This past weekend, I went to C2E2 dressed as fem Indiana Jones. Because I was in a relatively low key costume, I ended up acting as stand-in photographer for my friend’s Geek Girl Chicago blog for Chicago Now. The photos are not up yet, but I’m excited to see them published. It was fun walking around with a fancy camera in hand recording all the costume greats at the convention. Normally I’m the one being photographed, so it was a blast being on the other side of the lens this time. I passed out cards and promoted the blog which was fun as well-- schmoozing is one of my specialties.

The highlight of the whole day was when I got to meet Anthony Kosar, the winner of Face Off. He was my favorite from the beginning of the show and I was so excited he won! When I went to his table to meet him, I told myself not to fan girl-- but I fan girled anyways. I couldn't get the word "phenomenal" no matter how hard I tried. After shaking his hand, taking a picture, and asking for creative advice, I got the feeling he was in a hurry to talk to someone else who must have lined up behind me. Politely, I exited full of smiles. We as I left, I saw a line of about 20 people, maybe waiting to meet him! Had I just cut in front of all of them unknowingly!? No one tapped me on the shoulder, no one said anything; but I felt like such a jerk! I was just so excited to meet Anthony that I must have developed tunnel vision! We run in the same circles so it's possible I'll meet him again at a party. If that's the case, I hope he doesn't remember that I was the jerk Indiana Jones who cut in line!

If you're interested, check out some photos of my costume from the con.

I went to Military History Fest this weekend and had a blast. I wore my green Victorian day dress and I was pleased to see jaws drop as I passed by. I pull of the time period well. It's cool how the form of the dress really changes the way you walk and forces you to look prim and proper. One thing that many people fail to pay attention to in fashion and reenacting alike is that the form of the dress should be the first thing you pay attention to. Then worry about everything else.

Below is a collection of photographs of me in my dress.

Keith finally finished the first batch of Poison Ivy photos. They turned out gorgeous and sexy, just how the evil seductress should be portrayed; and I had a blast collaborating with him on these. It's fascinating that some of the photos look like they were shot at night, but in fact it was in broad daylight. We were able to capture a creepy lushness in the character and the background; and I love how the tops of the plants are vibrant and green but yet the bottoms are dried and dying, that alone is a bit dark.

The picture to the right is my favorite from the bunch as it looks high fashion. There are several elements giving this photo an edginess that the others do not have. The others (posted in a slide show below) are still gorgeous as well, but not as high fashion and artsy.

I have no idea if Keith will turn any of these photos into gumprints or tintypes, but if he does, I'll be sure to post them here!

This year for Cyphan I worked as miscellaneous security and crew member to help set up for events and check badges. It was a lot of fun and I got to meet a lot of new people.

Cyphan invited Ernie Hudson, one of the Ghostbusters, as the celebrity guest. As a result, the entire convention had a Ghostbusters theme to it. About 50 cosplayers showed up in Ghostbusters uniforms, the Ecto 1 car was brought in, and the imperial ball included Ghostbuster themed games and prizes. It really was a blast, and Ernie Hudson was a very good speaker. He seemed to genuinely enjoy being there and he was a very good speaker and had a lot of good things to say during his Q and A panel. I got to shake his hand!

During my time there I also talked with several artists and writers about their work and got some tipes for myself from them. I even found a lead as far as a publishing company that might be interested in my style of writing! I also was encouraged to make some art and craft peices and start an etsy store, something I've been mulling in my head for a while and now that I have a bit more encouragement, might try out in the near future.

On Friday night, I got to watch Red Hot Annie's burlesque troop Vaudzilla perform for Cyphan. They were amazing as always. However, right in the middle of one of the main acts, right before the big reveal of twirling pasties, the lights went out. We blew a fuse! The hotel was embarrassed and gave out free drink tickets to the audience members. I am friends with a few of the performers so afterwards we chatted a bit and everyone at the party sang karaoke. Saturday night was the imperial ball and we spent half the night dancing away and celebrating my friend Jess's birthday.

During the course of the weekend I cosplayed Caprica Six from BSG, Inara from Firefly, and Astrid from Doctor Who. I didn't have any Ghostbuster themed costumes but perhaps another time...

Today I wrote a flash fiction piece called "Pineapple Genocide". It didn't take me long but it was fun to write. There's a lot written in so little words. I guess that's why I like experimenting with Flash Fiction. You may read the piece on my fiction shelf in the library.

On Tuesday I met with Ketih and Jess to do a Poison Ivy/Harley Quinn photoshoot in Sugar Grove. Even though Poison Ivy is one of the sexiest costumes I have created, I never got a good professional photoshoot as her and Keith really wanted to do something with the character so we collaborated. Jess also wanted to do some work with Keith as well and being she did Harley Quinn, it only made sense to invite her to the shoot. We had a blast.

Jess was a little weary and cranky from a long day of work prior to the shoot and the 100% weather, but once she got into costume and started posing she lightened up and Keith got some fantastic pictures of her!

Keith usually prefers to work indoors where he controls the backdrop and lighting completely, but I convinced him to so a few shots outside amongst some really creepy foliage and he really enjoyed it and the shots outside might have been the best from the day. I hope he tries to do more outdoors and in less controlled enviornments because I'm hoping to connect him with some work where flexibility with environments is a must, and I think he'll find he's extremely good at it.

It will take him a week or two to start working on the photos. If he decides to make a gumprint it will take even longer than that, but I'm extremely excited to see how they turned out. I'll post them here as I receive them!

On Saturday, members of the Stafford Society promoted TeslaCon at the Bristol Renaissance Faire during the Steampunk Invasion this past weekend.

Wearing late 1800s/early1900s Victorian outdoor outfit, I walked around talking to other Steampunk enthusiasts about steampunk and TeslaCon. People took pictures of me and complimented me left and right. Some of the comments were so flattering that I stayed in a constant state of blushing.... or was that from the beating heat of the sun? My favorite thing about the weekend was explaining curious people who had no knowledge of Steampunk what it was and why we were all there.

The Stafford Society also escorted Eric Larson/Lord Bobbins (creator and head of TeslaCon) throughout the Faire to show him different acts and talent he could recruit for the convention in December. Afterwards, I asked him if his experience that day had been one of work or play, and he admitted that it was a little bit of both.

As a result of our efforts we sold 20 more badges and estimate to sell out by the end of August. Selling out three whole months before the convention? Pretty impressive. I'm very excited for the actual event!

I had a few costume problems from the day though... well I guess just one. I left the Faire to drop something off at the car and they stamp you so you can get back in, well that blue stamp on my wrist rubbed off on my white dress and got blue right on the front! That's why I'm wearing that navy blue wrap around the middle to hide it. No one knew unless I told them that the wrap wasn't supposed to be there, but it was a bit frustrating. the ink was water-based so I believe it will come out of the skirt.

My only real regret from the weekend is that I did not get any good photos of my clothing from the day. The one above does not do it justice in the slightest. I'm going to schedule a shoot with Keith to better capture my work. Below is a group photo of all the steampunk characters at the Faire. I'm on the bottom left with my skirt all fanned out on the ground.

I met up with Keith Gerling for coffee and we discussed plans for a photoshoot with my Poison Ivy costume and also another photoshoot where I'll be his assistant as he photographs professional model Claudine. He also gave me some of his artwork!

Keith is extremely talented. Using old techniques of gumprinting and tintyping, he creates unique pieces of art that almost look like paintings rather than photographs. It's a time consuming craft that is almost extinct now; the gumprint he made of me on the left took him a whole month to complete. He has done a few other gumprints and tintypes of me in other collaborations.