May the odds be ever in your favour!

It's been a while! Guess what? Yesterday I finally got to debut a new cosplay!
 
The school library I work at holds an annual Book Character Day as part of Book Week, and since I raised the bar so high last year by cosplaying Gandalf the Grey, I knew I had to dig deep and pull something extra special out of the bag.

Thanks to my incredibly supportive and understanding boss, I actually had some funds behind me to enable the recreation of this character. She realised that I had gone to quite a bit of effort and expense last year in putting Gandalf together and didn't want me to be so out of pocket for representing the library in our school community. She justified it as 'library promotions'. (PS I know how ridiculously blessed I am. My boss is wonderfully generous to me, not to mention exceedingly kind to be so excited to see what I come up with next!) 

So, what did I do for Book Character Day 2014? If you read the title of this journal, I'm think you might've already guessed



I decided to reprise Effie Trinket, who I first did as a one-night-pull-together for BCD two years ago (my boss didn't realise back then how much I loved dressing up and only texted me about it the afternoon before the big day!) and this time attempt her gorgeous butterfly outfit from the Catching Fire movie. I don't know what made me think I could do it. It was fraught with mishaps and problems and running out of butterflies and having to create and hand-paint more myself, and I constantly had this sick feeling in my stomach whenever I worked on it, dreading that I'd get to the end of assembling the whole thing only to find I couldn't get it off the mannequin or over my body or something like that ... but, GUESS WHAT?!

I DID IT!

For most of the day, I was in a bit of pain due to the fact that I couldn't actually sit down, PLUS the shoes were a bit of a cow to wear. (The dress was just too fragile and sitting would have crushed the butterflies and/or ripped the pieces apart because of my poor craftsmanship of the underworkings.) I did manage to have 'shoe-breaks' throughout the day, though ... which was bliss ... but all discomfort and pain floated away in the thrill and happiness of the day. I felt like I was having a birthday. The kids were so excited to see Effie and lots wanted photos with and of me. Some teachers even asked me to come to their classes to greet their students in character, which I did with absolute pleasure! I'll never forget the sight of an an entire class standing on their chairs to look at me from their classroom windows ... or the sound of their applause when I decided to visit! :') Everyone was just so lovely!! 

The most beautiful thing about Book Character Day this year, though, was .

She was such a kind friend/sister, waking up at 5:15 just so that she could travel to work with me and help get me into my costume (no easy feat!), put my wig and shoes on me and glue the butterflies onto my skin. On top of all that, she took it upon herself to follow me around for the day taking photos of me and the kids (in their super outfits!) I don't know how I will ever repay her. She really made everything possible and I just know I could not have done anything without her. She kept reminding me to drink water, take off my shoes, and gave me little prods to speak in Effie's voice when I was getting too tired to remember there were kids waiting to hear it. She carried my bags, held an umbrella for me when it rained and cheerfully took agreed to take photos of a queue of students on the phones they kept thrusting into her hands. Veleven/M was so giving all day, and I know it wore her out and that the Popcorn Chicken Snackbox from KFC is but a paltry/poultry offering of thanks (hur hur see what I did thur?) ... so I wanted to make special mention of her in this journal. Thank you so much, sis. I hope you know how much your help on BDC meant to me.

(And I can't wait to share with you some of the amazing shots she took!)
 
Anyway, just wanted to chronicle my joy while it was fresh in memory. 

God bless, guys. 
e/berpi.