Final Fantasy Festival Day 2

As a non-game playing attendee of the Final Fantasy Festival, I had a great time! It was a calvacade of cosplay and music from the DJ at the food trucks, at the dancing green with the party animal, and the concert of the Primals.💜💕💞The Primals were the Official Final Fantasy XIV rock band. 

The following images were taken around the center court at the Anaheim Conference Center.

In the image below, a photographer was instructing a cosplayer on poses. 

My favorite activity prior to the concert was dancing with the party animal in the Dancing Green. There staff kept the crowd hyped with clapping and dancing to the disco-insspired electronica tunes. 

There were spotlight dances for each group that went through. I was able to dance with one of the last groups allowed prior to the Primals concert. I haven't had that much fun in a long, long time. 

I totally enjoyed the concert. Being a fan of AC/DC, Alice Cooper, and the like, the hard edge to the music was energizing. Even more delightful was the audience-held glow sticks that kept time to the music and changed color with certain lyrics. 

There were 15,000 fans in attendance. My son and his friends were in the mosh pit up front for the concert. I was in the adjacent room watching/hearing the concert on the screen. 

As an aside, at the developer Q&A in the convention, two things Final Fantasy fans had been requesting was that their online characters have bigger butts "butt sliders" and longer hair. Seems both could be unintentionally sliced off during battle. We will see if big butts and long hair are in the character's future. 

The next conferece is scheduled for Berlin. It might be a few years before they circle back to the United States. I would highly recommend a Final Fantasy Festival.💫😍💖 

Final Fantasy Festival Day 1

Admittedly, I know next to nothing about the Final Fantasy game and its 30+ million audience. I do know I had fun at Day 1 of the Final Fantasy XIV convention in Anaheim, California. Leading off with one of my favorite images, a group most likely on a video call. 

My interest was in the cosplay or costuming for the event. There was a cosplay parade which, from our seats, was viewed only through the monitors. 

There were many more in costume that didn't participate in the parade. These two gave me my first stickers. Cute cutouts of FF and personalized characters.  I especially like the pink and black outfit. 

I brought my Golden Girl Grandfluencer best for cosplay. Since I am a sewist, I could whip up some pretty neat stuff for these types of events. I really didn't know what to expect so I kind of winged it. 

A few more images of others dressed in costume.  

Amazingly, I slept sitting up through the Japanese translated demonstration of all of the game upgrades. There was lots of ooooos and aaahhhhhs over new game evolutions. After a 20 minute walk back to the hotel from Disneyland earlier, I was exhausted. 

Ending this post with some long perspective shots of the convention area. 

Going to Disneyland

Found a couple of cute things at thrift. This hat being one of them. Tucker, the Corgi in my life, models the newest Bio-Domes Headgear knit hat now destined for the trip. He is not too sure about his new modeling career. I am going to pull out all of the cosplay stops allowed for a Golden Girl. 

Rain has hit Northern California and has forced me inside. I have been making headway clearing the land of thistle and blackberry vines. It is not without punishment from those plants, they inflict lots of scratches and tiny wounds. 

It doesn't hurt to put my feet up and stream a few movies while I am watching the grandbaby. I tend to push myself hard and suffer the injuries later. I can say there is a BIG difference between caring for infant when you are 67 and when you are 27. Mila now weighs 12 pounds. Building up my body building arms by lifting her out of the baby swing, up from the floor, and out of the baby seat. I will have 2 days recovery during the week of arm days with Mila. Entering the new phase of the grandbaby workout. 

Heading to Anaheim! I am beyond excited. I have wanted to take a trip where there is lots of activity and lots of people. There are concerts on Friday and Saturday night of the Final Fantasy convention. I've booked the breakfasts for each day and sit-down lunches on Friday and Saturday. After watching a few YouTube videos on navigating Disneyland 70, I learned ordering food from an app saves huge chunks of time. 

I discovered a trick for wearing uncomfortable lever-back earrings. I loved these diamond pave hoops but the lever-back annoyed me. I placed a cheapo earring back between the back of my ear and the lever and now I can wear them!  

Beginnings of a fairy garden with frog figurines and solar mushroom stakes. Decorative rock, preferably in blue/purple, are on my thrift shop wish list. I am working around two large tree stumps. All of the rose bushes have been wrapped in wire. There was an initial deer munching that caught us by surprise. 

In the foreground are glass watering globes, green blown glass and glass mushroom stakes. Looking to add anything frog, fairy, mushroom, or magical to the garden. 

Keep Your Quilts and Clearing the Land

I was surprised when hospice thrift turned away a quilt for donation. Granted it was one of my first and was really ugly. I don't think that was even the determining factor. Quilts fell out of favor a long time ago. 

Since our Northern California weather has been super fantastic, I have been spending most of my time outside. With the front yard nearly whipped into shape, I have turned my attention to the backyard.  

Looks like this bears breech is trying to recover. Safe now after it was blocked off from my son's random mowing. 

To the left is the debris pile from the land cleared along the fence. The cherry tree got a tad deer munched before I could get it planted and fenced.  

And here are garden pick up sticks. A new and fun game for those tackling blackberry vines. Hoping for another burn day to get rid of that yard debris. 

There are two goals for this garden area (1) fence off the vegetable garden with either chain link or hog wire, and (2) clear the land to replace the missing portion of fencing. The leaning one shown above is one of the few sections standing. 

I lost visiting privileges to the puppy Belle, the German wirehaired pointer, when I moved. Hoping to get the yard fenced as she may enter my life again or another dog of my choosing. 🐶

Change of Plans and Summertime Sewing

I hope the summertime heat will bring out my hibernating tendencies so I can return to sewing. I found the Simplicity 4807 project I had hastily put away during my move. There are two sections I know I need to re-cut to sew the garment together.

I have the entire cosplay outfit ready for the Final Fantasy convention. I haven't modeled the jacket yet I made for the event. Sally Stand-In shows it off in the interim. I surprised myself that the lined jacket came together so easily. That reveal will be posted later this month. 

The next project queued up is one for my granddaughter Mila. Simplicity 7784 girl's summer dress in a watermelon print. 

Since my sewing patterns are now gathered in one place (pretty much), I can start to organize them by kids patterns, vintage dress patterns, keeper patterns never to be cut. 

Change of plans in the grandma brigade duties. My daughter was summoned back to office, her remote work stint short lived. A change of management decision nothing of her doing. My most favorite activity tap meant I moved my day from Wednesday to now Tuesday and Friday. All of my dance classes then line up Tuesday through Thursday after Mila duties. 

Next week I will be headed to Anaheim. I was late to the party to download the Disney app to make dining reservations. I was able to make some breakfast and lunch reserves at places around the park. There is an option to join a walk up list so I am going to test that out with dinner. 

Grandma Brigade Duties Began

My first full day's duties as part of the grandma brigade. My days will be Wednesdays, a wonderful mid-week responsibility. 

I am kicking around the idea of taking a musical theatre dance class on Mondays from 5pm to 6pm. "Perfect preparation for auditions" for the theater. Who knows, maybe I might find my second wind singing and dancing in musical theatre. 

I do believe being active as you possibly can throughout your life will help you in your later years. I now have more muscular legs from dance fitness than I did in my 20s. 

As a child born in the late 1950s, I loved to watch musicals on TV. It took awhile, in my child's mind, to figure out that people in real life didn't break into song and dance. It was a disappointing realization.  

I don't profess to be a good singer, but I love to sing. When happy, I make up my own songs and have done that for years. Still working on the tune for Mila.

Clearing the Garden Space and Dancing Happiness

Northern California received a soaking rain recently. It gave me a chance to try and clear more of the garden area for planting. I am using a small hand tool to pull the weeds out by the root. I don't want to use pesticides, (1) to protect any birds and critters, and (2) to protect us! 

Another rainstorm is predicted for later in the week. The goal is to work my way around the property. I am clearing the weed overgrowth away to replace a section of fencing currently missing. There is a blackberry bush that will pose a particular challenge in trimming and clearing. 

The burn permit for yard debris is only good through the end of this month. We have to time it between the rainy days and the unseasonably hot ones. 

Call me crazy but now I have signed up for TWO different tap dance classes. One closer to home at a community center, that being the less advanced class. I am also trying out Country Western line dancing at that same community center. This form of dance harkens back to my pre-kids life with my partner. There was a lot of drinking and sawdust shuffling back then. It is not my first rodeo.🤠

My grandbaby Mila is now 4 months old. I am the Wednesday scheduled grandma to be with her while my daughter is at work. She is able to work remote on Monday and Friday. Great news for everyone!