While discussing future group cosplay options on Messenger, I mentioned that I had been getting a lot of target ads from HolyClothing that were really tempting me. The beauty of doing interpretive costumes is that for the most part they can be completed with "found" items, rather than forcing those of us who can't sew to comission things from our extremely overworked friends who can. In addition, I had been feeling a tad...geriatric for the anime convention scene (although that is apparently not stopping me from attending yet), but renaissance faires seem to skew towards (or at least include) the older crowds. And while I won't say I got this idea from the planning Senshi in the City was doing that same year, I thought it would be neat if we personalized our looks with elements of their personalities--Mercury being an apocathery, Neptune being a pirate, and Mars, due to her being a Shinto priestess in present day, would make an excellent druid. After SO very much back and forth (my friends are so supportive and patient), I eventually settled on the Serenity dress (of freaking course I did) from HolyClothing in Poppy; it's a *tad* too big, but with pins we were able to make it work. Lady Terentia found a pair of black feather wings that can be shaped to be worn as a collar, shawl, or regular wings, that were just perfect. She also suggested I rewear the dangling feathers that I had clipped in my hair from my Witch Mars costume.

I missed attending the original Renaissance Faire we were aiming for, and as a "cheer up" present, the girls bought me the tiara (which is a bit tough to see with my bangs) and the red leather bag with the crow on it, so I'm not sure which vendors they came from unfortunately. The black gladiator sandals I just...had, I might have bought them for the fairy festival we went to for Teren's 30th birthday, I'm not sure. The necklace was a perfect addition I found in the Dealer's Room the Saturday of Otakon, after I got dressed and realized the look could really use a necklace. The earrings are water caltrop seeds that my boyfriend Val found when we went to the beach together. He always intended for them to be earrings but couldn't figure out how; then Doc got into making jewelry at home and so I asked him if he had any ideas. He ended up dipping them in resin and attaching the hooks to them, making them absolutely perfect. And in any other costume they would be the star, but by far the most striking part of my look wound up being my staff. I had originally intended to just pick up a stick upstate and work on it myself, but although I found a pretty good stick, I realized I would never be able to make something that I'd be happy with. Luckily, Hime-chan's husband, who had made me my Ravenclaw wand years ago, was willing to fashion one for me. I bought the crows off of Amazon, but absolutely everything else--the varnishing, the etching, the dangling shinies that make it a proper witch's staff, are all them.