Wow, it's been over a week since I last wrote.
I guess you could attribute that to a few things:
1) Spring Break!
That's right, it was a loooong Spring Break this year for the kids, with the last day of school being March 16th, and them not coming back to school until today, March 29th. Yowza!!
There wasn't the usual schedule of biking and playdates and all that good stuff.
So I didn't feel there was much to report.
Mostly because of point #2:
2) SICKNESS
I already wrote how Ella had not been feeling good in my last post.
Well, it literally lasted until the following Thursday. So yeah, pretty much a week straight.
That, along with the crappy weather, reduced our Spring Break to all indoor time, as everyone convened in the one big king bed upstairs. It reverted back to a Family Bed, like it used to be when the kids were super little. :)
Many a video game were played, and myself I holed myself up in the other room to work on our PPT panels for the convention.
I also played a LOT of piano, and finally nailed down that "Where is My Mind" piece. So that feels nice. :)
Next on my piano hit-list: Gary Jules' "Mad World"
Two songs from movies I enjoyed as a teenager -- go figure!
Speaking of reverting in age...
The big event finally happened!!!
SAKURA-CON 2016!!!!!!!
It was everything I'd hoped for and more.
I managed to get Ella's Eevee costume done in time (literally the night before), and even had to whip up William's boots while driving on up.
So yeah, I am going to share our time at the Con thru a series of photos:
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| Eevee Evolution Get-together! :D |
This was the first time I had both kids come with me to a con, and I must say it was such a delight!
They really made me have to slow down and not be too panel-/activity-focused, mostly moseying around, and just enjoying being there.
Not to mention the con-goers were just eating them up!!! :D
We were always hearing lovely compliments from people, saying how adorable the wee little Link (William) was or how cute an Eevee (Ella) we had.
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| Child Link and Adult Link |
I attribute it to how isolating this fandom can be (anime and the like is consumed in a very isolated manner, just watching the shows in the comfort of your own home, etc), and how people really open up when they are surrounded by like-minded people for once!
This Adult Link, for example, really made William feel special and also told us about the big Nintendo character cosplay meet-up happening later that Saturday.
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| A small sampling of the LoZ cosplayers there were. |
Being a pokemon, Ella-the-Eevee also took part in the Nintendo cosplay meet-up and met a fellow Eevee-sempai :D
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| Yes, that was Ella's default pose for photos. My prime 'n' proper li'l Eevee ;) |
I want to take a moment to talk about the kids' cosplay outfits if I can.
I already share with you the creation process for William's Link outfit.
Well, Ella's was equally as homemade and although I don't have as many photos to show it, I can explain it here:
- the shirt and pants came from her wardrobe, only needed to have white batting added at the top to make the fluff of the Eevee's...chest fur? Not quite sure what you'd call it.
- the armwarmers were crafted the same way William's were, with more batting at the wrists
- the ears were made of yet more of that same brown fleece, with wire running through them and looped around the headband on her head (from my collection)
- the tail was (yes, you guessed it) also made of the brown fleece sweater + white batting from that CHS Garage Sale. It's a pity I literally have ZERO photos that show off the tail, but trust me it was adorable.
Oh! And I need to show you a close-up of William's little Link boots that I made while in the front seat of the camper on the ride up:
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| So proud of how they came out!! |
When I was working on Ella's Eevee outfit, I finally started listening to the audiobook of "Everything Is Illuminated" so that was good~
Okay, so back to the con:
PANELS
As you know, we were there with free complimentary badges thanks to the fact that we were holding three hours of panel content.
The three one-hour panels we held were:
1) Breaking Into the Manga Industry
2) Lost in Translation
3) A Day in the Life of a Manga Artisan
I had to take some photos of the turnouts to our panels, because they were such great crowds and really made the panels what they were:
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| So, about two dozen attendees in the audience. Not bad~! |
The first panel room was really large, but the turnout wasn't so big. Regardless, I felt we did a really good job on it, and having dear Miss Jessica Henry and Jack-san there turned out to be a total lifesaver as William decided he had to go potty in the middle of our panel! Ha!!
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| The line outside the panel room for our second panel :D |
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| And inside! I'd say there were about 50+ people?? :D |
The second panel "Lost in Translation" dealt with the philosophies behind what makes a good translation, and the kinds of calls we have to make in dealing with manga to be localized.
Evidently it was a subject that a lot of people were interested in because there was a huge enthusiastic turn-out. Had some really opinionated folks with lots of contribute and many laughs had too :)
I felt the best about this panel, and the kids were really well taken care of too.
This lovely lady sat down next to them and kept them entertained the entire time. She was such a God-send, I swear. I hope she knows how much we appreciated her and can feel all our positive thoughts about her!!!
The last panel was on Sunday morning which is part of the reason I'm sure the attendance was so low.
Plus the room was this little tucked away place.
So only about 15 people showed up.
Oh, well. It was our most "freeform" panel out of the bunch, so I guess we got out of it what we'd put into it :D
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| Snoooooze~ |
So, yeah.
All in all, the con reminded me of the more fun side of the industry, and I felt inspired to try to be an even better translator going forth!<3 p=""><3 p="">
<3 p="">I was also very happy that we didn't have to drop a lot of money to be there.
As I'd mentioned, the badges were free for us, and Ella was only $35 total.
Then, I spent under $50 at the merchandise hall, so that was good. Phew!
Got Dash some birthday gifts there -- One Piece shitajiki and fanmade LoZ-themed playing cards.
Oh, and I scored a gift for Kathy-neechan. ;) But I won't share anything about that here...
I think that's just about everything I wanted to mention about our time at Sakura-Con 2016.
I swear there must be 100 photos of Ella and William floating out there on the world wide web because of how many people just had to take snapshots of them. If I track any down, I'll definitely show them here :D
Oh, wait!
Speaking of which, I went on a total Rick-and-Morty hunt, and took snapshots of every/any cosplayer from that series that I could.
This is the result:
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| Yaaaaay! |
I feel stronger than ever that I'd really like to make it to Kumoricon 2016 with the whole family.
And a wicked side of me wants to dress up Ella and William as Rick and Morty respectively. Highly doubt they'd ever let me, but a girl can dream! :D
A'ight, well that is all for now.
It really was the best way to cap off the Spring Break, and we all came back very inspired and jazzed in our own ways :)
My next post will talk about Dash's birthday so until then, look forward to it and Happy Sakura-Con 2016!!
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