Visioncon was awesome, I’m going to try to write everything down before I start forgetting stuff… though I’m sure I’ll still forget something anyhow!
Thursday I got home from work and finished packing…
It was really like a Dragoncon trip. Had my Dcon bin, 7 garment bags with 2-3 things in each of them, 3 wig boxes, makeup case, our personal bags, a bin of stuff for the booth… wow.
The car was stuffed full.
Once Ash let us know she was home we went and picked her up, grabbed dinner and hit the road. I tried to embroider in the car (using a light attached to a hat) but it wasn’t terribly successful.
We got into Branson around 1:30 in the morning, our room had this awesome balcony:
I wanted to get some costume photos out there but the rest of the weekend was just too cold and windy!
The room:
Had two huge windows which was really neat.
All of my hanging costumes wouldn’t fit in the closet.
That was mostly because the entire bottom half of the closet was taken up by the room’s safe. Uuuugh, what hotel does that, put it up in the top like normal hotels.
Friday morning I got up and ironed everything that needed ironed, and then I got into Dolores and we headed downstairs.
OMG my banner!
Got the table all set up, I had some cosplay prints, some art prints, my portfolio, and Ash had some vinyl stickers she made. So we had a full table.
I brought my dressform so I could set up a costume at the booth so even if I wasn’t there, I at least had a costume there.
At 1 or so I went and did some interviews, then I headed to go change for the rest of the night – got one Dolores phone pic before I did:
I got into Donna Unicorn & Wasp, and had Belle on the dressform the rest of the day:
Opening Ceremonies was next up, and there was a little snafu and I got missed in the guest announcements. Which ended up being pretty awesome because when they caught the mistake and brought me up on stage, John Wesley Shipp (The Flash!!) took my arm and escorted me up the ramp! It was seriously one of my fav moments of the con.
Pic I stole of me from the visioncon facebook page:
Afterwards back to the table for a bit and I got my pic with a Doctor and a Van Gogh!
After the dealer’s room closed for the night, I had nothing else on my schedule so I got into regular clothes and we went and ate at the steakhouse.
It was good and the desserts were huuuuge.
Saturday!
I put Marie Antoinette on the dressform. I’d planned to wear comic-suit Leia that morning, but at the last minute got into the Tightrope Walker instead. I wanted to try to get some embroidery done at my booth, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that in comic Leia because of the gunbelt (I was afraid stuff would snag on the metal pieces.)
OH! I nearly forgot. I brought the WRONG petticoat for Tightrope Walker. I brought my floor length one! I had to safety pin it up so it worked with the TW skirt. At least I figured that out and didn’t have to switch costumes at the last minute (again).
Saturday was really busy, I saw so many awesome costumes and met so many people – I have a stack of business cards I need to go through this week so I can find peoples’ facebooks and instagrams!
Around lunch I ran up and changed into Anne for my Q&A. Hung out at the table a little bit before that. This is my fav pic of the con so far LOL
And this one too:
We were at a good spot for people watching as you can see.
Figured this was a good place to mention — I’m a shy, anxiety-ridden introvert. Getting up on a stage in front of people, talking to strangers at my table… everything like that is a huge hurdle for me, but I think I managed OK all weekend. Hopefully no one thought I was too terribly awkward….
Then time for my Q&A! I’ve never been in such a large room for a panel at a con. It was a little daunting, LOL.
The Nerd Informants moderated it and they had some really fun questions that I’ve never been asked! Some great questions from the crowd, too. I hope I did OK!!
I do not know WTF was going on with my hoopskirt though.
I’ve never had a problem with the hoops showing through this costume because it has SO many layers, and I didn’t notice it until I saw these pics. I think maybe it was due my hoops being bent out of shape by the way I had them stored the past couple of months. I’ll have to play with them at see – I was considering wearing this to MidSouthCon so I gotta get it figured out one way or another.
After that I put on the pink Georgian, with Meg on the dressform.
Firstly Meg wasn’t sitting right on the dressform. I needed to tweak the size settings so that it fit right and I didn’t, so it was bunching up through the bodice area. Oh well! I didn’t have anything else to put on it that I hadn’t already worn or shown!
Secondly I think I’ve figured out why I’m not really totally happy with the pink Georgian. I was going for the coiffure à l’enfant natural sort of 18th century hairstyle when I did this wig back in 2015, but I think the shape is totally wrong for my face and it makes my neck look really short. I think I’m going to redo it to be a bit more vertical and less horizontal and see if that helps – and pull the lower curls into a ponytail in the back. We’ll see what happens.
But I at least finally got to wear it again! I put in some quick bustle lines for the front the week before, and while they’re still not exactly what I want, it’s wearable at least.
Then we had a quick dinner (ordered pizza), I got into Belle and it was time for the costume contest!
There were soooo many entrants and so many good costumes. (I wish everyone could’ve won something!) My fav part was during the “Halftime” while the scores were tabulated, they had a huge dance party. It was the most entertaining masquerade-scoring-wait I’ve ever seen.
Finally, the mark of a good con on my nightstand LOL
Sunday!
Started the day at the booth and got to shop a little before the dealer’s room opened.
I also forgot to take my PJ pants off when I got into Marie Antoinette. LOL
At least they kinda matched.
Chase took a few more pics of me at my booth:
At noon we had to pack up the table, run upstairs, I quickly got out of Marie Antoinette and into Romana, and we got everything downstairs and loaded in the car. I wore Romana the rest of the afternoon which was so super comfy after everything else.
We hung out at the table a little longer, and before everyone started tearing down we got to go over and get a photo and an autograph from Mr Shipp.
Watching him interact with his fans all weekend was so great – he is so very kind and thoughtful to everyone who comes to his table. I was so glad to be able to get a photo with him!
Then it was time for closing ceremonies…
After that, I got into regular clothes in the public bathroom (been a looooooooong time since I’ve done that LOL), and we headed out and found some lunch then hit the road home. We got home around 9:30 that night, and Monday morning I woke up and realized there was no way I was going to work – I was completely wasted and felt awful. A day of rest was what I needed apparently because today I feel great.
Tally:
Out of the 13 costumes I brought, I managed to wear 8, and I displayed 2 more on the dressform that I didn’t get around to wearing. Comic Leia, Captain Marvel and Edith never made the cut unfortunately but I knew some wouldn’t – I actually landed about where I thought I would, so not bad!
Lastly:
As I said on facebook, I really can’t say THANK YOU enough to Visioncon staff and everyone involved – I’m always hesitant to name names because I KNOW I’ll forget somebody but I’m going to try – Flash Dixon, Charley, Adam, Daniel, thanks for all your help before, during, and after the con. And to Shawn’s Sewing Center for sponsoring me AND letting me keep my banner – that sucker is going to hang in my sewing room for now until forever. Everyone who came over to my table and said hi. And to Ash for coming along and being our booth babe, of course.
Honestly, I know I’m not the most beautiful cosplayer out there, the sexiest, the most talented or any of those things. I’m just a weird girl who has been obsessed with costumes for a long time. Thank you all for letting me have this chance to let my crazy-costume-lady flag fly. I know I may never get another chance to do something like this again; I tried to enjoy every moment, and to bring as much costume “oomph” as I could for everyone there. It was really an amazing weekend for me.
We enjoyed Visioncon so much that we are thinking next year we may come up as attendees, have half a little Branson trip and half a con trip! So thanks again everybody. Hopefully see you again next year!