that the group had gone to a certain direction so I knew where to begin to look for them).
And, luckily, we found them in a few minutes. I almost had a panic attack to be honest but luckily I didn't; if I get one of those any rational thinking is just erased away.
Then we left to the train station with Shameless and Sirkku and said goodbye to each other. I was almost crying at that point since it's always awful to say goodbye - even though it's just for a while. Hey that rhymes. :D

The rest of the day I spent with Annika and Liisi. We watched videos on YouTube, did the dishes and just randomly derped.

On Monday I was supposed to leave Espoo to Hinnerjoki.
And I did.
But the day was everything than successful.

I have been having these weird symptoms for a while (I think that it's mostly because of the huge amount of stress I've been having for a while) and they started again in the Monday morning. Eating was impossible task to do since I felt like vomiting it all out. We went to IKEA to get some food but I was only able to drink some water and even after that it felt like my intestines were drowned in acid or something.
And I had to travel home.
Two and a half fucking hours.
By bus.

Luckily I felt a bit better when I hopped on a bus and the traveling wasn't that bad in the end but being at work has felt like the worst decision ever, for real. I'm so thankful that I didn't get those nauseating feelings during the convention since that would have ruined the whole con on my part...

The next con I will attend is Tampere Kuplii and this time I will compete with Chikane. I'm not quite sure if I'll cosplay anybody on Sunday of Kuplii but if I do... Well, I still don't know who I'll cosplay then. Probably Josh since I love that costume.
I will also attend Cosvision in April and I already have plans for it! On Saturday I will cosplay France from Hetalia (not sure about the version just yet but I'll try to make his usual outfit) and on Sunday I will cosplay Miku Hatsune (Rotten Girl, Grotesque Romance). This year I'm not going to attend Animecon since I have greater plans for July; Black Sabbath is coming to Finland and since that's my favorite band I bought the ticket already. ;;___;; So, after Cosvision the next convention I'll attend is likely to be Tracon in September.
And I'm not sure if I'll do some photoshoots with Shameless before that; our Sylvar & Butterfly costumes have progressed a bit but there's still a lot to make. But! There will be some WIP posts, I can promise you that! (;

Firith

Ensimmäinen gijinkani, Darkrai./My first gijinka, Darkrai.

Koska en ole tullut hommanneeksi Sylvariin lisää kangasta vielä toistaiseksi, aloin miettiä projektia, johon saisin sisällytettyä ainakin sen suhteellisen suuren määrän mustaa jämäkangasta ja mielellään pitkän, hopeisen peruukkini, jonka ostin Icy-cossiani varten.
Idea Darkraihin lähti siitä, kun keskustelin erään henkilön kanssa Pokémoneista ylipäänsä sekä eritoten juuri elokuvista. Darkrai on ollut aiemminkin mietinnässä, mutta olen työntänyt sen mielessäni taka-alalle. Tämänhetkinen projekti saattaa tarkoittaa joitakin pieniä muutoksia cosplay-suunnitelmissani, mutta no, saanpahan tuon kankaan pois tuosta pyörimästä.
Suunnitelmana oli tehdä asuun tuo takin ja liivin yhdistelmä, hihakkeet sekä säärystimet. Loput osat kehittäisin jostakin. Hahmo on lisäksi Bulbapedian mukaan sukupuoleton, joten päätin tehdä miespuolisen version.

I haven't had the time or money to buy more fabric for my Sylvar costume so a few days ago I started to think about a new project. There were a couple of criteria: I should be able to use a great amount of black fabric which has been in the corner of my room for ages and I should also be able to use the silver-colored wig I bought for my Icy cosplay.
Why Darkrai? Well, I was talking about Pokémon and the movies with one person and that conversation started this project. I've thought about cosplaying Darkrai earlier but for some reason I have never done it before. This project may also mean that some of my cosplay plans for next year may be cancelled but at least I don't have to stare at that black fabric pile in the corner of my room anymore.
My plan: I would make the combination of a cloak and a vest, the arm things (I still don't know the right translation) and the gaiters. The other parts of the costume should be found from my clothing closet. According to Bulbapedia Darkrai doesn't have a clear gender so I decided to make a male Darkrai.

Peruukki/The wig

Peruukilla on pituutta noin metri, ja Darkraihin se sopii sävynsä puolesta täydellisesti. Darkrain tukkalaite olisi semihaastava väkerrettävä, joten mitä oletettavimmin pidän peruukin ihan vain tuollaisena. Mokoma on lisäksi niin ohut, että pitäisi lisäkuituja jostakin vääntää, mutta menkööt noin. 

Jonkin käsittelyn tämä yksilö tosin vaatii ennen varsinaisesti päivänvaloon tuomista, tuo on varsinainen takkupesäke ja äärimmäisen ärsyttävä huoltaa. 

The wig is about 100 centimeters long and the shade of silver is perfect for Darkrai. It would be pretty challenging to make a wig Darkrai actually requires so I guess that I'll just roll with this wig. There aren't a lot of fibers either and at the moment I'm too lazy to order another wig for extra fibers so I think that that wig is good enough.

But at least it needs a proper brushing...

Takki/The coat

Takin mallia mietin pitkään. Oli selvää, että halusin helmasta rikkonaisen ja kauluksen pitäisi olla punainen, mutta kaikki muu olikin sitten vähän auki. Kaksi pääasiallista kysymystäni olivat takin pituus ja se, tekisinkö siihen hihat. 

Lopulta päätin, että takki olisi edestä lyhyempi kuin takaa, enkä tekisi siihen hihoja. Sen sijaan päädyin hiha-asioissa vähän toisenlaiseen ratkaisuun, kuten myöhemmin näette. Kaulus on perus pystykaulus.

Takki on vuorittamaton, ja tarkoituksella myös hieman epäsiistin näköinen syystä että Darkrai = painajainen. Painajaiset eivät ole kauniita. Siispä myöskään versioni Darkraista ei tavallaan ole kovinkaan siisti. Perus langanpätkät sun muut tietenkin siistin pois, mutta se idea, mikä ei Conchitan asun yläosassa toiminut, toimii Darkrain takissa.
Takki on myös edestä avonainen.

It took me a long while to decide what kind of a coat I wanted to make for Darkrai. It was obvious that I wanted to make the hem look 'broken' and the collar should be red, otherwise I had no idea what kind of a coat I should make. The two main issues were the length of the coat and the question "To make or not to make the sleeves?"
In the end I decided that the coat should be shorter at the front side and longer at the back side. I also decided not to make the sleeves. The collar is quite simple - I can't actually explain that in English but you'll see the photoshoot pics soon! 
The coat has no lining and it doesn't look that neat because Darkrai = a nightmare. Nightmares aren't neat or beautiful. That's why the jacket is like it is. Of course there won't be any extra threads or anything like that showing, that's a thing I can promise. 
One can't close the jacket at all; I decided to make things easier for me this time.

Didididididididi Batmaaaaan! ...yeah, this just reminds me about a bat.

Ratkaisu hihaongelmaan/The solution for the sleeve problem

Niin, en tosiaan lähtenyt hihoja väkertämään. Sen sijaan päädyin hihakkeisiin, jota peittävät käteni likipitäen täysin. Osa olkavarresta olisi periaatteessa näkyvissä, mutta paita peittää senkin pienen osan. 

Olen suhteellisen tyytyväinen näihin yksilöihin. Ei muuta sanottavaa näistä, olivat helppo projekti tehtäväksi. Ainoana ongelmana tässä ehkä oli tuon kankaan liukas pinta, mutta ainakin nämä pysyvät suhteellisen hyvin paikallaan.

Yup, I decided not to make the sleeves. Instead of them I decided to make those... Things that are almost sleeves but don't actually attach with the shirt/dress/coat - there is no word for them in English. Those things cover up my arms almost completely. A part of my arm could be seen in theory but the shirt will cover that little part too.
I'm pretty pleased with these things. I have nothing else to say about these since they were pretty easy to make. The only problem might have been the slippery fabric but these don't slide down my arm so... Yeah. 

Semmotteet!

Meikki/The make-up

Toisin kuin referenssikuvassa sanotaan, päätin olla maskeeraamatta kasvojani tummiksi. Tämä ei johdu siitä, että näkisin sen rasistisena tai muutakaan vastaavaa, suurimpana ongelmana on vain rahanpuute - minulla ei tosiaan ole tällä hetkellä varaa käyttää rahojani kasvomaaleihin, pohjustusaineisiin sun muihin vastaaviin.

Sen sijaan päädyin vähän samaan ratkaisuun kuin Halloween-meikissäni; hahmoon sopien loin hieman painajaismaista tunnelmaa kasvoilleni. En siitä sitten tiedä, miten hyvin onnistuin (taidan näyttää lähinnä turpiini saaneelta), mutta myöhemmin ehtii sentään parannella.

Even though Darkrai has a dark face in the reference pic I decided not to paint my face black. No, it's not about the ethnic reasons or anything, I just don't have the money to buy the equipment needed for painting my whole face.
I decided to do Darkrai's make-up like I did my Halloween make-up; I tried to make myself look like a nightmare. I didn't succeed that well (I guess that I look like someone beat me up) but I have always time for improvising.

Peruukkiakin tässä leikelty jo, vaan ei aseteltu. Ja jostain syystä alan uskoa, että perusilmeeni on aika äärimmäisen vihainen, nimimerkki 'tällä tavalla katson ihmisiä muutenkin'.

Yukiconissa nähdään! Darkrain säärystimiä en vielä tehnyt ajan loppuessa kesken, mutta teen ne myöhemmin tänä vuonna.

(Btw, I have considered beginning to write these blog posts only in English. I know that I don't write it that fluently, but I know that there are some people abroad who also read my blog and translating things from one language to another can be tiring. As you can see I got a bit lazy translating the sentences under the pictures - well, I didn't translate them at all... But yes, I might just start to write these completely in English.)

Vuosikatsaus; mitä tein vuonna 2015?

Sorry, only in Finnish this time. :c

Siinä se likipitäen nyt on.
Vuosi 2015.
No, mitäs tästä vuodesta sitten jäi käteen?

4 uutta itsetehtyä asua.
2 uutta valmiskappaleista koottua asua.
2 cosplay-kisaa.
Monta uutta ystävää.
Paljon stressiä.

Siinä se taisi lähinnä tiivistettynä olla, mutta katsotaanpa hieman tarkemmin.

Uudet asut

Miku Hatsune: Rotten Girl, Grotesque Romance.

Tämän vuoden asuista taisi tämä sinihiuksinen psykopaattineitokainen onnistua parhaiten. Yläosan varmaan teen uudestaan jossain kohtaa, mutta muuten olen asuun aika lailla tyytyväinen. En yleisesti ottaen liiemmin pidä naishahmojen cossaamisesta, mutta kaipa se on vähän hahmon luonteesta kiinni, ja Mikussa on monta puolta hyödynnettäväksi.
Joskaan en enää tätä asua laita talviconiin päälleni, yh. Tänä vuonna pidinkin sitä ylläni nimenomaan vain talviconeissa, ja suhteellisen läheltä liippasi, etten paleltunut sen pahemmin. Debyyttinsä tämä yksilö teki Yukiconissa, toisen kerran käytin tätä asua Desucon Frostbitessa (johon en muuten vuonna 2016 ole osallistumassa, ei ole rahaa enkä liiemmin jaksa).

Agent!Ranska - Axis Powers Hetalia

Tästä asusta puolet olen heivannut jo roskakorin puolelle, ja yhä edelleen itken lähinnä verta tuon takin vuoksi. Joku voisi joskus tulla takomaan järkeä päähäni sen suhteen, että ei sinne kisalavalle tuonnäköisellä rätillä mennä. Ainoan esiintymisensä tämä versio Ranskasta koki Yukiconissa, ja sen jälkeen hautasinkin puolet asusta kauimpaan nurkkaan, jonka löysin työhuoneen perukoilta. Taisi olla vuoden samanlaine itkuhuutoraivaricossi kuin vuoden 2014 Levi.
Ranskan tosin kenties haluaisin vielä joskus uusia, mutta katsoo nyt, minkä version. Parempi peruukki ainakin pitänee siihen mennessä hommata, tuon muokkaaminen on semisti haasteellista ainakin noin niinku omasta mielestä.

Alex Cloudmill - Starshine Legacy 4

Vihdoinkin StarStable Onlinen myötä Alexillekin saatiin sukunimi! Mutta joo, Alex Cloudmill oli vuoden ainoa kunnollinen kisacossini ja cossi, johon oikeastaan jopa koin sopivani. Lisäksi pääsin kokeilemaan tämän asun kanssa jotakin uutta, eli tuota pipon kutomista.
Alexia ajattelin cossata myös Yukiconissa, jos en saa Joshia haalittua kasaan, pitää vain katsoa, mitkä asun osat sopivat minulle ja mitkä eivät. Viime kerrasta mieleen jäi nimittäin parhaiten se, että paidan kangas ei joustamattomana antanut mitään venyttelyvaraa, ja istuvuuden kanssa oli vähän niin ja näin. Peruukkikin saattaa olla hieman toisenlainen (Legolas uhratkoon päänahkansa Alexin takia, jos niikseen tulee).

Conchita Wurst. Kuva (c) Vera Pylkkönen.

Sanoinko joskus olleeni tyytyväinen tähän asuun?
Unohtakaa se.
Parantamisen varaa on järjettömän paljon. Tuo peruukki on tällä hetkellä siinä pisteessä, että olen arvellut suoristavani sen - vaikka edelleen se Conchitan peruukkina pysyykin. Mekko... Alaosa onnistui ihan okei, mutta yläosaa en kestä enää edes katsoa. Taitaa olla muutenkin, että väsään Conchitaa varten uuden asun kokonaan jossakin kohtaa.
Tämä näki päivänvalon Traconin lauantaina, Shameless cossaili silloin parinani Jeffree Staria. Kuvia löytyypi enemmän tuolta FabulousGays Cosplayn sivuilta jos kiinnostaapi käydä katsomassa. Olen tosiaan tulevaisuudessakin Conchitaa cossaamassa, mutta itkuhan tässä pääsee, kun tuota asua vähän aikaa tuijottaa.

Sitten ne kootut asut.

Butler!Ranska. Casual!Saksa: Jäätynyt Enkeli.

Butler!Ranskan tosiaan heitin kasaan hetken mielijohteesta, sillä en todellakaan halunnut käyttää sitä agentti!Ranskan asua Frostbitessa. Muistaakseni Ranskaa ei kertaakaan Hetalian aikana nähty butlerina (uusimmasta tuotantokaudesta en oikeastaan tiedä tuon taivaallista, ei oikein ole ollut aikaa seurata animea), mutta no, sillä mentiin mitä kaapista sattui löytymään. Pääsääntöisesti vaatekappaleet kuuluvat Grellin asuun.
Kuten sanottua, tahtoisin edelleen tehdä Ranskasta jonkin muun version. Mainittakoon, että alustavaa puhetta on ollut eräiden versioiden tekemisestä, mutta siitä lisää tuonnempana.

Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way ficistä My Immortal.

Ensimmäistä kertaa ikinä cossasin hahmoa, johon vahva tunnesiteeni on inho. Ebonysta ei yksinkertaisesti voi pitää, tai jos joku pitääkin, en ihan ehkä sitä ymmärrä, mutta eipä ole minun asiani sitten kyllä sekään.
Ebonyn asu oli helppo: hyökkäsin vain parhaan ystäväni vaatekaapille (kiitos, Gure!). Normaalielämässä minua ei ikinä näkyisi tällaisena yhtään missään, mutta jos se poikkeus vahvistaisi sitten sen säännön.
No, tästähän lähti sitten kaveriporukan kanssa idea My Immortal-ryhmäcossista... Katsotaan, jos joskus saataisiin vaikka toteutettua! Tämän tytyn cossaaminen tosin vaatii jonkin verran henkistä kanttia monestakin eri syystä, mutta no, joskus saa vähän hullutella.

Mainittakoon nyt tässä vaiheessa, että en menestynyt Yukiconin enkä Tampere Kupliin kisoissa. Kupliissa oli ainakin erään tuomarin mukaan melko lähellä, etten olisi päässyt vähän pidemmälle, mutta omasta mielestäni tuomarit silti tekivät täysin oikeat valinnat. Ensi vuonna sitten ehkä paremmalla menestyksellä!
Ja stressiä... Sitä muuten oli. Työkiireet painoivat niskaan, piti sitä ylioppilaaksikin valmistua ja aloittaa opinnot avoimessa yliopistossa. Vähän aikaa meni siihenkin rytmiin tottumiseen, mutta no, kunnialla hoidettiin purkkiin tämäkin vuosi.


No mitäs sitten vuonna 2016?

Noh, heti ensimmäiseksi...
Luento Yukiconissa.
Sain ehkä suurimman halvauksen ikinä, kun luentoideani Starshine Legacysta hyväksyttiin. Nyt olenkin yöni viettänyt lukemalla filosofien teorioita maailmanlopusta...

Virallinen mielipiteeni asiasta.

...ja kehityspsykologian eri teorioita. Taisi senkin kirjoittamisesta olla jotakin hyötyä, siitä tämän idean oikeastaan sainkin.

Muutama uusi asu olisi tarkoitus väsätä. Tällä hetkellä työn alla ovat edelleen Chikane sekä uudet asut Sylvar ja Darkrai (gijinka-versiona). Darkrai tosin tulee olemaan aika 50-50-asu niiden osiensa puolesta, sillä osa asusta löytyy ihan vaatekaapistani. Siitä tuleepi suhteellisen pian varmaan oma postauksensa, kunhan nyt vain jaksaisin ommella.
Sylvarista oikeastaan puuttuu enää se kaikkein suurin kangaskasa eli päällyskaapu sekä muiden vaatteiden huolittelut. Nähtäväksi jää, kumman debytoin Yukiconissa, Darkrain vai Sylvarin.

Kisalavalla olisi ehkä kenties tarkoitus pyörähtää.
Conilistasta en oikein osaa enää sanoa mitään, sillä Animecon ja veljeni konfirmaatio menevät just eivätkä melkein päällekäin. Eräs vaihtoehto tietysti olisi se, että olisin Aconissa vain lauantain, mutta katsotaan nyt.

Siinä kenties hieman yhteenvetoa tästä vuodesta.
Toivottelen hyvää uuttavuotta nyt näin etukäteen! ^__^

Ja tosiaan kiitokset Shiro Samuraille tämän blogin ulkoasun päivittämisestä! ^__^

-Firith