Con Report: Sakuracon 2014

Hello!! I’m back from Sakuracon. 🙂 It was my first time participating as an artist in the Artist Alley with my friend, Sora, so I spent a lot of time there instead of the usual cosplay shenanigans — which was an awesome opportunity for me! It made the convention very relaxing, and I got to make a lot of new artists friends, whom I hope I can keep in touch with ;3; !!

For Sakuracon, I decided to make Christa Renz/Historia Reiss from Shingeki no Kyojin, Seta Soujiro from Rurouni Kenshin, and bring Hope Estheim from Final Fantasy XIII-2. Unfortunately I forgot my Seta wig at home Q__________Q……….

Some WIP shots of Christa when I got her wig *3*!!! It’s super soft and silky, but thin :(! So I want to go and add some wefts to the back and sides.

With my new boots and pants! They fit perfectly aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Thursday was super hectic because I was finishing up my prints as well as dyeing some last minute pieces for my costumes (I know… I know LOL!), when my mom and I left for downtown around 5:30. It was pouring hard, so the traffic took about an hour to get to our hotel T__T wahhh. I met Seren and Seth at the lobby, checked in, and we all put our stuff up in the room!

We had the same exact room layout as last year, omg! So crazy hahaha.

We got a roll-away bed *q* yayyyyy. This is where Seren, Bel, and I camped out for the rest of the weekend!

They gave us free soda at the front desk *q* it was sooooo good.

Our view from the side!!!

Our view straight on… LOL looking into offices….

For the rest of the night, Seren and I just worked on our costumes and I worked on my prints! Bel, and our other hotelmates came in later in the night and chilled!

Matabeiiiii *o*

I think I slept at like….. 3…. and woke up at 7:30AM OTL!!!

First day first day!! Had to meet up at 8AM with Sora and Anna to set up our table! We were all sleep-deprived in setting up. @__@ I slapped on my Hope wig, a cardigan, shirt, shorts, and tights and ran over to the dealer’s hall to help set up. We had to trim some of my prints because they weren’t exactly 11×17 so I spent the rest of the set-up time trimming ;a;. Unfortunately we forgot to print out small prints of my pieces so I only had the large size Q__Q wahhhhh. I was so nervous.. We were neighbors with this really sweet artist named Lily, and the whole time she was super sweet and encouraging and wahhh ;~; best neighbor everrrr.

About an hour in I went back to the hotel to get into my Soujiro costume, and I had everything on when I realized… I’d left my wig at home… on my bed…. omg ;~; I frantically texted Devin and had to change into Hope instead, since I needed to get back to our table.

Anna got us snacks, and she gave me melona ice cream!! You can see Sora’s super cute bookmarks in the back ^o^ and my ratchet dyed nails from working on Soujiro….

SPACE DANDYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!

After the dealer’s hall closed, I met up with my classmates Stuart, Rico, and Seren! We headed back to the hotel to drop off our stuff when a Samurai Champloo group was heading in our direction!!

They were soooooooooooooooooo coooool wahhh!!! ;__; I really wanna cosplay one of the masked graffiti thugs from ep 18, but I don’t know if anyone would recognize me at all…

I didn’t get to take any photos of my dinner, but after dropping off our stuff (and me changing out of my Hope costume) we all went to get Johnny Rockets over in Pacific Place. I’ve never eaten there before, so it was a cool experience *o* I got the Bacon Cheddar Single burger with American fries. After we got our food we walked back over to our room and ate dinner, chatting and catching up. Seth dropped by to pick up his costume, and dropped off Seren and my harness for tomorrow’s SnK cosplayyy! Rico and Stuart left, so Seren and I worked on our own stuff for the rest of the night!

It took us about an hour, but my hotelmate Phuong helped figure out my harness and put it on me ;__; omg. It was SOOO complicated cause there are a million pieces BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HELPING ME WITH IT AHH!!! There was NO way I would’ve been able to put it on by myself….

I think I slept about 2 hrs before I had to wake up, but I didn’t realize that the dealer’s hall OPENED at 10, not set-up opened at 10 @__@ so I rushed over to man our table. Thankfully one of Sora’s friends watched our table for us (thank you so much ;__; !!!) and that’s when I met Shen! Her friend and I rushed to organize everything and get the table set up, so we were finished by mayb 10:40 or so (gahh ;.; !!) Once Sora and Anna came by, I started trimming the new prints to prep for purchasing *o* and thenn they let me switch off so I could go take photos for Devin and her bf Mike!!

I ran into them on the first floor of the con center, so we walked over to my room to grab my camera equipment~ Since it was raining we walked over to the Roosevelt hotel to take photos *q* Devin and Mike being lovey-dovey, blowing in each other’s noses….

I tried to take some subtle shoujo photos, because I haven’t done a shoot in forever Q___Q so I forgot everything….. my hands were really shakey because of the lack of sleep and too much coffee ahh! And after awhile, I realized my exposure was too high, so the photos turned out overexposed and blurry ;__; wahhh. Sorry!!! I was so scatterbrained. I liked these that turned out though!

I really love taking photos of my friends’ hands… kekekekekeke

After the minishoot was done, we parted ways and I went to go get into my Christa cosplay!!

It took me about an hr and a half but I was finally able to wear it ;.; Anna came by to borrow my gloves, and Gail stopped by to drop off the extra skirt for me (which I got to keep!! thank you so much!!!) The photo on the left was from last night, when Phuong helped me put on my harness. The photo on the right was after I (finally) got the harness on by myself, and the melonpan Anna bought me!

On my way over back into the con center I ran into RIKKIIIIIII IN SPACE DANDY!!! So elusive and cool q__q We had a very warm “haven’t seen you in so long” hug before I had to run back into the building, but I saw them again the next(?) morning in zombie Space Dandy so that was really fun *^* I wish I’d gotten their photos… grahpghhhhhh

Anna and I :0!!! Seeing her Katarina made me want to work on my Sona cosplay t.t

I didn’t have a jacket, so I ended up just wearing my cardigan over my costume for most of the con, which was fine LOL! It was comfy and I was just gonna be behind the tables anyways :3 I met Cliff along the way and I showed him to my table hehe! Gail sat with me for a bit while I went to man our table before she met up with her friend :>!! We stayed there until closing, and Sora invited me to eat a big dinner with some of her artist friends at the neighboring tables!!

All of us did a big, brief introduction before all setting out to Rock Bottom!

One cute thing that happened was we all ordered water, except one person ordered strawberry lemonade. Then the rest of us started craving strawberry lemonade hahaha! So a few of us ordered that as well 😛

Yasu ordered this asiago artichoke and crab dip with garlic bread appetizer, and it was amazing!!!!!!!!! We ended up putting the spread on our burgers too, it was so good! Thank you for sharing it with us!!!

Most of us ordered the 2AM burger, because we hadn’t eaten much that day! I realized I’d only eaten a melonbread all day……… The 2AM Burger consisted of a patty, cheese, hashbrowns, bacon, and a fried egg omg! Soooo good.

The table was really long so we didn’t all get to talk with each other, but I had a lot of fun chatting with Shen, Sora, Anna, Yasu, Elaine, and Jackie during dinner!! We shared a few creeper stories together.. it was great hahahaha.

After dinner we parted ways, and I walked Shen to her big bro up in one of the game rooms. I roamed around for a bit trying to find friends when my phone died, so I started heading back to the hotel when!!! I ran into!!! an !!! ONODA COSPLAYER!!!!!

ahhhhh Kyouma is so cute!! We exchanged info because it’s so rare for other people to recognize Yowapeda fans right now ;^; I’m sure its increasing popularity = more fans in the future, but we bonded briefly over each other’s costumes hehehe! That really made me happy!

For the rest of the night I did some sewing for Seren, and I actually got to sleep a good night’s sleep yayy!

This morning I woke up tired but more rested than the other days, so I headed over to open up our table!! After Sora and Anna came by, I took a break to eat breakfast and get into my costume!

No one was available to eat the free breakfast our room came with, so I invited Kylie to brunch *q*

Strawberry rhubarb lemonade *o*!!!! It was soooooo good.

YO, those prices and YO, those dishes. Omg. Heavenly.

The cute succulent table decoration and wooden salt and pepper shakers!

I got the dungeness crab benedict *q*

so beautiful, so delicious. I died and went to heaven and was reincarnated like 30459039458 times with every bite.

Kylie got scrambled eggs and buttermilk pancakes, and even that was amazinggggggg!!! 

After brunch I went upstairs to change into my costume, helped Seren with her harnesses too, and headed back to the dealer’s hall!

Her hat was so tall and cute! hahaha

Some sketch prints I was selling of original fashion designs!

Sora’s adorable bookmarks, which were suuuuuper popular ♥ ♥ ♥

Chong found me at my table hehehe!!! It was nice seing Chong, Waleed, Ben, and Mie since we don’t get to see each other very often due to school/work/life! Her Esmerelda cosplay was perfectt gahhhh *o*!!!

With about an hour-ish left to spare, Anna, Shen, and I walked around the AA buying prints and getting more food at the Uwajimaya booth. She bought us a lot of snacks for the table again hnggggggg.

Then we all asked for a photo with Peter, one of Julia’s friends! We all look so squinty because of the flash… He’s so tall compared to us, but then I look tall compared to Anna and Shen (which makes no sense because Anna is an inch taller than me LOL! it’s probably my boots…) My thigh straps kept falling down throughout the day so I forgot to adjust them for the photo @__@ Also the jacket I borrowed from my hotelmate was way too small but it was better than nothing ;~; You can definitely see it in the sleeve length.

(artist links to be added)

Bought pins of my baes and my basketball husband *3*

ZZYZZYY | yuumei

The two prints I wanted the most while scouring the AA was this Haikyuu!! print by ZZYZZYY, and one of yuumei’s Modern day reinterpretation series of poems by Edgar Allen Poe. ♥ Can you tell how much I love crows and ravens?? hahaha! I saw these two pieces after closing on Friday night while wandering with Sora and Anna and I just… I was speechless. There’s so much I want to say about both, movement, energy, mood, that BAM! feeling, but it’s probably going to turn into useless dribble so I shall move on!!!!

 I made another round at the dealer’s hall and ran into Seth and Seren!! Seth was telling me that he and Seren were looking everywhere for a booth that sold the Digimon crest necklaces, so I decided to aid them in the search! We took forever trying to find it, when I got sidetracked and heard a song I really liked playing from one of the booths next to us. When I asked what the title and artist was, the booth staffer said it was in Korean and couldn’t read it, but when he asked another staff member, she turned around to look at us AND SHE WAS WEARING A CREST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That alone was pretty much just fate slam dunking the universe. So we all really excitedly asked her where she bought it and ran around the dealer’s hall looking for it, to no avail… we came back to her really sad, so she happily escorted us to the booth!!!!!!! But omg… the booth was… right… across……………. from my……………..table…………………. LMFAO. So much shame. So much disappointment in myself (I blame my contacts! I can’t read/see far with them on hahaha ; ; ). She laughed at me and hugged me goodbye (so kind!!!) and Seth and I were about to get our crests when… ahhh!!! The Crest of Courage was sold out :(! 

Blazer Designs

I bought mine, the Crest of Hope, but the artist gave us his card and told him he could buy them online. 

On the last day, at the very end of the dealer’s hall hours, artists walk around the tables doing art trades with each other and ahhh! It was such a fun experience!! Some people would come up to me and ask to trade and I was so surprised because… my art never seemed like something people would be interested in LOL! I felt bad because the paper quality of our prints wasn’t so great this year, but next year for sure we’ll have HQ poster paper prints T__T!! These were the trades I received uuuu. ♥ ♥ ♥ (I’ll update with artist links as I get them!! I didn’t get business cards from everyone ; ; )

The artist who made these necklace pendants was a really cute and petite Menma cosplayer — I kinda felt like I was being led on an adventure to another world, she was just really cute and tiny LOL! I’m going to buy some long chains for these and wear them right away — I’m so excited! Thank you for asking me to trade with you!!!

(artist link to be added) | yuumei

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa okay it took me a super long time to muster up the courage to ask these two to trade with me, but they happily obliged ;__; I’m really shy and I didn’t wanna bother them during tear down, but they were both super friendly and kind and enjoyed the prints I traded them with! It was purely coincidental that I photographed these two together, but I really love how the top print focuses on a somber beauty in death, and the bottom print focuses on a vivid beauty in life and rebirth. Thank you guys as well!!!

(artist links to be added) 

Oh man. I loved the colors these two artists presented in their works — and they’re total opposites! The artist on the left had bright, pastel-y solid colors that reminded me of YMCK/cute and poppy Yasutaka tracks. On the other hand, the artist on the right has a very watery, beautifully-blended, mood-based and atmospheric art style that reminded me of Shadow of the Collossus (at least this print in particular! Which is more or less why I got it haha. I loveee that color mood!). Thank you!!

(artist links to be added) 

I traded Ib for Ib fanart hehe! And this Monday Couple print was so cute, even though I had no idea what/who they were at the time (I’m super out of touch with the k-pop/variety show scene nowadays, but now I know!! hehehe). The bottom Howl’s Moving Castle print was done by our neighbor Lily, whose gallery featured sooo many of my favorite series (I wanted to buy them all wah ;a; ) Thank you thank you!!!

aaaaaaa!! on my way up to the AA to help my friends with our AA luggage, I ran into Californian cosplayers Aku (as Levi), Camille (as Mikasa), Dustin (as Eren), and their super cute friend as Armin so I asked for a picture but… most of our harnesses (esp mine)… were hilariously screwed up….. so I cropped them because…. it just really…. looked like a hot mess HAHAHA WHY ARE THESE SO HARD TO STAY IN PLACE. We all bonded for a good minute about how impractical the SNK harnesses are u o u

With Sakuracon’s AA closed for the year, we tore down our table and packed up our things to go have one last dinner together at the Cheesecake Factory! We had to carry our things to the restaurant OTL but they had a spot where we could leave our belongings, so it wasn’t so bad :3

I had strawberry lemonade… again…. LOL. I always crave lemonade at cons.

Spent the dinner getting to know Shen and Anna more, so it was super fun *o* we’re thinking of doing a Free! ED version group sometime, which I think would be super fun ;w; huuu.