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One weekend during my six week adventure in Sweden for the World Nuclear University Summer Institute I took a quick trip to Norway. I few into Bergen, spent two nights there seeing the city and taking a cruise along the fjords, and then took the train through the mountains to Oslo, spent an afternoon […]

Norway 2017

In 2017 I was so incredibly fortunate and was selected by my employer to attend the World Nuclear University Summer Institute a six week intensive school for young professionals in the nuclear industry. WNU 2017 was held in Uppsala Sweden, a smaller city about 40 minutes from Stockholm. For six weeks […]

Sweden and Finland 2017

The idea for Taco Belle first popped into my head randomly a few years ago, but I never quite got around to trying it. With the Beauty and the Beast live action movie coming out in 2017 though, I think this would be the perfect time to finally bring my […]

Taco Belle – DragonCon 2017

Sheila the She Wolf was a completely late minute addition to my DragonCon 2017 line up, but what a great addition she was! I literally made this costume in a single morning the Sunday before we left for con. I had just finished binge watching GLOW, I knew a good […]

Sheila the She Wolf – DragonCon 2017

In September of 2016 I was fortunate enough to attend a week-long conference in Bruges, Belgium. As Ryan and I had not yet taken a honeymoon we turned this into a mini vacation. After arriving in Bruges and spending the first day exploring the city, we hopped on first world […]

Belgium and France – 2016

Ryan and I were lucky enough to get to travel to Hawaii at the end of 2015, as I had a conference in Honolulu the week before Christmas. As we didn’t have too much time after the conference ended, we decided to spend the entire trip on Oahu. No regrets! […]

Hawaii – 2015

My inspiration for this costume came absolutely from the desire to carry around a tiny parasol. While this isn’t the most complex costume I’ve ever made, it’s definitely one I enjoyed the most as it was an original design and crafted entirely without pattern or reference images, giving me a […]

Victorian Sailor Moon – DragonCon and Knoxville Fanboy Expo 2017

For DragonCon 2016 I made a last minute decision to construct a Big Sister, to accompany my husband’s regular splicer outfit. This costume was put together in a grand total of 20 days. It will need a few touch-ups and repairs to be worn again, but overall I think it […]

Big Sister – DragonCon 2016

In 2015, not having taken a vacation of any sort in over two years, Ryan and I opted to take our first vacation together.  We didn’t really care where we went, as long as it was warm.  I kept my eyes on the various flight deal websites, and when cheap […]

Aruba – 2015

After completing my PhD at the end of 2012 I traveled back to Canada to spend some time at home with my family, and as I hadn’t yet lined up the details of my new job (or even decided which of the two options I was going to go for) […]

Philippines – 2013

In the summer of 2009 I took one of my last backpacking trip for the near future, as I had recently gone back to school, and money was starting to get a bit tight.  To save costs I kept travel to a minimum and focused my time of some relatively accessible […]

Panama and Colombia 2009

In the fall of 2008 I made another overly ambitious multi-country trip, starting in Istanbul and working my way to Egypt, with stops in Syria, Jordan, and Israel.  I’m so glad I made this trip when I did, when the region was relatively stable outside of Iraq.  As I mentioned […]

Middle East 2008

In the spring of 2007 I spent a month traveling through central america.  I started in Costa Rica, moving north through Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Belize.  I was perhaps a little overeager, and rushed, and didn’t spend quite as much time as I would have liked in each of these […]

Central America – 2007

After my fantastic trip to Italy in February of 2002, I completely caught the travel bug.  I spent the next few months scouring every travel book I could find, trying to figure out where I wanted to go next.  I made a short list, and then called my travel agent and asked […]

Peru – 2002

A long long time ago (if I can still remember) I took my very first solo trip.  Not just my first solo trip abroad, my first solo trip anywhere.  It all happened rather fast.  I was walking in downtown Toronto, on my way back to my dorm, and I passed […]

Italy – 2002

This year for DragonCon I decided to tackle yet another Final Fantasy character (see Kefka and Yuffie from previous years.)  Wanting to both stretch my crafting skills, as well as explore a character from another of my favourite games, I settled on Edea Kramer from Final Fantasy VIII. Oh, no problem, just learn […]

Edea Kramer (Final Fantasy VIII) at DragonCon 2015

Another set of costumes for DragonCon 2015.  I don’t have any progress shots for this build, sorry, I was too consumed with preparing Edea. I made Ryan’s BoJack horseman head mostly out of thick sheets of styrofoam that had been sitting in our shed for about a year.  I think […]

BoJack Horseman and Princess Caroline for DragonCon 2015

When Ryan mentioned that I reminded him a little bit of Gadget Hackwrench, from Chip N’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers I knew it would have to be my next costume.  A great show from my childhood, plus a fun, smart female engineer?  It’s perfect! I got distracted and didn’t take very many […]

Gadget Hackwrench and Monterey Jack (Chip and Dale Rescur Rangers) ...

Last year for my first DragonCon I went as my favourite character from my favourite video game; Yuffie from Final Fantasy VII.  It was my first major costume construction and I had such a wonderful time making it.  For my second trip to DragonCon I wanted to do another of […]

Kefka Palazzo (Final Fantasy VI) at DragonCon 2014

After finishing my Kefka build for DragonCon 2014 I was so excited, and so happy with how it turned out, that I decided to tackle a second project. In my early teenage years I became pretty obsessed with Sailor Moon.  And by pretty obsessed, I mean scarily manic obsessed.  I owned […]

Queen Beryl (Sailor Moon) at DragonCon 2014