Thanks to Nika and Tom, here are a couple links to Comic-Con galleries with lots of cosplay photos from our group.

http://weronika.smugmug.com/gallery/9070480_GK2Ya#P-1-12

http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t16/TomtheFanboy/SDCC2009/GirlGenius/

OMGCOMICCONWASAWESOME!

First order of business: my cat is SO HAPPY to have us home again. He's purring in my lap right now.

Second order of business: CON REPORT OF DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! ( Click the cut! )

ETA: I'd also like to announce that over breakfast yesterday Phil informed me that he and Kaja will in fact be attending Kumoricon this year, even though it doesn't say so on the SF calendar. YAY!!!

Alright, I'm off to Comic-Con! See y'all Monday!

I'm happy to say that I'm currently on schedule and my costumes are just about done. Whee! Now I just need to make a quick pair of bloomers, sew a few buttons and such, and help my roommate with her costumes a bit. Tomorrow I'll pack and we'll be on our way to San Diego!

Sheena and I wanted to do some research on where we'd be staying so we contacted wyrmul and he sent me the name and location of our hotel. I freaked. We're staying at the San Diego Marriott Mission Valley Hotel! A FREAKING MARRIOTT HOTEL!!! Not THE Marriott right next to the convention center, but STILL. Here's a link with pictures: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-photos/sanmv-san-diego-marriott-mission-valley/

Holy cow.

Also, MY AANG COSTUME IS DONE! ( Click here for a picture! )

That is all! I'll probably post again tomorrow before we leave, or maybe even later tonight if I have more exciting pictures.

*breathes in deeply and slowly lets the breath out*

And the pre-con stress begins.

I love my mother. From a phone conversation we had:

Mom: "So have you started on your costumes yet for this year?"
Me: "Not yet."
Mom: "Honey, you know you need to start on those soon! Comic-Con's only three months away."

When your mom starts worrying about your cosplay projects like she used to about your homework you know you've scored some cool parents.

ATTENTION FLIST!

My cosplay and convention adventures this year are going to cost a pretty penny and my financial situation is looking pretty un-promising right now as far as covering all of it goes. I'm not going to ask for donations for something like cosplay and convention/hotel/travel expenses because that's just wrong. However I am going to save up all the money I make from commissions for expenses so if you'd like to assist with getting me out to conventions in costume this year a commission request would be greatly appreciated. I'll do head/bust or small sketches for $5, full body sketches for $10, digital or paper-and-pencil. Check here for prices on fancier art types. I also do wigs and might do costumes. Just ask!

Now that the advertising is out of the way, ( how about a costume update? )

And now, a fun meme stolen from rlongbottom: ( Cut for length )

Oh. Em. Gee. I am the luckiest Girl Genius fan in the world. Seriously.

It's hard to believe these past four days happened. There's still a slight haze around me. I'm going to try to write down everything I can remember from the events starting mid-Wednesday and try to do them justice. Here we go!

( Things did not go as planned at first. (WARNING: Very long with LOTS of pictures!) )

I hope you all had fun reading this. I'm tired and hungry so I'm going to go post this in a couple other places and then go eat something.

ETA: I forgot to post the picture of me with the Foglios so now I did. It's near the end. Just scroll up a bit.
ETA #2: I also forgot to post the scan of the first page of the book Phil drew a little sketch in. Lookit!

Wow, it's been a really long time since I've posted an entry here. Been excessively busy working on costumes but I finally got everything done and I'm all set to go to Comic Con! As soon as Sheena gets home we'll be on our way to San Diego. YAY!

I won't be back until Sunday night so I'll see ya then. There will lots of pictures!!

Bye, dollinks!

My internet got installed yesterday morning thanks to my wonderful friend Kris. He had the morning off so he offered to be here when the cable man came because myself and my roommate were at work.

YAY!

And I don't really have anything to show for all my days spent without internet. I really want to get my cape done this weekend and maybe even order my boots though I'm thinking that should probably wait until I get my deposit back from the old apartment.

COMIC CON IS LESS THAN SIX WEEKS AWAY! *dances*

Such a long period of time has past since I last updated on my Maxim costume and I feel like I've hardly done anything at all. I HAVE done quite a bit of ordering, though. I believe all I have left to order are the boots. The wig should be here any day now (SQUEEE!!!) and I just ordered the sword and belt buckles so they should be arriving within a week. However, the buckles I accidently sent to my parents' place so unless I can convince my parents to ship them down here to me once I they get there I won't have them in my hands until June 23 which is when I plan to visit them next. That's okay, though. All I plan on doing to them is coloring them with rub n' buff and that stuff takes, literally, 30 seconds to dry.

Still... I was hoping to have everything together very soon for a photo shoot... *sniffles* Maybe I can photoshop some buckles into the pictures, lol.

I'm STILL cutting out the pieces for the shirt and plan on sewing it today. The cutting part is always so tedious and frustrating. Once I get it all cut out the rest will be fun and engaging and I should have no trouble getting the sewing done quickly.

After that I'll have to figure out the cape. I'm not using a pattern so I have to do all the measuring and pattern-ing by hand. It shouldn't be too difficult, though. And I'll only have to cut out two pieces. The sewing will be ridiculously fast. The hardest and most time-consuming part of the cape will be figuring out the pattern.

I'm wondering if I can get the shirt and cape done tonight... >_> Shall I challenge myself?

... LET'S DO IT!

Although I have to note that finishing the shirt will NOT include the cuff on the right hand. See, I'm now considering actually doing the prosthetic arm/glove/gauntlet/whatever that thing is. I even found someone who's willing to do the arm part and then make the red pieces that go on the hand. I could probably do the rest no problem. All I'll need is a black glove, probably leather, and maybe use some craft foam. I might even look up some tutorials and look into using other materials like plastics.

So for now I'm foregoing the cuff to wait and see if I end up doing the arm. If not I can always whip up the cuff fairly quickly. And I may just make the cuff later on anyways so I have some variation.

Along with all of this I'm also helping my roommate with her Zeetha costume. We're probably commissioning the swords but we're making everything else ourselves. Or rather, Sheena *wants* to do everything herself but she's not exactly experienced or skillful in the sewing and crafts department so I'm basically doing everything and letting her help wherever she can (i.e. cutting out pre-marked pieces of craft foam, painting stuff the colors I designate, being a live model for the measuring, etc...).

I'll also be helping yanocchi with her castle!Agatha costume which may be difficult considering we live a state away from each other. I'll be styling her wig for her and probably doing the vest and some stuff on the pants.

And now I ALSO received a commission request for a Toph costume. This one will probably be the easiest of all the costumes I'm doing for Comic Con. In fact, I KNOW it'll be the easiest. The hardest part will most likely be the headband, or maybe the cuffs. Yay for quick and easy costumes and getting paid to do them!

As you can see I've REALLY got my work cut out for me this summer. Let's see how it all goes. My first priority will be the Toph costume because I'll be on contract to finish that one by a specified time. Next will be my own because... well, it's my own costume and I started that one before any of the others. Sheena's and Brooke's will be on a when-I-have-time basis. Sheena will need more help with hers than Brooke will. Plus, I live with Sheena so it'll also be easier to help her.

I'm really not worried about getting all these done on time. Two months is plenty. I'm more worried about money. As long as everyone pays for their materials and I manage to save up enough for my boots, (possibly) the arm/gauntlet/glove thing, and the hotel I'll be good. The money from the commission will help a lot and Sheena also owes me a bit. I also just paid my dad all the money I've owed him for the past year so I'm in almost no debt whatsoever. I'm also doing a TON of show-rate shifts at work and will be doing those almost every day throughout the summer. That should help a lot.

In other news, the apartment Sheena and I went to look at won't work. Apparently the girl that is moving out forgot to ask her roommate (who we'd be living with) if she's allergic to cats. She is. ARGH! However, Janel, my roommate who just moved out, said that she talked to the people at our current appartments and said they'd be willing to give us a discount if we wanted to move into another apartment in the same complex. I'm going to go down to discuss this with them today. It would be awesome if Sheena and I could get a one bedroom and have it all to ourselves.

Okay, things to do today:

- Go grocery shopping
- Talk to people in office about apartment
- Shower
- Get shirt done(ish)
- At least get started on cape

First, go grocery shopping. It's the middle of the day so everyone in the office will be out to lunch until around 2-ish.

Okay, I'm outta here! Will report again tonight.

I JUST BOUGHT THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG it's PERFECT! Seriously, I cannot begin to express the perfectness of this perfect wig.

Okay, so if I ordered my boots, sword, and belt buckles tonight I could have this costume DONE in about two weeks. *SQUEES*

*runs around in circles*

Forget those cheapo $5 plastic teeth I was going to get, LOOK WHAT I FOUND!

Oh man, SO awesome! I was really worried about being able to speak but if you watch the video with the demonstration that guy's speech sounds almost completely normal. And I know I said I wanted those really long bottom fangs so I could get the underbite look but these things are just too neat. And anyway, those fangs would only cover up my canines. My own bottom teeth would be showing. These babies are top and bottom rows of teeth and go pretty far back.

Also, ( CHECK OUT MY SHOULDER ARMOR IN ALL ITS FINISHED GLORY! )

And I just ordered my teeth and ears. The makeup and hat should be arriving in the mail any day now.

I'm also now considering a different sword: http://www.topicool.com/sword/military-collection/military-cavalry-sword-csa-confederate-civil-war-saber-1263.html

It's cheaper, has a black scabbard, and is shorter. The other one was a whopping 43" total and even though I'm not short that's still almost 65% of my height. I would have to hoist that thing pretty high on my hip to keep it from dragging. This one is only 35" which is just about perfect for me. I'm going to wait a few days until I have all my bills paid and stuff and then I'll order it. I also still have to order the boots and buy fabric for the shirt and the flap on the pants. After that it's all little stuff like paint and buttons and buckles and such.

Oh, and of course the wig I have to wait on until it's in stock. They told me mid-May.

OMG, utter awesomeness, you guys!

Dude... total. epic. win. My shoulder armor. Let me show u it.

( LOOKIT! )

SO MUCH WIN!

Also, I may be getting a Dimo for Comic Con!!!

Yay! Everything's working out!

Yesterday I went shopping for materials and such. I got all the things I'll need to make the shoulder armor and I started working on it last night. I also went to a Goodwill store where I found THE PERFECT pair of pants, and then stopped by Joann's to get fabric for the cape and the shoulder armor, plus khaki fabric for the undershirt sleeve and all the buttons I'll need. I also found a great pattern for the shirt but Joann's didn't have it in stock so when I got home I bought it for really cheap on eBay and it should be here in a few days. Once it arrives I'll go back to Joann's and get the fabric for it and try to find some fabric to match the pants as closely as possible so I can make the front flap.

I'm using this tutorial to make the shoulder armor and so far it's working splendidly!

( Anyone for pictures? )

More to come later. I'm going to start working on the shoulder armor fabric and the cape probably tonight.

I just purchased all my makeup stuff and a hat tonight. Yeah, I know I said I'd just use a hat I already had but the more I thought about it the more I realized how difficult it would be to smoothly cover a curvy hat in fabric, even stretchy fabric. So I then started searching for purple hats in the right style. Nada. White hats that I could dye? None in the right style that were a material I could dye and were in my price range. I started frantically searching using any random words I could think of that might bring up the right hat. "Purple felt hat". Bingo! I had to skim through several pages because I didn't type in a specific style but it was worth it. That hat is one-in-a-million! I also kinda like that it's not a bright purple. And the price made me squee with glee.

Phew! Huge load off my shoulders. Now all I have to do is figure out how I'm going to make the shoulder armor and the rest of the costume should be pretty straight-forward. I've actually been thinking over the armor pretty thoroughly and I've found a few foam armor tutorials. This is the one I think I'm going to use primarily, for both the gold edge and the spikes. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and see just how realistically metallic that armor looks!

For the blue base I'm just going to quilt some fabric and tack it on to something, maybe more foam.

Oh yeah, feelin' good about this.

In other news, work is awesome and I LOVE puppeteering. Come to Disneyland and see the Playhouse Disney show!

I've decided for sure that I want to go to Comic Con as Maxim instead of just some random female Jäger. After doing some looking around I found that his costume won't be quite as difficult as I thought. I might even be able spend less money than I had originally thought it would require. Now I need to write everything down that I'll need and keep track of where I'll be able to acquire those things for a reasonable price.

( Here's my list so far and some thoughts about each item. )

ESTIMATED TOTAL = $380-$400

Not bad, actually. I think I can do it. As long as I buy all the stuff gradually and put in some extra hours at work I should be fine. I just got a couple raises so my base rate is about $10.40 now and I'll also be doing three weeks' worth of Playhouse Disney rehearsals at show rate which is $1 more than your base rate, then I'll be doing that regularly once I get gridded and those are all overtime shifts. I'm also working a lot more hours now that I'm just hosting. My health was causing me to miss a lot of work. So yay for moneyz!

I'm also getting about $350 back for taxes but I owe about that much to my dad. HOWEVER, that means I don't have to take $350 out of my own pocket to give to my dad. The only other major thing I have to pay for before July comes around is my car insurance but I've already got that all saved up in my savings account. All the extra money I make in the next few months can go toward my costume. Yee haw!

I'll even set a weekly goal and put that much into my savings account so that I can have $400 saved up by early-mid July. Let's start out with $25 per week.

One last thing: ICON! That's one of my favorite pages of the comic. See, the Jägers were created to be servants and soldiers for the Heterodyne family and Agatha (the blonde girl, main character) is a Heterodyne so she pretty much has command over them. Also, Jägers are very serious about hats. You'll almost never see one without a hat. Feel free to take, just be sure to credit me.

Alright, people. I'm off to Comic Con. I'll be there for all four days so if you're gonna be there don't be a stranger! I'll be dressed up as Wilbur Robinson except still girly because I couldn't finish the wig on time. Argh. Oh well, Halloween costume. Anyway, see'y'all Sunday! I promise I'll update like I said I would when I get back.