When The Wendigo Met Hannibal - MCM Birmigham 2018 (Mads Mikkelsen)

Back in May when I visited the UK just a few days after my arrival I noticed that Mads Mikkelsen would be attending Comic Con and as a huge Fannibal I had to go meet him in person, he's such a great actor and Hannibal is one of my favourite series ever and I really enjoyed his recent appearances in the Marvel and Star wars Universe so this was an opportunity not to be missed. I'm writing this months later but my brain still can't process that I met him in person, it was all so quick but he was so charming and cool.

I had just a week to prepare for this con and nothing to wear, I knew that I wanted to dress "Hannibal Style" but had left most of my wardrobe back in Thailand, seriously I only had one pair of jeans and one skirt packed in my suitcase and a few jumpers I had left behind after my winter trip so I rushed out to H&M to check out the sale section and luckily found a few things I could use for a Wendigo outfit. I also rush ordered some black lenses which I ended up not being able to see properly out of but they really added to the look I was going for so I persisted. Luckily my antlers I made many years ago were still in tact and I found a Hannibal style tie I used as a belt to keep the jacket in place. Finally I added my rosary beads I got from my trip to Palermo (where Hannibal was filmed) to complete the look and although it wasn't perfect I was quite pleased at what I managed to put together and received some nice compliments from my fellow Fannibals.

Meeting Mads was just a complete blur, I was so nervous but it was very calm and so charming and signed my poster I got from Hannibal's first panel at San Diego Comic Con which he mentioned he was sad not to have been able to go to then afterwards I went to get a photo with him and completely forgot to take my flower crown out of my bag for him to wear, the picture is really embarrassing to you can see just how nervous I was but he of course looks dashing as ever!

After the blur of meeting Mads we decided to check out the rest of the con and it was surprisingly quiet compared to all the cons I've been to in the past and I ended up not buying anything which is really unusual for me but finally seeing Mads in person was just so amazing and brought back all my Fannibal feels, it was definitely one of the biggest highlights of my visit back to the UK and I'll never forget it.

Who would you love to meet from your favourite series?

Love & Antlers

Cate

xoxo

Outfit Inspiration: Hannibal Lecter

Hannibal has become a great source of outfit inspiration for me because they show is all about the beautiful visuals and Mads Milkkelesen looks so damn good in those suits it's distracting, I seriously want the number of his tailor! A few weeks ago after I posted my Nightmare Stag outfit I found this paisley tie in my dad's collection and immediately thought it would be perfect for a Hannibal inspired outfit. Since my Antler Tutorial I have added some blood red roses to my antler headband and I love it even more now, so much so that I'm wearing it while writing this post. One of my favourite additions to this outfit has to be the clear raincoat being a fan of American Psycho and Christian Bale it's one addition I think I'm going to have to make to my nerdy wardrobe. I can't wait to wear this outfit & the return of Hannibal this week!

Will you be watching the new season of Hannibal this week?

Love & Chianti

Cate

xoxo

SDCC: Failed Plans, More Swag & Camping in 6A

Thursday I had planned to pick up all my goodies, finish shopping then hit Ballroom 20 for the Sherlock, X-Files & Brave New Warriors panel then head on over to 6A for the Hannibal panel or "Pannibal" as they were calling it, however at about 6am I was seeing tweets that there were already over 1000 people in line for Ballroom 20 and most had been camping overnight for the X-files!

So by the time I hit the Convention Center around 8am the line was ridiculous! I decided to give Ballroom 20 a miss, take my time shopping and get that out of the way so I can enjoy the rest of the con. Marvel was my first stop with my "fast-pass" to pick up all my goodies as well as a free con exclusive Captain America poster and tickets to the Agent Carter screening which in my Friday Game of Thrones delirium (more on that soon) I totally forgot about!

I had my first celebrity spotting on the way back from picking up my Batusi Batman, Rob Benedict AKA Chuck from Supernatural which if you know me I'm also obsessed with, the photo is terrible of course because I was having a mini freak out and fumbling with all the huge bags of swag in my hands.

By around midday my feet were already tired from standing in line with my giant swag bags so I decided to grab a large Frappuccino from Starbucks and camp out in 6A until the "Pannibal" started, luckily there were quite a few interesting things going on in there before it started so that kept me amused.

I sat through several panels in 6A before Hannibal the first being about Hanna-Barbera which showed us some old skool clips from the cartoons which was fun, the second was called "Ode to Nerds" which included one of my favourite authors Chuck Palahnuik on the panel who announced that there will be a Fight Club sequel in comic book form which I'm super excited about! Then James Spader showed up with the pilot for his new show The Blacklist which was kinda Silence of the Lambs meets The Following nothing very original although James Spader's character was kinda cool.

Robert Kirkman has to be one of my new favourite human beings, I loved his panel despite the fact that I've never read a single issue of The Walking Dead and was completely confused at times about who the characters are and what was going on (a tiger what!?) but after seeing his panel I will most definitely be reading it as I loved his sense of humour and I love the show, in fact you all should watch the panel and see his awesomeness but be warned there a spoilers!

After a very boring "Unofficial" Hobbit panel which I spent the majority of fiddling with my phone trying to get us tickets for the Nerd HQ Hannibal panel (no luck boooo!) it was finally time for Hannibal to take the stage but I think that deserves a whole post of its own so stay tuned!

Zombies & Superheroes

Cate

xoxo

Read, Watch, Wear, Play

May has been one crazy month, I've hardly had time to sit down and relax but I still have some great picks for this month. It's been forever since I read an actual book and I kinda feel bad about it and as much as I love my comics I really want to get my hands on a good book so be sure to comment with recommendations because travel season is coming up which gives me an opportunity for lots of airplane reading time!

Justice League Dark

I honestly have no idea why I've only just started reading this because not only does it feature two of my favourite comic book characters (Constantine and Zatanna) but it focuses on the more supernatural and magical elements of the DC world which I'm totally into. The characters are so intriguing that I just can't wait to find out more about them and I'm really loving the artwork to so I'm definitely adding this to my pull list. Also I may have bought a top hat and a pair of fishnet gloves recently... I wonder why?

Hannibal

Hannibal was one of those shows I was kinda intrigued by but wasn't expecting too much from but after seeing the first two episodes I'm hooked. This show is really beautifully captured which sounds kinda weird for a something that deals with such a dark matter but the cinematography creates an atmosphere that you just get lost in it and it's definitely one of my favourite aspect of the show. The casting of Hannibal is perfect to Mads Mikkelsen has that subtle, elegant malice down perfectly and I love the relationship that developing between him and Will that I just can't wait to see how the true identity of Hannibal will be revealed.

Benefit Passport to Posh

Recently I decided to give my face a little break from make-up but sometimes I just need a little something to enhance my natural features and this little kit has everything you need to give you that great natural look and is compact enough to travel with so you can just stick it in your purse for those emergency touch-ups.

Super Monsters Ate My Condo

Waiting rooms are the worst and I've found myself sitting in them bored out of my mind a lot this month so I downloaded this crazy game to pass the time and have since become addicted to it, yes I am a 4 year old anything super silly and brightly coloured is awesome in my book, but seriously give it a go and tell me that it's not fun!

What are some of your favourite things this month? Be sure to let me know in the comments!

Monsters & Make-up

Cate

xoxo

Inside the Memory Palace of Hannibal Lecter (Capella Palatina)

Believe it or not I had already planned out our vacation to Palermo before Season 3 of Hannibal had aired so when I saw the Cappella Palatina featured so heavily throughout the season as the "Memory Palace" of Dr. Lecter I put this at the the top of my list of the places I just had to visit, it would seem that eventually all of my holidays take on some element of my nerdiness...

There are so many beautiful churches throughout Palermo but the Cappella Palatina although one of the smallest was my favourite (and not just for Fannibal related reasons) the richness of the colours was amazing and the amount of details in the mosaics astounding, I had never seen anything like this in a church before and I was in awe.

Palermo is such a chilled out place I honestly felt I could have chilled out here and on the balconies all day. I really enjoyed working out where parts of Hannibal were filmed and it totally makes sense that such a visually rich show would feature such a visually stunning place, I even found myself dreaming about it the night after my visit.

What is the most beautiful place you've ever visited?

Love & Roses

Cate

xoxo

SDCC: Fannibals, Flower Crowns & The Hannibal Pannibal!!!

Whilst waiting in line to get into 6A a Will Graham cosplayer walked past me in a flower crown, how flower crowns have become synonymous with Hannibal I do not know but it's hilarious and I love it! I love my flower crowns and I love this show, weirdly enough this happened to be the one day I wasn't wearing a flower crown and for the past year this is how I've been keeping them organised.... it must be fate!

I spoke briefly back in May about how I liked the show and after seeing the whole of the first series I'm now obsessed, it's really an amazing show so beautifully captured, meaningful and so amazingly done if a bit gorey but if you haven't seen it yet GO WATCH IT so anyway onto the panel I'd been waiting all day to see.

Aaron Abrams came of stage first and introduced us to a video montage of the first season then disappeared, it would seem that his character wasn't important enough to be part of the panel although they did invite him to the Nerd HQ one, sorry Aaron maybe next year right?

Bryan Fuller is quite possibly the biggest "Fannibal" ever, I loved his enthusiasm, his smile and way he speaks to the fans and it was such a great moment when he put on that flower crown, I mean can you believe this is the same guy who made Pushing Daisies? Yeah, kinda blew my mind to but when I think about it it makes perfect sense as both shows are full of beautiful visual symbolism and deal with a guy with a terrible affliction that helps him solve mysterious deaths.

As for Hugh Dancy could this guy be any cuter? He looked so excited and overwhelmed by the fans response to him it was adorable and definitely the highlight of this panel for me is the look of delight on his face when my friend Violet gave him a Will Graham plushie she had made for him complete with flower crown!

 

There's nothing more awesome than seeing your friends dreams come true, I'm not quite sure who was more excited me at that point me or her but it was definitely the start of even more awesome Comic Con happenings for us!

Then to end the panel they showed us a hilarious blooper reel, which I can't wait to watch in full when the DVD comes out and if that wasn't enough of a treat every single person who attended the panel got a special poster of one of Hannibal's drawings so all in all an AWESOME panel and definitely worth the all day wait!

Next up cosplay, the exhibitions hall, outside events, random encounters and Game of Thrones!

Antlers & Flower Crowns

Cate

xoxo

Pssst if you love the little Will Graham plushie my friend Violet made be sure to check out her gallery and buy one for yourself!

5 Fandom Friday: Characters I Want to Dress Up as for Halloween

When I first started joining in on Fandom 5 this topic was the one I was the most excited about and it's still one of my favourite ever posts I've done so I was super excited to see it again on the topics list for this month. As Halloween is just 1 week away I thought I would keep things simple and share a few simple tutorials and closet cosplays that are easy and quick to do should I decide to actually leave the Batcave and cause some mayhem this year. 

♥ Jumpsuit ♥ Converse ♥ Facehugger Harness ♥

Ellen Ripley

Ever since I found this Facehugger dog lead on Etsy I've been thinking about dressing up as Ripley and taking my pooch out for a walk with it, yes I have reached the ultimate crazy level of dog ownership where I want to cosplay with my dog...

The Hannistag

Hannibal is gone but not forgotten and I will take any excuse I can to wear my floral antlers. These antlers are really simple to make to should you want to dress up as a Wendigo or a fawn or even a Moose the possibilities are endless.

♥ Shirt ♥ Jacket ♥ Skirt ♥ Tie ♥ Shoes ♥ Raincoat ♥

Patrick Bateman

Speaking of sharp suited serial killers I had to mention Patrick Bateman. American Psycho is one of my all time favourite movies and I've wanted to cosplay as him for ages I mean I even bought a clear raincoat earlier this year in his (and Hannibal's) honour.

Daryl Dixon

One of my most popular tutorials is for Daryl's angel wing vest and it gets a lot of hits during this time of year because who doesn't want to be a badass like Daryl? As the main focus of his outfit is his vest this is a simple one to do should you need to put together an outfit super quick.

♥ Vest ♥ Shirt ♥ Trousers ♥ Shoes ♥ Belt ♥ Dog Raptor Costume ♥

Owen Grady

Speaking of bad ass boys in vests I had to end on this one. I call my dog Russ-a-raptor quite often because he likes to pounce and play bite me and as we started this post with dog costumes I thought I would present to you the most humiliating awesome dog costume there is, yep I'm definitely dressing up as a Raptor Wrangler this year!

Check out #Fandom5 creators The Nerdy Girlie & Super Space Chick & join in on the Fandom Friday fun!

Love & Apple Tea

Cate

xoxo

5 Fandom Friday: 5 TV Shows I Would Un-Cancel

Welcome to another Fandom FriYAY! Sorry it's been a while since my last one (almost 2 months) but life has been crazy, anyway this week we're talking about TV shows we loved that were unfortunately cancelled which is a subject very close to my heart as a fangirl as I feel this is constantly happening to shows that I love and it breaks my nerdy heart. If you want to find out more about Fandom Friday then check out the Geek Girl Bloggers community and founder The Nerdy Girlie's blog and join in!

Angel

I think Angel was the first TV Show I really got upset about them cancelling. Like many others I absolutely adored Buffy but I think I loved watching Angel more and I felt there were just so many more stories for them to tell and I loved the dynamic of the team with some of my favourite characters from Buffy like Cordelia, Wesley and Spike and the new characters of Lorne, Gun and Fred. I would have loved to see at least one more season of the show to wrap things up, Buffy I think got an ending that everyone was satisfied that felt like an ending but the finale of Angel felt way too random and rushed.

Hannibal

Hannibal was such a beautiful show with a perfect cast that just conveyed mood and atmosphere so perfectly, I almost felt like I fell into a trace while watching it it immersed me so much. There is just no other show on TV like this and I would have absolutely loved to see it grow and develop and new characters like Clarice be introduced but unfortunately it's lifespan was cut short. I'm still super salty about this as it had such a dedicated fanbase and following to but I guess it's the curse of Bryan Fuller... please don't let American Gods get cut short to!

Almost Human

I mentioned Almost Human in my last post but it deserves another mention in this post because it's another show that got cut after just one season which I loved. This was essentially a sci-fi buddy cop show and I normally don't enjoy cop shows but this one had an amazing cast, Karl Urban was just so perfectly cast and had so much humour and rapport with his droid companion, there was enough sci-fi and mystery to keep me entertained and wanting more and I really wish it would have had another season.

Constantine

WHY was this show cancelled after just one season? I have been a fan of the Hellblazer comics for the longest time and Justice League Dark is one of my newer favourite comic book series to so I had so much anticipation for this series. I did like the Keanu Reeves movie but he just didn't give me those Constantine feels but Matt Ryan definitely did and played the role so perfectly so much so he had a small guest role on Arrow and even Guillermo Del Toro was considering casting him for the Justice League Dark movie which he's unfortunately not working on anymore (WTF DC!?) I think given the chance he would have really grown so much into the role and I'm still hoping the CW will pick up the show but I guess they already have that genre covered with Supernatural...

Agent Carter

I'm honestly so heartbroken that I'll never get to see Peggy Carter ever again in the MCU, not only was Peggy such an amazing character strong, funny, feminine, witty, smart, etc. but Hayley Atwell was in real life to. I enjoyed this series so much and I felt like it was something that was definitely needed in this male dominated superhero world and I was really looking forward to seeing the development of S.H.I.E.L.D. between Peggy and Howard Stark (also shoutout to Jarvis who I loved to!) but unfortunately it looks like this will never happen... Marvel please bring back Agent Carter I miss her so much!

What shows do you miss watching on TV?

Love & Strawberry Tea

Cate

xoxo

#OOTD: The Nightmare Stag

Hannibal is one of my favourite TV shows ever and I became quickly obsessed with it after seeing the first episode. Bryan Fuller has created such a beautiful yet grotesque world and I am in awe so I thought I would put together an outfit inspired by a constant visual theme in the show of the Wendigo and Nightmare Stag.

I am desperate for the next series of Hannibal to start! The acting, the visuals and the music are just perfect and it's one of the few things on TV I watch which I get completely immersed into, seriously when I'm watching it not even a car crashing through my living room could disturb me!

Are you a Fannibal? Be sure to let me know in the comments

Love & Hearts

Cate

xoxo

Outfit Details
Antlers - Handmade (tutorial coming soon!)
Necklace - Cateaclysmic Crafts
Dress - H&M
Cardigan - Unif
Shoes - Forever 21
Contact Lenses - Pinky Paradise

D.I.Y. Fashion Tutorial: Hannibal Inspired Antler Headband

Being a "Fannibal" antlers are something I have tried to make multiple times but I was never happy with the end results, this time however I was so pleased with how freakin' simple they ended up being and how awesome they looked that I thought I would post a tutorial so you all can make them to.

YOU WILL NEED:

Let's begin...

STEP 1: Wire Frame

First I wrapped some wire around the headband to give me and anchor then I basically freehanded the design until I got a shape I was happy with, using the pilers to help flatten and twist the wire, so go crazy with one you can make them as long or as short as you want .

STEP 2: Masking Tape

To create a basic shape and form the antlers I used masking tape because it's lightweight, sticky and easy to mould. I basically wrapped tape around the wire frame to create the defined points of the antler and add mass to it so I'd have a base to work with.

STEP 3: Papier Mâché

To give the antlers strength I decided to go down the papier mache route as this would be lightweight but durable and I decided to use glue instead of flour and water to prevent mould and create a stronger base. I used small strips of newspaper and did about 3 - 4 layers letting it dry for a few hours between each layer, if you want yours thicker then add as many extra layers as you want until you're happy with the result just make sure to let it dry completely before starting on the next layer.

STEP 4: Prime

Once I had allowed my Papier mache base to dry overnight I decided to prime the base to cover up the newspaper print so I would have a nice clear and easy base to work with. Also at this point you can also sand down any lumps and bumps you don't want, I chose to keep mine a bit rustic and gnarled for a more natural effect.

STEP 5: Paint

I used acrylic to paint my antlers black and painted about 3 - 4 coats until they were opaque. As with the primer be sure to let your paint dry completely for a few hours between coats to prevent any streaking and unevenness then once you're done allow them to dry overnight to make sure the paint is completely dry before you wear them.

STEP 6: Gloss & Decorate (optional)

If you want a shiny finish to your antlers you can paint on a coat of modge podge gloss and if you wanted to add a few flowers like the antlers above just simply glue them on with a glue gun.

If you decide to make your own antlers be sure to let me know in the comments, I want pics!

Love & Stags

Cate

xoxo