Madness!  That's what it is, I tell you!  Sheer, bloody madness!  I've lost it!  Flipped my pancake!  Misplaced my marbles!  Gone off the deep end!  Bats have inhabitted my metaphorical belfry!  My elevator has ceased to travel entirely to the top floor!  Call those men in the white coats and hand me straightjacket, Alfred!

*ahem*

Yes, well, that pretty much sums up my current cosplay To-Do list.  It all started with Abel.  Dear, Abel.  I decided I wanted to cosplay Abel when I saw the anime the first time.  I decided I had to cosplay Abel when I started watching the anime again and reading the manga. 

At the time I came to that decision, I was in the midst of a mad rush to finish costumes for Star Wars Celebration IV.  And as soon as I got back, I was going to have to start on costumes for Gencon...  So I sighed and told myself, "No TB costumes until after Gencon."

How long did that last?  Heh heh.  Not long. 

I found myself sitting at home last weekend, feeling quite out-of-sorts with no costumes to work on (I couldn't start on anything for Gencon until I made a trip to the fabric store, after all), and an extra ball of Sculpy sitting around.  So I started sclupting myself a spiffy cross.  I wasn't really working on the costume, I told myself.  This was just one little piece, after all.  And preliminary work, at that.  I was still going to have to mold and cast it...

I confessed the lapse in discipline to my partner-in-crime, Ed.  Ed is the logical one, always keeping me in line, acting as the voice of reason.  I expected a stern reminder that I still had our wench costumes and my Oola to make for Gencon, and I hadn't even started on them yet.  Instead, she laughed.  Ok, well I expected that too.  What I didn't expect what she said next:

ED:  Remember when we were painting you blue, and you decided that there was no way you were going to attempt Oola until you got an airbrush?

ME:  Yeah...

ED:  Well, an airbrush is probably going to cost more than anything you need for Abel, isn't it?

ME:  Yeah!

ED:  Well, there ya go.

ME: ...  I LOVE YOU!

Now, I'd love to explain why I needed Ed to talk me into doing Abel instead of Oola, but...  I can't.  It's just the way we work.  Ours is an interesting dynamic.  But I digress.

So.  Between Ed and finding out that there are going to be other TB cosplayers at Gencon, my decision was made.  Now, I am capable of being a sensible person, so it's probably going to be Anime!Abel.  'Cuz completing all of the bits and pieces for Manga!Abel, along with the wench costumes I'm still planning, in approximately 2 months would be next to impossible. 

But that's where "sensible" ends.  Because after Gencon, I have no specific conventions planned, and I'mma go nuts. 

First up are the Able variants.  All of them.  That's right--every freakin' thing Abel is ever seen wearing.  Why?  Because a) I love Abel just that damn much and b) I'm a collector at heart.  I can't make just one costume, or the collection won't be complete!

My most ambitious undertaking, by far--and the one that has me itching to run to the hardware store and get started NOW--is Krusnikety!Abel.  Srsly.  I can't farquing wait!  Fangs and wings and enormous weaponry!  Oh my! 

I've spent the last several days immersed in research and deep in thought, and I think I've got the biggest difficulties worked out.  And thanks to a fantastic tutorial I found right here on Tokyopop, I'm totally going to have wings that go "FWOOSH!"  Finding a way to accomplish that was enough to make me wet myself with joy.  Figuratively speaking...  Now if I could just work out a way to make them motorized...  H'oh boy...  That's next on my list of things to research. 

Currently, my biggest concern with the props isn't figuring out how to make them... It's figuring out where to make them.  I live in a small house with an 9-year-old and two other packrats.  In other words, we're rather short on space.  Essentially, there is absolutely no room in our house that is going to accomodate either the ginormous Scythe of Doom or a 10-foot wing-span.  And in spite of the fact that I plan on making both items collapsable, they're going to have to be fully expanded for particular portions of their construction.  Even the patio doesn't have that much room, as most of it is taken up by my mother's old car and various other odds and ends.  Ah, if only we had a basement or a garage...  But alas, we have neither.  So I have a feeling I'm probably going to be forced to work in our front yard.  Heh heh.  That should be interesting...  I can't wait till the neighbors come snooping.  Of course, perhaps if the bratty children across the street see me constructing fantastically huge weaponry they'll take the hint and stop egging our house.  Hehehehehe!  *evil*

Ahhh, and I've so much more to ramble about.  But my fingers have grown tired of typing and there is much research and collecting of resources to be done.  So off I go for now.

If you've enjoyed this here ramble and would like to indulge yourself in more of my TB related verbal splatterings, you should pay a visit to my Livejournal