NYCC/NYAF '10 Recap: Day 3

Wow it's been a while since I did the last update of this convention. Here's the third and last installment. Hopefully you'll all forgive me for taking my sweet time writing it up!

I started my day out sleeping in/oversleeping and then catching a cab down to the convention. I did a little bit of early morning wandering around before the convention opened and then headed down to the fashion show line to wait. I met some really nice lolitas in line and then got a really good seat at the fashion show. Unfortunately, my camera REALLY didn't want to cooperate with me during the show so my pictures aren't very good or numerous. I've long forgotten many of the designers names but I really liked the more regal fashions that there were. I want to say it was I Do Declare who was the designer. If I'm wrong please correct me! I saw a lot of pieces that reminded me of h.Naoto and other punk/goth labels. There wasn't much that I wasn't fond of. I'm posting here a few of my photos that came out that I liked.

This was my favorite piece of the show!

After the fashion show, I decided to check out Takamasa Sakurai's panel and the lolita panel he participated in afterwards. I hate to say that I found his panel to be terribly boring, but he did the panel with Kanon of An Cafe, who was quiet and reserved but fairly adorable. The panel focused more on cosplay from the headline series of anime. I'm not into cosplay like I used to be and I was really expecting the panel to be more about fashion. The other panel, which I believe was something along the lines of making lolita work for you, was a little more interesting. I have the same criticism for this panel as I had for the Day 1 lolita panel I went to. It was nice, but the panel seemed to be more geared to newcomers to the fashion, although they did have a few cute and original coord photos to show off. They also had a giveaway which was nice. I'm a big fan of giveaways at panels even if I never win anything XD.

Me with Sakurai ^ ^

After the panels and fashion show, I came back to see Eric, who in my absence, had finished the mural! There were a ton of people checking it out and the finished piece was quite lovely. Unfortunately we did not get to hang it this year which would have been awesome, but it's not always possible since the conventions don't really have the fixings for it. We've always had to improvise in years past with the equipment they could provide us last minute. Regardless, the final piece was quite awesome.

We decided to wander the floor a little bit afterwards and had a convention volunteer valiantly guard the piece. We visited a bunch of different companies but hurried back to the mural out of fear of some unfortunate event such as children running under the bars or a spilled cup of coffee. On our way back, I saw a really nice Master Chief cosplay. I've always wanted to wear a Spartan suit myself, so this one is a favorite from this convention.

Lastly, I wanted to post a few of my favorite lolita coords again. I loved meeting all of you! You all looked great!

You can't go wrong with Vampire Requiem!

Pink and red seemed to be the color of the day!

Rocking AP Fantastic Dolly in mint!

A nice display of the variety that can go into sweet lolita ^ ^

Hope you enjoyed all the recaps even though they were quite spread out. It was a great time and I can't wait till I can go to another con. Its a wonderful excuse for me to dress up and treat myself to some new goodies. You'll hear from me again real soon, I promise!

As always, check out Eric's work at Pepperink.com!

NYCC/NYAF '10 Recap: Day 2

I'm getting a little behind on these blog posts (Oh nooooo! T_T) . I think it's about time I get back on track before I forget all the fun little details that were the NYCC/NYAF.

I started the day out by heading straight to the Hangry & Angry Fashion Show before the con doors opened to wait in line, and I'm glad I did. While the show wasn't as full as it could have been, the room's layout didn't lend itself well to tons of people. I got a seat in the front row right where the models stopped for a photo-op. My camera seems to be on its way out so I'm glad I got seats there or else I may not have gotten any photos. Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed with this collection. There were a lot of really nice individual pieces, but I guess I just wasn't feeling the actual coordinates. Maybe this type of punk just isn't really my style... Either way I did get a few photos and I've picked out a couple pictures I liked best.

Shortly after the Hangry & Angry Fashion Show, I met up with a bunch of other lolitas and we had a little swap meet. While I didn't actually sell or trade any of my stuff (T_T) I did pick up a few new things. I got a couple of pairs of socks from BTSSB and Meta, some Meta jewelry ,and an offbrand blouse. I was tempted to buy a couple other things (I'm far too good at spending money -_-') Luckily for my bank account, I realized that the dress I was looking at was something I probably wouldn't actually wear... Crisis averted XD. While I don't think I got the whole group of us in the photo we did manage to get at least one group photo before the con staff headed over and shouted at us to move. I guess we were blocking some invisible entrance or something...

After the swap meet, I wandered around and did a little bit more perusing in the Dealer's hall. I ended up picking up a pair of wrist cuffs at the Kinokuniya booth since they were pretty and not overpriced like the rest of the booth. I also picked up the most adorable skirt from the Ichigo Black booth for my niece. Unfortunately, my niece was not a big fan of the skirt. She liked the skirt but didn't like that it had people in the print of the fabric -_-''' I guess you just can't win with 8 year olds... At least my nephew LOVED the Call of Duty blanket I found for him. I did okay with not spending TONS of money the first two days of the con.

I met a large panda whilst shopping!

I didn't spend a ton of time chilling with Eric on Saturday. I did get a chance to offer to get him food or a drink, but that was the extent of it. He was a lot more productive than I was, which he was really stressed about. In the end it worked out quite well. He had the YuGiOh logo just about finished before we took off to have dinner. We had dinner at this amazing Italian restaurant. I got some really tasty chicken dish that I've never heard of and no longer remember the name of (other than the word "pollo" was in it XD). I know you don't care about my dinner though, so on to the mural photos! As always, if you'd like to see more of Eric's work (and I know you do!) Visit his website at Pepperink.com

This is about where he ended on Day 2

Saturday, I wore my beloved BTSSB Pockets Embroidery. It was great to finally get to wear it in a full coord. The blouse is AP and there is some Meta jewelry. Everything else is offbrand or a replica.

photo by frozenmotion9

Bag and skirt detail. photo by frozenmotion9

Bling Bling! - Photo by frozenmotion9

On the subject of lolita, I saw a lot of awesome lolitas again on Saturday. Just like last time, I'll post up a few of my favorites. I was very pleased with the number of good lolitas I saw throughout the whole weekend. ^ ^

Me with frozenmotion9 with are netted headdresses ^ ^

Twin Irongates!

Sweet lolita in Wonder Cookie. I love the AP envelope bag ^ ^

A cute classic lolita

Lastly, I wanted to showcase a few cool cosplays I saw. I was kind of all about lolitas on Saturday and Sunday so I didn't get very many cosplay pics. I heard that there was a lot of awesome stuff out there I must have missed. Check out the pictures!

A cute Disney Alice ^ ^

This kid has a really cool mom!

These guys visited Eric twice during the weekend and stayed in character. It was hilarious XD

This was probably my favorite cosplay of the entire weekend. I really like how the flash washed her out.

Thanks for reading this portion of my recap. Day 3 will be up soon.

NYAF/NYCC '10 Recap: Day 1

Well... NYAF/NYCC is over. It was a really good time and equally exhausting! All three of my days start with getting up super early so I could catch a cab with Eric down to the convention center. I wore lolita all three days so I had to get up even earlier than I normally would so I could be ready in time. We got to the convention center around 9am but ran into a couple minor issues involving our badges, but things got fixed fairly quickly and easily. Eric ended up starting on his piece around noonish. We had to wait for electricity and all our other typical fixings to arrive which led to a bit of a late start.

Being the lolita shopping addict I am, I wandered away from Eric fairly early to scope out the dealer's room for any lolita related goodness. I was fairly disappointed. Kinokuniya had some stuff from Baby that seemed to be mostly leftovers and were a little overpriced in my opinion. I did buy a bolero coat because I had been looking for one exactly like the one they had. I was lucky/misfortunate enough to have the h.Naoto booth right by Eric's work. I was lucky because I hate having to search for booths when I like to keep visiting them and unfortunately because they had a lot of awesome stuff I really wanted to buy. I liked seeing the Hangry and Angry mascots keep walking by.

I imagine it sucked to wear them as I assume they were blind since they had to be led around while wearing them. On a non lolita note... I did buy a Squishable T-Rex. He's very bright but I need a name for him. Any ideas? Once the convention had been open to the public for a while, I did head down to the anime Artist Alley. I checked out Lolitas and Cream and bought some really cute stuff from them like a broach and a huge cupcake ring. Every year I see their booths at conventions their stuff looks better and better!

I eventually came back to check in on Eric (I am supposed to be assisting him after all) He had gotten quite a bit done on his mural, but as Eric always does, he was stressing about finishing on time. In reality, it looked great and he finished perfectly on time because it's Eric and that's what he does. Most people were really pumped about the subject of the mural being YuGiOh. I personally am not a fan but it was fun to hear all the people yelling out things and almost reliving their childhood. I think the best part was when a younger kid (probably around 8 or 9) got upset on the last day about the mural stating that it is the 10th year anniversary of YuGiOh when the copyright dates that were also in the mural said that YuGiOh was created in 1996. He was pretty pissed off and immediately went to Toonzaki to question them as to what the hell that was about. He was on a mission, but since Eric was really just recreating the art we didn't have an answer for him.

I also went to the Lolita panel on Friday. It was a little bit boring, but it was really aimed more at girls who were just starting out in lolita. I met a few other lolitas who were really nice at the panel though and they did have a giveaway. They gave away a ton of stuff and I thought that it was quite nice that a lot of newer lolitas seemed to be the ones winning the prizes (even if I didn't win anything XD)

While the panel was a little bit uneventful, I did get to see a lot of lolitas on day 1. They were all dressed quite wonderfully. I figured I would just post a few photos here of some of my favorites. If you see yourself and you'd like your username posted or a blog linked, please let me know in the comments!

Frozenmotion9 making AatP look stunning. This was my favorite coord. hands down. I would love to have that whole outfit XD

This girl had so much poof under her skirt. It was pretty amazing!


A girl from Tokyo Rebel. I loved everything about her outfit.

A really awesome mostly offbrand coord.

A really nice handmade DBZ JSK. Fantastic!

I did also run into a few nice cosplays that I took photos of. Same policy stands here though, if you'd like me to link to you please let me know in a comment!

I love seeing Utena cosplays ^ ^

A really HUGE Chewbacca!

The Queen of Hearts

A fantastic Captain America

Probably the best cosplay of the show!

All in all Day 1 was great. I met a lot of great people and had a lot of fun. I'll be posting Day 2 and 3 recaps ASAP so please keep an eye out for them. And please check out more of Eric Maruscak's work at Pepperink.com!

Pre-NYAF/NYCC Blog

I'm quite excited for the upcoming NYAF/NYCC this year. I plan on wearing lolita all 3 days of it and am looking forward to the fashion show (even though I didn't make the modeling contest T_T) and swap meet. Most of all I'm excited to be going with my friend Eric Maruscak who is going to be doing what he does best... Chalk art! I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a surprise or not so I won't talk about the piece, but I'm hoping it will be a hit just like every other year has been.

Now, I know I said I was planning on wearing lolita for all three days. I just need to decide what to wear. I've got a couple of ideas I'm throwing around, but I don't know for sure what I want to wear yet. I think I'm gonna try to wear my newer dresses that haven't gotten much love yet. I'll be sure to make a post once I know how I'm gonna coordinate them!

New York City FTW

So I am in New York City now ^ ^... And we didn't get lost in New Jersey for the second time in my life! We are staying in a Sheraton...Its kinda tiny but it works for our small group of four.... I'm currently typing from my mother's mini laptop therefore typing errors are likely to be abundant in the upcoming blogs. The ride down wasn't bad... I'm quite tired but can't seem to actually sleep... I blame my current 3a.m. lifestyle.... meh... We went to Friendly's on the way down.... See Alexis's blog for stories on that... hehe.... But yeah tomorrow at 6:30 we will be getting up and no doubt Alexis will be quite the grumpy Gary....We will be super cute in matching Alice and the Pirate sets though.... So its worth it... The con opens at like noon I think so we will have quite a bit of time to wander after we get Eric all set up... I need to locate a few booths.... the Squishables booth is a must because I need an octopus.... ^ ^ It should be a good time.... I feel like I'm just rambling now though....So this blog is officially done for the night ^ ^

I'm a high school lover, and you're my favorite flavor
Love is all, all my soul
You're my Playground Love

Yet my hands are shaking
I feel my body remains, themes no matter, I'm on fire
On the playground, love.

You're the piece of gold the flushes all my soul.
Extra time, on the ground.
You're my Playground Love.

Anytime, anyway,
You're my Playground Love