Anime North 2012

Anime North 2012.. !!

Ahh-mazing. I had tons and tons of fun, this year especially.

This was my very first year dressing up, EVER! So my friend and I decided to go opposite-matching Lolita style. We had planned it over 6 months ago and slowly acquired the dresses (customized to my design and made by the ever so wonderful KMKostumes on Etsy!), the circle lenses, the wigs, the petticoats and the accessories. So here I am, the Friday, pre-convention, in my apartment.
(LOL, you can see my little dog peeking out to the right of the first picture!)

[ Click to Zoom! ]

It didn't take long before I had to ditch the circle lenses and heels though. (I'm such a baby, haha).
I don't have a whole lot of experience with circle lenses, and after eight hours my eyes were killing me, so I took them out. My eyes were so incredibly red and irritated that I decided to ditch them for the rest of the weekend. I really only got to achieve this look on the Friday. ;-; Le sigh.

Here's my super cute friend Amanda, my BEST friend in the whole world and table partner. She's rocking the white version of the dress I'm wearing. We took a bunch of pictures together, but I look super derpy, so here she is, looking fabulous. ;) I could NOT have done this convention without this girl. She is incredible! ♡

Here's my side of the table! Plushies, charms and buttons oh my!
I gotta say, this was the absolute best year in terms of insults. LOL.
I usually get a fair share of rude and unkind comments, but only one really stood out!
And I managed to defend myself. ;) Someone did manage to swipe a button though. D:<
Other than that, everyone who came up to my table was incredibly sweet and friendly!
And I was completely over the moon with the few who recognized me from online! ;-; ♡

I shared with the amazing whitefrosty aka Alice. SHE IS SUPER ADORABLE.
She is by far the best person I've ever split a table with, ever. Her, Jillian and Jess (aka pheleon)  made the con that much more enjoyable! Having awesome neighbors/company made a huge difference! Thank you Alice, Jillian and Jess!! You ladies are so super friendly. We really appreciated the help and thanks for looking after our table time and time again! ♡

(Amanda and I managed to snag a Katamari feltie each before she sold out! Wee!!) ♡

We were in an awesome location with lots of traffic, amazing company..
And.. We were seated right next to Anime Wrestling. LOL.
Thankfully I brought tons of advil. Here's Elmo in all his glory... =.= Hahaha.

Saturday was crazy and we didn't really have a chance to explore or take many pictures.
Here's a quick shot of me, the sun in my eyes, looking extra squinty! I adore this dress though. ♡
LOL @ my ugly flats. I should have just stuck to the HEELSSS. D:<

Sunday! More casual aka comfortable, haha. :)

I was on a mission all Sunday to find a giant alpaca, but they were all sold out of white and pink. ;-; I got desperate and bought a little blue one, hahaha. I also managed to trade with some of my fellow crafters! Other than my super adorable Katamari feltie, I got to trade with Atomic Ami! Eli & Bel both picked my newly designed skull necklace & below that is the adorable amigurumi I picked in exchange!

I was super excited to meet the brilliant mind behind Kuma Crafts too! I cannot articulate how incredibly in love I am with her amazing acrylic pieces. I was so happy just to meet and chat with her, let alone be able to trade with her!! ;-; Thank you so much Mandi!! ♡

I've been away from the convention scene for over a year and it was a brand new experience to come back to it! It was so amazing to see people I hadn't seen in so long and be able to reconnect with them so quickly. I absolutely adore all the new people I got to meet, especially Quaintrella, Mandi from Kuma Crafts, the ladies from Crywolf Clothing and Hello Morico. ♡

THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by our table, to look, buy, chat, or even just to say hello!
We appreciate it soso much! I can't thank you enough for all the support! ♡♡♡
I'm not sure I can make it to Anime North 2013, but I'll see you @ Atomic Lollipop & FanExpo 2012!

For even more lovely pictures, please visit: http://amandachellew.tumblr.com/
Thank you Amanda Chellew for providing ALL photos above! xo

Special Thanks :

{ AMANDA } What would I do without you?? Thank you SO much for coming all the way out to Toronto to do this! Thank you for waking up at 7am and getting all dolled up with me, and then helping me DRAG all my merchandise/luggage to and from the hotel every morning and night. Thank you for helping out with the table and waiting in so many lines. Thank you for enduring the starvation, awkward moments, Timmys runs, gross pizza, liquid butter, etc, etc. LOL. Thank you SO much for all the photographic eye candy occupying this very blog post. You are AMAZING! ♡ Photography, editing, I seriously can't thank you enough. ;-;

{ MELVIN } Omg. You go ABOVE AND BEYOND. Thank you for DRIVING. I swear we would have resorted to hitchhiking and then been murdered & chopped into tiny bits (or something similarly over dramatic) without you. Thank you for sweet noms, fries, sushi, dinner, bubble tea, candies, etc! LOL. ;-; ♡ I'm still eating all these snacks. You took so much potential stress off this convention, I can't thank you enough. m(_ _)m

{ ALICE } For your half of the table of course!! I would still be on the waiting list if it weren't for you! Thank you for watching the table for us so often, and keeping such detailed track of sales! X3 I really hope we can share again sometime! You, Jillian & Jess the sweetest and I thought the 5 of us made a great team! :)

{ NATHAN } Thanks for putting up with my crazy the weeks prior and leading up to the convention. LOL. Thank you for coming all the way out on Saturday AND bringing the KEYS. WHO FORGETS SOMETHING THAT IMPORTANT? I'm sorry we were so busy, we didn't get much time to spend together! :< Thank you for the sushi and the amazing dinner Sunday night! ♡ xo

{ ATOMIC AMI } Eli & Bel, I LOVE YOU GIRLS. You are amazing and encouraging and so inspiring and make me want to do this all the time. Thank you for trading with me again this year! I hope we see each other SOON! :'D

Work In Progress

Ahh~ it's convention season and I've been working my little hands to the bone!
I was able to snag a table at three conventions this year; Anime North, Atomic Lollipop and FanExpo.
It's been a whole year since I've done any conventions, so I'm pretty excited. ♡

I hope I have enough, yet not too much, haha. Here's what I've been working on so far~!

I've also managed to design & print eight brand new acrylic pieces!
They'll be making their debut at Anime North! \(^0^)/
Less than one week until then! I hope to see you there! ♡

Patchwork

Working on a small series of these. ♡

 ♡