Stolen from reddit. Possibly the cutest thing ever.

http://youtu.be/K0KXYygFpKo

My suit came! And the head fits! Snug on the forehead, but bearable. Vision's pretty good, too. Pictures soon.

Now I just need to find myself a wicking balaclava.

https://www.furaffinity.net/full/9103982/

Partial's done! I'm eagerly awaiting it's arrival. It'd be awesome to get it in time for Halloween.

I also highly recommend bycats4cats.com. 10/10 on customer service.

First off, have fun all who are going to FurFright. My standing commitment to Nightmare Vermont every year prevents me from going. Our show opens this Friday and will be playing until next Sunday (the 28th). This week is fill with tech rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and shows. It's stressful, but I get to hang out with a bunch of twisted people. Plus, I get head impaled on a spear several dozen times a night! It's great!

I am quite bummed about having to miss FF, though. It seems to be THE best furry con out there.

Snapcat is going to be starting my suit in a few days. I still can't believe I'm actually going through with this. Simultaneously excited and nervous as hell.

I still haven't decided if my suit's going to be a cat or a dog. Still sticking with the black, white, and brown coloring, mostly because the fur has already been purchased. I would probably go with a dog, but the guy I commissioned makes REALLY good cat heads.

Aside from FurFright, are there any other major cons coming up this year?

Down payment sent for my partial. It should be done in October. I still haven't decided if I want a full Berner, a Husky/Berner mix, or a black panther with Berner colors. I guess I'll settle on that when my suit starts getting worked on! I really hope this turns out well.

I got a quote from By Cats 4 Cats (http://www.bycats4cats.com/) for a pretty good price. I've been contacting Snap for a while now and the customer service (so far) is great. I can't seem to find any reviews of this builder, despite him making quite a few suits. Does anyone have any opinions?

I'm also looking at Made Fur You, OMG Pineapples, Kilcodo, and a few others (maybe DTWA and Twinky Arts).

To those of you still capable of conscious thought after last night...

I think we'll stick with North Beach, as it has much more room. So, July 7th at 4pm. I'll cover supplies like briquets, plates, cups, etc, and maybe some hot dogs. Everyone else, please bring something, be it burgers, drinks, chips, or buns!

If anyone wants to carpool, there's plenty of parking at my place and I can fit 5. Note me if you're interested.

PS. I've never grilled on a park grill before. This may get interesting!

I just took a bike ride along the bike trail. I can confirm that parking at Leddy Park is free, but you have to walk about 1/3 of a mile to the beach area. If you park closer, it's $6. I only saw a few grill stations there, but on a whole Leddy is not terribly crowded.

North Beach parking is $6 and there are tons of people there, and lots of grill spaces.

Oakledge Park has a few grill spaces. Parking is not free, but there are lots of side streets nearby that you can park on if you don't mind walking a bit.

I'm totally fine with paying for North Beach, but if people want to give Leddy Park a shot it's only about 1 mile from North Beach.

I had dreams last night about fursuit makers. Nothing naughty, mind you, just builders and their styles. This, coming off of two night of livestreaming with an artist on a character reference I'm toying with.

Maybe it's best that I avoid doing any more research tonight. I always go completely nuts over something when I first get into it (volleyball, stage combat, MLP, and now this).

The sketch came out OK. For a first imagining I think it's good, but there are a few changes I'd like to make. I'll have to post it here when I'm feeling motivated.

I spent a good 6 hours with  doniago yesterday looking over fursuiters and sketching ideas, hoping to finalize something and place an order by the end of this week. If anything, I now have more ideas and even more builders to look at. I just stumbled on Beastcub (http://www.beastcub.com/) and he seems to make some very high quality stuff at a mid-range price.

The only idea I have in my head is a Bernese Mountain Dog fursuit, but I'm not convinced it would translate well as a suit (though the dogs themselves are friggin' adorable). Otherwise I'd probably go with a standard husky or big cat.

An artistic freedom project is looking more and more likely at this point, as I can't seem to come up with anything unique myself.

There was some interest in having a BBQ in the general Burlington area, so here I am again. Extended forecast for next weekend is thunderstorms on Saturday and possible clear day on Sunday. The 4th of July, a Wednesday, should be nice. The weekend after that is too far in the future for a good forecast.

I suggest shooting for July 7th, a Saturday, unless most everyone has the 4th off, in which case that Wednesday would be good (though grills might be in short supply).

How about North Beach? Other areas we could go to are Oakledge Park, Leddy Park, and Sand Bar State Park.

I can cover the grill supplies, but please bring some burgers, buns, or whatever to grill up.

So, for now, assume July 7th at North Beach, at 4pm. Let me know if this doesn't work for anyone.

My holiday weekend plans just go canceled so I'm looking for something to do. Anyone up for an informal BBQ? Oakledge Park or Sand Bar come to mind, but I'm up for traveling elsewhere in VT if there's interest.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3573735/

I wish those two would just be thrown on the sex offender list, but sadly this will impact the furry community almost as much as it impacts the two responsible. Not to mention some people may lose their jobs and it cost a town thousands of dollars.

It really sucks because they were looking to expand the NJ FurBQ into a convention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOvFwssSDnI

1044 suiters o_O

I only recognized a couple of people there,  apothacer and  gale_frostbane

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet.....jl3MkNmcV9fckE

I've been researching fursuit makers for a bit now and I made a spreadsheet that anyone can view and edit. It should contain details like base prices, warranties, and extras like follow-me eyes for about 15 makers that I've been looking at.

Please feel free to add or edit as needed.

We should all get together and wallow in our despair at not being able to go this year.

Oh yeah, have fun those of you who are going!

Returning from my first con, I am definitely getting myself a suit. Does anyone here know of any suit makers that are within driving distance of Burlington, Vermont? I hear the shipping costs on these things are a killer.

What the Fur is a small, 3-day convention in downtown Montreal. It was extremely laid-back and relaxing, but it also had some great artists in the dealer's den as well some very good fursuiters. It sucks that it was so close to AC this year, but if you're looking for a smaller con where you can actually talk to people at length, WtF is what you're looking for.

Pictures upcoming. Have fun at AC to everyone else!

I'm going to take the plunge at get a suit. I have no idea what species I even want, much less the coloring, but that doesn't matter. I WANT FUR!

Thanks to  jetillian for the crash course on suiting, and to the  vermontfurs for showing me a good time in March (oh yeah....)

I really shouldn't be spending the money, but being fiscally responsible is pretty boring.

I still have a ton of questions, the biggest of which is I don't have a fursona of any sort (and I'm not terribly interested in making one). How much free reign can I give commissioners? I'm just looking for a cartoony canine of some sort, but really, that's about all I've settled on thus far. Artists like Don't Hug Cacti look more like my speed.