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It appears in the post-Ascendio blues, droves of people are making their reservations at The Margate for MISTI-Con next year (May 9-13) and buying their MISTI-Con registrations. There’s a TON of chatter about it in the Ascendio Facebook group here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/Ascendio/

And now MISTI-Con itself has a Page for official announcements and a Group where much chit-chat about con plans is going on! (http://www.facebook.com/groups/341942135889154/) Last I looked, two notorious Voldemort and Remus cosplayers had challenged each other to a duel cross-dressed as Bellatrix and Tonks. Yes, I am expecting this to be an epic con.

But more about ASCENDIO. I’ve been reading LOTS and lots of people’s post-con reports, and digging up more photos, and really enjoying seeing everyone’s takes on the event.

Meanwhile, I completely forgot to write about the one truly prized possession I came home with!! It’s an original piece of art from Oldenuf oldenuf2nb whose Harry/Draco art has had me squeeing for YEARS. We got talking at the HD Meetup, where several of us were drooling over her portfolio. Turned out that she was wanting some of my books, so we made a trade of our mutual lusts.

Look under the cut for photos of the art and more!

Archived at Ravenna's Quill.

Today was the shopping expedition to get the fabric, fasteners, and other supplies needed to make my Ascendio “Night of a Thousand Wizards” costume: A New York Yankees Quidditch outfit. (See previous post for diagrams and description…)

Tonight the Yankees played the Mets in the last game of Interleague baseball (until the World Series, that is…) on the ESPN Sunday Night game. So I got all my writing at other work out of the way so I could sit down to work on the costume while listening to the game. I didn’t quite manage to be done with other things: I had to take out the garbage and some other stuff while it was still light out, so it was about 8:30 or 8:45 by the time I actually sat down.

Sewing projects for me always turn out to be a lot like motorcycle maintenance. There are always some things that go wrong with the machine, or where I’ve forgotten my skills from disuse, and I have to figure it out again and make some trips to the parts store. This time was no different, although thankfully I managed to keep it running long enough to finish tonight’s goal: the forearm guards. Tomorrow I’ll have to go to the sewing store and get some needles.

Among the things I needed on today’s earlier shopping trip: white thread. White is not a color I’ve done much with in my life. Nearly all my clothes are black. Today I wore my red Lafayette University Quidditch T-shirt mostly because I needed to do laundry. Also, wearing something colorful to go fabric shopping is not a bad idea–I always come out of the store covered in bits of colorful lint and such.

But the point of costumes is sometimes to be radically different from one’s usual self. I play with gender on a regular basis anyway, so going from black to white is about as radical a change as I can make.

I managed to finish the first of the two forearm guards literally JUST as the final out of the game was made, meaning it took me three hours, and then zipped through the second one during the postgame show: more like 30 minutes. Typical.

Picspam of the process, my broken needle, and the rest, under the cut!

Archived at Ravenna's Quill.

So, I’m going to Ascendio. (Reminder: the deadline for panel and presentation proposals is February 29! Details & discussion over here.)

I’m contemplating doing more costuming than I usually do at a con. Normally I just run around in my Hogwarts regalia, but there are two costumes in particular I’m wanting to make/put together.

One the idea was inspired by the fact that it’s going to probably be very hot in Florida in July, and for Night of a Thousand Wizards I really don’t want to be in full robes/Hogwarts regalia. What would be something special but possibly cooler?

How about I make a summer Quidditch outfit? was my first thought. Then I thought I could go one step further, and combine two of my fandoms, and make a New York Yankees Quidditch outfit? (Because, let’s face it, the Yankees are the Slytherins of the baseball world. We’re the elite, the most ambitious, we’ll do anything to win, and everyone else loves it when we lose.)

Archived at Ravenna's Quill.

At 2am the last guest spontaneously left and the first, best Hogwarts Alumni Reunion Party ended.

It was one of the best parties I’ve ever thrown at a con, and I’ve thrown a lot of parties in 20+ years of going to science fiction conventions.

The plot to hold this party was hatched just ten days or so before the con, when I was miraculously moved from the waitlist into the room block (thank you Arisia staff and innkeepers! thank you thank you!). I had plans to run a party for Circlet Press on Friday night, but that meant Saturday night.. (cue “thinking music”).

I emailed some friends, posted on my LJ, and found that I wasn’t the only nut psyched to throw a Harry-Potter-themed party for adults.

Why for adults, you ask? Two reasons, actually.

Archived at Ravenna's Quill.

Just thought I’d share this news!

So, I went to a party on Saturday night that happened to be populated by most of the board of directors of HPEF, the folks who have been bringing you fabulous Harry Potter conventions for many years now, a-a-a-a-a-a-nd..

I got roped into being in charge of organizing fanfic readings at Ascendio.

Ascendio will be July 12-15, 2012 (that’s NEXT summer, not this coming one…) and registration isn’t even open yet. But you can get on an email newsletter list here: http://www.hp2012.org/

We’ll be welcoming fic readings in all genres, ratings, and pairings. (Underage wizards will not be allowed to attend program items rated above their age.)

More details when we get closer to the time. I anticipate we might have more readers hoping for slots than we have slots, but we shall cross that Quidditch pitch when we come to it!

Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.