To anyone who reads these, happy new year (yes I know it's very late but it's still January)! I haven't made in a journal in a while because I always like to wait until enough time has passed and enough in my life has happened to justify making one.

This week I declared Wasabi the Ferret my second sona. I haven't posted a photo of him onto FurAffinity yet but I definitely will one day. Wasabi is a premade partial which I had bought back in July shortly after Victory and kept secret until the Halloween meet at Barkade last year. I wanted to wait to debut him then as I felt his colour scheme matched Halloween, and it was completely worth it. Earlier this month, his arm sleeves, his feetpaws and a painted badge were delivered to me by his creator, Neon Paw Creations (Kayobe Coyote). I also added a Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker t-shirt featuring Kylo Ren and the First Order, as I am a massive fan of the unjustly vilified Star Wars sequel trilogy. These items all improved his appearance considerably and gave him sinister yet adorable anti-hero personality. Adding more black and red to him especially helped to improve his colour scheme. I've become very emotionally attached to Wasabi to the point where wearing him genuinely makes me feel like I've become him, and that's why he replaced Victory (whom I still love, just not as much) as my second sona. I also made a Twitter account for him, @WasabiFerret, which I will post Wasabi-related content to from time to time. He's an excellent suit and I will take him to many future meets, especially since my best friend really loves him. He looked great at the LondonFurs Winter Party, which I was very lucky to be able to go to as I had a surprise day off from my Christmas job that day.

Regarding my art, I finally this week obtained the courage to open for commissions for the first time ever. This is a big step, as although I have taken two commissions in the past from close friends (one of them, of my friend Rave, is on here) I had always feared actually opening for commissions because of the big responsibility that comes with offering reasonable prices and making sure to satisfy customers who expect the quality you advertise. If I don't get any commissions I'll lower my prices and perhaps make other offers in order to attract customers. I'm new to this but I'll make sure to ask for advice just in case I mess up. My drawings have improved over the months although I still have a long way to go, and taking commissions is a very good way of practicing and I want to be challenged. I'll still be drawing more of my own original characters though when I get the time.

Last thing to talk about is the thing I'm most excited about: Mei Fursuits is starting Faulkner next month! It's been a long wait but damn is it worth it to finally be here, knowing that through February I'm going to see something I designed become real. I paid the full price months ago but I've now supplied all the measurements and chosen all the fur colours. I hope little Faulkner turns out to be as cute as I've imagined him, if not more so. Mei will hopefully do a fabulous job as she's very experienced and to bring him to life at last will make me so happy. I've now been in this fandom for over a year and an enormous amount has changed since I started. 2019 completely redefined me and joining the fandom was such an important step in improving my mental health and as a way of making friends, it was exactly what I needed to wrap up the decade on a highly positive note. I also spent a very large amount of money last year so I've declared 2019 a year of saving, and currently I'm doing well to make back some of the money I spent last year. With Faulkner on the horizon, ConFuzzled in a few months (my first convention for anything) and lots of art to draw, 2020 is going to be very busy and at times challenging for me - and hopefully tons and tons of furry fun too.