Manifest was a whirlwind of utter stress this year. It did however bring to light how badly I do manage my time and how I could achieve so much more if I could learn to be more organised and generally on the ball. (Sometimes it feels my head is constantly in the clouds).

Saturday
The convention started at around 3pm for me on Saturday, not because I was sleeping in, but because I was rushing to get my costume completed that morning :( Which thanks to last minute repairs and some terrible wind ending up breaking *sigh* Toby helped me created these lovely wings for my Suu costume, but the minute we took them out of the car, they literally snapped, which broke my heart (and most likely his as well).

After that, I somehow managed to stagger into the cosplay competition hall as I was playing judge again this year : It was so lovely to see my friends, if anything that was the only good thing that came out of this convention. My fellow judges were fantastic, Annie and Amy! Not only are these two girls seriously talented, they are so wonderful and beautiful inside and out. It was a complete honour to work with them both :)

The competition was brilliant, each year the contestants leave me in awe. Unfortunately there were some technical issues, which made judging a tad harder than usual, but as always the hardest part is picking a winner!

Once the competition was over, I was more than eager to head home as I was much too drained and tired from having some very heavy wings on my back :( But because of the state I was in, I was in no mood for photos. So I'm hoping that once I manage to fix the wings, I will set up a proper shoot soon :)

Sunday
As usual, Sundays always run much smoother than Saturdays. Maybe it's because there are less people? Or perhaps by this stage everyone has a better idea as to how things run? Either way, after what the weather did to me on Saturday, I decided against debuting my Xiao Qiao costume. I had spent hours and hours creating the fans, and if they had snapped I don't even want to know what I would have done.

So I decided to reuse an old costume, Xiaoyu Ling from Tekken. I managed to actually fix her up Saturday night, add the shoulder feathers and finish adding all the embroidery to the shorts! The only thing I didn't get to do (and seriously wonder if I ever will) was make proper bracelets and head ties using resin. Either way, it was in a much better shape than when I last wore it and actually managed a decent shoot too (despite the terrible winds).

After my shoot, headed straight for the competition, without wings dragging me down, I was in a much better mood! Continue to catch up with my wonderful friends and be in awe of the level of skill in the competition! Wow wow!

Once again picking winners was so so difficult, between me and the other two judges, we reeeally struggled! Finally once we had finished, I was more than happy to head home for a long deserved nap lol But instead Toby and Anty so kindly took me to Nandos for dinner instead~ Yum, perfect way to end a very stress filled weekend.

I promise, I will be much more prepared for next year!