F.A.C.T.S. 2016!

Oh my glob, it's that time of year again!

The blog has been pretty quiet lately, but I just have to upload my F.A.C.T.S. pictures like I do every year! I had a blast, as always. The venue was organised differently this time, so that makes it hard to compare this edition with others, but overall it was great. My boyfriend and I went as a duo from Adventure Time: Finn and Lumpy Space Princess. I made the costumes with Elvi's help, who is a lot better at DIY stuff than I am. Thank you Elvi!! For the Finn costume, my boyfriend already had most of the clothes he needed. He bought a foam sword from Flying Tiger Copenhagen for just 2 euros, and his hat was made out of a second hand ski coat that we bought for 1 euro. If you want to know how to make your own awesome Finn hat, check out THIS very helpful tutorial! My costume was a little more complicated, but still very doable for a beginner. I also used a second hand ski coat (1 euro again, aw yeah) for the base of my costume, and then added tule to it. If you want to see how we made it, check out the whole process HERE! The star is made from cardboard with fabric glued to it, and the rest of the outfit (clothes, shoes, makeup, nail polish) I already had. Tadaa!

When we arrived, we got ourselves a Finn and a Jake plush, which we carried around all day. We saw a lot of cool costumes today! I always love watching other people's cosplays. There were a lot (A LOT) of Harley and Joker cosplays, and as always there were quite some Elsa's as well. It was strange to see how few Daenerys and Lord of the Rings cosplays there were, considering how popular they used to be. The only really cool Lord of the Rings cosplay we saw was a person dressed up as a very impressive Sauron, followed by the Nazgûl. Awesome. Sean Astin was there today, so I had expected to see more hobbits! We were able to see Sean Astin quite well while he was signing autographs, and he looked super nice. He was wearing an adorable hat, which made him look super British! We were also able to see Nicholas Brendon really well. Being a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, I was super excited about this! 

Some best-of moments (not in order, because I can't put these wonderful things in order):

1. Our super cute photo shoot on the (new) Millennium Falcon

Yeah, that's some true love right there.

2. Running into someone dressed as BMO, which I was really hoping for

3. Meeting up with my BFF Nele, dressed as Kida from Atlantis: The Lost Empire (holding soda for some reason) 

4. Taking a picture with Rey and Kylo Ren (who I was kind of scared of) 

5. R2 BUILDERS!! They are always so cool.

6. Getting my boyfriends foam sword checked at the weapon check #becauseitlooksdangerous

As you can see, we had a great time! We also enjoyed watching a drone race and a robot battle, which we hadn't done before. Last but not least: I bought a bear onesie which I love sooo much! I've wanted a onesie for so many years already, and now I finally have one! I was kind of frozen when we got home, so getting into this amazing fluffy suit and having some pizza was... well, you know how life can be good sometimes. Today it was great. 

Stay geeky my friends!

Jade (LSP)

D.I.Y. Lumpy Space Princess costume

Hi everyone!

It's convention time again here in Belgium, and this year I wanted to go as Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time! Since I always get a lot of help from other people's tutorials when working on a DIY project, I thought I'd share the making-of process here! Like many people, I love cosplay but I'm not a great sewer. Sewer? Ew. Is there another word for this? Sewing person? One that sews? Anyway, most people would go to an auntie of a grandmother for help. Me? I have my fairy godmother: Elvi. 

For the base of the costume, we used a second hand ski coat. I liked how 'lumpy' it already was, and found it for just 1 euro. However, any base will do. A tight dress would be perfect. 

We cut part of it off, because it was kind of long. Just your regular cutting and sewing up again process. 

After seeing some other amazing LSP cosplays and some loofah costume tutorials I decided I wanted to work with tule to make the lumps. I ordered some online, which was the cheapest option. I cut the tule in pieces, which I then folded three times so it was layered. Elvi then tied some thread around the middle of each piece, so you got ribbons. 

Then, once we had our pile of tule ribbons, I started patiently sewing each ribbon on by hand. Elvi pinned them onto the coat while I was wearing it, and tried to spread them out so that the coat would be decently covered. Afterwards, I sewed them on while we ate fries and watched some Jane the Virgin. The tule hangs really flat at first, so you have to lump it up a bit by going through it with your fingers. You can also use safety pins to keep some important pieces in place. Also, I curled some tule around the collar, so my neck would be covered in tule.

And then it was finished! It's not too hard, it's pretty cheap and it looks adorable! I also made a star, which I cut out of a cardboard pizza box. I then used some needle and thread to attach it to a hair tie, and glued some yellow fabric to it (which I got from a second hand top, also 1 euro). I put my hair up in a high bun and simply tied the hair tie around it. I applied purple eye shadow to my eyelids and cheeks and wore purple lipstick. In my ears I wore pink crown earrings, because let's face it, I'm a princess. Add some purple nail polish, purple leggings and pink shoes to that and you're done! 

My boyfriend went as Finn. Clothes-wise this was a pretty simple cosplay because he already had everything he needed. All we had to do was make a Finn hat, which we did using another 1 euro second hand ski coat. We used this tutorial, which worked perfectly! 

Darn did we look cute! If you want to read about our day at F.A.C.T.S. and see more pictures, click HERE! 

Much love,

Jade

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I had hardly slept the night before because I was so excited, had to go to classes all day and couldn't pay attention at all, and felt like I was in some kind of fantasy bubble when I finally got to the movie theatre yesterday. We got our popcorn, put our 3D glasses on, and then... silence...

BWAAAM enter John Williams' music and STAR WARS in those big yellow letters we all love. It was an amazing moment, to see something this iconic and treasured on the big screen in 3D. Seriously, I urge everyone to go see this movie in the cinema! It's worth it. It'll awaken a force inside you that will make you laugh and cry, and make you feel like your heart stopped yet at the same time it's going faster than ever. 

I would write my own review, but other reviews sum it all up so perfectly. This review from Wired is really worth reading (AFTER seeing the film, contains spoilers!!). I'll just sum up my first thoughts about the movie (spoiler-free!) by inserting quotes from the Wired review between my own:

The Force Awakens might have been the best Star Wars film ever, if it wasn't so devoted to being exactly what we want it to be.

All this is understandable. This is the Star Wars we all expected, and in many ways it is the Star Wars that is needed right now. It lays the groundwork for the many, many new films and spin-offs to come. 

This episode is a mixture of old and new, and to some people maybe a little bit too much like episode IV. But, I think it was necessary as well as exactly what the fans have been asking for. Lessons were learned from the prequel trilogy, we have finally returned to what makes Star Wars Star Wars. To me, Episode VII feels like a bridge between episode VI and VIII which was just very much needed. And let's be honest: it's not like us Star Wars fans mind seeing our favourite characters again! 

Rey, Finn and Kylo Ren are easily the best characters ever introduced in a Star Wars film, and bring a surge of energy and chemistry that even the original trilogy never had. 

Setting 'the old' aside for a moment, let's talk about 'the new'. It's good. It's better than good. The new characters are all entirely unique and very refreshing. Most of the characters are young and energetic and played by really good actors, which seems like something obvious and normal for such a big movie, but as we've seen in the prequels: it isn't. Rey and Finn have great chemistry together, BB8 is sassy and cute and Kylo Ren is an amazing villain. 

There's Kylo Ren, a villain overflowing with emotion and rage and yet more human than any Star Wars bad guys to date. 

The characters are unpolished and raw, human and imperfect, which makes them incredibly relatable. Also, I am totally in love with Maz Kanata, who is a perfect example of how CGI can be absolutely wonderful. This episode is the perfect match between old and new, alien costumes and CGI, real-life sets and greenscreens, good and evil... most of all: it's Star Wars again.

I won't write any more because I don't want to spoil it for you! Please just take my advice, get your geeky hands on tickets in a theatre near you and go watch it in it's full glory. Enjoy, and may the force be with you.

Love,

Jade

The Force Awakens: One Year To Go!

Hi!

365 days to go! In just one year, I will be sitting in the movie theater, with eyes as big and bright as the moon, gazing at a huge screen that says "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." and then when the music starts I will scream and hop and clap because it will be sooo cool! So now, the countdown really begins. So excited!! In the meantime, we'll have to keep ourselves content with the awesome teaser trailer, and hopefully we'll get more trailers soon! 

Oh also, did you guys know they announced the main character's names a couple of days ago? I really like them! See them below! 

And for those who keep saying that there is too much CGI and that BB-8 looks fake, the little robot is an actual prop, which was confirmed by Mark Hamill. And if you google around a little, you'll find out pretty quickly that they are actually using a lot of costumes and actual sets for this movie!

Alright people, counting down now. 365.

✎ Jade