It’s my favourite post of the year! The post where I get to recap Dragoncon and post all my fav pics.
So Wednesday I went into work early so I could leave early (2), which ended up not being necessary… I’d pretty much gotten everything packed Tuesday night and all I really had left was stuff like my toothbrush, medicine, etc. So I ended up just taking a nap til Ash got there at 4 to pick me up. We managed to lift my bin into her car together (WONDER WOMEN!) and then we just barely managed to tetris everything in…
I don’t know HOW we thought we’d also be able to fit Cath, too.
The fridge in particular was a tough one to work around, but in the end we were glad we brought it – my mini-fridge is bigger than the marriott room fridges and gets MUCH colder. We had no problem fitting everything in the fridges this year. (We kept food in the marriott one and drinks in mine).
Ash made a cute sticker for her car:
We met up with Cath and then caravaned to Atlanta. Got in around 1 AM, and our room ended up being on the 41st floor. That’s the highest I’ve ever been! And it honestly ended up being great, we never had much of a wait for elevators.
Although I missed being able to lean over the rails and see the crowd clearly.
Thursday we got up and headed over to get our badges.
Badge line was wrapped around the Sheraton but constantly moving so it was ok. The lanyards were cute, Stan Lee memorial.
Then we went on over to the Hyatt so Ash could do her yearly blood donation. I played a lot of Wizards Unite while waiting. I thought the Wizards Unite gameplay in downtown Atlanta would be awesome! It was not. LOL. Every inn only gave you 3 spell energy, so I was constantly running out.
Anyway, when Ash was done we went back to the room so I could get into my first costume of the con, Crait Leia!
Of course Crait Leia was “new-ish” – same underdress, new robe, and updated wig. So half new?
Also the Hilton’s Star Wars theme this year was awesome. Chase was supposed to have been building Death Star panels this past weekend (for Kevin’s room) but with his back he had to put it off LOL So I had to take this pic and show him I found some.
As soon as we walked into the Hilton though I ran into a fantastic group of SW costumers and we got some pics!
We got some ice cream and sat down to eat it and I could not cool off. My fan wasn’t helping, even the ice cream wasn’t helping. So…. since I had a tanktop and shorts on under Leia, I ended up just stripping right there outside the grand ballroom.
LOL. After a while I reassembled myself and got some great pics with Hofmann’s Luke:
And I got my pic in the TARDIS
Some thoughts on Crait Leia…
New robe is much heavier! But I do like it better. I built a pocket into it which was nice. BUT it was a bit too long… which was my fault. I hemmed it thinking I’d be wearing the same boots I wore last year, which make me just over an inch taller. But at the last second I decided to leave them home and wore flats instead. Which made me too short, which made the robe kinda buckle. So next time I wear it, back to boots.
The wig was definitely an upgrade. The first day I wore it – Thursday – I didn’t get it on quite right and it was uncomfortable. I did better Friday.
The biggest issue I had with it was that when I dyed it, it also dyed the lacefront. The lacefront was now like a dark brown and didn’t blend in with my skin no matter WHAT I did. So I ended up just having to kinda tuck the lace front in and it made the front edges look weird. Especially at the sideburns where I was really having to stretch the wig to cover my own hair. But it’s still an improvement over how it looked last year. Might try to paint the lace later.
So then I switched to Carrie Fisher and Ash and I decided to go ahead and go eat our yearly dinner at Sear early because we were super hungry and a steak sounded real good. So we got on down there and… discovered they didn’t open for dinner for another hour and a half LOL. So we wandered over to the Hyatt for a while.
New Carrie wig worked ok. I didn’t have time to do the blonde tips like the old one and of course I wasn’t about to try dyeing the whole thing a shade darker and possibly ruining it again. Also somehow this wig is bigger than the old one? Or my head shrunk. It was way too big and the cap was like buckling around my head. I’ll have to fix that for next time, take some excess out.
Also it’s funny how people don’t recognize it’s me in this costume.
Then we walked back over and had our steaks which was TOO much food and we ended up not getting the carpet cake dessert because we were stuffed.
Meme recreation
We spent the rest of the night just wandering around, went over to the Hilton for a while, enjoyed the dance party, etc. Ash’s “Glitter for Carrie” shirt was a hit!
We went to bed a bit early since Friday was going to be a long day.
Started out Friday with Jedi Leia.
Dumb thing: I sewed a little loop of some silver trim and fit it over the belt for the lightsaber’s D-ring to attach to it. And then got to the con, went to attach them and was like… how did I think I was going to put a sewn together loop of trim into a D-Ring with no openings on either? LMAO. Thankfully, the loop had enough excess to it that I was able to kinda lasso it and then hang it from the belt.
Good/Bad thing: I lost enough weight between finishing this in June and wearing it at Dcon that the belt was too big. I had to shift my snaps over which made the sides stick out funny. Which was great but also frustrating LOL.
Bad: Didn’t think about my hair extensions not matching after getting my hair re-redded the week before. My extensions were a totally different red than my actual hair, LOL.
We popped over to the Westin for the Leia shoot.
So many Leias!
And then Ash and I dipped out and went to the dealer’s room! Started at the top floor, artist’s alley
Shopped for a bit, Ash wanted to get a henna tattoo again this year, so I left her to that while I walked on back over to the hotel to start turning myself yellow, since it was going to take a bit. On my way through the lobby I ran into this tramautizing costume:
Took all my makeup off and reapplied it all yellow. Took me longer than expected since I hadn’t fully done EVERYTHING beforehand, neither of my yellow lipsticks worked out. Ended up having to use eyeshadow instead. But Ash got back to the room in time to eat and I finished getting dressed and we headed off to the Lore Olympus gathering.
Mirror pic
Yas!
I was miserably hot in my layers of vinyl and heels WAY higher than I’ve worn in years, so we headed on out as soon as soon as the main part of the shoot was over, but I ran into Al and had to stop and meet Pepe!
The walk back to the hotel was excruciating LOL. I decided walking outside would be quickest because my feet/ankles were SCREAMING in those heels. I tottered down the block and had to sit on the stairs in front of the marriott for a minute to recoop. Then as soon as I hobbled up to the elevators I took the boots off. LOL.
Then I quickly scrubbed up and reapplied my makeup again to get back into Crait for the big Star Wars shoot at the Hilton. Got my wig on MUCH better that day and also managed to stay a bit cooler somehow.
Also said “no thanks” to the black flats that day because they were threatening to rub blisters on the back of my feet and instead wore my Carrie shoes LOL
After walking around a bit and running into several friends (yay!) I decided I’d put on Crusher just for fun that night – no wig. I’d had to wash my hair after Crait Leia because not only did I get yellow Hera makeup in it, but I’d also ended up covering my entire front hairline with grey eyeshadow to help the wig blend better, so between that and sweating my hair was a mess LOL. So I washed and dried it and went as Crusher with my own hair instead of the hot wig that night.
Honestly I probably could have gone without the wig everytime because everybody knew I was Crusher. People kept yelling Beverly! or Dr Crusher! at me everytime I wore it which was funny because like… nobody yells “Leia!” or anything in other costumes.
We just kinda wandered around a bit that night, drank, ran into more friends, saw great costumes, people-watched. Then called it a night because Saturday was also a big day.
My badge ribbons. Not near as impressive as a lot of the other ones I’ve seen LOL. But I met Jinx! And I got this lovely Carrie ribbon at the Leia shoot, and… the Dark Cabal one I found on the floor. I have no idea what the dark cabal is. Hopefully I have not accidentally joined a real dark cabal.
Saturday I got up and got into Donna.
Then we went downstairs and got in line for our 10 AM Photo-op! WHOO!
YAS! We were both shaking so hard afterwards LOL. He said something to us when we walked up but neither of us remember what it was.
Then we just pretty much turned around and got back in line for our 11am photo-op.
Cath was able to get out of her directing responsibilities to come over and get in our Freema/Catherine/David photo-op! We were all really happy with how this one turned out.
Although I got scolded for not having my badge out when we went in the 2nd time. Nobody had asked to see it the first time we went in so I thought I was safe keeping it tucked in my bag, and the guy asked for my “credentials” and I thought he meant like our photo-op ticket, so I was confused. (Heard “credentials” several times that weekend. JUST SAY BADGE) The security guy behind him said all sarcastically “maybe try wearing it” after I showed it to the first guy and I just stuck it right back in my bag and walked away. Like maybe try not being a jerk.
Anyway after that it was time to finally go get into Padme!!! AHHHH
I hadn’t had it all on at once. Thankfully everything worked fine.
First things first – go take photos in front the fountain to recreate my 2002 lake dress shots.
SCREAMING
Then we walked over to the Hilton to take pics inside.
Then met up with some jedis for a Clone Wars shoot.
Then Ash was hankering for some chicken strips at the Hilton grab and go so we ran over there and then back up the room. Had a little nap and then I got into Crusher again for running around that night. This time I added the wig.
Also it was great having TWO big pockets. Although this was the night I somehow lost my room key – it was in one of those big pockets and then it wasn’t.
Went with Ash to the Hamilton sing-along which was fun but I couldn’t sing because I don’t know the songs LOL. But I enjoyed it.
Right before that I discovered I was having a wardrobe malfunction LOL… My seam right up my butt was tearing open!! Thankfully it was hidden by the jacket. After the singalong I ran back upstairs and patched it.
Also Ash wore her cute Donald look.
Then we ran around, and people-watched, and then Cath said she’d be done around 11, meet her at High Velocity? So we went and got a table at High Velocity and slowly some more of her Ops folks joined us and we had a good time and the food was way better than it has been in the past. I was jealous of Ash’s mac and cheese LOL. Although… our waiter left halfway through and after that it took forever to get anything.
Sunday I got up and got into Padme again for the Padme shoot.
SOMEHOW we had amazing weather that morning. It was not hot or humid, there was a great breeze. I told Ash I think this is the first time I’ve been at a hardy ivy shoot NOT sweating?!
Although the steps were covered in spilled gatorade which was terrifying so I kept my train wrapped around my arms most of the time.
Talking about queen stuff
Great turn out!
Managed to climb up on the columns…
Twirling!!
Padme thoughts…
overall super happy with it. Chase is working on new headband files so I’ll probably replace those eventually but not in a hurry.
The only issue I really had was that the inner sleeves weren’t quite right – I need to make newer, longer ones and fully attach them to the outer dress so they don’t want to twist.
Then I went and got back into Crusher again for the Star Trek shoot.
Honestly this was SO FUN to wear. Overall super happy with it.
I’m a little disappointed my suit ended up being too big – I think I probably already talked about it but I should have known better than to cut it to actual measurements – I always cut spandex smaller. You can really tell in the last pic above how big it is through the hips and legs. I got the upper section taken up as much as possible, I guess I need to go back and look at the lower sections. I also need to reposition the elastic of the foot straps and make it shorter.
Star Trek shoot was fun except it was miserably hot standing on the stairs in the direct sun and I was officially DONE after like 20 minutes.
We thought we’d walk over the dealer’s room but the line was so long and I was still so hot we said forget it. Went back to the room, got out of costume, took a bath and ordered room service. Then I put on comfy Ariel, which I have no pics of. We went back and suffered through the dealer’s room line – this time me in something cooler and with more comfortable shoes – and shopped a bit more.
Ash had a snip of her hair added to the world’s largest hairball at the Ripley’s booth, LOL.
Unfortunately we got some really bad news from home at this point, which I’m not going to bring up here right now; we headed on out of the dealer’s room and back to the room. We considered packing up and going on home but there wasn’t really anything we could do at home, so I got into Hera again (since I hadn’t gotten many pics of it Friday), and we went and people-watched in the Marriott for a while.
Sissy that walk
Cath actually got off work fairly early so we all went to the Hilton, got a burger from the grab and go and went and ate downstairs in the cool lower level.
Overall I was really happy with Hera. Nothing I’d change except finding some different yellow lipstick. (Sunday I just didn’t fight and went peach.) Sunday I wrapped my arches and ankles with athletic tape and it helped a LOT, I didn’t feel like I was going to roll my heels like I did all day Friday.
I really love the look of this costume.
Then it was past midnight and we had decided we’d just go on home in the morning, so we went back to the room, packed up and got in bed. We ended up watching the rebroadcast of the masquerade for a long time laughing though. (Needed it)
Ash and I got up and got on our in the morning – we were on the road by 8. Stopped at a McDonald’s for breakfast which took a HALF HOUR wtf. Listened to podcasts and talked about the podcast we want to start. Was home by 11, dropped my stuff at home and went straight over to my aunt’s house to be with family for a bit.
We’d originally planned to stay most of the day Monday and leave that night, so I’d taken Tuesday off since we were going to be getting in really late (by the original plan). I slept in, uploaded my photos, ate cake batter, built a fort in my sewing room and played FF7. And watched a lot of tiktok.
Speaking of which, phrase of the weekend: All the birds died in 1986 due to Reagan killing them and replacing them with spies that are now watching us. The birds work for the bourgeoisie.
Already thinking plans for next year. Chase wants to finally come back! YAY! I especially missed having him there this year.
Overall:
Costumes went well
Crowds were only bad a few times for us
Hilton was great
Only overheated a couple of times
Will wrap my feet for everything next year
Bring back mini-fridge
Bring swag and seek stuff for next year! Had so much fun finding things!
Make badge ribbons for next year??