Sandbox was great!

It’s been a long time since I’ve written an update blog post but here we are.

This year has turned out to be so much busier for myself than I would have liked. All my costume work and YouTube videos have had to take a backseat while I’ve been working for my parent’s heavy haulage business. My mum tore a ligament in her wrist at the start of the year which meant she wasn’t allowed to drive so I took over for her while she recovered, hence the lack of almost anything creative on my end this year.

This weekend just gone, I once again got to host the Sandbox Fan Fest Cosplay Competition in my hometown. I made a Mary Poppins costume for it. Hopefully, I’ll get the video for that uploaded soon.

I had one of my oldest cosplay friends come up from Auckland to help me judge this year and that made the day so much more fun. Her name is Alex AKA Rocketfuelcosplay.

Alex and myself hosting the 2025 Sandbox Cosplay Competition. Photo by APG Media.

Although we didn’t have many entries this year (7 total), we had absolute quality. I was blown away by the incredible talent of the entries. Steffish Cosplay was named Best in Show for their Jester costume. The amount of detail was insane.

All of the Sandbox 2025 competitors. Photo by APG Media.

APG Media filmed the entire event if you’d like to watch it here.

Although most of my day was stuck in the green room at Forum North doing my judging duties, I did get to catch the Cosplay Lipsync panel for the first time ever. I was so inspired, especially by Lady Ally’s Doechii performance that I’m trying to figure out what I could do myself for the next one at Auckland Armageddon in October.

Speaking of, what are my plans for the rest of the year I hear you ask? Well I’ve had to change things up a bit because of the helping my parents and such, but here’s how my costume plans for the rest of 2025 are now shaping up.

For Auckland Armageddon Expo –

First is Charli XCX for part of a pop girls group. This will probably be my last big build for the year.

Next is Frodo because a friend of mine has been dropping some not so subtle hints that there may be a BIG Lord of the Rings guest announcement…. Maybe

Last is Nightclub Harley. This is partially because someone else is wearing their gorgeous Poison Ivy and I really want to get a photo with them, and because I’m doing the Halloween cabaret with Anna again and I’ve got a little Harley number up my sleeve to preform there.

Speaking of Halloween, I also want to try and get my Wednesday dress remade again this year for the spooky time. I want to remake it from Silk Organza so that it’s not a sensory nightmare like the old Polyester version was.