Emerald City Comic Con was amazing for a lot of reasons, but a big one for me was this Gravity Falls group cosplay my housemates and I pulled off. It’s always a struggle getting those final outlying characters for the perfect group cosplay, but it’s nice when you have a few built in boys living with you that will do most things you ask with a bit of arm-twisting.

I had always thought I wanted to be Mabel if I cosplayed anyone from Gravity Falls, but when Eia had to get braces recently, it was like it had been written by the heavens. She was obviously Mabel and I am obviously Wendy. It was stupid to ever think otherwise.

Of course, the costume really doesn’t feel complete until you’ve got the whole group. For as simple as these costumes were to put together, I think they really turned out wonderfully. I think the key to simpler costumes is attention to detail – getting each piece exactly right really brings the whole thing to life. Also having a full human size Waddles doesn’t hurt.

People seemed delighted to see us walking around together, and we kept running into Grunkel Stans and other Dippers and Mabels… it was a lot of fun. Even more fun than that was setting up some of these “action shots” highlighting Dipper’s jealousy of Robbie. These were some of my favorite shots of the entire weekend.

Joe isn’t always into costumes to the extent that I am, but I can usually talk him into at least one or two a year. Last year it was Barbie and Ken (which is still one of my favorite costumes ever) and I was happy to find another fun “couple” for us to dress up as. I think he enjoyed it, as well.

Overall, I had a GREAT time. Cosplay is so much more fun with friends, especially when you’re dressing up from a show as fun as this one. And not to toot my own horn here, but how great does bright orange hair look on me? Who would have thought?

Almost all the pieces of these costumes we purchased online or at thrift stores. Joe used Heat n Bond to created the read bleeding heart on Robbie’s hoodie, Eia made the shooting star on her sweater out of felt and sewed it on, and Jenn painted spots on a pig kigurumi to make it look more like Waddles. Aside from that and a few other little tweaks, these costumes were fairly easy to put together! Again, the key is finding pieces that look the most like the ones from the show.

I’d love to see your pictures if you’ve ever made any of these costumes! Link them in the comments, or come back and show me if you decide to make this costume group in the future!

I’m 2 for 2 now  on 5 Fandom Friday! I’m on a roll. For those of you who don’t know what 5 Fandom Friday is, you can check it out here.

The topic this week is: 5 Magical Items I Would Love To Own

1. Invisibility Cloak (from Harry Potter): I’m actually sort of iffy on this one, to be honest. I KNOW I’d always run the risk of using the invisibility for bad reasons – spying, etc. You know you’d never find out anything you actually wanted to know that way. But I think that risk is worth it, because the real reason I want an invisibility cloak is to like, sneak into concerts or other events that are sold out or are extremely expensive. Though as I am typing this, I realize that picking The Doctor’s psychic papers would probably be a much simpler way of achieving this goal. Okay. I’m switching to psychic papers.

2. The Babel Fish (from Hitchhiker’s Guide): I think this one is fairly obvious. Being able to understand any language would be beyond badass. I don’t even think I need to justify this with any more explanation, I just wanna travel and this would make travel so much easier.

3. Transformation Brooch (from Sailor Moon): Okay, even if it like, didn’t actually work, you know? Even if the brooch only transformed me into a girl in a Sailor Scout costume, that’s still worth it. I JUST WANNA TRANSFORM, DAMMNIT. I wanna yell “moon prism power make up” and then I want jaws to drop because of the magical lightshow that engulfs my body. And then I want to be wearing a pretty sailor suit.

4. Everlasting Gobstopper (from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory): It’s the only candy you’d ever need. I just want one! I could create a whole review series “today it tastes like popcorn.” “today it tastes like beef stew.” “oooh oatmeal, that’s new. anyone else got to oatmeal yet?”

5. The Clow Deck (from Cardcaptor Sakura): This is sort of my catch-all final magical object, because really any power I didn’t get with my previous objects will be in here somewhere. A deck of 52 cards, each containing a different creature with a unique ability.. yes please. Flying, jumping, control of wind, etc. It’s all in there. Just don’t make me have to catch them all first.

This was a surprisingly difficult list to put together, but I had a lot of fun. In a conversation I had with Joe about this after writing it up, he pointed out that I forgot to mention a Time Turner, which I immediately regretted. But! After thinking about it a little more. I decided I didn’t want one. While time travel would be amazing, I would definitely Hermione all over that thing. I know myself, and I would only use it to get more work done, and in the end that would not be a good thing for me.

What would you pick? What would your magical items be? Let me know in a comment!

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Hello lovely blog readers! This is my reading wrap up for the month of March. I read mostly audiobooks and ebooks this month, but there are a few physical books in there. It was a busy month with cosplay construction also going on, but I still managed to read 7 different things!

Emerald City Comic Con was this past weekend, and as it was the first con I had been to since GeekGirlCon last October… I might have gone a little nuts in the Vendor Room/Artist’s Alley. But honestly, what better place to spend your money than in a GIANT room filled with HUNDREDS of amazing, nerdy creators? I can’t think of any.

I had the best time at this convention, and I can’t wait to read my new comics and hang my new art. Also, this weekend is Sakura Con — which will be similar, but will also likely have a lot of different stuff. So… depending on how much self control I can actually exercise, I might have another one of these videos coming soon. Who knows.

Okay. I’ve had 5 Fandom Friday bookmarked for months and months, and even though it’s totally right up my alley — I just haven’t done it yet. So! That ends today! Today, I am delving into this blog link-up thingy! Woo!

So this week, the topic is “5 Times I Totally Fangirled”. I am a fangirl of many, many things, but there are very few things/people that make me stammer and squee and lose my composure. Usually I can keep it together, but there have been those few moments in my life where cool-as-a-cucumber Kristina might have freaked out a little. Here are the ones I can think of:

1. Meeting “Topanga” from Boy Meets World aka Danielle Fishel at VidCon. When I got word that Danielle Fishel was just chillin’ at the con, I dropped everything and ran. Seriously. If you weren’t born in the late 80’s ish, it’s probably hard to understand just how important Boy Meets World was to our generation. It was everything. It was life. Fridays meant new episodes of Boy Meets World, and I swear to god Mom if you try to make plans for me that conflict with TGIF I will scream. It was a good time to be alive. Anyway, I started by taking some creeper selfies with Danielle Fishel in the background, but then managed to get this gem, pictured below.

2. Meeting “Shirley” from Community aka Yvette at MyDamnChannel. I was asked to be on weird little show for My Damn Channel that involved being interviewed by a mildly inappropriate cat puppet, and lo and behold… so was Yvette Nicole Brown. Nevermind the extremely bizzare parameters of the situation; I got to sit in a green room and make small talk with Shirley from Community. And it was great.

3. Meeting “Andrew and Tara” aka Tom Lenk and Amber Benson at LeakyCon. I’m just going to put it out there – after following Tom Lenk on Instagram for a few years, I can astutely deduce that he’s a weird dude. But he’s a weird dude in Buffy as well, where he’s also my favorite character. So meeting him was pretty awesome, and meeting Amber Benson was just a nice bonus.

4. Almost but not quite meeting R.L. Stine at New York Comic Con. I have no picture, because it didn’t happen. I’m still hoping to get to shake R.L. Stine’s hand someday, but that day is yet to arrive. I heard he was at New York Comic Con and I LOST MY SHIT. I realized I missed his panel, ran to his signing line, saw it was A MILE LONG and cried my way through the rest of the convention. Someday, Mr. Stine. Someday.

5. Meeting Ken Jennings at a PAX after party. Most people laugh at me when I tell them meeting Ken Jennings was a highlight of my life, but let’s get real here – this guy is awesome. My dad and I were already avid Jeopardy fans, but we were ALL ABOUT THAT IT when Ken Jennings went on his 74 game streak. I think I watched every single episode during that time. I don’t even know why; I was just fascinated by watching history being made. He’s also hilarious on social media, and a nice dude in person.

There are so many people I’d love to add to this list, but I guess I have my whole life to do that! Really I just need to meet J K Rowling. I don’t know how, or when, but it needs to happen.

Woo! If you’re interested in 5 Fandom Fridays, the official home for it is here. I hope you enjoyed this post and I am looking forward to doing more.