Some new things!

These haven't arrived yet, but I ordered an obiage and obijime set for myself two weeks ago. I hope they will arrive this week since I had them sent AirMail, but who knows. Anyway, the picture is below. Sorry, there is only one. I will post kitsuke pictures when they arrive.

Spring is in the air! Kind of...

All of the cherry trees here in Memphis are finally blooming! I wait the whole year for this, so once the weather clears up (it is currently ICING outside), it will be time for hanami! My friends and I are planning to go to the Japanese garden at the Memphis Botanical Gardens and have a nice bento picnic. I hope many of my friends will come because it will be a relaxing day.

The crappy weather has most likely ruined our plans for a camping trip this weekend, but on the plus side, that gives me more time to study for my test on Monday, and we can maybe watch a marathon of Band of Brothers. Or play video games. Or just chill. I am good at the last one.

And update on my relationship issues. Jerk has not called. Thank God.

And finally, the big snow!

We here in Memphis have not had a big (well, big for our area) snow in a long time, and last night (my birthday, by the way!) the snow fell! We got about 4-6 inches of snow, so, of course, we all turned into children and had fun playing in the snow. I decided it might be fun to let the horses out around nine o'clock this morning. I was not sure if my new horse had ever seen snow, so I wanted to see his reaction.
Whether or not he's seen it, he had fun. Both of the horses ran around and played for hours. They even taught themselves how to break the ice on the tank to get water! They are clever, when they want to be... And I guess Teddy (the grey one) thought it would be fun to roll in the snow. It was like he was trying to make a snow angel. :)

Horse shows

I had no idea why (at first), but when I went outside this morning to get breakfast from the cafeteria, I felt like I should be at a horse show. It was early, cool, cloudy -- all things that tend to happen at horse shows. You are always up early (like 5 or 6 am) so you can get out, feed the horses, groom them for the show, and braid their manes, if needed. In eventing, you also need to get up to walk the courses, if you haven't already. Then, from the fact that it's early, you can assume that the weather is cool. And for some reason, it always seems to rain at horse shows. I just want to be at a horse show, or just the barn, so badly right now. Fortunately, my prelab tonight for hospital work tomorrow has been canceled (I guess because it's Ash Wednesday), so if it's not raining, I can go to my parent's house and ride my horses. I hope the weather clears!

Kimono 101

I am doing this panel on kimono at the Middle Tennessee Anime Convention (MTAC) on the first weekend in April, so I began trying to write out presentation and handouts. So far, I really only have my handouts. The things on them will probably not be discussed during the panel; instead, they will be take-home notes. So far I have basic kimono terms and definitions, types of common kimono and formality, and my personal tips on buying kimono. But I am still trying to figure out what I will EXACTLY say and how I will fit everything in. I have probably 55 minutes to present. I am going to present the very basics of kimono. I want to introduce some things about kimono, then do a demonstration, followed by a short Q&A session. I figure I need 10-20 minutes to present the opening material, 20-30 minutes to dress and discuss what I am doing and what pieces I am using and why, and then whatever time is left for the Q&A. I plan on doing my opening on types of kimono and obi, formal versus casual, and some basic etiquette. For the dressing demonstration, I plan on doing a full outfit that is not yukata or furisode (I want to demonstrate the otaiko musubi). I know a lot of people who are beginners will get a yukata first, but I really want to do a more full demonstration. I mean, you can "work down" to the yukata from the type of demonstration, but it would be much harder to do the other way around. So yeah, if there is anything that you would recommend, please tell me.

Peach Cloud Komon and Wine Red Nagoya

I took some pictures today of an ensemble I plan on wearing for a kimono presentation that I am doing in April. I finally got this kimono to have a flatter ohashori. Because it's shorter than my proper length, it tends to get poofy. But I found a trick that really helped: you fold the inner collar, and it cuts out some of the bulk. Why I didn't know this before, I have no idea. I feel dumb now for not knowing it. The only things I hate here are that my upper center seam is not centered in the back, and the obiage tying needs work. ANYWAY, here are the pics from the aforementioned ensemble.

Mamechiyo is my muse! ;D

So like I said in the last post, I have been looking to Mamechiyo for inspiration. Their "Puzzle" line has been quite interesting, as I have been into simple geometrics lately. I think I have come up with an idea for a late spring/early summer ensemble this year. I want to make a juban with lavender polka dots and a kimono with wide buttery-yellow stripes. The picture on their juban page is my muse for this. I want to make it all hitoe for the warmer season. I am not ready to try to make a ro kimono as that type of fabric can be tricky to deal with, so I may not have anything to wear for July through August except yukata, but I'm not going to be doing anything fancy anyway. I think I will make a han eri of the a complementing color to the juban and obi. The reason I chose the yellow/purple combo is because they are my favorite colors. And, I don't own a yellow kimono. Also, I want to make instead of buy for several reasons: 1) I can't afford Mamechiyo, 2) I don't want to wait forever to find something like this on eBay or another site (which might also turn out to be too expensive), 3) I am tall and hard to fit in most kimono, 4) I want something modern, 5) I need hitoe, 6) I might make more to sell if it turns out well, 7) I want longer sleeves (but not furisode) because I love that retro feel. Retro-modern. I like it! :) So anyway, the pictures below represent my ideas for the patterns:


Of course, they will not be exactly like this. The obi/juban/haneri could be darker with light spots, for example. I just hope it still looks nice. :)