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 90 costumes and I've attended over 100 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 -+-

October 24th, 2024
It's been a while since my last post and we're now deep into the spooky season. So far I've been to a pumpkin display event called Pumpkininferno at Discovery Harbour. The event featured really fun plastic pumpkin sculpture displays. Shame they couldn't use real pumpkins, but it was a neat experience in a pretty historic site. I also went to a farm (Cooper's) and explored a corn maze. The theme of the maze was Anime funnily enough. Really nice experience. It's been a bit of a weird year with the very warm weather we've had these last few weeks. I have so many Halloween sweaters and cardigans that I was looking forward to wearing in September and October, but the weather most days feels like late summer and not that we're well into autumn now.

I sadly didn't do any photoshoots this spooky season. I do want to get more photos of my Ashley costume as I did get a new turtleneck for it. Might just wear it next year. Hopefully the costume still fits or I might need to replace the skirt.

Tomorrow night is the Anime North Halloween event. I wanted to go if I got a Nominoichi table. I wasn't sure they would be running the Nomi event again this year as they never mentioned it until quietly posting the lottery form a week ago on Friday night. The form was only up for a bit over 24 hours. I applied, but wasn't sure of the results. Apparently, people were hearing back on Sunday afternoon if they got tables. I didn't get an email until late Tuesday afternoon. The email said I had made it onto the waitlist, but there were 90 applicants for only 35 tables and 10 waitlist spots. My hope of getting off the list was low, but a few hours later I got an email that I got a table. They were adding some tables to the hallways so I think they tried to increase capacity to meet the demand. I had no idea it was so crazy popular. The form wasn't even up for long. Makes me scared for the Nomi at AN proper in 2025. But, anyway, I got a table so I will be attending the event. I will be out of costume since it's pretty hot and I'm stationary with my table, but super excited to chat with folks and hopefully sell a few things. I'm scrambling to pack and sort things so I only had a couple of days' notice. I'm hoping that next year they post the form earlier. Would be nice to have a couple of weeks notice to prepare.

This will probably be my last event for the year. Things always go quiet in November, but maybe during the winter I'll do some private shoots. I'm still waiting on photos from Stillvisions of my costumes from earlier in the year. Hopefully I'll get some photos from him in the next few months. In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoys the spooky season and has a wonderful Halloween!

-+- Past Updates -+-

September 4th, 2024
It's been a whirlwind of a week since Fan Expo. I was getting ready to write my report about the con when I was told my aunt had passed away while on vacation at a family home on the East Coast. It's devastating news. She's been cremated so upon my uncle's return in the next week, we'll make plans for a memorial, but it threw me off totally. She had been progressing with heart failure for the last couple of years, so I knew her time remaining would be limited to maybe a few more years, but I never expected her to have a heart attack while on a trip and to be gone so suddenly. It's hard to process because we were very close. The holidays and life in general won't be the same without her.

As I had started writing about Fan Expo Canada, I'll finish it, even if it feels like the con was a lifetime ago and not just a week ago. I ended up going on the Thursday and Friday. Picking up my badges in the north building at 3:30 was a pretty smooth process. I liked it more than being in the underground ramp over in the south building. I ended up staying in the north building for the con officially opening and then walking over using the bridge to the south building so I could meet my friends Kira and Tyler. I was hoping to check out the activations on the least busy day, but the activations were a bit skimpy this year. The Paramount Lodge was back with no freebies available and was a shorter experience. The Star Trek creature mini museum was pretty cool. Disney had a neat exhibit of some costumes from the upcoming Agatha TV show, but there were only 3 on display and the experience was very short. They also had tons of leaves on the ground, which made it very musty and I can only imagine challenging to get through if you had a wheelchair or stroller, but it did look neat. Cutbacks felt like the theme of the event. Not many freebies to get and limited access to booths for workshop experiences. The Lord of the Rings ring making workshop was probably pretty cool at the Amazon booth, but I missed the cool photo backdrops they had last year for series like Invincible and the Boys.

Artist Alley was awesome as usual. All my purchases came from Artist Alley and booths selling crafty items. My first stop was to get the super cute rainbow cardigan that I had wanted to get at YetiCon, but by the time I could commit, they had already sold out of the smallest size. I also bought a cute astrology themed sweatshirt that should be perfect for the fall. Other favourite purchases were a ghost print and a 3D printed Bulbasaur Halloween electronic tea light holder. It'll be fun for my Halloween display outside. I'm really happy with my fun finds.

I tried a pizza slice from Pizza Pizza in the south building food court. I hadn't had a pizza slice in a while and it's definitely not the best pizza in the world, but it was filling. That pretty much sums up Thursday. Thursday still remains the best day to see much of the show floor. I managed to see pretty much all of the south building exhibitor space and I'm happy I was able to make it through Artist Alley, because it was pretty much impossible to get around that area by Friday afternoon.

I returned to the con Friday morning. It was quite a rush. I know every year I think maybe I'll Cosplay on Friday of the event, but with transit delays and coming from North York, it makes it so hard to get there early in the morning. I did want to check out a couple of panels on Friday of the con. Of course the first panel that I wanted to go to just had to be at 11:45am. I decided not to Cosplay to give myself a chance to make it in time and I managed to arrive and make it to the panel room in the north building with about 6 minutes to spare. Also, what's up with the con not sharing any maps of the panel rooms? The only maps were for the south building (specifically the show floor and community space just outside the vendor room) and then the vendor room in the north building. It shouldn't be a struggle to find panels. I made it just in time for the Haunting of Hill House Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel panel. It was a great panel and was cool to hear about the behind the scenes of the project.

My other panel for the day was the Agatha All Along Disney+ panel in the late afternoon that was only announced a couple of days before the convention. My friends were surprised to hear about it because it was announced so last minute. It was a pretty cool panel with Kathryn Hahn, Joe Locke and Jac Schaeffer talking a bit about the experience working on the show and what to expect. I'm really looking forward to the series so attending the panel was great.

I rounded out the day with trips to Steam Whistle for a break before the Agatha panel and then dinner with Kira and Tyler at Wvrst. We even stopped at the Eaton Centre and checked out the Stranger Things Bath & Body Works collab and Hot Topic. I bought a Stranger Things Upside Down candle and some shirts at Hot Topic. It was a fun end to the con day. Kira and Tyler had weekend passes and couldn't return on Saturday or Sunday due to an event out of town. They let me have the passes, but I was too tired to return and I couldn't find anyone to share the passes with. If I wasn't feeling so tired, I might have gone back on the Sunday. All and all, it was a great con. I continue to enjoy attending it for 2 days only. That seems to be the perfect amount for shopping (and cuts me off from returning to spend even more) and Friday gives you the chance to attend some of the celeb panels. I'll probably return again in 2025 and I'm looking forward to it. I didn't Cosplay during the con as it's a long commute to the event and it can get pretty hot inside the building. If I don't want to arrive super early, it might be plausible for the Friday, but I doubt I could make it down before noon if I planned to Cosplay.

Next up is the Great Canadian Halloween Market. I'm not planning to Cosplay or anything, but I enjoyed it last year and it's back again this Sunday. It's a great chance to buy Halloween and horror related craft goods. After that, I'll probably be dealing with funeral prep for a few days. I'm sure come October, I'll find some spooky activities to do like go to a farm and get some pumpkins and maybe check out a haunt event. Anime North has announced that they'll be doing the Halloween event again the Friday before Halloween. I'll probably attend. As usual, my hope is to get a table at the Nominoichi if they run it again. I'm keeping an eye out for an announcement.

I did add another photo to the Card Captor Sakura Clear Card Arc battle costume page that you can find here. Pan got a nice photo of the back of the costume and I'm pretty proud of how the sewing turned out. I'm still waiting for more photos from Stillvisions. I may try to do another Ashley shoot in October and perhaps see if I can get some more photos of that Pumpkin Pie costume as well. After that I'll probably take it easy until next spring, although I may finally make a costume over the winter break. We'll see!

August 13th, 2024
I was sent my shoot photos that were taken by Elemental at YetiCon a few weeks ago, so I finally added them to the Card Captor Sakura Clear Card Arc Battle Costume page. You can find the new photos in the gallery here. I've also added a photo to that page from Stillvisions. It's a photo from Pretty Heroes. I'm still waiting for some more photos from him from Pretty Heroes. My friend Pan took a few photos of me in Sakura at Pretty Heroes as well and when I get a chance I may edit a few highlights and add them. The photos from YetiCon are quite cute. I'm glad that I got to work with Elemental again.

I forgot to mention my experience at Pretty Heroes back in July. I arrived in the early afternoon and stayed for about 3 hours. I did wear my Card Captor Sakura Clear Card Arc costume and I did a shoot around the exterior of the building with Stillvisions and my friend Pan assisted. She took a few photos as well. I hope the photos turned out well as I don't plan to wear Sakura again.

The con itself was a bit smaller than usual this year. Normally they use the main floor of the JCCC and a few rooms for panels upstairs, but this year everything was on the main floor. I didn't go to any panels, but I did check out the vendor room and saw the little parade for the Cosplay catwalk participants, which was fun.

I didn't spend a ton of money at the con, but I did enjoy the variety of vendors at the event and checking things out with Pan. I bought a beautiful Ultimate Madoka and Devil Homura fanart print and a nice casual Inuyasha and Kagome fanart print. My fave purchases were a Madoka fanart bookmark, a strawberry themed necklace and a cute pumpkin Pikachu Halloween mug. Finally, I got some yummy Girl Guide cookies.

The event was a fun afternoon and I capped off the day with a trip to Oomomo and getting takeout from Simba's Hot Chicken in a plaza that's not too far of a drive away. All and all, it was a nice event. Since I'm so far removed from my days of Anime and magical girl series watching, the con programming doesn't draw me in, but the con always has great vibes and makes me nostalgic for my fave childhood series. I may check it out next year if I can find a costume that I want to get photos of. Since it's not too far from me and not that expensive, even if I don't Cosplay, it's still fun to check out, so it's definitely still on my list of possible events for 2025.

Next week is Fan Expo Canada. I have tickets for Thursday and Friday. Right now I'm thinking about wearing a casual outfit on Thursday and possibly Cosplaying on Friday, but I'm not sure. With the commute and going solo from North York, it's a bit of a hassle and time consuming to wear a costume. If I did Cosplay, I would probably wear my RE4 Remake Ashley costume as I made a few costume updates and I haven't had a chance to wear the costume since doing that in the spring. Plus I think the boots are pretty comfy for walking. It just sets me back on leaving when I Cosplay, so I probably won't bother. I'm looking forward to the con, anyway. It's always nice to see the activations and the variety of artists on hand. There aren't really any guests this year that I'm super pumped about seeing. Most of the major guests won't be at the con or at least have panels on Thursday or Friday, so I'm not really sure what panels or events I might attend. I'm mostly just excited to see the city in the summer and explore the show floor. I should be hanging out with my friend Kira and her husband again, so it should be a fun couple of days and I can't wait for it to start next week.

July 17th, 2024
Another quick update as I finally got a chance to edit the images I have so far of my new Pumpkin Pie Cookie costume from Cookie Run: Kingdom. The photos are from a private shoot that I did with Stillvisions back in April. The costume is very Halloween themed, but I was eager to get some photos of the outfit in case it doesn't fit very well come the fall. The costume was purchased and the Cosplay shop used a very flimsy zipper on it and it's already pretty tight on me, so getting it zipped up is a real challenge. I'm not very confident that come October, I'll still be able to squeeze into it. Given that, I figured way not get some photos in spring just in case. It was kind of funny to drag out Halloween props for the shoot right when other Cosplayers were planning cherry blossom photoshoots. XD Anyway, the shoot was fun and you can find the costume page and photos here.

Next week is Pretty Heroes. I'll probably be going on the Sunday of the con and my plan is still to re-wear my Card Captor Sakura Clear Card Arc battle costume that I previously wore to AN and YetiCon so I can get a few more final photos of it with Stillvisions. Then I'll be retiring the costume. I did get preview photos from the shoot that I did of the same costume with Elemental during YetiCon and I picked out my 3 favourites to get back from her when she gets a chance to edit them. When that's done, I'll post them here. Hopefully I'll get some nice final photos of the costume in and around the JCCC. I'm looking forward to Pretty Heroes. It's a pretty chill con to check out for a few hours. I really enjoy the Artist Alley and it's close to home so it's a quick trip to check out. Hopefully the event will be a fun experience.

July 4th, 2024
Just a quick update to share that I've finished editing and resizing the photos Stillvisions took of my Super Sailor Chibi Moon costume (that my awesome friend Ammie made for me) and I've added the photos to the costume gallery. You can find the gallery here. The costume was made a decade ago and I only finally wore it for the first time at the Blue Mountain resort the day before YetiCon officially started last year. We got some great photos from around the village so it was a wonderful location to the costume. I'm glad I did finally get some photos of it as it's pretty tight to wear again at this point.

I have a few more costume photos to edit for my Pumpkin Pie Cookie costume that I bought. I need to make a costume page for it so I'll try to work on that and get that posted in the next couple of weeks. I'll also check in with Stillvisions and see if he has any more photos of Dilandau from last year as well as any photos from YetiCon this year. Hopefully I'll have a few more photos to add to this site of different costumes before the end of the summer.

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