Summer Bucket List 2017

Every year I decide I want to create a summer bucket list to make sure I don't waste a single day off sitting in my bedroom wasting my time being unproductive. This year isn't an exception. I thought I'd share with you guys what I have so far starting from May to the beginning of September and maybe this inspire you to create your own.

Summer Bucket List 2017

@awanderlustbeing

1. MCM London Comic Con 2017 (27th & 28th of May) - I already have my tickets book for Saturday and Sunday! I'm hoping to cosplay Kylo Ren on Sunday and Dr. Jillian Holtzmann on the Saturday (We'll see if I finish them in time!). I'm planning to go to a meet up to see Nyx Rising Industries (at the moment it'll be at 1:30pm - check their website for updates!) and a Disney meet up on the Sunday (2pm next to the statue). If any of you are going I'd love to meet you so leave me a comment down below! I could make a group chat on Twitter and we could all organise to meet!

2. Explore Wales - I have lived in Wales since I was nearly 2 years old and I still haven't been to a lot of places in this country. I just want to explore and see more of what this beautiful place has to offer before planning to move away.

3. Film - I feel like I'm slacking with filming and uploading videos to my YouTube channel at the moment. This is partially because I don't really have a good editing software and Windows Movie Maker severely kills my motivation to edit. I'm hoping to use the editing software at college and get some videos done and ready to upload over the summer!

4. Develop My Cosplays - Work on finishing touches and details I may have missed or had to leave out before Comic Con in order to get them ready. I don't want to start any new major cosplay projects over the summer due to no. 5 but I want to have the majority on my cosplays finished and ready to wear at any time.

5. Save Money - I want to save money over the summer for multiple reasons. One being I plan to go on holiday with my good friend and her two friends for her 21st birthday in September. I want to be able to have some spending money whilst out there to explore a bit more. Save up for a laptop (high hopes but fingers crossed!) and to just have some money saved in my bank account for moving out or starting university.

6. Delve into Portrait Photograph - I have already taken some portraits and have found a desire to do more. Over the summer I'd love to find a few people willing to model for me so I can practice and hopefully get some nice shots for my Instagram.

And last but not least:

7. Get Fitter - I plan on starting going to the gym and eating healthier to loose weight, build muscle and live a healthier lifestyle. This is my choice because I am overweight and I know I have an unhealthy diet. I want to do this to feel more confident, health and positive.

If you guys are inspired by this post to make your own summer bucket list or you've already beaten me to the punch I'd love to hear from you in the comments below. Perhaps you may strike me with inspiration and I may add to my own!

The story behind my tattoo

For the past 3 or 4 years I have been dreaming of getting a tattoo. I think it's a phase a lot of people go through in their teens. At least, it was between me and my friends in school. When I was 16/17 I remember being infatuated with looking at tattoo designs on the internet and thinking about having them done when I was old enough.

Come my 18 birthday I knew exactly what tattoo I wanted to have as my first: a forget-me-not flower.

Forget-me-nots are my favourite flower of all time. The reason for this is because they used to grow in an abundance in my Nanny's garden. As a child my Nanny was and still is one of my favourite people. I used to spend all of my free time with her. Her house was only a couple of streets over from my mother's so after school I'd rush over to her house and I'd sleep over there most weekends. She was such a caring and lovely lady. 

I have so many memories with her. Simple things like how she taught me to boil an egg, how I sometimes used to help her make rock cakes, that she used to take me on the bus down town to pick out a new colouring book whilst she had to go to the pet shop and bakery, her three Yorkie dogs and the dozens of birds she had. How I used to help feed her fish in the pond at the back of the garden and how when she became ill she never failed to make me happy.

Forget-me-nots always remind me of my Nan before she suffered with Cancer. I was too young to realise at the time that she was loosing her battle and really suffering and I didn't really understand what had happened too well when she had died. I understood what death was but I don't think I grieved right away. It took a while to sink in and I still sometimes have moments where I miss her so much and get upset.

I felt that this tattoo would help to keep her memory alive. I'm no longer able to go to her old house and I have very little physical things left of her. I have a few of her things like a doll, a watch and some broaches. I thought dedicating my first tattoo to her would be nice. 

I had it done on the 14th of April, 2017 at 11:30am; a week ago today. I have waited nearly two years to have this tattoo done and I couldn't be happier with it!

@yagooobian

I hoped you enjoyed this little story. I thought it'd be nice to share with you. What are your feelings on tattoos? Do you have some or are planning to get one? Leave me a comment below!

Cosplaying Harley Quinn

If you happen to follow my personal Intsagram account (yagooobian) and/or my Amino Cosplay profile (awanderlustbeing) you may already know that I cosplay Harley Quinn from the Suicide Squad movie. At the moment I don't have a lot of the cosplay done. I basically just have the wig, make-up and t-shirt sorted for her 'superhero outfit' and the wig, make-up, slippers and props for her outfit in the last scene in her cell.

I recently wore the 'superhero' cosplay to Film & Comic Con Cardiff back at the beginning of March, despite the plan being to cosplay Kylo Ren. As this year goes on I'd like to add to my Harley Quinn cosplays so at least the prison cosplay is done and the 'superhero' cosplay will be further alone or even completed.

I want to tackle something though which pushed me into writing this blog post on a Saturday morning before work. Leave Harley Quinn cosplayers alone.

It is entirely up to each individual person who or what they want to cosplay. Some people are negatively pointing out that there are a lot of Harley Quinn cosplayers with the Suicide Squad cosplays yet I don't think they realise that there were a lot of Harley Quinn cosplayers before the movie was announced. I have seen plenty of classic Harley cosplayers as well as some from the videogames and cross overs or original pieces for the character.

You are allowed to cosplay anything or anyone you want to cosplay. I would love to cosplay Foreteller Ava for example, yet I haven't played that particular part of the Kingdom Hearts series. That doesn't mean I'm not allowed to cosplay that character. Even if you haven't seen the movie/tv show, played the game or read the book the character belongs too doesn't mean you can't cosplay them. Cosplay is to celebrate characters whether that be you're drawn to a character because of their design, personality, backstory or if you feel a connection to them in some way.

So what if they are now more Harley Quinn running around at comic conventions? I think it's pretty cool that all those people want to celebrate her as a character. I'd also like to just say, not one cosplay is the same.

Are you a Harley Quinn cosplayer? Have you experience this judgement first hand or seen people criticising people for cosplaying certain characters? I'd love it if you left a comment below!

Cosplay: What It Is and What It Isn't

Cosplay, or 'costume play', is the art of dressing up and pretending to be a character. It's something I found out about around the age of 14/15 or what I like to call my Japanese phase seeing as this is around the time I was obsessed with everything Japanese culture. Through Anime I found people cosplaying on YouTube who went to conventions and created skits. Instantly I was hooked.

To me cosplay is a creative outlet. I barely draw or paint anymore like I used to in school, I seem to have lost a lot of motivation to continue with it despite it having being a big part of my life. I've mentioned before I struggle with bad mental health and cosplay is a huge help with keeping positive. It give me a goal to work towards and I feel a huge sense of achievement by the end when I wear a cosplay.

Of course cosplay is a wonderful thing where everyone in the community interacts with you as your characters at conventions and it can lead to making new friends and learning new skills. However, there is also a negative side like everything has now. The cosplay community is full of lovely people with different skills and tips if you can find them. There are also those who find it hard to understand that anyone can cosplay and that everyone's cosplay efforts should be respected and celebrated.

It doesn't matter if you are black and want to cosplay a white character or vice versa. It doesn't matter if you want to cross dress to cosplay a character identifying as a different gender than the one you identify as. It doesn't matter if you buy or make your cosplay or do a mixture of both. It doesn't matter if you don't have the skills another cosplayer does. It doesn't matter if you weigh more or less than the character you are cosplaying. The thing about cosplay is that it should make you happy. Having made the effort to research and make/buy your cosplay is personally the best feeling to me. 

Cosplay is everything to me and I'd love to learn new skills and develop my cosplays to make them the best I can. I want to build up the range of cosplays I have and build up a portfolio of sorts just for my own entertainment and the entertainment of others.

I'd love to hear from you in the comments below. Tell me what cosplay means to you and if you send me a link to where you showcase your cospalys I'd love to have a look.

Let us all support one another and celebrate cosplayers of all ages, genders, skin tones, heights, weights and abilities!

Anxious Over Your Future? Me too!

We all have the pressure at a young age to decide the career path we want to follow for presumably the rest of our lives, do we not? Being in Wales, UK and working my way through the public schooling system we were given choices at 14 years of age for what four subjects we'd like to studying along side core subjects (Science, Maths, Welsh, English, P.E.) for the next academic year. Obviously I choose subjects I thought were fun and didn't think about the future as I didn't know what I wanted to do yet. I didn't really see the connection between school and our lives once we finished school. To me it was just something we had to do five days a week.

Then moving into Sixth Form and having to choose more subjects there, still unsure of which career path I wanted to go into but now seeing more of a connection between my grades and my future. I focused on Art. I've always been a creative person and have always found enjoyment in drawing. Until Sixth Form that is. I started to really hate the school I was at. I was dealing badly with my own mental health and I was falling behind, having my teacher constantly telling me that I needed to pick up my slacking in order to pass my exams. I felt trapped in Sixth Form and like I didn't belong so I made the decision to leave before the exams.

When I look back on this now, I regret it so much. I would have preferred I had stuck it out and gotten my AS Level exam grades and worked harder but I don't feel so bad because leaving Sixth Form resulted in what I like to call my big move!

I moved in with my Dad, a hour North up the coast of where my Mum lives, and enrolled in a Level 3 Extended Diploma in Childcare. If you've read a previous blog of mine (Half Way There!) you'll know that I studied Childcare. Reading back over that post there are a lot of things I said that didn't come true. For one I didn't go to work in Australia. I still plan to go to Australia to stay with family but the issue there is funding! Two I didn't go through with doing the extended essays to give me the option of university. I began to get bad again with m mental health and decided that I had enough work to do with the actual course let alone stacking three essays on top too. Sometimes I wish I had gone through with them but it doesn't bother me too much to be honest.

Once I had finished the two years in childcare I was thrust into the pressure of trying to find a job in the local schools or nurseries. I already have a weekend and holiday job in my village anyway so I wasn't paranoid about being left without an income (not that I was desperate for one because I am still living with my parents but I want to get on my own feet) but I wanted a full time job. When the summer was ending and I still hadn't found a job I didn't want to be sitting around doing nothing all week and decided to apply for another course at the college. 

Media Productions was my course of choice! I have been interested in filming for a couple of years and obviously I have a YouTube channel but I had never really given thought into pursuing it as a career. Since starting the course in September I have felt as if I have finally found something I feel really passionate about pursuing as a career path. I did enjoy childcare but I enjoy and feel incredibly at home on this course. I have two years of this course overall and then I'm thinking about university as an option afterwards. 

The reason I decided to write this blog post is because I haven't always had the best responses or support from those closest to me when I have decided to change my mind with subjects through my education. They have grown to support me once they have gotten used to the idea that I'm on a different course. I've learnt that it doesn't matter that if you don't know what you want to do when you're older. There's nothing wrong with exploring different subjects and trying different hobbies to find something you're really interested in. Don't worry about your age as much as I do sometimes. I'm turning 20 in two months and while most of my friends are nearing the end of their second year in university and could be out by 22 years old I won't be out of uni until I'm 24. 

I wish you all the best and I'd love to hear your experiences in the comments below!

Cosplay Chatter

I always hype myself up every year to make New Year's resolutions and I never end up meeting them by the end of the year. I simply forget about them. Take this blog post for example, this probably should have been written and uploaded back in January but you should know me by now -insert sad laugh here-.

Despite not having created New Year's resolutions this I did decide to make some Cosplay plans for the year to try to meet. There are six cosplays altogether:

1) Kylo Ren (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

2) Maria Posada (The Book of Life)

3) Anastasia Romanov (Anastasia 1997)

4) Elizabeth (BioShock Infinite)

5) Han Solo - Genderbend (Star Wars 4, 5 & 6)

6) Belle - (Beauty and the Beast)

(Originally posted on my personal Instagram account: @yagooobian)

I don't want to go into detail about cosplaying and my plans during this blog post. The reason being a friend of mine (Mivi) suggested I make a video over on my YouTube channel about my experience and plans for cosplay. I filmed it but I wasn't happy with it and felt it was too long so I have decided to turn it into a series of sorts as well as the plan to film videos with updates of my current cosplays. 

Thank you for reading,

A Wanderlust Being

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things!

Have you ever had a hobby you once really enjoyed but had given up? 

Throw back to a six year old me. I once took ballet classes and I LOVED them. I had made a lot of friends there, all of which I can no longer remember (funny thing I found out recently that my brother's girlfriend had in fact gone to the same school and may have been in my class! My good friend, Alesandrina, had also gone to the same school but we think she may have started after me and in a different class at the time). I left because I was simple bored. It's strange to think back on: 'A six year old me being bored of playing ballet games and actually wanting to learn more than what the teacher was teaching us'. That is the reason I left.

Going throughout school I hadn't picked it back up. I have always loved dance in general and continued to hold a love for it throughout my teenage years. During secondary school there were different dance groups held during lunch times we could sign up for. If I remember correctly I joined anything to do with danicng: Dance Mats, Zumba, Hip-Hop, Body-popping. 

I also remember feeling the effect of quitting ballet all those years ago. I really missed dancing and when I become friends with Alesandrina in school and a few other friends and people I knew were in the same class I felt the desire to dance again. I didn't follow those desires though and just continued on with Street dance in school. 

During those years where I joined those dance groups, we competed in three competitions of sorts. The first was the body-popping. It was a friendly competition of sorts (another funny fact: One of my friends from Childcare was at the same competition!) were schools in Ceredigion all competed with their hip-hop/street style dances. 

The next was with the Zumba group. It was more of a showcase than a competition if I remember correctly and a few different groups from different schools all came together to show off their Zumba routines. 

The one I remember the most is the Street group where we competed competitively with different schools in Ceredigion once again. We were all so excited because we had a really strong routine and our teacher was pretty confident in us that we could pull it off without a hitch. After everyone completed their routines we were judged. We were really upset with the results. We would have been happy with what ever place we came, don't get me wrong. Saying that, our dance teacher revealed on the bus home that she had talked to the judges, asking for feedback on how to improve our ability. She had explain we had come second (which is great!) but we would have come in first place if we had not worn the masks with were using during the dance (which is not so great). 

She wasn't happy that they had judged us on something that wasn't our dancing ability. The judges had told her that they wanted to see more emotions in our faces during the routine. Although we were annoyed with this fact, we were still happy because we had all been doing what we loved - dancing.

Since leaving school I had not had the opportunity to join any dancing group or class. Until recently. I'm now in my third year of college in Aberystwyth, no longer studying childcare and the teacher from my last street dance group has set up adult dance classes. Although it is back in my old town, an hour and three quarters journey on the bus from college, I knew I had to take that opportunity. I have been attending her classes now since Septemeber 2016 and I cannot express how much I love dancing again. We have gone through Tap, Jazz, Street and Ballet. Starting out one a week until December and now twice a week. 

I am so glad to have had the opportunity to get back into dance, especially ballet. I may have waffled on but the whole point I had for this blog post was to share with you my story. How I gave up something I loved because I was impatient. Don't give up on something you really love only to regret it later. Keep on going.

A Wanderlust Being.