Today, Liz and I went to Joanns for potentially the last time ever- and we honored it the best way we knew how:


BY DRESSING UP IN COSPLAY, OF COURSE!!!! We had a leisurely afternoon of watching dumb shit on Youtube and then got into cosplay to make our pilgrimage ;w; I've written some here before and plenty of people have said it better, but Joanns closing is going to leave such a void in the crafting world that it's hard for me to put into words. Maybe I'll write a poem about it; maybe I'll just ramble on here in the middle of the night at some point. But we wanted to give a sendoff to the store that enabled us to start cosplaying in the first place, and I think we did well.


everyone ignore the stain on my shirt and focus on how cute we look~

( we took more pics while we were there and still, somehow, I feel like it'll never be enough )

And then every fucking mall was already closed & it was raining, so we didn't really have anywhere to muck about in cosplay? So we ended up getting bubble tea XD


I put the boys back in their bear nuis + bows, because I wanted them to go to Joanns in something I made~
Speaking of nuis...my cat kigu nuis from the Chinese enstars store finally shipped. They were supposed to ship around the 19th and didn't, and then I saw other people online sharing theirs, so I started to worry D: I even made sure to order from the official taobao, so it was like...what has gone wrong??? Thankfully, Superbuy reached out and they arrived at the warehouse safe and sound! :D They'll be here in a couple weeks, according to the shipping I got, and the package will also include a Kohaku orb plush to go with the Madara one I have. Very excited for all these things~~~

and then the tariffs will murder me when the next set of nui preorders arrive sobs

ALSO!!!!!!! Liz managed to get the VPN + foreign purchasing working for the newest enstars stage play, so tonight we're gonna watch Desperate Checkmate :D The streaming service for this one was way trickier to deal with than the one the last Dramatica used, and tbh I wish they were all as simple as the one the MDZS stage play used XD

We had a really nice day with friends today!!!!! Mimi and Magenta came up from Virginia to hang, which is part of what inspired the manic house cleaning XD But now our downstairs looks a lot better and we got to hang with friends XD

So, after chatting and showing them around the house some - and letting them pet Lumos, which was great because people are always amazed by how soft she is!!! - we ended up going out to eat a late lunch at one of our fave places in Hampden. Pat came along too, since Mimi was like "you're coming too, come on" and I'm just happy whenever friends meet & get along. I DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD GO BADLY but I have anxiety like, all the time.

And then we somehow ended up joking about Knights for too long on the drive back to our house, and now we're maybe cosplaying Knights together at Otakon??? idk exactly how this happened XD But Pat's gonna be Leo, which I think will be fun, and Liz and I are still trying to decide which one of us is gonna be Sena and Naru-chan. We're both fine with either, so it's like...okay I guess we need to figure it out soon-ish.

I usually like making our cosplays, but Mimi found some actually good looking ones to buy on aliexpress and Pat wants to remake some of the accessories when they arrive, so they won't look like cheapo costumes that we put no effort into. And we'll look very consistent if we all buy the same costume, which helps.

ALSO I JUST LOVE MAKING PLANS WITH FRIENDS IDK IT'S JUST NICE!!!!!!! friendship good ;w;

They stayed way later than they meant to but we were having such a nice time together...thus is life XD It was just a really nice day!!!! :D

AND THEN!!!! LUMOS IS SO FUCKING CUTE I LOVE HER!!!! I know it's after 3 am, but Liz is still grinding out the last points they need to get a 3rd copy of Shinobu so here we are!!! It means I get to share Lumos (and also some other pictures from today).


but also why does my cat look AI generated XD

( a few more pics under here! )

Last night I did end up screenrecording demon Madara in Halloween Rendezvous...and then also a few other MVs in his two feature scouts, because I was in the zone I guess???? idk I had fun! And now I have a ton of screencaps to make icons from OwO

Also I'm super achy because I had a long day but it was worth it so who cares!!! I'd do it again in a heartbeat ;D

Today, we made another pilgrimage to our Joanns ;w; I'm very attached to this particular Joanns, because it's the one I went to in college (the first time, so the late 00s) and then I lived basically across the street from it when I first moved back to Baltimore in 2016. It is THE Joanns for both times I've lived in this city, so it's the one that's hitting me hardest.

....to be fair, I haven't been up to Pittsburgh to visit the Monroeville Joanns, aka where I got my start with sewing & cosplay, because I'm just not ready yet. I'm gonna see if we can make a short trip up to say goodbye to it before it closes...but it's so hard to think about ;w;

ANYWAY. In an attempt to fight my depression over the bankruptcy, I had Liz take a couple fun pics of me in the fabric section of the Joanns. I wanna remember all the joy it brought me over the years ♥


also featuring my incredibly good Pusheen cape~
We'd gone with purpose, tho- Liz and I wanna make Kohaku and Madara's first feature scout outfits to wear to DC's Sakura Matsuri this year, and what better time to pick up fabric than during....the closing........sobs ;w;

I'M TRYING TO HOLD IT TOGETHER I'm still very sick so it's hitting me so hard ;w; I want to enjoy working on cosplay and shit, I just...sobs.


the boys with the fabric we got today!!!
We managed to get navy fabric for Madara's pants, the green for his top, the gold for....all his bullshit gold bits, and the light pink for Kohaku's top. We're gonna have to wrangle the embroidery machine for Madara, but I'm honestly pretty excited to figure it out :D

And then we had a time getting Taco Bell for dinner...the one right near the Joanns was randomly closed for the weekend???? And then the next closest one wouldn't let us place an online order...because???????? So we had to loop around and go to yet a different one, which I will always remember for the time they forgot to include the crunch part of my crunchwrap in 2011 XD

I got crunchwrap sliders today and they did include the crunch~ Literally it only happened that one time, but I can't get it out of my mind XD WHATEVER it was tasty!!!!

I've been curled up on the couch since we got home, because I do not feel good. Even with taking more DayQuil, I am not...doing well.....which is frustrating, because I have shit to do! I'm waaaaaay behind on the Switch event- not so much that I can't catch up, but I was hoping to be further than this already.

Also, I barely slept last night, because I was so exhausted and sick that I couldn't fall asleep. I ended up doing quick editing on some selfies from katsu~~~

( click click so I don't destroy everyone's friend pages~ )

Okay....still not feeling great, but I'm gonna make an attempt at playing the JP event some... If it goes badly, y'all can find me...idk, working on sewing my nuis clothes instead? Maybe if I use a tiny, incredibly hot tool (smol iron), I'll feel better XD

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~~~~~

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

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

Sometimes you just gotta vanish for a few months because you fall deep, deep into hell, aka con crunch and playing way too damn much enstars. Hi, I'm not dead, just busy and full of ADHD~~~

I've got a whole backlog of things I wanted to post about and that's maybe why I have been putting off writing anything here, because anxiety???? Maybe???????????? I dunno, man, I'm stupid sometimes. Anyway. I may or may not get to it, but at the very least I wanna share the awesome accomplishment of the summer: finishing enstars cosplays for Otakon!!!!!!


Liz & I made a very cute Kohaku & Madara :D I'm particularly proud of the work I did for the gold vinyl + sewing so much god damn pleather.


Double Face, reporting for duty...in the underground parking lot we used all weekend~
I'd have more to say, but I've gotta get back to doing what I swore I'd never do again: getting two copies of a 5* from a jp event. HiMERU and his absolutely insane brother are irresistible to me XD

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?

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