Mikasa Ackerman Cosplay

For some reason it's taking my brain a long time to write on Anime California so I'm just gonna postponed that for next week! Sorry >__< I swear you'll get it soon!

During Anime California, however, my friends and I had a mini photo shoot! I've never really modeled before; if anything I'm mostly behind the camera. The only photo shoot I've ever done was for AX Maid Cafe and that was more of a group one so a solo cosplay shoot was super different! Luckily, it was just my friends and I so it wasn't as intimidating. It was actually really fun and I hope to do more as my cosplay life progresses!

I was cosplaying as Mikasa Ackerman from Attack on Titan/Shigeki No Kyojin. I was obsessed with her ever since I started that series so I aggressively had the need to cosplay her! Hahaha!

Attack on Titan is basically set in a universe where the world is overtaken by these unknown giants that caused destruction and eat humans called titans. Mikasa is basically one of the best Survey Corps soldiers on there and fights against them to save whats left of humanity. She's pretty serious most of the time but she's so badass and strong! GAAHH! She's just so cool (>u<)

Even though I really loved this character, it was really hard for me to cosplay as her because our personalities and our looks are so different. Mikasa is athletic female body perfection along with being very cool and collected effortlessly and I'm just a silly little chubby bunny who has no clue what she's ever doing. It was really difficult yet kind of relieving not to smile, but regardless I think my shots came out pretty well.

(My friend, Diana, and I made our Attack On Titan costumes ourselves since we didn't trust the sizing to the ones online. She was Sasha Braus but unfortunately she couldn't make it to this convention with me D; She did most of the sewing since I don't own a machine yet but we made it all even down to making home-made Survey Corps patches!)

 Action shots were sooooo fuuuuun!!!! I really enjoyed jumping in the air and running around instead of posing because it's more fitting for characters in action packed series. Fighting stances were really fun too. I didn't realize how straining it can be until the next day when my thighs were sore from squatting and landing jumps! x___x

My friend, Caleb, was our great photographer for that day. He's usually more known for his work in dance (instagram: @calebsan) but he dabbles in other arts too. Haha. I did the editing for these shots here! Some of them are still in their original format too. The process of playing around in photoshop made me miss photography as well. Especially since I've improved a lot and learned more about graphic design I think I want to go back to practicing. This shot is particularly my favorite.

It's about a week after and I already have another cosplay project at hand. Ahhhhh~! Stay tuned! Hehe c:
Feel free to comment or give me feedback on this cosplay as well! Any input helps me get better!

Saying "No" To 2014

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!

(image from pusheen.tumblr.com)

I'm technically 9 days late but hope everyone's year is going good so far. Mine's a bit... all over the place at the moment? When is it usually not though? A very dear uncle of mine passed away recently, school started, and the post-holiday calm is starting to kick in at work. I've been anticipating to write though! I know I always say it but I really hope to write more consistently now; especially since I re-design my page's entire layout! I hope you all like it c: New Years Eve use to be one of my favorite holidays because I felt like it was a big 'ol restart button on life. You dress up fancy, stay up all night with all your loved ones, and at midnight you kiss away the memories of the past year and regain this sense of empowerment to completely change your life for the next! Well, sadly, the magic of New Years doesn't last that long. The past can't go away and the drive for change disappears shortly after. The good part is you can actually change whenever you want. So, like the many blog articles out there, what's my New Year's resolution? It may sound really odd and negative but I'm actually trying to say "no" more. Hear me out. See, I usually get a really intense need to change into my idealized version of my future self which usually translates to trying to be at every social event possible, starting a new diet, changing my appearance somehow, etc. and expect this new year to become this exciting, adventurous montage of nothing but me being skinny and partying hard while passing school and somehow always having money for anything. But by trying to accomplish everything, I get practically nothing I truly wanted accomplished and lose interest. It took me 'til this year to finally reconsider my methods. Instead of my usual carpe diem mantra and say "yes" to every opportunity in life, I'd like to try to say "no" to things that aren't necessarily needed for my happiness like going out all the time or shopping to feel better. I wanna stay home more and use my time and money productively like writing on here more or work on my home and art and actually have a constant amount in my savings. Sure, I still plan to keep in touch with my friends but I'd rather visit them at home or invite them to mine. I want to de-clutter my life of things and habits that are old and worn out because it's really the simple bare minimums of secure, content survival that make me happy. (Rule #37! Zombieland, duh!) This isn't technically a "new me" but just a new way of how I see everything and I'm actually comfortably fine with almost everything in my life. Although there's still a lot of chaos still and I'm definitely not perfect, I don't have that strong drive to drastically change myself to perfection. I know I'm growing constantly and I'm very happy with where I am and the path I'm going. I mean 2013 was a really different year for me, too. When it ended, I already felt like my life (along with myself) drastically changed because it's definitely not like before (as mentioned in previous posts). With all the struggles from last year, I've found value and acceptance in who I am and from doing that first, I already am gradually turning into the kind of person I want to be. So, I'm taking a very different approach to 2014. I'm saying "no" to the cliche change and seizing every New Years hype in order to actually make time for myself to change and save money for bigger moments to grasp. (Haha, see what I did there?) I expect a very lame, minimalist year for me and I'm pretty excited for it!