Yesterday I officially made it back from Midwest Furfest, and promptly fell asleep a few hours after! x3
This was my first BEEG convention, my last one was a local one with Greater FurMeet which only had around 1600 people, so there's a lot to talk about! ^^

Thursday (LINECON):
A more relaxed day, spent most of it in the hotel room sleeping and figuring out what to do at the center. Got down to registration and, after freeing myself from the clutches of line-con, mostly jumped back and forth between the Hyatt and main center. Met up with a few friends and was preparing for the coming days with the fatfur panels and other people who I wanted to try seeing as well! ^^

Friday (FATFUR ROUNDUP):
Got to the center a bit earlier after some trouble figuring out breakfast and got to meet a new friendo named Jade! They're a moo who also helped show me how to play Risk! (though I still do not know how to play it x3). After spending some time there and getting to meet up with another friend Riley, I left to go watch a panel by a few friends from Indiana before waddling around more. At this time, the Fatfur QnA panel had already started, but I took the chance and sat in the back listening to the panel. There were a hecking lot of fatties in there, quite crammed but also informative about ways to combat art and how to start it out as well! Before the convention as well, I had made a badge gift for a well-known artist that I look up to, Kygen! They were at the Fatfur QnA, and while I was nervous as heck to go and chat with someone I look up to, I was able to meet up with them afterwards and initiated a conversation while handing over the badge..

It went wonderfully! He very much enjoyed the badge, was a massive blob I had been working on and even themed it around MFF a little bit, making up a panel called the "Culinary Quest" with him being a guest star bweheheh!
THEN MORE PEEPS SAW THE BADGE!! KyletheRed, Maz, A.B. Otter, Gil, and a few others got to see the badge too! Moff is a socially anxious mess so seeing all these peeps look at the badge and enjoyed the artwork meant the world to me, it was amazing getting to chat with them more afterwards and finding new friends in the process!

After the QnA panel, I spent most of the day with KitKat, a friendo I met at GFM who also went to the fatfur panel there, though that was more from me zoning in on them and sticking around them there, but they have made their own full-suit, that being a Koicat!! Got to walk around with them most of the time after that, went to Artist Alley finding a few stickers to buy, meeting Holiday, and leading into the.. FATFUR ROUNDUP!

It was an amazing panel as well!! I mostly spent it with them, being their photographer but also getting to meet up with quite a few other peeps as well, like getting to see A.B. in suit and also Nezumi, an avali I met at GFM too! Plus many other fatfurs like Nem, Chrome, Valentine, Noir, Mocha, and Nouvix! While waddling around, got to collect a whole LOT of stickers bweheheh, and even got to chat a little bit with Tuck, an artist I look up to as well, and Sugar, one of my bluesky moots who is also part moth! ^^

Saturday (GUESS THAT BELLY):
Most of the day didn't get started until into the late afternoon hours. Got to meet some known fatfurs like GravityInBound, Cocoa, Axo/Boh, and a few others while doing sketchbook swaps! (which will be posted sometime soonish bwee x3). For my first round of swaps, I was able to do them with Marinara, Axo, and Roy before getting way too hungry and going to get food in the Hyatt. After this, I saw in one of my Telegram chats that there was a more relaxed art trade going on down in the game room, hosted by TimmyDerg! Which I am glad that I went, because I also got to meet Dani, LunaDelSol, Orion, Wilgeon, and a few others while also getting to do two more sketchbook swaps with Timmy and Dani!! After meeting back up with Kitkat, they wanted to go back to their hotel and I met up with Xenospur who pulled me into the Guess That Belly panel, which I initially didn't want to go to..

"Guess that Belly", hosted by WallaceCheeseLover, is a gameshow panel where you are given a zoomed-in shot from an art piece and have to guess whether or not it's Weight Gain, Inflation, or Vore! Xeno and I sat in the FRONT ROW and right at the end of the walkway to get a full picture of things that were going on. The panel was in a bit of a chaotic state due to problems with projectors and such, but after getting it all set up, the show was on! I kept trying to be funny and had a moth plushie with me (that I had been holding throughout the whole convention, he was very popular bweheheh), WCL was walking back to their desk and I made a funny comment about throwing the moth at them if I got up there, and didn't think anything of it, watching another contestant try to go up and guess the bellies that were up there! It was nearing the end so I wasn't expecting to go up to the stage, since a lot of people wanted another person to go up, and I was already having a whole lot of fun being a bit of a chaos moff..

UNTIL I ALSO GOT TO GO UP AND TAKE PART IN THE SHOW!!?! WCL looked over to me for more chaos, and when I mentioned that both me and the other person should go up and participate, he obliged.. AND THEN ALSO CHOSE XENO AND ONE OTHER TO GO UP AS WELL!! Four of us were on stage all trying to guess the bellies that were being shown, it was fucking amazing and I was able to get my section all recorded, though I was blinded a bit by the projector but thankfully can still see me a fair bit in the video! Plus, at the very end, I got my moment to toss the moff plushie at WCL, who then promptly threw it back to where I was sitting, barely missing Xeno as it flew over his head!! There was still one more person to go up afterwards, but it was an amazing panel and I even got to meet up with WCL afterwards and show him a fair bit of my blob artwork as well and make a new friend in the process!!
(Funny anecdote, my friend Nezha's artwork was chosen for one of the images and after I sent it to them, they were over the moon about it as well bweheheh, so lots of fun was had even by people who weren't at the convention! ^^)

Sunday (UNOFFICIAL FATFUR MEET):
The last day of the convention, the last panels were going on, and there was an unofficial fatfur meet going on as well! After finishing up all that I wanted to buy and seeing a few more suiters, I spent the majority of the day at the unofficial meet doing sketchbook swaps and giving as many hugs as possible out to all the people I could! Got to do trades with Snoozemoff, DreamyDragon, Raz, WCL, Gretri, and Maz while also getting to chat with a few other furs like Tuck, Kinachi, and DragonMamaMaxine, which was pretty cool! (I did a drawing for them in their sketchbook on Saturday! ^^)
Mostly the meet was focused around just chatting and hanging out one last time before the convention was over, doing sketchbook swaps and just spending time with fatfurs at the center still. After all was done, I handed out many big and fat moff hugs to everyone I had met, and then went to dinner with my sister who lives in the area before coming back one last time and seeing a few others off. ^^

Looking Forward:
Midwest Furfest 2025 was wonderful. I am truly appreciative and happy that I got to meet up with so many fatfur artists and friends while also getting to make new ones in the process. Well-known artists I look up to compliment and want to watch my art journey just from my blob badge I had and seeing the one I got to give to Kygen means more than I could ever say! I will try to be reaching out to people in the next week and posting sketchbook swaps as well, but I might be a bit slow to them because I am still reeling with the fact I'm back home and MFF is over, this weekend will forever be something special for me.

For art things, will be looking to try and get back into drawing blobs and also having new peeps to draw as well!! There are a few ideas as well that are circulating my moff noggin, but for now..

Thank you all for following along my art journey. It means more to me that people want to see my art and draw the moff in sketchbook swaps as well during this convention. The wonderful people I got to meet and chat with, while also being able to showcase the moff around as well, has helped me so much get out of a slump that I was in before this convention while also helping me break more out of my social anxiety shell. There are still a few parts that linger, but overall, I'm feeling much more confident about being able to reach out and chat with people better bweheheh. ^^

It's almost impossible to believe that two weeks ago, I was chatting with Xeno telling him I didn't want to go.
Boy am I glad I did! ^^

Much love and hugggs!!
- Taffy 💛🤍