Cosplaying and new beginnings...

It's been 6 years since this blog began, and almost a year since I've posted anything. This blog started out as a way for me to share my adventures as an Air Force wife, and then to share my adventures as an Air Force wife plus new mom. I love when my TimeHop pops up with an old blog post, it's fun to reminisce over the fun times we had, and to see just how much has changed over the last 6 years. I decided after Jensen turned 1 that I needed some time off. I didn't want to blog just to blog, and I hadn't been very consistent as it was.

Shortly after my last post, Josh and I decided we wanted to go to O! Comic Con. If there is one thing I know about Comic Con, it's that half the fun is getting to dress up. I knew I wanted to try my hand at cosplaying, and it took me a couple of weeks to finally have it down to 2 choices. I was between Ms. Marvel (specifically, Carol Danvers), or Rey from Star Wars. I finally decided on Rey because I thought it would be easier to tackle (and cheaper), if I'm being completely honest, we really didn't have the budget to do a proper Ms. Marvel. 

When I told Josh that I wanted to go as Rey, I thought he'd give me the look that I've come to expect when Josh hears I want to dress in costume for something, it's the kind of look that says "must you dress up for everything?" but also has a little "well I know I'm not going to talk you out of it, so do it if you must." In reality, Josh was so supportive, he decided he wanted to get in on the action and go as Kylo Ren. 

I probably pinned at least 100 things for each of our cosplays on Pinterest. I got to work, Josh even got me a dress form to make my work easier. My goal was to make our costumes as inexpensively as I could, while still trying to make them screen accurate. I got the majority of mine done, and started work on Kylo, and once I started, I realized that I needed way more time and materials than we originally thought. At that point, we were days away from O! Comic Con, and Josh decided it would be better to do it properly and hold off this year. I felt so bad. I couldn't help feeling like, maybe if I would've split the time, we could've gotten something together for him, but Josh kindly pointed out that if we took that route, neither one of us would've had costumes. 

It was our first experience with any sort of Con and it was exciting to walk around and see all the different booths, activities, and just getting to people watch-our favorite! Several people even asked to take pictures with me (which I was not expecting, but was pretty cool). We got to one of the last booths in the main hall, and it was all Star Wars! We ended up chatting with the guys for a little while, they complimented my Rey costume, and asked if I was going to submit my costume. I had no idea what they were talking about. They explained that they are from the Rebel Legion, 501st, and Mandalorian Mercs, and that they are charity organizations that do events to raise money. They are all about screen accuracy, and they thought my take on Rey was pretty good!

BB8!!!

 I clearly need to work on my poses

These two actually got married at O! Comic Con and graciously invited Josh and I to their shindig!

Since then, I've been working on getting my Rey cosplay up to snuff, and though it's still a work in progress, I'm a lot closer than I was. Josh decided to switch to Jango Fett, which I am very grateful for, because we really had no idea how much more work it was going to be (for Kylo Ren) until we spoke to the 501st. 

Why am I sharing all of this? Two reasons:
1.) I've decided that if I'm going to try for a membership, then I want to document this process. In doing all of the research for our different cosplays, I realized that there wasn't a whole lot out there that went in-depth the way I was hoping. Sure you can scour different forums, but that is so time consuming, and every time I've attempted it, I end up reading something that has nothing to do with why I was there in the first place. I am by no means an expert when it comes to this stuff, but I'm also want to prove that you don't have to dump tons of money into cosplaying. We are a single income family, and budget is a big deal. We don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on fabric, supplies, and tools, but I don't think that's a bad thing. I really like that we have to be creative, and kind of work around a few things.
2.) A few weeks before OCC Josh and I were talking about how the one thing we really miss about military life was the involvement. If I had chosen to go as Captain Marvel, we probably would've walked right past the Star Wars booth, we would've never found out about the Mercs, the 501st, or the Rebels, and the need for involvement would probably still be on our minds. Not only are we getting the chance to participate with these organizations, it's all for charity, how cool is that?!

I know we aren't the only people that want to get into cosplaying that have to keep budget in mind, so if you happen to be reading this and want to give it a shot, do it! Let's do this together. If you aren't interested in cosplaying, but you see that I'm doing something that you know could be done simpler, please tell me. I think the great thing about cosplaying is that everyone has something to offer. I look forward to sharing this journey, who knows, maybe Josh will even pop in to say hey with his cosplay stuff! 

I don't know how often I'll be updating, but I will do my best to share sources, pictures, and videos. Guys, I can't tell you how excited I am about this, I hope you join me on this new adventure!