ALA Artist Alley was so fun!  I tabled with , , and .  It was great getting to know new people and I learned a lot of tips for next time.  I did a lot better in sales than I did at PMX and I even got a bunch of commissions!  The commissions did take me until 5am on Saturday night to finish but it was all worth it.   

For Fanime, I vow to complete my super incomplete Avatar character portraits (I have only Zuko done lol) and a horoscope character set so I don't have people just asking me where the others are (besides Taurus and Gemini).  I'm very optimistic and hope to continue to do better with making my art more attractive and interesting to others.

Oh one thing about ALA... I didn't bring any cosplays at all!  I caved on Saturday and borrowed 's femm China (Hetalia) cosplay since I do like China even though Hetalia in general gives me a migraine.  But I really strived to bring some new prints to ALA so I didn't plan to make anything new, and all my other costumes were stored in the garage where I couldn't reach them.  So alas... I was casual on Friday and Sunday.  However, some cosplays I would hope to wear at Fanime are Physis from Terra E (I found a Jomy and Tony~ also this costume is done because I bought it from someone else), Hinano from Trouble Chocolate (Jyubun desu!), and Shinobu from Bakemonogatari (if my bf will finally agree to do Oshino).  I might also bring Tomoyo from CCS, or make a new costume for her... I'll always be stuck on CLAMP. ><  When I saw the Jomy and Tony cosplayers at ALA, I actually got super excited about seeing them and it was a long time since I had felt that way about seeing cosplayers.  Perhaps the years are just building up, but I'm glad that I'm still able to get excited about cosplay... I had been feeling a bit dissatisfied in the past cons.  Also, there were some really cool panels at ALA.  There are always martial arts workshops and the Kunoichi one was pretty cool although it was mostly wrist grab exercises, and the Cosplay posing panel was very thorough.  

There was a little acoustic duo at ALA called Momotama and they did some beautiful renditions of anime pieces (especially a lot of songs by Sakamoto Maaya ) and that was super enjoyable.  The lead singer, Mikarin, said something that really made me feel hopeful.  She was explaining how winter is traditionally a sign of tough times and people are always looking to spring for relief.  "Shinshun" was what the beginning of the year is called in Japanese and it means "new spring".  It is a term to encourage new hope in the upcoming time of prosperity in spring , and she thought it was nice for ALA to fall at a time when everything is new and optimistic.  Thus, I am optimistic to sell more at Artist Alley and do funner cosplay this year!