2014 In Review

This past year was so busy and exciting for me that I’ve been a little nervous to try and squeeze it all in one blog post. I decided to use last year’s 2013 In Review as a template and post a few of my favorite things I did.

Travel

Last year I flew to Orlando, Seattle and Las Vegas. So looking back on this year I realized I never once left Texas. It was kind of nice staying here and doing more around my home town. I did manage to travel around my own state quite a bit, though. I drove to Waco for the Heart of Texas Convention and also ventured to Waxahachie and Houston to visit their Renaissance festivals.

Conventions

Oh boy! Did I go to conventions or WHAT! The Dallas area is filled with them all year long. I told myself to take advantage of having weekends off and enjoy going to cons while I can. I think I can put a nice big check mark next to that goal! I was also lucky to be invited to a few cons as a cosplay guest. I have a blog post about each of these so check the “Conventions” tag to see them. Here’s a list of all the cons I went to this year:

January’s North Texas Comic Book Show

Dallas Sci Fi Expo

Comic and Pop Expo

Heart of Texas Comic Con

G33K3: The Con

Animation Celebration

Dallas Comic Con

AKon 25

ScrewAttack Gaming Convention

July’s North Texas Comic Book Show

Anime Fest

The Vampire Diaries Convention

Dallas Fan Days

Cosplay

Since I attended so many conventions that also means I made a lot of costumes. Looking back, I wish I had worn some of these more than once. For some reason I felt the need to make something new each convention. This resulted in me not getting many photos of some of these costumes that I worked really hard on. But I did enjoy making each one, and when you have so many characters on your wish list it’s hard not to want to make all the costumes all at once! So here’s a list of the 13 costumes I made this year:

Shredder (tutorial)

Black Cat

Jessie from Toy Story (tutorial)

Princess Anna

Ariel (tutorial)

Thor (tutorial)

Super Mario

Sailor Ariel (tutorial)

Princess Celestia (tutorial)

Steampunk Princess Leia (tutorial)

Hermione

Evil Queen Regina (tutorial)

Princess Peach

Favorite Books

This was a great year for reading! I dived head first into several novels. My favorite was probably The Fault in Our Stars. That book was written really well and pulled on my heartstrings just like A Walk to Remember did when I was in high school. I’m bummed I didn’t finish the Maze Runner series. I’ll start the last in that trilogy (The Death Cure) right away in 2015. Here’s a list of all the books I read this year:

Divergent; Allegiant; Insurgent

The Fault in Our Stars

Summer of Yesterday

The Mortal Instruments: City of Heavenly Fire

The Selection; The Elite; The One (also the mini stories The Prince and The Guard)

Outlander

The Maze Runner; The Scorch Trials

Favorite Movies

One of my goals from last year was to visit the theater more often. I think I did pretty good! I can’t remember ALL of the movies I saw but a few that stand out as favorites were: Divergent, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Maze Runner and Mockingjay Part 1. Also, at home I finally watched Pitch Perfect and The Princess and The Frog and LOVED these movies very much! Some films I still need to see are How To Train Your Dragon 2, The Hobbit 3, and Into The Woods.

Favorite TV Shows

I’m still fangirling over The Vampire Diaries (and I even got to meet Stefan this year!) Some new shows that I got into were Girl Meets World, The Flash, and Outlander. In early January I had a marathon of the first season of Arrow and loved it! I still haven’t finished season 2, though, so I’m behind on that and need to catch up. I also watched the entire series of True Blood. The first several seasons were great but boy did it get weird towards the end or what!

Favorite Songs

I declare this the “Year of One Direction” because I became quite fanatic over them and their music. My fav songs are Through the Dark, Story of My life, Moments, Fireproof and Fool’s Gold. I even attended one of their concerts at the Dallas Cowboy Stadium! I also listened to a lot of Taylor Swift. I can repeat her old songs for days, but I love her new album 1989. Some random songs I liked were Cups by Anna Kendrick, Aquarius by Digital Daggers, All of The Stars by Ed Sheeran and Chandelier by Sia.

Favorite Games

Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 2.

Hahaha.. clearly I played a lot of GW2 this year. I bought this game around its launch a few years ago but never got too far in it. I took a break from EverQuest 2 since I was working more and doing cosplays and conventions. I found that Guild Wars had a play style I really enjoyed and now I’m hooked. Other games I loved were Mario Kart 8, Disney Magical World and Magic: The Gathering.

Favorite Blogs

Thanks to this post here I added a lot of new blogs to my reading list! Some of my other new favorites are Sparkly Ever After, Le Fancy Geek and Confessions of a Book Addict. I’m still on the hunt for good Disney blogs. I like seeing Disney inspired outfits, posts about new restaurants, and adventures through the parks. I hope to return to Disney World in Florida for another visit next year!

Random Favorites

I don’t know how I had time to do these after typing all those previous things I did, but I enjoyed seeing The Little Mermaid Musical, attending a red carpet for Divergent and interviewing the actors, seeing a Dallas Stars hockey game, Texas Rangers baseball game and most recently a Dallas Mavericks basketball game. I can also check off an item from my 2013 goal list – a trip to the Dallas World Aquarium. I did some drastic things to my hair like shaving the sides and dying it brown. I added 2 new tattoos to my collection – Ariel on my leg, and Luna on my wrist – and touched up the rose on my shoulder. I was extra crafty, too, and worked really hard on several craft tutorials and even started baking more. Overall, I was a very busy bee in 2014!

Goals for 2015

My dad and I would like to go to a Dallas Cowboys game. I’ve seen the stadium for the 1D concert but he hasn’t been there yet. Since we have seen all the local major soccer, baseball, basketball and hockey teams the last one we need is football!

I got my toes wet with a lot of different types of cosplays this past year. So for 2015 I want to make it more personal. By that I mean do characters that I have more of a connection with and feel proud and comfortable in. I want to further my skills at sewing and prop making, too. By taking more time and care in my costumes I think I’ll be surprised how great the finished product will be.

There isn’t a doubt in my mind that I will somehow make a trip to Florida again to visit Walt Disney World. I’ve mentioned before how I was always surprised that people go there multiple times. I thought once you have seen it you just move on to a new vacation. But nope! There is so much to see and do, and that magical feeling it gives you never goes away.

My last goal is do a fun run. Like a 5K or something. I just know there’s some great long distance runs around Dallas that people get involved in. I used to run track in high school and was pretty good at it. I enjoy it! I like the idea of preparing for something and having my parents there rooting me on. I’m not really looking to “get in shape” at all.. I just want to run to be honest.

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Thank you to all my readers and friends for the support and kindness you’ve shown me this year! It’s been great getting to know more of you and share my nerdy adventures with you. I am looking forward to 2015!

What are some of your fav memories from this year?

What goals have you set for next year?