HarmonicCosplay

But I did give it the old college try.

I've been fighting allergies off and on, but we finally identified a troublesome mystery trigger so that will help. It's also super common and everywhere, which helps less, but I at least know to watch out for it. My fatigue, it turns out, acts up over the winter, though it's not too terribly bad, I will have to learn to make adjustments in winter. And now I'm getting over Lyme Disease, because every time I come to Pennsylvania I have to contract something new. We're treating aggressively and hopefully it won't be chronic, but I'm only a few days past the worst of the initial bout and I'm still super sleepy.

On the plus side, I do finally have a job. Not a particularly exciting one, and only 16 hours a week, but that will be enough to get me back into the work force and make me attractive to other employers. I'm still not in school, but with this new job I'll have money to join some science groups and network, hopefully forging some new contacts for references. If I'm really lucky, I'll just skip masters and get into a doctorate program. Fingers crossed!

On a more cosplay note, several shoots were attempted but not happened. I still have some Korra shots and even a few FMA ones that I'd like to edit and get posted, but I haven't yet. I've been playing with flower photography instead. I was going to do a solo shoot of Korra, but then I got my hair cut. It's okay, because I'm visiting Washington state in August and my hair will be perfectly long by then, and that coastline? I can't wait. I will sacrifice real clothes to fit Korra into my luggage.

I also designed a fantastic little dress for myself as the maid of honor for a wedding. Because of this wedding, I also have 15 yards of a beautiful heavyweight, sandwashed white cotton broadcloth. The only stipulation was that I have to use it for original designs, which is okay by me because I always spend all of my money on cosplay and my original designs are left by the wayside! With this cotton, and my dyes and batiking wax... I can't wait. I'm going to have an amazing pair of culottes, first.

And finally, I managed to find a Jo-ann Fabrics in the last two days of a total clearance sale (they were moving locations). I ended up with 10 yards of black dupioni silk and 5.5 of white wool suiting for only 45 dollars. Some of the wool is going into a parka for Korra, but most of it is unspoken for and I'm incredibly excited.

So.... I vanished. It was a thing. I have an allergy that we thought had been identified. Turns out, it wasn't identified. We discovered this upon the appearance of a severe allergic reaction, when I had been avoiding the suspected trigger. We've narrowed it down again. Something green, where I live, wants to kill me. This would be less of an issue if I didn't love being outside. I spent most of my summer under the strongly sedative influence of a lot of antihistamines. Since then, I've been marathoning costumes that should have been done months ago.

And then I had a great Otakon and have a few choice Korra pictures to post, but I also got con plague and am currently attempting everything I know to kill a cold/bronchitis/crap.

Long story short, I'm sorry for vanishing so suddenly. I'll be working my way through comments over the next few days.

Korra! This Saturday! korranation.com!

April 14th for the non-internetting.

Also, I'm playing with a super awesome new technique. It's marketed to be used for mostly home decor/textile art projects, but I think I can do a lot with it for garments. I have a couple test swatches going right now, we'll see how they turn out.

It is happening.

That is all.

(See previous entry for relevant things)

So, after a nice long break for crafting and cupcakes, back to posting cosplay pictures. I've got a bunch I have to go through from a shoot we did in August, but I was practicing with some others first. Now I feel ready, so prepare for an onslaught of FMA pics!

I considered putting the write up of construction/materials here, but then I realized it's a million and a half pages long (only a mild exaggeration), and so instead, I'm putting it by character underneath the photos in the description. This was my first "real" shoot, and I had a blast. The only thing I'd change is to not be so late and delay everyone by hours next time... sorry, guys. ;_;

On a non-cosplay related note, I may get a job teaching garment classes here in my new town! This would be super exciting and appropriate, I feel.

Lastly, they found what maybe sort of could have been causing my fatigue. It's not generally associated with fatigue, but it causes problems that can, in a roundabout way, cause excessive sleepiness. They started treating it and I've been needing less and less sleep each day. ^_^ Still a bit tired, but that's probably due to really weird dreams. O_o Turns out, after a year of tests and too many horrifying needles to count, it was a simple vitamin issue. Just one that they never thought to check.

Enjoy the pics! More located at my cosplay.com account, and a full write up of the shoot and random pics at my blog.