BroadwayCon 2017 Cosplay Sneak Peek! - WIP Wednseday

I leave tomorrow on a bus to NYC for the second annual BroadwayCon. I've kept my costume, for the most part, a secret. It's a crossover costume of my two favorite musicals, and it's a pun. Feel free to guess, the costume will be revealed tomorrow when I wear it to see CATS! (4th-row orchestra aisle seat!!!) Follow me on Instagram to catch that reveal.

Anyways, please enjoy a few work-in-progress shots (minus makeup) of my costume. Huge shout-out to my mom for sewing all the buttons on by hand. I love you mom!

See you at BroadwayCon if you're going. If not, you can look forward to so many photos, video, etc. in the next few weeks! Meow!

dreams change & post-empire, 4th wall or whatever

I'm debating making this type of content a regular thing. The sort of, stream-of-consciousness/unscripted/turn on the camera and see what happens, type of vlog. I'm calling it at "4th Wall Chat' because of my Breaking the Fourth Wall video.

It's something I wish more YouTuber's did, but I understand why they don't. YouTube is their job, they have to remain brand-friendly, and getting too real is not often the 'safe' thing to do. Since I'm not a full-time YouTuber I can afford to get real.

One question though, can you call it post-empire when there was no ‘empire’? Heh.

Anyways, if you enjoy watching creatives create live then please follow me on Twitch…no, this is not a joke, stop laughing. https://www.twitch.tv/magiccatjenny

2017 Goals

The last time I wrote about my goals was last summer and about 50% of those were completed. But I haven’t done a big 'start of the year’ goals post since 2015. I never did a ‘In 2015 I…’ post despite many life-changing and amazing things that happened that year. The truth is, the following year was tough, and I’m not going to pretend that those reasons are magically gone due to a revolution around the sun. The feeling of renewal at the new year is in part due to tradition. The thing is, humans love traditions. So, I’m just gonna go with it. Here are my 2017 goals. Through this ‘blog' slash 'online journal' slash 'chronicles of me,' I’ll be keeping you up-to-date on the progression of said goals. They might become short updates or full posts. Anyways, enjoy.

Life Stuff

•  Read (at least) 25 books.

A book's a book, so picture books and comics (TPBs) count. ;)

• Shop more consciously.

Research and learn about the options that are out there and the consequences of shopping at different places. Use that knowledge to weigh my options. Think about environmental impact, human rights, and health; but also take price and my current financial situation into account. 

• Waste less.

As much as I can, when I can, try and lower my carbon footprint.

• Start my journey to a capsule wardrobe.

Always feel confident and comfortable in the clothing I wear. Learn more about the issues regarding 'fast fashion'. Maybe sew some clothes myself...

• Don't put my life on hold due to fears.

A little cryptic but this applies to many things in my life.

Internet Stuff

• Write about my 2015.

• Write about my 2016.

• (Finally) post wedding photos.

• *Secret* project (shhhh) <—totally a link to it. pls follow…? and share ♥ 

• Sort out my digital life. (*sings* digital style!)

This one might need some explaining. I tend to start a lot of projects, join a lot of Facebook groups, enter into different online communities, and then run out of time for everything. I want to start over, in a way. My time is valuable and I don't want to spread myself too thin. This also references my files and hard drive situation...and it is a 'situation.' Oh and if you know what 'digital style' is from...wow look a bar graph!

My Dream Author Confrence

This month I’ve been writing down a list of goals for the new year and one of those goals is to blog more. So that’s why, when I heard about the 'dream author conference' post trend, I thought I'd give it a shot! The trend/post idea comes from Eventbrite a website you can use to find conferences and convention in your area. It's where my BroadwayCon ticket is! (For clarity, this post is not sponsored, and I'd love to read more. So kind of think of it as a tag...and I tag you!)

Okay, so, who would I love to hear talk on a panel about books? They can be authors alive or dead, or even characters. Honestly? I’d love the panel to be focused on the writing process, world-building, and how to keep long series interesting.


World Building - Tolkien
First up would be the legendary J.R.R. Tolkien. His ability to create an entire world, complete with different languages and lineages is amazing. I love getting lost in descriptions of his. The beauty and detail of his world is something I don’t know if I’ll ever begin to come close to, but it’s inspiring.


Drive and Confidence - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Next, would have to be Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. She wrote a vampire series, starting with 'In The Forests of the Night,' when she was 13 years old. I’ve written countless stories since I was that age, but nothing complete or even near being published. I have not re-read her books since I was her age but I remember loving them. I'd love to have that kind of drive to write what I wanted, despite the voices (from myself or others) saying it's not likely to happen.


Endurance - K.A. Applegate
I'd want to learn how to keep a series going for a very long time without losing the interest of your readers. There are so many series that span many many books but the one from my childhood that springs to mind is Animorphs by K.A. Applegate. I’ll be honest, I did not read every single book in the series but I read most. (Including the Megamorphs offshoots and other specials about other alien races in the universe.) That kind of series endurance would be so great to get right.


Foreshadowing - J.K. Rowling
Lastly, I can't forget J.K. Rowling. The foreshadowing in her books is so much fun, especially on a second or third read. I'd love to learn how she planned everything out, if she knew each and every plot twist and turn at the start or if the story reviled it'self to her as she went and cleverly took things that already were there to make all the connections. I want to learn how to do both.




There are so many more people I could add to this list but these four feel like a good start. Thank you Eventbrite for the great idea...now I feel like opening scrivener to start planning my epic series...





Project for Awesome 2016

There's one more day left of P4A! This year it happened during my travels so I have not been as good at promoting as I have been in last years. For those of you who don't know, once a year the YouTube community comes together to raise money for charities and non-profits. It's called Project for Awesome. This year, I am supporting the World Resources Institute. Their mission statement is to “move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.”
 
For more information on P4A: http://www.projectforawesome.com 
For more information on Heifer International: http://www.wri.org/ 
Don't forget to comment on the video to help!

I'm going to be on a cosplay panel!

BroadwayCon is coming back and guess who gets to be on a panel about cosplay? Me!! That is, if I can get my costume done in time... With my consulting work, Etsy shop holidays traffic, and traveling to CA for 3 weeks (3!!), I'm really really running out of time.

So far the only information we have on the panel is that it's called 'Curtains Up On Cosplay' and it's moderated by my new friend Lindsey of Phantom on a Budget. The other panelists are Enchanted Sea, Viscountess Designs, and Inked Alchemist. 

More news will be updated here as it comes! If you're attending the convention, please come to the panel and say hi! 

What I'm Thankful For

Feeling sad but thankful for the amazing people in my life.

Lets take a moment

I’ve been having a hard time blogging on a schedule since my wedding and my cross-country move. I’ve written a few different “I’m back!” posts since then but nothing’s seemed to stick. (here, here, and here.)  Adjusting to a new state and coast, working from home, being far away from family, and struggling a bit financially for the first time, are some of the culprits. All of those have led to poor mental health and worry. (Honestly, it’s amazing I’ve managed to keep up with making videos.) The reason I'm mentioning all of those things here is to remind myself that I can’t blame last week on my blog’s failure in the future. Last week was just the straw. That awful orange straw and I'm the donkey camel with the broken back. (Though it's anything but minor...more like the sledgehammer that floored the poor camel.)

Last week was devastating. There is no bright side, there is no selfish escaping to other countries, there is is just the overwhelming realization that we are facing what could be a very hard 4 to 8 years. The push and pull of politics is the reality of this country. However we don't have time for a 'push and pull' about the environment. Along with fearing for the immediate rights of people, I fear for future generations living on this planet. ""We can’t unmelt the Arctic or magically remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere. We make decisions today that future generations must live with."

I'm working up the spirit to get back to *business, but I can’t continue on this blog (or any other public place I exist online) without acknowledging what’s going on, yet I don’t want to rant on forever without taking action. I’ll read up, plan, act, and fight. I’ll go back to creating what I create. I just can’t let him take away one of the things that makes me happy, and I can’t feel guilty for being positive and happy about other things in my life. 

Take care of yourselves, really.

*This blog, YouTube, and other fun internet-related hobbies.

Lavender Tea + September and October Reading Wrap Up

Drinking lavender tea and sharing my September and October Reading Wrap Up. Subscribe⇢http://bit.ly/SubMagicCatJenny
Patreon⇢http://patreon.com/MagicCatJenny Goodreads⇢https://www.goodreads.com/magiccatjenny

Shilo (Repo The Genetic Opera) - Halloween 2016

Six years ago I dressed up as Shilo from Repo! The Genetic Opera for Halloween. It was her ending song outfit, covered in blood, I was just missing the gun. This year for Halloween I'm dressed as Shilo yet again in her opening number outfit, from the song 21st Century Cure.  I had been saving items from way wardrobe to put this together for years and forgot all about it. When I moved I found it all and now I’ve finally finished it. Here are some more photos and a video of how I made it at the bottom of the post.

art

This is art. This is how I could make music. This is avoiding getting in front of a camera. This is an excuse to re-live old videos. This is probably pretentious crap. This is a satire about creating art. This is only 31 seconds.

The Problem with Travel Vlogs & Daily Vlogs

I'm not someone who can make great videos and enjoy time with friends and family at the same time. Too much context switching. Let me know in the comments your feelings on the topic. As always, thanks for watching and subscribing. If you missed it, my Sweden travel video is here.

A Montage of Our Sweden Trip

This year my husband and I went to Sweden, one of my favorite places in the world. I put together a short travel montage for those interested. As I say in the video, I will be writing about our trip and posting photos here soon. Thanks for watching and subscribing!