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 -+-

May 25th, 2026
Anime North is now over for another year. It definitely was a weird year for sure. I only ended up going on Friday and Sunday. I knew the weather for Saturday wasn't going to be great, but I never expected it was going to be as terrible as it was. Friday of the con still felt a bit off not having the Nominoichi to do. I did wear the Madoka Magica school uniform and was Madoka again. It was nice to Cosplay her again. I still love the wig, which was styled by Technoranma. The costume did fit alright, but I probably won't hang on to it for too long because it was quite tight and the stretchy fabric isn't the most forgiving. I arrived around 1:30 so we could get a nice parking spot. My friend Stillvisions was kind enough to offer me a lift the days I went to the con. We ended up parking near where the Anime cars were on display, which turned out to be a big mistake on several levels, but at the time it seemed great. I ended up getting Swiss Chalet for lunch with my friends Stillvisions and Adrien. That was a nice break, especially since the weather was a bit cold. Afterwards, I met up with friends at the Delta hotel and hung out there for a while. My wig was bugging me so I had to adjust it in a hotel room. My wig ended up being a pain for most of the day and I had to adjust it one more time later in a bathroom at the TCC south building. After hanging out for a bit, I ventured out to go to the TCC south building as it was close to 5 when the con opened.

I was worried about not knowing what to do for the weekend, but I ended up meeting up with my friend Pan and along with Stillvisions and Adrien, we spent over 3 hours just looking at the Artist Alley. I will say, every year I've tried to do AA on the Sunday, I can barely move around, so actually being able to explore it on Friday meant I saw pretty much every table fairly well and I got the pick of some of the most interesting pieces. Having said that, I didn't buy that much. I was able to buy an adorable blueberry pie themed crossbody bag from one artist. It was the only one she had and I thought it was so cute. I also bought an Ashley (RE4 Remake) keychain and a neat key necklace. On Sunday, I went back to a table and bought a cute Halloween themed ghost pumpkin patch print. Exploring Artist Alley really did take most of the day. Finally, around 9:30, I went over to the Nomi hall with Pan and Adrien and checked that out. There were some neat finds, but I resisted buying much. My only purchase was a cute Li Syaoran rubber strap.

The big mistake was trying to go home just after 10pm when most of the south TCC building closed. I was pretty exhausted and my feet were hurting. We started leaving probably around 10:20pm, but we didn't end up making it out of the parking lot until close to 11pm. It was brutal. Firstly, we decided to head for the back entrance, which was further away, and the traffic was so much worse because so much of the con shut down. It didn't help that the people parked by the north building or in the vendor parking lot of the south building all merged into the lane of traffic we were in and seemed to be much more aggressive. We only moved like 4 car lengths in 20 minutes at times. At least the rest of the ride home was fast, but that was a lesson. Best to leave later or earlier or park closer to the south building if we want to use the back exit.

Skipping Saturday was a really smart move. I knew the weather was going to be rainy, but who could have anticipated it being constant rain all day and intense wind. I heard everyone was soaked even if you were only outside briefly and there were umbrella graveyards from broken umbrellas ruined by the wind. It was definitely one of the worst Saturdays I've ever experienced for Anime North.

I went back on Sunday and arrived around 11am. Even with that, we parked in the TCC lot close to the grass behind the north building. The lot was already pretty full. This time I wasn't Cosplaying. I just spent Sunday checking out the vendor halls in the north and south buildings as well as the industry area. Checking out the vendor hall took a couple of hours. I didn't actually buy much, but I did get a really cute Lolita blouse although it was humbling to learn I'm no longer in the small sizing for Japanese brands. My other purchases were clearance items from the Littlest Gift Boutique including a cute Card Captor Sakura Dream Wand pen. I grabbed some snacks from the Japanese table in the Delta hotel after finishing shopping and hung out with some friends. Before leaving the con around 4pm, I did try to wear the inflatable Vulpix costume that Kevin had brought, but the battery packs were not working properly. I ended up wearing it for about 30 seconds before it deflated. Oh well. Kind of symbolized the state of Anime North for the weekend. It definitely was a challenging year.

The con overall was still a lot of fun. I do enjoy seeing the neat LEGO displays in the industry area and what cool things different artists have for sale. It's still fun to Cosplay and see friends even if Cosplayers feel like wallpaper at cons now. It was weird wearing Madoka and only getting a handful of compliments and photos. It was a very different experience from when I wore my own homemade Madoka school uniform a decade ago. The whole con just makes me hope that next year we have better weather and I would love it if I actually managed to get a table for the Nomi (even though it is a ton of work leading up to the con). But even if I don't, at least I can still find lots to see and do at the con. Next up is YetiCon in a little over 3 weeks. Hopefully the weather will be more summer-like by then!

-+- Past Updates -+-

May 21st, 2026
Tomorrow is the start of Anime North and will be my 23rd time attending the con. Wow, I didn't realize I've been going to AN for nearly 25 years. I've been looking at the programming book and not much has tickled my fancy, so I'll probably just be wandering the con looking for friends and checking out places like the vendor hall and artist alley. My current plan is to attend the con tomorrow and Sunday. I will say, in my 23 years of attending the con, the weather for this weekend is definitely one of the worst con forecasts that I can remember. It's going to be cold or at least cool pretty much every day and raining for a lot of the weekend. Yikes. Saturday's forecast is really bad. Definitely seems like a day worth skipping especially since wandering outside is a big part of the con experience.

I'm planning to wear the Madoka Magica school uniform that I bought from DokiDoki Cosplay last year tomorrow. I'll be Madoka using the beautiful wig that I bought from TechnoRanma. The costume was a bit tight when I tried it on a week ago, so I'm hoping it fits ok when I go to wear it tomorrow. On Sunday, I probably won't Cosplay. Honestly, I may need to find some cozy sweaters to wear with the forecast. That's my current plan. I may end up wearing an inflatable costume care of Stillvisions at some point. We'll see. Hopefully, despite the weather, it'll still be a fun weekend.

In other costume news, I did finish fixing up my Maria costume. I originally bought the costume over a year ago. The fact the costume was so poorly made really made it hard to focus on fixing it, but over the last few weeks, I adjusted the belt on the jacket and finally used dye to make the ends of the wig pink. I also attempted to style the wig a bit as it was falling flat. With that, the costume is done. I plan to wear it to YetiCon next month as one of probably only a couple of costumes I'm thinking of bringing to that event. Depending on how Madoka is fitting tomorrow, I might bring that to YetiCon for photos. I'm pretty happy with the work that I did on fixing my Maria costume and I'm pretty excited for YetiCon to happen to wear it. Hopefully the weather for YetiCon will be a big improvement over Anime North!

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!

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.

Click here to access the updates archive

Website layout designed by Pan.

Copyright Rebecca 2008-2026