egl_archive

Hi, all! I posted the link to my photos on Sunday night, but since I had to run off to the beach with my family immediately afterward, I couldn't do a big fancy post like I normally do. So, here is my slightly belated con report! Same photos, but now with CONTEXT! And just a warning, there are some doll photos in here since InnoSera is a lolita and BJD con. There aren't too many of them, though.

Friday

Chris and I were staff for InnoSera, so we got there (a little late, due to getting slightly lost even though I've totally been to the hotel before) at about 2:00pm. We got checked in at 2:30 and I had to take some photos of the ridiculous amount of clothing we brought for a whole two and a half days. There are three dresses, four skirts, and five blouses in there, and that's just my clothing.

And that's to say nothing of all the shoes we brought. Need options!

The Westin Bellevue, by the way? Beautiful! It is probably the classiest hotel I have ever stayed in. And the rooms were super spacious and swanky.

GIANT FLUFFY BED!

I had to take a moment to enjoy the chaise lounge before we headed down to help out with con setup.

We spent about half an hour just sort of milling around. Uehara-san arrived and checked into her hotel room and took a nap, I think. I decided to lurk outside the Baby store (which wasn't a store yet) so that when they started setting up I could assist. Yes, "assist," not "roll around in all the brand." Anyway, when Emi-san and Mitsuki-san came down to start setting up, my lurking paid off and Chris and I were able to help them price things for about an hour and a half. OMG, it was so awesome to be able to see so much Baby stuff in person. The lace! The LACE! It's soooo nice! Mitsuki and Emi were very tolerant of my attempts at Japanese, as well. I can speak some, but mostly about food and eating.

Speaking of food and eating, it was time for the guest reception dinner! We were really impressed with the Westin's set up and catering.

While things were getting started I asked for a photo of Mitsuki and Emi. (On the left and right, respectively.)

Then they insisted I get in the photo as well.

Then Uehara-san came down and Chris and I presented the three of them with a gift! Chris works at a tea shop, so he blended them each four ounces of Sweet Lolita Tea, which is strawberry and vanilla. I managed to explain all of this to them in Japanese, which I felt fairly proud of even if some of my grammar was probably akin to that of a four-year-old. They loved it and insisted on another photo with us!

Then it was time for the actual dinner. I have this thing about taking photos of my food.

The salad.

The chicken option. Very tasty.

Chris' vegetarian option.

The desserts!

After the dinner we headed off to the Bingo game. The prizes were a mix of lolita items, doll items, and random anime stuff that got donated so, hey, free stuff.

There were not enough bingo tokens. Some of us got creative.

Bingo was fun! There was a pretty good turnout.

Jen (rillystar) did a great job running it and managed to refrain from making too many jokes about balls as she called the Bingo numbers.

pinq_couture had sold me a new petticoat! I had to take a picture since I was pretty excited about this. It's all soft and fluffy and much more comfortable than my In The Starlight petti.

I ended up with a pretty sweet Bingo haul. Two doll wigs, two pairs of doll eyes, a tiny doll kimono and a Fruits Basket pencil board thingie.

Then it was time to shower and go to sleep in our giant awesome bed.

SATURDAY:

We got up and got dressed in the morning. Outfit shots!

I didn't have any pretty hair or makeup because I was modeling for Baby later so we had to arrive with clean faces and hair.

Chris had to drive back to Seattle to pick up the 48 mini cupcakes that Cupcake Royale donated for the staff and volunteers (as well as the Zojirushi we forgot that we needed for our tea panel). I, on the other hand, went shopping.

Inside this adorable bag is an Alice and the Pirates vest and a black collapsible parasol.

I opened it up and took a photo of it on Sunday. It's so awesome!

I also went to the Dealer's room and bought an awesome new hat from Noxenlux Chapeax.

Baby was awesome enough to let me take some photos of their little shop.

The cutsews!

Bags, socks, and other accessories:

The rack of dresses and blouses. I kinda wanted to live in there.

And then we spotted the littlest lolita. Awwww!

After that I had to head off to the Baby fashion show model meeting place. I don't have a whole lot of photos of the next two hours, since I was kinda stuck in various rooms with access to the camera. Chris popped in while we were in hair and makeup, though. I got a couple photos of his Mad Hatter outfit. He was madly (hah!) finishing this on Friday morning.

And then he had to do a Mad Hatter pose.

This was the hair and makeup room. We were all sort of milling around waiting for our turn. And eating.

I asked for a photo of Mitsuki and Uehara-san. They're both so adorable, I about died every time they got excited about something.

Then they, again, insisted on Chris and I joining them in the photo. I explained to them that Chris had made his jacket and that he was studying fashion design, and they thought that was pretty cool. Then I told them I had made my skirt, and they both liked it! The Chief Designer of Baby likes my sewing! Glee!

Then I had to head back to rehearsal, and Chris wandered around and took some cool doll photos.

Then he went to Lolita Bowling! I was so sad that the fashion show conflicted with this, I really wanted to go.

Then Chris went and got ready to come watch the fashion show. While this was going on, those of us who were modeling were running through a full dress rehearsal with our outfit changes and everything. There was one aristocrat Alice and the Pirates outfit that got cut, because it was too tall for all the models. With about fifteen minutes left before they were going to let people in for seating, I thought, "I bet that outfit would fit Chris..." So I asked (via translator) if Uehara-san wanted Chris to come model the outfit, and she responded with what I think was along the lines of, "Can he get here in time?!" So I ran to the dressing room and called him.

"Chris, there's an outfit here that's too tall for everyone and Uehara-san wants you to come model it! Get down here!"
"...OKAY!"

So he ran down and we tried it on him. OMG he looked awesome. I wish we'd thought of that earlier so he could have been through hair and makeup as well, but it worked out! Chris had really wanted to get to model Alice and the Pirates but had resigned himself to not getting to do it, so he was pretty psyched, even if he had to squeeze his feet into shoes that were just slightly too small.

Since Chris was supposed to be taking photos of the fashion show, I now have no photos of the actual show, just of the aftermath. We all looked so pretty! It was so much fun!

Doesn't Chris look amazing? I'm modeling Alice and the Pirates in this shot--the other two outfits they put me in were pretty over the top sweet. Particularly the one with the GIANT BEDAZZLED PARASOL.

Chris and I had to run from the fashion show immediately to the second Alice in Wonderland tea party of the day. We were going as some of the characters. I have never been so happy to sit down.

Did I mention the Westin puts on a good tea party? Because it really does.

I love this photo... When the Baby guests arrived at the tea party, they all immediately went for the sweets. I think they must live off sugar and adorableness.

Chris and I as the Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat. We're all mad here!

Then this cracked me up. cupcake_goth between Uehara-san and Mitsuki. A study in contrasts.

Then Chris got a few pictures of my Cheshire Cat outfit. I worked so hard on this! Everything is handmade but the shoes, socks, and the pearl hair clips. I tried really hard to make it obviously the Cheshire Cat without it being a cheesy catgirl costume. I even dyed the lace and trim myself.

Then, of course, Baby wanted more photos!

And I had to run off to do two panels. I did Lolita 101, with my massive PowerPoint presentation about lolita fashion, and then I did Face-Ups 101, which these photos are from. I think I was explaining about what kind of sealer one wants to use on resin.

Then Chris and I got changed for the Masquerade Ball. (Our pictures of it didn't really turn out, alas.) I wore my new AATP vest over my Dear Celine dress, and it looks AMAZING. Plus the Noxenlux hat. Chris said I looked like a cabaret supervillan, so now we're trying to come up with a good supervillan name for this outfit.

Chris got dressed up to match. And I fail at holding the camera still.

And now, finally a photo of us together! We were on our way to dinner with kurasune and pinq_couture and their beaus, so someone was finally able to get a photo of us at the same time!

After dinner and the rehearsal for kurasune's Attendee Fashion Show, Chris and I headed up to bed.

SUNDAY:

For our first order of business, Chris and I went to the morning tea party after we packed up all the stuff from our hotel room and got it moved to the car and/or to Con Ops, depending on if we needed it for the rest of the day.

These were our tablemates, and we quite enjoyed their company.

I snagged a photo of another table. So colorful!

Some of the tea party decorations.

Some of the other attendees and Baby models. Though I totally forgot all their names.

A couple more doll photos.

And then a Corgi! This guy is what really sealed the deal for InnoSera being the best con ever. He belonged to a woman who was helping out in the ElfDoll and Doll Heart store. (Doll Heart, incidentally, was debuting some of their human-sized versions of their doll outfits, and they were GORGEOUS. They also had a sign saying "Please don't take photos of the human fashions," though, so you'll just have to take my word for it.)

Then it was time for the Attendee Fashion Show! This was a lot of fun as well and it ran really smoothly. Congrats on a great job, Kimi! Again, I have no photos of this one since I was in it, but Seattle Geekly has some footage as well as shots of the con in general.

After the fashion show, Chris and I ran his Teas for Tea Parties panel. Chris did a great job, and it was nice to just be the Lovely Assistant for once, since my voice was pretty tired at this point.

Then it was time for Closing Ceremonies, and the end of InnoSera 2009. I snagged a few more photos before we headed out.

Chris would like this outfit in people size.

I pretty much wanted to steal this doll.

And then we took some shots in the super pretty Westin lobby before we headed home.

And then that was the end of our great InnoSera adventure. We haven't had that much fun at a con in a loooong time. We're really looking forward to next year! It's going to be a billion times as awesome!

Thanks for reading!

Crossposted to wa_lolis and my personal journal.