Doll Day: BTW Bus

Yesterday, I got the chance to dress up at hang out with lots of cool people~ <3 Gaga's Born This Way Bus was in town, so of course I donned one of my best outfits and wigs for the occasion. I put in my geo lens, full make up, and amped up my dolly disposition. 

When I saw Gaga in concert in Tacoma, I didn't get to check out the inside of the BTW Buses. Upon hearing that it was stopping in Chicago even after the tour had been cancelled, I knew I had to sign up for the event! I was one of the first 100 sign ups, and I was there right at 12:00 to get in. I met so many fun little monsters.  (´ω｀★)

Free food!

Wall illustrations~

My personal favorite <3

We all stayed there for the entire duration of the event. There were rumours that Gaga might show, since it's her birthday week (Happy Birthday, Gaga!), and she was in town visiting her boyfriend. 

Die-hard fan tattoo~

Unfortunately for those of us super-committed, she didn't show. But it was alright, because I met so many amazing people!!

bus crew. <3

At the very end of our 7 hour adventure, Black Jesus himself made an appearance!! He was kind enough to stop and take pictures with everyone who asked... including yours truly. It was very brave of him to go through our huge group and pose with everyone.  (*´∀`*)

That ended the day, and others went off to go out to eat, but I had to return home to devote myself to some homework. (・_・ヾ I said my farewells and gave a lot of hugs~

Overall, it was a lovely day!! I had so much fun and I got so many compliments on my appearance. It felt very nice~ I've been thinking about wearing my geo lenses more often and aiming to buy a few extra pairs. They really seem to amp up any make up or outfit. They lend the the feeling of a 'living doll' look, which is another visual style that I like... 

I keep wishing the best for Gaga! I know she's recovering from her surgery and trying to lay low. I'm sure that she will bounce back and be at her 200% energy level for the release of ARTPOP!! <3 Happy birthday, to my dear Gaga.  (*´∀`*) Keep on performing and inspiring!

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

 ^^^^
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

How an Artist Figures?

I've been a fan of Frances Delgado's site How a Girl Figures for almost a year now! I love the detailed figure reviews, and try to catch AX Live on Thursdays as often as I can for the latest.
I've wanted to do some justified fan art for Frances for some time now... When she offered  a small crochet plushie on her facebook in return for some fan art, I just couldn't let this chance go! Everybody wins.

The site's mascot: Hanako Sakae! I had lots of fun drawing her and that cute little Sakura figure!!

I haven't been drawing in anime style that much recently, so I hope she looks alright. I might add a nice colorful background before I ship her off to Frances tomorrow. :) She'll receive the original with its proper colors! (stupid school scanner...)

On a more personal level, this small piece has pushed me on the market once again!! I'm offering extremely cheap anime-style commissions. (By extremely I mean like $4 for a personalized full-color chibi....)  You can read all the details RIGHT HERE.
They're so inexpensive because I really need the money, and because anime is just nice and simple to draw. I need all the publicity I can get, so please help me out! I haven't had any takers in a very long time....

As always, thank you for stopping by. Let me know what you'd like to see!

Holiday Cheer

It snowed in Chicago! It kind of set up this awesome Christmas atmosphere. We were inspired to clean and get in the spirit of the holidays.

Frosting some sugar cookies after cleaning up the kitchen and living room....

I frosted a ton of cookies and they look smashing. :) At least I think so. What do you think?

I tried to incorporate as many Christmas icons as I could...
Let's see, there's trees, ribbons, wreaths, poinsettias, and holly... and a couple other random things. I think I like the wreaths the best.
To give sugar cookies with icing more of a flavour variety, I suggest crushing peppermint sticks and sprinkling it on the icing. Maybe you can tell that I did that on a few of them. They needed some flavourful fake snow!
(I just ate one, and they're crazy delicious.)

Here's our epic Holiday set up. Check out our futuristic mini-tree! We have a lot of cat ornaments, and one seal ornament to fit my tastes.
The presents wrapped in shiny red are from me to my roommates. ;)

I absolutely love the holidays! December is one of my favorite months. Maybe it's because it includes my birthday, Christmas, and winter break....
Speaking of which, I turned 19 on Tuesday!! Everyone was kind enough to take me out or give me goodies. I really don't like being the center of attention, but everyone is always so sweet. <3 Thanks for the well-wishes.
Now I'm looking forward to going home!! I leave Chicago this Monday afternoon! It will be an adventure....

What are you doing for the holidays??

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??

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