It took me a full week after getting back from Chicago to even post this. This is less of a crafting post and more of a "What Happened at C2E2 post." Because wow did a lot happen at C2E2 and I'm still trying to process it all!

What happened at C2E2:

• I presented my Reduce, Reuse, ReCosplay panel

• I handed out stickers I made

• Went to two Critical Role meet-ups

• Watched the Crown Championship of Cosplay

• Bought a light saber

• I hung out with and met a lot of really cool people/Went shopping with really cool people.

Reduce, Reuse, ReCosplay:

 I have been running and revising this panel for a few years now. It's one of my favorites because I get to really nerd out about cosplay and sustainability. I take a rather… anti-capitalist approach to environmentalism.

However, this was the first time I presented this panel at a convention of this size! I spent a few days before C2E2 updating my slides and making the information a little bit more organized. I would like to keep refining it, because I think my message could still be a little more clear. But even as it currently stands, I got excellent feedback about how it went, and I had the most audience participation I've ever had! I think it helps that it was probably my biggest audience for this panel yet. At the end of the panel I opened it up to the audience to talk about their resources and techniques they have found to be helpful. This crowd was SO enthusiastic about sharing their tips and resources. I especially loved how the local Chicago cosplayers invited other locals to their favorite secondhand craft stores.

 At the end of the panel I handed out my Reduce, Reuse, ReCosplay stickers. I think they were a hit because a lot of people came up to grab one.

Handing out Stickers:

This leads me to my next point. I decided to make stickers rather than business cards this year, and it was a lot easier to hand them out. Of course on my first attempt to do so, the person gave the sticker back to me T_T After I licked my wounded pride, I did manage to have some good experiences handing them out to folks who were much more interested in having the sticker. It also led to a lot of trinket and sticker trading, which was very fun. Made the magpie brain happy.

Critical Role Meet-Ups:

I love going to these. Even though I am hopelessly behind on the show, the cosplay CR community is still really something special. This was my 3rd meet-up run by asheneyed and they do such an excellent job of making everyone there feel seen and appreciated. They make sure the venue is large enough to accommodate all of the critters, they work with the photographer so everyone's face and at least a part of their costumes are seen in the big group shots, and they're just so darned nice about it all! I had a great time yet again, and got to connect with folks I had seen at past meet-ups AND meet a bunch of really awesome new people!

I'll have to make sure I have critter-specific trinkets to trade for the next critter meet-up I go to.

Watched the Crown Championship of Cosplay:

This event is so darn cool. The Crown Championship of Cosplay is an international cosplay crafting competition. Cosplayers compete at different regional conventions, and then the regional winners compete to represent their country in Chicago. In talking with experienced competitive cosplay friends, this event pushes the boundaries of what can be done in cosplay in a way that no other event does. Every single entry, from regionals all the way to the internationals, are all high level cosplay builds.

Last year I got to experience it from back stage as a handler for my friend who was competing in the regional qualifiers, which was absolutely incredible. Getting to see all the ridiculously well-crafted cosplays up close has no comparison, but it's also exhausting and hours of standing on a concrete floor. This year I got to watch it from the comfort of my hotel room with friends and wine and talk about everyone's build as they walked across the stage. It was no less electric than being back stage, and we also had a thrilling sprint from the hotel room to the back of the conference center to greet the contestants as they came out from the auditorium! The friends we roomed with are close friends of the new Crown Champion @matthew_barry so we got to do the victory walk back to the hotel with him!
As I was quite tipsy on wine, and watching all of his friends enjoy this moment with him, I decided to take photos and videos of his walk back. My favorite was a mad sprint I did to get in front of him to film the hoard of people congratulating him. I dashed behind a counter that was MUCH longer than I had expected. I had to run half-way down the hotel lobby before I could get out from behind the counter to keep taking video! It was worth it though; seeing how all of his friends and other cosplayers celebrated his win is forever ingrained in my memory. What a night!

Bought a light saber:

 Well after that inspiring story this feels a little lame to talk about… but I'm excited about it so I'm going to anyway! Z and I did most of our shopping on Sunday. We go to a lot of cons, so when we shop at cons we're typically  looking for something unique, or that makes us laugh. We picked up a few cute things but didn't buy nearly as much as we had last year. However… we walked past a lightsaber booth… I was not expecting to get one, and initially we walked away from them. But Z and I couldn't stop talking about them! So we went to check out the other lightsaber booth to see how prices compared. After seeing the price tags at the second booth we just about ran back to the first booth. The Princess Leia saber I had my heart set on sold while we were looking at the other booth (This is Sunday of Con after all). However, I did finally find a saber I was excited about! The vendors even switched out the core for me so that I could use the LED pixel blade rather than a bottom lit blade. All in all a VERY good buying experience from Build Your Own Saber, and oh my goodness the serotonin this silly prop gives me is just the best!

I hung out with and met a lot of really cool people:

I think this was probably the highlight of C2E2 for me. We roomed with our friends (WigWig Cosplay) who are very familiar with the cosplay competition scene, and were very lucky to have them introduce us to their friends from around the world and locally! I've had mostly good experiences with meeting new folks at conventions, but this was the best one yet. I think C2E2 is something really quite special. Everyone I met was excited to meet new people and talk cosplay/cons/competition/food/fandoms anything really! It's hard to put into words how much it meant to me to have those conversations and experiences.