AX2012 - LA Exploration

Our last day in LA (and the last day of the con) was actually spent... exploring!  I think it was my favorite day of all of them, even though AX was fun and full of interesting things to see and do.  I guess there's nothing like hopping in a car with a bunch of awesome friends and going to visit tourist spots ^ ^

First off, we finally got to see the super special rooftop pool of our hotel.  It's smaller than I'd imagined (of course, I was imagining a pool you can do Olympic laps in, complete with palm trees and a waited bar service like the super rich people have in movies), but the view was still beautiful.

After getting poster tubes (note to future self: bring poster tubes to out-of-town conventions) and some breakfast at the bakery across the street, we went to get our ZipCar -- a pretty cool and convenient rental car program, courtesy of our friend Richard's membership.  First stop: lunch in Little Tokyo!  We decided to get ramen at the famousest ramen place in LA, Daikokuya.

And the ramen did not disappoint -- it was AMAZING!  Tiffy and I thought it comparable to the ramen we had in Japan.  We went right around when they opened (11 AM on a Monday), and we got in right before the crowd.  It's not an excellent place for groups, but we got good seating at the bar.  If you want to try, you should go for lunch right when they open, and it's better if you go in a small group of 2 to 3.

We all got ramen; I have the stomach of a sparrow, so I got the half-size portion.  Yes, fellow light eaters, they have a half-size!  It's not a bad deal, either: $6.50, and I still couldn't finish it.  The full size is this huge bowl for only $8.95, so if you eat a lot, this place is good for your tummy, too.

After lunch, we perused the shops in the Little Tokyo Plaza and got some yummy mochi ice cream/mochilato (mochi with gelato).  They had vanilla and red bean for the ice cream and toasted almond for the gelato.  Apparently they had more flavors earlier, but I guess they only make them at certain times.  I love red bean mochi ice cream, so no complaints from me :) 

Next stop, Santa Monica pier and promenade!

Of course, we took off our shoes and dashed across the (hot) sand into the (freezing) Pacific.  It was so much fun running barefoot with friends across the beach.  It was chilly enough for me to wear a hoodie, but the weather was beautiful and sunny.  I can't imagine doing any kind of running on a TX beach.

We meandered the pier and promenade, got Dippin' Dots and fed pigeons with them, went shopping in H&M and Forever 21, checked out the Tesla store (the boys were such good sports about the two of us girls shopping in girly stores, Tiffy figured it'd be nice to stop by to look at the nifty cars there), and got Wetzel bitz and Pinkberry (the original frozen yogurt place).  I realize that my stomach is made for sweets and junk food :P

After that, we headed to Hollywood!  We saw Madam Tussaud's wax museum front, the Chinese Theater, the stars and handprints, and we even got a glimpse of the Hollywood sign from far away.  Oh, and Daniel and Jordan struck an amazing Marilyn Monroe pose.  Aren't they stunning? :P

It's really hard to see, but I promise the little white blob in the top right corner says "Hollywood."

Because parking is expensive and CityWalk isn't much but restaurants, we decided to forego CityWalk and had dinner in Hollywood instead.  My cousin recommended a place called Umami Burger, so we walked there (a pretty long walk -- 1 mile -- though we were used to that after walking to/from the convention center).  In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best idea to walk since it was nighttime in downtown Hollywood, and it was kind of shady, but oh well.

The burgers were pretty good, and the fries were amazing.  They had a special of truffle fries, and we also got sweet potato fries and onion rings.  The Umami burger was pretty good, but I think I liked the Cali burger better (more stuff inside).

Our final stop was at Bottega Louie, where we'd had dinner on Friday, to get some stuff from their super sparkly awesome looking bakery.  (One day I will make things that look that beautiful.)  Thus concluded our day of exploration, and our LA/AX trip.

We've all made it safely back home... just in time for Independence Day.  I really miss hanging out with everyone!  Tiffy and I are still trying to figure out what con we want to go to next year, and what costumes we want to do.  Stay tuned!

AX2012 - Day 3

It's 1 AM at the end of day 3, and Tiffy and I are too pooped after our long day to write much.  So instead, we'll present you pretty pictures to look at.  Special thanks to our friends Jordan and Richard, official photographers!  Yes, I pretty much just swiped these from them :P

Death Note props -- Ryuk's apple, Light's Death Note, and L's chocolate bar.

Pretty costumes!

Pretty costumes #2!

Sonic!

 

This is the best Miku we've ever seen.  Her costume is amazing, and she has the perfect body and face.  I can almost like Vocaloids because of her :P

Brief outline of what we did today:

- Spent 30 minutes trying to figure out how to put on fake eyelashes

- How to Sew Your Own Cosplay panel

- Chibi Masquerade

- Food trailers -- FLUFF ICE!!

- Dealer's room, where crunchyroll had a crazy dance party

- Standby line for the Masquerade + takoyaki and bubble tea

- Masquerade ball... which, honestly, we were glad we didn't pay for

- Good bye AX 2012!

Tomorrow, we plan to hit some of the major tourist spots of LA!

wow i'm completely useless -__- too tired today and yesterday to give any of my comments but will be doing belated posts on our fun times and costume construction! stay tuned :P

AX2012 - Day 2

We survived day 2!

Today, we cosplayed alternate versions of Lightning and Serah -- Tiffy did a Dissidia version of Lightning, and I did the style-and-steel downloadable content (DLC) content of Serah from FFXIII-2.

  

Highlights of the day:

- We actually got a decent number of pictures taken of us... and people recognized us!

- Many notable cosplays, including a functional R2D2, Pokemon boys, Cactuar, and a big penguin.

- Wei let us try on his Necomimi ears.  They're cute, but somehow they're kind of difficult to operate intentionally...

- Final Fantasy photoshoot that we kind of missed, but there was a girl from Square Enix who took our picture because she really liked that we did the alternate forms!

- Truck Norris food truck for lunch -- not bad, but I miss my Fluff Ice :(  There was an interesting bubble tea trailer there instead.

- Fiction Junction/Kajira Yuki concert, which was full of good music I hadn't heard before from a variety of animes, including .hack, MY-HiME, and... others I don't remember.

- Arashi Sushi for dinner -- their food is pretty awesome!  Would definitely recommend it as a place to eat if you're in the area.  I think some of our friends may even go there tomorrow.

- Light-up squares.  Yes, they light up when you step on them!

Tomorrow... we're not dressing up :P  Which is quite a relief, actually!  But we are planning to hit up some panels and get some last-day things from the dealers' room.  And... I'm secretly hoping to run into someone from WongFu!

AX 2012 - Day 1

Hello!


Today was our first official day of Anime Expo.  Tiffy and I cosplayed our first set of costumes: Lightning and Serah Farron from FFXIII.

We were the only set of Lightning/Serah that we saw, and we actually got a surprising number of picture requests.  Yay for set costumes! Yeah, I actually can't believe it turned out so well.  We were a pretty good duo :P  And Tiffy was actually taller than me!  It kind of freaked all our friends out.


Highlights of the day:
- Running into our friends at registration.
- Fluff Ice!

  

- Seeing other cosplays... Totoro, Kirby, baby Cloud, WoW, samurai people, Boba Fetts, monitor head peoples, and more!
- Visiting our friend Wei at the crunchyroll station, seeing the new Necomimi ears, and sneaking some free drinks from their back room.
- Meeting up with my cousin for dinner at a super popular Italian restaurant/bakery, Bottega Louie.


First day reflections of AX? hard to say lol we spent most of the day walking around, failing to coordinate meetings with friends and posing for pictures.  we'll definitely have to make an effort to attend some shows/panels tomorrow.  However, like always, we leave exhausted.  until tomorrow!

Anime Expo 2012 - We're Here!

Greetings from Los Angeles, CA -- home of gorgeous blue skies, lovely beaches and of course, Anime Expo! After one year of planning (and procrastinating!), Christine and I are finally here :) and with two completed costumes as well.  The last couple of weeks have been hellish, and the 2.5 hour wait for badges today was absolutely brutal (though at least the weather was beautiful, and we're not in the 100 degree Texas summer heat wave) but we are excited to go on another cosplay adventure together! Stay tuned for more updates, pictures and musings about our times here at AX 2012.  Anime Expo, here we come!

Cosplay Progress Report: FFXIII Lightning and Serah

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since we've updated, but we are still working on our costumes for this year's Anime Expo!  Tiffy and I have started on our FFXIII costumes for Lightning and Serah, and we've also gotten our wigs.  I also just ordered our contacts (for 20% off, yay!). update: korea big eyes seems to be phasing out prescription lenses :( so i shall be ordering acuvue color lenses

Here's a brief progress report on how we're doing so far:

Serah Farron

I'll be doing Serah for AX this year.  (Obviously.  I totally couldn't pull off the awesome Lightning look; I'm in no way cool-looking like Tiffy is.)  

Tiffy and I both got our wigs from the same eBay seller, fashiongarden3000.  You can find Serah's wig here; unfortunately, it looks like they stopped selling the one I purchased.  The wig quality is decent, probably along the same as the wig Tiffy got for Noel from cosplay.com (about 3 editions of their site ago).  The hair is smooth and the right color, but it's not heat resistant.  Luckily, I was humble enough to recognize how inept I am at styling wigs, so I just purchased mine pre-styled and saved myself the heartache. i'm glad i bought my wig prestyled too. the lightning one is still available :)

For the contacts, I purchased these NeoCosmo Sunflower Edge Aqua contacts.  Since my astigmatism is terrible, spherical contacts don't work for me (as I discovered when I cosplayed Aerith), so I just decided to get non-prescripted ones and double layer the contacts like I did for Rachel.  Word to the wise: it's probably really bad for your eyes, so don't do it very often.  I'll only do it for the one day we cosplay FFXIII.

So far, I've finished the skirt base, which took way too long, because I am slow.  I just need to add the lace and the gold decoration in the front.  And by the way, because I don't have Serah's long legs, the skirt is SO SHORT.  I know how Tiffy felt as Noel now :P  And I've been totally obsessing about it.  I promise to stop being annoying about how short it is soon.

We'll post a separate entry on costume construction when we're done with the costumes so you can see our arduous work (just kidding -- well, not really).  Until then, hopefully we can post periodic updates!  (That way I'll feel pressured to finish my costume and actually finish it...)

Lightning

yeahhhh i need to costume more because i am very very far behind =\ i have lots of fabric sitting around since i've taken advantage of all the joann's coupons that come out, but i haven't really sewn any of it. i've finished the skirt but it's not as nice as i'd like it to be.  i have yet to figure out how to properly design waistbands.

the skirt is dark brown kona cotton with silver 5in fashion zippers.  it's pretty short, but luckily lightning wears black shorts underneath so i got to skimp on lining the entire thing >__<  i also haven't figured out how to attach the zipper boot onto my sewing machine, hence the pulling at the end of the zippers -___- will have to fix that later. overally though, it'll suffice. lightning wears tons of other things over it anyways lol


also in the works...the mini corset thing, which i'm making out of dark blue denim, silver grommets and leather twine. i decided to make it separately so i could adjust it, but a lot of cosplay websites make a high waisted brown skirt with laces in the front. same difference >__<


i've also started making her waist belt.  i bought a light coffee/safari colored vinyl, which will serve well for the boots and vest adornments.  i'll have to use some darker acrylic paint to make the belt the right color.


more to come (i hope!)

Costume Construction: FFVII Advent Children

 HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII :) i know i am writing this about 1 month after A-kon has been over, but i'm super lucky that christine is so very organized and a detailed account of our days at A-kon 22 :P 

well, in case anyone is curious as to how christine and i spammed our costumes for FFXIII, here goes!

Showcased: June 10-11, 2011

Tiffany: Tifa Lockhart      Christine: Aeris Gainsborough

Tifa Lockhart


So yeah, i made this in two weeks, which is not as impressive as christine's 3 days, but considering i was working with vinyl, i'll give myself a small pat on the back >__<


from an overall point of view, tifa's costume is very simple.  It consists of a white tank, black vest, black knee-length shorts, and a front-back apron piece.  in total, the costume cost about $60.


White Tank: I bought a cheap white cotton tee from michael's and cut it up to bare a small section of midriff (scandalous i know!) and have enough sleeve to show past the vest.  pretty simple.


Vest, Shorts and Apron:  I made these pieces using a black vinyl from Hancock's Fabrics's upholstery/outdoor fabrics section during a 50% off sale.  It gave off a good leather look but was still thin enough to work with.  My only complaint is that if you look close enough at the vinyl, it has the words SURECHEK printed all over it -____-  Even though it was "thin", this has to be the hardest thing i've ever worked with! AND since it was vinyl, it didn't breathe so i'm glad i fully lined everything otherwise, walking around the con would've been more awful than it already was lol
for the vest, i made a pattern from a tank top that i liked and proceeded to use myself as a sewing mannequin (bleeeeh).  I used a silver coat zipper for the front and followed online instructions for the darts around the bust and back.

shorts: the shorts intimidated me the most about costume, just because i've never had to make anything tailored before.  i initially made a free-form pattern based on my measurements but that was awful lol so i ended up doing the same thing as the vest -- i made a pattern based on my favorite knee high dickies shorts and followed tips from this blog.  it turned out pretty well except i didn't sew a waistband (which i should've!!!!) i kept fearing the pants would just slide off -____- i ended up adding an invisible zipper in the front and elastic bands in the back to make the waist tighter.  I sewed the belt loops on by hand (2 per leg and 2 on each side of the hip) and 1 buttonhole was made at each hip. 


 

apron:  the apron was the easiest and my favorite part.  The front piece was just one piece of lined vinyl with another piece of vinyl in the front.  the pockets were created through strategic sewing :P it was so convenient throughout the con bc unlike last year with noel's costume, i had a place to keep my phone and money!  I finished it off with 6 black buttons.  I made a 2 loops at the sides of the apron to attached the silver buckles.  

the back of the apron was 2 pieces of vinyl.  The bottom part of the apron was pleated into 6 box pleats that were left flared at the bottom.  the top piece was just a trapezoidal piece of vinyl.  i sewed both of them together to create that seam she has beneath her butt.  2 buttons were sewn at the top corners of the apron to flip over into the shorts and secure into the buttonholes

accessories:



earring: i made her left teardrop earring from sculpting clay, craft wire and silver spray paint.  I took a rounded stud and looped a piece of wire around it.  I sculpted a teardrop shape and baked it in the toaster oven.  After sanding, i spray painted with metallic silver paint and clear gloss for finish.  


I decided not to buy a cloudy wolf ring but i bought leather gloves when i was in china for like $8? that was awesome :)

shoes: i wore black high-top converse that i already owned.  i just covered the converse symbol with black lining and used black ribbon for the shoelaces and knee ties.  
armband: i used a strip of christine's costume to match :)


Aerith Gainsborough


Sorry for the suuuuuuuuper late update on mine!  I actually don't have any in-the-making pictures, and I don't remember much of the time I spent making it except for arduous pain, so :P  Still, mine is definitely not as impressive as Tiffy's; I could never had made a costume that complex in just 2 weeks.  Lucky for me, mine was pretty easy :)  (Though it didn't feel like it at that time.)


Dress


I used a light pink linen material for the dress.  It was thin and flowy, but very comfortable, and had the same look as Aerith's dress.  Around the edges, I used a darker pink cotton that I folded over and sewed on top.  For the dress pattern, I used a cocktail dress that I already owned that had a very similar cut to that of Aerith's dress.

I sewed buttons up the front, but I didn't actually use that as the means of holding the dress together.  I still haven't figured out how to make button holes yet, so I cheated and used a zipper on the side.

Jacket


I used dress shirt pattern that I've grown very fond of for the jacket, but trimmed off the bottoms so that it was a half-length.  Just for future reference, dress shirt patterns are very useful.  I used the same pattern for my Rachel shirt and jacket.

For the bands, I used a brown leather material that I got out of the furnishings section of Joann's.  It's a really nice, thick material that I like.  I didn't know have time to figure out the buckles, so I just sewed the ends together.

I also haven't figured out how to use the thing that makes the other kind of button/clasp that you usually find on jeans or jackets, so I just sewed vaguely correct looking buttons on the front of the jacket.

Accessories


Wig: I got my beautiful wig from ImageAnime, luckily straight from their shop in New York (as their site is very not up-to-date) for $50 (+tax).  It was a medium-length chestnut brown made of heat-resistant material, and it feels even better than real hair.  I think I killed it by styling it for Aerith's wig, though :(  For the bangs, I had to use a terrible-for-you method in which you spray the hair with hairspray and then immediately apply heat from a hair straightener to stiffen the spray on the hair.  I used a similar method for the front curls.  I just braided the back and pulled it over my shoulder to make it look vaguely convincingly long enough.


Contacts:  The green contacts came from KoreaBigEyes.com.  Their contacts are pretty excellent and not too expensive.

Necklace: I used a thin brown band that I got from Joann's and just tied it around my neck.


Bracelets:  I purchased silver plastic bands from Joann's and just wore them as pretend bracelets.  They looked pretty similar at a distance to what Aerith was wearing, and I didn't have time to make the bracelets, so they were sufficient.


Boots: I was looking for some brown Ugg-like shoes, but luckily my friend had some brown flat boots that looked similar, so I borrowed hers.


All in all, I think the costume turned out pretty well for my rushing.  There are definitely things I could have done better (less cheating, for one).  Hopefully my next costume will be better constructed > <


 i think we all had a pretty good time again and look forward to our grand adventure next year as the characters from tales of symphonia and FFXIII at Anime Expo in LA! it's gonna be AWESOME! i can't wait!

Update on the Anime Expo costumes:  Since a lot of people opted out of Tales of Symphonia, we're probably not doing a full group cosplay.  Instead, Tiffy and I are going to do Kuroshitsuji, and see how many people will join in.  So far, Jordan and Daniel have agreed to be part of the entourage.  I'm looking forward to it!