Happy New Year!

I invited a few friends over for tea and made shiratama zenzai and an sweets as well!

Here we all are, dressed mostly out of my stash!!

This baby is new to me and belonged to my tea teacher's teacher's teacher. $15!!!! What a bargain!

Going to a birthday party! It's too hot in Albuquerque for awase!

A few days ago I also went to an event with my tea ceremony group. It was their tenth anniversary and a Sensei was sent from Kyoto to teach us. It was great. There was a celebratory banquet held in his honor and I was able to wear kimono to that, though the pictures didn't come out very well.

I wish I could wear kimono for my actual tea ceremony events and lessons but unfortunately I'm too thick and therefore my kimono don't fit me in the way that my teacher wants me to wear them. maybe in 40 or 50 lbs!

Kimono Sunday!

Should have used a white obiage. Next time. But overall a nice coordination.

It finally came!

And it's sha, not ro! I'm thrilled. Sha kimono, sha obi. Perfect! I can't wait to start coordinating!

I wonder if it's a Taisho Roman piece like Shinei said. No matter, I love it. Yay kimono Sundays!!!

Hello, all!
I haven't posted in a bit because I got a new car! New to me, anyway. When I took it in for new tires it turns out there was some other work that needed to be done on the hubs. and of course when I got it home I had to do an oil change. My Honda needed some TLC as well that week so all in all its just been too crazy for kimono. Not to mention going to El Paso for cosplay purposes. Yeah, so busy!

But that doesn't mean I haven't been getting packages...

I start tea ceremony lessons in Santa Fe in May. I've been really excited about it and the instructor said that I can wear kimono! So my new Iromuji finally came in...

It's a really nice shade of blue green. A little darker than I expected, but I actually love it. plus the wingspan is almost right!

I also got a great Nagoya obi to go with it:

I don't have very good light I know and potato but I love the coordination. I've got a blue green obijime and obiage to boot. It's going to be a great coordination. 

I've got several more packages coming from Shinei and one of them is a ro taisho Roman kimono that supposedly fits me... we shall see. but in case it's a good one, here is the obi to go with it:

It's a polyester sha hakata obi from Ichiroya. I Was really thinking about not buying it because polyester but whatever. It's pretty, I think it's versatile and I like it. Bought!

And lastly, I do need more around town kimono for kimono Sunday so here is my hitoe polyester piece (I know, I know) with flowers:

I need at least one kimono that I can eat barbecue in! Haha!

Lastly here is the hanhaba I ordered to go with the two yukata I'm making:

Have a good weekend!

No big thing just another kimono Sunday...

Tried the asanoha obi with the mint kimono this time; white obiage and green obijime. It was nice, a different coordination.

Pictures didn't really come out. I'm having a kimono day with my sister this week though and I've got a bunch of stuff on the way for next week's post.

Also, three weeks to tea ceremony classes! :)

My geta are coming tomorrow! I'm so super stoked about their arrival. I can't wait for summer and opportunities to wear the yukata I'll be making (already got the fabric) and the geta I ordered from Sakura kimono market.

I also finally got my michiyuki put away in the new tatoshi I bought, however, Walmart did not have the usual bins I store kimono in so I opted for a different one. Mistake! The bin I got is tatoshi sized around the top and smaller on the inside at the base... wah! I figure if I ever buy any short tatoshi for obi I can stick them in there. 

In other news my garden is slowly growing! Maybe this year I will have cherry blossoms!

I'm so excited! And though it won't bloom here, my favorite kimono motif is taking off too...

Wisteria! Someday I hope to have an awesome wisteria-themed kimono. There was one on Ichiroya, shibori, but I just don't have $300 for one kimono. Besides, I already have enough formal and semi-formal kimono. I need some dang komon that fit lol!

Ninja edit: Somehow today became a kimono day! I'm wearing my Edo komon that is to short so I've got a teeny weeny ohashori under my obi somewhere. Also my geta did end up coming in! Yay for the postal service! A little adjustment and they fit perfectly now.

So my big Shinei box finally showed up. I say big... It wasn't that big. but I'd never ordered from Shinei before so there's that.

Everything I ordered smelled super weird. the white obijime smelled kind of like insecticide. obi smelled like... damp and other jime smelled like a chicken coop, chicken poop. Oh well. I let them air out for a full day and night and they are much better now - this dry dessert air does kimono (and accessories) some good. The obiages were fine but... I thought was getting a pastel pink one. This obiage is HOT PINK lol!

I also wanted to share some pictures of how I store my kimono. When I hit the lotto I'll get a nice tansu (or two) but for now it's tatoshi and plastic containers. I don't have enough tatoshi for my michiyuki so they are just sitting in plastic drawers... I gotta get some cedar for those puppies...

My accessory box is starting to get pretty full!

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Today my hubby and I went to the JIN festival in Santa Fe. They had a lot of neat stuff there and we got to see classical Japanese dance and hear singing, as well as view drumming and shamisen playing. It was really interesting, I'd never seen anything like it. We even got to be guests at a tea ceremony conducted by the Chado in Santa Fe.

 I wore my aqua iromuji again with the super stiff pink Nagoya. This time I paired it with summer accessories. It was very cool in the morning and I wore one of my new michiyuki outdoors. In the afternoon it got warm, though. I bought one of those musubi helper accessories for fancy knots and a synthetic "shibori" obiage. And a lavender sachet made from recycled kimono material for my obiage box!

I also found a nice present for my sister in law. My hubby suggested that we get one of these little glass windchimes that they had there so we did. I'll hang it in our cherry tree :) I also got a real kimono hanger! So handy.

In the evening I fixed my collars and went for round two, putting away the iromuji and putting on my kurotomesode. I really love how easy my fukuro obi is to tie. It likes me. We were going to go to Pappadeaux but there was a 45 minute wait. FOR SERIOUS?! So we said forget it and went to the Samurai instead. As soon as we walked in the door, heads turned. Before I even sat down the staff came to me and started asking questions about where I got my kimono and how did I learn to dress. I felt special and I guess all of that kitsuke practice finally paid off!! :)

So today I finally got my big box of michiyuki from Ichiroya! Ten michiyuki for $70 plus shipping. My friend got it for me for my birthday. I love them all! Feast your eyes:

One of these michiyuki had some of this thread removal art... in Spanish we call it "deshilar". I think it's really beautiful :)

I also got my autumn kimono. It is really stunning, better than I expected. 

I really like the combo with this fukuro obi but I worry that they don't go together... that the fukuro is too formal. Either way I do have the perfect Nagoya obi ordered already so it should be good. 

I still haven't gotten any of my packages from Shinei... :(

One other thing that I did yesterday was dye some old clothes. I spilled bleach on these pants and my hoodies were getting very drab and discolored. Also, I hated this beige shirt...

Oh, and lastly, here is a new obijime!

Until next time! :)

Hey everyone!!!

I'm back! It's almost time for the Santa Fe JIN festival, which happens to fall on the weekend of my wedding anniversary. I bought a kimono for a magic the gathering cosplay and i had no idea that I'd actually look good in it without all of the other costume makeup and accessories.

Here is the cosplay (Tamiyo, The Moon Sage).

And here I am in the kimono!

I actually look pretty decent! So that's how I went out today lol. It was fun. I'm trying to make kimono a weekly thing.

Well, soon there will be cosplay happening... Phoenix Comicon is right around the corner!