ACen: Year 1

All my con reflections get super lengthy, so prepare for lots of information and pictures!!! ^^

This past weekend, Tom visited Chicago again. One of the plans was to attend Anime Central, which ended up being a blast. We only had one and a half days planned since it was our first time at that con. I prefer to ease my way into bigger cons; test the waters.

On Friday, we commuted over to the con to pick up our Saturday badges and snuck around the dealers hall for a bit getting most of our shopping done. I wore my Jigoku Shoujo/Core project cosplay, and unfortunately my camera died before I could get many decent pictures....

 ...but I have a shoot planned for this outfit anyway, so look forward to it! (◠ω◠✿)

After sneaking around on Friday and doing most of our shopping, we still went back into the dealer's hall on Saturday with our spending-happy friend Nancy. Nancy was kind enough to photograph our Saturday cosplays, but I don't have many pictures yet. 

I do however, have this iPhone photo of me posing with LITTLEKURIBOH (a.k.a. the talent of YuGiOh abridged)!!

He recognized our Venture Brothers cosplay (which was an honor!), and was so so nice! It totally made my entire con experience to be able to meet him. I never thought I'd be able to, but wow! Such a pleasant surprise. ヽ(゜∇゜)ノ

I bought a ton of gifts for friends at his booth, but since they're autographed or given away already, I won't post them online~ ;P

Now, to the sweet haul!!!~*

Tom was nice enough to pay for pretty much everything we bought. I only bought gifts for other people that weren't able to attend. (◡︿◡)

Pictured: Wall Scroll, Mami Tomoe Nendoroid, Gurren Lagann Movies 1 & 2, The complete 2nd season of Code Geass, Hair clips, Rings, D. Gray Man artbook, Asuza figure, and Pinkie Pie keychain

The only panel we attended was the premiere of the Panty and Stocking dub, which we both appreciated immensely. P&S is one of my all time favorites, so it was great to see justice done to it. Definitely recommend purchasing the DVDs from Funimation when they are released!!

At the end, we got this adorable free poster, and a couple postcards. They were also giving out prizes at the end, but so many people left right after the viewing that they had a lot of prizes left over! Tom and I stuck it out and I ended up getting a gorgeous Scanty and Kneesocks wallscroll!! I was worried I wouldn't have room for it, but I worked something out. ;) You'll see them displayed in other posts. 

vvvv

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Our friend Nancy was sweet enough to buy this amazing No. 6 poster for me. ;o; When I first saw it, I had so many feels. (OTP!!!) I knew I had to have it, and Nancy made my dream come true~* haha <3

My clips! I'm in love with them. It's always hard for me to justify buying accessories since I can make bows myself no problem... but I don't know how to knit cute, soft, loli bows like this one, so I had to get it.

 Rings!! They are so overkill, I love it. I have so many gaudy rings. They are the best.

^

Tom's DVDs

These are the gifts I bought for my sisters!! I wish I could have gotten them more, but I didn't have much money. ;o; I tried to pick out what they would love best though. 

Finally, my piece de resistance... the famed $70 and-then-suddenly $80 Mami Nendoroid....

It was a huge punch in the gut to Tom and I both when the sales dude sold her to us with $10 tax!!! -falls over- Like wtffff (┛◉Д◉)┛彡┻━┻

I had her pre-ordered, but my distributor never got her in! I called and they said she wouldn't be coming to America, but to keep an eye out at cons. Luckily, we found her, and even more lucky, Tom was willing to buy her for me. I've been dying to display her with Ciel so they can have tea together. <3

These pictures really do her no justice. She is gorgeous in real life!!! I don't even have all her pieces displayed. 

 I'm gonna have to switch their heads sometime, now that I finally have two nendos... heh hehh hehhhh.

Our con adventure ended after the Adult Swim photoshoot when someone pulled the fire alarm and everyone had to evacuate the building.... :/
 It was really a ridiculous situation, but we were about to head home anyway, so it ended alright. It was then that we really got to see how many people were at the con!!
ACen was huge and every second was so much fun~ I wish I had gotten to see more people, but there is always next year. See you then!!
xo

Fading Out

I took Tom to the airport yesterday morning. It was a sad event, and I do wish that I had some pictures, but I had class right after the trip to Midway, so I planned against photography for that day. He made it home safe, so that's what matters.
I'll be home in three weeks!! I'm really looking forward to it. I miss Seattle and Tacoma and FedWay so badly.

However, I have lots of fun photos from our recent trip to the Museum of Science and Industry! Some of them are weirdly beautiful (and maybe kind of gross to some of you).

Luckily for me, they had a mini Seattle!! Tom was being nitpicky about the accuracy, but when you step back, the skyline looks pretty similar. 

These absolutely adorable baby chicks!! Obviously we watched some while they were hatching. Too cute!! It was fun to watch them find one another and be curious about the 'new world' they were encountering. ...And then the fluffy ones!! yeee~

The craziest exhibit was these amazing displays of the human body. All the displays were well-preserved real human specimens. All of the examples in these pictures are. So intense. This kind of thing is so oddly beautiful, I just love it. All these photos need some well-deserved editing, but I'll get there later.

Overall, such a fun trip. I haven't seen the whole place, so maybe I'll go back for photoshoots some day. :)

How was your Thanksgiving break??

Black Fridays + New Addition

Did I dare to go black friday shopping? In downtown Chicago, of all places?
I did, and it wasn't so bad!!
Thanks to Tom, I got a pretty decent haul as well. :> I treated myself to a few things from Sephora, but Tom was kind enough to buy me Forever 21 clothes and even a new figure!!!

(I know my photography skills aren't up to par, but bear with me as I learn!! haha)

Jean Grey from X-Men! 

People say that they don't like her face, but I think it's just beautiful!! Kotobukiya's bishoujo line is really hit or miss; especially in the faces. I dragged Tom into buying for me... mainly on a whim as Kotobukiya is releasing Storm (and in the sketches she looks FABULOUS) in March and they will look amazing together. I'm a sucker for the white/silver hair and dark skin combo. Let's hope Storm's face is just as nice as Jean Grey's or Black Cat's. 

I haven't found any prominent mistakes on her yet. I guess the main negative was getting her out of that box!! It was almost stressful. She's completely bolted down everywhere, so it's just a solid statue, really. I was paranoid that I was about to break something while I was unwrapping her from the abundant plastic.

I seem to have really good luck when it comes to the quality of figures. Thank you, figure gods.  

Other Black Friday goodies~

A cute dress with scallop collar!! (The last size medium!) I wore it out today, and not only is it adorable... but also super comfy!! Just got to be careful when wearing it since it's cream-colored, and because I don't particularly trust the quality of Forever 21 clothes. (Pull tie not included!)

This one is hard to see, but it's a cute see-through cape with hearts. I've been looking for something like this, so I'm so glad they were still around when I went on Friday. Finally in my closet!! Rebuilding my style is getting easier as I'm figuring out what looks good on my body, but what also looks cute and caters to my personality and mental preferences.

Sephora goodies!! Tokidoki eyeshadow on sale, and it's amazing!! Darker, longer-lasting colors than what I normally use. Rebuilding your closet also means reworking some aspects of your make-up, I think.
Adorable pink-lemonade nail polish! It's so thin I need to apply 3 coats, but the color is just darling.
And clinique cover-up! It's my favorite brand of cover-up, but I haven't had it in a while! Getting back to using it as it works wonders on my skin as long as I take medication and wash my face every morning and night.

The dress in it's glory. (I'm also wearing the Sephora nail polish...) I'm sitting with Tom's cousin Valerie in this photo. We've been spending lots of time with his relatives lately as a lot of them live in/near Chicago. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry today, but that is just too much to talk about just yet. :) I've got another post on all that coming your way soon!!

Bluebird

My hair is blue! (Manic Panic After Midnight Blue to be exact) I decided to take a nice, long break from dying it and just dye it as dark blue as I could and let my roots grow in, dying over it all the time instead of bleaching. @_@ Growing out your hair is hard!! And I desperately need a haircut, but I have to wait until I get back to Washington... yeep!

Tom and I went back to the Art Institute today to finish up our museum adventure. In case anyone was curious, this is what I wore.

Shirt: Forever 21

Skirt: Meijer

Tights: Consignment store

Shoes: N/A

Pull-tie: Consignment store

And there's Tom, derping in the back. Good times.

Here's my blue hair and asymmetrical bangs, cut on my own!! Unfortunately, Tom is the last person you want to ask to help take pictures of you, so I'm photographing myself MySpace style here. :P Yaaay. 

I did my make-up a little different as well! And I'm playing around with effects for the photos. So many new things!

So, apparently, there's a lot more people that read this blog than I actually think. :P
Please leave a comment if you've stopped by! If you've got a google account, it should be real easy to leave your thoughts down below!!

xoxo

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Tom

I know I mentioned Tom being here without actually making a post about Tom being here!!
Well, long story short, Tom is visiting Chicago! We're going to his relatives' in Indiana for Thanksgiving. :) It's sure to be a blast.

We've already had a lot of fun since he touched down on the 11th. Shopping, dinners, stuffing our faces, THE MOTHER MOTHER CONCERT, watching lots of foreign movies and anime.... We're basically the coolest kids in existence as proved by this amazing Photobooth footage.

We are very cool. 

Mother Mother Mother Mother Mother

This lovely evening, I was fortunate enough to go see one of my favorite bands with my dearest Tom. I was even so lucky as to hand deliver some fan art for the band. After some minor technical difficulties, I handed Jasmin my little envelope filled with cut-outs of the members (kind of meant to be like paper dolls... -shrug-). She was so very sweet even though it was hard to communicate. :'D I do hope that everyone enjoyed them. I put some contact information in, so maybe I'll get a response, but even if I don't I'm elated to know that they actually have some of my original art. x) It is infused with my love!! 

(Ta-daaah)

Tonight's attire!! I call it Indie-Lolita. haha :) 

(photo by Tom)

...directly after delivering my gift. :)

They were absolutely fantastic live! They sounded wonderful. It was definitely a surreal experience. I'm so happy that Tom is here and able to take me on awesome outings like tonight. He insists that I mention that he is wearing a Mother Mother shirt he bought at the concert. 

Tom, my friend Cassie, and I all went out to eat at a diner afterwards. Once we put down our payment, Tom, looking out the window says, "Wait a minute, is that Mother Mother? Oh wait, I think it's just Ryan." 

Immediately we debated whether to run out there and say hello, but by the time we ran onto the street, Ryan (and whomever he was with), turned into the hotel where they are apparently staying. With a shrug, we decided to head home and be a little less creepy. :) 

Overall, a fantastic night, and I definitely recommend seeing Mother Mother live if you have the chance. :) Truly amazing!! Thanks to Tom for taking me out and being a totally great all-around person, and thank you Cassie for joining us and being wonderful!! Of course thanks to Mother Mother for coming to Chicago!! 

xoxoxo 

Skype

With the boyfriend. Things have been hard, but I thank Skype for helping me out. ;)
Here are some very cool-looking instagram-esque photos I grabbed from our most recent Skype conversation.

So awesome that Tom now has his own tag. Let's hope I get to use it more and more often!!