My 2013 in review.

I've been a slack blogger this year huh?
With this post it'll be a grand total of 14 for the entire year!
I suppose that has to do with the fact that I haven't worn kimono as much this year as I would've liked, but you know, real life gets in the way sometimes.

So here's my years worth of kitsuke!
Not the most exciting bunch but at least three of those ensembles were of kimono I've never worn before so that's a good stat ;)
( Also three of those kitsuke are wisteria kimono, do you think I have a problem much?!)

Left to right:

Yellow yukata with mauve hanhaba obi.
Wisteria yukata with the same mauve obi ( I was in love with that obi for a while)
Worn to the Kimono de Jack Australia event at the Japanese Festival in Melbourne.
Winter scenery kimono with accessories for the Kimono de Jack Australia Winter Challenge.
Another wintery themed kitsuke, although I was aiming for a "spring" feel...
Grey and white patterned komon with cream hakata obi.
Ro wisteria komon with a cream hakata obi. ( my next obi love affair was this obi)
Wisteria furisode with a wisteria obi and me in a bad wig!

My last kistuke for 2013 is a sea themed ensemble: ( not at the sea tho...)

This seashell kimono was one of my early purchases and I love it dearly!
The kimono is a hitoe chirimen and its so soft and comfortable, just on the small side for me however. It is also badly stained so I'll never wear it out in public but I enjoy it nevertheless.
The obi is a recent purchase ( recent two years ago -_- ) the whole thing is just open weaved threads in shades of blue and white. I've worn it before and find it a very easy obi to use.
I went with golden accessories for this look with  a golden yellow obiage, gold obijime and a gold seashell obidome I made :)
I'm very happy how it all pulled together, usually when I plan a kitsuke I decide on a kimono and an obi ( or a small selection) and pick all the accessories as I'm dressing.
Even my collar was behaving for me today!
Usually my collar gets eaten by the time I get around to photos and I have to spend 10 mins adjusting everything but not this time, just a quick smooth over and all good.

I also opened my Etsy shop KofujiKimono late 2012 but didn't really start to do much with it till the new year. 
I'm happy with how I went in my first year of selling, provided I did close the shop for three months while we moved.
I do have a lot of new ideas for the shop next year! Lots more obidome and I hope to start making a few other kimono accessories.
I will also continue to stock vintage kimono, obi and accessories.

My fiancé and I also bought a house this year ( that's the move I mentioned) so lately my spare time has gone into jobs around the house.
My  mother is coming for a visit in the new year and insists on painting some rooms for us. A very generous offer but we are still so un-organized that the spare rooms are still full of boxes.... There's the tv/living room to paint if she really wants I guess...

That would have to be my year all summed up, not an eventful year but a year for getting things done I spose.

My goals for 2014 include:
* Blogging more. You guys saw that one coming huh?
*Wearing kimono more often so I have something to blog about
*Save for an overseas holiday or renovations for the house ( including the original 70's kitchen... No joke...)
*Work more on my Etsy.
*Sew more of my own clothes. This will probably be limited to dresses and skirts but I'll be happy with that.
* Lastly the normal eat better/lose weight/walk the dog more thing.


How has your 2013 been and what are you planning for 2014?

Sunday Kitsuke

Hello everyone :)

Want to know why today is an awesome day? Its my first day off in three weeks!
Oh, and I finally had some time to wear kimono :)

As its spring down here in Australia I was faced with a problem... I don't really have any spring specific kimono. The only kimono I have is a mid Showa Furisode with wisteria:

I was going to pair it with my silver and green swirl fukuro obi:

However I just couldn't use it. Nope. Wasn't working for me, I pulled out my biyosugata but it still wouldn't cooperate with me.

So I was bad and used a nagoya obi   :o

(which I don't have a stock photo of, sorry!)

Today I headed outside to take photos :) It was a lovely sunny and windy day... so I had sleeves and my wig flying everywhere XD but nevertheless I'm happy how the photos turned out.

I took the obi shots inside so you could see the obi design better as it just got washed out outside.

Also a bit naughty as both the kimono and obi have wisteria designs... but that's about all the "spring" stuff I have...

The obidome is my trial chidori obidome. 

It doesn't show up well in the photo but the colour is this shimmery pearl white which is very pretty

Maybe I should've drawn a wing on it too... I'm in the process of doing a pink one so I'll put a wing on that one and see how it looks. Actually the pink chidori would've fitted better with this kitsuke colour wise...
Ah well.
I'm also working on a cherry blossom idea for obidome:

I was trying to create something that looked like a bunch of petals blowing away in the wind, but so far the trials of that design have turned out crappy :(  and then somehow I just fiddled around until I came up with the above design. I would still like to add some detail to the center of the flowers though.
Thoughts?

And that's about it for me. Besides working lots and moving into our new house (Yay!) I haven't had much spare time but hopefully I can find some more kimono time soon :)

Have some blossom photos...

Old kimono kitsuke! (haha lame title)

So inspiration struck again!
Although it's just gone autumn here of course this kitsuke isn't season appropriate, I'm pretty bad at that actually :/
Anyway, its still really hot here so I decided to do a ro kitsuke because I haven't done one this summer.
This kimono is one I've had for years, its ro with wisteria. Of course my wardrobe would entirely be made up of wisteria pieces if I could manage it :p
I've only worn this kimono once before, back in '09 for a staff party:

I've got a thing for ro, its such a beautiful fabric!

So here's what I came up with this time:

Sorry the photos are pretty crap, this was the best of the bunch.
Unfortunately I didn't get a clear shot of the obi area.
Again I've used my cream hakata obi, I really need to get some more, they're great!
I find that lately I've been drawn towards non-seasonal kimono pieces, perhaps because they can be worn whenever? I don't know...
Obi was tied with a biyosugata again, except this time it was really really tight! I had  to sneeze later and it was so difficult and kinda painful lol.
I'm still having trouble getting the obi to look nice and straight, also getting that "peak" at the top of the obi where it folds out, if that makes sense. Practice.... I know...

Book sale!

I've mainly got books up for sale this week, most of them aren't kimono related but just fiction books, but I'll post what I think might be of interest to you:

*Blue iro-tomesode with wisteria.

*Meiji era girls furisode.

*2X Daruma magazines. One has an article on kanzashi and the other has an article on obi ( why I originally bought them, pretty pictures!)
*The Gion quarter book. Fantastic black and white photo book of Gion Kobu between the 1930's and 1960's I think. Cover has had something spilt on it but otherwise good condition.

Other books I have for sale are some bonsai/ikebana/how to draw manga....

Please have a look at my eBay here. Thankyou :)

Miyako odori uploads and more kimono photos

Firstly I uploaded my:
2008 Miyako odori
2009 Miyako odori
2011 Miyako odori

Will be uploading my 1913 and 1964 Miyako. Also coming up is a 1939 Kamogawa odori and three 1950's Kyo odori programs.

Now some more (bad) photos of my kimono...

My pretty sha hikizuri with hagi desgins. She has bad red stains on the back of the body and a few tea stains on the front but otherwise in ok condition. The lining situation is a bit different, the back panels are lined but the lining stops halfway down the front of the body panels. Not something I've seen before..

My salmon maiko hikizuri with autumn designs. I remember when I first started searching the internet for kimono, and then later maiko hikizuri there weren't many photos of maiko hikizuri but there was this photo:

And then ta-da! it turns up on ebay. Took me a while to decide that it was the same kimono and I jumped on it right away.

And lastly my beautiful waterlily and hydrangea maiko hikizuri! My awful photos don't do it justice but it really is a stunning piece!

Next are my darari obi:

I think the orange one is from a henshin studio because of the unusual mon amd the fact its not double sided like the others..

The white and gold one is a two piece easy obi that is probably also from a henshin studio.

Then my lovely black and gold with ume designs! My most expensive one but also the best condition and probably the legit thing. 

For more detailed photos see the folder Here.

On to normal kimono:

My wisteria haori. I bought this a few years ago, it is quite stained but looks great over black tights XD

A Meiji era girls kimono. It is lovely with all its subtle colours and designs but I really don't know why I bought it... Bit badly discoloured in some places.

More wisteria! This is a really lovely Showa era furisode with wicked wisteria design. Unfortunately the fabric across the shoulders is badly damaged and the cream fabric really shows up the stains and general dirt from years.

More wisteria? what? I bought this from Ichiroya about four years ago (wow that long ago?!) and its a lovely purple ro fabric with long sleeves :)

A blue irotomesode with mirror design. Got this for a good price off an Australian ebay seller, a few discoloured spots but in good contion otherwise.

Kuro furiosde. Bought this from an American seller, it came with a kurotomesode but it looked like someone had put it in the washing machine and when it dried the red lining fabric had bled everywhere!!! it looked sunburnt :( so it was really nice that this furi was in really good condition compared to its sister...

Still got more stuff to photograph but getting there!
Here is the folder with all my other kimono photos if your interested :)