Anime North 2023

Taking a break in between my Japan posts to blog about Anime North that happened this past May! I was lucky enough to win the lottery for the Artist Alley this year! This year was the first year since 2009 that they combined the artists and crafters together... which made searching for things kind of annoying since everything was all mixed up!! It definitely took some getting used to...

During the week of the con, I was still madly crafting... since my things were small I was afraid I wasn't going to have enough stuff to last me all three days! I tried to put some more thought into my display but in the end it turned out pretty simple...

        

It was so nice to dress up and see friends I haven't seen in a long time. This was the first con I've sold at since Anime Shogatsu in early 2020. I skipped Anime North last year and was glad I didn't go cause I heard the lines were crazy but this year I think it was more manageable? But it still got really hot inside the Dealer's room at one point. Overall it was really busy at my table but I think this time I was more prepared and we brought a small table to set up behind our table to have lunch breaks on and to do small surgeries on my crafts (and the staff didn't say anything lol)

 

I was so happy everyone seemed to love my crafts! I saw so many cool outfits!!! I regret not taking more photos!! I was so nervous and anxious about the whole weekend but the only bad thing that happened was that I forgot to test out my Square reader and it literally died on me because I left it in storage for too long during COVID, so I had to rely on the one I got for free, the card swiping one, and couldn't take tap credit or debit payments which kinda sucked because I paid $60 for the tap reader and only used it a handful of times before the pandemic hit and cons were cancelled. I was also too lazy to add sales tax onto the purchases so I included it in the prices of my items itself. I thought my prices would be too high but actually I'm glad I raised my prices a bit because there really isn't anyone selling the same things as me in the artist alley anymore. It really does take me forever to make my creations though, so I'm really not making any profit at all compared to people who do prints or people who get overseas manufacturers to make their items. It kinda sucks but oh well... I'm just doing this for fun I guess. Overall it was a good experience and I'm glad I was able to make people smile with my crafts!! Thank you to everyone who dropped by my table to support me or those who just stopped to chat with me!! I definitely missed the interactions of selling in person!

I also had some time escape and do some shopping!! This is probably the most money I've spent at a con in a longgg while! But I couldn't resist, there were just too many cute things in the artist alley and dealer's. Good thing I had to rush back to my table otherwise I would've spent even more money haha... While at my table and walking around, I saw some really cool cosplays! But I guess I haven't had time to watch any anime lately except for Chainsaw Man so I just wasn't excited about seeing other people's cosplays like I used to when I attended Anime North when I was younger... Although I did see some old stuff like Bleach making a comeback. But definitely a lot of Genshin and Chainsaw Man...

Lastly, I was also able to get some froggy pins to finally fill my froggy itabag! I'm so happy with how it turned out! And that's all for this post, until next time!!