Heading out to Rainfurrest shortly. If you want to meet up or say hello, look for a tall, overweight gal wearing a Blue/Orange KLM Pixel Paw shirt and a red bandana. Or, alternatively, tweet me thevaliantknife. I'll try to check my messages often.

So I'm thinking of doing a sort of "Emergency Kit" bag to carry around at meets and (maybe) cons. What I mean by this is: I found at some local meets, while in suit, that I was sorely missing a few key items to make things a bit easier on me. For example: STRAWS. Straws are HUGE when it comes to consuming water in suit, and they're sometimes very hard to find! Most of the time, in my experience, the straws are too short to fit into the muzzle of my suit and into my mouth. But aside from straws, what other things do you think would be useful in a kit like this?

I plan on clearly labeling it with big, bold letters, so fursuiters and handlers alike can read it.

Feel free to comment, signal boost and give feedback. :)

If you have any questions for me or simply wish to contact me during the FA downtime, you can hit me up on twitter (twitter.com/thevaliantknife). Be safe everyone!

Once I get some things scanned in so I have examples on hand, I'm going to be opening for badge commissions. Keep an eye out (I dumbed and hit enter while I was typing the title).

FINE, I'll do it ya bastards (love you) <3.

Arrival and Departure:
Thursday morning around 9am, and leaving Monday around noon (hit me up if you need a ride back to the Bothell/Lynnwood/MLT area).

Staying at:
Hilton!

How are you traveling?
Driving, POSSIBLY being dropped off since I really don't want to deal with parking fees. Depends on how I feel by the time the week rolls around.

Who are you rooming with?
, Rainier, , and her boyfriend.

Where will you be? How best to find me?
I'll be all over the place. DM me on twitter (@thevaliantknife), or if I know you well enough we can exchange numbers.

Who will you be with?
Everyone. I like interacting with tons of people, so expect me to be all over the place. If you want me to hang, though, let me know!

Which suit(s) will you be bringing?
Sirocco and Atka (Kermode Bear).

Do you do free art?
Yes, actually. Sketches and stuff, nothing fancy.

What is your gender?
Both.

How old are you?
24, but 25 by RF!

How tall are you?
5'9''

Can I talk to you?
Of course, but I'm a mute suiter in my bear suit.

Can I hug and/or snuggle you?
Please please please no surprise tackles or anything like that. I know I'm built like a tank, but I have a bad knee. But feel absolutely free to hug me so long as you have good hygiene habits. No offense, but it gets into the fur. :(

Are you nice?
Very!

Are you cliquey?
Not at all!

If I see you, how should I get your attention?
Out of suit: yell at me, tap me on the shoulder, etc. In suit: tap me on the shoulder, or make a large gesture if you want a picture. Atka's head has a small blind spot in the front.

Are you fursuiting?
Of course! I'm more than likely taking Sunday off for the most part, though. I have an Applejack cosplay lined up for that day. :)

Can I ask ya to dance with me during the dances?
Sure! I'm not very good, though.

Can I buy you drinks?
No thanks. I prefer to get my own.

Do you attend parties?
If I get invited, maybe!

Can I take your picture?
In suit, sure! Out of suit... I guess??

What's your goal(s) for the con this year?
Meet a bunch of new furs, spend all my hard earned money, and come home feeling totally amped about next year.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4940015/

Check it! 8)

Figured I'd do a bit of streaming tonight. No mic tonight since I'm feeling a bit under the weather, and I also cannot read chat since I don't have my second monitor set up yet. So if you want to watch me bullshit around in Skyrim, feel free to lurk.

http://www.twitch.tv/redshiftoc

Edit: And done! I'll be doing these more often up until RF!

Sirocco is 100% finished at this point. The teeth are resetting in the E6000 (thanks for the protip matrices), and I finished touching up the inner ear shadows, and muzzle bits where I shaved down a tad too far. I contemplated replacing his nose, but I decided on saving the silicone one I received from shaggygriffonstudios for my next project. Looking forward to starting that after RF.

WFS 13 was excellent. It was my first one, and it was an experience to remember. I met a ton of new people, got to hang out with some friends, and have a hilarious time at OCB making jokes about soft serve ice cream (#icepoop2013; never forget).

Regarding RF: since I don't have the constitution to fursuit all three days of RF, I'm going to be casual cosplaying Applejack part of Saturday, and possibly all day Sunday depending on how tired I am. I MIGHT be submitting some pieces for the art show, and maybe doing a few experimental canvas squares for it as well. August is really in the air for me right now.

As far as commissions are concerned... I'm hoping to land a full-time job, but so far the prospects are looking a bit grim. If I can't find one, I'll be devoting quite a bit of time to smaller commissions (icons, headshots, sketches and/or sketch pages) to save up money since I am running out of savings faster than I anticipated.

I'll have pics tomorrow of the updated progress, but I quit for the night since it was getting wayy too warm (of course, now the clouds have rolled in after I'm packed up).

Fur is 95% done. All that remains is hemming the bottom edge and fixing a few holes I missed when attaching the neck to the head. I decided to completely redo the eyes and make them less shit, basically. Nixed the buckram and went for very narrow crochet plastic mesh for better vision and ventilation; made larger eyes entirely with the plastic sheets I ordered and sanded the edges so that it was a smoother finish overall. The plastic bowl method, while nice, is a bit too difficult to execute well without a dremel tool. Maybe it was the plastic itself, but it was very difficult to carve out the finer edges with an exacto knife, and it wasn't forgiving about slight mistakes. I was also worried that if it was bent too harshly (accidents happen) that it would crack. This new plastic is very flexible and easier to deal with.

I'm toying with the idea of adding a bit of velcro to the paws and arm sleeves :karimah: made me just so there's no accidental skin showing during high-movement activities like the upcoming bowling meet. Also need to start and finish feet paws, but those don't need to be done for another week and a half.

The Furlife BBQ was pretty great. I was privileged to meet , , , , along with many others who were all utterly fantastic. brought an extremely awesome fursuit partial made by , and brought his friend who had a brand new head by . Her character is totally adorable! They were all very open, hilarious, and sociable which absolutely made the meet worth it. It was a bit sad that I didn't get Sirocco's head done in time, but it'll be done for the Rainfurrest BBQ this weekend.

I finally, FINALLY got the hood bunching issue fixed, so now it's just a matter of getting into those tight spots and sewing the neck on. I might be replacing the nose if the one I bought from gets here on time (should be here today)! The eyes are getting torn out and replaced before Rainfurrest itself since I did an absolute shit job with them (forgot to sand down the harsh edges like a moron), but I'm going to be lazy for a few weeks after all the Furlife events this month.

Also, my ~*~domestic life partner~*~ might hopefully be coming up right around Rainfurrest. If not, directly after (possibly flying in Monday) so I don't need to make two trips to Seatac in one week.

Saniya and Mar; I haven't forgotten about you two. Working on your stuff whenever it gets too warm in my office to work on the head. :)

I caved a long time ago. Everyone add me, go go. SN: Ravenspine

The steady pace I've been keeping with this fursuit head came to an abrupt stop this past week. A few members of my family came up from Arizona, and brought with them the scorching desert heat. Temperatures in the area skyrocketed to about 90F+, and without any access to A/C, I decided to take a week off to spend time with them. Hopefully the temps keep going down. Nothing worse than sweating and being covered in fur fibers. :)

I'm hoping to start up again after the Fourth, and I'm almost 85% sure I'll have it completed by When Furballs Strike 14. It isn't a glamorous head by any stretch (who's first fursuit project is flawless?), but I feel its a damn good effort nonetheless!

In better news: the "half-partial" arrived from , and everything fits wonderfully. If you haven't seen the paws she sewed up for me yet, check my favorites. They're, somehow, a million times better in person and I couldn't be more pleased with her work. If you're on the hunt for someone with talent who is professional, courteous, and informative, shoot her a quote request.

Making fantastic progress on my first "trial" fursuit head. I've finished gluing most of the major pieces down, but I'm still deliberating on the eyebrow placement. The follow-me eyes are looking good, but I need to take a trip to Micheal's to see if they have some different paint pens than Joann's. Hoping I don't have to use acrylic, but we'll see how it goes tomorrow. I decided against the movable jaw, and instead installed it as a adjustable jaw. Meaning I can freely situate it as I please, and even open it fully if I need to have access to my mouth for water or air, but it isn't sensitive to my jaw movements. Less hassle, and more useful in my opinion.

To finish up the base I still need to: sculpt the nose, line the lower jaw with fleece as well as around the eye sockets, finish coloring the irises and install the buckram, and add an organic slope to the muzzle-forehead connecting point.

And, if all goes well and I end up with a successful and professional looking piece, I might try my hand at selling bases. :)