I'm glad after Deltarune, I didn't need money from this con. This con is in Durham and I admittedly didn't focus too much on it after the good that was deltarune and thank goodness I didn't.

This con was not good. Despite my small offerings plush wise, this con was rather lackluster. It seemed to be more an excuse to let the kids wear their halloween costumes another weekend. A lot of free tickets were given out so there weren't many spenders and instead a lot of rude people. I've never encountered so many rude attendees in one place before. The food was also not that good in the area. I won't be doing this show again. But despite all that, it was near the rotating sushi bar, so all was well in the end haha

As I've made apparent over the last year or so, I had fallen into an art slump. My plush weren't panning out, things with my family had soured, gamestop wrongfully fired me (although I was given a pay out for this), and I had just had a string of lackluster cons broken by AWA. I was off on Halloween. Toby Fox of Undertale had been teasing something for a few days and it released on this day. I was expecting it to be a survey or something. I had no idea I was getting a full game experience. The second I met Ralsei, I stopped playing and started work on the embroidery file. At the same time, I started sewing while progressing slowly through the game. I had never been hit with such inspiration before in all my life.

Later, Toby Fox revealed that he had been working on this idea since before Undertale and had made the entire thing almost by himself. It was amazing. It was inspiring. To have such creative drive that you just had to get your idea out there into the world! And that inspired me to create myself I ended up making all the characters and I sold so many. My embroidery machine had been broken since Momocon. I was borrowing a friend's. Thanks to Deltarune, I easily funded my own replacement machine. I also bought new cubes for the first time in three years. I got everything situated. New bags, new hooks for the cubes, containers to store the cubes. I literally funded a rebrand myself off Deltarune money. My etsy took off, and I was creating like never before.

That creative energy has stayed with me and burns within me even now. I was so inspired and I have this little surprise game to thank for all of this. Thank you Toby Fox and thank you Deltarune. You really saved me.

So back in Atlanta for our third AWA. I had had a rough run of cons. I did a lot of small shows and was so stressed out that I let it get in the way. There's no excuse, only learning, and I learned from past failures to come back around at AWA 2018. But before that, we decided to finally go to the aquarium!

So back to the con, setting up during the day instead of last thing at night like usual may have been a mistake because it meant we faced the brunt of Atlanta traffic which meant being stuck at our turn off for nearly an hour. But finally we got in and set up.

I tried something new with the keychains which ultimately didn't pan out, but was still fun nonetheless. This con started my string of successes back up. This and one other thing we'll get to in a moment. But this was the best con all year and really helped bolster my confidence. AWA was amazing as always and I couldn't have asked for a better showing. I was nervous after being placed next to another plush booth, but in the end it worked in my favor and I had an amazing show Saturday and Sunday. Only reason the sales stopped was because the show ended.

From the ashes of Hoshicon arises QCAC. This con is amazingly progressive and inclusive. A very safe con for people of all walks of life and a con that has had amazing growth over the time its been around. I really enjoy watching this con grow.

This con was fun the year I did it (bronycon made me unable to do it in 2019). I commuted back and forth which was quite a pain and not fun, but helped save money. The only complaint I have is unrelated to the con. There was drama with a bunch of other artist alley participants. We were in a group chat and I mentioned it to someone else in hopes they'd want to be invited and I was called names and cursed at because the chat was supposed to be a secret but I had no way of knowing this. It really soured things for me and I left crying on Saturday just because I'm not used to people coming at me so hard.

Other than that, the con was great for a small con and hopefully will continue to grow and grow!

For a change of pace, we did a one day craft fair at the local cat cafe. It was quite fun, lots of cute cats, and Michael and I made enough for dinner and a movie afterward! We saw 5th grade.

This was my first time sharing a table. I missed out on paying for my table due to my grandmother passing away, so this was a last minute share. For what little I had, we did great and was the first con I had my jellyfish in full force! Also the first con where I had price tags printed beforehand. I wouldn't go back to this until the following year. Not much to say here. A good con that I hope to make a staple now that Bronycon is done. More on that later.

The drive down to Momocon was awful just because of how tired Michael and I were. Momocon is a four day con during the same time as Animazement. My embroidery machine gave out during con prep. This was also the first con where I was living full time with Michael, so there was no need to travel to him. Leading up to this con was extremely stressful at work as the transfer to a new store had been awful just awful. I used to love working for gamestop, well I learned why a lot of people hate the place. This was my last con I did while employed with them. That's drama for another time. Despite all of this, I did my best to prep for this convention!

The convention center was extremely confusing, so we ended up getting set up super late. As such, I couldn't take good booth photos in the very beginning, so have a gallery of my attempts!

Despite how this may look, this was not a good con for us and I wish we had done AZ instead. We turned a profit, but not as much as we would have. As it turns out, there are a lot of deadzones in the artist alley so only certain spots get good traffic despite the size of the con. Also the artist alley is past the game room, past the dealer's room, past the autograph line, and right next to the car show. Dealers was insane as far as traffic, artist alley not so much. They're changing locations for 2020, so I can't say if this will hurt or help, but right now, I cant justify doing Momocon.

This was the con where I discovered the benefit of the mystery bag. After having trouble moving certain products, I went to walmart Saturday night and bought a bunch of brown lunch sacks and drew on them and put a plush, a button, and something else in each bag and they sold like hot cakes. Honestly, that's the only way we made profit at that con. Mystery bags have been a staple for me at every con since then.

Not con related, but Michael's dad invited us to his wedding which was happening in the middle of a rain forest in Costa Rica. It was quite amazing. We arrived in the city and the income difference of the city was immediately apparent between there and the tourist resort we were staying. The city was quite insane to get through. Bumper to bumper with little to no traffic signs or laws it seemed with how people drove.

As you can see from the pictures above, the room was AMAZING! Beyond belief. I have never before and never since stayed somewhere so nice. The view from the balcony was incredible as was the food! The resort itself was in the middle of the rain forest in a national park so there were plenty of trails and other things to do!

We went on a coffee plantation tour, walked several trails, enjoyed the two hot tubs in the room (one on the balcony and one in the bathroom) and had an amazing and relaxing time!

2018 Triad was a bit slower for us, but it was the year before its move back to Winston, so that's understandable. Nothing of note to say. My booth was rather lacking as during this time I was in the middle of trying to transfer my job and move to another city. Lots of business so I'm content with what I did.

Also notice that jelly? This was the last con without my manufactured jellies and with the handmade jellies! What a wonderful time!

I didn't get into Ichibancon this year, but I did get into a small first year Raleigh furry con. Having such a good time at Anthrocon, I was excited to try another furry con. My booth is strange because I was going for a "first time furry" vibe so I had a lot of affordable tails, ears, and fursuit props. Which ended up working to my advantage.

I have a LOT of bones to pick with how this con was ran. I was expecting small and prepared accordingly, so that worked out, but I know a lot of other artists weren't expecting that and it hurt them. Some traveled from pretty far away as well. When we got there, no one knew what was going on. I tried to pay for my fiance's badge since I didn't realize the table already came with one and they wouldn't take my money to argue with me about wasting time by not paying when I was literally trying to hand the man cash.

The room was changed last minute so instead of the more open room we were originally promised, we had a very small room with not enough room for everyone. We were wedged in like sardines and it was painful and as a result, uncomfortably hot. The original dealer coordinator quit right before con started and so we had someone in charge of us who didn't know anything and was largely unhelpful. He would laugh whenever we tried to ask him questions because he thought we were joking. Three different closing times for dealers were posted all over the con in different locations. He didn't properly lock or have a watch for the room so some people had stuff stolen.

Whenever we tried to ask anyone a question, we were met with hostility. It was absolutely ridiculous. The last two hours of dealers was also during closing ceremonies when no one would be shopping so everyone selling left early. They also last minute added an artist alley and had it in front of the dealers room so a lot of people got confused and thought that was dealers. There was no clear signage to dealers so a lot of people missed it. There was so much that went wrong during this con for the staff.

The main good was that the attendees were awesome as always and the food trucks were amazing! Very different food and all super yummy. But there was no food truck on friday, which was a bummer and no convenient food locations nearby.

This con lasted one more year where attendance was even worse and then folded due to drama. I did not go back for year two.