Purple-blue komon

Today I decided to skip my classes at the gym and do some kitsuke again, and it was about time ^_^

This is my latest komon, and it's the perfect size for me. I actually don't know if it's dark blue or dark purple, hence the purple-blue... The hanhaba obi I paired it with has a yellow/light brownish color with purple outlined flowers on it. Doesn't it combine nicely?

I've also got 1 purple obi jime and 2 purple obi age, but what do you think is best? The dark or lighter obi age?










Or leave the obi age and just use the obi jime?

Last New-Zealand post...

And then no more!
I just wanted you to know, if you do want to see some of my photo's taken in New-Zealand, they're on Flickr.

And now back to kimono!

Scans musubi book

It took a while, but all relevant pages of the musubi-book I have are on Flickr!

If you know the title of the book or the name of a musubi, please let me know and I'll put it in the title/description.

Enjoy!

Pollie

Today we had to put our eldest dog Pollie to sleep.

12,5 years old, she had a very happy doglife, having 10 acres to hunt on rabbits, hares and other small animals.
Mother of Fox and grandmother of Dizzy.

She will be missed.

Musubi Book

Just wanted to share that some scans of the musubi book are already on my Flickr-account.

Not everything is there yet, but I'll add when I can.

Happy kitsuke ^_^

Sweet Yuka and Ichiro

When I got home yesterday I was very surprised when I saw the mail...

There was a beautiful card of an onnagata (actor who playes female roles in theatre/kabuki plays) on top of our mail. It wasn't just beautiful, it was a gorgeous picture.

Turning it around, I saw that it was from Yuka and Ichiro from Ichiroya, one of my favorite kimono-stores!

Thank you Yuka and Ichiro!

Musubi

Friday we had friends over for dinner who hadn't seen any of my kimono, so I showed them a few. That evening I didn't have time to fold them up again so when I came back from the gym this morning, I decided to do some kitsuke on my 2 dolly's.





A few weeks ago when Rota was over, she showed me a book on musubi she bought on eBay, and I got a copy of that as well.

The musubi I tried today are from that book, but I really have no clue what they are called...

(above are the examples from the book)

Shopping!

It took a while, but within the next few weeks hopefully my new synthetic komon kimono will arrive. It was listed on eBay, in Ryu's shop. I was also bidding on another peach colored iromuji with a little pattern in the fabric (don't know if it's iromuji then), but unfortunately I lost that one :-(

But this is the one that I did win! Like I said, it's synthetic. There is one stain on the sleeve, and I hope that I can get it out.

Because I don't want to pay shipping for just 1 kimono, I bought a pair of geta, a pair of black zori and 2 hanhaba obi that I want to combine with the kimono. Can't wait to see them in the mail ^_^

Norway

Yesterday we came back from a 10 day holiday in Norway. What a beautiful country!

We stayed a couple of days in Geilo, then we went to Voss and then back to Geilo for our last days. More photo's to come, but here's a nice teaser :-)

Biyosugata!

Finally the biyosugata arrived a week ago! Unfortunately customs had gotten a hold of it, but most important is that it's here!

After a week of having no time to try it on, tonight I had some time. I had 2 manuals to make the bow, the one that came with the biyosugata and the one in The Book of Kimono. I have to say that the manual that came with it is a bit easier than that of The Book, but putting it on is easier with The Book and some help from the IG-forums ^_^

The hardest bit is to put it on. But as these pictures show, I got it on! My kitsuke is messed up, but hey, at least I've nailed it haha.

Yamato

Yesterday we went to see Yamato at the theatre. They were very good, very different from Tenko, but oh so very good. And of course I went in kimono!

We had a great time. Too bad the group didn't sign because they had to pack, but at least I got 2 compliments about my outfit, and a lot of stares haha.

This time I went in my furisode because it had a little taiko on it, and after wearing it the whole evening, I must say that this furisode may be the most comfortable kimono I have. It's perfect, doesn't flap open when walking, perfect height and width, very nice to wear again.

Unfortunately my biyosugata hasn't arrived (yet), but I wanted the fukura suzume on my back. So I tried to tie it on my belly and turn it around, and it actually worked! It wasn't as high as it should have been, but I thought it was acceptable ^_^

But of course after 2 carrides nothing was left of it...

My (very) little... Hanami

Still small but hopefully big one day...

Amsterdam

A week ago, Rota and I were supposed to see a tea ceremony demonstration. Rota came to my house so she could see Wolfje and that I could help her with kitsuke.

The plan was good, but we had a good time chatting along and because of that we already were late starting kitsuke. Although we did it quite fast, and we didn't get in a lot of traffic on our way to Amsterdam, we were too late... But we still had a lot of fun and had a nice talk with to the Tea Master before we went home.

One thing I learned that day: driving a car in kimono isn't that bad :-)

Fukura suzume

Ha, thanks to Yuka & Ichiro's dvd I managed to make a better fukura suzume musubi than the first time...

A couple of days ago I finally found a site where I bought a biyosugata, and that ships outside of Japan! They use EMS shipping, but because of Golden Week in Japan the package will be posted next week, let's hope on monday. Hopefully it'll arrive before sunday next week. We're going to a show of Yamato in the theatre, and I want to wear this furisode. I might be a little too old for a furisode, but heck, at least I'm not married ^_^ And this furisode had a nice drum embroidered on it.

Singapore

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
Originally uploaded by annebyebye

When we went to New-Zealand, we had a stop of 16 hours in Singapore. Because our stop took this long, we went off the airport and into the city and saw some beautiful temples.

You can find more pictures on Flickr!

Finally finished!

After days and evenings of puzzling and looking for just the right picture to put on that page, finally my photobook of our fantastic New-Zealand trip is finished and delivered!

For printing I chose Blurb, which I stumbled upon on Melissa's blog, and I must say that the book is very nice. Working in the graphic industry, so I know my printing options, this book has been professionally printed, and it looks very... well, professional. I did make the layout in Indesign and not in BookSmart, the software you have to download.

When I want to make another photobook, Blurb will definitely be one, or maybe the only, supplier I'll use.

Nice to know, you can also sell your book to others, and you can publish a 15-page preview. You can have a look at mine if you will.

Finally I can spend some time on kitsuke again ^_^

Real Geisha Real Women

As of yesterday I've got the dvd "Real Geisha Real Women", directed by Peter MacIntosh.

It's a very good documentary that gives us a glimpse of the life of geiko and maiko these days. You get to see interviews with different maiko and geiko, with friends and family.

I'm very happy that I bought it, and because I was one of the first 500 people that ordered it, it's signed by Miehina, John Wells (director of photography) and Peter MacIntosh, and there were 2 name-stickers of Miehina with it ^_^

© Photo: Peter MacIntosh

Wolfje!

Since saterday afternoon our dog Pollie has got a new playmate: Wolfje (or in English Wolfy). Just like Pollie she's a typical farmdog you see on farms in the south of our country. She's very playful, and has only 1 thing on her mind... How to get out of my dogpenn!

But it's very lovely to see how both Pollie and Wolfje are getting along after a few days, and how they get more and more playful with each other.

Fox & Dizzy

This is a bit of a sentimental post...

When we came back of our vacation in New-Zealand, we got welcomed by 1 dog instead of 2. In the second week of our vacation our dog Fox (after Fox Mulder) had too many internal bleedings, and my parents-in-law had to put her to sleep. They didn't tell us on the phone, because there was nothing we could do about it. But it was strange getting home and not knowing yet.

When we called for her she didn't come, but hey, she had a mind of her own and if she didn't wanted to come and greet us, too bad for us. So we thought this was just one of those days. But when we got indoors, my parents-in-law told us. And then you notice that in front of them and the friend who picked you up at the airport, your behaviour is different then if you are alone...

With Fox gone, last year ended with a loss, but it also started with one. We lost our youngest dog Dizzy in January. The hard part of losing Dizzy is that we (still) don't know what happened to her. Now I have to explain something. We live on a farm and we (I actually have to say my parents-i-l) have some acres of ground, and our dogs live freely on that property. They don't wear collars, only if they have lots of flees, they don't get out on a leech, sometimes they don't even listen, but they can go wherever they want to. Go and pursue some hares, rabbits or mice. They live in dogparadise.

And Dizzy just didn't came home one day in January. We called for her, we drove a couple of blocks in our neighbourhood at night, looked and called for her days after that, made posters, etc etc. She probably got stuck in a rabbit hole and couldn't come out, but we don't know that for sure. And that's the hard part, not knowing.

So this post is for those 2 sweet doggies.

After-holiday fun

It's been a while since I posted, and this one isn't kimono-related either!

Well, the reason is that I've been to New-Zealand the last month for a holiday. And now that I'm back there are lots of after-holiday things to do... I've kept a traveljournal and made loads of pictures. The pictures will be added to my Flickr-account, and the journal has to be copied to my mac, which takes a lot of time.

If you're interested in reading the journal, it's in Dutch now, you can use Google Translate to translate the whole page, otherwise please let me know. I can also translate it myself, but that may take a while..