I haven’t updated this space since April, so I have a whole lot to report starting with one of my favorite local conventions, Momocon:

This year’s new costumes for Momocon were all about Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra. Avatar is one of my favorite cartoons and one of the best episodes is the Ember Island Players in season 3. When Tom and I found out our friends were doing Sokka and Yue, we decided the best costume choice for us was to be their ridiculous counterparts from that episode. What’s not to love about overdramtic acting, caked on make-up, and a costume that was a monstrosity of misproportion and strange fabrics.

Jessie Lykens and I also cosplayed as Korra and Asami, showing our support for this wonderful couple. Jessie is always a joy to cosplay with! We have other future costume plans with these characters as well, so stay tuned for that!

     
     

Momocon seems to be a rapidly growing convention and I really appreciate all the new changes they incorporate each year. This year the con was held in a new venue, the Georgia World Congress Center, which will give them plenty of room for their inevitable expansion. My favorite part of the con this year was the gaming room they had set up for both video games and board games that was as big as the dealers hall. From a hilarious table flipping game, to DDR and Rock Band, this game room really had it all!

I also had the opportunity to go to the Georgia Aquarium in costume as part of a Momocon event. I didn’t have any underwater appropriate costumes, but I still had fun as Anna. The aquarium is breathtaking and made for a wonderful photo-op!

Some of the biggest cosplay news for me this year is that I was invited to be a part of the Marvel Cosplay Covers project as Spider-Woman! I had to work really hard to get this costume together in time, but it was completely worth it! Below is my cosplay variant cover of Spider-Woman #1, which will be released on November 18th! I can’t thank Judith Stephens and Marvel enough for the opportunity! Also a big thank you to Yaya Han for helping me get involved!

While at Dragon Con this year, I sat down with Judith Stephens and Jay Justice to record a Women of Marvel podcast to talk about the creation of this costume and cosplay in general. I’ll make sure to share that on my Facebook page once it’s released.

I went to Play On Con for the first time this summer. I loved the camp atmosphere! I went swimming, played beer croquet, enjoyed some archery, and of course, played lots of board games! I also had fun watching the Rock Band challenge and Lip Sync battles. Oh! And the con’s set up for the spaceship bridge simulator, Artemis, was top notch! So much awesomeness in one weekend!

I had a lot of fun making two rather casual costumes for this convention. First I made Beth from Wet Hot American Summer because I love that movie and the camp atmosphere couldn’t have been a better place to wear this costume! Second, I joined some friends for Game of Thrones swimsuits, and yes, I did swim in this costume! At least, when I wasn’t sitting on my lifeguard perch throne, that is.

     

I only made one new costume for Dragon Con this year, but I stayed busy all weekend rewearing Asami, Beth, Spider-Woman, my Hufflepuff robes, Cally from Battlestar Galactica, and Bombshell Supergirl. My new costume was a cheerleading outfit inspired by Ygritte from Game of Thrones. Kapalaka Cosplay designed cheerleading outfits based on several GoT characters, and all of us recruited to be those characters had a blast cheering together!

Anime Weekend Atlanta always comes too soon after Dragon Con, leaving me struggling to get costumes done on time. Still, AWA was my first ever convention and I haven’t missed a single year in the thirteen years I’ve been cosplaying. I wasn’t able to finish the big costume I was planning in time, but I did finish some smaller projects, and thanks to some friends, I still had a really fun line-up of new costumes to wear!

          

Jessie Lykens and I were invited to display our Frozen costumes in the AWA Cosplay Gallery this year. It was such an honor to be included among the other gorgeously crafted costumes by such talented cosplayers. Dressing mannequins is harder than it looks, but everyone involved with the gallery was awesome and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again if I’m invited back!

So what’s next for me? I have one more convention this year: CONjuration. I have never been to this con, but it looks like it will be a blast! Plus it’s all about magical things like Harry Potter and my personal favorite, Lord of the Rings!

Over the winter, I will be continuing to work on projects I didn’t finish this year, including Lillymon from Digimon. I wanted to debut this costume at AWA, but it just wasn’t in the cards. However, here’s a sneak preview of the progress I’ve got done so far!

I wrote out a list of the other costumes I have planned for next year and it’s already getting long. I’m so excited about every single one of them, so I hope I can stay productive and get as many finished as possible! Wish me luck!