ConCarolinas 2012

Convention: ConCarolinas (http://www.concarolinas.org/)
Date: June 1-4
Location: Charlotte, NC

ConCarolinas is a great sci-fi/fantasy convention. I have been going since 2005 (however I used to only go on Saturdays) and have loved every year I have gone! This year I was a panelist and did a lot of fun panels.

Friday: Got to the con and chilled out. I had a panel on begging sewing, which was fun, always cool to talk to people about sewing, or how to get started when you have no idea where to start. Since that was my only panel for Friday I then got some yummy Mexican food and hung out for the rest of the night. Sadly I got my times wrong and missed the G.H.O.S.T. screening (which I am in as well as helped with makeup and wardrobe on). 

Saturday: Lots of panels for me on Saturday, we had the Gallifrey Pirate Radio Panel, Doctor Who Season in Review, Game of Thrones, Steampunk Fashion show and the costume contest which I was judging. Didnt get to do too much other than panels on Saturday.  I had a few films play during the film fest (The Gnome Before Christmas, Foodie) but I missed them due to panels. However both films that screened got awards in the film fest!!! Gnome got best kills! (so happy on it winning another award! the first being at the Killride Film Fest in Myrtle Beach). Foodie also got Best Short film (Woooot film I did lots of crazy makeup on!!). After the costume contest I went and sat in on the Porkchop II screening for the first half of the film, then went to find fooooood!

Sunday: Checked out of the hotel.  Had three films play during the film fest (Mr. Bubbles, Splintered, and Chain of Custody), and am acting round table panel.  After the panel we left and got some food before driving home.

Over all the convention was a lot of fun! I got to see friends I had not seen in months! I got to chill out and talk nerdy things on panels!  Can't wait until next year!!!

Fun photo my friend Michael took!

Porkchop II DVD Cover!!

So the date and DVD cover have been released for the US release of Porkchops or as it is being called Porlchop II!! The DVD will be released through Alternative Cinema on Sept 25, 2012. If the release is like Porkchop I then it will be available at F.Y.E. (as well as Target.com, Walmart.com, Barnes N Noble.com and so one)

I am super excited for it being released so soon! and if you cannot wait until Sept. to see it on DVD, the film will be screaning at Fright Night Film Fest in Louisville KY (www.frightnightfilmfest.com) June29-July1st. (where you can also see a few of my other films like Mr. Bubbles, Scarecrow at Midnight and Foodie!)

Animazement 2012

Convention: Aimazement (animazement.org)
Date: May 25-27
Location: Raleigh, NC

Animazement is always a fun convention to go too. This year, for the second year, I judged the cosplay contest. I have always loved competing at Animazement, and did so for many years, so it is neat to be on the other side judging all the amazing costumes, the amount of creativity that people come with just amazes me!

I had not had that much time to sew because of graduating from grad school earlier in May, so I put together a lolita dress and brought some older costumes and outfits (Cooking Mama, USO Girl, and a Steampunk outfit). I also made some cute hair bows to match my dress, sadly one of them fell out of my bad while I was unloading the car and disappeared!

My new dress! So comfy! (Thanks SoulFire Studios for the photos!)

I got to room with the wonderful Chiara Scuro, who I also rocked some steampunk outfits with on Saturday night (Thanks FoxFang for the photos!)

As for the actual convention, Animazemnt always has a lot going on from a cool little artist alley, to a sweet dealers room, to concerts (which sadly I missed and as many of you know I love a good J-Pop concert), to panels and of course the Masquarade!

The dealers room was nice, lots of fun stuff! (I walked away with some cute Tasty Peach Studio's jewelry, a panda necklace shaped like a candy corn and a super cute pink Alpaca plushy!).  Because of judging I did not get to attend many panels, but all the ones my friends went too, and ran all seemed to go great and have a wonderful turnout. I was also incredibly impressed with one of the contest entrants who came to the feedback panel on Sunday, she showed up with her boyfriend in costume and a pad and pencil and asked us (the judges) how she could improve some areas of the costume, and took notes on what we said so she could improve, it was very refreshing to see someone take constructive criticism and use it to their advantage to learn, instead of getting mad about it.

Over all Animazement is always one of my favorite anime cons to go to because of all the wonderful people and wonderfully run convention. I have been going for many many years and I hope to continue to go!

One of my favorite photos taken by Quadrain! He always takes some of the best pics of my outfits and costumes!

Holy Cow! I am in the Washington Post!!!

So while at Mysticon 2012 back in February an interviewer from the Washington Post took some photos of my USO Girl costume, and the issue came out!! Here is a scan of the article with the photo of my USO (and The Chainmail Chick as well!). It is really cool to have been featured in this article!

RavenCon 2012

Convention: RavenCon
Date: April 13th-15th
Location: Richmond, Va.

This was my first Ravencon. I had known about the con for years, and being from Charlottesville you figured I would have made the trip to the convention at some point. But last year I was filming on Plan 9 during Ravencon and other years it ended up being the same weekend as the DC Cherry Blossom Festival. So I made the trek there this year! However I had been to this hotel! AMA was held here back in the day!

Friday: Made the trip to Richmond.  Checked into the hotel and then headed out for food and Toys R Us, where I found some super cute Kuromi socks on sale!  Then headed back to the hotel and looked around. Saw Kara and a few other people I knew! Went to opening ceremonies and saw Carla's awesome cake she made for the con! Checked out some panels went to some room parties and then headed to bed (since I always get tired after being in a car for a few hours). I did not really get into any costumes on Friday, mostly was me just being lazy walking around in a Doctor Who shirt.

Saturday:
Got up and breakfast at the hotel.  Got signed up for the costume contest. Chilled out with some of the awesome people from Mysticon for a bit, walked around and checked out the dealers room (bought a cute pair of brown and green chainmail earrings) Went to the Doctor Who panel since we were filming it for GPR. Then got into costume for the contest.  I wore my Clockwork Android costume for the contest.  I am SOOOOOOOOO happy they hotel was very well air conditioned. I really dislike the mask at this point after wearing it for so long at Dragoncon and busting a blood vessel in my eye. It is fine for limited wear, but a few hours noooooooo. I had a kid look at me in fear then attempt to pull the mask off my face (old enough to know not to grab and pull at someone, so that was a but annoying) So I did my walk on and off the stage, was a creepy robot, and got BEST IN SHOW! woot! Made my weekend! Was very excited and honored to get best in show! After the contest got out of costume and had dinner with Kara and Rob, then went back to the hotel, hung out at CapClaves party for a bit with Kara, watch some of the Bella Morte concert, and then headed to bed.

Sunday:
Got all packed up, walked around the con center and dealers room (got a cute purple and black chainmail bracelet). Went to the Doctor Who Vs. the Xenomorphs panel, got pulled up on stage to be a panelist for it, So we filmed a GPR episode of it with Billy, Myself and Davey on the panel.  After that said goodbyes and headed home.  Long and fun weekend!

and sadly the only photo I have of the weekend is me in my Doctor The Who shirt. No costume stuff this time :(

Blood on the Beach 2012

Convention: Blood on the Beach 1 (2012)
Dates: April
Location: Chesapeake, Va.

Blood on the Beach is a first year horror convention that was held in Chesapeake, Va (in the old Nekocon and AMA hotel).  I was really excited to be going to this convention since I had so many awesome films screening! (Porkchops, Plan 9 teaser, Fear Fighter trailer, The Gnome Before Christmas, Scarecrow at Midnight).

Thursday:
I arrived at the convention hotel and met up with Melissa and Joe and chilled out while I waited on Mariah and John to get there since I was rooming with them.  They arrived, we all chilled and had a pretty relaxing Thursday.

Friday:
 Found where the Darkstone table was going to be at (a little crazy) and then set up everything with Mariah.  Chilled at the table for the bit then went and searched for the Razor Sharp Studio table! Found the awesome Porkchop banner, chilled out there, visited the awesome Melisa at her booth and just went between the Darkstone and Razor Sharp table.  Friday night got some dinner with the Razor Sharp crowd and my friend Robert and then got some sleep.

Saturday:
Got up and got all the stuff down to the Darkstone table with the Darkstone family.  Mariah and I did Addy Miller's makeup for the zombie walk.  Then pretty much sat between the Darkstone and Razor Sharp tables.  Went to the Plan 9/ Fear Fighter/ Dante's Inferno screening! Awesome packed room! Sat in on the Ghost Trek screening, then visited with friends in the autograph room, sat at the Razor Sharp and Darkstone tables some more.  After closing up everything table wise, Checked out the concerts going on (Bella Morte, and G Tom Mac) and then Mariah, Elanor and myself went and all put on different wigs and walked around a bit more in disguise!  After that it was time for sleep! (since it was rather late/early....)

Sunday:
Got the tables all ready, went to the Gnome Before Christmas Screening! and the Porkchops screening, then sold DVD's at the tables.  Also I bought a pretty awesome looking snake bracelet!!  Stayed at the con until the end when everyone was heading out. Packed up the Darkstone booth, and then headed home. Wonderful weekend and wonderful con!! Can not wait until the next one!!!

Katsucon 18

What: Katsucon 18
When: February 17-19 2012
Location: National Harbor, Maryland
http://www.katsucon.org/

I have been going to Katsucon for years. It has moved from Va. to DC to Maryland, and has stayed fun! It has also grown a lot. It is one of those fun cons I can go to, to see my friends, costume, hang out and just be silly.

For the last few years I have been running Katsucon's Hall Costume Contest. I love running this event. It takes up a bunch of my time during the year, making sure I have staff, judges, and that the event has a place to be and such, but I love every minute of it. It is fun to talk to the costumers who spend so much time working on their costumes and to see how excited they are to show them off! As a costumer I enjoy competing, so it is nice to be on the other side and run a event that costumers enjoy entering.

Friday is always a stressful day for me at the con, I am nervous that something for the event will go wrong. However I settled those nerves with a photo shoot of my new steam punk outfit with FoxFang, a wonderful photographer I know from some NC cons. I had a great time and got some great photos as well! The contest went great on Friday, we always see a ton of amazing costumers and everyone is generally pretty chill with the method we take people, they get to hang out in the hallways and chat with other costumers and the judges judge in a small room, personal and out of the way of noise and other people. I have always thought this helps the costumers be less nervous.


Saturday we all got up and made our way down for more HCC fun. after the judging was done I got the awards, and got everything in order for the Masquerade contest. I wore my red Minmei outfit for the day since it is comfortable and just so flashy I had to wear it in public, just love that cosplay! 
Once the event as done I got into my Pretty Cure outfit and did a AMAZING group photo shoot with some AMAZING ladies! I seriously <3 these girls to death! Kara and I had done one other Pretty Cure Cosplay together at AMA, so being able to have Megan and Little V also join the group was super fun! We got some really silly photos (a LOT of them), and they turned out great. The Gaylord hotel has a amazing area for photos (pretty much an indoor village) so it was really cool to be able to use that when it was like 11pm.

Sunday I made sure all the awards had been picked up for the HCC winners and checked out the dealers room and artist alley. The got the car packed up! Over all a great con with lots of fun time with friends!!