Emerald City Comic-con Schedule!

Today I looked at the calendar and had a sudden panic attack: ONLY 9 DAYS UNTIL EMERALD CITY COMIC-CON HOLY CRAP. After getting fat and happy over the winter, I feel hardly prepared for con season - but here is comes steamrolling upon me, geeky jaws a'chompin'.

Am I prepared? Haha. Hardly. But everything will come together JUST IN TIME and I'll stop having panic attacks as soon as I have the badge around my neck. Until then? I need to drink a lot of tea and pet my dog a LOT to stop from a full blown anxiety episode.

This con I'm even more busy than usual - and I'm excited to share ALL OF THE THINGS with you, my darling unicorns!

COSPLAY

For this con I'm actually so busy that I don't think I will be cosplaying more than one day (I'm saving money and cosplay for Sakura-con and San Diego Comic-con!), but on Saturday I am involved in a MASSIVE X-men group. Seriously huge, like 30+ cosplayers. I'll be Jean Grey/Phoenix, so watch out for a tall, bootylicious Phoenix (in her green outfit).

EVENTS

As far as events go, I am usually a leaf in the wind (if you have any party recommendations I'd love to hear them!), but Friday evening I am throwing the Official ECCC Live Art Event for the 3rd Year. I will be hosting this AWESOME event. Come see a bunch of famous artists painting on canvases on stage while you drink and dance and watch our cosplay go-go dancers bust a move. There is NO COVER, but this event is for charity (Seattle Children's Hospital!) so we will have donation box at the entrance. We are also raffling off a piece of art and some other great comic book goodies!

Here's the Facebook event for more info. So excited to see you all there!

PANELS 

And finally: panels! This year I am on a whopping THREE FRAKKIN' PANELS, as I must be some sort of insane person (as if you guys didn't know that already). Here's my panel schedule: come see me!!

I CAN BE A GEEK AND FEMININE

Friday, March 1st, 6pm, Room 2AB

Do you love Star Wars AND the color pink? Spend equal amounts of time shopping for clothes AND comics? There's no shame in being geeky and feminine! Join panelists Bonnie Burton (author of The Star Wars Craft Book), Kristina Horner (YouTube vlogger "italktosnakes"), Molly McIsaac (geek fashion blogger and cosplayer), and Tara Theoharis (geek lifestyle blogger at Geekyhostess.com) as they celebrate the people and things that make being geeky and feminine fantastic! Men and women are welcome to participate in this lively discussion on what it means to be a geeky woman in the 21st Century.

HOW TO TALK TO GEEK GIRLS (AND OTHER SUPPOSED MYTHICAL CREATURES)

Saturday, March 2nd, 11am, Room 2AB

You see the cute geek girl at the comic shop... but you have no idea what to say to her! Let us help you with "How To Talk To Girls", the panel that is equal parts comedy and social commentary that's been sprinkled with a bit of dating advice and served from a feminine point of view. (But don't let that scare you. It's really not that frightening!) Come for the laughs... but be forewarned. You just may learn something! Presented by Molly McIsaac, Gail Simone, John Roderick, Sarah Kuhn and Forest Gibson.

ONEUPMAKEUP: MAKEUP FOR GEEKS

Saturday, March 2nd, 3pm, Room 401

The ladies of OneUpMakeup (Kristina Horner, Liz Leo, Mallory Shoemaker, Meagan Karimi-Naser, Molly McIsaac and Tara Theoharis) create makeup looks inspired by their nerdy passions and favorite fandoms. Join them as they talk makeup, answer your questions, and do some live demos. Whether you just wear makeup when cosplaying or rock it everyday, we've got a look for you! See more in the meantime at youtube.com/oneupmakeup!  

I hope to see all of you there!! And if you can't make it, make sure to obsessively peruse my twitter for my live tweets! If you see me, don't be afraid to say hello! I am very friendly and I don't bite (TOO hard).

What about you guys? What are you excited about at Emerald City Comic-con?

OneUpMakeup: Dark Phoenix

Yes, yes, still no outfit pics because I am super lame. Also rain. Also it's cold. Also... YES. ALSO YES. But I've started hitting the gym again so I'll be happy to pose again soon yayyyy. And I've been keeping myself busy with OneUpMakeup! Today's video is of ME getting makeup put on my weird face by the equally as bizarre Meagan... except she does some super rad Dark Phoenix makeup on me!




Let me know in the comments if you want to see us tackle any other looks! We release a video every Tuesday.

In other news, I'm re-vamping my sponsor section for the new year! So if you're interested in sponsoring my blog or hosting a giveaway, please contact me: right up there where it says "contact'.

Video: OneUpMakeup's Bag of Holding

Hello, unicorns! It's been a few weeks and for that I apologize. I just became way too overwhelmed with the holidays - responsibilities, traveling, end of year projects, abusing my liver... it was hard to find time to do outfit pics, and on top of that I'm feeling pretty chubby so photographing myself was not the most appealing thing in the world!

I'm going back to the gym tomorrow and will hopefully get to feeling better about myself. Time to give up the cookies and pizza and get sexy for cosplay season! I'll try to get back into the outfit pics swing, but in the meantime I'll post more beauty reviews and tutorials as I can.

Speaking of  beauty, myself and the other five lovely ladies of OneUp Makeup have made a "Bag of Holding" video about our favorite beauty products of 2012! There's some really awesome product suggestions in here and you should definitely check it out... (and watch at the very end for a cameo appearance by my dog, Sushi!)

How was everyone's holiday season?

OneUpMakeup: Black Circles Begone Makeup Tutorial

Oh hello there, unicorns! I'm a couple of days late on posting this, but since I don't have an outfit pic for you today because I had a HORRIBLE allergy attack this morning, here's the latest OneUpMakeup tutorial.

This time, Mallory did makeup on me. I am afflicted with genetically pre-determined black circles under my eyes, something I have always hated about myself. Mallory demonstrates how to easily conceal black circles under your eyes with a few simple makeup tricks. Bonus: you get to see me with no makeup! (cower in fear, it's not a pretty sight)

As always, if any of you have any suggestions for tutorials you would like to see OneUpMakeup tackle in the future, let me know!

OneUpMakeup: Zombie Makeup Tutorial!

Two posts in one day - aren't you lucky little unicorns! I'm really excited for this one - I have my first makeup tutorial up with OneUpMakeup... and in it I make Tara (The Geeky Hostess - GO TO HER BLOG RIGHT NOW!) into a brain hungry zombie!

Zombie makeup is something I completely self taught myself and a skill I have honed over the years through a lot of trial, error, and zombie walks. I am very non traditional in my zombie makeup application, as I kind of do whatever I feel like, and I use a lot of eyeshadow rather than actual stage makeup. I go all animal crazy with my fingers! Here's three different zombies I did for the Red White and Dead Zombie walk this year here in Seattle - yes, one of them is me:

As you can see, I experiment with colors even when I am doing conveyer belt zombie makeup!I find it really fun and rewarding and I love fucking up people's faces with liquid latex and toilet paper, tehe. ANYWAY, so when the ladies of OneUpMakeup suggested we do a zombie makeup tutorial, I was on that shiz like white on rice. See it below!



What about you, unicorns? Do you have experience with zombie makeup? How did you fare?

Outfit #42: Happy Election Day!

Dress: Nordstrom's // Jacket: Thrifted // Boots: Thrifted // Purse: H&M // Necklace c/o RUBY // Rings: eBay

Happy election day, unicorns! If you're in the US, make SURE to get out there and vote. This is an important one - women's issues are at the forefront of everyone's minds, and you know we'd rather go forward than elect someone who will put us 30 years in the past - right?

This dress is actually a party dress I bought YEAAARS ago for my 19th birthday party. It has giant poofy sleeves. But it's perfect to dress down with a long jacket, thus it comes out in the winter time. I also love running my hands over the shiny fabric. PET PET PET.

D&D is canceled tonight so everyone can watch election coverage, so Dan and I are going to turn on streaming news and paint a canvas I picked up at the Goodwill bins. We are just going to throw paint at it, then I'm putting vinyl letters on it to say "The Night is Dark and Full of Terrors". After it dries, it's going above the bed. I'll make sure to photograph the process for you guys.

I started the WoW trial last night, and WOW (the expression, not the game... well also the game, but one is one and one is the other. YOU KNOW WHAT I'M SAYING). It's changed SO MUCH since I "got clean" back in college - it's so intuitive and streamlined now! I'm playing a Blood Elf Warrior named Ahlmond. TANKS 4 LYFE, YO. The trial is free until 20 - then I need to decide if I want to sign up. It's a slippery slope...

If you like interesting blogs (obviously you do, you're reading mine, HAR HAR HAR), you should check out my friend Josie's blog. She's a very fascinating, intelligent woman who blogs about being a stripper and her struggle with her mother having Cancer. She has a way with words that leaves you riveted to the screen. Check it out here.

And finally, the video of Liz doing a galaxy look on me for our makeup channel, OneUpMakeup, is finally live! I promise I don't always mouth breathe that much - Mallory has cats and I am terribly allergic, so I was in the throes of a miserable allergy attack. But the look is AMAZING! I AM SPACE INCARNATE.

Outfit # 40: Life Size Ghost

Plaid Shirt: Thrifted // Skirt: Wholesale-Dress.net // Boots: Thrifted // Unicorn Necklace c/o RUBY // Unicorn ring c/o Amelia Mays // "Unicorn poop" ring c/o Deastar

This outfit is from Sunday, aka the last day of Aki-con, hence the dark circles underneath my eyes. Last night I slept from 8pm to 12am, woke up for two hours, then went back to sleep until this morning when I woke up for work. I feel like a new person - I was SO EXHAUSTED YESTERDAY. Geeks know how to party. And destroy livers.

This skirt is from my massive order from wholesale-dress.net - don't worry, haul post is coming soon. I am pretty in love with it, except when it came it had these weird short things sewn into them that I couldn't fit up my fat thighs. So I cut them out and now it's 100% sheer, but I still love it. Silly Asian wholesale websites!

I feel like as I receive more and more jewelry, it just becomes like 65% unicorn and the rest is... not as important. This necklace is pretty much incredible and came in a HUGE care package from RUBY in Capetown, Africa. They sent me about 10 different necklaces and a TON of super uguuu~ kawaii lingerie. Seriously one of the nicest packages I have ever received from a sponsor ever. I almost cried ;_;

Oh, also! Want to win free leggings? Romwe is, as usual, having one of their epic giveaways, and you can enter it here. I own a bunch of stuff from Romwe and I have never been disappointed in their products.

The joint makeup channel I'm involved in posted a new makeup tutorial today: this time, Meagan and Tara teach you how to be Honey Boo Boo. It's hilarious, and the look is surprisingly wearable for a night out.




And the most amazing news of my day: My article on creepers creepin' on me in cosplay made it onto Think Progress. I... wow. I've been getting a lot of negative feedback (AND positive, but the negative stings), so to have my issues and voice be heard on such a large platform has all but flabbergasted me.

ANNOUNCEMENT: OneUpMakeup

Oh my goodness, my unicorns. This is probably the most exciting announcement I am going to make all year.

I'm a geek. I've always been a geek and I always WILL be a geek. Along with this territory came the cliches: I used to be socially awkward, no self esteem, incapable of dressing myself with little to no knowledge of how to apply makeup. Thanks to a lot of self perseverance and a determination to prove the bullies wrong, I am where I am today. But not all girls have been as lucky as I am. There are still geeky women out there afraid to embrace their femininity and inner beauty - and there's where OneUpMakeup comes in.

OneUpMakeup is a group of six inspiring, creative, beautiful, geeky women - myself included. We have gathered together to create a makeup-centric YouTube channel that is an idea and a lifestyle just as much as it is a place to house our makeup tutorials. We aim to inspire other women to irrevocably embrace themselves - and feel good in the process.

The awesome ladies I am so lucky to be working with are as follow:

Tara Theoharis - You may remember this gorgeous, statue-esque creature from my "Geeky Fashionista" post on her a couple of weeks ago. She is a fellow blogger, domestic goddess extra-ordinaire, and one of the sweetest people I have ever met.

Mallory - She is a Disney princess embodied, a super talented makeup artist (she worked on the web series Job Hunters - which we have all been involved in in some way), and has the most infectious giggle of all time.

Kristina Horner - YouTube personality and wizard rocker, she's hilarious and inspiring. She has her own whacky brand of colorful style and is one of the most fun people to be around - ever.

Meagan Karimi-Naser: Actress and funny lady, Meagan makes me laugh so hard I can't breathe (which will certainly be reflected in our videos). She is going to be a leading indie movie star some day and we will all be able to tout that we knew her "back then".

Me. You all know me. Weird, recovering goth, cosplay obsessed, wears too much dark lipstick, ridiculously outspoken little ol' me.

And finally, Liz Leo - she is the mastermind that runs OneUpMakeup, the glue that holds us all together, the producer of Job Hunters, a talented graphic designer, loyal friend, and absolute sweetheart.

I'm so excited to be working with all these extraordinary women - they are all so strong and inspiring. I hope that you come and subscribe to us over at our YouTube channel, because I assure you - it's going to be a wild ride.