Disneyland Lolita Day 2015!

Hey everyone! I am really exhausted from school and getting everything done, but Disneyland Lolita Day 2016 is right around the corner and I haven't posted the last time we went yet so I just HAD to post it right now. I hope you all are okay with it. I won't have a lot of captioning featured here, but I hope that's still alright anyway. 

Nurse Morrigan! Construction & Step by Step Commentary

Hey everyone! Long time no post (sorta). I've been working on a lot of stuff for school and on a lot of new and fun little projects. It's been such a great adventure honestly! I'm even more ecstatic for people to be able to enjoy it with me and to watch me and my progress. For this post, I'll actually be talking about how I went about constructing my Nurse Morrigan costume for Long Beach Comic Con in Long Beach, California! If you're interested, Click through the read more cuties.

Monster High * Frights, Camera, Action * Cleo De Nile

I originally had a lot to say about her, but I also stopped caring! Later post from last year. I had purchased Cleo from Target as a final clearance doll for roughly $5 with or without tax. My problems with this doll is that it doesn't come with a doll stand, and that the eyes are wonky (they are printed above the specified place, making her look older due to lines being in the wrong spot). Click the readmore to see photos!

Ethereal Antlers

Hey everyone! So I made a post about this I think on my patreon but I can't for the life of me remember anymore, so I'll be posting this here. This was an order for Halloween of my ethereal antlers. They are made out of clay, a glow in the dark substance, acrylic paints, fake leaves, wire, and twine. They are securely attached onto a headband and have been reinforced using various glues, wire, and other fun tools for security's sake. It is also connected to a lace tie at the bottom of the chin and is paired with alligator clips and sew in hair combs. 

If you're interested in seeing the process or all of the photos, feel free to click through the read more! Thanks for dropping in~ ♪

Finals weeks * Puzzle Love

Puzzles are literally the funnest....but I lack patience. RIP.

Anime Expo Item Haul (2015)

This is SUPER late....but HAHA... check out my uncontrollable self gratification last year from Anime Expo! It's incredible to see how far I've come from spending over $300 at a convention to spending $5. GO ME <3 nbsp="" p="">

Mystic Messenger: Jumin Han (Male Makeup Test #2)

 

Hey everyone! This is amazing, I've actually been able to get posts made for three or so days in a row. Let's hope it continues to stay that way! Moving on, I'll be talking about my costume test and makeup process to achieve it. I will be talking about what I wore exactly for the cosplay test, how I went about styling the wig, and my makeup proceed even though I lack the photos for it. I sort of have been doing what I can to perfect this look for a future costume, but also because it's helpful for me since it's needed for my classes as well. Ah, the beauty of being a creative major! This is going to be my second time ever attempting a more masculine, male type look. Please bear with me! I am still working my way through, I just enjoy documenting my progress haha. Anyways....

Construction / Progression: Hihi Puffy AmiYumi (Ami Costume)

Hey everyone! It's that time of the day for me to get my crap together and post up another blog post. I love the turnout of my Ami costume that I threw together for Halloween and Long beach comic con! This time around I'll be talking about my progress making it hehe. I have tons of other stuff to catch up writing about, but I'll talk about this one first. The photo above was taken by the incredible JC / cosplayphotog(IG). His website can be found here: 

http://photostakenbyjc.com

PokemonGo : Team Mystic member (Lana Jay design)

 

Hey everyone! Sorry for the tardiness post wise. I have been all over the place lately, and my emotions have been a little bit of a mess. I'm primarily better now, and I've been getting a lot of work done surprisingly. For today, I'll be talking about how I went about making my team mystic cosplay! Along with my thought process during all of it. If you're interested, please do go through the read more. I'm always thankful when people drop by and read my posts.

Johanna, my love.

Late post! Leaving and abandoning without commentary. Above is shown the wonderful GS Crop top I had gotten designed by Anna Akana. 

Chitoge Cosplay Progress!

 

Heeeeeey everyone! I'm so sorry for my absence again. I oftentimes forget how lazy and mildly depressed after large social events / gatherings like conventions make me. Well, I'm back today to show off all the work I did for my Chitoge cosplay. So I had started off with one of the wigs I had already owned. The wig is a long, curly blonde wig from Epic Cosplay Wigs.

Velouria Wig Styling & Updates

 

Wig styling again today! Well, technically this was what I was getting done yesterday. If any of you follow my Facebook page, you would have noticed a lot of updates about wig styling and wig care along with updates about this and that. Soooo... Here's an update on that! 

I got this wig that you see here in the mail from eBay. The wig isn't that great because the wefts can be seen as light as day, but I made my decisions and I honestly could care less as I do plan to wear my hoodie for Velouria quite a bit. 

I straightened the curls out in the wig to get the hair straight and nice! Hopefully it works out in the end, but I might plan on adjusting the length at some point. I did cut the fringe though because when it and arrived, I recall there being long bangs for me to adjust and cut. 

 

Aaaaand here's the photo update! I made it so that the sewn in black wefts also blends in a little better. I had taken the leftover hair from the fringe and I had decided to use it and make wefts to sew into the wig to make it more fuller in the bang area. I love how it turned out! 

 

Unfortunately the wig is hard styled, which I honestly hate beyond my control but it's what looks the best and is the most accurate so I will hopefully be able to make it through.

 

Gotta fix the fringe a bit more when it's being propped on my head, but we will see!! When I get all my supplies in, I'll be posting about the incredibly cute Velouria herself in a cosplay test.

Studio Ghibli Tribute Art Show

 

Hey everyone! It's me again after a while of silence once again. This time around I'll be sharing my thoughts and some photos of the studio Ghibli art gallery/show that I had visited with my family a little while back. 

 

I decided to go to the grand opening of the event in my Kiki cosplay from a while back (similar to the first time I had worn this cosplay out) and it was a pretty nice run the second time around. 

 

The line by the time we had arrived there was around the corner of the block so we had gone to one of the food trucks to snag some stuff..and in the end I came back with this incredibly yummy strawberry and cherry hello kitty ice cream! 

 

Truth be told, I was way more excited about this ice cream than anything else...but anyways ....that's not the point.  It took us maybe a solid 30 minutes to wait and get positioned into the actual building holding the art.

 

 And to be honest, I was mildly disappointed with how small the display was and how there was more contemporary interpretations (as poor as this sounds). I shot a few things from the night and I'll be just dropping photos below, but they were a very select few that I found appealing and intriguing. The others were very abstract interpretations, which isn't wrong but it wasn't necessarily my cup of tea either. 

 

 

 

 

 

Aaaaand that's all for this post! We quickly packed up and headed home right after to eat some food. We ended up going to this newly opened noodle place about ten miles away. It was pretty interesting! And definitely was a fun and worthwhile day. Albeit exhausting because of so much heat...

 

My College Ceramics Class -- The Timeline (#1)

I'm much too troubled right now to really caption most of the photos, but this past semester I had taken a ceramics class! I originally was taking it to have a class with an old friend, but after a variety of incidents had occurred they dropped the class and I was stuck continuing in it without a refund...or much else. Thankfully I had my friend Jason around but 'til next time. I'll show more of the work that I had made next time around.

Click through the read more if interested.

The Broad

Hey everyone! I've been working on a lot of stuff, and I keep running out of things to talk about and writing about old posts give me a rough time. I'm not going to talk or say much about my experience with the Broad and when I had gone there, but I had a grand time and I hope you can tell from all of the photos that I had taken. Until next time! 

[Tutorial] Two Toned Leggings

Heeey everyone! I know that I've been falling ridiculously behind as my social media shows so much more fun than my own blog, but I just want to say that I truly appreciate all of the love and support to those Who have been coming back to check in.

But I'm moving on, I will be showing you today how I had gone about making two toned leggings. So you can do a similar thing using tights, pants, shorts, or whatever you really please to this idea. I personally just wanted to use leggings as I had purchased some a while back for this purpose. The concept is to take one half of two different colors and so them together with one of the color waistbands. So let's get started!

[Anime Expo Edition] Cosplay and Prop Prep!

Hey everyone! Long time no chat! This is actually the first time that I've been on my laptop in roughly...6 weeks(?) or so. This is kind of the explanation for why I've been so MIA regarding my blogging, but if you follow me on any of my social media you can tell that I'm 100% always active, if not more. This is mostly because it's really difficult to find a decent mobile application to use Blogger with large numbers of photos...but that can't be helped I guess. Moving on~ 

This post is going to be about my prep work for my cosplay! If you have been stalking me on my social media you would have seen my cosplay lineup featuring the above characters-- 

Friday: Hanon from Mermaid Melody (Later changed to Chocola from Nekopara due to fabric getting lost)

Saturday: Leafeon from Pokemon (Little Paper Forest's Design)

Sunday: Sango from Inuyasha (fighting outfit)

Monday: Amulet Clover from Shugo Chara

So, I've been working my hardest to recreate the props and costumes as best as I can once I had made my decision! Here's what little photos I had taken (sorry) due to the thought slipping my mind. I'll do my best to describe my process properly throughout the post. If you're interested, definitely head on through the read more! 

Care packages

 

Hey everyone~ here are just some photos of some super duper cute charms from a care package that my friend Lily had made and sent me!!! Aren't they super cute? I love them to death !!! 

 

Unfortunately though the last package that had arrived at my house had gotten super smashed! What used to be a really cute little cake with a sweet little strawberry on top turned out to be what used to be....but that's okay!!! The next package that usps arrived in perfect condition and I love it to death. Thank you so much Lily, you're amazing and incredible...your work becomes so much cooler each time I see it! 

Designing practice

 

Hey everyone! So these are just some photos of the things that I've been up to in my costuming class more recently. We are currently working on a design project and for preping, we are currently learning how to draw and color using various mediums. The above is of a coloring page of my favorite flower that I had first done using regular colored pencils (left flower), and the other using watercolor pencils (right). Both, although the same color scheme look very different due to the medium, and really that's the whole point of us learning and trying to figure out the unit. 

 

The second photo that you see here is a quick photo that I had drawn of me in my April harajuku fashion walk outfit! I drew it on watercolor paper as I soon plan on getting a variety of watercolor and prismacolor marker testing in my nearby future (it'll be a mess, but isn't that the point?). 

 

And lastly, a photo of a book that I very so much need.....please if anyone needs to get me a birthday gift or something for Christmas, let it be this dang gorgeous book!

Comic book heels!

 

Hey everyone. These shoes are one of my leaders projects! I am really excited to show it to everyone because it's really really cool. The shoes that I will be talking about are a pair of heels that's I had use mod podge on to create a comic book heel. I have always wanted to make one of these, so I am very excited that I finally was able to. I will also be talking about how much this project costed me, because I am a total cheapskate and also a sad sad college student that knows how expensive the world is. Now moving on~~ 

 

So it started off this project using a regular comic book, white glue, mod podge, paintbrushes, and a pair of size 6 wedged heels. Accompanying this, I had also used a woodburning tool to probably heat seal the edges of my comic strips to the actual heel. This is because it's easier and also more sturdy as it seals the coated comic strips to the heel plastic. This also creates a much smoother and nicer finish, looking very professional and less likely to crack. Altogether, the project probably had taken roughly 5 hours long including the drying time, and was also about five dollars in cost. I am still celebrating over the fact that I got the heels for two dollars. God bless thrift stores!

 

Here are some close up photos of all of the angles for the heels! These have probablyjust become my new favorite pair of heels, along with my favorite do-it-yourself kind of project.

The comic is called Archie comics and this is of Betty and Veronica. The comic edition is 276. 

 

I really love this comic Edition in particular, because this is the one where Betty and Veronica are exchange students in South Korea. The two of them switch places and change their hair colors and styles to impersonate to the other, in hopes to fool those around them. This actually ends up turning into a scene in which Veronica and that he learned to love what they used to hate about themselves and about each other. And they become much stronger friends from there on out. I am very excited and very satisfied knowing that I did use this comic in particular for these heels. They feel so much more meaningful and so much nicer as I truly admire and love Betty and Veronica and their friendship.

 

I had also put in two very particular pictures. On the outside of the left heel is a picture of Veronica crying. In reality it is actually Betty in disguise as Veronica. On the outside of the right heel is a picture of Betty crying. In reality it is actually Veronica as Betty in disguise. These photos are actually of one another directly after their fight and argument because one and the other have come to find themselves challenged by who they really are.

I honestly think that it looks really cool, and the overall look and the color scheme that I had actually stayed true to really really looked awesome.

 

 

I have done my best to actually document the entire story of Betty and Veronica when they were going through their argument in South Korea. You can actually see on the heels where they both enjoy themselves, and also where they come to find trouble with one another. Later you can also see that they are very happy and satisfied and they come to love one another at different points on the heels.

 

Lastly here's some photos of how they look worn! I think they look really nice. I'm also very satisfied with how the edges look and with how clean and well crafted they are. I'm very happy that I went over it again with a woodburning tool to seal the edges and to outline a part of the heel to highlight the original shape of it. It looks much nicer and much in my opinion.

 

Thanks for reading!

Japanese Tea Ceremony Demonstation

Hey everyone! I'm sorry for how clumsy I've been time wise. I haven't been managing my time as well as I should have been. I completely forgot to make a blog post for yesterday, so I'm a post or so behind from my attempted daily routine! I hope you all are doing well. This post will be about a tea ceremony demonstration that I had the fortune of being a part of when I had some work to do in Little Tokyo. All of the photos seen in this post were taken by John Woo. You can find his work on his facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/johnwoooooo/?fref=ts

The person beside me that I will be having the tea ceremony with is Sarah. You can find them at their facebook page PJ Hime : https://www.facebook.com/pjhime/?fref=ts .

I don't have a lot to say about the tea ceremony, aside from it being a very simplified version of the tea ceremony. It was absolutely amazing to be a part of it though. I had originally watched my friends Shelby and Keith perform the tea ceremony, and when I was asked if I'd like to be a part of it for free I nearly jumped for joy! It definitely is a great opportunity that I would recommend to anyone who is truly interested in traditional parts of Japanese culture. It's a dying art, but it's a very wonderful art at that. I hope that we are able to have enough people who are willing to continue these forms of art in every culture because it would definitely be a shame for it to become extinct. 

The Sensei that was providing the demonstration to us is Takahashi Sokei, and assisting her was her mentee Rayko Dig. You can find more information about their tea ceremony demonstrations on their website: http://sokeitea.com/ . 

Also..funny story but I guess I'm a little too rough with my hands...I had snapped the wooden eating utensil that was used for cutting the delicious wagashi (a sweet dessert that is served during the Japanese tea ceremony). I believe the wagashi that we were provided was a type of Yokan (a thick, jellied dessert made out of red bean paste, agar, and sugar) as it was in a familiar shape to the traditional Yokan, had the taste of red bean, and we were asked to cut our wagashi into slices (which is how Yokan is typically eaten). 

Overall, it was a very, very wonderful experience. I know that I've said it a couple of times already but it's an experience that I will remember until the day that I die. The matcha tea that we were served was very delicious and was practically the best serving that I had ever had the luxury of tasting. The experience had also surprisingly brought me much, much closer to my now close friend Sarah, which is truly a moment in time that I will hold close to my heart.