2024 Year-in-Review

So. 2024. I said I wasn't really doing a cosplay year in review, because I only made one costume, but it occurred to me that I still had some things to reflect on. Buckle Up, friends!

In January of this year, after over a year of casually house-hunting, I purchased a house I had first seen on the market in September of 2023. I had passed it over at the time because it didn't fit what I thought I wanted then, but it was "A 90's build that I actually don't hate" so I still kept the listing saved. In the end, it was actually the perfect choice for me, and it's long time on the market meant I was able to get it for a good price.

But, house-buying also threw my plans for the year into a tail-spin. I was packing and readying my condo for sale, while also doing my year work preparing for SakuraCon's cosplay contest, which would happen just a few weeks after my move date. 

Working for SakuraCon was always bumpy, but this year was especially so. There were changes in management which meant a lot of feeling like, after finally making some break-throughs, we had to prove ourselves all over again. I have a LOT to say about my time working with SakuraCon, but that is an Report all it's own. But there were times this year that I genuinely questioned coming back. The cosplayers and how much they supported and appreciated us, were what kept us coming back. We felt devoted to working in their interests and maintaining a good show for them in our region.  

Immediately after SakuraCon was over, Katie and I dove head-first into probably the worst crunch of my life, making costumes and skit to enter the WCS Prelims at Anime Expo. We only have ourselves to blame for the situation we put ourselves in (I had to unpack and set up my new craft room before I could even start, and Katie had already planned a trip to Japan for several weeks, long before we decided to give this a shot) but in the end we didn't want to strangle each other, it didn't ruin our friendship, and we Finished and got on the stage. I don't regret it at all, especially since Lillet, despite the crunch, turned out to be a pretty decently made costume. I learned a lot from the process, and the skit we did, and we know that should we competed together again in the future, we will take a different approach to chosing our entry. This go around was half testing the waters, so we chose based on what costumes I had in my materials stash, since I was not eager to do another Fresh project where I had to buy Everything. Next time, we would start with the Idea first. 

If you want to know about my experience with AX/WCS Preliminaries, I did a whole report on that earlier this year, and it's available here on my blog.

After AX, and the lead up to it, I recognized that my goals for the year had to be re-oriented. Rather than trying to juggle house projects and backlogged things, I decided to take a Hiatus on making New Things until the end of the year. This was also reinforced by the fact that I was in the worst shape of my life, and I wanted to give myself some time to see if I could actually re-shape my habits (and subsequently, the effects that would have on my body) before I started to build anything new. I didn't want to build anything that was just going to end up Not Fitting before I had a chance to actually wear it. I'm happy to report that those efforts are actually having an impact in all areas, and it's shaping how I plan to approach 2025.

The first signs that things were Off with SakuraCon appeared in August, when we lost access to the cosplay email under the pretense of 'Security Suite updates' shortly after we'd sent an email asking for updates so we could begin plans for the year. In September, SakuraCon management informed Katie and I that they were going in a new direction for Leadership, and we were not going to be running their contest anymore. This was a pretty devastating blow. But again, that's a topic that is long, and deep, and for another time.

Around September, Sign-Ups went live for ALA's first year of Juried Selection for their Cosplay Contest. With SakuraCon off my plate, this suddenly opened up the option for me to attend. I had already come up with a skit idea to re-use Lillet at KumoriCon and was signed up for their cosplay contest... but decided to submit her to ALA. To my surprise and delight, I was accepted! So, I made plans to fix Lillet up, and I dropped out of KumoriCon's cosplay contest. 

I did end up going to KumoriCon for about a day and a half in November. I had a free badge from our cosplay contest win last year, so I hung around Friday evening and said hello to people who were competing, then spent Saturday hanging out w/ Katie, catching up with Malinda and Kyle (for the first time in YEARS!) and seeing as many people as I could manage. We watched the cosplay contest from the audience (another thing I haven't done without being Staff in a long time) and we were jsut so proud of all the people we knew (most of whom we had met through our work at SakuraCon). Katie stayed the night, and I skipped out on Sunday as it was my Mom's birthday.

I had so many plans for what I was going to do with this Hiatus time, but as I probably should have expected, none of them really came to full fruition.

I was going to Photograph more of my old costumes on my dress form, so I could list them for sale. So far, I haven't had the focus to photograph anything, as re-doing my bathroom ended up taking focus. I did get a few of my already-photographed costumes listed for sale on Etsy tho, and so far one has sold.

Another major project I hoped to take care of was my backlog of photos to process, and digital retrospective build-books for all of my old costume. I spent a while working on cleaning out and re-organizing my hard-drive, and I got most of my photoshoot pictures posted, but have some still left to do. I did only a couple of the build-books, and got the format all set up and started filling in info on many of them... But all of this has been sort of push to the side as Holiday prep, and ALA prep takes over. Lillet was a 'finished' costume, but I needed a new wig, have a couple small things I need to repair or fix, and I also had to build a prop for my skit and edit the audio and video for the skit as well. Repairs are still in the works, and I need to finish the Actual Build Book for her as well.

Was my Hiatus as productive as I'd hoped it would be?

No, definitely not.

Was it COMPLETELY wasted? Also no.

I have been dabbling in some things, and working on my house, and it's been a good time for me to reflect, and re-adjust my plans and be realistic about what projects to prioritize, and be critical of what I actually think I can accomplish in the coming year. As much as being forced out by SakuraCon has been a huge emotional hit, I have tried to look at the silver lining -- I just regained 5 months of my life. Yes, I dedicated MOST of my free time from about Mid-November, through Easter, doing all the things that needed doing for that show to happen. And because of that, I was often drained and brain-dead for 2-4 weeks after as well. It's why I never had any real cosplays for the con, even if I'd had the time to wear them outside of the work hours. It's also a good part of why I've made so little in the last 6 years (outside of Pandemic Lockdown Years where I took a full-on hiatus). I had half as much time as I had prior to working for SakuraCon.

Despite still technically being on a New-Build Hiatus through the next few weeks (extending it from New Years, through ALA) I've already been thinking about, planning, sourcing, and in some cases buying things for my 2025 projects. I'll be posting about THOSE later though. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe this weekend. Keep an eye out! And thanks for sticking with me through this lull in my Cosplay Making.