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!!

Illogicon 2012

Convention: Illogicon 1
Date: January 13-15
Location: Raleigh, NC
www.illogicon.com

This years Illogicon was it's first year! It was a blast, having so many amazing people there and doing our first live broadcast of GPR with a full cast! Small cons are always wonderful and relaxing and this one definitely was that!
My panel schedule for the con was:

- LARPing and RPGs.  Friday, 3:00 PM, Washington

-       What Makes Truly Scarey Horror. Friday, Midnight
- Costuming on the Cheap.  Saturday, 10:00 AM, Lincoln
- Gallifrey Pirate Radio.  Saturday, 9:00 PM, Lincoln
- Sci-Fi On Screen.  Sunday, 1:00 PM, Washington

-       Convention Stories. Sunday, 3:00PM
- See I’m So Pretty.  Sunday, 6:00 PM, Washington

Friday:
Arrived at the hotel, checked in, got badges, then went and got food, and "OMG A TEA STORE!!!!" Tin Roof Teas in Raleigh (http://tinroofteas.com/ ) . I got two types of tea, blood orange black tea and gummy bear tea!!! Also Earl Grey chap-stick! Awesome!!!  Got back to the hotel, made it to the LARPing and RPG's panel (which I was on for the costuming aspect). The next panel was "What Makes Truly Scary Horror" so basically how to scare people when writing stories or scripts. This panel was incredibly interesting and fun to do!

Saturday:
Got up and to the "Costuming on the Cheap" panel. Always interesting to hear how other people make their costuming hobby fir into their budget.  After that I went to a few other panels, hung out with friends and basically just enjoyed the convention for the day. At 9pm Gallifrey Pirate Radio had their first convention episode! This was a huge panel of GPR people! Lots of fun! We did a the two mini episodes "Space" and "Time".  The groups consensus was definitely that two Amy's would be awesome!

Sunday:
Normally Sunday's are my day to chill out and do nothing. However I had three panels on Sunday.  I started my day by getting a lovely breakfast with Sang and Kirsten. Then headed back for some panels! The panels went on until about 7pm. Then headed home and went to bed!

Overall a wonderful little convention and I am really excited for next year! If you are in the Raleigh area in January definitely check out Illogicon!!

[Geek Girl Makeup Review] tarte for True Blood Makeup Collection

tarte has released some amazing products this fall, inspired by HBO's TV series True Blood! The items in this set are not only amazing, but leave lots of options to make yourself as glamorous as you want for a date with your vampire, or as work ready as you could be!

tarte for True Blood Limited Edition Makeup Pallete:

This pallete wins for the best looking pallete ever! The black corset design is amazing, there is a mirror inside with the 17 eyeshadows, it also comes with lifted natural eye primer (to help keep those eye shadows on!) and mascara! Everything you need for the perfect look! The eye shadows are long lasting and have a variety of colors for a variety of looks! Perfect for that person who is not sure what look they want from day to day, be as vampy, or as casual as you want at the blink of an eye! The makeup is also very long lasting and high quality! 

Retail: $52.00

tarte for True Blood limited-edition LipSurgence Natural Lip Tint

I was incredibly excited when I saw the color of this lipsurgence! I have tried tarte's other colors and to see a glittery red was really exciting! The color is lovely and subtle, so don't let the red color scare you! It goes on smooth and stays on for a long time!

Retail: $24.00

tarte for True Blood limited-edition Natural Cheek Stain

Again like the lipsurgence don't let this red scare you. It goes on as a pale rose color and gives you that hint of color (and a little glitter) you would need (I'm super pale and this looked nice on me!) The fruit extracts in the cheek stain are also good for your skin, so it is not as harsh as other products and cheek colors.

Retail: $30.00

Overall this is a GREAT set of makeup, tarte has never let me down with their products, and the fact that they teamed up with True Blood to make a themed set is always really great! Fun marketing towards ladies is always fun!