Midsummer Update

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!

TL;DR

• Conventions: Garden State Comic Fest
  • Highlight: Won Best in Show award!
• Costume Progress
  • Updated: Cinder Fall
  • Updated: Art Nouveau Meg
  • In Progress: Art Nouveau Squirtle
  • In Progress: Art Nouveau Katara
• Photoshoots: Cinder, Peeves, Art Nouveau Meg
• Also:
  • New website layout!
  • Print store!
  • New tutorial!

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

The truth is that I burned myself out during April and May. The combined Twitch streaming and graduate school schedule was too demanding. I wasn't enjoying cosplay and Creative streaming like I used to.  My craft room lay abandoned for a few weeks as I reinvigorated myself.

Conventions

Dexter and DeeDee went to the ice cream truck that was parked outside of GSCF.

I don't usually enjoy going to cons in the summer -- I hate the heat and humidity of the east coast, and I doubly hate heat and humidity when it means I'm sweating in a costume that I put a lot of time and money into.

That being said, I gritted my teeth, lathered myself in deodorant, and went to Garden State Comic Fest... and had a blast! You can read more about my experience at GSCF here.

The most notable thing about the weekend is that I won the Best in Show award with my Art Nouveau Meg!

Cosplay Progress

Around the end of June, I found my crafting passion again! I started by fixing up some of my old costumes. First up was Cinder; I updated the leg pieces to be much more accurate, using rope reinforced with styrene to get the proper texture and shape.

I also updated Art Nouveau Meg. The belt for Meg broke during NYCC 2016, and I hadn't gotten around to remaking it... until now! This costume is one of my favorites, and I'm so excited I can wear her again!

It's both flexible and durable and overall, I'm really proud of how it turned out! I'm working on digitizing the pattern, and it should be for sale in my store very soon!

I'm currently working on updating my Art Nouveau Squirtle for the ReplayFX cosplay contest on July 28, and I've also started yet ANOTHER Hannah Alexander costume, Art Nouveau Katara, to premiere at Colossalcon East. I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM YOU HAVE A PROBLEM.

Unfortunately, I'm also wrangling with a particularly difficult time in grad school. But I'm still determined, and I'll let you know how it goes in the next monthly update!

Photoshoots

Shoots were pretty sparse in the earlier part of the summer, but at the end of June my friend Benjamin wanted to practice his photography. We shot Cinder and Peeves, but unfortunately haven't had time to edit anything yet.

I also wore my Art Nouveau Meg to Garden State Comic Fest, and EDward Fotography pulled me aside for a quick shoot. I won't say I'm in love... with the colors from this set!

Blog Posts

As mentioned above, I want to write more. I'm challenging myself to write at least one tutorial a month, a monthly recap, and convention roundups for the rest of the year. Hopefully I'll be able to stay on track!

The blog posts I've competed so far this month are:

• Tutorial: Sewing Machine Embroidery
• Convention Roundup: Garden State Comic Fest
• I DON'T LIKE CHANGE

Here's to many more!

Miscellaneous

Over the past few months, I've done some other cosplay-related stuff:

• Redesigned the website to be purdy
• Rebranded to "Ginny Liz", including overhaul of all graphics
• Launched a print store!
• New skill: pattern digitization!

Coming Soon

Immediate plans for the future include:

• Next project: Art Nouveau Katara
  
• Next con: Replay FX
  Pittsburgh, July 27-28
• Next tutorial: Fabric Paint & Sheer Fabrics
  

That's it for the update! I'll see you next month!