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..

Kimono day

Today I decided to have a kimono-day. Didn't have much to do for a change, and it could be that some friends might visite to browse through some vinyl we're selling, so I thought, why not. Good opportunity to practise some kitsuke, and I wanted to see if the brown woven obi Misuchi gave me would match with my black and brown striped komon.

And it is a perfect match! As for obiage and obijime I choose my green set. It may not be the right set, but I think it looks okay. I do have a black obiage, and I thought about pairing it with a silvery-looking obijime, but green looked better. And finally a flat obijime-knot!

One thing did I found out today was that doing laundry can be done in kimono! But lets face it, that is just putting your laundy in the washer and later putting it in the drier. Nothing difficult about that, even when you're dressed in kimono ^_~

Still, I got some cold feet, so I changed my tabi for some socks and warm slippers (sorry, but I don't know the english word for pantoffels). Charming isn't it ;-)

Kimono & obi collection

Navy blue irotomesode
Originally uploaded by annebyebye

Maybe a year now I'm also on Flickr, and a few weeks ago I had the idea to but my kimono and obi collection in there. Easy to see the kimono and obi I own.

Not all pictures have a decent description but I'm working on that. Always fun to do, especially when suddenly, after a few pictures done, you decide to mention if it's hitoe, awase, etc... ^_^

My first... yukata

Yep, together with the shibori set my first yukata arrived. I hope I will be wearing this a lot at home, since it can be very warm inside our house. We do have central heating, but we don't really use it. Instead we have 2 fireplaces/stoves, which gives a much nicer warmth than central heating. But because of the stoves it tends to get hotter than in an average house, a bit like summer ^_^
So I'm going to try and wear this one more often than I do with kimono.

Nice thing about the yukata is that I'm a pisces... And there are also little ones on the hanhaba obi.

Shibori at last

Finally, after 3 weeks of waiting my shibori kimono set has arrived!

Ever since I saw Sumire from the IG-forums wearing her purple shibori houmongi I wanted a shibori kimono. And now I finally have her!

This is a set I bought from Ichiroya (they have very nicely priced kimono sets!), and it contains the kimono, juban, fukuru obi, obiage and obijime. First thing I noticed wearing it, is that it feels very thick. If you'll wear it in winter you won't get cold haha!

To be honest, it's the first time since I own an obi-clip, that I didn't use it! I did my kitsuke by looking at the 'manual' that comes with the kitsuke-dvd of Ichiroya. So no obi-clip and no knot on my back, but simply a koshihimo that temporarily holds the starter-end of the obi in place. And I made the musubi on my back, so it didn't shift while turning.

I really really like this set, it's so chic and sophisticated. Very nice to wear when you're going to the theatre for example.

Doggies

As promised to Rota and Misuchi, here are some pictures of our dogs in their favorite vehicle, my father-in-law's tractor. When they have the chance they jump in and guard our property...

Actually, they just doze away in the sun and sometimes they open their eyes to see if everything is allright. But what they really love is when my father-in-law has to work on our lands and they can join him. Driving is the best!

And I added one picture to show you that they can pose also... Even when they're really filthy!