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 -+-

April 14th, 2026
It's been a while since my last post and we're now approaching con season. It looks like I have a few events on the horizon. May 9th & 10th is the Toronto Oddities & Curiosities Expo. I've wanted to check out that event for the last couple of years, but it's usually during YetiCon. This year the timing is much more favourable. I haven't decided which day I'll go yet. I don't think I'll Cosplay or anything like that, although it might be a nice venue to re-wear the M3gan costume that I have. That's definitely something to think about.

The next event in May is Anime North. As mentioned in my last update, I was eager to see how things would turn out with the Nominoichi lottery. Just as things have turned out the last two years, I yet again did not get picked for a table through the lottery. That's three years I've applied and struck out. I've been lucky the last two years that other friends have been willing to share a table with me, but I'm not going to ask around about it this time. The whole lottery system and how it gets abused feels so defeating. I know two other people who applied and didn't get picked either this year or last year. Supposedly, both this year and last year there was a 50/50 chance you would get a table, but the odds seem a lot worse that amongst three people two years in a row, none of us even made it onto the standby list. That's some lousy luck. If you want to entice some of the lucky few people who did get tables to possibly add you to their table, you have to practically offer to pay for the full table fee, so that feels very exploitative. I know the event will always be popular, but I wish as Nerd Market has implemented, AN would start charging a small deposit to lock in your table before the event. I bet that would clear out the standby list really quickly and they could possibly have more openings still. I mean, last year the table beside the one I was at was a no show, so I ended up getting to use it for a reduced fee. And yet last year I didn't even get on the standby list. I guess I have to hope my luck is better in 2027. I suppose I'll try again. If it wasn't impossible to ship to the States now with all the tariff fees, I would just give up and rely totally on places like eBay. It's definitely less stressful than hoping to luck out with getting a table at the Nomi.

Now that I failed with the Nomi, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do at Anime North. The Nomi gave me purpose and structure to my weekend and was a great Friday activity. I'm pretty far out of the loop with modern Anime, so I'm not sure how much of the programming will appeal to me. I don't know if I'll attend all three days or just go for a couple. I guess I'll spend Friday Cosplaying and checking out Artist Alley and the vendor hall. Hopefully I'll find some other things to do. Right now I'm thinking about wearing the Madoka school uniform that I bought last year and maybe something like Ashley from the RE4 Remake or Maria from the Silent Hill 2 Remake if I finish fixing the jacket and wig. I might walk around for a bit in Kevin's Vulpix costume too. We'll see. I guess there is always a trip to the Swiss Chalet by the con to look forward to. On the bright side, at least I don't have to be at the event until it's super late on the Friday. It probably means I would have the energy to go back on the Saturday. Anyway, I'll update here as I make plans.

Finally, the last event coming up in the next couple of months is YetiCon. Everything is still looking good for that event. I'm still deciding what I want to bring and wear, but the con is really bursting with activities and events. It's still a bit far out there to lock down plans and I don't plan to Cosplay much, but I'm just excited for the vacation. As usual, I can't wait to relax and swim in the pool.

I guess besides maybe fixing up Maria to finally wear it, I'll have a relaxing lead up to Anime North for once. In a way, taking a break one year from the Nomi is good. That event definitely makes things very stressful leading up to the con and having to watch the table like a hawk and be on my feet for hours is very exhausting. I guess I'll look forward to taking it easy and hopefully enjoying some nice spring weather (if the weather finally starts staying consistently warm). I hope we're at least finally done with snow days until November!

-+- Past Updates -+-

February 14th, 2026
Another year is behind us. It's taken me a while to find some time to update this website. I know having a personal Cosplay site is pretty rare and old-fashioned these days. I also know I'm getting out of the habit of updating my social media accounts with new Cosplay photos. I am still around although I don't make many costumes or do as many shoots as a decade or so ago. Making costumes is just such a time consuming and intensive hobby. I do miss having the energy and motivation to make a new costume a couple of times a year. I'm currently working on fixing up the Maria (Silent Hill 2 Remake) costume that I bought last year from Aliexpress. I sized up because I was at the tail end of the size chart for a smaller size, but the costume arrived feeling very oversized and unflattering. I had to take out a zipper that was in a side seam of the dress and extend the back seam to reposition the zipper. I also took in the sides and hemmed the dress. It has the cheetah print in the material, but it's such flimsy dress fabric with no stretch. Next I need to add belt loops to the jacket and attempt to add new snaps to the belt on the jacket so it will vaguely fit me. Then I need to trim the wig and dye the tips. But I'll probably try to bring the costume to YetiCon. Hopefully it'll look decent. The jacket is a bit oversized, but not much I can do about that as I don't think my sewing machine can handle sewing pleather.

Last Sunday was Nerd Market 6 down at U of T. I wasn't planning on getting a table or attending, but my friend Stillvisions entered the table lottery and did get a table (from the waitlist). He was selling a ton of board games that my friend group has accumulated at his house over the last decade or so. He did quite well moving along the board games for really great prices. I'm surprised that we still had a few left at the end. I brought along my collection of mini figures, Tokidoki toys, plush items and other pop culture goodies. The table was a bit cluttered, which I think hindered what people could pick out to buy. It was my own fault for not being a bit more picky with what to bring, but I did better than the last two years and I almost sold as well as I did the first year back after the pandemic. It was fun to see some familiar faces at the event and actually get out and be social in the middle of this brutally cold and snowy winter. It was incredibly cold that day, but at least it wasn't snowing! I did buy a Sailor Moon Xmas sweater and a neat Sanrio x Sailor Moon collab hand mirror from one table. I love checking out that seller. She has an amazing Sailor Moon collection and sells goods from her trips to Japan where she picks up interesting gashapon and Sailor Moon collab items. She has such neat things that I never even heard about for Sailor Moon. Anyway, I'll have to see if my friend group wants to sell again in 2027. I suppose it's always worth trying now that the event is also using the lottery system. I just know my luck is terrible, so it always feels frustrating to try, but who knows.

The next upcoming event is probably Anime North unless I do some private photoshoots. I still want to get photos of Dorothy this year. That definitely has to happen while the costume still fits me. I believe my current plan for AN, if I Cosplay, will be to wear the Madoka school uniform costume that I purchased from DokiDoki last year. Of course, when or if I Cosplay depends on my free time at AN as I definitely will try to get a table for AN's Nominoichi, but it's always very difficult to get picked from the lottery. I'll definitely cross my fingers for it. I did get a weekend pass so I can potentially be at the con all weekend. After that will be YetiCon in June as my friend Stillvisions did get us hotel space and I bought a badge already. It'll be interesting to see changes to the event now that new owners are promoting it more extensively. They're also adding extra events and making the con 3 days again. I'm just looking forward to a fun few days of swimming in the pool, seeing friends, eating at the various restaurants and enjoying spring weather. Honestly, I just can't wait to get through this winter, so that makes me extra excited for spring cons and events. I'll update here as the spring events get closer and I apply for a Nomi table at Anime North.

November 3rd, 2025
Halloween is over for another year. I was unfortunately sick on Halloween. Usually my friend Pan comes over and helps me decorate and we hang out on my porch and hand out candy. Since almost everyone was feeling ill over here, Pan decided not to come over. It made the day a little less fun, but I did soldier on. I scaled back my decorations a bit, but did get some help from my brother and my sister-in-law. I had some inflatables outside as well as lights and other decor. Usually I would have more candles outside as well as use a projector and play music, but I wanted to stay inside to not make myself feel worse and minimize contact with the trick or treaters. Despite scaling things back, I still got lots of compliments on the decorations. It was hard to keep the inflatables up, though. The wind was really gnarly and I had to adjust everything multiple times throughout the afternoon, but everything stayed up for the prime trick or treating hours. The first kids came at 5pm and the last trick or treater was at 8:50. I thought it had slowed down after 7pm, but close to 7:30 we started having a rush of kids for about 30 minutes. I had made about 140 bags of candy and figured I had more than enough, but in the end, I think I had close to 200 trick or treaters stop by. Usually my area gets somewhere between 120-150 kids so that was impressive. I guess because it was a Friday that really did make a big difference even despite it being quite cold. Since Halloween is Saturday next year, maybe it will be much of the same. Hopefully next year I won't be sick and I can have Pan over again and set up more of my decorations, but I still watched some horror movies and had a nice day.

Regarding this website, Stillvisions sent me a few photos from the Scugog Shores Museum Resident Evil 4 shoot that we did in October. The photos turned out really nicely. I've added the photos to the gallery here. There will be more photos to come. It was a really great location to shoot at, so I'm glad I was able to get more photos there of Ashley. I have so many pictures of Ashley now that I probably don't need more of the costume, but I definitely would like to wear Ashley again in the future. Next up I would like to do a shoot of Dorothy. That should be happening at some point over the winter. I'm not sure about my plans for 2026, but I'll probably try to wear the Madoka school uniform that I purchased earlier this year. Hopefully it will still fit next year.

October 26th, 2025
The Anime North Halloween Event is now over. I always have such a limited view of the event since I spend 90% of it managing a table for the Nomi. Things did change a bit this year. They moved to a timed entry for the event and they managed a line to enter the Nominoichi, so the room was never really overwhelmingly busy. I don't know if that impacted my sales as it did feel a bit slow most of the time, but the room wasn't sweltering so that was nice. I did still make a decent amount of money and cleared a variety of clothing and other Anime goods, so I can't complain. I just wish I would focus my table a bit better, so it wouldn't be so overwhelmingly stuffed. It's so hard to browse when there are too many little things piled up on the table. Anyway, it was still nice to interact with people who passed the table and I saw some really great costumes. I was impressed by the amount of Silent Hill and Resident Evil Cosplayers that came by. I saw a couple of Heathers, a SH2 Remake James, a couple of Adas, a really great Bubblehead Nurse and even a classic Maria from Silent Hill 2. There were a couple of Cosplayers dressed up from the new Silent Hill F game so that was neat to see. I wish I could have checked out Artist Alley more, but I rushed when exploring the rest of the venue on Friday night. My only purchase was a prize plush from a Japanese Card Captor Sakura lottery that my table neighbour was selling. It's of the Syaoran bear. In the end, the Halloween event was a fun experience. I did enjoy selling and I'm glad I cleared out a few things. I may apply for a table again next year just to see if I can get a chance to sell. Probably won't be able to get one given how competitive it is to get a table. It's also hard to figure out the best items to bring for this event as the target should be more affordable goods like cheap prize figures and small plush items. Regardless, it was nice to get a chance to check out a local event since the JCCC is pretty close to me.

I did go to the Scugog Shores Museum Halloween event yesterday. I went back in 2023 and it was a better event back then. They had more decorations and volunteers who stationed themselves in the various pioneer village buildings. They made it feel more welcoming. I did wear Ashley and got photos of my Resident Evil 4 costume back in 2023 and then again yesterday. Stillvisions was kind enough to take me to the event and take some photos of me. This time I got a few photos with the jacket off as well. Hopefully some of the pictures turned out well, and when I start getting photos from the photographer, I'll be sure to share them here. The weather was pretty nice as it wasn't too cold and it wasn't rainy, so it was a nice fall day. I just wish the event was a bit better for the kids. They had a lot of bowls meant to give kids a chance to hunt for candy, but when we arrived halfway through the event, all the bowls already seemed to be empty. At least they had pumpkin carving and mask making for kids and the children were all wearing cute costumes. Afterward, I got to see the quaint downtown of Port Perry and then I got Arby's for dinner, so it was a great outing. If only the Blue Jays won the baseball game yesterday like they did the night before.

Next up is Halloween, I believe. It's been a bit of a rough few days as a family member passed away last week and this week is the funeral. It puts a damper on the festivities a bit. We weren't close, but it was very sad news. I probably won't try to check out more Halloween events until next year, but I do still plan to decorate and hand out candy on Friday. Hopefully the weather will be ok because right now it looks to be cold and rainy on Halloween. I'll cross my fingers for a good holiday.

October 22nd, 2025
Quick update -- I went to a couple of Halloween events in Etobicoke last Saturday. I checked out the Halloween Night of Lights exhibit in the parking lot of Sherway Gardens. Kind of an interesting venue choice. It's sort of a little fall fair with lots of photo backdrops, carnival rides and games. At night they offer a walkthrough light installation with different Halloween themes. It was neat. I decided to re-wear my Halloween Lolita outfit and get better photos of it. I upgraded the costume with a cloak and a witch hat. Both were bought from Aliexpress. The cloak was meant to go with the Lolita dress. The hat looked adorable. This time I wore contacts, so the photos look a little nicer. I got quite a few compliments on the dress. I went with Stillvisions and he took photos of me around the pumpkins and other fall backdrops. We also went over to 13 Rooms, which was just down the street at Cloverdale Mall. This event was an offshoot of Screemers, and you could definitely see the influence. It was inside part of the mall. They had small little backdrops of various horrific Halloween themes like a circus, a hospital, and cursed objects, so you could get cool photos. They also had a few scare actors running around that you could interact with. It was a neat event. I liked a lot of the backdrops, but I'm not into super horrific horror for Halloween, so it was a bit much for me in terms of wanting photos in some of the spots. I would have preferred more wonder and neat interactivity for photo spots as opposed to Satan's alter and whatever was going on with the dinosaur/"primitive stereotype man" exhibit. The haunted doll room, cornfield and creepy Christmas sections were cool, and I did enjoy it overall. Stillvisions is sending me photos from Saturday and I'm slowly adding them to the costume page, which you can find here.

Next up is the Anime North Halloween Event. I was only going to go if I got a table for the Nominoichi event and I did end up getting a table spot. Or at least, my friend Stillvisions got a table and took pity on me and is letting me share with him. I again, struck out with the lottery system and did not get a table. I hate lotteries. I have zero luck with them. I wish we could go back to first come, first served because I never missed a table then. Apparently they had 100 people apply for 35 tables, so it was definitely not easy to get a table at that event. I'll be bringing some scale figures, some Pokemon Re-Ments, Tokidoki figures and plush items, so I hope I sell ok. Life hasn't been great lately so I could definitely use a cash infusion if I can make a few hundred dollars. I'll probably just be casual for the event, but I'm looking forward to seeing folks that stop by the table. Plus, it's the first game of the World Series that night so it's going to be interesting to be torn between watching the table, but also hopefully hearing snippets of the game. I have my fingers crossed for the Blue Jays!

After that is the Scugog Shores Museum Halloween event on Saturday. I'm still planning to wear Ashley and check it out. Hopefully I can get some nice photos of the upgraded costume. I'll also hopefully not be too exhausted from the activities on Friday night, but it should definitely be an exciting weekend.

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