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 -+-

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.

-+- Past Updates -+-

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.

October 12th, 2025
We're now well into spooky season, and I've already attended a couple of Halloween events and fun fall activities. I've been to a number of Spirit Halloween stores and finally found one that actually had the cool animatronic themed set up for 2025. The store theme for the year was a haunted subway. It was cool to see the subway car display. I checked out the store after visiting a farm with my friends Stillvisions and Adrien. We were able to pick up a few pumpkins from the patch. Checking out the pumpkin patch and the corn maze on a farm has become a fun annual tradition. What probably won't be a new tradition for me is attending the Toronto Halloween Show. I went for a bit on opening day on September 27th. It was very underwhelming. I know events don't always start big and growing as the years go on is totally fine, but I feel like this event really tried to sell itself as a premier experience, but it was literally only 1/4 of the Queen Elizabeth Building. It was very condensed with very little to see and do. I did buy a couple of resin pieces from one artist, but Stillvisions and I were done with the event after maybe half an hour. I know they probably banked on more vendors filling in the space and at the last minute tried to condense the use of space probably to save money, but it really made the event feel like it gave up. I can imagine with more room for fun costume or makeup workshops as well as more demonstration Halloween displays or walkthrough haunts, the event could have been something special. If it does return next year, I hope they find a smaller venue and try to actually fill the space to make the event feel more worthwhile and successful.

I'm going to try to check out a few more Halloween events in the GTA before the big night at the end of the month. I'm still hoping to get photos of Ashley and my Halloween Lolita dress before the end of the season. The Scugog Shores Museum in Port Perry is running a fun Halloween kids event on the 25th. It's a small pioneer-like village. I went there a couple of years ago to get photos of my RE4 Remake Ashley costume. Since then, I've updated the costume, so I would like to get a few more photos of it. I'm hoping to attend the Halloween event and wear Ashley again. It sort of depends how my week goes. I applied for a table at the Anime North Halloween event and that runs the night before on the 24th. It was pretty competitive to get a table last year, so I don't know how things will go for me this year. It's a lottery again. I believe they'll announce tables next weekend. I did apply for the waitlist so we'll see if I get a table last minute. Last year I ended up on the waitlist and only found out I had a table a couple of days beforehand. I'll try to prepare over the next week like I do have a table, so I'm ready just in case I get one even at the last minute. So depending on how exhausted I am, we'll see if I can attend the Port Perry event the next day. At least it runs in the afternoon, so I don't have to get up super early. The photos I got last time were great, so I definitely want to check it out again if the weather is decent. If I don't get a table for the Anime North event, I'll skip it, so Port Perry can definitely happen if the weather is nice.

There is also a pumpkin trail event at the Royal Botanical Garden where I previously wore Alice last winter when they had a Wonderland themed event. I'm curious what the outdoor part of the garden is like. I might try to go. In addition, there is a Screemers spinoff event this year at Cloverdale mall called 13 Rooms that's meant to be a spooky photo experience. It features different themed rooms so you can get all sorts of Halloween themed photos. I might check that out in my Halloween Lolita outfit or maybe something like M3gan. Of course, on the big night, I plan to decorate my house and give out candy, but up until then, there does seem to be a lot of cool activities and events to check out. I'll cross my fingers about the Halloween Nominoichi, and I'll definitely update here if I get a table.

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!

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