Anime Expo 2011 Cosplay

So, since I didn't really take any pictures while I was at Anime Expo, this is mainly gonna be about my adventures of cosplaying for the first time.

For my first cosplay ever, I attempted creating a female Auron from Final Fantasy X. I ended creating 3 different versions of this gender bend and two of them had to be my favorite. The first of the 3 was the basic outfit that everyone who has played the game is familiar with.

This had to be, by far, my favorite of the three. Unfortunately, this particular outfit had a lot of mistakes and mishaps. The outfit itself was poorly made. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't use a pattern so the upper part was a little tight, especially around the shoulders, but it was bearable. It was just really hard to recreate his signature pose of using hit coat as a sling. Another mistake is actually hidden under the belt. The coat was made into two different pieces for reasons I cannot remember. Unfortunately there was not enough trimming so a good sized gap was left out in the open, but thankfully I could easily cover it up with the belt. It would show itself from time to time due to gravity. Again, first time cosplaying so I was kind of stupid :P The reason why the coat would fall back is because my shoulder guard was made of aluminum.

For the mishaps, the worst probably had to be the boots. The plating on the boots are made of aluminum and were a bit too big. I thought I could handle it, but I was wrong. What happened was that at the very top of the plating, it would rub against my ankles as I walked, but it was bearable for half the day. Then I had a photo shoot. The photographer had me kneel down and this position really killed my ankles. I had to keep moving to take off pressure from my feet, so it took a while to finish this particular pose.

My right ankle got the worst of it. I didn't realize what it looked like until after I got home. It didn't help either that right after this shoot, I went to go to the Kalafina concert. I had to walk over to the Nokia Club from the West Hall only to find out that I didn't have my ticket, so I had to walk all the way back to the West Hall, get my ticket, check-in my sword, and walk all the way back to stand for another 15 minutes waiting for it to start. While I did enjoy the concert very much, it was tough concentrating on their singing about half way through. I could barely stand on two feet anymore. And the best part had to be going down three flights of stairs, and on each step I had to slowly put both my feet down before I could go on to the next step. I felt so bad for the people behind me. I'M SORRY!! This is what my foot looked like

It may not look that bad, but in person it was bad ((and this after I iced it too)). My right ankle had a 2 inch long swollen area and that whole area was slightly bruised. The line you see on both ankles were bruises from the plating during the shoot.

Favorite pic from the shoot

Well, that's it for now. I'll have more about my other two versions of Auron later. I still need to gather up some good photos and do two photo shoots before I can talk about those :) So please be patient and wait for my post about them. For now, please go to my deviantart account to see more photos of my Auron cosplay

http://beautifuldragon.deviantart.com/

Celebrating my 22nd Birthday

So three days ago I celebrated my 22nd birthday at Disneyland for two days. Originally I wanted to go to Las Vegas with my friends for 2-4 days, but due to some circumstances it never happened. Instead we finally decided that we'd all go to Disney for two days. Of course the planning didn't escape from other circumstances. A couple of my friends could only attend for one day ((which didn't really bother me)), another couldn't come because of money issues ((again, didn't bother me)), and an issue with what kind of tickets we were going to buy.

This was our biggest problem as some kind of misunderstanding prevented all of us from attending together. We weren't sure what park we were going to attend first and the two friends who could only attend on day wanted to go to Disney California. So I suggested that we go to California Adventure the first day. One didn't pay any mind to my comment and a couple of weeks later bought a hopper pass so she could go to both parks ((thinking that I wanted to go to Disney first)). Then the second friend bought herself a hopper pass as well, so now they both had to go to both parks so they didn't waste any money. I'd be lying if I said that this didn't tick me off a little, after all the effort I had put in for the last 4 months so we could all hang out together. But on a lighter note they did hang out with us for about half the day.

So the first day we went to California Adventure. The first ride we went on was the Tower of Terror and I somehow managed to get my friend to go on the ride ((when she refused to go on in the beginning of the day)). We pretty much went running around from place to place until we met with our other friends. The last ride we went on before we met was the rapids. It was one of most suspenseful rides cause for about 2 minutes our raft was stuck right in front of the first drop. Me and my friends were facing the drop and the inescapable fact of getting wet was staring at us in the eye. Toward the end after the second drop we nearly escaped the ride without getting drenched. I forgot about the geiser after the drop. It literally went off while we were above it. We felt a rumbling underneath our raft and I completely blew it off. Suddenly my entire back ((and butt)) were drenched and my backpack was almost soaking wet.



After that we went to go meet up with our friends and spend the rest of the time ((until dinner)) to hang out. We didn't want anything for lunch so instead we went to the Tortilla and Sourdough Workshop for some free samples.




I love sourdough bread :)

We went on California Screamin' and the Toy Story ride after that and made our way to the House of Blues in Downtown Disney. I was debating whether or not I wanted to buy an alcoholic beverage. I never bought one before and I wanted to try a drink so I bought one. An Alabama something.



The end result:



I didn't like it one bit. Our waiter asked how I liked it ((guaranteeing that I'd like it before)) and I just shook my head. He laughed and asked me why and I just said it was too strong. He made the comment that of course it'd be strong since it is alcohol and I just shrugged saying, "Then I guess I'm a light weight", laughing. Toward the end of the meal he offered to get me something for my birthday and that it wasn't going to be a cheesy song and dance. We were curious as to what it was, and what we saw left us speechless.



He said that it was going to be on him. My friend thought it was because he liked me. I thought it was because he felt bad that I wasted money on a drink that I didn't like :P He was cute, but either way that desert was freaking amazing!!! I was full before, but when he brought that out a new stomach was created so I could eat it XD Best birthday cake ever!!! ((I hope I can meet Chris, our waiter, again. He was such a sweetheart ^_^))

That pretty much concluded the first day of my birthday celebration. The next was pretty much running around Disney being silly and hyper. My friend Lumi and I were bouncing off the walls at one point and were just plain goofy. We saw "Captain EO" for the first time ((starring Micheal Jackson)) and it was okay. I liked the music if anything :P and the make-up for the villian was pretty cool too. We didn't do a lot really. We just made sure we hit all the big rides we wanted to go on, like Indiana Jones, the Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, and etc. The only one we didn't get the chance to go on was the Matterhorn. We did not want to wait that long to get on the ride >_<>

Here are some more photos of my trip to Disney: