Mechacon 2017

Good afternoon everyone! My sister and I were at Mechacon in New Orleans from Thursday through Sunday. They had moved venues from the Hilton Riverside hotel to the Hyatt Regency this year, which wasn't the best decision they could have made.

While the Hilton hotel was too small after so many years of growing attendance, the Hyatt was too large. I'm not sure who designed the Hyatt, but it is a convoluted mess. While I like the hotel rooms being designed around an atrium (it gives you the peace of mind of not hearing people outside your room at midnight like it would in a normal hotel with hallways), the first through third floors were a maze built around sculptural columns and walls. 

My sister and I made the mistake of eating at Vitascope in the hotel on the first night and spent $50 on two burgers and an appetizer. All the other restaurants in the hotel were expensive and the same went for any food in the hotel shops. Even the Starbucks was charging an extra two dollars on Frappuccinos. 

The next morning we took a walk over to Willa Jean's bakery and restaurant for breakfast. 

O_o".........so delicious!!!! I had a sausage biscuit with an egg on top and pimento cheese. I wasn't a fan of the pimento cheese, but the sausage and egg were fantastic with the biscuit, which was soft and flaky in the middle and chewy on the outside.

Our first day at the convention was an odd experience compared to the previous years we had been there. The dynamic of the audience had changed completely. People we had been used to seeing every year weren't there. I saw one guy I remembered from last year (he had bought my bunny sundae amigurumi last year), but I didn't recognize anyone else.

The Mechacon staff decided this year that they would combine the artist's alley and the dealers' room to give the feeling of a 'bazaar,' which you think would have been a great idea, but it was a death knell for the artists. People were walking right past the artist tables to head towards the dealers' room.

The hall that they had the artists and dealers in had the WORST lighting I have ever seen! The artists side of the hall had a lower ceiling, which meant that anyone who had tall displays were cutting their lighting off on their booth. The overhead A/C pipes and ducts were blocking light in certain areas.

The staff ended up moving tables over to help the artists in the dark sections get a little light, but that put other booths in semi-darkness. The better idea would have been to move the artists in the dark to unoccupied tables because there were quite a few artists that didn't show.

Another problem with the room was the A/C. It was barely working on Thursday when we came by to set up our booth....by Friday morning it was COLD!!! Extremely cold......my sister never complains about the cold and she was freezing. We had several customers complain about the cold, but what could you do. The hotel was trying to compensate for the fact that there were hundreds of people milling around the room.

After an bizarre day, we packed up our merchandise and headed to our hotel room. Which took about 15 minutes. You wouldn't have thought it would take that long, but the Hyatt decided they wanted to have fancy elevators, which you operated with a dial pad. Which sounds fantastic, but it isn't practical for a convention crowd. 

When you put in the floor you were going to, the dial pad would say which elevator you needed to go to.....like car A or D or F, etc. Multiple floors could be using the same car.

Downside to that fancy technology, you can't randomly get on an elevator and go to the floor you wanted because guess what?!?!? there are no buttons on the inside of the car expect for opening and closing the door and the emergency call button.

There were so many people trying to use the elevators that the hotel staff had to lead groups of people to the service elevators........it's enough to drive you insane.

I felt sorry for the staff of the hotel and any guests in the hotel that weren't connected to the convention.

For dinner we found Company Burger, which was on the same block as Willa Jean's. It is ranked in the top 30 burger joints in the US. Definitely worth the visit!!!

Saturday morning we were back at Willa Jean's again :) I had a biscuit with blueberry jam and a bowl of cheese grits.........I could live at this restaurant!!!!

Downside of the day, I came down with allergies.....which I think might have been the down pillows in our hotel room. We made a stop by the CVS store to get Kleenex and some Nyquil, which seems to be the only medicine that seems to get my nose to stop itching and sneezing.

By Sunday we were ready to leave the convention. While our total sales weren't bad, they weren't the best we've ever had either.

I blame that on two things:

1) The choice of venue which is across from the superdome and isn't in a tourist part of town like the Hilton Riverside. While the convention sold out of Saturday passes, I still think they lost regular attendees because they weren't in a nice area or touristy part of town.

2) The staff's silly decision to combine the dealers' room and the artist's alley. That doesn't give a chance for the artists to make any sales if people pass your table to get to the other side of the room.

We packed up early at 2pm and left the hotel.....we had to pay $70 for parking, which is absolutely ridiculous, but the hotel doesn't have its own garage so we had to use the parking garage that connects to the hotel by elevator.

We headed to our home away from home when we visit New Orleans, Sucre on Magazine Street.

I had their doberge cake, which had an almond joconde cake with caramel and chocolate and topped with a macaron (I think the flavor was chocolate and peanut butter, but I wasn't sure). My sister had her usual C3 sundae and we shared their blackberry/lemon mousse.

Overall, we had a good time despite the oddness of the convention. We had fun talking to the vendors on either side of us. Two guys from Louisiana who drew traditional comic art and a couple from Tennessee who made shadow box artworks and clocks with hand drawn and colored backgrounds.

I came away with some goodies. You know my love of bags......I use them for my crochet or cross stitch projects. I bought several bags from Melissa H Francis (the Hogwarts, Final Fantasy, and sushi bags) and three bookmarks. I bought a bag from the couple beside us which has a lovely futuristic landscape on it with a building in a tree).

I bought the last two books in the Beast of Birmingham series by T.S. Barnett. I had bought the first one last year and quite enjoyed it. I was glad she was able to make it to the convention this year so I could get the last two books :)

My sister bought me two brooches to add to my collection. A purple cabochon with a Venetian carnival mask underneath and a 'Shade' umbrella enamel pin.

I won the Manga Man book from the New Orleans Public Library. They had a fan table in the artist's alley and every hour they had a contest where you could present your library card (regardless of where you were from) and you could spin their prize wheel. I had the choice of an audio book or a the Manga Man book. I chose the book because audio books can be iffy depending on who is narrating.

My sister and I won't participate any conventions next year unless I do something local with my friend Kristina in order to sell the last of my amigurumis.

I find that I like making things for myself or friends as gifts more so than continuously making amis to sell at conventions. It is more rewarding and satisfying :)

Thanks for sharing in our bizarre adventure.

Until next time ^____^

Mechacon 2016

Hi, everyone! My sister and I attended Mechacon in New Orleans over the weekend. We were in the artists' alley. Friday morning started off on the hectic side, my sister accidentally set her alarm clock to PM instead of AM and was rushing around trying to get ready and get out the door. We got to New Orleans shortly after 9am, which gave us about 40 minutes or so to set up our table before the alley opened at 10am.

While we were setting up our table, we were running purely on adrenaline. I am amazed when I see people set up after 10am. It would make me a nervous wreck. As it is, my sister and I suffer from 'last name syndrome', which means we are usually always early to any event/appointment, etc. so setting up so close to 10am was crazy.

We were staying in the host hotel, the Hilton Riverwalk. Our friends had a lovely view from their room.

My sister and I, on the other hand, were in one of the older sections of the hotel so our room was facing a courtyard......

Friday night, we mall crawled at the Riverwalk Outlet mall. I spent $45 in chocolate at the Lindt store (O_o"). They had a new flavor, pumpkin spice Lindt chocolate balls. They are to die for!! I asked the cashier if they were going to have the flavor in the stores for the fall season. He said he thought perhaps they would since it wasn't an exclusive flavor to their stores. I really, really hope so!

After mall crawling, we went to Mother's for dinner. Their bread pudding is AMAZING! I could have eaten it instead of dinner.

On Saturday night, while my sister and our friends went to Harrah's, I attended a Japanese rock concert by the band, Kazha. They were a great group. The best part was when they did an American cover song, Journey's Don't Stop Believing. Everyone in the crowd was singing along with them. Nothing like a Journey song to get the crowd involved in a concert. LOL

On Sunday, we closed up early and drove over to Magazine Street for lunch at Dat Dog, antique shopping, and dessert at Sucre.

I had the devil's food cake at Sucre. It was good with thin layer of chocolate surrounded the cake. I also bought their iced dark chocolate drink, but it wasn't good, which was sad. I was disappointed in Sucre's assortment of desserts, usually they have an entire case full of desserts, but they only had three desserts and a bunch of cakes for sale.

I'm not sure why their selection was so low, especially since they were open until 10pm. If you are open that late that case should be full all the time!

While going through the antique shop next door to Sucre, I saw some lovely old samplers. A sampler on perforated paper and an embroidered sampler from 1827.

I purchased a New England cookbook from 1936. I can't wait to browse the dessert section!!

We had so many people come by our table and talk about how they knew how to crochet and/or knit. It was great to talk to them. The only people I know in my life that knit or crochet are my aunt and a girl in my office. Otherwise, I never people hear people talk about that type of crafting so it was refreshing to talk to people about crochet.

I want to thank everyone who came by my table and bought something. My favorite customers were a young guy who bought my bunny sundae amigurumi. I was so happy that he bought it because no one looked at it last year and it's been in my Etsy shop forever.

The other customer we loved was a young girl who bought one of my amigurumi bats for her stepmother. She told us that her stepmother works to rehabilitate injured bats and baby bats. She even showed us pictures of the baby bats. They are so tiny!

Special shout out to the guy dressed as Deadpool who bought my Deadpool amigurumi. My sister said he was going around the convention with my amigurumi on his belt and posing for pictures. LOL

Also a shout out to the guy who bought my Clara amigurumi. We chatted for a while about Princess Jellyfish and how we hope they give it a second season, but you never know with slice of life genre series.

Overall, we had a great time in New Orleans. We couldn't have asked for better weather. The temps were amazing for summer in New Orleans, which usually is ungodly. The food was great and the convention was fun. Hopefully we will be able to go again next year in their new venue, Hyatt Recency.

Until next time ^____^

Pensacon 2016

My sister and I went to Pensacola last month for Pensacon, a sci/fantasy convention. We were quite glad that they hold this convention in the winter as the day was nice and cool. If they held it in the summer, ugh......it would be unpleasant.

We had decided to go for two reasons: 1) a lot of authors and a few of the actors from Star Wars were going to be there and 2) we wanted to see if the convention would be worth it to sign up for their artist alley next year.

I had preregistered our tickets earlier in the week. When we got there.....the prereg line was insane. It literally snaked out into the parking lot area. The parking lot was reserved for vendor and volunteer parking along with food trucks.

While waiting in line I kept hearing a song I recognized and it was one of the songs from the Ghostbusters movies. There were two men dressed as characters from the movie. Gotta love geeks!

As we neared the table where we could get our badges, I looked over and saw this lovely group of people wearing handmade crocheted beanies. I loved the R2D2 beanie!

The first place you enter when you get in the convention center is the artist alley as it is located on the floor above the bleachers while the main dealers' area was in the bottom (court area) of the convention center.

We weren't impressed by the artist alley. Not that the art was bad because it wasn't, the location was just hideous. The lighting was poor and the booths were far apart from one another. If they had lit the area correctly and put more tables beside one another it would have been great.

I saw this hilarious sign on one of the comic artist's tables:

 
After going around the artist alley, we made our way down to the dealers' area, which was extremely busy and crowded. Walked around once and decided to go find the autograph rooms, which were located in another part of the convention center.

Almost all the celebrities were in the same room while a few others were out in the hallways with lines (yet again) snaking all over the place with people in line to meet actors.

We went through the autograph room once, too nervous to actually walk up and get autographs. So we went around again and my sister got a signature from one of the actors from House of a Thousand Corpses (extreme gross movie which I will never watch again).

I went up to the table for Clive Revill to get his autograph. I had been debating whether to have him sign something Star Wars since he was the original Emperor Palpatine or for his role as Rogozhin, the Russian ballet director in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. I decided in the end to go with Sherlock Holmes and brought my copy of the DVD to get signed.

Each actor/actress table had an assistant to take cash for autographs and when I handed my DVD cover to the assistant, he said he thought Mr. Revill might like it because he hadn't got something like that all day.

I think I might have stumped Mr. Revill for a few minutes. He looked at the cover, read the back of the cover, looked at the front.......and then suddenly quoted his first line from that movie to me. I couldn't help laughing.

I can only hope to have a memory like that at 85 years of age. Absolutely amazing. I would have loved to stop and chat with him, but I am shy so I scampered off like a bunny after getting the cover back from him. LOL You would think at my age I would be more talkative, but nope. I am hopeless with strangers.

I was hoping to get my copy of The Witches of Echo Park signed by Amber Benson, but she wanted $40 for an autograph. Who knows? Maybe she would have signed the book for free, but the sign for $40 was off putting so I didn't even step up to her table and ask.

After we got our autographs, we went back down to the dealers' area again to get a few books signed. Sherrilyn Kenyon was having a book signing at 1pm so we got in line for that. She was late by about an hour because she got mobbed by some fans of her books when she was trying to leave a restaurant.

I didn't mind waiting. While I kept our place in line, my sister went across the way to a book booth to get my Star Wars books signed by Troy Denning and Kevin J. Anderson.

Shortly after getting my books signed, Mrs. Kenyon showed up. We were escorted a few people at a time to where she was doing her signings. Having never been to one of her signings, I was surprised. She was sweetheart and would give everyone who came up a hug and chat with them. There were a lot of ladies in line who had met her at previous book signings so she would ask how they were doing, etc. Don't you just love personable authors?

After running around all day, we decided to go to lunch at McGuire's Restaurant, an Irish pub. Yum, yum!

Overall I think we had a lot of fun despite not being able to meet Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) who had to cancel because of scheduling issues (possibly because filming for Star Wars VIII had just started)!

I don't think we will ever sign up for their artist alley unless they change some things, but we would definitely go again to meet celebrities and authors :)

Until next time ^____^

Mechacon 2015 Review and Thank You!!

Good morning! Last weekend, my sister and I participated in the Artist Alley at Mechacon 2015 in New Orleans. We were a bit overwhelmed in the Artist Alley as it was quite crowded. Both my sister and I work in industries that do not require much public interaction so being bombarded by thousands of people was a test of our introverted nerves. I think we did well despite that :)

There were so many great cosplayers at the convention. Since we were behind our artist alley table, we weren't able to get many photos.

The My Little Pony cosplayers were amazing. There was someone dressed in a huge Pinkie Pie pony costume while the rest opted for lovely dress cosplays for their favorite characters.

One of the great things about New Orleans is the fact that they have their own lolita society. Since Baby, the Stars Shine Bright and Alice and the Pirates were industry guests at this year's convention, there were a great many girls and guys dressed in lolita fashion. While I love the dresses of that brand, I love seeing people making their own lolita dresses using other fabrics. There were so many lovely dresses this year!

One of the coplayers that came past our table was this adorable young lady dressed up as Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service. I asked her to pose for a picture with the Kiki amigurumi that I had made. I really just wanted a photo of her with the doll because I thought it was cute, but she actually ended up buying little Kiki. I was so happy!!!

On Sunday, I was hoping to get another signature on my Fruits Basket box set. My sister had wandered up to the signing room to see if any of the actors were there and she ran back downstairs to the Artist Alley room to tell me that Mike McFarland was there. So I rushed upstairs....not that I needed to as a girl and myself were the only two people in the room getting signatures. He was nice enough to sign my box set for his character Ritsu. I hope to get more signatures as I go along.

My purchases this year were all from the Artist Alley except for a few things. I got a large Aries bag from Sorbet Jungle, a Gem bag and two cute book buttons from Natto Soup, a lovely Sailor Scouts bag from Darien Chen, a Mardi Gras lolita king cake brooch from Mintymix, a keychain and cell charm from the anime Gugure! from another table, and a fantasy novel Peace of Evon from Dorothy Tinker.

I can't wait to wear the buttons to work. The Mardi Gras king cake is perfect for next year's Mardi Gras season and the book buttons are adorable for any day.

I also bought two items that will be gifts for Christmas........so I can't show them until later this year :)

From the Dealers' Room, I purchased a copy of Colorworld from Rachel Kelly. Her husband was manning the table and his description of the series was so interesting that I purchased a copy of the book. I also bought a few metal bookmarks from him as well. The only other things I bought from the dealers' room were Japanese snacks from two of the vendors that I hadn't tried before.

All in all, I think we had fun at this year's Mechacon. I think we might participate next year.

Thanks to everyone who came by and supported our table. We had fun chatting with our customers!! I'm so glad that my amigurumis found new homes to live in!

Until next time ^____^

Getting Ready for Mechacon 2015 Artist Alley

My friend Kristina and I will attending Mechacon in New Orleans this year in the Artist's Alley. I have been stitching up various amigurumis and finishing up others.

While trying to figure out a cute way to display my resin charms and pins and polymer clay earrings, I found a lovely Sizzix set at HB in the clearance section. The diecut was perfect for making these jewelry cards.

Hopefully Kristina and I can find some time before July to work out a table layout for the convention that will maximize our space and give us a cute display. We shall see.....

I have a feeling that we won't be going outside the hotel unless under duress as New Orleans in the summer is disgusting........humid and extremely hot. 

Until next time ^____^

Fandom 2014

Hi, again! Kristina and I went to Fort Walton Beach last Saturday to the Fandom convention. We went (well, I persuaded Kristina to go) because the voice actor, Scott McNeil, was a guest there. He has voiced many characters included one of my favorites in the MLP universe, Flam. The Flim and Flam brothers are con artists in the MLP show. I love the vaudeville feel of their characters.

Since Amanda had gotten me a Flim and Flam poster from SDCC this year I decided to bring it along to get Mr. McNeil to sign it for me. He was a great speaker, extremely funny and quirky.

I love the fact that he actually spoke to each of his fans as they walked up to get their items signed or get pictures taken with him. I've noticed at some conventions that the voice actors will just sign things with hardly any conversation besides the usual 'thanks for coming'.

He loved the poster and asked where I got it. He mentioned that he really needed a few of them so he could remember how to sing the 'Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000' song as he said that he and the voice actor for Flim had such a hard time with the song as it was quite the tongue twister.

I wish I had other pictures from the convention of cosplayers and the like, but Kristina and I only spent time at the panels for Robert Axelrod and Scott McNeil and then a little time in the dealers room since we got to the convention around noon.

Kristina bought a few things as gifts for our friends for our annual Christmas party. Usually I buy a few things, but I only came away with one thing, but it's PERFECT!

I found a large vinyl bag featuring Hatsune Miku. Wandering around the dealers room a couple of times, I kept coming back to this bag and I knew I had to have it. I loved the illustration on the front and it was a great size! As you can see I've got a cross stitch pattern in the bag along with DMC threads and a 8 inch embroidery hoop inside. I love cute bags for holding projects in!

As the year comes to a close, we won't have any conventions to go to, but hopefully we can go to a few next year.

Until next time ^____^

Mechacon 2014

My sister and I went to New Orleans on Saturday for Mechacon (her first convention). We had a lot of fun though my sister was overwhelmed by all the people in attendance.

I had only purchased a few things: some different flavors of Ramune soda, Japanese snacks, a new cell phone charm, three issues of Gearhearts Steampunk Revue comic, and the first volume of Hetalia. I was surprised to find the Hetalia manga as it has been out of print for a while since Tokyopop went out of business.

There was some amazing cosplayers at the convention. I only got a few pictures as my sister and I were too busy trying not to be run over by everyone!

We had spent an hour in the Hetalia panel hosted by fans of the manga/anime. The costumes were great. I think my faves were Canada, Germany, and Russia. Afterwards while walking around, we found a beautiful girl cosplaying from the Sailor Moon anime.

Since we didn't stay late at the convention, we decided to drive over to Magazine Street to our favorite confectionery shop, Sucre. I had their summer berry verrine. It is an orange blossom pound cake with strawberries/blueberries and vanilla and Chantilly cream. It was a very light dessert..quite perfect for summer!

I can't wait to come back next year to Mechacon!

Until next time ^____^

Mobicon 2014 - Dark Shadows

Good afternoon everyone! Last Saturday I went downtown to attend Mobicon 2014. I wasn't planning on going this year after discussions with the organizers and their lack of 3D artists/crafters in their artists' alley this year (which they do not consider to be 'art'), but when I saw that two of the ladies from the original cast of the Dark Shadows series were going to be there, I knew I had to attend.

As a thank you to Mrs. Parker and Mrs. Scott for being part of such a great series, I made two bat amigurumis. I presented them to the ladies in glittery silver bags.

I was extremely nervous to meet them. I kept walking around the merchant's room in circles and even texted my friend Kristina for moral courage to give them my gifts. Her advice helped, a deep breath and to have the bags in my hand to give to them. My heart was beating a million miles an hour and I know I was still nervous after giving them to the ladies because I was talking too fast.

Mrs. Parker and Mrs. Scott were lovely. I spoke more with Mrs. Parker since someone came up to the table to get an autograph from Mrs. Scott. She and I spoke of books and history. She even brought up a bit of Mobilian history that I hadn't heard before. There was a lady in the late 1800s who was accused of killing her husband who it turns out might have been Jack the Ripper. Mrs. Parker asked if she should include Jack the Ripper in her next book and I said why not!

I had Mrs. Parker and Mrs. Scott sign some books and my DVD collector card. Unfortunately I had put the card on top of my books and when I was handed my other books, I put them on top of the card. The signature smudged! Horrors! But I can't complain, I had Mrs. Scott to sign a Return to Collinwood book.

Mrs. Parker on middle left and Mrs. Scott on middle right.

Do you guys remember my post last year at Mobicon when I geeked out over a young man dressed as the Frid's Barnabas Collins? He was the one of who approached Mrs. Scott and Mrs. Parker about coming to Mobicon this year. He told me and another girl who were waiting for their panel that he tweeted them and asked if they would attend our convention. After the panel, I went up to him (in the picture on the right) and thanked him for giving us the opportunity to meet the lovely ladies of Dark Shadows.

I hope Mrs. Scott and Mrs. Parker had a great time in our city. I hope its architecture and history has given them inspiration for more Gothic tales in the Dark Shadows universe.

Until next time ^_____^

Mobicon 2014 Nerves

Hi everyone! I'm going to Mobicon downtown tomorrow. My main reason: to meet the actresses from the 1960s cast of Dark Shadows, Lara Parker and Kathryn Leigh Scott.

My little Barnabas Collins bats are ready for Mobicon tomorrow. I'm nervous to give them to the Dark Shadows actresses!

I'm going to get them to sign my book and dvd collectors card ;)

Wish me luck!

Until next time!

Paracon and Mechacon 2013

Good morning! It's been a busy month with the Artwalk and lots of conventions. My friends and I went to Pensacola for Paracon. Sadly, this was the first year for them to open up the convention to anime/gaming when usually the convention is supernatural in general. With that said, there wasn't alot to do. They had a few panels, but they put them in parts of the room behind curtains and underneath air vents. Not the best thing when you are trying to hear the speaker.

Good thing was the fact that they had a lot of interest in the convention. When we came back from lunch there was a line out the door and around the parking lot full of cosplayers waiting in the rain. Hopefully the organizers will take that into account and plan for a larger crowd next year and a better venue.

Last Friday Kristina and I went to New Orleans for Mechacon. The panel schedule on Fridays doesn't start until later in the afternoon so Kristina and I decided to wander the city instead.

Despite the clouds, we lucked out with a breezy day without rain.

On our way to LA, we were greeted with a sign of a rainbow and the moon. Definitely a sign of a good day in NO.

Kristina had never been to Marie Laveau's so we walked down Bourbon Street to see the shop. I was hoping to get my tarot read, but the readings didn't begin until 12 and we got there a lot earlier.............well, more excuse for us to wander around the city.

Taking a detour on St. Ann Street to get to Chartres Street lead us into a park and a gorgeous cathedral.

Luckily the cathedral is open for tours so we stopped in for a look. I didn't take any photos of the inside, but the ceilings, walls, etc. were decorated into paintings of saints, etc. It was quite beautiful.

Afterwards we stopped by Quarter Stitch.....a lovely shop full of needlepoint canvases, skeins of gorgeous yarn, and cross stitch designs pertaining to NO.

I asked the ladies who owned the shop if I could take some pics of their wares and they said I could........lovely crafting goodies!

On our way back to the convention, we ran across this little gem of a museum on Chartres Street. I noticed it the last time I was in NO, but didn't have time for it. Since we had time to kill, we decided to tour the museum.

I love their window displays for the museum. The first photo is something you would have seen in a 19th century pharmacy shop window. They are called shop globes and were usually filled with colored liquid which was a universal sign that the shop sold medicine. Apparently, the idea of shop globes goes back to medieval times.

The museum is the former pharmacy of Louis J Dufilho, one of the first pharmacists in the US to be officially licensed to sell medicines. It houses three stories, but the third story has been in disrepair since Katrina so you can only view two stories of the museum. In the back of the house is a beautiful courtyard with a fountain and banana trees....which actually had bananas ripening on the trees.

There are so many objects to see and exclaim over.....not to mention all the informative text labels throughout the museum. Upstairs has a large exhibition of spectacles/eye glasses and another on alcohol in medicine in the 19th century.  It also has a room refurbished as a bedchamber during childbirth.

I think my favorite displays were downstairs on the first floor. They have a selection of 'voodoo' potions. Apparently patrons could buy potions at their local pharmacy instead of going through the scandal of seeing a voodoo priestess. The potions were numbered so when a patron wanted a certain potion he/she would ask for a number to get the right potion. A great way  to not embarrass oneself while in the shop when other patrons were present. Interestingly that is where the song lyric 'Love Potion #9' comes from, the numbering system used by pharmacists.

Overall, this museum is a little gem in NO. It is perfect for spending an hour or two......regardless if you are a medical student, history buff, or just a curious seeker.

After that, we wandered through some other shops or looked at the window displays down Chartres Street before heading back to the Riverwalk for lunch before heading to register for the convention.

The convention was fun despite the lack of panels. We met up with our friend Bonnie who was staying the weekend for the convention.

 Mei from My Neighbor Totoro

 Lolita in blue.....

Lolita in maroon....

I ended up buying a few things at the convention......

Coconut pocky, lots of new cell charms and lanyard from Tasty Peach and Sorbet Jungle. The little octopus pouch is from Sorbet Jungle. I love the size of it......it even has an inner pocket! I love pouches this size because I use them to hold my cross stitch threads/needles or crochet needles when working on projects.

Making one more pass through the dealers' room before we left for Mobile, I read across a table from Antarctic Press selling comics. I saw a line of comics that were new to me......Gearhearts Revue......a great line of steampunk comics. I ended up buying the ones they had ;)

I hope next year we get to go to Mechacon again, but on a weekend with more panels.

Until next time ^____^