Guest Blogger Stephanie || Hartford Comic Con, And my first Cosplay Experience

I’m lucky that my job allows me to attend signings, events & conventions from time to time — however, I have never attended a comic con specific convention before. Last year for Halloween, my roommate, Daysi, and I decided to dress up as Tina & Louise from Bob’s Burgers. We started the search a few months early and were able to find a lot of the pieces for the costumes online.

At the time, we had only planned for this to be a quick Halloween costume for work. We had no intentions of actually cosplaying Tina & Louise. Not surprisingly, we found just about all the items we needed on Amazon. Daysi’s outfit was simple — lime green dress & pink bunny ear hat. For my Tina, I searched really simple terms like “Teal blue shirt” and “navy blue skort.” The socks proved to be harder to find. Why is it I remember seeing red striped knee socks everywhere until NOW that I actually needed them? I ended up buying a pair from a random Chinese shop on Amazon. I picked up the wig as a last ditch effort at a Spirit Halloween store, as opposed to cutting my hair. I have naturally chunky black framed glasses…. but they just weren’t PERFECT. It wasn’t until another friend sent me the perfect link to this huge chunky cartoon-y pair of black framed glasses that just SCREAMED “Tina!!!” With that, my costume was complete.

We worked together that day, as no Tina could be complete without her Louise… and surprisingly, our basic costumes were a hit. People were coming into our store specifically to take pictures with us. Another friend in another store was dressed as Bob and he’d come over and take group pictures with us. I went to Starbucks and the baristas gave me my drink for free purely because “Tina was their spirit animal”. We had planned to do Tina & Louise again for the next Halloween.

Then came Hartford Comic Con. Our store had a booth at the convention and while the rest of our team wore their regular street clothes… Daysi & I decided to bust out the Tina & Louise getups. We had never been to a convention like this before and were pretty overwhelmed with the amazing response. I don’t think I have ever had so many strangers ask to take my photo/take photos with me. As I learned over the past weekend in Con world, people wanting your picture is a cosplay success. Did I ever intend Tina & Louise to be an actual cosplay? No. Do I love it?? Yes. We’re addicted. We want to do more! We’ve added a Fart Gun to the overall display (One of the Despicable Me Minion fart guns. Perfect for Belcher children) and are working on convincing others to be more Belcher family members with us. I’ve convinced my mother to attend Rhode Island Comic Con with us under the guise of her meeting Hershel from the Walking Dead… under the condition she wears red framed glasses & a red sweater. She has no idea what she’s in for.

It was amazing to see a bunch of the same cosplayers all weekend in the same costumes that people recognize, and switching into new costumes as well. I am totally enchanted by the whole cosplay world and am now working on new costume ideas for future events!







Follow Stephanie:
Twitter - @omgstephanie
Instagram - @makeyourselfsic

My Boston Comic Con 2015 Adventure

Its that time of year again! Its Boston Comic Con time! (well a week after, but whatever.) Boston Comic Con 2015 came and went, and let me tell you it was a pretty awesome weekend. Debuting a new cosplay, making childhood dreams come true, extreme fan boy moments, meeting awesome people the list goes on and on. Everything was so jam packed, I really have no idea where to start, so I guess I will start with day 1.

FRIDAY

This year we attended Friday and Sunday. (why not Saturday? well see even crime fighters have to attend family functions somtimes!) and Friday was cosplay day! This year was really exciting because Eric and I have been working on our Black Canary and Green Arrow Cosplay for over a year now. It had been something we both wanted to do. but for many reasons just didn't. And Of course as soon as we saw Manu Bennett as one of the media guests (Deathstroke from Arrow!) It pushed us to complete out cosplays.               Now I am going to have a whole post on my Black Canary Cosplay alone, so i wont get into that a lot, but needless to say it was really fun, and Manu got a kick out of us, as you can see here in our photo op, and he was a pretty awesome guy,  so it was well worth the work we put into it, Meeting Manu was a great moment of the con for sure, but I will say hands down the greatest thing I can take from Friday was Eric meeting Cassandra Peterson

(the amazing women behind Elvira), because through all the people we have met over the years, and if you meet Eric in person you know he LOVES to talk, hes very much a people person, but meeting Cassandra, left his little fanboy heart speechless.
           It meant SO much to him just to walk up to her table and and barely say hello, smiling like a little kid, it was just awesome. And Cassandra was just amazing, down to earth, sweet, and HILARIOUS. She took the time to talk to us (well me, he couldn't say a word). I adore Elvira so getting a chance to meet Cassandra was a freaking epic. And I am glad I could make Eric's year, (even more so on Sunday!)
          Along with us Dressing up as Arrow and Canary I convinced my friend Ashlee to dust off her Batgirl cape and join in on the fun.Which I think is what made Friday the most fun. And honestly what makes

most con's the most fun. Being able to dress up like super heroes and run around with your friends. Meeting Celebrities and artist of the work I love aside, that is the main reason I love going to conventions. No one thinks its weird that you are dressed up as Black Canary or Batgirl, they think its awesome and want to take picture of it. You see kids dressing up as the same characters you are and they get excited to take pictures with you.                                                              
                  I will mention this is my post about my Black Canary cosplay also, but doing this cosplay was the most fun because of the people I did it with. It made me feel awesome about myself, and it was hilarious and fun to hug my friend and call her Barbra, or just stop in the middle of the convention floor and take pictures with another Canaries and Arrows and swap cosplay tips or find out where they got or how they made a part of their outfit. I was scared at first because this was really out of my comfort zone, other costumes I have done haven't been a full leather costume with a corset, I didn't think I would feel good in it, but honestly I would do it again next weekend if I could. I had the most fun with Canary, and It seriously was an amazing time being her for a day. With my Babs and my Ollie.

Check out Friday's Vlog for more crazy antics:

(read more for day 2)

RI Comic Con 2014

If there was one con I was looking forward to most this year it was RI Comic Con,  The guest list alone had my little geek girl heart a flutter. Even  though Saturday was a complete "shit show" as most people called it, and that left me very scared and anxious for Sunday, but  we went in with a plan. (which is always good with conventions.) We got there really early, and got out of there with a pretty great experience, with a few little bumps of a few badly handled signings with messed up time frames and a staff member simply saying "I don't know when because its daylight savings time and I didn't set my clock back." But all and all I give it a pretty great experience, despite with  what happened on Saturday to everyone. It was crowed, but honestly getting there early was the best choice we made, but ANYWAYS, onto the awesomness of the con!

One of the main reasons I even wanted to go to RICC was this guy. Brian O'Halloran (Dante Hicks from Clerks!) In high school Clerks was hands down one of my all time favorite movies, and even now being a Deli Clerk for the last 8 years (when I am not being a super bloger!) I can relate to Clerks and Clerks 2 more than anything. And meeting Brian was a great experience , he is one of the coolest guys I have had a chance to speak to.  With a tiny "I assure you  we are open" sign on his table, I knew he was going to be awesome. We bonded over the fact he worked in a deli for almost 2 years and the dreaded feeling ever deli clerk gets when slicing headcheese (if you are a deli clerk, you REALLY understand this pain). He was very awesome, and took the time to speak with myself, eric amd Ashlee about whats going on with Clerks 3, In return we promised him we would get all our retail clerks together and see it opening day. Its a promise we in tend to keep! But basically he made a great start to the day, and was everything I hoped he would be. And yes, he was suppose to be there that day!

When Eric and I started dating one of the things we bonded over and made sure we watched together (even if it meant missing spoilers!) was The Walking Dead. With a love of horror and zombies, it was perfect for us. One of our shared favorite characters and one we (spoiler alert!) hated to see go was Hershel. As soon as we saw Scott Wilson was going to be at RICC, that was it, we had to go. Eric had the plan of comparing beards with Scott, who took the time to make sure to talk to EVERY fan, and have time with every person, Even a father who was waiting in line with us who wasn't feeling well, Scott let his boys go in front of the line just to take a photo with him and thanked the dad for being such a great person. He was such a sweetheart. Made it really easy to talk to him. So when Eric told him he wanted to compare beards, he informed him "you just need to grow your hair into a pony tale, and you can be my son." He was such a genuine, sweet man, and it was a pleasure to meet him. 

If you would of told 5 year old me I would meet the voice of Jem, I would of told you  "you are nuts!" if you would of told me that she would tell me she loved my hair, I would scream with joy. And thats just what happened. Samatha Newark made the kid in me extremely happy. And was the sweetest person, who took the time to talk to Ashlee and I are about our extreme love for Jem to dressing up as Jem, my youutube video in how to do jem makeup (you all remember that),and how much it effected me with me  having crazy colored hair my whole life. She the highlight of my convention and really was so kind and sweet. It made me even more excited for the Jem movie (which she is going to be in!!) my inner child and adult was fangirling. She was truly a pleasure to meet, and on my list of "best moments of my life because jem liked me hair!" and maybe I may just bring back my bright pink hair for the Jem movie, maybe!

Before leaving the con I ran into one of my friends, and awesome Cosplayer Roxas Paige! We had planned on seeing each other at other cons but it never quit worked out, and running into her was a pleasure! Shes a doll and an awesome cosplayer! Here I met her as Rogue but I am bummed I didn't get to see her as Abaddon from Supernatural. If you want to check out her Facebook fan page and see her other costumes go here! Seriously check out her, shes amazing and super sweet! Tell her I sent you! I am trying to get her to do a feature her and my blog, so look out for that!

Aside from making all my childhood dreams come true, going to cons is also about hanging out and having fun with friends. Seriously, stress about getting in and seeing everything aside, I tried to make the best memories I could with the awesome people around me. Sure things didn't go to plan, and our  cosplays wasn't 100% how we wanted, so we didn't wear them, we made sure we had the best time, and enjoyed all the little things like playing in the tardis, going into the trash compactor from Star Wars. It was a great time and I am glad I got to spend it with these two awesome people. 

If you want to see my vlog from RICC and soon as it is up it will be below! Thanks for reading!

Plus Size Outfit "ch..ch..ch.. ha..ha...ha"

Points if you get why I tittled this OOTD "chchch hahaha"

We all know I am a huge horror nerd, my boyfriend and I are obsessed with horror movies and this time of year is my favorite.   Last weekend I had gone to a local horror convention here in Massachusetts called Rock and Shock, it was pretty awesome, and I got to meet a ton of awesome people, (even faced my biggest fear since I was 5, CHUCKY! AH!) No really, it was a great time, I even got to meet on of the people who is to blame for my zombie obsession starting from a very young age, Tom Savini. So I wanted to put together an outfit for the day, and not just wear one of my many (and i mean that MANY) horror movie tee's. So this is the outfit I put together,

Recently I had picked up this Friday the 13th tshirt from Old Navy, I loved it, even though its am guys tee, it runs long and my so I can wear it with leggings, and the fact Kane Hodder was going to be there, I wanted to share my love of Jason, so I picked this shirt. I paired it with my favorite pair of stripped leggings (or as I like to call it Beetlejuice leggings), and my very comfy and awesome studded cardigan (both from torrid). Because I was going to be walking around all day I wore my very comfy but still badass boots, and just did very little makeup. with a plum lip, and that was pretty much my outfit, Comfy but very awesome for any horror fan. 

Best part about it, when we met Kane Hodder he told me he liked my shirt. Granted most likely says that to anyone who wears a Jason or Hatchet shirt when meeting him, but he was a pretty awesome guy! 

If you guys want to see more pictures from Rock and Shock as well as me meeting Chucky himself, check out my vlog bellow, it was a great time, and it was great to see my boyfriend nerd out with me.

Boston Comic Con 2014

For the first time in what seems like forever I got to attend Boston Comic Con. I have attended other cons in the area, but for some reason it had been some time since I attended Boston Comic Con. One big factor to me going this year? Well one of my actresses from the show Firefly was going to be there, and being a fangirl I am, I had to meet Jewel Staite in person, she has been someone who I have adored for years. Way back to her Are You Afraid Of the Dark days (fun fact, my favorite episode of AYAOTD is the tale of the unfinished painting, which she was in) and of course Kaylee from Firefly! So I was set on going, I even had the plan of dressing up like Kaylee for what was my first time cosplaying at a Con.  (a full tutorial on my costume will be posting here in the next week!) So the day was going to be full of adventure.

OOTW: We're all stories in the end… (COSPLAY EDITION!!)

Guest Blogger - Jordan (@jjkeebs via twitter)

Valentine's Day weekend here in LA meant one thing to me: Gallifrey One!

For those that don't know Gallifrey One is a Doctor Who convention here in LA. It's a great little convention that is super cosplay heavy. I went for the first time last year and decided that i would join the legions of people dressed up as variations of their favorite characters.

Thankfully, I have a friend who was more than willing to help me out with my quest. My friend Laura in Texas has almost every outfit from the Amy Pond years, as well as a complete female version of Matt Smith's season five costume (including a blazer I helped her find!). While I was visiting family over the Christmas holidays I was able to sneak over to her place and pick out an outfit of my own to borrow and bring back to the West Coast.

Unfortunately, due to my job and the kids being out of school on that friday, I was only able to attend Saturday and Sunday. I checked out their website and they had a nifty little schedule of cosplay meet ups for everyone dressing up and saw that they had a Doctors costly meet up on Saturday and then through the grapevine found out about an Amy Pond meet up on Sunday. So that planned out my weekend for me, thankfully!