Cosplay and things...

I think it says something about how crazy busy my workload is when blogging is only ever possible as procrastination.

As I shouldn't be procrastinating I'll keep it brief!

Last weekend we did a charity fundraising event where we got abandoned in a random part of the country (turned out to be near Nuneaton) and had to make our way back to Cambridge!

It was a great opportunity to wear my newly completed River Song cosplay, and to have some photos taken at the TARDIS at BBC Birmingham!

However...
It was FREEZING. I really regretted my decision to cosplay the Day of the Moon outfit (THIN KHAKI DRESS) rather than, say, the Pandorica Opens one (THICK WARM WHITE JACKET).

 

As you can see, I steadily accumulated more layers throughout the day, making me pretty much unrecognisable.




The day was really good fun, up until the point where we had to leave Birmingham... which proved to be a total nightmare! We ended up spending the night sleeping in the bus station with some other LOST Cambridge students before going back to Cambridge via London. But getting into Birmingham and the challenges there were so much fun, and we met some incredible people who offered us lifts (thank you all so much!).

We have so fair raised more than £300 for some incredible charities :D
https://www.raise2give.com/cambridge-rag-presents-lost/tom-and-becky If you want to help and donate more, we would be extremely grateful! (rest assured we earned every penny of those donations)

Speaking of cosplay, I tried to do Misa Amane for Halloween...

It ended up being more Misa Amane on a bad hair day, but I tried! It was based roughly on the cover art for volume 4, with a different T shirt to (potentially) make it more recognisable!
As it happens I didn't run into the one person I knew who liked Death Note all night, which was a shame. My boyfriend, however, described me as 'blonde punk' which I think counts as reasonably successful :)

Next post (hopefully): the adventures of the Knitting Society!

Still alive.

*bows to floor*

I am truly truly sorry for neglecting my blog for so long. I really am.

The reason? University work (yay) combined with some unforeseen medical issues.

I can only apologise and try again, although I cant promise anything.

So... things to update on! Theres quite a lot!

It has been a good year :D Cambridge is a lot of fun (despite being hard work) and I've made some amazing friends. I even managed to pass my exams!

Stuff I'm working on at the moment...

I have a commission for a charity auction which is currently in progress. The bidder wanted amethyst and hematite, which is a lovely colour combination, so I shall post pictures when its finished!

I'm also working on a tiger eye and hematite pendant, as well as some other stuff.

I made my own hair piece and earrings for the May Ball:

Me and the boyfriend, looking very smart in white tie.

I discovered a passion for baking! Which is awkward as we don't have ovens at uni... If you know any good no bake cake recipes please let me know!

 

This is my Sticky Mars Bar Calorie Cake Of Doom, described by my friend as the amazing chocolate heaven thing. Who needs ovens???

I haven't forgotten the steampunk stuff, I promise! Things got in the way!

There has been some good fancy dress however...

Pirate punting races on the Cam! I wish I'd got a better picture of my hair, it was epic :D

I'm currently working on River Song and Aerith Gainsborough cosplays. River Song is for a uni charity event I'm planning on doing next term (with my boyfriend as the Eleventh Doctor), and the Aerith one is for the off chance that I have enough money to go to a convention in August. Plus I have been told I look like both.

River Song cosplay, work in progress.

I hope you all have been well :D I look forward to reading all the blog posts I have to catch up on...

Becky x

Sponsored walk... and some drawings

First up, we finished our walk!!

Here is a lovely pic of us all near the start:

So yeah.. 27 miles. It took us all day, 8am-7pm, and someone insisted we climb up the abbey steps at Whitby afterwards (bad idea...). My feet are still hurting three days later! It was great fun though, and I've raised over £150 so far for a fantastic cause.

http://www.justgiving.com/Rebecca-Bennion

Next, figured I should upload some of my sketches onto here! Mostly because I wouldnt dare put half of them on my dA...

First up, the homunculi from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. I drew this ages ago, never got round to doing anything with it... I always prefered the Brotherhood adaptation of the manga - I liked the inclusion of Briggs and Xing, the plot made more sense, I liked the characters more... Plus Im reading the manga so I liked the anime adaptation which stayed faithful to it. What do you think? Do you prefer the original anime series or Brotherhood?

Next, some crappy Final Fantasy VII sketchies. Pretty much everything I draw is Final Fantasy VII fanart...

First is some chibis. This was my first attempt at drawing chibis, so be nice =P Personally I prefer the Sephiroth one... I was going to draw Angeal as well and complete the set, but he's not a character that really works well in chibi form.

Genesis again... There are so many things wrong with this picture I've lost count, but I cant help but love it. Theres so much pain and hate and anger and hurt and determination in those eyes... <3

Finally, a nice picture of Sephiroth. I love the way he looks here, so calm and serene... yet deadly. (bad picture quality is bad, it looks much better in person, honestly!)

What do you think? Who should I draw next?

And because I mentioned Genesis, I have to end with a LOVELESS quote ;)

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky xx

Birthday plans! And horseshoe crabs :3

I know my birthday isnt till July, but plans are already well underway... I mean, come on, you only turn 18 once, right?

I am super excited about this.

I'm going to swim with sharks!!!!! How awesome is that?? Its at Edinburgh Aquarium, and we're also going to go see the pandas at the zoo while we're up there (and go shopping, of course =P).

Haha I didnt realise just how big these sharks were... They have one thats 12ft long (ironically named Tinkerbell). 12 ft. That is one damn big shark. 

Trying to find the link on youtube to the best video which shows just how big it is... Finding lots of encouraging videos called things like 'When Shark Dives Go Wrong!!', which is nice. Several friends have already said they're convinced I'm going to be eaten and want me to promise to ring them on the train home to tell them I'll alive =D

So excited about this!!! Actually cannot wait!!! (Although I'll be honest, I am slightly scared...)

Anyways...

I figured it was about time I posted a blog about these little critters. Horseshoe crabs.

I saw them for the first time in one of those documentary programmes, and my reaction was 'That's CGI. Creatures like that dont actually exist!!' They looked so prehistoric, like they belonged in Walking With Dinosaurs or something, I was amazed to find that they do exist.

And they are damn awesome. I mean, look at them.

They're so cute (in a weird kind of way), little shuffly things that look like trilobites but arent trilobites. I saw some specimens in uni museums which made me even more interested, they're such fascinating, unique animals. Like bats, I suppose.

(And speaking of unis, I finalised my choices on UCAS the other day, EEEEK D= )

Horseshoe crabs are a great source of interest to scientists because of their blood, which doesnt contain haemoglobin like humans (red) but haemocyanin (blue). They are harvested for their blood, which I think is rather cruel, especially given the mortality rates, but this has lots of potential medical benefits for humans.

They're one of these amazing animals (like sharks) which have been around for millions and millions of years unchanged by evolution.



Now this doesnt really make a lot of sense to me (as an amateur palaeontologist about to enter uni). Reading about dramatic extinction events like the End-Permian (which wiped out 95% of all species) or the more well known KT event (think meteorites and dinosaurs), it seems so unlikely that a creature could survive something like that - not only once, but several times! These animals (and sharks and other living fossils like turtles too), have survived many of these events, and remained virtually unchanged on the other side!

Perhaps living in the sea gives an advantage, as the environment tends to remain more constant than on land. But then again, certainly for the End Permian, the evidence suggests anoxic conditions which would have caused difficulties for aquatic life as well as terrestrial.

And that is why I want to be a paleontologist, my friends. So many mysteries out there, so much more that is not understood!

Sorry for boring you all with my palaeo rants =D Hope you're having a lovely Easter, wherever you are!

Much love, Becky xx

PS: you can now sponsor me online for my 27 mile charity walk!! (see other blog post) Please help us raise lots of money to help the 27 million worldwide who are victimes of slavery!! Thank you!  http://www.justgiving.com/Rebecca-Bennion

Mile a million

Been a while since I last posted...
I have some jewellery to update you all with at some point soon, but for now I just thought I'd tell you all about something I'm doing in the Easter hols!

There are twenty seven million slaves in the world today, more than there has ever been before. It is not something that can be ignored, as it even goes on in our own country.
The A21 campaign was set up to raise awareness of human trafficing and to provide safety, medical care, justice and support for the victims. It is a truly fantastic cause, and one that was brought to the attention of my Christian Union a short time ago. Someone then pointed out that it was twenty seven miles from our college to the nearby town of Whitby.

So you guessed it, we're doing a sponsored walk to Whitby! We're taking the coastal route, along the Cleveland Way and through Saltburn. Its going to hopefully be fun, but I really need to get to the gym so I'm fit enough to do it!

Although this is being done through my CU, it is a cause that everyone should get behind and support, and we've even got several non Christians (including the President of the Student Union) doing it with us!

So please remember us as we train up and get sponsorship and then actually do the walk itself! Thank you!

http://www.thea21campaign.org/