No Man's Land and day trip to London

This autumn I have a lot of things planned. October is going to be crazy busy with the NFL, DST, Nottingham, The Libertine and MCM every weekend is jam packed with things to do! It is exciting times and also scary times for my bank account eep.

However to kick it all off I had booked tickets to see No Man's Land up in London. A chance to see Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen perform together live was too good an opportunity to miss out on so we booked tickets back at the beginning of the year.

I had to get a travel card and as they aren't particularly cheap from where I live now I decided to make a whole day of it. We got up early and headed to Toby Carvey to have a breakfast buffet. Afterwards we headed up to London and went straight to Camden to have a good look around. As soon as we got there the heavens opened up and didn't stop all day!

I haven't been up there in a while and I wanted to have a look as there is lots of clothes and trinkets that I love in Camden. Matt got himself a lovely new Pokemon T-Shirt and I got a cardigan ridiculously cheap in the sale in Collectif.

Camden croughnut 

Afterwards we went straight to the theater for the 2:30pm showing. Ian McKellen was running half an hour late but it was lovely to spend time inside a beautiful venue and also to be out of the rain and wind. The show was amazing and I really enjoyed it. The chemistry between the two actors was as good as I imagined it to be. I was left with lots of questions and a bit 'bamboozled' by the play at the end, but from what I can tell you take away what you want from it.

The characters were great and they were really funny too. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it if you have chance to see it while it is on in London. The whole play is just 4 people in one room but its still feels like a grand play and is interesting thought provoking all the way through.

Afterwards we headed to the nerd haven the Forbidden Planet Mega Store, where we took full advantage of their 3 for 2 on their manga and I also got a Captain Jack Harkeness POP Funko too!

Mini Haul

We finished the evening with a Wagamamas and got home around 10pm. I have a lovely day despite the pouring rain and wind.

I am really looking forward to lots of days out in October, things have been pretty quiet over the summer so I can't wait for lots more trips and days out with Matt!

Totoro dress cosplay.

It has been a while since I have updated on here! It’s been quiet for me socially and insanely stressful and busy for me work wise, so all free time as been spent trying to relax and have some me time. Also I have rediscovered my love for Tumblr and a lot of of my free time and passion has been sucked up there. Actually I have found a new fandom that has fueled my inner fan girl and that too has sucked up my time.. I might write about it on here soon.

Work wise (I work as a designer for a publishing company) I have spent the last year redesigning the magazine. Last week we went to press with the first issue and it was really exciting but also a lot of pressure. However it is all done now and we are going back to a more normal pace of life as of this week thank goodness. It will be busy still for a few weeks but it should be ok!

So I am feeling quite proud of myself because I finished my big redesign and I also made a new Cosplay yaaay! Oooh smooth transition to the topic of this post!

My friends are having a fancy dress party in October with an 80’s movie theme. Matt doesn’t like to dress up so I was trying to think of something we could do together that would be subtle for him. I then suddenly remember that Totoro was out in 1988 and we could do that together as it is one of my favourite films.

That was months and months ago but October is fast approaching and I thought, bugger I need to make costume asap! So last weekend I finally started to buy some bits and pieces. I bought lots from hobby craft which included:

• Googly eyes
• Pompoms
• Glue gun
• Felt
• Wire
• Interfacing
• Dress pattern
• 22inch zip
• Plastic leaf

I also got some nice grey fabric and some cream velour type fabric, and then last weekend I set to work. I started by measuring myself and then cutting out the dress pattern and then I cut it straight out of the fabric. I was a little lazy this time and didn’t make a test dress first. I ended up with so much extra fabric I was confident that if it went wrong I had enough to cut new parts. This was my first attempt with using a dress pattern, I decided to go with a pattern to make it easier for me rather than trying to guess as I went along.

I made the bodice first and worked out how to sew on the furry tummy. That took the longest and also making sure the bodice fitted. Once I was happy I hand sewed the ‘beans’ as I kept calling them on to the tummy bit.

It was happy that it fitted so well first off, I just had to edit the darts slightly to fit. The capped sleeves were slightly awkward too but after a lot of head scratching I worked out how to do it! Then came the skirt part and that actually went on quickly and easily.

Then it was time to sew on the zip. Now I have NEVER sewn on a zip before and I found out that I didn’t have an invisible zipper foot but thank goodness for YouTube I found a video showing how you can sew on an invisible zip with a regular zipper foot.

It was tricky but I managed it and then came the moment of truth, I put it on and zipped it up for the first time. I was so happy when it fitted. It is a little snug across the chest and arms when I reach up or move a lot but nothing that is that noticeable. I came running out of the bedroom twirling and jumping with excitement.

It all came together very quickly and I finished the dress on Saturday. I planned on leaving the head band until another weekend but as my sewing machine was still out I ended up starting the ears and then before I knew it I had made the whole thing haha!

I made the ears and then sewed them together and turned them inside out. I then shaped wire to the shape of the ears and pushed them inside. They were a little floppy so I used some cotton wool to pad them out a little and sewed them up at the end. I then used the wire sticking out of the bottom to wrap around the headband to attach them. I had to massively trim done the leaf I had bought to go between the ears that I also attached with the wire. Then with the help of my new glue gun I wrapped some grey fabric around the headband to hide the wire and the headband and then stuck googly eyes to a pompom and stuck that on the leaf to hide the wire.

I am so pleased how it came together and how it looked. I am proud and impressed with myself with the dress I made and also the headband. I now have a wig on its way and MANY sprites to sew onto a t-shirt for Matt. I am also considering making an underskirt to attach pompoms to that too! 

I also have some elastic and netting to make an underskirt so I can attached more pom pom sprites to it. I plan on doing that one weekend soon as I don't think it will take too long. I also need to hand sew a lot of felt sprites onto Matt's t-shirt. There is also a lovely grey wig on its way too so once it is completed I will do a full finished cosplay post.

I am so pleased with how this came out and also how quickly it came together. I cannot wait to get it all finished and to wear it to the party now!

London Film and Comic Con 2016

I am sitting here with post con blues as I usually do after Comic Cons! The Saturday just gone was London Film and Comic Con 2016 and I had another fabulous day. I wasn’t going to go originally with saving my money this year but when Famke Janssen was announced I gave it and booked a photoshoot ticket with her.

So Saturday morning rolled around. I had done my Con preparation as usual the night before which I wrote about last year. I had ironed my dress, packed my bag and bought plenty of snacks and food for the day. I got up at 6am and headed to get the 7:21am train first stopping for my usually mccy d’s breakfast.

My outfit of the day

This year was quite different with the queueing, you had your ticket scanned on the way in to join the queue and we queued inside this year which was a nice change as previous years I have stood out in the heat or rain before. We arrived just after 8am and got in just gone 9am as tickets were already scanned it was just a case of filing inside.

My first photo shoot wasn’t until 12:40pm so we hit the stalls. This year I really liked how they laid out everything. The stalls were all downstairs spread across two huge halls. There were massive gaps between the stalls which meant the congestion stayed down to a minimum which meant stress levels and the heat was also kept to a minimum. We got round both halls fairly quickly as it was nice and quiet to start with.

I then headed up to the photo area which was on level 1 and queued for my photo with Famke Janssen. I got into the first photoshoot which I was pleased with. Unfortunately this was the first shoot I came out feeling a little disappointed. On my way in the crew stated that Famke wasn’t doing handshakes, hugs or any touching which I was ok with. I am really not a touchy feely person so I didn’t mind. However when I went it I felt this stiff atmosphere straight away. People were just standing awkwardly next to her and then leaving straight away. It was my turn so I gave her my biggest smile and a bright Hello! I got a very sniff Hi back and she looked straight at the camera and then I thanked her with no response and left.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. The photo is quite awkward and I left feeling more of a burden to her than anything else. I don’t mind no touching as I said before but she seemed more annoyed to be there than anything else which left me a little sad.

After that it was only half an hour until Sean Maher’s photoshoot so we finished our lunch and just hung around until it was time to go to his. He was completely different from Famke, I was greeted by a huge smile and a hand shake. He then told me he had the same necklace as me but forgot to wear his and pulled me in for a good photo. My face did something kind of weird in the photo but I don’t mind too much as I was half smiling and laughing as he was so friendly and nice. He was busy playing with peoples props too and posing with them for photos which I thought was fab! I was really glad I meet him he was so friendly and lovely. I’m a bit gutted as he did a free talk on Sunday but I only had Saturday tickets alas.

Afterwards we just spent the rest of the afternoon looking around all the stalls and spending far too much money. Matt actually got more than me this time which I was pleased about as I hate leaving with bags full of things for me and nothing for him.

I managed to get a SDCC exclusive iZombie POP Funko and the amazon special captain America too. I also got a new backpack and some candy. Matt got some quite rare Vocaloid POPs and an Overwatch one too! They had some Gundam bits as well and he picked one of those up along with a new wallet which I am quite jealous of!

My haul

Matt's haul

All the POP Funkos we got!

In total we were there for 9 hours (10 if you include the queuing) and stayed till it closed. I had such a good time again and it only felt like we were there for a few hours not the whole day. We headed home exhausted where we ordered a take away and then fell sleep pretty much straight after dinner.

I can’t believe another year has come and gone! That was now my 5^th year at LFCC! I really hope they do another one before Christmas, if not I will have to hold out for DST and MCM!

Peaceful week off

As you may of read in previous posts my holiday was cancelled this year so I joined Matt in taking a week off. He gets considerably more holiday than me and he had an exam so decided to take the whole week off. I haven't had a break this year so far so I decided to join him. I had no real plans just wanted to relax and unwind a bit.

I will start by saying Matt sat his exam on Thursday and he passed. I am really proud of him! We went out and ate waffles to celebrate.

I won't write a long detailed post as we really didn't get up to anything exceptionally exciting. Since Hyper Japan a few weeks ago I am thrown myself head first into the world of Yaoi anime and manga so I wanted to mostly overindulge on those and re-watch Black Butler. So the week involved a lot of pajama days in front of the TV or curled up up somewhere reading.... very relaxing and perfection!

Sunday Matt and I went to Bluewater and he managed to talk me into getting a new iPad. Oops..... I also got some manga and then in the evening I FINALLY saw STAR TREK..... I won't lie it was epic and I loved every minute of it. We went up to the BFI Imax to see it as we have done with the previous Star Trek movies. I loved how the characters really shone in this movie and I loved the story line as well. The whole thing was awesome....

Monday I insisted we took a trip to Brighton for the day.... this day was probably my favourite. We got the train down, ate lunch and then shopped. I got more manga (you see I have developed a problem here) and a dress in the sale for £15 that I fell in love with. We then laid on the beach in the sun reading and cuddling before going and getting ice cream and then having dinner on the sea front. It was hotter than I thought as poor Matt got sun burnt.

The next few days were really lazy days and on Wednesday Matt took me out for dinner to my first ever Indian restaurant. I'm still not a curry lover but I did really enjoy the meal we had and it was a beautiful restaurant. On Friday I insisted we go and do something so we had lunch and went to play mini golf. The day wasn't quite as exciting as I had hoped. The weather was crappy and the mini golf was super small and underwhelming for the distance we travelled. However I still enjoyed being out with Matt.

So that was pretty much my week off and here is a bunch of photos I took throughout the week.

New shiny gadget and mangas.

Star Trek was amazing and I want to see it again

Brighton was so hot and perfect

Brighton Doughnuts on the train home

More manga and the dress I bought

Matt and I out for dinner

Mini golf in my new dress

I do love dinosaurs 

Matt and I playing golf, he won :(

I would of liked to of had a few more things planned but at the same time I really enjoyed the quiet down time. I was feeling pretty burnt out so just needed a break I think for a little bit. 

I cannot believe the week has come and gone. I am not even sure if we actually had all the days off we were meant to it went that fast..... I really did enjoy some quiet time though and although I am gutted I have to go back to work, I am hoping I will feel a little more charged and ready to go! Well maybe haha! 

Hyper Japan 2016

This Sunday Matt and I headed up to Hyper Japan. We attended the Christmas one and also the summer one back in 2014. Matt is a  huge fan of Japanese culture and Anime and Manga so I thought it would be a great day out for both of us.

We got Sunday tickets and headed up to London for about 10am stopped for a huge breakfast on the way there. The trains were absolutely manic on the way up there and the weather was really warm too so we were a little frazzled by the time we got there. However we got in there quickly and it was nice and quiet inside.

I picked my little green foxy dress from Hell Bunny and paired it with a green cardigan I picked up from New Look. 

We got to have a really good look around all the stalls before it started to get crazy busy. There were a lot more stalls and art stalls than previous years and I really enjoyed looking around those. I picked up some really cute Firefly badges and Matt was the one this time round that got some POP! Funkos and a Gundam figure.

We mostly spent the day wondering about and attended a talk by Kihara Hirokatsu, who showed us some original sketches from Studio Ghibli films. They were awesome and I really enjoyed that. Mostly we did shopping and I demanded Matt take lots of photos which I shall share! 

Matt and I, I demanded a selfie. 

DOMO

My favorite candy ever.

The clawwwww

Domo dancing was pretty awesome

We always spend too much money on Japanese candy 

At the end of the day we also attended IA 1st Live Concert in Japan -PARTY A GO-GO and that was really fun to watch too. 

I really did have a fab day out, Matt and I haven't had much to the last few months so I was super excited for this. The weather was absolutely amazing which also made a nice change as here in the UK the summer so far has literally been a wash out.

Like all conventions I go to the atmosphere was great and I really do wish there were more out that as this is my favorite way to spend my free time.... although it also seems to be my favourite way to spend my money too so my purse probably thanks the lord that it isn't an every week thing.

I also have found a whole new obsession that has sprung to life very quickly. I found an Illustration Collection art book for the Anime Jyunjo Romantica. I didn't know what it was but Matt had watched World's greatest first love which is by the same author.... and it just reminded me so much of how I picture Charles and Eric when I read my Cherik fics so I bought it and started watching the Anime as soon as I got in and I am now 100% hooked. Oops... 

My little fan girl heart is beaming right now and I just want to stay at home curled up on the sofa watching these back to back. BUT ALAS, I have to get up and do adult things. Luckily I have a whole week off next week so I will be over indulging it then.

ALSO Star Trek is next week too, I am going to watch it at the BFI IMAX which I am sooo excited for... 

I hope you have a lovely week ahead and can concentrate more than I can at the moment! 

Half way through the year, half the year to go!

Life has been quiet of late and we are now well and truly half way through the year. Yet again that is terrifying as I do not know where the time went. Goodness me. I have some slightly sad news, I wrote back in March about an amazing opportunity I had to go to Singapore. Unfortunately due to circumstances changing we have had to cancel that trip. It is a real shame as I was really looking forward to going somewhere completely different and having a whole new experience. However it isn’t going to happen now and Matt and I are back on the path of saving up to go to Florida instead again.

Other than that I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the resolutions I made at the beginning of the year,.

Saving for a once in a life time holiday

So I guess this hasn’t exactly happened as I stated above. We were planning on saving for Florida but as I said above with the trip to Singapore we stopped… however back to it now.

Making sure I enjoy my free time and get out and do more

I’ve been not too bad at this. I have been out and about much more than last year and now I don’t have to save for Singapore anymore so we will be going to Hyper Japan and other similar events so I am looking forward to that! I went out with some friends after work too a few weeks ago and plan to do the same in August so I am looking forward to that.

 Continuing with the self love!

This has not been so great this year. I think this year I have struggled with this more than the previous year. I haven’t really shifted the weight I put on at Christmas. I know it isn’t much and a few pounds really don’t make much of a difference but I still seem to beat myself up about it. I makes me forget what I have achieved when I am in this sort of slump. But I am trying, some days I can feel my generally attitude changing so I just need to keep working on it. As I have always said it is a lifelong battle and hopefully with each year it will improve.

Heck as a reminder I found this old picture from 4 years ago today and that really reminds me of how far I have come. 

However sad I may be that my holiday isn’t happening anymore, I do still however have lots planned for the year. Comic con at the end of the month and a whole week off work. I then have some shows in the autumn and the NFL. Shortly followed by a trip to Birmingham to Destination Star Trek for my birthday. I plan to fill my summer with nice things to do too. Perhaps some trips to the coast and maybe even a weekend break if we can squeeze that in!

This year is certainly quieter and less life changing than previous years, but so far 2016 has been going well and I hope it continues!

New sewing project with a dash of self confidence boosting.

Sorry things have been quiet here recently. I have rediscovered Tumblr. Actually I have distanced myself a little from blogs and Instagram recently. I started to feel like they were effecting my self confidence. When you have these perfect lives, styles and bodies thrust at you every waking hour of the day, you start to question yourself. I know deep down that these bloggers and Instagramers only show the best parts of their, lives much like I tend to do. But I really did feel like it was having an effect on how I felt about myself and my life. It also changed the way I started to blog. I wanted to use this space to document things in my life and to share it with like minded people. Instead I started to focus on how I could look like these perfect people and have lives like them. Does that make sense? I hope it does.

Tumblr for me is more of a safe place full of fandoms. They give me a warm feeling and make me proud of myself and my interests. Although I know I use my fangirl ways as a type of escapism, it doesn't effect or decrease my self esteem, it actually makes me feel far more content and happy.

Anyway, this was meant to be about some sewing I have done this weekend, bit of a heavy start to the post huh?

So this year I have gotten my sewing machine out a few times, after years of it sitting lonely in a box in my parents loft. I made a skirt earlier in the year which you can see here.

I had planned on making more, but I sort of forgot about it. I have been so desperate for some just plain coloured circle skirts to wear with t-shirts and jumpers, basically an all year round skirt. If I do find ones I like, and that's a big if. They are usually far too short. Or if they are long enough the fabric is usually horrible or the pattern or colour isn't to my taste. So basically although I have searched long and hard I really haven't had much luck. I know exactly how I can fix this and have something that is perfect, I know I can make them really easily, but you know.... I'm pretty lazy haha!

This weekend I had, had enough. I wanted to wear some at work with clear tights and t-shirts as it gets so warm in here. So Saturday I popped to the fabric shop and picked up two colours and on Sunday I got to it!

I had my pattern from my previous skirt, which I had altered length wise so that cut a lot of time off compared to the first one I made. I was too safe and made it far too long, and after washing the fabric I got straight into it!

I picked a lovely hot pink colour for the summer, I also thought with black it could add a real pop of colour to miserable cold days too. Again this one was far too big round my waist like the first one I made, I believe it is to do with cutting it on the bias of the fabric. One website suggests making the pattern smaller but I didn't alter that as I thought it was far more easy to cut some extra off than try and add some if it was too small.

The skirt came together really easily and the waist band looked really good on it too. I was so happy with the end result!

I also picked a charcoal grey colour with a hint of blue to it. Both fabrics were a thick jersey material. I like this material as it flows nicely and doesn't cling and has a good weight to it. But it is also super soft and comfy so will be great on warm days and casual days (which are most days for me at work).

This skirt was a little trickier to sew. The pink fabric was stiffer and had a texture to it, where as this one was very soft and more stretchy which meant the ends kept rolling up and was harder to control. I took my time with this one more and I was happy with the result.

The only thing I wasn't as happy with was the waist band as you can see the seam through the fabric, but that doesn't matter too much as I tend to wear my tops over the top of the waist band.

This one also came out too large as well, and i discovered its actually easier to sew the waist band on and then cut it afterwards as I know the waistband is a good fit.

I am really happy with the end results, and I am also really happy to have something that is the exact length, colours and style I want. The price also isn't too bad. One reason I am reluctant at times to make my own clothes is it can cost considerably more. But these two cost me just under £30 and that was for 2 meters of fabric each, I think if I did it again I would only need 1.5 meters. 

I am super happy with these, and I hope you agree but I think they look fab with a t-shirt or even a jumper style top (FYI the top at the top with the cherries is my absolute favourite!). I don’t have any plans at the moment to make more but I will be keeping an eye out for fabric. Also if you made it to the end (kudos to you) and know of anywhere that sells jersey geeky fabric then please PLEASE point me in that direction as I would love to make some Star Trek, or Walking Dead  or or or… to be honest with my list is huge so please do send me a link!

I did mention in my previous post, but please do check out AnnikaVictoria’s YourTube channel, this is where I found the tutorial to make these! She has LOADS of amazing videos and idea to get you DIY-ing! 

I really hope to do some more sewing this year, including two cosplay ideas! Fingers crossed I can be less lazy for the second half of the year ha!