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 -+-

May 21st, 2025
It's finally almost time for Anime North. Ever since I found out that I had table space at the Nominoichi (table N270B), it's been a mad scramble to post items to the Teahouse forum, pack items and figure out the best way to protect goods on the way to the con. Now we have a new wrench in the plan -- rain and cold weather. What a shame. The forecast for Anime North seems to be one of the worst ones I can ever remember for any year I've been to the event. I'm imagining waiting in line on Friday both freezing and damp. I was going to use a cute Sailor Moon umbrella for the event, but apparently someone broke it in the closet where it was stored and didn't bother to let me know, so that's a disappointment. :( Hopefully I can manage to stay warm until it's time to go inside. And then hopefully, table setup goes smoothly. I did a test for display options. Have to leave a lot off the table, but I'm crossing my fingers that I sell a few things and make some room to put more things on the table as the evening goes on. I have plenty of statues, trading figures from series like Tsubasa, Naruto and Dragon Ball and gashapon items from series like Sailor Moon. In addition, I have video games, Tokidoki figures and merch and Pokemon cards that I would like to sell. Hopefully I do ok. Pre-sales usually make a huge difference for me and the pre-sales were pretty low this year. Hopefully I'll sell better at the actual event. In any case, I hope some friends and friendly faces will stop by to say hi throughout the evening. With the cold, it would be nice to speak with friends. We have a really cool Mario themed sign that my friend Adrien designed, so the table should be easy to spot. Hopefully it turns out to be a fun evening.

With how much effort it's been, I definitely think it's time to take a break from selling at the Nominoichi event. I almost wish I hadn't gotten a table this year, but it was good to know that interest in what I have left to sell is down a bit. I've culled a lot of my figure collection down to what I would like to hold onto for a long time, so if that means events like Anime North's Nomi are less worth the hassle of doing, it's good to know. I could have lowered my prices on some items a bit more aggressively for the pre-sale period, but I figured I would rather haggle at the actual event if I need to or keep things to sell online. We'll see how it goes. This will most likely be my last AN Nomi for a few years, but I may do the Halloween event Nomi if I can get a table since that's much less effort and is closer to my place. Anyway, I just hope AN turns out to be fun despite the weather.

As it currently stands, I'll be going Friday and Sunday. I plan to finally wear my Dorothy costume to an actual Anime convention. That will be on Sunday. I always dress casually due to the heat when doing the Nomi. I made the costume in 2022, so I'm glad that I can finally wear it to an event where maybe a couple of people might recognize it. I definitely need to wear it again for a proper photoshoot somewhere, but I'm hoping that it will be comfy. It's a bit sad that the weather is pretty cool for the weekend as a whole, but the day I plan to wear a more fall/winter appropriate costume, is the nicest day of the weekend. lol Hopefully I don't boil. If I feel up to it, I might see about going on Saturday, but I think Sunday makes the most sense. My only plan after Friday is to look around artists alley and the vendor hall, so I'm hoping I can see everything on Sunday. Hopefully, despite the weather, it turns out to be another great Anime North!

-+- Past Updates -+-

May 1st, 2025
In a surprise twist, my friend Ashley (who did get a Nomi table this year) just reached out to me a couple of days ago to offer to split her table with me and my other friend Adrien. Therefore, I will be selling at Anime North's Nominoichi this year. I'm incredibly grateful that she offered me table space. I was genuinely not sure what to do for most of the con without the Nomi. lol It has become such a staple event for me, and I really like the chance to socialize from behind the table. I know the organizers really don't care much for repeat sellers, but I really thrive on the chance to sell a few things, but also see the event and attendees. Hopefully I sell some of my heavier or large merch items and figures. It would be nice not to have too much left to sell for future years so maybe I can skip the event without feeling a big sense of loss. But, anyway, we'll see how well I do. I'll just hope for nice weather for the weekend. I'll be at table N270B and I'm currently working on a reservation list that I'm slowly adding to the Teahouse forums.

I guess that means my main costume for AN (that I'll be wearing on the Sunday) will be Dorothy from The Big O. I'm not sure if I'll attend the con on the Saturday. My plans to get to the con are still a bit in flux for the Friday. Hopefully everything will work out although getting a table with only three weeks to go until the con has me hustling to get items sorted. I hope I get a decent amount of items sold in the reservation period.

April 16th, 2025
It's been a few weeks since my last entry and March was quite a busy month for me in terms of Cosplaying. I did attend Toronto ComiCON in the middle of the month. I was really excited about the Supernatural and The Boys guests. I decided to Cosplay as Ashley from the Resident Evil 4 Remake on Friday of the con as the costume is pretty comfy and incognito for wearing on transit. The costume went over pretty well. I got my photo taken quite a few times, and received a number of compliments. It was fun to run into other Ashleys and a couple of groups of young Resident Evil Cosplayers that were having a great time.

I hung out with my friend Kira on the Friday. We did the Daredevil Born Again activation in which you spray painted a digital design on a wall and the design was then printed on a t-shirt for you. It was the only brand activation that was happening at the event. We had to get a ticket to come back and then wait in a line for another hour. By the time I could paint my shirt, I was 15 minutes late for the Friday night The Boys panel. Plus the only shirt option turned out to be large or x-large so I gained a new sleep shirt. lol Cool tech, though!

I did go to the Friday night and Saturday The Boys panels. The panel with Anthony Starr and Reggie Franklin on Saturday was awesome. I showed up like an hour early to make sure I could get a seat, but it wasn't really a problem. The panel for the side characters from Supernatural on Saturday afternoon was crazy, though. It featured the actress and actors who played Rowena, Bobby and Jack. We showed up with about 30 minutes to spare before the panel and we had to sit in the second last row at the back of the room. It was crazy popular. It was a fun panel and I'm glad I was able to experience it even if I could barely see the actors. I didn't Cosplay on the Saturday and basically just showed up for the two panels and to finish up shopping in Artist Alley.

I picked up some nice art prints including a fun Halloween print of Mimikyu, and a beautiful Silent Hill 2 print of Maria. The artist of the Maria print actually recognized me from my costuming and knew of me for years. That's pretty rare for me these days, so that certainly felt very complimentary. I also bought a cool fan design Tamagotchi inspired sweatshirt, and a fun Clefairy and Gengar Halloween inspired tote bag. Another sort of practical purchase was a Card Captor Sakura cushion that's been very supportive on my work chair.

Another highlight of the con was getting dinner and snacks with my friends. On Friday night I went with Kira and her husband to Wvrst at Union. I also got bubble tea from The Alley at Union on both days and a delicious cheese pretzel on Saturday afternoon. It's so nice to see the transformation of Union since I first started going to cons over 20 years ago. Back then, there were a few fast food outlets at Union (most notably a Harvey's) but the variety and quality of food options now can't be beat. Having said that, the food options at the con were crazy limited. I was disappointed last year that they had a small room with just a few tables on the main floor with maybe 3 or 4 food/drinks options. This year, they made the only food option in the building Pizza Pizza, and took away the few tables with chairs and had a handful of bar tables instead. I had to sit on the floor in Ashley to eat a slice of pizza in the afternoon on Friday. The con could really benefit from a lounge space, but I suppose that's never going to happen.

I do regret not going to the con on Sunday of the event since I did have a full weekend badge. I knew it would be tough to get there early enough to make it into the Supernatural panel, and I figured I could skip The Boys panel on Sunday afternoon just to give myself a break from transiting 3 days in a row. I later heard that a good chunk of the cast (including Anthony Starr and Reggie Franklin) all participated in the Sunday The Boys panel. The panel was originally only 3 actors, but actually ended up having something like 6 cast members. I thought I could watch it on YouTube, but I've heard that fans weren't allowed to record, so that's a huge disappointment. Oh well. What can you do? In the end, I had a decent time at the con. It really does feel like an event that you can do in one day unless you're super invested in the guests. Kira and I felt pretty satisfied with having seen the show floor within about 3 hours on Friday, so Saturday I just quickly ran back to a couple of tables to pick up some things I had debated about getting. I really just came for the 2 panels on Saturday and left soon after the Supernatural panel ended. I'm a bit undecided if I think it's worth going again in 2026. Maybe for a day. I guess it depends what the guest list is, but I doubt I'll find it quite as enticing as the guest list for 2025. I did enjoy the experience for sure, and it was nice to wear Ashley to an event where a lot of people appreciated the costume.

My other opportunity to Cosplay in March was thanks to my friend Rin. She messaged me in February to let me know that The Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington was holding an Alice in Wonderland themed event for the winter season. I figured it would be an amazing opportunity to wear my Alice costume and get some photos amongst the flowers. I knew my friend Stillvisions was a fan of the Alice aesthetic, so I asked him if he wanted to check it out. Our schedules didn't allow for a trip out to the Gardens until the event was nearly closing. We decided to go on March 28th and the last day for the event was March 30th. I wasn't sure what to expect about the crowd level and set design, or if they would have an issue with me wearing a costume, but I was blown away by the event. They had lots of cute displays throughout their indoor event space/greenhouse. They had strings of lights, lots of playing cards, roses and even a big table set up like the Mad Hatter's tea party. It was super fun. Plus the reaction to Alice -- wow! It was like when I wore Snow White to a Centre Island Cosplay picnic over a decade ago, people were so supportive and excited to see Alice. I was told by staff lots of people show up in costume to get photos. While I was there, I was the only Alice until I was getting ready to change and leave, and that's when another Alice with a few other Wonderland characters showed up. A lot of people thought I worked there, and quite a few people complimented me on the fact that I made my costume. The majority of the people there on the Friday afternoon were parents with small kids or elderly people enjoying the ambience. It was quite crowded. A couple of retired Home Economics teachers were so impressed by my sewing, and a couple of other parents let me know they have kids who also Cosplay and even shared photos. It was really cool getting to chat with people. I really did take every compliment to heart. It made me so proud that I could wear something I made and that could only have happened thanks to my mother inspiring me and teaching me to sew. Plus, the beautiful flower displays reminded me of my aunt, who loved flowers. I miss them both dearly, so the compliments from elderly women were really super special to me. I don't have any older women in my life anymore to share experiences and connect with, so I left the event feeling moved and emotional.

Having said that, it was amazing. My compliments to the Botanical Gardens. They did a great job making impressive displays that were fun and interactive. A staff member complimented me on being willing to talk with and take photos with guests, but as a Cosplayer, I know it's a privilege to get a chance to wear a costume in public and get nice photos. You always need to be respectful of the venue and other folks using the space. I truly feel blessed that I got a chance to share in the event. Even changing out of Alice was an adventure. A little girl saw my shoes in the bathroom from another stall and she told her mom that she wanted to see the "princess" come out (this was when I was changing out of Alice). My friend Stillvisions let the mom know outside the bathroom that I was now off duty, but it was something to feel that recognizable and special. We finished the trip by stopping at Arby's for a delicious dinner (since there are no Arby's in Toronto, going to Arby's is a treat). Stillvisions did take quite a few photos of me around the venue, so I will be sharing them as I get photos back from him. He did take a few on my phone and sent me a few preview photos, so I've updated my Alice Cosplay page here with new pictures. Expect more photos in the months to come!

Next up (unless I find any other cool venues for private shoots) is Anime North. My plans have now dramatically changed for the event as I did not get a table for the Nominoichi or even end up on the stand by list. Such a shame. That lottery system is so frustrating. I can post about it here because I don't believe many people read my updates, but I think the application numbers are very inflated based on everyone having their friends and family sign up as well to increase their chances. If you don't cheat, your chances of getting a table are super slim. I hope that I have better luck in 2026. I do miss the first-come, first-served model as it's harder to cheat when you have a short time limit. I never missed a year when it was first-come, first-served. I don't see how anyone could consider it unfair if you know when the form is going live so you can plan for it. Letting the entry form stay up for a week really leaves it wide open to abuse. I feel like the event sign up would be less buggy if they used a Google Form and followed the first-come, first-served method, but I know the event will run as is and continue to become more and more unsustainably inflated for applications each year. I would be curious what the cancellation rate is for assigned tables. I bet it's increasing every year as well. The event management is pretty determined to follow their path without improving the frustrating sign up process, so I doubt it'll be ever be more fair to get a table. I don't know what I'll do for Anime North, but I guess I'll try to attend at least 2 of the days and wear costumes. I'll post here when I make my plans.

DangerousLadies announced that they will be holding a free Cosplay garage sale event on May 4th. I applied for a table, but didn't get selected although I'm part of the waistlist for that. I truly have bad luck. Oh well. I'll start posting some goods and costumes for sale on Facebook Marketplace, eBay and Poshmark. Maybe I'll have some luck selling online. So far my sales for mostly Re-Ment items have been pretty good on eBay and Poshmark. It's just a shame that with changes to customs rules for selling to the US, soon I'll probably lose any US potential customers for items I sell on eBay. This year is just incredibly difficult and frustrating.

That catches things up until the end of May. Early June is still YetiCon, which I'm super excited about. I can't wait to have that break and use the pool. It's been a busy and stressful year so far, so a vacation is much needed. I did buy a Silent Hill 2 Remake Maria costume from an Aliexpress seller that just arrived. The costume is pretty big on me, so I'm going to have to work on altering it. I bought a new wig for it that I need to work on as well. I'm thinking about wearing it to YetiCon, and then maybe Fan Expo Canada. We'll see what con and Cosplay plans I make as we head into the spring and then con season.

March 4th, 2025
Nerd Market 5 was a little over a week ago. I was so nervous about getting to the event with my stuff, but thankfully it's actually not too bad at all to take transit there, and using suitcases was pretty efficient. There is an exit in Queen's Park from Museum station that's just a short walk to Hart House. The big worry was how badly plowed the sidewalks would be. In my area, the sidewalks were barely plowed, so getting to the bus stop was hard, but downtown it was quite clear. Thankfully, my younger brother helped me with my suitcase getting down to the event and met me at the bus bay on the way home, so that made it manageable. His help was greatly appreciated.

The event itself went alright. I did much better than last year, but it was still quite low for what I had hoped based on all the items I had brought. It's so hard to decide what's worth bringing. You don't want to bring just a few large items in case no one buys anything, but if you bring a lot of small items, you can overwhelm the table, and make it hard for people to browse. In the end, I mostly sold wigs, a couple of Tokidoki figures, a few small Sailor Moon items and a couple of board games. That was the majority of the items I sold. I didn't exactly clear a lot of space in my basement. I have more luck selling on Poshmark and eBay over the course of a couple of months. I also didn't see as much interesting stuff to buy this year from other tables. Last year was a gold mine. To be fair, I didn't have time to browse much, but still not as exciting as 2023 or 2022. At least Adrien still did well selling his 3D printed Nintendo game themed magnets and keychains. Based on my experience this year, I think that I'll pass on attending any future Nerd Market events, but I'm still glad I attended this year.

Next up for me is Toronto ComiCON. I had been debating getting a pass for one day, but with all the guest announcements, I decided what the heck, why not get a weekend badge. The Boys is one my fave shows, and with the final season filming here in town, that explains why they were able to get a big chunk of the cast to come to the event. The Supernatural guests are pretty exciting too. I think my aim is to go to the event on Friday and do some shopping, and then come back on either Saturday or Sunday to see some of the guest panels. Pretty torn about what day is most worth it. Would love to see The Boys panel with Karl Urban on Sunday, but Saturday is the panel with Anthony Starr. I'll have to decide what day seems the most exciting unless I have the energy to come for all 3 days. We'll see. I'll be hanging out with my friend Kira and her husband, so I'm glad I have some company. I could Cosplay, but I'm not sure what would travel easily since I would be going downtown by myself. I'll see if I feel motivated. At least I have something fun to look forward to this month.

February 20th, 2025
Happy 2025! I'm a bit late to the party. I breezed through the holiday season and January without getting a chance to post here. Cosplay and this website always go into a bit of slumber after Halloween for a few months due to the lack of conventions and Cosplay events over the winter season here in Toronto. I've also been pretty busy these last few weeks. My younger brother's wife moved to Canada from abroad at the end of last year, and they're at least temporarily living with me and my father until they get their own place. It's been an adjustment and we remodelled a bathroom before she came, so there were a lot of renovation noises and clutter that I was living around for all of November and most of December. Thankfully, everything is cleaned up now and we're all learning to adapt to the new reality. The other concern is my father's health. He had heart issues last year, but was able to have surgery in January to replace a leaky valve. Unfortunately, he has some side effects and had minor strokes from the surgery and it's taking time for him to recover. It's made the last couple of months challenging, but I hope his condition continues to improve over the next few months.

Regarding this site, I've added a new costume page for a Pokemon onesie outfit that I purchased in the spring and first wore at YetiCon for the nighttime parade. I wore it again on Halloween. It's a onesie of Mimikyu. I decided to wear it on Halloween while handing out treats, as it's pretty comfy and decently warm. To be fair, Halloween last year was one of the warmest I've ever experienced in my life. It was still above 10 degrees Celcius even after dark, and I feel like we're usually lucky for it to be around 10 degrees during the daytime on Halloween. It was so warm while I was putting up my decorations. I'm not exactly complaining about the wonderful early fall weather, but it was a pretty odd feeling in late October. Anyway, Pan, who hung out with me on Halloween, took a few photos of me around the decorations. I didn't get any workable photos at YetiCon, so photos from Pan means there is some evidence the outfit existed and was worn. I'll try to wear it again for photos this year, but at least I have something in the meantime. You can find the costume page here.

2024 definitely felt like a slowdown year for me in terms of conventions and Cosplaying. As I get older, it's harder to find the time and energy to make costumes from scratch. It's also so time consuming to prep and wear a costume on the day of an event. I really need to pick and choose what events I want to wear costumes at or how often I do photoshoots. I wish I squeezed in a shoot or two during the fall season last year, but I'll try to be a bit more proactive with that this year. I still need photos of a few costumes that I've barely worn like Dorothy from The Big O. I'm also thinking about purchasing a pre-made costume for Maria from the Silent Hill 2 remake at some point this year. I don't want to make her jacket from scratch and I've found a Cosplay site that has her dress with the printed fabric to match the pattern from in the game. We'll see what else I wear or re-wear for conventions or events this year.

I had a good time at the events I went to in 2024. YetiCon, as always, was a standout event and I was really lucky that my friend Stillvisions got a table for the Nominoichi at Anime North and was willing to share the table with me and my friend Adrien. It's harder every year to get a table selling at events. That was also echoed at the Anime North Halloween Event, where I didn't get a table initially, but found out about 3 days before the Friday night event that I had gotten a table from being on the wait list. Scrambling to organize some things to bring was rather stressful, but I did sell well at both the Anime North and AN Halloween events. The other selling event I attended in 2024 was Nerd Market. Beautiful venue and loved the vibe of the event, but my sales were really poor. I was going to consider skipping it if it returned this year, but I decided to try for a table and I got one. The event is happening this Sunday. Wish me luck! I hope I do a bit better this year. It's just unfortunate how snowy it's been lately. It's going to be hard to take transit to the event. I'm hoping my suitcases don't get stuck in the snow, but I'm selling with my friend Adrien, and hopefully we can manage to transport everything. Just please mother nature -- no more snow! I did get some great deals at the event last year, so if nothing else, it might be fun to shop. That freebie table was really fun to browse too!

I do hope conventions are a little more exciting for me this year. Fan Expo Canada 2024 had almost no interesting booth activations (although the last minute Agatha All Along panel and small exhibit were really cool). I'm not really into Anime anymore so going to AN really feels like an exercise in nostalgia. I still find some interesting vendors in the dealers and neat things for sale in Artists, but we'll see if I get a table to sell at the event again this year. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I would do with my time. At least I would have more time to Cosplay I suppose.

Last year I tried to re-wear costumes that I would like to get some photos of before I consider the costume retired. I finally got some new photos of my Card Captor Sakura Clear Card costume and I wore a few new purchased costumes like the Mimikyuu onesie, Pumpkin Pie Cookie, and a M3gan costume. I'm still waiting for a lot of photos of costumes I wore last year, but I have fond memories of the photoshoot that I did with Stillvisions in Pumpkin Pie Cookie and wearing M3gan to YetiCon. For this year, I'm probably going to be buying a couple more costumes. I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to make anything from scratch, but I still have some old costumes to bring back out for photos, so we'll see what I get to wear this year.

The year is already well underway and I have a few events lined up or that I'm considering attending. The guest list for Toronto ComiCon this year is kind of amazing for my interests. They have quite a few Supernatural and The Boys guests, so I'm considering getting a day or weekend pass to go to some of the panels. I'll see. I have my pass already for Anime North, and I'll definitely try to get a Nominoichi table again. Finally, YetiCon will be returning this year. That's excellent news! My friend Kevin already booked a hotel room and I'll buy a pass later. Can't wait to hit up the pool and explore the resort again. That's all my major plans for the next few months. Hopefully I can sprinkle in a couple of photoshoots as well.

Click here to access the updates archive

Website layout designed by Pan.

Copyright Rebecca 2008-2025