How I got into Cosplay

Ever wonder how I got into Cosplay? Well your about to find out now.

So as many of you know I really enjoy playing video games. I have loved video games for as long as I can remember and have fond memories of playing Nintendo 64 games with my brother, sisters and friends growing up. So when I went to high school where I knew very few people I was able to bond with another girl in my grade over video games and we became friends. Sadly sometime in year 9 we kind of lost contact due to her being sick and I changing friendship groups. Fast forward to the year 2011 and the year we were in our last year of school we rebecame friends.
One day she told me about this thing called AVcon, a video game and anime convention held every year in July. We both thought it sounded like lots of fun and as AVcon had already been, we decided to make plans to go next year.

In 2012 I ended up going to my first AVcon with my cousin. I had discovered that many people liked to dress up as different characters from things like video games and anime to AVcon.  This led to me going though my wabrode to see if I could find clothes that a Pokemon trainer may wear the night before I headed off. I also stuffed a Pikachu into my old school bag.

After feeling under dressed both my cousin and I decided to put effect into cosplaying at AVcon the next year. This led me to buy my first cosplay, Hope from Final Fantasy XIII off Ebay. I also brought a wig from cheap as chips and shoes from Kmart. After sorting out my cosplay I ended up decided to make a cape for a Edward Elric cosplay as I had clothes already that I could use as a second cosplay.

I ended up having lots of fun making a cape, and wearing both cosplays at AVcon. I got hooked and decided to make more and as they say, the rest is history.

AVcon wrap up 2015

Now that AVcon is over for another year, I think it's only fitting that I do a wrap up.

As I don't actually live in Adelaide I had to travel down on the Friday. I also decided to take the day off work and make good use of it by going down early and I made it to Adelaide about 10:30am. First stop was Adelaide Moulding and Casting for some Worbla I ordered than off to Rundle Mall for some shopping, think crafting and gaming supplies. Than off to the cutest cafe in Adelaide, the Hello Kitty Cafe for some lunch. The food there is really yummy, the only problem is that it almost looks too cute to eat!

After Lunch it was time to check into my hotel, unpack and get ready for the night. I went with a causal Lolita outfit. I got to the convention centre just before 4:30, got my ticket, had a tour of the new convention centre and went to the meet and greet. The meet and greet was good, they had drinks, and it was really good to be able to talk to Yaya Han. She was really good to talk to! After the meet and greet it was the opening ceremony. Than off to the pre AVcon Lolita dinner.

Every year the Adelaide Lolita community has a pre AVcon dinner on the Friday night. This year's tea was held at the Hungry Hippo Board Game Cafe. It's this really neat cafe where you can hung out, play board games and have something to eat while your at it. 

I had a early started Saturday as I didn't know how long it would take to apply the body paint. By the time I was ready it was time to head off to AVcon. I brought a few things before heading off to photos with Yaya Han. When I went to have a photo with her, she recognised me and commented on my wings. Which was super nice. Afterward I had a bit more of a look around before having a group photo taken of the Adelaide Cosplay Girls group. Than it was time to get a paint of Yaya Han signed. 

After all that happen I decided to head back to my room and get out of my costume and have a shower as my feet and back were hurting and it was lunch time. I didn't do much in the afternoon as I was worn out. I did head back to AVcon for a little bit though.

Sunday morning wasn't as early a start as Saturday, and I ended taking longer than expected to get ready. One ready I headed off to AVcon. As I had entered in to the Lolita parade I was in full Lolita. There were quite a few girls entered which was really good. I didn't place but it was lots of fun being on the stage with the other girls.

After the parade I went to a tea party hosted by Moripop. It was located in the Maid Cafe in AVcon. It was really good hunting out with the girls as a few of the girls who entred the parade also went to the tea party. We were also treated to a dance by some of the maids which was really cool. 

Afterwards I didn't really do much at AVcon as I was really tried and worn out so I went back to my hotel room to start packing and relax a little.

My Geeky Story (so far)

Hi my name is Sarah and I'm a geek. I love to play video games, reading (both novels and manga), cosplay and watching anime.

I thought I would share my background as a geek as a way to let you get to know me better.

This is my Geeky Story (so far)

I was a 90's kid, the youngest of four, and Nintendo was king. I can't remember which one we got first, but my first leap into gaming and geekdom was though the Nintendo 64 and the Nintendo Gameboy.

My siblings and myself would spend lots of time playing with each other and with friends on the 64. Our favourite games include Super Smash Bros, Mairo Kart, Snowboard Kids. We also enjoyed playing other games like Mairo 64 and Donkey Kong. Being the Pokemon fan I was, I also enjoyed Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2.
Fun fact I got Pokemon Stadium 2 as a Christmas present one year and one of the first mini games I tried to master was the one where you had to catch eggs falling from the top of the screen using Chansey. To get a prefect score you had to catch all 100 eggs and it was crazy on hard, but I think that just made playing on hard so much more fun.

Oh yes, I loved Pokemon and everything to do with Pokemon and it was all thanks to my neighbour who introduced me to it. My very first Pokemon game was Pokemon Blue on the Gameboy and since then I have been addicted to it. I used to collect so much Pokemon stuff that looking back I am surprised that my parents let me get half the stuff that I did. Most if not all of which I still have even to this day.
During high school my love for Pokemon did calm down a bit. I was still playing the games, but I wasn't going crazy about all of the other stuff like toys, videos/DVDs, the cards etc. Now its just BUY ALL THE POKEMON STUFF!!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel that I should mention books, but there isn't much to tell, other than I read a lot. One series that did make a impact though was the Ranger's Apprentice.
While most other kids who read were reading and loving the Harry Potter series, I was in love with Will and the adventures that he would go on, most of which were with Halt. I started reading Ranger's Apprentice back in about year 6 (give or take a year) and to this day it has remained my all time favorite series.
I was rather upset when I finished the last book, that I think the only reason that I didn't have a breakdown was that I was on my lunch break, and I really need to go back to work.

Eventually the PlayStation 2 came out and by that stage my oldest sister had moved out and the remaining two siblings and myself decided we wanted one. It though the PS 2 that I really started to like different games than my siblings.
My cousin who was a similar age to myself discovered Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X and introduced them to me. Both of which I really loved.
I remember trying to finish Final Fantasy X with my cousin in as short a time as possible and in order to do so we would take in turns to play so that the other could rest. We could not have been older than 12 or 13 at the time.

Small mention goes to Fire Emblem: Sacred Stone. I loved playing this game and only picked it up because I was looking for a game to take away on holidays and it was the only half interesting looking one at the shop. I ended up replaying it a few times, and want to play more of it, but for quite a while I couldn't find another Fire Emblem game. Until Radiant Drawn came out. It was good, but it wasn't great, and I wanted something more. Something only Awakening could fill.

During high school nothing made a big impact on me as the likes of Pokemon or Final Fantasy. I knew what I liked and I kept to those things and those in a similar category. That was until I became friends with a girl I was friends with at the start of high school but than drafted apart from.
We hit it off pretty well as we were both into gaming. It was during this period that she introduced me to a thing called Anime and Manga and it all went down hill from there (in a good way).
The first anime she showed me was Ouran High School Host Club and I was in love and wanted more. Now some of my favorites include Say "I love you" and Sword Art Online.

She also told me about this thing called AVcon.

After finding out about AVcon I thought it sound cool and that it was something that I wanted to go to. Which I did end up doing the next year. I had so much fun that I have been every year since (that was in 2012) and I have started cosplaying.

Its a bit hard to know about conventions and not know about cosplay. When I saw it I thought that it looked fun and that I should give it a go. My very first cosplay was Hope from Final Fantasy XIII. I call him my first even though I wore him and Edward Elric for the first time at the same convention as I brought Hope first, and Edward was a bit of a afterthought. Since than I have enjoyed making my own cosplays.

And that is my geeky story (so far). Thanks for reading!