Welcome to Straywind.com!

Welcome to my Cosplay home on the net. My name is Rebecca (aka Stray Wind online). I've been Cosplaying since late 2001. I love the fellowship, challenges and creativity involved in making costumes. My forte is Cosplaying from survival horror video games as well as characters from Anime and games that I grew up enjoying. Since I began Cosplaying, I have worn over 100 costumes and I've attended over 120 conventions and major events. In 2018, I was lucky enough to work with Henchmen Studios on behalf of Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm and I was the official Cosplay model for Orphea when she was announced at BlizzCon 2018. Cosplaying is an exciting journey and I look forward to future projects and events as my journey in the world of Cosplay continues.

-+- Updates -+-

September 22nd, 2025
It was a rather eventful week last week. My family member who was in the hospital is now home and doing better. They still have a long treatment journey ahead of them, but they are no longer in a dangerous state, so I'm feeling very relieved and like I can relax a bit. In terms of Cosplay, I haven't started a new costume or anything, but my friend Stillvisions did send me a few photos of the Halloween Lolita outfit that I bought and wore on the day before YetiCon started. It's a few pictures from around the Blue Mountain village. I added a costume page for the outfit that you can find here. The outfit was really fun to wear, so hopefully I can wear it again to a future event.

I attended the Great Canadian Halloween Market yesterday. I was only there for an hour, but I loved seeing all the creative vendors and it's always awesome to be at an event where everything is Halloween and horror themed and everyone there is wearing goth or spooky wear. I hope the event can move to a bigger venue for 2026. It was quite crowded this year. It definitely felt like foot traffic was up. I bought a stained glass cathedral window suncatcher and a cute ghost wall plaque. I would have loved to buy more, but I couldn't settle on what else to get. XD I end up wanting everything just a little bit, but it was fun to browse.

Next weekend is The Toronto Halloween Show. I believe it's the first year for the event and it's downtown at the Queen Elizabeth Building. I believe I'm going to try to go for a few hours on the Saturday, but I also have a ticket to go to a paranormal investigation event at the Scugog Shores museum in Port Perry on Saturday night, so it might be a whirlwind day attempting to do both events. Seems like it'll be interesting to see the new Halloween convention, so I can't wait to check it out!

-+- Past Updates -+-

September 4th, 2025
Following up on Fan Expo Canada, which was a couple of weeks ago, it was a good year for the con. I've been to Fan Expo Canada so many times now that it would take something pretty fresh or amazing for the con to really be exceptional, but it was a solid year. I only went on the Thursday and Friday, but from what I heard, the con was pretty crazy busy (like usual) every other day. I was surprised that even on Thursday, Artist Alley was near impossible to traverse.

I spent Thursday of the con attempting to see the vendors room and Artist Alley in the south building. It was also a chance to check out some of the corporate activations. My pass pick up location was the north building, so I had to quickly rush over to the south building using the bridge when the con opened at 4 (as my day passes did not grant me early entry). I ended up doing the Paramount mountain 4D experience and the Conjuring mirror maze. I probably should have waited for something else instead of doing the Conjuring maze because they ended up bringing the mirror maze to the CNE, so I went through it there too. The Paramount experience was a fake gondola ride using several surrounding screens, motion for the bench you're sitting on and even water, to make it feel like you were going up a mountain. It was fun and I got a pin for doing it. The Conjuring mirror maze felt like a maze from a state fair and they had a fake priest bless you on the way in. Both were neat to check out. If the line wasn't over an hour, I might have tried out the Wednesday Netflix experience. I also didn't get a chance to do the Disney Throwback activation, but it looked like it was cool with displays from Alien: Earth and Percy Jackson. If only the lineups weren't so crazy. I would have loved to do more.

Artist Alley was pretty hard to try to explore. The alley was expanded with several new rows taking over where a food court/seating area usually were in previous years. Given that they had expanded the space for artist alley, I was kind of hoping they would add more room between each row, but instead, they just added more tables. It meant that if anyone stopped to interact with a table, pretty much no one could get by them without bunching up. There were masses of people browsing tables and when it bunched up, you could not at all see what was being sold on the table. Most of my shopping was done from art and goods that were hung up high. It really killed my AA experience as I just couldn't see things. In the end, I bought a ghost ship print from a table I had purchased a ghost art print from last year, and I bought a cute racccon/Toronto themed note pad that I had bought previously from the same vendor at YetiCon. The note paper makes great thank you notes when I sell goods on eBay or Poshmark. I would have loved to buy more stuff, but I just couldn't really see and I felt guilty if I stopped and blocked a row.

That actually covers most of my experience for the Thursday. It is the least crowded day, so it's a good chance to see booths and corporate experiences that will be even harder to explore for most of the rest of the weekend, but it's a very frantic day as you try not to miss things. I ended up leaving the con around 7pm to have dinner at the Rec Room with my friends Kira and Tyler, who I hung out with for most of the weekend. I had a nice dinner of a pretzel and a Cobb salad. We then headed back to the con and decided to finish exploring some of the vendor tables in the south building, and we left the con just as it was closing at 9pm. It was quite a long and tiring afternoon and evening, but I did enjoy seeing at least parts of the con when they weren't terribly crowded.

I returned to the con around 11am on Friday. I decided to explore the north building this time to see what other booths there were at the event. The north building was a bit disappointing as most of the tables seemed to have sister tables in the south building, so there weren't many unique booths. I still miss the horror section that used to be in the north building. I ended up going to the Troy Baker panel at 1pm, and it was a great experience. He has voiced characters like Joel in the Last of Us and even Indiana Jones in the new Indiana Jones game. He told great stories and was very charismatic.

Afterward, I headed over to Union with my friends Kira and Tyler to grab lunch and part ways with Kira who had a concert to prepare for in the evening. Since the Blue Jays weren't playing at home, Rogers Centre was home to My Chemical Romance and Jonas Brothers concerts on Thursday and Friday. It was a bit surreal to see girls dressed for a pop group concert and punks for the My Chem concert mingle and cross paths on the street with Cosplayers. At Union I grabbed some patties for lunch and it was a nice break.

I made another stab at visiting Artist Alley with my friend Tyler after returning from lunch. It actually was slightly easier to get around most of Artist Alley on Friday afternoon. Or at least, I did make it through the aisles, but I didn't necessarily see a lot more. I did find some neat 3D printed Silent Hill and Resident Evil themed healing item keychains. It's a really cool subtle nod to other fans for your bag. I also bought a crocheted candy corn keychain and 2 reusable bags. One has a fun strawberry and cat print and the other was an embroidered bag with a cool skeleton design. I'm sure there were a lot more cool things that I could have bought, but again, I couldn't see the actual table for most artists, which was too bad. We even had to skip a couple of aisles due to overcrowding.

We then decided to head to the north building for the Nolan North panel at 5pm. I thought we might not make it on time because the escalator to get out of the show floor in the south building was mobbed by people. It took like 10 minutes just to get to the escalator and then you still had to go up several more escalators to get to the bridge back to the north building. At least once you're off the show floor the escalators do move.

The Nolan North panel was fun. His performance in Uncharted makes the series what it is as a charming franchise. Shame there aren't more games in the series, but it's definitely a game series that I'm quite fond of. I also enjoyed his performance in and the series Hysteria! which apparently no one else bothered to watch. After the panel, I parted ways with Tyler and then I gave the north building one final look before heading home.

In the end, Fan Expo Canada 2025 was fun. The panels I did go to were very engaging and the con did have some great guests. I wish I could have attended some of the Back to the Future cast member panels as they were fun guest choices. I didn't end up Cosplaying as it's such a crowded event and it's a bit daunting to go downtown solo in costume. Maybe next year I'll brave it again and Cosplay. The con is still a great yearly tradition and hopefully I'll attend again in 2026.

It's been quite chaotic since the con. My family member who has been in the hospital has had several ups and downs, but is now improving and finally ready to start fighting his cancer. During the con I was starting to fear the worst, so thank goodness he's getting stronger. I did also go to the Back to the Future musical while it was still in town and it was a neat experience. It wasn't as good of a musical as Beetlejuice, but the effects were amazing and the cast was high energy. I did tear up a bit from the nostalgic music too. I also went to the CNE last Friday. I did some shopping and bought some clothes and enjoyed some fair food. The highlight UFO burger was really good (minus the sweet pickles) and I got to have funnel cake for the first time in like a decade, so that was nice. It’s just too bad the line ups for rides could get crazy. I only rode a ferris wheel and the skyride, but the skyride was nuts! The line up could easily be a couple of hours. I don’t think the experience is worth that kind of wait.

Next up is the Halloween season. I'm definitely hoping to do some photoshoots over the next couple of months. I believe that I'll attend the Great Canadian Halloween Market again. It's September 21st this year and I'm interested in the Toronto Halloween Show the weekend of the 27th. I'm also hoping to make another trip out to a farm to get some pumpkins before Halloween. We'll see what other events I find to fill my calendar over the next few weeks!

August 17th, 2025
Long time, no update! It's been a very busy summer, and not so much in a good way. There have been a number of health problems for members of my extended and close family, so it's been a very challenging and exhausting few weeks. But life doesn't stop and time keeps marching on. I haven't been doing much in terms of Cosplay except listing a few older costumes for sale on places like Facebook Marketplace. I've outgrown a few costumes, so I can only hope to find folks that might be able to enjoy some of the costumes that I own that were more professionally made. I've had to fix up a couple of old costumes, so sewing zippers and what not is the extent of my sewing progress these days.

I still have to fix my Maria (Silent Hill 2 Remake) costume. I'll probably get cracking on that in the fall and wear it next year. This week is Fan Expo Canada. With everything going on with work concerns and now family health problems, I probably should have skipped going this year. I bought tickets months ago for Thursday and Friday, so I'll go and try to make the best of it. I'm not sure if I'll bother Cosplaying. I was debating about re-wearing my Ashley Graham (RE4 Remake) costume, but it might be a bit hot for it. Plus, I may have outgrown the skort I bought for the costume a couple of years ago. I might need to buy it again in the next size up. :( I'm currently leaning towards going casual for both days, but I might see about bringing my Mimikyuu onesie costume. I've never worn it to a big event and it's pretty comfy and easy to change into. If I don't go crazy with makeup or wearing a wig, I can still get away with it. Only concern is the shoes since I want my feet to be comfy with all the walking and standing I’ll need to do. I'll think about it or if something else catches my fancy. I'll probably be casual on the Thursday and possibly Cosplay on the Friday. I'm looking forward to hanging out with my friends Kira and Tyler and any other friends I run into at the event. The Artist Alley seems to be expanded this year in the south building. It was already so massive that it's going to be crazy now that they've added a few dozen more tables. I love the variety of art at the con and I hope the corporate activations are interesting. I don't see much that catches my fancy with the panels for the days I'm going, but I might see about going to one of the video game voice actor panels. We'll see. It takes a long time and a lot of patience to see all the vendors and artists in both buildings so that will probably be most of my event. Even with everything going on in the background of my life, I do enjoy the spectacle and tradition of experiencing Fan Expo at the end of the summer.

Next week I have a ticket to see the Back to the Future musical as well as a ticket for the CNE, so that will conclude a busy end to August. I did see the Beetlejuice musical last month and it was really fun. I’m hoping BTTF is as exciting. I'm also hoping to do some Halloween events in September and October and of course, check out cool shops like Spirit Halloween. I'm aiming to do a shoot of my Ashley costume this fall since I added more accessories to the costume and replaced the turtleneck. I'll also try to get some photos of my Dorothy costume before the end of the year. That's probably it for Cosplay plans for the next while. Helping out my sick family member and dealing with work concerns will probably keep me plenty busy over the next few months, but hopefully everything will work out for the best and the next few weeks will still have fun and memorable moments. I'll post here after Fan Expo Canada with my thoughts on the event.

June 20th, 2025
YetiCon is over for another year. I had a great time at the con. I travelled to the event on Thursday the 12th with my friends Stillvisions and Audrey. Stillvisions drove and we had to backtrack a bit to pick up Audrey. We ended up stopping for Arby's in Burlington to have lunch on the way down. It's my favourite fast food place and I'm still sad there isn't one in Toronto. Nothing beats a beef n cheddar with a side of curly fries. It's still a great meal.

We arrived to check in at 4pm and we were given the Presidential suite in the Mosaic. We had that hotel room back in 2023. It's a slightly more spread out room and had an extra bathroom, plus one of the bedrooms had 2 double beds in addition to a second bedroom with a king bed, so it was very comfortable for everyone. My friend Mitch joined us as our fourth hotel roommate and Mackenzie stayed with us on Sunday night. I was glad we had a bit of extra space to accommodate everyone, especially with Mitch and I Cosplaying.

We went over to Collingwood and stopped at Loblaws and Walmart to get groceries on Thursday evening. I ended up eating most of what I brought and only eating at restaurants twice, so I think I saved money in the long run. I did get the fried chicken poutine at Mile High Poutine as a nice treat for dinner and that was good. The other highlight of the night was using the pool and getting to swim. Plus, use the hot tub before it was super crowded during the weekend.

Friday morning brought the opportunity to explore the resort activities. Through YetiCon, Blue Mountain had a great deal where hotel guests could get full access activity passes for the resort for their whole stay for only $40. Since we were staying 4 nights, it was a great deal. Stillvisions and I went to do the mountain coaster right when it opened at 10. We managed to get 2 runs in with no line up just before groups of teens on school field trips showed up and formed a long line to ride again. We also checked out the canopy climb nets course. We had to bail on it slightly early because it became crowded with teens, and a parent with her kids who let her kids hog parts of the course. Still really fun activities. The weather was a bit cold on Friday, but overall, we had awesome weather during the trip. It wasn't too hot and it only rained briefly on Friday. I thought it was going to be cool all weekend, but instead it was very comfortable.

I decided to wear a Lolita outfit that was purchased from Aliexpress on Friday afternoon. The dress featured a Halloween themed print, so I couldn't resist buying it. The outfit came with a shirt as well and I paired the outfit with my old Kagome wig, which was an Arda Nina in black. I also used tights and black Lolita socks I bought in Japan years ago. I was rooming with Mitch and she wears a lot of Lolita outfits so she offered me lace gloves, a necklace, cat ears, a parasol and a mini hat. I was quite accessorized. I finished the outfit with a Lil Boo light up Universal Halloween Horror Nights necklace that I bought online. I figured it would give the outfit some pizazz if I decided to wear it for the Glow Walk. I walked around with Mitch in her Lolita outfit and got a few photos with Stillvisions that I'll hopefully be able to share eventually.

I went to badge pick up at 7 and it was a fairly quick process and then I got ready for the walk. Stillvisions runs it, so he was setting up speakers and some lighting. When we arrived at the meet up point around 8:30, there were already a couple dozen people there. I helped to hand out glow sticks and glow wands that Stillvisions had brought. The walk was really nice. I stayed at the front with a disco ball that Stillvisions wanted to have near the front of the parade. Another attendee gave me a light up flower crown and that was very kind of them. The parade went really well. It didn't rain and it was a bit cold, but I wore a jacket and felt comfortable. There were probably a couple hundred people in the parade and it was bigger than last year, so the event does seem to grow each year. It was a really fun time, and I hope it can happen again in 2026.

Saturday was the start of the actual con. I ended up bringing my Alice in Wonderland costume again. I liked wearing it in the spring and although it wasn't on my radar, I thought it would be nice to wear with the potentially cooler weather. In the end, the weather was super nice. I was ready to go in costume by mid-morning so I went to the con with Stillvisions and checked out the vendor room. There were some amazing finds in the artist area. I ended up buying a lot over the weekend. Some cool finds were a little bat plush keychain that had strawberry theming, some cool horror pins of M3gan, Miss Argentina from Beetlejuice and Elvira from Sugarbones and a neat Baba Yaga house themed pin from another vendor. I picked up a couple of art prints from Madoka and of Miku as well. There were quite a few tables selling neat jewelry pieces, so I bought a ring and a bracelet. I also picked up a Miku prize figure that was quite pretty and a 2021 Snow Miku keychain. Finally, I got a nice cotton sweater with a cool floral ghost print. I didn't expect to spend that much at the con, but I loved the mix of vendors and cool merch items for sale. I definitely could have bought more.

I did travel up with my friends to the top of Blue Mountain using the gondola and got a great view of the resort and Collingwood. Then I headed back to the con and decided to do the Pokemon Snap activity. I found all the Pokemon and got some cookies for my efforts. At this point, it was mid-afternoon, so I decided to change out of Alice and take a break.

Stillvisions then convinced me to wear a giant inflatable Vulpix costume that he had purchased. Stillvisions is a big supporter of both high quality and janky inflatable costumes. I've never worn one, but I did say if ever got a nice one of a Pokemon that I like I would wear it and Vulpix is my favourite Pokemon. It's a really adorable costume. It had a harness to hold me in place, and my eyes were actually at the level for the eye placement of Vulpix, so I could see out the eyes nicely. The only difficult part was the shoes. The feet are wide blocks with padding on the bottom, but have croc shoes for your feet. The croc shoes were at least a couple of sizes too big, so I had to wear socks and slippers to give me more support. I had to walk very slowly and I was a bit wobbly in the costume, but people seemed to think it was more entertaining. I wore the costume from the Mosaic lobby down to the con centre. It was slow progress. I was stopped for quite a few resort guest and con attendee photos, although the con was fairly cleared out by the time I showed up (around 5pm). Ackson took some video footage of me by the Anime cars and after walking around a bit more, I decided to head back outside. We were going to walk around the village a little bit, but the fan in the costume died from the batteries being drained, and the costume sank rather abruptly. Apparently, it was rather shocking to some kids that were watching, but what can you do? I had fun wearing the costume and the folks that saw me seemed to find it really cute. I put together a costume page for the inflatable costume with a few photos from YetiCon just to show that I actually wore it (not that you can tell). You can find the page here.

After that, I used the hotel pool and hot tub again to relax a bit and then watched a few movies with my roommates. AMC had been running a 80s movie marathon, so we saw parts of Ghostbusters, Ghostbuster II, The Goonies and right before bed, they switched to the 90s and I got to re-watch Jumanji. It was lots of fun.

Sunday was the last day of the con. After wearing 2 costumes on Saturday, I didn't really feel like wearing another costume right away, so I decided to get up and check out the con. Stillvisions asked if anyone in the room wanted to try the mountain coaster again, so I went one final time when it wasn't busy. Then I decided to go to the con and check out the vendor area one final time. I finished up my shopping and at this point, I could tell the vibe of the con was dying down as a lot of folks were either doing resort activities or were heading home. I decided not to bother wearing my final costume. I did bring my new Madoka Magica school uniform, but it would have taken me a couple of hours to get ready and it didn't feel worth it. Instead, I went with Stillvisions to try the High Ropes course. It took a while to get the necessary helmet and harness from base camp. Weirdly, when we did get ready to start the course, the operator had to stop me to fix my harness. The operator at base camp didn't check the fit at all. Stillvisions tried to help me tighten it, but I thought maybe it was at an acceptable level. Very weird for a safety check to be missed like that. The High Ropes were actually pretty intimidating at times. There was a part with ladders that was quite unstable and you had to climb down a spider web of netting that was really awkward. We both conquered it in the end, and it was good exercise.

The rest of the day was pretty chill. I went with my hotel roommates to the Northwinds Brewpub for dinner. I had a nice meal of fries and the sausage sampler. The pretzels there are super nice warm. I'll definitely have to order that next time. I finished off the evening soaking in the hot tub and swimming in the Mosaic pool. The hot tub was crazy busy that night. Stillvision wormed his way into the tub, so I found him when I was done swimming, but the tub was full to the brim, and folks who were using the tub seemed to stay there for hours. I was definitely glad to only use the tub for a few minutes.

That pretty much concluded most of the trip. We checked out on Monday right at 11. We could have stayed to use our activity passes until 4pm, but we had our fill over the rest of the trip. Some of my roommates enjoyed the hot tub one more time on Monday morning. It was totally empty (unlike the chaos of Sunday night). We had to drive my friend Audrey back to Burlington and then Stillvisions and I stopped at Arby's one more time for lunch. It was wonderful. We didn't end up making it back to Toronto until around 4pm. Traffic was pretty crazy in the afternoon, but at least we weren't hungry!

Overall it was a really nice time! I didn't end up spending a lot of time with most of my extended friend group, which was a shame. I saw quite a few friends in passing. Maybe next year I'll try to figure out where the group dinners and room parties are. I did enjoy the vacation immensely. It's been a stressful year, so relaxing at the pool and riding a mountain coaster were very refreshing. I did enjoy the meals we ordered from the village, but I did use up most of the groceries that I bought, which was nice. It's such an interesting con because you really have to find your own fun. You can treat it like a Cosplay bonanza and wear costumes with friends and book a lot of photoshoots to make the most of the village and nature scenery. You can get the discounted activity pass for Blue Mountain and really soak up the offerings like the pools, the gondola, hiking and things like the ropes courses and zip line. I didn't try the zip line this year or the mini golf so that leaves things to try next year. Or you could explore all the con offerings like the charity tea, the panels and events like Pokemon snap. There is quite a bit to explore and do, so it makes for a wonderful event. Hopefully YetiCon will return again in 2026. It definitely will be on my calendar if it returns.

That catches things up to now. I'm still trying to decide what activities and events I would like to participate in during the summer season. My next major event is Fan Expo Canada, but that isn't until practically the end of the summer. I might see about doing a photoshoot or two or finding some other small cons or Cosplay events in Toronto during the summer. Hopefully I'll find some fun events to attend.

June 4th, 2025
Anime North is now in the books for another year. The weekend really flew by for me. It's funny to say because I only went on the Friday and Sunday. I was way too tired and stressed out on the Saturday to return to the con. The colder weather on the Friday was also kind of a bummer, even though it did make for the coolest Nominoichi that I've ever experienced.

I got a lift with my friend Kevin on the Friday who drove Adrien and I to the con and helped me transport my stuff for the Nomi. We left around 1pm and were at the con by 1:40. We grabbed some food at Tim Horton's and started waiting in the Nomi line around 2pm. It was the soggiest and coolest wait in line I've ever had in all the years that I've been doing the Nomi, and I've done the Nomi almost every year for over a decade. Normally it's sunny skies and at least moderately hot. Thankfully, we only had to wait outside for 2 hours and they let us into the waiting hall around 4pm. They were also so organized that we were able to go in for set up around 5:20, so it was even earlier than anticipated. Adrien and I had our half a table (N270B) set up by just after 6pm. Funnily enough, the people at table N269 turned out to be no-shows and even from offering tables to the standby folks, at 7pm they offered the table to me. It was a mad scramble over the next 30 minutes to move items over to the open table. I was sharing table N270 with my friend Mekou, who was selling Cosplay items, so having the extra room to spread out and make items more visible just made sense. I honestly think it drastically helped me sales. I almost made $1,500 by the end of the night, so I did almost as well as last year and that was very unexpected since my pre-sales from all that work advertising on the Teahouse forum amounted to less than $400. I didn't expect to do that well at all this year, so the final total was a nice surprise. Doing so well is a tremendous relief as I've been having issues with work and having some cash flow means I can pay my credit card bill and pay off the cost of Yeti without digging into savings. In the end, I had to spend $70 on tables for the Nominoichi between the $40 no-show table and the $30 I spent to split my original table, but I think the extra table space was a great investment.

The event itself was a lot of fun. I loved seeing the passing Cosplayers and chatting with folks. It was also nice when a few of my friends stopped by and said hello. My favourite moment of the night was the Cosplayer who came to pick up her reservation and she was dressed as Guy Fieri. On the AN forum, her icon was Madoka, so it was quite the unexpected twist, and made me burst out laughing. XD I sold quite a few Pokemon Re-Ment figures as well as several Tokidoki figures and Pokemon cards. It was quite an assortment of items that I sold this year, so I'm glad that I did so well and I thought to bring extra items I knew I couldn't fit on the table right away. Plus, I never felt overwhelmingly warm at the event. The cold weather was a blessing for that. Packing up went pretty smoothly and we were out of the hall by 11:30. Thankfully, I took the Saturday to sleep in, count the money box and do an inventory check. It was nice to see the totals made sense and nothing was taken from the table even with my items being spread over a table and a quarter. I'm glad it went well. I was planning to take a break from the event next year, but now I don't know. I'll have to see how well I do selling at other events and online before next spring, but it turned out to be pretty enjoyable even with the chaos of getting a table at the event. I'll have to see how I feel next April about applying again.

I returned on the Sunday with my friends Adrien and Kevin and I did wear my Dorothy costume from Big O. I was hoping it would get decent recognition since this is an Anime con and a lot of the staff are a bit older. In the end, I was recognized 3 times and had my photo taken twice. That's about the reality for me in most of my costumes these days. It was a bit disappointing, but one more person recognized me beyond what I expected, so that was nice, and I'm honestly pretty proud of how the costume turned out. Regardless, I had fun wearing the costume. I still need to plan a photoshoot with my friend Stillvisions with this costume. I'm hoping to do that at some point this year. In the meantime, when I got home from the con, I took a couple of quick photos of my costume in my backyard, so I have some evidence that this costume exists. Due to that, I was finally able to make a costume page for this costume, which you can find here. I have a very detailed breakdown of the sewing process from way back in 2022. This was my second time wearing the costume (the first being to YetiCon 2023) so it's a shame it's taken so long to post about it, but I'm glad to share some photos of the costume now.

The con itself was pretty fun. My friends and I have a ritual of exploring the vendor hall and then Artist Alley before getting lunch at Swiss Chalet. I actually didn't buy much this year. I was on the hunt for a slightly older Miku Sega prize figure, but couldn't find the version I wanted for a decent price. In the end, my only purchase from the vendor hall was a Tokidoki figure from the newer Sugar Shop series. My friend Adrien wanted a Unicorno and it was one of the only blind box series we found. I thought it would be fun to grab one too to see a couple of types from the set, but we both got Gummi Drops, so that was a bit lame. It's a cute clear series with little plastic candy pieces inside that move when you shake the Unicorno.

My only purchase from Artist Alley was a cute lemon themed charm bracelet. I wanted to do more shopping, but it was just too overwhelming in AA. By the time we left the vendor hall late in the morning, the AA was already getting crowded, so it was tough to see the tables, and I didn't have the energy to fight for a good view. It was nice to explore, anyway. I was surprised that in the exhibitor area, a company had the distribution rights to sell Good Smile con exclusives at the event. I ended up buying the Magical Mirai 2013 Miku Nendoroid and I later went back and bought the 2023 Snow Miku. I was tempted by the 2024 Snow Miku as well, but the figures were quite pricey. My only other con purchases were a couple of Card Captor Sakura lottery prize keychains and a mini towel from the Nominoichi. If it wasn't for the prices of the Nendoroids, I would have spent very little at the con besides buying meals.

After having lunch at Swiss Chalet, I grabbed a cherry lemonade from my favourite lemonade stand. I got the lemonade just as we were getting hit by a wave of rain. Thankfully, after a soggy Friday, the weather was pretty nice on Sunday overall. In the end, I had a fun convention. It's always weird to rate AN because I have such a disjointed experience with the event now that I haven't stayed in a con hotel for several years. It's so exhausting staying late for the Nomi on the Friday. We'll just have to see how things go for 2026, and if I decide to sell at the Nomi, or if I want to refocus and do something else at the event. It would be interesting to be part of a Cosplay group or maybe start to do panels again. Food for thought over the next several months.

In other news, YetiCon is next week. The time between YetiCon and AN always flies by so fast. I'm still trying to decide what costumes to bring. I've heard some friends want to have a Card Captor Sakura Cosplay group with all Sakuras, so I'm tempted to see if my battle costume still fits. With the staff and wig, it's a bit tricky to pack, though. I'm also debating about bringing M3gan again because it could be fun with the new movie coming out, and I just bought a new Madoka Magica school uniform to replace my homemade one as mine is getting too small for me. I want to get more use out of my beautiful Madoka wig, so I might bring that costume. I was working on fixing up the Maria (Silent Hill 2 Remake) costume that I bought a few weeks ago, but progress is slow going and I'm not sure that I'll have time to fix the wig before next week. My newer Ashley costume was another costume I was considering bringing and I have a cute Halloween themed Lolita skirt I could wear for fun too... I now have way too many Cosplay options and I'm undecided on what to pick. I'll continue to debate and see what I finish and can fit in my suitcase. I just hope it's a fun and relaxing event. I'm in desperate need of a vacation and I haven't been able to relax for a while. I'm crossing my fingers for nice weather. I can't wait to see some friends, Cosplay, go swimming and eat some great food!

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