WE HAVE MADE IT TO KATSUCON!!!!!!!!! We even almost made it to our hotel before midnight- we would have if not for the super long wait on the fucking drawbridge into Alexandria...bluh.

ANYWAY!!! I spent today gluing wefts to Madara's hairline, which was an exercise in patience and also my back fuckin' hurt ;w; Lotsa leaning and holding small strips of hair while waiting for things to dry, which is the exact sort of thing that fucks with my back D: But his hairline is done and looks beautiful!

...now to style the rest of the wig.

I had to take a break and take a power nap on the couch, and I woke up basically just in time for Liz and Pat to get home. Liz and I ran out to the thrift store and I finally found an acceptable shirt for Ibara - cutting it close! - before rushing back home to start packing. Originally, I wanted to style Madara before leaving, but I realized I'd rather be settled into the hotel room and styling him there, rather than having to drive down in the middle of the night.

So, we made it to National Harbor in surprisingly good time, I found a parking spot right by the con hotel, and we made it into Katsucon in time to pick up our badges*

*Liz and Pat got their badges because panelist badge pickup was open until midnight and regular registration was only open until 11....we showed up at 11:02 and they turned me away ;w; Like, yes, I get that it was past time, but I'm sorry my disabled ass couldn't move faster. Now I have to run down there before the panel tomorrow morning.

uggghhhhhh

I suppose I could sleep earlier tonight, but I still have to style Ibara's wig :T And I wanna make at least some progress on Madara's...

OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Someone in the lobby of our hotel recognized my Double Face nuis!!!!! They saw them while we were checking in and apparently they'll be cosplaying Sora at some point this weekend!! So that was a nice interaction *w* I love cons...

Right now, Liz is sewing wefts into the front of my Ibara wig so the bangs go the right way without any bare spots, and then it'll be back on the wig grind~


locked and loaded to drive down to the con!!!!!! idk why I felt like I needed to dress up, but I sure did drive an hour in that wig~

( more pics inside~ )

OKAAAAAAAY!!! With that, I need to get back to work! No promises on con reports for the rest of the weekend, tho XD

Katsucon is upon us, so it's con crunch!!!!!! I'm of course having a rough pain week, so I'm moving extra slowly :T I managed to set up a wig styling station at the couch, though!


yes, I'm styling a whole new wig for Madara.....spoiled!!!
I'm using a lot of new methods on this wig, because I wasn't happy with how his first wig came out. Luckily, I snagged some cheap wigs from my favorite beauty store, sewed them together, and harvested a bunch of wefts to use for the bangs/hairline.

.........I did run out and have to buy another for the braids, but at least I found one in the same color on clearance for $10! So, in total his new wig has only cost me $22, which I'd say is damn good :D

My fingers are covered in glue right now, which is less good. Also, the whole couch is covered in wig fibers...and I am not enjoying that part. I'm pleased with how it's coming along...just glue and hair everywhere ;w;

Right now I'm actually taking a break from gluing loose hair into wefts because my back hurts so badly. I'm just frustrated!!! It's slowing me down and we leave for the con tomorrow.

...maybe I'll have more caffeine................

Oh!!!!!!!!!! THE ADORABLE KOHAKU AND MADARA BEAR NUIS ARRIVED TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


sobs they're so cute I wanna die they're precious- also featuring Lumos patiently letting me put crap on her for pictures XD
The package also included a rainbow ALKALOID/Crazy:B light stick, some light up Kohaku and Aira stars, and a few doujins :D I'm so glad they made it here before katsu!!!!!!!!! I was afraid they wouldn't, since it was cutting pretty close ;w; BUT HERE THEY ARE!!!

mmkay I'm gonna get back to wig + watching Blazing Saddles, lemme just share some more pictures from today and Liz's birthday :D

( no I'm not procrastinating I'm achy, I have an excuse~ )

...........on the internet, at least XD I've been updating things over on killiansicons and I'm very pleased with what I've gotten accomplished. I finally made a resources post to credit where I've gotten brushes/textures/etc, though it's kinda depressing to see how many dead links there are now ;w; I did my best to track down what I could!!!

And then, because resources were on my mind, I reposted all the ones I've made, with updated preview banners (because I love making sparkly things). I dunno if I'll ever make brushes or textures again, but it was nice to share the ones I did make.

And THEN, since apparently that wasn't enough, I wrote an icon tutorial today, for the first time since 2010. I was midway through making one and decided that yeah, I should continue to share my techniques. I also posted it on tumblr, complete with different graphics...because anything 100x100 gets horrifically resized over there. I'm really pleased with it!!!

I also feel rewarded, because someone in one of the enstars discord servers I'm in ended up following the tutorial and shared what they made ;w; I love helping people, even if I never hear from them, so having someone actually come back with that they did is a lovely treat ♥

Oh!!! In other good news, I got 1st place in an icon contest over on LJ!!!!!!!! It's not my usual style of contest - you start with pre-selected bases and they're mostly stock photography - but I managed to make something really unique. I didn't expect to win, because my style isn't the usual "stock icon" look, so I was pleasantly surprised. It's nice to know that people still like what I make~


I entered both of these and the first one ended up winning!
Tomorrow, we're going to Anime USA!!!!!! It's an impulse decision, but like.......yolo, babeeyyyyyy!!! I've been sick for over a week and only started feeling better today, so the best thing to do is go to an anime convention XD I haven't been since 2015, when it was part of my honeymoon, so it'll be good to be back.

ESPECIALLY cuz it's back in its proper location, the Hyatt Regency Crystal City. I did not like when it moved to Marriott Wardman Park, so I'm glad that whole hotel has been demolished for wronging me~

Anyway! I'm currently watching Pat sew armsleeves so he can cosplay Karkat for the first time in a decade, but soon I gotta get up and work on my Madara wig so Liz and I can be Double Face again. I don't like how the bangs came out, and clearly 11 at night is the best time to start working.

CON CRUNCH CON CRUNCH CON CRUUUUUUUUNCH~~~~~~

aka we leave for Katsucon in approximately 12 hours and we're still sewing and we're in the midst of a minor emergency, starring Pat's sewing machine. His is a really nice, top of the line machine, super good at everything it does, etc etc etc, but it's been in need of servicing for a bit now. And of course now is the time it's decided to be a difficult little shit!!!!! Right when we were working on the top stitching for Legato's coat, aka when it HAS to look perfect.

ENTER THE SAVIOR: Increase Mather, the $90 entry level machine I got my freshman year of college (January 2009), the most basic of basic. He was technically a joint purchase with one of my closest friends in college, but I ended up with him after we both left the school.


Named because of something Cait was reading for class and immediately covered in stickers, because 19-year-old me had some good taste ;D I didn't have a proper table in my dorm room, so I sat on the floor like gremlin and worked XD


Some of the stickers have faded and the plastic has started to yellow, but he's still here and he still works!!!!!
I'm so fucking glad I have a backup machine. Liz does too - theirs is basically a slightly newer version of mine - and we're making use of both. Mine is set up with black thread for sewing all the lining and Liz's has the thicker white thread for sewing pleather. The needles and specialty foot we got are universal, so they work perfectly with even our basic machines.

Just!!!! This isn't the best machine by any means, but I got it because I wanted to make my own cosplays and it's still helping me, even all these years later ;w;

yes I've been up for 20+ hours, how did you know?

aka, I'm doing what I swore I'd never try to do again: make a mood theme. Liz told me about moodthemeinayear and I really like how they break it up into sections; it feels way more feasible. Of course, it started at the beginning of the year, so now I gotta play catch up, but I have homework + katsucon is in a couple days, which means I have plenty of time to do it XD


of course it's fucking Knives & Legato; expect nothing less from me~
I plan on coloring them later, but I'm trying to catch up...I mean, I'm also jumping ahead as I find random manga panels, but that's a me problem. I gotta make myself a reference PSD for coloring them though, since I used pretty much the same colors for all the icons I made...

ANYWAY. I made the mistake of downloading jp enstars because....I hate myself, I guess? I dunno!!!! I just wanted to play the newer songs and now I'm in hell, because the upcoming event features Mayoi and the event boost cards are fucking gorgeous and gacha games are so fucking dangerous for my impulse spending problems XD Seriously though, I've been having fun with the actual rhythm part, but I like having pretty cards (and also that dopamine hit from pulling the random box!!!).

Katsucon is fast approaching and I have to do extra homework ahead of time so I don't have to work on it at the con itself, but uhhhhhhhh focus is hard when I could be glued to Photoshop making this mood theme XD

my brain is mush because I'm hungry and doing homework that's challenging bluhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

anyway

uuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

OH YES!!! YESTERDAY WAS MY WIFE'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! We celebrated by sleeping in, playing video games, working on cosplay for katsu, and going out for dinner :D It was very low-key, which was what they wanted after the all the shit we've been doing lately. I'm glad it was nice for them *w*

Other than that, I have a bunch of homework due today and tomorrow that I've been ignoring in lieu of playing enstars, so like....it's biting me in the ass and that's on me but also fuck me I have so much to do XD

I'm gonna make dinner so I stop being so brain dead that I can't think of what I wanted to say :T baibai

I AM FREEEEEEE I FINALLY FINISHED THE ICON POST I'D BEEN WORKING ON!!!! It's live at killiansicons and I'm very pleased with everything I made for it. Lotsa Trigun, because I, personally, wanted more manga icons......so I made them XD That pretty much sums up why I got into making graphics in the first place, lmao.

Besides that, I found a Trigun mood theme in the depths of LJ, so I don't have to make my own!! I know I'll never finish one - I started one in uhhhh 2009 and it's still not done - and I'm very impressed by people who can do it. Anyway. thx quaint_twilight for your contributions to the world :D

Last night, Pat and Liz did a bunch of work on Legato's coat, helped by projecting reference images on the wall. It was honestly super useful!!


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH (I love nightmare Legato)


Genevieve ended up chasing the cursor across it at one point XD
Anyway, I should probably get back to class XD I have to work on a brief memoir of a specific experience, which is, uh, hard, for a person who has kept a journal for decades, somehow. And then right afterwards, Frecklez is coming over so we can practice for the gaming orchestra tonight. Violin buddies!!!!