I only went to one day of Katsucon, but omg it was fantastic this year!!!!! Alex was house/catsitting for her sister for the weekend, and since her sister lives near DC, it was closer than our place. Sooooo Liz and I headed there Friday night, grabbed a very late dinner at McDonald's with Alex, and then watched a bunch of enstars videos on youtube so Alex was ready to be excited for Absolute uwu

Also, she gifted me an adorable new friend, who goes absolutely perfectly with my CNstars cat nuis ;w; I also made them ice cream cones to match Madara's global exclusive card, and I think they came out really good ♥


if anything happens to my tutulong I'll just fucking die lmao
.....and then I stayed up waaaaaay too late because I'm fucking nocturnal D: Even though we had to wake up at 7 am to drive down early enough to get parking....I'm not smart :T

Liz and I didn't cosplay this year, cuz I didn't feel up to it, so I wore...a wig, a corset, and a floor length skirt XD wig is my Mayoi wig that I haven't styled yet - I pulled it out of the bag on Friday night and was delighted to discover that it's a lacefront - and the skirt is one I made for the Vampire Ball Liz and I went to in 2017. This did end up biting me in the ass because the corset ended up not sitting super well by the end of the night D: But we'll get to that later~

First thoughts on this year's katsu: holy shit I didn't realize how bad lobbyconning had gotten. I could actually move through the halls without be crushed by crowds????? Like, I was there on Saturday and I didn't feel cramped every second of the day. They did move registration to its own building, which freed up space to give Artist Alley a larger location, but still. It was really nice to be able to breathe during the con.

After getting our badges, we ran into some friends of Alex and Liz that they hadn't seen in over a decade, so everyone had a good time catching up. Which is, tbh, a classic Katsucon experience, since so damn many people go.

The first programming we went to was an absolutely delightful performance by Special for Princess!- or should I say Nice? XD Nice Arneb Thunder was MCing and they did a fucking incredible job. like. not to spoil it or anything, but this was such a highlight of my day, idk if anything topped it :0

Also, the esupuri group was just really sweet!!! They seemed so excited and a little surprised that so many people had come out to see them ;w; But seriously, they were quite good and did a good combination of songs and games. The trivia was great for me and Liz, since we actually keep current with the JP stories~ Liz won a tiara for answering some 4piece trivia correctly!

We hit up the Artist Alley for a bit after that, got lost in conversation with a Nagisa cosplayer who usually cosplays Double Face Kohaku, and I was blown away by their gorgeous ita bag. They had so many can badges from the DF TRIP album *w*

....and then we remembered we woke up balls early and Liz & I hadn't eaten :T So after debating a few options, we made our way to our tried and true katsu food: Mezeh. They opened sometime between katsu 2017 and 2018, and we've gone basically every year since. It's affordable and actually filling, especially since they have fresh veggies. Sometimes you gotta get some greens in you- especially at a con!!!

not me sounding like an ad read for my favorite fast casual restaurant lmao

The dealers room is a bit of a blur to me because it's soooooo big and there's so much to see, but I remember it being.....fun? Busy? It was probably one of the more cramped places at the con, but that was partially because some people are just rude. Many people shoving their way through...I didn't come with much money cuz it was a last minute decision to even go, so I wasn't sure about buying anything besides maybe something small from the idol goods booth. But since the idol goods booth wasn't there this year (?????), I ended up getting a new ita bag~


I'd seen it around on insta and lusted over it, so now it is mine!! I'm planning something around Double Face's TRIP album for it OwO
And then we had to hustle to finish artist alley before it closed, cuz we weren't coming back on Sunday D: Liz and I weren't planning on spending any more money, but 1) Alex wanted to buy more stuff and 2) we still wanted to see all of it. And in the end we did buy more XD We got a few more Trigun charms from magpiesoddities, because we've been collecting their super chibi ones since Stampede came out~ They also gave us a free plantcest sticker for being men of culture (perverts).

uhhhhhh what did we do after that..............

OH RIGHT!!! Liz and I chilled on a bench sorta new the dealers room/artist alley area while Alex went to the MXTX photoshoot, and basically just took in the sights. I love people watching at cons :D We also got to help some youths (late teens/early 20s maybe?) learn the ways of Caramelldansen. They knew the dance and song, and it sounded like they'd heard people used to dance to it at cons? So they were trying to figure out how to bring it back. So while it was a conversation that made me feel very old, it was quite wholesome.

After debating back and forth a bunch, we ended up eating dinner at the grab and go place in the Gaylord. It wasn't necessarily "cheap" but like...nothing in National Harbor is, you know? And we didn't have to leave the building, which was a big plus. I'd never grabbed anything from there before, so now I know that it's not half bad.

We wanted to go to the video game room next, but my corset was fucking killing me and I needed to find a family bathroom so Liz could help me loosen it (since all the handicapped stalls in the Gaylord are barely wider than regular ones). So that was quite the fucking adventure. BUT WE EVENTUALLY DID IT. And I've learned I'm never wearing a floor length anything to Katsucon again.....idk how I forgot this lesson from 2017 lmao.

Next up: video game room! And..............it kinda fucking sucked??????? Lie, the games were brought from the same people who supply them for a video game bar I go to here in Baltimore, and usually it's a much better selection?? Like how did Anime USA, a significantly smaller con than Katsucon, have such a better video game room? idk man like......it was kinda disappointing. They didn't even have Chunithm ;w; And it closed at midnight, which is baffling. Katsu used to run sooooo late into the night, I swear it was originally a 24 hour con. Maybe I'm wrong? But I've been going for 17 years now, so I'm pretty sure I'm right :T

Whatever! Alex is gonna come down so we can go to the much better video game bar here~

After we watch cookie monster and godzilla have a cage match in the hall, we were all wiped and ready to head home. So lemme share all the pics I didn't include throughout the entry, cuz it would have ended up even longer :T

( welcome to the party (many katsu pics inside) )

Happy Valentines and goodnight from the boys!!!! I carried many nuis around all day but tbh it was such a rush that I barely took the time to sit, let alone take pics of them D: I will say that the cat kigu nuis with their ice cream cones were a hit with the many Double Face fans and cosplayers I ran into~
All in all, a successful day at the con!!!!! Hopefully finances will be better and I can go for the full weekend next year, but I can now say I've been going to katsu for 17 fucking years.....which is wild. Here's hoping the next 17 are even better!!!!!!

I made them a beautiful cake in honor of Absolute starting this weekend, aka the Eden climax, aka one of the best enstars events~ Liz asked for chocolate cake and gave no other specifics, so this is what I came up with: dense chocolate cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese icing. It's incredibly rich, so we all nearly passed out after eating just a little bit XD

Oops?

Anyway, I'm actually super pleased with how it came out!!! I had a vision and actually managed to bring it to life- with some help from Pat. He made the stencil for the lotus flower and helped place a the beads for the lower border. I think I leveled up making large smooth sections of color (for the bits I wrote on) and just...wrangling this cake in general.....I love this cake but I do not love how delicate and crumbly it is. Even with a crumb coat, I was afraid it would still be a mess. And it WAS hard to work with, but not impossible.


I'm also really happy with both the gradient and these tassels~
My wife loved it, and honestly that's what matters the most!!!!

We also had szechuan delivered from one of Liz's favorite places, since they're not feeling great and didn't wanna go out ;w; Hopefully they'll be feeling better soon, since it's very unfair that they felt crummy on their birthday.

Also, Katsucon is this weekend XD So I'm sure they wanna feel better for that!!

So it's been.....a rough couple of months. Going back to work wreaked havoc on my body and it's taken nearly two months to adjust to it. I'm doing better now + I love my job, but it really took it out of me D:

Also...


Lumos passed away last week. She'd been sick on and off over the past couple years (honestly, she was never quite the same after Ethyl passed), but in late July/early August it started getting a lot worse. Our vet was incredibly kind and helpful throughout the whole process, talking us through all the options and helping us decide which ones would actually be beneficial, but eventually there wasn't anything more we could do ;w;

So that's. Yeah. That's been really hard. I felt like I was finally getting into the swing of working and a routine and all that, and then this hit me like a ton of bricks.

We did give her a very good last day though: we all stayed home and sat on the floor so she could get to us (since she couldn't easily jump up on things by that point), watched dumb youtube videos with her (a favorite past time), listened to Knights music so she could hear Leo (aka her favorite person EVER), and just overall spent a relaxing day centered on her needs. Liz managed to get a hold of her previous owner + their roommates, so we did a video a call with one of them and he was so touched to be able to see her again and say goodbye. Which was hard on everyone, but overall really rewarding I think.

idk man. it's been hard. it's been...a lot. I'm still not done processing it and I don't know when I'll ever be????? I'm still processing Ethyl and it hasn't even been two years since she passed, so how am I gonna move on from both of them, you know?

I actually got bereavement pay from work, because they consider pet loss to be valid and honestly that was really good. Like. Things are bad but at least work has been really understanding and supportive. My manager definitely has my back in all of this and has been super empathetic.


we honestly got some very cute pics before taking her to the vet the last time...I love her ♥
BUT YOU KNOW LIFE JUST KEEPS GOING ON!!!! Otakon happened in the middle of all this and it was really good, despite the stress. Josh and Emmy came down to watch the cats and Emmy is fantastic with ailing animals, so she was honestly a godsend with how Lumos was doing. arachat flew in for the con also, which was so exciting, despite all the stress, so like.......yay? Trying to see the good in the bad times.

Also Miryokucon is this weekend, and Alex is coming down for that + her birthday, so in general my schedule has been full. Just. idk. Trying to do things so I don't keep stressing about Lumos.

I wanna share a bunch of pics of her but I just don't have it in me right now. Everything's real rough, you know? So take these cute pics of her + Ethyl that never fail to bring me joy.

FRIDAAAAAAAAY!!!! The day started with us booking it to registration so I could grab my badge before heading to the room for our panel- Anime Before Anime: Animation in Pre-WW2 Japan. Even though we got there 10 minutes early, there was already a huge line waiting to get in OwO This is the second time we've run it at katsu, and both times now it's gotten a really good reception :D

This year, I recorded Liz and Pat presenting it, so we now have a solid recording- or at least I hope so XD I haven't had a chance to review the footage yet, because you know, con weekend~

OH RIGHT. I didn't end up styling Ibara's wig on Thursday night, so I went in casual clothes + a fun wig so it'd be easier to get around and shop and such. Which was nice! It's always very cramped, especially artist's alley, so being more mobile made it slightly easier.

...only slightly, though, because it's still fucking Katsucon XD

We managed to hit artist alley before the infamous(?) "sewage" explosion!!! A pipe burst on Friday afternoon/evening and dumped gross dish water from the kitchens into artist alley, right on top of someone's booth D: I feel so bad for who it affected ;w; I really hope they're able to get some sort of compensation or something, since that fucking sucks!

Anyway...I usually try to do a full round of artist alley + dealers room before buying anything, but I couldn't resist the allure of Yu-Gi-Oh!


also the artist very kindly gave me badge ribbons for buying so much stuff XD I was just so fucking excited to see anyone selling ygo fanmerch *w*
And then the hell gauntlet: Dealers Room. It's soooooo big and katsu is so hit or miss for dealers, so it ends up being a lot of walking around to find a few gems. But that's cons babeeyyyyyy!!!! Honestly, one of the best parts wasn't even shopping: it was catching up with Tasty Peach! I've been buying their adorable plushies for so long, I've gotten to watch them go from a tiny booth in artist alley to a large presence in dealers room to seeing their stuff for sale in Hot Topic and other physical stores, which is so awesome. Apparently, they have stuff in fucking Epcot now!!!!!! I got to see pictures and it was just so wholesome to see how far they've come ;w;

BUUUUUUUT we only got about halfway through dealers room before we had to bitch out because we were exhausted. I ended up sitting in the lobby for awhile, watching the world go by, while Liz and Pat got our stuff out of our locker. Right before they got back, I saw a Kohaku cosplayer in the Spring Night outfit and let me tell you, the way I practically flew out of my seat to go say hi...

Since we had cosplay to finish - me and my wig styling adventures lmao - we went back to our hotel to get to work!!! If I never touch glue again.....

Also, we had snacks in our room, so we didn't have to pay out the ass for a meal in National Harbor XD

However!!! Some local-ish friends that Liz and I first met at Otakon were also staying in Alexandria, just in a different hotel, so we went over to hang out with them :D Liz was still in Nagisa at that point + they cosplay Hiyori and Jun, which meant that after gossiping for like two hours, I took a bunch of pictures of them. I'm looking forward to going through all the raws of those shots once I feel a little better~

By the time we got back to our hotel room, Pat was getting ready to get a Lyft back to the con for the raaaaaave~~~ Because I was still having a rough time with pain + wig styling to work on, Liz and I stayed behind and just kinda chilled while making glue wefts for Madara. It was sooooooooooo time consuming ;w; They look damn good, but I thought my fingers would be covered in UHU + PVA glue forever D:

After all the wefts for his braids were glued on, I realized two very important things:

1. the glue was gonna take awhile to dry before I could safely tug on the hair enough to braid it
2. we hadn't eaten any "real" food since the continental breakfast at around 9 am, and it was now after midnight

So, it was off to the 24 hour diner!!! There was one across the street from our hotel, which was very convenient after a long day. It's a local chain and we actually went to one of them after Anime USA back in October, and I remembered it being pretty damn good- and I was right! idk, maybe it's just me, but diner food always tastes best at 3 in the morning.


the boys went everywhere with me all weekend, including the high risk situation of taking pictures of them with food ♥
I somehow thought I'd be able to get back to the wig after eating, but it was like...4:30 am at that point???? So we passed the hell out, thus ending ~day 1~ of the con!

( but I doooooo have more pictures to share from it! )

aaaaaand that's a wrap on that! I'll get to the next day soon, hopefully, since I'm technically halfway done already!!!! I wanna complete the con reports~~~~~

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~ )

Things purchased for cosplay in the lead up to katsu:

• handheld steamer for wig styling
• tripod wig stand to make wig styling more convenient
• wig for Ibara ($16 on clearance at one of my fave local wig stores!)
• two (2) new wigs for Madara ($6 a piece on clearance at the same store)
• casual fit for Nagisa
• new pants for Kohaku

....and I feel like there was something else, but this is all I can remember XD I've got a lot of wig things in the works - clearly! - so hopefully I can get everything done. I still need to figure out what I'm doing for what to wear as Ibara...all his casual outfits are harder to thrift so it's just like uggghhhhhhh :T

oh I also need new concealer D: I ran out of both of my faves, and now that the Morphe store is gone (+ other reasons), I can't as easily get one of them. I'm probably gonna grab a fresh tarte shape tape and then I guess order the jeffree star concealer later...idk I have a method and now I'm gonna have to modify it.

I'm excited for katsu!!! We got the time for our panel and of-fucking-course it's first thing on Friday again. They did this too us last year, too ;w; So Pat called our hotel and extended our stay to be Thursday night instead of starting on Friday, so we don't have to try to drive all the way down from Baltimore in time for our 11 am panel. Looking forward to that~

bluhhhhhhh

I'm nervous/anxious/ahhhhhhhhhhh bad brain feels about trying to style wigs for this con. I feel like I'm sooooo out of practice and there are all these new methods that I'm not familiar with. It doesn't help that I'm like...weirdly uncomfortable watching videos when other people are around, so I have limited time to try to watch tutorial videos. I wish I could just get out of my fuckin' head about it, but here we are!!!

After this, I'm gonna finish bulking out my wig head and maybe tackle sewing the Madara wigs together?? idk. Life is hard XD

edit: finished wig head and realized I completely forgot to share this pic I took earlier, cuz I thought it came out cute uwu


two very good Madara ships, also featuring my MILLIONS KNIVES glasses cleaning cloth ;D

I'm doing a bit of a self-imposed icon making challenge, since I get a bit overwhelmed with just how many enstars characters there are + the multitude of official art. It's a lot!!!! There are 54 of them, not counting any of the side characters. So it's hard to narrow down what to make D:

Which is why I'm doing what I'm calling 5 for 5, which is "make 5 icons each for 5 different characters" and see how it goes :D I'm enjoying it so far! It's less like "oh god there are so many blorbos I love and care about how do I choose just ONE" and now just "okay how do I choose just 5 pieces of art for this specific character", which is overall much more manageable.

Aaaahhhhhhhh and I'm starting to get really pumped for Katsucon!!!!!!!! It's still a few weeks away, but since January is almost over, it's about to be katsu season!!! This'll be my 13th katsu, holy shit~~~ I've been going since 2010, but missed a couple years...but it's somehow become my most consistently attended con XD

I'm also excited because Liz and I had only picked up enstars a few weeks before katsu last year - which was just enough time for me to decide I needed to buy a lightstick from the idol merch vendor - so I'm looking forward to katsu: this time we're so deep in it, we're in cosplay XD To think I still wasn't 100% sure if this would stick as a fandom for me.......how the times have changed!

SPEAKING OF THAT ACTUALLY!!!!!


here's to a full 365 days of logging into enstars!!!! I never missed a day in the whole damn year :O
The fandom may be a hot fuckin' mess but I've very much enjoyed my time in idol boy taptap hell~ Here's to many more :D

...........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.