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I received a lot less books this year, only two, which is probably good because it takes me a while to read them and I am still not done reading last years book gifts. I got Find The Work You're Wired To Do, by Ken Coleman. This one was from my Dad. He likes to get me books I have no interest in, but they are usually pretty good when I do read them. I like this one simply because it comes with a quiz and I love filling out quizzes.
The other one I received was Fashioning Japanese Subcultures(second edition), by Yuniya Kawamura. This one I asked for, from my Mother. I started it as soon as I could, and I plan to read it for a few hours on the plane/at the airport tomorrow. Subculture is a topic I am very interested in, and very probably why I end up doing things like wearing lolita fashion, and having a neocities website. Kawamura, who studied sociology, now works at FIT. She is the "de facto head of the schools Japanese department" according to a person in my local fashion community that was in one of her classes. But anyway, she has a great new and well researched perspective on subculture/neotribes and it is so so very interesting. I would recommend the book to anyone who likes academic writing or niche fashion.

I am not a great writer, and I have a hard time with words. I feel like that comes across in my posts here, but I want to be able to improve my speech and writing, so I will keep trying without becoming too word jumbled.

I hope everyone has a Happy new year and had a good holiday week!

 A Primark opened last month in my city.. I don't expect it to be anything interesting but maybe some different snacks we don't usually have in the US? I am going to go there and take a look around. 
I also need to locate towels suitable for embroidery to make Christmas gifts, as well as some green felt. I am going to attempt to make a small felt plant and pot to gift to one of my boyfriend's friends. 
I am feeling a little nervous to use my embroidery machine later. It's a Brother innovis something, and was very expensive and I can never seem to make it work quite right. I've been sewing all my life and can use about any sewing machine, but the embroidery machines and industry just feel so set apart and the machines are SO complicated. I constantly have to re-thread and cut away thread knot-balls from the fabric. I am happy to have it and finally have a little motivation to try it out again, so wish me luck!

 It's been a while since I found the time to sit down and write a post on here, mostly because I dropped my (now long gone) laptop on the floor and it broke in essentially unfixable ways, but also out of a burst of laziness in the past month.
I want to write some small life updates, and some upcoming events I look forward to.
First, I'll start with what I've been up to. As of just last week I have acquired the Karami JSK & head bow set in my preferred colorway (B x W)! I traded with a friend in the Old School Lolitas discord server, and I can't wait to receive it! I previously had the JSk&KC in sax and me being me I just can't stand pastels and especially not wearing them most of the time. 
  I also recently purchased my very first vintage yukata which I plan to wear to my cities upcoming cherry Blossom festival. The garment is from 1996 and is overall a blue-ish black color with prints of dragonflies and flowers in a neon-esque style. As for an obi I decided on a colorful floral hanhaba obi. I'm still not 100% set on it but it will do for now. In the future I think an obi with B x W polka-dots or diamonds would be very cute.
  As for other upcoming events, I soon will be attending an anime convention for the first time in nearly 3 years! With the intensity of covid in the US everything has been cancelled over and over and I can't wait to be back in the atmosphere of a convention. I plan to cosplay at least one day but other than that I will likely dress comfortably. My current cosplay plan is Space Channel 5 Hatsune Miku. I would have preferred to do a cosplay of Ulala, the main character of space channel five, but I already had a wig for Miku, so I settled on that for budget reasons.
  Anyways that's all from me for today, I hope everyone is having a good year as we approach the end of the first quarter of 2022 and remember to take good care of yourself!  -Catherine