I’ve been working behind the scenes getting everything updated and fixed up, clearing out spam, and generally doing “invisible” projects for a while now, all in preparation for today. The one-year anniversary of my last post. Not really something to celebrate, but it seemed like the perfect time to give myself a fresh start. More on that below.

To celebrate the rebirth and renewal of my blog, I decided to create this ikebana with a bold and sculptural protea blossom, surrounded and protected by tiny mums in a very similar colour pallette. Airy nigella greens help contrast the heaviness of the focus flowers and bring balance and light to the whole arrangement. The flowers were purchased at a lovely florist here in Montreal called Les Champs Fleuris while I was out with Sophie. While we were there, a woman came in to browse and she was wearing yukata!

As I outlined in my last post, I had a very eventful end of 2023 leading into 2024. I was over-ambitious and thought I’d be able to pick up where I left off, at the same time as I recovered from a pretty debilitating accident, all while working 40+ hours a week, travelling back and forth across the continent, and planning a very DIY wedding.

I accepted that life had gotten in the way, but convinced myself I’d get back into the swing of things when I got back to Montreal (where all my kimono, ikebana vessels, and other blogging necessities still live) last month only to find out there’d been a minor fire in the house here and my parents hadn’t told me to “not stress me out further.” Don’t worry, everyone is safe and sound and the only damage was to one wall where a thermostat shorted out. My mother thankfully felt the heat emanating out of the wall before calling 911 immediately. But I came home to new walls, an entirely refinished floor due to water damage, and the bulk of our possessions boxed up all over the hallways.

But here’s the good news. The wedding went off a treat, I have been happily married for six months. The house here in Montreal is slowly getting back to normal as we unpack everything. The kimono room is still upside-down and I’m still dealing with a lot of chronic pain in my legs and can’t stand for long periods of time, but I’ve got lots of reviews and little adventures planned out for the near future. I still need to wrangle The Husband into a formal kimono and hakama so we can take some very belated “wedding” pictures. Maybe for our first anniversary next December. Seems fitting since I keep doing things on anniversaries lately.

On that note, if you’re still here I can’t express how much I appreciate your continued encouragement and support. Please select your top three options of content you’d like to see or drop me a line here or on any social media platform if you have any requests or suggestions. I can’t promise anything, but I can sure as heck try! All reviews/diys/etc will obviously be related to kimono or Japanese culture, and of course I will be doing as much actual kimono blogging and coordination as I can in the coming months!

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