*chuckles* I have been dreaming to perform while cosplaying character I love. There are some anime songs that I extremely love and I want to perform the song while cosplaying a character from the anime. I may not have the nicest most angelic voice on Earth, but I truly wish to spread the love for the anime through singing- It's like showing the character's appreciation and feelings for everyone in the anime through singing.

I am not making any sense am I?

Here are few anime I would like to perform for.


TSUBASA CHRONICLES.
There are three different songs I actually love and want to perform throughout the whole series of Tsubasa Chronicles: Amrita, Yume no Tsubasa and Synchronicity. Something about these songs make me want to sing every time they are played on my laptop and handphone and made me daydreaming I'm on stage singing *hides face*

The character I would like to cosplay while singing these songs would be none other than Princess Sakura. I still have not decided which outfit of her I plan to cosplay and to perform the songs with. I do know that each song I will cosplay different outfit. I think it's fine since I really love this series, so owning more than two Sakura's costumes is something I actually wish and want.

K PROJECT
There's only one song I love from K project Season 1 and K Missing Kings and that is the song when Anna was in bird cage and Kusanagi spoke to her and she dreamt of Totsuka and Mikoto, called Flame of Red. The song seriously moves me and I love how the song is so soft and almost fragile at the beginning but slowly sparks determination as it goes on.

Anna Kushina has been my favourite character throughout the series. Despite she is a passive and has personality that is totally different from me, I feel her fragility and fear. I want to cosplay as her and to embrace her source of strength, which is HOMRA, and become someone who can protect what she loves.

OTOME YOUKAI ZAKURO
This series has been one of my favorites for like years now since its first aired. The song where the girls sing at time of battle called Benibana no Otome Uta is so beautiful and kinda childish. It's like hearing a nursery rhythm. The song matches my cheeky and bright personality so I really want to perform this song.

The character I love to cosplay from this series is Zakuro. She is rough, hard-headed and is not easy to give up, but at the same time fragile and wants to be accepted by the public because she not entirely human.

MAHOUKA KOUKOU NO RETTOUSEI
Surprised? Don't be. As hard as it seems to believe, I actually like the anime except the whole sis-bro complex which I find extremely annoying. Magic, breaking the boundaries, friendship, struggles for right and wrong- those are sort of plots I'm always hunger for. Rising Hope song gives this incredible beat to me whenever I listen to it, and kinda helps me to get back to the game and do the best I can. Cover done by One Track Noise, which you can check it out here inspired me to do cover for this song.

The character I love from this series would be Erika Chiba. She is different than the girls in the school and not spoil and goodie two shoes like Miyuki. However, I actually have no extreme desire to cosplay her, or any of the character. I simply love the school's uniform and thought of making an Original Character.

Some other anime and characters I thought of doing cover while cosplaying as:
Macross Frontier - Sheryl Nome
Gundam Seed - Lacus Clyne
Puella Magi Madoka Magica - TBD
Frozen - Elsa

There are other few characters I want to cosplay as without doing a cover, but I won't list it down because this entry is about cosplay x singing plan. This is of course a long-term plan and I may not be able to pull through all of them. Still, there's no harm dreaming to do it right?

Labels: cosplans, cosplans 2015, cosplay

Today marked the beginning day of me as NEET- Not in Employment, Education and Training. For roughly five months working as an auditor, I learnt so many things, not only about accounting, but more towards soft skills enhancement and character developing.

There were times I cried, but there were also times of joy that made me hunger for more recognition and it was not from anyone but from myself. I strove for self-pleasure in everything I do, which makes me somewhat a prideful person. I was scolded, shun, hated, discriminated, being given sarcastic comments and all made me become an even better employee.

When Kak Wati called me to go back in the office after interview session was over, I could feel my guts was tingling with excitement. Did I pass the interview? Did I get the job? I passed the interview and got the position.

It was an achievement for me who is a Diploma holder and has no working experience even for a week. I still remember Miss Sarina's words to me on my first day of work. Encouragement and the best wish of luck. It was one of the greatest moments of my life.

I proved myself to be different than others since I was in primary school. My principles, habits and personality are extremely different and annoying to many Malays- my own race. I called bosses Sir, Miss and Madam instead of Encik, Cik and Puan. Maybe because they never had such employee addressed them in English that they found me promising. Trust and confidence they showed for me made me felt accepted in the firm, but not among my colleague.

I was isolated and shun. For almost the whole months I worked there, I faced difficulties to get along with them. Seniors were reluctant to include in their conversation, leaving me on my own accord stumbling here and there as I tried to match their pace in work and commented my performance as they wished.

The pain and poison that they spit to me- they made me cried so many times and days. Thanks to them, I was ready to resign many times but Alhamdulillah I did not. I held on but if you ask me what I was holding on to? It was the words of trust and confidence from Miss Sarina.

The fight, the discrimination, the hypocrite acts- they all taught me the life as an adult is nothing close to those anime I watch and manga I read. In work, you need to have thick skin. Office politic is just so norm.

I wonder why. Why can't humans just get along like how kids are?

People become hypocrite when it comes to work, for what?

This wavered my principles and because they made their demons cornered me to the walls, I incidentally brought my demon out as well. Tension existed and lasted for as long as I remember between seniors and I.

They called me arrogant- but I was simply a high confident person.
They called me attention whore - but I was simply being childish.

It affected me mentally and physically that during Raya this year, everyone said I looked skinny- at least by built shape maintains muscular not just bones only.

The last of my work I felt extremely grateful and special. Called me self-conscious but I felt they did the open house on that day for me. I told Mama we had open house and she said perhaps it was a farewell party for me.

I know, I was being too high of myself.

But then again, they can always pick another day to do the open house. So why today? After all the downs and critical blow of disappointment of my work, I was not feeling happy and very down to say goodbye to everyone. I was ashamed.

I cried when I talked to Miss Sarina for the last time. She called me in rather serious tone which made me shivered in fear. Will I be scolded for my work again? Actually no. Once she put down her phone, she gave me the warmest smile I could ever see and asked, today is your last day right?

You know, the words made me felt so happy. It was like having someone told me it's your birthday when you thought everyone forgot about it. She told me she has no deep hatred on me and her scoldings were simply to teach me and train me. After all, she has reputation to take care of. This is a professional firm, so perfection is needed.

Through our conversation, there is a promising future for me in the firm. Me- who forever be grateful of her, will definitely come back to her call. I tried not to cry because there is nothing to cry out. So I walked out of the office with my shoulders up.

Miss Sarina, Encik Shahril.Encik Mukhriz, Puan Haliza, Encik Kamarul, Kak Wati, Kak Dina.

Thank you for everything. The trust, the knowledge, the experience, the love and the memories I earned working in the firm- I thank you. In the future, if Allah permits, we will meet again Insya Allah.

Goodbye, but this is not for forever.

Labels: auditor life, Life&lols, work life

Yesterday, I briefly listed out the online shops where you can purchase cosplay things such as costumes, wigs and shoes from. You can re-read the entry here. Today, I will briefly talk about Taobao Shopping.

Many people ask me where do I buy my cosplay stuff. I either order through costume commissions or order through Taobao. My previous entry pretty much highlights commissioners and ready to order shops that I have heard of and even ordered from. In this entry I will explain how Taobao cosplay shopping works.

TAOBAO is China Ebay or China Lelong and Mudah.my if you are familiar with these two. You can buy pretty much anything from here and I have bought few things from Taobao myself, not just cosplay-related things.

Clothes. Small furniture. Accessories.

Things about Taobao is that it is very cheap and limitless. If you want to buy just a cardigan, you will be looking at variety of options in terms of size, colors, materials, qualities and price. There are two ways you can buy things from Taobao.

ONE: self-purchase. 
TWO: through Taobao Shopping Service, or Taobao SS.

Despite I know how to order my things from Taobao by myself, I prefer to use Taobao SS. It is because Taobao SS has more exposure to the Taobao sellers and they have taken all kinds of orders before.

One actually asks me before, is Taobao a shop.

The answer is NO. You can imagine Taobao like your school or college open day. Taobao provides shop lots for sellers to conduct business and allow both consumers and sellers to interact with one another. It's like that. Which means, there won't be just one shop that sells that particular things you are looking for, or they won't be any shop that sells what you want to buy. Self-purchase can be nerve-wrecking because you need to know what you want to buy in chinese words. That is why it is more preferable to have Taobao SS and have them do the search for you.


As you can see, you can only search items in Taobao using chinese letters. I usually will search items on my own rather than ask Taobao SS to do the search for me, unless I really have no idea what the character or series is called in Chinese.

Is Taobao seller can be trusted when it comes to quality? I can't give an exact answer. Cheap items do no mean the quality is bad and vice versa. When it comes to purchasing things from Taobao, you can't put 100% trust that the quality will match whatever they put on display. Which why your Taobao SS plays a major role here.

Most Taobao SS in cosplay community knows a thing or two about the shops in Taobao. You can ask from them if the shop you want to buy from has good review or has anyone ever purchased from the store.


Clicking one of the items on display will lead you to the 'item shelf', I called it. Notice the crowns on the right panel. That is the shop's reputation whereby the reputation goes from none to hearts to jewels to white crowns and lastly gold crowns. My recommendation is you buy from shops that have more than four white crowns onward. Of course, I am not saying you should trust the shop 100% even if the shop has golden crowns because the rating is not the assurance that the item you buy has the quality as the rating. It can be that the reputation goes for excellent service, fast respond and good quality of other items.

This is why, again, Taobao SS plays major role. Experienced cosplay Taobao SS can assist you with the searching, ordering and communicating with the shop owner.

I know few Taobao SS that have great knowledge and have been ordering thing from Taobao for quite some time. Feel free to drop them a message if you are interested to buy things from Taobao.

1. Nyan2Shoppu here!
2. Daijoubu COS Shoppu here!
3. SotKia's Taobao Personal Order here!

Labels: cosplay, costume orders, taobao, tips on cosplay

Cosplaying is one of hobbies that will make holes in your savings.


COMMISSIONS
Commission is what I call for custom-made costume orders. That is to say, these shops or people tailor your costumes and accept customization. GOOD THINGS about this is that they will tailor the costume according to your body measurement and you can discuss with them about the colors, materials and design in case you have sensitive skin or want to make alternate version. BAD THINGS about this is that when you custom-made costume, you are somewhat gambling on the outcome because the tailor may or may not able to get a good picture of how you want that costume to look like. Not to mention, it takes quite some time to complete the costume, due to the difficulty and how details the costume is and how many slots the tailor takes.

There are few online commisioners out that I have bumped into. Take not that those with ★ represents I had ordered from them as well as the rate I give them.

Nekoworkshop - ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
My favorite of all time. They produce excellent quality of costumes but they are quite expensive and have limited slots. You need to confirm your slot at least FIVE months before the date of the event you plan to debut the character. Check it out!

Ruby's Cosplay Shop - ★ ★ ★ ★
My current main commissioner. I am a bit in doubt whether they actually have their own tailors or not because they appear like they provide list of costumes like ready-stock. Either way, their price is affordable and very quick. Check it out!

Costurera Haberdashery
I once planned to order a costume from them. They provide very excellent service and also have few physical shops in Malaysia. Check it out!

Professional Cosplay Costume Custom Made Service
Another excellent costume commissioner. Quite expensive since they are very keen into details and want to match 100% to the reference. It's true. I never try ordering from them because I have found Nekoworkshop before I found about them. Check it out!

Tails & Proptory
New in town commissioner but with good recognition from those who have ordered from them. I am thinking of ordering from them too one day, just to add in to my review collection. Check it out!


READY-TO-ORDER
Ready to order means you simply have to go through the albums they have provided and tell them you want to buy this costume and proceed with payment. It's similar to shopping for clothes. GOOD THINGS about this is that there is no hassle to search on references for the character's costume, does not spend too much time googling around and quite cheap compared to commissions. BAD THINGS about this is that there is no custom size, means you can only order size according to what they have listed, no alterations and you have no idea where they order your costume from, unless they state they made it.

Midori House
Everyone is quite familiar with this shop. I think Midori House is something like a Taobao Shopping service which rather than having you go through the items on taobao by yourself, they lists out costumes which they personally can assure the quality from various taobao shops. I never order from them since I prefer to go through taobao myself and order from my Taobao SS. Check it out!

Chibi's Cosplay Shoppie
They open booth at events most of the time. They sell ready stock, pre-order and also second hand cosplay things. A lot of great reviews about their service, despite they do sell second hand items. They also have renting service, which makes them the second best cosplay shop in my list. Check it out!

EzBeli
They sell almost variety of things and do not limit to cosplay items. They can converse in Bahasa Malaysia, which is very convenient for Malay cosplayers in Malaysia. Not to mention, those who have purchased costumes from them give good reviews about their service. Check it out!

Michiyo Online Shoppu
Affordable and easy. You can ask them the character and costume you want to buy and they will find it for you. Check it out!

My next entry might be about how I buy things from taobao. It will be very long and I'm too lazy to do it immediately so be patient with me. Hope this list and review of sort helps you in your decision to buy your cosplay costume online. Till then.

Labels: cosplay, costume orders, reviews, tips on cosplay

There's one thing about cosplayer that I think everyone would agree.

They have tons of wigs, a lot.

Oh sure they need costumes too but most cosplayers would keep more than two wigs of different colors and hairstyles, a lot more compared to costumes and shoes. For me, if I were to define myself as a cosplayer, it would be the hijab.

Tons of hijabs of different colors and types.

Let's take a peek on how many hijab Hana has for cosplay purpose, and I mean MAINLY for cosplay.

Take note that this collection only started early of June. I can say that, since I am a Hijabster, I do have a lot more plain scarves than these, which Mama and I have collected since the day she wore scarves during her teenage life. 

PINK!
It's cherry pink and there are only two types I have. The left is plain chiffon shawl and the right is plain crepe scarf. I bought these for Luka Megurine which I plan to debut this upcoming event, but- ahahaha well, c-can we move on? *feels murderous aura from Haine because she hates having her money KAPOOF*


PURPLE!
From the most left, glitter chiffon shawl, plain satin scarf and plain chiffon shawl. I actually can't remember exactly why I bought these. I think it's for a character from Owari No Seraph. *grins widely* Okay, no spoiling the character name for now!


BLUE!
From left, dark blue cotton scarf, crepe scarf, plain chiffon shawl and sky blue plain satin scarf. Some of you may have figured this out. I bought these pieces just to test out my hijab-styling for Aoba from Dramatical Murder. Oh no, I swear I don't have any plan to cosplay as him. Ever. *Averts eyes* MOVING ON!


RED!
From most left: bright pink-red chiffon shawl, crepe scarf and bloody red crepe scarf. This is for Shirayuki from Akagami No Shirayuki. I still haven't figured out how to style hijab for the character.

There are also WHITE and BROWN which were in washing machine during the time I took these photos. Obviously the white ones are for Anna Kushina from K project and the brown ones are for Heroine from Amnesia.

When styling hijab, I have to make sure I am still complying the Syariah requirement, which is why I don't usually wear ninja head inner (the head cover that covers till your neck) and simply pin the hijab here and there according to the character's hairstyle while leaving the neck exposed.

Maybe next entry I would explain and give sort of guide on which kind of hijab to use for what type of 'hair' of character. Thanks for reading!

Labels: cosplay, hijab cosplay, tips, tips on cosplay, whatIthink

Hana says:

Through all happiness and sorrow, I am grateful for what Allah has presented to me- great family, awesome friends, amazing experience of life, health and wealth and most importantly chance to become better than I was before. I would like to ask forgiveness from everyone who I may have purposely or not, offended or hurt, physically or emotional, and hope that in future our relationship will be better than ever. Arigatou gozaimasu!

Haine says:

Never take granted what Allah has provided for you, no matter how bitter or sad it can be sometimes. During this festive month of Syawal, I pray that every one of us are blessed and be watched over by their loved ones sides, wherever you are. Oh, and do save me some kuih raya and duit raya, Hana is drilling holes in our purse terribly this year.

Labels: family, festive time!, Life&lols, Selamat Hari Raya!, whatIthink

Finally! After months of procrastinating, I managed to come up with watermark for this blog.



It is very simple and plain. I created it using photo editing program called GIMP. It is considered as photoshop's baby brother- not too advanced and pretty simple. Due to the absence of watermark, I didn't edit my pictures before I upload them. That is why the pictures appear to be very raw and... original.

Except selfie pictures, which I use my phone Oppo that is equipped with Beautify application.

Apart from GIMP, I also use another program called Photoscape which features various editing photo functions.


It even has filters! *shiawase kyas* I usually use this program to edit my roleplay characters icons and signature, after the whole layering and additing things using GIMP. Because GIMP has quite complicated or maybe too basic lightning features, I use Photoscape to do some touch-up on the flows.

You should try the programs too!

Labels: apps, editing programs, GIMP, photoscape, reviews

Second cosplay plan is in motion. Truth to be told, it feels amazing to be back in cosplay. For now, I have at least seven and still counting cosplay plans but for the year 2015 and the amount days and events left, I could only grant myself two or three cosplay plans.

I am under budget restriction too despite I am currently in employment.



Shirayuki from Akagami no Shirayuki has been one of my favorite female characters so far. Her charismatic personality, charms and beauty really inspire me to become the best in my life. Despite she has strong alliance and romantic interest from Zen the Second Prince, Shirayuki aims to be someone who can stand by his side on her own strength.

AND SHE'S A RED-HAIRED BEAUTY.

I decided to custom-made her royal pharmacist costume from dear Nekoworkshop considering how it is lack of details. So when will I debut her? Insya Allah this Comic Fiesta 2015.

Look forward to next cosplay reveals *hearts*

Labels: akagami no shirayuki, cosplans, cosplans 2015, cosplay, shirayuki