Garb Gathering - Springtime Portland

Welcome to a new casual series of posts here! In these posts I will be going into the details of some of my favorite outfits and the pieces that make them up. Earlier this year I got to travel to Portland Oregon for my anniversary with my partner. 

Day One

For the first full day of our trip, we rented a car to go venture to the coast to do some sight seeing. It was going to be chilly and I knew I would have to throw on some layers for hanging out by the ocean. First we drove down to cannon beach, just a couple hours from Portland, and then up to Astoria. I needed something that was cute enough to walk around town in and take photos, but also be comfy enough to wear sitting the car for some time.

Sunglasses- Derek Cardigan
Rain Jacket - Borrowed
Teal Collared Dress - Hell Bunny
Bee Cardigan - Dancing Days
Black Tights - Dynamite
Not Pictures - White Keds Shoes


Day Two

We had to wake up early to drop off the car that we had rented the day before to drive to the coast. Afterwards our plans were to bike down to the science museum to go check out the submarine tours they had. This called for comfy black stretch denim to bike around in, and Doc Martens to walk around in. Throw on a pull over a collared shirt and call it an outfit. When it got chilly in the evening I threw over my grey blazer and big scarf to keep me warm

Rock Star Jeggings - Old Navy
Hawaiian Shirt - Thrifted
Black Pullover - Thrifted
Aimilita Doc Marten Boots
Grey Wool Blazer - Simons Canada
Plaid Blanket Scarf



Day Three

Anniversary Day! We had reservations at a nice restaurant in downtown Portland. After spending the day wandering around where we were staying, we went back to our Airbnb to change (and nap). I had brought one of my favorite dresses along with us. I had earlier in our trip bought a pair of navy eyelet gloves and cropped black 50s jacket from a vintage shop. The hat I wore was also bought for a steal of a deal just the day before. With black netting and feather I feel like it pulled the entire outfit together.

40s Hat - Magpie Vintage (Portland)
Floral Dress - Pretty Dress Co
50s Embossed Floral Crop Jacket - Hattie’s Vintage (Portland)
Navy Eyelet Gloves - Hattie’s Vintage (Portland)
Black Tights - Dynamite
Leather Shoes - Naturalizer


Day Four

It was our last full day in Portland. We had very little plans for our day, other than going for breakfast at Mckennins School and then a swim in their heated salt water pool. The day before I bought a lovely mustard yellow wool shirt, that went perfectly with the bee cardigan that I had brought along with me. As someone who hates throwing on clothes while wet, I made sure that I wore a skirt so I didn’t need to deal with the stickiness of pants on wet legs after our swim. I threw on my fedora to hide away my not so clean hair.

Black Wool Fedora - Lids
Yellow Wool Shirt - True Vintage from House of Vintage (Portland)
Bee Cardigan - Dancing Days
Pleated Black Skirt - Vintage from Velour (Calgary)

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Bi Monthly Bangers - Sept/Oct 2018

Hey, welcome to the first installation of  what I am going to call Bi Monthly Bangers. I plan for these posts to be every other month, just wrapping up all the rad things that have been going on for the last 2 months that maybe don't need in depth posts of their own. 

Vintage Vibes

• I recently came into a big collection of scarves from the 60s to the 80s from a family friend. I spent a week in October cleaning all the scarves and sorting them through to ones I was going to keep and ones I would be putting up for sale.
• While shopping at a local vintage shop I found the loveliest white crocheted gloves that were well loved. Although there was some tears and discoloration I took them home, and I’ve already worn them to a wedding.
• Cold weather came to my city super quickly, so I put away all my summer clothes mid September. Getting to wear all the wool and plaid kinda made up for it though.

Cosplay & Conventions

• PAX west has been a con on my to do list since I started going to conventions. This year we managed to grab tickets, and spent almost a week in Seattle. If you love games, and have the opportunity to go to PAX, you have to go.
• Bethesda had a community day in Seattle during the weekend of PAX in Seattle. It might have been almost a 2 hour wait in line, but it all ended up being worth it. We got free food, swag, and hung out with our friend in our Fallout cosplays. The highlight for me was maybe chasing down the vault boy mascot to dab for us.
• To have something lazy to wear around the con, I whipped together a Fallout Vault themed dress from a vintage pattern. This was a great idea, and gave me the chance to wait in PAX lines in some comfy clothes.

Geek Goods

• I spent most of sept and oct just waiting for Red Dead Redemption 2 to come out. Between my excitement for this sequel, and all the crummy workplace news about this came, it has been a wild ride. If you only read one thing about this game, I would highly suggest this article posted in late September about the presence of black cowboys in the series.
• What year is it, and how old am I? Because Gerard Way’s The Umbrella Academy is back. Not only that, but NYCC this year gave us even more peeks at the Netflix series that will be coming out soon. Maybe I can finally cosplay The Rumor.
• After coming back from PAX, my partner and I bought switch and I played through all of Zelda in a couple of weeks. We also finally grabbed Overcooked 2 and played through all of that together. If you have any other good couch co-op suggestions hit me up!

Additional Articles

I've been wearing more grey lipstick, because what season goes better with grey than fall? In our house we also harvested all our squashes from our garden. We have been munching on so much zuchinni, and making so much pumpkin pastries. Also if you haven't heard, my bud Sam Maggs came out with her third book! Go pick up Girl Squads and support this super person. 

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10 Things for Convention Travel

You did it. You have those tickets for that con sitting in your email inbox. No matter if this is your first convention out of town, or you have done this many times before, you still need to prepare. There is the actual logistics of traveling and getting to and from your home to the convention. Then there is also everything else that comes with being in a different city and being at a convention.

1. Budget

Before you do anything you kinda need to decide how much money you have, and how much you want to spend. Personally, like all things in my life, I have a spreadsheet for this. I copy them from trip to trip and add new things as I go. This is also the same spreadsheet I use for trips that aren’t convention related. Another benefit for having this document sitting in my drive is that I have the information on how much I spent on previous cons and I can go from there and decide how much I should be spending again on this trip. Really, I am a nerd and I could probably talk about spreadsheets and budgets for a real long time, so I am going to stop there. As long as you have a budget that works for you, great.

2. Plan Your Travel

Are you driving, busing, flying, or catching a lift a friend. Booking my flights for an out of province convention is the very first time I do right after buying tickets for a convention. I personally use https://momondo.ca to book my flights. I like that it gathers prices for me from all across different airlines, and I can sort it by cheapest, or quickest. After this, if you don’t have a friend’s place to crash at, do hotel bookings. Sometimes I will book my hotel for the actual convention weekend with my tickets if there is a deal with the organizers. After I have my flights booked I can then either change my hotel booking, or book an airbnb in a different neighborhood to explore before or after the convention.

3. Figure Out Transit

I generally do this at the same time as books hotels or Airbnbs. Because we don’t rent cars, we rely heavily on city transit and ride shares such as Uber or Lyft. In my bullet journal I write down my arrival time from the airport, the time it takes to get to my accommodations, and the time it takes to get to the convention center. Google Maps is great for giving you all of this information so you don’t need to hunt through multiple websites. Although I would suggest if using a city’s transit for the first time, take a peek on their website to figure out fares and how they work.

4. Get Travel Insurance

If this is your first time out of the country, I would take look into travel insurance. I am lucky enough to have travel insurance through both my work health plan, and my credit card. If you have either of these I would suggest checking with the first to see if you have some sort of travel coverage. If not, shop around for some plans. Travel Insurance isn’t that expensive, and often you can choose between single trip plans, or annual plans if you plan on traveling more through the year.

5. Check the Weather & Make a Packing List

These go hand in hand for me. Generally a couple weeks beforehand I will have my general list written out, and my travel toiletries packed away with my suitcase already. I probably do this earlier than most people, and earlier than really needed. I like to anxiously prepared though. This gives me enough time to also do an inventory of what I might need to go out and buy before my trip. A week or so beforehand I will see what the weather looks like, and start planning outfits and clothes to pack around that. Just keep in mind that weather is ever-changing, and if it says it will be super hot all week, maybe pack a sweater just in case.

6. Make A List of Nearby Interests

I mentioned google maps earlier and I shall do it again. Maps is my best friend on a trip. Before a trip I will mark interesting nearby shops or restaurants to check out. This really cuts down on the time wasted laying in your hotel room trying to figure out a place to eat after the con when you already have no energy. Just open up google maps, see the places that you marked weeks ago as interesting and pick one. I collect my list of places to check out by spending the weeks previously on Google or Pinterest, looking at other bloggers posts on places they enjoyed. Also put a call out on your twitter or Instagram to see if your friends have any places they would recommend.

7. Decide on Costumes & Make a Packing List

As soon as you can, try to make a line up of costumes you are wearing and bringing. When I figure out what I am bringing I write down a list of every single piece I need to pack. I get into really fine details personally. I also have these lists written down in a spreadsheet in my drive, so I don’t need to try to remember every single piece I need to bring every single time I want to bring a costume with me. Having it in drive also gives me the ability to add things as I need to, depending on if I redo, or do something different to my costumes.

I generally try to have a rule that I don’t bring costumes I don’t have finished yet to an out of town convention. If you do, it makes it even more important that you decide what to bring ASAP so you can figure out everything you need to get done. This brings me to my next point.

9. Make a Crafting To Do List

Whether you have a costume you are working on, or a costume is already done, make a to do list. Pull out your old costume and go over all the things you maybe forgot that needed to get repaired on it. Having everything laid out on paper in front of me also helps me realize how much I need to do however long before leaving for the convention, and how I need to spread my work load.

10. Keep Your Immune System and Skin Healthy

On a good day I suck at taking care of myself. The weeks coming up to travel though, I try to be better about it. I generally do a lot more in regard to skin care coming up to a con to make sure I don’t have any unwanted breakouts in photos. Face masks and moisturizing happens a lot more 2 weeks before a trip for me. Also remember to drink lots of water, and actually get a good amount of sleep before a convention as well. It sucks to be on your way to something exciting, only to realize that you have gotten sick.

Are there things on your list of preparing for con travel that I missed out? Let me know.

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Vintage and Retro Portland

Portland Oregon is just full of really rad vintage stuff. From their old building, to mid century furniture stores, and so many vintage clothing shops. There are so many vintage shops that it is impossible to do all of them on one trip to the city. Here are 8 stores I got to check out on my 4 day trip to Portland back in March.

Classic Collection Hats. So this isn’t specifically a store that has to do with vintage. This Classic Collection Hats has so many styles of hats for a lot of different budgets. I loved that they carried a lot of styles that came in multiple sizes. Both my partner and I suffer from having larger than average heads. I walked out buying myself an olive green beret, and my partner a matching newsboy cap. They also had so many different sort of straw sun hats that I wanted to take home. Check this place out no matter the style of hats you enjoy, there will probably be something there you would like.

House of Vintage. One of the least curated shops on this list, you want to come in with a lot of patience and time. I came into House of Vintage with neither. We had gotten coffee at Tov just down the street and stopped in quickly on our walk back to our Airbnb. I can say that if you have the time though, I can see this store paying off. It’s set up in a mall style, with different vendors, so they have a vast range of really neat things, to shrug worthy stuff. Things seem to be organized within individual vendors and not eras, or type of clothing. So hence the need for patience and time to find the gems. With my 20-30 minutes in the store, I did walk out with a lovely mustard yellow wool blouse circa 1950 for I think about 13 dollars. It was missing the button, but nothing that I couldn’t fix. Just be prepared that if you are on the hunt for a specific era, they do have the whole range of stuff from the 20s right up to the 90s.

Red Light Clothing. A little more curated than House of Vintage, but expect there to be a little bit of everything at Red Light Clothing, and to do some hunting to find something neat. Things here are at least organized by pieces of clothing and size. So if you are only on the hunt for dresses, it’s a bit easier to work with than House of Vintage. I tried on a couple of pieces, and nothing either fit nicely or were super my style. Truth be told I could take it or leave it. A lot of their stuff is way more 80s-90s which personally isn’t my jam, if it’s yours go check it out. Just don’t expect to be swimming in mid century clothing.

Hollywood Vintage. I saw online that Hollywood Vintage was praised for having this huge collection of vintage eyewear. Seeing that I was considering picking up some new glasses myself, I figured this was a place I would have to check out and threw it on my to-do list. Unfortunately when I visited, a couple weeks beforehand they had a break in occur, which resulted most of their eyewear stock stolen or destroyed. Besides the very empty room that once held the collection of glasses, they still carried a variety of hats and a very small selection of vintage clothing. The rest of their store was a mix between thrifted house wear and knick-knacks, and old costume stock. Go if you want to see some neat things, not on the top of the list for some true vintage clothing items.

Hattie’s. One of the smaller stores that I visited, but it was pack full of really neat things. Hattie's had vintage ranging from the 30s to the 70s for both menswear and womenswear. Prices here varied from very reasonable to way out of my budget. I would especially suggest checking out this store if you are on the hunt for some gloves. I found myself a pair that fit my hands which never seems to happen. There was also a 50s crop jacket with embossed flowers in black that screamed my name while there, that I got to wear a couple days later for my anniversary dinner.

Simply Vintage Co. This is a store that I wished so very dearly was where I lived. I visited Simply Vintage after a sweaty bike ride (and getting lost) from OMSI. I am so glad I did. The person who ran the store was so sweet, and loved giving me suggestions of things to look at. It didn’t really take her all that long to figure out what stuff would look good on me. This is a person who obviously has a passion for what she does. The store itself is wonderfully curated with a mix of true vintage and newer reproduction stock. If you have any interest in 40s or 50s era of women’s clothing, you must go to this place. I walked out of there spending roughly $200 CAD for two vintage pieces. Probably more than I was intended to spend, but I wouldn’t even be able to get two repro pieces where I live for that price.

Magpie. I feel like Magpie is what I think of when I think of vintage stores. This place carries products ranging from the 20s to the 70s. Both quality and price points are seen on lower and higher scales. I walked out personally with a short sleeve green wool cardigan that very quickly made its way in my everyday wardrobe. I got a steal of a deal also on a 1940s felted hat with netting and feathers, albeit the deal was probably due to the fact it not being in the greatest condition. No matter what you are on the hunt for Magpie is a pretty safe bet on checking out if you are traveling through Portland.

Red Fox Vintage. We visited Red Fox’s Woodstock store on our walk around the neighborhood after checking out a pool nearby. One of those places that does a bit of everything, and seemed to work off of consignment, don’t expect this place to be stuffed with clothing. Most of the store had knick-knacks and housewares. A neat place to check out if you are in the area, but I wouldn’t say make the trip out of your way for it. I can’t speak to their other location though as I only checked out the one.

Are there some really rad places that I missed out while in Portland? Let me know and I will check it out on my next trip out there!

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Geek Travel; Los Angeles

Los Angeles, known for beaches, and for Hollywood, and sports teams too I guess. So, what do you do there as a human who has very little interest in that stuff. Good news! LA still has a rich history to explore, and good food to eat. Theme parks too. I was in LA late october last year for a convention with my best friend Nicole. We spent approximately six days there, and these are just a couple of things I got up to that I think are worth checking out if you are in the area.

Where we stayed

DTLA. Earlier in our trip we were in a hotel in Anaheim. We stayed in airbnbs for LA leg of the trip. During the convention we stayed in an apartment close to the center with 4 other cosplayers. Staying downtown is great if you need to be in close proximity of the convention center.

Fairfax. After the con was over, our temporary roommates had to leave to go back to their jobs and all that fun junk. Nicole and I decided for the rest of our trip to get a room in Fairfax. It was a great neighborhood to stay in. It placed it roughly a 15 minute uber ride from most places we wanted to check out throughout the week. There was also lots of great restaurants and shopping walking distance.

Where We Ate


Fleishik’s. Delicious sammies, great decor, and fantastic staff makes this place so wonderful. This had to be the best food I ate the entire freaking trip. Fleishik’s is a kosher sandwich place, also serving up whisky. Meals were more than enough food for me to eat alone. Share with a friend if you don’t have the stomach of a beast, or don’t and have leftovers for later. I got the Babasooey and would heavily suggest it.

Andante. This small coffee shop was super close to our AirBNB in Fairax. I was so happy to find a coffee place that wasn’t a large chain. Once we found the place, we went every morning until we left.

Nakkara. Okay so we didn’t actually eat in the restaurant. The day after the convention, I felt like my feet were going to fall off and I had no desire to leave our airbnb. Once we saw that this place had Satay chicken rice bowls and did take out, our fates were sealed.

Ramen Maruya. Located in Little Tokyo, we hit up Ramen Maruya for some sushi and ramen one night after the convention. I grabbed myself some katsu don and shared some sushi rolls with my pals just before exploring some of little Tokyo.

Edit Aug 2018 Turns out that both Nakkara and flesihik's has closed down since

Where We Shopped

The Grove and Farmer’s Market. If you are looking for some higher end shopping, the Grove can set you up. The farmer’s market is also super close by, where you can go ahead and grab yourself some lunch, or some really good looking steaks for dinner later.

Mood Fabric. We never managed to make it down to LA’s famous fabric district, but did get a trip into Mood Fabric. There was so much I wanted to buy, but I had so little money. Also so little room left in my suitcase. I did pick up some nice lighter green linen for my partner to use in reenactment.

Papermoon Vintage. Where I live we do not have vintage stores like alot of places I’ve been to in the states do. Truth is I just don’t live in an old as a city compared to somewhere like LA. So enter Papermoon, a fantastic vintage clothing store. When shopping true vintage you got to keep in mind that it is not cheap. That being said, I still managed to find a dress and blazer in my budget and size. Even if you don’t wear vintage, check this place out just to see the amount of fantastic pieces they have.

What We Did

El Capitan Theatre. We were in L.A over halloween. The day before we still had not plans for the halloween night, and was googling for possible movies to see in the city. Finally we stumbled upon seeing Nightmare Before Christmas in 4D at Disney’s El Capitan Theatre. It was great to see one of my favorite movies growing up on the big screen, surrounded by lights and fog effects through the show. Bonus points for the organ player before the show.

Cicada Club Halloween Party. This is my must go place if I ever go to LA again. In this historic art deco building is the Cicada Club, a vintage themed club and restaurant with a dress code. We managed to be there the same weekend as their halloween party. The drinks were great, decor amazing, and music on point. My only regret was not springing for the added dinner.

LACC Los Angeles Comic Con (formerly Stan Lee’s Comikaze) was the whole reason for the trip down. Held the weekend before halloween, this is a convention held in LA’s convention center downtown. A great con to check out if you live in the area, but for traveling I’ve heard it’s better to wait it out until wondercon that occurs during easter weekend in Anaheim.

Universal Studios. Okay, so I spent way too much money at universal. We ran around hogsmeade casting spells with our newly bought wands. We road the forbidden journey ride twice, and i totally spent almost 100 bucks on candy. The weather was great for us at 20 degrees, and managed to keep most of the locals away from attending that day it seemed. We managed to wait no longer than 30 minutes for a ride, and basically when on them all except for the simpsons and transformers ride. We even got brave enough to go on the jurassic park ride at the end of our day.

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Cosplay Planning and Reference Hunting

You just watched a new rad show, or played a freaking amazing game, and fell in love with a character. Everything in you is screaming that YOU MUST COSPLAY THIS WONDERFUL CHARACTER. Yet, where do you start? Whether you are new to cosplay, or seasoned to the hobby, you aren’t the only one who finds themselves in this boat. How do you plan on what to work? How do you figure out what you need to make this costume? Can you even make the costume?! I decided to layout how I personally start a costume, and that is with resource hunting.

My first step is always to find resources. Truth be told, step one often bleeds into step two, and three, and four, and so on. When working on a costume I am never not hunting down more reference photos or videos. You can never have too many photos. Keep these photos however works for you. I personally have a folder in my Google Drive that I store all my reference photos. Each character I am working on, or even thinking of working on gets their own sub folder, and I save every photo I decided is even a little bit useful. Drive works best for me cause then these references are always with me on my phone. If printing photos and keeping them in a planner is what works for you, then do that.

So where do you find references? I personally have five main places I look for references. First, and I hope the most obvious, is the source material. I have screenshots, upon screenshots of Sera from Dragon Age Inquisition saved from my Playstation account. If you are a PC gamer, console commands and flycam are your best friend. For a lot of my Sole Survivor from Fallout 4 I used my partner’s computer. I console commanded in all my armor and clothes I needed, and would drop her into different location into the maps for different lighting. I screenshotted everything I needed, and saved it to my drive. When working on Hannah from Rat Queens I would bring the actual comic into the fabric store with me. Using my phone I also took photos of specific frames from issues and, once again, threw that into drive.

Art books are also fantastic. I tend to have buy art books from my favorite series anyways, even if I didn’t cosplay I would still probably own these books. A lot of these books might have concepts that had long before been abandoned, but they can still give insight to how maybe armor could be strapped. My Fallout 4 artbook, and Dragon Age Inquisition artbook have been home of many sticky note tags so I can easily find the photos I need later.

The next place I look is Google. Google anything and everything pertaining to your costume. Right now I am currently hunting for references of the vagabond girl in Supergiant’s Pyre. I have so far for this costume googled; pyre, pyre cosplay, vagabond girl, vagabond girl cosplay, vagabond girl pyre, vagabond girl pyre cosplay, fae pyre, fae pyre cosplay, and probably 5 more combinations of the above I can’t remember. Look in images, look in web results from the first 3 pages. Save anything that you think could help. Save screenshots other people have taken. I have fan art that have been created, and other peoples cosplays. If the creators have released concept art for your character, save that too. I have some concept art save for Sera and The Lutece Twins that are pretty different from the final release of these characters.

Even though I spend very little time on Tumblr now, I still use it alot when hunting down references and resources. Tumblr is a huge source for fan art of anything and everything. It’s also great at finding other people’s cosplay that they have done. You can hunt through their account, maybe find WIP posts they have made, and then you have even more references and resources to work off of. Just don’t message people asking how they made their costume. They have already put in the time and effort into their own costume, never mind yours. If there is a particular question you have for someone, hunt through their page first and see if maybe this is already addressed. Don’t be rude about it, and don’t expect them to share their information. Just the other day I asked someone where they got their wig from. It was a simple “Hey I hope you don’t mind me asking but where did you get your wig from? It’s fine if you don’t want to share.” Just don’t guilt people into giving you information that they themselves worked hard on finding.

Pinterest is a resource I use often, which tends to surprise a lot of people. I tend to use is for more of the historical end of reference hunting. I found the pattern that I used for my lutece skirt through pinterest. It’s not the first place I would suggest looking, but there tends to be no harm looking around in it. Worst case scenario, you come out with a banana bread recipe. One sort of crummy thing about pinterest is its lack of credit. Often you will find photos taken off someone else’s page thrown onto pinterest. I often will reverse image search things a lot on pinterest to not only find the original poster, but also to see if maybe they have other photos along the line of what I am looking for.

If you think it’s even in the slight bit useful, save it. I would rather save a photo to my drive and not need it, then come back in 2 months and go, man I really wish I had saved that photo I found on this really obscure website. Too bad I can’t remember what the hell I searched to find it.

Save photos of hairstyles that look even slightly like your characters hair. Save in action screen shots so you have something to reference back to before photoshoots. I have pictures of edwardian walking skirts, archers gloves, viking shoes, and random people with freckles. In the end, you can never have too many references.

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Anxiety & Conventions

Managing anxiety can be a challenge and conventions have the ability to add some extra challenge and stress when already dealing with an anxiety disorder. Crowded halls can over stimulating, and not feeling properly prepared can put a person on edge when they are just trying to have fun.

I’m not a psychologist, or work in any sort of profession involving mental health. I do however believe in talking candidly about this stuff, and reducing the stigma that clouds the topic of mental health. In the last few years of attending cons, I have discovered some trips and tricks that help ease my own anxiety. Hopefully these tips can help some people ease their own, and prevent uncomfortable situations, and possible panic attacks!

Pre Con

Avoid con crunch as much as possible. The cosplay community has this strange toxic view that if you aren’t making something new for every possible con, then you must be doing something wrong. About a year and a half ago I allowed myself to throw that idea out the window. Personally I would rather take my time and work on something slowly, rather than rush it, and have to re do half of it come the end of the convention. If I don’t think a costume is going to get done in time, I step away from it and focus my energy on other things.

Plan as early as possible what costumes to bring. As I’ve started traveling more for conventions, I realized what does and doesn’t work for me when it comes to costumes. I like to know what I am bringing roughly 2-3 weeks before a large con. This gives me time to do an inventory of what I need to pack, look over my costumes, and make sure I have time to do any repairs that might be needed that I’ve forgotten about.

Pack as early as possible. Generally speaking, I usually start packing 2 weeks before I have to leave for a con. I slowly start putting things together in a suitcase in the weeks to come. This mostly is due to the fact that I am an anxious person and I feel the need to be well prepared. Everything doesn’t get packed this early. I set aside my travel sized toiletries in and empty suitcase, find my cosplay emergency kits. This way I am not running around the day before I fly somewhere and can’t find my dry shampoo or something silly like that. I also create myself packing lists in my bullet journal for any trips I go to. This allows me to look back on past trips when creating a new list, remembering the things I needed.

Look over the schedule, highlight what you want to do. This has become less and less important to me over the years. If you are someone big on panels though, look over the schedule, figure out what you want to do. My scheduling routine before cons tends to be just go over what fan meetups I will be attending, and look over if there is an celebrity signings I want to attend. My bullet journal is a great help for me to keep track of what I am doing, when.

Con Time

Stay hydrated and eat. Okay yes, this is in every freaking con survival guide. Like most people I know, I personally find that my mental health goes down if I get hungry. I am more antsy, and tied with the crowds, that can be a bad formula. I often have some larabars and cranberry juice that hides away in my pack or pockets for a quick pick me up if lines for food are too long.

Allow yourself to be flexible. You have you schedule in front of you. It’s 2:45 and that line up for whatever celebrity signing you just attended ended up being way longer that you anticipated. The panel you wanted to attend starts at 3pm on the other side of the center. Take a moment and decided whether it’s worth the stress to run to the other side in time for the panel. It’s okay if things don’t always go according to plan, and allow yourself to know that sometimes that happens.

Go outside and get some fresh air. If it isn’t the middle of the winter, I usually go outside a lot during cons. I can still run into people and talk to them, but the fresh air, and lighter crowds tend to give my brain a break that it needs. If a convention center has doors along the entire building, I often skip walking from one hall to the other inside, and will just give myself the 5-10 minute walk outside.

Step away from stressful situations. It seems that cosplay chill rooms, and quiet rooms are becoming more and more popular at conventions. If you need to recharge your mental batteries then take advantage of these resources. If the con you are attending doesn’t have something like this, find yourself a quiet hallway to sit in. Walking a couple blocks away and have lunch or coffee in a local establishment can also do a lot for clearing your brain when you are overwhelmed.

Leave the con. There are no hard rules that you need to stay there the entire day. Unless I’ve worked a con, I don’t think I have ever stayed from open to close. If you are an introvert and know you have dinner with a large crowd later, leave a couple hours early to sit in your hotel and recharge. Feeling a bit over stimulated, just leave the convention to spend some time away from the crowds. If you can afford it, staying at hotels near the convention is over nice for being able to leave and get some quiet time, with the option on returning to the center if you feel up to it later.

Post Con Hotel Time

Stay with people you know. I know that cosplayers tend to cram as many as people into a hotel room to save money. If you are going to do this you better make sure these are all people you enjoy and get you. There was one year that we had 3 people sleeping on a bed, 2 on the pull out couch and one on the floor. Lucky for us we all really enjoyed each other’s company and understood when someone just needed some time alone.

Converse with your roommates. Complain about those long lines, or how that stuck up mom bumped into your costume. Did they eat really good food truck food? Obviously if you are more introverted then this might not be the thing for you. I find before I retire for the night, catching up with my buds from the day helps me relax.

Take some time by yourself. If your hotel room is cramped, leave. I like hotels with 24 hour pools. Con folk tend to be hiding in their rooms in the morning until they leave for con, leaving the pool empty for an early morning dip. I’ve also stowed away in hotel lobbies on couches with some headphones and a podcast. If leaving your room isn’t an option, pop in some headphones, sit on your bed, play a game.

Do whatever self care ritual you have. For years painting my nails was a huge self care thing. Skin care and listening to podcasts are more so my leaning now a days. You can incorporate your roommates if you wish. At Emerald City Comic Con last year, my friend and I threw on some sheet masks, and matching reading socks while watching some of the MBMBAM show.

Lastly for any leg of your convention, surround yourself with people who get you. Whether it's a partner who will walk to a coffee shop 3 blocks away for quiet time together, or the best friend sit in the hotel bar after the con eating sweet potato fries with you without saying a thing to each other.

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