Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo is the biggest convention in Western Canada, and you can really tell. This year was no exception. Read my full post below about my trip, friends, and over all experience!

Calgary Expo is this upcoming weekend and I only have a few days left to finish up my cosplays. Read more below to see what I have left to do and how I feel about it.

​Where to begin, Emerald City Comicon was a crazy, fast paced convention, gone in the blink of an eye. The few days I spent there were amazing and I got to meet a ton of people and experience a whole new kind of convention. Before you read my experience below, you should check out what my expectations were and how they stacked up against my thoughts on my first International convention!

​This will be my first year attending this convention, and to be honest, it's a lot of firsts for me, and I'm a little nervous! This will be a short blog today since I'm in the middle of con crunch, but I just wanted to jot down a few notes of what I expect or predict it will be like! It will be fun to come back from the con next week and compare notes.

​I try to keep my posts about conventions short, since it's a personal reflection and no one REALLY wants to know what I had for lunch on Day 2. But Edmonton Expo was so jam packed with amazing things, I just can't help it! Click read more and settle in for a long read!

I have been cosplaying for over a year now. 12 cosplays, and 11 events later, I've always had a fairly good handle on my organization and getting everything done on time. For whatever reason, I let the time slip past me and I started feeling the con crunch.

I got the amazing opportunity to be a cosplay judge at Animethon this year. Read on to find out what I thought about this experience!
Photo by Nanc Price Photography

​I went to two smaller conventions this month and both were new experiences for me! Eek! was in St. Albert, very small, and I entered the cosplay contest. Red Deer Expo was it's first year, and I was a vendor for the first time! So read a bit more about my experience at both these conventions.

Use the sign up form at the bottom of this article for a free printer-friendly checklist to prepare for any con, and read on for more tips and ideas to survive them!

This was my first year attending the Calgary Expo and it was a total blast. It is honestly a struggle to remember everything that happened in order. Luckily I'm not typing on an old school type writer, and I can re-organize where things go.

I originally had plans to go with Danielle, we were going to do a Mojo Jojo and Him cosplay from Powerpuff Girls, and I was going to make a Madame Vandersexxx cosplay too, because, Lucy Lawless.

... And then everything changed...

​This is an update of the little tiny expos I've been to so far this year that didn't quite warrant their own full post.

I had been emailing Angel back and forth for a while with inspiration ideas, shooting locations, scheduling dates etc. We met her for the shoot before the Edmonton Expo just so that we wouldn't have to get dressed up more than once, especially with a baby + glitter! Our Wonderland group consisted of Cheshire Cat, Baby Alice, and the Mad Rabbit. We met at Emily Murphy park in Edmonton and we walked around to only a couple spots and took a few photos. Everything felt too posed. The whole shoot felt a bit awkward, but we spent about 20 - 30 minutes with her before we departed.

October 11, 2015

We planned to get to the Expo Centre by noon. I would have enough time to register and get organized before the pre-judging. The boys could wander around without getting bored. So I figured waking up at 9 am would give me enough time to get ready.  I started with the body paint, which was way harder than I was expecting it to be. How hard could it be to draw on perfect little white stripes on my own body? Excruciatingly hard. I did the best I could on my own and got Riley to fill in the back and other little gaps. 

​September 25 - 27, 2015

47 days after Animethon I was getting set to pull an all-nighter with Danielle. We needed to finish her Cheshire Cat hood. The brushed yarn technique is not a practical method for busy new moms! I packed up all my craft supplies and headed over. 7 hours of constant brushing, gluing, and a giant muffin later, we needed rest. I headed home and left Danielle alone and armed with the hot glue gun.
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August 8, 2015

I was up early and over to Danielle's so she could help me get ready and restlye my wig. For how excited I was, I was actually extremely nervous for wearing my cosplay to a convention. Even after doing a makeup test earlier in the week, we still managed to run late on our way. I blame Carley and her cuteness.