NärCon 2014 - Duo Performance

Hi everyone! I'm back from Närcon, that was organized in Linköping, Sweden. Because the convention lasted a total of 4 days, I decided to write about my experience in two parts. The first part is about travelling there on Thursday and our Duo Performance on stage! All photos are taken by Cidi unless otherwise told.

Travel

Our flight to Sweden was so early, that we had to travel to Southern Finland on Wednesday. I started my trip straight after work, when I took a train to Jyväskylä. From there we got on bus with Minorea and traveled to Helsinki. Because we were staying at a friend's, we had to take the train once again from Helsinki to Riihimäki. :--D

When we got there, it was already 11pm and we were super tired because both of us had tried to finish our costumes in time. But no, it wasn't enough and we had lots of sewing ahead of us. We kept working on our cosplays until 4am and managed to sleep about 1,5 hours that night...

In the morning our friend took us to the airport by car and we met there with Satu of Uruhara FC and Cidi of Exciter's Momentum. ^_^ Because our props were pretty huge pieces of wood I used an old trick - my guitar bag! It works very well for carrying big vulnerable items. I couldn't fit it in completely, so I protected the rest of my scythe with foam. To my fortune an old friend from school was working at the airport and I got my guitar bag in as special baggage. It got carried on the airplane more carefully and our props got to Sweden undamaged.

From Arlanda airport in Stockholm we took the Arlanda Express train that takes about 20 minutes to the centrum. From there we found really easily the Närcon bus and our trip to Linköping began! It took about 3 hours to get there, but the trip was nice. A person working for Närcon was with us and we played funny games and were amazed by his magic. xD

When we arrived to Närcon we met Päivi of Uruhara FC and then hurried to our hotel by a taxi. Our hotel, Elite Stora Hotellet Linköping, was about 4 kilometers away from the university area, but it was really nice! It was in the middle of the city and looked gorgeous. The rooms were high, all the room numbers were hand painted on the walls and our room was really spacious with comfy beds. The room didn't have air-conditioning, but we could open the windows and walk on the roof under our window. We could also see some pretty church towers from the window. And the breakfast... oh, it was the best breakfast I've ever had at a hotel! They had everything from blue cheese to different kinds of melons and pancakes to smoothies. <3 From the hotel we either walked or took a taxi or a bus to Närcon depending on how tired we were and how high heels we had. xD

Duo Performance - Preparation

When we arrived to NärCon, the first thing we did after getting our tickets was registering to the cosplay contest. This  happened in the cosplay workshop, a classroom with sewing machines, needles, hot-glue guns and pretty much everything you might need in making cosplay. It was both good and bad thing - our cosplays got rescued by all the stuff they had, but some people seemed to spend their whole weekend there... Finishing their costumes at the con. I hope they didn't miss the whole event because of it, I didn't see their costumes even on Sunday...

Uruhara FC putting my cosplay together while Minorea's posing for the camera.

In the middle of our last-minute sewing we had to run to the stage and do our rehearsal. It went pretty well expect that I broke my prop during it! After that we hurried back to the cosplay workshop to get our costumes on before judging. We would have never been on time for the judging if Satu and Päivi hadn't helped us. You have no idea how grateful I am for all your help! I seriously felt like crying the whole time you were helping us, and I told Minorea that I'm gonna cry the moment I get off the stage because I'm so moved about their help. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! We would have never been able to make it if you hadn't been there for us <3

"Mistress will be very pleased."

I'm so offended!

Duo Performance - Judging

(c) David Johansson

The judging went quite well in my opinion. The judges didn't really look at our cosplays. They asked us to tell something about the costume (i.e. material choices, making etc.) and what kind of things we're proud of. We told them we made our props from wood because we're going to use them for real and they need to be made from material that doesn't break from one hit.

(c) David Johansson

(c) David Johansson

I still need to do many changes to the costume because I run out of time. For example the underskirt is not even with the dress! And I need to do some slight edits to the wig too.  I was also mad at myself, because in the hurry I had forgotten my headband at the hotel. Luckily that was the only piece missing in my cosplay! Next time I'll have everything with me.. :D Other than that I'm happy with our costumes and performance! We asked the judges if we could get feed-back on our costumes and performance after the contest. They seemed rather surprised, but told us that it's possible. I'm waiting for their answer now~

Duo Performance - On Stage!

It was time for us to gather to the backstage and get ready for the performances to begin. The performance contests were the last part of the NärCon opening ceremony, so there were a lot of people following it. With just 1,5 hours of sleep I didn't really realize what was going on, so I didn't feel too nervous. First they had Solo Performances, and after that started our Duo round. I just got on stage and started to do what I was supposed to do. When Minorea got on stage I saw nothing but her and felt super good being on stage. Especially when the adrenaline started to flow and both of us looked like we're going to kill each other! xD I broke my scythe completely, it's missing about 5cm from the tip and it has a few other cracks. It was totally worth it and many people asked afterwards if we were supposed to break our weapons, because it looked cool. "Way to go girls!!" was the first comment I got after getting off the stage. Even though I forgot one knee kick and did a really sloppy kick instead I'm happy about our performance.

(c) David Johansson

And one more shot of the very same scene.. This one seemed to be popular. :D Photo (c) Emma Andersson

On the video our performance starts at about 1:16:00.

A couple of broken props and enormous amount of bruises left us very pleased with our performance - and hungry for some more. I bet you'll see more of Tentacle Girls on stage in the future. :D

NordicFuzzCon 2014

To sum up my experince at NFC'14 I can just say this: THE BEST CONVENTION EVER. The overall atmosphere and all the fantastic people made this year's NFC even better than last year's. Last year was just amazing and I didn't even think it could be better than that. The moment I arrived to the convention hotel I felt at home!

Gaikotsu Fursuits is about pissed-off creatures.Lei is my 3rd finished head while Gaikotsu is 2nd.

My journey towards Quality Hotel Winn Haninge in Stockholm started at 5am on Thursday the 27th of February. My plain departed at 11am, and it takes 3,5 hours from my home to get to the airport by train. But there I was on the train at 5am, super excited and not minding the early hour at all! It took only 40 minutes by airplane to get to Stockholm because the winds were on our side. :)
I knew that couple of Russian furs were arriving to Arlanda around the same time, but when I tried to look for their gate, I noticed it was in terminal 5 and I was at terminal 2. I would have had to take a bus to get there so I had to give up on  meeting them and headed to Stockholm C by Arlanda Express (it cost 130SEK).

I knew my amazing Swedish friends Lei and Dipped are waiting for me at the station and when I walked in I heard a loud "IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII". I knew that was Lei right away and there she was running towards me! xD We hadn't seen each other in almost a year! I think she screamed one more time when I gave her new partial fursuit! ^w^

The crazy cat lady a.k.a. Lei and her new partial made by me at the station.

From Stockholm C we took a local train to Handen where the convention hotel was. When we arrived we registered right away and got our room keys which also worked as convention badges/tickets. Then we hurried to our rooms and went to eat at the very same Chinese restaurant we ate at last year too. When we got back to the hotel Dipped's friend Tinna had arrived too and we started to wait for the opening ceremony.

The theme for this year's NFC was "Steampunk Murder Mystery" and I was happy to see many people having steampunk related clothes and accessories. I put together a complete outfit for the theme and now I'm in love with steampunk! I also loved how the convention staff had taken the theme into account: when we walked out of the opening ceremony, there was a dead body! And indeed, Waldo, was lying outside... We got a notebook with hints and solving the murder mystery began! Unfortunately I was too busy with Dealers Den and security to work on the mystery. :(

Noooooo, Waldoooo!!! Waldo was cosplayed by WolfKendo. Photo (c) Nocteumbra

So yes, I was busy with security, because I decided to volunteer for this amazing event! We had only 8 members in our security team which was not enough in my opinion, but we managed. Huge thanks to our Head of Security Clover for making our schedules work out! And special thanks for those who took more shifts when some of us wanted to join fursuit related programme. You're the best! :) It was really fun to work with all these people even though it was pretty hectic at times (on Saturday I worked 12 hours with only one short break). Luckily Clover gave us permission to have fun even while on duty!

Nocteumbra the dark dragon and me in my steampunk outfit. Sadly this is the only picture I have of the whole outfit. I must have been the most convincing security team member with my short skirt and high heels..

In the evening I hit the dance floor because a  Finnish furry, Fuffy, was DJ'ing for the first time. I was on duty, but I actually ended up dancing with my HoS so everything's alright. xD That night really killed my feet and I had to avoid wearing heels on the next day. My feet were so sore!

Some disco art by Lei, me, Max and Dipped. Photo (c) Trax.

It was amazing to start Friday with the hotel's wonderful breakfast buffet. I ate too much because I just had to try everything from bacon to smoothies and from pancakes to blueberry soup! Much love to restaurant staff <3 And also to the hotel staff, who became furries just for our convention and wore cat ears, tails and painted whiskers on their faces while working. It was really cute and I loved how they were a part of our event!

Friday was kind of exciting for me because it was my first time at Delears Den/Artists Alley in a furry convention. I wasn't very well prepared and concentrated more on taking commissions. I had my old prints and postcards with me and I have to say people didn't buy them that much either. :P But I got 19 commissions during the convention! Most of the commissions were custom pins that I offered, because I had my amazing Super Badge It -toy with me I bought from Minroea. :P

I shared my table with the talented MaxHaibane who did that lovely fluffy badge for Dipped. I made small custom pins of people's characters. :) Photo (c) Dipped

 On Friday we also took a fursuit group photo! We walked to a place near a lake and it was really fun! There were so many of us and people had no idea how to react to about 100 mascot suits walking past them. xD I really liked the place where we went, it was perfect for photoshoots!

Photo (c) The official cameraman of NFC :D

Me, Feligris and Lei. Gaikotsu and Lei fursuits are done by me!

Me and my "sister" Rimawolf walking back to the hotel from the photoshoot. We met at a furmeet in 2013, right after the first NFC. Everyone wondered why we look so alike. We decided we must be sisters! Gaikotsu fullsuit is done by me and Rima's bodysuit is also my creation. :)

Me and Lei at the photoshoot. Photo (c) Kamuniak

 After the photoshoot I didn't really have time to go and join the Fursuit Zoo, because my shift in security was about to start and the Dealer's Den was still open. So I went to shower quickly (you don't even want to know how sweaty I get in a fursuit even if it was only 0 degrees celsius outside), put on my radio and went to do my duties after having a fantastic lunch at the close-by sushi restaurant. The sushi group gathered again like last year! >:3

Sushi is always a good idea! I cut out everyone else expect Lei and me because I didn't know if they want their faces in my blog.. :'D Photo (c) Dipped

I actually missed some of the amazing programmes because I was on duty, but I went to see Fursuiters' Got Talent and it was really amazing to see how amazing talents we have in our community! Pilosus did a great job playing his trumpet while wearing a fursuit, that's quite the challenge, maybe I should try playing the guitar while wearing a fursuit? :D And I have to say I just loved the winners' date show. The gargoyle and the demon were wonderful. *worships Zuki and Lord Pazuzu*

Lei, me and Dipped at the elevator. Photo (obviously) (c) Dipped

I also joined the Banner Brawl and it was the very first time for me. So what is Banner Brawl? There are two teams of artists (female and male teams) and both of them get a big blank canvas. At first both of the teams get 2 minutes to draw a described landscape and after that each artist gets 2 minutes to draw anything from the words they hear in turns. I was really really nervous and even though I usually don't forget languages, I had a lot of problems to understand what the given words were. And I have no idea what the Swedish chef from the Muppets looks like... :( Anyway it was a lot of fun and actually it was decided to be a tie between the two teams! Our canvas was one big mess though while theirs was really well put together... Oh well! :D

I fursuited a little in the evening when my shift ended, danced and sang karaoke! I'm a horrible singer and very shy about my singing voice, but even I managed to sing because people were so amazingly supportive and friendly <3 Even though people sang their own songs at first and others just listened, in the end we all sang together and it was really fun! :D

Gaikotsu truly loved dancing in the karaoke! I was too lazy to put on my fullsuit or change my clothing in any other way, so we had a wolfie with a skirt.. xD Photos (c) Kamuniak

"Proof that furries are the nicest people, slow song on the karaoke, so that ment slow dancing, but so no one felt left out everyone danced in a group!" Picture & quote (c) Kotte, who was singing. :)

Saturday was the last full day of the convention. I had more time at the Dealer's Den and got more commissions and talked with several people. :3 I also got to know few of them quite well which was really fun. ^^ I wish I had been able to take part in Fursuit Games, but I was on my shift and (no surprise) we were not allowed to fursuit while on duty.

The whole day was mostly about talking and getting to know people better, and I really liked it. I've really liked both NFC conventions because you can start talking with ANYONE and people always answer you friendly and start talking back. I've never got to know so many new people in such a short time and I feel really good about it. I hope to keep in contact with all of them and I hope to see everyone again next year! ^w^

Amazing furries <3 Photo (c) Dipped

 In the evening I went to see Art & Charity Auction. I had offered 3 commission vouchers for the Charity lottery and now those 3 commissions are the first things to finish on my to-do list. In this convention, the 271 attendees donated 57.408 SEK to charity! All of the money goes to Djurens Ö, a wildlife rescue organisations! So no, it's not just about dressing up as animals and having fun, it's also about doing good things and bringing smiles to the faces of people. <3

One of the commission vouchers, won by Forax Silver.

After my shift ended around 1am I hurried to my room, put on my fursuit and enjoyed the last moments of NFC as Gaikotsu. I even ordered one drink while fursuiting (I don't usually drink, but I couldn't resist... the drink was named Pink Pussy after all). I was happy they had these extra long straws so it's easier to drink with a long snout. :D And one of the bartenders was really cute: he was just about to give me a yellow straw, but then he looked at my black, red & white looks and gave me a red one instead! <3

I actually got a random hug from a local girl who passed by the hotel while I was cooling down outside the hotel. She just passed me, then turned around on her heels, run back to me and gave me the tightest hug ever! It was so cute! x3 Unfortunately all of her makeup stuck to my beautiful white fur... :P

Me and my wonderful long red straw. Photo (c) Lord Pazuzu a.k.a. Godzuki

This year too I had to leave very early which was extremely sad. My plain departed at 10am and becaues it was quite far from the hotel, I had to leave at 7am. I didn't sleep the whole night because there's no use for 2 hours of sleep, so I silently backed, bid farewell to Lei and sneaked out of our room around 5am. Then I spent the last couple of hours with the few furries that were still awake. Thanks Tarquil for the nice talk when I was about to leave, it was really nice so I didn't have to leave without saying proper good-bye to anyone. :)

I was really sad to leave and actually started crying the moment I stepped out of the hotel. I couldn't stop crying until I reached the railway station.. The convention was so much fun and I really can't wait for next year, the new hotel and new theme! I'm looking forward to volunteering again and I will re-make my fursuit for the next convention too. See you soon, everyone!! :3

Desucon Frostbite R-18

Desucon Frostbite 2014 was the first R-18 convention in Finland. We had lots of fun and some things were better than usual: no high-pitched screaming of teenagers, more space to move around and no garbage on the floor and under stairways. Other than that the event was pretty much the same as earlier conventions, with the expectation that there was more boobs on display at the vendors' room. I think they were supposed to check every participants ID so they are over 18 years old, but for some reason they didn't check mine even though I was the youngest in our group. :'D Maybe the security officer thought he checked mine already because we looked alike with Minorea in our kigurumis.

A bunny airplane! ..almost. Atleast we had fun! (Minorea in pink wig and me in yellow.) Picture (c) Kyuu Eturaitti.

I think we are the laziest kind of con visitors out there. We usually have no idea what kind of programmes there are until we reach the convention, and this happened this time too... But we checked the schedule for the weekend when we got to Frostbite on Friday evening. This time either we didn't find that many programmes we wanted to see expect for cosplay contests. I have to admit I actually missed some interesting programmes because I didn't check them beforehand.. Maybe I'll learn to prepare better in the future? (I guess I have because I've already checked NFC programme and registered for some of them!)

Even Gaikotsu got wild with her poses because it was R-18 convention.

On Saturday we went to watch the cosplay contests and cheer on Päivi from UruharaFC. Having seen their shows before I was thrilled to see what she had come up with this time - and it was amazing! No surprise she won and she'll participate in Nordic Cosplay Championships in Sweden this summer. Congrats and good luck! ^w^
Unfortunately our furry meet was at the same time with the cosplay contests so I couldn't take part in it. I still met some furries, old and new asquaintances. And I also found a new furry friend at the convention's "friend hunt". Hehe, it was a fun way to meet Jummi!

We also tried a Maid Cafe at a convention for the first time with Minorea. We've been to a real maid cafe in Japan and I was glad to notice that this maid cafe was a lot like it! We shared a delicious strawberry cake which got even more delicious because we did a 'food spell' with our extremely cute and lovely maid. Thanks Alice!

"Taste - taste - better! <3"

This convention was weird for me in the sense that I had different costume for every day! On Friday we wore our lovely kigurumis with Minorea, on Saturday I wore my fursuit and on Sunday I cosplayed Soifon. I cursed both my fursuit and Soifon so much that I don't know if I want to wear them anymore.. Atleast I want to revamp Gaikotsu's head, paws and tail. But I'm pretty sure I won't have time for that before NFC so I have no choice but to wear that ugly thing.. ;__;

With and without the coat.

Hahah everything on my backside was so messed up but this picture will do... :'D

I cursed this cosplay whole Sunday because it was so ugly and stupid and badly made, but... This picture made me love this cosplay 10,000 times more! Thanks to Minorea for photographing~

I also bought a lot of stuff. Well atleast it was a lot of stuff for me because usually I buy only food during conventions. But this time.. I just found wonderful things. A black&red Hell Bunny dress with cute little bats  from Wannabe (you can see it in the Maid Cafe picture), a black&red collar from Kuroineko Clothing, and.. I bought two ribbons from Von Aidainder, they are lovely! I just  had to wear the black&red one for school the next day and I think it's my favourite accessory already... The brown one goes well with my steampunk related outfit. ^w^
(Yes I like combination of black & red, that's why Gaikotsu is black, red and white too. ;D)

Two ribbons from Von Aidainder and collar from Kuroineko.

All in all an R-18 convention was a good experience and lots of fun! I hope this format will continue in future Frostbites too. I think I didn't enjoy the con to the fullest thought because I'm SUPER excited for Nordic Fuzz Con! It's less than 2 weeks away! I can't think about anything but going there and meeting my dear Swedish cat Linnea <3

(Oh and I got a huge inspiration to make more cosplay costumes... Be prepared, for I'm going to finish Ponyta by LEVELS 2014!!)

Soifon - My First REAL Cosplay

As the title says, I'm going to tell you about my Soifon cosplay. I have always wanted to cosplay Soifon for Bleach is one of the first animes I've watched and Soifon has always been one of my favourite female characters. I wanted to cosplay her even before I started cosplay, so it was kind of an important cosplay to me in many ways... The most important thing is that this is the first cosplay I did completely without help from outside. Minorea has helped me with all of my cosplays, but this time I did everything from patterns to the final seam all by myself!

I still want to make her katana and weapon in the future, I probably know where I can start working on them (I don't have the equipment at home). ;)

I think that pictures are better at telling about my cosplay. All pictures are (c) Kyuu Eturaitti.

Needless to say, I'm VERY proud of this cosplay even though it's not perfect and I could have done it better. I was so happy that people told me "wow, that's a great cosplay" in Katsudocon and asked if they could take my picture. Someone even said that I fit the character perfectly! ;w; <3

This is actually something that made me think that I'm a cosplayer. Now my "characters to cosplay"-list has grown even longer.. So expect more cosplay projects from me in the future! xD

Katsudocon - When Nothing Worked Out

Stress has won and I left the first lesson on Monday only after the first 10 minutes of it. I was dizzy, feverish, about to throw up and my head hurt like hell. On the train back home (I go to university in a different town) I really had to fight so I wouldn't start crying. When I got home I started to watch Totoro and the movie had me crying for good 2 hours. I have to say it's amazing to organize a convention.

Katsudocon was organized on 12th-13th of October 2013 in Jyväskylä's Forum -shopping mall. I can't tell you how the event was like for our visitors, because I was organizing it together with Minorea and Pia. I'll tell you instead how we walked through hell while building this convention. I can tell you that nothing went like it should have gone... Promises weren't kept, we were late on program starting times and on the final day one security guard locked me into a seperate section of the shopping mall...

When we started to plan the con, I was sure that everything would work out better than last year. Last year I had been just a volunteer, but this year I was in with the title of organizer. I had two areas of responsibility: artists alley and the website.

When I started to build the website I didn't even remember what was the html for adding pictures on the website... I had to brush up my coding skills quite the bit so I could make the site look as instructed. The website wasn't anything great, but I hope it fulfilled its purpose. I learned a lot of new things about coding, so hopefully I can make something a lot more stylish in the future!

Organizing the artists alley went extremely well. The tables got reserved quickly and a few spots without tables were taken. Only one person cancelled their reservation and everything seemed good and functional. On the night before the convention the reality hit me in the face when we started to build the con: unlike last year, there were showcases on the aisle where we were supposed to build the artists alley. The shops didn't want the tables in front of their display windows. It was really difficult to find spots for all artists until we finally got the place organized and the artists' alley was only missing its artists.

On Saturday the reality decided to hit me with a baseball bat and kick my ass after that. "There's a door through which the janitor needs to go through. You can't be in front of this door." "You're not allowed to have a table in front of our display windows." "Some shop keeper came to tell us, that we have to move away..." WHAT?! Only yesterday we had checked that all the tables were in their right places, the shops were okay with them and everything was fine, but NO! In the middle of the convention the shops decided that no, no one can have their artists' alley spot in front of our store. As the one responsible for the artists' alley I apologize to all those artists who had to move around in the middle of the day! I'm also very sorry, that I didn't have time to come and see you more often. I had to take care of so many things during the day, that I just didn't have the time. ;__; I still hope that everyone on the artists' alley had a great convention weekend and selling your amazing artwork in a shopping mall was a great experience. Thank you, you were an important part of the con! :)

Before the convention I also got to draw the illustrations. I've never drawn chibies so I had to edit the original, extremely cute Katsuna-chan to fit my style better. I'm mostly an animal artist, and I can't draw cute girls at all! The only humans I've drawn have been men... xD But cosplay contest diplomas needed pictures of Katsuna-chan so I had no choice but to start drawing - on Wednesday, a couple of days before the con. It took the whole day to draw the rest of the illustrations because I'm so lazy and slow drawer.. My apologozies for awful illustrations, seriously. :'D

When the convention was getting closer and closer, I noticed I had promised to take care for more and more things. I was planning the evening party and Japanese haunted house, I was contacting our Guests of Honor, I was translating e-mails and agreements, I was planning and hosting programmes, I had promised to be hunted character in our programme, I was looking for panelists, I was planning our schedules and spreading out adverts. I just... was involved in everything. In the original plan I was supposed to have a Japanese calligraphy workshop, like last year, but luckily it was left out  - I wouldn't have had time to do it!

Despite myself being so busy, the organizing of the convention seemed better than last year: the shopping mall had promised us two empty business premises, one for panels and one to serve as a picnic place. We were promised real dressing rooms, and it was amazing! But SURPRISE SURPRISE, what we got is a different story. "This dressing room is used by one store." "One shop is opening here 3 days before the convention after all, you can't have it." There were so many empty promises on the shopping mall's side that we all felt like crying. They were supposed to support us, not ruin our event! We got a couple of smaller rooms to use, but they were so disappointing compared to the big rooms we were supposed to have.

Things didn't go well on other aspects either. At some point we were so frustraited, that we were ready to cancel the whole event. The original cosplay contest judges cancelled and our DJ changed his plans only one week before the convention. We had to get new people for these important tasks really quickly, and we were all very stressed out. We were already worried that we would have to cancel the evening party! Luckily DJs Tesno and D-Shark promised to save us and we could arrange the evening party! :)

My own schedule was planned a bit wrongly, so the delay on haunted house's opening can be blamed on that. I was the only one who had experience on Japanese haunted houses yet I was interpreting in a programme until the time the shopping mall closed. The haunted house got finished anyway even though we ran out of cardboard boxes and fabrics. The most disappointing thing in the haunted house (and the evening party in general) was the the fact that the security guards weren't allowed to switch off the shopping mall's lights. The haunted house wasn't dark enough, it would have been so much more scary if it had been dark! During the last year's evening party there weren't any lights in the shopping mall, so of course we assumed it would be like that this year too. Unfortunately a different security service was taking care of the shopping mall this year. :(

Even though the haunted house didn't turn ous as great as I had hoped, it was still a success. I wasn't supposed to be involved in the haunted house after building it, but I decided to make myself into a ghost and haunt there with Uruhara FC. I'm a coward myself and I get scared really easily.. I hate the fact that my friends keep spooking me, but now I know why: it's so much FUN!! It was so amusing to sneak out of the closet, get close behind people's backs and suddenly make a frightening sound. Their expressions were so funny, and it was really nice to hear that people actually were scared afterwards. xD

On Sunday I was so tired that the whole day passed by in some sort of a trance. I was hosting the cosplay date too, and I wasn't prepared for it at all. I couldn't handle my time on stage as a pouting Soifon, so I just decided to be something so I could get the job done. I'm bad at improvising and I'm not funny, but I'm not afraid of being on stage. Luckily Minorea was handling the role of Katsuna-chan in an adorable and foolish way. <3 The participants in our cosplay date were amazing and I kept snickering at their answers by myself. Thanks to all participants and volunteers, who filled in the empty slots!

During the closing ceremony my stress took over. My throat got so sore that I couldn't swallow anymore. My finger started to bleed (I have no idea why) and I dirtied my cosplay during the last 20 minutes... u__u" When we finally started to clean up after the con, I went around and collected signs to dressing rooms and some contests questions. I went to a seperate part of the shopping mall where the males' dressing room and picnic room were. When I returned to the glass doors by the end of the aisle, it was locked! While I had been behind the corned, the security guard had locked the door with a big padlock, and there was no other way back to where the other people were. I had also forgotten my cellphone, so I couldn't call for help. Luckily I got out from one street door. I had to go around the whole shopping mall to the loading bridge through where I could get back in.

It wasn't the only time the security guards failed.. If the shopping mall announces that it closes at 18, it's supposed to close at 18:00, not at 18:20!! It was awful to prepare the evening party while all kind of people walked in and out of the doors. We had no idea if they had a ticket (it was required for the evening party), because we couldn't control who got in and who didn't. On the next morning the shopping mall was supposed to open at 12, but the doors were opened at 11:45. Luckily we got our volunteers to look after each booth in case someone would steal something. The vendors weren't happy though since they were prepared to come back to the shopping mall at 12 because no one was supposed to get in before that..

I can't even remember all the horrible things that happened while organizing the convention. It must have been some miracle that all programmes were held and the convention ended without bigger disasters. And no, organizing a con wasn't just horrible. We organizers had fun too, and it was nice to hear that people actually enjoyed our event and its programme. I met old and new friends and it was amazing! It was nice how all of us supported each other and none of the organizers or the volunteers were left alone with their problems. Big thanks to our volunteers, helpers, panelists and Guests of Honor. You made this convention possible! ^w^

Next year we won't have Katsudocon anymore, but we are already planning something new. We have already asked one place if we could have our convention there. It's way better than the shopping mall and we are very excited to organize our con there! We are looking for other organizers and planning the theme of the con too. So this wasn't the last convention in Jyväskylä - we will be back in spring 2015 with something better!

You can find pictures from Katsudocon here: http://kuvat.aniki.fi/index.php?cat=118


In the next blog entry I will tell you about my COSPLAY in Katsudocon. ;)

Tracon 8

Tracon 8 was a bit of an adventure for me - it was my first anime/manga related convention in 4(?) years without Minorea. Actually I had no one to go there with, I had just planned to meet a few people during the weekend. I mostly bothered DJ whose place I was staying at, but she ditched me from time to time. MEANIE! :C

I wore my Gaikotsu fursuit for Saturday. The weather wasn't too hot so it was nice to walk around in my fullsuit. The moment I stepped outside after changing to my fursuit, a group of Thai pushed their children around me and started to take pictures. This has never happened to me so it was surprising. And even more surprising was the fact that after the pictures with childen were taken, the PARENTS came to stand next to me one by one so they could get photos with me too.. :'D

After I got rid of my fans I went to the park and found a big pack of Finnish furries. It was a lot of fun to hang out with old and new acquaintances. Some of them took pictures of me, and I'm afraid these are the only pictures from Tracon (I was stupid and forgot my camera home).

© Lutu

Gaikotsu staring at Terppa's My Little Ponies. © Lutu

 After hanging out with furries I decided to go check the artist alley. I bought beautiful prints from ShadeofShinon and Foolmoose.
Here are links to the prints I bought:
http://shadeofshinon.deviantart.com/art/Wise-398754961
http://foolmoose.deviantart.com/art/Lilium-martagon-305509925
http://foolmoose.deviantart.com/art/Convallaria-majalis-299966133
I can't wait to buy frames for them so I can put them on the wall!

The artist alley was really crowded so I got really hot in my fursuit.. I had to go change! Later I put my fursuit on as a partial for the furry meet. I was stupid and forgot to bring a long sleeved shirt. That's why my skin was visible with my handpaws. I felt so bad about it... (TT__TT)

Me and my sis Rimawolf! © frostdanger

© Frostdanger

I didn't even go to any programmes besides the World Cosplay Summit preliminaries and cosplay competition. The costumes were great, but the performances... the quality of most of them was just low. Out of 11 I only liked 3 performances, the other ones were really boring. The fact that you can make amazing coslays doesn't mean that you shouldn't put effort in the performance on the stage! The winners' performance was one of my favourites and they had lovely outfits - the right people are going to represent Finland in WCS! Best of luck to them! :)

The Tracon's own cosplay competition was simply lame. All of the contestants posed in the center of the stage for a little while and then walked away - WHAT?! They had amazing costumes, some of them even better than the ones in WCS. And they were only allowed to pose for a little while.. ? It was really boring competition to watch, especially when it continued with two more costume competitions with loud music on the background and contestants walking in and out of the stage in a steady flow.

I read some other peoples' blog entries and I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who noticed this thing: the worst thing was the audience. People kept yelling stupid and irrelevant things and most of people laughed at their 'jokes'. There was a time when the stage was dark for quite the while, but you could see the WCS contestants on the stage, ready for their performances.. They were already anxious yet they had to listen to stupid bricks yelling their 'jokes' from the audience?! Having experience from couple of smaller cosplay competitions I can't even start to imagine how awful that must have felt.. :(

Aaargh..! Time to stop ranting and head towards the end of my blog entry!

I was supposed to cosplay Soifon on Sunday, but.. I didn't have time to finish the upper part, so I decided to wear only the lower part of the cosplay, BUT... I hadn't finished the wig and people were waiting for me in the morning, so I didn't want to make them wait for any longer.. So I just fursuited. xD But I WILL cosplay Soifon in Katsudocon! See you there! :)