Making my hairclip

This is final touch for my Lacus costume that I'll be cosplaying on UP AME - her hairclip. From the very start of doing my costume, I considered this one as the hardest part in the making of my costume. I don't want an ordinary cardboard pin for my hairpin, so I scratched the thought of using illustration board.

I thouht of buying the ones sold online on ebay, but I don't have my credit card access, my dad will kill me T___T. Then I thought of asking a metalsmith of forging it for me, but I can't find one. I tried sculpting it with clay and plaster, but its too heavy for the wig.

Until finally, I learned from http://www.cosplay.ph//forums/ Filcosplay about rubber sheets. Well, I know its not the best material for making accessories, but it won't bend like cardboard, it won't break like plaster, it's not heavy like clay, and its cheap compared to custom accessories fom a metalsmith.

But~ I'm very far from Marikina where they sell very cheap rubber sheets, so I went to HandyMan Hardware Store and bought small piece of rubber called Trimming Mat, it's a rubber sheet with adhesive on the other side. It cost me 30 bucks for that rubber. Then I went to the bookstore and bought gold acrylic paint for 70 bucks.

So I went home immediately and started shaping and cutting my hairpin. It was hard to get the shape of it, kinda like a lightning-shaped one. And then I started painting it with gold. Then attached a normal hairpin underneath so it could fit in with my hair/wig.

Then here it is, my Lacus Clyne hairclip.

My first costume: Lacus Clyne

Lacus Clyne is main female protagonist in the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam Seed and Destiny. Lacus is the daughter of the former chairman of PLANTs Siegel Clyne. She is known as the "Pink-haired princess" and the "Songtress of ZAFT". She is a pacifist who seeks peace for both Naturals and Coordinators alike. And she uses her songs to reach down into the people's hearts.


In this costume, she's wearing a kunoichi type outfit. She wore this during Destiny while inside the Eternal, this is also known as the Commander outfit. She's wearing a short black sleeveless ninja-type outfit with pink and purple linings, with a wide pink ribbon wrapped around her waist. A pair of white platform boots and a pair of fingerless gloves also comes along with his outfit, as well as her red ribbon for her hair.



Indeed, Lacus Clyne is a kind, lovable songtress of peace by day, but she's also a strong brave Commander of Terminal by night.





My otakuness has already gone to a high level. This will be my first cosplay or costrip rather for this year. Unfortunately, I can't join the cosplay at the upcoming UP AME event this coming Nov. 24 due to my class skeds. But despite of that, it won't hinder my cosplaying desires. So I'm still going as planned.

This is the costume I'll be weaing this coming Saturday, the Commander outfit of Lacus Clyne, my fave anime character.





I'll be discusing about my preparation for my costume and cosplay. Thanks to http://cosplay.ph/news.php for helping me a lot for my cosplay needs XD


First off, let's start with my wig. I bought the wih at Lynelle located at Greenhills, sister store of Mannequin Inc. Thanks to ate Syrel for her help and assistance.

Anyways, at first this wig is white. Yep, i bought a long white wavy wig. The only available pink wig at mannequin is very bright pink wig and its not long enough for me. I saw a light one that is perfect fo Lacus but its too short. So I've decided to learn how to dye a wig, and so I did. Again, thanks to lilith_lumierie at cosplay.ph for the dying tutorial.

The wig came out nice and good, and Im very happy with the result. I'll just have to style it and tie it when i wear it on the event.
The wig cost me around 2.2k, less 10% for cosplayer discount XD



Next is my outfit itself. Black sleeves kunoichi outfit with a red and purple linings and a wide pink ribbon around the waist. I forgot what kind of cloth was used in this costume, if im not mistaken its only geena, so it didn't cost me that much. It's only 350 bucks for both cloth and service of the seamstress.



The seamstress also told me, that the hardest part in making this costume is the pink linings. *giggles* Sorry for making it hard for her. XD

Then along with the outfit was a pair of gloves. I didn't use spandex in this one, coz its too expnesive and I have to cut costs T___T. I asked the seamstress to buy me a black pair and here it is. I just cut out the fingers though, I almost ruined it in the process, so I have to sew it back in to make it more stable. The glooves cost my 50 bucks.

And of course, what's a Lacus Clyne without a pink-chan?! So I got my pink haro from a forumer friend from HTVF. At last! I have a pink haro! We'll not exactly the haro i want, but this as to do.

Then here comes one of the hardest part of my costume - the boots. It's a good thing filcosplay members are there to help me find places to go for cosplay stuff. So thanks to sir eva for telling me about Ohio at Quiapo.

Me along with my other cosplay friends went on a scout for materials for cosplay, and we stopped over at quiapo for this one. Ohio and Silvermoon is the same shop, still located near Quiapo Church. It cost me around 300 bucks for this pair, 8 inches white boots made out of synthetic leather.

The only things left is my Lacus hairclip which I will be makin tomorrow. And for the red ribbon, i'll be wearing it on the event itself, when im wearing my wig XD. All in all this costume cost me around 2680php, my dying materials aren't included in that.

So this is my very first costume - Lacus Clyne, and most of it is all thanks to my friends, forum buddies, cosplay pals, cosplay.ph, Herotv and of course my Significant Other (Ultimate Coordinator).

Back to school

Back to school again, and this sem isn't really a stroll in a park for me from now on. I'm up for new subjects with greater and heavier weight adding up on my pressures. This sem, I'm taking up Research and Philippine History. I really dunno why we have to take up history but what can I do about it.

But what really worries me is my major subject fo this year, which makes up 16 units of my course, and that is Nursing Care Management (NCM) 102 aka Medical Surgical. Goodness, by the sound of it, it really is a toughie one for me.

To add things up, my sked for this sem is hindering me from my planned cosplays, and it's driving me to depression. *sigh*

If only I could take just 1 day of leave from class, just 1 day... so that i could cosplay for the vey first time. But again, I can't do that... studies comes in first and I know how important my studies and my future career is to my family.

A sad dream for the first day of the month

My first entry for the month of November.

I didn't sleep that much last night, so I spent the night talking to UC for a while. But e got sleeping right away and called in a night for both of us. I tried to go to sleep then, but it seems that sleep hasn't visited me yet.

I stayed up to watch anime and took my time to finish the 2nd CD of Azumanga Daioh. While I'm in the middle of watching, UC texted me that he'll be going oout fo a while. it was about 10pm when he texted me. I replied an "ok" and be back home soon, then continued watching my anime. The hilarious comedy tired me out, making me sleepy, it was already 11:30 pm, but UC isn't home yet . I texted him again, and he said that he wal helping out some police case or some sort. He came home 1:30 am, he talked fo a while, till we both got sleepy and tired.

2:30 am I woke up from a dream. It was no ordinary dream, coz this time I dreamt about my late Grandpa. I dreamt about wide white stoned halls inside a huge building. And in the middle of the building there was a an open space for a garden, then at the center of the garden has a small pool. At the other side of the garden were my other relatives, my aunts and uncles, grandparents, cousins. I miss them so much.

Then they started to walk away, and as of instinct, I ran after them. I ran across the garden and then the pool. The water was making my movements slow, then I reached out to them fo help, but they weren't listening, they don't seem to hear my calls. So i tried to move faster so i can catch up, but by the time i got out fo the water, they were already far far away from me.

And so I ran, I ran up to them as fast as I could. And then finally, I caught up with my grandpa (my dad's side), I was so happy, I held his hand while walking and talking in the halls. But suddenly, he stopped and he moved in front of me. He grabbed my shoulders and looked at me deep in my eyes. And then he said to me with his gentle and caring smile, that he'll be going away. He said something about retiring coz he's tired.

I really don't know what to do or say, I just held out my hands to reach up for him while he started to fade away. I don't want my grandpa to go. The intense feeling of sadness made me work up fom my dream. And the first thing I did was cry. I dunno whether to feel sad or scared, coz I just dreamt about my dead lolo.

I instantly called UC on the phone and told him about my dream. I needed someone to tell them, I was scared too you know, and I felt sad thinking about it too. UC told me, that my lolo was visiting me, telling me that he loves me. But all I did during our talk was cry and cry until I fell asleep again.

Yuki Ohna: my first vector!

May I present to everyone, Yuki Ohna, an 18 y/o Extended OMNI Pilot. She's my PC at Gundam Seed Rennaissance, an RPG forum managed by me and my hubby UC. Well the reason I posted her here, is not only because to introduce you all to her, but to finally announce that Yuki is my VERY FIRST vector art.

She is originally Tamaki from To Heart 2. I already made the Tamaki my First PC as Agni Xelhes, and made Yuki Ohna as her twin. But i gotta change her appearance to make it look good for my story.


Anyways, I know for a fact that this work of mine isn't good. And for beginners like me, I used paths instead of shapes for the outlines. It took me more then 6 hours to finish her outlines. And it took me another 6 hours to color her. I sually don't have the patience to vector, coz its too much time consuming, but thanks to GSR's RP thread of Silve, it made me push through to finish it. It's all Silve's fault! *giggles*

This one also has alot of flaws, like using paths for outlines, and a lot of spills for the colors. But still, im starting to learn more everyday by trying out new things. Who knows, maybe next time, I can finally do a much better vector art.

But for now, I really can't stop staring at my dear Yuki Ohna. ^___^ she's sooo darn kawaii! and im very proud of my very first vector art XD

My rantings about Gundam 00

I just finished watching the latest series of Gundam, which is Mobile Suit Gundam 00. It took part in a very different timeline compared from the last series of GS/GSD. It was 2307 AD, and the main protagonist is a young boy named Setsuna F. Seiei. Setsuna is part of a private military organization, called Celestial Being, formed to eradicate war with the use of four humanoid machines called Gundams. Mobile Suit Gundam 00 follows four mobile suit pilots termed Gundam Meisters (Setsuna F Seiei, Lockon Stratos, Allelujah Haptism and Tieria Erde).



Setsuna looks like a younger, crazier, more psycho version of Heero. Allelujah has a very wierd name for a pilot, and Tieria looks like a girl or Athrun who just had his hair rebonded. The four male pilots in a group clearly proves that 00 is a rip-off of Gundam Wing, which is mostly to be Yaoi. And yes, I'm saying that this 00 is a Yaoi series.



As much as I wanna support this series, it really got me down knowing that it has major flaws. I'll just site some that I already metioned from the forum Im in.



1. I do undertand that the timeline is far different than CE. So i can scratch a bit of technolgy improvements in this series. Although the cockpit of the MS looks roomy, and i like that.

2. The Gundam Emblem/mark or whatsoever looks kinda like a brand for Gundam Enterprises... no offense

3. I don't like the music that much... its not Gundam-ish if you ask me. Even if the first OP is sung by LArcEnCiel

4. Where are the pretty sparkling lights? There aren't much beams and sabers and explosions and stuff.

5. The animation is good.. i can say that... its flowings and nice. But as you can see and if you look at it closely, the pic and animation's colors looks dull. It lacks life if you ask me. It's like code geass but a lil bit of Gundam

6. The mobile suits aren't much of a problem to me. Except that I don't like Exia... it looks kinda thin, too thin to be exact. Kinda like malnourished >_<>_<

7. The characters looks like... uhmm... pardon the pun... yaoi-ish... i thought that guy with the glasses has normal hair, but he has a high ponytail... ten there's a Solomon look-a-like from Blood+. And even a Haruhi Fujioka look-a-like... not to mention Tiera... looks like Athrun na nagpa-rebond

8. I do like the pink-haired mechanic and the blue-dressed princess that acts like Lacus... plus the Chinese singer that looks like Minmei from Macross

9. And the protagonist... uhh... all i can say is that he does look and even act and talk like Heeru Yuy... nothing much special about him as i see it. (but i could be wrong since its just the first ep.) but then again, he looks too normal.

10. The pacing of the story is too slow for me... it focused that te war rather than the character... you can say it as not character-centered XD



BONUS: Haro as a targeting computer? anyways, pardon my rants... but so far my rate for this Gundam 00 is 6/10... 6.5 the most...



^^that's my review when i first watched ep 1.

ANd this next one is for ep 2.



First off, i take back of what i said about the animation being good in quality. Seeing the 2nd ep really broke my heart. The character movements were too "stiff". They are not life-like and they move like dolls or in UC's words mannequins.



The characters mouths doesn't move that right, the cheeks aren't even moving if you look at it. I know it not much of a priority to some other fans, but it really gave my previous rating of 6.5 to 6.0



ANd another thing i'd want to comment about the series, is that it lacks music. Not even a single insert song was played in it, it reduces the feeling of watching anime.



I'd say that music is an essential part of anime, and knowing that 00 doesn't have one yet... well, i'll leave the rest of the rants to myself >_<



Going back to movements of the series, now i got what UC told me on the phone. The battle is "one-sided", the gundams have more advantages of both speed and power, while the "tank-ish" enemies moves like lego blocks. Unfair naman sa kabilang side di ba? it shows that the gundams have the upper hand of the battle - always. Para bang laging strike freedom ang dating... ilang segundo lang tapos na ang laban, i thought no more godly-gundams here T___T



Oh, and about the haro... im starting to like him XD Orange-kun!!! not the one in code geass i mean... but having him in auto-pilot is kinda kewl.. and the irritating comments like "loser! loser!" to Lockon is adding quite a few cuteness-points XD



Last thing though, about the pilots. Why don't they even say their lines properley? its like their saying their launching sequence in "monotone"... do you guys get me? again, it lacks life...



oh, and that Lousie girl- did i get her name right? the girl in the first part ofthe ep, the blonde one with the haruhi-fujioka-guy-look-a-like.... im gonna watch her... she could be the next Lunamaria Hawke T___T



And lastly, enough about those, let's go to ep 3



Honestly, this ep really brings out the Yaoi-ness of the series. First off, Allelujah just wore a very tight fitting black shirt that gave emphasis to his body. Not much that I question their sense of fashion or preferance for clothes - i still think its gayish.



Plus the fact that they hang out at the mall for some drinks. It really is the first time I saw Gundam Pilots hanging out at express station or soemthing...



Then Lockon just ordered milk for Setsuna, there's no harm there, just plain old milk. But wat really got me was the thing he said, "Just looking after you kid." accompannied by a "bang" hand gesture at Setsuna. O.o



Ok, enough about the mall thing. Let's skip to the next scene, in which Tieria wore a pretty pink sweater, ok again I have no right to question their fashion statements, but it really gives off the wrong impression. Plus another thing is when he refused to celebrate with his crew and captain when he got back to their ship. He looked away from his captain and said, "I got other things to do." <---- gotta message of "sorry, im not interested in partying with girls."



Moving along, there's a new character in the seires that I don't know the name. He's a guy with blonde hair and the scene happened at the bar. He sat beside the guy and said, "Is this seat taken?" gawd! that really gave away 00's cover! it's Yaoi!



Im sorry, I really can't take it any longer. I can't even make another review in this series. So if there are any 00 fans out there that is reading this post of mine - Im sorry, but this gundam really made my hairs stand. After all the eps has been aired, i'll bet all my money on having tons of fanfics about this in the yaoi category, just like gundam wing.



ANyways, I'll end this post here, along with my apologies to 00 fans. But i gotta go and watch "real" gundam series.

HERO Cosplayers' Divi Trip!!!

Yesterday was quite a blast for me! I went out with my fellow forumers/cosplayers to scout for materials for our costumes. First off, I traveled the farthest MRT station, which is TAFT to meet up with Yuber. I was running a little late coz I was panicking a bit for my things. And as expected of MRT, there's no seat left for me. *pouts* I was left standing for almost the whole MRT trip.

When I reached TAFT, I met up with Yuber and to my surprise, Rikkaidai was there too. The more the merrier, ehehe... Anyways, we headed to Mcdo DLSU, where we are to meet up with ate jetz and namelissis. It was the first time that I saw those two ehehhe...

We ate lunch first at Mcdo, then after talking about forum and cosplay stuff we headed out to our expedition in search of materials. It was a long ride towards divisoria, it took us more or less 20 mins to reach it.

By the time we arrived at divi, it was already so crowded and busy that I dunno where to start looking. Thankfully we got Yuber and Rikkaidai for our tour guide XD

We headed first to 168, where we found lotsa bargain anime stores! Yuber was right, all the anime items sold at CA can be bought at 168 too - at 50-75% off the price! I was itching to buy the Shinku (rozen maiden) figurine for only 1.2k and the Suigintou for only 800 bucks! plus the Suzaku and Lelouch for only 600! gawd! it's anime heaven! oh yeah, they got anime DVDs too XD

And after going through 168, we headed straight to Tutuban for our main objective - WIGS!. I was quite excited about buying my wig. But when I found out that they don't have the wig I like, my heart was broken into pieces. I saw this really light shade of pink wig for my Lacus cosplay, but its not long enough. I asked it there's gonna be another shipment of supplies but its gonna take a while for it to arrive. I could ask to make a custome wig with the same color and lenght of my choice, but it'll take me 2 months to wait and cost me around 5k! That's suicide! >_<

So I finally thought of just buying a white wig and dying it to make the shade I want. But my problem is how? I do know the materials to be used, but im not quite sure of how the procedure works. Thankfully, I found a tutorial at some cosplay forum and now my problem is solve - hopefully.

Then after that ate jetz bid her farewell and went back to school for her class. But we still have to pursue the rest of our hunt, and that is BOOTS! So we've decided to go to Quiapo - the best place to look for shoemakers and stores.

But before that, we went out to look for fabrics for Yuber and found a hidden shop full of all kinds of fabrics and leathers. I guess the best place for the right material os always out of sight.

And finally we went to Quiapo to look for shops for customized boots. Thankfully, it wasn't that hard to look for it. And in that store, it only cost me 300 bucks for my white Lacus boots! what a bargain! XD

We were about to head and go home, but we had the urge of going to SM Manila just for fun. And also to look at some wigs at the department stores. We found some decent ones, but I'm still thinking of buying the one at divi. And after a short rest and food at Mcdo (again). We took a picture of our moment of eating XD


The only proof of our divi trip. Too bad ate jetz wasn't there by that time. But there are other times to make it up for it ^___^

All in all, it was very tiring yet very fun and exciting too! Thanks for the wonderful day guys!