WIP Wednesday - 2017 - Volume 15

We've been doing a lot of work on the ties lately. I've come to the conclusion that I don't like the pattern, but I've found a material for the inside that I sort of like--although even this is less than ideal. I'm being super picky about the ties because I really want them to be awesome. We do have 2 prototypes finished that Shaun and Ty wore to a wedding recently, so although I am not satisfied with them, they are more than passable. I guess I'm just a perfectionist. =P So, I'm going to play with some different patterns and see what I come up with. We're also looking at ways to cut down on the time it takes to get everything cut out and ready to sew together. Right now, what we're doing is taking way too much time. This is a problem for 2 reasons: First, I don't have much time, so that means getting these finished is taking forever, and, second, if I want to charge for my time, then the ties are going to be way too expensive--or at least significantly more than what I want to charge for them. Anyways, here's a sneak of the two prototypes we finished, along with a test tie we made with the Zelda fabric that we screwed up printing -- the pattern is supposed to be smaller, but I uploaded the file with the wrong DPI. Oops. But we had the fabric, so why not use it? We used the Zelda fabric to test several different insides for the tie.

WIP Wednesday - 2017 - Volume 11

This week, I'm going to share a little more progress on the ties. We've gotten in some new fabrics, not pictured. We ran into problems with several of the fabric designs--our fault, not the printer's. With the first round of fabrics, one print was entirely too large--as in unworkable. With the new set of fabric prints 2 out of the 4 were printed too large. One for the same reason as the first, but not as unworkable. The design will fit on the tie, but it cuts it close and won't look as good as the final design. With the other, it's a tiled pattern similar to the Pokemon design, but the pattern printed too large. Clearly we can still make ties out of it, but they're not going to be exactly what I want. We're debating what to do with the messed up designs now. Do we go ahead and turn them into ties and then sell at a discount? Do we just toss the fabric? Do we try and come up with something else to do with it? We're not sure yet. The most frustrating thing is keeping the bloody pattern straight because the fabric shifts so easily and then you end up with something crooked. Stupid shiny slippery fabric. Grr. But anyways. Here's some progress pictures of the Pokemon ties.

Pokemon GO

I don't know if anyone here plays Pokemon GO, but I do... admittedly only half-heartedly.

It does help that lots of Pokemon show up where I work now, and I have access to a Pokestop from my basement cubicle. Beyond casual play, though, I don't think the game has much appeal. I like collecting things, so I do enjoy playing. It spices up (somewhat) the usually dull walks around my neighborhood, which I take on days when it's not hot. I admit that my courage fails when it comes to warm weather. Over 80 degrees, and I melt. Sadly that's a good bit of the year where I live. This week I've been looking at temperatures in the upper 90s. Dying...

Back on topic. So, I play on Team Mystic because I like what it stands for, plus blue is my other favorite color. My husband and eldest son play (all Team Mystic). My mom and brother play--also Team Mystic. So clearly, Team Mystic is the most awesome team -- because I'm there... Just kidding.

The new mechanics for the gyms look fun. I haven't really played with it as I don't live near any gyms. From what I have seen, it does seem more engaging than the previous system. Maybe I'll get a chance to play around with the new mechanics some time soon.

Anyways, anyone else here still play Pokemon GO? What team are you on? Just curious.

Animazement 2017 - Part 1

Animazement 2017

... was a blast. There are no other words for it.

I cosplayed--for the first time in years.

It was refreshing.

The costumes weren't anything brilliant. Friday's were very (obviously) last minute. But I had fun--and that's the most important part right?

Friday, my daughter Sophie dressed as Princess Aurora. It was a dress she had gotten as a hand-me-down from her cousin. She loves wearing it, and I thought Animazement would be an excellent excuse to wear it. Last minute, I decided to put together King Stefan and Queen Leah costumes for my husband and I -- because Aurora has a complete set of living parents and why not?

Saturday and Sunday, my husband and I and Ty, my oldest son, cosplayed as the three Marowaks from the Alolan fire trial (Pokemon Sun and Moon). A friend of ours came along dressed as the Hiker from the trial as well. This was a lot of fun. Technically we had Sophie dressed up as a Salazzle, but she wouldn't keep the costume on, so meh. You win some, you lose some.

In the end, I had a great weekend. I am going to post more later on con-going with a smaller child and on some of my great finds in the Artist Alley.

No pictures from Friday; I will try to find some. But here's one I found of us on Saturday:

One-A-Day Pokemon

I've been working to revitalize my art. I've been away for a long time for a variety of reasons (maybe one of these days I'll post about that). One of the things I've decided to do is to try to finish one Pokemon button drawing every week day for 2017. I felt this would be a good challenge because it would get me drawing, and it would give me a chance to draw more animals, which is a little out of my comfort zone. So far, I've only missed 3 days. Of course, I'd rather that number be 0, but another thing I'm doing this year is keeping things in perspective. In this case, perspective means being kind to myself when things don't go perfectly.

So, anyways... So far, I've posted 26 Pokemon! I'm pretty pleased with that. Right now, I'm going through the Pokemon Sun and Moon Pokedex. That may not be the most creative way to go through this project, but it does give focus, which is good, especially on days when I might not be feeling it. These buttons will be available for purchase online, or for pick-up at conventions, but I'm not planning on taking them with me to conventions to put on my table. For one, there will be just too many designs--it's a lot to print and a lot to carry around. I will be doing these print-on-demand-style.

If you want to follow my Pokemon progress, I am sharing them on my Facebook page and my Tumblr. Here are the ones I have finished including #27, which I will be posting later today.

If you're interested in purchasing Pokemon buttons, then send me a message via Tumblr or Facebook. Or, you can purchase a Button listing from Etsy. Or, you can send me an email. If not purchased through Etsy, you can pay via Paypal. In your message, let me know which Pokemon buttons you want. Buttons are 1-3/4 inches diameter and are $2 each. 

Angels > Pokemon

I spent this past week rewatching Angelic Layer with my Mom and my kids. My Mom had never seen it before, and it'd been a while since the rest of us had seen it. Angelic Layer may not be one of Clamp's more spectacular works, but it was cute. Of course, as an avid cosplayer, I have to say that one of the strongest draws this series has for me is the wide variety of costume designs.

For those who have not seen Angelic Layer, the series is about a girl, Misaki Suzuhara, who moves to Tokyo and starts playing a game called Angelic Layer. The game involves customizing an Angel doll, which when placed a special surface called a Layer can be moved. The player wears a special helmet that transmits their thoughts to the doll and the doll moves accordingly. The idea is that what an Angel can do is limited only by the player's will and imagination. The plot follows Misaki as she progresses through the big Angelic Layer tournament. There is some family drama mixed in with all this, but I won't go into detail here since that would give away the bulk of the plot--Angelic Layer isn't all that complicated a series.

One thing that I noticed on this go-around with Angelic Layer is that it's a lot like Pokemon--I'm sure there are other series like this too, but it's not really the kind of thing I usually watch. =P In Angelic Layer you challenge other players, similar to how Pokemon trainers will challenge each other; the players' Angels fight each other, kind of like Pokemon fight each other for the trainers. I think Angelic Layer is better than Pokemon, or at the very least, I think, given the choice, I'd prefer to play Angelic Layer over going on my very own Pokemon journey. XD One of the biggest reasons why I prefer Angelic Layer is that Angelic Layer ended. Pokemon doesn't seem to ever die. XD That makes my kids happy, but after a while, I do wonder how much longer they can honestly drag it out. For another, Angels are kind of like Ball-Joint-Dolls, only cooler--they're slightly more customizable for body type and they can move and fight while in the Layer. This means, though, that you can dress the Angels up in all kinds of neat outfits or make your own clothes for the doll. As a cosplayer, that aspect definitely appeals to me. Finally, as an added bonus, you don't ever have to feed your Angel or really worry about ever offending it or anything, since, you know, it's not a living thing. =P

Here are screenshots of my two favorite Angels, Ranga and Wizard. For those of you who've seen Angelic Layer, which Angel did you like best?

Animazement Artist Alley Loot

Today's blog is to show off all the awesome art I got from Animazement's Artist Alley. =)

I'm going to start with the buttons. My good friend, Melissa, bought the top two for me. The first one is China from Hetalia--he's a guy with long hair and a panda, what's not to love? The second is Mai from Avatar: the Last Airbender--she got the trio of bad girls, Azula for herself, since she was supposed to have been cosplaying Azula, Ty Lee for my cousin, who was cosplaying Ty Lee, and Mai for me since I was cosplaying Mai. Sunday I went back and got the bottom two buttons + an Aang. I gave the Aang to my other cousin who was at AZ and cosplaying Aang. The Zuko is for my husband, and the Iroh is for our friend who was cosplaying Iroh, but he left the convention before I could get the button to him. So, it'll just hang out on the yarn braid here (made for me by Ty) until our next D&D game.

Next up is this amazing print of Terra from Final Fantasy VI. I loved the coloring especially, but the whole print is just plain awesome. I had to take it home with me. XD I'm thinking the artist was just trying to get rid of these prints since she was selling them for only $1. Honestly it's worth a lot more in my opinion. I also bought a key chain from her table. It had Lina on one side and Gourry on the other. <3 Slayers!!! There aren't any pictures of the key chain because it's attached to the car keys which are in my husband's pocket. XD I really liked this artist; she had tons of non-mainstream stuff.

Dumb flash on the camera wouldn't function properly this morning... During our wanderings of artist alley, Ty made sure we found every artist selling Pokemon stuff. This one had a set of bookmarks to go with the various Eevee evolutions. She was out of my favorites, but Ty liked the water one, and the fire one is one of my runner up favorites, so I picked out the set of 3. The water one will go to Ty, the electric to my mom, and I'll either keep the fire one or give it to Luke. I want to laminate these so they're usable without risking tearing them up--this is why I laminate all of my bookmarks in really thick plastic.

This artist had a lot of cool Sailor Moon stuff, and it was tough to narrow down which prints I wanted to buy. With the chibi Sailor Moon set, I got all of the inner scouts, so I didn't have to pick which one I liked the most. =D I got the Ouran Host Club print because 1) they were on special if you got 2, and 2) I've been more than a little obsessed with Ouran High School Host Club lately. XD I really liked these chibis though; they pretty much nailed the cast and their personalities.

Finally, I got 2 badges and 2 magnets from Mystcloud (the one artist I actually have a gallery address for). I got the Sailor Venus because she's one of my favorites--love the color orange (purple's my second favorite color, but it's on my sites because purple goes better with a Gothic Panda than orange). The Nekozawa badge and Kyoya magnet go with my Ouran High School Host Club obsession. Kyoya's my favorite host, and Nekozawa is just plain awesome. The James magnet was for my kids to go on our fridge--they're all obsessed with Pokemon. The camera would not cooperate with getting pictures of these. Flash on: there's a glare. *fail* Flash off: the camera won't focus. I'm posting 3 picutres, 1 with flash, 1 without flash that's almost not half bad, and 1 without flash that reflects what pictures taken indoors without a flash usually look like. XD

Flash: Horrible glare on Nekozawa.

Almost not bad; Sailor Venus and James are ok at least.

This is what my camera normally does w/ no flash.

Gotta Catch 'Em All

Pokemon is a phenomenon that has been around since the late 1990s. I collected the cards when they first came out--I was an anime fan and was excited by anything anime back during a time when anime was a lot harder to come by. It's 2011, the newest set of games for the DS came out just under 2 months ago. My kids are playing the games and collecting the toys now. The theme is still the same: "Gotta Catch 'Em All." This morning I put together a treasury on Etsy with a Pokeball theme. I found a lot of really creative and unique items. Here is a sampling of some of them:

Pokemon Ball Duct Tape Flower by DuckTapeRose	Pokeball Bracelet Cuff - Kandi by rivetgirlfalls
POKEMON Mini Recycled Notebook Journal by heavensentcrafts	Pokeball Belly Ring by RainbowKidShop

If you're interested in checking out the big treasury, you can here.

Credit for the code for the mini-treasury goes to Autumn2May. Find out how to make your own mini-treasury on her blog.