Hello friends! A lot has been changing lately, so I wanted to give you a few updates on how life is in the Ginnysphere. I'm trying to revive my blog (you may have noticed the year-long hiatus). As a part of that, I want to introduce a new regular post: monthly updates!

It's kind of like a monthly newsletter, delivered right to my site! Each month will include my most recent shenanigans, including convention attendance, costume progress, new photoshoots, and whatever else I've been working on!

Since I haven't been overly active on social media since, like... May, we'll do a recap of the summer thus far.

Have you ever looked longingly at the embroidery machines whenever you pass by them during your weekly fabric run? Promised to spend less on fabric so you could afford such a magical machine (and then never manage to do so)? Wish you didn't have to do embroidery by hand?

I am here to save you! In this tutorial, I'll be explaining how to make beautiful embroidery using the basic sewing machine you already own!

I used this method to do all of the embroidery on my Hannah Alexander Squirtle costume. I'll be putting the patterns I used up for sale in my store soon, so keep an eye out!

Prints are also up for sale in my store during the month of July. Every order gets a free mini-print! If you've ever wanted to hang my face on your wall, now is the time.

Okay, enough self-promotion. On to the tutorial!

My first Garden State Comic Fest was in 2015, two years ago, and I was really excited to return! GSCF, held in Morristown, NJ, has a really chill, mature environment, the guests are high quality, the vendors are unique, and they always put on a really great show.

It's the only con I've ever heard of that's held in an ice rink, which is a convenient way to beat the July heat! They've recently expanded their programming to include cosplay ice skating, a two-hour event where cosplayers get to skate around in their costumes. It's pretty great.

Make sure to check out the gallery from the event below!